RECORDS

Rip It Up, Issue 40, 1 November 1980, Page 8

RECORDS

Bruce Springsteen The River CBS The conventional view that Bruce Springsteen’s megastardom began with Born To Run naively underestimates the role his second album The Wild The Innocent & The E Street Shuffle played in putting Springsteen where he is today. A magnificent record, it was not only superior to the Caesarean-delivered Born To Run, but it made acceptance and eventual worship of that third album a relatively natural process.

Production troubles, legal troubles and, one presumes, fame troubles have all conspired to slash Springsteen’s recorded output since The Wild & The Innocent set, all of which is a little strange since Springsteen has appealed right from the start as the archetypal instant musicmaker, prolific, and totally besotted in the spirit of rock’n’roll. For sure there have been some pretty grandiose moves pulled on the last two albums, and Jon Landau, once a weighty critic, has often proved the weightiest of producers. But through all the boom-laden drums and cavernous backdrops, Springsteen has still shone through as someone who would prefer to do it fast and in front of a (dancing, drunken) audience.

His peerless reputation as a live performer, and his where-possible desire to play the smaller hall, both confirm that belief. The River has not been without its delays and murky rumours, but the double album 20-song end result, amazingly, is music that sounds as immediate and studiously unpolished and rock’n'roll exciting as anything Springsteen has yet got down on vinyl. Bootlegs included. There are big ballads here, and they admittedly have been done with care and a light coating of grandeur, but the meat and overriding impression of this double set comes from the raging, stomping, R&B rock’n’roll that takes up close to half of the four sides. If it’s not a return to the growing-up craziness of Asbury Park, it’s at the very least a return to what us punters think the Asbury Park days must have been like.

Having The E Street Band sure helps. The contributions orClarence Clemons and Roy Bittan have long been obvious and vital, and they are both that again here, while closer'to the engine room, the Springsteen-Van Zandt guitar axis is clearly crucial. But the man who really leaps out at you on the rock side of The River is Max Weinberg. Relishing a vividly live drum sound, Weinberg is all-out attack all the way. Listening to him battering his kit to pieces I was reminded of Tom Scott's witty jibe at (the unbelievable) Norman Jones during a television debate where Scott said he had enjoyed Norman’s speech until the injections had started to wear off. Weinberg’s injections, be they even only from life itself, never wear off.

'You Can Look’, with the guitars driving the band to a numbing finale, is possibly the pick of the up tempo stuff, though it only just shades T, A Rocker' (more finale thunder) 'Two Hearts’ and the ringing opener 'Ties That Bind'. There are classical rock’n'roll R&B riffs and echoes aplenty here, and Springsteen’s taste and feel for such music is never in question as he joyously re-runs them all. The rockers are tastefully inserted through the record until Side Four, where the intensity is finally allowed to wilt, while the slow ballads are kept one to a side all strong and atmospheric, but at the same time springing few melodic surprises relative to the standardsetting efforts that have gone before. Inbetween we get the songs that ultimately showcase Springsteen the writer. 'Point Blank', already known and loved by concert audiences, is arguably the record’s classiest composition, 'I Wanna Marry You’ reincarnates the delicious ‘Little Girl So fine' given to the Asbury Dukes, and 'Fade Away’ would have highlighted the last Elvis Costello album (just as ‘Crush On You’ would help the Stones and all four sides would help Graham Parker). Gems as all these are, the most palatable radio fare is probably ’Hungry Heart' in view of what has worked for Springsteen there before. As regards lyrics, familiarity with Springsteen’s themes are making his songs increasingly less evocative. It’s James Dean and The Last Picture Show revisited just a little too often, and if the knives are pulled on this album, then this seems the likely point of entry. But then again, when you've written ’Sandy’,

where else can you go? The River hangs on to recent Springsteen trademarks, but essentially redefines the man in his original guise as the unpretentious street rocker. Vulnerable and smiling. In this respect, the back cover photo on The Wild The Innocent & the E Street Shuffle is a lot more applicable than the more serious shot from the Darkness On The Edge Of Town sessions used here. This is a superbly reassuring pair of albums from an artist who has been repeatedly imitated in recent years to the point where one wondered whether even the real thing could possibly stand apart when it came. The River, undeniably, is the real thing. Roy Colbert ÜB4O Signing Off Graduate ‘Food For Thought’ was the first ever New Zealand hit single on an English independent label, the second ever reggae number one (the first was Marley’s 'ls This Love'), and unusual in the breadth of its appeal until the radio stations played it to death. The appeal of ÜB4o’s debut album Is also undeniable, although there are no hooks as such, just jazzy bass and a very silky, almost MOR sax. Recorded in producer Bob Lamb’s home 8-Track studio, the album has an easy swing about it, especially on the exquisite ‘King’, here much dubbed and improved on the version on the flip of ‘Food’. Madam Medusa’, included on a bonus 12-inch single also shines, a damning ode to Margaret Thatcher. Apart from a couple of limp instrumentals, the rest of the material is incredibly strong, and all original, aside from Randy Newman’s 'I Think It's Gonna Rain Today’. Signing Off is the first true post 2-Tone reggae album to appear, and that is important. More important still is the fact that ÜB4O have left themselves plenty of room to move for the future. One more thing, any temptation to relegate this album to late-night listening should be avoided. It sounds just as good, if not better, at maximum volume. A perfect album for the summer. Simon Grigg The Police Zenyatta Mondatta A&M Zenyatta continues the trend started on Regatta de Blanc. Sting’s loose, open-ended songs are allowed to develop naturally in the studio, and then carefully edited. This endows Zenyatta with all the merits, and faults of its predecessor. The defects come from a possible lack of discipline that tighter song structures would give. This is especially true of the album’s two instrumentals, 'Behind My Camel’, written by Andy Summers, and Copeland’s 'The Other Way Of Stopping’. Both are aimless pieces, ob-_

viously designed to showcase the guitarist's and the drummer’s talents respectively. Maybe they work better as onstage jams, or in the context of a film score. Neither is given much breathing space, and they just constitute filler on an otherwise very satisfying record. Onto the positive side. Zenyatta opens with ‘Don’t Stand So Close To Me', a classic Police song with a chorus I’ve been singing nonstop for the last fortnight. Recalling that Sting was once a teacher, I wonder just how personal this one is.

The Police are one of the very few rock bands to play in India. The impact of the place was not lost on Sting. His ‘Driven To Tears’ is a sweeping, pulse-racing glimpse of a world going mad: How can you say you're not responsible, What does it have to do with me. What's my reaction, what should it be, Confronted by this latest atrocity.

Summers plays ringing chords, a la 'Walking On The Moon’. His solos are becoming freer in form, and closer to jazz than ever before. This dovetails into 'When The World Is Running Down’, continuing the theme, but on a more personal level. Copeland’s 'Bombs Away (In Old Bombay)’ displays his rather sardonic wit, depicting lust and corruption in a country where civil unrest is rife.

‘Canary In A Coalmine’ is brisk and funky, the subject an incorrigible neurotic, whose sensibilities are shaken by the slightest defect, and gets dizzy even walking in a straight line. The title refers to the poor birds once kept caged in the mines to detect gas leakages. If the bird pegs out, get the boys above the ground, quick. ‘Voices Inside My Head’ again shows how the Police can take a simple basic idea and build on it. A single riff or melody line is all

that s needed, and new sounds come in like layers on a cake. The interplay between bass and drums is astounding in its virtuosity, even the mediocre tracks are enthralling just for this. ‘De Do Do Do, De Da Da Da’ was chosen for the American single, apparently because 'Don't Stand’ was thought to be too much like Message In A Bottle'. Untrue. ‘De Do’ is just too slight to be chart material. 'Man In A Suitcase’ is hardly worthy of Sting either, being a trite little reggae song about life B on tour. ‘Shadows In The Rain’ redresses the ■ balance. It’s a lengthy, eerie piece of paranoia, I a man suffering from delusions but sure that 1 he’s sane. The voices echo in and out of the 1 mix, and Summers’ guitar acts like Steelo on sunburn. Zenyatta Mondatta shows the Police continuing to follow their natural instincts, sometimes losing direction, but still producing perhaps the most innovative, intelligent pop music you’ll find today. Duncan Campbell

Jo Jo Zep and the Falcons Hats Off Step Lively Mushroom

Last year saw a breakthrough in Australian rock’n’roll with Zep’s Screaming Targets and the Sports’ Don't Throw Stones, two album's which, although patently derivative, displayed that the bands in question were emerging with their own surefooted individuality. Zep have a lot going for them: Joe Camilleri’s soul-tinged vocal echoing shades of Parker and Cavaliere, and guitarists Jeff Burstin’s and Tony Faehse’s gift for shaping tidy reggae-based melodies with Costello-Parker-Asbury Duke side orders. Hats Off Step Lively, is a further step away from their first base influences and a continuation of the patterns set by Screaming Targets. Hats off and dancing shoes on is the message and {he band’s use of reggae undertow, which has payed off handsomely in the past, yields dividends again on ’Puppet On A String’, ‘Don’t Keep It Up’, and ‘Too Hot to Touch’, all possible contenders for the ‘Shape I’m In’ follow-up spot. The Costello keyboards’ approach is used effectively on “All I Wanna Do' and the fairground organ motif of ‘P.T.’. As the title suggests the album is lighter in mood than Screaming Targets and only a sensitive version of ‘Hand Me Down’ and the slow reggae of ‘Rudie’ could be called down-tempo. This makes Hats Off a more accessible prospect than its predecessor but it lacks the depth and scope of Targets. But that aside the new album is an endearing ditty and further proof that Zep make music from the heart that’s aimed at the feet. George Kay = :