Roxy Music - In The Beginning

 

This is another collection from the radio broadcast series, similar to the great Patti Smith and Tom Waits sets that I've mentioned before and while the title is somewhat deceptive, there are some good performances here.

As I said, this is hardly "In the Beginning" of this band's career, as the earliest recording here is from 1975, a couple of years after Eno left the group, and the rest are from 1979 and 1982, after the band's initial breakup (they took a few hiatuses in their time). I had hoped for Eno-era concerts, but by 1975, "Love is the Drug" was already their biggest hit - which I do like, but it's not as great as their earlier work - although they do some of the earlier tracks here, as well.

While I'm not as familiar with all of the later tunes, there are a batch of earlier numbers that appear on almost every CD - "Out of the Blue", "Mother of Pearl", "In Every Dream Home a Heartache", rockers like "ReMake/ReModel", "Do The Strand", "Editions of You" and, of course "Love is the Drug".

There are a few odder numbers like a cover of Neil Young's "Like a Hurricane"and Lennon's "Jealous Guy" (was that on Ferry's solo album?) but I wish that there was a bit more variety between the CD's and, again, some earlier performances.

So, good, but not as great as it could have been.