April 1986

CONTENTS

Letters

Please send your letters to: Mail Dept., CREEM Magazine P.O. Box P-1064 Birmingham, MI 48012. “TIMBO, YOU’RE ON THE CASE” Sorry that Bill Holdship didn’t like my Rock Stars book, which he included in the Rock Chronicles 1985 (CREEM, Feb. ’86).

ROCK ’N' ROLL NEWS

We were very saddened to hear that Rick Nelson died New Year’s Eve in the crash of a private plane near De Kalb, Texas. Nelson, 45, was a central figure in bringing rock ’n’ roll to the mainstream during the late ’50s as the all-American teenage singing sensation on his parents’ top-rated TV show, The Adventures Of Ozzie & Harriet.

SOMETHING ABOUT THE WATERBOYS

Dave DiMartino

Suppose for just a moment there was a fellow who named his band the Waterboys because “a Waterboy was something fluid and ever-changing” and also because it was part of a lyric (“And I am the Water Boy, the real game’s/ Not over here”) from Lou Reed’s Berlin.

NOTHING IN HERE BUT ALARM CLOCKS

Karen Schlosberg

When last we saw the Alarm, they were indeed going out in a blaze of glory, having released a debut album that received mostly favorable critical attention (in the States, that is, but that’s another story...) and solidified and enlarged their core of tremendously devoted fans.

JIM KERR: SIMPLY SPEAKING

Tim deLisle

Sting, Simon Le Bon, George Michael, Bono...somehow Jim Kerr doesn’t have quite the same ring to it. For the moment, of course, the name doesn’t have the same clout either—but not, the general feeling is, for long. The word in the music business is that Simple Minds are about to make it huge, and as their singer, lyricist and spokesman Jim Kerr is in for as much of the attention as Le Bon gets with Duran Duran.

FORWARD INTO THE PAST

Toby Goldstein

Pete Townshend conquers his demons in the White City.

Records

OUT OF THE MOUTHS OF SEWERS

Michael Davis

Twisted Sister is a basic rock band with an effectively schizophrenic image, so effective that my responses are both basic and schizzed. So, on one hand, there are, Things I Like About Twisted Sister: I like the way Dee Snider and the boys have made concepts like ugly, hideous, and “what’s that?!?” acceptable again in rock ’n’ roll; enough pretty boy metal, y’ know? I like the way Dee worships Alice Cooper, but comes on more like a cross between Ted Nugent and Bozo The Clown—That's Entertainment '86.1 especially like the way they exploit the made-up/non-made-up images simultaneously, something Kiss never had the guts to do.

CHRISTGAU CONSUMER GUIDE

ROBERT CHRISTGAU

A-HA “Hunting High And Low” (Warner Bros.) Quite aware that I don’t qualify as a pubescent female, I tried to be understanding. It’s not their fault they’re blond, after all— they’re Norwegian. But though they’d clearly have been better off raised closer to the blues—in Wales, say—the gutturals of fellow Scandinavians from Gasolin’ to the Nomads suggests that their precious Yes-gone-Europop accents are chosen freely.

45 REVELATIONS

KEN BARNES

If singles are your prime musical consideration, as they are mine, 1985 was a good year for them. In fact, if you’re considering only hit singles, as I try to do when I’m not raving about obscure British imports, flexidiscs you can find only inside fanzines with circulations under 29, and independent releases from New Zealand, 1985 was a real good year.

ROCK • A • RAMA

This month’s Rock-A-Ramas were written by Craig Zeller, Jon Young, Michael Davis, Richard C. Walls and Dave Segal. THE CARS The Cars Greatest Hits (Elektra) Except for their debut, these boys have always been pretty hit-and-miss on albums.

A LITTLE FROM THE BIG MAN

Joanne Carnegie

Clarence Clemons isn’t about to stop now—he’s too much on a roll.

Eleganza

The Blind Luck Factor

John Mendelssohn

Speak The Language, a group you wouldn’t have heard of unless you watch a TV show called Star Search with Ed McMahon, didn’t listen to this column.

Creem Profiles

FRANK ZAPPA

(Pronounced “Boy Howdy!”)

INXS...IN HELL?

L.E. Agnelli

Friends, we’ve got trouble.

Rock ‘n’ Roll Calendar

Calendar

Features

PSYCHIC GRUEL AND MOTLEY CRUE

J. Kordosh

Consider Suite 619 at the Park Hyatt in Chicago.

ASIA: CONTINENTAL DRIFT?

Sylvie Simmons

It is no coincidence that supergroup rhymes with gloop. Supergroups are what Rolling Stone puts on the pages it can’t flog to Camels and condom companies. Supergroups always contain at least two people who were in, related to, or close personal friends of Yes, ELP or Genesis.

CRANKIN’ THAT GO GO GADGET

Richard Grabel

This is crazy. l’m in Cheriy’s Roller Rink, in Northeast Washington, D.C.

CREEM SHOWCASE

Dan Hedges

You can't really dance to it. You can't sing along. You can probably romance to it. But slap it on the deck just as the party’s shifting into overdrive? Welcome to the year of living dangerously. Patrick O’Hearn has scored his ticket to the Big Time by playing snappy bass with L.A.’s Missing Persons.

Creemedia

The 10 Worst Movies Of The Year

Edouard Dauphin

Ten years in the dark.

PRIME TIME

Richard C. Walls

I’ve read barely a kind word from the critics for the new Saturday Night Live, and many a nasty one, which strikes me as kind of odd; you’d think that during reactionary times, satire, even uneven satire, would be something to be encouraged.

MEDIA COOL

this Month’s Media Cool was written by Bill Holdship, Dave Segal, Richard C. Walls, J. Kordosh and Jeffrey Morgan TRAPPED: MICHAEL JACKSON AND THE CROSSOVER DREAM by Dave Marsh (Bantam) As Marsh himself says close to the end of Trapped: “...the story of Michael Jackson has burned out...everybody is ready to move on to the next thing,” so, indeed, isn’t it a bit late in the day for someone to be writing a Jackson bio?

Video Video

TV PARTY

Dave DiMartino

Oddly enough, the last time each of these bands played here in Detroit, I was home washing my hair.

CLIPS

This month’s Clips were written by Martin Dio, Jeffrey Morgan and Dave DiMartino ELVIS COSTELLO & THE ATTRACTIONS The Best Of Elvis Costello & The Attractions (CBS/Fox Video) An outstanding collection of 22 separate Costello clips, this is surely a sign of “video albums” to come.

NEWBEATS

Dave Segal

Surely you remember Wall Of Voodoo. You don’t? Back in ’82 they blew across the sugary wasteland of the Top 40 like a spastic tumbleweed with the odd and jolly “Mexican Radio.” That song and the big-selling Call Of The West (“It went tin,” says drummer Ned Leukhardt) kept these Los Angelanos in gambling money for a couple of years.

Backstage

Backstage

Where the Stars Tank Up & Let Their Images Down