June 24, 1977 record review: Jethro T. Megahertz drops by at my new desk

 

Just as I’m settling in at my new outpost in the Features Department, I get an unexpected visitor. 

June 24, 1977

           “Greetings! Thought I’d drop by and check out your new situation here.” It was Jethro T. Megahertz, the redoubtable media wizard. Under his arm, he carried a stack of records.

          “Yes, not bad, Anderson,” he surmised in his deep, mellifluous school-of-broadcasting voice. “Not bad at all. No more writing obituaries for you, huh, kid? Well, to get down to business here, it’s come to my attention that while you’ve been writing about Allman Orphans and stuff like that, an awful lot of new records have come out.”

          “Wait a minute, Megahertz,” I stopped him. “This new gig ain’t exactly a bed of roses. I’ve been doing time on this. Let me check my book here and see when I can squeeze you in. Hmm, how about next Thursday?”

          “Forget it, Anderson,” Megahertz grinned through his beard. “The masses must be heard. I’ve got a bunch of copy aides bringing up my sound system on the freight elevator. Now where do you keep the electricity around here?”

          “Over there under the feature editor’s desk,” I sighed.

          “OK,” Megahertz inhaled, tipping back his broad-brimmed hat. “First of all, there’s this Peter Frampton album. You can’t ignore Frampton. That’s Peter Frampton, “I’m in You” (A&M SP-4704), got that?”

          “Got it,” I answered. “He looks good enough to …”

          “I’ve been calling him Peter Scrumptious, the world’s most beautiful rock star,” Megahertz interrupted. “He’s oh-so-sweet-and-understanding. The more I hear it, the more inclined I am to like it, even though he falls flat when he tries to rock.

          “He just hasn’t the energy to deliver the old Motown hit, ‘Signed, Sealed, Delivered (I’m Yours).’ The best stuff comes right after the title cut. ‘Putting My Heart on the Line’ has a great harmony chorus and Frampton saying something I’ve never heard him say before on the talkbox.

          “Then there’s ‘St. Thomas (Don’t You Know How I Feel),’ which shows off his playing pretty nicely. In all, it’s a decent follow-up to the live album. The girls certainly will like it.”

          “So what else have you got there, Megahertz?” I fidgeted.

          “Great stuff, great stuff,” he said. “Now that we’ve got the sound hooked up, let me turn you on to a little of this. James Taylor’s ‘JT’ (Columbia JC-34811), get it?”

          “Got it.”

          “Good. You hear ‘Handy Man’ on the radio and you remember the original, right?” Megahertz asserted. “And Taylor sounds like he’s on Thorazine. Not true. He’s just laid back. He’s the same quiet mixture of tenderness, anguish and sly humor he’s always been.

          “What I’m saying is that this is a superior James Taylor album. Here, listen to what comes after ‘Handy Man.’ That ‘Loving for Love on Broadway’ is a fine urban lament. And ‘Traffic Jam’ is what keeps me sane in rush hour on the Kensington Expressway: ‘Damn this traffic jam, hurts my motor to go so slow …’ Yeah!”

          “That’s Taylor’s first on Columbia, isn’t it,” I noted. “What about Joan Baez? Didn’t she sign with their new West Coast label or something?”

          “Right,” Megahertz replied, searching through the records. “Here it is. Joan Baez, ‘Blowin’ Away’ (Portrait PR-34697 Columbia), get it?”

          “Got it.”

          “Good. There’s places on this record where Baez sounds as silly as she looks in that silver space suit on the cover. It’s like she’s trying on new clothes. Some of them fit well, like the title tune, which Eric Kaz wrote. A little billowy, but she can’t use the arrangement Bonnie Raitt used, can she?

          “Trouble is, the self-consciousness catches up with her. Listen to this disco beat on ‘Time Rag.’”

          “Holy mackerel,” I exclaimed. “Never thought anybody’d do the Bump to Joan Baez.”

          “Neither did I,” groaned Megahertz. “Plus, her songs sound like letters home. Little sense of melody or meter. And how about the way she ends it all with ‘Cry Me a River?’ It’s like she went to Charles of the Ritz and he made a new woman out of her.”

          “Hmm, I see what you mean,” I deliberated.

          “OK, moving right along,” Metahertz prompted, “how about Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young?”

          “And Young?” I recoiled. “Hold everything. I thought only the three of them reunited.”

          “Well,” Megahertz snorted, “you have to buy two records to get the full effect. Young never did fit in with the rest of them, anyway. The one is Crosby, Stills & Nash ‘CSN’ (Atlantic SD-19104) and the other is Neil Young ‘American Stars ‘n Bars’ (Reprise MSK-2261 Warner Bros.), get em?

          “Got ‘em.”

          “Good. Reunited is the way CSN has got to stay. When they go solo, they don’t have enough good stuff to fill up a record. Besides that, Stills’ ‘Fair Game’ and ‘Dark Star’ are the choicest things he’s done in a long time. And I’d like to see some radio deejay pair up Graham Nash’s ‘Cathedral’ with the New Vaudeville Band’s ‘Winchester Cathedral.’ After all, it’s the same cathedral.

          “Neil Young, meanwhile, has gotten around the solo problem by cleaning out his closet. The stuff on side two goes back to ’74. It’s good, but the 1977 stuff on side one is better. He’s no longer so wild and depressed, just sort of cowboy-like. I love ‘Hold Back the Tears.’ I agree with whoever said it’s his best since ‘Harvest.’”

          “Look, Megahertz,” I announced, “I’ve got to go interview Mickey Rat’s. Pack up those column speakers and I’ll catch you later.”

          “Not so fast, Mr. First Nighter,” Megahertz countered. “Keep your pencil out. There’s a couple favorites I want to hip the people to. Are you ready?

          “First and foremost, there’s Ben Sidran, ‘The Doctor Is In’ (Arista AL-4131). Can’t keep it off the turntable. Love that cool jazz piano. Love those sarcastic lyrics. ‘Song for a Sucker Like You’ is a better put-down than ‘You’re So Vain.’ Don’t miss that one.

          “Then there’s Roy Buchanan, ‘Loading Zone’ (Atlantic SD-18219). A gentleman all the way. Buchanan does jazz, rock and blues guitar with a masterful reserve and – dare I say it – gusto.

          “If the jazzy side of Buchanan, the things with Stanley Clarke and Narada Michael Walden, appeals to you, then check out ‘Scarlet Rivera’ (Warner Bros. BS-3060). She’s the woman violinist who traveled with Bob Dylan’s Rolling Thunder Revue and I guarantee you she plays no folk songs.

          “If the bluesy side of Buchanan grabs you, then try a couple barroom balls-of-fire here. Frankie Miller, ‘Full House’ (Chrysalis CHR-1128) and Rusty Wier, ‘Stacked Deck’ (Columbia PC-34778).

          “Miller’s Scottish, did some work with Robin Trower and basically sings his brains out. He knocks me dead with ‘Love Letters Straight from Your Heart.’ Wier’s the Texas rocker who came to the Belle Starr last fall. My, he’s tough. When he gets into ‘Walkin’ Through New Orleans,’ he doesn’t walk, he stomps.

          “Here’s a few to avoid, too. The Beatles Live in Hamburg, Germany. Really crude sound. Starland Vocal Band’s ‘Rear View Mirror,’ where they cop a plea on women’s liberation. American Flyer’s ‘Spirit of a Woman’ doesn’t have a good Eric Kaz song to wake it up. And Denny Laine’s Buddy Holly tribute, yuck!

          “That’s all for today, Anderson. Careful with those speakers, you guys. You got me down for that appointment next Thursday, kid? I’ll be back. I kinda like this new situation of yours.”

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IN THE PHOTO: Peter Frampton's album cover.

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FOOTNOTE: How sagacious was the great sage Megahertz? Kinda so-so.

The critics generally didn’t like Frampton, but the fans did. It’s his most successful studio album.

          “Handy Man” was James Taylor’s last Top 10 single and the album went triple platinum. Village Voice critic Robert Christgau, who didn’t like Taylor at all, grudgingly conceded that it was his best since “Sweet Baby James.”

          Joan Baez in her autobiography described “Blowin’ Away” as “a good album with a terrible cover.” Well, she’s right about the cover.

          “CSN” is the best-selling Crosby, Stills & Nash album ever, thanks to Nash’s “Just a Song Before I Go” and Stills’ “Fair Game.” As for the Neil Young, most critics consider it a hodgepodge of his styles.

          Ben Sidran, best known for his work with Steve Miller, went back home to Madison, Wis., became a jazz scholar and has put out 35 albums, only a few of which have been commercially successful.

          Roy Buchanan was a brilliant and influential guitarist, though not a big seller. "Loading Zone" was one of his two gold albums.

          Scarlet Rivera was a revolutionary among rock violinists, but this debut album of hers attracted little notice. Frankie Miller’s “Full House,” on the other hand, was his most successful release and gave him his first chart hit, “Be Good to Yourself.” 

          Rusty Wier had already written and recorded his only hit, “Don’t It Make You Wanna Dance,” in 1975. It didn't crack the charts, though, until it appeared on the “Urban Cowboy” movie soundtrack with Bonnie Raitt singing it.