July 1982
LESTER BANGS 1948-1982
Billy Altman
Lester Bangs—rock critic, author, part-time musician and full time personality—died on April 30th in his apartment in New York City. I can’t tell you how he died, since autopsies in this town take up to three months, and I can’t tell you why he died, since whatever did happen, it certainly was not by design.
CREEM CONTENTS
I’ve just finished reading your April 1982 edition of CREEM Magazine, and found it to be the best piece of trash I’ve even read. You people have no class when it comes to interviewing and writing a story about a musical group. Your people think they know everything there is to know about music, when a teenager could give me a better story about a group than any of your reporters could ever write!
CHRISTGAU CONSUMER GUIDE
Robert Christgau
BAD BRAINS (ROIR cassette):: Turn a fusion band into hardcore propheteers and you end up with fast heavy metal. The best kind for damn sure, especially since they turn their rage into Positive Mental Attitude. I like it fine. But great punks give up more than a salubrious blur.
ROCK 'N' ROLL NEWS
Although the soundtrack to Christiane F looks like another repackaging of previously released David Bowie tracks, fans of the carrot-topped one may be interested to know that the LP features a version of “Helden” (“Heroes” sung in German), as well as a live version of “Station To Station.”
THE BEAT GOES ON
Iman Lababedi
NEW YORK—Another hotel room with a different pop star, the cynic in me is thinking as I ride the elevator to the interview. But the fan in me is too excited for this to be any other another. Pete Shelley—the name conjures memories in me like a playback on a video machine.
THE FLYING OF FEAR
J. Kordosh
Not just another L.A. send-up.
A GIRLSCHOOL FOR HEADBANGERS!
Chris Salewicz
In a rehearsal room on the southwest London suburb of Putney, Girlschool lead guitar player Kelly Johnson and rhythm guitarist Kim McAuliffe are swigging from bottles of German beer during a break.
Creem Profiles
SAMMY HAGAR
(Pronounced “Boy Howdy!”)
ALDO BOLD AS LOVE
J. Kordosh
"Is that a Piece of shit, or what?” asked Aldo Nova, perched on a grimy white counter between me and my tape. "Is that a piece of shit?! Je-sus!” I agreed. I was on the grimy counter, too, for what it's worth. By the way, the tape was mine, but the tape recorder was Aldo Nova’s brand-new machine.
Features
J. GEILS ARE CENTERFOLD STARS!
Sylvie Simmons
Tucson’s got McDonald’s and bars and Sears and Taco Bells, but there any resemblance to life as we know it stops.
LETTER FROM BRITAIN
Penny Valentine
Martin Fry has one long piece of hair, like a badly cut fringe, that lies across his nose, almost blocking his vision in one eye. 'Fry is 23, over six feet tall and has a fair bit of acne," observes the NME reporter. He also Passes comment on ABC’s popularity with the fresh-faced and open-minded Human League and Ant fans...”
Stars Cars
STING
Rock ‘n’ Roll Calendar
CALENDAR
THE ELECTRIC 1982 GUITAR
Allen Hester
Guitar manufacturing and marketing is a big business. That’s obvious. More importantly, guitar playing is an art form that can enable even the poor and the blind to reach people across continents, and to touch each other minds across all barriers of distance, economics, race, religion, and even time itself.
CREEM & YAMAHA CELEBRITY GRAND PRIX MOTORCYCLE GIVEAWAY!
Here's your opportunity to win and win big! The official pace motorcycle seen with Sally Struthers at the CREEM CELEBRITY GRAND PRIX held in February at Anaheim, CA could be yours. This lightweight and lean Exciter 250 from Yamaha in Cardinal Red (pictured below) features a 250, 4-stroke engine, electric start, special gear-driven balancer and many other extras that make this Yamaha a winner!
DO YOU DIG THE B-52'S?
Toby Goldstein
Forgive me, but I didn’t recognize them without their hair. Minus those awesome creations that are equal parts Towering Inferno and laundromat leftovers, Kate Pierson and Cindy Wilson—two out of three B-52’s who lounged around their manager’s office—were simply petite, friendly girls who talked funny.
CREEMEDIA
Jim Feldman
The most important fact about Making Love, Personal Best, Victor/Victoria and Deathtrap—far beyond whether they’re any good or not—is that they exist. The rage underlying the protests against Cruising and other homophobic movies wasn’t inspired by just another example of prejudicial stereotyping; it arose from Hollywood’s cowardice or mean-spiritedness in refusing to play fair.
Prime Time
Richard C. Walls
BLOWING IT: When Thelonious Monk died on Feb 17 I didn’t exactly expect a Nightline special edition, that would have been asking too much, nor was I particularly surprised or bothered that Lee Strasberg’s demise, which occurred on the same day (or thereabouts), got slightly more in-depth coverage from the various news media (after all Strasberg not only hob-knobbed with, but taught American royalty) — but I did find it disgraceful that on the CBS Evening News Dan Rather couldn’t manage to pronounce Monk’s name correctly.
Confessions of a FILM FOX
Brit War Update! Despite the British/Argentinian festivities of the spring, the number one box office hit in Buenos Aires is the Brit-made Chariots Of Fire! Those wacky gauchos don’t care what they watch. Meanwhile, Elton John announced he’d be entertaining the troops instead of Bob Hope.
Records
SURVEY SAID...!
Jeff Nesin
We met? Where I come from that hardly qualifies as a meeting.
CONSPICUOUS ENDURANCE
Richard Meltzer
I am writing this because Mimi Meltzer (no relation but a name’s a name) recently co-hosted a benefit f'r the Foundation for Burn Research w/the famous artist in question. She got burned on a river-raft trip (July 4, 1980) when a boiling kettle fell on her foot.
SCREW HOME EC; WE’RE MAJORING IN SHOP
Laura Leather Libber!” Fissinger
It is, let’s face it, a little harder to think of something as a novelty after it starts to make serious money The Go-Go’s have spent the last several months making mountains of dineros at the top of the charts, the first all-female rock band ever to do so.
ROCK • A • RAMA
Michael Davis
IRAKERE—Chekere Son (Milestone):: This is the first U.S. release of an album recorded in Havana, then mixed and originally released in Tokyo (?). Irakere were the big noise out of Cuba a couple of years back and the first cuts on each side of this record demonstrate why.
REWIRE YOURSELF
Richard Robinson
I doubt if the record companies care, and most consumers aren’t aware, but the quality and durability of plastic records has as much to do with how they’re handled as how they’re manufactured. If you’ve ever pulled out an often played album only to find it scratchy and noisy when played, you’ve experienced the frustration of having one less record in your collection.
Backstage
BACKSTAGE
Where the Stars Tank Up & Let Their Images Down
CREEM DREEM
DALE BOZZIO