I'd nearly forgotten about this Bryan Ferry song -- which served as a stopgap between his "Boys and Girls" and "Bête Noire" albums during my freshman year of college -- that appeared on the soundtrack for that horrible Tom Cruise movie where he wore a wig.
I never thought much of Blondie's cover of "More Than This," the first single from Roxy Music's classic 1982 album, "Avalon." But when this old photo of Debbie Harry and Chris Stein with Bryan Ferry popped upon Facebook -- notice how Chris is always doing all the talking -- I decided to revisit it. Don't even recall what it was recorded for -- a promo for a tour with the New Cars or something? -- but I do have a new-found appreciation for Debbie's phrasing, which allows both for her limited (with age) vocal range and for her to put her own mark on the song, which Fake 10,000 Maniacs had already been gender-flipped into the Top 40 in 1997.
Along with "Love My Way" by the Psychedelic Furs, this was the quintessential song of my high school experience. (I played "Boys and Girls" constantly senior year.) It was Bryan Ferry's biggest solo single, yet even Americans riding the British New Wave were still too dumb to appreciate it. What it lacked in sales, however, it more than made up for in film and television licensing, most famously in "9 1/2 Weeks" and more recently a couple of Ryan Murphy projects. They truly don't record songs like this anymore -- truly captivating.
The great Bryan Ferry has a new retrospective out of 1920s jazz style instrumentals of some of his best songs, but it's the classic versions of Roxy Music's catalog that will live on forever.
Click to revisit the heyday of Chelsea's 8th Avenue
My blog is featured in Susan Olsen's tell-all about the ill-fated "Brady Bunch Variety Hour"!
Growing up in Madison Heights, Mich.
The Web leads to an unexpected return to a house I grew up in.
Carlsbad, Calif. (2008)
Go Behind the Music of my high-school band, A La Plage
Little Larry left us too soon.
With Debbie Harry
With Robert Buckley
With Roger Federer
With Ed Burns
With Thomas Roberts
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