November 1975
CONTENTS
BABEL’S ON FIRE Ever since I purchased your monthly containing a review of Elton’s new disc, there is one point I have been mulling over. How can “Tower of Babel” be “certainly” about the death of Robbie McIntosh, when he died in September, and Elton and Bernie composed the songs for Captain Fantastic in July, while on a cruise?
THE CHRISTGAU CONSUMER GUIDE
Robert Christgau
AVERAGE WHITE Band: “Cut the Cake” (Atlantic):: In the past, the impassioned identification of this group with its own technical mastery of a narrow non white musical form has transcended the banality of its material. But success seems to have mellowed them out, and the result has as little spirit as your standard soul-schlock job.
ROCK 'N' ROLL NEWS
Thoroughly bound up in plaster casts due to that near-fatal cat crash on Rhodes, Robert Plant was recovering in a London hospital when his lawyers discovered that if he were to spend one more day in Britain he would be subject to taxes on a whole year’s earnings.
THE BEAT GOES ON
Susan Whitall
NEW YORK, N.Y.—While hubby David was slinking around Albuquerque filming The Man Who Fell To Earth Angela Bowie hasn’t exactly been lollygagging around the house. Angie has teamed up with Stan Lee of Marvel Comics to create a TV film based upon Marvel’s Black Widow character, with Angie in the title role.
Letter From Britain
Flattened By The Bay City Rollers
Jonh Ingham
The Rollers sneaked up on everybody.
HOMEBOYS ON THE RANGE: TUCK’S GONNA DO IT
TOM DUPREE
You’d expect a lot of people to show up for the very first Marshall Tucker Band concert in the capital city of their home state, and you’d be right. A big auditorium in downtown Columbia, South Carolina is packed with glistening Tuckerphiles, and there ain’t a rhinestone in the place.
EAGLES: Fly Me, I’m Vacuous
John Milward
We’re three hours on the road and four hours from Manhattan, and my fingers are already calloused from punching the AM radio buttons, striking them with a fury usually reserved for lonely candy machines that gobble change at deserted subway stops.
BUFFALO SPRINGFIELD
(March 1966 — May 1968) Discography: Buffalo Springfield; Buffalo Springfield Again; last Time Around; plus two compilations: Retrospective; Buffalo Springfield (includes previously unreleased version of “Bluebird" with abysmal reworking of the coda).
Features
NEIL YOUNG: The Unwilling Superstar
Bud Scoppa
Neil Young isn’t out to win any popularity contests.
STEPHEN STILLS Grows Up
Lowell Cauffiel
Stephen Stills was dining/drinking with his band at a nightclub near Michigan’s Pine Knob Music Theater, the first stop of a new tour with a new set of musicians and in the wake of a new album release with a new record company.
RICHIE FURAY: Hooked On The Holy Ghost
Kenny Weissberg
In the spring of 1966, the Buffalo Springfield was building a fanatical Los Angeles following and had virtually unseated the Byrds as the ultimate Southern California house band. The Whiskey was their roost and the faces in the crowd were more than repeaters, they were season ticket holders.
Features
WHO’S LAST?
TONY STEWART
Daltrey fights back.
ROD JUMPS TEAMS
Barbara Charone
CAN HE CUT IT IN THE AMERICAN LEAGUE?
Features
FACES HUDDLE FOR DEFENSIVE PLAY
Lester Bangs
It’s last bash on the gridiron.
Rewire Yourself
Home, Video
Richard Robinson
Betamax is Sony’s home video cassette system. It’s touted as the true beginning of home video—an easy-to-use video cassette recorder/player that employs inexpensive video cassettes.
RITCHIE BLACKMORE: Why I Quit Deep Purple
Steve Rosen
The California clime seems to agree with Ritchie Blackmore, a usually unhealthy looking fellow whose complexion runs somewhere between spoiled flour and banana yogurt and one whose temperament carries heavy overtones of the Ubermensch.
TOMMY BOLIN: Why I Joined Deep Purple
Jeff Burger
Tommy Bolin has barely closed his eyes since he arrived in New York several days ago.
CREEM DREEM
RUBY STARR
CREEMEDIA
Wayne Robins
Remember rock 'n' roll?
Confessions of a FILM FOX
You could say it was a ... successful navel maneuver. Cher won her battle with CBS, who wanted to bar the baring of her belly button on TV; the slinky sultress refused to appear without her navel. Gregg and Cher are hotter than ever, in fact a fire broke out in their bedroom.
SHORT TAKES
Naha
THE DEVIL'S RAIN (Bryanston):: If you really enjoy a good fright film, your best bet is to sit at home in front of the TV and totally ignore any of the drivel currently hitting the theatres. The latest blow to the human intellect making the rounds is a colorful piece of fluff titled The Devil’s Rain.
Stars Cars
Alice Cooper
GET YOUR WAH WAHS OUT!
Eric Gaer
This, CREEM’s 3rd Annual Musical Instrument Supplement is for you, the consumer, the player, the aficionado of musical instruments and sound equipment. You have often heard and are no doubt personally aware that musical sound is, for the most part, very different from hi fi and consumer electronics; if for no other reason, it is far more personal. It is not uncommon for a musician to spend more time and deliberation in choosing an instrument than he does in choosing a mate.
Eleganza
The New Velvet Underground
Lisa Robinson
Even though I’m fortunate enough to have a larger-than-the-usual-size color TV, and I appreciate it for the great drug that it is, there is part of me that will always cherish old black and white movies (and I’ll watch them anytime, forget this late at night business) on television.
Records
BRUCE SPRINGSTEEN: Hot Rod Rumble In The Promised Land
Lester Bangs
Bruce Springsteen reaches his stride at a time when the listening audience is not only desperate for a new idol but unprecedentedly suspicious of all pretenders to the throne.
ROCK • A • RAMA
MOONQUAKE - Star Struck (Aquarius) :: When you dabble in different aspects of pop culture from Hollywood Babylon to Beatlemania as this Canadian band is doing you are asking your listeners to be culturally relative. The Raspberries do the same thing, only they haven't emulated the country side of the Stones, the Love It To Death period of Alice Cooper, or Motown, or L.A. "65 as Moonquake has.
STRANGE ROCK 'N' ROLL FACTS