As far as I'm concerned the best solo album Bryan Ferry ever made was his first, 1973's These Foolish Things, a collection of oldies covers that was at once arch, bold, surprising, perverse, eccentric, sincere, and just plain entertaining nearly every step of the way. Even the duds were redeemed simply by the fact that he tried them, and the winners make you laugh for exactly the same reason. The ones that most typically excite comment are Lesley Gore's "It's My Party" (which I find a bit overly cute) and Bob Dylan's "A Hard Rain's A-Gonna Fall," which probably gets the prize for most unexpected, not to mention how well Ferry makes it work in the sultry atmosphere in which the set lives and breathes. My own favorites include the title song—it glides in and out on a '70s production magic flying carpet, but retains all the romance of the Depression-era original. But the Beach Boys cover is the one that reliably blows me down. Ferry takes Brian Wilson's already nearly perfect gem about drag-racing and the quaking fear of the singer who is doing it anyway, because the girl loves him, and amps it all up even further. For the 4:15 that this goes on, the drums boom harder, the strings are sweeter and more deliberate, the chick singers mean it more, the singer is more certain than ever of his imminent death, and the heaven that beckons from the beyond is even more ... heavenly. As if to emphasize the point, it spends most of its last minute fading imperceptibly. Flashing guitar hero Phil Manzanera's all too brief licks and solos just leave you wanting more. Which is approximately how, among other foolish things, that it becomes one to play over and over.
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