RECORDS

RECORDS

How do you respond?

Isn't that, after all, the question they are asking?

This is, to be sure, the Firesign's most explicit album? It�s not funny, as I was informed even before I�d heard it, it�s terrifying.

It is — to make a long story short — the future.

Someone suggested the other night that . one wouldn�t really understand the record fully unless he�d been to Disneyland. Tomorrowland, to be more exact. �You have chosen the path of Science.�

In a way, the Firesign Theatre has only reached fruitition within its last two albums. Waiting for the Electrician had its moments, but it was mostly a nifty new way of looking at synchronicity and the fullness of things; How Can You Be in Two Places at Once 'When You�re Not Anywhere At All) marked time. Two Places seems placid, barely chalenging in comparison to the threatening vision of the next, Don�t Crush That Dwarf (Hand Me The Pliers). Now this, which feels like what they had been trying to say all along. Maybe they were beating about the bush. Maybe the Firesign Theatre has been struggling all along to reach the point where they could afford to be this simple. Most frightening of all are the levels at which they apprehend our culture, our technology and ourselves.

(�Why does a Bozo cross the road?�

�I dunno.�

�To get to the other side. Why does a short hair cross the road?�

�I dunno.�

�Because someone told him to. Why does a long hair cross the road?�

�Because someone told him not to.�

�Oh, you knew that > one.�)

What�s even worse — and this is where they induce shivers in the spine, and the terror I spoke of earlier — is that it�s such an accurate portrayal. You can�t be two places at once, anymore than you can trust Dr. Memory. Flip-flop.

That�s one of the points anyway. This is the most direct and forceful statement that Bergman, Ossman, Proctor and Austin have laid on us, yet it�s still so multi-level it boggles the mind. None of us have the capacity to comprehend everything here in one or two or three sittings. That�s one of the reasons that the Firesign Theatre are the most successful verbal practitioners who ever laid word to wax.

You can�t explain it, you just have to experience it. This review should probably be either much more concrete or much more abstract but I�m left in the middle. Which is precisely where they found me, only the dire tenor of the situation is a whole lot clearer than it was before. That�s not to say that it didn�t look plenty bad before Bozoes, either.

You could chalk it up to fantasy, but you�d be making a mistake. This is Autonomous Technology speaking, and it doesn�t answer questions, except on its own terms. Our computer typesetting was once done with a direct link to the computer and we asked the computer dude what one would have to

do to unload the program from the computer - to disarm, de-program it. He just smiled. �Yes there is a way, but I can�t tell you what it is.� And he smiled.

I�m not. There is no question in my mind that the Firesign Theatre have a better idea than I do how urgent the situation is, how far the rot has progressed, to what degree their statements are not futuristic but right NOW. I can see it a little bit, even if I can�t make a record like this, and I�m - to be frank — scared. Not immobilized, because that�s the last thing that could happen. The very last thing. But plenty scared.

Pick this record up/somehow. There�s a lot to learn, and as they point out in one of their wittier epigrams, �You gotta start young if you�re gonna stick it out.�

But don�t kid yourself. Dr. Memory will be here next month to lay some information on us; he�s promised to review the record himself. Don�t forget: not only does the Firesign Theatre mean business, so does He. We all read Gypsy on His scanner and maybe the only hope we have left is the reminder that I took one look at this album and winced. Not only did the cover look exactly like Jesse Winchester sans beard, but the damn thing was produced by Jesse Davis, who is my vote for this year�s studio musician I can most do without, as well as the creator of one of the most expendable solo albums I�veever heard.

IF YOU PUSH SOMETHING HARD ENOUGH, IT FALLS.

Dave Marsh

2

STEPHEN STILLS ATLANTIC SD-7206 — Jonh Ingham, instructor —

1 . Multiple choice* Select one or more answers from the following.

X (Five points each)

i.This album.is (a) heavy

(b) far out

(c) killer

(d). right on

(e) psychedelic

ii.The music is (a) heavy

(b) pop

(c) middle of the road

(d) folk

(e) soul

iii.*�Nothing To Do But Today** is

(a) about Stephen�s misconceptions of himself as a musician

(b) about Stephen�s misconceptions of himself as a revolutionary

(c) the 1971 version of �For What It�s Worth**

iv,�Know You Got To Run** is

(a) about Stephen�s misconceptions of himself as a musician

(b) about Stephen�s misconceptions of himself as a revolutionary

(c) the 1971 version of �For What It�s Worth�*

v.��Relaxing Town*� is

(a) about Stephen�s misconceptions of himself as a musician

(b) about Stephen�s misconceptions of himself as a revolutionary

(c) the 1971 version of �For What It�s Worth**

vi.��Marianne*� sounds like

(a) Santana

(b) the Beach Boys

(c) the Hollies

(d) the Jackson Five

(e) the Byrds

2.Matching. Match the song in the left column to its subject in the right column. (Five points)

i. ��Fishes and Scorpions * * ii. *�Bluebird Revisited*� iii. �Word Game** iv. ��Ecology Song* v. ��Relaxing Town * *

a. David Crosby politics

b. ecology

c. the troubles of being a revolution-

* ary rock star

d. unrequited love

e. astrology

3. Judy Collins has soul

She is Stephen�s soul sister Ergo: Stephen has soul

Most southerners make soul music Stephen is a southerner Ergo: Stephen can make soul music

Judy Collins has soul Stephen can makesoul music Ergo: ��Bluebird Revisited** will be a

soul song (Judy Collins=Bluebird)*

Given the above, explain why �Bluebird Revisited** and the other pseudo-soul numbers don�t work, while ��Change Partners,** the other side of the Southern social structure, does. (Ten points)

* courtesy of A.J. Weberman

4.Essay. (Twenty points)

Explain the paradox of the line, ��The rich keep getting richer and the rest of us just keep getting older.**

5.Stephen, the troubled troubadour, has insinuated many worrisome questions in his songs. Ansx^er seven of the following (Five points each)

i.Who said, ��Life is too short?**

ii.Have I been gifted or robbed?

iii.How do turtles talk to one another? Iv. Where are the answers?

v. Are you afraid of the shakeun? vi. Given a voice can you make a choice?

(Is it black is it grey is it yellow?)*

vii.Do you remember how it used to be?

viii.Would you knock a man down if you

didn�t like the cut of his clothes?

ix.Do you remember his name?

x.Does everyone have their dark side?

xi.Can I do it all?

BONUS QUESTION: When is*this plethora of musicians making half-assed solo albums going to end? (25 points)

ROGER TILLISON'S ALBUM ATCO SD 33-355

Then, and don�t ask me why, I put it on: And am I glad I did.

Roger Tillison is a songwriter who grew up in Tulsa along with the rest, of the Tulsa Session Mafia, went to Hollywood to try to make it, and, if this album is any indication, is about to do just that. Listening to his songs you might expect a story of hardship, jail, and all the usual toils and tribulations, but you�d be mistaken. No doubt, it�s been a hard road for someone with Tillison�s talent, never being able to do what he�s wanted to do, and writing B-sides for Gary Lewis and the Playboys to earn bread, but at least he�s been working. No, I must admit there�s a lot about this album I just don�t understand.

One thing I do understand, though, is that it�s a fine, fine album. Tillison has that raw, earthy musicality that Leon Russel has to strain hard for, and it comes out so naturally that he�s a joy to listen to. His songwriting has the self-assured smoothness of a real pro, and he has learned how to make" his songs say what they have to say — no more, no less. He�s also had the good sense to include songs by other, better-known songwriters, including a Woody Guthrie song, �Old Cracked Looking Glass,� that I�ve never heard of before.

The back-up band does a fantastic job, too. Led by Davis, who hasn�t sounded so good since the early Taj Mahal records, they�re mostly studio musicians with whom Tillison has presumably worked in the past, but unlike most aggregations of this sort, it doesn�t sound like they thought it was just another gig. Special praise should go to Jesse Davis� banjo playing, which .just might convince people that it�s a rock and roll instrument after all.

Picking the best cuts on the album is next to impossible. �Loving You Is Sweeter Than Ever� could be a hit all over again, the way Tillison does it, �Old Cracked Looking Glass�

rocks out in a way that would ve made Woody grin, �Good Time Gal� sounds like something you might have heard in Dodge City 75 years ago, and �Get Up Jake� is an uncut Robbie Robertson gem. All of the songs sparkle with that �live-in-the-studio� feeling of spontaneity (I�m told that there is scarcely any overdubbing on the whole album), and it�s a chore not to get caught up in it. In fact, the only song on the whole thing I don�t much like is Dylan�s �Down In the Flood,� and I suspect that if I�d never heard Dylan�s superb version of it, I�d even like that one.

This album�s been brightening up my days since I first put it on the turntable, and it�ll probably do the same for you. It�s boisterous, rowdy, tough and touching, and not only that, it�s filled with the spirit we used to call rock and roll. What better recommendation could there be?

Ed Ward

MY GOAL'S BEYOND JOHN MCLAUGHLIN DOUGLAS 9

This record isn�t as good as John McLaughlin�s first record Devotion. It�s pretty damn depressing.

The first time I heard Devotion was at seven a.m. on headphones in the Vermont woods. The first time I heard this one was on an early Michigan morning, without headphones, again in the country. Almost equally idyllic settings; as a matter of fact, since I was HOME for the second one, I figured that My Goal�s Beyond would evaporate Devotion�s endurance record. (A long and lengthy one in my collection.) It didn�t happen.

Maybe it is my own fault but I seem to be spoiled for Miles Davis League jazz. Only three records in the genre have felt satisfying — Miles� own In A Silent Way and Jack Johnson and the first McLaughlin record. Chick Corea keeps pouring good stuff out, though, as does Joe Zawinul (although his solo album is tougher by far than the more chaotic Weather Report). Tony Williams records continue to disappoint me (although his band live has been about the finest live jazz band I�ve ever seen). Herbie Hancock has

problems makmg up his mind between doing Bill Cosby inspired pop (Which tends to reinforce the notion that �Watermelon Man� .was something other than a fluke) and the truly fine, meaty stuff of which he seems capable at other times.

McLaughlin here is a big let down though, and it�s not for lack of material. All of side two is in a low-keyed vein that reminds most of Bert Jansch and John Renbourn (who also once recorded Mingus� �Pork Pie Hat�).

But this record really fails on the first side, where McLaughlin�s powerful electric work is reduced to mere noodling. None of side one seems very purposeful and direct, whereas the first album�s music all seems to be aimed straight at the heart of musical technological maneuvering.

I still think John McLaughlin is as killer a guitarist as presently stalks the planet. But if his Goal is truly Beyond, he�d be truly wise to compare his last two records. That way we might all get somewhere.

Dave Marsh

MARKED FOR DEATH THE REVEREND JACK VAN IMPE

The music that will �crumble the morals of America�, warns the quivering voice of Dr. Jack Van Impe, is that (quick, cadence count) �rotten, filthy, dirty LEWD, LASCIVIOUS junk called ROGK AND ROLL!�

Van Impe�s initial release, a solo album called Marked for Death (subtitled: �Can America Survive?�) identifies youth culture music with its beat like �the fertility rites of the jungle� (enter drumming fingers on the table, the best since the memorable Nicky Khruschev early sixties UN move) as the cause of �400 illegitimaite babies in Detroit� and the major security threat to this country. Rock and Roll (�Not the waltz, not the polka,� Van Impe [whadda monicker!] laughs, �ROCK AND ROLL�.) will cause �open sex in the in the streets by 1974� and — on July 4, 1976, the Communist Party will raise the Red Flag over Independence Hall in Philadelphia.

The Royal Oak (far) Right Reverend�s high energy evangelism is similar in delivery but hardly in content to that of People�s Preacher Brother J.C. Crawford, the Rock of Zenta (Oracle Ramos), currently on spiritual retreat to the tropics. Van Impe�s own tunes are unoriginal but feverish with degrading sexist remarks and ugly attacks on gay people.

The best jams, by far, are Rev. Jack�s powerful and impassioned interpretations of the early hits of John Sinclair. �For the first time in America,� Van Impe screeches in righteous parody of John�s earlier high energy lung-lunges, �we have a generation of visionary maniac white mothercountry dope fiend rock and roll freaks who are ready to kick out the jams. ALL THE JAMS ...� (Van Impe sounds at this point like Paul Harvey with a peppery aside to William Burroughs) . . . �We are LSD driven maniacs in the universe. We�ll do everything we can to drive people out of their minds and into their bodies.�

From Sinclair�s early White Panther statements such as �Rock and rock music is the spearhead of our attack because it�s so effective and SO MUCH FUN� (Jack�s really horrified now!), the appalled messenger of apocalypse segues quickly into some of the finest lines from Jerry Rubin�s �70 hit, DO IT!, including �rock music must give birth to orgasm and Revolution!� .

Even more astounding, and giving credence to Van Impe�s reputation on the evangelist circuit as a technical heavy, Jack reports that there �are 715 four letter words in only a few hundred pages!� He counted �em, he really did. Pshew!

A live recording of reactionary religious paranoia and ultimo honk fear spasms, Marked for Death (�Can America Survive?�) is a virtuoso performance. It can be obtained for $5 directly from the Jack Van Impe Evangelistic Association, Washington Plaza, Royal Oak Michigan 48067 or The Grand Bible Store, 13731 Woodward Avenue in Highland Park, MI.

As Jack himself puts it so well,. �If it makes the Devil that mad, brother, there must be something wrong with it!�

Righteous Rudnick.and Manic Marsh

PEACEFUL WORLD THE RASCALS COLUMBIA G30462

The Ecology fight has been won. Pollution is non-existant due to the introduction of mega cybernetic controls, and the use of power from clean geo-thermal conductors. The population of the world has been normalized, and all international questions are decided by the Global Council.

The cities have been swept clean, public parks are the skins covering the factories that provide the people with all the services that are needed. The population has been calmed by the introduction of alpha waves from huge public speakers, ending forever all the sick neurotics, monomaniacs, bigots, pederasts.

Genetic engineers have refilled the planet with the breeds of animals that were previously becoming extinct before the Great Awakening. It is a common sight to see mixed herds of different kinds of animals romping the fields together People only work at their natural vocations. Sculptors ply their arts by the thousands on the street corners,

and secluded back lots of the'land.

The automobile, except for a few recognized antiques, has been abolished. Often one can see little children in forest glades beating time on a left over hubcap with a turning signal stick, while some friend plays a flute that has been fashioned out of a chrome exhaust pipe.

A young anthropologist, working, on his blasters through the St. Buckminster International Correspondence University, has made a tape of a whole gang of the little tykes as they were having an informal jam session in such a glade. Their music has been released as an album, with of course, the children�s parent�s consent. One of the mothers even thought of a name for the children�s informal group— The Rascals. And they sure are.

The Rascals, as they are now universally known weren�t sure that their play sessions should be made into a professional career. They used to play together after a hard day in hydroponic tanks, splashing around in the ionized water (an entirely new form of education in which the. children swim in glass tanks, while the water is charged, and subcognitive learning tapes are played.) But it was decided that children should be given a broad range of training, and as art enrichment is one of the prime directives of the new order, they, recorded themselves in six three, hour sessions, plus one live concert before the members of the G. Council Peaceful World is the result. Music critics, education authorities, and mothers all affirm one thing: the record is as cute as a bug�s ear.

They start off with a good cha cha rock song called �Sky Train� named, obviously after the monorail systems universally used for travel these days, The Rascals have a full band assortment of home made, and professional guitars, percussion instruments, horns of all kinds, and voices well trained in the school choirs. �Sky Train� melds classical jazz forms, and the rock beat into a cool, musical funfest.

�In and Out of Love,� is a tight, well knit song that is also in that quaint rock and roll style that has been the popular favorite among children for so many years. Buzz Feiten performs admirably as the singer on it, and does a beautiful job on the guitar. �Bit Of Heaven� is less successful as a kind of gospel honkey tonk, the type of music that is popular in the former churches that have been converted into the cocktail lounges, and

Sgt. Fury,

I can't understand how the Japs lost the last wTar — when all their machine guns went

Bhudda!

Bhudda!

Bhudda!

v. marlowe

community watering holes. It does have a nice, lilting quality about it, though.

The Rascals have two good vocalists in Molly Holt, and Ann Sutton, and a promising young composer in Felix Cavaliere, who aptly expresses the oedipal bents of the younger generation. �Mother Nature Land,� with Ann�s and Felix�s singing, and Hubert Laws� exhaust pipe flute brings one back in communion with the earth. �Icy Water Song,� is about the hydroponic tanks in the morning before the ionization machines are turned on. �The Dove,� with a charming harp and flute combination sounds like nothing so much as a tropical rain forest in spring time. But �Getting Nearer,� is the most intense song of the group. Built around a biblical theme, the mingling of the guitar and the vocal forms a sound/ poetry that in some ways harkens back to the raw music that predominated before the Great Awakening. Like Shadrac, Mishac and Abednigo, this song sounds almost seven times hotter than it ought to be.

Side four is a recording of a jazz concert in the continental style that was recorded live before the Global Council in the lush subtropical flora of Topanga Canyon, what a lovely star tipped night it was! A tamed python crawled near, and swayed in time to James Farrell�s flute music, while the audience, diplomats from all nations danced barefooted in the natural carpet of dicondra grass, and engaged each other in filial kisses, and playful bearhugs while pledging mutual friendship among all nations for time immemorial. Flocks of birds gathered in the vines, and Spanish moss and listened to the music. A spotted Jaguar was seen to be quietly resting, sphinx like, on a tree branch and listened with it�s ears folded back, and eyes shut. A thick cloud passed by, and started .a gentle rain on the gathered throng. But nothing could dampen the spirit of the people, especially the kids on the stage, who played on, drenched, entranced, and shaking with good time vibrations.

When the concert was over, the kids were tucked neatly into their beds, and in only three weeks, this record was released. You can listen to this music, simple as a nursery rhyme, heady as a sigh.

Unfortunately, no more such music will be heard from talented young Felix Cavaliere. Yesterday, for one tragic hour in the afternoon, the local alpha wave transmitter broke down, and suppressed feelings of anger welled up in the lad, who suddenly went on a rampage with a hand sickle. He severely wounded four bystanders, and killed a horse that was grazing nearby before he was brought down, and had his hand broden in an attempt to make him release the sickle. The transmitter was soon repaired, of course, but the damage had been done.

It has not been decided what should be done with the boy, but the feeling is that his outburst is symptomatic of an incipient psychosis, and he will probably be put into an institution for some years for observation. But fear not. The Rascals are still with us, and you can still buy Peaceful World. It�s a must for your collection. Seeing Fanny live after hearing Charity Ball leaves two possibilities: either the group doesn�t know the first thing about recording or Richard Perry is a lousy hard rock producer.

Robert Houghton

CHARITY BALL FANNY REPRISE 6456

Though much of their material is mediocre and the group lacks cohesive identity, Fanny has several virtues: most of all playing tight three minute songs and their group singing, which is Fine, and additionally in having a focal point in bassist Jean Millington and an excellent drummer in Alice De Buhr. Theoretically, Fanny could make a good album. Lots of lesser groups have pulled it off.

Sometimes there�s a world of difference

between the stage and the recording studio, though. Fanny�s live sound is eviscerated here and as a result Charity Ball spotlights the group�s faults but none of their potential strengths.

Their original compositions, are a watereddown residue of every pseudo-R&B cliche you�ve ever heard. If Fanny did genuine Motown songs, it would be far superior. Or hard rock tunes. Or punk rock. Of anything centered around some sort . of coherent musical style — Fanny�s lack of a distinct musical personality is in part due to the instant forgettability of their music. Live; their best songs are often �Ain�t That Peculiar� and Carole King�s �Where You Lead.� (i.e., other people�s material).

. This group needs radicalizatiori. Here�s two ways (1) Someone could turn Fanny on to early 1960�s girl group rock and have them play melodic jams interspersed with some, of those! great oldies in that vein — which would be perfect for their strong group (and lead) singing; (2) Fanny could kick Nicky Barclay out, since she doesn�t do anything anyway., and become a power trio. With Jean Millington showing off in her open-neck shirt like she does already, the. group could concentrate on their occasional Led Zeppelin flourishes

and become the first female Grand Funk. I�d much prefer the first possibility but either beats being bored to death.

Mike Saunders

ONE FINE MORNING LIGHTHOUSE EVOLUTION 30007

Few contemporary groups have been subjected to the kind of denigration Lighthouse has. The group�s first three albums were greeted indignantly by rock critics, and indifferently by record buyers. Not without good reason; Lighthouse used to be twice as big as B, S & T — and twice as bad!

Now the band�s a little bit smaller — and a whole lot better. Happily, One pine Morning is a transitional album on a new label. It certainly doesn�t mean much, considering the worthlessness of their past efforts, but let me say it anyway: This is easily Lighthouse�s best album to date.

As with most other �big bands�, it�s difficult to question the group�s musicianship. Technically, they all play their instruments well. How their abilities and instruments are utilized, is far more critical. Lighthouse�s great players used to make a-lousy team, simply because their \yhole was absurdly less than the sum of their parts. Drummer Skip Prokop, erstwhile �leader� of the 11-man Canadian group, told me recently that producer Jimmy Ienner had finally given them some direction, and you�ve got to believe it after listening to One Fine Morning. That direction seems to be towards simple, less-cluttered arrangements, and to tastefulness, a quality previously lacking in Lighthouse�s work.

More than the other �brass bands�, Lighthouse seems to rely on down-tempo stuff. About half the cuts on the new album are pretty mellow. Some of them are quite good (principally �1849�, a moving, well-arranged pioneer song), but a couple are real dogs (Like �Show Me the Way�, on. which singer Bob McBride sounds unnervingly like Gary Puckett). . Throughput, the group�s ensemble work isn�t bad, but the prevalence of cello and viola in their arrangements sometimes cloys. .

In the end, any band, np matter what, size or composition, has to. be able to cut the mustard in rock �n roll. .Isn�t that what it�s all about? BS&T fails as a �jazz-rock� group because . their . �rock� doesn�t. It�s often laughable. So are a couple of. Lighthouse�s efforts, but they�re improving anyway. Now they only include, one solo too many on their rock �n roll efforts (instead of three or four) .and they finally sing like they mean it. �Love of a Woman� has plenty of. superfluous passages but still gives off sparks. Despite the sluggish instrumental work, �Hats. Off to the Stranger�, a decent single, comes off. better on the album. Because Ralph Cole�s guitar is called on infrequently it�s hard to judge his talent, but I�d say he�s quite exceptional. Prokop�s a decent drummer but like everyone else in the group, doesn�t stand.out. Maybe, that�s because each member�s solos are accomplished more quickly and less self-consciously than before. (Though I think I heard a VIBES solo, of all things, in there somewhere.) Overall, Lighthouse�s rock �n roll needs a lot of work, but they�ve still come a long way.

That could, sum up the whole album and Lighthouse�s current condition. Of course, they had a long way to come, and they, still have a long way to go. But at least they�re (finally) on the right track. Though only intermittently exciting, One Fine Morning is, at least, palatable — no small achievement for a group whose name, many, think, is not Lighthouse, but rather, MUD!.

Greg Mitchell

SOMETIMES I JUST FEEL LIKE SMILING THE BUTTERFIELD BLUES BAND ELEKTRA EKS-75013

The two paced the floor of Cutler�s Record Shop, trying to decide whether or not to buy the new Butterfield album. They bought a lot of records: connoseuiers Of fine music.

�Man I don�t know, after that crap he did on the Woodstock album.�

�But the live LP...�

�...was boring, a stone drag if you ask me.

And the one before that, the studio album, was garbage. He hasn�t done anything good since Bishop and Naftalin left.�

�But I saw them in �68 with Buzzy Fietin and they were fantastic, better than during the Pigboy Crabshaw period.�

�Don�t you see, he�s changed everything since then. Who�s on this album that was with him then: nobody. I think he�s just probably still fartin� around.�

�You could be right. Let�s look around and see if we can find something good in the D.J. pile.�

They searched the rack of $2. specials (finding, in the midst of a fruitful search, a copy of Felix Pappalardi�s first album with a group, Bo Grumpus, in glorious mono, but unknowingly neglecting a copy of the

Evergreen Blueshoes, featuring Skip Battyn of the Byrds), and surprisingly found themselves a white-covered copy of the Butterfield album.-.hastily laying out the bread for the disc and rushing home to hear it.

�Hey, y�know, this isn�t half-bad. In fact, it�s not only good, it�s great. I mean, I�m no great fan of r&b, but this is the best thing Butterfield�s ever done. See, I told you...�

�Ah, bullshit. I still say when he had the band with Bi—�

�You can have all the Elvin Bishops, Mike Bloomfields and the rest, too. Man soloists are OK in my book, but when it comes down to really good music, but when it comes down to really good music, I�ll take a fine band any day.� I was in Los Angeles this spring, when a friend dropped in to say, �Hey there�s a new Pink Floyd album and it�s all old tracks.� �Far out,� my eyes began to gleam, �does it have �Candy and a Currant Bun� on it?�

Jon Tiven

RELICS PINK FLOYD HARVEST

"CANDY AND A CURRANT BUN" b/w

"ARNOLDLAYNE"

PINK FLOYD TOWER 333 (single)

�What?� Both he and the person with us, who has an office lined with several thousand singles (including everything else Pink Floyd ever released), were amazed.

It�s simply the definitive 1967 British rock�n�rolf single. It�s also uniquely powerful, like one of those first two or three Who 45s, the kind that send chills runnin� up and down your spine, and make you listen time and time again.

Unlike the Pink Floyd�s later work, �Candy and a Currant Bun� never ditches rock�n�roll for space music, but it does manage to give something of the sense of multi-galactic perspective that the best of Pink Floyd�s (read Syd Barrett�s) music has had.

The guitar break is reminiscent of a Beatles� raga, .only much more powerful. Not at all laid-back, but just as manic as Syd Barrett was supposed — in legend — to be. There�s even a blood curdling scream, that someone mixed under til you almost miss it.

�Arnold Layne� is nearly as chilling. It is somewhere between truly cosmic Beatles and truly powerful Who (something like a successful track from Satanic Majesties by the Stones, if you can.dig that);

�Arnold Layne had a strange hobby

Collecting moonshine, washing blinds

They suit him fine�

That�s really the basis of the lyric. Who can image what was running through Syd Barrett�s mind when he wrote this stuff? �Interstellar Overdrive�, �Bike� and �See Emily Play�, all included on Relics, are just as weird, too. �Bike� (which is a po$t-flip-out cut, I believe) isn�t as powerful, because it descends into the gimmickry that the Floyd have found necessary ever since. But �Emily� and �Interstellar� are perfectly diametric in

approach: the one cosmic-pop, the other pop-cosmic.

Actually, Relics is not as unsuccessful as I may have implied. The best stuff is on side one, and while the totality is not as successful as the group�s first album, most of their best stuff (in context) is here.

By far the best part of the album, except for the Barrett tracks, is the cover, which features an archetypal Howdy Doody mask. I know you�ll look twice; everybody else has.

Still, I Wish Relics had �Candy and a Currant Bun.� I spent an entire summer looking for it, paid a whole dollar when I finally did, and believe it or not, I�ve never regretted it for a minute.

As a matter of fact, I nearly went crazy looking for it while it lay misplaced between 1969 and that incident on the West Coast. Finally, after I got back to Detroit a week later, I went to my parents� house and there it was along with Jan & Dean�s Greatest Hits (Vol. 2), Three Window Coupe by the Rip Chords, and Million Seller Dance Hits on Cameo/Parkway (which features Dee Dee Sharp, the Orlons, and the best of the Philly bands, the Dovells.)

I�ll have to tell ya about the rest of �em sometime. In the meantime, if anybody knows where to get another copy of �Candy and a Currant Bun�, let me know. Mine�s almost worn out.

Dave Marsh

HAWKWIND

UNITED ARTISTS UAS-5519

The cover, in brilliant colors, shows these creatures that seem to be part reptile, part human, and part falling leaves. The songs have titles like �The Reason Is?� and �Seeing It As You Really Are� and �Mirror of Illusion.� Says Hawkwind: �We started out trying to freak people (trippers) and now we are trying to levitate their minds in a nice way, without acid ...�

Correct me if I�m wrong, but I do believe that what we have here is an album of psychedelic music, the real stuff, right here in the middle of 1971, and a good one at that.

Hawkwind tries to levitate your mind in the same way all those bands did a few years ago. Take a basic rock unit and augment it with something like an alto sax. Most of the vocals are non-verbal. Lots of electronic sound effects. Lots of echo and studio tricks.

Lots of percussion and, most of all, repetition — play a line, then play it again faster and louder, play it again, then play it still faster and louder.

The crazy thing is, it all works with Hawkwind. They�re not just experimenting, they obviously know what they�re doing. This album works as a complete package, and is fun and captivating from beginning to end. The repetition and rhythmic edge creates the desired other-worldly effect, instead of just batting away at your ears. Plus there isn�t a hint of pretension here, as is often the case with Pink Floyd, the only other group I can think of, off hand, still doing anything like this. Hawkwind reminds me of Steve Miller�s �Song For Our Ancestors,� and that music sounds as good now as it did then.

A couple final notes: the album is co-produced by Dick Taylor; is that the same Dick Taylor who was the original bassist in the Rolling Stones and later formed the Pretty Things?

And don�t flip out towards the end of side one, when it sounds like somebody pulled the plug and your turntable is grinding to a halt. That�s part of the shpw, too!

John Morthland

IF YOU ONLY SAW THRO' MY EYES IAN MATTHEWS VERTIGO 1002

Notwithstanding their superiority to other Fairport Convention split-offs, unanimous critical raves, and the group�s steadily increasing popularity, Matthews� Southern Comfort�s last two albums impressed me not at all. Compared to the group�s excellent debut album, they were such models of carefully contrived artifice as to hardly merit one or two disgusted listens.

Ian Matthews� new album, on the other hand, is outstanding. Rid at last of the traditional-folk and CSN&Y (respectively) trappings of the last two LPs, he�s back in his natural vein and in top form. My (and many others�, I�m sure) first acquaintance with Ian Matthews was his gorgeous �Book Song� on Fairport Convention�s first A&M album; even more so than the first Matthews� Southern Comfort Album, If You Saw Thro� My Eyes reminds of Fairport Convention�s best in their eclectic nontraditional style. Only Fairport Convention never was this good.

Answering the up-until-nowquestion mark of his material (the best songs on the first album were all by Steve Barlby), seven of the ten songs on If You Saw Thro � My Eyes are written by Ian himself. The other major problem for Ian Matthews so far has been that, in the improper setting, his voice can become unbearably saccharine; on Later That Same Year the music seemed to be competing for the same award, which didn�t help things any. Neither of these irritations crops up here, and once past that the assets begin to loom large. Ian Matthews has going for him one of the best voices in rock, what seems to be a good deal of taste, and a prolificacy that enabled him to produce four albums within the past year. Most certainly, on this album he makes his stylistic competition—CSN&Y, James Taylor, and various non-hard rock solo artists—sound like sheer rot. Perhaps his next four albums will be even better. Mike Saunders The first time l ever heard the Allman Brothers Band was at Atlanta, Georgia�s Piedmont Park in 1969. That day they wore faded jeans and workshirts, and they played' music like nothing the people of Atlanta had ever heard before. The local underground paper The Great Speckled Bird was so moved by the experience that they put a picture of Duane Allman in his STP T-shirt on the cover with the caption, �THERE ARE TIMES WHEN IT IS EASY TO THINK THAT THE ROCK AND ROLL MUSICIAN IS THE

THE ALLMAN BROTHERS AT FILLMORE EAST THE ALLMAN BROTHERS ATLANTIC

MOST MILITANT, SUBVERSIVE, EFFECTIVE, WHOLE, TOGETHER, POWERFUL FORCE FOR RADICAL CHANGE ON THIS PLANET. OTHER TIMES YOU KNOW IT�S TRUE.�;Ion the inside, there were comments like, �The Allman Brothers from Macon, Georgia, are a fantastically together group of young rock and roll musicians whose music draws as heavily from the blues as the experience of young white tribesmen can without exploiting its source . .. file musical language of the black man and woman cannot be co-opted, simply because it happens to be powerful and sings of things we are just nOw recognizing as more valid than what we have been hung up in for centuries. Our music must develop its own power, its own forms, its own patterns of relationship with our tribal roots and our space-age technology, in an unbroken line all the way down into unknown galazies. . . The Allman Brothers know all this, and a lot more.� Spacey stuff, tor sure, but that�s how it was back when we were all still wide-eyed from acid and full of brightly burning visions about what we were going to do with our new rock and roll energy.

Now jump two years to a weekend last March at the Fillmore .East, which has become the most prominent example of how the children of Amerika, so weary in our experience of those two years, try to seek relief. By now, though, we have heard all the bands so much, that like the man says, �the thrill is gone,� and there�s only one way to get a rush anymore, so let�s shoot up some more shit.

But on this weekend ... can it really be .., the Allman Brothers Band? You mean they�ve made it here from Piedmont Park? They sure look different, with those velvet pants and shiny boots and embroidered lace shirts. But there is something kind of,.. familiar about their music these nights. Not that it sounds like any other group�s - it just. . . yeah, the music just connects with something still glimmering way back there in those blownout-too-empty-to-hold-anymore heads: that tiny, but inextinguishable flame remaining througl all the shit, to remind us what this whole thing is about, just \vhy we�re here on the planet. And with this connection, the smiles form and grow until our whole beings are filled with the force of the music and taken again to those magic places we have forgotten existed.

As the Great Speckled Bird hears our joy, it smiles its Buddha smile and softly repeats what it told long ago, �You don�t, you can�t listen to the Allman Brothers; you feel it, hear it, move with it, absorb it, you �let it out and let it in� (the Beatles) and enter into an experience through which you are changed. You catch a glimpse of the kind of world we are becoming, and you know more than ever the horrendous load of bullshit we�ll have to drop off on the way in order to give birth to that kind of world.�

The Allman Brother�s new album was recorded live that weekend at the Fillmore East. It contains the music, and a lot more. If you listen much to AM radio, especially the black stations, here�s a bunch of songs that have already been with you for a while. And since greatest hits collections sometimes get lost in the shuffle, here�s tellin� ya that they�re available.

Moe Slotin

BEST OF BARBARA LEWIS ATLANTIC SD 8286

BEST OF CLARENCE CARTER ATLANTIC SD 8282

The Barbara Lewis album is from an older period, and seemed to just appear\out of nowhere one day. You might remember her from her 1963 hit �.�Hello Stranger,� one of your all-time wistful ballads, or �Baby I�m Yours� in 1965. These two and songs like �Make Me Your Baby,� �Puppy Love,� and �I Remember the Feeling� represent everything good about the uptown rhythm and blues of that time. She is now doing highlypolished soul material on Enterprise, according to my resident oldies expert, and having very little success, which is Understandable since her voice and style are dreamy, closer to Carmen McRae than to Aretha.

Clarence Carter, he of the lecherous chuckle, is more an enigma to me. His voice if full and strong, though not particularly expressive. His material ranges from OK to excellent, and he�s not one to challenge a

THIN MAN

My wife�s kid sister tells her that bob Dylan sucks,

& I�ll bet that in ten years our baby sitter will laugh her ass off when she hears my Rolling Stones albums.

v. marlowe

song, to try to push it past what seem to be its limits, as did his two mentors Otis Redding and Ray Charles. But the old reliables at Muscle Shoals, where he cuts everything, seem to have a special empathy for him, and that makes part of the difference. For some reason, his singles invariably stick favorably in my mind, and that�s what counts.

The Barbara Lewis album is definitely the more memorable of the two, but, like I said, Carter has a sly way of insinuating himself into your mind. I like �em both.

John Morthland

FOR GOD'S SAKE

GIVE MORE POWER TO THE PEOPLE CHI-LITES

BRUNSWICK BL 754170

�(For God�s Sake) Give More Power to the People� is one of my favorite singles so far this year. After the opening Moog blast comes the Sly-like syncopatibn that just don�t quit, with vocals traded off every line and Creadell Jones� bass voice scatting in and out to hold it together like he�d just stepped off a Coasters record after being radicalized. All that plus a familiar catch phrase made it an instant radio classic.

The question in my mind was, can the Chi-Lites sustain this for an entire album? The answer is, not quite, but enough so that we should definitely keep an ear on them. I was expecting an album derived from Sly Stone and recent Motown. What I found was a vocal group more reminiscent of Motown circa 1965 (I�ve since heard their first LP, and it�s a blatant Temptations copy), and a promising one at that. Their manager says that the group�s writer-lead singer-producer Eugene Record is a big Temptations fan, but lately

has been digging Sly and Curtis Mayfield, Which explains the schizophrenia on this album.

A case in point is the disappointing new single, �We Are Neighbors.� There�s the sound of knocking on a door and an angry �Who�s there?� followed by that jive old gag line, �Hello deah, I�se yo new na-buh.� The song is a continuation of the ideas on the last single, but this time it�s closer to the awkwardness Of Curtis Mayfield than to the force fulness of Sly or Lennon�s �Power to the People.� It�s , still. similar enough that it�ll probably be a follow-up hit, but I hope they aren�t going to take this roUte on every single. The do other things at least as well.

Like �Have You Seen Her,� a haunting ballad that can stand alongside the Temps any day. This one is set Up by a monologue that breaks into a shimmering guitar and organ behind the best harmonies on the album: �I see her face everywhere I go/On the street, and even at the picture show/Have you seen her?/Tell/me have you seen her?� It is a direct and memorable song.

The rest of the album is mixed between ballads and: uptown R and B, including a great version of �Love Uprising,� the Otis Leaville hit of about a year ago, which was written for him by Record, who liked it so much he decided to record it himself.

Don�t get me wrong about this group. They can be supper-clubby and overly sentimental, but I guess that�s an occupational hazard (or maybe enchancement?) for such groups. Some of the �message� pieces fall flat, but we can tolerate that for now, too. When the Chi-Lites are good, they are very good, and they�re coming right along. More power to them.

John Morthland