splatter-mystery, with the records appearing only as instants of impossible respite. Made out of the paradox of sun and confinement, the music was at once far more frankly pessimistic, clowning, and casual than the East Coast group sound or Southern band-based black rock. Belvin was perhaps the best pure singer of his place and time; leading off with the ineffable âDream Girl,â a labyrinth of blocked escape routes from the smooth prison of West Coast racism, this is the best collection of his work.
5 Little Richard, Presentation of Best New Artist at the 30th Annual Grammy Awards (CBS-TV, March 2) To himself, as everyone knowsâan announcement that got the self-described âborn-again black Jewâ a nomination to fill the vacant cantorâs post at San Franciscoâs Temple Beth Sholom. Letâs see Jesse Jackson match that.
6 Pamela Rose, âHello, Hello, Taco Bellâ (Tracy-Locke) Rose normally reserves her florid belting for the Zazu Pitts Memorial Orchestra, a camp ânâ Motown outfit; what makes this radio commercial pornographic is her hysterical attempt to convince you sheâs never wanted another human being as much as she wants Taco Bellâs current 99¢ (plus tax) special. Thereâs talk Rose may even get a contract out of itâif the one numerous listeners have pledged to take out on her doesnât go through first.
7 Nick Lowe,
Pinker and Prouder Than Previous
(Columbia) An almost perfect Nick Lowe album: madly idiosyncratic tunes that sound so generic theyâd be all but anonymous on the radio.
8 Alan Leatherwood, âPreservation Halls: The Rock and Roll Hall of Fameâ (
Option
, March/April) A Cleveland report on a boondoggle worthy of the Pentagon.
9 Jerry Lee Lewis,
Keep Your Hands Off It!
(Zu-Zazz reissue, UK, 1959â62) Sun-label songs and instrumentals, loose and rangy and fine, with Jerry Lee and teen bride Myra on the cover. Proof that thereâs no bottom to the Lewis vaultâwhich means his next album has to be a bootleg, a half-dozen outtakes of the drooling âBig Legged Womanâ intercut with the sermon on Lewis-sins that first cousin Jimmy Swaggart made Nick Tosches cut out of his Lewis bio
Hellfire
. The cover should be fabulous.
10 John Waters,
Hairspray
(New Line Cinema/MCA soundtrack) The real, forgotten Toussaint McCall stands on a ghetto dance-hall stage and sings âNothing Takes the Place of Youâ (it was a hit in â67, this is â62, but who cares); four kids leave the room. As they huddle in doorways on the street, making out, a bum walks by, picks up the song, and drowns out the artist: in this moment the song belongs to the derelict as if he wrote it. There hasnât been as true a rock ânâ roll event on screen since the garbage-can pounding of the would-be Little Richard at the end of Floyd Mutruxâs â78
American Hot Wax
.
APRIL 26, 1988
1 Primitives, âCrashâ (RCA UK) The bounce of the Jamiesâ â58 âSummertime, Summertime,â toughened up with â88 cynicism and doubt: from its first bars, a natural hit.
2 Del-Lords, âJudas Kiss,â from
Based on a True Story
(Enigma) Eric Ambelâs singing may be too open, too faceless, to make this explosive cut last, though Syd Strawâs edgy backing vocals helpâbut it doesnât matter. Seventeen years ago the Rolling Stonesâ âDead Flowersâ was a good idea; now itâs great rock ânâ roll.
3 Eric Clapton,
Crossroads
(Polygram reissue, â63ââ88, six LPs, four CDs) This is overkillâdisturbing, desperate moments lost in a 73-cut assemblage of dross and dates, confusion and careerism. Itâs got that acrid digital sound, complete with jumps and drop-offs, lacking all warmth and presence, turning what once were shocks into lifeless exercises in remix. âLaylaâ is a horror: what you get, along with all the words, as if
James Kakalios
Tara Fox Hall
K. Sterling
Jonathan Maberry
Mary Balogh
Elizabeth Moynihan
Jane Hunt
Rebecca Hamilton, Conner Kressley
Jacquie Rogers
Shiloh Walker