Music / For Your Pleasure

"Well, I'm here looking through an old picture frame/Just waiting for the perfect view/I hope something special will step into my life/Another fine edition of you..."

For Your Pleasure is the second studio album by Roxy Music, released in 1973 through Island Records in the UK and Warner (Bros.) Records in the US. It is their second and last album made while Brian Eno was a member, after which he was dismissed by leader Bryan Ferry due to clashing egos and/or the One-Steve Limit. The band's already eccentric approach to pop/rock song formats became even more experimental, and somewhat darker.

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Tracklist:

Side One

1. "Do the Strand" (4:00)
2. "Beauty Queen" (4:35)
3. "Strictly Confidential" (3:42)
4. "Editions of You" (3:40)
5. "In Every Dream Home a Heartache" (4:25)

Side Two

1. "The Bogus Man" (9:22)
2. "Grey Lagoons" (4:11)
3. "For Your Pleasure" (6:58)

Personnel:

• Bryan Ferry - lead vocals, piano, keyboards, harmonica
• Phil Manzanera - guitar
• Andy Mackay - saxophone, oboe, organ
• Brian Eno - synthesizer, tapes, backing vocals
• Paul Thompson - drums
• John Porter^note non-member - bass

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I blew up your body, but you troped my mind:

• Amazing Technicolor Wildlife: "Grey Lagoons", beyond the title, mentions "blue sunsets" and "silver starfish".
• Cardboard Pal: "In Every Dream Home a Heartache" plays the trope for drama, as a lonely suburbanite creepily bonds with an inflatable sex doll:
  "Inflatable doll
  My role is to serve you
  Disposable darling
  Can't throw you away now"
• City Mouse: Ferry, of course, as seen in "Editions of You":
  "Sometimes you find a yearning for the quiet life
  The country air and all of its joys
  But badgers couldn't compensate at twice the price
  For just another night with the boys, oh yeah!"
• Cool Car: The back cover shows Bryan Ferry admiring the woman and her panther while seated in a black Cadillac Eldorado convertible.
• Cover Version: "Do the Strand" has been covered by Alphaville and Scissor Sisters.
• Dance Sensation/Dancing Is Serious Business: "Do the Strand":
  There's a new sensation
  A fabulous creation
  A danceable solution
  To teenage revolution
• Darker and Edgier: A number of the songs work for - and achieve - a more claustrophobic effect than the band had shown before. Symbolized by the contrast in covers between their self titled debut and this one. On the earlier cover, the sexy model wears pastel lingerie on a white background. Here both the model's costume and the background are sleek black, and she's accompanied by a snarling panther on a leash.
• Dead Man Writing: "Strictly Confidential" begins "Before I die I write this letter..."
• Epic Rocking: "The Bogus Man" is over nine minutes, and the Title Track is almost seven minutes.
• Fake-Out Fade-Out: "In Every Dream Home a Heartache" seems to fade out, then comes back with discordant sax blasts from Andy Mackay and a prominent flanging effect.
• Fanservice Cover: Roxy Music's albums had these more often than not. This one is relatively demure, but sexy/sinister.
• In the Style of: "The Bogus Man" is in the style of Can.
• Last Note Nightmare:
  • The Fake-Out Fade-Out from "In Every Dream Home a Heartache".
  • The music degenerating into a maelstrom while not-yet Dame Judi Dench says "Don't ask why" on "For Your Pleasure".
• Lyrical Cold Open: On "Do the Strand", Bryan Ferry gets to the end of his first line before the music starts with his own piano and Andy's saxophone. This was deliberately done as a stark contrast to the lengthy instrumental introductions to many of the songs on Roxy Music, which had garnered a good amount of criticism by the start of 1973.
• One-Man Song: "The Bogus Man".
• One-Woman Song: "Beauty Queen".
• Panthera Awesome: The roaring black panther Amanda Lear has on a leash on the cover.
• Scatting: Ferry makes some beatbox-esque sounds on "The Bogus Man."
• Shout-Out:
  • "In Every Dream Home a Heartache" is an answer to Richard Hamilton's famed collage "Just what is it that makes today's homes so different, so appealing?" Hamilton had been one of Ferry's teachers in art school.
  • "Do the Strand" mentions dancers Nijinsky (ballet) and La Goulue (can-can).
  • Scissor Sisters copied the style of the liner note band photo for their own debut album.
• Special Guest:
  • Amanda Lear (then a supermodel, later a singer and actress) is the woman on the cover.
  • Young Shakespearean actress Judi Dench speaks the final words on the album.
• Truck Driver's Gear Change: "Beauty Queen" speeds up for an unhinged instrumental vamp before slowing down again for the final verse.

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"You don't ask why..."