Arts
Tuesday, August 4, 1981
The Michigan Daily
Page 9
George Harrison
- N
A u Pairs
Au Pairs-'Playing with a Different Sex' (Human)-With the New Wave of
music came a new and more positive place for women in rock and roll. No
longer are they just groupies, in "girl groups," or the "girl singer." Yet not
before I saw the Au Pairs did I ever see men and women working together,
equally and with real strength.
The Au Pairs come from the same social clique as the Gang of Four and
the Mekons, from Leeds. They're a quartet, two women and two men, that
work together like a musical jigsaw puzzle. The sum of the parts is simply
magic. They snap, crackle, and pop with a funk-oriented base, reminding me
of the Gang with a slightly more melodic edge.
THE AU PAIRS debut album is now available as an import, through
Human Records. Titled Playing With a Different Sex, most of the material
concerns itself with just that-relations and politics between and among
men and women. Against tense but tuneful music, the lyrics go through
common, everyday situations that are or have the potential to be, well, tense
but tuneful. They are honest with the difficulties of love-making it and
keeping it-but optimistic nonetheless. There's no desperation here; the at-
titude is that no matter how much work it may be, complete honesty in love
is really worth it.
It seems apparent to the Au Pairs that people get stuck in situations too
often. Most don't realize that they really can change a relationship, that
stagnation can and does turn into complacency. These are the people that
give in too quickly, that don't know how it can be worth it. In "Love Song,"
Lesley sings
"Mutual attachment
Semi-detachment
Rinse out the dream
In the washing machine
Take out the ring
Two fates sealed
Negotiated a business deal
Is this true romance?
Champagne bubbles
Going flat
Gone flat"
But the Au Pairs are all about fighting stagnation and easy answers. The
only times they lose that personal struggle on Playing with a Different Sex
are with a rather tedious, remixed version of "It's Obvious" (from the B
side of their 1980 single); an excessively long "Headache"; and a "Dear
John" that gets lost in waves of echo.
We've all heard something that we like to call the future of rock and roll;
I'd like to think it's not another re-written Springsteen. Listen to the Au
Pairs. They certainly merit consideration for the title.
-Regina Myer
'George Harrison-'Somewhere in
England' (Dark Horse)-George
Harrison, former Beatle and now
professional publicist for God, was get-
ting ready for bed recently when this
conversation took place:
HARRISON (sitting in lotus position
on his king-size bed): ... and thank
you, my sweet lord, for another day,
and...
VOICE: Pssst, hey George.
HARRISON (startled): Hey?
VOICE: It's me, George.
HARRISON (recognizing the voice of
slain friend John Lennon): John, where
are you?
LENNON: Ya know, up in the
sky-you can't see me.
HARRISON (confused): I don't un-
derstand. What's-
LENNON: Listen, I don't have a
whole lot of time. I told the Big Man up
here that I had to talk to you. And, well,
of course he denied me . . . he gets so
many of those requests. But I explained
to him that you had a new song out
about me-
HARRISON: You mean "All Those
Years Ago."
LENNON: Yes, and I told him that
it's already getting a lot of airplay, and
that it'll probably sell a million. I told
him I just wanted to give you some
feedback on it.
HARRISON: And what was that?
LENNON: Well, I mean, I did
autograph all his copies of my solo
albums when I got up here. Of course he
asked me to do the same with those
boring Beatle albums, but I wouldn't
touch the stuff.
HARRISON: Anyway, about my new
album, Somewhere in England?
LENNON: Well, generally, I like it.
It's not on the pop/dribble side as much
as Paul's thing have been. But I notice
you thanked Paul and Linda on the
album sleeve for "All Those Years
Ago." What did you mean by that?
What did they do on it?
HARRISON: Well, er-
LENNON: Oh, forget it, I'll probably
be happier not knowing. But I like the
couplet, "Living with good and bad, I
always looked up to you." The bad was
obviously Paul, right?
HARRISON: Well-
LENNON: The only thing that I found
irritating was the way you snuck in your
usual commercial for God. You start
the beginning of the last verse with
"They've forgotten all about God; he's
the only reason we exist./Yet you were
the one that they said was so weird."
Not very smooth, and this God stuff,
well, you're just going overboard with
it.
HARRISON: Is that possible?
LENNON: You're starting to sound
like David Carradine. I'm telling ya,
the music isn't half bad on this record,
George. As a matter of fact, it's quite
good. But when you ask "for someone to
illumine your consciousness" in "That
Which I Have Lost," that's just a bit
much.
HARRISON: So that's it? Just
another put down from you?
LENNON: Well, no. "Blood From a
Clone" is great-punchy and it says
something. Ditto with "Uncon-
sciousness Rules." But "Baltimore
Oriole" and "Save the World" are the
pits.
HARRISON (getting angry, he rises
out of the lotus position): I think you
should go back to where you came
from. If you can learn about God fir-
sthand, you might asrwell take advan-
tage of it.
LENNON (his voice fading): You're
just sore cause I told Playboy that I
wrote most of Taxman."
-Mitch Cantor
Thanks to Schoolkids Records for
the use of some of the albums
reviewed in our records columns.
"I did-it-myself
at Megatrames
on North Main Street across
from the old Post Office. They
had plenty of parking behind the
store and a convenient rear
entrance."
Come in-and let us show you
how simple and rewarding it can
be to frame-It-yourself and save
money. too
205N.MAINSTREET E ANNARBORMICH,
PHONE 769-9420