Roxy Music are an English rock band formed in 1970 by Bryan Ferry—who becam… Read Full Bio ↴Roxy Music are an English rock band formed in 1970 by Bryan Ferry—who became the band's lead vocalist and principal songwriter—and bassist Graham Simpson. The other longtime members are Phil Manzanera (guitar), Andy Mackay (saxophone and oboe), and Paul Thompson (drums and percussion). Other members included Brian Eno (synthesizer and "treatments") and Eddie Jobson (synthesizer and violin). Although the band took a break from group activities in 1976 and again in 1983, they reunited for a concert tour in 2001, and have toured together intermittently since. Ferry frequently enlisted band members as session musicians for his solo releases.

Roxy Music became a successful act in Europe and Australia during the 1970s. This success began with their self-titled debut studio album in 1972. The band pioneered more musically sophisticated elements of glam rock while significantly influencing early English punk music, and provided a model for many new wave acts while innovating elements of electronic composition. The group also conveyed their distinctive brand of visual and musical sophistication with their focus on glamorous fashions. Ferry and co-founding member Eno have had influential solo careers. Eno became one of the most significant British record producers of the late 20th century. Rolling Stone originally ranked Roxy Music No. 98 on their greatest artists list ("The Immortals – The 100 Greatest Artists of All Time"), but dropped the group from the list when they updated it in 2011.

Roxy Music's final studio album was Avalon (1982), which was certified Platinum in the United States. In 2005, the band began recording what would have become their ninth studio album—and their first album with Eno since 1973 (he wrote two songs for it and also played keyboards). However, Ferry eventually announced that the material from these sessions would instead be released as a Ferry solo studio album, with Eno playing on "a couple of tracks", and that he believed the group would never again produce a record as Roxy Music. The album was released in 2010 as the Ferry solo studio album Olympia. It featured contributions from Eno, Manzanera, and Mackay (amongst many other session players).

In 2011, Roxy Music played a series of 40th-anniversary shows, but went inactive as a performing entity following the concerts. In 2019, Roxy Music were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.

In 2022, Roxy Music reformed for a tour to mark the 50th anniversary of their debut studio album.

Full Wikipedia article: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roxy_Music

Studio albums
Roxy Music (1972)
For Your Pleasure (1973)
Stranded (1973)
Country Life (1974)
Siren (1975)
Manifesto (1979)
Flesh and Blood (1980)
Avalon (1982)

For Your Pleasure
Roxy Music Lyrics

Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴

For your pleasure
In our present state
Part false part true
Like anything

We present ourselves
The words we use tumble
All over your shoulder

Gravel hard and loose
There all night lying
With your dark horse hiding
Abhorring such extremes
You're rubbing shoulders
With the stars at night
Shining so bright
Getting older

But you'll wake up soon
And fight
In the morning
Things you worried about
Last night
Will seem lighter
I hope things
Will turn out right
Old man

Through every step a change

You watch me walk away
Tara Tara

Overall Meaning

In Roxy Music's song "For Your Pleasure," the band presents themselves as a mixture of truth and fiction, using words that roll off their tongue and fall on the listener's shoulder. The lyrics suggest that the band and their audience are both trying to escape the monotony of their mundane lives by entering into an entirely new realm of existence, where they are rubbing shoulders with the stars, shining bright and growing older by the day. The band acknowledges that their audience may be worried and concerned that their flight into fantasy and the unknown will not turn out well; however, they hope that everything will work out for the better in the end. They, too, are going through a change, or transition, and the audience watches them walk away, evoking feelings of nostalgia and loss.

The lyrics in "For Your Pleasure" hint at some possible drug use or escapism, with phrases such as "part false part true" and "rubbing shoulders with the stars at night." Roger Ebert even called the song "eerily prophetic of the drug culture to come," and the album cover art features models wrapped in tin foil, which some have interpreted as a reference to drugs.

Line by Line Meaning

For your pleasure
We do this for you

In our present state
In the midst of our current situation

Part false part true
Some parts of it are true while some others are not

Like anything
Just like any other thing

We present ourselves
We introduce ourselves

The words we use tumble
The words we say come out in an uncontrolled way

All over your shoulder
We say it directly to you

Gravel hard and loose
Harsh and unrefined

There all night lying
It stays with you all night

With your dark horse hiding
Your unknown feelings are hidden

Abhorring such extremes
Rejecting strong feelings