This doesn't look to be an issue of SR on which I dwelt for long after it showed up in our mailbox. My sister and I did go in together on the ABBA, which I'm glad to see made a stellar impression. Noel Coppage's pan of Marquee Moon stings, as over the past two decades it's become a real favorite. And I really, really need to dig into Emmylou's catalog.
Article
Steve Simels Reflects on the Beach Boys' Lasting Influence
"…despite the attrition of years, the virtual disappearance of the surf and car culture from which they sprang, and the inevitable distancing from their audience their growth from boys to men must bring, the Beach Boys are still fueling the fantasies of adolescents and of those of us long beyond them…The answer, I think, has something to do with Innocence, which, like most things in life, is a much more complicated proposition than it at first appears."
This month's reviewers are Chris Albertson, Noel Coppage, Paul Kresh, Peter Reilly, Steve Simels, and Joel Vance.
Best of the Month
--Emmylou Harris, Luxury Liner (NC) "The more accustomed to her voice I become, the better I like it; the more I listen, the more I hear. There are subtlety and credibility in the way she emotionally underscores both music and lyrics, plus a distinctive and attractive tonality and considerable phrasing savvy."
--Teddi King, Lovers & Losers (PR) "And they joy—the unmixed, uncomplicated joy—of hearing intelligent lyrics intelligently sung after all these years by someone who can actually sing is not to be taken lightly." King passed away from complications of lupus six months after this issue date.
--Dave Van Ronk, Sunday Street (JV) "I don't mean to suggest that Van Ronk should now become the object of a cult, but he has been such a good musician for such a long, long time that cheers—loud and prolonged cheers—are not only much in order but seriously in arrears."
Recordings of Special Merit
--ABBA, Arrival (JV) "…a splendid display of sheer know-how, canny songwriting, and cavalry-charge performances…I haven't heard as vigorous and well-made album in years."
--Billo's Caracas Boys, Billo '77 (JV) "(Billo Frométa's) is an 'old-fashioned' pre-salsa dance band, with dash and precision, and I'm sure it would be great fun to go to a Latin ballroom to hear Billo's orchestra and to watch the patrons dancing to his music."
--Eubie Blake, Wild About Eubie (PK) "As an interlude of sheer delight or even studied soberly (depressing thought) as a survey of the American popular song since the turn of the century, (this) can be unreservedly recommended."
--Country Gazette, Out to Lunch (NC) "It's a group out to tease bluegrass and acoustic country into slightly more modern shapes…Best of all, this is one California group playing Southeastern music as if it had actually been to the Southeast."
--Earl Hines, Earl Hines at Saralee's (CA) "Obviously relaxed in the informal setting of a home, he is playing better than I have ever heard him—and that is really saying something, for I have heard him on many occasions when his brilliance overwhelmed me."
--José Feliciano, Sweet Soul Music (JV) "Feliciano has always felt very much at home with jazz and funk, and the selection of material here is tailor-made for him…In case anyone has forgotten how remarkable (he) always was, this album will serve as a welcome reminder."
--Steve March, Lucky (PR) "March's voice is…serviceable. But he can communicate with it, and he has a natural warmth that permeates all his performances." March is the son of Mel Tormé.
--Charlie McCoy, Play It Again, Charlie (NC) "He is, through his recordings, my own personal (harmonica) teacher, my guru—there's no other harp player I can learn as much from—and I'm grateful for this latest lesson."
--Milton Nascimento, Milton (PR) "…filled with super sound, gorgeous arrangements, the soft-slur of sung Portuguese, and an atmosphere as lushly heady and sensual as a gardenia in Sophia Loren's décolletage."
--Racing Cars, Downtown Tonight (JV) "If you're tired of intimidating bands that demand much, promise nothing, and deliver less, get hold of this album and recall what it's like to hear a band that works for the listener and doesn't fool around."
Featured Reviews
--Booker T. and the M.G.'s, Universal Language (JV) "…one of the rare groups that know and believe in the mystery of music, and their performances are made of dreams, brains, spit, and dignity. This album is an event."
--Bound for Glory soundtrack (PK) "Although nobody could sing for Woody (Guthrie) the way Woody sang for himself, with that curious mixture of laconic detachment and emotional conviction, and no record ever made could replace the ones he made, David Carridine just naturally has a better voice and is able to convey much of both the coolness and the emotional fervor of the real Woody without resorting to mimicry."
--Tina Charles, I Love to Love (PR) "(She) is very, very good at what she does, and what she does here, as she belts and undulates and hip-shakes her way through productions so clever as to be almost diabolical, is to create within the listener an urge to dance so strong that it's just about irresistible."
--Western Swing reissues (John Morthland) Albums from Bob Wills and His Texas Playboys, Floyd Tillman, and Johnny Gimble see the light of day again. "Wills himself was the consummate showman, jive-talking to the audience, cajoling musicians, letting out his trademark 'ah-ha!' squeal when somebody hit a note he liked. And that's the Wills this album preserves…"
Other Disks Reviewed
--David Bowie, Low (SS) "…your reactions to it will depend primarily on your tolerance for Eno's hit-and-miss avant-gardisms rather than on your fondness for Bowie's electronic egomania."
--The Chieftains, Bonaparte's Retreat (PK) "This is a rather heady program for music that relies on the potentialities of such limited instruments as tin whistles, clacking bones, bodhrans, pipes and concertinas. Yet (they) carry it off…"
--Chick Corea, My Spanish Heart (JV) "But I also have no doubt that he clutters and smothers his talents by trying to do too much all at once, and the result is that he over-reaches…Still, when he's good, he's awfully good."
--Andrew Gold, What's Wrong with This Picture? (SS) "The rest of his own stuff is the usual L.A. country-rock, at least as dispensable as anything churned out in the Asylum stable of Hollywood cowboys."
--The Kinks, Sleepwalker (SS) "Where in the past Ray gave us concise, compassionate little stories about little lives and everyday tragedies, today he seems content merely to rail at obvious target in the most banal language or to deal obsessively with his own psychological concerns, which, frankly, are no more interesting than yours or mine or the average rock star's."
--Martin Mull, I'm Everyone I've Ever Loved (SS) "Despite some marvelous material…it is only fitfully amusing, which is not what I want from a man who in performance has reduced me to rolling uncontrollably in some very crowded aisles."
--Pink Floyd, Animals (SS) "Musically and thematically it's constructed along the same lines as the last, but the subject—their intense contempt for the business of selling art—is just not important enough, or at least they don't make it seem important enough, to justify all the vented spleen."
--Leon Redbone, Double Time (NC) "In this album he just mostly messes around, as if it is universally accepted that every grunt or groan he makes is going to be the cat's meow, to use an expression that goes with his repertoire…Being hip in a mysterious sort of way is not enough, and neither is being mysterious in a hip sort of way."
--The Runaways, Queens of Noise (SS) "It's becoming more and more obvious that the Runaways are not what they initially appeared to be—that is, the first truly mainstream female rock band—but rather are simply Los Angeles' response to the New York Dolls."
--Television, Marquee Moon (NC) "These chaps seem capable of playing well, but singing and writing? Well, I have my doubts."
--Z Z Top, Tejas (NC) "It doesn't have much in the way of lyrics that you can't afford to miss, but it has considerable instrumental depth and variety for a three-piece blues-based rock band."
