ROCK • A • RAMA

ROCK - A - RAMA

MOONQUAKE - Star Struck (Aquarius) :: When you dabble in different aspects of pop culture from Hollywood Babylon to Beatlemania as this Canadian band is doing you are asking your listeners to be culturally relative. The Raspberries do the same thing, only they haven't emulated the country side of the Stones, the Love It To Death period of Alice Cooper, or Motown, or L.A. "65 as Moonquake has. They're punks and they're stylists or maybe they're stylish punks but whatever they are Star Struck is a promising departure from most Canadian rock LFs being released today. T.H.

RAMASES - Glass Top Coffin (Vertigo) :: A man (Ramases) and wife (Sel) folk duo stuck in post Sgt. Pepper/Moody Blues cosmic shitsquiddling. Acid days are Ramases salad days. Underneath that chromium dome of his is a blighted head of lettuce. T.H.

VALDY - See How The Years Have Gone By (A&M) :: This hunk of Canadian bacon is as artless and simplistic as American expatriate Jesse Winchester is artful in his simplicity. HighGrade Down-Home Pap when compared to that of, say, John-Boy Denver. Backpackin" at the Boy Scout Jamboree. Less clubfoot than Light: foot, but more macho than Mitchell. M .S.

RICHARD PRYOR - Is It Something 1 Said? (Reprise) ::

Whither dost thou go, O Badass Nigger? ; Dost thbu think that thy patter is too blue to figure

In Grammys or Rockys or praise of that ilk, While thine insights are stellar, and thy rap is like silk.

Despair not, my man, and cry not a jigger, For such a fine actor and inspired a gigger Will never go hungry or want for a job As long as he rips off Foxx, Bruce, and that mob. M.S.

KING HARVEST • (A&M) :: That's it. The needle in the camel's eye. No more abuse. Tony Orlando at the Farfisa? The twenty-third promo LP endured in the last .month. Most have a variety of things in common. Lack of inspiration. Assembly-line commerciality. Over-all dullness. Why send in the man, sign up the clowns, and waste America's valuable vinyl reserves? Buy a cat-o"-nine-talils instead of Kihg Harvest, gang, and Whip Inflation Now! M .S.

PRETTY THINGS • Sorrow Parachute (Harvest Heritage Series Import) :: Now that they're back in the public eye with Silk Torpedo, this repackaging of the Pretty Things" earliest two albums (both of which are now out of print) is as good an introduction to the group as you're going to get without having to pay the high prices demanded for the originals. Now all you've got to do is dig up a copy of Freeway Madness (also out of print) and you're all set. J! M.

LEE KON1TZ - Satori (Milestone) :: How I Finally Became A Lee Konltz Fan In 25 Words Or Less: I'd always associated altoist Konitz with his late 40s, early 50s collaborations with Lennie Tristano—ultra-cool, cerebral and boring. I don't know what he's been up to since then but on this album his playing is alternately passionate/heartfelt and intricate/oblique. You give this album just enough ,attention and you get paid back double. Great. Wasthat25? R.C.W.

THE BAY CITY ROLLERS (Bell) :: Sure, they may have fooled Howard Cosell, but that's nothing to brag agout. And it sure as hell doesn't make them the Next Big Thing. Marc Bolan did it better years ago, and at the proper speed, too. If you want the real thing, save up your money and get Electric Warrior and Stayed instead. J.M.

CREAM - Disraeli Gears (Atco) :: So you think the whole superstar mess started with this group? Of course it did, but the members of Cream were also among the earliest victims of the syndrome. As their sblo albums have proved, each non-Berry Creamer is fatally flawed, more super bluesbozo than superstar. As with every other worthwhile rock group, the whole was greater than the sum of its parts, and the music on this set transcends whatever pro or con feelings you already harbor about the era that produced if. Each member was perfect in his contributions, from Clapton's protometallic licks and Baker's manic thumping to Bruce's mumbled vocals, oft-maligned by bluestockinged blues purists, but wholly appropriate to the throwaway surrealism of the typical Cream lyrics. Not to mention that the archetypal jacket of Disraeli Gears sums up the tumescent vanities of late 1967 better -than just about anything else left from those days. R.R.

MYSTIC ASTROLOGIC CRYSTAL BAND (GNP Crescendo) :: Rumours abound about this one, mainly about Hendrix dropping in to lay dpwn some rhythm guitar and, of all things, lead mandolin which probably accounts for this re-release. For diehard'Hendrix fans only. It's even worse than his work with The Kitchen Cinq or the Little Richard issue. T.H.

BILLY PRESTON - It's My Pleasure (A&M) :: The Greatest Rock And Roll Band In The World lets this bigwig play keyboards for "em and the funky bumper slides out another solo album. Yawn. I call it a solo album with some hesitation, however. This effort features the artist's ojd buddies George Harrison, Stevie Wonder, Ollie Brown and T.O.N.T.O. (The Original New-Tinbrel Orchestra). T.O.N.T.O. consists of no less than twelve synthesizers linked together and played simultaneously, yet Lou Reed managed a more interesting product with only a handful of power-amps. The seventh (of only eight, praise de Lord) track is entitled "I Can't Stand It"...which just about sums up my critique. • E.G.

PLASTIC ONO BAND - Happy Xmas (War Is Over) (Apple single) :: Remember bed-ins for peace? Acorns? "War Is Over If You Want It" billboards? Remember buying this single hecause you thought that it'd be worth a small fortune in a couple of years because the copy that you happened to buy was pressed in a limited edition of clear green vinyl for the Christmas season and When you told your friends about it they all said that it was a waste of money and that it'd never be worth anything? Well, they were right. J.M.

BENNY BELL - Shaving Cream (Vanguard), WILL GLAHE The Polka King Vol. 2 (London) :: In which it is proven beyond the shadow of a groat that Dumb Music did not originate with rock'n'roll. M.D.

BOB KUBAN AND THE IN-MEN - Look Out For the Cheater (Musicland USA) :: A forgotten contrapunk classic, but weren't they all in the days (1966) when belting out a satisfying hard riff came as easy as falling off a Farfisa organ stool? Uneven at bestt the In-Men mixed white soul, blaring horns, and leftover Booker Tisms into a St. Louis raunch equal to the accomplishments of the Soul Survivors. The mod handwriting was on the wall, though, as despite the liner notes" claim that Bob Kuban was "young and handsome," his Archie Bunkerine face couldn't have, merchandised many records in such electric times. Thus his record company came through with an unintentionally pop art masterpiece of a cover, a vision beyond Guy Peellaert's wildest rock dreams: a color photo of two American birds, attired in the latest from Carnaby St., warning one of their sisters against The Cheater, a notorious philanderer beneath his upright fraternity-man guise. The It's-notcoming-back artifact to end all such pop archeology. R.R.

CHARLES TOLLIVER - Paper Man (Arista Freedom) ::This album, recorded in "68, is worth having if only because of Herbie Hancock, in tandem with bassist Ron Carter and drummer Joe Chambers and playing more piano than he has in the last five years. Tolliver himself is fair to good, some nice ideas but not too distinguished at this point. Hip post-bop riffs but not too flip, dig? R.C.W.

MOONRIDER (Anchor) :: With John Willie Weider having been one of my favorite musicians (Eric Burdon & the Animals, Farpily), I was anxious to hear his new band. Side one put me to sleep, as I dreamed about Burdon and Chapman becoming the Sam & Dave of England. Side? two woke me up with John's distilled guitar leads that led a bunch of songs which peculiarly reminded me of the original Spirit. T.M.

SUN RA • Bad & Beautiful and Jazz In Silhouette (Impulse/Satum):: Ra's rep as the space cowboy 'of jazz is gonna be undermined by these two solid bouts of post-Ellington swing. Like Mingus, Ra learned a lot from Ellington; you'd be better off picking these up instead of most of the sob sister tributes to the late Duke that are stalking the stalls. M.D.

OMEGA (Passport) :: So far, not the first word in support of the contention that Europeans never have and never will make decent rock "n" roll. H.S.

(This month's rockaramas were written by Tom Harrison, Michael Snyder, Jeffrey Morgan, Richard C. Walls, Richard Riegel, Eric Genheimer, Michael Davis, Tony Mastrianni, and Heinrich Schutze.)