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effects on the part of Burdon. However, the song comes across
3S good for some reason or another. Maybe it's just that old
animal magnetism that captivates the listener. “Colored Rain”
is fittingly the final sound on the first record of this
two-record set. Ifs nine minutes and forty seconds of bestial
catharsis in the final animalistic tradition. The primative urges
are far from purged while listening to this hymnal to the rain
sods ("Bring it on down, baby” - now is that any way to talk
to a god?) The guitar solo in this song is about the best that
the Animals have shown yet, and that's p-r-e-t-t-y good. The
introduction to “to Love Somebody” is a fine experiment in
musical zoology, but the chorus sounds like something 1 once
heard in a Rotary Connection album - hmmm.
"As the Years Go Passing By” is a talking blues' history of
Burdon’s own brute carnality, at least that’s how it sounds.
The guitar comes on strong as it bemoans the fate ot all we
inept creatures of the kingdom of fauna. The echoes of
Madman/Gemini counterpoint the reverberations of the vocal
scheme in a quite pleasing manner. Burdon exists after this
near-twenty-minute finale with the same flair that he exhibits
in person. “Isn’t that the madman running through the fields?
Isn’t that the madman? Wonder how he feels.”
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GREETINGS' WE’RE THE MONITORS should be
retitled THE FIRST AND LAST ALBUM OF SOUL JUNK. It
lust doesn’t come off well at all. These two guys and a gal
from Detroit should be set back years in their “climb to
stardoom” when this album hits the market. There’s too much
shouting and not enough singing. Soul Records has surely
made a tragic mistake in sponsoring this conglameration of
lacklustre junk. The Monitors sound like just another
small-time soul group. Their voices are not too bad. as
exemplified in “Since I Lost You Girl,” but their material and
their treatment of it leave a lot to be desired (although
certainly not the album). The group fails to make their “own
sweet music” in such an outstanding manner that one hesitates
to turn the record over. It opens with “Greetings (This Is
Uncle Sam)”. It’s a song about a boy who has just gone into
the army (to escape the music of The Monitors?). Not too
good! The record gets better with the silence between songs
(the silences get longer out of respect to the art of music that
The Monitors have killed.) It’s over. Want my copy?
y, and |
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“How do you pronounce ‘machinations’?”
“I don’t know. Just listen. Pronunciations are not really
necessary here.”
And so the opening of a discussion about Marvin Stramm’s
new Verve release MACHINATIONS might run. It may be a
type of jazz. It probably is. The music comes from the most
unlikely sources, but it fits together pretty doggone well. The
arrangements of Johnny Carsi bring about a harmony that
seeks some sort of sensational recognition. (Would you helieve
a tune from a Richard Rodgers’ musical in juxtaposition to a
bossa nova melody and just on the flip side of a wedding
dance?)
What’s important to the world of jazz on this album? Just
the way that the flutes, clarinets, and trumpets interact to
form a balanced concept, modifyed by saxaphones, a rythm
section and that nouveau riche of the jazz world, the
fluegelhorn. The hungry listener can expect to see this type of
avant garde jazz to raise the mother art from her present
complacency and join the trend - electric improvisation.
The sound of the title tune leaps at the lethargic listener and
moans, “modern metropolis morning music.” Hence, the
implications contained in the album title. “Saodades” is bossa
nova. Jobim it ain’t, but it gets across the intended mood, with
ease. Marvin himself shines through here as an artist, adapt and
articulate armed with a fantastic horn of fluegel. “Wedding
Dance” invokes the muse in her Middle Eastern masque. And
what a sax solo! Side uno closes out with “Bleaker Street”,
which is anything but bleak. The record jacket calls it
Armenian. 1 call it good.
Side two is more than just the backside. It is enough of a
record to make money without the sister side’s presence. The
first selection is entitled “Eruza.” That must mean something
like “fine flute and prescious piano combine consciously for
erotic ending” (a very loose translation, of course). The best
cut on the album is the next treat. Of this arrangement Morgan
Ames says, “Flute Thing” was written by A1 Kooper and first
recorded by The Blues Project (before Kooper started “Blood,
Sweat, and Tears”). And this “Flute Thing”, with Dick
Spencer and Mortie Lewis on the title instrument, is one of the
best flute things to be heard in years. It’s all incense, pagodas,
and silver filigree, with one final organ run by Dick Hyman.” I
doubt that this is a better flute thing than the Project’s original
version, but it comes mighty close. It may be AS good, and
that is supurb. “Jes’ Plain Bread” is good, but not really
anything about which to rave. Nuff said. Trumpets dominate
the Carisi arrangernent of Rodgers’ “March of the Siamese
Children.” And the flowerchild motif is prevalent. This tune
may march the album right into fame. The Stramm treatment
of “Sunny” may cause a few of the pop fans to shake their
fists in anger - and jealousy. It’s not what one expects to get
with “Sunny,” and, so as not to reveal the mysterious ending,
I won’t tell just what the innovation is.
“Summerise.”
“Not a chance.”
“Ah, come on. Just a short synopsis.”
“Well, all right. If you insist...”
“No that’s ok.”
V Review
Hark, What Was
TTiat? Romeo and Jidiet?
Bv WI T.
A cast of obscure European
actors and actresses played
ROMEO AND JULIET last night
at the Village Theater, and
William Shakespeare was the loser.
Tlie outcome was never in doubt
after the movie began with a
bloody battle scene. That
inadequate production ot the
tragedy of Verona would be
enough to frighten a reader and
prevent him from ever reading a
single word by the Bard ot Avon.
The expressed intent ot the
producers was to type cast the
roles of the title characters. They
wanted the actor who played
Romeo to BE an infatuated young
boy of seventeen. The “boy” they
selected had a moderate beard and
was presented as a master
swordsman and provocative
thinker. The English voice dubbed
in over the Italian script was the
voice of a thirty-year-old
“youth.” The young girl who
portrayed Juliet was over five and
a half feet tall. She towered over
many of the adults in the
screenplay, hardly a characteristic
of the average thirteen-year-old
child. She wore too much
make-up and she never seemed to
involve herself deeply with
Romeo. She never even
approached the potential of the
role, never even hinted at the
subtle maturity and dead-pan
wisdom of Miss Capulet. The two
of them never really seemed like
they were caught up in the
presentation of the roles.
Montague and Lady Montague
were not old enough to exemplify
the generation gap that the
playwrite originally implyed. Nor
did Friar Lawrence seem to be a
man of the cloth. He resembled a
general store philosopher or
scheming plotter more than a
Franciscan monk.
in the film adaptation. This is
another omission that les.sens the
distinction between the
mature-for-her-age Juliet and the
fickle Romeo of the play. Many
of the comic lines ot Merculio and
Juliet's nurse (who is portrayed
quit e ably b y
are omitted. The well-versed
reader of Shakespeare will see this
as an attempt to darken the tone
of the play and intensify the
tragedy, but this is totally
inconsistent with the moving ol
the riot between the Capulets and
the Montagues into a bawdy
tavern. I’eter. Juliet's nurse's
servant, is the most comic
character in the movie, and one
begins to expect his bumbling
ertmedy to be based in some evil
design on the House ol Montague.
I'yball and I’aris are presented
as absolute villians; I'yball as a
vengeful plotter and coward, and
Baris 'as a lecherous old man.
Shakespeare loses another tall.
Shakespeare does not present
stage directions to implicate
Romeo as the ojie responsible lor
(Continued to l\ige S)
'^‘■Son of Bitch-III
The adapters took a great deal
of license with Shakespeare’s
original lines and side plots, but
failed to edit in places where the
rhyming dialogues appeared
obviously out of place.
(The character of Merculio was
excellently played, in as much as
he was allowed to say anything.)
His persistent chiding of Romeo
for being a foolish boy is missing
(Continued from Page d)
faculty decision. Some ol these
classes are sei up so that the
people of the community could
participate, and others are set up
at the discretion of the instructors
giving the course.
Larry Miller asked about
allocation of funds to different
organizations on campus, and
about the only thing that was
resolved is that everybody is still
learning...and open to suggestions.
Someone mentioned the game
room, 1 think it was Larry again,
and asked if there would be any
new equipment in the near luture.
Mr. Batchelor referred Larry to
Dean MacKay who was in the
audience and Dean MacKay said
only that there wasn’t enough
room down there now-and that
they’ve not been able to make any
plans yet. An interesting point
was brought out in the discussion:
all profits from the game room,
cafeteria, and bookstore are
funneled back into the Union,
which is presently operating at a
substantial loss. Maybe that’s why
books are so darned expensive.
That’s another question that
should’ve been asked, but wasn’t.
Chancellor Colvard said that
the administration has to keep the
school within it budget...and
growth is a very costly process.
There are many lough
questions and no simple answers.
Docs UNC-C plan for the future
and expand now, so that we have
to pay for unused facilities with
our limited funds, or do we wait
until we need it, when it may be
IS
a ten ibie
UNC-C To
Sheldon P.
Ded icate
Smith
Engineering Buildi ng
Reprinted from the Charlotte Observer
The man who led the drive to
get engineering courses in
Charlotte will be memorialized in
the decdication of the
two-year-old engineering building
at the University of North
Carolina at Charlotte.
The building will be named for
the late Sheldon P. Smith,
long-time general manager and
vice-president of the now closed
Charlotte plant of Douglas
Aircraft.
Smith was a trustee for
Charlotte College for 10 years
before it became part of the
consolidated university.
The dedication ceremonies will
take place on Sunday, Dece. 15 at
the University Union. UNC-C
Chancellor D. W. Colvard will
preside.
For 10 years Smith stressed the
importance of engineering
education to industry in
Charlotte. As early as 1956, he
proposed bringing extension
courses from N.C. State College
here.
Tribute to Smith will be paid
by Brodie S. Griffith, associate
publisher of the Charlotte
Observer and the Charlotte News,
and John Paul Lucas, vice
president of Duke Power Co. and
member of the N.C. Board of
Higher Education.
The Smith family will present a
portrait to hang in the engineering
building.
too late? Money
inconvenience.
Why loaded weapons loi the
Campus Security Force? The same
answei tlial we've heard before:
thefts, part of the uniform, and
that the practice is not
inconsistent with that of other
campuses throughout the state.
liarl Baticotn asked about the
allocation of special lees. Why
should a humanities student, for
example, have to cotitribute lab
fees wheti that tnotiey might be
better spent in ati area where he
could take advatttage of it? I)i.
McEniry said quite simply that
the probletn was more thati just
distribution of the fimds-there
just isti’t enough to go around,
and efforts are made to see that
they go where they’ll be the tnost
useful.
"How are faculty tnettihers
choseit?”, asked Dariyle
Robinsott. “By their credentials
alone?” Dr. McEniry replied that
they arc interviewed on campus,
that their records are closely
checked. This immediately
brought up the queslioit of
instructor evaluatioti. attd how the
departtnent checks on its
instructors. Dr. McEniry said that
there is probably not a student on
campus who doesti’t kttow who
the good and bad instructors ate,
and that scuttlebutt gets to the
professors too. (A student rating
of the faculty is probably not to
far in the future for UNC'-G, for
everyone, ittcluding the
Adtuinistration seems to think its
necessary.)
Those were the questions,
except perhaps for one or two
short ones that I couldn’t copy
down fast enough. Were they
worthwhile? Probably so, but tiot
for the more obvious reasons.
Students arc given to
complaining about the
depersonalization of Uttiversity
life, and how they dislike beitig
treated as ciphers in the mass. It
may just be, however, that we, the
students, do the same thing to out-
faculty attd administration-thitik
of them as “things” rather thatt as
people. As it turned out, some
students spoke to the
Administration, while others
spoke to people just like you and
(me?) people who could squirm a
little if the questions were
difficult or unfair, people who
could be serious or humorous
depending upon their mood, or
people who cared about the
students. I find that very
reassuring.
IXte to the fact that thca- ate
over 5(X) niillion Christians in
the world, UNC’-C will adjoitm
for the niristnias holidays. Hie
last day of elas.ses will Ix' the
eigliteenth of this nwnth. I he
das.scs will msiinx’ on tlx- sixth
of nc'xt year.