Apropos of recent news, here are a couple of nuggets from the Wikipedia page for December 1978 regarding the presidency of Jimmy Carter, which was almost exactly at its halfway point:
--on 12/1, an executive order from Carter creates 17 new U.S. national monuments in Alaska. It's a step on the way to the passage of the Alaska National Interest Lands Conservation Act, which Carter will sign two years later, following his failure to secure re-election;
--on 12/15, we learn from Carter that full diplomatic relations with the People's Republic of China will commence on 1/1/79;
--There's also foreshadowing: on 12/11, millions gathered in Tehran on Ashura to protest against the Shah.
Meanwhile, at some point that month a HS freshman in Walton, KY would have devoured the contents of the latest issue of his father's Stereo Review magazines. One image, noted below, will stick in his brain. What else might he have encountered?
Article
Steve Simels Interviews Marshall Chapman
Simels is in search of a female rocker "who could play aggressively sexual no-nonsense rock without compromising her femininity and yet avoid rock's traditional female stereotypes—tragic loser (Joplin), sensitive co-ed (Mitchell) or sex kitten (Harry)," and he wonders if he's found her in Marshall Chapman. After seeing her live in NYC, Simels flies to Nashville for a visit. He finds that her band "most definitely treat(s) her as just one of the guys"; Chapman herself says, "I don't like to wave banners about (feminist rhetoric)…because overall, to me, the first thing is rock-and-roll. Men and women come second—y'know, this thing between men and women…(a)s far as I'm concerned, feminists have done to women what the Baptists did to religion." Simels leaves thinking (erroneously, as it turns out) one day she will "break through."
Our reviewers this time are Chris Albertson, Edward Buxbaum, Noel Coppage, Phyl Garland, Paul Kresh, Peter Reilly, Steve Simels, and Joel Vance.
Best of the Month
--Paul Anka, Listen to Your Heart (PR) "Year after year he's been releasing albums, some of them, to be sure, indifferent in quality; but best and worst, they all document an active, productive, directed life in the music business."
--Joe Cocker, Luxury You Can Afford (JV) "His voice hasn't changed—it's still the same gritty, rasping, guttural, almost primeval instrument it always was—but he uses it with the subtlest of emphases, putting a little pressure on a phrase to make it shine, easing back at other times to let the song breathe."
--The Hammond Family, Having Fun with Recorders (PK) "What makes (this album) something special is the amazing amount of skilled playing that goes into the mischievous treatment of trite material that has been known to founder of its own weight in less light-fingered hands." This one sounds intriguing but is truly obscure, with no mention that I can find on YouTube.
Featured Reviews
--Ashford & Simpson, Is It Still Good to Ya (PG) "The voltage generated when they mesh in such close harmony seems to exceed what might be attributed to mere musicianship, and the feeling of joy they create spills over into the listener's cup."
--Diahann Carroll, A Tribute to Ethel Waters (PK) "…the Duke Ellington Orchestra conducted by his son Mercer…never sounded bigger or better than it does on this disc, and Carroll, knowing that she could not possibly duplicate the moving performances of Waters herself, has chosen the wiser course of singing…in her own emphatic style, which is persuasive enough."
--Dick Haymes, For You, For Me, For Evermore (PR) "So, this is not a Calling All Nostalgia Freaks event, nor is it Let's Welcome Back The Grand Old Trouper time. It is instead a wonderful chance to hear an extraordinarily fine male singer when there aren't too many of them around."
--Janis Ian, S/T (PR) "…while most of the material here may be emotionally in a minor key, it is some of the most assured and elegant work of her career…(a)s I've said, Ian is one of those ladies who Know Something. And one of the things she surely knows is that she doesn't have to count the critical handraises on her side to reassure herself of her unique talent."
--Linda Ronstadt, Living in the USA (SS) "This has been one of the better rock-and-roll years in recent memory…and there's no use pretending that those nasty old punks are not at least partially responsible. Linda Ronstadt, of course, is not a punk, but she's also no dope, and it's quite possible that the intelligence, authority, and drive of the music she is making now is a result of the threat, real or perceived, that punk rock poses to the music biz aristocracy she represents."
--Doc & Merle Watson, Look Away! (NC) "Doc continues to uncover the damnedest, most American assortment of songs. And if you listen to enough of his albums, you'll get a fair idea of just where some of our most musical citizens have their roots and what kind of branches they've followed."
--The Wiz soundtrack (PR) "Its thoroughly necessary grandiosity is at every point matched by its sensitivity, its bone-cracking professional showmanship by its very real heart…congratulations to everybody who had anything to do with it."
Recordings of Special Merit
--Dan Fogelberg & Tim Weisberg, Twin Sons of Different Mothers (NC) "Through it all, you have the sense that the musicians care about something beyond showing off their chops."
--Daryl Hall & John Oates, Along the Red Ledge (PG) "This is a more virile and sassy sound, perhaps one they have been inching toward without wanting to make the transition too abrupt."
--Lynyrd Skynyrd, Skynyrd's First and…Last (JV) "Consistency, it has been said, is the resort of small imagination, but if Skynyrd lacked imagination in the grand sense they had a grand idea of their own identity."
--Meco, The Wizard of Oz (EB) "All I can say is that Meco's arrangements work; they are just fine for dancing while remaining true to the film. In effect, then, this is not just a dance trip but a nostalgia trip as well…"
--Rose Royce, "…Strikes Again!" (PG) "They not only sing and play with a spunky self-assurance, they mix up their offerings to cover the range from fast-paced finger-poppers to sweet ballads."
--The Staples, Unlock Your Mind (PG) "…laced with echoes of the Staples' musical roots. Lead singer Mavis Staples twists her husky voice around selections that have a contemporary beat but still reflect the nuances of the blues, gospel, and traditional secular music."
--Mel Tormé, S/T (PR) "…like most originals, he knew something we didn't back then: that there's only one way for any truly creative performer to perform—his way."
--Don Williams, Expressions (NC) "…Williams is a country musician, but no label beyond 'mellow' has ever really fit him. He just keeps going along, doing his thing, and the world slowly but surely catches on."
Other Disks Reviewed
--Ambrosia, Life Beyond L.A. (JV) "…the songs on this disc are concerned with alienation, and the trouble is that they like that state of mind, since it gives them a fashionable excuse to complain about things."
--Blue Öyster Cult, Some Enchanted Evening (NC) "On the whole, though, listening is not the best way to deal with this album. That would be roughly parallel to tasting when you eat at Burger King."
--Boney M, Nightflight to Venus (PG) "…I gradually found myself liking this album. The conception increasingly seemed to be a clever one, juxtaposing dissimilar musical elements to create a fresh sound."
--Boston, Don't Look Back (SS) "Boston is very, very good at what it does, which is making slick, cleverly constructed mélanges of melodic elements and production ideas looted from the likes of Paul McCartney, Todd Rundgren, and Jimmy Page. To criticize them for not really being 'about' anything beyond having a party…is pretty much beside the point…"
--Chick Corea, Friends (PR) "Listening to the whole album made me feel that was in one of those men's cologne advertisements, smoking a pipe in my patched suede sports jacket while a thoroughbred Irish setter and a tawny Lauren Hutton type fought for my attention."
--Devo, Q: Are We Not Men? A: We Are Devo! (SS) "The real reference point for Devo's music is the Captain Beefheart of Trout Mask Replica. Unless you are a doctrinaire New Waver, your reaction to them will pretty much depend on how you feel about the good Captain."
--Chuck Mangione, Children of Sanchez (JV) "This double album does not contain all twenty-three and a half hours (of the music Mangione had recorded for the project)—it just seems that way."
--Van Morrison, Wavelength (JV) "Is this what a former creator does when he realizes that he is no longer a creator and cannot be satisfied with being an interpreter?"
--Plastic Bertrand, Ça Plane pour Moi (SS) "This album is utter merde. There is, perhaps, a certain joie de vivre in the performance of it, but it is merde nonetheless."
--Jean-Luc Ponty, Cosmic Messenger (PR) "Ponty's attempts to work up some excitement in this collection of his own cliché-ridden music are almost painfully boring. It sounds like a score attached to one of those Japanese sci-fi films that turn up on TV on odd channels at even odder hours."
--Leon Redbone, Champagne Charlie (PG) "…pulls it all off with convincing ease as he plucks at his guitar, crooning these musical fossils in a style suited to a turn-of-the-century saloon…Relax and enjoy." And here's the promised picture that I remember from this issue:
--Kenny Rogers, Love or Something Like It (NC) "I just don't see enough depth in the kind of thing Rogers is doing now to enable him to stand up to the kind of exposure he's getting. But I guess that, to paraphrase Mencken, nobody in pop music ever went broke by being too shallow."
--Frankie Valli, Frankie Valli Is the Word (PR) "…still comes on like that same old grossly unrequited teenage lover nervously baying outside the corner candy store."
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