4The Daily Tar HeelFriday, March 27, 1987
Love Tractor to roll into UNC
with instrumental Southern pop
By JAMES BURRUS
Staff Writer
When Love Tractor plows into
Great Hall this afternoon, don
expect them to plow into a set of
heavy party-rocking songs. This
Athens, Ga., band, with its Southern
pop instrumentals, is a Springfest
type band. Just lean back, relax and
enjoy.
Love Tractor is appearing with
Dash Rip Rock and Guadalcanal
Diary in Great Hall this afternoon
at 3 p.m. as part of the Southern
Fine Arts Festival.
Love Tractor began its career
playing instrumentals because the
members didn't want to carry a P.A.
system around with them. They also
thought their songs were good
enough without vocals. A lot of
people in Athens agreed.
One of the band's instrumentals.
Gospel concert: Green shows his faith,
Singer Al Green displayed equal
measures of his vocal brilliance and
gospel preaching to an enthusiastic
audience of about 250 people , in
Memorial Hall Wednesday night,
but his 55-minute concert suffered
both from its extreme brevity and
its lack of any clear direction.
The Rev. Green brought a full
nine-piece band with him to Chapel
Hill, but his rich and flexible voice
was the central point of the show.
Green showed his excellent baritone
voice on such gospel standards as
"People Get Ready" and "Amazing
Grace," and he also gave moving
performances of his own songs, such
as "Jesus Will Fix It." Green's
Controversial 'Hail Mary' modernizes birth of Christ with secular setting
Almost two years after its initial
release, the Jean-Luc Godard film
"Hail Mary" has come to Chapel
Hill. Controversy has surrounded
the project since its conception.
Morally outraged demonstrators
have followed the lead of Pope John
Paul II, who denounced the film,
sight unseen, saying that it "deeply
wounds the religious sentiments of
viewers." The bonfires of indignation
were lit over Europe, New York and
Boston as protesters cried "Shame!"
Ironically, the subsequent publicity
brought extra attention to "Hail
Mary" and Godard.
Not surprisingly, however, there
were no banners wielded at the local
premiere; there were merely some
moviegoers who were curious to see
the cause of all the ballyhoo sur-
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"Pretty," is featured on the album
"Athens, Ga., Inside Out."
"(Instrumentals) may be a little
too introverted for people who enjoy
partying down," said Armistead
Wellford, the band's bassist.
On the band's last LP, "This Ain't
No Outerspace Ship" on Big Time
Records, the band stepped out a bit.
Only two of the album's songs are
instrumentals; the rest feature the
vocals of Michael Richmond.
Rounding out the band's lineup are
Andrew Carter on drums and Mark
Cline on guitar.
Did Love Tractor lose fans when
they started playing more songs with
lyrics?
"We did see some people who were
really into those old songs," Wellford
said. "Once they saw us live they were
back in the swing of things."
The band has not quit writing
David Hester
Concert
delivery was sincere and powerful,
and his music frequently elicited
shouts of approval from the
audience. Green performed some
marvelous music; however, he did
not perform enough of it.
Green, not exactly the hardest
working man in show business,
performed fewer than a dozen songs
in less than an hour to an audience
that seemed to be prepared for a long
night of gospel music. Although
Marty Michaels
Cinema
rounding the film. After the final
credits, there was still a sense of
curiosity and yes, even bewilder
ment. "Hail Mary" had failed to
deliver the goods as the blasphemous
parody which the defenders of the
faith has alleged it to be. The
problem was that most of the
protesters have admittedly never
seen the film.
A few sensational items upon
which the media has capitalized are
indeed true. "Hail Mary" does
contain a certain amount of explicit
language and nudity, yet neither of
get a
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instrumentals, Wellford said. In fact,
the band has written some new ones
that were not included on the last
album, he said.
For people who like to "party
down," Love Tractor occasionally
does renditions of disco songs, such
as The Gap1 Band's "Party Train."
"(Disco songs are) just something
to play in the party-out situation,
which sometimes we're in," Wellford
said.
The last time the band played at
The Milestone in Charlotte, the band
members found themselves in a party
situation, Wellford said. What will
the band members find themselves
in today?
Love Tractor, Guadalcanal Diary,
and Dash Rip Rock will perform
today at 3 p.m. in Great Hall. Call
062-5505 for ticket information.
audience members fjaid between $7
and $10 to attend the featured
concert of this year's Fine Arts
Festival, they heard about as much
music as they would have heard if
they had instead used part of their
money to buy one of Green's albums.
Even though Green spent an
extremely short length of time on
stage he did not seem to have any
clear direction for the show. Green
would frequently stop his songs to
talk to the audience and witness for
the Lord, and many of these inter
ruptions detracted from the effective
ness of the music. Although the
ministry is an essential part of
these elements is presented gratui
tously or blasphemously. The Virgin
Mary (Myriem Roussel) is depicted
as an attendant at a gas station where
the equivalent of the ahgel Gabriel,
a sinister-looking thug, informs her
that she is pregnant. Joseph (Thierry
Lacoste), a taxi driver, is rather
skeptical about the circumstances
since he has never slept with Mary.
Mary is understandably ambival
ent about the unexpected Annurici
ation. Joseph finally agrees to marry
her, and she begins to accept her
mysterious fate of becoming the
instrument of divine power. Mary
asks her tloctor, "Does the soul have
a body?" He replies, "You mean,
does the body have a soul?" Yet she
clearly meant the first question; for
Godard, the body and soul are
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The band Love Tractor will perform in Great Hail today as part of
talent in short but sweet performance
Green's music, his conversations
with the audience often seemed to
break up the tempo of the perfor
mance instead of being integral parts
of the show.
Despite these problems, Green
gave a very enthusiastic and flashy
show.' He came onstage wearing a
tuxedo, sunglasses and a scarf, and
he frequently came into the audience
to shake hands and give away long
stemmed roses. The crowd
responded with gusto as Green
frequently asked them if they
believed in Jesus, and many
members of the audience waved their
hands in the air to show their faith.
The most striking part of the show
interchangeable images of the same
incarnation.
Mary, originally a beautiful but
ordinary girl, is transformed as she
struggles to attain soulfulness. She
reaches a fusion of the holy and the
sensual as she writhes on her bed
in unfolding comprehension and
self-denial. This marriage of the
sacred and the sensual is foremost
in Godard's concept of the film. The
values of the body and soul, both
apart and together, are approached
as Godard contemplates the image
of the ideal woman.
Joseph never really seems to
understand the immensity 6f the;
situation. The birth is riot actually
shown, but the cries of the child are
heard over disjointed images of
flying planes and snow. He is an
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was Green's singing, however, and
the limited amount of music Green
performed still enabled him to show
why he was awarded this year's
Grammy Award for gospel soul
singer. Green's concert would have
been more successful, however, if he
had performed more of the music
that has made him so critically
acclaimed.
The Black Student Movement
Gospel Choir opened the concert,
and their powerful performance was
one of the evening's musical high
lights. The 43-member choir has a
very full sound, and they exhibited
excellent balance. The choir opened
ordinary-appearing child who one
day proclaims "I am He who is" and
goes off to perform his Father's
works.
In the film's concluding scenes,
Mary gets into her car, lights a
cigarette, and applies scarlet lipstick.
Has she returned to the mundane
world of sensuality, forsaking her
mission of spirituality? Godard does
not answer this and many other
questions in "Hail Mary," preferring
to rely on vague ambiguity.
Those who call the movie sacrile
gious are ignoring its more spiritual
aspects for those which are blatantly
banal. Admittedly, the: circumstan
ces surrounding the virgin birth are
excruciatingly mundane; there are
no heralding trumpets or romantic
visitors from afar. Yet the wonder
His effect on women was
devastating. He had a
slow style of movement
which was powerfully
attractive:'
It was his clothes.
Gary Cooper and Carole Lombard, 1934.
E. Franklin St,Chapel Hill
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PRESENT
Sunday,
Memorial Hall on the UNC campus
2:00pm
AlDiMeola (solo guitar)
John Scofield. Band
and special guest
Eve Cornelious Chip Crawford Band
Ticket prices for reserved
seating1: UNC-CH students at
Carolina Union Box Office only:
$10.50 one show
$18.50 both shows
General Public tickets available
everywhere: $12.50 one show
$22.50 both shows
Ticket price day of show:
$14.00 everyone
a Blue Quail production
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the Southern Fine Arts Festival
their section of the show with joyous
and moving versions of "He's All
Right" and "Power," and then
moved into their award-winning a
cappella rendition of "There Is A
Fountain."
The choir featured soloists on
three of its selections, and all three
had excellent range and technique.
The entire choir sounded marvelous,
and it exhibited a musical excellence
that is rarely found among non
professional groups. The choir's
rousing performance was extremely
well received by the audience, and
the choir richly deserved the standing
ovation it got at the conclusion of
its performance.
of the original birth was that it
happened in an unremarkable place
to real people who were both fright
ened and awed by the glory which
was to befall them. The divine
touched man, whether in a Paris
suburb or in Bethlehem. Godard
retains this holy sense of religion
the divine speaking to the ordinary
and the terrible mystery which the
divine imparts to uncomprehending
man.
Godard shows that life is present
in all things through exquisite images
of nature animals, fields of
flowers, and the powerful elements
in storms. He combines these images
with bursts of music by Bach,
Dvorak and Coltrane to push closer
to the wonder at the heart of beauty.
Other art forms, such as painting,
sculpture and music, approach this
unrelenting mystery more frequently
than cinema. It is incredibly difficult
to sustain such an elusive celebration
of sanctity for the length of a feature
film. Yet, in the second half of "Hail
Mary," Godard comes close to
approaching the basic primal force
of art. He is a post-Modernist
filmmaker of the avant-garde school
drawing near to the mysteries of
religion, the image of woman, and
therapeutic nature.
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-Gawlina Jazzfcst 871
March 29, 1987
8:00pm
Gary Burton Quintet
Kevin Eubanks Trio
and special guest
Scott Sawyer Band
Tickets on sale at Triangle area
Record Bars, Wellington's
Books in Car y. CD's in Brightleaf
Square, Durham, and the
Carolifta Union Box Of fice
in Chapel Hill. Fbr more
information on shows and
master classes at 1 and 5 pm, -call
962-1449 or 782-1061.
in association with Qmmmj
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