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FaneHB
Thf Red and Black. Thursdav September 22. 1977
I
with ALTEC Sound
THE SCARIEST COMEDY
OF ALL TIME IS BACK.
Ronstadt refires past nuggets;
Hall and Oates have new failure
By WILLIAM HAINES
Entertainment editor
Linda Ronstadt is one of
the prettiest little nymphs
this side of Sally Fields Her
ingenue aura has refused to
sputter in the light of Larry
Flynt’s “Hustler” offerings
and “Time’s” slobbering
cheesecake cover story.
Ronstadt reminds me of
someone’s kid sister whose
naivete invites trouble and
broken hearts, not neces
sarily in that order. She’s
the sweet young thing with
the low batting average and
a heart that is stepped on
by suitors as often as if it
were home plate Ronstadt
has made a career out of
answering Ultra Brite’s love
life question in the negative.
Simple Dreams 'Asylum
Records) is Ronstadt's third
album since her albatross,
Heart Like a Wheel. What
started out as a cause for
celebration and greater
recognition soon mutated
into a comparative dead
end Heart became Ron-
Dark Side of the
Moon and Peter Asher’s
formulaic inclusion of songs
by J D. Soother. Warren
Zevon and Buddy Holly has
set Ronstadt up as some
thing of a predictable
heartbreakee
Asher has again, without
any hint of chagrin, layed
out Simple Dreams as one
more connect-the-dots puz
zle for Ronstadt to zip
through But this time.
Ronstadt steps out of her
masochistic character to
include some bona fide
traditional numbers and a
Roy Orbison tune (“Blue
Bayou”)
Album
review
RONSTADT appears a
little frazzled on the cover
of Simple Dreams. Lui she
is relaxed. It is as if she had
just outdrawn Asher 's plans
and won back her cool
determination. Hopefully,
we have seen the last of the
jittery persona that marked
Prisoner In Disguise.
Ronstadt opens Dreams
with the jubilant Buddy
Holly bomp of "It's so
Easy'' and then slides head
first into a difficult render
ing of Warren Zevon's
pathetic drug opera, “Car-
melita." I tried to explain to
a friend of mine a few years
ago why performers mix in
a slow number after a
barnburner in concert
while we were attending a
comeback show by the
Ozark Ml. Daredevils
I patiently hazarded an
explanation that the enter
tainer avoids draining his
energy loo rapidly by using
this fast-slow combination
and keeps the high energy
numbers from interfering
with one another Well, he
was unsatisfied with the
interpretation, and frankly,
so was I Ronstadt should
have divided Dreams into a
slow and fast side some
thing like Hod Stewart's A
Night on the Town for
greater impact
The most startling inclu
sion on Dreams is the
Rolling Stones' "Tumbling
Dice." Ronstadt attacks the
song with what is becoming
rare passion for her. Waddy
Wachtel's serpentine slide
work sets the tune up as a
fine country exorcism. Jag-
ger would have been proud
to include Ronstadt's cover
on Beggar's Banquet."
RONSTADT readily ad
mits how easily she is
tripped up and caught by
love, though she also claims
that her "heart can learn ”
Ronstadt's ability to cherish
relationships we would have
destroyed or forsaken long
ago ( "Sorrow Lives Here")
and "Maybe I'm Right")
emerges as much more
than a woman simply
punishing herself for lovers
she could not hold onto. The
little girl" is slowly
escaping Asher's bonds to
reveal a compassionate and
secure woman. Simple
Dreams is a measure of
significant growth for Ron
stadt.
No longer does Ronstadt
feel that she must include a
new or current song solely
for the sake of its newness
She has a fine knack for
refiring nuggets from the
past; no song from Dreams'
is younger than four years
old
» (I 0
Meanwhile in Philadel
phia, we find Daryl Hall
and John Oates dutifully
locked into something simi
lar to Asher's Ronstadt
framework. The duo has
coniinued to refine the
adrogynous success of llall
and Oates. No matter that
Hall feels his common
lyrics important enough to
book.
It is curious that the
twosome has made its most
personal statements without
the benefit of mug shots
(War Babies and Aban
doned Luncheonette). Beau
ty on a Back Street iRCA
Records), resplendent with
self-conscious photos of
Daryl and John, stacks up
as another great record to
play in the choicest of
boutiques. Right up there
with Wings at the Speed of
Sound, Rumors and I'm In
You.
Hall and Oates' voices
ooze in and out behind each
other ("Love Hurts"), pro
viding a sense of sleepy
security on Back Street.
The duo has been working
and traveling together so
long that it really doesn’t
make any difference who
sings lead when. Both have
a propensity for sinuous
time changes and leaping
falsettos.
Sadly, the sparkle and
camp of Abandoned Lunch
eonette has been ground
down to droll homilies
("What am 1 here for?-
There must be something
more ”). Christopher
Bond's production is ach
ingly clean, but Hall and
Oates are too vacuous to
take advantage of the
situation. Hall spits out
lyrics like some wounded
romantic whose words only
clutch at his own throat.
In “Bad Habits and
Infections," Hall screams
that he is "the doctor,” able
to cure himself. It is this
delusion (realized too late
by the duo) that lies at the
heart of Beauty on a Back
Street's failure. Oates
merely looks on with dark
anticipation as co-conspira
tor in an effort plagues by
"too short arms” from the
start
A summer full of frustration
Coming—
Liza Minelli in New York, New York
By WILLIAM HAINES
Entertainment editor
When rock music and
contemporary song finally fade
from our culture as the all
its a new day
at Oglethorpe House
Oglethorpe House is the one living facility totally designed for the
student Apartments provide living space We offer a complete
living experience One payment includes your room, with maid
service, utility costs and maintenance included, your meals, with
a choice of 15 or 19 meal a week plan being offered next
academic year. We provide a game room with billiards and ping
pong, TV on every floor, a well equipped weight room, study and
music rooms, volleyball and basketball areas and a swimming
pool We also plan some really outstanding social activities,
including parties, dinners, campouts and ski trips
Even Oglethorpe’s contract arrangements ate designed with a
flexibility to serve the student needs.
We re proud of what we have to offer; our facilities, our program,
our concerned professional staff always striving to make you
feel at home to feei special But even with all that, the best
thing about Oglethorpe House is the people who live here.
Wouldn’t you like to be one?
mighty universal traveler Todd
Rundgren has predicted it
shall, the summer of 1977 will
be used solely as a measuring
stick of frustration.
1974 peaked early with the
shuffling disco arrival of the
Hues Corporation's “Rock the
Boat’’ before sliding off into
backbeat anonymity. But at
least we had something to
smile and babble excitedly
about for awhile
1975 produced the rawest
Rolling Stones' single since
“Brown Sugar.” “It’s Only
Rock 'n Roll'' sported the sort
of comfortable duplicity critics
swore they’d never eye again
after the limp “Goat's Head
Soup." The Glimmer Twins
even threw in a cover of the
Temptations' "Ain't Too Proud
to Beg.’’ proving to anyone
who still cared that they hadn’t
lost contact with the Coasters,
Chuck Berry and the rest of
their R&B roots. After all. the
Stones' sound was their own
sound in the mid-70s.
1976 could well have been a
throwaway summer were it not
for George Benson's light-fin
gered determination. Benson's
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1977, however, flopped on the
Music
review
beach belly up sometime in
late July, causing hardly a
musical ripple. After Stevie
Wonder's Big Band tribute
wore off (“Sir Duke”), all we
had left to content ourselves
with until labor day was Steve
Miller's Hook of Copped Guitar
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it regurgitated the reclining
sounds of the Brothers Johnson
("Strawberry Letter 23") to
the Floaters ("Float On") In
retaliation, I tore my Motorola
box out in mid-July. Ram
Jam's “Black Betty" only
compounded my already ag
gravated stale
I lusted for a song like BTO's
"Takin' Care of Business" or
Golden Earring's "Radar
Love" and got Leo Sayer's
"Philadelphia Freedom"
styled "How Much Love.” And
people ask me why I have such
an intense interest in the new
wavers and punks. Just try
flipping Alice Cooper’s “You
and Me" up to full volume and
you'll understand how Darth
Vader felt at the close of "Star
Wars.”
I spent half the summer
trying to figure out the
difference between Alan Par
son's ”1 Wouldn't Want to be
Like you,” Lake's "On the
Run" and Charlie's "Johnny
Hold Back.” The Doobie riffs
were flying hot and heavy
while the Brothers themselves
switched to jazz. Does anyone
still remember Blood. Sweat
and Tears?
Shaun Cassidy, a pube or is
it tube, delight and heir
apparent to David's throne,
squatted at the top of the pile
for several weeks with the
Crystals' "Da Doo Ron Ron.”
The Hardy Boy's follow up,
Eric Carmen's “That’s Rock
and Roll," had me screaming
for Ted Nugent. But even
Teddy's Aerosmith-fashioned
gem "Cat Scratch Fever,"
failed to soothe my jangled
nerves.
Naturally, the Emotions'
Earth, Wind and Fire's own *
Maurice White, looked like
pretty wild stuff by compari
son.
r •!
The Bay City Rollers were
mildly amusing with the
Bee-Geeish "You Made Me
Believe in Magic.” Though i'«
took Peter "Hari-kari" Wolfe
and the newly named Geils
Band to Make me sit at
attention during the month of
August Monkey Island makes
King Kong look like Donald
Duck , clearly Geils' best since
The Morning After. But 1,
wonder if Geils' lead guitarist,
J Geils, will have to shorten
his name, too?
No word at all on a Stones'
double live album that was
promised way back in May
i three Canadian club tracks to
be included therein) or a Who'
album that was due in the
racks at the time of the Beach
Boys’ Love You. The absence
of the contractually hassled*
Steely Dan made July's heat
wave that much more unbear
able.
'Jimmy Buffet’s "Margarita^
ville" was the perfect anthem
summation for the wasted
summer of 1977.
Well, I've done a lot of
carping about the shapes of
things over the past summer
(geez, we didn't even gee«
anything close to Bobby
Goldsboro's “Summer (the
First Time)"). So, you are
probably wondering at this,
point just what it was that
enabled me to weather the
musical eclipse. Say no more,
say no more... ,
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