VOLUNTEERS — THE JEFFERSON AIRPLANE; RCA LSP — 4238

The Jefferson Airplane tend to culminate trends. Just as Takes Off took folk-rock to its outer limit, just as Bathing at Baxter’s summed up 1967 intellectual pretension (e.g. Magical Mystery Tour, Their Satanic Majesties Request, Winds of Change) their new record Volunteers is a culmination. Of what I’m not. sure, 1 only know that it feels like the end of something, perhaps a summation of 1960’s rock. It also keys in with the feeling of foreboding I’ve had that a new group js about to make its appearance and blow1 us all back the way the Beatles of Cream did it,„ in their, respective eras.

The thing is, I really looked forward to reviewing this record, and then when I finally got it, put off writing about it until the last minute. See, I wanted to write a retrospective review of the Jefferson Airplane, a survey type' thing which would explore each of their albums; p

Then Grace Slick told me, “Well, ever since Surrealistic Pillow wc seem to be doing more of what we like and less of what the public .-likes.” Which involved me with wondering about other .things. That feeling I spoke of is all I can point to but maybe, just .maybe, the people who buy music are ready to buy the Airplane.

It is, if you like the Jefferson Airplane, their finest effort yet. (Excepting Takes Off, which is so far superior to any other American record cut in 1966 it’s rediculous.) The pretensions and wordiness are givens with them anyway.

First, the surprises. There are only two of three. That Meadowlands should pop up is amazing; the Airplane’s politics Were never quite so blatant as on this record. You knew that their music was tinged with revolution, but the political San Francisco band (there is a San Francisco group to fit all categories) 'was Country Joe and the Fish. The Airplane stuck to music, with their occasional controversy thrown in as dessert. Their move to occasional pure controversy is really a reflection of now more than it is anything new. That is, if you have a feud with your record company (or anyone else) the rock press Is much more likely! to pick up on it, Anyway, if there is a theme to this album it is forms of revolution. Thewhole album, aside from A Song For All Season^, is a commentary on. those forms. Meadowlands is about’ the.^revolution in. .its classicly • misunderstood fashion; , i.e., '-.patriotic;*, nationalistic;

A song for All Seasons .

A Song For All Seasons is. commentary by a fairly stable; rock ciew on the break-up, get-back-tbgetherness of their' comrades. Why it’s a country based song is beyond me. It’s only logical,, however, that the prototypical San Franciscan band would engage in the latest West Coast fad. The humor doesn’t obscure the basic point; “Well' that’s really a doggone _ shame/But who’s there left to lame?/And all you ever wanted was just to play.”

The main thrust of the whole thing, though, is an exploration of the forms of revolution in Amerika, 1969. We Can Be Together is the logical conclusion to Let’s Get Together, three years later. Grace Slick’s “Up. against the wall motherfucker” is far more sonorous than the MC5 or David Peet. Which stands for something, if only that the Airplane is far more lyrical, in all senses of the word than either of those groups. It still doesn’t have quite the potency of Country Joe’s Fuck Cheer, however. ’

Together is about the, let’s get it . together, allot' us, and “Tear down the walls/Won’t you try;” Which is an excellent way to lead into the album. After all, most of the forms of revolution depend on that (the ones which don’t will come along shortly,) very act of getting together. They justify it (“in order K\ survive we steal cheat lie forge fuck hide and deal”) but don’t question it. And, if you’re going to discuss revolution togetherness had better be a given; otherwise it* ain’t to likely to happen. It is logically impossible to destroy a monolithic structure piecemeal. Unfortunately, like most revolutionaries,1 the Airplane 'occasionally falls into slogan-chanting nothingness “we should be together/... we can be tpgether/we will be”. This, as we shall - see, is completely reflective of Paul Ranter’s version of Revolution in the good ol? USA, far more violent than any other single member of the band.

GoodShepherd is - ah oft used tune in radical poesy. It’s a semi-psalm, gospel-flavored;, the inclination here is to save; one’s: self, probably through mysticism. Acid lingers long in the Airplane’s music; this isJorma’s ’vision: The violent revolutionists come in for gentle-; n a m e - c al 1 i n g-’(“ b 1 o o d: s t a i n e d bandits’’, “long-tongue liar”, “gun-shot devil”),’ This Srong is going-16 please virtually no one on the Left, especially people like Weathermen-land PL On the other hand, the mystics among us should be able to dig the message.

Paul’s choice, the stock : hippie-runaway, is The Farm. | Every long-haired city-hung person I know has that fantasy of “Yes, that it’s good livin’ On the farm/Ah.sp good, livin’ on the farm.” For better or worse, the alternative life style seems to dream of the country while remaining in the city. The only people to whom the country-myth is really valid are those who 1 are consciously leaving the city for the backwoods. For the rest, it’s their ruse to justify and rationalize their mediocre, do-nothing existences. If that’s too harsh, let’s put it this way; the country idea is great as. fantasy, even greater as reality. But that reality includes getting “back to work now and clear away some logs.”

We’ve seen Grace Slick’s ideas about where the whole thing is moving in The House at Pooneil Corners on Crown of Creation. Her vision is one of foreshadowing a certain doom, an unending pessimism and a very hard line. “Either go away or go all the way in” is c e.r t a i n I y true. The demarcation is becoming more and more strictly drawn and, as we approach some sort of milleniurh, becomes more and more unnecessary. 1 don’t think Grace had the song in mind, but Hey Frederick reminds one, lyrically, of the Stones’ Sitting on a Fence. “All my friends grew up and settled down/And they mortgaged off their lives/One thing ain’t said.too much/But I think it’s true/They just get marriedcause ! there’s nothin’ else to do” has always seemed to me to be the Stones’ most perceptive lyric, politically. Not to mention sociologically. Grace states the same idea more obliquely with “How old will you have to' be before you/Stop believing/That those eyes will Took down on you/That way forever?”.

Even though she doesn’t look it, the only chick I can think of who’s more hard and cynical then Grace is Nico. There are lines in this song (“Animals' nipping at your sides”, “come back down on. a spear of silence”) that are inately the product of someone so' used to.confronting evil that they accept it as commonplace. The Jefferson1 Airplane is indeed an American band.

That’s the first side; you may have noticed that I have somehow managed to avoid discussing music. The tunes fit the words but as always with the Airplane the emphasis is lyrical. It probably is involved with their folk-rock days but it is true that they are far more concerned with words thatn any other post-Gef Back. It’s not really so bad though. The music stands on its own most of the time and the music to Hey Frederick is as deadly as the lyrics. The Farm expresses the proper naivete and Good Shepherd is merely modernized' gospel anyway. You can’t really fuck up good hymnOdy too much.

On Turn My Life Down

On to the second side. Jorma’s plan remains fixed; the only way is to work out your karma. Apparently if not in this life then in some other. “When I see you next time round in sorrow/Will you know what I been going through/My yesterdays have melted with my tomorrows/ And the present leaves me with no point of view.” The instrumentation, as with the idea, is Jefferson Airplane simplest. Which isn’t too basic, merely less busy than the rest. The Ace of Cups’ backing vocals, throughout the album (they also' appear on The Farm) are in good taste. Which is to say, they stay in the back. It’s basically a happy zensong. ‘^Nothin’ to say.” Right on.

The third surprise comes next. I never really figured the Airplane would do anything that Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young did. Of course they have had some associations with David Crosby (Triad was the masterwork of Crown of Creation) and Steve Stills appears on this record (Hammond organ) on Turn My Life Down. This song, like We Can Be Together, is gentlest. The problem with CSN7Y’s version was lackluster energy level. Like everything they do, Crosby Stills etc. got a little too perfect with this song. Injecting some life into it, the Airplanne makes it the gem of the album;

The opening of the song, with additional lyrics by Kantner, are preceded (on the sheet that comes with the album) by the dateline “UPS Earth July 197^” and they read like a poetic news story. “Black sails knifing through the pitchblende night/Away from the radioactive landmass fnadness/From the silver-suited pwople searching out/Uncontaminated food and shelter on the shores/No glowing metal on our ship of wood only/Free happy crazy people in the universe”. But then, reminiscent of something John ..'Sinclair might haw written; “WE SPEAK EARTH TALK/GO RIDE THE MUSIC”. Somebody’s been reading a lot of science fiction (or William Burroughs. Perhaps the Nova heat is upon us after all.) '

The whole thing leads into a gentle wah-wahed “if you smile you know I will understand/Cause that is something everybody does in the same language”. And all hope isn’t lost yet; we can still eat “some of my purple berries/I been eating them for six or seven weeks now/Probably keep us both alive.” This might be the after-the-holocaust song we’re all afraid of.

Yet in its own way, Kantner’s version is every bit as depressing as Grace’s. ‘/Horror grips us as we watch you die/All we can do is echo your anguished cry ...”. Which, if you’re in that position is all you can do. Point is you’d better not wait til then. Nor had you best be fucking with us — “Silver people, oh the shoreline leave us be7Very free/and gone.” The only answer is “NO C’MON/GO RIDE THE MUSIC/C’MON AND RIDE IT CHILD”.

Eskimo Blue Day is hymn to the ecostructure. Paul is horrified and Grace is pissed. “Energy dies without body warm” he writes. “Redwoods talk to me” and she retorts “Say it plainly/The human name/doesn’t mean shit to a tree,” Trouble is, there are too many humans to whom the tree doesn’t mean shit. We’re all in trouble, brothers. While I don’t know what effect this, song will have, I do know what effect it should have. That’s to get us all off our asses. Cause on at least one level Paul is right; either start getting it together with ol’ mother nature, people, or forget it. Cause if you ain’t got no food chain you ain’t got no livin’ left to do Jack. It’s true. You might also “consider how small you are/Compared to your scream”.

The album ends with Marty’s idea, coupled with Grace’s. It’s probably what we’re faced with — a hell of a fight. “One generation got old/One generation got sould/This generation got no destination to hold/Pick up the cry.” The flak is flying and they’re just trying to hip you to it.

The only thing is I hope the last verse is irony or else not directed to the listener but to a third party. “Who will take it from you/We will and who are we?/we are volunteers/volunteers, volunteers, volunteers.” Which takes us back to the beginning and the catalog of what we do. “Steal cheat lie forge fuck hide and deal.” And if you ain’t doing one of them you’re probably on the wrong side.

That’s what the album’s about. Anyone interested in what’s happening in this country might do well to listen. As far as music, if you liked Crown of Creation you’ll like this. But the main point is still true, no matter what the means. “Got to revolution/Got to revolution”.

Dave Marsh

ROCK AND ROLL MUSIC -THE FROST; VANGUARD VSD 6541

I sit around and think about stuff a lot and we all know what a bad thing that is don’t we kids? So when 1 listened to the new Frost album and right away thought it was a fine record I thought “what a wonderful record because 1 don’t even have to think about why 1 like it because it says right at the beginning that it’s rock and roll music and that’s why 1 like it.” And you know it’s true kids.

It’s the Michigan Beatles doing what they do and if you like prototypical’ American Rock and Roll you’re gonna love this album. Why, it’s got a drum solo and a ballad and blues and, a rock and roll hit tune and the title song, if you’ve ever seen them open a set with it and especially if you’re rushing on something by God that’s right it is that’s exactly what it is it’s ROCK AND ROLL MUSIC it ’s the embodiment of same and may be the best rock and roll song even better than Tonight by the good old MC5 because it’s so nice and universal. And rock and roll is a hell of a thing to be these days.

And I think they’re pretty good at it even if I don’t think I’m going to listen to this record that much. In fact 1 think 1 like the first album better even with the horrible engineering because 1 really liked the tunes better. But anyway to get back to 'the Theme this is a record of American mainstream rock and roll music and 1 think it’s that very essentiality which makes me think 1 won’t listen to it that often. Which is in no way to be taken negatively because there are going to be a lot of times when I’ll put it on. But 1 won’t go through that two weeks of constant listening that I did with the first two Traffic albums or the Beatles’ two record set or Beggars Banquet or the second side of^ the first Steve Miller Band. This album is right out in front.

This one gets an 83 for being a good thing. I hope you won’t be offended by only getting an 83 Dick because that’s what I plan to give everything. After all, who am 1 to say?

Deday LaRene

SHA-NA-NA ROCK ROLL IS HERE TO STA Y (KAMA SUTRA KSBS2019); AND GENE VINCENT’S GREATEST (CAPITOL DKA038Q)

Hard upon the heels of the not very lamented revival (for the severaleth time) of blues comes the rock and roll revival. A revival, not of rock and roll as it is played and loved in the nearly-1970’s but of rock and roll as played and loved by the greasers of the 1950’s.

What John Mayall is to the true blues freak, ShaNa-Na must be The to the fifties-nostalgia buffs. I’ve a feeling that both varieties of revivalist may be the same type of person, moving from fad to fad like flies on dayold dishes. Just as the blues freshes were prey to Mayall’s panderings of purity so are the rock faddists leaping upon the Sha-Na-Na craze. And for the same campy, innane and more than slightly ridiculous reason.

Frankly, it’s simply impossible to take Sha-NaNa on records seriously. They’ve taken the most maudlin of pop tunes from the fifties and emasculated them to a point where the castrated renditions we are presented with here lead one to the obvious conclusion that Sha-Na-Na not only firmly believes that rock and roll is here, to stay, it deeply resents it. There are, however, some lessons to be learned.

The few attempts to present up-beat material (and that was what it was all about, 1 understand) only serve to reveal the pedantic slaverings

of a crew of musical cowards. It was more than gold lame that made these songs important and vital but Sha-Na-Na can’t get past the surface. Imagine dwelling on such bits of trivia as a song being “a whole half-note off. Bach would have thrown up.” (Any respectable fifties greaser would’ve said threw up, by the way.) ShaNa—Na seems to have missed a few oldies at any rate. There s,was a song about that; it was called Roll Over, Beethoven.

Half of the people^who did the songs on this album in their original versions are probably dead. The rest, for the most part, have resumed a stolid, middle-class way Qf life. (I’m thinking of Elvis Presley ;In the Ghetto, though a good song, was only a liberalism. And Clean Up Your Own Backyard fits him much more closely, though I kinda like that too.)

There is a way to present old tunes in a context that doesn’t make them seem incongrous pr mawkish. It is possible to take the energy of a Chuck Berry or Little Richard tune (as Mitch Ryder, the MC5 and the Who have been able to do) and transmit it directly into the unzipped listener of today: another difficulty with Sha-Na-Na. To quote the MC5, “It’s just a healthy outlet for your teenage lust.” Witness the inept rendering of Richard’s Long Tall Sally. Richard wasn’t about (and, if you’ve seen him recently isn’t about) music so much as he is about sex. Quite simply, ShaNa-Na hasn’t either the balls or, apparently, the inclination, to present the song without dwelling on its most intellectual aspect; the music, the harmony.

To present the music of the 1950’s in this manner is degrading both to those who made the music great and those who lived it. And, quite simply, Sha-Na-Na did not live it. Their oldest members are twenty-one and that makes them about eleven whep the fifties came to an end. And that music wasn’t directly to pre-pubescent types, not in 1959.

This is not to imply that Sha-Na-Na’s members were not aware of rock and roll’s influence or even that they don’t remember the song. It’s just that (and the record bears me out, as they say) they missed the Zeitgeist, the ethos, the milieu that the songs and their listeners participated' in. Sha-Na-Na spent its adolesence under John Kennedy and Lyndon Johnson; as bad as they might have been, neither could quite capture the grayness of Eisenhower. (Despite the fact the Nixon is striving to see that the 70s revive' that gem.) These songs were perfect in arrangement for the fifties. Hell, the whole decade was a half-note off. i„

By now we’re two or three notes (a whole octave, perhaps) off. And our music needs to reflect that. The new Jefferson Airplane and MC5 albums exhibit the precepts that our pew rock is based upon. Certainly, a look at our roots can do no harm (e.g., the Five’s Back In the USA \ or Tutti Frutti). But the fifties, like the material Sha-Na-Na has chosen, were for the most part overarranged; spontaniety was what they lacked, both songs and times. And the way to react to that is not to retrench but to move forward, to become even more spontaneous.

Most everyone 1 know thought that Get A Job went “sha-da-da” not “sha-na-na”. So it did. Rock is not meant to be toyed with by semanticists or college professors. Iggy Stooge is fond of remarking “You’ve got to be a child” to really dig it.

Whether or not Iggy’s remarks are chronologically correct, they certainly have psychological validity. Rock and roll isn’t about youth, really, so much as it is about change and - spontaniety. Reminiscing is not rock.

Sha-Na-Na, unfortunately, chose all the wrong songs to listen to. With the exceptions of Long Tall Sally and Chantilly Lace, the majority of the tunes on Rock and Roll Is Here to Stay, however obscure their influence, lead to that Other great branch of rock and roll, bubblegum. (Despite and, in fact, because of Tommy James lyrics) sexless and definitely energyless music. Half-hearted hardons are no erections at all.

Gene Vincent’s Greatest, on the other hand,, lead to post-Beatles hard rock both on the ballad (in the sense of something like Michelleor Julia) and dance (if people still danced they’d dance to Get Back or Don’t Let Me Dow/jjfronts. Vincent was everything that a chick’s, mother wouldn’t stand for. His hair was comparable to the Rolling Stones’; the up-turned collar was as defiant as a clenched fist. The clenched fist he possessed was much more likely to be holding a chain or tire iron than a leaflet, however; but the intent was the same. “Fuck all them old dudes”, as John Sinclair once said.

These songs have balls, Unlike Silhouettes (the archetype of Sha-Na-Na material) which is resolved in innocence, Vincent’s orgasmic pants on Woman Love are about screwing.

Actually Vincent fascinates as what Elvis might have been if he hadn’t done all those movies and spirituals. If, that is, Presley hadn’t gone in the army or had kept his virility and progressed after he got out.

Capitol is, I imagine, involved in the rock revival With Gene Vincent’s Greatest on the same mercenary level' that Sha-Na-Na might be. (I prefer to credit Sha-Na-Na with schoolboy pretentiousness rather than good old Amerikan capitalist greed.) And Vincent’s new album On Elektra was probably motivated by the same incentive. But as a testimonial to what the fifties were probably really like Vincent’s Greatest is on a level with Little Richard’s 17 Grooviest (Speciality) Chuck Berry’s Golden Decade (a Chess 2-record set) or (lie Coasters’ Greatest Hits on Atco. (If you ignore Over the Rainbow, that'is.)

Sha-Na-Na, and the other revivalists, might give a listen. But not to stay there; just to take a look and then move on to now. Cause that’s what rock is about. Now.

Dave Marsh

TYRANNOSAURUS REX-PROPHETS, SEERS & SAGES, THE ANGELS OF THE AGES; REGAL ZONOPHONE SLRZ 1005

Magic turning magic, grain in the waterhand cuffs some tin stones and out from the winter Auge, we are in as much luck to find the freebird sing calling itself a monster when it is really a faun. Production in white robes takes place last summer somewhere between the forest and the Big Misty Midnight. The | faeryfellers masterstroke comes between the ear and the anvil clasp of the tongueing Marc Bolan and The drumsteering hands of Steve Peregrine Took Both telling us that their monster is the music. Tyrannosaurus Rex, this being their second album proves two heads are better than sometime one. No real shades of The Incredible String Band or middle Donovan, no something far more into a further place, juicy wprdreadii'ig, their voices are their lead guitars and 1 do not fail to see why they are archtypal to the times, tawny times; when these new tales occur - Side one, — friendly seven songs seven times you can get inside the music that gets outside the halfbeast-y mind. Some nice changes, percussion consists of bongoes, African talking drums, kazoo, pixiephone, Chinese gong and there is bound to be something else. all These 'sound's; committed by Steve T(ook. Bolan does, himself on guitar and, lead^upervoeal.s. Side two r same placement,, strange lyrics,' joyCethomasbeckett type 1 sound the soundsensations you must hear, you must experience-once upon a' time. I have not illustrated record-for-recOrd to. set you on one side or the other, but what I can really muster in facts and figures is that if you dig elves if you can see the little people and search for designs in the palm of a leaf, then you need this music forever And for your children. In short, it is something that is hard to describe yet know-listen to earth; listen to these tinkers of words & music, they are goodhard dope.

James Atkinson

STAND UP - JETHRO TULL; REPRISE 6360.

That Jethro Tull has never really become one of the sUper-big bands is baffling in one sense and quite understandable in another. Baffling because Jethro Tull is a damn fine band whose second album shows marked improvement over their first

(baffling , too because Jethro Tull is a British band, and what British band doesn’t attain superstar status these days?). Understandable because they combine jazz and rock in a unique and subtle way which I’m afraid loses a large part of the rock audience (i.e., the people who buy all those records). A shame. .

Few rock bands can drive a ’song with the integrity and guts that is displayed here. But the energy is conveyed through a different medium than that of the MC5 or Led Zeppelin. The medium is jazz as on For A Thousand Mothers. This cut opens with a quick drum riff by Clive Bunker that is clean and tasteful. Listen carefully because it’s; shorf and you might miss it. From there the song builds, builds, and then builds some more. The cut includes a fine rock and roll lead by guitarist Martin Lancelot Barre, but the rhythm is played in the jazzlike 4/4 time signature.

Fort A Thousand Mothers exemplifies the sound that Jethro Tull exhibited on the first album, as does Nothing Is Easy. Change from the rock ,soundi to the jazz sound flows back and forth so easily that you almost don’t notice the changes. Drummer Bunker plays an important part in these progressions by providing some of the neatest little fills since Mitch Mitchell. Along with bassist (Glen Cornick,. Bunker provides a solid bottom for the band.

The group plays a variety of instruments with immense skill and the overall effect is a pleasant addition to the sounds of the first album. They --will bore hard core rock freaks with some of the cuis, but one, Reasons For Waiting, has a nice arrangement with strings and acoustic guitar that is pleasing to this ear anyway. , The melody is also acoustic in We Used To Know. To this folk sort of rhythm lan. Anderson brings a blues feeling _ito his voice and flute. The song changes as the beat continues to build gradually to a peak of impressive intensity. But it never loses the folk flavor because no drums are used.

Back to the hard core rock freaks. Do not despair, for Jethro has included some cuts for you.-Side One opens with a heavy, Cream-style rock tune complete with a Spoonful ending. If anyone has any doubts as to whether or not Jethro Tull can play heavy, pounding rock that really pulsates, this track will dispel them. Another fine rock cut is Back To The Family. Ian Anderson’s singing here is about the best vocal work on a rather instrumentally oriented album/ Anderson is, not a bad singer, but his voice often seems relegated to thefbackground simply by the force of the instrumental attack.

The thing that really impresses throughout Stand Up is the good taste of the

enterprise. All of the members of the band are good musicians, yet there is a lack of the pomposity and vanity displayed by so many (less proficiant) rock musicians. This is especially evident on an instrumental track entitled i Bouree. All the members take’ leads except Bunker, but there are no long drawn out (boring) solos. There is just enough technical proficiency and style: to each solo to make you realize that these guys know what they’re doing. Bouree is my favorite cut, possibly because of Anderson’s excellent flute work. Bassist Cornick also deserves mention for his work here, His break is stylish, well constructed and very melodic. What more can you ask for?

All in all Stand Up is a good album despite a couple of weak cuts, e.g., Look Into The Sun and a cover which is obnoxious in the tradition of Cream and Wheels Of Fire.

Leslie Schwartz

AS SAFE AS YESTERDAY IS - HUMBLE PIE; IMMEDIATE IMOCS101.

After a while, a good new record becomes a treat. If the morning’s mail doesn’t bring another tasteless creamrock lp the afternoon’s is sure to make you regret Sgt. Pepper’s introduction of ! multi-instrument minLsymphonies into the mainstream (or mainline) of pop. But occasionallyyou get one that neither blatantly offends not bores you but which is, pure and simple, a rock and roll record. Then it’s fun to listen again.

Humble Pie’s new album is one of those1 records .that you play over and over the first week or so you have it. There aren’t many in that category.

Besides that, on a personal level, the Pie is Steve Marriott’s new band.. The same Steve Marriott of whom I have such pleasant memories from Small

Everyone has his favorite underexposed British band. It amounts to a fetish with record reviewers. Paul Williams had the Kinks, several people at one time on another have had the Who (pre-Tommy); on the domestic level we all love the Youngbloods but you didn’t buy. their records for two years.

The Small Faces sure felt good. Itchycoo Park and Lazy Sunday were only the two most potent examples. TinSoldier exuded fantasy fun and the whole second side of Ogden | Nut Gone Flake, with its wondrous round cover, and Happiness Stan’s excursion i^to the jelly of mindgoo and Over the mountains and all is trie best example of that kind OT rock album ever. The fantasies and dreams they presented were always real on amuch more personal level than, say, Tommy. They were more on the scale of “1 saw the photograph,” images forming a montage of. such force that it could force you right out of the squalor of being around in the gray USA and let you see' the happiness. Happiness Stan should only be . played when you’re down or when you want to hear good music. And for once and for all, it was excellent music, just choice rock and roll and a hell of a lot of fun. Which we needed, and need more of.

Cont. Next Page

Then, as your favorite obscure British band tends to do, they broke up. But Marriott came up with this and' ’ the other Faces are supposedly regrouping with Ron Wood and Rod Steward, late of Jeff Beck, so all isn’t lost yet.

As a matter of fact, now that we’re faced with the new Steve Marriott album (and this is as much Steve’s group as the Zeppelin for example, is Paige’s) it looks like we might have doubled our pleasure.

It was Steve, his high piercing Winwoodish vocals, his songwriting with Ronnie Lane, his piano thunder and brash guitar playing, that guided the Faces and it is Steve Marriott who pushes and shapes Humble Pie. Even with such excellent, personnel, Peter Frampton, 19, ex-Herd future superstar guitarist and Greg Ridley the ex-Spooky Tooth bassist along with a 17 year old drummer who’s as impressive at that age as Terry Reid, Humble Pie’s basic thrust is Marriott’s.

They’re diverse enough to get away with things one wouldn’t expect. I’ll Go Alone features a sitar, acoustic guitar and a " suspiciously Chris Woodish flute part. (Unfortunately, no credits are given to the musicians: Thus, you’re sort of guessing who plays what parts. The organ is Frampton’s and the piano Marriott’s,based on their live performances.)

Frampton’s guitar playing, rather reminiscent of Dave Mason’s in some odd way, is Shown at its best on the second side, especially on Bang!. The solo on that cut is the epitome of the Pie; it’s more remarkable for the excesses it lacks than for the flash it displays.

Amazingly enough, Desperation (an old Steppenwolf number) shows off the group’s, power better than any other single song. Like most of the numbers on the album, (Stick Shift, Buttermilk Boy, A Nifty Little Number Like You, What You Will) Desperation is just good old 1969 rock. Excellently done and exciting on a level few American groups can master. It seems all the super-groups come from Britain. This may be another.

Alabama Song ’69 is the British equivalent of country. With the exception of Country Honk by the’ Stones I can’t imagine a British group capturing the country ethos or even coming any closer than this. Sort of the white ' equivalent of a field holler.

The single of sthe album, Natural Bom Woman, is the Pie at its most eclectic. Frampton’s guitar Crescendo builds to a not overdone apex, Marriott’s piano fills in perfectly behind, then Peter pulls off some rollingstones riffs that are more thatn just Keith Richard rip-offs.

The whole idea is that his album is fun, good fun and if not super-clean, well it’s straight to the point. No fussing about,' no tuning session abortions, just get out there and play. Which seems to be what it’s all about.

For Marriott, it’s no real step forward. It’s got the feel of the best of the Small Faces, which isn’t bad at all, and it has it consistently, which is very good indeed. But in another sense it’s a definite progression. The other members of the group, Peter Framption and the young drummer especially, seem able to keep up with him. And A Nifty Little Number Like You is easily as good a trine as Cry in ’ To Be Hard.

But, most of all It’s a fun album, a joy to listen to and a damn fine group. They’re excellent live, commercially viable and, provided they stick together, should provide us with a few more treats like this. Besides that, it sure is nice to hear Steve Marriott again.

Dave Marsh

LED ZEPPELIN II - LED ZEPPELIN; ATLANTIC SD 8236.

Led Zeppelin .is j the best living English superfunk band.

Cream is dead and Traffic’s gone left them here to sing that song. Champions by default. Yes and whatever happened to Jeff Beck anyway who I guess they started out to be and turned out better than. It-isn’t apparent at the first few listenings but yes they’re taking all those predictabilities and often cliches to new levels. 1 do believe that Stones, Beatles aside they’re the best rock and roll band in the world.

After all rock and roll is meant to be drama and fire so why should Plant’s histrionics and Page’s pyrotechnics be considered excesses? Whole Lotto Love is rock and roll of the 70’s. No question about it. Taking it that far isn’t self-parody but logical progression. Instead of looking about for new forms they just take existing forms and. carry them to their logical conclusion. And when they move on to the next generation of material 1 wonder what’ll come out. Because what they’re working with now are forms of the 50’s. That’s what I mean about this being Rock and Roll. Which Moody Blues/King Crimson post-rOck isn’t. Within this particular system anyway.

They’re really good, too. Jimmy Page understands the nature of his instrument. He’s deep into his guitar as a guitar and the quality of the sounds it makes. And inventive. Although sometimes confusing. Bonham knows where all those beats are that you’d hit if you could and John Paul Jones is ’one ■ of the great solid hesitation just the right bit behind bass players of the day. The thing about Plant is that he sees his voice as an instrument and the vocals don’t just fill up the part between the solos. But this isn’t essentially vocal music like the Beaties’ and I’m notjust talking about his screams either.

The thing is they’re so good at extrapolating all those forms j that you don’t have to Compare them to anything to like them. For example The Lemon Song isn’t a stylized Killing Floor. It’s the lemon song. Which they recognize. And pull off (no pun). When all these white blues bands do Killing Floor I can’t help but feel they’ve cut the balls off Wolf's original but in this case: it’s got balls of its own and is So far from the original but on: a different plan altogether that none of these kind of comparisons spring to mind. Just doin their own thing kids.

I’ll give it an 83 because it makes you want to shake your ass. In superrockstar frenzy narcissistic glaze lust. You love it too kids admit it.

Deday LaRene

LED ZEPPELIN II - LED ZEPPELIN - ATLANTIC

Across the sky I saw them coming (again). Led Zeppelin in excess of overt hipness, hypeness, hollowness. Jimmy Page is the epitome of a lead guitarist, and in my book he’s one of the top 36 creative reverb getdown guitarists in excesstance. Shuck.

So Led Zeppelin H is supposed to be their new ‘together’ album that I read so much about in tidbit news a thousand times? OK some cold darn facts about this thing — the songs are only redone j o pi insliake heavybody1 drughendrix. The. cover is1 neato. Robert Plants (voice?) i$ exactly drippy halfsemeny se Ifdestructible. (More adjectives) his voice ^captures the nifty riffs like a prenatal raindance suction.

Plant is not Rod McKuen but could be. Production is sufficient not great but workswell because there is nothing else thatJ a guitar player can do except produce excessively an excess music -wait a minute - are we supposed to believe ‘killing floor.

The ‘Lemon Song’ is cool? That hurt my eyes when I saw the title.

What kind of wack is this? Who are these people anyway? John Bonham, John Paul Jones (fine musicians of their own right) and Robert Plant work for Page for a salary -. So Page gets the profits above any salary. Rich one. Big thing.

You’ve probably heard Zeppelins new album on the radio - it’s nothing to write or celebrate about - (which in my case you see how successfully I have avoided making a point). No profundity from their first confusion. But alas - this music means something to some of us somewhere —. And anyway Led Zeppelin is hopefully on our side -

The delicate balance can be strengthened by the secret ingredients of honesty, integrity and a little humility on the artists part -. Which is lacking in evidence of those things in this second burning. Ramble on.

James Atkinson

SECOND WINTER - JOHNNY WINTER; COLUMBIA KCS 9947.

It snowed last night and now it’s winter again. Taken back to its essentials the old planet is still really beautiful. All the places of green mystery •are transformed into glowing wonders open and bare. Winter is a perfect time to explore the simpler structures before the welter of growth takes over again to dazzle you with complexity. .

Winter the musician is nothing like that except in that he’s white and he glows. His music is overlay and convolution and sweep and glide and a maze of tunnels. Electric in a way that winter the season isn’t. And always pushing. More like. fall. And I can't push this too far now can L

Anyway we now have Second Winter which is like and unlike the first Columbia album. The same ferocious many fingered attack and raw power and where it breaks down it’s because it’s just overwhelming and you just can’t absorb all that information. It gets too busy and he can sustain it a lot longer than you can. A simple matter of not being able to keeep up with him.

But the failures are minimal. And what you have here is Winter in even greater more self assured control. Emerging with a greater sense of personal and musical irony that’s directly relatable tothe phenomenon of Johnny Winter the syperfreak superstar superguitarperson superhype who’s completely real. “I don’t wanna wreck nobody’s soul/l just wanna rock and roll.” Winter didn’t write' that or Johnny B. Goode or Highway 61 Revisited either but he sings them with a consciousness of their sense that is unmistakably full.

He did write I Hate Everybody. “People may laugh but that don’t bother me/I’m makin’ lots of money baby, happy as I can be.” And Hustled Down in Texas. “Hustled Down in Texa-s/Been to Chicago too/There wouldn’t nobody let me/Do what I wanted to.” But of course,he’s doing it now. And gettin’ on fine. Steve Paul said that the first album was the stuff that Winter loved most and the second would be stuff that Winter thought the people would like best. All part of the plan y’understand and all stuff that he wants to do.

And you can’t press this lyrical stuff too far either Jtecause Winter is a whole thing who mostly makes music not poetry. (Never mind.)

Blues has ad [ays been thought of by the people closest to it as devil music. Music of Possession. Listen to Fast Life Rider. And see Lucifer himself appear before your very mind’s eye. Watch him move across the stage and you can tell where that energy comes from . Listen to Edggr (who’s a bitch). Believe it.

I’ll give it all an 83 for the hell of it. “Want to tell you people/Try to understand/You know you can’t tell good from evil/So just do the best you can.” Johnny Winter said that, I can dig it. I said that.

Deday LaRene

FAT MATTRESS - FAT MATTRESS; ATCO SD 33-309.

I tend to write these record reviews where 1 say well, yeah, this is probably a pretty bogue record, but you might like it, or else, oh, 1 don’t know, 1 guess this is a good record, but maybe not too good, you know. Anyway, lately I’ve had people tell me that that isn’t really too good a kind of thing to do. But I don’t know. Most of the time I’m afraid of conceptions because I’d like to like everything as hard as that may be and when I come down on something, with very rare exceptions I wonder if maybe I won’t hear it again and really understand (and therefore dig) it for the first time. And on the other hand, if I’m writing it all down for you I can’t help but

think that my liking something is no good unless you do.

So anyway ch in kch in kachin kchi nk here comes Fat Mattress and I guess I like it. No matter what anyone says ambivalence is the right attitude to have towards this kind of English ppst-raunch because that’s what this band is all about. Redding must be the most diffident guitar player in rock and roll. His role in this music is understated at times to the point of invisibility. And what you’re left with is essentially vocal music ■ that isn’t overwhelming vocally. Neil Lahdon isn’t at all bad as a singer, but he’s not too arresting. He sure doesn’t take command like Robert Plant or Rod Steward or any of those Lead Singers. Not that he doesn’t have a nice voice, y’understand. Or that there isn’t a nice ensemble feel to the music. It’s all based on that nice English Hesitation Tongue that the Small Faces used to do much more aggressively and 1 loved them for it. So this is a record you can put on not too loud and move to as you cut up vegetables for dinner. Which is something I like to do and like.

I get the feeling that after those years of aggression with Jim) Hendrix, beating people over the heads with his genitals night after night this is a logical step for Redding. This is the Fat Mattress to lay back with or on. Nice and soft and understated, and not too assertive. Where Hendrix strutted Redding strolls and if you can’t get all that excited about it there are certainly a lot of times when you can dig it.

It occurs to me that this isn’t very helpful for all you young consumers. So I’ll give it an 83 because it’s got a real good beat and you can probably dance to it if it’s raining outside and you’re not too tired. Is that any better? Or am I being too defensive? This is sure a hard job.

Deday LaRene

CHANGING HORSES - THE INCREDIBLE STRING BAND; ELEKTRA EKS 74057

I like the Incredible String Band because they understand everything and they’ve pushed it all just over the edge. That’s a pretty good reason, isn’t it? And I will now fail to explain.

Big Ted is about a pig which is a big plus right there because it’s really about a pig. What I like about a pig and what my relationship has been with pigs I’ve known. “He never cared to do the boogaloo dance/All he ever thought about was food and romance.” And it’s all about why 1 don’t eat meat which is a nice thing to have a song about. “The sows are all busy with their piglets fine/I’d put them in the forest now. if they were mine/Cause I know they like acorns/And I don’t like bacon.” What a song. Complete presence and understand what it’s like to live in a universe of many things and totally up front. Robin used to live on a pig farm.

Some of their songs are images taken form and so complete. White Bird “Who among you/Who has not laid his head beneath some holy awning/Would think that such a night of tortured travelling/Could bring such a glory morning.” And a journey from beauty to despair to beauty. And the white bird of the morning. That’s right kids it’s just like life and all the trips you take. They have it in them to be so clear that when they tie it up in what they do the purity of the end is overwhelming. Dead white bird. And sometimes spare like Norman McLaren oh acid. Through the baroque and the necessary complexities that everybody always leaves out and over the edge.

Karmic instruction. “Dust be diamonds/Water be wine/Happy happy happy all the time time time.” If you’re going to make it it’ll be because of your karma you know. You are what you dream you know. And a little bit of everything too you know.

They have almost completemastery over the form. The song doesn’t sing them, but sometimes they go too far and it all falls apart. Don’t bother them none. They just fill the void with verily veriles and go on to the next movement rolling like the tide falling here to rise somewhere else you know about but can’t get to right now. That’s Creation, a sea song poem the creation of the world By the female principle. Not effete, feminine. Sensuous. “Every ripple in her body is a wave in me.” Take it as far as you can.

And beautiful songs all about change. A worldly choir calling you to the mbrning “Sleepers awaken/The night has gone and taken/Your darkest fears/And left you here/And the sun it shines so clear/Awake for the world looks wonderful.”

You knew all this if you’ve heard them before. And a lot more. If you haven’t I can’t tell you about them. I won’t try to lay out why this album is aWedChanging Horses. It didn’t come to me right away and I can’t force explication any farther than I have. Like everything they’ve done,, this is an album of simple majesty and great grace. I’ll give it an 83 because that’s all I can do.

Deday LaRene