stale bread. Even heating it up as they do accompaniment. Did Worlds Collide?; Me- Roulette; Mountain of Sound; Crystals; The makes it no more than stale toast. J.V. chanics; When Love Has Overgrown; As Bells of Home; Dance Music; Pineapple Hours Go By; Bootleg: and fiveothers. Symphony. VERTIGO VEL-2006 $6.98, ® GRATEFUL DEAD: Blues for Allah. Grateful A&M SP 4535 $6.98. VC8-2006 $7.95, © VCR4-2006 $7.95. Dead (vocals and instrumentals). Help on the WaylSlipknot; Franklin's Tower; King Solo - Performance: Blah bl a h Performance Pointless man's Marbles; Stronger Than Dirt or Mak- Recording: Good Recording: Very good in' the Turkey; The Music Never Stopped; Oh, somebody out there must like it. Appar- Kraftwerk is a cargo of electronic gear, two or Crazy Fingers; and four others. GRATEFUL. ently there will always be a market for two three quaint old "musical instruments" left DEAD GD-LA494-G $6.98, GD-EA494- young men with large eyes and a suitable over from the twentieth century, and two H $7.98, GD-CA494-H $7.98. amount of hair who sing harmony and write German persons, Ralf Hiitter and Florian Performance: Formal songs addressed to universal themes. The ly- Schneider. What happens is that the persons Recording: Very good rics pass as "pop poetry," the performances manipulate knobs and buttons and other con- are breathy, and the studio musicians never trols on the electronic gear and ityields Innovative art seems ugly at first, eminent miss a beat. And someone out there must be sounds vaguely like music. The "notes" they critics tell us, so the new Grateful Dead al- saying "It's deep." play are not set up in an atonal or any other bum isn't innovative art-it doesn't seem ugly There have been other Hudson -Ford -type kind of far-out or "progressive" relationship; so much as inconsequential, so abstract as to teams. Eight years ago there was Boyce & what you getistunes thought up in and be irrelevant, as if the players learned to read Hart, who wrote hitsie-ditsie pop tunes and amongst and reactive to humanity (and not music and it interfered with their playing. The gussied them up with high-powered produc- very original or unusual tunes at that) and sound doesn't lean on the improvisational tion. Then there was Brewer & Shipley, folk- played as coldly and impersonally as the spirit of jazz, nor does it carry the vitality of ies who wrote songs about freeeeeeedom. computer age can manage so far (it's early rock. It is perhaps the normal thing that hap- And boring? My dear! Compared to them, yet). I suppose there's supposed to be some- pens to hippies with Eastern thought freshly your maiden aunt reading her grocery list is thing interesting about that paradox, but I into their heads and Western nuance planted pure porn. J.V. can't find it. N.C. firmly, for a lifetime, in their bones. It is more interesting than "Wake of the Flood," the QUINCY JONES: Mellow Madness. Quincy other low -energy album of the recent past, Jones (piano, arranger); vocalists; orchestra. RECORDING OF SPECIAL MERIT sounding more "natural" (being richer melod- Paranoid; Mellow Madness; Beautiful Black THE METERS: Fire on the Bayou. Joseph ically, too, which may be the same thing) Girl; Listen (What It Is); Just a Little Taste Modeliste(drums);Arthur Neville(key- where that one seemed esoteric the hard way. of Me; and five others. A&M SP -4526 $6.98, boards); Leo Nocentelli(guitar); George But this one doesn't really sound organic, bal- ® 8T-4526 $7.98, © CS -4526 $7.98. Porter, Jr. (bass): Cyril Neville (congas). Out anced, centered-which is,I suspect, one of in the Country; Fire on the Bayou; Love Slip the things the band, or at least Jerry Garcia, Performance: Poor Recording: Good upon Ya; Talkin"Bout New Orleans; They wants now. The lyrics, mostly by Robert All Ask'd About You; Can You Do Without?; Hunter, are unlinear, unspecific, nongraphic; Here's another ho -hum black cliché trip. The and five others. REPRISE MS 2228 $6.98, ® and the instrumental parts, as opposed to the single most offensive track is Beautiful Black M8 2228 $7.97, © M5 2228 $7.97. old idea of a solo with back-up charging ahead Girl, wherein a male vocalist goes through on an idea parallel to the melody, are more a such watermelon theatrics that any soul sister Performance: Excellent matter of concerted meandering. The trouble I know would dismiss him with at least a Recording: Clean is, the sound on the record isn't as interesting sneer or maybe even a quick and righteous Unless the Meters start doing discotheque as the talk we could have about the way the knee to the collards. False poses do not a material or descend to wearing pink jump Dead are evolving. Or about the energy short- funky album make. J.V. suits on stage,Iwill never say anything age in general. N.C. against this delightful New Orleans group. KRAFTWERK. Ralf Hatter andFlorian They are the successors to Booker T. and the HUDSON -FORD: WorldsCollide.Richard Schneider (vocals, keyboards, string and wind MG's, who were about the best r -&-b band Hudson and John Ford (vocals); instrumental instruments, drums,electronics).Electric in the world back when, just as the Meters are among the best the world has now. The Me- ters have taste, experience, good judgment, a THE METERS sense of humor, and dignity. The only thing No pink jumpsuits for a class band they lack at this moment is a good album - cover designer. Smeary photographs and squiggly title type are not the way to package or promote a class band. J.V. MIRABAI. Mirabai (vocals and guitar); or- chestra. Determination; Exactly What You Are; To Be Young; Magical Time; Cosmic Overload; and six others. ATLANTIC SD 18144 $6.98. Performance: Fair Recording: Very good Mirabai believes in making an impression. Her opener, Determination, is seven minutes of racket, composed by her (as are all the othersongs),andbestdescribedasa cat fit set to music. She follows that (change of pace) with an Exactly What You Are in such stately canticle fashion that comatose is exactly what you are, baby, eventually. After thosetwo show -stoppersMirabaisettles down a bit and does some nice, unremarkable things. Her voice has a young -girl charm but not much more, and the whole album only just reaches professional level -and that's proba- bly because of Bob Johnston's excellent pro- duction work. P.R. (Continued on page 92) 88 STEREO REVIEW.