male groopie wanted

j poet advertizes fer joni

by gud ol j  poet
Berkeley Barb
February 22, 1974

One of th minor side effects of th feminists rebellion is th fact that rcord companies suddenly realize that there were tons of talented women out there in f.m. radio land who wrote/sang/performed their own music. there has been no avaluanch of new signings but in the old daze it was impossible to get record companies to lissen to you if you had tits, unless ... well you all no them old sordid stories.

in th last month a pile of records have been released feet- cherin women singers most of whom also write all their own material. i will now launch into em an shower my infallable opinyuns of th same upon yall.

last on th'list is carly simons Hotcakes. i'll ignore th obvious sexist puns that manifest themselves an get rite into her...er ... music! (oooops! that was unconsious folks, honest!)

th album cover is real neat, carly in white dress with fat baby belly in a white room fulla white sunlite, only her blu eyes an rosy cheeks peekin out frm under razor cut brown hair to color the picture, quite effective, three stars to fotografer ed caraeff fr a job well done.

unfortunately th disc inside just don't measure up to th package's promise. th songs ar all very cute an traditional female safe. how much she loves her pretty superstar hubby an how fullfilling it is to be a wife an mother. th music is warmed ovr early safeway shopperslicks. ive listened to this reck many times, tryin to find sumthing nice to say but nuthin cums to mind. it's one of them homoginous reckords that won't offend or turn me on. safe MOR soft rock. th only glimmer of hope is th chorus of Havent got Time fr the Pain, but th rest of th lyric gives me a pain.

next up is joni mitchell's Court and Spark on asylum. on first listening i got th impression that th arranger who evr s(he) is (no credit given) tried to see how many instruments cud be crammed into each arrangement. repeated listenings do little to allay this fear.

altho th songs do tend, like most of joni's work, to gro on one, sumtimes like a cancer on a smokers lung, but gro they do. as much as i like her songs, and this record, i am getting a bit bored with th subject material. altho i realize it's good to be honest an express onesself in song, there surely must be more to her life than unhappy love affairs with stupid insensitive male rock stars and other assorted macho rip off artists. an ah yes there's th old wat a bore it is to be rich an famous riff too.

it's another good joni mitchell album, if you like joni, which i do, but it's not gonna win any converts to her ranks, altho as a eonvert it do give me a slitely rank feeling, as toni brown sez in one of her songs (see below) "...sum folks never change they just get more the same...." that seems to be jonis main trouble muscially, an if her songs are an accurate portrayal of her life, socially too. surely at this point of th game there's a sensitive male groopie sumwhere that she cud love for himself alone, ain't there?

Let It Ride is th second l.p. by chi coltrane (i think). i seen sum reviews of her act in billboard, th music seller's bible, that promised big things of her. she plays piano an rites down happy bluesy songs with watevr th female (sic) equivolent of balls is. th songs hav that ancient, new, familiar sound, a voice coming out of a cloud or a stranger's face illuminated by a lited match in a fog for an instant. th tunes flow sweetly for a while an then jump up and grab u by th ears to fry th ol brane cells.

it's a good rocknroll l.p. her voice ranges frm little girl sweet on sum numbers to big momma shitsicker tuff on th next, altho ... th usual male-female stereotipes, it's nice to know that a woman can do, an say, an feel, all them love bound hard rock teenage emotions an express em as well as any man. it's on Columbia an is well worth yer 3.33 or watevr th record companies rip u off fer these daze.

capitol has just put out a linda ronstadt anthology album, since she left th label an her new one on asylum seems to be doin o.k., hopein to milk a bit of money out of th unwary by a neet repackaging job. altho linda has one of th better voices in th folk rock field, none of her albums quite click ...part of th trouble is that she don't rite her own shit an so is consigned to th limbo of pickin out th best songs that others hav already done good jobs on an doin em again, in most cases it's interesting enuff an with say "diffrnt drum" its a vast improvement, but having to depend on others in this age of singer-song-writers is a major handicap. anyhow, this l.p. has some of her best cuts offa 5 capitol records over th last 7 years or so. since i got it free fr revu im keepin it, but i don't know if i shud recommend it to anyone who hasta pay hard cash fer it.

last but not by any fuckin means least, is toni brown's new one for M.C.A. Good-For You, Too! this record is just a solid fuckin blast frm one end to th other. toni is a woman who is a person first. theres nothing traditional or feministicaly stereotypical on this record or in any of th songs contained thereupon. there is a strength without being boastfull, a gentleness without degenerating into lil girlishness, pain without recrimination or accusation, all th qualities that i consider highest in either men or women.

her love songs to and abt men are feminist because they don't objectify th man, or th relationship, or herself. they are adult songs, where most rock n roll singers are most definitly adolescent. in her protest songs there is an understanding an compassion of the meaninglessness of th average american lifestyle, she condems them not by placing herself on a golden soapbox an pointing th finger, but by commenting on th loss of humanity they experience, th alienation that isn't so far frm th things that us hip-folk feel too, in th deep heart, late at nite, wen theres nobody but yourself to talk to.

frm th commercially potential Goo For You, Too, to th last sad love song, Warm Winds, Sweet Wine, each song shines with th best of th new pagan consiousness that is really only a rebirth of awareness of true tenderness an sweet earth mother rythums. th back up band is truly sensation an th songs ar set in lil jewelboxes of individual beauty, no 40 minute solos fr th sake of daxeling th drug dulled eardrums of th lissening audience. toni brown continues to grow musically, an spiritually with each album but untill society at large, gets a lot healthier, i believe she'll be out there on th fringe dancing to her own music an showing th rest of us th way. i hope we catch up soon. She could be th first feminst superstar.