“There’s a new sensation/a fabulous creation/a danceable solution/to teenage revolution/DO THE STRAND, LOVE!/WHEN YOU FEEL LOVE!/IT’S THE NEW WAY!/THAT’S QUITE EASY!/DO THE STRAND!”
The opening lines of ‘Do the Strand’ come at you like a jet aircraft speeding through the sky at 700 mph, accompanied by Andy Mackay’s blaring saxophone, Paul Thompson preparing the tidal-wave drum power, Bryan Ferry’s soothing vocals, and the piano setting the stage for a street fight. There’s no denying that Roxy Music were genuine game changers when it came to glam rock, proto-punk, and progressive experimentation with their second album, For Your Pleasure.
Originally released on Chris Blackwell’s Island Records in the UK and Warner Bros. in the United States in 1973, the album was the perfect follow-up to the band’s self-titled 1972 debut. From the moment you put For Your Pleasure on, it hits like a rocket. This three-CD/one-DVD edition captures the band’s powerhouse combination of cabaret, doo-wop, experimental soundscapes, avant-garde influences, and in-your-face electronics, particularly through Brian Eno’s synthesisers.
Roxy Music was a band that refused to back down without a fight, constantly pushing the boundaries of what rock music could be. Going back and listening to this album again brings back memories of the first time I bought it at Soundwaves in March 2002, during my sophomore year of high school.
I picked it up alongside the two-CD set of King Crimson’s Epitaph and Lizard. Hearing For Your Pleasure for the first time was like experiencing a massive cannon blast during my teenage years, especially when MTV was busy showing all that TRL nonsense that did absolutely nothing to pique my interest.
The album’s incredible gatefold sleeve, featuring model Amanda Lear walking a black panther in front of a limousine while Bryan Ferry watches over her, perfectly captures its futuristic atmosphere. It looks like something straight out of Rainer Werner Fassbinder’s World on a Wire.
Although this would be Brian Eno’s final album with Roxy Music, following the growing creative tensions between him and Ferry, his departure would lead him toward a successful solo career and an equally impressive production career working with artists such as Devo, Talking Heads, and U2. Nevertheless, there’s no denying that For Your Pleasure remains an album that hits like a jet engine coming straight at you at 700 mph.
Songs like ‘Beauty Queen’ feature a dramatic, mid-tempo ballad arrangement in which Ferry sings about parting ways with a former lover named Valerie, praising her beauty and leaving behind a little of the ‘Sea Breezes’ atmosphere. With its R&B influences and Scott Walker-esque approach, Ferry croons as though he’s asking her to return for one last dance.
Meanwhile, the tragic ‘Strictly Confidential’ explores themes of death, farewell, and the final moments before disappearing into the ether. Eno’s treatments add another layer to the track, taking it into a nightmarish world of realisation, where there’s seemingly no way out. Everything becomes dark, ominous, and eerie, as though the road to recovery has been permanently closed.
Then comes the frantic, rapid-fire kick in the stomach that is ‘Editions of You’, immediately following the somber atmosphere of ‘Strictly Confidential’. You can feel the chemistry between the musicians as Thompson’s drumming and John Porter’s bass drive the song into high gear before Mackay’s blaring saxophone,
Eno’s shrieking VCS3 synthesiser, and Phil Manzanera’s distorted guitar solo take over. The arrangement becomes a phenomenal exercise in musical interplay, with each musician taking turns pushing the volume and intensity toward maximum.
‘Editions of You’ has since become a live staple of the band’s performances. When you put this track on, you might as well use it as the soundtrack to your next workout. As Ferry declares, “That crazy music will drive you insane, this way!” he launches into a soulful keyboard improvisation before closing out with the lines, “don’t play yourself for a fool/too much cheesecakes too soon/old money’s better than new/no mention in the latest Tribune/and don’t let this happen to you!”
Next, we head into much darker territory with the post-dystopian, apocalyptic atmosphere of ‘In Every Dream Home a Heartache’. During the first three minutes, Ferry’s vocals guide us through what feels like a deserted city on the brink of collapse, despite the seemingly comfortable surroundings of his “cottage“. Beneath the song’s unsettling domestic imagery lies a much darker musical structure, with organ, jazzy saxophone, and synthesiser arrangements gradually building the tension. Everything is preparing for the disturbing revelation surrounding the inflatable doll at the heart of the song.
As soon as Ferry sings, “I blew up your body“, the instruments suddenly come to a halt. Then he follows with, “But you blew my mind“. All hell breaks loose as Thompson and Manzanera burst through the floodgates in a shivering climax. Phil’s explosive guitar work creates the sensation of a massive earthquake, with the entire band firing on all cylinders. The phasing and disorienting effects gradually fade in and out, sending the listener into an unsettling world of musical insanity.
‘The Bogus Man’ is another fascinating track that I’ve always felt could have served as the perfect theme for Alucard in the anime classic Hellsing Ultimate. It’s cool, sinister, stalking, and chaotic, with a krautrock-inspired approach and smoky, screeching jazz-funk textures.
The music brings to mind the nightmarish image of Alucard pulling a gun from his coat, ready to unleash terror without giving a single fuck about the consequences. Musically, however, the track is one of the album’s most adventurous sonic experiments, creating funky yet disturbing textures through Eno’s VCS3 treatments and Mellotron-like soundscapes.
The final two tracks, ‘Grey Lagoons’ and the title track, take us in two very different directions. ‘Grey Lagoons’ delivers a rockabilly-meets-sermon approach, complete with a soulful 1950s attitude. There’s a Little Richard-meets-Jerry Lee Lewis style of pounding piano, blistering guitar, harmonica, and saxophone attack.
Originally developed during the 1971 recording sessions, the track carries an explosive, powder-keg energy that gives it a distinctive character. From there, the album plunges into the deep, cavernous atmosphere of the title track, where Eno’s effects, loops, and ambient minimalism create an overwhelming sense of loss. Ferry’s ominous vocal delivery brings everything to a haunting conclusion.
The second and third discs contain work-in-progress recordings, outtakes from AIR Studios, which became the band’s creative home during this golden era, and BBC sessions recorded for John Peel, one of Roxy Music’s biggest champions. The DVD also features a fantastic collection of rare television appearances from 1972–73, including performances on Musikladen, The Old Grey Whistle Test, Top of the Pops, and Full House, along with footage from their appearance at the Montreux Jazz Festival.
It’s a great opportunity to see Roxy Music during this early period, capturing the band in their original lineup as they brought their futuristic sound, outrageous stage presence, and experimental approach to television audiences. These performances make the DVD an essential part of the collection, giving fans another glimpse into the band’s exciting beginnings and the impact they were making during those early years.
Among the highlights of the audio material is the unearthed demo of ‘Pyjamarama’, which features Ferry playing guitar on what was his first songwriting contribution to the band. Even though the guitar is out of tune, you can still feel the power and passion behind what would eventually become a UK Top 10 single. It also demonstrates that Roxy Music were much more than just the band behind their breakthrough single, ‘Virginia Plain’.
Between the ghostly tremolo, electric, and vocal arrangements of ‘Beauty Queen’ and the rough-edged wah-wah guitar and Farfisa organ textures of ‘In Every Dream Home a Heartache’, you can almost imagine yourself sitting inside the recording studio, watching the band work through different arrangements, experiment with ideas, and determine the musical direction they wanted to pursue. These recordings have a life of their own, offering a fascinating glimpse into the creative process behind the album.
Listening to Eno’s tapes for the closing title track, you can sense that he was already preparing to embark on his next chapter beyond Roxy Music. The recordings delve into the experimental territory associated with the Berlin School, with noticeable nods to the Krautrock movement and artists such as Cluster, CAN, Klaus Schulze, and Tangerine Dream during their Zeit period.
The vocals, which I believe are Ferry’s, add another terrifying dimension to the recordings, creating a hallucinatory sense of insanity that brings to mind the Ludovico treatment from Stanley Kubrick’s A Clockwork Orange. Also included alongside ‘Pyjamarama’ is ‘The Pride and the Pain’, a B-side composed by Andy Mackay. This instrumental piece, written during the sessions, features a classical yet synthesised oboe-like atmosphere, with Phil Manzanera and Brian Eno lending their musical contributions to the arrangement.
Although it originally appeared on the 1995 box set The Thrill of It All, ‘The Pride and the Pain’ carries a monochromatic yet futuristic atmosphere, almost as though it’s continuing where ‘Sea Breezes’ left off. It takes you somewhere unexpected, exploring the emotional aftermath of lost love and the overwhelming sense of despair that comes crashing down around you. With its spoken dialogue and cracking-whip effects, it’s certainly not for the faint of heart.
Overall, For Your Pleasure remains one of Roxy Music’s most adventurous and forward-thinking albums. Whether this expanded three-CD/one-DVD edition makes it onto someone’s Christmas wish list is another matter, but it offers an incredible insight into the band’s creative development and the direction they would take in the years ahead. With Stranded, Country Life, and Siren still to come, Roxy Music was far from finished reinventing themselves and exploring new musical territory. Perhaps there is even more unreleased material waiting to be unearthed from those subsequent recording sessions in the years to come.
As Bryan Ferry once sang in ‘Pyjamarama’, “Never mind, take the world by storm/Just boogaloo a rhapsody divine“. And that’s exactly what Roxy Music did with For Your Pleasure: they took the world by storm, created something extraordinary, and delivered a futuristic masterpiece that still sounds as thrilling, dangerous, and unpredictable as ever.
