ROCK • A • RAMA

ROCK.A.RAMA

RORY GALLAGHER, The Story So Far (Polydor), Against The Grain (Chrysalis) :: Throw away your Kiss records and leave your Ted Nugents to your grandmother; this sleazyshirted Irish guitarist is the last extant genuine mad guitarist, and he dont need no artificial preservatives (batwings, guns, unusual clothing, lasers, etc.); he does it all with one very sorrylooking Stratocaster, the above-mentioned mucky flannel shirt, and a style that can only be compared with things like lightning bolts, thunder, etc. Ace Frehley: Listen, have the kittykat claw your picking hand, weep, and then take up opthamology. S.W.

TROOPER-Two For The Show (Legend):: Extra! Extra! Read all about it! Mormon BTO member castrates budding hard rock group while recording their second album! Band members submit willingly! Foxy cover photo is the lone survivor! Read all about it. J.M.

THE CHANTER SISTERS-First Flight (Polydor) :: Youd think that Irene and Doreen wouldve learned at least something after working with the likes of Roxy Music and J ohn Cale, wouldnt you? Well*.guess again. What we have here is a complete rehash party platter of Disco-Tripe, the high point of which is "Side Show" (at least it sounds interesting) and the low point of which is James Deans “^All The Young Dudes" (at least I&D can hit the top notes— something J immy couldnt do if he were wired up on Petroleum Naptha for a week). What would you expect, though, from a couple of dumb broads like the two pictured on the front cover? Somebody oughta kick their teeth in. It rpay not help their next next album, but it sure as hell cant hurt it. J.M.

MILES DAVIS— Fillet de Kilimanjaro (Columbia) :: And you poor assholes are still sitting around listening to Aghartha, trying to figure out where "Theme from Jack Johnson" comes in... R.J.G.

CHICAGO X (Columbia) :: What did Willie Wonka say to Vincent Van Gogh? . . . B'.A.

PETER STAMPFEL, THE UNHOLY MODAL ROUNDERS, MICHAEL HURLEY, JEFF FREDERICKS AND THE CLAMTONES-Have Moicy (Rounder) The pride of psychedelic folk (Stampfel) and the King of the Vermont Ski Lodge circuit (Hurley) conspire to produce what is definitely the best album Ive heard all year. Instant classics abound. Hurleys "Surf Song," a fiddle ode to that great pastime, eating ("When we make spaghetti everyone gathers round and they eat it by the pound . . rwe fill up our guts then we turn it into shit and then we get rid of it"); "The Lost, Love Lament"; "Fooey, Fooey," ("I lost my suey"); Stampfels nostalgic bluegrass rendition of "Midnight In Paris" ("You were my beret and I use your bidet, Cherie") and countless others. Every Grateful Dead fan should be bound and gagged and forced to listen, to this to find out what real American music sounds like. W.L.

. PAUL BLEY AND NEIL-HENNING ORSTED PETERSON-NHOP (Steeple Chase Records) Import :: The thinking mans Keith J arrett. Bley can control more ideas out of silence than any pianist since Thelonius Monk, yet his approach is more much fluid and the dissonances work almost as echoes of possible unheard tunes. Since Monk hasnt cut a record in years, one would be well-advised to seek this out, even at the import price. P.L.

BOB MARLEY & THE WAILERS-African Herbsman (Trojan) Import :: Dese some of Bobs earliest sides, and we true Rastas prefer them much. mon. to clean up spreacL dread in Island label cans, though you gotta pour plenty hot juice into ya sound system to getta volume outta dese thin grooves. You wanna talk "Positive Vibration," yeh, pick it up now. H.S.

CHICAGO X (Columbia) :: I cant hear you; Ive got a chocolate bar in my ear. B.A.

CLEAR LIGHT (Elektra):: ReVnember that awful TV series. Sunshine, about the hippy dippy father raising a kid contrary to establishment conformity? Cliff De Young was-the peace creep consciousness raised widowed daddy and should anybody out there hate him as much as 1 do, you can blackmail him with this album (sorry, aint got the time myself—working on my Dustin Huffman assassination plot at the moment). Actually, Cliff didnt do a bad job as lead singer for the six-man combo, whose main claim to fame was a gutcrunching rendition of Tom Paxtons paranoia classic "Mr. Blue1'that was way ahead of Nazareth in terms of the folk-rock coalition. Also to be found lurking about are the likes of Dallas Taylor, Ralph Schuckett and Douglas Lubahn (who on "Black Roses" runs through a three minute history of bass guitar techniques). Clear Light had two drummers too, and on the back of the album youre instructed to play the record at high

volume to "fully appreciate the spectacular sound of double drumming." Nothing like educational and informative liner notes ... of course back then ail of us could read. B.A.

ALLEN ROBIN-Naked Really Naked (Carrot) :: Allen Robin, the weirdo who perpetrated Welcome to the LBJ Ranch back in the Sixties has emerged from his cave to give us a record that is mostly inane, totally insane and often quite funny. Robin has spent years splicing and editing tapes of our favorite political figures voices to compose a scenario involving an analysts office and a group therapy session with Nixon, Humphrey, Rockefeller, Lindsay, McGovern and Ted Kennedy all taking part: Highlights include Rockefeller lapsing into Spanish because he thinks heV Pancho Villa and Humphreys infatuation with Joan Of Arc (Robin: "Is there anything I can do?" Humphrey: "Call the Fire Department."). . . B.A.

This months Rock-a-ramas were written by Sookey Wayward, Jeffrey MorganK Ralph J. Gleason, Billy Altman, Peter Laughner, Haile Selassie and Warren Levy.