RECORDSDragonRunning FreePortrait

Some days after I’d been given thisalbum, I met Dragon vocalist Marc Hunterfor an interview. Now, he’s a big guy. Sixfoot something and an assured, even ar-rogant, manner. At the end of the interviewMarc fixed me with a stare and said, “Youguys got a copy of the album?” I assuredhim we had. In clipped tones he said,“What do you think of it?"

What do you say? I decided to go for thetruth. “Well. .. I don’t think it’s as strong asyour last one." He stared at me. "You’reright," he replied.

So there it is, straight from the horsesmouth. And I guess I was right, but onlypartially. Sunshine was a strong album. Itpresented snappy melodic songs in a po-tent pop/soul/rock composite. Its Au-stralian success was entirely deserved.

Running Free adopts much the samemusical approach as its predecessor, butapart from the single, "April Sun in Cuba",lacks the kind of immediate melodic hooksthat "Get That Jive", "Sunshine" and "ThisTime" provided on the last album. On a sur-face level, then, it’s a less attractive record.But Marc assured me the album’s strengthsare buried deliberately. And he’s right.

If I don’t like an album I find it difficult toeven work up the motivation to listen to it.With Running Free, I have no such prob-lems It contains enough immediate re-wards to keep you listening and itsstrengths are slowly revealed. Particulargoodies are Paul Hewson’s ‘‘ShootingStars”, and his beautiful ballad "Since YouChanged Your Mind”. In fact, the only re-ally weak tracks are the two rockers "AnyFool Can Tell You” and “Bob's BudgieBoogie". Effective stage stompers thoughthey may be, on record they develop littlebeyond their first lines.

O.K. then, don’t expect to be clouted onthe head at first listening. But the rewardsare definitely here for those prepared to putin the effort. Marc told me so.Aiastair Dougal

Bob WelchFrench KissCapitol

Bob Welch used to play guitar and do abit of vocals with Fleetwood Mac(pre—"Rhiannon" days). Now that Mac areenjoying all that lucrative fame he feels it’stime to get in on the action, and just toshow there's no hard feelings a few of thegroup lend a hand with his first album.Mick Fleetwood does a bit of drumming,Christine McVie sings some backup, andLindsey Buckingham plays guitar. Buckin-gham and McVie also produced track one,the hit "Sentimental Lady".

Welch has aimed directly at top 40 radioand, if his songs lack the distinctivenessthat Mac's writers are capable of, theynonetheless contain some very catchyhooks. "Hot Love Cold World” and "LoseMy Heart" (which appears in 2Vz versions)would also make good singles.

The problem with the album is that, over-all, it tends to induce bland-out. Vocals, ar-rangements and production all want forvariety. Welch has a pleasant but nondes-cript voice its very lack of charactermakes Christine McVie’s four words of solovocal on "Sentimental Lady" stand out dis-concertingly.

Any variation in the arrangements comesby alternating lead guitar, strings andsynthesizer over a standard rhythm sec-tion. The production, however, tends tosubsume any such differences. Everything,vocals included, is swallowed into oneecho-laden sound. No instrument has anybite the strings have a sharper edge thanthe fuzzed guitar! This is rock? It’s recordslike this that support my theory that there’san inverse correlation between production

and humanity in recorded sound.Or perhaps I’m missing the point and

these songs are meant to be heard betweenadverts coming from a two-inch speaker onthe beach. As they used to say about Mar-mite, fine in small doses but too muchspoils the flavour.Peter Thomson

The CommodoresLiveMotown Records

1977 was the year the Commodoresbrought their brand of funky musical ex-travaganza to New Zealand. After brilliantshows, they departed leaving in their waketheir album Zoom, which spawned thesingles "Brickhouse", "Zoom” and "Easy”.

With the success of Zoom, the Commo-dores were able to undertake a 50 city tourof the U.S of A on which they recordedLive, a double album which features alltheir major hits, except "Machine Gun”.

Live was not recorded at a single showand there is no introduction, encores orsignificant crowd noise. It consists of 11live tracks plus the studio recording of theirnew single, "Too Hot to Trot”.

The six Commodores are assisted onstage by the 'Mean Machine’,and a guitar man. And unlike more tradi-tional Motown acts, the Commodores donot work with an orchestra or dismiss theirfinest material in fast paced medleys.

With live recordings, the energy expres-sed on stage in movement, lighting anddry ice is not visible. But with the excep-

Joni MitchellDon Juan’s Reckless DaughterAsylum

1977 has been a bumper year for me asfar as W.E.A. are concerned. My five toprecords come from their catalogueMaria Muldaur’s Sweet Harmony, theMcGarrigle sisters’ Dancer with BruisedKnees, the Beach Boys’ Love You, LindaRonstadt’s Simple Dreams and RandyNewman’s Little Criminals. And it seemsthat Joni Mitchell’s new double album isgoing to be added to the list.

Together with Newman’s Little Criminals,Mitchell’s Don Juan’sReckless Daughter isthe premier songwriter's album of the year.Yet Newman and Mitchell are strikingly dif-ferent in their songwriting approaches.Newman writes short and epigrammaticsongs whereas Mitchell favours expansiveand rhapsodic tales the prototype ofwhich is probably "The Last Time I sawRichard" from her Blue album.

Newman likes to achieve some distancebetween himself and his song, whereasMitchell's songs seem almost embarras-singly personal at times. “Talk to Me” fromthe new album is a case in point with thesongwriter searching for "Mr Mystery" andpissing tequila anacondas in parking lots.

"Dreamland”, the liveliest and most ac-cessible track from Don Juan’s RecklessDaughter, sees Mitchell relating her lifestyle to her Canadian origins, and"Jericho ”, which gets its first airing onMiles of Aisles, is a poetic development ofthe conceit that is at the core of Capra’s ItHappened One Night.

In a concert recording of the late sixties,the lady prefaced her "Fiddle and theDrum" with a long rap on the problems ofbeing a Canadian in America. Don Juan'sReckless Daughter seems to indicate thatJoni Mitchell is coming to terms withAmerica. The last song on the album, “The

tion of "Zoom" the energy of intensivestompers like "I feel Sanctified" are moreimpressive than the ballads. On stage, aslow paced song can easily become only astrategically placed breather for a team ofsong and dance men.

Possibly, the live versions are not ‘apatch on the original' but so what? Liverecordings are best considered, not as newand improved versions but as ‘loud ver-sions’. Unlike the original AM recordings,to get into Live, it has to be played loud.What better way to get up in the morningthan to your own Commodores concert?

Though the studio album,Zoom, remainsthe best introduction to the Commodres, ifyou want something loud and live tocherish until they visit again, Live is theanswer.Murray Cammick

Electric Light OrchestraOut of the BlueUnited Artists

ELO’s previous album, A New World Re-cord, successfully stole from the likes ofthe Beatles, the Easybeats and LittleRichard with possibly unintentional goodhumour. The humour was most obvious inthe mock seriousness of the introductionto "Tightrope” and in virtually the whole of"Rockaria!" For that reason one couldn’thelp but admire Jeff Lynne for shaping ELOinto a hit-making unit where Roy Wood hadfailed.

But success can do funny things to aperson, and Out of the Blue raises ques-tions that could be safely overlooked be-fore. ELOsound more like Chicory Tip thanELO these days and Jeff Lynne seems to betaking himself seriously. Someone shouldremind him that plagiarism doesn't countonly if it’s done with good humour.

Silky Veils of Ardour” is a strange one withmany phrases lifted from the Americanfolk-song book "Come all you fair andtender school girls", "I am a poor wayfar-ing stranger "The water is wide” etc. etc.This parallels "Old Man on t the Farm” fromthe Little I Criminals album where] Newmanconcludes:- . ■Goodnight LadiesSorry if I stayed too longSo long it's been good to know youI love the way I sing that song.

In the song "Don Juan’s RecklessDaughter” the American problem is crystal-lised as a snake-eagle duality which worksas both the expression of the Indian-European relationship and the songwriter'slatent schizophrenia. At the very core of thealbum is "Paprika Plains”, a fifteen minuteepic which fills one side of the album.

In "Paprika Plains” Joni Mitchell por-trays the European rape of the Indian cul-ture with such artistry and emotional powerthat one asks oneself “What ever happenedto Buffy Sainte-Marie?”. The song culmi-nates in the image of a child’s beachballwhich is transformed into a dance hall glit-ter ball, an image that recalls James Ivory’sSavages of a few years back.

"Paprika Plains” gains a lot of its powerfrom Mike Gibbs’ string arrangements, butthe album has an assortment of musiciansfrom track to track. Chaka Khan, Airto,Wayne Shorter with a brilliant soprano saxsolo at the end of "Jericho”, John Guerin,Michel Colombier (remember Wings?), J.D.Souther and Glen Frey.

It is ridiculous in a way writing a review ofsuch a complex album as this after only aweek of listening. But I can’t see how yourrecord collection can even hope to attain torespectability without a copy of it, rightnext to Randy Newman's Little Criminals.William Dart

Plagiarising yourself is one of the funniestthings you can do but this time there's norevamped "Do Ya" to fall back on. This is adouble album, more than an hour's playingtime, choc-full of hit singles as Lou Reedmight have put it, but all of such similarityas to make a double album a waste of time.

There is no apparent progression from ANew World Record to this; Jeff Lynne hasfound a hit-making forumula which he in-tends to play for all its worth. In the end thechoice is still yours; buy this if you like. Thequestion is how much we ask of the re-cords we buy.Jeremy Templer.

Greatest HitsRoxy MusicPolydor

Bryan Ferry’s cover for this Roxy compi-lation is almost unspeakable in its goldenvulgarity. But “greatest hits" albums havealways been a little blatant.

Greatest hits? Yes, folks, remember allthose chart-busters. Still, it’s arguably thebest of Roxy, striking a good balance inculling from four albums and including thesingles ‘Virginia Plain” and "Py-jamarama”.

The remaining tracks are "Do TheStrand,” "All I Want is You,” “Out of theBlue," "Editions of You," "Love is theDrug," "Mother of Pearl,” "A Song forEurope," "The Thrill of it All” and "StreetLife.”

The tracks are not arranged chronologi-cally but there’s no jarring in the juxtaposi-tion of songs from different periods. Agood sampling of a unique concept.Whether Ferry, whose vision it was, equalsthe work here in his solo career remains tobe seen.Ken Williams

Robert Taylor, Dragon.

Running on EmptyJackson Browne

Francis Stark

AsylumIf I asked you what was last year's record

industry cliche, you'd have to say the livealbum.

If I then asked you what was the worstcliche of the art rock debacle, you'd have tosay the concept album.

What then are you going to make ofRunning on Empty, which is nothing lessthan a live concept album?

In fact, if you have any faith in JacksonBrowne, you shouldn't expect anythingbecause you're going to get a surprise.While the tag ‘live concept album' mightconjure up visions of Thick as a Brickplayed at Madison Square Garden with aliberal sprinkling of ‘improvements' addedafterwards, Running on Empty can only bedescribed as a whole new type of record.

I don’t think I have ever heard a record,with the possible exception of Neil Young’sTonight's the Night, which so accuratelymirrors its content in the way it is played,and recorded. Running is unquestionablya

record about touring in a rock and rollband, and so Browne has recorded himselfand his band on tour. That didn’t involvesetting up all the facilities of the RecordPlant in some stadium, but instead we havetracks recorded in hotel rooms, on stage,backstage, and best of all, on the tour bus.

So, if the song is about the rigours oftravelling everywhere by bus "Nothingbut Time" then record it on the bus it-self, with the driver throwing in gearchanges in time with the chord changes. Ifits a song about missing out on the girl youhad your eye on during a rehearsal, recordit at rehearsal, like "Rosie". Virtually everysong on the album, right down to theshambling, hotel room version of the Rev.Gary Davis’ "Cocaine" not only has a placeon the record, but a definite and importantlocation.

Of course, another side of crawlingaround the country for a songwriter is thedifficulty of writing new material. This mustbe especially noticeable for Browne whohas confessed to taking up to five years toget a song right. Rather than skirt aroundthis by retreading old favourites, he has fil-

led the album with collaborations, songs byothers, and songs which show a similar in-stantaneous roughness to the recent out-put of Neil Young and Bob Dylan.

This more vigorous approach, along withthe conspicuous absence of Jon Landaufrom the producer’s chair marks a welcometurning back from the almost-formulaslickness of The Pretender. I only hope thatBruce Springsteen also escapes Landau’scottonwool clutches.

The band basically The Section(Kortchmar, Sklar, Kunke' and Doerge)with David Linley added has to be goodto come up with the goods under thesekind of conditions, and as you would ex-pect from L.A. s finest, they come through,with an extra edge you seldom get fromthem on more familiar territory.

I saw Jackson Browne and David Linleyperform together here early last year, andswore then that I'd sell my grandmother tosit in the front row of a real full-scale con-cert by them. Now I’ve heard one I’m in nomood to change my mind.

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