Image provided by: Texas A&M University
About The Battalion. (College Station, Tex.) 1893-current | View Entire Issue (Dec. 5, 1986)
3 Previews Madrigal feast: medieval food, fun MSC Madrigal Dinner each night with music, Yvonne DeGraw, com- gram at the University of nity members. Committee will present a song, magic and fun. mittee member, says over Tennessee, is the new ar- Tickets are on sale Medieval/Madrigal Teas- MSC Food Services 100 people are expected tistic director. through Friday at Rudder te” Thursday through Sat- has prepared a special for each night of the feast. Coulter helped orga- Box Office and must be urday, 6:30 to 9:30 p.m., menu typical of the time nize the production, from purchased at least a day in in Rudder Exhibit Hall. period. Committee member training the singers to advance. They are Madrigal singers, min- Some of the more Mike Gardner says the working on the timing of $17.75 for students and strels, magicians and jes- exotic foods that will be production is under new the performances. $20 for non-students, ters, decked out in 16th served are flaming plum management this year. About half the perform- Group rates are available century garb, will enter- pudding and pumpkin Frank Coulter, who ers are students and half for parties of 12 or more, tain the feasting crowd soup. worked on a similar pro- are faculty and commu- —by Nancy Neukirchner Album Review Ratings based on a five-star system. Five — Excellent; One — Pathetic. "Rock for Amnesty" Various Artists Mercury Records ★ In the past couple of years, several all-star al bums have been made to benefit various humanita rian causes. Some of the albums, like U.S.A. for Af rica’s “We Are the World” and Artists United Against Apartheid’s “Sun City” al bums, have been pretty good. “Rock for Amnes ty,” the album'released to benefit Amnesty Interna tional, is the poorest ex cuse for a record ever to be released in the name of a good cause. “Rock for Amnesty” features 10 tracks that were donated by 10 art ists. At first glance, it may seem that the album con tains tracks from Amnes ty’s fabulous “Conspiracy of Hope” tour. Actually the album contains studio tracks that, for the most part, are already available on other albums. There are few good tracks on the album. Peter Gabriel’s “Biko,” a tribute to the murdered South African civil rights activist, and Elton John’s “Pas sengers,” a song criticizing South Africa’s policy of segregating public transit, are great songs that attack apartheid. Dire Straits’ “Brothers in Arms” is a touching antiwar song. But all of these songs would sound better on their respective albums. John Cougar Mellen- camp’s “Pink Houses” is probably the best thing he has ever done, but it doesn’t say anything about human rights. Sim ple Minds’ “Ghost Danc ing” and Bryan Adams’ “Tonight” are only con cerned with making money. Paul McCartney’s “Pipes of Peace” was pre tty worthless when it was released in the first place. Tears for Fears’ “I Be lieve (A Soulful Re-re cording),” a new version of the song from their “Songs from the Big Ch air” album, and Howard Jones’ “No One Is To Blame," a re-recording of the song from his “Dream Into Action” album, are slighty interesting. The only new song on the al bum is Sting’s recording of the old Billie Holiday tune, “Strange Fruit.” Amnesty could have found a much better way to celebrate their 25th an niversary than to release a collection of mediocre songs that are available elsewhere. If you want to help Amnesty and get some good music at the same time, pick up “The Secret Policeman’s Ball” and/or “The Secret Po liceman’s Other Ball.” These albums have some fantastic live perfor mances from Pete Towns- hend, Eric Clapton, Jeff Beck, John Williams, Tom Robinson, Sting, Phil Col lins and Donovon, and are well worth the price. Review by Karl Pallmeyer ROBERT CRAY-STRONG PERSUADER "Strong Persuader" Robert Cray Mercury Records 'k'k'k'k Just when you think the blues have died ... Just when you think every note in the blues scale has been played in every possible combina tion ... Just when you think there can be no more great bluesmen ... Along comes someone like Robert Cray to prove you were wrong. Cray is a hot new artist who plays guitar like B.B. King and Eric Clapton rolled into one. He plays short, clean passages that can bite like a dog or kiss like a lover. It’s a sign of a great guitarist to be able to show as much restraint as he does. Aside from the guitar work, Cray’s voice is rich and pleasing with out the roughness of many blues singers. Although Cray’s music sounds like traditional blues, there is a freshness that is uncommon in much of today’s music. The lyrics are typical blues lyrics about women leav ing and women doing their men wrong, and the songs are usually struc tured around the tradi tional 12-bar blues pat tern, but there is something new and won derful about Cray’s music. “Strong Persuader” is Cray’s first album on a major label. In 1980, he released “Who’s Been Talkin’” on the Tomato label. When that com pany went under, he switched to the Hightone label and released “Bad Influence” in 1983 and “False Accusations” in 1985. The album is pretty simple and straightfor ward in arrangement with Cray on vocals and guitar, Richard Cousins on bass, Peter Boe on keyboards and David Olson on drums. The Memphis Horns lend a nice sound to the songs “I Guess I Showed Her,” “Nothin’ But A Woman” and “More Than I Can Stand.” “Right Next Door (Be cause of Me)” is a cool song about a neighbor’s marital problems that have been caused by Cray. He punctuates his vocals with some jazzy guitar licks. “More Than I Can Stand” has Cray’s guitar bouncing around a landscape set up by Boe’s organ. “I Wonder” is nice, slow, soulful song that features some great play ing. “Fantasized,” with its hot guitar intro, and “New Blood” are harder and faster. In these days where anyone with a compute rized synthesizer and a vi deo camera can make millions of dollars in the music world, it’s refresh ing to hear a performer like Cray who can play music without a gimmick. Review by Karl Pallmeyer