Lou Reed - RCA LSP 4701

Reviewed by G. Mazengarb

Jim Morrison once said he liked living in Los Angeles because in 100 years the whole world would be like that. Velvet Underground seemed to have a similar vision of New York-it was their world, it is their world, the world of dirty needles and stinking gutters. They were the innovators of fag-rock before David Bowie started relating to spacemen and Alice Cooper to beer and switchblades. Songs like "Heroin":

I don't know just where I'm goin'
But I'm gonna try for the Kingdom if I can
Because it makes me feel like a man
When I put a spike into my vein
And I tell you things aren't quite the same
When I'm rushing on my run
And I feel just like Jesus' son......
Heroin is my wife—
When that smack is in my blood.
And the blood is in my head,
Then I'm better off than dead.

And the homosexual leanings of songs like "T'll be your mirror" come on as some of the nastiest little ditties I've ever heard, espousing homosexuals by putting everyone else down. All in all, catering to an old-fashioned freak-out.

And Velvet Underground was Lou Reed. Now Lour Reed has released his very own solo album, which he slips into with a track that says he is tired of life in the Under ground, and all those freaky scenes:

I live with 13 dead cats
And a purple dog that wears spats
And I can't stand it any more"

while flashy guitar breaks wind screaming through and around the lyrics—but he doesn' come on too heavy, in fact it's almost pleasant. Next comes a song called "Going Down" kinda sad, gentle and sincere:

—Times not what it seems
It just seems longer when you're lonely in this world
Everything it seems would be brighter
If your nights were spent with some girl
Yeah you're falling all around,
You're crashing upside down,
And you know you're going down, for the last time"

Another Rock n' Roll Suicide-not bitter but almost wistful. He's good at working guitar against piano, and then sliding his voice somewhere in the middle. Musically it's sounding pretty good so far.

The next track, "Brown Sugar"—what?? No its not it's called "Walk and Talk it"— but it sounds like "Brown Sugar", I can almost see Jagger singing it and the song itself shows the same sentiments as "Rocks Off", just kind of kidding you about listening to it, a rocker for rock's sake. But it's not a take off of the Stones, it makes it the hard way by sounding like something else and standing on its own. A dedication to the Stones? (I know he prefers David Bowie)—I remember in Velvet Underground he ripped off "Hitch-hike", but that was just nasty.

It comes out almost as a good-time L.P. apart from the last track called "Ocean" which sinks into a bit of the old heavy Velvet Underground vibes. Most tracks develop into sincere personal statements.

For the people who like flashing names, Rick Wakeman of "Yes" tinkles away on piano, and helps provide some indication of how good the music really is—it really is.

Super Fly — Curtis May Field Buddah 2318065

reviewed by Gordon Campbell

To many people soul music is not much more than some sweaty invitations to clap your hands, stamp your feet and say yeah real loud. But deep in the ghetto the tom toms are laying down new rhythms, and as in white pop, the innovating artists are the singers/songwriters, people like Bill Withers and Curtis Mayfield. This disc comes from a movie (made by the son of the guy who made "Shaft") about hard drugs in the ghetto, and most of the songs follow the standard anti-drug themes: "If you wanna be a junkie now/remember that Freddie's dead" which isn't much of a recommendation, but don't let the lyrics keep you from the album's real joys, namely Curtis Mayfield's freakish falsetto voice, and the driving arrangements he's worked out for his songs.

As a solo artist, Mayfield has had some trouble finding his feet. This is probably because most of the excitement in soul music is generated by the vocalist working against the limits deliberately set by the rhythm section; the classic example was Len Stubbs of the Four Tops, who in song after song used to thresh and flain in beautifully choreographed frenzy against the assembly line rhythms set down by the bass and tambourines. As for Curtis Mayfield, his supple, high voice worked fine amid the mellow harmonies of the other Impressions, hut this tension was lost in the cluttered arrangements of the first solo LP. Here, its restored Simple, attractive melodies, and clean, pulsating arrangements make a perfect foil for him.

page 19

Inevitably, comparisons are going to be made with Isaac Hayes and the 'Shaft' score. I think this one wins Maylield is a more interesting singer and his songs are better, in fact at least four tracks could be released as singles. I suggested earlier that the lyrics don't work too well as social commentary; for like its white contemporary, black protest music is pretty awful, just liberal tosh like 'Love Child' or 'Abraham, Martin and John' from the upwardly mobile brothers at Mowtown. But one track, 'Pusherman' really works. May field has caught the love and hale and mutual need between dealer and user in lines like:

"I'm your mother, I'm your daddy
I'm that nigger in the alley
I'm your doctor when you need/have some coke, have some weed.
You know me, I'm your friend.
Your main boy, thick and thin
I'm your pusherman, yes, yes, I'm your pusherman"

Little Feat's "Sailin' Shoes". WBS [unclear: 600]

Reviewed by P.F. O'Dea

Little Feat's first album release in [unclear: is] country, "Sailin' Shoes" is an admir[unclear: ble] achievement. It is actually the group's [unclear: cond] outing. The first, featuring super[unclear: ssion] guitarist, Ry Cooder, was never re[unclear: ased] here, which is a pity because it's just [unclear: good]. "Sailin' Shoes" was released late [unclear: st] year and doesn't appear to have sold [unclear: ry] well so this belated review is offered in [unclear: e] hope that it may make someone out [unclear: ere] see the light. Each of its 11 tracks [unclear: uld] give pointers to any other group you [unclear: re] to name.

Who are Little Feat? Answer: an ex[unclear: mely] tight, extremely funky collection American rockers, including among their [unclear: mber] ex-Mother, Roy Estrada, and a gen[unclear: man] called Lowell George who wrote [unclear: ilhn]' " for the first Seatrain album.

The band roars like an express train [unclear: m] the first cut, "Easy to slip", right [unclear: ough] to "Texas Rose Cafe" at the end of [unclear: other] side. Lowell George's stamp is the [unclear: minant] one as he wrote eight of the [unclear: igs] and takes most of the lead guitar and [unclear: al] chords in his stride. His voice sounds [unclear: a] cross between Jagger and Stills. High[unclear: probable] but by some strange alchemy comes across sounding better than either. [unclear: e] Jagger parallel is deliberate as this [unclear: um] sometimes sounds a lot like the [unclear: nes] but with a much cleaner production [unclear: nd] and the retention in every track of [unclear: amphetamine]-charged atmosphere that Stones last attained on "Let it Bleed".

Individually or collectively, the mem[unclear: s] of Little Feat have been around for [unclear: e] time, during which they've been infill[unclear: ed] from many sources, among them [unclear: n] John, the Stones, the Dead, the Band Pink Floyd. But somehow they've man[unclear: I] to weld together these seemingly dis[unclear: te] influences to produce a refreshingly [unclear: inal] album. The isolation of specific [unclear: ks] is a slight problem. The title features [unclear: rreal] lyric over a chunky piano line and [unclear: arthy] Merry Clayton-type backing vocal [unclear: a] Debbie Lindsay. "Teenage Nervous [unclear: kdown]", a wry comment on paleo-cy[unclear: etic] paranoia, is another stand out. [unclear: scrupulous] operators could confuse/ [unclear: d] exploit and deceive the conditional [unclear: x]/theories and change the probabilities/ [unclear: crass] and rockous crackass place with/ [unclear: v] on the human race it's a terrible/ill[unclear: it's] a terrible case/and usually [unclear: perma] when it takes place/it's a teenage ner[unclear: breakdown]").

Beneath the lyric is an amazingly [unclear: ic] piano-guitar duel, firmly anchored by a pounding rhythm section, and when it's all over the only reaction is one of incredulity. How did they manage to squeeze so much excitement into two minutes?

"Willin' " is another beauty. It starts slowly with the ubiquitous Sneaky Pete Kleinow's steel guitar insinuating itself around a lyric about Dallas Alice being seen in every headlight, builds through a list of assorted hard times ("kicked by the wind, robbed by the sleet, had my head stoved in") but at the end of it all the vocalist is still on his feet and still "willin'".

On the technical side the production is near flawless which is what one would expect from Lennie Waronker, who has also handled such diverse notables as Randy Newman, the Everly Brothers, Harpers Bizarre and Arlo Guthrie. Another Waronker protege. Van Dyke Parks, sometime confidant and influence upon the demented Beach Boys' genius Brian Wilson, and co-author of "Heroes and Villians", is credited with special effects, and it shows. Finally, the stereo quality is excellent and the cover, to give meaning to a cliche, is something else. What are you waiting for?

Randy Newman : "Sail Away" Reprise Reviewed by Stephen Matthews

Randy Newman's fourth album "Sail Away' proves itself to be yet another of his masterpieces of ironical humour, musical innovation and economical arrangement. His songs have been recorded by Ray Charles, Judy Collins, Nillson, Alan Price, Three Dog Night and Fats Domino, yet nobody handles them quite like he does. It is predicted he will influence American music as much as Cole Porter and George Gershwin and I'd go along with that.

Newman's particular brand of black humoured rock tainted with a touch of cynicism and a pinch of Jewish schmaltz contains a timeless quality which enables it to transcend the varied styles which he employs. Like David Bowie, he also has a great sense of the theatrical, building the plot and structure of his song to a climax and then cutting it to pieces with an under-staled, double-edged one liner. The result is an exciting fusion of the world of musical comedy and cabaret with the energy and popular appeal of rock.

'Listen to the band—they're playing just for me
Listen to the people paying just for me
All the applause all the parades
And all the money I have made
Oh, it's lonely at the top'

His haunting fascination for the life and feelings of the down-and-out give his songs a bitter sweet quality and basic human truths seen through the eyes of a loser seem all the more poignant.

'A quitter never wins
A winner never quits
When the going gets tough
The tough get going

Newman works from the belief that life is to be endured rather than enjoyed (or as Bowie would say 'Knowledge comes with death's release') and his song 'Old Man' is concerned with man's coming to terms with his alone-ness at the end.

'Won't be no God to comfort you
You taught me not to believe that lie
You don't need anybody
And nobody needs you.

Don't cry, old man, don't cry
Everybody dies'

A strong atheistic element is present throughout the album. Like most atheists Newman seems more preoccupied with the questions of the existence of God than the average Jesus freak. He thinks God is 'kinda funny' and in 'Gods Song' he presents a darkly comic vision of heaven that adds yet another dimension to the good old Pearly Gates.

"The Christians and the Jews were having a jamboree
The Buddhists and the Hindus joined on satellite TV'

I mentioned earlier that the LP is a masterpiece of economical arrangement. His sound is built around his rough, deadpan vocals and his distinctive, whimsical piano playing. However, guitar, bass, percussion and strings are not merely 'added'— they are all part of Newman's total concept and their combination sparks off a particular emotive response. There are no indulgent, unnecessary noises. It is obviously the work of a perfectionist. The title track alone took six months to lay down before Newman was happy with it. The level of performance is impeccably high, which is not surprising when one sees the list of backing musicians; Ry Cooder, Rus Titelman, Jim Keller and Gene Parsons, to name but a few.

In short, 'Sail Away' is a masterpiece.

Living in the Past — Jethro Tull Reprise 2T5 2106

reviewed by Luke Potts.

It may seem crass to start with this, but this is a gorgeously presented record. It reminds me of nothing so much as those record/books at primary school that let you turn the page and see the dragon just as the narrator got there too. So, see Ian Andersen leaping and cavorting in magnificent techni-colour poses, and see also the many faces who've inhabited Jethro Tull, as you play through their past on this 2 LP set.

The album is a collection of singles, EP and LP tracks and live cuts, hut it serves even better than an album sampler to show the changes Tull have been through How you feel about this evolution depends on which stage you like best, or which LP. since Anderson has never had the same lineup on two successive discs. My preferences lie between the second and third records, the melodies are complex but attractive, the lyrics intelligent but not pretentious, and has there ever been a tighter, more together band than Jethro Tull? "Stand Up" and "Benefit' have none of the roughness of the first LP, nor much of the emotional emptiness of the later one. These seem more and more to be just brilliant surfaces, the sort of records that get filed at the back of the cabinet after the first few few weeks' excitement.

This LP won't Change your feelings about Jethro Tull, though it may give you uneasy feelings to hear how completely Ian Andersen has moulded the band into a passive vehicle for his own ideas. This kind of palace revolution has become a familiar part of pop group olilies, so maybe Andersen shouldn't be singled out for blame in this respect. Generally, the album gives the kind of insight into a band's development that you normally associate with bootlegs, but here the line cuts are even better recorded, and the material has been very well selected. It's worth owning no matter what form of Tull you prefer.