Country Life (album)

Infobox Album
Name = Country Life
Type = studio
Artist = Roxy Music


Released = start date|1974|11|15|df=yes
Recorded = start date|1974|7–end date|1974|8 at AIR Studios, London
Genre = Art rock
Length = 41:42
Label = Island, Polydor (UK)
Atco, Reprise (U.S.) cite book |title=The Essential Rock Discography |last=Strong |first=Martin C. |year=2006 |publisher=Canongate |location=Edinburgh |isbn=1841958603 |pages=p. 930 ]
Producer = Roxy Music, John Punter
Reviews =
*Allmusic Rating|5|5 [http://www.allmusic.com/cg/amg.dll?p=amg&sql=10:83r9283c05ja link]
*Robert Christgau (B+) [http://www.robertchristgau.com/get_artist.php?name=roxy+music link]
*"Rolling Stone" [http://www.rollingstone.com/artists/roxymusic/albums/album/123934/review/5943949/country_life link]
Last album = "Stranded" (1973)
This album = "Country Life" (1974)
Next album = "Siren" (1975)
Misc = Singles
Name = Country Life
Type = studio
Single 1 = All I Want Is You
Single 1 date = start date|1974|10
Single 2 = The Thrill of It All
Single 2 date = start date|1974|11

"Country Life" is the fourth album by British rock band Roxy Music, released in 1974 and reaching #3 in the UK charts. It also made #37 in the United States, their first record to crack the Top 40 there. The album is considered by many critics to be among the band's most sophisticated and consistent. Ferry took the album's title from the British rural lifestyle magazine "Country Life".

RS500|387 It was one of four Roxy Music albums that made the list ("For Your Pleasure", "Siren" and "Avalon" being the others). [ [http://www.rollingstone.com/news/story/5938174/the_rs_500_greatest_albums_of_all_time/4 The RS 500 Greatest Albums of All Time : Rolling Stone ] ]

tyle and themes

The opening track, "The Thrill of it All", was an up-tempo rocker that further developed the style of songs like "Virginia Plain" (1972) and "Do the Strand" (1973); it included a quote from Dorothy Parker's poem "Resume", "You might as well live". Edwin Jobson's violin dominated the heavily-flanged production of "Out of the Blue", which became a live favourite. Esoteric musical influences were 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".

"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" (1973), it was seen as a critique of the hollowness of the contemporary jet set, and contained further instances of Bryan Ferry's idiosyncratic word association ("Now you're nothing but / Second hand in glove / With second rate"). A re-recorded version, more mellow than the original, appeared on Ferry's 1976 solo album "Let's Stick Together".

The final track, "Prairie Rose", was an ode to Texas and one of its daughters, Jerry Hall, Ferry's new girlfriend and soon to appear on the cover of Roxy Music's fifth album, "Siren" (1975), and later in the video to Ferry's hit single "Let's Stick Together".

"Country Life" included Roxy Music's fourth single, "All I Want Is You" b/w "Your Application's Failed", which reached #12 in the UK charts. An edited version of "The Thrill of It All", with the same B-side, was released in the United States.

Cover

The cover features two scantily-clad models, Constanze Karoli (reportedly the sister of Can's Michael Karoli) and Eveline Grunwald. Bryan Ferry met them in Portugal and persuaded them to do the photo shoot as well as to help him with the words to the song "Bitter-Sweet". Although not credited for their photos they are credited on the lyric sheet for their German translation work.

The cover image was considered controversial in some countries such as the United States, Spain, and The Netherlands, where it was censored for release. As a result, a later American LP release of "Country Life" (available during the years 1975-80) featured a different cover shot. Instead of Karoli and Grunwald posed in front of some trees, the reissue used a photo from the album's back cover that featured only the trees. [ [http://www.amazon.com/gp/reader/3822819786?keywords=Country%20Life%20Roxy%20Music&p=S0F8&checkSum=NwUXY00dYakNZK66krkqTegPqfSKdWawCMAU29v%252F3%252F8%253D Both covers compared] ] Author Michael Ochs has described the result as the "most complete cover-up in rock history". [Michael Ochs (2002). "Record Covers", Taschen, p.545]

Track listing

All songs written by Bryan Ferry except where noted.
# "The Thrill of It All" – 6:24
# "Three and Nine" (Ferry, Andy Mackay) – 4:04
# "All I Want Is You" – 2:53
# "Out of the Blue" (Ferry, Phil Manzanera) – 4:46
# "If It Takes All Night" – 3:12
# "Bitter-Sweet" (Ferry, Mackay) – 4:50
# "Triptych" – 3:09
# "Casanova" – 3:27
# "A Really Good Time" – 3:45
# "Prairie Rose" (Ferry, Manzanera) – 5:12

Personnel

*Bryan Ferry – vocals, keyboards
*John Gustafson – bass
*Edwin Jobson – strings, synthesiser, keyboards
*Andrew Mackay – oboe, saxophone
*Phil Manzanera – guitar
*Paul Thompson – drums

Trivia

*On the 1999 CD reissue of "Country Life", Paul Thompson is credited for playing guitar and Phil Manzanera is credited for playing drums, when in fact the reverse is true.
*Electro girl band Robots in Disguise mimiced the cover for their 2002 singles Boys featuring comedian Noel Fielding and musician Chris Corner.

Charts

Album

Notes

References

*Rex Balfour (1976). "The Bryan Ferry Story"
*David Buckley (2004). "The Thrill of it All: The Story of Bryan Ferry and Roxy Music"
*Todd Burns (2004). [http://www.stylusmagazine.com/articles/under_the_covers/roxy-music.htm "Stylus Magazine": "Under the Covers"]

External links

* [http://moo.vivaroxymusic.com/426 Viva Roxy Music]
* [http://www.roxyrama.com/classic/releases/roxyalbums/countrylife.shtml Roxyrama]