Dear CREEM:

Yeah, Marcus is exactly right. We’re going to do something about it. A revolution is based in theory, but functions through action. Marcus has defined the field of action, but we are militants, not theoreticians, and we propose to move. However, it is a revolutionary’s responsibility to explain his actions to the people. Therefore...

Well it’s

One for the money

Two for the show?

Three to get ready

Now go cat go: ;

THE TOP TEN NGN-NEGOTIABLE DEMANDS

*¶1 We demand an end to all stereo records.Stereo mixdowns are necessarily “soft,” and lack the punch of a fine mono mix. Multichannel recording will be tolerated (as long as tracking is not employed), but only for the purpose of producing high-quality monaural mixdowns.

f 2. We demand the immediate withdrawal . of all lp records which have been reprocessed for fake stereo, as such records falsify the history of the people’s music and dilute its power. At the same time, we demand the immediate re-release of the original recordings from which these counter-revolutionary imitations have-been taken.

3. We demand an end to so-called underground’ FM radio stations, Such stations claim to be the vanguard of the rock movement, but are really only classical music stations in drag.

4. We demand an end to bullshit rock publications such as Rolling Stone. People’s rock magazines such asICREEM, and fanzines such as Who Put The Bomp will be tolerated,, as it would be unnecessarily cruel to rock writers and critics if they had nd publications for which to write.

* 5. We demand that all FM multiplex and high fidelity sound reproduction equipment be removed from places where the masses gather for purposes of recreation and education, and that such equipment be replaced with nickel jukeboxes.

6. We demand that no musicians be allowed to put out an album until they prove themselves worthy of the people’s time and attention. Such'worthiness shall consist of having a hit single in ;the AM top forty for a period of not less than two weeks.

7. We demand an end to piggish lies and hip capitalist bullshit propaganda such as perpetrated in the rock press and “underground” FM stations by lackey running dog record companies and high priced under assistant promo men.

8. We demand an end to decadent, intellectual, so-called “meaningful” song lyrics, and a return to the true proletarian poetry of the masses. Such songs as “One Fine Day,” “Heat Wave,” and “Get A Job” shall be considered proper revolutionary models on which tohase the renaissance of people’s music.

9.We demand a series of free rock and roll concerts to be given at regular and frequent intervals by the elected representatives of the people. We state and affirm that such concerts are the inalienable right of a free people in a free society, and are not to be abridged or denied except at the society’s direst peril.

■ 1.0. We demand that every dancehall or ballroom owner who sells so many tickets that there’s no room to dance be considered a pig and an enemy of the people, and be dealt with appropriately. > * ,

THE TRUE PURPOSE OF ROCK AND ROLL IS TO SPUR THE MASSES TO GREATER AWARENESS OF THEIR POWER. THIS POWER SPRINGS FROM THE KNOWLEDGE OF ITS ONENESS. MUSIC WHICH DOES NOT FULFILL THIS BASIC PURPOSE WILL NOT BE TOLERATED.

THE MIDNIGHT RAIDERS

San Francisco, Calif.

(Is this the second manifesto of the Rock Facism league? — Ed.)

Dear Creem, ,\

How come when I said all the things that Greil Marcus said in Rock-a-Hulla etc., everybody laughed and called me a punk kid?

With ail due respect,

R.A. Pinkston IV

Dear CREEM:

I found the piece “Rock A Hula Clarified” very interesting. The attempt to explain Grand Funk was of particular interest to. me, especially since it gave an intelligent view of the; group’s audience. A question is, however, raised-by the Grand Funk’s very existence: why were they the one' group that adolescent America chose to be the focal point of their mass adulation? Like any amateur critic, I have a theory which you may find of interest.

In my early adolescence, I was particularly fond of two “underground” music magazines. Circus, because it had nifty color pictures and Hit Parader because it was easy to get at tire usually culturally deprived drug stores in my neighborhood, m January of 1970, both of these publications printed a Capitol press release verbatim that made Capitol’s new group, Grand Funk Railroad, appear to be the American answer to Cream (no pun intended). Readers all over America, biting at the hype, went out and bought the first two albums, told their friends about the group and eagerly awaited a chance to see the group live. When I corresponded with friepds around the country, I discovered that they were plagued by similar circumstances. The disillusioned /decided to ignore the group, while downer freaks and acid people every where were turned oh to Grand Funk while tripping. Now Grand Funk has risen above the people as well as their gimmick. The band has gone almost totally 'deaf due to their self-distorting amplification and, at. a recent show in One of Chicago’s larger psychedelic dungeons, they were seperated from their adoring audience by a line of black belt karate experts. Their creativity is gone and they now must do the material of others. (Let’s face it, before, if someone else would have recorded one of their songs, the result would probably -have been way above the original, poorly-produced versions).

Meanwhile, Hit Parader and Circus have sunk to an incredibly low creative level and are supported by an almost exclusive Grand Funk audience. So be it. The wages of hype is death.

Lawrence Keenan

Markham, Illinois

Dear CREEM:

I thought you might be interested to hear that KMPX-FM played “I Love You Baby, But You Don’t Dress Cool” off the Frut album at 4:29 p.m., May 28, the first time that great, cut and album been heard on radio waves of the Bay area. Music justice!

Tom Clark

Botinas, Calif.

Dear CREEM:

Although I read lots of rock mags I am yet to find anything of interest on the whereabouts of Jeff Beck.

It’s been so long since his accident I’m beginning to think people have forgotten about him, and that’s probably true, because those so-called “rock” magazines haven’t printed anything worth reading about him. I know that there has been good articles on what he used to do, but what’s he doing now?

A Musician’s Friend

Van Nuys, CA.

(Last time we saw him, he was doing an interview with Melody Maker — sometime last month, we believe. - Ed.)

Dear CREEM:

Tell Lester. Bangs that “Buzz-Buzz-A-Diddle-It”, “Running Bear”, “Bristol Stonip” and Dion’s version of “Come Go With Me” are all from the 60’s. “Take Your Clothes Off and I’ll Love You” is from outer space...

The Famous Alaska King Crab Jr.

Austin, Texas

Dear CREEM:

We started to follow Frut in early CREEM issues. Two issues ago we read Bangs’ review of the Frut’s lp and figuring Bangs’ new love for high-energy sounds was sincere, we thought the album would be worth getting — but alas, it was on obscure Trash and was destined never to see the light of day here in The Big Apple. After getting the May issue with Frut on the cover, and your 58 page extravaganza on the inside, we became even more interested — and lo and behold we picked up Frut a few days later for $1.49 (demo copy) on their new Westbound pressing.

Now we’ve been into rock and roll for a long time (played our first gig in the womb) and live with the Five, Stooges, Cooper, the Music Machine, Velvets, etc. — earlier-Holly, Question Mark, Bobby Seeger, etc. Frut might be good now, or good live, but the album is so low energy, and, talent, that it should be patented as a sure-fire cure for insomnia. No originality, no force, no excitement — no nothin’!

If this disc “catches the young, sassy and jive spirit of the Motor City” then the Motor City’s really burning. This is so lame I couldn’t dance to it if I had a live wire stuck up my ass. It’s this procreation of mediocrity that gives rock and roll and the Motor City a bad name.

FREE ALL POLITICAL PRISONERS AND THE FRUT!

LONG LIVE ROCK AND ROLL!

Alan Betrock and Bert Rothman

NYC, NY t

P.S.: Tell Lester that if he thinks this drivel is rock and roll then he should move in with my mom and pop at the old age home.

P.P.S.: There’s room for Frut, too!

Dear CREEM:

In regards to that record review of Lightnin’ Slim’s ‘Rooster Blues’, which has been reissued by Blue Horizon: It stated that maybe someone could find Lightnin’ Slim and get him out of his retirement.

Well, GOOD NEWS! A little over a year ago, I found Lightnin’ living in Pontiac Mich* igan, where he has been working at a lock factory. Since meeting him, I have talked him out of his retirement He performed at the University of Chicago Folk Festival in January, and also, at the Chess Mate in Detroit. He has just signed a new recording contract with Excello. *

In my opinion, Lightnin’ Slim is one of the best post-war bluesman ever put on record. He. is now available for bookings, if anyone would like to hear his ‘straight from the swamps’ blues.

Peace,

Fred Reif

1928 Robinwood St.

Saginaw, Michigan

Dear CREEM:

So you got a new format. And also cost. 15c more. Well, I can tell you what you could do to spruce it up even more. 1) Kick John Mendholson back to the Whiskey a Go Go and don’t let him in the mag again unless he decides to go back and just write good record reviews. He’s turned into the biggest bore since Jon Eison. 2) Tell Lester Bangs to, in the words of his almighty Velvet Underground, just “cool it down” a litttle bit. He’s okay, but there’s no need to write 50 fucking pages of your personal vibes and revelations and microscopic disection of each album track just because you happen to dig one group or another. A lot of other people dig ’em too, but they’ve already h^urd the records, so What’re you doin’, jerkin’off? A nice two page article is fine. Better yet stick to fiction. Better yet, take over Dave Marsh’s Looney Toons column, because 3) Marsh, who’s really a fine writer and has lots of good ideas, is just getting so fucking HEAVY. I mean, introspection and the serious approach are okay in their place (though frankly, I couldn’t care less that Dave has suddenly discovered that Grand Funk are his soul brothers just because he grew up a few miles from where they did), politics is fine in its place but maybe you should start sendin’ him out to cover demonstrations or something instead, because he sure don’t sound like he’s been cruisin’ for burgers. He sounds like he’s been sittin’ on that chair in that picture you ran contemplating all that stuff with that Serious expression on his face for far too long! Get the boy out for some sunshine! And let Bangs do Looney Tunes for awhile, that way he won’t get in the way, he seems like the main loon you got anyway, so just give him a column or 2 to prattle in and then I’ll be spared anymore of those' exhaustive Encyclopedia Britannica entries on the Stooges. Whew! If you follow all this advice you may begin to have some, kind of a magazine instead of a forum for any blathering Bozo with a typewriter to just get up and lay all his precious perceptions on us. You guys must think you’re responsible for what’s gonna happen to the musical tastes and political destinies of all us poor kids out in the streets without the benefit of your deep far-reaching insight! Does it really weigh heavy on your shoulders? You poor unsung bastards. Well, dig it: NOBODY NEEDS TO BE TOLD WHAT TO LIKE OR WHY THEY SHOULD LIKE IT OR WHAT LIKING THIS OR NOT LIKING THAT IMPLIES. Dig it? And please don’t try to raise your consciousness, okay? Just do a magazine, and maybe make it a little bit less Personal. Because you may not be who you think you are, and we may nof either.

I know this sounds like a poison pen letter, but it’s not. We’re not down on you, it’s just the way you seem to be coming on lately. We really like Creem, beats thfct Stone rag by a mile, and Fushion is even more obsessed with themselves than you guys are. So we really dig what you’re doing, it’s just the vibes we get sometimes, you know?

Take it easy,

Chris Samson

Paw Paw, Mich.

P.S. R. Meltzer you can tell to keep doin’ just like he has been, whatever he wants to. He’s doin’ just fine!

Dear CREEM:

Hey, would you call this a-conspiracy or what?

Thirty publishers rejected Steal This Book; in many places it produced huge internal conflicts. In Random House, for example, my editor, Chris Cetf, acted out his Oedipal Conflict and abandoned Cerfdom when they refused (at RCA’s insistence) to publish the book. McGraw-Hill made a huge offer if I would let them edit out (never use the word censorship in the phony liberal publishing world) a number of things. Naturally, they all had problems because they realized Steal This Book would be a hit.

Repressive tolerance definitely has its limits. Next step: 16 printers refuse to print book. Next step: half ’the bookstores in the U.S. including the Doubleday chain, Harvard and Yale bookstores, my own alma-mater Brandeis Univ., all the liberal bastjons, again refuse to carry the book. Ramparts printed an except and was bombarded with cancellations. I got a great letter from Frank Register (sic) president of the National Grocers Association blaming me for current inflation in food prices.

It’s also hard to even get the word out on the book. Naturally, after the flag-shirt bit on the Merv Griffin Show, I am not allowed on any major network show. Me and some friends did a radio commercial, and although it’s pretty tame, no radio station in NY will play it. Also, most newspapers including the N. Y. Times refuse to advertise the book (the ad simply has the. title and my name). Another interesting fact is that it has been out a month now and has very few reviews and none in any major above-ground paper. With all this shit, we gotta be doing something right!

People can write directly to us with $2.20 in money order, cash or check and they’ll get a book. The royalties are going to support WPAX, broadcasting alternative news and music to armed forces personnel overseas. We also are going to publish some more radical-cultural books.

Also, you should ignore the copyright and reprint the book if you want and give the bread to some right on cause.

Luv and other three letter words,

Abbie Hoffman

Pirate Editions Inc.

640 Broadway

N.Y., N.Y. 10012

Dear CREEM:

Having just finished reading your excellent issue of Creem, no. 3, I have come to the conclusion that it’s just what I need to round off my habit of magazines and/or papers which include everything from the Nola Express to Rolling Stone and our local Guerilla. In a way, I think that you are going to force Rolling Stone to improve if they want to keep up.

I still haven’t been able to read the whole issue because there’s so much of it there, it’s just overwhelming and simply beautiful I don’t want to compliment just a couple of people featured because every one else is so good that it might appear as an insult to them.

How about getting someone to review Crowbar’s Bad Manors lp which is one of the boppinest albums ever to come out of Canada. Keep tuned to some Toronto news, ’cause there’s going to be a couple big events in the next couple of mpnths including Beggars Banquet 2 and Rockport.

Serge

Toronto, Ont

Dear CREEM:

I hesitate to make seemingly petty complaints about what has to be one of the best issues of any rockmag ever, but honestly, your typesetter must’ve been out to lunch while preparing my article. For the sake of your many readers who must be doubting their powers of comprehension after trying to read the article (The Real Rock'n’Roll Underground, Vol. 3, No, 3) allow me to try and decode the thing.

Continued on page 80.

Continued from page 6.

When you get to the second column and the line ending “persuading the” you should skip over to the next column and begin read* ing with “record companies to issue them”. Continue into the next page until you come to “Beach Boys albums and the”, then go back to where you originally left off. Now yOu can read on until “editors themselves. It is”, at which point you turn the page and pick up with “almost by definition...” From there on it’s all O.K.

I also have some addenda to go with these errata. Little Sandy Review was published for a long time in Minnesota before moving to , California, and only lasted through two rockoriented issues before its folk-purist readers rebelled. 1967 also saw Meth Monster Medicine (John Jacob, Michigan)* and Vibrations (Verb Debes, Arizona). Here are some contemporary fanzines that have recently come to light: King Harvest Review (Robert Wilson, Box 3071, Lawrence, Kansas, 66044 — Current Scene, highly recommended; 12/$4); Fire-Ball Mad (DR. H.J.G., Hoebenstraat 12, Best, Holland - Jerry Lee Le wis-zine); Hotcha! Urban Gwerder, Box 304, CH-802S, Zurich, Switzerland, $5/year) and a brand new one, Jamz (Alan Betrodc, 37-06 89th Street, Jackson Heights, NY 11372 — Current Scene, very good; 25c).

The field seems to be in for another boom, so I advise readers who want to keep up to subscribe to Who Put the Bomp (see, I’m not so shy) which has the only regular fanzine review section. .

Before I leave 1 guess I oughta say something to Carlos Fisher, but I’m no Lester Bangs, so I'll just say that I And F. Zappa’s and K. Marx’s philosophies, both equally dull. If you care to defend either of them, Carl, I suggest you stick to the point and never mind about free tickets for my old lady (my wife to you, bub).;

Greg Shaw

Fairfax CA.

(Typesetters Note: We must plead innocence to that piece of transgression. Our control over perfection ends after the copy leaves our hands and while we do strive for total perfection as we type the numerous articles, sometimes the mind becomes boggled in fields of reticular splendor at the golden, sylvan epistles, Olympic euphoria, and herculean truths that pass within our field of vision [collective], opening new and previously undreamed, unheard of places, events, people, like wild saffron in swaying fields of wind kissed grass [controlled and augmented], or freshly cut mari]4X2A-FlELd TeRminate Code61193ttSub Groupings AlpHAOMICR ONmm8*B )

Dear CREEM,

I didn’t dig that bit about “Father George” a bit. When was the last time your idiot writer listened to “All Things Must Pass”? Anybody that thinks Johnny-poop is

better than George knows where he can go! John does come on strong, and 1 dig him for that, but George doesn't have to turn them off to turn them on. George is really a lovely person, though he may not seem to be all the time, anybody that listens to him with their heart knows he loves people. John has a feel for what people want, but George really digs love and people, not just causes. It’s good when you’re so down you’re almost dead to know someone cares. Don't get me wrong, I like John, but not many people love all people, no matter who they are. Won’t you please reconsider before you say George is too serious to take seriously, he wouldn’t like that a bit.

Love,

Carolyn Bottum

Ann Arbor, Mich.

P.S. You wouldn’t happen to know George’s mother’s address would you?

Dear CREEM:

In your May issue, there were two letters I feel I must comment on to clear my conscience and if possible, the Stooges name. One was by Frank Novowitz and the other by Nan Dee Sugerman.

Now as we, or I rather, have heard many times in magazines and on the radio, the Stooges are greasy faggots from Michigan. This is pure unadulterated bull shit. Mr Novowitz obviously thinks that one must be a Ted Nugent on his or her particular instrument before they can be accepted as human. Unfortunately, this is the case with many of us.

As for the White Panther “drivel”, no comment, this person must be locked in his room all the time.

And to N. Sugerman:

May Santa Claus drop a used Kotex in your mouth. .

In conclusion,'I feel I must say that I saw die stooges a few weeks ago and they were lousy, but I still love them for they have inspired people like Frank and Nan to pull their pants down in the front of the entire Woodstock Nation.

Jim Kearns

Lotiis, Mo.

Dear CREEM:

Re: Gimme Shelter review. Look, I have a different perspective on this than most people. I interviewed Meredith Hunter’s family. His 16 year old sister. Hunter was a real person, not just someone bom to star in a Stones movie. I don’t dig this cathartic stuff. It wasn’t cathartic for Hunter. He died. Part of the responsibility for that goes directly to the Stones, and the Maysles, more than to us. If we are going to reach some political maturity death has got to be understood as a political condition that is enforced or risked, not some kind of dada accidental “art.”

Read — I really mean this — Pauline Kael’s review of Gimme Shelter. A recent New Yorker. Get it from them or go to the library. It is one of the best pieces ever written on Altamont — of course she wasn’t there — and brilliant on just what the movie is for-

Greil Marcus

Berkeley, Calif.