June 1980
CREEM CONTENTS
FEEDING THE BABY RE: MAIL (PILGRIM’S PROGRESS), APRIL ’80 IN CREEM To Robert J. Moorhouse A.K.A. retarded, luded-out, outdated, shit-lapping, rude, conditioned, docile, dirty & grimy, lobotomized, low life, scum-sucking fan: YOU ARE RIGHT!
CHRISTGAU CONSUMER GUIDE
Robert Christgau
Paranoid new wavers may suspect that I’m getting soft on super groups, but that won’t make the new albums by the Jam and Gary Numan more fun than those by ZZ Top and Led Zeppelin, not to mention more meaningful (or more fun) than the new one by Gil Scott-Heron.
ROCK 'N' ROLL NEWS
Sad but true: As reported last issue, heavy metalloids Judas Priest had the masters of the upcoming LP stolen by an anonymous-but-tasteless extortionist, but get this—having paid the megabuck ransom the grossen wieners actually got back their masters.
THE BEAT GOES ON
Rick Johnson
The Beat And The American Way BIRMINGHAM, MIߞ“The new music is being supported by the kids, and that’s who it’s for. It doesn’t matter if the radio ain’t gonna play it,’ cause the kids are going to make such a wall that everything is going to fall down in front of it,” said Paul Collins of the Beat, and he may be right.
Creem Profiles
PAT BENATAR
(Pronounced “Boy Howdy!”)
WHAT PRICE GLORY? RAMONES SOLDIER ON
Mitch Cohen
If God has a sense of humor, the Ramones will finally go all the way.
PINK FLOYD'S WALL: Live and All Pink On the Inside
Dave DiMartino
Was it coincidence that the earliest pictures of Johnny Rotten had the pimply pre-Lydon scowling in a shirt emblazoned: FUCK PINK FLOYD? Or that a Rockpile audience, told to cheer on cue while engineers recorded it for the new Pink Floyd album, decided it would be more appropriate to boo instead?
JOHN PEEL: I AM WHAT I PLAY
Penny Valentin
There are two choices. You can either watch Top Of The Pops or you can listen to John Peel. It depends who you are ,and what you want. Both are aimed at an audience with money to spend on getting musical satisfaction. But they couldn't be further apart.
THE PRINCIPAL PLEASURE OF BEING GARY NUMAN
Dave DiMartino
Gary Numan is a nice guy. Seriously.
CALENDER
IGGY POP: SOLDIER OF THE DOG CHOW APOCALYPSE
Mark J. Norton
You know of this person. He’s the guy who made heavy metal groups look like the wimps they are with his first three albums.
Unsung Heroes Of Rock ‘n’ Roll
STICK McGHEE: Spo-Dee-O-Dee
Nick Tosches
In life, one encounters very few truths of the absolute sort.
Features
The CLASH Clamp Down On Detroit
Susan Whitall
Now don’t look to us Phony Beatlemania has bitten the dust.
CREEMEDIA
Rick Johnson
Killing the afternoon is one of everybody’s favorite activities. It’s simple, clean, very 20th Century and can usually be accomplished at home in your spare time. Scientific materials required include a Noise Source (TV, stereo, gagged infant), an Individual Recreational Space (bed, sofa, bed), one or more Imagination Enhancers and—most importantly—a big, sloppy pile of sleazy magazines.
Confessions of a FILMFOX
Spring has sprung, the grass is green, hello, how are ya, where have you been? Yes, it is spring again, and where does a young man’s fancy turn to? Love, of course. And where does an old man’s fancy turn to? Love, you big dummy! Famed octogenarian Fred (I ain’t no Travolta) Astaire recently let it be known to John Q. Public that he plans to marry lady jockey Robyn Smith...
CREEM DREEM
LENE LOVICH & LES CHAPPELL
WHAT LES PAUL SPAWNED
Allen Hester
Back in the Stone Age of rock ’n’ roll, the 1950’s, there was a guitar player by the name of Les Paul who, along with his wife Mary Ford, had already established himself as one of the most innovative electric guitar stylists ever to play the instrument No, Les Paul wasn’t a “rock ’n’ roll” guitar player himself, although his unique style has influenced many of rock’s great players.
ELVIS COSTELLO SEEKS THE WINDOW UP ABOVE
Jeff Nesin
When a 21-year-old Elvis Presley, stepping out from under the banks of studio lights at the Ed Sullivan Theater, cupped his hands over his eyes and gazed out over the audience grinning his Hall of Fame grin, he was, in George Wallace’s wonderful phrase, “sending them a message.”
LEAVE IT TO BILLY
THE MAD PECK
ROCK • A • RAMA
Richard Riegel
BUSTER WILLIAMS—Dreams Come True (Buddah)::Much of this is sappy, as you’d expect, but just the weirdness of trying to convert a bass player into a commercially acceptable lead soloist makes the record worth nothing. Also pianist Kenny Barron and trumpeter Eddie Henderson lend jazz authenticity to a few cuts and the best of this sounds like a very low-keyed bop session while the worst sounds like a kind of ersatz disco.
Backstage
BACKSTAGE
Where the Stars Tank Up & Let Their Images Down