Who Can Dance?

So maybe someone can explain this one to me?

Here’s the video to Bryan Ferry’s single You Can Dance, taken from his latest album Olympia.

Now here’ s the video to Hell’s “U Can Dance”, released in 2009 and taken from the epically amazing album Teufelswerk.

And yes, I know the videos don’t fit in the frame…I’m working on it.

This annoys me on a couple levels. First there’s the fact that someone, either Bryan Ferry or Hell, is really lazy. Either Hell took a yet-to-be-released Bryan Ferry track (with permission), remixed it, and called his own. Or Bryan Ferry lifted his own vocal track from the Hell track and recorded his own version of it. On Olympia the track is credited to Ferry and David Stewart of the Eurythmics. I don’t have a physical copy of Teufelswerk, so I don’t know who is credited as the songwriter on that version. If Hell is the sole songwriter then I’m even more confused. Anyone out there have that album and want to confirm this?

But what also annoys me is that NO ONE is mentioning this in their reviews of Olympia, and album. Granted, Hell isn’t exactly a common name in America, but you think some German rock critic would have heard Ferry’s track and gone “Wait a minute” (except, y’know, in German). I’ve read a few reviews of Olympia and not one person has called him out on it. It wasn’t even on the freaking wiki for the album until I added it myself.

Whatever, I guess its not that important. I’ve heard very good things about Olympia, and I can tell you first hand that Hell’s Teufelswerk is one of the best albums of the decade that you should fucking buy right this second you bastard. I’m listening to it as a I type this very sentence. (so what I’m saying is, I recommended it). But I find the whole situation with “You Can Dance/U Can Dance” to be utterly confusing.

Bryan Ferry/Roxy Music
Let’s Stick Together (Westside ’88 Extended Remix)
Nocturne
Angel Eyes (Twelve Inch Mix)
The Price of Love (The R&B ’89 Extended Remix)
Lover

I do not know enough about Roxy Music and I am personally ashamed by that. I need to own more of their music. More specifically, I need to get me a copy of Country Life on vinyl because that cover might be the hottest thing in the history of things that are hot. Someone sold a bunch of Bryan Ferry singles at Jerry’s Records last week…so now I own a few Bryan Ferry singles. These tracks are from said singles. Some are credited to Ferry, others to Roxy Music. They’re all prety good. The remix of “Let’s Stick Together” especially so. Warning: The single for “The Price Of Love” looked like it was dragged through a pile of broken glass. I fixed some of it, but there’s still a bit of scratchiness in it. I couldn’t take it out without hurting the overall fidelity of the song. It’s not that bad after the first minute.

7 Responses to “Who Can Dance?”

  1. Musicologist says:

    Discogs gives the credit on Teufelswerk to Dave Stewart for the song:
    http://www.discogs.com/Hell-Teufelswerk/release/1761949

  2. acid ted says:

    The position on U Can Dance is confusing. Discogs clarifies it as:

    U Can Dance 9:45
    Backing Vocals – Fury (13)
    Featuring, Vocals, Written-By – Bryan Ferry
    Programmed By, Synthesizer, Recorded By, Mixed By, Remix, Producer Additional Production] – Peter Kruder
    Remix, Producer [Additional Production] – DJ Hell*
    Synthesizer, Remix, Producer [Additional Production] – Christian Prommer , Roberto Di Gioia
    Written-By – Dave Stewart*

    And Teufelswerk is indeed a great album.

  3. koop says:

    Must say the new Ferry was a bit of a let down, to me at least. Lots of atmospherics and multi-layered moaning and sighing, but not enough songs. Some (as the single) were revitalised from a project that Ferry & Stewart started a few years back but then abandoned. Now they resurface (for lack of new creative ideas?).

    If you wanna start catching up on your Roxy knowledge, might as well start here. A surprisingly different take on the song that plunged Roxy in the disco era: check second post on my blog for the sendspace link (in the comments).
    http://koop05.blogspot.com

  4. Ximeremix says:

    I DO have Teufelswerk by Hell and it does say that U Can Dance is written by Ferry/Stewart, so I would say that Ferry has done his own reworking of it – unfortunately it also seems that whoever produced the newer version has completely fucked up the atmosphere that the earlier version has – oh well, you can’t have everything – I’m not going to tell you what I think of Ferry’s version of Song To The Siren.

  5. regularjoe says:

    Olympia is sort of a who’s who album.
    He’s got Dave Stewart working with him, the Roxy Music alumni, Flea, one of the Radiohead Dudes, Groove Armada, etc. etc.
    Some of the songs were released elsewhere in various forms over the last 18 months, You Can Dance is one and the Groove Armada got another one.

    Dave Stewart is all over the map, look up the Dave Stewart Songbook V1 on Amazon and take a look at all the folks he has written hits for.

    Odd 6 Degrees of Separation Bryan Ferry connection, Sophie B. Hawkins was his drummer circa the ‘Bete Noire’ tour and the story I heard was she was let go for being ‘too funky.’

  6. john says:

    big Roxy fan/expert here. if you wanna hear the early band at it’s best, get the VIVA LIVE album and listen to “In Every Dream Home A Heartache” and “If There Is Something”. These two songs on this live album have all of the elements that made them the quintessential prog rock art glam comglomeration. These songs were long, segmented, humorous, ironic, and artsy, yet at the same time, they flat out rocked. try em.

  7. Homer Jay from UK says:

    Bryan Ferry is plugging that single alot in England,so i’ll email that question 2 every show on british TV. If i’d known about this earlier i’d have emailed ‘Loose Women’ the other day,they’d have defininately asked him! think that single is good,like his older stuff,but like many others in his 60’s his voice is gone!
    Question: which artist’s version of ‘Jealous Guy’ is better? I’d say Bryan Ferry’s,but only just!

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