Wednesday, July 7, 1971
THE MICHIGAN DAILY
Page Five
arts
"Top Hit" classical record clubs
vie for undiscriminating buyers
-Daily-Jim Judklis
No matter what shape ...
Shteba's liberated belly
moves to create an art
By ANITA CRONE swaying regardless of where the
Special to The Daily rest of her body is moving.
DETROIT - While most teen- Sheba usually performs at The
age girls were learning the latest Cedars in Detroit. Unlike belly
popular dances or listening to the dancers of ten years ago, Sheba
sounds of the popular musicians primarily works at her home
of the day, one 24-year old Ameri- club, although she has gone on
can of Lebanese extraction was tour. "Today," Sheba explains,
preparing for a career in show "a belly dancer is not in as much
business. And Sheba, one of De- demand as she was five years
troit's more famous belly dancers ago." But in spite of that, Sheba
is definitely showing. is not as willing to go on tour
looking for better jobs . She
Wearing slightly more than a doesn't like living out of a suit-
bikini, Sheba entertained the case, even though her average
crowds that had come to Detroit salary of $300 per week could be
for the annual Greektown week. increased as much as $150 by the
Sheba, whose real name is Patti move.
Sassine, has been belly dancing In a sense, helly dancing is put-
professionally since she was 8. ting yourself on display, as is
On stage, it looks like she has any professional dancing. Sheba
been doing it all her life. Sheba has to contend with the men who
shakes and wiggles muscles that try to pick her up. "I'm not like
most women are not even aware that. I'm dancing because I like
of. Abdominal muscles that had to dance. I like to move my body
been trained since Sheba was 10 in time to the music. When men
years old seem to have a mind try to pick me up, I tell them
of their own, and gyrate in time that I have a heavy date right
+ to music provided by the Rho- afterwards. That's usually all it
dins, a local instrumental and takes."
vocal group. While women of While Sheba has some favor-
America try to lose their abdomi- able things to say about women's
nal muscles, Sheba has trained See LIBERATED, Page 6
hers to move in time to music, -- --- -
The Michigan Daty, edited and man- SHA GS FOR MEN
aged by students at the University of N
Michigan. News phone: 764-0552. Second
Class postage paid at Ann Arbor, Mich-
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Summer Session published Tuesday Call 662-4431
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Stion rates: $5 by carrier, $5 by mail.
By JOHN HARVITH
In the February 1971 issue
of Stereo Review both m u s i c
critics and recording executives
wring their hands over the poor
sales of classical discs. Mean-
while, these "concerned" pro-
mo men of the recording in-
dustry continue to grind out the
same tired pablum to crucial
audiences in mid-America via
major label "record clubs."
In recent months the post-
man has stuffed my mailbox
with record club "get acquaint-
ed" offers from two of the na-
tion's largest record firms.
The only classical selections
their ad men could come up
with as bait were such immort-
al albums as "Ormandy's
Greatest Hits, Vol. 4," "The
Best of Arthur Fiedler," "Cli-
burn's Favorite Chopin" a n d,
for those heady listeners able
to grapple with inscrutable eso-
terica, Tchaikovsky's "Pathe-
tique" and Dvorak's "New
World" Symphonies. Not exact-
ly the fuel to fire a public re-
naissance of interest in classi-
cal disc-buying.
As a further wrongheaded so-
lution to the gnawing problem
of recruiting a new classical
listening audience, Columbia
is in the process of launching
its series of composers' "Great-
est Hits," whose latest victims
are Bernstein, Rossini, Liszt,
Brahms and Berlioz (M 30304/7
and 30384, respectively).
It wouldn't be so bad if these
releases were just cheap samp-
lers of Columbia albums fea-
turing snippets of complete
works by Berlioz, Brahms et
al., yet pointing in the liner
notes to where the listener can
acquire the unexpurgated edi-
tion should he be titillated
enough to desire "the real
The place to meet
INTERESTING people
presents
THREE BACH SONATAS
FOR FLUTE AND PIANO
No. 3 in A major,
No. 4 in C major,
No. 5 in E minor
Performed by
Lanita Arcengeli
and
Greg Zelman
Spanish Rice Served
after the program
s
THURS., JULY 8-8 P.M.
S. Quad West Lounge
EVERYONE invited. Musical
knowledge REALLY not necessary
Further Info: 761-3931
thing." But no, instead of get-
ting the consumer so worked
up that he can't rest until buy-
ing the complete Brahm's
Third, the jacket's reverse side
blatantly illustrates other full-
priced "Greatest Hits" albums.
This is like telling the p r o -
spective buyer that the door to
musical culture is now wide
open - just purchase this ser-
ies of "Greatest Hits" and you
need investigate no further,
for all that is worthwhile in
classical music is at your fin-
gertips. Why wade through all
that worthless junk, like the
first three movements of
Brahm's First Symphony, when
all you really wanted to hear-
the gorgeous finale with the
pilgrims chorus - is right on
this one disc, together with a
scrumptuous orchestration of
the "Lullaby," so much more
effective than the music-box
version Grandma used to have.
I'm sure that Columbia's
merchandising men will accuse
me of being short-sighted,
snobbish, etc., but I maintain
that what Columbia has done
is analogous to what a publish-
er would be perpetrating should
he come out with a full-priced
tome entitled "Shakespeare's
Greatest Hits: Sleepwalking
Scene, Hamlet's Soliloquies, An-
thony's Eulogy for Caesar, and
more!," which in addition
would offer no hint of plot lines,
making it impossible for the
reader to put the excerpts into
any logical dramatic context.
While it is conceivable t h at
the publisher's scheme might
convert some readers to full-
fledged Shakespeare fans, it
isn't likely. Just as in the case
of the Columbia "Greatest
Hits" listener, the "Shake-
speare's Greatest Hits" reader
will tend to smugly assume that
he now knows all he needs to
know as a master's output, and
has it all over those other pre-
tentious snobs who have been
wasting all their time absorbing
the whole work when all they
really got out of it were the
"highlights" anyway.
This is a pernicious theory of
art springing from a utilitarian
society which prizes short-cuts
above all else. A symphony of
Brahms, just as a play by
Shakespeare or a Hemingway
novel, has been carefully
thought through as a whole. It
is just as artistically worthless
when dismembered as a great
edifice built from the archi-
tectural plans of a Bernini is
functionally worthless when it
starts crumbling due to a
See ARTS, Page 6
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