Page Two

THE MICHIGAN DAILY

Friday, October 17, 196;


THE MICHIGAN DAILY Fridcy, October 17, 196~


letters.
News startles McCartney fans

records
Letting Coltrane's music speak for itself

Thains Silvio
To the Editor:
I READ and immensely en-
joyed Mr. LaBour's article. As
a student of the law of evidence,
I can tell you that Mr. LaBour's
conclusion is the result of piling
inferences upon inferences and
a certain amount of post hoc
propter hoc reasoning.
But all of this is irrelevant
for even if Mr. LaBour's con-
clusion is incorrect, he has suc-
ceeded in achieving what all rock
music reviewers strive for:
namely, the creation of an al-
bum review which is as beautiful
and meaningful as the album it-
self. This article has given all
Beatle fans something as de-
lightful and intriguing as the
Beatle's music itself.
All you need is love.
-Silvio Nardoni
'70 Law
More truths
To the Editor:
A VERY INTERESTING ar-
ticle indeed by your Fred La-
Bour concerning the death of
Paul McCartney. It is unfor-
tunate that he did not check
into the matter a little farther
(as we did) and learn the truth
of the matter instead of foisting
his hoax of a purportedly true
story upon your readers. Three
years ago, (the precise date is
unascertainable), Bob Dylan was
killed when his motorcycle
smashed into a corner drugstore
just outside of Hibbing, Minne-
soat. He was on his way home
to visit his family when the ac-
cident occurred; his family was
immediately notified and ac-
cording to a plan Dylan had
made known to them in case
of accidental death, they paid
off the occupants of the drug-
store to keep quiet and then the
family buried the body in
secrecy.
News of a motorcycle accident
was allowed to leak out and a
"basement tape" of recordings
Dylan was supposed to have
made while lying in bed re-
cuperating was released. These
are actually Dylan studio re-
cordings; they were- released so
that there would be no hint as
to what actually happened.
AT THIS TIME, In accord-
ance with Dylan's plan, McCart-
ney was flown over and his
face changed by plastic surgery
to resemble Dylan's. You might
notice the original resemblance
between the two. So McCartney
actually was replaced and the
clues in the albums of the Beat-
les are intentional, but this is
only part of the greater plan to
mask Dylan's death. There can
be no doubt of the hoax with the
release of Nashville Skyline.
Who else could that strange face
on the cover be but Paul Mc-
Cartney? And even those not in
on the hoax are aware of the
different voice. The first song,
with Johnny Cash, is sung as a
duet to ease people into the
idea of a new sound.
If Mr. LaBour is interested
we can direct him to the story
of the death of Joan Baez eight
years ago, and perhaps the most
bizarre story of all, the death
of Richard Nixon three years
ago and the hoax where no one
has been used to take his place.
We also have information on
the fact that Franz Kafka h
alive and will be U-M's next
Writer-in-Residence.
-Fargo Berman
-T. Falconridge Blake

Please, Please
To the Editor:
In The Daily, Tuesday, Oct.
14, 1969, page 2, an article writ-
ten by Fred LaBour, gave evi-
dence of the death of Paul Mc-
Cartney. We believe that this
article is, for the most part
fiction and not fact.
Our major complaint is that,
in all the alledged facts given,
only one documentation is put
forth as proof of Mr. LaBour's
claims. Therefore, we believe
that this article could have been
written as a possibility but not
as a reality. For example, in the

difficult to duplicate. It is curi-
ous that the musical ability cft
Campbell was NEVER mention-
ed in The Daily article. Paul
McCartney is know to have a
wide-range, lyrical singing voice,
as well as being the most ima-
ginative bass quitarist on the
pop scene. He is a left-handed
bass player and has charac-
teristic facial expressions and
body movements when perform-
ing. It seems nearly impossible
that the person who won the
Paul McCartney Look-Alike
Contest, not only physically ce-
sembles him, but is also an ex-
act musical duplicate.

land, we stayed in a hotel that
was located behind just such a
wall. It wasn't a "cemetery."
According to LaBour's article,
Jane Asher was "paid a ripe
sum to keep her mouth shut."
If this is true, what happened
to the policemen who were in-
volved with the "fatal acci-
dent"? (Four were cited in La-
Bour's article),
and
Any observers of this "fatal
accident"?
and
All doctors, nurses, and hos-
pital personal involved? (La-
Bour cites at least 15),
and
The real Paul McCartney's
trotter and surviving parent?
(were they notified?)
and
Paul's friends? (as few as
there may be)
and
Friends of the other Beatles?
and
William Campbell's friends?
and
Technicians,nengineers, and
other people involved in the re-
cording of Beatle records.
IT IS PROBABLE that none
of these people questioned the
appearance of a 'new" Paul Mc-
Cartney, or were these people
also paid off? We do not believe,
for reasons previously given
that Campbell could join the
Beatles impersonating Paul Mc-
Cartney without raising ques-
tions from people that were
even less closely attached to the
Beatles than those listed above.
Therefore, it is our conclu-
sion that Mr. LaBour's hypo-
thesis along with the other
rumors concerning the death of
Paul McCartney are nothing
more than a playful example
of Man's intrigue in mystery,
expanded by his fanciful ima-
gination.
-Donald F. Moylan '69
-David R. Thompson '69
P.S. We don't want to believe
he's dead. O.K.?
- - - - - - - --- -------- -

By BERT STRATTON
There comes a point when
the act of analyzing a song be-
comes self-defeating, a point
when the critic only succeeds
in diluting the sensuality of the
music and replacing it with
meaningless pedantry. Jo h n
Coltrane said it best: "I don't
know what else can be said in
words about what I'm doing.
Let the music speak for itself."
The music of Coltrane has
been analyzed beyond recogni-
tion just as the lyrics of Lennon
and Dylan have been, and noth-
ing worthwhile has yet come of
it. So it is that I hedge from
discussing the music of Col-
trane's latest release, Selfless-

ness (Impulse! AS-9161) issued
posthumously by his wife. Yes,
let the music speak for itself.
Yet of course not all the emo-
tions and responses that a rec-
ord album evokes are purely
musical, in fact most are not.
They have a lot to do with
what's important in selling rec-
ords - which means establish-
ing the myth of the musician -
a process of carefully editing
biographies on the back cover
and designing dazzling covers
for the front. The result is that
too often .you know if the rec-
ords good or bad even before
you open it.
Such mind - manipulating
tricks of promoters were what
Coltrane feared most, and were
the reasons why he explicitly
requested no linar notes or
gaudy covers on his latter al-
bums. His business was music
and his life was music, and he
wasn't much interested in nur-
turing the cult of personality
that so often surrounds great
musicians.
But when he suddenly died in
1967 and his fans were faced
withthereality of having nomore
"live" Coltrane, their natural
reaction was an extreme one -
which was to lift his memory
to the plane of deification -
out of extraordinary circum-
stances a cult had evolved.
That's all Coltrane is now-
just a memory, a decaying idol,
gathering dust in the ware-
houses of his fans' minds.
Which explains why a posthum-
ous issue of Trane's works, like
Selflessness, is an Event, a brief
return to the physical sub-
stance which made up the
"real" Coltrane.
Selflessness takes us back in-
to the Coltrane of 1963 and
1965, emplasizing the fact that
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Coltrane of 1963 was not the
same man as the Coltrane of
1965. There is a traditional
method of pigeon-holing Trane's
life into three periods - far out
(late '50's when he played with
Miles Davis), farther out (1960
to 1964 when he had his own
quartet), and farthest out (1965
to 1967 when he began what is
commonly known as "freaking
out" with Pharoah Sanders .
Selflessness, which consists of
three songs covers his two last
periods.
The entire first side of the
album is My Favorite Things,
recorded in 1963 at the Newport
Jazz Festival. This version of
the song is seventeen minutes
long, making it a good deal
longer than his famous Atlantic
recording of the same tune.
(made in 1960.) Other than the
obvious evolution of his style
from the days of the original
recording, there is also a change
in personnel. Instead of Elvin
Jones on drums, he's got the
not-quite-as-good Roy Haynes,
and replacing Steve Davis on
bass is Jimmy Garrison, w h o
became Coltrane's regular bass-
ist. McCoy Tyner is on piano
(enough said) and Coltrane
plays soprano saxophone on the
song, contrary to the fact that

the album notes have him list-
ed as playing tenor sax. As far
as my reaction to the new ver-
sion, I liked it, but I'm still par-
tial to the Atlantic classic.
The opening song on the se-
cond side is Billy Eckstine's I
Want to Talk About You, which
was also recorded at the 1963
Newport Jazz Festival. Ano-
ther recording of the same song
is on Trane's Live at Birdland
record. I couldn't find a whole
lot of difference between t h e
two takes. (Actually they were
only recorded a month a p a r t
from each other.)
The last cut on the album is
the title song Selflessness, it
was recorded in 1965, and is
now being released for the first
time. It has all the ingredients
of Trane's latest period - the
cacophony of Coltrane's a n(
Sanders' duets, and the increas.
ing rhythmic emphasis. (There'.
three percussionists, Elvin Jones
on drums, assisted by F r a n l
Butler and Juno Lewis on as-
sorted bongos, drums, etc.) I fell
a sense of direction that I didn't
get in listening to' Ascension
and some of his other posthum-
ous releases.
This is where the background
ends and where Trane's music
takes over. Dig it.


, MICHIGAN

TONIGHT
AT 8 P.M.

I
I

ICADEMY AWARD W
ARBRA STREISAND
~ t A VPAS
b vl~p kiest
I'eopw o inthey
4n
o.I


-Daily-Jay Cassidy
F9ans eon f rant MIr. LaBohr

first paragraph Mr. %a3our
wrote that Paul McCartney vas
killed in an automobile accident.
This one statement brings to
mind many questions, starting
with; "Has Paul McCartney
ever been involved in an auto-
mobile accident of any kind,
not to mention a fatal one?"
Moreover, lack of documenta-
tion for other statements, such
as claiming that George Martin
has an illegimate daugi er,
(Who is she?, Where is .he?,
Is she living?) and that Briau
Epstein mysteriously died ,.hen
he threatened to expose the
group's secret, might easily be
considered as slanderous st ate-
ments.
The most amazing part of La-
Bour's article involves William
Campbell's role in this mystery.
As it was stated, this "look-
alike" was found in Scotland
and subsequently became a
Beatle. We question the beuti-
ful (English) accent that the
Paul McCartney of 1967-1969
displays on records. Scotish
accents are not English accents.
It seems possible that node"n
technology could have made
Campbell physically resemble
Paul McCartney in every ay
However, the musical talent of
Paul McCartney is much moe e

ANOTHER QUESTION arises
with the last phrase of the song
Strawberry Fields Forever. Mr.
LaBour claims that when played
at 45 rpm the distorted voice of
John Lennon says "I buried
Paul." If this same phrase im'
played at regular speed, 33 :
rpm, we believe it seems to say
"I'm very bored." When played
at all speeds, the second 'ord
very,,buried) seems to end in
a "y" not an "ed" sound. Play-
ing parts of records at different
speeds and backwards as.Mr.
LaBotur did) will give many
amazing results which are nec-
essarily true statements.
A question arises witil the
"ce meterv" on the cover of the
Abbey Roada bum. It appa as
to us that there are cars parked
in ide this area. If the writer,
LaBour, had ever been to Eng-
land, he would know that there
are very similar walls through-
out many of the streets--as
shown along the length of Ab-
bey Road on this album cover.
In fact, on a recent trip to Eng-
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OCTOBER 14-26

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University of Michigan School of Music
Presents
1969-1970 FESTIVAL

OF CONTEMPORARY MUSIC
Wednesday, October 22, 8:00 P.M.
Rackham Lecture Hall
STRAVINSKY-"Fanfare for a New Theatre"
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CASTIGLIONI - "A Solemn Music II" Michigan
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