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About Oregon daily emerald. (Eugene, Or.) 1920-2012 | View Entire Issue (Sept. 29, 1982)
(A Singular Vision) sbau and single, Someday, Some way," are both ascending the chans, and before long you'll be talking about favorite records What if," 1 say, posing the classic question, "you were stuck on a desert island? What album would you want?" Crenshaw peers through his tinted glasses and adjusts the large white cowboy hat that surmounts his close-cropped brown hair His grin is as instantly ready as his answer. I'd rather have ten singles. Maybe Vly Generation' by The Who, "'mon Everybody' by Eddie Coch an, 'Trapped by a Thing Called x)ve by Deniece LaSalle, 'Let’s Stay together’ by Al Green I could aarne fifty or five hundred of them. "I really like singles," Crenshaw expands, shifting in his soft chair at Warner Bros. Records’ New York headquarters, where he’s spending a brief break during a criss-crossing tour of America. "Singles are what I'm really about I consider each lit tle song an entity unto itself and an album just a collection of ideas, The format I'm really excited about is EPs and 12-inch singles." Marshall Crenshaw is a product of Detroit's middle-class suburbs, where he was exposed to a plethora of musical styles. The Detroit up bringing left him with "... a gene ral mania for pop music," Cren shaw says. "I don't care how old or new something is. My tastes re di verse." Just I tow divers* become: clear as h< lets loos* a stream o favorites am influences tha spans Bootsy Cat lins. Lefty Frizzel Iggv and the Stooge: the Ramones, the Wh< and, as the TV arts for con pilation albums say. mud much more Clearly, however. Crenshaw music is mostly reminiscent of tw< of pop music's greatest influence: Buddy Holly and the Beatles Wit brother Robert on drums, and bassl: Chris Donato, Crenshaw makes hi use of the trio's harmony singing an background vocals that recall "Th Chirping Crickets,” Holly's back u singers, or the harmonies on Meet the Beatles. Yet no one can accuse this music of being a mere revivalist flash. Crenshaw's sound is not plagiarism but progression, an individual style built on some of the strongest bricks from the base of pop music. “I’m proud of the comparisons," Marshall says in reference to the constantly recurring mentions of these artists, later calling his influences "our cul tural heritage.” But while many cri tics have described his music as coming from the Fifties, it is absurd to think of Crenshaw as anything but a product of the Eighties. Marshall began the Seventies in Detroit, playing guitar for four years in a local bar band. A series of dif ferences with band members, as well as Crenshaw’s knowledge that "if you're in a hurry (to get established) and still in Detroit, there’s something wrong with your mind," was the in centive behind an unsuccessful 1975 trip to Los Angeles in search of fame and fortune. Crenshaw landed a dismal job with a touring Country & Western band 71-75 before returning home penniless. On a lark, with brother Robert’s help, he answered an ad for Beatlemania try-outs with a recording of "I Should Have Known Better." For the next two years, 1976 to 1978, Marshall Crenshaw was John Lennon, travelling the country in the role of his one-time hero. Tire pay was grxxl, but Crenshaw felt stifled and left the cast in 1978. He married his high schixrl sweet heart and moved to New York, a city he has adopted with fervor. "This is my town," he says about the Big Ap pie, before grinning and reminding himself of his Michigan upbringing But anyone who listens to "Rockin' Around in N YC." on the album’s first side, with its joyous Ramones like brevity, knows where Marshall's heart belongs During the end of his tenure with Beatlemania, Crenshaw tx'gan com piling an impressive collection of songs He recorded a number of r tlieso on a four track tape deck, and I passed the demo about to most any t one who would listen. One person who took notice was producer Richard Gottchrcr. looking for mate rial for the next Robert Gordon al bum Crenshaw gave Gordon three songs, and co wrote another with him. but when Gottrhrrr split with Gordon, eventually producing the Go-Go's Health' awl /he Gor don's album was put on hold Even tually Are You Ootina lit the One was released, and it contained t "Someday, Someway,” a small hit that I revived Gordon’s s.iggtng career, and I marked just the Ix-glnning tor the r song's composer Mat shall Crenshaw r> Uhi Ann Barton featured Crenshaw's Brand New Lover" on her debut al bum, and slowly the word began to spread. Warner Bros, got hold of the word, and sent Marshall into the studio. In New York, Crenshaw had begun to build a reputation throughout the club scene, mixing handfuls of lesser-known gems of the past with originals of equal mer it, and had already released a 12 inch single on Shake Records. The band entered the Record Plant Studios in hope of capturing the sound that had taken them this far, but soon found themselves bogged down. ‘The freshness was gone," Marshall recalls, “and there was no way for me to detach myself to look at it." Re-enter Richard Gottehrer, the objective eye that helped the trio complete twelve tracks in six weeks It is difficult to describe the energetic simplicity and exuberant beauty that permeates Crenshaw's debut album. Each song stands as an affirmation of rock and roll’s ability to thrill the listener. "She Can't Dance" celebrates the pop music fan, Mary Anne" is a tribute to a female of the Eighties much as "Peggy Sue" remains the ideal of the Fifties ‘Cynical Girl” is arguably the album s peak, a jingle jangle tune that seems to sum up our times, with the song's hero "going out looking for a cynical girl, who's got no use for the real world." l.ike the Eighties, "Cynical Girl” is a little funny and a little skeptical. If there's a problem with Cren shaws debut album it's that it fails to capture all of the energy that comes through in his live shows Marshall Is aware of this, saying that "it s some thing we re going to try to get next time. As time goes on that’s what were going to lx- trying to accont plish " Is it that the raw sound in concert packs more |>ower than the refined studio renditions? “There's going to lx- a lot less over tracking and less dubbing," Marshall says, hoping that the follow up album, al ready in the mental planning stages, will he truer to the full sounding versions that concert goers have heard But Crenshaw realizes that there's more to creating memorable music than finding the right mix in tfie studio In great recording of the past, Marshall finds "some personal ity or human spirit that ainies across in those records," and hopes that he too can communicate such vitality Particularly, Crenshaw loves the Immediacy of impact of a good single "! have only about a five sec ond attention span," he confesses "That's why all the exaggerated as pects of a single appeal to me And, if an artist is lucky, maybe there s something of lasting value there, too. The good stuff tends to stay around"
