PAGE 10
Reader Reviews
Blue Jays
Justin Hayward and
John Lodge
Threshold THS 14
When the Moody Blues
broke up, I along with many
others mourned the passing
of another super group along
the lines of the Beatles,
CSN&Y, BS&T and all those
others. Well that death knell
was rather premature. With
the arrival of Blue Jays , the
Moody Blues’ ghost has
arisen from the dead.
The two gentlemen who
make up this album are
Justin Hayward and Hohn
Lodge(J &J - the Blue(s) ’J’s
- get it?) They are the same
gentlemen who composed
such classics as “Nights in
White Satin,” “Story in Your
Eyes,” “Isn’t Life Strange,”
and almost all the other hit
Moody platters. Blue Jays is
reminiscent of those oldies.
The album is full of those
omnipresent multileveled
harmonies (a la Carpenters),
spatial orchestration, and
the same haunting guitar by
Hayward that made “Isn't
Life Strange” unforgettable.
When the Moodies finally
called it quits almost two
years ago, Hayward and
Lodge were cast adrift. They
had been happily lost in the
anonymity the group had
afforded them. Now the
break has given us all the
chance to see who really was
the basic driving force
behind the Moody Blues.
That force obviously must
have been Justin Hayward,
who penned or co-authored
eight of the LP’s ten cuts
himself.
This is not to say that the
rest of the Moodies were
Justin’s flunkies; quite the
contrary. “Question,” a
nother Hayward compo
sition, would never have
been the same without the
influence and talents of the
other four group members.
But Hayward did carry the
seed of unity and cohesive
ness throughout the Mood
ies’ existence.
Blue Jays bears the
unmistakable Moody trade
mark of being a semi
concept album. It begins
with “This Morning” and
goes thru “Nights, Winters,
Years” until it completes the
cycle with “When You Wake
Up.” Most of the album’s
songs are moderate-tempo
rockers, all imbued with that
ephemeral orchestration
pioneered and perfected by
the Moodies.
“Nights, Winters, Years”
sounds like a take off of
Days of Future Passed, and
its one of the LP’s mellower,
if pretentious, cuts. It has a
pseudo-symphonic climax
which overshoots itself and
obviously lacks the feeling
present on old Moody
albums.
Although all the songs are
sonically pretty, a few can
get rather monotonous if one
pays too much attention to
them. This is especially true
on “Maybe,” which is too
long and too loaded down
with strings. On the other
hand, the LP’s best (argu
ably) is “When You Wake
Up,” which is just good,
classic, solid Moody Blues:
unmistakable and unforget
table.
Rolling Stone has dis
missed this album as little
more than “romantic bom
bast that would have
reduced Cecil B. DeMille to
jelly.” But naturally, they’re
still looking for a Seventies’
pop messiah, and are lost
when they don’t have Dylan
to idolize. The truth is this
matter is that Blue Jays is a
beautiful polyphony of clas
sic Moody Bluism. It’s not
the Christ of rock albums,
but, as the Kozmo Kid would
say, light a candle, burn
some incense, break out the
Sicilian Gold, and turn on
the Blue Jays and drift down
stream.
•Jim Bollinger
MOVIE REVIEW
BY P.R.J. Smith
shampoo
written by Robert Towne and Warren Beatty
produced by Warren Beatty
directed by Hal Ashby
Columbia Pictures
A mish-mosh. (mess)
A depressina look at dishonesty with funny moments,
(at a dinner party celebrating the election of Nixon
Old Man: “Do you want something my dear? I can get you
anything you’d like.” Drunk Julie Christie pointing to a
confused Warren Beatty: “What I’d like right now more
than anything else in the world would be... (Rich Old Man
leans toward her with a lascivious grin on his mouth) ...to
suck his cock.” This is probably the funniest moment in
the movie next to Beatty’s almost-getting-caught-by-irate
boyfriend scene. Ho-hum.
Who needs this shit?
Things are pretty bad in 1975 if we’re taking a nostalgic
look at 1968, which is a goal at least a third of this film is
pointed toward. Things are even worse if we’re not bored
stiff by the attempt.
With the accompanying notariety this film has attached
to it already, I can see that we have at long last attained
our much-prophesized return to mediocraty.
Shampoo is a reflection of the past. Let’s leave it at
that.
lUng'si Jfest
The Best of Freddie King
Freddy King
SHELTER Sr - 2140
With all of our great American dream machine
bourgeois decadence, there are few things that we can
call truly American - perhaps our pollution, our crime rate
or our TV commercials, and of course our over kill war
making capacity - but aside from these (and possible
because of these) the only thing that comes to mind is the
blues. I mean “the blues” is really American. Now I’m not
getting into why or from where we got the blues - all I
want to say is that eventually we all get the blues - and
when we get them we want to listen to someone who can
really play them.
Presently there are two blues kings - 8.8. King and, of
course, Freddie King.
Freddie, for those of you uninitiated individuals, plays
a wicked axe. Few musicians can pull the smooth
sympathetic runs that he can - when Freddie gets down
not only can you hear his guitar wailing in sorrow but you
can actually see the tears runnin’ down its worn neck. In
addition to Freddie’s fine guitaring and raspy voice, this
LP boasts such greats as Leon Russel and Rev. Pat
C.C. READER
Shampoo...
PLAYMATE—JuIie Christie co-stars
with Warren Beatty, who portrays a
s wigging California hairdresser ami the
his favored patrons in SHAM-
«' Wet
-yfF
&toasl) & Puckle
c£n
ayt ly
erous Milady
Four Musketeers
Directed by - Richard Lester Oliver Reed is the brooding
Starring: Athos in Richard Lester's
Michael York - D’Artagnan new all-star film of Alexan-
Faye Dunaway - Milady der Dumas’ “THE FOUR
Oliver Reed - Athos MUSKETEERS.”
Charlton Heston - Cardinal Richelen
Richard Chamberlain - Aramis
Frank Finlay - Porthos
The man who first brought the Beatles to the screen,
Richard Lester, has returned with his second comedy hit
in a year, The Four Musketeers, currently playing at the
Twin Eric theaters on Derry St. in Harrisburg (left off the
Derry St. exit of 1-283). This movie is ostensibly the
sequel to The Three Musketeers, but actually, it’s the
second half of the original film, which was too long for
one feature and was sliced in half to create two flicks.
With this fact in mind, one could reasonably expect the
two movies to be almost identical; quite the contrary.
Where The Three Musketeers was a rolicking,
swashbuckling, hilarious spoof running at 100
laughs/hr.; The Four Musketeers is a much more
complete film, providing a soul to this saga of romance
and intrigue in the Eighteenth Century , though perhaps at
the expense of a few laughs.
In the first half of this tale, D’Artagnan (Michael York),
the country bumpkin in search of adventure, fell
hilariously afoul of almost everyone he met before finally
finding the adventure he craved, along with honor,
companionship, and love. The Four Musketeers deals
with the revenge of the beautiful but dangerous Milady,
adeptly played by Faye Dunaway.
Lester began his chronicling of Dumas’ classic by
deflating many popular beliefs about this romantic age,
and portraying the stark contrasts of the time that
preceded and fostered the French Revolution. In the
current chapter, Lester brilliantly displays, with no small
help from Dunaway, the dangerous vindictiveness of a
woman scorned. “This, though, can detract from the
comedy, as it injects classic tragic irony which was
absent in the first movie.
The acting throughout both Musketeer movies is and
was superb. Excellent performances were turned in by
everyone, but the ones that stick in my mind most in The
Four Musketeers (besides Dunaway) were Oliver Reed as
Athos and Charlton Heston as Cardinal Richeleu. Reed’s
portrayal of a man haunted by his past, living his present
with a cavalier attitude, and intent on saving D’Artagnan
from a fate similar to his own was absolutely flawless.
Similarly, Heston’s characterization of the smug, ruthless
nogoodnik Richeleu was one of his best, most convincing
performances, and that includes all those biblical epics
he’s famous for. Even though he spent relatively little
time on the screen, Heston neither overacted nor
underplayed his role.
The Four Musketeers is a must-see movie, especially if
you saw and liked the first part. Everything about it is
dazzling, and it just wouldn’t make it on tv. So, for an
evening well worth the price of admission, be sure to see
it before it’s too late.
Henderson on Piano, Chuck Blackwell, Jim Gordon, and
Him Keitner on drums, Don Preston-guitar and the
infamous Carl Radle on bass.
The songs include Don Nix’s classic “Goin Down” and
“Same Old Blues”, Willie Dixons “I’m Ready”, and of
course Woman Across the River”. Moreover, six of the
remaining numbers were composed by Leon, including
“Boogie Man”, “Help Me Through the Day” and “Palace of
the King”.
If you haven’t gotten into the blues this is a fine place to
start. If you have, then grab a bottle of Comfort (or even
Ripple) and pull your soul food close, ’cause the blues
really hits you in the heart!
MAY 1, 1975
Jim Bollinger
Kozmic Kid