April 1983
CREEM CONTENTS
I was rather outraged, to say the least, at the crude, vulgar and utterly tasteless remarks they made concerning the Who and th—(OK, that’s it! We’ve been telling you guys for three issues now, NO MORE WHO LETTERS! Told you, told you and told you.
CHRISTGAU CONSUMER GUIDE
Robert Christgau
JOHN ANDERSON: “Wild And Blue" (Warner Bros.):: Anderson is Ricky Skaggs without Jesus—his voice lowdown rather than angelic, his roots in the honky tonks rather than the mountains, his album wild and blue, a sexier way to say (and sing) highways and heartaches.
ROCK N ROLL NEWS
Marshall Crenshaw should be in the studio recording his second LP by the time you read this. Although he hadn’t chosen a producer at presstime, Richard Gottehrer definitely will not be behind the boards for this one, as he is committed to another record.
Yaz They Is!
Rick Johnson
NEW YORK—English synthpop bands have proliferated in the last couple of years like the pods in Invasion of the Body Snatchers. But just as the folks taken, over by the extra-terrestrial pods were dehumanized and drained of any emotional capability, most of the groups in this latest British invasion express cold alienation, combining facile synthesizer know-how and bloodless vocals on albums that contain one or two catchy songs and a lot of unmemorable filler material.
LETTER FROM BRITAIN
Cynthia Rose
'Recession rock' on the radio (cf. "My City Was Gone," "Allentown" or "Out of Work") may call forth condemnations from America's urban mayors-many, I notice, on holiday in Florida at the time of com rnent-in The Wall Street Journal. But t'aint so in Britain; we had a billion har bingers of No Future back in the late `70s and now that we've arrived where it isn't we have synthpop by the school-full.
PURE MAD PEOPLE
Richard Grabel
When Bob Marley died, there was some loose talk going around about Michael Rose, Black Uhuru’s lead singer and songwriter, being groomed to be “the next Marley.” Such talk is foolish—Marley’s background and talent were unique, and combined to create a phenomena that is unrepeatable.
WIN A LES PAUL
Here's your opportunity to test your knowledge of CREEM's pick of the top ten guitarist (see Extension Chords) and maybe win one of today's top guitars, the Les Paul Studio. To enter, just fill out the answers to the 10 questions below in the space provided.
Features
TOM PETTY Long After Maturity
Sylvie Simmons
Life with The Heartbreakers.
GRACE INTEGRITY DANCE JONES
Iman Lababedi
If I was writing in Australia for Tie Yer Kangaroo Down rock mag, or in Germany for Ach Tung—Der March Goes On, or in the Netherlands, Japan, England, or any fashion monthly you care to mention, I could easily leave out the preamble and simply state: “Dear Reader, I was lucky enough to speak with Grace Jones and this is what she had to say."
Rock ‘n’ Roll Calendar
CALENDAR
Features
OZZY OSBOURNE: No Bozo On This Bus
Toby Goldstein
Clarabelle talks back.
The Lords Of The New Church
Richard Riegel
It’s like a scene from a Lisa Robinson rock novel.
WHO NEEDS THE BEATLES?
Rick Johnson & J. Kordosh
Ever since the Beatles made their first splash here in 1964, they’ve been credited with everything from saving rock ’n’ roll to inventing the ’60s. It’s doubtful a grand jury would buy it, but it’s a popular myth now approaching folklore.
Creemedia
Boy Howdy’s Ten Worst Movies Of 1982
Edouard Dauphin
Hiya, masochists. It’s movie caca time again.
CONFESSIONS OF A FILM FOX
1. Joan Collins. Queen bee of the smoldering vixens; Joansie’s overcome her sleaze starlet image to reign triumphantly over the whole field of mammary glands. None of these girlies will be able to come close to Collins’ white-hot combo of looks, razor-sharp wit and Blackglama lifestyle for years to come.
CREEM DREEM
MICK JAGGER
WORKING MAN’S BLUES
Mitchell Cohen
There’s a new furrowed-brow earnestness now emerging in American rock ’n’ roll, a grainy neorealism that depicts workaday lives in ways that were once the exclusive province of country music, a neorealism which is attempting to chart the widening gap between what we’d hoped for (romantically, socially, economically) and what we’re currently experiencing.
ROCK 'N' RAMA
THE VANDALS-Peace Thru Vandalism (Epitaph Records):: Oddly enough, this record occurs in that waxy twilight zone existing between “Weekend” and “(I Live For) Cars And Girls,” on the first Dictators album. It’s a kind of subconscious homage tongue with velocity. Especially the dirty version of “Heartbreak Hotel,” and the Sergio Leone-influenced “Urban Struggle.”
Backstage
BACKSTAGE
Where the Stars Tank Up & Let Their Images Down