OPO: Song from Roxy Music's Country Life

However, after further consideration I will pick "Bitter Sweet" because it's so fucking weird and excellent.

Seriously. Ferry attempts a no-frills three-minute pop songs and succeeds brilliantly. "L'amour toujours, L'AMOUR!"

Ferry loves playing those block chords, doesn't he? They're a feature of every great early and mid-period Roxy song ("Remake/Remodel," "Grey Lagoons," "Do the Strand," etc)

TEXAS!

Prairie Rose: 6
All I Want Is You: 3.5
Out of the Blue: 3.5
Casanova: 2
Bittersweet: 1
Really Good Time: 1
Tryptich: 1

-Thompson's madcap Stax drums
-Manzanera's live wire solo
-Ferry's "Ooo ooo I'm all cracked up on you" ending
-It crams all the Roxy-ness into 2'53" - a perfect pop song length!

1. It's a happy RM song, whioch is nice and pervy right off.
2. The psychedeli-Manza-slide
3. Bryan semi-yodeling at the end
4. Most sucinct Ferry chorus lyrics (basically, "Hey, hey")
5. The much mentioned ultra-roking of Mr Thompson at song's outro

Magnificent wall of sound Roxy . Their zenith IMO.

Manzanera's 12 string Rickenbacker, McKay's hootin and a hollerin' sax and an unforgettable coda.

Ferry was at his delirious best. His vocal delivery was never the same post Country Life.

I was lucky enough to see Roxy open with this ode to Jerry Hall on the final leg of the Country Life Tour in Sydney. Australian bands looked and sounded 10 years behind. PR is my favourite track of all time.

Prairie Rose: 8
All I Want Is You: 5
Out of the Blue: 3.5
Casanova: 2
Bittersweet: 1
Really Good Time: 1
Tryptich: 1
The Thrill Of It All: .5

Consider me a touch surprised "Prairie Rose" is getting so much love here. I have a hard time imagining any band covering this song with much in the way of success.

Part of me wonders if it's less the "song" per se than the performance -- which is undeniably infectious, with Thompson and Gustafson's rhythm section at its absolute peak for the duration, switching to 2/4 time at the end, as the piano enters, Ferry shrieks and everything sure does seem right w/ the world.

The irony, btw, according to Stump's biography, is that Ferry was unbelievably out of sorts in Texas. Jerry Hall recounts a story in which he was at dinner w/ her parents and apparently jumped like a little girl at the site of insects on the floor.

I only know of one cover of it... by Big Country of all people. Doesn't quite work, and never really supersedes "hey, Big County is covering this"

I have a hard time imagining any band covering this song with much success.

The only other band to cover it was Then Jericho. It would be incredibly difficult to cover it successfully whilst using a similar arrangement. Current digital recording may improve the sound mix and clarity, but the inspired playing and singing would be hard to beat. A revamped arrangement might be a more prudent choice.

I'd like to hear Roxy re-record it. I've heard boots of the live 2005 version, and it was extremely similar to 1974's live rendition, albeit with improved clarity because of today’s tech.

listened to this in its entirety while riding thru the park the other day. very Nabokov-like, isn't it? spring day, lust, underlying despair? Prairie Rose is also ace; I like the whole thing but except for the two tunes I mention it wasn't quite as great as I remember. Close--I always enjoy the drollery of 3 and 9.

but All I Want is to my ears the greatest Roxy record, period, one of the best three-minute songs of all time.

qft

HAWT Musikladen Country Life mini-set

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZvPlsiBAd84