My friend Mark lent me the Brian Eno biography On a Faraway Beach, which compelled me to check out some footage of Roxy Music back in their early days, when Eno was still a member.
Check out this clip from the Old Grey Whistle Test:
Eno gets about ten seconds of screen time on his synth, but his presence is felt throughout as he manipulates the other band member's instruments.
It's pretty cool how this was 1972 yet this music still feels fresh and contemporary, like a transmission from outer space.
This song is pretty killer as well, it's the opener from their second album, For Your Pleasure:
Unlike the video above, they are clearly miming and phoning in their performances here, but it's pretty cool that Eno gets a little more screen time. It's also interesting to note how much the look and sound of the band had evolved in roughly a year.
I have to keep reminding myself that this was 1972-73. The music still holds up today, despite Roxy Music's formula being replicated ad nauseum in the 1980s with the so-called New Romantic bands, ie Duran Duran and other abominations... the band really was ground-breaking at the time, and Eno of course went on to have a major impact on Western popular music.
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