Today it's difficult to imagine the controversy caused by the sleeve of Roxy's fourth album. Two German women in their underwear posing in front of evergreen foliage (Constanze Karoli and Eveline Grunwald). In the US. Atlantic had to disguise the sleeve in an opaque green shrink wrap after major chain stores threatened to boycott the album.
The sessions for 'Country Life' were fraught with pressure as the band needed to finish the album before the UK tour began in mid-September 1974 to maximise the promotional effect on the album sales.
Bryan Ferry recalls that,
"We were in the studio constantly right up to the beginning of the tour. We just about finished it by the skin of our teeth. About three-quarters of the way through it, I just had to get out of town, so I went to Portugal for two weeks to try to finish off some of the songs. I went with Eric Boman the photographer, and that's where we did the album cover, about a hundred yards from the ocean at 3 a.m....it was a stroke of luck. The girls were Roxy fans, actually the only albums they'd brought with them were 'These Foolish Things' and 'Another Time, Another Place'. So it was business. I mean - they were very keen to do the job."
The tour began on schedule, with all tickets for every date having sold out within a week. Ferry adopted a new image, a pseudo military uniform - half US Air force and half Third Reich, with the tie tucked into the tunic at one end and jackboots at the other.
A week into the tour, the first single 'All I Want Is You' was released and made #12 in the UK chart.
The delayed album was finally released at the beginning of November, when most of it had been previewed on tour.
The press praised the album highly with NME's Nick Kent reviewing that "While 'Stranded' had been a 'flawed meisterwerk' highlighted by gems of the calibre of 'Mother of Pearl' and 'A Song For Europe', 'Country Life' was in a consistently higher league throughout, failing only to reach those twin peaks of excellence from the previous release on any individual tracks." He noted 'The Thrill of It all', Three and Nine' and particularly 'Casonova' as the stongest tracks.
This recording from the radio station Europe 1 reel to reel tapes, includes seven tracks - one a piece from the first three albums and four from 'Country Life'. The sound quality is excellent and this is easily among the best early Roxy live recordings. See the official release 'Viva' for live recordings from the UK tour mentioned above. After touring Europe the band took a break and toured extensively in 1975, visiting the USA, Japan, Australia and New Zealand.
LDB Master Series #300
ROXY MUSIC
Paris, Palais des Congrès
November, 27 1974
Master Reel to reel
01. Out of the Blue
02. A Song For Europe
03. Three and Nine
04. If It Takes All Night
05. In Every Dream Home A Heartache
06. If There is Something (incl. Violin Solo Eddie Jobson)
07. All I Want Is You
Time: 43:34
Lineage: Europe 1 original reels > Teac A3340S > HD > SoundForge 7.0 > CD Wave > FLAC Frontend (level 6)
Bryan Ferry - vocals, keyboards
Eddie Jobson - strings, keyboards, vocals
Andy MacKay - saxophone, oboe
Phil Manzanera - guitar, vocals
Paul Thompson - drums
John Wetton - bass, vocals
From LDB's original notes:
"For volume 300 I had to find something special. And I think this Is something special. Some time ago I had access to quite a few master reels from Europe 1 that were saved from the trash some time ago. The Santana 71 show that I have already seeded was part of it. Unfortunately the reels were mixed up and only a few complete. But the historical value is very high. This is one I managed to have it transferred using a revox player. I have many reels, probably the most amazing one being the Jimi Hendrix Olympia October 1968, which I was told has already been released somewhere. Europe 1 was one of those stations that used to record many shows, in particular from the Olympia. My belief is that they were doing a king of matrix by both capturing the soundboard but having also a few onstage microphones.
This comes from the 1974 tour. On the reel it is marked Olympia but it is possible that it was a mistake by the engineers and honestly I trust more the Roxy Music experts over here. So I have updated the venue and date. Thanks for the help. It sounds amazing, as you can imagine. This is my gift to you for you to celebrate volume 300." Enjoy!!!!
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