0
Page 18- The Michigan Daily -Monday, September 18, 1989
l,
RECORDS
Continued from page 1.3
soulful high that I haven't heard since the days of
"Controversy." Once again, it becomes believable. You
can feel it. This is a song that truly deserves the Prince
credo ofNew Power Soul.
So what is the overall judgement? It's hard to say.
"Trust," "Batdance," "Partyman," and "Lemon Crush".
are all destined to become Prince classics. With this al-
bum, he's proven to the world that reaching the top of
the charts is no mean feat. Although there is a sense of
stagnation here, mostly by way of synthesized music,
the work prevails. And in the overall context of
Prince's work, Batman will hold up, by virtue of its
unpredictable content. But the album's carrying a title,
underneath the bat insignia. It says "Sold." It could be
read "Marked down."
-Forrest Green
Steve Jones
Fire and Gasoline
MCA
One need look no further than the credits on the
back sleeve to know exactly what ex- Sex Pistol Steve
Jones' new release sounds like. The album is graced by
such mega-celebs as Ian Astbury, Axl Rose, and Nikki
Sixx. What that translates into is that whatever, dare I
say, inventiveness that Steve Jones might have had
with the Pistols has now given way to formulaic
"hard" rock.'
You've heard this album too many times already.1
The lyrics consist of nothing more than clich6s strung
together in an amazingly sophomoric manner. He tries
to tackle the issue of televangelists in "God in .
Louisiana" with phenomenally bad results: "On the i
40th floor of Heaven/ In the executive penthouse suite/
Sat the manager and creator/ Of the planets and galax-
ies/ With a map of Louisiana in his hand/ Saying look
what they've done to my name." But please don't get
the idea that this is a socially relevant album. The vast
majority of wax is devoted to Jones boasting about his
libido without the goods to back it up.
x
Most of Jones' flaccid guitar leads are recycled
Jimmy Page bastardizations of blues riffs played with
an annoyingly frequent use of the tremelo. His bravado
is delivered in a guttural snarl reminiscent of Lemmy
Kilmeister of Motorhead, which wouldn't be too bad if
it wasn't combined with the harmonic range and
melodic sensibility of David Lee Roth. Jones' support
on the record is provided by the equally limp Terry
Nails on bass and Mickey Curry on drums. In accor-
dance with late '80s production values, the bass is
buried deep in the mix making the album soundincred- i
ibly hollow; the drums are so heavily miked that they i
sound synthesized. What is truly remarkable about the :"
drumming, though, is that Mickey Curry's technique is
actually a regression from Ringo Starr's cumbersome 4
thumping. Even the presence of heavyweights Axl,
Nikki, and Ian Astbury can't rescue this record from to-
tal mediocrity.
.r
In the song "Get Ready," Steve Jones declares,
"total control is my one desire." He has certainly
achieved it - dominance through sterilization. Fire '
and Gasoline is so clean, so low energy that it's not
only harmless, it's antiseptic. If you peer one centime- 3
ter below its rebellious, macho facade, you'll find mu- d
sic so flaccid that no one would be threatened.
-Peter Shapiro
qq
Read
Dait4j
C~weiied5
Ex-Sex Pistol Steve Jones takes the unimaginative path
and Nikki Sixx in his new release, Fire and Gasoline.
to offensiveness with the help of Ian Astbury, Axl Rose,
Tuesday Nites are College Nites
at
JEDIBLESI RS
Kick Off College Nites and
Celebrate our 4th Anniversary
tuesday the 19th with two rocking bands:
HEART
Continued from Page 15
By the end, she is Randolph
University's only voice of reason,
speaking out in the school newspaper
for integration and equal rights. This,
of course, gets her expelled, but she
doesn't seem to worry about that.
Sheedy's portrayal of Maggie is
one-dimensional. Her southern accent
is stilted (though not as bad as the
exaggerated mouthing performed by
Cates, who manages to wreck the
only interesting role in the film) and
her cute astounded expressions only
go so far.
Still, Director Martin Davidson
has put in a few intriguing touches.
The songs, like Elvis Presley per-
COOKIE
Continued from page 15
you, it is. Orion has had this film
on the shelf for over a year now,
waiting for the right time to re-
lease it.
The movie does benefit though
from a few of its performances,
namely Emily Lloyd's. This
English actress, known for her
highly acclaimed performance in
Wish You Were Here, takes great
pains to prove that she can play
the role of a Brooklyn-born Mafia
princess. At times, however, she
works too hard, and in the end, her
talent is almost lost in the mess.
To her credit, Lloyd does show the
ability to take on a part that is, to
say the least, foreign to her. She
will next be seen in In Country,
in which she plays a Southern girl
experiencing the effects of the
Vietnam war.
Dianne Wiest (Parenthood,
.w
Hannah and Her Sisters), exhibit-
ing a certain instinct for comedy,
is appealing as Cookie's mom.
Unfortunately, Wiest also falls;
into the trap of pouring her Italian
shtick on a little too strong.
Hollywood has gone overboard Z
with its endless flow of Mafia
comedies. It seems almost certain
that a new one will appear every +
few months. And something tells
me they will still keep coming.
However, Seidelman's installment
proves that any originality that
was once present in this genre has
vanished. After Cookie, one can
only hope that we have finally'
seen the last of it.
forming Carl Perkins's "Blue Suedi
Shoes," are almost all written by
Black artists and performed b}
whites. By revolving scenes around
these performances, Davidson illus-
trates that in 1957 Blacks had influx
ence, but still few rights.
The film, though, hal
Mississippi Burning disease; it'd
about civil rights, but features n4
Black stars. Unlike Mississippi
Burning, however, this film doesn't
make a strong enough statement tq
overcome that weakness. I
Heart of Dixie deals with a fasj
cinating part of American history
The pre-Civil Rights Movement erg
deserves better movie treatment that
this.
COOKIE is now showing at
Showcase Cinemas.
--q
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