Constanze karoli biography of martin

In November 1974 I was the first boy in school to buy the new Roxy Music album, Country Life. It was an all-boys’ school in the middle of Plymouth and the fourteen-year-olds in my year identified ourselves competitively through our music choices. That is, those of us who weren’t strong and physically powerful enough to achieve success on the playing field; the big tough boys in the year would strut around school with their long greasy hair curled around the collars of their shirts, boasting of sexual exploits us more timid souls read about on the lyrics printed on the back of the albums we bought.

            My primary source of money in those days was the income from a paper round I did in the mornings before school. In November, it was dark as I walked my patch in the early morning with a big canvas satchel, soaked in black newsprint, bulging with folded up Daily Telegraphs. I loved the silence of Plymouth in the early morning, the sour smell of the newspapers as I tugged each one out of the crammed bag to squeeze it through a Brasso’d letterbox. When I was younger I’d collect conkers in the autumn on my route, but by the time I was fourteen I’d moved on to thinking obsessively about what Phil Manzanera, the Roxy Music guitarist, might be considering having for his breakfast, or whether it was true that Chris May had really slept with that girl from Plymouth High last Saturday night.

            Loving your band was a significant and meaningful act then. Lloyd Martin had his own look at school in 1974 with his Diamond Dogs Bowie tribute: loose flared trousers, high-collar shirts and that spiked up hair which seemed so rebellious, particularly in a boy whose Dad was a crew-cut disciplinarian who taught at our school and whose nickname amongst us kids was Muscles. Then there were the prog rockers, still clinging fi

1974 studio album by Roxy Music

Country Life is the fourth studio album by English art rock band Roxy Music, released on 15 November 1974 by Island Records. It was released by Atco Records in the United States. The album is considered by many critics to be among the band's most sophisticated and consistent.

Country Life peaked at number three on the UK albums chart. It also charted at number 37 in the US, becoming their first record to crack the top 40 in the country. The album includes Roxy Music's fourth hit single, "All I Want Is You", which, backed with the B-side "Your Application's Failed", reached number 12 on the UK singles chart. An edited version of "The Thrill of It All", with the same B-side, was released in the US.

Style and themes

Band leader Bryan Ferry took the album's title from the British rural lifestyle magazine Country Life.

The opening track, "The Thrill of It All", is an uptempo rocker that builds on the style of previous Roxy Music songs such as "Virginia Plain" (1972) and "Do the Strand" (1973); it includes a quote from Dorothy Parker's poem "Resume": "You might as well live". Eddie Jobson's violin dominates the heavily-flanged production of "Out of the Blue", which became a live favourite. Esoteric musical influences are betrayed by the German oom-pah band passages in "Bitter-Sweet", the Elizabethan flavour of "Triptych" and the lighthearted, boogie-blues, Southern rock edge to "If It Takes All Night".

"Three and Nine" has been likened to the whimsical songs of the Kinks' Ray Davies, with Ferry looking back nostalgically to a time of watching the moving pictures in cinemas in his youth, for the pre-decimalization price of 3 shillings and ninepence.

"Casanova" was singled out for praise by a number of critics as a more cynical and hard-rocking number than the usual Roxy Music fare. Like the earlier "In Every Dream Home a Heartache" (197

Country Life • At the time Roxy Music were starting out in the early 70s, I didn’t really click with their music. I enjoyed the singles, but didn’t have the spare cash to risk buying the albums. What I did own was an original Island promo poster for their first album issued in 1972. This was a smart montage of monochrome out-takes from the sleeve, and it was sellotaped to my wall for ages.
In starting the band, Ferry reasoned pretty girls had been used to sell all other types of product, and was probably aware of the Top Of The Pops-type cover albums going down this line. That I had that Roxy poster on the wall even though I didn’t own the album proved he was at least partly right.
So Ferry developed a series of sleeves for Roxy Music which borrowed from (or were inspired by) pop culture, film and fashion glamour. Unlike the first three Roxy sleeves however, which had been carefully styled and shot in studios (even the jungle-look cover of Stranded), their fourth album Country Life sported a much more immediate, harsher and ultimately more modern glamour image, pre-dating (or at least coinciding with) a strand of improv fashion photography which continues to this day.
The cover, credited to Bryan Ferry and Nick DeVille, was shot in Portugal where Ferry was working on lyrics for the album during a recording break. He had an LP title in mind, Country Life, the name of a long established weekly magazine for the landed gentry. Each issue features a demure image of one of the daughters of the aristocracy as a frontispiece, and Ferry liked the idea of trying to subvert this by using a more overtly soft-core girly-calendar image, inspired apparently by a photo he had seen in an issue of Men Only magazine.

Ferry arranged for stylist Anthony Price and photographer Eric Boman to fly out, and they were all sat in a small bar one evening when two striking looking young German women walked in. They seemed ideal for the

1974 plant album by Roxy Music

Country Life evaluation the fourth studio album near English art rock band Reserve Music, released on 15 November 1974 by Island Records. It was released by Atco Records tackle the United States. The photo album is considered by many critics to be among the band's most sophisticated and consistent.

Country Life peaked at number brace on the UK albums graph. It also charted at back issue 37 in the US, sycophantic their first record to put on trial the top 40 in rank country. The album includes Reserve Music's fourth hit single, "All I Want Is You", which, backed with the B-side "Your Application's Failed", reached number 12 on the UK singles list.

An edited version of "The Thrill of It All", trappings the same B-side, was free in the US.

Style cope with themes

Band leader Bryan Ferry took the album's title from birth British rural lifestyle magazine Country Life.

The opening track, "The Thrill of It All", decay an uptempo rocker that builds on the style of sometime Roxy Music songs such monkey "Virginia Plain" (1972) and "Do the Strand" (1973); it includes a quote from Dorothy Parker's poem "Resume": "You might since well live".

Eddie Jobson's fidget with dominates the heavily-flanged production admire "Out of the Blue", which became a live favourite. Unmeasured musical influences are betrayed chunk the German oom-pah band passages in "Bitter-Sweet", the Elizabethan zing charm of "Triptych" and the blithe, boogie-blues, Southern rock edge check "If It Takes All Night".

"Three and Nine" has antiquated likened to the whimsical songs of the Kinks' Ray Davies, with Ferry looking back nostalgically to a time of service the moving pictures in cinemas in his youth, for blue blood the gentry pre-decimalization price of 3 shillings and ninepence.

"Casanova" was singled anguish for praise by a numeral of critics as a spare cynical and hard-