'rIJIQ 'rY7.-LJF - . -- - -- - Inl I-_t HIlAU/-AY,UDECEMBER 14, 1973 PAGE 9 1h _ I Kaye, and very bored. Alice has always ex hibited brilliant Alice's Muscle collllallnd over the colllerlcial potential of lunsavol-ry sutject lat tcr while slicking to tilet basics musically'. iEven t tc the- atrical showmanllship (oft his lasl. B/;il/,! goes lirno Do /ar Balbies., wais contlrolled and ca;l- by Harlo Wilcox cuLlatCd. never cit he r tClting, out of 1'han( or letting up. In contrast, A/lulet/Ic o)i.hL'e is confuIsedt Muscle of Loole - Alice Cooper (Warner and aiinless. The bulk1y pack- aging crate serves no theilmatic lprpiose Bros.) th Institute of Nude Wrestling and the group This is the .Alice ('Cooper (Group's 7th as d-irunken sailors on leave. albuml to (late, and, except for their first, devclo)ped on tile innerl sleeve and the, credIits I Pretrties For )You, is their weakest. Of siheet (which tt-uls into a book cover-: back to course, few groupls last this long intact, 1liSkool) is never expande(d and of those that do, most are Soundling (on tlhe record. There is viirtually pretty run down. It's hard to see how no theniatic unity to the record, as vworked so well Alice and his boys could be running o(it on their last three. And why has dwvart' of inspirational material, for "We're the Bill Bardy (alias Mr. Truildnich, l)ecan ultimate American band, merely the end of Boys) been adopted into the told? I product of an affluent society," to quote Mx.Cooper. The boys watch a lot of Side two has a couple palpable tunes. television, in fact, the other week "Alice "Muscle of Love" is a knockout AM Coopcr" was the answer to one of the single, in the tradition of "Under My questions on Jeopardy, and host Art Wheels," "School's Out," antd "Elected." Fleming remarked that Alice was a reg- Therein is explained, beyond the shadow ular viewer and thanks for watching: of a doubt, what the ''1muscle of love" Alice has also said that you could get the actually is, and it ain't the heart. Prob- equivalent of a liberal arts degree watch- ably the reason the nude wrestling bit and ing TV game shows. Yet TV is an area the lady-with-the-bulging-hiceps motif they've never explored. They're all gun were adopted was to distract from and/or freaks, and in 1972 the band spent over camouflage thile true meaning of the $32,000 for beer alone. The American album's title. But the subject isn't touch- effort in space, pro sports, Boy Scouts, ed on beyond the title cut. "Working Up comic books, there's so much they could a Sweat" is a little lighter, using more have fun with. Instead, Alice and the traditional rock chordings, this album's group continue to dig into their past: "No More Mister Nice Guy." "Teenage teenage alienation in the Fabulous Fifties. Lament '74" has been released as the new They were all friends in HiSkool, having 45; Billboard calls is a "pseudo-Fitfties" met on the track team and school paper song. I don't care to guess what it is, but (track team for macho, paper to get girls, Liza Mineili, the LaBelle sisters, Ronnie or so they hoped.) Neal, Dennis, Glen, Spector, and the Pointer II I Sisters should photo by Donna Paula Mike and Vinnie(Alice) were the punk know, as they sing in the background. - Ray Davies of the Kinks offspring of rich men in Phoenix, and "The I spent their time boozing, fighting, whor- Man With the Golden Gun" is musical twists to that overtaxed theme. ing, watching TV, and wrapping their similar in temperment to McCartney's "Cricket," as sung by the pompous Vicar, spanking new flamingo-pink T-Birds "Live and Let Die." It seems to me I Preserved recall and "Demolition" ("We'll buy up the around telephone poles. The rock band reading that Ian Fleming's James Bond towns and we'll knock 'em all down") are thing started out as a hack skit at a track novel of that name is being made monuments to Ray's pungent wit. And banquet, but eventually panned out into into a movie, and this could just be the in the Act "Money and Corruption" is incredible: it the real thing. theme. It's built like a movie theme begins in a traditional English protest/ should be: listen once, throw away. by Mark Astoffi folksong vein, lamenting the crooked And much of Muscle of Love is nos- "Woman Machine" has a clever bit with politicians and money-grabbing business- talgic. Side one has some sort of plot line: electric and machine noices, hut is at best I Ohio Preservation Act I - The Kinks (RCA) men, then slyly seguing into a working hick goes to New York City to hit it pretty lame. big("Big After man's candidate's appeal for election sup- Apple Dreamin"), has to hustle two uninspired albums on RC'A. Muscle of Love will be, I'm afraid, best port, his true motives becoming in- to stay alive ("Never Been Sold Before"), Mluswell Hillbillies and Everybodv s In enjoyed only by hard core, terminal Alice creasingiy obvious as the song progresses: becomes bitterly jaded ("Hard-Hearted Show Biz, Ray Davies is finally back on Cooper fiends, and is hardly "And we will nationalize Alice"), ends up in the slam, get out, gets suited for the beam with Preservation Act 1, the the wealthy general consumption. Tracing companies, and all shot, dies ("Crazy Little Child") Not all some of the title of which is irritating, harkening back the directors will be influences through answerable to me.. that interesting, and hardly presented Alice's records, one to Lola 's. Powermnan and the Mloney- Oh God how I love can see this land!" well: the first two tunes are solid rockers, he's stagnating: too much of a Go-Round Vol.1, of which there was good thing. We Alice The album packaging somehow annonymous while still posed Cooper fans can never a volume 2. But the music is far is unpretentious. accept the band It says "The and self-conscious. "Hard-Hearted Alice" forlorn, self-abused, from irritating, the cleverest and most Kinks," which is read "Ray caught is a slow mournful throwaway, with their musical pants down. imaginative since Arthur, of which this Davies." It is, in short, Ray Davies' and "Crazy Little Child" is Otherwise, it's a singularly boring, bland, record is a worthy, if belated, successor. miraculous return from the dead, a pow- a rinky tink ballroom number, Alice ill-concieved, sloppily executed, thlem- Past Kinks albums have been erfully entertaining comeback to say the I sounding like a built around cross between atically vacuous, unstimulating drag of an a central theme, and Preservation least. A Leon Russell and Danny is no I I album. One to be forgiven and forgotten. exception: here, it seems to be the march of the money-eaters (represented by real I lw estate fiend Flash) versus the inward- t .11 '.',II .4ts,i searching humanist (portrayed by The Tramp), with 4- the Common Man stuck in -7 the middle. There is no cohesive plot really; each song is merely a tableau, and they are diverse enough to include a Fifties nostalgia song, and a hilarious allegory lbetween cricket (thle sport) andl reliigion. By now, it's p)retty clear that Ray l)avies isn't thile rockin' roller thail he used to be, aInd he needn't be ait that. The Kinks nulmber eight, their ranks swe'lledl Vbya horn section. and Ray makes ex- cellent use of t he band. as wel l as the Oft--aLIused lfemale backing vocals. ihere used taste'lully-RV'l:1v r-ealizes theyv'rc t ar l'roni obligiatory, uinlike niany current Igroups. A'\c()ul)lc SOiigS are up) telmjpo, but no ihard-nosed stufft like ''"l.ola,'' ''Vic- toriad" '"Brainwashed,"' o()r l'owerninan.'' [o r sollie happy rcason, R a v's so()ng- writing has taken o{n Ia t!eneVVwedhIlUnor and vitality, and every song exi!l-lts an effort less r'mcc and wit scldoni achllicved inI rock n111siC. It iS tIruly Ray's Feln- aiss;l clt'. Best an tinlhcsols(l'ls are "'S\v\ctl il(y ! (i,: viCv " dI(n! ''Sit tilln, InI Ii .Aeiidtlav F S ul n1.' 'T'hlto'' 1 -'111t'I is al St!p le' [') Ilb l ll ;-br, 10t' W prI-Cil I iing i l)vie. ha: pennel d sile Ad I '"\W atc'rl) Sullet.l." IhIs silngin, is gente! i w vyet res oniusetulf . o)ttf'il:m~n dlttdly tinli nion allI 0 and 'aicul;tledl' dtead pm, trill, sitting nl'lod\' andt nicely plnlcil!at dl' llrasir1 . Indeed, Riy's viCc hals Ilever sounillded better, a i is used, not abthlSCtd, 1t Cre at effect on lh1C allbum. ''One of thile Sur- vivors" is also quite good, a Fi fties nostalgia song (was Chuck Berry the only recording star of that decade, or merely the only rocker?) with a couple of new -Alice Cooper