Nov. 4, 1977 record review: Multiple choice

 


Sometimes record reviewers just wanna have fun.

Nov. 4, 1977

It’s Quiz Time 

          Get your pencils, ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls. It’s mid-term time in the fall record album semester and today we’re having a little multiple-choice test. First of all, who said multiple-choice was their favorite kind of test because they already gave you the right answer? Was it Brenda Lee, Johnny (Guitar) Watson, Ted Nugent or Robert Klein?

          Right – Robert Klein. Who also happens to be the only avowed comedian in the bunch. Now in this test, you go play multiple choice in your friendly neighborhood record store. Instead of 100 points, imagine there’s $100 in your pocket. Of course, you’ve got to take away 7 percent tax. And there’s our $15 mandatory Robert Klein special above, which leaves you with $78 to spend. Each of the following questions is worth $6:

          1. Every hit sound and voice seems to bring back its predecessors. Which late ‘60s hitmaker is staging a comeback because of a resemblance to Fleetwood Mac? The Jacksons, Jackie DeShannon, Rick Nelson or Robert Welch?

          2. The grand tradition of lovable curmudgeon has been upheld most brilliantly these past two decades by former Playboy cartoonist Shel Silverstein, who also is a songwriter. Who’s singing his new songs? Lynn Anderson, Thin Lizzy, Even Stevens or the Oak Ridge Boys?

          3. Lovable curmudgeons occasionally make the Top 10, like these loonies Silverstein used to write for. Who are they? Galdston & Thom, Archie Bell & the Drells, Dr. Hook & the Medicine Show or Split Enz?

          4. The kharmic shadow of ‘50s beatnik novelist Jack Kerouac shows up in an outstanding album by musicdom’s scruffiest latter-day poet. What’s his name? Mark Farner, Tom Waits, Billy Joel or Stomu Yamashta?

          5. The line between lovable eccentrics and cheap hustlers can get pretty thin. Which of the following isn’t an eccentric? Eddie Money, Splinter, Lily Tomlin or Steve Hillage?

          6. Since Peter Frampton sold 6 million of them last year, everybody’s tried to cash in with double albums. Of these recent packages, which offers the most new material for the money? Peter Allen, Nils Lofgren, Harry Chapin or Santana?

          7. Southern rock, sadly, isn’t always live. Which of these four groups won’t be completing the tour itinerary enclosed in their fine new album? Charlie Daniels Band, Grinderswitch, Wet Willie or Lynyrd Skynyrd?

          8. Sometimes collaborations take time to bear fruit. Who has needed two albums of studio conspiracy to come up with one album of exciting music? Blue Oyster Cult, David Bowie, the Stranglers or Juice Newton & Silver Spur?

          9. One aim of the New Wave rockers (or punk-rockers, if you prefer) is to upset the musical status quo. Who devastatingly refutes a claim of one of the ‘70s most respected rockers? Metro, Graham Parker & the Rumour, the Stranglers or David Bowie.

          10. Not all new bands are “punk.” Which of these newcomers are actually gutter romantics? The Boomtown Rats, the Motors, Meat Loaf or Dr. Feelgood?

          11. And not all the vivid statements of the day are being made by people wearing safety pins. Which singer-songwriter has a new album that’s becoming a sudden hit? Dave Loggins, Joan Armatrading, Libby Titus or Steve Goodman?

          12. A label called Import Records, headquartered in New Jersey, has issued a series of albums previously available only by overseas freight. Which of them sounds closest to the Moody Blues? The Gods, Neutrons, Blackfoot Sue or Colin Scot?

          13. For every good album, there are nine mediocre and awful ones. Whose name appears on the worst record issued since Labor Day? Jane Olivor, John Mayall, Rocky & ChyAnn or Reverberi?

          Scoring: If you get less than three right, turn in your credit card and turn on your radio. Five is average, eight is expert, 12 puts you on a par with the guys in next week’s Critics’ Poll. Perfect scores are grounds for disqualification. You can’t get them all right unless you turn the page upside down and peek at the answers.

* * * * *

IN THE PHOTO: The answers, as they appeared on the page. 

* * * * *

FOOTNOTE: Being a record reviewer in those days was like Christmas morning all the time. Every day there would be new packages on my desk.  

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Oct. 21, 1977 feature: Andy Kulberg of the Blues Project

Image
  One of the concerts that totally blew my impressionable young mind in the mid-1960s was the Blues Project at Floral Hall on the Chautauqua County Fairgrounds in Dunkirk. Little did I suspect at the time that there was a Buffalo connection. Oct. 21, 1977 Music as a Craft            Andy Kulberg, at age 21, was on the front line of a musical revolution. It was 1965 and he was bassist and flute player for the Blues Project, a New York City-based sextet that turned Greenwich Village from the folk revival to rock. Kulberg’s skipping-along instrumental “Flute Thing” brought the electric flute to rock ‘n roll.           Two years and three albums later, the group was broken up. After introducing thousands of musicians to the new magic, the members of the Blues Project went off to pursue separate visions of it. Some did well – keyboardman Al Kooper founded Blood, Sweat & Tears. And some just kept plugging – like drummer Roy Blumenfeld, who regularly visited the Belle Starr in C
Read more

Nov. 4, 1977 Gusto feature: A day with Debby Boone

Image
  A celebrity visit takes me into New Yorker “Talk of the Town” mode.   Nov. 4, 1977 Debby Lights Up St. Mary’s Pupils             “They think you’re like Elton John,” says the woman who invited Debby Boone to St. Mary’s School for the Deaf. The teenage students hang out the windows above the limousines in the courtyard and throng about the door, chatting excitedly in sign language.           For the young, previously unknown singer whose “You Light Up My Life” has been America ’s favorite record for the past four weeks, this will be the fifth of six stops in a whirlwind promotional tour of Buffalo Thursday. Furthermore, it’s the only one that doesn’t directly involve the music business.           It already had been quite a day. Before she even left the Sheraton Inn-Buffalo East, it had started. A phone call to Pittsburgh and deejay Jim Quinn. She’d eaten her health-food breakfast in the white limo on the way to WKBW.           “I’ve never seen so much commotion or pr
Read more

Nov. 11, 1977 record review: Spyro Gyra's debut album

Image
  Hometown heroes make good. Really, really good. Nov. 11, 1977 From the Clubs, Onto a Record             The city’s most successful jazz-rock group, Spyro Gyra, has issued their first album on their own Cross-Eyed Bear label and, for many followers, it should be a signal to catch them quick. They won’t be around town much longer. This quintet is going places.           Part of the first pressing has gone to record companies and producers. It’s hoped that a major label will buy this debut and reissue it. As for Spyro Gyra, it’ll be their ticket to ride. They expect to be touring.           The 10 all-instrumental compositions by saxophonist Jay Beckenstein and keyboardman Jeremy Wall form a concise and stunningly smooth portrait. Executed almost entirely at Mark Studios in Clarence with musicians that Beckenstein and co-producer Richard Calandra know, it disproves for once and for all the myth that nothing first-rate can be recorded here.           There need be no apologie
Read more