_________________...//, 5 [ I I o ft Elton John Uriah Heep 7 Roberta Flack Free A Chuck Berry M ■w L'J v■ . rj * * ' ■ t i Z- JI ft =’^.' J W*- a ■ *■' 1 > ■ kw ■ ■/fi » IreeT^c PAUL, fz/ 3! \ LINDA POSTER Y'i V 1 I t; '■ Record Lovers' Guide: J . ' V El This Month's^ I Y 25 Testiest J/P Aa ■Lft- 0 I ■ 2 ■7r°^9(K' r//S. ■J 'I s I rV - - H Th I TH* Ti letti Part) knive NATI01 Concej Dog perform C0Astr^og=< *0%in8 MoVJ,„van df D«esn"diiy, toS oV FRC POEF^j mus1* ^”°y- August, 1972 Vol. 6, CONTENTS REPORTS FROM BACKSTAGE LHJMU IS ELTON JOHN OBSOLETE? 4 Elton John paces his living room and ponders the fate of his new LP, Honky Chateau. HOW FREE FELL APART . AND WHY THEY FELL TOGETHER AGAIN 22 Free’s Andy Fraser stomps through an explanation of why the group that shattered last year suddenly whirled together for a sixth album. WHAT YOU SEE IS WHAT YOU GET: ROBERTA FLACK 32 The strange views of a girl whose record with Donny Hathaway is giving her more gold on the charts than Neil Young and Emerson, Lake and Palmer combined. LOU REED: WILL HE CATCH FIRE BEFORE RCA DOES? 36 With the spirit of rock and roll burning in his belly, ex-Velvet Undergrounder Lou Reed is using a solo LP to singe away his ties to a peculiar past. THE MYSTERIOUS RISE OF URIAH HEEP 40 Even Marc Bolan took time out to knock them. Yet until Demons and Wizards, no one was buying their records but the Germans. CHUCK BERRY: THE KING OF ROCK COMES OUT OF THE CLOSET ... ... 54 Berry’s London Sessions LP raises a question: can Jagger’s master beat the Stones at the game he taught them how to play? BEHIND ‘SCHOOL'S OUT’—THE ALICE COOPER NO ONE WANTS TO KNOW 58 You knock on the door of Alice’s mansion expecting to meet Dracula in Drag, only to end up in the kitchen with Archie and Veronica. What happened to Alice the Killer? THE ALBUM REVIEW RECORD REVIEWS 18 The Rolling Stones, Elton John, the Beach Boys and more. Ed Kelleher’s scrappy analyses of the super- stars’ new LP’s. ON THE HORIZON 26 Flash, Dr. Hook and the Medicine Show, Stories, Z.Z. Top and more. A personal visit with six newcomers. ’OT WAX ....................................................................... 39 The FM DJ’s give their ratings of the newest disks. IE RECORD LOVERS’ GUIDE 44 ^ite-sized reviews of the month’s 25 tastiest albums. E PICK OF THE MONTH 45 he hottest platter of the last 30 days. MIND, BODY AND STARS iRS ................................................................... 10 GERALD ROTHBERG 'ing in Joe Cocker’s hotel room. Flashing Publisher and Editor-in-Ch Editor: Howard Bloom; Art Director: Norman Jacobs; Contributing s over Jethro Tull. Editors: Peter Buckley, Ed Naha, Janis Schacht; Advertising Di­ 14 rector: Norman Harris; Assistant to the Publisher: Art Ford; Re­ VAL SCENES gional Correspondents: London—Kenneth Howards; West Coast— 1 dates for The Allman Brothers, Yes, Three Jacoba Atlas; New York—Wall! Elmlark; Photo Editor: Jeff Mayer, ight, and a truckload of others. Over 200 FOA; Cover Design: Arnold Genkins; Research Assistant: Rob lances you shouldn’t miss. Norris. 48 ?K PAGES ................ ;;..... Readers' Advisory Bou>ard: . Jerry Be<•ck; Linda Gallucci; Bob Gross- s the partnership. Carole King says no weiner; Marcia Lankey; Howard ILynn; Randy Schwartz; David e real-life death of Jim Momson. Late Shafer; Linda Stapleton. “tins from the nerve centers of rock. CIRCUS Magazine is published 12 times a year by Circus Enter­ HARISMA ............ back of poster prises Corporation. 866 United Nations Plaza, New York, N. Y. 10017, 212 - 832-1626. Return postage must accompany all unsoli­ Alan Oken sneak-preivews your cited manuscripts, drawings and photographs. Entire contents Copy- nth. right © by Circus Enterprises Corporation 1972. All rights reserved. back of poster Reproduction or use without written permission of editorial or pic­ torial matter in any form is prohibited. Printed in U.S.A. tion rates: 12 issues for $9.00. Office of Publication- F' with terror. West Pittston. Pa. 18643. Second class entrv - M the READERS back of poster ngs bust the halter. Viet Nam The famous Elton be- gan as a gambit “to keep my ass from freezing off.” ■W Is Elton John Obsolete? countryside is an impressive, rambl­ First they build you up as a superstar, ing 16th Century provincial-style castle, the Chateau D'Herouville. Be­ then they bury you, complains Elton John hind its gnarled chestnut trees and thick stone walls lies one of the most as he paces his living room and ponders modern and complete recording com­ plexes in the world, Strawberry Stu­ the fate of his new LP (‘Honky Chateau’). dios. With four separate 16 and 32 track studios, complete with self-con­ tained apartments and living quarters, MUSIC N? .3] * ■ r " 4 I 3 it’s a highly sophisticated recording style castle, the home of the honky commune, a sort of Camelot of the chat himself, Elton John. Behind the music buisiness, and, one would think, white birch trees and the circular the ideal place to cut an album. Elton driveway is one of the most comfort­ John’s latest was recorded at Straw­ able bachelor pads you can imagine. berry and it must have gone pretty High-ceilinged rooms of stone, wood well. Honky Chateau is dedicated to and glass, enormous guilded mirrors D'Herouville. straight out of some forgotten Ritz, About 45 minutes outside of Lon­ lots of buttoned leather furniture and don, hidden among the wooded Eng­ low, heavy tables, banks of sound, lish countryside, is an impressive, visual, and electronic equipment box­ rambling 20th Century Beverly Hills- ed in black perspex squatting on thickly carpeted floors, and taking up most of one wall, a monster grand piano. The critics carry daggers: A couple of gardeners are on the other side of a sliding glass sheet sweeping the leaves out of the swimming pool, and in the main room Elton John sits in front of a barricade of gold rec­ ords, sips his black coffee and talks about his career, his concerts, his music, and, well, Elton John. “I’ve probably had more shit thrown at me by the press over the last nine months than anyone else in the busi­ ness, but I suppose that’s their job. They love to do that—spend six building you up and then spend the next six knocking you down. It’s a kind of game with them. They’re starting in on it now with Carole King and Cat Stevens, and Rod Stew­ art’s next. It’s all part of the ‘super­ star-cycle’ they create, but I think they’ve pretty well finished kicking me around. It was the over-exposure, you see, and that almost finished me off as soon as I got started.” The LP disaster: Honky Chateau (on the Uni label) is Elton’s seventh album in less than three years, which doesn't seem all that much until you realize that four of these were released within the space of twelve months. As finished products, he’s not particu­ larly proud of two of them; Friends was a bit of a rush job put together immediately after he returned from an American tour, and at the time he didn’t have any control over their flooding of the market so that these, coupled with his scheduled release of two regular albums a year, plus singles, plus the radio-television-tour­ ing super-hype from twenty-seven dif­ ferent directions all added up to over- exposure. Ripped off or wrung dry? “People seemed to think that I was out to rip off as much bread as possible in the shortest amount of time, which is logical I suppose, but it just isn’t true.” With the release of Madman Across The Water he had four albums at once in almost everyone’s top thirty, and it was a bit too much all around. there is a trace of annoyance at his About a year and a half. I’ve been In spite of, or rather because of, four public manhandling. working as a musician all my life, gold albums and a platinum, Elton Money’s not everything: The press and that kept some clothes on my was the hottest thing in the business maulings, both good and bad, have back and fed me, but money never but he was also in trouble. “If Mad­ helped to make Elton John a very really came into it.” It does now. man had been a bust, then that would valuable property, and nobody knows “But it really doesn’t make all that have been it for Elton John. But as that better than the former Reg much difference what they say. I’m it was, it worked out okay, so I think Dwight who became the present Elton pretty happy with most of the stuff I’m back in favor again; at least it John. When I asked him how long I’ve done in the past, and I think Hon­ would be nice if I was.” he had been a professional musician, ky Chateau is the best thing yet. It’s His little cupie doll face scrunges he peered at me through those ever­ a complete change from all the other up into a thoughtful reflection and present yellow-tinted specs and took albums. Very simple and straight­ then bubbles over into a giggle.