U.,......lull rate paIct permit 110.2419 ITCH. KCMO MARCH 1987 KANSAS CITY'S ENTERTAINMENT MAGAZINE ISSUE 75 John Cale • ~'q •• _ln. KC PAlE 12 FROM CBS RECORDS 2 KC Pitch • MARCH ~~~~fit~~~~~~lF~~~~~:~!. ~"'!'j''''~~''~'.l':~:,!;c.'''''':$.;):-r'.:':7~''.1.~1!rl~~' the loose ~KC PITCHi On ~ 9 ~'Y'.ifu;~;);:';~~:f";~-;.~~~~t6~~;?:~.~~:~:t'~ scheme - and there was but one ubiquitous decorated this place, and what went through ;r~ March 1987 • Issue 75 ~ Saturday night at color - a soft, lush, bordello red. their minds when they did it. ~~~g~~~~y,~!;~l.~~~';~~'~-Wf~~r4 A velvet chain protected the entrance from But no one thought about such things on ~~4>~".f1:.~~~~.(;:1:~!~~-!~:'!,~~'.~.,;.~~~! the Bagdad the underage. Gratuitous lattice work lined the Saturday night. Not the towheaded Hawkeyes. ~~ 4128 Broadway ~.: walls. Miscellaneous cords and sashes Not the creaky black bumpers. Not the soft­ :~J Kansas City, Missouri 64111 ~ abounded everywhere. A glitter ball revolved shoe regulars like Ray and Buelah. Not the ubi­ ~~ (816) 561·1580 i'~ over the dance floor. Huge, meaningless urns quitous mixed couples. Not the illicit subur­ ''li Publisher Hal Brody ~ is moves are as cool and as slow sat on top of even huger, more meaningless ban lovers necking openly on the dance floor. ~~i Executive Editor Donna Trussell ¥. as a glacier's. boxes that emitted a red glow. Not the coke dealers. Not the pimps. Not the Lamps of a sort dominated the ceiling. all-day drunks. Not the leisure-suited hog He has a partner. But he pays .. noH attention to her. He can spare none. All his Bizarre lamps, large ones. They looked exact­ trader from Wichita and his buxomy "escort:' t.F.t~~.:.;... - Typesetting~~~~~~~i~gEd~O:arn~c~~r~~!:~:~ Graphic Specialties II ~.~~.:._~:'_: attention is turned inward, on himself, on the ly as if someone had set jello molds into the Certainly not Tom Bark, cosmopolitan redskin ,'" Printing Neff Printing ". dude with the moves, the man with the plan. ceiling and suspended from them red Brob­ and the most credible blues singer north of the ~~ Distribution Saul Tucker, iJ; The dance is called the body language, and in dingnagian checkers. And the really weird thing Mississippi delta. ~ Connie Yukon ~ its psycho-babble etymology, its detachment, was that none of the checkers were centered. In fact, no one thought about nothing. Not its self-involved minimalism it suggests all too They all hung a bit askew in unique, on Saturday night. Not at the Bagdad. ~ Contributing writers: ~ ~( l.eroi~ Joe Bob Briggs, }~ well the state in which black culture found asymetrical ways. If you thought about it at -Jack Cashill ~!} Jack Cashill, Fred Douglass, .•~ 1979. all, you had to wonder who it was that itself circa But the man doesn't care ~:~ Larry Fry, Bill Marks, ~j about black culture. He cares about the man, ;n Rex Rutkoski, Bill Shapiro, /f. center stage. And he doesn't even dance really, CrossCurrents Productions present ~~ Saul Tucker, Steve Walker >~ he just oscillates - maximum one degree variance from the vertical plane of his body. DAVE VAN RONK with ROSALIE SORRELS ~T~¥~~t~~i~~~~C~~~1h~f!~ But, oh what a studied one degree it is. March 28, 8 p.m. ~~ KC Pitch is sponsored by Penny Lane ~ Only for a cool moment, though, does the Community Christian Church, 4601 Main, KCMO "Bluesman/folksinger/guitarist Van Ronk is joined by folksinger Sorrels in a special concert. 'j4; Records. Copyright © 1987 by Brody ~.' brother dominate tP.e floor. Bounding up from tl Records. All rights reserved. Sub scrip- ( "THE SEAMIER SIDE OF NUCLEAR ANNIHILATION their seats, challenging his territorial im­ ~1 tions are $5 for one year or $9 for two ~.:.I.; perative, is a young, very white, very blond AND OTHER MODERN INCONVENIENCES" ~:; years. PennyLanemail order customers couple whose "Iowa" sweatshirts betray / March 13·14 and 20-21, 8 p.m. ;~ and Preferred Customers get a free ~.. Penn Valley Community College Theater, KCMO display their origins and their innocence. They "Outrageous, irreverent, original theater and music" J: subscription. :. know little of disco, nothing of the body Call 361-5147 for more information language. She twirls about in wild, unhinged ;~;{;i~~1;~;f~t:;i~~~;~Y~~~~~~:.t;\r.~~~;t~~ elipses. He smiles broadly, stomps around anlessly, and pump, his arms up and down as though he 1fel!e milking a cow which, in fact, he might have been dOing that very morning. The brother curls his upper lip in either 'PENftUINE disbelief or disdain. Culture shock. He can't J believe what he's seeing. He tries to ignore '172-0010 them. RECORDS CASSETTES Next up is an older black couple, much older, so old, indeed, that you can actually hear COMPACT DISCS VIDEOS the arthritic edges of their limbs grate one upon the other. They do the bump. Or try to. Sometimes they miss. They laugh. She swings WESTPORT her epic derriere, loses control of it, stumbles EST 4128 Broadway across the floor backwards, and plows butt­ Kansas City, Missouri 64111 first into the brother. She apologizes, laughing. (816) 561·1580 He scowls, brushes himself off symbolically with his fingertips, and looks to the crowd for moral support. But, to his dismay, he finds LAWRENCE none. Disco may be cool. Jazz may be cool. SIDE 844 Massachusetts But there's nothing cool about the blues. Lawrence, Kansas 66044 Nothing self-conscious about its partisans. Not (913) 749-4211 on Saturday night. Not at the Bagdad. Ah, the Bagdad! Blues palace extraordinaire. Quintessence of democracy. All races, creeds, criminal records, dance styles and sexual per­ CAFE SOUTH K.C. suasions welcome. Home at its peak of the in­ 1201 W. 103rd spired but oblivion-bound Colt 45. But gone Kansas City. MIssouri 64114 now - though not dramatically like a Wayne (816) 941·3970 Miner, nor tragically like a General Hospital, nor even pathetically like a Union Station. Just indi(Jn, persi(ln, (Jr(Jk~f' gone, unnoticed, un mourned, without a single OVERLAND PARK city father to memorialize it or mummify it, lehqnese,syrl(J{1,Lr~,!", 9641 Santa Fe metamorphosing successively into a gay disco, Overland Park. Kansas 66212 a video games arcade, a delicatessen, a what ... ? (Jnd IIfJrth (JfrlctTn 1UUU (913) 341-5255 Still, in its heyday, the Bagdad was a stun­ ner. Worth, as they say, the price of admission, which was either low or nonexistent in that un­ luncllll-J mon-fri SPECIALISTS IN mannered epoch before Yuppies upped the ante RECORDED MUSIC on the blues. The essential motif of the place was kind of a ragtag Iraqi-modern. The color MARCH • KC Pitch 3 News Liberace: the rock 'n' roll connection His mother wanted him to be an undertaker. His father thought he should be a doctor. Both underestimated the talents of Wladziu Valen­ tino Liberace, who went on to become the world's highest-paid entertainer, selling 15 million records worldwide, winning two Emmys, earning six gold albums and giving command performances for England's royalty. Along the way, the Milwaukee native's flair for on-stage fashion and visual spectaculars helped pave the way for others who were to follow. Liberace, who died Feb. 4 at age 67, wasn't a rocker. But his flamboyant influence as the "Godfather of Camp" can be seen in SUPERIOR SOUND specializes in: performances ranging from David Bowie to retail sales, commercial sales, bands, Prince. There's even a publicity photo from the schools, churches, business needs, '50s showing Liberace and Elvis in Vegas, trading jackets and instruments. ANYTH I NG large or small! Audiences at Liberace's Radio City Music Ililll Hall concerts often ranged from punk rockers Store hours: Mon. - Fri. 9:00 AM - 6:00 PM to society women. Liberace noted that young Sat. 10:00 AM - 4:00 PM audiences liked his outrageous attire. "It Liberoce Sun. Closed reminds them of rock stars. Kids like glitz:' An Associated Press feature a few years ago in 1958. After I had done the TV series, I went (816) 531-2919 suggested that Liberace was the Michael very conservative. It was a disaster. People felt Jackson of the 1950s. He addressed that com­ they were being cheated. I didn't have costumes SU R OR S P dO ° r ~:r parison in an interview with this writer in May or the candelabra. It taught me you don't gam­ .:::::::::~:::~ ::::::::::::~::::~:~::~:~::::::~:::::::~:::~:::::fH:H::::2~:~::~~::~:::~::;~:%fi;~~;::~:::::::::::::~:::::::::e!~:!:::::::!~~!::::;~:::~~:$i@:$::i:::l~::: of 1984, which marked his 40th anniversary in ble with sucsess:' show business. And how did "Mr. Showbusiness" wish to "What that was trying to bring out, I think, is that I paved the way for some of the younger performers of today. I discouraged Liberace clones, though. They had a talent search con­ test sponsored by the Baldwin Piano Company. -Rex Rutkoski So many came on in sequin jackets and did impersonations. "That's really a turn-off for me. The Ceilidh down Jacksons, Boy George and other people have Ceilidh (pronounced KAY-lee) is celtic for to be commended for trying to bring party. And to get your St. Pat's celebration off something individual into the show business on the good foot, Parody Hall is having a world by being completely themselves and dar­ ceilidh Saturday, March 14. To kick things off, ing to be different. I tell them that individuality there will be a huge celtic festival from 10 to is something that can be very difficult to sell. 6 at Volker Park, featuring pipe bands, dancers, Because if you don't conform to certain pat­ contests and concerts by Satura with Gerald terns that are established by other performers, Trimble, Magical Strings and Johnny Cunn­ you sometimes have a hard time of it.