A Rock€ ‘Roll Star [Is Born
George Bush's Heroin Connection
Robert ~ Redford The Rolling Stone Interview
R..E.M.’s ‘Monster’ New Album
OLO SPORT
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] I T By Fred Goodman... 21 Ta the rock & roll concert sbmciiess, Ticketmaster is always a winner. The real question is, who loses?
NATIONAL AFFAIRS
}USH S HEROIN CONNI ON By Eric Nadler... 40 Why did the a president ~ in the last days of his adminis- tration ~ commute the sentence of a Pakistani drug smuggler?
WOMEN IN ROCK LIZ PHAIR By Jancee Dunn Liz Phair has what it takes to be rock & roll’s woman of the year: smarts, great pias and some very frank ideas about sex.
tRS OF iI ON By Mim Udovitch....49 A change has come to rock ‘& roll ~ and major artists ; like Chrissie Hynde, Joan Jett, Madonna, Kim Gordon, Court- ney Love and Tori Amos have something to say about it.
BANDING TOGE
SAND CHER By Lorraine Ali. Led y L7, Rock for Choice i is fighting for abortion rights by staging shows, a periteolis and registering voters.
LLE By Lorraine Ali.
se report on how women are faring in the music industry.
Style by Patti OBrien Getting all dressed down with Kim Gordon, fashion designer.
FEATURE STORIES
A BOY AND HIS GUN By John Colapinto When Ernie Kalobius, 15, killed Amanda Grenier, 13, both Decame victims of the lethal attraction of kids to guns. O [ RE ORD By Anthony DeCurtia Fre rom a Ordiuairy: Drsalex to as Show, Redford the director has always had more on his mind than that tousled head of hair.
REVIEWS
Al J TWIST Movies by Peter Travers....79 Quentin Tarantino! 's Pelee Fiction is the new King Kong fe crime movies ~ fanny ferocious and Ladispursly great. #: s ” By Robert Palmer
If you've e been a fan of Ri #. M. live and missed the raw power of their gies on earlier albums, this one’s for you.
[OP D TV by Michael Rubiner Torn foun yesterday s headlines, the new fall shows are mostly broadcast snooze.
DEPARTMENTS
COVER: Photograph of Liz Phair by Frank Ockenfels 3, Chicago, August 1994, Hair and makeup by Mary Elkins.
ILLUSTRATION BY PHILIP BURKE
RotuinG STONE, Octoser 6, 1994 + 5
POLO SPORT
RALPH LAUREN FOOTWEAR
THE POLO GLACIER BOOT BY RALPH LAUREN HAS BEEN BUILT WITH THE SUPERIOR HERITAGE OF HANDSEWN CRAFTSMANSHIP COMBINED WITH HIGH PERFOR- MANCE DESIGN. TOP GRAIN LEATHER UPPERS ADD PROTECTION FROM THE ELEMENTS AND VIBRAM SOLES PROVIDE SURE-FOOTED TRACTION. A CLASSIC NORWEGIAN WELT CONSTRUCTION MEETS THE HIGHEST STANDARD FOR HIKING STABILITY. DURABLE. STRONG. RALPH LAUREN FOOTWEAR--BUILT FOR THE RUGGED OUTDOOR LIFE.
©1994 R.E.M. / ATHENS, LTD.
red Editora: ANTHONY DECuRTIS
Robert LOVE, PETER Travers National Editor: Wissn Greer Deputy Music Editor: Kasex: JouNston Senior Editors: MARK COLEMAN, Tom CONROY FRANCIS WILKINSON k Fashion Director: PATTI O'BRIEN Aasiatant Managing ‘tor: TISH HaMLTON Senior Writers: CHRis MUNDY, DAVID Witp Associate Editora: JANCEE DUNN, STEVE PUTTERMAN Eric S, PAGE, BILL VAN Parys Ao itor: KIM AHEARN, BARBARA Davies Manik Etsie St. LEGER Editorial Staff: Mary MACDONALD; NAWAL Asrour KARA MANNING, NILOU PANAHPOUR, TOBIAS PE
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Art Director: FRED WOODWARD Chief Photographer: MAxk SELIGER Deputy Art Director: GA. ANDERSON Ausistant Art Directors: Lee BEARSON, GERALDINE HEsSLER Photography Editor: Jovi Ausociate Photography Editor: Denise SFRAGA Photography Staff: FIONA MCDONAGH; SHERYL OLSON Production Director: Tom WOrLEY Production Manager: BRic FLAUM Produetion Staff: LUCIE ELGHAZOLY, MEERA KOTHAR. THOMAS MurpHy, CHRisTopHeR POPKIE CHRISTOPHER RAYMOND, DeNNis M. WH! ww Managers: Wiis Caster, TIM Ri Pre-Preas Staff: VINCENT BAILEY, PATRICK CAVANAUGH LAWRENCE, JACK MITTMAN, VINCENT ROMANO TMAN
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THOUGH READERS WHO FEEL the Rolling Stones are vibrant rockers outnumber those who consider them dinosaurs, Cobain basher Sebastian Bach is overwhelmingly viewed as prehistoric. (See below for details.) Readers of both genders took issue with Peter Travers’ opinion that Tive Lies was sexist (RS 689), “I wouldn’t mind if the mailman was termed mailperson,” writes Carmen Wispe, “but I'm certainly not going to be the least bit frazzled ifa hole in the street is going to be man, woman or person.” You don’t fraz- zle easily, do you? In regard to “Digital Hollywood” (RS 688), Jason Volkoff asks why the basketball court in Forrest Gump had a three-point line “when the three-point shot was not around until the ’80s.” See? Life really is like a box of chocolates. Reviewing our review of Neil Young and Crazy Horse’s Sleeps With Angels (RS 689), Paul Rinkes asks, “Are your writers required to bash Reagan/Bush each time they mention Neil Young? ... There’s nothing sadder than watching old liberals becoming senile.” Well, sir, you're certainly entitled to your opinion, but... what was the question?
ROLLINGSTONES llv’s A Goop YEAR FOR ROCK & ROLL whenever the Rolling Stones come back with a great record and a big tour (“It’s Show Time,” RS 689). I can identify with Rich Cohen, the author of the piece. I’m also young enough to have discovered the Stones relatively late in their career, yet I have endured year after year of being told how great other bands are, only to return to Mick, Keith, Charlie and Woody (yes, we miss ya, Bill, but welcome aboard, Darryl). “Only rock & roll?” Not when the mighty Stones are playing it.
Eric GILMARTIN bram @etsu.acad.edu
| MIGHT BE ONLY 14 YEARS OLD, BUT I know a good article when I see one. Your article really got me interested in
the Rolling Stones. I’m rushing to buy
their old CDs now; they're really bitchin’. I guess it’s time to listen to my dad.
Jamie DALBESIO
Phillips, Wis.
Ox: PARAGRAPH IN YOUR STORY really burned my eyes. It states that the Stones “checked” the competition by “keeping their top ticket price at $50.” This was fascinating, since I just received my $95 tickets for their Mile High per- formance, with an additional $6 service fee courtesy of Ticketmaster. Maybe there is something to the Pearl Jam case. The way I figure it, the total price of $61 is 22 percent more than the Stones’ stated
“top ticket price.” And, no, I’m not close enough to shake Mick’s hand!
Jerrery C. Brown
Kearney, Neb.
A\s 1 cazep at your CovER PHOTO
of the Stones, I realized that they have
not only captured the spirit of rock & roll
but given it a face — a beautiful, gritty, tough, weathered, scary, humorous face.
A Rock & Rott Fan
New York
Merrit ricrarps sar IN THE INTER- view, “String us up and we still won’t die.” Could we please at least have a go? Murray WALKER Edinburgh, Scotland
BACHONCOBAIN
I penx THE WoRLD REALLY NEEDS to hear the opinion of Sebastian Bach, who, throughout his now-unrecoverable career of crafting such MTV landmarks as “I8 and Life,” has gained the bound- less wisdom to condemn the actions of Kurt Cobain, the man who made him obsolete (Letters, RS 689). Jorn GorRENFELD gorenfel @rain.org
By arracuine ourpaTep AND ignorant explanations for suicide (self- ishness, cowardice etc.) to Cobain’s situ- ation, Bach puts the matter to bed neatly. Let's tell those researchers who discuss newfangled concepts like sero- tonin levels and those psychiatrists who use fancy phrases like “manic-depressive illness” to stop looking for answers and
get a real job like making videos with lots of babes in them, because Bach has the answer. Suicide is for those not “man” enough to tough it out.
A suggestion to Mr. Bach: Next time you're holding your sons and enjoying life with them, you should thank God he blessed you with such a simple mind that you can go through life without having to think about its complexities.
Linpa Ross Waldwick, N.J.
Listen, SEBASTIAN, DON’T EMBAR- rass yourself. You were a target of Nir- vana’s pointed rage. I miss sweet Kurt more every time some clueless moron like you lifts.a pen or opens his mouth. Tuomas BRrAAM Lake Geneva, Wis.
lh’s uvcrEDIBLE THAT AN IGNORANT, self-righteous homophobe who once proudly wore a T-shirt that bore the message AIDS KILLS FAGS DEAD would even have the balls to suggest that Co- bain was anything less than a man for committing suicide.
Eve BLacksTONE
Buena Park, Calif.
Gosaw was No COWARD, AND IT’S unfair to call him selfish. He was a father, a husband and a brilliant artist who will never be forgotten. Just because
he didn’t fill his music with a bunch of
optimistic bullshit doesn’t make him any less of a man.
KaTE SAMSON
High Point, N.C.
WY ay compare APPLES AND OR- anges? John Lennon was witty, sarcastic, hilarious, perceptive and a rock & roll genius. Kurt Cobain was a grumbling, eruptive, “spit in your face” saint of noise and moment. Long may they run. Jor Birtera ) Allentown, Pa.
J orn LENNON AND KURT COBAIN shared the rare ability to reflect the tur- moil of their generations in music that was meaningful and honest. When I
walk by the Dakota building or listen to Nirvana, I feel an equal sense of sad-
GORRESPONDENCELOVELETTENSKADVICE
ness at the untimely passing of both these great musicians.
Pace THOMPSON
New York
I counpn’r AGREE WITH BACH MORE:
Kurt Cobain was a coward; John Len- non was a giant!
JOHN OLTARZEWSKI
Oakhurst, NJ.
As joun SANG, “LIFE CAN BE LONG, but you’ve got to be so strong.” The true tragedy of Kurt Cobain is that he
wasn’t strong, But can one honestly blame someone for being weak? “We all shine on... .” James H. Peers II North Billerica, Mass.
CHECKITOUT
Tn case you hadn't noticed, a gold lamé suit (or a reasonable facsimile thereof) has appeared on the cover of “Rolling Stone” TB times in the last two years. That total, of course, includes the King’s very own Nudie original, which was pictured on the cover of RS 643. But it turns out Elvis was embarrassed by that suit — a fact revealed in Peter Guralnick’ new biography of Elvis Presley, “Last Train to Memphis.” A longtime contributor to “Rolling Stone” (his review of the classic album “From Elvis in Memphis” appeared in RS 40), Guralnick has written the definitive ac- count of Presley’ rise to stardom. The first of two volumes, “Last Train to Mem- phis” begins at the beginning with Elvis’ birth in 1935 and concludes with the death of his mother in 1958, Little short of an American epic, it will be published Oct. 3 by Little, Brown and Company. »
Address your correspondence to the Letters Editor, Rot- NG STong, 1290 Avenue of the Americas, New York, NY 10104-0298. By fax: 212-767-8214, By e-mail: rolling- stone@echonyc.com. Include your address and telephone number. 0 RoLuNG SToNE does not assume respon- sibility for unsolicited materials and will return only those accompanied by a stamped, self-addressed envelope. 4 Questions about subscriptions to Rottinc Stone? Call 800-568-7655, 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. EST. 4 To order, back issues, send $10 and issue number to Back Issues, P.O. Box 40, Vernon, NJ 07462.
DRAWINGS BY JAMES T. PENDERGRAST
12 + RottinGc STONE, OcToBER 6, 1994
IRTED
MUNCHING & CO,ING, NEW YORK,NY.
The Richness of Red. Anticipated.
=e
=
he organizers at Woodstock’s original site, in Bethel, N.Y., learned that if you build it, they will come, when C UL, and members of the . 3, the and
rolled into town. “We piled into a big old car,” says SA singer y
“We sang songs all the way. We pulled up, played and had a blast. Everybody was a volun-
£ teer, and they were all involved.
f it wasn’t free, I would have
turned back. I was happy every-
SANDRA-LEE KEVIN MAZUR
one took a chance.”
Pirner (left) and Williams
§ A: n all-star gather- ing pasties up by
JING COLOUR guitarist
SID eae
Pa Ee
at Central Park’s
SummerStage, in New
York, to ROTO we memo-
ry of S SH OCK
the eeailblesne free-jazz
guitarist who recently
died. Among those from the BL: @}
Marshall
a8
to pay their musical respects
DAVID ATLAN
were members of P
ICHARLES VAN WEY.
‘Vernon Reid dalutes the late Sonny Sharrock.
f oT yo Does your mouse finger click uncontrollably? Do you puppy-dog-eye dics a your CD-ROM with a sense of loss? Do you yearn to be stranded — again — on an uncharted island (not Gilligan’s)? You may be suffering from Myst withdrawal. The best-selling game is set in the most happening 3-D universe
ir \ Novoselic, Vedder and Earnie Bailey (from left) get lose.
b A t the weekend-long Garlic Festival in Arlington, 4 Ww fash. © rural community north of Seattle way),
YA's OVOSELIC and longtime Nirvana amigo
since the Big Guy himself rested on the seventh day, but users even- tually solve the mystery. "They spend 55 hours roaming on Myst if
Island,” says PR guy Eric Winkler, “then they wonder what's next.”
“After I finished,” says John Hart, a Mystoholic from Asheville, * N.C,, ‘I wasn’t so glad I'd sobed the mystery; I just was disap- pointed I was through.” A New York fan says: “I was depressed. Td look at things like subway grates and say, ‘Hey, that could be in the game.’ I had Myst dreams.” The game’s designers, brothers Rand and Robyn Miller, are working on Myst II but won't give a release date. Robyn, however, says, It will more than make up for the wait.” —~ CHucK DEAN
CY performed for an overjoyed crowd of about
250 folks. They also hasted an aallisenoes drop-in guest:
recent newlywed EDDIE VEDDER. Novoselic was trying out new material and ad-libbing some of the titles (calling one “Knights in White Satan”) and began calling for Vedder to hop onstage near the end of his 45-minute set. Vedder obliged and lent his talents to a cover of “I Am the Walrus.”
ILLUSTRATION BY PATRICK BLACKWELL
Rottinc Stone, Ocroser 6, 1994 + 15
ny = ye “Hey = @ 2 > eS é »; @ = A 4 15 eee) e jel ar : = = i x
SCOTT WEINER
At Philly's Lollapalooza: L7’s Donita Sparks (left), Dee Plakad, Suzi Gardner and Jennifer Finch with Bad Seeds Mick Harvey, James Johnston and Nick Cave
b festivities got under way with | t was the largest single-day eight Tibetan Buddhist monks
attendance on the Lolla- chanting in the rain, the crowd palooza summer tour (45,000- responded by pelting the plus) and a chance for orange-robed holy men with Philadelphia ~ recently named empty water bottles and fruit- the most hostile of American drink cartons. The monks, cities in a Duke University added at the insistence of the research project ~ to live up to its BEASTIE BOYS, cut their open- reputation. When the main-stage ing prayer short but bore no ill
= will. “We love the kids, and we
love the chance
to give them some Buddhist \- : : 7 teaching,” said
SCOTT WEI
monk TEN
Mellow monks chill with Beastie Boy Adam Yauch.
Tim] Read any good rockers lately? Recently, musicians have been stating what's
Bite ete) on their minds by writing on their bodies. (It's easier than writing mean- ingful lyrics.) The former Prince made a rare appearance on Today and rocked Bryant, Katie and Willard’s world with the word Love written on his royal cheek (face, not butt). Before that, when Eddie Vedder unplugged on MTV, he took a big black marker and printed pro cHorce!!! on his arm. After Kurt Cobain’s suicide, Blind Melon’s Shannon Hoon did Letterman with a question mark
on his forehead. Extreme’s Nuno Bettencourt appeared in a Creem fashion
layout with BREATHE ME above his wee-wee. Riot grrrls do it, too. One
appeared sassily in Newsweek with MEDIA SCAM and PROPERTY wrrritten on her
arm and tummy. So what does Sharpie, America’s top permanent-marker
brand, think about such epidermal expression? “Oh, we've had a lot of calls from people asking
if they should do this,” says spokeswoman Rita Radloff, “and we discourage them. Our inks are non-
toxic, but they aren’t FDA approved, and a person could end up in the hospital if they have an aller- gic reaction to the ink or alcohol.” So, those about to write, read the darn label! — CD.
ILLUSTRATION BY PATRICK BLACKWELL
a L y hose dope-smokin’ ROWES turned up for a
surprise midnight gig at Atlanta's tiny Dark Horse Tavern, preview-
RICK DIAMOND.
Chris Robinson lets bis freak flag fly. ing their Amorica LP and subjecting
the crowd to Allmanesque jams. “IfI
fall over or pass out, somebody drive me back to the hotel,” said heavy-lidded singer C R
N. The boys drew even larger numbers when they played Lollapa- looza's second stage the next night.
16 - Rottinc STONE, OcToBER 6, 1994
Fa ig 5 5 3 = a ich
) and
musician about town c shared the bill at the Beach Festival, in Zee-
v
brugge, Belgium (playing to 40,000 fans), and the Phoe- nix Festival, at Stratford- Upon-Avon, in England.
er hat in Sam Hill did 1
ey
and , chat about at the AmFar benefit where Bon Jovi and Sambora per- formed at New York's Lincoln Center? “We talked about how crum- my the food was,” says Bon Jovi. “I asked her what she was doing filmwise, because I’m finally going to do a film.” He didn’t reveal details but did say his band has a greatest-hits CD out this month.
n the muddy
heels of their Woodstock assault, the
KEVIN MAZUR
x ne
| Peppers roast: Flea,
Anthony Kiedis, Dave Navarro, Chad Smith (from left)
NOTABLE NEWS
S stormed into
Strange bedfellows: Iggy Pop (left) and Killing Joke's Jaz Coleman
New York for a pair of raucous, last-minute shows. Joined at the
Academy by I x
, actor-
and, in the mosh pit, 's |, the Peppers sketched a
tentative take on Cliff's classic “The Harder They Come” and un- leashed a greatest-hits set on a crowd that had snatched up tickets
in five minutes that very morning.
Bon Jovi, Foster, Sambora (from left)
Rottinc STONE, OcToseEr 6, 1994 - 17
SGP ioht ideas will get you everywhere.29
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8 mg “tar” 0.7 mg nicotine av. per
SURGEON GENERAL'S WARNING: Quitting Smoking Now Greatly Reduces Serious Risks to Your Health.
cigarette by FTC method.
© Philio Moris in. 1994
change theQame™ —&
: "APT ye? Pe * ' ubacke “4 tt Acts Pent oe Ans erns
| ‘ i, a:
JAY BLAKESBERG
IS TICKETMASTER TAKING THESE PEOPLE FOR A RIDE?
ARLA HOICOWITZ SITS IN A CRAMPED MAKESHIFT OFFICE IN A NM Manhattan tower. All around her, construction crews are laying in wire and hanging drywall, enlarging the New York offices of Ticketmaster.
Hoicowitz, one of the company’s vice presidents and a New York general manager, is'used to expansion: She’s been with Ticketmaster long enough to see it grow from a small firm into the leading national ticket distributor. And while Ticketmaster likes to portray itself as a relatively small company turning a tiny profit, it has become an outsize player in the rock & roll concert business.
Just how much power and influence Ticketmaster wields became an issue earlier this spring, when Pearl Jam filed a memorandum with the Justice De-
partment charging that the corporation has “a virtually absolute monopoly on
the distribution of tickets to concerts.” Pearl Jam’s filing was the result of the band’s inability to get Ticketmaster to agree to reduce its service charges — |
frequently $5 or more for rock concerts — to a level where fans could pur- chase tickets for the group’s proposed summer tour for less than $20. Pearl Jam further charged that when they tried to get arenas and promoters to sell tickets without Ticketmaster, they were effectively blackballed from the con- cert circuit by a “group boycott” organized by Ticketmaster.
Ticketmaster has vigorously denied Pearl Jam’s charges, labeling the mem- orandum sent to the Justice Department “a work of fiction,” but Ticketmaster
i
RoLtinc Stone, Ocroser 6, 1994 - 21
has done little to endear itself to the public. While stung by the criticism that it is gouging ticket buyers, Ticket- master has been anything but contrite. “Maybe we should shut down for a week or two,” says Hoicowitz, reflect- ing Ticketmaster's stance that the con-
' cert-going public doesn’t know how
good they’ve got it.
While Ticketmaster — through its outlets and telephone or- dering service — has made it easier for people to obtain concert tickets, the compa- ny’s per-ticket charges are virtually never part of the advertised price of a tick- et. Consequently, Ticket- master’s success has meant that unless you go directly to a venue’s box office, buying tickets for a rock concert is like buying a new car: You can’t really get it for the price adver- tised. Nor is Ticketmaster particularly consumer friendly: Despite prom- inent advertising that Ticketmaster accepts American Express and Discover cards, its outlets will take only cash. Anyone wishing to pay by credit card must make his or her purchase by telephone — and pay a second round of service and handling charges.
Additionally, Ticketmaster CEO and president Fred Rosen has been an outspoken proponent of higher ticket prices for rock shows, a trend that is sure to bulge his company’s coffers, since Ticketmaster generally figures its fees on a percentage. Although the firm also handles tickets for sporting events and theme parks, for Ticketmaster and for Rosen, rock & roll is really bread and butter.
Last year, Ticketmaster sold about 51 million tickets — and more than 60 per- cent of those were for concerts. Despite reporting a surprisingly small after-tax profit last year — $1.4 million on revenues
of $190 million — Ticketmaster looked like a good bet to Paul Allen, one of the country’s savviest new-technology entre- preneurs. The co-founder of Microsoft paid 300 million in cash for a control- ling interest in Ticketmaster.
Like Pearl Jam, Allen hails from Seattle. He is also a rock & roll devotee who takes his guitar with him when he travels on business by private jet. His
plunk down $4 million for the then foundering ticket service. Begun in 1978 by two Arizona State University computer students, the money-losing Ticketmaster sold $1 million worth of tickets in 1981, while Ticketron, then the industry leader, chalked up $100 million in sales. : Under Rosen, Ticketmaster aggres- sively went after the concert market with a twofold strategy:
Raise the $1 surcharge that Ticketmaster collected on each transaction and split it with the venues and pro- moters. By combining a well-run service with deep pockets, Ticketmaster was able, in market after mar- ket, to win exclusive con- tracts with key arenas and rock promoters. In 1991, Ticketmaster absorbed many of the assets of what remained of Ticketron. Ticketmaster and other automated ticket services have been a huge advance
Pearl Jam’s Ament (left) and Gossard testify.
Interval Research Corporation under- wrote the Electric Carnival, a $3 million video and computer exhibit that was part of the Lollapalooza tour. Back in Seattle, Allen is helping to finance a museum honoring hometown hero Jimi Hendrix. A major shareholder in the popular computer information network America Online, Allen seems poised to move Ticketmaster onto the home- shopping frontier. And when four record companies banded together last winter to announce plans for a new worldwide music-video network, Tick- etmaster was the fifth partner. Allen, who has not commented on Pearl Jam’s Justice Department memorandum or on subsequent congressional hearings focusing on Ticketmaster, declined through a spokesman to be interviewed. Rosen also declined to speak. Ac- cording to a Ticketmaster spokesman, Rosen has been
24 Kyuss set off a desert storm with their sun-baked, Blue Cheer-fueled. riff & roll. Also, Pearl Jam make a big change in the drum seat. 26 CD prices go up. Again. 27 Robbie Robertson returns to his American Indian roots on a new album. 28 Let
the spirit move you as the Rev.
Hortom Heat, the pope of Texas longhorn psychobilly, plugs in. BO Getting frank and intimate with Sam- dra Bernhard. 35 Stone Temple Pilots in performance.
instructed not to comment by the firm’s lawyers. Normally brash and talk- ative, Rosen — a lawyer himself — is the prime architect of Ticketmaster’s success and reportedly holds 5 percent of the com- pany’s stock.
In 1982, Rosen became chairman and CEO of Ticketmaster when he per- suaded billionaire investor and Hyatt Hotel Corpor- ation owner Jay Pritzker to
Ticketmaster CEO Fred Rosen
for the concert business from the old method of selling and accounting for pre-printed tickets. But while touting itself as “providing an inventory-control system for the use of our clients,” Ticket- master is now much more than that to the rock & roll concert business: It has become a de facto bank. In the New York metropolitan area, for example, its five-year exclusive deal with the New Jersey Sports and Exposition Authority guarantees the Meadowlands venue about $6.5 million — including $1 million for signing. In New England, Ticketmas- ter’s arrangement with the area’s domi- nant concert promoter, Don Law, re- portedly pays Law $500,000 a year in ticket
Despite revenue gathered from high prices for concert tickets, services like Ticketmaster’s are extremely important
to promoters and venues. That's be- cause the vast majority of the money from tickets goes to the performer — in most instances, an established rock headliner commands 90 percent or more of the gate. In the case of pop singer Barbra Streisand, who was able to com- mand $350 per ticket, promoters were rumored to receive no percentage of the ticket sales.
While promoters have traditionally fought for their piece of the ticket pie by charging acts for such in-house services as security and catering, they have also developed new streams of revenue by building and owning their own facilities, where they are able to make money on such accommodations as parking or con- cessions. Ticketmaster, which reportedly pays back as much as 30 percent of its surcharge to the venues and promoters, represents a way for them to earn signif icant amounts of money on ticket sales.
As a result, the concert business is extremely protective of the money it produces and its contracts with Tick- etmaster. For its part, Ticketmaster has aggressively defended itself, both behind the scenes — a letter from the North American Concert Promoters Association to its members intimated that Ticketmaster would sue any pro- moter or venue that violated Ticket- master’s exclusive ticket-distribution deal and helped Pearl Jam — and in public. Larry Solters, a spokesman for Ticketmaster, characterizes Pearl Jam's action as “a brilliant marketing ploy” aimed at promoting the band’s next album. “I don’t understand how Eddie Vedder and Pearl Jam can factually | challenge a price or service charge with- out knowledge or regard to what it costs to provide that service,” says Sol- ters. “If they’re so concerned with the | public and what it costs to hear Pearl
Jam, I don’t know why they can’t just go to Sony and lower the price of their next CD.”
Ticketmaster has taken particular umbrage at the way Pearl Jam’s lawyers have characterized their payments to arenas and promoters as “kickbacks.” In defending the propriety of Ticketmas- ter’s arrangements, Rasen repeatedly testified before Congress that the cor- poration’s contract with the Meadow- lands, for example, is a public docu- ment. John Samerjan, director of public affairs for the New Jersey Sports and Exposition Authority, says, however, that the facility would not release its contract with Ticketmaster for the perusal of Roitinc Stone. “Our law- yers say that if Mr. Rosen thinks it’s public, he can release it to you,” says Samerjan. Ticketmaster did not res- pond to repeated requests to see the | contract. dd
22 - ROLLING STONE, OcrToser 6, 1994
APWIDE WORLD PHOTOS
THE WORLD'S FAVORITE CLUB.
NIGHTLY
Canadian Club, Blended Canadian Whisky, 40% alc./vol., Hiram Walker & Sons, Inc., Farmington Hills, MI
Retrodelic generator parties breed an electric genre
KYUSS THE SKY
By Jon Wiederhorn Se
F ONE WERE TO BELIEVE Kyuss guitarist Joh Homme, his band would probably be playing bars and bar mitzvahs if not for Jimi Hendrix, desert canyons and electric generators. Accord- ing to local lore, when Hendrix played a rowdy Palm Springs, Calif., festival in 1969, a riot ensued, which prompted offi- cials to put a halt to loud rock shows. As a result, many groups migrated to local
canyons, where they plugged into gener- ators and performed open-air concerts, blasting hundreds of watts of power into the clear desert sky.
While the details of Homme’s story are questionable, one thing's for certain: Twenty-five years later, Kyuss (pro- nounced KYE-us) are the first generator band with a shot at mainstream success. Their third album, the heavy, retrodelic Sky Valley, sold more than 10,000 ‘copies in its first month, and the group has
toured with Metallica, Faith No More
and Danzig. But members Homme, John Garcia (vocals), Scott Reeder (bass) and Alfredo Hernandez (drums) aren’t about to let the pressures of impending stardom spoil their fun. “We're not one of those bands that walks around feeling alone and depressed,” says Homme. Kyuss’ desert parties started small but soon grew into huge hedonistic celebra- tions where up to 1,000 folks would bask in decadence all night long. “We played on Halloween at this old abandoned nud- ist colony,” Homme recalls, “and there were all these skinheads on mushrooms painting their faces. A guy fell from the
top of a building and rolled all the way down this hill. It was really fucking wild.”
Such incidents invariably shaped Kyuss’ music, which blends the leaden insurgency of 60s heavyweights like Blue Cheer and Black Sabbath with the meandering explorations of Cream and Deep Purple, then infuses it all with a dry, scorched and gritty texture born of the California desert. As Homme says, “If you could possibly put all the sand and dirt and lizards and rocks and canyons and isolated, open space on a
tape, it would definitely sound like us.”
Nowhere is this more evident than on Sky Valley, a disc with vast, sprawling music filled with tense, jagged rhythmic peaks, sun-parched riffs and expansive solos. At times, songs like “Space Cadet” and “Asteroid” roam a decidedly psyche- delic domain that surges with guitar effects and dramatic’ vocals, but Kyuss aren't a drug-rock band. “I think we just like to jam a lot,” says Homme, “and part of that ends up being in a very drunk and confused state, so it turns kind of psychedelic But that’s not the focus. Really, we're trying as hard as we can not to have a focus. We're at a point in our lives where we have no direction and no goals, so there’s no guidance for the music we play.”
Kyuss formed in 1986 (the name is a Dungeons and Dragons reference) when longtime school chums Homme and drummer Brant Bjork began jamming with original bassist Chris Cockrell. A short while later, they invited their friend Garcia to watch them practice. The next time the four got together, Garcia made an unexpected declaration. “He was tak- ing a leak in the bathroom, and he looked over and said, Tm singing for you today? ” says Homme. “We were like ‘OK, whatever? The thing was, he sucked so bad in the beginning, but we didn’t have the guts to throw him out.”
Just before Kyuss recorded their first album, Wretch, in 1991, the band fired Cockrell and replaced him with Nick Oliveri. He lasted through 1992's vastly improved Blues for the Red Sun but was ultimately kicked out, Homme says, for being “too fucking crazy.” Ex-Obsessed bassist Reeder replaced Oliveri; Bjork quit shortly after recording Sky Valley, possibly due to the band’s increasing popularity. “He was kind of on a nega- tive trip,” Homme says.
For Kyuss, rock & roll is a giant par- ty overflowing with irresponsibility and perverse humor. The songs on Sky Val- ley were arranged in a triptych, with three songs filling each track — not to preserve some grand sense of epic-rock elitism but because the band thought it would be funny if listeners couldn’t skip over cuts they don’t like. “Basically, everything we do is based on a joke,” says Homme. “Every day I get up and laugh at our situation. We're a couple of guys that had no clue we were going to be making records or playing con- certs. We had no plans, and then all this weird shit started to happen.” er}
Pearl Jam, with Abbruzzese (left)
PEARL JAM DRUMMER BEATS IT
N LATE AUGUST, PEARL JAM DRUM-
mer Dave Abbruzzese issued a state- ment claiming he was fired by the band, contradicting an éarlier communiqué re- leased by Pearl Jam that had described the split as “mutual and amicable.”
“There are different philosophies and personalities that make up Pearl Jam,” Abbruzzese said on Aug, 26. “For reasons that I don’t completely understand, the other members decided it was necessary to fire me in order to pursue a philosophy which they perceive as incompatible with mine. I was not involved in their decision, nor do I agree with their decision, but I accept it and am proud to have been a part of what Pearl Jam was.”
Abbruzzese, who joined Pearl Jam in 1991, says he was uncomfortable with the euphemistic spin his former band mates put on the split. “When heard everyone saying I left the band to ‘study music’ or whatever, it hit me wrong,” says the drummer. “It made me feel like I was the one who had felt no responsibility to what the music meant to people. And I just felt Td rather have the truth out.”
Pearl Jam manager Kelly Curtis con- firms that Abbruzzese had been fired. “I was hoping not to have to say anything about it,” says Curtis of the band’s initial statement, “because it’s no one’s business. Tt was a band decision — it wasn’t Eddie Vedder, it wasn’t any one person. Every- one thinks Dave is a great drummer and a great person, but it wasn’t happening,”
Pearl Jam’s third album, tentatively titled Vitalogy, is scheduled for release this fall. Curtis says the band has no immediate plans to replace Abbruzzese and laughed off rumors that the band is eyeing Nirvana drummer Dave Grohl.
Asked about his plans, Abbruzzese says: “I just want to gather up my friends and make music with no focus on why. Rather than feeling like I have to rush out and do anything, I want to enjoy the pro- cess, have a good time and put the em- phasis on the enjoyment of relationships and communication.” Meanwhile, he adds, laughing, “I guess Pil just gather up the nest egg, climb in a mobile home and get Lost in America.” — Kam NEELY
24 - Rottinc STong, OcToseEr 6, 1994
PHOTOGRAPH BY MICHAEL MILLER
CLEMENS RIKKEN/RETNA (TOP)
} p
YZ) NURGE33, “7 BILLDAVIS 7 ISTRYING = TO MAKE A |) | COMEBACK. jy
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In women: A clinical study of women with hair loss was conducted by doctors in 11 US medical centers, Based on patients’ self-ratings of regrowth after 32 weeks, 59% of the women using ROGAINE rated their hair regrowth as moderate (19%) or minimal (40%). For comparison, 40% of the women using placebo (no active ingredient) rated their hair regrowth as moderate (7%) or minimal (33%). No regrowth was reported by 41%. of the group using ROGAINE and 60% of the group using placebo.
How soon can | expect results from using ROGAINE? Studies show that the response time to ROGAINE may differ greatly from one person to another. Some Hei as may see results faster than others; others may respond with a slower rate of hair regrowth. You should not expect visible regrowth in less than 4 mont How long do | need to use ROGAINE?, ' ROGAINE is a hair-loss treatment, not a cure. If ipl have new hair growth, you will need to continue using ROGAINE to keep or increase hair regrowth. If you do pat in to show new hair growth with ROGAINE after a reasonable period of time (at least 4 months), your doctor may advise you to discontinue using
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ther side effects, including light-headedness, dizziness, and headaches, were reported both by people using ROGAINE and by those using the placebo solution with ‘no minoxidil. You should ask your doctor to discuss side effects of ROGAINE with you.
rene ‘who ate extra Sensitive or allergic to minoxidil, propylene glycol, or ethanol should not use ROGAINE.
ROGAINE Topical Solution contains alcohol, which could cause burning or irritation of the eyes or sensitive skin areas. If ROGAINE accidentally gets into these areas, rinse the area with large amounts of cool tap water. Contact your doctor if the irritation does not go away.
‘What are some of the side effects people have reported? ROGAINE was used by 3,857 patients Gir females) in placebo-controlled clinical trials. Except for dermatologic events (involving the skin), no individual reaction or reactions (oe by body systems appeared to be more common in the minaxidil-treated patients than in placebo-treated patients. é.
Dermatologic: iritant or allergic contact dermatitis—7.36%; Respiratory: bronchitis, upper respiratory infection, sinusitis—7.16%, Gastrointestinal: diar- thea, nausea, vomiti 30%; Neurologic: headache, dizziness, faintness, light-headedness—3.42%; Musculoskeletal: fractures, back pain, tendinitis, aches and pains—2.59%; Cardiovascular; edema, chest pain, blood pressure increases/decreases, palpitations, pulse rate increases/decreases—1.53%; Allergic: nonspecific allergic reactions, ives, allergic rhintts, facial swelling, and sensitvity—1.27%; Metabolic-Nutritional: edema, weight gain—1.24%; Special Senses: conjunctivitis, ear infections, vertigo—1.17%; Genital Tract: prostatitis, epididymitis, vaginitis, vuitis, vaginal discharge/itching—0 91%; Urinary Tract: urinary tract infections, renal calculi, urethritis—0 93%; Endocrine: menstrual changes, breast symptoms. 047% jatric: anxiety, depression, fatigue—0.36%; Hematologic: lymphadenopathy, thrombocytopenia, anemia—0 31%, ‘
ROGAINE use has been monitored for up to 5 years, and there has been no change in incidence or severity of reported adverse reactions, Additional adverse events have been reported since marketing ROGAINE and include eczema; hypertrichosis (excessive hair growth); local erythema (redness); pruritus (itching); dry skin/scalp flaking; sexual dysfunction; visual disturbances, including decreased visual acurty (clarity), increase in hair loss, and alopecia (hair loss).
What are the possible side effects that could affect the heart and circulation when using ROGAINE?
Serious side effects have not been linked to ROGAINE in clinical studies. However, itis possible that they could occur if more than the recommended dase of ROGAINE were applied, because the active ingredient in ROGAINE is the same as that in minoxidil tablets. These effects appear to be dose related, that is, more effects are seen with higher doses.
Because very small amounts of minoxidil reach the blood when the recommended dose of ROGAINE is applied to the scalp, you should know about certain effects that may occur when the tablet form of minaxidil is used to treat high blood sre. Minoxidil tablets lower blood pressure by relaxing the artenes, an effect ea vasodilation. Vasoditation leads to fluid retention and faster heart rate. The following effects have occurred in some patients taking minciodil tablets for high
pressure:
Increased heart rate. some patients have reported that their resting heart rate increased by more than 20 beats per minute.
Salt and water retention: weight gain af more than 5 pounds in a short period of time or swelling of the face, hands, ankles, or stomach area.
Problems breathing: especially when lying down; a result of a buildup of body fluids or fluid around the heart.
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When you apply ROGAINE to normal skin, very little minoxidil is absorbed. You probably will not have the possible effects caused by minoxidil tablets when you use ROGAINE. If, however, ye experience any of the possible side effects listed above, stop using ROGAINE and consult your doctor. Any such effects ‘would be most Iikely if ROGAINE was used on damaged or inflamed skin or in greater than recommended amounts.
In animal studies, minoxidil, in much larger amounts than would be absorbed from topical use (on skin) in people, has caused important heart-structure damage. This kind of damage has not been seen in humans given minoxidil tablets for high blood pressure at effective doses. e What factors may increase the risk of serious side with ROGAINE?
People with a known or suspected heart condition or a tendency for heart failure would be at particular risk if increased heart rate or fluid retention were to occur. People with these kinds of heart problems should discuss the possible risks of treatment with their doctor if they choose to use ROGAINE.
IOGAINE should be used only on the balding scalp. Using ROGAINE on other parts of the body may increase minoxidil absorption, which may increase the chances of having side effects. You should not use ROGAINE if your scalp is iritated or sunbumed, and you should not use it if you are using other skin treatments ‘on your scalp.
Can people with high blood pressure use ROGAINE?
‘Most people with high blood pressure, ecg those taking high blood pressure medicine, can use ROGAINE but should be monitored closely by their doctor. Patients taking a blood pressure medicine called guanethidine should not use ROGAINE.
Should any precautions be followed?
People who use ROGAINE should see their doctor 1 month after starting ROGAINE and at least every 6 months thereafter. Stop using ROGAINE if any of the following ‘occur: salt and water retention, problems breathing, faster heart rate, or chest pains.
Do not use ROGAINE if you are using other drugs niet to the scalp such as corticosteroids, retinoids, petrolatum, or agents that might increase absorption Herd the skin, ROGAINE is for use on the scalp only. Each 1 mL of solution contains 20 mg minoxidil, and accidental ingestion could cause unwanted effects. Are there special precautions for women?
Pregnant women and nursing mathers should not use ROGAINE. Also, its effects on women during labor and delivery are nat known. Efficacy in postmenopausal women has not been studied. Studies show the use of ROGAINE will not affect menstrual cycle length, amount of flow, or duration of the menstrual period. Discontinue iy ROGAINE and consult your doctor as soon as possible if your menstrual period does not occur at the expected time.
Can ROGAINE be used by children?
No, the safety and effectiveness of ROGAINE has not been tested in people under age 18.
Caution: Federal law prohibits dispensing without a prescription. You must see a doctor to receive a prescription.
| Upjohn | DERMATOLOGY DIVISION ‘The Upjohn Company, Kalamazoo, MI 49001, USA CB5-S
CDs hit $17.98 in record biz’s banner year
GREED Oh NEEDS
By Al Weisel Ea
ITH RECORD-IN- dustry sales going through the roof, Geffen Records has decided to test the upper limits of what consumers will pay. The label announced that the new Eagles LP, Hell Freezes Over, and Aerosmith’s up- coming Big Ones greatest-hits album will be list priced at $17.98, $1 more than other so-called superstar releases and $2 more than most new CDs. Geffen spokes- woman Bryn Bridenthal says, “Now that $16.98 has become the in- dustry standard for estab- lished artists, we felt that $17.98 was appropriate for superstar event releases.” She cited Frank Sinatra’s Duets album, list priced by Capitol at $17.98, and 7 Atlantic’s new Three Tenors album — coming out at a whopping $19.98 — as other examples of this trend.
While some record- company sources cite the spate of superstar mega- contracts and increasing artist royalties as a factor in the increase, others see the price hikes as purely strategic. “It’s a continu- ing process,” says Russ Solomon, president of Tower Records. “The record companies will take a starring artist and release it at a higher price. They have been pushing up prices for years. The only thing that will ever make any difference is if the public responds to it in a negative way. But chances are they won't, because the leader of these price rises is always some- thing desirable.”
A random survey of record buyers at Tower Records in lower Manhattan seemed to support Solomon's view. Linda Klein, 44, who was buying the Rolling Stones’ Voodoo Lounge, says: “When I want something, I’m going to get it. A dollar more wouldn't dissuade me.” Jere- my Bierbach, 19, says: “I look for the best price,” but he concedes that he would buy a record he really liked even if the price were higher. But Don Weber, 41, says: ‘I think it would affect whether I would buy it. I find myself being more particular about how much and when I buy, because Prices are kind of high.”
In the carnival-mirror world of CD
pricing, however, nothing is exactly as it seems. Retailers pay $10.65 for a $16.98 list-price CD. Few stores actually sell new CDs at the list price. While Geffen’s move will increase the cost to retailers, it remains to be seen whether higher prices will immediately be passed on to con- sumers, since retailers usually sell new releases at a discount. “Something strange about this system is, the most desirable items get cut priced the low- est,” says Solomon. “It’s masking what the real prices are, and ghe dealer takes it in the shorts.”
For the last year merchants have also suffered from bloody competition spear-
headed by electronics chains hawking top-
selling CDs below cost. By taking a loss on certain CDs, they hope to attract cus- tomers who make other purchases. Re- cently, PolyGram tried to stop this prac- tice by refusing to ship product to retailers that sell its CDs at deep dis- counts. Best Buy, the Minneapolis-based chain that instigated the price War, says it will stop pricing PolyGram releases below cost, but Best Buy president Brad Anderson says, “We don’t plan on stop- ping it on other titles unless we believe other retailers will.”
Although RIAA chairman Jay Ber- man says, “I never talk about pricing,” he wasn’t so reticent about the record com- panies’ banner year. “The record busi- ness is doing very well. Unit sales for the first half of 1994 were up 12.4 percent over the same period last year. We've been on a steady increase over the past decade, but an increase of this magni- tude is unusual.” So far, at least, con-
sumers seem willing to take whatever the
record companies dish out. dd
ILLUSTRATION BY PETER KUPER
DAVID WILLIAMS (TOP)
ROBBIE ROBERTSON finds a common bond between his heritage and his music
"T had nothing to compare this to,” Robertston says. “There are no other records I can play that will tell me whether I'm on track or not.”
Robertson had no interest in making a collection of ethnomusi- cological sessions. Much of the work was done right in the Village Recorder. The homey coziness of his setup — one small room filled with recording equipment separated from another room by a glass par- tition — gives the studio a sitting- room feel, with a couple of sofas, a weathered upright piano and 20 or so guitars hanging on the walls.
It’s a place where Robertson is clearly comfortable — and that’s the key to how he made the re- cordings work. He wasn’t the boss but a facilitator, letting the sessions take their course based on the styles and backgrounds of the participants.
"This one guy, Douglas Spotted Eagle, who I worked with on the song “The Vanishing Breed} he’s an Indian flute player, and he has this sound that just tears my heart out,” says Robertson. “But this guy comes in with his computer and keyboards, and he’s patching and programming rhythms — he’s a very modern musician who also plays the flute, a very primitive instrument. He wasn’t trying to be anything other than what he is.”
The selections collected on the
NATIVE AMERICAN SOK
By Steve Hochman ese ecwanees sce Tee reac
S A SONGWRITER, ROB-
bie Robertson is probably
best known for chron-
icling the European expe-
rience of late-I800s Amer- ica through his work with the Band: It’s Virgil Kane’s Reconstruction-era rebel resilience in “The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down,” the westward expan- sion of “Across the Great Divide” and so on that got Robertson into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame.
But when Robertson got a call early this year asking him to provide music for a Turner Broadcasting Service (TBS) TV documentary series, The Native Americans, he didn’t think twice. “I was just the right man for the job,” he says, dragging on a cigarette in the Spartan office he keeps at the Village Recorder, the Los Angeles stu- dio that he has used for years.
Tt wasn’t just a chance to balance the historical content of Robertson’s catalog
that appealed to him, it was also to restore his personal balance: Robertson is himself half-Mohawk. Though he grew up in Toronto, in the summers his mother took him back to the rural Ontario reservation where she was raised. “When this came up,” he says, “I was way ahead of where most people would be if they were called.”
Indeed, Robertson had been a follower of modern American Indian music for years and on taking the TBS assignment immedi- ately put out calls around North America, recruiting everyone from the duo Kashtin from North Quebec to the three New York-based female singers known as Ulali. Rob- ertson’s intent was to produce soundtrack music and an ac- companying album that would show the scope of talent and artistry that exists among American Indian musicians to- day. That didn’t mean that he knew what the result would
sound like.
album The Native Americans cred- ited to Robbie Robertson and the Red Road Ensemble present an impressive range of styles. “Mahk Jchi (Heartbeat Drum Song),” sung by Ulali, could almost be mistaken for an Irish melody, while “Ghost Dance” is driven by the pulse of ancient tribal drumming. Another approach is represented by Kashtin’s “Akua Tuta”: The band, singing entirely in its native Innu lan- guage, mixes traditional elements into a blend of country, folk and rock.
“We don’t want to impress anyone but us,” says Kashtin’s Claude MacKenzie in
a thick French Canadian accent, noting
that he and partner Florent Vollant first met Robertson when he attended a per- formance of theirs two years ago in Van- couver, British Columbia. “We just want to share our music and culture, just to maybe say we're still alive, you know, we are not only in the museum. We want to share that.”
Complementing these numbers is the forceful majesty of several Robertson songs that build on his impressions of American Indian history and legends. Writing those was particularly tricky. “One thing I really didn’t want to do on this record was write sympathetic, feel- sorty-for-me music — “You took my land, you mistreated me, ” Robertson says. "We all know that. But what is much more powerful is to praise these great poets and spokesmen and warriors.”
That, Robertson says, goes back to his own childhood experiences visiting the reservation. In fact, he says, he traces his interest in music to those summers. “My cousin Herb was a guitar player,” Rob- ertson says, his eyes shining. “He was the first person I ever saw play guitar. I heard his fingers moving on the strings, and it gave me a whole other feeling about music.
“He showed me how to play my first chord,” Robertson continues, “It turned my life around. I didn’t get into music because of Elvis. I got into music because of Herb, because I heard him singing a Lefty Frizzell song, and I just thought, I gotta have some of that.”
Robertson hopes that the album — his first since his return to Capitol Records, the longtime home of the Band — will help stimulate interest in American Indian music, the availability of which is growing, Kashtin, for instance, after selling 350,000 albums in Canada as an independent, were signed by Sony's TriStar label, with a new album due in October.
Perhaps the biggest surprise about Robertson's Native Americans project is that save for “Broken Arrow,” a song from his 1987 solo debut, Robbie Robertson, he’d never before directly addressed his Ameri- can Indian background in music. Asked why he’d avoided it, Robertson just shrugs and says, “Isn’t that the way it is? When I was with the Band, I felt like I couldn’t teally impose my her- itage in that situation.” Now that he has done this LP, though, he has found that there’s a common bond be- tween this and his past work.
“All the impressions that are made come from some- where long ago,” Robertson says. “They're old, like stuff P'd done over the years, writing stories of the past. And so it was ideal for me to do some- thing that I have somewhat of a knack for. And these people that I worked with were all in that place, too.” or]
Rottine Stone, Octoser 6, 1994 -
REV. HORTON HEAT lets the spirits move him
turns them down flat. “Why would I want to marry some- body? I tell em, Tl do your
LOSING THEIR RELIGION
By Jancee Dunn =a
OR THE REY. HORTON Heat, every hour is happy
hour. And as he and his |
band mates lurch halting-
ly into the Old Home- stead restaurant, New York’s premier red-meat trough (it's what’s for dinner!), they look very happy indeed.
‘T’m so stoned,” announces the Rev. with a throaty (well, phlegmy) chuckle, slumping into a chair and putting his head on the table. “Lemme just rest here for a minute.”
Uh-oh. Turns out the Rev. (known to his mama as Jim Heath), his drummer, Taz, and his guitarist, Jimbo, took a little tour of High Times magazine, where it appears they were given free samples. Maybe some drinks will help. After all, it’s — what is it, 6 already? Somebody order some gin and tonics! Waitress!
Cocktails arrive, the fog lifts, and the fun begins. The band, unsurprisingly, lives the way it plays: at warp speed. Tonight's myocardial-infarction-themed dinner is a gear-up for a pool tournament and gala at Julian’s Pool Room (“Beer! Lil eats! Get it while the gettin’s good!”). The bash has been put on to unleash the Sultan of Psychobilly’s third album, Liquor in the Front, which was skillfully produced by Ministry's own Al Jourgensen in the time- honored Heat tradition: loud and rau- cous — or as the Rev. terms it, “fast drink- ing music.”
“In some ways, I think this album is harder and faster than our other records yet more romantic,” says Heat. “I don’t know how that happened exactly, but I like it.” This time around, the tunes reveal the Latin-music influence of Heat’s youth. Songs range from the hilarious “I Can’t Surf” to the gentle ballad “In Your Wildest Dreams” to the country-fried “Liquor, Beer and Wine” to the Rev’s personal favorite, a twangy cover of the Golden Gate Quartet’s “Jezebel.” Also included is a boozy ren- dition of “The Entertainer,” with sound effects (well, belches) dutifully supplied by Jourgensen.
“That song was out of pure bore- dom,” says Taz. “We were waiting around while they were rewinding or something, and we were just like ‘Yaaah!’ Jim played drums, I played piano, and they got it.”
The steaks arrive, unadorned by so
much as a sprig of parsley. Just meat, pure and simple. “I'll tell you what,” says Heat, picking up his fork. “This is the biggest filet mignon I’ve ever seen in my life.”
This is no mean feat, considering Heat is from Texas, land o’ beef. He grew up in Corpus Christi and first picked up a guitar at about 6 years of age. His first high-school band was called Chantilly Lace, which did — you guessed it — ’50s covers. “This whole life that brought me here started out when I was about 13,” says Heat. “Hanging around the bowling alleys where people were playing foosball, smokin’ cigarettes
Country-fried rock: Taz, Jimbo and the Sultan of Bychobilly, the Rev. Horton Heat
and tryin’ to get the older guys to go buy you some Boone’s Farm Strawberry Hill.” He hooked up with Taz and Jimbo in 1987, put out the well-received Smoke
Em If You Got ‘Em, followed by The Full- |
Custom Gospel Sounds of the Reverend Hor- ton Heat, In between releases, the band tours tirelessly, playing more than 200 live shows a year.
The nonordained Heat was once given to preaching onstage, but now he finds that a tad tiresome. “More than a tad,” he sighs, draining another drink. “Let’s say a whale load. We're a band, not a novelty act.” He is often asked by friends to officiate at weddings, but he
divorce. They look at me like You cynical old bastard?”
Heat shovels in a hunk of steak, orders another round and unspools some Jourgen- sen yarns. “When we were recording,” says Heat, “these video producers in Dallas thought they were getting the biggest break in their career when MTV called ’em up to film us. They show up, and we're so drunk.” There is plainly a theme here. “They say, ‘Let’s get video of you guys actually recording” So they pan to Al, and he’s standing up on the console with his pants down and a pencil up his ass!” The band busts a gut laughing. “They left disgusted,” says Jimbo.
Heat claims the most sur- prising discovery he made about his producer was “how well he could play pedal steel guitar. He also loves Buck Owens.” Heat was intro- duced to Jourgensen by the Butthole Surfers’ Gibby Haynes, the producer of Heat’s last album. “Al was kind of out of it when I met him, but that was a pretty wild day,” says Heat. “I think that was the night after Min- istry set off that huge fire- works display inside their bus.” Later in Chicago, Jour- gensen got down and licked the band’s shoes after a show, and a partnership was born.
Al stories give way to Heat's special brand of slightly enhanced “I’m just tellin’ you what I heard” stories: Frank Sinatra’s hotel-room parties, in which golf balls were putted into women’s . . . well, you get the idea. “We were all on acid, and we're about to walk on- stage” stories. “We're gonna do a rock opera next. It’s gorina be called Homie.” | The story well eventually running dry, Heat draws stares throughout the res- | taurant as he wobbles to his feet. Once | up, he gropes for his cigarettes. “You got me drunk,” he slurs approvingly at his inquisitor as everyone heads toward Julian’s Pool Room, where members of Paw, Boss Hogg, the Jon Spencer Blues Explosion and others will file up to him and profess their love.
And shoot some pool. And while being liquored up is a hindrance to some, it’s not to the Rev., a renowned pool hustler (PLAY AT YOUR OWN Risk! warns the party invite). He handily beats everyone, one by one. Pr
28 . RoLLiING SToNnE, OcrToBer 6, 1994
PHOTOGRAPH BY MARK SELIGER
JEFFREY MAYER
The Jesus and Mary Chains Jim Reid croons to Mazzy star Hope Sandoval.
THE JESUS & MAZZV CHAIN |
By Matt Hendrickson lee eee
(YF mt Had BEEN UP To wiL- - liam and Jim Reid, the brothers who front the Jesus and Mary Chain, they wouldn’t have cho- sen “Sometimes Always” to be the first single off their new album, Stoned and Dethroned.
“It was a surprise to us that people thought it should be a single, because the demo was so bleak,” says William. “Even after we recorded it, it still didn’t seem like a single.”
‘Tve given up guessing what could be a
single or what couldn’t be,” says Jim with a sigh. “Whatever song 7
we think will be a big hit, it never is. What we do now is just make the record and listen to oth- er people’s opinions.” p
“Sometimes Always” features the hyp- notic voice of Mazzy Star lead singer Hope Sandoval. She’s rumored to be the girlfriend of William Reid, to which he curtly replies, “We're just good friends.” The song is a gripping tug of war between Sandoval (the jilted girlfriend) and Jim | Reid (the repentant boyfriend).
The Reid brothers had been waiting for more than three years to record with Sandoval. “We always really liked her voice,” William says. “But we didn’t have the song that could work until ‘Some- times Always. ”
“They sent me the song, and I thought it was really good,” Sandoval says. “[Mazzy Star] were in London, touring, and I went to their studio and met them for the first time. The recording took two days, and it was really difficult. They
of the moment.
produce their own records, so they were really picky, which is totally understand- able. The fun part was having wine and talking and laughing,
“Originally when we conceived the rec- ord, we were going to have many nore guests on it, . “Bur tor various reasons, it didn’ work out. so we just asked people we really liked.” Former Pogue Shane MacGowan also appears, handling the vocals on the harrowing lament “God Help Me.”
Stoned and Dethroned is the Jesus and Mary Chain’s sixth release (counting 1988's B-sides compilation, Barbed Wire Kisses). It was originally planned as an all- acoustic album, but the band scrapped
a few months of recording. “Everyone thinks the band is all guitar and
make some interesting | sounds. We were trying really hard not | to use electric guitars, and it got to the point where we said, ‘This is silly. Let’s just make a recor The band is hitting the road with | Mazzy Star this October and is looking forward to a tour more suited to its tastes than its difficult stint on 1992's Lol- lapalooza tour. “Lollapalooza was a big, big mistake,” William says with no hesi- tation. “Aside from the fact that we hated playing in the daylight, it was supposed to be a meeting place for people who were different. But we felt different from all the people who were supposed to be dif- ferent. It was like everyone was t be a professional freak or weird “We are freaks and weirdos,” Jim states matter-of-factly. “But we don’t make
such a big deal about it.” er}
|
“For The Love Of Strange Medicine.’
Your wait is over.
Steve Perry's new album. Featuring the single
You Better Wait.
Preduced by Steve Perry, Jamez "Jimbo" Barfen, and Tim Msner Management Third Rasl Entertainment: Bob Cavallo/Scort Welch,
COLUMBIA
1a" Reg US
Yat & Tm Off Marce
Regusrrada/* ray Sony Muses Lorertaimmens, Inc
FADE IN. EX- treme close-up of your life. You’re an equally fam- ous, talented and acerbic 39-year- old star. In the first act of your very public life, you have upstaged Jerry Lewis and Robert DeNiro in a film, Rose- anne on her show, Letterman on his show, supermodels at their show (the runway) and the Artist Formerly a Part of Your Life in her show (that woman’s own mad, mad life). What’s next? Cut to your new al- bum, titled Excuses for Bad Behavior, Part I, on which you sing a cover of the Rolling Stones’ “Sympathy for the Devil” and include excerpts of your own actual phone- sex conversations. Camera pulls back slowly to reveal you, Ms. Sandra Bernhard, wearing a giant sneer, sitting atop
a massive globe. Work.
Well, I think my stork has always dealt with heavy shit. It’s not always through music, or it doesn’t hit you over the head, but I think my work has always been layered with a lot of ideas and con- cerns about where we're headed as a race. I mean, it’s not like an Eddie Murphy album. I’m not taking myself seriously — Tm taking my work seri- ously, which has evolved into a musical format.
to you If you follow performers and you see somebody who’s really continuously evolving and experimenting, chances are they're a Gemini, ’cause it’s in our nature. We can’t fight it. I mean, I'm not a dime- store stand-up comic, some desperate, self-effacing, fucked-up victim. I'm a sur- vivor, and I love my work. I have every- thing I want because I continue to evolve and explore myself. That’s all I really look
for. And 2 an audience to get into it.
yu noi 10U I think the only really good thing about taking advantage of the late-night shows and stuff is to go on and do things that kind of play against it and into it at the same time — use it as a forum to do a per- formance piece, as opposed to just going on and going, ‘Oh, Dave, you're fabulous,’ and promoting your work. So I tried to do that, I tried to make it an event. But for a
long time I, for some reason, didn’t have the opportunities to do the actual work, so I was using that as a replacement. People mistook that for me just wanting to be on the show because I was a sera
Bees I don’t get todo what I wanna do, |
He won't let me go on and sing or per- form. I'm not there to serve him. I'm there to serve myself at this point. He’s already made it. I'm still struggling. Why should I go on and make him look good if he’s not willing to let me make myself look great?
Neither & L Tm sure eT do his show again, but when I need to do it, or they're willing to let me do what I do — which is do my work. But until then I like to go where I’m welcome, where I’m treated with respect. I'd rather reach Roseanne’s audience than just go on Letterman and jerk off. Because at least I have the oppor- tunity to present sexual options and a sense of fun and explore a character that most people wouldn't nonnaly deal ee
Iwanna keep it private just because it’s like
when you leave a can wae soup open and leave it in the can. It gets tainted. The only time it stays fresh is either when you eat it or leave it sealed. So I'm kinda, like, at the point where I’m eating it, but I left a little
in the ean so I fae want it to go bad. z ‘ ady
I think that we're all torn. I think people who really live in the world and have a certain amount of openness are always conflicted, and I think that you always just have to follow your heart. But be- fore you get to that lev- el, you have to make a decision and say, “Fuck it, I’m gonna go to this bar or that club and see who’s there.” And get- ting people to go to that bar is very hard. I don’t think it has to be so black and white as having to go to a bar and try and meet somebody. I like a little something left to the imagina- tion, some mystery about it. To meet some- body in an unexpected sit- uation and have some sen- suality and just go for it. Are you unsure of your own sexuality? Is that why you're asking?
Listen, baby, when I was 23, there was always some drama happening. Really bad drama. And it usually involved a guy, a girl, two girls, a guy — all these weird combinations. And you were in the middle of some intrigue. But you know what? When you're ready and you find some- body, Bnet all becomes history.
No.l Tm fie nd H pa to say there.
in to its universe, ebay
Something that Iwould prefer to keep dancing around and not discuss any fur- ther. Let it just fade away. fade away.
Oh! My least favorite question in the world! Td like to flog it and hang it from the gallows. What's next? ’m gonna meet my friends for dinner, dammit. That’s all you're getting. Jd
30 - RottinG STONE, OcToBER 6, 1994
ING-SIZE ERROR? TENNESSEE state officials have called for a review of Elvis Prestey’s autopsy, 17 years after his death. The government is trying to determine if Elvis died of | drug complications and not heart disease, as his death certificate reads. If the former is true, Jerry Francisco, the medical examiner who signed the death certificate, could be prosecuted for willfully misrepresenting data. Meanwhile, ticker holders for a ‘77 El- vis concert scheduled to take place on Long Island, NLY., six days after the King’s death were offered refunds for their $12-$15 seats last month. Though allowed to keep their tickets as souvenirs, only 75 of 27,000 eligi- ble would-be concertgoers have requested reimbursement from the New York State comptroller’s office. The Price: A federal- court judge dismissed the bulk of a $750 mil- lion lawsuit filed by (of Sam and Dave) and other 60s R&B musicians against 12 major record labels and the American Federation of | Television and Radio Artists union. The | artists had claimed they were cheated out of health benefits and pensions, but Judge Clarence Cooper ruled that they did not exhaust opportunities to settle their dis- putes directly with the defendants, The only significant claim remaining is a racketeering charge against 10 of the record labels for withholding those benefits. Rock Block: Not only the ticket-distribution business has been under government scrutiny late- ly. The music-video cable channel being developed by Warner Music Group, Sony, EMI, PolyGram and Ticketmaster is also the subject of a Justice Department anti-trust investigation. MTV has argued that the four labels, which supply two- thirds of its videos, will be able to fix the licensing fee that the network pays for ex- clusive rights to certain clips. Spokes- people for the new channel had not com- mented at press times [Sheaker =p Congety fects Socked: | U 1 have fled : a federal vous pee Reebok The British band has accused the footwear manufacturer of using its song “Reverence,” from the 1992 album Honey’ Dead, in a television commercial without permission. Although BMG, the group's publisher, says the band has “vehemently resisted any commercial use of their songs,” JAMC did give Budweiser rights to use another 1992 song, “Sugar Ray,” in an ad. A spokeswoman for Reebok declined com- ment on the ad, which she said is no longer being broadcast. — NEIL STRAUSS
that ses Cee side af life i is ; more” visible through a crisp Tonquerey mart
120% Gian Neutral Spina, 1904 Gchafhetn and Sormeiet Co, New York, N.Y
than a tumbler of bourbon.” : 3 z
How refreshingly distinctive.
FTEN, MEMBERS OF GREAT bands strike out on their own only to offer mediocrity. But
in the case of singer Shara Nelson, brilliance has begotten brilliance. After all, she was one of the leading voices in Massive Attack, the widely influential Bristol, England, beat col- lective. Where Nelson delivered gems like “Unfinished Symphony” with her former band, her solo debut goes a step further. On What Silence Knows, Nelson aggressively fuses writerly observations, highly detailed melodies,
OHARA NELSON
classics. Then she was lucky enough to meet a producer, Michael Peden, who helped the songs gain force and di- mension instead of waltzing in and, as Nelson puts it, “wanting to rip every- thing to shreds.”
This ’60s-to-’90s American-English continuum is a key part of Nelson’s self-conception. “We’re in the ’90s now,” she declares. “People are harder in the way they look at things. Music is harder. I had to relate to the time we're living in but also remind us of another time. I love the old Motown records.
But there were a lot of other
no-nonsense symphonics and brute dance power.
The twentysomething Nelson used to sing in church as a kid in London, yearning to bend the proper Anglican hymns with American soul. She started work on her solo songs long before leaving Massive Attack. “I felt a tiny bit stifled and like a robot,” Nelson says. “You can only do that for so long,”
She speaks with the same easy clarity and passion that characterizes her mu- sic. Her initial demos for What Silence Knows, she says, began as cool-headed redesigns of warmblooded Motown
things happening, in London particularly, that needed to be fused with that.”
A formidable singer who can turn understated phrases into explosive confessions, Nelson exudes self-confidence in the usual English soul manner. Yet where many of her peers in dance music seem content just to flawlessly groove and glide,
— like a Sade trained in hip-hop.
It’s a tough time to be a full-on soul singer, Nelson maintains. “It’s not quite fashionable,” she says. “Some people don’t think that’s important now. But I think that if you really sing to listeners, then they re-examine themselves as well as the music.” She sus- pects it’s a little like the way most people reject opera. “People go in thinking it’s going to be painful. The opposite happens.”
British soul singer Shara Nelson speaks out, There's a surprising folkie slant
to Nelson’s music, too. She’s a fan of Joni Mitchell and Joan Armatra- ding as well as Aretha Franklin. Nelson doesn’t always layer tracks house style; she composes gorgeous songs like “One Goodbye in Ten” with a piano or guitar, or “when I'm in the right mood, just a drum machine.”
“While people are actually danc- ing,” she says, “if there’s enough of a warmth to the music, they’re actually drawn to lyrics. They like something that’s going to hit them. Because that’s how they live now, with loads of challenges. People don’t live their lives to bubblegum.” — JAMES HUNTER
Nelson adds that crucial drama |
She's no diva: Atlanta-based singer Dionne Farris tends to ber solo career.
DIONNE
HAT DIONNE FARRIS really wants people to know isn’t how much her days
singing with Arrested Development helped her develop as an artist. Neither is she yearning to talk about what the cross-pollinated funk rock on her solo debut, Wild Seed — Wild Flower, means. What she really wants to express is the fact that deep down, she’s a Jersey girl. “Born and raised — Tm a proud New Jerseyite,” says Farris. She moved to Atlanta four years ago. Tt was there that she became a member of Arrested Development’s extended family; it’s her voice that drives the chorus of AD’s first hit, “Tennessee.” “Although Ihad the experience of being in Arrested Development,” Far-
FARRIS
ris says, “I was cushioned. I wasn’t in the pressure seat. I definitely learned from watching people change that if your head is not on straight, then the ego can grow, like, whooaa! I saw it in my own house, and it’s scary. Don’t get me wrong; we had camaraderie in AD, but I had to move on. I was engaged to one of the guys in the group — not Speech — and when we broke up, I thought I would die. I know what I'm focused on now — my work.”
As a singer, the 25-year-old Farris has an earthy vocal presence. “People are quick to throw the diva term around now,” she says. “Don’t label me as such. Because to me, Aretha Franklin is a diva. Diana Ross is a diva. Chaka Khan is a diva. They've earned the title. ‘Oh, yes, this is a new pop diva’? Don’t put that shit on me.”
Wild Seed — Wild Flower is a mad dash through the history of black music in the 20th ‘century, touching gospel, rock and blues. “People say black people aren’t gonna get with this music because it’s different,” she says. “Don’t sell us short like that.” — Dinrrre ExRiicH
32 . Rottinc STonE, OcToser 6, 1994
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STONE TEMPLE PILOTS
aan PHILADELPHIA Mann Music Center, Aug. 27, 1994
IGHT UP UNTIL THE SET CHANGE THAT
divided their show into two roughly equal
. segments, Stone Temple Pilots sounded
SI convincing. For a few minutes there, it was like hearing a band with something to prove.
Tension built nicely: STP began a 70-minute set at the amphitheaterlike Mann Music Center with “Vas- oline” and then pummeled through faintly embellished renditions of material from their second album, Purple. After spending two years as suburban-rock darlings (and whipping boys of the rock press), the band ap- peared poised to junk its pretensions and shut every- body up. Its hard, howling and surprisingly spare songs of anger and disconnection are sure to captivate anyone who's ever been 14 and at odds with the world.
Then out came the Unplugged-style living-room fur- niture, including a Victorian sofa and a well-uphol- stered rocking chair for lead singer Weiland, and that avenging energy quickly evaporated. The flashes of bril- liance that illuminated “Big Empty” grew dimmer, and the grunge scholarship shone through: “Pretty Penny,” the first acoustic selection, was a scattered hybrid of sweet Beatles melody, Nirvana brooding and Extreme’s overweening earnestness, while an incantatory reading of David Bowie’s “Andy Warhol” was somber enough to suggest unintentional parody.
When the musicians returned to amplified instru- ments, the intensity of the opening segment was a dis- tant memory. Though street-savvy drummer Eric Kretz anchored the set with a consistent backbeat, STP never seemed to connect as an ensemble. First, Weiland did his tortured-vocalist demonstration, then guitarist Dean DeLeo unleashed his distortion-fueled solo assaults. By the end, the shout-along anthem “Interstate Love Song” was pretty much carried by the crowd; its enthusiasm easily eclipsed that of the automatic pilots who occupied the stage. — Tom Moon
Take me to the Pilot: Weiland lands in Philly.
BSS / Foreigner’s Lou Gramm (left) and Mick Jones
FOREIGNER/
THE DOOBIE BROTHERS Saag MANSFIELD, Mass. Great Woods, Aug. 23, 1994
fj £ NEED TO WARM UP,” FOR-
eigner guitarist Mick Jones
mumbled to 6,000 fans who
. =—/ came to see his band split a
shed bill with their fellow 70s-rock recyclers the
Doobie Brothers on this cool August night. “It’s chilly. We need some heat.”
The return of lung-busting lead singer Lou Gramm has given Foreigner some renewed vital- ity, but he surely needed to warm up at Great Woods. At times, the frizzy-haired frontman seemed a shadow of his former self; reportedly he was nursing a sore throat. His weakened voice was most exposed in the airy keyboard cra- dle of “Waiting for a Girl Like You,” which was followed by a straight-ahead (and familiar- sounding) new song called “White Lie.”
The heat arrived with “Urgent,” thanks to a show-stealing solo by squealing saxman Scott Gilman, who unfortunately didn’t know when to stop. The slower, steamier hits like “Feels Like the First Time” and the soulful power ballad “I Want to Know What Love Is” were far more involving, By the time Foreigner got to “Hot Blooded” at the end, the hard-rock sparks finally started to fly.
More rootsy by comparison, the Doobies’ 75- minute set was pleasant and nearly smooth, if not exactly flawless. Except for departed crooner Michael McDonald, prime players were still in place. Guitarists Tom Johnston and Patrick Simmons split lead vocals, while John McFee juggled guitars and vio- lin (though his solo in “Black Water” was humorous- ly negated by a sound glitch).
But such newer songs as “I Get Excited” (which echoed Stevie Ray Vaughan’s “Crossfire”) and “Music Is the Doctor” fell flat, and the tandem drumming of Michael Hossack and Keith Knudsen was clunky on the neo-
bluegrass shuffle “Steamer Lane Breakdown.” It took | obvious crowd pleasers like “Long Train Runnin’ ” and |
“Listen to the Music” to put this chugging nostalgia machine back on track.
— Paut RosIcHEAu | than this.”
THE BRAND NEW HEAVIES —=s=
New York City Academy, Aug. 25, 1994
HE BRAND NEW HEAVIES RELY HEAVILY |
on’70s grooves for inspiration, and the call
for that decade’s near-oblivious good times
was one heeded by everybody here tonight.
By the time the band took the stage, the overcapacity
crowd was primed, screaming loud enough to almost
drown drummer Jan Kincaid’s disco-inspired beats.
When lead singer N’Dea Davenport made her en-
trance, launching into the insistent funk of “Have a Good Time,” the audience exploded.
The Heavies incited further dancing (well, jumping)
madness when they kicked into a heated “Dream On
Dreamer,” their R&B chart hit and the third song into
the concert. Grooves from their first LP — instrumen- |
tals like “BNH” and the hard-funk “Shakedown” — were deepened and improved. Bassist Andrew Levy and guitarist Simon Bartholomew jammed nonstop, shak- ing their bell-bottoms and stoking the fervent vocals.
ae...
Boogie nights: The Brand New Heavies’ Davenport
The sensibly dressed Kincaid (you can’t minister to crazy beats in flouncy shirts) confidently anchored the set. Kincaid revealed a mellow singing voice on “Back to Love,” a funky but sweet duet with Davenport. Davenport was hard to ignore in her sexy 70s mini-
|
| |
dresses and a Diana Ross quasi-frizz; she worked the |
| music and the audience. She sang purposefully and joy- |
ously — shaking, jumping, strutting, bumping, sashaying and posing. Her yelps of disgust pushed the guitar-driven “Fake,” and her vocal power lifted inspirational show stoppers like “Brother Sister” to new heights.
The crowd echoed Davenport’s every move, mere- ly swaying when there was no more room to maneu- ver. The balcony was a study of energy in motion: Heads bumped up and down, bodies swayed and | jerked. By the last encore, a room-pleasing “Dream | Come True,” the place was a roiling mass, and not | one person was seated. “Damn,” I thought, asI shook | my booty with abandon, “it doesn’t get any better |
— Marte Etsr St. Lécrer |
Rotumnc Stone, OcrTosBeEr 6, 1994 - 35
OcToBER 1994
THE ENTERTAINMENT MAGAZINE
WHAT WOMEN WANT
MEG RYAN POSE OSTER
SUSAN SARANDON
AND 40 OTHER TALENTS SON TI THE MOVIES THAT INSPIRE THEM, THE ROLES THAT ENRAGE THEM, AND THE PARTS WORTH FIGHTING FOR
THE us INT
| MERYL STREEP 4 LATEST ACTION
9 talks about shoot-
ing those rapids in ‘The River Wild’ and keeping an eye on the children.
Our \
section covers motherhood, sex and careers in the movies. The |
5 beat the backlash.
Plus: Marisa Tomei, Dana Delany and Collective Soul.
wow
Robert Plant and Jimmy Page were secretly reunited Aug. | 25 and 26 at the London Weekend TV studios on the South Bank. Accompanied by Charlie Jones on hass (Plant's son- in-law and no relation to John Paul Jones) and drummer | Michael Lee (ex-Little Angels) along with various or- | chestral, mandolin, flute and percussion players, the pair | rattled through acoustic and | ; electric performances of Led Zeppelin classics, including “Since I've Been Loving You,” “Kashmir,” “Four Sticks,” “Gallows Pole” and “What Is and What Should Never Be.” The shows were recorded as part of a forthcoming MTV special with the working title “Unledded.” © As British as bangers and mash, Denzil is | anew group that has already earned ecstatic notices anda | small but firm following stateside. The quartet, led by | singer/songwriter Denzil, comes from Bournemouth, on | England’s south coast. Denzil sound a hit like Squeeze, and their debut alhum, “Pub,” is crammed with references to | English culture - from the pint glass of lager pictured on the | cover to songs about winning the pools (our equivalent of | the national lottery). Funny thing is, no one over here has heard of them. Their album has not been released in Britain, | and they are still playing in their local pubs. Denzil, who's | only just given up his day job as a graphic artist, tells me he | would never dream of leaving England to go to live in | America. All the same, the band is packing its bags for yet | another tour of the States - a six-week swing starting Oct.1. | 2 = This month’s really groovy | | debut is “Everybody’s Got | One,” by Echobelly. The | London-based group is led by | Anglo-Asian singer (and for- | mer kick boxer) Sonya | Aurora Madan and Swedish | guitarist Glenn Johansson, | who between them have translated some faint Mor- | rissey-Siouxsie influences into a supple pop-rock | sound for the 1990s. While Johansson nails down the | riffs, Madan brings her sparky personality and agor- | geous sense of melody to bear on songs that start off | all tense and edgy, then break into some wonderful | soar-away choruses. It’s heaven. — DAVID SINCLAIR |
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CR AND ROLL BANI By Neal Karien Times Books, $22
Greet YEARS IN THE MAKING, Neal Karlen’s Babes in Toyland
guides us through the star-maker ma- chinery of the alternative 90s with hip authority. Karlen offers a well-researched account of this female power trio’s bumpy rise to prominence; the fast-
company,” one Warner's exec tells Kar- len. “It’s a very ticklish thing to do at a big label.”
Meanwhile, Carr struggled to keep Babes in Toyland on track during the recording of Fontanelle, their major- label debut. Carr wanted commerce and art, of course: He installed Sonic Youth guitarist Lee Ranaldo as pro- ducer and even acquired a photo by Manhattan art star Cindy Sherman for the album’s cover. Babes in Toyland frittered away expensive studio time, weathering a brief breakup and near- constant emotional breakdowns.
Karlen comically depicts the rising tension as producer Ranaldo wrestles with drummer Lori Barbero, Ranaldo suggested Barbero play along with a “click track” — a beat-keeping met- ronome — which affronted Barbero’s vaunted sense of punk integrity. (When Ranaldo later botched the final mix of Fontanelle, he was fired and his credit was reduced to co-producer.) And Karlen’s tale veers toward unintentional pathos
paced book reflects his access not only to Babes in Toyland but to the corridors of corporate power. He captures the poverty-line
parameters of punk rock, a male bastion where the scrappy Babes hold their own, touring cease- lessly in ramshackle vans.
A veteran entertainment re- porter, Karlen possesses an acute eye for detail. Digging beneath the hardcore surface of this alternative scene, he un- earths the fragile egos of musi- cians who sleep together in sin- gle hotel rooms, play on borrowed equipment and scrape together cash and emotional capital — against all odds of making it. Karlen focuses on Babes guitarist Kat Bjelland. A former high-school cheerleader from small-town Oregon, she befriended “a troubled trust- fund kid from California” —
Courtney Love — and the two relocated to Minneapolis in the late 80s. They became entwined in a rivalry that led them to mutual wardrobes and rock dreams — until Bjelland kicked Love out of an early version of Babes in Toyland.
A couple of years later, Warner Bros. scout Tim Carr stumbled onto Babes at a dingy Manhattan nightclub. “He seemed positively captivated by Kat,” writes Karlen, “.. . it was lust — a profes- sional pining to find and develop a star.”
Carr had to hustle just to keep the newly signed band from getting lost in the shuffle. He stormed his label’s Bur- bank, Calif., offices, buttonholed War- ner’s chieftain Lenny Waronker and barraged publicity and marketing de- partments with Babes hype. “It felt like Carr was trying to do some perfor- mance-art number on the people in the
when he details Kat Bjelland’s showing up at the studio all but joined at the hip with a leeching Aussie punker named Stuart Spasm. Eventually, Bjelland and the clueless Spinal Tap-esque character were married (and then divorced).
All of Carr’s manic machinations couldn’t quite push Babes out of their punk ghetto and into the mainstream, however. Though MTV initially rejected Babes’ “Bruise Violet” video, Beavis and Butt-head latched onto the clip a few months later. (The video brilliantly takes aim at the Kat vs. Courtney feud via an army of baby-doll look-alikes.) Tronically, that’s when Fontanelle finally took off, with sales to date reaching 200,000 copies. Karlen’s straightforward reporting suggests that pop success relies equally on timing, talent and dumb luck. — Matr Damsker
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Sof roads taken and paths crossed.
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| youngest child’s return. “God bless Bush.” The shortening of Adam's sentence — he had about
INTAtiO Nal A LLALLS Mie irene ean sen” rbot
place without fanfare, lost among a dozen other final | days’ mercies bestowed upon mostly white-collar ctimj- | nals, four of them banking-law violators from Texas,
| » | one of Bush’s home states.
c E 0 aie E oe a S iE S These presidential blessings were batowed quit Unlike the controversial Christmas Eve pardons of for-
| mer defense secretary Caspar Weinberger and five oth- | er Iran-Contra figures, this clemency was not accompa- | nied by a White House press release. And the Justice Department made no announcement this time around, | releasing information only after a reporter inquired. | The strange affair got two lines in the Washington | Post. The TV networks and the New York Times were |
silent. Yet this kind and gentle maneuver raised eye- brows in other quarters. In North Carolina prosecu- tors fumed; in Washington drug-war liberals voiced astonishment; and everywhere in the world Drug
familiar with the presidential-pardon process said that this executive action — opposed formally by federal prosecutors and the DEA — was unusual, to say the least. “It’s one of the most bizarre things I ever heard,” says William von Raab, the former head of the U.S. Customs Service, whose agents had snared Adam. ‘I was absolutely shocked when this fellow got out,” says
“[ will never bargain with drug dealers on USS. or foreign soil.” — GEORGE BUSH, MARCH 1988
HILE WASHING-
ton ponders the
vagaries of White- water, a more mysterious — and more recent — political deal continues to es- cape attention, a curious intrigue from George Bush’s presidency that raises questions about the former commander in chief's commitment to his war on drugs and threatens to embarrass his party. This fall whenever Democrats are accused of being soft on drugs, they would be wise to tell this story.
On Jan. 18, 1993 — two days before the end of his administration — George Bush signed a paper granting executive clemen- cy to a heroin trafficker serving time in a North Carolina prison. It was one of the most puzzling mercies bestowed by a chief executive in the 206 years of presidential clemencies. Several days later, the inmate, a slight 32-year-old Pakistani named As- lam P. Adam, was taken from Butner Federal Correctional Institution by U.S. Immigration and Naturalization Service agents and brought to Atlanta for de- portation proceedings. The next day, he was chauffeured to an airport, where he boarded the first of a series of flights that eventually took him home to Karachi, for- ever banned from re-entering the USS. It was a joyous family homecoming for Adam, who had already served nearly eight years after federal narcotics detec- tives caught him holding approximately $15 million worth of heroin. “God bless Bush, God bless Bush,” Adam’s elderly
mother gushed to visitors after her
a former official of the U.S. Parole Com- mission. Even then Pakistani ambassador to the United States Syeda Hussain was taken aback at Adam’s commutation. ‘I wish I had been as effective with Presi- dent Bush as Mr. Adam,” she told the Charlotte Observer, the only media outlet to ask a few questions.
Adding to the mystery is the fact that George Bush was not free and easy with his clemencies. To the contrary, the 4ist president was almost a Puritan in this arena. He issued far fewer pardons (crim- inal record expunged) and commutations (jail terms or fines reduced) than any president before him had in this century, He averaged a niggardly 19 clemencies a year, compared with Ronald Reagan's 51,
Jimmy Carter's 142, Gerald Ford’s 169, Richard Nixon's 166 and LBJ’s Texas-size 229. Bush turned down more than 1,000 requests for clemency during his term. Adam’s was only the third commutation he granted. But this one was by far the hardest to rationalize. After all, George Bush was a cheerleader for “zero toler- ance,” a heated anti-drug crusader given to labeling drug pushers “domestic ter- rorists” and their wares “the gravest threat facing our nation.” Indeed, during Bush’s four years in office, more than 400,000 Americans were sent to federal, state and local prisons for drug-related crimes. Right now, 655 people are serving life sentences in federal prison for drug-
Why did the president grant a last- minute commutation to a Pakistani
Enforcement Administration (DEA) agents openly | wondered what it was that Bush was smoking. Insiders |
| | |
drug smuge¢ier? A political mystery
40 - Rott1Inc STONE, OcTosEr 6, 1994
ILLUSTRATION BY DREW FRIEDMAN
related offenses. And this was a crime involving heroin, a drug that Adam’s Sentencing judge, a Reagan appointee nicknamed Maximum Bob Potter, called “poison” seven years earlier when he denied Adam’s attempts to get his sentence reduced,
Obtaining definitive answers in the case of Aslam P. Adam is not easy. First off, George Bush has refused to answer any questions about the Adam affair. Neither would the man who formally pushed the release, former White House counsel Boyden Gray. Also tefusing comment is the attorney in Gray's shop who handled pardons, Mark Paoletta. Only the pardon attorney's office over at the Justice Department has gone on the record, arguing — against common sense — that this case was routine and that clemency was justi- fied (first-time offender, harsh sentence). Asked whether she encountered any behind-the-scenes politicking, Margaret Love, the U.S. pardon attorney, huffed, “Not a trace; not a whiff.”
I went to Pakistan for some answers. I found the Adam residence in Clifton, a fashionable: section of the sprawling port city of Karachi. A servant answered the door of a comfortable two-story dwelling surrounded by a small garden. She calm- ly took my card and asked me to wait. After several minutes she returned to tell me that Adam “doesn’t want to talk to any reporters.” Adam refused to answer my correspondence as well, telling ac- quaintances later on that he was “amused” by an American magazine's interest in his case. Pakistani police sources I contacted checked his record and reported that the American bust was his only offense and that Adam was not a well-known figure among the nation’s drug barons. One U.S. official'stationed in Pakistan told me that American narcotics cops stationed there are keenly aware of the case, but they say Adam himself was a pawn in a larger game. As the official puts it: “This guy was not a heavyweight, but he sure as hell had some pull somewhere.”
Indeed. Back in the United States, documents obtained by RoLLING Stone from the Justice Department under the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) confirm that Adam had some significant political juice behind him. His early release was endorsed by his warden, J.T. Hadden, as well as by Mi- chael Quinlan, then the director of the Federal Bureau of Prisons. Coinci- dentally or not, these unusual recom- mendations to free a convicted dope trafficker were issued around the time
that the office of North Carolina Sen.
Eric NADLER covers international affairs
for PBS? “Frontline” and has written for “The
Nation,” The Fund for Investigative Jour- * nalism assisted in the research for this story.
Jesse Helms took an interest in the case. Such endorsements are “rare,” says an executive-branch source with direct knowledge of the matter. “The precedent of releasing heroin pushers is not something that cautious correc- tions bureaucrats usually push, and they did it in writing, for God’s sakes.” Hadden told me-that his position was based solely on the merits of the case, but he felt compelled to add, “During my tenure as warden, I rarely have been asked to provide a recommendation for
sen, the assistant U.S. attorney who pros- ecuted Adam. “This move by President Bush as he was on the verge of leaving office strikes me as exceedingly peculiar, given his strong rhetoric regarding his efforts to fight crime in general and drugs in particular. There must be something more at play here than is readily apparent. ”
Another law-enforcement source spec- ulated in the Charlotte Observer in March of 1993 that “the Drug Enforcement Ad- ministration or the CIA wanted some- thing from Pakistan — and what they
Adam’s hometown into a violent and law- less metropolis, one of the most danger- ous cities on the planet. In the spring of 1985, Adam, who said he was learning how to make gold jewelry from a friend who owned a jewelry shop, decided to vis- it his sister Roshan Parekh, a resident of Charlotte, N.C. It was his third trip to the United States in seven
Tt was also his last. Adam's misfortune began on April 30, 1985, when U.S. Customs mail specialist Barton Flax,
working at JFK International Airport, in
executive clemency.”
Is it a citizen’s right to know why the president released a con- victed heroin supplier? The Justice Department doesn’t think so. It still refuses to release many pages of material that would explain the decision, citing “intra- and interagency confiden- tial deliberative communications pertaining to agency and presi- dential decision making.”
Given the silence, tales of polit- ical shenanigans are a natural. After all, this is George Bush, the first director of the Central In- telligence Agency to become pres- ident, a devout fan of covert action, a key player in the Iran- Contra and Iraqgate imbroglios. And this is Pakistan, one of the world’s largest producers and exporters of refined heroin. A 1992 report commissioned by the CLA quotes one source as estimating
the Pakistani share of the world’s
Executive Grant of Clemency
TO Aul, TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SUALL COME, GREETING:
Aslan
st sap:
followed by three years’ special paroles and WHEREAS the said Aslas until May sixth, 19957 and
WHEREAS It has been made to appear that the ends of justice do not require that the eaid Asian P, Adam serve the aforesaid seatence in Tes entirety or remain incarcerated until becoaing eligible for parole:
THEREFORE, NE IT KNOWN, that I, George Bush, President of
penal institution until he is otherwise ©
IN TESTIMONY WHEREOF I have hereunto signed the seal of the Department of Justice to be affixed.
shcacscn se ob saessh ascia wast 68 (Gas td aoe mes te ds mises nave aes ia asecpasaoon se coer osleaaletaeos the two tundred an seventeenth ne Sy fStomees
WHEREAS P. Adam was convicted in the United states District court for the Western District of North Carolioa oo an indictaent (
i) charging violation of Section 2, Title 18, and Gectiozs x '952(a), 960(b) (1) (A), 963, and 843(b), Titie 21, United “ole, and on August fourteenth, 1995, was sentenced to $5 years’
P. Adam commenced service of the sentence on August fourteenth, 1905, and will not become eligible for parole
jased in accordance with law.
my name and caused
New York, discovered 506 grams of 72 percent pure heroin in a tubular package addressed to “Mr. John, P.O. Box 668086” in Charlotte. The DEA was noti- fied. Authorities sent the package on and staked out the Charlotte post office. On May 7, Adam walked into the sting, removed his tube from his post-office box and was heading away when the nares moved in and arrested him. Adam had been in the United States less than a month. He told the police that he had no idea what was in the package, that he was a jeweler and thought this was a jewelry catalog.
The cops told him to tell it to the judge, who in this case was Robert D. Potter, the man who sentenced evangelist Jim Bakker to 45 years. A profile in the Char- lotte Observer described Potter as “a gentleman who dispenses jus- tice with a heavy hand — especial-
narcotics trade at about $120 bil- lion a year. The intelligence study noted that “heroin is becoming the lifeblood of Pakistan’s econo- my and political system. Those who control the production and international transport of heroin are using their resources to pur- chase protection, gain access to the highest political circles in the country and to acquire a substan- tial share in the banks and industries sold to private investors. . .. Narcotics money now fuels the political system.”
Evidence has emerged over the past few years that suggests a connection between Pakistan’s narcotics barons and
“the funding of the nation’s renegade
nuclear-weapons program. “The fact that heroin dealers can have a tremen- dous amount of influence on a corrupt government with nuclear weapons is very, very disturbing,” notes Jack Blum, a for- mer investigator for the Senate foreign- relations committee and an expert on the international drug trade. “Bush’s pardon sent the wrong signal to the wrong peo- ple at the wrong time.”
Even the prosecutors in the Adam case don’t have a clue about why he got off. “It is certainly mysterious,” says Ken Andre-
ADAM’S COMMUTATION: A KINDER, GENTLER DRUG WAR?
Se OC eg ll Tales of political shenani- gans are natural. After all, this is George Bush, a for- mer director of the CIA.
wanted will never see the light of day.”
Who is Aslam P. Adam? The Justice Department has refused to release a pho- tograph of him, but prison records say that he was born Nov. 19, 1960, in Kara- chi, where he lived most of his life. He stands 5 foot 5 inches, weighs 125 pounds and has brown eyes, black hair and a scar over his right eyebrow. Adam is the youngest son in a middle-class family. His father owned the Sind Flour Mills, the largest in town, and his mother’s uncle had an interest in a large tea plant. Adam told his jailers that he completed high school and worked six years for his brother, who ran an auto dealership. His pay was between $35 and $40 a month — a pittance compared with the cash being tossed around by members of the drug mafia who, during the 1980s, turned
ly to drug offenders.” His average sentence in drug cases was 10.6 years, twice the national average, according to federal statistics un- earthed by the paper. Potter lis- tened to Adam's plea and on Aug, 14, 1985, gave him 55 years. (Potter refuses all comment on the Adam case today but told the Observer last year that “I didn’t know any- thing about [the commutation] until I saw it in the papet.”)
Adam began his appeal almost imme- diately. He pursued several different tracks: First his lawyers argued that the evidence was insufficient to convict, but his appeal was turned down in April 1986. Then Adam contacted the DEA and told them that yes, he was a willing smug- gler who was promised $25,000, half of which he would get from a “Mr. Farooq” in New York for delivering the heroin. He said he withheld the identity of his Pakistani connection out of fear for his parents’ safety back home.
His team marched back to court, ask- ing Judge Potter for a sentence reduc- tion, claiming he had given up the name of his connection. But on Feb. 6, 1987, Judge Potter — after conferring with the DEA — ruled that Adam's [Cont. on 96]
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The show that will not grant Phair entrance, let alone backstage privileges, is not Woodstock ’94, nor is it Pavement, whose Crooked Rain, Crooked Rain Phair, 27, often jogs to. It’s not even the Rolling Stones. No, it’s slightly more alternative: It’s Coral Reef Dreaming, the nature movie playing at Chicago’s Shedd Aquarium. She strains to look past the guard’s Refrigerator Perry-size shoulders and tries another let’s-all-be-adults-about-this grin. The fact that Phair’s normally crackerjack oratory powers are a bit dim doesn’t help matters — earlier, she and her companion got baked, high-school style, in the parking lot. “All right then,” she tells the guard haughti- ly as she spins on her heel. “We'll look at the fish.”
We shamble over to the Animals of Warm Fresh Waters and commence two hours of pot-addled fish gazing. Scintillating dialogue ensues along the lines of “Look. Look at that one. It has a wart on its nose. Ha.” And “Check this little guy out. See? He’s smiling. See?” We lose steam near Animals of the Indo-Pacific and head back to the parking lot. She sees a look of doubt pass over her visitor’s face as she reaches for the keys. “I’m fine,” she says with a soothing tone in her voice. “Just get in the car.”
Phair pulls out of the lot... and smack into six lanes of traffic barreling head-on toward her blue Toyota Corolla. Isn’t it fun- ny how life works out? I’m going to die here in this car with Liz Phair. She seems like a nice enough person. There are certainly worse ways to go. “Fuck! Fuck!” yells Phair as she throws the car in reverse and stomps on the gas. We shoot back into the parking lot and gulp a few deep breaths.
“Usually I’m a great driver.” She grins shakily. “No, Tm serious.”
1 OR ELIZABETH CLARK PHAIR, THE PAST YEAR }) has been a similar rush of adrenalin. Seemingly appearing out of nowhere, the then 26-year-old bestowed Exile in Guyville — the demos for which were recorded on a four-track in her Chicago bedroom — upon a been- there-done-that world in 1993, which caused an instant
In her spare time, Associate Editor JANCEE DUNN rites Random Notes for ROLLING STONE.
LIZ PHADK
IS DOING HER DAMNEDEST TO GET PAST THE SECURITY GUARD. “PLEEEEASE?” AS A PARTICULARLY SIMIAN MAN BLOCKS HER WAY. “WHAT’S THE BIG DEAL, HMM?” SHE BATS HER EYES AT HIM, GIVING HIM THE FULL-ON PHATR CHARM, BUT THE GUARD, MEATY ARMS CROSSED OVER HIS BARREL CHEST, IS UNMOVED. “SORKY, MISS,” HE SAYS A TAD TOO HAPPILY. “THE SHOW’S ALREADY STARTED. CAN’T LET YOU IN.”
bers . SHE OFTEN
PROBABLE
SHE WHEEDLES
furor, selling more than 200,000 copies, phenomenal for an indie-label debut. It’s debatable as to what element of Guyille received the most attention. Was it the fact that it was one woman’s 18-song answer to rock’s Holy Grail, the Rolling Stones’ Exile on Main Street? Perhaps it was that the word guyville, lifted from a song by her pals Urge Overkill, was a retort to the sometimes stifling Chicago indie-music scene?
Could be. But likely it’s that Phair’s lyrics were, to put it mildly, not for the timid. Lyrics that gave new mean- ing to the question “Can I be frank for a moment?” Lyrics that brought forth a collective ooh-weee from a tit- illated rock press, which seized upon her generous use of the word fuck and phrases like “I’m a real cunt in spring/You can rent me by the hour” and the oft-repeated “I want to be your blow-job queen.” Heady stuff for a girl hailing from a wealthy Chicago suburb.
Ne > eS
PUNCTUATES HER
Whatever the reason, indie-rock gurus buried her under a landslide of praise (New York's astute if overly analytical Village Voice named Exile Album of the Year for 1993, the first time a woman had captured that honor since Joni Mitchell reigned in 1974, when Ford was in the White House), which means that all eyes — no pressure here! — are eagerly cast upon Act 2, Whip-Smart: As it turns out, the new album is a stunner — and, dare we say, better than the first — a perfect progression from Guyville, carrying over all of the DIY feel of her first offering but with greater accessibility and tighter arrangements. “The first album is for Your People,” says Phair. "The second is for the People; the third is for Everybody. Your People hate your second album because it isn’t for them, but you have to attract the attention of the People, who will get a sound, get an idea, digest and spit it out. And the next time you can get revolted by that and go back to the orig- inal Your People mentality, which is more intimate.” On Whip-Smart, Phair once again unflinchingly
TALKS SWIFTLY AND ARTICULATELY
examines the rocky terrain of romantic relationships, but on this go-round, a notable thread snakes through- out the lyrics: gender reversal, a subject that has been on Phair’s mind as a result of being in a serious rela- tionship for more than a year. As for the album's sound, Phair’s guitarist, Casey Rice, says it’s “more rocking. It sounds more like a band record than a studio record.” Bass player LeRoy Bach agrees. “The new album is a lot better than the first. Better songs, less what would be rambling, introspective, self-indulgent things.”
And again, Phair has complete control of the project, from cover art (“It’s a Russian constructivist propaganda poster”) to production (assisted by her drummer, Brad Wood) to the video for the frothy guitar pop of the album’s first single, “Super Nova,” a jubilant salute to a lover's prowess. Phair will be sitting in the director's chair.
Which brings us, on this sun-dappled day, to the Bank, home of Urge Overkill’s Blackie Onassis and general headquarters of the band. The Bank, a gutted structure in the slightly seedy Chicago neighborhood of Humboldt Park, is a decadent, cavernous place — very Vincent Price. It’s a custom-made setting for the video shoot, which is about Phair’s current obsession, the supernatural.
A propman lugs in a stuffed owl, which blends in seamlessly with the surroundings. The director is simul- taneously applying makeup to herself and issuing direc- tions. “The lamp needs to flutter more,” she tells a techie. “LeRoy,” she tells her bassist and video star, “as it flutters, you look at it like “What the fuck?’ ” Phair, clearly in her element, is enjoying herself immensely.
‘Tm just nuts about ghost stories right now,” Phair says on a break. “Maybe because entering the rock world kind of bashed a lot of pop-culture illusions I had. It was the last bastion of mystique for me as a kid.” Up close, Phair is petite — your grandmother would call her a slip of a girl — with enormous blue-green eyes and clean, tawny skin. Contrary to her lyrics (and her shiny pink dress), her sexual presence doesn’t reach out and grab you by the lapels; instead, she radiates a low-grade sexuality (or is it confidence? or both?). She laughs eas- ily and often and punctuates her speech with improbable phrases like “You retardo!” She talks swiftly, purpose- fully and articulately, with an easiness suggesting that this is a woman who views conversation as an art form.
ND SPEECH WITH IM-
PHRASES LIKE “YOU RETARDOS”
She is genuinely interested in what she has to say and is stimulated by the things that come out of her mouth.
Phair is also hyperobservant, prone to near-obsessive analysis. “I grew up in dialogue,” she says. “My family table always had discussions that ended up in verbal wars. Whenever the extended family came over, it was sort of a verbal power play. Iremember being a young girl at these tables with my dad and my male cousins and my uncle, who was very loud. I didn’t know any- thing, but I wanted to talk really loudly.” It’s easy to pic-
ture her theorizing at a coffeehouse, arguing late night | at a bar about politics, the male-female dynamic, art vs, |
commerce. Hell, about Astroturf vs. grass. “Let’s talk about Cher,” she announces at one point before launch- ing into a discourse that is as damned stimulating as it could possibly get about a woman who shills for Lori Davis Hair Care Products.
Phair’s analysis, however, extends to her own work. There is a calculated veneer to her dissection of her own
HAIR AND MAKEUP BY TRACY SONDERN FOR STREETERS USA INC.
44 - RottinGc STONE, OcToseEr 6, 1994
JEFF KRAVITZ
albums — so much so that at times they seem more like a college thesis than like music. Phair has denied that she manipulates the media, but her keen awareness of the music machine and her deconstructive tendencies point toa different conclusion: She is all too aware of her role. "You're there to be a salesperson, a model spokesper- son,” she says about the music biz. “It’s consumerism.” Phair has thrown herself into all things occult for this video. "Oh, man, I went to graveyards, haunted houses, I quizzed everyone I knew,” she says. “I’m real-
<a
touches on a strong fear of disfigurement that began in her early years. “Because my father’s a doctor, I’ve always known about the foibles of the body,” she says. “I had access to those medical textbooks.” Two images in par- ticular terrified Phair — before-and-after shots of a boy with leprosy. “In one picture he looked cute in a teen-age way, standing there, bored. Next to him was a picture of him a year and a half later, and he was a monster, a freak- ish thing. You could see his eyes in the first portrait, and to think those same eyes were there in the second portrait
“JULIA ROBERTS WAS TALL AND BOSSY AND FUN AT. CAMP. WE STOPPED SPEAKING BECAUSE SHE’D
ALWAYS CALL ME COL
ly into it, because the phenomenon itself is never any less interesting for the mind to play with than things like astrology or birth and death or mythology.” She says these interests are decidedly female. “I’m always reawakening and realizing I’m not a guy. What I real- ly like are things like intuition, freaky experiences, coincidences, fatalism.
"J believe in ghosts,” Phair says. “I used to think I was a witch when I was little. I had a lot of magic in my life when I was a kid. And I refuse to lose it, because it isn’t something that was just a game. It was how I knew my place in the universe.”
Pas UNIVERSE WAS FERTILE TERRITORY for a bright, inquisitive child. She was adopted at birth by a physician father (he’s chief of infectious diseases at Northwestern Hospital) and an art-instruc- tor mother (she teaches at the Art Institute of Chicago). Phair will not be embarking on a quest for her birth parents. “The only thing the adoption did was make me feel a little more liberated from my back- ground than most people,” she says shrugging. “I can invent my own legacy, because I don’t really have one.”
Phair was raised in the upper-middle-class suburb of Winnetka, Ill (Lest a visual picture need be painted: Remember the house where Ferris Bueller took his day off? That was in Winnetka.) It was a galaxy far, far away from the angst-ridden upbringing of your stereo- typical rock star. Phair’s parents were nurturing and supportive. “They loved me to death,” she reports. “Maybe because I’m adopted, they didn’t want to mold me. They encouraged me, they were interested in me. I always had a weird net of safety around me.”
Phair is seated at a picnic table outside the Lincoln Park Zoo. It’s late afternoon, and a balmy, animal- scented breeze lifts her hair. Pressed for dirty laundry, she says, “They've got a little bit of WASP, appear- ance-oriented, academic prejudices, stuff like that. In a way, it’s not a normal cross section of a family.” She has an older brother, also adopted. She went to summer camp with Julia Roberts (cited in Whip-Smart’s “Chopsticks”) when she was 13. “She was tall and bossy and fun. I always had tall, bossy friends.” Alas, the friend- ship waned. “We stopped speaking because she was always calling me collect, and it pissed me off. I'm like ‘What are you fucking calling me collect for? Your par- ents are rich enough.’ She only did it a few times, but she was enough of a power player. Tall, bossy friends get you in the best kind of trouble, though.”
In high school, Phair endured an awkward stage, but it passed. “I got my glasses and braces off and got my hair cut. Suddenly I was like ‘Hell, yeah! I can do this!’ ”
Transformation intrigues Phair — it’s a subject that also
aCT. IT PISSED ME OFF.”
a ee = : — it freaked me out.” Throughout college, Phair’s art projects consisted of charcoal drawings of diseased faces.
Phair’s original calling, in fact, was art. At Oberlin College, in Oberlin, Ohio, however, she walked into a | thriving band scene. Bands from there that went on to greatness (and near greatness) include Codeine, Bitch Magnet, Seam and Come. “Everyone had a band,” says Phair. “It was exactly like Chicago — in fact, a lot of them moved there. There was a lot of rock & roll spirit, but it | was an intense place. Neurotic overachievers who want to be hip.” It was there that she began writing songs.
Chris Brokaw, Come’s guitarist, first met Phair at Oberlin but grew close to her on a jaunt to San Francisco, where Phair had drifted after college.
“I was visiting a woman
she was rooming with,”
Brokaw says, “but I end-
ed up mostly sitting
around playing guitars
with Liz. I had been sort
of unaware that she
played or wrote songs.
Then she plays me these
amazing tracks. I think
one was called ‘Fuck or
Die, andone was Johnny & we a oJ Sunshine,’ which ended up on Exile in Guyrille.”
When Phair decided to head back to Chicago, Brokaw urged her to make him a tape. “A couple months later she sent me this tape of 14 songs that she had done on four track, then a month later, she sent me 14 more equally amazing songs.” The tapes, dubbed Girly Sound by Phair, began circulating on the East Coast underground tape scene. ‘I started telling people, Tve got this friend named Liz from Chicago, and she’s like the great new American songwriter,’ ” says Brokaw. “Everyone was like “Yeah, yeah.’ ”
Phair, who has been making up songs “since I was lit- tle,” will not release the tapes anytime soon. “I go in | there and rip stuff off — it’s like a library,” she says. | “There’s about 50 songs. A lot of it is juvenile clever- ness. There’s verses, there’s choruses, there’s subcho- ruses. It just goes on and on. There’s a certain naive sound, more breathy. It’s more me.” Nonetheless, the collection proved enough of a treasure trove to pique Matador Records’ interest, which nabbed her in the summer of 1992. Exile in Guyville was soon under way. In the studio with her drummer and co-producer
WINONA RYDER, PHAIR AND ROSANNA AROQUETTE IN SANTA MONICA, 1994
Wood, Phair let drop the idea of a female answer to Exile
on Main Street. “When she first brought it up, I was like
‘Oh, really? You mean you can’t get into that album like
I do? ” says Wood. “Because it is a real guy thing, Her
logic started to make sense.” The result wasn't so much a
song-by-song response to the Glimmer Twins’ he-man
posturing — it was more in the songs’ sequencing and the-
matic content. Phair and Wood's low-fi production was
entirely on purpose. “We didn’t want it to sound like a
retro record, and we didn’t want it to sound real 90s,” says
Wood. ‘I wanted it to sound really personal,
trademarked like the Stones record sounded,
so that as soon as yop-heard a note off it, you
said, That's the Rolling Stones.” |
Wood and Phair succeeded, aided, of
course, by Phair’s remarkable lyrics — an
intimate, conversational meld of longing,
sex, strength, power struggles, asshole guys
and humor — sung in a voice that isn’t
entirely different from Everywoman’s.
Beverly Sills she’s not, but that’s OK. Phair does nothing
the conventional way — she deliberately didn’t fall within
her given range, didn’t bother with traditional song struc-
tures (she has a legendary aversion to verse chorus verse)
and didn’t even attempt to play traditional guitar chords.
“She just comes up with goofy chords because she makes them up herself,” says Wood.
“People never talk about her guitar playing,” says |
Bach. “But she’s brilliant on guitar. The work that she |
puts into this shit is not discussed like someone else’s
/
work method might be discussed. She does a lot of nor- mal things that famous guy musicians do, but that’s not part of the Liz Phair conception.” E
The conception started forming in mid-1993 when Guyville was released. Critics were beside themselves (pic- ture the Chimp Gone Wild scene in 2001: A Space Odyssey and you'll get the idea), heaping her with accolades and comparisons to Polly Harvey, Chrissie Hynde and | Madonna. Rock scribes were less kind when Phair faced | an audience, something she had never done in her life. At early shows, she suffered from debilitating stage fright, which made her voice crack like a 13-year-old boy's. It didn’t help matters when famous faces started dotting the audi- ence at her shows. (God, I was so tongue-tied when Winona Ryder and Rosanna Arquette came to one show,” moans Phair. “I was a complete dweeb.”) Although she used to claim that she would never attend one of her own shows, she seems, lately, to be conquering her fears. “[actu- ally enjoy myself onstage now,” she says, although she hasn’t yet seen her tour schedule out of “total avoidance.”
What calmed Phair were the adoring faces, especial-
Rotiinc Stone, OcToseEr 6, 1994 - 45
ly those of women, in the audience. “It’s weird, though, when 12-year-old, cute, happening girls want to be intro- duced to me, because ing to me would be a coup,” she says as she walks toward her car. “The objectification of your person is very bizarre. You become the same thing as the right pair of shoes.” Still, droves of other women are die-hard fans, quaveringly asking for hugs backstage, whispering that she has saved their lives, mouthing every word to songs like “Fuck and Run” ("Whatever happened to a boyfriend/The kind of guy who tries to win you over?”) and “Flower,” with lyrics that would make Rick James blush. (“Every time I see your face/I get all wet between my legs.”)
A word here, if we may, about the flurry of attention Phair has received due to her strident focus on her naughty bits. She rightly maintains that her songs are directly reflective of conversations that most young women are having across this great land right now and that those chats are as frank, casual and often clinical as those of men. “It scares guys,” she says cheerfully. Tve had more male friends freak out.”
Phair has been accused of being a shockmeister, using sexual bluntness as an attention-getting device both in her lyrics and in her conversation. She’s cer- tainly not shy. “Women dissect,” she says. “About giv- ing blow jobs, for example — you talked to your friends like ‘What are you supposed to do? Where? How do you know if he’s going to come?” Then women will have really sexual names like ‘old purple dick’ or something.”
HE BLUEBERRY PANCAKES HAVE JUST
arrived at the Bongo Room, a favorite Wicker Park hangout with an earthy, crunchy feel. There is a problem: “The blueberries are on top of the pancakes,” Phair tells a waitress. “I want them in the pancakes. I eat here all the time. They have never been on the pancakes.” The offending flapjacks are promptly replaced.
The subject of sex comes up, as it is wont to do. Phair has been keenly aware of her sexuality since she was young. Her earliest erotic memories were trig- gered by the illustrations in Alice in Wonderland. “Can I confess something really gross?” she says. “Those men were slightly erotic to me. The skinny legs, the big noses. I don’t know.” She also got an unexplained charge out of “Darth Vader, big time. Until he had his head taken off.” Mr. Green Jeans (Captain Kanga- roo’s neighbor) also provoked a reaction. “He was such a peripheral character,” she says, analytically, waving a fork. “There was something about him. Kinda quiet, always doing something. He was the male, busy like Dad, but he had the time to come fuck you.”
Phair’s personal supernova is Jim Stas- kauskas, a film editor and her constant com- pafion of more than a year. The two met when he edited her first video, “Stratford-on- Guy.” Phair had a dual reaction to him: ‘Tm thinking, “Who is this dick?’ ” she says. “He had the whole editor, bigger-better-older- than-you thing going, But I also had an immediate physi- cal reaction to him. I don’t get those reactions anymore.” Staskauskas, a genial regular Joe with his girlfriend’s col- oring, took his time asking her out (“He played me like a goddamn fiddle”), but now the two are inseparable.
Phair, in fact, is primed and ready to get married. She may be part Marilyn Chambers, but she’s also part Sandra Dee. I'm up for it,” she says with gusto. “I don’t see marriage anymore as the end of my life. It’s not a step down, it’s a step over.” She shrugs. “It sounds excit- ing.” She has the scene — who knew? — fully envisioned, complete with dress and a small ceremony by the beach. Staskauskas is more cautious, having been married before and being the father of one 15-year-old son
a AS Ac
BIG TIME. ag
named Aidan. The three live together in an apartment in Wicker Park. “It’s weird for Aidan, and it’s weird for me,” Phair concedes. “But luckily, we get along.”
Phair’s relationship has had a measured effect on her writing. "The whole attitude of Whip-Smart is affected by him, affected by my new way of seeing myself,” she says as the Bongo Room’s proprietor stops by to say hello. “But I really couldn't say. I've never been able to write about people. In fact, I wrote some songs that were directly about him, and they didn’t make the album.” One tender love song “came out sounding like Don Ho. It was sup- posed to be the ultimate light-rock Carly-forever love song, and here I am making, like, ‘Tiny Bubbles.”
Surprisingly, Phair says she doesn’t often write about people she’s involved with, which begs the question: Wasn't one specific former relationship addressed on Exile in Guyville? Phair has been cagey about this in inter- views. Pulling an answer out of her recalls the Whitewater hearings. “I tend to write more about imaginary scenar- ios,” she says carefully. "Or scenarios that aren’t actualized but could have happened. In a way that’s my infidelity. Or I code them up, so that only the people that I want to hear them do. It’s like a little secret garden.” Meaning Guyville was not about one person? “It’s not that simple. T answer this a lot of different ways, because I don’t want it to be known one way.” She pauses and fiddles with her napkin. “That situation just naturally defused. It was nev- er real in some way. That’s why I could write a whole album about it.” It, meaning one person? “It just pulled out of focus, and my life changed. You can have person- al tragedy and not remember it very well in five years.” All righty. Meaning you had a personal tragedy with one per- son? “I did Guyville for myself, because I wanted him to know who I really was.” Phair 1, interviewer 0.
HAVE TO WARN YOU, I HAVE A RAT,” PHAIR
says calmly as she rounds a corner on two wheels of her car. So call an exterminator, her companion sug- gests helpfully. “It’s a pet,” she says. “It’s ly cute. Honestly. Yes, its teeth look like staple removers, but it’s in a cage. His name is Willard.” We're on our way to her house after breakfast. She blithely heads (honest to God) the wrong way down yet another one-way street. A vast collection of McDonald’s cups in the back seat shifts with the direction of the car.
As she bursts into the kitchen, the phone is already ringing. Aidan is home, but he is sleeping, teen style, at 2 o'clock in the afternoon. She checks in on Willard, who is also asleep, in what appears to be a three-level rat con-
’ x °c (Ter .
UNTIL I
do. The apartment is not particularly rock & roll — except for the bathroom reading: The Encyclopedia of the Occult. Instead, it’s a cozy domestic nest for Liz, Jim, Aidan and Willard. Phair settles into a couch. “Life got a lot more open-ended for me lately,” she says. “I thought that once you hit adulthood, you settled into your mold. It’s not really true. It’s almost a reincarnation. It makes me believe in reincarnation, because if you can shift as much as you can in a lifetime, I don’t see why you can’t shift as naturally after a lifetime.”
Phair says her lyrics in the new album’s title track are “kind of like the values that I recently reaccepted into my life. Whip smart is something that I respect in people. It implies education through trial, an atti-
iHILD SHE GOT AN UNE OUT OF MR. GREEN JEANS AND “DARTH VADER, AD H
tude I like. Exile in Guyville was a more sexual album. This'is the opposite, an emotionally based album that ended up being more sexual.”
To the point where Phair appropriated Staskauskas role by the end of the album. “I made a rock fairy tale,” she says. “A little myth journey — from meeting the guy, falling for him, getting him and not getting him, going through the disillusionment period, saying, ‘Fuck it, and leaving, coming back to it.” There is a real entrance and exit to the album, with each song rolling on to the next one. To wit: “Crater Lake” illustrates when “you think [the relationship is] done, but it isn’t really done.” The following song, “Alice Springs,” “is saying, I guess it will never work’ ”; the subsequent song, “May Queen,” “says, ‘Work? Who wants it?” Like, I got over and out. It’s a real encapsulated thing. It’s almost more representation- al, like Here are the songs that mark my journey,’ instead of ‘These are the songs I sang on my journey,’ which is more Guyville. So in a sense, it’s more removed.”
With this album thrusting her further into the pub- lic eye, Phair has been reflecting a lot on fame. “It’s been on my mind a lot, I must say,” she sighs, dis- tractedly flipping through a pile of mail. “There’s nothing special or magic about the pop star anymore. Everybody knows how it happens, everybody knows what toll it takes. The magic isn’t in the rise, the mag- ic is in the disintegration, like Kurt Cobain. We know how they got there, let’s see how they fuck up. This is my most harried subject, because I’m constantly chang- ing my mind about it.”
She considers her contemporaries to be women such as Polly Harvey, the Breeders, Juliana Hatfield — wom- en who have surpassed the conventional roles women are handed in rock. “Juliana’s a great song maker,” Phair says. “I think the personality she presents is what bugs people. I have the same problems. When all these women suddenly show up in the media, and we're having to grapple with the whole of women’s personalities instead of the half of objectification, and we’re actually taking that whole humanity and looking at the pretty face, the weird words, the unsettling activities — people come down way too hard. They judge harshly. And so do L But I totally respect her.”
The phone rings yet again. It’s a magazine, and Phair fires off a quick phone interview. “We should get out of here,” she says, eyeing the phone. ‘Tl drive you back.” Heading downtown, she is goaded into listing men’s fashion crimes. “Overalls on guys, man,” she groans, spotting an Oshkosh-clad schlub wolfing down a hot
PLAINED CHARGE
S HEAD TAKEN OFF.”
dog. “It would be like fucking the Pillsbury Doughboy.” We tool around another corner and spot another vic- tim of a sartorial crime. “Colored socks,” she says, shak- ing her head. “It’s such a nasty mess.” We pass a man unfortunate enough to be wearing a business suit at this particular moment. “Ugh. Shiny business shoes. Hate that.” We head downtown, where she gets the eye from a slick-looking male on the street. “I loathe coiffed hair on men,” she says, rolling her eyes. She pulls up in front of her inquisitor’s hotel. “Don’t you put in there that 'm a bad driver,” she calls over her shoulder as she takes off, singing to the radio. There is a moment of tension when she hits a crossroad. Then her car disappears down the street, traveling in the right direction. ]
46 + Rottinc Strong, OcrToser 6, 1994
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BY MIM UDOVITCH
HERE ARE SOME THINGS YOU Ry} ‘ CAN’T COVER UP WITH LIPSTICK é AND POWDER, AND ONE OF
THEM IS THAT IF THERE IS A : SUBJECT FEMALE MUSICIANS DO NOT WA NT TO DISCUSS, IT IS, PRECISELY, THEIR CON - DITION AS FEMALE nea TANS. SOME, LIKE ; L7, DISLIKE IT SO VERY, VERY MUCH THAT THEY DECLINE TO BE INTERVIEWED ON THE TOPIC AT ALL. JOTHERS, SUCH AS LUSCIOUS JAC KSON DRUMME Rh KATE SCHELLENBACH, ARE WILLING >» IBUT EQUIVOCAL. “SOMETIMES |rl’s se re LIKE YOU SHOULD , 3K SAND DON?T FORGET ‘ ;
if WRITE THAT WE’ RE tonranos, nin convox, soax sett (rnost Len) AN ALL-FEMALE BANDY ” SAYS SCHELLENBA CHL. 4, Hh GET A LOT OF QUESTIONS ABOUT THE W OM- 2 EN-IN-ROCK THING, WHATEVER THAT THING IS THAT EVERYONE ASKS ABOUT, AND PM TRY- ING TO THINK WHO THEYRE TALKING ABOUT. AND THE NTV?M THINKING 1S Kl pee zs AND IM
aoe “a 71 “a » ‘, ray
OLLING STONE, OCTOBER 6, 1994 - 49
ES; MICHAEL LAVINE/OUTLINE (FROM LEI
TLINE: LAUR:
=]
7 ——
like Tori Amos, feel that they write from the womb rather than the head. Others, like Me’Shell Ndegé- Ocello, wonder, “If you write from the womb, where do you put the pen exactly?” Some, like Schellenbach, Courtney Love, Sonic Youth’s Kim Gordon and Kat Bjelland of Babes in Toyland, were inspired by the anar- chic integration of punk; others, like Velvet Under- ground drummer Moe Tucker, Chrissie Hynde and Joan Jett, were raised in the less gender-categorical age of ’60s flat-out rock & roll. Still others, like the incom- parable Madonna, are simply unprecedented.
The fact of the matter is that there has always been an enormous female presence in popular music: lyrically, in the work of male artists, as any girl who grew up with the Springsteenian ideal of leaving ghosts in the eyes of all the boys she sent away can tell you; artistically, as girl groups
RotinG STONE Contributing Editor Mam Upovircu is glad no one ever asks her about being a woman writer.
1945 1950 1952 : | DINAN RUTH WASHINGTON BROWN
reigns as “(Mama) He the new Treats Your decade’s queen Daughter of the blues. Mean” a
lights a torch with the instant
standard
MAMA CASS ELLIOT (nee Ellen
Naomi Cohen).
Mamas and the
wh
BREADS
SUPREMES Pioneering all-
Five consecutive female band No. | singles in that plays its 1964 and 1965 own instuments
196. 1965 1966
50 - Rottine Stone, Ocroser 6, 1994
KLEENEX. IT?S A MARKETING PLOY; THE TREND OF WOMEN IN ROCK IS JUST A PIECE OF SHIT.” IN SHORT, THE MERE EXISTENCE OF THEIR OVARIES DOES NOT NECESSARILY UNITE THESE ARTISTS IN OTHER WAYS. SOME,
THINKING, ‘GOD, THERE WERE SO MANY MORE BANDS WHEN ILWAS GROWING UP.’ THERE WERE THE SLITS, THE RAIN- COATS, DELTA 5, THE MO-DETTES,
are coming up, and they're calling the shots — they're \ people and artists in their own right, and that’s very frightening because it affects everything,”
Herewith, 10 of today’s notable female artists take | back the talk.
ADDRKS THI
from the Supremes to Banana- rama could attest; and culturally, as muses from Anita Pallenberg to the GTO’s to Brit Ekland. Although there are currently more women with guitars, there have always been some of those, too, ever since the Duchess played guitar for Bo Diddley. Never- theless, in rock as in life, what is male continues to be perceived as known, normal and nat- ural, whereas what is female is taken to be a mystery in need of explication. In other words, to most of these female artists, to be classified as women in rock is not so much recognition as a cleverly disguised attempt to pre- vent them from ing for themselves as themselves. “Life has always been divided into what’s a man’s job and what’s a woman’s job,” says Madonna. “And rock music has always been a man’s world. And now women
1952 1995 1955 KITTY git WELLS
stands up for barflies every- where with “It Wasn’t God Who Made flower” (aka Honky Tonk “Work With Angels.” Me Henry’). WANDA JACKSON JANIS tours with JOPLIN Elvis Presley
breaks out.
ARETHA FRANKLIN
TU DI
earns the title invents the Lady Soul with minimal beat of “Respect” after punk rock with recording bland her drumming middle-of-the- on the Velvet road pop for Underground's six years. “Sister Ray.”
1967 1967 1968
ME’SHELL NDEGEOCELLO
year-old ex-cocktail wait- resses, divorcees and single parents. And if anyone else is interested, they’re wel- come to listen. BJELLAND: I remember reading “Midol rock” once, and it was kind of funny, but it’s also like “OK, just be- cause we're screaming, they think we're bitches, and we're on our periods 24-7, 30 days.”
GORDON: I would be interested, but nobody writes any real intellectual, semiotic overviews of it. I used to study — sort of — masculini- ty when I was writing articles about art. And when I started getting involved with music, I was in the audience, and I was drawn to the male gui- tarist. I was a voyeur in a way, just fascinated by the power of the sexuality. AndI have always thought if you wanted to find out about female sexuality in rock, you had to first look at male sexuality in rock.
TUCKER: Actually, ironically, things were more open 30 years ago.
AMOS: I don’t really feel labeled. I don’t respond to it — let’s put it that way. When you get a letter froma 14-year-old girl that says to you, “P'm coming to your show tonight, can I just come by and say hi, because I know that when I'm finished here, I know I have to go
1964
MARY WELLS pushes the Beatles out of the No. 1 spot with “My Guy.”
“Leader of SLICK the Pack,” the Singer of tearful plea of Jefferson Air-
16-year-old lead plane says, singer Mary “Good morn: i Weiss, still ing” to Wood- Both sides now: reverberates. stock Nation. “DIVORCE” Z ; and “Stand by Your Man” hit BUFFY No. 1 back to ST. MARTE back on the A protest country & singer and a western chart. Cree Indian
1969
AEL OCHS ARCHIVES. WANDA JACKSON MICHABL OCHS ARCHIVES. THA SHANGRITAS! MICHANL
|AEL OCHS ARCHIVES
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COURTNEY LOVE home to my stepfather. He molested me last night, he’s gonna molest me tonight.” When you read this stuff, you don’t think about labels anymore, you just think, “Get her backstage, and put on the kettle.”
SUGAR AND SPICE, ET CETERA MADONNA: No one talks about the sex lives of these rock stars with 20 groupies lined up to give them blow jobs after a show, and they have a wife and kids and a mistress in every town, but my sex life is absolutely the centerpiece of everything that’s ever written about me, and I probably have a lot less sex than other people — that’s the final irony of it all. Does anyone talk about the women that Prince has sex with, you know, his harem that he makes records with and then puts in
1969 1969 1971 a 4
PANNY by
become first all- female rock
band signed to a major label
(Warner Bros.).
al perfects the confessional singer/song-
writer stance on
her widely influ- ential album
MITCH
YOKO ONO unleashes her rock & roll pri- mal scream on the second side of Plastic Ono
THE GLO'S Girls Together Outrageously
L(
I9THS) 9
SAND TC!
T: “NO ONE WOULD ThL oLAY GUITAR. PD BE LIKE “WHY CAN YOU pol
prison somewhere, and you never hear from |
them again? I'm serious.
NDEGEOCELLO: To say that because you're a woman you are more sensitive is bullshit. Because I can be an asshole, I am an egomaniac. J£I dated a woman, I wouldn’t want her to work. I have my own misogyny.
BJELLAND: I don’t think about male- female, I think assholes/cool people or closed- minded/open-minded people.
GORDON: There aren’t any all-female bands in the mainstream, and maybe to go Top 40, you do have to be more like Heart. It’s just too extreme, contentwise. People really don’t want to hear women talking about their scars and stuff.
SCHELLENBACH: Being gay — it’s the same thing as being a woman musician: You'll always be tagged, and you are that and don’t want to deny it. But I would say it’s more of a challenge being a woman musician than being gay, so far. Yeah, we are four girls, but we don’t want to be models, whether you believe it or not. Some guy bands must enjoy getting dressed up, but I can’t see them telling Helmet
to wear a Gianni Versace miniskirt.
PROGRESS, NOT PERFECTION MADONNA: Maybe it’s easier for people now because they are more used to hearing about [female musicians], or maybe it’s because I have more powet, and when some- one has more power, they're more of a threat. Or maybe it’s because my titties are bigger. I fucking don’t know.
HYNDE: I’ve been resisting this idea of women in rock for a long time, and I’ve always been like “No, leave it out,” but I suppose... let’s face it, it is a phenomenon. Ino longer want to be the anti-feminist, because I love people, I’m not one of these animal people who doesn’t like people. It’s easy to love animals. It’s much harder to love people. And I like to rise to the challenge.
1971 1971 1971 LAUR DED) stands up for “Women’s Love Rights.”
CHER flouts good taste with her immor-
tal “Gypsys,
Tramps and Thieves”-"Half- Breed”-"Dark Lady” trilogy in 1971-74; divorces Sonny in 1974.
CAROLE KING The pianist’s Tapestry ushers in the platinum era, topping
y 2. ee
1, Drage
Ue hl AW "f Fi T 9 99 BJELLAND: I think the press is coming around in general after three or four years of all the girl bands say-_ |
ing, “Hey, shut the fuck up.” AND SPRAKING OF TT SCHELLENBACH: We've had some bad experi- | ences with female rock journalists, where the inter- views have been really, you know, “Your keyboardist | is a bimbo,” which is a really odd thing to say, espe- | cially to another woman. | AMOS: Look, no bullshit: The worst are the wom- en journalists, because they are much harder than any other women that I’ve ever run into in my life. If you don’t get into your heart place for 10 minutes, then you |
are cutting out a part of yourself. It’s about the balance of the head, the heart and the spirit and all that stuff. |
your ass against the wall right now? Of course I can. But we're talking about vulnerability here.
JETT: I’m not directing this, obviously, at you, but I just have to say it: It’s the media that always tries
to pigeonhole. |
LOVE: Excuse me, but the last three women on the | cover of RoLtING STONE have had their tits out. And I can practically see Winona Ryder’s nipples on her cover. |
|
HIGH Or A BILI \ALED, AND RO CARNS OF A MISSED MADONNA: I used to dance in front of my mirror to the Isley Brothers, to “Who's that lady, beautiful lady, sexy lady,” but I just assumed I was that sexy lady. Of course, I was desperate for that to be the truth.
SCHELLENBACH: The only song that comes to mind is Billy Joel: “She’s Only a Woman to Me” or
AMOS: Well, Zeppelin are my biggest influence. I wanted to give my virginity to Robert Plant when I
1972 1974 1975
Wt
\" QUATTRO
roars the No. 1 hic “I Am Woman’; later refers to God as “she” at the
crosses the glam- W Bi rock gender line. SHIMLEY BROWN confronts her husband’s girl- P friend on “Woman to
Wo SMITH
seizes the pos: |
LORETTA LYNN celebrates reproductive freedom with “The Pill.”
RoLiinG STONE,
Band’s Live Peace in Toronto.
LABELLE Patti LaBelle and her cosmic vocal trio invent glitter soul with the bilingual, seduc- tive entreaty of “Lady Marmalade.”
a
Ocroser 6, 1994
WEYMOUTIL plucks a funky bass with
Talking Heads.
HEART Ann and Nancy Wilson reel in “Barracuda.”
1977
the LP chart for 15 weeks.
é
e
SIOUXSIE SIOUX invents goth- rock style.
AY SPEX release the punk classic Germ Free Adolescents, featuring lead singer Poly Styrene.
CHAKA KHAN tops R&B chart with Ashford and Simpson’s “Tm Every Woman.”
DONNA SUMMER introduces rock to disco with Bad Girls.
THE RAINCOATS turn the tables
on “Lola.”
sibilities on her LP Horses.
Woman.”
CURISSIE The Pretenders kicks off New
Wave decade.
Blondie’s “Heart of Glass.”
|
1ME HOW TOP
And I can be very hard-ass. Do you think I can’t push iI;
“Always a Woman” or whatever it is. {He
EAD O'CONNOR:
=
was 10 years old. I was bleeding, babe, I was bleeding. When I would listen to their music, I would feel pas- sionate. I would get wet, and then it all dried up as I got older. It made me feel like a hot girl. “Black Dog.” Yummy. Put it on, throw that head back. Rrrrowwww. But my commitment is to being wet.
WHEN DO YOU FREL THE MOST WOMANLY®?
MADONNA: When I’m around a real man.
NDEGEOCELLO: Uh, I guess when I take a bath, a nice bubble bath. You know, you’re washing your
ody, it’s a sensual act.
SCHELLENBACH: Every time I start PMS-ing, and my breasts start killing me. It’s a kick in the ass con- stantly, or a kick in the breasts — like a reminder: You are a woman. Maybe it’s a drummer thing because you're always throwing yourself around.
BJELLAND: Right before my period, when nature makes you really aware of your breasts. Most of the time, I don’t think of myself as a woman. I mean, I don’t go around saying, “Oh, I can’t do this, and I just know it’s because you're oppressing me.” I think I can do whatever the fuck I put my mind to. Sorry.
Amos: When I'm playing.
TUCKER: I guess when I’m doing the damn dishes.
GORDON: Now that I'ma mother.
JETT: I don’t ever think of it like that. I always just feel human.
GORDON’S PERFUME: When wear it, I wear
Joy. But most perfumes give me a headache.
GIRLS TOGETHER OUTRAGEOUSLY, OK SISTENMOOD TS HARDER THAN YOU MIGHT THINK
MADONNA: Im forever finding myself in this position where I’m a fan of somebody’s, and I'm rooting for them, and I'm thinking that we're, like, in this sort of mutual agreement about life, and then I'll read something they wrote about me, and it'll be the biggest slap in the face. Much more so than some old fart writing about me and saying shit — I could care less about that, and I expect it. But it happens to me all the time, where I think I have a solidarity with somebody, and then they think I'm an idiot.
1980 1935! 193!
— STEVIE
OF
SCHELLENBACH: [I hate to say it’s coming from women, but it’s almost turning out that way, although we've also met so many cool women. But coming from women, it’s just that much more upsetting, because it’s like "My God, this is another woman who's putting you down!
AMOS: I run into women who can’t handle it as much as guys. It’s much more gutting from the women — it just is. Because I think there’s that sense of betray- al when you look at another woman going, “OK, hang ona minute, how can you not be supportive of healing?”
y
BUT LE 19 f ‘am \
MOE TUCKER
HYNDE: I have to admit I met this band in Cleve- land called the Vivians. I never heard them, but I could tell they could rock just by meeting them. They were out of their minds, and it was obvious they were a rock band. And they were real badass girls, and they said, “Chrissie, we wouldn’t have been in a band if it weren’t for you.” And I said, “Aw, bullshit, what the hell else would you have done?” And they all kind of stopped and looked at each other and said, “No, you're right, we would have.” But you know, I took it as a compliment.
LOVE: I wore this gown at a video shoot — like a
19382 198.4 1954
JOAN MADONNA
: GIN WOMEN IN ROCK
PACE IT, TPS) py
prom gown — and I got some tits in it. And there was like this whole PC contingent, this riot-grrrl contingent, that was there, and I was like "Oh, my God, one of these falsies is gonna pop out in front of one of these PC feminists.” TUCKER: In the mid-70s women’s songs were usu- ally pretty sappy. Like, oh, God, what was that horrible song that was No. 1 by Whitney Houston? Oh, God, give mea break. I haven’t listened to Hole or L7 or Babes in Toyland, and this is a bad thing to say, but from their pictures I assume they're not singing sappy songs.
4
TID
1G Pit
FOR A L
4 / 5 EK, » Ve, BJELLLAND’S PERFUME: Just oil stuff like frangipani. BOKN ROBERTA JOAN
HYNDE: And what about Joni? Why is everybody forgetting about Joni? Hell, she’s a fuckin’ excellent guitar player, excellent. I don’t know any guitar play- er, any of the real greats, who don’t rate Joni Mitchell up there with the best of them. And I hope to God you talk to her and encourage her to do some shows. Be- cause we want her. We want you, Joni. Get out there. Put down your paintbrush for five minutes, please. NDEGEOCELLO: It’s just I’m tired of being, like, betted against one another. Like a woman in rock, a wom- an in music — I mean, Joni Mitchell is a hell of a guitar player, but she’s not known for that, it’s her sensitivity. AMOS: Joni Mitchell. How great was she? What a great musician, and, you know, Zeppelin, all those guys listened to her. Jimmy Page told me. What an influence, what a musical genius she is. LOVE’S PERFUME: Fracas.
ANDERSON
CHILD'S PLAY, WITHOUT CHUCKY
NDEGEOCELLO: I was 15 when I started playing bass guitar — a friend of my brother's left it over at the house. I started fiddling with it, and it was love at first sight. Music was like “I walk, I talk, I breathe, I play music.” And I don’t talk very much. I just would hang in [Cont. on 81]
1934 1935 1956
BANGLES
MOE TUCKER; RUTH LEITMAN. CYNDI LAUPER: JOHN BELLISSIMO/LGI. MADONNA: LGL KATE BUSH: LGI. SUZANNE VEGA: ANDREW SOUTHMAN/ONYX. SINI
LGI. NENEH CHERRY: OUTLINE. KIM GORDON: LAURA LEVINE/VISAGES. COURTNEY LOVE AND HOLE: KAREN MOSKOWITZ/RETNA
BENATAT Hits the FM airwaves with her best spandex shots.
Bb 22'S emerge with beehive hairdos and sexual de- mocracy intact.
SUZANNE VEGA recalls Joni Mitchell with her “Luka.”
NICKS stakes out her turf with “Edge of Seventeen (White Winged Dove).”
THE GO- GO'S “Our Lips Are Sealed” rede- fines the girl- group sound.
asserts her right
to be confused.
ARMATRADING
updates the singer/ songwriter tradition with her Walk
Under Ladders LP. JOAN JEET “I Love Rock & QUEEN LATIFAH throws down
All Hail the Queen.
NENEH CHERRY adopts a “Buffalo
TRACY CHAPMAN echoes Joan Armatrading
on “Fast Car.”
CYNDI LAUPER ushers in the rock-video age with “Girls Just Wanna Have Fun.”
INDIGO GIRLS mix folk rock, feminism and
New Age-isms.
SHONEN KNIFE reinvent the wheel.
1939
writhes in wed-
ding dress while lip-syncing
“Like a Virgin” on the first
BABES IN TOYLAND riot-grrrl band signs with Warner Bros. BREEDERS begin to mul- tiply with Pod.
1990
Tt Kn lives to inquire “What's Love
Got to Do
With It?”
KIM GORDON shouts down PE’s Chuck D on “Kool Thing,” from Sonic Youth’s
‘etme
1990
hustle onto the charts with their timeless “Walk Like an KATE Egyptian.” BUSH “Running Up That Hill”
SALT! N= PRPA Hip-hop wom- en talk it like they walk it on “Push It.”
ALISON MOYET perfects the British pop-soul sound with her “Love Resurrection.”
LZ LA. grunge group masters dumb-guy rock. Drops Bricks Are Heavy.
1992
Rotiine Stone, Ocroser 6, 1994 -
AND
LOVE HOLE
33
the commitments
Zinman: Gorecki, Jethro Tull: Thick As A Dinosaur Jr.: Where You The Partridge Family: Porno For Pyros
Symphony No. 3 Brick (Chrysalis) 01023 Been (Warner Bros./Sire) Greatest Hits (Warner Bros.) 01429 # (Nonesuch) 00110 The Cure: Disintegration 91326 (Arista) 01331 Blues Traveler: Zhané: (Fiction/Elektra) 01109 Lee Ritenour: Wes Bound The Best Of Joe Cocker Save His Soul aorta dah:Nay Ugly Kid Joe: (GRP) 01327 (Capitol) 01338 (A&M) 01433 + ny America's Least Wanted P.M. Dawn: The Bliss Garth Brooks: The Chase (Mercury) 01204 # Album...? (Island) 01353 (Uberty) 00147 Phish: Rift Red Hot Chill Peppers: — (Elektra) 01238, What Hits!? i ovens Tibet Nine Inch Nails: Broken (Chrysalis) (Interscope) 00145 # 01245 Nell Young: Harvest Ri : Moon (Reprise) 00208 Roxy Musics Slouxsle And The (Warmer Bros.) Banshees: Twice Upon A 01246 ime-The Singles The Fixx: (Geffen) 00273 One Thing Erasure: Pop! The First Leads To 20 Hits (Reprise) 00328 Another- John Lennon & Yoko Greatest Hits Ono: Double Fantasy (MCA) 01250 (Capitol) 00333 John Michael Silk: Lose Control Montgomery: \ I (Keia/Elektra) 00353 ae sane v\ Aladdin/Sdtrk, enti) (Walt Disney) 00411 Duran Duran
Sex Pistols: The Great Rock ‘N' Roll Swindle he C (Warner Bros.) 00421# (Atiar Genesis: We Can't
Dance (Atlantic) 00423 Johnny Cash: Classic
Cash (Mercury) 00595 (Atlantic) 0: Wreckx-N-Effect:
Hard Or Smooth
(MCA) 00627 #
dackyl (Geffen) 00654 # R.E.M.: Eponymous (.R.S./MCA) 00701
Club MTV-
Party To Go, Vol. 1 (Tommy Boy) 00754 Brooks & Dunn:
Hard Workin’ Man (Arista) 00857
Bon Jovi: Keep The Faith (Mercury) 00868 Madonna: Erotica (Sire/Maverick) 00879 # Elvis Costello with
The Brodsky Quartet: The Juliet Letters (Warner Bros.) 00885
THE ESSENTIAL WHO A.)
(Capito) 01268
Dwight Yoakam: This Time (Reprise) 01360 Frank Sinatra: Sinatra And Sextet: Live In Paris (Reprise) 01407
Black 47: Fire Of Freedom (SBK) 01418
Michael Franks:
Dragonfly Summer (Reprise) 01427
The Who was formed in 1964 when school mates Pete Townshend and John Entwistle joined with singer Roger Daltry and drummer Keith Moon. From their first gigs in Britian's pubs, The Who roused audiences with high energy performances. By 1965, The Who had a string of popular singles that helped to establish Pete Townshend as a master guitarist and songwriter. The band made true rock 'n’ roll history with “Tomm
concert stage.
The Eagles: The Who: The Who: Tommy Hotel California Quadrophenia (MCA) 03223 (Asylum) 30030 (MCA) 11107 = The Who: Who's Next The Eagles: Desperado The Who: Live At (MCA) 70350 (Asya) 00644 Leeds (MCA) 01253 The Who: Who's Better, The Eagles: The Who: Who Are Who's Best The Long Run
You (MCA) 01255
(MCA) 00790
(Elektra/Asylum) 00649 Ee
Don Henley, Glenn Frey, Randy Meisner, and Bernie Leadon first came together in 1971 as part of Linda Rondstadt's backing group. Their 1972 hits, Take /t Easy and Witchy Woman, gave the first taste of their polished brand of country-rock. They soon followed up with such top-charting albums as “Desperado,” and the multi-platinum classic “Hotel California.” 1994 marked their triumphant return to the
Belly: Star (Reprise/Sire) 01449
Isaac Hayes: Greatest Hit Singles (Stax) 01472
Green Jelly: Cereal Killer/Sdtrk. (Zoo) 01499 #
Patty Loveless: Greatest Hits (MCA) 01514
Aaron Neville: The Grand Tour (A&M) 01519
Little Texas: Big Time (Warmer Bros.) 01567
Guns N’Roses: The Spaghetti Incident (Geffen) 01570 #
The Beavis & Butt-Head Experience (Geffen) 01571 #
At Worst...
The Best Of Culture Club
And Boy George
(SBK) 01575
Blackhawk
(Arista) 01588
The Juliana Hatfield
Three: Become
What You Are
(Atlantic) 01599
Urge Overkill: Saturation
(Geffen) 01600
Nanci Griffith: The MCA
Years- A Retrospective (MCA) 01606
The Eagles: Grts. Hits 1971-1975 (Asylum ) 23481 The Eagles: Gris. Hits, Vol. 2 (Asylum) 63318 The Eagles: Live (Elektra/Asylum) 00646 =
Shai: Right Back At Cha (Remix) (Gasoline Alley/ MCA) 01610 Mary J. Blige: s What's The 411? Remix (Uptown) 01612 Jodeci: Diary Of A Mad Band (Uptown) 01615 # Lemonheads: Come On Feel The Lemonheads (Atlantic) 01621 Al Jarreau: Tenderness (Reprise) 01650 The London Philharmonic Orchestra: Symphonic Music Of Yes (RCA Victor) 01685 The Afghan Whigs: Gentlemen (Elektra) 01693 * Kate Bush: Hounds Of Love (EMI) 01779 Bette Midler: “The Rose”-Soundtrack (Atlantic) 01798 Patti Smith: Horses (Arista) 01827 Buffalo Tom: Big Red Letter Day (East West) 01837 The Mighty Mighty Bosstones: Ska-Core The Devil And More (Mercury) 01842 The B-52’s: Whammy! (Warmer Bros.) 01853 Pat Benatar: Live From Earth (Chrysalis) 01857 David Bowie: Scary Monsters (Rykodisc) 01872 The Cars: Candy-O (Elektra) 01885 The Church: Starfish (Arista) 01891 The Best Of Deep Purple In The ‘80's: Knocking At Your Back Door (Mercury) 01906 Depeche Mode: Black Celebration (Sire) 01910
Dio: Sacred Heart (Warner Bros.) 01915 Dokken: Back For The Attack (Elektra) 01918
Foreigner: Double Vision (Atlantic) 01938
Generation X: Perfect Hits (1975-1981) (Chrysalis) 01950 Golden Earring:
The Continuing Story Of Radar Love
(MCA) 01952
Jane’s Addiction: Nothing's Shocking (Warner Bros.) 01967 # Little Feat: Dixie Chicken (Warner Bros.) 01990 Little Feat: Sailin’ Shoes (Warner Bros.) 01998 Don McLean: American Pie (EMI) 02005
The Steve Miller Band: The Joker
(Capitol) 02019 Genesis: Live:
The Way We Walk, Vol.2 (Atlantic) 02034
Public Image Ltd.: The Greatest Hits, So Far (Virgin) 02041
Rainbow: Richie Blackmore's Rainbow (Polydor) 02043 Ramones: All The Stuff (And More), Vol. | (Sire) 02045
The Replacements:
Pleased To Meet at
Me (Sire)
02053 x; Sr Rush: Grace Under Pressure (Mercury) 02057 Squeeze: Argybargy (A&M) 02070 The Very Best Of Talk Talk: Natural History (EMI) 02076
Yellowjackets:
Neal McCoy: Run For Your Life
John Michael Montgomery: Mad About Mozart No Doubt About It
Ten Years After: Kickin’ It Up (DG) 02492
A Space In Time
(Chrysalis) 02082 (Atlantic) 02395, (Atlantic Nashville) 02402 Shonen Knife: (GRP) 02524
Stevie Nicks: Bella Hank Williams, Jr.: Rock Animals Elvis Costello:
Donna (Modern) 02148 14 Greatest Hits (Virgin) 02520 Brutal Youth
Crowded House: (Mercury) 02431 (WarnerBros.) 02530
Together Alone Motley Criie ;
(Capitol) 02151 (Elektra) 02532 Richard Marx;
John Anderson: Greatest Hits, Vol. 1
Paid Vacation (Capitol) 02537
(Warner Bros.) “One Life To
02159 Ive":
Wee Jackson: ‘Tne eee Of ight And Day
wna o2ar2 Casual: Poa
Joy Division: Itself ;
Substance
(Qwest) 02222 si bias
Steel Pulse: (Radioactive/
Reggae Greats MCA) 02564 #
(Mango) 02278 WITH MORE TO BUY, James: Laid
The Best Of ;
The eae . j (Mercury) 02565
(MCA) 02301 ; ee
Big Star: #1 x
Record/Radio City (Stax) 02334
ZZ Top: Antenna (RCA) 02391
ALAN Jackson wu AM
Big Head Todd & The Monsters: Sister Sweetly (GianvReprise) 02337
THE ESSENTIAL GRATEFUL DEAD
The roots of the Grateful Dead lay in the 1960 meeting of Robert Hur Garcia. After Phil Lesh, keyboardist Ron “Pigpen” McKernan and drummer Bill Kreutzmann, Garcia named the group Grateful Dead after a song about a pauper's funeral. The band soon became the premiere psychedelic group of the 60's Haight-Ashbury scene.
The Piano/Sdtrk. (Virgin) 02462 Yanni: Live At The Acropolis (Private Music) 02477 Tori Amos: Under The Pink (Atlantic) 02480 David Benoit/Russ Freeman: The Benoit/ Freeman Project
(later the Dead's lyricist) and Jerry ing with guitarist Bob Weir, bassist
Best Of The Grateful Dead: Skeletons
Grateful Dead: In The Dark
From The Closet (Arista) 01642 (GRP) 02481 Steely Dan: Aja Steely Dan: (Warner Bros.) 83892 Grateful Dead (MCA) 00409 The Royal Scam 7 ead: (MCA) 00408 Srotstul Dead: American Beauty Steely Dan: ( ) errapin Station (Warner Bros.) 34539 Pretzel Logic Steely Dan: (Arista) 01639 ! (MCA) 00404 Gaucho Grateful Dead: Grateful Dead: (MCA) 00410
Steely Dan:
Shakedown Street Katy Lied
(Arista) 01640
Europe ‘72 (Wamer Bros.) 53931
The brainchild of Donald Fagen and Walter Becker, fused rock and jazz into some of the most innovative albums of the ‘70s. The “band” basically consisted of the duo backed by various session players and guest artists, including Michael McDonald, David Sanborn, and Mark Knopfler. Their 1971 debut “Can't Buy A Thrill” spawned the Top 20 hits Do It Again and Reeling In The Years, setting the pace for a string of top- charting singles. In 1980 Steely Dan disbanded, reuniting in 1993.
Steely Dan: Gold (MCA) 74339
Opera's Greatest Moments (RCA Victor Red Seal) 02587
Grammy®’s Greatest Moments Vol.1 (Atlantic) 02594
Captain Beefheart: Trout Mask Replica (Reprise) 02648 The Cult: Love (Sire) 02651
John Hiatt:
Bring The Family (A&M) 02668
Husker Di: Warehouse- Songs And Stories (Warner Bros.) 02671 Love And Rockets: Earth Sun Moon
(RCA) 02678
The Replacements: Tim (Sire) 02689
The Smiths: The Queen Is Dead (Sire) 02692 Soundgarden:
Louder Than Love (A&M) 02698 *
Empire Brass: Royal Brass (Telarc) 02712 Enrico Caruso: Caruso In Love (RCA Victor Gold Seal) 02718
Phish: Hoist
2 (Elektra) 02724
Jawbox: For ‘\. Your Own Special Sweetheart (Atlantic) 02729
Philip Bailey (Zoo) 02731
Confederate Railroad: Notorious (Atlantic Nashville) 02730
A Date With The Smithereens (RCA) 02737
A Tribute To Miles (Qwest/Reprise) 02741
John Scofield & Pat Metheny: | Can See Your House From Here (Blue Note) 02744
Steely Dan successfully
the high prices
Black Sabbath: Master Of Reality (Warner Bros.) 01863
Billy Idol: Rebel Yell (Chrysalis) 01959
MCS:
Kick Out The Jams (Elektra) 02007 Genesis: Live:
The Way We Walk, Vol.1 (Atlantic) 02033
Paul Simon: Still Crazy After All These Years (Warner Bros.) 02065
T. Rex: Electric Warrior (Reprise) 02075
XTC: Waxworks-Some Singles 1977-1982 (Geffen) 02106
Velvet Underground & Nico (Polydor) 02155
Frank Zappa: Hot Rats (Rykodisc) 02306
Frank Zappa: Fillmore East- June 1971 (Rykodisc) 02307 Warren Zevon: Excitable Boy
(Elektra) 02311
TAD: Inhaler
(Giant) 02358
Ramones: Acid Eaters (Radioactive/MCA) 02378
Beastie Boys: Paul's Boutique (Capitol) 02471 #
W.A.S.P.: First
David Lee Roth: Your Filthy Little Mouth (Reprise) 02529
Syd Barrett: The Madcap
Laughs (Capitol) 02644
English Beat: What Is Beat? (I.R.S./A&M) 02661
Iggy Pop: The Idiot (Virgin) 02686 The Best Of The Village.
People (Casablanca) 02709
Gang Starr: Hard To Earn (Chrysalis) 02725 #
Maceo Parker: Southern Exposure (Novus) 02738
Rob Wasserman: Trios (MCA/GRP) 02751
The Charlatans: Up To Our Hips (Atlantic) 02997
Outkast: Southern- playalisticadillacmuzik (La Face) 03062 #
Elton John: Goodbye Yellow Brick Road (Polydor) 03076
Anthrax: Live- The Island Years (Island) 03159
Great White: Sail Away (Zoo) 03168
Violent Femmes: New Times (Elektra) 03280
Vince Gill: When Love Finds You (MCA) 03350
3rd Matinee: Meanwhile (Reprise) 03373
Cream: Disraell Gears (Polydor) 04898
Helmet: Betty (Interscope) 04910
Biohazard: State Of The World Address (Warner Bros.) 04933 #
Fabulous Thunderbirds: Essential (Chrysalis) 05657
Emerson, Lake & Palmer: Brain Salad Surgery (Victory) 05676
Paul Rodgers: Muddy Waters Blues- A Tribute To Muddy Waters (Victory) 05691
David Bowie:
The Rise And Fall Of Ziggy Stardust (Rykodisc) 10803
The Best Of Robert Palmer: Addictions (Island) 10819
Stevie Nicks: Street Angel (Modern) 11009
Jackson Browne: Running On Empty (Elektra) 11056 Aaliyah: Age Ain't Nothing But A Number (Jive) 14701
Dire Straits: Brothers In Arms (Warner Bros.) 14734 Fleetwood Mac: Rumours
(Warner Bros.) 24025.
Santana: Sacred Fire: Live In South America (Polydor) 24892
Too Short: Get In Where Ya Fit In (Jive) 25065 *
WITH
Kiss: Double Platinum (Casablanca) 25149 s
Traffic:
The Low Spark Of High Heeled Boys (Island) 25169
Styx: Paradise Theatre (A&M) 25243 Supertramp: Breakfast In America (A&M) 25246
Derek & The Dominos: Layla And Other Assorted Love Songs (Polydor) 25249
Jimi Hendrix Experience:
Electric Ladyland (MCA) 25440
Arrested Development: 3 Years, 5 Months And
2 Days In The Life Of... (Chrysalis) 25357
Air Supply: Greatest Hits (Arista) 34424
Allman Brothers Band: A Decade Of Hits 1969- 1979 (Polydor) 35031
The Best Of Carly Simon (Elektra) 43787 Pat Benatar: Best Shots (Chrysalis) 44319
MORE TO BUY,
Robin S: Show Me Love (Big Beat/Atlantic) 44552 Yes: Classic Yes (Atlantic) 50248
U2:
(Live At Red Rocks) (Island) 53598
Damn Yankees: Don’t Tread
(Warner Bros.) 53663
Sex Pistols: Never Mind The Bollocks Here's The Sex Pistols
(Warner Bros.) 54263 #
Naughty By Nature (Tommy Boy) 54559 + Prince And The
Revolution:
Purple Rain
(Warner Bros.)
60175 #
RuPaul:
The World (Tommy Boy) 63236
Van Morrison: Moondance (Warner Bros.) 64585
A Tribe Called Quest: Midnight Marauders (Jive) 73897 The
Commitments/ Sdtrk. (MCA) 74016
The Mamas & Papas: 16 Of Their Greatest Hits (MGA) 80183
Cy. Under A Blood Red Sky Zapp & Roger:
All The Greatest Hits (Reprise) 80232 Meat Loaf: Bat Out Of
Hell II: Back Into Hell (MCA) 83394
Supermodel! Of
John Mellencamp:
Human Wheels
(Mercury) 83522
The Cure: Show
(Elektra) 91646
Beastie Boys:
Check Your Head
(Capitol) 92473 #
Van Halen: Live:
Right Here, Right Now
(Warner Bros.) 01165 # @
Joe Jackson: Live 1980-
1986 (A&M) 02675
Paul Simon:
Concert In The Park
(Warner Bros.) 20724 «
The Velvet Underground:
Live MCMXCII
(Wamer Bros/Sire) 35126 =
Peter Frampton:
Frampton Comes Alive!
(A&M) 35180 «
Neil Young &
Crazy Horse: Weld
(Reprise) 63896 «
Van Morrison:
Tupelo Honey
(Warner Bros.) 00217
The Best Of The Georgia
Satellites : Let It Rock
(Elektra) 00880
Don Henley: The End
Of The Innocence
(Geffen ) 01064
Best Of Devo-
Greatest Hits
(Warner Bros.) 01248
Buddy Guy: Feels Like
Rain (Silvertone) 01264
Trisha Yearwood: The Song Remembers When (MCA) 01607 Jefferson Airplane:
Surrealistic Pillow
(RCA) 01785
Linda Ronstadt:
Heart Like A Wheel (Capitol) 01817
PJ Harvey: Rid Of Me
(Island) 73527
Shaquille O’Neal: Shaq
Diesel (Jive) 74293
Slaughter: The Wild Life
(Chrysalis) 84072
Dire Straits:
Alchemy (Live)
(Warner Bros.) 01916 «
Tears For Fears:
Elemental
(Mercury) 04380
NBA Jam Session
(MCA) 02096
Dei The Funkyhomosapien:
No Need For Alarm
(Elektra) 02355 +
DFC: Things In Tha
Hood (Atlantic) 03155 #
Foreigner: Classic Hits
Live (Atlantic) 35152
Tha Alkaholiks:
21 & Over
(RCA) 35376 +
Illegal: The Untold Truth (Rowdy Records) 35391 # Mc Lyte: Ain’t No Other (First Priority) 54325 +
Sammy Hagar: Unboxed (Geffen) 02745
The Best Of Chris LeDoux (Liberty) 02747
Suzy Bogguss: Greatest Hits (Liberty) 02748 Rhythm, Country & Blues (MCA) 02752
A Collection Of Alex Chilton: 19 Years
(Rhino) 02756
The Rodney Crowell Collection
(Warner Bros.) 02795
R.E.M.: Automatic For The People (Warner Bros.) 00121
Toni Braxton (La Face) 00420
Anthrax:
Sound Of White Noise (Elektra) 01517
US3:
Hand On The Torch (Blue Note) 02362 # Tom Petty &
The Heartbreakers: Greatest Hits
(MCA) 02390
Soundgarden: Superunknown (A&M) 02515
Beck: Mellow Gold (DGC) 02518 # Green Day: Dookie (Reprise) 02753 #
With Honors/Sdtrk. (Sire/Maverick) 03163 #
Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers: Hard Promises (MCA) 02811
The Best Of Emmylou Harris: Profile (Warner Bros.) 02832
Pavarotti:
My Heart's Delight (London) 02953
Dr. John: Television (MCA/GRP) 02993
The Rascals’ Greatest Hits: Time Peace (Atlantic) 00357
James Brown: 20 All- Time Greatest Hits (Polydor) 01342
Harry Nilsson: All-Time Greatest Hits (RCA) 01630
The Best Of Canned Heat (EMI) 01882
Best Of Dave Edmunds (Swan Song) 02192
Allman Brothers Band: Hell & High Water-The Best Of The Arista Years (Arista) 05781
Bryan Ferry/Roxy Music: Street Life - 20 Greatest Hits (Reprise) 10490 Guess Who: Greatest Hits (RCA) 34186
Bread: Anthology Of Bread (Elektra) 63386
Alice Cooper: Greatest Hits (Warner Bros.) 70296
Rod Stewart: The Mercury Anthology (Mercury) 01161
Smokey Robinson: Anthology (Motown) 02054 «
Diana Ross & The Supremes: Anthology (Motown) 02055 = Elvis Presley:
The Top Ten Hits (RCA) 43910 «
Primus:
Miscellaneous Debris (Interscope) 03010
Frank Sinatra: Duets (Capitol) 03039
Possum Dixon (Interscope) 03045
Pam Tillis: Sweetheart's Dance (Arista) 03050 Linda Davis: Shoot For The Moon (Arista) 03051 Pat Metheny: Zero Tolerance For Silence (DGC) 03052
Nine Inch Nails: The Downward Spiral (Interscope) 02767 $ Shery! Crow: Tuesday Night Music Club (A&M) 03061
Crystal Waters: Storyteller (Mercury) 03263
Meat Puppets: Too High To Die (London) 12069
Smashing Pumpkins: Slamese Dream (Virgin) 15586 Aerosmith: Get A Grip (Geffen) 20814 #
En Vogue: Runaway Love (East West America) 20919
Tool: Undertow (Zoo) 53661 #
Hole: Live Through This (DGC) 03053 #
Elton John: Madman Across The Water (Polydor) 03081
John Gorka: Out Of The Valley (High Street) 03091
Lorrle Morgan: War Paint (BNA) 03092
The Very Best Of Cream:
Strange Brew (Polydor) 00468
Best Of Dire Straits: Money For Nothing (Warner Bros. ) 00713
Fleetwood Mac: Greatest Hits (Warner Bros.) 00796
Buffalo Springfield: Retrospective (ATCO) 00844
The Best Of The
Alan Parsons Project (Arista) 00877
Lynyrd Skynyrd: Skynyrd's Innyrds (MCA) 01150 Creedence Clearwater Revival: Chronicle:
20 Greatest Hits (Fantasy) 01520
The Best Of Lou Reed: Walk On The Wild Side (RCA) 02270
Roy Orbison:
In Dreams-
The Greatest Hits (Virgin) 02888 Elton John: Greatest Hits (Polydor) 03077 Elton John: Greatest Hits: Volume Two (Polydor) 03078 Peter Gabriel: Shaking The Tree- 16 Golden Greats (Geffen) 11089 Styx: Classics
(14 Greatest Hits) (A&M) 14822
‘NOMINEES
John Berry
(Liberty) 03095 Blackgirl: Treat U Right (RCA) 03166
Repo Man/Sdtrk.
(MCA) 03169 #
Liz Phair: Exile In Guyville (Matador) 03191 $ Sausage: Riddles Are Abound Tonight (Interscope) 03208
Jimi Hendrix: Blues (MCA) 03240
Bjork: Debut (Elektra) 60021
R. Kelly: 12-Play (Jive) 83815 Nirvana: In Utero (Geffen) 90124 #
Dr. Dre: The Chronic (Interscope) 01241 # Salt-N-Pepa: Very Necessary (Next Plateau/London) 01595
Counting Crows: August
And Everything After (Geffen) 02409
Travis Tritt: Ten Feet
Tall And Bulletproof (Warner Bros.) 03244
Kathy Mattea: Walking Away A Winner (Mercury) 03253
Roy Hargrove Quintet With The Tenors Of Our Time (Verve) 03273
Paul Simon: Negotiations And
Love Songs 1971-86 (Warner Bros.) 20461
Eric Clapton: Timepieces-Greatest Hits (Polydor) 23385
James Taylor: Greatest Hits
(Reprise) 23790
The Best Of The
Beach Boys
(Capitol) 23946
The Steve Miller Band: Greatest Hits 1974-1978 (Capito! ) 33199
‘Steve Winwood: Chronicles (Island) 34501
Squeeze: Singles 45's & Under (A&M) 35208
The Best Of .38 Special: Flashback (A&M) 42864
David Bowie: Changesbowie (Rykodisc) 43693
The Best Of The Doobie Brothers (Warner Bros.) 43738 The Very Best Of The Righteous Bros.: Unchained Melody (Verve) 44658
Bob Marley: Legend (Island) 53521
Marvin Gaye:
15 Greatest Hits (Motown) 53534
The Cars: Greatest Hits (Elektra) 53702 Chicago: Greatest Hits 1982-1989
(Reprise) 63363
Frank Black: Teenager Of The Year (Elektra) 03276
David Sanborn: Hearsay
(Elektra) 03279
Stuttering John (Atlantic) 03287 #
The Remixes (RCA) 03301
Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds: Let Love In (Mute/Elektra) 03310
Snoop Doggy Dogg: Doggystyle (Interscope) 01692 #
Hammer:
The Funky Headhunter
(Giant) 02509
Beastie Boys: Ill Communication (Capitol) 24717 §
Jimi Hendrix; The Ultimate Experience (MCA) 01527
Parliament: Greatest Hits (The Bomb) (Casablanca) 54237
Jethro Tull: Original Masters (Chrysalis) 63846
Elvis Presley: The Number One Hits (RCA) 72190
The John Lennon Collection (Capitol) 73627
The Police: Every Breath You Take—The Singles (A&M) 73924
Bill Haley & The Comets: From The Original Master Tapes (MCA) 83879
Talking Heads: Popular Favorites 1976-1992/ Sand In The Vaseline (Wamer Bros/Sire) 01414 = Rush: Chronicles (Mercury) 09829
Chuck Berry: The Great 28 (Chess) 64137
The Groove Collective (Reprise) 03319
The Jazzhole (Bluemoon) 03329
Patti LaBelle: Gems (MCA) 03338
Tracy Byrd: No Ordinary
Man (MCA) 03339 Primal Scream:
Give Out But Don't Give Up
(Sire) 03361
Damion "Crazy Legs” Hall:
Straight To The Point (MCA) 03390
Beverly Hills Cop IIl/ Sdtrk. (MCA) 03396
From Bedrock/Sdtrk, (MCA) 03397
Warner Bros.) 03414
Lush: Split (Reprise/4AD) 04836
Bob Mintzer/Michael Brecker: Twin Tenors (Novus) 04839
The Best Of Woodstock (Atlantic) 04908
Marvin Gaye: What's Going On (Motown) 04913
BLACKstreet (Interscope) 04922
Boingo (Giant) 04934
Boney James: Backbone (Warner Bros.) 04935
Billy Dean: Men'll Be Boys (Liberty) 04937 Husker Di:
The Living End (Warner Bros.) 04940
Yes: Talk (Victory) 04949
Pet Shop Boys: Discography-
The Complete Singles Collection
(EMI) 05605 Soundgarden: Badmotorfinger
(A&M) 05637
Live: Mental Jewelry (Radioactive/MCA) 05651
The Flintstones: Music
David Byrne (Luaka Bop/
Carpenters: The Singles 1969-1973 (A&M) 04393
Pride & Glory (Geffen) 05659 Blur: Parklife (SBK) 05663 Dave Brubeck Quartet: Late Night Brubeck: Live At The Blue Note (Telarc) 05665 Kim Hill: So Far So Good (BNA) 05670 Ant Banks: The Big Badass (Jive) 05790 + David Ball: Thinkin’ Problem (Warner Bros.) 05791 Jane's Addiction: Ritual de fo Habitual (Warner Bros.) 10020 # Lyle Lovett: Joshua Judges Ruth (MCA/Curb) 10508 Kathy Mattea: A Collection Of Hits (Mercury) 10791 Vince Neil: Exposed (Warner Bros.) 10893
h,
All-4-One (Atlantic) 03267
Boyz II Men: Cooleyhighharmony (Motown) 10930
The Best Of Stevie Nicks: Timespace (Modern) 10940
Best Of Miles Davis-The Capitol/ Blue Note Years (Blue Note) 11000
Megadeth: Rust In Peace (Capitol) 11053 #
The Best Of K.C. & The Sunshine Band (Rhino) 11054
David Sanborn: Upfront (Elektra) 11104
Red Hot Chili Peppers: Blood Sugar Sex Magik (Warner Bros.) 11127 *
Donald Fagen: Kamakiriad (Reprise) 11330
Daryl Hall & John Oates: Rock ‘N Soul, Part 1 (RCA) 13313
Deep Purple: Machine Head (Warner Bros.) 13813
INXS: Listen Like Thieves (Atlantic) 14468
Tom Jones: The Complete Tom Jones (Deram) 14851
Inner Circle: Bad Boys (Big Beat/Atlantic) 14867
Bee Gees: Best Of The Bee Gees, Vol. 1 (Polydor) 15055
Nirvana: Nevermind (Geffen) 15600
The Best Of Aretha Franklin (Atlantic) 20078
Alabama: Greatest Hits (RGA) 20247 Eurythmics: Greatest Hits (Arista) 20611 ABBA: Gold-Greatest Hits (Polydor) 20679
Violent Femmes: Add It Up (1981-1993)
(Reprise/Slash) 20680 * AC/DC: Who Made Who-
Greatest Hits
(Atlantic) 20774
Michael Crawford: A Touch Of Music In The Night
(Atlantic) 20917
The Very Best Of Connie Francis (Polydor) 23434
Above The Rim/Satk. (Interscope) 03156 # Live:
Throwing Copper (Radioactive/MCA) 03085 #
Whitney Houston: The Bodyguard Soundtrack (Arista) 54213
The Police: Ghost In The Machine (A&M) 23571
Eric Clapton: Unplugged
(Warner Bros.) 23690 U2: War
(Island) 24619
Clint Black: No Time To Kill (RCA) 24858
Jackson Browne: I'm Alive (Elektra) 25039
The Best Of Great White (Capitol) 25049
Judy Garland: Changing My Tune, The Best of the Decca Years, Vol.2 (MCA) 25054
Common Thread: Songs Of The Eagles (Giant) 25071
Blind Faith (Polydor) 25073 #
Tevin Campbell:
I'm Ready (Qwest/Warner Bros.) 25112
U2: Achtung Baby (Island) 25174
Iron Maiden: A Real Dead One (Capitol) 25188
Styx: The Grand Illusion (A&M) 25245,
Olivia Newton-John: Back to Basics-The Essential Collection 1971-1992
(Geffen) 25334
Soul Asylum: And The Horse They Rode In On (A&M) 25339
The Breeders: Last Splash (Elektra) 25415 os House Of Pain
(Tommy Boy) 25416 # UB40: Promises And Lies (Virgin) 25454
the confusion.
10,000 Maniacs: MTV Unplugged
Joe: Everything (Mercury) 35375
(Elektra) 35061 The Rodgers & Fourplay: Hammerstein Between The Sheets Collection (Warner Bros.) 35074 (MCA) 40015 Lionel Richie:
Back To Front Ero (Mgtowta) S210 (Atlantic) 09672
Diane Schuur & B.B.
f th H of 1 King: Heart To Heart or the price of |. ase Van Halen Il k.d. lang: “Even Motley Crue: (Warner Bros) 43364 Cowgirls Get The Decade Of Decadence § —j4yj witchell:
Blues"/ Sdtrk. (Elektra) 40298
Court And Spark
/ A Question Of Balance (Threshold) 44588
Tori Amos: Little Earthquakes (Atlantic) 50382
The Best Of Dolly Partos (rcaysises Peron
New Order: Republic (Quest/Warner Bros.) 52039
Enya: Shepherd Moons (Reprise) 53750
U2: The Joshua Tree (Island) 53507
4 Non Blondes: Bigger, Better, Faster, More!
Pretenders: The Singles 8.B. King: BI q aie Hendrix (Sire) 33248 91°S (NCA) 39700 Surat Serer Bros (S05) john Mellencamp: (Asylum) 43861 (intersvope) 33593 erlence: 5 merican Foo! Tommy James & The The Best Of Are You Experienced? ihe Best Of Muddy Bryan Adams: Rush: Counterparts (Riva) 40331 ze fi e laters (Chess) 3: So Far So 4 Shondells: Anthology Howard Jones (MCA) 25457 a Knee Seg erase At (Atlantic) 35147 Jimmy Buffett: Songs You (Rhino) 44185 (Elektra) 83758 Reba McEntire: he Benson: (A&M) 34771 Pet Shop Boys: Very Know By Heart-Greatest tron Butterfly: 5 SGCU Greatest Hits Volume 2. Love Remembers L : (EMI/ERG) 35187 Hits) (MCA) 42157* —ImeaGadda-ba-vida _—-~Peter Gabriel: Security (MCA) 25466 (Warner Bros.) 33823 enny Kravitz: Are You 2 : 4 (Geffen) 53801 Gonna Go My Way? Guns N'Roses: Enya: Watermark (ATCO) 44356 George Strait: aneaa? wits (Virgin) 34834 Use Your Illusion | (Reprise) 43249 k.d. lang: Ingénue Yes: Fragile Taek aemasE*sY GO Gntersound) 33961.” ‘Miles Davis & (Gefien) 35469 F The Best Of Twisted (Warmer Bros /Sire) 4ag70 (Atlantic) 53 Quincy Jones: Guns N’Roses: Sister: Big Hits And Huey Lewis & The Patsy Cline: Earl Klugh: Ballads The Police: Synchronicity | jye At Montreux Use Your Illusion I! Nasty Cuts News: Sports 12 Greatest Hits (Manhattan) 25512 (A&M) 34070 (Warner Bros.) 35011 (Geffen) 25534 # (Atlantic) 42900 # (Chrysalis) 44448 (MCA) 53849
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Please accept my membership in the BMG Music Service and send my 5 FREE CDs as indicaled. Under the
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