CLIPS

CLIPS

DEPARTMENTS

This month�s Clips was written by

Dave DiMartino

Martin Dio

Bill Holdship

MADONNA Madonna Live: The Virgin Tour

(Warner Music Video)

No problems with Madonna. The show�s not only just like the one I saw in Detroit last year, it is the one I saw in Detroit last year. Every song�s a genuine hit—no small accomplishment— and everything sounds just like the record. Only here you can see Madonna, in all her glory, dressed up in the clothes you love, all 83 of �em, singing and swinging and dancing her way into the heart of all America. Anybody that doesn�t like her either has personal problems, dislikes Italians or feels as if the world is passing them by while they sit at home brooding. Heinous crimes all. D.D.

WHITESNAKE Fourplay

(Sony Video 45)

To give credit where it�s due, Whitesnake is one heck of a technically proficient Brit metal band that would probably be much more successful in the States were fate not so fickle and the band�s songs not so unmemorable. Were they so dapper as the wonderful �Ratt� or as svelte as that group�s marvelous drummer Bobby Blotzer, they would be on magazine covers everywhere and Deep Purple would have never reformed and this whole album rating controversy would have never started and, quite probably, a pair of tragic plane crashes in Texas and Tokyo in August 1985 never would have occurred. Peace would be on our planet. As it stands, though, you�ll love this tape, especially if you�re a fan of Whitesnake and their Sony Video 45s, of which this is the first. M.D.

MARC BOLAN Marc Bolan On Video

(Passport Music Video)

This is a bit disappointing—17 songs, most of them from England�s Top Of The Pops TV program, most of them (poorly) lip-synched. It runs the gamut from early T. Rex to a heavyset Bolan on a huge swan for a dreadful production number of �Ride A White Swan.� The few highlights include Bolan dueting with Cilia Black on an acoustic �Life�s A Gas� (not lipsynched), a young Elton John adding his piano to �Bang A Gong (Get It On)� and Bolan harmonizing with his girlfriend, Gloria Jones, on Phil Spector�s �To Know You Is To Love You.� Includes his greatest songs (�Metal Guru,� �20th Century Boy,� etc.), but it hardly captures the brilliance—nor the guitar pyrotechnics—he was capable of during his best live performances. Narrated by Adam Ant, who tends to overrate Bolan�s importance just a tad. B.H.

RICHARD THOMPSON Across A Crowded Room

(Sony Video LP)

Filmed in Ottawa a while ago, this video may be the best possible introduction to the wondrous Richard Thompson. There are 84 primo minutes of the British guitarist to be had here, all with his very fine band—and all of it substantially different from the record of the same name. I�ve always enjoyed Thompson�s singing more than his ex-wife Linda�s, thus hearing him run through his classic �Did She Jump Or Was She Pushed� was, for me, alone worthy of the admission price. Again, great sound. These Hi-Fi videocassettes may run you 30 bucks, but for almost 90 minutes and a great light show, you�re gonna quibble about wanting a live album? Top-notch. D.D.

YES 9012Live

(Atlantic Video)

As marketing goes, this can�t be beat. First there�s 90125 the album, now there�s 9012Live the videocassette, and in any minute there�ll be 9012Live*The Solos, yet another album. It all overlaps, but none of it�s exactly the same. You say you like Yes? Six bucks for the first album. Thirty bucks for the video. Five bucks for the second album. That�s 41 bucks so far and the video�s gonna be shown on MTV anyway. D.D.