r
Elton John's 'Don't Shoot Me' rocks on target
If you will remember, the last time the Daily
Nebraskan ran mini-record review, Bart Becker had
just finished saying about the Move: "The only real
reason i can imagine for this group being popular or
successful is that they're better than a group called A
Euphonious Wail."
This, then, is why.
A Eupohnious Wail. A Euphonious Wail. MCA
(KS-3668)
I can't find the PR notes I had, but if memory
serves me right this is just another band from L.A. I
tnink this music is intended to be quite moving in
fact it nearly made me move to another room.
There doesn't seem to be an original thought
included on either side of the record. Probably what
A Euphonious Wail needs is a good brisk walk in the
chilly morning air to get them out of the stifling bag
they're into.
The only reason I can imagine that this group will
be popular or successful is because a lot of no-talent
people are making it big in records these days.
Bart Becker
Don't Shoot me, I'm Only the Piano Player. Elton
John. MCA (MCA-2100). At first listen, Don 't Shoot
Me, I'm Only the Piano Player seems to be a fairly
undistinguished effort. But closer inspection leads
one to 3 quite different conclusion.
On a somewhat lighter, hokier note than some of
John's albums, the album is Elton John nonetheless.
In fact, the album seems to be a combination of the
best of his former efforts. There is the raunchy charm
of Honky Chateau, the mystery of Madman Across
the Water, even the simplicity of Tumbleweed
Connection.
Beyond this, though, there is a new bend in John's
style. Just this side of Sha Na Na, he adds another
dimension to the '50s nostalgia-camp explosion, laced
with humor.
This is obvious and done well on "Crocodile
Rock" the current Top 40 single. It almost works on
"Midnight Creeper and "I'm Going to be a Teenage
Idol" but both die of an overdose of hoke.
Apparently, John should stick to less-camp
endeavors.
And when he does, he's unparalleled. "Have Mercy
on the Criminal" and "Blues for Baby and Me" are
both sensitive and beautifully preformed vignettes.
Non-camp rock n' rollin' "Elderberry Wine" also has
a believable, jaunty tone.
The best song on the alburn is "Texas Love Song,"
in which John adopts the personna of a red-necked,
hardhatted Texan berating longhairs and fairies and
threatening them with "Goddamit, you're all gonna
die." It's John at his satiric, biting best.
All in all, Don't Shoot Me, I'm Only the Piano
Player is too good to miss. Forqive its transgressions.
Jim Gray
Lark. Linda Lewis. Warner BrothersReprise
(MS2120). Linda Lewis is a sweet young thing who
unfortunately has an extremely irritating voice.
Which, as a result, makes reviewing her extremely
difficult.
Her songs are pleasant enough and sung with
enthusiasm, but her high-pitched and pinched voice
Tares unnaturally on the eats, making it impossiDle
to enjoy her. For someone who can liko this type of
smgmg, fine, but I can't.
Larry Kubert
Life Goes On. Paul Williams. A&M Records
(SP4367). Paul Williams reminds one of an over-sized,
over-aged elf, whose only duty on this earth is to act
silly, consume large amounts of alcohol, and entertain
folks with his songs.
Thus Williams rates as one of my most favorite
people for two reasons: the songs which he writes and
performs are delicate and bewitching and he's
insanely crazy.
Williams' songs deal with emotions; sadness,
loneliness and lost loves. Not overly sentimental
songs, but ones in which a person must listen to the
lyrics to fully appreciate them.
The title song, "Life Goes On," is mildly
interesting, as is Williams' "Out In The Country" and
oldie "That Lucky Old Sun," but it's with songs like
"Little Girl," "Row" and "Where Do I Go From
Here" on side one; and "Park Avenue," "I Won't Last
A Day Without You" and "Traveling Boy" on side
two that make the album enjoyable. "Little Girl" is
one of the best , conjuring up images of San Francisco
and idealistic little girls.
Try Paul Williams sometime, for an elf, he's just a
lot of fun.
L.K.
page 6
Life in a Tin Can. The BeeGees. RSO (SO 870).
Probably the best review of the new Bee Gee album
can be found on the album's front cover.
It's somehow appropriate that a tinny-sounding
totally canned production should come out under the
name Life in a Tin Can. The only part of the title that
can be disputed is the "life" pait. It's somehow
doubtful that any of the dismal cuts therein could be
attributed to life in any way.
While never an exceedingly innovative group, the
Bee Gees have come up with a formula sound which
v -jr.
v
7
k :.
: .a
' "4
Elton John
they continue foisting upon their audience time after
time, proving their prowess as the Rod McKuens of
the wax world.
If anyone could live through the sickening
schmaltz of the first cut on side one (the Gibb
brothers drone "I sa a a-aw-r a new morning"), he'd
find seven other nearly-identical cuts. And then die of
boredom.
But on the way, he would have caught such
sterling phraseology (all songs on the album may be
blamed on the Gibbs themselves) as: "If you're living
in Chicago, it's your home."
"I've got a feeling God's still around," the album
coos, "and if I'm right, there must be more than this
to see."
Somehow, it's doubtful.
JG
Newport in New York '72, The Jimmy Smith Jam,
Volume 5. Cobblestone (CST9027). This is album
five of an eight-record set committing to wax a
history of the 1972 Newport Jazz Festival, which for
the first time in history was moved last year from
Newport, R.I., to the Big Apple, New York City. The
response was fantastic, some of the biggest crowds
that the festival has ever had.
Joining Jimmy Smith, who is the foremost jazz
organist anywhere, in the jam are some truly amazing
jazz giants: Joe Newman on trumpet, Clark Terry on
fluegelhorn, Illinois Jacquet and Zoot Sims on tenor
sax, Kenny Burrell and B.B. King on guitar and Roy
Haynes on drums.
Opening (in fact the entire first side is dedicated to
it) is a monster of a piece called "Blue 'N' Boogie."
Back in the be bop era of jazz, this was a classic piece
and Smith and company do it justice. Amid charging
riffs and powerful solos Smith, Jacquet and Sims
stand out.
The second side is a medley of songs with an
individual artist featured on each song. Smith and
Haynes are tied down to playing backup, but do they
give support.
On this album, Smith is much less in evidence than
on previous albums. He doesn't stretch out on any
long involved solos that are his trademark, rather he is
confined to providing a strong, solid backbone for the
group. And when he occasionally docs slip out into
the spotlight, it's pure delight.
L.K.
Andy Kim. Andy Kim. Uni (UNI73137). It looks
like the Famous Artists School of Impersonation has
been busy again. It has quite obviously, turned out
another graduate, this time a Neil Diamond major by
the name of Andy Kim. Kim, you will remember, is a
top pop artist who a few years ago back churned out
wondrous hits like "Baby, I Love You." If
bubblegum as heck, they were at least Andy Kim and
nobody else.
But now, Kim has changed his image-for the
worse. He unmercifully mimics the droning,
emotional Diamond style, but comes off lookin' more
like a rhinestone.
Even the songs, all of which the "new" Kim had a
hand in writing, have a definite Diamondesque
feel-softly reminiscing about childhood and love
lost. There's not an original cut on the whole album.
And Kim just doesn't have the talent to cut into the
Diamond style. So Andy Kim is a mess. (Somehow
symbolically, Kim's new album appears on Uni, the
label Diamond just abandoned for more-stable MCA.)
J.G.
Sheldon expands American art
A gift of $150,000 from the Woods Charitable
Fund has allowed Sheldon Art Gallery to purchase
33 new acquisitions for the Nelle Cochrane Woods
permanent collection, according to Sheldon
director Norman Geske.
The new works were bought to expand the
American art represented in the collection and to
supplement the work of artists already included.
Some of the works are by regional or
self-taught artists, areas not strongly represented in
the permanent collection but vital to an overall
view of American art since 1900, Geske said.
"Regional artists confined their work to a
particular part of the country, concentrating on its
history and area," Geske said. "It is generally out
of fashion now, but America has had regional
artists that were quite well known, such as Grant
Wood and Thomas Benton."
"In a sense the (self-taught) work is amateur
but the artists we have represented have a personal
level of achievement through their imagination and
technique that takes their work above the
multitude of pieces at a county fair," Geske said.
"The Alexander McKenzie Going Up the
Mississippi" is one of these works. The artist,
Samuel Colwell Baker, lived in Shenandoah, Iowa
and had no training. According to Geske, Baker
worked from photographs, adding his own sense of
color and drama to the painting,
"I met him and his wife, in Shenandoah, when
they must have been 80 years old or so. After that
we gave a small show of his work at the gallery
which was returned to his family after his death.
He is unknown outside of Iowa and Nebraska, but
his work is representative of self-taught artists,
Geske said.
"Portrait of Jean Joseph Marie Carries" by
John Singer Sargent is a work which supplements
an artist already in the Sheldon collection The
portrait joins a sketch of a mural in the gallery.
The Sargent work, which Geske termed the
single most important work of the acquisition and
the other gift qcquisitions will be presented'at 3
P.m. in the Gallery. They will be on disply through
daily nebraskan
Wednesday, march 21, 1973
