Bryan Ferry was named a BMI Icon at the US collecting society's annual London songwriter awards this week. He joins the likes of Ray Davies, Peter Gabriel and Steve Winwood in having received the honour.
Other winners on the night included Beyonce track 'Irreplaceable', written by Amund Bjorklund and Espen Lind, which won the Robert S Musel Award For Song Of The Year, and Modest Mouse's 'Dashboard', co-written by Johnny Marr, which was named College Song Of The Year. 'Million-air' certificates were also awarded to songs which have achieved more than three million airings on US TV and radio, amongst them The Rolling Stones' '(I Can't Get No) Satisfaction', Eric Clapton's 'Layla' and John Lennon's 'Imagine'.
Receiving his honour, the aforementioned Ferry paid tribute to his Roxy Music colleagues and, before the presentation, made light of the award, telling Billboard that 'icon' was something he would "have to look it up in the dictionary". He added: "It's nice to be given an award for something - songwriting - which is maybe the hidden part of what I do; it's sort of the 'iceberg' bit".
On the subject of a future solo project, which he's begun working on, he continued: "Sometimes you think well, everybody's heard enough of what you do, and you get despondent and think nobody wants to hear this - they want to hear some 23-year-olds' band or something. But I've got two songs that I think sound all right - I think they'll probably come out as solo things".
A full list of winners is here