Roxy Music today unveil ‘Pyjamarama – guitar & vocal’ – a previously unreleased demo and the first ever recording of their 1973 hit single. The track marked the first time frontman Bryan Ferry had written using a guitar and this recording, unheard for over 50 years, captures the song coming to life with nothing but his voice and an acoustic guitar.
Listen to ‘Pyjamarama – guitar & vocal’ Here and watch the band’s iconic performance of the single on Top of the Pops in March 1973 on Roxy Music’s and watch the band’s iconic performance of the single on Top of the Pops in March 1973 on Roxy Music’s Youtube Here. The tape of the show was recently unearthed in a collection belonging to mobile disco DJ Roger Hill, having been lost in the BBC archive.
‘Pyjamarama’ was the second single from Roxy Music’s vital second album For Your Pleasure, and the guitar & vocal version will be included in the definitive 2026 3CD+DVD Super Deluxe Edition, available from November 6th 2026 via UMR/Island EMI.
With the band hungry to follow up on the success of their debut Roxy Music, yet struggling to find time to record between a jam-packed touring schedule, Ferry retreated to a remote Derbyshire cottage belonging to his friend Nick de Ville. Miraculously, the fragile cassettes Ferry made as he worked on songs in his solitary splendour have survived, and are presented in this set.
Even in this skeletal state ‘Pyjamarama’ is unmistakable; the descending array of big, shimmering opening chords is instantly recognisable, while Ferry’s extemporised, scat-sung vocal snatches a topline melody from the air, grabbing at words as they suggest themselves. The resultant instant, oblique love song is surely among Roxy’s most beguiling releases. Blown up into widescreen and Technicolor since Ferry’s first demo, from the opening Who-like fanfare of overdriven guitar, clattering drum and one-note synth staccato, through to Andy Mackay’s subversive sax solo, it’s a warped piece of pure Pop; a mad, sweet, headlong rush, unlike anything on the album that would follow.
The 2026 edition of For Your Pleasure is available to pre-order via UMR/Island EMI here.
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