ROCK-A-RAMA
AALON—Cream City (Arista)::Another member of the Eric Burdon/Far Out extended family makes his solo move, in an intriguing soulguitar pop opera (or at least concept album) that kids the rock biz all over its own starcrossed turf. Not all of the songs work as wittily as Aalon's general concept and descriptive liner notes (not to mention the many rewards of the infinitely-detailed cover art), but the swirling guitar textures and the Curtis Mayfield-cum-Felix Cavaliere vocals are superfine.
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ROCK-A-RAMA
This month's Rock-a-ramas were written by Richard Riegel, Billy Altman and Michael Davis.
AALON—Cream City (Arista)::Another member of the Eric Burdon/Far Out extended family makes his solo move, in an intriguing soulguitar pop opera (or at least concept album) that kids the rock biz all over its own starcrossed turf. Not all of the songs work as wittily as Aalon's general concept and descriptive liner notes (not to mention the many rewards of the infinitely-detailed cover art), but the swirling guitar textures and the Curtis Mayfield-cum-Felix Cavaliere vocals are superfine. No cosmic potato love for the L.T.D. masses, neither, just raw "jungle desire." Get it!
R.R.
NUTZ—Hard Nutz (A&M)::Cover shows these guys' leftover hippie tresses airbrushed away, for possible crossover-punk charting, but this ain't the New Wave, just a love letter in the sand from the traditional Anglometal middle classes. My spouse even claims Nutz sound like that gratuitous rock band (typical Wrigley bozos) on the Juicy Fruit Gum TV spot. File under "Widowmaker" (being English don't do it all).
R.R.
CHUNKY, NOVI, & ERNIE (Warner Bros.):: Nothing real special inside (white muzik saved my soul from that ol' evil rock 'n' roll), but the cover photo indicates that Ilene "Chunky" Rappaport has accomplished the best Lou Reed deathmask-warmed-over stareout of the new season. Memo to the Ed.: Get a hotfoot cub reporter out on this story pronto. An anxious public awaits!
R.R.
VILLAGE PEOPLE (Casablanca): :Casablanca's continuing obsession with disco seems to have passed the point of self-parody in the Village People, a gaylib commando team who set their celebrations of the gay lifestyle to a disco beat: "Fire Island, it's a funky weekend!" Of course they never actually sing "homosexual" or even "gay" (can't be too circumspect here in the Year of Anita B.), but those pregnant phrases just keepcoming at ya: "Village people, your freedom's inside"; "Let's fight •for the right/And do it while it's daylight"; etc. Would Rex Reed give these guys a 10 if he met 'em in the daylight of the Gong Show?
R.R.
HERBIE HANCOCK—V.S O P. (Colum bia); MC COY TYNER—Supertrios (Milestone)::Welcome back, Tony! Tony Williams, the kid drummer whom Miles Davis cradlerobbed to join his 60's quintet and inspire a whole generation of skinmen both jazz and rock (ask A1 Bouchard and Billy Ficca, for instance), and who went on to provide the foundation for the jazz-rock fusion/confusion of our times, is back on a mainstream beam. Which makes sense since he was both too early and too late to bash for the gig bucks like Cobham, White, etc. Anyway, he's on one disc each of these primo piano-led two-record sets and does what he's always done at his best—ricochet the rhythms every which way, inspiring the soloists to really wail. I dunno'bout you, but this is the kinda stuff that makes me feel like dancin'.
M.D.
RODERICK FALCONER-Victory In Rock City (United Artists)::Falconer, ,hell, more like a rock 'n' roll jackal trying to set himself up as a scirfi scion to the Big Bow, since David's current low profile has kept him out of the spotlight of late. And yeah, Rod does come up with a terrif tune now and then but his main focus so far is as a poseur/provocateur. How this guy manages to keep a straight face while attempting to heist the whole world (literally— on the inner sleeve) or while writing lines like, "Daddy's hair was chrome/He claimed atomic chromosomes/And he would bark all night at his bride (dear Mama)" I'll never know. Just talent, I guess.
M.D.
REGGIE KNIGHTON (Columbia)::Amidst a standard and infectious pop/rock background, Reggie Knighton sings of love and adventure: "V.D. Got To Idi," a blues lament for the Dada of them all; "Drug Dealer—'I Don't Care About The Money/I Really Love My Work' "; "Glows In the Dark," about strange gas seeping through a telephone receiver and rendering midnight strolls through the park impossible; "Jenny," the girl who has lost both arms and both legs through radiation exposure at a nuclear power plant and wants to run off with the circus, much to the dismay of her loving man; and much, much more. It's nice to know that someone out there still knows how to write a nice, clean, normal song.
B.A.
PRINCE MICHAEL HAR-MEGGIDQ AND THE ARK ANGLES—Fly—Flag—Fly! (Xav ier)::The title cut is the greatest patriotic record since Sam Irvin's classic LP for Columbia, on which he recited "Bridge Over Troubled Water" and "If I Had A Hammer." This one recounts the attack on Pearl Harbor (Chorus: "Tora! Tora! Tora!/Fly Flag Fly!"). This madcap jumble of oddities includes songs described on the back cover as gregorian rock chants, classic blues—Dixieland, and rock patriotic ballad— and Grecian ("Ulysses, Ulysses, Set Us Free"), among others. Songs are dedicated to such bosom buddies as Dolly Parton, Arch Bishop Makarios, Pope Paul VI, and teenagers everywhere. One.could probably write a book about this record—I guess this is what Wild Man Fisher would have sounded like had he grown up in Medinah, Illinios.
B.A.
