Nuclear fishin'

Press, 21 February 1980, Page 14

Nuclear fishin'

RECORD REVIEWS by

Nevin Topp

the muse concerts for a non-nuclear FUTURE. “No Nukes” (Asylum ML-801). Stuck on one of the pil- • la'rs by a sub-editor’s desk >at “The Press” is a cartoon featuring a beat-up ; VW, with bumper stickers / oh the back saying: “No ; Nukes” and “Save the being overtaken by a large American limIpusine with a bumper-sti-lt eke r on the rear reaping j£“Jluke The Blue Whales.” i-k’iln some ways the car'S tdon sums up the. “No ■ 1 Nukes” triple album, gart nered from, five days of. ’’rock music at Madison '■ Square Garden; New York, ' frpm September-19 to the ■ 23. MUSE stands. for/Mu'.sicians United For Safe '■ Energy,-. : an organisation

set up to counter the growth of nuclear .power ■ :jn the United States, and ‘ltd offer alternative • ’’sources. The irony is that '•the big corporations in Ainerica have the te’ch- ' nology for solar energy sewn up. . . Another irony is that I Madison. Square Garden is owned by Gulf + Western. ; one of the big energy brokers in the United States. The .“No. Nukes concert was essentially West Coast-oriented, and with people like James Taylor, Jackson Browne, and particularly Crosby, Stills, and Nash playing the idea was' to use the word “Garden” from the venue to mean “paradise. The original names for rthe concerts, “No Nukes ••' In The Garden,” followed J'.fev “No Nukes-In Our Garfden,” and “Your Garden?” were vetoed -> by.. Madison Garden because

they, thought it sounded like : the venue supported thp TfllKP Unlike the financial disappointments over the “Concert for Bangladesh” in 1971, and Dylan’s Hurricane Carter benefit at the Houston Astrodome in 1976, the musicians on “No Nukes” retained direct control over the finances associated with the shows, the record, and the film. . ... : However, that does not guarantee its success musically. There are more disappointments about the album than positive factors, suggesting that the triple-show album is following the dodo . into extinction. - The main interest has centred on Bruce Springsteen. Haskell Wexler and Barbara Keppler. the directors of the “No Nukes” film, may' have .trouble editing Brucie’s act, because at one stage he dragged his former girlfriend, . Lynn Goldsmith, the official concert phetographer, on stage and-then pushed her into the wings. For Springsteen fans the album will be a disappointment. Considered one of the hottest live acts in the States,. Bruce . does only two. numbers,'. ‘‘Stay,” in which Jackson Browne apparently coopted Springsteen into the vocals, and “Devil - With The Blue Dress Medley,” the famous. Mitch Ryder/Detroit medley, incorporating “Devil With The Blue Dress;” ' “Good Golly, Miss Molly,” and “Jenny Take A Ride.” . . Springsteen headlined on two nights, and also played two new compositions,, so in one sense it is sung in vain. However, the medley-has only; previously been available in bootlegs. - f

The album has an overall inconsistency. For every good track, such as Poco’s “Heart Of The

Night,” a - really soulful Eagle-like sound, an expansive “Little Sister” from Ry Cooder, and Nicolette Larson, backed by the Doobie Brothers, singing a far better version of Neil Young’s song “Lotta Love” than the one on her debut album, there are tracks that let “No Nukes” down. . The album seems almost dominated by the Crosby, Stills, and Nash triangle, and it seems they want us to forget about the 1970 s and head back to “Woodstock” in what, may be seen as an exercise in nostalgia. Side six, with "You Don’t Have To Cry,” "Long Time Gone,” and “Teach Your Children,”

seems to wilt in comparison with earlier times, but Nash on his own does a good version of “Cathedral.”

John Hall, on “Plutonium Is Forever,” is not so good, and in the words of another review about “No Nukes,” the anthem of the show, “Power is a “real nellie.”

Music is the drawcard for this anti-nuclear event, and although the album package .includes a 16page booklet filled wih statistics and accounts of disasters such as Three Mile Island, it is hard to determine w’hether this album will reach critical mass appeal. '