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Honkers & Screamers (vol. 6) is perhaps the most definitive Rock & Roll album in the series. This instrumental LP of very early (mostly around 1948) sax-led rock features Paul Williams (not the short blond mutant), Hal Singer, Big Jay McNeely (the main argument for this set) and other important sax screamers. McNeely's ferocious sax attacks coupled with some of Rock & Roll's earliest arrangements are powerful statements indeed. In a sense, this record hints at a very primative form of jazz rock: highly improvised yet controlled-by-the-arrangement sax playing is set against Jazz's traditional "walking bass...
...musician, I'll admit. Yet it's Paul Simon's gift to turn moderation into a virtue. As a solo artist he's recorded quietly charming music that's soothing without being dull. His talents have grown over the years, and One-Trick Pony, his first all-new LP since 1975, is evidence of his sure touch...
...craftsmanship were the LP's only virtue, it would be a superior record. But Simon has too much poetry in him to let arranging skill carry his songs alone. Offbeat, ambiguous images pop up in "That's Why God Made the Movies," "Oh, Marion" and "God Bless the Absentee," adding color to the vaguely melancholy feel of the verses. Simon has his occasional missteps--"How the Heart Approaches What It Yearns" is an awkward hook line no matter how cleverly it scans. But the album is more than redeemed by compelling lines like "Who was the witness to the dream/Who...
Unfortunately, Ian was intent on proving that even "sensitive" songwriters can rock and roll, and ran through several tepid compositions from her last LP, Night Rains. Worse, Ian turned over the spotlight several times to her guitarist, Scott Zito, whose cliched rock star showboating was difficult to endure. Ian went through a ficult to endure. Ian went through a few of the motions herself, essaying an awkward leap or two in her high heels...
...Clash's first American release, Give 'Em Enough Rope, barely nudged the lower reaches of the Top 200 album charts but import sales of its debut LP and singles were so strong that the British punk quartet was able to sell out a 12-date tour of 2-3,000 seat halls in February, 1979. English new wave bands 999, Magazine, Gang of Four, Penetration, Ultravox and Sham 69 toured America without the benefit of a Stateside recording contract--acts of unprecedented chutzpah and optimism--and found enthusiastic crowds already familiar with the music packing their club dates. The Gang...