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ReviewRock:1 The-Rolling Stoned Look out everybody and don t blink too fast ’cause you might miss rock s latest phase, total albumism or the-short-story-is-dead-and-so-is-tne-45.Nobody buys singles anymore except the House of Oldies and a few die-hard teeny boppers and what s more Those Who Know (Big Brother in the Brill Building, Albert Grossmen et al) know it. So along comes the Christmas after Sgt. Pepper and, who d a thunk it, but out conies a mess of total albums. And strangely enough, they're good ones. The first one of the season was “Strange Days by The Doors. JimMorrison is ’ alienated. People are strange when you re a stranger. Cancel my subscription to the resurrection. And all that. There it was. undiluted, that fantastic sound (Ray Manzarek, probably America’s best ambidextruous organist, as good as ever, telling most of the story) following rock's Messiahs out of the wilderness into America’s first, and the world’s second, all-album album.Okay. The Beatles we have on loneliness, The Doors on alienation. Who’s next? And on what?Why the Stones, man. Dig it, we’ve got nothing. Their Satanic Majesties Present: nihilist rock. Who took Bill Wyman’s joint? The Beatles are down on drugs so the Stones turn on at a recording session. And record it!My God. what's happening! Nothing, man, nothing, they say. Let’s all try and sing together. But what can we sing together? Nothing. And they take two sides to tell us. It's the third total album.Now the Beatles exercise their prerogative and screw everything up by issuing a non-total total album. Half is and half isn't. Harrison s friends are lost on Blue Jay Way. whydoesn't your mother know HareKrishna, and we’re all together. It’s athirty minute blurb for theInternational Meditation Society, notto mention their TV show. But that’s only the half of it. The other side? Well, we always wanted to hear “Strawberry Fields Forever’’ in stereo, didn’t we?Now step up Jimi Hendrix. Not the U.S. release, that was recorded two years ago, but the European one. $25,000 to produce it. $7,000 for a supercover Watch what vou believe he says. The first cut says it nice. Called EXP.” This is radio station WEXP and we are interviewing an expert on flying saucers and all that nonsense, the nice English lady announces. And the expert is Hendrixwho's so cool as he tells us that it’s all nonsense. Then the green men attack and it’s all over.There’s a lot more but it's all the same idea. The single is nice for dancing and WABC, but rock issaying something at long iast and can t possibly be said on a There’s just not enough roomThe Stones stopped playing on Redding, the Animals Vent ,Monterey, Richie Havens learned ihsitar. Groups were changing tsthat didn't died. Whatever happed to the Dave Clark Five? Today s h groups are new ones. The Doors V Fish, the Airplane, the Cream thBuffalo Springfield. Or changed one.The Beaties, the Stones, the Animak' even the Beach Boys, 'Except for the Motown grounsThe Temptations, SmokevRobinson, the Four Tops are still playing the things they were playing three, four and five years ago Or ai least extensions of what they did then. New Motown groups andsingers, the Parliaments, ArethaFranklin, are in the same basic mold And strangely the stuff is stj|j selling. And perhaps even more strangely, the stuff is good. Why’Well, Dylan-Beatle rock is topical It ’ articulates a philosophy. a Zeitgeist. Motown is more basic The essence isn't what you sing, but how you sing.A Day in the Life” would have been a great song even withoutMcCartney’s sensitiveinterpretation. It reads well as a poem, without the music.But Motown, or soul, is raw emotion. What made James Brown and Redding great0 That they screamed, they cried, they had orgasms on stage. They lived their songs. Motown didn't have to change because emotion never will.But a world changes. And a Zeitgeist changes. So the rock groups began saying things. Mother’s Little Helper The End. Super Bird, White Rabbit. And all that.But it can't be said in 2:20. Dylan was probably the first to break the time barrier with “Desolation Row. And then “Sad Eyed Lady of the Lowlands. And so it came to pass that albums were appearingregularly that had songs of six, seven, ten. and twelve minutes. Then came the realization that no matter how long, one song still couldn't say it all This time it was the Beatles who broke through with Sgt Pepper.Where does it go from here9 Well, Marat-Sade complete with words and songs is on a three record set. Perhaps we’ll be getting things like that. Blonde on Blonde was a double album and that was 1965.Or, possibly, things will go in another direction The time was ripe lor a new Dvlan statement and he gave us John Wesley Harding.It’s the Beatles move now And all that.A. J. Mayer 71
Newspaper Details
Ithaca Cornell Daily Sun
Ithaca, New York, US
Mon, Jan 22, 1968
Page 4
Full Page
Clipped by
Olav S.
NO 19 Aug 2019
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