Rock Around The World: Danny Schecter - Clive Davis

R.A.T.W. Page 3

THOUGHTS IN PASSING.. .

In this day and age, attending a concert often means an exercise in survival on the mob level while the people you came to see feel like they're playing to a big hole in the sky—in short, there's no communication between group and audience going on. If rock is to succeed on any level, it requires communication.

Given the size of some of the mammoth concerts today, it's not surprising that a large number of new bands are seeking to play clubs before venturing out onto a concert hall tour. The advantages are many; for one, a band that hasn't played America before stands a much better chance of presenting themselves as well as possible in addition to picking up the feeling from the crowd. Secondly, there's always the opportunity to headline in a club, something that does an immeasurable amount of good for a band's self-respect.

For the audience, there's the knowledge that the artist won't be able to rely on gimmicks to cover bad playing—logistics forbid it. There's also the satisfaction in knowing that the artist or group is going to put itself on public display to a degree that is impossible to achieve in a large hall; of course, the chance that a particular group will be hugely successful in a very short time lures a great many people to clubs as well.

The resurgance of the club scene is a very healthy sign in music today; rock was born and refined in the clubs, the (lineage stretches from The Cavert Club thru The Star Club in Hamburg, to the Marquee and the Roundhouse in London and the Fillmores and Tea Partys of America), and their newly-rediscovered popularity por

tends another windfall of new talent. Oddly enough, though, this popularity has arrived at a time when sound companies have finally all but conquered the problems of unsympathetic acoustics in large halls, thus making large shows more attractive.

Why, then, is the consumer returning to clubs for music? One reason, as we've already seen, stems from the wealth of new talent that prefers getting its feet wet in clubs rather than halls; another reason, for the consumer, lies in the nature of his entertainment in a club as opposed to a hall. Mentally, the consumer is more at ease in a club. People tend, most of the time, to carve out an "area" for themselves in a crowd; this defines their reality, and helps them maintain their composure. In a club, the very fact that one sits at a table helps define one's reality.

All of this is not intended as a slam against large concerts; It's just that when you get into 15,000 - 60,000 people, it's impossible to establish and maintain any sort of individual audience contact; the band is forced to play to the crowd as one large organism, thereby forfeiting its humanity. Clubs, on the other hand, celebrate the humanity of music, and its unique ability to alter itself according to the atmosphere of the audience. The clubs turned it all around once—today, they may act as a counterbalance against the Really Big Shows. Financially, there's no way to eliminate the Really Big Shows; it's the only way for bands to tour once they've attained a certain level of popularity. However, it's nice to have clubs around just as a reminder that music needn't be impersonal to be effective.

Jim Kozlowski

News You Can Use Danny Schechter • News Dissector

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HOT HAPPENIN'S BLACK HOLE STARS

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TODD RUNDGREN

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THE HONOR ROLE OF SOUL JAll/ROCK RUNDOWN

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ROD STEWART

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BOXER

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RATW Radio Schedule

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REFLECTIONS IN

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DOMESTIC REVIEWS

R.A.T.W. is published monthly by RA.T.W. Publications Inc. and may not be reproduced in any manner whatsoever, either in whole or in port without written permission from the publisher . .

Publisher does not assume any responsibility for unsolicited manuscripts.

Publisher Daniel Lipman

Managing Editor Eddie Kritzer

Circulation Manager Keith Jackson

Editor Curtis Naihersey

Feature Editor James Kozlowski

Associate Editor Dennis Metrano
Art Direction & Design

Karen Jones Lipman

Photography Editor Duana LeMay

The news ticker has been running overtime these past few weeks with national attention fixated on the Jimmy Carter primary squeeze, the Washington Sex Scandals, new evidence of FBI wrong-doings, the killing of a U.S. Ambassador in Lebanon and major massacres in South Africa. Fresh images arrive with such a rapidity that the mind is often overwhelmed and underinformed at the same time. . .For example: Jimmy Carter remains an enigma with that carefully streamlined southern cornpone image of the "political outsider". . .Yet, it turns out that the Peanut Farmer is no newcomer to the influential inner circles of American policymakers. The Yipster Times, publication of the still insurgent and outrageous Yippies reports in its lively June-July issue that Jimmy Earl has been groomed by the Rockefeller interests since at least 1973 when Banker David Rockefeller named him to the prestigious Trilateral Commission of the Council of Foreign Relations, a powerful behind the scenes group of corporate honchos, government policymakers and "opinion-leaders." Carter's new foreign policy advisor and potential Secretary of State. Zbigniew Brezinski was the Commissions Director. It is significant that Henry Kissinger whose globe trotting star is now descending. also once worked for the Council as a Rockefeller protege. So it seems that whatever Party is in office, the Rockefellers are in power. . .As for the sex scandal. Washington insiders are reporting that the expose of Wayne Hayes was a manuever to oust a powerful and entrenched politician whose crimes certainly went beyond his Elizabeth Ray embroglio, "It was like getting Al Capone for taxes," one said. . .At the same time that this scandal grabbed the headlines, a report by an equal opportunity group concluded that women were under-represented in most high paying and important jobs in Washington, that most women on Capitol Hill were overworked and underpaid—No headlines!—As scandals like the Hays affair and more recent revelations about the pattern of FBI illegality tend to trickle out, it is still hard to see the pattern or assess its significance. On June 17th, Senator Lowell Weicker commemorated the Fourth anniversary of the Watergate break-in by filing a bill to insure that it wouldn't happen again. In four years little new reform legislation has been passed to prevent more Watergates. . .The Overseas news has an equally eerie quality to it.

While the Assassination of the American Ambassador in Beirut grabbed the headlines. most American newspapers understated the fact that the United States and Israel had both given Syria the go ahead to intervene in Lebanon, an action that caused large numbers of civilian casualties . . . Even more disturbing has been the way that the American press has treated the eruptions in South Africa. First, the rebellions were branded "race riots" as if Whites and Blacks were fighting out of pure racial hatred and not because of political grievances caused by an oppressive system. Secondly, the location of the first confrontation was presented to us as "the suburbs of Johannesburg," which offers an image quite distinct from the barren segregated township in which Africans are forced to live. These townships have been deliberately located outside of South Africa's principal cities so as to permit greater control by an all-white minority government. The American press further compounded their treatment of a massacre which made Kent State seem like a footnote in the history of horrors by initially only carrying commentaries by white opponents of Apartheid. Completely ignored were the sentiments of the liberation movements which represent that country's people. For the most reliable information from that part of the world, I advise consulting a magazine called Southern Africa (244 W. 27th St. 5th Floor, New York, NY 10001). . .Another foreign story being downplayed in our press is the latest shakings in reggae-land. Jamaica's progressive Prime Minister Michael Manley proclaimed a state of emergency in late June when a large cache of arms were seized in the hands of the right wing opposition party. The Jamaican government has been charging that vested interests are orchestrating a destabilization campaign like the one which toppled Chile's democratically elected Allende government.

This will be a summer of conventions, but the one that has attracted my eye will be taking place in West Germany where 4,000 nudists will be holding the 15th Nature-Lovers world congress , July 31-August 5. Variety reports that there are over one million nudists on the move during the summer in Europe, 50.000 or more affiliated with a West German Free The Body Cult. . .People in this country who are into nude beaches are planning a nation wide commemoration of Nude Beach Day on August 8. For more

information, write: Free Beaches, P.O. Box 132, Oshkosh, WI. (Enclose a stamped self-addressed envelope). . .0n the music front. . .Record Companies will be doing more TV advertising with the implications for industry support of FM broadcasting uncertain. In pursuit of an ever broader mass market, A&M sunk $100,000. on promoting some of its acts on the tube as part of a campaign in six areas. Every viewer was able to see their ads, statistically an average of two and a half iimec-,litring the campaign, i•jelexician..''

one exec confessed, "is a relatively new medium for record companies in terms of

an advertising potential". . .Speaking of marketing records, Cashbox reported in late June that a Korvettes store in Queens tightened up their security by denying entrance to the record department to all youths under the age of fifteen, without a parent. The effects so far has been to cause a decline in sales. . .Mother Jones magazine published some lyrics from a new disc issued by a group of radical economics professors. It's called "Red Shadow: Live at The Pancea Hilton" (available for $5.00 from the Physical World. P.O. Box 125, Cambridge, MA 02140) The magazine headlines the feature: "Boogieing with Marx and Lenin". . .Zodiac News reports that Atlantic records efforts to promote the new Rolling Stones album, "Black and Blue," may be in for trouble, at least in Los Angeles. A coalition of women's groups in that city has demanded that Atlantic immediately revise its advertising billboards for the album, which pictures a scantily-clad woman, tied up in ropes. astride a picture of the new I.p. Next to the model. who appears to have bruises all over her body. was the caption: "I'm black and blue from the Rolling Stones. and I love it." The women's coalition complains the billboard gives support to the myth that women like abuse. Atlantic has had no comment on the billboard

affair. . .And finally, Playboy tells us that two businessmen in Washington DC have launched a new record company. They call it Arrest Records because as one of the

partners explained: "Now you can have an Arrest record and it won't be detrimental."

That's News

Danny Schechter

News Dissector WBCN FM 5005 Prudential Tower Boston, MA 02199

Contents

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THOUGHTS IN PASSING NEWS YOU CAN USE

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CLIVE DAVIS INTERVIEW

Al Hirschfeld drawing rom The Margo Fen:len Galleries, Ness York