55 - Roxy Music - Country Life - 1974

Side One
The Thrill Of It All
Three And Nine
All I Want Is You
Out Of The Blue
If It Takes All Night

Side Two
Bitter-Sweet
Triptych
Casanova
A Really Good Time
Prairie Rose


DISCOVERY; What is the first thing you do when you've got a drivers licence? See how fast the car will go of course. What is the second thing you do? Look for cool record shops in Minneapolis? Yes! That's exactly what I did! How did you know? With the help of the Yellow Pages I found a record shop in South Minneapolis called Oarfolkjokeopus. The Yellow Pages made no mention of one-way streets however... head on collision avoided, U-turn executed, I found myself parked right next to the coolest record shop in the universe! Two doors down from the Mud Pie, across the street from Rex Hardware with the CC Club katy corner. The beating heart of south Minneapolis. 26th and Lyndale was my new favourite intersection on planet Earth. Inside Oarfolkjokeopus the walls were just like my room only on a grander scale. Hippies working the till, hippies browsing the LPs, cool music, cool vibe. Four walls where I could belong.

WHERE & WHEN; Why did I buy this album? Well obviously the album "art" would appeal to the drooling teenage boy in me. So much for being immune to marketing strategy. From a strictly intellectual decision making process, this was a band Eno had been involved with, so there must be something to them. I had seen Roxy Music on a late-night rock show and thought they were a 1950s revival group like Sha Na Na with a sleazy singer wearing a white suit with slicked back hair. Pretty awful but maybe I'd gain some perspective listening to an entire album.

FURTHER NOTE; The song I saw them play on telly was likely the single from this album "All I Want is You". That would explain why I didn't like them. "Casanova" would have been a better single. The album is a mix of brilliant art rock and goofy tin pan alley. The girls on the cover compelled me to play the album a lot, so I got rather familiar. Side two mostly. It grew on me once I got used to the sleazy singer. Not my new favourite band but I thought they had possibilities.

HIGHLIGHTS; The Thrill of it All - Out of the Blue - Bitter-Sweet - Triptych - Casanova - Prairie Rose

STATUS; Temporary MP3 copy, Must Have