February 1973
CONTENTS
Dear CREEM: Well, fuck, I have to tell you one funking thing. Grand Funk is a motherfucker, they fuck you up better than ten hits of mushrooms and a bottle of Spinada. One day we was over this dude’s house drinking Robitussin and listening to Closer to Home when this guy tells us Richard Carpenter balls Karen.
CHRISTGAU CONSUMER GUIDE
Robert Christgau
After succumbing to the highly communicable Melancholia Goldstein Manus, known to we vulgar as the rock critic blues, for most of the latter part of 1972, I had felt that things were looking up. All those good black singles uplift the spirit, but imagine my dismay when I looked down Consumer Guide 34 or whatever it is and discovered two A records, which isn't bad — only to count the B plusses — also two, a new record, I'm sure, and maybe I'll start keeping them.
ROCK 'N' ROLL NEWS
In all the furor over the death of Borry Oakley and while CREEM sends its condolences to the Allman Brothers, Capricorn Records and all the fans of each the group is still going on with playing, whieh must say something about the fortitude of those who truly tove rock.
THE BEAT GOES ON
Martin R. Cerf
Everybody knows that Margaret Mitchell’s Gone With the Wind was one of the biggest best sellers of all time. Fewer people, however, know that Ms. Mitchell was killed by a hit-and-run driver while crossing the street in Atlanta, Georgia. How many people know that Jacqueline Sussann, apparently feeling that the success of Valley of the Dolls was not contributing enough to her status as a legend, once flew down to Atlanta and went to that very same streetcorner and hired some guy to drive up and nudge her with his bumper?
Cherry Vanilla
(Cherry Vanilla has been around. (Originally the product of a quiet Catholic upbringing in Queens, N.Y., her quest for personal fulfillment has spanned the globe and taken her through several careers and just about every scene known to the Sixties.
1972 Creem Rock 'n' Roll Poll
1972 ... Really Blew Rock'n'roll doesn't have any awards programs, primarily because it is theoretically a part of the music business, which gives away Grammies to the best middle-of-the-road artists every year. We think it's about time that changed.
The Ten Worst Restaurants In America
There’s a thousand different ways to eat and not all of them begin with food, but when you’re out lookin’ for man-size vittles and you wanta sink your teeth into somethin’ extra special, keep your tummy happy and keep your foot on the gas when you see one of those hot little honies looming up on the highway, freeway, or back street of your choice.
Features
Leslie West: "I Bought My First Guitar With My Bar Mitzvah Money"
Adny Shernoff
Interviews are fun. You go to a hotel, you get a free meal, enough booze to mellow you out just a little, and you ask some bozo musician a few ridiculous questions.
Features
Chuck Berry’s Back From The Blues
Robert Christgau
Chuck Berry is the greatest of the rock and rollers.
Have You Seen Your Brother, Baby, Standing In The Shadow?
Vince Aletti
His friend, Seymour, a plump international queen with dark glasses and a rain coat slung around his shoulders, interrupts to talk about gay liberation. He things GLF should be training guerrilla bands of homosexuals to go round beating and robbing straights and queer bashers.
Liqueur Is Quiqueur
Sandye Carroll
I am not much of a hard liquor fan. The only straight liquor I like is Canadian whiskey, and I don’t like that very much. I never make mixed drinks at home because it’s boring. Besides, for whatever it’s worth, I don’t particularly like mixed drinks.
Creemedia
MOVIES
Robbie Cruger
This time Elvis plays himself.
The New York Film Festival
Vince Alletti
This is a report on the Tenth New York Film Festival, a collection of 24 films shown over a period of slightly more than two weeks (September 29 to October 14) in one of the smaller theatres of the Lincoln Center complex, 1,096-seat Alice Tully Hall.
Creemedia
The Ten Best Films Of 1972
John Kane
But there is no such thing as a “best” film; only favorite films which appeal to people for all sorts of specific reasons
And Now, From Walled Lake
CREEM’s hometown staff, which doesn’t go to a lot of those toney Big City movies, preferring instead to continue to indulge itself in the dregs of commercial garbage, herewith submits its top ten movies of 1972, featuring several flicks you’ll surely find nowhere else, since nobody else went to see ’em.
SHORT TAKES
THEY ONLY KILL THEIR MASTERS — (MGM): On the eve of this movie’s screening, CREEM’s guard dog turned on the publisher/trainer who was friendly feeding it milkbones. Twenty-seven stitches later... James Garner and Katherine Ross are involved with each other and a Doberman named Murphy.
CONFESSIONS OF A FILM FOX
John Kay (Steppenwolf) has written the screenplay for Cherry Terry the Rockin’ Robin, starring Elliot Gould, as a frantic 50’s rock DJ making a comeback in the 70’s ... Christopher Lee (a/k/a The Count) currently in Dracula A.D. 1972, is filming Dracula Is Dead — and Well and Living in London.
Creemedia
BOOKS
Ben Edmonds
I was once party to the production of a concert featuring Frank Zappa & his Mothers of Invention, just a few days before they recorded the Fillmore East album. On the afternoon of the Big Day, I was at the hotel checking out last-minute arrangements with a few of the Mothers.
Creemedia
Conan The Barbarian
Mike Baron
In the old days the comics were drawn' by a small group of dedicated artists who thought they were entertaining kids. Today, most of the undergrounds and most of the exceptional overgrounds are being written and drawn by young, aware, serious storytellers for other young adults.
Extension Chords
Electrocution Etiquette
Michael Brooks
The image that most concert-goers have of the rock musician is of the happy-go-lucky entertainer who is basically up on stage to have fun. That might be true to a certain extent, but a lot of work goes into making it possible for the performer to be heard long before he hits the stage.
Records
Bette Midler: Vaudevillian WooWoos And Omnipresent HooHahs
Dave Marsh
Summers used to be for waking up in mid-afternoon and watching old movies. Fred Astaire tap danced all over the ceiling, James Cagney died nobly every single day, and Bette Davis championed the screen. But, just when Judy Garland was pouring out those torch songs for the boys, you’d hear: We’re goin’ to the chapel And we’re gonna get married ...
Juke Box Jury
GREG SHAW
Still no stopping the deluge of great singles. My big problem lately is not finding things to listen to, but rather deciding among the many contenders for “best single of the last five years.” Right now it’s a tough choice between “I Wanna Be With You” by the Raspberries (Capitol 3473), a totally joyous and uplifting pop masterpiece, and “Natural Man” by the Marcus Hook Roll Band (RegalZonophone 3060 — Eng. only, out here soon on Capitol).
ROCK-A-RAMA
ROY ORBISON - All Time Greatest Hits (Monument), BUDDY HOLLY - A Collection of Rock & Roll (Decca), and BO DIDDLEY - Got My Own Bag Of Tricks (Chess):: Chuck Berry’s getting all the attention lately and, even though the King deserves every Billboard bullet he gets, there’s other royalty to be recognized.