\ l,
by Ron Medvin

“Ram", of course, is Paul
McCartney's second try at a
solo, his first being, musi-
ually, a miserable failure.
Paul has obviously worked
harder on this album, but
there is still a great deal
missing-(such as the other
three Beatles, for a start).
It's hard to talk about this
album and be totally fair. For
when you hear the name
"McCartney" you think of the
BEST. “Ram" is musimlly
good. But is is net in any
way musically consistant.
Each song is pleasant to lis-
ten to, but each song is so
totally different from every
other that the listener is con»
fused. It is as if Paul is
saying, "Look how great I
am, I can write ten different
types of music!" Maybe he
can, but none of it approa-
ches the greatness of songs
such as "Hey, Jude" or “El-
eanor Rigby".

The first cut, “Too Many
People," is a steady rocker
with some half-interesting 1y~
rics. . . ”Too many people,
going underground. Toomany
reaching for a piece ofcake."
This just about sumsup Paul’s
social comments on this al-
bum. Actually, this song's lye
rics really are the only ones
on the entire album worth lis-
tening to; Paul no doubt wore
ried far more about the mun
sic.

”3 Legs" is a slow funky
blues number which is fun to
listen to but which is forgotr
ten soon after itisheard. Paul
then thrills us with his sub-
par ukulele strumming on his
title cut, "Ran-i On", a tune
with some good harmony and
nothing else. And the engir
neering on this song is un-
believable. The editingis sim-
ply horrible; my high-school
band record had better cuts!
(this is again true for the
reprise of ”Ram On" on the
second side.)

“Dear Boy" isadecentsong,
sounding like a cut from Ab-
bey Road. Paul sings all the
parts on this one" a must
without John and George- -and
the effect is a beautifullypro~
duced, three~part number.
"Uncle Albert/Admiral Halo
sey" comes next; unfortuna-
tely this has been overplayed
on Top 40 stations this sum-
mer. The "Uncle Albert” sec-
tion has some truly great old
Beatle falsetto, and, in its
simplicity, could be one of
the best cuts on the album.
“Admiral Halsey” is a non-
sensical song complete with
“A1 Hirt” trumpet cuts and
completely inane lyrics.
Paul's Wife Linda is in on
this one, repeating the last
word of each line of the cho~
rus. Wonderful. Paul says she
has musical talent, but one is
hard-pressed to find it on
this album. “Smile Away”
is the last cut on side 1,
and it's another slow blues
number, but once again, the
lyrics border on the edge of
stupidity.

McCartney messes with
some jazz with "Heart of the
Country"; not modern jazz,
just simple elementary jazz...
not a bad song, but again, one
that is soon forgotten. "Monk—
berry Moon Delight"is next,

45 The Scarlet and Block

/ I
and musically, it's my favor-
ite cut. Paul sings this hard
rocker with a gravelly rough
voice-~a voice heard in ”Oh,
Darling". The music is driv-
ing and exciting, and even
Linda sings on tune. But once
again, the lyrics reach the
bounds of ultimate stupidity.
"Ketchup, Cats and Kittens,
Don’t get left behind", he
sings. Profound? I doubt it.

“Eat At Home " is a 50's
rocker with some fine guitar
work; it sounds like an old-
time Stones’ song. “Longl-lai-
red Lady" is a mediocre Ab-
bey Road type song, sort of
like "Maxwell's Silver Ham-
mer." But the end of the
song is amazing. It repeats
itself over and over andguess
what? It sounds "exactly" like
the last three minutes of Hey
Jude; same chords,samepro-
gression, same everything!
I’m afraid that Paul mnnot
fool us, we may not be musi-
cal experts but a two year old
could hear the similarities.

After the reprise of ”Ram
On", the album ends with
another Abbey Road type of
song which also switches to
a 50's beat in the middle.
It's another of the better songs
on the album. The piano and
guitar beautifully blend as
Paul gives us some of his
famous falsetto. Even thestr-
ings used are not overdone.
And for once, the cut into a
fast work beat is a good one.
The climax of the song is
powerful, with Paul repeating
the song's theme “Oh, we
believe that we can't be
wrongl" it builds to a fan-
tastic crescendo, and ends ona
resounding crash on the piano.
Beautiful! But wait. McCart-
ney has to screw it, and he
does. He sticks in eight bars
of pure trash at the end to
totally ruin the effect of the
great piano end. An example
of self-destruction.

As I said, the album has its
high spots; a lor of the songs
are quite good. But no two
songs are alike, and the al~
bum as a whole is very weak.
There are a lot of ”good" al—
bums around, and a lot of
proficient musicians. From
McCartney, we expect a lot
more, and it's just nox there.

Bugis Street -- Singapore After 12

by Andy Brill

Singapore surely isn’t the
most exciting place to visit
for a tourist. If one were to
ask ”what to see, what to
mste, and what to do" while
visiting, the appropriate re-
ply would most assuredly be
limited: The Tiger Balm
Gardens, The Botanical Gar—
dens, Bill Bailey’s niteclub,
the National Aviary, the var-
ieties of Eastern foods, and
perhaps the preponderous
congestion at the mouth of
the world’s fourth busiest po-
rt.

Most tourists, however,
seem to be in constant search
,for the exoticarerotica ano-
malies of foreign cultural sit’
uatiOnS’ especially once they“
ve downed their fourth martini
at dinner and fantasize theacr
tivity of the forthcoming ev-
ening adventures. For the
most part, Singapore's even-
ing dynamics offer earasltatr
tering high class and expen-
sive bars, draped in tropical
foliage with an occasional
fountain created by a spouting
bare‘breasted Polynesian
maiden. All—in-all, the nite
scene can be a real drag, and
the hotel prostitute bueroci”
acy can run into a good deal
of expense. However, among
the rather unexciting noctur-
nal circuit, Singapore pre-
sents one of the most unusual
and fantasy-fulfilling nitepla-
ces the world has to offer——
if you're into a good deal of
excess energies past mid-
nite.

This incrediblybizarre oasis
of intrigue goes by the name
of Bugis Street, a usually
crowded intersection which
undergoes a cataclysmictranr
sformation at midnite each
day of the week. Cinderella
would turn into a pickled pa-
paya. The geography of Bugis
Street includes a muddledple-
xus of food stalls which sure
round a central area sardined
with people. Since this parti-
cular gathering spOt is the one
ly available bastion of enter-
tainment past midnite, every
Tom, Dick, and Harry (don't
forget Singapore’s port status
immediately provides a plea
mora of rowdy bleary—eyed
sailors) seem to inevitably
find their way.

The constant instream and
outstream of people include
supercilious tuxedoed nite
clubers, fight-searching Ki-
wis, drunk sailors winking at
every Women and up every
skirt, insane and catatonic
locals osmotitally drifting,
emaciated opium addicts, sle-
ezy meretricious prostitutes,

 

NoTESfrom page 1 S

ernment gave this up and swi<
tched to monopoly retailing of
spirits at very high prices
(.75 liter of aquavit costs 38
krowns, or about $7.75.)

When people come to Aland,
they are looking for a compe-
titive price, and they find it
in the form of yet another
monopoly, the tax- free shops.
They are still paying outrag-
eous prices: cigarettes bought
on merchant ships dutyrfree
cost only $.15 a pack. But
it's still cheaper than on the
home front, and what they
can‘t bring back with them
tax-free they try to consume
"enrroute."

In the summer, over five-
hundred people jam this one
boat every day, in both di-
rections. In early September
it dwindles to about 150. Most
of them are elderly pensio-
ners now, many probably run-

September 24, 1971

ning “errands" for their chilr
ren's families.

When we docked in Stock'
holm at 10:00 PM, a dozen
people had to be walked off
to taxis. Many. many more
wove unsteadily to the cus~
toms gate. Behind them the
small crew battened down the
ship. It sets sail at8230 every
morning.

5 & B Radio Show

The 5&8 "Newsroom of
the Air” radio show will
be 7:00 p.m. Sunday on
KDIC. If you have any
questions or comments on
the content of this week's
newspaper, call us orwritc
us before then, and we
will be glad to discuss
it on the air.

virgin Wanderers like oursel-
ves, and every other charact-
er imaginable (not to speak of
the large and voracious water
rats hopping from gutters to
fetch the drueled foods).

It is the regulars of Bugis
Street which provide the un-
believable pathology ofevents:
Small Chinese, Malay, and
Indian kids (some no morc
than five years old) pushing
marijuana, opium, heroin,
stolen goods, slaves (small
children can be purchased on
the “blackmarkct”at$125pcr
person), their rectums, their
mothers, their sisters, local
whores With a cut in the pres
fit, and occasionally a mellow
game of tick~tack>toe for an
agreed sum.

Withered and yellowed opium
addicts pushing syringes, moi
rphine, and opium, some of-
fering their rotten vocal cords
to sing a piece froma Chinese
opera for a ten~cent piece.
Hunchbacked and sullied venr
ders in clothes twice their
size and ragged neckties sells
ing stolen merchandise, fake
jewelry, little boys, ”bluemo~
vies" (pornographic films ens
acting the most horendous
sexually animalistic perverr
sions), and more dope.

Whores greeting you in a
small bunch, attacking and
caressing your body in a flan
sh while they instantaneously
search yourpocketsandempty
their contents.

And in full force, the apex of
the Bugis Street sceneeethe
world's most impressive and
heralded transvestites peddl-
ing their bodies and services.
Ghettoes bya Lilliputian-mi-
nded society (much like our
own), and induced into hating
themselves as freaks of m,
ture, their tormented psychcs
focus an ultimate desire for a
sex— change operation which is
excessively expensive. The
easiest (in relation to finding
a viable and productive med-
ium) means to attain thenec—
essary money is to peddle
their bodies to the lustful and

perverted desires of sailors
having returned from months
of sterile sea duty.

Although the money comes
very easily at Bugis Street
(sodomy and fellatio, in this
case, inevitably appeals be-
yond the overwhelming drives
of a particular group), the
net verbal abuse and physical
sadism which the transves-
tites must bear is powerfully
destructive, as partially wit-
nessed by their hyperrdefen-
sivc communication and pre-
occupation with womanly phy~
sioal sensuality.

A great number of the trans-
sexuals have routine acts:
Swaying hips, sensually pro-
vocative gesticulations, beau-
tiful colored outfits often ex-
posing the breasts (some of
the transvestites have taken
hormone pills, others have
had silicone treatments, and
still others wear ”contrap-
tions”), and raps centraliz-
ing on the open accessibility
of their purportedly aroused
bodies.

Once someone has decided on
a price witha transvestite (us-
ually, after a gooddeal ofbar-
gaining, the price reaches se-
ven US dollars) the interested
party is lead to a cab (which,
of course, gats a cut of the
action...A central maxim we
all learned: Everybody has
everybody else by the &%$#),
which takes the couple to the
transvestite's flat. The “gi‘
rls"usually live together in
a large apartment building,
where the sheer force ofnutn-
bers insures their ability to
collect payments.

The entire sexual sequence
is short, and before departing
once again foradditional busi-
ness, the transvestite usually
changes into another outfit and
puts on another facialmake-
up. it is this cycle which con-
tinues all nite long until 5 or
6 in the morning, each nite of
every week of the year. Bugls
Street historically has never
realized a depression....I
wonder why.

panel panics bySNarf

If Ezra Pound was right

(or even close) in definingan

"image" as an "intellectual or emotional complex in an in»

stant of time,
of images.
major elements:

it is clear that comic books are composed
The comic panel (or image) consists of four
the illustration, the ballooned dialogue,

the panel frame, and the narration outside the panel. To-
gether these parts (ideally) present a unified, coherent idea
which is partially sealed off from the rest of the story, but

which

is also linked to the rest of the storybymeans of

theme, plot line, recurrencc of image, and narrative contin-

uity.

In addition to these classical methods of relating panels to
one anather, there is a more alarming form of linkage which

fundamentally changes the nature of the medium.

It is that

linkage which results from character awareness of his con-
dition of entrapment (by the comic panel), and which is the
cause of breaks in the line of the panel frame, intrusion ofa
character from one panel over into an adjacent panel, cross

over dialogue balloons, etc.

More disconcerting than this is

the occasional comic in which a character is suspended be-
tween panels, sealed off from his natural context and subject
to the most debilitating device the author has at his command:

the passive voice.

This rebellion of a fictional character against his creator

is not new, of course.

It is found in Unamuno, Pirandello,
and most contemporary playwrights.

What is unusual is the

vulnerability (or adaptability) of the comic book medium to
such rebellion. Thus, when Mr. Natural's desert hermitage
is invaded by Flakey Foont and his problems, the sage stands
in an old and solid tradition when he responds with irrita-

tlon:

"Do you have any idea how many dialogue ballons we're

going to fill in thenext few pages talking about your problems?"
There is a further effect of the breakdown of clear panel

delineation.

An analogy may be helpful:

in contemporary

theater it is not unusual to see plays composed of short
images or scenes taking place in different parts of the stage.
This procedure is useful in certain cases because it serves
to dissolve the spatial integrity of the stage and to obscure

the distinction between actor and audience.

In the same way,

the breakdown of the integrity of the comic panel results in

the (partial

and temporary) liberation of the character:

from the abyss between the panels, the character may attack

the author as well as the reader.

probably deserve it.

Both of these individuals

 

