Jan 31, 2019
The Album: Bryan Ferry, These Foolish Things (1973)
Bryan Ferry first came to notice in the early 1970s thanks to the
art rock group, Roxy Music, that he helped form. Most other artists
would have focused their energies on their budding, hit band but
Ferry, throughout his career, has never been one to be like "most
other artists." Even as Roxy Music was blowing up, Ferry used time
between those albums to record his own solo works and though his
voice might bridge the two, his solo debut album, These
Foolish Things was unlikely to be confused for a Roxy
Music project.
Ferry, at heart, is a crooner and so it's only fitting that this
album would inspired by his eclectic interpretations of different
rock, pop and soul standards, including everything from Erma
Franklin's "Piece of My Heart," to The Rolling Stones' "Sympathy
for the Devil" to the Beach Boys' "Don't Worry Baby." We talk about
an artist trying to "make a song their own" whenever we discuss
covers and it's hard to argue that when it comes to Ferry here,
he's putting his own, distinct stamp on these hits.
These Foolish Things came to us by way of our guest,
music critic Lindsay Zoladz, who's spent the last ten years
stocking up clips for everyone from Pitchfork to New
York Magazine to The
Ringer, where she's been a staff writer for the last several
years (alongside the likes of previous Heat Rocks'
guests, Shea
Serrano and Chris
Ryan). Zoladz shared with us how she discovered this particular
album (especially as someone who wasn't even born in the 1970s),
what she hears in Ferry's interpretations and whether or not he
lives up to the title of being a "bobby dazzler."
More on Lindsay Zoladz
More on These Foolish Things
Show Tracklisting (all songs from These Foolish Things unless indicated otherwise):
Here is the Spotify playlist of as many songs as we can find on there.
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