THE MICHIGAN DAILY
,Sunday, October 25, 1970
THE MICHIGAN DAILY Sunday, October 25, 1970
music
Sha-wNa-Na play i t again
DIAL 8-6416
TWO CLASSICS
HOLD OVER!.
By LAURIE HARRIS
Over 3,500 screaming post-
teenagers pressed their way to
the front of the Crisler Arena
last night to touch and bop
around with the Sha-Na-Na in
UAC's Homecoming concert.
Girls fainted and even some
guys flipped out as Sha-Na-Na
revived the roots of the present
musical scene-good, old Rock
land Roll.
It was bobby socks, greased
hair and too-tight pants that
helped make the evening so
happy. Sha-Na-Na are twelve
guys who can make everybody
happy and happily they writhed
and sang and pranced their
way through musical history.
Starting way back at the
heart of Rock and Roll with
'Silhouettes,' first done by The
Rays, and then working through
all the old 'do-ah diddies' and
'be bops' that made that era
nonsensical and meaningful.
Remember 'Teen Angel' with
all its sappy, heart-throb lyrics?
Think of it slowed down to an
almost tedious pace, with eleven
guys weeping and dancing pat-
terns around the lead singer as
he falls to his knees in utter
agony over the loss of his girl.
Or 'Chantilly Lace' with Jocko
howling and moving his ass
vivaciously all over the stage.
Not fresh from The Big Bopper
in 1958 and not moldy either.
And Scott, dressed in gold
lamee right down to the boots,
with a sexily bared chest writh-
ing from microphone to micro-
phone in the best Elvis Presley
fashion. ,
Then there is John, over six
'feet tall and under two feet
around, baring his 'muscle-bul-
ging' arms to the audience, burp-
ing sporadically, and singing in-
to the melodious depths of 'Blue
Moon'.
Three dancers, all in shining
gold, bent and swayed their
bodies, augmenting the har-
monious backdrop of black and
striped T-shirts.
And so it went, one oldy-but-
goody right after another, each
spurring the audience on to
hearing the next. Each with
twelve guys partaking somehow,
either by dancing, singing or
playing instruments. Each with
an audience that willingly ante-
dates the present, getting more
and more energized by the glori-
ous memories of the past-melo-
drama, cracking voices, sexily
weaving bodies and one guy
throwing himself to the stage
in a stoned stupor, subservient,
as the rest of us, to the Sha-
Na-Na calling them back for
four Jitter-Bugging, hand clap-
ping encores.
The lights dimmed, the music
came to a rolling, beating cli-
max and halted and the stage
was dark leaving an exhilarat-
ed-now-bobby-s o x e d-audience
still stomping for more.
And Ten
By DANIEL ZWERDLING to everyo
Some entrepreneur in the sky plodding
have end
shuffled some Chicago, some patyu
Blood Sweat and Tears and a part you
female singer in the Janis Joplin tic techn
tradition and presto: Ten Wheel make it it
Drive. With two albums all their as well.T
own out on the market, there's died: th
no reason why this group
shouldn't stick around the big anger
concerts. Its three virtuosoa
trumpets, trombone and sax- composer
clarinetist play every bit as well And fir
as the Chicago and BS&T brass, stand on
maybe better. singer, b
This "new California sound," ensemble
as the posters bill the band, isn't arrangem
so much a truly new sound as stage flex
it is a successful blend of some the instr
well-established musical tradi- them, to
tions of the past two years. jam and
Blood Sweat and Tears proved disc. Th
Sweat an
complish
4
KEN RUSSELL'S film of
Do He LA RENCE'S
COLOR by Deluxe Unfted Artis
*F and *
THE ACADEMY AWARD WINNER!
"BEST PICTURE"I
V Mt,
- COMING -
BERGMAN'S
"PASSION OF ANNA",
-Daily-Jim Judkis
Wheels roll
I,
t
c
IZ
ne that the days of the
or screeching brass
ded; to hack a brass
ve got to play a fantas-
ical horn which would
m classical or jazz music
The stand-by thirds and
harmonics have also
e band needs an ar-
ho has studied Hinde-
ld other contemporary
rs.
fnally, the band doesn't
a star-it has a lead
ut thrives on a close\
playing from careful
nents, but with complete
xibility to give breaks to
umentalists who want
sound sometimes like a
not a studio dubbed
at's something Blood
nd Tears has never ac-
ed.
belts out a song, like 'I'm a Wantj
Ad' or 'Stay With Me,' she
scarcely moves her body, under-
stating the tension and drive oft
the drum and brass beats.
Ten Wheel Drive's only mis-
fortune (which the band fought
and overcame admirably): it
was scheduled to follow Sha-
Na-Na. At Woodstock Sha-Na-
Na came before a guitarist
named Jimi Hendrix, who didn't
need to win back the audience's
affections. When Ten Wheel
Drive came on the stage the
crowd gave it a cordial if some-
what aloof reception. This band
really had to prove itself. By
the end of the concert, the en-
tire coliseum was stomping on
its feet and refusing to let the1
California group go.
The Michigan Daily, edited and man-
agec. by students at the University of
Micnigan. News phone: 764-0552. Second
UL1ass postage paid at Ann Arbor, Mich-
gan, 420 Maynard St., Ann Arbor,
Michigan 48104. Published daily Tues-
day through Sunday morning Univer-
ity year. Subscription rates: $10 by
carrier. $10 by mai
Summer Session published Tuesday
through Saturday morning. Subscrip-
tion rates: $5. by carrier, $5 by mall.,
II!
BOOK SALE,
EVERYTHING IN STORE REDUCED
20% OFF LIST ON NEW
50% OFF LIST ON USED
Come in and browse.
Get required books for the rest of the term
SALE CONTINUES
STUDGNT 00K SGRVIC
1215 S. UNIVERSITY
^c
0,
-Daily-Terry McCarthy
orne Symphony: Odd assortment
By A. R. KEILER
Last night the concert given
by the Melbourne Symphony
Orchestra and its new perma-
nent conductor Willem Van Ot-
terloo was in commemoration of
the 25th anniversary of the
United Nations. Perhaps that is
the reason for the odd assort-
ment of works that made up the
first part of the program. We
heard first the Sun Music by
the young Australian composer
Peter Sculthorpe, the f o u r
movements which make up
up Franek's Psyche, Verdi's
Hymn of the Nations, and fin-
ally Beethoven's F i f t h Sym-
phony.
The first half of the concert
left one, at least this reviewer,
with the unsettling impression
that !each of the works was
something left over from i t s
own concert. The choice w a s
apparently dictated by the com-
memorative occasion of the
concert. It could not have been
in response to musical consist-
ency. But the real point was not
to find some better programma-
tic representation of the event
but to realize that to print the
word (in this case commemora-
tive) is to do the deed. It's what
the philosophers like to call the
question of performatives, and
for concerts, works much better
than the music.
Sculthorpe's piece is subtitled
"Anniversary Music." There was
nothing very anniversary about
it, except its commission, and
nothing really distinguished
about it, save its genuineness
and lack of rhetoric. It reflect-
ed the composer's interest in'
Oriental music, but I don't think
this was enough to sustain the
piece. Verdi's Hymn of the Na-
tion closed the first part of the
program. It is a ten minute piece
utterly devoid of the slightest
musical worth, and in addition,
requires a small chorus and
tenor as accomplices. The piece
was written for the London Ex-
hibition of 1862, for which it was
accepted but never performed.
It is composed, in about e q u a 1
parts, of sentimentality, patriot-
ism, and an almost pathological
over-indulgence for national
anthems. In spite of all of this
John McCollum, the tenor solo-
ist, sang beautifully.
Franck's symphonic poem
Psyche is rarely performed in its
entirety, the last movement
Psyche and Eros being the most
familiar. It is a very uneven
piece, without much direction or
form until Psyche finally meets
up with Eros toward the end of
the work.
It has some of the translucence
and refinement of texture which
is special to the musical vocab-
ulary of Franck, but it is short
on the long-arched melodic in-
spiration that one finds, for
example, in his D Minor Sym-
phony. Van Otterloo's approach
was one of transparency and un-
derstatement, rather than pas-
sion or real involvement.
The virtues of his reading of
Beethoven's Fifth Symphony
were largely negative. He avoid-
ed most of the exaggerations
and cliches in the first move-
ment of the work, except for the
inevitable and unwarranted poco
allargando on the first repeat
of the four note motive which
opens the movement. For the
rest, the performance unfolded
more as a delineation of the
rhythmic propulsion of the score
than as a study in color and
sonority. It was a complacent
delineation at best. There was,
on the whole, too little personal
involvement or profile in Van
Otterloo's conducting. He takes
convincing tempos, p h r a s e s
musically, and analyzes a work
correctly, but there is no tem-
perament or individuality. He
conducts as if he is contend to
remind his musicians how the
pieces should go, instead of
bringing them alive. He seemed
to get going in the last move-
The singer in Ten Wheel
Drive rasps and shouts and coos
like the late Janis (one song
sounded remarkably like Jop-
lin's Kosmic Blues album) She
doesn't have the electrifying
stage presence of her mentor
(mentress), nor the stupefying
vocal and emotional control,
and exposure she should make a
name for herself. When she
"'l CTCH 22'
ISTHE MOST
MOVING1THE
MOST INTELLI-
GENT9THE MOST
HUMANE -OHTO
HELL WITH IT!P
IT'S THE BEST
AMERICAN FILM
I'VE SEEN THIS
YEAR"'-VINCT CANBY.
I " l Iu N Y T ME
"IT'S ONE HELL OF A FILM! A
COLD, SAVAGE AND CHILLING
COMEDY! Firmly establishes
Nichols' place in the front rank
of American directors."
I -Bruce W~ilimson, PLAYBOY
"Viewing Arkin is like watching
Lew Alcindor sink baskets or
Bobby Fischer play chess. A
virtuoso, player entering his
richest period! A triumphant
performance!" -TIME MAGAZINE
" 'CATCH-22' says many things
that need to be said again and
again! Alan Arkin's perform-
ance as Yossarian is great!"
-Joseph Morgenstern, NEWSWEEK
BY LAWRENCE DeVINE
Free Press Drama Critic
The very young are differ-
ent from you and me. They
have more d r e a m s. Then
once in a while, one of them
with love w h e r e his gall
should be writes a play like
"Summertree," a kindly day-
dream about things as maybe
they should have been. "Sum-
mertree" is by Ron Cowen,
then about 22 whennhe wrote
it. In three short acts in the
Actors Company production
at Ann Arbor's Mendelssohn
Theater, his first play stands
up as if it were his last.
A young soldier is dying be-
side a tree in Vietnam. Like
Ambrose tierce's "An Oc-
currence at Owl C r e e k
Bridge," the story then be-
comes all that the boy re-
members in the instant before
death. But it worked for
Bierce and in "Summertree,"
it works for Ron Cowen.
Ann Arbor's 'Summertree,
A Sensitve Production
Al
AT MENDELSSOH N THEATER
A young actor named Dirk
Benedict gives a pure and
honest eperfortance as the
boy, absolutely free of stage
tricks or sham. In the play-
long flashback, Benedict is
superb as he suffers the im-
mutable pain of a son trying
to get through to his father.
The father is played by Wil-
liam Myers in a particularly
good perfDrmance. Balding a
little, his sensitivity scabbed
by a job like Willy Loman's,
the father is heartbreaking
when he says what his son
imagines he'll say after his
boy's death: "I gave him
everything, he was a fine
man!" Then, right to the
bones of "S u m m e r t r e e,"
comes the mother's reply: "He
had to die for you to say
that?!" True, he did have to
die.
In a deft dramatic touch,
the youth's flashbacks include
himself hanging out in his
backyard with himself as a
child. The y o u n g e r. boy is
played by a red-haired boy of
unfailing appeal who is either
12 years old or a w i z a r d,
named John Clark and he was
wonderful.
The play is born in sym-
pathy, and in a young man's
sensitivity to himself as one
able to give love, to his fat
parents, to his gentle girl-
friend. The cast is excellent;
director C 1 a y t o n Corzattes
staging, with its background
slides of fresh flowers, lawns
and trees alternated with
battle shots of the war, is in-
ventive to a careful, controll-
ed degree. Mostly, it is peace-
ful. That is difficult; creating
a peaceful play about dreams
that are killed.
*1
*1
ment for awhile, but
really made contact
audience.
he never
with the
FINAL PERFORMANCES! Sat. Eve. Sun. Mat. & Eve.
Subscribe To/
THE MICHIGAN DAILY
- - - - - - - -- - - - -
Some people
never change.
Thank God
we do.
THE MICHIGAN MEN'S+
1902
GLEE CLUB
I
____
I
I
E
I
s
U"
The SidelongGlances
ofa Pigeon KICke
9 rr
Meet Jonathan.
The very day he graduated Princeton
r _ he became a New York taxi driver.
(Then, he met Jennifer.)
'{5
ARM/American Revolutionary Media presents
KWAIDAN
Cannes Film Festival Prizewinner
the ultimate in ghost stories ...
a fim to revrel in .and remember."
The University of Michigan
and
The University of Illinois
Men's Glee Clubs in
-JOINT CONCERT-
Fnriinu Ninvanimhpr A
?PAMM MS OPnNIN ASSMflOM MTh(UI VTS ItXP51(11
A MIKE NICHOLS FILM
ALAN ARKIN
2tum:
I- ! p
I
I
/I