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by MACDONNELL GORDON Who is Joe South? I certainly don’t know, but listen ing to his recent album on Capitol “Don’t It Make You Want to Go Home? ’#couldn’t help but think that he was an invention, a wicked, groovy concoction of some executives who were trying to put *‘songs with a mes sage’’ into the hearts, minds, and souls of the mass of humanity that tune in to AM radios Perhaps that is un fair, but the platitudinous liner notes, likening South to Lennon, Dylan, et al, seemed to be an indication that perhaps AM music is slowly evolving from the pithecanthropus erectus of “‘Sugar, Sugar,’’ to some thing resembling modern man and good music. But it’s going to take quite a while, because Joe South isn’t very good. However, it does seem to be a step in the right direction. Mr. South has been blessed with two hit re cords on the AM charts. One, called “The Games Peo ple Play,’ was the love-child of ‘‘Harper Valley PTA,” both were songs that tore at middle America’s private parts. More recently, South has been getting it together with a song called *‘Walk a Mile in My Snees.” You can’t (Continued from page 4 knock the message (it’s about brotherhood), but you can certainly knock the music, which is grade A poor. The style reminded me of a recent song by Elvis called “In the Ghetto’’, an equally insipid attempt with such a thin modicum of verisimilitude that it is quite easy to hit the next button on the car radio when you’re out cruising for burgers. But if Elvis jumps on this bandwagon, and then Joe South comes along and makes a lot of money with very little talent, and even less to say, then there must be something going on in the AM field of music. I don’t know whether to applaud the fact that it is happening, or merely chalk it up on the side of the record industries voracious appetite for wealth. With a shudder I turn to wards the latter. Something happened to music a few years ago-it got bad. I think it probably stems from the fact that AM stations thought their listeners unable to accept the sop histication that the Beatles with “Set. Pepper’s’’ and the Airplane with “‘Baxters,”’ to name a few, were beginning to offer. Therefore they created an endemic disease under the generic heading of “Bubble Gum Music”’, that almost succeeded in turning off a nation. In the forefront were such monolithic stalwarts as the Archies, the Mon kees’, and just about every other song that made it big on the charts was more of the same. Joe South certainly has most of the symptoms, but at least he has one thing going for him, he tries to say something worthwhile in the musical idiom of the di sease. He doesn’t say it very well (I had trouble listen ing to the entire album), but an improvement is certain ly evident and should be commended. The ten songs on the album are forged out of the worst of several] styles, notably gospel, country, and folk-rock, and the result is a kind of fun- gothic frame of reference with Elvis and the Four Seasons as mentors. I didn’t like Joe South or his album very much, but if he can do something to improve AM music he will gain one very happy, if not slightly jaded listener in me. this point: 3-7, 3-Bob Carol Ted Alice, 2 - They Shoot Horses, Don’t They? , 2-Midnight Cowboy, 2-Goodbye, Mr. Chips, 2-Easy Rider. Outstanding Male performances were given by: Alan Arkin (Pops),Dustin Hoff man (Midnight Cowboy), Peter O’Toole (Goodbye, Mr. Chips), Robert Redford (Downhill Racer) - It was certainly his year, Jon Voight (Midnight Cowboy) and in supporting roles, Will Geer (The Reivers), Elliott Gould (B C T A), Gene Hackman (Downhill Racer), Jack Klugman (Goodbye, Columbus), Edmond O’Brien (The Wild Bunch), Jack Nichol son (Easy Rider), Richard Thomas (Win ning and Last Summer) and Gig Young (They Shoot Horses, Don’t They?). Outstanding female performances (and these were fewer than the males’) were done by: Patty Duke (Me, Natalie), Jane Fonda (They Shoot Horses, Don’t They?), Liza Minnelli (The Sterile Cuckoo), Maggie Smith (The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie) and in supporting roles, Cathy Burns (Last Summer), Dy an Cannon (B € T A) and Syl via Miles (Midnight Cowboy). I missed Vanessa Redgrave in The Loves of Isa dore, and Geraldine Page in Trilogy doesn’t count, because her segment of the film was first shown on TV on the defunct ABC Stage #67 as A Christmas Memory. She won a well-deserved Em my for this performance. This epic will be continued next week. Drexel Penn Area. Natural For Student Ownership. Call EV 2-6272 Birthday Salutations We congratulate L.A.S. (Liberated and Sexy), and extend our best wishes to Miss Teen-age Philadelphia Semi finalist, 1965-66, Lois Lane of the DP, ‘meanest blues piano in town, best body in Berkshire Hall, our Woman For All Seasons and reasons, upon the anniver sary of her birth. Watch for LOTUS, a new TV show to be reviewed in next week's 34th Street. Restaurant For Sale
Newspaper Details
Philadelphia Daily Pennsylvanian
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, US
Thu, Jan 29, 1970
Page 4
Full Page
Clipped by
Adya R.
USA 23 Jan 2026
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