rock on
Shorts, If you hurry you still might be able to
get a copy of Roy Rodgers and Dale Evans new
single on Word Records, “In The Sweet By And
By.” I understand it’s selling like hotcakes here in
Eugene. I hope I’m not letting any cats out of the
bag but I understand that Roy and Dale split up
and she’s new living with Trigger. I guess anybody
will get together if they think there’s a few bucks
in it... Maybe there is still some hope. Comedian
George Bums got his wish last week, Alice Cooper
introduced a special George Buras-Jack Benny
concert in New York’s Philharmonic Hall ... A
new Jeff Beck group is in the making. The group,
called Beck, Bogart and Applice, contains a for
mer member of Vanilla Fudge, Tim Bogart, and
Carmine Applice, formely of Cactus. They are
overdubbing tracks now and an album release
should be forthcoming ... Rumor has it that Mick
Jagger may make a presentation on the upcoming
Grammy Awards show. Stones officials deny it
flatly... Doug Sahm who recently recorded with a
group of friends—Bob Dylan and Dr. John in
cluded—will be featured in another new album.
This one is a release of some early cuts from his
days with the Sir Douglas Quintet . . . The
Osmonds have just been told that they have four
more certified gold records. This brings their
million seller total to 16... Just goes to show you
that artistry is its own reward.
Folksinger Pete Seeger will receive a special
Governors Award during the upcoming Grammy
Awards Ceremony which should be an the tube
next week. The award will be presented by Don
McLean for Seeger’s “contributions to music and
his concern for the welfare of New York.” When
you look at the list of the nominees it is hard to
believe they even know who Pete Seeger is.
Entertainment in this area looks pretty good
for a change. Several fine shows will be presented
in next few weeks. Starting things off tomorrow
night at the Paramount Theatre in Portland will
be Roberta Flack. The show is scheduled for an 8
p.m. start. Then next Friday night, March 2, the
new Paul Butterfield Band will be at Lewis and
Clark. March 3 brings “East Bay Grease” better
known as Tower of Power to the Lane County
Fairgrounds. This should prove to be a real
screamer. Tower of Power has always been a
favorite of mine and I’m really looking forward to
this one. And don’t forget Neil Young and his band
Stray Gators at the Portland Coliseum on March
15. Tickets for that one can be obtained by calling
Meier & Frank at Valley River between 9:30 a.m.
and 5:30 p.m. and having them transfer your call
to the main ticket desk in Portland. You can pay
for the tickets here and they will be held for you at
the door. Late news has George Carlin at the
Paramount on March 11 and everybody’s
sweetheart Alice Cooper at the Coliseum in May.
The Alice Cooper tour which starts next week is
expected to gross in the neighborhood of $4.5
million for 56dates. Not bad for a little cutie.
Elvis Presley fans will be glad that he is being
booked into the Portland Coliseum for sometime in
April. There is no date yet but sources at the
Coliseum say he will definitely make an ap
pearance. Also on tap is the Elvis “Aloha From
Hawaii” TV special that will be shown April 4.
Eric Clapton has a new album that will be
released shortly... Hopefully this one will contain
some new material. It is from his first public
appearance in ova- two years, Bangla Desh
withstanding. The only thing holding up the
release is the concert organizer’s ok. In this case it
must come from Peter Townshend who planned
the gig for charity ... John and Yoko may be on
the verge of breaking up. “Time” the weekly news
magazine reports that John wants to get bade
together with Paul. I don’t know how much of it I
believe... Grunt Records has announced that the
Jefferson Airplane album “Long John Silver” has
been banned in Singapore because it contains a
photograph of marijuana. The Airplane’s new
album should be out soon. It will be a live recor
ding of concerts in Chicago and San Francisco.
The Robert Jeffrey Ballet has just started
performing a new show titled “Duece Coupe.” It is
done in its entirety with music supplied by the
Beach Boys. Some of the fifteen songs include
“Little Deuce Coupe,” “Little Honda” “Catch a
Wave” and “Fun, Fun, Fun.” The show is sup
posed to be playing to sell-out crowds in the bay
area.
Bruce Micklus
records
Re-Union
Dion and the Belmonts
Warner Bros. Copyright 1*72
Okay! So here we go back to Philly
late 50’s and 60’s, back to Dion and the
Belmonts, bade to classic ooohhhh
waahhh-wwhhooo!
Actually, they come back to us in the
form of a 1972 concert at Madison
Square Garden. People at Warner
Brothers thought this was such a
groovy idea they made it into a record.
It’s not so bad. In fact, some of the
music has been improved ova- the
original without detracting from the
over-a 11 quality.
What causes trouble is the singing.
This album is billed as a re-union, a get
together after being out for eight years
or so. For all we know, the only practice
the fellows ever got was singing in the
toilet of the Pom Central Metroliner
going up to New Yak. That probably
being the case, some of the vocals, the
background oow-ahs especially, come
off on the bad side of poor.
Assuming that the album goes in the
general order of the actual concert
songs, we can applaud some of the
beginning as a strong performance.
Towards the end, somewhere around
“Where a When,” tHfe fellows sound
like they’re ashamed of what they’re
singing. They miss keys and generally
sound as though they’re tired of it all.
Well, either that a they’re forgetting
how the sags go.
But it’s all good fun, you know? It’s
not supposed to be good or anything,
just good fun. Everybody who can
remember when you were eight a ten
or twelve and Dion was on the juke box
telling you how he was gonna kill
himself cause Diane didn’t love him—
okay!—you people understand. Now fa
everybody else, it’s fun, like here’s one
of those waah-wahh-wooo groups you
can dig, alright? Nothing too fancy, just
Dion DiMucci and the three Belmonts
out on the stage singing their hits—“I
Wonder Why,” “The Wanderer,” “A
Teenager in Love” and so on. But they
do it all, wahh-whooo-aahhh!
True, it would be nice if they had been
able to hoid together towards the end.
“Run Around Sue,” sorry to say, is
entirely screwed up. Now there’s one
that’s really good and they blow it.
Everything went bad on this one—the
singing, the music, everything. “Sue”
runs for about seven minutes and
believe me, when she’s done, you’re
finished.
But it’s okay, you know? It’s not 1959
anymore. Somebody just might want to
hear what Dion and the Belmonts sound
like now, that’s all.
George Buddy
A Woofer in Tweeter’s Clothing
BR 2110
Sparks
Bears vilie
Bearsville
Copyright 1972
After hearing this record I was
tempted to heed Thumper’s dictum, “If
you can’t say anything nice, don’t say
anything at all.”
On the other hand Art Bushnell, who
edits this section and modestly a vends
mentioning his name as much as
possible in these pages, informed
anyone who happened to be listening
recently that he was printing too many
favorable reviews, “What’sa matter?
Don’t you jerks dislike anything?”
Well Art, here’s a record at least one
jerk hates—“A Woofer in Tweeter’s
Clothing” by Sparks.
Sparks, a band I have had the good
fortune to be ignorant of until now,
sound like a bad version of Tommy
James and the Shondells who have
discovered dissonant chords and
bestiality. Musically they are not only
dull but anemic. Lyrically their strong
point is their inability to sing un
derstandably. This is the best thing
about the record. However, some idiot
included all the words. I will not quote
any of'the songs here. Sometimes
ignorance is bliss.
I can’t say much more as just
thinking about this record makes me
physically ill. There’s altogether too
much mascara in rock and roll and
Sparks seems to wear about half of it.
Rolf Hage
War Heroes
Jimi Hendrix
Reprise
Copyright 1972
In 1970, Jimi Hendrix died of drug
related death at the early age of 27.
Almost three years later, in 1973,
another of his albums, “War Heroes’’,
which was recorded shortly before his
death, has just been released by
Reprise Records, a Division of Warner
Bros. Inc. Hendrix is dead, but ap
parently his music lives on forever.
In many ways, the album is better
than average Hendrix but not as good
as some of his work during the glory
years of the pop culture. Memories of
single classics like “Purple Haze,”
“Wind Cries Mary,” “Hey Joe,” “If
Six Were Nine” and “All along the
Watchtower” crowd the subconscious.
Album classics like Axis, Bowl is Love,
the Electric Lady Man and Rainbow
Bridge remind the listener of better
days in the long gone past.
Musically, the album is well above
average Hendrix on guitar but less than
average Hendrix vocally. Despite its
lower than average lyrical content, it
still remains musically good with a fair
amount of adequate music substance.
Its album structure — and the way the
album was put together technically —
is also well above the average Hendrix
usually puts together. A consistent
Hendrix fan would definitely And it
worthy but it probably won’t win any
new converts over to the Hendrix .
sound.
Both sides of the “War Heroes”
album are evenly balanced, basically,
in their quality, but looking at the
album realistically only three songs
merit significant recognition or any
comparison with any of the other fine
work that he produced in his short
musical career. These songs include
“Highway Child” and “Stepping Stone”
on side one and “The Three Little
Bears” on side two.
All three songs are Hendrix vocals
and “Stepping Stone” also uses a
background vocal group — which adds
to its overall quality. The vocal work in
“Stepping Stone” is typical but yet
better Hendrix vocal and has a very
good transition of musical sounds. It is
definitely the best vocal on the album
and the use of a long instrumental run
in the song adds to the long continued
Hendrix rock sound.
“The Three Little Bears” is also a
very good vocal and has the best
storyline of all of the songs on the
album. Adding to its value is the fact
and substance of a funny, loose and
even silly song. The song has very good
chord structure, for Hendrix, and what
makes it outstanding is its diversity
from the usual Hendrix style and an
unstoppable urge for the listener to get
involved in the song.
“Highway Child” remains unique in
that it is essentially the only song on the
album presenting a message. Hendrix
turns it into a strong vocal interp, with
very good music that is very well
collected and extremely well presen
ted. Overall, along with “The Three
Little Bears,” it remains the best song
on the album and possibly the only
reason why the album should exist at
all.
Other Hendrix vocals on the “War
Heroes” album include “Izabella,”
typical Hendrix music with a loud
ending; “Bleeding Heart,” a softer
song with a good story line; and
“Catastrophe,” which essentially holds
the album’s best melody but is still too
cluttered to be exceptional.
Of the four remaining instrumentals,
‘Tax Free,” with an organ background
added to an adequate instrumental;
“Beginning,” with impressive drum
runs and guitar play but nothing else;
and “Peter Gunn,” with a small
amount of orchestration to add to an
unprofessional ending, are the only
other songs which deserve mention.
Looking at the album overall, it is
definitely typical Hendrix. Not as good
as he had once done but also not as bad
as he was sometimes capable of doing.
For a Hendrix fan “War Heroes” is
definitely tolerable, perhaps even
desired, but for someone who does not
appreciate the sound ... the album,
Hendrix’s music and his memory is
possibly left bettor in the grave. The
“War Heroes” album just does not do
full justice to his musical greatness.
James Hassell