January 1974
CONTENTS
Doug Harlot
DEAR CREEM Although I believe y’all are on the take like all the other mags, I think you people at CREEM have the best rock magazine in America. Your cartoons reveal more about culture than a thousand words ever could. I love your interesting album reviews and the way you tell it like it is by cutting down overrated artists.
BARNEY & MIKE
Bob Wison
ROCK 'N' ROLL NEWS
Latest in the have-your-own-label bonanza is Ray Davies, who says that he already has his eye on two or three groups for the label. Brother Dave Davies has been working on a solo album (his second, although the first — cut in 1967 — was never released), but label affiliations have not been announced for either venture.
THE BEAT GOES ON
Dave Marsh
Unlike the everyday American pop star, Elliott Murphy doesn’t need to demand attention when he enters a room; he just walks in, and he’s got it. His ash blonde hair and his silver sunglasses, his snow white pants and shirt, set off perfectly by a levi jacket and snakeskin boots make Murphy look like he has just been returned from the dry cleaners.
Letter From Britain
Micky & The Poor Boys-Fourth Time Around
Simon Frith
I have to admit it. It's been the Rolling Stones' month.
Features
Savoy Brown Is Not Dead
Lester Bangs
Some call it blues, some call it dues, but we call it carrying on. (What else d'ya expect from a pack of Limeys?)
Features
GRATEFUL DEAD SHOW OFF NEW BODIES
Cameron Crowe
Their heads are something else again...
Features
Exorcizing The Ghost of Mod
Charles Shaar Murray
A visit with Pete Townshend.
DUST MY PUMICE
R. Meltzer
That stiff Joe Pyne’s been dead for years now (cancer) but not so for his lookalike Dick Clark (looks just like him around the face) who of cuzz just celebrated his 20th anniversary. But anniversary of what, smelly feet? Cause he’s never been seen dancin on his own show and as everybody nose dancin airs out the foots.
EAT YOUR MEAT (Cereal Division) Consumer Guide to American Burger Stands
Lester Bangs
WHITE CASTLE Many connoisseurs think White Castle is the ultimate burger haven. It’s probably the cheapest: hamburgers 14 cents, cheeseburgers 20 cents, and if you’re really into it you’ll buy ’em by the bag. It don’t matter if you get six and can’t eat ’em all, they’re great just to bounce around the house.
Leslie West Bites A Big One
Eleganza
How You Gonna Keep ’Em Down In Paris (Once They’ve Seen Lou Reed)?
Lisa Robinson
So what are they wearing in Paris these days? Well... clothes.
Extension Chords
Tuning De Vices
Michael Brooks
Keeping a guitar in tune has been the fateful frustration and sometimes awesome ruination of so many guitarists that it’s about time some information be spilt.
Creemedia
Feelin’ That Some Old Way
Dave Marsh
American Graffiti, the tale of a last night on the suburb for early-60s southern California high school grads, was first released to a confusing array of critical acclaim.
SHORT TAKES
Garth
JONATHAN LIVINGSTON SEAGULL (Paramount Pictures):: With vague images of a tarred and feathered Herman Hesse floating uneasily in the background, Jonathan Livingston Seagull soars onto the screen with all the grace and poise of a ruptured duck.
CONFESSIONS OF A FILM FOX
This month I’ve dug up some relics from the boneyard of television antiquity. You know, those “whatever happened to’s.” Remember Peter Tork, one of the TV-manufactured Monkees? He’s now a street singer around San Francisco’s Ghirardelli Square.
BOOKS
Ben Edmonds
The last time I saw Derek Taylor was well over a year ago, when he accompanied Grateful Dead guitarist Bob Weir on a cross-country promotional junket designed to rustle up some attention for Weir’s solo album. What happened at the Detroit stop-over was devastating: Taylor, with perfect British civility and non-stop charm, dominated the table even when he wasn’t talking.
Records
David Bowie Flashes His Roots
Lester Bangs
Two separate David Bowie stories, to start off with.
NEW RIDERS PANANAMA RED
Records
Triumph of the Wretch
Lester Bangs
Neil Young’s doing okay.
Records
As Good as the Bible (Or a Ton of Quaaludes)
In the October issue of CREEM, a beleaguered writer was so frustrated in trying to review the latest Jethro Tull album that he assigned it to the readers instead.
Juke Box Guy
GREG SHAW
Over a year ago this column made the prediction that 1974 would turn out to be the greatest year in the history of rock & roll. Now, as it draws close, I’m really beginning to believe it. It’s gonna take awhile yet to get all the oldies (Simon, Garfunkel, Seals & Crofts, Sly, etc.) off the air and onto Original Sound, but it’s only a matter of time now.
ROCK-A-RAMA
MARC WIRTZ — Hothouse Smiles (Capitol):: Hints of psychedell, production niceties and ’66 vocal make this one to pick up on for modern day Anglovocalphiles. Might even wind up being more than peripheral with lines like . . .will they do what space-queens do/ And ride a bisexual built for two?” EXUMA — Life (Kama Sutra):: Somebody must buy his albums, for the one or two good cuts,’cause they just keep on comin’ out.
1974 A-V Buyers Guide Rewire Your Future/game plan for the electronic maze
AUDIO Rewire Yourself London — We are, as Americans, a totally electric people. The manner to which we’ve become accustomed is electric. Electronics over-sees our style: it makes lights flash red at comers, lets jets land, and decides when your toast is brown enough.