April 1970
Features
The Joe Cocker Show...Mad Dogs And Englishmen
David Marsh
The Discovery of Canina, A Most Special Pet (and, coincidentally, Leon Russell, A Most Special Musician)
Dear Creem: I feel that your very well-written article concerning the Detroit scene in the first anniversary issue greatly under estimated the heavy Detroit radio scene by failing to acknowledge the existence of WDET-FM. WDETFM, which is right next to WXYZFM which is right next to WKNRFM which is right next to WABXFM, is non-commercial and is located on the Wayne State campus.
NEWS ROCK & ROLL
ON THE LOCAL SCENE-The Stooges, as bizarre-o and twist-o as ever, have been exposing themselves in new areas, not the least of which is St. Louis, where they completely stunned the audience at the St. Louis Pop Festival and returned two weeks later as “The Rolling Stones of St. Louis.”
Pink Gold
Dave Marsh
Pleasantly, but unexpectedly, Frijid Pink have struck literal gold with their single “House of the Rising Sun”. The single will be certified as a million seller later this week. The Pink9s startling rise to mass popularity, with the first major white hit record since Mitch Ryder and the Detroit Wheels’ and the Amboy Dukes’ successes of a couple years ago, has been accompanied by a plethora of bonuses.
Mothers / Rezapped
The lately lamented (too late, some say), under the direction of clean-cut Francis Vincent Zappa are reforming, in whole or in part, to do a series of concerts with Zubin Mehta’s Los Angeles Philharmonic Orchestra.
Looney Toons
This column was suggested by Bob Rudnick, late of WGLD in Chicago, (among other places). Which doesn’t necessarily indicate that he’s responsible for it, just that I try to lay the blame where it belongs. Especially if it isn’t with me. Detroit progressive radio is experiencing some sort of upsurge.
an interview with Leon Thomas
(Leon Thomas first became known to us through Pharoah Sanders’ album Karma (Impulse). His near-yodel, “the moaning of spirits known and unknown” as it has been called, fascinated both myself and many others. It was like the crying out of the father after the son and a million other everyday occurences; immediately relatable, as real and intense as Sander’s own work.
Gombeen Man
Deday LaRene
Writing (having) my own column is something I’ve wanted to try for quite a while, never had the termerity to suggest (it being so obviously an ego trip), and have now had foisted upon me. Of course, I find myself with nothing to say. It’s Spring, of course, and there ought to be something in that—at the very least I should be able to pontificate about swinging your leg over a motorcycle and blowing the accumulated ice and cancer out of your guts—but it’s been such a slovenly, stretched-out, tantalizing attempt at a new season that the fresh flush of enthusiasm (and hope for ending winter’s paralysis) has been spent in a series of false starts.
Savage Grace...a savage paradox
Debbie Burr
Savage Grace is a band whose music and story is as paradoxical as its name.
RECORDS
Dave Marsh
THE FIRST STEP - THE SMALL FACES - WARNER BROS. WS 1851 I was virtually certain that I would hate this record. I’m a long-time fan of Steve Marriott and, for as many times as I saw the Jeff Beck Group and as much as I counted on Stewart to carry Beck through his many traumas, I don’t think I really understood Rod Stewart until this record.
Karma Kancelled-Right In The Heart Of Honky Heaver?
Dave Marsh
The righteous Bob Rucnick, late of WFMU and WABX, is now also late of WGLD is Chicago. He was canned March 31st after a stormy four months as the king of underground radio in Chicago. The radical Rudnick was offed by station management after making some bizarro comments on a television show on the CBS affiliate in Chicago the night before.