Rolling Stones Dance Part 1

Rolling Stones
'Dance Pt. 1' and 'If I Was A Dancer (Part II)'

As July 1980 slides into August 1980, the Rolling Stones' latest album, Emotional Rescue, released at the end of June, continues to supply the soundtrack to the Summer.

The first track on the album is the infectious disco song 'Dance (Pt. 1)'. While not released as a single, it did reach number 9 on the Billboard Dance chart.

The band recorded an alternate version of 'Dance', which was titled 'If I Was A Dancer (Pt. II)'. This was released as a track on the compilation album Sucking in the Seventies in 1981.

Fifth Avenue, 1980, photograph by Lucas Compan 

Together, the two versions perfectly capture the hedonistic attitude of Studio 54 and the city's disco culture, as the elites partied away while New York sunk ever further into decay. 

Hey, what am I doing standing here on the corner of
West 8th Street and 6th Avenue and...
Ah, skip it.
Nothing. Keith! Watcha, watcha doing? (whistle)

Oh, I think the time has come to get out, get out
Get up, get out, get into something new
Get up, get out, into something new
Ooh! And it's got me moving (Got me moving honey!)
Ooh! And it's got me moving
Ooh! And it's got me moving
Ooh! And it's got me moving

My my my, my my my, my my my, my my my, my

Poor man eyes a rich man
Denigrates his property
A rich man eyes a poor man
And envies his simplicity.
Get up, get up, into something new
Get up, get out, down into something new

Ooh! and it's got me moving
Ooh! and it's got me moving
Ooh! and it's got me moving
Ooh! and it's got me moving
Ooh! and it's got me moving

Yeah, get up, get up, get out
Into something new
Yeah, all, woncha all, woncha all, woncha all
Don't stand accused...

**************************************************************

I stand accused of talking
But I feel that we are falling
In the same old groove
The radio is playing
Spitting out the same old news
It's time to get up, get out
Get out into something new
Time to get up, get out
Out into something new

Everybody wants somebody's fantasy
Everybody wants somebody's crazy dreams

Everybody wants somebody's fantasy
Everybody wants somebody's crazy dreams

If I was a woman, I would want a new man every night
If I was a woman, I would want a new man every night
If I was a politician, make sure I was the best in sight
If I was a woman, I would want a new man every night

The poor man eyes the rich man
Denigrates his poverty
The rich man eyes the poor man
And envies his simplicity

Everybody wants somebody's fantasy
Everybody wants somebody's crazy dreams

If I was a movie star, five million dollars would be my price
If I was a trucker, I'd drive for seven days and seven lonely Nights
If I was a drummer, I would never miss the beat
If I was a dancer, y'all would never see my feet
If I was a hooker, a thousand dollars would be my price, all right
If I was a candidate for President, I'd make sure I had a steady wife
If I was a millionaire, I'd spend all my money in one crazy night

I am what I am
Yeah, my my boss 

I am what I am

My dreams can't be bought Yeah, I said now
I tear across the dollar 

Just to end this day with you 

Yeah, I am what I am
I am my own boss 

Everybody wants somebody's crazy dreams

Everybody wants somebody's crazy dreams

Everybody wants somebody's crazy dreams

Book Review: One Half of the World

Book Review: 'One Half of the World' by James Barlow

3 / 5 Stars

'One Half of the World' (277 pp) was published in hardback by Harper and Brothers (U.S.) in 1957 (as far as I can tell, no paperback edition ever was released).

James Barlow was born in 1921 in Birmingham, England, and was of Welsh background. During World War Two he served in the Royal Air Force as a gunnery instructor before being discharged due to tuberculosis. After convalescing in a sanitarium (the first randomized clinical trial for the efficacy of streptomycin against tuberculosis took place in 1946), Barlow took a job with the city of Birmingham water bureau.

In 1956 he  published his first novel, ‘The Protagonists’. He eventually took up writing full time and published another 12 novels (in the crime, suspense, and political thriller genres) before dying at age 51 in 1973.

'One Half' is set in Britain in 1960, two years after Soviet Russia (referred to throughout the novel with the euphemism 'Occupiers') has conquered Western Europe, during the course of which they nuked London (!)

The United States remains hostile to this New Order, and supports a small, but determined, Resistance movement in the U.K.

The protagonist of 'One Half' is a 36 year-old, clean cut, tall, level-headed  man named Trevor George Baxter. A veteran of World War Two, Baxter is an investigator with the Internal Insecurity Police, dedicated to ferreting out saboteurs, subversives, and other enemies of the State. Baxter serves the Occupiers with the equanimity of the Company Man, convinced that efforts to overthrow his country's overlords risk fostering chaos and the implosion of British society.

Early in the novel Baxter meets, and becomes infatuated by, an eighteen year-old Elizabeth Taylor lookalike named Gillian Smallwood. It turns out that Gillian is religious and meets regularly with other Christians to worship; while not banned by the Occupiers, such activity is frowned upon. Baxter soon realizes that courting Gillian will mean adopting her beliefs; this in turn changes his willingness to advance the aims of the Occupation. 

It also jeopardizes his high standing in the Internal Security Police, and the brutish Detective Sergeant Eric Woodley, who nurses a deep and abiding hatred for Baxter, will be too happy to exploit any mis-steps on Baxter's part..............

'One Half of the World' is not an action-driven storyline along the lines of the 2000 AD comic 'Invasion !', where truck (er, 'lorry') driver Bill Savage wields a sawed-off shotgun and wages violent war against the hated 'Volgans'. 

Rather, it is a deliberately-paced exploration of the conversion from atheism to Christianity on the part of Trevor Baxter and, consequent to this, Baxter's realization that the ideologies of the Occupiers are designed to permanently erase the psyches of conquered peoples. The novel winds up being overburdened with many lengthy passages dealing with this philosophical argument.

Another weakness of 'One Half' is the deracination, as it were, of the Soviets; by referring to them as 'Occupiers', author Barlow imparts generic quality to the villains (the one Occupier that is mentioned by name in the entirety of the novel is a Major with the ambiguous surname of Frosch, as opposed to something more 'Cyrillic' in nature). This failure to imbue the narrative with a full awareness the odious nature of the Soviet / Marxist regime fails to give an effective grounding to the struggle of the oppressed Brits against the Occupation.  

Summing up, I can't recommend 'One Half of the World' as a particularly impressive treatment of the premise of a near-future Britain under the thumb of the Commies. Readers are better off looking for the adventures of Bill Savage in the pages of 2000 AD.

Heavy Metal Presents: Moebius

Heavy Metal Presents: Moebius
1981

Heavy Metal released this compilation of all-new (i.e., it had not previously appeared in the magazine) Moebius material in 1981. Due to speculators, copies in good condition have steep asking prices, but I was able to find a nice copy for $6 in my local comic book shop.

The first half of Heavy Metal Presents: Moebius is made up of an English translation of the initial chapters of the 'Black Incal' (L'Incal Noir) comic. 

The coloring scheme reflects the state of comic book printing in 1981, which was not that great............

Then there is a section of book and magazine covers:

Closing out the compilation are some shorter color and black-and-white comics. 

The best of these is 'The Detour', a satirical tale of Moebius on vacation in the South of France with his wife and baby; despite its heavy amount of text, the comic brings forth the artists' genius at draftsmanship, particularly in this self-portrait:

Summing up, while I wouldn't pay $30 or more for a copy of Heavy Metal Presents: Moebius, if you come across a copy for $20 or less then I recommend picking it up.

Ghost Rider: Shake Hands with Satan !

Ghost Rider: 'Shake Hands with Satan !'
Ghost Rider No. 2, October 1973

In this issue of Ghost Rider, writer Gary Friedrich throws in some supercool 70s-style Satanism: a 'Witch Woman' in microscopic, red leather hot pants and knee-high boots; a biker gang; a blonde chick in a short skirt; and the Devil (i.e., Mephisto) himself......! 

Add in some great artwork from the underrated Jim Mooney, deft inking from the veteran Syd Shores, and a great coloring job by Linda Lessman (this was back before digital coloring even existed). 

All in all, this issue of Ghost Rider was as provocative as a Code-approved comic book could get, back in the Fall of '73..........

Caddyshack repost

Caddyshack
(repost)

Since July 25 marks the 40th anniversary of the release of the film Caddyshack, I thought I'd link to my May, 2018 review of Chris Nashawatty's book about the making of the movie. It's a must-have for any fan of the movie.

A recent interview with Michael O'Keefe ('Danny Noonan') is available here. 

Spawn and the Winos

Spawn and the Winos

From 'Spawn' issue 9 (March 1993), art by Tod McFarlane, story by Neil Gaiman.

Spawn returns a favor......by conjuring 'strawberry ripple' wine ! The beverage of choice for winos back in the 70s.

I very much doubt that modern-day comics would print something so politically incorrect......!

Book Review: To Your Scattered Bodies Go

Book Review: 'To Your Scattered Bodies Go' by Philip Jose Farmer

3 / 5 Stars

'To Your Scattered Bodies Go' first was published in hardcover in January 1971. This Ace Books paperback (222 pp) was published in June 1988. The cover art is uncredited, by likely done by Don Ivan Punchatz.

'Scattered Bodies' is a fixup of the stories 'Day of the Great Shout' (published in 'Worlds of Tomorrow', January 1965) and 'Suicide Express' (published in 'Worlds of Tomorrow', March 1966). It's the first volume in the 'Riverworld' series, which consists of 'The Fabulous Riverboat' (1971), 'The Dark Design' (1977), 'The Magic Labyrinth' (1980) and 'Gods of Riverworld' (1983).

Over the years I have noticed that you can go into any used bookshop and find quite a few copies of the Riverworld series lying on the shelves. I finally came around to picking up and reading 'Scattered Bodies' more out of a sense of duty than because I expected a novel than transcends the genre. And 'Scattered Bodies' is indeed nothing particularly remarkable; it's a solid 3-Star novel, that more or less reads like anything else done by the prolific Farmer.

The protagonist of 'Scattered Bodies' is the Victorian explorer and adventurer Sir Richard Burton, who, upon dying of a heart attack in Trieste, Italy on October 20, 1890, at the age of 69, awakens on a grassy area adjoining a mile-wide river. He is accompanied by other men, women, and children; all are naked and devoid of hair, and the adults are no older than they were in their mid-20s. 

The 'resurrectees' comprise important historical figures as well as commoners, and people from different geological eras, as well as different races, ethnicities, and mother tongues. There is a pink-skinned alien named Monat, and a Neanderthal named Kazz, among the group.

After initial bouts of bewilderment, Burton and the other ressurectees establish a riverside community, relying on nearby groves of bamboo for materials to build crude huts, and eventually, small ships to travel upon the river. Rock formations allow for the fashioning of knives and axes. Mysterious mushroom-shaped rocks scattered around the landscape supply food, liquor, and drugs at regular intervals. 

Burton speculates that the river - bounded by impenetrable mountain ranges - is probably thousands of miles in length, and the entire world within which he lives has evidently been constructed by some omnipotent beings for some purpose known only to themselves. But Burton is unwilling to adopt a life of passivity imposed upon him by the agents of his resurrection. One way or another, he intends to find the Tower that lies at the end of the river.......the Tower where, it is rumored, the rulers of Riverworld are assembled........

'Scattered Bodies' benefits from a quick-moving plot, helped along with intervals of violent action (more than a few of the resurrectees soon are Behaving Badly towards one another). There are the typical Famer-ian passages which expound on historical, religious, and sociological issues; these underlie the broader theme of Revelation coming only to those with the courage to seek it.

I can't say I finished 'To Your Scattered Bodies Go' with a burning desire to visit the remaining volumes in the Riverworld franchise, but fans of Farmer's writings may want to consider investing in the series, as it stands as one of his most high-profile works.

Germaine Greer and Robert Plant

Germaine Greer and Robert Plant
Press Party, Sydney Australia, February 1972

Left: Germaine Greer, center: Robert Plant, right: unknown

The Flute Player by Caza

The Flute Player
by Caza
1980

This is one of the stories compiled in the 2001 anthology The Age of Darkness.

Book Review: The Roads of Heaven

Book Review: 'The Roads of Heaven' by Melissa Scott

5 / 5 Stars

‘The Roads of Heaven’ was published by Doubleday / The SF Book Club in May 1988. The cover art is by Ron Walotsky. It compiles all three volumes of the so-called ‘Silence Leigh’ trilogy, consisting of ‘Five-Twelfths of Heaven’ (1985), ‘Silence in Solitude’ (1986), and ‘The Empress of Earth’ (1987), all of which first appeared as mass-market paperbacks from Baen Books.

With the paperback editions long out of print, the compilation is probably the easiest and most affordable way to acquire the series. That said, it took most of the month of June for me to finish all 760 pages of ‘The Roads of Heaven’.

Melissa Scott (b. 1960) began publishing in the early 80s and continues to write today, in both the sci-fi and fantasy genres. She also has published novels for the ‘Star Trek’ and ‘Stargate’ franchises.

‘Roads’ is set in the far future, with most of the colony worlds of known space under the rule of the quasi-Islamic Hegemony. The Hegemon, an otherwise despotic ruler, tolerates some degree of malfeasance among the more independent-minded trade worlds....... provided such malfeasance serves his purposes. Within the Hegemon, women are relegated to a subservient status, obliged to obey the orders of their male guardians, and required to go veiled and escorted on those occasions when they must go out in public.

[‘The Roads of Heaven’ is subtle, but effective, in its allegorical examination of the subjugation of women under Islam, particularly in its second volume, ‘Silence in Solitude’, which revolves around the fate of women held under a kind of futuristic Purdah.]

The heroine, Silence Leigh, is an anomaly in the world of the Hegemony: she is a fully qualified starship pilot, taking her grandfather’s merchant ship The Black Dolphin from one world to another. However, in the opening chapter of the inaugural novel, ‘‘Five-Twelfths of Heaven’, the death of her grandfather has left Silence’s future, and the disposition of ownership of The Black Dolphin, in the hands of her male guardian, the oleaginous and self-serving Uncle Otto. But when Uncle Otto is a no-show in Secasian Family Court, Silence finds herself destined to serve as the employee / consort of a local merchant, the loathsome Tohon Champuy.

In desperation, and needing a male guardian, Silence agrees to a marriage of convenience with two men from the ship Sun-Treader : pilot Denis Balthasar, and engineer Chase Mago. For the two men, it’s a chance to acquire an experienced pilot to lend assistance to their trading flights among the planets of the Hegemony, and for Silence, it’s a chance to retain her independence.

Without disclosing any major spoilers, I’ll simply remark that the major underlying theme of the trilogy deals with the efforts of Silence, Denis Balthasar, and Chase Mago to find the quasi-mythic planet called Earth, a world which no one has traveled to for centuries, due to the absence of accurate navigational data. Their efforts will bring them into contact with the unforgiving military of the Hegemon; the Satrap of Inarime, whose offer of assistance comes with a potentially lethal price; and a journey through a region of space jealously guarded by the Rose World coalition, who do not take kindly to intruders…………

‘The Roads of Heaven’ is one of the best space operas I’ve yet read. Its prose style is straightforward and engaging, and while the narrative's pacing is deliberate (and devoid of the over-the-top themes of many space operas - there are no mile-long spaceships travelling through black holes to confront computers the size of planets in ‘The Roads of Heaven’), it benefits from having well-drawn characters, and genuinely suspenseful passages (notably, these passages deftly avoid cliched actions in arriving at a resolution).

Another interesting aspect of the trilogy is its use of magic – specifically, a mixture of astrology and alchemy – to underpin technology and space travel. While the mechanics of interstellar travel using ‘tinctures’ and ‘harmonies’ and mystical symbology does sometimes get a bit labored, its eccentricity brings something new to the trope of how to get your spaceship from point A to point B.

The verdict ? ‘The Roads of Heaven’ is a solid 5-star trilogy, and well worth searching out.