4 PPage 8 - The Michigan Daily - Wednesday, December 6, 1989 Crushed Ve vets Lou Reed and John Cale rest on their laurels BY PETER SHAPIRO THE first collaboration between John Cale and Lou Reed was, quite simply, a landmark in the history of rock. The Velvet Underground from 1965-68 played music so daringly innovative, so boldly honest that time still hasn't caught up with them. Their music spoke of a reality that nobody was willing to admit ex- isted. Compared to their twisted, sado-masochistic view of the world the hallucinatory Utopian fantasies of the Sgt. Pepper generation seemed almost quaint to middle America The Velvets' world consisted of self destruction, contempt, urban blight and heroin, not flower power, cele bration, free love, and LSD. 'Reed and Cale didn't glorify their aItrnative to the blissfully ignoran counterculture, though. They jus p;esented it as nakedly real as the musical form could possibly allow them. The Velvet Underground was "the first band to completely unify 'Words and music into a cohesive "rk. At their best, they disregarded 'thy notion of hooks or melody to come up with music that has been rtmed both "documentary realism' 7" s S . , r t t sv to imagine that Reed or Cale have a sentimental bone in their bodies, but in Songs for 'Drella they oozed with nostalgic longing. This tender re- membrance and admiration for Warhol's ideas caused the song-cycle to be over-conceptualized beyond the point of pretentiousness. This new-found lofty aesthetic aim had Reed and Cale attempting a literary songwriting style. They abandoned any rhythmic connection between lyrics and music in songs like "That's the Trouble With Clas- sicists" and "Open House" ("It's a Czechoslovakian custom that my mother taught to me"). Obviously, it's nearly impossible to depict highly intellectual concepts like Warhol's in a rock form, but their collective solution was nearly as ab- surd as Reed's attempt on New York ("Descartes through Hegel/ Belief is never sure"). Like the Velvet Underground, the music for Songs for 'Drella was at least consistent with their ideas. Cale's viola was as saccharine as one might hear at an eight year old's recital. For the most part though, Cale played piano. When he wasn't trying to create a Steve Reich2style minimalism, Cale's piano playing might have passed for a high schol music teacher playing the theme to "It's the Great Pumpkin Charlie Brown." Reed's guitar work was mostly two chords, but when he did solo it was typical of the ersatz ex- perimentalism that has characterized his solo work. Symptomatic of the contempo- rary music scene, Reed and Cale have produced a work that shoots for the lowest common denominator possible. Musically vapid and emo- tionally void, Songs for 'Drella stands as a testament to the spiritual numbness of the '80s. This collabo- ration should have been the most important musical event since Never Mind the Bollocks. Instead, it was a ghastly parade of lame ideas that brings the decade to a fitting climax. Lou Reed may think he looks cool in this promo shot for his New York album, but he doesn't realize that he's lost his magic touch. Maybe it's because he got off drugs. Sweet-voiced Sugar Minott sings for a crowd of adoring fans. Sugar Minott: Sex, Roots and audiotape BY NABEEL ZUBERI IF your main exposure to reggae is the U-Club, you could be forgiven for thinking that there isn't much in the music beyond Bob Marley's Le- gend. A disinclination in America to listen to anything else has meant that singers-of the caliber of Sugar Minott have been largely overlooked. Minott balances the macho posturing of Lover's Rock with a rootsier dancehall style; between songs boasting of his prowess as a "lurver," tunes such as "Dreadlocks Chalice" and "Blessed Be The Tithes" on his latest album Ghetto Child (Heartbeat Records) reveal Minott's Rastafar- ian background in Kingston, Jamaica. Minott began his solo recording career at producer Clement "Coxsone" Dodd's legendary Studio One label (where Lee "Scratch" Perry also got his first break). It was here that he honed his singing craft, de- veloping the honeyed style and unique phrasing for which he's famous. Like Sam Cooke, Minott can make a syllable last for what seems like sweet eternity. He can also sing with the angst-ridden desperation of Lit- tle Willie John and the erotic charge of Marvin Gaye. The overused term "soulful" definitely applies to Minott. A modicum of success at home led him to move to Britain in an ef- fort to be more widely heard. Reggae actually started to move significant units in Britain during the mid-'70s, gaining momentum during the punk explosion in 1977. Minott took advantage of this, eventually scoring a big hit with "Good Thing Going." But since 1980 he's been back in Jamaica, recording with some of the island's finest session musicians. The fact that he's worked with people of the pedigree of Sly & Robbie, the Roots Radics band (as well as Bri- tish contenders Aswad) shows the high esteem in which Sugar Minott is held within the reggae world. From a rub-a-dub dancehall stylee through sensi-inspired mysticism to tuff roots militancy, Minott's voice speaks of the wide spectrum of Jamaican experience. SUGAR MINOTT plays at the Blind Pig tonight, with opening act ONYX. Tickets are $12 at the door. Showtime is 11 p.m. 212 - SAY IT IN THE... DAILY CLASSIFIEDS 4 ' and "consciousness raising." The re- sult of this experimentation was rock at its furthest imaginable reaches - dark, chilling, chaotic, depraved, and brutal. It was the aural equivalent of watching static on TV with a nasty hangover. Any sense of a preachy morality was rejected to show the true essence of human nature. There was no "Lucy in the Sky" for Reed and Cale; youthful and exuberant dreams of transcendence through sex and drugs didn't exist in their world. For most of Reed's characters, sex was nothing beyond a cheap sensual ex- perience; love could not be found, only misogyny: "You see her walk- ing on down the street/ Look at all the friends you're gonna meet/ Ah, you better hit her." Contrary to the popular trend of thinly veiled drug glorifications, Reed's lyrics were anything but disguised paeans. "When the heroin is in my blood/ And the blood is in my head/ Thank God that I'm good as dead/ And thank your God that I'm not aware," Reed sings in the bone-chilling "Heroin." These lyrics, combined with discomforting and nauseating distorted electric guitar and viola nervous breakdowns by Reed and Cale, create a portrait so frighten- ingly exact that it renders drug use obsolete to the listener. Despite a complete lack of artis- tic intentions, the Velvets gathered around Andy Warhol's Plastic Ex- ploding Inevitable in 1965. Sadly, it was Warhol's death in 1988 that brought Reed and Cale together for their second collaboration, Songs for 'Drella - A Fiction, that was per- formed at New York's Next Wave Festival last weekend. This 15 song-cycle attempted to eulogize the life of one of the most important figures of the 20th cen- tury. Starting from his youth in Pittsburgh ("Smalltown") to his death ("It's Me"), Songs for 'Drella was a brief summation of Warhol's life, but not much else. Given their past work, it's hard t~-, 4 C Don't Subtract Trees Duplicate on Recycled Paper Just say "Ecology-Pack" and get your coursepack on recycled paper for no extra cost! r KOLOSSOS L Reach 40,000 readers after class, advertise in MAGAZINE in Thev i lbi with your host Tom Franck and Student Comedians TBA T HE Tet Jhfri fau.lty, staff~alurrni kVic \IJVFI R il heir kLcompanted gucts C LUIiB,, nly ma~nhem who are of lgl drinking agc ma~y purchase alcohoul Join the Environmental Revolution! Home of the Ecology-Pack 310°1. Washington Ann Arbor, Michigan 48104 994-5907 -Mass meeting for auditions for the University School of Music's Threepenny Opera will be Wednes- day, Dec. 13. at 11:30 a.m. in the Power Center Rehearsal Room. Au- dition dates will be January 26-28. More info will be available at the meeting. -Auditions for the RC Player's production of Chekhov's The Three Sisters tonight and tomorrow night 6-11 p.m. in Room 2528 Frieze Building. Sign up in the Green Room, 1505 Frieze. Please bring a short prepared monologue. Perfor- mance dates: March 15-18 in the RC Auditorium. Auditions and Opportunities runs Wednesdays in the Daily Arts page. If you have items for the column, call 763-0379. v 6, b h Rose Bowl C30 48s -DR. KATHLEEN DVORAK. WESTSIDE CHIROPRACTIC 825 Packard " 994-5966 *Ask about our student plan! 60 a The Radisson Hotel City of Commerce-Los Angeles Is Offering A Rose Bowl Wolverine Special $69.00 Single or Double $84.00 Triple or Quadruple (Minimum Two Night Stay) The Radisson Hotel A AdmcbhC) tI I WEDNESDAYS 50C well drinks 250 drafts $3 COVER r ($2 with college ID)