Page Two THE MICHIGAN DAILY Friday, September 13, 1968 Pxge Two THE MICHIGAN DAILY Friday, September 1 3, 1968 records Pink Byrds root root whoopee yes cinema 'Therese, Isabelle': Odd couple ;,mss , . By LITTLE SUZY FUNN Roots Expert Whenever a rock album is really new and good, it has some- thing to do with roots. It either goes back to them completely and adds a little polish and maybe some new instrumentation (like the blues band bunch) or it jumps back 10 years and takes everything and shuffles it all up and puts it together its own way (like the first Beatles' stuff.) Most - rock has been considering black music as its roots ever since the British revival. (Exception: the Loving Spoonful, especial- ly onHums.) But recently, thanks nostly to Dylan and the Byrds the Country Western half of rock is getting pulled up and worked over in some good new sides. The Byrds are the group that's probably best qualified to bring the mountains back to rock. Roger (nee Jim) McGuinn is an ex-folkie (you can see him playing guitar on the cover of The hiad Mitchell Trio Live at The Bitter End.) The bassist, Chris Hiliman; is an ex-cowboy, and, more important, used to play man- dolin for C&W groups before he was with the Byrds. Kevin Kelly, the drums, is good. And the new guy (who's left the group since the album was cut) 'ram Parsons, is a veteran of the International Submarine Band,'a C&W bunch. 'The Byrds used to be sort of tied down by Dave Crosby (he was the sort of embarrassing one, 'who used to jump up and down and giggle and screw up their live performances). But McGuinn threw him out and picked up Parsons and that's nice, too.f The Byrds have always been such a total sound, such a group,< that it's hard to talk about them in terms of changes: They stay the same through it all. You hear the Stones do "Ruby Tuesday" and then "Street Fighting Man" and you're not sure it's the same -people. But the Byrds change all their people (only two of the original five remain) and do different stuff and its still unmis- .takeably them: their group personality is much stronger than differences-in specific material. So, after fooling around with C&W for a long time (hear any of -Hillman's songs on the early albums) they really get into it on their new album Sweetheart of the Rodeo (Columbia CS 9670). They went down to Nashville and picked up some session men for steel guitar and fiddle (one of them, Jaydee Marness, had been doing some of their personal appearances in L.A.) and came up wit h a pure C&W sound that is still the Byrds. They're back to their roots and they do it great. The whole album is a demon-- stration of the power of C&W through the power of the Byrds. They do what they want to-there isn't any distance between the concept and the performance and it's all right there. The only places they fall down are on the first two cuts. They turn in their usual unimpressive version of a Dylan song (not counting Mr. Tambourine Man) on "You Ain't Going Nowhere" (although this is a notch above "My Back Pages" or "The Times They Are A-Changing"). On the second cut, "I Am a Pilgrim," you're reminded for a minute of some of their other long, mono- tonous bad cuts (remember "Mind Garden?") But once again, it's better. They don't get quite as lost in it. ° The rest of the album is just sweet music. No flaws. Perfect Byrds. Listen to it. Crackers, or The Hawks, or Band, or whoever they are, go back to the roots in Music From Big Pink (Capitol SKAO 2955) and take the other way-they mix them all up and put them back together and come up with something that's pretty unsettling and all their own. (The reports of their association with Dylan have been greatly exaggerated-they played with him on one tour, in Europe, and some members have backed him up on a few albums.) They're much, much harder to get into than the Byrds, be- cause they're a newer thing and because they're not as clean and they're not as communicative. It's already a cliche about them that the more you listen the more you like them ("Hey, I bought the album and at first I thought it stunk but now-wow!") But I'm stillskeptical even after five or six times through. SThere's -a. tendency in the rock scene to make difficulty a virtue for no good reason. When Dr. John the Night Tripper came out people were saying the same kinds of things about it that they're about Big Pink now. And Dr. John really wasn't so hot-he was just a lot of stuff thrown together that didn't work. A lot of people seem to get wrapped up in an illusion of texture that's very hard to avoid after a few listenings to Big Pink. The imusic is very complex and builds up a lot of tension between the high v6cals and the piano and everything else. When you first hear the album it's hard to put everything together in your mind. But because everyone has told you to listen to it a lot before you decide, you do. And that's where you have to watch out for the illusion to come In. There's a certain nice feeling that you get when you're very familiar with a song that you're listening to, especially rock songs. You get so you can anticipate all the little changes in the record and you set yourself up to make the right responses to them. And you put everything together in your mind so-it sounds right just because it comes when you expect it to. So, in Big Pink, you can get used to the way the vocals don't work with the rest of the music and it can sound right to you so you think it's "texture" and it's all right. This isn't to say that Big Pink doesn't have texture or that it isn't good. Some of the cuts-Dylan's "The Weight" is the best- use the texture really well. But with much of the rest of the album its just an illusion. There seems to be a distance on this album between what the group was trying to do and what they came out with. Something that could never find on a Byrds album. With the Byrds every- thing is precise even when it's dischordant: you know they're doing what they wanted. With the Band on Big Pink everything is tentative, searching for something it doesn't quite find. When it does find it, like in "The Weight," it's fine, too. But when it doesn't make it, like in most of the rest of the album, it sort of disinte- grates. The.music is a bit too loose,, too ready to fall apart at the seams. Only the quality of the material and the individual talents of the group save it. Even though second albums are usually not so hot for a group with a new sound, it's just possible that these guys could, pull themselves together and turi out a good thing. They've got the . By HENRY GRIX stuff-they only need to work it+ will turn out all right. out some more. I trust everything Hang'ponHn By THOMAS R. COPI But no matter how much one In the past few years, Clint enjoys the strong, silent sinis-. Eastwood has starred in three ter character Eastwood plays, it is readily evident that he i Westerns, all of which were isredyeven th h is Westrnsallof wich ere unable to carry on entire film quite good in their own way. on his own. One of the things about these So many of the scenes in movies that made them better Hang 'Em High were copied than just average shoot-'em-ups after the other movies that it was the facility of the director only served to heighten the dis- in developing his characters. appointment when they didn't Also, in each case, a rather add up to the same excitement average plot was made interest- and interest of the other movies. ing by the addition of a few Clint Eastwood, it seems, is novel twists. All three of the indestructible. He can march films-A Fistful of Dollars, For endlessly across deserts, survive a Few Dollars More; and The brutal beatings, get shot in the Good,, the Bad and the Ugly, back, and always, but always, were' shot on location in Italy- bounce back to sling his gun The photography was good and again. He survived at least one the editing sharp - which kept of these things in each of the the action fast (or at least previous films. But Hang 'Em smooth). High stretches this superman Of all the various things facet of our hero well past the which made the three previous point of belief: not only does he Clint Eastwood movies good, his survive all the above tortures, latest, Hang 'Em High, adopts but in the opening scene, he is only one: Clint Eastwood. lynched and left hanging-and "I really thing The Fox was more disgusting," I heard a woman say as she filed through the crowd waiting to see the second revelation of Therese and Isabelle. The lady's remark would have undoubtedly disappointed Rad- ley Metzger, the producer-direc- tor of Therese and Isabelle (and I, A Woman and Carmen Baby), whose latest skin flick promises to make "The Fox look like a milk fed puppy." On the other hand, Metzger probably doesn't care what peo- ple say about his movies as long as they pay to get in. The Campus Theatre drew a large, mostly male, mostly- quaddie audience last night. And undoubtedly the audience got what it paid for: a lurid peek between the sheets lesbians sleep in. Metzger must have sagac- iously understood that The Fox was the wave of the immediate S'EHigh' still lives. This is never explain- ed, and somehow tends to harm the credibility of the whole film. In order to more effectively pursue the men who lynched him, Eastwood becomes a Fed- eral Marshal. But he is under strict instructions to bring the men in to face trial, instead of dishing out to them their own brand of justice. And this is what the movie is basically all about-explaining the difference between being hung in the village square after a court trial and being lynched on the prairie. One of the signs of a good di- rector is that he is able to have his story make his point - he doesn't have to resort to moral- izing in the dialogue. But after a while, director Ted Post makes Hang 'Em High begin to sound like a lecture in legal ethics, not exactly the sort of thing which contributes toward making a Western movie exciting. future to tease and please the evergrowing number of "art" theatre-goers. He p r o p e r 1 y blends shock, sex, and purple- prose dialogue in an artful pab- lum that is visually breathtak- ing and intellectually repulsive. Therese (Essy Persson, of 1, A Woman fame) is a lonely adolescent, who is jolted out of her mother's bed when mommy finds a replacement. Stepfather shoves Therese into the ascetic surroundings of a 13th century girls' boarding school on the outskirts of Paris. There, Miss Persson encount- ers Isabelle (Anna Gaol), a mysterious and lovely pioduct of a broken home, who freezes when Therese pries innocently into her sexual history. But Isa- belle bears an unsubtle resemb- lance to Therese's mother. Metzger takes it from there: the inevitable masturbation scene (accompanied by heavy breathing), homosexual necking in the chapel C'I stormed her mouth like abeleagured city"), languorous nights in Isabelle's dorm room ("She was receiv- ing the little male organ.") Unfortunately most of the 3020 Washtenaw. Ph. 434-1782 Between Ypsilanti and Ann Arbor IN COLD BLOOD Wrinenfor the screen anddirected by Richard Brooks A Columbia Pictures Release In Ponovisian "IRRESISTIBLEI"-L1F t Ifu film is pathetic. The only thing. that develops in the girls' rela- tionship as they go along is their carnal knowledge of each other. Metzger's cameras prefer to spend their time examining bodies than exploring minds. He chooses two starlets, obviously in their twenties, who have nothing to recommend them for the delicate acting job required, except ample bosoms. They neither look nor act like h i g h school girls, under their heavy masks of make-up. Although much of the photo- graphy is reminiscent of Truf- faut, the unsympathetic and lewd dissection of the lives of the helpless, perverted girls is the work of no master. If Metzger had produced pornography in an earnest ef- fort to understand a social dis- ease, his work could possibly be excused. But he undoubtedly calculated what he was doing. Lesbians are good box-office draws. 4 _ _ _ _ SEE FORMER U. OF M. ALL AMERICAN SEPTEMBER 14, 7:30 P.M. AT THE ANN ARBOR HIGH SCHOOL Sponsored by Huron Valley Youth for Christ #A SIZZLER FROM FRANCE, Therese and Isabelle' will be the most talked-about movie arounid." S-WINS RADIO i4/I * BBADLE M GEC.IR 9, 1537:11ULY X.E GE ~STGEEO FOR TRE AUOENCES j (t GUILD HOUSE 802 Monroe Friday, Sept. 13 Noon Luncheon 25c JAMES LESCH, Academic Affairs: ,"Issues in Higher Education" .: .::r MISSED US?? O r anl group to meet here The eighth annual conference on Organ Music will be held here Sept. 22-24. Around 75 teachers and stu- dents of organ. are expected to attend the conference, which is being sponsored by the music school and the extension service. MIXER ALL CAMPUS WEST QUAD Friday, Sept. 13 Auditions for UAC Musket CAMELOl THURSDAY thru SATURDAY SEPT. 12-14 BASEMENT OF UNION All necessary information aboi late sign-ups at Musket Offic UAC wing-2nd floor of Unio THURSDAY and FRIDAY KING - _AND COUNTRY, Dir. Joseph Losey, 1964 Private Hamp (Tom Courtney) volunteered for active duty in the WW I British army because "the wife and her mother dared me." After three years of service in France, Hamp deserts. He is caught, court- rmartialed, and condemned to death by officers intent on making an example of him. The defending officer in the court-martial, Cap- tain Hargreaves (Dirk Bogarde) is at first antago- nistic toward Hamp, but during the trial he realizes that Hamp had reacted in a human way to an in- human situation. When the firing squad's volley fails to kill Hamp, Hargreaves, in the final bit of irony, is forced to personally conclude the execution. Ut e, 7:00 & 9:05 ARCHITECTURE )n 662-8871 I AUDITORIUM NOTICE: qSE TO ZORBA LAST WEEK, THE Vth FORUM HAS MADE M BACK AGAIN BEFORE HE RETIRES. YES, THE OLD S BEING WITHDRAWN FROM CIRCULATION LATER AST CHANCE TO SEE THE GREEK 1L BA THE GREEK tDECIDED MUST-SEE! nthony Quinn's Zorba possesses all the energies nd urges of the great ones of history and myth." -s-Bosley Crowther, NewYork Times Od uproarious Bacchanalian bash." --Time Magazine starring ESSY PERSSON (1. A Woman') as Therese NATIONAL a~N5RAL CORPORATION NOW SHOWING NATIONAL GENERAL CORPORATION FOX EASTERN THEATRES FO0K VLL a-76-130t 375 No. MAPLE RD. "769.1300 Mon.-Fri.-7:00-9:00 Sat.-Sun.-1:45-3:30 5:15-7:00-9:00 Conference events will be in Girls 92 Gus Hill Aud except for an opening Grl 9 eGMs - recital, the 18 Chorales of Bach, Free . . 0c to be given by 'Prof. Marilyn Mason of the music school in FEATURING the Chapel of Concordia College, 4090 Geddes Road. She will be OPUS SIX assisted by the Chamber Choir, with Thomas Hilbish, conductor. ' Peace-Freedom Garskof for Congress Planning Meeting Meet Candidate Fridays Sept. 1,3x, Union Room 3R, 3:00 New Politics Party Sponsored by Friends of CNP CINEMA II PRESENTS "REQUIEM CA~D A A BECAUSE OF THE STAGGERING RESPON SPECIAL ARRANGEMENTS TO BRING HI MAN IS BEING RETIRED-THE MOVIE I- THIS MONTH-THIS MAY BE YOUR L) ZORBA i TONITE!! 11:00 P.M. ONLY THE DIRECTOR OF "ROSEMARY'SBABY" BRINGS BACK TO THE SCREEN Tickets on Sale at 7:00 P.M.-Show at 11:00 P.M. "A tour-dee sex and ROMAN POLANSKF'S suspense!" ACADEMY AWARDS ANTHONY QUINN ALAN BATES Irgk it-rrAA "'ZOl IS A A ra "A gran :, Vu mm 0TT- i I I. - I