Studio AIR Studios, London Stranded
(1973) Country Life
(1974) Release date 1 November 1973 Label Island Records | Length 41:06 Artist Roxy Music Producer Chris Thomas Genres Glam rock, Art rock | |
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Released 1 November 1973 (1973-11-01) Recorded September 1973 (1973-09) Similar Country Life, For Your Pleasure, Flesh and Blood, Siren, Manifesto | ||
Stranded is the third album by the English rock band Roxy Music, released in late 1973. It reached number one on the UK album charts. The cover shows Bryan Ferry's then girlfriend and 1973 Playmate of the Year, Marilyn Cole. It was the first Roxy Music album on which Ferry was not the sole songwriter as multi-instrumentalist Andy Mackay and guitarist Phil Manzanera also contributed to the album. Though it was also the first without Brian Eno, who had left the group after For Your Pleasure, Eno nonetheless later rated it as Roxy Music's finest record. Despite this praise, the album only reached number 186 in the Top Pop Albums charts in the US.
Contents
The track "Street Life" was released as a single and reached number 9 on the UK charts.
Critical reception
Paul Gambaccini in a 1974 Rolling Stone review wrote: "Roxy Music can no longer be ignored by Americans. They may not achieve the commercial success they have in Britain, where Stranded reached Number One, but their artistic performance must be recognized. Stranded is an eloquent statement that there are still frontiers which American pop has not explored."
Retrospective review by AllMusic critic Stephen Thomas Erlewine is also positive. He wrote of the album: "Under the direction of Bryan Ferry, Roxy moved toward[s] relatively straightforward territory, adding greater layers of piano and heavy guitars. Even without the washes of Eno's synthesizers, Roxy's music remains unsettling on occasion, yet in this new incarnation, they favor more measured material."
Album cover
The gatefold cover photograph was taken by Karl Stoecker and styled by Antony Price, and shows the Playboy model Marilyn Cole. In an interview with the writer Tony Barrell in 2007, Cole recalled: "It was at a tiny studio, somewhere off the Edgware Road in London. I’d never even heard of Roxy Music. I very soon understood that I was in safe hands, among some very talented people. There was a red dress hanging up, and I thought, ‘Ooh, good, I’m going to get to wear a really nice dress’... whereupon, as I’m having my make-up done, Antony comes in and starts ripping the dress – a hole there, a slash there. I was thinking, ‘Oh no.’ They stuck me on this big log and explained I was supposed to be stranded in a jungle, and then they started spraying me; they sprayed my hair gold, and there was a whole mist coming over me and the dress was getting wet in all the right places."
Track listing
All songs written by Bryan Ferry except as noted.
Personnel
Recorded at AIR Studios, London and produced for E.G.Records
Covers
The bass guitarist John Taylor, during his solo period after leaving Duran Duran in 1997, organized a Roxy Music tribute album called Dream Home Heartaches: Remaking/Remodeling Roxy Music (released 1999). On it, Mackay's "A Song for Europe" was covered by Dave Gahan and "Street Life" was performed by Phantom 5 (a.k.a. Gerry Laffy and Simon Laffy).
Songs
1Street Life3:28
2Just Like You3:37
3Amazona4:16