With the release in May 1980 of the seventh studio album from Roxy there was a difference with this collection, the band had the American market in mind in my opinion, and this I think because for the only time in their back catalogue they recorded cover songs.
The songs they recorded where by 2 American artists both from different genres of music, one from soul and the other from rock.
The band itself was reduced to 3 original core members, Bryan Ferry, Andy Mackay and Phil Manzanera. The first cover version being the soul classic “In the Midnight hour made famous by the soul legend Wilson Pickett.
For their version Roxy added some of their touches to make the song their own firstly footsteps can be heard just the early Roxy track “Love is the drug” and Bryan Ferry can be heard counting from 1-10 with the main theme of the song being played on Andy Mackays saxophone, with the crooning voice of Mr Ferry adding the right touch of smooth to the song.
The next track “Oh Yeah” is a song written by Bryan Ferry and was the second track to be taken off the album to be a single, but when the track was released as single the title was “Oh Yeah (on the radio)” the song itself has a piano intro playing the main theme of the song, with lush sounding strings giving the song a rich full sound that is a perfect backdrop for the lead guitar of Phil Manzanera which is the perfect counterpoint to the signature vocals and the silky smooth sound of Andy Mackays saxophone.
For the last single release from this album “Same old Scene” the title was changed to “The Same old scene” and had an outtake on the B-side called “Lover”. The song itself has a drum and percussion introduction that gives it a slight rock sound, with the smooth guitar sound and vamping piano, along side the powerhouse bass and synthesizer solo in the middle 8 making it a perfect choice as a single, but still with the warm and full production touches that the whole album has.
The title track of this album “Flesh + Blood” has Bryan Ferry playing guitar on it along with keyboards and his crooning vocals along with full sounding bass played by Allan Spenner and drums played by Andy Newmark with percussion fills by Allan Schwartzberg.
The song “My Only Love” is a bit of a personal favourite from the later catalogue of the band, this is another love song from the pen of Mr Ferry that all 3 of the original members really shine on. The song has a full sounding string section that along with the piano plays the main theme of the song; this is blended with the lead guitar and vocal and the saxophone solo in the middle section is just superb and as the track fades out Mr Ferry repeats the title of the song.
For the first track to be released as single the band chose the break-up song “Over You” that has a bass intro with smooth crooning vocals that are underpinned by guitar, with the saxophone punching out lines of the song. The piano solo in the middle section played against the sax gives the song that Roxy sound that was ideal for this song to be used as a single, as this song fades the next tracks intro is interwoven to the fadeout.
The second track to feature on this album that wasn’t written by the band is song called “Eight Miles High” and this was written by 60’s band The Byrd’s. This time along with the usual sound of the band the track is given a slightly funky sound this put across by the theme being played on the saxophone and dub effects used on the main vocal in the middle section along with superb guitar playing from Mr Manzanera and percussion adding texture and atmosphere to the song as the main vocals echoes the song fades out.
For me this next song “Rain Rain Rain” is a highlight as it features Andy Mackay playing the oboe adding a sense of the spinster, the track starts drums and percussion with keyboards being played in the minor, with the oboe sound at the back of the keyboard a real feeling of menace is put across, the track also has a very strange sounding fade-out.
For the following song “No strange Delight” which has the opening lines “So there goes your life, Disappeared from ever loving friends, and now a slave to obsession, Your strange delight” along with the guitar parts of Mr Manzanera, who has added rhythm guitar as well as lead guitar, he also co-wrote the song along with Mr Ferry. This song too benefits from the sound of the oboe playing of Mr Mackay; this gives the track along with other aforementioned elements a very disturbing theme.
The last song on the album is another Ferry/Manzanera composition “Running Wild” closes the album perfectly as it’s a another love song but with twist, for as well as piano playing the main theme the track features for the first time on the album organ that is played at the back of the saxophone solo to fill the sound and give a rich warm texture to the song, Ferry sings “running wild again” then a fade out and the album quietly finished.
This a superb example of the later works of Roxy Music and the voice of Bryan Ferry.
This version of the album has been re-mastered to HDCD standard by Bob Ludwig and was released in September 1999, a few weeks earlier the mini-Lp version came out.
