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Entertainment
In Brief
V ndro tour
com to 0 trolt
Luther V ndro - The
Power 0/ Love Tour com to
the Joe Loui Arena for one
ho_w Wednesd y, October 9,
1991 at 8 p.m. Accompaning
Luther will be Sinbad, Sounds
ofBlackne nd Usa Fi cher.
All ticke $25.50 and can be
purchased at Joe Loui and
Cobo Arena and all
TlcketMa ter office (cash
only) to charge call
(645-6666). Thi i am t ee
concert. NO CAMERAS!!
Freddy' Back
After years of tormenting
the residents of Elm Street,
Freddy Krueger's reign of
terror finally ends when he
confront his most fearful
adversary in New Line
Cinema's "Freddy's Dead:
Tbe Final Nightmqre," to be
. re leased nationally on
September 13.
Expressions
In Black
Debbie Allen will host
." to 01 a Peoph!:
Expressions in Black." The
special will dazzle Detroit
audiences when Hour One airs
on WXYZ-lV on Sat., Sept. 7
at 6 a.m, & Hour Two airs
Sat., Sept. 14 at 6 a.m.
This dynamic special takes
a current look at the influence
of African-Americans in the
areas of dance, theatre, music
and visual arts.
By the way
Shooting for "NewJackll"
is slated to begin the first of
1992. It could hit theaters next
summer ... Fresh Prince Will
Smith will make his first
serious film debut in "Where
The Day Takes You", about
homeless teens. The film
could-be relea e by Christmas.
Stralg�t out
of Hollywood
Whoopi Goldberg, who I
won an Oscar for her role in
"Ghost", will again tackle th
spirit world in her next film
entitled "Sister Act". she plays
an Atlantic City lounge singer
who witnesses a mob hit and
goed underground as a nun.
Filming begins on the Disney
movie sometime next month.
Meanwhile, Goldberg is
sporting a new look. Gone are
the braids (at least for now).
Movie
Re-release
Film execs decided to pull
"Hangin With The Homeboys"
from theatrical release due to
the factor of confusion with
- "Boyz N The Hood', It was
originally released May 24.
Look for .i t to re urfaee on or
around October 3. .
Gordy file ult
Berry Gordy announced
that he has filed a $100 million
lawsuit against authors J.
Randy Taraborrelli and Carol
Communications for their
unauthorized biography of
Michael Jackson, titled "'TM
Magic &: The Madnus".
- compiled by
Kascene Bar
-u Collin contributed
the Se lie)
, .
, Folkw y ecords rel ed A
VISion Shared, collection of on by Lead­
belly and hi friend, Woody Guthrie,
covered by Bob Dylan, Bruce Springsteen,
U2 and others.
"Leadbelly i an icon in te 0 e great
p t bl ingers,"' d AJe Haley, author
o . Haley wrote an rticle on Leadbel-
ly in 1961 and i on the editorial advi ory
board for the Lead Belly Letter.
Leadbelly "is kind of th Mount Evere t
of blu singers," Haley aid.
Born in Mooringsport, La., about 1889,
Huddie Leadbetter developed early intere t
in guitars, guns wom n and booze. From his
mid ens through his late 20s, Huddie barrel­
ho ed through the South, playing in Black
aloons throughout Loui i n Oklahoma
CMW, burning up the
rrnACA, .Y. (AP) - e out 0
po t- eco ttuction South, a defi nt B
troub our ho lun a gun ell
pluc d hi ove ized 12- trin guitar.
e ent to prison for killin m in
quarrel over a woman, and legend h it he
. w Y to pardon by enthralIin the
go rnorwith plaintive blue ap
prung from nother Southern
pri on by genteel whi folklori t who
brought him north, where he dressed
convict and played the blue for white
udience t colleg and nightclub . '
Huddie Ledbetter, ben r known Lead­
belly, w the quintessential bluesman, who
lived bat he sang and died on the fring of
tardom, A year after Leadbelly 's death from
Lou Gehrig's disease in 1949, the Wea�ers'
recording of hi be t-known ong, "G9Od­
night, Irene," had old 2 million copie , uc-
that had eluded Leadbelly.
"Generally, people don't know who Lead­
belly is, and they should," said Sean Kileen,
who last year started publishing the Lead
Belly Letter out of hi home in the Central
New Yor city of Itabaca.
A mythic figure, Leadbelly bas ascended
into the pantheon with uch early blues
musicians as Robert Johnson, Bessie Smi th
and Leadbelly's own mentor, Blind Lemon
Jefferson. Long the house gods to hardcore
blue fans, Leadbelly and company are being
COMPTONS MOST WANTED - (l-r) MC Elht and DJ Mike T.
J
'Diamonds' and 'Pearl' who next
appear in "Housestyle", an eight
minute "orgy" orchestrated to a club
mix that grow progressively darker
as Prince blindfolds his "mascots"
and leads them on a sinis er journey
from a Paisley Park studio to his own
Chiquita ellow hou e. Prince
watchers WI I delight in pausing their
VCRs to catch fleeting ho� of per-
Watch for Prince
September 9th on
Prime time.
onal artifacts such as paintings,
stained glass, a Prince-shot portrait
of his father top a violet piano and
the house itself which got its, new
color on his recent birthday.
THE VI VAL odyssey gets
downright decadent with "Violet The
Organ Grinder", a clip that' unlike­
ly to Slip by any television censor's
eye. Simply put, Prince, draped In
chains and littl� el ,pay homage to
Violet from behind b while caged
Te
"Hi life w kind 0 li e Billie Holiday' .
They lived what they sang bout," Haley
aid. "Leadbelly lived in juke join ,where
you might have to dive under a table at any .
tim during the course of the evening."
In 1917, Leadbelly gunned down a man
in a fight over a woman.' He was entenced
to 30 years on the chain gang in Texas.
He gained the nickname Leadbelly in
pet on. For the new Ieter, Killeen divide it
into two words, Lead Belly, claiming that's
the way the singer originally w billed.
In pri on, Leadbelly's music was popular
among inmat and guards. Inmat jailed
for decades were repo itories of music p t,
the w y son d been on the ou ide years
go. By Ii tening to those inmates ing,
Leadbelly captured son "frozen in time,"
Killeen aid.
Most of the on Leadbelly _ credited
with writing - from "Irene" to "Rock Island
Line" to "C.C. Rider" !97 had their roo in
traditional Black wor ongs, blues and
spirituals.
According to legend, Leadbelly par-
doned in 1925 by Texas Gov. Pat Ne�, who
S. BLUES, B-8
and
creen
tereo
Prince to release
g,roundbreaking ome video
"Shocking "Maxi-Video"
includes four unreleased
clips of "Get Off" remixes»
NEW YORK. NY - The continuing
success of "Oett Of/", the debut
single from Prince and the New
Power Generation' upcoming
album, Diamonds and Pearls,
spreads to the home video market
with the announcement of a Prince­
driven innovation: the "Maxi video"!
Mirroring the equenee of the multi­
cut "Get Off" maxi-record, the scor­
Chingly racy collection of five full
length video clips (four of which are
previousl y unreleased) offers both
the most acce ible and the most
cintillating glimpses of the sexy
slnger/muslclan and his dynamic
new band. Spontaneity abounds in
the video directed by Randee St.
Nicholas over 8 span of two weeks in
a variety of ettings ranging from a
lion' cage to Prince' own home.
The thirty-minute collection
opens with the red hot, Caligula-in-
pired title clip which is. currently
enjoying wide expo ure on MTV,
BET and various other telemusic
venues. "Get O//" serves ic intro-
d uce recurring character
with four obviously "sex-starved,"
half-naked maidens who are painted
a radiant gold from head to toe. A
"Violet" excerpt wa recently
creened at the Glam Slam in Min­
neapolis and elicited ear-splitting
creams of approval from an other­
wi e tunn d throng of clubgoers.
Acce ible, sexy, humorous and
loose, "Gangster Glam", the fourth
election, is an impromptu gaze at a
day in the life of Prince and the
N.P.O. Garnes of chance, designer
cars, roller kates, gorgeous women,
daring swim wear, futuristic night
club and the debut of alter-ego Aunt
Esther, "Gangster Glam" is a1labout
. tyle. Intoxicating and contagious,
the clip is a long-awaited,. behind­
the- cenes peek at Paisley' Park on a
play day.
The final clip, "Clockin' The
Jizz",' a largely instrumental,jazzy
dancy tune that combine spin ted
performance footage Ith rie of
vignettes that brings furth r into
the v rious personalitie and philo -
phie of the N.P.G. a een throu h
the eyes of their leader.
The "Get Off' Maxi Video will be
a ilable in record nd vid 0 store
on September 10th.
Epic/Orpheus
rappers are a
double-barreled hit
Comtons Most Wanted i one of the
hott t trac on the Boyz N �
Hood oundtrack, but the EpiC/Or­
p.baeus 12-inch and ftc maxi-
ingJe contain both the soundtrack
version and an "O.G. Hood" mix not
avaiJable elsewhere .. Group metn­
bers Me Biht (pronounced like the
number, spelled without the "g") and
DJ Mike T briefly appear in a party
scene following the film's "seven
years later" segue.
, "John Singleton was a Comptons
Most Wanted fan before he ever got
his deal with Columbia Pictures,"
explains Unknown, co-producer of
Straight Checkn 'Em with DJ Slip."
"He had used four or five tracks from
our last album as fill-in music for the
movie before they put the actual
soundtrack together. John showed
a rough cut, Slip and I created the
tracks, and Eibt wrote his I yries
around the story of the movie. "
Wbethe'r dissing self-destruction
in "DeI.Wuh" or calling rival MCs
down for a' "Comptons LyncJrin',"
Straight Chec/cn 'Em is a bulletin
from the cultural warzoDC, stlaight
from the soul of Compton. Most
Wanted.
Southern California- rappers
Comptons Mo t Wanted are burning
up the nation's movie screens and
stereo sy tems W!tb a fierce new
album, Straight Checkn 'Em, and
one of the summer's most popular
movies, Boyz N The Hood The
Columbia Pictures release grossed
more than $25 million in its first two
weeks and has drawn widespread
criticaJ acclaim for its 23 year-Old
writer and director, John Singleton.
Their fierce new album, Straight
Checkn 'Em, is the follow-up to It's
A Compton Thang, Comptons Mo t
Wanted's debut album, which sold
nearly a quarter of a million copies
in 1990 without benefit of radio or
video airplay (due to the hardcore
nature of CMW's rhymes). It's also
the first release by Comptons Most
Wanted under a new alliance be­
tween the Epic and Orpheus labels,
and blew out of the box in July with
initial sales of over 100,000 copies.
"Growin' Up In The Hood" by
Prince