14 April 19, 1974 Los Angeles Free Press

crossing the line of madness, references as she compares un­ leading you right to the edge depreciation that is almost herself to a lover: "He makes is with COURT AND SPARK duly harsh, loaded as it friends easy / He's not like me." before guiding you back to of fatalism, panic and feelings The infectious rocker "Raised clarity, a la John McLaughlin inadequacy. on Robbery" stands as my rock 'n' roll. is one "People's Parties" favorite cut and is, I think, il­ Perhaps not. But I for if a probably the most self-critical lustrative of the way Joni's a$: have come to suspect that excoriating change, if it song here, with Joni has improved since "Ladies of spasm band doesn't and the herself for her shyness the Canyon," and of the delight­ forgets or is unable to sense The lyrics social gauchery. ful way she has accepted the subtle shifts of consciousness then it abound in stinging self- realities of rock without crippl­ of its audience-context, like I'm band reproaches like "/ feel ing her poetry. "Robbery," with simply remains a spasm in the sleeping / With a.weak and lazy its mixture of aggressiveness vying for the nearest shelf mind / Coming to people's par­ and abashed raunch, ranks with Rolling Stone museum. ties / Fumbling deaf, dumb and "All I Want," "Carey," "This And so it goes. Johnny is still JONI MITCHELL blind." Tonight" and "You Turn in there churning out old Flight Sinners (Johnny The contradiction of yearning a Radio)" as one of Saints & country-blues lines and talking Me On (I'm Produced by Rick Court and Spark (Joni for the limelight and then things Mitchell has Winter). about 15-year-old greupies and the best Columbia KG 32715. Mitchell). Asylum 7E-1001. retreating from the hot light of recorded. Derringer. Southern-black hard times, en­ High common­ Joni Mitchell stands peerless via me when success arrives In Denver's Mile casing these venerable Her version of that enduring in 1967, contexts, in this era of the female singer-/ /must have surely yielded baseball stadium back places in 1967 rock jazz number "Twisted," which opposite songwriter. Her closest com-1 ;~eaustic lyrics like "/ wish I had everybody showed up for the which are now the is, incidentally, far superior to come to be petitor, Laura Nyro, has been more sense of humor / Keeping rock concert, some 40,000 acid of intimate: they've the yammering exhibitionism of in­ isolating, silent for over two years; Carole the sadness at bay / Throwing heads and all the big bands, impersonal, on all these things / Bette Midler's recent interpreta­ anachronistic. King's music is mired in banality lightness Janis, Jimi Hendrix, The it all away." tion, ends the album on a note cluding Saints and Sinners- may be and bubblegum, and Carly Laughing Tim Buckley and, at the "Help Me," an AM-flavored of ambivalent humor and un­ Doors, fine for the new batch of Simon has been doting too long top of his form, Johnny Winter. tune and one of the album's derscores the metronomic un­ pubescents presently emerg- on Sweet Baby James. certainties of Mitchell's sen­ The cops shot tear gas at the has continued to better cuts, echoes the . ing. But for those who have Only Joni timents that weaken Court and kids who were trying to crash and musical paradoxes of love and freedom followed Johnny Winter expand artistically, Spark. ' , the gate, and the gas blew into is such as Blue and For from Blue, the proud right of in­ throughout his career, Saints flowerings This time Joni's fretful obses­ the stands, and everybody ran left are among the dependence in the exigencies just a relic, a nostalgic howl the Roses sion with the complications and down on the baseball diamond of pop music. of a relationship. It's a lovely lit­ over from yesterday's dreams loveliest in intricacies of love has resulted and lay face down on the grass Joni did not tle lament and, like most of glory. However, in confusion, -quiet panic and and 'felt very righteous and twin bouquet of Mitchell's love songs, it's up to - — Lee Underwood cultivate the dividedness, and this dreamy political and sick and full of the Roses without its chorus in passionate Blue and For chaos is the undoing of this adventure and social relevance indulgence in an fatalism. an initial album, which represents an im­ not to mention scared and almost obligatory period of "Car on a Hill" is throwaway filler, though it does contain passe in her career. stoned. preciousness and misty garden When the gas blew off,*; of Joni's withering self- — Mark Smith verse. Her early albums, despite another everybody climbed back into the felicitous touches that are in and the.concert roll­ open fire somewhere in upper the stands, everything she does, are mostly ed on with Tim Buckley facing in 1880. exercises in schoolgirl lyricism, SOLCS/GEORGE WiNSTON Montana adrenalized mob and turn­ PIANO The snows outside have settl­ the candy-colored celebrations of ing the show into a master­ inside close to the fire things like clouds, painted ed, while piece of concentrated energy as red wine and listen to ponies, feathered canyons, we sip he united the hearts and minds dragonflies and ice cream George play tunes that recall Rosie of the Red Dog of all. castles. Sweet Then Johnny Winter strode on Saloon, the sunny mountain Then, in late 1971, there was stage, his white hair blowing in days when the gold panned out Blue, a staggeringly good wind, his freaky crossed fine for us, and the laughing the album that, for me, ranks with rolling across the crowd, brothers and sisters we left eyes Dylan's Blonde On Blonde as a and slam! bam! he whipped out AMAR CABALLERO (Babe back home on the farm in West milestone in the pantheon of that raunchy boogies beat he Ruth). Produced by Alan Virginia. I swear to God, I felt pop poetry. Here Joni abandons so famous, and the crowd Shacklock. Capitol/Harvest like a sentimental fur-trapper. made the vocal pyrotechnics and sun­ fell air over itself relating to the ST-11275. And I like it. Simplistic piano ny gambols that disfigured her gut-bucket rhythms and the You'd think that after the playing,_:as Winston does it, has previous work and settles into acid-loud wail of his Texas thousands of bizarre names that Piano Solos (George Winston). the sa'rri'e' agrarian relaxed the role of a globe-visiting gypsy band. bands have come up with over Produced by John Fahey and quality as folk guitar playing. stomp at once optimistic and tristful like so many others, the past few years that it Doug Decker. Takoma R-9016. puts Doc Watson down But over the possibilities of love. Nobody became a casualty of wouldn't matter to people you say when he's not John Johnny Court and Spark, the third What do because peace-and-beads anymore what a group calls comes along and the panel in the triptych beginning someone McLaughlin. itself. Not so. Whenever I've plays "folk piano"? I know nothing about George "revolution." with Blue and For the Roses, is The smack got him, and he asked somebody if they've We've all heard solo pianists Winston, but judging from his only an equivocal success vanished into the depths, only to heard the new Babe Ruth Scott Joplin, Eubie Blake, music I would guess he's young, (though this is a relative state­ with new records of old album, all I've gotten is quizzical clear up through Art maybe 19-24, white, self-taught return ment when considering an artist etc., When you lose two or expressions and snide remarks. Taturn, Bill Evans and Cecil and musically very innocent. concepts. of Mitchell's stature). years, the rest of the world Until they hearthe music, that TaylorT But who ever heard of All of that is part of his charm, three First, the album suffers from it grows up but is. Then they find out that Babe somebody coming along and, but it is also the source of my changes a lack of fresh insight. Most of still two or three years Ruth is a British rock band with well. . . not copying anyone, but reservation about the album. On you're the songs are heavy-handed if you're not careful. a sound all its own. sort of reminiscing? the whole, George ignores the behind reworkings of themes that so it is with Saints and The man most responsible Technically, George Winston fact that we live in the 20th cen­ And Mitchell has rendered You might think that for that sound is Alan is nowhere near the heights of tury, which is indeed his Sinners. sprightlier and more accessible of the chaos of his particular Shacklock, guitarist, arranger the giants and innovators, nor prerogative. Looking out in the past. "Free Man In Paris" Johnny Winter would have, and producer for the group. does he-pretend to be. His left backwards musically places night is an anti-show-biz tune on the with a broader point of Shacklock is unique in that he hand generally plays simple lit­ Piano Solos in the escape-to- emerged order of "For the Roses," but that his music might truly doesn't use his training at the tle patterns, whether boogie- nostalgia bag, and not to a view, without the latter's wit and the depths and heights Royal Academy of Music to woogie, stride, or arpeggios; his nostalgia of our own age, but to portray forgiving irony. paradoxes of his Genet- force rock-classical fusions. harmonies are basic; his a nostalgia of a century we and The title song, "Court and Saints and About the only classical melodies are nearly always even live in. Folk music. Mingus theme, Spark," invokes a recurrent didn't borrowings heard on this album singable; and his overall ap­ Nevertheless, Piano Solos Sinners. theme, Joni's love-hate . . . come out of the Spanish tradi­ proach is generall that of a folk creates a mood of poignant in­ But alas romance with California and es­ might feel that the are most effective musician playing for his friends. nocence, captivating, sentimen­ By now you tion, and they pecially Los Angeles, but the sounds of your contexts are of As a matter of fact, with the tal, intimate, light-hearted, plea­ massive rock when the lyrics get bogged down in arty acid trips are the op­ Shacklock's making; the exception of "Theme For A sant to listen to. highest references to stigmata and That they trap midsection of the title suite, Futuristic Movie" and "Untitlecf," Innocence is always a rare posite of release. Christian symbolism that sent hammer you with which features Spanish guitar both of which took me back to and refreshing quality. But I also you and me fleeing for the lucidity and cliches rather than over a Latin-jazz rhythmic the late 19th century salons of want to hear what George energetic verve of "California." your eyes figure, comes off better than the Paris, a la Erik Satie, the preval- Winston has to say after he reaching back behind The second, and most of just how direct use of Llobet. ing mood I received was that of crosses over the line. with the knowledge damaging, flaw of this album is far it's possible to go before Perhaps the most impressive the intrusion of a self- sitting in a log cabin near an — Lee Underwood