ARTS

The Michigan Daily.

Sunday, October 5, 1980

Page 5

. , '.

. Springsteen
By RJ SMITH
The night was clear
And the moort was yellow
And the leaves... came... tumbling
Down.
W That's how Bruce Springsteen and The E Street Band introduced "Rosalita"
Friday night-with saxophonist Clarence Clemons moaning those lines before
the band careened into the tune's opening chords. Now, that's also the opening
lines of Lloyd Price's 1958 R&B hit "Stagger Lee," and you best believe the Big
Man didn't just pull that one out of the blue-when one heard the outrageous an-
them of adolescent liberty that followed Price's ancient, poetic lines, it seemed
llk¢ a collision of the two best possible worlds. Of course, at the end of Price's
song a man dies at the hands of Stagger Lee for a cheap Stetson hat, whereas the
hig -stepper in "Rosalita" ends up with a record contract. But, no matter.
.Price's "Stagger Lee" was a song about a gangster who is revered by the people
who know him, a dangerous man who plays for keeps. It's something like the way
Springsteen views himself.
The heathens raged in Ann Arbor as they haven't for years, perhaps not since
Dylan played here in 1974. And people went into orbit Friday night at Crisler
Arena (hell, they have been creeping up the walls since it first broke that the
Bos was coming) not especially because Springsteen has struck a deep chord
aimfong rock and roll fans, but because he has somehow, miraculously, reached
out to a large number of people who otherwise would have little or nothing to do
wvith the music.
DAVE MARSH, Springsteen's biographer and Rolling Stone staffer (and
progenitor of the now-famous line, "I have seen the future of rock and roll, and
his name is Peter Gabriel"), was in the Daily to talk to some of us about his book
tand The Biz, and he tried to lay it on the line about Springsteen. The Boss, he said,

looks back and drives on

was remarkable for delivering his message with (spare, perhaps, some guitar
licks) a music that was 100 percent selective shopping among rock and roll's ar-
chives. Marsh is more exuberant about this than I am. I mean, think of it: here's
a guy who made a decision to say only what has already been said. And that
means that no matter how well it works, it's a dofible-edged sword: even at his
best, Springsteen is playing to an audience that by its very nature is highly
susceptible to consuming the classicist facade of his music, and not working to
penetrate any further.
People associated with the no wave bands, the neo-funk groups and, say, the
Rough Trade musicians all have the good grace to announce their intentions of
throttling their listeners. I firmly believe that Springsteen wants to provoke
people as much as any of those others I have mentioned. However, his
traditionalism draws him an audience about equal parts cadmium-plated reac-
tionaries and the sorts of people who actually run after they hear "Born to Run."
(Granted, picking who belongs in which category is wholly subjective. For me
the reactionary is just the sort of beered-up person I saw who felt compelled to
extend to Springsteen, via a large sign, a lifetime membership in his Sigma
Alpha Mu fraternity.)
What listeners got Friday was a large serving from Springsteen's soon-to-
be-released double album, The River, along with a few major surprises. Friday
being opening day for Bruce's ambitious world tour, he and the band were a bit
rough and ragged throughout the show. But except for several particularly
problematic spots-the group couldn't settle on a rhythm for "Tenth Avenue
Freeze-out," Springsteen had to read the lyrics to "Jungleland"-the looseness
was rather endearing. As it was Day One, certain specific judgments are difficult
to make, although it should not go unnoticed that Springsteen wasn't moving
around onstage as much as usually is his wont. Certain traditions were also
broken: there was no oldie to open the show, such songs as "Backstreets" and
"Prove It All Night" were pared down from previous onstage incarnations, and
there was almost nothing from Springsteen's first two albums (nod"Spirits In The

Night"??).
THERE WAS AN anti-climactic finale with Bob Seger coming out to do
"Thunder Road" for the second time in the show, but forget that; Seger didn't
sing very much, and was embarrassingly deferential to The Boss. What really
made the show was Springsteen's presentation of new material. There was the
slow-burning "Ramrod," stinging like battery acid; there was the delightful
Yerba Buena calypso of "I Want to Marry You," there was "Cadillac Ranch," a
song with "garage band" stamped all over it about James Dean, the Carolina
Woods and other things.
Upon first listening, however, it was the slow material that was the most im-
pressive. "Stolen Car" is a tale of a man who quietly and unflichingly faces up to
failure and even death. Danny Federici's organ pierces the melody of "Wreck on
the Highway," crafting something ultimately luminescent out of an essentially
spare song. It also appears that Clarence Clemons is given a bigger part on this
album than he was on Darkness On The Edge Of Town, welcome news for all fans
of The Mountain That Walks Like A Man.
It was the kind of a show that doesn't wash away easily; Springsteen's love of
his audience can't help but effect the viewer, at least at first, like a hard slap.
How often is our attention so strongly requested, how often does someone assert
their genuine friendship? Bruce Springsteen, like no other artist I can think of,
See BROOCE, Page 7
THE
CRACKED CRAB

EQSSE'S DANCIN'

°23Y
"If.,

Betwe

By AUDREY KRASNOW
" an interview the day before his
new work Dancin' was to have its
Broadway premier, director-
choreographer Bob Fosse stated sim-
ply, "This show is about the sheer joy of
dancing." He was quite right. More
tbxn just a catch-phrase for promotions
fopthe musical, his statement perfectly
egeapsulates the triumph and downfall
of the show. The triumph is un-
disputably the dancing; it is, in a word,
'phenomenal. T e downfall is that it is a
show about dancing. It is caught in
peculiar state of limbo - that of a dan-
ce concert struggling to be a Broadway
musical. As a result, it lacked the con-
tinuity of a musical as well as the
cohesiveness of a dance concert, and it
never established a solid rapport with
the audience.
DANCIN'S identity crisis is
traceable to Fosse's onginal impetus
'forAthe show,,.w1ich wds to bring dan-
cing back to Broadway musicals.
Fosse, whose credits as direc-
tor/choreographer on stage and screen
include the dance-laden productions of
Chicago, Pippin, Sweet Charity,
Cabaret and All That Jazz, felt that the
cKprent Broadway musicals were in-
corporating less and less dancing;
n or choreographers, such as Gower

en B'waj
Champion, were caughtup in directing
and other areas of production and were1
neglecting the. dancing part of the
musical. Fosse thought to remedy this
with a show of pure dancing.
IN THIS RESPECT, he was entirely
successful. The. national touring com-
pany's performance of Dancin', Friday
at the Power Center, was a powerful
dance exhibition. This was an
exhibition in the true sense of the

and the barre
the three major areas of dance, not as easily and obviously stamped by
modern and jazz, were well his own style as, say, Martha Graham,
ented and individually he does incorporate certain moves that
uishable as well as intrigruinglv can be recognized as a Fosse

phrase
ballet,
repres
distingi

Sai
ser
sla,
11l

FR ESH LAKE PERCH
uteed in creamery butter and
ved with house fries, Cole c
w, roll and butter.tl
W. Washington 769-8591 C

integrated. Although Fosse's work is

See DANCING, Page 7

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CHARLES
THE RAELETTS
and the
RAY CHARLES ORCHESTRA
Special Guest:
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November 12
Wed. 8:00 p.m.
Hill Auditorium
Tues. October 7
Tickets
on Sale
Box Office
Michigan Union
$8.50 7.50 6.50
reserved seats
Wed. October 8
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and all CTC outlets.
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I