Tuesday, April 7, 1992
Lifestyles
The Battalion
Page 3
tTexas history class looks beyond their books
By Dawn Heliums
The Battalion
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I The legends live on in Jeff Carroll's Texas
History class. With his folk tales, sayings, and
untold stories of the past, Carroll has his stu
dents convinced that there's a lot more to his
tory than what's written in the books.
I "I like to teach the off-beat things in histo
ry, things you can't learn in textbooks," said
Carroll, who has taught history at A&M for
three years. "There have been so many acci
dents along the way that change the course of
history-I like to look at those."
I Carroll is a strong believer in experimental
learning. He assigns his students to-do projects
which involve them going out and reporting
on events or things that relate to Texas history.
He also has them trace their family heritage
which can be both interesting for him and the
student.
I I "I can remember one guy who traced his
family heritage and found out that his grand
mother and great-grandmother traveled with
the circus performing a mother-daughter strip
tease act," said Carroll as he laughed.
^ Carroll wears costumes to class that resem
ble those worn by the historical figures he
teaches about. He also brings in tools and oth-
historical pieces to show along with his lec-
res.
"I try to be very cross-cultural, because all
ultures made Texas what it is today," said
arroll. "I also try to be very cross-gender, if
here is such a term, because women had just
uch to do with the making of history as
en."
Carroll thinks developing a good relation
ship with his students is important. He tells his
Students on the first day that "as long as you
are in this class, you are a part of my family."
Jan Holland, a senior psychology major,
tells how Carroll surprised the class by pre
ending to be one of them.
"It was three or four minutes after class
was suppose to start and everyone was look
ing around wondering if the professor was go
ing to show up, when all of the sudden he
stood up and began reciting a poem to us,"
Holland said. "He had been sitting down like a
student with his backpack, faded blue jeans,"
she added.
Carroll said he does this to show his stu
dents that history, and just about everything in
HUY NGUYEN/The Battalion
Jeff Carroll conducts an innovative history class and broadcasts a syndicated radio program.
life, is a matter of perspective.
In addition to teaching, Carroll performs
"Legendary Texas," a five-minute syndicated
morning radio program on A&M's public ra
dio station, KAMU-FM.
Carroll began doing "Legendary Texas"
last year after getting support from a pilot
grant to broadcast his show once a week for
radio stations all over Texas. Some 44 stations
aired segments of "Legendary Texas," and
from the grants given by the Texas A&M Asso
ciation of Former Students, and the Texas
Committee for the Humanities and National
Endowment for the Arts.
Carroll uses his deep, multi-southern state ac
cent to tell his stories in "Legendary Texas,"
which are usually about the "average, com
mon folk" or the unsung heroes of Texas histo
ry. Carroll writes all of his scripts and said he
finds most of his story ideas from old newspa
pers, bars, and sometimes from his students.
"They say gold is where you find it ; I
guess stories are too," he said.
One of his favorites is about a girl named
Kate who became a professional cougar hunter
at the age of 13. She also broke wild horses for
the U.S. army, but had to do it riding side-sad
dle because riding astride was inappropriate
for ladies at that time.
Some of his stories also contain personal
information about the more common Texas
heroes, such as Sam Houston and Stephen F.
Austin. He talks about Houston's alcoholism
and crooked land speculating, and how he
turned his life around just before he died.
"He was human, no better or worse than
the rest of us," Carroll said.
Carroll thinks telling stories such as these
is important 5o people will relate to historical
figures as human beings, not just as grand and
glorious people. He said the problem is with
history organizers who try to protect the im
ages of historical figures.
"We realize they did a good job once upon
a time despite their problems, so we should be
able to too," Carroll said.
Def Leppard overcomes
fate with 'Adrenalize'
By Chris Eklof
The Battalion
Def Leppard
"Adrenalize"
Mercury
Three and a half years after
they started work on their fifth
album, Def Leppard released
"Adrenalize." The result is a
slick album that will satisfy their
fans. They cover all the bases on
the album, from ballads to pow
er tunes, all in classic Def Lep
pard style.
Fate has dealt Def Leppard a
tough hand over the past few
years. Drummer Rick Allen lost
his left arm in an automobile ac
cident during the making of
"Hysteria," then "Adrenalize"
was delayed by the death of gui
tarist Steve Clark. In spite of it
all, the band chose to carry on
with the four remaining mem
bers.
Clark still has a notable influ
ence on "Adrenalize," having
contributed to the writing of six
songs before his death. Musical
ly though, Clark is not missed as
Def Leppard's other guitarist
Phil Collen steps up and plays
all the guitars, lead and rhythm.
To be perfectly honest, you can't
even tell Clark is gone. Howev
er, the band will be forced to re
cruit another guitarist to recreate
their sound live.
Def Leppard can still faith
fully reproduce their earlier
sound because Joe Elliot's snide,
sneering voice is still intact and
Collen's guitar work was proba
bly more recognizable than
Clark's as "the Def Leppard
sound." Also, the amazing one-
armed drummer Allen has been
able to overcome his handicap to
play just as well as most other
drummers.
The album opens with "Let's
Get Rocked," a teenage rebellion
song that probably seems a little
silly to an older listener with its
juvenile lyrics. However, the
music and the catchy chorus
overcome the lyrics and make
the song happen.
Hard rhythms and driving
beats have really become the sig
nature sound of Def Leppard.
This style is evident on "Make
Love Like A Man" and "I Wanna
Touch U."
Def Leppard dips into their
bag of tricks to create the rum
blings of an approaching storm
at the start of "White Lightning."
The song then flows into a sub
dued verse and slowly builds to
the chorus. This seven minutes
of the album just might be its
best.
"Adrenalize" has its share of
ballads, too. "Tonight" features
an acoustic intro, "Stand Up
(Kick Love Into Motion)" is a
cool-edged song along the lines
of "Love and Affection" off of
the last album.
After finishing the "Hyste
ria" tour, the band had a couple
of songs prepared to record.
One of these was "Tear It
Down." The song was first per
formed on the MTV Video Mu
sic Awards and was well re
ceived, so the band decided to
put it on their next album.
"Adrenalize" was originally
supposed to be completed in
about a year, but instead it grew
into a three-year project. The
death of Steve Clark certainly af
fected them emotionally, but
their music has not changed.
"Adrenalize" is exactly what
you would expect from a veter
an rock band. Def Leppard
knows how to make music that
people want to hear , so they
simply went into the studio and
did just that.
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