Arts
The Michigan Daily
Wednesday, July 7, 1982
Page 7
.ram f -
Records
Chas Jankel -'Questionnaire'
A&M
Central Line -'Central Line'
(Mercury)
Junior- 'Ji' (Mercury)
L.A. may be the undisputed capital of
pop-funk, but it's got no right to brag at
parties as long as England is around.
These English pop-funk bands seem
to havea head start derived from a cer-
tain inbred purity that makes it seem
like they were raised exclusively on
spoon-fed Jacksons and Stevie Wonder.
At its best, say Linx or Central Line,
British pop-funk exemplifies a sound so
relentlessly clean and upbeat that doc-
tors could well prescribe it instead of
Librium.
The only cloud on Central Line
albums are about the solidest pop-funk
records on the market.
Chas Jankel and Junio:r will ob-
viously sell in big figures simply on the
strengths of their smash singles, "Glad
to Know You" and "Mama Used to
Say," respectively. I'm certainly noy
begrudging Jankel that success - the
guy obviously deserves it all and much
more.
After the embarrassing failure of his
first, nearly faultless album, he's boun-
ced back with an album even smarter
and snappier. Obviously, his
background as the songwr-
iter/producer of the quintessentially
rude Ian Dury and the Blockheads
gives an extra (dare I say "punky")
edge to his otherise letter-perfect dance
sound, but the real joy of this record is
how he always manages to slip the
wickedest twists into the mix in the
nicest ways.
Junior's album, Ji, unfortunately just
isn't nearly as faultless as Chas
Jankel's or Central Line's. Again,
there's no arguing with the won-
drousness of "Mama Used to Say," but
the same formula begins to drag over
an entire album's length. The strength
of "Mama" is the expressionless,
pseudo-synthetic bass that gives it an
implacable 'rootedness - as dance
tunes go, this one stands its ground -
but on most of Ji's songs, that flat bass
attack, which is obviously supposed to
funtion as the solid core of the song,
simply proves to be a solid bore.
Add to that the overly obvious Stevie
Wonder influences evidenced on Ji and
you've got a debut album that's con-
sistently well-executed but only rarely
well-conceived. Sure, Wonder would be
proud to call these songs his own, but
that isn't the point; Junior just isn't ad-
ding to the Wonder sound the way Cen-
tral Line and Linx build on the
Jackson's foundation. Just check out
Junior's "Is This Love" in comparison
to its suspiciously similar predecessor,
"There's Love" by Linx, and you'll see
the difference between the merely
imitative and the truly inspired.
-Mark Dighton
Barry Bostwick and Persis Khambatta fall predictably in love in 'Megafor-
ce.'
Andyou thought
'Gease 2 was bad
By Richard Campbell
I WAS WRONG and I'm sorry. It
was a simple mistake, maybe too
simple for me to catch in time.
You see, I thought Grease 2 was the
stupidest movie I would ever see. But it
was silly of me to overestimate the in-
telligence of Hollywood producers.
So I won't say that Megaforce is the
stupidest, most ineptly pieced together
movie that will ever grace the silver'
screen, for the future could prove me
wrong.
Hal Needham, who previously direc-
ted Smokey and the Bandit, Hooper,
and Cannonball, has set a standard for
poor production that will be hard to top.
Scenes are edited indecipherably,
dialogue is incredibly bad, and even the
stunt-filled action sequences are
boring.
What plot there is concerns an elite
fighting unit, Megaforce, which
engages bad guys in deadly combat
utilizing the latest in motorcycle-based
weaponry. When a zealous guerilla ar-
my continually attacks a small,
democratic country, Megaforce is
asked to bait the army and pull them in-
to an open battle.
The film would be ludicrous enough to
watch it if weren't for its potentially
dangerous theme. Megaforce fights for
truth and justice. But these presumably
idealistic goals are simply a smoke-
screen for whatever- actions Megafor-
ce chooses to take. It's the kind of
political naivete you're supposed to
outgrow.
This is a really bad movie. Unfor-
tunately, Hollywood probably is
producing a worse one even now.
At the League sat a student forlorn
Whose jeans were all tattered and torn;
Then lunch and a dinner
Turned loser to winner:
And thus U of M stars are born! Dinner 5:00 to 7:15
D.W. SPECIAL LOW PRICES FOR
STUDENTS
Send your League Limerick to:
The ChgManagerMichigan League
I VI l 911 North University
Next to Hill Auditorium You will receive 2 free dinner
Located in the heart of the campus tickets if your limerick is used in
it is the heart of the campus one of our ads
The closer you get .
.. the better we look.
764-0558
U of M SAILING CLUB
Come Sail With Us I
Open meeting: Thursday, July 8
7:45 p.m.
311 West Engin.
Weekly meetings same time and place