FLOMIL'LED ZEPPELIN"We've alwa s chit like a cult...

PINK

STARRING...

!THIS ISSU E:1973

A MONTHLY TRIP
THROUGH MUSIC'S
LGOLDEN YEARSTHE HISTORY OF

Welcome
to 1973
THIS IS A year in which everyone seems to be saying goodbye.

At the start of the year, Leonard Cohen comes to London to
say that he is deeply troubled by the music business, and that
he's planning a dignified exit. Later in the year, Neil Youngsays much the same. Brian Eno leaves Roxy, as Ronnie Lane
does the Faces. David Bowie, meanwhile, apparently quits
music altogether.

Those that remain, however, reap some rich rewards. Bands like Led
Zeppelin, The Who or our cover stars Pink Floyd have now all escaped theirniches in the previous decade, to flourish in a new context. Zeppelin play tomore people than ever before, duly making an enormous amount of money.
Floyd do likewise, but are troubled by their conscience and by their past.
For Floyd, the absence of Syd Barrett (and the mental unrest that contributed
to it) is articulated in one of the most successful records of all time. Perhaps inhomage to a man who was not there, the band fail to appear at the launch for
The Dark Side Of The Moon.

1973 also brings dramatic new arrivals. The Wailers and their frontman Bob

Marley have suffered hardships in the Jamaican music business, but now
finally find a patron who will treat them fairly. In New York, the singer Bruce
Springsteen is signed by John Hammond- the man who took a chance on Bob
Dylan. At a bizarre engagement in New York, Springsteen and The Wailers playa show together.
This is the world of The History Of Rock, a monthly magazine that follows eachstrange turn of the rock revolution. Diligent, passionate and increasingly
stylish contemporary reporters were there to chronicle them then. Thispublication reaps the benefits of their understanding for the reader decades
later, one year at a time.

In the pages of this ninth issue, dedicated to 1973, you will find verbatim
articles from frontline staffers, compiled into long and illuminating reads.
Missed an issue? You can find out how to rectify that on page 144.

What will still surprise the modern reader is the access to, and the sheer
volume of, material supplied by the artists who are now the giants of popular
culture. Now, a combination of wealth, fear and lifestyle would conspire tokeep reporters at a rather greater length from the lives of musicians.
At this stage, though, representatives from New Musical Express and Melody
Maker are where it matters. Several miles above Mexico with Bob Dylan. In
hospital with Robert Wyatt. Watching as Captain Beefheart meets George Bestat dinner.
Join them there. We'll get your table ready.

HISTORY OF ROCK 1973 13

UP, 3111111 UP

Contentsasews
LP Introducing the Eagles.
Will The Beatles reform? Thin
Lizzy crash in, Slade leave thecountry. RIP Pigpen from theGrateful Dead.

inrd Cohen

12 'Let's quit together..."In town to receive an award,
Leonard instead decides toreveal his dissatisfaction withthe music industry.
Yoko Ono
16An interview with the artist

as she releases Approximately
Infinite Universe. Mention of
The Beatles ensues.

26

ums
Pink Floyd debut The Dark Side
OfThe Moon at London's

4 Stories

Planetarium. The press attend.
The band do not.

affords Mick Jagger

28

o DylanOn set for and in the air above Sam
Peckinpah's Pat GarrettAnd Billy
The Kid. How's Max Jones doing,
wonders Dylan?

Captain Beetbeart
The Captain releases his
excellent ("sold out"?) album Cleartt
3g

Spot. And meets George Best!

20 An abstract chat round thelegend's New York house. "I get$15 if I sweep your porch. If I playtrumpet on your porch, that's
something else..."Australian tour
the opportunity tochat about the
British scene andthe band's troubled
Jamaican recordings.

50 Status Quo

11.T.

Y._ ISM

Tarzan

The London bandsurvive a status as
two -hit wonders to
win a new fanbase.
Boogie mania ensues.

Bowie

on theroad
III PORT.

r.Gr I.

40The Wailers

Miles Davis

A slow day on the

Bob Marley and his band,
recording in the West Indies,and in London, where they meet
Mick Jagger. Do they have any
pull with the Jamaican police,
wonders Mick.

Letters

It's a55 The realness
or otherwise of David
Bowie. Farewell to
the Cavern. An easy -listening Beefheart... andmore from the mailbag.

56

tik.New'L.Lvir 'Morning

so who's
the New-kAt,,
Dylan?

News
Ronnie Lane leaves

the Faces! Introducing
Richard Branson's new
Virgin label. A searching
chat with former Byrd
and Burrito, Gram Parsons.

6A Roxy Music'V In the thick of the newalbum, and in Paris on thedecadent trail with Ferry, Enoand band.

Geordiebring

it all
back
home
1,11
10 IT IkT

TI la

82 heRovbeill eymatt84
Two former members of the Soft
Machine give an audience. Robert
Wyatt ponders the future in Stoke
Mandeville hospital, while Kevin
Ayers is bananas in Maida Vale.

6R Albumsti

Two views on Bowie's newone, Aladdin Sane. Have Led Zep
lost it on Houses OfThe Holy?

70 Led Zeppelin
The band play their biggest evershow, and continue their pitiless
American campaign. Amid thecarnage, Page and Plant sit down
to chat, while John Bonham
celebrates his birthday.

78 Bruce Springsteen"The new Dylan"? Bruce
Springsteen is working out what
he is, but he knows he isn't that.
A live show with Bob Marleyshows some promise.

Pink Floydti David Gilmour unburdens
8g
himself on Pink Floyd's major
new work, The DarkSideOfThe
Moon. "Just because our music
is about neuroses doesn't mean
we're neurotics".

9A Slade'TThe Slade phenomenon
can't be derailed -even by anear -fatal car accident. From
Scotland to the Isle of Man, theband return triumphant.

9g News
V The Kinks, Bowie, Eno...
Everyone quits! The Keith Moon
Radio Show. And introducing...
Steely Dan.

HE ROLLING STONESDo 1 he Stra

ROXY
SIDE ONERS -19105

VOCAL
Pub.. Promo.ut
B V.. ASCAPST RS 27174 SP

Tune 4 30

STEREO

From Rolling
Stones LP
COC-5910

ANGIE

IM. Jagger & K. Rtchardi

Produced br Jrnmor. Maier

Stroil9A3t;,

100

rto,cokne.7eLr orr,`.

132Brian Eno

On the tra In with the man of the
moment, who has the state of theworld much on his mind. Live, heretires Ziggy StardustHe can't eat, but he's full of big
ideas. The "non -musician" reveals

rock band from theireccentric purpose.
Now including: jazz,
benefit concerts.

his surprising "retro" position.
Who

Pub
What'sWk
yours?An antidote

136 Petele Townshend

106 Van Morrison

116

The Celtic bard bring; his
American musicians to Europe.
Minds are blown by the man's
music, but the best stuff, says Van,is made in private.

to big -volume rock concerts.
Introducing Dr Feelgood, Ace andKilburn & The High Roads.

The intransigent star makes
a stand against big concerts
and takes things back to basics.

122 dbums

128 3ws

unveil another new direction.

Track by track with Mick Jagger as
the Rolling Stones finally complete
Goats Head Soup.

Slade write a Christmas song.
Bowie's old manager reveals thetruth. Ronnie Lane goes solo.

145 lOcc apologise, and other

112 The Allman Brothers
Death cannot swerve the Southern

1241eil Youngunveils Quadrophenia.

140 Live!
Bowie takes over the
Marquee to film a US TV show andgems from the mailbag.

Timelnc. (UK)Ltd,8th Floor, BlueFin Building, noSouthwarkSt, London SElOSU I EDITOR John Mulvey, whose favouritesong fromi973 isFiirlmmerbyNeu!
DEPUTY EDITOR John Robinson Search And Destroy by Iggy& The Stooges ART EDITOR Lora Findlay/et by Wings PRODUCTION EDITOR Mike Johnson
Summer Breeze by EarthWind & Fire ART DIR ECTOR Marc Jones Rock On by David EssezDESIGNER Becky Redman D'yer Mak'er by Led Zeppelin PICTUREEDITOR Kimberly Kriete New York CitySerenade byBruceSpringsteen COVER PHOTO William Sorano THANKS TO Helen Spivak, Rebecca Bench, Georgie
LillingtonMARKETINGCharlotteTreadawaySUBSCRIPTIONSSonjaZevenPUBLISHINGDIRECTORJoSmalleyCOVERSPRINTEDBYPolestarWheatons
TEXT PRINTED BY Polestar Chantry I WWW.UNCUT.CO.UK

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0 recYdHISTORY OF ROCK 1973 I 5

7:a1WCHUCK

STORMSOUT1973
JANUARY-MARCHLEONARD COHEN, BOB
MARLEY, STATUS QUO,MILES DAVIS AND MORE

"Songs are so important"
MM MAR 3

A's Eagles are in London, making album two.

IT'S A RARE trip. You hear a band and turn on to their music straight off.
Warm and refreshing or hard -driving, straight -down -the -line rock'n'roll.
The music's biting hard and filters into the bloodstream.
First time I heard the Eagles it was like that. I popped their album on theturntable, listened to a couple of bars and was totally immersed in the songs.
And it was the songs that caught me before their own unique, relaxed country rock style brought a new awareness. The songs on the debut album are sostrong, each one played and recorded with a feeling of love and care.
In the States, the Eagles are home and dry, their album's been a constantseller since it was released around the middle of last year and in the singles
market it's had good mileage. Two Top 10 singles and another, "Peaceful Easy
Feeling" just working its way into the Top 20.
Yet here they don't mean a light. The name got around to a few people, thebuzz went through the music business when their first album was released,
but there was little action.
But by the time they've played two concerts here next month at the RoyalFestival Hall, London, and the Hard Rock in Manchester, there'll be enough ofa buzz for their name to stick.
At the moment they're in Britain, living in a series of service flats just off theKings Road while they record their second album at Island Studios.
The Eagles are LA people; it was the catalyst that drew them together.
Musically, they ended up there after their own areas had run out ofexperiences; it's a dragnet that allowed some of the finest Americanmusicians to get together and bounce off one another.
New York gave out driving rock'n'roll and its current bizarre side effects,
while in the sunshine, LA took away the tensions and gave us relaxedcountry -flavoured rock.
Linda Ronstadt brought the Eagles together. Al I the band had worked
backing her at one time or another.
Drummer/vocalist Don Henley -who went to California from Texas withhis band Shiloh, which included Al Perkins, now with Manassas -andvocalist/slide guitarist Glenn Frey worked with Linda two years ago. They
talked about putting a band together and met bass player Randy Meisner,
who was in the original Poco when he filled in for Linda's bass player, who
couldn't make a gig in San Francisco.
6 I HISTOR

OF ROCK 1973

March10,1973:theEaglesappearon
Dutch T V concert
Popgala in Voorburg,
Netherlands -(1-r)
Randy Meisner, Don
H enley, Glenn Frey
and Bernie Leadon

HISTORY OF ROCK 1973 17

1973
Don and Glenn stayed with Linda awhile,
dreaming of getting a band together. Randy
split Poco and joined up with Rick Nelson's
Stone Canyon Band, a gig that made him
quit music for eight months until the Eagles
came along.
Circumstance threw the three of them
together, they decided on forming a group,
and at just the right time Bernie Leadon split
from The Flying Burrito Brothers.
"We all knew each other simply because
we'd all been playing in the LA music scene,"said Glenn Frey. "There must be a pool of
about 50 musicians in LA that gravitate
between the pure bluegrass music andcountry pop rock. There's all kinds of people
in LA that play music and we got to know one
another's music through that scene.
"All of us had played with Linda as part ofher band at one time or another. Bernie had
played with her three-and-a-halfyears ago
before he joined the Burrito Brothers. Don
and I were playing with her when we got
together with Randy, and when we heard
Bernie was leaving the Burritos we called him
up and asked him to have a play with us."Randy: "It was real nice the way the band
came together. It was like things just had
to happen."
Glenn: "Putting a band together is realeasy, because we were all doing other gigs
and meeting people. But finding a band withall the right people who have the ability toshine is another matter. A real band is always
growing together and getting each other toplay better."
The Eagles have something really positivein their songs and in their sound, which istight four -voice harmonies and constructive
arrangements. Also, with four singers there
are four lead voices, which add a whole newedge to their music. But it is the song
consciousness, as Glenn puts it, that is so
important with the band. That's why fromthe first album theywere able to get three
hit singles out of 10 songs.

"It wasn't a planned move that we would
record an album full of singles. But we did set
out to put 10 good songs on every album
instead of having fillers, where one song is the
single because it's so obviously a better songthan any other on the album.
"Surely you get song conscious," added
Glenn. "In LA, you cannot help but be
influenced and affected on some level by thepeople you meet, like Jackson Browne. The
people in The Byrds and Buffalo Springfield
above all else were good songwriters.
"Songs are so important. It's like loudrock'n'rol I has been done at its best; anythingelse is a poor relation. It's like long guitar
solos when I hear them are a poor excuse
compared to the things that have gone down
before from Clapton and Hendrix.
"But thenit's like, areconfine what they
see going on to theirown music style. The
ultimate in theatre
for me was watching
Neil Young walk on
stage at CarnegieHall in work bootsand denims and theaudience just coming
to a complete hush.
Neil can make thatmagic work every
night. To me that's
the get off; that's
not just getting
real crazy."

Don: "Don't think
we're opposed totheatrics, but when
you can't play andhave to rely on weird
clothes, makeup andstuff then that's not
valid tome. If you'rea good musician,wear what you like,but it seems at the
moment there's anawful lot of bands
who need all the
freakiness to get by.
"It seems that forbands like Alice
Cooper and The
Sweet the music issecondary to thetheatre trip. They try
to bash everybody

Chan nel and theAtlantic in1973

with the body first.
For us the music comes first.""Alice can do what he likes," says Randy "but
don't he step on baby chickens? Is that

The group

rock'n'roll?"
Don: "No, man, that's burlesque."
It sounds like sour grapes. In fact that
couldn't be further from the truth. There's nomalice as they talk about other bands. They
can't figure it, but then maybe the otherbands can't figure them.
The new album, unlike the first, has aconcept running through it. The thread thatties the songs together being an outlaw ga ng
in the Old West -the Doolin-Dalton Gang
who cleaned up around Kansas in the 1890s.
It draws parallels between outlaws androck'n'rollers. Both basically are the same isthe conclusion. Both living outside the laws ofnormality. The basic story is that of an
outlaw's life told in flashbacks. His discovery
of a gun (or guitar) in a shop window,
becoming a man, getting drunk for the firsttime, fighting over an unfaithful woman,making easy money and the final
big job (or album), before the final

burning. Nothing left.

people trying

But the Eagles have a lot left to do

to get better at

before the final job. Looking much
like an outlaw himself and prime
for a movie part, Glenn Frey says
they'll be working a lot yet. "While

writing songs,
or are they justcopping a trip?
All musicians
tend toSladeitaking theirnoixeacrosethe

the going's easy," he says, "you can'tstop." Mark Plummer

play stadiums
Slade take theirunique spelling worldwide.
MM

SLADE, WHO CRASHED to the top of theMMsingles chart today with "Cum On
Feel The Noize" In the second week of its
release, are set for tours of Europe, Americaand Australia in the coming months. The
group play stadiums in 18 European cities
starting on March 23, before leaving for theirsecond American tour on April 20. "Cum On
I 'eel The Noize" had sold 300,000 copies by
Monday- at a
rate of around

SLADE ATWEWLEYCUM ON fEfl

50,000 a day.

plus

DIE NIIIZE

NOME

aer
Iv as
taco

ru
tae
ertr

OWnnir PEUBBL! DT!!!

[CAL EXPRESS POLL CONCERTM

Beatles seen in LA
MM MAR 17

JI ttianLu I 601C1L.4 1'am:

RUMOURS FLASHED THROUGH Los
Angeles this week that three of The Beatles
have again teamed up for recording
purposes. John Lennon, Ringo Starr andGeorge Harrison are all in Los Angeles with
Klaus Voorman, the bassist rumoured toreplace Paul McCartney after his departurefrom the group. Rumours that the four were
trying to get together were circulating in
New York six months ago, though no visible
move has been made until now.

A love ofthe blues
MM MAR 17

RON "PIGPEN" McKERNAN, organist
and vocalist with the Grateful Dead,
died last week at his San Francisco
home. He was 27.

Januarye,)973:

Pigpen had been hospitalised for the last
six months, but was allowed home a few daysago. Cause of death was reported to be
cirrhosis of the liver, but this has not yet been
confirmed. Pigpen - nicknamed after thecharacter in the Peanuts strip - inherited
a love of the blues piano as a child.
Later he became friendly with Jerry Garcia,
then a solo artist, and made his first publicappearance at a San Francisco folk clubsinging blues and playing harmonica backed
by Garcia on guitar. He was a founder memberof The Warlocks, the San Franciscan band
which became the Grateful Dead in1966.
His organ -playing was an integral part of
the Dead's sound. Recently he had been
unable to play such an important part in the
band's live concerts, missing several gigs
through bad health.

E lv is arrives in

Hawaii f ive days
ahead of his

televised concert"The stumbling block was financia
NME JAN 20
ELVIS PRESLEY'S CONCERT at Honolulu
International Centre this week, which
was made available for screening in thiscountry within 24 hours of the actual
performance, was rejected by both BBC and
ITV. As revealed in the NMElast September,
Monday's concert was being televised live
by satellite to Japan andother Far East territories.
Because of the timedifferential, it wasrecorded for latertransmission in
America and Europe-and the original

for a worthy cause. However, the concert
is still available on tape should either BBC
or ITVhave second thoughts, and I am surethat considerable pressure will be applied
to them."
One consolation is that the concert wasrecorded for rush release as a live double
album. It is hoped thatthe set can be issued"The concert isavailable on tape, if
the BBC or ITV havesecond thoughts"

plan was to screen it
in Britain and on theContinent, via the Eurovisionlink, on Tuesday. But thisproject fell through as theresult of Britain's TV bosses
giving it the thumbs down.
An RCA spokesman told the
NME: "We understand that the
stumbling blockwas strictly
financial. Of course, Presleyshows always cost a lot ofmoney-but in this case allproceeds are going to cancer
charities, so it would have been

simultaneously
throughout the world next
month. TitledAloha From
Hawaii, the double LP
will include at least eight
songs never previously
performed by Presley.

1973

JANUARY "H"Some young kids areinto
something other than The
Osmonds":ThinLizzyin
1973 -(I -r) Brian Downey,
Eric Bell and Phil Lynott"I'm very big in Dublin"
NME MAR 10

THIN LIZZY WOULD like it known thatwhile they're delighted with their hit
single "Whisky In The Jar", it shouldn't
be confused with the loo per cent rock proof
spirit they present on stage - which is all of theirown distilling apart from a version of Hendrix's
classic "6 To 9". Hendrix seems a key name in
Lizzy's style and presentation, and if you aregoing to set yourself some kind of standard
then the Experience is not a bad criterion.
Phil Lynott, their lanky bass -vocalist, not
10 I HISTORY OF ROCK 1973

only looks like the great man's kid brother but
also sounds similar. Almost the first question
the band asked me as we sat in a small Italianrestaurant in London last week was had I
listened to the B-side of the "Whisky" single,"Black Boys On The Corner", which was all
their own work but in a Hendrix vein.
"We don't want people to get the
impression that we are a folk-rock band
who do nothing but update old Irish drinking
songs," said Lynott in a broad Irish accent.

"The flip -side is really much more reflective ofwhat we play on stage. We do all our own
material apart from one number, and it's all
hard, driving rock.
"At one time I made an effort not to soundlike Hendrix," said Lynott over a plate of two
eggs and bacon, "but it just happens. I've got
that kind of husky inflexion, so I thought what
the hell - people seem to like it. I wasn't
consciously imitating him, although I've always
thought his stage act was the perfect balanceof showmanship and music."
Lynott is as Irish as the shamrock. Like Brian
Downey, he was born in Southern Ireland.
Guitarist Eric Bell comes from Belfast, andidolises Jeff Beck. Bell was considerably
hungover from a party the previous night, but
managed to recount the story of the single.
"We were rehearsing in the Duke Of York pub

in Kings Cross[London] andPhil picked up
the Telecasterand just
began singing'Whisky' to his own accompaniment, and I

found that little riff which announces thesong and runs through it now on the disc.
"Our manager Ted Carroll heard us
fooling around on it and started enthusing
about how good it sounded. So we put it
together a little more solidly and released
it as a single last November, prior to ourtour with Slade."
The single had been out for almost fourmonths before it began to move into thecharts, and Lizzy see that largely as a resultof their exposure on the Slade tour,
coupled with the enthusiastic support
they've had from DJs like Kid Jensen andJohn Peel.
"Kid Jensen virtually made this band,"said Lynott. "He's supported us right fromour first Decca album, and the Slade tour
finally broke us here. We learned quite a lot
from Slade about stage presentation - wewere a bit cool and laid-back until we saw
how uninhibited they were - really natural
blokes, both on stage and off."
Phil got a bit fed up with Dave Hill nicking
his birds, but... "I told him he couldn't do it
to me in Dublin. I'm very big in Dublin."
In fact, prior to their Irish exodus Lizzyreached the top of the Irish pops shortly
after their formation two years ago - when
Downey left a group called Sugar Shackand Lynott another called Skid Row to join
forces at the Count Down Club, where they
made their initial impact. Bell had beenplaying with a top showband for several
years, but good money would prove no
substitute for having to play the same oldcommercial pop.
"The only problem with having a hit
record is that you get the impression youraudience now expect something of you
they did not before," said Lynott. "You're
expected to prove yourself, but that's OK
because we'd built ourselves into a goodworking band by word-of-mouth reputation
previously, so we've got something to backup our hit with.
"I really think there's a third generation
among young fans now who are not justcontent to be fed weeny -bop material.
I think Alice Cooper is a positive signthat some young kids are into somethingother than The Osmonds, andwe like to think that ourselves,
Slade and groups like Brinsley
and Patto offer the alternative.
"Essentially we play hardrock, but now we're givingmuch more attention to'melody' because it seems to be
the one factor that's
indestructible. The songs thatlast and are remembered are
the ones with a strong melody
line - and there's no reason why
you can't retain intricacy orbeat." Keith Althrm,"Lennon's
become a real

inspiration"
NME MAR 3 Robert Wyattdiscusses his influences.
Gong Camembert Electrique

About the first album made by one of our"family" to have been created in sympathetic
circumstances, and it shows. Appropriately
enough, if our "family" has a father it's Daevid
Allen. So he deserves the opportunity.
Miroslav Vitous Infinite Search
Vitous apparently gave up the opportunity

to swim in the Olympics [for Czechoslovakia]
in order to concentrate on music. What adisappointment for his school. How ungrateful
to his parents. No wonder patriotism isdecaying all around us when such people areallowed to indulge their sinful practices.

Mingus Presents viumtet Of The YearMy copy is on Vocal ion LAE12031. Max Roach,Charles Mingus, Bud Powell, Dizzy Gillespie,
Charlie Parker at the Massey Hall in Canada,
in 1953. My bebop bible.
Duke Ellington

Sweet Thunder,gical Mystery TourMy mid -'50s nostalgia orchestra, and about thelast particular record my father and I agreed
on. (When people generalise about jazz being
an improviser's art, they shouldn't neglect thatenormous amount of beautiful writing andarranging for which some jazz musicians havebeen responsible).

My snobbish and elitist tendencies usually
prevent me from sharing heroes with the loudmajority, but Lennon reached me with his two
books, and some of his music is sobreathtakingly imaginative that he has
become a real inspiration for me.

With Billy Higgins and Don Cherry. Everybody
takes ludicrous risks and they all come off asa great advertisement for anarchy, and just thething ifyou're in an inhibited mood.

Bee Gees '11)67'1/,[alLarry Coryell

About my favourite pop group.

I think someone is just as influenced by things
that don't work as by those that do, and thischoice falls into the category of an Awful
Warning. It's a self-conscious attempt to dosomething that doesn't suit him, somethingthat he's been on the fringe of for several years,
without really understanding what it involves.
I saw him jamming with Alvin Lee in NewYork
and it was only too clear what was going on. It's
the kind of record that's so terrible it can't fail toencourage you to do something better.

The Beatles

John Coltrane Africa BrassI first heard this in Collets' record department,
which was about the only place an innocent
provincial lad visiting London could hear new
uncommercial records without the shop staff
getting hostile. Thankyou, Ray Smith!
Candid label

Not a specific record, but a label: Candid.
They made several equally amazingrecords, giving unprecedented freedom tothe musicians on the date. Cecil Taylor's"This Nearly Was Mine" and Mingus'"Fables Of Faubus" are outstanding in mymemory. Even Don Ellis was able to makea good record on Candid!

Sonny Rollins Quartet Live At The Village Gate'e At The Village Vanguard

Under theInfluence
THIS

WEEK:

ROBERT

WYATT

1973JANUARY-MpRCN"It's over.

I'm off"
With adulation for him reaching a peak,
LEONARD COHEN :Las had it with the rockiwasiicaa. 'I've decided to screw it. And go,"he tells Melody Maker's man. "Make this yourlast interview, and let's both quit together."- MELODY MAKE, FEBRUARY 24-"Let's sings song, boys... This one has grown old and bitter"- fragment fromSongs Of LoPeAnd Hate

THERE WAS THIS room. Two storeys up from wet Holborn.

It was a damp room, and on the floor of it -covered in paper
and an old cardboard coffee cup -was a gold record.
It bore the legend "Songs Of Leonard Cohen -250,000 UK
Sales". Gold discs look cheap when you look at them closely.
But this one didn't.
"He's coming at 4pm- er, I'll put you in a room", said somebody. "Do you
drink? What do you want? Will scotch do? I think there's some in the otherroom", said the somebody. The room was depressing.

CBS is motion... crank... ring... phone... bla... crank.
"He's in reception. For God's sake get somebody down there! He's inreception, and he's talking to the receptionist. Get somebody down there,
and get him up here. He's in reception... Would you believe that. He's standing
in reception!"
CBS people functioned. Somebody was sent down to get him - but he'dalready come up -hands in pockets, smiling in a whimsical way. I think
he was wearingcarpet slippers. He looked smaller than he d id the last time
I saw him.
12 I HISTORY OF ROCK 1973

Leonard Cohen on stage

attheRoyalAlbertHall.
London, March 23.1972

Cohen,

going,gone

1972

JANUARY --*"

But it was unmistakably Cohen. A day's growth lay black across his
olive -skinned chin and cheeks. He stood, and looked somehow pointless.
Stood, surrounded by people who were fussing. He wanted no fuss. He
didn't talk to them, but meekly followed the mass of instructions he wasbeing given. "Come this way, we'll do this now... Can you come here?...
I'm so-and-so, Mr Cohen."
To all intents and purposes he looked like some half -tramp who'd beenbrought in from the cold, and was about to receive the sort of treatment
old tramps are given every now and then. You know, they're given a meal,champagne, and put in the best hotel -and they appear as chatty stories

in the Mirror- or the like.
Still smiling this strange but warm smile, he half -followed the "scene".
Still with hands in pockets. Then a look spreadover his face- I think I was the only one to catch

I don't write that many songs. You know, my interests are in other places
now. At one time I really thought music had some sort of social

import -now it's just MUSIC... wonderful.
"You know, I like to listen to music myself, but, well, I don't feel I want tohave the same involvement with it. It's over."He talked of the rhythm he wanted to find... And that would be found inmaybe a monastery. "I want to think about things in a more direct way.
You can't overlook the fact that you get to a stage with records when you're
purely doing it for money -you know you try and keep something going.
But you've got to pay attent ion to the thing. Sure you can leave it all to thehands of others- but when you see them put back an echo that's so
distorted you realise that it's YOU who has to pay attention -all the time.
If you don't want to pay attention -well, then
you cut out.
"The public may not know whether I've cut
out or not. I don't know how it will appear.
There WILL be a record every now and then."
What do you feel about these people,
Leonard? I mean, there's an album in a roomback there which they're going to present to"Somehow
I haven'torganised mylife withinrock very well"it. It was a look of "What am I doing here? I don't
want to be here." It vanished quickly.
They -CBS -fussed, and continued to fuss,and after five minutes the two of us had beenushered like children into this even smaller
room. It contained a large desk, behind which
was a large dudey chair. In front of the desk
was a narrow wooden chair, slightly lower
than the other.
Cohen - now a little more relaxed, took thesmall chair, slumped, and sat in a huddle. It
can only be described as a huddle, for he stillrefused to take his hands out of his pockets.
I lounged into the big boss' chair.
We exchanged pleasantries. It was nice to see each other again. It was.
"I feel like a boss man in this chair. Have you come for the job?" -I spoke.
"Actually, that's not such a jest," said Leonard, laughing a little. "I could
do with a job." His hands came out of his pockets. One hand dropped
a pack ofTurkish cigarettes on the table -the other hand took a Turkish
cigarette, and then both hands lit it, and delivered it to the mouth.
An unusual conversation followed. It went a little something like this.
You've been in England for a while now. What have you been doing?
He began to croak. His voice was very croaky, and slow, and drawn out.
H is words were punctuated with sighs.
"Yeah, I've been here fora while, off and on. You see it's all been to dowith this film they made of me on the European tour last year. It was acase of me wanting to cut out of everything indefinitely -but to leave
a film of me for what you might call promotional purposes.
"So a film crew followed me around 23 cities, and spent an enormous
amount of money. It was my money. I was paying for the film. Well, thefilm was shot, and when all the concerts were finished I was happy.
I wanted to get out of the scene, and just forget it.
"But, a couple of months later we get a call saying that the film's
ready. So we fly to London, and see the film and, well, it's totally
unacceptable - so, like, that was $125,000 on something that was
totally unacceptable. That's a lot of money, and I don't really have allthat much money.
"Yet I was in a financial crisis, and something had to be done with it.
I think there still might be a film of sorts. It was something I didn't want
to go through -I just wanted the film done, and then get out of the scene."
You say 'get out of the scene. What do you mean?

"Well, I'm leaving. I'm leaving now."

ARD COHEN:LIVE SONGS'

Are there any
specific reasons foryou leaving?
"Oh well, I don't
want to cut out
completely. I wantto continue writing
songs, but I want toreturn to anotherrhythm; a rhythm I'm
more used to."You don't want any
sort of 'one album a
year' thing, then?
"Well (laughing alittle), they never got
me to do that anyway.

you. It's for 250,000 sales.
"Right. Oh, if I have songs, then they'll berecorded. But first I have to make sure that I go
away, and find a style of life I'm more suited to.

Somehow I haven't organised my life withinrockverywell. Somehow IT- the rock life became important; rather than the 'thing' that
produced the song."
I feel that feeling is at a high in rock at the moment. There are a lot of
people who have suddenly found that they've lost themselves. There's
much disillusionment about. Do you agree?
"I don't even want to talk about it. I don't want it to be the substance of aninterview. But look, write anything you want. I don't like hearing myself
speak about the problem. To me, you know, it's the substance of aninterview, like how they say in the monastery, 'May all beings accomplish
whatever tasks they are engaged upon.'"Well, I wish everybody well on 'the rock scene, and may their music begreat. May there be some good songwriters- and there will. But I don't
wan na be in it. I have songs in the air but I don't know how to put them
down. Anyway, I'm going."
Have you been writing much recently?
"I've found myself not writing at all. I don't knowwhether I want towrite. It's reached that state. I have a book of poems out, and I'm pleased
with them. But I don't find myself leading a life that has many good
moments in it.
"So I've decided to screw it. And go. Maybe the other life won't have
many good moments either... but I know this one, and I don't want it.
"No matter how withdrawn you feel from the scene- no matter how
protected you think you are. No matter how little you t hink you're reallyinvolved with it... You find yourself d rawn into it.
"You find yourself worryinglike, 'I should have another song. I should
write this. I should do better. I should appear more in public. I should begreater. I do envy that song, I do envy this one.' Well... forget it.
"I just feel like I want to shut up. Just shut up."
It wasn't an interview. We were just talking. The next topic was Derby
County vs Tottenham Hotspur. That may sound a bizarre thing to talkabout. We shared each other's feelings for the state of the music business.
Goddamnit, I nearly gave it all in right there and then -but thought, 'No,
people have to read what this man is saying.'"Make this your last interview," said Leonard. "And let's both quit
together." We'll see.
Dylan disappeared successfully- and came back. What do you feel
about that?
"Yeah, he did, and I admire him. I've heard stories about him, and I've
heard his music, but I don't know him personally. Yeah, he did get out ofthe public's eye. But you see I have a different problem -I've never been in
the public's eye. But even so, I just wan na take off. I don't want to hear
about this business. I want to get back to working."
Are you going to vanish forever -do you really feel it's going to bea permanent thing?
"I've no idea. It's not like I'm announcing my retirement. No, not at all.
It's a totally psychic thing, on a very private level. It may turn out that the
public won't realise any difference. It may turn out that the records stillkeep coming, and the books keep coming.
But !won't be there, I won't be part of it. Can
you see what I mean?" Yes.
"It's really ironic," he continued, "thatthere's that gold record out there, because
it's come at the very end of things. I finishedworkyesterday; I'm going back to the States
tomorrow. That's that. It's over. I'm off. I havenothing to do, no concerts, no commitments."
You've obviously made enough to exist off
the money you have, then.
"Well, this film's been a blow financially,
but I don't have a great deal of bread. Well,
I don't really know." He stopped and, smiling,
said: "My lawyer tells me I have money. But
I never see it."I think I want to go away too, I said. But I
know damned well I haven't got any money.
"But do it," he said. "This is the time. Thisis the time to retire to another life. This isa time to retreat. It's a time when inferior
men are coming forward, and the scene isbeing taken over hymen who are rather
shoddy. This is a purely personal feeling, frompersonal experiences. They maywant tomake me a bigger star -but I have other plans."
Is it totally ego?
"I think it's a matter of pride. Yes pride, andmanliness, and dignity. It's a subtle thing.
I mean, we're not doing anything different
than when we sat down and talked a year ago.
But in the last 12 months we've been feelingthings, a lot of us have been feeling things.
A lot of us have seen what's been happening
to this scene.
"I feel happy now. Happy that I've made my
decision. Now I have no problems."
The room now seemed to be a sealed
chamber- a sort of timeless zone. Cohenemits a charisma of tranquility, of
calmness, and a very beautiful
warmth. We smiled, and smokedcigarettes; and talked about NewYork
City, and drugs, and other things.

Leonard Cohen in 73:
contemplating his own
kind of retirement froma scene that is"being
taken over by men who
are rather shoddy"

I told him: "I played Songs Of Love

And Hate all over Christmas. It meant
something. There was a certain
sacredness about it. Myself and my lady
couldn't stop playing it.""Thank you," he said. "I don't want to stop that;
I don't want to stop that sacred thing I know ! have with some people.
Gee, I wish you could hear some new tapes that are ready."
You mean you've done another album?
"Well, I taped some stuff off the tour -which 'they' wanted me to do, andwhich ! wanted to do, because the treatment of some of the songs wasvery different. It really does show the band."I heard there were some weird things going on with the tour. Something
went wrong in TelAviv, didn't it?
"Yeah, there was a riot. We were supposed to be playing a small hall two to 3,000 people. Well, when we got off the plane they drove us into this
sports arena! It was huge -there were about 10,000 people there. Well,that would have been OK. Horrible, but OK.
"Anyhow, nobodywas allowed to be seated on the floor- so theaudience was about a quarter of a mile away. They had huge speakers about six feet tall. So I asked the people to come down, and sit closer tome, and they started to come, and the usher wouldn't let them. It wasn't
a serious riot, but one or two people got it. It made me sad.
"Then there was Jerusalem, which was beautiful. It was sort of the end
then. It was planned to be a sort of farewell tour. I was going aroundplaying for the people I'd been writing for... and then it was all over."He paused, and gently rubbed the side of his nose, gently stroked
his chin, and then held both hands out- a gesture of an emotion about
to flow.

"I feel it in my hands when ! pick up the guitar. I feel that I'm no longer
learning, and that my life is not right for it. I began to feel I was doing someof the songs a disservice. So I have to get into something else."
His voice had now dropped to a low, croakingwhisper. His lips hardly
moved, but his eyes were fixed clearly and firmly on mine whenever hespoke. He lit another cigarette, and smoked it in a very soft way.
If you could- how they say- "do it all agin", would you "do it all agin"?
"What I wanted to do was to make one record, and have it reach a lot of
people. I had a feeling that the songs I had written were destined forpeople; I didn't have a "private" feeling about them. I knew myworkwas
for people.
"But it didn't happen like that. It took a number of years to reach people,
and somehow I got involved with the 'marketplace, and I got involved
with my progress... which I neverwanted. It didn't happen overnight, likeI wanted it to. I thought it would.""But, as! say. It took time. And now it's incredibly ironic that after five
years there's this gold disc... (a half -laugh) five years!
"It's curious," he added.
Yes, it's CURIOUS.

"Yeah, I suppose I'd do it again, because I suppose I was doingwhat
I wanted to do."A completely private conversation followed -again regarding ourdisillusionment with rock, again regarding it being a time to leave.
"Maybe you should write that we both sat down, had a private
conversation and both quit. Maybe you should do that. Just write that."
1

RoyHollingworth
HISTORY OF ROCK 1973 115

November13,1973:
Yoko Ono attends
the opening of an

exhibitionby
illustrator andphotographer David
Crolandat NYC's
Artworks Gallery

16 I HISTORY OF ROCK 1973

"I belong in

the next

generation"i0K0 ONO has

made an album,

Approximately
Infinite Universe.
And it's very good!
"I didn't want to bethat intellectual
woman wearing a

black turtleneck,"she says.

MELODY MAKER .ANUARY 2,

THERE'SA TOUCH of irony in the fact that among

those sympathetic to the campaign opposing thedeportation of John and Yoko from the States is
Playboy magazi ne, one of the major symbols of
sexism, which in its new February edition speaksof the "heartening broad" range of support for the
Lennons in America.
The two of them will be grateful for any encouragement, but it'sa slightly quirky juxtaposition consideringYoko's strong role as afeminist. But then again, a good pair of boobs have long gone hand inhand (sic) with the magazine's suitably hip liberalism.
The Lennons haven't been seen much of in recent months. John sits
cross-legged on his huge bed with the black satin sheets, flicking thechannels on the large colour TV that sits at the foot of the bed like a wise
Buddha. And Yoko does whatever she does. Most recently this has been
the making of a striking double album called ApproximatelyInfinite
Universe, which was written entirely by her and co -produced with John.
The album is extraordinary forseveral reasons. It explodes themyth that she's a talentless artist
on the make, most principally.
She has settled for a moreconventional way of creatingmusic than the screams andsighs with which she's been
generally, and dismissively,
associated, and the enhanced
accessibility reveals a gift forpoignancy and sensitivityof mood and lyric. It is painful,
but poetically so.
It is also, in many of its lyrics

and in an article ofhers printed
on the album sleeve, a rather x.

1973

JA HUAI --11"1

sympathetic and certainly un-rabid appeal for a more
feminised society- a society, however, which I'm sure,would not include Playboy.
As she states in her article, which is an abridged version

would understand her lyrics, mainly. "Musically I felt
like I had 2,000 miles of emotion and I was a long-

originally published in the New York Times, her aim is fora world that is non-competitive but organic, based on love(feminine), rather than reasoning (masculine).
But she isn't necessarily carrying a banner or strapping on armour. In
fact, her song "What A Bastard The World Is", she wrote as a satire on the
militancy of the female lib movement. "So they would scream and shout
and kick out all men," she explains. "Then what are they going to do?"
The Lennons live in a rather nondescript street down in the Village, by
the river. They have no Rolls now, just a station wagon. From the nameplaques on the dooryou wouldn't find them. I was alerted by a telegram,
addressed simply to "John and Yoko". Next door lives John Cage. He has
little parties and cooks delicacies; Jasper Johns and Salvador Dali aresometimes there, and sometimes too are John and Yoko.
Before Cage went on his European tour last year, he asked the two ofthem how to prepare his voice for singing, and John was astonished at thesounds that came out of Cage's mouth. It's a very quiet life, though, all inall. It probably has to be. The threat of eviction from the US immigration
authorities looms large and Yoko still hasn't found her daughter, Kyoko.
There's one word that is always writ large in the conversation of thesetwo. That is "pain". Although their company is fun and quicksilver, they
don't mind admitting that some of the hard knocks get through to them.

There's something somehow embarrassing about hearing this word inan emotional context. It's so very bare and personal. But they apparently
have no trouble with it.
Yoko's album was conceived in a state of some pain. This has to do withimmigration and her daughter, and then both she and John weredepressed about the election and its implications for society. "Is WinterHere To Stay?", one of the songs, was written after McGovern lost. But it
was, oh, so many things. Being a woman wasone, and being Japanese didn't help. It was justthe world, really.
"Theywere pretty hard on me, you know."
She sits in the kitchen -cum -office of theirhouse, which is really no more than a one -floor
studio apartment consisting of two large
rooms, and collects her thoughts. She supposes,
she says, that before this album she was getting
desperately lonely. She was waving a flag forthings she believed in, but it was a lonely roadin away. She got more desperate about

distance runner. I just went through that distance. To
cover it I went the most functional route, just running."
She had got to the point where she needed tocommunicate to people who would understand her. Witha song like "What A Bastard", which on one level deals with thesituation of a woman whose man has walked out on her, she wasconscious of trying to get across to housewives.
I wondered if, by becoming more accessible, she felt she hadcompromised any of those original concepts and values. She laughedand said it was very symbolic, it was a double album. If it had been a single
it would have been a more commercial proposition, because witha double sales were right away cut in half.
But she wrote enough fora triple album, which she'd decided against,
so she had compromised in a way. "I'm not worried about being morecommunicative in the conventional sense. I think it's a good sign,
because I can see myself as being sort of a snob in a way."
She meant intellectually, and I asked her if there was ever any conflict
between her and John over their respective backgrounds- hers Harvard
and artistically and intellectually elitist; his essentially that of a pop
musician. Friends, for instance.
Not really, she replied. John had begun in art school, so he had thatbackground, and he was already sophisticated enough to understandthat side of life. And her friends were certainly interested in talking toJohn, not just because he was John Lennon, but because of sharedinterests and subjects, like extra -sensory perception, say.
"From my point of view, I was just getting sick and tired of the pseudo intellectual, elitist atmosphere of the circle I was in, in London. I was
thinking, Am I gonna end up as the Queen Mother of the avant-garde
world, always meeting these snobs talking about elitist kicks?' and I wasstarting to feel frightened.
"I was 34 or whatever, and I could just see
myself as starting to be that -Women's
Wear Daily's idea of an artist? I put in- "Yes,and I didn't want to be that, that sort of liberal,
intellectual woman in her middle age, always
wearing a black turtleneck sweater. I didn't
want it, and I didn't know where to go, though.
"When ! started to make the Bottoms film
I became known in England in a strange sort ofway -like to taxi drivers, that sort of thing -andmy elite friends were so very upset about that.
They were saying, 'Well, she copped out, shewent commercial, or something.'"They thought it was a very vulgar move to
make. So I was already becoming very lonely,even before John and I got involved, because
my friends in the theatre world thought I was becoming vulgarly famous.
I said, 'It's great to communicate your art with the working class, what isthis?' But all the same they stopped inviting me to their tea party; just sortof inverted snobbery.
"Around this time ! met John. The first song we recorded on this album
was 'Song For John' and it was a song I made actually before I met him. I
was hoping to find somebody who'd flywith me, or whatever, and I madea demo record.
"In those days Island Records was interested in letting me do whatever!
wanted to do, which is sort of avant-garde music. I was thinking maybe it'sa good idea to include one or two straight songs on it and I made this demo.
"It's the first demo of mine that John listened to when he visited me, andthat's why, for sentimental reasons, I called it 'Song For Joh n' later. It's thesame tune, same lyrics.""It's easy tosay, 'All men
are pigs, let's

just get on
without them"communication, which has always been thebasis of any project she has been involved in.
"I think all my other things, like the screaming
and moaning and sighing, do express certain
emotions just as painful as this one, but just because of their abstract
nature..." The sentence trails away.
"Probably words are more tangible, more acceptable."

SHE'S SAD THAT the public still thinks of her essentially as Mrs
Lennon - ex-Beatle John's wife in England - rather than what she
does and has done as an artist. She's in her 40th year now and her
artistic status is relatively unknown; or at least, relatively

unappreciated. She's a celebrity, unfortunately.
She had started off being a household name and then had tried tocommunicate her art: that's how the public understood it. In fact, it
hadn't been like that at all. She had started off as an artist. Music wasn't
something she had happened on after she met Lennon. She was playing
piano and studying composition when she was five. By the time she went
to New York's Sarah Lawrence School she was interested in composing
music that challenged; she was looking for complexity. And so she wrote
songs with complex chords that it would be difficult for people to sing.
With the Flyalbum she was trying to expand certain possibilities ofform. With this one she was hoping to communicate with people who

LONG BEFORE SHE met Lennon, therefore, she had acquired
the knack of needling people, of forcing them, however
unconsciously, to take sides. It still goes on much the same asever, of course. She says that the sensitive people who wish them nicethings are too shy
to come forward,
so the ones they'realways facing, theones that say things
like 'You lap bastard'

LADY OF BIN
18 I HISTORY OF ROCK 1973

'PM ILMS304 NW MI

Yoko and John Lennon on stage at

Madison Square Garden, NYC.aspartof the Plastic Ono Magic Memory Band,
headlining a benefit concert for the
Willowbrook School for childenwith

mentaldisabilities,August 30.1972

come across better, if that's the word. Against all this flak, she said,
one could react in two ways. One was to be extremely callous about
everything, forget the muck -stirrer and escape from the world. The otherone was to become someone like Pat Nixon, and hide behind a smile:
those people who are so afraid, they don't speak a word, or if they do,make sure it doesn't mean anything. I didn't think the Lennons fitted
either of these categories.
Speaking of Pat Nixon, I asked her what woman she identified with, if at
all. "Well," she replied, "John had been saying we were Scott and Zelda,
because if I don't make this record I'm going to go insane. As an artist if
you have 20 ideas in your mind and for many reasons you feel you
shouldn't make it, then you go crazy."
But the Fitzgeralds were victims, weren't they? "Yes, we have that side,
we have that side. In a way we were going to be that and we overcame it.
Now it's the past."
So what women, I repeated, did she identify with?
"Joan OfArc, maybe," and she gave a small laugh.
But that was another victim?
"I know, but is there anywoman who isn't? I can't identifywith past
female figures, because they're mostly victims, and I really think I belong
in the next generation."
So did she see herself spearheading a whole feminist revolution?
"I think that crusading stuff the militant feminists are doing is a bit skindeep in away. I do understand their point, but I was trying to bring out theside that was deeper than that.
"You can't say, 'Let's dispense with all men and shove them into a slave
house or whatever.' Then the problem isn't over. With lesbianism andwhatever, all women are tempted to avoid a meeting with men at thispoint because we've been suffering so much, so it's easy to say, 'Well, men
are all pigs, let's just get on, without them.' I think it's like an escape."
Even with two women, I said, one of them would assume a male role.
"That's a possibility too, oh yes, and many women are getting into that
trap. I know lesbians who say, 'Look at those tits, they're just too good for
pigs', so they're commenting on sisters like they were pigs themselves."
But when she talked of moving society in a more feminine direction,
what did she mean by "more feminine"?
Most artists, she explained, were already very feminine. With theconventional idea of masculinity/femininity, masculinity was supposed
to be the symbol of power and competition.
And women weren't competitive?
"Well, we're masculine, most of us. In other words, the only reason we
get accepted in this society at all is to use the same game that men use, to

get there and be approved by the male society. I mean, men say, if you
want to be equal you gotta go to war. But not really, because if we bring out
the feminine side of society, nobody wants war."
India, I retorted, had a woman as prime minister, and her female
population was nothing if not subjugated.
"The reason is they have a masculine female as a prime minister.
Because it's a masculine society, most women who make it are not any
kinder to women at all; they're just like other men.
"It's amazingly similar to black society. The blacks who've made it inwhite society have sold their souls to the point of beingwhite, actually.
They look black, but they're white inside.
"That's why society is so perverted. They plant in you the idea thatunless you're aggressive you're gonna die or fail, and everyone is so
insecure, they're always trying to exert power..."

AT THIS POINT I leaned across and lit her cigarette. I asked if
my action offended her.
"No, no," she replied airily. "I light men's cigarettes too. I think
it's just being friendly."
But in New York, I continued, where homosexuality of both kinds wasvery overt, women seemed to be emasculating many heterosexual men.
Ah, she said, but the statistics showed that men were getting more
impotent, anyway- caused by severe, neurotic competition, she
supposed, between themselves. The more impotent they became, themore they had to compensate by seeking power; it was a vicious circle.
"That's why the typical male figure is Nixon, who has to ki112,000 people
a day to feel secure or something."
She stopped. She didn't want to pursue the conversation along the line ofpolitics. The immigration problem, she murmured. We talked about New
York. They liked living there, she said, because compared to other cities it
was pretty liberal, not just forwomen but for mixed, racial marriages, liketheirs. England was basically a WASP society. Only when you went to arestaurant did you see foreigners -and theywere cooks and waiters.
I asked her if she and John were happy people. Not necessarily, she
replied, but she said it lightly.
"Sometimes we're very happy, sometimes we're not. We're human.
There was a negative situation at one time, like Scott and Zelda, but weovercame that because we were a bit more aware, thank God.
"Maybe I'm stronger than Zelda and John is a bit more aware than Scott,or because we live in a more aware age. Being two artists living together,
we're doing prettywell considering."
She smiled. It had an air of optimism. Michael Watts
HISTORY OF ROCK 1973 119

0JA HARI

-OH

1973

"

VOr

4t,

le
414

'kr

at 'ern?"

Smile

I do?

"What
shouldAn intimate
audiencewith MILES DAVIS

quickly becomeswitty, passionate
rant about the record
business. "I will make
$500,000 in a year,"says Miles. "But I will
do it for five dollars if
my music would get toJuly 8,1973:Miles
Davisand his septet,
with Reggie Lucasvisible behind him,on stage at theMontreux Jazz
Festival, Switzerland

HISTORY OF ROCK 1973

1973-05
JA URISo all those whites bought his records, told him they were mad abouthim, went to his concerts in droves -well, he was just gonna turn his backand play that trumpet, look cold and mean and splendid in the spotlight,
and let them come to him, because he was Miles and didn't even need asurname to be remembered by. lust Miles.
And him playing jazz, too -jazz in this time of rock'n'roll, and theatre rock and soul! Especially soul, what with Sly
Stone and all. So here he is, a black man in his

forties who plays trumpet of all things, not evenguitar, and he's a bona fide superstar- the only
jazz superstar as far as all those out there in thegreat global village of rock'n'roll and beyond areconcerned. Ask them.
"Well, I don't reallylike jazz, but Miles Davis,
sure, I've heard of him." It's really sweet.
Yes, it's sweet to have the man at Columbia
Records ring up and say, "Hey, Miles, I have a cat"I get tiredof critics.
They don't doanything inthis business"here who wants to do an interviewwith you
sometime this week," and him to croak over the
telephone in that weird voice of his, "Not thisweek, man; if he wants to do it he's gotta do it
now, right this hour, right this minute, right
NOW!" That's called being Miles, and the hell you don't do it his way!
So sure, I dropped everything. I got a cab straight away and went out tohis place on West 77th, and I didn't even have to look for the number toknow that Miles lived there.

AMID THE SHEER perpendicularity of those towering concrete
blocks was this rococo house front inset with two arched,heavy wooden doors and looking like the El Morocco club
someplace. I chose the door on the left, which opened easily, and stoodin a small, stone entrance.
On my right were the speaker buttons for the four apartments in thebuilding, but before I could press the one furthest left, marked "Davis",
a door opposite swung open and there was this young guywho seemed tohave been waiting for me all the time. Although he was black his hair was
thick and straight, like a white boy's, and combed right back. He wore
a beard and a faintly amused expression, like, "Boy, do you know what
you've let yourself in for?"A flight of stairs was facing, but we entered a door on the right. Insidethere hung a pale gloom like that of a church vestry, which tapered awayin the left directions to stark, cold light, splashing through cream -stucco
arches and disclosing a small, walled courtyard at the end. But here in thedarkness, lit by a softly glowing light, was the centrepiece: an electricorgan, with a large, beaten gong hanging just beyond the keyboard, likean instrument of Damocles.
There was a tiger's head resting with bared teeth in one corner anda stack of black amplifiers in the other. On top of them lay a pale -green
horn and a sign made out of thick cardboard, like those that hotel guests
can hang outside their doors. It said: No Visitors.
The guy, thickset and in jeans, led the way up a short flight of steep stairs
set against a wall opposite. At the top it was even darker, with a clinging,musky smell. As I came off the top step, blinking, I was confronted witha small open alcove made in what appeared to be dark marble. One side
was a large mirror; the nearest side
was scooped out. Through it I could
make out the upper half of areclining figure, red-shirted backpropped against a chair, legs
clothed in beige tartan slacks
resting on a marble shelf. It was
unclear at first, even though thealcove was brightly lit, because of

the surrounding darkness.
I walked around the alcove,through another arch, and was
suddenly brought up to find myself
in a bedroom. The bed lay in a pit
and in the bed, tangled in the white
sheets, was a light -skinned girllying fast asleep. I paused andlooked back into the alcove. The
figure was regarding me with
22 I HISTORY OF ROCK 1973

sombre eyes. The hair was wet and its damp straggles were now being
combed by the first guy. The face was very dark and its bones were fine,even delicate, but under the bright bulb it seemed shrunken and pinched.
The eyes were huge, like bush baby's orbs, almost impoverishing the restof his features, and they just stared and stared. It was a full 30 seconds
before I realised I was looking at Miles Davis.
"Huh?" he croaked, so low I could barely
hear him.
Miles' voice is a phenomenon. It's a hoarse
whisper, strained through his larynx like a sieve.
He dredges it up slowly through the whole of his
body, but it barely leaves his lips. It just hangs avague sibilance in the air, like the effort of adying man. At first it's both incomprehensible
and comic. Instinct ivelyyou cock your head toone side to catch what he's saying. But gradually
you adjust to its level, as you would twiddle thedials on a radio to get its tuning.
"Hi," I blurted. He just kept on staring slowly
around him, as if it was painful to speak. I
shifted awkwardly. There were bottles andlotions on the shelf. The air was heavy with thesmell of something. It was quiet, a thick, carpeted silence, except for the
gentle swish of the comb and the occasional click of the scissors wieldedby his barber -cum -personal assistant.
Nothing was said. Until: "How long was you waiting to press that bell?"he enquired at last in that peculiar whisper. "Ten, maybe 15 seconds,"
I replied in a somewhat hushed voice. In that atmosphere a hush seemed
appropriate. "We was having a bet," he explained slowly. "Yeah, see, youowe me five bucks," said his assistant quite loudly. To me: "We werebetting how long it'd take you to ring."
Miles waved his hand loosely. "Take a look around downstairs, if you
want to," he said, but I didn't hear him at first. "What?" He repeated it.
I went down to the first floor. Past the vestry there was a fur rug on theslabbed floor. It opened out into an airy room with a couch, and beyond
more arches was a wide glass window from floor to ceiling. Against one
wall was a chromium -gleaming porterised bed. A reminder of his
accident of two months ago when he crashed his Lamborghini and broke
both ankles. I climbed the stairs again.
He was still there, though for some reason I hadn't expected him to be.
The silence was pregnant with possibilities. But after a few minutes heeased himself out of his chair and came slowly towards me. I realised
suddenly that although apparently recovered his legs still pained him.
He pushed me over to the dark section of the room, which was elevatedfrom the rest, found a Sony cassette machine and inserted a small tape.
He motioned to the floor. "Siddown, siddown," he breathed heavily, andthen leaned over and literally jammed these headphones over my ears.
"My new album," he muttered, and pressed the button.

miles

Davis

What I heard was obviously unfinished but undeniably exciting.
Fiercely percussive- there were three drummers- it consisted ofa circular rhythm, almost a loop that was the nearest thing to a soulgroove that I've yet heard from him. Horns were kicking along with therhythm and he was playing electric piano. It sounded like the next stepon from his On The Corner a !bum, which in turn has an affinity with Sly
Stone's music.

theCornerMiles disappeared into the
bedroom and I looked around me.
In the half-light rested a large, semicircular sofa made of some hide, infront of wh ich was a table that helda wire sculpture which bobbed andweaved when you touched it. Miles
the boxer, I thought, obliquely.
Packed tight behind this was a piano,
jammed almost up against a shelfcontaining four -track cartridges.
On a low table rested a gold-plated
Bell telephone, one of those early -style instruments which havebecome voguish in the past two years
and on top of the piano a gold recordfor Bitches Brew. More golds lined
the walls. An unopened bottle ofvalpolicella stood forgotten on a shelf. And over
all this was that indefinable musk.
The master returned, only to beckon me into
the bedroom. I was beginning to think he washouse proud, in his way. Also, I was starting towonderwhen he'd loosen up enough to talk.
"I ain't been to sleep for three days," he croaked
at me, as if byway of explanation. "Beenmaking this music." Then: "Go on, have a lookin there." He was pointing to the bathroom.
I d id as I was told.

IN THE BEDROOM he was looking
through a long rack of clothes. The chickstill lay coiled in the same position. Twocolour televisions flickered noiselessly oneach side of the bed. The house appeared
without much life or cheer. But there wasthe animation of his presence, dark andunassuming. "Be right with you," his face
flashed at me. I went back and sat on the sofa
to wait. I calculated that in the past half-hour
since I'd entered the place he'd said maybe
half a dozen sentences. I pushed the wire
sculpture and half -consciously sparred withit, then glanced at a car brochure for a Duster
Valiant Barracuda. It was a well-founded
reputation, I thought.
He was around 15 more minutes. In that time
two white musicians arrived and one began toplay the electric organ downstairs; the otherhad a sax. Also in the meantime his assistantwent into the bedroom with his scissors andwhat seemed to be a stretch bandage. At one
time I heard a hoarse scream followed by a"F-" that was clearly audible. And then hecame out. He'd put on shoes, his red shirt wasbuttoned up, and his hair, receding a little at thesides, was all prettified. It was as if he had toface the world on his terms.
He sat right up close to me and rasped in avoice like a thin file, "Whadda ya wanna know?
Whadda yawanna know?" The organ wasplaying distantly, ethereally. Very unreal.
I asked him who was playing on his new
album. Well, it seemed like as good an opening
as any.
"I'm not gonna tell you," he whispered fromabout nine inches away. "Nobody's ever heardof 'em. New guys. One's a statistician; he's an

November )7,1973:
Davis backstage at the
De Doelen concert
hall in Rotterdam,

Netherlands, during
the Newport Jazz
Festival I n Europe tour

Indian. I don't wanna tell their names, y'know,
because critics...""Miles!" The chick's voice came from within
the bedroom, and then she appeared at the entrance, wrapped in a towel
or something.
"Yes, babe," he said. She looked at the two of us and disappeared. He
looked at me, frowning at the question he'd forgotten.
The critics? He settled slowly into an answer. "Yeah, I don't put any
names or instrumentation on it, and then thecritics'll have to listen. I'm gonna tell you what's
on it, man. Whateveryou think is on it. You know,
I get tired of people... critics. They don't doanything in this business. Without a musician'srecord what's a disc jockey- nothing."
But...
"There's no but, there's no but," he rapped
sharply. "There's no critic in the world thatknows as much of my music as I do. There's nobut, period."
Did that go for black and white critics? Hestared hard. "It goes for critics even if they're
green! Sheee-it! All black musicians don't haverhythm, you know." He looked at his hands. "But

I didn't put those names on On TheCornerespecially for that reason, so
now the critics have to say, 'What's that instrument, and what's this?' I
told them not to put any instrumentation on, but they did. I'm not evengonna put my picture on albums anymore. Pictures are dead, man. You
close your eyes and you're there."I asked what he was going to put on future
covers, then. He nodded to a stack of portfolios
in a corner which were full of cartoons. "Things"Every time
Quincy Jones
comes to town
he comes here.
I dunno why!"

like that, man." He gave me a weary look. "Yousee, if I explain things they use it in London.
My advice is expensive. You have to watch that.
People pick your brains. Every time Quincy
Jones comes to town he comes here- and I
dunno why! He just sits up here. Ifyou don't
have it in you there's nothing... you know."
The notion of the critics struck him again.
"They'll see your name," he said simply, "andsay, 'Oh, I know how he plays...'"
E.
He picked up an acoustic guitar and ran his
right hand aimlessly over the strings. "If you're x.
HISTORY OF ROCK 1973

23

1973

JANUARY -0"

TheMilesDavisnonetin
Marcht973,including(1-r)
ReggiLucas,Lonnie
ListonSmith,DaveLiebman,PeteCosey,
MichaelHenderson,
AlFosterand MilesDavisAV/

a musician," he muttered "youshould always keep somethingin your hand." He plucked softly,
and then gave the strings
a savage slash. "Oh shit..."I mentioned that particular
guitar. "Oh, Gil (Evans) gave it tome when we made Sketches Of
Spain," he replied, then broke
off. "I gotta have one of yourcigarettes." He picked up thecigarettes and started undoing the already -opened pack from the wrong
end. I had to help him.
"I've been up for three days," he explained again, "writing this f-ing
music!" His accent was vituperative. "And Columbia ain't gonna sell it,
anyway. They sell all the pretty little faggot -looking white boys, that's
their thing. I just got an offer from Motown for this new album.
"You know, I will make $500,000 in a year, but I will do it for five dollars
if my music would get to the black people, and Columbia couldn't get
albums into Harlem." He played a loud discord. "That's what I'm told by
the vice-president. He don't talk to me on the phone or nothing."(After this interview 1 spoke to Bob Altshuler, director of information
services for Columbia, who pointed out amiably, as if he'd heard it all
before, that there was no way Miles could leave the record company. He
was under contract. "This is his way of pressuring Columbia," he said.
"We talk to him every day. He needs reassurance.")
Miles was talking to his assistant, who was leaving, about some clothes.
In a few days' time he was about to play two nights at the Village East, theold Fillmore. "They should have a Stirling Cooper over here," he muttered,and got up and walked to the bedroom to speak to the girl.
When he came back the white sax player was sitting down. He was baldon top with long hair down the sides and back, and wearing a pair of hornrims. "This is Dave Liebman," Miles croaked. "He's on the album." Theguy nodded silently. He sat listening without saying a word.
I reminded Miles he'd been accusing Columbia of not pushing his
records in Harlem. "I'm not white and Jewish, man," he replied. But did hethink more whites than blacks bought his records?
"I don't care who buys the records as long as they get to the black people,
so I will be remembered whenldie." He said the last sentence softly. "I'm
24 I HISTORY OF ROCK 1973

not playing for any white people, man. I wan na hear a black guy say,
'Yeah, I dig Miles Davis. I'd like to play like that I'm not prejudiced, you
know. But I lean towards that. It would knock me out if a little kid...
Y'know, the closest thing that happened to me was that the doctor
brought his son over to the hotel and his son was asking him why don't hehave a house like mine." He laughed for the first time.
"Aw shit. But you know they sell a guy's ass down. Engelbert
Hu mperd inck" - the name came haltingly off his tongue - "I never had
any o' this. You know, whatchamacall it came by here, what's his name?
A Rolling Stone."
Mick Jagger?
"Yeah, so Al lAronowitz, the writer! said, 'Lemme in, it's M ick Jagger'.
I said, 'Man, sheeit! F-- Mick Jagger.' I was f --d, man, why should I let
him in? Maybe if it had been Ray Robinson." He paused and threaded his
fingers across the guitar strings.
I mentioned to him that Jagger had gone to see Chick Corea, his former
alumnus, down in the village, and that Chick had done pretty well when
he played Ronnie Scott's in London a couple of months back.
He turned and looked at me. "He did pretty well?You mean England did
good." There was no answer to that.
I asked him when was the last time he'd played any clubs. He stopped
plucking and tried to think. "I don't know. I can't remember." Then:"Denver, in October. Then, when ! came home, I was driving and broke
both of my ankles. I was cruising, you know, but I was still up from that gig
in Denver. I musta hypnotised myself, 'coslwent right up fast."
A wet road? "Yeah, I was only doing about 30 miles an hour. I ran up on
an island. I was just tired." Pluck, pluck. "I f ---d the car up, but it wasn't
a mess. I got a new one. A Ferrari. I'd already noticed a toy Ferrari lying on
the table in front of us. Cars and horns- his two passions. And women.

"Y'know," he said after awhile, "I'd rather play trumpet than f-,
because you really get a thrill when you do someth in' with a group.
I mea n, it's something. Anybody can f-. I think making love isa little bit, well..." He dissolved into deep, gruff mirth, like a wheeze.
I said, talking about trumpets, he didn't seem to be playing quite asmuch these days. There was less emphasis on notes and phrases.
"That's a matter of opinion, he answered abruptly. "When I was withBird, Fats Navarro used to say I played too fast all the time, but I couldn't
swing with Max Roach 'cos he couldn't swing. I mean, because you havetechnique you don't have to use it. You use it when you feel like it. I mean,

MILES DAVIS

you can run, but if you can walk you walk, right? You do what you gotta do.
It's called good taste. I playwhatever comes into myblack head, man."
The critics, of whom he had been so contemptuous, had also claimed
he'd been influenced the past couple of years by Sly Stone. I left theinsinuation hanging in the conversation.
He drew his breath in. I wondered what he was going to say.
"You ever hear Sly Stone play like On The Corner?" he replied at last.
It was one of those questions that wouldn't brook an answer.
A certain rhythmic... I began to say.
"We're both black!" he snorted. "I tell you something, man, it makes
me so fg mad, when people say, 'This is influenced by this, this is
influenced by that'."He pointed to Liebman, silent and intent in the corner. "He doesn't play
like Coltrane, but the critics will say so! Howthe f- am I gonna play likeSly Stone? Slywants me to produce him! They have a nice group but they
don't have any intelligence, man!" The last part of his sentence rose in a
crescendo, as if any collaboration was somehow unthinkable. But helistened? "Sure, I listen to everybody." He stopped. "I don't listen to thosewhite groups." He fumbled for another cigarettein my pack. The remnants of three others he'd lit
lay in an ashtray. Hardly smoked, theywere
three short columns of grey ash, smouldering.
He rested the fourth cigarette in the tray and thefragile columns crumbled.

every 12 months. "I don't even need it, man." He sounded very tired. "If
I sweep your porch I'd get 15 dollars, but if I play trumpet on your porch
it's a different thing." Silence.
Did this help to explain whywhen he was playing concerts, whichusually have more whites than blacks, he turned his back on the audience?
"No, no, it has nothing to do with it." He stared very hard. Remember, hisface was only a few inches from mine.
"What do you mean by turning my back on the audience?" His tone wasvery tart. "What should I do? Smile at 'ern?" he asked witheringly.
"I just do what I feel like doing. I have the product. I can dance and allthat shit, and box, but I do it when I feel like it. Listen, man, listen" impatient - "when I step out on that stage ! don't even see those people,
I don't care where it is. I can't be looking at those people and thinking
about what they think of me, here or anyplace else."
But it all contributed to his image.
"There is no image, man." He said the word as if he'd never heard of it
before. "If I don't concentrate on what I'm doing and listen, I can't play
the shit, and then they won't get anything. I mean, I can't be looking at
some bitch, man, smiling and goin' on, evenin my mind. If I did I'd take my horn down
and go out and do that. Takes a lotta energy toplay an instrument. I lose about four pounds."
He laid the guitar aside and took out anotherof my cigarettes.
I decided to ask him again about his album.
A young black guy, a dancer I later found out,
was now in the room, listening to the Sony on
the phones and now and then giving out awhoop. I mentioned to Miles his electric piano
playing. He was hunched over the guitar again.
"Well, I only play to get the idea how it's
supposed to go," he said slowly, "but it always
turns out that my piano playing -I hate thatword 'better' but... it brings out the band, anddoesn't clutter up too much, either. When I play piano in my band theyswing. When my piano player plays they swing sometimes, but they don'tswing all the time. I don't worry about anything 'cos I have Reggie [Lucas,
guitarist in Miles' electric band] , y'know, the rhythm swings, but you
have to watch a musician and anticipate it."
I could hear the percussion sound on the tape, a hard, chunky pulse.
Out of the blue I asked him if he'd ever heard of the Japanese percussionist
Stomu Yamashta. I told him he used about 40 percussion instruments onstage. He gave me that intimidating stare of his.
"What you askin' me for? He should be in a circus." The idea amusedhim. "Let him play on Christmas, and maybe Jesus'll come down."
Well, I had to laugh at that. Black humour is really, but really, thedescription for Miles.
I didn't get to hear any more of it. He'd decided the interview wasfinished. He had to go downstairs and rehearse with Liebman. He went
into the bedroom and came out with a brown poncho; very slowly hepulled it over his head and buckled a belt around his middle. The dancer
asked incredulously if he was going out. Miles said nothing. Just walked
painfully down those stairs. Never said goodbye.
I put on my coat and talked to the dancer for a few minutes, took a lastlook around the dream home, and descended those stairs.
Miles hadn't left. He was standing against one to those Moroccan
arches, a phone in his hand -one of those phones where the dial is set into
the receiver. The fingers of his other hand were revolving the dial. He
didn't lookup as I spoke to him.
"Goodbye, it was good meetingyou," I said.
He continued dialling. "Why?" he replied shortly.
I mumbled something, and, held out my hand. He grasped it in his.
"I don't mean to be rude," he said tiredly. "It's just... I haven't slept forthree days."
He still hadn't taken his eyes off the phone. Michael Watts"Sure, I listen
to everybody.
I don't listen
to those whitegroups"But, I persisted, how about Carlos Santana, say?
"Why should I playwith him? No, I'd only be in
his way. I just tell you this. They don't have themusical knowledge that Dave has." He pointed
again. "Or me. Or Chick Corea. And neither did
Jimi Hendrix. Jimi Hendrix could swing, but notwith Mitch, with Buddy M iles. Boy, that album
was outasight! Buddy gets so he sounds like ahillbilly, man." He chuckled, "I mean, there's
places to go. Jimi-he couldn't change. He hadda
be brought up, he had to study. I started when I was 12."
A lack of musical education? Was that it?
"That's what it is, yeah. But you don't have to read. It's not necessary."
I asked how he found his musicians.
"I pick 'em up just like you pick up a girl." Laughter. "I don't go anywheremuch, y'know.A lot of 'em come to me but I don't hire 'em. There's a lotta
reasons. A guy might have too much ego and can't play with a group andbe a good player."But he seemed to have had a good working relationship with John
McLaughlin?
"Yeah, he played different when he played with us. He gets it on. I got
John setup, ain't that a bitch?" He was looking across at Liebman, whojust smiled faintly and said nothing. It amused Miles. "I got him set up!
I sent him to Nat Weiss. See, I know these people. When I make a record
and it sounds good they say, 'Well, that's Miles.' Y'know, it's supposed tosound good. That's why I'm leaving Columbia, man. I'm not gonna give
'em this latest album. I'm gonna give it nobody." There was a slightly
gleeful look in his face.
But he'd release it sometime, surely?
"I'll erase it," he replied bluntly. "I told Clive [Davis, head of CBS] . I senta telegram. I told him he should get a black... he should use his sources allover the country and get a black man who thinks black to sell the music toblack people, 'cos the white people seem to know about it. But everybody
is scared to go into the black neighbourhood. Nobody gets up town, you
know. And a lot of white musicians, they have friends up town. Shit, yourrecord'll never get up there.
"See. I'm on the Columbia mailing list. I get alist and it's all white guys
with long hair." He ran his hands down the side of his face -"and pretty
faces, trying to show their muscles and their pricks and stuff. I mean
what the f- is that? I'm afraid to play the album, you know what I mean?
I mean, it's great for white boys to say I'd like to look like that when I growup, but what's the black boy gonna say?"
He leaned back against the sofa, as if he'd made up his mind
on something. "No, no, I'm not getting into a discussion ofwhite and black. I'm just saying that a Chinaman knows how
to sell it, knows where it should go, but not me." He passed
a hand wearily across his high forehead.
Did he feel exploited, then? "I've been exploited for 10 years,man." But he could still make 500,000 dollars at the end of

11111LE$1

19731.

A year after playing The
Dark Side O/ TheMoonto

selectedjournalistsat

JUNIN -OM lir

London's Rainbow theatre,

Pink Floydarereadyto
unveiltherecorded versio

Enormous... overwhelmingly
impressive
MAR 10OL

Floyd premiere ltie Dark ;)/4.11;u:: ili;OA. 1.tiiitiun's'lair:.,........, although the band are present only in cardboard cut-out form.

BEFORE THIS LITTLE episode begins,nay I just say that the finest album
ever made was Ummagumma. To

The Moon. The cabby seemed interested when
we asked for the London Planetarium. Why,I don't know. It seemed an honest request for8.30 at night.
"The stars are better there," I told him. "They
ain't too bad above Oxford Street either," said
cabbie. Shrewd bugger. The invitation to thereception at thePlanetarium read:better it would be like attempting to redesign
sunrise. Thank you.
On Tuesday morning I read my stars in the
DailyMirror, which for the third consecutive
day told of travel to unusual places. Little
did I know that it would he The Dark Side Of

0,001

0

jkl.LRIGHTS OF TH...

8.45 -9.30 -The World
Premiere of The Dark Side
OfThe Moon, Pink Floyd

Ale?41,9*.,9Aoti

8-8.40pm- reception,
cocktails in theArcade.

4f4A.,EMI/

Harvest,4+00

album, beneaththe stars of The'S.

0

PINK FLOYD

DE 1

STEREO) 1973SC 062-05249

c Gramophone(5C 062.05249-A.

mpany LonsilledC(a; (1) SPEAK TO ME (Mason)on the inside ofa hollowed -out
concrete egg"

amusements in The Arcade.
There were old boys with relics'S.
fn
of World War Ion their faces. They
were wonderfully tolerant and00cheerful as hordes of the London
Freakery began to arrive. Coats0

THE DARK SIDE OF THE MOON

"It's like standing

Planetarium.
9.35 -11pm -Dinner, hot buffet and0were duly hung and we wa ndered in. It's
virtually the same building as Madame
Thssauds, so one met with signs like "Battle Of
Trafalgar, turn right". But we turned left, andsaw the hall packed with London reception
goers, all drinking and nattering.
"Hello lovey, how you doin'?" "Fine, great. Did
you see Johnny Maraccas lastnight? Wasn't he great?"...
That sort of thing, for ages.
I'd noticed, before entering
theArcade, a large desk,and sat behind that large
desk were life-sized
cardboard cut-outs of Pink
Floyd. "Nice to see the lads
are here," I remarked.
It was rather surreal. There they sat,motionless, a normal habit with cardboard.
"Hi, haven't seen you for light years"... so went
the conversation as people got into the Mother

Earth/Starship Earth/Cosmic conversation
pieces. Light ales later, we slouched upstairs
past photos of Venus in springtime and totaleclipses of Patrick Moore. Then the air
became colder, and we walked into thechilly Planetarium.
It's rather like standing on theinside of a hollowed -out concrete egg.
In the middle is this obscene sci-fi
instrument, rather like a robot. It is
this that creates the stars and theirmotions. Set about the circular room
were vast speakers designed to give
quadrophonic. They crackled.
The egg filled, and the lights
dimmed. Laughter from one quarter.
A bum pinched, no doubt.
And then it began. And it was indeed
weird. TheDarkSideOfTheMoon- Pink
Floyd. Nine months in the making.

THE THICK THUMP, thestaggered bumping ofa heartbeat filled theblackness, gaining in volume andintensity until it packed against yourprocession, came
Patrick Moore, clothed
in gold followed by ahost of angels in whitesamite and Marks &Spencers tights. Patrick
picked up a star -shaped
guitar and jammed in
the sky.
To the left, near the
Post Office Tower
skyline, 40 meteors sped
across the sky. The
sight was indeed

amazing, but lessamazing as the
projectors
showed the same
movement eighttimes over -and

REVIEW

Floyd fell into ajungle of nothing.
Quite a few people
were beginning to chatter,whole body. Such a glorious feeling.
and light cigarettes. A naughty thing to do.
That feeling of being immersed inmusic that is so very sacred to Floyd.
You see, when you light a cigarette in thePlanetarium a blinding light fills the hall when
The heartbeats faded to blend intoa gushing stream of noise, andthe match is struck -thus ruining every patternin the sky.
colour that split the room open,
A dozen fags were lit within seconds- and forImperial Floyd.
Black bag darkness gave way to thea moment we were given insight into what 40
warmth of starlight as the Planetarium
Heinkels could do over London. Flash... flash...
flash... It was the Blitz.
sky winked and twinkled into life.
"'Ere look, there's the Plough... And...
And then, as people found more fun in being
and... there's the Bear," we were all
funny, the shape of a bunny rabbit appeared on
one wall. This was done by holding a lighted
quite moved. I was moved enough to
fumble in the darkness fora light ale,match behind a hand and performing tricks
smuggled in. It fell over.
with the fingers.
Now asIsay- it was all very moving,
Later, after several other attempts at rabbits,
I witnessed a swan in strangled flight, andbeing slumped back in a chaira brace of doves. Then some enterprisingsurrounded by stars and heavy,
fellow scooped the impromptu magic -lantern
dribbling, gurgling, rushing music...
climaxes, and quiet periods, and fiddly bits.
showwith an enormous portrayal ofa naughty thing.
There were a lot of fiddly
With Capricorn rising
bits, and as they fiddled
and hearts falling, theonwards, they fiddled into"One song infirst side plunged to
nothing. Oh dear.
a halt. Oh, what a waste ofYes, 10 minutes fromwonderful talent. I mean,
blast-off the music became
the heartbeat thing was
so utterly confused withjust magnificent. Thought
itself that it was virtually
I was really going toimpossible to follow. It wasn't
witness anotherjust a case of that either.
Ummagumma- something so incredible
It was becoming less and less attractive, andthat you couldn't move or think of anything
after 15 minutes diabolically uninteresting.
else while it was playing.
This was a dreadfully disappointing moment,
Mild applause greeted the completion of theand only coloured by the fact that shooting
first side, and the houselights were turned onstars appeared, and shot out of the room into
to reveal a horde of faces. They looked slightly
Baker Street.
bored. They had every right to be. Cosmic
Over Notting Hill a squad of stars so intense
Ripples and Spaceship Icebergs on sticks
with white light baffled winos lying in thefailed to arrive.
gutters. And then, from the west i n magnificent

THE LIGHTS DIMMED again, and thesound of coins entering a cashbox, or
telephone money box, pierced the air
in rhythmic ways. Sonata for the cash -box,
something like that, and it was good. It
became more intense, clashy, and clangy,
and spirited by God - as did the whole of Side
Two. It was fabulous.
Although the Planetarium sky became
increasingly boring -the music lifted, as did myhead and heart. The songs, the sounds, therhythms were solid and sound. Saxophone hit
the air, and the band rocked and rolled, andthen gushed, and tripped away into the night.
One song in particular was extremely
Sydbarrettsian to the point of being a straightlift from any offhe Lost Hero's songs.
Yes, Sydbarrettsian. Awell-spokenlankvoice,well echoed, and sad, with wonderfullyobvious
rhyming to the lyrics. Barrett still exists, youknow, and it was pleasing that the best track on
this album is 80 percent -plus influenced by him.
And I'll back that up in argument with anybody.
This track and what followed presented Floyd
as Floyd should be, enormous, and massive,and overwhelmingly impressive. It was herethat quadrophonic finally hit upon me. Here it
became valid, and not some expensive toy.
I can assure you that, in stereo, Side Two isequally fabulous. The title track faded into
the heartbeat, and the music left the room.
I remember sitting, laying back, and breathingout. Nice one.
But whatever happened to Side One? Ninemonths in the making... And only one goodside? But draw your own conclusions when you
buy this album. Which you should do, 'cos likethe Stones and The Beatles, the Floyd were also
what was -and hopefully still is -all right.

particular was
extremely
Sydbarrettsian"

RoyHollingworth

THE MIRK SIDE OF THE FbOYD
BEFORE this littlemayepisode begins,say. that
I justthe finest album evermade vvas "gumma." To better it
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"Pd..' . 1?.1n...' Flord's new1973
JANUARY

MARCH

"Pl3

fit. lands apart in Sam Peckinpah's

Pat Garrett And Billy
The Kid. In the Mexican

desert and the skies
above it, MM observes
the process, andultimately meets the manhimself. "I would hope hewould do his own film,"
says Rudy Wurlitzer.
"Because he's an artistand he can't help it...""He'scompletely
authentic"
MELODY MAKER :EBRUARY 3-

UN DER ANY OTHER circumstances the remark wouldn't have been unusual.
But today, riding this plane 20,000 feet above the Mexican desert, with thesepeople, wow, the normality of it struck a freaky note.
The little guy with the pale, wispy beard and the worn black stovepipe hat, who
had not spoken much to anybody these past few weeks, had sidled cautiously
down the aisle of the aircraft and nudged me abruptly on the shoulder. The
distant view of the mesas, like red, swollen welts, lying thousands of feet below, switched suddenly
to a close-up of blue, almost translucent eyes.
"You with MelodyMaker?" he demanded. Surprised nod. "Is Max Jones still working there?"
Max Jones? Yes, sure he was but... you remember!

A slight, unsmiling inclination of the fuzzy, black -topped head leaning over the seat. It stretchedback all of 10 years now to the time when this young folkie played the Royal Festival Hall. He wasonly a kid then, but he'd stayed at the swanky Mayfair Hotel. He drank beaujolais, wore jeans, boots
and a leather jacket. He told everyone he wrote "finger -pointing" songs. He told Max Jones.
As a matter of fact, it had been the first time Bob Dylan was ever interviewed in Britain.

RODOLFO THE GLASSES knew all about Durango. He had carried my bags to the roomon the fourth floor of the Camino Real Hotel, the most space-age in Mexico City, where
the porters wore black capes printed with gold lozenges. Rodolfo was fussing with thecurtains while waiting for his tip.
"Durango? Si, si." He pushed his dark glasses further back on his nose, a short, stocky Mexican,
eager to please as always the Americanos. "Very, very hot, very dry." His hands moved likebutterflies. "Make lots of films there." A pause. He brightens. "You go for film?" x.
28 I HISTORY OF ROCK 1973

Dylan as Alias in Pat

GarrettAndBilly The
Kid -a smallrole he wasoffered throughtheintervention of his andKris Kristofferson's
manager Bert Block

THE MAN CALLED

ALMS

1973
.

JANUMI1-0".

!At.

* DinectorSam
Peckinpahgives..Dylandirectiononset
n Durango,Mexico

Sam Peckinpah, I muttered. "Sam Peckinpah!" he burst out. "Sam, he
my friend!" It was as if the name of his own father had been invoked. "He
stay here. Great man -he drinks, drinks mucho." He put one hand to his
lips and tilted back an imaginary glass, then shook his head in puredelight. I slipped the coins into his free hand.
"Thank you, senor. Muchas gracias." He moved away. "Tell him, when
you see him," he said, closing the door, "you saw Rodolfo." He pointed tohis eyes. "He remember the glasses." I could hear the faint chuckle as hedisappeared down the corridor.
Sam Peckinpah! The terrible, if no longer the enfant, of Hollywood,
the apostle of ultra -violence, even before Kubrick, the director of The
Wild Bunch and Straw Dogs, the boozer, the wild man, the misogynist- that devil. In these times of spoof Westerns, Westerns a la Warhol,
neo-realism Westerns, anything -to -be -different Westerns, Peckinpah
remained a hardliner in his attitudes towards how cowboy movies
should be made. He believed in physicality and hardcore action,
adhering to the myth of the Western but intent at the same time to dirty
it up, to show some of the scabby underbelly. His pictures were made formen, just as surely as he was a man's man, and his tough outlook on bothlife and movies had spun a cult around him that had not been achieved
without mishaps along the way.
After his first two pictures, The Deadly Companions and Ride The HighCountry, he had made Major Dundee in 1964 with Charlton Heston, but
the producer, Jerry Wexler (of Atlantic Records fame), had it re-edited.
He then went through a period of disillusionment. The producer of The
Cincinnati Kid, Martin Ransohoff, sacked him, he lost a lot of dough, went
in for hard drinking, and had wife trouble (he's twice married anddivorced his Mexican wife, Begonia, and wedded the middle of last year
a 29 -year -old blonde, English secretary, Joie, whom he met in
Twickenham while in England for the shooting of Straw Dogs).
Then, after a period in television, he made The Wild Bunch with William
Holden, which capitalised in a tremendously successful fashion on theatmosphere of acceptable violence that was permeating motion pictures.
It turned around his ailing reputation at the same time that his slowmotion depiction of carnage made him the controversial eye of a criticalwhirlpool surrounding his bloody permissiveness. "I want to rub theirnoses in violence," he told Time magazine. "I regard all men as violent,
including myself." He had gone on to direct Dogs with Dustin Hoffman
and Junior Bonner and The Getawaywith Steve McQueen, all of which
delineated further his buckets -of -blood approach to movie -making.
But now! No film of his had whipped up so much pre-release
speculation as the present one, Pat Garrett And Billy The Kid, not so much
30 I HISTORY OF ROCK 1973

because of him this time or his celluloid theories, but because of a certain"actor". I mean, James Coburn had done scores of films, like The
Magnificent Seven, and Jason Robards Jr was in Peckinpah's The Ballad ofCable Hogue, and Kris Kristofferson might be a famous folksinger but he'dalso acted already in two movies, Cisco Pikeand Blume In Love (withGeorge Segal: to be released in May).
But Bob Dylan! Bob Dylan and Sam Peckinpah! At first glance it was
oldAmerica meeting the new, the traditionalist values of the Westencountering the pop surrealism of the East. It was a symbolic meetingof two vastly different generations, of two attitudes to life. It was all this,but more. Beneath the skin depth lay other meanings.
FOR PECKIN PAH, THE inclusion in his movie of Dylan, andto a lesser extent Kristofferson (whose lifestyle may be rockbut who has much of the traditional about him), represents
a mellowed acceptance of the youth culture and its totems, aphenomenon to which he has been totally deaf in his past work.
Doubtless he has been somewhat persuaded by their box-office appeal
to the rock generation, which MGM studios, his financiers, will havepointed out.
But to Dylan the role is of much more momentous importance. He is theageing and long -appointed prophet, who has grown old and increasingly
distant in a role which foryears has held for him no relevance yet which
seems effectively to have constrained his talents.
It is more than two years since he made his last album, New Morning,
and there are apparently no plans for another solo venture; his contract
with Columbia Records has run out, although he can't deliver an album
to another company unless he wishes to forego huge royalties CBS are
holding. He has constantly intimated to friends that he is tired of themusic business, that he has no desire to play live any more, and he takes
little active part in it, except on a casual basis when he appears on thealbums of friends like Doug Sahm and Steve Goodman.
Moreover, he has been away too long now to return to the heart of theaction with the same pertinence as before, even if he wished to. And, as
Grossman astutely realised, his past performances were so often uneven,anyway, as to necessitate them being infrequent.
He is Bob Dylan. But who is Bob Dylan?As the myth of the musician andthe generational symbol rises like creeping fog, he casts about for somedirection, fora new purpose in it all.
He sees other pre-eminent musicians, like Lennon and Jagger, involved
in movies. An old mentor is Andy Warhol. While down in Mexico a newer
friend, Kris Kristofferson, is making a film. About Billy The Kid.

BOB DYLAN

Billy The Kid! Whatever the nature of fact, Billy The Kid is part ofAmerican legend. As was John Wesley Hardin (g), and him he knows
about, from the past, from an idea he once used. Down in Durango,
Mexico, visiting Kristofferson on the set, he writes this song about Billyand plays it to the cast. It only follows that he should get a role in his firstfull feature film.
He got the part, in fact, through a combinationof circumstances precipitated by Bert Block,
Kristofferson's manager. Block, an old music pro
who at one time managed Billie Holiday, was theguy who looked after the arrangements when heplayed the Isle Of Wight. He's the nearest thing
Dylan has had to a business manager since he let
his contract to Grossman expire (Grossman andBlock were partners for awhile, indeed, andhandled Janis Joplin together).
Block mentioned to Dylan that Kristofferson
was in a movie and suggested it to him, as well.
He also spoke to Gordon Carroll, the producer,
who was delighted at the proposition. Dylan hadtalks with Rudy Wurlitzer, the screenplaywriter,
and went to a private screening of The Wild Bunch. He was sceptical of the
project at first. He only intended to see one reel. But then it stretched tothree, to four... Dylan came out of MGM's theatre with a celluloid monkey
riding on his back.
He was fascinated with the idea of a movie part as much as he wasdaunted by his feeling of inadequacy towards doing it. Before, there had
only been documentaries. And Peckinpah was a frightening genius!
But he went down with Bert to Mexico to exorcise his doubts. The firstnight, they dined at Peckinpah's house on a meal of roast goat. Then hewas shown around the set. He was particularly captivated by thewardrobe of Western clothes, trying on the hats and costumes like a kid
dressing for a fancy-dress party.
He looked around for a while, and then, on that second day, quietly
picked up a guitar and sang to Kris and Coburn and Peckinpah this song
he'd made up called "Billy The Kid." Peckinpah offered him a part there
and then. It's a small part as one of Billy's sidekicks, but it would havebeen expanded any time he wished. The fact that he hasn't asked
illustrates his tentativeness. He plays, with the most fitting of poetic
justices, the part of Alias.
In the public life of the musician, he is the man of uncertain identity. In
the movies he is the man with no name. He continues to play the game of"famiousity", as he once called it. But he may well have found that new
direction which has been eluding him. People on the film say he would
like to continue the part of Alias in succeeding movies, jokily preserving

Texan was large -boned, wore a red, V -necked sweater and horn rims, andhad an accent like the twang of a plucked bow -string.
"You must've taken the wrong turning somewhere," he smiledpleasantly after the introductions and waved his hand generally at the
town. The movie was mentioned. "I s'pose you're out here then for Bob
Die-lan," he twanged, and then remarked
about teaching Dylan's kid. The way he said it
reminded me of 10 years ago when no one inEngland seemed to know how to pronounce thename correctly.
I asked about the kid. He just gave a slow,
Texan smile and muttered somethinginconsequential. Then I changed the subject
and asked how people amused themselves inthis place at night. Dull wasn't a strong enoughword for my initial impression of Durango.
He looked at his companion, anotherschoolteacher, a Mexican woman in glasses,
and said, "How do we amuse ourselves,
Juanita?" and she shrugged her shoulders andsmiled, and he smiled again. I couldn't guess
what there was to smile about so much in this one -boss city.

Dylan wastrying on hats
and costumes
like a kid
dressing up

that anonymity.
Ina sense Dylan is like Brando. The one is to the '60s what the otherwas to the '50s: a representation of their style and mood. In the late '60s,
however, the charisma of both of them began to erode a little. They
began to go out of fashion and the criticisms increased about theirperformances, the one in films, the other in records.
The difference is that Brando has recently sought, and successfully
achieved, his rejuvenation, with The Godfatherand now Last Tango In
Paris. Dylan is still in the process. This movie is an enormous step inswitching media to test the viability of his talent, not necessarily intransforming him into an actor but more in enabling him to ascertain
for himself his filmic sense. It's a training ground fora possible
directorial debut.
When I arrived in Durango, he had been there for three months sinceNovember 23. He had with him his wife, Sara, five kids and Rover the dog.
She had taken the children to Yucatan, a neighbouring state whose
inhabitants, direct descendants of the Maya Indians, like to think ofthemselves as a separate entity from the rest of Mexico. They have adaughter, Maria, aged 11, and their eldest son is Jesse Byron, who's sevenand reputedly something of a wild kid.
Maggie Netter, an MGM publicist, said she went ridingwith the boy on
Sundays. "He's so intelligent! They all are. But they let them run wild, they
don't look after them especially. They just let them do what theywant. If
they're going home they tell someone to bring the kids backwith them, sothey're always around people."
Wandering around Durango, in fact, and finding myself in one of themany banks, I came upon a Texan schoolmaster who was teaching at an
American school there. Jesse was one of his pupils fora month. This

DURANGO IS, INDEED, a city, the capital of the state of
Durango. It has the highest homicide rate in Mexico. A

hundred and sixty thousand people live there, digging out
gold, silver or iron (particularly) from the mines, or else working in the
numerous small stores that serve the community.
It seems incredible that there can be so many human beings cast out
into this arid wilderness, 600 miles nor' nor' west of Mexico City, fringed
by the Sierra Madre range that from the only plane flying daily from thecapital, the 6.45am, is like a series of grey -red hummocks under a thinblanket of mist.
But beautiful, yes. You step out onto the tarmac from the plane, which isalways full, and the pale red stripes of dawn have now dissolved into thehorizon, and the spicy January air is like a cold douche, and you become
suddenly aware of all these people, these kids, with eyes that are eating
up this huge metal thingwhich has dropped once again out of the skies,
and you know it's a cliche but you find yourself wondering about theirthoughts. What's it like out there, beyond the mountains?
An odd feeling for the traveller, because if you believe the books,
something like this happened long before, aeons ago, when the gods
descended from spaceships among the Mayas and the other primitive
Indian tribes and told them to build pyramids and roads, to be the cradleof civilisation, and... hell, if God was an astronaut and felt as bleary as me
this January morning he'd get his blue ass back onto that thing and lightout for Los Angeles, a thousand miles north, because in the year of ourLord 1973 there seemed precious little here to do.
The city of Durango is a wide, two-lane highway, shimmering
metallically in a haze of heatand dust as the sun winches
AMID 81 SASI PECKINPAII
upwards, with numerous
smaller roads intersecting off
it. It is pale, stucco churches,and banks, and a huge square
flanked by finely clipped yews.
X

PAT

It is the Old World and it is theNew. The little shoe -shine boy

at the pavement's edge puts
spirit on the toecap of his
customer's shoe and lights
a match, pausing an instant
while the flame spurts before
applying his rag.
While next door, almost,there is a massive supermarket,
the Soriana, larger than any
I've seen in the States, which
could supply the whole
populace. The wire shopping
trolleys outside the window
are serried ranks, poised totrundle into action. x.

GARRETT
AND

BILLY

THE
KID
I

j \A_,oir

CULIUBVKRIS l4114,....0

KRISTOFFERSON

BOB
DYLAN

I

,1

1973
JANUARY-"wok

But most of all it is Hollywood -it is the myth of the Western
movie made flesh there amid the vista of cacti, scrub, old lava
stones and brown, rolling plains. Today in these parts God is not
an astronaut, he is a cowboy, who rides into town on that plane fora couple of months and shoots his motion pitcher, for which you're
paid so many pesos a dayas an extra.
In the office of the best hotel in town, the Campo Mexico, one of
the three there, which consists of a number of one -storey rooms
slung together in a wide semi -circle, are hung signed portraits ofthe stars who've made movies in this area: "Hasta la vista -Glenn
Ford"; "Many thanks -Kirk Douglas"; "Best Wishes -John Wayne".
Wayne, he even has his own spread outside of town where hemakes films. In fact, he'd only just left. It would have made a great
picture for that wall, him and Sam, and Jim Coburn, and Kris,
and... Bobby Dylan.
Dylan and the other leading figures in the movie have their own
houses close to each other in Durango. Maggie tells me this as wedrive out this Saturday morning for the location site, El Sauz, which
is about 20 to 30 minutes from the Campo Mexico. She also informs
me that Dylan is "very strange" and if I'm looking to speak to him...
she smiles very prettily but adamantly. It seems there are strict
instructions that his privacy be not so much as tampered with.
Expressly no cameras, except for the stills photographer andJohn Bryson, a former Life picture editor and old friend of Sam's,
who was given a chunky role in The Getaway.
Maggie says Dylan talks to no one, unless he wishes to. Like, he'sa big friend of Kristofferson, they share a trailer together on thesite, but some days he won't speak to him at all. He's the same witheveryone. "It's not just that he's picking on you, but he's..." shesearches for the right adjective. "He's just rude." Ah! The mucho
mysterioso quality.
They all tell me the same -"Dylan? Forget it? He won't talk."Casually mention his name in a conversation and a veil ofprotectiveness descends. He's like an ever-present wisp ofectoplasm floating in the consciousness of all these assembled
people, a thing intangible which needs to be preserved from theprying outside in case it blows away.
But it's not simply that no one wants to be the person to reveal anything.
No one is sure if they have anything to reveal! They're uncertain about
their own reactions to him, and even more, what their reactions shouldbe. One minute he's the breathless myth, set down exotically in the landof Quetzalcoatl, the next he's just a guy, working on a movie like the restof us, isn't he? Isn't he?About the only thing they are sure of is they're notgonna say too much, just in case.

man who held the right. In one of the fort buildings, its blank windows
shielded in black backdrops, Peckinpah was shooting and rehearsing
his actors. He was out of sight, but the authority in the voice left no doubt
as to its identity.
Coburn appeared, a lean, handsome face with greying hair. He was
wearing a Mexican coat in coloured patterns over a black vest and pants,
and a black hat was perched on his head. He walked out the door threetimes, on each occasion using the same movements and talking behind
IT WAS EERIE, those first few moments of arriving on set. The car
his shoulder as he did so. "Right, like this, you say. Like this?"pulls into a large open space in front of the preserves of a big,
And then Kristofferson. His face orange -brown with makeup and,crumbling stone building, which was constructed as a cavalry fort
minus his beard, looking about 10 years younger. He was rangy in his
some hundred years ago and now renamed Fort Sumner.
dark, faded pin -stripes with the gun hanging off his hip. Sheriff Pat
Dotted around area few smaller ruins -walls, mostly, that have long
Garrett and Billy The Kid. Meet the stars of the show.
since ceased to support houses. The skull of a dead cow shines bone And finally Sam Peckinpah came out. Not as tall or as big as you mightwhite by a gate. And a Mexican is propping up a long pole with a red flag
have expected, but fierce, like an old, bristling lion, with a thick, whitehanging stiffly at its mast and a white one trailing in the dirt. Red meant
moustache and hair of the same colourwrapped round at the foreheadshooting was in progress.
with a green bandana.
He was the ferocious Anglo-Indian major of all those Kipling stories,
It was extraordinary the effect this pole had on people. As soon as that
red rag poked up into the cloudless sky everyone's conversation fell to aleading his men over the Khyber Pass, sword in hand and a curse on his
lips. It was easy to see why he scares the shit out of all and sundry.
dead whisper, mouths were in suction with ears, and footsteps were as
He walked out the door and spat dramatically in the dirt. There wastimid as if the slightest noise would precipitate a wrathful earthquake a loud phut! as the spittle hit
which it would, as we shall see.
and settled.
There must have been 200 or more..awd
Later, when the scene was overpeople - actors, Mexican extras, film
lan SoundtrackBob
and the white flag was up, I met
people, men, women and kids FOP
Rudy Wurl itzer. He was the 36 -year wrapped up in these mute, stony
old author of three novels, one ofposes, or else gliding inwhich, Nog, has achieved cult statusconcentrated slow-motion in andin England and America. He wasaround the old lumps of stone that
also the writer of the screenplay foronce rang to the sounds of army life.
the James Taylor vehicle, TWo- Lane
A silent frieze, while the birds
Blacktop, never shown in Britain.
twittered, horses snuffled in the
And now this movie. Wurlitzer waspens inside the fort, and a couple ofinvolved in this one as an actor, as
vultures wheeled obscenely in thewell. He played another of Bi Hy'ssky. Here was the true conspiracy ofgang. To this end his tall body was
the silence. It was broken by the only

PAT

32 I HISTORY OF ROCK 1973

raBILLY
erliv

BOB DYLAN

didn't have too much strength to get it on. The original script wasa little too original in away.
"There's no doubt this is a better film, even if it turns out to be
one of Sam's worst, because it has energy. What Sam does toKris Kristofferson
asoutlaw Billy The
K id and Bob Dy lan

as his sidekicx Alias
in Pot Gorre tt And
Billy The Kiddressed in cruddy clothes and leather chaps,
he had makeup like Clearasil smeared all over
his face, and a battered top hat sat on his head.
In his hand he twirled a Colt. He looked a realmean dude.
In reality he wasn't too happy, I learned,
as weren't a good many on this film. It was
two weeks overdue and a million dollars overbudget, largely through technical problems;

almost a fortnight's filming had been
spoiled because the cameras were foundto be out of focus.

language, for instance... he makes it more theatrical because he's
innately theatrical. It's like he's almost old-fashioned in what is themost effective. He imposed three scenes in the beginn ing on myscript so that it works better from a film point of view. In myversion,
Pat and Billy never meet until the end. Here they do so at the
beginning and the end."
To him, he explained, Pat and Billy were two gunmen who
essentially felt a kinship but had chosen two diametrically opposedroles in life, the former as a sheriff, the latter as an outlaw. Thus they
were symbols of a changingAmerica in the last century: the one
a roving free spirit, symbolising the pioneer nature of the Old West;the other selling out to the establishment fora steady job andsecurity, representing, therefore, the solidifying respectability of
the newAmerica.
And Dylan?
"Dylan is great," Wurl itzerwhispered without any hesitation.
"He's come down here to learn, he's turning in stuff, and it's beenreally impressive. I think he's completely authentic. No, I don't
know what he reallywants to do, but I would hope he would do his
own film because he's an artist and he can't help it. He's just findingout about films."
Dylan and Peckinpah? He cocked an eye at me. "That's the reallyinteresting thing," he replied thoughtfully, "what's going on
between Peckinpah and Dylan. Sam is really Western, like anoutlaw, looking to the wide-open spaces, and he didn't know about
Dylan before. Dylan, you could say, was Eastern. He brings a
different point of view, especially to a Western. The part is small but
it's important in a funny sort of way. Do the two of them have any
common ground to meet on-that's the big question."
Dylan, I'd been told, played the part with a stutter. "Yes, but it will
have to be taken out. It becomes too much of a big thing if you only
have a small part, and..."Outside, where there had been almost totalsilence except for faint, inaudible words,
there now came a sudden, angry bark anda command like a grating snarl.
"Get outta that truck," it rapped withterrifying even ness. And then higher. "Get out!
All of you!! Over there, behind the wall!" There
was a pause and then the rapid sound of many
feet, and then quiet again.
A crew member tip -toed into the canteen witha ferocious grin on his face.
"He's the only person that can clear all thepeople outta one countryjust to make a fucking
pitcher," he breathed gleefully. There had been
too much noise for Peckinpah.
They love Sam and they hate him. "He'salways gentle with his actors. He only bawls out one or two who know him
well and have worked a lot with him before."
We were talking on the nightly plane from Durango back to Mexico City.
He and all the other leading actors and members of his band were flyingout for the rest of the weekend. It was Saturday evening. The final of theAmerican World Series football championship was being televised on
Sunday afternoon- there were no televisions in Durango. And Dylan
was going to record with Kris' band that night at Columbia's studios in
Mexico City.
I sat across the aisle from Kristofferson and we cradled a bottle ofJameson's between us. On his other side was Rita Coolidge, who plays oneof Billy's ladies in the film, as in real life. Her black hair was still pulledback into twin braids and she wore the rough, grey -patterned wool coatthat costumes had given her, while Kristofferson was still in his movie
duds; everyone had had to make a dash for the plane. Leaning across thegangway, shouting above the noise of the engines, I was close enough toobserve his pale blue eyes, which seem oddly sightless, swim a little withthe effect of the whisky.
And there, in the seat right behind him, was a little guy from Minnesota
named Bob Dylan. I had seen him fleetingly on the set that day. He had
been wearing a serape and an old grey top hat, but as he wasn't filming 3.

"It's a strange,
dark place tomake a film.
Ii,veryone getsso exposed"

Peckinpah was always in a huddle with the
producer, Gordon Carroll, a tall, thin, snappy looking man with light glasses. They were
worried. The studios had sent down three executives already from Culver
City to investigate the reasons for the late schedule. Peckinpah hated thestudios with as much venom but more realistic cause than was containedin that gob of spit. He felt betrayed by them.
And then, as if that wasn't enough, there was always Durango.
Goddddddd. Durango! The soullessness of the place, the boredom! The
frustration of nothing to do, nothing to occupy the mind beyond
memorising lines and that day's shooting, lay like an implacable, heavy
hand over the set.
"Durango... it's a strange, dark place to make a film," Wurlitzer said.
"Everyone gets so exposed." He whispered the last sentence.
We were sitting in one of the outhouses, which had been roughly
converted into a canteen for the crew. Outside they were shooting again.
The voices came softly on the afternoon breeze.
This and 714ro-LaneBlacktop, he muttered morosely, were both horrible
movies to work on, but in different ways. At the memory of the one heshook his head.
"James Taylor wasn't given a chance, no chance at all. He got no
direction from Monte Hellman [the director] at all, which was what hedesperately needed. 7loo-Lane Blacktop was a better movie than people
thought, but it forgot about two essentials: the road and speed. MonteHISTORY OF ROCK 1973 133

1973
J4

fl MO

\

H

he flitted occasionally around the outskirts of the location, saying a few
words to the odd people he knewwell enough but generally mute -faced
and unsmiling.
He looked skittery and ill -at -ease, and people seemed to avoid
confronting him, as if the moment might be too charged with electricity.
But it was so obviously him!That face the colour of sour milk, and the fullsensuous nose, and the whole appearance of him that was nondescript at
the same time that it was illuminated with the magnitude of him and ourexperiences of him.
He was a whole era of youth coiled into one man and now slowly
winding down into the years past 30, and the consciousness of this had
escaped no one, least of all him, with his eyes set straight and stonily tothe front lest he be forced to pick up those curious sidelong glances, asa magnet does iron filings.
Even on this plane his inviolacy was to be preserved to the full. He'dboarded with James Coburn and as they walked down the aisle together
a seated passenger had asked for an autograph... from Coburn.
He hadn't been recognised in his rimless glasses, baggy beige parka andstraw hat. But then, as the plane was taking off and I began to speak to
Kristofferson, he got up jumpily from his seat and went to sit at the back.
We had begun to climb as he reluctantly dumped himself down again
behind Kristofferson and next to Wurlitzer. He pulled his hat down rightover the front of his face, which was odd because his body was rigidly
upright in the seat, cocked and attentive.
We were touching down into Mexico City, with the Irish stuff two-thirds
gone, and had had all the stories about his last English tour, his oldlandlady in Oxford, and his ups and downs with Rita at the time, when
Kristofferson's head came halfway across the gangway again andmotioned behind him. He had just offered the bottle to Dylan, who had
waved it away.
"Listen," he said, "this guy can do anything. In the script he has to throwa knife. It's real difficult. After 10 minutes or so he could do it perfect."
He leaned over further. "Listen, he does th ings you never thought wasin him. He can play Spanish -style, bossa nova, flamenco... One night hewas playing flamenco and his old lady, Sara, had never known him do it at
all before."
I looked back at the crown of the straw hat in uncompromising fullfrontal. I said I was scared to talk to the man right now.
"Sheeeeit, man!" Kristofferson roared. "You're scared. I'm scared, andI'm making a pitcher with him!"
I began to feel more than ever like the lead in "Ballad OfA Thin Man".
THEY RECORDED UNTIL 7am

the following morning on
Dylan's "Billy The Kid" andsome other stuff he'd written down
there in Durango. Nobody knew if
the material would be the basis of
the movie soundtrack, or if
Kristofferson's own song, "PatGarrett," would be included, but
a good deal of it was instrumental
and it featured some local trumpet
men to give a Mexican flavour.
Yet Jesus! It was so awkward withall those people in there, all those
Mexican studio men come to see
Bob Dylan play and sing. It began
to be apparent that the stuff would
have to be redone, maybe in LA after
the movie.
The following day, though, it
was Sunday, and in the afternoon
practically everybodywent overto the Fiesta Palace Hotel, wherea suite had been booked, to see theMiami Dolphins beat up the
Washington Redskins.
The Sheraton Hotel, where they
were all staying, hadn't got television,
either. The hotel was always full of
Americans and they never usuallywanted to see Mexican television,
34 I HISTORY OF ROCK 1973

Aliasplaysguitarto
agroupof Mexican nchildrenjust before kik
defending Billy The
Kid withsorne
handy knifework

which was filled out with the starch of Yankee series, like The FBI and
McCloud, only in Spanish and soccer. Soccer, for God's sake!
In room 734 Dylan slept deeply. He was still asleep when the maid cameto the door and said it was 10 o'clock. Ten o'clock! No, it couldn't be! He'dmissed that plane back to Durango, and it was his big scene today, where
he got to throw the knife he'd been practisingwith!
He slung all his stuff in a carpet bag and flung himself down to thelobby, his eyes still popping like a camera shutter, just adjusting to being
awake, to all these people down at reception, to the actual time it was!
And then they tell him it's OK anyway, and it's really 10 at night, and heneedn't have worried at all. He shook his head in relief.
There was no problem in making that plane the next Monday morning.
He passed through Gate Four, the exit for Durango, and again nobody
showed any sign of recognition. At least, they didn't ask for his autograph.
But then, nobody wanted to talk too much at 6.30am, except, it seemed,
Coburn and Wurlitzer, who were deep in conversation about theformer's part.
Kristofferson was looking a little groggy. He'd been ill over the weekend.
Probably that damned Irish whiskey. He'd been smashed when he left the
airport that Saturday evening. Hadn't stayed for the whole session, either.
Bobby got on the plane when they called the flight and sat towards theback where there were a few empty seats around him. Kris and Rita wereright down the other end on the very front row.
About three-quarters of an hour out from Mexico City he saw thenewspaper guy get up out of his seat, walk down to Kristofferson andcrouch down to him, talking. This is part of what Kristofferson was
saying. "...I was just disgusted with him. He'd start a song and then justkeep changing it around. He had horn players, trumpets, and they didn't
know a damn thing what they had to do 'cos he couldn't make up his
mind. I left about three." He said this very tiredly, then answered thequestion he'd been asked. "No, we haven't spoken today."
Dylan saw all this, he saw the guy go back to his seat, and then he spoke
to Bert Block about the newspaper he worked for. That was when he spoke
to me; I guess you could say I was startled.

DYLAN TALKS IN this light, soft voice with a husk to it, and hehas this disconcerting habit of forcing you to lead theconversation. He takes another person's sentence, chops it up
in his mind, tosses it into the air and examines it when it falls, all before
replying, so there are often a long couple of seconds before the answer
comes; it's an unnatural limbo. It's not that he's unfriendly, but he's
guarded and watchful to the point where conversation with strangers

B013 int Ug&ILNIi

BOB DYLAN

IWENT OUT TO El Sauz around one thatappears onerous for him. He is also terribly shy,afternoon, when the sun was cutting throughwhich he largely masks by an air of alienation he
the thinness of the desert air and the horizons
throws around him, like an enveloping cloak with
were as sharp and concentrated as if focuseda built-in burglar alarm. It's because, beneath all thethrough a lens.
layers of the onion, there lurks a deep vulnerability;
KNOCKIN' ON HEAVEN'S DOORThis time nerves on the set were so jagged you
people instinctively feel protective towards him
could run a finger along their psychic edge.
and are inspired to unsolicited loyalty, as if to
There was the same pregnant hush as two days
say anything out of turn would not only betrayago, but it was even more intensified; as if
a confidence, however unspoken, but would beeveryone were holding in their breath in somebruising for him.
giant expectation. It was the fascination of
He doesn't smile too much and publicly hepeering through a microscope, of seeing Dylan
laughs more rarely. His public persona never
put through his paces in a crucial scene.
falters. Even those who could be considered
The shooting was out in the open, with six
friends are not privileged to many intimacies.
huge silver reflectors tilted on high above theHe maybe the loneliest man in the world or hescene. Peckinpah sat in his canvas director's
maybe the happiest. There is no way of telling.
chair by the camera. Emilio Fernandez, theThose who have known him since his early
famous Mexican director, was an onlooker.
NewYork folk days say he has mellowed, but
Before each take there was an abrupt cry ofin so becoming he now holds the world at a"Silenzio!" repeated twice to cut dead any
distance and interacts with it from a detachedlingering conversation.
position on his terms. All that may fairly be said
As the scene was shot again and again the tension was alternately
is that those who count themselves among his friends, or even good
cranked and then relaxed momentarily, so that with each successive timeacquaintances, prize their situation dearly.
it became tighter and increasingly insufferable. I wanted to snap it
Dylan talked to Playboy about his desire for anonymity back in 1966.
violently, like severing a taut string, to let out all that constricted breath in"People have one great blessing," he said, "obscurity, and not really too
a great explosion of air.
many people are thankful for it. You can't take everythingyou don't likeAs the cameras rolled, Dylan was sitting on a chair surrounded by half
as a personal insult. I guess you should go where your wants are bare,a dozen ragged Mexican kids. He was strumming an acoustic, wearing
where you're invisible and not needed."a brown shirt, black pants and a grey top hat. On the far right of the scene,
Considering all this attitudinising, our conversation was prosaic
a cowboy was leaning on his horse. Billy The Kid and half a dozen of his
enough. He did say, most interestingly, that he had been in England quite
gangwere around a campfire on the left, nearest camera.
recently fora few days ("The clothes are different since last time"). We
One of this gang, Harry D Stanton, dressed in blackwith an old, greasy
spoke for five minutes. Then ! glanced out the window briefly, turned
hat of the same colour, sat on a fence and shouted out, "Hey Chita, bringback, and he was gone.
some beans, soup and tortillas, and be quick about it," and out from left
But disembarking from the plane, while everyone waited at tiny
comes this young Mexican servingwench carrying the chow,
Durango airport for their baggage to be taken off, I found him at the bar,accompanied by Rita as another peasant chick. There's a lot of laughingsipping a cup of coffee and engrossed with a camera belonging to CBS
and tomfoolery, with Kristofferson's voice striking a resonant bass note.
records executive Michael O'Mahoney, asking normal stuff like what lensIt's then that Dylan rises. He's playing nervouslywith a knife, turning it
it had. This was almost eight in the morning.
round in his hand. The jitters seem genuine. He walks a dozen paces
It's not happening in London, I said, apropos a remark I made on the
towards the campfire as the cowboy on the horse shouts after him, "Hey,plane. New York's the place...
boy, what's your name?" like he was a piece of dirt, and then he stops and"That's what John Lennon says." Focusing the lens.
faces round with the knife in his hand.
I saw Eat The Document there at the Whitney.
"Alias," he replies shortly. His body twitches a little. The knife taps
Pauses, returns the camera to O'Mahoney, and looks directly at me.
against his leg.
"Do you know Howard (Alk, who co -edited the film with Dylan]?""Alias what?" barks the horseman, the second word like the snake of
No. Was it originally like Don't Look Back before it was re-edited?
a whiplash.
"No, it couldn't be. We didn't have enough good footage. There was 40"Alias anything you please," comes the rejoinder. Tough punk stuff. The
hours of it, but the camera was jumping around all the time. That was thegang laughs.
only stuffwe could salvage.""They just call him Alias," says the one. His interrogator grunts.
Would you go back and play in England ever?
There's the sound of muttering -and then suddenly, in a flash -point that
Silence. He turned three-quarters and carefully placed his cup on the
takes you by surprise, Dylan's right arm arcs backwith the knife, and notcounter. There was no answer. Instead, taking off at a sudden tangent,
the horseman but a seated outlaw gargles in the back of his throat and is"Did you see (Yoko Ono film] Fly?"knocked on his side with the force of the knife supposedly sticking throughYou mean the one about the fly crawling up the wall for half an hour? No.
his neck. The moment still seems unexpected even after the sixth take.
All three of us laughed, the first time I'd seen him do so.
"Cut," says Peckinpah.
"Did you see Hard On?" he asked suddenly.
"Aaaaaaaah!" goes all that escaping air, in relief. "Print it," grins
Huh?
Bert Block. The tableau of watchers and watched dissolves for another"Hard On?"No, but I saw Rape. You know, the one with that girl being chased.
five minutes.
Print it! This is Bob Dylan, throwing a knife in a Sam Peckinpah movie,
He nodded.
would you believe! It's ironic. He leaves society at large as some kind of
Andy Warhol was making movies like that years ago. Empire, all thosegenerational leader, a musical messiah, and returns years later as an actor
shadows. I prefer the stuff with Morrissey, actually, I said. I was trying notplaying a small role in a movie -yet already the film, before it's been
to sound smug.
finished even, sets us agogwith speculation.
He nodded again, then: "Did you see Lonesome Cowboys?"
The questions mount. Will Dylan really turn away from music to
No, but I saw Heat. It was getting to be quite funny. Every time he asked
concentrate more on films? Will he start making records again on a moreme he looked so intense. Sylvia Miles.
regular basis now he's been drawn once more into a kind of public"Yeah." Silence once more.
performance? Could he ever return to doing concerts? The only answer
Tell me, how can you stand it down here?
that is really ascertainable is his acting ability, which will be on the line
"It's not too bad because I'm making a film. If I wasn't..." The sentence
when this movie comes out some time after May. But even then there will
was chopped off because the producer, who was fidgeting all this time
be arguments about his performance, about its meaning.
like an old hen over her chick, had come up and told him he could get
He's unwavering, however, in his refusal to relinquish any part of his
into the car.
private self to his public, and this seems destined to continue. You ask
The next time I saw Dylan was on the set later that day, and he was
who is Bob Dylan? He is Alias, Alias whatever you want. Michael Watts
locked tight once more behind his stoniness.

"Listen, he
can play
Spanish -style,bossy nova,
flamenco..."HISTORY OF ROCK 1973 135

1973

JA NU ARV -MARCH"I hetCAPTAIN BEEFHF "Twrote his new album
in two hours, driving

between Harvard
and Yale. Could

Clear Spot finally be
his commercial

happier
all thetime"

breakthrough? "It's
my love album," heconfides. "It's for all
women." But what
will Beefheart say
to George Best?

CAPTAIN
4EEFHEART- NUE MARCH 17 WHEN IN ALL seriousness, Captain Beefheart
describes Muhammad Ali as his favourite
percussionist and talks of him being "probably oneof the greatest living musicians", he isn't referring tosome previously unpublicised facet of the man's life.
This is your Captain speaking specifically about Ali's
pugilistic artistry in the ring. But then, the Beefheart view of the world has
always differed somewhat from that of us mere mortals - because he then goeson to add the name of Vincent Van Gogh to his personal Hall Of Fame. He
explains this bizarre coupling thus: "Everything these gentlemen ever did wasdone with a great flair for rhythm. You see, one doesn't really have to play an
instrument to be a musician... just a musical grace in the creative use of timing
and rhythm. And this is a quality that both these men possess."
In Britain it was Mick Jagger, who distributed hundreds of albums, seeking
those who would listen, and John Peel, via his innovative Perfumed Garden
programme on Radio London, who first exposed the music of Capta i n Beefheartand his Magic Band to impressionable ears.
Indeed, amid the heady aroma of incense and dope and the wall-to-wall jangleof beads and bells, the Safe As Milk sound was the only new positive energy nottransmitting from Pepperland that made sense and made you want to dance inthe psychedelic smashed summit of '67. And that, as they say, is owning up.
Yet in spite of Beef hea rt's stature as the undergroundcult hero ofAntonioni's "Swingin' London" (etc) and the
AND THE
endorsement of just about anyone whom word was
HANK BAND
worthy of respect, the band seemed unable to get off andrunning stateside. Along with Wild Man Fischer, theGTOs and Alice Cooper, the talent of the amiable
Captain was misinterpreted as being nothing more than
yet another musical clown in Uncle Frank Zappa's nasty
little freak show.
When I last paid my respects to the good Captain almost a year to the day -he impressed upon me: "I've
had my fun... now I'm going to make myself far moreaccessible to the public." x,"Therearetimes when I
wonder what I was doing
before": Don Van Vliet,
AKA Captain Beef heart,
poses for a portrait in

Eureka,California.1973

HISIORY Of HOCK 1913 137

1973

JANUARY OH

Not that Beefheart intentionally schemed to aim his music over theheads of his audience. But, like most innovators -and make no mistake
about it, Beefheart is an innovator- public acceptance can take an awful
long time a -coming: "Some people think I'm surreal. Others that I'm adadaist. Well, I think not. My art is abstract and therefor people have justgot to realise that I'm just who I am."Finally, however, the American public may be coming around to the
Captain's way. "They're beginning to dig me at last," he says with a bellow,"but it sure is late for them. They've always been much more hip in
Europe. Over here, they still have to rely on their mothers to tell 'em what
to like." And, for once, he wasn't talking about Zappa.
Looking back over the last 12 months, he lets out another laugh andcontinues: "With the Clear Spotalbum, I went completely in reverse
didn't I? Funnily enough, I don't know whyl did it." He quickly adds:"Though, of course, I'm glad I did. As everyone knows, I've never been
influenced by what record company people term 'the market'.
"Clear Spotwasn't supposed to be a commercial endeavour on my part,though people say it was. My opinion is that anything that sells iscommercial. And the only thing commercial about Clear Spot is that it's
selling more than any of the others."
Beefheart, in fact, is willing to accept a large responsibility for his yearsof hardship. The fact is, annual visits to Europe aside, the Captain has
never hit the road in the States. Only now is he beginning to pack his bags
fora coast -to -coast tour of his homeland.
"Sure, we've played a few gigs in this country," he explains. "But wehaven't undertaken a tour like this before now simply because I didn't
think that anyone reallywanted to see us.
"In Europe, audiences knew what to expect when we don't know what toexpect because they hadn't heard us. Thankfully, once we've played forthem, they seem to enjoy it and embrace the group."
Clear Spot -which the composer affectionately refers to as "my love
album", but didn't think it was an appropriate title to have embossed on
the clear PVC sleeve- has proved to be the artistic clincher in terms ofmass Beefheart acceptance. "In one sentence, what do you most like
about Clear Spot?" the Captain suddenly springs on me.
It's full of total energy and happiness, I reply off the top of my head.
"You said the magic words, Roy," the maestro says with a laugh. "Yousee, I'm a lot happier these days, 'cos I've been married to my wife Jan forthree years and I just get happier and happier all the time. And it's
because of this that my music has gotten even more spontaneous.
"Did you know?" his voice takes on a tone of confidence, "that wrote all
the material for Clear Spot in just two -and -a -half hours." He turns andcalls out to Jan, who's in another room. "I know it was when we were
driving between two college dates, but can you rememberwhere I wrote
Clear Spot?" There's no reply. "Jan," he bellows. "Where did I write Clear
Spot?" "Between Harvard and Yale," answers a voice.
"Of course, now I remember. We were driving to Yale in the station
wagon when ! wrote the songs. So, as you can see, it's a pretty

that album I'd been kinda selfish. You have to understand that before I got
married I didn't realise I wasn't the complete artist I thought I was.
"I never was with women." He corrects himself: "I mean, I was withwomen, but there was never that close relationship, and that makes thebig difference. Fora man needs a friend to run through life with him.
Indeed, there are times when ! wonder what I was doing before... you've
heard all that stuff that I did."He laughs and concludes: "What I'm doing now is much nicer.""I've now realised that the real test of an artist is to make his work
accessible to everyone, and that's what I'm now attempting to do. And
because of this, I think my band will help a lot of people, and if I makesome money, a lot of animals.
"I want to open up an animal park where no one can get in, and let the
animals get on with it all by themselves. I think it would be a terrible world
if kids grew up without ever seeing an animal in its natural environment."
It's an exacting task to keep up with the Captain. He's prone to redirect
his conversation without prior warning. "I'm amused by this new Flash
Gordon makeup cult that's suddenly sprung up. I did that over sevenyears ago in London, when ! appeared at the Middle Earth Club wearing
blue lipstick and red nail polish."Well, we all have skeletons in our closets.
"Seems that I've always been ahead of the times," he muses, "but it's
only now that the public and I are catching up with each other. But I'm
glad I got out of that thing when I did. Today, I'm being realistic in my role
as a human being without having to contend with all that bullshit."
As with most conversations with the Captain, he offers an old Beefism:"Remember, it's not worth getting into the bullshit to find out what thebull ate." Ah, but what about the big -eyed beans from Venus? RoyCarr--- MELODY MAKER

THE BOOGIE SHUDDERS to a halt, and is applauded. The big
man in the leather jacket says something into his microphone,something about how they're going to play an old number

called "Electricity".
Three guitarists jive through the intro, kicked along by a fat bass player
and a drummer who looks like something out of one of Erich vonStroheim's Prussian fantasies, with monocle and pigtails. The big man
starts to sing, but nothing comes out. He mouths the first line, points
accusingly at the small monitor speaker in front of him, gestures to theheavens, gives the microphone a couple of sharp, painful left jabs, andstalks off. The band lurches on.
"There was one time," says Captain Beefheart, "when I broke 500 dollars'
worth of m icrophones in a single night. Didn't I, Jan? Didn't ! really?
"Oh yeah," says the big man's wife, absent-mindedly. Beefheart mimes
how he snapped off the stalks of the microphones. Like Frankensteinpulling up daisies, with a child's frustration.
Beefheart hopes that you'll knowwhen his Magic Band are playing
badly, on their current British tour. "Let me tell you," he says, "we get thebest applause when we play the worst. That's absolutely true. Anyway, it's
getting to where groups aren't really playing. The theatre is more

spontaneous little album, perhaps even more than any of the others.
"Like just about everything I do -writing, painting or making music !like things to be spontaneous. So when I feel that it's time for me to doa new album I always put the material together as quickly as possible,
important than music."and get it in the stores so as it's reflective ofwhat I'm doing at that point in my career.
"At the moment, I'm putting a new album
Apri117,1973:Captain Beef heart &together- trouble is, I've got at least 50 things
The Magic Band at London's Rainbow
I would like to use, but there's just no way
theatre -(1-r)Rockette Morton,CB,
Alex St Clair (background), Zoot Horn
I can fit them on one album. I guess I just
Rollo, Ed Marimba and Roy Estrada
don't get to do enough albums. When ! getinspired I tend to work very quickly, andwhen I get into the studio I'm one of the least
expensive acts to record. So I guess that'ssome kind of compensation."
You may well ask from what fount ofknowledge the amazing Captain derives
such inspiration. I ask and I am informed:"Animals. I think I've gotten all myinspiration from watching animals, though
I have to admit that the inspiration for Clear
Spotcame from women. I suppose you could
say that album is really for all women.
"I thought that women were getting
neglected," he elaborates. "I guess up until

38 I HISTORY OF ROCK 1973

,11L14 -CAPTAIN BEEFHEART

He's a bit scornful about 'theatre rock'. "Remember," he says, "the coverof Rout Mask Replica?" He and Antennae Jimmy Semens and Rockette
Morton and the rest of the kids were dressed in the most outlandish
apparel, much of it feminine. Remember their gig at Middle Earth? Whenwas it - 1966? Alex St Clair Snouffer wore a long nightgown and a ClaraBow hat with a hawk leather attached, plus a string of pearls.
"But I wasn't doing that to put down women," says Beefheart. "I always
knew that no matter how hard I tried, I'd never have tits. I'd never try tooutrace a woman at her natural speed."
True to his words, Beefheart would now not even rate a second glancefrom the chairman of the Monday Club. Medium -length hair -though
he'd like to get it cut because he gets oil paint in it -ordinary black leather
jacket, red polo -neck with a picture of himself on the front.
It's livened up only by a beautiful belt fashioned from leather, silver andturquoise by Navajo Indians, and several rings
from the same source. Not even a funny hat.
The longer you know him, the easier it
becomes to talk. The seemingly impenetrable
word games cease, brought out only when
there's no other way of illustrating a point.
The sharpness and clarityof his mind becomesapparent, as does hisAchilles heel: a tendency to
put people down forwhat others might view as
minor peccadilloes. Some critics, probably those
who enjoyed the unfettered experimentation of
the 7h9ut Mask and Decals albums, haveexpressed disappointment with the straightforwardness of his latest LP, Clear Spot.
"I appreciate writers," he says. "I'm one myself. But if they think that,they're kidding themselves. I don't plot these things. !wrote the wholealbum, words and music, in two -and -a -half hours on the coach between
English college gigs. I think it's direct, and I'm glad I'm not so hip that I put
my back out."
He draws a parallel between Clear Spot and the inclusion of a soft,
soulful ballad called "I'm Glad" on his first album, SafeAs Milk. "'I'm
Glad'," he explains, was saying the same thi ng as 'Electricity' and all theother tracks on that album which people called 'far out'.
"I've always wanted to do an album like this one. I wanted to get thatgroup together... and, man, theywere really together on that record.
More of the emphasis was on feeling, as opposed to how many notes you
could get through. Not that the musicians didn't put the feeling into all
those notes before- but now, they can put more feeling into one note.
"Anyway," he ruminates rhetorically, "I wonder if there's anything as far
out as 'I don't have too much time to be without love'?"
This trip, The Magic Band welcomes back into its ranks none other than
the aforementionedA St C Snouffer, a star of their earlyworks who's spent
recent years working, unbelievably in Las Vegas, playing popular
standards and requests for "Happy Birthday To You". He's back because
Beefheart called him up and said, "It's time to play again."
Otherwise, it's the same band that came here a year ago: Zoot Horn
Rollo ("Bill' to his mates) on guitar, Rockette Morton on guitar and bass,
Orejon (otherwise Roy Estrada, ex -Mothers and Little Feat) on bass, and
Ed Marimba (formerlyArthur Dyer Tripp III) on drums.
Talking to Beefheart, you get the impression that it's the only bandin the world. "Rockette and that fellow Rollo are definitely amazing
players," he says. "I think Rollo is the only person doing anything on
guitar that really interests me now. I hate to say things like that, but
I really mean it. Don't you think so, Jan? I mean, really seriously?"whenever he plays them, people walkout. "I have a beautiful tenor
saxophone," he says wistfully. "I think it's probably the best in the world.
One time I played it for 18 hours straight, non-stop. Didn't I, Jan?"
There's a cheer as Zoot Horn Rollo slides on stage at Manchester's Free
Trade Hall. The first notes of The Magic Band's 1973 British tour comefrom his Fender. Tall and stringy, in a loose check ensemble withmatching conical straw hat, he wouldn't be out of place inAndyPandy.
But Jesus, does he rock. Like a man sandpapering paint off a piece ofwood, he rubs the strings to produce fast, jerky chords. Within seconds
Rockette bounds on stage in an electric -blue suit, straps on a bass (from aselection of guitars propped against his amp) and joins in with riveting
double- and triple -stops.
Ed Marimba, Orejon, and Alex St CS slope on, hitch up their trousers,
and plunge into some wild, unearthly dance music which is every bit asbrilliantly unorthodox as you might expect.
Rockette switches to a double -necked six- and12 -string machine, and the whole noise is ascomplex and effortless as an Alfa Romeo
gearbox. The first impression is amazementthat they aren't actually hovering two feetabove the stage as they play, for their music
doesn't seem to be bound to the Earth in any
way. Rhythmically, they're as sophisticated as
Lifetime used to be, swinging in away which iswholly unlike anyone else.
WatchingArtie Tripp for an hour, I tried tofigure out just what he was doing behind that
see-thru Fibes kit; but beyond noting that he,like Billy Cobham, plays rhythm on the hi -hat with his left hand and snare
accents with his right, I honestly couldn't figure it out.
It was the same when they played "Peon", an instrumental off the Decals
album which features Rockette and Zoot Horn playing a Moorish line
which is sometimes unison, sometimes counterpoint, and sometimes
in canon form, but which never seems to repeat itself. Earlier, I asked
Beefheart how it was written and- even more important -how they could
possibly memorise its tortuous, winding contours. Beyond saying thatwhen he was working it out on piano he was "going for the shape of it", hecouldn't explain it either.
Anyway, "Peon" and another shattering full -band instrumental were
the highlights, because Beefheart was the victim of a very duff PA andeven worse acoustics. Only in the upper reaches of his seven -and -a -half octave vocal range was he really audible, and those subterranean basso
profundo growls were virtually lost.
He was obviously unhappy, leaving the stage on several occasions, but
still I enjoyed "I'm Gonna Booglarise You Baby" and a very long, lowdown "King Bee", when the band came on like theywere born in a blues
bar on the South Side of Chicago. Real lowyo-yo stuff. Some of the things
the guitarist got up were amazing, particularlywhen they all played withthe aid of "steel appendages" -bottlenecks to you. On "King Bee" they all
adopted different but complementary roles, with Snouffer (using a capo)
chopping out subtle chorded triplets all across the beat.
Zoot Horn is a monstrous soloist, seemingly erratic but fantasticallyinventive, with a very beautiful amplified tone. And there's Rockette, who
was left along on stage for a bass solo in which he thundered out four string chords until the hall seemed ready to levitate.
The poorvocal amplification forced Beefheart to play more harmonica
than usual, which was fine because he wails with real guts and a harsh,down-home whine. In that mood, and with the PA dirtying up the harp's
sound, he'd have given even Lazy Lester a run for his money.
It wasn't a completely satisfactory concert, but Manchester loved it andcalled them back for an encore on the epic "Big -Eyed Beans From Venus"("There's a limited supply") - MrZoot Horn Rollo hit that long, wheezing
note, let it flow, did it again, and we all went home.
But not quite. Later that night, in a Manchester nightclub that was all
chicken -in -a -basket and go-go girls, Beefheart was talking animatedly
and chewing an entrecote. Suddenly he looked over a journalist's
shoulder and exclaimed: "Hey, there's whatisname... that great soccer
player. I've seen him on Wide World OfSport. Oh, he's great."
Leaving the club, Beefheart walked over to George Best, who was dining
with a small, expensive -looking blonde, and said how much pleasureBest's playing had given him. George smiled, and mumbled, "Thankyou.""MuhammadAli," says Captain Beefheart, "is the world's greatest
percussionist. And he beat Ken Norton." Sure he did. Richard Williams"We get thebest applause

when weplay worst""Ohhhh... yeah."
To illustrate the point, he refers to John McLaughlin and The
Mahavishnu Orchestra, with whom they recently played in America.
"They're doing nothing. Really boring. A lot of people walked out after
we had played, before him. Didn't they, Jan? ("Oh... yeah"). Well they did.
I don't know where that's at."He's not best pleased with the way his records have been promoted -he
firmly believes, for instance, that the recent "Too Much Time" shouldhave been a hit single- so pretty soon he'll be setting up his own label,
God's Golf Ball Records. He also has two books, one called Old FartAt Playand a volume of poetry titled Singing Ink, which he wants published soon,and he'd like to get his paintings exhibited in London. There's no doubtthat he's trying to get through to a wider audience. He won't be playing
any of his usual instruments on this tour, and there's a reason: just before
they left, Jan hid his saxophones and bass clarinet. She's notice that

HISTORY OF ROCK 1973 39

1973-0"
JAN U MIN

"In Jamaica,
you use yourmachete or
your gun"fy i ur recor i se s gou,,

BOB MARLEY

his experiences in the Jamaican music ousmes"the producer pretends he's gone to Nassau.
Now he and THE WAILERS have taken control ora1

their affairs and are ruddy for the world. "I get4
igh," he says, "but I don't like sitting around'
, woo

401

1973JANUARY -01"

MELODY MAKER FEBRUARY 24-

BOR MARLEY, SLIGHTLY bui It and quiet to the pointof diffidence, is a leader. He's the master of reggae,t he man who's about to give it that big shove out of its

normal cultural confinement and into the rest of theworld. The consequences of this action may be drastic
for the health of the music. It could be the making of
reggae, or could sap its vitality beyond repair. But that won't affectMarley, because for the past seven years he's been making the bestmusic to be heard in Jamaica, and his potential is limitless.
He and his group, The Wailers, have an album called Catch A Fire outhere next week, on Island's Blue Mountain label. It seems to me that thismaybe the most important reggae record ever made- it's equivalent of
Sly's Dance To The Music or Marvin Gaye's What's Going On.
It has that kind of potential: revitalising the style from which it springs,
and introducing it to an entirely new audience. A fewyears will need tohave passed before we'll know for sure, but Marley may even be a genius.
Like many great musicians, he's a different man inside the recording
studio. The shyness is stripped away, andhe becomes totally as one with the music,
controlling it and swaying in sympathy withthe extraordinary rhythm patterns hedraws from his bassist, Aston "Family Man"
Barrett, and his drummer, Family Man's
brother Carlton.
Marley's musical assurance comes froma considerable depth of experience. At 28, he's
been burned and hassled as badly as most of
his Jamaican contemporaries, but unlike a lotof them he's putting the knowledge he's gained
to good use.
He can see why and how he got burned, andhe's going to make sure it doesn't happen again.
1.

114114ristriTheWallesin
Lendona1/110-4Ptor"Tash"114111.Asien"ForniyMaellamitt. Bob

Mooky.EmeiNirini,!CarkseCaellenarrettand
Kirelle"Sunnel.lvimptam

What's happened to him already, though, gives him just as much right tosing the blues as Robert Johnson ever had.
He was born in Kingston, Jamaica, the son of a white British Armycaptain from Liverpool -"I only remember seeing him twice, when I was
small" and a black Jamaican who wrote spirituals and sang in the local
Apostolic Church.
Unlike some people with mixed parentage, who violently take one sideor another, it's given him an unusually open view of race: "I don't reallycheck people's colour," he says.
Bob sang in church, too, but he didn't care for it. "I preferred dancing
music. I listened to Ricky Nelson, Elvis, Fats Domino... that kind of thing
was popular with Jamaican kids in the '50s. The only English-speaking
radio station we heard was from Miami, but we got a lot of Latin stations,mostly from Cuba, before and after Castro."
He began to learn welding as a trade. "But I loved to sing, so I thought
I might as well take the chance. Welding was too hard! So I went down
to Leslie Kong at Beverley's Records in '64, and made a record ona single-track machine. Jimmy Cliff took me there - he was Beverley's
number -one man."
The record was called "One Cup Of Coffee",and the world ignored it. But Marley,
undaunted, went back to the woodshed. "Mygreatest influence at the time was The Drifters- 'Magic Moment', 'Please Stay, those things.
So I figured I should get a group together."He assembled four other kids: Peter McIntosh(vocals, piano, organ, guitar) and Bunny
Livingston (vocals, congas, congos), who're
still with him today, plus a boynamed Junior
and a girl, Beverley Kelso. He wrote a song
called "Simmer Down". They rehearsed it,
and went to see producer Coxsone Dodd, who
liked and recorded it, putting it out on his
Coxsone label.

"Johnny Nash
isn't really ouridol. That's
Otis or Brown
or Pickett"CATCH A FIRE
1

CONCRETE JUNGLE41

2. SLAVE DRIVER 2 54
.3. 400 YEARS (245
4. STOP THE
BABY BABY WE'VE GOT A DATE (ROCKAll ,on, written tty B

Ma,b1 ished br Rondor

Produced by
Recorded at Oy
R"It went off like a bullet," says Bob. "Butthey didn't tell me how much to sell... that's
supposed to be the private business of the
producer. I don't remember how much I was
paid for 'Simmer Down, because when theygive you money, they don't tell you what it's for.

An inner gravity
to he marketed as a rock record"After we left Coxsone in '69, we got no more''

The Wailers

selling ever since. We made 30 or 40 records
for him, and most of them sold good."Among them was the brilliant "Put It On",a shimmering ska classic which surfaced in
Britain on Island in 1966, and the gorgeous"Sunday Morning" (on a par with the best ofCurtis Mayfield), the B-side to "Love Won't Be
Mine" in the same year. Ifyou look hard, you

The problem; how to communicate theexcitement of this album to people who are
already prejudiced against what it
represents? I'm taking for granted that mostreaders of this paper still believe that reggae
is a crude form of musical expression, with acomplete lack of creative potential, and I canunderstand that stance because there's
been a lot of rubbish put about in the nameof Jamaican music. But ever since last
autumn, I've been waiting for this album
more eagerly than for almost anything withinmemory, and I'd like to turn you on as well.
This is, for a start, the first reggae -rooted
album to be packaged and marketed as if itwere by a "name" white rock group; it has atastefully conceived, expensively produced
sleeve, and it's being promoted heavily,
particularly in America, where West Indianmusic is now the object of much curiosity. In
keeping with its image, the album's music
gives evidence that Bob Marley, The Wailers'leader, is broadening his scope; you'll hearslide guitars and electric keyboards, both
sometimes modified by synthesizer, andmost of the tracks come in at around four
minutes. I don't believe, though,that Marley has compromised
the integrity of the music bydressing it up in this way. He
retains that lopsided, falling -over itself rhythm feel, and his songs,
both words and music, aresimple and direct. The
core, in fact, is there,

yourself for ever.
"We weren't making enough money toshare between five, so two of the group left.
Junior went to live in America, and Beverley..
well, she was kinda slow -like. She didn't havegood timing."
After they left Coxsone Dodd, Bob and his
mother left Jamaica for awhile.
"It was hard in Kingston, so we went to live in
America, in Wilmington, Delaware. I rehearsed
by myself in our basement, where it was niceand quiet, but after a few months I went back to
Jamaica, and I thought I might as well continue
with The Wailers."
He got Peter and Bunny back together,and they decided to form their own
record label. "That's a big move, inJamaica. Prince Buster was the firstto start the revolution by leaving the
producers and doing it himself.
Then myself, then Lee Perry...
and you can't count the rest.
"It's better to know for yourself
ifyour record is a flop than havesomeone else tell you. And if
your record sells good, theproducer pretends he's gone
to Nassau when you comeby the office. In Jamaica,
you're expected to use
your knife, oryour
machete, oryour gun."That first label wascalled Wailin' Soul, but
it got off to a bad start when
Bunnywas jailed for almost a year

on a ganja rap-and those who've seen The
Harder They Come may understand theMachiavellian implications of frame-up
behind that. At that point around '68,
American singer Johnny Nash and his
manager, Danny Simms, came on the scene.
They were looking for talent, saw Bob
singing on Jamaican TV, and signed him up.
Bob recorded an album for their JAD label,
but from it only one single- "Bend Down
Low" - ever saw the light of day, in the States. However, they took Bob'ssong "Stir It Up", recorded already by The Wailers on Coxsone, andturned it into a worldwide smash for Nash, who also used other Marleysongs ("Guava Jelly", "Belly Rub") on his /Can See Clear/y Now album.
They even took Marley to Sweden for three months, to help write themusic for a film starring Nash which has yet to be released, and over inEngland they got a single by him out on CBS - "Reggae On Broadway",with which he's far from satisfied because Nash had too much influenceon the production.

THE WAILERS

MM MARCH 17 I he first reggae album

royalties-and the songs we did for him arecan probably still find them on the secondhand
stalls-and if you do, you'll be congratulating

EY & CHRIS I
Sol.nds Studios. Harr

'3 Stud.os, Kingston, J.-,ISLAND

just as Sly
Stone is still

making blues
music despite thetrimmings. The
album leans heavily on
the playing of bassist Family

Man and drummer Carlton Barrett,both of whom are utterly brilliant, constantly
shifting and blending their rhythms with anatural-born sophistication. There's morethan enough subtlety to feed the ears, andyou can always, always dance to what theyplay. Unfortunately the sleeves don't
mention that the beautiful melodic guitar
solos are played by Wayne Perkins from
Muscle Shoals, and that the synthesizer work
is done by Rabbit Bundrick. Keyboards areshared by Rabbit, Marley and Winston Riley.
Marley sings most of the lead, and he's theequal of any black American. His tone is lightand airy but has an inner gravity and his
phrasing is endlessly fascinating. The backup chorales are endlessly fascinating: on thisnew version of "Stir It Up" they sound likesoul Beach Boys (to borrow Nick Jones' oldphrase), while the care that went into thespiritual -like arrangement of "No More
Trouble" is self-evident. Singers Bunny
Livingston and Peter McIntosh are neverstooges: like the Pips with Gladys Knight,
they participate fully in the emotional
content of each song.
And what songs. "Stir It Up" is slowed
right down until it becomes a melting,sensual love song, its synthesizer
lines following like cream around
Marley's cool, pliable lead.
"Slave Driver" is mournful andevocative. "Concrete Jungle"
has guitars and "Superstition" like electric piano poured aroundit."Kinky Reggae" is hilariously
funny. McIntosh, too, provides oneof the best songs, "40o Years", whichlike much of the album's content refers to
the plight of Kingston's ghetto people. In
fact, nothing here is less than exceptionaland Marley is helped by injecting frequentvariations of pace, which should ensure thatcharges of monotony are redundant. And if
you're not moved by "Stir It Up", you must be
made of stone. A fabulous and important
album. Richard Williams"lie's a hard worker, but he didn't know mymusic. I don't want to put him down, but reggae isn't really his bag. We
knew of Johnny Nash in Jamaica before he arrived, but we didn't love himthat much; we appreciated him singing the kind of music he does- he was
the first US artist to do reggae -but he isn't really our idol. That's Otis orJames Brown or Pickett, the people who work it more hard."
Going to Sweden did Bob's business no good: "When I came back, it was
all mash [ruined]. I'm the only one who takes a real interest in it. Jamaica's
a place where you sit around and get high. I'm not gonna do that; I gethigh, but I don't like sitting around too much." x.
HISTORY OF ROCK 1973 143

1973
JAIIU

--1111"

May1,1973: The Wailers
perform Marley's 1967

song"Stir It Up%a hit
forJohnny Nashin1972- on BBC TV's The Old
Grey Whistle Test

So on his return, in 1970, he started a new label, Tuff Gong, and alsoa record shop, The Soul Shack on King St reet in Kingston. The shop is
mostly devoted to selling records byThe Wailers and Rita &The Soulettes.
Rita Marley is known as Bob's wife, but they aren't actually married- it
was just an idea to get some publicity for one of her records. They stock theold Wailers records on Coxsone, their six 45s on Wail in' Soul, and thedozen -or -so they've released on Tuff Gong, including their biggest hit todate -the fantastic "Trenchtown Rock", which sold about 25,000 and was
Jamaica's Number One for three weeks around Christmas 1971, and therecent mind -destroying "Satisfy My Soul (Jah Jah) ".
The problem fora small label is getting airplay: "You have to be big
friends with the radio disc jockeys, take them out and treat them likefamily. They make up the radio station charts, and people only buy what's
in the charts." Bob is not unduly optimistic about the business side of the
Jamaican music scene. "We've hurt the big guys by starting our own
labels, because all they've got left is the studios and the pressing plants.
But the business will only change when younger
guys appear, who'll deal fairly with the artists. The
older guys will never get better."
It was Island's Chris Blackwell who gave Bob the
chance to use a lot of time and a fair amount ofmoney to make the Catch A Fire album. Advances toJamaican artists are unknown -but Blackwell saw
the potential in Marley, and the two men tacitly
decided to trust each other.
The result is the first example of Marley's music
which hasn't been hampered by absu rdly low
budgets. The album has several quite long tracks,
maybe the first extended reggae songs, but Bob
says, "They're always like that in the studio, andthen they get cut down to three minutes orsomething. Jamaica is a place where the musicians
are restricted, going into the studio and just playing
the same old thing because they're afraid thatanything different might not sell.
44 I HISTORY OF ROCK 1973

"What we need here is people who're not concerned with holding theartists down. But I don't think it'll happen fora long time."
Make no mistake -Marley is potentially a giant figure. Richard Williams
MELODY MAKER

1E 23 ___THE ROLLING STONES are upstairs in Studio 1, where they'vebeen for the past five weeks. Jagger strolls around the foyer,
looking for something to do, all neat in white blouson jacket andfawn velvet jeans. But that, you may be surprised to hear, is not where
the real action is at this night in Island Studios, Notting Hill.
Not, at any rate, if you're a Wa i lers fan. On this occasion, even the Stones'
long -delayed newie comes second to Bob Marley a nd his brothers fromthe shantytowns of Kingston, Jamaica.
The Wailers have been in Britain for some weeks now, playing various
kinds of gigs, and generally doing very well. There have been problems:
Bunny Livingston never wanted to come in thefirst place. He's happy being poor in Jamaica, hesays, and he'd rather not witness the fleshy
delights of a European metropolis. The temptation
might be too great. Nevertheless, he's here.
There's a problem, too, with food. Being
Rastafarians, they don't eat meat at all, or fish with
sod Pa ham/1111kormo.,
scales. So cartons of vegetables and plaice have
Areownt 2)t.17
am/ Dsns 2)0 12 00 A
been delivered most days to their communal
SOp do.«Ho, 410, .101
house on the Kings Road, and on the road they've
eaten mostly out of fish'n'chip shops.
"Huh," says Bunny, stuffing most of a batteredplaice -and -six into his face, "London's national
dish." No salt, though- that's also forbidden by
the Rasta creed.
In general, they're delighted with the response
they've received over here. Only one thing puzzles
Marley: when they've played at black clubs, theaudiences don't applaud. But the white college

BOB MARLEY

audiences have applauded each number loudly.
"Before they came here," confides an Island person,"they'd never heard of doing encores. So the first night,
when they left the stage and the audience carried on
cheering, they thought maybe somethingwas wrong.
We had to persuade them that it was actually good, andpush them back on stage."
Tonight, anyway, The Wailers are in Studio 2, thesmaller one, working on their follow-up to thebrilliant CatchA Firealbum. They laid the rhythm
tracks down at Harry J's studio in Kingston, as is theircustom, and have already overdubbed voice parts
plus extra guitars and keyboards. Island boss Chris
Blackwell is back from a millionaire -style excursion
down the Colorado river, on a 20 -foot rubber raft, tosupervise the mixing process. He picked up The Wailers
for Island in the first place, and is closely involved i ntheir success forvarious
reasons. It's he who decided
that CatchA Fireshould bepackaged as if it were a majorrock album, and projected at
a whole new market.
Amusingly enough, someone
is showing round the original
copies of two 1966 Wailers
records, "Put it On" and "He
Who Feels It Knows It", whichcame out here on Island. It's
ironical because theywere,to all intents and purposes,"pirate" records. Bunny sniffs
when he sees them, and goes
into a long discussion on the iniquities of the Jamaicanrecord scene.
The session starts with a quick run-through of therough mixes, which Blackwell is hearing for the firsttime. As the eight or nine songs glide by, his expression
remains on the brighter side of contentment. The raw material is- howshall we put it? - magnificent.
The mixing proper begins with a Marley song called "I Shot The Sherifr,a sort of humorous musical version of the plot from The Harder They
Come (which you should have seen by now, or heaven help you). Marley'srole as lead singer is similar to that of the outlaw character, Ivan, played by
Jimmy Cliff in the movie. The high falsetto chorus, delivered byuncharacteristically strained voices, adds to the comic quality.
However, it's the music that carries this track. Listening to Blackwelland his engineer bringing separate instrument tracks up and down,
hearing either the bass or the drums in isolation, one begins to grasp themastery of these men.
There are, for example, two rhythm guitars here, chopping throughand around each other as if by telepathy. Beneath them runs the suavest,
lithest, most inventive bassline, courtesy of Aston "Family Man" Barrett,meshing in perfect sympathywith his brother Carlie's drumming.
Ah, the drumming. Had you noticed that these guys play the bass drumon 2 and 4, the offbeats? Maybe you remember the fuss when Jo Jonestransferred the beat -carrying role from the bass drum to the hi -hat, withCount Basie's band in the '30s. Isn't there just a chance that what the
reggae drummers are doing is equally revolutionary, and might havea similar effect? If that were all they did, it would be noteworthy enough,but when the musicologists start taking this stuff seriously (in, say, ten
years' time), they're going to find enough material to last them throughyears of research and analysis.

It's a bit early in the session to get involved with a masterpiece, but
that's what comes up next. Whatever you thought was the best track
on Catch A Fire, its equivalent on the new album will be a thing called"Duppy Conqueror". The song will be familiar to most stone reggae fansbecause Bob wrote and cut it a couple of years ago.
The song is reminiscent of both "Put It On"and "Stir It Up" in that it'sbuilt on the familiar "La Bamba" pyramid chord changes, and it
resembles "Stir It Up" most of all because the rhythm is a swaying
slow -medium.
Mostly it's call -and -response between Bob and the other voices, his
nasal asides and interjections growing out of the chorus.
"Yes, me friend (me good friend), they say we free again... IThe bars could
not hold me (whop-hoo), force could not control me now IThey try to putme down, but Jah put /around nowt /been accused (whoo-hoo) andwrongly abused now..."
The engineer silences all the tracks except the voices, and suddenly
the truly suhl i me quality ofThe Wailers' harmonies is brought homewith a vengeance. Have they ever recorded"Before theycame here,
they'd neverheard of doing
encores"

In twe,,,, wee beenpl)lne ,arrou kIndof yip. and generally doing
see,'lree.,there have been
The

RICHARDWILLIAMS

reports asin Whale ler ...we %%.n0No, says Peter Tosh. You should, says
Blackwell. They should indeed.
Music like this is Bob Marley's forte: soft,

supremely sensual, and making its point
through understatement. It doesn't shout atyou; rather it insinuates, suffusing the brain
like a headywine. Unfortunately, someotherwise intelligent people have missed thepoint, and expect him to come on like Toots
Hibbert or Desmond Dekker, shouting andbashing. That attitude is so patronising as tobe beneath contempt. Does Wilson Pickett
invalidate Smokey Robinson? Of course not.

At this point, Jagger walks in. "You've met
Bob?" says Blackwell. "Uh... hi," says Mick, extending a hand.
The album the Stones are mixing was, of course, recorded in Jamaica,
where Jagger met many reggae musicians until, he says, he got a bit
bored with it. He must be getting pretty bored with his own album, too;it's months since they began it, although he maintains that only sevenweeks' hard work have been put in so far.
Jagger has come to enlist Blackwell's aid. It seems that Keith Richards'
old lady, Anita, has been staying in Kingston with a Rasta band which
Keith plans to produce. Their house was raided, Anita was busted, andshe can't get bail. Blackwell, being rich and of Jamaican descent, might
have some pull.
"I don't really have any," he says, and asks Tosh, "What are the police
like with Rastas now? Are they specially hard on them?""Depends," Tosh replies. "Depends on the Rasta, and depends on if heknows the right policeman.""Duppy Conqueror" goes round and round, played at least two dozen
times, and it could go on for ever. Nobody here would mind. Make a
40 -minute tape loop of it, someone suggests, and there's your album.
But, of course, there are other songs. "Get Up, Stand Up",
"Reincarnated Soul" (out on the B-side of the new single, "Concrete
Jungle"), the fabulous "Rastafarian Chant", Bunny's "Oppressor Song",
and a beauty from Marley called "Burnin' And Lootin", with anotherincredible lyric: "Give me the food and let me grow I Let the roots -man takea blow now?lAll them drugs gon' makeyou slow nowl It's not the music of
the ghetto..."The "roots -man" is the man who boils plant roots, distilling adrinkable substance of allegedly spiritual properties. It also makes you
high. Nothing one hears suggests that this will be anything less thana worthy successor to the last album, and in "Duppy Conqueror" it willcontain a true classic. Richard Williams

studio wi

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1973

JANUARY MARCH"I'm notvery hardworking"
The 'ROLLING STONES

arrive in Australia,
andMELODY MAKER FEBRUARY 24'"1( JAGGED'

gossips with thepress. No, he is not
the subject of Carly
Simon's "You're So
Vain". And he didn't
tell Paul not to marry
Linda. "Although," headds, "I wouldn't have
my old lady playing

keyboards..."T DOESN'T RAIN too often in sunny Brisbane,
but when it does it pours - and just as well.
Because what do you do in Brisbane when
you're a Rolling Stone and your concert has
been cancelled because of the weather andyou're bored stiff? You give a press conference.
That's how Mick Jagger, who has been friendly but
elusive to the press, came to be sweeping into a room
crammed with reporters with an entrance that would
have done Nureyev proud and a cheery "Hello darlings"
that was just a tiny portent of the chatty things to come.
To be quite honest, we five there to cover what would
have been the first date of the Stones' Australian tour
were all grumpily convinced the communal 10 minutes
or so we would get with this rock royal would scarcely
be enough for one reporter to get his questions in, letalone five.
As it happens, Mick was as talkative as a county matron
at a vicarage tea. How did he feel about the concert being
cancelled? "It's a bit of a drag, isn't it?" he said, hitching up
his bright apple -green pants and adjusting his sky-bluesuede battle jacket. "Me and Charlie went down to havea look. 'Come down and see how bad it is,'they said."
He explained that the rain was drizzlingright into the stage, rather than straight
down, and that there was the distinct
danger of shocks for the musicians.
So what do you do in Brisbane on arainy night?! asked, knowing full well,it's one of those towns that tend to shut
down by eight. Would the Stones, forinstance, faced with the rainy -night
blues, throw one of those famous parties
that the people on the hotel floor below
them invariably claim last till eight inthe morning? Mick said he thought he'd1

do some work on some songs. x,

46

HISTORY OF ROCK 1973

-

it

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ter

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idr104,-44titMicklegge inCctelsr1e73:
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1973

JANUARYMARCH

This enabled a small, pert blonde to ask about the progress of the
Jamaican album. There are apparently still some brass parts and vocals
to be added, but when Mick said they had already cut 17 things hesounded inordinately pleased with himself.
You might as well know now he's as vain about hard work well done as
any of us. Maybe that's why I asked the next rather silly question: Is"You're So Vain" about you?
"No," he said, and -very reluctantly and only "he said" because he wasconvinced we all knew anyway- revealed it was about Warren Beatty.
Wouldn't he have liked it to have been about him?
"No," he screeched indignantly. "It's a horrible put-down."
But hadn't he sung on those Carly Simon sessions? asked the pretty
blonde who wanted us to know she knew a lot about Mick Jagger.
"Yeah I was in them and Bobby and Jim did some work on them, and(ever so slight change of voice here) Paul and Linda."
I was about to pursue the implications of that altered timbre. Mick has
this way of saying things that make them sound wholly outrageous live
while remain ingwholly innocuous and polite in print. To tell you thetruth, he can camp it up with the best of them.
But a serious young reporter with the face of a young Bob Dylan had hisquestion ready: Do you feel your talent is slowing down? Now it wasn't avery polite question to ask at what was more a desultory rainy afternoon
chat than a press grilling, but it put Mick on the defensive in away you
would never expect.
His reply wasn't angry or even hurt, but he did go to incredible pains to
explain that he now wrote more songs than ever, that the Stones were
doing more albums than ever, and certainly more than The Who or Dylan
were doing at the moment, and besides, weren't two albums a year morethan enough?
Mmm. Why the compulsion to do new albums when he cou Id, say, dosome films? Mick said he'd never do more than a film a year and that afilm was much more exhausting than an album or tour. "I must admit I'm
not very hard-working," he added with that very engaging grin he usuallysaves for people he wants to disarm.
He went on to explain that with a film you're not in control the way you
are when you're a singer; that even if you ask a director, "Can I do it myway?" he'll still use the scene where you did it his way, so that an actor
always ends up being a reflection of the director.
"At least on stage you can improvise," he muttered. His talk is full ofmuttered asides and mumbled throwaways.
We talked a lot about Performance, which has never been shown inAustralia, and which only some of the people in the room had seen. Did
he ever see the finished version? He smiled wickedly. "Which finishedversion? There's a finished version for every country."
Earlier that day there had
been a huge hoo-ha becausea package of "grass -likepeople's albums but rarely uses his name. He's been talking an hour
now but although he may occasionally nibble at his sunglasses andfidget with the waistband of his green pants, and though his jacket is now
open to reveal a red T-shirt, he seems likely to go on forever.
Now it's every question you ever wanted to ask M ick Jagger but wereafraid to ask time...
He may not still be a Stone in 10 years' time, but he expects to still be
writing songs then.
He doesn't think he has the willpower and strength to be a film director
but he really wants to be one and admits he became an actor so he would
know how to direct. He concedes he himself is not easy to direct, not easy
to push around. Television?A bastard medium, he screams suddenly.
Next place for a Jagger cool -out? India, where he has a lot of friends if heever gets enough time off all at once. Country life? No. Charlie lives in a
beautiful place miles away from anyone, and he sits around twiddling his

thumbs, and drinking wine. But that's Charlie. Mick needs action -but
not NewYork. He can't stand that more than two weeks at a time. New
York is out of hand.

Andy Warhol? "We work well together." They've thought of doing a filmof Gide's Caves OfThe Vatican. They've done some stage designs,
especially some from Tokyo. Things have to be very simple for the stage.

There's a musical, too, that they think about.
Which Warhol films does Mick like best? "Rash ," he says.
What about the reports, I ask, that Mrs Jagger will do a film for Warhol?
"When girls get together," says Mick with great slyness and an evilsmirk, "there's always talk but they never get anything done."
One of the reporters thinks he's heard wrong and asks Mick to repeat
that. If it's going to that sort of talk, I decide I might as well ask about arecent article in Hugh Hefner's Oui magazine that lists the brands andcolours of all makeup Jagger used on his last US tour.
"Completely made up" he says, unconscious of his pun.
They say every step you take on stage is orchestrated, says the youngreporter who thinks Mick's talent is waning.
"I make it up as I go along," says Mick sullenly. "Maybe I ought to have it
orchestrated. Then it wouldn't be such a mess" -he is sulking and pouting
so hard and so heart-rendingly one can only assume he really believes hemoves badly.
Does a band lose its tightness when it hasn't played fora while? Yes, butsometimes, Mick explains, it's nice to be loose. Halfway through the US
tour, apparently, they were playing with a machine -like precision thatmade him nervous. When he answers questions he likes, and inexplicably
he likes that one, his eyes crinkle at the corners into laugh -lines and his
cheeks dimple. He seems less pleased with a question about "American
Pie" -what does he think of the lyrics? Didn't take any notice of it, he says
indifferently, not even the bits a mut himself.
At an airport press conference in Sydney, he was quick to scotchquestions about his wife's abser ce. "You wouldn't take your wife to thesubstance" had been foundhidden in the body of the planethat carried the Stones' soundequipment. This had been
followed up with a report that
the Stones were not only notinto drugs of any kind but also
definitely on a healthy I ivi ng
kick. Yes, M r Jagger? No.

"1 onlywish we were," said
Mick regretfully. "I do run a bit
and I did ride a bike in Los
Angeles. We're always indoors instudios and motels."

BACK TO THE music, Mick
really was marvellously
obliging. No, he didn't regard
the mix of "Tumbling Dice" asmessy. "Maybe that's how we liked
it," he said. Yes, he did see a new

direction in the Stones' music "butthe others don't always agree withme". Yes, he would like to do anotherexperimental album (a lot, actually)and yes, he does play on a lot of other48 HISTORY OF ROCK 1973

"Imakitupaslgo
along": Jagger.
sestnherewith
Keith Richards in
1973. comesclean
enhisstagemoves

ROLLING STONES

office with you, would you?" he said. Now he explains: "I've nevertaken any old lady on tour. What woman wants to be dragged around
Australia?" Bianca, he says, is with friends in Jamaica.
I like the way the talk bobs back and forth from idle gossip to serious
attempts at musical discussion. Quite early in the conversation hemakes it clear he finds it almost impossible (a helpless shrug here) totalk about music. But he had a real sneaking fondness for the Satanic
Majesties album, a father's love for the least appreciated child. He reallydigs that album.
"It wasn't so bad," he says, "and what cameafter it I think was so much better than whatcame before. But it didn't sell well and the album
that came before it, which was really bad, soldverywell indeed."
So nowwe're back to gossip and a question
about the McCartneys. Did Mick really phone
Paul McCartney the night before his wedding
and tell him not to do it?
"I would never tell anyone not to marrysomeone. I approve of them... A beautiful
couple... A lovely couple. He couldn't soundnicer, but he can't resist the tagline. "All thesame," he mutters, hoping we won't really hearhim. "I wouldn't let my old lady play the piano."
In much the same reckless mood he explains he cut his hair because"I began to feel like an old tart with long hair".
True to the pattern I mentioned earlier, we now ricochet back to music. Is
there someone he'd like to produce? Yes: Stevie Wonder, Billy Preston and
Dylan (he didn't have time to discuss it with Bob at Mick's birthday party).
Would he produce an album forlohn Lennon? "I would if he asked me,
but he can do his own work." Mick is less happywith what Phil Spector did
for The Beatles, even if he did like George Harrison's first album.
What about the album Mick produced for Chris Farlowe? "Never got
paid for it," he says, but there is no shortness there.
What does he think of Slade? (I'd like to mention here that Slade havejust finished a very successful tour of Australia and that in some circles
there they're more popular than The Beatles, the Stones and Jesus allrolled in one). "They make good singles," said Mick. "Even if they do allsound the same. They're a pretty good band on stage."
Elton John? "I like Elton John, but it's still not my favourite music."
Marc Bolan? "He's all right, I suppose." All sorts of comic mumbles andTo this political motivation, Jagger replies that if one wished tounderstand South -East Asia then perhaps admitting some Asians might
not be a bad idea. And he developed the conversation into a side issue ofthe Australian "white" policy of immigration.
Mr Grassby, known for his extrovert clothes style, said: "The Stones are
an excellent example to Australian youth. They tell me they appreciatedbeing able to come to Australia - and I told them that they could give a lotof pleasure to a lot of youngAustralians. Mick, who is on his third visit
here, thought he might never be allowed backinto the country.
"I told them I was putting my faith in them,and hoped theywould do the right thing. The
Stones made it clear theywanted to entertain
and perform. I have no regrets that I let them in-yes, I went out on a limb to give them visas...
To give a man a bad name and hang him is
immoral and un-Australian."
Rumours that the Stones used drugs in thepast could not be taken into account, theminister told them: "A man is the sum total of
his life," he said. "If you take all his past things
into account you might as well remove half thesaints on the calendar."Not even with the most avid aficionado are
the Stones likely to get into that calendar, though one paper, in two -inch -"I have noregrets... Yes,
I went out ona limb to givethem visas"mutters accompany that statement.
"You know," he says, "all these people have been around for ages. Slade.
Rod Stewart. Bolan and Bowie. Rod was overlooked in the old days
because he was a solo singerwhen bands were in. Slade made it whenpeople needed another rocky band."
What about Bowie? Would Mick ever consider engaging in erotic tussles
with, say, Bill Wyman or Keith Richards? "I tried," he said, deadpan. "Theywouldn't take any notice. They wouldn't take any notice if I took theirtruss off." Michael Watts- NME FEBRUARY 24 71 HE ROLLING STONES have become almost Australia's

Prodigal Sons. Banned, reviled and cursed by the Australiancommunications media in the past, the Stones have latterly
become something of the nation's darlings, although meetings withthe press haven't been Jumping Jack Flash all the way.
One newspaperman who might well have asked "Would you let yourdaughter marry a Stone?" two months or so ago, reassured his reader
parents: "Mick Jagger today is as controversial as the local vicar."
But I can assure him that this reaction is purely because Michael Philip
refuses to be drawn, bullied into an exhibition of aggressive repartee by
the loaded questions of television interviewers -who have taken over inthe seven years since the Stones last played the Antipodes.
Why, the man who repealed the previous McMahon government banon the Stones, Minister Of Immigration M r "Little Al" Grassby, evenwent as far as to invite the five -plus -three band (Messrs Jim Price, Nicky
Hopkins and Bobby Keys) to a 10 -minute martini -time drink "to explain
how the original confusion arose".
The 10 minutes developed into an hour and a half, eight large brandies
and LittleAl discussing with Jagger the wish forAustralia to become afocal and vocal factor in South -East Asia.

high front-page headlines did call them HOLY STON ES. LesPerrin- NME MARCHcc

1-

USTRALIA DOES NOT have a record of violence - it'sanother Commonwealth country." Mick Jagger was
answering questions about fears of major incidents during
the Stones' current tour of the Antipodes.
Jagger, however, had not taken into account the attitudes of certain
headyAdelaide characters- thousands of them, without tickets, who
rioted outside the Memorial Park, which had a packed capacity of 8,000.
They fought police and tore down fencing -causing thousands ofdollars' worth of damage. But as Ralph Gurnett, a director of promoter
Paul Dainty's organisation and in charge of security, pointed out: "TheStones were already off the stage -and peace was restored with theDainty security men helping the local police force."
Local and international journalists covering the concert put the rioting
crowd as high as four to 5,000... Ralph Gurnett thought a more viable
figure was 2,000. There were also varying opinions as to who caused theriot. Some locals said it was anarchists; others that it was theAdelaide
Free Music Society- a group who believe you should be able to hearanything you want without paying.
A second concert was hurriedly arranged in Adelaide and was again
a packer. Throughout the tour- promoted by 26 -year -old ex -Downsidepublic school boy Paul Dainty -the security has been impeccable. To getbackstage, you have to possess an "STP" (Stones Touring Party) badge with your living -likeness sealed under a clear plastic sheet and duly
signed by the Stones' "tour commander" Peter Rudge. Entry to the BankOf England or Fort Knox is easier to come by.
So far it's been a tour and a half -despite foul, torrential rain in Brisbane
causing the postponement of the concert at the local Milton Tennis Club,
where they play the Davis Cup games. It was a love match, with theweather clerk winning -the chances of electrocution of the Stones beinga very live (or the opposite) possibility.
Jagger decided that come rain, shine or Britain's snow, the showwent on
the next evening. It did -to another tropical downpour. But not one ticket
was returned. Hundreds without them turned up and the crowd gave acloudburst of emotional approval. The cheers rained down on the Stones;
the audience stood and screamed, with water dripping over their heads.
Melbourne's treble concerts were memorable- unlike Brisbane, theweather stayed good for the first matinee show at 2.30 in the afternoon.
This week came the double concerts at Sydney's Randwick Royal
Racecourse. SydneyDailyMirrorwriter Jim Oram, who has followed thetour aroundAustralia, remarked to me over a drink in the bar: "Mick has
something in common with only one other man in the world -that theyboth filled Randwick Racecourse. Even all the owners, trainers, jockeys
and horses couldn't do that." I asked him who shared the honour with
Jagger, and Oram smiled as he said: "The Pope." LesPerrin
HISTORY OF ROCK 1973 149

JANUARY

MARCH

1973

Five years agcy, STATUS QUO _Jere

hedelic two -hit wonder, theirriving boogie rock has found a placeng Slade and T. Rex. It's more for thean the critics, admits Francis Rossi:

We play basic, simple kind of things."
M! nnv 'NA vrr MARCH 17 HATHAM, FRIDAY: "T II EY were so bleed in' young. So
bleedin' young. I mean, we went on stage, and they were
nibblin' at yer feet"- Francis Rossi, Status Quo.
hardly a poetic little phrase, but Mr Rossi has never been

StatusQuo onstage
in 1973.(1,1 Rick

Pad itt,Francis
Rossi, John Coghlan
and Alan Lancasterwas 'amazing'. Oh, what- it's just cheegugeejung, cheegugeejung, andthen up one. Amazin'? Ha!"The hall was dimmed and rude with people who were on the verge ofsomething. The first four rows consisted of kiddies under the age of 15,
with clean denim over bellies not yet to be fouled with alcohol. And sweet
little women with sweet faces. After that came four rows of people under
the age of 17, who have started heavy petting, and have a more serious
glow in their eyes.
And after them, in the middle of the auditorium, the remnants of theteenage freak. A few gasps at a weeney and it's all down to a serious, lined
face. Further back, the real heavies, clothed in sackcloth and afghan, hairlank and lonely. Faces pinched with trouble. Upstairs, way, way back,mild intellectuals. A strange array of folk.
Quo did little to prepare for stage, except drink, and joke, and gel

together in normal states.
Decided to sit between the kiddies and the embryo students. Here I felt
safe, until the stern usher demanded to knowwhat was in my glass. He
had no answer to that, and sulked back to the cigarette smokers, who areeasy prey in a dark room.
Oh sweet noise, sweet feedback, sweet "r" unguarded and cracked out,
and crushed in drums, and 12 -bars loud as a Concorde in your lavatory.
And a voice, full power, lips kissing the mic caught the song high.
Rossi there, see -sawing with Rick Parfitt, up, and down, hair straggled
and then caught in a light, and thrown back. That "bar" formed with theforefinger, with the little finger of the same hand vamping away on
boogie. Each and every song was virtually the same, but each one wasbetter, because it got louder, and louder, and considerably more frantic.
No boring solos- I say with all ink to their pens that they aren't
technically capable of delivering one. Instead they playas a group- nota band, but a group. An electric rock band. Oh, the fun of just an amplifier,and an electric guitar, and a drummer, and a bassist, and a voice.
The reaction was divine. From the very first note played, the front fourrows rushed from their seats and smothered the front of the stage: hands
out and already begging.
"They're going mad," I thought. And why not indeed?
Row by row, the audience began to move, until even the mild
intellectuals were peering with interest toward the stage. Now a
powerhouse, just a blur of jeans and hair and guitar heads, met with theirgaze. And the music - well, if you grew up with the Stones, you just can't
damn well help but love Quo. No change- virtually the same chords forevery song - licked off, shouted harmonies, basic, oh -so -basic guitar, anda general feeling of kick, and spit.
I was forced to move to the very back as the set gushed onwards. With
the dancing and sheer force of the music, the heat in the centre of the hall
was sickening. Rossi and Parfitt, scrubbing away on some diabolical but
lovely melody of rashness, and brashness. They played for ages, but it
seemed like 30 minutes -such was its intensity, and lack of tempo, orchange, away from rushed 12s and boogies.
A couple of frantically screamed encores were delivered with anotherturn -up of volume.
"'Ow could anybody damned well say I play
an amazin' guitar break? Now come on, youknow what it's all about; it's just damned wellplayin, innit?That's all, less of all this crap."
I think they ended with "Route 66" -and now
they really will be my favourites.
"But they were all so bleedin' young. Did you
see 'ow young they were. Jeez. It's frightening."
But there were some older people there,

Francis. "Amazin, bleedin' amazin'."
RoyHollingworth- NME APRIL 17-

IT JUST TURNED half past six, well overan hour to go before the doors open, anda queue is already beginning to form outside
St Albans City Hall. Out front, too, the presenceof the band's maroon Austin Princess signifies
that Status Quo are also present, going througha tuning -up ritual that has been known to turninto a three-hour stint. Why the crowd has arrived
so early, it's difficult to tell. Maybe they don't believe
52 I HISTORY OF ROCK 1973

he 'Sold Out' signs, and are waiting on the off -chance of exchanging
heir £ls for a ticket.
Tonight's St Albans gig is just one of a string of British dates which haveconsolidated Status Quo as one of the country's top live rock acts. Everydate except one has sold out, and audience reactions are amazing,verging on riot -like proportions.
But is hasn't always been so easy for Quo, who at 10 years old must be
one of rock's longest -surviving acts. They first came to attention with an
exercise in lightweight psychedelia called "Pictures Of Matchstick Men".
When "Ice In The Sun" followed, it looked like Quo had establishedthemselves, at least as a singles band. But little was heard of them until
some years later they emerged as a boogie band, accepted latterly by theheavies and boppers alike"I don't think 'Matchstick Men' was a bopper record," says a healthy looking Francis Rossi. "It was a record. When we made it, we didn't say,
'Right, there are teenyboppers, there are this and there are that.' We
didn't even think it was going to be a hit. In fact," adds Quo's otherguitarist, Rick Parfitt, "it was originally intended as a B-side."
There's still no doubt that Quo attract a young audience. At the tour's
opening gig in Chatham, the average age of the audience couldn't havebeen much more than 12. At St Albans, I'd say it was nearer 15/16.
"There's nothingwrong with young kids," says Rossi. "We had someone
come in the dressing room the other night saying what's all these boppers
doing here, as though there was something wrong with them. It doesn't
matter to us what age they are, as long as they dig it."Parfitt takes up the theme: "I mean, we dig it. We can hear it and we canfeel it. I'm sure other people would too, if they took time rather than justput the record on and say, 'Oh yeah, its Status Quo so it's got to be ballsy.
It's got to be like rock and boogie and it's got to be moving fine. Oh yeah,take it on the face of it.' They don't try to get into it."Over those 10 years, say Rossi and Parfitt, the thought of splitting neverentered their minds. Even when they weren't exactly pulling in thecrowds. "We had a dangerous spell in '69 when there was nothing
happening. We were just doing working clubs, and there were hardly any
people coming to see us. But it just built again from there, without records
or albums," says Rossi. "We never thought of splitting."
Parfitt: "We've been together a long time, and everybody gets confidence
in one another. Perhaps we would have thought about splitting if we'dhave realised our predicament. But we didn't realise how down we were."
One of the refreshing things about Status Quo is their naturalnesssuccess hasn't gone to their heads. The fact that they've remained thefour cockney lads they've always been has undoubtedly had something
to do with their appeal.
"We don't feel any different now 'cos we're big," says Rossi. "The only
difference is the number of people we see out there. We've made it to acertain extent, but there's always a long way to go and there's a lot more inus." Not that the Quo's progress hasn't been accompanied by a goodly
share of knockers. One reviewer described the band as "musicallyatrocious". While this doesn't bring the band down, it does annoy them.
"Before the success of the band, people thatused to write about us were mainly people who
liked us. Now there seem to be those who write
about the band who don't necessarily want to.
It's just a job to them.
"Even if the reviewer doesn't like it, he shouldat least say the kids dug it," says Rossi.
And as for "musically atrocious", says Rossi:"They're talking a load of crap, 'cos most people
don't know anyway. Music is a thing that comesfrom the heart. It's about feeling. I know thatsounds corny, but it's true.
"Someone once said that most of the greatpieces of music have been diabolically simple
and musically atrocious. We play basic, simple
kind of things, but that doesn't mean we're
musically atrocious."
Partfitt: "If we tried to be musically more technical,
we'd lose the feel that we get."
And that's really what Status Quo are all about. Like
Parfitt says, the music kicks you in the back.
From the minute the band steps on stage, theaudience surges forward as though someone wasthrowing £1 notes from the stage. And once they'ret"If we tried
to be more
technical, we'dlose the feel
we get"STATUS QUO

up on their feet, they don't sit down again until theyleave the gig. A Quo audience puts as much into a gig
as the band themselves, and that's a hell of a lot.
From the balcony of the City Hall, the audience islike a seething mass of tentacles. Beneath, the Quojust pound out a relentless boogie. Rossi stalks
the stage like he owns it, squeezing the last noteout of his guitar and then, with a quick upwardthrust, flicking his hair back to return to his
original position. Between numbers, heachieves a cunning rapport with the audience.
"Has anybody got the Dog [0f7lvo Head]album?" he shouts. The audience responds
automatically. "I want yer all to dance up anddown and wiggle yer arses."Audience reaction is already causing
promoters grief, as Rossi points out later: "We've
had a lot of trouble with heavies. They think
we're taunting the audience. There's all sorts ofmessages come up from the side of the stage
telling them to sit down, but it's pointless trying
to tell them.
"Once an audience is up, you can't tell them to sit down again. At Leeds,
all of a sudden, the audience just surged. I've never seen anything like it...
At one gig this guy got up on stage with us and the heavies dragged him off
by his hair and just slung him out into the street. That's terrible. He cameup to me afterwards and said, 'Sign this for me, man. I was the one who
got thrown out!' You knewwhich one he was because he was bald."
At St Albans, Quo encore with The Doors' "Roadhouse Blues" and"Johnny Be Goode". Only the house lights save the band from anotherencore. As I make my way backstage, Quo freaks are already millinground the dressing -room area. There's a kind of embarrassment about
the fans, mostly female, as they shyly ask for posters, programmes andanything else which can be autographed. One young lady is evenflourishing a No 6 cigarette coupon for signature.
Some nights, the band will have another blow in their dressing room
after the gig. But tonight it's just a case of unwinding, before joining theirwives for the drive home in the maroon limo. You just know that Status
Quo have earned every inch of chrome on that car. Steve Clarke

the world. But go out and ask the people -seewhat they thought. They were there -we saw'em, everybody else saw 'em. Critics say ourmusic isn't original, but what is? It's all been
done before, everything."
It's been more than five years since Rossi
wrote "Pictures Of Matchstick Men" and theband joined the teenybopper ranks. He looks
back on it with mild amusement. "The fans had
seen us on the box, and they'd come to gigs tohave a scream, touch you up and all that, messabout, and pull your hair..."He looks serious for a moment and adds,"And the place was dead - they weren't getting
any buzz off what we were doing."
It's only in the past few months, since therelease of Piledriver, that Quo have made any
significant impression on the music business.
For five years theywere virtually ignored. So it's
significant that the four members of the band
have stuck it out together all this time.
Says Rossi: "No point in breaking up, really.
If I'd left we'd either have had to go back to work, which none of us wanted
anyway, or we'd have gone in another band and started again.
"So it was sensible to stay together. We didn't actually think, 'We've got
to stay together and make it', but on reflection that's how it was. I don't
think we realised how down we were, because we always managed tomaintain our self-respect and confidence."
Financially, the band were in dead schmuck.
"We got in a bit of debt -we were earningvery little money. In fact, I don't
know howwe did it. Sometimes we came out with £5. We supported T. Rex
just before they had 'Ride A White Swan' -things like that -and just £5
was all you'd get for it. Funny though -even now it's costing us a hell ofa lot to keep going. Ten times as much as it did a couple of years back."
Rossi describes their way of getting back on their feet again as "going in
the backdoor". So from supporting T. Rex they then went on tour with
Slade, playing as many gigs as humanly possible. "Everything helped us-yeah, the Slade tour helped."
The yardstick of a band's success is when their old record company
re-release their old material. So just when Quo had Piledriver (Vertigo)
selling and in the album charts, good old Pye started putting old productson the market. Rossi was not unnaturally annoyed.
"It's all right for most of the cats who want to get hold of it, but it does
seem a bit of a con. They just sling product out and see what happens."
The band's new album, Hello!, is the second they've released with
Phonogram. Says Rossi: "It's a gradual progression from Piledriver.
Everythingwe do is steady, ploddy. We plod on. Everybody says, 'Yeah,
that's a load of bullshit and it's a bit of this and it's very riffy and it's all very
simple, but they don't really understand. We don't consciously sit down
and say, 'Let's be simple.' I mean, music is feel. The greatest musicians
play from inside.
"Really, we'd like some respect. Chuck Berry has respect, and he can berough - he's just a feel merchant. I don't think people really listen to where
we are at- they aren't being honest about it."
So conversation turns full circle. We're back on Rossi's paranoia about
the music papers again: "Yeah, they think, 'I'll have a go at that.' Sells
papers anyway, don't it."
Bar John Coghlan, every member of Quo contributes to the writing side.
And "fifth member" Bob Young, who has been known to join the band onstage, co -writes material as well.
"John's got a couple of things coming along, but it's very difficult forhim. You can't reallywrite a song on the drums. He can't sit at his kit andsay, 'Yeah, that sounds nice.'
Bob? Good boy, he is... Doesn't really like being on stage, because hefeels silly. But he writes songs and looks after the band. He's mother. We
write all the time -the main problem is gross lack of time. But we'realways plonking around."While the band's publicist would have it that Quo are settingAmerica
alight, Rossi is not so exuberant. Again he uses his phrase "getting in theback door".And he adds: "I knowAmerica is supposed to be important.
They say 'you've got to do it out there'. But I don't really like America, andI don't like the thought of going back. But we'll go back, go in the backdoor, not headlining. You've got to do it properly." Julie Webb

"We got ina bit of debt

- we were
earning very
little money"- NME OCTOBER

ccI

6-

DON'T CARE WHO you are..." A hand struck me acrossthe face. "You're not comin' in 'ere." Faced with a visionof jobswort hiness as menacing as I'd seen for a long time,
I countered with a burst of impolite advice on where my assailant
should make love and exited for a further assault.
Security seems to be at premium at Status Quo gigs, it would appear.
Certainly it was at this one. There were jobsworths, as far as the eye could
see. Fortunately the capacity crowd outnumbered them... thousands of
Status Quo freaks, easily recognisable because, apart from the obvious
giveaways like a Hello! album under left arm and pint of bitter in the right,
they usually walk around with heads bowed so that their faces arecovered by mountains of hair.
Backstage it's noisy. Rick Parfitt is tuning his guitar; Alan Lancaster tries
to rectify the situation by talking loudly and being friendly. Francis Rossi
sits and says yeah, he'll "be ready to talk in a minute".
We repair to the next-door room, where we can still hear Parfitt tuning,
but a certain amount of sanity is retained. Rossi doesn't particularly likeinterviews. Well, he likes talking, sure, but he doesn't always reckon on
the way they turn out. He's developed an almost paranoid state over themusic papers and their treatment of the band.
"Yeah, well before Status Quo made it again (laughs), the cats who werewriting about us were people who were interested in writing about us.
They thought, 'Yeah, nice little band -I'll have a write on that.' They were
into the band -whereas now a lot of them have to write about us because
it's their job. So they figure they'll slag us off and see what happens. That's
the way it reads anyway, and the way it feels.
"Any criticism hurts, because they are slagging somethingyou livewith and something you believe in. If there's a riff to the music, they
think that's something terrible. Oh dear me, a riff -can't have that. But
if we are into it, it doesn't really matter. Like the whole Reading thing we're supposed to have died a death there and been the worst band in

HISTORY OF ROCK 19Th 153

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Readers' letters

1973

MM/NME JAN -MAR Lou Heed rules, RIP the Cavern, Floyd's fripperies and more.
Unhappy camper"Bolan isn't camp - he's prissyand fey, and engrossed in his own
image." David Bowie -Quotes Of
The Year.
Has David Bowie's music been
lost behind the facade of his stage
image? Having just seen Bowie
live, I must say he was lousy. His
act illustrated something that I
and many others have longsuspected; there is not enoughweight or guts behind his music
and lyrics. Instead he relies
heavily on production effects.
Those same effects ruined what
good there was on Lou Reed's
latest LP, Thansformer.
Why have Lou Reed and The
Velvet Underground been
suppressed for so long? Long ago
they should have had some of theadulation that Bowie has seen,
above all, from many critics.
As for the fans, when we wererooting what music there wasfrom the ruins of flower power, weshould have been listening to the
Velvets. Why didn't we? Perhaps
it's something to do with Reed's
culture. New York is reared on
hard drugs, pop (Warhol) andcamp. Alarmingly, New York's
present is our future.
Reed's music is wicked ("Lady
Godiva's Operation"); Reed's
music is sad, coming as a cry from

Beatlemania was born, is due to bebulldozed this week to make way
fora city -centre undergroundrailway line.
The Cavern opened 16 years
ago as a Ronnie Scott's -type clubwith a Left Bank bohemianatmosphere, featuring trad, bigbands and cool combos. Many
artists of international repute,from Acker Bilk to Josh White, rang
the musical changes in the stonycellar, ranging from ragtime toreggae and skiffle to soul.
The Beatles' Cavern debut was ata lunchtime session in February
1961. Their subsequent worldwide
fame rubbed off on the Cavern andit became a top tourist attraction,much ballyhooed by press, radio
and television. All together the FabFour played there 292 times,
bowing out in August 1963.
In February 1966 the club closed
down with the decline of theMersey Beat scene, signalling theend of Liverpool's rockrenaissance. Eventually thepremises were altered and theclub reopened as a rhythm -and booze venue. Now, on the 10th
anniversary ofThe Beatles' first
Number One hit- "Please PleaseMe" -the Home Of The Beatles
will ironically cease to exist.
BOB WOOLER, West Derby Road,ROBERT HARDY, Radcliffe Park
Road, Salford 6, Lancs(4MJan13)

Farewell to the Cavern
An obituary notice by Bob Wooler,
Cavern Club resident DI/compere,
1961-1966: Liverpool's famous
Cavern Club, the backstreet

warehouse basement whereas I have.
GP KELSEY, Brough, Yorks(N ME March 24)

Shirley some mistakeI have discovered a great new girlballad singer. Her name? Yoko
Ono. I discovered her by chance.
I put the B-side ofJohn Lennon's"Instant Karma" single on at
33rpm, and Yoko's previously
screeching and screaming voice
took on a new dimension. Watchout, Shirley Bassey, Yoko's coming.

h.14,1r11111...

CRAIG BROWN, Tullecombe,
Rogate, Sussex (MMJan is)

Liverpool 6 (NM E Feb 27)

Spot the beef
On six consecutive albums
Captain Beefheart has
approached the playing of rockthe stifled heathen atmosphere of
NewYork. Reed's struggle, I think,
is appropriate to the time. His
image is nothing to do with glitter.
He's plain black leather camp, yetvery, very sad. He is, as Richard
Williams so charmingly put it, like"an ageing whore".
I suppose Reed is reality as
Bowie is fantasy. Escapism is what
the kiddies want. They'll grow outof it. Bowie the charmer is thequeen for them. He's distant,sweeter and softer and easier toaccept than the closer, harsher,luring music of the older queen.
Both have something to say but
how is it offered? Live, at least you
get the feeling that Reed, "thechauvinistic pig", is human andnot plastic.

Dark side of the sleeve
I have just bought Pink Floyd's
new album Dark Side Of The Moon.
I was astonished at the price £2.50 for less than 45 minutes ofmusic. This is ridiculous. Packed
with the album, in a double sleeve
incidentally, were two uselessposters and two equally uselessstickers. Without these and the
double sleeve, I reckon that thealbum could have retailed ataround £2.10 and everyone
would have been happy.
Why should we pay for thistrash when after all we want tolisten to the music and not look at
the sleeve? Record companies
should instil a feeling of goodwill
rather than an "I've been conned",music in a unique way. So if he

Who next?
After listening to "Pinball Wizard"
by The New Seekers on the radio,
I would like to say how disgusted
I was to hear them bring out sucha bad reproduction. The Who are
one of my favourite bands andit's heartbreaking to hear
another group ruin one of theirmasterpieces. Also on this single
is another snatch ofThe Who's pop
opera. I just hope that it's not going
to be as commercial as Jesus Christ
Superstar, as Tommy MUST be ina category of its own.
SUE, Paisley. Scotland (NHEMar 24)

decides to explore certain
possibilities in the world of easy
listening, who are we to criticise
his decision, or to say that heceases to be progressive? (Doesanyone still use that term?) Can
we assume he has sold out?
All the reviews I read warnedme that as a Beefheart fan I would
be disappointed by Clear Spot.
However, when I heard it, it mademe smile. Having heard the
Captain be wild and frantic onmany occasions, it made aninteresting change to hear him
relaxed and jovial. And listening
to the much -slated "Too Much
Time", I wondered how many
writers in a sentimental ballad of
this type allude to love being as
deep as the ocean as well as toeating a can of stale beans anda can of sard Ines?
ANDREW,ElboroughSt,Southfields,
London SWIS(MMJan 27)

4011004TP/44

mouldy old music
OECD =,'"HISTORY OF ROCK 1973 155

alive
in

ir

June

BRUCE SPRINGSTEEN,

LED ZEPPELIN, ROXYMUSIC AND MORE

March 10,1973: Rod

Stewart and Ronnie
Lane of the Faces inconcert for the Popgala
show on Dutch TV

58 I HISTORY OF ROCK 1973

"Time to move on"
NME MAY 26
RONNIE "PLONK" LANE, founder member of the Faces,

this week announced his decision to quit the group.
Just returned from the band's seventh American tour,
Lane commented: "It's time to move on -I feel the needfora change." The NME understands that Lane will bemaking a statement on his future plans when he returns
from a holiday in France in about 10 days' time.
Lane's departure will not affect the Faces' upcoming
British and European dates, which will go ahead as planned- this includes their concerts at London Edmonton Sundown
on June 1, 3 and 4. The group are currently auditioning for
a new bassist, and expect to be able to announce Lane's
replacement very shortly.
In an official statement, drummer Kenney Jones said:"Ronnie obviously wants to do something of his own,
and there is no reason why we should stand in his way."
Keyboards man Ian McLagan told the NME: "The split
was all very amicable, but it's for everyone's good really."locc perform their third
single "Rubber Bullets on Top Of The Pops:(I-r)

LolCreme,Graharn
Gouldman, Kevin
Godley and Eric Stewart

MM

How 10cc (formerly Hotlegs) sneaked "Rubber Bullets" and racier numbers past the
BBC censors and into the charts. "Try it in your Mitzi Gaynor voice," advises drummer Kevin Godley.

F...

UNTILA YEAR ago, Graham Gouldman
was going through what he calls his "whynot?" period. "Any time someone asked me
to do something, I always asked myself, 'Why
not?' and went ahead and did it. I really neverconsidered whether it would be the best thing
for me at that particular time -I hadn't a clue
what I wanted to do."Gouldman is stretched out in the white sitting
room of his new mock -Georgian house on theoutskirts of Rochdale. It's
three in the morning andhe's exhausted, having
just been driven backfrom a recording session
at Stockport's Strawberry
Studios. Tired, but happy.
The "why not" time isover, banished by the
success of 10cc, which has
58 I HISTORY OF ROCK 1973

been a victory for good pop music overgeography, snobbery and the British
broadcasting system.
While Bette Midler- his wife's favourite croons "Am I Blue" in the background,
Gouldman talks of the past few years, of the hit
songs that ensured his comfortable income, andof the effort to find something more worthwhile
than just being a cog in a song factory.
"When I worked for Kasenetz-Katz in New
York, I'd sit in an office

all day and maybe write
two songs. Then, justas I was leaving at theend of the day, one ofthem would come up
and say, 'Look, gimme
one more song. I'm
hungry -just one more.'
So I'd go and sit on thebog or something and write another one.
Then they'd say, 'Now I'm really hungry...
gimme just one more.'"For the past three weeks, though, the 10cc
experience has been not unlike those days.
With "Rubber Bullets" firing up the chart, UK
Records wanted an album from them tocapitalise on the hit. The difficulty there is that,in the past, whenever they've tried to write
songs for an album, they've always turned out
to be singles. This time, though, the heat wason, and they had to have it finished by lastweekend, in time for drummer Kev Godley toget married and jet off to Barbados.
So, one night last week, when they were stuck
fora couple of tracks, Graham and Eric Stewart
went into one room, and Key and Lol Creme sat
in another. Time elapsed until - Eu reka!- they
suddenly had two more songs -which bothturned out to be as good as anything else on the

AI

Gouldman played in various

Manchesterbased bands
inthe'bosand penned hits
such as "For Your Love" f or
The Yardbirds and "BusStop"for The Hollies

as well as enchantment, andthey're just as clever at it as
Bryan Ferry, perhaps evenmore so.
"Speed Kills", by Eric,
began in the days when he,
Lol and Kevin were Hotlegs:"We first tried it whensomeone suggested that wedo another drum -based
thing to follow up'Neanderthal Man' about
18 months ago. There are
14 guitar parts on it- it's
supposed to be a kind ofconcerto, my contribution
to the classics!"
It rattles along like a V-8

Ford (the mingled guitars
sounding like Eric Clapton
and DuaneAllman in a hallof mirrors, while the thickvocal harmonies playa
backing role to Eric's
virtuosity; in fact the whole
P111/1111111111.11111111111111111111.10111111.11.111111111111.1.111"
album is spattered with his
1.1.1.1111111PF
throughout an album canbrilliant guitar, particularly
album. I won't tell you which they are, but it
noticeable in the case of his
sure proves that song factories can work, when
get wearying, sometimes."
accompanying slide riffs
they're run on fun.
And they use the contrasting
voices brilliantly, imbuingand occasional solos). It may
The great success of "Rubber Bullets" amuses
we've got four
remind you a little ofthem no end, because it arrived with nothe various song -characters
Manfred Mann's Manikin
assistance from the BBC -which took a look atwith wit and point.
cigars TV ad, speeded up andthe title, decided it was about Northern Ireland,
There's "Headline
minus Vivien Neves.
and promptly buried it in the wastebin.
Hustler", for example,
The album will also
"We really don't know how it became a hit,"
written by Graham and Eric.
Clattering along like a nearinclude the three A -sides
says Graham. "I suppose it was in therelative of "Rubber Bullets", it uses topicalthey've released to date and- perhaps silliest of
discotheques -that, and maybe word-ofthemes: the Lambton Affair and the BBC, theall- a Godley/Creme selection entitled "Themouth, too." The chemistry of a hit single
CIA and Watergate. "Sand In My Face" is about
Hospital Song". "It's really a shame that Jimmy
therefore remains a mystery to them -"Donna"
a man who takes a Charles Atlas Dynamic
Clitheroe died," says Kevin. "He would have
was a sleeper, too, and would "Johnny Don't Do
sung this one perfectly."It" have been a hit if they'd left it for another few
Tension course, and would be a perfect single.
weeks? Whatever, they've proved again that the
The there's "The Dean And I" which, were it
It's the tale of a demented patient who sings to
his anaesthetist: "I get off on whatyou give me,
godalmighty BBC can't always stop gooda movie, would star Doris Day and Rockdarlin7 Lol, dubbing on the lead vocal,
records from making the chart.
Hudson, and which captures exactly that iceperforms it in a furious, impotent, Woody"It's extremely funny," Graham continues.
cream -soda world of graduation days andAllen-ish half -suppressed scream. "Lol," says
"As soon as it got into the charts, five or six BBC
reluctant virgins. "That one," says Kevin,producers rang Chris Denning at UK Records"was written by Godley and Creme andKey, "can you try it in your Mitzi Gaynorvoice?"and said, 'Can we have another copy of theRodgers and Hammerstein.""Try to sound pathetic," adds Graham. "Evenmore pathetic than you sound now."
single, please? We seem to have misplaced theThere's "Ships Don't Disappear In The Night
The great thing about lOcc- and living in
one you sent us originally.'(Do They?)" -a tribute to Bela Lugosi and Boris
Manchester has a lot to do with this -is that
"Before that, in fact, Chris had got a few
Karloff, who figure prominently in the chorus,
they're so fresh. Anything but slaves to thewith another refrain which runs: "You gotta be
shortened copies pressed for BBC play, because
trends and stultifying hipness which afflict
he thought maybe it was a bit long, but when thenice... to Vincent Price."
producers came through again he told them he
Eric and Graham wrote that one, and Kevinthe London music business, they have a newand exciting angle. After all, how many otherhadn't got any shortened ones left and they had
pleads: "When you've heard them all, will you
to play the full version."tell us who's the silliest?"
groups would write a very funny song about
The song, of course, contains references to"FreshAir For My Momma", written by Kev
bed -wetting? Richard Williams"balls and brains" and "balling in the street",and Lol, doesn't sound silly at all. It's
which worried the group. But again, the Beeba ballad of the Pet Sounds variety withdoesn't seem to have noticed. "They really don'ta strong lead vocal and immense
seem to listen to more than the first 10 seconds,"
harmonies, beautifullyvoiced- but
Graham muses. "I mean, look at 'Walk On The
it's subtitled "The American Way Of
Wild Side' -all that stuff about oral sex and so
Dying" and bears a strong thematicon. There seems to be a certain naivete there..."resemblance to Evelyn Waugh's
lOcc's secret seems to be that they pack a lot ofnovel The Loved One, reeking ofcontent into their songs, each one being a mini funeral parlours and coffins sliding
cantata with characters and some sort of a plot.
into the flames.
Their careful exploitation of the resources
All these songs demonstrate theiravailable at Strawberry Studios (part -owned bycollective fixation with American
Gouldman and Stewart) is also noticeable,
customs and lifestyles, and they're
adding distinction to the songs.
among the few Britons who've captured"We're lucky that we've got four singers, four
the atmosphere so perfectly. To them,potential lead voices," says Lol. "One voice
the distance seems to lend perspective"We're lucky thatsingers, four
potential voices""He'sartistically outof thisworld": Mike
11Oldf ield at work on

Tubular Bells at
Richard Branson's
Manor Studios

TUBULAR BELIAMJKE OLDFIELD
Stereo r 1973 V2001

Side One
Composed by Mike Oldheld (25.00)"We're only just starting"Published by Visgul Mac Lid.

NM E MAY 1266

UST WHAT THE world needs,"
said Frank Zappa, sardonicallyintroducing his short-lived Bizarre
label four years ago. "Another record
company.- As it happened, the n albums
released while Bizarre was operational were ofan artistic standard rarely achieved by theblanket output of the larger recording
combines, because (and I make this statement
whilst fully aware of the cynical sneers it will
elicit from the rock business at large) the
criteria of the label were aesthetic rather thancommercial/pragmatic.
OK, so it didn't last (and neither did John
Peel's equally altruistic Dandelion label), and:-i-possibly the time when an Island Records
could get off the ground in the face of suchgiants as CBS, EMI, Decca and the Kinney
Corporation are long gone. But right now
a renewed attempt at combining artistic
integrity with financial viability is to belaunched by an independent company. And
this time it looks as if it might just work.

The company involved is Virgin Records,
known so far only as Britain's most successful(in terms of rapidity of growth) privately
owned and operated chain of record stores.
The key factors indicating that their projectedlabel could accomplish what Dandelion andBizarre failed to do are that the organisation
not only possesses its own
studio (the famous Manor in
Oxfordshire), but it also has
a substantial control of the
distribution of its productthrough its countrywide
network of shops.
The Virgin label is theour stock to be sold at anything up to 25 percent less than the recommended price.
"Because no other shops were willing to cut
profits as a long-term investment, we foundourselves cornering the market, particularly inimports, and we expanded very quickly overthe first six months. Now we have 14 shops inmost of the major cities, andwe plan to open several newones within the year."
Eventually Branson plans
to run the label on a kind of
split level. The premier label
will concern itself withsigned artists and normal
systems of advances against royalties for fulluse of Manor studio time; the second one will
run on a more limited but artistically evenmore adventurous schedule.
Via this last outlet, acts will be able torecord in limited time and with a special
contract, producing albums pressed in"Every company,
apart from us,
turned Mike down"

culmination of two -and -a -half years of hard
work and slow evolution on the part of adetermined group of people led by Richard
Branson, one-time editor of Student
magazine. "We started in1971,- explains
Branson,"as a mail order service based in our
Oxford Street branch. We used the abolition
of Retail Price Maintenance, which was
brought inaround thattime, to enable

Alternative Virginsmaller quantity and distributed entirely
through the company's own shops.
The first string of groups, who will be
exclusively signed to the label and a projectedDavid Bowie: fanshad complained ofsound and sight line probhints at his
Earls Court show

Virgin management agency, will havetheir records distributed and pressed byIsland (who, in turn, are handled by EMI),
although Virgin will retain control ofmusical content, sleeve design andpromotion. "The secondary label,"says Branson, "could take over where
Dandelion left off, if it works out.
As for the main one, we won't be signinga hell of a lot of acts at first, although 12
albums are scheduled for1973 because
we want to restrict our signings to things
we all believe in artistically. And, besides,
we're only just starting. We don't want tojump the gun."The first releases on the Virgin label
are Tubular Bells by ex -Kevin Ayers multi -instrumentalist Mike Oldfield; Radio
Gnome Invisible by Anglo-French group
Gong: and Manor Live, an album of
collaborations by a large number ofdifferent artists under the name SteveYork's Camelo Pardalis. Featured on
Manor Live are, amongst others, Elkie
Brooks, Jim Mullen, 011ie Halsall, Mike
Patto, Tim Hinkley, Rob Tait, Lol Coxhill,
Boz, Graham Bond, Diane Stewart, Marc
Charig, Mick Moody, Steve York and PeteGage, many of whom appear bypermission of Island Records.
The Gong album is the result of a deal
between Virgin and the French label BYG,
and is the first of a four-part sequence,
this one entitled Flying Teapot.
For this album the band's lineup was
expanded to include - apart from ex -Soft
Machine guitarist and leader Daevid Allen andhis wife Gilli Smyth - Christian Fritsch (guitar,bass), Steve Hillage (guitar), Tim Blake(synthesizer, trumpet and vocals), Francis
Moze (ex -Magma, bass), Didier Malherbe(saxes) and Laurie Allen (drums).

Mike Oldfield's record features him on
overdubbed guitars, mandolin, bass, chimes,
percussion, keyboards synthesizer and vocals,
and has caused so much excitement at Virginthat they are planning a promotional concert
at the Festival Hall in June, which will include
Stevie Winwood and Robert Wyatt asadditional musicians.
"Every company, apart from us, turned him
down,- says Branson. "Which is unbelievable,
after you've heard the album. He's artisticallyout of this world, and we can see no reason
why Tubular Bells shouldn't be a commercial

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DAVID BOWIE'S PROJECTED return concert at London's Earls Court stadium on June 30-which was to have been the final date in his current massive tour schedule-has beencancelled. The decision to scrap this show was taken by his manager, Tony Defries, who
said: "Neither David nor myself will make any further comment on the matter."
The 18,000 -capacity arena was the starting point for the Bowie tour on May 12, and hisconcert on that date was subjected to widespread criticism from sections of the audience who
could neither see nor hear him. Visual and acoustic improvements were promised for his June
30 return. In the absence of any official explanation, it seems likely that the gig was cancelled incase these new standards could not be achieved.
Commented Defries: "It appears that the box office has been opened before the appointed
date without my knowledge or permission, and that a very large quantity of mail has been
received from prospective ticket -buyers. I will do my utmost to ensure that all of this is sorted
and money returned as soon as possible."
Promoter Mel Bush told the NME:"I have been told to make no comment on the Bowie
cancellation. But I would emphasise that my Slade concert at Earls Court the following day(July 1) is definitely still on."Bowie'sAladdin Sanealbum is now in the charts in six different countries- Britain, theUnited States, Italy, Holland, Sweden and Norway. It is also on release in Germany, France,
Belgium, Denmark, Switzerland and Austria-and is about to be issued in Australia, South
Africa and Japan. At press time, the LP was approaching £500,000grossinBritishsalesalone.

success too.- Ian Macdonald"Absolutely untrue
NME JUNE 9

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RUMOURSCIRCULATINGTHIS week, suggesting that Keith Richards isleaving the Rolling Stones, were vehemently denied by Mick Jagger. The story
seems to have emanated in Los Angeles, where Nicky Hopkins -who has
worked with the Stones on many occasions- reportedly told a US rock writer that
Richards had been ousted by Jagger, who was seeking Ronnie Wood of the Faces asa replacement. The rumour was strengthened last week when two sources in Britain
claimed to have heard from Richards himself that he was leaving the Stones.
Richards was out of town and unavailable for comment, but Mick Jagger told theNt4E: "The report has no basis in fact whatsoever - it's absolutely untrue.- Ronnie
Wood also denied that any approach had been made to him by the Stones.
HISTORY OF ROCK 1973 161

Wi

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10 61 YWYU

Gltlin

GramParsons at a pat ty
in a park in Los Angeles,

Juno1973.whil.
recording sessions forhis second album,
Grievous Angel(inset)"I don't know whatcountry rock is"
NME MAY 12 "Contemporary country artist" Gram Parson on the Stones,
The Flying Burrito Brothers and why he had to leave The Byrds.
NOWADAYS IT'S THE done thing foryour heavy friends to drop by thestudio and lay down some choice licks
on your album for kicks and maybe expenses.
And when those friends are pianist Glen D
Hardin, drummer Ronnie Tutt and that much emulated guitar hero James Burton -themainstays of paunchy Presley's back-up band
- then you're really well in. Well, they were all
there when Gram Parsons decided to cut hislong -overdue solo album.
And Lord knows, it's not that these catsneed the money.
"They can command any fee they want,"
says Parsons. "The fact is, they were reallykeen to do the album, and beyond that, a lotta
times they came along for free."
What Parsons doesn't say, but you can readbetween the lines, is that these musicians
62 HISTORY OF ROCK 1973

needed an alternative to churning out"Lord, You Gave Me A Mountain", "My Way"and hurried facsimiles of the Hillbilly Cat's
past glories amidst the Las Vegas facade.
"Actually... Glen, Ronnie and James are pals
from a long way back," drawls the mellow
country gentleman, "so I guess it was relatively
easy for me to get them down to my sessions."
Without any trace of egotism, Parsons
continues: "You gotta understand that cutting
this album was entirely different from playing
on some plastic group's record. Now that may
not sound like a lot to you, but for these guys it
was incredible."And so are some of the recorded results.
It's certainly true that Gram Parsons has
garnered a fine reputation since the mid -'60s,
when he hauled his patched -denim ass out of
the East and settled in LA to re -pioneer themusical heritage of the Old West.
Parsons was the man who instigatedthe much -abused cosmic cowboy
movement with The International
Submarine Band, got The Byrds torecord their Sweetheart Of The Rodeo
masterpiece, and helped form the sun kissed Flying Burrito Brothers.
So even LA's hordes of paranoidposeurs reacted with almost
unprecedented enthusiasm to the news
that Gram Parsons was finally taking aband out on the one-night ulcer trail.
Even the jaded ladies of the canyons
were far more interested in getting into
the group than actually getting into thegroup. And there's a subtle difference.
There he was going out on the road,
resplendent in his Mr Nudie "dude ranch
Wild West" suit, a dashing, elegant
figure. But even a good ole kicker like
Gram Parsons has to contend withavoiding images such as being calleda country rocker.
As laid-back as a field of corn having
been thoroughly worked over by abulldozer, Parsons reclines in the backof his Greyhound touring bus, parked
out front of his rustic Coldwater
Canyon ranch -style house, and softly
mumbles: "Man, I still don't know whatcountry rock is!"He gazes at this beer can, takes athroat full, and gurgles:"I would say I'ma contemporary country music artist with anelectric rock'n'roll band."Again he pauses, nods and concludes:"Yep... I guess that's exactly what I am."Though to a large extent responsible forthe spate of cosmic -cowboy bands that havesprung up almost as regularly as spaghetti
Westerns, Parsons' opinion is less thanfavourable towards such outfits.
"Sure, they're fun to watch," he concedes,"but in no ways are they country bands. Mostof them are just San Francisco drinking bands
as opposed to the regular San Francisco acidbands. The only guy among that lot who has
any taste is Jerry Garcia, but apart from what
he does, most of the music that these bands
call country rock just doesn't turn me on."Although country music is the largest
single market in America, there's still this misconception held by the heavy-metal kids thatcountry folk are nothing but rednecks, beer
drinkers and blue -rinsed blonde honky tonk
queens. And country types reckon theirdetractors are just decadent, long-haired
Parsons says: "I think it was a logicalhippies. In short: the Easy Rider is still in search
step for the Stones to get into countryof America. To try to rectify these injustices,music, because they've always been
Gram Parsons joined The Byrds andwell into the old blues since they first
persuaded Roger McGuinn to record
began. Whether it was subconscious
Sweetheart Of The Rodeo.
or not, they were trying to get into an"When I first joined The Byrds I was quite
old country -blues type thing, which ispleased with the result, simply because it
part of the Rolling Stones sound.
had been so damn hard for me to get a real
"I suppose it was a coincidence thatcountry thing going," Parsons recollects.
I happened to come along with The"But the more I played witi The Byrds, theByrds, and Mick and Keith liked a few
more I wished I could get them to do realof my songs, coupled to the fact thatcountry songs like 'That's All Took' instead of
we gotta lotta kicks outta just sittingsome of their more familiar songs, which I felt
around playing together.
were a waste of time. At this point, we were
"By this time, I'd had it with LA, theworking to really big audiences but weren't
Burritos and the rush. So I had to do agetting the response wesolo album, but at that time
"She's so important to this band," he insists.
could have gotten had wethere was just no way to do"You see, there aren't many country tenor
pursued the direction of theit. I couldn't get the rightsingers around except for those straight
Rodeo album."musicians or a record
session Nashville cats."
Though there were nocompany. So I called Keith
Parsons is confident that The Fallen Angels
major clashes over musicaland said that I wanted towill succeed where others failed to establish
policy, Parsons was to split
a common denominator for both rock andsame way as R&B come over to London andfrom The Byrds on a matter
hang out, play some country
country music fans.
of principle -he refused tomusic, because he wanted"At the moment I'm still having trouble inperform before segregatedto produce me.
figuring a lot of country folk out," he began,audiences in South Africa.
"Unfortunately, for
curiously. "I've found out that they're not
He tells me: "I was raised in the South by
a number of reasons, including Keith's priorprejudiced just as long as you come to theirsome wonderful black people and what
commitments and the lack of suitablecity and spend your money in their recording
common sense I have I owe to them. Listen,musicians in Britain, all I did was sing and pickstudios. I can remember when they wereman," and for once his voice rises above its
with the Stones and sing on 'Lovin' Cup' andprejudiced no matter what."
mellow monotone,"I couldn't play before'Sweet Virginia'."
Parsons believes his Fallen Angels will help
segregated audience. That's something no
Returning to LA, Parsons once again set
people who've only listened to the likes of Doc
person should ever do."about getting together his band The Fallen
Watson and Flatt & Scruggs to enjoy a more
The subject gets his adrenalin working
Angels. And his prize acquisition was singer
contemporary approach, while rock fans will
overtime, and he cites a number of cases
Emmylou Harris.
then become exposed to artists like Waylon
illustrating the evils of
Jennings, Merle
apartheid. He spits: "I think the
Haggard, George Jones
South African government are
and Tammy Wynette.
"I was going to leave whennothing but a bunch of skunks
He sums up: "Today,
Chris Etheridge left": The
Flying BurritoBrothers and really behind the rest of thepeople wanna hear(1-r)"Sneaky Pete" Kleinow,
civilised world."
about the dealer on theChris Hillman, Bernie Leadon,
Michael Clarke, Gram Parsons
Calming himself, he takes a
street, 'Superfly', andretrospective look at his days as
anything that goesa Flying Burrito Brother.
against the accepted"I loved the Burritos," heestablishment, anddrawls, "but I got tired of it all
because of this I think
after a while. Again, it was athey wanna hearquestion of trying to get thecountry music.
right kind of people to form"Country music isn'ta real country band. I canbubblegum and it isn't
remember some really inspired
geared to sell like
moments when we recorded
bubblegum. It's sincere
Gilded Palace Of Sin, but soonin the same way as R&B
after that everything just bored
and BB King. Now, if thatme. If you really wanna know,
can appeal to younger
I was going to leave when Chris
people, I see no reason
Etheridge left, but I stayed on
why country music can't
to front the band until they
have the same appeal."
found a suitable replacement.
Roy Carr
The trouble was they took solong that finally I had to wish
them all the best and quit."
This was to bring Parsons
back to Britain and tore-establish his friendship with
Mick Jagger and Keith Richards,
who had dedicated "Wild"Country music
is sincere in theand BB King"

Horses" to him. It was to be a

fruitful collaboration, and it
could be that his presence
influenced the more countryesque cuts on Exile On Main St.

Parsons
the country
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Rosy Music perform "In Every
Dream Home A Heartache"on TheOldGrey Whistle Test.
first broadcast on ApriI3,1973-

CRY ?VI avFP MARCH 17

HERE SA NEW sensation. A fabulous
creation. A danceable solution. To teenage
revolution". Well, what is it?
'Tired of the tango? Fed up with fandango?"
Most certainly, but have you got anything
better, Mr Bryan Ferry?
What is this new sensation? "Do the Strand, love. When you feel love.
It's the new way. That's what we say: Do the Strand". The Strand? "TheSphinx and Mona Lisa, Lolita and Guernica. Did the Strand".
Well, in that case, so will I, and so will you -and before you know it, thewhole country will be S:raind ng like buggery. It's new, it's great, and it's
The Strand.
"I don't quite knowwhatthe Strand is," said Bryan Ferry, smokingyet
anotherof my Marlboros (but they're nice to share). "It's sort of...""T

He shimmied a leg, rolled his eyes, and made a locomotion movementwith one arm. "You can do anythingyou like to it really. We were goingto get Lionel Blair to workout some dance routines for it... but The
Strand is everything."
It is. And so is Roxy Music's new album, For Your Pleasure. Which
Bryan was turning up full volume. We'd met in the Markham Arms,
Kings Road. I was expecting to meet some very serious, over -bored,
over -aware fellow, with a liking for arty things and nostalgia. Funnywhat the mind conjures up.
Instead, Ferry is loveable, nervous, witty in the nicest places and as
open as a barn door. I found him extraordinary looking, even t hough he
was dressed plainly in black and a bit of leaf her. He has a face andforehead that would do justice to a role in Star Trek. He looks to all
intents and purposes like one of us, Captain, but I beg to tell you that hehas two hearts and three brains, said Spock. That sort of thing, ifyou
can see what I mean. x.
HISTORY OF ROCK 1973 165

We shared a glass, raved over ELO's "Roll Over Beethoven" gushed out
by the juke - "I love Jeff Lynne's singing, but Roy Wood's better. WhenI was a DJ, I had a habit of playing 'Fire Brigade' every night."
Now, there's a little insight into Ferry for you.
We crossed Kings Road, full of flurry and fur, and flash, and withinminutes were settled into a cushy office, speakers pounding out
rock'n'roll, and the lyrics urged one to do the Strand - opening track tothis new Boxy. And what a fabulous new Boxy this is! Ferry openly admits
that it's way better than the first album.
"A year on the road has seen to that. We spent ages over the first album,
weeks and weeks and weeks, but got this together in just over 12 days. Our
playing is far superior, everything is far superior."
I asked Bryan to comment on the tracks individually, but once the tape
had started, neither of us was particularly anxious to talk. Instead we justlistened -Ferry gazing on to the Kings Road; me gazing into a space

between the two speakers.
Side One -"Do the Strand": There is absolutely no doubt that when you
hear this, you'll put it right back on again, and then again. It's so bloody
attractive. Well plonked eights on the piano, coupled with snorty/wailing/screaming sax.Apart from the lyrics being a total gas -that's not the firstthing that catches you. Instead it's the urge to get up and dance. "Purely
a dancer," said Bryan later. "I think it's nice to write a dancer, don't you?"
It's a single, it's got to be a single, I told him. "But that would be cheating
kids, putting a single out from an album. That's cheating," said Bryan.
He's so nice. We played the track three times in all... it's that sort of th ing.
An honest rocker -and pleasingly bizarre, too.
"BeautyQueen": As Bryan so aptly put it: "This one has a distinct
Northern working men's club feel to it." On this slow, droopy ballad,
Ferry sounds like a mutated cross between Gene Pitney and Engelbert(whoops). Some feverish but soft guitar nurses the vocal line. "Ooo theway you look makes my starry eyes shiver". It creeps, and groans a little...
groaning so much after a minute that you want to laugh.
A smile crept across Ferry's face too; that was just before the curdlingfinished and the band stops for a split second and reappears, gashing andfighting, loud and straight snappy rock. They certainly rocklike nobody's
business on this album. "Most things were done on the first take, too. Youmight saywe're together," said Ferry. After the frantic jamming, thenumber returns to slink and slop.

"StrictlyConfidential": Hell, now I know what happened to [Canadian
actor] Edmund Hockridge- he lost six stone and joined Roxy. The
opening in this most certainly has a Housewives' Choice ballad feel to it,plus the fact that Ferry's voice hits the soapy languor for which Edmund isso rightly famous.
A grower, it lulls one into listening to the lyrics, while the music rolls
slowly, rising and turning. It builds to a nightmarish, confused ending ofnasty noise. It leaves one feeling quite emotionallywasted. Most enjoyable.
"Editions ofYou". "Ever noticed how much Roxy steal?" someone asked
me. "Yes," I replied. "But they steal well."Two lovely examples of masterful thieving occur on this delicious track.
Fora start the electric piano intro is straight from the opening chords of"Brown Sugar". It don't sound the same- but it is. Then theactual meat on this rocker is guitar a la "Fortune Teller". It's p.
BryanForryin1973:"We got For Your
Pleasure toget her
in just over 12 days"

about time that guitar phrasing was used again anyhow, and used tobeautiful effect, too. Like "Strand", this strikes you as an instant single
such is the force, appeal and clean precision.
"Play that one again"- so we did. Oh, what a magnificent guitar breakthat doesn't sound anything like any other guitar break you've ever
heard. No mean achievement these days. This showcases the fabulous
bass offerings of John Porter -consistent and tremendous throughout.
Ferry's lyrics are again remarkable: "Too much cheesecake too soon 10Id
money's better than new/No mention in the latestTribunel And don't let
this happen to you". No messing, no wastage- a beginning, a middle,
quantity, quality, and an ending.
"In Every Dream Home A Heartache": Ferry's personal favourite.
"It was twice as long when I first wrote it... but with it being a recitation,rather than a song, I had to cut it quite a bit." It is a recitation of an
extremely terrifying poem. Personal experiences, Brya n? "Urn, I'll waita couple of weeks before I answer that."
Monotonous half -singing. "I bought you mail order /My plain wrapper
baby 1 Your skin is like vinyl /The perfect companion... I Inflatable doll /My
role is to serve you /Disposable darling".

One of those questioning pieces that throws one into a state of doomed
confusion. It works on the emotions like a Cohen drama. One's spine isremoved -temporarily, to allow for total relaxation, allowing the mind towork freelywith the lyrics. And then it explodes, into a heavy, dripping,electric ending. Most stunning, and most certainly the finest lyrics I've
seen in a year or two. There's silence, and the track reappears in a phased
swishy form, courtesy of Eno. Rather like the little tit -bits that appearedon Family's first album, Doll's House. Side One is instant, quick and
immediately colourful. You could play every track -maybe with the
exception of the last- before breakfast, and relish them.
Side Two, however, offers the deeper side of Roxy. It sees them delving
into a mass of technicalities /dream sequences/electrical tripping/
psychedelia. Yes, it's psychedelic. One shouldn't be afraid to use thatword these days, especially as it really does fit the situation. You'll play
Side One anytime, but you'll only play Side Two in the company of oneself,
or a few close friends. And late at night. And preferably on cans.
It consists of three "lengths" rather than "tracks" - "The Bogus Man","Grey Lagoons" and "For Your Pleasure". The most pleasing (again, on an
instant level) is "The Bogus Man".
This pumps and crumps in at a fierce, funking rate. Drums first, andthen guitar, and naughty noises from Eno. Slightly reminiscent of "Saed'yNight Barfly" from Family. The reason I say that is because of the feelingone gets of late -night New York, taxi ridden, and heaving, hot withelectricity. And uptown funk. Ferry's voice is actually so screamed anddistorted that you'll immediately think of Roger Chapman- it ain't too
dissimilar at all. It also has a bizarre burlesque feel in places, too.
"Funky chicken guitar is supplied by John Porter," said Bryan. Again,
this man must be complimented for his technique, and rocks -off feel.
Metallic, quickly swept guitar throughout. There's so much going on.
Despite the length, lyrical content is short- but aggressive as hell. "Thebogus man is at your heels! Nowclutchingatyour coat 1 You must be quick
now... HURRY up 1 He's SCRATCHING at your
THROAT". Shiver.

Next, "Grey Lagoons" with a dashingtempo, and Mellotron giving the impressionof a stoned Welsh choir hovering throughout.
The snazzy sax sound from Andy Mackay
also adds a In r Walker edge. Don't knowwhether to dance or deliver one's mind to
this one.
Ferry adds an outrageous harmonica solo,
before the track screws itself into your head inwhat might be called an "alarming" fashion.
"It's amazing what things we got into on thesecond side. It wasn't a case of showing what
we could do but showing how we could do it.
And I'm extremely pleased with the waywe
did it," said Bryan, flicking yet another cigarette.
With the teasing, and phasing, and dreaming on
Side Two, you'll be shown a whole new side of theband. There exists some incredible playing through"Bogus Man" and "Grey Lagoons" and the realcanyons -of -your -mind stuff- "ForYour Pleasure".
But again, this is music for the mind.

R XY

ROXY MUSIC

itions Of

When Side Two had driven itself to a crazed halt,
again. I love
I could do no more than ask for
new crazes, and this one is especially loveable.
"Me?" said Bryan. "Well, I like 'em all. I feel we havemore aggressive material to offer now. There's
certainly aggression on this album."
And so much variety too, Bryan. "Well, that's the
spice of life, isn't it?" he said. Roy Hollingworth- MELODY MAKER MAY 12 sTAYING AT THE George V is one of life's great experiences, atleast to a traveller who savours his changing environments.
In each bathroom is a monogrammed bathrobe (many have been
known to disappear, and it is said that the hotel employees discreetly
search each guest's baggage before departure, simply removing any
contraband without a word to the offender).
Its halls are hung with Louis XlVtapestries, and the onlooker is forced towonder if the Renoirwhich hangs casually in a glass case in the foyer is, infact, absolutely genuine. The hotel's cellars secrete bottles of calvados
distilled during the Napoleonic Wars, more than a century and a half ago.
It is, in a word, expensive. Not, you would think, the place for a young
British rock group, still fighting on the up -curve.
The logistics and economics of rock tours are curious indeed. RoxyMusic will make no profit at all from this tour, just as they made no profit
from the highly successful British tourwhich preceded it. "They insisted
on staying in the best hotels," one of their attendants sighs.
Roxy Music, on tour, are sybarites devoted to the higher levels ofpleasure. There are no ludicrous banalities like an antique Persian rug forthe bass -player's feet, but still their enjoyment doesn't come cheap. It's
got to the point, you see, where tours don't make money by themselves.
A manager, or a record company, sinks about £30,000 into the first two
years of a new band's life, paying for equipment and subsidising tours
and recording. If all goes well, the third and fourth years will see theinvestment recouped -and more. The big money comes, eventually, fromrecord sales, and tours are strictly about promoting these sales.
In Paris, Roxy are surrounded by record men from Island in Britain
and Phonogram in France -all guarding their investment, sniffing andpoking it like a farmerwith his new pig.
Their stay begins well. Amanda Lear, who appeared with cheetah andpillbox hat on the cover of For Your Pleasure, hasarranged for them a meetingwith her friend
Salvador Dali. They meet the great surrealist at
his permanent apartment in the Hotel Maurice.
Dali -who, after his recent encounter with
Alice Cooper, is obviously continuing his
lifelong process of rejuvenation -by contact has invited a TV producerwith his camera andcrew, but they don't show. Never mind: while thegroup take tea in a curious paper -walledcircular enclave, the old artist jockeys a coupleof photographers, posing the musicians aroundhim. It's noticeable that, every time a shutter
clicks, Dali's eyebrows arch into that familiar
bug-eyed look with which, to the outside world,
he's permanently endowed. After all theseyears, the reflex is positively Pavlovian. "A master self -publicist," says
Bryan Ferry, not uncharitably. Takes one to know one, honey...
Another member of the group impishly expresses the desire to cut off oneof Dali's curling waxed moustaches, as a piece of conceptual art. Photos
taken, tea drained, the group take their leave and return to the hotel. The
first to leave, an hour later, is Lloyd Watson, the MMcontest-winning
singer and slide guitarist, who is now Roxy's preferred concert -opener.
In a smart brown slim -line suit, Lloyd taxis into the stage entrance of
the Olympia, the great old music hall on the Blvd Des Capucines, where
the ghost of Piaf haunts the decaying backstage area. The dressing rooms
and artists' bar at the Olympia appear joyless, with peeling paint andrusty pipes and piles of debris, but the place has a life of its own,bequeathed by decades of famous performers.
Tonight's audience is already seated, and Lloyd straps on his Gibson to
face them. There's a mix-up and he isn't announced, but taking his life inhis hands, he leaps on stage and bops into "Jumpin' Jack Flash", his guitar
revving with the powerful ease of a Laverda 750. Lloyd is the ideal warm -up act. He presents no threat to the bill -toppers, but
his personality and the extrovert strength andability of his playing carry him through the toughest
situations. Tonight is tough. An Olympia audiencealways contains a large element of what Alf Ramsey
would call animals, and they're out to crucify Lloyd.
He gets cheers at the end of songs (particularly
after his imaginative version of Lou Reed's "I'm Waiting For The Man"),but during "It Takes A Lot To Laugh" the boos and whistles rise, filled with
inelegant Gallic contempt. Lloyd steams on, though, and despite random
outbreaks of thunder from the PA he wins in the end. Where others would
have fled in despair, he demonstrates the virtue of honest perseverance.
In the wings, Roxy await their entry. Several of Ferry's elaborate stage
suits were stolen during their British tour, so tonight he's wearing a flared
gold brocade D'Artagnan coat hired from a theatrical costumier. There's
no longer much to say about their act. It's exactly the same as we saw in
Britain, and that's their policy. Nothing in the profile of the set is left tochance, only the audiences change. Either they like it or they don't.
It's the detail that keeps them interesting, fourth or fifth time around.
On "Do The Strand", for instance, they slip in a couple of bars of 3 /4 timebehind the line "Weary of the waltz?", while Eno's treatment of the guitar
and alto sax sound is always novel, often by accident. During "Editions Of
You", when his synthesizer conks out during the solos, he merely smiles.
Paul Thompson hasn't had enough credit yet: he's as strong and driving
as you could wish, but few listeners have yet commented on his
inventiveness, which is considerable. The range and variety of his fills
and punctuation are crucial to the band, and -with John Porter's bass he holds them together superbly.
Ferry, of, course, is now the master of stagecraft, and destroys thiscrowd though his command of charisma -inducing devices. His only fault
is a tendency to sing uncomfortably sharp during the loud passages (thefinal section of"In Every Dream Home A Heartache" is a good example).
But his vocal control on "Beauty Queen", is stunning: "Deep into the night,
plying very strange cargo, our soul ships pass by..." He takes obvious delightin the aptness of "Louis Seize 'ee prayfair... laissez-faire le Strand!"After the gig, a meal has been arranged at an old-fashioned brasserie.
Roughly 40 people turn up, stuffing themselves with veal and snails andbruised strawberries and vin rouge. Eno discovers an ancient barrel organ affairwhich produces a din of unparalleled anarchy, and thenencourages Lloyd to get drunk. Lloyd, the extrovert of the party, makes
speeches, climbs up the walls, throws knives,and finally appals the tail -coated waiters byclimbing out of one window, along a ledge on
the outside wall and back in through anotherwindow. "It's all part of the act, brothers," yells
Lloyd, as he disappears backwards out of the,window, simultaneously juggling with a half full wineglass. He returns, to a chorus of cheers,
while the waiters swiftly put up the shutters,
and strengthen them with wooden crossbars.
Meantime, Bryan Ferry confides that he's stillplanning his solo album, which he'll record
between the end of this tour and their next visit
to America in the autumn. It's still going to bea "my favourite things" affair, and so far he's
picked Cole Porter's "Ev'rytime We Say
Goodbye" from 1944, and songs from Marvin Gaye, Erma Franklin,
Smokey Robinson and others. "The trouble with doing something like
'Tracks Of My Tears'," he says, "is that the original was so brilliant and it's
hard to touch it. I might put nine or 10 songs on each side, if I can."Led by a couple of French girls who might be go-go dancers, the party
leaves the restaurant -to the undisguised relief of the waiters- and heads
fora small discotheque. Five years ago, Paris had the world's best discos,
reverberating to the walls ofAretha Franklin and James Brown. The
shock tonight, though, is that people here are dancing to stuff like
Crimson's "Schizoid Man". A swift raid on the disc -jockey's box,
spearheaded by Phil Manzanera, yields a bunch of "progressive" albums
and not one single in sight. Eventually, the DJ is bludgeoned into playing
Bill Withers and Dr John. "It's funny," he says, bemused, "all the groups
want to 'ear the funky musique." So he spins "Bogus Man" while Ferry
parodies his own stage movements on the dancefloor, partnered byAva
Gardner's double in a strapless frock. Next day, as the party prepares tomove off, the George V counts its bathrobes and sighs. Richard Williams"I feel wehave moreaggressive
material tooffer now"

HISTORY OF ROCK 1973 67

guitar howls like a wolf with its
foot caught in a trap and Garson's
ornately menacing piano tinkles
like the very fabric of existence
itself slowly shattering into icy
splinters. Would you believe themost unusual anti -war song of all
time? Well, that's only track
two. As Garson hammers his final
chord, we're straight into "Drive In Saturday", with which you're
probably already familiar. So let's
rush headlong into "Panic In
Detroit-. which recalls the Stones
just a little bit, and The Yardbirds
are in there as well, courtesy ofMick Ronson's Beckish guitar. It'sa faintly impressionistic tale of arevolutionary group wiped out
by the police, and it may refer tothe Ann Arbor White Panthers
and John Sinclair. The title isendlessly reiterated.
Finally for the first side.
"Cracked Actor", which is about
an elderly movie star who picks
up a young girl, thinking that she
wants him for his fame and not
realising that she thinks he's her
smack connection. The spirit of
Lou Reed hangs over this track asDavid sings: "Crack, baby, crack,show me you're real/Smack, baby,
smack, is all that youfeel/Suck,baby, suck, give me your

NME/MM APRIL The inkies listen to Bowie's latest,;(id come to very different conclusions.
David Bowie 'dad& Sane
RCA VICTOR

Bye-bye, Ziggy. It was nice seeing
you, and I hope you'll keep intouch. Hello, Aladdin Sane, makeyourself at home. David Bowie's
new album is just about ready foryou, and with it comes a whole
new set of hypotheses, poses.
masks, games, glimpses, put-ons,take -offs and exploredpossibilities. More prosaically:
one new record, nine David Bowie
compositions (two slightly used)
and a mildly outrageous
reworking of "Let's Spend The

Night Together". Three months
ago, I sat on the floor in the mixing
room at Trident Studios in thecompany of David Bowie, Mick
Ronson, Ken Scott and sundry
others and heard the bulk of thisalbum hot off the tapes. Since
then I've carried the memory of it
around with me, waiting to hear it
again and see how accurately I'dremembered it. Even with that
88 I HISTORY OF HOCK 1973

preparation, it's still quite abrainful to assimilate at one
hurried mental gulp. So. for the
better or for worse, here are a few
snap impressions on my first day
with Aladdin Sane.
Firstly, the cover, which will bea definite asset to any chic home.
You'll see it strewn on Axminster
carpets in expensive colour
supplement stereo ads, andcarried with token attempts at
unobtrusiveness under the armsof the fashionable.
On the front is a head -and -shoulders shot of David withblush -pink makeup and a startling
red -and -blue lightning bolt
painted across his face and a small
pool of liquid behind one collarbone. Inside, with more lightningbolts, is David nude, but with asilver-grey solarisation that hides
the naughty bits. Somewhere in
the process he's lost his feet,
which was hopefully not too
painful. So you play the record.

Immediately
Mick Ronson's
guitar roars out of the speakers,
and you're sucked straight into
"Watch That Man", a nightmare

party sequence straight out of
Dylan's "Ballad Of A Thin Man",
where "There was an oldfashioned band of married men/
Looking up to me forencouragement - it was so-so." It'sa nice, tough opener. With thetitle song, Bowie sets to in
earnest. Its full title is "Aladdin
Sane (1913/1939/197?)". It will be

noted that the first two dates
marked the prelude of two world
wars, and the third - well, have you
checked the papers lately? It's thefirst real outing for pianist Mike
Garson, who spans time and place
like most pianists span octaves.
Imagine Cecil Taylor playing in a
'30s nightclub the day after theatomic catastrophe. and you may
have some idea of what Garson
lays down. Aladdin, it appears, isgoing off to fight: "Passionate
bright young things take him away
to war." sings David with a kind of
deadpan melancholy, as Ronson'shead/Before you start
professing that you're
knocking me dead."
The first track onside two is "Time",
intellectually the heaviest
thing on the album. Like
"Aladdin" itself, it features
Garson up front. If Ziggy
Stardust was David's Clockwork
Orange album, this is his Cabaret,
and the '30s vamp behind thevoice makes the lyrics even moresinister than they might otherwise
seem. Only David Bowie could
sing the words "We should be on
by now" and make them imply
that somehow mankind has taken
a wrong turning. Not making
way for the Homo Superior,perhaps? "The Prettiest Star"
was written three years ago andissued as the follow-up single to"Space Oddity" on Mercury, but
it was deleted and never issued
on an album. Here, it's been
re-recorded. It's a light little song
dedicated to Angie, and serves asa wind -down period after theintensity of "Time". Hot on its
heels is David's own reading ofMick 'n' Keith's "Let's Spend The
Night Together", as premiered at
the Rainbow, with Garson playing
the riff in augmented chords andDavid doing an Eno on Moog. It
rips and snorts just like it ought to,and then we're into "Jean Genie
Revisited" before the closer

"Lady Grinning Soul", which shows thateven when David's sentimental, he's doing
it in style.
The above notes are first impressions.
The album's changed slightly since I firstheard the tapes in that the recut "John I'm
Only Dancing" has been replaced by "Let's
Spend The Night Together", originallyintended as the B-side of "Drive -In
Saturday", and a then -incomplete trackcalled "Zion" has been replaced by "Lady
Grinning Soul". After some moreconcentrated listening, some different
things might emerge, and in that event
I'll take some space later to discuss
them. Meanwhile, how does it stack up
against its predecessors? I don't know.
David Bowie's last
three albums havebecome so deeply
embedded in myhead that it takes
considerable effort tointegrate a successor
into that patch ofbraincells that store
his music. One thing I
know is that "Aladdin Sane" is probably
the album of the year, and a worthy
contribution to the most important bodyof musical work produced in this decade.

machine -tooled perfection. But as soon as
he sat down to talk, the whole image
dissolved like runny mascara. What hehad to say was in no way futuristic, or
profound, or controversial. He was as

The Prettiest Starlet.
It's not that I expect profundity from arock star. But when your songs deal incosmic concepts you are inviting
judgement at a pretty high level. And thesad truth is that five minutes of a film like2001 or one chapter of Asimov or Clarkesays more about what Man can or will
become than the entire body of Bowie's"futuristic" songs.
It's the same story with this latest album,
which is superficially stunning andultimately frustrating.

Ronson's guitar
howls like a wolfwith its foot caught
in a trap

Charles Shaer Murray. NME April14

David Bowie

RCA VICTOR

Homo superior or The Man Who Fooled
The World? I'm beginning to wonder.
Oh, he's good all right. Image -wise, hecarries it all off with a dazzling, effortlesssense of style that makes every otherband in the glam/glitter/outrage/theatrerock field look like something out of aCamping For Beginners. And musically, heand Mick Ronson and Mick Woodmansey
and Trevor Bolder and the rest are lightyears ahead in their cruel precision.
But how deep does it go? Is David Bowie
really saying anything much at all? As
Ziggy Stardust, rock'n'roller, he gets it on,
no doubt about it. But judged against thestandards of the astral image he and his
followers have nurtured - the whole
Starman, Stranger In A Strange Landaura - his achievements have been
disappointing. This was brought homeforcibly the other week by Bowie's
appearance on the Russell Harty TV
show. While he was singing he was
perfect: the whole scintillating bisexual
image, guaranteed to throw the entire
population of straight Britain into panic.
And musically, he and the band were-a .1,/ IrI ,The title is a pun, ofcourse, and a deadly
accurate one: the lyrics
are more intense, more
strung -out than anything
he's done before:

splintered nightmare

images of a journey
across America. At times
the lyrics reach that level of obscurity
which it is fashionable to describe as"oblique", but which sound to me merely
confused and hastily thrown together.
Musically, the songs are executed witha brutal panache that puts this album
closer to satanic "The Man Who Sold The

World" than "Hunky Dory" or "Ziggy
Stardust." Melodically the songs have
Bowie's usual flair -"The Jean Genie" and"Drive -In Saturday" have already proved
themselves as singles and most of theothers here are just as catchy, especially"The Prettiest Star," a very poppy
reworking of an old song from "Space
Oddity" days. "Watch That Man" and"Panic In Detroit" are stormers with astrong Rolling Stones feel - although
Bowie's version of "Let's Spend The Night
Together" is very un-Stonesy, precise andasexual. "Cracked Actor" is probably themost successful cut: a vividly powerfultale of Hollywood, heroin and sexual
cruelty. But the two key works here, I
suppose, are the title track and "Time."
Both have a strained, alienated feel,heightened by the fractured jagged pianoof new man Mike Garson, but the lyrics
promise far more than they actually
deliver - which is the way I feel about thewhole album.
There is much to dazzle the eye and ear,but little to move the mind or heart. It isclever, but icy cold, and I have a feeling thatthe songs here will not belong remembered. But
Te,1
r AL.
maybe that's the way
Mr Bowie wants it, as

ATLANTIC

When Zeppelin are roaring on stage, there ishardly another band in the world to beat them.
Jimmy Page is one of the all-time greats of rockguitar, the Bonham -Jones rhythm section is abyword for power and invincible drive, while
Robert Plant is a singer whose sheer presence andinvolvement in a song seems larger than life.
Thus it grieves me very much when they allow
their own tremendously high standards to slip,
when the vital spark that made their first albums
timeless seems to flicker, uncertainly. It was withno small pleasure that I approached their fifthalbum. The unusual dreamlike cover design
seemed to indicate that much fresh thinking wasafoot and surprises were in store. But after the
initial drive of "The Song Remains The Same",when it seemed Zeppelin were about to lift off
with renewed brilliance, a malaise began to creep
in, reaching a nadir in the sadly indulgent "D'yer
Maker", a cool pop tune which is not worthy ofthem. It is intended as a fun track, not intended to
be rated overseriously, but after some frankly dullmaterial like "The Rain Song", and listless James
Brown style riffs like "The Crunge", the joke wears
thin. The overall effect is that they seem afraid toplay what they do best, which is the blues, gut rock.
Even Robert's tremendously distinctive voice istwisted and bent by studio techniques, andalthough they lay back on the beat in firm fashion
on "The Ocean", there is not one tune, with the
exception of "Song Remains The Same", that has
any buzz of excitement.
As they have taken a year to produce this, itwould perhaps be a better idea if they were rushed
into a studio, told to keep the costs down and get
the album out in a week, or else! Nobody expects
Zep to be tied to "Communication Breakdown"
forever, and they must be free to progress. But
the lack of firm direction is all too apparent. The
writing seems to be a compromise
between more
spaced -out ideas
and heavy riffs

without ever getting
to grips with either.

Perhaps, as his spiritualleader Andy Warhol
once said, everybody
should be famousfor just 15 minutes.

Having gone so high,it's the hardest job in
the world to stay on
top. Perhaps a coolappraisal of thisalbum will spur themon to greater efforts.
They have it in theirpower to stun us all.

Chris Welch. MM April 21

Chris Welch, MM March 31

he makes his plans to go
into movies and talks

about farewell tours.

ZePPelir

lose
their
way

1973

"Barbarians.
Savage offstage and
on it
are
biggest summer
yet. People don't
Ike Houses Of The

Holy So what?

Can'tdenyit""Rock' of roll," says
Jimmy Page, "is in
all four of us."CC

'NI BACK ON me lab farm like, and I sit

there and I think wha :he hell am I c aing?
I think what the bbcd1 hellis a singer if
he's not singing?" says Robert Plant.
Vile'resurrounded bylast night's
champagne corks, wal- to -wall tapest riesand sweaty socks. We're here at the George X' hotel, lavish

as you lik2, where everything from your pilow to the toilet
sea t bears the hotel's legendary monogram. Plant lies
sprawled across my bed bleating endlessly about thefinesse ofWolverhampton Wanderers and Led Zeppelh-something he bel eves in like nobodyhas ever believedin anyt tri lig ever before.

It rains chats and chiens outside, mid -morning, dark :lid
windy. The cloudsare full of menace -as wereLeppelinlast
nig.A.They kicked a great hole in the night, sp Wing it all
open dower at the city's massive Pala is Des Sportes stadium.f.-where they finished their European .ou-.
And the French ie wet themselves wi th frighten ing passion.
It was all very astonishing.
"So there's some buggers as don't like t he album. Well.Cod
ble is them. I like it and there area few thousand otherbuggers lam it too. I know I'm bragginglike buggery, butwe're
pla ying better than we've ever played before."It

70 I HISTORY OF RO:K 1913
111

1973APRIL

JANE

Plant lit a cigarette, threw the match on the carpet and carried on.
"It's working that does it. The British tour, three weeks off, and thena solid blow over here. It's so easy to get stale, you know. There's a lot ofbands doing it. You know they reach a peak and think that that's it. The
old country house bit. A year off and all that. Well, it doesn't work that way.
There's only one way a band can function and that's on the bloody stage.
I think we're going to play more dates this year than we've ever played in
our lives. Why? Well, because we damn well want to."He's a cheery old Midlander, is Percy Plant. Basic as you like; a good oldlad, you might say.
"I remember a few weeks back, sat on me farm. Well, it came tome, I
thought, 'Planty, what's a good lad like you doing sat here contemplating
the day like an old goat? I thought why the fuck ain't I out singing? I got soworked up about it that I picked up a spade and dug the whole bloody
garden. I have to work, we all have to."Despite this chirpiness, Plant is like all ofZeppelin -ultra -sensitive. When it comes down
to criticising them, you might as well forget it.
It's rather like telling the Pope that there ain't no
God, if you see what I mean.
We were a little dubious as to what kind ofreception Zeppelin would give the old MM
in Paris -I mean, old Ch ris Welchy had putOthe
new album down. He was a worried man.
ii
0 "Was I wrong?" he asked.
z
No. It's rather a lame bit of plastic in places,
I told Chris. I also told him that he should go to
Paris, saying: "I don't see why I should risk myneck for something you wrote!"

You see, Zeppelin can be a heavy bunch of lads at times, but we won't go
into that. At Heathrow, we sat waiting for the Paris flight complete withSunday Mirrors and early -morning sickness. The rest of England
prepared itself for Sunday lunches and wireless messages from BFPO in
Bahrain ("Hello lean").
We decided to drink brandy. It was at the Heathrow bar that we met
Fat Fred and Patsy, who between them offer a good 30 stones of cockneymuscle. Now Fat Fred and Patsy are professional heavies. They are hired
as bodyguards by rock groups. It's no show of amateur dramatics, for
Patsywas sporting a good 12 stitches in his chest following a Zeppelin gig
in Northern Europe.
They'd flown back to England fora rest and after non-stop frontline
actions with Zeppelin throughout this tour. They'd left the band inSouthern France after a ridiculous night which saw most of the groupand road crew end up in the local jail.
"But the fuzz was petrified of us," said Patsy.
"We was so wild that they decided to let us go
before we dismantled the prison. Give us amention, I mean the lads who look after David
Cassidy are bleeding superstars now."
And so over the Channel. It's across thisstretch of water that a remarkable physicaland mental change comes over the English.
As the plane leaves the Blighty coast, mildmannered Britons change instantly intotantalising fiery beasts of manhood. Whenone arrives in France it is, like the saying goes,
like arriving in a conquered land.
Well, Zeppelin conquered again last night.

"Sat there onme farm, I
thought why
the fuck ain't I
out singing?""I've been

experimenting
with chords a lot
more". Jimmy
Page in1973

They turned an audience that resembled dumb
figures at the start into a terrifying mass of hysteria. The roar of
approval from 10,000 kids was enough to pump the adrenalin
through a nun, let alone a rock'n'roller. There's Bonzo
Bonham, this Desperate Dan of a character thrashing andsplatting his way into the night, and Pagey darting across thestage, snitching chords clean, quick and loud. It's all so urgent.
"When I hear that roar I just roar back. I can't describe howhigh we get off people," said Planty. They played very well,
did Zeppelin. Solid slogging work that has now brought about
total live perfection. I've said it before- their ability to reachan impeccable high and sustain it for three hours is anastonishing feat.
"Yeah, we have reached a high," said Plant, "and we ain't
going to lose it. And no bad album review is gonna changea thing." Roy Hollingworth

NME APR!! 21 IMMY PAGE'S SLIGHTLY t im id, mild-mannered

exterior is, of course, deceptive. There's no need to
explain how Led Zeppelin come across on stage, while
in-between concerts -on the road - they've long beenrenowned for a little loose living, as hotel managers acrossthe world will surely testify.
"Barbarians are how we were once described," says Page,a slight gleam in his eyes. "I can't really deny it."Those excesses aside, Zeppelin have always been theultimate in anti -stars, relentlessly avoiding publicity or
anything that could divert them from simply laying down theirmusic. Little has changed, except in a small way with a set oflights and new stage set-up prepared in readiness for theirforthcomingAmerican tour. But even this, as Jimmy Page
explains with only mild interest spreading across his almost
schoolboyish face, is hardly a revolutionary step.
"It's nothing phenomenal. It's just that we've never really had
any light before, so we thought it might be fun and add a little
extra atmosphere. Everybody else has been doing it for years,
but before we've always let the music speak for itself."
It's also well known that Page's opinion of rock journalists
isn't too high, which perhaps helps to explain why last week he
Iappeared so cool and reserved, picking his words as carefully
as a guitar line. At present, perhaps he has more reason to be
more antagonistic towards the press after recent heavyMarch16,1973:
Plant relasesbef ore
a show at the

Wiener Stadthall ein Vienna, Austria

criticism of Zeppelin's new album, Houses OfThe Holy. But if Page was on
the defensive it didn't show. Bad reviews don't worry him.
"I don't really care. It doesn't really make any difference. I'm deaf to thealbum now because we made it such a long time ago, but I know there's
some good stuff there. You can't dismiss something like 'No Quarter' or'The Rain Song' out of hand. Maybe you could attack 'The Crunge' or'D'yer Maker' for being a bit self-indulgent. But they're just a giggle.
They're just two send-ups.
"If people can't even suss that out, on that superficial a level, thenobviouslyyou can't expect them to understand anything else on thealbum. It beats me, but I really don't give a damn."
Page feels that Zeppelin's raunchier hard -rock numbers like "Whole
Lotta Love" represent only a small area of what the band have been
doing on record.
"There's been a general maturity that was showing by the third album,
which a lot of people haven't been able to come to termswith. For me, thethird album was very, very good and still had more of an attack thananything before. But obviously, people have this preconceived notion ofwhat to expect, and when a band is constantly in a state of change- andthat doesn't mean lack of direction, but a natural change- then they can't
come to terms with it because each album is different from the last.
"How they should approach our albums is to forget they ever heard of
a band called Led Zeppelin, forget about what they expect to hear, andjust listen to what's on that particular record. That's all we ask, but wedon't get it."Even so, it seems that it's the hard -rock side of

Led Zeppelin that remains the most popular.
Says Page: "The rock'n'roll is in all four of us, andon stage that's what comes through."
Yet somehow it's not represented much on the
new album?
"In fact, we had two tracks, one called 'The
Rover' and another unnamed that we were goingto use, both of which were really hard rock. We'll
probably use them next time, possible rewriting
one of them, but still keeping the essence."
Clearly, as always with Led Zeppelin, there wasno shortage of material when they came to record
Houses OfThe Holy.
"When we went into the studio, we had no set
ideas on how we wanted the album to turn out.

We just recorded the ideas we had at that particular time. We just got
together and let it come out. There are never, ever any shortages or
stagnant periods. I write a lot at home, and I'm fortunate as having astudio set up where I can try things out. Lately I've been experimenting
with chords a lot more, and have tried a few unusual voicings. There areseveral ways material can come to the band, but it's always there."
Surprisingly perhaps, being a supremely capable musician in his own
right outside the context of Led Zeppelin, Page doesn't find himself
writing anything, maybe for his own satisfaction, that might never beused by the band.
"If I find a number coming that I know wouldn't be suitable, I scrap it,"he says. "I stop working on it from that moment on."And apart from the odd session he does "as a favour for friends", it seems
that Page's energy is totally committed to Led Zeppelin. He can't see
himself ever wanting to play in another band, or in another lineup.
"Nothing else would gel together so nicely," he states firmly. "I know it
would be a mistake to break it up, because you see it happening to otherbands. They split, and what comes after doesn't work nearly as well. The
chemistry isn't there. And if it's there in the beginning, then it's criminal
to break it up."
In many ways, Page has always been a 'one band man. His only otherband was The Yardbirds, which in a sense was the forerunner of Led
Zeppelin anyway. He admits he wouldn't have missed those days in The
Yardbirds, but chooses his words diplomatically when it comes to talking
about the troubles the band suffered, especiallybetween personnel.
Of Jeff Beck, with whom he played in The
Yardbirds during the band's last year, he contents
himself with the comment: "I used to get on very
well with him at the time, and I admire him asa musician."
He continues. "Basically The Yardbi rds are, forme, a mixture of good and bad memories. There
were certainly some magic moments and it wasa great time to be playing, with new material
coming to the public's ears. It was great when we
had two lead guitars with Jeff Beck, but there's little
evidence of it left on record. There was 'Happenings
Ten Years Time Ago', which I feel went over a lot ofheads in Britain, although it perpetuated The
Yardbirds' reputation in America. x.
HISTORY OF ROCK 1973

73

1973
4Pflll-

JANE

They were always into the more lyrical side of what we were doing. Also
there was one horrible live album that was going to be released, which
was recorded by a man who spent most of his time recording stuff like
'Manuel's Music OfThe Mountains'. I remember he put just one
microphone over the drums, and that was over the top as there was no
bass drum at all, which showed how much he knew about it. Obviously
the album had to be stopped. It was unfortunate, though, that no live stuff
was ever recorded properly."

pAGE, OF COURSE, has always been best known for his work onelectric guitar, which has perhaps overshadowed anything he's
done on acoustic, even though he's featured acoustic playing on
every Zeppelin album. He says he has to treat the two instrumentsadifferently. "Simply because of the mechanics of the guitars. I don't
personally think the finger style works on an electric guitar. You just getovertones and harmonies coming out. It doesn't sound right at all.
"Then again, an electric guitar can work for you. It can start singing on
its own through the electronics, which you can't engineer on an acoustic
guitar. They're two totally different fields. Personally, I find them both
equally as fascinating. Probably my greatest influence on acoustic guitar
is Bert Jansch, who was a real
dream weaver. He was incredibly
original when he first appeared,
and I wish now that he'd goneback to things like 'Jack Orion'
once again. His first album had
a great effect on me.
"Undoubtedly, my affection andfascination for the guitar is just as
strong as it's ever been. After all,everyone's approach to the
instrument is so totally different.
There are so many styles ofplaying to listen to and to get off
on. You can't help but be totally
involved with it. I'm still coming
to terms with the instrument evennow." Jameslohnson

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NME MAY 19-

LED ZEPPELIN'S CURRENT 33 -city concert tour of America
is breaking all box office records in the States, in terms ofattendance and box office receipts. The high point was at
Tampa Stadium in Florida, where they attracted 56,800 people andgrossed $309,000. This beat the record for any single concert held
anywhere in the United States, previously held by The Beatles'
1965 Shea Stadium concert, which drew a 55,000 crowd andgrossed $301,000.
The previous evening, Zeppelin had played to 49,236 people at the
Atlanta Braves Stadium ($246,000 gross), the largest crowd in the historyof Georgia. At both venues, a closed-circuit TV system projected the
band's performance on to giant screens for the benefit of distant
spectators... and 200 doves were released at the end of each set.
The remainder of the tour is devoted to indoor venues because, says
Robert Plant, "We miss the intimacy when we play outdoors." And afeature of the sell-out tour is that the group are playing fora solid two and -a -half hours at every venue, without a support band. Zeppelin,
who are touring the States in their own private Falcon jet, have alreadynotched US gold for their new Houses OfThe Holy album 10 days after
its release there.

- NME JUNE 23 _AHOT AND STICKY Friday afternoon in LA. Nine stories overSunset Boulevard, Robert Plant takes Roy Harper's Lifemask
off the stereo in his hotel room and sprawls all over one of thebeds. He's wearing a pair of leather jeans and little else, and he's
sweating fairly profusely.
Why would a happy family man with a lovelywife, child and farm
voluntarily rush all over the world putting himself through all the major
and minor dramas of touring?
"This is a very close, tightly knit, sensitive group, one member to thenext. We've got a very strong bond, and so working is a pleasure. What
happened was that, after we made the third album, Jimmy and I were in
Wales and we were fed up with going to America. We'd been going twicea year, and at that time America was really a trial, an effort.
"We've got. verystrong

ffilli44,14/Melliar..11.11111,7414611?0°9
MM. NM OMB um 411
1=In.
Mt TAM-bond": Plant in puff -sleeved
man -blouse and Jimmy Page
in poppy -embroideredjacket,on stage in 1973

.

p

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Ii

74 I HISTORY OF ROCK 197

I 10

ti

LED ZEPPELIN"Anyway, we didn't work fora year, and we said, 'Look, this is terrible,
let's get going, let's move.' So in the past year we've played every single
market that a band in our position could possibly play."
In Plant's eyes, their musical strong point is the ability to be able totackle something like "D'Yer Maker"- "Desmond Dekker meets Led
Zeppelin" - and hold their credibility.
"This is the finest property we possess -without it; the group would be abore. Not naming names, there are a lot of groups in England who still rely
on riff after riff after riff. Some audiences can shake and bang their heads
on the stage to riffs all night long, but subtlety is an art that must be
mastered if you're to be remembered. In this band we very lucky thateverybody is more enthusiastic as time goes on.
"There is not fatigue or boredom musically atall. There's a bit of boredom when you're stuckin Mobile, Alabama, or places like that. A few
lamp standards may fall out of the windows things like that -but we move on and we keepplaying that music.
"It's just this rapport that we've got between
ourselves. It's a good buzz. Man, I mean, I've
learned how to feel an audience now, and that's
my success; I can feel them, they can feel me.
If you can't you're not doing anything at all.
There are a lot of groups who come over here
and playvery loud and very monotonously andget people off, but the otherway, it's almost likeputtingyour hands out and touching everybody.
That's probably whywe're coming back here inthree weeks.

"I've learned
how to feel anaudience now,and that's mysuccess""You see, my little boy's just started to walk, and I haven't seen him
bloomin' walkyet. Those are the things that upset you about being on
the road. The very fact that you miss fantastic occasions like that. I mean,
the kid just stands up and starts strolling around- and here I am in
Tuscaloosa or whatever."it not practical for you to take your family on the road?
"Oh, it'd be chaotic for a young kid. I don't like taking Maureen either
really, as much as I love her. When you are on the road, you are nomads, you
know. There was an album called Rock'n'ROGypsiesand that's it -you've
gotta travel on. Robert Johnson once said, 'Woke up this morninggot therainoffmyshoes1MywomanieftmelGotthewalkingblues'. It's just great tomove on and set up in another town and see the people there smiling.
"I think I've got one of the finest ladies in the world and it wouldn't do
her any good, because she's not up there on that stage. So she'd get tired
and want to knowwhy we weren't doing this and that, and the very factthat I've just woken up and it's three o'clock in the afternoon and theshops shut at six, and there's no shopping to be done today and all thatsort of thing... It isn't practical."One of the most admirable things about Zeppelin in recent times has
been the atmosphere of Celtic mysticism that has seeped into some of thesongs. "Stairway To Heaven" is of course the classic example, with its
allusions to various Cornish and Welsh myths.
"That was present really from the second album onwards," says Plant
when drawn on the subject. "It was something that we did well, and waspointing in a specific direction. Then there was 'Ramble On, 'Thank You,
'Going To California', 'The Battle Of Evermore', 'The Rain Song' -on the
new album too -even 'The Song Remains The Same'.
"Every time I sing that, I just picture the fact that I've been round andround the world, and at the root of it all there's a common denominator
for everybody. The common denominator is what makes it good or bad,whether it's a Led Zeppelin or an Alice Cooper. The lyrics I'm proud of.
Somebody pushed my pen forme, I think.
"There are a lot of catalysts which really bring out those sort of things:
working with the group, livingwhere I live, having the friends I've got,
my children, the animals. There's also the fact that people have finallycome to terms with the fact that, three years ago, we made a classic record
with 'Whole Lotta Love', andthey realise that it's just one
colour in the rainbow of what
we do and what we are intending
to do in the future.
"I think we've got a lot of friends
in England. I remember Bradfordon the last tour, when theaudience were superb. 'Stairway To Heaven' gets the best reaction of any
number we do. But the raunchiness is in everybody; that below -the -belt
surge that everybody gets at some time or another. Everybody gets theirrocks off, I suppose, and we supply a little bit of music to that end."
In the last eight months Zeppelin have been working solid. "We weregoing back and forward to America, and then to Japan, Hong Kong and
Bangkok. Jimmy and I did some recording in India with the Bombay
Symphony Orchestra. It was an experiment, and we know what we want
to do next time."
Hmm. Are they going to issue any of that material?
"Not those, no. We were just checking out, just sussing how easy it would
be to transpose the ideas that we've got into the raga style, and into theIndian musicians' minds.
"It's very hard for them to cope with theWestern approach to music with their countingof everything, their times and soon. Where wecount four beats to the bar, their bars just carryon and on. They'll be counting up to 99 or 100,and on the 120th boomph you change, insteadof on the 18th bar or something like that. But
anyway, we found that what we want to play, we
can do successfully in time to come.
"We moved on from there and played
Switzerland, Scandinavia, Germany andFrance, which was absolutely chaotic.
Promotion people are absolutely nuts overthere, and the kids are more interested in using
a concert as an excuse to be leery most of thetime. I don't really like that; I don't consider that I've gained anything or
given anybody anythingwhen I see that there's a lot of fools fighting. The
gig you saw last night was a magic one because the people were so
relaxed. It was as if I'd known them years.
"The vibe that we give out could never advocate violence. A fight in there
would have been totally contradictory to the whole vibe of the place, andeverybodywould have been totally disgusted."
I mention that at big gigs, particularly in NewYork, I'm always in mortal
terror of an outbreak of violence.
"You've got to have a rapport for the people, and that rapport must
eradicate any feelings like that. Alice Cooper's weirdness must reallymake the kids feel violent. These kids are like my sister, young people of 14
or so who've come to enjoy themselves. So you put things like that in frontof them, and I don't think its right.
"My idea is that I should go out on stage and be completely normal, andit pays. It pays immensely because I get that vibe right back. That's thethesis really, that's the reason for our success here."
Zeppelin are one band who it's bad foryour head to miss. What is it that
does that? Is it the chemistry of the four people?
"Yeah, it's the desire to really want to lay something down for ever andever and ever. I would like to create something now, and be a part of thecreation of something now, that would be valid for years and years tocome. Not so much in the way that Chuck Berrywill be valid in 50 years'
time, which he will, but something like a mammoth stairwaywhich takes
in a lot of the mood of the group.
"It's my ambition to write something really superb. I listen to people
like Mendelssohn- 'Fingal's Cave' and that sort of thing- and it's
absolutely superb. You can picture exactlywhere that guy was. You can
picture the whole thing, and I'd like it to be the same way for us in time tocome. I should think that we've got it under our belt to get something likethat together. I mean, we've started.
"Last night, when all those lights were there, that was a spiritual
allegiance. You walk out there and they're going, 'Yeah, we know you cando it' -and with that sort of thing tucked inside your belt you can only gofrom strength to strength. Somebody once described me as the original
hippy, and that's because of the flowery lyrics, you know, and also
because of the buzz we give out." CharlesShaarMurray

that
Plant-andRobertbelow -the -belt surge

Welding bandandaudience into one unitof total joy:Zeppelin
APRILat Kezar Stadium, San

S\At-Francisco,June2.1973'

C. ;41

THE FORUM, LA
A& KEZAR STADIUM

A - SAN FRANCISCO--- MAY 31 & JUNE 2 -Eagles, Page bare -Good, traditional craftsmanship
NME JUNE 16

strnert to ha a tstattniatinn

DON'T EVEN like Led Zeppelin," the girlin the black velvet jacket and hotpants
said petulantly as she bummed a cigarette
off an acquaintance in the lobLy of theContinental Hyatt House Hotel in LA. "I'm
only staying here because my friends havea room. I think Zep are really tacky."
Methought the lady did protest too much.
Why would three well -k -town LA groupies
book a room at Zep's hot el if they didn't dig
the band? Why would they spend most of
their spare time either hanging out in thelobby or else trying to gatecrash the security
on the ninth floor?
This particular lady's name was Sherry.
Despite her olive skin and California tan, herface proudly bore the scars of Dimples galore.
Nice legs, though. Anyway, she and herfriends had the signal honour of being
personally evicted from Zep's:loor by no lessthan Robert Plant himself. Plant has nopatience with groupies these days.
Zeppelin's current tour has earned themmore bread than any British group have taken
home from the States since the halcyon daysof The Beatles. So with ro further ado, let us
adjourn to the Forum in LA. It is May 31, andthe time is eight o'clock on a Thursday night.
The Forum holds approximately 20,000
66

76 HISTORY OF ROCK 1973

+wn Woe+ Pnact nnnettrtte

humans. It's a good hall, acoustically fair for its
size. This was to have been the second of twoconsecutive nights there for Zeppelin, andneedless to say both nights were sold out, but
the first night had to be cancelled because
Jimmy Page sprained a finger while climbinga tree. During the gig, he winces with pain andoccasionally dips his finger into a glass of cold
water to keep the swelling down.
One of the first things one notices about
Zeppelin's audiences is their calm and serenity.
Two nights before, I'd seen Humble Pie play
Madison Square Garden in New York, and forthe first time in many years of concert going,
I was glad to have a policemen standing next
to me. The Pie crowd were so out of theircollective mind on red wine and quaaludes thata nasty incident seemed imminent at any time.
Not so with the Zep crowd. They got theirrocks off all right, and they shook and twitchedtill they were as sweaty and exhausted as theband, but not once did anybody give off aviolent vibe. For all its enormous volume andenergy, Zeppelin's music is inappropriate
music to split skulls to.
So all is in readiness. Suddenly the lights
explode, and there they are. John Paul Joneswith shortish hair, moustache and five -string
bass, looking almost as if he'd just left The

chested in black velvets
sparingly sequinned, carrying a businesslike
Les Paul, Bonham settling in behind his kit tocheck it out, and leonine Robert Plant inflowered shirt and jeans. The opening number
is "Rock And Roll".
Now, I always knew Zeppelin were good,
but it had been three years since I'd last seen
them and no way was I prepared for this. In
an age when every second band to present
itself for public consumption seems to beeither too wasted to play or else bedevilledwith a sound system more suited forannouncing the winners in a vicarage raffle
than transmitting rock'n'roll music, the pure,clean power of Zeppelin's performance andsound is even more extraordinary than it
might otherwise appear. They just play themusic, loud and proud.
Where Zeppelin score over all the
bands who've come up in their wake andendeavoured to emulate them is that theykeep all the bases covered. Everything that's
part of the show is meticulously polished until
it's as good as it can possibly get. Nothing sags,
nothing is second-rate, nothing is skimped.
Every arrangement, every improvisation,
the construction of every song or every solo
- nothing is neglected. It's simply good,traditional British craftsmanship. The word
"sloppy" is, for all practical purposes, notpart of Led Zeppelin's collective vocabulary.
On the other hand, its certainly no sterile,rehearsed -into -the -ground Yes trip, because'jp-LED ZEPPELIN

each gig has as much excitement andfreshness and enthusiasm as if it was theirfirst and last.
Generally, the length of a band's set gives
you some idea of how much they enjoy playing

together. Zeppelin play between two andthree hours. Enough said.
The LA Forum gig was pretty damn good.
It blew me out completely, but it was to becompletely dwarfed in my memory by the San
Francisco date they played two days later. So
on with the show.
Backstage. the hangerson have moved in andcommenced to hang on.
Fourteen -year -old girls
in cheap gaudy threads

falling asleep in his chair at around 4.30am.
A little later he is awakened by the very
considerate Phil Carson from Atlantic andreturned, more or less in one piece, to his hotel.
The following day he learns that virtually
everyone present ended up in the pool afterGeorge Harrison clobbered Bonzo with his
own birthday cake. Mr Fallon's exquisite
antique velvet costume was totalled by his
immersion, as was Rodney Bingenheimer's
camera and a mink coat belonging to a lady
named Vanessa.
Over the rest of the-p roceedings we will draw
a slightly damp veil.

Plant swings
himelf up thescaffolding.
"Do you feel it?"he says. "Feelare wandering about
disconsolately muttering,"Where's Jimmy?". bumming
dimes for the chewing -gummachine, surreptitiously
flashing their photo spreadsin Star magazine, andhectoring photographers into taking
their pictures.
Leee Childers from Mainman's LA officeis there in a white suit, taking pictures ofeverything in sight.
"What's this," he asks, "in some of the
English papers about me and Cherry getting
fired? All that happened was that we went
back home to look after our offices. Why dopeople print things they know aren't true?"
He seems quite upset, as well as he might be.
In the corner, Robert Plant is leaning
against a wall drinking beer. He's changed intoa rhinestone Elvis T-shirt, and he is lavish in his
praise of the audience. "What a beautifulbuzz," he keeps saying. "If it wasn't for
Jimmy's hand, we could've played all night for
those people. Weren't they great?" he asks
everybody within reach. Jump cut to the party
scene. It's John Bonham's birthday, and theForum audience had given him a hero's tributefor his drum marathon on "Moby Dick" earlier
in the evening. "Twenty-one today." as Plant
had announced from the stage.
"This party is probably going to get very
silly," he announces. Why else would a man
turn up to his birthday party wearing a T-shirt,plimsolls and a pair of swimming trunks? As
things turn out, he was the most appropriately
clad person present.
The party is at the luxurious Laurel Canyon
home of a gentleman who runs a radio station,and to prove his importance he discreetly
displays photographs of himself with suchdisparate notables as Sly Stone and Richard(the man from W.A.T.E.R.G.A.T.E.) Nixon.
A videotape machine is showing Deep
Throat continuously while the stereo fills
the house with Johnny Winter, the Stones,
Humble Pie and Manassas. Roy Harper, oneof the few people who Zep acknowledge as
an influence, is there, as is Jimmy Karstein,
who distinguished himself during theClapton gig at the Rainbow, and BP Fallon,
who's flown halfway round the world since
this morning when the band phoned him at
Michael Des Barres' place.
Having flown in from Louisiana thatmorning, your reporter disgraces himself by

SATURDAY AND SANFrancisco: Jimmy Pageis paranoid about flying
in Zep's small private jet,so he and manager Peter
Grant are travelling on
a scheduled flight. Thatleaves Plant, Bonzo, JPJ,
Beep, Peter Grant's deputy Richard Cole
(who I first met some years ago in a Reading
labour exchange) and sundry others to bravethe elements in this tiny craft.
The chicken and champagne help to ease
the terrors, except for one moment when theindefatigable Mr Bonham pilots the plane.
Luckily, I don't find out about that until he'sback in his seat. The gig is open-air, in a
stadium at Golden Gate Park. Zep have beenpreceded by Lee Michaels, Roy Harper anda local group called Tunes. Harper is reported
to have silenced hecklers by informing themthat "Zeppelin haven't even left LA yet. sofuckin' shut up."In the backstage area, Bill Graham isthat buzz!"

prowling around checking people out forpasses. Bonham mutters something about
having a hard time playing in the intense
heat, but luckily it gets cooler later on. In
the crowd, a black policeman is wearing an"Impeach Nixon" badge. San Francisco still
has a lot of soul.
How can I tell you about that show? Led

Zeppelin and 50.000 San Francisco
people got together to provide one of
the finest musical events I've ever had
the privilege to attend. There may bebands who play better, and there may
be bands who perform better, andthere may be bands who write better
songs. but when it comes to welding
themselves and an audience together
into one unit of total joy, Zeppelin yield
to nobody.
Whether they're punching out theriffs of "Black Dog". or stealing people's
heart from inside them with "Stairway
To Heaven" (as far as I'm concerned
Zeppelin's all-time masterpiece), or
tripping the audience out with those
unbelievable Plant -Page guitar/vocal
call -and -response set pieces, they justtransmit magic to anybody within
hearing range.
Quite unselfconsciously, quite
unobtrusively, any place they play
becomes a House Of The Holy, a place
to straighten tangled brain cells.

Simultaneously, they take you right back toyour rock'n'roll home, and send you to somenew places that already feel like home when
you arrive. A very spiritual occasion indeed,
and also a very physical moment.
And despite all the disillusionment, theSan Francisco dream is not over. It's justthat nowadays people just don't talk about
it. In that park. everything seemed cleaner,
fresher and more immediate.
For me, one of the most amazing momentsof the whole show was, strangely enough, thepart I expected to enjoy least. All my musicallife I've had a strong antipathy towards drum
solos. Thus, it came as a shock to find myself
really getting off on Bonzo's "Moby Dick".
Watching him from a few feet away, totallyabsorbed in what he was doing. it came backto the craftsmanship thing again. He didn't
look, as so many endlessly soloing drummers
do, as if they're playing to the gallery. He
resembled nothing so much as a sculptor or apainter or anybody who's doing anything thatinvolves concentration, effort and skill.
John Bonham was plying his trade, doing
his gig, exercising his own particular skills,
doing what any gifted and committed
craftsman does. It's always nice to breakthrough a prejudice and dig something thatyou couldn't dig before.
Altogether, a magical concert. I suppose
legions of diehard Zep freaks have known
this all along, but for me it was a revelation.
Throughout the solo, Plant was pacing the sideof the stage, occasionally swinging himself up
the scaffolding to sit under the amps. "Do you
feel it?" he said."Feel that buzz!"
After "Communication Breakdown"
a water fight broke out backstage, andabout the only person who escaped
unscathed was Bill Graham. Zep went backout to do a final encore of "The Ocean", andthen made a dash for the limos.
All hail, Led Zep. Hosannas by the gram.
If there's any excitement still left in thisego circus we call rock'n'roll, a sizeable
portion of it derives from you. Be proud.
Charles Shaar Murray

RILL GRAHAM PRESENTS

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"It's afight
to keep
youridentity'
i hey e 6,

BRUCE SPRINGSTEEN

ie new

Bob Dylan. As he explains, John Hammondconnection or not, he's just trying to behimself. "I sit at home and write music," hesays. "Nobody comes down and hypes me."- MELODY MAKER MAY 12 pOOR BRUCE, II li seems so lost1

lying hereon the floor in his
manager's office, a vague smile
playing around his face as hepicks slowly over his words.
Bemusement chases amusement
across the whole length of him, from the itchy
scrub of beard t hat he'sconstant ly fingering,along past the soiled shirt to the denim -scruff
of his legs: a whole mind and body trying tocome to terms with what's happening around it.
He wasn't like this last month when Bruce
Springsteen and his band played at Max's i n New
York.They say MrsTed Kennedy turned up to x.

19730PR

see him, to catch his playing on guitar and piano, his dramatic, intense
presence, with the words rolling and spitting out... and those songs,
stuffed and trussed with images that he slit open and spilled out. What
was there to say afterwards?
"Interesting", heads nodded, "very interesting", but there was muchpuzzlement. He was hard to sum up. The band, particularly Clarence
Clemons on sax, drove ferociously in the most relentless style, and hesounded at times like Van Morrison. Yet there remained this feeling of theposeur, not detrimental, but that an attitude was being struck; he waschallenging but distant, and this was somehow unsettling. Later, one
realised, Bruce Springsteen was truly a lone spirit.
He was born in Freehold, New Jersey, and since his schooldays he never
did anything apart from play music: his only regular job was during

summer vacation in high school, and that was as a gardener and odd -jobman, tarring roofs and painting houses; he took the job to buy a guitar.
There was a college, of course-Ocean County Commun ity, NJ,"studying draft evasion" -but it was unhappy. The students didn't like
him: the psychiatrist there told him so. He recalls this, and the flash ofamusement grows wider.
"I think it was my appearance. He thought I was disturbed, else I
wouldn't have looked the way I did... which is pretty much the way I do
now. But you gotta digwhere it was at in '68; it wasn't cool to look likethem. It was traumatic, and that's when I left. It seems funny now, but it
was hard then."
And he throws his head back and laughs out loud. After that it was only
music; the army didn't take him at his physical. Then it was a successionof bands, including a New Jersey group called
Steel Mill which lasted two years. When he was
18 he played at the Fillmore West and then did
an audition tape for Fillmore Records, but there
was little recognised success. Until, last May,he went to another audition: at Columbia
MM MARCH 31 IP two son2-1Pner 11111!1 A MP 101' IIPW 1.31P
Records, and before John Hammond.
Twelve years ago, Hammond signed Dylan,
Bruce Springsteen
other, using all the knowledge andmaybe the most momentous deal in the history
techniques accumulated in the interim.
of Columbia, and now in walks this kid, 22
It could be 10 summers ago, a sunny truant
Bruce uses a lot of what Bob laid down,
years old with his curly hair rough and thick onafternoon up in Susie's room, cooking baked
mostly around the time of Bringing It All
top, just like it was, and the same look, notbeans and transfixed by Freewheelin',
Back Home, but his tunes and tales have
hippy but beatnik, and he's singing thismarvelling that this guy named Dylan could
a validity of their own. Remember, too, thatcomposition, his own, called "It's Hard To Be A
articulate so brilliantly the most secret"Subterranean Homesick Blues" wouldn't
Saint In The City", and that, more thanemotions. But it's not. It's1973, and we've all
have existed without Chuck Berry's "Tooanything else, must have felt familiar.
been through a lot, and here I am with an
Much Monkey Business", and Springsteen's
So Springsteen was signed, and although it
album by a totally unfamiliar fellow called"Blinded By The Light", with its similar
was undoubtedly done on his own merits,
Springsteen, and I'm getting exactly theaccelerating build-up of rapid-fire phrases
because who needs a facsimile, the publicity
same feelings. Even now that I know most ofseemingly plucked ad-lib out of the air, ismachine went to work, it gathered momentum
the words, and can sing along with thesimply a continuation of the tradition.
as writers took heed and -suddenly!- here wasrecord, the adrenalin rushes so hard that its
In a voice like a wasted, debaucheda singer -songwriter making contemporaneous
headiness makes writing difficult, and I justJackson Browne, over a band that swings as
the Dylan of '65. Poor Bruce.
want to listen to the record again. And again.
surely as Van Morrison's but with more cold
So Springsteen sits and ponders on the floor
Bruce Springsteen? He's from New
blue steel and clipped fire, he tells storiesof this office: ramblings in mid -afternoon New
Jersey, 23 years old, and leads a band forfrom his own personal Desolation Row. Get
York. And it's awful to admit, but the facialwhich he sings, plays guitar and writes
this, from a painful song called "Growin' Up":
resemblance is striking, even down to thesongs. He has no track record to speak of,"The flag of piracy flew from my mast, mysensuous nose of seven or eight years ago.
and I first heard of him a couple of weeks ago
sails were set wing to wing/I had ajukebox
Dylan's shadow falls long across singers andin an American magazine which printed
graduate for first mate, she couldn't sail but
writers of those years.
some of his lyrics. Just reading some of his
she sure could sing/I pushed B -52s and"Under a shadow? Su rel think I am. Whatverses was a buzz: taking their cue from thebombed 'em with the blues with my gear sat
happens is, once you start creating someth in,image -splitting Dylan of "Subterranean
stubborn on standing// broke all the rules,
people magnify different aspects for different
Homesick Blues", they leapt off the printed
strafed my old high school, never once gave
reasons. Record companies might do it to sell
page with a vivid attack which was wholly
thought to landing." Recognise the feeling?
records. Every year somethin' comes along."
contemporary. And now this album. Well,
Or the escapism of "It's Hard To Be A
Some people have got him wrong, he says;
the accompanying article said he soundedSaint In The City":"Ihadskin like leather andhis first album, Greetings From Asbury Park,
good too, but it didn't really indicate that hethe diamond -hard look of a cobra/I was born
NJ (which is where he now lives), doesn't givewas this good.
blue and weathered, but I burstjust like aa true picture of his artistic position: "TheIn brief, Springsteen is an outlaw wordsupernova/I could walk like Brando right intothings on the record are pretty much what I did
slinger with a familiar half -sneer in his voice
the sun, then dancejust like a Casanova". Or
when I began writing; I had been playing inand a taut, lean little band through which hethe crystalline description in a biker ballad,a band for nine years!! was essentially a guitar
refracts dazzling verbal images. Like Dylan,"The Angel": "The angel rides withplayer! But these songs came out and I didn't
he's a rock'n'roll poet who fills both roles
hunchback children, poison oozing from hishave a band, so... they figured I was a singer perfectly, like the two forms were born forengine/ Wieldin'love as a lethal weapon, on
songwriter, and I figured I'd give it a try.
each other. The comparisons with Dylan
his way to hubcap heaven... "It was almost produced to lean towards
will be inevitable, may even hurt him, andThere are some visible faults, and I'm told
that- more towards the lyrics than the music,
there's no denying the influence - butthat he's much better now than when thewhich was just 'bam, bam, barn. Originally
Springsteen is to Dylan as is the1973
album was cut. But they're only thethey just wanted me and a guitar. I said 'forget
Ferrari Berlinetta 250 GT. One isfaults of immaturity, and I hopeit'. That's why I want to do more music on mysimply a development of thehe never loses that headlong
next record. On the records a lot of emphasis
madness which gives his
was put on what was being said, which waswork such an urgent
not the point, but people listened andexcitement. For a debut,
interpreted what it was.
this is staggeringly good;"You see, it depends how seriously you takeand whatever happens next
yourself. It's really hard for me to talk about
in music, I have a strong
the words, 'cos I have no particular things to
suspicion that Brucesay. I mean, I never read poetry 'cos I don't
Springsteen will be a big part oflike to read too much; I never read anythingit. He may even be it. Richard
to the degree of remembering. Y'know, as

An outlaw word -Slinger

soon as someone says 'this guy is the next
Bob Dylan' you're dead, and I can't believe
they don't know that.
"Of course there are similarities! First thing
I heard was on AM, 'LikeA Rolling Stone, andI grew up with that. But the public always has
this huge mouth, open wide and going, 'More,more!' Even if someone was dropping deadthey'd still shout 'more!' They're brought up to
do that, but it's a fight to keep your identity
against people who want to cloud it over.
Columbia, they didn't want that album cover
fit's a picture postcard view ofAsbury! and I had
to fight that, and one of the reasons ! wanted it
was that that's me! That's where I'm from!"
He stretches flat, laughs from his belly, andthen hoiks himself on to his elbows. The fingers
are in the beard; then they rub through his hair.
There's a lot of US Marine insignia on the wallthat becomes unaccountably noticeable. He
looks absent and amused again.
"Despite all the hype," he begins, "I'mremaining pretty obscure, which just goes toshow- oh, but we do get a good response fromthe audience." Silence.
"It's all done by people who mean well, 1 guess,
who actually feel it's the right thing to do. The
one straight guy is John (Hammond). He looks at
stuff and says it's either terrible or good."
Silence again. "The situation gets
overwhelming. Really, I can't be bothered with
what's goin' on here, at Columbia, and I don'tmuch care. I sit at home and write music.
Nobody comes down and hypes me."Shadow lifts, ever so slightly. Michael Watts

An arresting talent

Springsteenbackstageat Max'sKansasCity,
NYC, during a six -night

MM AUG 11

uce
band: Th'"trunthera fromJan 31 tc
Feb 5,1973.whena
matching pair of sneakers i
was hard to come by'D LIKE TO say that The Wailers werea fantastic success at their opening set
This is not to make too many apologies,
at Max's, but this wouldn't be strictly
however, for The Wailers, who were rather
accurate: not because they weren't good,
stiff for most of their set. In fact, Bob Marleysimply that reggae has not yet achieved any
sounded somewhat thin and unconvincing onreal momentum in America.
lead vocals. In all truth, they didn't appear toGenerally, The Harder They Come has
be enjoying themselves, and this reserve held
not made much impact in the States, andback their music.
neither has its star, Jimmy Cliff. It's been the
There aren't many of us who aren't West
reggae orientation of Johnny Nash and theIndians that have been exposed much to live
dabblings of such as Paul Simon and J Geils
reggae, so it's difficult to place The Wailers inwhich have registered Jamaican music, but
a critical context. But, although it may be aonly to the point where the general public
little unfair to use them as a test case for athinks of it as a novelty.
whole musical culture, they've made a lot ofThus, although The Wailers arrived fresh
friends and alienated no one. It's a start.
from an apparently triumphant residency in
Bruce Springsteen has not only started,
Boston, they found themselves playing tohe's fully emerged within the space of fourlargely unconverted ears at Max's, and withmonths. His first album
virtually no exception, white
resembled the manicears. To compound matters,
stairs. crt
outpourings of an autistic
most of the audience was
max's kansas citychild, but there's never any
there for Columbia's new
doubt in my mind that he's anrising star, Bruce
a-. .....-werAoriginal talent. Those who've
Springsteen, while thedismissed him have simply
seated policy of the club
never seen him.
was hardly conducive to a
He and his band-withnatural response to what'smore than a passing reference
essentially dance music.

- Up

-

BRUCE

SPRINGSTEEN

to the giant black tenorist, Clarence Clemons- are the most voluble and exciting club act tohave appeared this year. Springsteen, with his
half -smiling, befuddled air, still sounds like he's
spent time in a mental institution, but that
impression only heightens the desperate,
tumbled intensity of his performance.
He plays spirited guitar on uptempo
numbers, but he's more particularly effectiveon piano, where he employs his morereflective songs (there was an especiallyinvolving one about growing up in Asbury
Park, NJ, where he lives).
His lyrics are invariably oblique - hardly
narrative - and he would benefit only by notstraining after effect and crowding image
upon image. As an artist he still hasn't definedhimself, but when he's learned to discipline
the neurotic impulse that forces him into akind of absurd speed writing without losing his
fierce compulsiveness, he'll have somethingmajor to say.
As it is, he's an arresting talent who
expresses himself best live, where this jarringnote is passed over in the physicality of themusic. He's a lot of fun, too. Michael Watts

commis* WOWING wrst
oho opperry,

THE WAILERS°MOAK. f1.41 Mr 34

HISTORY OF ROCK 1973 181

KEVIN AYERS & ROBERT WYATT"Sunnylittle songs"
Meetings with twoformer membersof Soft Machine.

MELODY MAKER IAY 26 WHAT IS THE fascination of the banana? It iscontemplates the

future after aserious accident.
For `PVIN AYFRq,

meanwhile, theworld is bananas.
"The essence ofwhat I do is to makefun of serious

situations," hesays. "Sometimes
I get drunk."

a question that could reasonably be put to a
man whose place in rock has never been easy
to define -one Kevin Ayers. Bananas - yellow,
curved, succulent and sensual - play a largepart in his world.
They form the subject matter for short, humorous poems. He presented
a revue called The Banana Follies at a Hampstead Theatre. His latest album
is called Bananamour, which is also the title of his forthcoming concert at
London's Queen Elizabeth Hall.
For Kevin, bananas represent the absurd, and the man slipping on its
notoriously treacherous skin is dignity and authority deflated. Not that Ayers
is particularly embattled against the establishment, but he sees the banana
as an ally against the perils of seriousness.
In the past, Kevin has been one of that eccentric breed who teeter on theverge of greatness but never quite fulfil their promise. Men like Ron Geesin,
Lol Coxhill, Viv Stanshall, who drawback rather than commit themselves as
do lesser talents who invariably gain greater success.
Kevin is a rhythm guitarist, an obsolete profession in the hard environmentof modern rock. He is also a singer, a writer and now a producer. And he had
a lot to contribute that is entertaining and valuable to the rock scene, if itwill but listen. He first gained attention with Soft Machine, and later went
on to form The Whole World, an unsteady aggregation that did not survive
long. After a considerable absence from the public eye, he has returned fora tour backed by the group 747, with his old comrade, bassist and singer
Archie Legget.
There is a feeling afoot that Kevin's work is about to become more"accessible" to the public at large, and interest has been evinced in his recent
single "Caribbean Moon", which represents a bow towards the requirementsof hit -making. Is Kevin Ayers selling out? What is this obsession with the fruitof the herbaceous plant, with its long, seedless berry of edible pulp? And who
does he think he is? It was to find answers to these pressing questions that I
broke out of the dark, noisy and unpleasant cell that is the office of the Melody
Makerthis week, to track down Kevin in the sunlit
uplands of Maida Vale.
KEVIN AYERS
He lives in a block of flats, erected in the days before
the great architectural crisis, when aesthetic
considerations, however slight, were still given priority.
Kevin surprised me by being a large, untidy man, witha deep speaking voice, rich in resonance. He had just 0

Caribbean moon

1973

APRIE -JUNE

woken as I arrived, and wore a huge andridiculous night shirt that covered himfrom neck to toe. Given a fez, he could have
performed a sand dance in Leicester Square forthe benefit of cinema queues, with no questions
asked by the buskers union.
From album covers I had expected perhaps
a Rick Wakeman or David Bowie. Instead he
was more like a cross between the eternallyvague Peter Gabriel of Genesis, and Tommy
Cooper. When he told me his greatest influence
had been Syd Barrett -the man who freaked out"I spend too
much time on
my own... But
I'm not bitter,

thank God"of Pink Floyd- it was no surprise.
All these comparisons are useful, for Kevinhas a unique character, not easy to define, leastof all to himself. At first he seemed speechless from heavy sleep, and had
to shuffle off to the bathroom to throw cold water over his face before any
conversation could commence.
Frantic avant-garde piano music emitted from one room, while
a querulous voice could be heard demanding: "Who's put soap in thewashbasin? It's full of dirty dishes!"
Kevin's portion of the apartment was littered with old clothes and smelt
strongly of overpowering incense, which vied with the smoke of Spanish
cigarettes. A small banana was perched on the wall- a piece of organicart, supported by two brackets.

OOD MORNING!" SAID Kevin at length, settling downon the mattress, drawing up his knees, the nightshirt
billowing up like a tent.

CC"That's Juanita Banana," he said catching my gaze, which had rested
on a rubber doll on the mantelpiece. He thoughtfully gathered up an
armful of white shoes that were littering the floor, and pushed themunder a chair to make room for a pot of tea and ashtrays. We began to talk.
"We had a funny gig last night," he revealed. "We had been billed ashaving dancing cactus with us, and the social secretary wasdisappointed we didn't have them. They are giant cut-outs that aresupposed to move around. But the stage was too small for them anyway."
Kevin seemed to be undergoing a renewed burst of activity.
"Yes, it's summer energy happening. It's quite a good time for energy.
I've been spending some time in Jamaica, which has inspired me to write
some sunny little songs. A lot of people are scared of making fools ofthemselves," mused Kevin. "I am too. It can be a part of you or it can becontrived. You can ridicule yourself for effect and make a fool of yourself
instead of other people. The essence of what I do is to make fun of serious
situations, but not through hard satire.
"I used to have a group called the Whole World which was neither one
thing nor the other. It didn't make an equal contribution to the music andnor was it a backing band. It was a limbo of uncertainty and it had to breakup. Now I'm backed by 747 and it's just about coming together. There aregood musicians backing me -people I like. Archie Leggett, the renowned
Scotsman and bass player, is working with me, and we did that thingcalled the Banana Follies at Hampstead Theatre.
"When I came back from the West Indies I got a group together and we
spent three days in rehearsal. Archie knows my stuff and we did all the
tracks off my new album. Have you heard Archie sing? He's got the sortof voice I like very much, but
can't do myself.
"We used the Roy Young brasssection on the album and hopeto have them at our Queen
Elizabeth Hall concert. It
depends on their availability.
These people are always working
so much."MAY

Aug Wets tt501125/1100,770

MAY

9.00

olin

kevin ayers)Iunstonebananamour

One of the tracks on Kevin's album is called"Interview", which he played me and seemed
to relate quite strongly to our present
conversation. The song went: "I've been calleda clown I Yes you may write that down I And fora little money I am extremely funny".
"The album is my first effort at production,and it proved very satisfactory. 'Interview' isabout the universal interview -who are you,and what can you do? That's all anybody everwants to know. The answer is I'm a performer,
who sometimes tries to fly. Sometimes I get
drunk -but that's just to overcome the initialfear of rejection by an audience. Alcohol is avery good energy food. It blurs your finer
reception powers so you can cope with heckling, but it can make it
difficult to put oversensitive music.
"Do I fear audiences? Yes, I do; I fear misunderstanding, which is thecause of most of our woes, and that is mostly because we don't know
how to make ourselves understood. People say, 'I've got so much tosay,' and don't know how to say it. I can be clearer writing lyrics thanin conversation.
"My hero was Syd Barrett. He was an influence on me, and I've written
a song for him. He wasn't a musical so much as a personal influence. On
my previous albums, I used to write very esoteric lyrics, but now I'mtrying to be more accessible. They're not just private jokes any more. It
was apparent from the silence from the public that theywere critical ofthem. The albums sold in very small quantities to a few people who wereturned on by them. 'Caribbean Moon' is an attempt to get to more people.
"Am I selling out? I wouldn't know how. At the moment I'm interested
in creating something I can still like that will appeal to a lot of people.
I would like a Number One single, because it is an incredible challenge,
without doing any awful bubblegum stuff.
"I'm beginning to get the feel of what makes a single and spend twowhole days listening solidly to the radio. I like to know what's being
listened to. I've noticed that the identification factor is most importantand that all the songs have a sort of 'hook' phrase. They all have the same
ingredients and you can dissect them, but you can't manufacture it.
"Suddenly, for no apparent reason, people will like a certain record. I'm
not against the pop framework at all. It's just becoming pretty gigantic,
and nowyou have long-haired businessmen running it, instead of short haired businessmen. And there are a lot of cloth -eared, insensitive
people among them, and we are just their pawns to be exploited.
"There is something slightly rotten in the pop state of Denmark. This is
not necessarily a put-down. As in ordinary business, there is often an
unnecessary demand created and the supply reaches saturation point.
"People's lives are becoming more and more cluttered withparaphernalia, and the awful thing is people are not getting any closer
together. I regret most of all the passing of that initial joy of playing musicas a simple celebration and a getting together.
"I'm very out of touch with how other musicians feel. It doesn't
always come across in interviews. Perhaps people don't ask them theright questions. I have to be very careful about what I say; I always
regret it later."
All well and good -but what about the bananas?
"Bananas -yes. They are kind of
absurd. It's the world's oldest joke,
about the man slipping on the bananaskin. And there are obvious sexual

connotations."
Kevin handed me a poem which he had
recently jotted down, and which set out his
views quite concisely on the whole subject.
"I'm going to go away after this tour torecover," said Kevin. "Then there is thepossibility of a tour ofAmerica. This will
be my first album released there. And thenI might do a European tour. We'll have to
wait and see how the records fare."On what level would Kevin like tobe accepted?
"That's a good question. Would you mind
if I think about that?" There followed a long

Robert Wyattinthe
Netherlands in1972.
before the accident
onJune1,1973thatparalysedhimfrom
the waist down

pause, while ! lit another Spanish
cigarette and Kevin stared at the floor.
"I'd like any audience really. It would
help my development and help me
understand more about myself. I wascriticising advertising just now for
subliminal suggestion. But I'm noteven trying to sell them me; I findmyself getting into poses sometimes
and I'm pretty much an outsider.
"I don't relate to popular society andI find it hard to be with more than one
person at a time, because then you justget bits of different people, which
freaks me out. But I don't feel badly
about playing society's games as longas I retain some control.
"You see, I started life by going tosome weird schools. I was brought up
in the Far East and didn't have any
primary or secondary education thank God. When I came to England
I was sent to a ghastly cramming
school, to become part of society.
"It was ludicrous at school. Nobody
tried to find out where your real talents
lay. I had lived in Malaya from the age of six to 12, and going to school in
England was like a descent from heaven to hell. My memories of the East
are still veryvivid and I speak Malay fluently. I used to run around naked
as a child and it was quite a change coming here. That's why I keep goingaway and trying to find simplicity again.
"But don't talk of 'childlike simplicity' -children are emotionally very
complicated and they are very devious little people. In Western cities,
everybody is rushing around trying to find out who they are. Where I
came from, it wasn't like that. Now the silly buggers are trying to get into
the Western way of life with cars and TV sets.
"I went to Jamaica to find all I had lost, and all I met were people whowanted to come here, or go to America. I stay here as little as possible.
This is just somewhere to sleep and read. We all have an island in ourheads where we will go and live happily ever after. You don't even need
the place, that's just geography.
"I don't want to move away from people. I don't dislike people -only the
aspects of them I see in myself. So I don't want to be considered a hermit,
brothers and sisters- that would be disowning myself. I spend too muchtime on my own and becoming morose. But I'm not bitter- thank God.
A wider public will give me more confidence and maybe it will stop me
being so self -deprecating, and self-effacing. The outsider's role insociety? It's all in the lyrics of my songs." Chris welch

MELODY MAKER 'MEMBER 10 _LAST WEEK, ROBERT Wyatt and his ladyAlfie had five pounds
in the bank. Not a great reward for almost a decade in the musicbusiness, and the sort of situation bound to bring a little panic

to any temporarily incapacitated musician.
And for Robert, of course, the prospect was particularly grim. Doubtlesseveryone knows by now that Robert broke his back in an accident at aparty back in June, and now he's paralysed from the waist down.
The cold, hard facts are that Robert will not be able to walk or playdrums again. Fora lesser person that could be the absolute end of theline; nothing left to do but wallow in self-pity. Not Robert Wyatt, though.
He's re-evaluating his position as a musician, and trying to find a way toreturn to playing as soon as possible.
I went down to Stoke Mandeville Hospital with Mike Ratledge and Soft
Machine manager Sean Murphy last week to see Robert. Frankly, it wasa confrontation that I just didn't feel I was emotionally equipped to deal
with. What words could I possibly say to a personal musical hero, now
confined to a wheelchair, that wouldn't sound like an obituary?
Some kids grew up with Gene Krupa, some with Jagger. Me, I grew up
with the Soft Machine, went to more gigs than I can remember, and it wasalways an education to watch Robert.
It's not generally acknowledged yet, but Robert was a true innovator
as far as drumming's concerned in the mid -'60s, single-handedly

responsible, I think, for a lot of the cross-fertilisation that has occurred
between rock and jazz. But my worries were unfounded.
As soon as I saw Robert now out of the wards and as comfortable aspossible in a cosy hospital annexe called Ashendon House, I realised that
he's capable of becoming an influential musician all over again.
One only has to look at his track record to understand the possibilities
that are open to him. Generally speaking, if you deprive a drummer of hisability to drum, he doesn't usually have much to offer musically. Wyatt
has always been more than just a drummer, however.
For two years he was the lead singer with a Canterbury band called The
Wilde Flowers, and later, of course, he vocalised with the Soft Machine
and Matching Mole, so he'll be singing more in future.
Then there's his keyboard playing, about which he's always been
unnecessarily humble, because he's very original. As if that weren't
enough, he's dabbled with electric guitar ("Memories" on Daevid Allen's
Banana Moon album), and he once played trumpet in a trio whichfeatured Daevid Allen on guitar and Terry Riley on boogie-woogie piano.
He has actually done some recording since his accident- proof that you
can't keep a good man down. "I went on my first outing since theaccident, last week," he says, "to the Manor. I was hanging around thestudios while Hatfield [And The North] were recording, hoping to be
asked to rattle a tambourine or something, 'cos I'm pretty good at that,and eventually Phil [Miller], getting embarrassed by my presence, gave
me a piece of paper and said, 'Well, while you're here you might as wellmake yourself useful. Sing this.'"It was a new song that he'd just written. I thought, 'Christ, I'll never
be able to learn it. I'll make a fool of myself.' As it happened, though, itworked out all right."
The Pink Floyd/Soft Machine benefit concert came as a pleasantsurprise. "I couldn't believe it at first; in fact I didn't believe it till I read it.
But I'm knocked out because it means I can stop worrying about money
fora bit, and that's a tremendous load off my mind."
Any future plans? Rumour has it that Robert has written a whole batchof hit singles from his hospital bed.
"That's not quite true. I'd written a lot of songs forwhat was going tobe the third Matching Mole album with Bill [McCormick], Francis
Monkman and Gary Winde. I thought I'd got them all sort of safely stored
in my head, but what with one thing and another I've forgotten most ofthem. I've been working on some tape loops and things, though.
"By chance I've met a guywho's a friend of Ron Geesin's, and justhappens to live across the road from here. He's got a piano, and someRevox machines, and Alfie's got me this little Japanese organ. We've madesome funny old tapes. This guy doesn't know anything about me or Soft
Machine or anything, but does know a lot about recording techniques."
And so, with more problems than most people could handle, he plans toslowly return to the fast -living rock'n'roll circuit. I'm a hundred per centcertain that he'll be strong enough to cope with the pressures. SteveLake
HISTORY OF ROCK 1973 186

Marchmo,1973:PinkFloyd
at Kent State University,

Ohio,duringthe first
Dark Side Of The Moon

tour of NorthAmerica

SO I HISTORY OF ROCK 1973

"The darkside isinsidepeople'sheads"To po-ptlar acclaim,
PINK FLOYD have releaseda ne nark Side Of The Moon.

Or

Guitarist David Gilmour
discusses the album's
uiemes (neuroses, money,
Syd Barrett) and offers aspontaneous display of
instrumental prowess. Live,the band reveals its heart isstill in the underground.

HISTORY OF ROCK 1973 187

1973
APRIL

-01

-

the Floyd's poised and delicate music has never been greater. On their last
American tour they casually sold out massive venues from coast to coast;
H FLOYD-WHEREFORE art thou? What lies yonder The Dark Side OfThe Moon has taken world charts in its stride, while theiron the dark side of the moon? Madness they do say,forthcoming London concerts at Earls Court -for charity- sold out as
and present death. In their seventh year together,quickly as tickets could be passed over the counter.
paranoia and fear seem to haunt their music, despite,
The Floyd have doubtless earned an attractive penny in their time, butor perhaps because of, success. Much of the Pink
unlike many other successful artists, they do not wallow in riches. Roger
Floyd's latest album (actually over a year old in terms
Waters lives in a modest house in Islington, where his wife bakes pots inof studio time) reflects the pressures and obsessions that afflict thethe garden shed. And while David Gilmour lives on a farm in the country,
itinerate rock musician. Without the lifestyle, there would not be
it is through his own efforts that the establishment has been mademusic; and without the music, the lifestyle could not be supported.
habitable. He might boast an ornamental pool in the garden, stocked
Mad laughter and sane voices intermingle in the Floyd's measured,with gaily coloured fish, but he dug it himself.
timeless compositions, and it would be easy to read into the characters
It was to this rural retreat that I drove one sunny day last week, wendingof the men who make up one of the most original and fulfilling of groups,
through the fields of Hertfordshire, made fearful by juggernauts
a kind of omniscience. Fans- and journalists -can and have been
wallowing on S -bends and locals driving dented grey Cortinas at speed.
disappointed, or surprised to find that the Pink Floyd are but human.
Arriving at the village at the appointed hour, a further 60 minutes were
Their output is not prolific, they have been known to repeat material atspent following the conflicting directions of rustics pushing bicycles.
concerts, they have yet to announce details of any plan to save the world,
Still ost, I consulted a map that seemed to have been drawn up in 1932.
and what is more, they operate and enjoy taking part in a moderately
Hurling this aside, my gaze perceived a fissure in the hedge opposite. It
successful football team.
seemed scarcely possible I was parked outside the Gilmour estate andTime wasted, the curse of money, ambitions unfulfilled, these are all
had passed it innumerable times in the last hour.
matters that concern the Floyd, and form the basis of many of their
Such was the case. In a secluded courtyard an alsatian stood guard
musical ideas. They are not esoteric subjects and should be easily
and a venerable old horse clomped about. A youth in faded blue jeans
assimilated without recourse to mystical interpretation.
and straggly black hair appeared like Heathcliff at the cottage door.
Yet even today, the Floyd occasionally feel misunderstood. But they can"Mr Gilmour's abode?"
also feel a tremendous satisfaction in the knowledge that the band said to"Yes indeed. Come in and have a cup of tea. It will calm you." My
be "finished" when Syd Barrett left them all those years ago has reachedmotorist's fury began to abate, as ! drank in the ornate but tasteful decor.
a peak that is impressive even in this age of supergroups. Acceptance ofLow beams, a jukebox here, woodcarvings there- since taking over theabandoned Victorian farmhouse a couple of years ago, theguitarist had worked hard at improvements. When he moved
May18,1973:Davidin there was no electricity or heating, and he lived rough as heGilmour employs St rat andcreated an open-plan living area, constructed a music room,
effectspedalinaidof
dug the aforementioned pool and cleaned out stables for Vim,
homelessnesscharity
Shelter at theEarlsCourt
his retired brewer's dray horse. He had even permitted
E ahibitionCentre, London
himself the luxury of a swimming pool, following thesatisfactory sale of many of the Pink Floyd's albums.
Then came Nemesis, not in the shape of a writer to Mailbag,
but a man from the council, only minutes before my arrival.
He had presented a copy of the council's plans to build ahousing estate on the surrounding greenbelt land, and tocompulsorily purchase great chunks of the Floydian paradise.
"We'll have to pack our bags and move," he said withhopeless resignation.
Our eyes turned to megalopolis creeping over the horizon,
the threatening blocks of Harlow, poised ready to march. We
toyed with ideas to build a wall of fire around the premises,
to be touched off at the instant the bulldozers arrived, and I
suggested sowing land m ines in Vim's meadow. Eventually we
decided it would be more cheering to speak of the Pink Floyd.

0

MELODY MAKER MAY 19

FOR THE BENEFIT of new reader George Loaf (12), it

should be explained that the group was born in 1967
during the heady days of flower power and UFO. Mr
Gilmour replaced the legendary Syd Barrett on guitar, who
had written such chart hits as "See Emily Play". The Floyd
went through a bleak period when they were written off,
but quietly drew about them an army of fans and went
about their creative work, wholly unmoved by the shifting
fortunes and fashions that affect their contemporaries.
They are a proud, pioneering and somewhat detachedgroup who sometimes look upon the cavort i ngs of some of
their fellow groups with faint dismay, not out of sour
grapes, but from purely aesthetic considerations.
But first, what had the Floyd been doing these last few
months, and how long had it taken them to conceive The Dark
Side OfThe Moon, which I believed was their best yet?
"We did the American tour," said Dave. "We only ever dothree-week tours now, but that one was 18 dates in 21 days,
which is quite hard. We started recording the LP in May lastyear, and finished it around January. We didn't work at it all
the time, of course. We hadn't had a holiday in three years andwe were determined to take one. On the whole, the album hasa good concept...""Our music is about
neuroses": Pink Floyd in1973 -(I -r) Nick Mason,
David Gilmour, Roger
Watersand Rick Wright

Isn't it their best yet? "I guess so. A lot of thematerial had already been performed when werecorded it, and usually we go into the studioand write and record at the same time. We
started writing the basic idea ages ago, and itchanged quite a lot. It was pretty rough to begin
with. The songs are about being in rock'n'roll,and apply to being what we are on the road.
Rogerwrote 'Money' from the heart."
Money seemed to be a touchy subject formusicians and fans alike. Were the Floyd
cynics? "Oh no -not really.1 just think thatmoney's the biggest single pressure on people.

"Money canbe a moral
problem, but
we were broke
for a long time"

Even if you've got it, you have the pressure of notknowing whether you should have it, and you
don't know the rights and wrongs of your situation. It can be a moral
problem, but remember the Pink Floyd were broke fora pretty long time.
We were in debt when I joined, and nine months afterwards I remember
when we gave ourselves £30 a week, and for the first time we were earning
more than the roadies."
Fora band that relies on creating moods, good sound was essential forthe embryonic Floyd: "We hardly had any equipment of our own. We had
a light show, but we had to scrap it for two years. We've had lights again forthe last couple of years, but in the meantime we developed the basic ideaof the Azimuth Co-ordinator. We did a concert at the Festival Hall with
the new sound system, and none of us had any idea what we were doing.
I remember sitting on the stage for two hours feeling totally embarrassed.
But we developed the ideas, and it was purely down to setting moods andcreating an atmosphere."
To digress, what did Dave think of Hawkwind, the newest prophets of
the UFO tradition? "I don't ever listen to them, but they seem to be having
jolly good fun," said Dave without the trace of a smile.
What about The Moody Blues? "I'm not too keen on The Moody Blues.
I don't knowwhy- I think it's all that talking that gets my goat. It's a bit likepoets' corner." Dave did not want to be drawn on the subject of rivalry,
but he did admit to hearingwith pleasure that an expensive piece ofequipment belonging to another group had collapsed. The group had
recently tried to poach the Floyd's road crew.

Looking back over his six years or so with thegroup, what milestones did he see in theirdevelopment? "There haven't been any
particular milestones. It's all gone rathersmoothly. We've always felt like we have led
some sort of cult here, but in America it's beenslow but sure. This year in the States it's been
tremendous, but I can't saywhy- specifically.
We have been able to sell out ten to 15,000 -seaters every night on the tour -quite suddenly.

"We have always done well in Los Angeles or
NewYork, but this was in places we had neverbeen to before. Suddenly the LP was Number
One there and they have always been in theforties and fifties before.
"No- success doesn't make much difference to us. It doesn't make any
difference to our output, or general attitudes. There are four attitudes inthe band that are quite different. But we all want to push forward andthere are all sorts of things we'd like to do. For Roger Waters it is more
important to do things that say something. Richard Wright is more into
putting out good music, and I'm in the middle with Nick. I want to do it all,but sometimes I think Roger can feel the musical content is less importantand can slide around it.
"Roger and Nick tend to make the tapes or effects like the heartbeat on
the LP.At concerts we have quad tapes and four -track tape machines. So
we can mix the sound and pan it around. The heartbeat alludes to thehuman condition and sets the mood for the music, which describes theemotions experienced during a lifetime. Amidst the chaos there is beautyand hope for mankind. The effects are purely to help the listenerunderstand what the whole thing is about.
"It's amazing... at the final mixing stage we thought it was obvious what
the album was about, but still a lot of people, including the engineers andthe roadies, when we asked them, didn't knowwhat the LP was about.
They just couldn't say -and I was really surprised. They didn't see it was
about the pressures that can drive a young chap mad.
"I really don't know if our things get through, but you have to carry on
hoping. Our music is about neuroses, but that doesn't mean that we areneurotic. We are able to see it, and discuss it. The Dark Side OfThe Moon *HISTORY OF ROCK 1973 1 89

1973
APift

JANE

itself is an allusion to the moon and lunacy. The dark side is generally
related to what goes on inside people's heads -the subconscious andthe unknown.
"We changed the title. At one time, it was going to be called Eclipse,
because Medicine Head did an album called The Dark Side OfThe Moonbut it didn't sell well, so what the hell. I was against Eclipse and we felt a bit
annoyed because we had already thought of the Dark title before
Medicine Head came out. Not annoyed at them, but because we wanted
to use the title. There are a lot of songs with the same title. We did one
called 'Fearless' and Family had a single called that."
Did the Floyd argue among themselves much? "A fair bit, I suppose, but
not too traumatic. We're bound to argue because we are all very different.
I'm sure our public image is of 100 per cent spaced -out drug addicts, out of
our minds on acid. People do get strange ideas about us. In San Francisco
we had a reputation from the Gay Liberation
Front: 'I hear you guys are into Gay Lib'; I don't
know how they could tell..."As a guitarist, Dave had been somewhat
overshadowed by the Floyd's strong corporate
image. But his virile, cutting lines are one of
their hallmarks and a vital human element. Did
he ever fancy working out on a solo album, or
forming a rock trio?
"I get all sorts of urges but really nothingstrong. Put it down to excessive laziness. No,
I don't do sessions. I don't get asked. Any
frustrations I might have about just banging
out some rock'n'roll are inevitable, but are nota destructive element to our band. I have a lot of

scope in Pink Floyd to let things out. There are specially designatedplaces where I can do that."
In the past the Floyd have been subject to criticism, not the leastappearing in the Melody Maker. How do they react to that?
"React? Violently! People tend to saywe play the same old stuff -that wedo the same numbers for years. We don't. We are playing all new numbers
now, except for 'Set The Controls For The Heart Of The Sun. The Who arestill playing 'My Generation' and nobody complains about that. We cantake criticism when it's valid, but we are only human and we can only doso much. Sometimes it surprises me when we play really well, and spendsome time on presenting a special show, like we did at Radio City in New
York, and we get knocked.
"Some people dislike the basic premise of what we are all about. Then
their criticism is a waste of time. For someone to criticise you who
understands you, and can say where you havefallen down- that's valid. There are somepeople who come to our shows with no realinterest in what we are doing, don't like thegroup, so don'tlike the concert. We put all thebad reviews into a little blue book."
This time Dave was smiling. (G Loaf, please
note. Musician's joke: Gilmour does not reallyhave a little blue book. He was speaking in fun.)"I remember after Mick Watts did his pieceonus, we all gave him a complete blank in anaeroplane. It wasn't deliberate. We just didn't
recognise him. But he made some snide remark
in the MM, so we sent him a box with a boxing
glove inside on a spring. Nick got them specially"There's
humour in ourmusic, but I
don't know if itgets through"

WithDarkSide
hitting the top of the
BillboardLPchart
on April 28,Floyd

returnforasecond
US tour in J une 1973

90 I HISTORY OF ROCK 1973

PINK FLOY1
made. But it wasn't taken in good humour. Syd Barrett would never havedone a thing like that. All very childish really.
"We don't get uptight at constructive reviews, but when somebody isn't
the smallish piece interested in what you are doing, then it's no help tothem or to us. We did get uptight at what Mick Watts said -it was very
savage. But you can't stay angry for long. We tried to turn the feud into akind of joke with the boxing glove. You've got to have a sense of humour,"said Dave scowling into his tea. "There's humour in our music, but I don't
know if any of it gets through."
Asa key member of a band with its gaze fixed firmly on the future, it
seemed unlikely Dave would want to reminisce, yet he was happy enoughto recall their origins: "Nick Mason had got a date sheet 10 yards longwith
all the gigs in red ink- every one since 1967. It's quite extraordinarywhen
you look at the gigs we got through -four or five a week. We couldn't dothat now, not when you think of the equipment we carry. The roadies
have to be there by eight in the morning to start setting up. It's a very
complicated business. Things still go wrong, but we virtually carry awhole recording studio around with us all the time.
"In 1967 no one realised that sound could get better. There was justnoise, and that's how rock'n'roll was. As soon as you educate people tosomething better, then theywant it better- permanently. PAs were
terrible in those days -but we've got an amazing one now.
"Before we do a gig, we have a four -page rider in our contract with awhole stack of things that have to be got togetherby the promoter. We haveto send people round two weeks beforehand to make sure they've got itright, otherwise they don't take any notice. There have to be two powersystems, for the lights and PA. Otherwise the lightingwill cause a buzz
through the speakers. Usually a stage has to be built -to the right size.
We've got 11 tons of equipment, and on our last American tour it had to be
carried in an articulated truck. Oh yes, it's thedeath of rock'n'roll. Big bands are coming back.
"There was a long period of timewhen I was
not really sure what I was around to do, andplayed sort of back-up guitar. Following
someone like Syd Barrett into that band was astrange experience. At first I felt I had to change
a lot and it was a paranoic experience. After all,
Syd was a living legend, and I had started off
playing basic rock music -Beach Boys, Bo
Diddley and "The Midnight Hour". ! wasn't in
any groups worth talking about, although I hada three-piece with Ricky Wills, who's now withPeter Frampton's Camel.
"I knew Syd from Cambridge since I was 15,
and my old band supported the Floyd on gigs.
I knew them all well. They asked me if I wanted
to join when Syd left, and not being completely
mad, I said yes, and joined in Christmas '68.
"I later did the two solo albums with Syd.
God, what an experience. God knows what he
was doing. Various people have tried to see
him and get him together, and found it beyond
their capabilities.
"I remember when the band was recording'See Emily Play'. Syd rang me up and asked mealong to the studio. When I got there he gave me
a complete blank. He was one of the great
rock'n'roll tragedies. He was one of the mosttalented people and could have given a
fantastic amount. He really could write songs,
and if he had stayed right, could have beaten
Ray Davies at his own game.
"It took a long time for me to feel part of theband after Syd left. It was such a strange band,and very difficult for me to knowwhat we were
doing. People were very down on us after Syd
left. Everyone thought Syd was all the grouphad, and dismissed us. Theywere hard times.
Even our management, Blackhill, believed in
Syd more than the band.
"It really didn't start coming back until
Saucerful OfSecrets and the first Hyde Park
free concert. The big kick was to play for ouraudiences at Middle Earth.
I remember one terriblenight when Syd came andstood in front of the stage.
He stared at me all night
long. Horrible!
"The free concerts werereally a gas. The first one had
5,000 people and the second
had 150,000. But the first wasmore fun. We tried to do two
more singles around thistime, but they didn't meana thing. They're now on
the Relics album."
Where lay the future forV
THE DARK SIDE
OF THE MOONMI PIN pm

6it

A Superb New AlbumI*.
Yew 111

1.r.s.ild
Pe cymigial

Tab 0,1411.br 14.
Was., ems 11,1. TM,
proi.oe.
011.

Floyd? "God knows, I'm not a
N... II
0.1. 114a114..1,
prophet. We have lots of good
Mae n
C IC
ideas. It's a matter of trying tofulfil them. It's dangerous totalk about ideas, or you get itthrown at you when you
don't do it. We have vague ideas fora much more theatrical thing, a very
immobile thingwe'd put on in one place. Also we want to buy a workshop
and rehearsal place in London. We've been trying to get one for some time.
"No we don't want our own label -but we do have our own football
team! We beat Quiver nine -one recently, and now there's talk of a music
Vs

industries cup. Oh -and we played the North London Marxists. Whataviolent bunch. I bit my tongue- and had to have stitches."
So that's what lies on the dark side of the moon- a pair of goalposts. But
the Floyd will be all right- as long as they keep their heads. Chris Welch- NME MAY 19 _CC

ON'T TAKE ANY pictures of me outside the house", says
David Gilmour, making a quick, impatient gesture likebrushing away flies. "I can't stand the 'pop star in his
country house' syndrome."
Sure David, but in the broadest sense you are a pop star. And when
you're the guitarist for famous, best-selling Pink Floyd, and you've madeas many decent albums as Pink Floyd have, and you've gone the wholeroute long ago, and you've still got your wits about you, and the money
keeps rolling in, what else is there to spend the bread on?
And it has to be said that Dave Gilmour's spent his allotted share of
the Floyd takings in a manner befitting one of the most tasteful bands ofour time. His Essex mock -Tudor residence positively screams good taste- the real sort, not Ghastly Good Taste -and is conspicuous for its lack of
middle-class accoutrements. All rooms are in that happy state of disarraythat comes from a relaxed lifestyle, the world is fenced out by a high hedge
and the BMW in the garage and the swimming pool out back give off
identical expensive glints.
Gilmour, wearing a T-shirt that says "Didn't they do well" in sewn -on
white letters, is lounging in a rocking -chair in front of a gorgeous, ornate,teak altar -screen that just radiates antiquity. This morning, though,despite the surrounding comforts and the presence of his lady at his side
to succour him, the Floyd guitarist is in a somewhat fragile state, having
visited the Marquee the previous evening (in the company of Roger
Waters) to catch Roy Buchanan's set. He's a little tired and he may, or
may not, have been a little inebriated the night before -he can't quite
remember. Anyway, it isn't important because this is the first interview
he's done for ages and neither of us can quite remember the procedureand there's a lot to get through before lunchtime ennui sets in.
First off, David, congratulations on finally attaining the exalted
Number One spot in the States with Dark Side of the Moon.
A slow smile spreads across the Gilmour face. "Yes, it is nice, isn't it?
We've never really been above 40th position before -but even so, we'restill selling more albums there than we would in the English charts."
He's reluctant to be pinned down as to why th is should suddenly
happen, after five years of being a cult band in America - "I suppose we've
always had this sort of underground image over there" -and he's evenmore reluctant to define what Floyd's appeal is in the States, or even what
type of audiences the group attract. In fact, he doesn't seem particularlyinterested in anything, taking the whole process with a combination of *HISTORY OF ROCK 1973

91

1973
APRIL-JANE

The gong Roger Waters
struck so enthusiasticallyM1972'sLiveAtPornpeii
documentary gets a little
added propane- Earls
Court. May18.1973

affable ennui and the tiniest hint of
indifference. "I don't think it'll make anychange- I mean, we've never had any problem
selling out even the largest halls and I don't
reallysee how that can change. We can stillsell out the Santa Monica Civic two nights insuccession, and I'm not sure that the album will
make any difference to that".
Nonetheless, one is aware that perhaps the
success of Dark Side took the band a little bysurprise, as no tour has been planned toactually coincide with the peaking of the album.
Though they are off again in June. Anyway...
Tea arrives and conversation briefly returns to the Marquee, where
Gilmour had been spotted a couple of weeks ago. He seems to be a regulardenizen. "In fact, I was down there that night to see Quiver." Gilmour was,at one time, a member of a group which included one of the present
Quiver lineup, and Gilmour takes an interest in the group's progress.
An interesting sidelight is his reference to Floyd as "this band; I've been
five years in this band" - as if he expected Floyd to finish tomorrow. And
then you realise that he's first and foremost a musician and the lead guitar
chair in Pink Floyd is just another gig. Floyd may one day disappear, but
Gilmour intends to keep right on playing...
Back to Dark Side, and I advance thehypothesis that the album shows a marked
rne, Mr 1..1
AdOwia....
return to solid purpose that, for me, hadbeen somewhat lacking in Floyd's last threeor so albums, good though they've been
individually. Gilmour ponders this.
The. Dark S.dt: of th, Moon
"I suppose so. Certainly there's a sort oftheme running through it, which we haven't
really done for a long time. There's two
opinions about this in the group -halfof us
wanted to play a thematic piece, the otherhalf wanted to playa collection of songs."
Which half did he belong to?A
reappearance of the slow smile. "I didn't
object, anyway. It's basically Roger's idea.
We'd all written songs beforehand, and thenRoger got the theme and the words together.

"There's a sortof theme... andtwo opinions
about this"o,Pink Floyd

C

92 I HISTORY OF ROCK 1973

I point out that, tor the lust time, the band
have considered album lyrics importantenough to print on the sleeve. "Yes, I generally
don't like sleeve lyrics." End of subject.
The theme behind Dark Side is, of course, thevarious pressures that can drive one mad "pressures directed at people like us, like
'Money', 'Travel', and so on". I remark that thepiece has changed markedly since I saw it
premiered at the Rainbow in 1972. Gilmour
agrees, mentioning that the entire show had
been on the road for about six months before thegroup took the project into the studio.
"Normally, we go into the studio, often without any concrete ideas, andallow the circumstances to dictate the music".
Sometimes, though, this results in filler tracks (for example, the jokeysides on Ummagumma and Atom Heart Mother) and besides, isn't it an
expensive way to record? "No. We don't pay. EMI do."Another marked feature of the album is Gilmour's own blossoming intoa tough, bluesy player- especially on "Money", which features several
verses of really hard, spectacular licks. Gilmour shrugs this off modestly,
although Ginger, his lady, chimes in with her agreement that it represents
Gilmour at his best. He thinks some of his
playing on "Obscured By Clouds" is better,but concedes that "Money" was designed asa basically gu ita r track.
Other features from Dark Side's live

performance are also missing -noticeably
the taped finale which uses extracts from theCollected Rantings of Malcolm Muggeridge.
"Yes. Well, you didn't really expect we'd get his
permission, did you?"
He confesses that he never really listens to
Floyd albums, and he's reluctant to assessthem in retrospect -but I detect a leaning
towards Obscured By Clouds, which he has
been known to direct into the garden on asummer's day. Others? Well, he likes some of
the tracks on Saucerful Of Secrets, mainly thetitle track and "Set The Controls For The HeartPINK FLOYD

Of The Sun". Atom Heart Motherhe admits to have been an experiment,that includes every Pink Floyd album. There's a fader that lowers the now
not a new direction, and he would record it completely differently now,
an octave, a whining fuzz device which couples into that, and mosthad he the chance or the inclination.
uncanny of all, a phase "Itchycoo Park" -type effect that resembles a"The trouble was, we recorded the group first and put the brass andPhantom doing a ground strike somewhere in South -East Asia. Believers,
the choir on afterwards. Now, I think I'd do the whole thing in one take.
you're in for some hair-raising sounds when Gilmour gets this weapon on
I feel that some of the rhythms don't work and some of the syncopations
the road, as he says he intends to.
aren't quite right."
Looking at David Gilmour as he coaxes these apocalyptic noises from
Another period which Floyd dabbled in, but which didn't reallyhis guitar, one can see why he and the rest of Pink Floyd feel remote from
communicate itself to our ears via concrete Floyd music, was their
the workings of the music business.
flirtation with the French avant garde and with ballet. "In fact, we did
Gilmour in our interview never really came to life because he hasn't
that ballet fora whole week in France. Roland Petit choreographed it to
any stake in a successful musicbiz rapport with thesome of our older material... but it's too restricting for us. I mean, I can't
press -but he's said more about Pink Floyd in 30
play and count bars at the same time. We had to have someone sitting on
seconds of divebombing with the Strat and thestage with a piece of paper telling us what bar we were playing...
Synthi H iFli than all the interviews in the"We also did the music forMore. We hadn't done film scores before- butworld would ever do. And, really, isn't thatthey offered us lots of money. We wrote the whole thing in eight days fromwhat it's all about? Tony slyer
start to finish.
"We did Zabriskie Point for Antonion
and in fact we wrote much more than heeventually used. I feel, even now, that it
would have been better if he'd used most ofwhat we'd written."
I put it to Gilmour that these wanderings
from the band's direct line of progression
MM NOV 10 e:ti rich ruf Pink clnuri noln nut `oft klarhinoic nv-nriimmnr
have been received by fans withdisappointment. He gets a little heated.
PINK FLOYD AND Soft Machine stunned fans with two sensational shows at London's Rainbcw

Deep, eternal, flashing.

"That's the trouble-you can't reallybreak out of the progression -from -your last -LP rut. People's minds are set to
expect something and if you don't
provide it, well..."Many Floyd aficionados still feel thatUmmagumma was the group's high point.
Gilmour disagrees. "For me, it was just an
experiment. I think it was badly recorded- the studio side could have been done
better. We're thinking of doing it again."
But we don't have time to explore themeaning behind that because now it's timefor Gilmour to showoff his music roomand for the first time since this interview
began, he comes to life.
Earlier, he'd told us that his opinion of themusic press was that it was, well, irrelevant
to Pink Floyd ("We don't really need themusic press and they don't really need us"),and his attitude during the interview had
been one of mild amusement coupled withdisbelief at the workings of the journalistic
mind. But when we cross the carpet andenter the little room full of electronicequipment, he becomes a New Man.
Most private music rooms I've seen havebeen sterile, formal places - not, in myopinion, suited vibewise to the creative
process-but Gilmour's is lived in and it
works. The usual tape recorders andeight -track stuff are there, but there's also
a drumkit (Nick Mason's? "No, mine"),about 12 guitars, ranging from a Strat
through a '59 Les Paul Custom to a Les Paul
Junior hanging on the wall, a Les Paul -type

electric guitar ("custom-made, naturally")
and a beautiful classical guitar ("custommade, naturally").
But pride of place goes to the newest toy,a special synthesizer made by EMS (whomake the VCS3) which, Gilmour assures us,
is not on the market and never will be. He
plugs in the Strat and this device, rather
like a plastic pulpit with pedals mounted
underneath, gives off some of the mostincredible sounds we've ever heard. And

theatre on Sunday night. It was a splendid evening of rock co-operation, in which both groups
gave their services in aid of disabled drummer Robert Wyatt.
Compere John Peel was pleased to announce that some £10,000 was raised. He said that
Robert intended to carry on with a singing and recording career. The ex-Softs drummer was notpresent but was acknowledged by cheers from the audience.
As two complex shows were performed on the same night, there were lengthy delays between
sets which resulted in a certain amount of banter between the road crews and crowd. When theSofts finally came on for the second house, they were still dogged by sound problems. From myposition near the right-hand bank of speakers, only John Marshall's superb drumming could beheard with any clarity, although the combined keyboard riffs of Karl Jenkins and Mike Ratledge
wove an insidious pattern of great power and menace.
The Softs employed a cataract of sound in which improvised solos seemed of less significance,
perhaps, than the overall blitzkrieg, but John's drums employed a fascinating range of tones, andhis attack was at times frightening.
There were no problems affecting the Floyd, however, and they presented one of the best
concerts seen this year; certainly one of the most imaginative and cleverly executed. Dark SideOf The Moon, their last album, was the main basis of operations, and the Floyd faultlessly
combined quadrophonic sound, prerecorded tapes, lights, smoke and theatrical effects intoa kind of rock son et lumiere. There were many shocks and surprises along the way, and I was
frequently pinned back in my seat or ejected into the aisles, heart beating wildly.
Heartbeats, in fact, commenced proceedings, pulsating through the auditorium and stillingthe more excitable elements in the crowd. Clocks ticked mysteriously and with perfect precision
the Floydmen slotted their live instruments into the recorded sound.
The Floyd have a tremendous sense of pace. Occasionally they seem to overstate a theme or
extract the last ounce from an idea, but the total effect is like coral growing on the seabed,establishing something deep, eternal and occasionally flashing with colour.
Overhead was suspended a huge white balloon to represent the moon, on which spotlights
played, and not long after the performance began, searchlights began to pierce the gloom, andyellow warning lights began revolving in banks on the speaker cabinets. Meanwhile the music
continued apace, Nick Mason excelling with his terse, economical drums, hammering home theheavy stuff where required, and tastefully bringing down thevolume whenever a new tack or shift in course was signalled.
Dave Gilmour has one of the most difficult guitar jobs inrock, having to contain his own exuberance for the benefit of
the greater whole, but making every note felt on his own
inventive solos. Dave was particularly effective on the funky-Money-, which should have been a single hit for Clads.
Rick Wright's keyboards were immensely tasteful andmelodic, gently spurred by Roger Waters' mighty baselines.
The Floyd are a finely tuned mechanism that surges ahead
like an armoured cruiser, oblivious to the smoke of battle.
Indeed the band were enveloped in smoke throughout,glowing red lights adding to the illusion of inferno and hellfire.
A choir of ladies cooed like angels of mercy, and as a silver ballreflecting beams of light began to revolve and belch more
smoke, the audience rose to give them an ovation. They

Floyd'sfinestdeserved a Nobel prize or at least an Oscar. Chris Welch

hour

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NME JUNE 9

Out in the auditorium, it was interval time
and things were strangely quiet. The place
was packed, of course, and the crowd wasdesperatelyyoung, few surely older than 15
Powell, talking ofAmerica. "We were all inand just momentarily biding their time.
a daze, y'know, like a dream. We nearly
Suddenly it all happened. Slade walked out
cancelled the last few dates, we were so tired.
on stage and chaos reigned. With complete"When we got back I spent a day in bed, anddisregard for the fittings, the audience gleefully
I'm fine now. I think maybe it was easier for us(as one) stood up on the backs of their seats,
than anew band going over; I'm sure in thatbalancing precariously.
case it toughens them up. But we've been
Noddy Holder, in red tails and tartan trousers,
together for six years. We've already been
glanced quickly down, perhaps just to reassure
through quite a lot, y'know."himself he was back in Britain, and led the band
So an hour before they were due to go on stage,
into the most appropriate number possible,"Take Me Bak 'Ome", screaming and tugging
Slade were in their dressing room loosening up
on wine and beer, while out front the Alexout the vocals. "Move Over Baby" followed,
Harvey Band knocked out some of their groin shoved along by the thundering bass of Jim Lea,
grabbing tenement rock. They've improved
who is perhaps the most vital cog in the band.
greatly over the last six
Maybe the atmospheremonths, while Harvey
added to the impression,but Slade were still playing
himself has developed
Powell is a steadyfurther into what one might
better than on some of
drummer, meshing the dates before thedescribe as a character. At
one point he tore up a towel,stateside tour. They
well with Lea's
chewed it, and appeared tosounded tougher, more
raunchy somehow, andindulge in various James
thunderous bass
tremendously tight. They
Cagney impersonations.
came over with demonic
Backstage, Chas Chandler
impact. I he second number saw the first major
was taking control, being amiably persuasive
confrontation develop between the audiencein some situations, heavy in others. He's Slade's
and bouncers ringing the stage.
number -one fan. "We recorded our new single
As things progressed, the scene resembled
in LosAngeles. It was strange not to record at
a battlefield, with pushing bodies, open spaces
Olympic. We walked in and everything seemeddeveloping and then being covered again.
too big, too cool, but things turned out really"C'mon, we want everybody to have a goodeasy. It's called 'Squeeze Me, Please Me'," hetime. Don't fight with the stewards," appealed
added, matter-of-factly.

y Slademania sweeps the nation, the band make a "demonic
Jiasgow. But trouble was lurking just around the corner...

THE CITY NEWSPAPER carried a
SLADEMANIA banner headline
across its front page. There was a

noticeably heavy complement of police on
the streets. The occasion was Slade's first
concert since their tour of the States, andwhat's more, set to take place at Glasgow
Green's Playhouse, now known to house thewildest crowd in the whole of the British Isles.
Obviously there had to be a riot; it was justinevitable. You may have heard about a certain
degree of tame hysteria whipped up by bands
like Nazareth and Geordie just lately, but a
Slade crowd in full cry makes anything
generated by those newcomers pale into
insignificance. Slade are undisputedly still the
guv'nors when it comes to rousing the masses.
Neither Slade nor manager Chas Chandler
can be blamed for being almost arrogant about
their position. On a Thursday lunchtime in
London, always the almost larger -than -life Geordie, Chas Chandler had laughed into his
Carling Black Label. "Mick Jagger?" hechuckled. "He's just a has-been, isn't he?"Later, up in Glasgow, Slade appeared to be in
the best of health, despite the traumas of theirrecent American tour. They're living proof thatbands are made of iron up Wolverhampton
way. After all, they'd only flown back from theStates three days before embarking on this, thefirst date of the British tour. "Towards the end,
I must admit we were knackered," said Don
94 I HISTORY OF ROCK 1973

SLADE LIVE!

Afteratiring US
tour. S lade put on an

excitingbutiamiliar
showback'ome"It's a miracle we're here tonight"
MM JULY 14
PALACE LIDO,DOUGLAS

ISLE Of MAN

ISLE OF MAN, Sunday. As the strains of"Mama Weer All Crazee Now" died
down, Slade manager Chas Chandler
gazed into the air and whistled to himself. "Ifanybody had told me on Wednesday that
this concert would come off, I'd havelaughed at them." He confessed, "It's amiracle we're here tonight."
It was the climax to the most tempestuous
week in Slade's career. After their gigantic
show at Earls Court last weekend, tragedy
struck during the week when drummer Don
Powell was involved in a car crash. He was
lucky to be alive, and even now has notregained consciousness fully. When news of
the accident reached the Isle Of Man,
thousands of fans who hadbought tickets gatheredaround the Palace Lido at
Douglas with faces as longas broomsticks. It lookedcertain that the concert
would be cancelled.
And while the fansgathered to hear the news,
the three remaining
members of Slade were
having a conference with
Chandler at Jim Lea's Wolverhampton flat.
Also at the flat was Jim's18-year old brotherFrank, a plumber's mate by trade, who was
fixing the piping to a dishwashing machine.
Frank overheard the discussion, dropped his
spanner and volunteered to act as deputy
drummer for the Isle Of Man show.
On Friday he rehearsed with the group,
on Saturday his picture appeared in thepapers and on Sunday he was the hero of
4,000 fans who turned up to witness thishistoric gig. And curiously enough, I doubt
whether anyone noticed the difference.
Frank Lea had been taking drumming
lessons from Don Powell and travelled withthe group on numerous occasions. Whatbetter man for the job? And what a
reception the fans gave Frank when Noddy
Holder introduced him; the cheers were
almost as loud as the din that followed
Holder's announcement that Don Powell
was recovering and would be back behindhis kit within three months.
Nothing, it seems, can keep Slade down.
"This weekend we're really going to enjoy
ourselves," Dave Hill told me when I arrived

LIVE!

on Saturday.

"Now that we
JULY 8know Don is going
to be all right, it's
like a pressure valve
being released.
"For two days we thought Don had had it,
but when we heard that he was being taken
off the critical list and put on the severe list
we knew everything was going to be all right
And we know that Don would have wanted
us to go on with the concert. We'd be letting
down lots of fans who've bought tickets andlots of fans who have taken their holidays on
the island to coincide with the concert."
The only fans who didn't make it were2,000 from Ireland
who cancelled theirreservations on the ferry
across when news of the
car crash broke. "We'rejust seeing what happens
about the future," said
Chandler. "We'recrossing every hurdle
when we come to it.

"On Wednesday
I went to thehospital, and thedoctors didn't giveDon a chance"

Holder from the stage, sweat
already streaming down his face.
They moved into John Sebastian's "Darling
Be Home Soon", not exactly a tender version
but with some heartfelt vocals from Holder.
He's not the greatest vocalist ever, but his voice
is so strong it nearly knocks your head off, andthere's a little touch of soul now and again.
Dave Hill's guitar keeps things moving
without grabbing too much attention, while
Don Powell is a steady drummer, trying
nothing too adventurous but meshing wellwith the thunderous bass of Lea. It was the

expected formula-"GudbyetJane" wasfollowed by "You'll Never WafkAlone" from theaudience, then "Cum On Feel The Noize" andsoon. Before the first encore, the audience
supplied a neat touch with "Nice One, Noddy".
Altogether it was a spotless, masterful set.
Perhaps the only quibble is that, song for song.
it's almost the same set they've been playing
for two years, which is rather overdoing it.
Nobody in Glasgow seemed to mind, but by
the end of this tour it'll be imperative for theband to introduce some new material. As
they're recording a new album in a couple ofmonths' time, it should happen.
Thursday night in Glasgow,
though, turned out just as
everybody expected. The scenesof hysteria around the Playhousemust have seemed almost
commonplace to Slade. The crowd
in Glasgow was expected to givethem a rousing welcome back 'ome.
And so they did. lames Johnson"As it is, we've had topostpone our next
American tour, which will probably takeplace in October now. But really it's a miracle
that it's happening at all.""On Wednesday I went up to
Wolverhampton and the doctors at thehospital didn't give Don a chance. I waswalking around in a daze, but when I heard
he was going to pull through I was thehappiest man in the world."
But Slade are one of those unflappablegroups who can take everything in theirstride. After only brief rehearsals they knew
everything would run smoothly at the Isle Of
Man. The show itself ran like all Slade shows-the only number they cut out was Janis
Joplin's "Move Over Baby", which features
plenty of tricky drum work. The rest of the
Slade ingredients were all there: footballchants, suggestive remarks, the responding
crowd and the deafening noise of Holder'samazingly powerful voice.
When it was all over, the group celebrated
in grand style - but as you read this spare athought for Frank. On Tuesday morning he
was due to return to plumbing again - at
7.30am. ChnsCharlesworth

and well.
As
F 01 MAN, SUNDAY.
" Mint!!
he strains of

All Craze* NOW
lied down, Slade manager
Neer'has Chandler We'dheairgenie!.

it"and whistled tocareer.

After

their

gigantic
w eek-

mho., at rash Covrt leer
during theend, tragedy strodeDon
drumereer
when
week
a car
PoweIl was involved Inbe alive
crash. Ka was lucky toand eve.. Now has not regained
consciousness fully.

When the news of the accident
reached the late of NW% thou.Arr. had bought

-

by
CHRIS

wee hat totruth by trade, who thepiping to
the kitchen fixing
MiChin. Franka gienwealting
overheard the disearion, dropvolunteered
ed hie speawar anddrutheterforto ant as deputy
the

CHARLESWORTkihear the newa the ihrte .,:-.

lilt

01

!'Mn'

OW*

with theOn Friday he rehearsedhis picturegroup, on Satins:Lay
the papers and on
appeared inthei barn a
Suraisy he woe
turned out to4,000 ra m Mai
haearic gig, And.

tessons fro

travelled

nurneweess

better mat
what a ret
Frankhooducedwore almathat Itillovmen( thatteringwasbehindhshrew %tithing. It

BOWIE

NTS

1973
JULY

--OMERTHE ALLMAN BROTHERS,
VAN MORRISON, BOWIE,PUB ROCK AND MOREsI

IT -1,1'

96 HISTORY OF ROCK 1973'

Just an"emotional
outburst"? -Ray
Davies on stage withThe K inks at WhiteCity Stadium, West
London July15,1973"Ray hasn't
been sleeping

or eating"nen ins wife
waves, Hay Davies calls
time on The Kinks.

MM JULY 21

RAY DAVIES ANNOUNCED he wasquitting The Kinks from the stage at
London's White City Stadium on
Sunday- but sources close to the groupconsidered his remarks an emotional
outburst at a t time when the leader of thegroup was under considerable strain.
At the close of The Kinks' performance on
Sunday, Davies told fans he was packing in
the pop business and thanked them fortheir support.
On Monday, Kinks personal assistantMarion Rainford told the MM: "Ray's wife
departed two -and -a -half weeks ago, taking
the children with her, and Ray hasn't heard
from her since. Ray hasn't been sleeping or
eating and is very tired. He is saying touring
and spells sway from home have caused therift and he is going to quit.
"But we think it was just an emotional
outburst and that he will carry on for thefans' sake. We only hope his wife will get
in touch with him soon."
HISTORY OF ROCK 1973 197

March 30,1973:Steely
Denim concert at the
Hollywood Palladian,

JULY 21 Introducing Steely Dan and"VVe call it 'smart rock"' a debut LP full of "little masterpieces".
II

E LIKETO think of every song as acomposition in itself, a composition in
the more orthodox meaning. We also
like to feel that it's exciting as a pop song andhas something intellectual to offer; call it'smart rock' if you like." Steely Dan arecertainly smart, producing the chic-est pop
music to be heard in a long time.
Their first album Can'tBuyAThrill has beencertified gold in their home country, a monster
hit following the success of two tasteful singles,"Do It Again" and "Reelin' In The Years". Steely

Dan was formed to showcase the conceptual
songs of two New Yorkers, Walter Becker andDonald Fagen, who settled in Los Angeles after
trying times on the East Coast. It's to California

that their music owes it's heartbeat.
Steely Dan's music conjures up sunshine and
20 -foot -long air-conditioned automobiles andeight -lane freeways that stretch out of the smog
into the endless miles of sun -bleachedhorizons. They've not happened here at all yet,except in musicians' circles.
Yet if"Do It Again" or"Reelin' I n The Years"

was released during a heatwave withtemperatures in the 70s, theywould have scoredfirst time round. Nevertheless, their first album
is a gem, standing out from the endless rubbish
released by record companies everyweek.
Can'tBuyA Thrill has so much to offer it's hard
to knowwhere to start describing it. The songs
are little masterpieces, each in the pop
tradition and yet never banal or cheap. And
while each owes its excitement to the tightrhythm section - drums and clear, concise

percussion overlaid with rock steady bass work
-they all have a story to tell.
On the transatlantic phone line I spoke toboth Walter and Donald, each an extension inhand. It was impossible to tell who was
speaking- not that one needs to know anyway
as their minds work so close together.
While they have excellent musicians like thecutting steel and straight guitarist Jeff "Skunk"
Baxter, who played for awhile in the short-lived
but illustrious Ultimate Spinach, themetronomic drummer Jimmy Hodder, chunkyrhythm guitarist Denny Dias, who doubles onelectric sitar, and clear -voiced vocalist David
Palmer, it is songs that make Steely Dan a classabove the average. "The typical Steely Dan
song," bass guitarist Becker and keyboard
wizard/vocalist Donald Fagen told me over thephone, "would include a penetrating verse, arousing chorus, an inspired bridge and, ofcourse, a no -holds -barred instrumental ofsome sort. Pop songs with some kind of
structure that's interesting and can be
developed. We're actually pretty traditional inthat way, but the chords are usually moreinteresting than most rock'n'roll, we think."
For me their songs evoke a total feeling;"Kings" and "Midnight Cruiser" do not needvocals to make their point. "A lot of the time,"
they tell me, "the songs we write, instead ofmaking literal sense, we aim at creating aneffect through the music and using the lyrics tolay it on the line. "Midnight Cruiser", yeah, I'd
say that was a good example of a song that sets
a mood without actually savinganything."`REELING
IN THEYEARS'

Their music has traces of their New Yorkupbringing in it. There is cynicism in the lyrics.
"OnlyA Fool Would Say That" mocks the
optimist, but "Change Of The Guard" looks to abrighter future. They feel their music reflects a
certain amount of NewYork attitudes, but also
what they've picked up in Los Angeles sinceliving in the town. Also, they point out, there
just isn't that much happening in NewYorkwith groups; most have to leave to find creative
satisfaction and the vast majority make for theWest Coast: "Groups just don't seem to be able
to get off the ground, although you'd think theywould as they're in the hub of things. But it's atough life in NewYork, when you're stepped on
there you're done for good. We think about thata lot and find it really depressing."
Since success came to them they've had songs
covered by other artists including Barbra
Streisand. Herbie Mann has covered "Do It
Again" and Birtha are planning to record "Dirty
Work"- a song that was taken off the European
copy of the LP because of its sexual content.
Since recording their first album while thegroup was being put together- David Palmer
did not join them until the album was twothirds complete -their sound has beenchanging. They've been touring the States,
including a gig with Slade in San Francisco- "They're real hard rock, aren't they" - andthrough playing together for seven months
their sound, they believe, has become moreaggressive and harmonically improved: "Ithink what we're doing now is going to appeal to
English listeners a lot more now." Mark Plummer"That's it Period

99 NME JULY 14 David Bowie is retiring from pop to pursue
des, he tells NME. "Those were the final gigs."

DAVID BOWIE'S CONCERTS at Hammersmith Odeon on
Monday and Tuesday marked the end of his career as a live

company - to record The Man Who Sold The World. A year ago Bowie
told NME: "I can't envisage stopping gigging for the next year at least,
because I'm having such a good time doing it." This week he told Murraythat he did not wish to say anything further at
the moment, but
added that hewould reveal thefull reasons for his
shock decision later.

performer. He told NMEs Charles Shaar Murray this week:"Those were the final gigs. That's it. Period. I don't want to do any moregigs, and all the American dates have been cancelled. From now on, I'll
be concentrating on various activities that have very little to do withrock and pop." After his hit with "Space Oddity" in1969, Bowie retired
from rock and ran an Arts Laboratory in Beckenham forth months,
eventually returning at the insistence of Mercury -then his record

98 I HISTORY OF ROCK 1973

1 11111 VIII

Amin%

ME

"Don't move,
I've got a gun"

)1. Eno has left RoxyMusisc. The group's
electronics wizard
wants to become a
vocalist and form agroup called Loana& the Little Girls.
Eddie Jobson, theviolinist who thisMM JUL 7

week left Curved

1

LLO MATES. IT'S me - Keith Moon of
the 'Oo!" That chirpy cockney sparrow
cry came through the speakers in StudioB6 at London's Broadcasting House this week, andintroduced a startling new concept to radio humour.
Keith Moon, the eternal raver, was hard at work,
recording a new series of comedy shows that should
set the nation laughing. Towards the end of this month.
Moon, following in the footsteps of ITHA, Take It From
Here and The Goon Show, may seem unlikely, as his work as

the semi -maniacal drummer with The Who gives theimpression of a man devoted only to the art of percussion.
Not so. Just as the other members of The Who haveembarked on solo projects, Keith is happily, andsuccessfully, developing his talent for comedy and mimicry.
And the results will be unleashed onradio listeners in four weeks of what
promises to be inspired lunacy. As yet theshow is untitled. Keith and his producer
and scriptwriter John Walters have been
more concerned with getting their ideas
down on tape.
John Walters was at one time a
trumpet player with Alan Price and gave
up music to work in broadcasting. For some years he has
worked closely with John Peel on Top Gear, and retains hismusician's sense of humour, which is cynical but accurate
in its observations. The more cringe -making aspects ofthe material world come under the Moon -Walters hammer,
anything from the Horse Of The Year Show (which becomesthe elephant of the year show), to the DJ who panders
overmuch to sentiment.
When I arrived at the basement studio, Keith and John
were already in fits of laughter at the playback of theelephant at the Horse Of The Year Show. A thunder ofelephant's feet filled the air.
"That's me beating my chest," explained John, as therecorded voice of Keith gave a running commentary ona certain Princess Ann running up the jumps.
Said Keith:"Princess Anne is charging down the course
now, and oh, she's refused the water. Don't blame her.
Never touch the stuff myself."July mum: Keith
Moon onair in a
BBC radio studioat Broadcasting
House, London

Air, replaces Eno on
violin, keyboards
and synthesizer.
Jobson is on Roxy
vocalist Bryan
Ferry's solo album.
Next week the new
Roxy go into thestudios to record

their third album.

There were mistakes, of course. They broke a "gate" whenthe elephant was supposed to refuse, and another supply ofplastic cups had to be summoned. But eventually, amidst
much cheering and sighs of relief, the improvised soundeffects were put down in the right order."Listen to this one,"said Keith, giving a Walt Disney -style documentary report,
read in a flat -stupid voice. -Look at this little fellow - why it'sa gopher. And look, there's a cougar
coming along. Uh-oh, little fellow!""You've got to read it right," insisted
John, "you've got to get that homespun
philosophy in your voice.- This time Keithput himself so much into the role, he evenbegan to look like a gopher. "Can I havea spot more level in me cans?" said Keith.
"This is not a pop music studio," said a
BBC engineer primly. But quietly, all were agreeing in thestudio that Keith was very good in his new role.
"Don't move, I've got a gun," he was saying into themicrophone. "Come on, Keith, it's got to sound British
B -picture threatening," said John in his complex jargon.
There are many more delights in store for the series,
which will go out the last week in August and the first two in
September. Keith will be playing his favourite records "surf music and John Entwistle," - and linking them withvarious sketches. Particularly naughty was the DJ sketch inwhich Keith's voice is slightly speeded up until he sounds
curiously like Jimmy Savile. There will be the "spot thenoise" quiz,"Life With The Moons" and other odd episodes.
How long had Keith been working on the idea? "A few
weeks. Really, John writes the script. I just make a few balls ups." But he is obviously excited about the prospect ofregular radio work, and it's the ideal medium for Keith's
raucous brand of humour.

"John writes the
script. I just makea few balls -ups"

Collapsed in a motel
NME SEP 29
GRAM PARSONS, EX -MEMBER of The Byrds and co-founder of the
Flying Burritos died in California last Wednesday (19) aged 27. Hecollapsed in a motel and was rushed to hospital in Yucca Valley but
was found to be dead on arrival. An initial post-mortem failed to reveal
the cause of death and further tests were being made.
lim Croce and his guitarist Maury Muehleisen were killed in Louisiana
last Thursday when the small plane in which they were travellingcrashedinto a tree on take-off.The singer composer had recently returned forAmerica after his second visit to Britain. He had four Top 10 singles in the
US charts including the recent chart topper" Bad Bad Leroy Brown".

NME JUL 21). Brian Eno isatpresent in hospital
after collapsing in
the recording
studio and hurting
his spine. He wascutting tracks for his
debut solo album,
and was found to besuffering frommalnutrition,
exhaustion andtension. On
Tuesday he was said

to be "coming alongsatisfactorily."
NME SEPT 29

Alan Smith.
editor of NNE since
spearheading thepaper's relaunchalmost two years
ago, is this week
leaving NME toconcentrate on
overseas and otherinterests. He
previously edited
the former London
section of the paperand had been
associated with
NME since1962.
The new editor will
be Nick Logan, 26,
who is at present
assistant editor. He
has been a memberof the NNE staff for
five years and has
been heavily
involved in the

recent designchanges to thepaper. NME SEPT 29

HISTORY OF ROCK 1973 199

1973

JULY - SEPTEMBER"I feel theweight of
the worldon myshoulders."
And it's not justthe cut of his jacket.
After taking Ziggy
around the globe,
DAVID BOWIE returns

home. Pondering

what to do next,
he says: "I suppose
I just want to be
Ziggy." Two months
later, his fans watch
horrified as heannounces his

retirement.

100 I HISTORY OF ROCK 1973

- vIELODY MAKF MAY 12 CHARING CROSS STATION, London, 9.10pm.

And when he arrived they screamed and t hey
cried, and they rushed, and they gushed forthand beat their feverish feminine fists into thebacks of the indeed brave coppers who
shielded HIM. For he is indeed HIM.
One girl, her face bloated, and most uglywith tears and ruddy
emotion, fell halfway 'twixt train and rail. A you ng copper
dragged her to safety. Ten yards down the platform, H E waspretty close to injury, too.
Bowie, despite, all the fierce bodyguarding, was being kissed,
and pinched, and touched, and ripped at. His hair now untidy;
his eyes wild; his mouth open. A picture of terror. But his open
mouth also bore the shadow of a crazed smile. They pushed
him against a carriage door.
It took Spartan constabulary to lift this small squirrel -haired
figure to safety; his face now very creased with every emotiona face could ever squeeze itself into. And they squeezed him
into a car that was battered and clawed at. And that car
squeezed its way to safety. And Mr Bowie was back in England.
And on Platform One, in a dirty wet huddle, lay two plumpish
girlies, crying, and holding each other, and just crying. n

1973JUI y

51O° nEveryone had gone, except they. Their tights all ripped, their knickers
showing. And they just lay there... crying.
That, my friends, is actually the end of the story. This arrival; thissweaty, shocking, swift and severe welcome home for Bowie, back fromJapan, 7,000 miles by boat and train because... because he won't fly.
Via Trans-Siberian Express, he "Bowied" Moscow, travelling "soft" infirst class. Second class is called "hard". "And indeed is hard," said Bowie.
Four -and -a -half months away from England. He travelled the world,
and unlike the rest, saw its people. No in and out of a hotel and onto aplane. He saw the people. And now Mr Bowie is a very changed man. And
PEOPLE are going to kill him with his concern for them. No amateur
dramatics. Mr Bowie is concerned. So where does the story begin?
It begins in Terminal One lounge, HeathrowAirport, waiting, seeing
heavy rain spatter the runway/delay on flight/bad weather/We have tofind Bowie in Paris/had to be found/BEA departure to Paris/ "Willpassengers avoid treading heavily on the gangplank as it is waterlogged"/
Captain Black in charge/Thunderstorm over Paris/Trident One hit bylightning three times/lands on a runway I it fora trawler. Now you see why Bowie doesn't fly? So
where do we find him?
We find him at the George V Hotel -we don't
see him, but we find him. A porter -out fora
swift five francs- shows us to the Rouge Roomwhere a Bowie reception was held. It was held.
He lights a match. " Monsieur Bowie ees not'ere." Nobody was there. The room was as black
as a Guinness. We phone around.
I find -on the phone- Leee Black Childers.
Now Leee was the MM's photographer in New
York, but when Bowie appeared in New York, hebecame Bowie's photographer. I was an noyedbut not deeply.
"Yeah, David's here/Russia wow/they loved
him /geee they tried to take away my cameras/we've had such fun /why
don't you see Cherry Vanilla?"
Now the last time I saw CherryVani I la was in a hotel room in New York
where she preyed over a table like a vulture preys over the bones of fat
explorers. An ex -film starlet and groupie with much body and much voice.
Now Bowie's "press aid". She ordered a table of things for me. Mostly wine.
Which was never drunk. At £7 a bottle that might annoy people.
"Bowie was arriving in NewYork, and I was a groupie. And I knew thepress. Christ I was a groupie" (she split her nightdress to reveal nothing
underneath). "And there I was, and Mr Bowie gave me a job."
What job did he give you, dear? "His press lady."
How is he? "Gee darling, I wish I knew."I now know that it is in fact true that one can live in splendour doing not
the slightest damned thing. CherryVanillaed on. And I left, and went tobed. £30 per night fora single room.

involved taking a hovercraft from Boulogne to Dover. "Can't do it," says
Bowie. "If it flies, it's death."
But David, it only flies a few inches above sea level. "Then, for the firsttime in years ! shall leave the land," says Bowie.
Later we board the train and he's talking away. About music? No, mypeople. About the fate of the world. He talked about the fate of the world
for approximately two hours. Well, not just he, but we. "I have feelings that
I know just what is going on; I have feelings."
The train rattles through Monsieur or somewhere like that. "I might put
them into songs. You know, those feelings."
Bowie still chain smokes (almost everybody else's ciggies, not his own).
Leee Childers lives behind his reflecting sun shades. Cherry Vanil lavanillas on. Angie Bowie smiles, and is indeed very lovely.
"You see, Roy," said Bowie softly, looking straight at me, dead -eyed, a canof beeracting as the microphone. "I've gone through a lot of changes. A
whole lot of changes. It's all happened on myway back from Japan. You see,Roy, I've seen life, and I think I knowwho's controlling this damned world.
And after what I've seen of the state of this world,
I've never been so damned scared in my life."
Are you going to write about it? "If I did, itwould be my last album ever."You mean that? "It would have to be my lastalbum ever."Why? "Because I don't think I'd be around afterrecording it."Are you ill? "I believe I am. I have a very strange
pain in my right-hand side. I've had it for ayear.
It's a pain that now has to be taken to a specialist."
His eyes are full of menace now -mainly
because his belly's full of beer, which we all
constantly drink. We pass a field of French beef,and Bowie starts to cough, and cough, and he
can't stop. "The cough, darling?" inquires
Angie. Bowie answered herwith this deep, frightening cough which for
God's sake starts somewhere in his stomach!
"The (cough) changes I've seen, they have to be written about."
Then YOU write them, David! (I say). "Yes (cough), I suppose somebody
must (cough). I feel the weight of the world on my shoulders."
Yes, he could actually carry the world on his shoulders. It's all down tothe cut of the jacket. The shoulders are very big.
My memory goes back to the platform on Paris Nord. They're piping out
the music to Last Tango In Paris. We were walking along, together, andtalking about Lou Reed. "He's so damned fine," says Bowie. "And they
throw up all this mystery around him, and all this bloody silliness. Can't
they understand that he's just a New York cat, and that is JUST what he is.
You know, it would be so nice if people would be able to see that beneath it
all -we're all very easy people."
They'd never believe it, David. They wouldn't want to. "Maybe you'reright. But we are easy people. And maybe in a lot of ways... very simple. IF
only they could see. Oh God, this intellectual confusion that surrounds
us all. Why, why... why?"
He carried his suitcase. "I know I'm sick of being Gulliver. You know,
afterAmerica, Moscow, Siberia, Japan. I just want to bloodywell go home
to Beckenham, and watch the telly."
But back to the train. The talk of the state of the world continued, andbecame intense, and deep. We pooled our experiences. Shared thoughts,
ideas. "You know," said David. "The rock revolution did happen. It reallydid. Trouble was, nobody realised when it happened. We have to realise
now. Let me tell you, the 'underground' is alive and well- more alive thanit has ever been."
The train rasped, and clanked to a halt at Boulogne. Leee Childers andmost of the party thought it was Calais -but it didn't really matter.
"Oh, the seaside, how very lovely. How nice," said Bowie, kicking his
shoes into the sand that surrounds the hoverport. But then fear struck his
face as he saw his next line of transport arrive.
nal The Channel was clear, and like (as they say) a;1414smillpond. The sun was strong, and clean, and thenthis thing roared into sight. It was like a sperm whalewith propellers. And was very noisy. And mostmonstrous. "Oh no," said David.
"Oh yes," said Angie. "They don't hurt, David.""But they fly." Only inches above the sea, David.
He sat, and hardly said a word during the "flight".

"I think
know who'scontrolling
this damned
world"THE VERY NEXT morning, Bowie was supposed to catch the12.30 Paris -Victoria train. There's not even a twinkle from his
room. Breakfast £3 and then a cab to Paris Nord Station. We
don't know whether the lad is on the train or not. He hadn't left thehotel. I run the length of the train -22 coaches in search of the squirrelhaired kid. Twenty-two coaches and he wasn't on it. Mission impossible.
So Barrie Wentzell and I wait, somewhat dazed, awfully broke, andlistening to the chatter on the intercom. It's no different from Charing
Cross, my dears, except that they announce trains for Lyons instead ofTunbridge Wells. And the porters smoke Gitanes in preference to No 6.
And then, as the sunlight split the smoke of several hundred smoking
porters, there appeared in all innocence and in a neat suit of silver andpurples, David Bowie, fresh from a limousine and with that del ightful wifeof his, Angie. "The most remarkable woman on Earth," says David. She
might well be. "So we've missed the bleedin' train," says David looking at
Platform 4 all empty, all empty like and trainless.
"Never mind, dear," says Angie. "There's another
IVE INsoon," and she wiggles herAmerican bottom, andSA U DAY4
vanishes to the inquiry desk.
DAVIONIth"Seven thousand miles," says David, smiling andvery, very fresh. "And we miss the bleedin' train on thelast lap. From Japan to Paris and we miss the train."Well, we couldn't catch the next one, for thatinvolved a flight to Gatwick. And the next one
102 I HISTORY OF ROCK 1973

July 9,1973: seen off
by wife Angie at London's

Victoria station, Bowie
heads to Chateaud'Herouville, near Paris,
to record Pin Ups

He was worried. But it was safe. At thehoverport he'd met a couple of girlies.
Sweet little things on a day trip to
France. And they'd seen Bowie. And he talked to them, and signed theirfag packets. They pinched themselves to see if it was real.
Dover. The white cliffs now actually amber as the sun sets. His feet on
English soil. A waiting room on Dover station. He had a cup of tea and a BR
sausage roll. And then he talked, so nicely, to the girls on the platform.
"Roy, they're the salt of the earth, those girls. They don't sit each night
and compare notes of groups, criticising lyrics, asking if it's valid. They

just play the record... yeah, and maybe they dance. I love them.Ilovethem dearly."More beer cans emerge as the train (a slow one) leaves Dover. Miss
Vanilla is asleep. So is Mrs Bowie. David reads a London EveningStandard-and gets back into British Things. He laughs and laughs. What a funny
little country we are.
"I've got to work harder this year than I've ever worked in my life. You
know that?" he'd said earlier 'twixt train and hovercraft. "We're going to
do a 79 -date tour ofAmerica this year in about as many days. I might die.
But I have to do it.

"I mean, you know the Spiders have only played about 50 dates
altogether. About time we started working, I feel."
Through lavish English countryside the train trundled on. David andmyself retire to a less and crowded compartment. In fact... we're on our
own.Alone, together.
Are you aware of what you're going back to on this train, David? "Er, notreally. No. Four -and -a -half months away has put me out of touch withwhat you might call the English rock scene. I know that every little bagthat we've been in up to now has been incredibly exciting. But now... well,
we've reached this position and it doesn't leave one with a clear mind as towhat to do next.
"But now I'm home, and after 10 minutes I'm starting to feel British
again. When I'm away, I try to divorce myself from that. Don't ask me why,
I just don't know. I suppose I just want to be Ziggy."
DAVID, SINCE YOU'VE been away, a word called "decadence"
has crept into rock, and is now used by every rock writer. AndDavid, you have been held to blame for this "decadence".
He smiles. "Yes... er, I can imagine that." He smiles. "What do you haveto say about it, Roy? Am I responsible for it?" he inquires.

Well, I was in the States when YOU happened. I just read in MM that you
had arrived, and it was decadent rock. I saw a picture of you and I thought,"What the...?"
Bowie laughs. "Yeah, it was MelodyMakerthat made me. It was thatpiece by Mick Watts. I became a performer after that. That's true. It was
the first time! had talked to the press about wanting to come back onstage and be a performer rather than a writer. During the interview
I really saw that I wanted to perform again."
And did you expect it to come this far? "No, never. I was a nonperforming artist, excited about working on stage again and, well...
it all exploded.
"We moved at such intensity, such speed. I wrote so quickly. It wasn't
until months after that I realised what I'd been writing. When the lastperiod finished, I sat back and went 'wow'. It took the wind totally out of
my sails."
But you seem OK. I mean, I think you're very normal. "Oh, of course
I am. I mean, this decadence is just a bloody joke. I'm very normal."(Conversation is lost in a tunnel)"I mean, this so-called decadent thing happening in English rock. Is it
really decadence? Is it what I would call decadence?"
Howwould you define decadence, David? "Not putting a white rose ona white table for fear of the thorn scratching the table."
I see, I did.

"I don't really feel that decadent rock has
arrived... yet. It will do."How do you feel about Roxy Music?
"Well, maybe they are the nearest thing
to being decadent at the moment. And I
love them. I really love them. I'm going to
buy their new album tomorrow. That's thefirst thing I'm going to do."What sort of person do you find yourself
now. You talk of illness, and you want towork harder (at the Parisian cafe he told
me he had NO death wish). But what are
you now? "I am me and I have to carry on
with what I've started. There is nothingelse for me to do. I have been under a greatstrain, I have also become disillusioned
with certain things." x.

1973

Watch that man: Bowie's

first bodyguard.Stuey
George (right).keeps

JULY - SEPZEMBERay,a closeeye on his charge

at HammersmithOdeon

Like what? "Well, it's very hard to say, but I never believed a hype could be madeof an artist before that artist had got anywhere. That's what happened, you see.
I didn't like it. But when I saw that our albums were really selling, I knew that
period was over. The hype was over. Well, it wasn't, but at least we'd done
something to be hyped about. Dig?"Yes. "But that whole hype thing at the start was a monster to endure. It hurt mequite a lot. I had to go through a lot of crap. I mean, I never thought Ziggy would
become the most talked about man in the world. I never thought it would becomethat unreal.
"I don't want to be studied as a boy -next-door type character... nor weird.
I want to maintain a balance between both. The characters I have written about
have indeed been the roles I have wished to portray. Ziggy- that dear creature,
I loved him.
"I feel somewhat like a Dr Frankenstein. Although Ziggy follows David Bowie
very closely, they are indeed two different people. What have I created?
"Ziggy hit the nail on the head. He just came at the rightest, ripest time," headded. He smiled at me. I like him.
"Dylan once said of writers that they just pluck things from the air, and put
them down. Later you can look back on them and read into them. I pluck from theair... it's only later that I see what I've plucked.
"I know that I appear to write ahead of myself. I mean, let's takeAladdin Sane.
What was written then was written quickly, and really, without much thought
as to what it was about.
"But now I sit back and look at those lyrics and look at that album, and it's
veryvalid, y'know. Sure I have concepts. I have storylines for the albums, but

the actual thought, the actual inspiration, comes suddenly, and is written as
it comes.
"What keeps me together, what shoulders those 'escapades' of mine, is thisdear woman, Angie, who knows David Bowie... eh, she knows me better thanI do."

Wherever we travelled, each station, each town, there were few spareminutes when he didn't hug, kiss and point at this lady, and say, loudly, "She's
the greatest.""He gets very evil after a few beers. I mean, Roy, look at his face now- he's Jean
Genie, he's a little villain. But he's lovely," said Angie, looking after us all. One
remarkable woman, to be sure.
"It's not a death wish that I have, Roy, although the very fact that I say thatmeans that the thought enters my mind. But, y'know, we're all very normal.
And it's about time we told people so. Otherwise, what those kids are aiming for-I mean the revolution- is going to melt away. It's now we have to revolt. But, Roy,sensibly... and with thought."
DO YOU FEEL you are a statesman - or a performer?
"I don't ever want to be a statesman, Roy. I am a performer and I leave
space on that stage for theatre, too. But a statesman? No. I know only a thinline separates a songwriter from being an entertainer or making statements. I realise
my responsibilities.""With Ziggy, I became Ziggy on stage. I really was. That was my ego." (This statement
followed the entrance and emergence of another tunnel.)
And what is your ego now? "Strong, and getting fiercer, but I don't think it's Ziggy any
more. It's a more mature David Bowie."
You mean mature as being calmer? "Yes, more aware, more in control of myself.
I think that's good. That will keep me alive.
"You see, I have no idea what I look like on stage. I have never seen a film. I just
don't know what I look like when I become 'that thing'. I must see a film of myself. Itis essential.
"I can't wait to see what we actually are. I know that visually the band is going to be
reducing. I mean, everyone's wearing makeup, ain't they. Eh? I know that we are goingto reduce on that level. It will still be David Bowie and The Spiders though.""I know I have created a somewhat strange audience -but that audience is also fullof little Noddy Holders, and little Iggy Pops. I knowwe used to attract a lot of 'queens'at one stage, but then other factions of people crept in. Now you can't tell anymore.
They're all there for some reason.
"And we get young people. Those lovelyyoung people.
And they have to be considered very seriously. They
WEND THE NIGHT TOGETHER

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cannot be forgotten-as they might be. We cannot afford to lose them bycontinuing to make rock a cultural force.
"We must not leave the young behind. I repeat that.
You see, I don't want to aim statements at them. Beinga statesman is abhorrent to me."
And then the train stopped. We looked at each other.
It was Charing Cross. He smiled. RoyHollingworth

JULY 3

A right little charmer
MM JULY 13

owie pulls the plug on

Ziggv - 9nr4 9 WhnIP "Wirfrod PO"
concert at London's Hammersmith Odeon. He wasimmensely enjoyable that night. A star. A genius.
And his music was brilliant. Yet I'll shed no tear overhis departure.
You see, Bowie has saved himself, and by doingthat has hopefully saved the futures of his few million
followers. They are already weird. Given time theywould have gone mad. Bowie, whether he knew it ornot, had created a monster. We were all ready todrink from the cup of decadence. Trouble is, few
knew when to stop.
I'm stood in the foyer of the Hammersmith Odeon,and I'm looking at a dozen Bowie lookalikes, who standopposite, sneering and posing. They sneer upon those
who feel they don't look as good as they do.
This has always happened at rock concerts. I've seen
them dress like Mick Jagger, Bolan and Slade. But thepeople who did that were fun. Here the vibe was pitiful.
It's horrible to see individuals stripped of theirindividuality to the extent that they believe every thingthat HE sings about, or believe that HE is right.
Jagger was rebellion, and it's good to have rebels.
But to follow someone like Bowie is following
decadence. That ain't rebelling, it's giving in.

DAVID BOWIE

Bowie himself, well you've
had him described enough by
now. Very frightening, andalso very soft. His movements,
his style, his charisma, is notwhat you would call human. He
is, as DeFries once said, "a realstar". Bowie could stand onstage and pick his nose, andhe'd still be quite great.
He was very good, and I
enjoyed him tremendously,
even though his voice sounded
tired and lost in places. I began
to enjoy the show with "WhiteLight White Heat". He wasnoticeably happier singing
that, as he was when Jeff Beckjoined him on stage. Becklooked really out of place. I
mean, old Jeff was dreadfully
dull in jeans and a casual top.
Mick Ronson is an avowedadmirer of Beck. Indeed, heappeared to be in heat for thelad. I mean, on a couple ofoccasions he tried theold loose hand on Jeff,
ODEON HAMMERSMITH
and even an attemptwrath LIEL BUSH Wow)
173v4Alibln A
at a kiss. But Jeff, about
as butch as meat pie,
EVENING 8-0 p.m.
didn't really want to
MONDAYknow about it.
JULY
Ronson did push Beck

CIRCLE

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It's giving in to the extent that a kid should
see A Clockwork Orange and then kick a
tramp to death. It's giving in to the extent
that one should read 1984 and do nothing
but follow it. Those works were meant as
a warning. Now did you take heed of David
Bowie? Do you really think perversion is fun?
Think about it. If what Bowie did on stage
became reality on the street, it would not bevery pleasant.
Already, as I stand here in this foyer, I see
Bowie's stage expanded to contain most of
the people here. In a way, it's evil. I feel
SCARED. These fans have given Bowie
everything, but forgotten themselves.
Is Bowie really being truthful when hesays he's quitting? I really hope he is, but if
someone offered Tony DeFries £1,000,000
to play America, would he refuse?
To be very famous one has to pull many
tricks these days. And however lovely Bowie
is in your eyes, don't ever think he won't pull
tricks. To survive, he has to.
Bowie is a sight more clever than Bolan,
who continued to believe he could win every
match. It just doesn't work. On that level,
Bowie's "quitting" is simply good business. But
I'm gullible enough to believe he hasn't done it
for that reason. I do believe he CARES.
But all of these thoughts have left my headas I sit down in the Odeon and hopefully wait
to see and hear a unique artist. I try to ignore
all the posers who sit alongside me. Despite

the fact that I FEEL
Bowie's music, I do not FEEL these people,
except like a pillow over my face.
But you can't ignore what's going onaround you. You can't help but notice a kid of
14 smoking a joint. Hell, I'm not soft, but thatturned my gut. They put Bowie's pianist on
first. His name's Mike Garson, he's dressed ina fairytale concert -pianist outfit, has a silly
smile, and played sort of avant-garde
Mantovani arrangments of David's hits. It's allvery soapy, and we yawned.
But then it was realhorrorshow (excuse thefashionable phrase) as
David took the stage
with the strobes and thatglorious Ludwig Van. The
adrenalin flows, and so does
the audience, all over theseats. It's not because
it's all too much, 'cos it isn't
yet. All these kids are doingis acting out what you're supposed to do
at a rock concert. Two blokes behind me
shake their heads like dervishes. "Idiot
dancing", indeed.
They are not really there for the music.
During all Bowie's numbers there wereconstant conversations going on. The drama
was forced. It was rather like pretending to
make love, but not doing it properly because
they didn't want to mess their hair.

to the forefront during"The Jean Genie". Jeff
obliged by playing guitar
behind his head, andwiggling a bit. The sightof Beck wiggling against
Bowie was rather likeputting Sid James up

with Marlene Dietrich. It just wasn't on, but
Beck did indeed add some amazing guitar.
By this time the whole floor was up on its
feet, and the joint was rocking. Bowie, ina see-through black top, bullet belt and plain
black trousers, a pleasant change from hisoutrageous wedding -cake wardrobe, wasgrinning like a 12 -year -old kid at the circus. He
had good reason. The lad's worked his way
from nowt to conceivably the most wondrous
thing ever to appear in rock.
It's a shame that the cultsurrounding him grew to beso wicked, which Bowie isn't.
He's a right little charmer,
and a splendid actor.
Despite what you've readin daily papers, there wasn't
all that much croaking as heannounced that this was the
final concert he'd do. A loadof flushed girls dropped to
the floor with shock... a flushed, fat bouncer
sighed "Thank God!"... And a flushed Mick
Ronson continued to pester a cool Jeff Beck.
Bowie just looked cute. It was "Rock 'n'Roll
Suicide", befitting and quite dramatic, and"Oh, David don't" and "Please stay" could beheard amid applause and cheering. But don't
worry. He'll be back, when everyone's calmed
down, and levelled off. It's just tactics.

His movements,
his style, his

charisma, is notwhat you would
call human

Remember, just tactics. Roy Hollingworth

HISTORY OF ROCK 1973 1105

VAN MORRISON

right,

feels"If ituctuKAt some small clut

dates, he pleases tht
crowds -- but remain4
no one's idea ofcrowd-pleaser. For
him and his band it's
about feel. "The times
JULY 28 -0417,11.,,,g`IP11111.4.4

Mav19,1973:Van Morrison
and the CaledonianSoul

Orchestrareco-dpart ofthemuch-laudedlive album
TooLate To!topNowat
theSantaMonieaCivic
Auditoriurnin California

HISTORY OF ROCK 19731107

July19, 1973: Van

Morrison posed in
Amsterdam, Holland

shuffled completely unrecognised througha room chock-full of journalists and record
company heavies. He repeated this exercise,
totally unknown, five minutes later.
This originally planned informal social
gathering in fact turned into an intense confrontation
between Morrison and an obnoxious bunch of illinformed local scribes who displayed a total lack of schooling at theircraft, or for that matter a modicum of common civility.
To his credit, Morrison tried extremely hard to be co-operative andinformative. But he was on a total bummer with questions like: "What's
your opinion of drugs?" "They're like hamburgers," quickly responded
one of Morrison's musicians. Plus: "Are you into Irish music?"; "Why d id
you leave the band?" and "Are you going back to Ireland?" Added to thiswere a couple of extremely personal probes which he would have been inorder to have replied to with a swift bunch of fives.
While this charade was being acted out to its logical conclusion, a lady
wandered around boasting how she couldn't be bothered to ask
questions when there was so much free drink
and unaccompanied males for the offing.
She'd left her tape machine running on theconference table, she said, and she would rip
off the more printable quotes at her leisure.
"If he doesn't say anythi ng sensational," said
the lady, "I'll just rewrite the press handouts."
Morrison tried to salvage the fast -fading
semblance of this confrontation but it was to noavail. His acute perplexity gave way to boredom
and finally irritation. The band sprang to his
defence, filtering off the questions. When it got
too bizarre, someone blew a whistle. Morrison
fled. It was a pity that this, Morrison's first press
conference in over six years, should have been
108 I HISTORY OF ROCK 1973

such a loser, and through no fault of his own. It can only serve to send theman back into his shell and to enhance the preconceived aura of sullen

mystique that's grown up around this Irish expatriate.
"I'm just like everybody else," he was emphasising when we met privately
later on. "There are some days when I'm happy, some days when I'm not.
We've all got a number. People will always say an artist is a certai n way. It
doesn't matter to these people what the hell he does... they'll still choose tobelieve he's precisely what they say he is. Take anyone who's popular a nd
you can guarantee it: they'll be systematically run down, one by one.
"When people get an image of you, they want to make a definite imprint.
With me, a lot of people want to catch me on an off day. If they succeed, itgoes along with the myth."

NOW, I'VE SEEN Presley in Vegas, lames Brown at the Apollo,
and I guess what's generally considered to be the best of therest. And last Thursday evening, I bore witness to what I canonly describe as a most incredible non-performance from Van
Morrison. at the Carre Theatre in Amsterdam, and he won hands
down. It was no contest. But damn it, the man
hardly moved on stage.

"Take anyone
who's popular- they'll besystematicallyrun down"

He stood in the shadow of a battery of dark blue spotlights and, except for some finger-

poppin' with his right hand, remained
immobile. Yet the sheer magnetism of his
presence came hurtling out of the gloom andwas sufficient to transfix the assembled
multitude. I have to own up - I've never seen
anything quite like it before, or for thatmatter have ! been so enthralled by such apremeditated lack of visual entertainment.
Up until the last few minutes there wasnothing to look at except the diffused outlineof a figure. You could mistake it for Rod Steiger

VAN MORRISON-hunched up to the microphone in the half light. Even those fortunate
souls entrenched in the front rowwould have had trouble fingering
Morrison in a police identity parade after the show.
If it wasn't for that incredible familiar voice, in fact, one would havebeen forgiven for thinking the band was using a stand-in. Hence the lackof light. But it was the quality of timbre, and the interpretive finesse ofboth this singer and the New Caledonia Soul Orchestra that confirmed
I was in the right place at the right time.
On this showing Van Morrison is without a doubt one of the all-time
great soul chanters and his band is without peer. Take it on trust. Their
records don't do them justice. And Morrison knows it. Together they
exude an inflammable intensity, which, if you don't watch out, could
scorch the clothes right offa yer back. There was no let-up. No conceived
histrionics. Just damn fine music.
During the act I found Morrison doing precisely everything you
could want him to but felt certain he wouldn't. Both he and his band
constructed climax upon climax, one moment as smooth as satin, and in
the same breath as raunchy as a sleazy roadhouse combo. Just when I
thought things couldn't get any hotter -they loomed out of the darkness
and delivered the KO.
On that most memorable ofAmsterdam nights it was to be three killer
lefts, briskly delivered in the form of "Wild Night" deliciously sandwiched
between two phenomenal reworks of Them's greatest hits - "G -L -O -RI -A" and "Here Comes The Night".

Only then did Morrison take everyone completely by surprise as heproceeded to stalk the stage like a man possessed, kicking his legs up in
the air as he made the most triumphant exit since Muhammad Ali blitzed
Sonny Liston. The response had to be seen to be believed. It took me a full
hour to get over it.
On the car journey back to the Holiday Inn, Morrison was full ofquestions as to how the music scene had progressed in England. In
particular he wanted to know if The Pretty Things were still roaming
the countryside. When ! said yes he seemed quite pleased: "David
Bowie's only doing what Phil May used to do," he said. "He's justwearing different clothes."
After a time I cornered Morrison on the subject of unorthodox stage

presentation.

we do is worthwhile. If we did a lot of gigs it'd be difficult for us to keep thekind of feel we've achieved."
He speaks quietly, his Northern Irish brogue spiced with a tinge of theUSA, and he draws himself comparisons with those bands who packgiant arenas almost every night of the year.
"You know, and I know, that people love you to death if you've got a hit orsomethin'- or if you know such and such a person. But if you play the big
stadiums, like most bands feel compelled to, you put yourself in great
danger of losing contact with a large percentage of the audience. I went tosee a few groups last summer... and it was only those people who wereright down the front who were giving off any positive energy.

"Those people in the audience who were round the perimeter couldn't
have really cared less if a group was up there on the stage or not. They
were either too stoned or they'd just come along because somebody told
them it was the hip thing to do.
"Like there was 25,000 people who turned up for one event ! went to andwell over half of them didn't see or hear a th ing that was going on. If that's
what you're into, then you do that kinda gig. I prefer a much more intimate
surrounding. To tell you the truth, !wish I could just work clubs. But witha band of this size, it's not economical. I wouldn't even break even.
"Even though we don't do a lot of gigs, we're still a harder -working band
than most. We're aiming for perfection all the time, so we work harder at it
when putting our music together. We just do it when we feel the time isright. If it's not, we don't push it. We all do something else.
"Personally, I get enough buzz out of working this way. And that's theway I'd like to keep it." RoyCarr- MELODY MAKER JULY 28 ccITS SHOWTIME, LADIES and gentlemen! And here's the one

you've been waiting for- the Caledonia Soul Orchestra with ...
VAN MORRISON!"

Birmingham Town Hall, jammed solid, bursts into relieved applauseas the small, slightly tubby figure slides between the members of therhythm section and places himself between the saxophonist and thestring quartet.
"The photographer smiles ITake a break fora while I Takeo rest, do yourverybest ITake five, honey". As he sings, against a second wave of applause,"I only move about if the situation demands it," was his capsuled
he jams on a pair of shades, and then pushes them back onto his forehead.
explanation. "If it feels right, I do it. And it felt just right this evening. The
Time to take care of business.
thing is, I'm not an entertainer. I'm an artist.
So why has it taken the Belfast Cowboy seven
A musician. And there's a great difference.
years to come back and play to the British?
"As far as I'm concerned, entertainers have a"There were a lot of complications before...
canned show. They do exactly the same things
the business trip an' all that. Now seemed likeeach and every night... like they're into thethe right time."
whole showbusiness trip. We're not a rock band.
Any special reason why now?
We're a music band. But the unfortunate thing is"No. Everything just came together."that once you go out on the road, people have got"Blue Money" gives way to his new single,
this programmed thing of precisely what they
"Warm Love". Bill Atwood and Jack Shroer play
expect to see and hear.
a piquant muted-trumpet/alto-sax line as he"The difference between being an artist
sings the lyric, with that "when push comes toand an entertainer is most rock'n'roll acts areshove" line so reminiscent of Smokey Robinson.
primarily entertainers. The music is relegated to
Between songs, Van stands immobile -leftsecondary importance. For the most part, thehand on the mic, right hand halfway down theaudience is only there for the whole visual thing.
stand, rocking it gently back andThey paid their money for the
ISON
forth. He's poised, prepared, riding
stereotyped image they've
HARD NOSE THE HIGHWAY'
the growing mood, unwilling to letconstantly read about. They know
the tension drop.
what to expect. So nothing really
He doesn't seem to have done
comes as a surprise.
much playing in the past fewyears.
"I can tell you this: the times when
Why not?
we really cook are when there's"That's not true. We gig all theabsolutely nobody around. So as
time. It's just not publicised
you can see, it's kinda hard to do,
because they're not big gigs."
whateveryou do, in a context of being
Where does he best like to play?
locked into some particular thing.""Clubs and small halls... dance
As Morrison restricts himself to nohalls, but there are very few of thosemore than a dozen or more live gigs
around anymore. People are getting
per year and one album, the result is
so lazy. It used to be like at the oldthat either on stage or on wax, every
Fillmore when everybody was up,
move he makes is an event.
but now they all lie on the floor."
This is the wayhe means it. He told
A slappy backbeat from Daveme: "I get a lot of enjoyment working
Shaar's drum introduces Bobby 3.
with this band, and I feel that what

"I'm not anentertainer.
I'm an artist.
There's a great
difference".

HISTORY OF ROCK 1973 1109

1973

_ SEP1 \ MBE R

Bland's "Ain't Nothing You Can Do", given asolid bar -blues treatment with big trumpet -led
riffs. Jeff Labes switches from grand piano to
Hammond organ for a solo which brings backa whiff of the Flamingo days. This music is"You can get

into the more
intimate
details of ameant to communicate feelings.
"I like clubs because you can get into the more
intimate details of a song. When you're singing
about certain things, everybody can hear thewords and what you're saying."
He doesn't object to waiters circulating andglasses clinking?
"No, because usually they put their drinks
down when they get into it."For the first time, the strings -two violins
viola, and cello- pick up their bows for "Into The Mystic". They supply

don't all live near each other. Platania and someof the others live on the East Coast, while Van
and the strings and horns are in California. That"big silver bird" brings them together for the gigs.
Jeff Labes' rhapsodic blues piano, rippling

against the strings, introduces Ray Charles'"I Believe To My Soul", one of the musical highpoints of the entire concert. The stop -time
breaks, leaving space for Van's vocals, areincredibly precise and dramatic. While thetrumpeter takes a showy solo, Van stands at therear, hands on hips. They play "These Dreams
OfYou" exactly as they d id at the Fillmore Eastin 1970, complete with Shroer's raucous alto solo
He looks just too damn young to play in such amature, old-time style. The ghosts of a hundred Harlem jump altoists risea perfect commentary to the line "I want rock your gypsy soul", and as Van
and applaud -and the angelically pretty blonde cellist smiles wide.
sings, "When that foghorn blows", Shroer's baritone answers him withHow d id he put the band together?
a deep, booming blare. The sound, over -resonant at first from the high"I met John in Woodstock, around '69." Platania had previously beenceiling, is clea ri ng up now. During the songs, the audience is silently
with a group on the same label as Van, Bert Berns' Bang Records. "I met
respectful; at the end of the each, their enjoyment is plain.
Jack there, too; he and Jeffwere with the Colwell -Winfield Blues Band."How has he kept more or less the same band together for such a long
Is he specially important to the band? "Well, everybody's important."
time? He doesn't answer, but his guitarist John Platania explains that theyBassist David Hayes is from California and was formerly with Jesse
Colin Young's group during and after The Youngbloods'
split. Is it hard for him to find the right musicians to play
-A most incrediblehis music?
non-performance-,
Van Morrison on stage"Yeah. It's more difficult when you don't know whatat Amsterdam's Carre
you'relooking for. This is not a singer with a band or
Theatre,July19.1973
a band with a singer- it's a whole thing."
Platania adds: "Most musicians are only into one thing,
be it jazz or rock or whatever, and they aren't sensitive oropen enough to know that he covers it all."song in a club""I Just Wanna Make Love To You" is slow, oozy, menacing

funk, and Platania steps out of his normal role as providerof 1001 Unforgettable Fill -Ins to take a stinging solo. Eachtime he gets to Willie Dixon's title line, Van leaves it open
for the audience to join in. At first there's silence, but by
the third time of asking they've cottoned on and roarlustily. "Sweet Thing", from Astral Weeks, is a fleet 6/8

swinger, the strings building soaring cl imaxes with theaid of Shaar's quicksilver drums, while Van plays tricky
rhythmic games against them. Once again, Platania plays
the feelings of the song rather than merely the notes, andfor the coda they all slide gracefully into a cool 4/4. It's
perfect -but what a surprise when he follows it with an old
Them song, the lovely "Friday's Child". The treatment isfull-bodied and satisfying, but somehow properly
reticent- nobody in this band wants to be a solo star. Vanleaves and somebody announces that there'll be aninterval while the musicians take a drink.
Jeff Labes does the string arrangements these days, andhe's got the classical training for it. Does Van find them atall restricting?
"Oh no. They can ad-lib too. Sometimes, for the record,
they've been written after the vocal has been recorded,
written around it."
Platania adds: "When it comes to improvising,
sometimes they're a little inhibited because of thediscipline that they've been subjected to. But they're
starting to get into it."All four string -players, it turns out, are from the
Oakland Symphony Orchestra -and their leader is theorchestra's master violionist, Nate Rubin. Do they
understand Van's music?
"Yeah, and they can feel it too," he says.
During the interval the grand piano is tinkered with,and - surprise -Van's mic is moved down to the floor, infront of the stage and on the same level as the audience.
Apparently he thinks that the stage is too high, hamperingcommunication. Now, about eight feet above him, theband roars into "Here Comes The Night", another Themfavourite. It's a strange sight, indeed: the blue spotlightpicks up the singer and the first row of the audience, and
110 HISTORY OF ROCK 1973

VAN MORRISON

unfortunately he's invisible to the people in the sidebalconies and behind the stage. But there seems to bea stronger bond between the performer and thelisteners, and he certainly looks more nonchalant,
gripping the mic stand in the same pose, a cigarette
casually dribbling smoke from his fingers.
Does each of his albums have a specificallydesigned concept and character of its own?
"Yeah... but usually the concept doesn't come around until you start
listening to the playbacks."
But each album seems, to this listener, to accentuate some particular
facet of his music. Is that conscious?
"Sometimes it is, sometimes it isn't. It depends on what you're working
for, and whetheryou do it all at once or in pieces... or if you're overdrawn
at the bank that day, or if your car breaks down, or... That's life."
At last, the audience starts getting up and clapping along, which is what
he wants (although he's not about to ask for it). It happens first on "I've
Been Workin'", which is wonderfully fat -sounding, featuring anotherjagged alto solo shot through with sunshine, and a screaming coda, Vanyelling his head off above the band. "Listen To The Lion" brings the moodright down, misty and floating, the trumpet and tenor sax meshingprettilywith the strings.
He's made some classic hit singles in the past, both with Them and asa soloist. "I like making them. It's fun. I think I'm getting away from that,though. I'd like to be able to release triple and quadruple albums, butsometimes it's really hard to do. A while ago therecord companywas asking me for singles, so
I made some -like "Domino", which was
actually longer but got cut down. Then when
I started giving them singles, they asked foralbums. I don't mind. As long as they cooperatewith me, I'll cooperate with them."
His next release will be a live double album,
culled from tapes made at the Santa Monica
Civic Auditorium, the Troubadour in LA andhopefully the two Rainbow gigs this week. And
the next studio album?
"A Christmas album, probably. We tried to
do it last year, but we were under too muchpressure. You have to start making a Christmas
album on January 1, if you want to get it out.
We'll probably do a few original songs and some of the old things like
"White Christmas" and that thing, "Chestnuts roastingon an open fire..."All that stuff. Romantic."
He moves back to the stage again for "Green", which turns out to be thefrog's song from Sesame Street. For the first time this night, he does
something I noticed three years ago: when the audience slips in its
applause of song -recognition after the first few bars, he inserts a spoken"Thank you", sliding it into the second line of the tune with all the
professionalism of a hardened cabaret entertainer. And then it's "G -L -OR -I -A", with a strutting feeling more akin to Roy Head's "Treat Her Right"
than to the original Them record. Near the end, he lets the band burnalone until most of the audience is on its feet, bellowing the chorus.
Much has been made, lately, of the jazz tinge which has always beenpresent in his music. What are his specific influences?
"I like it all. Yeah, that 1940s blues stuff, and everything from King
Pleasure and Count Basie to... Oh, I dig it all."
Does he still play tenor sax, as he did with Them sometimes?
"Yeah, but not on concerts. Whenever I get the opportunity! play, but
I don't often get the chance to work on it, unless I take off to the woods
and... uh, woodshed for awhile. It's a... business in itself."
Were those reports from New York four years ago true, that you played

The band stay right with him, adding to his gestures.
"Moondance" passes in a finger -snapping blur, andit's noticeable that his voice is beginning to crack.
Not surprising- the concert is now 90 minutes old.
Why did he move from Woodstock to North
California two years ago?
"Woodstockwas getting to be such a heavy
number. When I first went, people were moving there to get away fromthe scene -and then Woodstock itself started being the scene. They madea movie called Woodstock, and it wasn't even in Woodstock. It was 60
miles away. Another myth, you know. Everybody and his uncle started
showing up at the bus station, and that was the complete opposite of what
it was supposed to be.
Why California?
"Well, I heard they had good oranges there. Actually, I'd beensidetracked: I'd planned to go there a long time before, but I detoured."
Does it suit you?
"At this stage of the game, I'd say yeah."
Isn't it too laid back?
"No, that's not really where it's at. That's another newspaper number."Why did he decide to build his own studio there?
"I figured I'd be doing a lot of recording, and it eliminates all the stuff ofbooking time somewhere and getting 45 engineers."
As he goes into "Caravan", the atmosphere feels like it's wired direct toa nuclear power station: "Thrn offyourelectric light /Then we can get down
to what is really wrongl Reely-rongrillyrong".
The world's best white blues singer? Maybe-but he's definitely the world's best Van
Morrison. The strings make a surprise
entrance, with an ethereal four-part inventionof great purity and logic. The rhythm section
lays out, the strings take it down to pianissimo,
and Van smiles knowingly. He waits, waits,
waits, and then... "TURN IT UP!" and he'sslippin' and sliding' across the stage, bending
and kicking. It all hangs out. The audience havegiven him help, and now he reciprocates in fullmeasure. It's the last song, and he pulls theband to a halt before disappearing.
Has this tour scared you away from doing any
more like it? "No, it's made me want to do it
again, as often as is physically and mentally possible."
How often is that? "Well, sometimes I feel like gigging at four in themorning, but nobody's around."Whipped on by the roadies, the crowd demands more. Before
long they're all back, the string
section settling down andswitching on the reading
lights attached to theirindividual desks. They choose"Cyprus Avenue", and it'sa longway from the tortured,desperate performance hegave the song at the Fillmore
three years ago. Then, the line

gigs with Albert Ayler?
"Oh yeah? Maybe I did, and I didn't know about it. Strange things
happen in New York."

stretched taut.

"Everythingfrom King
Pleasure andCount Basieto... I dig it all"Suddenly the concert is rushing ahead on pure adrenalin. After the
relatively sober precision of the first half, the hall is ablaze with joy.
Platania whips the band into a gale -force "Domino", and many people
sing along with "Brown Eyed Girl", which features a startling acceleration
into the second verse. Then, assuming a new stance as the master ofstagecraft, Van cools it right down for Sam Cooke's "Bring It On Home To
Me" -and, wonder of wonders, moves from his rigid pose into a series ofsnappy histrionics, including back bends and foolery with the mic stand.

about "My tongue is t -t -t -tied"gave a sense of tragedy, ofimpeding personal disasterfor the singer. Now, he turns it
into a joke. But when he cuts theband off, and waits for silence
to fall, the nerves are still"Once again, he holds theaudience like a puppet master,
delaying until we're ready tosnap before unleashing that
final command: "IT'S TOOLATE TO STOP NOW!"

The band crashes, he spins on
his heel, and stalks off. It was all
you could ever have wanted.
Richard Williams

owl
k

your
ipsy
soul

JULY -sEPIMER1973
THE ALLMAN BROTHERS _aye not been broken by tragedy,muuu
uiiiigs, including worthy causes andiazz. "I'm going to record with Stephase Grappelli," says
ickey Betts. "One ofyer home-towners over there.""We never

rock

5.

September 19,197.3: The

Allman BrothersBandat theForum inLA.with(I-r)Gregg
Allman (behind keyboard),
Dickey Betts.JaiJohanny
Johanson and Butch Trucks

1973
JULY

-OMR
-

- MELODY MAKER AUGUST 25 __.

NOBODY TALKS AT all about the deaths. Gregg

seems too spacey, anyway, detached and oblivious
behind his shades; maybe a few brief nods ofacknowledgement to well-wishers as he leaves thestage, that's all. It happened, and that was it, Duane's
dead, and Berry's gone, but The Allman Brothers are
1973, riding high on the public's love. Yes, love!
TheAllmans are to America now what the Dead were in '67. But it is not
the peace and good vibes of San Francisco, exactly; these people arefrom William Faulkner's Deep South. They are close-knit and wary ofoutsiders; they observe a detached courtesy; they detest the process ofimage -building; they are anti -stars; purporting to be working-class boys
from Macon, Georgia.
So be it. The All man Brothers and their entourage, all those people
down at Capricorn Records in Macon, the citywhere Otis and Little
Richard Penniman grew up, is family. It's always been that way, fromthe spring of '69 when they all began rehearsing together. Duane andGregg, Dickey Betts and Butch Trucks from Florida, black Jai Johanny
Johanson on drums and congas, and bassist Berry Oakley, who was tocollide fatally with a Macon city bus just one year and 13 days after
Duane's motorcycle death.
The Allman Brothers Band went to New York, to Atlantic Studios. They
played the Fillmore and cut their first gold album, At Fillmore East. They
toured for three years across the country, and all the time they st ressed
the absence of the rock -star trip.
They began recording Eat A Peach. Three tracks were finished at
Criteria down in Miami. Then, for the first time in two -and -a -half years,
they went off the road, only Duane did it for real. On October 29,1971, he
was dead at the age of 24.A death in the family.
And when it happened again, this was not just a band trekking acrossAmerica, a people's trip, this was a slice of pop history out there playing to
the full houses, nourished by posthumous mystique, despite all the
adamant denials of stardom.
And so in July this year The Allman Brothers Band plays to 600,000
people in upstate NewYork -an event numerically larger than Woodstockeven -and they're up therewith the Dead and The Band. They've madethe aristocracy. Listeners to a New York radio station vote them the mostpopular band ever after The Beatles. Guitar magazine votes Dickey Betts
the second-best guitarist in the world, next to Clapton. There is not only
gold record, there is platinum. All this, and now the Indians!

through. So they're not promising anything. But they're watching to see
what we're gonna do. And Jerry, well, he'll say, 'That's something to think
about, you know,' in that way he has. It's funny how many artists reallywanna do somethin' for the Indian people."
Dickey Betts is the prime mover. Dickey from Florida, with his drooping
marshall's moustache and hard, bony face whose skin seems to havebeen stretched tight as on a rack. These days he is not just lead guitarist,
he is chairman of the North American Indian Foundation. He is Richard,rather than Dickey Betts. Sitting in the gloomy, candlelit bar of the posh
Navarro hotel on New York's Central Park South.
Dickey's wife is Sandy, a highly attractive full -blood from Canada,with straight, black hair streaming down her back. Asa kid she used
to be discriminated against, but not as badly as the Indians from thereserves. They would come into town, and the white folks would makefun of them because they weren't properly dressed. They had no water on
the reserves and theywere dirty. There were no toilets. In school, Sandy
was called Squaw.
And Dickey gets to remembering the last time they were in Canada. An
Indian woman had been found murdered on some country road. She had
been picked up in a bar by some guys, carried out in the road and, well...
Dickey pauses; his sense of Southern niceties leaves the sentence
hanging in the air. Nothing was ever done about it. It was all just covered
up. A few people got curious, but that was all. Dickey was one of them. "Iimagine that Wounded Knee kinda stirred up the hornet's nest," he says.
They had discussed it now and then, the band and all those people
down in Macon connected with Phil Walden's Capricorn label. "We
might just say, 'Ain't that a bunch of shit!' y'know. We'd al ready started
doin' some benefits for people like the Salvation Army in our home town.
Somebody suggested why don't we do one for an Indian group, and one
thing led to another."THE INDIANS. HE'D really prefer to talk just about them. No
gossip writers. "There are so many damned interviewers who
ask you what's your favourite colour, that kind of shit."
Still, since Duane has gone, he's the one who's had to shoulder the
responsibility and in a way this has helped him personally, both as a man
and as a guitarist, since it's pushed him to the front.
But Duane, you ask, does he mind talking about him at al 1?And he will
put down his whiskey a nd look frostily across the table. "I don't especiallycare to," he says quietly. Sandy silently shakes her head. He reflects, andclears his throat. "I mean, if there's something that you'd really like toknow that you think mebbe I could tell you?"
Changes musically? "I think it changed a hell of a lot, myself, because
HEY GOT THE idea for the foundation just after the Indian
I think he had a hell of a lot to do with what the band sounded like at thatuprising in February at Wounded Knee in South Dakota: paying
time. But I think, actually, the band might've changed more afterwe lostin money from certain of their performances to a North
Berry, because when we lost Duane we didn't add anybody. We justAmerican Indian foundation which will use it as they wish. A board ofmaintained what we had. But then when Berry died we added two people,
seven directors, all of them Indians. TheAllmans just supply the money.
Lamar Williams on bass and Chuck Leavel I on piano, which is a hell of
The Indians have had a bellyful of do-gooders in their time, so thea thingtodo."
reasoning goes. Al ready they have raised
When Berry Oakley died, some said it$21,500. This will be spent in sending
was like Robert Kennedy's death to thedelegates from all across America to the
Kennedy family: that some sort ofjinx wasannual Indian Ecumenical Conference inin operation. But he snorts disgustedly.
Morley, Canada, just north-west of Calgary in"Yaaaaaah, that's bullshit."
Alberta province.
Along silence. "You got any bubblegum withAnd eventually there will be involved notyou?" he drawls. Touché. There is no romancemerely the Brothers, but a whole host of
in death. Except for the public.
rock artists, playing for the Indians' rightHe first met the two brothers at Daytona
to retain their traditions and way of life,
Beach in Florida eight years ago. They would
helpingAmerica to pay its debt to therun into each other and jam a bit. Dickeywas
nation's real landlord.
from the Sarasota area of Florida, and he andThis is the dream. The All man Brothers &Oakley had a group together, The Second
Sisters, the family growing to encompass
Coming. "We had a message, y'know. We werethem all. Don McLean has already said he'll
tryin' to say somethin'. We were the Kansas
do it, and Alice Cooper and Leon Russellstars-y'know, the record that Roger Miller
ALLMAN BROTHERS BAND Cityand Poco and The Beach Boys might be
has cut- onlywe were the Jacksonville, Florida,
persuaded. And then there's the Dead, ofstars; that's where the group was doin' good.
GRATEFUL DEAD Jacksonville is a pretty good town to gig in."course, with whom the Allmans have been
regularly giggi ng for the past few months.
The Second Coming never really cut any"Rock Scully, he wants to do somethin'.
records, but they had success with a certain
T
They're interested, but you know the Deadtape, a demo made to hawk around promoters'- they're very careful about anything they
offices. "But the local radio station started
step into after all the crap they've beenplayin' it, and it got to be Number One by'WATKINS GLEN
SUMMER JA.

JULYN28

5(ivervin

114 I HISTORY OF ROCK 1973

BAND
$10 Includes: Concert, Parking, Camping,
TI4r I APnrCT 064.11cor

to he t_,...iliereanrollers and eaters

request in Jacksonville. It was an old Cream song, 'I Feel Free, and an old
Jefferson Airplane song, 'Funny something -or -other'.
"It was two pretty good tunes. 'I Feel Free' we did just about like them-in our own way, but the arrangement was about like that. We did a lotta
jamming. We stretched the solos out pretty good. Theywere about fiveminutes apiece.
"Hell, it got I don't know what recognition, but it got somewhere in
Billboard. It got so far from Jacksonville that our manager printed upsome 45s of it, and they were selling locally, and then Billboard picked it
up as a possible hit or somethin. Anyway, right in the middle of theprocess of that, we had disbanded and started TheAllman Brothers
Band, so here Duane and Gregg and Berry and me and all of us weresitting in Macon, and we're supposed to be rock stars (a small laugh atthis), and we're hearing The Second Coming's record over the radio andeverybody's wonderin' what it is!
"I don't think it even had a label. It didn't really do anything. It looked
like it might, but it didn't really deserve a hit."

11HE ALLMANS, IN fact, had come into existence early in '69,
when The Second Coming jammed in Jacksonville with Butch
Trucks' band, The 31st Of February, which Duane and Gregg
joined after the demise of their own Hour Glass. The well-anecdoted
story is that they played together in a park for more than two hours, andwhen it was over they all decided it was the band they'd been looking for.
Phil Walden, a hip, white Southerner, quickly assumed their
management. He looked after various artists like Clarence Carter andPercy Sledge, and had been a business partner of Otis Redding's.
Capricorn Records were formerly called Redwal, in fact, and it wasn't
until a year after he'd begun managing theAllmans that it was changed.
The Macon label is now the most prestigious young company in theSouth, with a reputation for its interest in basic country -blues -funk.
The Allmans seem to remain unaffected by recent experimentations.
There is no desire to dabble with electronics or to attempt sophisticatedlyrics. There is no need.
"We just keep playing, and whatever comes out of it is the direction
we take. We don't have that much control over the music. I don't getinterested in new ideas, and I don't think anybody else in the band does.
We're more interested in the old things, from the '30s and '40s and the'50s, the old things that have already passed.
"We study those things, and then new expressions come out of it. Not
reworking, just more or less studying where we're coming from, where
our roots are at, how we learned to play. If we studied new music as such,
we'd wind up copying somebody else."
Himself, he looks to the old Georgia blues,
though his two personal favourites are RobertJohnson and Willie McTell. And then on the
countryside there's Jimmy Rodgers and Hank
Williams. BB too, of course: "He's got thatelegance that none of 'em ever have. Man, he's somuch fun to jam with, because he's so passive in
his own way; he won't force anythin' on you."
And then the English players. Peter Green
jammed with the Allmans once in New Orleans.
"I wouldn't especially prefer him to Eric, but
he's mighty good. His style is real compatible
with ours. Eric is actually more like me. He's
kinda laid back a little bit in his playing."
Laid back. It's the key to their lifestyle: "We've always been kind of 1 don't know how to put it in words- kind of working class. I mean, we
never did get into being rock stars. It was always a family, people's -type
trip. Somebody said we were the ultimate expression of a male chauvinist
rock'n'roll band."
Dickey laughs at this. He isn't a humourless man, just averse tocommitting himself as an individual. Why, he thinks he and the rest of'em might be as strange to these people in New York as Alice Cooper, andthere maybe something to it. The easy-going Georgia style set down
amidst the amyl nitrate rush of Gotham City. But stardom is a peculiar
business. The night that Waylon Jennings played the open-air SchaeferMusic Festival, nobody notice Dickey Betts in the audience.
And then he jammed on one cut with the bill -openers, The Marshall
Tucker Band, and got the best applause of the evening. "The other nightat Madison Square Gardens," he says, "I put a suit on and nobody
recognised me, either."

But this is a joke. There were
18,000 people there that evening
and the Allmans normallydo
about three gigs a week. After all, it
costs about $8,000 to sit in Maconand do nothing for seven days.
AFTER FIVE YEARS

now with the Brothers,
Dickey Betts needs to
do something a little different,
just for the fun of it. Like Gregg
Allman, he wants to do a solo
album, and in November he willprobably do some recording in
England (the Allmans as a whole
may well arrive this year for their first British dates). Only this time hewill do a little experimenting.
"You familiar with 'Revival', that tune we did? Well, it has a very gypsy -flavoured introduction to it, about three minutes, and I'm going to record
it with Stephane Grappelli, one of yer home-towners over there.
"I haven't met him yet, but Phil and Frank [Fencer, Capricorn label
managed talked to him about recording. He said yeah, he'd do it, but hedon't like flying, so rather than have him fly to Macon and all, I thought I'djust go over there.
"We're gonna do 'Revival', go into a jam, and do 'Les Brers'. We'll be doin'
kind of a country -jazz thing. It's going to be fun. I just hope somebody
tries to make me feel at home there."
There was a time when he disliked the studio, right up until EatA Peach.
He couldn't really understand it. "Seemed like prostitution of music.
You been out playin' in bars, then you go onto concerts, and it's always
the raw communication between people. But here you are in this tin canwith a buncha machines all round you, and you're expected to produce...
It takes a longtime to get used to it, y'know."
There has not even been much overdubbing on Allmans albums until
the new one, BrothersAnd Sisters. On one track, "Ramblin' Man", they put
eight guitar parts together.
"I just said, 'Well, y'know, there is such a thing as a recording artist andI guess I'm one.'"But Sgt Pepperwas done on four -track. He looks incredulous.
"N00000, man, they had that big 32 -track studio!Are you positive?"
He digests the thought. "Well, I did read somewhere they had thebig 32 -track." Then adds judiciously: "You can't always believe what
you read."
There was no necessity to overdub when
Duane was there. Duane on slide, Dickey
playing counterpoint. It's funny, Dickey
recalls, but there's still a lot of old, unreleased
recordings of Duane singing. Some old stuff"When welost Duane
we didn't add
anybody"by Chuck Berry.
"He did one kinda real funny tune. Chuck

Berrywas drivin' -I can't remember the titleof the song- he was drivin' an old Ford, and he
was gonna pull in and trade it fora Cadillac.
You remember that song?All the accessories

he's gonna have in it, bed in the back seat and allthat stuff? Well, Duane did a recording? It's funnier 'n hell."
DICICEY BETTS, A good ole boy from in the woods aroundSarasota, gets to reminiscing, but whatever he's thinking hekeeps to himself. Among themselves, it's said, the Allmans
mention Duane about every five minutes. But just then, a roadie
walks into the cocktail bar with its smoky candles and smouldering
waitresses, and Dickey calls out to him.
"Hi, Joe Dan!Youwanna go to the showtonight? All right? We're
gonna go see Brando, yeah." A group outing to Last Tango In Paris has

been planned.
He turns back to the table, acting quite excited. "Did you see him on
TV the other night? Oh sheeeit, he's great!"
But Richard Betts, chairman of the NAIF, husband of this beautiful
Indian girl with a voice as deep and throaty as Cher's, has a couple more
drinks in the meanwhile. And, in fact, he never does get to find out what
Last Tango is all about. Michael Watts
HISTORY OF ROCK 1973 1113

1973

"Pubs arenot theplace
for loud

music

%Mb

Asa.

It is the summer of PUB ROCK, in whichsmall bands keep things low-key and lowcost. From Kilburn & The High Roads to
Ace and Dr Feelgood, an ethos emerges.

- MELODY MAKE AUGUST 4 _...
DISASTER! IT SEEMED to stare British rock in the face,
only a few months ago. Cause? The massive close -downof small clubs, backbone of the scene. %Vithout small

clubs, there was little work opportunity for tie up-andcomers, the new faces to carry on the tradition set by
their forefathers. The Who, Stones, Led Zeppelin.
Economics which favoured the supergroups. with their massive turnover,were death to the small venues who could not afford them. The :op liners
ceased to subsidise support acts in their mad flight to America. And theresult was many worried frowns among agents, promoters, musicians.
But this year has seen the emergence of a phenomenon that promises
both salvation for music- and eardrums. With the bulk of small rock clubs
gone, third -league rock musicians turned to their alma mater -the public
houses of old England. Revolting against the big noise and big money
syndrome, the small groups, dedicated to blues, rock and a good time,
set up fire bases in any pubs.
And in a few months since last spring, groups like Bees Make Money,
Kilburn &The High Roads, Brinsley Schwarz and Ducks Deluxedrew .
116 I HISTORY OF ROCK 1973,

111

Kilburn& The High Roads

int973,including:(1-r)Keith
Lucas (later Nick Cashof999),H umphrey Ocean (nowa professor of perspectiveat the Royal Academy), Ian
Dury and Davey Payne

HISTORY OF ROCK

I

delighted crowds who thought groups had long since been lost to thebaseball stadiums of the States. Some of the musicians in these new
bands had been around in defunct "name" bands. A good percentage had
never been in a group before.
There was a big search on forAC30-watt amplifiers, the ones used by
The Beatles, and most of the major groups of the early '60s. Hailed as oneof the best amps built, they gave just the right depth and volume for
maximum excitement in a small room.
In recent months the groups playing in London pubs like The
Kensington, Royal Nelson and new clubs like Dingwalls at Camden Lockhave proliferated. Record companies and agents are already pursuingbands like Clancy, Ducks Deluxe, Kilburn & High Roads, Ace, Chilli Willi& The Red Hot Peppers, Katzenjammer, Paz and 747. Chris Welch

who hails from Los Angeles, joined
just under two years ago. Despitewriting their own songs they stillplaya lot of non -original material,
but it's interpreted in their own,
personal style.
The Bees will make money for two
reasons. First, their music has theright roots and they've got theexpertise to put it across. Second,
Barry Richardson has had a long career in advertising and market
research. He knows how to evaluate demand, how to cost and how toreach the right people fast- and in the music biz the answer, Barry
realised, was to be found on the pub circuit. GeoffBrown

Bees Make Honey
BEES MAKE HONEY were, perhaps, the first band to cause a stir on the
pub rock circuit (although Brinsley Schwarz could well argue aboutthat). Bees are a five -piece band made up of bassist Barry Richardson
taking lead vocals, Ruan O'Lochlainn (electric piano, guitar, alto sax),
Mick Malloy (lead guitar), Deke O'Brien (bass, guitar, vocals) and
Bobby Cee (drums).
The band's roots go back to Dublin, 1960, when as a university student
Barry Richardson was in a jazz band with O'Lochlainn. A footloose trip
to worship at the altar of New Orleans led to Richardson's summary
dismissal from the jazz band and he joined a showband where he met
O'Brien and Malloy. At university, Richardson met Ian Whitcombe andthey formed a blues band which included O'Brien and Malloy, and in that
set-up they recorded the tapes that became Whitcombe's stateside hits.
Meanwhile, O'Lochlainn had crossed the Irish Sea to find his fortune in
London. Richardson followed the migratory path to play in Keith Smith's

Ducks Deluxe
ONE OF THE hardest -working bands is Ducks Deluxe, who last week
were rocking at the cheerful hostelry The Royal Nelson, Holloway
Road. Fans were packed in a sunken arena on wooden benches, witha minuscule dance floor, and just enough room to fight a way to the bar.
The band consists of Martin Belmont on lead guitar and vocals, aged 24;
Sean Tyla (rhythm guitar and vocals), aged 27; Harvey Garvey (bass andvocals), 20; and Tim Roper (drums), aged 19.
They playa lot of original material as well as trusted favourites by Chuck
Berry and the Rolling Stones, and are particularly good on slow blues like
"The Wee Wee Hours". The guitars are sturdy and exciting, without

falling into shrieking feedback, and drummer Tim keeps his playing
simple but effective. The cumulative effect of their rocking music issufficient to cause outbreaks of rhythmic dancing on a massive scale.
Their manager Dai Davies says: "The British pub rock scene is
Climax Jazz Band by night and toil at an advertising agency by day.
comparable to theAmerican situation where you get bands like The
Inevitably Ruan and Barry met in an Irish club in London and they
Allman Brothers playing long sets at small clubs. They get incredibly tightplayed together until Barry went to the States in 1968 fora few months.
and they play rock because it's the easiest, most direct music. It's the way
He returned with the germ of the idea that was later to turn into the Bees
the Stones and Yardbirds started, and the reason so many top groups areburning in his brain. Barry put together a band with Ruan, Mick was
so awful today is because they never had to work hard in the small clubs."
called in from Ireland and Deke followed. The last link in the chain was
Martin Belmont explained that Ducks are now busy learn ing newgetting in drummer Bobby Cee, who answered their ad in the MM. Bob,
numbers: "Things are happening for us and there is a lot of talk abouta record contract. It's on the cards that we'll go with one oftwo big companies.
Bees Make Honey founde,"Playing two-hour sets in pubs, we get through a lot ofBarry Richardson(right)
numbers
and you can get sick of them unless there's new
draws on a background inmaterial, so we're taking a bit of time off playing to rehearse.
market research
Half of our songs are originals and half are standard R&B,
Chuck Berry tunes. We do a bit of everything as long as it
makes your feet tap! It's dance music really, and we're
definitely not a progressive band.

"We're not trying to impress anybody with musicalintricacy, which is just as well. We play music to give people
a good time, and the atmosphere at the gigs is just like theearly '60s when The Yardbirds were coming up. I used to live in

Bournemouth when Zoot Money and Manfred were coming
up, and it seems like we're going back to those times."
Martin says he has played in many local bands "bestforgotten". Sean was in Help Yourself, Harveywas in The Ram
Jam Band and the drummer worked with a brace of unknowns.
"At the moment we are trying to cut down on the frantic
rock'n'roll," says Martin, "and playa little more laidback. We've
all heard TheAverage White Band, and they've had a great
effect onus. They are like a breath of fresh air on the scene. It'sa matter of getting the same rocking effect without forcing it.
"We've been going about a year, and the present
I ineup has been together since Christmas. It was
hard to get gigs when we started and it seemed like a
good idea to play in pubs. In a small place you can

OUT
asps'

`)Pt

' `/E'/ 11/11E7

build up a strong relationship with the audience,
especiallywhen you play the same place each night.
"The money is not so wonderful but we get a goodsound, and anyway, money wasn't the reason for
doing it. We've done as well as a band withouta record contract can do, and we go out for £75 to£100 for college gigs now, purely on our reputation
as a London pub band.

-Justliketheearly.60s:
DucksDeluxe-(I-r)Andy
McMasters.NickGarvey,
Tim Roper, Martin
Belmont and Sean Tyla

"Hopefully people know they can expect agood time from us. The Kensington has been themost important pub for us. It was a jazz pub andthen Bees Make Honey and Brinsley Schwarz
began playing there and us. We used to play at
the Tally Ho in Kentish Town; in fact we started
there. In seven months we saw the place change
completely. That's where the pub rock thing, ininverted commas, started, when an Americanband called Eggs Over Easy used to play there.
Then the Bees, Kilburn and us carried on.
"I think the easygoing atmosphere is goingalready and it's getting a bit like the club scene.
More and more pubs are having groups andbands are ringing up pubs saying, 'Book us; weplay just like the Bees and the Ducks.' But a lot of the groups have more to
do with progressive rock than pub rock. Good luck to them, but pubs are
not the places for loud, progressive music." Chris Wekh

"The Tally Hoin Kentish
Town is where
the 'pub rock'thing started"

Kilburn & The High RoadsDINGWALLS DANCE HALL, which sparkles in the night by the side ofCamden Lock, is a long, rectangular room. Plenty of tables, lots of room

to dance, a bar that runs half the club's length and, most important,a regular turnover of super -fine bands. This sweaty Thursday night theband is playing a self -composed reggae -based song that'd find its way
into the charts with little trouble if it was put out as a single. Its groove
is authentic, its hook -phrase catchy, its performance tight.
On stage the singer, short and dressed in a black jacket and black gloves,rasps in a broad cockney accent into the microphone, which he's grippingwith a tense tightness. "We'd like to do a number now called 'I Really Got
My Eye On Your Cheesy Pie'... it's all about food." And the wry, throwaway
delivery hints that it indeed just might be about food and not what yourfirst notion told you to expect.
The lead guitarist -white suit, red shirt, shortish, neatly cut hair starts an ordinary four -in -the -bar chord sequence. After a few bars, thedrummer bursts in playing a rhythm that hits the guitar at an acute angle.
It's something totally unexpected; you feel it shouldn't fit but it does andthe number comes together with the solidity of quick -drying cement.

It's an utter mind -blower and you're left
standing there, mouth agape, thinking,"Whaaat?" Then the sax, raw and growling,
jumps in on top while the bass slides inunderneath and the piano fills out the sound.
That's Kilburn & The High Roads -one of themost impressive pub rock bands who've got thestamp of originality imprinted all over them,whose music has such a broad scope and whose

future is full of promise. A few months back,Kilburn weren't much more than Ian Dury,
their singer, plus backing band. Since thenthey've signed with Charlie Gillett's Oval recordlabel, been in constant rehearsal for weeks on
end and are now back on the high road.
The few golden old 'uns they play are given life by new, idiosyncratic
arrangements, but it's the self -penned material that's the best.
Until recently the songs have basically been poems written by Duryand set to music by the band's pianist Russell Hardy. Now, it seems,
there'll be more of a two-way movement, with Duryaddingwords to
Hardy's melodies. Kilburn & The High Roads was formed around theDury/ Hardy partnership. Ian was teaching at CanterburyArt College(he's an ex -protégé of Peter Blake and had a blossoming career incommercial art having done work for the Sunday Times and for Pan
Books). Two of Dury's pupils at the college, guitarist Keith Lucas andbassist HumphreyOcean, proved to be interested in the possibilities
music offered then and the Kilburns started.
For a long time the band was irregular in personnel and formation. They
played only about one gig a week -a severe case of"If you're available,
turn up." It was a very loose arrangement, and when David Payne, a friendof Hardy's from their work together in The People's Band, showed up at arehearsal to play fora while, he never bothered to leave and so he was in.
Lastly, Dury heard drummer David Rohoman at a gig and invited him tojoin the band. He did. Rohoman has had the longest, most conventionalmusical background of all the Kilburns. He played to soul groups (likeRay Williams & The Grenades) and in heavy, riffy bands like Kripple
Vision and in bands like the Magic Rock Band. There has been one otherchange recently. The bassist's real name isn't Humphrey Ocean; it's anunwieldly collection of syllables that's unpronounceable at best and *HISTORY OF ROCK 1973

119

is a nightmare for unsuspecting journalists, civil servants and income
tax inspectors (HumphreyAnthony Erdeswick Butler -Bowdon). So he's
settled for Humphrey Ocean, which seems as good a name as any.
Kilburn have that bright spark of originality and it glows red-hot withpotential. GeoffBrown

Clang"WE KNOW THE slogan says you're only here for the beer... but there's
not a bad drop of music being played here, y'know."
Ernie Graham, rhythm guitarist and vocalist of Clancy, on stage
at the Kensington pub near Shepherd's Bush Green, kicks off the band's
third set of the evening. There's more beer being
poured down the back of the guy stand ing infront of you than you'd ever drink in a night's
hard boozin' the pub's packed that tight. And
Clancy's punchy rock is just as tight.
The band started coming together in Marchof this year when Ernie, bassist Colin Bassand guitarist Jojo Glemser began writing andrehearsing. They added drummer Steve"We all know each other... the Bees, Ducks, Kilburn... we're all friends,
it's a close little circle, we all keep in touch, keep feelers out to see who's
playingwhere, and what they're doing. It's developed into quite a little

mutual admiration society."
Ernie picks his way back through the throng -the beery, jostling hairy
drinking crush -to the stage fora final 45 -minute set. The band meander
on stage and Jojo puts on his guitar and starts a chunky rhythmic pattern.
One by one the band come together and the numbers join in until they all
rocking along.
A bit later, Clancy playa number that's got a guitar lick straight out of theJames Brown song book; a hypnotic, repetitive hook that's scrubbed byGraham over Bass and Brindell's close-knit bass/drum parts. And
topping it off, Clancy have two good singers.
Colin Bass and Ernie, who's arguably one of themost promising talents on the pub rock scene,
share the lead vocals- Bass' deliberate, plainer
voice offsetting Graham's strong melodic tone.
This month, Clancy start a residency at"We've all

Brendel I soon after.

had enoughof the high volume stuff""We wanted to get another instrument in theband but we weren't sure what it'd be. We'dthought of getting in some keyboards, but when
Dave Vasco came down to London from theNorth he joined."Dave, who played in The Foundations with Colin, had originally drifted
down to the big city to play in Johnny Johnson's backing band, but when
he arrived he found the plans that Johnson had made had fallen throughand he was free to join Clancy.
And now it's the dual lead guitarwork of Dave and Jojo that's one of thehigh spots of the band's music. Towards the end of the second set they
played "Angeline", a song that closes with the lead guitars teasing eachother, one egging the other on until the lines twist and turn and are
finally tied in a tight, tight knot.
Clancy are writing most of their own material. At present they only
include about three or four songs by outside writers. Ernie Graham waswith Eire Apparent until three years ago.
"When we finally came back from the States," says Ernie, "we stayed
together for about a year in Britain before we finally split up. We'd been
together for about seven years and we were getting tired and stale."
From EireApparent, Henry McCulloch went to The Grease Band, Paul
McCartney, Wings, fame and fortune. Dave Lutton went on to join Steve
Ellis and Ernie laid low fora while. Then he played with the ever-changing
Help Yourself for about nine months and recorded a solo album for Liberty.
Jojo was with Ernie in Help Yourself and when the Clancy gig wasoffered it was like slipping into an old, comfortable pair ofjeans; theyknew each other's music that well. "I enjoy the pub circuit very much,"says Ernie, "before I came over to England I used to play on the Irish pub
circuit, and the atmosphere around London now is very reminiscent ofthat Irish scene. We just wanted to get out and work; we enjoy gigging
regularly and the pubs give us that opportunity."
Like most pub bands, Clancy have a record deal in the offing. Nothing's
fixed yet but the band cut a demo of eight to 10 tracks, and although thequality's rough the tape has impressed the "right" people in the biz. The
ones with the contracts.
"I think we'd have done better to get an outside producer to work withus," says Ernie. "We've a load of ideas but we need someone to bring them
together, to tell us what to use and what to throw out. It's an objective earthat was needed. All the guys in the band have been around for a longtime now and we're all looking for something that's going to be lasting
and worthwhile."
Using two lead guitars invites inevitable comparison with American
bands like Quicksilver, the All mans, the Dead. "Yes, we do dig the way
they play. We've all had enough of the high -volume stuff. We'd muchrather use the small Fender gear we've got now. We could buy enormous
stacks and blast everyone to kingdom come, but we've all been throughthat scene and now we want to play some music. We all feel it's time toplay something a little bit more mellow," says Ernie, and his soft Irish
brogue adds a warm poignancy to the words.
The pub bands have developed their own sort of " i n -crowd", but it
doesn't have the elitist air the phrase conjures.
120 I HISTORY OF ROCK 1973

Di ngwalls in Camden Lock every Friday night.
Catch 'em there -you can be sure they'll not
be on the pub scene for ever; in fact they're not
too keen about being labelled a pub rock bandat all, for, they argue, it puts a limit on how far
a band can go.
"I guess we're just using the pub circuit forawhile. We could go out and tour as support
band to a big name, but we'd rather play small gigs like the Kensington
as top band."Even a pub rock band has an ego, it seems. Geoff Brown

Ace
ACE WAS FORMED something like a year ago from the remnants of
two bands- Might Baby and Warm Dust. Alan King, who'd years
previously been with The Action playing thunderous versions of '60s
Motown greats and had then moved on to Mighty Baby, dropped in at
the Tally Ho one night. There was a jam session going- ex -Action Reg
King was there too - and from those roots Ace grew.
The rhythm section of Warm Dust -bassist Terry Comer, drummer
Steve Witheri ngton and organist Paul Carrack- having tired of theheavy 'n' hyped scene they'd drifted into, joined forces with Alan.
At first the band were known as Ace & The Dynamos, but the Dynamos
was soon dropped. The band was completed by Phil "The Greek" Harris,a guitarist who'd been playing for 12 years but had never been in a band,
preferring just to jam around. But Phil had jammed in the best ofcompany, with Remi Kabaka, with Quiver, with Steve Winwood, and thefact of his on-stage inexperience gives the band a certain freshness.
In common with the more promising pub bands, Ace do much of theirown writing -Alan, Paul and Phil being the main contributors. Alan has
written some songs with Reg King, too.
Their set uses material ranging from Taj Mahal, Tommy Tucker's"Hi -Heel Sneakers", The Four Tops' "Loving You Is Sweeter Than Ever"(shades of The Action in that), The Cookies' "Chains" and "Don't Let Me

Be Misunderstood".
But the last five numbers in their set are originals, so there's nodependence on a Chuck Berry rocker to bring the show to a storming
close. If their own stuff can't do it then they'll settle for an honourable
close to the night's stomping, which is a bit of a refreshing change.
Ace are still a young band in terms of playing together (certainly notin terms of individual age; though again, they're not yet ready for thegeriatric ward).
Nevertheless, they've been around long enough to know that they're
not ready for recording and are holding off until the autumn. At present
Ace are content to playas often as possible so that people can get to know
their music and when it does become available on disc there'll be ahungry market. In the NewYear, sayAce, the time should be ripe anda single or two - followed up by an album would be just about right.
Quiver have given the band encouragement and support, and Acehaven't been afraid of the big gig. They played on the last five dates of
Hawkwind's last tour, and perhaps surprisingly, had little trouble getting
through to the audience drawn by the last of the Greatcoat Groups.
At this stage of the game it's pretty clear that Ace are a band that holda fistful of good cards. GeoffBrown

DrFeelgoodinig73:(I-r)
WilkoJohnson,John"TheB g
Figure"Martin,LeeBrilleater
andJohn"Sparko"Sparks

THE KENSINGTON.

- WEST KENSINGT011--

Pace and entertainment m""2""3
Kilburn & The High Roads
EITHER HE WAS propping the mic stand up
or it was keeping him upright, but the guy
certainly had style and the post was clearly
Gene Vincent's. Ian Dury is rather like amodern Vincent with maybe a touch of
Beef heart's growl and a hint of Bryan Ferry's
mannered delivery. You've guessed it. Dury isreally an original.
He's lead singer of Kilburn & The High Roads
and this Friday night we're in a slowly filling
Kensington pub in London to witness what is
only their second gig in two months. They'vebeen off the road rehearsing and recording,and it shows. A stiffness in the guitar work
(lead and bass) was evident, but tenor
saxophonist David Payne strung together
some nice phrases on more than one occasion.
David Rohoman, Kilburn's drummer,
is perhaps their most outstanding

instrumentalist, holding the band together
with a fine technique. It's his cementation of
their playing that's of paramount importanceto their whole approach. The High Roads area unit, a tight band based firmly on ensemble
playing, and Rohoman has the style to givethem that extra kick when the band need topush a number harder. But the guy who's got
it in him to really sell Kilburn is Dury. His
individual voice clearly in the old rock'n'roll
idiom, nevertheless manages to impress itself
as a modern collage of vocal trails and tricks.

Interpretations of old standards like
"Lucille" are nothing startling - at least noton this night - but they did a great campish
version of "The Naughty Lady Of Shady Lane"(now can't you just hear Ferry singing thatone?) and their reggae number - "You'reMore Than Fair"- is excellent.
Kilburn's own songs are, I'd say, the best
part of their set, and that's a fact auguring wellfor their future. Geoff Brown

Dr Feelgood

there's an eruption of activity with lead
guitarist VVilko Johnson doing the splits in
mid-air a la Townshend and twirling andskittering around the stage.
The second set is a "show" comprising
guitar humping, mic-stand masturbating,the lead guitarist singing (flat) Johnny Kidd's"I'll Never Get Over You", climaxed by their
manager or roadie conspicuously thumping atable and demanding an encore, which he got.
Dr Feelgood have no original numbers.
They're concerned with pace, simplicity andentertainment. Geoff Brown
THE LEAD SINGER, Lee Brilleaux, hasa great, snotty, hard -nut attitude. He
stands with the mic and a cigarette in his
right hand, a flick of the wrist takes the fag
from his mouth and he sings in a snarl.
He and his band - Dr Feelgood - are a
strange new brew. At London's Lord Nelson
pub last week they played early Chuck Berry,
Coasters and Jerry Lee Lewis numbers, yetappeared to have taken the arrangements
and mood from the Liverpool, Manchesterand London club bands of the early '6os.
Their approach to "I Can Tell",
THE LORD NELSON,"Dimples", "Route 66" and the like
HOLLOWAY
are clearly reminiscent of whiterather than black interpretations.
For most of the first act they playthese songs pretty much straight
down the line. Then, during the last
- OCTOBER 27 number - "Great Balls Of Fire" -KILIHJIM

ARE COMING

L IVE!

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- ALBUMSREVIEW

We began with the basics of the album,
released in time for the forthcoming
tour. "It was recorded all over the place,"
said Mick, "over about two to threemonths. I thinkyou'll like the album.
The tracks are much more varied thanthe last one, and all that crap. And there's
much morevariety in the playing. I
didn't wasn't it to be just a bunch of rocksongs. We did 18 tracks altogether andwe got the basics done very quickly.
"It's generally different from the lastLP, which kindawent on so long that
I didn't like some of the things, and the
direction seemed to stand still. There's
more thought to this one. It's kinda
weird the way Keith and I work together.
We both have songs we put to eachother, but Keith tends to leave the lyrics
tome. On his songs, he'll tell me the partto come in, and that's when I scream!
I suppose I write most of the lyrics."
Does that ever become a chore?"It canbe a chore, but I don't let it. You canusually get into the mood of a piece. All
the songs tend to be an extension of adifferent mood and all have different
meanings. The moods go up and downbecause I get impatient with things.
Not everything, but I do tend to try andmake judgements about people, andKeith doesn't. It's a good thing to havedifferent attitudes, especially in a song writing team. I enjoywriting and I liketo have Keith help me. I'm sure he feels
as involved in writing as I do."We began to recall some of the Stones'
older material, great hits like "You Can't
Always Get What You Want".
"Yeah, I really liked that song. But
I never listen to the old songs now. I

don't even have the records. I suppose
I should get Decca to send me a set, but
they've probably only got half of them.
AUG 18 Mick Jagger previews Goats Head
Yes ! remember 'Yesterday's Papers',
Soup. "I never listen to the old songs now."that was on a very peculiar album called
Between The Buttons. I never play them,
you know. I'm not saying they're not
OATS
HEAD
SOUP,"
said
Mick
sad
year,
when
Brian
Jones
died,
when
Mick
good,
but
if you go to some other musician's
G6
Jagger, pacing about the room.
was withdrawn and uncommunicative.
house, they don't playa!l their old recordings.
"I might change it. A lot of people
Now he seemed more relaxed than he had
You need not ignore what you have done, but
don't like it. Too bad." A typically terse
been for years, and much more interested, once
you shouldn't look back too much.
statement from the ever -impatient Mickagain, in music and the Rolling Stones. Less the"I really felt close to this album, and I really put
Jagger. Actually, Mick denies that he is over international celebrity and actor, and more thealllhad into it. People who like the Stones will be
impatient with people, life. And he certainly
singer in a rock'n'roll band.
expectinga verygood album from us, but people
has mellowed with the years. Or perhaps heDressed in a blue denim shirt and striped,
who don't like the Stones will be expecting a very
has returned to his former self.
mauve trousers, he didn't look much older, andhad album. Whatever you do, it's not going to be
We were talking about the Rolling Stones' new
if anything the new shortright for someone. You havealbum, and its disturbing title. What does it
hairstyle seemed to haveto judge a record bywhat you
denote- a half -remembered children's fantasy
lopped off a couple of years.
think is there.
tale, or some reference to privations on a desert
Mick's form of defence is to"I played one track to Rod
island?The title has as much meaning as Exileattack, and he can be quite
to this album, and I Stewart and all he said was,On Main Street, if truth be known.
curt and aggressive when the'I like that because the voice
It's the music that counts, and Soup simmers
mood takes him. But asreally put all I had is loud.' The best way towith all the nourishing flavour of the new
Charlie Watts once told me:
judge an LP is by the number
generation of Stones albums, Let ft Bleed, Sticky"He's quite soft really,of people that bought it. I buy
Fingers and Exile. The first generation of Stones
y'know." And when a girlrecords that are supposed toalbums now seem so long ago that even Mickreporterwas kept waiting
be great, and I never playhas difficulty in remembering them.
for hours to see him
them. Dr John's albums
And as we sat listening to the new album
until nearly 9pm,
kk I play a lot, and I know
in the Stones' record office in London, I
unbeknown to all,that ! like them."
remembered Jagger interviews of ages past.
he seemed
There wasBack in the early days when he seemed underconsiderably
GOATS HEAD SOUP
a time when,
terrible strain, but eager to communicate
dismayed, andunderstandably
a wealth of ideas. And later, around 1969, theapologetic.
in view of their

Too bad"1111111111/11/111111111111111"I really felt close

into it"

The R.offing Stones

122 I HISTORY OF ROCK 1973

Prod. Jimmy Miller
COC 59 101ft

P 1973
Rolling Stones
Records

ROLLING STONES

chequered career, Mick seemed to belosing interest in the Stones, and in beinga singer. The call of a career in films was
hard to resist. But now Jagger is back intomusic, going to hear as many concerts as
he can and helping along new groups.
"We've signed an American groupcalled Kracker, who will be on the tour
with us. They play rock, not loud like
Black Sabbath, but good and very tight.
I hope to get a bit more involved withthem, but of course what I'm mostinvolved in is doing our music.
"Really, I always have been into
rock'n'roll. There are periods when you
are just not into it at all. You can't spend
all your life being a Rolling Stone. Afteryou've done a tour and an LP, you've got
to think about something else."
The Rolling Stones have been in
existence now fora decade, outliving
even The Beatles, and a dozen shootingstars along the way. How many times
have we heard of the new solo star, about
to replace Mick Jagger. But here he is,back again, and selling concert seats
quicker than a brace of bumptious new
heavy groups, or freshly scrubbed teen
idols. Mick began to muse on the changes
he had seen in the rock scene.
"Yeah, there haven't been enoughchanges for me. It doesn't move fastenough. It's obviously changed in somerespects, and it's a much bigger scene, but
I'm not into your teenybopper things. I
think David Bowie is a very serious writer,and Slade are good, but they haven't
made it in America. Some of the bands
are good, but some are rubbish. I thought
the glamour thingwas funny, because
I've seen it all before, but it's difficult fortheAmericans to understand."
Didn't Mick regard it all as a challenge?
"I do, I do, I do! It's nice to see people

talking about England of course. I'mlooking forward to our tour. I don't knowwhat the audiences will be like, but we'll
play the best we can. I'm sure a lot of
people will have never seen the Rolling
Stones before; about 80 per cent will be
there for the first time. It won't be a cosy
Rolling Stones fan club convention.
Obviously there will be some who heard
us years ago, sol imagine the ages will be
between 12 and 30. Audiences can beveryweird sometimes."
How did Mick fit into Decadent Rock,a scene it is believed in some circles hepioneered manyyears before Dave
Bowie, Sweet or the New York Dolls?
"It's all wrong," said Mick, settingout across the carpet towards therecord player and heading back again
at a rate of knots. "People bandy thatword decadence about and don't
knowwhat it means. They haven't
seen decadence because they can't
see it in our society. They're too
involved in what they are doing to see
it. What do they mean by decadence bisexuality? That's not decadence,but people think there is somemystique about it. It's immaterial.
"I think David is sincere and I likewhat he does. It would be a lie to say

his image is hype. I think he's very
talented. I don't think in three years' time
we'll be laughing at what he does, 'cos he's
done it better than anybody else. When
we go on tour, we'll be putting on a show,
people will expect it of us, and I couldn't
just stand there and sing. It applies toeverybody; even the Pink Floyd do it.
"There are very few bands that don't put
on some kind of a show, except somebody
like Paul Simon. His show is raising aneyebrow or hearing a pin drop. But that's
still a show. I think our tour will be a bit ofa laugh. We're going to have Billy Preston
playing piano and three brass players,
and the stage setting will look nice."
Mick headed towards the record player
again, and this time decided to drop on
the turntable the first copy of Goats Head
Soup, for our delectation and delight.
He layon the floor and bellowed up
suitable comments as the album
progressed, while I imbibed a quantityof alcohol thoughtfully provided by Mr J.
The tracks he played were not necessarily
in the order they will appear on the final
album, release of which has been delayeda week. But he turned the volume up loudand whatever was played sounded good,a mixture of Stones funk and invention.
As Mick and I chatted quietly, andsomewhat dully, about the barriers to theStones working in Britain, income tax
problems and the intractability of the
trade union movement, I had the feelingthat just down the corridor wild scenes
and outrage were being enacted, towhich Mickwould shortly be a party.
"The only barriers are put up by thegovernment and trade unions, and they
are supposed to be the people there tohelp you," said Mick sagely. "The natural
thing is to play, and I don't see how
governments can object to that. A lot of
people wanted to see us in Japan, forexample. We asked the government there
if we could play and they said yes. We soldthe tickets, then two weeks later they said
we couldn't come in."Politics? "Oh yeah, of course it is, it allgets on too much of a high level, and you'dthink those people would havesomething better to do. But theywant tomake some political capital out of it. It's
all completely absurd. I don't know what
I'd do if I couldn't go out on the road; I'dprobably go mad. And we don't go aroundsmashing up hotel rooms. That can get a
bit boring, y'know. I go out to play musica nd that gets me off." Chris Welch"Each track isdifferent"w"G"
Silver Train is a fast rocker, could be described as
typical Rolling Stones, and said Mick: "It's the only one
like it on the album." It featured some nice slide guitar
by Mick Taylor, with a powerful bassline from Bill
Wyman, and chugging rhythm guitars.

Winter followed, a pretty song, with overtones of a Jimi
Hendrix -style ballad. And here Mick sings with great
emotion and power. Mick also added rhythm guitar andthere is much clunking piano.
Hide Your Love is a Stones boogie with muchhandclapping and boogie piano. Who was on the
piano? "Me."Can You Hear The Music is another rocker, with muchphrasing on the organ, and the Stones sounding a bit
like The Band in a Dylanish groove. Here Charlie Watts

excelled himself with that flat, laid-back sound. Flutemakes a surprise appearance - highly dramatic.
Dancing With Mr 0 is a highly evil rocker and myfavourite track on the album. Loosely termed a boogie
rocker with lots of noise and aggro. "Dance!" yells Mick
in a kind of demoniac exhortation.
100 Years has Mick singing solo, once again in Dylanish
mood (and here I am open to correction), with saucy
tempo changes of a kind we are not accustomed tohearing from the Stones. Again the lead guitar shows
signs of a Hendrix influence, and as the piece returns
to its original tempo takes on a country -soul -blues
mood that cues in a noisy, raucous climax.
Coming Down Again has Nicky Hopkins on piano, and isa very funky, slow blues.

Heartbreaker has a hook line that as far as I can recall
without having a copy of the album at my elbow went
something like this:"Doo, doo, doo, doo, doo", to which
my response was "yeah," and "rock on". The brass
helped a lot here.

Angie is the single, with another chance for Jagger
to shine as a vocalist of some stature, a fact whichsometimes gets lost amid the general ballyhoo. Charlie
clips beats off his hi -hat, and there is more good piano
beating. Who was Angie? Mick affected deafness.
"Each track is different," he said by way of explanation.
"and there was not a lot of overdubbing. The flute andstuff was added afterwards."

Starfucker One of the tracks Mick didn't play me
was the controversial "Starfucker", with its lyrics
which if included on the album would guarantee
it being banned on most radio stations. "Starfucker'
has such lines as: "If ever /get back to fun city, girl,I'm gonna make you scream all night/Honey,
honey, call me on the telephone/I know
you're moving out to Hollywood with
- GOATS HEAD SOUP your can of tasty foam." It sounds
damn rude to me. What always
amazes me about the Stones isthat they seem such nice lads inconversation, and yet all hell breaks
loose around them - enough to- THE ROLLING
keep papers in endless headlines.
STONESflancin0

with
Mr. ci

TRACK
BY
TRACK

-

HISTORY OF ROCK 1973 1123

JULY - OMER1973

"I want to beable to livewith myself"
NEIL YOUNG has hadenough of the musicindustry machineand craves simpler

shows. "Filling a
20,000 -seat hall is

not rock'n'roll," hesays, "but rock'n'rollbusiness." Live with
Joni Mitchell, he getsback to basics.

- MELODY MAKER AUGUST 25-

THE DEEP -SUNKEN EYES, the wide mouth, straggly and unkempt
hair, the rare smile, moody look and a load of "downer" songs - Neil
Young has all the trappings of a manic-depressive loner who has
seen it all. This is, of course, his huge appeal - few can resist his
powerful way with a song that articulates the mood of a period or
the depression of the wayward.
Beyond all these characteristics, though, Neil is a magnetic man of some style who
stands today as one of the few rock musicians who transcends boundaries between
honest musician and narcissistic personality. He's a star, all right, but he made it as amusician, so he ought to be at peace with his world. But he isn't.
Neil Young is not a cosy person. He has a strong presence but is deeply suspicious of
those outside his chosen circle of friends. He despises formality, especiallywhen it
involves answering questions about himself. He seems to live in perpetual fear that hewill be misunderstood. Don't we all? The difference with Neil is that he has allowed
this obsession to turn him into something of a recluse to all but the chosen few. My
interviewwith him began about a year ago in Los Angeles when he spent 15 minutes
telling me he didn't like the thought of bei ng interviewed but would happily chat.
Everyone knew this was nowhere.
The conversation was renewed and ended last week in the same office- his record
company HQ atAsylum on Sunset Boulevard -with Neil reaffirming that he didn't likebeing questioned by interviewers but go ahead. Bob Dylan, prophet of much of what
we survey, wrote "...itsonlypeople'sgamesyouhavetododge". And he was right again.
Neil was in a happy mood today. He joked a lot with Elliot
Roberts and David Geffen, his managers, made and acceptedlots of phone calls- "Hey, I'm acting like a businessman" and asked the telephonist to get him Carl Wilson.
"Carl Wilson isn't in," said the girl. "Find out where he is,then," said Neil. Just a minor retort, but with enough edge toshow that our star would not, even in a good mood, weaken
too readily. He picked away at a guitar and I asked him toelaborateon his decision to return to club work. He
condemned giant concerts at 20,000 -seater venues as"circuses," and said time had proved that these events a

1973
JUIY

SIV\OH

were an enemy of musicians and of little use tofans either. "That wasn't what we were chasingfrom the start, was it?" he asked.
Well, getting back to the roots was a noble
thought, but what about your ego, Neil? Doesn't
it need feeding any more? Supposing only 200
people buyyour next album...
"I've been right through that trip of massive
audiences and my ego has been satisfied.
I guess all these bands that are doing it haveto do it, but once you've done it, then what? You
realise that that's not what communicating is
all about. Filling a 20,000 -seat hall is not
rock'n'roll, but rock'n'roll business. I can't
Young and Nils Lofgren,
imagine any musician would say he really
who plays guitar aa d piano
as part of backing bandenjoyed it and wanted to go on doing it. So, it's
The Santa Monica Flyers,
back to clubs for me.
at the Rainbow, Nov 5,1973"I want to be able to see the people I'm playing
for and I want the people I play to to feel that themusic is being made just for them -you bounce
off people, that way. Getup, jump around, havea good time, get drunk- at least let's see eachother. That's what I go to a concert for.
"Fewer people will be seeing it, but the people
who come will have experienced something."
The changed attitude came during Neil's
marathon American tour last year. At Oakland
Coliseum, San Francisco, he was singing"Southern Man", he recalled, when a fan ran to
the front and jubilantly threw up his arms. The
guywas obviously happy. Next thingwas I saw this cop behaving
hysterically -he just ran up and smashed this guy down. I couldn't carryon playing, and this was a big concert.
"It was a terrible affair. It was like watching myself on TV and someone
had pulled out the plug I was playing on, but I couldn't believe what I'djust seen. I was disconnected. Then I got out of that place and I said tomyself, 'Who needs it?'
"Who needs to be a dot in the distance for 20,000 people and give thecops another excuse to get uptight and stop kids being happy? The circus
might be all right for some acts, but it's not for me any more. I'm tired ofsinging to a cop, that's all."As well as doing regular club work, Neil sees a fascinating future infilms. For the past 18 months he's been directing and producing his own
film ideas, called Journey Through The Past. A90 -minute colour movie, it
is described by Neil as like a study of the current American generation
rather than a rock film. Although its premiere performance takes placesoon in Boston, Massachusetts, the film has been banned in Britain,
presumably because of a shot in which a guy is fixed with heroin.
Yet Young insists the film takes a line against hard drugs and has "nonudity, sex or violence". He intends to keep resubmitting it to the British
censors in the hope that they will change their minds- "They're a lot of
fuddyduddies over there."
The movie features a student in a graduation gown who sees througha lot of experiences. And Neil said he intended, when making the film, todeal sanely with moral and political issues.
Obviously bitterly upset that his production has run into trouble, he
added: "I really would like British audiences to have a chance to see themovie -ever since my show at the Royal Festival Hall [two years ago [ , I've
realised the communication you can get with an audience. That was oneof the best things I've ever done, that Festival Hall."Films intrigue Neil
Young. He'd seen
Dylan's debut in Patc(y1you don't need subtitles," he observed. "If themovie doesn't make it on its own, it's a loser. This
was a winner." He doubted if reggae would takeoff as dramatically in the USA as in Britain. Too
manyAmericans and not enough West Indians?
The talk moved on to rock artists and theinsatiable determination of British bands to"make it" in America. As we spoke, a huge
billboard hung over Sunset Strip: "THE COSMIC
PUNK RETURNS" with a picture of Marc
heralding the imminent Bolan concert dates. In England, a similarly
prominent hoarding would proclaim the benefits of Bovril or Coke oreven something that carried a government health warning. Not in
Hollywood: rock is a dominant industrywhich is sold hard -and why not,when even your cab driver is often a lapsed musician?
"These British bands come over here and WORK SO HARD!" exclaimed
Neil. Elliot Roberts, a wry guy with a firm handshake, shook his head indisbelief. "They come over here and can't wait to see their names inlights outside the Continental Hyatt House and the Sunset Marquis,
and they set themselves up as the answer to this or the answer to that...""And," Neil finished, "by then you've forgotten what the question was in
the first place."
Neil's earlier remarks about concerts and his contemplation of highenergy contemporaries seemed to indicate a satisfaction of ego -feeding.
Would he ever go into the studio to concentrate on making a single ascommercial as "Heart Of Gold"?
"No -I've dropped 'Heart Of Gold' from my concerts now anyway, so
you can see how heavily I'm into perpetuating my singles! That track was
not made as a single -we went into the studio to cut the album and I guess
we were hot that night and it was a good cut, but it's gone now.
"I've seen a few artist who've got hung up on the singles market when
they've really been albums people. The telltale sign is when you try to get
off a wagon that comes naturally to you. It's easy to do, but if you're wise,
you staywith being what you really are. I want to be able to live withmyself... I just hope there's not a single off my next album."
So, with an enviable track record, Neil has climbed to the top of thehelter-skelter and has decided not to aim to repeat his past achievements.
There will be, he says, no more marathon tours that exhaust him and hismusicians; no more monster concerts that satisfy no one; no more hit
singles unless by accident; more new albums, yes, because they are him;
and an uncertain future in movies. It sounds like an anticlimax.
"Well, I guess I can understand that view but I'm at the point where I feelthe strain of having had a certain amount of success," he said. "I'm still
passing through, feeling my way. I haven't come out at the other end yet,and I'm not dead. I've got to go on living, being myself, really."
He talks, when he's relaxed, accompanied by expansive hand
movements, almost like he's conducting an orchestra. Insights into
his emotions are rare, but the spectre of the old days of Crosby, Stills,
Nash & Young didn't seem too far away when he said, in explaining his
distrust of interviewers: "I was the guy who was going to be NOTHING,
remember, and then suddenly I came up and everybody seemed to
expect me to go public. It's as if I hadn't been around for years then took
up playing the guitar." Ray Coleman"I'm tired ofsinging to acop, that's all"Garrett And Billy The

Kid, and laughed:"I'd rather see Roy
Rogers!" The Jimmy
Cliff masterpiece The
I larder They Come
had him enthused
and confirmed his
enjoyment of reggae.
"After half an hour,

NEIL YOUNG

The songs, most of them new, likeA manic depressive on an up
MM AUG 25'o weeks bet, recording his Tonight's The Night
Joni Mitchell jam together at a low-key show.

Louis IS ONSTAGE at the Corral, and Louisis rather stoned. He's trying to explain why
the 250 -odd kids here, crammedn -between the bar and the club's two pooltables, have paid their four dollars. It's not justapartments for students right in Topanga
Canyon. The Canyon, 45 minutes' drive awayfrom Los Angeles, down the Ventura Highway,
Is a wild beauty spot, and no goddamn
students ought to be out there, riding around
oaded on grass and whatever.
"Though I might do it myself," Louis grins
slyly. But then, Louis' head appears to beunsteady in any case. Truthfully, he is notpresenting a very good defence, and now
the kids, initially sympathetic, are getting
rather restless.
These kids are from California, wouldn't
you know, which doesn't just mean LA. Lotsof brown skin and beards, with voluminous
shirts hanging round their denims, andshouting "Awright! Awright!" in the breaks
between the songs.
Kids with long hair, but looking big andrough enough to be high school/college
football players. Still, the Corral is a gas ofa club, out here in beautiful, mountainous, but
above all hip Topanga Canyon. Where else
would you get beer in pitchers twice the sizeof steins and girls in bikinis hanging over thegreen baize and slotting eight -balls all aroundthe tables.
A large wooden shack on a mountain road,that's what it is -not Rodney Bingenheimer's
English Disco, Max's, the Marquee or the
Bitter End. But tonight is special, not justbecause it's Saturday, but because Neil Young
has decided he's had enough of playing
aircraft hangars round the country.
The story was out of the bag that morning.
Some loudmouth on the radio. Asylum
Records had wanted to keep it quiet -justword of mouth. But by mid -Saturday
afternoon there were at least 200 kids
clustered around the Corral, kicking theirheels in the heat and the dust. First come firstserved: a good Topanga Canyon principle.
So when Louis starts rambling and yawping
into the mic, there's much dissatisfaction
down on the floor, where legs and arms andbacksides have all been joined together in
painful congress.
Everyone has sat and squirmed through The
Eagles' souped -up country rock, with notably"This scruffy

land -boy, wielding
a guitar like it wasa buzz saw, here
in his backyard"LIVE!
- AUGUST12 -\leil and Joni: fun night at
MICHAEL WATTS

appeals)s Angeles

)t Is

is

onstage atCorral.

And

colleenIt seems somewants lo build apArtments forright In Tows*
students

45
Canyon,The
Canyonminutt s dri s e awes from Los

it was, he's said it all before. Maybe he's too
happy now, living up in La Honda with Carrieand child Zeke. The best writing generally
comes when you're a little lonely or sad, orbored. Neil's a manic depressive on an up. It'sfine picking by Bernie Leadon on electric
the classic confrontation between personalbanjo. And they've observed with reverence
and artistic welfare.
four songs by Joni Mitchell; even yelled out
What saves it, what disguises the aesthetic"You're beautiful, Joni" while their anal bones
distinctions, is the momentum of his character.
groaned at the hardness of the floor.
This scruffy land -boy, wielding a guitar like it
Therefore Louis - and who is he, anyway? - had
was a buzz saw, out here in his own backyard.
better be quiet. Neil Young says so."Shuttup,
There's almost a Neanderthal air about him;
Louis," he grins, "We want music."that prognathous look, those heavy eyeNeil has arrived on stage, with his blue checkbrows. It's less the excellence of the music
shirt flapping behind him and long greasy hairthan the fierce proximity, though no one
falling over his face, like a sheepdog out in the
could deny that Lofgren, particularly, is a finerain, and he looks less a musician, really, than
pianist and an even greater guitarist. No one
some farmer's son; strapping, you might say,has been short-changed.
nothing cool or groovy.
And he has one very arresting new song
The audience is his mirror. He even used
after all. "Tired Eyes", it's called. Great, hip to live up here in the Canyon before hedramatic intro: " Well he shot fourmen in awent further north, to La Honda, near San
cocaine deal..." Drugs and murder, the richFrancisco. Went occasionally to the Corral.
spice of American "other life". "Please take my
It couldn't be a more apt place for his initialadvice", he sings. Neil Young may be anti -drug,
return to the clubs.
but he has a fascination with the romance
And there's Nils Lofgren ofof the needle that is
Grin and Crazy Horse. his old
positively Poe-ish.
back-up buddy -a kid with
What offends the censors
the puffy look around thein his film Journey Throughmouth of Keith Richard Nils.
The Past is a scene involving
testing out the piano. Ralph
shooting up. But that high,Molina settles back behindthin voice strains with thethe drums, and Billy Talbot
lament, and the auto straps on the bass, and Ben
destructiveness of the act
Keith, all denimed-out,
dissolves in the sweetness
essays a few darting runs
and languor of the romantic.
across the fretboard of theSometime he should record
pedal steel.
Bert Jansch's "Needle Of Death".
Neil, he's plugging in, all the while ignoring
But by the time the second show comesLouis, who finally says, "To hell with Neil!" Butaround he's digging into his own past withit's OK because we're all men here. It's only
"Cowgirl In the Sand". Lofgren has on a pairsuperstars who get uptight. And eventuallyof horn rims now, and the guitars are
Louis gets the message and teeters off. An
counterpointing on the breaks. Joni gets up
amiable fool, after all.
with an electric guitar and sings a song to theiFour American Indians and some kind of
backing that she's written that very afternoon,
chief are in the audience. A couple of kids, onhigh up on the grassy Topanga peaks.
the tipsy side, sidle near and ask loudly what
The hard clicks from the pool tables are lost"these rednecks" are doing here. Joni wasin the sound and the sweat. The club has its
trying to get them to play some of theirown romance, really: that a couple of palpable
ceremonial music, but it's no good now.
superstars should drop in and play together.
So they watch impassively as Neil Young
The funny thing is, by the end of the night it's
stomps into his first number of the night, a
not Joni Mitchell or Neil Young, it's the clublittle thing off his next album called "Walk On",
itself that's the star.
which he is to perform four times this evening.
Even funnier, when it's all over you realise
The jagged edges are noticeable.
how precisely it's the surroundings
Neil goes horribly flat when hethat create the illusion of stardom.
tries to scale those high notes;
After two sets it could've been
he attempts again and again,
almost anybody up there
THE CORRAL
until finally he blurs the vocal
onstage. Dangerous thing,- TOPANGA CANYON, LA into the mix of instruments.
stardom. Still, it was reallyAnd he's no more than
OK at the Corral thea reasonable rhythm player
other Saturday evening.
on guitar.
Michael Watts

music, it's for a cause.
"Like, we gotta raise the money to get aawyer and stop them doin' this!" he appeals.
It seems some college wants to build

money tc get a lawyer andstop them drain' this!" he"Albuquerque,""Speakin' Out" and"Mellow My Mind", seem ordinary. Whatevertine rather restless.
These kids

iornia,arewouldn't, and the tablesfrom Call.

you

know,

which doesn't just mean I..A.

and
skin
Lots
voluminous
withbeards,shirts hanging round theirout
shouting
denims, ndawright! awrIghtl" In the

of

brown

A large wooden thick on a
mountain road, that's what It
is - nut Rodney Bingernhet.
mer's I .ngli sh Crises, or Max's
the hi,trtree. or the BitterEnd. But tonight is special,
not lust loccuse it's Satur-day, hut because Nell Young
ided

had Ann u he OK Corral
Topanga Canyon principle
start,
Louts
when
So
rambling and yawping Intothe mi{kt, there's much ells,
the
on
down
satisfaction
floor, where legs and arms
and backsides have ell been
In painful
joined together
congress.
Fvuryone

has

sat

and

so.

Shultup,arrivedonstage.

says

5 °UnitLoult," he grins. " We wantmusic."
Nell haswith his blue check shirt
flapping behind him and longgreasy hair falling over his
face,

like

aheepdog out In

the rain, and he -looks leasmusician, really, than somefermr'Sson:strapping,youAlbert Hallybans

1973 \OCTOBER-DOUR

BRIAN ENO, THE WHO,DAVID BOWIE, RONNIELANE AND MORE'st.

A seasonal offering
NME NOV 10 Slade adapt a two yea.og for Christmas.

'

SLADE RELEASE THEIR first ever seasonal single next
month. Titled "Merry Xmas Everybody", it is issued by
Polydor on December 7. Following the style of theircurrent single "My Friend Stan", in which the letter 'n'appears the wrong way round, the official spelling of their
new title has the letter's' back to front. However, release of
their new album - completed in London before their US tour

and mixed in the States -has been delayed until February
because the group have decided on a totally new sleeve idea.
The band have scrapped their original intention to playthree or four "Christmas party" type concerts in London
mid -December. This is partly due to recording commitments,
but mainly because, in view of the seasonal nature of their new
single, they will be appearing extensively on television during
the pre -Christmas period.
Slade are currently touring Europe, and Noddy Holder isexperiencing no further problems with the virus infection
which caused a delay in the opening of the tour. Said a
spokesman: "His back has responded well to heat treatment."
The group go into the studios early next month to start workon a new album -this will be for release after their LP now
rescheduled for February.
They return to America in January for a one -month tour, thenfly to Japan for their first ever visit to that country, followed byanother concert tour ofAustralia.
It now seems unlikely that Slade
will be playing any live dates in
Britain before May.
Slade's new Christmas single
was, in its basic form, written two
years ago by Noddy Holder andJimmy Lea. But it was not until
two months ago that they had
the idea to adapt the lyric into
a seasonal offering.
128 I HISTORY OF ROCK 1973

Slade f ilming a pop

show for Dutch
television in 1973

o manypeop ewan
to live in a c aravan":Ronnie Lane in London

with someof theprops
for hisnewroadshow"It had to be a complete change
MM DEC1 Former Face Ronnie Lane debuts a customarily dis
thnn eirrim " +hf, ferwaitinPlinri rruc;'^;111
SOME POP STARS like to rock. Somepop stars like to roll. But little Ronnie
Lane has got the gypsy in his soul. One
day this year, Mr Lane, a rich and successfulrocker, who had once been a poor but popularrocker, decided that jet time lag, motel food,endless tours and the prospect of theinevitable country mansion was not for him.
Laney, bass guitarist with the Faces, and
Rod Stewart's alter ego, decided to strike out
on his own and take a long, cool look at his life.
With a fine new single under his belt andexciting plans for the future in hand, some ofthe old Lane spark had returned, as he talked
about his remarkable venture The Passing
Show, and his life in a caravan.
For Ronnie wants to takerock back to the people,
and travel around thecountry with a kind ofmusical circus, pitching tent
where'er the authorities will
supply water and essential
services. He has alreadyhad a test run on Clapham
Common and next year will start a kind of
pilgrimage around England.
What was the first show like? "Oh, ashambles. But if it had been more professional,
it wouldn't have been as good. The idea for theshow has been in my mind for ages, but now it

130 I HISTORY OF ROCK 1973

raised new venture... The Passing

cnnotir4tn,' rwnkinc "Tnrri'kh +2'n!

has come together just at the right time. All
the problems I thought would have beenaround, people have come along and said,'Oh, I can take care of that.' It's really weird theway it's coming together.
"The problems were, y'know, getting a site,and sussing out the authorities, and theregulations on fire and sanitation. I went into
see Brian Hutch at GM records and told him
what I wanted to do and he said: 'Are you
serious? Well, I was brought up in a circus, andmy parents are still in circus, over in France.' So
he introduced me to all the right people.
"Not many people want to live in a caravan,of course. But I've been doing it all year,
parked in people's drives. It's a 1920s fortuneteller's wagon -a lovely old
thing. I must say, I'm very
happy doing it.
"We're now in the processof buying a load of old singledecker London Transport
buses, 'cos they're in goodnick. We'll put bunks in andturn them into box offices,
etc. We'll have to see how the money comeson, because the mobile recording studio took
the guts out of my bank balance. But that's
doing well, isn't it? Did The Who's
Quadrophenia on that, and it's starting to pay
for itself. Chipperfield's Circus have been

"We'll grow veg
in window boxeson the wagon"

11

incredibly helpful in the project, and they area bit excited about it."
What will the show consist of, when thecaravans and tents hit town? "Well, there'll beme! It'll be more carnival than circus. The
audience will come basically because it's music,
and there won't be any animals or trapeze acts.
But we'll have dancing girls and a good
comedian/compere. I ain't worried because
it'll come together and it's out of my hands now.
"It'll be a circus in as much as we'll be living
like circus people. I'm hoping that Gallagher &Lyle will be involved in the show, although I
hope I'm not shooting my mouth off too soon.
"We get on very well and they're also on me
record. They'll definitely be involved, but I
haven't exactly approached old ladies yet.
'You won't get me in a bleeding wagon!' But
it's got to be your life, and you've got to love it.
Travelling Hippy Commune!" Ronnie laughedat the headline. We'll grow our own veg, inwindow boxes on the wagon. Terribly trendy."
Does Ronnie come from Romany stock,
perchance? "No, I don't think so. There wasa tinker some way back. And the Lanes used
to travel some distance as haulage, y'know,
heavy duty? And me dad was a long-distancelorry driver. I always seemed to like travellingaround, that's for sure. I get itchy feet pretty
quick," he said, pacing restlessly around theroom. "That's why I never built the studio inany one place. I thought, soon as you build it.
you'll want to move."
After all the travelling he'd done with theFaces, didn't he want to take a rest? "Yeah, but
this is a different type of travelling. The otherway is being transported. I'm going to enjoy it
this way. I really got unhappy with the old way,
which started all sorts of things. So I got out inthe end. Also I've got a family now. I was givena family overnight. And I don't want to keep
putting them second to the band. This way, atleast we can all go together. The old lady will
be dancing, and working in the canteen. The
kids will be working an' all."Ronnie's tent will hold about 2,500 people
and he'll be charging Et a head admission.
Seating will be in tiers, with an area for dancing
during food and refreshments. And the hopeis to involve local communities that don't often
hear live music.
"There's so much you can do in a tent, and ofcourse the acoustics will be the same eachnight, which solves a lot of problems. And also
it will go to a lot of places where kids don't havebands. We'll be going to recognised circus
sites of course, with all the power laid on.
"I was amazed how together these placesare. They've even got 'phone lines. I'm very
concerned that we play in a nice environment,
because I've got to live in it fora start.
"We'll be starting off in the spring. It's a bit
cold at the moment. And my caravan is a bit
old. Cough in the night and all the sides fall off.
But some of the big trailers are beautiful much better than living in hotels."Will Ronnie be forming a band? "Well, it's
Gallagher & Lyle; at the moment I haven't got
a band. I just called it Slim Chance fora laugh.
But playing with me at the moment is Bruce
Rowland on drums, Chris Stewart on bass anda young American fellow, Bill Livesy, on
keyboards, and an amazing sax player called
Jimmy Jewell. He does a lovely solo on the
B-side of the single. Oh, and Kevin Westlake
on guitar. He helped me write 'How Come'.
"I made the single because I was getting a
bit bored, and Glyn Johns said I should makeone. The band is not committed to anything,'cos I've got nothing to offer them and there
are no immediate plans. I could have got a band
together and gone out doing the same sort ofcircuits as the Faces, and that would be very
depressing. It had to be a complete change.""It's horrible going over the same ground.
And there seemed no end to it. I woke up one
morning and thought,'When's it all going toend?' I'd been at it for eight years, and I still
hadn't got around to singing any of me songs.
This time last year. I went over to Ireland, lived ina Land -Rover, and went singing in pubs. just so I
could sing some of me own songs for a change.

"I was getting very frustrated. You see, mysongs weren't really suitable for the Faces.
They are aloud, hard rock'n'roll band. Whereas
this band will be much lighter and looser."
It seems as if the years of pent-up frustrationand endless chasing around are over and ahighly talented singer and writer will at last beable to shine forth. So book your seats early,
folks. Ronnie Lane is coming to town! Chris Welch

Ronnie Lanechanges face

"He was very

very anti-glam"
MM OCT 20 .xplained: thi
relationship between David Bowie
and his former manager, Ken Pitt.
BY NOW WE know most of the facts

Bowie in1968:

concerning the extraordinary rise
and rise of Mr Tony Defries and his
glamorous protégé, young Dave Bowie.
What's not so apparent is the history ofBowie's relationship with his former
manager, Mr Kenneth Pitt.

and -interested
in Buddhism"

Mr Pitt, who shared a flat with Bowie,
managed him from '66 to April 1970, when
the two parted company on a handshake.
"We spoke for half an hour and then he said,'Thank you, Ken.' We still see each other."He's rather concerned that the true facts of
their period together are appreciated. For
instance, he says that Bowie's association
with the mime artist Lindsay Kemp has beenmuch exaggerated. "I saw something in somedreadful weekly pop magazine, The History
Of Pop or something, thatsays he was with him for
two years. That's very
misleading. He'd neverbeen to the theatre before
he met me. I took him tolots of things. We went todreadful things and lovely things. One I
remember was Cliff Richard at the London
Palladium, a pantomime, because I wanted
him to see exactlywhat he shouldn't be. We'"introverted"because I was very much into theatre myself.
There was something incredible in the way hemoved, his eyes, the little indefinable things.
I used to talk to him about costume."
Did he resent Defries' arrival on the scene?
"Well, he introduced himself to me as alawyer. I met him for less than half an hour,and shortly afterwards he left his firm oflawyers to join Laurence Myers (at GEM), andone of his first clients was Bowie. But Defries
and I are totally in two different worlds. He
doesn't have any pretensions to the artistic,
I don't think. He's totally a businessman.
"I'd be surprised if he

had any connection withDavid as an artist. He
could've helped to
discipline him as an artist,
I suppose, but ! think Angie
has helped too."Ah yes, the fairAngela currently residing"We went to see

Joe Orton's Loot"also went to see Joe Orton's Loot.
"He always had the potential, but I think it
had to be done on his terms and in his own
time. You see, intellectually, he had a lot goingfor him even at 18. But he went through aperiodwhen he was tremendously introverted,
when his brightest colourwas black, and he
was very, very anti-glam. That would be when
he was interested in Buddhism.
"I first took to him because I wanted
someonewho wasn't the usual run-of-themill guitar cowboy, driving up and down the

MI andallthat. I wanted somethingtheatrical

under the pseudonym of Jipp Jones, as welearn from an embarrassing piece of crap in
the Look! pages of the Sunday Times. Mr Pittwas not too forthcoming about her. "At thefirst meeting I liked her. She struck me as oneof those very clean, all-American co-eds."
He paused. "But then she changed. For theworse." Her influence on Bowie? "Whatever
she did, she did it behind locked doors."
We asked him, finally, if Bowie had in fact
been bisexual, as he himself had admitted.
It hadn't simply been a stunt? "Yes, but notthat anyone would know. He was certainly
bisexual. But he's done a lot of good. He's
liberated a lot of oppressed people."Amen, as the RevTroy Perry might say.

"Consider the man's
intelligence,/ ,NME NOV 3 I .ij,son_.+ed a bank account?
I

JIM MORRISON DIDN'T die in his bath tub in Paris. as has been popularly supposed.
He's just opened up a bank account in San Francisco. This is the rumour spreading
around California this week following a report on the UPI press wires to the city's
newspapers. But the plug has been pulled out by one Danny Sugarman, press agent for thelate Doors, who currently looks after the interest of Ray Manzarek and Iggy Pop.
Sugarman hastily denied the story and hoped that it wouldn't reach Morrison's wife,
Pamela, who's about to visit the UK."Jim's dead," he told us, "and has been for going on
three years now. One point in the rumour suggests that he's opened a bank account in his real
name. Consider the man's intelligence - carrying out his own death and funeral just to appear
gone, and then to be so careless as to bank using his own name. It doesn't make sense."
At any rate. Sugarman finalised, poor old Jim remains in the earth. where he's been
since July 3,1971.

5

HISTORY OF ROCK 1973 1131

1973

OCTOBER -OW"I don't like

synthesizers,
I mustf ,,BRIAN Et

hasamicably departed
Roxy Music ("lacking
insanity"), and as heessexplains is "a luxury"

in any group. A non -MELODY MAKER OVEMBER 10-'LL MAKEA prediction here," said Brian Eno, stretched out on asofa and looking as wan and wasted as a consumptive 19th -century
poet. "I think, in fact, I shall be seen as a rock revivalist in a funnyway, because the thing that people miss when they do their rockrevival rubbish is the fact that early rock music was, in a lot of cases,
the product of incompetence, not competence."
And if there's one thing that Eno is, it's an incompetent musician. That's what hethinks anyway. "There's a misconception," he continued, "that these people werebrilliant musicians and theyweren't. They were brilliant musicians in the spiritual
sense. They had terrific ideas and a lot of ball or whatever. They knew what thephysical function of music was but theyweren't virtuosi."
lust like Eno, see?The reaction he's predicted should follow the release on
January 11 of his solo album. He's finished it. He played me the tapes. It's great stuff,
marvellous fun. There's a track with out -of -tune piano, there's a track that's just twonotes, there's a track with a frantic Fripp scrubbing a violent solo, there's a track withgreat and witty lyrics, which sounds as though it just might be a dig at Ferry.
Lovely titles, too - "Blank Frank", "Dead Finks Don't Talk", "Driving Me
Backwards". Brian Eno is a complete contradiction. His glamorous stage appearance
presupposed a cultured speech, a distant coolness. In private his accent is softened
cockney; his manner is open and friendly.
His face is like one ofTolstoy's starving artists. Gaunt, aquiline, sensitive nose, highcheekbones topped with thinningwhite hair which is streaked with reddish rustcolouring over the right ear. The surroundings in this Ladbroke Grove living room
match the image perfectly. Faded elegance. A fox fur hanging over a cane room divider,a broken rocking horse in one corner, shelves of books, records and tapes in another.
Since leaving Roxy, Eno's been working prolifically. He's recorded an album withBob Fripp, he's recorded his own solo material for future solo albums and he's heavily
involved in the formation of an avant-garde music label. All this and he's bringing
fun back into rock, too.
It has made him ill. He can't swallow, yet he's often very, very hungry. The night
before, he'd bought a three -course meal and, he says, had just about managed to eat
the soup. His weight is down to 8st llb and, dressed in black shirt and trousers, he
132 I HISTORY OF ROCK 1973

musician, he trades inideas and fun, hoping
to make a record
with Percy Edwards.

"I'm interested inthings being absurd,"
he explains.

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shortly before therelease of Rosy
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looks like a pencil. But though he's not physically fit, his eyes have a brightsparkle. They laugh.
Brian Eno left Roxy Music because he got bored. "First of all, let me saythat I think Boxy is a great band and I think their new album is terrific."
Right. "But what it lacks for me is one of the most important elements ofmy musical life, which is insanity. I'm interested in things being absurd
and there was something really exciting in Roxy at the time. We were
juxtaposing things that didn't naturally sit together."
Brian liked the awkwardness of the early band - "things were just being
collaged together. The element of clumsiness and grotesqueness that
arose from that early thing ceased to be there." Everyone in Roxy had
completely different talents and interests and "there was a terrific tension
at one stage in the music, which I really enjoyed."
You get one person playing simple rhythms (himself, for instance,
stabbing chords on piano, playing simply through sheer necessity) andanother would play complex patterns over the top. There's a lot of that
contrast in ability on his solo album because he used musicians fromtotally different areas in the sessions. There was, for instance, Fripp andJohn Wetton on bass and Simon King on drums "and me on piano, andI can't play piano to save my life. I think it's successful because the pianoand drums are so restricted in what they do that it gives those other
instruments a terrific amount of freedom."
There's an impression that Eno is trying to recreate the early spirit ofRoxy Music and move it in a direction that he would've preferred. Thereis, however, no great evidence of any personal friction between Eno andFerry. "The problem in the last year of being in Roxy was that I didn't feelthat there was any time to experiment."
Eno could get an idea he'd want to try, but he'd need time to set it up,
say, in an hour. "Since we were paying equally for the studio time, it'squite expensive... It works out at about £10 each for me to do an
experiment, and it's in the nature of an experiment that it might fail."
He laughs. The fallacy of rock music, says Eno, is that experimental
music is successful. That, he says, is obvious but not true. It wouldn't be
an experiment if there wasn't a chance of failure. He's spent awhole day inthe studio just trying fora sound and he neverreached it. That's experimenting.
"The worst thing about feeling that constraintof time is you feel you must make safe
experiments, so you don't actually move very far
because you do things that you know have a very
good chance of succeeding."
Eno first got into music through poetry. He
used to sing along to records a lot, of course, andby the time he was 10 could do a very fair Buddy
Holly imitation. He never thought he'd be in agroup, though. He couldn't play an instrument,
which doesn't really help, and he had no
inclination to learn, which also doesn't help.
His first real instrument was a tape recorder. "It was the first thing
I learnt to use in a creative way. I think the only way one can define amusical instrument is a piece of equipment, be it a piece of wood withmetal on or a couple of engi nes with tape on them, that one uses to createor transform sounds." The first things Eno did were connected withphonetic poetry rather than music and singing. He'd build up tracks withspoken words and then he'd talkover the top of them. He did this at
Ipswich Art College, where he wasmyself becoming more and more interested in avant-garde music."
He found that music was a much quicker medium than painting andtherefore more satisfying to him. There wasn't such a gap between theformation of an idea and its execution. That's why his paintings areunfinished or completed in "a very unconvincing way. They looked as if
I'd got bored halfway through, which in fact is what had happened."
Music was that much more immediate. As soon as you start you'remaking sounds. "It's an activity that has a more direct emotional appeal."That's why most of the art forms revolve around music, says Eno. He shifts
his light bulk in the sofa. His empty stomach is causing some aggravation.
He got into rock music in 1969. He was a singer for a short while before
returning to the avant-garde fold. But it was an important few months.
The group was Maxwell Demon.
Their music, says Eno, was "not unlike some of the stuff on my album,
actually. It was very advanced in some ways but backward in others. We
didn't rehearse very much and I never used to write lyrics, or not verymuch. I used to improvise them, which is, in fact, how most of the lyrics inthis [solo album] are done."
Eno improvises and then writes the lyrics down: "The way I write lyrics
is very interesting... I don't know if I should reveal it before I patent it."
Maxwell Demon was an ambitious project. It took a lot of confidence to
get on stage with 10 minutes' rehearsed music and play for an hour. By
definition, improvisatory bands like that often do things which don't
workout.
Eno found it "quite nerve-racking. I thought it craved the indulgenceof the audience a bit too much really, but it was a very useful experience
because it indicated that I did have a feeling for rock music that I wasn't
aware of before, and also that I really loved singing. I really loved it, very,
very much. And I never forgot that."
After Maxwell Demon broke up, Eno thought that this flirtation withrock had come to an end. The fact that he couldn't play an instrument was
the problem once again; he'd be a luxury in any group. Then in early 1971
a group was formed that needed a luxury addition. Eno joined Roxy. He'dknown Andy Mackay from some work they'd done on one or two avantgarde electronic music things.
One of the reasons Eno thinks he was asked tojoin is because he wouldn't play the instrument
in an ordinaryway, "which is the mostpedestrian and boring way imaginable, where
they treated it as an extended Farfisa organ".
It's not as good as a Farfisa for that type ofwork, says Eno, and anyway he thinks that theterm "synthesizers" should be extended toinclude the more general term "electronic". The
people he likes for electronics are Phil Spector
and Jimi Hendrix. People who realise that "whatthey're doing is awhole extended process rightup to the loudspeakers. I don't like synthesizers,
I must confess at this stage. They've got so many bad associations."
He's always asked about people like Walter Carlos and so on but says,"I'm totally bored by them, I really am."
In electronics and avant-garde music, John Cage has most influenced
him as a theorist; Morton Feldman has been most important as acomposer. "The idea of music as being just a chunk out of a longer
continuum has always appealed to me. That's why I like The Velvet
Underground. You get the feeling with a lot of their tracks that they
started many years later and all you're hearing is just a chunk taken out
somewhere and put on to the record."
Much of Eno's solo album has that same feeling; quite a lot of the Fripp/
Eno has it too. The collaboration happened quite by accident when Eno
mentioned to Fripp that he'd invented something that treated guitarsounds in an unusual way. Bob popped in one night, tried out the device,
immediately realised what was happening to the sounds and adapted toit, played on it as though it was the most natural thing to do.
"The first side of that album took literally 15 minutes to make. Nobody
believes that, because there were about 50 guitars on it and it wasn't
doctored or anything."
Eno had "invented" a whole mess of things that relate to the use of taperecorders. Once you accept, he says, that all you're dealingwith is time
and the ability to hold things from the past it's quite simple.
"Nothing I've ever done with a tape recorder is brilliant... It's justobvious if you think of what the true function of a tape recorder is - ifyou
think of it as an automatic musical collage device.""I spend mylife in studios
and feel very
ill as a result"studying art.
"I was a painter... not a very good
one incidentally."
He leans over the side of the sofa
and produces a plastic bag. It's full of
notebooks. In them are descriptionsof his paintings. "They're far better
than the paintings, they really are"(thateye-sparkinglaughagain).
"Someone's making a film about thenotebooks at the moment."
He opens one. It's full of minutewriting and diagrams. They go backto when he was about 16 and look
like Leonardo da Vinci's earliest
doodlings. "Then ! gradually foundMarch 2.1973:-The idea of music

just beinga chunkout of a longer
continuum has
always appealed"

Brian Eno reckons he'd perform on stage again at some time,
but not heavy touring. "I thinkwhat I'm doing at the moment ismuch more important to me than performing anyway."
He prefers the studio. It's become his natural environment.
He doesn't feel it necessary to direct musicians. He just listens
to what they're playing and "then I'd take what they're doing
and say, 'What position does this put me in?' and 'How can I
justify the musical idea to suit?'"I just find myself so happy in studios... (that laugh again) so happy, I just spend my life in them and feel very tired andvery ill as a result."

The musicians on the solo album, says Eno, don't mind his
manipulation of their sound. They knowwhat to expect when
they play on his sessions... "If nothing else I'm known as being
a mutator of sound.
"I learnt very much doing this album. I did this very quickly.
I recorded it in 12 days, so it's quite a cheap album."
He had a good relationship with the engineer, which wasimportant for his type of work. "Empirically, I knowwhat
sounds I want, though in technical terms ! might not be able toexpress them as well."
In many ways he sounded like Willie Mitchell describing thedevelopment of the "Al Green sound".
Eno has already started on his second solo album. It sounds,
judging by the tapes he played me, an extension of the firstalbum. No new directions, just working the same field a bit
more. He shifts in the sofa again and looks uncomfortable,
pained. A bit more talk about Roxy, perhaps.
He enjoyed America when theywere there. Not the playing
but the stimulating tension of NewYork, Los Angeles, andChicago. "I get the feeling that I enjoyed America more thananyone else in Roxy. It was disappointing in terms of playing,
because it was a very badly structured tour."Eno hates touring. So much time is wasted in travelling, so
little is spent on music. On that US tour he worked out that they
were in America for four or five weeks. In all they played 10hours' music. Such a waste.
Now he's left Roxy the group has, apparently, eased off the glamour.
"I assume they'll have replaced it with some other kind of image. I don't
know, but Roxy is in a position nowwhere it doesn't have to push itself inanyway. People are going to come to the concerts however the band looks
or however they play," he laughs that twinkling laugh.
"It's true, it's evidently true." That accent. The 'tees' and 'aitches' are
beginning to fall away like autumn leaves. "After awhile, so many

assumptions are made about your music, the audience is actually
hearing assumptions rather than sounds. It really is irrelevant how Roxyplay -for awhile anyway."
Eno, by the way, thinks they playverywell but were under -rehearsed forthe start of their tour. He'll probably go see them at the Rainbow. Had Eno
developed his 'glamorous' image deliberately? Was this a slight blush?
"I don't think one ever does consciously plan out a campaign that way.
What tends to happen is that you do something, it gets responded to well,so you do it a bit more and you keep doing it more until the response starts
falling off."
He's always been doing things like the glam bit, though. "It wasn't adifficult thing to do. I didn't suddenly think I'm gonna change my life anddo this; it just seemed like a natural thing for me to do."He shifts once more. Lights a cigarette. The pause lengthens. That smile
erupts. "It's connected with sexual affairs quite strongly, I should
imagine. In away that ! can't amplify on either."
Then let us talk, I suggested, about the avant-garde label he's trying tosetup. At present there's Gavin Bryars and there's the Portsmouth
Sinfonia. Bryars, it seems, happened to be walking under Waterloo
Arches in 1968 with a portable tape recorder in hand. He recorded a
tramp singing a hymn- "Jesus' Blood". He made a tape loop of it, wrote ascore for it, hired a small orchestra and recorded each instrument coming
in one at a time. First strings, then bass, then tuba, then organ, etc. So thatover this "very sad, broken old voice" a beautiful orchestra builds up.
Sounds a bit like "Amazing Grace" tome, but Eno reckons it'll get
compared to Terry Riley. Everything avant garde gets compared to Terry
Riley, he says, and cites a review of the Fripp / Eno album as evidence.
The Sinfonia are, says Eno, "a group of musicians of varying degrees ofcompetence". Some can play, some can't; some can read music; some

can't. There seem to be more can'ts than cans. They try to play the
popular classics seriously, but their untutored personnel ensure it comesout sounding very funny. The violin section, for instance, has a good leadviolinist whose fingering is copied by the man sitting next to him, who iscopied by the one next to him and soon.
"So there's a delay in terms of time and a decay in terms of accuracy...
you get this very lush feeling to the thing."
It may sound pretty appalling, but Eno's enthusiastic about it. "The vast
majority of these people can't play their instruments and yet they aredefinitely producing music."
Brian Eno is the clarinettist in the Portsmouth Sinfonia: "And if you
think I'm bad at guitar"... the smile glows again.
There's also another project he's toying with. "I actually thought ofwriting a piece of music and not using rock musicians at all for it and yet
try to make it sound like rock music. People like Winifred Atwell andLarryAdler and Percy Edwards. It would be just amazing to get them intoa studio to try to make rock music with them."Though he may be feeling physically drained at the moment, Eno's
been talking for almost two hours with infectious enthusiasm. If he sells
enough solo albums, he may get on the road but it'll have to be a short tour.
Travelling is, he reiterates, an unproductive chore and his healthdeteriorates and he needs a long time after to get creatively thinking
again. He's unsure whether the usefulness of playing live is worth theaggravation, though it does feed a certain side of his ego.
Eno on stage getting the buzz from the crowds, roaring through theencore ("Roxy always played best on encores"), then slumping like azombie in the dressing room. Is that all there is? "Inevitablyyou wantsomething more to happen to carry the feeling on."A recording studio back at the hotel would get some great music taped,
he says. The release, of course, would usually come in wenching andclubbing. Apparently, unlike the rest of Roxy, Eno has little trouble in thisdirection. Did he miss that aspect of the road, that type of release?
He got up from the sofa and disappeared into the kitchen. He returned
with a plate. On it rested half a pineapple. He bit squelchily into its flesh
just as a tall, somewhat gorgeous female creature walked into the livingroom. Brian Eno munches at the pineapple. It looked like he was startingto eat again anyway. GeoffBrown
HISTORY OF ROCK 1973

135

1973

I

OCTOBER -DECEMBER. THE WHO are finally back, to out -Tommy

Tommy. Pete Townshend untangles

Quadrophenia and the "essence of whatmakes everything tick". "The real hero,"he says, "is this kid on the front."

Late November, 973:
after struggling tointegrate quadraphonicbacking tapes intotheir
UK shows, The Who take

Quadrophenia to the USA
on the Fallout Shelter tour

HISTORY OF ROCK 1973 1137

1973
CCTOBERDECEMBERNME

TOBER 27 -TOWNSHEND'S QUADROPHENIAIS a rather daunting

proposition. Another Who double -album rock opera?
About a kid called Jimmy? With a massive booklet ofgrainy monochrome tableaux stapled into the sleeve?
With titles like "The Real Me", "I Am The Sea", "Love
Reign O'er Me" and "I'm One"?
The mind boggles, and you get the sneaking feeling that Pete
Townshend has tried to out -Tommy Tommy and gone sailing right over
the top. The impression even persists when you start playing Side One.
The first thing you hear is a Desert Island Discs surf -crashing -on -the shore sound effect in sumptuous stereo while distant echoed voices
intone the four principal themes from the piece.
Then it suddenly cuts into "The Real Me", and you hear that sound, as
uncompromisingly violent as a boot disintegrating a plate -glass window
at 4am, and simultaneously as smooth as a night -flight by 747. Prime -cut
Who, and suddenly you realise that Pete hasn't
blown it after all. Face it, he very rarely does.
Quadrophenia is both less and more ambitious
than its notorious predecessor. Tommytripped overits mysticism rather too often for comfort, and after
being the indirect godfather to everything from

Jesus Christ Supersta r to LtggyStardust, it didn't seem likely thatTownshend himself would return to the scene of his former semi -triumph.
However, he has avoided most of the expected pitfalls with his
customary agility. The hero of this little extravaganza is Jimmy, thearchetype mod. Frustrated, inarticulate, violent, thoroughly confused
and prone to all the ills that teenage flesh is heir to.
Each member ofThe Who represents a different side of his character,and a recurring musical theme. Keith Moon represents the "bloody
lunatic", John Entwistle is "the romantic", Roger Daltrey appears as the"tough guy", while Townshend casts himself as "a beggar, a hypocrite".
His odyssey leads him away from the constriction of his parents' home
to a dead-end job as a dustman, and byway of various other adventures toBrighton via a pill -crazed ride on the (you guessed) 5.15 train. Finally, heends up dexed up and pissed out of his brain on a rock off Brighton Beach,where he achieves some kind of satori and reconciliation with himself.
On the face of it, there's nothing very heavy going on there, especiallywhen synopsised as ruthlessly as I've had to do. Whereas Tommytook
a headlong dive into
esoteric symbolism,
Quadrophenia issuperficially mundane,
as far as subject matteris concerned -but the
implications of thisautobiography ofa generation go far
deeper than those of
the previous work.
As the prose on thesleeve puts it, Jimmy
feels "me folks had let me
down, rock had let me
down, women had letme down, work wasn't
even worth the effort,
school isn't even worth
mentioning. But I neverfelt that I'd be let down by
being a mod."That particular piece ofdisillusionment occurs
when he discovers theNovember 11-13,

1973:supported by
Kilburn& The HighRoads. The Whoplay three nights at
London's Lyceum

King Mod from the seaside battles, the ultimate coolguy who everybody followed and mimicked, working
in a menial, humiliating job as bellboy in a hotel.
When Jimmy eventually discovers himself on therock, he finds his own peace by realising what hetruly was even when stripped of his music, hisfriends, his clique, his beliefs. All that is left ishimself, and that is more than sufficient.
To say that Quadrophenia is an affirmation of thestrength of the human spirit is an invitation toaccusations of pretension and screaming wimp -ism,
but I'm afraid that that's the way it breaks down.
Beating a hasty retreat from the PhilosophicalImplications, Cosmic Messages &Assorted
Heaviness Department, we can start looking at
Quadrophenia simply as the latest album by The 'Oo.
It would be an interesting critical exercise todemolish it, and I've no doubt that there's more than
one typewriter jockey who'll try.
In some ways, it's extremely vulnerable to adverse
criticism. Some of the more extravagant production
touches, for example, even after a half -dozen listens,sound about as comfortable as marzipan icing on ahalf -ounce cheeseburger.
Also, the band have dubbed on so muchsynthesizer, keyboard and brass parts that, at times,
one aches just to hear some unalloyed guitar -bass drums -and -vocals Who.
In any case, does rock'n'roll need masterpieces,magnum opuses (apologies to my school Latinteachers; I know you tried hard) or works of genius?

THE WHO

Isn't intensive listening to two -years -in -the -making double albums
antithetical to the spirit of true rock'n'roll?
Personally, I couldn't care less. If you're not prepared to listen to
Quadrophenia in the spirit that it was made, then simply don't bother. If
you're going to sling it on at a party or walk in and out of the room when it's
playing, then you're not going to get a damn thing out of it and you might
as well save your £4.30 for other purposes.
On the other hand, if you're genuinely
prepared to work at getting into it and let it workat getting into you, then you might just find it themost rewarding musical experience of the year.
As you journey through it, you'll find some realclassic Who crunchers carefully placed to
waylayyou en route. The second track, "The Real
Me", is almost as strong as "5.15" with its
ferocious splintered chord work and vicious
vocal, while Entwistle's bass seems to be plugged
straight into this planet's central power source.
"Dr JimmyAnd Mr Jim", which opens the
fourth side, is as good an exposition of the
raucous mod stance as anything Townshend's
written since the "My Generation" days:"What is it?I'll take it/Who is she? I'll rape it/Gotta bet there?I'll meet it/
Getting high? You can't beat it..."Basically, the early Who classics were straightforward expositions ofan attitude, while Quadrophenia is an investigation of what went into
constructing that attitude, and of its results.
It could be described as an obituary for the mods by the band who didmost to define that attitude. I mean, we've all heard about how The Who
were more a band who played to and sang about mods than theywere
actually mods themselves, but for those of us who were out in theprovinces during the mod era, mod was The Who. And it is only fittingthat The Who should be the ones to conduct this lengthy exorcism of theGhost Of Mod.
After all, the spectre of those days has hung over The Who for the best
part of a decade, and now Pete Townshend has summed up every stage of
The Who's chequered past in one work. There's even a flash of "The Kids
AreAlright" between "Helpless Dancer" and "Is It In My Head".
Quadrophenia wipes the slate clean, leaving The Who free, hopefully, tofollow it up with their freshest collection of new material since their very
first album.
TheAmericans are gonna love it. What today's 14 -year -old, who was
sixyears old in the heyday of the pill and the parka, is going to make of it,
Yog-Sothoth only knows. Ethan Russell's photo -booklet is gloriously
replete with period detail, a perfect blend of documentary realism and the
curiously dreamlike quality of events long gone imperfectly remembered.
Quadropheniais a triumph, certainly. It's by no means unflawed, but
a triumph it is. I'm glad that Pete decided to write it and that the band
decided to do it, and I don't grudge a single day of the waiting time.
Fade to black and cut to Twickenham.
Pete Townshend opens up the door, immediately preceded by a large
and presumably amiable dog named Towser (the facts, Ma'am, we justwant the facts). Townshend is clad in bower boots, extravagantly
patched jeans and an Indian cotton shirt. He whips up a couple of coffees
in large brown mugs and settles down on a sofa to get quadraphonic.
Now, talking to Pete Townshend is always a treat. He's intelligent,aware and articulate, qualities that aren't as prevalent among rockmusicians as one might wish. Furthermore, he's capable of discussing
the more esoteric aspects of his workwith a remarkable detachment
that's totally removed from the self-indulgent, egocentric ramblings ofmany other acts.
First off, if the word "quadrophenia" is an expansion of "schizophrenia",
as is indicated on the sleeve, why the missing "r"?
"It's a sort of jokey expansion of it, but it's a bit ofa mouthful with the 'r. It's something of a pun oil'quadraphonic' as well. The whole album has
been put together as a quadraphonic composition.
I suppose stereo is a bit of a compromise.
"We're fairly happy with the quadraphonic mixes
we've done, but you know the problem with thetranscription down to disc. It's all very well on tape,
but when you try and get it down onto a record
everything goes completely berserk.

"We were talking about a January 1st release date for the quadraphonicversion, but at the moment it's a bit of a myth. I heard The Doobie
Brothers' quad album of The CaptainAnd Me and it just doesn't comeanywhere near the stereo version."OK, onto the album itself. Is it in any real sense an epitaph to mod?
"It's probably a lot more than that. That's right in a way, but then songs like
'My Generation' were that kind of epitaph ina more realistic sense. This album is more ofa winding up of all our individual axes to grind,and of the group's 10 -year old image and also of
the complete absurdity of a group like The Who
pretending that they have their finger on thepulse of any generation.
"The reason that the album has come out
emotionally as it has is that I felt that The Who
ought to make, if you like, a last album. Also,in away, I wanted to embrace The Who's early
audiences- but also to give a feeling of what
has happened to rock and to the generation
that's come up with us. It's very peculiar that
this album has come out at the same time assomething like Pin Ups, because although that's a more direct thing, theideas are fairly similar.
"What I've really tried to do with the story is to try and illustrate that, asa study of childhood frustrations, the reason that rock is still around isthat it's not youth's music; it's the music of the frustrated and thedissatisfied looking for some sort of musical panacea.
"Then we have difficulty relating to the business. We're not pure
innovators, and we never really have been. We've always been people
who have latched onto things which were good and reflected them, andI don't feel anything at the moment.
"I mean, if someone like Bowie, who's only been a big star for 18 months
or two years, feels the need to start talking about his past influences, thenobviously the roots are getting lost. The meat and potatoes, the reasons
why people first pickup guitars, are getting forgotten."Harking back to what Townshend had said earlier about rock
responsibility, there's a considerable case for the view that when rockstarts thinking about what it's doing instead of simply reacting, then it's
losing something of its essence. The most hilarious thing about
arguments like that is the fact that people put forward the arguments inthe first place. It shows that they're viewing the whole thing intellectually,that they're arguing intellectually and that what they're actually doing is"Rock is notyouth's music;
it's themusic of thefrustrated"putting forward an intellectual argument to denounce their particularrock star for becoming an intellectual -which is what they are. And
they're blaming him for the fact that they've grown old.
"In actual fact, most of the American rock journalists that use thesearguments are suffering from maturity, and it's unpleasant for thembecause they're in the rock business. A pop star somehow seems able toget away with it, I don't knowwhy. Jagger and people like that are still able
to getup on the stage and prance about like idiots.
"It's very difficult to write like an enthused child, which is really how
rock should be written about all the time. It's very difficult to do that if you
don't feel like an enthused child all the time, or if you're not a showman
and can't switch it on and off I ike a light bulb."
A lot of people in my profession, I pointed out, prefer their stars to be
noble savages.
"A lot of them are like that. I've never been like that; there's always beensomething missing. At times when I was heavilydoped I never got any
chicks. At times when I was playing good I never got any chicks or any dope.
You really can't have all three at once unless you're a physical dynamo.
"In the case of Iggy, I think the music suffers. Look at a band like Sweet,
for example. They're probably a very straight bunch, dope -wise and wife \V i se and God knows what, but I think their music does contain a lot of thetight, integrated, directed, pointed frustration of
a 15- or 16 -year -old, although it doesn't quite getthere and they're a bit out of place time -wise. They
should have been around 10 years ago.
"But someone like Iggy and the Stooges couldn't

grasp that if they stood on their heads, because
inside they're old men. I think that applies to many
people. I think in away that is why the freshest
music that you can find at the moment is very, very
middle-of-the-road stuff. *HISTORY OF ROCK 1973 1139

1973OCTOBERDECEMBER"I think that there's a strong argument about whether a journalist's idea
ofwhat a pop star should be really means anything. I think that ouralbum clarifies who the real hero is in this thing. It's this kid on the front.
He's the hero. That's why he's on the front cover. That's why he'ssung
about. It's his fuckin' album. Rock'n'roll's his music.
"It's got nothing to do with journalists, and it hasn't really even got
anything to do with musicians." charksshaarmurray- HUE NOVEMBER 3 ND NOW YOUR starter for 10, viewers. See if you can recognise
this rap. Are you ready? "Really what I've tried to do in thealbum is put the band in perspective. Each member of theband obviously thinks that he's God's gift to the music business and to
The Who and that the world won't revolve without him. In actual fact,
each member of the band is a very small piece of the band, and eachmember of the band is a very small piece of the boy."
Did you get it? Did you catch the use of the phrase "in actual fact"? Did
you notice the mention of The Who? In that case, you have obviously
sussed that what you've just read is Pete Townshend discussing
Quadrophenia, The Who's new double album, which, despite any qualms
that anybody might have about four-sided rock song -cycles, is actually
prettydamn good.
The scene is Pete's gaff in Twickenham, the subject Quadrophenia, thescope grandeur. We continue.
"I've really had more control over this album
than any other Who album we've ever done,
from the beginning right through to thevery end. I've directed it, ifyou like, andcertainly people in the band have contributed
fantastic amounts in roles that they normally
wouldn't play.
"John Entwistle's role has been that ofa constructive arranging musician, which issomething he's never, ever done. On otheralbums he's worked off his frustrations by
writing a couple of songs. Well, on this he's done
a fantastic piece of arranging work, sitting inthe studio writing out and then dubbing on 50
horn parts.
"So really what has happened is that the music on here is the first album
where The Who have used each other's capabilities as musicians to thefull. I've used my capabilities as a constructor and composer just to get
the thing in shape, and then suddenly you realise when you play it that it's
been written with a reason, that there was a driving force behind it."
So what was the first flash that ignited Quadrophenia?
"I think the first seed was that I thought that ifwe couldn't make a film,
then, in Fran k Zappa terms, I'd like to do it myself. I'd like to either buy
a camera and direct it myself, or alternatively do a Fran k Zappa thingwith a kind of movie without pictures.
"That's where the idea came from, the idea of casting the four guys
in the band as four facets of an archetypal mod kid's personality. It's
obviously a kind of schizophrenic thing that I can relate to, because
I know everybody in the band.
"I was probably more involved in the mod thing than anybody else in
the band, and so it started off as a loose script and gradually grew into
somethingwhere I felt that the characters could be represented musicallyby themes. Then it became quite a complicated musical task.
"Musically and impressionistically, I'm not so hot. I've had to work
fantastically hard on this. Lyrics come very easily to me, but music isalways very tough, and so stuff like "Quad rophen ia" and "The Rock"
were fuckin' incredibly difficult for me to get together without feelingthat I was on a Keith Emerson trip.
"I wanted the music to be solid andreally relate, and be emotive without
creating a sort of BigCountrydrama.
It was very tricky. It hasn't really comeoff, but it's really great to hear it. It'samazing to hear a song like "Canstrong resemblance to that oft he 1 ha t'll Be The Day movie, in which
Mr Moon distinguished himself. What's the story, Pete?
Faint grimaces. "When I went to see That'!! Be The Day, I got about
halfway through to the bit where he was on the beach and then walked
out in complete disgust.
"I said to Keith, 'You've been making this film all this time. Why couldn't
you tell me that the story was very similar? I wasn't irritated by the factthat it was a similar idea. I was irritated because it seems that the Britishrock public thinks that Brighton Pier, a fairground and Butlin's Holiday
Camp is all there really is to life.
"I'm a culprit in this respect, since Tommyends in a holidaycamp, but
this is how the bloody British mind thinks. Ray Con nol ly is a few years
older than me, and his nostalgia is a different trip. This isn't a direct
nostalgic thing, it's more a search for the essence of what makes
everything tick. I'm trying to approach the thing and find an answer.
"Brighton Pier features very heavily in this, because of the two big
events that I remember really being moved by. One was when we wereplaying at Brighton Aquarium and I saw about 2,000 mod kids, and there
were three rockers up against a wall. They'd obviously just come into it
thinking that they were going to a party and they really were scaredas
hell, and the mods were just throwing bottles at them.
"I mean, there's no sort of hero in my eyes in something like that. There's
no nostalgia. It just moved me to do something to perhaps make themusic elevate people a bit. I know it sounds like idealism, but those people
who were kicking rockers in on the front would
then come in and listen to our music. So I knew
then that I had what felt like a certain kind of
power. There were all the tough guys looking at
me, waiting to hear what I was about to say.
"In this album, the tough kid ends up as thebellboy. Jimmy ends up gai n i ng a fantastic
amount from the experience, but also losing
a fantastic amount because of loose ends being"Lyrics comevery easily tome, but musicis always
very tough"

You See The Real Me" followed

by "Quadrophenia".
A scanning of the storyline of
Quadrophenia reveals a suspiciously
140 I HISTORY OF ROCK 1973

drawn everywhere.

"The problem with The Who is that if I try to
draw more out of their image and their history
than rock can sustain, you end up with asituation where there's nothing left that hasn't
been milked or soiled, any emotion that hasn't
been buggered about with, any mountain thathasn't been climbed by some plastic, made-up geezer who climbs to the
top and says, 'I've seen God and He's a pig.'"In the end, the loser is rock because people just look at it and say,
'I'm not interested in this shit any more,' and it becomes empty and it
becomes Hollywood and it becomes plastic again. Because if the actual
people involved can't act out a fierce enough role, then the business,seeing that it's starting to lose money, will invent people. People like Al ice
Cooper, good as they are, are inventions of a hungry industry. They might
think they're real. I know better."Once again, back to specifics. Quadrophenia was a long time in themaking and a lot of assembly work must have gone into it...
"The reason why you end up with particularly strong material is thatyou have learned by past mistakes. I wrote about 50 songs for this andreally creamed off the best. I had a much, much longer story. We could
have made it a quadruple album. There's still a fantastic amount ofmaterial which is potential ly qu ite good stuff, but what I really wanted to
do was to make the album something that invited you to forget The Who
a little bit and make you think about other things.
"So we started offwith the sea. It was a big decision to do that, because
I knew that people would say, 'Christ almighty, 'ere we are, an epic work.'
But I really wanted that because the actual story begins with the kid
sitting on a rock. He's gone out to this rock in a boat and he's completely
out of his brain.

Who's Jimmy?

IN THE SECOND LEG OF THE
TOWNSHEND-MURRAY TALKABOUT,
PETE TELLS ALL
ANTI W111 P

THE"You see, it's notreally a story as
such. There's a big

difference between
this and something
like Jesus Christ
Superstaror Tommy.
It's not a story, more a series of impressions ofmemories. The real action in this is that you seea kid on a rock in the middle of the sea and thiswhole thing explains how he got there.
"This is why I used sound effects: to establish

atmosphere. Some of the sound effects I've tried
to manipulate impressionistically. It's something
that's new to me and I'm not particularly good atit, but I'm glad I did it."A large amount of the time that went into
Quadrophenia was in post -production work.
"It took much, much longer to mix and blend
than it did to record the backing tracks. It took
about six months to mix. Stuff like 'The Rock' and'Quadrophenia' were all recorded here at thehouse, all John Entwistle's horn parts. Extra
synthesizer stuff, guitars, voices, drums and soon were added at the studio."
The Who have never been noted for their ability
to make records with any rapidity. Apart fromthat Stones thing ("The Last Time"/ "Under My
Thumb"), which took about two days from idea toover -the -counter -sales and is thus the greatest
piece of journalistic rock in the history ofWestern"We've imposed so many
culture, they generally take an awful long time torules and regulations on
figure out what they're gonna do and how they're
ourselves": The Who in
1973-(c/wise from top
gonna do it. Elucidate, Pete.
left)Pete Townshend.
"Doing anythingwith The Who recording -wiseJohn Entwistle. Roger
Daltreyand Keith Moon
always takes a billion years. Always. Dunno why.
I mean, we can rehearse a stage act and do a gig
without any effort at all. Eighteen months after
last playing together, we can still walk on stage and play, but recording issomething that we have to re -learn every time we go in. I think it's
because basically I want the music to embrace more ambitious sounds,
and the band is a pretty simple affair. It's bass, guitar, drums and the
vocalist, and what happens a lot of the time is that ideas that happen in
the studio have to be continually revised before they come to anything.
"Let me put it another way. I thinkwe've been far too tight on ourselves.
By that I mean that we've imposed so many rules and regulations on
ourselves about what The Who are, what The Who can do, and what The
Who can't do, what rock'n'roll is and what rock'n'roll isn't, what falls into
our category and what doesn't."
A curious situation thus seems to be emerging. One could put it
unkindly and say that The Who were strangling on their own selfconsciousness- or rather one could if they hadn't been vindicated by theexcellence of Quadrophenia. But the problem is very real. What do you do
if you're in the semi -fortunate position of being one of the world's premierrock bands, with each album that you issue a major event in its year? Pete
Townshend can, one supposes, be forgiven for occasionally getting sowound up in his own worries that temporary artistic paralysis sets in.
orwrongly,"I think it's more down to earth. That's why I felt,
rightly, that
I could afford to take more chances with a fairly ambitious package,
putting in a synopsis story and the photographs. I feel that I can talk about
this thing in a far less guarded way.
"I eventually ended up with a set speech on Tommy. People always used
to ask me the same questions. They used to say, for example, 'IfTommy isdeaf, dumb and blind, I assume that as a result of the miracle cure hebecame the Messiah.'"I really don't think that it's going to happen with this, because of aconversation I had with a lawyer from the States. She had to workout thedramatic copyright, which means that you have to present the thing andshow that it has dramatic structure so that, although individual songs canbe recorded, people can't put out an album called Quadrophenia or film it.
"She was trying to pin me down as to what characterwas saying what at
different times. So I said, 'Well, I don't fucking know; the whole point of itis that the geezer's completely mixed up. He doesn't know and t don'tta-

31isir-know. I've just adopted this frameof mind in written songs.'
JimmyAnd Mr Jim' is more
about Mad Moon than anything else.
'What is it?I'll take it I Who is she?I'll

rape it'... that's probably Keith Moon
I'll take on anyone/Ain't scared ofa bloody nose'... that could be me orRoger or anybody."
The Who
How about the problem of selling it
North American Tour1973
to people who might not have thechance to hear it first?
"I think we're gonna lose a lot of sales because if people go into a record
shop and hear the first track, all they're gonna hear is sea. It'll be a toughone, but I'm not really bothered whether mods of that era approve of it.
The whole mod detail is really because it's an archetype, and that's what
helps to build a character.
"The incredible thing about Tommy is that you could listen to it
thousands of times if you're stupid enough, and you still don't knowwhat
his clothes are like or what colour his hair is. It could be anybody.
"No, I can understand that consciousness because I'm guilty of it
myself. I played the music from this album far, far more when I just had
test pressings. When you get the whole package you tend to get into
packaging consciousness. The reason that it's all grey and black andscruffy is so that it doesn't come on looking all tinsel and glitter. I'd callsomething like Who's Next a fairly straightforward album. I'm certainly
not against albums like that. We've got anew Meaty Beatyalbum comingout soon, which is unreleased material drawn from over the years. It'll
make fantastic background music."That seemed to be that for the time being. Back out along theembankment looking forward to the tour.
What you think of Quadrophenia is your problem, and whether you
buy it or not is Pete's. Anyway, having The Who back and functioning issomething of a small blessing.
Now- let's see action. CharlesShaarMurray

ALLOUT SHELTEHISTORY OF ROCK 1973 1141

October 18-20.1973:
Bowie plus various
musicians. including

AvaChrry Oefa film
The 1e8oFloorShowat
London's MarqueeClub.for broadcastin
the USAamonth later/id Bowie unveils a substantially augmented Spiders - sans
Woody w000mansey - and songs from a new work set to be called "1984".
MM OCT 27

DAVID BOWIE IN action at theMarquee (where it all began) was justone of the many rare and knee trembling sights to be enjoyed within thenoise -battled walls of the old clubhouse last
Saturday afternoon. David, Spiders andfriends were in the throes of filming aspectacular that will never be seen in Britain.
For three days an NBC film crew had been atwork, capturing the full glory of Bowie
madness for US TV show The Midnight Special.
They especially wanted the atmosphere of
Soho's Marquee, which with the curious logic
of moviemakers, involved ripping out all the
club's identifiable features and building a newstage and anonymous backdrop, much to thechagrin of club manager lack Barrie.
David was joined in the spectacular by such
'60s stars as Marianne Faithful and The Troggs,
hence the sudden appearance of a slightly
bemused Reg Presley, adrift in a sea ofcelebrated transvestites, glamorous gays andwhat is known in the trade as "kids off thestreet". If it all sounds faintly horrifying, in fact
the overall atmosphere kept reminding me of
the Youth Club Scene in Cliff Richards' The
Young Ones, with David as The Mystery Singer.

In a fascinating cross-section of modern
society, grumbling British workmen with"everybody out, brothers" trembling on theirlips, rubbed thighs with tittering school
children, harassed American technicians,
furtive journalists and illicit photographers.
142 I HISTORY OF ROCK 1973

British contingent, until David's PR Cherry
Vanilla with a voice like from the Laugh -In,
grabbed Miss County's fake bosom andshrieked in delight "Are they silicone, my dear?""Wayne- they are so firm and -Wayne, thoseshoes are fabulous." Wayne curtsied andmodestly replied "I've been doing my exercises."
But those "kids off the street" were far moreinterested in Angie Bowie, chattering loudly
and signing autographs. It was very much afamily affair, even baby Zowie putting in an
appearance. An incredibly beautiful child, heswore innocently at us, arousing the spectre of
infant revolution. Showbiz romantics of theyear Lionel Bart and Dana
Gillespie made their

The star, in high spirits, was remarkably
patient. For technical reasons, such classics as"Space Oddity" and "The Jean Genie" had to be
performed endlessly, often cut short after a few
bars. This was a frustrating situation and David
fled the stage only once after Mick Ronson
snapped a string.
There were three shows -one on Friday night
when Marianne Faithful sang "As Tears Go By"
and two on Saturday, with a different audienceof 200 souls for each, drawn from the Marquee
Club and Bowie fan clubmembers by democraticballot. Time was of thedramatic entrance, whileessence but seemed to be
Mary Hopkin strode hither
running out fast. My sojou rn
and thither, and theat Saturday's session lasted
cessation of hammering
Bowie in a blunt
from midday right though toon stage announced that
9pm, and during that timethe music was about
London accent
Bowie and the Spiders got
to commence.
through four numbers, and"Oo's on second guitar?"slightly more costume changes. 1 here was ademanded a gaggle of music lovers upfront.
queue of fans down Wardour Street but not the"It's Mark Pritchard - he's David's neighbour,"fighting hordes it was feared that would be
proclaimed an expert. Cripes this was going toaroused by advance publicity.
be exciting. A huge cheer went up as the
Sweeping into our midst was no less amusicians appeared for a sou ndcheck.
personage than Wayne County, the friendly
There was Aynsley Dunbar, late of Johnneighbourhood drag queen who recently
Maya II and Frank Zappa; clad in black andgraced the front pages of MM. Face caked inmethodically testing his tom-toms. There waswhite makeup, Wayne swished around in a red
Trevor Bolder on bass and (shriek) Mick
negligee purchased in Piccadilly and a wig that
Ronson, starman in his own right, clutching
looked like a ball of candy floss. She was
guitar, zip partly undone and ready to sign
regarded with total awe and confusion by the
autographs. But still no sign of David, believed"Frustrating,ennit?" grinned

- ALBUMS to be lurking in the dressing room. The firsta re you doing after the show?- Do you want
number attempted was a spirited version of the
my room number?" Having prised theold Mojos hit "Everything's Alright" from Pin
photographer free and smuggled him out theUps, obviously familiar to the drummer,
back door, we left Wayne chatting to the young,himself an ex-Mojo.
keen reporter, whose laughter became more
The producer appeared and in best militaryhysterical by the moment.
briefing style explained what was happening.
Meanwhile Mr B was undergoing yet anotherMick Ronson reappeared this time in a fetching
costume change. Feeling as confused as Jack
white costume, and then at 3.15pm Bowie
Lem mon in Days OfWine And Roses, I peered
cantered into view, red hair aflame, a bejewelled past the blazing I ights and laughing heads, atearring glittering, and yellow pants, sawn off
Bowie, now apparently in a red, fur -trimmed
below the knee, pulsating. The assembly
frogman's suit and shiny black PVC boots. He
stamped into "Everything's Alright", only to beannounced "The Laughing Gnome" andsignalled to an abrupt halt. "Frustrating, en nit?"
instead went into "I Can't Explain".
grinned Bowie, his blunt London accent oddly
Voices babbled in my ear: "You should haveat variance with such sophisticated garb. "Well,seen David on Friday night. He had 10 men
these are the Astronettes," he said indicating adancing about in black wings. It was fantastic!"
trio of dancers and congo players. "And you all
My head was reeling. "Fun and games all day,"know the Spiders..."said the barman, his voice echoing.
"So what have you been up to?" enquired
Suddenly, real horrors began to set in as the
Bowie impudently, rather like Alexander The
deadly "heaven and hell" drink took effect.
Great having conquered the East, asking M r
Despite rubbed eyes, a newversion of Bowie
and Mrs Alexander how theyrefused to go away. Now heenjoyed their weekend. While
was attired in a fish net of aelders chuckled, fans ignored
type usually employed inthis frivolity, and pleaded
catching small whales,
one maiden - even with disembodied gold
"David, David -oh why
doesn't he look overhands attached to his torso.
teenyboppers have Apparently
here?" "Oh shut up and lookthere had been
at his trousers" advised one
a third hand, but American
a
sense
of
humourmaiden, her face set in grim
television would not standconcentration as she chewed
for that. Nor would it standher gum (then for good measure she yelled
for the sight of David's black jockstrap. Glimpses"Donny!" just to show that even teenyboppersof underwear are taboo and had to be removed.
have a sense of humour).
Pubic hair is considered less tasteless. Even
As inner anxieties ebbed away, a bold newsome of the lyrics had to be changed-one basespirit filtered through the psyche. I decided toword transmuted to "swanking".
buyWayne Cou nty a drink. David was intoning"The Jean Genie" rocked again and the bandthat doom -laden statement "Ground control todeveloped tremendous power. And although
Major Tom" when Wayne appeared at the bar
the PA equipment was minimal, there was noready to hold court. David was now sport i ng a
doubting the authority of David's singing.
lurex suit of red and gold stripes, but the press"We've written a musical," he announced.
were lured away by the eye -searing vision of"And this is the title song called '1984'. We'll be
New York Culture. "Tell us about your career,
doing the show in March next year." There were
Wayne" demanded a keen young music reporter. constant interruptions to "1984" with yells of"Well, you know I used to sing in churches in"Fifteen seconds, David" from the producer.
Georgia { gasp!1 and later in drag shows. I'm"Hold it. OK when you are ready."
here to record an album which will be coming
David: "But we are ready."out in March, but it's very hard to find
After a number of false starts, they began to dig
musicians who are drag queens. I'd like to live in
into the tune, and David ripped off his black London. I came here two years ago with Andyand -red striped garb to reveal a tight, green suit
Warhol's Pork. That's when I met David. The
with a keyhole emblazoned on the chest. It
only instrument I play is mouth harp. But I
represents the moment in George Orwell's story
refuse to play it because it messes up mywhen Winston is entrapped by a giant TVscreen
lipstick. I'm trying to find a special lipstick-I guess. Ronson's guitar, which had been
that's harp -proof." She could try to find one
dropping out of tune, was afflicted by a broken
that's people proof, as practically everybody on
string, and David finally ran off the stage, histhe premises bore traces of a County kiss.
first sign of petulance. It seemed a good moment"I'll be talking to David about my LP, and we'll
to leave this exhausting but entertaining
get some musicians off the streets. I'll be
glimpse into Babylon, and advance to thewriting all the songs. I like him. Look I've got tonearest supermarket to collect the weekend
go now..." We all laughed a little hysterically.
groceries. Except by this time theywere all shut.
At this point I requested that a young Swedish
The rock'n'roll pantomime tinselled on, withphotographer of startlingly good looks beanother show to complete 'ere midnight. It
allowed to snap a quick camera study of Miss
occurred to me that possibly the best way toCounty in her finery. The lady suddenly
effect entry to any such future burlesquesabandoned her threat to leave, her arm in red
would be to don the hind legs of theorganza streaking out to grab the startled
pantomime horse. Or perhaps in view ofyouth's hand. "Honey, you're beautiful. Whatcurrent trends-the front legs. Chris Welch"Donny!" shouts

Bowie's free for
Welch descr hac

ALBUMSREVIEW

David Bowie

1973
Bowie's second of
the year celebrates
his mod youth. It's one ofthose ripe coincidences thatwithin a few weeks of each other both David
Bowie and Bryan Ferry, arch arbiters ofcurrent British fashion, should put out
albums composed wholly of nostalgic
tributes to previously fashionable eras inmusic - Ferry's is essentially American andorientated to the singer -songwriter traditionof the early '60s; Bowie's concentrated on theyears of mod British pop from '64 to '67.
Possibly because that period of the early
Who, the Merseys and The Pretty Things
seems not so long distant, it takes a certain
amount of daring to revive the kind of musicthat went with Lambrettas, parkas, Carnaby
Street and pill -popping. Bowie returns to theage of innocence and comes up with apastiche that's as funny as it's marvellously

insightful. If Ferry tended to be po-faced,
Bowie moves towards irreverence, balancing
his enormous relish for the songs per se andhis desire to reinvent them.
His approach is to impersonate, and he's
masterful, not so much in his absolute fidelity
to the originals as in his grasp of phrasing,nuance and style. This is at its most overt inhis treatment of the famous Syd Barrett opus
"See Emily Play," where he employs
deliberately screwy use of electronics in a
fond pisstake of the Pink Floyd; and on part ofthe vocal he has a gruff, cockney chorus,
reminiscent of "The Bewlay Brothers," butthis time conjuring up the picture of singing
pugs down at the Thomas a' Beckett gym.
I had to bust out laughing at that. His ear is
as sharp as his memory, and his taste is

impeccable on both counts. He judges
exactly that rough, punk sneer of Phil May'son the Pretties'"Rosalyn" and "Don't Bring
Me Down", and he's best of all on The Who("I Can't Explain" and "Anyway, Anyhow,
Anywhere"), where he very subtly slows
down his voice in a great approximation of
Daltrey ("Anyway" has an even finer absurdist
quality in Aynsley Dunbar's attempt toparody Moon's breaks).
Then again, there's all the fun of Mick
Ronson trying to ape Jeff Beck on "Shapes
Of Things," which I suspect he urged Bowie
to include. The laughter is that of recognitionat the accuracy of it all, and the humour isgentle. There's not one version that usurps
the original - maybe "Sorrow", the single but interpretation is valid. I suppose Pin Ups
will be seen as a trifle. I think it clearly
emphasises his brilliance as a stylist andinnovator of modes, which is where his true
originality lies. Oh, and it was a nice stroke to
get Twiggy on the cover. Michael Watts, MM Oct 20

Pipr

THE HISTORY OF

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Readers' letters
MM OCT-DEC Modernism revived, lOcc squeezed out, tiyian ueiertueu anti more.
Mod moves in

mysterious ways
The era of the mod is
at hand once again.
This creature of the early '60s is
being reborn.
Bowie's Pin Ups bathes us ageing
25 -year olds in warm nostalgia.
Townshend's Quadrophenia isan homage to the mod. In his
interview (MMOctober 27) heremembers the intimacy of theearly "in -crowd" modism.
The Marquee and its "modist"elite is an element of continuity

would try to reproduce theirrecord sound on stage. This has
involved us in buying equipment
to the tune of £15,000. On a stage
llft x 8ft we cannot evenaccommodate our two drum kits;
therefore we cannot put on thekind of performance people
expect from us. We had invited
over 150 press and guests to the
gig and after much arguing had
to cancel it.

for both. How long will it bebefore the style of that halcyon
exclusiveness returns? How longmust we ancient creatures of the'60s fantasise?
And how long must we wait for
the return of our Cathy and Ready
Steady Gor?The Second Coming is
at hand. The Stones will play realropey rhythm & blues. Phil May
will re -cultivate his pimples. The
Union Jack will be back.

Eric Stewart:. -Don'tblamelocc-We have travelled four hours, lost
over £200 in hotel bills, car hire, etc,
MIKE OWENS, Saxon Green,and ended up heading home very
Gregory Street, Lenton,
disappointed. The last thing 10cc
Nottingham (MM Nov 10)
want is cancelled gigs. It's taken us
two years to get off our backsides
in the studio and get the act on the
UnGodley non-appearance
Is there no comeback for fans who road. Don't blame 10cc. Blame
promoters who sign contracts
devotedly travel distances for agroup's highly publicised concert
with fairytale dimensions.
These guys are the reason so
only to learn that they have
many groups have to cancel. It's
decided at the last moment thatthe stage is not big enough? We
got so bad that we have to send ourroad crew to check gigs two weeks
refer, of course, to the 10cc walkout
before we're due to play them.
from the Global Village at Charing
Cross on September 21. Despite
Sorry about the disappointment,
Steve and Geoff. Hope you canthe distance we travelled we werecatch one of our other London
fobbed off with a substitute group:
gigs in October.
Duffy (as good as they might be).
STEVE PROCTOR and GEOFFERIC STEWART, mcc (MMNoYm)

IRELAND, Dartford, Kent
(MM Oct 6)

After reading the letter from
Steve Proctor and Geoff Irelandin Mailbag, I thought I'd better
reply and sort things out. lOcc
travelled four hours and actually
got to the Global Village, Charing
Cross, at five o'clock. Our roadcrew had already been there fourhours trying to get our equipment
on stage.
The stage should have been 30ft
wide by 20ft deep, as asked for in
all our contracts. The stage at the
Global Village turned out to be 11 ft
wide by 8ft deep. This only being
told to our agents when we werealready on our way down there.
As you are aware, lOcc havestated in interviews that they

Silent treatment
Customer: "Excuse me, could you
playa couple of tracks from thisLP?" Assistant: "Sorry sir, we don't
play records any more!"
And thus another record shop
joins the army of disc sellers
who have unplugged their
headphones. Surely this is unfair.
The only way to hear new records
is via a friend or from the minuteselection played on Radio One.
Obviously the shops dislike
playing records as many people
don't always buy them, but surely
if they have good styli in theirturntables, what harm has been
done? It's so frustrating to be toldof a good LP and not be able tolisten before buying. If these shops

continue this trend, the public will

eventually be buying records on
the strength of the "pretty" covers.
RP HILLIER, Walter Way, Silver End,
Nr Witham, Essex (MMNoy4)

Bob: better than your uncle
Over the last 10 years I have read

numerous articles and letters in
the MMabout Dylan. Now is anappropriate time to reply to someof them. Firstly, comparisonssimply cannot be made between
him and anyone else- either
before his emergence or since because he more than anyone
belonged exclusively to the '60s
and should be judged as such. The
whole pattern of popular music in
the last decade was shaped by
Dylan in the same way that Dylan
was shaped by the '60s.
One was reflected in the otherand neither could have existed
separately in the same way.
For this reason Dylan may
have "lost contact with the '70s"
as suggested by Michael Watts,
but let's be fair and recognise him

CARPENTERS r. --a TOP OF THE MIRED

for what he was.
I don't see anyone around now
who is in tune with this decadeto the same extent as he waswith his. This is borne out by thewealth of his tapes, bootlegs andarticles, etc, suddenly madeavailable, which only serve toemphasise the fact.
AE JENKINSON, Edgeware Road,
Blackburn, Lancs (MM Oct20)

Campaign for real rock
Jagger might turn on Wembley
with his songs of violence andrevolution, but those words would
carry more weight in Haiti. Alongwith assorted international
capitalists of ill repute, he chooses
to erect a monument to whiteracism: the world's mostostentatiously rich hotel amidst
the abject poverty of one of theworld's poorest nations symbolising one of the mostobscene forms of exploitation of
the Third World blithe West.
NOREEN SLOAN, Temple Road,
Chiswick, London W4 (MM Oct 27)

If you dig Slade but aren't going to
buy their new single because you
think it's a change of style,un-Slade and a load of crap, givea listen to the flip -side, "My Town".
A real Slade rocker.
FRANK O'DONOVAN, Downside
School, Stratton -On -The -Fosse,
Somerset (MM Oct 27)

HISTORY OF ROCK 1973 1145

Or WW1 Is be6g
Item
PKI y_Bata

Wes Pit oftamehears i hit

Mr& Wembley gigs/Purple tour

CSN&Y
re-formed- tour,album

Coming next...
in 1974!
O THAT WAS 1973. Glad you didn't quit. Certainly, that's
not it from our reporters on the beat. The staffers of NME
and Melody Maker enjoyed unrivalled access to the biggest
stars of the time, and cultivated a feel for the rhythms of adiversifying scene; as the times changed, so did they. Whilein pursuit of the truth, they unearthed stories that havecome to assume mythical status.
That's very much the territory of this monthly magazine. Each month,

The History Of Rock will be bringing you verbatim reports from thepivotal events in pop culture, one year a month, one year at a time. Next
up, 1974!

LED ZEPPELIN

THE ENIGMATIC JIMMY PAGE breaks cover to discuss magick, his
search for "an angel with a broken wing", and even his early sessions.

The Kinks, he learns, have played down his involvement in theirrecords. "That's bollocks!" he says. "I played on a whole LP and on someof the singles, too."
QUEEN

A NEW PHENOMENON is in the making. Queen have been promised
a future as the new T. Rex, but aspire to something more. Nor is theirfront man one to wilt in the spotlight. "I'm the vainest creature going,"says Freddie Mercury. "But then so are all pop stars..."RONNIE LANEAFTERTHE TUMULT of the Faces, the songwriter joins his own circus.
On the road with the "Passing Show", a travelling performance on a tourof various patches of waste ground. "Only I would be mad enough to try
it," admits Lane.

PLUS...
LOU REED!

PINK FLOYD!
PHIL OCHS!

148 I HISTORY OF ROCK 1973

V

FROM THE MAKERS OF UNCUTTHE HISTORY OF

Every month, we revisit long -lost NME and Melody Maker interviews
and piece together The History OfRock. This month: 1973.
"Hanging on in quiet desperation is the English way..."Rph-

PINK FLOYD JOURNEYED TO THE DARK SIDE
LED ZEPPELIN BROKE ALL RECORDSDAVID BOWIE KILLED OFF ZIGGY STARDUST...and PETE TOWNSHEND, MILES DAVIS,CAPTAIN BEEFHEART, BOB MARLEY and many moreshared everything with NME and MELODYMAKER

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