Page Two THE MICHIGAN DAILY Saturday, October 10, 1970 Page Two THE MICHIGAN DAILY records Twice the sides, hal the energy By FARGO BERMAN This is one of the better al- tion of what we usually concep- Aliotta Haynes Music (Am- The Byrds-(Untitled), (Co- bums on the market today, but tualize as separate art forms; pex A 10108) presents Ted and unbia G 30127). This is the it definitely ain't got the full the album is essentially a Mod- Mitch Alotta and Skip Haynes dynamism of the original Byrds. ish "Reader's Digest meta- playing adeptly in the early 60's *1 P -Daily-Thomas R. Copi A goody and a few more baddies By ANN L. MATTES Deep Purple has the kind of sound you hear all the time on the underground stations b u t never recognize. The music, a combination of hard/acid rock is loud and unmelodic. However, the rhythms are catchy, as in all good rock, and the crafts- manship of the musicians shows through the constantly chang- ing sounds. The group consists of f i v e members, two Ians, Ritchie, Roger 4nd Jon. The album, en- titled Deep Purple in Rock, is entirely their production. "Who plays what" was not considered important enough to appear on the cover, but as far as I can judge there are a cou- ple of electric guitars (bass in- cluded), drums and an organ. The group does a lot of hard jamming, which is somewhat superior to their rather simplis- tic melodies. To give you some idea of the content of the lyrics, I h a v e randomly selected the shortest poem on the inside cover.. Sweet Child in Time you'll see the line The line that's drawn between the good and the bad See the blind man shooting at the world Bullets flying taking toll, If you've -been bad, Lord I bet you have And you've not been hit by flying lead You'd better close your eyes and bow your head And wait for the ricochet. As you may have guessed by now, there isn't a hell of a lot you can say about the messages in these songs. They only pro- vide a meshwork for the driv- ing rhythms. After a few hear- ings, the words don't make that much difference. Like all good rock, the sound is communica- ble and eventually fatal. Thi album contains that unsophis- ticated something in rock that all listeners may catch, so be- ware if you're trying to culti- vate your musical taste. "In the fifth century, a scourge rolled across Eastern Europe, destroying all that stood in its path. A screaming, invincible w a v e of destrue- tion, it left in its wake half the civilized world in shock and bleeding submission. It was a sword and a flame. It was the name t h a t became synonymous with an unstem- mable tide of conquest. AT- TILA!" The return of this wonder on Epic records has produced sim- ilar results. The new album with its du- bious title is a screaming wave of destruction. Listening to it more than one side at a time creates a sense of discomfort b o t h physically and mentally. It's the t y p e of record you should buy only to p 1 a y for friends who drop by at an un- wanted moment. Without a doubt the record could make an excellent Head- ache No. 96 for Excedrin Not that the musicianship is poor. Billy Joel and Jon Small provide more volume than the Moody Blues and BS&T com- bined. Joel plays a Hammond organ that he rewired to bypass the tone cabinet so that it feeds directly into the amplifiers. The effect offers an unusual souce Sh t IG 11 9PM DIAL 5-6290 Shows of 1. 3. 5 7. 9 P.M. of expression, but the constant use is just overwhelming. Although "Attila" lacks a sen- sitivity to the listener's endur- ance level, I wouldn't be at all surprised if they eventually dis- cover the right formula. Their potential remains for future al- bums. I would suspect that G I e i Yarbrough is j u s t about old enough to celebrate a Jubilee album. And one thing about it, he hasn't changed a bit. His voice still has t h a t timorous quality that also sounds as if he were singing from his motorized exercycle. Even the songs have- n't changed. He continues to warble the "Honey Wind Blows" and "Baby, the Rain Must Fall," as if we still might run out and buy the album for that anti- quated version. Despite th gangrene that has set in on most of his songs, I must admit that he doesn't do a bad version of Phil Ochs "The Crucifixion." However, I think Phil didn't do such a bad job himself. I saw Glen Yarbrough in con- cert when I happened to be in the unlikely city of Indianapo- lis. Of course, the tickets were complimentary or else he would have had two fewer people in the audience. For some reason, I didn't mind his performance live. He really worked hard at organizing his message. There were blue lights flashing at just the right time and Rod McKuen poetry to fill in the 'spaces. He seemed to like what he was doing, and the audience re- acted to his friendship. Every- one went away from the con- cert rather melancholic f r o m the hint of sadness that per- vades many of his songs. However, as I see the album sitting in my living room, I am tempted to say I picked it up free at the Daily as part of a review. As in the case of his concert, I wouldn't offer a n y remuneration for his efforts. Compton and Batteau In California offers a folk-rock album that ranges in style from Buddy Holly to Bob Dylan. At different times eleven instru- metalists contribute to the m e 1 o d i c and uncomplicated sound. Robin Batteau on violin deli- cately weaves a fabric that is characteristically his own, John Compton's vocals are sensitive and tnough out of tune to make them compelling. While all of the songs are original, images that capture a lyrical past continuously appear in the songs. Occasionally sev- eral chords that recall the Byrds f 1 o a t in or a slightly southern accent that sounds like Arlo Guthrie. Several of the songs contain narratives that are not j u s t poetry but melancholic ballads that reflect what e a c h of us consider the lifestyle of Cali- fornia to be. That is, a fervent love of nature and people cou- pled by a feeling that life can hold even more if we strive to improve every man's condition, DIAL 8-6416 Doors Open Continuous at 12:45 from 1 P.M 1HEGREJTCI0HE. sometimes at the sacrifice of our own comforts: I had a house with a long, long staircase Gardens of grace and cham- bers with fine lace, - Acres of woodland watered with sweet rain. And acres of cocaine raised on the highway. Now it's gone and as I sit on this sunken porch As aguest of the Grotto Farm Weakened house, better days on hand Never fearing any harm It's peaceful a n d I say it's bliss. Whether a group reaches a state of general acclaim depends on a lot more than good music. Compton and Batteau have as much to offer as many popular groups. I suppose publicity will be the necessary next ingredi- ent. Tell your friends. Byrds e Sure sunds familiar, though pretty loose for them. Side one has such memorable goodies as "Mr. Tambourine Man," "Mr. Spaceman," and "Positively 4th Street." The Byrds were always an astoundingly unified group, re- corded or live, and they usually sang in what may roughly be described as a mournful, modi- fied Country style. But before David Crosby left, allegedly over his refusal to tour South Africa with the group because of that country's policy of apartheid, the sallow vocals packed in a deep intensity, and the rich, superlative flux and tightness, particularly of guitars, made the Byrd's music unique. Here on both live (sides one and two) and studio (sides three and four) albums there is often a feeling of rote performance- the Byrd's have endured a com- plete turnover of personnel, ex- cepting Roger McGuinn who changed his first name from Jim, and are still a high quality group. "Hungry Planet" is a fine memory of McGuinn's almost understated cloying vocals, but this depth is too often in absen- tia on this album. Side two of the concert album, totally devoted to an extended and essentially instrumental version of "Eight Miles High," is an exercise of dissipation. There are some scattered moments of fine getting it to- gether, but also several stretches reminiscent of countless ball- room jams by countless, face- less groups, even though the Byrds have more to offer in this vein. The track includes a leng- thy solo on electric bass which is proficient but never quite manages to justify itself. Groups nowadays are con- stantly searching for a name which typifies their music. De- wey Martin and Medicine Ball (UNI 73088) has succeeded: a hard pill to swallow as Martin's voice searches for the perfect second rate imitation of Leslie West, and at times Ray Charles, Joe Cocker, McCartney. The music is a bit more con- sistent, but then it only tries to be consistently nebulous. True love went into the crea- tion of Percussion For Lovers (UNI 73085). I always wondered what all those mystic mood, great movie theme, and 817 string pastiches were aiming for outside of cold lucre. Now we are given a record we can place on the turntable as an excuse for something or the other and it is almost totally forgettable-but the subliminal irritation from this finely honed freak show of uninspiring per- cusses of 38 instruments is just enough so you seek an escape BUT at the same time just this side of that fine line which gives a body the tug to get up and flip it off-besides it shows off the stereo nicely, good sepa- ration and all. I was in a bad mood when I put the album on, but after so many pretentious rock and folk fiascos, what a delight! An ef- fort with pretentions to nothing special at all. And integrity has not been sacrificed to the usual romantic syrupy melodies; songs with the word "love" are just used as a flimsy excuse of a starting point to take off from and then diddle around; these pieces are uniquely in touch with the unsung musical mil- quetoast majority, Wess has pulled off a unifica- morphosized to pseudo-musical sounds which communicate the Odyssean search for the mean- ing of mediocrity. It seems I have been down on UNI records, that is Universal City Records - division of MCA Inc. Especially after seeing their dust covers saying "more hits more often" and proudly dis- playing some of the company's finer signed talents, like Neil Diamond and the fantabulous Strawberry Alarm Clock. Yet, hearing the first cut, "Medi- cated Goo" of Mud on Mudd. (UNI 73089) I was reminded of Spooky Tooth's first album which was in fact terrible, but led to an incredibly fine second effort. The first cut apparently just showed the group's wisdom in picking up on a song written by the members of Traffic. But "Satisfied Mind" was coming up on side two and seemed an astute choice. Their total mangling of this song was followed by a purpose- less rendition of "Why Don't We Do It In The Road?" Why don't some record com- panies learn? folk manner, not carrying off "Fire and Rain" as well as its writer James Taylor. That is to be expected, but their interpretation is almost coldly mechanical which is quite a feat. This is a true song, as I havej heard the story, of a girl who was forcibly kept from seeing Taylor while he was in an in- sane asylum (to which he had voluntarily committed himself) and as a result she took her life: "Susan the plans they made up an end to you." Here it is stuck into a tradi- tional melancholy folk styling and loses all original feeling. "Uppers and Downers," is an anti-drug. number except 'of course: "Cigarettes they're bad for you too/But marijuana's fine." Despite any good motivations for this song, and if you have the misfortune to hear it the motivations will appear dubious, the in-joke cultishness, featur- ing the nuoveau classic burp at the end, is nauseating. The rest is run-of-the-mill threadbare folk music. Tues. R.F.D. BOYS Next Week: BILLY VANAUER 1.50 141Hill$IT U. UTAH PHILLIPS A veritable pot-pourri of iokes, tales, songs in the tastelessness characteristic of the old. West. the Golden Voice of the Great Southwest ,« F, I i OPENS TUES. DON'T MISS! Al l 1 j i L a PTP BOX OFFICE T ues.-Sun. OPEN M-F 10-1, 2-5 ---- -- - --- -I f 4 We Don 't Just Publish a Newspaper " We meet new people SWe laugh a lot * We find consolation " We have T.G.'s * " We play football (once) " We make money (some) " We solve problems e We e We gain prestige become self confident o We debate vital issues ~ ogetkIer. 9 We drink 5c Cokes I Jo' N the DAILY staff I I - afts; Xxt, .. . . . ........ I I f .