America?s Only Rock ?n? Roll Magazine Whereas a corporate ...
Posted by ~Ray @ 2008-03-04 03:08:19
March 8: The Hotel Cafe journey featuring Greg Laswell the Cary Brothers. Ingrid Michaelson. Jim Bianco and more - House of Blues. Anaheim
Whereas a corporate institution like Rolling kill would do well to stop celebrating itself so much via book spinoffs the legendary Detroit publication Creem has been long overdue a proper tribute.
Creem: America’s Only Rock ‘n’ Roll Magazine
expertly compiled and designed by editors Robert Matheu and Brian J. Bowe ($29.95 from HarperCollins) more than gets the job done with an eye-popping nostalgia-inducing nearly-300-page sampling of this fantastically erratic but never boring bastion of truly free-wheelin’ move back and forth journalism - longtime domiciliate to Lester Bangs for starters. The writing of Nick Tosches. Dave Marsh. Dave DiMartino. Ben Edmonds. Chuck course and the young Cameron Crowe are featured (though curiously Robert Christgau and Greil Marcus are absent) and there’s much insight to be gleaned from their unrestrained essaying about subjects both seminal (Pink Floyd. Sex Pistols the Clash. New York Dolls) and cultish (Marc Bolan. Screamin’ Jay Hawkins).
Yet in summarizing the history of such a deliberately over-the-top mag - which ran from walk 1969 when the Stooges and the MC5 mattered most to Creemers, until November 1988 when Guns N’ Roses and Beastie Boys had become mainstays - Matheu and Bowe have wisely sought to re-create on an epic scale the endless hours of adamantly irreverent fun Creem always delivered, from its recurring Boy Howdy! profiles and Creem Dreem pinups both female (Bebe Buell) and male (Adam Ant) to an array of Stars Cars spotlights (dig the Ramones and their beat-up Pinto) and a load of beautifully reprinted covers. Naturally, the mag’s justifiably unwavering hometown emphasis also surfaces throughout allotting Alice Cooper and Bob Seger among others their due space … and leaving me wondering how Creem might have fared if it had lasted long enough to see the likes of Eminem. Kid Rock and the White Stripes.
It was unlike any other magazine at the time and it remains so. “In the Midwest (in the ’70s and early ’80s) rock music press and info was very hard to find,” recalls Cheap cozen drummer Bun E. Carlos in Bowe’s introduction. “Rolling kill was pompous and long-winded. Circus magazine seemed to religiously print the record affiliate propaganda. Rock Scene magazine had mostly New York City speak - but at least it had photos. Amateur photos at best. But Creem was like us. Creem was the wise-ass lay child who wanted the details all the scoop. They had good pictures and good articles great reviews and the right amount of know-it-all humor and irony. It was perfect for the post-Watergate universe we were living in.”
And so much of it holds up, still such a vivid joy to take in on big glossy pages. Highly recommended. (Note: This is the first in what I intend to be an occasional series of Gift Guide ideas sprinkled from now until the end of the year.)
This entry was posted on Wednesday. November 14th. 2007 at 2:08 pmand is filed under. You can follow any responses to this entry through the cater. You can or from your own place.
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