Page 8-The Michigan Daily -Monday, January 14,1991
Cinderella power chords and spandex, right? Ha!
Heartbreak Station You are so wrong. So they look like
Mercury/PolyGram the stereotypical crotch-pushing
,You thought Cinderella were like metal men with long hair (black or
heavy metal, or at least hard rock, blond only), leather, exposed hairless
and incapable of more than three chests, loads of guitars, poses and.
attitudes. Cinderella sounds, lead by
Tom Keifer's brilliant genius, varied
and exciting: bluesy, sexy, straight
ahead rock here, more metal-like
guitar there, soul women doing
background vocals, organ and
Memphis Horns. They know where
music was and meld it into their
very own.
So Heartbreak Station is a little
heavy on the railroad imagery - the
front cover is them posing at an old
station, the back cover is some
tracks and related moving on/railway
images are in too many songs -
but so what, it's an excellent album.
So lyrically, Cinderella are kinda
weak and unfocused but a shitload
more intelligent than 99% of most
metal/hard rock. It doesn't matter.
Give me Keifer's fabulous voice in
the higher range and these excellent
songs, and I'll tune out the stupider
words to listen to the m-u-s-i-c.
Cinderella musically come across
as learned, using loads of boogie
piano, slide guitar, cow bell and lap
steel, adding to the basic hard rock
beat. Keifer and company must have
done their musical homework into
the past 50 or so years and they use
it to make astute hard stuff.
The first three cuts epitomize
this, especially "Love's Got Me
Doing Time." Using "Memphis
Horns," Cinderella incorporates
Southern soul and wah-wah guitar
into a stirring tune about sex.
"Shelter Me," an acoustic guitar-
based clap along boong-boong
rhythmed piece with some of that
great ol piano and sax. Lyrically,
though, these two also have that
small failing - the words don't
stand up to the music.
"Love" is full of cliches: "you
got a mean streak/like an alley cat"
and "you sucked love from me like a
vampire bat." "Shelter" tries a bit of
social commentary but instead
becomes obscure; it goes from
"Everybody needs a little place they
can hide .../ For me it's rock and
roll" to "check our Mr. Politician
his shirt and tie/but when the doors
are closed/ there ain't nothin' he
won't try.../ we all need a little
shelter." Huh? It's been said before
and said much better.
-Annette Petruso
Mike McGear
McGear
Ryko
Paul McCartney
Tripping the Live Fantastic!
Capitol
What is the best Paul McCart-
ney? No, this is not a trick question.
Even the pickiest music fans cannot
deny the merits of McCartney, Band
on the Run and Tug of War, al-
though much of his post-Beatle mu-
sic has been crap. Could his finest
0
Bela Lugosi was buried in his Dracula cape when he died. Obscure goth-band Tones on Tail are also deceased,
but they have a greatest hits album anyway. Can a deluxe ten-CD boxed set be far away?
As with the sleevethe title track and name of the album, Cinderella's
press photos accompanying Heartbreak Station were taken in a
railroad-related caboose.
work, however, be this obscure 1974
release? Alright, maybe it is a trick
question. McGear is not exactly a
McCartney album, but rather one he
worked on with his brother Mike;
McGear (n6 McCartney). Serving as
producer and co-writer, the Paul pre-
sent on this record is not the one
who enjoys being pop music's
biggest star (I'll get to that later),
but rather the one who enjoys writ-
ing music.
There are two conditions under
which he writes his best stuff. One
is when his music does not say "I
wrote 'Yesterday,' I can do what I
want!" The other is when he has a
partner. Mike proves to be more
than just a capable collaborator. Be-
fore this project, he had gained some
British popularity with his band
Scaffold, whose songs are reminis-
cent of Monty Python sketches. Add
his satirical edge towards lyric writ-
ing to Paul's own lyrical craftiness
and melodic genius, and you get
quite an interesting product. This is
most evident in the song "Norton,"
which is a rocker about an effemi-
nate man in the army. Other high-
lights include Paul's own "Leave It,"
which displays his comical use of
pompous language, as with
"Maxwell's Silver Hammer," and.
"The Man who found G-d on the
Moon," which has that "Jet"-like
"what?!" appeal.
Mike's voice is not a Julian-es-
que mimicry of a more talented Bea-
tle relative, but rather something in
between Gerry Rafferty and Lol
Creme (10 cc). Fortunately, his
singing is compatible with the har-
monies of Denny Laine and Mrs.
Paul, which are the high points of
even the worst Wings material. Even
filler such as "Simply Love You,"
this record's version of "I Am Your
Singer," is digestible due to the
background singing.
McGear is for those who appre-
ciate Paul McCartney the recording
artist. If you would rather hear him
playing the part of an enormous pop
star, then I suggest you pick up
Tripping the Live Fantastic!, his lat-
est live-double CD collection. Upon
completion of his last release, Flow-
ers in the Dirt, and his subsequent
decision to tour in support of it, the
song selection of his shows make it
quite obvious that he finally realized
that he had been coasting for the last
twenty years.
In fact he only plays six songs
originally released in between 1970
and 1982. Instead, he spotlights his
favorite Beatle compositions. Some
critics might not be favor of Paul's
reveling in his nostalgia trip, but
they forget one thing; he only does
it because he can. While some of the
versions are note for note
reproductions, tunes such as "Things
We Said Today" and "Sgt. Pepper"
show that he had chosen a band who
can tastefully update a classic.
A friend of mine once said to me,
"I think Chapman should have shot
Paul instead of John." That made me
think of what life would be with
John alive and Paul dead, and my
conclusion is that such a scenario is
no better. John's death allowed his
solo recordings to finally get the
recognition they deserved. Since
McCartney became a huge star fol-
lowing the break-up, it would not
have been fair to his career to end it
without an extravagant farewell tour.
Although he plans to continue
recording a touring with his new
band, if any thing drastic should
happen to him in the near future,
Tripping the Live Fantastic! pro-
vides his fans with a fine souvenir of
his successful career.
-Andrew J. Cahn
Tones on Tail
Tones on Tail
Beggars Banquet
It's strange to see a greatest hits
record from a band as obscure and
short-lived (two and a half years) as
Tones on Tail. But with the recent
successof Love and Rockets, not to
mention Peter Murphy, why not? It
all began with the "legendary" (ant
highly overrated) band Bauhaus,
which included Peter Murphy and the
three guys we now know as Love
and Rockets. Somewhere around
1982 things began to go wrong with,
the band, and before one could say
"gothic," or even "goth," guitarist
Daniel Ash and drummer Kevin
Haskins were out on their own with
Tones on Tail. This new band lasted
until 1985, when Bauhaus bassist
David J came back into the fold and
the group was "reunited" as the
famed Love and Rockets.
In their brief lifespan, Tones on
Tail created some good goth-pop (as
opposed to goth-rock) tunes, and as
it would appear from this compila-
tion, many boring ones. The music
is very similar to Bauhaus: create a
mildly interesting riff and then beat
it into the ground (e.g., "Bela Lu-
gosi's Dead" and "Double Dare").
The band overcomes this legacy on
some of the songs, such as the ex-
cellent but minor U.S. dance hit
"Go!" which is appropriately in
cluded here in its "club mix" form,
and the melancholy "Performance."
Other notable songs include
"Happiness" and "Christian Says."
The band gets bogged down with
the one-riff strategy often, however,
creating more than a couple of
monotonous songs, such as the trite
"Movement of Fear." But on a 17-
song record, even if it is a "greatest
hits" compilation, one can hardl
expect to avoid some bad songsr
Considering that most of Tones on
Tail's material is only available ir
the U.S. as over-priced imports, the
inclusion of "Go!" would almost
alone justify the purchase of this
record. The other good songs on the
album make it worthwhile.
-Mike Molitor
0#
WANTED
USHERS
For Major Events Concerts
MASS MEETING
Thursday, January 17 8:00pm
Anderson Room, Michigan Union
VETERAN USHERS- Those who have ushered
Major Events concerts in the past.
NEW USHERS- Those who would like to usher
Major Events concerts.
DAILY
CLASSIFIEDS
HE DOESN'T WRITE FOR
ARTS.
You can. Call 763-0379.
;;
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TEUROPE
SUMMER PROGRAM 1991
Intersession: May 27 - June 14
Summer Session: June 17 - July 26
11
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A Seminar tours on France
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