Page Two
THE MICHIGAN DAILY
Friday, September 25, 1970-
Page Two THE MICHIGAN DAILY
Friday, September 25, 1970
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records
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Peari
By FARGO BERMAN
To the best of ny knowledge,
Pearls Before Swine has never
given a live performance. They
started out by sending tapes in,
to the recording company to be.
pressed and distributed. The
Use of Ashes (Reprise R§ 6405)
is a soothing and mildly nie-
lancholic album, incorporating a
wide range of instruments such
as electric and acoustic guitar,
as electric and acoustic guitar,
harpsichord, violin, oboe, and
piano into a traditional lyrical
sound. There is often an un-
usually adept poetry within the
simple wording. "The Jeweler" is
about a jeweler who. lovingly,
with an almost tragic involve-
ment, polishes old coins:
he uses spit and cloth and ashes
he makes them shine with ashes
he knows the useof ashes
he worships god with ashes
and from "Song About A Rose":
this is a song about a rose
of lonely caravans whispering
to God
to chain the world in prose
but people are not singers and
life
is not a song
and even God can only guess
why or where or when or if
the answers all belong
and you and I we sing
our song about a rose
or- perhaps the shadow of a rose
All words and music were writ-
ten by. Tom Rapp, who sings
with a noticeable lisp, which,
after the oddity of hearing this
on a .record, wears off and be-
comes a mannerism rather than
a defect of speech. Rarely does
he strain to achieve the wide
sadness his voice encompasses,
just as the lyrics cover a wealth
of concept without grasping for
pedantic complexity.
The Use of Ashes bears a con-
stant tone of unhappiness; how,
much music is not essentially of
this vein? Symphonies encom- <g
pass solitudes, 50's rock and
roll songs pant about lost loves,
late 60's rock tries to overcome
every manner of depression by
screaming, Jazz constantly
searches for Om. Pearls Be-
fore Swine lays out a gentle
mourning with a lilting rich-
ness I suspect even a cocktail
party afficionado might occas-
sionally get into.
Schizoid barrage
Listening to a string of single
cuts by Neil Young, John Se-
before
Swine:
Soothing
bastian, James Taylor, J o h n
Mitchell, and ten other o u t -
standing artists or groups is ir-
ritating -- a mildly schizophren-
ic aural barrage. The guilty
compendium is called Alterna-
tives (WB 1873), the most re-
cent "promotional" album put
out by Warner Brothers to ex-
pose the public to several "un-
discovered" recordings. Most of
the performers on this record
are. pretty well known to a col-
lege audience (some other per-
sona included are the Mothers,
the Grateful Dead, and T i m
Buckley) and just after you get
settled into a favorite group 's
single you. are jolted into a tot-
ally different musical aura with
the following song. Warner/Re-
prise has a few other such folk
and rock samplers out, throe of
themr two, dollar double albums,
have at least 25 works each. Like
this album, they are a bargain
if you enjoy listening to single
cuts, but for those who want to
settle into at least a loose con-
tinuum of mood, they will most
likely prove unsettling. For those
who want to discover groups'
they had previously missed out
on, these albums too often of-
fer only a single sample of an
entire recording, though buy-
ing an album on the strength
of such a teaser is a pleasant
enough gamble with a moderate
chance of success.
Giving notice
An album which has been out
for a while without its due no-
tice is Duet by the Illinois
Speed Press (Columbia). The
original group broke up and
this album features remaining
membrs Kal David and Paul
Cotton, both on guitars a n d
vocals, .along with some f i n e
studio musicians. Sounds like a
vintage Buffalo Springfield and
Crosby, Stills, Nash; and Young.
Movie melange
The ,motion picture sound-
track of Performance (BS 2554)
is a melange of compositions
which do not quite hang to-
gether. There is but one song by
Mick Jagger, "Memo From Tur-
ner," which is brilliantly acerbic
in the manner only Jagger can
pull off. Ry Cooder performs
two standard bottleneck guitar
solos, "Get Away" and "Powis
Square," both of which have ap-
peared under different titles
and with minute alterations in
hundreds of blues songs of the
past. "Rolls Royce and Acid" is
a baroque wind instrumental
while "Harry Flowers" resem-
bles Mantovani or the arch-
typical Henry Mancini Movie
Theme.
"Wake Up, Niggers" is a
powerful reading by the Last
Poets. And there are mouth bow
solos by Buffy-Sainte Marie, a
song performed by Randy New-
man, electronic music segments,
and non-verbal vocals by Mer-
ry Clayton. There is a rough
confluence through this diver-
sity since all but two songs were
written by one man, Jack
Nitzsche.
But where the album fails or
succeeds is in the fact that it
has the very definite quality of
a 1970 movie soundtrack album
-I venture to say this without
having seen the film-several
cuts suggest transitive scenes,
not because of their brilliance
but because of the way music
has traditionally been used in
several strains of major stu-
dio pictures for the last five
years. If you enjoy the picture,
the associations the album will
stir up may make it worthwhile.
Otherwise, while all of the cuts
are at worst mildly interesting
and a couple are intriguing, only
"Memo From Turner," and
"Wake Up, Niggers" deserve to
be heard more than once.
Osborne might be able to]
voice to good use in a n
situation which had some
Tones of blue
Yes. Yes. Yes. Trout
Mind (RS 6404), record
1961 when Mance Lipscom
sixty-six, stand miles h:
in the recent flood of.
tional American blues a
It stands out with a guita
fectly wrought into balan
counterpoint with theX
ular nuances of each song
an almost understatedi
slides (with a knife) on"
erless Children." Work
("Captain, Captain"): H
work so hard/ And my c
pays so slow/ Sometime I
care/ whether I work o
poetry
put his You know the food.I eat honey
nusical Baby it won't digest
depth. Night Time is the right time
Be with the one you love
And Mother blues and Boll
Weevil blues.
ble in "Buck Dance" is the only in-
ded in strumental and uses playful
nb was thumps and bass slides in a
igh in funky tune that suggests what
tradi- Frank Zappa might be doing if
lbums. he took off from the blues. Put
ar per- this album on as background
ce and music for a low-key conversa-
partic- tion and you will probably find
. With no-key conversation occurring.
use of The clarity of this recording is
Moth- superb and the throbbing bass
blues and rambling tunes of one gui-
ave to tar with a sleepy but knowing
Get
ACTION
with
Daily Classifieds
aptain
I don't
r not.
Southern voice demand that you
sit yourself down and soak it in.
*
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Bagels Available
Sunday Mornings
(Next to Lums)
4.
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Don't just hang there with your reading
skill. Develop, improve, refine your
reading skill, now. At no extra cost,
GRADUATES of the Evelyn Wood Read-
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RALEIGH BIKES DO NOT CAUSE
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(Contains no Cyclemates)
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Touring and Racing parts and
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TURIN
2112 N. Clark St. Chicago, Il. 60614
Telephone: (312) Ll 9-8863
Open weekdays Noon to 8:30 p.m.
Sat & Sun 10 a.m. to 8 p.m.
Free Delivery on
All Bicycles over $100, Parts over $10
Sunday, Sept.
27,
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igan Union, Rm. 3D. Bring your note-
book, your textbooks, paper and pen-
PRACTICE, PRACTICE, PRACTICE.
II
Shop Jacobson's Tonight 'Til 9:00 P.M.; Sat. 9:30 A.M. to 5:30 P.M.
Gingham checks have blossomed out in daisies. A spirit
4
Litter doesn't throw
itself away; litter
doesn't just happen.
People cause it-and"
only people can prevent
It "People" means you.
Keep America Beautiful,
. advertising contributed
Sfor the public good
EVELYN WOOD READING DYNAMICS
GRADUATE WORKSHOP-
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't
urar
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"Rush"
Tickets:
200
at $1.00 each
(2 tickets Per
person-n o choice
of location)
ON SALE
11:30 to 12:00 AM.
AT THE
I I'Il A - '.
The Detroit
Symphony Orchestra
SIXTEN EHRLING, Conductor; JUDITH RASKIN, Soprano
WILL BE PRESENTED BY THE
in HILL AUDITORIUM
SUNDAY, SEPT. 27, AT 2:30
lifting spread by Morgan-Jones in wrinkle-resistant polyester and
cotton, machine washable and dryable. Available in black,
green, blue or gold checks. Just one of our large selection
of bedspreads for dorm and campus living,
Spread shown in twin size, $13.
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