"Upside Down" sat atop the Hot 100. "Another One Bites the Dust" was becoming inescapable. I had recently won a copy of Christopher Cross from a Cincinnati radio station and was occasionally yachting out to it. The latest issue of Stereo Review arrived in a mailbox in Walton, KY. What wonders did it contain?
Article
William Livingstone Interviews Andre Previn
The conceit for this piece is to check in on Previn as he cracks the half-century mark (though it now appears likely he was a year older than he claimed/believed). Not that I am well-versed on the lives of classical conductors, but I was surprised to learn of Previn's previous and long history as a film composer and jazz performer. The then-conductor of the Pittsburgh Symphony says of his former lives, "My interest in theater music is just that of a member of the audience. The same goes for jazz. This is not because of any mistaken disdain—I think it's all valid and important—but because I no longer have the interest and I don't have the time."
Our reviewers this month are Chris Albertson, Irv Cohn, Noel Coppage, Phyl Garland, Paul Kresh, Peter Reilly, Steve Simels, and Joel Vance.
Best of the Month
--The Canadian Brass and Friends, Unexplored Territory (PK) "It took a lot of technology and a lot of musical tricks to put this one together, but the tricks work for once and the whole experience is a series of happy surprises—stunningly recorded, too."
--Carole King, Pearls (NC) "Through just about all of it King, who is more stylist than singer, works where her voice can do the most good; her taste is right up there with that of the instrumentalists—nothing overdone, nothing overdressed."
--John Rutter, The Beatles Concerto (James Goodfriend) "(In the second movement) each little introduction leads us to anticipate a familiar theme of (Grieg) or (Chopin), but instead we get a Beatles melody—and it doesn't seem out of place."
Recordings of Special Merit
--B.T. Express, 1980 (IC) "The engineering sometimes stresses the percussion too much, but otherwise it situates the vocals perfectly and captures the big sound."
--Randy Crawford, Now We May Begin (PG) "This is not a heavy album, but (she) demonstrates her talent by treating this light material with respect and thereby raising it to a higher level."
--The Fabulous Thunderbirds, What's the Word (JV) "What makes (them) so fun to hear is that they write and play in the style of the black Chicago bluesmen of the Fifties (Jimmy Reed, Howlin' Wolf, Magic Sam, and others) and that they have the same effect their models had—they make people dance."
--Suzanne Fellini, S/T (JV) "She celebrates sexuality with gusto and humor, and she sings with no obvious reference to other New Wave women singers I've heard, although she has the kind of propulsiveness and emotional depth Ellen Foley has." Fellini had had very brief chart success with the #87 hit "Love on the Phone" back in March. This was her one and only album, and I've found a number of its cuts pretty enjoyable.
--Grateful Dead, Go to Heaven (NC) "I'm not sure sometimes whether it's the Dead I like or the people who like the Dead, but in any case I could use more albums like this one, albums that hue (sic) to a vision and advance their own style rather than trying to please everyone."
--Gladys Knight and the Pips, About Love (PG) "This is a slicker, more superficial Gladys Knight. Still, I'm glad she's back with the Pips."
--Jimmy Maelen, Beats Workin' (IC) "…steps out from behind the busiest set of percussion instruments in the business and introduces himself as an interesting singer/songwriter."
--Dolly Parton, Dolly Dolly Dolly (PR) "This is a delightful album by a delightful lady whose future in all the media looks as bright as her platinum curls."
--Squeeze, Argybargy (JV) "This stuff may remind you of the Kinks in the late Sixties, and I dn't think it's stretching the comparison to say that as musical satirists these guys are the Kinks' children. And they're funnier." Somehow this wasn't Best of the Month?
--Syreeta, S/T (PG) "This release shows that she is one of the few female soul singers of recent years to have formed an individual style as subtle as it is compelling."
--Bernie Taupin, He Who Rides the Tiger (NC) "In an era such as this, when 85 per cent of our citizens start every third (run-on) sentence by misusing 'hopefully,' one can overreact to a lyricist who is halfway articulate; but I still think Bernie Taupin has done a pretty good job here."
--Temptations, Power (PG) "…Berry Gordy has reaffirmed his faith in them by producing this thoroughly enjoyable album."
Featured Reviews
--Rosemary Clooney, Sings the Lyrics of Ira Gershwin (PR) "It's not so much that she's changed her vocal quality or singing style (although the intense performing character is totally, thankfully gone) as that she's replaced her old breezy, almost absent-minded way with words with a new and scrupulous attentiveness to them."
--Paul McCartney, McCartney II (PR) "It is an album made for the pleasure and edification of a family, their friends, and their well-wishers, not to 'show' anybody anything. After listening to it, I feel that I have actually gotten to know them…"
--Nu Disk Releases from Epic Records (SS) The label tries to expand its reach with a set of 10-inch, 4-song EPs. Simels takes a look at disks from Cheap Trick and three bands trying to break through: New Musik, Propaganda, and the Continentals. "If we're ever going to convince a head-in-the-sand public that this new-fangled rock-and-roll has more to do with the essential spirit of the music than the current crop of multi-platinum snooze merchants has, it will be risk-taking ventures like this one that turn the trick." Alas, the format didn't take and was abandoned within a couple of years.
--The Rolling Stones, Emotional Rescue (SS) "…a ferociously physical exploration of a territory bounded by funk, blues, reggae, and rock-and-roll, which is to say that it includes what's best in today's musical non-mainstream…it's committed, risk-taking, exhilarating music, as vital a piece of work as anything released so far in the new decade."
--Irma Thomas, Safe with Me (CA) "She has matured to the point where she is able to deliver a varied program with that combination of polish and involvement that comes only with experience." Albertson reminds that Thomas was the first to record "Time Is on My Side;" as it happens, the Stones brought her onstage at the New Orleans Jazz Festival to duet with Mick earlier this year.
Other Disks Reviewed
--Alice Cooper, Flush the Fashion (NC) "Certainly one could make a case that the world is as rotten as he says, but Cooper still seems to be singing around an in-cheek placement of the tongue."
--Chick Corea, Tap Step (CA) "An agreeable but not very thought-provoking album."
--Genesis, Duke (JV) "There is still too much pretentiousness on this album, especially the indulgent instrumental crud that closes the second side, but the ratio between nonsense and common sense is about 50/50, and that's at least a 100 per cent improvement over their past bombast."
--Graham Parker, Up the Escalator (SS) "It's depressing, really, to hear Parker so obviously acting; somehow it cheapens the really moving stuff he's given us in the past."
--Neil Sedaka, In the Pocket (PR) "Look, you won't win any status points by casually leaving the cover of this near the turntable, but I can promise that you'll have a hell of a good time listening to the record."
--Southside Johnny and the Asbury Jukes, Love Is a Sacrifice (SS) "The Jukes' soul, spontaneity, and humor have been replaced here with bombast and arena-rock excess, and I can only hope this does not presage a new direction for their heretofore sublime stage show."
--Urban Cowboy Soundtrack (NC) "…has a good, strong regional identity and works well as an all-star anthology."
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