Michael Tearson Theólumn Jon Tiven

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Running on Empty: Jackson Browne songs describe what happens or how superior sequencing of selections. Call Asylum 6E-113, stereo, $7.98. you feel out there. The new ones are this a rave review. M. T. Running on Empty was recorded live distinctively Jackson's. They feel it. and on the run. It includes per- But Jackson has been lazy with his Sound: A + Performance: A + formances live on stage, in hotel melodies. Both of the rockers, the title rooms, in a rehearsal hall, even rolling song and You've Got the Thunder, cop along on the bus. One, Danny the main riff of Take It Easy. The Load Don Juan's Reckless Daughter: Joni O'Keefe's The Road, combines hotel, Out is very close to The Pretender Mitchell first verse up to the built-in pause in which itself reminds me of For Asylum BB -101, stereo, $12.98. the melody when crickets appear and Everyman. Rosie brings Ready or Not Don Juan's Reckless Daughter elab- it segues to the stage at the same point back to mind. As obvious as it is orates stylistically on its two in the song. Only the altered texture of Jackson's self -thievery really doesn't predecessors Hejira and The Hissing of the sounds and ambience signals the matter within the good feelings of the Summer Lawns. The cover art is even switch. The pause in the second verse album. Surely it is both the happiest quite reminiscent of Hissing's. The yields a magical moment when the and most optimistic album Browne has snake image which has been central to crowd cheers apparently for the recorded. The emotional turmoil of Ms. Mitchell's writing on these recent crickets singing along. The Pretender and Late for the Sky collections is consistent on Daughter In fact, the album is remarkably well clearly is just not the concern of Run- and seems to frame the three albums recorded for a live in the field record- ning on Empty. The unrest has led to a into a trilogy. Indeed Daughter con- ing. It has terrific presence and per- fresh and fertile new period. tains some leftover songs that never sonality. By itself Running on Empty Running on Empty is both highly made it to the earlier ones. The song defines audio verité as a medium. cinematic and thoroughly thought out. Jericho has appeared before in a Special kudos go to engineer Greg That cover is what his stage set looked somewhat embryonic form on the live Ladanyi. like on the tour during which the Miles of Aisles collection. Two others, Musically Empty is Jackson album was recorded. The picture book the title song and Talk to Me, have Browne's mast entertaining album inside is lavish, provocative, and been in her concert performances ever. It is thematically bound up in the enlightening as well. Every detail has since at least February 76, before theme of the road experience; all the been covered, all the way down to reaching vinyl.

AUDIO April 1978 Musically Don Juan's Reckless Daughter is ambitious even for the restless Ms. Mitchell. The pop threads of Court and Spark appear to be en- tirely forsaken for starker, more sug- gestive rhythms, a style almost de- signed to ward off excessive mass ac- ceptance. Two of the four sides are side -long excursions. Paprika Plains rambles meditatively and seemingly autobio- graphically through an elaborate or- chestral setting by the English com- poser Michael Gibbs. Side three opens on Otis and Marlena, contrasting O & M's fun & sun vacation with the Hanafi Moslem terrorism of Washington, D.C., last summer. It segues into The 10th World, a lengthy and ultimately in- dulgent percussion dream sequence set in the minds of the Hanafis the first 5 minutes don't count perhaps. This in turn segues into a pe- culiar percussive version of Dream- land, earlier recorded by Roger McGuinn on Cardiff Rose in a much Or even ten! Coupled with physical more straightforward rock and roll set- Sometimes it may take comfort comes the lack of ting. The percussion heightens to a little while before you aural fatigue. That bright nightmare irony such lines as "Tar know just how good a overdone sound Baby and the great white wonder sit- is. associated with the ting over a glass of rum." This whole headphone really side might have been titled Comfort, weight, cord loudspeaker-on -the -ear' "Wanderlust." convenience all are vital concept oversold by our The other two sides include songs in 96 factors in headphone competitors will often song format, yet still related to the om- wearability. give you a bad headache nipresent theme of wanderlust, both of in minutes. It takes time physical and spiritual. The opening With every minute gambit Cotton Avenue opines "If you use, any manufacturing to appreciate good clean got a place to go/You just got to go deficiencies in these sound. And with time, there/If you got no place special/Then areas grow into good sound doesn't tire you just go no place special," and sets discomfort and (Hi-Fi News, September the tone for all that is to come. It is a inconvenience. '76, Subjective prophetic thought. Talk to Me and test, Jericho look heads and tails fashion at At Beyer we know Headphone listening the difficulties in making personal con- these problems and all Beyer DT440 ranked 1st). nection; Talk to Me neurotic, nervous our headphones are So visit your Beyer chatter, and Jericho pensive and a bit designed to achieve the headphone dealer now bitter. highest possible and give yourself time to Opening the final side, the title song is the album's centerpiece relating as wearability factor (Hi-Fi compare Beyer head- well to Hissing and Hejira. She joins News, September '76, phones against the the snake to the eagle, amplifying their page 143, Beyer competition. personal meanings, "The eagle and the DT440 1st But remember- snake are at war in me/The serpent ranked fighting for blind desire/The eagle for out of six the first clarity." The final statement The Silky comparative 5 minutes Veils of Ardor harkens to her folk tests for comfort). don't count! music roots. The song has only acoustic guitar backing and lyrics bor- rowed and bent from Come All Ye Fair and Tender Ladies, Poor Wayfaring Stranger, and Dink's Song, traditional songs all woven into a credo on the pain of love and the power of dreams. The unbilled musical co-star of Don Juan is Weather Report's bass player Jaco Pastorius. His eloquent, startling BEYER DYNAMIC bass lines capture an inordinate Distributed by Hammond Industries Inc. amount of the musical attention. His collaborations with Joni, begun on He - 155 Michael Drive, Syosset, New York 11791(516) 364-1900

Enter No. 16 on Reader Service Card jira, seem to inspire her into ever more is very good and aids tremendously in with six minutes of lyrics, dynamics, distant uncharted regions. Other making the Pistols musical. However, and melodies which grab me by the notables include John Guerin on per- this should not be overestimated-a seat of my pants and don't let go for a cussion, Larry Carlton on guitar, and recent Kiss cover of Anyway You Want second, then they can be legitimately Weather Report's Wayne Shorter on It made me pull out my Dave Clark acknowledged as more than just a sax. The sound has been crafted by Five's Greatest Hits album and the political singles band. Lord knows Henry Lewy, who has worked on every sound on those tracks is far more Britain's given America tons of singles Joni Mitchell album from Clouds (her explosive than the bulk of this record. bands, some of which take and some second) on. As usual, he has done a Thomas is good, but the Pistols don't of which don't-but why bother brilliant job, especially on the special yet have the depth to hold the putting out an album if the bulk of it is effects and Jaco's bass. listener's attention for more than three already available on singles, and the Don Juan's Reckless Daughter has its minutes with any one song, and the rest is forgettable? J. T. full share of excess and failed ambi- chalenge for the rest of the Seventies tion, plus wandering and occasionally is to do just that. When they come up Sound: B+ Performance: B vague melodies, but it is an exciting and fascinating document nonethe- less. It is a far cry from my favorite Mitchell, but it is insistent and disturb- ingly attractive. One other serious flaw is in the total time of the set. The four sides sum to 59:30, safely under an hour. The $12.98 list price is pretty steep for that little music. Could there not have been one or two more hidden songs that fit, or a dollar or two less at the counter? M.T.

Sound: A Performance: B -

Never Mind the Bollocks, Here's The Sex Pistols Warner Brothers BSK 3147, stereo, $7.98. First off, this critic would like to 97

state that I love all the Sex Pistols singles and am not significantly in- fluenced by the fact that they do not play all their own instruments (Chris Spedding, guitar; Paul Thompson, TANDBERG ALONE OFFERS drums; John Wetton, bass). I must say, though, that had I never bought any of REEL-TO-REEL PERFORMANCE their 45 rpm records, this album might well have kicked me in the teeth. FEATURES IN A CASSETTE DECK Unfortunately, however, aside from 3 the singles there are only three cuts Separate Heads/3 Motors/Dual Capstans which move me, the horroriffic Bodies These & other features found exclusively on Tandberg's which deals with the subject of TCD-330 make it not only the finest cassette deck, but also the abortion in an undelicate manner, cassette deck with performance exceeded only by the best their dismissal of their roots with the reel-to-reel machines. Three nasty New York, and the famed separate heads for no -compro- pointed finger at their former record mise recording & monitoring. A 3 -motor, dual capstan closed label(s), E.M.I. Of the four singles, loop transport, coupled with complete logic -controlled sole- three are very good but there is a noid operation. Adjustable azimuth & built-in 10kHz tone marked decline in innovation from one generator, allowing the user to select the perfect alignment for single to its successor in chronological each cassette, as well as spot dropouts and inferior tape. order. Anarchy is the definitive Equalized peak -reading meters. Automatic take-up of tape statement, God Save the Queen is a loops when cassette is inserted. Servo -controlled high speed successful followup without the same winding. Vertical or horizontal operation, plus optional remote potency, Pretty Vacant is true to the control & rack mounting. Pistols mold but not exactly cap- Only the TCD-330 it tivating to the last, and Holidays in the has what takes to deliver cassette Sun somehow is uninspiring from start performance exceeded only by the finest reel-to-reel ma- to finish, complete with a riff nicked chines. Ask your Tandberg dealer for a "Hands-on" demonstra- from the Jam's In the City. tion. Write or call us toll-free at 800-431-1506 for his name. The rest is pure filler, both lyrically Tandberg of America, Inc. Labriola Court Armonk, N.Y. 10504 and musically-they would be better off including the flipsides to the singles which were at times as good as the A-sides. Chris Thomas' production TANDBERG

Enter No. 46 on Reader Service Card