Page Two
THE MICHIGAN DAILY
Saturday, September 28, 1'968
Page Two' THE MICHIGAN DAILY Saturday, September 28, 1968
records
'Super Session'
Dear Sherri:
- ELN'1'TAINMENT1? -
In defense of the maize and bleh
and
By LITTLE SHERRI FUNN
I
i
Super Expert
Perhaps the most important concept that has enabled rock music
to, evolve into the incredibly varied and creative forms we hear today
is the concept of the group.
The group. Three, four, five, eight guys (girls) living part of
the same live, alternately clashing and meshing personalities, creating
a music out of what they believe together and individually. Creation
of a ;whole greater than the sum of the individual parts.
Historical Aside. The Beatles gave us this kind of group. When
everybody's forgotten the words to "In My Life" rock will still be
profoundly affected by their idea of cooperative creation.
So the-best music to appear in the last four years has been group
music. But musical groupA have several inherent problems facing
themA and these problems lie at the roots of much of what's wrong
with the rock scene today.
,The problems that bands encounter are usually closely related
to their evolution. For example, a bunch of musicians gravitate to-
gether. A leader emerges. Conflicts develop. Jealousy runs rampant.
The touring- grind wears down built-in protection devices and
tempers flare. Some members figure that it's not worth the hassle.
Some members want the group to go in different musical directions.
Some object.
The group eventually splinters into fragments of dejected, dis-
gusted, but still extremely talented musicians. Musicians with nowhere
to go.
Again and again this pattern has repeated itself. It's happened to
everybody from the Beach Boys to Cream, from the Byrds to the
Gary Burton Quartet.
The thing that has bothered me about groups breaking up hasn't
been the acutal splintering process, for that must be inevitable, but
rather the loss of what the fragments could have created. The high-
powered, go gett'em, fat/bald businessmen who control most of the
rock industry are not interested in, say, Neil Young because he's pos-
sibly the best composer of the decade. They are interested in how
much money Buffalo Springfield made for them. So when Young
leaves the Springfield, he drops opt of sight.
But there appears, on the surface anyway, to be some change in
this attitude now, and it's exemplified by the release of Super Session,
CS 9701, featuring Mike Bloomfield, Steve Stills and Al Kooper on
Columbia. Each of these men is a fragment of former groups. None
of them is ready for retirement and all of them, especially Stills, are
desperately needed today.
The important aspect of this album is not its technical facility,
o& its-creativity, because on those scales the album is a failure.
Its distinguishing factor is that it is an attempt, however feeble,
to recognize the potential of musicians outside of the group scene.
And hopefully, much of future rock will lie therein.
Let's look for a moment at the album as it stands by iself.
I continue to be mystified by the choice of Steve Stills along with
Kooper and Bloomfield as the feature attractions. I suppose this
is because I consider Stills to be on , an infinitely higher plane, both
as a musician and a man, than the other two.
Stills' style is one of conciseness. He is not given to long, drawn
out, boring bluesy cuts as are the other two. He tells you how he
feels and get offstage.
Listen to hie work on Buffalo Springfield Again and Last Time
Around if you want to hear his particular genius. You won't find
it on Super Session. The only conceivable reason for him to be in-
cluded on this album is that he would help sales. He did. The album's
selling well.
As for the others, I confess I've never trusted Al Kooper. I think
he's a phoney, a long haired fat/bald business man, and a mediocre
organist. He is currently an a and r man for Columbia, taking the
post after he left Blood, Sweat and Tears last spring.
He produced the, album in his own inimitable manner, char-
acterized by poor mixing, poor arrangements and poor use of horns.
Kopper may very well, be the king of high class schlock-rock. He
wrote ."This Diamond Ring" several years ago and he has yet to
progress. He's smart, so hie makes a lot of money. But that's all.
Bloomfield is, of course, the supposed cream of the crop of white
bluesmen. That's sort of a dubious honor anyway, if you think about
it, so I wont' spend any time telling you that I think he has always
been overrated, monotonous and sterile.
The other musicians on the album aren't so hot either. ,Eddie Hoh
on drums really stinks. I could hardly believe anyone that bad could
get paid for his work. He can hardly keep a steady beat.
Harvey Brooks on electric bass is the same Harvey Brooks who
puts us to 'leep on A Long Time Comin'. He's one of the most un-
creative, boring, obnoxious bass players of our time.
f rKooper notes on the back of the album that he added horns'as an
afterthought, and it sounds like it. They don't have much relevance
to what is goingion and they destroy part of the idea that this album
is purely jam without the intrusion of studio work.
Again, I think it must have been Kooper's idea of what is contem-
porary to include them.
So the album isn't much. It ,merely serves as a milestone, along
with Grape Jam on the road that could lead to new horizons for rock.
Perhaps the day is not too remote when enough contractual agree-
ments disappear, when recording people lose some false pride, and
when itnerest in music rather than money becomes paramount.
Maybe we'll see .Paul McCartney, Jim McGuinn, Neil Young, Skip
Spence, and John Sebastian in on a recording session.
S VITOW'S NOTE: Innocent,
Little Sherri Funn unwittedly un-
leashed a wrathful of criticism
with "Let's hear it for 'U' enter-
tainment: Bleb!" (sept. 25) Re-
sponse has been running five to
two against poor Sherri, who com-
mented late last night, "Ooly papa
cow papa cow papa cow cow." And
furthermore, "Lew duh Jew duh
Iew dub lew duh Iew, yeah."
To the Editor:
"Everyone to his own taste,"
said the old lady as she kissed
the cow. How appropriate this
adage is. It's not that the Uni-
versity has lost its taste, but
that "Little Sherri," the Daily's
"taste expert", has a .miscon-
ception of what it is.
Obviously, her viewpoint ex-
pressed in "Bleh" is not repre-
sentative of the majority of the
students, nor does it have to be.
However, her impractical sug-
iestions for possible entertain-
ment show little prescience for
the processes involved in bring-
ing talent to the University.
It is true that a place such as
Canterbury House provides a
more intimate atmosphere for
an entertainer, b u t not even
"Little Sherri" could afford to
sponsor Aretha Franklin any-
where else but the Events Bldg.
In reference to the "money-
mongers;" who doesn't like to
make money? If she were at all
familiar with the financial as-
pects involved in these concerts,
she would realize t h a t their
"raison d'etre" was not strictly
monetary, for the profits are
usually negligible and used for
worthy causes.
Pleasing as "Little Sherri's
dreams may be, the introduction
of Sly and the Family Stone's
billion volt amplifiers to Canter-
bury House's single outlet would
blow Maynard Street right off
the map. Woe to the Daily.
-Joanne Miller, Bob Hope
Co-chairman
-Cindy Merry,
Promotions-Musket
Too much .".
Sirs:
I would like to express my
appreciation to The Daily for
providing University students
with such true-life, smashing,
unadulterated unexpurgated and
objective articles. One such a
splendid piece of material was
the five-colpmn spread, "Let's
Hear it for 'U' Entertainment:
BLEH!"
Assuming that it was not
, written by a delirium-ridden
English 123 freshman, (am I
correct?), I find it so refresh-
ingly dull-minded and narrow
that I am having a hard time
figuring out by whom such ex-
quisite prose was written. The
by-line certainly suggests a
rather playful personage - a,
"taste expert" such as Miss Funn
is obviously unhindered in her
evaluations by any sort of cog-
-Daily-Eric Pergeauxj
Sherri*
Arf Bleh
Right
nitive processes, as it appears
she was able to formulate her
"tastes" spontaneously through
an apparent lack of fore-
thought.
To put into effect such intel-
ligent ideas, as Miss Funn has
adeptly displayed through her
rough-draft article, I would like
to suggest that the 'U' do away
with Soph Show and Musket,
for obviously, these "bourgeois"
endeavors are far beneath the
dignity of the 'GREAT U.'
Perhaps, in their stead, we
could have campus-wide "bana-
na blasts" - similar to those
held in quads - or even a
"Sick-In," where a 11 'students
could jointly regurgitate, (to
the thundering beat of Procol
Harum), over some of the ar-
ticles audaciously displayed in
Tht Daily. Perhaps these are
more to Miss Funn's liking. I,
hoped there would be intelligent
write-ups covering the excellent
entertainment to appear at the
Events Bldg. this year. (Or does
Miss Funn have a better sug-
gestion for entertaining the
campus population?)
This article was not in keep-
ing with The Daily's usually in-
formative type of feature (or
editorial) article. I had wanted
to read some intelligent com-
mentary on upcoming entertain-
ment but I see that " . . . it
was too much to hope for."
-Dennis Faleris, '71
TO hope for
Sirs:
Once again The Michigan
Daily has reinforced its reputa-
tion for biased reporting based
almost entirely on ignorance
and lack of tact.
"Little Sherri Funn's" article
on "'U' Entertainment: Bleh!"
is probably the most tasteless,
grossly ignorant a n d tactless
piece of journalism nonsense to
slap the face of your readers
yet.
The very fact that such an
amateurish effort was allowed
to be printed is an insult to your
editorial staff.
Ifit was serious, it is a dis-
grace. If it was intended as sar-
casm, it was, to say the least,
a regrettable attempt. Miss
"Funn" certainly should have
the right to her personal tastes
regarding entertainment - all
I ask is that the rest of the pub-
lic be allowed theirs too.
I had hoped that the sub-
stantial gains in professional en-
tertainment this year might be
accompanied by enlightened re-
viewing by our local aspiring
journalists: I had hoped that
The Michigan Daily would live
up to its reputation as a "pro-
fessional" -college newspaper.
Unfortunately,,. . . "it was too
much to hope for."
-Rich McCullen, '71
Hoping again
Dear Little Sherri Funn,
If you are what The Daily
considers a taste expert, no won-
der people wrap their garbage
with the latest edition. From
"dust to dust," as the saying
goes, certainly applies here.
If you don't like the enter-
tainment being presented to the
campus, why not do something
about it instead of complaining?
Try bringing your kind of peo-
ple h e r e for a concert. You
might then have some authority
and knowledge with which to
write your article.
You might learn, for example,
that the Calendaring Commit-
tee will assign, you one date on
which to hold your concert, and
from there you must find an en-
tertainer who is willing and
available to come.
And you might learn that en-
tertainers like Aretha Franklin
do not work out of the goodnessx
of their hearts.
And you might realize that
the Special Events "Barn" is
the only place where you could,
sell enough tickets to merely
cover your expenses.
But being bull-headed, y o u
would 'try for a somewhat more
personal atmosphere- You might
rent Hill Aud. And then you
might see the reaction you get
vwhen you tell a quaddie that
you are sorry he won't get to
see the "greatest music, festival
in the Midwest" because you
are all sold out.
And y o u might learn that
your taste is just as bleh to
someone else as theirs is to you
when you get calls and letters
asking you when is this campus
going to get some real enter-
tainment like Bob Hope or Har-
ry Belafonte.
And you might learn to stand
up for your convictions instead
of hiding behind some ridiculous
phony name.
You might 1 e a r n all these
things, Sherri. But somehow I
think it would be too much to
hope for.
Sincerely,
-Carol Gardner, '70
Casting stones
Dear Editor,
I attended the Bob Hope Show
and enjoyed it very much. It
was with much surprise that I
turned to The Daily the next
day and found no critical re-
views on this show.
In your paper of Sept. 25,
however, I find Little Sherri
Funn, your "taste expert" 'de-
nouncing the Bob Hope show.
She called it "bleh."
Just what does "bleh" mean
to you? And what's this little
bit about "bourgeois students?"
Right.
You and your newspaper staff
probably would enjoy hearing a
concert by "The Dead" (sic)
and "Sly and the Family Stone."
For that is what you all are:
Dead in culture, sly in getting
what you want to get printed
in your "newspaper," and in my
opinion, are stoned out of your
minds.
-Barbara Patterson., '71
Good question
Bleh! Amen. How did they
ever overlook Lawrence Welk?
- G. Marsh '69
Skelton next
Dear Editor,
Let's hear it for Little Sherri
Funn. I came to the University
from a small midwest college
whose idea of entertainment is
The Brothers Four and The Let-
termen. Its Homecoming com-
mittees never had enough money
for Carson or Hope. But now
that I am at the big 'U', it's
nothing but the best. If I stay
until next year can I count on
Red Skelton, maybe?
-Bill Brashler, 69
3020 Washtenaw, Ph. 434-1782
Between Ypsilanti & Ann Arbor
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