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' Lack I At Th < ? Students who did not spend their summer in Columbia may be wondering exactly what they missed in terms of entertainment in our capital city since the end of the Spring semester. The answer is: not a whole heck of a 1UI. The concert line-up at the Carolina Coliseum was poor, to say the least. A June 7 appearance by Loverboy and ZZ Top provided a rowdy evening, but for rock 'n' roll fans, that was the only such show of the summer at the Coliseum. An Independence Day weekend crowd of soul enthusiasts was treated to a performance by the Isley Brothers, and funk freaks got a short but entertaining taste of Rick James on Aug. ? 15. With a decided lack of live music in the area, it was a necessity to turn towards omer torms of entertainment. The USC Repertory theatre 'saved' the summer by offering several weeks of truly splendid performances. First was the cornball ^ humor of the George Haimshon-Robin Miller musical comedy "Dames At Sea." This was followed bv the Tennessee Williams classic, "The Glass ZZTei % 1 Mimme Three guys with long beard raised an old-fashioned rucl Coliseum, and thousands of far Billy Gibbons, Dusty Hill known as ZZ Top, proved that drum set can make a roof-rt nlnVpH Hioir I?uivu uiauu ui iexas couid be heard outside in the Cc Mixing old favorites like "< material like the funky "I Wo foot Pole," Gibbons on lead an< guitar boogied about the sta pleaser after another. THE AUDIENCE was clear % Top fans; girls and guys alik waved their arms overhead. T that the vocals usually came c oack, and Gibbons' best guitar a monstrous wall of echo. The the technical problems wei whooped it up. The opening act, Ix>verboy, decibel department either. T cessful debut album, they serv< to be reckoned with in the '80s. While there is nothing origini they performed with thp pnpr V makes great rock'n'roll. Then top range to which lead vocali voice, and guitarist Paul Dea leads while managing to keep his own playing. Mm? )fCo> e Coli Menagerie." Finally there was "The Last Meeting of the Knights of the White Magnolia," after which all three plays returned in "rolling rep" format along with "Stuffed .Stan and Stella," a children's play written hv Ann - - ? mmmmm &riV?IVA ?/I USC's Department of Theatre and Speech. On the national movie and record scene, excellence was surprisingly the rule rather than the exception. There was a long list of top-notch movies, including "Stripes," "SOB.," "High Risk," "Blow Out," "Dragonslayer," and best of all, a thrilling throwback to the old-time adventure flicks, "Raiders of the Lost Ark." There were also several lerrinc aiDums, including an amazing comeback effort by Gary "U.S." Bonds, Joe Jackson's "Jump and Jive" album, and a long-awaited LP by Rickie Lee Jones that is not only the best album of 1981, but the best album put pped 91 r Shows s, overalls, antl funny hats cus June 7 at the Carolina is loved every minute of it. and Frank Beard, otherwise two guitars and one oversized lising amount of noise. They blues-rock so loud the sound >liseum parking lots. Cheap Sunglasses" with new uldn't Touch Her With a Teni slide guitars and Hill on bass ge cranking out one crowdly made up of died-in-the wool e shimmied in the aisles and hey seemed to care not one bit >ut as a garbled mess of feed' lines were often swallowed in crowd knew all the words and re overlooked as everyone proved to be no slouch in the ouring behind a hugely suced notice that they are a group il about Loverboy's approach, r+m m ? At- 1 &y <11 hi sense 01 urgency mai ; seemed to be no limit to the ist Mike Reno could pitch his n spun off several scorching from being over-indulgent in ic erts seum out by any artist in the past five or six years. To cap the summer, a new release by Bob Dylan is his best work since "Blood on the Tracks." THERE WERE, of course, some low spots on the music scene. Tom Petty's "Hard Promises" was very disappointing, and radio listeners now have to put up with a Beach Boys medley that does nothing except make one yearn to hear the songs in their entirety. Worst of all, however, was the tendency of area DJs to allow Sheena Easton to tell listeners 300 times a day that her baby rides a train and that she wants to be a modern girl. At times it seemed that the only radio station worth listening to was our own WUSC, which at least offered a broad view of what is happening in the rock 'n'roll world. Today's Entertainment section recounts several of the local events of the summer. It is hoped that the Carolina Polispnm will nffor a far more expansive selection of concerts this fall than they did during the summer months. That, along with the continued excellence of local theatre and the beginning of a new USC Cultural Series, would make this a most entertaining semester. I Harry Chapin All too often the great J artists of the world go unrecognized until news of their deaths thrusts them into the spotlight. With the exception of his loyal, hard-core fans, Harry Chapin, who was killed in a car crash last | week, was denied the j recognition ne certainly deserved. Probably the greatest folk artist of the i past decade, Chapin was able to move his listeners j: to intense emotional extremes within the boundaries of his songs. Even when performing snln flprnmnnnioH nnlu by his own acoustic guitar, Chapin could transfix his audience. The | one-man show he brought to Columbia in April of j 1980 was a magical event, an outpouring of love from both performer and audience. Like so many of his performances, it was a benefit concert for U/nrM UianrfAt* Voo r* Ma it v>i iu nungvi i vai . (IC not only sang about problems throughout the world, but actively took a role in trying to change the world for the better. ^-.y7_/ - ~-JgLa^^ 3kyalf ?^^.-^J^aM|^fe\--.--:-;-;:::; Fv : . . ff i . ":^^-V::v?^:"-r?^-if-.v VnLr-zSTii* jjSBHBHHK'I Rickie Lee Jones' image other released in 1981. 'Pirate: ^. o A Deliver At last. The long-awaited second album by Rickie Lee Jones has finally arrived. Entitled "Pirates," the new album brings with it more of the street characters and imagery that made her debut album of two years ago such a critically - ac claimed success. The music on the new record is better than ever; in general the songs are a bit slower and more reflective than nn hpr cplf.fiflpH firct album. After an otherwise dismal 1981 in music, "Pirates" offers a refreshing change from the excess commerciality of all the top 40 clones. The first song, "We Belong " ic nkniit TaIvmv... a vgvuiVi , tO OUUUl tfUllllliy the King, a city sailor in charge of his "rooftop docks" and "crosstown seas," who loses his lover and now yearns for better days. I.lVIMf: IT IIP" ... . t tj. mm WIS" tinues the album with a story about three members of the "Great Disconnected," which Rickie Lee describes as a collection of runaways and hobos striving to put together their broken lives. ?l a % me uiiaraciers are losers; Eddie and Louie sit on the stoop all day, but "there's nothing here to do anymore," and Zero walks by in a "black and blue dress" after having been beaten by her husband. They strive to rebuild their lives, refusing to admit they are doing anything but "living it up " The next song, n ' V :'i^.';. rrij\^'Srri ~s -" > y J v. y-^r'c i i hi i | ii i ii $8SMBH|UHil^ ^5-7:.^>T|^t^-I-^a ^.y TT^-^7?-': 1:J *W%t ry makes for an album that i Rickie s Year's I "Skeletons," is a haunting ballad about a man taking his pregnant wife to the hosptial when he is pulled over by the cops ("...in step a waltz of red moon hpamc'M Ac tho mon K/vv?*?au /. a mo tiiV/ 111(4 II reaches for his wallet, the cops think he is going for a gun, and they shoot and kill him. The mournful melody combines with the incredible lyrics to make this one of the album's strongest tracks. Side one ends with "Woody and Dutch on the Slow Train to Peking," a tribute to the old R&B scene. The bopping melody and blaring saxaphones are a throwback to the old Memphis-Stax Volt- Fifties music. Side two opens with the truly remarkable title track. It begins with a jazzy, uptempo arrangement that suddenly turns moody and reflective as the singer says goodbye to "my buddy boys, my sad-eyed Sinatras." The beat picks up again at the end, though, giving the feeling that everything will turn nut all riflht mm VMV VBU ? "A LUCKY GUY" is a slightly more conventional song loaded with wistful irony as the singer laments a lost lover, but in the end calls herself "a lucky guy." This song was doubtlessly inspired by Jones' relationship with longtime boyfriend Tom Waits Traces of the Western Slopes is the album's jazziest and best melody. The vocal and instrumental arrangements W. jB/r": V /;; : ' |M iig KBi JBHH|hHH^ i light-years ahead of any lee Best really shine, and the lyrics fuse with the music to form one of Jones' most memorable efforts. It is a song about the road to depression and despair, and the thin thread of light that rescues the singer from the Western SloDes (eoine off the deep end). i KEEPING with the ! album's theme of reconstruction from despair, "The Returns" closes the album on an optimistic note. The song says there are always things that help one to keep trying even when all seems lost. The lyrics convey the message of renewal: ...but after all, there are such things and these are the things who'll turn your memories back into dreams again If I had to choose one of this year's albums to buy, this would be the one. The production and arrangements are superb, and the musical and lyrical mialitu nf (Ka VJUUIIVJ VI UIV Itict tci ICtl far beyond what I've been able to convey here. Rickie Lee Jones is lightyears ahead of any other female artist on the current music scene, as a songwriter, composer, and vocalist. Only Joan Armatrading comes anywhere close. Also, perhaps the best thing about this album is that it makes absolutely no attempts at commercialism. It makes the current chart topping artists like Sheeno Gaston seem ridiculous