Tuesday, April 9, 1S74
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Leu Rsfd (RCA)
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Fsul Clmon (Columbia)
too Dylan isn't the only member of
music's Old Guard to have come out of
hi Jin 5. Lord knows (and so do we) that every
hr,t breath from Dylan's recent tour was
jackhammered into our minds by countless
overzealous. publications, all trying, in so
many words, to convince themselves, that
Dylan Is Back with the noble task.of paving .
rock music. ," '',"iil','Cf
I should hope that a few other people from
Back then would at least prompt some
nodding heads or polite applause, because
right now I'm going to nod out if I, hear
another word about Mr. Dylan. I speak, of
course, of Lou Reed and Paul Simon, who
have both recently (in the last year) gone on
tour after long absences. Their new "live"
albums are more than just mementoes of the
tour; they are statements from both saying,
"Hey, we are still alive."
It comes as no wonder that Paul Simon
would eventually release a live album; his
popularity goes back almost as far as Dylan's
( The Sound of Silence is included on Live
Rhymin"). But Lou Reed? Reed's music goes
back at least as far as Simon's, yet until last
year he was an "unrecognized genius," (a
catch-phrase that arrogant critics like to
throw around).
With the release of the single Walk On the
Wild Side, people began to jump on the Lou
Pveed bandwagon, thinking that he was a
flash (cashing in on the glam image). Still,"
even if it did threaten to hype him to death,
the commercial success at least shed some
light on his entire body of work, dating back
to the Velvet Underground. Surprise. What
we have here is one of the major forces in
rock music for the past eight years and one of
the few people who can honestly flaunt the
title of rock n roll animal.
Paul Simon, on the other hand, fuses so
many strains of music together with his
usually incisive lyrics that he can reach a
much broader audience. His motive is
didactic, to teach and shed light with a
general view of America. He sounds so
genuinely concerned about his country,
which is eternally threatening to deprive him
of life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness,
that he is able to pull it off. Simon wants
answers while Reed doesn't even want to ask
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questions.
It is a tribute to both of these artists that
they overcome the dangers of "live"
recordings. If you like Reed or Simon, you
will buy these albums. It's as simple as that.
But, if you like rock and roll very loud and
powerful, then you want the best. Rock N
Roll Animal ranks up with the Who's Live at
Leeds as one of the best live rock albums to
date. From the opening interchanging
chords of guitarists Dick Wagner and Steve
Hunter, to Lou's manic rave-up vocal on
Rock 'n' Roll, the album is relentless in its
power. No question about it. . .this album
was meant to be, played LOUD (make the
room shake).
Although he performs material mostly
from his Velvet Underground days. Reed
doesn't try to pretend that his band can
reproduce those songs. Instead, the band
puts every ounce of sound dynamics at their
disposal into the music, and, with Reed's
vocals miked way up front in the speakers,
who cares anyway? When was the last time
the outrageously simple chords (such as
those in Sweet Jane) brought life into your
eyes and got the blood flowing again?
Reed wants to teach lessons about as
much as I want to die of food poisoning.
What can you tell someone about heroin?
Simon has written songs warning about
drugs, but Reed's Heroin is haunting in its
ambiguity. Do he or don't he want us to do
it? He don't care. The life of the city flows
through Lou Reed, despair being his calling
card. "I guess, but I just don't know ..." go
the words of his frantic song Heroin.
Paul Simon spans his musical career on
Live Rhymin'. Many of the old songs sound
almost new in their live treatment. Backed by
the Jessy Dixon Singers (Loves Me Like a
Rock, Bridge Over Troubled Waters) and '
Urubamba (The Boxer, Duncan and El
Condor Pasa), Simon sounds more choir
boy than ever before. Lyrics stand out much
more evidently without the techniques of the
studio, especially on The Boxer ("Ain't it
strange, after changes upon changes we are
more or less the same . . . "). Wild applause
after that line. American Tune also benefits
in the live translation.
With both of these albums, the presence of
the performer cannot be denied. Love them
or hate them, but you can't dismiss them or
you might as well dismiss your own listening
ability. It's all here: the poet and the animal.
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UNIVERSITY SQUARE
New And Larger Quarters In University Square!
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by CO Gslnes
Feature Writer
Go directly to jail. Do not pass go. Do not
collect $200.
On one of those crazy, rainy days
last week, I go to visit a friend at Polk Youth
Center in Raleigh, right off 1-40. Juan is in
on a drug charge. I go with his sister. Only
relatives are allowed to visit.
We approach one of the six guard towers.
An automated gate slides open in the ten-foot-high
chain link fence. We explain
ourselves, then pass through a second fence
topped with barbed wire.
Later Juan says, "The guard towers
have.. .let's see... whatever 20-20s are and
shotguns." Juan wears a green fatigue outfit.
The guards will only shoot to wound if he
goes outside. "If you've got brown fatigues
on," Juan adds, "well, you're in a little
trouble."
We are asked to sign a visitor's book,
Juan's sister does. I begin to, but Juan
whispers, "No. Don't sign that." So 1 don't.
We walk unescorted into a small
conference room and sit at a bare table. The
linoleum tiled floor is fairly dirty.
There is an eight-inch hole in the cheaply
paneled wall between the conference room
and the lieutenant's office. It has a fan in it
for ventilation though the air duct in the
ceiling looks more functional.
"If you want to go to the bathroom, go on
the fan," Juan says. He looks through the
hole several times during the visit to see if
anyone is listening.
"When I first came here," Juan recalls, "I
thought the longer I was here, the better it
would get. Some of the cases here will curl
your hair. This is no boy scout camp."
Males aged 16 to 21 are in Polk Youth
Center. Convictions include first and second
degree murder and armed robbery. Someone
Juan knows has a double life sentence plus
30 years.
Most people at Polk are in for breaking
and entering. Juan says, The 16-year-olds
scare the shit out of me."
One inmate was suspected of stealing
another's radio. "They opened up his back
with a shank." Shank is prison slang for a
homemade knife. It is a violation to possess
one.
He was taken to Central Prison Hospital
which only treats persons over 18. Luckily,
everyone who has needed hospitalization so
far has been over 18.
Everybody tells me to get a shank," Juan
says. "The only thing everybody understands
here is violence. By the criterion here I
should be a pussy because I'm passive.
"I get fucked-over a lot for trusting people.
You become moralless living in here. You
lose the ability to judge right from wrong. In
making friends you accept their whole
philosophy.
"I never used to be prejudiced before I
came to prison. But it's set up blacks against
white. This place is always on the verge of a
riot. If you talk with a black, the whites will
chastise you."
Juan lives in a dorm which was built for 40
persons. It now houses 65. His sentence is
one day to five years. Designed to allow
youthful offenders out quickly, the sentence
has odd uses. After serving five per cent of
your time, you can make honor grade.
Honor Grades wear bright green fatigues
and can occasionally leave the center or be
transferred to an honor camp to work or cr
attend schocl.
"But if you're a drug case, they figure
you're going right back to it. Drug violations -are
the hardest to get out of. You gotta stay
here at least four months until the paper
work is over.
"There are a bunch of crazies in
herc,"Juan claims. Part cf the inmate's
record includes a psychiatric diagnosis. But
ones you've been diagnosed, they offer no
treatment.
"People say prison reform never affects
your everyday life, but Til bet half of the
crime in the United States is caused by the
prison system."
If you are insubordinate to a guard or
impolite or use profane language around
him, you can get a write-up on your record,
which means six more months.
"My record is totally blank just because I
haven't "done anything wrong," Juan says.
For reading the inmates have a small
library. Eight are allowed in for one-half
hour at a time. There are over 600 prisoners
in Polk Youth Center, which was designed to
hold 450. It is virtually impossible to check
out the books and it's a violation to give any
books to the inmates.
Juan brought 25 or 30 books with him
from the Orange County Jail. They burnt
them.
Even stranger regulations apply to
underwear. The crew shorts Juan wears is a
violation.
As we left, a guard checked a birthday
poem Juan had given his sister. He ripped it
off its matting. Part of the poem read: "A
Boy Child is crying at the window He is
being punished."
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Only relatives allowed
Reflections on a so
ulful
beat .
e e
by Gary Dorsey
Feature Writer
If you missed the BSM Gospel Choir
Sunday night, you may have missed one
of the highlights of the Black Arts
Festival. If you saw the Kuumba Singers
Saturday night, you might have had a
reason to miss the Gospel Choir on
Sunday.
The Kuumba Singers kind of sang and
read poetry Saturday in Memorial Hall,
starting off the Festival with a fizzle. The
Singers, a group of black intellectuals
from Harvard, Radcliffe, MIT, Boston
College and a few other prestigious
schools from the North, seemed to be ;
trying to teach the southern blacks about
the "black reality" through tinny voices, a
band that sounded like a Detroit
assembly line for General Motors and
poetry that drowned itself in "utter
blackness, infinite realities, and ultimate
experiences through the void of space."
Far out.
It all came over as sort of the northern
black man's burden help the southern
negro.
But Sunday them "southern negroes"
showed they understood their black
experience far better than the Kuumba
Singers did. They touched the reality the
Kuumba people only talked about. The
Gospel Choir didn't have to talk about it:1
Oh, mama, they, sang. , . .
Sunday afternoon the BSM Gospel
Choir won the 1974 Inter-Collegiate
Gospel Festival proving themselves to be
the best college gospel choir in the state.
First place, $500 and a trophy. But that's
just the half of it. These people have to be
seen. Tell it, tell it, tell it, oh yes
mama . . . those people tell it!
These outbursts of emotion must be
forgiven, I know it's not journalistic
objectivity but I, a white folk, am not
used to seeing folks singing church music
like they mean it. Seeing people with
sweat on their faces and veins poking out
at their head and moving on their feet,
throwing their heads back and letting go -"
with - music for the-'Lord r lik Twa'te'r
gushing from a fall. Sorry, us upper-nr
middle class whites just aren't used to
that.
Musically speaking, the choir
displayed a sparkling range and richness
of color in their voices. Lucy Shropshire,
choir director, moved the group with a
blaze of enthusiasm in her direction,
piano playing pounding keys, that
piano rocked and singing.
Shropshire also did some solo singing
with the choir filling background that
displayed vocal and visual qualities
reminiscent of a young Roberta Flack.
Some other soloists in the choir spread
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