SNAPSHOTS OF A SHY COXCOMB
In which Bryan Ferry reveals that genius may not be pain, but interviews are something else again...
“He’ll be very nice, and he will talk, but when you listen to your tape you’ll find there isn’t anything worth quoting. He hasn’t really said anything.”
“He’s terrified of journalists. He’ll be polite, but he’s extremely shy.”
“It’ll all be superficial. When you get beneath that surface you find this seething mass of neuroses.”
All helpful, if discouraging,' advice from his acquaintances on what to expect from Bryan Ferry, given to one seeking to wring from him - what, exactly? “I hate doing interviews,” Ferry says during the interview. “I hate to discuss. I like talking to people who are interested in what I do, but I resent the fact that you have to do that sort of thing ... I think it kills the interest in a way. It destroys it to actually sit and talk about it and analyze it. I like spontaneity, I like to feel I get a kick out of what I do, and to discuss it exhaustively is very destructive.”