The gamecock. (Columbia, S.C.) 1908-2006, August 31, 1981, Page Page 17, Image 17
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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
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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
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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
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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
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not only sang about
problems throughout the
world, but actively took a
role in trying to change
the world for the better.
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Rickie Lee Jones' image
other released in 1981.
'Pirate:
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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
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the King, a city sailor in
charge of his "rooftop
docks" and "crosstown
seas," who loses his lover
and now yearns for better
days.
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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.
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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,
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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
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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
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"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
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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
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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