■Still around
\fiowie falls flat while Sting becomes master of music
“Black Tie White Noise”
David Bowie
Savage Records-BMG
David Bowie’s soul has been
sucked into the world’s largest drum
machine with only his saxophone to
keep him company. At least that’s
what is to be assumed after listening
to “Black Tie White Noise,” his latest
release.
“Black Tie” sounds like the
I soundtrack to an upbeat movie about
happy, rich people living in Los An
geles.
This could be hip-hop for 40-year
olds.
Bowie has created an album al
most devoid of upfront riffs or hooks,
and the thin-white duke swims through
a thick, black oil of sound.
There is some beauty on “Black
Tie White Noise,” and a sense of
majesty also.
“The Wedding Song” and its re
frain are glorious; easily the most
uplifting music Bowie has ever writ
ten. The song is based on the score
Bowie wrote for his wedding to Iman.
The songs “Pallas Athena” and
“Miracle Goodnight” also deserve
praise for their driving, innovative
qualities.
But “Jump They Say” would have
been a belter song if Bowie had sim
ply put his sequins to the grindstone,
tossed his boring cool aside and
uounesy or savage Mecoras
screeched like a Moonage Daydream.
And the Starman’s cover of
Morrissey’s “I Know It’s Gonna Hap
pen Someday” is a good example of
the album’s shortcomings: Bowie
brags on his press-release sheet that
the song was originally based on his
own style (“It’s me doing Morrissey
doing me,” he states), but, in fact,
Bowie oversings the melody alto
gether.
With a vibrato like a musical saw
and much-too-much melodrama,
Bowie fails to fly with the currents of
the song’s heartaching irony, and
makes the song sound flat and tired. In
an attempt to keep the young kids in
their place, Bowie has fallen on his
perfect nose.
Any fan who remembers Bowie in
his former superstar personas—Ziggy
Stardust, Halloween Jack, Aladdin
Sane — would happily toss “Black
Tie White Noise” out the window, as
they would any other album he has
written since the early ’80s.
“Black Tie” is the best album Bowie
has produced in more than a decade.
Let’s hope they keep getting better,
until the Stardust Man travels “the
width of a circle” back to his former
glory.
— Patrick Hambrecht
Ginsberg
Continued from Page 10
home of Steven Boyd of The Ne
braska Chapter of Jewel Heart, the
group that invited Ginsberg to read in
Lincoln.
Also present was Gelek Rinpoche,
the spiritual director of Jewel Heart
and one of Ginsberg’s teachers in the
disciplines of Tibetan Buddhism.
Ginsberg and Ranpoche had spent
the morning talking and chanting on
KZUM for almost one and a naif
hours. After eating lunch, Ginsberg
talked for another hour to media and
other interested people, before dash
ing off to sign books for two more
hours.
Developing a silling practice of
meditation — "a tool for experienc
ing the texture of my consciousness
and recognizing my emotions as they
arrive” — is a logical progression
from Ginsberg’s early ambition as a
poet, he said.
“Kerouac and I had a phrase in
1945-46of ‘new vision’ or ‘new con
sciousness’ — I don’t think we knew
what it meant, or knew how to apply
it except that we were interested in
experiencing out unconsciousness or
the texture of consciousness.”
At that lime, that meant altering
consciousness through drugs,
Ginsberg said. Then Kerouac began
experimenting with Buddhist chant
ing and meditation, leading him to
wnte a biography of Buddha:
“He was then proselytizing me and
trying to tell me that existence con
tains suffering; existence is transitory
and there is no permanent Allen
Ginsberg.”
In the early 1960s Ginsberg trav
elled to India to learn more about
Buddhism. On hisretum, as part of his
search for self-knowledge, he took
LSD.
“LSD was an auxiliary technique
for checking myself out. It wasn * t that
we used drugs — or I didn i— every
day. I took acid maybe a dozen times,
you know every couple of years, just
to see the map or tire landscape, then
maybe come down to earth and figure
out what to do with the information."
Today, Ginsberg said, he smokes
marijuana occasionally. He is also
forthright on the issue of legalizing
the drug, what he calls “a very mild
thing.”
“The war on drugs is some kind of
political plague because everybody is
complaining about overcrowding in
the courts, in the jails, people who
have committed murders are let out to
early because the iails are over
crowded, because thejai Is are crowded
“Low: Symphony by Philip Glass
From the Music of David Bowie and
Brian Eno”
The Brooklyn Philharmonic Or.
chestra
Point Music-Polygram Recoi
It’s not glitter rock, a genocidal
celebration or wacky dance music;
the second lime around for David
Bowie’? “Low” is a classical interpre
HE
instrumental that Eno and Bowie re
corded together in 1976.
“Subterraneans,” the first track,
has almost no human zeal, tragic or
triumphant, in its first half. It’s misty,
ambivalent movements make the lis
tener look for any sign of the personal,
a trademark quality of Eno’s gaseous
melodies. The second half of the song
is in the style of a Gershwin theme,
but is still non-personal: It switches
from the barren silence of a dead
galaxy to the clatter of automated
hammers.
“Some Are” matches the happy,
wondering style of Debussy’ s“After
noon With A Faun” just baieiy, and is
probably the best of the trio.
“Warszawa,” the third song, is
dwarfed by Bowie’s original version.
it's misty, ambivalent movements make the
listener look for any sign of the personal, a
trademark quality of Eno's gaseous melodies.
tation by Philip Glass, moving stardust
music from the electronic mixer to the
orchestra pit.
The album takes three slow-mov
ing instrumentals from Bowie’s and
Brian Eno’s 1977 album “Low” and
replaces glippy “Space Invaders” ef
fects with violins, flutes and cellos.
i
Glass’s revamp of si Iver-age Bowie
plays in three parts and each is a
translation of a different synthesized
with people who have committed
crimes without victims/* he said.
Ginsberg has often been criticized
for his views on drugs, his homosex u
ality, and his actions — which have
led to him being sentenced to Cok>m -
bia Psychiatric Institute and being
tried on obscenity charges after the
publication of his most famous work
“Howl.”
He has been called crazy and im
moral by some people, while others
see him almost as a saint. Ginsberg
seems to enjoy both. He admits that he
will deliberately say things to pro
voke reactions in people. But on the
whole, he said, he has only spoken his
thoughts honestly.,
Ginsberg continues to speak out.
But now, after the beats and the hip
pies and the changes they caused, he
appears to find more reason to have
faith in the world.
“Do you know what Kerouac pre
dicted would come? A found genera
tion. That might be now/* he said.
“People have found themselves,
finally, found their own nature. That
had to be, that would happen sooner or
later.”
He paused, then qualified the state
ment: “It would be nice if it would
come. If you say it's going to come,
insist that it comes and actually start
turning the wheel, then, sooner or
later it will come.”
Bowie’s “Warszawa” wailed the uagic
story of Jews being attacked and fght
ing Nazis in their ghetto. Glass’ ver
sion does little.
Glass’ new album is worth a listen,
but a rock fan might be belter off
listening to Bowie’s favorite classical
composers than Glass’ tries at
mainstreaming the symphony.
— Patrick Hambrecht
^■■■
Courtesy of A&M Records
Sting
“Ten Summoner’s Tales”
A&M Records
Anything positive said about
Sting’s latest album, “Ten
Summoner’s Tales,” is a understate
ment, It is now highly debatable
whether Sting has any peers (other
than Paul Simon) in the art of pop
songcraft.
What makes this album an instant
classic? It’s purely a matter of
songwriting. Throw aside the fact that
Sting’s musicians are among the best
in the business, brush aside the sex
symbol pose for the camera, strip the
album to its songs, and the master’s
art is truly revealed.
The slick 7/4 time signatures, the
constant key changes and the bridges
are tooled with a jeweler’s hand. If
“Summoner’s” seems strangely fa
miliar to the Sting fan, there’s good
reason. A staggering number of musi
cal parallels to and expansions on his
previous work can be found here.
“If I Ever Lose My Faith In You”
recalls and exceeds “ Jerem iah Blues”
in its irresistible hooks. “Something
The Boy Said” m ight as well be called
“The Soul Cages II” — another per
fect pair for Sting’s famous onstage
medleys.'
“St. Augustine In Hell” contains a
jazz waltz interlude called “I Miss
You Kate” from “The Soul Cages”
sessions. And have we already been
introduced to the timeless lament, “a
thousand rainy days since we first
mei/il’s a big enough umbrella, but
it’s always me that ends up getting
wet”?
This album is a treasure chest tor
enthusiasts and old fans.
The jewel of the album is the in
credibly seductive tale of addiction to
probability, “Shape Of My Heart”
Sling, of course, in a vain attempt
to cling to his privacy, prefers to play
the Thespian.
The album ends with the taunt
“Pick my brain, pick my pockets,
steal my eyeballs and come back for
the sockets, and you’ll still know noth
ing ‘bout me.” That goes for music
critics in hell, too.
— Carter Van Pelt
SOS/MAP
PARTICIPANTS
Job Interviewing
Workshop
April 20-21, 1993
Administration
Building
Room 220
6-7 pm
Hor D oeuvres
will be served
f -ftoOOFF
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