THE DAILY TAR HEEL
Page Three
Frank Parrish Review
GarolinaQearferly
6
Gasoline Alley'?
edged One Of Best
Friday, September 18, 1970
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Rod Stewart brings us a gatherum of
goodies in his second album. It includes a
pastoral post card, "Country Comforts,"
and old Stones' hit, "It's All Over Now,"
and some Dylan fare, "Only A Hobo."
Nicely balancing country, blues and rock
influences, Stewart gives all the material a
very personal touch.
He lends warmth and understanding to
lyrics and makes them believeable. He
becomes thoroughly involved with each
song. Rod Stewart seems to have
something in his throat-emotion, pain,
congestion-that etches a melody and a
mood on the listener's brain. Yet he sings
cleanly, purely and the words are never
lost in the feeling.
The instrumentation on this LP
enhances the intimacy and freshness of
the vocals. On the first cut, the title song,
We hear a mandolin which if it doesn't
take us back to Jim and Jesse, does
remind us that the instrument is excellent
for. lending rhythm and pace to a
performance. In "Gasoline Alley,"
besides evoking the past, Stewart assures
us you can truly go home again. For after
all, he whimsically intones, he is going
back ". . .to where I started from."
The second cut, an air stops-out romp
through "It's All Over Now" is
imaginatively arranged and performed in
madcap fashion. A honky-tonk piano sets
tempo, aided by Ron Woods' inventive
bottleneck guitar work. Despite the
distance between studio and purchasable
platter, we sense the ongoing lark during
this set. A Stewart friend, "of no fixed
abode," literally blows the whistle on this
number.
The hobo's rag and stick are splendidly
recreated in "Only a Hobo." Woods and
Stewart deepen the lament with
atmospheric fretting on acoustic guitars.
They complement each other superbly..
The hobo's memory held a. song. Now,
"one more is goneleaving nobody to
carry it on." Stewart's sensitive vocal,
supported by violins bowed in the Opry
manner, captures a sense of loss. It is not
Tennyson's "In Memorium" but will
suffice in the world of records.
Side 2 is more reflective than Side 1
but does contain an authentic rocker,
"Cut Across Shorty." Wherein, we meet a
nonpareil rake who never fails to connect
with the ladies. The piano dominates this
tunes and it is obtrusive and off-hand
enough to touch the heart of a Jerry Lee
Lewis.
119 EAST
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"Jo's Lament," though it appears to
be located at or near Nashville, is only
part of the comfortable context for
Stewart's music. Mac Davis drums out
pleasantly steady riffs while the
Woods-Stewart tandem coaxes forth
simple configurations on guitars. Over the
finely shaded music, we hear about the
despair resulting from unrequited love.
"Lady Day," another tale of
unrealized love, is made especially
poignant by Rod Stewart's anguished
vocalizing. Written and sung by Stewart,
it achieves melancholy without
preposterous sentimentalizing. He pours
his heart out without wearing it on his
sleeve afterwards. "Sometimes I get
scared when I remember too much," he
moans.
He remembers just enough in another
of his own songs, "Country Comforts."
The aging process has slowed perceptibly
so that 84-year-old Granma looks
ill-suited for spadefuls of dirt. And
progress does not invariably produce
happiness or delusions of happiness.
Farmer Grayson obstinately refuses to
swap a horse for a tractor. Bygone days
are not really gone if you cling
tenaciously to them, the song seems to
suggest.
"Gasoline Alley" demonstrates
admirably that records need not be
wholly dehumanized either. Masters,
looped tapes, overdubbing (used in this
LP) and other complexities of the
modern studio still don't ensure man's
mastery by machines and their operators.
Rod Stewart produced this album and
obviously did not lose himself in the
wonder of studio techniques. The
acoustic guitars, mandolin, violins, etc.
sound as if they are in the next room.
"Gasoline Alley" is an invaluable record.
It bridges, as nearly as vinyl can, the gap
between audience and performer.
Unioii Free Flicks
TONIGHT: HIGH NOON. A western
classic with Gary Cooper, Grace Kelly,
and Otto Kruger. Won three Academy
Awards ...
SATURDAY: COOL HAND LUKE.
Paul Newman and George Kennedy in a
hard-hitting story of a chain gang
SUNDAY: THE 400 BLOWS. Francois
Truffaut's peotic and historical
masterpiece
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o OFFICIAL TEXTBOOKS for almost all UNC undergraduate courses -many
graduate-level books, too. NEW BOOKS AND USED - all sales
guaranteed to be correct title for course. Refunds on books for dropped
classes.
O PAPERBACICS, new and used, for UNC courses.
O REFERENCE WORKS, dictionaries of all sorts, course outlines, and
translations,
o FAST, FRIENDLY SERVICE.
FEANKLIN
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avens Here Saturday
H
More than 4,000 tickets have already
been sold for the double concert
scheduled for Carmichael Auditorium
tonight. Richie Havens will be featured,
and Ten Wheel Drive will provide a
Salesman Arrested On Franklin St.
A man identified as Edward V. Smith
of Lexington was charged by Chapel Hill
police Thursday with soliciting without a
permit after he allegedly sold a hash pipe
on Franklin Street.
Police Chief W.D. Blake said Thursday
Smith had been selling flowers at the
corner of Franklin and Henderson streets
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back-up performance. The concernt will
begin at 8 p.m. Union officials estimate
the first fall concert will attract a
capacity crowd of 7,000.
and had been giving pipes to his
customers.
Blake said Smith had a permit to sell
flowers.
The arrest was made, Blake said, after
Smith allegedly sold a pipe to a private
citizen.
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UXC AVu- Bureau
"The Carolina Quarterly" is one of the
best little mapzir.es in the country,
according to a study by Dr. Charles Allen
of California.
Allen favorably compares the
Quarterly to "The Chicago Revie" and
"The Harvard Advocate."
Quarterly editor George Wolfe agrees.
"I think primarily vhat makes us
unique is that we can combine a ery
good reputation in the world of small
literary magazines with our ability to pay
contributors at the rate of S5 per page."
Wolfe said. "We take this reputation and
money and provide it for young writers"
"Most magazines with national
reputations, like Esquire" and
"Playboy," tend to steer away from
experimental writing and young writing,"
he explained. "Big magazines like to
publish 'name-brand merchandise."
"The Carolina Quarterly" is published
by nine graduate students at the
University of North Carolina here, but its
short stories and poems are read far
beyond Chapel Hill and North Carolina.
"We are interestd in experimental
writing-stories and poetry which tend to
break away from the traditional style we
all learned in high school and college,"
Wolfe continued. "Each story needn't
have a beginning, middle and end with a
'he said or 'she said at the end of each
sentence."
"We want material that's perhaps a
little unusual and often, young writers
tend to write this way because they are in
1
Campus
Rush teas for Angel Flight will take
j-j' place Sunday and Monday from 8 to 9:30
jljip.m. in the lounge of the AFROTC
jijibuilding behind Manning Hall.
Refreshments will be served. Sunday
Sidress.
'.
Try-outs for the Carolina Playmaker
:j::production of "The Night Thoreau Spent
:In Jail" wiU begin Friday, Sept. 18 and
Sicontinue through Saturday, Sept. 19.
$
The Chapel Hill Day Care Center's
community day school for people under
1 six is sponsoring a Walt Disney flick
tonight at the New Establishment at 7, 9,
x and 1 1 p.m. Donations will be accepted.
.ty'vuYt'tviv a , i i n ml it iiil... ii '"' 11 i. mini 1
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the process of rejecting a;ot of a rues,
some of which are l.terary values." &o!te
sa;J.
Many of these literary a lues ouch; to
be rejected, according to Wo'.fe. "Thss is
what keeps the literary scene fluid and
charging." he said.
The Quarterly and the N. C. Arts
Council ts sponsoring a fiction contest to
give yeur.g writers an opportunity to
publish, according to Wolfe. The Arts
Council donated S.'OO for the contest.
First prize is 5150. second is $?5 and
third is S50.
It is open to anyone under 50 who has
never published a book length
manuscript. Manuscripts nay ary in
length from one sentence to 6.000 words.
Wolfe explained. The Quarterly, with
offices in Suite B of the Carolina I'r.ion.
is now accepting manuscripts. Deadline is
March 1, 171
The first issue of the 1 1 70-71
Quarterly is now on sale on campus, at
the Bull's Head Book Store and at the
Intimate Bookshop.
"Circulation usually averages between
1,100 and 1.500 but this time we've
optimistically printed I ,S00." Wolfe saul
with a grin. Many copies are sent to
libraries and publishing houses
out-of-state, a fact which bothers the -S
year old editor.
i wish more North Carolinians would
read the Quarterly." Wolfe said. "Most
people in the state know very little about
the magazine."
Calendar
The UNC chapter of STudents for a::
Democratic Society meets today at 4:
p.m. in the Frank Porter Graham Lounge:;!
of the Carolina Union. ::
The Campus Crusade for Christ w iilj:
have an open house at 206 McCauley St.-:
after the football game Saturday.-:
Everyone is invited.
UNC Boat Club members and students'.;
interested in joining should call Craig:
Benede at 929-4501. :
Items for the Campus Calendar must:
be turned in at the DTH office 36 hours:
before their publication.
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