The Michigan Daily - Friday, October 26, 1984 - Page 7
Records
(Continued from Page 6)
to McCartney fans and represented a
drastic change in his approach to rock
'n' roll while showcasing fine material:
a rather pleasant turnaround from his
previous two albums, McCartney II and
Back to the Egg collections of rancid,
boring, and uninspired trash.
His new album, Give My Regards To
Broad Street, unfortunately find Mc-
Carney going too far in the direction he
won immediate success with in Tug of
War. The LP's credits read like a best-
of assemblage of random musicians
from bands, some long dead and some
still surviving.
Yet despite the pearls and gems that
represent its all-star cast and the
beautiful, shining photographs on the
inside cover, the album still lacks
luster. It is actually rather bland and,
in terms of the rehashed material con-
tained in its grooves, it seems quite
pointless.
The album commences with a tune
called "No More Lonely Nights", the
song that has become the first video
from the album/movie and one that has
already hit heavy duty (i.e., irritating)
rotation on MTV. The song features
ace-guitarist David Gilmour of the
recently deceased Pink Floyd. As the
tune reaches its conclusion David sets
sail with one of his patented, wailing
guitar solos that plagerizes almost note
for note his similar lick on "Comfor-
tably Numb". The next three songs are
McCartney typicals. Three Beatle
tunes ("Good Day Sunshine", "Yester-
day", and "Here, There, and
Everywhere") revamped with McCar-
tney playing all the instruments except
the piano, which was left to erstwhile
producer George Martin.
Following the parade of reminiscent
Beatle oldies is a shower of previously
released McCartney tunes again
rehashed with new musicians. "Wan-
derlust" from Tug of War is played at
breakneck speed and with only half of
its original melodic feeling. "Ballroom
Dancing" (from the same LP) follows
with Dave Edmunds handling the
guitar and John Paul (not the pope)
Jones of the defunct Led Zeppelin
shouldering the bass. As a result, the
overall song is not much revised in
comparison with the original version
although the presence of the aforemen-
tioned duo of guest musicians does give
the album some of its more splendid
moments. John Paul's bass guitar
playing is idiomatic to his old style and
amounts to a clever reworking of the
bass line he used in Zeppelin's neo-
countryish "Hot Dog" from In Thru
The Out Door. Edmunds turns in a
short, pungent guitar solo, generic to
his rockabilly mode of expression,
which is exciting and impressive in the
context of the song.
The first side of the disc concludes
with a reworking of 'Silly Love Songs''
featuring Toto's Jeff Porcaro on drums
and Louis Johnson on bass. What the
rhythm section lacks in togetherness it
makes up in flair, and the song ends up
in some sort of middle ground. Another
of the albums few finer moments retur-
ns during this song via a sly, floating
bass solo a few bars long that appears
before the fade-out and constitutes a
very interesting conversation piece for
budding young bass guitarists.
The second face opens with two
previously unreleased McCartney
tunes. Ringo handles the drumming,
Paul the bass, and Edmunds and Chris
Spedding alternate on guitar. The two
tunes are effective because they are
simple: a minimum number of tracks,
only slight overproduction, and tight
rock 'n' roll jamming that recalls the
McCartney of the early '70's.
. From this point to its conclusion, the
album again features only remakes of
old Beatles songs with new
arrangements. "For No One",
"Eleanor Rigby", and "The Long and
Winding Road" fall prey this time to
some modern orchestral reconstruc-
tions. Ms. Rigby showcases George
Martin's rescoring for string quartet
and The Winding Road now features a
full and enriched section of brass in-
struments.
No songs are bad, no songs are
priceless. It's essentially a collection of
mediocre versions of well-crafted
tunes, and because it is such, the album
fails. If one is going to revamp old
material the new sounds should be
drastically different and just as in-
spired.
Because the shining moments are few
on this LP, the album cannot even be
considered a greatest hits. Vintage
McCartney fans are strongly
discouraged from this.
When Paul left his basement for the
grand-scale productions of Twentieth-
Century Fox, he left his soul and his in-
tensity behind. While Tug of War
managed to successfully combine ex-
travagant musicianship with in-the-
garage recording styles of his past, the
new album is too removed from per-
sonal touch with the listener to succeed.
It may be fine to remake old songs for
a new movie, but that doesn't excuse
recording and packaging them to be
sold at $7.00 a pop.
-Andrew Porter
The Thirteenth Night is
tonight
... through Sunday
By Emily Montgomery
SHAKESPEARE'S errie tragedy,
Macbeth, takes on a political twist
in British playwright, Howard Bren-
ton's Thirteenth Night, a Brecht Com-
pany production opening tonight at the
Residential College Auditorium.
The Brecht Company, an ensemble
known for devoting itself solely to the
works of Bertolt Brecht, is venturing
out into Brechtian-based plays such as
Thirteenth Night lately, according to
director for the company Bob Brown.
"It's the first contemporary play I've
read in a long time that excited me so
much that I wanted to direct it," said
Brown. He also noted the production's
timeliness in coming out right around
Halloween and election day, with the
play's political subject matter and the
supernational quality of the Macbeth
plot structure it mimicks.
The Residential College Auditorium
is in the basement of East Quad, 701 E.
University. Performances will be
Friday through Sunday, from October
26 to November 4. Curtain times are
Friday and Saturday 8:00 p.m. and
Sunday 2:00 p.m.
Osez d'etre different....
Natural Fiber Clothing for Women and Men
325 E. Liberty, Ann Arbor * 995-4222
Good friends keep you going
when all you want to do is stop.
Karamazov Bros. juggle
(Continued from Page 6
as well as pre/intermission/post enter-.
tainment, were unfairly left unnamed
in the program and unintroduced on
stage.
Vaudeville vanished from the popular
interest and vocabulary a long time
ago, leaving many as-yet-unborn per-
sonalities desperately in need of a
vocation. The FKBs have resusitated
the form without having to admit it-a
sure sign of genius. These guys are just,
well, silly. We need about 10,000 more of
them. One in every living room,
preferably. One thing is settled in my
still-spinning mind: This was definitely
the best two hours I've ever spent wat-
ching people throw things in the air.
And catch them. And throw them
again ...
AN ARK
637 S. Main
EVENT
FOR THE
Campaign for a Nuclear Free
Ann Arbor
featuring:
Ann Doyle, Stephanie Ozer,
Kathy Moore, Hugh McGuiness,
& Randy Pedett
7:30 p.m. - October 28
$5.00 Donation
a
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0
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