September 1980
Creem Profiles
RACHEL SWEET
(Pronounced “Boy Howdy!”)
Creem
After reading the July 1980 issue of CREEM, I decided the time had come to put a few of my thoughts regarding “America’s Only Rock ’n’ Roll (AHEM COUGH COUGH CHOKE) Magazine” down on paper. Don’t get the wrong idea—it’s not that the July 1980 issue was outstandingly bad.
CHRISTGAU CONSUMER GUIDE
Robert Christgau
Although Parliament-Funkadelic was more influenced by white rock (especially heavy metal) than any other black band in history, it was virtually unknown among whites until the late 70’s. No doubt that’s because one thing Clinton borrowed from white rock was outrageous belligerence, but it’s still a racial disgrace (and not the last, I guarantee).
ROCK 'N' ROLL NEWS
Very strange news: Jon Anderson and Rick Wakeman have left Yes, Wakeman for the second time but lead-chirper Anderson for the very first. Anderson, you see, has enjoyed some degree of success with keyboardist Vangelis and perhaps felt the need to desert Yes’s sinking ship.
THE BEAT GOES ON
Rick Johnson
CINCINNATI—The statuesque, light-brown-haired beauty strides purposefully past the expectant necklace of fans strung out along Vine Street, and disappears into Bogart’s front door with outside-world savoir faire. I can feel my German-ancestry racial unconscious (among other appendages) standing on end.
The Power Of Positive Pinball
Dave DiMartino
Lou Reed tilts the machine.
Camp, Revamped, and On Tap
Rob Patterson
Hall & Oates take on the ’80s.
THE SOUTHSIDE JOHNNY Phenomenon: RELEVANT ASPECTS
Gregg Turner
"Sure. I know Handsome Dick.” says the guy w/cool. black shades and laconic East Coast drawl. “Manitoba (x-Dictators singer, connoisseur of fine food) and I are pals.” Johnny Lyon, product of Neptune, NJ, laughs about those wild frogbound nites in Paris with the ’Tators.
Unsung Heroes Of Rock ‘n’ Roll
ROY HALL: See, We Was All Drunk
Nick Tosches
Roy Hall was born on May 7, 1922, in Big Stone Gap, Virginia, a backwoods town about 20 miles from the Tennessee line, near the foothills of the Appalachian Mountains.
Letter From Britain
NEW BLUES FOR POSTMODERNISTS
Penny Valentine
Little red roosters and hound dogs on my trail—they never did fit comfortably into my view of things.
KINKS KULTURE THEN AND NOW
J. Kordosh
Clearly, the Kinks’ cult days are over.
DAVE DAVIES: A KINK STANDOS ALONE
J. Kordosh
One of pop music’s most famous siblings is Dave Davies, lead guitarist, sometime singer, and infrequent songwriter for the Kinks. After laboring in the large shadow of brother Ray all these years, Davies has just put out his first solo album...an event long-awaited by Kinksologists everywhere.
Rock ‘n’ Roll Calendar
CALENDAR
SAFE AT HOME OR AGAINST THE WIND: BOB SEGER BOPS HORIZONTALLY
Dave DiMartino
Don’t let anybody tell you Bob Seger is not a cool guy. Case in point: Seger, Detroit’s ying to Ted Nugent’s yang dang, is a busy fellow. It’s the records biz: Against The Wind, his latest, sucked up to the top of the trade mags and never really unsucked, giving him his first Number One LP and more glory than any non-Motownie Detroit artist could ever rightfully expect.
CREEMEDIA
Mark J. Norton
Stanley Kubrick is one of America’s outstanding filmmakers. Quirkier than Coppola, as graphic as Peckinpah and subtle as Altman, Kubrick could be comparted to the artist Monet. Enough of this artsy crap...Kubrick’s scored again, in the form of the The Shining.
Prime Time
Richard G. Walls
The divided column approach worked well enough last time, so I’ve decided to use it again. Besides, lately I can’t seem to maintain a train of thought for more than 300 words, tops. But don’t tell anyone THE WAGES OF ICKEY-POO: Every weekend here in Detroit, after Saturday Night Live is over Saturday Night Dead comes on.
CREEM DREEM
MARTHA DAVIS
Stars Cars
TOM PETERSSON
Confessions of a FILM FOX
Hi Wendy! I’m home...Palm Springs newspaper The Desert Sun recently ran this headline: FORD ENTERS DINAH SHORE. We were wondering what the entry fee was... Praise the Lord and pass the bux dept.: Happy with all the good fortune coming his way, little guy Mickey Rooney took out an immense ad in the Los Angeles Times to thank God and his minister.
Rewire Yourself
SOUND SYMPTOMS
Richard Robinson
I’m amazed that the hi-fi business continues to prosper and proliferate, considering London Calling is the only album worth listening to loud.
Extension Chords
GIBSON’S UNSUNG HEROES
Allen Hester
The Gibson Les Paul Standard is such a popular guitar, and has been for so many years, that many people often overlook the other guitars that Gibson makes.
STORMIN’ THROUGH THE MIDNIGHT SHIFT
Robot A. Hull
As a city where the populace chews steel for a living, Pittsburgh is an unlikely birthplace for a significant rock band (the Jaggerz don’t count). Heavy-metal dinosaurs excepted, it’s not a city actually jumping with rock ’n’ roll, probably because its citizenry has to work like dogs just to make ends meet.
THE GHOST RIDER OF MEMPHIS RAMBLES ON
Jeff Nesin
Some records require a leap of faith. Sometimes abusing restricted substances and sometimes—one likes to think—reviews help. But whatever it takes to get you to the nearest import record shop and past the first few, “These guys can’t be serious!” is fine with me because Alex Chilton’s Like Flies On Sherbert is a rare and wonderful record and it deserves to be heard.
Who Put The Rama Lama In The Tutti-Frutti ?
ROCK•A•RAMA
Richard Riegel
GIRL—Sheer Greed (Jet):: Per their publicity, Girl are real hot numbers in the heavy-metal revival sweeping through British rock, but other U.K. sources have indicated that H/M hardly dominates their fair land; it’s simply one more minority style within a richly fragmented contemporary scene.
Backstage
BACKSTAGE
Where the Stars Tank Up & Let Their Images Down