Creem
Stooges, The: Stooges Storm Sin City
Live Review by Anne Moore, Creem, July 1970
(While the Stooges were out on the West Coast to do their second album, they decided to play a couple of gigs. The first was ...
J. Geils Band: J Geils Band: Beantown Get-down
Profile by Ben Edmonds, Creem, March 1971
JANUARY 17, 1970 would have been its fourth birthday, but that hardly matters now. The Boston Tea Party is no more. Since the beginning of ...
Spencer Davis Group: The Return of Spencer Davis
Interview by Dave Marsh, Creem, March 1971
SPENCER DAVIS suffers from a peculiar affliction – his name is tied inextricably to that of Stevie Winwood, it's almost certain that, first time around ...
Kinks, The: The Kinks: Lola Versus Powerman And The Moneygroround — Part One
Review by Dave Marsh, Creem, March 1971
WELL, ALL RIGHT. It took two months but I think I begin to understand the meaning of this album, which is that the Kinks understand, ...
John Lennon, Yoko Ono: John Lennon: Plastic Ono Band (Apple)/ Yoko Ono: Plastic Ono Band (Apple)
Review by Dave Marsh, Creem, March 1971
BOTH OF THESE records are remarkable in some aspect, a sort of East-West five years after Butterfield and Allan Watts. Certainly, until this point, John ...
Animals, The, Canned Heat, Guess Who, The: The Animals, Canned Heat and Guess Who albums
Review by Dave Marsh, Creem, March 1971
The Animals With Eric Burdon: In The Beginning (Wand) Canned Heat: Live At Topanga Corral (Wand) Guess Who: Shakin' All Over (Scepter) ...
Review by Mark Leviton, Creem, March 1971
THIS ALBUM IS a preview of what is the ultimate rock opera-symphony, 200 Motels, which is constantly growing and taking on amazing proportions. ...
Chairmen Of The Board: Chairman of the Board: In Session (Invictus)
Review by Dave Marsh, Creem, March 1971
THIS IS REPUTEDLY a live set, recorded in Harlem at the Apollo but I doubt that. But regardless of that little caveat emptor, the Chairmen ...
Review by Dave Marsh, Creem, March 1971
SAM COOKE HAS always seemed, to me at least, the most underrated (or simply ignored – you don't really rate these people) of all the ...
Review by Metal Mike Saunders, Creem, March 1971
IF YOU PRIDE yourself on being a member of the generation that battles hypocrisy, shuns prejudices and easy labels, and fights to the death to ...
Doors, The: The Doors: Thirteen
Review by Dave Marsh, Creem, March 1971
THE UNFORTUNATE situation epitomized here is that of the record company which has to resort to the "greatest hits" ruse when a band doesn't meet ...
Captain Beefheart & the Magic Band: Lick My Decals Off, Baby
Review by Lester Bangs, Creem, March 1971
GAZING ACROSS pop music's stale horizons, past all the cynical ineptitude, pseudo-intellectual solemnity, neurotic regression and dismal dead-ends for great bands, there is one figure ...
Sir Lord Baltimore: Kingdom Come (Mercury)
Review by Metal Mike Saunders, Creem, May 1971
ALL YOU TRUE blue Heavy fans, take heart. This album is a crusher. Sure enough, Sir Lord Baltimore is none other than a new heavy ...
Aretha Franklin at Fillmore West
Live Review by Jonh Ingham, Creem, June 1971
BILL GRAHAM'S Fillmore West. At one end is a fairly large stage, the sides littered with sound equipment. Behind it hangs the light show scrim. ...
Joe Cocker, Leon Russell: Joe Cocker: Mad Dogs & Englishmen (A&M Film))
Film/DVD Review by Richard Cromelin, Creem, June 1971
Something Like a Rock'n'Roll Tour ...
Music Magazines: The Real Rock ‘n’ Roll Underground
Overview by Greg Shaw, Creem, June 1971
Do you ever get so sick of the latest Leon Russell or Ten Years After album that you switch off the FM radio in disgust ...
Grand Funk Railroad: To Live Outside the Law You Must Be Honest
Report by Lenny Kaye, Creem, June 1971
Mark, Don, Mel, and Terry at Shea: Give Peace a Chance, Love Conquers All, Get Funked ...
Mountain: Nantucket Sleighride (Windfall)
Review by Ben Edmonds, Creem, June 1971
Nantucket Sleighride. Whalers of sturdy New England stock hauled by their harpooned prey in salt-water acceleration. I happen to be a New Englander, but even ...
Swamp Dogg: Rat On! — Swamp Dogg
Review by John Morthland, Creem, June 1971
Swamp Dogg don’t fuck around. Besides writing or co-writing (many with U.S. Bonds) eight of the album’s 10 songs, he arranged produced, played piano, did ...
Review by John Morthland, Creem, June 1971
BOZ SCAGGS' FIRST solo album was so close to perfect that it must be considered a tough act to follow. Still, one might have hoped ...
Johnny Winter: Johnny Winter And Live
Review by John Morthland, Creem, June 1971
HOW, YOU MIGHT be asking yourself, could this not be a killer album? After all, it may have taken two albums and several tours, but ...
Band, The, Bob Dylan: Bob Dylan: Bob Dylan and the Hawks Live At Albert Hall, 1966
Review by Dave Marsh, Creem, June 1971
IT IS THE MOST supremely elegant piece of rock'n'roll music I've ever heard. ...
Jethro Tull: The Forum, Los Angeles CA
Live Review by Jonh Ingham, Creem, October 1971
Rock As Electric Wallpaper ...
Essay by Dave Marsh, Creem, October 1971
Their mamas all warned 'emnot to come into townBut they got it in their blood,now they gotta get down– 'Shakin' Street', The MC5 ...
Eddie Floyd, Johnny Adams: Johnny Adams: Heart And Soul; Eddie Floyd Down To Earth
Review by Charlie Gillett, Creem, October 1971
If anybody doubts that this is a poverty-stricken era for popular music, let him name a black solo male singer whose records he looks forward ...
Brinsley Schwarz: Despite It All
Review by John Morthland, Creem, October 1971
THE TITLE apparently refers to the incredible hype this group received when they first played Fillmore East and their management blew $120,000 to fly over ...
Review by Dave Marsh, Creem, October 1971
WHO'S NEXT IS TO the Who what the White Album must've been to the Beatles. After Tommy, which was a concept-rock summit, not, as commonly ...
Van Morrison: His Band And Street Choir
Review by Dave Marsh, Creem, October 1971
THERE'S A SECRET to every Van Morrison album, and even this one, which too many of us wrote off too long ago, has it. The ...
Johnny Otis: Doin' That Hand Jive With His Feet
Interview by John Morthland, Creem, November 1971
When the Johnny Otis Show appears on stage, it brings years and years of rhythm and blues history with it. ...
Hawkwind: Hawkwind (United Artists)
Review by John Morthland, Creem, November 1971
THE COVER, IN BRILLIANT colors, shows these creatures that seem to be part reptile, part human, and part falling leaves. The songs have titles like ...
Review by Jon Tiven, Creem, November 1971
THE TWO PACED the floor of Cutler's Record Shop, trying to decide whether or not to buy the new Butterfield album. They bought a lot ...
Review by Metal Mike Saunders, Creem, November 1971
SEEING FANNY live after hearing Charity Ball leaves two possibilities: either the group doesn't know the first thing about recording or Richard Perry is a ...
Review by Dave Marsh, Creem, November 1971
I WAS IN Los Angeles this spring, when a friend dropped in to say, "Hey there's a new Pink Floyd album and it's all old ...
Sly & The Family Stone: Sly Stone & the Family Stone: There's A Riot Goin' On (Epic)
Review by John Morthland, Creem, February 1972
AS MANY HAVE noted, Sly Stone's style revolves around so many factors that it may, paradoxically enough, be as limited as it is ground-breaking. Combine ...
Procol Harum: It's Only Realism
Report and Interview by Richard Cromelin, Creem, February 1972
IN THE THICK AIR air of the early evening, Los Angeles wrings itself out after one of its record-breaking August heat wave days. Coldwater Canyon ...
Essay by Dave Marsh, Creem, February 1972
PICKS OF THE WEEK: BOB DYLAN, 'GEORGE JACKSON' (Ram's Horn, BMI). Bringing it all back home, the ever-relevant Dylan, who watched the river flow for ...
Who, The: The Who: Meaty Beaty Big And Bouncy
Review by Dave Marsh, Creem, February 1972
THERE ISN'T MUCH to say. They're really let us down this time. I don't know if anyone else resents it, but I do. Why reissue ...
Review by Dave Marsh, Creem, February 1972
AT FIRST GLANCE these two don't seem to have much in common, aside from the fact that they're both on the same label. While that's ...
Report by uncredited writer, Dave Marsh, Creem, March 1972
The new Plastic Ono Band comes to Ann Arbor to Free John Sinclair – Starring David Peel, Archie Shepp, Ed Sanders, Stevie Wonder, Commander Cody, ...
Smokey Robinson & The Miracles: From The Beginning…
Report and Interview by Dave Marsh, Creem, April 1972
SMOKEY IS LEAVING the Miracles. This may mean more to those of us in Detroit, who've watched the Miracles almost, but never quite, make the ...
Smokey Robinson: The Way You Do The Things You Do
Profile by Charlie Gillett, Creem, April 1972
ABOUT TWELVE YEARS AGO, Berry Gordy told Smokey Robinson how to write songs. "Every song should have an idea, tell a story, mean something." Smokey ...
Linda Ronstadt: Linda Ronstadt
Review by Ben Edmonds, Creem, April 1972
THIS PAST AUGUST, a friend and I braved the colorless bullshit of the Troubador in Los Angeles to catch a Linda Ronstadt set, supposedly being ...
Jackson 5, The: The Jackson 5: Greatest Hits
Review by Dave Marsh, Creem, April 1972
MOTOWN HAS ALWAYS been known for its little ones more than its big ones, and the Jackson Five are no exception. This is undoubtedly their ...
Faces, The: The Faces: A Nod Is As Good As A Wink
Review by Dave Marsh, Creem, April 1972
A Nod Is As Good As A Wink is the first signal that the Faces have matured as a band. Their infatuation with variations on ...
Persuasions, The: The Persuasions: Street Corner Symphony
Review by Dave Marsh, Creem, April 1972
THE PERSUASIONS ceased to be a pleasant, though strange, acappella curiosity with their last album, We Came to Play. That album took a more pop ...
Manfred Mann's Earth Band: Manfred Mann's Earth Band
Review by Dave Marsh, Creem, April 1972
MANFRED MANN'S strength, perhaps his only one, is as an interpreter. His jazzlike motions with Chapter Three – the group that was broken up so ...
Captain Beefheart: The Spotlight Kid (Reprise)
Review by Ben Edmonds, Dave Marsh, Creem, April 1972
The Kid is gonna Booglarize ya ...
Bob Seger: Doncha Ever Listen To The Radio…
Profile and Interview by Dave Marsh, Creem, May 1972
How To Remain Obscure Through Better Rock 'n' Roll ...
T. Rex: Can The Electric Warriors Conquer America?
Profile and Interview by Dave Marsh, Creem, May 1972
YOU CAN SEE Marc Bolan almost anywhere and walk away with the same impression. You'll think he looks cherubic, not a little elfin, and that ...
Betty Wright: I Love The Way You Love (Alston)
Review by Dave Marsh, Creem, May 1972
SOMETIME LAST spring, a single appeared called 'I Love the Way You Love'. One of the people I live with bought it; she said, "This ...
Osmonds, The: The Osmonds: Phase Three (MGM)
Review by Wayne Robins, Creem, May 1972
IT CAME AS no surprise when FAVE Magazine recently handed out its best of the year awards. Left unresolved was the question of who really ...
Denise LaSalle: Denise La Salle: Trapped By A Thing Called Love
Review by Dave Marsh, Creem, May 1972
IF THIS ISN'T THE best soul album this year, someone is going to have to come up with something really amazing. Denise La Salle is ...
Jimi Hendrix: Hendrix In The West
Review by Dave Marsh, Creem, May 1972
I DON'T KNOW if there, is even anything to add to Jimi's legend. You can build it up or tear it down but it remains ...
Edgar Winter's White Trash: Roadwork (Epic)
Review by Jaan Uhelszki, Creem, June 1972
IT WAS ONE of those days. You know, Spring Fever and all that. Ben tumbled in from the Agitator laundromat grinning vacantly, mumbling something about ...
Review by Greg Shaw, Creem, June 1972
Have you ever felt the urge to visit the distant reaches of the galaxy? I don't mean in some freaked-out 2001 Pink Floyd acid trip, ...
Jackson Browne: Jackson Browne
Review by Dave Marsh, Creem, June 1972
MYTHICALLY, JACKSON BROWNE emerged from an article in Cheetah (the magazine of rock, when Crawdaddy! was the 'zine of roll) in late '67 or early ...
Wackers, The: The Wackers: Hot Wacks
Review by Ben Edmonds, Creem, July 1972
HAVING NOTHING more pressing to tackle than a watered-down bourbon and some hotel room TV on one March mid-afternoon in New York, I happened to ...
James Gang, The: The James Gang: Straight Shooter
Review by Jaan Uhelszki, Creem, July 1972
"Hey Jesse, Jesse, I wuz jus' down at Molly's Tavern and Johnny Clay was tellin' me 'bout this band of desperados a-callin' themselves after us! ...
Todd Rundgren: Something/Anything? (Bearsville)
Review by Ben Edmonds, Creem, July 1972
THE NAME TODD Rundgren has passed across so many lips in the past few months that you can almost detect traces of chapstick around its ...
Ashton, Gardner & Dyke: What A Bloody Long Day It's Been (Capitol)
Review by Wayne Robins, Creem, July 1972
ASHTON, GARDNER & DYKE'S first album might have been the best English punk-rock album of 1970. It was a sound forged from the beer belly ...
Tony Joe White: The Train I'm On
Review by Robot A. Hull, Creem, July 1972
DOWNHOME MUSIC is where it's at. Clarence Carter. J.J. Cale. Tom T. Hall. Candi Staton. They all sound laid back to me and they are ...
Profile and Interview by Dave Marsh, Creem, July 1972
GUMBO IS DR. JOHN'S fifth album, but it seems like his first. For once, the record and the recording both feel right, as though they ...
Jerry Lee Lewis: The Killer Rocks On
Review by Dave Marsh, Creem, July 1972
YOU CAN TELL this one is special from the beginning. The strings come in, but all of a sudden, there's an insistent, pounding drum driving ...
Review by Dave Marsh, Creem, July 1972
THERE'S SOMETHING intriguing in the idea that Humble Pie are so thoroughly enjoyable yet refuse so adamantly to yield to any kind of critical insight. ...
Faces, The: The Faces: The Daring Young Man And The Flying Chimpanzees
Report and Interview by Dave Marsh, Creem, August 1972
THE LAST WEEK of April, the American Retreaders Association shared the Executive Inn, Louisville, Ky., with a collection of dwarves, freaks, dope dealers, high wire ...
Janis Joplin: Joplin in Concert
Review by Ben Edmonds, Creem, August 1972
IT MAY WELL BE an admission of blasphemy, but I was never one of the worshippers at the Janis Joplin altar. I seldom missed an ...
Paul Butterfield Blues Band: The Paul Butterfield Blues Band: Golden Butter
Review by Ben Edmonds, Creem, August 1972
ANTICIPATION of this anthology's arrival was always accompanied by a warm feeling somewhere between nostalgia and celebration. The Paul Butterfield Blues Band(s) have ranked with ...
Interview by Ben Edmonds, Creem, August 1972
THE FIRST SIGNAL of his approach is the abrupt appearance of a small black dog, hauling its thoroughly pregnant belly behind a couch just quickly ...
Review by Dave Marsh, Creem, August 1972
I'M LISTENING TO a tape of The New John and Yoko lp. If you thought, as I did, that Sometime in New York City was ...
Review by Dave Marsh, Creem, August 1972
JETHRO TULL's admirers are wont to believe that the lads are an inventive, entertaining, eminently witty, oft profound rock group, with a propensity for satire ...
Eagles, The: The Eagles: The Eagles (Asylum)
Review by Ben Edmonds, Creem, September 1972
EVER SINCE some unwitting fool made the mistake of pointing out that much of the rock and roll musician evolved from the hillbilly, we've been ...
Fabulous Rhinestones, The: The Fabulous Rhinestones: Just Sunshine
Review by Ben Edmonds, Creem, September 1972
I ALWAYS thought that the bassplayer was the guy who stood there and didn't say much. While the rest of the band goes out partying, ...
David Bowie: The Rise And Fall Of Ziggy Stardust And The Spiders From Mars (RCA)
Review by Dave Marsh, Creem, September 1972
DAVID BOWIE may become a star this year, or he may not. This may or may not make a difference in your life. But, for ...
Review by Ben Edmonds, Creem, October 1972
AS WE ALL KNOW, summer never lasts forever, and Alice was faced with the problem of rushing out a follow-up album before the leaves began ...
Van Dyke Parks: Discover America
Review by Gene Sculatti, Creem, October 1972
WHATEVER BECAME of Ars Nova, the United States of America. Neon Philharmonic or the Fifty Foot Hose? Less than five years ago, "art-rock" projects like ...
Review by Ken Barnes, Creem, October 1972
FOLLOWING THE release of the New Riders Of The Purple Sage with Jerry Garcia, the Vintage Dead albums, the second double live Dead package, the ...
Review by Dave Marsh, Creem, October 1972
AFTER TUPELO HONEY Van Morrison must have been faced with a choice. He could continue with his domestic tranquility myth, which was as artistically false ...
Review by Wayne Robins, Creem, November 1972
LIKE VAN MORRISON, Arthur Lee has been gifted with enormous catalytic power in his writing, the often innocent enunciation of a phrase capable of transforming ...
Three Dog Night: Seven Separate Fools
Review by Jaan Uhelszki, Creem, November 1972
It was on a Friday night during Doctor Zimmerman's group therapy session that Danny, Corey and Chuck first made a breakthrough at the South Cal ...
T. Rex: T Rex: The Slider (Reprise)
Review by Ben Edmonds, Creem, November 1972
THE ELECTRIC WARRIOR hardly brought us to our knees the way he'd expected he would. After a string of superbly programmed chart-topping singles and genuine ...
Review by Ben Edmonds, Creem, November 1972
OVER THE LAST four years, I've suffered some of the worst abuse and harassment imaginable simply because of my insistence that Jimmy Webb is the ...
Review by Gene Sculatti, Creem, November 1972
"Like Sonny Bono will never know what happened when it's all over. He'll never know why it happened, because he didn't know what happened to ...
Cornelius Brothers and Sister Rose, The: Cornelius Brothers And Sister Rose (United Artists)
Review by Wayne Robins, Creem, November 1972
BASICALLY, THERE ARE two Cornelius Brothers and Sister Rose (CB&SR) sounds. One is the basic, upbeat piano sound layered with tight, spiraling harmony, as in ...
Sun Ra And His Myth-Science Arkestra
Profile and Interview by John Sinclair, Creem, November 1972
If you find earth bor-ingJust the same old same thing –If you find earth bor-ingJust the same old same thing – Come on, sign up ...
Allman Brothers Band: Snapshots of the South: The Allman Brothers and Capricorn Records
Profile and Interview by Ben Edmonds, Creem, November 1972
MAKING AN AIR APPROACH to Atlanta is like diving into a monstrous tossed salad. The land below is a fluffy carpet of complimentary greens which ...
Hound Dog Taylor And The House Rockers
Profile by Ben Edmonds, Creem, November 1972
CONTRARY TO whatever stereotypes have been created to cover the contemporary bluesman, there is a side to the blues that has absolutely nothing to do ...
Profile by Dave Marsh, Creem, November 1972
"LUTHER ALLISON come into the picture about the middle of 1957. I needed a bass player and I met Luther Allison walkin' on Ogden Avenue ...
Band, The: The Band: Rock Of Ages
Review by Dave Marsh, Creem, November 1972
On a great night, the Band grab and mesmerize, so that neither your eyes nor your thoughts can be on anything else. It helps that ...
Various Artists: Nuggets (Elektra)
Review by Ben Edmonds, Creem, November 1972
I LEARNED ABOUT golden oldie collections the hard way. I was all of eleven, and had finally managed to figure out what that noise coming ...
Tim Buckley: Greetings from L.A. (Straight)
Review by Ken Barnes, Creem, December 1972
IT'S BEEN ABOUT two years now since Tim Buckley has had an album out. ...
Brinsley Schwarz: Nervous On The Road
Review by Dave Marsh, Creem, December 1972
NERVOUS ON THE Road continues in typical Brinsley fashion. It's full of jumping good time rock songs, a little rockabilly, a shade of the Band ...
Eggs Over Easy: Good 'N' Cheap (A & M)
Review by Gene Sculatti, Creem, January 1973
SOMETIMES IT GETS downright hard to remain cynical. Witness this latest destined-for-obscurity near-masterpiece (produced by Link Wray) from three former Berkeley folkies who pulled out ...
J. Geils Band: Full House (Atlantic)
Review by Ben Edmonds, Creem, January 1973
MUCH AS I love it, this album tends to piss me off. ...
West, Bruce & Laing: West Bruce & Laing: Why Dontcha (Columbia)
Review by Robot A. Hull, Creem, January 1973
LESLIE WEST is an obnoxious fatso; Jack Bruce was the worst of the three Creams (note his horrible songwriting and bass lead fill-ins) and made ...
Loudon Wainwright III: Album III
Review by Bud Scoppa, Creem, January 1973
IT'S IMPOSSIBLE to forget the sight of Loudon Wainwright singing: head turned upward and wobbling loosely on his hunched shoulders, his face contorted in response ...
Captain Beefheart: Getting Closer To The Captain: Clear Spot
Review by Lester Bangs, Creem, January 1973
"AND THAT PANTALOONED DUCK / white goose neck / quacked, 'Webcor, Webcor.'" Those are the last lines on Clear Spot, from a song called 'Golden ...
Roxy Music: Roxy Music (Warner Brothers)
Review by Robot A. Hull, Creem, January 1973
WHAT A BUNCHA kooky weirdo faggoids! What a pack of goofy, tasteless dingbats! What a buncha fucking showoffs! ...
Grateful Dead: Europe '72 (Warner Bros.)
Review by Robot A. Hull, Creem, February 1973
I'VE BEEN TO THREE Grateful Dead concerts in my life, and at each one I fell asleep. Oh, everybody else was pretending to be shimmying ...
Edgar Winter: They Only Come Out At NIght
Review by Jaan Uhelszki, Creem, February 1973
My, my, who pushed dear, dear Edgar and the boys into the closet? Now really. Do you expect me to believe it was THEIR idea? ...
Review by Robot A. Hull, Creem, February 1973
Their faces drooping in disbelief, the fans shook their baffled, bewildered heads. "If we hadn't seen him with our own eyes we never would have ...
Review by Gene Sculatti, Creem, February 1973
Come on. You didn't think ‘Horse With No Name’ and ‘Ventura Highway’ would get these guys voted into the pantheon of CSN&Y Springalopoco second-liners where ...
Raspberries, The: The Raspberries: Fresh
Review by Metal Mike Saunders, Creem, February 1973
IT STARTS off with that unforgettable drum fill from ‘Loco-Motion’, now over a decade old, and then right into the opening chords from ‘One Fine ...
J.J. Cale: J. J. Cale: Really (Shelter)
Review by Robot A. Hull, Creem, March 1973
J.J. CALE just loves to mumble. Like, if he were peeking over my shoulder right now, watching me write this, and I suddenly asked him ...
Wackers, The: The Wackers: Shredder
Review by Wayne Robins, Creem, March 1973
THE WACKERS are like the guys you used to know, hang out with, get wrecked with and share neighborhood jokes with, who also incidentally happened ...
Uriah Heep: The Magician’s Birthday (Mercury)
Review by Metal Mike Saunders, Creem, March 1973
A DUD. There was some controversy over whether Uriah Heep’s last album, Demons and Wizards, wasn’t a bit of a tone-down itself, a retreat from ...
Neil Diamond: Hot August Night (MCA)
Review by Gene Sculatti, Creem, March 1973
YEAH, IT IS pretty dismal. Yeah, there's a dearth of R&R and a wealth of vacuous pap for the most part. Yep, old ND has ...
Stooges, The, Iggy Pop: Iggy & The Stooges: Raw Power (Columbia)
Review by Dave Marsh, Creem, March 1973
Iggy in Exile: Love in the Fire Zone ...
Faces, The: The Faces: The Rock'n'Roll Circus
Report and Interview by Dave Marsh, Creem, April 1973
THE LAST WEEK of April 1973 the American Retreaders Association shared the Executive Inn, Louisville, Kentucky, with a collection of dwarves, freaks, dealers, high-wire acts, ...
Review by Greg Shaw, Creem, April 1973
PEOPLE SOMETIMES ask why a serious, well-educated, intellectual fellow such as me wastes his time and enthusiasm on the most insignificant passing trends and the ...
Review by Ben Edmonds, Creem, April 1973
A ridiculously easy winner in 1971's "most promising" category was Grin, fronted by Nils Lofgeren, whose credentials were a matter of public record long before ...
Deep Purple: Who Do We Think We Are? and Made In Japan
Review by Robot A. Hull, Creem, April 1973
DEEP PURPLE sure does play a godamn LOUD concert. I thought Cactus and Johnny Winter were bad, but hell Jon Lord knows how to cave ...
Gary Glitter: Garbage Rock Comes of Age
Essay by Dave Marsh, Creem, April 1973
WHEN THE CURTAIN comes up, the band are all ready there, pumping out a fuzzy, semi-atonal, rhythmically confused version of left-field '50's music. They are ...
Guide by John Morthland, Creem, April 1973
WHERE TO begin an article about Hank Williams! How about with the kind of gross overstatement that it's impossible to disprove (or prove)? To wit: ...
Review by Dave Marsh, Creem, April 1973
SOCIOLOGISTS LIKE TO talk about black people mimicking whites, and I suppose that it is inherent in the presumptions most of us make about black ...
Review by Robot A. Hull, Creem, May 1973
ERIC FALCON, local guppy for a major Memphis underground music radio station, claims that Free is the most exciting group around. He feels that a ...
Traffic: Shoot Out At the Fantasy Factory
Review by Robot A. Hull, Creem, May 1973
They're playing it on the FM progressive stations. It's five o'clock in the morning, and some snoring deejay is claiming that Stevie Winwood really has ...
Move, The: The Move: Split Ends
Review by Robot A. Hull, Creem, May 1973
When the Move were smashing helicopters and burning telephone booths onstage, my heart was thumping to the beat of 'I Can Hear the Grass Grow', ...
Alice Cooper: Billion Dollar Babies (Warner Bros.)
Review by Ben Edmonds, Creem, May 1973
QUITE SIMPLY, Billion Dollar Babies is the Sgt. Pepper of punkdom. Or a reasonable facsimile there of, which in the end is probably just as ...
Bruce Springsteen: Greetings From Asbury Park, N.J. (Columbia)
Review by Dave Marsh, Creem, May 1973
BRUCE SPRINGSTEEN has enough gall to actually commit suicide on stage of his own volition. Unlike Alice Cooper and David Bowie, who only yak about ...
Bob Seger: Back in '72 (Palladium / Warners)
Review by Dave Marsh, Creem, May 1973
BOB SEGER'S 'Rosalie' is so strong it could break you in half. But it is the only song here that is close to what I ...
Review by Jaan Uhelszki, Creem, June 1973
PACK UP the voodoo, stash the gumbo, 'cuz Dr. John has gone legit. Used to be a time when he was Numero Uno Witch Doctor. ...
Black Oak Arkansas: Raunch'n'Roll
Review by Robot A. Hull, Creem, June 1973
THE SORTA people who listen to Black Oak Arkansas are about the closest things to teenage Frankensteins in existence. They hide out in the hills ...
Review by Gene Sculatti, Creem, June 1973
YEARS AGO, Mad ran a feature on "What Kind of Parents Will Today's Teenagers Make?" It depicted a pair of graying, pot-bellied rockers in leathers, ...
Review by Robot A. Hull, Creem, June 1973
THI IS IT, this is it, this is it! The wimps rule; there's no doubt about it. AM critters like Steely Dan and King Harvest ...
Amon Düül: Amon Duul II: Wolf City
Review by Wayne Robins, Creem, June 1973
EVER READ German rock mags like Muziek Express or Dutch ones like Popfoto? If you do, you'll notice that besides the pictures of Alice Cooper, ...
Alice Cooper: Scenes From An Impending Conquest
Profile by Ben Edmonds, Creem, June 1973
"Alice Cooper...I thought it was gonna be like Judy Collins or something: It was the most revolting thing I've ever seen. You shoulda been there..." ...
Johnny Winter: Back and Kicking
Profile and Interview by Ben Edmonds, Creem, July 1973
THE HOUSE is an easy hour by car from the wall-to-wall insanity of midtown Manhattan, situated in one of the bedroom communities just over the ...
Review by Wayne Robins, Creem, July 1973
SONG FOR SONG, this might be Marc Bolan's strongest album. Certainly, it's the most varied, and the most musical. One instinctively look for the lyric ...
Temptations, The: The Temptations: Masterpiece
Review by Wayne Robins, Creem, July 1973
It is 1978, and for the first time in half a decade, three consecutive Alice Cooper singles fail to reach the top fifty. Burbank has ...
Faces, The: The Faces: Ooh La La
Review by Dave Marsh, Creem, July 1973
SOMETIME ROD STEWART or the Faces (or both) should make a record that is enjoyable without being enervating. The effect of each of their records ...
J. Geils Band: J Geils Band: Bloodshot (Atlantic)
Review by Ben Edmonds, Creem, August 1973
FROM THE guitar blitz that ushers in ‘House Party,’ you know that, after a couple of false starts, Bloodshot is the record which finally begins ...
Manfred Mann's Earth Band: Get Your Rocks Off
Review by Wayne Robins, Creem, August 1973
MANFRED MANN'S a survivor. What that means is that no matter where you got on the bus: be it with ‘Do Wah Diddy Diddy’ in ...
David Bowie: Best Dressed Mainman at The Twilight Zone Ball
Comment by Nick Kent, Creem, August 1973
SOME SAY THAT the only reason Mick Rock got that job as Mainman's official photographer/sometime designer was because Angie Bowie fancied his wife. That's a ...
Interview by Nick Tosches, Creem, August 1973
Valerie's torrid flesh sings with the lyrics of passion and singes with the heat of burning desire ...
Black Oak Arkansas: When Rock & Roll Came to Arkansas
Essay by Greg Shaw, Creem, September 1973
A passel o' scraggly critters came outa the woodwork ...
Review by Robot A. Hull, Creem, September 1973
EVER SINCE the advent of rock 'n' roll there's always been a few tweety performers who would insist upon re-directing the primitive rhythmic spirit of ...
Review by Wayne Robins, Creem, October 1973
SOON AFTER the enormous success of Tapestry Carole King came to be considered something of a cultural reactionary to the ‘true keepers of the rock ...
New York Dolls Greatest Hits Volume 1
Profile and Interview by Ben Edmonds, Creem, October 1973
(They're not a fag band. -Ed.) ...
Syd Barrett, Pink Floyd: Syd Barrett: The Genius Who Almost Was
Profile by Nick Kent, Creem, October 1973
IT WAS only a few months back that a friend told me he'd seen Syd Barrett drifting down Charing Cross Road, looking in guitar shops. ...
Mott The Hoople: The Ballad Of Mott The Hoople
Profile and Interview by Ben Edmonds, Creem, November 1973
MOTT THE HOOPLE. Good old Mott. "Oh yea, aren't they the band that..." Almost everybody, it seems, has their own "oh yea" for Mott the ...
Profile and Interview by Simon Frith, Creem, November 1973
Stuck in the middle with the Chartbusting Champions of Un-hip ...
Review by John Morthland, Creem, November 1973
THE SEARCH for the most commercial mating of country and rock continues unabated, and it's working both ways. In the wake of Kristofferson, the Young ...
Review by Jaan Uhelszki, Creem, January 1974
CHER BONO is a Barbie dress-up doll. A fantastic ride from juke box to juke box to an island on the TV freeway. An early ...
Elton John: Goodbye Yellow Brick Road
Review by Wayne Robins, Creem, January 1974
REMEMBER WHEN the Stones and Beatles were English bands? If you do then it's just barely, because both ceased being foreign bands years ago, somewhere ...
Raspberries, The: Raspberries: Side 3
Review by Ben Edmonds, Creem, January 1974
MENTION THE RASPBERRIES, and right away you're caught in a crossfire. ...
Who, The: The Who: Exorcizing The Ghost of Mod
Review and Interview by Charles Shaar Murray, Creem, January 1974
The Who: Quadrophenia ...
Jerry Lee Lewis: The Killer Staggers On
Report by John Morthland, Creem, March 1974
THE MAN from Mercury is nervous, very nervous. You can see it easily enough as he paces around Steve Cropper's TMI Studios in Memphis. Up ...
Mardi Gras: The Complete Mardi Gras Primer
Guide by Jim Esposito, Creem, March 1974
NEW ORLEANS – a party town without peer – annually hosts one solid week of rampant, unadulterated Bachanalia. It's called Mardi Gras. Sort of an ...
Who, The: The Who: Quadrophenia Reconsidered
Comment by Dave Marsh, Creem, March 1974
PHILADELPHIA ON Tuesday night is nobody's good time. Nonetheless, because the Who were not coming to New York on their fall tour, it was worth ...
Santana, John McLaughlin: John McLaughlin and Carlos Santana: Cruisin' With The Guru
Interview by David Rensin, Creem, March 1974
The backseat revelations of Carlos Santana & Mahavishnu John McLaughlin ...
J. Geils Band: Ladies Invited (Atlantic)
Review by Jaan Uhelszki, Creem, March 1974
WHAT'S A french-fried Fidel doing in a place like Boston? Not eating brown bread and beans, I'll grant you. ...
Good Rats, The: The Good Rats: American Band Via Long Island
Profile and Interview by Wayne Robins, Creem, April 1974
YOU COULDN'T find a more classic showcase for the Good Rats than Ubie's O.T.J. in West Islip. ...
Bette Midler: Bette Midler (Atlantic)
Review by Tom Nolan, Creem, April 1974
ALL THIS diverse material – old Broadway show tunes, a Phil Spector classic, a Wardell Gray jazz novelty, soul songs, Dylan – you can almost ...
Black Sabbath: Sabbath, Bloody Sabbath (Warner Bros.)
Review by Wayne Robins, Creem, April 1974
THE QUESTION, Sabs, is where you been so long? So highly irresponsible was their disappearing act over a year ago that heavy metal almost vanished ...
Interview by Wayne Robins, Creem, May 1974
In Which This Jack-Of-All-Jams Remembers The Stones, Beatles, Little Richard ...
Review by Wayne Robins, Creem, May 1974
‘Raking Turquoise Ruts Across the Velveeta Sky’ ...
Review by Robot A. Hull, Creem, May 1974
SUZI QUATRO is a real cutie, rootie tootie, not sweet hog honey like Linda Ronstadt but a tight roller derby queen with juice and enuf ...
Review by Robot A. Hull, Creem, May 1974
THUFFERING THUCCATASH!! A NEW FROGHAT (or is it Hookfoot?) ALBUM! Man, that's about as exciting as a re-run of Car 54, Where Are You? ...
Review by Jim Esposito, Creem, September 1974
THE ONLY THING missing from Keep On Smilin' is one of Capricorn's "Support Southern Music" buttons on the jacket of that blind old black beggar ...
John Cale: The Mysterious Journey of John Cale
Profile and Interview by Mick Gold, Creem, October 1974
Part One: I was a prisoner in a lesbian lobotomy jail. I'VE TWICE missed making contact with John Cale and I'm getting tired of ...
Bryan Ferry: Roxy Music's Sleek Sheik Of Pop Chic
Profile by Ron Ross, Creem, November 1974
BRYAN FERRY is a pop artistic multi-talent with a faultless ear, an extensive library of Fifties and Sixties singles inherited from his big sister, and ...
Todd Rundgren Tells the Truth (or The Things His Hairdresser Doesn't Know)
Report and Interview by Ben Edmonds, Creem, November 1974
1972: THE FIRST – and to be disastrously short-lived – tour of Todd Rundgren's Utopia has stopped for a breather in Chicago. The band is ...
Suzi Quatro: Elvis as Virgin Queen
Interview by Jaan Uhelszki, Creem, November 1974
"I STILL USE laundromats, and one day I was walking to one carrying a bag of laundry. I had a hat on and sunglasses because ...
Good Rats, The: The Good Rats: Tasty
Review by Robot A. Hull, Creem, November 1974
OH BOY, eat em up!! The greaze, the gutz, the Music Machine is back! Right, this is the same group that gave ya that wonderful ...
Review by Robot A. Hull, Creem, December 1974
THE FIRST STEPPENWOLF album sounded great on cassette. Best part was on 'Sookie, Sookie' when John Kay told the chick to let it hang out ...
Review by Richard Cromelin, Creem, December 1974
THERE JUST MIGHT be something to what a British popster said recently – that Suzi is third-priority on the Chinn-Chapman song-machine, so Sweet get the ...
Kevin Ayers, John Cale, Brian Eno, Nico: Kevin Ayers, John Cale, Nico & Eno: June 1,1974 (Island)
Review and Interview by Richard Cromelin, Creem, December 1974
Kevin Ayers, John Cale, Nico, Eno & the Soporifics: The Inmates Have Taken Over ...
Bruce Springsteen: Casing The Promised Land: Bruce Springsteen at Hammersmith Odeon
Live Review by Simon Frith, Creem, 1975
So you’re scared and you’re thinkingThat maybe we aren’t that young anymore.Show a little faith, there’s magic in the night.You ain’t a beauty, but hey ...
Brinsley Schwarz: God Save The Grateful Dead, Or Someone Like Them
Report by Jonh Ingham, Creem, 1975
Happy doing what we're doing,Happy that we're doing it right.Happy doing what we're doing,Happy that the feeling is right. ...
Nashville: Original Motion Picture Soundtrack (MCA)
Review by John Morthland, Creem, 1975
EVEN MORE THAN most soundtracks, this one is totally inseparable from its film. Taken alone, it’s damn near unlistenable. ...
John Lennon: Walls And Bridges (Apple)
Review by Wayne Robins, Creem, January 1975
WELCOME TO THE latest chapter in John Lennon's Identity Crisis. Fresh from troubles with the immigration authorites, the breakup with Yoko and public behavior reminiscent ...
Jackson Browne: Late for the Sky (Asylum)
Review by Wayne Robins, Creem, January 1975
WHAT'S MADE Jackson Browne more acceptable than most other singer-songwriters is the likelihood that he's the Joni Mitchell for teenage boys. ...
Review by Robot A. Hull, Creem, January 1975
ERIK IMPORTS proudly presents David Blow-Up onstage doing the martian hop in Philadelphia, dazzling in ghostly radiance in his new blue suit and shedding his ...
Mott The Hoople, Mick Ronson: Mott The Hoople: Mick Ronson's One Of The Boys
Report and Interview by Ben Edmonds, Creem, January 1975
"I'd like," announced Ian Hunter, his sweeping hand motion orchestrated by an imaginary drum, "to introduce the new lead guitarist of Mott the Hoople...Mick Ronson!" ...
Nitty Gritty Dirt Band, The: The Wit And Wisdom Of The Nitty Gritty Dirt Band
Interview by Nick Tosches, Creem, January 1975
JUST WHAT THE hell is "good time music" supposed to mean? Is it John Sebastian lilting those fruity dry-hump ditties like 'You Didn't Have To ...
J. Geils Band: Howlin' At The Moon
Live Review by John Morthland, Creem, February 1975
J. Geils Band: Cobo Hall, Detroit ...
Jimmy Page, Led Zeppelin: Jimmy Page: Guitars I Have Known
Interview by Nick Kent, Creem, February 1975
(As a guitarist, Jimmy Page has all the bases covered. Clapton has that soaring fluid thing down pat, Beck is the absolute Crowned Prince of ...
Rick Wakeman: Journey To The Center Of The Wax
Report and Interview by Jaan Uhelszki, Creem, February 1975
"THERE WERE these two Irishmen, Shamus and Paddy. Paddy sez to Shamus, 'Whaddya got in the bag?' 'Ducks.' sez Shamus. 'If you guess how many ...
Badfinger: Wish You Were Here (Warner Brothers)
Review by Robot A. Hull, Creem, February 1975
BADFINGER IS imitation Raspberries, and Raspberries is imitation Goofy Grape fruit drink, which is imitation Kool-Aid, and IMITATIONS ARE BETTER THAN THE REAL STUFF. ...
Profile and Interview by Gene Sculatti, Creem, February 1975
"I'll kill your kid sister,I'll murder your dadI'll rip the lashes off your eyes,I'll slaughter all your cattle,And I'll burn your cropsIf you're dancin' with ...
Rush, Neil Merryweather: Rush: Rush; Neil Merryweather: Space Rangers
Review by Jim Esposito, Creem, February 1975
FIRST THERE WAS English Rock 'n' Roll! Then there was Southern Blues! Now, from Mercury Records, those swell folks who brought you Bachman-Turner Overdrive, we ...
Review by Wayne Robins, Creem, March 1975
WOMEN, ON Roxy Music covers, are like plants: lush vegetation, only more so. Unlike the reclining femme fatale on the cover of Stranded, who I've ...
Joni Mitchell: Miles of Aisles (Asylum)
Review by Wayne Robins, Creem, March 1975
"JONI, YOU'VE GOT more class than Mick Jagger, Richard Nixon or Gomer Pyle combined," a male Joni junkie interjects after ‘Cold Blue Steel and Sweet ...
Sensational Alex Harvey Band, The: Alex Harvey: There Ain't Nothin' Like a Gang-Bang
Interview by Lenny Kaye, Creem, March 1975
"...rock and roll takes a certain amount of ignorance." ...
Bachman Turner Overdrive: Rules For The Road: The Family That Plays Together Stays In Together
Interview by Jaan Uhelszki, Creem, March 1975
If it was easy as fishin'You could be a musicianAnd could make sounds/ loud and mellowGet a second hand guitarChances are you'll go farIf you ...
Marshall Tucker Band, The: Marshall Tucker Band: Where We All Belong (Capricorn)
Review by Gene Sculatti, Creem, April 1975
DID RANDY NEWMAN have the mystic Tucks in mind when he went and dedicated that album to Good Old Boys? Maybe so. ...
Mott The Hoople: Breaking Up Is Hard To Do
Report and Interview by Jonh Ingham, Creem, April 1975
EVEN AS MOTT the Hoople were announcing Mick Ronson as their new guitarist at a fancy New York press conference, plans were underway for the ...
Blue Oyster Cult: On Your Feet Or On Your Knees (Columbia)
Review by Wayne Robins, Creem, May 1975
THE BLUE OYSTER CULT have been heavy metal's premier studio musicians. Initially, they were an image manipulated, a persona directed by their producers, Murray Krugman ...
Led Zeppelin: Physical Graffiti (Swan Song)
Review by Jaan Uhelszki, Creem, May 1975
ROCK'S BIGGEST bruisers, Led Zeppelin, have got another album. In rock chronology this is an Event, since the defending champions of the world's biggest rock ...
Olivia Newton John: Have You Never Been Mellow (MCA)
Review by Robot A. Hull, Creem, May 1975
WHAT FEMALE singer would ya like most to sit in yr lap? Connie Francis? (too old) Cher? (too bananas) Bette Midler? (stinks under the armpits ...
Humble Pie: Steve Marriott's Bad Old Days
Interview by Jim Esposito, Creem, May 1975
STEVE MARRIOTT laid back, looking like a spaced-out leprechaun, a cigarette in one hand and a bottle of Guinness in the other. ...
Alice Cooper: Welcome To My Nightmare
Review by Jaan Uhelszki, Creem, May 1975
THE PLOT OF THE somnambulistic and psychopathic Steven and his nocturnal atrocities (he unknowingly murders in his sleep) takes up most of the second side ...
Joe Walsh: Lonely In The Spotlight
Interview by Jaan Uhelszki, Creem, June 1975
JOE WALSH is curiously indifferent about success. He gives you the impression that he has long outgrown awkwardness, but has never gotten used to felicity. ...
Swamp Dogg: Have You Heard This Story??
Review by Gene Sculatti, Creem, June 1975
IN ONE SENSE Jerry ‘Swamp Dogg’ Williams suffers from the same ailment which all but debilitated acts like Slade or Roxy or (until recently) Randy ...
Les Variations: Cafe De Paris (Buddah)
Review by Robot A. Hull, Creem, June 1975
THE FRENCH ARE the coolest breed (that's a fact), even more cool than blacks or faggots. Rimbaud and Cocteau were no poopoos, fella. In fact, ...
Bad Company: Straight Shooter (Swan Song)
Review by Jaan Uhelszki, Creem, July 1975
BAD COMPANY was conceived by a collection of musical misfits. Paul Rodgers and Simon Kirke from Free, Mick Ralphs from Mott, and Boz Burrell from ...
Ian Hunter: Ian Hunter (Columbia)
Review by Wayne Robins, Creem, July 1975
ON BRAIN CAPERS, the last great Mott album (containing songs like ‘Death May Be Your Santa Claus’ and ‘Sweet Angeline’), Ian Hunter was able to ...
Grand Funk Railroad: Grand Funk: Super Patriots Come Clean And Still Manage To Till Some Dirt
Interview by Jaan Uhelszki, Creem, July 1975
You're just hangin' out In the local bar And you're wonderin' who in the hell you are Are you a farmer? Are you a star? ...
Interview by Jonh Ingham, Creem, August 1975
"I should never have done solo albums, but I'm glad I did." ...
Ian Hunter, Mott The Hoople: Ian Hunter: Through the Glasses Darkly
Interview by Jonh Ingham, Creem, August 1975
THOSE SHADES! Oceans of mid-Atlantic green plastic bounded by translucent brown frames, black electrical tape wound in large balls around the tips to protect the ...
Rolling Stones, The: Mick Jagger: I Can Get It Up, But I Can't Get It Down
Interview by Dave Marsh, Creem, August 1975
OF COURSE, Mick Jagger was talking about flying the twin-engine Cessna which had brought him into the Marine Air Terminal in New York's LaGuardia Airport ...
Beau Brummels, The: The Beau Brummels: The Beau Brummels (Warner Bros.)
Review by Ken Barnes, Creem, August 1975
THE BEAU BRUMMELS weren't the most eagerly anticipated reunion band, but they're the first to equal their earlier standards, an accomplishment the Byrds, Love, Spirit, ...
Elton John: Captain Fantastic and the Brown Dirt Cowboy (MCA)
Review by Wayne Robins, Creem, August 1975
IT WASN'T UNTIL I watched a black restaurant worker make it through his shift singing ‘Bennie and the Jets’ to himself that I began to ...
Sweet: Desolation Boulevard (Capitol)
Review by Robot A. Hull, Creem, August 1975
BOY, IS IT INSPIRING to note any major metamorphosis in rock lately, mainly cuz every band and its mommy SOUNDS ALIKE (zombies snoring, that's what ...
Kiss: I Dreamed I Was Onstage With KISS In My Maidenform Bra
Report and Interview by Jaan Uhelszki, Creem, August 1975
WELL, NOT EXACTLY my idea of the perfect fantasy, but I was curious about life on the other side of the foot-lights. Armed with an ...
Peter Frampton, Humble Pie: Humble Pie: Street Rats; Peter Frampton: Frampton (both A&M)
Review by Jim Esposito, Creem, August 1975
FOUR ALBUMS already? Wow. It's been four albums since Peter Frampton was still in Humble Pie. Five albums since Rock On – the only album ...
Jefferson Starship: Take Me To Your Leader
Report and Interview by Jim Esposito, Creem, September 1975
"GET ME A blonde wig," says Gracie Slick over the background noise of traffic down Broadway and 52nd Street in Fun City. ...
Allen Toussaint: Feel Like Staying Home
Profile and Interview by John Morthland, Creem, September 1975
NEW ORLEANS, LA – Allen Toussaint has moved into the pop spotlight lately via Labelle and Paul McCartney but it's not his first time there. ...
Little Feat: The Valley Of The Punks
Profile and Interview by John Morthland, Creem, September 1975
IT HAPPENS TO Little Feat most everywhere they go in Europe, and sometimes even in the States. People just naturally assume they are from Texas, ...
Review by Wayne Robins, Creem, September 1975
THOUGH BOTH James Taylor and Carly Simon have been frequently castigated for being sensitive rich kids, I'm surprised we've never congratulated James for transcending his ...
Neil Young: Tonight's the Night (Reprise)
Review by Wayne Robins, Creem, September 1975
IF YOU THOUGHT Berlin was depressing, wait till you hear Tonight's the Night. Even the label is black. It is an album of resolute drugginess ...
Aerosmith: No Fear Of Flying Aero Smith
Interview by Wayne Robins, Creem, September 1975
A SIGN OF SUCCESS: Steven Tyler is eating escargot and oysters rockefeller at a downtown Detroit seafood restaurant. ...
Bruce Springsteen: Little Egypt From Asbury Park
Profile by Dave Marsh, Creem, October 1975
BRUCE SPRINGSTEEN SITS cross-legged on his half-made bed, and surveys the scene. Records are strewn across the room, singles mostly, intermixed with empty Pepsi bottles, ...
Lynyrd Skynyrd: The 100 Proof Blues
Report by Jim Esposito, Creem, October 1975
2009 note: In the Summer of '75 The Editors of Creem decided to do a Special Report on Rock 'n Roll and booze. They called ...
Bee Gees, The: The Bee Gees: Main Course
Review by Jaan Uhelszki, Creem, October 1975
THE BEE GEES are back. If you said it's like they never left you'd be absolutely right, and would win the $5.98 question, redeemable in ...
George McCrae: George McCrae (TK)
Review by John Morthland, Creem, October 1975
GEORGE McCRAE and the TK studio hands don't sell songs on his albums, they sell a mood, an ambience. ...
Troggs, The: The Troggs: The Troggs
Review by Gene Sculatti, Creem, October 1975
I DON'T KNOW about anybody else, but this is one I've been waiting for ever since I caught Reg Presley, 20 pounds overweight and stuffed ...
Guess Who, The: The Guess Who: Power in the Music
Review by Gene Sculatti, Creem, October 1975
RIGHT OFF THE BAT, the one thing you can say for Power in the Music is that it is everything last year's predecessor Flavours wasn't, ...
Brownsville Station: Motor City Connection
Review by Robot A. Hull, Creem, November 1975
INSTANT CUT-OUT!! It's a shame, too, cuz Brownsville Station produced many sweathog elpees over the years. Cept now you find 'em all in bargain bins. ...
Procol Harum, Gary Wright: Procol Harum: Procol's Ninth; Gary Wright: Dream Weaver
Review by Ken Barnes, Creem, November 1975
AFTER EIGHT albums with only minor format variations, Procol Harum seemed to be a predictable institution that may have outlived its usefulness. ...
Review by Wayne Robins, Creem, November 1975
I HAVE NEVER knelt at the altar of Eric Clapton's guitar prowess. That is, the endless arguments about who possesses the most virtuoso fingers in ...
Bay City Rollers, The: Bay City Rollers: Flattened
Comment by Jonh Ingham, Creem, November 1975
THE ROLLERS SNEAKED up on everybody. The astute observer would have first noticed their presence two and a half years ago when their initial success ...
Neil Young: The Unwilling Superstar
Interview by Bud Scoppa, Creem, November 1975
NEIL YOUNG ISN'T out to win any popularity contests. Just as he reached the top of the heap three years ago with the huge-selling Harvest, ...
Rod Stewart, Faces, The: Rod Stewart: Rod Jumps Teams
Interview by Barbara Charone, Creem, November 1975
CAN HE CUT IT IN THE AMERICAN LEAGUE? ...
Rainbow, Deep Purple: Deep Purple Changes Hue
Interview by Steven Rosen, Creem, November 1975
THE CALIFORNIA CLIME seems to agree with Ritchie Blackmore, a usually unhealthy looking fellow whose complexion runs somewhere between spoiled flour and banana yogurt and ...
Doobie Brothers: The Reward Of Facelessness
Interview by Wayne Robins, Creem, December 1975
WHO WERE THEY? Just a bunch of street people who "looked like bikers and said they wanted to be rock 'n' roll stars" – with ...
Allman Brothers Band: Beat The Devil: The Allman Brothers
Interview by Jaan Uhelszki, Creem, December 1975
There is a land of the livingand a land of the deadand the bridge is love,the only survival, the only meaning ...
Rod Stewart: Atlantic Crossing
Review by John Morthland, Creem, December 1975
COMING AS IT does amidst sweeping changes in Stewart's career and personal life, the unsettling nature of Atlantic Crossing isn't that much of a surprise. ...
Review by Gene Sculatti, Creem, December 1975
IT'S BEEN TEN or twelve years since the East Bay Golliwogs traipsed onto some crepe-strewn highschool gym floor and set up, almost a decade since ...
Review by Wayne Robins, Creem, December 1975
SOME KEY ITEMS – a barrier breaking (‘first blacks’) performance at the Metropolitan Opera; the anthemization of ‘Lady Marmalade’; Nona Hendryx's proud lesbianism – have ...
Bay City Rollers, The: The Bay City Rollers: Bay City Rollers
Review by Gene Sculatti, Creem, December 1975
THE ARCHIES WERE the most radical rock 'n' roll group of the last seven years. And it's about time everybody owned up to their considerable ...
Review by Robot A. Hull, Creem, January 1976
SOUND WAVES encircle the globe mesmerizing the populace of countries like France, Greece, Italy, England, etc., international explosive pop, created by Swedes (Abba for short), ...
Billy Swan: Rock 'n' Roll Moon
Review by John Morthland, Creem, January 1976
BILLY SWAN is one of those strange Seventies mutations, a product of a time when musical boundaries are breaking down at an accelerating rate. ...
Review by John Morthland, Creem, January 1976
SINCE HE ELECTRIFIED audiences In The Harder They Come, Jimmy Cliff has been his own worst enemy. His songs in that film bristled with passion, ...
Flash Cadillac and the Continental Kids: Flash Cadillac: Sons of the Beaches
Review by Gene Sculatti, Creem, January 1976
What lame-o group is finally going to win the distinction of recording The Last ‘Fifties’ Song of the Seventies? Just when I thought the sub-genre ...
Captain Beefheart, Frank Zappa: Zappa and Beefheart: Penguins In Bondage
Interview by Robot A. Hull, Creem, January 1976
Master MasterThis is recorded thru uh flies ear 'n you have t' have uh flies eye t' see it it's the thing that's gonna make ...
Manfred Mann's Earth Band: Nightingales and Bombers
Review by Wayne Robins, Creem, January 1976
HERE'S PROOF that Bruce Springsteen is 'the new Dylan': Manfred Mann has covered one of his songs Now Manfred's constructed a subplot to a career ...
Crosby Stills Nash and Young, Crosby and Nash: Crosby and Nash: Rocky & Bullwinkle In Marin County
Interview by Jaan Uhelszki, Creem, February 1976
Ring! Brring! Ring! ...
Lynyrd Skynyrd: Fifths and Fists For The Common Man
Interview by Jaan Uhelszki, Creem, March 1976
I already have two strikes against me: one, I am a Yankee, two a girl. I don't want to strike out because I'm a teetotaler, ...
Peter Frampton: Once More With Feeling
Report and Interview by Susan Whitall, Creem, March 1976
"ROLL OVER, darling. Pass me a Marlboro," Peter murmured. ...
Ringo Starr: Blast From Your Past (Capitol)
Review by Gene Sculatti, Creem, March 1976
IT'S HARD TO figure our just what constitutes the biggest detriment to a healthy music scene these days; the dearth of flesh & blood artists ...
Band, The: The Band: Northern Lights - Southern Cross
Review by Greil Marcus, Creem, March 1976
A RECENT nation-wide telephone poll on Northern Lights-Southern Cross, the Band's first collection of new songs in four years, has produced a solid consensus. All ...
Roxy Music, Brian Eno: Roxy Music: Country Life/Brian Eno: Taking Tiger Mountain (By Strategy)
Review by Wayne Robins, Creem, March 1976
WOMEN, ON ROXY MUSIC covers, are like plants: lush vegetation, only more so. Unlike the reclining femme fatale on the cover of Stranded, who I've ...
Review by Lester Bangs, Creem, March 1976
IT HAS BEEN suggested that in my annual regress report to the stockholders, published here last month, I neglected in all five thousand words to ...
Donna Summer: Love To Love You Baby
Review by Jeffrey Morgan, Creem, March 1976
THIS ALBUM is to the disco scene what 'In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida' is to rock 'n' roll and what 'Autobahn' is to electronic drone. Side One is seventeen ...
Led Zeppelin, Robert Plant: Robert Plant: Plantations
Interview by Chris Charlesworth, Creem, May 1976
SHOULD RALPH NADER JOIN LED ZEPPELIN? ...
Peter Frampton: Frampton Comes Alive (A&M)
Review by Susan Whitall, Creem, May 1976
WHAY, AFTER four moderately successful solo albums – not to mention a tempestuous and musically prolific stint with Steve Marriott in Humble Pie – has ...
Review by John Morthland, Creem, May 1976
WHAT MOST attracted rock fans to Gary Stewart's first album was his raw, exuberant singing, and the subsequent suspicion that he was really a closet ...
Pretty Things, The: The Pretty Things: Savage Eye
Review by Robot A. Hull, Creem, May 1976
ANGLOID DROOLERS can breathe a sigh of relief (toot, toot). Although the twittering (sometimes hairy, often comical) falsettos of 10cc and Sparks are cracking under ...
Speedy Keen: Y'Know Wot I Mean?
Review by John Morthland, Creem, May 1976
SPEEDY KEEN'S basically comical persona is good enough by me: the inebriated ex-Mod, a tad daft, struggling for equilibrium in a world whose quirks don't ...
Bad Company: A Bunch of Sissies?
Report and Interview by Nick Kent, Creem, June 1976
You don't have to wear mascara, you know... ...
Robin Trower: Prince of the Power Wah
Report and Interview by Susan Whitall, Creem, July 1976
"ROBIN TROWER? He's very moody," I was warned before embarking on the road with the 31-year-old English axe ace. "And whatever you do, don't ask ...
Review by John Morthland, Creem, July 1976
DR. FEELGOOD is building on a fine and noble tradition. Their music is rooted in Chicago rhythm and blues, but while they may have gone ...
Ramones, The: The Ramones: Ramones
Review by Gene Sculatti, Creem, August 1976
"I don't wanna walk around with youI don't wanna walk around with youI don't wanna walk around with youSo why you wanna walk around with ...
Runaways, The: The Runaways: The Runaways
Review by Robot A. Hull, Creem, August 1976
Don't let the teevee tube or the records being released fool you! Teenage America's spirit is not sagging (empty helium balloons surrounded by Paul McCartney ...
Bob Seger: Detroit '77: Seger's Open For Business
Live Review by Lester Bangs, Creem, August 1976
DETROIT– Pontiac Stadium is bigger than the Houston Astrodome. When they have football games here, they seat 80,000. ...
Rolling Stones, The: The Rolling Stones: Live at Leicester
Live Review by Simon Frith, Creem, September 1976
ACCORDING TO PATTI SMITH, Mick Jagger is the best dancer since Nijinsky. Well I ain't ever seen Nijinsky dance (though I did see him win ...
Rod Stewart: Rod Brings It All Back Home: A Night On The Town
Review by John Morthland, Creem, September 1976
FIRST THINGS FIRST: this is as brilliant an album as any Rod Stewart has made, fully the equal of his first three solo efforts, all ...
Flamin' Groovies, The: Flamin' Groovies: Shake Some Action (Bomp!)
Review by Robot A. Hull, Creem, September 1976
FOR THOSE OF YOU wondering where rock & roll has been all your lives (grew up on Jimi Hendnx and heavy-metal, didn't ya, bosco-brain?), well, ...
Rolling Stones, The: Keith Richards: The Pusher Behind The Stones
Interview by Barbara Charone, Creem, October 1976
AT FIVE O'CLOCK in the morning, Keith Richards sits sipping Jack Daniel's in his hotel room 50 miles west of Glasgow on Scotland's coast. ...
Ringo Starr: Secrets Of The Stars
Interview by Richard Cromelin, Creem, October 1976
"I DO PLAY THE DRUMS!" claims ex-Fab Four ex-mop top in an Exclusive Interview with ace CREEM reporter Richard Cromelin. ...
Beach Boys, The, Brian Wilson: Brian Wilson: Surf's Up!
Interview by Richard Cromelin, Creem, October 1976
Brian Wilson Comes Back From Lunch ...
Review by John Morthland, Creem, November 1976
BY NOW, Ry Cooder has established his niche so conclusively that you already know whether you like him or not. His curiously pinched vocals. His ...
Thin Lizzy: Who Needs Springsteen When You've Got Johnny Cool?
Report and Interview by Chris Salewicz, Creem, November 1976
IT'S JUST AFTER SEVEN in the evening. Phil Lynott and Scott Gorham are stretched on the floor of room 1012 in the Continental Hyatt House ...
Interview by John Morthland, Creem, December 1976
LOU REED should have a new album out by the time you read this, and unless Lou has had a change of Rock and Roll ...
Lynyrd Skynyrd: One More From the Road (MCA)
Review by Richard Riegel, Creem, December 1976
LYNYRD SKYNYRD: Does Their Conscience Bother THEM? ...
Thin Lizzy: Johnny The Fox (Mercury)
Review by Susan Whitall, Creem, January 1977
ALL RIGHT, let's deal with the "this guy's a black Irish Springsteen" ho-hum right at the start. ...
Interview by Susan Whitall, Creem, February 1977
Not really, but you read this far, didn't you? ...
David Cassidy, Mick Ronson: Mick Ronson and David Cassidy: Will The Odd Couple Come Out?
Interview by John Morthland, Creem, February 1977
WHAT A difference a month makes. About 30 days ago as I write this, I interviewed Mick Ronson in his Manhattan apartment. I had never ...
Interview by Barbara Charone, Creem, February 1977
If home is where the heart is, then Eric Clapton hides his emotions inside a sprawling countryside retreat aptly named Hurtwood Edge. The name of ...
Stephen Stills, Neil Young: Stills-Young Band: Long May You Run
Review by John Morthland, Creem, February 1977
WHAT A CURIOUS "COLLABORATION" this turns out to be. Neil Young, whose career is at a new critical peak and isn't hurting commercially either, lends ...
Review by Robot A. Hull, Creem, March 1977
KNOW ABSOLUTELY zero zilch about this Rick Derringer cat 'cept the basic facts, mac – like he was once in the McCoys (Rick's been told ...
Elvin Bishop: The Elvin Bishop Band: Hometown Boy Makes Good! (Capricorn)
Review by John Morthland, Creem, March 1977
IT TOOK ELVIN Bishop years to hit his groove, years in which he played every role from overbearing ham to dependable sideman to journeyman pro ...
Frank Zappa: Zoot Allures (Warner Bros.)
Review by Robot A. Hull, Creem, March 1977
Zappa and crew, contemplating a tap dance, a pose debonair. ‘Just smile, sugar.’ ...
ABBA: Money Money Money: How Abba Won Their Waterloo
Profile by Simon Frith, Creem, March 1977
IN ALL THE WORLD except America (which was too busy celebrating centennials and electing presidents) 1976 was the Year of Abba. ...
Blondie: Blondie (Private Stock)
Review by Robot A. Hull, Creem, April 1977
THIS BLONDIE SURE AIN’T NO BUMSTEAD! MORE MUSTARD THAN ANY DAGWOOD SANDWICH! Alright, all y’all lokul yokuls out there in hickland splittin’ yer sides at ...
Review by Robot A. Hull, Creem, April 1977
Gushing with enthusiastic naivete, here come those sibilant Swedes again, blanketing the globe with the affectionate harmonies of polar sirens! With the abracadabra of inventive ...
Review by John Morthland, Creem, April 1977
It wasn't until late 1974 that the Waylon Jennings mystique took hold for me. This is partly because to my mind that's when his sound ...
Led Zeppelin: Jimmy Page: Shy Rock Star Almost Unburdens Himself
Interview by Nick Kent, Creem, April 1977
I'VE KNOWN Led Zeppelin professionally for probably 4 years now, starting back in the winter of I972 when I was sent out on the road ...
Television: More Than Just A Boob Tube
Interview by Stephen Demorest, Creem, May 1977
VENUS: The oldest song on Television's Marquee Moon album is about the arms of Venus de Milo. ...
Fleetwood Mac: Rumours (Warner Bros.)
Review by Stephen Demorest, Creem, May 1977
SURE, THIS album deserves platinum status a much as the next Kiss LP, but frankly there's only one cut that really sends me – 'Dreams', ...
Ramones, The: The Ramones: Leave Home (Sire)
Review by Richard Riegel, Creem, May 1977
ROCK CRITIC or not, your reviewer resides in the Midwest, and doesn't make it up to Noo Yawk any too often (last such trek occurring ...
Sweet: Give Us A Wink (Capitol)
Review by Richard Riegel, Creem, May 1977
I SEE HERE in this clipping that Sweet lead singer Brian Connolly got his throat kicked in during a pub brawl in London in 1974. ...
Keith Richards: Keith And The Cockroaches Rip This Joint
Report and Interview by Barbara Charone, Creem, June 1977
Take me to the airportAnd put me on a planeI've got no expectationsTo pass through here again('No Expectations', Jagger/Richards) ...
Elliott Murphy: Just A Story From America (Columbia)
Review by Robot A. Hull, Creem, June 1977
WHEN I FIRST put this record on the turntable, it spun and revolved just like any other vinyl tostada. The needle, just like always, ate ...
Southside Johnny and the Asbury Jukes: This Time It's For Real
Review by Mitchell Cohen, Creem, June 1977
The songs of Miami Steve Van Zandt are like found objects; he zeroes in on particular species of East Coast rhythm and blues, mixes together ...
Review by Mitchell Cohen, Creem, June 1977
MAYBE NILS LOFGREN always was sort of a dummy. But his heart was in the right place (on his sleeve), he was capable of inventing ...
Review by Richard Riegel, Creem, June 1977
LET'S SEE, 1977 minus 1973 is four; it's been four whole years since Iggy and the Stooges' milestone Raw Power was released. Four years can ...
Beach Boys, The: The Beach Boys: The Beach Boys Love You
Review by Mitchell Cohen, Creem, July 1977
There is no TM song, no music-is-swell song, or "unfolding enveloping missiles of soul," or political/ecological commentary. Instead, what we have here is a collection ...
Led Zeppelin: Sodom and Gomorrah in a Suitcase
Report and Interview by Jaan Uhelszki, Creem, July 1977
FLASH: April 19, 1977, Cincinnati, Ohio: Led Zeppelin, a British rock group, again brought violence is its wake when about 1,000 fans tried to gatecrash ...
Bob Seger Conquers The World (And About Time!)
Interview by John Morthland, Creem, July 1977
BY ALL ACCOUNTS, Bob Seger is your archetypal Nice Guy – polite, friendly, low key, easy-going, self-effacing, able to laugh at himself with ease. Despite ...
Alice Cooper: All Right, Son . . .Where's My Big Boy With Extra Sauce?
Interview by Barbara Charone, Creem, August 1977
ALICE COOPER is waiting for the man. He's even got a Coca-Cola in his hand. But where's the burgers? Alice Cooper is waiting. He's waiting ...
Hall & Oates: Confessions Of An Odd Couple
Interview by Jaan Uhelszki, Creem, August 1977
THE PHONE RANG and an unfamiliar voice said: "Is this Jaan Uhelszki?" Assuming that the caller was a bill collector or someone of like obnoxiousness, ...
Cheap Trick: Sight Gags For Simps
Profile and Interview by Ira Robbins, Creem, August 1977
It all started innocently enough. There I was, sitting in the office of an ordinarily credible marketing honcho at Epic Records discussing Marc Bolan and ...
Them, Van Morrison: Van Morrison: A Period Of Transition and The Story Of Them
Review by John Morthland, Creem, August 1977
A Period of Transition is a disappointing album, and at first I thought it was mainly because after his nearly three years absence, I expected ...
Ted Nugent: Dancing With Mr D-O-G
Report and Interview by Susan Whitall, Creem, September 1977
THE PHONE jangled and I jumped a foot in the St. Paul Holiday Inn. Horrible, holes in the carpet...rotten hungover weekend and what am I ...
Frankie Miller: High Life and Times
Report and Interview by Susan Whitall, Creem, September 1977
THE LAST time I was in London Cass Elliott deep-sixed on a ham sandwich in a Mayfair hotel. Spring 1977, and Sylvia of the Three ...
Pink Floyd’s Heart Of Darkness: A Crash Course in Pig Latin
Overview by Ira Robbins, Creem, October 1977
IT DIDN'T SEEM like a bad idea at the time I accepted this assignment. Just because Pink Floyd hate the press and won't be interviewed ...
Seeds, The, Steve Miller: Steve Miller/Seeds Records
Review by Robot A. Hull, Creem, October 1977
The Steve Miller Band: Book Of Dreams (Capitol)The Seeds: Fallin’ Off The Edge (GNP Crescendo) ...
Peter Frampton: The Rise And Rise
Interview by Penny Valentine, Creem, October 1977
IN WHICH THE PLAN IS REVEALED, ITS ARCHITECTS STEP FORWARD, AND ALL CONCERNED LOOK TO THE FUTURE ...
Interview by Howie Klein, Creem, October 1977
"MINK PIE, how's that!" challenged Willie, whose darkly silent, sinewy presence dominated the dimly-lit cold-water flat in Oakland. The band had been up speeding for ...
J. Geils Band: At The Zoo With The J Geils Band
Interview by Susan Whitall, Creem, October 1977
IT WAS time for a big Rock Show at the monolith just outside of Detroit, Pontiac Stadium, and this wasn't no rock 'n' roll at ...
Traffic: Steve Winwood: Don't Call Him Stevie
Interview by Penny Valentine, Creem, November 1977
When Steve Winwood was 15 years old he was the child prodigy/focal point of the Spencer Davis Group. Singing with a soul voice experienced beyond ...
Robin Trower to Rock: Get Back To Where You Once Belonged
Interview by Susan Whitall, Creem, December 1977
LINDA, ONE of my co-editors here at Globotron – uh, CREEM – came back from lunch with Detroit disco producer extraordinaire Don Davis, waving an ...
Small Faces, The: Small Faces: Playmates
Review by Mitchell Cohen, Creem, December 1977
ONE SOLO CAREER going nowhere, two sidemen left in the, lurch, and a convenient reconciliation. The Faces have gotten Small again, with their original lead ...
Kiss: Love Gun: Kiss, Love it or Leave it!
Review by Metal Mike Saunders, Creem, Fall 1977
REMEMBER THE old 'Grand Funk Understand' riff? Well, maybe so, and maybe not — it was a long time ago back in the year of ...
Lynyrd Skynyrd: Street Survivors (MCA)
Review by Robot A. Hull, Creem, January 1978
SOUTHERN ROCK – whatta crock! Ya wanna know the truth bout whas hoppin' down in Carter Country? Not a goddamn friggin thing!! Everybody's mellowed into ...
Commodores, The: The Commodores: Come Funk With Us! (But Bring Your Led Zep Records)
Interview by Howie Klein, Creem, January 1978
"NOW YOU take a group like Fleetwood Mac or the Zep," offered Benny. "It's another thing that the audiences get off into. I don't understand ...
Rolling Stones, The: Rolling Stones
Interview by Barbara Charone, Creem, January 1978
MICK JAGGER sat athletically on the floor of the Rolling Stones' New York office listening to The Best of Ray Charles. ...
Elvis Costello: My Aim Is True (Columbia)
Review by Mitchell Cohen, Creem, February 1978
THIS BANDIT SUMMER, this snatcher of heroes, loved ones and possibilities, will be remembered also for leaving behind intoxicating rock and roll, with this album ...
Eddie & The Hot Rods: Life On The Line (Island)
Review by Robot A. Hull, Creem, February 1978
When you're a Jet, you're a Jet all the way, from your first cigarette... ...
Rick Wakeman: Criminal Record (A&M)
Review by Robot A. Hull, Creem, March 1978
GAG!!!! NOW here's a useless bore that deserves to have his noggin bashed with a hockey stick until it's a gorgeous pool of pulpy gelatin. ...
Review by Mitchell Cohen, Creem, March 1978
First off, I'm only Canadian on my mother's side. ...
Jam, The: The Jam: This Is The Modern World
Review by Robot A. Hull, Creem, April 1978
QUICKIE QUIZ – The Jam is a throwback band that most closely resembles one of the following: (a) 3 Dog Night (b) The Who (c) ...
Interview by Penny Valentine, Creem, April 1978
Roger Taylor: We Will Trump you!"Blokes in the audience...think he (Freddie) is just weird, very weird." ...
Eric Clapton: Return Of The Reluctant Hero
Interview by John Pidgeon, Creem, April 1978
THERE WAS once a movie actor who, having made his name as a heavy, took to playing the romantic lead. But no matter how often ...
Review by Mitchell Cohen, Creem, April 1978
TUFF DARTS ARE closer to the eleven-year old (male) state of mind than Shaun Cassidy. Pre-teen boys say things like, "Fran-ceen? I'd rather chew bubble ...
Interview by Barbara Charone, Creem, May 1978
IT IS NOT presumptuous to wonder where Mick Taylor has been the last three years. The answer is quite simple. In the studio. When he ...
Al Green: The Belle Album (Hi)
Review by Robot A. Hull, Creem, May 1978
Trust in the Lord and you too can have great looking hair. ...
Muddy Waters: I'm Ready (Blue Sky)
Review by Mitchell Cohen, Creem, May 1978
IT ISN'T JUST the natural process of attribution and the creative stagnation afflicting his competitors that have made Muddy Waters the premier master of his ...
Jethro Tull: Ian Anderson: A Portrait Of The Artist As A Young Squire
Profile and Interview by Simon Frith, Creem, June 1978
IAN ANDERSON rules OK. For an hour I've been waiting in the foyer, talking to his manager, his wife, watching his employees bustle about. It's ...
Marianne Faithfull: Still Faithfull After All These Years
Interview by Penny Valentine, Creem, June 1978
REAL SURVIVORS are rare in rock 'n' roll. Those who live in the fast lane tend not to make it to 30, the rest are ...
Review by Nick Tosches, Creem, June 1978
CHARLES OLSON was invited to give a reading at Berkeley in 1965. It was a time – a springtime – when rose incense bore a ...
Rolling Stones, The, Ronnie Wood: The Rolling Stones: Glimmer Twins Held Responsible
Interview by Barbara Charone, Creem, July 1978
"WE CAN DO a lot more with this particular band than any other incarnation of the Rolling Stones," Keith Richard threatened during the Stones' 1975 ...
Clash, The: The Clash Rule The New Wave
Comment by Simon Frith, Creem, July 1978
ANYBODY WHO knows anything knows that the Clash is the best band in Britain; what is difficult to decide is if, in 1978, this means ...
Bob Marley & the Wailers: Bob Marley and The Wailers: Kaya (Island)
Review by Wayne Robins, Creem, July 1978
THE FIRE HASN'T gone out, but it is on low flame and being used more for warmth than for arson. ...
Jethro Tull: Heavy Horses (Chrysalis)
Review by Robot A. Hull, Creem, July 1978
CRIPES, NOT another Jethro Toenail record! WHY? Seems like only yesteryear that Lezter Brainz wuz comparing their bo-de-o-dos to 'Nam folk chants and Air-Wreck wuz ...
Deaf School: English Boys/Working Girls (Warner Bros.)
Review by Jeffrey Morgan, Creem, July 1978
LET'S FACE IT, Deaf School is a great name (not as great as Deaf Mutes, tho') but, as Arlene Frances (c'mon, you know: Arlene Frances, ...
Bob Seger & The Silver Bullet Band: Stranger In Town (Capitol)
Review by Robot A. Hull, Creem, August 1978
Bob Seger grimaces as a blackmailer confronts him with videotapes of old Upbeat appearances ...
Cheap Trick: Heaven Tonight (Epic)
Review by Mitchell Cohen, Creem, August 1978
DANIEL AND GLORIA met at a rock flea market when their hands reached for the one over-priced copy of Hackamore Brick's One Kiss ...
Todd Rundgren: Hermit Of Mink Hollow (Bearsville)
Review by Wesley Strick, Creem, August 1978
TODD RUNDGREN OPENS HIS EYES ...
Bruce Springsteen: Darkness On The Edge Of Town (Columbia)
Review by Mitchell Cohen, Creem, September 1978
If I walk away from this, he thought, I'll be an old man – all ghosts and hangovers and mellow recollections. Fuck it, he thought, ...
Tom Robinson Band: Tom Robinson: Out Of The Closet And Into The Streets
Interview by Penny Valentine, Creem, September 1978
Summer Of '77A chance mid-week gig at a small London pub. ...
Patti Smith: Straight, No Chaser
Interview by Nick Tosches, Creem, September 1978
WE ARE SITTING in the Tropical, the darkest bar in New York. Outside on Eighth Avenue it's late afternoon. In here it's midnight on the ...
Review by Mitchell Cohen, Creem, October 1978
WHAT'S MISSING on these LPs is the quality of delight. Nobody would consider the early records of The Zombies or The Hollies particularly well-crafted, but ...
Marshall Chapman: Jaded Virgin (Epic)
Review by Robot A. Hull, Creem, October 1978
‘I don't do as much honky tonkin' these days as I used to. I'd rather watch Charlie Chan on TV now. I'm gonna start writing ...
Thin Lizzy: Tramping the Celt Belt with Thin Lizzy
Report by Richard Riegel, Creem, October 1978
LONDON, ENGLAND – So I've journeyed 4000 miles across the sea, made my pilgrimage to the cradle of the modern rock 'n' roll era, just ...
Rolling Stones, The, Bill Wyman, Charlie Watts: The Back Line: Bill Wyman and Charlie Watts
Report and Interview by John Pidgeon, Creem, November 1978
IN A SMOKY CUTTING ROOM on Sunset Boulevard, the entire history of rock and roll flashed before my eyes: Elvis, Chuck Berry, Buddy Holly, Little ...
Boston: Don't Look Back (Epic)
Review by Mitchell Cohen, Creem, November 1978
SHE'S THE ONE dreams were invented for, and you've had her. The pursuit was long and arduous, the affair sudden and turbulent. You've gone madly ...
Pere Ubu: Datapanik In Year Zero (Radar)
Review by Robot A. Hull, Creem, November 1978
THE DADA RAMPAGE of Breton and other jujube surrealists culminated in the craziness expressed in Alfred Jarry's Pere Ubu, prompting a whole generation of teens ...
Stranglers, The: Stranglers: Visas Revoked!
Live Review by j. poet, Creem, November 1978
HUGH CORNWELL and Jean Jacques Burnel, guitarist and bassist for the Stranglers, recently made headlines in Britain by beating the shit out of a critic ...
Interview by Barbara Charone, Creem, November 1978
Deep in the back of my mind is an unrealized soundEvery feeling I get from the streets says it soon could be found When I ...
Ramones, The: Ramones: Road To Ruin (Sire)
Review by Mitchell Cohen, Creem, December 1978
"Sometimes timing is everything, you know?""How do you mean?" ...
Neil Young And Crazy Horse: Clarkston, Michigan
Live Review by Susan Whitall, Creem, December 1978
CLARKSTON, MI (Outside Detroit, MI): The sign outside the open air theatre said "RUST NEVER SLEEPS... AN EVENING WITH NEIL YOUNG AND CRAZY HORSE". ...
Review by Jeffrey Morgan, Creem, January 1979
"Uh, I’d been listening to a Neil Young album and, uh, they phoned through and said that my wife had had a baby on Sunday ...
Report and Interview by Richard Riegel, Creem, March 1979
(Investigative Reporter Dances The Poot) ...
Rory Gallagher: The Return Of The World's Best Normal Guitarist
Report by Susan Whitall, Creem, March 1979
THE BROTHER-(AND SISTER-) HOOD ...
Review by Mitchell Cohen, Creem, March 1979
FOR A FEW weeks in 1978, an FM radio station in New York City was trying, earnestly and imaginatively, to create rock 'n' roll counter-programming. ...
Interview by Barbara Charone, Creem, March 1979
If anybody can bring reggae music to the rest of the world, especially America, then Peter's the one to do it along with Bob Marley. ...
Clash, The: The Clash: Give 'Em Enough Rope (Epic)
Review by Richard Riegel, Creem, March 1979
FUTURE SHOCK NOW (If You Want It) ...
Kiss: Bat Lizard Rocks The Boat
Interview by Susan Whitall, Creem, April 1979
There was an appointed place: a hotel room in the gleaming steel rod Henry the Deuce built on the Detroit River to atone for the ...
Review by Robot A. Hull, Creem, April 1979
GROWING UP IN Memphis back in '67, I used to get tired of hearing the Box Top's ‘The Letter’ (#1 hit in the world that ...
Public Image Ltd.: Public Image (Warner Bros.)
Review by Robot A. Hull, Creem, April 1979
NEVER MIND the Sex' Pistols, here's the rotting corpse of Johnny Rotten, stinking to high heaven like some maggot brain from the Bryan Ferry School ...
Iggy Pop: Metallic J.C.'s Consciousness-Raising Wrap Session
Report by Richard Riegel, Creem, May 1979
TURIN, ITALY – In a surprise announcement this week, it was revealed that the so-called "Shroud of Turin," long believed to be the cloth in ...
Report and Interview by Stephen Demorest, Creem, May 1979
DURING THE ten days between February 7 and 17, 1979, the people of Iran toppled the Shah; the American ambassador was assassinated in Afghanistan; President ...
McGuinn, Clark & Hillman: McGuinn, Clark & Hillman
Review by Mitchell Cohen, Creem, May 1979
HAD RECORDS LIKE 'The World Turns All Around Her', 'She Don't Care About Time', and 'I Feel A Whole Lot Better' been products of your ...
Interview by Nick Tosches, Creem, June 1979
DEBORAH HARRY, formerly of Hawthorne, New Jersey, sits there. Deborah Harry, who arrived at the Seventies from the Sixties in a Camaro, eats tuna salad ...
Bad Company: Desolation Angels Have Gastric Juices, Too
Interview by Penny Valentine, Creem, June 1979
Bad Company flee Screaming From Reality ...
Cheap Trick: An Afternoon Of Reality Therapy With Rick Nielsen & Cheap Trick
Report and Interview by Richard Riegel, Creem, July 1979
"IT'S LIKE I always tell people," says Rick Nielsen, "'I'm not a conservative, I'm a realist'." ...
Tom Robinson Band: Tom Robinson: The Song Not The Singer
Profile by Simon Frith, Creem, August 1979
THANKS TO SOME promotional moves, the Buzzcocks and the Tom Robinson Band played Coventry on the same night one week in late March. ...
Donna Summer: Bad Girls (Casablanca)
Review by Mitchell Cohen, Creem, August 1979
‘HOT STUFF’ just isn't that terrific a record, no matter what the charts or current critical backlash dogma say, and it doesn't do any good ...
Rubinoos, The: Rubinoos: Theoretical Boys In Search Of The Summer Single
Interview by Mitchell Cohen, Creem, August 1979
IT IS A PERFECT world: the date is anywhere between May 15 and June 28; you are fourteen years old, and the days are getting ...
Wings: Back To The Egg (Columbia)
Review by Mitchell Cohen, Creem, September 1979
FOR ME, the most pertinent phrase on Back To The Egg comes in the second half of ‘The Broadcast’, a piece near the end of ...
Yummy, Yummy, Chewy Chewy: A Bubblegum Yarn
Essay by Robot A. Hull, Creem, October 1979
"PERHAPS THE blight of the late '60s was 'bubblegum', music planned entirely as a product, not as anybody's art." – Charlie Gillett, The Sound Of ...
Interview by Penny Valentine, Creem, October 1979
IN HER TIGHT jeans and t-shirt her body looks like a 12-year-old's. Her face and her manner tell another story. Make-up across her broad cheekbones, ...
Interview by Barbara Charone, Creem, October 1979
BLAME THE AUSTRALIANS for putting them at the top of the charts. Hold all of New Zealand responsible for making More Songs About Buildings and ...
Knack, The: The Knack: Get The Knack
Review by Robot A. Hull, Creem, October 1979
PREAMBLE: In these inflationary (and indifferent) times, one expects a great deal from the investment of his/her time and/or money. Consequently, I have designed this ...
Review by Mitchell Cohen, Creem, October 1979
Candy-O Is Peggy Sue's daughter. Candy-O is this year's model. (Is the band furious that such an obvious title for their second had already been ...
Review by Jeffrey Morgan, Creem, October 1979
"We had some good times, but now they're gone. So long." -- Ace Frehley, 'Save Your Love' ...
Police, The: Police Report: Message From Three Bottle Blonds...
Interview by Susan Whitall, Creem, November 1979
JANUARY 1979: We started receiving phone calls here at BH Central of some urgency from John Pidgeon, one of our English writers who also toils ...
Pere Ubu: The World According To Pere Ubu
Interview by Robot A. Hull, Creem, November 1979
Look, look at the machine revolving,Look, look at the brain flying,Look, look at the Rentiers trembling!Hurrah, arse-horns, long live Pere Ubu!– Alfred Jarry, ‘The Song ...
Paul Revere & The Raiders: Paul Revere & the Raiders: Punks Just Keep Getting Harder to Find
Report and Interview by Richard Riegel, Creem, November 1979
MIDDLETOWN, OHIO – As the car clanks over the first peak of the Screaming Eagle rollercoaster, poised to begin its exhilarating hurtle downward, I have ...
Review by Robot A. Hull, Creem, November 1979
"Seems I was holding a wrench, mommaAnd then my mind just walked away."– Jack Kittel, ‘Psycho’ ...
Records, The: The Records: The Records
Review by Mitchell Cohen, Creem, November 1979
MEMORANDUMFrom: Carraway LP Analysts, Inc.To: CREEM MagazineRe: THE RECORDS ...
Clash, The: Rash Clash Mash In Motor City Bash
Report and Interview by Dave DiMartino, Creem, December 1979
JOE STRUMMER and I are sitting in a bar, talking about his band. I ask him about ‘I Fought the Law’ and its relatively unexpected ...
Live Review by Dave DiMartino, Creem, December 1979
DETROIT – The Only Ones lived up to their name during their recent Detroit debut at Bookie's Club 870, which was a shame: they were ...
B-52s, The: The B-52s: Climate Control In The Land Of 16 Dances
Interview by Mitchell Cohen, Creem, December 1979
MOST PEOPLE, when discussing/remembering the beach party movies, don't take Jody McCrea into account. There was a nerd in the surf. This relates to The ...
Review by Robot A. Hull, Creem, December 1979
THERE'S ONLY one alternative to being stylish, and that's being trashy. Consider fascist Steve Dahl touring the country with his anti-disco army, a slow funeral ...
Review by Mitchell Cohen, Creem, December 1979
AFTER FIVE ALBUMS and almost ten years of intermittent brilliance, Randy Newman achieves a number one single with a nastily amusing ditty. ...
Report by Richard Riegel, Creem, January 1980
PACKS FEW FACTS, JACK (BUT STACKS OF TRACKS PUT THE PAX ON FLACKS' YAKS) ...
Fleetwood Mac: Tusk: From Shining Platinum To Dull Ivory
Review by Mitchell Cohen, Creem, January 1980
WHITE ELEPHANT is more like it, heffalumping into the thick four-sided forest, stomping on moby grapes, swatting at the metaphysical graffiti carved into the tree ...
Blondie: Eat To The Beat (Chrysalis)
Review by Richard Riegel, Creem, January 1980
TOUCHED BY YOUR PRESENTS, DEARS ...
George Jones: My Very Special Guests (Epic)
Review by Robot A. Hull, Creem, February 1980
FOR OVER 30 years, George Jones has been country's greatest singer, universally admired by both country fans and performers alike in much the same way ...
Meat Loaf, Blondie: Blondie/Meatloaf: Meat To The Beat
Report and Interview by Dave DiMartino, Creem, February 1980
AUSTIN, TX – Talk about incongruity. Here we are speeding down a Texas highway, sun blazing overhead. We're in a van, naturally – the only ...
Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers: Tom Petty: Damn the Torpedoes (Backstreet/MCA)
Review by Mitchell Cohen, Creem, February 1980
DAMN THE TORPEDOES takes the American Stand: "Don't tread on me" When you've been ‘raised on promises’ like the heroine of Tom Petty's bicentennial debut, ...
Marianne Faithfull: Broken English
Review by Mitchell Cohen, Creem, March 1980
"I never lied to my lover/But if I did I would admit it/If I could get away with murder/I'd take my gun and I'd commit ...
Review by Robot A. Hull, Creem, March 1980
HINDSIGHT IS ALWAYS 20/20. In '79-'80, a pop renaissance is supposedly under way, stirring itself from a long hibernation like a groggy Boo Boo Bear, ...
Specials, The: Specials: Rude Boys Spread Manure In Yank Bed Of Roses
Profile by Simon Frith, Creem, April 1980
THE SPECIALS are the first group I've followed from first gig to international stardom. Nobody else realizes this, but their first ever press mention was, ...
Jam, The: The Jam Is Packed Off To America
Profile and Interview by Simon Frith, Creem, April 1980
THEY STARTED talking about clothes even before I left. They were discussing shirt makers. "Jermyn Street," was the consensus. "They will make silk up for ...
Romantics, The: The Romantics: The Romantics
Review by Mitchell Cohen, Creem, April 1980
I CAN'T ACCEPT Shelley Hack as a Charlie's Angel (Spelling-Goldberg should burn in Nielsen purgatory for rejecting Claudia Jennings, who proceeded to smash up her ...
Review by Penny Valentine, Creem, May 1980
IT LOOKS LIKE the Flying Lizards are going to have their third hit in a row with 'TV'. Out a few days and it already ...
Pink Floyd: Live and All Pink On the Inside
Live Review by Dave DiMartino, Creem, June 1980
Pink Floyd: Nassau Coliseum, Long Island NY ...
Clash, The: The Clash Clamp Down on Detroit
Report and Interview by Susan Whitall, Creem, June 1980
Or: Give 'Em Enough Wisniowka ...
Ramones, The: What Price Glory? The Ramones Soldier On
Interview by Mitchell Cohen, Creem, June 1980
"Survival of the fittest. And besides, it's fun." – Daffy Duck, helping a wabbit-hunting Elmer corner Bugs in Rabbit Fire ...
Gary Numan: The Principal Pleasure Of Being Gary Numan
Interview by Dave DiMartino, Creem, June 1980
GARY NUMAN is a nice guy. Seriously. And what I want to know – and what he wants to know, too, though he's probably too ...
Destroy All Monsters: Bogart's, Cincinnati OH
Live Review by Richard Riegel, Creem, July 1980
We Almost Lost Detroit – Part 2 ...
Van Halen: Remnants Of The Flesh Hangover
Profile and Interview by Dave DiMartino, Creem, July 1980
ONE THING that's always bothered me about myself: I enjoy offending people. I've done it for years and see no need to stop. I have ...
Cramps, The: The Cramps: Songs The Lord Taught Us
Review by Robot A. Hull, Creem, July 1980
RECORDED AT SAM PHILLIPS’ Studio in Memphis and produced by Alex Chilton (the Box Tops' former Big Star), Songs The Lord Taught Us fries the ...
Gang of Four: Gang Of Four Face The Capitalist Threat
Interview by Dave DiMartino, Creem, August 1980
IT SEEMS FUNNY now that I thought the Gang Of Four might be an "unpleasant" interview. The band's image as one of England's most overtly ...
Pretenders, The: The Pretenders Stop Our Sobbing
Interview by Susan Whitall, Creem, August 1980
AS LAMBS TO THE SLAUGHTER"There's something I dread about talking to female musicians," my co-editor DiMartino sighed as we drank beer and worried in the ...
Joe Perry, Aerosmith: Joe Perry: Joe Perry Project Takes Off
Interview by Dave Zimmer, Creem, August 1980
My brand new ship is stellar boundTo search out a place I've never foundWhere I go only time will tellThere's a lot of space betweenHeaven ...
Cramps, The: The Lord Giveth While The Cramps Taketh Away
Interview by John Mendelsohn, Creem, August 1980
JUST UP FROM the shore of every port city in the English-speaking world, there is a movie house that shows horror films around the clock. ...
Smokey Robinson: Warm Thoughts
Review by Robot A. Hull, Creem, August 1980
"The fireside, the lamplight intimate and low, reverie with finger at the brow, and eyes that lose themselves in answering looks..."– Paul Verlaine, ‘La Bonne ...
Review by Mitchell Cohen, Creem, August 1980
"Heroin" does not rhyme with "mellowing." ...
Interview by Dave DiMartino, Creem, September 1980
DON'T LET anybody tell you Bob Seger is not a cool guy. ...
Interview by Dave DiMartino, Creem, September 1980
"There's a lot of very funny things floating around my albums." ...
Live Review by Richard Riegel, Creem, September 1980
Be Real Kraut For Me, Baby! ...
Iron City Houserockers: Have A Good Time (But Get Out Alive)
Review by Robot A. Hull, Creem, September 1980
AS A CITY where the populace chews steel for a living, Pittsburgh is an unlikely birthplace for a significant rock band (the Jaggerz don't count). ...
Alice Cooper: Flush The Fashion (Warner Bros.)
Review by Jeffrey Morgan, Creem, September 1980
"Goodbye. Hey, goodbye guys! Maybe I'll see...maybe I'll see y'around sometime, huh? Hey, don't make a stranger of yourself, huh? Remember the Coop, huh? I ...
T-Bone Burnett: T Bone Burnett: Truth Decay
Review by Robot A. Hull, Creem, October 1980
RIGHT OFF THE bat T-Bone Burnett has three things going for him: He was born in Tokyo (home of the Jolly Green Godzilla), raised in ...
Review by Mitchell Cohen, Creem, October 1980
Voices: "NBC, proud as a peacock!"Announcer: "Fred Silverman presents The Roxy Music Flesh and Blood Comedy Hour starring Bryan Ferry. With The Doomdiggers, Brian Eno ...
Tremblers, The: The Tremblers: Twice Nightly
Review by Mitchell Cohen, Creem, November 1980
YOU DON'T HEAR much about "personality crises" any more. But people still have them. People like Peter Blair Dennis Bernard Noone. ...
John Mellencamp: John Cougar: XR-7's Entire Midwest Metropolis
Report by Richard Riegel, Creem, December 1980
Renegade Stories Down Thru the Years: ...
Motels, The: The Motels: Martha Davis Feeds Her Family
Interview by Dave DiMartino, Creem, December 1980
LEONARD COHEN'S Death Of A Ladies' Man LP, his first and only collaborative effort with Phil Spector, was never really given its due as one ...
Tremblers, The, Peter Noone, Herman's Hermits: The Hermit Trembles: Peter Noone Looks Back
Interview by John Mendelsohn, Creem, December 1980
ON A WARM, smoggy Saturday morning on the verge of September, this journal's man on the West Coast called on Peter Noone, who, from farther ...
Review by Mitchell Cohen, Creem, December 1980
ANYONE WHO CAN make the phrase "William Blake and the eternals" sound like the evocation of a metaphysical doo-wop group, as Van Morrison did on ...
Psychedelic Furs, The: The Psychedelic Furs: The Psychedelic Furs
Review by Robot A. Hull, Creem, December 1980
THE AFFINITY BETWEEN bands of the golden Age of Psychedelia and the current rash of art-progs is fairly obvious: both possess a nauseating need to ...
Pat Benatar: Crimes of Passion (Chrysalis)
Review by Richard Riegel, Creem, December 1980
YOU'VE PROBABLY heard much of this album on the radio already, maybe you've gone ahead and bought it (I see that the album's now #5 ...
Electric Light Orchestra: The Electric Light Orchestra Tunes Up - Bev Bevan’s Early History Of ELO
Interview by John Mendelsohn, Creem, 1981
After a two year absence, the Electric Light Orchestra have returned with Time, one of their best albums in years, now resting comfortably atop the ...
Bruce Springsteen Takes It To The River: So Don’t Call Him ‘Boss’, OK?
Report and Interview by Dave DiMartino, Creem, January 1981
All things good come to he who waits; he who hesitates is lost. For every stupid cliché there’s another one out there equally stupid that ...
The Sound and Vision of Psychedelia
Overview by Robot A. Hull, Creem, January 1981
"Okay. You've swallowed the magic cube, downed a cup of organic tea with filigree leaves, and placed the diamond needle on the appropriate sounds. Now ...
Talking Heads: Remain In Light (Sire)
Review by Mitchell Cohen, Creem, January 1981
Play That Funky Music White Boy ...
Neil Young: Too Young To Rust Too Old To Die
Essay by Robot A. Hull, Creem, February 1981
In Oklahoma,Bonnie and Josie,Dressed in calico,Danced around a stump.They cried,"Ohoyaho,Ohoo"...the marriageCelebratingOf flesh and air. – Wallace Stevens, ‘Life Is Motion’He came dancing across the water ...
Rockpile: Seconds Of Pleasure, Years Of Drinking: Rockpile Wakes Up Early
Interview by Dave DiMartino, Creem, February 1981
LONDON – Having never been in London before, I suppose I should feel some shame at spending my first night in a comfortably Americanish club ...
Jim Carroll: The Jim Carroll Band: Catholic Boy (Atco)
Review by Richard Riegel, Creem, February 1981
JIM CARROLL'S the latest word pusher (as in prose, poetry, you know, the pen-meets-paper thing) to cross the art-will-be-convulsive-or-not-at-all line, into the authentically electric seizures ...
Review by Gene Sculatti, Creem, February 1981
IS JOE JACKSON as tired of goofing on wacky 50's graphics as I am? Apparently not, because Beat Crazy sports the squarest, most cliched cover ...
Review by Mitchell Cohen, Creem, February 1981
FOR A FEW YEARS, roughly coinciding with the campaign and administration of John Fitzgerald Kennedy, rock 'n' roll was the music of an era on ...
Jam, The: The Jam, Or, How To Not Break In America (Because You Don't Want To)
Interview by Chris Salewicz, Creem, March 1981
ON A DAMP, dank Sunday lunchtime the three pasty-faced, unhealthy-looking members of the Jam sit in an uncomfortably functional room in a nondescript London hotel ...
Interview by Dave DiMartino, Creem, March 1981
MAY 1970. High School kids in my living room. Singing "Hot and slimy weenie, knocking at my door/Hot and slimy weenie, crawling 'cross the floor/Hot ...
Review by Robot A. Hull, Creem, March 1981
THERE'S NO DENYING that it's becoming increasingly difficult to move: the simple act of Putting one foot in front of the other is now a ...
Review by Mitchell Cohen, Creem, March 1981
SHE STOMPED into the living room, as much as one can stomp in pink slippers and an extra-large Close Encounters t-shirt, and conspicuously clicked the ...
Arthur Lee, Love: Love: Through The Ages (Of Prophets, Seers and Sages)
Retrospective and Interview by Dave DiMartino, Creem, April 1981
ARTHUR LEE'S LEGEND LINGERS ...
Damned, The: The Damned: The Damned
Review by Gene Sculatti, Creem, April 1981
THE GOOD NEWS is that England's surviving punk pioneers have released their most accessible album to date. Songs like ‘Dr. Jekyll’ and ‘Wait For The ...
Review by Robot A. Hull, Creem, April 1981
IT WAS IN 1977, The Year of the Anti-Christ, that Shoes released their official debut, Black Vinyl Shoes, on their own private label. In its ...
Teardrop Explodes, The: The Teardrop Explodes, But Can Julian Cope?
Interview by Chris Salewicz, Creem, May 1981
WHEN I MEET Exploding Teardrop Julian Cope he isn't up in his adopted Liverpool. Instead, my rendezvous with the man behind the melancholy, melodic and ...
Boomtown Rats: Bob Geldof, Frank Sinatra Not Linked
Interview by Dave DiMartino, Creem, May 1981
"I THOUGHT THE last album, where we thought we did something musically in a different direction, stood up," says Boom-town Rat Johnny Fingers. He's talking ...
Bunny Wailer: Bunny Wailer Sings The Wailers
Review by Robot A. Hull, Creem, May 1981
THE PRODIGIOUS travesty of our time may be that rock bands rooted in reggae like the Clash or the Specials are more familiar to white ...
Dexy's Midnight Runners: Searching For The Young Soul Rebels
Review by Mitchell Cohen, Creem, May 1981
WHAT A GASEOUS hoot this album is. Such a conglomeration of goofy pretentions, cornball horn charts and blowsy singing hasn't been heard since the pre-War ...
Adam & The Ants: Adam Ant: The Song Of Injun Adam
Interview by Chris Salewicz, Creem, June 1981
Or: What's A Picnic Without Ants? ...
Joe Ely: Musta Notta Gotta Lotta
Review by Robot A. Hull, Creem, June 1981
ALL THE ROCKABILLY revivalists have been clinging to every neo-rockabilly act (Matchbox, Crazy Cavan) and every honky-tonk hack (Delbert McClinton, Gary Stewart) so loudly for ...
Review by Mitchell Cohen, Creem, June 1981
THESE ALBUMS are blueprints for romantic strategies. Hearing them together is like eavesdropping on both halves of a double date, comparing style of seduction. ...
Todd Rundgren, Utopia: Todd Rundgren: Swinging To The Right And Being Left
Interview by Dave DiMartino, Creem, July 1981
THERE'S A STANDARD story about Todd Rundgren that you've probably already heard. It goes like this: He's great. An enormous talent. Can write songs blindfolded. ...
XTC: The Ecstatic Aesthetics Of XTC
Interview by John Mendelsohn, Creem, July 1981
EVERYBODY DOESN'T like something, but nobody doesn't like XTC. Nobody, that is, except the countless hundreds of thousands who find the British beat foursome's relentless ...
Velvet Underground: White Light/Dark Shadows
Essay by Robot A. Hull, Creem, July 1981
But as if a magic lantern threw the nerves in patterns on a screen. – T.S. Eliot, ‘The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock’ ...
John Cale: The Academic In Peril
Interview by Dave DiMartino, Creem, August 1981
ADDRESSES THE INEVITABLE"I don't really aim for being a 'renaissance man' or anything like that – but sometimes you end up that, if you do ...
Squeeze: East Side Story (A&M)
Review by Mitchell Cohen, Creem, August 1981
CONSIDER. A band with decidedly bent pop bearings (and more than a light touch merseybeat croon-a-toon McCartneyatrics), associated with John Cale in the founding phase ...
Human Switchboard: Deft Mutants in a Telephone Booth: Human Switchboard at Walnut Hills, Dayton
Live Review by Richard Riegel, Creem, August 1981
DAYTON, OH -- "Maximum Occupancy: 110" says the sign high up on the wall of the Walnut Hills Bar, and by a conservative estimate, I'd ...
Review by Robot A. Hull, Creem, August 1981
WHEN JOHN CALE left the Velvet Underground for ever more mysterious sojourns, the theme he took with him was one of violence. ...
Report and Interview by Dave DiMartino, Creem, September 1981
MIYAKO HOTEL, SAN FRANCISCO ...
Interview by Bill Holdship, Creem, September 1981
ABUSIVE IS THE only word to describe the audience the last time Robert Gordon was in Detroit as part of a some-thought-smart/some-thought-not-so-smart double bill with ...
George Harrison: Somewhere In England
Review by Mitchell Cohen, Creem, September 1981
"SHE'S A DRAG. A well-known drag. We turn the sound down on her and say rude things." – George Harrison, A Hard Day's Night, 1964. ...
Roger Taylor, Queen: Roger Taylor: Fun In Space (Elektra)
Review by Jeffrey Morgan, Creem, September 1981
YOU ALL KNOW Roger Taylor: he’s the skinman who powers Queen from megamonster hit to megamonster hit. His credentials as a singer/songwriter on past Queen ...
David Johansen Sings Basso Mondo Profundo
Interview by Bill Holdship, Creem, October 1981
DAVID JOHANSEN should have been a superstar.Imagine... ...
Everybody Needs Somebody To Hate: A History Of L.A. Punk Rock
Overview by Gene Sculatti, Creem, October 1981
"For God's sake, is that all you people in L.A. want to hear: aggressive lyrics and a raging guitar?!"– Chris Stein ...
Review by Gene Sculatti, Creem, October 1981
This is what? These guys’ second or third LP since Mick Jones publicly declared F’gner ain’t dinosaurs and that they were really starting to get, ...
Joe Jackson's Jumpin' Jive: Joe Jackson's Jumpin' Jive
Review by Mitchell Cohen, Creem, October 1981
JUMPIN' JIVE IS about a musician with an attitude messing with music that is about style. ...
Pat Benatar: Hot L Baltimore's (Not Just) For Children: Nice Girl Finishes First & Demands Recount
Report by Richard Riegel, Creem, November 1981
COLUMBIA, MARYLAND, is a "planned community" nestled among scads of functional greenery, midway between Baltimore and Washington D.C. Columbia was laid out according to the ...
Jefferson Starship: Return of The Band That Will Not Die
Report and Interview by Dave Zimmer, Creem, November 1981
YOU CAN'T last any longer than the Jefferson Starship, a band that's been at the top of the charts with regularity since, unbelievably, 1966. ...
Pretenders, The: Pretenders: The Dreaded Second Album Syndrome
Interview by Chris Salewicz, Creem, November 1981
LATE ONE CLOUDLESS summer afternoon, Chrissie Hynde can be found in the historic English West Country town of Bath. ...
Review by Mitchell Cohen, Creem, November 1981
BOB DYLAN AND Lenny Bruce once shared a taxi for about a mile and a half. According to Dylan, the ride felt as though it ...
Blondie: Do Greenheads Have More Fun?
Interview by Chris Salewicz, Creem, December 1981
DEBBIE & CHRIS GO KOO KOO CHIC! ...
Interview by Dave DiMartino, Creem, December 1981
While Rick James & all his Women laugh ...
Kinks, The: Ray Davies Unravels The Kinks
Interview by Bill Holdship, Creem, December 1981
"I THINK ROCK music is just as important as painting." Ray Davies – musician, poet, humorist, social critic and leader of one of the world's ...
Review by Mitchell Cohen, Creem, December 1981
MEAT 'ANYWHERE he wants to' Loaf is waxing rhapsodic once more. Who among us has not missed the grandiloquent sound of the corpuscles in his ...
Raincoats, The: The Raincoats: Odyshape
Review by Robot A. Hull, Creem, December 1981
PAT BENATAR? Sheena Easton? Judie Tzuke?! You'd think this was the Stone Age – it's as if feminism had never existed, as if women in ...
Hall & Oates: Daryl Hall & John Oates: Private Eyes (RCA)
Review by Richard Riegel, Creem, December 1981
I GOTTA HAND it to these guys. Just a few years back, if the merest snatch of any of their biggies – 'She's Gone' was ...
Black Sabbath: Prole Metal to Ozzy and Beyond
Retrospective by Barney Hoskyns, Creem, 1982
FROM THE first oafish gothic crash of 'Black Sabbath' it was clear this band was dumb. Really intensely dumb. Even in that first hearing there ...
Police, The: Demolition Men In The Machine: Everything The Police Do Is Magic
Interview by Chris Salewicz, Creem, 1982
I visit Police guitarist Andy Summers early one Monday evening at the mansion flat in Putney in Southwest London in which he has lived since ...
Stevie Nicks, Fleetwood Mac: Fleetwood Mac: Stevie Nicks, Macramé Goddess
Interview by Sylvie Simmons, Creem, 1982
TO STEAL from Groucho Marx (after all we're talking nicks), the trouble with doing interviews is having to sit down next to someone you don't ...
Phil Collins, Genesis: Phil Collins: Genesis Of A Solo Career
Interview by Chris Salewicz, Creem, January 1982
SET IN THE STOCKBROKER belt 30 miles to the southwest of London, the Genesis studio complex is exactly what you might expect: several thatched, suitably ...
Psychedelic Furs, The: Psychedelic Furs: Feels Like The Furs Time
Interview by John Mendelsohn, Creem, January 1982
IN 1977, DURING the so-called Summer of hate, yet another refugee from a London art college got fed up with silk-screening "advertising crap" and resolved ...
Stray Cats, The: The Stray Cats
Profile and Interview by John Mendelsohn, Creem, January 1982
LOS ANGELES – The 50's are back, thanks to a rockabilly threesome from Queens, New York, who lived through barely six months of that decade ...
Cure, The: The Cure: …Happily Ever After
Review by Robot A. Hull, Creem, January 1982
"ORDER IS A NECESSARY condition for anything the human mind is to understand," writes Rudolph Arnheim inEntropy And Art. ...
Police, The: The Police: Ghost In The Machine
Review by Mitchell Cohen, Creem, January 1982
GARRY AHRENBERG couldn't get into the Police, an esthetic predeliction that caused him no small amount of derisive peer pressure. ...
Lindsey Buckingham: Law And Order (Elektra)
Review by Gene Sculatti, Creem, February 1982
ONE WAY TO assess the relative merits of any time frame is the measurable presence of oddballs. And, hey, it's no secret that oddball content ...
Marianne Faithfull: Ses Liaisons Dangereuses
Interview by Mitchell Cohen, Creem, February 1982
"I'VE ALWAYS KNOWN who I was," she says in a raspy, Bette Davis voice. "Whether I could achieve to express that to everyone else was ...
Elvis Presley: Goldman Ain't Nothin' But A Hound Dog!
Book Review by Bill Holdship, Creem, February 1982
Elvis by Albert Goldman (McGraw-Hill) ...
Psychedelic Furs, The: Psychedelic Furs: Sugar Cubes For The New Depression
Interview by Bill Holdship, Creem, February 1982
RICHARD BUTLER, the Psychedelic Furs, chain-smoking vocalist, often sounds like an extremely angry man or record. ...
King Crimson, Robert Fripp: King Crimson: Robert Fripp's Chocolate Cake Discipline
Interview by Richard Grabel, Creem, February 1982
In The Court Of The Crimson King, Phase II ...
George Thorogood & The Destroyers: George Thorogood Cuts Through The USA
Interview by Dave Zimmer, Creem, February 1982
YOU COULD see it coming. About a hundred yards off, an old Checker Marathon cab was roaring along the asphalt, eating up the broken white ...
Joan Jett: I Love Rock 'N' Roll (Boardwalk)
Review by Mitchell Cohen, Creem, March 1982
IF ANY OF rock's male marauders (say Triumph, or Rush) opened up an LP with a stop 'n' start thumper about spotting a 17-year-old number ...
Frank Sinatra: She Shot Me Down (Reprise)
Review by Jeffrey Morgan, Creem, April 1982
IF, AS THE THEORY GOES, there's a little bit of Van Halen in everyone come Saturday night, then you can safely bet your last dollar ...
Teardrop Explodes, The: The Teardrop Explodes: Wilder
Review by Dave DiMartino, Creem, May 1982
"I hate war. I have seen war. I have seen war on the land and sea. I have seen blood running on the street. I ...
Nick Lowe: Ol' Nick The Knife's Back In Town!
Interview by Bill Holdship, Creem, May 1982
NICK LOWE is one of the nicest and most down-to-earth guys in rock 'n' roll. ...
AC/DC: Death Pooches Lick The Cosmic Milk Bone
Interview by Sylvie Simmons, Creem, May 1982
THEY ALL LOOK like they'd benefit from a Jerry Lewis telethon. Seventeen thousand diseased and uncontrollable bodies. ...
Blasters, The: The Blasters: 'Beyond Revivalism' Revival
Interview by Sylvie Simmons, Creem, May 1982
We got Louisiana boogie and the Delta bluesWe got country swing and rockabilly tooWe got jazz country western and Chicago bluesIt's the greatest music that ...
Fleshtones, The: The Fleshtones: Primal Rock
Interview by Michael Goldberg, Creem, May 1982
SPLAT! A plastic bag filled with red chili sauce arcs up and out of the crowd and catches Fleshtones' lead singer Peter Zaremba right on ...
Huey Lewis and the News: Huey Lewis: Picture This
Review by Mitchell Cohen, Creem, May 1982
HO HUM, you might say. One more slick-surfaced pop rock band with hooks to spare (many made out of spare parts), sax breaks, high-pitched harmonies ...
Altered Images: Happy Birthday (Portrait/Epic)
Review by Robot A. Hull, Creem, May 1982
ALTERED IMAGES' debut album is an unforeseen delight: a surprise party where the kids play whatever games strike their fancies. During the din of celebration, ...
Quarterflash: One Quarter Flash, Three Parts Foolish
Interview by Sylvie Simmons, Creem, June 1982
IN THE UNITED STATES, statistics show, a girl is walking out on her no-good man every 15 minutes. Statistics also show that 15 minutes later ...
Huey Lewis and the News: Huey Lewis Makes The News
Interview by Michael Goldberg, Creem, June 1982
SO THIS IS MANN: there's not even a sign to mark the short, dead-end street where Huey Lewis lives. Things like street signs and pavement ...
Del Shannon: Fugitive Kind of Love: Del Shannon
Interview by Mitchell Cohen, Creem, June 1982
"THERE WAS A girl I thought was really in love with me. I mean, my heart would pound when she came around. She gave me ...
X's Wild Los Angeles Gift: Sign On The Dotted Line, Please!
Interview by Richard Grabel, Creem, June 1982
X ARE FINALLY getting some respect. Their first album, Los Angeles, released in 1980 on the independent Slash label, sold some 80,000 copies, not bad ...
Hall & Oates: Laugh All The Way To The Synth Bank
Report and Interview by Susan Whitall, Creem, June 1982
"Now no one will be able to accuse us of being fags that sing like the Spinners."Daryl Hall, to Jaan Uhelszki, August 1977. ...
Sammy Hagar: Standing Hampton (Geffen)
Review by Jeffrey Morgan, Creem, June 1982
AS MY OLD PAL Bugs would say: "What a maroon!" I'm talking about Sammy Hagar and, let's 'fess up: you probably don't even know who ...
James Booker: New Orleans Piano Wizard: Live!
Review by Robot A. Hull, Creem, June 1982
IN ONE OF THE oddest occurrences in recent memory, a newly-released album that recalls the smoke-filled music of a French Quarter bar better than any ...
Human League, The: The Human League: Dare
Review by Mitchell Cohen, Creem, June 1982
IF THE GUY who built a pinochle-playing computer for his Science Techniques Lab in high school married the gal who wrote poems called "alien/nation" for ...
J. Geils Band: The J. Geils Band
Profile and Interview by Sylvie Simmons, Creem, July 1982
TUCSON’S GOT McDonalds’s and bars and Sears and Taco Belles, but there any resemblance to life as we know it stops. It’s hot as a ...
Girlschool: A Girlschool For Headbangers!
Interview by Chris Salewicz, Creem, July 1982
IN A REHEARSAL room on the southwest London suburb of Putney, Girlschool lead guitar players Kelly Johnson and rhythm guitarist Kim McAuliffe are swigging from ...
Laurie Anderson: Big Science (Warner Bros.)
Review by Mitchell Cohen, Creem, August 1982
‘I NO LONGER love the way you hold your pens and pencils’ is a line that any one of a thousand writers might write. But ...
Review by Gene Sculatti, Creem, August 1982
REMEMBER THE 70's? Not much of a decade, you say. Yeah, well. Fella here used to be a mover and a shaker back in the ...
Van Halen: Diver Down (Warner Bros.)
Review by Jeffrey Morgan, Creem, August 1982
NOT ONLY IS this album an insult to the average consumer who will have to pay upwards of ten dollars for it, it is an ...
Rick James: Throwin' Down (Gordy)
Review by Mitchell Cohen, Creem, September 1982
HE HAS A VOICE that's like a Looney Tunes imitation of Edward G. Robinson. His priorities (or those of the character he's created) are getting ...
Dave Edmunds: D E7th (Columbia)
Review by Robot A. Hull, Creem, September 1982
A HARDHEARTED TRADITIONALIST with forthright dedication, Dave Edmunds has sought to preserve the classical textuality of rock 'n' roll for 15 years crashing headlong through ...
Marshall Crenshaw's True Pop Ways
Profile and Interview by Iman Lababedi, Creem, September 1982
"I don't try to hang anybody up or get anybody over-involved in my hang-ups. I don't try to bore people with my problems. The main ...
Van Halen: The Philosophy Of Diving Down
Interview by Sylvie Simmons, Creem, September 1982
HANG 'EM HIGH HUMP 'EM LOW ...
Dave Edmunds: From Small Things, Mama, Big Things One Day Come!
Interview by Bill Holdship, Creem, September 1982
DAVE EDMUNDS' second biggest pleasure in life seems to be photography. A slim Edmunds (he claims he was horrified when he first saw his paunch ...
Richard and Linda Thompson: No Bright Ones Tonight: Richard Thompson Shoots Out The Lights
Interview by Michael Goldberg, Creem, September 1982
THERE IS A story circulating about Richard Thompson. The way I heard it, the Eagles approached him, prior to hiring Joe Walsh: they wanted Thompson ...
Circle Jerks: Love The One You're With...
Interview by Sylvie Simmons, Creem, October 1982
THERE'S PEOPLE diving off the sides. A somersault – look! a bellyflop! – a couple of thrilling jack-knives. The one wearing the bathing cap – ...
Squeeze: Not Another Squeeze Story!
Interview by Dave DiMartino, Creem, October 1982
DIFFORD AND TILBROOK. Lennon and McCartney. Difford and Tilbrook. Lennon and McCartney. Difford and Tilbrook. Lennon and McCartney. Blah, blah, blah. ...
Interview by Sylvie Simmons, Creem, October 1982
SURE AIN'T NO Howard Johnsons. There's a woman in the lobby looks like a Kentucky Fried Chicken leg let loose in Freddie Mercury's wardrobe; all ...
REO Speedwagon: Good Trouble (Epic)
Review by Richard Riegel, Creem, October 1982
FROM OUT OF THE STEREOS OF BABES ...
Pete Townshend, Who, The: Pete Townshend Stops Hurting People; Stops Hurting Himself
Interview by Chris Salewicz, Creem, November 1982
"PERSONALLY I LIKE the idea of embodying evil in the devil – it doesn't really matter whether you externalize the evil or recognize it as ...
Frank Zappa: Only In It For The Money
Interview by Michael Goldberg, Creem, November 1982
FRANK & MOON ZAPPA GO AM ...
Review by Mitchell Cohen, Creem, November 1982
SAY YOU AND these other guys used to hang out in this neighborhood, and you all had pretty much the same goals, the same diversions, ...
Go-Go's, The: The Go-Go’s: Vacation
Review by Robot A. Hull, Creem, November 1982
"ASK ANY TEN people in the popular recording field about female singers and nine of them will say, 'forget it, the percentage of girl singers ...
David Johansen: Position Of A Vagabond Missionary
Interview by Mitchell Cohen, Creem, December 1982
IN AN OFFICE that overlooks Central Park, David Johansen finds the videotape he's looking for, a recording of his New Year's morning show at the ...
Go-Go's, The: The Go-Go's: Go-Go's Of Your Dreams
Report and Interview by Susan Whitall, Creem, December 1982
DEEP IN the soul of every writer lies a secret: what does the writer do to avoid writing? I'll empty my brain pan now: I ...
Review by Mitchell Cohen, Creem, December 1982
DESIRE SOMETIMES goes unreciprocated. Sad, but it happens. Martin Fry, the leader of ABC, does not accept this with equanimity. He stares at his blueprint ...
Elvis Costello: The Palladium, New York
Live Review by Iman Lababedi, Creem, December 1982
IT HAD been 10 months since I last saw Elvis Costello; in between I'd watched him play footsie with Tom Snyder, straight man to George ...
Aerosmith: Walkin' The Dogma (Can I Borrow The Karma?)
Interview by Annene Kaye, Creem, January 1983
IF THE WASHINGTON Monument vanished tomorrow a sizable portion of the population would be suitably abashed, but if the darned old thing trickled away bit ...
Altered Images: Clare Grogan's Altered Images: Thank Heaven For Little Girls
Interview by Iman Lababedi, Creem, January 1983
"I just wanted to get to know her, really. She was just kind of fascinating."— Director Bill Forsyth, explaining why he cast Clare Grogan in ...
Review by Mitchell Cohen, Creem, January 1983
CLARE GROGAN has this itsy little boop-be-doop of a voice, and she twists phrases into odd curlicues while her four-piece band plays zesty, danceable (mustn't ...
Review by Robot A. Hull, Creem, January 1983
THIS EP IS SO ARCANE that I had to play it six times in a row to get a handle on it – and even ...
Psychedelic Furs, The: The Psychedelic Furs: Sugar Cubes For The New Depression
Interview by Bill Holdship, Creem, February 1983
RICHARD BUTLER, the Psychedelic Furs' chain-smoking vocalist, often sounds like an extremely angry man on record. Some people have compared his raspy voice to a ...
A Flock of Seagulls Answer All Your Questions and More!
Interview by Jeffrey Morgan, Creem, February 1983
Fan Mail From Some Flounder ...
Motels, The: Take The El Out Of MOTELS And It's Motes
Interview by Sylvie Simmons, Creem, February 1983
IN A SMOKE-FILLED cell up in Capitol Towers, that awesome Hollywood edifice modeled on an Ajax can, Martha Davis and Marty Jourard sit blinking under ...
Fleetwood Mac: Gypsies, Tramps or Thieves?
Profile and Interview by John Mendelsohn, Creem, February 1983
ONE DAY SOON, there will be no more stuffed animals in the world. No stuffed koalas or pandas or ocelots or giraffes will remain for ...
Roches, The: The Roches: Keep On Doing
Review by Deborah Frost, Creem, February 1983
IT'S TAKEN ME four years and three albums to find two good words for the Roches. What immediately endeared this nouveau folkie family to most ...
Review by j. poet, Creem, February 1983
THE GUN CLUB plays for keeps. Their songs crackle like dry corpse skin turning to parchment under the caress of a rattlesnake belly. Jeffrey Lee ...
Ric Ocasek : Ric Ocasek: Worms On A String Revisted
Interview by Michael Goldberg, Creem, March 1983
THE OFFICE IS dark and silent. Here, in one of the rooms where Elliot Roberts, creme de la creme of rock star managers, and his ...
Missing Persons: I Find Missing Persons
Interview by John Mendelsohn, Creem, March 1983
THE GERM OF THE union that would one day become countless hundreds of thousands of fans' favorite new New Wavoid attraction of 1983 wriggled into ...
Lene Lovich: Slav Siren To Play Mata Hari
Interview by Cynthia Rose, Creem, March 1983
MARLENE PREMILOVICH – professionally, Lene Lovich – has been out of the musical limelight for awhile, since the January 1980 release of Flex and a ...
Dream Syndicate, The: The Dream Syndicate: The Days Of Wine And Roses
Review by Robot A. Hull, Creem, March 1983
I HOLD IN MY HAND promo material an inch thick containing innumerable denials from this hot band, L.A'.s Dream Syndicate, on how they do not ...
Rank and File: Rank & File: Sundown
Review by Roy Trakin, Creem, March 1983
TIME WAS BROTHERS Chip and Tony Kinman were just another coupla SoCal surfpunks, bitchin' 'bout class wars and hating the rich. The Dils, which was ...
Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers: Tom Petty: Long After Maturity
Interview by Sylvie Simmons, Creem, April 1983
STAR TRECK. Scene One: Writer meets Star. ...
Grace Jones: Are You Ready For A Brand New (Disco) Beat?
Interview by Iman Lababedi, Creem, April 1983
IF I WAS writing in Australia for Tie Yer Kangaroo Down rock mag, or in Germany for Ach Tung – Der March Goes On, or ...
Black Uhuru: Pure Mad People Live In This Place
Profile and Interview by Richard Grabel, Creem, April 1983
WHEN BOB Marley died, there was some loose talk going around about Michael Rose, Black Uhuru's lead singer and songwriter, being groomed to be "the ...
Review by Mitchell Cohen, Creem, April 1983
THERE'S A NEW furrowed-brow earnestness now emerging in American rock 'n' roll, a grainy neo-realism that depicts workaday lives in ways that were once the ...
Dexy's Midnight Runners: Too-Rye-Ay
Review by Roy Trakin, Creem, April 1983
WHEN WE LAST left Dexy's pugnacious leader Kevin Rowland, he wore a knit stocking cap, a navy peacoat, a pencil-thin mustache and the leering mug ...
Captain Beefheart: A Wacky Way Of Knowledge
Profile and Interview by Roy Trakin, Creem, May 1983
"If you've got ears, you gotta listen," – Don Van Vliet, aka Captain Beefheart ...
Def Leppard: Spot Checking Def Leppard
Interview by Dave DiMartino, Creem, May 1983
LONDON – Directly or indirectly, Eric Clapton is responsible for my being here. ...
Interview by Bill Holdship, Creem, May 1983
IT'S ALWAYS BEEN a little difficult for me to perceive Bob Seger as a major rock 'n' roll star. That isn't meant in any negative ...
Review by Richard Riegel, Creem, May 1983
JERRY MATHERS' days as TV's beloved Beaver were numbered the second his voice began to crack and change, and U2's new War may force similar ...
Review by j. poet, Creem, May 1983
BACK IN 1980, after producing two terminally grim LPs that delighted morbid brooders worldwide, Human League split up trumpeting the usual clichés, vis-a-vis artistic differences ...
Little Steven & The Disciples Of Soul
Interview by Bill Holdship, Creem, June 1983
LIKE MOST GOOD DISCIPLES, Little Steven and the Disciples Of Soul have several important missions to accomplish on earth, and one of these is to ...
Michael Jackson: No Angel, But No Osmond Either
Interview by Sylvie Simmons, Creem, June 1983
DOWNTOWN BETWEEN the Pacific American Fish Co. and the Hotel St. Agnes Hospitality Kitchen there's an alley. Cars block each end, no escape. And silhouetted ...
Bow Wow Wow: Here & Now It's Bow Wow Wow!
Interview by Richard Grabel, Creem, June 1983
THE STORY has to begin with Malcolm McLaren, the ex-Kings Road clothier who brought the Sex Pistols to the world. Having seen his punk rock ...
Malcolm McLaren: Malcolm Mclaren Eats Egg Salad
Interview by John Mendelsohn, Creem, June 1983
Other Pagan Rituals to Follow? ...
Review by Roy Trakin, Creem, June 1983
ALL YOU NEED Is Synth. Producer George Martin sez these guys are the most musical band he's worked with since you-know-who. So, what'd you expect ...
Aerosmith, A Flock of Seagulls, Culture Club, Mötley Crüe: Eleganza: Dress for Excess
Column by John Mendelsohn, Creem, July 1983
Eleganza returns! This one-time fave fab fashion column, as you may know, oozed away slowly in the past few years for "reasons" we don't need ...
Fabulous Thunderbirds: The Fabulous Thunderbirds: They're Tearing It Up Again!
Interview by Iman Lababedi, Creem, July 1983
THIS IS WHAT we call the irresponsible rock crit at his worst, enjoying the company of the band he's talking to so much he doesn't ...
Dream Syndicate, The: The Dream Syndicate's Heavenly Feedback From Hell
Interview by Bill Holdship, Creem, July 1983
"WE PLAYED THE Mudd Club in New York, and we went on at 2 or 3 in the morning. I was amazed that people were ...
George Clinton: Putting On The Atomic Dog
Interview by John Morthland, Creem, July 1983
GEORGE CLINTON hunkers down into the couch in the conference room of Capitol's Manhattan offices, pours himself a tall noontime glass of orange juice, and ...
Review by John Morthland, Creem, July 1983
I KEEP HEARING about the rise of the new garage bands, who draw their inspiration from the original punks, those brash, anarchistic, one-hit bands so ...
Nile Rodgers: Adventures In The Land Of The Good Groove
Review by Mitchell Cohen, Creem, July 1983
SINCE NILE RODGERS (A) is democratic enough to include Wall Street within the borders of good-groove land (see the map on the album cover), and ...
Bow Wow Wow: When the Going Gets Tough The Tough Get Going (RCA)
Review by Richard Riegel, Creem, July 1983
PERSONALLY, I never lost a minute's sleep over 15 1/2-years-old-and-semi-nude Annabella's supposed exploitation at the hot little hands of Malcolm McLaren when he was pushing ...
Joan Jett, Thompson Twins, The: Eleganza: Sneer & Sneer Again
Column by John Mendelsohn, Creem, August 1983
IF I NEVER glimpse another Rock 'n' Roll Bad Boy sneering at me on my television screen, trying to impress me with how unashamedly wicked ...
Kinks, The: Kinks: A Sad Kommentary
Comment by John Mendelsohn, Creem, August 1983
ASSUMING THAT A healthy percentage of it carried falsified ID, the average age of the audience at this year's Los Angeles Kinks concert might have ...
Thompson Twins, The: The Thompson Twins At The Seashore
Interview by John Mendelsohn, Creem, August 1983
NO OTHER BAND in the British syncopop sweepstakes boasts greater bounce to the ounce. Indeed, to get some idea of what the Thompson Twins are ...
Wall of Voodoo's Off Sound Track Betting
Profile and Interview by Richard Riegel, Creem, August 1983
Caricatures Shown Not Intended To Depict Artemia Salina ...
Lita Ford: From Runaway To Metal Goddess: Lita Ford's Got BLOOD If You Want It!
Profile and Interview by Iman Lababedi, Creem, August 1983
Out Of The Blue (Stepping Out) ...
Marshall Crenshaw Has A Field Day
Report and Interview by Karen Schlosberg, Creem, August 1983
WHAT A GUY. That phrase, always delivered with a flatter-than-thou Midwestern twang, is often bandied about within the Crenshaw camp. ...
Nona Hendryx, Material: Nona Hendryx: Nona (RCA)
Review by Roy Trakin, Creem, August 1983
YOU KNOW Nona. Along with Patti LaBelle and Sarah Dash, she was part of LaBelle. ...
Belle Stars, The: The Belle Stars: The Belle Stars
Review by Mitchell Cohen, Creem, August 1983
THERE'S NO LACK of traumatic incident on The Belle Stars' first album: lovers treat each other abominably, separate, commit crimes of passion. ...
Prince, Cliff Richard, Adam & The Ants, Josie Cotton: Eleganza: The Best-Dressed List
Column by John Mendelsohn, Creem, September 1983
THERE ARE absolutes in fashion. For instance, flare-legged trousers are absolutely more flattering to the vast majority of people than straight-legged trousers, since they make ...
Ramones, The: The Ramones: If All Men Were Brudders
Interview by Cynthia Rose, Creem, September 1983
LONDON – The brothers Ramone – four schlepps whose schleppiness transmogrified the traumas of career adolescence into an entire art form – constitute America's greatest ...
Talking Heads: Speaking In Tongues
Review by Roy Trakin, Creem, September 1983
WITHOUT THE ANCHORS of either longtime producer Brian Eno or the general pancultural ideology expressed on their last few records, the Talking Heads' latest album, ...
Review by Mitchell Cohen, Creem, September 1983
MARSHALL CRENSHAW'S first album was like a tuneful adaptation of an ad from the Voice's personal/classified columns: Lookin' for a brand new lover, a cynical ...
Interview by Sylvie Simmons, Creem, October 1983
A DREAM. I'm lounging on the balcony of a Beverly Hills hotel staring out over the pool when there's a knock on the door. In ...
Robert Plant: Hot Dog To Big Log: Robert Plant Hits The Road
Interview by Dave DiMartino, Creem, October 1983
"WHY DON'T you take off your clothes?" asks Robert Plant, grinning, clutching at the bare white towel wrapped around his waist. ...
A Flock of Seagulls: A Flock Of Seagulls: Hair Apparent
Interview by John Mendelsohn, Creem, October 1983
SINCE MOVING into it in the autumn of 1982, A Flock Of Seagulls lead singer Mike Score has scarcely seen his new flat in Liverpool ...
Missing Persons, Mötley Crüe, Berlin: Eleganza: Got Pizzazz (If You Want It)
Column by John Mendelsohn, Creem, October 1983
IN THE MONTHS since its resuscitation, several hundred readers have written this column to ask what they should do with their hair. Would that Eleganza ...
Rickie Lee Jones: Girl At Her Volcano
Review by Mitchell Cohen, Creem, October 1983
IT SEEMS APT that Rickie Lee Jones's Girl At Her Volcano begins at a point near the end of her live set ("We love you!" ...
Violent Femmes: The Violent Femmes: The Violent Femmes
Review by Bill Holdship, Creem, October 1983
ROMANTIC AND SEXUAL frustration have long been central themes in rock, and Gordon Gano – the Violent Femmes' 20-year-old singer, songwriter and guitarist – seems ...
Police, The: Police Poised On The Brink Of Infinity
Interview by Dave DiMartino, Creem, November 1983
HOW, INDEED, does one write the proper Police story? Does one rant and rave about new records being set weekly on the Billboard album charts? ...
Review by Mitchell Cohen, Creem, November 1983
WE'VE HEARD THIS before, and the Fleshtones know it: "Your scene isn't really so strange/Some things never really change." Hornet-nest guitar. Gnarly vocals. Lyrics that ...
Review by Roy Trakin, Creem, November 1983
"I'LL ROCK 'N' ROLL 'til I fall down." shouts Douglas Farage in his best Jaggeresque drawl, and darn if you don't believe every word. ...
Motorhead, Fastway: Fastway: Unholy Spawn Of The Dual Metallicus
Profile and Interview by Sylvie Simmons, Creem, December 1983
NOTHING (except the last Journey single) lasts forever. Six-and-a-half years they were together. 6 and 1/2. Plenty of time to emerge as ...
Stray Cats, The: The Stray Cats: Out Of The Litter Box & Into The Fire!
Interview by Karen Schlosberg, Creem, December 1983
WHAT HAPPENS when you try to domesticate the Stray Cats? ...
Interview by Mitchell Cohen, Creem, December 1983
THINK OF NRBQ as a diner somewhere off the main highway, serving up Tex-Mex chili, Kansas City barbeque, Philadelphia cheese steaks, New England clam chowder, ...
Interview by John Mendelsohn, Creem, December 1983
HE'S BEEN USING speed for years, and he plays in a heavy metal band with the most obnoxious album cover art ever. So one doesn't ...
Blasters, The: The Blasters Ridin' On The Jubilee Train
Interview by Bill Holdship, Creem, December 1983
PERHAPS TAKING A cue from the Book Of Rock Lists, I once considered compiling a list of the best rock records to listen to when ...
Big Country : Big Country: The Crossing
Review by Mitchell Cohen, Creem, December 1983
EVERYTHING'S AN "ANTHEM" these days, every song that asserts the simplest preference, celebrates any individual or social identity or activity (oh, "Flashdance...What A Feeling," or ...
Review by John Morthland, Creem, December 1983
UB40, A MULTIRACIAL reggae group whose name derives from the code on British unemployment cards, emerged from Birmingham in 1980, right around the time the ...
Aztec Camera: High Land, Hard Rain
Review by Dave DiMartino, Creem, December 1983
NEVER A BACKWARD GLANCE: Imagine a perfect world, where some human somewhere has the wisdom, taste and fortuity to take Love's Forever Changes, the third ...
Spinal Tap: Heavy Metal Blunder: This Is Spinal Tap
Review by John Mendelsohn, Creem, 1984
THE MISSUS USED to be married to a little asshole who produced comedy specials for cable television. The principals of This Is Spinal Tap – ...
Eddy Grant Does It California Style
Interview by R.J. Smith, Creem, January 1984
I JUST GOT my current issue of Processed World ("The magazine with the bad attitude"), and it's a winner. Written by and for the shitheels ...
Carly Simon: Free, White, & Pushing 40
Interview by Nick Tosches, Creem, January 1984
"Maybe It Was My Big Mouth" ...
John Mellencamp: John Cougar: Pink Houses In The Midwest
Interview by Bill Holdship, Creem, January 1984
MY STOMACH WAS in my throat again, and I was seriously contemplating murder. The victim would be editor-in-chief of the rag you presently hold in ...
Doors, The: The Doors: Alive, She Cried
Review by Mitchell Cohen, Creem, January 1984
WHAT WAS that he said? "No time to wallow in the mire." Tell that to the folks who have somehow managed to turn a band ...
Was (Not Was): Was Not Was: Born To Laugh At Tornadoes
Review by Roy Trakin, Creem, January 1984
THE WOODWORK SQUEAKS...and out comes Ozzy Osbourne, rapping? Ex-Knackster Doug Fieger making fun of himself? Mitch Ryder barking like a dog with Good Golly Miss ...
Interview by Roy Trakin, Creem, February 1984
ONCE UPON A time, in the early '70s, long before currently voguish "new music" outfits like Soft Cell, Yaz and Human League, there was Suicide. ...
Mötley Crüe: Motley Crüe Calling
Interview by Sylvie Simmons, Creem, February 1984
THE PERFECT WORLD...Little waterfalls tinkle cheerfully down the hillside and rabbits and chipmunks scamper playfully in the long grass of the sun-dappled meadow; bluebirds tweet ...
X Spots the Mark: Raw Chemicals With a Spoon
Interview by Richard Riegel, Creem, February 1984
AS I ENTER Billy Zoom's Cincinnati motel room, I glance at the usual rockband-on-tour pile of black leather jackets, but I also take note of ...
Review by Mitchell Cohen, Creem, February 1984
ON HEARTS AND BONES, Paul Simon turns the basic philosophical pop question inside out. Instead of "Why do fools fall in love?" (or its variation, ...
Gang of Four = Hard Men in Good Cars
Profile and Interview by R.J. Smith, Creem, March 1984
"All we have in common is the illusion of being together. And the only resistance to the illusions of the permitted painkillers come from the ...
Soft Cell: No Ordinary Whipper Snappers
Interview by John Mendelsohn, Creem, March 1984
YOU REPORT TO the Ramada Inn in Beverly Hills at the agreed-upon hour of a drizzly afternoon between Halloween and Thanksgiving to ask Soft Cell ...
Review by Roy Trakin, Creem, March 1984
IT'S THE BAND that just won't go away, the thing that wouldn't die, no matter how many limbs are cut off or obstacles put in ...
Billy Idol: Rebel Yell (Chrysalis)
Review by Richard Riegel, Creem, March 1984
BILLY IDOL has designated the respective sides of the single-pocket Rebel Yell as "3" and "4," in the same big numerals he used for "1" ...
Review by Jeffrey Morgan, Creem, March 1984
Y'GOTTA WATCH out for these guys who insist on releasing debut solo albums on which they've played all the instruments; they're everywhere. ...
Duran Duran: Am What They Yam: And That's The Snakes…
Interview by Chris Salewicz, Creem, April 1984
THE BELLIGERENT, black North Sea crashes with a grim rhythm in the opposite side of the main road to Brighton's Grand Hotel. Its force, however, ...
Debbie Harry: Bottle Debbie Harry
Interview by Cynthia Rose, Creem, April 1984
They couldn't help but notice herShe was fatally beautiful;Ever since she was a girl,She was fatally beau-ti-ful.– T-Bone Burnett, ‘Fatally Beautiful’, 1983 ...
Review by Mitchell Cohen, Creem, April 1984
MITCH EASTER is like a kid who only has a box of eight Crayolas – the basic set, no burnt sienna, no vermillion, no cornflower ...
Review by Roy Trakin, Creem, April 1984
THE RICH ARE different than you and me, but TV shows like Dallas and Dynasty prove that wealth doesn't necessarily equal happiness. Even debutantes get ...
Minutemen, The: The Minutemen: Buzz Or Howl Under The Influence Of Heat (SST)
Review by R.J. Smith, Creem, April 1984
CIVIL DEFENSE QUIZ: ARE YOU PREPARED?What should you do in case of a sudden dropping of a nuclear weapon on your neighborhood? A) Grab ...
Ian Anderson, Jethro Tull: Ian Anderson: Walk Into Light (Chrysalis)
Review by Jeffrey Morgan, Creem, April 1984
STOP ME IF you've heard this one before, but you really do gotta watch out for these guys who insist on releasing debut solo albums ...
Girlschool: Staying After Girlschool
Report and Interview by Richard Riegel, Creem, May 1984
GIRLSCHOOL MEMBERS Kim McAuliffe and Gil Weston flash me quick smiles as we're introduced in their road manager's hotel room, and I'm relieved to note ...
Adam & The Ants: Adam Ant: Sex Person Without A Cause
Interview by John Mendelsohn, Creem, May 1984
ADAM ANT materialized in the lobby of a West Hollywood hotel that employs a lot of very stupid Englishwomen and offered me his hand. ...
Spandau Ballet: UP, UP and Away
Interview by Annene Kaye, Creem, May 1984
IF WE WEREN'T "AROUND," WHAT WOULD BE? ...
Interview by Karen Schlosberg, Creem, June 1984
ALL EDUCATION begins with ABCs. This particular education is of the musical sort, concerning one Sheffield-based trio (formerly quartet) that took its alphabetical beliefs and ...
T-Bone Burnett: Proof Thru The Night
Interview by Cynthia Rose, Creem, June 1984
ROCK MUSIC may know few true gentlemen. But those it does possess are liable to embody the best of that extraordinary flamboyance, imagination and hope ...
Smiths, The: The Smiths: The Smiths
Review by Dave DiMartino, Creem, June 1984
THE SMITHS believe that it is possible to replenish appetites of both the soul and the pelvis simultaneously. That is: they might, but then again, ...
Slade: Keep Your Hands Off My Power Supply
Review by Mitchell Cohen, Creem, June 1984
HERE IS NODDY HOLDER, raspy lead singer of Slade, putting a move on a member of the opposite sex: "You want equality/You won't get none ...
Rory Gallagher: The Flannel Banshee Breaks Out!
Interview by Bill Holdship, Creem, July 1984
SIX I.R.A. BOMBS went off in Belfast the day of Rory Gallagher's second sold-out show at Ulster Hall, including one in the middle of the ...
Interview by Sylvie Simmons, Creem, July 1984
JOHN WAYNE didn't do too much for anyone, but he left a fine legacy of shirts – and they look even better on the Alarm. ...
Review by Roy Trakin, Creem, July 1984
WHAT HAPPENS to hardcore bands when they get old? They turn into Hawkwinds, that's what. Redondo Beach's finest have let their skinheads grow out and ...
Review by Mitchell Cohen, Creem, July 1984
JOE ELY'S Hi-Res has a feverish, jittery seediness, a buzz you can't shake off. Remember the first episode of Cheers, where the guys argued about ...
Go-Go's, The: Rapping To The Go-Go's
Interview by John Mendelsohn, Creem, August 1984
ON THE OCCASION of the release of their latest album, America's only rock 'n' roll magazine that bills itself as such asked for the two ...
Scorpions, The: Scorpions: Stinging Scorchers Or Virgin Killers?
Interview by Sylvie Simmons, Creem, August 1984
IF, AS JAH ROTH says, there's a little bit of Van Halen in everyone on a Saturday night, there's likely a whole lot of Scorpions ...
Bananarama: Bananarama (London)
Review by Mitchell Cohen, Creem, August 1984
BANANARAMA CAN'T BE bothered to raise their voices; it's just not worth it. The attitude is cool deadpan, the image is ye'-ye' girls with a ...
Weird Al Yankovic: In 3-D (Rock ‘n' Roll)
Review by Jeffrey Morgan, Creem, August 1984
JUST IN CASE anyone should ever ask you, here are seven good reasons why this album should be a part of every collection: ...
Review by Roy Trakin, Creem, September 1984
A TRIO OF STREET teens from the shadows of Shea Stadium who bear out ex-Met manager Casey Stengel's enthusiasm about the Youth of America? ...
Elvis Costello and the Attractions: Goodbye Cruel World (Columbia)
Review by Mitchell Cohen, Creem, September 1984
IT'S ALMOST Elvis Costello and the Distractions this time out. Goodbye Cruel World, LP #10 (here in America, at least), has such a desperate busyness ...
Interview by Roy Trakin, Creem, September 1984
NEW YORK – He was 14 when he began playing bass for John Mayall's Bluesbreakers back in '66, and 16 when he joined Paul Rodgers, ...
Clash, The: The Clash: They Want To Spoil The Party So They'll Stay
Interview by Bill Holdship, Creem, October 1984
CREEM CONTRIBUTOR Mark Norton and I were talking several days before the Clash "invaded" Detroit, and we began discussing the concept of "armchair activism" and ...
Review by Mitchell Cohen, Creem, October 1984
IT'S BEEN ONE Old Timers Day after another for Hall of Fame axe-handler Jeff Beck over the past year or so. ...
Greg Kihn: Reckihning & Rolling
Interview by Jeff Tamarkin, Creem, November 1984
EVEN IF YOU'VE never heard Greg Kihn's music, you probably know who he is – he's the character who comes up with dumb puns on ...
Interview by Bill Holdship, Creem, November 1984
IMAGINE BEING served one of the greatest meals of your life, and then being told you have exactly one-half hour to consume it. ...
Pink Floyd's Can I Have My Money Back? Post-Partum Parity
Report and Interview by Dave DiMartino, Creem, November 1984
6:30 PM (Apparently He Was Driving To Chicago) ...
Patty Smyth, Scandal featuring Patty Smyth: Scandal Featuring Patty Smyth: Warrior
Review by Mitchell Cohen, Creem, November 1984
THIS RECORD SHOULD come in a plain white package, like generic elbow macaroni; it has every 1984 mainstream (AORMTV) rock mannerism so down pat that ...
Review by John Morthland, Creem, November 1984
I HAVE THIS theory about why Peter Wolf got 86'd from the J. Geils Band that was refined a couple months back by a conversation ...
Siouxsie & The Banshees: Siouxsie and the Banshees: Hyaena
Review by Roy Trakin, Creem, November 1984
ONCE UPON a time, they might've burned Siouxsie Sioux at the stake or thrown her in a lake to see if she'd float with rocks ...
Billy Squier: Signs Of Life (Capitol)
Review by Jeffrey Morgan, Creem, December 1984
YOU MAY HAVE seen the print ads for this one: big pic of The Artiste lookin' like a wino in pseudo-M.D. drag while, above his ...
The Ten Worst New Acts Of The ‘80s
Guide by John Mendelsohn, Creem, 1985
Note: This Mendo masterpiece was written under the fetching pseudonym of Anastasia Finn. ...
Little Richard: The Quasar Speaks!
Interview by Bill Holdship, Creem, January 1985
LITTLE RICHARD Penniman is one of rock's greatest legends. If you're interested in his past, you'd be well advised to read his new biography, The ...
Review by Roy Trakin, Creem, January 1985
THE REGIONALIZATION of American pop continues apace, and it's about time we turned the beat around on our Brit cousins, right? ...
Review by Mitchell Cohen, Creem, February 1985
CENSUS-TAKERS have determined that there is a core audience of 19,422 citizens with a susceptibility toward charmingly weird, clever, and sensitive pop-rock with a foundation ...
Dokken: All Bozos On This Bus!
Report and Interview by Bill Holdship, Creem, March 1985
OH, SAY CAN YOU SEE...IT'S ELECTION DAY in America, and I'm in Washington, D.C. Several miles away, Ronnie & Nancy are celebrating the fact that ...
Church, The: You Must Like The Church!
Profile and Interview by Dave DiMartino, Creem, March 1985
(OR PERISH TRYING) ...
Interview by John Mendelsohn, Creem, March 1985
ASKED WHAT the most important thing in her life is in the autumn of her fifth year of stardom, Pat(ricia Andrzejwski) Benatar (Geraldo) rapturously replies, ...
Interview by Sylvie Simmons, Creem, March 1985
DEEP PURPLE. Two words that mean so much to so many. It's been 13 years since DP – the DP, Gillan, Glover, Paice, Lord and ...
Review by Mitchell Cohen, Creem, March 1985
GIVE MY REGARDS To Broad Street, a motion picture written by, and starring, Paul McCartney, opens across America in October, closes across America by November. ...
Big Country : Big Country: Steeltown
Review by Roy Trakin, Creem, March 1985
SOMETIMES GOOD INTENTIONS aren't enough. In rock 'n' roll, the importance of being earnest must take a back seat to that of being entertaining. ...
Interview by Roy Trakin, Creem, April 1985
"NOW REMEMBER," the harried veteran publicist briefs me as I perch on the jump seat of the chauffeur-driven limousine cruising groovily over the 59th Street ...
Interview by Sylvie Simmons, Creem, April 1985
IT'S A TOUGH life in today's pop world. In these dark days of decreasing sales, with tight-fisted conservative little brats putting their pocket money into ...
Jimmy Page, Firm, The: Jimmy Page On Stage '85
Interview by Chris Welch, Creem, April 1985
A GREEN PYRAMID of laser light forms around the figure in white. A violin bow is held aloft and then swishes wand-like across the guitar, ...
Review by Mitchell Cohen, Creem, April 1985
I have a better title, except Malamud already claimed it: The Natural. John Fogerty's sound could never be pinned down to time or ...
Everything But The Girl: Everything But The Girl (Sire)
Review by Roy Trakin, Creem, April 1985
YOU GREW UP on rock 'n' roll. You listened to ‘Rag Doll’ on a tiny transistor underneath your pillow and saw the Beatles on Ed ...
Firm, The, Led Zeppelin, Jimmy Page: The Jimmy Page Interview, Pt. 2
Interview by Chris Welch, Creem, May 1985
(This is the concluding segment of an interview writer Chris Welch recently conducted with Jimmy Page in Frankfurt, Germany, following one of the guitarist's premiere ...
Tears For Fears: Tears for Fears: The Stunning, The Lovely & The Brilliant
Interview by Dave DiMartino, Creem, May 1985
BATH, ENGLAND – In America, people take baths; in England, they not only take them but live in them. And they pronounce them funny – ...
Malcolm McLaren: Fans (Island)
Review by Jeffrey Morgan, Creem, May 1985
MR. MCLAREN, you may recall, is the man who gave us the New York Dolls (USSR red leather incarnation), Adam and The Ants, Bow Wow ...
Lloyd Cole & The Commotions: Rattlesnakes (Geffen)
Review by Craig Zeller, Creem, May 1985
AZTEC CAMERA when they're not being precious, the tone of the Left Banke, just a little Love, a bit of early Doors, a touch of ...
Smiths, The: The Smiths: Meat Is Murder (Sire)
Book Excerpt by Richard Riegel, Creem, June 1985
EVEN THOUGH I happen to think that this group's debut disc was one of the best albums of 1984, I'm afraid that they may be ...
Foreigner: Feels Like The Fifth Time
Interview by Sylvie Simmons, Creem, June 1985
THERE ARE TIMES when you truly appreciate Foreigner. For instance, like when Madonna's 'Like A Virgin' comes on the air. A navel she may have, ...
Bangles, The: Bangles For Sale
Interview by Iman Lababedi, Creem, June 1985
AT THE CBS building in Manhattan guitarist Susanna Hoffs (all black tights and mini-skirt) explains the Bangles' modus operandi:"It's hard to work keeping your sense of ...
Culture Club, Boy George: Look at the Boy!
Report and Interview by Cynthia Rose, Creem, June 1985
Were they rebels? Were they artists? Were they outcasts from society? They were all of these. They were the Bohemians. These bohemians, Mr. and Mrs. ...
Van Morrison: A Sense Of Wonder
Review by Mitchell Cohen, Creem, June 1985
ONE OF THE SMARTEST things Martin Scorsese did in The King Of Comedy was bracket it with songs by Ray Charles and Van Morrison. The ...
Iron Maiden: What's It All About Eddie?
Interview by Karen Schlosberg, Creem, July 1985
HEAVY METAL. Now – wait. Before you all go screaming off into the night, crossing yourselves and mouthing prayers to the soul of Michael Jackson, ...
Prince: The Wit & Wisdom Of Prince Rogers Nelson
Comment by Bill Holdship, Creem, July 1985
HE'S DEFINITELY AN American superstar – one of the most important of the '80s – and his ascent still appears to be just above ground ...
Beat Farmers, The: Beat Farmers: Tales Of The New West
Review by Roy Trakin, Creem, July 1985
ROOTS? DID I HEAR somebody say roots? These grizzled nugget-miners have wandered in from the San Diego desert town of El Centro with an impressive ...
Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers: Tom Petty: Southern Accents
Review by Mitchell Cohen, Creem, July 1985
PRETTY SOON, it will be an established practice for earnest rockers to start off albums by announcing the circumstances of their birth. ...
Power Station, The: The Power Station: The Power Station (Capitol)
Review by Jeffrey Morgan, Creem, July 1985
BEFORE WE BEGIN, I'd like to take a few seconds to point out how you can tell if a band really lords it over their ...
Autograph: The Writing's On The Wall
Interview by Roy Trakin, Creem, August 1985
LIKE FELLOW METAL popsters Ratt and Night Ranger, L.A.'s Autograph is an overnight sensation which took 10 years. ...
Interview by Karen Schlosberg, Creem, August 1985
NORTH CAROLINA has one of the neater state mottos around: Esse Quam Videri, To Be Rather Than To Seem. You might apply that motto to ...
Rick James, Mary Jane Girls, The: Rick James: Glow (Motown)/Mary Jane Girls: Only Four You (Gordy)
Review by Roy Trakin, Creem, August 1985
TO CROSSOVER or not to crossover, that is the question. Just a few short years ago, it looked like Buffalo-born Rick James would parlay his ...
Review by Mitchell Cohen, Creem, September 1985
LONE JUSTICE'S Maria McKee is one tough cookie. Barely out of her teens, she comes on with a spitfire defiance and a repertoire of yelps, ...
R.E.M.: Rock Reconstruction Getting There
Interview by Bill Holdship, Creem, September 1985
FABLES OF YEARS spent on the road. Decadent tales of groupies and drugs and arrogance and misspent lives near the top. You won't find any ...
Alison Moyet: Yaz, Alf & Other Three-Letter Words
Interview by Sylvie Simmons, Creem, September 1985
"BIG POP STAR." Alison Moyet stares into her tonic water; the ice obliges by cracking with emphasis. "It seems to have become quite an obsession ...
Interview by Sylvie Simmons, Creem, October 1985
AT THE END of the day nothing in pop music matters much anyway except the lead singer of the Shangri-Las. But there's a space where ...
Marvin Gaye: Dream Of A Lifetime
Review by Roy Trakin, Creem, October 1985
PRETTY STRANGE DUDE this Marvin Gaye. What's Goin' On, indeed. Lived his last days inna free base daze, died in a hard-to-believe Oedipal nightmare. ...
Sting: The Dream Of The Blue Turtles (A&M)
Review by Richard Riegel, Creem, October 1985
O SOLO STINGO ...
Beach Boys, The: The Beach Boys: The Beach Boys
Review by Mitchell Cohen, Creem, October 1985
SAY YOU'RE AT your high school reunion – a far-fetched thought, but bear with me for a moment – and some creep corners you by ...
Bruce Springsteen: The Year Of The Boss
Essay by John Mendelsohn, Creem, 1986
LET’S ADMIT IT to one another – there are several things we don’t like so much about Bruce Springsteen. We’re not crazy, for instance, about ...
Sting: Black Like Me: Sting Brings On The Night
Film/DVD Review by John Mendelsohn, Creem, 1986
SEVERAL YEARS AGO, in his infamous Outspoken Period, Elvis Costello allowed as how Sting ought to be cuffed mercilessly about the ears until he quit ...
Interview by Sylvie Simmons, Creem, February 1986
PADDY MCALOON likes words like a dog likes lampposts, darting from one to the next, meandering back again, cocking his conversational leg to spray another ...
John Mellencamp: John Cougar Mellencamp: Working Class Hero In The Rumbleseat
Interview by Bill Holdship, Creem, February 1986
BELMONT MALL, John Cougar Mellencamp's beautiful new recording studio, is located in a pastoral farm area not far from John's home in Bloomington, Indiana. It's ...
Smiths, The: The Smiths: We'll Meat Again
Profile and Interview by Dave DiMartino, Creem, February 1986
"I MUST BE QUITE HONEST," announces Morrissey of the Smiths. "I can understand that people can find me very irritating. And I accept that to ...
Stevie Wonder: In Square Circle
Review by Roy Trakin, Creem, February 1986
IT BUBBLES, it gurgles, it coos. You were maybe expecting ‘Fingertips Part III’? In Square Circle is a seamless piece of synthetic aural gratification that ...
Review by John Mendelsohn, Creem, February 1986
CRENSHAW SINGS like a less nasal John Lennon (whom he portrayed in Beatlemania) with the rough edges smoothed off, becomingly betrays the influence of all ...
Report and Interview by Chris Welch, Creem, March 1986
TWO YEARS AFTER the final agonizing bust-up of the Who Roger Daltrey can no longer stand premature rock burial. Daltrey never wanted the group to ...
Cure, The: There Is No Easy Cure
Interview by Sylvie Simmons, Creem, March 1986
"LOVE CURES A NIGHTMARE. A vivid recurring nightmare turned Cure leader Robert Smith into a nervous wreck. Now, as the group rockets through the charts, ...
Robyn Hitchcock: God Walks Among Us
Interview by Bill Holdship, Creem, March 1986
IN HIS OWN WORDS, some people expect Robyn Hitchcock to be "a kind of exotic species of plant" or a "wigged-out acid casualty" in the ...
Interview by Dave DiMartino, Creem, March 1986
"YOU DO IT one of two ways: either spectacle or personality. ...
ZZ Top: All The Things You Ever Wanted To Know About ZZ Top
Interview by Sylvie Simmons, Creem, March 1986
Do you sleep with your beards over or under the bedclothes?Billy Gibbons: Well, there's only one way to find that out.... ...
Review by John Mendelsohn, Creem, March 1986
HEARING ABOUT how Stevie I Wonder had to coach him on how to sing like himself on ‘We Are the World’ or watching him and ...
Waterboys, The: Something About The Waterboys
Interview by Dave DiMartino, Creem, April 1986
SUPPOSE FOR JUST a moment there was a fellow who named his band the Waterboys because "a Waterboy was something fluid and ever-changing" and also ...
Interview by Sylvie Simmons, Creem, April 1986
IT IS NO COINCIDENCE that supergroup rhymes with gloop. Supergroups are what Rolling Stone puts on the pages it can't flog to Camels and condom ...
Report and Interview by Richard Grabel, Creem, April 1986
THIS IS CRAZY. I'm in Cheriy's Roller Rink, in Northeast Washington, D.C. The place is filled with black teenagers, and even their younger brothers and ...
Judds, The: Judds: Rockin' With The Rhythm (RCA)
Review by Cynthia Rose, Creem, April 1986
A LONG YEAR on the road has honed Wynonna Judd's voice into probably the finest female instrument of country music today. ...
Pat Benatar, Divinyls: Pat Benatar: Seven the Hard Way; Divinyls: What A Life!
Review by Roy Trakin, Creem, April 1986
CHRYSALIS'S TRIED-and-true formula for reforming bad girls has always been to call for producer Mike Chapman, with his updated Spectorisms, and songwriter Holly Knight, with ...
Hooters, The: The Hooters: The Hottest Hooters in The Business
Report and Interview by Karen Schlosberg, Creem, June 1986
Part One, So You Want to be a Rock 'n' Roll Star: ...
David Lee Roth, Van Halen: David Lee Roth: Foul-Mouthed Reagan Shocks The World
Interview by Dave DiMartino, Creem, June 1986
IT'S FITTING THAT here in this unjust world, where rock stars regularly slander one another openly, where newspapers often present one and only one side ...
Hüsker Dü: Not Bohemia, But Estonia!
Interview by Richard Riegel, Creem, June 1986
"HÜSKER DÜ" is Danish for "Do you remember?," and I do, I recall very clearly my meeting with the guys from the rock band of ...
Residents, The: The Residents: Eyeball To Eyeball
Live Review by Jeff Tamarkin, Creem, June 1986
The Residents: The Ritz, New York, Jan. 16, 1986 ...
Pogues, The: The Pogues: Aye, Laddie — We're Off To The Isle…
Live Review by Jeff Tamarkin, Creem, June 1986
The Pogues: The World, New York NY ...
Essay by Cynthia Rose, Creem, June 1986
ELITISM. DICTIONARIES call it "the sense of being part of a superior or privileged group." On the street, it's more familiar as hipnitude, or novelty. ...
Interview by Sylvie Simmons, Creem, June 1986
SOME PEOPLE collect plastic airline coffee stirrers. Ozzy Osbourne collects scandals. Or rather scandal – unlike the South East London garbage service – collects Ozzy, ...
Brian Setzer: Stray Cats No More
Interview by Jeff Tamarkin, Creem, June 1986
BRIAN SETZER has been keeping a mental list. Everyone he's spoken to lately seems to think his first post-Stray Cats album, The Knife Feels Like ...
Review by Roy Trakin, Creem, June 1986
I READ THE other day where Lee Abrams, the esteemed market research expert who brought us AOR radio, said he knew "snivelling Johnny Rotten would ...
Violent Femmes: The Blind Leading The Naked
Review by Ira Robbins, Creem, June 1986
TWO LINES ON Violent Femmes' wrenchingly raw, largely acoustic debut album stand unequalled in the rock 'n' roll hall of fame for forthright candor in ...
Charlie Sexton: Facing Charlie Sexton
Interview by Dave DiMartino, Creem, July 1986
EXPERIENCE CHARLIE Sexton as I did: ...
Profile and Interview by Bill Holdship, Creem, July 1986
IT SEEMED STRANGE that Capitol Records would spend lots of money to send me and other American journalists to England in early February to see ...
Rock Magazines: Why They're So Good
Overview by John Mendelsohn, Creem, July 1986
YOU KNOW WHAT'S interesting about the rock print medium nearly two-thirds of the way through the '80s? That so much of it is aimed at ...
Green On Red, Rain Parade: Green On Red: No Free Lunch; Rain Parade: Crashing Dream
Review by Ira Robbins, Creem, July 1986
I HAVE ALWAYS attempted to give Los Angeles the benefit of the doubt as regards music. All right, so maybe I've never quite gotten over ...
Fabulous Thunderbirds: The Fabulous Thunderbirds: Tuff Enuff, Were They Actual Meat
Interview by Karen Schlosberg, Creem, August 1986
THE FABULOUS Thunderbirds have been something of a musical anomaly; their current well-deserved success, after four albums and roughly 12 years of playing steel-packed, blues-drenched ...
Julian Lennon: Julian's Treatment
Interview by Sylvie Simmons, Creem, August 1986
THERE'S SEVERAL people I wouldn't want to be, and one of them's Julian Lennon. ...
Katrina and the Waves: Songs For The Common Man
Interview by Roy Trakin, Creem, August 1986
IF IT'S TUESDAY, this must be...Universal City. You'll have to forgive this peripatetic foursome if they're a little disoriented. Plucked from the middle of an ...
LL Cool J: Float Like A Butterfly, Sting Like A Beat Box
Interview by Roy Trakin, Creem, August 1986
LL COOL J COMES on like a rap version of Muhammad Ali, taking delight in clever wordplay with a showman's sense of timing and a ...
Rolling Stones, The: Bill Wyman: Dirty Work Behind The Scenes
Interview by Chris Welch, Creem, August 1986
"WE SPENT FIVE months in Paris making the Stones' new album, and it doesn't usually take that long. We messed around for weeks because Mick ...
Let's Active: Big Plans For Everybody
Review by Ira Robbins, Creem, August 1986
WHEN MITCH EASTER, Chris Stamey, Don Dixon and their fellow travelers in the North Carolina Sneakers-cum-dB's axis drifted north 10 years ago, one characteristic they ...
Dwight Yoakam: Guitars, Cadillacs, Etc., Etc.
Review by Roy Trakin, Creem, August 1986
THE PURIST LET loose a thin stream of tobacco juice between his teeth and into the brass spittoon. "Not another 'Next Gram Parsons,"' he harumphed, ...
Fine Young Cannibals: Them's Fine Young Cannibals There!
Interview by Karen Schlosberg, Creem, August 1986
"WE'RE THE hip uncles, that's what we're going for," says Roland Gift when asked to describe the Fine Young Cannibals' image. "All the kids can ...
Yoko Ono: Scream And Scream Again
Live Review by Jeff Tamarkin, Creem, September 1986
Yoko Ono: Beacon Theater, New York, May 22, 1986 ...
Replacements, The: The Replacements: Drinking (And Drinking Lots More!)
Interview by Bill Holdship, Creem, September 1986
SO "WHO'S HOT?" ...
Bob Seger: The Creem Interview: Bob Seger
Interview by Roy Trakin, Creem, September 1986
"My hands were steady/My eyes were clear and bright/My walk had purpose/My steps were quick and light/And I held firmly/To what I felt was right/Like ...
Judas Priest: Leathered, Studded Dudes Or…
Interview by Sylvie Simmons, Creem, September 1986
COWS ARE VERY useful except in India. There are varying degrees of cow-use – milk, cheese, burgers, cheeseburgers – but none so useful as the ...
Pogues, The: The Pogues: It's Really Pogue, Man
Profile and Interview by Richard Grabel, Creem, September 1986
TALKING TO Shane MacGowan, singer and lyricist with a spirited bunch of North London Irish lunatics called the Pogues – trying to decipher the words ...
Velvet Underground: The Velvet Underground: Another View
Review by Cynthia Rose, Creem, September 1986
INTO THE HANDS of today's waiting worshippers – and yet, the mystery remains. ...
Interview by Karen Schlosberg, Creem, October 1986
"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 ...
Interview by Richard Grabel, Creem, October 1986
IT'S BEAUTIFUL down in Winston-Salem, North Carolina, where Let's Active live. Maybe it influences the gentle dynamism and meticulous construction of their ingenious pop sounds ...
Metallica: I Confronted Metallica On Their Own Terms!
Interview by Sylvie Simmons, Creem, October 1986
METALLICA. YOU KNOW the story. Those that don't are doomed to have me repeat it. ...
Emerson Lake And Palmer: Emerson Lake: Rockin' Dudes Or Art-Rock Mofos?
Interview by Dave DiMartino, Creem, October 1986
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 ...
Interview by Roy Trakin, Creem, October 1986
THE SYSTEM OF law in New Guinea involves a concept loosely defined as "payback," which means if one village has wronged another, that village is ...
Cure, The: The Head On The Cure
Interview by Dave DiMartino, Creem, December 1986
IMAGINE BEING SENT BACK THROUGH TIME! ...
Moody Blues, The: The Moody Blues Are Older Than You
Interview by Sylvie Simmons, Creem, December 1986
"SOMETIMES WE'RE a little misunderstood and people think that maybe we have a lot of answers which we don't have. Really," Justin Hayward leans forward ...
Bananarama: These Charming Girls
Interview by Iman Lababedi, Creem, December 1986
"Who steals my purse steals trash, 'tis something, nothing; 'twas mine, 'tis his, and has been slave to thousands. But he who filches from me ...
Smiths, The: The Smiths: Fox Theater, Detroit
Live Review by Bill Holdship, Creem, December 1986
IT ALL BOILS down to the collapse and decay of the British Empire. You could blame it on Margaret Thatcher. Or on Joy Division. Or ...
Monkees, The: I Like The Monkees
Retrospective and Interview by Bill Holdship, Creem, December 1986
ONE OF THE worst aspects of rock 'n' roll is that it's often centered on this debate as to whether something is "cool" or not. ...
Review by Ira Robbins, Creem, December 1986
I CAN VAGUELY recall learning something in high, school biology, an explanation why molecular goosh flows out of, rather than into, an amoeba under certain ...
Hall & Oates, Daryl Hall: Daryl Hall: I Gotta Be Me!
Interview by Deborah Frost, Creem, January 1987
...Sez Ex Philly Teen Oddball ...
Review by John Mendelsohn, Creem, January 1987
SHE'S FEATURED her mom in most of her videos, and had her along to all the big gala awards shows too, so you get the ...
Human League, The: Human League: Crash
Review by Ira Robbins, Creem, January 1987
I HAVE GRAVE trouble imagining what sort of people would describe themselves as real fans of certain swill that's on the market today. Casual or ...
Interview by Bill Holdship, Creem, March 1987
ALICE COOPER'S 'Under My Wheels' is a rock 'n' roll classic. You can put it on a party tape or hear it on the radio ...
Human League, The: Give Human League A Chance
Interview by Sylvie Simmons, Creem, March 1987
THEY LIVE IN Sheffield. Because they like it there. Because it's ordinary but sort of esoteric at the same time, straightforward but not stupid, arty ...
Elvis Costello & The Attractions: The Riviera, Chicago
Live Review by Bill Holdship, Creem, March 1987
ELVIS COSTELLO & The Attractions' early Detroit shows are among my fondest rock 'n' roll memories. I saw him the first time he played the ...
Billy Idol: Billy Then, Idol Now
Profile by Kris Needs, Creem, March 1987
"I HOPE IF I get it right, it'll be a great record. If I get it wrong, it'll be in the trash-bin. I wouldn't be ...
Bruce Springsteen: The E Street Band Live/1975-85
Review by John Mendelsohn, Creem, March 1987
ON THE SUNNY, balmy Monday this was released the local deejays said, absenteeism in San Francisco broke all records, as tens of thousands of otherwise ...
Cyndi Lauper: Doing That Primitive Thing
Interview by Sylvie Simmons, Creem, April 1987
SHE WOULD HAVE been born in the back of a New York taxi if they hadn't crossed her mother's legs and stuffed her back in ...
Georgia Satellites: Fire The Retro Rockets
Interview by Jeff Tamarkin, Creem, April 1987
"CREEM WAS always my favorite magazine when I was a kid," Rick Richards is saying, dreams of Boy Howdy running through his mind. "I remember ...
Pretenders, The: Chrissie Hynde: Without Cruelty To Animals
Interview by Deborah Frost, Creem, April 1987
THERE WAS THE time, in 1975, Blue Oyster Cult was trying to have a peaceful dinner in Paris and this chick walked across the tables ...
Orchestral Manoeuvres In The Dark: The Pacific Age
Review by John Mendelsohn, Creem, April 1987
NOT ALL THAT is wrong with modern pop is wrong with OMD. They don't try desperately to look like badasses of the most fearsome sort ...
Beastie Boys, The: The Beastie Boys: Lay it Down, Clowns!
Profile and Interview by Chuck Eddy, Creem, May 1987
"They took the doors off their hinges and moved them around. They flooded two floors with the fire hoses. They plugged up the toilets and ...
Beastie Boys, The: The Beastie Boys: Licensed to Ill
Review by Iman Lababedi, Creem, May 1987
THE MOST EXCITING white rock album since Never Mind the Bollocks has lousy politics. ...
Profile and Interview by Mark Dery, Creem, June 1987
"In Switzerland they kept slammin' the microphone into my face and throwing beer cans at us all night. So the next person that did it, ...
Interview by Karen Schlosberg, Creem, July 1987
AN UPDATE on the attempted Americanization of XTC. For an eighth full album the trio is told, as reported by stalwart singer/songwriter/guitarist Andy Partridge, to ...
Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers: Tom Petty: Less Is More, More Or Less
Interview by Bud Scoppa, Creem, August 1987
"She hit me, Daddy!""I did not." ...
Hipsway Takes The Plunge Crotch Deep In The Hoopla
Profile and Interview by Bud Scoppa, Creem, August 1987
HOW SWEET IT IS to be wanted – first by lotsa major-label A&R types, then by radio programmers, and finally by people with cash in ...
Live Review by Roy Trakin, Creem, August 1987
U2: Los Angeles Sports Arena, April 17-22, 1987 ...
U2: The Unforgettable Band: A U2 Overview
Overview by Kris Needs, Creem, August 1987
MAY 1, 1980, AND I'm sitting on a plane bound for Dublin. Next to me, the Island Records publicity man is telling me about the ...
Retrospective and Interview by Karen Schlosberg, Creem, August 1987
SHERMAN, INTO the Wayback Machine. The year: 1981. A young Irish quartet called U2 is promoting its debut album, Boy. Its lead singer is simply ...
Replacements, The: Replacements: Pleased To Meet Me
Review by Ira Robbins, Creem, August 1987
LIKE SOME STRAY dog you find in an alley, Minneapolis's Replacements are a scruffy mongrel of a band: uncontrollable and ugly, but somehow irresistable. You ...
David Bowie: Never Let Me Down
Review by Roy Trakin, Creem, August 1987
THE PICTURE OF Dorian Bowie, in which the master remains young but his music begins to limp. Or the boy who cried wolf, so that ...
Replacements, The: The Replacements: The Pleasure Is All Yours
Interview by Bill Holdship, Creem, September 1987
FOR THE MOST part, I hate rock 'n' roll. Probably not the smartest thing to admit in print, and I wish it wasn't true. I ...
Heart: Speaking Pelican? Like Hell They Can!
Interview by Sylvie Simmons, Creem, September 1987
ON THE SOFA from the right: Ann Wilson, Denny Carmassi, Howard Leese. All in black. Easy on the eyes on a filthy British day. Don't ...
What's The Matter With Kids Today?
Comment by John Mendelsohn, Creem, October 1987
THERE ARE lots of wide open spaces around where I live. In the late spring, I can gaze out from the window of my study ...
Genesis: In Defense Of Genesis
Interview by Chris Welch, Creem, October 1987
"BECAUSE I'VE HAD solo success, people say I've suddenly got a stranglehold on the group, who want to make as much money as possible and ...
Long Ryders, The: Long Ryders: Bye Bye Byrdie
Interview by Jeff Tamarkin, Creem, October 1987
LET'S JUST GET this part out of the way, since it's gonna come up anyway and maybe you're one of the ones who got pissed ...
Interview by Sylvie Simmons, Creem, October 1987
WARREN ZEVON has perfected the art of squirming without perceptible movement. Crumpled on a couch in a windowless record company boxroom, the man with the ...
Chris Isaak Has It All Backwards
Interview by Bud Scoppa, Creem, October 1987
THREE TEENAGERS stand by the backstage door of the Hollywood Palace. As the sun sets behind them, the kids – two girls and a boy ...
John Hiatt : Have A Little Faith
Interview by Bill Holdship, Creem, October 1987
JOHN HIATT IS onstage at the Roxy in L.A.; just him and a piano. It's part of this international convention A&M Records is holding to ...
LL Cool J Takes The Rap, Beats The Rap, Raps It Up, Raps Around The Clock, Encourages Bad Puns
Interview by Jon Young, Creem, October 1987
"YOU AIN'T gettin' no scoop, lookin' at me with your beady eyes!" ...
Profile and Interview by Chuck Eddy, Creem, October 1987
"WHAT IF BEINGS from another dimension telepathically force us to change our moral overview? What then??" ...
Review by Roy Trakin, Creem, October 1987
THE CAGNEY AND LACEY of rock 'n' roll are back with their increasingly polished version of Ms. Zeppelin. This is the kind of thing you ...
Warren Zevon: Sentimental Hygiene
Review by Bud Scoppa, Creem, October 1987
AS A HARD-BOILED confessional work, Sentimental Hygiene (Zevon's seventh album and his first in five years) has less in common with current rock than it ...
Cure, The: Taking The Cure With Robert
Interview by Deborah Frost, Creem, October 1987
"I put make-up on when I wake up. Some times, if I'm go-ing shopping, depend-ing upon what shop I'm going to, I wear it. If ...
Curiosity Killed The Cat: Meowing For Dollars
Profile and Interview by Deborah Frost, Creem, November 1987
ENGLAND MIGHT have never lost the Empire if she'd only listened to her taxi drivers. Here it is, 5 a.m., my time. I've just stumbled ...
Fabulous Thunderbirds: Can Rich Men Sing The Blues?
Interview by Roy Trakin, Creem, December 1987
THESE ARE THE best and worst of times for the Fabulous Thunderbirds. After 14 lean years and four commercial flops, the Austin, Texas-based critical darlings ...
John Mellencamp: John Cougar Mellencamp: Growing Up In Public
Interview by Bill Holdship, Creem, December 1987
You'd think that John Cougar Mellencamp would be living a rock 'n' roll version of the proverbial life of Riley. ...
Cars, The: The Cars: The 50,000 Mile Tune Up
Interview by Roy Trakin, Creem, January 1988
DR. YOGI BUP is the alias Elliot Easton uses when he checks into a room on the road. Imagine that. It's not enough that the ...
Interview by Bill Holdship, Creem, January 1988
I'M A LITTLE nervous – and I don't get this way often these days. But I've heard that Tom Waits can be a difficult interview. ...
Interview by Roy Trakin, Creem, February 1988
"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 ...
Mick Jagger: Noble Savage, Primitive Cool & All
Interview by Sylvie Simmons, Creem, February 1988
HE WALKS INTO the room radiating presence in an offhand sort of way, and people cower. He just looks so disconcertingly...well, Jaggeresque. ...
INXS: Splat! INXS Makes The Sound Of SUXS
Interview by Bud Scoppa, Creem, February 1988
INXS FRONTMAN Michael Hutchence is draped casually across an easy chair in a suite at West Hollywood's Sunset Marquis Hotel. An industrial vacuum cleaner rests ...
Interview by Sylvie Simmons, Creem, March 1988
HELL, AT LEAST he's trying. Plenty have called him pretentious – quoting Shakespeare to drunks, diddling Jung, sporting philosophers and musicians like designer accessories – ...
Review by Roy Trakin, Creem, March 1988
THIS IS ALMOST as satisfying a return to form as Sugar Ray Leonard's victory over Marvelous Marvin Hagler and practically as much of an upset. ...
Review by Bill Holdship, Creem, March 1988
IN MANY WAYS, George Harrison's kinda had it unfair. Just as Let It Be has probably always been underrated mainly because it was a Beatles ...
Screaming Blue Messiahs: A Box Of Screaming Blue Messiahs
Interview by Sylvie Simmons, Creem, April 1988
THERE'S A WHITE Madonna and a black Prince, a metal Priest and a buffy Saint Marie and three Screaming Blue Messiahs: Bill Carter, Chris Thompson ...
Divine Horsemen, Meat Puppets: Meat Puppets: Huevos/Divine Horsemen: Snake Handler (both SST)
Review by Roy Trakin, Creem, April 1988
IF THERE'S ANY doubt that the balance has shifted in the bi-coastal rock community – in terms of talent, excitement, commitment, energy, etc. – from ...
Review by Bud Scoppa, Creem, April 1988
SINCE 1980, when they left the Tourists to become a duo, Dave Stewart and Annie Lennox – a.k.a. the Eurythmics – have displayed an intriguing ...
Soul Asylum: Plaider Than You’ll Ever Be
Profile and Interview by Ira Robbins, Creem, May 1988
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, ...
David Johansen: The Strange Case Of Buster Poindexter
Interview by Roy Trakin, Creem, June 1988
"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 ...
Robert Plant, Led Zeppelin: Robert Plant, Technobilly
Interview by Chuck Eddy, Creem, June 1988
A FEW MONTHS back, Robert Plant walked into Atlantic Records' London offices and played 'Scream', by Ralph Nielsen & The Chancellors. Now, I dunno if ...
Review by Bill Holdship, Creem, June 1988
TOTALLY UNEXPECTED, totally out of the blue, and just when you'd almost given up on hearing anything this exciting again... ...
Steve Winwood: The Steve Winwood Chronicles
Profile and Interview by Sylvie Simmons, Creem, July 1988
HE SEEMS QUITE MONK-LIKE – steady stare, fish-pale complexion and a faraway look that, if I'd brought a compass, I could guarantee went in the ...
Interview by Robert Gordon, Creem, 1991
Robert Gordon takes on Ice Cube over racism, sexism, homophobia and society ...
Elvis Costello: Mighty Like a Mouth
Interview by Richard Gehr, Creem, June 1991
What do we talk about when we talk about pop music? "Rock & roll is a ludicrous response to most things," admits Elvis Costello. ...
Interview by Robert Gordon, Creem, 1992
IT'S BEEN more than five years since Michelle Shocked became an international star by sitting around a Texas campfire and singing her songs into a ...
Clarence 'Gatemouth' Brown: Clarence ‘Gatemouth’ Brown
Interview by Robert Gordon, Creem, 1992
"I STARTED OUT in boogie woogie, went from there into big band jazz and I've just kept stepping on and on," says Gatemouth Brown. He's ...
Interview by Amy Linden, Creem, October 1992
ALTHOUGH THE understated and pointedly emotional The Criminal Under My Hat (Columbia) is Texas-raised/L.A.-based producer/musician T-Bone Burnett's first release since 1988, he ain't exactly in ...
Review by Jason Cohen, Creem, October 1992
FOR THE LAST ten years, every time there was a public poetry reading, ROIR cassette or CD reissue by Richard Hell, my friend Michael and ...
Report by Tony Fletcher, Creem, November 1992
In its broadest sense, techno is a form of up-tempo, mainly instrumental electronic dance music, founded in Detroit in the 1980s by producers inspired by ...
Alejandro Escovedo: Gravity (Watermelon)
Review by Jason Cohen, Creem, November 1992
A MEMBER of the same clan that produced percussionists Coke, Pete, and Sheila, the fortysomething Escovedo played in S.F. prototype punkers the Nuns, cowpunk originators ...
Donald Fagen: Get Your Motor Running
Interview by Hank Bordowitz, Creem, 1993
With Kamakiriad, Donald Fagen proves that behind every great album is a great car ...
Report and Interview by Mark Petracca, Creem, January 1993
As I reach the threshold of the mighty warrior, i feel a shudder pass through me. My self-worth is at stake. My shoes are too ...
Stone Temple Pilots: Core (Atlantic)
Review by Jason Cohen, Creem, January 1993
IT LOOKS like Stone Temple Pilots are the first of what will be a long line of post-Pearl Jam/Soundgarden/Nirvana major-label grunge contenders. So, let's give ...
Report and Interview by Amy Linden, Creem, March 1993
THE STEREO MC's are all settled into their surprisingly comfy touring vehicle, headed up the highways (or whatever the British term is). On the road ...
Young Disciples: Road to Freedom (Mercury)
Review by Amy Linden, Creem, March 1993
GET MORE than three Brits together in the same club and the next thing you know you've got yourself a whole goddamn movement, with accompanying ...
Review by Jason Cohen, Creem, March 1993
THOUGH IT DOES hail from the Northwestern part of the United States, Pond is not hairy, metallic, or from Seattle. Instead, clean-shaven guitarist/vocalist Charlie Campbell ...
U2, Negativland: Negativland: A Fistful Of Lawsuits
Report and Interview by Tony Fletcher, Creem, April 1993
"I don't think there are any record companies right now in the real sense of the word. We're all in the fashion business. You used ...
Profile and Interview by Amy Linden, Creem, April 1993
BEFORE SHE had even secured a record deal, Simone Johnson, aka Monie Love, was already one of the most in-demand rappers on the burgeoning Afrocentric ...
Profile and Interview by Christine Natanael, Creem, April 1993
"THE EARLIEST people that helped to invent rock 'n' roll and create whatever It may have gotten to today – people like Johnny Cash and ...
Interview by Amy Linden, Creem, April 1993
SNOW, HIS mixer Prince, their manager, their publicist, and myself are seated around a table trying to figure out what it is we have ordered ...
Ice-T and Andrew Dice Clay: Ice and Dice
Interview by Mark Petracca, Creem, June 1993
No, not just another Friday the 13th film. Just a state of mind. ...
Profile and Interview by Jason Cohen, Creem, June 1993
SEATTLE'S MOST incendiary and intriguing electric guitarist has nothing to do with that city's rock scene. ...
Review by Jason Cohen, Creem, June 1993
THOSE WHO found Nanci Griffith's last two efforts for MCA to be awash in pop-lite production and overblown instrumentation should take Other Voices, Other Rooms ...
Jellyfish: Just For The Jell Of It
Profile and Interview by John Mendelsohn, Creem, July 1993
QUEEN LIVES! And so do the Beach Boys and Beatles of the Pet Sounds/Sgt. Pepper era as well. Or at least, you recall them all ...
Roxy Music, Bryan Ferry: Bryan Ferry: The Original's Still The Greatest
Interview by Ben Edmonds, Creem, July 1993
"Why don't we just call the damn magazine Roxy Music Monthly?" ...
Review by Jason Cohen, Creem, July 1993
GUTTERBALL IS one-time Dream Syndicate leader Steve Wynn, House of Freaks members Bryan Harvey and Johnny Hott, their part-time guitarist (and ex-Silo) Bob Rupe, and ...
Report and Interview by Mark Petracca, Creem, September 1993
ROBERT PLANT, looking very fresh with only 27 years of rock 'n' rolling under his belt and leather jeans, is seated in the lone hotel ...
Tori Amos: I Believe In Peace, Bitch. Tori Amos Talks Back
Profile and Interview by Ben Edmonds, Creem, March 1994
EVERYBODY IS multi-lingual. You learn a language to communicate with other people. You learn a dream language to communicate with yourself. But the real language, ...
Allman Brothers Band, Lynyrd Skynyrd: The South Rises Again: The Improbable Return of Redneck Rock
Overview by Robert Gordon, Creem, 1995
Robert Gordon on Capricorn Records and the Southern Rock Revival ...
Willie "Loco" Alexander: The Persistence of Willie ‘Loco’ Alexander
Interview by Dave Thompson, Creem, 1995
YOU DON'T HAVE to be mad to like Willie Alexander's new album (and it doesn't particularly matter if you are), but from the moment The ...
Pete Townshend: The Deluxe Edition Solo Albums (Universal Music)
Review by Jeffrey Morgan, Creem, May 2006
THIS IS IN DEFENSE of Pete Townshend, who'd probably be the first to argue that he doesn't need anyone defending him in public—least of all ...
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Essential Listening: Green Day grilled by Roy Trakin
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Essential Reading: Bud Scoppa's 1971 Byrds classic