THE BEAT GOES ON

THE BEAT GOES ON

The Boss Thinks He's Red Hot

Robert Gordon is the figure Sha-Na-Na parodies as they stumble through klutzy versions of rock 'n' roll's past. Gordon might choose to cover the same tunes of that golden-oldies era, like Cochran's "Summertime Blues" or Frankie Ford's raucous "Sea Cruise," but while the imitations glitz themselves up for their weekly TV series, Gordon parades his slinky coiffure and Continental suits on the streets of New York for real. "He's a true artist," enthused the producer of Gordon's two albums, Richard Gottehrer, himself a legendary figure. "He buys anything and everything we have from the 1950's," said a friend who runs a Village collectibles shop. "Legs McNeil was over here last night with John Holmstrom from Punk and I played them a version of 'Bopping The Blues' by Ricky Nelson and it flipped them out and then I pulled out the original by Carl Perkins and they couldn't believe it. It was pretty cool." Robert Gordon flashed a wide grin, delivering the flower of American punkitude back to the days of old.

Gordon's slight yet muscular figure cuts an image that's refound the time slot in which it can play itself. Raised in Washington, D.C., Gordon was immersed in the predominantly r'n'b scene, blending it with hard-core loyalty to the 50's rock-pack —Presley, Conway Twitty and, of course, the ravipg guitarist Link Wray, who now shares his album billing and onstage spotlight. "When I was 14 or 15, down there any band had to play 'Jack The Ripper.' I saw Link in two clubs in D.C.; I saw him in the old Glen Echo Amusement Park. I always dug his music. We used to go to teen clubs and hops in the gym and you'd hear 'Black Widow' or 'Rumble!' "

Presley's vocal restlessness and James Brown's sweaty mania deeply affected Gordon's developing performance style, yet after a stint in the service and five years in "business," he enter-, ed the New York music scene as lead singer with the new wave Tuff Darts; who he refers to as "that band" when he refers to them at all. Gordon suffered through interpreting their original tunes while saving his strength for the one or two oldies covered in each set. His enthusiasm translated itself to action when Richard Gottehrer, hot off producing the first Blondie album, saw the Darts in rehearsal. "He wasn't impressed with the band's stuff at all and he said, 'Do you know anything else?' so we whipped into something like 'One Night With You,' and from that point on he said, 'Well, keep in touch.' "

With Gotteher's help, Gordon left the group and solicited the services of Link Wray, who'd been down on his career fortunes for over a decade. "Link had never backed anybody up, but he said he'd give it a listen—if we sent him the ticket to New York. We met over at Richard's and it was instantaneous. And he hasn't gotten this much exposure in years."

When they recorded the first album, the contrast between Gordon and his muscle sleeve shirts and Wray in an overdone hippie hairdo and bell bottom jeans was laughable. On location cutting Fresh Fish Special (check "Jailhouse Rock" to understand the LP title), Link had traded in. the psychedelia for a leather jacket and looked as if he'd, never been away. Despite their different ages and backgrounds, Gordon and Wray are close buddies on record and off.

Robert Gordon is prepared to fight a continuing battle with some, listeners and certain press who throw him into the hackneyed revival heap. "People forget the feeling of those old songs, right, but a lot of people just don't know. I've read a lot of negative comments, stupid shit like, this cat comes out in a zoot suit and the whole trip—but that's the way I am, that's the way I dress, really, and once people see me perform that gives it more authenticity." He decided to get his kiddie pix from home just to prove that the front combing job isn't a figment of the Happy Days syndrome.

One person who doesn't need to be convinced of Robert's sincerity is that old rebel-rouser, Bruce Springsteen. The Boss slid one of his new tunes, called "Fire," to Robert for his new album, and joined him onstage to duet on "Heartbreak Hotel." To his credit, Gordon is honestly pleased but not overly impressed by such luminary attention. He shows equal enthusiasm playing to the band and Plaza Sound Studio's visitors an almost unknown rockabilly tune, "Pink Cadillac And A Black Mustache," showing off its original album jacket, part of his immense collection. He has also not hesitated at removing Rob Stoner and Billy Cross from his touring band and asked Link to cut the volume on his guitar, when the three semifamous sidemen started drowning him out. It is, after all, the Robert Gordon show and any blasting into past glories is offered strictly within limits.

ERRRRATUM1

We're sorry waled so many of you astray—the confused letters: "Who Is Michael Corby?" "That Isn't Paul Stanley of Kiss I" "Would you guys cut it out!" "What is life?"...and on and on. So we want to set the record straight. The gent second from left in this picture is Michael Corby of the Babys. His record company president is on his right. His fellow group members are on his left, with the exception—now note this, fans—of Paul Stanley of Kiss WITHOUT MAKEUP, who is at Michael's exact left wearing the funny hat. Now as to whether Paul has sold his soul to the devil in exchange for all of his hit records, take a look and decide for yourself—but whatever you do, DON'T WRITE TO US ABOUT IT!

"I've never done a Presley song," Gordon declared. "I wouldn't even have thought about recording a Presley song before, because in some ways I might sound like him. But if it's somebody listening that really knows the music, I don't sound like him at all. I am doing a Presley song on this album, 'I Wanna Be Free,' and we do it in the show. Not that many people know, it's from the movie Jailhouse Rock. I would never do anything obvious."

Toby Goldstein

Warren Zevon: Just Baying At The Moon?

LOS ANGELES-Ross McDonald once described fellow mystery writer Raymond Chandler as a "slumming angel, who infested the streets of Los Angeles with a romantic presence," and for a first-time visitor to Los Angeles, that description also holds true for Warren Zevon. Certain slices of his wry, tense debut album capture with a novelist's flair the volatile surreality of this city, where neon romanticism and the deadly serious business of living meet face to face, as Zevon might have it, under a warm, full moon.

It's not hard to feel poor, poor and pitiful if your luck is ill enough to land you a room at the infamous Hyatt House, where the wasted waifs who people a song like "The French Inhaler" are up for sale in the lobby Lounge/ Coffee Shop.. .hell, probably even through room service. Zevon's lines echo through situations like the real Welcome To L.A., and even in an oily Sunset Strip disco, the screech of "Stayin' Aliiive!!!" (by Alvin, Theodore and Maurice Bee Gee) can't blot out the beat of another "dance," as Zevon calls it— "The Werewolves Of London." The place was filled with hairy, hound-toothed beasts, "and (their) hair was perfect!"

For the outsider, there are a few palliatives which make these visions of L.A. as a "sleazy bedroom town" bearable. You could drink up all the salty Margueritas, or...

"Well,'I Had To Laugh'is one of the great inventions of American literature," suggested Zevon with an intense stare. "Kurt Vonnegut. In Slapstick, every other chapter ends—'I had to laugh' which," said Zevon after a pause, "is sort of an attitude I subscribe to."

Zevon isn't to be found stalking the streets as his wolf-like myth may suggest. Sitting in the living room of his "tasteful" two-story Spanish house, surrounded by his family, piano, recorders and an overstuffed bookshelf, he looked all the part of an author-in-retreat, an image Zevon seems to find unshakable with the release of his second LP—Excitable Boy. Though he wrote the book on the whole "sensitive El Lay singer/songwriter" trip in one song—"Desperados Under The Eaves"— and did his share of struggling, ad writing and backup musician gigs, his seriousness lets you know he's not just another new kid in town. But he can't explain just why.

In fact, the manner in which his debut album coalesced into an El Lay epic was quite accidental: "I didn't write the songs with any deliberate attempt at that. In fact, very much after the fact, I read that I was supposed to write like Nathaniel West [Day Of The Locust], so I read his works to see where any resemblance might lie. And I couldn't see any. I didn't find it unflattering, though.

"I used to consider myself somewhat of a journalist/ composer instead of a songwriter," Zevon said. "In some cases that may be true, say on 'The French Inhaler,' but the distinction I make is between writing about the experience and having the experience influence what you write."

Excitable Boy is quite the literary album with more cryptic and illusory heroes ("Excitable Boy"), villains ("The Werewolves of London") .historical romanticism ("Veracruz," a song about the Zapata revolution about which Zevon tells us "I then went back and researched in order to give it some historical accuracy") and trademark violent edges than Zevon's first.

It is hardly an L.A. album in sound or song.. "Roland The Headless Thompson Gunner," perhaps the LP's most expansive cut, was cowritten with David Lindell, a soldier of fortune Zevon met in Spain who sat at the far end of the couch and de: monstrated his mastery of the clandestine whisper: "That song is true, but the names have been changed to protect the guilty," he said, touching his finger to his lips.

Having triggered a slew of literary comparisons— McDonald, West, Joan Didion and many others, Zevon is nonetheless cautious about his Los Angelino literary image. In fact, he's considering a move to New York City for a "change of venue," and in certain ways dismisses the role of "author": "I think it's much more likely that I'll write music without words someday thart words without music," said the classically trained pianist. "But the lyrics seem to be what people react to most strongly. I really can't tell you where my songs come from, but my interest in things and my writing comes from the way the things sound...the way they sing. There are meanings that are sometimes consciously explored, and there are other things I explore the meaning of which are a total mystery to me.

"I just want to write what I hear."

Rob Patterson

5 Years Ago

We Shoulda Stopped 'Em

Emerson, Lake & Palmer have billed their world tour as the biggest event since Cincinnati. The caravan, dubbed "Get Me A Ladder," requires 50 roadies and 20 tons of qguipment, plus the dreaded "Proscenium," a specially designed' Roman stage.