4. Whirlwind
Released: 24th October 1975
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(Ferry/Manzanera)
May Day – cut down to size again
What then when less is more my friend
I’ll change – let me start again
Disguise – it’s too weird to explain
Why I’ll always call your name
Perdu, with you I could be anything
That I want to be… or sting
Whirlwind wildfire and driving rain
Wheels spin bowl me over hurricane
Whirlwind crack your cheeks and blow
Me far so far
How far is Shangri-La from here?
And is it this way?
There she blows tear me down tornado
Whirlpool drag me to the deeps below
Whirlwind will a wildcat strike be tame
Earthquake shake me to my feet again
It’s crosswords go you near
A fatal clue I fear
This case is closed
Elementary, my dear
Beware
Whirlwind
Whirl, whirlwind
History
Released in October 1975, ‘Siren’ opened with what would become perhaps Roxy Music’s best-loved tracks, ‘Love Is The Drug’. Reaching number two in the UK singles chart, ‘Love Is The Drug’ was as lyrically stylish as it was musically infectious. Returning to one of Ferry’s greatest themes – the endless and cinematic thrill of life and love on the city streets – the catchy metallic beat was atmospherically offset by a saxophone line that perfectly captured the jaunty discord of car horns. It was a track that confirmed Roxy Music’s inimitable brilliance at creating a world of heightened romance – endorsing Bryan Ferry’s remark to an early interviewer that he regarded Roxy Music “above all, as a state of mind…”
By 1975, vast armies of devoted fans were absorbed in the “state of mind” that Roxy Music conjured up with such passion and elegance. The ‘Siren’ tour – featuring, sensationally, two glamorous female backing singers costumed in G.I. chic – became rally-like celebrations of the entire ethos and aesthetic that the band brought to life. Fans dressed for the concerts with meticulous attention to detail, creating a total look that mirrored the super-stylised spectrum of imagery that Roxy Music merged into a single artistic statement. It was a unique example, perhaps, of pop music returning the elevated intentions of classic Pop art to the mainstream and front-line of commercial popular culture.
With album artwork featuring Bryan Ferry and Antony Price’s sublime recreation of Texan super model Jerry Hall as one of the perilously alluring sirens of classical mythology – now widely acknowledged as one of the greatest record covers of all time – ‘Siren’ maintained the now iconic Roxy Music blend of dazzling, fast paced rock – ‘Whirlwind’ being a stand-out track – and elegiac melancholy. Overall, the album has a sense of adrenalin rush and fairground excitement – lighter in spirit than ‘Country Life’, but no less spectacular.
‘Both Ends Burning’ would be another triumphal ‘live’ track, with the pulsar electronic tones of its opening bars seeming to trigger the racing, breathless urgency that carried the song to its soaring conclusion. It was a track that saw Roxy Music in glorious full flight, and could be extended to epic, stage show proportions.
‘Siren’ would also contain some less extravagant but equally honed gems: ‘Sentimental Fool’ seemed to re-visit the musical territory of ‘Roxy Music’ and ‘For Your Pleasure’, with its modernist tempo changes and brilliantly stylised vocal range. ‘She Sells’ and ‘Could It Happen To Me’ foreground Ferry as a composer, and are fluent with an easy charm that is carried by the piano melody.
In some ways, ‘Siren’ would seem to mark the curtain fall on a phase in Roxy Music’s artistic progression – rather as ‘Stranded’ had represented a stage on from ‘Roxy Music’ and ‘For Your Pleasure’. Certainly, ‘Siren’ remains one of the best-loved Roxy Music albums – filled with restless energy and intoxicating high spirits. Musically, it can be heard to prepare the way for new adventures, and new enquiries into the relationship between art pop and Pop art.
–Michael Bracewell, 2010v
Lyrics
1. Love Is The Drug
(Ferry/MacKay)
T’ain’t no big thing to wait for the bell to ring
T’ain’t no big thing the toll of the bell
Aggravated, spare for days I troll downtown the red light place
Jump up bubble up, what’s in store love is the drug and I need to score
Showing out, showing out, hit and run
Boy meets girl, where the beat goes on
Stitched up tight, can’t shake free
Love is the drug, got a hook on me
Oh catch that buzz love is the drug I’m thinking of
Oh can’t you see?
Love is the drug for me
Oh oh
Late that night I park my car stake my place in a singles bar
Face to face, toe to toe heart to heart as we hit the floor
Lumber up, limbo down the locked embrace, the stumble round
I say go, she say yes dim the lights, you can guess the rest
Oh catch that buzz love is the drug I’m thinking of
Oh can’t you see love is the drug got a hook in me
Oh catch that buzz love is the drug I’m thinking of
Oh can’t you see love is the drug for me
Oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh
Love is, love is, love is the drug
2. End Of The Line
(Ferry)
Think I’ll walk out in the rain
Called you time and time again
Got no reply
– You’ve gone
Reached the point of no return
The more I see the more I stand alone
I see the end of the line
Were you ever lonely
Mystified and blue?
Realizing only
Your number’s up
You’re through
Earned my share of winning
Now my turn to lose
After a fair beginning
The game’s up –
I’m through
Think I’ll walk out in the storm
There’s no love to keep me warm inside
I hope it’s fine at the end of the line
Now’s the time to take a dive
Try a magic carpet ride
Everything is wrong
You’ve gone
If you ever miss me
If I should cross your mind
You know where to find me
I’ll be waiting at the end of the line
3. Sentimental Fool
(Ferry)
Surely you cannot be leading me on?
Well if that’s so, oh never again will I love
How could I believe again?
How can I hold on?
Sentimental fool
Knowing fate is cruel
You ought to forget it
Yes, I know it’s true
I’ve seen what love can do
But I don’t regret it
Oh, you silly thing
Can’t you see what’s happening?
You’re better without it
No, that’s not the case
If you were in my place
Then you wouldn’t doubt it
Sentimental fool
Who broke the golden rule?
You couldn’t resist it
Though it’s all in vain
I’d do it all again
Just to re-live one minute
A woman in love
Can make you feel good
You know what you’re living for
She’ll give you so much
And keep you in touch
With all that’s worth living for
Oh once she gets in
Through thick and through thin
She’ll show you what living’s for
The rhythm of love
The rhythm of love
It must go on
Can’t stop
The beat of your heart
It’s like a drum. Will it stop?
4. Whirlwind
(Ferry/Manzanera)
May Day – cut down to size again
What then when less is more my friend
I’ll change – let me start again
Disguise – it’s too weird to explain
Why I’ll always call your name
Perdu, with you I could be anything
That I want to be… or sting
Whirlwind wildfire and driving rain
Wheels spin bowl me over hurricane
Whirlwind crack your cheeks and blow
Me far so far
How far is Shangri-La from here?
And is it this way?
There she blows tear me down tornado
Whirlpool drag me to the deeps below
Whirlwind will a wildcat strike be tame
Earthquake shake me to my feet again
It’s crosswords go you near
A fatal clue I fear
This case is closed
Elementary, my dear
Beware
Whirlwind
Whirl, whirlwind
5. She Sells
(Ferry/Jobson)
Now you’re talking in headlines
Up to the minute and free
Stop press, hold the front page
Up as your mirror
Are you reading me?
Watch you walking in waltz time
A jigsaw puzzle in tune
Or are you faking a straight line
To suit yourself too soon
Rather nouveau than never
Contemporary ideal
Some natural kind of poet might slow it
But she sells more my speed
She sells country and modern
Ancient western song
Of oriental confusion
You so right, me so wrong
Now you’re fixing to fly me
Auto-erotic, please
Of the break that you’re gliding
Your lingerie’s a gift-wrap
Slip it to me
Nine till five the daily grind
Made-up lies make up my mind
Same machine consuming me
Consuming you
Know why
She Sells
Oh why oh why she sells
I need
Oh why oh why she sells
I need
Oh why oh why she sells
I need
Oh why see why she sells
I need
Oh why love why
She sells I need
6. Could It Happen To Me
(Ferry)
Do you know what it means to me
To delight in your company?
Could it happen to me?
Do you know what I’m certain of?
I would love to fall in love
Could it happen to me?
Hey won’t you look at me?
Now I’m cracked wide open
I can’t conceal
My all-over trembling
I’m acting strange
And while you’re out of reach
I never change
God knows – I’m beside myself
If a tear’s a crime, then I must confess
My guilty secret, I’m not ashamed
Take me as I am, an average man
Oh boy is it getting rough
When my old world charm isn’t quite enough?
I’d throw you cantos, I’d jazz ’em up
But when I lay me down, you don’t pick up
What’s more, it’s a crying shame
Only this time no one but myself to blame
All I touch turns to dust
It’s right there in my cards, I ought to cut
Let us sing of the tortured heart
And a lonely soul in this world apart
As he plays a fear, takes a little pain
And move our separate ways again
Is it easy to say “I do”?
At this moment I love you
See beyond me, it’s true
Now that evening is closing in
Should I light that fire again?
Could it happen to me?
Did it happen to you?
7. Both Ends Burning
(Ferry)
Please don’t ever let me down
For you know I’m not so sure
Do I have the speed to carry on?
Burn you out of my mind? Alone
You’re a flame that never fades
Jungle red’s a deadly shade
Both ends burning, will the fires meet
Somewhere deep in my soul tonight?
Both ends burning, burning, burn
Both ends burning, burning, burn
Now my course is plain as day
Running bold at work and play
Both ends burning with a strange desire
That feeds the fire in my soul tonight
I will dance the night away living only for today
Both ends burning while you’re counting sheep
Hell, who can sleep in this heat this night?
Both ends burning, burning, burn
Both ends burning, burning, burn
Tell me will I ever learn? it’s too late, the rush is on
Both ends burning and I can’t control
The fire’s raging in my soul tonight
Oh will it ever end?
Put your foot down around the bend
Drive me crazy to an early grave
Tell me what is there to save tonight?
Both ends burning, burning, burn
Keep on burning till the end, until the end
Both ends burning till the end, until the end
Keep on burning till the end, until the end
Both ends burning till the end, the very end
8. Nightingale
(Ferry/Manzanera)
Before the morning comes
Will I hear your song?
Come little nightingale
I won’t be here for long
When you’re up there flying, do you care
If there’s no one else around?
When your lover leaves you in the air
Do you waver, do you fall?
Now while the moon is high
Shall we, nightingale
Duet all through the night?
A pair of souls for sale?
Stars cluster glistening
Captive till the dawn
Patiently listening
They’ve heard it all before
Should I stay here or should I go?
I couldn’t bear to be alone
Was it really love I saw?
Oh, now I’ll never know
What is this I hear?
I recognise that song
Sweet little nightingale
I knew you’d come along
Soon when the morning comes
We will both be gone
So sing pretty nightingale
Lead, I’ll follow on
9. Just Another High
(Ferry)
Maybe your heart is aching I wouldn’t know, now would I?
Maybe your spirit’s breaking up I shouldn’t care, now should I?
Maybe you’re thinking of me well I don’t know, now do I?
If you only knew how I feel, wish I could die, now don’t I?
I’m just another crazy guy
Playing at love was another high
Just another high
Couldn’t believe in my eyes you drifted into my life
But marriages made in heaven can they survive in this life?
Surely it came as no surprise love was too hot to handle
Well I really blew my cool and you you just blew out the candle
Didn’t you try just another high?
Didn’t you sigh as you waved goodbye?
Just another high
I’m just another crazy guy
Playing at love was another high
Such a crazy high
Lately it seems so empty here but I suppose I’m alright
Maybe tomorrow’s not so clear still I remember that night
Singing to you like this is my only way to reach you
And though I’m too proud to say it oh how I’d long too see you
Shattered by dreams, by your goodbye ah, scattered my hopes, they fill the sky
Desolate am I
Just another crazy guy playing at love was another high
Just another high just another high
Just another high just another high
Just another high just another high
Such a crazy high just another high
Maybe I should start anew
(Just another high) And maybe I’ll find someone who
(Just another high) Will maybe love me like I love you
(Just another high) But maybe I’m too stuck on you
(Just another high) Yes maybe I got stuck on you
Just another high
With album artwork featuring Bryan Ferry and Antony Price’s sublime recreation of Texan super model Jerry Hall as one of the perilously alluring sirens of classical mythology – now widely acknowledged as one of the greatest record covers of all time – ‘Siren’ maintained the now iconic Roxy Music blend of dazzling, fast paced rock – ‘Whirlwind’ being a stand-out track – and elegiac melancholy. Overall, the album has a sense of adrenalin rush and fairground excitement – lighter in spirit than ‘Country Life’, but no less spectacular.