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Page Two
THE MICHIGAN DAILY
PaewoTH M CH GA D IL
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Mama
By FUNNY LITTLE FREDDY
Bob Dylan went on down to
Nashville for the third time in
as many years and made him-
self a brand new record for us.
He chose to call it Nashville
Skyline (KCS 9825) and he put
a lovely picture of him and his
guitar on the front.
On the back are liner notes
by a part-Cherokee fellow nam-
ed Cash and a picture of the
Nashville skyline. On the record
are ten songs, each one good
standing alone and magnificent
Dylan can
be
standing together. Mama Dylan
up in Hibbing can sure be proud
of what her boy has done this
time.
Mr. Dylan can be approached
critically from a number of an-
gels and most of them stink.
Amateur ethnographers, a nick-
el apiece and mostly under 25,
find it a consistent delight to
dissect his "progress" from al-
bum to album with words like
"trends" and metaphors t h a t
would wrinkle a hair shirt. He is
discussed in learned circles by
those who should know better
with regards to his being a
spokesman for a generation or
a "poet" (God forbid) or a me-
Oia-bending showman who sings
like a penny whistle with a
hernia. Ho ho.
We've laughed at that non-
sense for a long time and now
is certainly no time to get
caught up in it ourselves. If
we do, and sanity evaporates,
there could conceivably be a
course someday at some college
called "The Development of
Metaphor in Bob Dylan's Poetry
And How We Should Take This
Strange Young Man Anyway."
But we are sane, to be sure.
(Yes, but fair is fair. The best
thing to read to get you from
his first album to John Wesley
Harding is an article that show-
ed up about a year ago in Craw-
daddy by Jon Landau. In the
jargon, "Be Advised.")
We won't talk about how this
album is different from all of
the past ones, how it's a logical
extension of what has gone be-
fore, how it's the artistry of a
man who has come toknow that
indeed there. is nothing else
than what is here. We will
scarcely spend time castigating
critics with intellectual stardust
in their eyes for making Mr. Dy-
lan something other than the
rock and roll star he really is.
We will give altogether no simple
answers to stupid questions that
better go unspoken.
You still out there? The thing
that has made Mr. Dylan what
he is can probably best be ex-
plained by relating how my cat
Frank and I reacted upon view-
ing thte Nashville Skyline re-
cord cover for the first time. We
both felt that it was a present
just for us, that Mr. Dylan had
seen to us and our needs in his
remarkable way and was seeking
now to comfort and warm us.
It is this personal subversion
that anchors Mr. Dylan's suc-
)cess as a writer and singer. He
has given us a free gift. (Are
you listening?) Free gifts al-
ways make people uneasy, look
how they react to life for exam-
ple, but they are remarkable un-
to themselves. Mr. Dylan has
bled for us (Let me explain that
he actually bled for himself, but
we made it seem like he bled for
us. In real life, everybody winds
up bleeding for lthemselevs any-
way.) in the past and now is
source of easy laughter and
glowing beauty.
The substance of Nashville,
Skyline is its songs and those
songs are the substance of Mr.
Dylan,. He opens up the al-
bum with Johnny Cash in an
unrehearsed duet of his "G i r l
from the North Country" that
has the power to set you
straight again no matter how
out of whack you think you are.
And so on through an instru-
mental and more songs, the
proud
most towering of which is "Lay
Lady Lay" and my personal
(yes, my 'personal', how im-
portant can I make that) fa-
vorite "I Threw It All Away."
The musicians on all the songs
are predictably named and tal-
ented. The old group of Kenny
Buttrey, Charlie McCoy, and
Pete Drake are together again,
smooth as honey.
It is a rich album, one that is
properly accessible but with
enough loopholes to satisfy the
most obstinate of the "poetry"
lovers. It will be discussed t o o
often I think, so do what you
can to get people to shut up and
listen.
Excuse me for a moment, but
do you know about maple sap?
When it first comes out of the
tree it's very thin and almost
transparent. A guy takes 60 gal-
lons of it and puts it on the
stove. He boils it all night and
it gradually turns browner and
thicker. He adds nothing b u t
heat.
If the man falls asleep and
isn't able to turn off the heat
at the correct moment, t h e
sap turns into maple candy or
more probably burns up on the
bottom of the pan. But if he
gets it right, he has nice hot sy-
rup on his pancackes for break-
fast. .
It takes 60 gallons of sap to
make one gallon of syrup.
Atthe beginning of "To Be
Alone With You" on Nashville
Skyline, Bob Dylan says to his
producer Mi. Johnston, "Is it
rolling, Bob?" It is.
Firsts mark 76th
'U' May Festival
Several "firsts" mark the 76th
Annual May Festival sponsored
by the University Musical So-
ciety. The opening concert is
scheduled for Thursday evening,
April 24th, and the last of the
five concerts planned for Sun-
day evening, April 27th. As us-
ual, the Philadelphia Orchestra
will fill the Hill Auditorium
stage and will be led by both
Eugene Ormandy and visiting
conductor Thor Johnson.
Of special interest to students
will be the new $1.00 "R u s h
Tickets" available between 5:00
and 6:00 p.m. the day of each
concert. These tickets do not
mean the back of the hall, but
rather that the UMS will be
filling all unsold seats, includ-
ing many in .the prime main
floor sections. Quite openly, this
experiment seeks to attract
more students into Hill Aud.,
and the continuation of "Rush
Tickets" will depend upon the
success of this month's offer.
Other "firsts" involve artists
making their Ann Arbor debut.
Regine Crespin, famed Metro-
politan prima donna, will be
performing Ravel's Sheherazade,
a work she has successfully re-
corded, and Beethoven's a r i a,
"Ah, Perfido." Also appearing
for the first time in Ann Ar-
bor will be the powerful German
pianist Hans Richter-Haaser
The oft-recorded and excel-
lent Swiss soprano Maria Stad-
er will be singing along with
John McCollum and Willis Pat-
terson from the School of
Music in Schubert's Mass in A-
flat, No. 5. Zara Nelsova w i l l
perform the Elgar Cello Con-
certo and the young American
mezzo soprano Joanna Simon
will sing Pantasilea's aria from
Ginastera's Bomarzo, a work in
the world premiere of which
Miss Simon sang. Ginastera's
Psalm No. 150 shall be rendered
by the University Choral Union.
The Philadelphia Orchestra
shall be presenting symphonic
fare including Mahler's 1st.
Ives' 3rd, Prokovieff's 1st, Mo-
zart's 31st, and Debussy's La
Mer, all conducted by Eugene
Ormandy. The specific arrange-
ment of each program and their
days of performance, as well as
ticket information, may be ob-
tained from the University Mu-
sical Society's offices in Burton
Tower.
For the student seeking a re-
spite from exam studies, the
May Festival offers a relaxing
and ocdasionally inspiring even-
ing's entertainment, and with
the inauguration of "R u s h
Tickets," ai inexpensive refuge
from the library.
ANN ARBOR
BLUES FESTIVAL
THE PREVIEW
LUTHER ALLISON
CHICAGO BLUES BAND
FREE
UNION BALLROOM
MONDAY, APRIL 21 -
Sponsored by
U jD and CANTERBURY HOUSE
"What' gou bo still betters what d is l.,
,.
1
playing the Chopin
Concerto, and leading
politan tenor Richard ']
arias by Mozart, Hande
beer, and Respighi.
E-minor
Metro-
tucker in
4, Meyer- Program Informati
SHOWS AT 1,
fest YTODAY IS LAI
SLadies Day (
Until 6 F
Jon 662-6264
Winners~of 8mm film
Stilwell has an.ear
By LARRY RUSS
Professor Robert Stilwell gave
a poetry reading at the UGLI
yesterday. It was the last of the
series of poetry readings for this
semester. Before going on to
discuss the readings at hand,
I think that Professor 'Burt
Hornback should be thanked
very much for his work in ar-
ranging the series (work which
he will be continuing next se-
mester).
A few weeks ago Professor
Stilwell gave a guest lecture in
Donald Hall's Introduction to
Poetry course on "The Evalua-
tion of Poetry." I mention this
because there were a couple of
relevant things that I became
aware of during that class.
The first thing was Professor
Stilwell's sensitivity .and his
aura of kindness. I believe that
it was apparent at the reading.
And it's about time that people
stopped thinking that a man's
ability to write is not connected
to his compassion or spirituality.
The other thing about Stil-
well's talk that I think was re-
vealing was his remarking that
he has a tremendous admiration
for the work of James Dickey.
Very often a -poet's strengths
and weaknesses are reflected by
those of the poets whom he ad-
mires. I think - that this is the
case, at least in part, with Stil-
wel's great liking for Dickey.
Dickey, as time goes on, seems
to write poems that are more
and more inflated with stale air,
growing larger and larger, with 6
repetitive and excessive descrip-
tion, statement, and exclama-
tion.
Professor Stilwell does have
an excellent eye for description.
His poems make it quite clear
that he observes things very
DIAL 8-6416
TONIGHT 6:48-9:00
Wed.-1 :15-3 :45-6 :15-8 :45
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closely, very accurately. And the
images are not always just phys-
ical description; he knows how
to make them echo beyond the
surface:
the leaf of autumn seemed
one orange hand
fumbling a knob
that would never turn again
But the problem is that, rath-
er than being selective, rather
than picking just the number of
images or lines he needs to ac-
complish his effect, he will get
repetitive, or j u s t excessive,
blurring and bringing down the
poem.
When it comes to sound,
though, Stilwell has a better ear
than Dickey. Whereas Dickey,
writes a very energetic but
somewhat flat rhetoric, Stil-
well's verse is much more mus-
ical and has a percussiveness I
like.'
I hope that Stilwell will do the
necessary winnowing in the fu-
ture; he is certainly talented. If
you'd like to s e e an excellent
poem, look up his "Two Assig-
nations" in the new Avon.
The Michigan Daily, edited and man-
aged by students of the University of
Michigan. News phone: 764-0552. Second
Class postage paid at Ann Arbor, Michi-
gan, 420 Maynard St., Ann Arbor,
Michigan 48104. Published daily Tues-
day through Sunday morning Univer-
sity year. Subscription rates: $9 by
carrier, $10 by mail.
The Cinema II board has an-
nounced the winners of their
8-Super 8 Film Festival held last
weekend.
The panel of three judges
chose the winners of $215 in
cash and merchandise from 65
.films .entered by film makers
across the country.
The winners were:
An Eventful Day with a Ball
of Clay - $45 to Peter Jepson.
Inauguration '69 - $37 to.
Steve Parker and Chuck Davis.
Speedqueen - $35 to James
Douglas.
What Kind ' of Man Reads
Playboy - $30 to K. Bennett
and M. Frankel.
Kaufman Kartoon Karnival -
One Mack Sennett movie to Will
Wegner.
I, a Phony - The In Flag-
rante .Delicto Award of one
Charlie Chaplin movie to David
Baker.
Blushing Banana Orgasm -
The Muralist Silver Dildo Award
for Excessive Coprophagy of a
$10 gift certificate from P u r-
chase Camera to Rich Addison
and Luke Cohen.
Wichita Lineman Meets Swing-
ing Shirley Thompson - The
Post Hoc Ergo Propter H o e
Award of four tickets to the Vth
Forum to K. Bennett and M.
Frankel..
Creature on Campus - T h e
Best Actor and Dr. Caligari Rot-
ting Septum Award for Down
Humor of a $5 gift certificate
from E-SOs Pictures to Allan
Hendry.
More $5 gift certificates from
E-SOs Pictures to
Untitled - G. J. Miller:
Bath Diptych - John Orlan-
dello, Bob Smith.
1/5 of Five Movies - Geoff
Green
Candidate (or Pig) - Will
Wegner.
I'PUT-DOWN
JAMES G1
IN
3,5,7,9
DIES DAY
Only 75c
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ARNER
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of Shakespeare's works ever published. The
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Now, to fill the need for an outstanding, one-
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THE COMPLETE PELICAN SHAKESPEARE
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SEPTEMBER 16-28
SAROYAN'S
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MGM presents a Jerry GershWin-Elliott Kastner picture starring
Richard Burton- Clint Eastwood "-Mary Ure
"Where Eagles Dare" __
IiN
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Metrocoior ,IV
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FOLLETT'S FOIBLES
A prof thought students bought tomes
From Folett's for knowledging their domes.
Another delightful APA revival of an American classic !
By E. Winslow
But it's not quite that pure;
It's their way to make sure
They'll have money
to get back to their homes.
SEPTEMBER 30-OCTOBER 12
r
Ghelderode 's
"A whiff of satanical sulphur"
by the author of the APA hit "Pantagleize"
lg
Direcfed by John Houseman
Textbooks are take-home pay when you sell
At semester-end you probably find yourself with more
them forbkyquick cashTh o anwebhpnd less cash than you can use.
Thehanswer to both problems is one and the same. Simply
sell your books to Follett's where you get cash on the
barrel-head. No waiting. And as much or more than you'll
get elsewhere, even if they're not to be used on campus
OCTOBER 14-26
Gaog ol's
The
Ipnnam
"
" i
next year. So treat your texts like take-home pay.