LOONEY TOONS

It's time to put together the 1972 puzzle, but it's not going to be a lot of fun. Last year wasn't what you'd call a Killer Year for Rock'n"Roll, unless you were very, very much involved with black music. That's where all the action is, again, and except for little pockets — Bette Midler, Rod Stewart and always the Rolling Stones — we're gonna have tp live with it.

Of course, most of the really great black music was on singles, although Stevie Wonder, Ann Peebles, Denise LaSalle, the O'Jays and most of all Curtis Mayfield all made really fine albums. Which is more than can be said for most white rock groups. Exile On Main Street, Rock of Ages, Never A Dull Moment and then your pick is as good as everyone else's and just as personal. (The unique thing about those three albums, incidentally, is that almost everyone underestimated them when they came out; I think they'll keep on growing, too.)

But the year belonged to black music, and one of the reasons was that only black music was willing to talk about the situation on its own terms, which were mostly desperate. Exile did that some, and Rod Steward always does, but everywhere there were some false (I think) notes of hope, like those few moments when you really believed that McGovern would go all the way. "Happy" and "Twistin" the Night Away" come to mind.

Now consider Curtis Mayfield's Superfly, which contains not only what I consider the best single of the year ("Freddie's Dead") but an air of absolutely transcendent defeatedness. If you can imagine that.

It certainly all started with Sly Stone (who didn't release even a single all year) and There's A Riot Goin " On. Riot

supplied not only the beat of doom, but also the idiom. It's not quite defeat, in the same way that "Thank You Falettin" Me Be Mice Elf Again" isn't quite sarcastic. It is, but you could miss the point, until Sly cut "Thank You For Talking to Me Africa."

And then it started. The O'Jays smashed home with "Back Stabbers," which was tougher than it seemed, and the Temptations ripped it up with "Papa Was A Rolling Stone," the tone of which would be almost corny, if you hadn't heard it. It was Motown's first rock operetta, for better or worse, but it was also about as gloomy as pop music can be.

And always, looming over everything, Curtis Mayfield, singing his pleas-

ant little tune that was like a knife in the gut when you finally caught on:

But his hope was a rope

He should have known.

And that, more than "Soul Survivor," is what 1972 seemed like to me. That and the idea that being able to "see clearly now" was nothing but the ability to "see all obstacles in my way." Johnny Nash knows too, and so, you'd have to suppose, do a lot of others, who ain't talkin".

All that, in the end, is merely an introduction to my Top Ten Records of 1972, as good an excuse as any for doomsaying. There was a time, a couple months ago, when I didn't think there were ten records that's make it. Now I wonder what I'll leave out. So maybe things are picking up a little. Not much, but a little. Anyhow:

1. Never A Dull Moment Rod Stewart (Mercury): Like I said, this grows and grows. "You Wear It Well" might be better than "Maggie May", for me, if only because the situation it describes is so much more real. I bet this doesn't make anybody's number one but mine, and I can't bring myself to care.

2. Super Fly Curtis Mayfield (Curtom): I might be wrong, but "Freddie's Dead" is just about all I want to listen to right now, for some reason, and that's excuse enough. I don't care if the rest of his hair falls out — Curtis has his finger on it.

3. The Divine Miss M Bette Midler (Atlantic): So maybe I'm wrong, so maybe this isn't as good a record as Bette is a singer, but take away a John Prine song or two and The Divine Miss M stands up to this place on anyone's list. "Do You Wanna Dance" makes me drool. 4. Exile on Main Street The Rolling Stones (Rolling Stones/Atlantic): YEAH, I know. On the other hand, there are four sides here and you can only listen to TWO of "em. Besides, isn't this* precisely mid-way in everyone's taste for this year? Don't ask me to justify it, I just know it belongs right in the middle.

5. Nuggets (Elektra): Praise be to Lenny Kaye! In a year when I realized I didn't want to hunt through another bargain bin or read another fanzine for the rest of my days ("cept Who Put the Bomp, maybe) Nuggets kicked like a mule. If you're ever in Village Oldies, in Greenwich Village, between 12 and 6 on Tuesday and Thursday, you can grovel at the feet of Mr. Kaye, who has produced the best reissue anthology in the history of western music.

6. Blue Oyster Cult (Columbia): 1972 was also the year when heavy metal music flickered out. A bad Black Sabbath album, and a Grand Funk set that was worse, a bunch of mediocre to merely good stuff from Deep Purple and then this: a rock critic's group that has a shot at being one of the handful of bands that make great follow-ups in "73. (Caveat: I've heard a couple cuts of their next one, and I'm not going out on much of a limb.) I didn't want to believe in Soft White Underbelly either, but B.O.C. is ... too good to be true, I guess. Yea, team.

7. Sail Away Randy Newman (Reprise): Another rock critic mistake. Maybe. Someday Randy Newman will be a star, and then we will all sail away, into perfect bliss and happiness. Until then, the rest of you are gonna have to grin and bear it. Or listen.

8. Manfred Mann's Earth Band (Polydor): No shit, this is the most underrated album of the year. Mann does Dylan great — as always — crushes you with his originals and he understands synthesizer. You want more?

9. Straight From the Heart Ann Peebles (Hi): A tough, troubled woman blues singer gets great material, and the result is one hell of a good r'n"b record, one that sticks out in a time of good r'n"b records. She walks it like she talks it. More than we can say for some heroes.

10. Brain Capers Mott the Hoople (Atlantic): I know all about All the Young Eludes too, but when I want my rock sparse and with lots of spaces, I'll tell you so. Until then, I'll take dense, passionate rock every time. This one is it, the other one's about it.