Roxy Music

The next recent Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inductee I'll discuss is Roxy Music. Whether or not they are Hall-worthy is debatable, as they really only had a handful of hits. I listened to a best-of album, and like many bands with only a few hits, the rest of their stuff is unremarkable--those songs were the only hits for a reason.

The band was formed by Bryan Ferry and Graham Simpson in 1970, and were variously associated with glam rock and art rock. They've had many members throughout the years, notably Brian Eno.

The four songs that pierced my consciousness during the 1970s and '80s and still get regular play on classic rock radio are "Avalon." "More Than This," "Jealous Guy," and "Love Is The Drug." The first three all have a melancholy overtone, with Ferry's ethereal vocals inevitably dropping a key as the song turns on the verse.

"Avalon" was on the album of the same title, released in 1982. That album also contained the beautiful "More Than This," which I think is Ferry's best composition.

:I could feel at the time
There was no way of knowing
Fallen leaves in the night
Who can say where they're blowing
As free as the wind
And hopefully learning
Why the sea on the tide
Has no way of turning
More than this - there is nothing"

The way Ferry's voice swoons on the title words just makes your heart skip a beat. But perhaps his best vocal performance, and one of the best of all time, is the cover of John Lennon's "Jealous Guy." Although the song is about a guy apologizing for his horrible behavior (and we know Lennon is jealous--just listen to "You Can't Do That" or "Run For Your Life"), Ferry gives the lyric a poignancy that is perhaps undeserved. You would forgive a guy after he sang this way.

The song they are probably best known for is "Love Is The Drug," which has a killer opening--a great bass line, drums, a bit of a sax, and the sound of a car starting. It even has cowbell. It is the highest charting single they had in the U.S. It comes from their most acclaimed album, 1975's Siren (which features Ferry's then girlfriend Jerry Hall on the cover) and is a song about addiction, but to love (or maybe sex):

"Aggravated - spare for days
I troll downtown the red light place
Jump up bubble up - what's in store
Love is the drug and I need to score
Showing out, showing out, hit and run
Boy meets girl where the beat goes on
Stitched up tight, can't shake free
Love is the drug, got a hook on me"

Like The Velvet Underground, Roxy Music may be more important for their legacy that for their actual sales. They influenced bands in many genres, from new wave pop like Duran Duran to art rock like Radiohead.  Talking Heads, Simple Minds, The Smiths, and Siouxsie and the Banshees have all expressed that Roxy Music were an influence.

The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, as I have mentioned before, errs on the side of inclusion rather than exclusion (although they are bizarrely negligent with prog-rock groups) and though Roxy Music may not have been monster chart toppers they are a significant part of rock history, so they're in.