ROCK A RAMA

ROCK A RAMA

This month’sRock-a-ramas were written by Richard Riegel, Michael Davis, Billy Altman and Richard C. Walls

ROBERT JOHNSON—Close Personal Friend (Infinity):: This guy actually goes Elvis Costello’s name ploy one better, by appropriating the entire moniker of a certain famous and deceased bluesman. This new Robt. Johnson (a white guy, by the way) mixes his metaphors even further by resembling a young John Denver about the face, but dressing in the pegged pants popularized by yet another stiff, Eddie Cochran. Standard post-coke mooning-overrelating-to-June mushy lyrics, but put to skeletal, rhythmic rockabilly, played by a power trio that’s sometimes just a multi-instrumental Johnson himself. Aiming for all-American Beach Boy musical archetypes (gurls & cars) all the while, Johnson might be described as a disingenuous Walter Egan. As interesting as it is eccentric.

R.R.

SCORPIONS—Tokyo Tapes (RCA):: A convincing case for rock as international language here: a German band playing English-style heavy metal in front of an appreciative Japanese audience on a record released in America. Noise communicates.

M.D.

ALEC R. CONSTANDINOS AND THE SYNCOPHONIC ORCHESTRA-Hunchback of Notre Dame (Casablanca):: Gargoyle Fever, courtesy of the man who brought us Disco Jesus. “Maybe he is kinda short and terribly ugly,” thinks Esmeralda, “but that Quasi can sure shake his modo.”

B.A.

ROLAND KIRK—Pre-Rahsaan (Prestige):: This re-issue is composed of two sets, the first being a funky straight-ahead session from ’61 featuring organist Jack McDuff and the second a more outre" and varied session from ’68 featuring Jaki Byard, a pianist who shared Kirk’s propensity for drawing from the whole of jazz history. Two of Kirk’s finest sets (his very finest set was Rip, Rig, & Panic, issued on Limelight/Mercury in ’65 and, in the American tradition of honoring its artists, it’s still available in your sleazier supermarkets). The liner notes/ eulogy are a revelation, specifically if, like myself, you always thought of Kirk as a stone curmudgeon.

R.C.W.

JEAN MICHEL JARRE—Equinoxe (Poly dor):: Fuck it, why bother with critics when you can read the publicity yourself: “Far beyond the traditional music scale”/“Most present-day musical experiments are only abstract structures”/ “Background music for airports and stores and commercial spots”/“Tenderness, breathing and dreams”/“The future begins today”. Yeah, and I listened and verified that all that stuff is on the record. Whaddaya know?!

R.R.

TOTO (Columbia):: On which a band of musicians who have formerly played with the likes of Steely Dan, Boz Scaggs and Hall and Oates unite to produce a debut album that often sounds very much like Steely Dan, Boz Scaggs and/or Hall and Oates, only not one tenth as good as any of their former employers. I remember when using the word eclectic in regard to. a group was a compliment.

B.A.

BOB JAMES—Touchdown (Tappan Zee):: Jazz, or something sort of like it, perfectly tailored for the disco-accommodated FM masses.Don’t Steve Gadd & Dave Sanborn & all the guys from Stuff ever step outside the studio just to take a piss or something remotely human? Seamless and sweet, the “Theme from Taxi” is perfect for those long winter evenings after your weekly therapy sessions. Not an edge to hang on to in the bunch, but it’s your breakthrough at stake, after

all. R.R.

TRIUMPH—Rock & Roll Machine (RCA):: More power trio hindsight from our upper North American brethren. Amps in flames on the cover and damned if there aren’t not only actual references to Kiss—“Playing licks that are hotter than hell”—but a song called “24 Hours a Day” that could easily have been the follow-up to “Rock and Roll Ail Nite.” One will also find here “Blinding Light Show/Moonchild,” which goes from fast to slow to plodding to slow to fast to plodding to acoustic guitar lullaby. All this in a mere 8:43! And let’s not forget the five minute unaccompanied guitar solo on the title track. Who would have thought ten years ago that the biggest influence on Canadian rock would turn out to be Blue Cheer?

B.A.

STEVE FORBERT—Alive On Arrival (Nem peror)::This has gotta be the double-damned debut of the year. Not only is Forbert an unabashed folkie but he’s good. You tell me which means less in 1979.

M.D.

DR. HOOK—Pleasure & Pain (Capitol):: The Dr. Hook gang doesn’t go in for too much knee-slappin’ nonsense these days—at least not on their albums—but rather they seem to have perfected the countrypop ballad form to a science. Each new LP produces at least one hit, due mainly to the fine crooning of Ray Sawyer and Dennis Locorriere, who have turned out to be the Flo and Eddie of the 70's.

B.A.

BABY GRAND—Ancient Medicine (Arista):: Nothing at all ancient about Baby Grand’s second album. This is strictly technocratic music making, which means eliminating such molded concepts of songwriting and playing as structure, chorus and melody. The result is a set of not only thoroughly forgettable “pieces” (I hesitate to call these travesties songs) that includes one of the most offensive cover versions of a great song ever nervily attempted—an “update” of “Walk Away Renee” that assumes that the verses are too short and so re-arranges the lyrics, and also destroys all of the song’s stark beauty musically. Let’s hear it for the modern world.

B.A.

HERO—Boys Will Be Boys (20th Century Fox):: Pseudo-punk music from Mike Curb productions and let’s hope that now that he’s Lt. Guv of California that he’ll leave the record industry behind him and make it a better universe for all of us. Songs with titles like “Back on the Street”, “I Heard You in the Alley”, “I Get Mad” and “Children’s Crusade” done up lazily by a bunch of bozos who aren’t fit to carry the Dead Boys’ used band-aids.

B.A.