September 1981
FAVE LETTER! In response to/retaliation for Rick Johnson’s horrendous drivel on AC/DC, I am proud to present Rick Johnson’s Book Of Lists: Seven Things of Greater or Equal Importance Than Rick Johnson 1. The price per kilo of worm vomit in Afghanistan.
CHRISTGAU CONSUMER GUIDE
Robert Christgau
ROSANNE CASH: "Seven Year Ache" (Columbia):: It’s a tribute to the persistence of something-or-other than somebody should still be getting decent music out of the sterile studiorock formula. What that something-or-other might be is perhaps indicated by the identity of the somebody, who is a second-generation pro rather than a punk revoloo.
ROCK 'N' ROLL NEWS
Bob Dylan recently performed concerts in Chicago, Detroit and Columbia, Maryland before embarking on an extended European tour. Dylan surprised audiences at the Detroit shows by complementing his current gospel material with such golden chestnuts as “Like A Rolling Stone,” “Maggie’s Farm,” “Just Like A Woman,” “Don’t Think Twice, It’s Alright,” “Ballad Of A Thin Man," “Simple Twist Of Fate,” “Forever Young,” “Blowin’ In The Wind,” and “It Ain’t Me, Babe.”
THE BEAT GOES ON
J. Kordosh
GARDEN CITY, MI—It was a warm, sunny spring day in Detroit—the kind you don’t get a lot of, so when you do, you better make the best of it. No girl-watching for me, though: I was expected at CREEM. I pulled the Volare into the law offices next to the CREEM Building.
THE GOOD, THE SMALL, AND THE PERSISTENT
J. Kordosh
The story of rock ’n’ roll as corporate history is so rife with examples of misdirection, mismanagement, and Miss Ellieisms that it would take a couple of bibles to catalogue them. I won’t even try because I might catch the dreaded rock industry cooties even as I sit here typing! That’s right, I might start taking the whole thing seriously—the most malicious aspect of the cooties.
THE CLASH FACE THE UNRULY MOBS BONDAGE AT BONDS!
Michael Barnard
NEW YORK—The word first got out in chilly February; the Clash on Broadway. Neon lights, skyscrapers and everything. We’ve all heard how these New York clubs fight it out over the English bands, but for Bond’s, reputed to be the world’s largest disco, this was a coup.
SWISS CONSPIRACY CONTINUES UNABATED! KROKUS AND THE CHOCOLATE DILEMMA
J. Kordosh
Good Friday at Cobo Arena: Mandy Meyr had ended Krokus’ 27-minute opening set by dragging his guitar across the stage, eliciting all sorts of nothing-but-noise. The hapless axe moaned and tweeked as Meyr roped it in like a wayward dogie.
THE RAMONES PUMP IRON
Toby Goldstein
So This Is What They Call HARD ROCK
Features
WENDY & THE PLASMATICS: 1984 WILL BE A LITTLE EARLY
Edouard Dauphin
I've always been a kind of anarchist. --Wendy O.Williams
BRIT BABYLONIA
Penny Valentin
On Tuesday we heard the news that Bob Marley had died. The only television program to examine Marley’s place in the black community and his effect on British West Indians’ black pride told of the reaction in Brixton where “It hasn’t sunk in yet...
ROBERT GORDON LIKES POP! Retro Rocker Brush Cuts The 80’s
Bill Holdship
Abusive is the only word to describe the audience the last time Robert Gordon was in Detroit as part of a some-thought-smart/ some-thought-not-so-smart double bill with Roxy Music. Gordon performed admirably that night (aided by the stunning guitar work of Chris Spedding), considering at least half the crowd was loudly condemning his rockabilly repertoire.
Rock ‘n’ Roll Calendar
CALENDAR
CREEM DREEM
ADAM ANT
CREEMEDIA
Rick Johnson
YOUR CHEATIN’ HEART A Biography Of Hank Williams by Chet Flippo (Simon and Schuster) by Susan Whitall Rosanne Cash, Johnny’s firstborn and as I write, No. 1 on the country charts, was quoted in Esquire: “A lot has happened in country music since Hank Williams.”
Prime Time
Richard C. Walls
excerpts from a low budget diary II... Mon. Made a point of getting up early to watch The Wizard Of Mars, an obscure SF-er from '65 with John Carradine...had a little time before the movie started to I checked out the morning news/talk/entertainment shows, which I haven't seen in years...on Today, Gene Shalit was quizzing an admittedly hung-over Christopher Reeve on whether or not he could find actorish fulfillment in being identified with a comic strip character.
Confessions of a FILM FOX
Glen 'Three The Hard Way' Campbell, boomeranging dangerously from sometime-gal Tanya Tucker, showed up at a Friars' Club dual birthday bash for Brooke Shields (16—and not a moment too soon), and Tom Jones (41 and not counting) with a Radio City Music Hall dancer on his arm.
Stars Cars
PAT BENTAR
JOURNEY AS A WAY OF LIFE: STILL NO RAIN IN CALIFORNIA
Dave DiMartino
MIYAKO HOTEL, SAN FRANCISCO There are a lot of sumo wrestlers here. They're big, they're fat and they're Japanese. In Japan, I'm told, they have groupies. In America, they just look big, fat and Japanese. Here in the lobby of this hotel that has strange bathtubs, an old friend and I are having drinks, eating peanuts, watching the big fat sumo wrestlers out of the corners of our eyes.
EXTENSION CHORDS
Allen Hester
In the recording studio, it is not all done with just instruments and voices. Much of what we hear coming through our home stereo speakers and car radios has been processed through any number of echo units, compressors, limiters, aural exciters, parametric equalizers, and so forth—signal processors.
REWIRE YOURSELF
Richard Robinson
Now that the zombies of the stratosphere have landed and are walking the streets disguised as Sony Walkman addicts, what's next becomes a question to which I can only give reactionary answers. And having recently been informed by the Consumer Electronics Group of the Electronic Industries Association as to what is next, I shudder to think about it, let alone report it.
Creem Profiles
FRIDAYS
(Pronounced “Boy Howdy!”)
IT AIN'T THE MEAT, IT'S THE MOTION
Jeff Nesin
The first time I saw Grand Funk Railroad—and make no mistake, this whole thing started with the sadly forgotten Terry Knight when he correctly figured that the younger brothers and sisters of the mid-60's pop-into-major-culturalstatement generation wanted some music of their very own, music not so fraught with redeeming social significance and the complex concern of older kids, something like 'Limousine Driver' where maximum arrogant swagger equals maximum sexual magnetism, something a little more to the point than 'Dear Prudence,' something, uh, adolescent. But I digress.
DO NOT ATTEMPT TO ADJUST YOUR STEREO
Jim Farber
In Paul Morrissey's 3-D version of Frankenstein there's a §teminal scene in which the doctor, after screwing a corpse while fondling its entrails, turns to his assistant, Otto, and offers some sage wisdom that goes something like: 'In order to know life, one must first fuck death'.' The Cramps'' greatest artistic achievement is in applying a similar philosophical approach to rock 'n' roll's roots.
ELTON IS A SHLOCK ROCKER
ROBOT A. HULL & THE MAD PECK
ROCK • A • RAMA
Richard Riegel
U.X.A.—Illusions Of Grandeur (Posh Boy):: Like the Nuns, U.X.A. are a great zenithof-punk band outta foggy/shmoggy California, more or less (singer De De Troit's name testifies to the potent origins she's continued to draw on, even after being coughed up in fantastic L.A.).
Backstage
BACKSTAGE
Where the Stars Tank Up & Let Their Images Down
CREEM