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 i 0 :: - - .