Newspaper Page Text
The Red and Black, Tuesday, February 22, 1977 Page 7
Band misses its potential
Photo by Gf
THERMOS GREENWOOD BAND AT THE LAST RESORT
Atlanta-based group opted for "calculated spontaneity"
By WILLIAM HAINES
“I ain’t talkin' 'bout New
York—Though I know the Big
Apple’s nice—I ain’t talkin’
'bout L A.—Cause I only been
there once or twice..." (from
“Living In The Heart of
Chocolate City" by E. Farrell,
Tommy Dean and Bruce
Baxter).
If you haven’t guessed by
now, Tommy Dean, "front
boy” and bassist for Thermos
Greenwood, is singing about
Atlanta, Ga., the capital of the
New South.
Atlanta has been good to
Thermos Greenwood as well as
Glenn Phillips and Mike
Green, Phillips and Green
rising from obscurity to latch
onto major record companies
The city has embraced the
mad evolution that Greenwood
is constantly going through.
“We’ve been using Atlanta
as a base," Steve Marsh
(Greenwood rhythm guitarist)
commented. "We’ve been con
centrating heavily on clubs
there as well as doing gigs in
Nashville. We’ve also done a
lot of one-nighters in north
Georgia "
THERMOS Greenwood over
whelmed a packed house at
The Great Southeast Music
Hall in January in Atlanta. The
band was amazingly profes
sional.
There were few dead spots in
its two-set performance as it
played off the energy and
enthusiasm of the crowd. The
caterpillar had finally turned
into a butterfly, or so it
appeared
Switch now to The Last
Resort in Athens. Greenwood
visited the city over this past
weekend with a five-man unit:
Novelist soys rights violated
HOLLYWOOD (UPI) - Nov
elist Harold Robbing says
Hustler publisher Larry
Flynt’s conviction in his
Cincinnati pornography trial is
an outright violation of the
First Amendment.
Robbins, author of The
Carpetbaggers, The Adven
turers, Never Love- a Stranger
and The Lonely Lady, doesn’t
pretend to be objective.
For one thing, he has been
involved in censorship battles
himself. For another, his next
novel Dreams Die First is
based on the men’s magazine
business—the nude girlie
books.
Robbins attended Flynt's
trial in Cincinnati as an
observer and concluded that
the publisher’s conviction is a
threat to every American's
freedom.
“I know Flynt," Robbins
said. "But he isn’t the issue.
The issue is simple—freedom
of the press.
"Pornography exists in the
minds of the beholders as
obscenity. That’s how the
three-judge panel in Cincinnati
saw it.
"It’s the same argument
used in Russia. Ninety-five per
cent of the literature banned in
the Soviet Union is based on
obscenity. Not pornography.
Anything can be interpreted as
obscene, including economic
obscenity.
“They’ve started with Hust
ler. Next it will be Playboy.
How big a jump is it to Time
and Newsweek?
“Now the pornographer has
replaced the Communist as a
threat to our society.
"I see Flynt’s conviction as
the birth of a new McCarthy-
ism. The first step to
controlling a society is to stifle
the press in the guise of pro
tecting the population against
a greater danger.
"That's how they started in
Communist Russia, in Nazi
Germany and Fascist Italy."
Robbins may be overreac
ting. He may even see ogres
where none exist. But he has
been fighting censorship for
almost 30 years
Back in 1949 his first novel,
Never Love a Stranger, was
banned in Philadelphia by the
city’s vice squad.
“I went to the federal Circuit
Court of Appeals,” Robbins
recalled. "The judge found the
book not obscene. He was
asked if he would allow his
little girl to read it.
“I remember his reply word
for word. He said, ‘Yes, I
would because I'd rather have
my 12-year-old daughter dis
cover the facts of life between
the covers of a book than
behind a barn door or in the
city streets.’
"That was a landmark
decision resulting is disbanding
the infamous Philadelphia
Committee of Twelve, which
had banned and closed down
such movies as Forever
Amber."
Cincinnati cannot rank
among Robbins’ favorite cities.
Some 15 years ago the
paperback edition of The
Carpetbaggers was banned
there.
Memory of his battle with
the censors still brings a flush
of anger to the author.
“That ruling was, eventual
ly, overturned,” he said.
“They didn’t ban the same
book in hardcover. How in hell
can they ban a book on the
basis of its cover. No matter in
what form a book is published
it still is literature.”
Robbins doesn't attempt to
classify Hustler as literature.
But he does feel that Flynt’s
magazine was singled out from
all the others.
"The magazine reflects an
attitude of American society,"
he said, "otherwise il wouldn't
have caught on the way it has.
All those men's magazines are
prospering. It’s clear people
want to read them
“An unhealthy attitude sur
rounded the trial The tele
phone in my Cincinnati hotel
room was tapped. My conver
sations were being electron
ically recorded.
“I was supposed to make an
appearance on a local talk
show, but it was canceled at
the last minute because they
were afraid of my expressing
my point of view on the trial.
Tommy Dean (bass), Bruce
Baxter (lead guitar), Steve
March (rhythm guitar), Steve
Wofford (percussion) and
Charles Wolff (drums).
Instead of relying on the
smooth showmanship the band
displayed at the beginning of
the year, the fivesome opted
Concert
review
for a kind of calculated
spontaneity
The band seemed more
concerned with rapping to the
audience than playing the
instruments. A steady stream of
comball jokes poured from the
stage to mingle with stale
cigarette smoke. Marsh invited
the crowd on several occasions
to insult the group, but no
inspired exchanges developed.
Greenwood played two one-
hour sets, chewing up time
with 27 selections that spanned
their two-year history. Dean is
still fascinated with the com
mercial potential of reggae
“Be Yourself" and "You Don't
Know Like I Know" stood out
as bright reggae-pop, sort of a
cross between Peter Tosh and
Neil Sedaka.
GREENWOOD saved the
best for last, closing out the
second set with “Lizard Love,"
“Trouser Worm" and “Yard
man." It wasn't until after
12:30 p.m. that Dean began to
crank up his Joe Cocker dance
steps.
Thermos Greenwood flunked
the late night acid test of
maintaining the audience’s
attention. As Marsh and
Baxter’s guitar riffs coagula
ted. the music grew suspicious
ly louder. Greenwood was
fighting with tooth and nail to
pull some emotion out of the
songs, but the feeling was
hollow.
Given The Last Resort’s
miniscule stage, it is surpris
ing that Greenwood faired as
well as it did. Playing on
unfamiliar turf without being
able to move freely onstage
took its toll. Both sets were
aggravated by bumbling dia
logue ; drummer Wolff appeared
bored to tears toward the end
of set two.
"When we were Thermos
Greenwood and the Colored
People, we dressed up silly and
did silly things onstage,"
Marsh said "But we were
hitting this thing where we
were getting too far out for the
audience.
"Actually, we were doing
weird stuff before Darryl
Rhoades But Rhoades came
along and started adding all
these people to his band and
pouring money into costumes.
Pretty soon we were just blown
out of that race, so we decided
to de-emphasize the visuals
and concentrate on the music."
GREENWOOD is trapped in
a # revolving door of change. It
is experimenting with various
live approaches that could
baffle its most devout follow
ers. Its music is a magnetic
fusion of the Byrds, Beach
Boys and Beatles, but the
moronic yuk-yuks spaced be
tween songs are just too much
for the listener to endure
Greenwood is an intelligent
band capable of amusingly
viewing the black man's world
through white eyes (“White-
man" and "Yardman"). Its
satiric outlook is blunted by an
indefinite image, however
A Thermos Greenwood single
is due out in four to six weeks,
the same amount of time it
takes those cereal toys to
make it to your home But this
is not flimsy stuff: “Who Gave
the Monke> a Gun" (A-side)
and "Be Yourself" (B side)
are the excellent choices.
Magnolia
Terrace
Stewart's 'Cat' classy:
audience still growing
Crowds described as orderly
in Mardi Gras free-for-all
NEW ORLEANS (UPI)-
Crowds described as more
orderly and less drug-oriented
than in previous years packed
parade routes, the French
Burning
to stop
in Ga.
MACON, Ga. (UPI) • The
director of the Georgia Fores
try Commission urged Geor
gians Monday to voluntarily
stop all outdoor burning follow
ing a weekend in which more
than 700 wildfires broke out
across the state
Commission Director Ray
Shirley said there should be no
outdoor burning until rain
alleviates the current dry
conditions.
He said 6000 acres were
burned during the weekend
Quarter and the Louisiana
Superdome Sunday in the an
nual free-for-all of Mardi Gras.
Police reported hundreds of
arrests, including a roundup of
about 30 to 40 young persons
camping illegally in a city
park Bui authorities said the
streets were quieter than us
ual.
"We haven’t had any big
problems yet,” said Bill Hel
ler, working in a police Mardi
Gras dispatch unit.
“In years past we’ve had
more violent things." said Hel
ler, now working his seventh
Carnival season "We have a
lot of incidents happening but
nothing major and everything
seems to be going smoothly.”
Thousands of paradegoers
lined Canal Street Sunday night
for Bacchus, one of the largest
parades before “Fat Tues
day,” the day before Ash
Wednesday and the beginning
of Lent. Police said there was
no official crowd estimate,
"just that it’s wall-to-wall peo
ple.”
Colorful floats, some 2Mt-
stories tall, snaked through the
business district, into the Su
perdome—where there was a
giant concert and partv—and
back out onto Canai Street,
where the masked riders threw
millions of worthless beads and
doubloons to the crowds.
Henry Winkler, star of the
television series “Happy
Days," reigned as King of the
Bacchus parade, which lasted
nearly five hours. In other
sections of thee city, the “Not
Ready for Prime Time Play
ers" performed to a nation
wide television audience in
"NBC Saturday Night Live on
Sunday.”
Police said arrests for drug
possession and panhandling
were down sharply from pre
vious years. Spokeswoman Er
nestine Geissler said there
were 113 drug arrests in the
French Quarter and along pa
rade routes in a one-week
period ending Saturday, com
pared to 239 during the same
period were arrested for beg
ging, she said.
By ED GR1SAMORE
Last fall, while I was
reluctantly cleaning my apart
ment, I tuned in to a WUOG
nightly album tracking. They
were playing a nice, catchy,
and procovative album It
sounded good and I called the
station to inquire about the
artist.
Upon finding out I was
listening to an Englishman
named A1 Steward, I was a
Album
review
little baffled This wasn’t the
rough-sounding Rod, but a
pleasant voiced A1 and the
album was Year or the Cal.
I usually make a habit of
pursuing obscure artists, but
I must admit that this is one I
did not. Like most others, I did
not buy the album until the
single hit the airwaves
Year of the Cat is Stewart’s
third and most commercial
album. It is a collectively soft,
sentimental, and easy-going
package of nine songs, all of
which were written by Stewart.
"Lord Grenville” is a
sluggish, elegaic tune that
shakily opens side one. Oddly
out of place, this cut is
fortunately not representative
of the entire album
Stewart's tough-minded ma
terial definitely improves with
the dynamic rocker "On the
Border." The mellow side of
Stewart is rendered on the
immediately following "Midas
Shadow."
The popular "Flying Sor
cery" gently begins side two
and is a shoo-in to wind up as a
single.
Stewart displays an impres
sive ability as a lyricist on
“One Stage Before” where he
writes:
“I see those half-familiar
faces in the second row—Ghost
-like with the footlights in their
eyes—But where or when we
met like this last time I just
don’t know—It’s like a chord
that rings and never dies—For
infinity."
The song “Year of the Cat”
puts the finishing touches on
this classy piece of vinyl.
The album version of the
song lasts over six minutes and
employ heavy use of alto
saxophone.
Stewart exhibits amazing
prowess on both guitar and
keyboards throughout the al
bum His band and orchestra
tion provide outstanding back
up and the production quality of
the album is excellent.
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