Product Description

A concept album of sorts, inspired in part by Brian Ferry'shighly public breakup with supermodel Jerry Hall, THE BRIDESTRIPPED BARE features songs whose view of romance is, unsurprisingly, a tad bleaker than previous. The singer's persona here is less lounge lizard than the sort of guy who drivesaround L.A. in the rain ("Can't Let Go"), hoping to wipe out on Dead Man's Curve.
A strong batch of originals is on offer here, which, thanks in part to guitarist Waddy Wachtel, lean more toward the West Coast studio rock of Jackson Browne or Warren Zevon than is usual for Ferry. There are also a couple of covers that reinforce the bleak breakup theme, including what must be the most morose version of Sam and Dave's "Hold On (I'm Coming)" ever recorded. Not necessarily Ferry's best album, but certainly his most human.

Track Listing

1. Sign Of The Times
2. Can't Let Go
3. Hold On I'm Comin'
4. Same Old Blues
5. When She Walks In The Room
6. Take Me To The River
7. What Goes On
8. Carrickfergus
9. That's How Strong My Love Is
10. This Island Earth

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #13698 in Music
• Released on: 1999-10-11
• Number of discs: 1
• Format: Original recording remastered

Customer Reviews

The Peak of Ferry's Solo Career
Although Bryan Ferry’s other solo albums have their peaks, only In Your Mind can rival The Bride Stripped Bare for consistent quality.

This masterpiece is most like Ferry’s other output in that it mixes his own compositions with well chosen covers. It’s most different in the bare emotions exhibited – more like Bryan stripped bare. Hardly anywhere else in his output, is Ferry so moving or so moved. That's not to accuse him of lack of feeling or emotional coldness: it's just that elsewhere, he seems more distanced, more in control.

The sleeve gives a strong hint at the mood of what it contains: steely greys and blues, a brooding Ferry, tense and troubled. The opening track, mind you, is an exception, a denial of the prevailing mood. If memory serves, Tony Parsons made Sign of the Times his Single of the Week in the NME, and deservedly so. It's brisk, alert and punchy; radio friendly -- my old 45 still leaps out of the speakers even now. Sign of The Times stops -- and it does stop, not quite as abruptly as Virginia Plain, but not far off -- and is replaced by Can't Let Go. The band hit a beautiful groove, then drive through the chorus as Ferry laments the madness in his soul.

This album is notable for the playing. The sound is built around a tight guitar/bass/drums ensemble, with few -- but all the more pertinent for that -- embellishments.

The other covers provide a number of high points: Same Old Blues is terse, tense, reined in; Take Me To The River is a bare drama of absolution; What Goes on, false, forced optimism in the face of pain; Carrickfergus, a charming and delicate lament.

The real masterpiece, however, comes at the end of side 1 -- well, it did on the vinyl, now track five on the CD. When She Walks In The Room – a Ferry original – begins with the elegance of a string quartet, which then falls away as the protagonist spies his former lady entering the party. As Bryan Ferry had been left by Jerry Hall not long before, it’s hard to imagine that it's not him and her, coinciding at some function or another. Any lingering doubts on this point are soon removed by the pathos of the lyrics and the depth of feeling in his voice. As the singer's bitter torment spirals, so the muscular drum track builds to a crescendo, and then declines, defeated, as he makes his way to the door. If defeat and humiliation could ever be majestic, then they are here.

If you don't like Ferry's work, if you find it arch, contrived and cool, then try this. Be surprised. This record was fashioned from pain and manages to express it with style, grace and heartfelt emotion. It can hurt to listen to, but we all know why -- we can all recognise the pain.

The Peak Of His Solo Career
Although Bryan Ferry's other solo albums have their peaks, only In Your Mind can rival The Bride Stripped Bare for consistent quality.

This masterpiece is most likr Ferry's other output in that it mixes his own compositions with well chosen covers. It's most different in the bare emotions exhibited - more like Bryan stripped bare. Hardly anywhere else in his output, is Ferry so moving or so moved. That's not to accuse him of lack of feeling or emotional coldness: it's just that elsewhere, he seems more distanced, more in control.

The sleeve gives a strong hint of what it contains: cool greys and blues, a brooding Ferry, tense and troubled. The opening track, mind you, is an exception, a denial of the prevailing mood. If memory serves, Tony Parsons made Sign of the Times his Single of the Week in the NME, and deservedly so. It's brisk, alert and punchy; radio friendly -- my old 45 still leaps out of the speakers even now. Sign of The Times stops -- and it does stop, not quite as abruptly as Virginia Plain, but not far off -- and is replaced by Can't Let Go. The band hit a beautiful groove, then drive through the chorus as Ferry laments the madness in his soul.

This album is notable for the playing. The sound is built around a tight guitar/bass/drums ensemble, with few -- but all the more pertinent for that -- embellishments.

The other covers provide a number of high points: Same Old Blues is terse, tense, reined in; Take Me To The River is a bare drama of absolution; What Goes on, false, forced optimism in the face of pain; Carrickfergus, a charming and delicate lament.

The real masterpiece, however, comes at the end of side 1 -- well, it did on the vinyl, now track five on the CD. When She Walks In The Room - a Ferry original - begins with the elegance of a string quartet, which then falls away as the protagonist spies his former lady entering the party. As Bryan Ferry had been left by Jerry Hall not long before, it's hard to imagine that it's not him and her, coinciding at some function or another. Any lingering doubts on this point are soon removed by the pathos of the lyrics and the depth of feeling in his voice. As the singer's bitter torment spirals, so the muscular drum track builds to a crescendo, and then declines, defeated, as he makes his way to the door. If defeat and humiliation could ever be majestic, then they are here.

If you don't like Ferry's work, if you find it arch, contrived and cool, then try this. Be surprised. This record was fashioned from pain and manages to express it with style, grace and heartfelt emotion. It can hurt to listen to, but we all know why -- we can all recognise the pain.

Solo Album number 5.
In the October of 1978 when Bryan Ferry released the fifth solo album in his career, the U.K. was in the grip of “punk rock” and wasn’t listening to emotional vocal performances and love songs.
The album itself had been planned to be a double set but was cut down to 10 tracks and only lasted just under 42 minutes, with 5 tracks that where recorded left off they would later appear on various B-sides and E.P. in later years. The songs that where unused where as follows “Broken Wings”, “Crazy Love”, Feel The Need”, “He’ll have to Go” and “Four letter Love”.

The opening track “Sign of the Times” was the second single to be released from this album and the B-side was one of left off tracks called “Four letter Love”; the promotional video for the single was filmed on “The Kenny Everett Show”. The place this single got to was number 37.
The next song in the running order is “Can’t Let Go” which is one of the four songs written by Bryan for this album, Mr Ferry would later perform this track with Roxy Music on the 1982 “Avalon” tour.

The following track is a cover of Sam and Dave soul classic “Hold on I’m Coming” that has a superb brass section that is a wonderful counterpoint to the guitar playing by Neil Hubbard and Waddy Wachel on slide guitar. This version is not dissimilar from the original musically, but none the less enjoyable for the crooning style of Mr Ferry, which adds that little something to the right song.

Up next in the running order is another cover version this time by J. J. Cale; “The same old Blues” is song is introduced by some haunting electric piano playing by Steve Nye, which is the perfect foil for the guitar sound of Waddy Wachel and Neil Hubbard.
The next song is a self-penned track written for this album and would later appear on the B-side of the third single from this album; “When she walks in the Room” is also noteworthy for the appearance of Herbie Flowers who had appeared earlier on Lou Reed’s 1972 album “Transformer” playing string bass as well, this musician also played bass on David Bowie’s “Diamond Dogs album in 1974.
The song that appears on this album is another soul classic written Al Green this time, “Take me to the River” was covered by the Talking Heads in the same year on their album “More songs about buildings and Food”. For this track the funky deep bass and choppy guitar sound are interwoven around the signature vocals that have a bluesy edge to them on this interpretation by Mr Ferry to make the song his own.

For the first track from this album to be released as single Bryan chose to release a cover of a Lou Reed song written for the first Velvet Underground album. The arrangement that Mr Ferry has used has changed the song into a soul song, “What goes On” got to number 67 in the singles chart in the U.K. the B-side was “Casanova” from Bryan “Lets Stick Together” album.

Carrickfergus is a traditional Irish ballad that with the use of Herbie Flowers string bass and Waddy Wachel’s guitar the song is sung with great passion and emotion. The track was the third and last single to be released it didn’t make the top 100 in the singles chart.

For the penultimate track Bryan again covered a soul classic this time made famous by Otis Redding, “That’s how strong my love Is” this is a great vocal performance that is full of feeling and soul.

To bookend this collection another self-penned song, “This island Earth” has the feeling of being autobiographical within it’s lyrics you can hear the pain of his recent break-up with Jerry Hall.

This version was re-mastered to HDCD standard in September 1999 by one of the masters of the process one Bob Ludwig of “Gateway studios”, a couple of weeks earlier to this release the mini-LP version came out.