The Boston Globe from Boston, Massachusetts • 47

The Boston Globe Friday, November 17, 1972 'Elvis on Tour' missed the boat IN THE SHEETS This untitled work by Ben Bianchi can be seen at the DeCordova Museum through Jan. 7. Two artists exhibited at DeCordova Show extends limit of response RITCHIE YORKE History revisited in best-sellers list It may be difficult to believe but three of the grand old men of rock 'n' roll have been reunited in the top ten of the current US best-selling lists. Chuck Berry is proudly occupying the number one slot with a slightly bawdy ditty he's been performing in concerts for at least six years. The song, "Ding-a-Ling," comes from his latest album, The London Chuck Berry sessions.

Rick Nelson is right up there too with a tune he wrote called "Garden Party." The song concerns Rick's attendance at a party where all of the guests wanted him to sing his old hits from the late Fifties. Rick likes to be- 1 lieve that he's into fresh horizons, but apparently the public prefers him to stick with familiarity. Judging by the success of "Garden Party," it's doubtful if his artistic aspirations are going to be fulfilled. Filling out the bill is the king of yesterday, Elvis Presley. His rendition of "Burning Love" has brought him back to the top ten after several years' absence.

Which of all goes to show that the career of a rock 'n' roll i star never dies, it simply shines-and-fades in cyclical fashion and those able to withstand the emotional shocks therein have the future on their side. Chuck Berry can credit some of his success to Chess Records' innovative A director, Esmond Edwards. In a conversation with Esmond this week, I discovered that he has also taken Bo Diddley into the studio to cut a commercial single. He is highly optimistic about the re- 1 suits and for one, cannot wait to hear Bo Diddley 1972 vintage. Boston's major contribution to the current rock scene, the J.

Geils Band, are enjoying much success with their new live album. In a way this is surprising since the LP does not include much new material. But the good word about Geils is spreading so rapidly that no-one cares. The band is now touring with Yes. David Cassidy says he is probably going to quit the Partridge Family TV show.

In a frank interview in London, Cassidy said: "I'll probably stay another year. Then I'll branch out more into play acting that's what I really started doing. "I haven't had that much opportunity in the Partridge Family to stretch my muscles so to speak. It's given me more flexibility but I haven't really had the opportu- nity to act." Aj every bubble-grimmer knows, David Cassidy has been the subject of an intense merchandizing campaign, involving everything from dresses and coloring books to lunch boxes and paperback books. Cassidy says he feels like he is being exploited.

"I had my housekeeper go to the store and I asked her to buy a certain kind of cereal. She came home and there was a huge picture of me on the back. "It seems ridiculous. I can't even eat a cereal without seeing my face on the back. With Tony King the spectator's involvement is visual.

As an audio-visual segment of the display indicates, his interest in optical deception carries on the 19th-century American traditions of Harnett and Peto. an extension of the image-less, colorless canvas. In the pure white or black painting everything is potential as it is here, although Bianchi's pieces have readable images, colors and textures and are powerfully evocative the theme from the movie '2001," Presley waits a few seconds longer before strutting triumphantly onstage. For this concert. MGM has excerpted C.

Rider" and "Polk Salad Annie." In between rehearsals and a fairly diverting segment of gospel not to mention the interminable transitional scenes at the airport, Presley has to make it on his pipes. One of the few choice moments in the film involves the incorporation of an old kinescope from "The Ed Sullivan Show" of the '50s in which the then newcomer appeared three times. Trivia fans take note: The TV cameras did photograph Presley full-length and not merely from the waist as they were supposed to have done, so that his sinful contortions might not defile living rooms across America. There are also snapshots from his family album and "live" shots of his father, Vernon. However, Presley's canny manager, Col.

Tom Parker strangely maintains a very low profile in relation to the cameras. But whatever the change in the locales of the concerts; Jacksonville, Greensboro, Detroit, Roanoke, the scenes are all the same. Huge auditorium, Elvis waiting in the dressing-room, screaming women and the songs. The best line in the movie, in fact, one of the few lines, comes at the beginning when Elvis recalls how as a neophyte, surprised by the frenzied reception, he asked the theater manager: "What did I do? What did I do?" The manager, with one ear to the cash register, replied: "Whatever it is, go out there and do it again." By Ernie Santosuosso Globe Staff "Elivs on now at the Astor, may not be a hound dog of a movie but it's about four rock documentaries too late. It's one thing to see rock-and-roll's royal prince "live" in a superb slice of theater as some 15,000 did last year at Boston Garden.

But, 90, minutes of movies taken of Presley, mainly singing, with repeated shots of him being taxied to the airport to emplane for the next engagement, makes each succeeding sequence a matter of deja vu. If you are satisfied with a rundown of his personal hit parade, then your enjoyment of the film should be boundless. Attired in a rhinestone-studded, white outfit over which he wears a cape with the wingspan of a 707, Presley plays it, with obvious touches of spoofing, to the idolatrous legions. But after you've seen one tear-stained, wailing female proclaiming that she touched nay, even kissed Elvis, you've seen them all. No complaints with the photography here, either.

Most of the scenes are interior ones with available lighting. MGM has employed what they call the "multiscreen" process which simply means that sometimes you're looking at Presley's image in one, two or three widths, or while he sings in one portion, you are able to observe the audience reaction in another. The 90-minute log of his 1971 tour opens before showtime in San Antonio. There's a brief voice-over by Elvis telling us about his nervousness before he goes on, then, as the orchestra, following comic Jackie Kahane's warmup, rumbles tantalizingly into de Milo, clouds of rococo angels, relief maps, entrapment. The physical character of the material is stressed.

There is a paradoxical contrast between strict slab-like surfaces animated by billows and tugged and stretched linear patterns, and the rounded volumes of recognizable human forms sheathed by the intricacies of crushed white fabric. Obviously, Bianchi's sculptures relate to George Segal's plaster casts of people set in literal environments only with Bianchi the environment is not specific, for the fluid, lyric arrangement of draperies suggest a generalized setting that develops out of human forms. The pieces may also be experienced as By Robert Taylor Globe Staff In their dramatic exhibition at the DeCordova Museum, Lincoln, through Jan. 7, sculptor Ben Bianchi, who swaddles the human figure in petrified draperies of cloth and polyester, and painter Tony King, who tricks the eye with abstract three-dimensional forms painted on a flat canvas surface, continue the dialogue that present-day artists are having about the involvement of a spectator in an artwork. With Bianchi the involvement is tactile.

By shrouding figures in agitated draperies, he first of all establishes a highly allusive visual language. The folds plastered against the figure like wet clothing, have all sorts of references to antique art, the Venus MUM'S 80 BRIDGE ST. (RTE. 109) DEDHAM nd PRODUCTIONS PRESENTS Wednesday Friday COMPLETE FULL COURSE $flAC DINNER SHOW FROM Reservations 326-9755 326-7431 BUDDY RICH his orchestra NOV. 28 DEC.

2 TONIGHT JUDY COLLINS 2 PERFORMANCES 7:30 10:00 P.M. AQUARIUS THEATER 413 WASHINGTON ST. 482-0650 GOOD SEATS AVAILABLE I RAMADA1MN lJ THEATER Mt. l.DANVEKS A BUFFET 1 and SI SHOW I JiFE J8'50 jj rtMrntioni SPECIAL GflOOP 1 3 CAESAR'S HOW DOES IT FEEL? "Elvis on Tour" sets the singer's first filmed reflections on his career against a background of concerts and many hit songs. Movie by Joe Cocker's filmographers continues at Astor.

HUH CanflB cjMonticello TUESDAY SUNDAY THE GRINGOS 12 NOV. 16 to NOV. 26 RENOWNED COMEDIAN OF a 8 Piece Show Band roMiwr THE DORELLS WORLD wnpllA siw Lxltel. LI2 5030 on TOUR ALSO Till GANG 11 1AT COUIDWT USOOl mm TV AND MOVIE FAME 1 ICDDY I CMIC ifcv i LJ Igl BRISTOL STOMP fcM BRISTOL STOMP HULLY GULLY BABY GBM PRODUCTIONS PRESENTS AMERICA'S LONGEST RUNNING MUSICAL COMEDY at Hi i CHANTICLEER New England's Most Intimate Dinner-Tlwatr Rt. 133, Rowley.

Mass. FRI. SAT. $8.95 Call 048-256? Reservations Thoattr Forty Infer. Buffet Dinner hill Shaw Hill MARILYN MICHAELS )2 Now- 30-Dec.

6 ALMARTINO Dec. 7-Dec. 17 la STARTS MON. BACK GARY U.S. BONDS TAXI "QUARTER TO 3" "SCHOOL'S OUT" "DEAR LADY'S TWIST" Final Weekend: The Flamingos "I Only Have Eyes for You" King's How TONIGHT thrn SUNDAY l-ACT FUR REVUE CHUCK LAMER a MOT WEENS wumoudm mm JWA LOUBEoJBlin SJDE MUIO'DONHOL Added Attraction SUNDAY LARRY GLICK of WBZ Farm i Hypnosis One Willow Road Nahant Tel: 581-1300 "A BRILLIANT FILM-STUNNING!" Judith Crist, New York Magazine "O'TOOLE IS FUNNY, DISTURBING, DEVASTATING!" Jay Cocks, Time Magazine Plunge ounge Tony C's A world of beautiful people enjoving two great lounges under one roof the sounds of Bobby Vincent, Joyce Laurel and Shervi Easley the ocean view and a change of pace atmosphere.

It's a new experience. Be there any night of the week. Open from EIGHT PM to ONE AM. Also available for day evening functions. HERB REED "A PLATTERS "ONLY YOU" "MY PRAYER" "TWILIGHT TIME" COMING NOV.

27: KENNY ROGERS AND THE FIRST EDITION "SOMETHING'S BURNIN' "REUBEN JAMES" conve Dance, drink, play pool, meet people, sit by the swimming pool and watch the stars. Featuring MASON DIXON THE LINE November 13-November 26 The New Somerset, 400 Commonwealth Avenue ri ASTOR MOTOR INIM RT. 2 CAMBRIDGE thru SATURDAY 9 AND 11... TICKETS AT THE DOOR ALBERT HAMMOND II NEVER RAINS IN CALIFORNIA is appearing in "The French Connection" AMPLE FREE PARKING LAA BY POPULAR DEMAND BROOKLINE AVENUE AT FENWAY PARK 261-3532 SUN MON HAPPY HOIIP FRI. SAT, DIXIELAND SINGAIONG RAY HARVEY'S GOOD TIME BAND Ken more Sq.

members Boston guests J0Pf IKWf Mjsivs I I AjUKSBuCi OOOOjCIiO 1 711 Easy tO reach! Directions: Take the Causeway from Lynn to Always plenty of Nahant, make the second right and follow FREE PARKING the sipis. PETER 0T00LE ALASTAIR SIM ARTHUR LOWE GOLDEN JOE BAKER jTSPIRE ROOM The Riotous Impersonator of the Greatest Names in Rock Exclusively at the Kenmore Club THEU Assuiianuiy RULING CLASS lIlfJtltlliK HARRY ANDREWS CORAL BROWNE MICHAEL BRYANT' GfiWIAMCROWOEN NIGEL GREEN WILLIAM MERVYN CAROLYN SEYMOUR JAMES 1 TONIGHT TWO SHOWS NIGHTLY AT CAL OEO ATTRACTION SPE COMING SUNDAY WFD 3-7r30 PM NITES JOE SAVAGE COLOUR IMPROPER B0ST0NIANS KENMORE CLUB CIHEMA KENMORE St). 664 BEACON ST. 262 3799 MEAT, DRINK AND BE MERRY The Bull at the New Somerset offers the best beef in town with all the trimmings, exotic Latin drinks, and a make-your-own salad bar that's causing quite a stir. 400 Commonwealth Ave.

267-90 1 0 3 u- Shown at TfinflV I FREE Ruling Claw Posteri TO Th IUUHI First 50 PatroM.