May 1987

CONTENTS

ROCK 'N' ROLL NEWS

What the hell, let’s reprint this baby verbatim and go for the gusto. From the Chicago Tribune: “One would think that political committees would be very careful choosing names ever since Richard Nixon’s Committee to Re-elect the President (CREEP) became rather notorious.

LAY IT DOWN, CLOWNS! THE BEASTIE BOYS TAKE OVER?

Chuck Eddy

“They took doors off their hinges and moved them around. They flooded two floors with the fire hoses. They plugged up the toilets and destroyed the furniture. They terrorized the other guests. They were just having fun. ” —Stephen Davis, Hammer Of The Gods, 1985

LETTERS

I read the article on the Cure in the December ’86 issue of your druginduced ramblings. NOW HEAR THIS. Suicide and killing people are rotten song subjects and poor inspirations. The Cure have recorded nothing—nothing— that isn’t crap, isn’t self-indulgent or isn’t self-pitying.

RECORDS

Billy Altman

I remember the trip—well, maybe not that trip, or any of the other trips you could be thinking that I think I remember—but the, uh, trip down to the local rec’d racks of the notso-nearby vinyl emporium (way back when) where I picked myself up a copy of the just-out Stooges Raw Power, and, on first listen, found it sort of (there’s no way around admitting this) sort of sub-listenable.

CHRISTGAU CONSUMER GUIDE

ROBERT CHRISTGAU

Because taste leads to knowledge, I enjoy fair familiarity with the West African music that’s second cousin to rock ’n’ roll and none with its distant relatives in North Africa and the Middle East. But where knowledge ends, taste rules. Ahmed is a singer of indubitable authority, and maybe an album of the “many standards” he’s contributed to “modern Ethiopian music” would expand my horizons.

45 REVELATIONS

KEN BARNES

I can’t rightly say “Candy” is a step up from “Word Up,” but Cameo’s come up with an equally amazing follow-up, and a second Single of the Month. For fully two verses, with a sprawling bassline the only hint that something strange might happen, it appears as if Larry Blackmon & Co.

ROCK • A • RAMA

This month’s Rock-A-Ramas were written by Richard Riegel, Michael Davis, Chuck Eddy, Dave Segal, Billy Warden, Richard C. Walls and Thomas Anderson. ROBERT FRIPP & THE LEAGUE OF CRAFTY GUITARISTS Live! (Editions) Fripp has been busy since closeting King Crimson away in the Royal Mothballs; the master of the precise arpeggio has found time to record with David Sylvian, Marry Toyah and present a series of guitar classes.

ELEGANZA

John Mendelssohn

As you read this, you’re feeling guilty because you ought to be finishing up your Mother’s Day shopping. As I write this, though, neither the Penn State Nittany Lions nor the University of Miami Cokesmugglers have even begun butting one another in the genitals with their helmets in preparation for their Fiesta Bowl, uh, battle for the national college football championship.

CREEM'S PROFILES

HOME: Wiscdnsin, perhaps? “AGE: Old enough to remember. PROFESSION: Former Brains 'n' stuff. HOBBIES: Exploring the myth of love, listening to old Faces records, Keeping their hands to themselves; LAST BOOK READ: Gone With The Wind by Dave DiMartino.

TIPPECANOE AND TIMBUK 3

Dave Kendall

"I was on the pot when you called. That’s why it took me so long to get to the phone.” There’s something very real about Timbuk 3. The station wagon has limped into Ft. Worth, Texas, Barbara is covered in axle grease, Pat is in the hotel room and now CREEM has called at the same time as nature.

RAY DAVIES Face To Face With The Lost Decade

Iman Lababedi

An objective review of recent Kinks history provides us with such episodes as Return To Waterloo, Ray Davies’s tedious video movie; “Come Dancing,” his best song and only hit of the ’80s; the reasonably appealing LP, Word Of Mouth, dating from ’84; a new deal with MCA records; a less than satisfying (some would claim boring) new LP, Think Visually; and his portrayal of the father (the sort of man Ray has often written about) in Julien Temple’s film, Absolute Beginners.

Gene Loves Jezebel Desire You!

Harold DeMuir

“There’s a lot of people in this hotel who’ve flown in just for our New York date,” reveals blonde-tressed Michael Aston. “Every time we come to New York, we get lots of really strange people. And then we’ll arrive at our next hotel and find that some girls have flown in from Japan to see us.

Calendar

Bob Geldof

Sylvie Simmons

Bob Geldof is back. Not that he’s ever been away, really, since Band Aid hurled the man who’s done more for stubble than Miami Vice, more for noses than Pete Townshend and more for Sainthood than the Pope and Bono put together, into the public arena.

HEAVY METAL Must Be DESTROYED!

Rick Johnson

"I'm not a metallurgist—most of us aren't," admitted internationally acclaimed music critic Phil Donahue on a recent show, and for once he was right. Then he went back to the main subject of that day's program, which I think was about plugging the leaks in the clean urine black market.

A ROUND TRIP TICKET TO OUTER SPACE WITH... THE COMMUNARDS

Barbara Pepe

If there’s any single thing that’s sustained Jimmy Sommerville thus far, it’s his passion—passion for living life in whatever way he feels, passion for politics, even passion for pizza. Not that passion’s always been good to him, Back on the streets of Glasgow in his teen days, it earned him more than one fist in the stomach, and after his falsetto had become Bronski Beat’s trademark, it even talked him right out of a job.

CREEM SHOWCASES

Billy Cioffi

Meatloaf is truly a one-of-a-kind performer. To say they broke the mold when they made him doesn’t quite apply. Meat Loaf broke his own mold! This guy is big! Big not only in stature, but big in voice—and big in energy. Anyone who has seen “Meat” live will attest to his seemingly limitless range and powerful dynamics.

CENTERSTAGE

Richard Grabel

Fela Anikulapo Kuti doesn’t just talk Revolution and Power Struggle and anti-authoritarian sentiments. In Africa, such talk is enough to put your freedom on the line, and by and large, most African musicians play it safe, restricting their lyrics to universalist messages of love and peace that avoid directly criticizing those in power.

VIDEO VIDEO

Billy Altman

Although this new issue of CREEM is probably dated May or June, please believe us that through the magic of real time, it is really early January as we sit here, writing the first Video Video column of the new year. And, as such, it behooves us to take a step back from the fray so as to reflect upon the video annum just concluded.

CREEMEDIA

Renaldo Migaldi

PAPA’S GOT A BRAND NEW BOOK JAMES BROWN: THE GODFATHER OF SOUL by James Brown with Bruce Tucker (MacMillan) by Renaldo Migaldi Yes, this is another one of those “as-told-to” showbiz autobiographies. And, yes, it reads tike one: you can knock it off in a few hours.

DRIVE IN SATURDAY

Edouard Dauphin

Ever lose a finger? No, that’s not quite the same as giving someone the finger. The Dauph is talking about parting company with a digit from one of your forelimbs. Mary Steenburgen goes through this unpleasant experience in Dead Of Winter, an Arthur Penn flick that just may do for fingers what Blue Velvet did for ears.

MEDIA COOL

This month’s Media Cool was written by Bill Holdship and Cynthia Rose THE BEDROOM WINDOW (DEG) Writer-director Curtis Hanson has succeeded admirably at what Brian DePalma has been failing at since Dressed To Kill: a cinematic homage to Alfred Hitchcock that doesn’t degenerate into a misogynistic parody.

NEWBEATS

Sharon Liveten

When you meet with Hunters & Collectors’ Mark Seymour for lunch there’s a lot of pressing matters to discuss besides whether the fish is fresh. Like: What has the band been doing since their last record came out in 1984? Where have they been? Have they disbanded? And, most importantly, why has no one in America except Aussiophiles ever heard of the group once heralded in England as the leader of post-nuclear pop movement (whatever that might mean)?

Backstage