Phil Manzanera: Roxy, Rock en en Español y Mucho Más (Part 2 of 3)

Continued from Part One…

Bill Kopp: Each time that Roxy got back together, based on what you wrote in your book, it seemed that Eno was extended at least a pro forma invitation to participate. And as we know, in each case he said no. Was there ever a point at which you sensed, “Maybe this time he might”?

Phil Manzanera: Well, in 2005, we actually rang him up and said, “Look, let’s go and do some tracks with the original producer, Chris Thomas, producing.” So I went 10 minutes from here, picked him up, went to RAK Studios and pushed him in the door. I said, “I’ll just go and park the car.” And then we were off. And then we came back here to my studio, and we did more work on stuff.

But it was rubbish, really. Well… “rubbish” is too strong…

Bill: It wasn’t to the standard you wanted?

Phil: It wasn’t. It’s like a football team. You can get all the names in and everything, and then you lose the match. We tried. But sensibly, we didn’t just persevere and finish it off and put it out, because it would have been a disappointment, quite frankly.

I’ve got the tracks on my laptop here somewhere, and a few of them have been recycled, if you like. I think one was recycled onto one of Brian’s solo albums, but I can’t remember the titles at all. And because he’s not far from me here, Eno has been on pretty much every solo album I’ve ever done. Even the last batch; I’d just pop down there and I said, “Just put whatever you want on it.”

And occasionally he’d say, “Would you come down? Just play.” And I’d play. And then a year later, he said, “Oh, by the way, you’re on the new David Byrne album. That time you came down here, I recycled it and put it on.” And I’m thrilled.

Bill: That reminds me of Jay-Z’s “No Church in the Wild” sampling the title track from your 1978 album K-Scope. That was amusing; that whole story had passed me by when it happened…

Phil: Yeah, that was an amazing story. I’m coming to these book talks in Cleveland, Chicago, Minneapolis and Milwaukee. And I say to the people interviewing me, “Don’t tell me what the questions are going to be; you’ll probably get the same answers, whatever the questions.” But one of the stories I tell is about how that happened, the Jay Z and Kanye West thing. (It’s a shame Kanye turned into total loony.)

But funny enough, then I realized that over the years, they had sampled [Robert] Fripp, and they’d sampled all sorts of the strangest people. That’s the thing about sampling: they pick from anywhere, and the strangest combinations end up right. You could never predict. And you could never go out and say, “Oh, please use my riff” or anything; it just doesn’t work that way.

Bill: There’s a website called whosampled.com…

Phil: You’re absolutely right. And the first time I was sampled was when Ice-T took the riff from [Roxy Music’s] “Amazona” [on “That’s How I’m Livin’” from 1993’s Home Invasion]. I don’t think I put that in the book. But I [received] a phone call saying Ice-T sampled the thing. And I said, “Well, that’s really great. Thanks. Bye.” But you have no idea what it meant.

Bill: One of the things that I discovered reading Revolución to Roxy is just how massive your discography is. Your book has really sparked my interest, especially about some of those Spanish language albums by Héroes del Silencio, the band from Spain.

Phil: This year, Enrique Bunbury, the singer – who is still a very close friend – won the Outstanding Achievement award at the Latin Grammys. Draco Rosa, who is from Puerto Rico, won a Grammy. Fito Páez from Argentina wins Grammys all the time. They’re like the gods. I was very lucky to be able to work with these very talented rock en Español people.

And that’s a whole different kind of thing. Because I speak and understand Spanish, I was getting extra cream from all this Latin music. Rock orientated, with amazing lyrics and things like that. So I had Anglo Saxon type of English rock, I had the rock en Español with great musicians, and German singer Nina Hagen, a French guy and some Italian guys. It was just so much fun! I can’t believe it. When I put together the discography, I said, “I just need to lie down here!”

Bill: In the book, you discuss 801 Live, but I don’t think there was anything about 801’s Listen Now LP; that’s one of my favorite albums of the era.

Phil: Obviously that was a continuation. We did 801 Live, then Eno went off to work with Bowie; that seemed like the rest of his life. And he moved to New York.

But we wanted to go on. So I used pretty much all the musicians who were on 801 Live on Listen Now, but with some songs. Then we did a tour; we recorded some of those gigs and we put them out [801 Manchester and Live at Hull]. But obviously a different [lineup]; different drummer. You know what it’s like; people are busy. Simon Phillips had decided to go to America as well, and then off on his amazing career. But to have him when he was 18… once people saw him at my gig at the Queen Elizabeth Hall, then Jeff Beck rang Mick Jagger…

Bill: His dance card was full, yes.

Phil: I said, “Simon, you’ll never have to worry again, mate.” Just listen to the drums on 801 Live. That is what they call a drum tour de force. Next year we’re going to do a special deluxe edition of 801 Live with tracks that people haven’t heard, from the sound checks and things like that.

Bill: There was a 801 Live Collectors Edition in 2009 that included some sound check recordings. Will this be something else?

Phil: Yes. We actually found the analog tapes, so we can sort of remix it. Obviously they’re the same tracks, but all the solos are different. And I’m very excited about that.

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