8
Wednesday, January 26, 1983
Daily Nebraskan
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PARTY PARTY
Various Artists
A&M Records
Fact A: Movie soundtrack albums
since the great '50s and '60s musicals,
with few exceptions, suck.
Fact B: Party Party is a movie sound
track album.
Thus C: Party Party probably sucks.
HAH! The laws of logic proved wrongo
again.
I found Party Party (or "Party 2,"
as us esteemed insiders are like to say)
to have at least three things going for it:
1) The 13 cuts are material not found
on the 1 1 artists' previous records, unlike
the 1981 Times Square soundtrack, for
instance.
2) It is a good opportunity to hear
songs from some less familiar bands like
Altered Images and Bananarama.
3) It has Elvis Costello on it.
It looks like it's a categorical kinda'
day, so let's go with it.
List No. 2: Three things that Party
Party is:
1 ) A combination of old covers and new
material. Much like my own bed, I might
add.
2) A good vehicle for promoting interest
in director Terry Winsor's movie "Party
Party."
3) A chance for Randy Wymore to hear
his first Sex Pistols song, even if it is per
formed by three pretty girls.
List No. 3: Three things Party Party
ain't:
1 ) A K-Tel collection (too bad).
2) A cohesive unit of songs that slowly
unravels a movie plot .
3) The last you've heard out of Banana
rama. List No. 4: The 13 cuts on Party Party
from best to worst:
1) "Party Party" - Elvis Costello's
rockin' plea for hedonism with honky
tonk piano and a great horn arrange
ment. 2) "No Feelings" - Bananarama's
excellent cover of the Sex Pistols' mas
turbatory paean to. the "Me Generation."
3) "Band of Gold" - The group Modern
Romance goes Motown, and quite well,
thank you. A great song and sure disco
hit.
4) "Little Town Flirt" - Great bass
sound and greater vocals by Altered
Images' lead singer with the little girl
voice.
5) "The Man Who Sold the World" -Midge
Ure's cover of David Bowie's tune .
does it justice and then some.
6) "Run Rudolph Run" - Dave Ed
munds does it his way, as usual.
7) "No Woman No Cry" - by Pauline
Black. Great vocals, but little else.
8) "Driving In My Car" - by Madness.
Quirky, but not enough.
9) "Elizabethan Reggae" - by Bad
Manners. Reggae without the bite.
10) "Tutti-Frutti" - Stick to the
original. For Sting (of the Police) fans
only.
11) "Need Your Love So Bad" -Ditto.
12) "Yakety-Yak" - by Bad Manners.
Another cover that adds nothing to the
original. Bad Manners should excuse them
selves lor this one.
13) "Auld Lang Syne" - from Chas.
& Dave. Lose this one.
List No. 4:
1) Pay the gas bill.
2) Call Jim Ja . . . whoops, wrong list.
Glossary
1) "cuts" - lingo for "songs" in the
recording industry.
2) "go with it" - to abandon reserve,
cooperate
3) "covers" - when an artist redoes a
"cut" by a previous artist. Usually a
stupid move.
Buy this record if:
1 ) You make big bucks and have poor
friends with musical taste who want to
record it.
2) You are a record collector.
3) Your student loan just came in and
you feel like spending some money.
- Billy Shaffer
Editor's note: Watch this space for a review
of the movie "Party Party," if it ever
comes to Lincoln.
Singer needs
staGgG if face
Trouble in Paradise
Randy Newman
Warner Bros.
Poor Randy Newman. He tries so hard
to create concepts, yet seems unable to
stick out to their logical conclusion. For
example, in "Short People," his most
famous piece, he brilliantly constructs "A
Modest Proposal"-like framework, only
to destroy it midway by parenthetically
admitting "Hey folks, I'm just kidding,
short people are just the same as you and
I." On his Ragtime soundtrack, Newman's
moving vision of turn-of-the-century music
was ruined by the inclusion of "Change
Your Ways," which was a fine enough
song, but simply did not belong on that
album.
Newman continued to suffer from this
malady on his latest album, Trouble in
Paradise. In interviews, Newman had been
saying that this album, his ninth, was
going to be a pure pop effort; he was
tired of being the sole purveyor of in
tellectual rock music.
But Newman had a trick up his sleeve.
Trouble in Paradise is not pure pop exer
cise. Rather, what Newman has 'done in
effect, is create a pop music character,
whom he then manipulates for the pur
pose of satire.
The effect is brilliant. Frank Sinatra
may like "New York, New York" because
it is a city that doesn't sleep, but Randy
Newman's pop star likes Los Angeles
("I Love LA") because it's warm and
has lots of freeways, and "Miami" be
cause all the buildings look the same.
The Newman pop star also ventures
into "Creep Rock" (practiced most open
ly by John Cougar) in the song "Take Me
Back." He begs for mercy because he
"spent four years at Stanford," and his
wife is making his life miserable simply
because he had a summertime affair.
Jeez.
The fun continues. "I'm Different",
is a jab at Broadway musical numbers.
"There's a Party At My House" paro
dies neo-rockabilly, while "Mikey's" pokes
fun at funk music. "The Blues" (a duet
with Paul Simon) satirizes the morose
nature of blues lyrics by combining them
with spry, pop music.
Newman's pop star speaks out on his
own as well. "Christmas in Capetown"
pleads for understanding for the per
petuators of the apartheid, because "they
love our music." "My Life is Good" is
unabashed snottiness, with the pop star
flaunting wealth, power and prestige in
the faces of those who have none.
Yet after constructing this perfect
satiric framework, Newman destroys it by
deserting it at crucial points through the
album. "Real Emotional Girl," "Same
Girl" and "Song for the Dead" are all
beautiful pieces ("Song for the Dead"
being the most touching song on Viet
nam recorded for many years), certainly
befitting the Randy Newman of 12 Songs
or Sail Away. But the Randy Newman oi
Trouble in Paradise would never record
songs like these; he wouldn't even under
stand them. At best, they don't belong,
and at worst, they kill the entire effect
of the album.
Oddly then, despite the fact that all
the songs on Trouble in Paradise are
strong, the album ultimately must be
viewed as an ineffective effort. It's a
shame Newman could not keep a straight
face for the entire album. It could have
bn the most effective musical state
ment since the Beatles' Sgt. Pepper opus.
Perhaps Newman's pop star will surface
again someday. Until then, it's some
consolation to know that singers as won
derful as Randy Newman the artiste and
Randy Newman the pop star can exist
in today's musical world. It will be even
nicer when Randy Newman the performer
decides which one he wants to be.
Mike Frost
T
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wrecks Trams'
Trans
Neil Young
Geffen Records
Sometime between his last album
Reactor, and the recording sessions of
his latest album Trans, Neil Young must
have heard somebody use a Vocoder.
A Vocoder is a device which, when
spoken or sung into, computerizes and
distorts the user's voice.
Young must have loved the sound and
gotten his own little Vocoder. In any
event, he commits electronic overkill
on Trans.
4
The album starts out with a pretty
good rocker titled "A Little Thing Call
ed Love":
Only love puts a tear in your eye
Only love makes you hypnotized
Only love makes you choose
Only love brings you the blues '
Maybe it's only a coincidence, but
"A Little Thing Called Love" is the only
song of the album in which Young uses
his real voice and it's also the best cut.
Probably one of the most radical
tracks is "We R In Control." Again heavily
electronic, the song is about computers,
supposedly by computers:
We control
We're controlling
We control you floor to floor
We control you door to door
We're controlling while you're asleep
You get the idea.
In order to save time and not be re
dundant about electronics on Trans, I
won't even mention tracks like "Com
puter Age," "Transformer Man" and
"Computer Cowboy."
The only other respectable cut is
"Mr. Soul," a remake of the song Young
did with the Buffalo Springfield years
ago.
Again, the Vocoder is used, but this
time it works. However, this version of
"Mr. Soul" could put off some long-time
Young fans who are used to the rougher,
older version.
Trans is obviously a message to us all
from Young. The bad part is that he just
didn't know when to quit.
The newest by Young is a must if you
happen to be an avid follower of his
music. Too bad that a couple of good
points don't outweigh a few bad points,
or this might have been a classic.
Let's hope that Neil was just going
through a phase.
Randy Wymore
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Too Tough
Angela Bofill
Arista
Angela BolLIl's name isn't instantly
recognizable with the other top jazz sing
ers of this era, yet. When Bofill, a native
New Yorker of Latin descent, released her
first album four years back, she was hail
ed as the next Dionne Warwick or the
next Nancy Wilson, among other things.
Unfortunately, despite her excellent
Angel of the Night in 1980, which fol
lowed the stylings of her debut Angle, the
mass adulation she and her backers ex
pected never came - that is, until last
year's Something About You, which was
a big step away from her previous direct
ion. With Too Tough, Bofill makes it clear
she plans to go after the Diana Ross
Stephanie Mills crowd instead of the
Nancy Wilson contingent.
Beginning with the thumping, over
brassy title track, the album rocks along
with tne familiar beat of what we've come
to expect from today's soul.
Fortunately, Botilf is a good enough
and still a unique enough singer to carry
it ott and retain some identity, ine tirst
claims about Bo fill's unequaled singing
range are still verified.
Whaj is totally lost from the first two
efforts that lingered on Something About
You is the jazz styling and innovation.
Now, Bofill, has turned completely to the
electronic and dance age.
Continued on Page 9