April 1981
BARRY D. KRAMER 1943-1981
Dave Marsh
(On January 29 CREEM publisher and founder Barry Kramer died at 37, just as we were going to press. Our business is words, but they rather fail us when it comes to describing someone who was the vital force behind CREEM—who was indeed, Boy Howdy! himself.
CREEM
JOHNSON BONER EXPLAINED! The Heavily-Into-Numbers branch of the Ranger Institute has just completed the statistical analysis of the 1980 CREEM Reader’s Poll, with special attention on the tragic, unexpected results of the Rock Crydick portion, which this year was sleazed by the ever-unlikely Rick Johnson.
CHRISTGAU CONSUMER GUIDE
Robert Christgau
“JOHN ANDERSON” (Warner Bros.):: Maybe this isn’t the best country album of 1980, but I’ll take it over Willie Nelson’s supersessions, George Jones’s refurbished macho, and even Merle Haggard’s inspired revivalism. The songs fade on side two, but not since Hank Williams Jr. fell off his mountain and Gary Stewart fell off his barstool has anybody put so much vocal muscle into unadorned hard stuff.
ROCK 'N' ROLL NEWS
The Pretenders’ next single from the pen of Chrissie: “Message of Love”... Mucho news from Editions E.G., the JEM-distributed label that recently reissued Eno’s Music For Films and Fripp & Eno's No Pussyfooting and Evening Star: Eno’s classic Discreet Music, originally issued on his own Obscure label, should be out by the time you read this, not to mention the debut of NY’s Lounge Lizards.
THE BEST GOES ON
Rick Johnson
Hot Rods To Hell EAST LANSING, Ml— It’s another “New Wave” Monday at Dooley’s, a preppie-oriented showbar near the Michigan State University campus. A small group of decadent punks (some of them accounting majors from Grosse Pointe) have dressed in their hottest 1977 U.K. fashions to witness a performance by England’s Eddie and the Hot Rods.
SUICIDE: HOT FOOTING THROUGH EDGE CITY
Toby Goldstein
The atmosphere at most performances of Suicide is not unlike that which I imagine permeates a power plant in the midst of a nuclear accident. White knuckled and feathery-brained, people think quickly about finding the nearest exit door and heading someplace nonpolluted to detoxify.
THIS IS POP? SPLIT ENZ' AB-ORIGINAL ARTIFACTS
Toby Goldstein
Amazing, the stuff rock critics get in the mail—items fiendishly clever in design, calculated to adorn the wearer or the home, planned with a prime directive to serve as a nagging reminder that Group XYZ is the best money can buy, so write about ’em, you dolt! One such objet d’art that comes to mind is an earthenware planter sent complete with easy-grow seed packet.
ARTHUR LEE’S LEGEND LINGERS
Dave DiMartino
There are stories about people like Iggy Pop, Brian Wilson, Lou Reed and Van Morrison. Most of these stories have words like genius, tremendously influential, tragic, and legendary floating around in them somewhere, right next to other words like disappointing, personal problems and misfit.
Features
INTERROGATING THE POLICE
J. Kordosh
'Twas the day before Christmas and like a lot of good Americans I was watching All My Children as part of my holiday bonus.
Creem Profiles
JOAN JETT AND THE BLACK HEARTS
(pronounced "Boy Howdy!")
STEVE WINWOOD KEEPS ON RUNNING
Jim Farber
On the final Traffic tour back in the Fall of 1974, something happened on stage at New York’s Academy of Music that, for me, encapsulated everything I’ve always felt about Steve Winwood. The show had been going poorly. Many of the songs were slowed down and Chris Wood was obviously having trouble figuring out what planet he was on.
Rock ‘n’ Roll Calendar
CALENDAR
ROLLING ARMAGEDDON
Mark J. Norton
The son of Stiff Tour breaks their colonial leg.
SANDINISTA NOW!
Penny Valentine
A working class hero is something to be" John Lennon sang that. He wasn’t, course, he was an observer—a thinker. His songs a record of his thoughts. Yet by the same token perhaps he was very much that, both by background and by action— challenging the old order actively—“The War Is Over.”
GRACE SLICK’S ALTERED STATES
Rob Patterson
Diary Of A Spiritual Housewife
Stars Cars
EDWARD VAN HALEN
CREEMEDIA
Mitchell Cohen
There are no stories anymore, only isolated moments. Someone tells me this narrative breakdown started with Stendhal, which may or may not be pertinent. It is true that many—most—of the very best American movies of the 1970’s, by Altman, Allen, DePalma, Malick, Scorsese, etc. are less fully realized tales than frameworks for whatever special virtuosity the director and his actors want to exhibit.
DRIVE-IN SATURDAY
Edouard Dauphin
10 Seconds: The Pain Begins. 15 Seconds: You Can't Breathe. 2Q Seconds: You Explode. No, we're not talking about your reaction to the new Nina Hagen album. Just quoting the ad copy for Scanners, latest film from Canadian director David Cronenberg, a man who is not content with enduring privately the horror of life North Of The Border, but who is determined to inflict it upon us and make us pay money for the privilege of watching.
Confessions of a FILM FOX
Sylvester Stallone has finally managed to bury the needle on this Fox's vom-o-meter. After nauseating the world with Rocky and Rocky II, you'd think the old muscle head would leave bad enough alone, but nooooo! The jerk is preparing Rocky III, in which hk real life mother Jacqueline will portray his screen mother.
BUGLE CALL DUB
Jeff Nesin
The Clash are emphatic. Any statement that can be made with the point of a finger is made with a fist raised in the air. They believe in bulk: the three-disc Sandinsta!, where the wind does not come sweeping down the plain, nearly doubles the number of tracks on London Calling (36 to 19), and could with no difficulty be compressed onto one LP and a NuDisk.
Stop Me If You've Heard This One
Last month, late on a New York winter's night I hailed a cab, slid in, focused for a few seconds on the driver—a young hispanic according to his hack license—and drifted away. It took me a while to realize I was singing along with the cabbie's portable FM and that he was, too. As we raced up First Avenue, lost in our respective thoughts, Gonzalo & I were both helping out on 'Take Jt To The Limit.'
SNEAKY REVIEWS
ROCK • A • RAMA
Ranger Rick Johnson
FINGERPRINTZ-Distinguishing Marks (Virgin):: This talented outfit had the misfortune to release their second album just after the Records blew the whistle on Virgin for lack of company support and just before the label came out with their big 'We support all our artists as long as they're XTC' blurb in the trades.
Extension Chords
Close Talking
Allen Hester
Of all the equipment used in the creation, and reproduction of music, nothing is as overlooked, misunderstood and improperly used as the microphone.
Rewire Yourself
Amazing Devices
Richard Robinson
If it wasn't for human ingenuity the most awesome display of electrical energy would be lightning and its thunder.
Backstage
BACKSTAGE
Where The Stars Tank Up & Let Their Images Down