by Jim Alt

Did you ever wonder what your
single most important academic aid
is? Is it your typewriter7 Or your
alarm clock? Or maybe your pipe?

Probably not. I would argue, m.
ther. that the most important sur-
vival tool for the Grinnell student is
his stereo. You can borrow type-
writers, sleep through classes, and
use papers instead of a pipe; but
when the stereo dies, you have had
it.

Music itself is an integral part
of life here. You find yourself a
little uncomfortable walking down a
dorm hall and not hearing any; it
does not seem natural, attuned as
we are to the constant background
that music forms.

while many people study by music
alone in their rooms, listening to
music is more characteristically a
social occasion. Consider how much
of our social life revolves around our
music. From the big Darby nights,
to Black Cultural Weekend, to a
South Lounge lolksinger, to an imr
promptu gel togetherﬁwhen we gat-
her, we will as likely as not lis-
ten to some music.

Friendships are formed andbroken
over musical tastes. If Ithink that
the Rolling Stones are the world’s
greatest rock’n’roll band, and you
think that they are ill»mannered
and immature, chances are that we
will not get along. We certainly
will not spend much time listening
to the Stones together,

But there is also the chance that
we will both like old blues, or Bach,
or Segovia. in that case, we will
think one another a little strange,
but tolerable.

Our music and our moods inter—
act in Subtle ways. When I walk
into a room feeling depressed, and
some loud, upbeat music is playing,
I tend to walk out feeling better"
usually about two hours later. But
it I am depressed and picking my
own music, it tends to be subdued,
even gloomy. This can bring some-
one else down.

It is even possible that music per-
forms a genuine stabilizing function
ior us. It is certainly one of the
greater of our pleasures, and at
times it seems that our pleasures
are few and far between. At those
times, especially, the availability
of music is appreciated, Music is
one thing that nobody can take away.
The diversity of our music, too,
is remarkable. Where else can you
hear, in one evening, a live folk-
singer, a live Bach harpsichord re—
cital, and a live North Lounge rock
gr up, and then linish the evening

“Sweet jaw”

with some recorded Dead? My
tastes, Ithink, have broadened lar»
gely because at the constant avail—
ability of such variety.

It will be sad to reioin the world
and have to make and pay for re—
servations, hassle traffic, and worry
about getting to a musical event on
time. I appreciate being able to
look at the Calendar, discover that
a concert l want to hear starts in
ten minutes--and get there in time
to hear it. in tact, I am tremenr
dously spoiled.

We also have a number of rock
ribbed musical loyalists here, at
the sort who will cut classes and
travel to Chicago to hear a dyna-
mite concert. Notice that when the
planning lor such an event begins,
there are always more wouldrbe
travelers than space in the car or
than can hitch together. When the
travelers return, tales of their ex-
periences—musical and other--are
eagerly sought and more eagerly
supplied,

Even on campus some or the Darby
concerts, like John McLaughlin,are
incredible evenings, later taking on
legendary proportions in our minds.
The combination of a high—powered
perlormance and an eager, high
Grinnell audience is hard to beat
for sheer energy. Genuine excite-
ment, especially in these pastoral
surroundings, is a rare commodity.
Our music can sometimes give us
that excitement.

ermxxxk‘t‘w¥¥*tmmkli

All this brings to mind a theory
that a friend and I once worked out
tor upgrading the duality of educa—
tion and the quality of life at Grin-
nell, We both like the Grateful Dead
very much. and we get along with
other people who like the Dead. We
decided that Grinnell should hire
the Dead to play here once a week.

The reasoning behind this, the
Henry/Alt theory, goes like this:
Tens of thousands of eager prose
pective students would apply to a
school that had the Dead once a
week. Therefore, admissions would
become much more selective and
competitive, leading to a higher—
quality student body.

Those who were eventually admit-
ted would be motivated to remain
here. Profs could impose higher
academic standards and have them
met, because nobody would want to
flunk out and miss the concerts

Having the Dead that often would
also prevent the usual buildup of
tension and depression. People do
not leave a Dead concert feeling
unhappy, The positive ellects on

Velvet Underground

Part I

by John Potts

Since I’m only allotted so much
space per issue, I’ve decided to
handle the Velvet Underground in
two columns, for, after all, iisomee
thing is worth doing, it’s worth do—
ing welle-isn’t it? So this is Part
1 of a two part column.

Anyway, there are two prel‘equisis
ties to understanding the Velvet Un-
derground. First, you’ve got to
understand the words, Second,
you’ve got to realize that much
of what they do (especially Lou
Reed's vocals) is “camp”. Camp
might be defined as the enjoyment
of that which ls old and cliched,
alter one has become less involved
with it, and can allord to satarize
it with deuupan seriousness. You
might say that greaser parties are
camp, “Tell Laura I love her is
camp, Sha Na Na is camp, and read,
ing Ann Landers for kicks is de
linltely camp. Got the idea? ll not,
go and talk to an English prol
He’ll be able to explain it a lot
better than I can.

Anyway, in 1965 the Velvet Under-
ground was touring with Andy Warv

hol’s mum—media show, and Warhol
produced their first album, which
came out that same year. The Velr
vet Underground and Nico was an
album tar ahead of its time. It
featured a longjam, controlled feeda
back (perhaps for the lirst time on
record), an electric viola and a lot
of other Sounds and electronic 9],
fects that weren’t picked up by the
mainstream of rock until much,
much later.

The first album is not terribly
esoteric. The songs are about drug
addiction (the classic Heroin ap-
pears on this album), sexual per-
version (Venus in Furs) and just
depression in general (the album iS
sort of a chronicle about battle iat-
igue of lile). The sound is raw,
driving, and purposely atonul, lull
of feedback and weird noises from
John Cale’s electric viola The har-
shness Of the music is intended to
enhance the content of the lyrics
(mostly written by Lou Reed) and to
a large extent, the lyrics and music
are an inseparable artistic entity
A word about Lou Iteed's vocals
His voice can be described as a

campus mood and stability are in-
calculable.

A school whch was making such a
successful effort to improve itself
educationally and socially would
soon attract increased donations.
These donations would go to support
the Dead, and the venture would pay
for itself,

Finally, if my lriend and I were
surrounded by Dead fans, we would
be among friends, We would no
longer have to deal with the ob-
noxious, unreasonable sorts ot peur
pie who do not like the Dead.

For all these reasons, we decided
that Grinnell, traditionally a leader
in progressive education, should di-
vert rt portion oi its budget to ime
plemeliting this proposal. Can you
imagine the ellects on higher edu»
cation it the idea caught on and
swept the nation, with Grinnell
once again marching at the lore?
Antioch, look out!

 

 

 

— The Iconoclast

 

@hzglturlzt and 3mm; October 13, 1972 '

ptlulo in Kl-Ii Wimkur

John McLeod made his debut as the conductor of the Grinnell Orchestra
last Saturday. Chamber players also participated in the concert, which
featured classical and contemporary works.

The DWI" By Any Other Name Is Still Slavery

by Gregg Daftner

or all the issues discussed today,
probably the most important is the
dralt. It is an odd combination of
the curious and theperverservcurl»
ous because at its almost obvicus
simplicity, perverse because sclew
see it. hnd as usual it is debated
in an antirideological, unprincipled
manner.

or all our mixed economy’s statlst
violations ol individual rights, the
military draft is the worst. It is
the total abrogation of rights, be—
cause it negates man's fundamen»
tal right--the right to lile. it re-
places this right with the funda-
mental principle ol statism: that a
man’s lile belongs to the state and
that the state can claim it by torc-
ing him to sacrifice it in battle.
When the state can force a man to
risk death or mutilation in a war
he may not approve at or even
understand, when an individual‘s
consent is no longer even necessary
lor his own martyrdom—then all
rights have been negated, in prinr
ciple. and that government is no
longer man’s protector. What’s lelt
to protect?

One or the chiel reasons used by
all sides in justilication ol the dralt
is that “rights impose obligations”,
Obligation to whom? And imposed
by whom” The ideological implica—
tion oi such an insidious notion is

distinctive blend oi Jagger and Dy-
lan with the tonal quality Of Jim
Morrison. In an interview, Reed said
that as he sings each song he tries
to assume an appropriate pel‘soilna
as he vocalizes, Thus, in order to
catch the meaning ofhis songs you’ve
got to listen carelully to his phrase
ing ol the lyricswtry to climb my
side his head for each song, Pay
attention to the seemingly offhand
comments he makes during instru—
mental tirenks Lou Reed has agreat
wit, and his vocal interiectlons are
usually sneering, campy parodies cl
standard rock cliches. (Check, for
example, his ad lib vocal comments
on the hideout of There She Goes
Again). This becomes more and
more obvious In his later albums.
The second album, White Light,
White Heat, is pretty weird, The
title song is about cocaine, the re,
ference being to 2| William S Eur»
rouglis quote describing coke as “a
flashing blaze of \vhte heat” If
you know that Burroughs was
the "in” thing with the Warhol set
at the time, you begin to realize that
the entire White Light. White Heat
album is full of allusions to Burr
i'ouglis classic llrug and perversion
phantusmagoriu, Naked Lunch, a
novel in which the principle char-
acter (a junkie) hullucinales his way
through lile, seeing everything
through n distorting lilter ol drugs,
degeneracy and sexual perversion,
and experiencing everything with an
overwhelmingly driving intensity.
The White Light, White lleatulltum
is Sllllllitlly recorded with “white
noise” in the background, the effect
Iieing lhzil oi sound iillci-ed through

that rights are essentially a gilt
from the state, and that in return
a man must buy them by oliering
something (his life). Further, this
notion is a logical contradiction,
since the protection of man's rights
is the only proper iunction ol a
government, it cannot claim title to
his life in exchange tor that prce
tectlon,

The concept oi “right" pertains
only to action-»specilically to free-
dom of action. This is the freedom
lrom physical coercion or physical
compulsion by other men. A right
is the moral sanction of a positive,
of an individual’s freedom to act by
and upon his ownjudgement, in the
pursuit or his own goals, by his own
voluntary, uncoerced chOice.

Notice, then, that in fact this means
no imposition of obligation on other
men (none!) except lor one cl a
negative kind to abstain from ViOr
lating his rights.

No amount oi rationalization
by anyone will ever alter the tact
that the dralt represents “involum
tary servitude", slavery by another
name. Thus, by both the 13th and
9th (the 9th is key here) amendments,
the draft also Is unconstitutional.
(It you don’t see why, challenge me
and I'll prove ll),

The only proper, moral and prace
tical way to defend a free country
is by an all volunteer army. And,

some sort of distorting screen, It
sounds awful, but it Iiﬂsa peculiar
driving intensity about it -the same
sort of intensity as in the Eur-
roughs book (The technical explan—
atlon is that the white nmse serves
as n background, so instead oisound
backed by silence, you have sound
over sound, which gives the nlusic
a great deal oldrive. lt is perhaps
the most driving, pulsating rock ever
recorded.)

Anyway, the album also shares sev-
eral thematic similarities with
Naked Lunch. The second out after
the title song is a Burroughselike
short story read aloud with musical
Ltccompanilnenl (the story is kind oI
lame, so Ialways turn off the rlght
channel and only listen to the music,
which is weird and sort or nice).
The next cut, Lady Godiva’s Opera—
tion, is a real gem, li's like apervy
page out or Naked Lunch. The song
speaks oi a hysterectomy in lovmgly
sexual terms (a clear Burroughs
influence) Also interesting is the
way LmlReeriperiodically intel'JectS
a Word or two at random into John
Cale's lead vocal. The whole song
is filled with curious noises and
sounds, and I've been told thatplayr
ing the alhiini while tripping is quite
a revelation,

Sister Ray, the lust cut on the Ill-
bum, is seventeen minutes of none

diminished lntensit
I Wouldn't go so l is to say that

the album is the book set to music.
but it is lilmost impossible to lully
comprehend the horrendously dISr
lol‘tell Sound and “mild electronic
Bliects without having redd Burr
roughs‘ book

yes, a man ought to volunteer to
fight if his country is attacked and
he values his own rights and free
dom Not only have free (and semir
lree) countries always had volun-
teers when attacked, but many mili-
tary authorities have testified tothe
lact that an army cl men who know
what they are lighting lor and why
r-a volunteer army»is the bestand
most ellective army, whileadrafted
one is least.

A volunteer army would thus be one
oi the best peace protectors, against
both foreign aggression and war-like
ideologies or adventures on the part
of a country’s own government. Few
men would volunteer for wars like
Korea or Vietnam and consequently
Without the drait such projects would

be impossible. Such is one oi the , '

best practical reasons for abolish!
ing the dralt.

But, in tact, the practical question
of the country‘s military protection
is not the issue at stake. Today,
one Of the main reasons for contin-
uing the drall is not military but
financial, While no one seems to
know just what it would cost—~it is
estimated at approximately four to
five billion dollars a year.

During those lormative years be-
tween 15 and 25, when a man is
lorming his conscious convictions,
choosing his goals and planning his
luture (etc), he is lorced to live
in the nightmare that his future
can be blocked at any moment by an
unpredictable power-the selective
service, that he can count on nothing
and plan on nothing because his
future may be barred by his army
training or worse, bydealh inafight
for some unknown cause in some
ulien country (an uncertainty all too
familiar to college students).

This is what tour to live billion
dollars would spare yuuiig men.

But the real motive behind such
a crime is not even financial. It
wns the Secretary at Delense, Roe
bert McNamara, who on May 18,
1966 made the motive fully clear:
“As matters stand, our present
selective service system draws on
only a minority or eligible young
men That is an inequality. It seems
to me that we could move toward
remedying that inequity by asking
every young person in the United
States to give two years oi ser-
vice lo his coulltl‘y--whether in one
oi the military serVices, in the Peace
Corps, or in some other volunteer
developmental work at home or 3-
broad “

The unnamed principle is clear,
Developing onesell into a produce
live independent person is not re-
garded as a value to the United
States»turnlng oneself into a sell»
less, sacrificial ullimal is,

This is the real issuentlnd the only
my to light it ind achieve the total
abolition oi the draft. now and for-
ever. is by upholding the principle
of man's right to his own life.
And there is onlv one nay to up-
hold that l'lght- uh it full con»
sistent moral—political ideology,

 

