Bryan Ferry is one of the outstanding figures to emerge from rock music in the 1970s and like old scotch whiskey, he has aged well. With Roxy Music and in his long solo career, Ferry created Pop Art statements more emotionally engaging than any picture hanging on a wall: his music envelopes listeners in a world of style, illusion, allusion and danger—and you can dance to it.
Ferry was in good form for the 2011 concert documented on a new Blu-ray, Live in Lyon. It was a carefully orchestrated rock show complete with video projections, colored lights, stage fog, a large and well-dressed band, sexy backup singes and even a pair of slinky dancers. The songs flowed with consistency and contrast in plush yet stark musical settings of dark, velvety texture.
His own songs were on display, including such favorites as “Love is the Drug” and “Sign of the Times,” but the numerous renditions of Bob Dylan, Neil Young and the Velvet Underground blended in seamlessly, as if written by the same pen. Ferry’s understated version of Screaming Jay Hawkins “I Put a Spell on You” segued perfectly into his own “Slave to Love.” Sex, power and compulsion are at the heart of each.
Ferry was the eye in the storm throughout Live in Lyon, elegantly restrained amidst an atmosphere of cool eroticism shading into the longing of romance.
