Jeff's Jukebox: C-4

"Love is the Drug," Roxy Music

It's been a while since we last visited the jukebox, so let's jump right in with a classic from the mid-1970s.

Roxy Music is one of those bands that you could say was more influential than they were popular (at least in the States). This song, off the brilliant 1975 album Siren, was their biggest hit, and it topped out somewhere in the high teens on Billboard's Hot 100. In the song, Bryan Ferry is at his shady hipster best, slithering his way onto the dance floor and (in all likelihood) into the bed of some young, unsuspecting soul. The song's intro, with the footsteps and the car starting leading into an insistent bass line, is one of the most notable in the history of rock.

When I was in high school, I had frequent arguments with a friend over whether Roxy Music or Styx was the better band. I chose the former, and I like to think that I chose wisely. But if you check my yearbook from my junior year in high school, you'll see, in large block letters, courtesy of my friend Thomas, the following:

ROXY MUSIC SMELLS

STYX RULES!!!

To this day, it's good for a laugh out of people who are seeing it for the first time.