The University of Michigan
The Michigan Daily-Wednesday, April 5, 1978-Page 5
NOISE~
by mike taylor
NE OF THE MORE delightful side-effects of the New Wave has been
the return to 45 r.p.m. singles and extended play discs (EP's) as a
popular recording format. Since it is cheaper to record, produce, and market
singles and EP's than albums, many new bands have released singles or
EP's as preludes to LP's.
Until the mid-sixties, when Bob Dylan and the Beatles popularized the
LP, most new music came out as singles or EP's. Artists would think of
making singles rather than albums, and there was always plenty of ex-
citement when the latest single from a favorite artist came out.
The Sex Pistols released four singles before Never Mind the Bollocks,
Here's the Sex Pistols was released, and scores of new bands have followed
the same pattern. The market is now flooded with singles and EP's, many
containing songs not included on albums and packaged in creative picture
sleeves.
UNFORTUNATELY FOR the consumer, these new singles and EP's are
generally not cheap. Since most are imported or home-made, they usually
cost two to three times as much as the traditional 99 single. However, a
growing number of groups are signing with major labels, making mass-
* distributed, domestic singles by New Wave artists increasingly available for
the old-fashioned price of 99. And like the higher-priced imported and home-
made singles and EP's, most feature songs not available on LP's and have
nice picture covers.
Ever since Patti Smith signed with Arista, it's been impossible to find a
4 copy of her first single, "Hey Joe (Version)" b/w "Piss Factory," originally
on Mer. Now that Sire has re-released it, however, there's no excuse for any
Patti Smith fan to be without it. Recorded in 1974, before Smith had formed
her band, it shows two sides of her raw, original rock poetry at its best.
"Hey Joe (Version)," a re-make, re-model of the old Hendrix tune, star-
ts out with a spoken monologuel about Patti Hearst. Richard Sohl's piano en-
ters, and Smith begins a slow, mournful dirge. Lenny Kaye's rhythm guitar
is fine, but Tom Verlaine's stinging lead guitar makes the tune great. By the
end of the song, Smith has turned it into her own, just as she later did with
"Gloria" and "Land of a Thousand Dances."
THE B-SIDE, "Piss Factory," is a masterpiece. Backed only by Sohl's
jazz-tinged, up-tempo piano and Kaye's fluid guitar, Smith speaks a socialist
manifesto against repression-repression in the factory, repression in day-
to-day life, repression of the soul. At the end of her stream-of-consciousness
flow of words, Smith promises she'll escape to something better:
Im going to be big. I'm going to be a star.
Oh watch me now
Smith's new single, "Because the Night" b/w "God Speed," on Arista,
which came out a few weeks before her new album, Easter, shows her
promise has come true. She's a rok'n'roll star now, and "Because the
Night," co-written by Bruce Springsteen, is just the latest in a stream of
dynamic rock'n'roll songs from Smith like "Ask the Angels" and "Pumping
(My Heart)." Luckily, it's also on the LP.
"God Speed" is a throwback to the Smith of "Hey Joe (Version)" and
"Birdland." Backed just by piano and guitar, it's the nightmare other side of
"Because of Night." While that song is a buoyant tribute to the joys of love,
this time Smith sounds like she's singing it in the middle of the night just af-
ter another unscuccessful attempt to make love. Her voice starts out
lethargic, but becomes very angry by the end. It's a gem, and isn't on
Easter, one good reason'to buy the single. Another reason: an outrageous
cover shot.
COLUMBIA HAS released two singles from Elvis Costello's remarkable
My Aim Is True, "Alison" b/w "Miracle Man" and "Watching the Detec-
tives" b/w "Blame It On Caine" and "Mystery Dance."
t The single version of "Alison" is slightly different from the LP version:
it's shorter, strings and back-up vocals have been added, and Costellos's
voice has been mixed down somewhat. The end result is considerably softer
than the original; though interesting, it lacks the devastating anger and im-
pact of the LP cut.W
The B-side, a live version of "Miracle Man," is a real treat however. In-
*;stead of the studio version's sparse instrumentation, there's gutsy guitar rif-
fs and roller-rink keyboard exhuberance. Costello sings it faster, but again
his voice seems more subdued than the original take. Nevetheless, it's still
lots of fun.
"WATCHING THE Detectives" is the same one on the LP, so it's not
worth much unless you happened to buy the English version of the LP, which
doesn't include it. On the flip side, however, are live versions of 'Blame It On
Cain" and "Mystery Dance." The first has the same colorful
keyboard/guitar instrumentation as the live "Miracle Man," making it wor-
th quite a few spins, but Costello sings "Mystery Dance" a little too fast for
its own good. His timing is off, leaving the tune not quite as danceable as the
LP version. Still, the excitement of the live performance comes through.
The new single by Talking Heads on Sire is rather bizarre: both sides
feature "Psycho Killer"! The A-side is straight off Talking Heads: 77, but
the B-side is a hitherto unreleased "acoustic" version. It's a relaxed take,
featuring low-key vocals, acoustic guitar, electric bass, viola, and drums. It
has a more mysterious ambiance than the electric version, and, perhaps,
more sincerity.
The most promising single in recent weeks is the Tom Robinson Band's
"2-4-6-8 Motorway" b/w "I Shall Be Released," on Harvest. Although both
sides are likely to be included on Robinson's first LP, the single is worth
picking up today for instant gratification.
Robinson is a rising English rocker unafraid to take strong political
stands or hide his gayness. In fact, one of his best songs is a happy sing-a-
long called "Glad to Be Gay." "2-4-6-8 Motorway," on the other hand, is an
apolitical pop tune about the road. The instrumentation is tight and attrac-
tive, the vocals honest and appealing, and the melody a knock-out. Apparen-
tly Robinson's holding the politics for later.
The flip side, Dyland's "I Shall Be Released," takes on a new meaning
as Robinson sings it. His version is clearly dedicated to the struggle against
oppression, whether the oppressors be homophobes, racists, or capitalist in
general. Robinson's quiet singing and playing barely conceal his "' ,ridled
anger. When Tom Robinson sings "I Shall Be Released," you I ,w he means
it.
All the above singles can be found in Ann Arbor record stores for 99t or
so. But be careful; one local merchant has tried selling the domestic items
at imported prices. Don't be fooled !
Film festivalfocuses
The University of Michigan
Gilbert and Sullivan Society
THE GONDOLIERS
April 12-15, 1978
Mendelssohn Theatre, Michigan League
University of Michigan
on search
By KATHE GEIST,
T HE WIM WENDERS Film
Festival culminates Thursday
with a screening of the director's 1976
film, Kings of the Road, and a talk by
Wenders himself. The purpose of the
Festival has been to introduce another
prominent director from the New
GermaneCinemato this campus, where
the enthusiastic response to the films of
Werner Herzog indicates a keen in-
terest in the German New Wave.
Opposite to the films of Herzog in
both theme and content, the films of
Wenders equal Herzog's in the
freshness of their vision. Wenders
whose films always include a child,
has said that for him children signify
the fresh, unvarnished view of the ,
world that he hopes to capture in his
films..
Born in 1945, Wenders makes films
about his generation of Germans,
children who grew up in an occupied
country under a cloud not of their own
creation. The three films being shown
inthe Festival, Alice in the Cities, False
Movement and Kings of the Road, con-
stitute a loose trilogy whose main
character, Wenders' alter ego, is
always played by Ruediger Vogler. A
paen to a restless generation whose
roots were blown away by Nazi
propaganda and allied bombs, each
film centers on a search for identity
growing out of an alienation from
home. In Alice, Philip, a journalist,
seeks his own roots while hunting for
a little girl's grandmother. The house in
which the grandmother once lived turns
out to be occupied by strangers (a
situation frequently encountered by
returning German war veterans).
When Bruno, a movie projector
repairman in Kings of the Road, visits
his childhood home, he finds it closed up
and deserted. In False Movement,
Wilhelm, an aspiring author, is sent off
on his journey by his mother. Philip
spins a yarn for Alice telling of a boy
who leaves his mother in the forest and
after many adventures reaches the sea
where he at last remembers his
mother.
FOR THE YOUNG, Wenders,
rock'n'roll was a forbidden pleasure ob
tained by listening to the Armed Forces
Radio network. Wenders' characters
share this devotion, humming old
tunes, playing and even owning
jukeboxed which. are fast becoming
Wenders' trademark. Wenders' am-
bivalence toward American culture is
'Seaguall'.
By DAVID VICTOR
T HE RESIDENTIAL College
Players' coming performance of
Anton Chekov's The Seagull promises
to be a special event. The production,
which will be presented April 6, 7, and 8,
"lends itself to RC Players' approach,"
according to stage director Nancy
Ferguson. It represents the
culmination of a full semester of inten-
sive study for most of those involved.
Unde the guidance of Prof. Matthew
Wikander, the students have read all of
Chekov's plays and an enormous num-
ber of his short stories, studied the
historical surroundings of the
playwright, and investigated previous
interpretations of The Seagull in a play
production seminar. Such "in depth
study of one play," Wikander says, can
only "serve to fuel interpretations of
the play."
The play itself is a Russian classic.
While written in 1895, the theme
remains particularly relevant almost
one hundred years later. In our own age
of fads and cranks, The Seagull's
message of the hard road to success
over the easy fame of the avant-garde
strikes home. And the 'coming RC
Players' production April 6-8 in RC
Auditorium at East Quad promises to
strike home as well.
'or identity
best summed up by Robert in Kings,
who says, "The Yanks have colonized
our subconscious," in response to
Bruno's story of having remembered
an appropriate tune when leaving an
old girlfriend. But as Bruno drives off
at the end singing Roger Miller's "King
of the Road," it is clear that no other
music could be appropriate.
The new German Cinema initiated in
1962 at the Oberhausen Film Festival,
amidst strident cries from 26 young
German writers, directors and artists
who signed a manifesto calling for a
break with the moribund commercial
German cinema and demanding gover-
nment support for a fresh start. By the
late Sixties the West German gover-
nment had responded in a number of
ways, including a subsidies program
for new films and the establishment of
film schools in Munich and Berlin.
Wenders attended the Munich school
from its foundation in 1967 until 1970.
The only well-known German director
to have had a formal training, Wenders
found it only marginally helpful. Most
helpful, he says, is watching other
movies. Like Truffaut and Goddard, he
managed to earn money watching
movies, working as a critic while in
school. His diploma film, the full-length
feature Summer in the City, is
available for commercial distribution
and anticipates the lonely characters
and travel motifs of the later films.
His seconfd film was the adaptation
of Peter Handke's The Goalie's Anxiety
at the Penalty Kick, in which he ex-
plored and developed a personal style.
In 1972 he directed an international co-
production of Hawthorn's The Scarlet
Letter in Spain, where, he says, he so
lost the sense of Puritan New England
that the film lacks all dimension. The
trilogy followed in '74, '75, and '76.
False Movement was awarded the
government film prize while Kings won
the International Critics Prize at Can-
nes.
PERFORMANCES:
Wednesday, April 12 at 8 p.m. @ $3.50
Thursday, April 13 at 8 p.m. @ $3.50
Friday, April 14 at 8 p.m.@ $4.00
Saturday, April 15 at 2 p.m. @ $3.50)
Saturday, April 15 at 8 p.m.@ $4.00
Extremely limited
tickets available
FOR TICKET INFORMATION BEFORE APR. 9,
994-0221: AFTER APR. 9.763-1085
siudens t supplement summer wor
For 200per week t
Frfurther in formationciet
STUDENT ACTIVITIES BUILDING
R oom No. 3545 at 11:00, 1:00 or 3:00
Wednesday April5
2:0 &2:0 h~rdo pi l
THE SEAGULL
by ANTON CHEKHOV
PRESENTED BY
THE RESIDENTIAL COLLEGE PLAYERS
APRIL 67,858PM
EAST QUAD AUDITORIUM
ADMISSION $2.50
Tickets Available
Michigan Union Box Office 763-2071
9
L
Il
1kIVESITY cfMUSICAL OCIETY presentg
"
The Notre Dame Cultural Arts Commission
Presents The Twentieth Annual
d COLLEGIATE
V JAZZ.
FESTIVAL
1978
FEATURING MANY OF THE NATION'S
FINEST COLLEGE JAZZ GROUPS
Bavaan .Symphonmy,
Orchestra
.Rafael Kubeliok
Conductor,
In their first Ann Arbor appearance since 1968 the I110-member
Bavarian Symphony Orchestra of Munich willplay Mahler's
Symphony No. 9. The renowned Rafael Kubelik will conduct.
This program is of particular interest because Maestro Kubelik
has done so much to make Mahler's symphonies a part of
standard repertory. Tickets are $4 to $10 at Burton Tower.
Weekdays 9-4:30, Saturdays 9-12. Telephone: 665-3717.
Sa__ - - - A O.2N
i