The 20th of February 1974
Official U.K. Albums Chart results from Sunday the 17th to Saturday the 23rd of February 1974
Cut-off for sales figures was up to the end of Saturday the 16th of February
Results counted from Sunday the 17th,
and published on Wednesday the 20th of February 1974.
Roxy Music
Stranded
At No.27, on the “The Top 50 U.K. Albums Chart”, the week of my 2nd Birthday, are Roxy Music with Stranded.
Some internal restructuring…
…within the group had in no way diminished the band’s substantialness over the past year. In fact, if anything, it had bolstered and solidified their presence and had given them an even harder, sharper edge in which to chisel into an even bigger pot of gold.
With the inventiveness of Brian Eno no longer present in the line up, the group were now becoming less supernatural and more accessible to a wider audience. Bryan himself was dressing ever sharper and becoming quite the suave genteel frontman on the front-line to which the public would perceive the group’s presence by.
This pivot however, had the inevitability of tilting them a little closer to the mainstream, but not close enough to disappoint those who had experienced their recent past incarnation along with them, and who were now bearing witness to this continuation and maturation to their necessary transformation. They were still comfortably exclusive, and separated enough from any of their musical counterparts, that they could stand quite confidently in their popular and ever-growing niche; and that was just the music on the inside of the package.
The idea for the outside…
…was another inspired idea. One that wouldn’t have gone down too well with a few parents back then if they’d been asked to buy this for some teenage boy’s Christmas present (I know for a fact that I wouldn’t have even been able to consider the thought, let alone actually ask my mother for it). Although, those that did get away with it, most probably thought all their Christmases had come true just by having Playboy Playmate of the month of January 1972’s Marilyn Cole, with her spray-golden hair and ripped red dress, which in her own words was “wet in all the right places” enticing you to please come and rescue her from the outer gatefold spread; I bet quite a few didn’t come back out of their bedrooms for days.
Yes, I can safely assume that all these modifications to the band’s overall image would have paid off extremely well.
The album…
…had shot into the charts like a rocket and had landed at No.5, exactly a month before Christmas Day, on the 25th of November 1973, and from where the testosterone infused clamour for the album took it all the way to the very top of the chart by it’s second week.
The following three weeks would see it sit edgily at No.2 until after Christmas, and then it would slide a little in the next few weeks more before it left the Top 10.
Since then, it has slowly backed down until it sits where we are today. This will end up being its last week so far in the Top 30.
From here,..
…the album will shore-up at the bottom end of the chart until, after the 23rd of March, the LP, and Marilyn with it, will sail off on its make-shift raft out of the charts with a collection of 17 successful weeks accumulated.
Side 1
Side 2
Many thanks go to the following YouTube Channels for providing the chance to hear these tracks, so that together we can experience both sides of this album release, as it was intended, once again.
Please show your appreciation by visiting their channel:
Grab Your Binoculars, Come Follow Me
My Socials
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