- - MM AM A& Ak . V v Martha and the Vandellas take it to the Blind Pig Baker Continued from Page 11 Baker's attorney for the case, Richard Sanders, said he would not comment without Baker's permission. I didn't ask Baker to call Sanders and give him permission. Besides, Baker may talk to me for the next story, and we have to have something to talk about. I take that back. As long as Deane Baker serves on the University's Board of Regents, he will always have something to talk about. By Nabeel Zuberi Ever since I left London for Michigan last September I've wanted to visit the Motown Museum in Detroit. A couple of weeks ago I made the pilgrimage to the little house on Grand Boulevard where all those brilliant records were made. Once inside, I was overcome by feelings of both melancholy and wonder. The studio is in, a state of decay. A musty odor comes from the wooden floorboards; the music stands are on their last legs, the sheet music they held brown with age and on the verge of crumbling into dust. Upstairs, the wall display is showing signs of wear and tear; the record sleeves and old photos are curling at the edges. Yet, despite the necrose atmosphere, I still felt a sense of exhiliration that I was standing in the very place where Smokey sang of love's sweet sor- rows, where Marvin hollered the in- On the one hand, it's sad that the group is performing largely due to the public's insatiable appetite for nostalgia, which means we'll probably get at least five renditions of "Dancing In the Street". On the other hand, we will be seeing a legend and a fine soul singer. .I Hopefully, we'll hear more than the hits. ner city blues, and where Martha ex- uberantly told us to take to the streets. When Martha and the Vandellas step out on to the stage at the Blind Pig tomorrow night, I fear that I'll feel the same mixture of sentiments. On the one hand, it's sad that the group is performing largely due to the public's insatiable appetite for nostalgia, which means we'll proba- bly get at least five renditions of "Dancing In the Street". On the other hand, we will be seeing a leg- end and a fine soul singer. Hope- fully, we'll hear more than the hits. Martha Reeves is joined by origi- nal Vandellas, Rosalind Ashford and Annette Sterling. The group were never Berry Gordy's dreamgirls but Martha had more soul than Diana Ross, though not the vocal range of the divine Tammi Terrell. The group had their first hit in 1962 with "Come And Get These Memories", after which followed a series of clas- sic cuts, written mainly by Holland, Dozier and Holland. Between 1963 and 1967 Martha and the Vandellas released twelve singles, including America Continued from Page 16 ble job decrying racism, sexism is still alive and well: The song at the pageant's end hails the newly crowned Miss America as "our ideal," and per- haps she is. [Miss America's] dedication and drive -and her ability to keep her success in perspective - are the qualities that make her truly a winner. Ok, so I did the italics. But everything else in this modern font came from the book. The agenda Neuharth is so obviously trying to lay down truly scares me. I don't want to have fun making $3.35 an hour; I don't want to eat Domino's Pizza every night; and I sure as hell don't want to read his "Don't Worry Be Happy" newspaper. If you ask me, Neuharth deserves Hunter Thompson's famous bull moose treatment previously reserved for Ed "Pig" Meese. -The people are friendly. -The weather is nice. The people really are friendly. The weather usually is nice. And the fact that the same may be said for thousands of places across the USA makes no differ- ence at all. They said it, not me. -Brian Jarvinen Dean (no e) Baker holding Deane Baker's nameplate at a regent's me The other Dean (no 'e') PF I See Martha, Page 7 Martha Reeves and the Vandellas visit Ann Arbor this weekend Not an Irish invasion- Plane crash took lives but I just good oie music left a musical legacy A House Call Me Blue Sire After the last two eventful years in music, many of us could quite reasonably shrink away at the sound of the words "Irish music." In fact, we might be slightly horrified by the concept of an "Irish invasion." But rest assured, this is no pseudo- political folk music, nor any de- mented religious metaphorical verse, and no mythical tale of right vs. wrong. So what's keeping you from checking out A House? Nothing. Granted, when this disk starts up, exhilarating guitars and throbbing bass roaring (hopefully) from the speakers, a premature comparison to a certain mega-group might come to mind, but don't be confused. This is organized energy,. while those guys have a tendency to sound chaotic, like electric carnage. A House talks about the day-to-day problems of a society we all live in and know. The complaints are about "too many actors" and "too much elevator music". Those guys rant and rave about international affairs and war. Problems too big for any of us mere mortals to handle. When it's over, you're left with the feeling of impending doom. Rebellious enough, but what a pain in the con- science! Listen to A House and you'll think, "these guys aren't really blue." That's the beauty of it. This song tackles the blahs of living in a mediocre, humdrum, red tape world, and even though it might be a pain, in the end you don't mind. -Forrest Green By Mark Swartz The movie La Bamba, for all its joyous celebration of the rock 'n' roll dream, sticks in my mind with the power of one disturbing image. Seventeen-year-old Ritchie Valens experiences a recurring nightmare, a horrifying picture of an airplane ex- ploding in mid-flight. In that pre- monition of his tragedy - the plane crash that took his life as well as those of Buddy Holly and the Big Bopper - lies the grim flipside to the rock 'n' roll dream: the sense- lessness of dying young. Today marks 30 years since The Day the Music Died - a day which got its ponderous name from a Don M c L e a n hit from the '70s, "American Pie." Of course, the mu- sic didn't die; it lives on in the jukeboxes and the Walkmans and even car commercials. But the musicians did die and this article is about them. J. P. Richardson worked as a disc jockey at KTRM in Texas under the name the Big Bopper. His career was interrupted by a two-year hitch in the army as a radio communications in- structor. Upon returning home, the Bopper became restless. Not content to just remain in the booth playing other people's hit singles, he caught the ever-contagious rock 'n' roll bug and began moonlighting as a pop star. He recorded a novelty tune called "The Purple People Eater Meets the Witch Doctor," the B-side of an original, "Chantilly Lace." A Hill Street Forum/Great Writers Series Julius Lester My Journey To Tuesday, February 7, 8:00 pm, Irwin Green Auditorium Hillel Julius Lester is currently a Professor of Judaic Studies and formerly a Professor of Afro-American Studies at the University of Massachusettes. A civil rights activist and media personality during the '60s, he has authored 15 books, including Lovesong: Becoming a Jew. Lester is the recipient of numerous awards. Hillel does not necessarily endorse the Dail's opinion or agree withits editorial polcies, February 3rd marks the 30th anniversary of the deaths of Buddy Holly, Richie Valens, and the Big Bopper. rollicking rockabilly tune, "Lace" kicked off the summer of 1958 with the spider-meets-the-fly announce- ment of "Hel-1-1-o-o-o ba-a-by!" The song closed with the memorable as- surance "Oh baby that's what I like!" The Big Bopper's entire legacy rests on the two minutes of sound in be- tween those jewels. Thanks to a movie that turned a life into a Cinderella myth, and a hit record that turned a traditional Mexi- can folk tune into rock 'n' roll, Richard Valenzuela left a much more substantial legacy. Ritchie Valens, the son of migrant farm workers. Ritchie Valens, the Chuck Berry devotee who carried his guitar with him everywhere. Ritchie Valens, who went to the top of the charts with a two-sided single "Donna" and "La Bamba." Success came fast and furious to Ritchie Valens, who had to miss several days of high school, to appear on television. The songs of Buddy Holly are a cornerstone of popular music. His tunes snapped with the excitement of early rock 'n' roll. "That'll Be The Day," "Not Fade Away," and "Peggy Sue," among others, have found their way into the nation's collective consciousness. As a record maker, he pioneered the use of double-tracking and other recording techniques, and standardized the two guitars-bass- drum lineup that has yet to fade away from the music scene. But it was his uneven, hiccuping singing that has stood as Holly's greatest contribution. Charles Hardin Holley of Lubbock, Texas proved that it don't have to be pretty to be pure, a lesson which liberated rock singers from that time forward. If he hadn't died at 21, there's no telling where his talent and singular dedication might have led him. February 3, 1959. Holly, Valens, and the Big Bopper were flying be- tween concert stops in Iowa and North Dakota, when the small craft flew into a snowstorm. There were no survivors - unless you count the fantastic musical output that has survived three decades. Share the news, Books Continued from Page 13 highly structured and staunchly symmetrical design, all in the kroovy name of humanitarianism. In a nutshell, Alex starts as a thug and abuses people, gets reformed and has the very same people he abused abuse him, and ends with Alex back to his thuggish self again. This makes for a beautiful circle, brothers, story-wise. And your nog tells you the story logically ends at 20; but Burgess has this nog that tells him, "There must be sunshine!" Damn the kroovy bastard. He ruins kroovy everything with 21. O my brothers, sad as it seems (although there's no special reason to go boohoohoo), we become so pro- grammed and so ingrained into the violent world Burgess creates in the first 20 chapters that any retreat thereof is malenky. Redemption of any kind is impossible impossible. New York knew this and so did Kubrick. Bog bless them. Burgess ends his argument for this last chapter by writing,"Eat this sweetish segment or spit it out. You are free." He argues that we are free beings and can choose our own morality, to change moral make-up. Ha ha ha, ho ho ho. Like hell. This whole free choice thing is as beauti- ful as a little ptitsa skipping to church on Sunday but, oh, my brothers, the sad truth is, we can only make the minorest of adjust- ments in ourselves - the kind of chipperpaste we shove in our mouths in the mornin', the number of fibs we mouth off to our mums at night. People change only in fairy tales. So listen to Your Humble Narra- tor. Don't accept this pissy poor re- vision/sunshine up your skirt. Shun it. You are free, remember? Reach into the farthest, darkest depths of your Public Biblio and blow the dusty off a vintage American copy (You are free). Or rent Kubrick's deal at your local sinny store (You are free). Go ahead. Stick your wet tongue out at Religion and Govern- ment, and so cal (Cure yourself ). o 1 When two people with the same name work and live in the same community, there are bound to be mixups. One person gets the other's mail, phone calls, and messages. This particular case is a little more interesting than usual because Regent Deane Baker and University economics lecturer Dean Baker hold political views that are "completely opposite," Dean Baker said. This Dean Baker has been active '400 in the Rackham Student Government and Latin American Solidarity Committee. He challenged U.S. Rep. Carl Pursell, a Republican, for Michigan's Second Congressional District seat in 1986, and challenged State Sen. Lana Pollack in the 1988 Democratic primary to go after Pur- sell again. He also was a local co- ordinator of Rev. Jesse Jackson's 1988 presidential campaign in Michigan. oor ANN ARBOR 1220 S. UNIVERSITY 665-2C 1 - VALUABLE COUPON BABY IPMN!PAN! $j59 ~~ Pius Tax Prce valid n USA only i -John Shea I I Two adorable little individual-sized pan pizzas with cheese and pepperoni for one low price. Valid only with coupon at participating Little Caesars. Expires: 6 $ Y n9 4IL9V tihe isthdigan atlU Mt GAZINE Where your advertising dollars get results! T I I I I I + I I I I I- I 1 I I i "1 issue on, if ,D a ph presi was a L abou Jacks when it rar -- U VLuAJ eAr"ImC A to 1989 Little Caesar Enterprises, Inc. N VALUABLE COUPON M IWO SMALL PIZZAS with cheese and 1 topping* $5691 Plus Tax Prce val dnUSAonly Valid only with coupon at participating Little Caesars. *Excludes extra cheese. Expires: MI I and a 12 That's an Italian Sub, Nam and 12 o2. Soft Drink. Valid only witl Expir+ 1989 Little Caesar Enterp U VALUA IWO MEl with cheese Valid only with coupon *Exclude Expir 1989 Little Caesar Enterp O U VALUA II I CLASSIFIED ADSI Call 764-0557 9 Little Caesar Enterprises, Inc L- - VALUABLE COUPONM PAGE 4 WEEKEND/FEBRUARY 3,1989 WEEKEND/FEBRUARY 3,1989