PAGE TWO
THE MICHIGAN DAILY
SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 24, 2968
FAGE TWO TilE MICHIGAN DAILY SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 24. 1968
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-music
Montez and Byrds-Together?
By FRED LaBOUR
Out bounces Chris Montez
looking like he just stepped out
of a fraternity rush booklet.
"Come on and clap along
with me," he says. "Everybody
sing la la la la." The four piece'
band lays into a cute little Latin
rhythm, Montez picks up the
mike, and POW! We're in our
favorite local supermarket.
There is a place for Chris
Montez in American muzak. His
schlockey south-of-the-border
arrangements of oldies - that
were of questionable merit to
begin with-waft out of cleverly
hidden speakers in grocery
emporiums and restaurants
throughout the land.
After watching Montez per-
form lastf night at Hill Aud. one
gets the feeling that be hasn't
worked much lately. His ar-
rangements are fairly polished,
(one or two weren't even cli-
ches) but he stumbles and stut-
ters when addressing the audi-
ence directly.
His back-up group, (drums,
vibes, guitar, and electric bass)
are pretty fuzzy around the edg-
es but it's impossible to tell if
it was the musicians or the
godawful sound system in Hill.
Montez comes across fairly
well when he sings those whis-
pery little ditties that landed
him in the Top Ten. The audi-
ence helps him sing "The More
I See You" and "Call Me" and
he gets away with it. But his
limitations become painfully
evident on a little louder stuff
like "Goin' Out of My Head"
and "You've Got Your Trou-
bles."
After Montez sinverely thanks
us for the privilege of perform-
ing, the featured group, The
Byrds, get set tip.
Now, it seems quite strange
that these two acts should ever
appear within 500 miles of each
other, let alone on the same
stage. God only knows what the
UAC people w.re thinking
when they tucked in this pair
of strange musical bedfellows.
It's like serving catsup with
waffles.
Anyway, The Byrds come out
and launch into "I'll Probably
Feel A Whole Lot Better" and
it becomes apparent that they
will salvage the concert.
The group, after an incred-
ible number of personnel
changes, now consists of Roger
(formerly Jim) McGuinn on
lead, Chris Hillman on bass,
Kevin Kelly on drums and some
new guy on organ. The organ
adds needed depth to the con-
cert performance but seriously
detracts from the well-known
Byrds style.
The Byrds have always de-
pended on crystal clear guitar
work, threading the rhythm
with the lead, to bring off their
songs. But the organ muffles
McGuinn's guitar to a great ex-
tent and the audience can only
hear snatches of his beautiful
riffs. The group definitely needs
a good rhythm man again.
The damned sound system
wounded The Byrds' show even
more than Montez' because so
much depends on the quality of
their voices and their words.
All in all, they don't repro-
duce terribly well onstage.
The Byrds have started to get
into country and western music
more and more and they didl
two numbers last night that arts
strictly Nashville: "Hickory
Wind" and "Satisfied Mind."
They also did a jazz oriented
piece in 5/4 time to demon-
strate their versatility and per-
haps point out future directions
for the group.
But mainly, The Byrds are
still folk-rock, and they are the
only group in the world who
can truly live up to that label.
They still are most effective
with "Chimes of Freedom,"
"Turn, Turn, Turn," and "He
Was A Friend of Mine."
McGuinn is obviously the
heartbeat of the group, like
Sebastian is to the Spoonful
and Young is to the Spring-
field. A whole generation of
rock arrangers have been in-
fluenced by McGuinn's lead
style, his unresolved D chords
and his sneaky little space
noises way up on the neck.
The Byrds are a very honest
group who seem to have made
it almost in spite of themselves.
REGISTER to VOTE
Call
NEW POLITICS
for assistance and transportation
761 -7147
971-2856
TONIGHT at
8 P.M.
GLEN DA FEARS-
Opera major {with Instrumental Ensemble)
singing Negro spirituals, gospel songs, and soul
music - showing the development of Negro
music to the present day.
AND
1421 Hill St.
8 30 P.M.
4
e
4
-Daily-Tay Cassidy
DANCERS SHOW CREATIVITYj
The University's Concert Dance Organization opened their 18th annual dance concert last
night in the dance studio at Barbour Gymnasium. The program included modern interpretive
dancing, a suite of pre-classie dances, and a special guest performance by Mr. James Payton,
former member of the Jose Limon Dance Company.
The program will be repeated today with performances at 2:30 and 8:00 p.m. Tickets are avail-
able at the gym, costing $1.50 for the evening performance and $1.00 for the matinee.
B liPze ORGANIZATION NOTICES
'Nominees?"::.:."
uOGB< nV rWTI I1nT .TT f TVInD A~tLN- +"on+ nnei~relinn ~ig; fluk L.U~if fl ::rill'
Roger McGuinn
cinema
'Madding Crowd' Falls Short
A nnounced
Judges for the National Book
Committee's National Book Awards
competition have selected 31 books'
in six divisions as "leading nom-
inees" for the publishing indus-
try's most coveted prizes.
The eight-year-old National;
Book Awards are granted to the
best books written each year by
American authors.
The 1968 nominees:
FICTION: "Why Are We in Viet
Nam?," Norman Mailer; "A Gar-
den of Earthly Delights," Joyce Carol
Oates; "The Chosen," Chaim Potok;
"Confessions of Nat Turner," William
Styron; "The Eighth Day," Thornton1
wauder.
POETRY: "The Light Around the
Body," Robert Bly; "Sorrow Dance,
IDenise Levertov; "Lice," W. S. Mer-
will; "The Collected Shorter Poems
of Kenneth Rexroth"; " 'A' 1-12,
Louis Zukofsky; "The Hard Hours,"
Anthony IHeclit.
ARTS AND LETERS: "Music, the
Arts and Ideas," Leonard Meyers; "A
Primer of Ignorance," R. P. Black-
mur; "stop-Time," Frank Conroy;
"The New Poets," M. L. Rosenthal;
"Selected Essays," William Troy;
"leardsley," Stanley Weintraub.
SCIENCE, PHILOSOPHY, and RE-
LIGION: "The Biology of Ultimate
Concern," T. Dobzhansky; "The New
Industrial State," John Kenneth Gal-
braith; "Death at an Early Age,"
Jonathan Kozel; "Mind: An Essay
in Human Feeling," Susanne K. L~an-
ger; "The Myth of the Machine,"
Lewis Mumlord.
University Lutheran Chapel, 1511 Bach Club meeting, Wed., Feb. 28.
Washtenaw, Feb. 25, 9:45 & 11:15 a.m. 8 p.m., Guild House, 802 Monroe. BYO
-Workshop Services with Pastor Bach records. For further information
Scheips speaking on "Comforting and call 769-2922.
USE OF THIS COLUMN FOR AN- f
NOUNCEMENTS is available to offi-
cially recognized and registered student
organizations only. Forms are available
in room 1011 SAB.
La Soceidad Hispanica, Una Tertulia,
Mon., Feb. 26, 3-5 p.m., 3050 Frieze,
Cafe, conversacion, musica. Vengan
todos!
I
By LIZ WISSMAN
As a film, "Far from the Mad-
ding Crowd" (at the Michigan
Theatre) will probably be called
"faithful to the book." But it is
faithful only in the sense of a
nagging wife without the daring
for adultery. The marriage of
Hardy'stheme andJohn Schles-
inger's movie is loveless at best.
A part of the problem lies in
the novel itself; at least in any
literal interpretation of the novel.
In Hardy, the plot movement is
made up of a chain of ironic
concidence. The book has been
studied as a textbook in the use
of the "pathetic fallacy." That is,
when Nature is presented as an
anthropomorphic f o r c e replete
with rainy teardrops.
Schlesinger has followed these
aspects of the novel with a mind-
less regard for sanctity. As a re-
sult, the audience receives only
the clutter of a schizophrenic un-
certainty. In poorly edited se-
quence, the film flashes from a
pigsty to Julie Christie (with no
poetic reference intended.)
What is missing is the super-
structures of Hardy's novel --- its
unity of vision and tone. Schle-
singer has filmed footage of raw
natural beauty, as when a herd of
sheep are driven over a cliff. But
he has not succeeded in allowing
this harsh primitivism to dominate
the more "slick" portions of his
film. The figures in Hardy's novel
are enclosed within their natural
setting.
Only when we perceive the
servere limitations of human life
by an omnipresent natural fa-
tality, do the multiple coincidences
become believable. Only by sus-
tained combat with this fatal
atmosphere, do the pastoral virtues
which. Hardy celebrates seem
noble. Schlesinger has created a
sitting which ishmerely pictures-
que, and so, the shepherd-hero
becomes insipid.
The characterization, that other
"half" of the film, is equally weak.
It is difficult to believe that a
movie starring Miss Christie, Alan
Bates, Terrance Stamp, and Peter
Finch could suffer from a lack of
character-strength. It is not the
Strengthening." Holy Communion will
be celebrated. 6:00 p.m.-Fellowship
supper, 6:45 p.m.-Gamma Delta pro-
gram-"The Church-Related College."
University Forum, Feb. 25, 10 a.m.,
Friend's Center, 1416 Hill, "Inevitably
-Sex: So What's So Special about
That." Discussion leader, George Mink.
THE VOYAGE OF THE PHOENIX
A Canadian Broadcasting Co. documentary color film-showing the
humanitarian voyage of the Phoenix to carry medicine to VIETNAM.
HORACE CHAMPNEY (one who was on the voyage) will also be on
hand for questions and discussion. (The film will be shown at 8 P.M.)
$1.00 cover includes entertainment and refreshments!
FROM THE COPACABANA IN
NEW YORK
to the WATERFALL
Tom and Glenn, "Variety Unlimited"
STARTING SAT.,,FEB. 24
/Wfffe~ Wate 6a/
261 W. Stadium
For reservations call 662-2545
Subscribe to The Michigan Daily
-A-- - -L--E- - A-- - - - O- - i N
result of too much subtlety, how-
ever.
Both Hardy, and his disciple in
film, make use of sharply delinea-
ted, "typed" characterization. But
there is a difference in what the
types are attempting to represent.
Schlesinger seems to have con-
fused Hardy's Victorian stance
with the more optimistic Victor-
ianiam of Charles Dickens. But
the comic and the dramactic
stereotype are not interchange-
able. The Victorian town which
Schlesinger depicts is quaint, ra-
ther than archaic. The rustic farm
workers are indeed simple "folk,"
but they lack any natural evil
admixed with their natural good.
In simplifying his characters,
Schlesinger has distilled most of
the passion from Hardy's Biblical
archetypes. The heroic vanity of
Bathsheba is reduced to a faint
pout on Julie Christie's mouth.
And her passion is equally lim-
ited, appearing only in one scene,
in which she shouts the name
"Frank" 47 separate times over
her husband's body.
Most disturbing, however, is the
self-conscious use of the cam-
era. At times, it appears as a to-
tally subjective eye. At other
times, there is a deliberate attempt
at visual poetry, as when the "se-
duction" of Bathsheba is accom-
plished. But such attempts are
- - -- - -- -
3029 Washtenaw, Ph. 434-1782
Between Ypsilanti and Ann Arbor
unevenly employed, and scattered
among the most conventional
style of narrative plot.
Lacking a sustained filmic im-
agery, we are usually left with the
attempts by the individual per-
formers to make evident the emo-
tional upheaval involved in each
scene. With the exception of Pe-
ter Finch, who makes plausible
an almost unbelievable passion,
the actors also fail to "bring it
off."
MA'K *J
A NEW COFFEE HOUSE
Open Daily 9 A.M.1 12 P.M.
605 EAST WILLIAM
Presents:
Musica An t/qua
Rennaissance, Medieval,
Barroque Quintet
Friday-Saturday-Sunday
February 23, 24, 25
$1.50 admission for Entertainment
0
4
THIRD
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FOX EASTERN THEATRESi a
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DOORS OPEN-Mon.-Fri. 6:30 p.m. Sat. 2:50 p.m. Sun. 12:45 p.m.
ADVANCE TICKETS: Sat.-Sun. 5:30-7:00 show Saturday only
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AWARD
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IN 7Orn,,.. PANAVISION" - MEl POCOLOR MOM
INCLUDING
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Shows of
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Mats. $1.50
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WTE hn biOmi E P MWand ROBERT BENTON1-Poduced by WARREN BEAM-Y 0 ed by ARTHUR PEI'
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* BEST ACTRESS *
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Wed., Sat., Sun. 1-35-7-9
Mon., Tues., Thur., Fri., 7-9
A RFaN''_D5_Retease
NEXT: "THE UNINHIBITED"
JOSEPH E LEVINE
MIKE NICHOLS
LAWRENCE TURMAN
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II
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WHAT OTHER WAR HAS GOTT
SUCH GREAT REVIEWS?
Mon. thru Thurs: 7-9; Fri and Sat.: 1-3-5-7-9-11
Sun.: "Sneak" - 9:00; "War" - 1-3-5-7-10:20
EN
e 4(Beatle) 90
CINEMA II
"THE BRIDGES
OF TOKO-RI"
with WILLIAM HOLDEN &r MICKEY ROONEY
"QUALITY AND IM
"WWII WITHOUT I
"I WOULD LIKE TO
n, A P TlI
PAG. T
--Ellen Frank, Michigan Daily
ITS PANTS ON"
- Ramparts Magazine
SEE IT 20 TIMES!",
- San Francisco Chronicle
1 it ... .. ?. .. .. ..r r:9 ,
Sugestd
THE GRADUATE
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