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THE 215T CENTURY (CBS, 6-6:30 p.m.). "Atomic Medicine" explores ways that nuclear energy will be exploited for treatment and diagnosis of disease in the next century.
Tuesday, September 19
AFRICA (ABC, 9:30-10:30 a.m.). The first hour of ABC's four-hour "Africa" program. This segment features an introduction and narration by Gregory Peck and deals with the animals and the land, Anthropologist Dr. Louis S.B. Leakey's views on early man, and Africa's oldest and youngest independent nations, Ethiopia and Botswana.
RECORDS
Pop
What was once loosely labeled rock 'n' roll has gone far beyond the original formula. Today's groups give their listeners unexpected harmonic progressions, widely varied instrumentation, and cryptic, elliptic lyrics, along with photographs of flowers on album covers—symbols of the hippies' flower power.
SGT. PEPPER'S LONELY HEARTS CLUB BAND (Capitol). The Beatles, of course, introduced most of the new subtleties to the pop scene. Their eleventh gold record (over 2,000,000 sold) is a polished program with carnival trappings but also poetic snapshots of contemporary life: a girl silently leaving home ("We gave her everything money could buy"), a bit of psychedelic romancing ("Lucy in the sky with diamonds"), a dronelike hippie hymn ("We're all one, and life flows on within you and without you"). Most memorable is the hauntingly disjointed coda, A Day in the Life, with its wild electronic crescendo following the proposal "I'd love to turn you on."
FLOWERS (London). Even the Rolling Stones are coming up roses—with a picture of posies on the album, that is. Otherwise, the mixture is much the same as before and includes five hits from earlier albums: Ruby Tuesday; Let's Spend the Night Together; Lady Jane; Mother's Little Helper; Have You Seen Your Mother, Baby, Standing in the Shadow? The Stones do pay their respects to the Detroit world of rhythm 'n' blues, to which they owe so much, by singing Smokey Robinson's My Girl. And they have a quiet ballad that would make any woman sing the blues: "Don't want you part of my world/Just you be my back-street girl."
BEEGEES' 15T (Atco). Would you believe a rock-'n'-roll Gregorian chant? And a wavy-haired hero named Craise Finton Kirk? Then there is Cucumber Castle, with a Pinkerton man in the wings ("Be ever so humble, it's home"). The fresh, inventive Bee Gees most surely have a future, and even a past—of sorts—though they are still in their teens. They are the three English-born Gibb brothers who moved to Australia and have been writing their own songs for years. Two Australian friends , have joined in for resonance.
SO GOOD (Epic). Don And The Goodtimes recently emerged from the Pacific Northwest carrying their harpsichord and clavichord, in the new genteel manner. Nevertheless, they sound like rather raw understudies to the Beatles, their favorites, when they sing Good Day Sunshine, along with a bouquet of other sweet-smelling songs, such as their hit single, / Could Be So Good to You.