April 1976
CREEM CONTENTS
BANGS TO NATURE: DROP DEAD! Concerning Lester Bangs' "John Denver is God." What an absurd piece of criticism! A very pretentious, pseudo-intellectual & illogical bit of nonsense. The essence of Lester Bangs' (What can you expect with a name like this — undoubtedly one of the spindly-legged, pimple-faced indoor types) remarks is this:
THe CHRISTGAU CONSUMER GUIDE
Robert Christgau
Despite my small hopes at Pazz & Jop time, I found two of them — albums that would have made my 1975 top 30 if I'd done my listening right. "Beserkley Chartbusters" simply slipped past me — it's sort of a sport as product, anyway, kind of like "The Harder They Come" in its collective identity — and the Sonny Rollins I might just have declared rock by fiat on account of it uses an electric bass, which would be no sillier than any other definition.
ROCK'N' ROLL NEWS
The latest (and last, we promise) word on Lou Reed's Metal Machine Music is neither an apology from Lou nor a defense of the recced. Mr. Reed states simply, according to close sources: "I put it out to break a contract with [manager] Dennis Katz."
THE BEAT GOES ON
Steven Davey
BRILL BUILDING—What important role do Naked Snake, Psuedo Songs, Big Pig and Tinkle Tunes play in the music industry? They're the respective publishers of Little Feat, the Tubes, Elton John, and Fanny, that's what. Any slick dicked accountant will tell you that when you sign a recording contract, it's wise to grab the rights on your own publishing, because there's as much money in that as there is in vinyl.
Creem Profiles
BAY CITY ROLLERS
(Pronounced “Boy Howdy!”)
Death May Be Your Santa Claus
Mort A. Credit
An Exclusive Up To Date Interview With Jimi Hendrix
Letter From Britain
Lively Up Yourself!
Simon Frith
I hope the Bay City Rollers become huge number one American biggest teeny sellers of all time, because it'll make everyone in England so cross.
CREEM DREEM
Stevie Nicks
LESLIE WEST: On Stickball, Gutterballs, Jackie Kennedy, Amos 'n' Andy And Torch Guitar
Clyde Hadlock
Leslie and I were having a pleasant discussion over some burgers and chocolate milk in the restaurant of the Springfield, Illinois airport.
VIVA ZAPATA!
Susan Whit all
"I've never quit a band before and I want to do it right," said a breathless Corky Laing over the wire from his hotel room in Cleveland. He went on to spill his guts about his then-imminent departure from the Leslie West Band. "There's no hostility or anything.
Rewire Yourself
Please, Don't Squeeze The Shaman
Richard Robinson
Next month you'll have your annual opportunity to not read my audiovideo supplement.
ELTONSCHAUNG
ED WARD
Look, kid, I coulda discovered Elton John. No, really!
BEATLES CONFIDENTIAL
Tony Tyler
12 Years Later And You STILL Don't Know!
The Wives (and Ladies) That Late They Laved
Susan Whitall
If cool English girls like supermodel Jean Shrimpton or the gloriously tousled Julie Christie in Darling created the image of the swinging model girl of the Sixties, Pattie Boyd Harrison certainly lived the role, topping off her career by landing a Beatle, no less — even if it was the quiet one.
Stars Cars
David Bowie
BTO: BAND FOR A BLAND NEW WORLD
DAVE HICKEY
I was on my way to interview Robbie Bachman and Blair Thornton at the St. Moritz when I came upon Martin standing in the rain outside the Doubleday Bookstore on Fifth Avenue, with his Teflon skateboard under one arm and a copy of Pride and Prejudice under the other.
Features
Bob Dylan’s Dalliance With Mafia Chic
Lester Bangs
It is automatically assumed that every Bob Dylan album is an event, and Desire is certainly no exception.
THE REAL HURRICANE’S OTHER FALSE TRIAL
R. MELTZER
In December '64 Rubin Carter got his fistic ass handed to him almost as heinously and unjudiciously — in its context — as the Big Ass-Hand Dylan so vividly (and generally accurately) describes in his current drastic change of pugilistic pace from "Who Killed Davey Moore?"
Features
Patti Smith’s Swinging Vines
Lisa Robinson
"The one cool thing about getting successful in rock and roll is keeping all the traditional joys about it."
Creemedia
JUST BECAUSE ALLEN GINSBERG MEDITATES DOESNT MAKE HIM STUPID
William Burroughs, Jr.
Since Allen Ginsberg, always visible though generations come and go, has never been more of a public figure than he is now, itseems more than just good timing to focus in on a man who has been far more than just an Omorary Dylan entouragent.
CONFESSIONS OF A FILM FOX
What's big, hairy, Polish, and sits atop the World Trade Center while holding a damsel in distress in his paws? King Kowalski. Dino DeLaurentlis's remake of the frolicking hijinks of our fave hairy ape, King Kong, is due for release in January 1977.
Extension Chords
CREEM’S 1976 All-Star Rock ‘N’ Roll Band Equipment Package
Eric Goer
Love letters, advice, poison pen letters, and other opinions of note are encouraged.
Records
CHICKENHEAD COMES HOME TO ROOST
LESTER BANGS
It's tough having heroes. It's the hardest thing in the world.
Records
NEARER MY ENO TO THEE
JAMES WOLCOTT
A transatlantic vinyl missive from Eno.
SLEEPER OF THE MONTH
Lester Bangs
I've had this little gem around for several months now, and I keep coming back to it, because this record is good, fans, in a way that almost nothing is these days.
ROCK A RAMA
KENNY STARR - The Blind Man in the Bleachers (MCA) :: And some folks call Lou Reed sick. This brand of sentimentality is so putrescently morbid it makes Harry Chapin sound like Franz Kafka, relatively speaking. Send this kid to the showers (Dachau variety). R. R. BLACK OAK ARKANSAS - Live, Mutha!
Motor Mouth
KISS PLANTS A PLATINUM PUCKER
Hello all you jive-talkers, ginbabies and winged creatures of the night.
Brash Trash With Flash
Sue Whitall
The first lady of sleaze, Bette Midler, rolled into Detroit in late January on the middle leg of her 1976 tour, still thin and pale from her recent emergency appendectomy. In case you didn't catch it in the tabloids, Bette had to cancel a few of her Los Angeles gigs at the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion when she was striken with appendicitis.
The Rollers In Detroit: Punks In Sheep’s Clothing
Sue Whitall
The Bay City Rollers arrived at Metro Airport to be greeted by a small mob of tartaned teens (around 50) on the lam from school.
LOVE Is ths DRUG
Air-Wreck Genheimer
In Which Our Reporter Rejects Sex In Disgust And Turns To The New Morality