February 1988

ALEX CHILTON

Harold Demuir

Alex Chilton can’t understand why he’s a legend. To the critics, cultists and musicians who worship his landmark early’70s work with Big Star, Chilton’s a musical godhead, his influence looming large in the catalogues of such bands as R.E.M., the Bangles, the dB’s, Game Theory and the Replacements.

ROCK 'N' ROLL NEWS

Although we’re not an overly sentimental bunch, we are sad to relate that this is Bill Holdship’s last issue as an editor of CREEM. After seven years of service, during which he helped forge the very persona of this magazine, Bill is moving on to the editorial staff at Radio & Records, who haven’t had much in-depth Velvet Underground coverage of late.

LETTERS

Mail Dept., CREEM Magazine, P.O. Box 931869, Los Angeles, CA 90093 REVISIONARY REQUEST I can’t believe that you’d go ahead and publish Lou Reed’s comments about me without checking your facts to see if they’re true or not. As it turns out, they are not.

ELEGANZA

Iman Lababedi

In 1981 I interviewed the Cure for CREEM. That was three years after they’d released their paean to Albert Camus’s superb existentialist novel, The Stranger. The song was called "Killing An Arab,” and it was about the climax of the novel, wherein the protagonist murders a Morrocan for no discernable reason.

SPLAT! INXS MAKES THE SOUND OF SUXS

Bud Scoppa

INXS frontman Michael Hutchence is draped casually across an easy chair in a suite at West Hollywood’s Sunset Marquis Hotel.

NEIGHBORHOODS WATCH...AND WAIT

Steve Peters

There’s a medium-sized club on the outskirts of Los Angeles called the Music Machine. It is singularly unspectacular, but notable primarily for some of the acts that have performed there. The Violent Femmes were there before Gordon Gano found God.

Creem Profiles

THE BEAT FARMERS

(Pronounced “Boy Howdy!”)

THE MAN, THE DRILL, THE BAND

Harold De Muir

Forget all that stuff about how staid and boring ’70s rock was.

Records

WHAT’S LOVE GOT TO DO WITH IT?

Michael Davis

Musically speaking, this album is the story of a man and his band. Or rather, a man without his band.

ROCK • A • RAMA

This month’s Rock-A-Ramas were written by Michael Davis, Bill Holdship, Richard Riegel, Karen Schoemer, Dave Segal, Jeff Tamarkin, Harold DeMuir, Jon Young and Craig Zeller. GUADALCANAL DIARY 2X4 (Elektra) Unless 2X4 precipitates an unexpected commercial breakthrough, this super Georgia quartet gets my vote for most underrated act the second year in a row.

YES: DINOSAURS STILL ROAM THE EARTH

Roy Trakin

“Yes, we are five individuals. That’s what makes it what it is, how good it is and as complicated as it is. Each of us is integral in the eventual outcome. That’s why it takes so long. We all have to agree, or at least compromise, on what’s happening."

CREEM FEBRUARY 1988

PINK FLOYD: The Suns Eclipsed By The Moon

Vernon Gibbs

For the true Pink Floyd fanatic, 1987 was an extraordinary year.

SCREEN BEAT

Billy Altman

“I remember Michael Jackson. Cute little kid with a big Afro. Danced around a lot. Always wanted to know when I was going to have Diana Ross and Topo Gigio on again. ” —Ed Sullivan, Heaven. I don’t know if you saw the official prime time network television special which featured the full-length premiere of Michael Jackson’s “Bad” video a few months ago, just prior to the release of his first new album since the zillion-selling Thriller.

CREEMEDIA

Richard C. Walls

Between this past Sept. 13th and Oct. 3rd, the three major networks premiered 22 new series as part of that annual ritual known as the new fall season. We at CREEM have our own yearly ritual, wherein we take a long hard look at these new shows and then write short, silly capsule put-downs of them.

MEDIA COOL

This month’s Media Cools were written by Bill Holdship. CHUCK BERRY HAIL! HAIL! ROOK ’N’ ROLL (Universal) This is one of the greatest rockumentaries ever, ranking right up there with The Last Waltz and The Kids Are Alright. Director Taylor Hackford has taken what was reportedly a pretty mediocre affair—an all“star” concert in St. Louis celebrating Chuck Berry’s 60th birthday—and turned it into a rock ’n’ roll classic.

CENTERSTAGE

Kevin Knapp

If I was truly wise to the wily ways of mathematics, I could maybe whip up some tidy theory of rock ’n’ roll relativity. But as my high school algebra teacher—the rotten schmuck—will tell you, I have no such leg to stand upon. Still, in light of this recent R.E.M. show, I’m wont to ponder more concrete notions of a pebble, say, or maybe a chewed-up wad of Bazooka bubble gum, dropped into the calm of a garden pool.

BRUCE SPRINGSTEEN/MICHAEL JACKSON:

Richard C. Walls

Just between you and me, obviously, this is a cynical ploy to sell magazines.

MTV IN EUROPE

Andrew Goodwin

Over-dressed, over-sexed...and over there.

MICK Jagger: Primitive Cool & All

Sylvie Simmons

He walks into the room radiating presence in an offhand sort of way, and people cower. He just looks so disconcertingly ... well, Jaggeresque.

TECH TALK

I don’t know if it’s true that, as one writer put it, the first thing Richard Lloyd grabs when he wakes up is his Stationmaster, but i wouldn’t be a bit surprised if Lloyd does dream about guitars. He’s certainly obsessive in his dedication to the instrument and Richard Lloyd is determined to live up to his seif-expectations.

NEWS BEATS

Vicki Arkoff

“I have this theory that Fats Domino invented ska music,” Paul Kelly says, struck either by a wave of brilliance or jetlag or, most likely, both. (Or perhaps a subconscious memory of Paul McCartney once expounding the same theory—Ed.) “You can hear it in his right hand.

Backstage

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