November 1977
Creem CONTENTS
As a subscriber to your rag, and in the mame to justice & rise in full punk regalia, I beseech you, do a girl a favor and print this! I saw the Ramones in concert last night with Petty and the Heartbreakers and "King Bee" a local "punk band." Anyways, there I was in the front row in my customary Boy Howdy! and Levi's I've worn chronically since they were virgin stiff way back in 72.
CHRISTGAU CONSUMER GUIDE
Robert Christgau
BALCONES FAULT: "It's All Balcones Fault" (Cream):: Three excellent songs on one side from this Austinbased unit—one New Orleans shuffle with country-rock vocal, one Jamaican polka, and one remake of the theme from Busby Berkeley's 42nd Street.
ROCK 'N' ROLL NEWS
One Elvis Presley mimic reports that he was absolutely swamped with offers from promoters to do his Elvislike act as a result of the Kings sudden and unexpected death. According to Zodiac News, Alan Meyer, one of 85 full-time Elvis lookalikes working in the United States, said, "It was kind of gross.
THE BEAT GOES ON
Joe Fernbacher
BUFFALO, N.Y.—He was walking down the street lost and alive, looking for a reason to exist, when he came across this garishly painted bi-centennial trash barrel sporting the listless face of George Washington. His hands began to tremble as he set out on a determined journey to the bottom of the garbage abyss.
Creem Profiles
BURTON CUMMINGS
(Pronounced “Boy Howdy!”)
SHUFFLING DOWN TO LIDO WITH BOZ SCAGGS
PATRICK GOLDSTEIN
One of rock 'n' roll's most enduring myths has grown out of the peculiar courtship ritual between youthful white musicians and the siren-like call of black American rhythms.
Features
New York Lights Up With Soggy Matches!
Robert Drizzle Duncan
Let's get this straight. I refuse to call this crap New Wave.
A DAY AT THE STUDIO, A HIGHT ON THE TOWN
Richard Cromelin
Rod Stewart has three non-originals on Footloose and Fancy Free, his third post-Faces album.
Aiming For The Heart
Simon Frith
I often wonder whether CREEM would read any different if it was devoted to the hip doings of, say, chartered accountants. When you've read one rock star interview you've read them all and what you've read is the game-plan of another well-organized professional marking up each gig, each record, each conversation even, in his little book of profits and loss.
STEVE WINWOOD: DON'T CALL HIM STEVIE!
Penny Valentine
When Steve Winwood was 15 years old he was the child prodigy/focal point of the Spencer Davis Group. Singing with a soul voice experienced beyond its years and playing keyboard and guitar with absolute assurance, his talents were never questioned.
Features
TIPTOEING THROUGH THE JULEPS
Patrick Goldstein
Mint and mayhem on the road with Lynyrd Skynyrd.
Who Needs Kojak?
Richard Robinson
Atari and Fairchild are manufacturers of amazing home computer games. For $150, either of them will sell out a brown plastic computer with an umbilical control cord to clutch and an adaptor to turn your TV set into a computer display terminal.
Creemedia
ROLL OVER GODZILLA, AND TELL MOTHRA THE NEWS
CREEM's guide to futuristic flicks.
Stars Cars
BOSTON
Confessions of a FILM FOX
Da Doo runt-runt Shaun Cassidy spotted around L.A. with Jaimie Curtis, off-shoot of Tony and Janet Leigh, though the Hardy ho-hum sez he's much too busy for a tight squeeze with anyone. The latest hot poop on the movie set of Grease pits oily John Travolta with Olivia (who could do with an oil job herself) Newton-John. Little Liv insists her real leading macho is her manager, but isn't that what they all say?
THE KEYS TO THE STARS
Allen Hester
Even though the rock guitarist gets more glory than the other guys who back him up, it's a fact that the piano stands at the center of formal education —everybody in music school is required to have a basic keyboard knowledge as the foundation of his/her theoretical training.
Records
HEADED BACK TOWARDS MAIN STREET
Billy Altman
I imagine that I should state right at the beginning that if you took all the songs on Goats Head Soup, It's Only Rock 'n Roll, and Black and Blue, there wouldn't be more than a handful that in any way affected me.
THE RONSTADT REPORT
Trixie A. Balm
Linda Ronstadt is not a Renaissance Woman.
ROCK-A-RAMA
Richard Riegel
AALON—Cream City (Arista)::Another member of the Eric Burdon/Far Out extended family makes his solo move, in an intriguing soulguitar pop opera (or at least concept album) that kids the rock biz all over its own starcrossed turf. Not all of the songs work as wittily as Aalon's general concept and descriptive liner notes (not to mention the many rewards of the infinitely-detailed cover art), but the swirling guitar textures and the Curtis Mayfield-cum-Felix Cavaliere vocals are superfine.
Backstage
BACKSTAGE
Where the Stars Tank Up & Let Their Images Down