Something Old, Something New

YOU KNOW HIM and I know him. He is that thin, handsome, frizzled mass of energy who jumps, spins, and sings his way into our lives. With jumps, spins, ands sings his way into our lives. With Peter Townsend, Keith Moon and John Entwhistle, he is part of the quartet that has piloted a generation in its magic bus.

But on his own, Roger Daltrey has only recently distinguished himself as a unique musical being. Daltrey doesn't claim to be a songwriter; indeed, it is common knowledge that Peter Townsend writes the music and plays all the instruments into a fourtrack tape machine, then brings the recorded piece into the studio for John, Roger and Krazy Keith to turn on.

Roger Daltrey knows he is a fantastic vocalist--musically and expressively--and this is all he claims to be. Heed not the cynics who call One of the Boys cliched. It is a solid album--not exceptional--but a solid, purposeful vehicle by which Daltrey's voice extends, reaches its way into your senses; not as a familiar call from the Who, but as a distinctly different musical talent.

Prior to One of the Boys, Who solo efforts have been truly cliched, clinging to the rock'n' roll vitality which propels most Who songs. The sound is the same, the feeling is the same.

In One of the Boys Daltrey sings mellow tunes, almost dreamy, and sometimes too sappy to praise. But he does them with a class and talent that no top-40 cheapie could approach. It is Daltrey's voice that reaches highs few other rock voices today could find; it is Daltrey's voice that exhibits the versatility and feeling two other tongues could carry. We've all heard Daltrey howl the Sally Simpson blues, the lament of Teenage Wastland, but the sounds of One of the Boys are both new and refreshing.

Daltrey's hottest cuts on the album are "Say it Ain't So, Joe" and "Avenging Annie" (in that order). "Satin and Lace," "Doing It All Again," "Parade," and "One of the Boys" are all solid cuts. Daltrey co-authored only two of the album's ten songs.

"One of the Boys" is the title cut and stands as Roger Daltrey's parody (if not attack) on British punk rock. For those of us who know Daltrey, it is a familiar rag, only because it parleys Daltrey's working class consciousness. Daltrey once told a reporter he was happiest to be a rock musician because "it kept him out of the factories." Daltrey's self-styled punk star of the song "is a face in the mirror that may give you a fright," a narcissistic star who graces the cover of the album, "but he's alright," the song reassures.

Daltrey is "alright" with rousing versions of "Say It Ain't So, Joe" and "Avenging Annie;" he picks up these old rag dolls and brings them back to life in a way that outshines the originals.

Paul McCartney writes one of the songs, "Giddy", and it sounds like your run-of-the-high-school Wings production, but only Daltrey's voice can survive the vocal obstacles which McCartney constructed for his own cherubic tones.

"PARADE" IS A STORY that grows on you: the story of every artist trying to be an artist. Daltrey plays the subdued observer watching the star on the stage, telling us he "never made the headlines, but I was in that scene." We know Roger has even made the cover of the Rolling Stone, but he reveals a perspective of himself and of his work that few stars have; and so Roger Daltrey remains a star.

Don't listen to this album if you are a jazzman; if you like electronic beeps and structureless trinkles, sans vocals this is the worst investment you could make. Daltrey performs quite conventional and ordinary songs; the way he performs them is extraordinary and therein lies the quality of this album and of Roger Daltrey. Daltrey is helped along by the best supporting cast and Who soloist has ever assembled: Entwhistle plays bass, Rod Argent sweeps the keyboards, even Eric Clapton brings his talents to play.

But if you like the trills of a fine human voice, One of the Boys shows why Roger Daltrey is riding his Honda 500 and having a beer at the pub, instead of weaving dacron at the textile factory. It proves beyond any doubt Daltrey is more than one of the boys.

Aja

By Steely Dan

1977, ABC records, $3.99

AJA IS STEELY DAN'S long-awaited, greatly hyped coming of age. We have been tantalized with sneak pre-listens on local radio stations and with pre-release ovations from the rock press. It is finally here, and it is obvious why this album has created so much noise.

Steely Dan crosses the fine line it has been straddling for so long; the band has solidly ventured into jazz, both instrumentally and structurally, although their vocals remain the same. Yet, even the vocals are not totally sacred. Don Fagen's voice is different on Aja; it lacks the gisty rasp; it is cleaner, using harmony where it never did before. The guitar is not nearly as prominent a player as it is in the group's other dramas. The Dan are using horns, electric keyboards, symthesized sounds as well as a distict jazz rhythm for their music.

STEELY DAN has freed itself from the musical and expressive structures inherent in rock and roll. With mixed results, they are reckoning with their limitless potential.

Because of their limitless potential, this progression, Becker's scorching leads are sorely missed in the music. Steely Dan's ability to rock'n'roll attrated many of their current fans, and in Aja they have abandoned the juiced-up riffs of "Reelin' in the Years," and settled down to a contemporary jazz guitar, which is only intermittently prominent in the music. Sax, horns, vibes and keyboards carry the tunes to their destination, and in a very sophisticated way.

Donald Fagen and Walter Becker composed smooth lyrics for Aja, proving you can combine meaningful lines with structural jazz. In "Deacon Blues" they make us privy to the business of their new album:

This is the age of expanding man...

Throw a kiss and say goodbye

I'll make it this time

I'm ready to cross that fine line

I'll learn to work the saxophone

I play just what I feel

Drink Scotch whiskey all night long

And die behind the wheel

"Deacon Blues" is the blues of this album, at the same time it is the album's triumph. It is sad Steely Dan left its rock and rollpulpit for the endless plane of jazz; it is one of a handful of bands which can do justice to a rapidly whithering art. But Aja comes across as Steely Dan's "breaking on thru"; their growth is so limitless and their potential so boundless that it way only a matter of time before Aja had to arrive. Becker and Fagen are all that's left of the original Dan. Their everpressing musical curiosity has surfaced and taken hold to produce an album so technically sound it teases the senses to imagine the group's next work.

Aja is the most unique and original album released this year. The album cover is unDanly suave; a mysterious portrain of an exotic woman, it is its own glossy message, carefully designed and stated. There are not bad cuts, but there are several excellent ones. "Aja" and "Deacon Blues" stand as the album's keystones, musically leading the way, lyrically and philosophically into another stage of Steely Dan's growth. The horns and sax are slick, and the sound bottoms out with creditable vibes by Victor Fedlman.

TAGEN IS THE artistic anchor in Aja: he plays synthesizer, writes, and sings backup vocals (the credits list no lead vocals, a forthright statement about instrumental priority) on every cut.

Steely Dan's musical versatility emerges on the first cut, "Black Cow." The electric piano, clavinet, sax and synthesizer take charge from the upbeat and become hewn into a cogent sound that becomes Aja.

The second side is not as strong as the first. It is continuation of the same sounds, assembled in shorter cuts, perhaps for the benefit of the air waves. "I Got The News" uses graceful vocal harmony and some fine guitar leads with the album's usual set of jazz instruments to weave a fluent, atriking cut. "Peg" is that cute tune to which all the top-fortyettes will bump. Peg," despite its true quality, approaches the barrier between easy-listening-jazz and disco. The "Disco Dan" concept puts a damper on the album, raising doubts as to whether or not this band will in fact "die behind the wheel."

But in Aja, for every doubt there is a hope. The strides this group makes with each consecutive album amazes me and promises. And, there are also Steeley Dan's own reassurances:

This is for me...

Libations

Sensations

That stagger the mind