Denver, Springsteen
accessible by music
John Denver/ Windsone/ RCA/'
$6.98
By Robert Thurber
Oct. 3,1975
There is an open letter on this
album written by John Denver him
self in which he says ‘‘I wanted to
record the songs the wind makes...
to share with you her music ... I
found that you simply cannot get it on
tape.”
Right John.
He may not have succeeded in
recording the wind, but through his
singing on the title cut he has man
aged to come very close. He gives us
the sweetly-scored melodies we have
come to expect from John Denver,
nothing more.
His formula is simple; a few AM
chart-toppers (“I’m Sorrv” and
Calypso”), some foot-stomping
fiddle music (‘‘Love Is Every
where”), and one or two cowboy
melodies (‘‘Cowboy’s Delight” and
‘‘Song of Wyoming”).
If you like John Denver (it’s rather
hard to find anyone who will admit i
they do), you’ll like this album. I ;
even found myself enjoying a few of
the less orchestrated cuts, but I could i
not help but wonder how long Denver ]
can hold onto his Rocky Mountain <
high.
Bruce Springsteen/ Born to Run/
Columbia/ $6.98
By Deb Gray
Sept. 19,1975
After hearing this album, I did
something unusual (for me) --1 made
abet. It wasn’t as if I were risking my
shirt (or even worse, this album), just
a dinner at McDonald’s.
Anyway, here are my predictions
concerning this album. If I’m right, I
win a Big Mac. (1) This album will be
included in the Best Album of the
Year list of at least two music publi
cations, (2) Springsteen will appear
on the cover of Rolling Stone before
the end of the year, and (3) he will be
hailed as the spokesman for the ’70s
joining the Stones, Bob Dylan and
Elton John in representing the epit
ome of rock tradition.
Who is this guy anyway? You
might ask. Fair question. Spring
steen, a composer/guitarist/ vocalist,
is from New Jersey and has a devoted
following, especially in New York.
His second album - The Wild, The
Innocent and the E Street Shuffle -
was a Rolling Slone Best of the year
selection last year. Bom to Run,
Springsteen’s third album is even
better. Through his music, Spring
steen creates his own world, his own
[characters, his own symbols. The
gulf between his world and the UNL
environment (Big Red, Monday
night fraternity suppers) is great as
:hc distance between Earth and Alpha
Z!cntauri. His is the world of the street
nunk. He is the guy who gains his
wisdom by fighting for survival. And
le knows more about life than any
3hi Beta Kappa Harvard graduate
ever will.
Dave Marsh of Rolling Stone
eompared Springsteen’s music to an
American Quadrophenia.”
"But Springsteen doesn’t write
ock opera," he said. ‘‘He lives it.”
Man, there’s an opera out on the
Turnpike
There’s a ballet being fought out
in the alley
Until the local cops
Cherry tops
Rips this holy night. ..
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Bed - hopping Beatty conies clean
April 28, 1975
By Greg Luklow
Shampoo has been offered up as 2
new generation, naughty sex satire or
fickle, modern Southern Californian
(American) mores. It isn’t, and 1
imagine that a lot of those who stood
out in long lines to see the picture
have come out more tired than teased.
The movie is entirely pat and pre
dictable, but it is turning out to be
somewhat of a phenomenon, proba
bly because of the myth Warren
Beatty has set up around himself.
Beatty got his start in movies doing
ffieolo roles of sorts anrl hi« rpalJifp
bed-hopping is well known, espe
cially his affair with Julie Christie.
Yet I cherish the irony of the fact that
in his two best movie role, in Bonnie
and Clyde and Robert Altman’s Cabc
and Mrs. Miller (also opposite Julie
Christie) Beatty played impotent
characters.
Here he has no trouble. He is
George, a free-spirited hairdresser
who fools a lotof people because they
think he’s gay. If they only knew.
With his hair dryer as a new phallic
symbol, Beatty spends more time on
his motorcycle than in bed — but we
get the idea.
Dumb-blond type
Goldie Hawn is wasted as a dumb
blond type who thinks she’s Beatty’s
“steady” and is highly offended
when she realizes she isn’t. Christie is
one of his former lovers who comes
back to kindle whatever real feeling
Beatty has in the movie. Lee Grant
plays his third lover, a rather middle
I
aged looking lady, the wife of a
wealthy business man (Jack Warden)
from whom Beatty is trying to get the
money to start his own hairdressing
shop.
The movie was produced by
Beatty, after an idea that had been
with him for several years. It might
look like he’s indulging in his own
fantasies, but it’s probably closer to
straight autobiography. Hal Ashby
directed but his influence seems lim
ited. Beatty wrote the screenplay
along with Hollywood’s hottest
screenwriter, Robert Townc (who did
Chinatown and also teamed up with
director Ashby on 1974’s The Last
Detail).
i i
greg iukow
key grip
The trouble with Shampoo is that
it never goes all the way. It’s really
quite tame, with only a few groans in
the darkness and Beatty mooning us a
couple of times. It is a ’60s light-sex
comedy that has adorned itself with
depressing pretensions. The movie
takes place on election eve 1968, and
Nixon and Agnew haunt the back
ground as the film looks back in
masochistic hindsight at where we
were during that era.
Constant interruptions
The movie is one constant inter
ruption. When Beatty’s lady friends
give him the eye and request him
point blank for his services, we know
exactly when its coming and the big
break-in scenes, where girlfriends or
husbands arrive just as Beatty is get
ting his pants down, are just as pre
dictable.
There was only one scene that
came close to the comic satire the
movie was trying for. During a Re
publican election eve party, a partly
drunk and completely homy Christie
crawls underneath a table to perform
a well known immoral act on Beatty.
She tries to blah his blah, as Lenny
Bruce would say, but even that is cut
short. In the end Shampoo fails be
cause it has no real guts for its subject
and comes up too tired and shy to
reach orgasm.
The film’s final shot, with a for
lorn Beatty standing on a hilltop
watching Christie leave with the Jack
WdrHpn rharar'I/'r turnc r\lit #r* kn o
very moralizing twist. The movie,
however, pretends to be chic enough
so that it won’t appear that way.
George in the end, is a hesitant,
insecure and lonely man who can’t
seem to get out of his own way. He
reacts, blank-eyed, to all that goes on
about him and says little more than
“Yeah, that’s great.”
Ultimately, when his phallic call
ing card has been taken away and the
stud is put out to pasture, the movie
wants us to feel sorry for him. We
can’t but I admire Beatty for bringing
his character around so we can really
look at him.
Sorry for him? No, although actu
ally maybe I envy him since the only
remaining issue in Shampoo is
whether or not Beatty and Christie
were really doing it.
—--1
Local studios offer disco lessons
DISCO From Page 9
Costs will probably be an im
portant factor.
Arthur Murray offers private
lessons from eight different teach
ers at $10 for the first hour. After
that, students can attend a course
program with class lessons, private
and practice sessions.
Debra Darnell, a teacher at
Arthur Murray, said a person goes
as far in disco lessons as they can
afford.
“We have programs to fit per
sonal finances,” Darnell said.
“We’ll sell you a course form that
you can afford.”
Arthur Murray started offering
classes in disco about four years
ago, but it didn’t become popular
until people started getting in
volved in line dance, Darnell said.
i i?> a type oi uance wncrc ev
eryone docs the same thing lined
up without partners.
At the Lincoln Dance Center,
located at 540 N. 48th, instructors
claim that age is no barrier. The
instructors, Norma Vrana and
Mariane Sanders, are proof of that.
Vrana began dancing when she
was 5-years-old. Both she and
Sanders are in ihcir 60s and as
Vrana describes, “in excellent
shape.”
The Lincoln Dance Center is
new to Lincoln and opened up
about nine months ago, Vrana said.
“I am originally from Fre
mont,” Vrana said. “I have
danced all over New York and
Chicago. I have taught lessons and
have never been out of dancing.”
According to Vrana, Sanders
has danced in many Rogers and
Hammerstein musicals and also
danced with Gene Kelly.
“There is nothing new about
disco dancing,” Vrana said. “It is
hucpH nn nacl Honnnc onrl
— I'""* Ml ■ V* 1/WUUtlV
we have been around a long time,
there is nothing we haven’t done.
The Lincoln Dance Center has
two large studios with a method
that Vrana said is “fantastic.”
“Both of us taught children for
years so we arc used to breaking
things down to the basics,” Vrana
said. “Disco is basically circles
and turns and can become a highly
stylized thing, which is important
because without style, it’s noth
ing.”
The cost for six 1-1/2 hour les
sons is S35 for an individual and
$60 per couple. Vrana said people
can practice twice in addition to
their weekly lesson.
If you arc close to campus, a
studio called Trudancc will open
above Dirt Cheap in May.
Trudy Kniscly will teach les
sons ranging from $3.50 per hour
for members and $4 for non-mem
bers. Private lessons will be of
fered at $15 for an hour.
Knisely said that she encour
ages most people to dance in larger
groups and take private lessons if
they haven’t danced before.
“I don’t believe in selling a
course where you come in every
ween tor cignt monins, N.nisciy
said.
Kniscly said lhal she realized
that disco was fashionable and lhal
everyone can do it. This is why the
modem dancer has decided to offer
lessons in it as well as other types
of dance.
“Disco is very social. A lot of
people dance it and there are many
people to dance with. It hasopened
up a lot of avenues for me because
many of my friends now dance,”
Kniscly said.
“I teach in big numbers. This
way it is cheape r and people meet
others to dance with.”