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':.:: by Gebrgs Basso
Features Editor ; :
From a vast wealth of new albums, we
have selected several diverse recordings to
review. Hopefully, you will find one of your
favorites somewhere among this mixed bag.
"Horses," Patti Smith (Arista Records)
Patti Smith, respected poet turned rock
singer, defies labeling. She is a human
anachronism, a throwback to the days when
Lou Reed's Velvet Underground was the
future of music, Andy Warhol was art and
spikes and suicide were chick.
But Patti Smith is more than a just
discovered poet priestess of the punk era.
?She, is" the first visionary to successfully
combine poetry and the primitivism of rock
into, a marketable product. Reed and his
chahtreuse Nico failed because they were not
believable Smith is the skinny tomboy and
girl next door, always in love but never
loved, suddenly successful.
P rod ueed by J oh n Cale, a wa r-scarred
veteran of the Velvet Underground himself.
Smith's Horses is a hypnotic combination of
relentless rhythmns; street-punk strutting
and intellectual vulnerability. Her best songs
are recreated oldies given new lyrics, punch
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Memorial Hall
A Carolina Union Presentation
Available at the
Carolina Union desk.
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Half Original Recipe, half Extra Crispy. So
everybody's happy with the Colonel's chicken.
And it's all finger lickin' good.
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Real goodness from
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Chapel H!!1: 319 East Main Street in CarrbordDurharrc 609 Broad Street
814 Ninth Street910 Miami Boulevard2005 RoxbOro RoadRaleigh: 1831 North,
Boulevard700 Peace Street1314 New Bern Avenue3600 Hillsborough Street
and a musical facelifting.
Smith's incredible live energy is captured
on Horses by Cale. Tracks like "Free
Money" and "Gloria," the old Them song,
i are sexy, blistering rockers, while "Land"
. and "Birdland" are haunting visions and
. deeply affecting.
Patti Smith is an immense talent she will
be called the next Bob Dylan, or at least the
next Bruce Springsteen.
"Prisoner in Disguise," Unda Ronstadt
(Asylum)
Linda Ronstadt's new album should be
titled Prisoner of Success. Ronstadt's
Heart Like a Wheel combined excellent
material with solid musical performances.
Prisoner in Disguise attempts to follow the
same recipe (a mixture of country, folk,
R&B and funky rock). Ronstadt is also
reunited with her ideal producer Peter
Asher, string arranger David Campbell and
talented multi-instrumentalist Andrew
Gold. But the combination fails to click this
time around, primarily as a result of
lackluster material.
Ronstadt possesses a sweet, sad voice
which she uses mainly in low-register. But
she is not a songwriter nor a song
interpreter only an excellent singer. That
t should be enough, but not in this case, so
Ronstadt's singing is compromised because
of songs that do not suit her.
"faeat Wave," the LP's single, is a formula
repetition of "You're No Good" and simply
lacks the sexy, soulful drive of the Martha
and the Vandellas original. Ronstadt's
vocals are also merely perfunctory on
Smokey Robinson 's "Tracks of My Tears:"
: she simply is not a soul singer. Her
straightforward style is best suited for white
country, such as Neil Young's "Love is a
' Rose" or J. D. Souther's title track. As a
result of poorly-chosen material,
Ronstadt's attempted sequel is only an
uninspired compromise.
"Gratitude," Earth, Wind and Fire
(Coulmbia)
Primarily on the basis of the hit singles
"Head to the Sky" and "Shining Star,"
Earth, Wind and Fire have broken through
to white audiences to become the biggest
thing in R&B. Gratitude is a specially
priced double album which consists of new
material and live recordings of Earth, Wind
and Fire standards.
If you have never been fortunate enough
' to witness a live performance of the group,
Gratitude will serve as a pleasant
indoctrination to the high-spirited brand of
musical magic of the band. From the
powerful opening melody of "Africano" and
"Power," Maurice White and company
effectively present their many polished styles
or rock and soul. The group is at once a
chorus of angels, a funky dance band and the
closest thing to heavy metal in R&B.
Although,- with the notable exceptions ;
15
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"Sing a Song" and "Celebrate," the new
material is less than spectacular, the live
performances, especially the group's
renditions of "Yearnin Learnin', " "New
World Symphony" and the aforementioned
medley, make this album a must for Earth,
Wind and Fire fans.
"Face the Music" the Electric Light
Orchestra (united Artists)
Face the Music is another solid effort from
Jeff Lynne and the Electric Light Orchestra.
Although not a concept album like the
group's brilliant work, Eldroado, Face the
Music is held rigidly together by the
tightness of the band and - Lynne's
adventurous yet consistently top-notch
melodies.
ELO has succeeded in fully integrating
strings into a rock format without
succumbing to the pretentions of most
classical rock groups. Cellos and the strong
violin work of Mik Kaminsky do not just
embellish the group's sound but play a vital
role in its development and realization.
All eight Lynne compositions are strong,
particularly the singles, "Evil Woman,"
"Nightrider" and "One Summer Dream."
Once again, ELO have shown that they can
produce complex, original music that will
still satisfy die-hard fans of rock'n' roll.
f
"A Night at the Opera," Queen (Elektra)
With the release of their debut album.
Queen hinted at their heavy metal potential.
Queen II was a less popular but more
complex, multi-textured work, while Sheer
Heart Attack, which included the hit single
"Killer Queen," proved to be the group's
most successful record. A Night at the
Opera, however, is Queen's most
adventurous venture: thus, it has the
necessary failings but also contains the
band's best work.
A Night at the Opera is a variety show,
with constant tempo and thematic changes .
to surprise the listener. The album's best
cuts, with the exception of side two's "Love
of My Life," can be found on the all
expressive first side. From vicious rockers
("Death on Two Legs") to ballads ("1030")
to twenties tunes ("Lazing on a Sunday
Afternoon"), A Night at the Opera finds
Queen finally fulfilling many of the promises
made in the form of the best material from
their previous LP's.
"Ommadawn," Mike Oldfield (Virgin)
Ommadawn is Mike Oidfield's third and.
perhaps best recording. Whereas Tubular
Bells succeeded primarily because of its
sparkling originality and tonality, Oidfield's
second work, Hergest Ridge, failed,
miserably due to its muddled complexity and
droning nature. Ommadawn however, is
Oidfield's most radical and yet most
accessible Composition.
Although his latest effort shows Oldfield
progressing as a composer, it also reveals his
inadequacies as a lyricist poet. The album's
concluding piece is a merely maudlin, albeit
humorous, poem about horses framed inside
an early Moody Blues-type tune which
deserves better lyrical accompaniment.
Ommadawn is progressive, visionary
music, but still an album for special tastes
which can be appreciated only under a strict
set of circumstances perhaps this is what
Muzak will sound like in the year 2000.
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Because heS
Sam Spade, Jr.... and
9:20 1 his falcon's worth a fortune!
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"THE BLACK BIRD'
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Joni Mitchell and Peter Frampton headline two big area concerts. Backed by the L. A
Express, Joni will perform in Duke's Cameron Indoor Stadium Feb. 7. A few tickets
are ief t try the Union Desk, Buffalo Records or the Record Bars. Frampton and Styx
play Greensboro Jan. 18. Tickets at the Record Bars.
Film director Huston
recovers technique
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... x 4 X J U i A s i n ! i i m m H i n i i t
by Michael McFee
DTH Critic
The Man Who Would Be King is John
Huston's royally enjoyable reworking of the
Rudyard Kipling short story. In Huston's
hands, Kipling's yarn becomes not only a
fine adventure story rich with the mythical
mystique and excess of the East, but an
unabashedly moral tale on the consequences
of overreaching ambition and greed. ,
Kipling himself serves as a frame for his
narrative. At the beginning of the movie he
inadvertently has a hand in causing the
drama which is retold to him at the end of the
film.
Kipling, played with precise bemusement
by a brush-mustachioed Christopher
Plummer, has a cursory encounter with two
enterprising rascals who are Freemasons like
himself. Danny Dravot (Sean Connery) and
Peach Carnehan (Michael Caine) feel that
India is not big enough for them. "So we're
going away to be kings," they tell their
brother with the self-assured imperialistic
tone of royal Britishers among bloody
heathen.
Danny and Peachy's promised land is
Kafiristan, a city in a remote corner of the
Afghanistan mountains. Only one of them
survives to tell the astounded Kipling the tale
that transpired "three summers and a
thousand years ago."
An amazing tale it is, as the provincial
swindlers compound luck with good fortune
and actually seem well on their way to
becoming kings.
That is, until Danny is shot with an arrow
and miraculously escapes injury. As a result,
the natives honor him as an avatar, the long
awaited son of that ancient Freemason,
Alexander the Great, who had conquered
the area thousands of years before.
Gradually, the man who would be king
would be more: he would be God, and thus,
the perfect partnership of luck dissolves
before Danny's destiny.
Although conceptually within the realm of
a fairy tale, director Huston keeps his feet
firmly grounded in cinematic reality. He
does not inflate the story into a ludicrous trip
to Shangri-la nor does he slyly deflate the
spirit of Kipling's romantic quest.
Instead, Huston confines himself to the
humorous detail of character and setting
inherent in the narrative. The result is a film
suffused with affection, honest sentiment
and an abiding code of honor which prevails
over his characters' trickery.
Take for example, the rogues' approach to
Kafiristan. From afar the holy city does not
look so much like Nirvana-in-the-clouds as it
does a dusty Acropolis. Danny and Peachy,
in their military red and light Brigade
helmets, bear no resemblance to
incarnations of Alexander, especially in an
assembly of the ascetically robed and
shaven. But the two maintain their pluck
anyway, Danny tucking the mythical arrow
he was shot with under his arm like a riding
crop, with Peachy at his elbow guiding him
on. t t i
Such small", unspectacular ioaiches 'and
unapologetic,,. coincidences. 'are, '.especially
abundant before Danny' receives his divine
connection with power. The military
training scenes, where Danny and Peachy
teach the natives to wield rifles and
"slaughter the enemy like civilized men." are
whimsical and rich in their embarrassment
as humble brown men try earnestly to learn
to count in time or stand at attention like
their proud leaders.
. At times the provisions of the tightly
written script (by Huston and Gladys Hill)
become a bit much, as when the pair's
laughing calls down an avalanche by an
impassable crevice, allowing them to
continue their journey.
Likewise, Huston's dramatic up-angle
shots at "the white rams of mountains" or the
one-eyed Masonic God of Kafiristan, edited
over an equally stirring soundtrack of
ominous chants, seem unnecessarily thick in
light of his prior restraint.
Although these slight indulgences might
contradict the even and appreciative, almost
loving nature of H uston's film technique, the
acting he receives is characterized by
anything but an intricate texture of browns
and dusty reds. The performances of
Connery and Caine are in the romantic
tradition of Kipling, not Huston, and they
seem to enjoy the bombast as much as the
viewer.
The duo revel in deception, with
Connery's Danny being slower and more
brusque and masculine than Caine's smart
alecky but highly perceptive Peachy. The
loyalty between the two is refreshing and
unaffected, bearing out to the literal end the
camaraderie of a working-class dream run
amuck.
That dream is ended long before the tale is
told to Kipling when the priceless lucre of
Alexander disappears in a landslide, just as
the gold dust blew away in Huston's
Treasure of the Sierra Madre (1947). From
the opening shots of snake charmers and
scorpion eaters in the dust of a native street
to the final incredulous stare of Kipling. The
Man Who Would Be King is a likeable and
worthy recovery of theme and technique for
the John Huston of old.
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Dino De Laurentiis'
starring Laura Antonelli
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directed by Salvatore Samperl
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