May 1988

CREEM

ROCK 'N' ROLL NEWS

Plans to, er, erect a 13-foottall, bikini-clad statue of Madonna in her grandparents’ hometown of Pacentro, Italy, were scrapped when local politicians called Our Lady’s “image” into question. The artlovers of Naples’ Friends Of Show Business plan to have the statue carved anyway and—Shades of Elvis’s Coat!—to then take it on a world tour.

LETTERS

GOOD NEWS WEEK! I am here today to save CREEM magazine. Yes, indeed, I will save the magazine that is called CREEM on this day. Here I am. You’re very welcome, Chip Duffey Athens; GA SPECIAL EDITION POLICY LAID BARE! We certainly are fortunate to have not one, but two super teenybopper female stars gracing the current “hits parade.” (Not to be confused with the similarly-titled satanic magazine.) There’s Debbie Gibson and Tiffany...and probably a dozen new ones this week alone!

ELEGANZA

Iman Lababedi

The problem is best described as the Clash Syndrome: how to remain true to one’s socialist and humanitarian instincts in a business where the cost of success is, essentially, the loss of the beliefs that made you start. Thus the Clash, whether or not they still had the edge they had in ’77, were seen as hypocrites.

LET US PRAY FOR THE CHURCH

Steve Peters

Steve Kilbey is sitting quietly in a spacious hotel suite overlooking Hollywood Boulevard. The bassist and lead singer for the Church, Australia’s most understated rock band, looks fatigued, his arms drawn close to his sides and his back against the diffused sunlight that drifts through the hotel window.

Creem Profiles

THE BODEANS

(Pronounced “Boy Howdy!”)

Would You buy These Woman?

David Sprague

"Put women in front of a microphone and something happens to them. They become affected, overdramatic, high-pitched. Some turn sultry and sexy. Others turn patronizing, pseudo-charming.” —Unnamed NBC executive New York Times, May 24, 1964 And to think this guy was faced with dames as harmless as Connie Francis.

RECORDS

Jon Young

Got a minute? I want you to meet some cats you’re sure to dig. Ed, Mike and George aren’t my official buddies, but I feel like they’re pals after a few satisfying spins of the new fIREHOSE platter. If an album could kick off its shoes, plop down on your couch, pop open a cold one, and shoot the breeze for a spell, “if’n” would be the disc to do it.

ROCK • A • RAMA

Wow! Previously unheard stuff from the original Byrds? Pinch me, I must be dreaming! Although there’s nothing here that’ll compel scholars to rewrite history, every note of this amazing 10-track package is swell. Among the highlights are an anxious version of “It’s All Over Now, Baby Blue” cut before “Turn! Turn! Turn!,” Gene Clark’s majestic title track, and a breathtaking stereo mix of “Lady Friend” that puts the cramped mono original to shame.

JOHNNY CASH: A Little Farther...Down The Line

J. Kordosh

Onstage, Johnny Cash likes to joke about his daughter Rosanne’s recording of “Tennessee Flat Top Box”: “She played it for me and I said, ‘That’s real pretty, honey. And I want to thank you for recording it.’ And she said ‘Why?’ And I said, ‘Because I wrote it.’”

CALENDAR

ROBERT PLANT, TECHNOBILLY

Chuck Eddy

A few months back, Robert Plant walked into Atlantic Records’ London offices and played “Scream,” by Ralph Nielsen & The Chancellors.

SCREEN BEAT

Billy Altman

The shame. The disgrace. The horror. The videos of 1987. They came. They aired. We dozed. When we woke up, the calendar read 1988. We knelt before our cable, and besides praying that our region would soon feature Nick At Nite so we could finally see reruns of Car 54, Where Are You, we asked for guidance in the always gut-wrenching task of summing up the year in rock videos.

CREEMEDIA

Richard C.

At some time in the mid-70s (depending on where you lived) there appeared on the midnight movie circuit what was possibly the strangest, and certainly the most grotesque, low-budget comedy gross/freak-out film yet. Poised somewhere between the summer of love and the Sex Pistols, Pink Flamingos was both an inheritor of the new freedom of the ’60s and a foreshadowing of the nihilism which was soon to become codified as a pop culture subdivision.

MEDIA COOL

Bill Holdship

This coufd well be one of the best pictures of 1988. Basing his screenplay on a true story, writer-director Michael Hoffman has created a portrait of small town America during the Reagan era that, in its own way, is as harrowing as River�s Edge was last year.

THE STRANGE CASE OF Buster Poindexter

Roy Trakm

�Why ya gonna write this for CREEM?,� rasps David Johansen in that gravelly Noo Yawk slang his alter ego Buster Poindexter has put to such good use with his Marlboro-and-martini-soaked between-song patter. "Those kids could care less.. If you think the one-time lead singer for pioneering punk band the New York Dolls is having a bit of a �personality crisis� with the lounge lizard, toastmeister character he�s created, guess again.

SOUL ASYLUM PLEADER THAN YOU'LL EVER BE

Ira Robbins

It might be said that Soul Asylum is just a wonderful rock �n� roll band from Minneapolis, a rough and ready quartet embodying explosive energy, sloppy charm, and a reserve of musical and lyrical sophistication that instantly distinguishes them from the vast majority.

CRIME AND PUNISHMENT THE TED NUGENT INTERVIEW

Jeffrey Morgan

If anyone deserves the title of Hardest Working Man In Rock �n� Roll, Ted Nugent does. It�s a reputation that dates back to 1963 and it�s a tradition he continues to maintain a quarter of a century later with a brand new album (If You Can�t Lick �Em, Lick �Em) and a brand new tour.

TECH TALK

Billy Cioffi

Some of you more urban folks are probably thinking, �What in the hell is this guy doing in CREEM?� Well, speaking as a guitar player, if a publicist calls you up one day and asks you if you�d like to interview Chet Atkins you don�t ask questions.

THE LAST ANNUAL CREEM CAPTION CONTEST!

OK, readers ours, the results are in—in the wastebasket mostly, �cause let�s face it: much as you enjoy our photo captions, as you rightfully should, you�re not exactly living in our famed Caption Writer�s Hut. In case you missed it, we ran a contest in our January issue asking you to write your niftiest captions to some typically CREEMish pix. We were happy to get hundreds of responses—until we had to read �em, of course—but what the hell.

NEW BEATS

Drew Wheeler

Steve Michener, the bassist for Big Dipper, wanted to know what kind of �angle� I was going to take for my CREEM interview. It makes me nervous when my interviewees ask me questions—questions about who else I�ve interviewed or who else I write for.

Backstage

Backstage

Where the Stars Tank Up & Let Their Images Down