January 1978
CONTENTS
Please send letters to: MAIL Dept., CREEM Magazine P.O. Box P-1064, Birmingham, Ml 4801? JAILHOUSE ROCK I am a CREEM reader. I’m stuck in the joint here with Rusty right now, I think it is really great that you gave him that free subscription.
CHRISTGAU CONSUMER GUIDE
Robert Christgau
A slightly disappointing month, given the status of the entrants. But I haven’t listened to so many B plusses at once in what seems like years, and that’s good. I’d hoped to come down hard on at least part of the Sire punk blockbuster before it got around me, just to prove I’m not a complete sucker for all this unmusicianly (hah!) stuff, but when I began humming Saints songs I knew that was hopeless.
ROCK 'n' ROLL NEWS
Although they probably won’t use the name Lynyrd Skynyrd, the survivors of the tragic crash in Mississippi that claimed three band members in October; Gary Rossington, Allen Collins, Leon Wilkeson, Billy Powell, Artimus Pyle and Leslie Hawkins, have made no decision to disband as we go to press.
THE BEAT GOES ON
Patrick Goldstein
LYNYRD SKYNYRD 1970-1977 It was $l00,000 wedding, Supposed to be held the other day, And with all the invitations sent The young bride went away. * —From “3100,000 Wedding”, by Gram Parsons Hearing the news of Ronnie Van Zant’s death in a plane crash that also claimed the lives of Lynyrd Skynyrd band members Steve and Cassie Gaines, a friend of mine remarked: “Those who live by the sword die by the sword.”
THE COMMODORES: COME FUNK WITH US!
Howard Klein
“Now you take a group like Fleetwood Mac or the Zep,” offered Benny. “It’s another thing that the audiences get off into. I don’t understand it because I’m not a heavy rock fan, but I respect it and appreciate it in my planning for the group.”
IN PARIS THEY GOB ON MAIN STREET
Norbert Sparrow
Preconceptions will be shattered: the above lines are drawn from the first single of a French punk-rock group, Metal Urbain, translated into English by me. Ahem. Yes, the refined, cultured and oh so sophistiqué French get off on an energy fix just like you!
JOHN DENVER IS GOD BRUCE SPRINGSTEEN IS GOD BLUE OYSTER CULT IS GOD!
Robert Duncan
I hate to be the one to bring it all up again, but goddamnit, the Seventies have to be dealt with.
Letter From Britain
Growing Up Absurd
Simon Frith
Yesterday morning I went to a hairdresser for the first time since 1963.
Creem Profiles
IGGY POP
(Pronounced “Boy Howdy!”)
Features
JAGGER JAW SESSION: Mannish Boy Gets What He...Needs
Barbara Charone
Mick Jagger sat athletically on the floor of the Rolling Stones’ New York office listening to The Best of Ray Charles. Next door, Keith Richard, nattily dressed in a white suit, was doing an interview with a gentleman from The Toronto Star. His eight-yearold son Marlon ran up and down the corridor playing with some promotional red lips and chattering teeth that said: “Love You Live.”
So You Wanna be a Rock and Roll Star
Richard Robinson
WHERE THE MONEY COMES FROM Music Publishing: This is where the real money is made. The writer and publisher of a song get money each time the song is played on the radio or TV, and for every record of the song sold. Do not give up your publishing. Do not sign with a record company that in any way forces you to share your publishing with them.
MAKES IT HAPPEN WITH A CONTEST!
The time is now! This is your opportunity to Win and Win Big. CREEM, America’s Only Rock ’n’ Roll Magazine, is offering The Big Break...you might be The Next Big Thing. You could be the Grand Prize Winner or Win any of these other fabulous prizes if you just send us a cassette tape recording of two of your best musical efforts.
ELVIN BISHOP: Fighting The Drought With Budweiser
Ed Ward
Wonder of wonders! Elvin Bishop, whose records have always made me jump up and down with boogie fever, but who usually plays cavernous rock halls like San Francisco’s Winterland, where it’s too big to have any fun, is going to play a small club in downtown San Francisco, the Old Waldorf.
New Wave Etiquette
Allen Hester
As youth’s music reaches ever onward and outward in an unswerving effort to unite the world, this time by virtue of being equally obnoxious to everyone, so must music criticism cast off the chains of discretion. The New Wave is here, and with it a more than adequate amount of flotsam and debris, all of which must be hauled ashore, immunized and catalogued.
Creemedia
Comedy is not pretty
Patrick Goldstein
Hey—are you ready to GET SMALL!
CREEM DREEM
LINDA RONSTADT
Stars Cars
JIM DANDY
Death May Be Your Santa Claus...
Susan Whitall
And then again, maybe Elton will... It’s A Little Bit Funny is just a little bit fatuous, but not altogether unappropriate as a Christmas offering for some deserving younger sibling who isn’t quite ready for the Sex Pistols. See Elton perform, eat, sleep, cohort with his cohorts, and more!
Confessions of a FILMFOX
This month’s courtroom drama centers on Bianca Jagger suing the filmmakers of the abandoned ’75 production of Trick Or Treat. Variety reported that Mick’s Missus is claiming “persistent breaches of contract. ” Paul McCartney (along with Wings) and Elton John will invade the TV tube soon when ABC presents two specials on the boys.
Rhinestoned Cowgirls
Joan Dew
The position of women in the world of country music has always been a fascinating one, especially when you consider that there weren’t even any female country stars before 1952.
Eleganza
It’s Manic Panic In The Apple
Toby Goldstein
Gina, Snooky and Tish didn’t know what to expect when they opened Manic Panic, but they sure found out fast.
Rewire Yourself
Hotwire Your Wheels
Richard Robinson
I don’t know if you’ve ever been to Los Angeles. Out there they live life in the fast lane. Actually, it’sonly half fast; more like life in the breakdown lane. Recent surveys reveal that of the ten million cars in greater Southern Cal, nine million of them have car radios tuned to radio stations that play the Eagles.
Records
THE LAST ONE TASTES AS GOOD AS THE FIRST
R. Meltzer
Hey hey hey...another swell dynamite longplayer from CREEM coverboy Roderick Stewart—or is it Rodney?
Records
Randy Newman: HE AIN’T SHORT
Joe Goldberg
Randy Newman is the great genius of American popular music.
Records
RAMONES COUNT TO TEN!! And Blast Off
I don’t know how many people caught the Ramones on Don Kirshner’s NEW Rock Concert (as opposed to just plain old Don Kirshner’s Rock Concert.
Rock a Rama
BOB WELCH—French Kiss (Capitol)::An extremely annoying album, mainly because there are some very good songs here but you have to zero out the discofied arrangements to hear them. It’s hard to figure out just what Welch is up to—his well-tempered guitar and vocals constantly get dominated by the surroundings.
Backstage
BACKSTAGE
Where the Stars Tank Up & Let Their Images Down