4 ARTS The Michigan Daily Sunday, November 18, 1984 Page 6, # I I Legendary Lou triumphs at Hill By Dennis Harvey (( What Becomes a Legend Most" is a sob story song about the stereotypical rigors of celebrityhood-drinking, loneliness, etc-that half-consciously parodies the whole rock-star introspection thing on Lou Reed's otherwise goodbye-to-self- pity New Sensations LP. Reed's concert Friday at Hill was the flipside of what legends are all about-not the floundering-about af- termath of fame (which he's already done to death), but the talent and vigor that makes a legend in the first place. I saw Reed last fall in Italy, and walked out after the first few songs. He seemed like just another (if there are many left) remainder from the '60's bins propped up on stage to indifferently deliver Greatest Hits for a generic audience of starry-eyed eternal hippies. But that was Europe, where there seems to be a deathless, pointless floating population of post-youth still Summer-of-Loving it, and where a guy like Reed can (and did, for too long) coast along making money and getting jaded on the strength of tedious adulation. Reed's Hill set was a whole different story. New Sensations, with its delight- ful pop playfulness (not to deride the songs at all, but "I Love You Suzanne" and "Endlessly Jealous" would make perfect sense as Shaun Cassidy vehicles) and light introspection (as opposed to the tortured self-appraisal if of The Blue Mask, etc.) is a blatant and completely successful shot as U.S. chart re-entry. At Hill, Reed had the blissed air (to the extent that he can show, given his need to be at least a lit- tle threatening) of a kid who has rediscovered a forgotten favorite toy-i.e. America. The audience response was, even given the usual quota of tongues- hangin'-out swooning over touring retro "legends," (especially those who've been out of circulation for so long), unusually ecstatic by the end. Hill Auditorium tends to have a sedating in- fluence on audiences-maybe it's just the sobering thought that tonight's rock show will soon be tomorrow's Hakan Hagegard recital. The show built slowly, getting some of the nostalgic essentials out of the way early ("Sweet Jane" and "Waiting for the Man" kicked things off on a rather formulaid note) and gradually moving toward more recent material. Lou himself reserved energy in the first half of the set, limiting his guitar work to basic strummin'-along and letting Robert Quine do all the real work, which of course Quine did quite well, thanks. Despite high musical value-especially during a punchy "Sally Can't Dance" - stage ex- citement was pretty minimal, limited mostly to the hyperactive drummer. The band had a bit of the biz-as-usual professionalism of most stadium-sized outfits, but Lou Himself began to loosen up midway and soon seemed to be en- joying the whole shebang a good deal. Surprisingly, he hit a peak of genial animation fairly early on with the inevitable "Walk on the Wild Side," which was energized enough to justify the hysteria it provoked. The shift toward newer tunes really got going with the agreeably cheesy "My Red Joystick," which Reed in- troduced by saying "I always wanted to write a James Brown kind of song ..." The ooh-ahh, jazzy-excellent "New Sensations," possibly the best song off the same-title LP, didn't work quite so well live, despite a terrifically trum- ped-up big beat and excellent dual guitar work. The slinky bass line that makes the song on record was buried in the mix at Hill, and the wit of the album version was lost. The slightly folksy, anthemic "Doin' the Things That We Want to Do" worked very well, though - its big sound supplemented by an ac- cordion turn by the otherwise super- fluous keyboardist - as did several other New Sensations songs: "Turn to Me" (which enumerates blue-Monday bummers with some great lines, like "And some friend died of See LOU, Page 7 Odean Pope and his saxophone will be in town tonight with a show at the Ark. Tu-enor sax man Pope to perform at Ark By Marc S. Taras This evening Eclipse Jazz is offering its second major concert of the week. Following up on the heels of the trium- phant McCoy Tyner Trio engagement, the student-run jazz organization will be bringing a new fire music band to a new venue. The group is the Odean Pope Trio and the location is the new Ark, comfortably situated just south of Madison on Main Street stop the South Main Market. Best known for his saxophonic calesthenics as a part of Max Roach's organization, the 46-year- old Pope has a rich oackground of ex- perience as a student, teacher, and bandleader. Odean Pope first appeared in this life in a little South Carolina hamlet called Ninetysix, on October 24, 1938. His family remained there until Odean was 10, at which time they moved to Philadelphia, then as now a first rate jazz town. His father was a fine baseball player who doubled on trom- bone and drums. His mother was a teacher and the organist and choir director at the local church. These roots vitalized Pope's early years. He recalls, "When I was five, I used to speak as well as sing in the church, and from that experience I believe 1 was drawn to the saxophone, because I was looking for an instrument that was more vocal, where I could put across a piece of music the way the vocalists used to... " His parents were patient and en- See POPE, Page 7 Daily Photo by STU WEIDENBACO Rock 'n Roll legend Lou Reed mixed cuts off his latest album with Velvet Underground favorites at his concert at Hill Auditorium on Friday. A I 'Kiss Me Kate ':0 s s 0 Ana 4 " "C " $ 00 THIS E $300TWO * Alan Bird is getting * nothing he wants this Christmas * From Bill Forsyth, the Director/ " Writer of "Local Hero" and "Gregory's Girl" " 0 " " 0 MON. 1:00, 7:00, 9:00 SUN. 1:00, 3:00, 5:00, 7:00, 9:00 Acaden e present e future, e contem " * " " " " " " 0 "s"e". M " " " amatuer r 4 pro show1 NTIRE AD GOOD FOR TICKETS AT $3.00 EACH " " ( (PG) " my Award Winner Giorgio Moroder ts Fritz Lang's classic vision of the , ow beautifully restored and with a nporary music score. Songs Preformed by Pat Benatar " Billy Squier Adam Ant 9 Lover Boy & More! " " " " " " " Accordionist Queen Ida, seen here at an earlier Ann Arbor performance, and her band brought their zydeco sound to the Michigan Union Ballroom Friday. Ida ignites ballroom dancing " " " " " " "a MON. 1:00, 7:20, 9:20 SUN. 1:20, 3:20, 5:20, 7:20, 9:20 By Andy Weine on temps ce soir" (good times tonight) was the phrase of the night on Friday with Queen Ida at the Michigan Union ballroom. She bidded the audience to dance and wave their fingers high in the air, and the overflowing, exhuberant crowd joyously (or rather, rowdily) complied. * ANN ARBOR EXTRA SHOWS FRI. & SAT. NIGHT - REGULAR PRICE. Queen Ida and the Bon Temps Zydeco Band take the stage as the most popular proponents of zydeco, a diverse, Louisiana-born musical style with elements of jazz, Calypso, Cajun, rock, and other influences. The band played belted out everything from waining country love songs to bopping calypso tunes to "Disco Zydeco." The Queen and company packed the large ballroom with dancers and with loud zydeco created by two or three guitars, electric fiddle, washboard, drums, and accordion. There were smashing guitar and electric fiddle solos. Often the sound was too dense and busy, though, and then each in- strument's sound was too dense and busy, though, and then each in- strument's sound became like the voices: fuzzy and undistinguishable. blaring. . As for the lyrics, it's a nobody's guess how good they were, because the sound system and large space completely garbled the hoarsy vocals of the Queen and her royal court. from a few lines picked up-such as "Every night I pray by my window..." "My baby don't know, My baby don't care," and "Can't you see, you're the one for me"-you could surmise that the lyrics weren't that breathtaking. See QUEEN, Page 7 By Pete Williams I t's almost Thanksgiving, and what do you have to be thankful for? An overheated dorm room? A fascinatingly useless education? A ride home for the puritan holiday? Wrong. You have absolutely only one thing to be thankful for. Your life, and the fact that you are living it in Ann Ar- bor. I am speaking of course of the newest MUSKET (a ludicrous acronym not worth dissecting) production, Kiss Me Kate. Kiss Me Kate is fun. It is amateur in parts, which is expected, and professional in others, which is ap- preciated. For instance.n. The choreography by Rebecca Weitz is professional, the dancers are amateur. The movements were sophisticated, interesting, and 4~- propriate for the musical. Sadly, however, they seemed to be tuned to a mixed-bag of highly skilled and merely skilled dancers. Weitz used her talents to make what could have been chorius line mayhem into acceptable, and to a certain extent even interesting, dan- cing. On to the singing. Vocals, good strong vocals are the key to making a musical work. It is hard to accept the fact that people are breaking into song right and left for the hell of it unless they can do so with a certain level of confidence. And confidence was what was missing from many of the performers voices in Kiss Me Kate. In Act II, Hattie, Paula, and Mor'o (Lesley Kranz, Andrea Langs, and Chantel Westadale) sang a lovely trito "Too Darn Hot." MUSKET must have searched far and wide to find three ac- tresses who had the same amount .of difficulty hitting the same series of high notes in the same song. But what luck-they did it. It seemed as though lead man Fred Graham (Paul Winberg) couldn't decide whether or not he could sing. He- went from a brilliant performance' in the finale of "Kiss Me Kate" to a T A ~ _- " 0 C AT 11:00 P.M. "COMFORT AND JOY" (PG) 0 Se 0 0 0 "e 9000 " " " AT 11:15 P.M. "METROPOLIS" 0 9 0 0 9 0 _ " ENGINEERING STUDENTS NOTICE Time Schedule Listings for Division MICHIGAN STUDENT ASSEMBLY External Committee Positions Available for GRADUATE STUDENTS Research Policies Committee Library Council Advisory Committee on AffirmativeAction StateRelations