December 1973
CONTENTS
Please send letters to: MAIL Dept., CREEM Magazine P.O. Box P-1064, Birmingham, Ml 48012 DEAR CREEM So, Waldo Jeffers is alive and well, and living in Durham, N.C. That is really Far-OUT!!! Hey Waldo, call me sometime and maybe we can see a movie together.
BARNEY & MIKE
THE CHRISTGAU CONSUMER GUIDE
Robert Christgau
Attentive readers may have noticed that this Consumer Guide and the one before have been more out-of-date than usual. Out-of-dateness is a built-in drawback of the Consumer Guide anyway - it really is supposed to approximate what it’s like to live with a record, and living with takes time - but for the past few months I’ve had to be especially leisurely, because I’ve been on the road.
ROCK 'N' ROLL NEWS
You want a Hollywood just like there used to be? Well, wish no longer, aspirant glitterites of the Plains states. Just get on your thumb and head out for tinseltown, go straight to the john at the Whiskey and you’re sure to be discovered. If you persist long enough, in fact, you may even become as glamourous as the pacesetters captured in the midst of a typically wild spree in the picture above.
THE BEAT GOES ON
John Morthland
Friends, does the whole Kinky Friedman and His Texas Jewboys shtik make you a tad uneasy? Do you sometimes think that, sure, that album was really funny, but he’d be better off if he left it right there or he’s going to run it into the ground fast?
A New Mag Pipes Up: The Record Rag
Ed Ward
It is common knowledge that the magazine you hold in your hands is America’s best rock mag, but what is not common knowledge is that America’s second-best rock mag has been steadily gaining steam in San Francisco. No, not that one — I’m talking about The Record Rag, published as a leisure service of Aquarius Records, a feisty little record shop on Castro Street.
The Last Interview With DUANE ALLMAN
Laurel Dann
“As long as there’s someone who wants to go and see rock... I’ll be there to play it for them.”
Features
The Rolling Stones: Dark Horses On Parade
Nick Kent
The lady behind the amps, staring hazily at Billy Preston and his band performing oh stage, looked elegantly damaged.
Features
1973 Nervous Breakdown
Lester Bangs
Those poor bastards. I’m talking about the Stones, of course.
Features
New York Rock
David Marsh
Dredged from the subterranean scuzz-holes of Gotham, we now confront you with a whole new generation of sleazodelic ratpacks.
Features
Looking For A Kiss In Parking Lot Babylon
Lisa Robinson
The New York Dolls In L. A.
How To Build A Killer Machine
Guitar Arnie
Making an electric guitar is a combination of power tools — assembly line techniques— craftsmanship. Selected aged wood is cut from blank stock into the general shape of necks and bodies, then handsanded to actual shape. Here a workman sands a neck.
Rewire Yourself
Media Monster in a Matchbox?
Richard Robinson
Portable media centers are presently in their infancy. Panasonic and a couple of other companies are making little tv sets with AM/FM radios attached; Sony, AIWA, Sanyo, JVC, Superscope, and others are making cassette machines with AM/FM radios attached — one Japanese firm is even making a cassettemachine-radio-clock combo — but the true total media center has yet to have its heyday.
A Forties Flop And Halloween Chic
Lisa Robinson
Let me tell you — unless it’s an integral part of your lifestyle, or you’re going to a Mardi Gras, there is just NO WAY that people can get dressed up in campy costumes anymore and attempt to make something An Event without appearing damned foolish.
Just What The World Needs? Yeah!
R. Meltzer
Not a bad one at all. It’s good. Cinematic biography of Jimi and there isn’t one goddam stupid voice-over in the whole thing, just people who used to know him talkin about how he thised and thated when he was still alive. Little Richard say in that of course Jimi was always a star but stars gotta be put into the dipper and, poured back onto the planet (better talkin Richard than in Let the Good Times Roll).
SHORT TAKES
Jaan Uhelszki
NIGHTWATCH - (AVE) - Nigh twatch is another “Do not reveal the ending of the movie” movie.
CONFESSIONS OF A FILM FOX
Things are getting more divine all the time. ABC is grooming Bette Midler for their next prime time variety star. Bette’s boss and oftime beau Aaron Russo will produce three specials for ABC to be aired in ’74, beginning in March... Another songbird who’s hit the heights is Motown’s own gilded songstress, Diana Ross.
Creemedia
How To Succeed in Publishing Without Really Writing
Dave Marsh
Two ways to be published without actually sitting down and typing out a manuscript.
OFF THE WALL
THE ROLLING STONE INTERVIEWS, VOL. 2 Compiled by the Editors of Rolling Stone (Warner Paperback library): Well, the Dylan interview is not Jann Wenner’s 1970 opus, but the material with Townshend, Van Morrison, Keith Richard, Rod Stewart (brilliantly done by John Morthland) and Ray Davies is all among the best published.
Records
Lou Reed: Brilliance You’d Hate To Get Trapped With
Lester Bangs
This is the most disgustingly brilliant record of the year.
Mellow Stones: Contradiction in Terms?
Allen Crowley
Way before this record came out, I had a dream about it. I dreamed that the entirety of Goat's Head Soup was 40 minutes of “Dancing with Mr. D,” which consisted of a rhythmless Jagger talked sizzle to and of answered electric sitars, himself.
GOATS HEAD SOUP - Rolling Stones
Records
Dylan Album of the Decade
Robert Christgau
In my third or fourth fit of enthusiasm, I think this is the best record of the year and the best Dylan record since John Wesley Harding.
Party Jive You Can Live In
Lester Bangs
Black music’s gettin’ good again. Never was completely bad, but’s fallen a long way from the pinnacles of 65-8 when Motown and Stax were truly cooking and, f'rinstance, Stevie Wonder was serving up heartthrobbers like “I Was Made to Love Her” steada (still fine, but) earnest mellowtoned channels such as “He’s Misstra Know-It-All.”
ROCK-A-RAMA
THE SOPWITH CAMEL - In Hello Hello (Kama Sutra):: The story behind this is that a record company hears that another name of a moderately successful rock group is not gonna die, and (record company) decides to pick up free publicity by reissuing the group’s first album.
Juke Box Jury
GREG SHAW
Certain records make me weary the first time I hear them, not because I hate ’em, more because I kinda like them but realize that the formula holding them up is so skeletal that after a couple of weeks it’s bound to start driving me crazy. They’re always monster hits, too.