PAGE 6, RETRIEVER, MARCH 8,1976 Records

"Second Childhood" - Phoebe Snow usually her most striking compositions. (Columbia Records) The title track is such a song. Arranged simply with guitar and strings, it broods in melancholy and is beautiful to listen to. "I If Janis Ian is the promise of the woman­ INTERESTING Would Like To Dance" attempts what musician-poet, then Phoebe Snow is surelYi "When The Party's Over" succeeded in the promise revealed. The much awaited: doing on the last album. Its up-tempo and widely acclaimed second album ~y arrangement cannot surmount its paucity Phoebe Snow serves as an interesting COUNTERPOINTS of inspiration. "Love Is Blind" and counterpo int to " Aftertones" , the new "Roses" are nice in their respective ways release by Janis Ian. but oppressively depressing. More than two years ago a singer­ Phoebe Snow and Janis lan's Latest Albums Janis Ian wields her tone colors and songwriter named Phoebe Snow garnered melody lines in a way that reminds me the a ttentior. of someone influential Invite Comparison very much of the French songwriter enough to sign her to a contract and she Jacques BreI. Ian's "Don't Cry, Old released a dazzling album on Shelter Man" is the mirror of BreI's "Sons Of." Records called simply "Phoebe Snow." The song is marvelously written, burdened The single "Poetry Man" wafted soft and By Elias Lieberman with the despir and anxiety of aging sultry through the summer on car radios fathers and aging dreams. "Belle Of The allover America and the album sold quite Ball" sounds like Janis Ian's attempt at well for a new artist's first o1)ting. Then singers are content with a single note, at the same time the maturity of a woman Billie Holiday. Unfortunately she gets lost ':!ame the two year hiatus. In the wake Phoebe revels in cascades of notes, hop­ in "the attempt and wallows in self-pity. ,)f her mounting success Phoebe retreat­ who is finally in full control of her craft. ping from octave to octave and sliding in­ Phoebe plays guitar on only about half of The album's finest song is entitled ! ~ d into motherhood, contractual disputes between effortlessly. There is one moment "Hymn". It is the closest thing to a secular, and voice lessons. Now two years later the album's ten songs, preferring instead where it is impossible to distinguish her to play the role of singer with an excellent spiritual I have ever heard. Ian's single Phoebe emerges with a new label, a ~our­ voice from the sound of an accompanying voice begins the tune and is joined suc­ I)ctave vocal range and the self-assurance complement of studio musicians. But that synthesizer. "Cash In" is a mirthful tune is the best thing about the album. Every cessively by three others (including the of an artist who has honored her craft about coping and the price paid in so doing. beautifully strange voice of Odetta). In the to a razor sharp edge. time Phoebe Snow opens her mouth to sing Phoebe shines on "No Regrets," a tune by she is playing the most beautiful in­ background of the chorus can be heard a "Second Childhood" was produced by Tobias and Ingraham. It is here that she soaring vocal obligatto. It could easily be Phil Ramone, the engineer with the golden strument to be heard on "Second reveals her roots which extend back to Childhood." the voice of an angel but it belongs to touch responsible for the exquisite sound Billie Holiday. The song is a tribute to Phoebe Snow. The litany builds in har­ of the Paul Simon solo albums. Jfis in­ Lady Day as every phrase and intonation "Aftertones" - Janis Ian (Columbia mony and fades with the words "Dreams fluence is manifest throughout the album, conjures up her voice. Phoebe scats and Records) " die young." An incredibly moving song. from his choice of sidemen "to in­ purrs her way through the number, All in all the album suffers from strumentation, particularly his 'use of proving unequivocally that the Seventies is Janis Ian has released "Aftertones" in uneveness. It was put together with mellow electric piano, string bass and not without its great voices. On her version the wake of the hugely successful "Bet­ seeming haste, lest Janis Ian's star fade in Phoebe's up-front vocals. The song~ of Gershwin's "Theres A Boat That's ween The Lines" and her single "At the interim between albums. At its best, in themselves are like the faces of Leaving Soon For New York," from Seventeen." Janis Ian is the child-prodigy songs like "Hymn" and "Don't Cry, Old strangers .. .interesting at first glance, but "Porgy and Bess," Phoebe shows she can returned from exile, the ugly duckling­ Man", it equals anything on her last only with repeated glances can you peer front a big band sound like any of the musical swan who amazed everyone with album. At its worst it is self-indulgent in its beyond the surface features to explore the greats- Billie Holiday, Ella Fitzgerald, the poignant beauty and pain of her last attempt at humor or too maudlin to sur­ finer qualities inside. " Dinah Washington- and carry it off with a album. " Aftertones" is appropria tely mount undistinguished melodies. Of talent "Two Fisted Love" opens the album, a unique delivery. titled for it only delivers a half-measure, a there is abundant evidence, it just remains beautiful, lilting love-song which Phoebe shadow of the power of "Between the to be seen whether Janis Ian, like Phoebe sings with assistance from her husband Her lyrics tend toward snippets and Lines." Snow, can attain that level of maturity Phil Kearns. From the first measure it is comments and are generally not as lyrical Janis Ian is most lyrical in despair. She enabling her to leave behind the first obvious that Phoebe has an incredible as a Paul Simon Composition. They do, paints her life in grays and browns of childhood and explore the second one as a voice with control to match. Where other however, reflect the lightness of spirit and solitude and love betrayed and these are fully-developed woman-artist.

II. THE LAST LAUGH "History is bunk." Henry Ford, Sr. Ghana--or Zimbabwe--or Mali, and so on, My original intent for this segment was existed. to draw a thumbnail sketch of human And in Russia and China, sprawling history to illustrate just how short-sighted lands with most of their turf unusable due we mortals can be. But it's none too easy to to downright miserable weather, com­ encapsulate thP. whole of our history as a THE GONZO REPORT munal living and a strong central race, and the projected segment soon got government are essential or a lot of people out of hand. So I'll spare you most of it, and are going to be vulnerable to marauders, instead just extract some relevant and, I Further Into Bicentennial Politics local uprisings, and the like. But the very hope, interesting portions to prove my size of the task of unification was as vast point, that with a little better sense of bur as the lands themselves. Compared to own history, we Americans would be in a By Barry M. Hoffman these situations, the geopolitical ac­ lot better shape. complishments of the Roman Empire pale For when all is said and done, that which by comparison, for the Romans merely the Greeks called Kronos has the last had to sail the Mediterranean to find lands laugh. Human cultures, civilizations, and to conquer or control. empire rise and fall, each convinced of it So it is not sUl>rising that we find that· superiority to its predecessors and con­ the Super-powers is not what their Russia's serious bid in the Imperia' gave in to the new creed, the proof being Sweepstakes--though her borders werf temporaries, each not realizing its mor­ the State of Israel itself.) propaganda and party lines say--Le., the tality until the very end. Each had its Final Showdown Between Decadent, secure by the fifteenth century, did no. The new order, which began in Western begin until the later years of Josef Stalin in own moral, intellectual, and technologi­ Europe and now encircles the globe, is Exploitative Capitalism and Godless, To­ talitarian Communism. No, it's nothing this century. Nor is it surprising-­ cal standards and values; and when ex­ built around the nation; its new ritual is especially in the context of China's cessive success and prosperity hit a patriotism. Economic and governmental more than the three-way jockeying of three rather large nations called the weakness in the last centtury or so--thrt culture, those values, accumulated in systems are always subservient to the na­ only under Mao Tse-Tung has her the long climb to dominance, are put to tional tradition. Had America's political United States, Russia, and · China for that position, vis-a-vis the rest of the unification, let alone her first imperial bid very stern testing. Outside of the and economi:c leadership realized this, the in the modern epoch, been achieved. remarkable Jews, the caste-ridden Cold War would never have happened; for world which would give said Super­ Powers the greatest benefit. Of course by now, somebody's probably Hindus, and the Buddhists, none of the many of the countries that went Com­ about ready to send me a threatening pre-Christian cultures have endured. munist, including Russia and China But as said, this is a very changed worlde from the heyday of Western Imperialism letter calling attention to the fact that I except from those totally isolated from the themselves, had a long tradition of haven't said a word about "Communist world at large. - autocratic government and a communal­ (Russia and China being too weak back then to compete in the Imperial Sweep­ Brutality." Rather than respond on such a based life style. level, let me draw a reasonable and ac­ That brings me back, in a roundabout stakes, and Japan doing so only after the West showed the way.). Indeed, the con­ curate comparison. Granted, in the Of course, religion itself no longer is the way, to the question of whether success completion of the centralization of power dominant factor in human culture. With has spoiled us so much, and caused such a cept of World Empire itself has been made the Reformation came the end of the rule obsolete by a vast complex of interacting in Russia and China, countless millions of huge gulf to open between us and our innocent people were killed. Well, weren't of the spiritual in Western Europe, and national principles and traditions, that events allover the earth. Let's take a because that neck of the woods was in the quick look at how this transpired. the Indians regarded as an obstacle to the we, too, will try to push our luck " as American's control and settlement of the process of empire-building, the shock Imperial America. So far, the answer +++ continental United States? Of course they waves created by Luther and friends is yes; the real meaning of the recent When Western Europe made its great reverberated wherever an outpost of thrust outward, it met little opposition were! And what, pray tell, did we do to revelations concerning the CIA is that them over a three-hundred-plus year span "Western Civilization" existed. This rather than accept the fact that other in much of Asia, Africa, and the Amer­ icas, not because of any inferiority on the that concluded at Wounded Knee? The culminated in the birth of our nation, a nations also value their independence, defense rests its case. country so far removed from Europe's old " we still insist on having "colonies," vas­ part of the natives, which I will il­ lustrate very shortly, but largely be­ Yet in spite of such difficulties as are order that its 'pledge to the fla.g swe~rs sal states, or whatever. listed above, China beat the West to the allegiance to the government fIrst, WIth Of course, we're not the only ones trying cause the geography; topography, 'and God inserted as an afterthought; and its various climates spread over these punch in discovering gunpowder; and the . to maintain an empire in the face of a African kingdoms of Ghana, Songhay, ' Chief Executive is sworn in not by a priest. world in which every single nation puts the vast lands often made impossible the or rabbi, but by the Chief Justice of thE " highest priority on its right to govern it- kind of melting-pot effect by which lnd Mali, which flourished during Supreme Court. (This is not to say that the nations of Europe melded into a whole ~urope's Dark Ages, were among the 'self. That which in the past was called most advanced cultures of that time. religion has been completely forgotten; it "Empire" today where the no less fitting far greater than the mere sum of its parts. lingers on as an object of nostalgia, like the title, "Super-Power," but the substance Mrica's -vast deserts and jungles. Indeed, Still, those geographic, topographic, and climatic handicaos. inevitably . t~k neighborhood one grew up in or a favorite remains the same. So Today, to be fac­ as Emperor of Ethiopia, you probably flick. But even the homeless Jews fmally tuallyaccurate. whSlt i~ hSinnenin2 amon~ wouldn't even know that the people fJf See GONZO, oage 9. '