The Michigan Daily ARTS Thursday, April 14, 1983 fwith Sleep Page 5 'No By Joe Hoppe T HERE WAS great r night at Joe's S Something was just incr was like on TV. People friendly, dancing. The at relaxed and accepting. Sleepy LaBeef was m maybe that's why ever fine. Sleepy LaBeef is tr and fun to listen and dan But first things first Tigers, from Lansing, w up. Drums, electric bas and a female singer; the laden and rockin'. The ri would occasionally tak and did a nice yowlin' Cochran's "Twenty-Flig there during the last fe' Hoy" was on the play raucous, wish I'd have b the lovely lead belt it o have, done a great jo closed with "Teenage Party" and everybody d worth seeing some week At 11:30, Sleepy La stage - actually he took Lounge. 'His presern whelming. The man is 6' Real big. The whole and roll/American n surrounds big Sleepy, a even larger. Sleepy rockabilly; he starte career only three month Sleepy LaBeef saunt stage crowded with upright bass in the co electric bass on the rig boom, like a Bo Didle' was all in black, exce blood red shirt. Leathe yawning9 boots, low-crowned gunfighter's hat with a brass-studded red band. )ckin' Tuesday He didn't say much, glad to be there, tar Lounge. first time in Ann Arbor, and then bigly edibly right; it boomingly sledgehammeringly tore in- were smiling, to "Honey Hush." Don't make me tmosphere was nervous, I'm holding a baseball bat. Baseball bat nothing, this guy was aster of it all; taking our heads off with his voice ything was so alone. uly a nice guy, Sleepy LaBeef's voice; a friend said ce to. it filled every nook and cranny of the t: The Flying bar. It did. Have you ever looked at the 'armed the bar ceiling at Joe's? LaBeef's voice even s, two guitars, seeped into all those little whorls and y were energy- sworls. Imagine Johnny Cash a little, hythm guitarist deeper, a little more enthusiastic, and e over vocals, real loud. Then you might get Sleepy cover of Eddie LaBeef's thunderous vocalizations. ht Rock." I got His voice was filling. w songs; "Hoy There's a place, right over your list, wild and heart, at the bottom of your sternum, een there to see that vibrates when confronted with cer- ut - she must tain big bass notes and makes you feel b. The Tigers all hollow. Sleepy LaBeef's voice is able Beer Drinkin' to do that. lanced. They're LaBeef is more than a pretty face and ;end. a big voice, though, he's also a fine Beef took the guitar player. Not a serious guitar the whole Star player, though, for that would have e was over- wrecked theatmosphere. He had his 6" 275 lbs, big. licks down, he had the sound, and oc- rockabilly/rock casionally he'd make a mistake. But music mythos Sleepy LaBeef would never mess up. and makes him When something unexpected did hap- is an original pen, he'd just let the bass carry it for a d his musical while. Things were casual. s after Elvis. At one point Sleepy broke a string in ered up on the the middle of a song; he handed control piano, drums, of whatever tune they were doing to the rner, precision drummer, and then just nonchalantly ht, boom boom fished a string out of his pocket, put on y gunslinger. He the guitar, tuned it to himself, and jum- apt for a bright- ped back in headlong. Sleepy LaBeef r jacket, cowboy can jump into things greatly - bangboom. Great moment - Sleepy takes both hands up off his guitar during some particularly enthusiastic chorus, waves them up in the air, brings them plunk back down and his instrument makes some bad noises. Oh well, big bear- shrug, everybody laughs, and into the next song. Sleepy picks up a string bass and slaps on that for awhile. Too bad it didn't have a shoulder strap; it would have looked about the same on Sleepy as the big Gretsch guitar looks on skin- ny Stray Cat Brian Setzer. "We're going to play a lot of songs for you tonight. Some good ones, and some bad ones." The overwhelming majority were good; lots of great rockabilly classics, some country, some obscure stuff. "Tutti Frutti" was the best song of the night. Star Lounge owner and namesake Joe Tiboni was trying to get Sleepy off the stage for a break; the band had been going for over an hour; hot fast and straight. LaBeef said one more,and introduced it as an old Er- nest Tubbs waltz. "WOMP BOMP A LULA A BOMP BAM BOOM!" in an in- credible gutburst. Fine way to end the set. Of the obscurer stuff, "Polk Salad Annie" with Sleepy doing aligator chomp chomp chomps stood out. LaBeef also did a couple of surprising covers. "We worked with this band at a concert in Finland," he said, and proceeded to baritone-croon "Rock This Town." A couple numbers later, "Elvira" got played. "You may wonder why we're playing this song, well, after the Hollywood Argyles did it, I was the second person ever to record it." "Oobomp a mao mao." LaBeef played for about two and-a. half hours, he must have done parts of at least 80 songs (conservative estimate, he's said to know 6000, and af- ter seeing him, it's believable). LaBeef went straight from one song to another, nonstop, and his band followed right along. He'd do a chorus, a verse from another song, the chorus from the original song, another verse, something else, and go on and on and on; sometimes using just one phrase before switching. What he was doing was following the audience response, he could tell what we liked, and he'd go with those songs, if people left the dance floor, he'd try something else. The whole process for LaBeef to discover good/bad response might take 30 seconds. Speed up, slow down, he aimed to please. The second set, after a brief break, was mostly country and western. Sleepy came back as a cowboy, a long- tall Texan in a ten gallon hat and plaid sport coat. George Jones songs got played, and a version of Willie Nelson's "Blue Eyes Cryin in the Rain" got us all a bit misty. Andthen he went back to rockin'. "Well who haven't we done yet tonight, Elvis?" So he did some Elvis. Then Carl Perkins' "Blue Suede Shoes," and Jerry Lee Lewis' "Whole Lotta Shakin'." Anyone anybody could name, and Sleepy tried to get 'em. The show ended at 2:15, Sleepy was still going strong, but the bar wasn't supposed to be open by then. From here, LaBeef goes across the country to California, where he'll hook up with the Blasters and the Stray Cats and maybe Ricky Nelson for a big West Coast tour. Daily Photo by RENEE FREIER Sleepy LaBeef played rousin' rockabilly at Joe's Wednesday night Orchestra's baton weilded by Schneider By Todd B. Levin S O, YOU missed last Tuesday's Uni- versity Symphony Orchestra con- cert with violinist Ruggiero Ricci? Don't fret: You have a second chance to hear a legendary classical artist per- form with a local ensemble when Alexander Schneider - conductor, violinist, chamber musician, concert organizer, devoted teacher and coun- selor of young musicians - guest con- ducts the Ann Arbor Chamber Or- chestra in its final concert of the 1982-83 season this Saturday, at the Michigan Theatre. Schneider will conduct the orchestra in performances of Mozart's Diver- timento No. 11 in D, K.251 and Hayden's Symphony No. 95 in C minor. He will also perform Bach's Concerto for Two Violins in D minor with Chamber Or- chestra concert mistress Mary Catherine Edwards. I had the opportunity to talk with Maestro Schneider in New York about his musical beginnings in 1924 at the early age of 16. Schneider shared some memories: I started in my school orchestra con- ducting little overtures; the teacher would conduct through the piece and then give me the stick and tell me to do what he just did. At 19 1 started in an opera house watching the pit orchestra rehearse. I became friends with the conductor and he let me start to rehearse operatic over- tures and so forth. After almost 60 years of conducting Schneider has developed strong views on how a young conductor should begin training for a serious career: You must actually play in an orchestra for five or six years to understand how-it works together as a group. It is also a necessity to be able to play piano well so you can play the scores to study them. Too many young conductors think that they can just take a class in conducting or study privately. But this won't make you a good conductor - all it will show You is how to more like a conductor. But after training hard to be a responsible musician, what are a con- ductor's responsibilities towards the music and the people he works with on a daily basis? A conductor must make music from the heart. It is not like this as much anymore. A good conductor will command absolute respect from an orchestra and also will enjoy making music with them and for other people. From just our short discussion it looks like Ann Arbor is in for an evening of consumate music making. This is your last chance to hear the Ann Arbor Chamber Orchestra this year and I urge you to take advantage of this op- portunity. Tickets for the 8:30 p.m. concert are $5-10 at the Michigan Theatre box of- fice. Call 996-0066 for more information. Correction In an article ('Mikado triumphant') last Saturday, April 9th, we reported that the performances of Gilbert and Sullivan's Production 'Mikado' were on Friday, Saturday,. and Sunday. We would like to make a correction: the right performance dates are Thursday, Friday, and Saturday (April 14-16). We are sorry for any inconvenience this may have caused. 'p ,b D I ° - e e e e e o 0 The high-tech answer to unemployment tech industry. WITH MICHIGAN'S "concentration of brains," Birch thinks the state can diversify and succeed, "If you can just break loose from the automobile club that's hanging over your head.' But Harley Shaiken, a research associate at MIT does not find the com- parison so favorable for Michigan. Shaiken says fewer than three per- cent of Massachusett's unemployed found jobs in high-technology fields. "So while jobs were created in high- technology, they didn't go to those workers who lost their jobs." THE SERVICE jobs those workers found - in restaurants and hotels, do not permit Massachusett's experience to be considered a success, according to Shaiken. "The real issue there is the quality of the jobs ... instead of programming software, these jobs are running a cash register in McDonalds," he says. Shaiken and others also see little hope in the Silicon Valley experience, where there are & small number of highly skilled jobs, and a large number of low- paying jobs. DANIEL LURIA, a research associate for the United Auto Workers in Detroit, says the vast majority of the Silicon Valley jobs can never replace the lost jobs of a former breadwinner. In Michigan "we have not yet debased our labor force to the point where they are happy to go to work for $4.50 an hour," Luria says. Luria also pointed out that just Icf ida~a because a high-tech firm chooses to come, doesn't mean it will stay around. Luria cited the example of Atari, Inc., which recently laid-off 1,700 of its workers in Santa Clara, Calif. and tran- sferred the work to Hong Kong and Taiwan where labor is cheaper. BUT LURIA grants that the march of high-technology firms is not one that unions can very well oppose, pr- ticularly at a time when all innovations are needed just to keep up with foreign competition. The diversity of high-tech firms, their relatively small size, and the fact that they can quickly change what they produce "obviously means it will be easier to run away from unions," Luria says. Some already have run away from the state - or decided to stay away - in favor of such relatively union-free states as Colorado and Texas. "AUTOMATION and unions don't seem to mix right now . . . the facility here has no unions," says Lou Svitkovich, chief systems engineer for a Texas firm with a highly automated assembly line which makes parts for printing presses. But for states such as Michigan, in the heavy manufacturing heartland, a large workforce must make a transition. that is likely to be painful. "We'll attempt to ease the bleeding as best we can on our patient, help him recover, and then help to retrain hm as best we can for the service industry and in support jobs for these high-tech in- dustries," says Edmund James Jr., special assistant to the director of Ohio's Economic Development office. "IN MICHIGAN one of the biggest retrainers is the auto industries itself. Ford Motor Co., which currently has 1,000 robots expects to have 5,000 to 7,000 by 1990, at a base cost of about $250 million. Ford representatives point out that displacement by automation represents only a small part of the need for retraining compared to the effects of the bleak economy. Sheffield, Ala., and San Jose, Calif., where Ford expects to close plants later this year, the company is holding inten- sive retraining programs in fields ranging from computers to drafting and welding. "ONE THING to bear in mind is that many of these people have never in their lives held another job and it's a big step ... it's bold and it's frightening for these people, says Ford spokesman Ed Schneider. What union reprsentatives and those working to bring about a high-tech revolution in the state do agree on is the fact that high-tech is coming and to spurn it would be to further erode the state's ability to compete. "We're not saying can we go back to the heyday of the automotive industry. .. I don't think we can go back, we're not being offered that alternative," says Dale Oxender, head of the Univer- sity's Center for Molecular Genetics. DON'T GET CAUGHTINTEAN University Towers is now renting for fall and winter 1983-84 with the best location on campus! APARTMENT 8 MO. LEASE 12 MO. 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