If There Is Something

I'm back from Berlin and still in love with the place. It manages to conjure so much style from such basic resources. Case in point: Dr Pong. A bare concrete space of a bar, bottles of beer for sale in one corner, DJ in another, and dominating the space in the middle a table tennis table with 40 or so people playing game after epic game of Round-the-Table. What's not to like? Anyway, during one particularly gruelling match, If There Is Something by Roxy Music came on, and I decided to post it when I got back.

Roxy Music fans tend to fall into two camps. There are those who think the band turned belly up after Brian Eno left, and there are those who think he was too weird and stopped Bryan Ferry writing the great pop songs he was free to do once Eno walked out the door. For my sins, I'm probably more in the Ferry camp.

But this song has their two minds working perfectly together, and it's a reminder Bryan Ferry could be a pretty weird fish too. It's off their self titled first album, and I think it's a work of genius. The song moves through three distinct movements. A jaunty hillbilly rock'n'roll style kicks things off - but a couple of minutes in things take a turn for the melancholy. The middle section strips down to a lonesome drum beat, a walking bass guitar, and a wailing saxaphone solo. But it's the end that really gives me the goosebumps. Ferry's voice really soars, as the song builds to an anthemic climax of strings, fuzzy guitar, backing vocals, and piano.

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Roxy Music - If There Is Something by milkybarkid79

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