Page 6-Tuesday, July 18, 1978-The Michigan Daily RECORDS Zappa In New York Frank Zappa Warer Bros.2D 2200 Zappa In New York, an indescribably bland record of several concert per- formances in late 1976, contains a ren- dition of "Sofa*l," the marvelous, richly-textured instrumental off of One Size Fits All. The new version is strip- ped of its orchestral density, relies on a thin, wailing wax to carry the melody, and is so enervated that it sounds like a funeral march. Unfortunately this song is quite appropriate for the occasion, because Zappa In New York is one long, drawn-out burial rite, and the deceased party is Frank Zappa's music. Considering Zappa's position in the supposed avant-garde of rock and roll, it is ironic that his demise hasn't arrived concurrently with any in- creased intellectualization. On the con- trary, his last album, the disastrous Zoot Allures, was highly un- sophisticated, with crudely satirical lyrics and pounding rhythms that couldn't compensate for its essential slightness. Despite a few inventive moments, the new album's loftier pretensions make it an even bigger failure. ZAPPA'S newfound self-indulgence doesn't even have the notable eccen- tricity of one who's always been out of the mainstream. Hacking out com- positions with the same lyrical and in- strumental gimmicks he drove into the ground several albums ago, he has become a robot, entrenched in the worn-out forms he created. Five years after "Dinah Moe Hum," he is still trying to squeeze out the last drops of outrageousness with a song called "Tit- ties & Beer." But what is genuinely tiring are those damn instrumental breaks. Zappa's idea of complexity is to clutter songs with cumbersome arrays of synthetic polyrhythms and 13-tuplets. This is nothing but sophisticated hackwork, superficially impressive because most of it is so devilishly difficult to play. I never felt Zappa sold out when he for- sook taking potshots at Flower Power for slicker, "commercial" productions, but now, in addition to putting his socially conscious days behind him, he's trashed his musical imagination as well. Without even going back to straight rock and roll or rock with a jazz tinge,Zappa is content wallowing in musical superficiality to engage in tired theatrics onstage. A FEW YEARS ago listening to Zap- pa could be liberating, whether he was spinning absurd yarns like "Montana" and side one of Apostrophe, or touching on subjects ("Dirty Love") deliciously out-of-kilter with the sugar-coated lyrics rampant in popular music. In some ways, his intent was similar to that of much of the New Wave - to cut through (or ridicule) contemporary phoniness and delve, Lenny Bruce-like, beneath sacred taboos. Perhaps now, when a show like Saturday Night Live can spread bad taste among the Pepsi generation coast-to-coast, Zappa's only outlet is to turn around and adopt a blue-collar persona ("Titties & Beer"), trumping everyone with second-convolution outrageousness. Regardless, the two showcase humorous numbers, "Honey, Don't You Want a Man Like Me?" and "The Illinois Enema Ban- dit," are so unfunny that they're downright infantile next to the hysterical survey of American boredom ina song like "San Ber'dino." The only enjoyable moments are a short instrumental, the name of which I'd rather not print, and "The Purple Lagoon," which seems positively stellar next to the crude design of most of the others. Zappa In New York is disheartening because Zappa, in squandering his talent, hasn't gained a thing. He hasn't gone commercial or sold out - he's simply run out. Before he records his next album, this former innovator might do well to ask himself, "Is this real music, or is this Sears music?" --Owen Gleiberman Ar roto NEARLY 1,000 NATIVE Americans marched on Washington, demanding an end to what they called the U.S. "policy of genocide against Native Americans." The march, which began on the other side of the country, was dubbed "The Longest Walk." Native Americans tell U.S. to end 'genocide' WASHINGTON (AP) - Native Americans marched to Capitol Hill yesterday to demand the government end what they called a policy of genocide against them. "You hear about six million Jews killed by the Nazis. What about the more than 14 million Indians killed in the last 500 years?" asked Larry Red Shirt of the Sioux Nation. "This country has an all-out policy of genocide." Prof remej days in nwi (continued from Page 1) dinary Soviet citizens. They listen regularly to the Western radio broad- casts and this publicity could make them become more resistant to the Soviets." Lifshitz, a former journalist, remem- bers his own struggle and the great dif- ficulty he faced when he tried to get some of his work published. "OF COURSE everything I wrote was censored first to see if it was accep- table. I remember writing about Greek mythology for children when the word God appeared several times in my work. The Soviets, however, omitted the w-, ; h")e tecaileck : . Sh n 4$;W .ggever ub e rshis RED SHIRT addressed nearly 1,000 ive U Native Americans and several hundred supporters and tourists who gathered part of the official dissident movement on the steps of the Capitol as the Native and said he only acted naturally in an Americans began a series of protests to effort to show freedom of expression. culminate "The Longest Walk," the "You don't think of whether you're protest march that spanned a con- joining an official dissident movement tinent. but whether you're expression your A position paper issued in the names own true feelings. I tried to get things of the Navajo, Iroquois and Sioux published which expressed views con- nations declared that the "clearcut trary to the Soviets. It is just what I policy of genocide of the last century though I should do," he said. continues in more sophisticated forms Lifshitz said he faced little difficulty in this century." when he applied for his emigration The position paper claimed that visa. nearly one-fourth of all Native "I applied in a time when it was very American women were forcibly simple to get an emigration visa. It was sterilized from 1971 through 1975 and around the time that Kissinger was that, "Nearly one out of three of our preparing to visit Russia and the children are being placed in non-Indian Sovi~tt1,,,r"0ont0 ed about cleaning foster homes daily, by various county, house~lajigQstate and fedvral'ugencies- THE PAPER also said that tribal governments are being destroyed, and tribes pitted against each other. In addition, it said, "our religions have been attacked and degraded, and our children continue to be processed through various forms of Western educational programs." Oren Lyons, chief of the Six Nation Iroquois Confederacy, said, "This walk is for our survival, for the survival of all the colors of mankind." Many of the Native Americans greeted statements with shrill war whoops and applause. They approached the Capitol voicing the rallying chant f the American Indian Movement, a militant organization. "We travel thousands of miles only to learn the President is in Germany talking about human rights," noted Red Shirt. "It shows he doesn't care about Indians. It shows the people don't care." The Native Americans also criticized - legislation that would terminate treaty rights. But Cranston said, "I assure you those bills are going nowhere in the Congress." The Native Americans plan to demonstrate before the Supreme Court today to protest decisions they believe deprive them of their sovereignty, their lands and their water and fishing rights.