February 1978
CONTENTS
Howdy Michael Davis. I'm Ruby Starr. You don't know me, but maybe you're beginning to. I'm not one for writing, but I would like to thank you for the write-up on the LP. What you said was not far off at all—Thanks! Right now I'm singing with Blackfoot.
CHRISTGAU CONSUMER GUIDE
Robert Christgau
THE BOOMTOWN RATS (Mercury):: As the clash of punk guitars battled the swelling Springsteen-cumLizzy pseudo-climaxes, I began to suspect a fix, especially since bizzers have been heard to murmur fondly about the "musical" skill of these up-and-coming Irish nasties.
ROCK 'N' ROLL NEWS
Boston has been plagued with problems from the start while recording the follow-up to their hysterically successful first album. Work began in Tom Scholz's basement studio, like before, but there have been spanners in the works all along.
THE BEAT GOES ON
Rick Johnson
L.A.—Punk rock is now officially for real, thanks to Tom Snyder. The Neandermouthed host of NBC's Tomorrow show invited Kim Fowley, Joan Jett of the Runaways, Bill Graham, critic Robert Hilburn and the Jam's Paul Weller to discuss New Wave bambam between Efferdent blurbs.
Creem Profiles
BRUCE SPRINGSTEEN
(Pronounced “Boy Howdy!”)
WELCOME TO THE WORKING OF ELVIS COSTELLO’S MIND
Nick Kent
We're tired of your whining that there's nuthin' new and good, so we would like to introduce you to Elvis via this English article.
Features
Young, Loud, and Inarticulate
Patrick Goldstein
Tom Petty, like rock ‘n’ roll, is here to stay.
THE TONGUE HAS IT
Robert Duncan
Dreams Realized, Generations Defined and KISS ALIVE!
GOD SAVE THE NEW WAVE (Catch It While You Can)
Jeffrey Morgan
BEFORE THE FLOOD: To fully understand the unique New Wave situation which has manifested itself in Toronto, it helps to have a working knowledge of the city itself—before the wave hit. Before you can perform in any of the local dives lucky enough to have been granted a liquor license from the Ontario government, you first have to sign with booking agents who control just about every place there is to perform in.
ANTHROPOMORPHOSIS
Robert Duncan
The Mayfair House on Park Avenue in New York is not the kind of place you go to throw sofas out the window or light the maid on fire. It's a small, very proper dowager of a hotel that offers quiet comfort, even elegance, to those who wear their wealth with dignity.
ASK THE ANSWER MAN: JIMMY PAGE
Angie Errigo
Dad Karma? NO! Breakup? NO! Cairo ? YES!
Eleganza
Where Hair?
Robert Duncan
In terms of hair these days, a guy can't get arrested.
ANDY GIBB: The Bee Gee's Smarter Brother?
Toby Goldstein
Nineteen-year-old Andy Gibb has the sort of complexion that would make the Breck girl feel ravaged sitting in the same room with him. Contrasted with the rest of us suffering a typical New York day, buried under a clever blend of 1000% humidity and petrified funk which dares to call itself air, the youngest Gibblet is long-blond-haired, pink-skinned and insisted, as I envied his healthy exuberance: "You're kidding! I'm shattered.
MAKES IT HAPPEN WITH A So You Wanna Be a Rock and Roll Star 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.
SO YOU WANNA BE A ROCK AND ROLL STAR
Richard Robinson
The President: Mr. Groovy. Sometimes he is a genuinely nice guy. His job is to understand you. He hangs out with you. Sometimes he remembers your name. Company Hippie/Guru: Young, hip, male. Actually understands a little about rock & roll. He may be the assistant to the president or head of A&R.
He Who Laughs Most Laughs Best
Billy Altman
by John Waters, whose latest film Desperate Living opened in New York recently to a typical Waters crowd, a collection of bizarros and well-to-do thrill slummers that looked like an issue of Interview magazine out for an evening on the town, laughs a lot.
CREEM DREEM
DOLLY PARTON
Stars Cars
JOE PERRY
DRIVE-IN SATURDAY
Edouard Dauphin
Like some pill-crazed Mongoloid brother-in-law who keeps turning up at family reunions, director John Waters continues to make films. First there was Pink Flamingos, in which an elephantine drag queen named Divine literally and figuratively ate caca.
Confessions of a FILM FOX
In between flights of fancy (Gregg today, gone tomorrow), Cher Bono Allman is looking to the future. Variety reports that the slinky warbler is planning to star in a film for producer Hannah Weinstein (as yet untitled), in addition to writing and starring in her own production (hints are that it'll be a family affair, co-starring sis Georgeanne La Pierre and daughter Chastity).
Letter From Britain
Never Mind The Bollocks— It's Christmas!
Simon Frith
Punks (some of them) come and punks (most of them) go but the British Christmas is always the same.
WHERE DO WE GO FROM HERE?
Billy Altman
Let's face it gang—with the Sex Pistols album now officially out and in the stores, we have reached the critical point in the 70's punk movement, probably for both the American as well as the British scene. The two don't really share that much beyond an unrelenting dissatisfaction with things as they are, with the U.S. side a bit more just plain musically sick of what's goin' down and the U.K.'ers more socio-politically concerned.
Records
DON JUAN SAYS HE DOESN’T KNOW YOU
Richard C. Walls
Why a double studio album and why such a short one (not quite an hour long)?
ROCK · A · RAMA
Richard Riegel
GRAHAM PARKER AND THE RUMOUR —Stick To Me (Mercury)::Graham Parker's enshrined status as rock critics' teacher's pet of 1976 is wearing a bit thin now that punk-plunk is rapidly replacing those tarnished old (recent?) Springsteen ikons, but this is still a solid, rewarding album, whatever fashion's going down.
Extension Chords
Home Recording
Jim Lillard
You're a semi-professional musician, with dreams of becoming a pro.
Backstage
BACKSTAGE
Where the Stars Tank Up & Let Their Images Down