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The Last Waltz
Almost two years ago, the Band called it quits. They also called in a cast of friends and movie director Martin Scorsese to film a farewell concert. On hand were Ronnie Hawkins, Neil Young, Joni Mitchell, Neil Diamond, Dr. John, Paul Butterfield, Muddy Waters, Eric Clapton, Bobby Charles, Van Morrison and Bob Dylan, among others. […]
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15 Big Ones
We're still singing that same song," the Beach Boys chime on 15 Big Ones, their long awaited new album, and a check proves that the personnel hasn't changed since 1962. But the same song as "Surfin'"? Hardly. Today, the reference point is Gregorian chant, and the rock is for the ages. Even the familiar faces […]
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I'm Still in Love with You
With the current restoration of rockabillys on the C&W airwaves, and with the likes of Bruce Springsteen invoking his name and influence, there seems little reason for Roy Orbison to continue languishing in semiobscurity. Yet, while Orbison's new Mercury LP improves considerably over his dismal output at MGM, he still hasn't quite recovered the form […]
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Al Green Is Love
Al Green's latest LP would almost qualify as a concept album were it not for the fact that Green has been mining the rhetoric of romance ever since his first hits. If Al Green Is Love contains any surprises, they come in the treatment of his material, all of it original for a change. The […]
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Four Wheel Drive
When it sells its soul to a formula, rock dies. Or so the argument goes: The music went into hibernation when the wild heroes of early rock 'n' roll were replaced by the groomed idols of American Bandstand, the challenging innovators of progressive rock by the hackneyed boogie bands of the modern ballroom circuit. In […]
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Physical Graffiti
They've sparked riots from Boston to Milan, sold out concerts from Hong Kong to Hamburg. Each of their five previous albums has gone platinum, selling more than one million copies; one, Led Zeppelin (IV), has sold more than three million. They've set new records for U.S. concert attendance, drawing 56,800 to a single show in […]
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Country Life
Decadence is nothing new in rock. The original Velvet Underground flaunted it, David Bowie exploited it, the New York Dolls seem to have sunk in it. What is different about Roxy Music, pop's latest specialists in depravity, is the wit with which Bryan Ferry, Roxy's guiding light and lead vocalist, evokes not only decay but […]
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Dark Horse
In defense of his tour and new album, George Harrison has argued that "If you don't expect anything, life is one big bonus. But when you expect anything, then you can be let down." So expect nothing — is that the moral of a shriveled career? Given Harrison's appearance at his recent concerts, the audience […]
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Veedon Fleece
Van Morrison is an enigmatic figure. Although he practices the art of a flamboyant soul trouper, he maintains an oddly detached, awkward stage presence. His vision is hermetic, his energy implosive; yet his vocation is public. These are curious contradictions for a performer to sustain, but they help lend Morrison's art its resonance. His distinction […]
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Warchild
Ian Anderson, the guru and master musician behind Jethro Tull, had a good thing going. Ian would play the pied piper with his flute, dance about and dangle a leg while his band ambled through snatches of convoluted but impressive jazz/rock jamming. Jethro Tull, which had begun life modestly as a group specializing in fluted […]
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