Arts & Entertainment
Andy Manhart/Daily Nebraskan
Heart of rock‘n’roll beats in Russia;
Western music left true spirit behind
Analysis by (Jeoff McMurtry
Senior Editor
Glasnosi may or may not be
for real, but in the land of
homemade vodka and cold
beet soup, “the times they arc a
changin’.”
Ever since the first documenta
ries showing the new phenomenon
of Elvis Presley as an example of
the “decadent West,” young Rus
skies have been listening to Ameri
can and British rock‘n’ roll. Most of
them didn’t understand the words,
but just like their American and
British teen-age counterparts, who
also couldn’t understand the words,
they could still tell what the music
was saying. Despite official resis
tance and insistence to the contrary,
Russia is not the same.
Underground rock music in
Russia is thriving, as well as the
officially recognized version. The
Soviet Union has an interesting
system: An artist or band can apply
for official recognition from the
state and have all of its lyrics, liner
notes, cover art, etc., screened for
“appropriateness of content” by a
panel of stale department bureau
crats, or it can ignore the censors
and not officially (i.c. legally) be
allowed to receive any compensa
tion for its creations. Here in the
land of the free, where we’re all
protected by the First Amendment,
that unpleasant function is taken
care of by radio formats and record
companies.
Although at the moment the glut
of Russian rock music—especially
the official brand—seems five to 10
years behind the West and pollutes
itself with too much of the kind of
self-indulgence of late‘70s art-rock
and the mindless thud of early ‘80s
British haircut-synthbop, the core
of what’s there is good — very
good.
With that in mind,one can’t help
but think of the enormous potential
Russian music has. First of all,
because communism, not as practi
cally applied but in its idealistic
sense, is much closer to rock’s
communal ideals of spiritualism,
compassion and involvement for
everyone than the elitist competi
tion of capitalism.
Also, when you consider that
most of the truly notable inspiration
in rock ‘n' roll came from visionar
ies w ho not only felt, but aggres
sively subverted the oppression and
disdain they felt while living in a
superficially free society, then a
coldbed of institutional oppression
like Russia should be lif rally ex
ploding with poetic rage.
In the West, artistic conformists
get rich and are admired and re
vered while outspoken visionaries
arc ignored or ridiculed and occa
sionally critically acclaimed. Be
hind the curtain, conformists get
official approval and very little of
the proceeds, while outspoken vi
sionaries get ridiculed, ignored,
occasionally critically acclaimed
and occasionally jailed.
Outspoken visionaries have
always been willing to risk being
jailed to express their beliefs
(Gandhi, Martin Luther King Jr.,
Malcolm X), so they aren ’ 11 ikely to
be stifled much.
However, if there’s no market
for pretend rebellion, the kind that
gluts up the airwaves and MTV,
there may be more incentive, more
attention paid and more effort given
to actually putting honest thought
and feeling into art, something of
rare quality in the West these days.
Whether it be music, literature or
something to be invented, eventu
ally this rare quality could filter its
way back over here to inspire the
next generation of Americans.
Just the thought of a nation of
250 million people with a thriving
music industry not constipated with
Night Ranger, Survivor, Motley
Cruc and Loverboy clones is
enough to cause orgasmic chills.
Another interesting facet is the
Communist Party’s attitude toward
religion. In America, we all know
that saying there is no God or that
God isdead isconsidered shocking,
repulsive, subversive. In Russia,
that’s the official party line.
Yet another irony: The Old
Guard members of the Russian
leadership warn their countrymen
that rock ‘n’ roll is a decadent
Western propaganda tool designed
to subvert the morals of their youth.
In the '50s, U.S. parents were
warned that rock ‘n’ roll was a
commie plot designed to subvert
the morals of our youth. Amazingly
enough, two diametrically opposed
political systems with completely
opposite approaches to government
managed to place the same kind of
idiots in power.
As for the more subversive ele
ment of rock ‘n’ roll, in the United
States, we have the repressive, Hag
waving sector telling us all to toe
the line for Uncle Sam and aligning
themselves arm-in-arm with the
Fundamentalist Right. Subversive
pinko Godless-commie sympathiz
ers are radical leftists. So, in Russia,
which side are they on? What’s
subversive in a communist country
where God doesn’t officially exist?
On the surface, it seems that
Russia may have the best chance to
fulfill the potential that rock ln’ roll
has been promising for the last 35
years. I hope they have the neces
sary arrogance to ignore the trail
paved by us, the decadent West, and
can actually create their own tower
ing music industry, uncluttered by
Top-40, AOR, formats, demo
graphics, A&R executives and
MTV’s Hollywood farm system.
We can only hope.
But then, Russia will probably
blow it— after all, we did.
Group provokes question:
Are they he’s or she’s?
Voice of the Beehive, “Just a City,”
Food, Ltd.
How to describe thisalbum? Well,
maybe I should say that 1 was very
frustrated to discover it was nothing
more titan a 12-inch 45. It makes you
think about all the wasted vinyl that
could have been saved had the Voice
of the Beehive confined their artistic
expressions to a simple 7-incher.
Somewhere there’s a little kid with
out a raincoat, and we all know who’s
to blame, don’t we?
The photo of Voice of the Beehive
on the cover is a definite attention
j getter. When I saw this, I thought,
“Oh, no, what is this? Boy George
revisited? Haven’t we had enough of
British transvestites invading our
inner cars (although 1 can’t help but
like the hair on the guy from Dead or
Alive)?” Anyway, here comes the
really fun part of the album: It's not
the songs themselves, but the fun of
trying to guess whether or not the
lament (“It’s just a city/And I'm just
a girl,” sing the duo, which makes
you start wondering about their
smiles again). The choruses of their
songs are catchy, too. “I Walk the
Earth” starts side two sounding just a
little bit like “A Hazy Shade of
Winter” before detouring into a
folksy interlude, and you start won
dering whether the blond beehive is
really Mary from Peter and Paul, or
one of the A’s from ABBA.
“Seven Shocks,” the final song, is
the best one of the bunch. It's a good
dance song (the other two are, as
wcl 1, not that you ’ 11 have any lime for
dancing while you’re looking at the
cover and trying to decide just what
they arc) and takes a page from the
Violent Femmes by try ing to detail
just why they want to give you seven
shocks:
“One because you have no money/
Two because he didn't show/Threc
because you don’t feel ready/And
four because you never know.”
beauties on the cover are he’s or
she's. They sound like females on the
record, a combination of Debbie
Harry and the Bangles. Who knows?
On the back cover, there’s a group
photo, and you stdl can’t tell. One of
them really looks like a female, and
they both have nasty little smiles on
their faces. This makes me wonder
whether they’re smiling because
they’re really men and know they’ve
got you fooled or because they’re
women and look like men. Whatever
the case, you can’t help but like a
record w hose label is “Food, Ltd.”
I he songs themselves (all three of
them) arc not bad. “Just a City,” the
title track and only song on side one,
is really nothing more than a pop
That's the record in a nutshell: just
like the Femmes, only instead of
forgetting what eight is for, Voice of
the Beehive ignores the fact that we
don’t gel to find out the reasons for
shocks five through seven. However,
once again, I’m stuck on their gen
der-blending. Does “Seven Shocks’’
mean the uncertain sex of the lead
singers, and does the chorus mean I 'll
never know what they are, since the
group members’ names aren't on the
jacket? Apart from all that, I recom
mend “Just a City.’’ if only for a topic
for conversation with your friends at
Burger King. Are they or aren't they?
It’s worth $5 just to wonder.
— William Rudolph
Album courtesy of Food, Ltd.
Beehive: Boys or girls?
■