Word: albums
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Dates: during 1970-1979
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Senate Majority Leader Robert C. Byrd, who lacks inherited wealth, seems rich in resourcefulness. He earned $1,900 in royalties from a country-music album on which he played the fiddle...
...that of the talking singer. Both like to patter over a light drum beat or bass line, in the manner of a Jim Morrison. For Smith this practice masquerades as high poetic art; for Reed it seems to be more a product of his declining vocal resources. His last album, Take No Prisoners-a live, double-record set-consisted mostly of Reed chattering with and occasionally insulting his audiences...
...rock monologue can be a worthwhile approach, if the singer has something interesting to say and musical values don't completely dry up. They do, however, at least once on Smith's new album-the title track, "Wave." In a gesture as pretentious as it is self-defeating, she abandons music entirely and presents what Rockwell calls "great acting." That certainly isn't what people pay for when they buy a record from someone who poses as a "rock and roll star"-someone who even sings a cover of the old Bryds track "So You Wanna Be a Rock...
...Marty Fogel's sax thicken the soup of a repeated chord sequence in the bass and guitar; indeed, throughout The Bells these traditional jazz instruments are worked into Reed's rock songwriting better than most so-called fusion bands ever manage. Reed advertises his new orientation on the album sleeve, prominently displaying his statement. "If you can't play rock and you can't play jazz, you put the two together and you've really got something." Unfortunately, Reed's voice has deteriorated from the days when he could belt out "Sweet Jane." While he doesn't sound...
Communication during the production of the album was something of a scattershot affair. Producers Lenny Waronker and Russ Titelman brought Jones into the recording studio, corralled some of the best musicians in town to play behind her, invested four or five patient months until the album was done. "Lenny and Russ could appreciate a ... um . . . wild and unusual personality," says Rickie Lee. "They gave me complete space...