Newspaper Page Text
October 30, 1991
3Fkgpob ifiagaHtne
Country According To Greece
Howdy-do folks! I
hope everybody is
doing fine in a country
frame of mind. I got one to
tell ya’ll about this week that has to rate as
my top country music show ever. Thai is the
man in black himself, JOHNNY CASH. Cash
was in Rome, GA Wednesday, October 16
on his 36th anniversary tour playing at none
other than a high school stadium.
The show started with Cash’s band
doing the customary warm up number
before The Man took the stage with the
Carter Sisters in tow. This dressed in black
line-up kicked into a medley that went from
“Daddy Sang Bass' to “Keep On The Sunny
Side" to "I’ve Been To Georgia On A Fast
Tram." Then came “Ring Of Fire" with Cash
changing his vocal style a bit therefore
adding new life to the song. After ‘A Thing
Called Love" and “Peace In The Valley" the
Carter Sisters left the stage and everyone
settled in for the star.
"Hello. I’m Johnny Cash." With those
words spoken, we were off and running into
"Folsom Prison Blues." The came "Get
Rhythm" complete with two kids from the
audience dancing on stage. An instrumen
tal classic called "Under The Double Eagle"
came nest. Johnny Cash can have any
sized band he wants, but he chooses a
small combo these days—lead guitar, pi
ano, upright bass, and drums. Continued
proof that less is more.
The hits continued! "Five Feet High
and Rising," “Come Picking Time," "Ten
nessee Flattop Box," Kris Kristofferson's
"Sunday Morning Coming Down," and "Don’t
Take Your Guns To Town." Still more...
June Carter-Cash came back on the
stage at this time and they performed
"Jackson" together. She entertained for
about five minutes with a variety of funny
|okes and skits. They then paired up to sing
their award winning song “If I Were a Car
penter." "The Old 97" closed down the 90
minute set and it was intermission time.
The big thrill came during the intermis
sion. I was able to ask Cash some ques
tions and have him shake my hand! AND
get an autograph! Cash told me Luther
Perkins, Carl’s brother, was responsible for
most of those cool guitar intro’s to the older
songs. He said he is enjoying playing with
a small band and is planning on using them
on his next album. I asked if he had any
plans to play prisons and he said he is now
doing benefits for mentally handicapped
people. Cash stated this current tour will go
to North Dakota and into Canada. After that
he’ll be doing shows with The Highwaymen:
Willie Nelson, Waylon Jennings, and Kris
Kristofferson, in Las Vegas in December.
The Carter Sisters started up the sec
ond set with some beautiful three part har
monies, famous to the Carter Family name.
The Carters played about 30 minutes and
then Cash joined them.
The Carter’s left the show with "Hey
Porter" and “I Walk The Line." Two and a
half hcurs of great country music had just
taken place. I could think of songs that
didn’t get performed, but with a legend like
Johnny Cash, that will always be the case.
The point is, Cash played a REAL SHOW,
not a 45 minute set with a big shot attitude.
It's good to see that after 36 years and
millions of records sold, Johnny Cash is still
a down to eo *h man.
The J&J Center will have Drivin’ Coun
try this weekend. Speaking of the J&J, they
had a great show Friday, October 18, with
Johnny Paycheck. The Working Man's Band
was throwin’ down. If you missed it, you
shriveled.
That's about it for this week. Until next
time, be careful if drive in Floyd County and
have plenty of ones when you go to Cler
mont. _ _
G Reece
Devlin’s Comic Cuiiure
The Halloween Column
I’ve received orders to "do a Halloween column" from my
snarling ogre of an editor, so that’s what you are going to get. In the
worid of comics, if you want to talk horror, EC Comics is the place
to start. The story begins in the late '40s when young William Gaines
found himself unexpectedly assuming his late father’s position as
publisher of a cheesy third-rate comic book company. After
floundering about with various crime and romance comics for a few
years, Gaines and his buddy, writer/editor (and occasional artist) Al
Feldstem decided to just do whatever they liked, and gradually in
troduced EC's “new trend" line. They produced intelligent science-
fiction (in Weird Science and Weird Fantasy), tough crime stories (in
Crime SuspenStories), and even fairly penetrating social criticism
(in Shock Suspenstories), but what we are concerned with here arc
their best sellers, the amazing Tales from
the Crypt, The Haunt of Fear, and the
Vault of Horror. In these books they es
tablished the conventions that have gov
erned horror comics for forty years, in the
form of a short nasty story with an ironic
ending, narrated by some cheerful ma
niac. Unlike the vast majority of their imi
tators, though, EC stories were literate
(some might say over-written) to a de
gree unprecedented in comics, and
always had fantastic art by their rotating
crew of artists (including UG A’s own Jack
Davis, doing work that would make a lot
of his current commercial clients faint).
However, the mothers and other assorted
busy-bodies of America were unable to
see this unprecedented artist evolution
behind all the dismemberments, walking dead, and acts of canni
balism The fact that most EC stories in fact had an almost Old Tes
tament morality behind them was also lost on the scandalized
mommies (though, to be fair, the EC imitations that glutted the
market in this period had no such artistic or ethical standards and
a layman would have trouble distinguishing between them at a
cursory glance). So, when Dr. Fredric Wertham popped up on a
crusade tu eliminate “crime" comics, with his book Seduction of the
Innocent, folks all over the country were whipped up in a general
anti-comic frenzy, which climaxed in congressional hearings. Among
the highlights of the proceedings was the spectacle of the ex
hausted Gaines attempting to argue that a Tales from the Crypt
cover featuring a lunatic holding aloft a severed head was not in bad
taste He explained that it could have been worse if, for example,
the head were held higher so that the ragged edges of the cut were
more visible, or if there were blood coming from the mouth. The
congressmen were unmoved.
In the end, the comics industry formed its own absurdly restric
tive regulatory agency rather than let the government do so.
Though Gaines himself first proposed such an association, John
Goldwater from Archie Comics was the first president of the
Comics Magazine Association of America. His first proposal was
to ban the words "crime," “terror" and "horror" in titles, in a glaringly
obvious attempt to shut Gaines down. EC tried to do a new line of
less sensational comics without the Comics Code seal, but retail
ers sent the bundles of them back un-opened. Games relented
and subscribed to the code, but it was to late, and he was soon
forced to cancel his entire line of comics
(except for Mad, which converted to
magazine format, but that’s another
story). The code then reigned over
almost all comics in America, until the
rise of underground comics in the late
'60s, which were in large part created
by — you guessed it — old EC fans,
now grown up and determined to write
and draw what they wanted. In turn,
they inspired both the modern alterna
tive comic artists and the “self-publish
ers
If you want to see what all the fuss
is about, you should be able to find cur
rent reprints at any reputable comic
shop If you like them a lot (I do), and
you happen to be rolling in dough (I’m
not), Russ Cochran has reprinted the entire EC line in really nicely-
done slipcased hardcover sets ranging from $45 to $150 bucks
depending on how many are in the set. If you have the cash, it's
the way to go... and it's still cheaper than buying the originals.
I guess that’s enough for this week, but I will suggest you make
the scene at Phenomicon this weekend at the Powers Ferry
Holiday Inn in Atlanta. Guests include Robert Anton Williams, Rev.
Ivan Stang, and way down the list of guests, yours truly. There'll
be Sub-Genii, conspiracy theory freaks, UFO people, comics
fans... all kinds of fun!
Why don't you send a quick note to No-Mo Comics, 248-A
Barber St., Athens, Ga 30601. As always, mini-comics to review
are welcomed Oh. and before I forget, Happy Halloween.
Devlin Thompson
Page 25
LIVE ENTERTAINMENT
W •10/30
Stonesouls / Plain Jaine
DEBBIE NORTON during Happy Hour
T.10/31
■Hallofueen fuitlj
NATHAN SHEPPARD
50c Cans of Genuine Draft
$ 1 Witches Brew
$ T50 Shots of Jagermeister
$2.75 Pitchers of Buffalo Beer
DEBBIE NORTON during Happy Hour
F.11/1
Vigilantes of Love
Happy Hour starting at 5pm
Ian Brown & Kemp Jones
S • 11/2
Nathan Sheppard
M • 11/4
STORMY MONDAY
T.11/5
Red Letter Day
95 hoyt st. • 549-5123.
ART SUPPLIES
268 N. Jackson St.
548-5334
jMaTInfueen JTitrhi
$250.00 Cash Prizes
Register for Contest at 10:00 p.m.
$1.00 Bud & Lite All Night
Hitrfje* 'Srtto gaoler jJpcrwU
open at 7:30 p.m.
NIGHTCLUB
320 E. Clayton St. • Downtown 548-7733