Bryan Ferry These Foolish Things CD

Personnel: Bryan Ferry (vocals, piano); John Porter (guitar, bass); Phil Manzanera (guitar); Eddie Jobson (violin, keyboards, synthesizer); Roger Ball (alto & baritone saxophones); Ruan O'Lochlainn (alto saxophone); Malcolm Duncan (tenor saxophone); Henry Lowther (trumpet); David Skinner (piano); Paul Thompson, John Punter (drums); Robbie Montgomery, Jessie Davis, The Angelettes (background vocals).
Producers: Bryan Ferry, John Porter, John Punter.
Recorded at Air Studios, London, England in June 1973.
All tracks have been digitally remastered using HDCD technology.
Much like his contemporary David Bowie, Ferry consolidated his glam-era success with a covers album, his first full solo effort even while Roxy Music was still going full steam. Whereas Bowie on Pin-Ups focused on British beat and psych treasures, Ferry for the most part looked to America, touching on everything from Motown to the early jazz standard that gave the collection its name. Just about everyone in Roxy Music at the time helped out on the album -- notable exceptions being Andy Mackay and Brian Eno. The outrageous take on Bob Dylan's "A Hard Rain's A-Gonna Fall," with Ferry vamping over brassy female vocals, sets the tone for things from the start. All this said, many of the covers aim for an elegant late-night feeling not far off from the well-sculpted Ferry persona of the '80s and beyond, though perhaps a touch less bloodless and moody in comparison. In terms of sheer selection alone, meanwhile, Ferry's taste is downright impeccable. There's Leiber & Stoller via Elvis' "Baby I Don't Care," Lesley Gore's "It's My Party" (with narrative gender unchanged!), Smokey Robinson and the Miracles' "The Tracks of My Tears," and more, all treated with affection without undue reverence, a great combination. Ferry's U.K. background isn't entirely ignored, though, thanks to two of the album's best efforts -- the Beatles' "You Won't See Me" and the Stones' "Sympathy for the Devil." Throughout Ferry's instantly recognizable croon carries everything to a tee, and the overall mood is playful and celebratory. Wrapping up with a grand take on "These Foolish Things" itself, this album is one of the best of its kind by any artist. ~ Ned Raggett
Wildly controversial in its day, Roxy Music frontman Bryan Ferry's first solo album now seems more eccentric than groundbreaking; more one man's oddball take on an eclectic bunch of his favorite artists' songs than an ironic manifesto of a new pop order. Rock purists, of course, were outraged. How dare Ferry implicitly maintain the esthetic equivalence of Bob Dylan ("A Hard Rain's Gonna Fall," complete with gospel backup singers and thunderstorm effects), with teen angst queen Leslie Gore (an unabashedly camp version of her classic "It's My Party")?
Although Bryan Ferry's mannered, tremulous vocals are better suited for his own romantically bruised lounge lizard songs, he obviously connects with these tunes on a personal level. THESE FOOLISH THINGS contains many instances, most notably on the title track and Smokey Robinson's "Tracks of My Tears," where Ferry transcends his vocal limitations and comes up with his own foppish, but still valid, version of the blues.Q (12/99, p.158) - 4 stars out of 5 - "...Ferry had learned his standards at his Auntie Ethel's knee and they form the spine of his solo work....[His] rarefied voice invests the covers with an eerie combination of sarcasm and tragedy..."