j{oung needs group

by John Buckwalter
ln the past, Crosby, Stills, Nash
and Young have frequently been
associated with the Beatles. Both
groups were composed of four
Wtremely talented young men who
seemed to fit together perfectly as
a single unit. Unfortunately, as
individual performers, both the
atles and Crosby, Stills, Nash
and Young lost their magical hue,
and instaead acquired a one
dimensional musical tone which
s gas bland, listless and
. inemotional.

Neil Young is a perfect
illustration of this idea. In
CSNiitY’s Deja Vu, his singing,
writing and playing was enhanced
and favorably modified by other
members of the band. Young, in
turn, enriched the sound of Crosby,
Stills and Nash. The result was
brilliant; Deja Vu became a

lassic. Soon after this success, the
group disbanded and each per-
former attempted a solo venture,
Neil_Young was the most active,
releasing nine albums under his

me. His most recent LPs had the
negative symptoms characteristic
of solo performers, On the Beach.
Time Fades Away, and Tonight's
the Night all distinctly lacked
' gresslveness; Young seemed to
be spitting out songs in the same
lackadaisical manner as Elton
John.

Two months ago, Neil Young’s
most recent album, Zuma, was
released. Contrary to its imr
mediate predecessors, this LP
consisted of Young and an, ac-
companying band, Crazy Horse.
Young and Crazy Horse were not
strangers; they had played

kgether several years ago.
, ,eil Young’s mood on Zuma
ems to indicate that the effect of
playing with a band has registered
in a positive manner. In songs such
‘5 “Drive Back,” “Stupid Girl,’I

l

and “Don’t Cry ND Tears,” Young
gains incentive to play some
unrestrained, emotional guitar
that does not put the listener to
sleep, “Danger Bird" and “Cortez
the Killer” are slower; here there
is the feeling that Young believes
in what he sings. in all of these
tunes, the music seems to be in
congruent with itself until the
song's end, where everything
suddenly fits together. in this way,
lerna can be compared with any
song by the Who: just at the point
where disaster seems imminent,
the group pulls together and
everything works at the finish.

One of the best efforts on Zuma is
the last song, “Through My Sails,"
an acoustical number sung with
Young’s old partners, Crosby,
Stills and Nash. IE intricate vocal
harmonies send the voices in the
rest of the album to disgrace. ln
“Through My Sails,” each voice
alone produces nothing, yet
collectively the vocals yield a
beautiful euphony.

Although Zuma is a definite
improvementover previous recent
Young albums, it does not stand up
to his collaborations with equally
talented musicians such as Crosby,
Stills and Nash. Neil plays with a
band on Zuma, but he still con-
siders himself on a level above his
accompanying musicians.
Perhaps, if Mr. Young stepped
down from his cloud to play with
musicians of similar quality and
inventiveness, he could produce
some unusually great music.

Rock at its best needs a collecs
tion of diversified talents in»
corporated into a single core; rock
at its best needs a band, not an
individual with second-rate backs
up musicians. Performers who
decide to go solo should consider
this fact before jumping into the
limelight alone.

The Scarlet and Black, March 5, 1976-1). 5

Brig/9t moments

by Dan Hexter

Hampton l-lawes is a pianist with
a great amount of experience, and
who seems to surface when you
least expect him to, in a variety of
musical contests with an equally
varied amount of artists to whom
he has lent his talent as a backup
man. Influenced greatly by Bud
Powell and Bill Evans, Hawes’
acoustic piano work has been
familiar to listeners of Jazz despite
a period of confinement which kept
him (how shall Isay) out of public
performances {or some time in the
early sixties. His sound is rich and
full, yet uncluttered. He fills out
the spaces between chords adr
mirably, and handles musical
statements with his right hand with
an attention-grabbing rhythmic
attack which is quite pleasing to
hear.

This album is some work he was
performing prior to his switch to
the electric piano. The recording
was made at the Monmartre
Jazzhus in Copenhagen. Hawes is
by no means a stranger to the
European Jazz scene. Henry
Franklin is on string bass and Mike
Carbin on drums; together they
provide the last piece of the ins
trlcate picture created by Hawes.
The album opens with the
Bachrach tune “This Guy’s In
Love With You," I was impressed

with his fresh approach to the song
which had previously been worn by
repetitive AM broadcasts of Herb
Alpert. The sound of this song was
original, The next cut, however,
did not leave me with the same
admiration of l-lawes, due to the
suspicious source of the song itself.
The song is called South nampton,
with credits being given to Hawes
for writing the tune. As soon as I
heard it, I immediately recognized
it as a tune previously released by
Lonnie Liston Smith and the
Cosmic Echoes two years ago, The
title given to it at that time was
Footprints and Wayne Shorter was
given credit for the original
composition. I have a distinct
feeling that someone's copyright
has been infringed; I have no idea
who wrote the original. This by no
means hindered my appreciation
of the album as a whole, and I
recommend the album for your
listening pleasure,

I was going to review another
LP, but decided I'd rather devote
some of the column space to the
defense, or rather the recognition
of the efforts of Dan Meltzer and
Carlson Smith as concert war,
dinators. in view of past records of
concert coordinators, Meltzer and
Smith have performed as well as
their predecessors in any other
year I’ve attended Grinnell, and in

my own association with the
booking ‘industry’ the job is not an
easy one. Grinnell is not an ideal
locale for attracting top name
artists, being far from both
coasts where most artists in the
music industry reside. In addition,
the latest interests of Grinnell
students have not been to con,
tribute ideas based upon ex-
perience, but to merely react
selfishly and without sufficient
knowledge to provide constructive
input into the committee Much
more than the fees paid to any
artist, professional courtesies aid
in the quality of the performance in
most cases, and in establihsing
Grinnell College as a place where
an artist can enjoy performing and
thus return if asked. The
popularity of such issues on this
campus is as repetitive as it is
predictable. I would like to offer an
alternative to those who have
spoken thus far by suggesting that
they meet with only the concemed
individuals personally, or come out
so they can be contacted by
Carlson or Dan.

Anyway, in the hopes of the
continued success of our Concert
programs in the future, I hope my
remarks serve to build (not break
down) the efforts of Carlson and
Dali, which have been admirable.
Bright Moments.

Right to self—determination crushed

OPEN SPACE

Third World Group

In January 1975, the Menominee
Warrior Society repossessed an
unused Alexian Brothers'
monastery near Keshena in
Northern Wisconsin for use as a
school or hospital by the
Menominee tribe. The National
Guard was called out; Indian and
white demonstrators around the
state supported the warriors and
demanded that Governor Lucey
insure a peaceful solution, The
national media spotlight focused
on Menominee county for four
tense weeks. Finally, the Alexians
signed a statement agreeeing to
turn over the monastery property
to the Mcnominees for $1. The
Warriors, believing government
assurances that they would not be
jailed before court trials, left the
monastery, However, the bus
which they boarded was taken-
directly to jail!

A year later, in January 1976, the
Alexians had broken their
agreement and given the
monastery instead to a whitesrun
alternative school based in
Milwaukee, The national media
and the demonstrators were long

gone. FBI harassment and police
and Vigilante violence have
escalated until the Menominee now
live in a virtual state of siege. Five
warriors were thrown into jail on
felony charges soon after leaving
the monastery; their bail was set
at a total of $210,000. They now face
a possible 907plus years each on
charges of false imprisonment of

. the monastery’s custodian, armed

robbery, burglary, and “conduct
regardless of life."

The warriors' legal defense will
be based upon their treaty rights.
They claim the monastery grounds
are part of the Menominee
reservation under the terms of the
Wolf River Treaty of 1351, Also,
U.S. law states that Indian land
given to a religious group must be
returned to the Indians when
religious use ends The monastery
has been empty since 1968,

In order to understand the
warriors’ actions we must first
understand the economic situation
of the tribe.

After the reservation status of
the tribe was “terminated" by
Congress in 1951, the State of
Wisconsin served the interests of
the land speculators and
developers by imposing a heavy

tax burden on the people of the
reservation which had become the
new Menominee county.
Previously they had paid no taxes
and received some federal aid;
they were selfesufficient. This new
“county” had but one industryiits
sawmill and logging operation, and
itwas paying 80 per cent and 90 per
cent of all taxes in the county.

The “statesmen" who
maneuvered the tribe into this
condition with fanfare about giving
the Indians their ”freedom" saw to
it that the tribe had no real control
over their only industry, A bank in
Milwaukee was appointed finan-
cial “guardian” for all minors in
the tribe without any evidence of
the need for such a measure. This
and otheractions gave the bank the
controlling vote of the trust set up
to manage the tribal assets.

This unholy alliance, between
the state and U.S. officials on one
hand and the banking and
development interests on the other,
increased the tax burden to a point
Where the Menominee were in-
duced to cut more and more of
their timber each year, Yet the
lnill operation went further and
further into the hole,

Concerned about the desperate

condition of their single industry,
the Menominees were talked into
the Legend Lakes project as the
solution to their financial dilemma,
The idea of this was to develop a
recreational area and lease the
land. As it turned out, Legend Lake
was a financial and ecological
disaster for the tribe. Only the
developers and the banks
henefitted from the scheme.

The actions of the Menominee
Warrior Society are a response to
these economic and legal injustices
committed by the state and federal
government, by Opportunistic
businesses, and even by the tribal
corporation leaders themselves.

The political harassment of the
Menominee Warrior Society is an
attempt to crush the Menominee
Indians‘ desire for self~
determination.

The following article is printed in
the 5&8 in the hope of attracting
sludentsupport for a possible fund
raising and letterrwritlng cam-
paign, Any student interested ln
such actions should contact: Andy
McKibben, Ext. 254, or Doug
Dohrer, 236-3750. ‘

Source: Wisconsin Alliance
Pamphlet “Free the Menominee
Warriors.”

 

