VIDEO VIDEO

VIDEO VIDEO

LIFE, LIBERTY, AND THE PURSUIT OF CHANNEL SELECTION

Billy Altman

Have you seen those ads that MTV has been running for itself on “regular” television lately? You know, the ones that feature the tag line “MTV— it’s not for everyone”? Well, watching the cable channel over the past few months, it seems that MTV certainly isn’t for everyone. The station seems more determined than ever to conduct itself as if it’s the video equivalent of a Top 40 radio station. Any sense of “adventure” that used to be associated with the station now seems, in retrospect, to have simply been a function of the newness of the medium itself. With a playlist limited by what acts they’d like to see on top (“Nona Hendryx doesn’t fit in to our format”), and with their much-trumpeted advocacy of “new” music growing ever more tunnel-visioned (“Loverboy sneak preview! Tonight at 7, 10, and 11:30!”), the time seems to be ripe for a healthy challenge by any station Willing to do the very simple thing that MTV has stopped doing—namely, just screen the damned things and let the audience decide what it likes and doesn’t like. Which is exactly what a new VHF channel in the metropolitan New York area is doing and which is why, these days, I want my UTV.

Known as “U68,” New York’s rebel music video channel is really a combination of two separate stations—Newark, New Jersey’s WWHT and Smithtown, Long Island’s WSNL—who joined hands and transmitters to create a signal strong enough to be picked up all through New York, New Jersey and Connecticut. The station started about a year ago, showing videos for a limited number of hours during the day, but it’s grown enough so that, as 1986 began, it was broadcasting non-stop video music all day and well into the wee hours of the night. U68 doesn’t seem to have much of a budget; there are no on-screen announcers (outside of some mid-afternoon entertainment news reporters, one of whom is local legend Uncle Floyd, the “adult kiddie show” star), and no real “specials” to speak of. U68 just carts ’em up and runs ’em. You will definitely be embarrassed when Yoko performs her songs. Actually, “Sisters O Sisters”—which John introduces as this newfangled reggae music, but actually sounds more like a Phil Spector girl group song, thereby letting you know that John helped her write it—isn’t nearly as embarrassing as “Cook Of The House” was. But “Born In A Prison” just might remind you of what it was you so intensely disliked about Yoko back then, having less to do with the Beatles’ demise than it did with the fact that she had no apparent aptitude for rock— and she wrote inane lyrics to boot. And you may feel inclined to shout obscene comments at your screen when Yoko literally squeals and grunts like one of your barnyard friends throughout an otherwise fine rendition of “Hound Dog.” On the other hand, you may marvel at what a great (in the classic rock ’n’ roll sense) backing band Elephant’s Memory was, and how tremendous they sounded playing Lennon’s music. It may help you recall that Lennon was probably the biggest rock ’n’ roll romantic the genre has ever produced. Above all, you just may want to turn the sound up real loud to relish great performances of “It’s So Hard,” “Well, Well, Well,” “Mother,” “Instant Karma,” “Come Together,” ‘‘Cold Turkey” and the aforementioned “Hound Dog.”

Watch U68 and suddenly you get to see videos you never knew existed, like “Appetite” by England’s Prefab Sprout, “I’ve Got A Right” by New York’s Lenny Kaye, and “Border Girl” by Texas’s Omar & The Howlers. You want some soul, dance, or rap? How about Whitney Houston, Evelyn King, the aforementioned Ms. Hendryx, Lisa Lisa and Cult Jam, and the whole Krush Groove gang? Metal more your speed? Will Iron Maiden, W.A.S.P., Saint Vitus, the Sabs, and others on the nightly “Power Hour”

from 11 to midnight do?

Watching a station like U68 is almost enough to make you believe in democracy. Of course; they’ve been petitioning to be allowed onto the cable channel system, as some other UHF stations in the area already are, and, naturally, MTV has been fighting to keep them off. But if a few more major cities start up independent video channels, and promote local acts the way U68 does, well then, we may just see the dictatorial programming walls of MTV start to crumble. And wouldn’t that be good for “everyone”?

SHOTS

My Front Pages: Tom Petty The Heartbreakers, “So You Want To Be A Rock ’N’ Roll Star”—Considering the fact that so much of Tom Petty’s success is directly attributable to his appropriation of Byrd noises, you’d assume he’d at least have the decency to cover this classic with a smidge of the irony intact. Instead, it just comes off like merry bombast. Oh well—as they say, you can lead a chestnut mare to culture, but you can’t make her think. Or something like that...Are You Sure Eddie & The Cruisers Started This Way? Charlie Sexton, “Beat’s So Lonely”— Memo to the powers that be at MCA: It’s clear—quite clear— that this kid’s got talent, but that doesn’t mean that he should be handled like an event. Look how long it took John Cougar to recover from a similar start. Just let that boy rock ’n’ roll, and he’ll be fine, okay? Squeezing Out Sparks: Jane Wiedlin, “Blue Kiss”—if it took the Go-Go’s breaking up to finally show just what a great hairdo this girl was capable of, so be it! Liz Taylor meets Yvonne Craig under a leopard-skin pillbox hat? Take my pulse, please...And This Is The Guy Who Got Mad About John Lennon And The Pig? Paul McCartney, “Spies Like Us”—Sometimes they cut off the end of this thing so you don’t see Macca, Aykroyd, and Chase making like the cover of Abbey Road. Move that cut-off time up about five minutes and I’ll have no complaints whatsoever.

MAKE ROOM FOR DADDY

JOHN LENNON: LIVE IN NEW YORK CITY (Sony Video LP) STAND BY ME: A PORTRAIT OF JULIAN LENNON (MCA Home Video)

Bill Holdship

John Lennon was planning to tour again at the time of his death. It could’ve been the rock show of a lifetime, partially because Lennon had finally come to terms with his role as an ex-Beatle and as a leader-of-sorts for an entire generation. What we must Settle for is this 1972 Madison Square Garden concert, which John & Yoko headlined to benefit mentally handicapped Children. It was their final show together, though Lennon performed three songs with Elton John at the same venue in 1974. John hadn’t come to terms with any of those things at the time of the benefit, and while there are some wonderful moments on display here, there’s probably nothing that’ll change the minds of those who thought he was an obnoxious jerk.

This was at the height of that pseudo-militant “guerilla” rock period, when excessive amounts of drugs made middle-class college kids decide to dress like Che Guevara and believe that rock ’n’ roll was gonna save the world. John & Yoko had just released Sometime In New York City, which had its musical moments and good intentions, but was often embarrassing from a lyrical standpoint. Thus, you may want to grimace when he sings “New York City” and “Woman Is The Nigger Of The World.” And you may want to ridicule him when he speaks some of the antiquated revolutionary “hip” jargon of the era.

You may be tempted to blame John & Yoko for the pointless show biz politics of bands like the Clash, U2, the Alarm, et. ai, as the video often makes them seem as rigid as these latter-day “moralists.” But in 1972, there was a senseless war going on in which young men were being killed. And watching John deliver his warm yet funny introduction to “Imagine” may help you recall how he always made you smile and laugh throughout his career. He and Yoko were clowns—but very special clowns. You may even recall how hard you laughed the first time you saw the Lennons’ bedin for peace televised, and John pointed at his head, stating very seriously: “Grow your hair. Grow it until peace comes, y’know.”

Overall, you may decide that in the case of John Lennon, the good far outweighed the bad— and that the gifts he gave to the world more than compensated for his occasionally being an obnoxious jerk, which all of us are sometimes wont to be.

• • •

As far as Julian Lennon’s video is concerned, I wanna be fair (he seems like a nice kidH§ but it’s a little harder to be kind here. A documentary of his debut live performance and subsequent concert tour, it begins with Julian stating how upset he becomes when people accuse him of “using” the Lennon name. The next shot is a group of adolescent girls singing “We love you, Julian” in the same manner that girls sang about his famous dad two decades beforehand Conrad Birdie prior to that). The video then proceeds to illustrate that Julian is where he is today because his father was John Lennon. Why else would he merit an America tour headlining in major concert halls, complete with adoring fans (most of whom are reminisced of those who proclaimed Klaatu really were the reunited Beatles back in the mid-’70s), after an LP as lightweight and unspectacular as Valotte?

He talks constantly about John, Yoko and the other Beatles—as do most of his fans—but Stand By Me reveals that Julian possesses none of his dad’s charisma, sense of humor (though he tries, even attempting to mimic some Lennonesque gobbledygook speech patterns), talent, rock ’n’ roll heart (his show is pure corporate rock) or imagination (covering “Day Tripper”—a bar band standard—is stupid, when you get right down to it).

More than anything, Stand By Me reveals that Julian Lennon has less to do with John Lennon than he does with Dino, Desi & Billy (Gary Lewis & the Playboys actually had better songs).