BRYAN FERRY

BEFORE an unapologetic pursuit of a debonair playboy lifestyle became more of a talking point than his music, Bryan Ferry was nigh-on untouchable. By the time this album was recorded, he had, in a little over two years, made four blow-your-head-off albums with Roxy Music and released two hugely popular solo albums.

The first, , came out in October 1973, two weeks before David Bowie’s , similarly an album of cover versions. Bowie’s retrospective focus on was narrow: his beat-boom favourites, a little psychedelia, mainly British, mostly, on the other hand, was a triumph; a brilliant pop art collage, a Warholian blending of high and low art that set Bob Dylan’s protest anthem “A Hard Rain’s A-Gonna Fall” against Lesley Gore’s pop sulk “It’s My Party” and found one as valid as the other. Elsewhere on the album, Ferry covered the Stones, Smokey Robinson, Elvis Presley, The Beatles and The Beach Boys with wit, affection and a refreshing lack of reverence.