The daily Nebraskan. ([Lincoln, Neb.) 1901-current, November 17, 1987, Page 6, Image 6
ArtU/j. Entertainment I 1 Christina Geiger/Daily Nebraskan Eagle aims for heart ot rock n roll I By Ke\in Cowan Senior Reporter On Oct. 12, the faithful listeners of radio station KMAZ arose to find that an eagle had landed on their auto mated top-40 station. KTGL, the Eagle, had nested in the Lincoln/ Omaha radio market. The Eagle sports the “classic rock n' roll” format, said Neal Hunter, program coordinator. Essentially, he said, the station plays rock dating from the early ’60s to the present. The format was founded three years ago in Milwau kee and now dictates the tunes cranked out from 30 or 40 stations around the United Slates. “A lot of the music is stuff you haven’t heard on the radio for a long time.” he said. “We concentrate on a lot of the music by the Beatles, Roll ing Stones, Doors and a bit on Pink Floyd.” Hunter said the station has had a tremendous response. • f The recurring theme of the phone calls, he said, is that people finally have a station they can listen to. “What separates us from other stations in the area is our format — geared toward 25- to 49-year-old males instead of 25- to 49-ycar-old females.” KHAT, he said, is a station that fixes its target market on women. J.T. Shrigley, general manager, said they “were amazed at how much the Lincoln/Omaha market reacted to us.” “We’ve had calls from people in their early ’40s, a large number of calls from university students and calls from people in their early teens,” he said. “The only complaint we’ve had so far is from a guy who called to complain about a Peter Gabriel song we were playing.” People describe the Eagle as an “oldies” station with an improved taste in programming. Shrigley said “oldies” arc not what the station strives to program. Overall response to the station has I. " 1 ' been irom college siuacms. How ever, Shrigley said, KTGL is not aimed at the college market. “I think it would be technically incorrect to say our market is the university,” he said. “Our research indicated that the 25- to 40-year-old market was not being served, so we assumed a format that would accom modate those people.” Shrigley said the 100,000-watt station is one of five such stations in the state including KFRX, KFMQ, KLIN and KEZO. The station hasn’t received offers from concert promoters to co-sponsor concerts and benefits because it is new. Promoting concerts involves ad vertising at the station, Shrigley said. “You have to grasp enough of the market available before promoters will consider contracting your station’s talents,” he said. Shrigley seems confident that KTGL will succeed. - i Ladora can sing, nut snow too contnvea By Scott Harrah Senior Editor Pia Zadora the former bad B movie queen who’s now a critically acclaimed torch singer, ambled onto the Orpheum Theatre slat. in Omaha Sunday to sing standards and Broad way show tunes. Concert Review Zadora. clad in a purple sequined gown and spike heels that lifted her diminutive Irame to eye level, opened with “For Once in My Life “ Backed up by the lounge-li/ardish Las Vegas Symphony- Orchestra, Zadora vacil lated between flashy Vegas camp and watered-down torch elegance No body can deny that Zadora luo a great set of pipes. Her voice was clear and had a trenc hant vibrato that forcefully blasted from her trademark pouty lips at the end of each song. But something about her perform ance seemed contrived, too calculated and mechanical The great torch sing ers — Billie Holiday, Judy Garland, Peggy Lee — always brought sponta neous energy to singing, that breathy melancholy insistence that created an aura tn countless smoke-filled caba rets. Zadora copied the legends’ breath mess perfectly — almost too perfectly .One minute she’d be breathy and impishly raw. then she d suddenly segue into a soaring soprano like clockwork. Necessary consistency just wasn't there. In the second number. "C csl Si Bon." Zadora shimmied and flittered around the stage like a French Charo groov mg away in the hl\ is film "Viva Las Vegas!” She delivered her rendition of Garland s "The Man That Got Away” from the proverbial weepy ihaun teusc’s stool, belling ariaN from her spotlight. Although she displayed sensitivity for the lyrics her vtxal delivery was again lot' planned The problem with Zadora is that her voice is still developing To make up for her Haws, she borrows cliches from her influences without adding enough impromptu emotions to make the songs her own. She definitely can sing, but she needs a new direction, some thing to carry her passion Zadora changed into a white satin pantsuit and pul barrettes into her hair lor the second act. making her look I ike a c ri'sv bet ween a teen-age Brigitte Bardot and Alvin the Chipmunk. Her closing number, “I Am What I Am,” from thedrag-queenmusical“La Cage Aux Folles,” is a song about personal freedom that’s definitely Zadora’s way of saying her “Lonely Lady” days arc over. Whether you hate Zadora or love her, you have to admit there’s some thing about her fight to be taken seri ously, her “jailbait" sexpot look and her curiously provocative past. That alone made the concert worth attend ing. A gray-haired, middle-of-the-road crowd dominated the audience and was evidently more interested in the songs than Zadora and her voice. In essence. Zadora’s new musical career is simply a vehicle to let Pia be Pia. And there's nothing wrong with that. An obnoxious, annoying, hack neyed comedian ol the Catskills/ Ramada 1 nn lounge persuasion opened the show w ith tired, racist sexist, eth nic jokes backed up with polyester motives Grecian Formula Republi cans lound him amusing, but those w ho didn’t felt the> had to laugh for fear that his Iriend Guido was eyeing them vigilantly. 1 hope Pia didn t recommend him. Book of Questions' questions nothing By ( harles l.ieu ranee Senior I'Lditor “The Book of Questions,” Gre gor} Stock, Ph.D., Workman Pub lishing, $3.95. For anyone who just lives to play psychological Jeopardy with those clever B.F. Skinheads who came up with that most respected of personal ity profiles, the Multiphasic Person ality Test,Gregory Stock has come up ^ with a yuppified self-help version of the test in handy pocket-book form. Stock’s “The Book of Questions” takes up where the Multiphasic Test left off, purportedly “giving you per mission to ask those things that are Book Review uki bold, loo embarrassing or jusl loo difficult to ask by yourself.” The Multiphasic Personality lest tried to trap psychotics into honestly responding “yes’ or “no” to state ments like I am often visited by the Lord Jesus while using the reslroom *’ facilities in popular restaurants” by craftily wedging ihcm between state ments like, “I like socks more than clealed sandals” mid “Blue skies are nice to look at." But “The Book ol Questions” is • user-friendly. The book comes at psychological sell-examination from an “I’m OK, you re OK’ stance. The only judgments in the book are those you're likely to heap upon yourself when you respond honestly to questions like: “Would you be w illing to do something very unsatis fying (for example, clean toilets) for five years if you were certain that the experience would afterward bring you a deep sense of personal fulfill ment for the rest of your life?” The questions all have to do with physical appearance (usually being physically deformed in some way), sex and financial status. Mainly they ask you to sacrifice one of the above for another of the above or for some abstract, noble goal like world har mony or the eventual return of Jimmy Hoffa. Stock question: “Would you be willing to murder an innocent person if it would end hunger in the world?” If it would improve your sex life? If someone offered you a million dol lars and the keys to the Taj Mahal? Stock seems downright obsessed with trading various superficial things for either other equally super ficial things or things so sappy you’d puke if you saw them in a Hallmark card. Would you stick 3-inch needles all over your face if someone asked you to play Russian roulette and of fered you the presidency of the United States and the woman of your dreams if you won? OK, now that we have the idea down, let’s play. “While parking late at night, you slighdy scrape the side of a Porsche. You are certain no one else is aware of what happened. The damage is minor and would not be covered by insur ance. Would you leave a note?” No. but hu u several more limes with ihe lire iron in the trunk. There are no “right” answers. “How do you react when people sing ‘Happy Birthday’ to you in a restaurant ?” First scream “How did you know it was my birthday?” savagely at the top of your lungs. Then scream, “You’ve all been watching me, haven’t you? What else do you know about me? Did you ask Paul McCartney for per mission to use this song? Who sent you?” Usually by then the desire to make birthday wishes has subsided and one can peacefully continue with one’s meal. “What is the worst psychological torture you can imagine suffering? Anything causing even minor physi cal injury should not be considered.” 1 have this dream where,.while I sleep, several Argentine doctors mumbling incoherently make an inci sion around my head and place an object in my sinuses that I can’t rec ognize. When I awaken the next day, every time I breathe my head makes the sound of an accordion being squeezed by a small child. No one else can hear it. I live with this the rest of tny life. I don’t even wake up screaming. “Would you be willing to give up sex for one year if you knew it would give you a much deeper sense of peace than you have now?” I have that sense of peace now. And thank you for reminding me. Courtesy of Restless Records Vaughn Combo is back I By Chris McCubbin Staff Reporter On Wednesday the Ben Vaughn Combo will play the Ranch Bowl in Omaha. This will be their second appearance there in two months, but bandleader Ben Vaughn said he doesn’t mind coming back so soon. “It’s a great place to play be cause after sound check you can go bowl a couple frames,” Vaughn said. Concert Preview Vaughn is not ashamed to admit that his combo’s sound is lower volume than most roots rockers’. But easy and accessible as it may be, Vaughri’s music is saved from the easy-listening ghetto by Vaughn’s genius for melody, his funny, poignant sing-along lyrics and the combo’s stripped-dowrn, unpretentious arrangements. The Ben Vaughn Combo con sists of drums, bass and accordion with Vaughn supplying songs, vocals, guitar, harmonica “and charisma, on a good night,” Vaughn said. The Ben Vaughn Combo spe cializes in an early-sounding rock ‘n’ roll reminiscent of the Everly Brothers or Buddy Holly. Vaughn says his music comes from rock, country, rockabilly—“everything but jazz; you got to read music to do that stuff." But the most memorable part of any Vaughn song is the lyrics. Vaughn specializes in sweet, sub tly twisted stories that are laugh out-loud funny without ever being silly or mere novelties. The titles of Vaughn’s songs tell the whole story: “Lookin’ For a 7 11” in my “M-M-Motor Vehicle,’’ I felt like “Jerry Lewis in France.” I was thinking “I Dig Your Wig.” But I had the “Wrong Haircut” and now “I’m Sorry (But So Is Brenda Lee).” “Brenda Lee” provided Vaughn with his first big break when it was recorded by Marshall Crenshaw. Vaughn’s first album, “The Many Moods of Ben Vaughn,” got great reviews from both the alternative and the mainstream music press. Now Vaughn is touring to pro mote his new album “Beautiful Thing,” on Restless Records. Vaughn said there’s more depth to the writing and production on “Beautiful Thing” than on “Many Moods,” a change he puts down to “maturity rearing its ugly head.” Nebraska is not usually the fa vorite venue for New Jersey bands, but Vaughn is an exception. He said he prefers his home stale’s inland farm country to the coastal cities. Vaughn said “Beautiful Thing” was recorded in a converted barn in Vineland, N.J., an area he com pares to Nebraska. Vaughn also is drawn to Ne braska music. He considers the Muskrats, a duo of transplanted Omahans, “the greatest.” And he admits that he still hopes that if he keeps coming back to Nebraska he’ll someday get to meet Charlie Burton.