Chapter II: How To Consult The Book
A. Being a record buff myself,
this discography is written with other collectors in mind who want to have
everything by the group and the individuals that has been released on record.
I have tried to list all the records that have been released by Roxy Music,
all the solo recordings and all the records with any involvement of Roxy
Music members (I count Eddie Jobson as a member for this purpose), be it
as musicians, producers, writers or anything else they did on (or to) the
recording in question. I am sure that this collection is still by no means
complete. There may be many more records that could not be traced or are
very hard to find. The main problem stemmed from the fact that Eno, Mackay
and Manzanera recorded so much with so many different groups that it was
nearly impossible to keep trace of what everybody was doing on whose records
in what year. I hope I have at least got all the main involvements, missing
out some B-sides, different mixes here and there.
Another source of trouble was the invention and acceptance
of the CD after the first edition of the book had been compiled in 1985.
A lot of vinyl records were re-released on CD, sometimes in different combinations,
sometimes with different mixes, more songs, longer cuts of songs than on
the LP, etc. I tried to include anything that I could get hold of, which
may not be very much at all in some cases.
Nevertheless, for all its shortcomings, I hope this
collection will still be a great help for any collector.
B. Included in the book are
all Roxy Music activities, all solo activities and collaborations and all
the session work by the individuals. Each soloist has his own chapter,
as have 801 and the Explorers. Record company politics forced me to include
a chapter on Bryan Ferry & Roxy Music as well, as the recordings with
the combined releases fit neither under the individual nor the group chapter.
The difference between a solo activity and a collaboration
is that on solo recordings the artist is the person under whose name or
under whose group name the record has been released, on collaborations
it has been released under more than one artists' name (e. g. Fripp &
Eno; Byrne & Eno). Session work mentions the artist only on the back
of the cover as a musician, producer or composer etc. "Session"
does not only mean playing, but also producing, mixing, writing songs for
someone or appearing in any other form - maybe just in the thank yous -
on a record. This chapter is more or less a chapter, where all other activities
outside Roxy Music and the solo recordings have been listed. The entries
are listed in alphabetical order of the artists who have released the record.
Added is a chapter on oddities, this means recordings which might include
someone from Roxy Music but not saying so and recordings that might not
have been released after all. To complete the discography, a chapter on
sample records is also added, samplers being recordings with a compilation
of tracks that have been released elsewhere.
Each chapter has five different sections:
| A. Long Play Recordings |
| B. 12-Inch Recordings |
| C. 7-Inch Recordings |
| D. Compact Discs |
| E. Miscellaneous |
Sections A.-D. list the recordings in the different
formats. In Section E., all the promotional stuff, demos, acetates, proof-
prints of recordings, etc. that I found are listed. CD's have been included
as far as possible, but with no distinction between 5-Inch CD's in LP format
or 12-Inch format and 3-Inch CD's. The latter has proved to be very unpopular
after all. I have tried to list at least each CD with different track listing
and/or tracks. Another bunch of CD's with different track lengths is included
as well. I did not, however, have access to every CD released, as I did
not have the money to buy them all, but I have tried to go as far as I
could. A lot of them don't differ that much from the original vinyl release
after all, so there should not be too much loss of information, if not
all CD's available are included. I appreciate every information I can get
on CD's that are missing here.
Group releases, solo work and collaborations give
every detail of the recorded work, session work entries only mention the
participation of Roxy Music members on the record, leaving out any other
musicians involved.
Each record that differs in at least one aspect (track
listing, time, musicians) from other records has a separate entry. This
applies mainly to CD's, singles and promotional recordings, as songs on
them change from country to country, but even the first Roxy Music LP was
released in different formats.
C. The information usually given
with each entry is
| - artist, |
| - title of recording (if there is one), |
| - title of track, |
| - composer of track, |
| - time of track, |
| - producer (sometimes with number of track he produced), |
| - year of release, |
| - musicians and instruments played by them (sometimes even with the tracks on which the particular instrument is played), |
| - country of release, |
| - record company, |
| - catalogue number. |
This information is taken from the record cover and
label on most entries. A couple of entries were not in my hands before
being entered into the book. In the case of catalogue numbers, countries
of release and record companies I have also tried to include as many as
I could get hold of. Sources of additional information are:
| other discographies (and the ones mentioned in Chapter I) |
| articles in collector's magazines |
| advertisements |
| Record sale catalogues |
| Letters from friends and third parties. |
As there may be a certain number of misprints in
these sources, some of the catalogue numbers may not be correct, although
I tried to cross-check any information.
For the countries of release, the following abbreviations
have been used:
| A: Austria |
| Ar: Argentina |
| Aus: Australia |
| B: Belgium |
| Bx: Benelux |
| C: Canada |
| D: Denmark |
| F: France |
| G: Germany |
| GB: Great Britain |
| I: Italy |
| J: Japan |
| NL: Netherlands |
| P: Portugal |
| S: Spain |
| Sw: Sweden |
| US: United States |
| Y: Yugoslavia |
D. The above-mentioned general
format of entries, however, is customized for certain parts of the book.
There is no need to give the artist for Roxy Music or solo recordings for
each recording again, as that chapter is about that person only, so this
information is left out in these entries. With 7-Inch and 12-Inch recordings
musicians and instruments are only mentioned if the track does not appear
on an LP and a certain musician is known to be playing at all or a certain
instrument on the track. In the session work section, only the members
of Roxy Music get an entry in the musicians' section, other musicians are
left out. Titles of the 7-Inch and 12-Inch releases are only given if these
recordings have a title different than the first or A-side track. In the
"Miscellaneous" sections, you will additionally find the format
of the record right after the title of the record or the first track, as
there was no sense in dividing that section into the different formats
as well.
E. LPs are generally listed
in the following way:
| Number of entry in this chapter | Title of Record |
| 1) | Roxy Music |
| Number of Track | Title of Track | Composer | Length of Track |
| (1) | Re-Make/Re-Model | (Ferry) | 5.10 |
| Producer's Name | Year of First Release |
| Producer: Pete Sinfield | 1972 |
| Musician | Instruments played |
| Bryan Ferry: | voice, piano |
Numbers after the producer's or musicians' name or
instruments mean that this person appears only on the above-mentioned track
with the matching number. If there are no numbers in brackets, the record
either doesn't give the information or this person plays the same instrument
on every track of that record or produced the whole record
| Country of Release | Record Company | Catalogue Number |
| GB: | Island | ILPS9200 |
F. 7-Inch and 12-Inch recordings
are listed in the following way:
| Number of Record in this chapter | Number of Track | Title of Track | Composer | Length of Track |
| 1) | (1) | Virginia Plain | (Ferry) | 2.57 |
| Producer's Name | Year of first Release |
| Producer: Pete Sinfield | 1972 |
| Musician | Instrument played (only if non-LP or different musician and Musician is known) |
| Rik Kenton: | bass |
| Country of Release | Record Company | Catalogue Number |
| GB: | Island | WIP 6144 |
G. With Collaborations and Session
work, on the first line the information on the artist is included:
| Number of Entry | Artist's Name |
| 1) | David Bowie |
This is followed by the title of the record:
Heroes
The entry then continues in the usual way as mentioned
above.
H. As I have said before, this
is all still incomplete. So if you have any information not included here
(different records, especially 7-Inch, 12-Inch and CD releases, catalogue
numbers, lists of people playing on records), please list this information
and send it to me. You will receive a list with additions that have been
made up to the time of your writing. I would also like any information
on the errors I have made in this book, and maybe somebody is able to complete
the incomplete items (there are some records here, that don't have complete
info with them)! You can also send me any suggestions you have on improving
the book.