October 1986

CONTENTS

ROCK ’N’ ROLL NEWS

Successfully making the transition from summer stock and TV sitcoms to music videos is Buttermilk, a seasoned guernsey actress. The bovine scene-stealer appears in Jane Siberry’s vid for “One More Color,” the first single from her LP, The Speckless Sky.

JOAN JETT UNCHAINED

Karen Schlosberg

“You picked an interesting time to visit.” Michael J. Fox has his tongue planted firmly in cheek as he stands in the backyard of a small bar in Cleveland.

Creem Profiles

E.G. DAILY

(Pronounced “Boy Howdy!”)

LETTERS

Please send your letters to: Mail Dept., CREEM Magazine P.O. Box P-1064 Birmingham, MI 48012, LET THE SHAME BE OURS! I think I can freely say that your magazine lacks any guts or chutzpah whatsoever, Your self-proclaimed title of "America's Only Rock 'n' Roll Magazine" is a big lie.

Records

SO FINE

Jim Farber

Let’s begin judging this album by its cover.

THE CHRISTGAU CONSUMER GUIDE

ROBERT CHRISTGAU

With Eurodisco orgymaster Cerrone and Ameridisco worker-bee Sam Dees augmenting Anglodisco scenemaker Richard Burgess in the co-producer’s slot, you-know-what revival is obviously on tap. Ah well, it could be lots worse, and it probably will be—I hope not with this artist, a likable fella whose Teddy Pendergrass impressions has its social function.

45 REVELATIONS

KEN BARNES

Welcome back, my friends, to the show that never ends. The early 1970s have returned. As the nostalgia cycle swings past the ’60s, all over the airwaves the soaring spirit of the progressive era, when musicians were musicians and lyrics were mystical claptrap, is reborn.

ROCK • A • RAMA

This month’s Rock-A-Ramas were written by Bill Holdship Richard C. Walls, Dave Segal, and Richard Riegel. AARON NEVILLE Orchid In The Storm (Passport/Jem) Doo wop and those beautiful C/Am/F/G ballads of the ‘50s and early ‘60s were always the sounds of love as far as I was concerned.

Spend The Night With R.E.M.!

This could be one of life’s rich pageants, all right. And if you happen to be an .R.E.M fan, it could be a virtual dream come true! That’s right! A lucky CREEM reader and a friend will actually be spending a night with R.E.M., and all you have to do to win this incredible contest is let your creative juices run wild!

Eleganza

THE BOSS’S WIFE

John Mendelssohn

I’m looking through the latest Conspicuous Consumption at the newsstand around the corner from where I have croissants and cappuccino on Saturday mornings when somebody next to me whimpers.

Features

David Lee Roth’s Revenge

Roy Trakin

The system of law in New Guinea involves a concept loosely defined as “payback.”

Features

I Confronted METALLICA On Their Own Terms!

Sylvie Simmons

And here we are. The serious Metallica interview.

THE LORDS OF THE NEW CHURCH

I Spoke To LET'S ACTIVE While In The Deep South

Richard Grabel

It’s beautiful down in Winston-Salem, North Carolina, where Let’s Active live.

A MATCH, A FLAME, A BANSHEE HOWLS

Toby Goldstein

This must be the sort of effect Cleopatra had on a room full of admirers.

Belinda Carlisle

J. Kordosh

A couple of years ago, Belinda Carlisle’s life was everything it wasn’t supposed to be.

EMERSON, LAKE & POWELL: Rockin’ Dudes Or Art-Rock Mofos?

Dave DiMartino

It’s a spacious rehearsal studio, though not the world’s classiest. I am in London, behind the man running the soundboard, watching the three musicians facing us run through some of the new material. They are preparing for an American tour—their first in this configuration, though they’ve all been to the States many times previously.

The Greatest Albums Ever At Presstime!

So what are the “greatest” rock albums of all time? Well, you really won’t find the answers here, since it’s all a matter of opinion anyway. But since most rock writers love compiling rock lists, we thought we’d poll our many writers and contributing editors on their favorite 10 rock LPs ever.

CENTERSTAGE

J. Kordosh

Prince’s 26th birthday—an auspicious occasion, I think we all can agree—found him in Detroit, where he’d kicked off the Purple Rain tour last year...and clearly in a more quixotic, experimental and flat-out happier mood this time around.

CREEMEDIA

HE CHOPPED UP ANGELA FOR TWO BUS TOKENS! QUEEN OF THE HORMONE WHORES— SLAIN! THE SOCIETY BEAUTY AND THE LUST-CRAZED PIMP! Quick—what magazine do you think these headlines slithered from? C-Span Update? Dismantlers Digest? Cancer Today?

PRIME TIME

Recently I tuned in CSpan, always a risky venture—sometimes you get the boring drone of officialdom and sometimes (and this is also true of the CBN and PTL Networks) you get something that seems to have been scripted by an especially cruel National Lampoon graduate.

MEDIA COOL

This was the worst movie I’ve ever seen in my entire life. Even if you look beyond the sociological, psychological, political, sexual and what-not implications underneath (basically all sick), it’s just a rotten motion picture: bad story, bad acting, bad plausibility, bad directing, bad everything.

Video Video

NO, BUT I’VE SEEN THE VIDEO

I’m usually not prone to getting into discussions like this very often, but it does seem to me that, as regards music videos, art does appear to be losing the cultural tug of war with its old partner/ nemesis, commerce.

CLIPS

A live performance, Deep End features the Who-boy accompanied by Brit hotshots like Pink Floyd’s David Gilmour and harmonica player Peter HopeEvans (used to be a hippie in Medicine Head, now he’s a skinhead, life’s so weird), and is probably more fun than any Who show you’ve ever seen.

NEWBEATS

Laura Fissinger

The guy’s about 45, a classic born-andbred New Yawk City street tough, and a publisher of music magazines more likely to feature Motley Crue than anyone like 30-year-old Canadian composer/performer Jane Siberry. But after Siberry’s “coming out” concert in Manhattan, all his usual swagger evaporates.

Backstage

Backstage

Where the Stars Tank Up & Let Their Images Down