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Wage Two
THE MICHIGAN DAILY
Page Two T~HEIADAL
Saturday, December 4, 1971
A
Separating the good
By HERB BOWIE
After listening to obscure re-
cord releases for about a month,
it becomes apparent that there
should be some means to dif-
ferentiate between bad records:
after all, it doesn't seem fair to
lump together a half-hearted
effort like Home Grown by
Johnny Rivers with a full-blown
masterwork of tedium like Ma-
son Proffit's latest. To meet
this pressing need, I have de-
vised a Smelly Record Rating
System, whereby the crummy
record under consideration is
awarded from one to four rasp-
berries. A raspberry, in case
you'e unfamiliar with the term,
is defined by Webster's as a
"sound of contempt made by
trilling the tongue between pro-
truded lips." A raspberry will be
symbolized by an asterisk (*).
Listening to Electric Warrior
(Reprise RS6466) by T. Rex is
like watching one of those mov-
ies in which Tony Perkins seems
to be a perfectly ordinary All-
American weirdo, until he sud-
denly looks someone right in the
eye and calmly says "But my
mother's still alive," when you
know that she was mortally
wounded at the Roller Derby
eight years ago.
"Take "Jeepster," for exam-
ple. The song starts out sim-
ply enough with a little guitar
and drums, then someone starts
singing "You're so sweet/ You're
so fine/I want you all and ev-
everything/Just to be mine,"
and you begin to relax and think
you've heard it all before, when
you hear the lyrics "'Cos you're
my baby/ 'Cos you're my love/
Girl I'm just a jeepster/ For
your love." What was that?
What'd he say?
The whole album is like that.
What's scary is that it doesn't
seem to be a put-on. The music
and the vocals are intensely ser-
ious, never betraying a hint of
irony. And the lyrics aren't real-
ly absurd, just totally alien:
images like "You're built like a
car/ You got a hubcap/ Dia-
mond star halo," and "In the
moonlight/ Fighting with the
night/ It's a rip-off/ Kissing all
the slain/ Bleeding in the rain/
It's a rip-off," sound as if they'd
make sense if the listener start-
ed off with a different set of
premises.
But I didn't. I guess I have
to admit the album's pretty
good, but I really can't relate
to it. If you're a vampire or a
leftover from the "Twilight
Zone," though, it might be just
what yo I've been looking for.
Hooteroll? (Douglas KZ 308-
59), by Howard Wales and Jerry
Garcia, is a real fun album. Its
endearing quality is its thin-
ness. Not the sound - the re-
cord; by holding it by the edges
between the palms of your
hands and then pressing them
together and then drawing them
apart rapidly, you can make
the record vibrate back and
forth, play neat games, and
make groovy sounds. Unfor-
tunately, mine broke after about
a minute of enthusiastic use.
Hopefully this defect can be
porrected in later copies.
New Riders of the Purple
Sage (Columbia C 30888) is just
Jerry goofing around with some
more of his buddies again. This
effort comes off a little better
than Hooteroll?, though, for
several reasons: first of all, the
imposed structure of the songs
prevents the boys from getting
too carried away with their
improvisations; secondly, there's
the fact that these guys have
been playing together a little
longer than have Garcia and
Wales, so the whole thing
sounds a bit more polished. And,
finally, there are those fresh-as-
country-air vocals.
The trick to enjoying this
record is not to expect too much
from it: turn off the lights,
clamp on the headphones, and
you're sure to be disappointed.
Listen to it on the speakers
while you're doing something
else, though, and you'll find it's
nice mellow mood music.
Fleetwood Mac's latest, Fu-.
ture Games (Reprise RS 6463)
is one of the nicest sounding al-
bums I've heard in a long time.
Each cut is a tasteful blend of
a full complement of standard
rock instruments and the mu-
sicianship is all solid.
The trouble is that a nice
texture is about all the album
has. The vocals generally sound
kind of disembodied, more like
instruments than human voic-
es. The instrumentation itself is
kind of limp. The result is a
certain . nebulosity that stub-
bornly refuses to reveal any
emotion.
Pentangle's new album, Re-
flections (Reprise RS 6463),
divides itself pretty neatly into
two halves: the traditional and
the original stuff. The old stuff
is uniformly mediocre. Even if
you've only heard an old PP&M
album once, these songs sound
stereotyped. With material like
this the artists gets out of it
Program Information 662-6264
OPEN 12:45
"Always the Finest in
Screen Entertainment"
Corner State & Liberty Streets
Shown at 1 P.M. & 3 P.M.
Only-Separate
Admission-All Seats 75c
"WONDERFUL WORLD
OF THE BROTHERS
GRIMM" G Rated.
from ti
what he puts into it, and Pen-
tangle's stiff renditions just
aren't up to the job. They can
play the music alright, but they
can't feel it, the way Fairport
Convention can.
The songs they penned them-
selves are a different story.
Pentangle seems a little more
comfortable here and turns in
a much more convincing per-
formances. The trouble is that
there are only four originals on
the album and one of those, the
title tune, is spoiled by some
superfluous improvisations.
Little Richard, without a
doubt, has the most awesome
voice in rock. It's faster-than
the speeding Ginger Baker,
more powerful than a pair of
Marshalls, and able to leap
heavy bullshit in a single
bound.
Unfortunately, all it can real-
ly sing about is itself. When
Little Richard sings "You're my
gal/ I'm your feller / Dress up
in/ Your hot pants yeller/ You
look swell/ But I look sweller,"
he sounds convincing. Give him
another topic, though, and it's
just gymnastics.
Which is not to say that
King of Rock and Roll (Re-
prise RS 6462) is a bad album.
I'll give is 75. You can dance
to it.
The Michigan Daily, edited and man-
aged by students at the University of
Michigan. News phone: 764-0552. Second
Class postage paid at Ann Arbor, Mich-
igan, 420 Maynard Street, Ann Arbor,
Michigan 48104. Published daily Tues-
day through Sunday morning Univer-
sity year. Subscription rates: $10 by
carrier, $11 by mail.
Summer Session published Tuesday
through Saturday morning, Subscrip-
tion rates: $5 by carrer, $6 by mall.
NOW SHOWING
DIAL 434-1782
-I
ON WASHTENAW AVE.
11/2 MILES EAST OF
ARBORLAND-U.S. 23
OPEN 12:45
Shows at 1, 3, 5, 7, 9 P.M.
FAYE DUNAWAY &
STACY KEACH
in a Frank Perry Film
F
rbad
Now, at last, a record I can
release my venom on. Arthur
Gee (Tumbleweed Records TWS
101) is utter trash, without a
single redeeming value. Arthur,
whose picture adorns the cover,
is ugly; the rest of the cover
is singularly unattractive; and
the music itself must represent
some sort of high point in re-
corded inanity. What's worse,
it's inexcusably pretentious:
the cover upons up to reveal
new vistas of ugliness; the un-
distinguished instrumentalists
are listed cut by cut; and, to
top it all off, not only are the
lyrics included but there is a
complete songbook. Four rasp-
berries * * * * for you, Arthur!
IT WITH
CAN'TTAKE
A 4
For the student body:
FLARES.
by
Levi
& Farah
O Wright
' Lee
Male
CHECKMATE
State Street at Liberty
CINEM"A II
I
F R IDAY A ND SA TU RDAY
7 and 9
THE END
OF THE ROAD
(1969)
SCREEN ADAPTATION OF
JOHN BARTH'S 1958 NOVEL
OF LIFE IN ACADEMIA
directed by ARAM AVAKIAN
with Stacy Keach, Harris Yulin, Dorothy Tristan and
James Earl Jones.
Roger Greenspun of the N.Y. Times calls it, "a
fairly close, sometimes clumsy adaptation."
*1
-1
U, ---_____________
I
I
(Es> 7aiity Calendar
I
Saturday, December 4
Film--
Fifth Forum
"Joe Hill" 5 and 9*
"Stranger" 7 and 11'*
Sneak Preview 7*
Michigan Theater
"Play Misty for Me" 1,3,5,7 and 9*1
Campus Theater
"The Touch" 7 and 9*
State Theater
"Soul to Soul" 1,3,5,7, and 9*
music-
Hill Auditorium
"The Messiah" 8:30*
St. Andrews Episcopal Church
University Collegium Musicum-8
Ark
U. Utah Phillips 8:30*
Program Information 665-6290
IUILD
SATURDAY and SUNDAY
A Bergman
Comedy!
ALL THESE
WOMEN
Dir. INGMAR BERGMAN, 1964
Bergman t u r n s to un-
abashed slapstick a n d
luscious color. A farce
about a musician and all
his women.
PLUS A SHORT
THE BATTLE OF
ELDER BUSH GULCH
by
D. W. Griffith with
Mae Marsh (!) and
Lillian Gish,
ARCHITECTURE
AUDITORIUM
,I
LAST DAYS
Today at 1-3-5-7-9
" . gut-tightening thriller and one of the most
exciting films you'll see this year!"Ken Barnard-Det. News
CLINT EASTWOOD
PLAY MISTY FOR ME
...an iniltation to terror...
I
7:00 and 9:05
Final Performance TONIGHT!
Shakespeare's
Antony and
Cleopatra
POWER CENTER, December 1-4, 8 P.M.
Box Office opens at 12:30 P.M.
Tickets from $1.50 - $3.00
-UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN PLAYERS-
I
AT 5 P.M., 7 P.M. & 9 P.M.
ONLY-NOT CONTINUOUS
WITH FAMILY MATINEES
I.&T. TURNER,
WILSON PICKETT,
& SANTANA
IN:
75c
NEWSPAPERS
Friend of the
CONSUMERS
American Revolutionary Media presents
Jean-Luc Godard and the Youth Culture
-TONIGHT-
Vladimir and Rosa .. . & Abbie & Jerry
"flashes of the Marx Brothers and Bertold Brecht.. . on the whole, the best
recent Godard I've seen."-Kauffman, NEW REPUBLIC
'the Chicago Trial parody is bitter, but the playing is exuberant and ener-
getic, as childlike as the (pre-Mao) fantasies.''-N.Y. TIMES
also: Haight six-minute 1968 Newsreel documentary-and-
Godard in America 40-minute documentary of Godard's
1970 campus tour. Berkeley confrontation was historic.
I in~ Unfted iti
I
__. __ __
I
7:30 & 9:30
Natural Science Aud.
$1.25 cont.
BIG SNEAK PREVIEW
TONIGHT AT 7 P.M.
z
---- ----- . . . ... ............ ..
I
._ _
Prime Minister of Israel'
on "Meet The Press" NBC (Channel 4)
12:30 P.M. Sunday, December 5
-Israel Students Assoc.
Joe Hill, the movie:
"A BEAUTIFUL WORK,
PART HISTORY, PART
SOCIOLOGY AND IN
LARGEST PART, A FILM
BALLAD ABOUT A FOLK
HERO! DIRECTOR
BO WIDERBERG HAS
TAKEN A PART OF
HISTORY AND GIVEN IT
THE GLOW OF LEGEND!"
-Judith Crist, New York Magazine
"80 WIDERBERG'S 'JOE
HILL' IS SPLENDID
BEYOND REALITY!"
-PaulD.Zimmerman, Newsweek
Joe Hill, the man:
Joe Hill was a banjo-playing
drifter who became an organ-
izer of the radical "Wobblies"
In 1915, he was indicted for
murder and executed.
Many felt he was framed.
It has fallen to Bo Widerberg,
director of "Elvira Madigan",
to tell this uniquely American
story. In "Joe Hill' he chooses
not to concentrate on the
political being or musician but
concentrates on Joe Hill the MAN.
:.,
I
hl
q
University of Michigan
Gilbert and Sullivan Society
announces that
PEITIIONS
are being accepted for next
term's production for the following:
Paramount Pictures Presents
A Sagittarius Production
A BO WIDERBERG FILM
who wrote songs and was shot.
THOMMY BERGGREN
Wnt eMe yBO WIDERBERG
Ink SON V^ &yJOAN BAEZ in color
A Paramount Picture
ALSO-2nd BIG HIT
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