June 1977
CONTENTS
As much as I appreciate the Christgau guide to 1967, I would like to point out the omission of one very influential album. I am speaking, of course, of MORE OF THE MONKEES. You may laugh but where do you think John Cale lifted that organ sound for Sister Ray?
CHRISTGAU CONSUMER GUIDE
ELECTRIC LIGHT ORCHESTRA: "A New World Record" (United Artists)::Sure this is Moody Blues with brains, hooks and laffs galore, but it's also love without balls. Recommended to those who really got off on music appreciation in high school.
ROCK 'N' ROLL NEWS
More than a rumor! The Small Faces' comeback tour is underway in England, though they're playing without Ronnie Lane. According to manager Mel Bash: "It didn't work out— he wasn't compatible." So the '77 Small Faces are Steve Marriott, Kenny Jones, Ian MacLegan and Rick Wills.
THE BEAT GOES ON
Patrick Goldstein
CHICAGO—Muddy Waters holds up a massive, pleated hand, waving it through the air 'til the late morning light falls on its fleshy furrows. The hand is folded with age; mottled like a harpooned whale, with callouses and a long, razor thin scar that extends up along a meaty finger (one of the reasons Waters has gradually phased out his slide guitar theatrics).
RUSH TO JUDGEMENT
Darcy Diamond
I was really mad at my sister. She borrowed my best pair of black pants, ripped them lamentably, and then refused to give them back.
Letter From Britain
IAN HUNTER FIGHTS BOREDOM (AND PASSES FOR DAVID BYRON)
Simon Frith
The day before I heard Ian Hunter was in town I was reading The Rolling Stone Illustrated History of Rock & Roll and gaping at its "rare picture" of Hunter without his glasses on.
Diary Of A Rock Critic
Sunday—The best guitarist in the world is my brother, Fred Frith, who plays in the group Henry Cow. Henry Cow, as someone wrote a letter a few issues ago complaining, don't get much coverage in CREEM, not even from me.
NO DISCO FOR DERRINGER
Trixie A. Balm
From a real Midwestern mentality that does not even encompass the possibility of making It In show business.
THE ATLANTA RHYTHM SECTION
Patrick Goldstein
Mary, the waitress at the Skokie Hilton, knows how to handle her rock star clientele.
Creem Profiles
TED NUGENT
(Pronounced “Boy Howdy!”)
KEITH And The Cockroaches
Barbara Charone
Rip this joint.
TODD RUNDGREN FROM THE CRADLE OF CIVILIZATION
Kris Nicholson
Had I remembered that it was doomsday, I'm sure I would have died of fright.
Ian Anderson: TOO OLD TO ROCK ‘N’ ROLL? NEVER!
Ian Anderson
"I hate mindless uniformity."
Eleganza
Lisa Makes A House Call
Lisa Robinson
Even as she recuperates at home in New York City, Patti Smith keeps busy.
Al Kooper: Always A Bridesmaid?
John Morthland
For Al Kooper, the Sixties began in 1959.
Stars Cars
ROGER EARL
Confessions of a FILM FOX
Now that Bob and Sara Dylan have untied the knot, what's to become of that outlandish little hideaway they were building outside of L.A.? Word has it that Bobby has ordered the entire structure be demolished. Talk about town is that Cher's little sister and new starlet of the soaps, Georganne LaPiere, will soon be exchanging "I dos" with Eagle Don Henley.
Before Elvis And The Beatles There Was Tom Edison
Richard Robinson
I'm not sure what percentage of the sound we hear every day is pre-recorded. I guess 20 % of the sound I hear isn't there, added to another 10 or 15% that's live but electronically processed. This year our eardrums celebrate the hundredth anniversary of recorded sound.
Their Ways Are Inscrutable
Billy Altman
Funny how you hardly ever hear anyone running around screaming the praises of Bad Company. Just about anybody who takes their music seriously will usually take every opportunity to blast off at the mouth about their fave raves, yet Bad Company's name is curiously absent during most discussions of the top groups around.
Is There Life After New Jersey?
Mitch Cohen
The songs of Miami Steve Van Zandt are like found objects; he zeroes in on a particular species of East Coast rhythm and blues, mixes together the standard elements and emerges with a song that echoes and reverberates. As a composer, arranger and producer, he has an extraordinary sense of dynamics, of how to build dramatically and push the song home, and it's Van Zandt who's the real story behind This Time It's For Real.
ROCK · A · RAMA
Micheal Davis
TELEVISION—Marquee Moon (Elektra):: AH HAVE HEARD THE FUTURE OF ROCK AND ROLL AND ITS NAME IS TOM VERLAINE (that's not really true). The present will do nicely enough. There's more meat here than the tube'll feed ya in an entire season even though T.V. (get it?) does occasionally come on like Sancho Panza to Patti's Don Quixote or Gallahad to Lou's Lancelot or...oh, fuck the analogies.
Backstage
BACKSTAGE
Where the Stars Tank Up & Let Their Images Down