RecordsRock is a Four Letter Word
William Dart
Lou ReedTake No PrisonersRCA
My copy of this now-notorious album had anifty little label
attached to its frontside warning"This Album is Offensive". To be
true such ap-pendages have a certain chic quality,, but thegreat
Lenny.Bruce could spend an hour analys-ing the meaningless of such
a statement. Of-fensive .to whom? Offensive,because of
what?Offensive perhaps to the many people thatReed slings off at ‘
during - his spokenmonologues a. galaxy of personalities in-cluding
Barbra Streisand, Diana Ross, PattiSmith, Candy Darling and . rock
critics ingeneral, with particular reference to RobertChristgau.
Not everyone wants to be describedas a.toe’f**ker,-and anyone who
still flincheswhen that four letter colloquialism for sexual
in-tercourse is mentioned would be advised tosteer clear of this
particular vinyl twin set.
Now, Reed as a rock’n’ roll Lenny Bruce.Certainly the raps which
take up a good deal ofthe album, and “Walk on the Wild Side" in
par-ticular; recall the American satirist. But Reed’svisions are
less personal and more distancedfrom himself, and he has none of
Bruce’s basicproselytising spirit. And whereas Bruce's workwas in
the form of mini-these of logic, Reed justfires out random ideas at
his audience rangingfrom quotes from Yeats to streams of four
let-ter words hurled at the audience. -
Like Beethoven in his way, Reed is strivingbeyond the
limitations of music. This may beseen in the 17 minute "Walk on the
Wild Side"where long spoken interludes ‘open out’ thecharacters of
the original song oh for asimilar job on “Wild Child" or Nico’s
"ChelseaGirls"! It’s really like an underground RonaBarrett
transformed into high art. The samespirit can also be seen in the
bleak "StreetHassle" with all of its studio arrangements
andtrimmings castrated, leaving the barest ofmusical skeletons.
Then there is a quite heart-rending “Coney Island Baby”, a song of
ob-vious personal relevance to Reed.
Reed's band is tight, although the backingsingers are amazingly
casual in their work for.those accustomed to the immaculately
tailoredchoruses of the studio "Walk on the WildSide”.
Stylistically the album ranges fromsome fairly funky jamming on “I
Wanna BeBlack” through the quite Baroque keyboardstylings of
"Satellite of Love” to a version of"I'm Waiting For the Man” that
defines ’laid-back’ for all time.
Take No Prisoners makes it as a documen-tary as much as a ‘work
of art’ an importantrecord of a great rock'n’roll animal caged for
afew hours, sometimes snarling, occasionallypurring but never
letting his audience slip awayfor a minute. And who knows the
shrieked ac-cusation of "Rock'n’Roll Whore” from the au-dience may
become as celebrated as the"Judas” hurled at Dylan during his
1966Albert Hall Concert.
Lou Reed
Joni Mitchell
Joni Mitchell ... Mingus
John Dix
Joni MitchellMingusAsylum
In the opening chapter of his autobiographyBeneath the Underdog
Char-les Mingus-describes a conversation with his psychiatrist.He
tells the shrink that he is three separate en-tities an aggressor,
a mild manneredreciprocal of all types of shit and adisconcerted
observer. Asked which image hewould like the world to see, Mingus
snaps,"What do I care what the world sees? I’m onlytrying to find
out how I feel about myself.”
It's an interesting story that tells much ofone of jazz's most
enigmatic characters. Oftengiven over to violence, an early
spokesman onracial injustice, Mingus was also a deeplyreligious man
who, between periods of drugs,drink and depression, had a lifelong
search forGod and his own personal place in theuniverse.
"God Must Be a Boogie Man” (a line fromthat chapter) is the only
known Mingus com-position on this album; Joni Mitchell wrote ittwo
days after the jazz legend's death. Theopening track, one
immediately feels thatMitchell is well in touch with the Mingus
magic.The verses pertain to the three separate sidesof Mingus with
the one line chorus punctuatingeach verse irreverantly.
When the news of the Mingus/Mitchell col-laboration filtered
through last year, fans ofboth performers awaited the outcome with
in-terest. Not that the collaboration was such adrastic departure
for either party Mitchellhas long utilized jazzmen with more than a
littlejazz influence in her works and Mingus hasalways been a man
given over to the unex-pected, always ready to try a little
experimen-ting. Despite the sometimes maudlin 'raps’ thatseparate
the six tracks in an attempt atthematic cohesion, the result is an
unqualifiedsuccess that followers of both artists shouldfind richly
rewarding.
Mingus fans will be familiar with his widerange of influences:
the gospel church, Ell-ington, and the wide spectrum of jazz
stylesthat Mingus covered during his apprenticeship
New Orleans (Armstrong), swing (Hampton)and finally bop (Parker)
and an early tutor,Lloyd Reece. Reece taught his pupils to
imitatethe sounds around them and when Mingusstarted his jazz
workshop he coujouled hissidemen to concentrate on the sound in
theirheads and not the scraps of paper which ac-counted for his
‘compositions.’
And here lies the main problem for the musi-cians on Mingus to
wing it, Mingus style andto'risk interrupting Mitchell’s lyrical
flow, or justplay around with the melody. It is as much
theirsuccessful compromise as it is Mitchell’swonderful sense of
the Mingus melodies thatmake this album such a great
achievement.
With the exception of "Drycleaner from DesMoines”, the tracks
are all melancholy, wispyballads. Aided by two percussionists, the
bulkof the work is in the hands of Herbie Hancock
(piano), Wayne Shorter (soprano sax), JacoPastorius (bass) and
Peter Erskine (drums).Their restraint places the onus on Mitchell
whohas rarely been in finer voice. With Mingusunable to appear
(anyotrophic lateralschlerosis, the terminal disease from which
hesuffered, had taken away his ability to play)special attention is
placed on Pastorius whohas proved on past Mitchell albums that he
isher finest bass accompianist; here he provesthat his style is
adaptable to the Mingus in-tricacies. While Erskine provides the
perfectbackdrop to Pastorius’ bass, Hancock weavesin and out of the
melodies leaving Shorter tofillthe gaps.
The most outstanding part of the albumthough is the successful
manner in which Mit-
chell has faithfully captured the appropriate im-agery and moods
of the themes. On "Chair inthe Sky” the theme is of the inevitable
regretsof the dying man. Sound morbid? It isn’t. On thewhole,
Mingus’ compositions are celebrationsof life. And death is just
another experience.Mitchell understands this. And then "SweetSucker
Dance”:
We are survivorsSome get brokenSome get mendedSome can't
surrenderThey're too well defendedSome get luckySome are blessedAnd
some pretendThis is only a dance!The album closes with the only
previously
recorded number, “Goodbye Pork Pie Hat",Mingus' Lester Young
tribute. Mingus wrotethe tune shortly after Young’s death;
Mitchellwrote the lyrics while Mingus was down inCuernavaca, Mexico
visiting faith healers in alast ditch attempt to find a cure for
his illness.Mingus died there omJanuary 4th.
Mitchell's love and respect for CharlesMingus and the distress
she felt at his death soclose to the album’s completion is
painfullysincere. With Mingus, Joni Mitchell has paidthe man a
fitting and often moving tribute. Hecould not have asked for a
finer obituary.
Charles Mingus
GetKnacked!The KnackGet The KnackCapitol
Get The Knack is a very likeable record, I likeit. Formed in May
’7B The Knack established areputation around their native Los
Angeles andfurther afield in southern California that
leadeventually to a contract and the recording ofthis first
album.
It was produced under the experienceddirection of pop maestro
Mike Chapman whoserecent work with Blondie, Nick Gilder and
Exilecan hardly have gone unnoticed by anyonewho’s passed within a
finger-pop of a trannylately. The album was recorded in 11 days
flatduring last March, an almost indecently fastpiece of work in
this age of "come and throwtogether your next masterpiece at
ourstudio/‘Shangri-La Delux’ and stay forever ifyou want Zeppelin
racing and undersea pic-nics at no extra charge”.
Most of it was recorded in one take and thefreshness shows
through. The songs are goodand the band plays with controlled
attack, let-ting the songs’ inherent dynamics work at theirmost
direct and effective level. The Knack'shooks are better than Cheap
Trick's (who arean obvious comparison stylistically) and theydon’t
resort to slick heavy metal ploys to beefthem out. Like I said,
they let the songs work ontheir own strengths by doing what's
neededand no more.
"My Sharona" is a bit of crunch-pop that’salready getting a
thrashing on the world'sradios and we’ll all hate it soon
(like"Roxanne") but it still sounds great at the timeof writing,
“Siamese Twins (The Money AndMe)” is a neat song about something
nasty andrecalls Stories slightly. However the major in-fluence on
the album is possibly Rubber SoulBeatles or thereabouts. “Your
Number Or YourName” is a delight with moments of humourand an
overall feel that shows these guys areenjoying their work, and
"Maybe Tonight” ’sdelicately assured arrangement even featuresa
touch of good old-fashioned backwards in-strumentation. The vocals
on "Good GirlsDon’t” are suitably leering considering
theunspeakable practices detailed in the lyrics,and they also do a
Buddy Holly song! You’reright ... Get The Knack is about sex, drugs
androck & roll and you oughta try it out.Terence Hogan
Dire StraitsCommuniqueVertigo .
The success of a ‘sleeper’ like Dire Straits’fresh first album
can make expectations for thefollow-up unreasonably high.
Reasonable ornot, the expectations are high and Com-munique doesn’t
meet them.
Certainly that sound is there the J.J. Cale-ish pulse,
punctuated by Mark Knopfler’s popp-ing guitar. The ensemble playing
is spot on,although it’s intriguing to note that the produc-tion by
the revered Jerry Wexler and BarryBeckett (of Muscle Shoals fame)
is not anoticeable improvement over the job done onthe first album
by the much-maligned Muff Win-wood.
Musically, the album is fine and Knopfler’sguitar lines are
fluid and refreshing. The pro-blem is that the songs don’t measure
up.
On the first album the songs were low-keyedbut they stood as
songs in their own right.Knopfler seems to have exhausted his
melodicgifts; the tunes are virtually interchangeableand too often
the lyrics seem strainedrhyme for rhyme's sake, as in:
Sitting on the fence, that's a dangerouscourseMight catch a
bullet from the peacekeepingforceEven the hero gets a bullet in the
chestOnce upon a time in the west.The central theme of Mark
Knopfler’s music
is the loner, a modern Shane against the odds.But in the context
of Dire Straits’ breezy rock-ing this myth-making seems top-heavy,
weigh-ed down with significance.
If the clarity and economy of Knopfler’s crispguitar playing had
been extended to his lyricwriting Communique might have rivalled
theenviable standard of the first album. Instead, itis a mere
echo.Ken Williams
RIP IT UP AUGUST 79 PAGE 10
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