13in the dark, nearly mystical narrative power of Townes Van Zandt's Poncho & Lefty. And the LP's representative hon- kytonk cut. I'll Be Your San Antone Rose, rings with a bittersweet ironic sting that transcends its source points in the more bathetic country standards. When Harris sings, "If tonight you'll be my tall dark stranger, I'll be your San Antone Rose." she instills a weariness and quiet sorrow that transcend mere pity. If Jeanne Moreau sang country songs.I suspect they'd sound like this one.s.s. George Harrison: Thirty -Three & George Harrison. producer. Dark Horse DH 3005, $6.98. Tape: 41_1) M5 3005. !. M83005. $7.97. "Thirty -Three & 1/3"is being billed as George Harrison's idea of a fun record. It does have a couple of fun songs: This Song and Crackerbox Palace. the former a catchy piece of fluff, the latter a zany delight. But it also has a lot of semi-lis- tenable dreck-some of it pallid, some of George Harrison- trying hard it self-righteous and stupid. to have a good time There may be a religious movement somewhere that inspires songs of beauty and light, but Harrison has not found it for all of his flirtation with Eastern mys- Crackerbox Palace proves that Harri- This is powerfulstuffbecause ticism. There may be accompanists son is still capable of giving a good time. McLauchlan avoids the trap of self pity somewhere who inspire music of but the rest of the album suggests he's even as he explores the limits of compas- strength and purpose, but Harrison seldom capable of having one. F.R. sion and emotional charity. His blunt- hasn't found them either. Instead he is ness bars any impulse toward sentimen- back with Gary Wright, Billy Preston, Murray McLauchlan: Boulevard. Mur- tality. His strained but not unattractive and Tom Scott, mediocrities every one. ray McLauchlan & Bernie Finklestein. voice, which resembles a world-weary He has locked himself into an environ- producers. True North I LTN 9423, $6.98. Arlo Guthrie. complements the bleak- ment in which sloppy music and soph- Tape: ZCT 9423, .9_!: Y8T 9423, $7.98. ness of the material. "Boulevard" is also omoric lyrics become good enough. Like "Boulevard" is the sixth album by this McLauchlan's first "rock" album in that every Harrison album since "Concert for distinguishedCanadiansinger -song- it is electronically, not acoustically, Bangladesh." this record couples the writer, who has yet to receive due recog- based. It recruits a respected Canadian kind of juvenile self -discoveriesthat nition in the U.S. Like his fellow coun- session band, The Silver Tractors, whose used to characterize Moody Blues songs tryman, Gordon Lightfoot, Murray music sounds uncomfortably crude on ("It's easier to tell a lie than it is to tell the McLauchlan writes and sings a folk -ori- first listening, but subsequently trans- truth...") with the kind of crooning that ented style of pop. But where Lightfoot lates into rough and muscular. Together, follows extended bouts of psychic self- is content to evoke the troubadour's peri- the singer, material, and band forge an flagellation. patetic existence with a glib bittersweet- album that comes close to the summit of ness, McLauchlan is much rougher - neorealism in modern folkrock. S.H. edged and finally a more compelling art- ist. Phil Ochs: Chords of Fame. Michael "Boulevard" presents a mercilessly Ochs, compiler. A&M SP 4599, $6.98. unsentimental pageant of Canadian Tape: 411 CS 4599, 8T 4599, $7.98. working-class life peopled with charac- "Chords of Fame" is a two -record career ter types evoked by McLauchlan in very retrospective of the late folksinger Phil terse, emotionally charged language. To Ochs, and contains an affectionate remi- the psychotic killer in Met You at the niscence by poet Ed Sanders, numerous Bottom McLauchlan says: "Everybody photographs, and twenty-four sides- loves a loser/ They want to see him pay some of them released for the first time. his dues/ Everybody loves a loser/ But Though the portrait they fix is of a large they don't want to stand in his shoes." In talent perpetually frustrated by unat- As Lonely as You, he rejects a lonesome tainable artistic ambitions,italso re- prostitute: "I can't stand to see you/ I affirms that Ochs was the best political - can't look when you cry/ I can't help you topical songwriter of the early '60s and no how/ I'm too selfish to try." Genii?' an important influence on Don McLean Harder to Get Along, Train Song, andOn and John Denver. Ochs's most famous theBoulevard are driven by similar feel- offerings like /A in't Marchin' A nymore, ings of rage and futility. They present a have a simple formal integrity and pas- morbidly realistic view of life in which sionate wit that made them the most per- everything appears to be in a state of suasive protest songs of the period. llel.auchlan-the iiitimit noweiiltvm spiritual and physical deterioration. Continued on page 146

14( CIRCLE 52 ON READER -SERVICE CARD -÷