First issued in August 1972, “Virginia Plain” offered Roxy Music with an all-important breakthrough hit that peaked at No. 4 on the U.Ok. Singles chart. Nonetheless, whereas this suave, fashionable pop music was a business success, it broke all the principles successful single ought to supposedly adhere to.
“This day and age, when you think of singles, they have the perfect formula,” guitarist Phil Manzanera informed Traditional Rock in 2023. “Straight into the chorus for the beginning, play the hook, quick verse, back to chorus, repeat until fade. There was none of that with ‘Virginia Plain.’”
As Manzanera suggests, his band’s legendary first single made a advantage of ripping up the rule ebook. The music had no discernible refrain, its title appeared solely within the ultimate line, and frontman Bryan Ferry’s unique lyric appeared like a frantic stream of consciousness. With hindsight, although, the phrases have been truly extra linear than folks imagined – with the primary verse particularly referring to Roxy Music’s private struggles within the music business. Ferry’s lyric has continuously been misconstrued, not least the road the place he namechecks one “Robert E. Lee.” As Phil Manzanera later confirmed, his vocalist wasn’t referring to the well-known Accomplice normal within the American Civil Conflict.
“Robert E. Lee was – and still is, actually – the name of the band’s lawyer,” the guitarist informed Traditional Rock. “So when Bryan sang of taking a deal to Robert E. Lee and hoping he doesn’t blow it, he was being very literal, as that’s exactly what happened when we were offered the deal by Island Records to sign for them.”
Musically, “Virginia Plain” additionally sounded totally singular. Named after a lady depicted in an Andy Warhol-esque pop artwork picture of a cigarette packet Ferry had painted throughout his artwork college days, the music was superficially a propulsive, straight-ahead rocker, nevertheless it was embellished by all method of sonic quirks, starting from Brian Eno’s sci-fi synthesizers to Andy Mackay’s oboe – and even the sound of a motorcycle revving. With samplers but to be invented within the early 70s, Roxy Music ended up capturing the latter in actual time.
“We had to take the bike out onto [London’s] Piccadilly Circus, outside the recording studio,” Manzanera remembers. “Then we got someone to start the bike up, rev the engine and finally speed off, while we stood there recording it with this big reel-to-reel tape recorder.”
Collectively, Roxy Music felt “Virginia Plain” was one thing particular, with drummer Paul Thompson later telling Report Collector that “even when we were recording it, we got the vibe that it was going to be successful.” The band’s intestine intuition proved totally correct, for simply weeks after “Virginia Plain” was launched, Roxy Music debuted it on the U.Ok’s High Of The Pops on August 24, 1972.
With a mascara-daubed, black clad Ferry wanting particularly debonair, the band’s efficiency was charming and the TV publicity not solely assisted “Virginia Plain” into the U.Ok. High 5, but in addition helped Roxy Music’s self-titled debut album to climb again up the British charts. It peaked at No. 10 in September and helped introduce the band to a a lot bigger viewers.
“‘Virginia Plain’ really sums up the essence of Roxy Music in just 2 minutes and 58 seconds,” Phil Manzanera mentioned in a 2022 Report Collector interview. “You’ve got a very short song with some wacky playing and Brian [Eno] on synth bass. You’ve got namechecks, art references, and film references, which are all so Roxy. In terms of a calling card, it couldn’t have been better.”
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