More Bryan Ferry

More Roxy Music

• You’ll find excellent Double Plus (A++) sound on both sides of this classic Ferry album from 1985 
• This copy was super big, full and lively with plenty of presence and bottom end weight
• On this record, bigger bass and punchier drums make all the difference in the world
• “Instead of ragged rock explosions, emotional extremes, and all that made his ’70s work so compelling in and out of Roxy, Ferry here is the suave, debonair if secretly moody and melancholic lover, with music to match…”

Excellent sound and quiet vinyl on both sides! If you’ve spent any time with this album, you will be blown away by how great both sides of this copy sound.

Key Listening Test

The song Valentine, the second track on side two, is a key test for that side. Note how processed Ferry’s vocals are; on the best copies they will sound somewhat bright.

The test is the background singers; they should sound tonally correct and silky sweet.

If Ferry sounds correct, they will sound dull, and so will the rest of the side.

That processed sound on his vocal is on the tape. Trying to “fix” it will ruin everything.

On the top copies the lead on the very next track, Stone Woman, is tonally correct. These two tracks, two of the best on the album, together make it easy to know if your copy is tonally correct in the midrange. Track two: background vocals. Track three: lead vocal. Easy enough.

Key Listening Test for Both Sides

The quality of the reproduction of the percussion is critical to much of the music here. There’s tons of it on Boys and Girls, even more than on its predecessor Avalon, and unless you have plenty of top end, presence and transparency, all that percussion can’t work its magic to drive this rhythmic music.

How About the British Pressings?

Bryan Ferry is British, as is bandmate David Gilmour and the recording and producing team headed by the amazing Rhett Davies. And yes, the recording was done at many studios, most of them overseas.

But the album is mixed by Bob Clearmountain at The Power Station and mastered by Robert Ludwig at Masterdisk, and that means the master tape was right here in America when it came time to get the sound of the tape onto vinyl. The British pressings are made from dubs and sound like it.

The Players and Personnel

Bryan Ferry – lead vocals, keyboards 
Guy Fletcher – keyboards
David Gilmour – lead guitar
Omar Hakim – drums (Let’s Dance, Brothers in Arms)

with support from

Neil Hubbard – lead guitar
Neil Jason – bass guitar
Mark Knopfler – lead guitar
Tony Levin – bass guitar
Marcus Miller – bass guitar
Andy Newmark – drums
Nile Rodgers – lead guitar
David Sanborn – saxophone
Alan Spenner – bass guitar
Yanick Etienne – backing vocals (from Avalon!)

TRACK LISTING

Side One

Sensation 
Slave To Love 
Don’t Stop The Dance 
Wasteland 
Windswept

Side Two

Chosen One 
Valentine 
Stone Woman 
Boys And Girls

AMG Review

As a whole, Boys and Girls fully established the clean, cool vision of Ferry on his own to the general public. Instead of ragged rock explosions, emotional extremes, and all that made his ’70s work so compelling in and out of Roxy, Ferry here is the suave, debonair if secretly moody and melancholic lover, with music to match…

Wikipedia

Boys and Girls is the sixth solo studio album by the English singer and songwriter Bryan Ferry, released in June 1985 by E.G. Records. The album was Ferry’s first solo album in seven years and the first since he had disbanded his group Roxy Music in 1983. The album was Ferry’s first and only number one solo album in the UK. It was certified Platinum by the British Phonographic Industry and contains two UK top 40 hit singles. It is also Ferry’s most successful solo album in the US, having been certified Gold for sales in excess of half a million copies there.

The album contained the track “Slave to Love,” which became one of Ferry’s most popular solo hits. The single was released on 29 April 1985 and spent nine weeks in the UK charts in 1985, peaking at number 10, along with the other (modestly successful) singles “Don’t Stop the Dance” and “Windswept”.

The guitar solo at the end of “Slave to Love” featured Neil Hubbard and the album featured other famous guitarists such as the Dire Straits guitarist Mark Knopfler, Pink Floyd’s guitarist David Gilmour, Chic guitarist Nile Rodgers and Bryan Adams’ guitarist Keith Scott.