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About The Battalion. (College Station, Tex.) 1893-current | View Entire Issue (Feb. 24, 1984)
Music notes By LOUIS HILGARTNER Staff Columnist So ya wanna buy a book about music? Step right this way. Are you looking for your fif teenth authorized Elvis Presley biography, or something a little more unusual like "The Official Van Halen Tour Guide To Great American Hot Spots?" You can't go wrong. So many different kinds of books have been written about the music industry, there really is something for everyone. Trade magazines are avail able for everything from record ratings to drum equipment. One trade magazine that mu sic has come to live and die by is "Billboard." Although "Bil lboard" doesn't have many in- depth articles — other than just "what's going on" — it does contain the "hit" charts which keep track of the success of al bums and singles. The "Bil lboard" charts can decide whether a record makes it or not and the charts are read reli giously by record company mo guls and radio programming services. Other trade magazines cater to musicians. Publications such as "Musi cian," "Contemporary Key board," "Modem Drummer" and "Guitar Player" help musi cians keep up with who is doing what with who and what kind of equipment they're doing it with. They report test results on new equipment and sometimes include discussions of rare and vintage instruments. Also in cluded in some publications are columns by professional musi cians which offer music instruc tion for both beginners and ad vanced players. While these magazines are technically oriented, they also offer interviews with prominent musicians. These interviews aren't confined to discussing different instruments or tech niques various players use. They also give the novice a glimpse of what it's like to be at the top — and what it takes to get there. Trade magazines which keep the home and/or car stereo buff up to date on the latest state-of- the-art equipment, how to build his own gear and as with other trade magazines, what to look for in the future, also are on the market. Probably the best known mu sic magazine is "Rolling Stone." For over a decade, "Rolling Sto ne" has been keeping track of the music biz. With its inter views of famous musicians, so cial commentaries and coverage of just about every major event in the history of rock 'n' roll, the "Stone" has carved out a per manent niche in music journa lism. In addition to these weekly or monthly periodicals, there are also music "year books" which offer a synopsis of the year's hits, misses, concerts and un forgettable quotes. Hundreds of biographies have been written about fa mous musicians such as Jimi Hendrix, Jerry Lee Lewis and Buddy Holly. It would take days to mention all of them and invariably I would leave out somebody's favorite. (My own personal fave is the autobiogra phy of Ray Charles.) There are books which are biographies of whole bands. Numerous books have been written about bands such as the Beatles, the Who and the Rolling Stones. Some books are written about special interests or unusual top ics. Some tell how to survive in the music jungle. If you want to get a song pub lished, learn to promote con certs or become a music lawyer, there are books out there to help you on your way. Also popular are the books that tell what secret messages to find if you spin records back ward. These novel creations never cease to amaze me. What I can't get over is someone actu ally grabbed a bunch of records — that don't make much sense if you play 'em forward — and sat there for hours spinning them backward decoding all these little secret utterances. Were they really that bored? With the variety of music books offered, there's no reason you shouldn't be able to find one that grabs you. Other note-worthy tips: On the Global Satellite Net work's "Rock Line" radio talk show, former Clash guitarist Joe Strummer said the demise of the Clash was due to differ ences of opinion : "We are tryin' to lead young people away from drugs ... and if one of your teammates isn't fit for what you're tryin' to do then out they go. Out goes Topper Headon for bein' a heroin addict; out Album review By LOUIS HILGARTNER Staff Columnist The Kinks A Compleat Collection Compleat Records ★★★V2 Somehow the Kinks manage to keep on going strong when the Music Laws of Probability and Attrition should have nulli fied them years ago. Their latest release is A Com pleat Collection and it contains some of their most popular songs as well as some which have never made it anywhere except into the vaults of various collectors around the world. Obviously, no Kinks collec tion would be complete without "You Really Got Me," "Where Have All The Good Times Go ne?" and "All Day & All Of The Night." The album also includes "I Took My Baby Home" which — backed with "Long Tall Sally" — was the Kinks' first single. Two other rare tunes, "You Still Want Me" and "You Do Something To Me," also are in cluded. The Kinks' second sin gle was comprised of these tunes, which haven't been re- released in several years. This album also marks the first American release of "Sittin On My Sofa" — the flip side of the hit "Dedicated Follower Of Fashion." Some less-than-totally-ded- icated Kinks fans might be sur- rised to find "Stop Your Sob- ing" and "The Phone Call," both of which were made fa mous on the first Pretenders al bum. "Stop" and "Phone Call" were on the Kinks' first album and so was a song called "Re venge," which was released as a solo single (lyrics added) by Jimmy Page who would later head up that little-known band — Led Zeppelin. Because it includes both rare tunes and songs which are syn onymous with the Kinks, A Compleat Collection is an al bum that will satisfy Kinks die- hards and newcomers alike. By CARY STEGALL Staff Reviewer Footloose Various Artists Columbia From my view somewhere in the land of MTV, it looks like Footloose will be the movie to see this spring. Kevin Bacon stars as a New York kind-of-guy who moves to a small town where listening to music and dancing are still against the church's better wishes. The plot is basically "how you gonna keep 'em down on the farm once they've seen Flashdance?" The soundtrack is an unusual venture for Columbia Recrds in that Dean Pitchford, the mov ie's screenwriter, wrote the ly rics for all the songs to keep the continuity of the movie built in to the music. From there the re cord company got several big artists to come up with the mu sic and record the songs. This is the first time that a pop sound track has been made this way. The title track by Kenny Log- gins is a rev 'em up kind of song, as commercial as they get, but with enough energy to knock down a house. Kenny has a knack for making anthem songs and he certainly has used this on "Footloose." You can ex pect high school students throughout the nation to be singing this one next month, but they'll never pay Loggins' other tune a second notice. It doesn't deserve one. The two cuts by black artists, "Let's Hear for the Boy," by Deniece Williams and "Dancing in the Sheets," by Shalamar are two of the best tracks on the al bum. Williams has put together a bouyant little tune that bops right along. The Shalamar track continues the sound of their last album, The Look, with the sharp vocals and tight bass that made that album such a suc cess. Surprisingly one of the best tracks here is the duet of Mike Reno of Loverboy and Ann Wil son of Heart. Their cut, titled "Almost Paradise," is a nicely produced and performed bal lad, written by Eric Carmen. Filling out the rest of the album are songs by Sammy Hagar, Bonnie Tyler and Karla Bonoff. Fans of the David Letterman band take note, the guitar on the tracks recorded in New York is played by Hiram Bul lock of Late Night fame. Christine McVie Christine McVie Warner Brothers When you get some of the best musicians around together to record an album, you've got to expect a lot out of it. That is what Christine McVie has done on her first solo album outside of Fleetwood Mac in fifteen years, and she delivers the goes Mick Jones for bein' a rock 'n' roll egomaniac..." The Clash will be touring the West Coast later this spring al though they won't be promot ing a new album with the tour. Strummer said this was just an other example of the Clash's willingness to do the unusual. Some questions remain un answered about this tour: Will they call themselves the Clash? ... Will anyonecome and see them? ... When is the new al bum coming out? ... Should they stay or should they go? Van Halen is on tour and should be in Texas in late April or early May. No definite con cert dates have been set. MTV asked singer David Lee Roth what the public should ex pect on this tour. "Well," Roth replied, "we de sign everything ourselves. I de sign the stage clothes, Alex (Van Halen) builds his own drums, Eddie (Van Halen) builds all his own guitars and generally things tend to get big ger." The Sammy Hagar/Neal Schon band is finally getting in gear. Although no dates have been set as yet, look for this hard rock supergroup to hit the See "COLUMN" page 14 goods admirably. Together with her co-horts in Fleetwood Mac, Mick Fleet- wood and Lindsey Bucking ham, McVie also managed to get Steve Win wood and Eric Clapton to play. Although Clapton and Fleetwood only work on one song each, Win- wood and Buckingham both play and sing on several tracks. McVie has written almost every song along with Todd Sharp, a member of her back-up band. innmivi X'Vtr All the tracks have a gentle, lush sound that Fleetwood Mac has used over the past several albums, with many variations on the pop formula. Most of the songs are uptempo, like the first single, "Love Will Show Us How." "So Excited," written with Billy Burnette puts a little guts into the mix with a nice twangy guitar throughout, reminiscent of the early Dire Straits sound. McVie finally gets a chance to Push her voice a little bit, yet keeps a consistent sound. The See "ALBUMS" page 15