Roxy Music - Country Life

To a young, impressionable teenager, such as I once was, the cover of Roxy Music's 1974 release, Country Music, was something of an immediate statement and, well, something that was just as much fun to look at as to listen. Just look at it! I think it speaks for itself although I will go on about it a little later.

Ferry and Roxy Music were nerds and their esoteric leanings are rampant across this gem of an L.P. ( I realise I said esoteric but hang in there its gonna be OK) The album begins with The Thrill of It All, an up tempo number that includes a little poetry reference, (for the nerds Dorothy Parker's Resume) Krautrock, Elizabethan-esque musicianship on Triptych and Feryy's seemingly random word smithery are peppered in every track. The wonderful Casanova shows Ferry commenting on the hollowness of the jet set life. Ferry's girlfriend at the time was Jerry Hall, and the final track is an ode to her.

The cover was fairly controversial upon its release, it has two models in just enough clothes to retain some modesty, Constanze karoli and Eveline Grunwald. Ferry met them in Portugal and persuaded them to do the photo, and the results were not to the palet of the Americans who wanted a new cover released this time with 2 trees on it, what a terrible waste.

Track Listing

1. The Thrill of It All" – 6:24
2. "Three and Nine" (Ferry, Andy Mackay) – 4:04
3. "All I Want Is You" – 2:53
4. "Out of the Blue" (Ferry, Phil Manzanera) – 4:46
5. "If It Takes All Night" – 3:12
6. "Bitter-Sweet" (Ferry, Mackay) – 4:50
7. "Triptych" – 3:09
8. "Casanova" – 3:27
9. "A Really Good Time" – 3:45
10. "Prairie Rose" (Ferry, Manzanera) – 5:12