I can only imagine what kind of effect these guys had in the early seventies when they first came along. This performance has the air of a goof, kind of, but how many of us are capable of goofing on this level.
It also strikes me that they preceded KISS in having each member take on a different theatrical look and persona, like they were a kabuki troupe or commedia dell arte troupe. They seem more committed to it at this stage, as well.
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I remember the whole glam rock era as being pretty entertaining. A case could be made that the Bonzos were the first to develop psychedelic pop combined with old fashioned music hall performances and cabaret. They definitely opened the rock scene to a whole milieu of very cool bands - T-Rex and the inimitable David Bowie just to name a couple of others besides Roxy. The studded leather costumes and makeup Kiss wore on stage made a much more aggressive effect and their music was very much hard rock.
It was neat to get glimpses of Brian Eno playing one of his early synthesizers in this video. He was only with them for the first couple of albums and went on to make his own very good albums.
Nice find.
The Bonzos were greatly ahead of their time, or at least had some ideas that would take the public a few years to digest. They were wild because Neil Innes had a few things in common with Paul McCartney, and Viv Stanshall wasn't so much his Lennon as...Captain Beefheart? Spike Milligan? Seems like a bit of both. And of course they were great fun as well. Yes, I could see the great glam bands as carrying on their tradition.
Kiss were from New York, and they were trying to appeal to kids from the American suburbs, mainly boys. They were very successful in that. But yeah, it's natural they would play up the machismo a lot more.
Eno went through some fascinating changes. He was sort of an inspired amateur when he joined Roxy. I think Andy Mackay brought him in. He went through his own rock star phase before settling down to avant garde composing and record producing, both of which he's still doing.
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