OPINION
Page 4
Wednesday, February 1, 1984
The Michigan Daily
Listening to the
By David Spak
Beatles then and now
I was, as they say, just a freshman
finishing my first term at the great
University. That term I did most of the
things first term freshpersons do: I fell
in love, I rarely skipped class, I walked
on the "M" in the diag after my first
midterm, and I immersed myself in
campus life (by joining the Daily).
When Thanksgiving break, that last
chance to take a deep breath and
plunge into the end of the term, rolled
around, I returned home to relish the
thrill of college life from a slightly
distant perspective. While home I
treated myself to a visit to Dog Ear, my
favorite record store (there's a lot of
loyalty in me when it comes to buying
records). I bought a couple of albums,
but the one that caught my eye, quite by
chance, was Double Fantasy by John
Lennon and Yoko Ono. I hadn't heard
any of the songs on the radio, but I did
notice that the album 'was copyrighted
in 1980. I did not know that it was brand
new.
I took a liking to Double Fantasy the
first time I listened to it, both because I
was (and am) an avid Beatle fan and
because the songs were typically very
good John Lennon tunes.,
I HAVEN'T listened to that album
since early 1981.
Twenty or 30 of my fellow Markley
residents and I were watching an ex-
citing Monday Night Football game
between the Miami Dolphins and, I
think, either the San Diego Chargers or
the New York Jets. Howard Cosell was
being Howard Cosell. Frank Gifford
was being Frank Gifford, and so on. As
the Dolphins were coming back to win
the game in overtime, Cosell interrup-
ted: "Still this is just a football game,"
he said. Before I could fathom why he.
said that, Cosell told the nation's foot-
another. How could four musicians
produce so many great songs in such a
short time?
THEY WERE - and are - the best.,
Each album I bought after, those first
two reaffirmed that. The Beatles musics
had such vitality because it was rarely
repetitive. John, Paul, George, and,
Ringo were innovators. They were mod
before mod became fashion; they were
psychedelic before psychedelic becama
fashion. The Beatles reached highef
with each new effort, and then went
higher still with the next one. At least
three of their albums, Sgt. Peppers
Lonely Hearts Club Band, The Beatles
(White Album), and Abbey Road, are, I
think, not just as good as any other rock
and roll album, but better.
As four individual parts they were not
as good as the whole. John's early post-
Beatles music was harsher, Paul's was
sappier, George's was more mystical"
and Ringo was Ringo. But it was still
pretty good.
The world, though, wanted more. In
early 1980, U Thant, then the secretary
general of the United Nations, asked
John to rejoin his ex-Beatles for a one'-
time concert for world peace. Refusing
the invitation, Lennon said, "Haven't
we done enough already?"
Yes, they have. So I will go back to.
my apartment to listen to Elvis
Costello, the Talking Heads, Squeeze,
or Joe Jackson - good music. Once in
a while I'll be in the mood for Abbey:
Road (I listen to "Here Comes the Sun"
after my last final every term) or the
White Album.
Maybe someday I'll listen to Double
Fantasy again -- after 'raduation or
after I go to Dog Ear during spring°4
vacation to buy a couple of albums.,. t
Maybe one of those albums will be
Milk and Honey. '
The songs on The Beatles 1962-1966 and The Beatles 1967-1970 are some of the could almost end the collection there, if not for some of the Beatles' other
best of the best rock and roll tunes, period. Fifty-four of them by one group of albums.
four musicians just might be the best way to begin an album collection. You
ball fanatics that John Lennon had
been shot outside his home in New
York.
Now, just over three years later, I'm
in the midst of my last term as an un-
dergraduate at the great University. I
have done most of those things college
students do: I fell in love some more, I
skipped class a lot more, I passed on the
myth of the "M" in the diag, and I con-
tinued to immerse myself in the Daily.
I ALSO listened to a good deal of
music; I hear John Lennon's last six
songs have been released on- a new
album, Milk and Honey. I haven't heard
the album, though I did hear one of the
songs on the radio the other day. The
song sounded much like Lennon's
music on Double Fantasy - good, solid
States. Twenty years ago, just after one
generation lost its heroic young
president, the next generation found its
young heroes. More so than any other
single cultural influence, the Beatles
shaped their decade and the one-and-a-
half to follow. It's a tribute to their
talent and the universality of their,
last played as one. People like myself,
too young to have any real memories of
the Beatles as a group while they were
still a group, can appreciate their
music as someone 15 years older.
The first two albums I owned were, in
fact, Beatles albums, the 1962-1966 an-
thology and the 1967-1970 anthology.
John Lennon music.
This month is the2
the Beatles' invas'
V I
music that Beatles music still gets They include everything from "I Wan-
20th anniversary of tremendous play on radio stations all na Hold Your Hand" to "The Long and Spak is Opinion page co-editor off
ion of the United over the world 14 years after the group Winding Road," one classic after, the Daily.
Stewart_
Edited and managed by students at The University of Michigan
Vol. XCIV-No. 101
420 Maynard St.
Ann Arbor, MI 48109
Editorials represent a majority opinion of the Daily's Editorial Board
Fighting for the foundation
WHEN YOU BUILD a house you
want to make the foundation as
strong as possible - so strong it can
weather the worst of storms. If your
housemate started chiseling away at
that foundation, you'd probably get up-
set and fight back.
The foundation of the Bill of Rights,
the First Amendment, similarly is
being chiseled away, yet no one seems
to be putting up much of a fight for it.
The attackers are coming from
various corners, and they are at-
tacking different groups protected by
the guarantees of the First Amen-
dment..
Many conservatives and liberals are
on an offensive against alleged in-
discretions of the media. Religious
groups and concerned parents are
fighting to change public high school
texts and curricula. Censors soon may
force government employees to get
approval for any writing prior to
publication. What is particularly
disturbing, however, is that the attacks
are being levelled by people who say
they respect the same constitution that
contains the First Amendment.
Though the Reagan administration's
move to bar the media from Grenada
during the .first few days of the in-
vasion is the most glaring blow to the
First Amendment, it is indicative of a
broader crackdown on the First
Amendment. And, in a surprising
number of instances, the courts have
been helping such actions along:
" In New Mexico, the state supreme
court refused to consider an appeal of a
photographer's trespassing conviction.
The photographer and several other
" In Churchill, Tenn., fundamen-
talists are attacking the entire public
high school curriculum primarily
because they believe it is secular.
" Books such as Huckleberry Finn,
Catch-22, and Slaughterhouse Five are
being taken off public high school
library shelves because they contain
"explicit" language or racist charac-
terizations. In one case, a book with an
explicit detailing of sexual intercourse
was not banned outright, but the offen-
sive pages were torn out of the copies
of the book.
" National Security Decision Direc-
tive 84 (a coincidence of number too
obvious not to note) would, if it goes in-
to effect, require more than 127,500
government employees to submit
everything they write for the rest of
their lives to censors. The employees
have access to "classified" infor-
mation. -
Why courts, government agencies,
and citizens' groups are attacking
these information sources so
vociferously is a mystery, especially
when you consider that the fundamen-
tal principle behind the First Amen-
dment is insuring that all forms of in-
formation are available as a source of
enrichment for this society.
Certainly some of that information and
some of those ideas are going to be
disagreeable to some people. The ideas
in Mein Kampf are repulsive; the
Communist Manifesto may be an-
tithetical to the premises of a free and
open society. But that does not mean
those ideas should not be available.
First Amendment absolutists like
former Supreme Court Justice Hugo
AV . r .
'"1
"IN~~'
Are recalls
No veinbe
By Alex Kotlowitz
LANSING - While all eyes are
focused on next month's New
Hampshireprimaryand' Iowa
caucuses, the real bellwether of
the national political mood may
be in Michigan. A growing tax
revolt here could give
Republicans a new foothold
among the traditionally
Democraticblue-collar union
voters, as in 1980.
This past fall, two Democratic
senators were recalled because
of their votes to increase the state
income tax fromr4.6 to 6.35 per-
cent. They are the first
legislators ever recalled in
Michigan. They probably won't
be' the last. Democratic Gov. Jim
Blanchard and 16 other
legislators, 14 of whom are
Democrats, have been targeted
for future recall campaigns.
THE TWO recalled senators
district includes Dearborn, a
solidly Democratic working-class
city.
"The Democrats have
traditionally relied on the union
membership as a base. You can't
do that now," says state Sen.
Lana Pollock (D-Ann Arbor), one
of those targeted for recall.
"That is a significant shift, and
the Democratic Party better take
notice of it."
The suburban working class
doesn't want to subsidize the very
inner city they abandoned, con-
tends Zolton Ferency, who
chaired the Michigan
Democratic Party in the 1960s.
"The amount of taxes is not the
issue, it's how the money is being
spent," he says.
IN FACT, two weeks after
recalling their state senator for
BLOOM COUNTY
favoring tax increases, voters in
one district passed a property tax
boost to help pay for their school.
They were willing to pay more
taxes to improve their schools
but not to the state where, says
one recall Jeaders, "They're
throwing money away."
Liberal Democrats are angry
and resentful that their party has
not taken a stronger stand defen-
ding government activism. "We
don't have a vision anymore,"
laments one Democrat, state
Rep. David Hollister, who is so
frustrated that he is considering
retiring from politics after five
terms in office.
"We are a party that believes
government has a legitimate role
to redistribute therwealth, to put
together a more equitable
society," asserts Hollister, 41..
skey?
"But we haven't articulated it."'
The Michigan Democratic par-
ty, he says, is in retreat. In the
two recall campaigns, neither
state senator met the tax.issue
head on. Instead, they argued to
their constituents that it was un-
fair to judge a politican on one
vote.
The legislative recalls have
made the Democrats more timid
and conservative and the
Republicans more outspoken and
ideologically cohesive. That
could lay a base among white
blue-collar union members who
proved to be instrumental in elec-
ting Ronald Reagan in 1980.
Kot/o witz, a free-lance
reporter, wrote this article for
the Pacific News Service.
by Berke Breathed
1
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