rThursday, February 22, 1973
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rTh-.~rsday, February 22, 1973 l?-~M!CHIC-AN DAILY rage inree
Ann Arbor Civic Theatre
PRESENTS
Thieves'
Carnival
8 p.m. Wed. thru Sat.
LYDIA MENDELSSOHN
THEATRE
Box Office Open Daily 10 o.m.
Daily Classifieds
Bring Results
FRIDAY
11:30 p.m. (7) (24) In Concert
A bi-weekly 90 minute music special
featuring different, "name" rock ar-
tists in live performance. The audio
portion is simulcast over WRIF-FM
(101.1).
1:00 a.m. (4) (10) (13) Midnight Spe-
cial
A weekly 90 minute music special
featuring a rotating list of guest
hosts and a wide variety of "sounds,"
from rock to Muzak, both live and
pre-recorded. The audio is not sim-
ulcast over a local radio outlet.
Our first column is dedicated to
Wally Cox. A nice guy.
Picture this: Alice Cooper and
his punk rock band on stage,
complete with snake, electric
chair, and an .asortment of spine-
tingling devices and such. Alice
suggestively sucks on his ever-
present microphone while his
band is cranking it up behind
him, sounding horribly vicious
yet maintaining their sweet bit-
chiness.
Suddenly the "eye" pans away
from Alice and settles on a
sweeping view of the audience
.. .Yes, now you've focused,
and there they are - a list-
les throng of (possibly) pubes-
cent gum-poppers, looking pretty
for you, smiling guilefully in
their Sasoon shags' and Pucci-
patched jeans. And once again
your point of view is changed
for you, and your "eye" falls on
a tall, angular blonde, her hair
flailing madly, her body mov-
ing enticingly to a seemingly im-
possible beat . . . and then it's
over.
... What do they do when the
music's over? Yes, it's a fool-
ish question to ask, for you
shall soon see - a now-awake
mob peers anxiously about, hop-
ing for some new "cue" to fall
their way. A man quickly ap-
pears to the left of the stage,
pointing his finger at the aud-
ience like some swashbuckling
rapier set free to do its good
deeds. He mats his hands to-
gether, swiftly repeating this
action till his younger puppets
mimick him, thus creating the
resounding applause that most, if
not all artists live for . . .
Does it matter that Alice's
performance was a pale impres-
sion of his regular show? Does
it matter that the band was off-
key and virtually lifeless on
stage? No, nothing matters -
save for the audience's deep de-
sire to enjoy their own show.
Cut, print . . . that's a take.
A new Fellini film? No, guess
again. A calculatedly absurd
Bertolt Brecht masterpiece? No,
neither we're afraid. What we
have is something with the like-
ly misnomer of In' Concert, a
bi-weekly presentation of the
ABC-TV television network and
your friendly n e i g h b o rhood
whoremongers, the Advertisers
of America.
Yes, in this network's never-
ending desire to serve our na-
tion's self-deserving "rock cul-
ture," ABC has made it possible
for you-yes you (!), Woodstock
flower child - to sit in your own
room and smoke dope, down the
old Ripple: and now watch your
fab rave rock stars on the video
tube while catching the glamor-
ous audio in stereo on the local
ABC radio outlet!
To begin our little escapade:
ABC's basic premise of present-
ing rock and other pop cultural
acts taped live in concert is a
good one. Except for shows like
Dick Clark's American B a n d-
stand and the current reruns of
the Monkees shows, television
has lately been avoiding rock as
an entity in any sense - and
both of these examples only fea-
ture performers lip-syncing their
music.
For this obvious lack of such
rock entertainment, ABC's final
recognition of our little culture
was a godsend so-to-speak, and
one of great opportunity profit-
wise for everyone but the view-
er, we might add.
It is from this point on that
ABC's In Concert series proves
to be a dissatisfying rock vehi-
cle: from a promising premise
down into the murky depths of
poor execution, that is. ABC's
bigest mistake was hiring Don
Kirshner to "execute" their new
rock series - something he has
t.v.-per-fect-ly done with all of
the relish of a morbid hangman.
To our knowledge, Kirshner's
only previous experiences w i t h
"rock" was in his development
and sugar-sugar presentation of
the Archies and the Monkees
on both television and records.
For these actions alone, Kirsh-
ner's view of rock is not neces-
sarily in line with that of the
average rock 'n' roller - though
in both cases he is (or was) aim-
ing at the teeny-boper for a good
portion of his audience.
To date, Kirshner has not been
satisfied with the raw power of
current rock, so in his search for
perfection, he has been a part of
the biggest "re-mixing" con-
spiracy since the earliest days
of lip-sync. The feeling that we
sense in Kirshner is that he is
a firm believer in the t.v. adage
that "every performer - talent-
ed or otherwise - should a n d
will sound perfect." As w i t h
most rock artists, this is an im-
possible request/demand. A s
such, it is therefore up to the
audio men to do - in m o s t
cases - the "dirty work" and.
work their missions impossible
by mixing, re-mixing and re-re-
mixing the raw tapes to the
point of (almost) certain medio-
crity.
The result from this type of
thorough rock "execution" is an
Alice Cooper set that sounds un-
necessarily muddled and talent-
less, or a Grand Funk Railroad
performance that is overly-quiet-
ed and powerless. Both of these
acts are not especially techni-
cally-skilled bands, but in ac-
tual live performance their short-
comings are successfully over-
come by their strong stage pre-
sence(s) and,' once again, their
power as a whole. Unfortunately
on television, "stage presence"
by Mike Harper and Ken Altshuler
falls victim to the limitations of
, the screen, and the music to the
severe limitations of Kirshner's
rock knowledgability.
Just as his stereo re-mix is
dry and virtually tasteless, Kirsh-
ner's "staging" is equally as
ludricous. Our musical "mentor"
concentrates as much as is hu-
manly possible on including bor-
ing solos and extended runs ..
"realism" through redundancy,
no doubt. As well, Kirshner di-
rects the editing procedures as
it was not important where or
what you cut, as long as you do
cut. There are several other ex-
amples of this random butchery,
generally consisting of poor se-
quencing of songs, and, in many
instances, the camera angles
that are used.
Another one of Kirshner's
tricks - this one to relieve the
viewer from the tedium of watch-
ing some half-talented group
"get-it-on" - is to provide the
home tube idiot with longing
shots of female members of the
audience a la ABC's Saturday
NCAA College Football. This is
a practical, "chauvinist" a p -
proach to the matter on Kirsh-
ner's part, but the women that
he generally chooses only seem
to fuhher prove the boredom
that must be an. incessant part
of theaudience's "livelihood."
Save for the "tall, angular
blondes" in attendance, the aud-
ience as a whole appears dazed
and confused, as if taken in by
some awe-inspiring god of sorts
... The rock stars? Hardly,
tives of television, and its mysti-
much more likely they' are cap-
cal glam and glitter - why else
would they "doll" themselves
up in such glaring bad taste?
That is, the most unsatisfying
aspect of the audience is that
everyone knows when they're on
camera, and it's "smile, and say
cheese" given the once-over
again. In other words, it's show-
time at the Club Telang . . .
Though In Concert is unreal-
istic in a rock sense, it is a
glory-to-be compared to its bas-
tard brother, Midnight Special.
Special, a NBC-TV network pre-
sentation, is aimed at the 18-
35 age group and it features
even prettier audiences than In
Concert, plus cue cards, applause
signs and stringy music t h at
rarely rises above the trouble-
some realm of Muzak. In other
words, television's first 90 min-
ute musical situation-comedy.
And all unintentional, of course.
." "...
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Who owns romers face.
It's absolutely, incredibly insane. Students
everywhere growing beards, buying wirerims
doing anything possible to get their faces
in shape for Columbia Records' Intercollegiate
David Bromberg Look-Alike Sweepstakes. Even
local plastic surgeons surveyed report a sudden
surge in business from students desperate to
look like the man himself.
The real madness, however, is yet to come
- Wednesday, February 28, at 7:00 in the Fish-
bowl - when local faces will compete for the
title of Best Bromberg Look-Alike. This local
winner will then move to the national contest
where he (or she?) will match faces with repre-
sentatives from fourteen other campuses.
Winner receives AM-FM multi-band portable
Masterworks radio and 50 Columbia albums of
his or her choice. Facers-up get 30 and 20
albums. The campus with the winning face.... w s' #;
receives an all-expense-paid free concert by
Bromberg and Friends All-Star Revue and Fol-
lies.
To enter, stop by either The Michigan Daily
or WCBN ofices and fill out appropriate cou-
pons. Local winners also receive various com-
binations of Bromberg T-shirts and albums.
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Aztec Two-Step
melts in your mouth
I
I
Last
TONIGHT
ht,.
4xAheadcl
of histimne
Showing
CULTURE CALEINDAR
FILM-Maternal and Child Health Film Series presents It
Happens to Us today at noon in 3001 SPH I; AA Film
Co-op shows Anderson's If .... in Aud. A, Angell tonight
at 7, 9; South Quad Films presents Take the Money and
Run tonight at 7, 9 in Dining Rm. 2; Cinema Guild fea-
tures The Exterminating Angel in Arch. Aud. at 7, 9:05.
DRAMA-Student Lab Theatre presents Wilson's Ludlow
Fair; Lennon's In His Own Write this afternoon at 4 in
the Frieze Arena.
WCBN SPECIAL-Interview with John Denver tonight at 5.
POETRY-Donald Hall reads his poetry in the UGLI Multi-
purpose Rm. this afternoon at 4:10.
'IDETROIT,
Thurs. -Sun.
Feb. 22, 23, 24, 25
BY TOM OLSON
Maybe Time magazine is to
blame. Back in 1971 they printed
a cover stor yabout James Tay-
lor and announced that it was
now possible to sell records by
gently stroking a quitar and sing-
ing about how you didn't feel so
good. Ever since, we have been
deluged by sincere young min-
strels only too happy to write
songs about how hard it is to be
a pampered rich kid in Southern
California.
After a few years of this, the
record-buying masses have be-
come rightfully wary of these
lonesome balladeers who will sell
you their songs-of-myself for
$5.98. And Aztec Two-Step (Elek-
tra 75031) seems to be just the
sort of album that any sane
record - buyer w o u ld want to
avoid. (There are two sensitive
young musicians involved here,
but the principle is the same.)
As if it were not bad enough.
that the group takes its name
from a Lawrence Ferlinghetti
poem, our cynicism is further
encouraged by the inclusion of
an insert sheet with the lyrics
inscribed in the most precious
calligraphy imaginable. W i t h
credentials like these, how could
they be anything butatrocious?
They are not. Aztec Two-Step
is music that will melt in your
mouth, not in your fist. The
group is Neil Shulman and Rex
Fowler, two guitarists who have
been playing cofeehouses to-
gether (of course) for about a
year an da half. Theirbvocal
arrangements sound at times a
little like Simon and Garfunkel
once did, although their songs
are never so turgid as Paul
Simon at his worst. Both are tal-
ented guitarists, and the inter-
play between their styles makes
the musicianship here anything
but perfunctory. The sound of
this album is further brightened
by the presence of various cap-
able back-up people ("of course"
applies here as well), among
them banjo wizard Doug Dillard
and harmonica man John Sebas-
tian.
Producer Jerry Yester (a one-
time colleague of Sebastian) has
not dared to include even one
bad song on this record, know-
ing well enough that if this group
does not find a following for its
tonight
6:00 2 4 7 News
9 Courtship of Eddie's Father
50 Flintstones
56 Operation Second Chance
6:30 2 CBS News
4 NBC News
7 ABC News
9 I Dream of Jeannie
50 Gilligan's Island
56 Classroom Meetings
7:00 2 Truth or Consequences
4 News
7 To Tell The Truth
9 Beverly Hillbillies
50 I Love Lucy
56 Course of our Times
7:30 2 what's My Line?
4 Circus!
7 Michigan Outdoors
9 Movie
"Tarzan's New York
Adventure" (1942)
50 Hogan's Heroes
56 Behind the Lines
8:00 2 The Waltons
4 Flip wilson
7 Mod Squad
56 Advocates
50 Dragnet
8:30 50 Merv Griffin
9:00 2 Movie
"Who's Afraid of Virginia
Woolf?"
4 Ironside
7 Kung Fu
9 News
56 An American Family
9:30 Happy Though Married
10:00 4 Dean Martin
7 Streets of San Francisco
first album it is unlikely to get
a chance to make a second. The
material is all original, mostly
written by Fowler, the senior
partner. Their songwriting suf-
fers from little of the self-indul-
gence that one expects from
young writers' efforts. There are
11 different songs here, not 11
variations on a single theme. If
they lack for inspiration, they
calmly wait to be inspired again
instead of bleeding an old idea
dry.
Fowler's o t h e r compositions
are less commercial than the
two mentioned above, but they
are equally worth the price of
admission. "Almost Apocalypse"
gives a half-dozen fast pickers
the chance to show off, and is
d e n s e and absorbing without
sounding unnecessarily b u s y.
"Prisoner" brings the first side
0
0
to a gentle close, relaxed and
simple but never soporific.
"The Highway Song" is Fow-
ler's epic, but fortunately this is
not the same maudlin highway
of hard times that we hear so
much about from every phony
gypsy who ever wrote a song. It
runs to 6% minutes, but hardly
seems that long. There is no
dead space, and the album as a
whole bears scarcely a trace of
filler. But for the superfluous
strings that intervene in the
final moments, "The Highway
Song" would be a complete suc-
cess
Young Shulman has confined
himself to writing two brief
songs, but both are conspicuous-
ly fine. "So Easy" is almost in-
solent in its refusal to take
things seriously, and the music
and words agree perfectly in
that attitude. "Dancers All" is
dominated by Doug Dillard's
banjo, which is surprisingly at
home in what is essentially a
rather tense and urgent piece of
music. Shulman deserves to play
a less modest part in writing
-sonsg for future albums.
9 Adieu Alouette
50 Perry Mason
56 Masterpiece Theatre
10:30 9 Countrytime
11:00 4 7 News
9 CBC News
50 One Step Beyond
11:20 9 News
11:30 )f News
4 Johnny Carson
7 Dick Cavett
50 Movie
"City for Conquest" (1940)
12:00 2 Movie
"The Swimmer" (1968)
9 Movie
"Scalplock" (1966)
1:00 4 7 News
1:50 2 Movie
"Strangers at Sunrise" (1968)
3:20 2 TV High School
3:50 2 It's Your Bet
4:20 2 News
cable tv
channel 3
3:30 Pixanne
4:00 Today's woman
4:30 Something Else (Rock)
5:00 Stratasphere Playhouse
5:30 Local news and events
6:00 Love and the'law
6:30 NCAA Sports
7:00 Community Dialogue
8:00 Yesterday's school board meeting
89.5fm
9:00 The Morning After
12:00 Progressive Rock
4:00 Folk
5:00 Special broadcast of interview
with John Denver
7:10 Lecture by Paolo Soleri on
"The Future of Aesthetics"
8:00 Jazz
11:00 Progressive Rock
3:00 sign-off
I A.M.-2 A.M.
---- ---------
VALUABLE COUPON WORTH $1.14!!
1 IBuy one delicious I
I Mr.Tony Sub... $1.14, I
I get another FREE!! I
GOOD FEBRUARY 22 TO MARCH 3, 1973.
State & William . 1327 S. University 1
l Washtentaw)
Lin E E NNNN N N NNNN N =NNeN N
- - -- - -- - -
aT
The First Electric Western
LAW SCHOOL FILMS
PRESENTS
"THE BABY MAKER"
starring-BARBARA HERSHEY
Friday, Feb. 23,1973
7, 9, 11 p.m.
The entire Ann Arbor area is talking about what a
great picture this is-you must see it to appreciate it!
HELD OVER-3rd HIT WEEK!
screen play
by the'
FIRESIGN THEATRE
WINNER OF 4 ACADEMY
AWARD NOMINATIONS, including
* BEST PICTURE * BEST ACTRESS-LIV ULLMAN
THURS-FRI at 6:40
& 9:05
SAT, SUN & WED at
1 PM, 3:30, 6PM, & 8:45
I
starring Country Joe and the Fish, The James Gang, The New York
Rock Ensemble, Elvin Jones (formerly of the John Coltraine quartet),
Doug Kershaw and White Lightnin'!
- "
"MASTERFUL !'
OF A SECURE
LISTS OF CI
"A FILM
WORTHY INTEGRITY,
PLACEON AN ARTIS
N EMA'S MENT AS
OF IMMENSE
, AS CERTAIN
TIC ACHIEVE-
I HAVE SEEN
D fit
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