May 1970

Features

The Incredible Story Of Iggy & The Stooges

Dave Marsh

This is a story about the Stooges.

MAIL

Dear Creem: I enjoyed Joshua Schreir’s review in the April Creem of that notable album, War Between the Fats and Thins, really enjoyed it. “Clootch Hunt”, you see, happens to be one of my old favorites. Rendered by the band’s 78-year-old harpist, Claude Linott, it becomes well nigh irresistable.

ROCK AND ROLL NEWS

Mike Barich

CINCINNATI — Crosley Field will be the site of one of the first of the inevitable barrage of summer pop festivals in the midwest. It also marks the first time a major league baseball field is being used for such a purpose (though the Beatles did play Shea Stadium once); they’re even letting people sit on the grass.

Looney Toons

Dave Marsh

I don’t know exactly what’s going to fit in here this time. Maybe, since I’ve been reading Goldstein’s Greatest Hits, I can use him to explain why the Beatles broke up — or at least why it doesn’t matter: “In substituting the studio conservatory for an audience, the Beatles have lost crucial rapport and that emptiness at the roots is what makes their new album a monologue.

Gonbeen Man

Deday LaRene

Sitting in the back yard feeding leftover noodles and goat’s milk cheese to my dog (consider feta and watermelon, my currently favorite gorge; make sure you get both in your mouth at the same time), eyeing the hammock, thinking about putting new strings on my guitar, trying to write something.

Nico: Desolation Angel

The truths sought by an artist like Nico are elusive, personal, equivocal. Nico is a perfectionist of anti art; a pessimist who somehow manages to fashion beautifulhallucinations from her sense of isolation. Her songs unite the search for, and despair of, salvation with the existential traditions of the European chanteuse.

The Pimps of Pop In The Land of The Rising Sun

At a press conference in Los Angeles recently, a group of businessmen announced plans for Fujiyama Odyssey, the worlds largest pop festival, scheduled to be held at the base of Mt. Fuji in August of this year simultaneously with Japan’s Expo ’70.

The Love Affair

Well, Arthur Lee and Love have been gone, leaving, I suppose, mixed feelings ranging from wild enthusiasm for their performances to just plain disappointment. It must be pretty difficult for some of these American bands, who come over here preceded by inflated reputations and excellent albums, to meet people’s expectations — and, whereas Spirit were as magnificent as their albums, Love didn’t quite bring it off I feel.

I Wouldn’t Call It Dada Rock Exactly. What It Is, Is...

Ben Edmonds

Although they appear to be fading somewhat, the rock and roll audience lines of demarcation are still very much in evidence. On one side are the bubble-gum kids, with their transistor radios and Christian Youth Fellowships, stuck in the grooves of the latest BJ. Thomas or Archies hit.

HOMECOMING SH-BOOM: THE LEATHERNECKS

Dewey McCulloch

At a 1956 Christmas party my 45 year old aunt, devout fan of Perry Como, got smashed, did the chicken, broke into sobs and admitted to no one in particular she wanted to get in Presley’s pants. As everybody knows, they wouldn’t show Elvis from the hips down on the Sullivan show.

RECORDS

Mike Monahan

Paul McCartney has released a solo album — a fact that is both musically and artistically exciting. However, he’s also managed to shroud this achievement in an aura of petty bitterness and childish behavior. While the American and Canadian releases of Paul’s album don’t contain them, the English release Contains four information sheets which make clear his feelings towards the Beatles, Allan Klein and Apple.

FILM

Dave Marsh

WOODSTOCK — Directed by Michael Wadleigh; Warner Bros. ZABRISKIE POINT — Directed by "Michelangelo Antonioni; MGM After all those sordid years when one had to rely on Roger Corman exploitation epics to catch a glimpse of what was going on around him, the youth culture finally has begun to spawn films of some depth of perception and, surprisingly, reality.

Jimmy Miller

Deday LaRene

Jimmy Miller is probably the best and most famous record producer in the world. He did Traffic and Spooky Tooth, and he now produces the Rolling Stones. His work is characterized by an unmistakable crispness, a clean, precise, hard-edged quality.