Bryan Ferry

Ferry's first solo album finds the art rocking crooner and his Roxy Music cohorts swimming through a bracingly eccentric collection of covers. Highlights of this 1973 release include a freaky take on Bob Dylan's "A Hard Rain's Gonna Fall," a fantastically sincere blue-eyed cover of "Piece of My Heart," and a spellbinding version of the Stones' "Sympathy for the Devil."

Rock has rarely known a performer so affectionately and self-consciously obsessed with
the mechanism of pop and the apparatus of stardom as Bryan Ferry. These Foolish Things is
an inspired chronicle of his passion, from the Broadway show tune which provides the title
to the Rolling Stones' "Sympathy for the Devil." But, unlike David Bowie's Pin Ups or the
Band's Moondog Matinee, this album is neither an effort to pay homage to an era... More >

"A Hard Rain's Gonna Fall" defines this collection of rock classics--ranging from "It's My Party" to "Sympathy for the Devil"--as a pop statement. By transforming Dylan at his most messianic into gripping high camp complete with sound effects (when the poet dies in the gutter the chorus gives forth with a cute groan), Ferry both undercuts the inflated idealism of the original and reaffirms its essential power. Along the way, he also establishes "It's My Party" as a protest song. And just in case we're getting any highfalutin ideas, the title track reminds us that pop is only, well, foolish things, many of which predate not only Andy Warhol but rock and roll itself. (Grade - A-)