The Journal News from Hamilton, Ohio • Page 18

IB Journal-News, Hamilton, Ohio Tuesday, September 1972 MOVIES songwrifer hlfsl John Prine: Diamond in the rough COURT: Nicholas Alexandra 7:45 (PG) a i Sunday Bl'oody Sunday 10:30 (R) COLONIAL: Last of the Ucd Hoi Lovers 8, (PG) Catch 22 9:45 (R Friends 12 HOLIDAY: i or Come early and briny the family to our TWILITE DINNERS under 5 lo 7:30 llirii i i j(y I i i i i i Lirul lor nmlrr $'2 EATON MANOR Dhif Hiu'uy nt VALLEY: Porlnoy's Complaint 8, (R Man in Ihe Wilderness 9:51 A I The Graduate 7, (IU Love My Wife 8:46 (R) I A WEST: The Candidate 8 JOLLY I10GER: Talcs of Terror 8, Haunted Palace The Oblong Bn: 11:10 SM thi completi lint Color Black Television Sets FOLET RADIO TV and ELECTRIC CO, us cut I'd. i i By ROBERT 1IILBURN The Los Angeles Times Fully aware of the dangers of critical over-praise, let me warn you upfront a not everyone is going to enjoy John Prine's new a His voice, for one thing, may be too some. His a a may be too sparse (or others. And his lyrics may be loo "down" for someone looking simply for good-lime music. Even more importantly, the album requires that you listen lo it, even concentrate on Ihe lyrics.

There aren't any i a fireworks goinl on to keep you occupied. If you're looking for either just background music or some wildly inventive jazz-rock fusion, this isn't it. With those warnings posted, let me say Ihere isn't an album among the 200 or more that I've heard tins year that I would give to a friend with more at- teclion, warmth and pleasure than Prine's new a i a in Rough" A a i SD 7240). Not only does the new album live up to the promise shown in The People's Choice Chicken, PRIDE-FRIED 2 pcs.Chicken french fries, cole slaw, roll. i Complete Dinner 8 PC.

$2.39 4 pcs.Chicken trench fries, cole slaw, roll. i Complete Dinner 14 PC. $3.59 314 N. Erie Boulevard, Hamilton Prine's debut a last November, but it establishes him more i than ever as America's most important new counlry-folk songwriter since Bob Dylan. Like Dylan, Princ, a 25-year- old native of Chicago, is a moralist, a bil of philosopher.

He writes about things that bolhcr him, a strike him a i unnecessary. Where Dylan concentrates, however, on society's in- i or i Prine centers his i more closely on the individual, the i i i i of a indifference. And, ralher than government or collective a (he true villain in Prine's songs is often Ihe individual, not the group. His songs, both in the first album and in the new one, often spotlight the indifference one person shows lo another, something thai has nothing at all lo do will) organizations, boundaries, nationalism, age differences. Growing up in and around a Chicago, Prine had ample opportunity to see the alienation and emptiness of much of modern life, but his family was from rural Ken- ucky and somehow the simple, lassie values became part of lis way of thinking about what 'cnt on around.

Loneliness and emptiness arc ar the only ircsenl in the Prine's work. There is humor, political comment, Irony and a strong sence of youth past. He is deliberately senlimental in his use fo words and inages. The song in "Diamonds in the Rough" that perhaps best combines the various strengths of Prine's music is "The Great Compromise," A son a outwordly is about a guy taking his girl lo a drive-in theater but actually is A commentary on A i a involvement in Vietnam. Ralher than strikeout in anger or sermonize like so many in contemporary pop music tends lo do, Prine writes of the sadness, the sense of loss aboul his country making sucli a tragic chorus expresses Ihe faith of children arc raised wilh and sudden realization that mistakes can be made.

It the chorus, he even works in a line from Prances Scoll Key: Used to sleep at Ihe foot of old glory. And wake in the dawn's early i But much lo my surprise, when I opened my eyes 1 was the victim of the Great Compromise. As novelists sometimes do, i wrilcs both serious, dramatic songs and light en- lerlainmenls. But everything he writes has a poinl no matter how subtle or humorous the treatment. Because of Ihe starkness of much of his songs, he has been described as a writer-artist- spokesman in the "Tradition of Brando, Dylan and and several of Ihe songs in Ihe new albun fully justify that view of him.

And one of the songs in Ihe album refers, ironically, lo another figure in lhal same tradition of artisls who evoke slrong reactions in people. The song is called "The Late John Garfield-Blues" and it is the slarkest i Prine has written. For someone who is yet to have anything that resembles a gold record, Prine, particularly reccnlly, has been picking up an impressive number of press notices, and he is also beeinnine to headline some of America's (Majors Folk Clubs. In the lime, unfortunately, lhal il look Ihe industry lo catch on lo Prine, liltle of Ihe material from his first album received much radio airplay. Now lhal he has gained a reputalion, Ihe radio exposure and, presumably, sales of the album is expected lo increase substantially.

Except for Ihe a i i a title song (Done in a CAPPELLA style), all Ihe songs on "Diamonds in the Rough" are by Prine, most of them written in Ihe months since his first album was recorded. Here is a sampling of some of Ihe tracks on the new album. upbeat, gospel-country about a guy who takes his new sailboat out on (he wafer the "The Late John Garfietd same day Jesus decides to walk stark, throughly on Ihe water and runs into i effective mood piece that "I bumped into the savior and captures Ihe essence of despair, he said, 'Pardon I said, the moments when nothing can 'Jesus, you look And he seem to help: "Midnight fell on Franklin street and Ihe lamp- 'Jesus, you look tired. And he bulbs were broke for the life of said, 'Jesus, so do you. 1 It me, I could not see but 1 heard a turns out Jesus hadn't lalked to brand new joke two men were anyone in a long time and ends standing upon a bridge one up lelling (his guy about all the jumped and screamed you lose problems of Ihe world, leading just left Ihe odd man holding to the point of the chorus: those lite John Garfield blues.

"Everybody needs somebody that they can talk "Sour Crapes -One of the lighter entertainments, this was the first complete song Prine, at "The Torch age 14, ever wrote, It's about stark and serious in design, the Ihe guy trying to explain her song is about a guy who goes inlo a bar feeling sorry for himself and ends up seeing a torch singer whose misery "She sang of the love that left her and the woman thai she'd never made him even more depressed made me feel like (he buck and a quarler lhal 1 paid 'em to lislen and of Ihe album's besl moments, this is an i i extremely nostalgic song about Ihe things thai arc gone forever, from one's own youth to those special loved ones. "Broken hearts and dirty windows make life difficult to see that's why last night and this morning always look the same lo me." love didn't mean a i anyway. But everyone knows it's just sour graps. "Billy the in the serious, more ambitious vein. The song is about the way people read lo an Invalid, cither a mental cripple or a physical cripple.

Some people show pily and some show nothing, but few take the time and care to Ireat him like a real person. "Now some folks, in their holy cloaks ever took Billy on as a friend." "The Frying novelly, cntertainmenl piece complete with ricky-ticky banjo about a guy whose wife has lefl him and he i himself missing the way "she used to yell at me, Ihe way she used to cuss and moan." Bach beat: neverending HUGH Copley News Service And the Bach beat goes on. This i i "Anthony s'ewman and Friends" with iach's six Brandenburg concertos, a two-record set distributed by Columbia records. They are so named iccause the music was commissioned by a a Christian Ludwig of Brandenburg, a patron of the arts. The vast range of musical andscape covered by Bach is expressively recorded by Newman, in the harpsichord, and his "friends" a mini- orchestra that would probably have matched Ihe one used by Bach in his limes.

This is Uach in all his moods, from the fes'ivity of the to Ihe somberness of introspection. An added note: Columbia is lo be applauded for having complete concerlos on each side of each record none of this annoying slopover of (he finale to the other side of a record that brings groans from listeners. You can stay seated with Ihis sel, and jusl listen. frlCHiLDRENS 1 MATINEES They u'crc liic ttnfs nixnit THI: IXIOR. llial Inl In the riirhrnifiiig MARGARET (TERM HERBERT XARSHAU DtAKSTOaWEll (ISA USCHISTIR-III IAN ROflil RlCINALDOHLH-tiiirliTitiiiccicr I ACADEMY AWARD WINNER! I IV ftlCt! mm HOFFMAN I AmEMNCNFT MITHMINE nss Nicholas Alexandra THE! GRADUATE I "I LOVE MY WIFE!" tUKTT GOULD Due to enplicil dialogue and bold, subject OEUONJOHN FtBUltXJS SCMf COBURN WILL BlOW YOU APART! "Sunday BKxxiv I Sunday" Diet mania hitsMTM! By NANCY ANDERSON Copley News Service HOLLYWOOD Both Valerie Harper and Gavin MacLeod of "The Mary Tyler Moore Show" have been peeling off pounds, Valerie 20 of them and Gavin even more.

Thanks to her ballet workouts twice a week, Mary's weight never fluctuates by more than two pounds. Mary and her husband, Grant Tinker, will move into a newly completed home in Malibu in October. They've sold tneir Beverly Hills manse and plan t9 live at the beach full time. Black arts good thing CRAZY LEGS. Three visiors lo San Francisco's recent (last week) black exposition of arts appear to be hold up this large painting.

Actually they're viewing an exhibit on the olhcr side. More than 100,000 visitors filed through the city's Civic Center for the show. 8P.M. From WARNER BROS WF.ST. 863-4805 Leisure Fulbright deadline October 4 "A DAZZLING MUSICAL FILM!" --Judith Crist, NBC-TV (Today Show) "LIZA MINNELLI IN 'CABARET' --A STAR IS BORN!" -BSSS" OXFORD Reminder of an Oct.

4, local deadline for 1973-74 Kulbrighl a has been issued by Dr. Charles Burton Kahs, director of international programs at Miami University. Students may conlact Dr. Kahs al the i i International Programs office. 323 Harrison Hall.

Completed applications must be at that office by Oct. 4. Applicanls will be interviewed by the Miami University Fulbright Committee and their applications forwarded to Ihe Institute of International Education in New York wilh the Miami com- miltee's evaluation. For 1973-74 about 360 Fulbrighl-Hays full grants and Iravcl grants and 190 grants from foreign Slavery abolished Slavery was abolished in N'cw York State on July 4, 1827. universities and private donors are available lo 36 foreign countries.

Applicants must have a bachelor degree when the fellowship begins and must not yet have completed the Ph. I), degree. Grants are available in a wide variety of fields. and graduate students in any of Miami's five schools may be eligible. QOWNJOWN COURT 6926730 The WAREHOUSE 5 Appearing Tues.

Wed. )f JOHNNY HOLIDAY and Guardrail SPECIAL fAUPKICES ladies Night Wed. 1950BENNINGHOFENAVE. 894-1269 Of CN p.m. lo Ii30 Tf.