45 REVELATIONS

45 REVELATIONS

KEN BARNES

Welcome back, my friends, to the show that never ends. The early 1970s have returned. As the nostalgia cycle swings past the ’60s, all over the airwaves the soaring spirit of the progressive era, when musicians were musicians and lyrics were mystical claptrap, is reborn.

A new 25 + male-slanted AOR oldies format insures that on some radio stations, you’ll hear your fill of Genesis, Yes, Emerson, Lake & Palmer, and all the fabled giants of yesteryear. But the fabled giants of yesteryear are all over the current rock radio formats, too. For the first two weeks in June, four of the top five AOR tracks were by originals, spinoffs, or descendants of Genesis, Yes, or ELP; a couple weeks earlier, five of the contemporary hit radio Top 40 were Genesis-related.

I’d like to be outraged by this turn of events, but I’m ambivalent instead. Certainly the idea of listening to one of those early ’70s gold formats curdles the lower intestines, and for so many of the artists who made that time the dreariest era in white rock history to survive is annoying. But the survivors have smartened up. Of the Genesis spinoffs, Peter Gabriel’s “Sledgehammer” is a funny, snappy loveme-entendre dancer, while “Invisible Touch” is Genesis’s crispest pop record in years. And while the Moody Blues are back as well, “Your Wildest Dreams” is one of those records you secretly like even if you’d never admit it in public.

But when the charts are full of ’70s granola generation refugees, I say thank heavens for the black bopper records. Songs like “Crush On You” by the Jets, “Who’s Johnny” by El DeBarge, “We Don’t Have To Take Our Clothes Off” by Jermaine Stewart, and Five Star’s (British-only single) “RSVP” give pop radio its bounce and sparkle, and are doing a hell of a job (along with more mature but no less lively records like “Nasty” and “Kiss”) of reintegrating a once dangerously separatist music mix. (If you want to hear a thoroughly segregated format, check out those AOR gold stations—all white now!)

However, I can even work up a little ambivalence about the dance records’ domination of the Top 40, usually because of the lame British appropriations of the basic beat and because, when two-thirds of the records you hear have the same tempo (and it approaches that proportion in L.A.), it can be a bit wearying.

Fortunately, there are some good straight rockers at the moment—the Stones’ “One Hit” is rapidly becoming one classic, even if it’s not a big hit, and the Fab T-Birds is more than tuff enuff. The balance of hits is pretty healthy, all in all, and besides records previously cited in this column (Madonna/Nu Shooz/ Janet Jackson/Bangles), I can find something to like in a host of other hits: 38 Special’s “Like No Other Night,” another in a string of solid chart items; Heart’s “Nothin’ At All,” an upbeat relief from the fluttery poetics of “These Dreams”; Level 42’s KCish relaxing groove on “Something About You”; Prince’s “Mountains,” a slow-growing hypnotizer with sitars (“Kiss” ’s ascetic falsetto/mental journey took a while to click with me too); Kenny Loggins, sounding energetic on “Danger Zone”; Belinda Carlisle’s “Mad About You,” the Fixx’s “Secret Separation,” and even Mr. Mister’s “Is It Love,” all with good choruses, at least.

Having cycled around to a more optimistic mood than the one in which I started writing, I’ll tackle some of the newer records, starting with the Single of the Month. Considering the number of raves I’ve accorded “I Can’t Wait,” it’s no surprise that the new Nu Shooz single, “Point Of No Return,” is the winner. It’s not quite the subtle groove masterpiece the first hit was, but it’s even more irresistible in the rhythmic neo-girl group bag, and Valerie Day is the new pop hiphop queen.

In the same vein, Dhar Braxton’s “Jump Back” is a bit tougher, a bit less poppy, and promising; while Shirley Murdock’s “Truth Or Dare” is even tougher.

Then there’s Madonna’s “Papa Don’t Preach” (a friend heard it haphazardly on the radio and thought the title was “Papa John Creach”). I wouldn’t be surprised if I ended up obsessed by it musically (the opening strings are a great bit and her vocal is top-of-the-line), but the “l’m-keeping-mybaby-and-we’re-gonna-get-marriedanyway” message is on the tame side. I guess you can’t expect Madonna to man the barricades, but this seems almost hidebound in its conventionality.

Luther Vandross displays a subtle vocal virtuosity on “Give Me A Reason.” The Timex Social Club’s “Rumors,” which may be a milestone record, opens up a new half-sung half-rap realm worth exploring further.

Rescued from oblivion, Rick Nelson’s late ’70s version of "Rave On” rocks hard enough to make Buddy Holly proud; Holly would also probably approve of Rake McEntlre’s country hit “Savin’ My Love For You,” essence of Crickets with a fiddle.

Steve Earle has reached critical mass (funny how it takes an LP to start the reviewers salivating; singles fans have been digging his whipcord modern rockabilly for years). “Guitar Town” is high-grade motoring Earle, even better than “Hillbilly Highway,” and he deserves all that praise now coming his way.

Katrina & The Waves’ “Sun Street” sounds at first like so much happy-go-lucky vaudevillized inconsequence, and was probably picked for a single because of its blithe sound and a title that might remind people of “Walking On Sunshine,” but its sting of a tale about alcohol abuse adds a darker layer. Still, there’s stronger material on the LP, and on the flip side, “(A Man Only Needs) One Woman,” reminiscent in parts of the Stones’ “Last Time.”

Luba, the Canadian band led by the singer of the same name, hits a peak with “How Many (Rivers To Cross),” a dramatic, emotion-packed rhythmic power ballad. Icehouse’s “No Promises” is lulling and seductive in their usual Ferry-Cross-TheHemisphere style.

The Smiths’ self-mockingly-titled “Big Mouth Strikes Again” is another guitarladen dazzler. How anyone can croon lines like “Sweetheart, I was only joking when I said/You should be bludgeoned in your bed” and convey warmth, vulnerability, and irony at the same time is a continuing mystery. Also check the 12-inch’s flip, a pretty ballad called “Unloveable.”

Meanwhile, Smiths singer Morrissey’s erstwhile comeback protegee Sandie Shaw, on the flip of a velvety version of Lloyd Cole’s “Are You Ready To Be Heartbroken,” pens a heartfelt tribute, “Steven (You Don’t Eat Meat)”(“but you eat your heart out”), repaying her debts to the great man himself and ironically once and for all demonstrating the debt Chrissie Hynde owes her—this is pure Pretenders in part and very nearly a Single of the Month.