REVIEW
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from front page
Music Deli Presents Archie Roach – 1988, is a
collection of raw studio sessions and live tracks. It brings together
treasured songs which capture the history of Aboriginal people in
Australia and tells the stories of children suffering, parents being
devastated, atrocities being committed and blood being spilt.
On the 1st March 1988, the first tracks were recorded. Took
the Children Away, is a bold song about the Stolen
Generations, its political message is reinforced in the song Beautiful
Child.
The guitars and the vocals are simple but more than convey the message
without further unnecessary instrumentation. Hard hitting lyrics are a
trademark of this album and in Blood and Tears; the
lyrics about massacres, lies, and ‘judgment day’ and unashamedly in
your face.
The People of Sorrow is in the same league;
with
the pain Roach endured being more than evident in his vocals.
Discrimination is tackled head-on through the torturous language in Keep
Your Handouts, Give Us Back Our Land. He laments his lost
culture in Give Us Back Our Dancing.
The angst persists on the 5th November 1990 recordings –
although Sister Brother
sees a happier mood and more engaging tempo begin to emerge. On this
track, his beloved late wife Ruby Hunter and David Arden provide
supporting vocals and tambourine and guitar respectively. Christmas
Eve from the same year is lighter and carries the same
message, albeit in a softer tone.
Weeping in the Forest – a live recording made
on
the 30th January 1992 - is also about the Stolen Generations and is
once again enhanced by acoustic guitar (Archie Roach, David Arden, Ruby
Hunter) and keyboards (Tim Prince). F Troop and Reach
for You,
both live recordings made on the 14 August 1997, are less political and
musically more colourful, featuring Dave Steel on harmonica and lap
steel guitar.
Despite its heavy focus on the Aboriginal politics of the day,
this
album is great to chill out to. When you listen to this album you can’t
help but relax and be carried away by the voice and guitar of the
talented Archie Roach. Music Deli Presents Archie Roach – 1988
is a wonderful musical journey and yet still manages to teach us a
thing or two. The powerful lyrics are also published by Harpers Collins
in the book ‘You Have the Power’ (1994).
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The
difficulty, of course, given the riches available from such a huge
number of live gigs, is to make the selection; that was the job of the
sound engineers and compilers but they have been too timid in cutting
out the dross.
A curious feature of this collection, which spruiks itself as a
“musical”, is the almost complete absence of recitative, let alone
music. The spoken word predominates and indeed takes the day. What
music there is - is brash and bordering on the jingoist - brass bands?
At times the listener must pull him or herself up and ask - is this a
musical extravaganza or a political rally?
Obama’s command of brass has certainly been the subject of endless
commentary, and the sheer power of the brass on display here is
overwhelming; the lines are crisp and seemingly self-generative,
harking back less to the golden era of jazz – Basie, Ellington,
FitzHubert – than to James Brown’s percussive and jabbing,
attention-grabbing style.
The lineup is impressive and makes up in variety for the paucity of
thematic material. The fresh-faced young Hilary Clinton as Secretary of
State and precision gum-smacker provides a spritely and cheeky
counterpoint to Obama’s unforgiving somber tone. Robert Gates takes on
Defence and the electric pencil sharpener as though his life depended
on it. And Timothy Geithner as Treasury Secretary makes several soulful
interventions on the sackcloth and ashes as to bring tears to
investment bankers’ eyes and restore the zeroes to their bank accounts.
In the rhythm section, Janet Napolitano takes on Homeland Security
and finesses the tolerance card to within an inch of its tolerance.
Leon Panetta in taking on the CIA, a new instrument for this old hand,
brings an idiosyncrasy to the water board that would make as proficient
a player as Dick Cheney proud. And retired Navy Admiral Dennis Blair is
Obama’s choice as the top US intelligence official. Admiral Blair, 61,
oversees the entire US intelligence apparatus and is responsible for
delivering Obama’s daily intelligence briefings. Listen in particular
for them – they truly redefine “intelligence” for the new generation.
He also plays a mean can-opener.
Nancy Pelosi directs.
Yet, for all the fluff – and, boy, is there fluff – Obama doesn’t
fluff a line. In the words of a great song to which Obama refers almost
as an anthem: “Can we fix it? Yes, we can!” (Bob the Builder, 2000).
“I can’t afford this,” lamented a US taxpayer.
Three earplugs and a free flight from Guantanamo (pay your own fare in).
Hugh Hefner and Friends
Live at the Hammersmith Odium
(Royal Command Performance for His Royal Highness Prince Andrew Duke of York)
Monkey Business DVD DE2010-01
$26.90
A DVD for the whole family, this live concert set is a visual feast
for lovers of tawdry abasement of the human person’s generative faculty
and cynical cooption of addiction as a lifestyle.
Hefner, after a shagging career of 50-some years, shows the Brits
and Andrew Duke of York in particular that he can still crack it as he
shags his way through a chorus line of voluptuous beauties and PhD
candidates preparing theses on Keynesian economic theory.
The show runs for two minutes with a break of 30, then another two
minutes with a break of 30, and so on for 256 minutes in all. And boy
does our Huey work up lather!
A red-faced Duke of York commented after the concert: “I, er, um, ha,
ha, er … well, jolly interesting and all, but I was expecting Huey
Lewis and the News.”
The DVD set includes deleted scenes, some hilarious bloopers, an
interview with Gore Vidal’s manicurist and a running commentary from
Richie Benaud (on the West Indies v England Test that was taking place
a few kilometers away at the Oval at the time).
“F**k off, gov,” said London cabbie Leonard Cohen when I offered him a £100 note to pay £4 fare.
Five earplugs and a defibrillator
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March 2010 
