ROCK . A . RAMA

ROCK . A . RAMA

JONATHAN RICHMAN AND THE MODERN LOVERS (Not to be confused with a previous album merely titled The Modern Lovers) (Beserkley):: Final proof that only the strong survive.

L.B.

BUCK TRENT-Bionic Banjo (ABC) :: So the other day I’m talking to this PR guy at one of the major record comps (hint: the only one left in America that hasn’t yet signed a reggae act), and we’re discussing the ridiculous state of this business, and he says, “Yeah, the next thing’ll probably be black CB records.” “There already is one,” 1 said. “1 don’t know the name of the artist or record, but 1 heard it on a Detroit r ‘n’ b station. It’s this superdude flying through the Bama swamps in his machine with a Dodge commercial type county sheriff ip hot pursuit, grousing "Ah’m gon git thet nigger iffen it’s the last thing I do!’ while superdude upshifts into the Van Allen Belt.” But don’t file this with that record; file it with Friar Tuck & His Psychedelic Guitar, and leave us not forget that once, in the mid-Sixties, World-Pacific records actually put out an album of Raga Rock played on the dobro.

L.B.

THE RUNAWAYS (Mercury) Anybody in New York that doesn’t like this group has no taste; anybody anywhere else who disdains ’em may be right.

L.B.

JAMES BROWN-Get Up Offa That Thing (Polydor) s:Not really the Godfather of Soul, as he claims, James Brown is more the John Wayne of Soul, his own man; fond of self-parody, always brutally indifferent to passing styles, even those of his soulmates. But do 1 detect just a note of chagrin in Bro James’ hauteur, the righteous indignation of a moralistic humanitarian toward those discomanipcs who would steal his rhythms but leave their attendant flair and passion? Real stuff for these times

R.R.

LEWIS FUREY-The Humours Of (A&M):: Comes complete with “Portions of this album may require programmer discretion to determine its airplay suitability” sticker to arouse those dogmatose liberalFM deejays who haven’t been able to get it up since their partner in crime resigned from the White House. So how come the only thing Furey learned on his round-the-world travels was that the English spell “humor” with an extra “u”? (Fools.)

R.R.

WIDOW MAKER (United Artists) ::ln which it is proved conclusively that British heavy metal can be just as numbingly dullard as some of its American cousins (1 think Unca Bob said that). Special award to “Pin a Rose On Me” for Most Obnoxious Hook of Year (Non-Jingles Division). Anybody wanna listen tosome Barry Manilow?

R.R.

THE FATBACK BAND-Night Fever (Spring) u Bands like this one (not to mention Big Stuff like War and the Ohio Players) give me glimmers of hope that soul music will pull itself out of its own godawful depths in the next few years. Somehow those soul-crushing producers have more difficulty intimidating guys with axes in their hands than they do the average weakprincipled vocal group.

R.R.

CHARLIE AND THE PEP BOYS-DaddyV Girl (A&M)::Another motley crew playing clean-cut rock ‘n’ roll with a snotty insincerity that is their strongest asset. The kind of band that would aim for a sexist loaded sound. /The kind of band Nils Lofgren would produce. The kind of band that would sneer at the Runaways while admiring their shapely sales figures (well, shapelier than these guys’anyway).

M.D.

ENO-Taking Tiger Mountain (By Strategy) (Island) ::Someday, if it’s not lost entirely, people are going to look back on this album as one of the sonic monuments, perhaps the most inspired and only really avant-garde work of its era. Hunt it down, quick, before it gets lost, and listen for the typewriters in “China My China,” as well as the lyrics, which are beautiful and even pity: “From the pagoda/The world looks so tidy/ Fate is on the horizon ... ” Eno is a poet as well as a musical genius, and this is destined to be one of the great lost records.

L.B.

This month’s Rock-a-ramas were written'by Lester Bangs, Michael Davis, Richard Riegel.