Here's something you might be interested in.
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Your Week — Daily event picks
Pop music in San Diego, 1980
Albums, books, much more
Robert Palmer, Bob Sylan, Son Seals,
Beat Albums Releases
Special Edition Peter Gabriel
Get Happy! (Elvis Costello and the Attractions)
Doc at the Radar Station (Captain Beefheart and the Magic Band)
Full Force (Art Ensemble of Chicago)
The Up Escalator (Graham Parker and the Rumour)
Minimum Wage Rock and Roll (The Busboys)
Illusions (Arthur Blythe)
Triumph (The Jacksons)
Clues (Robert Palmer)
Zenyatta Mondatta (The Police) Cruising (soundtrack)
Chicago Fire (Son Seals)
New Directions in Europe Steppin' (The World Saxophone Quartet)
The Specials
Foolish Behavior (Rod Stewart)
Elvis Aaron Presley Remain in Light (Talking Heads)
Taking Liberties (Elvis Costello and the Attractions)
Nurds (The Roches)
Christmas Presents for Enemies
Drama (Yes)
Against the Wind (Bob Seger)
Saved (Bob Dylan)
The Wanderer (Donna Summer)
The Blues Brothers (soundtrack)
I Can't Believe I Read the Whole Thing
Rolling Stone critic Paul Nelson won the coveted Secret Armor Hyperbole Award with his opening evaluation of Bruce Springsteen's The River: "Bruce Springsteen's The River is a contemporary, New Jersey version of The Grapes of Wrath, with the Tom Joad/Henry Fonda figure — nowadays no longer able to draw upon the solidarity of family — driving a stolen car
through a neon Dust Bowl, . . in fear/That in this darkness I will disappear.-' Quite often he does." If anyone can tell me what this means, I would appreciate it.
That's Why They Call It Dope
What controlled substance was at work on the mind of John Leonard, the usually astute New York Times literary critic, when he wrote this unfathomable tribute to John Lennon: "We took his music with us to antiwar rallies. We watched those movies, among teeny-boppers for whom a screech was the entire vocabulary, as if Kafka had met S.J. Perelman in Hollywood at the Garden of Allah: a cirrhosis of the Liverpool. . . . They [the Beatles] seemed for a time, until the killing started, to be the perfect commune imagined by the 1960s when, the fever told us, politics and culture coincided and were transubstantial. Thanks, we needed that. And then they split. They had no right to do so. We lived on the joy of their ensemble. Happiness is not a warm gun." Huh?
Citizen Kane
Thomas K. Arnold, the publisher and editor of Kicks (who insists his middle initial always be used), has managed simultaneously to ingratiate himself to and alienate himself from everyone in the local pop music business quicker than you can say Jann Wenner. Arnold is a first-rate pain in the ass (I can say that because we're friends). His magazine, however, is becoming more impressive and professional with each issue. It would not surprise me if Kicks soon turns into formidable competition for BAM, which is distributed statewide.
Maybe There Was Too Much Treble
Bob Dylan begs CBS Records to recall Saved because he doesn't like the way it sounds on the car radio. Jesus has no comment.
Or Too Much Bass
Members of the Grateful Dead are arrested for inciting a riot at the Sports Arena; the Skeleton Club's proprietress, Laura Fraser, is arrested for putting on shows which harm and disturb no one except a few winos, and her club is closed down permanently.
On Stage
For the last couple of years I have expressed regret that San Diegans do not support progressive jazz. Until we are able to shame the natives into taking this sort of music seriously, no one will regard it with the respect it deserves. There were not as many good shows as I would have hoped for this year, but there were enough. These are the ones I'll remember. (Some rock shows are thrown in for good measure.)
The World Saxophone Quartet (SDSU's Back Door)
Old and New Dreams (SDSU's Back Door)
Special Edition (Old Globe Festival Stage)
Sun Ra (La Jolla Jazz Festival)
Son Seals (Belly Up Tavern)
The Police (Civic Theatre)
The Art Ensemble of Chicago (SDSU's Back Door)
The Big M.R. and His All-Bitchin', All-Stud, All-Stars (Zebra Club)
Robert Palmer (Sports Arena)
Jeff Beck (SDSU Amphitheatre)
Chauvinism Is Contagious
Many local bands gained momentum this year, among them, the Penetrators, DFX2, the Puppies, Four Eyes, Becky and the Blu-Tones, the Trowsers, the Cokers, and Funn. Good luck to all and to those I have failed to mention. □
Here's something you might be interested in.
Pop music in San Diego, 1980
Albums, books, much more
Pop music in San Diego, 1980
Albums, books, much more
Robert Palmer, Bob Sylan, Son Seals,
Beat Albums Releases
Special Edition Peter Gabriel
Get Happy! (Elvis Costello and the Attractions)
Doc at the Radar Station (Captain Beefheart and the Magic Band)
Full Force (Art Ensemble of Chicago)
The Up Escalator (Graham Parker and the Rumour)
Minimum Wage Rock and Roll (The Busboys)
Illusions (Arthur Blythe)
Triumph (The Jacksons)
Clues (Robert Palmer)
Zenyatta Mondatta (The Police) Cruising (soundtrack)
Chicago Fire (Son Seals)
New Directions in Europe Steppin' (The World Saxophone Quartet)
The Specials
Foolish Behavior (Rod Stewart)
Elvis Aaron Presley Remain in Light (Talking Heads)
Taking Liberties (Elvis Costello and the Attractions)
Nurds (The Roches)
Christmas Presents for Enemies
Drama (Yes)
Against the Wind (Bob Seger)
Saved (Bob Dylan)
The Wanderer (Donna Summer)
The Blues Brothers (soundtrack)
I Can't Believe I Read the Whole Thing
Rolling Stone critic Paul Nelson won the coveted Secret Armor Hyperbole Award with his opening evaluation of Bruce Springsteen's The River: "Bruce Springsteen's The River is a contemporary, New Jersey version of The Grapes of Wrath, with the Tom Joad/Henry Fonda figure — nowadays no longer able to draw upon the solidarity of family — driving a stolen car
through a neon Dust Bowl, . . in fear/That in this darkness I will disappear.-' Quite often he does." If anyone can tell me what this means, I would appreciate it.
That's Why They Call It Dope
What controlled substance was at work on the mind of John Leonard, the usually astute New York Times literary critic, when he wrote this unfathomable tribute to John Lennon: "We took his music with us to antiwar rallies. We watched those movies, among teeny-boppers for whom a screech was the entire vocabulary, as if Kafka had met S.J. Perelman in Hollywood at the Garden of Allah: a cirrhosis of the Liverpool. . . . They [the Beatles] seemed for a time, until the killing started, to be the perfect commune imagined by the 1960s when, the fever told us, politics and culture coincided and were transubstantial. Thanks, we needed that. And then they split. They had no right to do so. We lived on the joy of their ensemble. Happiness is not a warm gun." Huh?
Citizen Kane
Thomas K. Arnold, the publisher and editor of Kicks (who insists his middle initial always be used), has managed simultaneously to ingratiate himself to and alienate himself from everyone in the local pop music business quicker than you can say Jann Wenner. Arnold is a first-rate pain in the ass (I can say that because we're friends). His magazine, however, is becoming more impressive and professional with each issue. It would not surprise me if Kicks soon turns into formidable competition for BAM, which is distributed statewide.
Maybe There Was Too Much Treble
Bob Dylan begs CBS Records to recall Saved because he doesn't like the way it sounds on the car radio. Jesus has no comment.
Or Too Much Bass
Members of the Grateful Dead are arrested for inciting a riot at the Sports Arena; the Skeleton Club's proprietress, Laura Fraser, is arrested for putting on shows which harm and disturb no one except a few winos, and her club is closed down permanently.
On Stage
For the last couple of years I have expressed regret that San Diegans do not support progressive jazz. Until we are able to shame the natives into taking this sort of music seriously, no one will regard it with the respect it deserves. There were not as many good shows as I would have hoped for this year, but there were enough. These are the ones I'll remember. (Some rock shows are thrown in for good measure.)
The World Saxophone Quartet (SDSU's Back Door)
Old and New Dreams (SDSU's Back Door)
Special Edition (Old Globe Festival Stage)
Sun Ra (La Jolla Jazz Festival)
Son Seals (Belly Up Tavern)
The Police (Civic Theatre)
The Art Ensemble of Chicago (SDSU's Back Door)
The Big M.R. and His All-Bitchin', All-Stud, All-Stars (Zebra Club)
Robert Palmer (Sports Arena)
Jeff Beck (SDSU Amphitheatre)
Chauvinism Is Contagious
Many local bands gained momentum this year, among them, the Penetrators, DFX2, the Puppies, Four Eyes, Becky and the Blu-Tones, the Trowsers, the Cokers, and Funn. Good luck to all and to those I have failed to mention. □
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