Page Two
THE MICHIGAN DAILY
Thursday, February 17, 1972
lI'
Mountain 's new record bombs;
a surprise fro-m King Biscuit
DIAL 665-6290
SHOWS AT:
.1 :15-3 :45-6 :15-8 :50
FEATURE AT:
:30-4:00-6:30-9:00
theatre
UPlayers present two
excellent 'absurd' plays
By HERB BOWIE
As I see it, Mountain has two
things going against them and
one factor in their favor. The
first trouble they have is a lack
of talent. Now I'll admit that
talent isn't always a good thing
-Ginger Baker's Air Force had
plenty of talent, and they still
make crummy records. On the
other hand, ? and the Mysterions
made "96 Tears" with no talent.
at all. Nevertheless, talent does
give a group a certain versa-
tility-if you have it, you can al-
ways pretend that you don't, but
if you don't have it there's no
way to fake it.
Mountain's big asset is the
nerve to turn up Pappalardi's
bass to unprecedented levels.
This gives them a rhythm sec-
tion that, even if they didn't
have drums, could stop an ele-
phant in his tracks at a distance
of twenty yards.
All of these qualities are re-
flected in Mountain's latest re-
lease, Flowers of Evil (Windfall
5501). A few cuts cook, or rather
simmer, like they're supposed
to, and their lack of talent can
be forgiven. On the other hand,r
when they start to jam on the
live side of the album, their
ineptitude is painfully obvious.
What really hurts, though, is
their inability to deviate from
their heavy style. "Crossroader,"
with lyrics like "I'm a Cross-
roader/ Speeding from town to
town," obviously demands some
nimble playing to convince us
that this crossroader really can
speed. What the cut sounds like,
though, is a fully-loaded Mack
truck lumbering down an inter-
state highway.
"One Last Cold Kiss" suffers
from similar problems. With
fairy tale lyrics about an ardent
swan whose mate dies and who
thus spends the rest of his life
in mourning, one might hope for
a gentle, folksy back-up. Not a
chance. Mountain performing
this song is about as appropriate
as Leslie West dancing a ballet.
Tigers Will Survive (Vertige
VEL 1010) is a decent, well-bal-
anced effort by Ian Mathews.
The selection of songs is excel-
lent, including several originals,
one by Eric Anderson, one by
Richard Farina, and one by
Spector - Barry - Greenwich. Mat-
hews' singing is pleasant, no
pretentiousness, j u s t flat - out
good singing. The back-up is
mostly in a C&W style close
to that of recent Grateful Dead
releases with the exception of a
lovely a capella rendition of "Do
Doo Ron Ron (When He Walked
Me Home"), and it's just plain
tasty: the guitars crackle with
excitement, the bass is lively,
and there's a lonely Sax solo on
"Right Before My Eyes" that's
just perfect.
Ad Nauseum or Death At Fun
City or Future Shock (Mercury
SAM 1 616) is an album of poetry
by Paul Roche, whom the cover
boldly proclaims as "A poet. A
man. A mind." The trouble with
the album.is that, though Roche
is certainly a man, a'"mind, and
a competent versifier, he's not
such a hot poet.
By GLORIA JANE SMITH
One student couple admitted
to walking out- on last night's
performance by the University
Players. They weren't in the
mood to think - they wanted
to be entertained.
Really, it was a poor excuse,
not at all valid. Theatre of the
Absurd provikes the mind,
granted, but last night's pro-
duction of Eugene Ionesco's
Victims of Duty and Jean Ge-
net's The Maids was not some-
thing to walk out on. Actually,
I'm surprised that they were
able:to make the move.
Both plays, reflective of the
respective searches for person-
al identity that lurked in the
minds of their creators, were
superbly produced last night.
Choubert, played by Errol
Segal, is led to search for the
man, No. 58614 in detective
files, who at one time lived in
Choubert's apartment. A detec-
tive - played by Samuel White
- who vascilates from pleas-
antness to visciousness, orders
him through a voyage into his
past-a journey which inevit-
ably leads to self-destruction.
"Everyone has his special
duty yto perform," we are told
by his wife Madeline, played by
Adele Ahronheim. .
Segal's performance was ex-
cellent, from his initial loqua-
cious, monotone conversation
with his wife to his inevitable
backward travels into the
chasms of his mind.
Both plays, reflective of the respective searches
Air personal identity that lurked in the minds
of their creators, were superbly produced last
might.
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to completely involve us in the
complex activity on stage.
Especiallyy notable is Susan
Kramer, who plays, the maid
Claire. She is enthusiasm; she
is emotion; she is grief. Espe-
cially well-sustained is a long
monologue toward the end of
the play. I understand that she
is a new to the Players, and I
hope that she will be seen again
in future productions.
The other two women - Uni-
versity Players regular Chris-
tine Lahti who played Madame
and Janice Young who played
the maid Solange - were also
excellent in their roles.
The stage was expertly set in
both plays. In The Maids, we
live in an elaborate, if not gau-
dy array of scarlet, violet and
gold in the boudoir of the Ma-
dame. And in Victims of Duty,
we live in a world of "blue boxes
that suffice for tables and the
mountainous stepping stones
into the inner mind of Chou-
bert. The sets are handled well
-changing before our eyes and
yet untouched until changed.
Behind every good production
is a good director, and in this
case, Donald Boros succeeded
beyond the call of duty.
As the production ended, ra-
ther nonchalantly, the audience
gave their applause and began
to gather their belongings to
leave the theatre.
Thoughts that settled in their
minds, were I'm sure, paradoxi-
cal-disturbed by the essence of
the plays, yet satisfied in the
. performance they had just ex-
perienced.
Driscoll Eighth
Paddy Driscoll's 90 yard return
of a kickoff against Iowa is the
eighth longest in Northwestern
football history.
A good poem should stand on
its own, irreducible into its com-
ponents of themes, images, rhy-
thms, etc., without the loss of
the poem's main impact. Not
only do these poems fall apart,
Roche actually dismembers them
right before your ears. Before
the title cut, for example, in a
spoken introduction Roche gives
you the theme: man is gaining
the world but losing his soul.
He lays out the main images-
seals driven mad by DDT beat-
ing their cubs to death on the
rocks: birds unable to hatch
their eggs because a chemical
has made the shells too brittle
too sit upon; Admetus sacrific-
ing his wife, Alcestis, to save his
own life, and then finding "life
empty. He even tells us why he
uses a bit of doggerel at one
point. All of which sounds fine.
The trouble is that I find the
introduction more moving than
the poem. If Roche had developed
one of the above images and let
it go at that, he might. have a
moving poem. As it is, though, he
beats you over the head with a
large number of scantily de-
veloped images that certainly
convey his theme, but don't
really add up to a good poem.
Roche's reading sounds equally
artificial. He seems unwilling to
violate the sanctity of his poems
with any authentic feeling. Oh,
he varies his pitch and speed al-
right, but always in a mechan-
ical manner. If he can't get it
up for his poetry, how are we
supposed to?
Do you have a bad aftertaste
in your mouth left by the flood
of big-name records released in
time for Xmas? Winter in Ann
Free Ireland!
conversation
with
Tom Mac intyre
author, lecture.r
-and in discussion-
Bernard Cullen
grad student activist
TON IGHT
8:00 p.m. 75c cont.
FREE COFFEE
conspiracy
cafe-theater
330 MAYNARD
UM Film Soc.
Arbor beginning to get you
down? Then I suggest you run
right out and get Gooduns'
(Paramount PAS 6023) by King
Biscuit Boy, If that doesn't
work, you better try heart mas-
sage.
Don't let the name King Bis-
cult Boy scare you off. This isn't
some derelict bluesman gum-
ming words about how he's got
'de blooze', although he is, ap-
parently (frankly, I never heard
of the guy before,) a middle-
aged black bluesman. No, what
King Biscuit Boy and his
friends play is, for the most
part, rockin' bar blues that
aren't really blue at all. Take,
for example, these lyrics from
"You Done Tore Your Play-
house Down Again: "Your eye-
balls look like road maps/They
look in two different ways/
You got your wig in one hand
and your teeth in the other/
And you haven't looked this
good in days." Now ain't that
sad?
No, what this record contains
mostly is (I hesitate to use the
term (but no other will do)
high-energy, good-time music.
Most of these cuts have the
raw power usually found only
in live performances. King Bis-
cuit Boy is a strong, unaffected,
blues shouter who's equally
powerful on harmonica and
slide guitar. His band, in its
various permutations on differ-
ent cuts, is tight - absolutely
together at all times--yet loose
enough to allow room for con-
siderable improvisation within
the contexts of the songs. De-
serving /special note are Rick
Bell of the Full Tilt Boogie
Band and. Larry Atamanuik
from Sea Train. Bell's piano,
especially on the intriguing
intro to "You Done Tore Your
Playhouse Down Again" and
his nifty accompaniment on
"Bald Head Rhumba Boogie," is
great. Atamanuik plays drums
with a ferocious intensity. Lis-
ten to him on "Bald Head
Rhumba Boogie," for example:
U of M Students,
Faculty and Staff
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FOR DETAILS CALL:
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Larry Kaufman-764-7692
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Carol Klau-663-8227
or
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483-4850
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OPEN 1 p.m. SHOWS AT
1:15-3:10-5-7-9 P.M.
Feature Starts 5 min. later
I
"IT'S A SIZZLER"
-Detroit News
"ONE OF THE
YEAR'S TEN BEST"
-Time
"The best American
movie of the last six
months."
"Come on like gangbust-
ers . . . I doubt if you'll
see anything quite as
devastating."
-Michigan Daily
DIRTY
HARRY
he's not plaging those drums,
he's attacking them!
As good as the hard-driving
numbers are though the real
masterpiece is "Lord Pity Us
All," a slow gospel-flavored cut
written by Dr. John. Here, King
Biscuit Boy manages to sound
like a member of the Band, al-
though I'm sure the influence
was the other way around. The
song includes a beautiful piano
duet by Rick Bell that leads
into a sizzling guitar break,
and an organ part reminiscent
of the Band's Garth Hudson.
In short, this is a fine, fine
album suitable for dancing or
whatever your favorite rhyth-
mic activity happens to be
typing, mixing cake batter, and
knee-slapping are all recom-
mended.)
5TH WEEK!
At State and Liberty
Program Information 662-6264
A MARK RYDELL FILM
( Panavision® TechnicolorG
From Warner Bros.,A Kinney Company
p
II -
I THURSDAY and FRIDAY
ALL THE
Ki.NG"'MEN
Dir. ROBERT ROSSEN, 1949
The story of Huey Long-
Based on R o b e r t Penn
W a r r e n's expose of
American political cor-
ruption. Starring'Brod-
erick Crawford, Mercedes
MacCambridge, and John
Ireland.
PLUS A SHORT-
I'm Forever Blowing Bubbles
ARCHITECTURE
AUDITORIUM
7&9p.m.
75c
I 1
6mmmwm
i
Each man in his play depicts
)the torment of his life as a mis-
fit. Each cries out desperately
to be found and replaced in an
environment of forgotten, elu-
sive pleasures. Each man has
a different vision, but both de-
liver messages which carry the
same hollow echo which indi-
cates the distance separating
them from the object of their
quest - themselves.
Victims of Duty, is a play
with a lesson to be learned. It
speaks out against society's need
to pressure us into fulfilling du-
ties, often meaningless and de-
structive duties, that are the
means to an end of conforming
to society.
The Maids opens with two
maids acting out a ritualistic
scene between a maid and her
Madame.
This is a ritual they feel com-
pelled to enact - releasing their
vengeance for a beautiful rich
woman who flaunts her social
status. But the final ritual, the
final act which will completely
release them - provide them
with an identity - is that of
murder.
They must kill Madame so
that for once, they may be ac-
cepted by a society which has
done little more than alienate
them in the past.
Three women compose the
cast, and each fulfill their duty
11
Salmagundi
9 p.m.-Feb. 18
Couzens Cafe
25c
IN THE ARTS'
Thursday evening, February 17,8:00 p.m.
Faculty Lounge, 1st floor, Michigan Union
EVENING INCLUDES:
performance by Woman's Street Theatre of Detroit
STORIES OF OUR LIVES
Student-produced films about women
Woman's Art Show at Student Gallery
1st floor, Michigan Union
February 17th, 6:30-8:30 p.m.
ADMISSION FREE
sponsored by Office of Religious Affairs
*
i
l
POLITICAL BOOZE BASH
FREE BEER
FREE PEANUTS
FREE PIZZA
AT
Informal Rap With
CONGRESSMAN MARY ESCH
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STATE. REPRESENTATIVE RAY SMIT
NEW PENGUINS AT
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SELF AND OTHERS (Rev. Ed.) R. D. Laing. The
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THE NEW MAN. Maurice Nicoll. A unique inter-
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$2.00
STRANGE LIFE OF IVAN OSOKIN. P. D. Ouspensky.
Time, infinity, and eternal recurrence are the
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EATING YOUR WAY TO HEALTH. Ruth Kunz-
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REVOLUTIONS 1775-1830. Edited by Merryn Wil-
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You've heard Billy Preston on the
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