“Re-Make/Re-Model” by Roxy Music

"Re-Make/Re-Model" throws open Roxy Music's 1972 debut album, letting a snatch of cocktail-party chatter drift by before Bryan Ferry's song smashes through the room. Peter Sinfield produced it, with Andy Hendriksen engineering. Underneath sits a plain enough rock backing of guitar, piano, bass, tenor sax and drums; on top, Eno sprays atonal oscillator squalls from Andy Mackay's VCS3 synthesizer and Ferry sings like a man coming apart at the seams.

Then everybody gets a turn in the spotlight. The sax apes Wagner's trumpets from The Valkyrie, the bass borrows the riff from the Beatles' "Day Tripper", and Phil Manzanera, who sticks to single-note lines the rest of the way, takes his break in nothing but chords. Ferry's words follow a man too scared to approach a woman he fancies, and Eno and Mackay chant a number plate lifted from a car Ferry saw carrying a beautiful woman on his way to the studio.

Written with AI assistance from RockLists chart data, MusicBrainz and Wikipedia.