What is there left to say about Bryan Ferry that I haven’t said before? That his debonair romanticism makes my stony heart melt? That he’s got impeccable taste in everything from neckties to younger women to other people’s songs? Yeah, I’ve said all that before. Here’s another perfect song from another perfect album. But sometimes the interesting thing isn’t what you came for. This is a pretty typical Bryan Ferry song, and Let’s Stick Together is a pretty typical Bryan Ferry album. Like a lot of Ferry’s albums, it’s a lively mix of originals and well chosen covers. Among the covers are gems from The Beatles, Jimmy Reed and The Everly Brothers. And this little track by somebody called Gallagher and Lyle. Who the heck they were I don’t know, and this song doesn’t even have a Wikipedia page. But there they are on YouTube, playing TotP like they’re real pop stars, dated June 1976, only a few months before Ferry released his album. From which I surmise that it was either a huge, huge hit in the summer of ’76 and Ferry just had to get his paws on it. Or, possibly, it’s older than that and Ferry heard it and liked and decided to do a cover and Gallagher & Lyle found out and scrambled to get some free publicity from having a genuine famous person take an interest in one of their songs. Not that it matters either way – people still listen to Bryan Ferry, but who remembers Gallagher & Lyle? Now, watch Gallagher & Lyle’s video and see if you don’t get a snicker two. It would be laughably dated, except that it’s not. That could be yesterday’s hipster darlings playing Late Night with Jimmy Fallon (or whomever the fuck hosts Late Night nowadays). It’s all there; the sappy earnestness, the meta-pretension of their every-schmuck persona, the doofy grins, the soft strumming, the dumb little hats and beards. They could be the very hipsters you see promenading about the farmers’ market on a Sunday morning. It’s like time stands still. Just shows you, if your lame sensitive-dude act goes out of fashion, just wait forty years and it’ll be good as new.
Jul 15, 2012 @ 14:52:14
Hmmm – Who are Gallagher and Lyle…………….think again – Graham Lyle is one of the most successful songwriters (Grammy winner) mainly for Tina Turner. Hits in the States unlike Ferry.