8 - The Michigan Daily - Wednesday, September 22, 1993 John Prine has survived long past the "new Bob Dylan" stigma. Now, comes an anthology of his twenty-year career. RECORDS Continued from page 5 - and the result is not unlike what "Sergeant Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band" or "Magical Mystery Tour" might be like if they were re- corded today. "Giant Steps" opens with the bril- liant "I Hang Suspended" a catchy, punk-tinged song that one could ei- ther dance or meditate to; "Wish I was Skinny" is a pure pop jewel reminis- cent of vaudeville tunes; "Butterfly McQueen" has ajazz-inflected groove and loud, crazy horns and sounds like a gorgeously messed-up "Penny Lane." "Leaves and Sand" melds a quiet, mellow verse with a loud, bois- terous chorus and "The White Noise Revisited" is a beautiful update of "Strawberry Fields.Forever." This album is 17-songs strong but doesn't seem overly long; the songs are short but fully-realized composi- tions. Songwriter Martin Carhas cre- ated an interesting aural mix of techno, psychedelic pop, punk and classical music; the mix of classical instru- ments (such as cello, trumpet, clarinet and flugel horn) with modern ones (like electric guitar and keyboards) gives the album a timeless, full sound. Sometimes the songs blend into a nondescript wash of psychedelic bliss, but for the most part "Giant Steps" is a huge success. - Heather Phares John Prine John Prine Anthology: Great Days Rhino Many singer-songwriters were saddled with the burden of being the "new Bob Dylan" in the early '70s, but only a handful were able to sustain a career. Out of all these emerging songwriters, the most accomplished artist has proven to be John Prine. Over his twenty-plus year career, he has recorded a series of albums that have been graced with his incisive, intelligent and humorous songs. Prine may not be the most prolific recording artist, but as the superb new 2-CD set "The John Prine Anthology: Great Days" illustrates, his songwriting has been consistently bril- liant. From the beginning, his skills were highly developed - Bill Mon- roe, the godfatherofbluegrass, thought Prine's "Paradise" was a song from the '20s that he had forgotten. "Para- dise" is indeed that good and nearly every other song on his debut album, "John Prine," equaled its power. Where Dylan's lyrical strength is in his poetic imagery, Prine's style is direct and conversational, heavily dependent on detail. That is the very quality thatmakes "Sam Stone,"atale of a war veteran addicted to drugs, haunting and also drives home the Over his twenty-plus year career, he has recorded a series of albums that have been graced with his incisive, intelligent and humorous songs. humor of "Illegal Smile." While his songs were stunning from the beginning in their lyrical depth and sophisticated musical amal- gam of country, folk and rock, Prine's albums became more confident as his career progressed. As "Great Days" winds through its 41 tracks, his writ- ing becomes more refined and his music explores its roots more deeply; the anthology proves that Prine has only gotten better throughout the years. All of Prine's best songs are featured on "Great bays" - it serves as the perfect introduction to one of America's finest singer-songwriters. -Tom Erlewine For Country, Cause & Leader (1993) Landscape Turned Red (1983) Stephen W. Sears Ticknor & Fields When Charles B. Haydon attended the University of Michigan, he never thought he would be a soldier. After he graduated, he wanted to be a law- yer in Kalamazoo, his hometown. But then came the war. The presi- dent needed volunteers to bolster the army. Haydon, 27, quit shuffling pa- pers as alaw clerk and soon was trying to kill enemies he could rarely see in a part of the world he could barely understand. Haydon risked his life to fight for the Union in the American Civil War. Haydon recorded his experiences in 21 pocket diaries, most of which are in the Bentley Historical Library on U-M's North Campus. Historian Stephen W. Sears has collected these diaries in one book, "For Country, Cause & Leader." Haydon's diaries read like someone's class notes, intended to refresh the mind of the note taker at a later point. Sears has edited Haydon's diaries forclarity andreadability. Sears also has footnoted Haydon's more obscure references. While these addi- tions are helpful, Sears leaves out Haydon's letters to his father and brother, which are in the original dia- ries. Maps also would have been use- ful, but Sears does not include any. But Haydon's own words are the book's most illuminating feature. Haydon recorded his views on a myriad of topics: his commanders, his comrades, the Union, Southerners, women, slavery and more. His diaries show that a soldier's life was not all marching and fighting. Though he could not escape his own Victorian, Midwestern preju- dices, Haydon observed the world with a Twain-like sense of irony. Early in his diaries he noted that if his fellow soldiers "pursue the enemy as vigor- ously as they do the whores they will make very efficient soldiers." Unlike some of his peers, Haydon was an able, conscientious soldier, and rose from Sergeant to Lieutenant-Colonel in only three years. In September 1862, Haydon's unit - the 2nd Michigan Infantry Regi- ment - helped man Washington's defenses, missing the Battle of Antietam, the subject of "Landscape Turned Red." In this book, Sears weaves the accounts of generals, sol- diers and civilians into an entertain- ing and informative narrative about America's bloodiest battle. Like most battle histories, "Land- scape" has a limited perspective and value. It's difficult to find broad his- torical implications in the tactical tri- umphs and blunders that occur on a battlefield. But Sears does give a vivid sense of what Civil War combat was like. Rebel gunfire was do deadly at Antietam that one Union soldier thought "the whole landscape for an instant turned slightly red." Sears sug- gests that both sides suffered heavy casualties because they fought on open ground at short distances with weap- ons "that could kill at half a mile." Compared to Sears' history, Haydon's diaries lackpolish. But "For Country" is a realistic, first-hand ac- count of a soldier's daily life, and for this reason it is more interesting and enlightening than "Landscape." Haydon, in his journals, shows what life was like away from the battle- field; Sears, in his battle history, does not. - Oliver Giancola The Gripping Hand Larry Niven and Jerry Pournelle Pocket Imagine that if you don't have sex, you'll die. Now imagine that every- one else has the same problem. With- out birth control, people like you would rapidly fill a planet. This is the problem of the Moties, an alien race created by Larry Niven and Jerry Pournelleintheir book, "The Mote in God's Eye," published in 1974. "The Gripping Hand" takes place in 3047, thirty years after "Mote." As is the case with many science-fiction (SF) sequels, "Grip- ping" pales in comparison to its pre- decessor. In "Mote," humans have estab- lished a star-spanning empire. In 3017, the humans have their first encounter with sentient aliens, the Moties. The Moties look like the Ewoks in "Re- turn of the Jedi," except that they have five limbs: two legs, two right arms and a strong left arm for "the gripping hand." Sexually, the Moties are like hu- mans on fast forward. Because the Moties die if they don't reproduce, their home planet has become quickly overpopulated. Although they have no birth control, the Moties do have spaceships, and thus present a threat to their human neighbors. By 3047, the humans have con- tained the Motie threat - or so they think. "Gripping" presents a new Motie/human conflict and a potential solution to the Moties' population problems, but this novel lacks the sense of awe and mystery that Niven and Pournelle captured in "Mote." In "Mote," Niven and Pournelle let read- ers discover what the characters dis- cover - a new alien race. The authors even gave readers a peek into the Moties' thoughts and conversations. "Gripping," in contrast, is more human-centered than the earlier novel. The Moties are seen mainly through the humans'pointof view. Motie poli- tics are also important in "Gripping." One character aptly describes the Motie political situation as "Byzan- tine." The Moties' political relation- ships are indeed confusing and com- plex, but are not very interesting. Niven and Pourmelle also fall into some conventions of SF literature, conventions which they apparently have not rethought in the twenty years since they wrote "Mote." For example, the authors devote 200 pages of this 400-page, hard-cover book to describing a space battle, which is tedious reading. The charac- ters are so busy shouting commands at one another that they have little time for in-depth interaction with each other or, more importantly, with the Moties. Despite this novel's human focus, Niven and Pournelle are unable to envision female participation in space combat. While the male characters are piloting the ship, one women makes coffee and another exercises in the kitchen (of all places). War, it seems, is still a male pursuit in the authors' universe, even though the novel is set 1000 years in the future. The sequel is itself a SF convey- tion, and "Gripping" is like other SF sequels. "Gripping" does not add any- thing to the story Niven and Pournelle began in "Mote." For this reason, "Gripping" is disappointing. - Oliver Giancola A Lesson Before Dying Ernest J. Gaines Knopf Jefferson was in the wrong place at the wrong time. He was walking to bar in Bayonne, La., in the late 1940s, when two black men dffered him a ride into town. Jefferson accepted. The two men stopped at a liquor store, and Jefferson followed them inside. Short of money, the two men began threatening the white store owner. The two men exchanged pistol shots with the store owner. Seconds later, Jefferson was the only one still stand- ing. Dazed and confused, Jefferson was captured in the store. The prosecutor easily convinced the all-white jury that Jefferson, an African American, was guilty of murder. Jefferson's at- torney asked them to be merciful: "What justice would there be to take this life? ... Why, I would just as soon put a hog in the electric chair as this." The jury wasn't moved. Jefferson got the chair. Enter Grant Wiggins, a Black, uni- versity-educated school teacher and the novel's narrator. At the behest of Jefferson's godmother, Grant must change Jefferson from a "hog" into a man. "I don't want them to kill no hog," she says. "I want a man to go to that chair, on his own two feet." Grant must teach Jefferson a lesson before dying. This lesson is lost in the 256 hard- bound pages of Ernest J. Gaines' first novel in ten years. His weak plot and simplistic characters do not convey any meaningful insights, morals, or meanings. As a result, "Lesson" is neither dramatic nor inspiring. Gaines reworks a tired theme: bad, rich white men kill a good, poor Black man in a courtroom lynching. 16 Jefferson really as innocent as he claims? One has to assume that he is, since the very fact that the jury is all- white seems to prove he is falsely convicted. Unfortunately for Jefferson, no one explains to him that he can appeal the jury's verdict; the author fails to tell us why Jefferson does not or can not appeal. When the trial is finished, so is Jefferson. Only Grant can save him. Grant is hardly a hero. Since he graduated from college, Grant has become cynical about life. He has abandoned Catholicism, but thathasn't stopped him from teaching elemen- tary school in a Catholic church, where he likes to vent his frustrations on his pupils with his trusty Westcott ruler. After six years of living with his nag- ging aunt, Grant wants to leave Loui- siana. But then there's Vivian, also a teacher. Vivian is the reason Grant stays in godforsaken Bayonne. Grant loves her, but his love does not come from his heart: "We left the table, and I took her my arms, and I could feel her breasts through that sweater, and I could feel her thighsthrough that plaid skirt, and now I felt very good." At least Grant is honest. Grant's complaining aunt and fal- tering sex life eventually force him to help Jefferson in a strikingly mun- dane and unmoving way. This may be realistic, but it also is boring. - Oliver Giancola el If te Soc If you are interested in writing for the theater staff, please call Liz at 763-0379. 0 fts'* 0 0 FACT: Bivouac carries over 70 styles of footwear for all kinds of outdoor activities: hiking, walking, trekking, climbing, kayaking, watersports, adventure travel...and more! WHY: Our wide selection is designed to fully meet the diverse needs of our customers. Our sales staff are expert at matching your needs to appropriate choices. Our goal is to help you select footwear that has the best possible fit. 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