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Daily Nebraskan
Wednesday, April 7, 1982
Aits & Entertainment
Success Iasn 't Spoiled Me Yet
Rick Springfield
RCA
At the risk of eternal embarrassment, I
must admit: I liked "Jessie's Girl," this
Tiger Beat pinup's major hit of 1981.
Seriously. Adolescent innocence has the
decided upper hand over mechanical
"love" songs of the lovin'-touchin'-squee-zin'
variety. There's something catching in
a tale of juvenile unrequited love. There's
something very cold and lifeless in today's
anatomical "love" songs. The perfect mid
dle ground comes from Johnny, Joey,
Marky and Dee-Dee, but for the next hour
or so, Rick Springfield will have to do.
Right now, General Hospital's Dr.
Noah Webster is the hottest thing in
jailbait rock - his face can be found on the
cover of every teenybopper fanzine in
print, if it doesn't upset your ego to risk
being seen looking at them.
Springfield is not just a catalyst for
the emerging hormones of wild-eyed
young nubiles, though. He's a sex symbol
from the word go - millions of Gil viewers
have been licking their chops for years.
Housewives will undoubtedly rush in
droves to the neighborhood K-Mart to pick
up on Success Hasn't Spoiled Me Yet
in a fit of vagary. "It's my daughter's birth
day," they'll explain to the uninterested
checker.
With earlier bubblegum boys such as
Leif Garrett, Rex Smith, or the unforget
table Cassidy brothers, it was in doubt
that they were possessed of even a tatter
of talent. They sure were pretty, though.
There are hits galore on this record,
including "Don't Talk To Strangers,"
the album's lead-off single.
On side one. "I Get Excited" starts
off sounding like "Jessie's Girl," with
.a subdued electric guitar, and Springfield
carefully enunciating the lyrics:
Well you admit you like a game, but
you're not gonna play You just ignore
what your body is try in ' to say II got the
feelin ' that you 're play in ' and we're both
gonna win J And I think this angel's about
to sin.
You know the rest of the story. Ricky
and his baby miss homeroom at the local
junior high the next morning.
After a dumpy little ballad, Springfield
breaks out the stun guitar for "Kristina,"
a guaranteed mega-hit on all fronts.
"Tonight" is a sequel to "Jessie's Girl,"
with Springfield standing on the sidelines
while the woman of his dreams makes the
tie that legally binds.
Standouts on side two are "How Do
You Talk To Girls" -and "The American
Girl". The guy has a heart, too. "April
24, 1981" asks unanswerable questions
about afterlife in the context of his fa
ther's death.
Anybody who gives his lopsided-looking
terrier an everyday name like Ron and
prominently displays a pair of Converse
All-Star hightops on the inner sleeve can't
be all bad. He certainly eclipses his bubble
gum competitors.
Springfield's a rarity in his idiom. At
32, he could pass for 20. Old enough to
write contagious, smart pop songs, he's
pretty enough to sell therri.
Bob Crisler
Drums Along The Hudson
The Bongos
PVC
Readers of the New York Rocker are a
cultural bunch, I'm sure. That they voted
the Bongos the best unrecorded band of
1981 must mean something.
The yearly people's poll has steered me
straight in the past. The Rocker's readers'
favorite band without a record in 1980 was
the dB's. In 1979, it was the Feelies.Both
are excellent.
New York nightclubbers have well
weathered tastes, for every year the bands
they pick are fresh-sounding, exuberant,
youthful, upbeat and pop. The dB's and
Feelies are prime, semi-obscure albums that
I pull out for neophytes when I want some
thing unobtrusive but winsome. Drums
Along The Hudson is no exception.
These unrecorded bands, once recogniz
ed, don't stay record-less long. And going
national brings nice surprises, such as the
Bongos' lightly-attended performance at
the Drumstick last Thursday. I can't say
they blew me away live, but I was impress
ed enough to pick up the album. It was the
better buy.
The Bongos have a tidily-crafted style,
akin to U2 or early Talking Heads, which
they rip through at an adrenalated clip. Yet
to preserve the inner coordination amidst
the exterior haste, studio production is
apparently crucial.
Drums is as exciting as any debut album
I've heard in 1982. The music is buoyant
and tuneful like U2, but more minimal. It
is crisp and oblique like early Heads, but
more maximal.
For tighter comparisons, I again refer to
its poll-winning predecessors, the dB's and
Feelies - particulary the latter. All three
bands keep a fine, delicate balance between
musical text and context in their songs.
All have a knack for using simplicity
complexly, for using acoustic techniques
electrifyingly, for using headlong energy
with restraint, a knack for using roots
originally, for using adolescence maturely.
Collectively, their music is arguably the
most viable, respectable neo-pop around,
clean and refreshing as it's meant to be.
Not all fifteen songs on Drums, which
were written over the last two years, are
above par. But even the weakest of them,
say, "Clay Midgets" or "Glow in the
Dark," are inoffensive and eventually like
able. Some songs, like "Video Eyes" or "In
the Congo," with its Devo-esque guitar and
bongo beat, race by before you know it.
On others, pop pieces like 'The Bulrushes"
or "Zebra Club," you can forget who
you're listening to sometimes.
The instrumental cut, "Burning Bush,"
is excellent by virtue of being Heads-like.
"Three Wise Men" is very much in the
Feelies' style of fast strumming and
drumming and quarter-note vocals, though
a tousled cornet is thrown in on top.
But bongo congo, that's the place to be.
Songs like "Question Ball" or "Mamba
Sun" are the most distinctive on the
album. With simply a bass, acoustic "guitar
and bongos, "Question Ball" has a refined
taste with the flabor of tropical beatniks.
And "Mamba Sun," the only redo on
Drums, is totally infectious with beachside
bepop fever. It's the greatest remake of an
oldie since "Working in the Coal Mine."
Joan Jett take note.
Hoboken's Bongos, the drums across the
Hudson River from New York City, may
not be the next big thing - or even as hot a
find as the dB's or Feelies. I nevertheless
look forward to their next album, as well
as to the Rocker's next poll.
Kihntinued
Greg Kihn Band
Bescrkley
The Greg Kihn Band has a knack for
cute album titles and good catchy sin
gles. "The Break-Up Song" from last year's
Rock Kihn Roll was one of the pleasures of
summer radio cruising. "Happy Man," the
first song on the first side (the perfect lo
cation to attract attention), has hit single
written all over it. It's a real grabber as it
builds in intensity until you start screaming
along with the chorus. Handclaps, the gui
tar solo and the inspired singing add up to
a perfect pop song. The lyrics are a thumb-your-nosc-at-the-world
teenage arrogance
that doesn't really mean anything. On the
other hand who cares because the song
sounds so good.
The rest of Kihntinued doesn't match
up to "Happy Man" high quality but there
are a number of socially redeeming virtues
that should lead album oriented radio to
pick up on it.
"EverdaySaturday" has a real booming
sound that isn't too far away from heavy
metal. However, Kihn seems too refined
andor wholesome to fit in with that
crowd. The greatest unknown band ever,
the Dictators, had the theme "everday is
Saturday," which sums up being laid back
and laid off to perfection. Kihn doesn't
quite have that anarchist approach to
wards the weekend, though.
"Tell Me Lies" and "Sound System"
showcase Rasta Greg Kihn as he pretends
that he's some ganja-inspired Jamaican
playing reggae. Nothing like a little inau
thenticity for a few good chuckles. Too
bad that real reggae never got off the
ground in the United States. "Sound Sys
tem" has the same title as a Steel Pulse
song but sure doesn't sound like those
Rastmaniacs.
"Testify" should be the second single
released as it is instantly memorable as the
band and Kihn trade off on the vocals.
Kihn just exudes wholesome sincerity. A
real nice song.
The old soul chestnut "Higher and High
er" is also covered on Kihntinued. He sure
.sounds upper middle class to try to pull
that off successfully.
Kihn is on Beserkley Records which has
been picked up by ElectraAsylum for dis
tribution. Beserkley is based in Berkeley so
it's nice to see those hippies have got jobs.
Johnathan Richman, one of the origin
al Berserkley artists, will be with the Mor
ells the next time they are at the Zoo.
Richman had a sound that recalled Lou
Reed and die Kinks. Kihn should take
some notes from Richman.
Kihntinued is a frustrating record be
cause it is competent and pretty good
but . . . This is a throwback to the era
when an album would have a great single
surrounded by dross. Anyway "Happy
Man" will sound good over the airwaves.
- Pat Higgins
David Wood