2-4-6-8 Tom Robinson Band

Rip It Up, Issue 13, 1 July 1978, Page 14

2-4-6-8 Tom Robinson Band

William Dart

Tom Robinson Band Power in the Darkness E.M.I. What is the elusive something which has everybody panting in anticipation of a new album? Whatever one may think of TRB, their debut album seems to have had this effect on the record buying market. Which in itself must be significant. The album itself? A mixture of hits and misses, unfortunately. If we go back to TRB’s debut E.P. which had the notorious “Glad to be Gay” on it, we can see the considerable strengths of the band. A live performance of dazzling power, a rather quizzical sense of humour (“Martin”), a good polemical protester, not without a trace of irony (“Glad to be Gay”), a bitter look at the music industry (“Don’t Take No for an Answer”) and a good wind-up raver for closers (“Right On Sister”). Now to the album. There is the “Motorway” single, which is very effective as such and another strong number is “Grey Cortina”, in which Chuck Berry’s auto-imagery is evoked: Twin exhaust and rusty bumper Chewing gum at traffic light Stop at red but leave on amber Grey Cortina -outasight A good straightforward rock song, working within a genre and no less effective for having done so. And a song like “Too Good to be True” is a rather nice “new-wave-ballad” even if it is rather similar to “Glad to be Gay” at times on the musical side. Going back to the E.P. it was obvious in

songs like “Don’t Take No for an Answer” that Robinson knows how to make a really driving chorus that can take repetition after repetition and considering the rather tepid attempts in this direction by many current groups, this is quite a feat. On the album songs like “We Aint’t Gonna Take it’’ and “Up Against the Wall" have similarly memorable choruses, but the verses are so weighed down with political verbiage that the chorus assumes the role of a musical oasis. The political thing I find rather hard to accept in the album. The title song, "Power in the Darkness” is a case in point. It could be subtitled “Seven Definitions of Freedom”, and the poetic style is rather uncomfortably close to some of Donovan's more recent work. When the Town Hall tyrant speaks his piece in the middle, it reminds one of some of the gimmicks late sixties groups were putting in their songs. Robinson never really gets outside of the song at all, and distance or irony is important in any form of popular art. Reed, Newman and Zappa are proof enough of this. These grumps apart, there is much to admire in the album. A disciplined band with a real sense of ensemble playing, and effective use of a basic rock band line-up, which avoids any sameness in the sound. Maybe I should stop using Elvis Costello as a touchstone for all the other New Wave artists. It will seemingly only lead to massive discontent.

Ry Cooder Jazz Warner Brothers

Another fine release from WEA is Ry Cooder’s latest. Cooder, like David Bowie and Randy Newman, always keeps his audience guessing. A small audience, but a faithful one I should imagine. And a growing one, judging by his reception in the Auckland Town Hall last month. Leaving the Tex-Mex style of his previous two albums behind him, Ry Cooder has espoused the causes of various genres of American popular music ranging from the late 19th century to the present day. The most contemporary offerings here are three traditional Carribean numbers adapted by the great Bahamian guitarist, Joseph Spence. In these numbers Cooder uses an instrumental group incorporating such diverse colours as cymbalum and pump organ, and mandolin and tuba, to create a sound somewhere between his earlier “Denomination Blues” and the music Taj Mahal was making in the early 70s. The oldest number is “The Dream” which dates from around 1880. However the bulk is what the title of the album suggests: Jazz. There is "Flashes”, a stunning Bix Beiderbecke solo played by Cooder on solo guitar, and two songs are quaintly touching as pieces

of nostalgia these are “Big Bad Bill is Sweet Willian Now” and "Shine”. In “Shine" and "Nobody” Cooder uses a vocal quartet with some smooth harmonies underlying Cooder’s vocals. It is really impossible to praise Jazz too highly. And, in closing, it is pleasing to note that Joseph Byrd is still around and arranging. If the name doesn’t ring a bell try to find a copy of the United States of America’s first and only album, or Phil Ochs’ Pleasures of the

Harbour. William Dart

Johnny Guitar Watson Funk Beyond the Call of Duty

DJM i WWlilil WilWWfflf’Wi llhdßaEl«Mgqj Johnny Guitar Watson, a veteran of more than 20 years of funky music, is still a virtual unknown in New Zealand even though for a time he used to come into our living rooms every week. That was when A Week of It used one of his tunes as its outro. Very good it sounded, too, but sadly it was uncredited and to most people Watson remains an oddball whose album jackets are so outrageously tasteless as to be almost quaint.

Too bad. He’s one of the best R&B artists around. He’s been around since the mid fifan influence on a whole generation of guitar players, most especially Frank Zappa, who used Watson for hot vocal duties on “One Size Fits All”. He was the original “Gangster of Love” and notes wryly that while Steve Miller's version of the song went gold, his stayed plastic. A couple of years ago Watson moved to DJM and mad e Ain't That A Bitch, a classic workout in space age funk. Watson was one

of the first to explore the electronic aspects of the electric guitar and he hasn’t stood still. He played virtually all the instruments on the album and multi-tracked the vocals. The album was a smash in the States. He followed it with A Real Mother For You, which was again very good, but a little too close to Bitch for comfort. Now he delivers his third DJM album. It’s the same old groove . . . but it’s wonderful. It’s what is by now formula Watson, dense moog backgrounds, sly vocals, stinging guitar lines and rhythms that won’t quit. Johnny Guitar Watson may be working what has turned out to be a golden groove, but his saving grace, like that of Chuck Berry, is his wit. He writes some of the funniest lyrics and punctuates them with some of the most blowing music around. The gangster is back. Ken Williams

Waylon Jennings and Willie Nelson Waylon and Willie R.C.A. The prospect of a new Waylon Jennings, Willie Nelson collaboration is a thing to approach with mixed expectations. As Rolling Stone magazine writer, Chet Flippo, puts it on the back of the sleeve, these two men are the godfathers of modern country music. Consequently one expects either a record of real excellence, or the disappointment of hasty product hustled together to raise fast dollars. To tell the truth, as an occasional admirer of the genre, I have been lately disheartened by the relentless parade of mediocre country performers and downright bad country

songs on the likes of T.V. One’s The Entertainers. Country music and I were becoming estranged. I am offering then a small prayer of thanks to Waylon and Willie for restoring my faith. It turned out to be as good as I had wanted, to bolster my waning appetite. Waylon and Willie is an album on which that essential ingredient, care, seems to have been spent. First indications were not good. The cover was tacky, there was no useful information anywhere to be seen. So how relieved I was to hear an excellent, clean production, to hear arrangements, not intruding, but heightening songs. And most welcome of all was the first rate vocal presentation. Waylon and Willie's harmonies, where used, have the quality of naturally complementary voices, a quality enhanced by years of experience. Jenning’s throaty toughness and Nelson's nasality give the intensity that distinguishes the “outlaws” from pulp C&W rivals. - The atmosphere the two create, part macho-strength, part plaintiveness emerges from an obvious attention to the songs. Practice, or at least honest sentiment has been pumped into the material all of which has been lifted by performance. My favourite is Nelson’s “It’s Not Supposed to Be That Way” and I’ll also put in a word for “Looking for a Feeling” and “I Can Get Off On You”. Not to forget a nice treatment of a Shel Silverstein, Dennis Locorriere number “A Couple More Years". This is a fine little record, one that, if I were Mr Westmoreland, producer of The Entertainers, would make my stomach sink. Bruce Belsham