A
Is
Veteran Crow finally
emakes it on
By TOM ERLEWINE
After hearing her new single,
"Leaving Las Vegas,"don'tbe fooled
into thinking Sheryl Crow is a brand-
new singer-songwriter. Although
she's never released an album before
her stunningly accomplished debut,
"Tuesday Night Music Club," she's
een singing and writing for years.
Crow's songs have been recorded by
Eric Clapton and Wynonna Judd and
she has been a back-up vocalist for
Michael Jackson, Don Henley and
George Harrison. But now, with the
growing success of her debut album,
Crow appears to be earning some
much-deserved success of her own.
"People keep asking me, 'Why
id you wait so long to make your
wn album?"' said Crow, "And I'm
like, I didn't wait that long; that's
when I got a record deal. It's not like
they were banging down my door to
give me a record deal. I went through
a trip of trying to get signed a few
years back. Music was sort of going
through a weird period of everything
had to sound like Madonna or you
couldn't get signed. Particularly,
cord labels didn't want to hear from
girls that were strongly opinionated,
until Tracy Chapman came along and
slowly things have started changing.
But in the last couple years, it's
definitely changed and it's OK to be a
woman; in fact, it's hip to have those
people on your label."
Crow's album has been
universally critically-acclaimed,
lacing her in the front-ranks of the
urrent crop of female singer-
songwriters. "Quite honestly, I'm
pretty surprised," she admitted. "You
never expect to put a record out and
get really (good reviews) and I mean
I've gotten really good reviews on
the record. The record has lot of really
good characters on it and I'm really
pleased not only for my sake, but for
their sake. We had such a great time
naking it."
"Tuesday Night Music Club" is
named after a series of informal jam
sessions where Crow and a group of
Los Angeles musicians first began
recording material for the album.
"(David) Baerwald had just finished
his record ('Triage') with Bill
Bottrell," she recalled. "They finished
a few months before and were kind of
ried and they called me one Tuesday
night and said, 'Hey, we're playing
out here just for the fun of it - no
record, no nothing.' They called me
and said, 'Do you want to come out
and jam,' and I did. Tony Gilbert
from Toy Matinee was out there and
3-300 STUDENTS
BEDROOM
U NITS
'O S Itti Iq
her own
a couple guys showed up from Wire
Train that Bill had worked with before
also. And we wrote 'Leaving Las
Vegas,' along with getting smashed
and hanging out and laughing.
"A few days later I came back out
to the studio and Bill said, 'You gotta
hear this.' He played it for me and
said, 'You should really think about
doing your whole record this way,
having these guys be part of it.' So I
asked them and they were kind enough
to come in during the week. And we
always left Tuesday nights open for
jamming, so it always sort of
maintained its freshness."
For Crow, the sessions gave her a
significant amount of creative
inspiration. "It was the first time in
seven years of being in L.A. that I
sensed any sort of community of
artists," she explained. "It's so
competitive there and people don't
want to share ideas because they're
afraid it might be ripped off in some
way. And this was so rare and so
spontaneous and creative."
Crow had attempted another solo
record shortly before the recording of
"Tuesday Night Music Club," yet the
project was ill-fated. "We got a little
bit into it and I just decided it was too
slick-sounding and we kind of had a
parting of ideas. And as soon as I
heard this, I was like, 'You know, this
sounds like all the records I grew up
listening to.' And I really wanted to
have an album that sounded like a live
session was going on and that's pretty
much what it was. For me, the beauty
of this is that we recorded a bunch of
performances so I don't have to
compete with it when I go out and
play live, I just continue to perform
the songs."
Despite the amount of massive
acclaim she has received for her songs,
Crow isn't letting the praise go to her
head. "As far as I was concerned,
when I came out of it I just felt like I
had a collection of songs that sort of
represented the full circle of my
travels."And as "Tuesday Night
Music Club" proves, it is a rich,
rewarding circle.
SHERYL CROW will openfor
Crowded House Thursday at the
State Theater in Detroit. All ages
are welcome and doors open at
7:30 p.m. Call TicketMaster or 961-
5450 for more details.
-Naked Gun 33 1/3: The Final Insult" doesn't exactly have a plot, but why should it? Just some more good-natured ribbing and slapstick.
' Final Insult' not
By JOHN R. RYBOCK
The man has police blue running
through his veins, but to please his
wife, he gives up the force and
Naked Gun 331/3:
The Final Insult
Written by Pat Proft, David Zucker
and Robert LoCash; directed by Peter
Segal; with Leslie Nielsen and Fred
Ward.
becomes a house husband. But life on
the killing streets goes on. Given the
opportunity, the cop rejoins the force,
going undercover in a prison to
befriend a mad bomber, and determine
where he will strike. All the while, his
marriage is falling apart, but to him,
his police work comes first.
OK, I picture Clint Eastwood and
Rene Russo. Get Malkovich to play
the bomber, and rekindle the same
chemistry between these actors which
made for one of the most enjoyable
films of last year.
Or, just get Leslie Nielsen and his
usual cohorts of idiots, and make it a
comedy.
Don't get me wrong here. I'm not
implying that there is actually a plot
in the new film, "Naked Gun 33 1/3:
The Final Insult." A movie like this
usually has only a thin veil trying to
pass itself off as a plot, but this third
film version of "Police Squad" doesn't
even try thatruse.What that essentially
boils down to is some great moments
which are not very well connected.
Scenes at a marriage therapist,
sperm bank, Statesville prison and
the Academy Awards offer some great
laughs, but there is almost no
connection between them.
And in this genre of humor, the
usual basis for success is how much
of the shit that the writers, directors
and actors throw at the screen actually
sticks. The hit-to-miss ratio compared
exactly iu
to "Naked Gun 2 1/2" is lower, with a
lot of lame jokes dying miserable
deaths. However, with this coming
from the minds of Zucker, Abrahams
and Zucker, the ratio is significantly
higher than the lame rip-offs of their
work such as "Loaded Weapon I."
And not much can be said about
the acting, which in this type of film is
actually a good thing. All the usual
suspects from the previous movies
have the treat-this-somewhat-
seriously-and-don't-wink-at-the-
camera style down, and the
newcomers have picked up on it, such
as Fred Ward as the mad bomber and
Anna Nicole Smith as his girl. (I'll bet
my paycheck that those babies are not
a natural side effect to giving birth.)
The finale occurs at the Academy
Awards, which is a strange choice to
spoof. If you saw the Oscars, you
realize that the Dorothy Chandler
Pavillion is home to one of the most
tisulting
bizarre spectacles in the world. In
fact, one of the most hilarious
moments, aside from Raquel Welch
playing a good sport as Frank Drebin
tackles her on stage, come when
Drebin, in front of the audience,
repeats verbatim what Richard Gere
said last year. It's so bizarre, its scary
to think that someone actually said it,
and still walk the streets straight-
jacket-free.
One last thing I feel I should
mention. The audience when this film
was reviewed truly loved one parody
of a film. I won't give it away here,
but I will leave you one hint: It's the
joke everyone's talking about, but no
one is telling its secrets.
What does all this mean? It boils
down simply: Not as good as "2 1/2,"
but pretty damn funny none-the-less.
NAKED GUN 33 1/3: THE FINAL
INSULT is playing at Briarwood
and Showcase.
I
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