April 1983

CONTENTS

CREEM CLOSE-UP METAL MUSIC

ANGUS YOUNG OF AC/DC

Even when AC/DC’s brilliant young guitarist stands still, he's moving! He’s known down-under and up-every where else as Mr. Relaxation due to his calm demeanor. Not, in fact, very different from a diabetic hummingbird on Reese's Pieces!

METAL MUSIC: WHY NOT?

In the Kingdom of Squeak, the shriek that pummels eardrums to mush reigns supreme. Heavy Metal is the shriek that bleeds, that rips, that forces innocent babes under the bed in terror until it goes away. Heavy Metal is that “lost" plutonium, the shriek of the mutilated and chemically scarred, the forever-altered chromosomes of the Children Of Rarn, it is the music that unites the Cosmic Children under the Atomic Cloud of Screech.

HEAVY METAL'S HALL OF FAME A THROUGH Z, CONCEPTUALLY

All entries by Billy Altman, Michael Davis, Dave DiMartino, Bill Holdship, Rick Johnson, Iman Lababedi, Richard Riegel and Susan Whitall unless otherwise noted. AC/DC: (see page 26) High Voltage; Let There Be Rock; Dirty Deeds Done Dirt Cheap; Powerage; If You Want Blood, You’ve Got It; Highway To Hell; Back In Black; For Those About To Rock, We Salute You.

QUEEN:& ANOTHER ONE BITES THE...UH, YOU KNOW

J. Kordosh

The answer is “We Are The Champions.” Does the question have something to do with spark plugs, Wheaties or Queen? Or does the question have something to do with “Who Cares???” Oh, yeah, the real question: “What was Queen’s first single in America?”

LED ZEPPELIN: COUCHED WITH INDIFFERENCE

Laura Fissinger

This is supposed to be a “critical analysis” of Led Zeppelin.

TED NUGENT: BAMBI FOR DINNER, THUMPER FOR DESSERT

Sylvie Simmons

In this ever-changing America etc. etc. Ted Nugent is one person you can rely upon to stay pretty much the same. Give a few switch-arounds of notes, his songs sound like the raw-meat howl of a tornado hitting a safari park. Like the mutilated moan of chainsaw fighters in a frontloading washing machine.

YOU’RE A RIOT, ALICE

Jeffrey Morgan

One of the great things about heavy metal is that you can always count on it to get your parents really pissed off, no matter what.

AEROSMITH: BOSTON’S BAD BOYS

Toby Goldstein

Before Boston burst out, when J. Geils was still light years away from growing to gargantuan proportions, Aerosmith’s exuberant arrogance was reinstating Boston’s place of honor on the rock ’n’ roll map. Never mind that Aerosmith’s lead singer was in reality a New York-raised kid born with the unlikely name of Steven Tallerico — as Steve Tyler, he led a merry band of self-styled rogues to blaring, heroic accomplishments.

AC/DC: SATAN'S PIGEONS?

Sylvie Simmons

They got their name off the back of an Australian vacuum cleaner—you know the type; big pouch—Angus saw the letters and thought it sounded electrified and powerful. Others reckoned it sounded re-volting. Well not all others. There’s a tale I recall of the head of a big British publishing company who thought it meant, well you know.

GRAND FUNK LIVES! WELCOME TO THE GREAT WHITE NOISE, EH ?

Jeffrey Morgan

If Blue Cheer built the heavy metal colosseum, and Iron Butterfly opened it to the public, then it was Grand Funk Railroad who filled it to capacity night after night after night. Called everything from the Great White Noise to the World’s Largest AM Car Radio, Grand Funk encompassed everything that’s good and bad about heavy metal—and won acclaim from hordes of screaming fans, no matter which way they leaned.

OZZY OSBOURNE

JUDAS PRIEST

DEEP PURPLE'S MOUNTING MAJESTIES

Richard Rlegel

Deep Purple are beautifully cooperative examples of the “dinosaur theory" of heavy metal rock. Their metal-gorged footsteps shook the earth in the early 1970s, they were brontosaurus-huge on all fronts of rock—records, radio, concerts— but their big-body, small-head developmental imbalance finally caught up with them in 1976, and since that overnight extinction, all we ever hear of Deep Purple now are occasional, furtive replays of “Smoke On The Water” or “Highway Star," on the AOR.

CREEM & THE SCIENCE OF WAITING SO LONG

J. Kordosh

Every now and again you run across a person who thinks Cream were the Three Most Talented Beings of all time. Although this is obvious gibberish, there’s a glimmer of substance in the twisted belief. Let’s hunker down and figure out the wayward saga so we can finally get a decent night’s sleep.

BEEFCAKE GONE BAD: FREE & BAD COMPANY

Iman Lababedi

I never thought Free were a great group, but they had moments of greatness—and Paul Kossoff could really play guitar. I never thought Bad Company’s immediate American success was necessarily a sellout of Free’s more bluesy roots, either—but closer to a meeting of Mott The Hoople’s old pop staples and Free’s less controllable excesses.

KISS: NOTHING SUCCEEDS LIKE EXCESS

Toby Goldstein

Oh, glory that was Kiss...Who cared, that under their pancake and out of their platform boots, the members were four ordinary looking guys from the Bronx, Brooklyn and Manhattan?

From brainwaves to tidal waves: the story behind Rush's album covers

Jeffrey Morgan

Because I live in Toronto (and happen to love loud rock ’n’ roll), I was asked to write a feature on Rush for this Special Edition (of course, the fact that I also happen to be a Contributing Editor to CREEM might also have something to do with it).

ROBIN TROWER: DELUSIONS OF HENDRIX ?

Gregg Turner

Proof positive of Robin Trower’s credentials in the note-frenetic power-chord hall of fame is evidenced on any number of early Procol Harum sides up to and including Broken Barricades (his swan song w/the band). Cosmic mind-opening voyages of quirky, anticipatory lead and fills testify to a stylistic tour-de-force markedly different from established guitar egos of that era.

JEFF BECK: DONALD DUCK AS VIRTUOSO

Iman Lababedi

When people discuss Jeff Beck, two words tend to crop up: Genius and erratic. As master guitarist (and replacement for Eric Clapton) with the Yardbirds, his work testifies that despite a baroque loudness and other-than-pure blues conviction, he was an original axe hero.

JUDAS PRIEST: THE GREATEST STORY EVER TOLD

J. Kordosh

They are the greatest band in the world. They look scary, even weird. They’re obnoxious and loud. They’ve been at it for over a decade. They are the embodiment of Metal. They are Judas Priest. “To me, heavy metal is the total entity of life,” Rob Halford said in 1980.

BOC: TYRANNY & STAGNATION

Michael Davis

And now, the band: Eric Bloom—often the frontman vocally and utility guitarist/keyboard player instrumentally. His attempts at being macho and/or freaky just point up the human side of the band. Making up for his deficiencies in lung power and charisma with energy and enthusiasm, the guy makes it all work somehow.

BLACK SABBATH: PROLETARIAN METAL TO OZZY AND BEYOND

Barney Hoskyns

From the first oafish gothic crash of “Black Sabbath” it was clear this band was dumb.

HEAVY METAL: THE END...OR WORSE?

Is is true? Are the Scorpions all playing guitar at the same time? Are they making so much noise they are now totally deaf? Yes! It is true! The Scorpions are totally deaf—and in fact have been for years! They've fooled you, and so have we! Look at those Heavy Metal Heroes!

ROB HALFORD OF JUDAS PRIEST