January 1975
CONTENTS
DEAR CREEM Before I go any further, I should explain that my interests run more to Shetland sweaters, brandy, country life and verse than to all of this tawdry popular hoopla. However, a friend of mine introduced me to “Sunset,” “A Song for Europe,” “Psalm” and “Mother of Pearl” on Stranded by Roxy Music, and I was quite impressed.
THE CHRISTGAU CONSUMER GUIDE
Robert Christgou
“Asleep at the Wheel” (Epic). Reportedly, this band has stopped trying to straddle West Virginia (original home of the band and their variation on Western swing) and Berkeley (where each found fellowship). Now comes the straight country push.
ROCK 'N' ROLL NEWS
British jam of the year occurred after the Crosby, Stills Nash, and Young concert at Wembley. At the party, the CSNY gang was joined on stage at various times by members of the Band, Jimmy Page, John Bonham and a galaxy of other stars. Groucho Marx’s gift to Alice Cooper: Groucho’s round satin bed.
THE BEAT GOES ON
Sam Silver
Consumers Caught Jumping Out Windows First albums, then singles, and now jukeboxes. Fer Chrissakes — is nothing sacred anymore? That’s right, that hallowed machine the juke will soon cease to be cheap thrills. Across the country, they are being converted to play only one song per quarter.
Too Much Of Nothin’
Ion Mac Donald
If the floundering attempts of your country at winkling out just one single, solitary honest man to be Vice-President are making you seriously ill with laughter, and you’d been idly turning over in what’s left of your mind the vague thought of emigrating to the U.K. for a little restful exile-on-side-street — allow me gently to dissuade you.
THE WIT AND WISDOM OF THE NITTY GRITTY DIRT BAND
NICK TOSCHES
Just what the hell is "good time music” supposed to mean?
Features
TALKIN’ BOUT MY D-D-DEDICATION
BRUNO STEIN
Roger Daltrey on ten years of the Who.
winter heot Vomit report
R.Meltzer
Another TV death this month — Adam West choked on a lamb bone while eating his supper.
Reveal Your Far-Flung Fantasies & Win A Fabulous Prize!
We’ve all got our very own rock ’n’ roll dreams. We’ve got wounded lovers and streetcorner struts, erotic visions and shining ideals. Guy Peelaert and Nik Cohn collected their rock dreams in a fantastic book of the same name, recently published by Popular Library, which takes the heroes and antiheroes of our time and airbrushes them into a whole new bargain with eternity — the Rolling Stones phantasmagoria above is only one of the seductive mirages in this opulent volume.
Johnny Ray’s Better Whirlpool: The New Living Bowie
Lester Bangs
It was David Bowie’s return to the boards in Afro-Anglican drag.
KISS IT GOODBYE
RICHARD CROMELIN
There’s Iggy Pop, twenty minutes ago an official onstage performer, now off and looking to cut up informally in the carpeted wing off the main dance floor of the Hollywood Palladium. And whose Shoulders are better to climb atop, there to pose for some pics, than those of Keith Moon, one of the offstage stars of a night on which the sideshow is as important as the main attraction and the concept outweighs both?
Features
BTO to Go: A Diet Guide to the Stars
Jaan Uhelszki
Lead Guitar & Vocals Randy claims to control his appetite by repeating over and over, "Think thin, eat thin, are thin," and contends that "health food sucks."
Features
IAN ANDEDERSON EXPLANS HOW MARTIANS HEAR MUSIC
CAMERON CROWE
“Now hold it. I get to meet the cat? And rap to the cat?” Bob, a 19-year-old Jethro Tull fanatic, was creaming in his jeans.
Eleganza
What Nazi Decadence?
Lisa Robinson
Seeing some of my favorite films again (The Damned, The Conformist) as well as The Night Porter and thinking about Cabaret.
Elton’s Famous Friends
The occasion was a party Elton John threw for about 200 friends on an empty, parking lot at the Universal Studios in Los Angeles.
MICK RONSON: One Of The Boys
Ben Edmonds
“I’d like,” announced Ian Hunter, his sweeping hand motion orchestrated by an imaginary drum, “to introduce the new lead guitarist. of Mott the Hoople... Mick Ronson!”
MONTREAL
Juan Rodriguez
Genesis, Pink Floyd, Richie Havens, Shawn Phillips, Babe Ruth, The Who, Frank Zappa, Led Zeppelin, Cat Stevens, CSNY, Robert Charlebois, Black Sabbath, Deep Purple, Jethro Tull, David Bowie, Eric Clapton, ELP, Bad Company, Jesse Winchester, L’Infonie, Ville Emard Blues Band, Mahogany Rush, Contraction, Michel Pagliaro, Ellen Mcllwaine, Andy Kim,Randy Bishop and the Wackers and Leonard Cohen, in .. .but that was before this largest, and only, metropolis of Quebec (“la belle province”) became the city with the most rabid Shawn Phillips fans in the world!
At Least The Next Mark Farner
R. Meltzer
Jeez, Frank Marino (guitar-vocals) sure drives a real hot car. Loud as hell. Fifteen feet from a stoplight and he’s still accelerating. He even disconnected that buzzer system that makes a noise when your seat belts ain’t plugged in (noise would interfere with the radio).
Extension Chords
To What Do You Attribute Your Guitar’s Intonation?
Michael Brooks
There often appears in the swirl of the musical scoop an alien body whose dribble does not flow with the gist of what’s happening. In guitar-talk, a player is likely to say, “My axe is phucked,” or he might have it together enough to realize that “My guitar is not intonating correctly.”
Rewire Yourself
Stereo In The Streets
Larry Jaffe
Hearing has become the number one sense on the anatomical hit-parade of bodily functions! You can be dumb and blind, or maybe you can’t smell, but if you can hear — well then, you’ve, got it made. You can listen to or make music. Jose Feliciano, Ray Charles, Stevie Wonder may be blind, but that hasn’t stopped them.
SHORT TAKES
Georgia Christgau
THE TEXAS CHAINSAW MASSACRE (Bryanston):: What could have been a chilling vision of a true story (like Badlands) or a tale manipulated by fact just for effect (like Night of the Living Dead) is instead a true story with no visions or effects.
FILMFOX
Big boxoffice biceps are busy at work this month: Charles Bronson, the biggest (and richest — 20 Gs a day, we hear) risks his life for a price to spring a wealthy prisoner in Breakout. He and James Coburn are also costarring in The Street fighters, now filming in New Orleans... Joe Don Baker’s doing Framed, and Telly Savalas is taking over TV directing a segment of Kojak starring Paul Anka.
Creem Profiles
Grace Slick
(Pronounced “Boy Howdy!”)
Creemedia
The Last Refuge
Ed Ward
Looking around at the world of literature today, comics may just be one of the last refuges of plot-oriented, entertaining fiction.
Off The Wall
Ed Ward
DECENT EXPOSURES by Peter Simon (Wingbow Press):: Pretty naked hippies, being ostentatiously unashamed of their bodies, photographed by Carly’s brother. This one would’ve been a turkey five years ago. THE FIRESIGN THEATRES BIG MYSTERY JOKE BOOK (Straight Arrow):: Wrapping up the Compleat Firesign Script Trip, we are also presented with a couple of unrecorded bits and Exclusive Photos!!!!
Records
Getting To The Heart Of The Cracker
Lester Bangs
RANDY NEWMAN Good Old Boys (Reprise) John Cale once stopped here for an interview, visiting us briefly when CREEM was still put out from a farm. It wasn’t a very productive dialogue, but I did happen to ask him in passing what he thought of Randy Newman.
ROCK A RAMA
LEO KOTTKE — Dreams And All That Stuff (Capitol):: For Minnesotoans and Kottke cultists. Also for those who liked the last Kottke disc. If you didn’t like the last one, the only improvement here is that Leo keeps his mouth shut this time out, a solid step forward.