Roxy Music - More Than This

One of my favorite albums. I bought it around the time it came out. I agree it’s up there with Dark Side of the Moon as far as iconic albums. Their masterpiece.

 

Yep, love his voice.

More Than This is a great song.

 

My favorite Roxy album !

 

"More Than This" is a great, great song, and after I've heard it on the radio in the car I usually just turn the radio off for a while because whatever follows just ends up sounding insipid.

Typically one is wise to avoid reading the comments on a video but somebody posted a really interesting comment explicating the lyrics to "More Than This", and I wish I could find it again because it would be worth sharing.

EDIT: I found the post on another YouTube posting of the same song:



Fernando Martinez 3 years ago
To understand this song, one should read the 17th century Dutch philosopher Baruch Spinoza. In essence, Spinoza, though being a religious Jew, was in effect one of the first heralds of secular (dis-)believers in modern times. Nature is God, said Spinoza, and there is no transcendental one. More then this - there is nothing."Even the finite modes (particular thoughts and actions) are inevitably and wholly determined by the nature of god. Hence, everything in the world is as it must be; nothing could be other than it is." (I Prop. xxxiii) Determinism governs the world and free will is an illusion. But our limited mind, of course, it "feels" like we are free, but that's just out epidemiological limit. So, how can we know where leaves falling in the night are blowing?.." there is no way of knowing." Our lives appear to us an an unfolding, open ended movie. "like a dream in the night, we can never know where we are going." Still, deep within us, we ask the question of the determinism we see around us - "why the sea on the tide has no way of turning (e.g, choose is way)." We feel we are free, but we see determinism surrounding us. We want the comfort of certainty and absolute knowledge, but also fear it since its consequence will surly mean we are no more then sophisticated automatons. The solution for this dilemma is written in the second stanza: accept the uncertainty and re-joy in it (no care in the world). He concludes, "The greatest good of human life, then, is to understand one's place in the structure of the universe as a natural expression of the essence of God. When I understand why I do what I do, then I am truly free. Although I can neither change the way things are nor hope that I will be rewarded, I must continue to live and act with the calm confidence that I am a necessary component of an infinitely greater and more important whole. This way of life may not be easy, Spinoza declared, "But all noble things are as difficult as they are rare." The official video of the song, appear to support this thesis. It has religious icons and setting (cross, and hell-like environment), Bryan is sitting in a cinema, watching himself play in a scene.

 

A perennial top 10 tune for me. It was the go-to song for, ahem, dorm room encounters followed by the title track Avalon once the lights went out.

Any time I fool with a modeler or a delay I always try to get the More Than This sound.

But as good as the guitar parts are, the drums on that song are ace. I read an interview with the session drummer but can't recall his name or the publication. There are two fills at the end of the song that are so simple (one of them is just a few eighth notes) yet so tasteful they give me cold chills even when I'm sweating at the gym.

Oddly enough, the drummer from Level 42 (who plays open-handed) appeared from the neck down in the video for the song.

 

Anyway, while we're on the subject, I think this is great too:

 

I think it was Andy Newmark. This was a fitting final album for Roxy. They were becoming the Bryan Ferry show, and I read at the time of its release that there was almost zero interaction between the remaining band members during the recording sessions for Avalon. I don’t argue that the music was getting better or worse, just different.

On the topic of Bryan’s voice, he did try out for King Crimson, and was rejected. The first album where his vibrato wasn’t severely exaggerated was The Bride Stripped Bare, but I don’t know whether he got coaching or made a conscious decision about his vocal style. Again, I don’t have a preference, I like all of the Roxy albums and many of Ferry’s solo albums.

My vinyl copy of Avalon is probably pristine, as I made cassettes and wore them out back then. Thanks for posting this reminder. It brings back fond memories of the early 80’s.

 

First CD player I saw was a bridge-of-the-Starship-Enterprise affair. With lights and meters etc. The disc loaded vertically like a cassette tape (for reasons unknown) and then took about 60 sec to spin up and begin playing.

The first CD I saw/heard? Avalon.

 

Roxy Music and Phil Manzanera kickstarted my special interest in Firebirds many years ago.

 

This is one of my favourite Roxy song, great album too.....

 

Fernando Martinez 3 years ago
To understand this song, one should read the 17th century Dutch philosopher Baruch Spinoza. In essence, Spinoza, though being a religious Jew, was in effect one of the first heralds of secular (dis-)believers in modern times. Nature is God, said Spinoza, and there is no transcendental one. More then this - there is nothing."Even the finite modes (particular thoughts and actions) are inevitably and wholly determined by the nature of god. Hence, everything in the world is as it must be; nothing could be other than it is." (I Prop. xxxiii) Determinism governs the world and free will is an illusion. But our limited mind, of course, it "feels" like we are free, but that's just out epidemiological limit. So, how can we know where leaves falling in the night are blowing?.." there is no way of knowing." Our lives appear to us an an unfolding, open ended movie. "like a dream in the night, we can never know where we are going." Still, deep within us, we ask the question of the determinism we see around us - "why the sea on the tide has no way of turning (e.g, choose is way)." We feel we are free, but we see determinism surrounding us. We want the comfort of certainty and absolute knowledge, but also fear it since its consequence will surly mean we are no more then sophisticated automatons. The solution for this dilemma is written in the second stanza: accept the uncertainty and re-joy in it (no care in the world). He concludes, "The greatest good of human life, then, is to understand one's place in the structure of the universe as a natural expression of the essence of God. When I understand why I do what I do, then I am truly free. Although I can neither change the way things are nor hope that I will be rewarded, I must continue to live and act with the calm confidence that I am a necessary component of an infinitely greater and more important whole. This way of life may not be easy, Spinoza declared, "But all noble things are as difficult as they are rare." The official video of the song, appear to support this thesis. It has religious icons and setting (cross, and hell-like environment), Bryan is sitting in a cinema, watching himself play in a scene.[/QUOTE]

Wow, thanks for sharing this Alex W! Huge Roxy Music fan, Avalon is a perfect album and Flesh and Blood and Siren are close behind it.

 

Some time ago I saw a documentary on television. Interesting was the fact that the issue came up that they transformed from an art school band making pretty freaky experimental music to a band making more accessible music. I like both periods.

 

I had an uncle that was into fancy high-end audio and he always had Avalon as one of his demo albums. Doesn't sound quite the same in the car after that haha.

 

I am not ashamed to admit that I love Ferry music! Avalon, yeah!