Records

RECORDS

John Lennon

John Lennon, Walls And Bridges, Apple SW-3416

This album is nice. It sets on you like a light buzz and doesn’t interfere with your digestion. There’s no screaming, no apologies to Yoko, no songs about his mother. No excesses.

Not much else either. Oh, there’s Elton John on a cut called “Whatever Gets You Thru The Night”. That would make a nice single. There’s Nilsson who co-wrote the album’s most interesting piece, “Old Dirt Road”. There’s Howard Johnson contributing a really fine baritone sax solo on “I’m Scared”. There’s the same old crew of Keltner, Hopkins and Voorman (Are you getting tired of Snakey Jim Keltner’s drum-work as I am?). There’s a lot here.

There’s not much of Lennon, though.

Oh, I like “Bless You”, his most beautiful song since “Jealous Guy”. And I like the instrumental “Beef Jerky”. In fact I like this album taken on the whole, more than the last two Imagine and Mind Game combines; and there are no throw-up sick cuts as there were on the brilliantly flawed Plastic Ono album. There are no turkeys here, no stars. Lennon is obviously in the process of binding up the wounds he had been showing up to now, and the result is an even, solid LP with no brilliance at all. John Lennon says he’s “Scared” on one cut. It’s true, but at least he’s stopped bleeding.

Jackson Browne

Jackson Browne, Late for the Sky, Asylum 7E-1017. Jackson Browne has gotten me through a lot of heavy times. Owning his records is like always having a friend around who understands, a friend who always seems to know what you're trying to say. "Late for the Sky" is his third album and he continues to display a marked growth in his understanding of humanity, the relationships we have with one another, individually and collectively.

This album is divided into two distinctive parts. Side one is about him; side two is about us. He wants us, on the first side. to get a feel for where he's at and, on the second side, for where we re going. He can be incredibly honest about his own mistakes. and they become all the more personal for us.

   "When you see through love's illusions there lies the danger
   When your perfect love seems the perfect fool
   you go looking for the perfect stranger"

He's not lecturing us. He's admitting his own foibles. These lines are from "Fountain of Sorrow" where he knows a particular relationship is not working out and u's his fault.

   “I’m just a couple of years and one or two changes behind you."

His major hang-up is not knowing what love is all about. He talks of books, movies, and songs painting an unreal picture of love, which he has accepted for so long that it's hard to shake.

   "Dreaming of the perfect love and holding it so far above
   You could stumble on to someone really new and never know."

But obviously he's making the effort to see through these illusions.

   "For me, some words come easy
   But I know that they don't mean that much
   Compared to what is said in a lover's touch."

Side two examines where we all fit into the human scheme of things. On the first album, he said that when the apocalypse comes, the "Sisters of the Sun are gonna rock me on the water." On his second album, he's a little less of a separatist and has a song "For Everyman". Now he wants to know how the rest of us are living "Before the Deluge". This side also contains some of his most complex poetry, in the highly symbolic "For a Dancer", and two up-tempo rockers, one of which - "Walking Slow” - would make a great hit single, but it's a little simplistic for Jackson. It's a song about trusting everyone which contrasts well with "Before the Deluge" which follows. In this last song on the LP, he worries about us trading "love's bright and fragile glow for the glitter. ..before the deluge'".

He has strengthened his voice and polished his production skills to make this album the most completely his of any of the three he's done. Lacking some of the humor of "For Everyman", this album still makes a stronger cohesive personal statement than his others.

So, slow your life down the next time it seems to be running away from you. Get in tune with the people around you. All three Jackson Browne albums will help, because he always leaves you with hope and faith in each other, if we can only be honest and open about our own feelings and sensitive to other people.

James Montgomery

James Montgomery Band, High Roller, Capricorn CP 0142.

Although originally from the Detroit area the James Montgomery Band now hails from Boston. Which is probably one of the reasons for the comparison to the J. Geils Band. Both have been known to specialize in a hard-driving blues influenced rock but after listening to James’ second album I was thinking that they were a lot closer to a combination of, say the Grateful Dead, Tower of Power, and War. I’m still trying to figure out if that’s to their advantage or not.

If you take a look at the album cover you’ll see a great picture of a roller coaster track, only no roller coaster. Imagine the band as the roller coaster and you’ll get closer to “High Roller”’s main hassle. You can’t tell if they’re coming or going. The sound, produced by Tom Dowd, is clean (maybe too much so) and fairly well-produced, but the band seems to be trying to include too many changes and musical styles. As a result this record lacks much of the drive exhibited on the first album, “First Time Out.”

There are a few tasty rockers like “Schoolin’ Them Dice” and “I Can’t Stop” that you can’t help but pat your foot to. A lot of the tunes begin to sound better after a number of spins but a couple just don’t cut it. “Any Number