Disco de Roxy Music: “Concerto”

This is a re-issue of the single CD called Concert Classics. Concert Classics was an hour long CD of a concert from Denver. The sound quality was not great. The low end was faint, and there a screechy quality to the high end. There was also a background buzz on some of the tracks.

For Concerto, the sound quality was improved somewhat. The low end was boosted so you can hear the drums and bass better. The squeal at the high end was removed. Must of the background buzz is still present. The quick introduction of the band at the beginning of the concert was removed. Two bonus tracks from an Oakland concert were added on the end. The bonus tracks were blended in with the old material, so it sounds like it comes from the same show. But they are out of place. Brian Ferry says they will do one more track, but end up doing three tracks.

With the bonus tracks, the total time is a few seconds over eighty minutes. So, it had to be put on two CD's. If you already have Concert Classics, the improved sound and bonus tracks do not make this worth buying (I wish I had known). Mother Of Pearl is one of my favorite tracks from Stranded, but this live version is not very good.

Overall, it is a fairly nice concert. There a number of blistering guitar solos. There could be some more sax solos from Mackay. A few songs are boring, like the always tedious Song For Europe. And, the concert kind of ends on a whimper, especially with the addition of the two bonus tracks. But, there are enough good tracks to make this worth getting.

The cover of my CD slightly different than what is shown here. The contrast of the colors on mine is muted so it is really difficult to make out that it is the face of a woman.

Roxy Music always had the greatest publicist. The group's PR machine has claimed that Roxy Music has invented all kinds of music styles, from glam rock, to progressive rock, to electronica and new wave. In fact, Roxy Music has always a follower of styles and in some cases their music sounded dated at the time of release. Around the time of this album, Roxy Music's sound was moving to the New Wave sound. The group has put out some stunning music, and went out with a bang with Avalon and the concert tour to support it.

"Concerto" is the last of 4 new discs of Roxy Music's live recordings from the 70's, that were released lately. It was taken during the "Manifesto" American tour in 1979, and strange enough to be almost a copy of "Concert classics" and few bootlegs of the same tour (well - that what happens when 2 different companies are buying rights from the same tour). So the dbl. disc album "Concerto", does'nt bring us something new. The sound is not more than "O.K." and the disc itself stands under the black shadow of "Manifesto" (don't tell me you like "Manifesto"!). "Manifesto" was the first step by the band to change its musical direction to something softer, simple, and shmaltzy, but for more than once it's just a fine production of a boring stuff. So "Concerto" can be a boring album, for about the whole first disc. The "big test" is the second disc that takes us back to Roxy's "old" music" from the early-mid 70's. Here we meet "Ladytron" and "Remake/Remodel" from the first album "Editions of you", "In every dream home a heartache" and "Do the Strand" from the second album, "A song for Europe" and "Mother of pearl" and "Love is the drug". It's not bad, and even has good moments. More heavy metal guitar of Manzanera and Sax of McKay plus sence of humor made "Do the Strand" here the best performance of the song. The rest of the old material is not bad also, and if you compare it to the next band's live albums - "High road" and "Heart still beating" that were taken few years later, you can understand, that this is the last sign of the "old band". So... to buy or not to buy? - that is the question!... If you like Roxy of the 70's - you'll like it. Not as "Viva!" but not very far from. If you have "Concert classics" or one of the bootlegs of the tour - don't waste your time and money on it.

I have to defend Manifesto. While not the band's best album by a long shot it has many moments equal to their best work. True, this album signaled a shift in musical direction towards a more "mellow" sound (or one could call it intoxicating sound). The Roxy sound was streamlined and remade/remodeled to fit the new wave explosion that occured in the late 70's.

The title track is a particular stand out. Gary Tibbs contributes a muscular bass part that rolls along propelling this song forward. The title track captures what was best about the old Roxy and where they were headed. Trash, Angel Eyes (no, not the disco version added to the album after its release but the rock version)and Stronger Through The Years all have a dark undercurrent to them. They play as dark alter egos to counterparts in the Roxy canon.

The "West" Side of the album is the more poppy less innovative part of the album. Still the slow percolating funk of Ain't That So and the music box melody of Spin Me Round are both stand out tracks that, again, can easily hold their own against Roxy's best material. Yes, Manifesto does consist of a certain amount of filler but I would hardly call it a bad album. The best moments on Manifesto recall the band in their prime. If the arrangements are streamlined and starker than previous albums that's to the album's benefit; each Roxy album stood apart like some amazing chapter in a very strange book. They rarely duplicated each other beyond making reference to what had gone before.

Taken all in all this live album captures Roxy in fine form. The sound is an improved on the Concert Classics edition released a couple of years ago. Having said that, there are some audible pops which could indicate that this was drawn from a vinyl source or these imperfections could exist on the tape used as the master. The sound is fuller here with brighter elements fo the "Concert Classics" edition tamed. The addition of the two songs not recorded for the Denver show adds a nice contrast to the newer material.

I do share the sentiments of many of the writers here about the length of the disc. It seems to me that a couple of other tracks from other shows could have been tacked on to the second disc (if nothing else as an example of an alternative performance). If I have access to the Los Angeles show from this tour it seems to me others must have it as well. Why not use the same technology the Beatles used on the Anthology project and present these additional shows?

These are small complaints. Although not as essential as VIVA (or the band's shows in Sweden despite the thin sound quality of the bootlegs), Concerto 1979 presented the band in their element. Ferry, Manazanera, MacKay and Thompson still cared about the music. The Avalon tour (and the EP and CD released from it) demonstrated nothing more than the passion was gone far before the marriage fell apart. VIVA and Concerto 1979 are nice bookends to a performing career that ended in tatters and indifferent shows.

On the scale of Roxy Music live albums, this double-disc set rates fairly high, though not as fine as "Viva!" (To me, "Viva!" was for Roxy what "Ya Ya's" was for the Stones.) With a real strong version of "Still Falls The Rain" and several other excellent tracks, "Concerto" does surpass "The High Road" live e.p. and "Heart Still Beating." Bryan Ferry is at his most suave and elusive -- on his own lounge planet as usual. We also get to hear some excellent guitar work by Phil Manaznera, but Andy Mackay's sax bits often sound squeaky and weren't brought into the mix very well. Still, the sound quality is superior to most bootlegs, and the song performances are solid (including two bonus cuts from an Oakland show). Besides the big three - Ferry, Manz., & Mac - Paul Thompson and the rest of the touring band made their own strong contributions. I definitely enjoyed this one thoroughly.