October 2 7, 1969
The N. C. Essay
Page 6
What's seen with the eye
Can be missed by the ear,
So listen my children
And you will hear
How, because of some provocation
Robert Ward required convocation.
Twas on peaceful Wednesday
In the year '69 when
Thoughts of assembly had been left
far behind
Then suddenly - a voice broke through
the muck.
"Everyvon going to assembly get into
za truck I"
So they loaded us in like so many
sheep.
"Please, no one to talkl" (There
wasn’t a peep.)
They settled us down in hard creaky
chairs
To center stage we fixed all our
stares.
_ _ (coKt. -rronn
PH€'FLVT€
There's an LP out now that's
relevant to this rap. It's called
Preflyte (Together ST - T 1001), by
the five original Byrds. Strange,
here new the end of 1969, to hear
an album made by five musicians who
stopped making music together as
early as 1966. But no matter, the
record here, possessing a sad and
distant beauty. I'm glad someone
finally realized how important the
contribution of the original Byrds
was/is.
The songs on the album were
recorded before the group "made it"
nationally. The performances are
primitive and the porduction shoddy,
but there is a haunting charm con
tained in the music, a spirit which
lurks around the edges of the al
most, but not quite, crystalized
concepts. The songs were made before
the Byrds themselves knew what it
meant to be a Byrd, before the
soaring harmonies and the rich gui
tar patterns were created. These
songs came before hippies, psyche
delic, and long before the group
experienced the long, painful
series of splits and returns which
was to destroy them. It was back
when McGuinn and Clark dreamed of
an electric, folk-oriented rock and
roll band. It was when we were all
a little younger.
Most of the songs were written
by Clarke, in his typical Midwestern/
Missouri homespun fashion; songs
that concern honest feelings and con
vey real moods. The group isn't
always musically together, but you
can feel them getting closer. Eeve
Without You, You Won't Have To Cry,
I Knew I'd Want You^ and Tamboux>ine
Man all appear in their embryonic
stages. Other songs point to the
distinctive style that was later to
reach maturity and characterize the
group: You Movin', You Showed Me^
She Has A Way3 and Fon> Me Again.
A crash of the cymbals. A roll of
the drums.
("Hail To The Chief", the faculty
hums).
President, Chief, Kemosabe, Boss,
Lord
The Man, El Grando, Senior, Robert
Ward I
No Barrymore profile. No moustache
he twirls
Just one simple greeting: "Hello
boys and girls!"
It could have been minutes, maybe a
week
(I lost track of time when he started
to speak.)
"Many years ago, it's safe to say,
Certain measureswere taken to find
some safe way to reach out to the
masses, to direct concentration, to
assemble to learn, to create medi
tation on ideas that mean much to
this generation,all of these measures
without provocation. This is the
reason for this approbation.
I hope we can do it without alienation.
If we can then we will, if we can't,
well, damnation!
If we do, we can shine like the great
^ constellations
Oh! Joyous to see this nice convo
cation!
So what do you think, girls and boys -
He stopped, and he listened.
What was that noise?
He glared through the footlights
And what did he see
Every boy - every girl ZZZZZZZZZZZZ
ZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ
JUt 6E THC
FIRST TO V0\SVi YOU
Pveftyte is an LP that shows a
young band experiencing the growing
pains necessary for greatness to be
achieved. It makes little sense to
criticize the loose ends; you can't
do that when something larger is
happening, when spirits are being
born. The Byrds are timeless, it
seems as if they've always been here
and I can't imagine a world without
them. Today, Roger McGuinn continues
to be a Byrd, while others lend that
spirit elsewhere. The group has
changed, but to Roger's credit, the
quality of the music has not. Being
a Byrd is McGuinn's trip and while
others may come and go, the Byrds
roll on. And in the end, that young
lady may prove right.
Tl
I';
In reporting the results of
the Third Van Clibum International
Piano Competition in last week's
Essay, omission was made of the fact
that Irwin Freundlich, member of
the NCSA Piano Department, had a
student who won two prizes in that
competition. Diane Walsh, the
youngest of the seventeen contest
ants who were prepared to meet the
mammouth requirements of the com-
peition (She has just turned nineteen),
not only finished among the six
prize-winning finalists but also won
the special Van Cliburn Award(given
by Van himself) for the best perform
ance of a chamber music work. Her
chamber music offering was the
Trio in D Major^ op. 70^ No. I (The
Ghost) by Beethoven. She also per
formed the Prokofieff Concerto No. 2
in G Minor with the Ft. Worth Sym
phony in the final round. Miss
Walsh has studied with Mr. Freundlich
for the past eight years and is pre
sently in his class at Juilliard.
Her family originally comes from
Lenoir, North Carolina.
rffCflfiTnev^Htwpi,
Gibb also revealed that Mc
Cartney had been replaced in the
group by the never declared winner
of a "Paul McCartney Look-Alike"
contest held two years ago. Thus,
the DJ assumed that the winner was
quickly and quietly ushered into the
role of a Beatle. Gibb also implied
that this was one reason the group
stopped concert tours.
Officials at Apple (the Beaties'
recording company) stated that the
reports were not true, adding that
while McCartney had not been seen at
Apple for several days they were cer
tain he was still alive. Beatle
John Lennon called the whole business
"pure nonsense". Finally, the man in
question arrived in London to pro
claim his existance. McCartney ex
plained that he and his wife, Linda
Eastman, had taken a few days to go
motoring in the country. Paul
stated that the reports concerning his
death had been greatly exaggerated.
He added that were he to die, he
would probably be the last to know.
But despite the rumors and the
denials, one must wonder what is
actually going on. Is Gibb just a
quack vying for attention, as it
seems, or does he have valid infor
mation? Is the whole incident a
publicity stunt? If that is the case,
just how much, if at all, did the
Beatles have to do with its being
pulled off?
In any case, it would seem that
such a situation is foolish and
childish, whoever is responsible.
The Beatles do not need that kind of
publicity to insure their popluarity.
And we don't need shucks of this
nature.