(b
- ^ ^ -U ^ c
- «u r - - ' • ^
? S-g -g-i
Oct vies scores witli soundtrack
ByKARLPALLMEYER
Music Reviewer
R eturn to Waterloo" is a film that
we probably won't get to see in the Bryan-
College Station area. It is the story of a man
who rides a train from his home in the suburbs to
his office in town every day of the week. During
one of his rides he meets a variety of characters
and contemplates his life and his country.
"Return To Waterloo" is the first film from Ray
Davies of the Kinks. The Kinks had been involved
previously in films when making videos and sup
plying the music for "Arthur or the Decline and
Fall of the British Empire," a television movie that
was never completed, and for "Percy," a soft-core
porno film staring Britt Ekland But they never
have had absolute control over the finished prod
uct until now. Davies directed and wrote the
screenplay for "Return To Waterloo." He also
penned the music and performed in the film.
The music was performed by Davies with Mick
Avory, Ian Gibbons and Jim Rodford of the Kinks.
Dave Davies, Ray's brother and co-founder of the
band, is suspiciously absent from the album. Like
all good brothers, Ray and Dave have had many
fights and one of them has left the band for a short
while. Let's hope it's not for good this time either.
The album also marks the last performances of
drummer Mick Avory, who has left the Kinks after
20 years to retire from music. Avory was never a
spectacular percussionist, but he could pound out
a good, hard beat that was basic to the Kinks'
sound.
Although the songs "Going Solo," "Missing Per
sons" and "Sold Me Out" were on the Kinks'
"Word of Mouth" album last year, they fit in better
in the context of the new album. Davies is pretty
comfortable making concept albums. Davies and
the Kinks were responsible for one of the first rock
operas," "The Kinks are the Village Green Preser
vation Society," which was released two years
before the Who's "Tommy."
In "Return To Waterloo," film and album, Da
vies uses a train ride to' tell the story of a typical
middle-class Englishman and how he fits into the
British Empire of today. Davies has often used
middle-class for the subject matter of Kinks' songs
like "Well Respected Man," "Dedicated Follower
of Fashion" and "Sunny Afternoon." and has
written some of the best character studies ever set
Ray Davies
"Music from the Motion Picture
'Return To Waterloo'"
Arista Records
Album provided by Camelot Music
to music. Davies has also questioned the "Great
ness of Great Britian on such albums as "Preser
vation Acts One and Two" and "Arthur or the De
cline and Fall of the British Empire."
The album starts off with a short instrumental
intro that leads into the title track. Davies uses
synthesizers and drum machines to give the
songs the feeling of a train pulling out of the sta
tion and to show the loneliness of the train ride
(the British rarely talk to one another while on a
train). As the traveler rides, he thinks about his
daughter who has just left home. "Going Solo" is
a bittersweet song in which the traveler asks him
self where he went wrong in bringing up his
daughter.
O N "MISSINGPERSONS," THE TRAVELER
finds that he resembles a man whose pic
ture is in a newspaper that an old lady is
reading on the train. The man in the paper is
wanted for murder and the old lady regards the
traveler with uneasy suspicion. The traveler,
bored with his life, plays on the old lady's suspi
cion by acting in a suspicious manner. His fun
ends, however, when he realizes that there are
many undesirables in the world and his daughter
may be out there with them.
The traveler has a run-in with some teenage
punkers over the volume of their radio. "Sold Me
Out" tells of the punks' disgust of their hypocritical
elders and gives some insight as to why the
daughter left home. "Sold Me Out" is a tough
song that recalls earlier Kinks songs. The Kinks
virtually invented the sound that was to become
Heavy Metal on songs like "You Really Got Me"
and "All Day and All of the Night."
In "Lonely Hearts" the traveler thinks about
growing old. He wonders why he and his wife no
longer have any feelings for each other and why
he still hangs on to her. He debates cutting loose
and having an affair with his secretary while he
still can on "Not Far Away." "Not Far Away"
shows that most middle-age men have this fan
tasy but few do anything about it.
"Expectations" questions the British Empire.
The traveler had been brought up and taught that
England was a glorious empire that stretched
across the world and would last forever. As he
grew older he learned that Britian wasn't so great
and that its empire had been built on the suffering
and pain of many of its own and other people. He
now knows that the British Empire, like our Amer
ican Dream, is not for everyone.
T he album ends with a song that
shows the traveler in his place in the world.
"Voices in the Dark (End Title)" shows that
the traveler is just one of many people who.ride
the train. These people live out their lives, die and
are forgotten in the eyes of their country. The
song calls for a return to Waterloo, where the Brit
ish became the greatest power on earth after de
feating Napoleon.
Ray Davies has been the driving force behind
the Kinks for the past 20 years. With the loss of
Mick Avory and possible loss ol Dave Davies, the
Kinks future is uncertain. But "Return To Water
loo," despite its brevity (it's only 30 minutes long),
is one of the best albums ever to be associated
with the Kinks. Since the local theaters don't be
lieve in showing anything that is purely artistic or
non-commercial, we probably won't get to see
"Return To Waterloo" unless we go somewhere
else. But we can get the album. â–¡
Midnight Oil is Down Under's Springsteen
By RICHARD DEATLEY
Associated Press
LOS ANGELES (AP) - In "Bucka-
roo Banzai," last year's trendy sci
ence fiction movie, the title charac
ter was a neurosurgeon, physicist,
rock star and comic book hero. Only
in Hollywood.
Meet Peter Garrett: Lawyer, anti
nuclear activist, unsuccesful candi
date for the Australian Senate,
surfer and rock star. But Garrett is
real. All 6 feet, 5 inches of him,
topped by a shaved head.
Garrett, 32, is the lead singer for
Midnight Oil, a band whose impact
on the Australian , psyche has been
compared to that of Bruce
Springsteen in the United States.
Midnight Oil's music is energetic
and uncompromising, and none of
the tunes on the current U.S. album
on CBS Records, "Red Sails in the
Sunset," features the synthesizer-
drum machine sounds that have
been capturing the Top Ten.
Other band members are drum
mer Rob Hirst, guitarists Jim Moginie
and Martin Rotsey and bassist Peter
Gifford. Hirst and Moginie are the
principal songwriters.
Garrett was an Australian Senate
candidate last year for the newly
formed Nuclear Disarmament Party,
and received an unexpected 10 per
cent of the vote. He ran for the seat of
his home state of New South Wales.
"There's a prevailing sentiment
expressed through popular culture
and film which is one of escapism
and simple emotional truths," Gar
rett says. "If you like, its the re-inven-
tion of the dream and the joy of
youth.
"(That) ignores the far deeper mal
aise which young people in this
country, as well as everywhere else,
are faced with, which is their uncer
tain future ... It's hard to think about
a future when they're looking at peo
ple talking about nuclear wars and
nuclear winters."
The bands concentration on Aus
tralian identity and anti-nuclear
themes in "Red Sails". "Jimmy Shar-
man's Boxers" is about a traveling
tent show, now outlawed, which of
fered Aussies a chance to fight with
aboriginal boxers, "a round or two
for a pound or two."
Anti-nuclear themes are heard in
"Harrisburg" and "Minutes to Mid
night. "
When "Red Sails in the Sunset,"
with album cover art depicting the
nuclear destruction of Sydney, was
released in October, it debuted on
Australian charts at No. 2. In the
United States, it showed up at No.
177 on the Billboard Charts for Aug.
JO.
"I don't think we have the view, or
at leas: I don't, that music can
change the way people think," Gar
rett says. "... If we move people half
an inch, I'm happy." â–¡