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Pag*- 6
The Krd and Black. Thursday October 23. I9H0
the poetic imagery and
themes remain with the
listener long after they are
heard for the first time
They lie in the mind like the
singer lies in the music it*
1900 Beer Brewed by Miller Brewing Co Milwaukee Wis
compared to these
songwriters time and time
again. And time and time
again he has resented being
pushed into a comer. But
with “little Stevie Orbit,”
his most recent album, he
proves that he doesn’t stand
up in somebody else’s
corner. He sits in it.
The Beltmann Archive
Throughout the album,
several distinct styles
emerge. From the sea-
Little Stevie
Orbit
Steve Forbert
Nemperor
chanty-like instrumental
“Lucky” to the fun and
folksy ‘Schoolgirl" back to
a rock and roller entitled
“Get Well Soon” and then
onto the loving ballad “Song
For Katrina,” Forbert
makes use of all the
American culture at his
disposal. For this album is
emphatically American,
utilizing all of the cultural
styles lying anxiously at his
fingertips, waiting to be
written up once again for
guitar, piano, and har
monica; wanting to be given
the newer, more modern
touch that Forbert gives
them.
However, when one looks
at Forbert’s varied styles,
one realizes that his music is
more than a harvest from a
garden of cultural flowers,
growing with the years.
Truly this is the music of
America.
For this is the blues.
On “Little Stevie Orbit,”
Steve Forbert sits on the
music. Comfortably. For
this is his chair—the one he
built himself.
Comfortably. Bui even
more than sitting in
another’s comer, Forbert is
out building his own chair.
“You try to be Jesus. You
try to be boss. You pulled a
few tricks, and you nung on
a cross.” There’s pain in
those words, sitting there,
but it's lost until the.
emotions of a time-hardened
voice release all of the pent-
up passion. The lyrics come
from a song called
“Cellophane City,” written
by Forbert and featured on
“Little Stevie Orbit." As on
all of the songs found on this,
his third, album, the vocals
are energetic and angry and
sad and violent and peaceful
and loving, moving through
the entire spectrum of sound
and emotion; moving the
listener in the way that the
singer is moved. For this is
what the blues must do. This
is the music of life.
* * Little Stevie Orbit’ ’ is full
of the songs of life. From a
harsh attack at critics in
“laughter l-ou" to the hard-
rocking social comment
“I’m An Automobile,’’
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On Went Broad
(*i mile west
of Milledge Ave)
‘Remain In Light’
has ‘tribal’ sound
By JAY WATSON
Staff writer
David Byrne is a man
obsessed with the city. His
compositions on the first
three Talking Heads albums
have a kind of mechanical
coolness, a unity borne of
Byrne’s views of the
metropolis as a massive
social organism with
emergent qualities beyond
the traits of the individual
cells i people > comprising it.
The cells themselves are
of varying functions:
catatonic automatons
performing the same tasks
over and over again ("Born
Under Punches’), erratic,
cancerous deviants gobbling
up their own kind ("Psycho
Killer”), or sensory
receptors detachedly
reporting information about
the world outside (“Life
During Wartime").
So it is only fitting that
Byrne has opted to move
away from the city and
explore its ancestor, the
tribe, on “Remain in Light."
The Heads’ rhythm
guitarist and songwriter has
collaborated with Brian Eno
in an investigation of
African tribal use of
polyrhythms and dissonance
in chants and percussive
selections.
Incorporating much of this
new-found sound into the
Heads' music is a larger
band. Extra guitarists,
bassists, percussionists,
keyboard players and
background singers sup
plement the work of Jerry
Harrison (guitars and keys).
Tina Weymouth i bass >;
Byrne; and Chris Frantz
.drums), and the result is a
rich tonal mix full of in
strumental digressions and
often harsh a tonality
Byrne’s rather
domineering position in the
group is briefly subjugated
here as he steps back into
the role of a member rather
than a leader. He pays more
attention to his vocal
delivery on this album than
ever before, and his per
formances sound in
creasingly like David Bowie,
another student of Eno.
The songwriting on
“Remain in Light" marks a
g rofound new direction for
yme. He appears to have
taken his old paranoid ideas
of the hopelessness of fin
ding identity in today's
society, modified them, and
finally unveiled them here
as an almost primitive
Remain In
Light
Talking Heads
Sire Records
Kinks ‘rock the roof off’
embrace of tribal com
munity and brotherhood as
compared with modern
impersonality. “Born
Under Punches" pleads:
“All I want is to breath
Won't you breathe with
me
Find a little space so we
move in-between"
in its warning of the ex
cesses of government.
“The Overload" affirms,
“I’m touched by your pleas;
I value these moments," in
an admonition against
spiritual emptiness.
“Crosseyed and Painless"
condemns the uselessness
and ambiguous nature of
fact in favor of in
trospection. "Seen and Not
Seen” postulates the
evolution of an ability to
manifest inner qualities as
physical attributes, to attain
an “ideal facial structure"
representing personality.
The optimism and idealism
of the lyrics is astounding
for Byrne.
Though the music at first
appears repetitive, repeated
listenings bring out the
staggering use of sound in a
complexity that somehow
remains airy. “Born Under
Punches" marries syn
copated percussion and
deliberately dissonant twin
bass figures to computer
like synthesizer and
disembodied backing
vocals.
“The Overload," however,
surpasses all these and
stands alone as the Talking
Heads' supreme musical
achievement. Unnerving
wisps of synthesizers mimic
the reverberations of a chill
wind over an impenetrable
bass wall of ominous sub;
sonic power.
David Byrne is one of an
ever-growing number of
performers who realize that
different forms of music,
like different societies, are
not always mutually ex-
cMfl. Like Marx, he
believes that the synthesis is
necessarily superior to
thesis or antithesis. Ixxrked
in this idea is the optimism
that is not so easily noticed
in the music of the Talking
Heads—that hope does not
always espouse progress.
By BILL MILLER
Staff writer
The crowd's impatience grew intense just before the lights
came down. The people enjoyed John Cougar’s warm-up act
but they knew it would prove no match for the phenomenon
they were waiting for.
Finally, when the brothers Davies came on stage, a wave
of recognition and anticipation swept the theatre. With the
first chords of a false start of “You Really Got Me," the band
was just warming the crowd but when it all came down, Ray
and Dave Davies, along with the rest of the Kinks, proceeded
to rock the roof off the Fox Theatre in Atlanta Tuesday night.
Mingling old songs with new material, the Davies, along
with bassist Jim Russell and keyboardist Ian Gibbens, belted
out such songs as “Where Have All The Good Times Gone"
before they played such sing-alongs as “I^ola" and “Low
Budget” where more spotlights were appropriately shined on
the crowd than on the band
Ray Davies’ stage presence Tuesday was iust short of
incredible as this over-30 man of steel rumbled the stage like
the Pittsburgh Steelers rumble the end zone. Dave, although
mellower, provided some of the tightest back-up ever to be
seen on stage. At one point in the show, Ray left the stage and
let his brohter perform a couple of songs from his new solo
album including the hard-line rocker “Imagination’s Real."
Ray then jumped back on stage and the walls of the Fox
shook like Jencno as the crowd hopped to the full version of
"You Really Got Me". The heavy blues rocker, “A Gallon of
Gas” followed, showcasing Gibbons’ excellent im-
provisational keyboards.
The crowd was ready for hard rock and roll and that’s
exactly what they got. Yet, the Kinks weren’t beyond
acoustic rock either.
“See My Friend" began mellow, but turned out to be a
“jumping bonanza" followed by the classic tune, “Celluloid
Heroes," which had the crowd standing up in exultation. Both
songs featured the excellent acoustic guitar work of Ray
Davies, who, along with his brother, didn’t miss a note.
You never know what’s going to happen at a Kinks concert.
Most bands warm the crowd with mellower songs in the
beginning, but the Kinks had this crowd on edge from the
very first song. What other band would say goodnight after
rousing the crowd with “All Day and All of the Night," come
back, play two new songs and then for a second encore come
back and play a classic tune like “Twist and Shout."
When Ray Davies finally told the crowd he was glad he
came and that it was time to go home, he walked toward the
edge of the stage to provide comfort for the starving groupies
who wanted to touch him.
As the people crowded out of the Fox, as the people still
rocked to tunes no longer playing, and as others crowded the
T-shirt stands for memorabilia, the smiles on their faces
seemed to convey a simple and definite message: I^ong I Jve
The Kinks.
Forbert building
own blues style
By TODD CARLSON
Staff writer
John Ijennon once said
that the blues is a chair. “It
is a chair for sitting on, not
chairs for looking at or being
appreciated. You sit on that
music," he said.
Only a few artists have
been able to sit on their
music comfortably without
the rusty springs or hard
lumps getting in the way.
Pete Seeger did it. So did
Bob Dylan. Woodie Guthrie
did it too. And Gram Par
sons. They all sat in their
chairs.
Steve Forbert has been
Forbert sings the sounds and
movements of life.
He isn’t, however, one to
simply take the stories and
memories of others and put
them into musical form. He
sings of his own life, and the
emotions he relates to the
listener come from deep
within his own con
sciousness. For this is his
chair, not another’s.
The result is, of course, an
easily listenable album. It
doesn’t entertain. It doesn’t
know how, and it doesn’t
have to. It far surpasses
that level, managing to
mesmerize, seduce and
sometimes kick the listener
until he bleeds. The music,