"Another Time, Another Place" by BRYAN FERRY of ROXY MUSIC - July 1974 UK Second Solo Studio Album of Mainly Cover Versions on Island Records (Atlantic Records USA) featuring Chris Mercer, Henry Lowther and Chris Pine on Horns with Ruan O'Lochlainn of Bees Make Honey on Saxophone, John Porter of Uncle Dog and Front with David O'List of The Misunderstood, Nice and Roxy Music on Guitars, John Wetton of King Crimson on Bass with Paul Thompson of Roxy Music and Angelic Upstarts on Drums (October 1999 UK Virgin HDCD Reissue with Bob Ludwig Remaster)

 

 

 

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"...I'm In With The 'ln' Crowd... " 

 

Common consensus has it that Bryan Ferry's second solo studio album ("Another Time, Another Place" from July 1974) outside of his day job as front man and songwriter for ROXY MUSIC was a disappointment. Another cluster of eclectically chosen cover versions (like its predecessor "These Foolish Things" from October 1973) - it wasn't as well received despite his stunning guitar-mad interpretation of "The 'In' Crowd" and I can understand why. 

The debut "These Foolish Things" hammered an unsuspecting Roxy Music fanbase with a record of cover versions - and in 1973! But despite that awkward game plan, the LP worked. So I suppose the follow-up with more of the same was always going to let down, but I would argue that with repeated listening, it's the one of the two I end up playing more. OK - it overstays its welcome as the Side 1 ender (6:46 minutes) - but I mean that combo of Blues Dobro, Haunting Organ, Tuba oom-pah and Girly Melodrama Vocal on the standard "You Are My Sunshine" - what genius. Ferry turns this overly done seaside town shanty into something new and brilliant. Please don't take my sunshine away indeed. I loved it. And it wasn't square (and I was there). To the details...

UK released October 1999 - "Another Time, Another Place" by BRYAN FERRY [of ROXY MUSIC] on Virgin FERRYCD2 (Barcode 724384760021) is a straightforward CD Reissue and Remaster of his Second Solo Album and plays out as follows (42:03 minutes:

 

1. The 'In' Crowd [Side 1]

2. Smoke Gets In Your Eyes 

3. Walk A Mile In My Shoes

4. Funny How Time Slips Away

5. You Are My Sunshine 

6. (What A) Wonderful World [Side 2]

7. It Ain't Me Babe

8. Fingerpoppin'

9. Help Me Make It Through The Night

10. Another Time, Another Place

Tracks 1 to 10 are his second solo studio album "Another Time, Another Place" - released July 1974 in the UK on Island ILPS 9284 and Atlantic SD 18113 in the USA. Produced by BRYAN FERRY and JOHN PUNTER - it peaked at No. 4 in the UK (didn't chart USA). 

 

Excepting the last track on Side 2, the whole album is cover versions – original artists being Dobie Gray for Track 1, The Platters for Track 2, a Joe South song for Track 3, a Willie Nelson song for Track 4, a Traditional for Track 5, a Barbara Campbell song done by Sam Cooke for Track 6 (she was his wife), a Bob Dylan song for Track 7, an Ike Turner song done by Ike & Tina Turner for Track 8, a Kris Kristofferson song for Track 9 with Track 10 written by Bryan Ferry. 

 

Musicians: the album featured David O'List of The Misunderstood, Nice and Roxy Music with John Porter of Uncle Dog and Front on Guitars, Chris Mercer, Henry Lowther and Chris Pine on Horns, Ruan O'Lochlainn of Bees Make Honey on Saxophone, John Wetton of King Crimson on Bass with Paul Thompson of Roxy Music and Angelic Upstarts on Drums. Ann Odell arranged the Strings and Martyn Ford arranged the Brass. Bryan Ferry played Keyboards and Organ, Harmonica and all Lead Vocals. Many others contributed to the Backing Vocals.

 

The 8-page booklet is hardly the stuff of reissue wet dreams - the lyrics, musician and HDCD Reissue/Remaster credits and that's your lot. The inner artwork to the gatefold sleeve is AWOL, but what whomps big time is the BOB LUDWIG Remaster that uses the HDCD format (High Density CD). Having been so used to hearing the edited 7" single mix for the Dobie Gray cover "The 'In' Crowd" at 4:16 minutes - the full-on wallop and power of those amazing guitars by John Porter when you play the album cut at 4:33 minutes. It may only be 20-seconds or so, but man what a kick in the audio nuts. Unfortunately that single's unreleased B-side "Chance Meeting" is AWOL too and would have made for a cool and obvious bonus track on this CD. 

Spending cash and talking trash, the audio on "The 'In' Crowd" is fantastic and when that wailing and screaming guitar comes a marauding in - the impact is truly hair-raising. Vibe-wise Ferry then does a 360 with a version of The Platters 50ts smoocher "Smoke Gets In Your Eyes" which he turns into a piano and strings jaunt - I like it. Many have said that his take on Joe South's Country Rock-ish "Walk A Mile In My Shoes" is the first of too many mistakes on the album and I can understand that criticism. But there's good in it too. Once again Ferry subverts and imbibes a sort of lounge-room lizard menace into "Funny How Time Slips Away" - only to go all Brass and Drums punch half way through. He ends Side 1 with what I think is one of the LP's great moments, the strangely nostalgia elegant "You Are My Sunshine". 

Over on Side 2 Sam Cooke's "(What A) Wonderful World" gets Ferry-ised and I it isn't the LP's greatest triumph for sure - a lack of Soul in a Englishman full of it. And although it starts out promisingly, his version of Dylan's "It Ain't Me Babe" somehow loses its way in ill-sounding Mellotron keyboards and shouted choruses. The last three are better - an unusual choice in Ike & Tina Turner's "Fingerpoppin'" which he funks up with Vegas Presley brass jabs - another slightly sinister interpretation in his Bass plucking "Help Me Make It Through The Night" - Kris Kristofferson's love song turned into an early-morning light strings-and-girls hungover pleader (let the devil take tomorrow) - and his own rather good title track "Another Time, Another Place" a slow Roxy-type Ballad with doubled-up vocals that somehow fits into the overall sound (dig that fantastic slide guitar burst).

For sure the 1973 Island Records debut "These Foolish Things" is a better overall listen, but I love the moments on this LP - and the Remaster is utterly brill. 

 

"Don't bid me adieu..." Ferry sang on the title track. Well, the dapper gent stuck around a tad longer (50-years plus and counting in 2023) and on the clever interpretations displayed here, it's obvious why he is still so rated. 

 

"If it's square, we ain't there..." - Bryan Ferry was and never has been, square...