oage 12
ctoHy nebraskan
friday, march 21, 1080
'Breams' an eclectic effort, hut Slick-less success
By Casey McCabe
Turnabout is fair play for Grace Slick,
who recently admitted having doubts
about leaving the band she thrust into the
spotlight, Jefferson AirplaneStarship.
She got her second thoughts listening to
the practice sessions for the Starship's cur
rent album Freedom At Point Zero.
"I went to hear what they were doing
with Mickey Thomas," Slick explained. "I
went to (Paul) Kantner's house to the
practice room and for a solid week I sat on
the stairs listening to how great they
sounded. I didn't think they needed
another person: there wasn't any point in
my going back."
On her own for the first time in almost
IS years, Slick recorded her first true solo
album, Dreams, and gave herself a shot at
the new crop of fans that the refurbished
Starship has had surprising success cultivat
ing, i.
Though such albums as Baron Von Toll
booth and Tlie Chrome Nun, Manhole and
Sunfighter are often attributed to Slick,
they were done with other members of the
Airplane while the group was in limbo
waiting out the career decisions of Jack
Casady and Jorma Kaukonen.
New Grace Slick
Past efforts considered, Dreams never
theless marks the emergence of the new
Grace Slick, reportedly out of her self
destructive alcohol stage, happily married,
and totally straight, though she claims to
have retained her warped personality. Uke
the new Starship, the new Slick seems
intent on erasing preconceived notions as
to what shethey are capable of pulling off.
Coming out of unofficial retirement on
Dreams are the fire and brimstone vocals
that earned her the title of "first lady of
rock." But more noticeably, Slick has
mastered a smooth, always-in-control
quality with her incredibly powerful voice.
If you are holding on to the memory of
the Grace Slick that fronted such works as
Surrealistic Pillow or Baron Von Toll-
booth, some compositions on Dreams will
throw you out of perspective. But given
her mellowing through the last few Star
ship albums, it seems like a natural progres
sion for her career.
The musical backing on Dreams is as
precise as Slick's voice, including the occas
ional presence of a 60-piece orchestra. The
album opens with the only songs Slick did
not compose herself. Sean Delaney's title
track provides her with a lyrical fantasy of
life as a bizarre circus side-show parade,
with the orchestra throwing in some heavy
handed pomp and circumstance when
deemed necessary.
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Slick falls more comfortably into Gary
Gegan's "El Diablo," a predictable but
pleasant Spanish number. Her studio
guitarist Scott Zito penned the next two
songs, "Face to the Wind" and "Angel of
Night," the first starting off beautifully
acoustic before developing into a grandiose
and stinging electric chant by the song's
end.
Touch of fire
"Angel of Night," the album's hardest
rocker, brings back that touch of fire and
brimstone to Slick's vocals while Zito wails
away on classic hard rock guitar licks. In
dulgent, maybe. But when Slick grits her
teeth, the emotion of the music succeeds
far better than any of Jefferson Starship's
mainstream attempts on Freedom At Point
Zero.
Slick's own compositions on Dreams set
a slower, more melodic pace. While the
schmaltz of a children's chorus on
"Seasons" causes the song to collapse
under its own weight, her frankly autobio
graphical efforts on "Do It The Hard
Way," "Full Moon Man," and "Let It Go,"
make for engaging listening.
"Do It The Hard" Way" is ah interesting
account (sung cleverly in the third person)
of Grace's personal problems and mental
breakdown which caused her departure
from the Starship. "Full Moon Man" is the
closest Slick ever has come to a straight
love ballad, this one aimed at her husband,
Skip, while "Let It Go" was apparently
written to voice her new-found strength
and is accompanied by the album's most
tasteful orchestration.
"Garden of Man" pays certain tribute to
Ram Dass, complete with underlying East
ern rhythms that briefly but effectively
take the listener back to Slick's roots in
early San Francisco psychedelia. A touch
of flower child and a bit of orchestra help
carry the song through its Utopian lyrics,
and again it becomes apparent that Amazing
Grace still has that undeniable presence.
Dreams is an eclectic effort, and still a
pleasing one coming in the wake of the
polished, but Slick -less success of Jefferson
Starship. The album may well be too unde
finable and indulgent to gain strong critical
praise or a loyal new following for Slick.
But she's returned her voice to the front
seat, and that alone makes it all worth a
listen.
Women authors discuss
the roots of their writing
Lilith (Jean Seberg), the title character of the movie showing at the Sheldon Film
Theater Thursday through Sunday. The movie explores the relationship between
Lilith and her doctor in the mental institution she is confined to.
By Patti VYieser
Editor's note: This is tjie second of a three,
part series on local women authors.
Teresa Bloomingdale said she spent 14
months compiling Should Have Seen It
Coming When The Rabbit Died, a "humor
ous, chronological approach to raising 10
children."
Starting as a columnist in 1973, Bloom
ingdale said the transition from column
writingi to book writing was a problem.
"It was very difficult for me to change
my writing style from column writing to
book writing." When writing for the news
media, one is always editing; when writing
a book, one is always expanding, she said.
Bloomingdale said coming from a family
of writers gave root to her interest in
writing. Her father was a newspaperman
and she said, "I really had no other route
to go."
The 49-yearold Omahan said getting
the book published made her feel
"terrific."
"My head's so big I can't get through
the door," she said, adding it was "almost
like having another baby."
The mother of ten said the book has
been successful, adding that it is in its fifth
printing and is offered through two book
clubs, the Catholic Digest and the Double
day Book Club.
Bloomingdale said she started writing in
1972 but being a syndicated cplumnist
opened the door to New York publishers.
Her column is read in "Our Sunday
Visitor," the largest Catholic publication in
the world, she said.
She said she is under contract with
Doubleday to write two books, one for
1981, the other for 1982.
Continued on Page 14
Lilith portrays insanity as an elitist condition
By Jennifer Bauman
Lilith (1964) is showing at the Sheldon Film Theater
until Sunday. Directed by Robert Rossen who also
directed All the King's Men, it is taken from the J. R.
Salamanca novel of the same name.
The world of Lilith is principally that of a mental
asylum. Jean Seberg, in the title role, is a patient at the
hospital; Warren Beatty portrays Vincent Bruce, an
occupational therapist who works there. The two chap
ters develop a mutual fascination that develops into a
sexual relationship. Hie film examines this changing
relationship, and in doing so, compares the traditional
mind sets of sanity and insanity.
Lilith portrays insanity as an elitist condition. The
residents of the hospital all come from good financial
backgrounds. They aren't regular blue collar people who
have folded under the stress of daily life; their families
are paying dearly to keep them at the asylum.
Schizophrenia is viewed as an illness of the artistic and
intellectual elite: these people have been destroyed by
their own excellence. They have seen too much with too
fine an instrument. Lilith is certainly an exceptional
woman, and somehow her states of intermittent artistic
fervor fit well with her character. Like the mad spiders
show in a lecture to the staff, Lilith spins an asymmetric
and fantastic web, but she is not despondent or dull. Her
madness is a state of rapture, ecstacy, and innocence.
O
Vincent comes from the outside environment of en
forced symmetry and order, but he is extremely sensitive.
As Lilith tells him, he is an ill match. He doesn't fit. In
the beginning he sees the mental lives of the patients as
fantastic and deluded.
But after he has been around them for a while, he
begins to assimilate their collective Weltanschauung,
especially that of Lilith fterself, into his own world. Early
on he is told by the director of the hospital (Kim Hunter)
that madness is somehow more pathetic in women than
in men, but most of the residents seem fairly well-adjusted
to their worlds.
By the time Lilith's and Vincent's relationship changes
from that of patient and doctor to one of lovers, Vincent
has taken steps toward accepting as valid what is typically
regarded as insanity. When Vincent's energies are no long
er focused at "curing" Lilith, he begins to show jealousy
and a decreased willingness to accept her on her own
terms. Vincent gradually assumes Lilith's obsessions and
mannerisms: he is fascinated by bright crystalline objects
and reflections in water.
Lilith uses subjective views to depict the central
characters' mental processes. Sound is sometimes used
to emphasize what Lilith is experiencing, as when another
patient (Peter Fonda) is nearly killed by falling off a cliff
into a stretch of rapids. While the audience watches this
traumatic incident, cool mellow jazz music is heard.
Lilith doesn't take the scare seriously because she isn't
directly involved in it.
Continued on Page 13
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