The fine folks at It's Psychedelic Baby! Magazine are premiering the second single from the upcoming John Sally Ride record "For Sal." It's called "Stranded After Touring Stranded." It's a song about Sal's tenure in Roxy Music.
Back in 1973, Sal Maida was working at Scene and Heard, a record shop on London’s Tottenham Court Road, when Roxy Music drummer Paul Thompson dropped in.
The two had played together before, and Thompson mentioned that the band needed a bass player for their forthcoming tour. Maida auditioned, got the job and was soon travelling around Europe with Roxy Music. It’s one of the stories that John Dunbar has picked up for ‘For Sal’, the forthcoming album by The John Sally Ride, written in memory of their friend and former bassist, who died in February 2025. Today we’re pleased to share the video for ‘Stranded After Touring Stranded’, with Roxy Music’s own Phil Manzanera playing guitar.
The song follows Maida’s time with the band, from the thrill of joining them to the strange business of finding himself at a loose end when the tour was over. There are some lovely details tucked into the lyrics, including an appearance on the German television programme Musikladen and a reference to Roxy Music’s 1976 live album ‘Viva!’. Anyone who wants to hear Maida playing alongside Manzanera can still find him on ‘Chance Meeting’, recorded at Glasgow Apollo in November 1973.
Manzanera plays all the guitars on the new recording, with Jim Santo on bass, Sal Nunziato on drums and Dunbar handling vocals and keyboards.
The ten songs on ‘For Sal’ are drawn from stories in Maida’s memoir, ‘Four Strings, Phony Proof, and 300 45s’. They follow him from his childhood in New York’s Little Italy through the London and Los Angeles music scenes, taking in his years with Roxy Music, Sparks and Milk ‘N’ Cookies.
Dunbar has also brought in several of Sal’s old musical friends. Martin Gordon plays bass on ‘A Little R&R’, while Justin Strauss and Julian Maile appear on ‘How to Make a Cult Classic’. Steve Wynn, Dennis Diken, Artie Lamonica and others contribute elsewhere. Len Monachello produced and mixed the album.
The accompanying booklet is rather special, with each song presented among illustrations of old concert tickets, posters, maps and other bits of musical memorabilia. It’s a fitting way of telling the story of somebody who spent so much of his life around records and musicians.
‘Stranded After Touring Stranded’ is released November 6. ‘For Sal’ follows on December 4 through Think Like a Key Music, on CD and digitally. The album is dedicated to Lisa Burns.
The John Sally Ride Bandcamp
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