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