July 1984
CREEM Contents
I have something totally, wickedly, truly important to tell you! Sting eats bananas at Porte Charles. Billy Idol eats a lemon. David Bowie finds a diamond. The B-52’s find a moldy tomato. Tom Petty throws a boot over a fence. Robert Plant throws a banana next to his radiator.
Christgau Consumer Guide
ROBERT CHRISTGAU
Even on generic rockabilly Gerald Duncan has a way with words, pinning down the thwarted lust that’s always added nervous energy to the style. “Two Girls In Love” is as fine a lesbians-from the-outside song as the Amazing Rhythm Aces’ “Emma-Jean,” and “Regina” brings “Brother Louie” down home.
MARVIN GAYE 1939 - 1984
Jeff Nesin
At about midday on Sunday, April 1, at an hour when, 30 years before, they would have been in church together, Marvin Gaye was shot and killed by his father, Rev. Marvin Gaye, Sr., over nothing much that anyone has been able to discern. Early reports said they fought over an insurance form; others suggested that Marvin interceded in an argument between his parents or that the dispute was over plans for Marvin’s birthday party—he would have been 45 the next day.
Rock 'n' Roll News
Our heartland spies report John Cougar Mellencamp recently got a long-distance ringy-ding from Barbra Streisand Love? Salami? Nah. Hard as this might be to believe, Babs asked him to write and produce her next album. The sequel to...uh-huh, Yentl.
The Beat Goes On
Renaldo Migaldi
CHICAGO—If you dug Sir Doug, you’ll love this: Los Lobos, four guys from East Los Angeles, are really onto something. Having first hooked up in 1974 to play folk music, they went electric two-and-a-half years ago and began playing a mixture of rock ’n’ roll, Tex-Mex, old R&B, and norteno music, which is an accordion-powered dance beat also known among Anglos as “Mexican polka.”
Creem Profiles
MOTLEY CRUE
(Pronounced “Boy Howdy!”)
I LOVE WAS THIS BAND, (NOT I HATE WAS) THIS BAND
J. Kordosh
Thirty months ago, John Neilson did a story on Was (Not Was) for CREEM. (It's the issue with Pat Benatar on the blue cover—I had a ZZ Top story in the same issue. That was a lot of fun.) Well, time flies. (A garbage truck has wheels and flies, but no time for that now.)
EURYTHMICS: SEPARATE BOTTLES ON THE SAME SHELF
Iman Lababedi
Eurythmics are a good see. Can't argue with that.
Features
JUDAS PRIEST EATEN ALIVE!
Toby Goldstein
The gunpoint confessions.
THE CASE FOR THOMAS DOLBY
David Keeps
SUBJECT: Thomas Morgan Dolby Robertson, age 25, white male Caucasian of English extraction. Taller than average height; average medium body weight. Dirty blond hair. Shortsighted, uses corrective lenses. Complexion pinkish (a result of "air condition and jet lag" he claims).
Rock ‘n’ Roll Calendar
CALENDAR
RORY GALLAGHER IN IRELAND: THE FLANNEL BANSHEE BREAKS OUT!
Bill Holdship
Six I.R.A. bombs went off in Belfast the day of Rory Gallagher's second sold-out show at Ulster Hall, including one in the middle of the city's main shopping center.
PRUNING THE FLOWERMEN
Cynthia Rose
Recently at NME I received a batch of unsolicited 'poetic portraits' from a young, Londoner named Stephen Andrews. They were six: 'Punk,' 'Skinhead,' 'Hippie,' 'Trendy,' 'Rockstar' and 'Rasta.' Part of Andrews's 'Portrait...Punk' ('I'm the quiet type, I'm shy/Although I like blokes/One in particular/By name of Gary Stokes/Punk is just another/Phase I'm passing through/Kids always rebel awhile...Didn't you?/NME says Punk has lost/The power to outrage/And anyway I've got to consider/My age/What I really want to do is start/A family/And settle down into a life/Of calm conformity').
Eleganza
CLOTHES MAKE THE POOCH
John Mendelssohn
A couple of months ago Eleganza invited its devoted readership to send in photographs of themselves for possible publication.
CREEM DREEM
HUEY LEWIS
TURN OFF THE ALARM (OR AT LEAST GIVE IT A HAIRCUT)
Sylvie Simmons
John Wayne didn't do too much for anyone, but he left a fine legacy of shirts—and they look even better on the Alarm. That's them up onstage, sleeves metaphorically rolled up, sweat on brow, no pissing about, eyes wide open and gazing firmly into the distance like some bold, brave, pure and noble boys marching off to some righteous black-and-white-movie war.
WALK & TALK IT
Toby Goldstein
They weren't your usual brand of churchgoers, this barely-contained mob in leather jackets, black-on-black costumes with white pancake made up faces, all moaning 'Louew-ew!!!'
Prime Time
Richard C. Walls
TOO LITTLE, TOO LATE: Burt Reynolds, generally thought of as that nice guy who makes those lousy movies, is currently in danger of losing his grip on the 'nice guy' part— incensed by the failure of critics to properly appreciate such efforts as Cannonball Run and Stroker Ace (The Man Who Loved Women checked in with mixed reviews before bombing at the b.o.), he's taken to spicing up his interviews by doing a 'devastating' imitation of Entertainment Tonight's resident film-crit Leonard Maltin, highlighted by a prissy-faced reading of Maltin's tagline 'On my scale of one through ten I'm giving it a_____________.'
MEDIA COOL
Joe Fernbacher
MEISTER BRAU BEER Ever since beer guzzling became popular—back with Cleopatra, Queen of the Nile—brewmasters the centuries over have been seeking out the best tasting and best-selling combination of carbonated waters, hops, barley, rice, whatever, in hopes of creating the ambrosia of beers: the sweet nectar that'll send you off, willy-nilly, into the swirling lands of drunkenness without an after-taste and, more importantly, without an extreme hangover.
Video Video
PASS THE OLIVE LOAF
John Neilson
For better or (much) worse, it seems that rock and video are in the process of tying the knot in a big way.
RUNNING ON NEUTRAL
Laura Fissinger
Heartbeat City is a heavy duty history lesson. First: the Cars had more to say about what rock sounds like now than almost any other band of their era still living to tell the tale. And second: maybe living to tell the tale is not the best part of the deal.
TONGUE-TIED TIMELESSNESS
Michael Davis
Describing simplicity ain't simple. Figuring out why one band with a simple approach makes it while others don't is even less so. But figuring is a brain process, and in regard to the basics of guitar-bass-drumsvoice, it's usually better to just trust your ears.
WAKE UP AND SMELL THE LEATHER
Jeff Nesin
By now, of course, you have all seen This Is Spinal Tap, Marty DiBergi's masterful cinema verite evocation of the ups and downs of the eventful recent American tour by that 'li'l ol' band from London.' Following a typically aggressive marketing strategy, Polymer Records, having picked up the entire Tap catalog when they signed the veteran band last year, has released a soundtrack LP that is truly an extraordinary greatest hits/historical survey of all the stages of their fine, superfine career.
ROCK • A • RAMA
Michael Davis
Whether by coincidence or not, Simple Minds have connected up with producer Steve Lilly white, and their sound has moved noticeably closer to U-know-2. Singer Jim Kerr is now cutting his Ferryfied approach with some blatant Bonoisms, resulting in some moves towards an original synthesis, while the rhythm section has left behind its pseudo-funk plod for a more fluid, yet still physical, method of movement.
AXE POWER! BOY HOWDY'S GUITAR GUIDE '84
J. C. Costa
Every company has their own personal approach to bringing you what they consider is the instrument of your dreams. The body shape, materials and player options all play a role in determining just how far the manufacturer will go to find that perfect guitar that you and your demographic are looking for.
KISS & TELL
Jaan Uhelszki
Go-Go Girls: Belinda Carlisle celebrated the beginning of the baseball season by sending her L.A. Dodger boyfriend, Mike Marshall, to the showers. Yes, the very same man she privately maintained was the proud possessor of a 'big bat.' Belinda has been seen making the rounds with another muscle-bound type, but this time the sport is reportedly football.
THE GREAT V 220 GIVEAWAY!
Here's an opportunity to win and win big in the Carvin V 220 Giveaway! The lucky prizewinner of this contest will receive a new Carvin V 220 Tremolo, This instrument is Carvin's answer for the serious rock 'n' roll guitarist! Offering a new radical shape for perfectly balanced playing, and the Kahler locking tremolo to give you that "dive bombing" effect without going out of tune, the V 220 features one standard pickup in the nock position and an additional pickup at the bridge offering maximum power and sustain for lead playing.
Backstage
Backstage
Where the Stars Tank Up & Let Their Images Down