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Rip It Up, Issue 6, 1 November 1977, Page 10

Mother Goose Stuffed Mushroom

Kee-rist! . another bunch of loonies from New Zealand. That's what the world's going to say, as the Aussies cast furtive glances in this direction to see who's coming their way next and how crazy they look. Over the last couple of years Mother Goose have plied their steadily evolving music and appealingly loopy group image around much of New Zealand, and latterly with more success in Australia where they recently recorded this album.

A keen sense of the absurd is a valuable asset for any rock band and it’s of the essence in what you might call Mother Goose's collective vision. However it would quickly wear thin if it weren't for the band's abilities as a musical unit. That's at the heart of the matter when considering their potential to survive because on the surface their image is very lightweight and contrived, and without the secure foothold of some very solid pop music they would have floated away to toytown on a cotton wool cloud by now. As a band they've walked a fine line with the pitfalls of terminal cuteness and rampant eclecticism on either side. The good news is that in the cold light of vinyl they continue to walk the line better than many folk might have anticipated, although it remains a thin one.

Well-absorbed lessons in rock dynamics and a freshness and originaltiy that reveal a "genuine love and talent for pop are all exhibited to varying degrees on STUFFED. These guys sound as if they're close to the music and get a big kick out of it themselves, that's not so common.

Pop virtues abound . . . the music is fun, the guitars are aggressive and lyrical, the arrangements are inventive and the grabbag of studio effects is intelligently used. Craig Johnston's vocals do well by the material, which is all original and the plaintive quality of his voice contrasts effectively with the instrumental drama of a song like "Last Of The Fools.'’

My favourite track is just about the simplest and shortest on the album. Tucked away on side two between a couple of pumDers that are the closest Mother Goose come to heavy metal, lies "Only You". Lyrically it's a better than average little song about being a rock band and it's brought to life by a brilliantly sung chorus reminiscent of Badfinger's best. This is sustained through the guitar passage into a final chorus that's a highlight of the album. Stuffed doesn't strive for profundity, the title alone tells us that, but it succeeds as a well-crafted and entertaining record of what one of our finest bands has achieved to date. I don't like the cover though.

Terence Hogan

Be-Bop Deluxe Live! In the Air Age Harvest

f’ve lost count of the number of live albums, most of them double albums, released since Peter Frampton made it the trend. And why should I care 9 Most live albums are no more than lightly disguised attempts to recycle old material. And I'm sick of hearing live recordings which have been meticulously edited and overdubbed to the point where you wouldn t know them from the studio originals if it wasn't for the applause at the end of each song.

A live album should be able to tell more about the artist than you would learn from the clinical professionalism of half a dozen studio albums. Above all it should be true to the original concert or concerts. It should include the bum notes, the semiintelligible introductions, and the false starts.

Even these days Jackson Browne probably sleeps uneasily knowing that the bootleg album The Return of the Common Man shows just how sloppy he was at "that Pennsylvania concert in 1975. But he really shouldn't worry; he's a little more human because of it.

Though Bill Nelson, lead guitarist and songwriter for Be-Bop Deluxe, makes no pretence to be human. This is the age of the machine. And that's why Live! In the Air Age almost succeeds, despite the odds. Live! In the Air Age is completely professional, no notes missed, as close to the original studio recordings as possible but without the final polish. With a bonus EP, a bonus of four new songs and none from Axe Victim or Modern Music. Nothing to say where the album was recorded al-

though it's probably safe to assume the recordings are from concerts on tour in the States. Modern Music may have only slowed Bill Nelson's rush to imminent fame but it's also going to take more than Live! In the Air Age to recapture interest. And it's sad but true that most live albums, this one included, are seen as the next obvious move only because it is the artist who is marking time, not the audience. Jeremy Tempter

A Bunch of Stiffs Stiff Records

Stiff records are an independent British record company who not only don't believe that the sixties never died, they don’t even believe they faded away. Their anachronistic attitude is typified by the slogan displayed on the cover "Undertakers to the Industry ’’What can you say to honesty like that?

But fear not, this is not a bunch of dull ha£ beens on a bunch of even duller retreads. Nope, this is just a bunch of seventies kids with their feet firmly rooted in sixties pop, and R&B. Noticeably the most successful tracks here weld their nostalgic tendencies to a firmly seventies feel in lyrics and approach. Which brings us to the one unabashed classic contained herein. It’s Elvis Costello and "Less Than Zero". A song about Britain's fascist leader of the thirties Oswald Moseley, of course. What more logical subject for a pop-calypso

song? But sprinkled throughout the album are several minor delights, that more than repay the price of admission. There's The Takaways amazingly accurate Dylan takeoff, “Food"; The Tyla Gang's New York take "The Young Lords", Dave Edmund’s crazy version of Chuck Berry's "Jo Jo Gunne" and tucked away at the end of Side One and uncredited on the sleeve, is Graham Parker and the Rumour with an alternative version of "Back to Schooldays" to the one found on Howlin’ Wind.

A set that allows you to reverse into tomorrow today. Yesterday’s Sound Today as Phil Spector might say. Alastair Dougal

Sandford and Townsend Smoke from a Distant Fire Warner Brothers

Time was when a debut record with the technical quality of Smoke from a Distant Fire would have attracted immediate attention. As it is, it seemsto shuffle along in the current herd of immaculately produced West Coast material.

That anyway was the attitude of the buying public when Smoke from a Distant Fire was first released overseas. Since then the excellent title single has done business for Sanford/Townshend, so the album is rereleased.

It deserves re-appraisal. Closer perusal shows, for example, that the album is recorded at Muscle Shoals, Alabama, not in L.A. And there is more musical meat to songs and arrangements than an average West Coast band like Firefall can muster. Sanford/Townshend s style is derivative early Steely Dan, Allen Toussaint, believe it or not Elton John, came through strongly, but John Townshend's strong voice, a very good band, Otis Hale's sax playing, and punchy songs render a certain distinction;

The patchiness of the lyric quality, and its general smoothness disqualify Smoke from a Distant Fire from a major place in recording annals. New wave it isn't. But it's an attractive second-hand wave. Maybe nostalgia is on its side. Bruce Belsham

Linda Ronstadt Simple Dreams Asylum

W E.A certainly seems to have a monopoly on the lady singers these days. For your poetry there's Joni, for your classy camp there s Bette, and for your good old eclectic quality stuff there's Maria Muldaur and Linda Ronstadt. And when I say eclectic I mean eclectic because this Ronstadt

girl even sang on Carla Bley's Escalator over the Hill. But Carla Bley and Top 40 are urn, well let's say they’re just poles apart. So perhaps that's why we know Ronstadt mainly for her more mainstream musical activities.

Simple Dreams has some really lovely moments. For those who liked her “That’ll Be the Day", there's another Buddy Holly number, ‘lt’s So Easy’. The other two tracks

which approach the raunch are Warren Zevon’s “Poor Poor Pitiful Me" and her version of the Stones' “Tumbling Dice”. And when Linda has an opening line like “People try to rape me” it just sounds a little more believable than when the divine Mick himself rasps it at his audience. Rolling Stone mag seems to criticise the predominance of softer ballads, but they do admit that Ronstadt deals with them superbly. And, after all, I think a lot of Ronstadt followers will prefer this approach. The single from the album is (I think) “Blue Bayou”, a reworking of the old Roy Orbison number. Linda transforms it into a rather beautiful experience, all shimmering and undulating sound. It has the same sort of feel as Maria Muldaur's "Sad Eyes”. The stuff indeed that dreams are made of.

Other highlights: A very beautiful duet with Dolly Parton on the traditional “I Never Will Marry”, and a final "Old Paint" with some of the most subdued and subtle dobro works from Mike Auldridge that I have ever heard.

Like Maria Muldaur, Ronstadt is just the singer to do your reputation a lot of good if she tackles your songs. After listening to her version of J. D. Souther’s "Simple Man, Simple Dream”, I am finding myself digging out an old Souther record to listen to the man himself.

Simply Ronstadt, simply dreamy William Dart

Sandy Denny Rendezvous Island

Sandy Denny always has had one of those voices. Despite the charms of Full House, Fairport Convention was never half the band without her. On the evidence of Rendezvous, however, she may need Fair-

port Convention every bit ae much as they need her.

In many respects, Rendezvous is typical of the genre. It is hard to name an English folk-rock album which does not feature one or many of Dave Mattacks, Jerry Donahue, Pat Donaldson or Dave Pegg. Where the album differs is in its use of weighty string arrangements to cover the impeccable playing of these musicians. Ostensibly, this seems intended to mark the maturity of Denny as a singer; not just a folk singer, but somebody who can get up there and belt out a cover version of “Candle in the Wind” with the best of them. There is no doubt that she has the vocal ability to do it her version of “Candle in the Wind” is a hell of a lot better than Helen Reddy could manage in her wildest dreams. The question that remains is, why? Just as on her previous three solo albums and the truly great “Fotheringay” album, she proves here that she is a songwriter to be reckoned with, and the Fairport mafia, assisted by Richard Thompson, certainly do her justice. It is not as though she and husband/producer Trevor Lucas have whole heartly embraced the attractions of the middle of the road. Rather they seem to have struck to the hedge. It is, in fact, a song by Richard Thompson which best illustrates the shortcomings of this approach. “I Wish I Was a Fool for You Again” opens the album and, while Denny comes close to matching the aching original vocal by Linda Thompson, the decision to take the song at half pace and to bury it beneath a huge, echoed tambourine orchestra and a banal vocal arrangement leaves the listener hoping for a taste of the spare grace of Ms Thompson’s version. All is not grim, however. On many tracks like “One Way Donkey Ride” and the vaguely Mitchellesque, “Gold Dust”, Sandy Denny proves she can write and sing as well as ever, just as her cohorts are still in the top league. It is in the control room that this record falters, and even if you have got one of those voices, you can’t compete with production. Francis Stark

Bob Johnson and Peter Knight The King of Elfland’s Daughter Chrysalis

Chrysalis have one of the best track records (ouch! no pun intended) with the electric folk thing. Let's face it, they have Steeleye Span on their books, and the members of that group have had various individual projects of note. Maddy Prior's Silly Sisters album with June Tabor was one that I had to travel to Hamilton to catch up with.

Bob Johnson and Peter Knight are two S.S. men and this record, The King of Elfland’s Daughter, represents their personal project. It is a concept album based on the book by Lord Dunsay, telling a tangled plot of the King of Elfland (Christopher Lee), his daughter (Mary Hopkin), a handsome young hero (Frankie Miller), a wicked witch (P.P. Arnold) and a troll (Alexis Korner).

There is a very English feyness to the whole album that many Kiwis will find hard to take. Perhaps Hello Sailor might try a concept album based on the drawings of Trevor Lloyd? And Christopher Lee's commentary between the songs does rather force one to accept it as a total album. This was perhaps a mistake as the

record could have functioned just as well with the plot being either explained in the songs, or on the liner notes. Are the voices really what one Well, Frankie Miller sounds a little out of keeping with the rest. And perhaps the different voices add to the confusion of the record. After all Tommy survived very well with the basic Who sound throughout. Perhaps the whole album may have been more successful as a Steeleye Span concept? As Johnson and Knight do not seem to be songsmiths of the first order, some traditional melodies could possibly have been used to advantage. It is super though to see Mary Hopkin back on vinyl. Sad to think all she does nowadays is the occasional single and backing vocals (e g. on Bowie’s Low). The only rider that I could add is that with the paucity of intelligent children’s records around, this could appeal strongly to imaginative under-12’s, so it might pay parents and primary teachers who read Rip It Up to check this record out. William Dart

New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival Various Artists 1976 Island

The New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival is an annual event, commemorating the best of New Orleans’ varied musical past and giving promise of the future. This double album concentrates on the rhythm and blues aspect of the festival, and it’s extraordinarily fine. The best music comes from the king of the Crescent City studios, Allen Toussaint, who gets a whole side to run through insistent versions of some of his best songs ("High Life', "Play Something Sweet (Brickyard Blues)", "Freedom for the Stallion"). Toussaint’s influence isnT confined to his own performance, however. Lee Dorsey does the Toussaint-penned "Workin' in a Coal Mine" and "Holy Cow" and Ernie K-Doe has a fitful stab at recreating his 1961 hit "Mother-in-Law", also a Toussaint composition.

K-Doe and Robert Parker turn in performances well below the standard set by their classic 60s singles, "Mother-in-Law" and "Barefootin’ ” respectively, but the other artists acquit themselves admirably. Irma Thomas is in fine, strident form on

"You can have my husband, but please don’t mess with my man” and Texas bluesman Lightnin’ Hopkins offers three of the most exciting performances of his long (and perhaps over-recorded) career.

The final two tracks are left to the man credited with inspiring New Orleans pianists from Fats Domino, through Tous-

saint to Dr John, and they're a revelation. Professor Longhair, dubbed by Toussaint "The Bjich of Rock," was 57 at the time Tipitina and "Mardi Gras in New Orleans" were recorded, but he could well be 157, so ghostly and eccentric is his piano and vocal style.

Toussaint opens this immensely enjoyable album with solid 70s rock; it seems appropriate that it should be left to Professor Longhair to ring down the curtain with an eerie breath of swamp wind. Ken Williams