September 1974
CREEM
Is Suzi Quatro Rick Derringer’s twin brother or is Rick Derringer Suzi Quatro’s twin sister? Here’s looking at you kid. Sincerely, Cleveland, Ohio (of course) or well at least not yet
BARNEY & MIKE
THE CHRISTGAU CONSUMER GUIDE
Robert Christgau
Bowie: “Diamond Dogs” (RCA Victor). Bryan Ferry takes theatrical vocalism so far that David sounds feckless (at his worst) and sensitive (at his best) by comparison. This is much worse than best, escapist pessimism concocted from a pleasure dome: eat, snort and bugger little girls, for tomorrow we shall be peoploids — but tonight how about $6.98 for this piece of plastic?
ROCK 'N' ROLL NEWS
When pint-sized leather siren Suzy Quatro "arrived for a recent gig in Melbourne, Australia, her plane was met by a motor cavalcade of Hell’s Angels. The Alvin Lee Rumor Department: This month’s source, a certain Mr, Dee Anthony, claims that Alvin has not broken up with TYA, is associated with My Ion, and is thinking of pursuing a solo career.
THE BEAT GOES ON
Robert Duncan
Does the “D.C.” following the name of the nation’s capital stand for “demo city”? It sure did on “National No Helmet Day,” when 400 bikers on their customized Triumphs, Harleys and BSAs roared up and down the streets of Washington D.C. This was no film, these were, the real things who terrorize and destroy small towns and B-movies.
Prime Time
Moxene Fabe
I watch em day in, day out, the quiz shows. Which isn’t hard. These days you can find duos and trios of greedy folks hitting buzzers and clutching themselves with rapture as the money rolls in from ten in the morning until five in the afternoon, with a half-hour breather from 2:30-3.
Features
STEVE STILLS: “I ain’t no Dylan you know...”
Cameron Crowe
What happened to the aborted CSN&Y reunion last year?
PLAY IT LOUD
Guitar Arnie
The joyous electric noise of lateSixties rock and roll has had many ramifications. One is that people have taken to the music as a sign of the times, accepting the sound of rock as symbolic of a new sense of communication. The key word here is electronics.
Features
Primevil Career: t=The Blue Oyster Cult
Lester Bangs
There has never been a photograph of the Blue Oyster Cult on the cover of one of their albums, and there is a very good reason for that.
Features
Working For Peanuts: Rick Wakeman’s Final Days With YES
Gordon Fletcher
Going on the road with Yes probably isn’t what you’d call “fun,” but it does have its moments.
SMACK AS CATCH CAN: The Shape of Dope Today
L.B.
Phil is a 32 year old physician. The $50,000-plus he pulls down yearly has enabled him to install his wife and two kids in a $35,000, home in a plush suburb, with two cars worth a total of 15 Gs. He winters in Florida, visits his Northern cottages in the summer, and spends $4,000 a year on dope; at times he has spent as much as $700 in one week on marijuana, which he splits with friends.
THE CREEM PEOPLE'S DRUG REFERENCE CHART
FRANK ZAPPA Doin’ The Hand Jive
No, this isn’t the newest dance craze.
BRYAN FERRY BLINDFOLD TEST
David Marsh
THE GREATEST ROCK SHOW IN HISTORY
On November 11th, 1973, in Santiago, Chile, an itinerant gem polisher stumbled upon an idea that would change the course of rock music history...
Rewire Yourself
BEAT VS TARBY 1975
Richard Robinson
Well, it finally happened. RCA is tooling-up for the media revolution.
Extension Chords
Bassist: PLAYING THE BOTTOM LINE
Michael Brooks
“When I was in junior high, I wanted to be in the school orchestra,” says Rod EilicOtt, bassist for Cold Blood, “so I asked my father what I should play , and he said, “Learn to play bass and you’ll never be out of work. Good bass players are hard to find.
DON'T TOUCH THAT DIAL
David Marsh
In place of the usual grousing, just a few quick notes, this month. • Has anyone noticed that the backing to Joni Mitchell’s “Help Me” has all the qualities that make Jethro Tull what they are? That flute, for instance, is right out of Aqualung.
Eleganza
The Bride Wore Gold And His Nome Was Sly
Lisa Robinson
I don’t care much for radical chic.
Creemedia
Here’s Blood in Your Eye
Grigoris Daskalogrigorakis
Paul Morrissey's aesthetic journey from Flesh to Frankenstein is one from inventiveness to pretense and vacuousness.
Confessions of a FILM FOX
This is the month of the Mick movie rumor. All close but no ci-gar: Jagger almost signed to do Caves of the Vatican with Warhol and Morrissey, while Landers and Roberts have literally pinned him to star in their screen version of Deadly Edge. Liszt with a twist: Composer Franz Liszt could take on a new look in the movie planned Ken Russell.
SHORT TAKES
Lester Bangs
BORN LOSERS (American International): : Don�t let the presence of that tomahawkneyed geek Billy Jack deflect you from one of the finest biker films ever made. Born Losers actually duts even The Wild Angels by dint of the dingiest hog ridin� fools ever seen on the screen.
BOOKS
Lester Bongs
There�s always. a discrepancy between a celebrity�s real personality and his public image, and just as often the celebrity�s own handling of fame and his sense of himself as a separate entity are even more tangled. That sort of egocentric snarl is what this book is about.
Records
Eric Clapton: Sensuous Theology of the Blues
Dave Marsh
It probably seems presumptuous to call Eric Clapton's first album in three years one of the most intensely religious recordings I have ever heard.