When was the first time you heard Roxy Music?

[Taverner]

Me? I was a suburban kid from Northern California. We grew up on bad cheap hair farm bands and the occasional Heavy Metal dinosaur who came out of retirement to pay for rehab, or his Scientology bill. At the time, I found New Wave to be "unmanly" and punk to be, well, meaningless to me.

So it wasn't until I graduated college and joined the Peace Corps that I first heard "Do the Strand" by Roxy Music. I traded tapes (cassette tapes, remember them?) with other volunteers and ended up with "Street Life."

So here comes this discordant, atonal, yet rhythmically sound madness. I swore it had to be some 80's post punk band so I looked at the label. Nope! 1973-muthafucka! I literally did a double take. I mean these guys weren't simply ahead of their time, in many ways their first four albums are STILL ahead of their time.

[no name no slogan]

1. I heard them in the mid-80s-- but heard the 1970s version first

By the 80s, Roxy had mutated into the easy listening yuppie make-out music you hear on "Avalon". But as a suburban high school kid, I'd taken a liking to King Crimson, and heard Roxy mentioned via Fripp's connection to Eno. So I took a chance, picked up the first LP, and played it.

It was a revelation. I was floored-- literally. It opened up new musical horizons which have influenced my own music making to this day. I'd never really gotten into a lot of the new wave stuff of the 80s, but Roxy blew me away. It was actually through Roxy that I got into a lot of 80s bands, like Siouxsie, Ultravox, The Cure, Psychedelic Furs and the rest of the post-punk stuff.

To this day, I bet I listen to their 70s stuff (particularly the first two albums) at least once a month, at a minimum, and it remains some of my favorite music of all time. Roxy are responsible for making me the musician I am today, more so than just about any other group.

[Arugula Latte]

2. I was a suburban kid from Northern California too. I probably first heard them in the early 80s

"Avalon" is still in heavy rotation on my iPod