Sunday, April 8, 1973
THE MICHIGAN DAILY
1age Three
Alice Cooper:
Decadent theatrics
By MIKE HARPER, GLORIA
JANE SMITH and DAVID OSHER
Alice Cooper calmly staggered
into his press conference about
thirty or so minutes late last
Wednesday afternoon, sat slow-
ly - and gently - down in an
encumbering chair, and then
readied himself for the always-
inane questions and such to
come .
"Ah Alice, is it true about
you and Mrs. Cleaver . . .?"
"Ah no, Barbara Billingsley
and I have never had anything
. . . No, I am not Eddie Has-
kell . . . Yes, I drink a case of
beer a day . . . No, this . .. Yes,
that, . . God, I'm drunk . ."
Yes, Detroit got its latest taste
of glam and glitter - here spic-
ed with a bit of the old macabre-
inspired Broadway - this past
week as the newest edition of
The Alice Cooper Show hit town,
bringing enough sheer decadence
with it to insure its proper place
in the wispy hearts of teenage
wasteland for light-show years to
come.
At the press conference,
someone hazards to ask Alice if
his shows is "all gimmick" and
little, if at all musical. Alice
tells one and all that such an at-
titude is only held by those over
sixteen, and they're "having no
fun at all . . ." He then adds,
"You don't sell a million re-
cords on stage gimmick . ."
KeepAmericaClean.
Keep America Beautiful.
{Advertising contributed
for the public good.
Cooper
True though, as a rock 'n' roll
hand, Alice Cooper is not great-
ly talented, but as a basic out-
fit they can - and do - put
out good, infectious sound that
is deliciously raw-edged and bit-
ing. Also true, Alice's stage act
is one that often-times greatly
overindulges in relatively unim-
aginative and unentertaining
theatrics, a "show" that fails
to live up to the music that
supposedly surrounds it, music
that somehow ends up being
hopelessly contained within.
As the press releases - and
Alice for that matter - have
stated, the band itself is al-
ways coming up with "new" and
"more exciting" ideas, ideas that
make each Cooper tour bigger-
and, supposedly, better - than
those before it. What this
means .is that - if you listen to
press releases - Alice has not
forgotten his "fans" and he will
continue to outdo himself for
their sake - if you're more in-
terested in the musical asnects
of Alice Cooper - as a result
of this aforementioned overin-
dulgence, the music must play
an uncomfortable "second bana-
na" to the "show" side of things.
This time around, the music
has indeed been overrun by the
theatrics and sheer wastefulness
of the Cooper show. For this
tour, by sporting a new, multi-
level stage setup with built-in
lights, hanging idols and the
like, additional back-up musi-
cians and flashier stage gear
and "tricks" than ever before,
and all valued at the great "ex-
cess" of more than a quarter of
a million dollars, dear Alice and
the boys have thoroughly proved
their questionable desire to en-
shrine their latest album -
namely, Billion Dollar Babies-
in a solid sunre - structure of
gaudv, relatively purposeless
showbiz.
.As much sheer fun ns
Alice - a very witty and intelli-
gent guyv in his own off-stage,
offhandly 'straight' self-nrov-
ed to he at the press confer-
ence, his drnken - "I could
nrobably drink anyone nder the
table" were his words to the
crrious onlookers at the Warner
Rros. lncheon - excesses did
little, if anything to hel the
concert, which tended to be
somewhat spotty and drag with
increasing ronlarity, as it
wandered on like some always-
lost child.
Desnite such new attractions
as a real, working aiillotine -
which is onl "R0 ner cent sre"
(There's a 20 per cent chance
that the real Mlade will cet
Alice's head off.) according to
Alice - and the total chaos of
"Tnfinishd Sweet" - a mad
d ntist tnrt ring t"star wth a
Onnt drll, as well as a dac-
ina tooth which Alice rapes
with a large. nhallic the of
toothonst - The Alice Cooner
Show suffers from its constant
over-excesses. Thev serve only
to detract from their loelv m-
sicn sound. Perhans. Alice and
the band wanted it as such; but
in any case, the final outcome is
nothing more than a self-defeat
of sorts.
3rd HIT WEEK!
INGMAR BERGMAN'S
GIESAND
WH ISEPS
"BEST
Picture Director
Screenplay0
Actress Liv Ullman)
-N.Y. Film Critics Awards
Today at 1,3, 5,7,9 P.M.
Thurs, Fri, Man, Tue at 7 & 9 only
FLAMENCO FREAKS
Internationally known Flamenco guitarist Juan
Serrano will be taking appointments for private
instruction this week. Call:
Ann Arbor Music Mart
9:30-9:00 MON.-SAT.
769-4980 336 S. State St.
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j
By DONALD SOSIN
London Symphony Orchestra,
Andre Previn, conductor;
Fri., April 6, at 8:30 p.m., in
Hill Auditorium.
Choral Union Series of the Uni-
versity Musical Society
Walton-Overtures: "Portsmouth
Point"
Vaughn Williams: Symphony No.
3 ("Pastoral")
Brahms: Symphony No. 2 in D,
Op. 73
A scintillating orchestral pro-
gram closed this year's Series
Friday night, as Andre Previn
took the podium to lead one of
the world's finest orchestras. The
emphasis was on rich, flowing
lines, and a sheen in tone color
that makes this group so reward-
ing to hear.
The strings are at the core of
this sound, and Previn has form-
ed them into a truly unified body;
this was particularly evident in
the sinuous, undulating parallel
chords of Vaughn Williams' Pas-
toral Symphony. Previn, who has
tonight
6:00 2 60 Minutes
4 News
9 I Dream of Jeannie
50 Star Trek
6:30 4 Movie "The Wizard of Oz"
7 Half the George Kirby Comedy
Hour
9 Beverly Hillbillies
7:00 2 TV 2 Reports
7 Parent Game
9 Tom Jones
50 Lawrence Welk
7:30 7 Police Surgeon
8:00 2 M*A*S*H
7 FBI
9 Kingston Tercentenary
50 Mancini Generation
8:30 2 Mannix
4 McCloud
9 Bandwagon
Da ily Photo by TOM GOTT L IE B
Andre Previn with London Symphony Orchestra
Andre Previn conducts
beautifullly* flowing music
had an afinity for things English
since his student days, created
here a sound of etheral beauty,
soft and shimmering. He relies
heavily on flowery, expansive
gestures, and often keeps his
arms high over his head, which
gives an airy quality to the play-
ing.
In the Brahms Symphony No.
2, Previn highlighted the individ-
ual parts in a most illuminating
way, and in so doing added im-
measurably to the element of
sound he was concentrating on,
which, beautiful though it was,
could not have carried through
such a substantial work by itself.
In his attempt to keep t h e
sound elegant, however, Previn
did something of a disservice to
the passionate qualities of the
music, and kept such a t i g h t
rein on dynamics that the spirited
finale threatened to disappear
from audibility. Fortunately, the
performance gathered momen-
tum and built to a magnificent-
swell of sound, as Previn and
his musicians finally sank their
50 Johnny Mann's Stand up and
Cheer
9:00 7 Movie - "The Long Duel"
(English; 1967)
9 50 To Be announced
56 Masterpiece Theatre
9:30 2 Barnaby Jones
50 Detroit Show
9 Weekend
56 Firing Line
50 Lou Gordon
10:30 2 Evil Touch
4 Profiles in Black
11:00 2 4 News
9 CBC News
11:15 7 News
9 Nation's Business
11:20 9 Religious Scope
11:30 2 Movie-Drama "Adam's Wo-
man," 1968.
4 Big Valley
9 Movie - "The Iperess File."
(English; 1965)
50 For My People
11:45 7 ABC News
12:00 7 Movie - "Black Water Gold"
(1969)
12:30 4 News
1:45 2 Wagon Train
2:00 7 News
3:15 2 News
DAILY CLASSI F I EDS
BRING RESULTS
-------
teeth into something they had
only been nibbling at.
The program began with a pep-
py overture by Sir William Wal-
ton, which served as an effec-
tive display piece for the orches-
tra; Consisting almost totally of
melodic material played in uni-
son by a striking variety of in-
strumental combinations, t h e
catchiness of the rhythms was
not enough to offset the f a c t
that the work only glitters on the
surface. And wonderful though
it was to hear the Vaughan Wil-
liams, whose music, apart from
two or three short works, is still
too seldom performed in Amer-
ica, one was grateful for the
Brahms to provide some solid
musical meat (I use the word ad-
visedly).
The final University Musical
Society events this season are
the four May Festival concerts,
May 2-5, with the Philadelphia
Orchestra. Information about
these and next season's concerts
is available at Burton Tower.
MONDAY
6:00 2 4 7 News
9 Courtship of Eddie's Father
6:30 2 CBS News
4 NBC News
7 ABC News
9 1 Dream of Jeannie
50 Gilligan's Island
56 360 Degrees
7:00 2 Truth or Consequences
4 News
7 To Tell the Truth
9 Beverly Hillbillies
50 I Love Lucy
56 Passion, Death and Resurrec-
tion of Jesus
7:30 2 What's My Line
4 Mouse Factory
7 Let's Make a Deal
9 Wacky World of Jonathan
Winters
50 Hogan's Heroes'
56 Para M1 Pueblo
8:00 2 Gunsmoke
4 Rowan and Martin's Laugh-in
7 Rookies
9 Beachcombers
56 VD Blues
50 Dragnet
8:30 9 David Frost Revue
50 Merv Griffin
9:00 Here's Lucy
4 Movie - "The Secret War of
Harry Frlgg." (1968)
7 Movie - "Situation Hopeless -
but Not Serious." (1965)
9 News
56 VD Blues Followup
9:30 2 Doris Day
9 This Is The Law
10:00 2 Bil Cosby
9 Nature of Things
50 Perry Mason
56 Speaking Freely
10:30 9 Man Alive
11:00 2 4 7 News
9 CBC News
50 One Step Beyond
Star Trek
fans to hold
convention
Star Trek lives at Equicon '731
All you Star Trek freaks who
participated last spring in the
campus club to reinstate the
popular television series or who
attended last summer's Star Trek
convention in Detroit will just
be thrilled to hear of Equicon,
the first major West Coast con-
vention devoted solely to Star
Trek.
Held April 20 - 22, the conven-
tion will present celebrities in-
cluding Gene Roddenberry (who
has recently worked on a propos-
ed new science fiction series),
creator of Star Trek, DeForest
Kelley who played Dr. McCoy,
James Doohan who played Scot-
ty, and various other actors from
the show.
Theodore Sturgeon, author of
many science fiction works, in-
cluding Star Trek episodes, will
be guest of honor.
Activities during the weekend
include a futuristic fashion show,
exhibits of Star Trek "goodies,"
a science fiction an fantasy art
show, auctions of Star Trek sou-
venirs, a showing of uncut Star
Trek episodes, a banquet and a
costume parade followed by a
"Shore Leave" party.
By the WABX Air Aces
Eric Weissburg's suing about
the Deliverance albums. As peo-
ple who bought the LP found
out, only one track on the al-
bum is new - the rest is a re-
issue of cuts from a 10-year-old
Elektra album, New Dimen-
sions in Banjo and Bluegrass,.
featuring Weissburg and Mar-
shall Brickman.
Have a flair for
artistic writing?
If you are interest-
ed in reviewing
poetry, and music,
drama, dance, film,
or writing feature
stories a b o u t the
arts: Contact At
Editor.c/o The
Michigan Daily.
11:20 9 News
11:30 4 Johnny Carson
7 Rod Sterling at Lax
50 Movie - "Green Grass of
Wyoming." (1948)
12:00 9 Movie - 'The Perils of Pauline"
(1967)
1:00 4 7 News
1:30 2 Movie - "Full Hearts and
Empty Pockets." (Ital., 1964)
3:00 2 TV High School
3:30 2 News
wcbn
89.5 fm
9 Classical
12 Broadway
2 Jazz
7 Black Edition
8 Rhythm and blues d
11 Progressive rock
-MONDAY-
9 The Morning After Show
12 Progressive rock
4 Folk
7 The New, Release show
8 Blues
11 Progresive rock
cab'le tv
channel 3
3:30 Pixanne
4:00 Today's Woman "Peiheas and
Melisande"
4:30 Something Else
5:00 Stratosphere Playhouse - King
of the Rocketmen
5:30 Local News
6:00 Black Vib'rations - Black student
filmmaker Rufus King
6:30 NCAA Super Sports
7:00 Community 4Dialogue
I'
TONIGHT-April 8
A second film by KENJ I MIZOGUCHI
LIFE OF. O AB IIII U
This is another of Mizoguchi's best films, noted especially for its
extraordinarily beautiful photography. The story concerns a
woman who, despite her high birth, becomes a prostitute, and
learns what life is really like. -
COMING: TOP HAT, with Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers
7 and 9:05 Architecture Auditorium $1
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-
Department of Romance Languages &
Literatures
Presents a Lecture'
"RACE AND REVOLUTION
IN HISPANIC AMERICA "
by
Professor Sylvia Wynter
University of the West Indies
MUSKET '73
WEST SIDE
STORY
Lecture Room No. 1
MLB
Tuesday, April 10
8:00 P.M.
CULTURE CALENDAR
FILM-Cinema Guild presents Mizoguchi's Life of Oharu to-
day in Arch. Aud. at 7, 9:05; Cinema II shows Lang's
You Only Live Once in Aud. A at 7, 9, today; Hillel pre-
sents The Siege (Matzor) at 7 and 9 today; The Blind
Pig shows Scarlet Street tomorrow at 8:30, 11. Cinema
Guild shows Mizoguchi's Utamaro and His Five Women
at 7, 9:05 in Arch. Aud. tomorrow.
DRAMA-Musket '73 presents West Side Story at 3 in the
Power Center today.
MUSIC-The Ark presents Biff Rose at 8:30 tonight; Colla-
gium Musicum presents Music for Renaissance Instru-
mentu today in Museum of Art at 2:30; tomorrow CAAS
and Trotter House present a Jazz Symposium at 8 pm
at Trotter House.
MUSIC SCHOOL-Willis Patterson plays bass and Charles
Fisher plays piano today at Rackham Aud. at 4:30;
Theo Alcantara conducts U Philharmonia at Hill to
night at 8.
April 5, 8:00 p.m.
April 6, 8:00 p.m.
April 7,2:00 p.m. and8:00 p.m.
April 8, 3:00 p.m.
Good Seats Available for All Performances
& e ~
10inem~a II
SUNDAY 8 APRIL
Yi ONLY LIVEOCL
Directed by FRITZ LANG 1937. HENRY FONDA. SYLVIA SYDNEY '
The U. of M. Players Guild Presents:
.JOHN GUARE'S
THE HOUSE OF BLUE LEAVES
TICKETS AVAILABLE
fnlArn frkiTrfl CDfoV
in the
nrir'r
"Enchantingly
original little
of 1971 N.Y.
zany, desperately sad, thoroughly
farce."-New York Times. Winner.
Drama Critics' Award for the Best
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