MAIL

MAIL

Dear CREEM:

Hot on the heels of the Wild Angels Syndrome, we now have been given, by your previously excellent magazine, the new Grand Funk Syndrome (also known as the Kids Are All Right Syndrome). This particular manifestation is restricted to certain jaded rock critics who seem to feel that if the kids (i.e., America’s adolescents) like it, it must be good. Further symptoms of this malady occur when the critic begins to make all these deep art statements, which serve to further establish the group’s particular talents. Furthermore, the jaded rock critic seems to listen to the kids and whatever weird comments they have to say against him, he accepts without argument.

I just hope you guys didn’t change by moving to Walled Lake. It seems as if you’ve forgotten the one basic reason for rock criticism — the seperatiori of the whea)f from the chaff. The old CREEM and Rolling Stone were one of the few publications in which one could read reviews which'could quite simply show the test of time: whether you’ll like the record for a long time and if your investment will be worth whatever amount of joy you receive from the record. You guys have lost it. Even your record reviews are shorter.

But back to reality. Your praise for bands like Grand Funk and Black Sabbath is, for one thing, self-defeating. If James Taylor and the Acoustic Gang turns people away from the community and into their own heads, Black Sabbath and the Teddy Boys turn people to only one kind of music. Grand Funk and their nasty buddies produce the easy listening music of this new generation of rockers. Turn it on at a party and everyone knows the words. I’ve heard “Fairies Wear Boots” a year ago and I still remember 50% of the words and even where the “All right now”’s come in. Only I don’t want to remember it.

Don’t think I’m some jerk or critic who hates the groups with a passion. I am just ambivalent to what they produce. I have seen Grand Funk twice and Black Sabbath once in concert, and I found nothing tremendously bad about what they played, I just felt remarkably cheated. I pay to go in, nobody gives me free seats so I’ll write something nice. Here I go, getting angry, but it’s true that I can’t help feeling outraged when I see some kid get half-killed by a guard because he wants to touch his hero Mark Farner, while Mark acts like the kid isn’t even there. Just as I can’t help laughing watching Geezer Butler doing a bass solo, the band walking off and poor Geezer running out of things to do in the first five minutes.

Mr. Marsh, the thing that disturbed me the most was watching you agree with the kid that said that the Who album is great. The Who album is only a collection of moments, albeit good moments. It tends to remind me, at times, of the best and worst of the Who interspersed with instrumental novelties. How come you didn’t tell anybody that it was nice for the SRC to emulate the Who, but now the Who steal the opening notes from “Never Before Now” and stick it on as the opening piano chops from “Baba O’Reilly.” Hmm!

Now about a return to the old CREEM with the longer record reviews section, the superb aesthetic comments on the Detroit groups and others (may I suggest J. Geils and Humble Pie), as well as your well-thought comments on the state of rock. If you can’t do that, at least telf me where I can get J:he old issues, so I can quit buying a magazine that is going down the drain. If I want to be masochistic, I’ll read Circus.

Lawrence Keenan

Markahm, III.

Dear CREEM:

That was a real good one puttin’ three covers and backs on my January issue — you guys are doin’ great. Maybe next time,, it’ll be four. Huh?

Meg Briar ton Mt. Clemens, MI.

(We do our best. —Ed.)

Dear CREEM:

Just scored your November issue from the ole mail box and I must say you’ve given us some good laughs, but Jesus, CREEM, how could ya? Thafletter from D. Walls on the J5 - SHIT, I thought I was gonna BARF! Now, don’t get me wrong, I respect her right in saying what she feels about them and all but holy shit - that’s the kind of stuff you read in 16 not CREEM. Please don’t do this to us loyal CREEM readers, Please! If I wanted to read that kind of stuff, I sure as hell wouldn’t be readin’ CREEM, would I?

Anyway, I’ve decided I like the MC5’s first album, Kick Out the Jams, the best, so there! (musically wise) Hope that shakes up all you dumb ASSHOLES out there that think it’s a shitty album. Remember, I like it (remember MC5)!

Dave Marsh - Ireallyam getting to respect your writings. You seem to be making the most sense of any of the dudes writing today. And seein’ all the mail you seem to be gettin’ lately, why you’ll be able to start a fan club — huh? (snicker, snicker). Yuk, yuk, yuk.

Love ya, Miss X of Detroit, of course — Where else?

DearCREEM:

Thanks for the December CREEM, with the Joy record review. We did, indeed, like it and thank you and Robbie for the kind words.

I wanted to write also about Ed Ward’s piece on Berkeley Barrooms which appeared in the November issue. The section on Joy of Cooking contained seveal errors. Now I am not going to jump up and down and get enraged because you people are not perfect, God knows (judge not lest ye be judged, right?) but the band and I both felt that you ought to be given correct information, even if it is after the fact.

First of all, Joy’s conga player is Ron Wilson, not Ron Carter. Ron is an excellent jazz bassist, but, to date, he has had nothing to do with our beloved band. The other errors were more minor. F’rinstance — it was Jeff Neighbor, the Joy’s bassist, who studied music at Cal Berkeley, and not Ron. And it is Terry who has the history of political involvement dating back to the Free Speech Movement and not Toni. And Grootna has been signed to Columbia not Atlantic.

Take care and thanks for your support.

Joy Johnston Joy of Cooking Berkeley Ca.

(Keep your head above water, kids, ’cause there’s another, hopefully error-free J of C story coming up. And it wasn’t Ed’s fault that Grootna wound up on Atlantic, it was Demented Dave Marsh, in a last minute rewrite attempt. Well, you can’t scoop ’em all. - Ed.)

Dear CREEM:

I saw and read my first copy of CREEM (the October issue). I think you’ve got a really good magazine started. My mother saw the cover, and looking at Jagger, said, “My, that’s a sensuous young man!”

I felt that article on the sensuous young man by Richard Neville was a bit peculiar. I’m not a fanatical Stones’ fan nor am I in love with Jagger but I do love their music and feel indebted to them, as it was in effect they who turned me on to rock and roll and to the great and/or unknown blues and rhythm and blues artists. I think Neville made some hasty judgements. First, having experienced Altamont, Jagger and the Stones did what they could to stop the violence and total confusion. Jagger was not a “jubilant ghoul.”

Once in my life, while living in Europe, I found out that a lady I had judged as a rich bitch, because of her incredible material possessions, was actually one of the most generous people I knew. So I’d be wary of judging Jagger and the way he spends his money. You never know really what anyone is doing with his money, especially among stars and superstars.

Why should musicians be “politically active?” They have no more responsibility than the cat in the^street, y’know. If at the time Jagger was “gilding his wedding bed,” 50,000 people marched on Washington D.C., so what? They marched to songs like “Street Fighting Man,” and if the Stones’ music lifted their spirits a bit, then great, and the Stones’ music was their contribution. (Anyway, believe me, MANY of those 50,000 didn’t go for the noble reasons of the unfortunately few who were involved and believed in the cause to their very souls.)

Besides disagreeing heartily that Their Satanic Majesties Request is Pepper, because the cover isn’t even the same idea and CERTAINLY not the music, and also believing that “We Love You” is not “All You Need Is Love” (listen to the WORDS, man, listen to the WORDS) I think that often the image of a man like Jagger, or Lennon, or whoever, is much more important than his actual self. Of course, it’s nice when the two coincide. Jagger or anyone is what you make of him, and “denouncing” someone is in effect affirming what you’re denouncing, and is a worthless thing, in a way. I couldn’t give a shit if Jagger is a spoiled little clot because the image I have of him was what I could relate to and made me think in new ways, even if only through rumors of his life style, and the Stones’ and their music. I liked the Beatles’ music; I like the Stones’ and learned from it (and sometimes still do, but less, being older).

Carry on!

Helen Hooper

Santa Cruz, CA.

Dear CREEM:

It is not true, unfortunately that the New Riders of the Purple Sage were a psychic manifestation hallucinated by Jerry Garcia and Phil Lesh simultaneously one legendary San Francisco night while they were watching a vintage Gene Autrey movie. A pity, because there must be many thousand eager young Grateful Dead freaks out there who really want to believe that the Riders were named after this killer dope they were smoking at. the time. (“Purple Sage, man, it’s this dynamite herb that the Dead grow in their backyard in dirt impregnated with Owsley Purple ...”)

Whatever happened to the old Riders of the Purple Sage? Is anyone who reads CREEM old enough to even remember the old Riders of the Purple Sage?

And probably the reason that the Riders and Marmaduke (who has a good voice) sound so much on their record like the Dead and Garcia (who has an adequate, often, voice) is probably the fact that Phil Lesh produced the album, and probably mixed the vocals the same way he always mixes the vocals, to disguise Garcia’s voice, probably . . .

(signed) an anonymous person in New York

(We KNOW who wrote this letter. — Ed.)

LENNON ARTLESS

Dear CREEM:

John Lennon has always been a fool, but this has only been obvious recently. I really hate myself for being taken in by has facade for so long.

This was my first thought after reading Dave Marsh’s review of Imagine. (December) Not that Mr. Marsh pointed out John’s foolishness or even gave credit to the concievability that John is just a clown. On the contrary, Mr. Marsh seems to think very highly of Mr. Lennon. Which brought me around to my original thought because Mr. Marsh seems to be one of the few survivors left that continue to be fooled.

Yes, Jphn is somewhat of a hero to Mr. Marsh. “We’d finally found a rock star who was willing to stand next to us.’ Now you won’t have to be so lonely, Mr. Marsh. “John Lennon is more than ever on our side.” Right on, Mr. Marsh. “It’s wonderful that he cares about us.” How lovely, Mr. Marsh. But, before you go any further, I have a question: Who is this great collective “us”, “we”, and “our” that you talk about? Paul McCartney used to be “one of us”, but he seems to have been deleted from the organization since John is standing next to us, but he won’t go near Paul. And how does he defend “us”? Maybe it’s his “Imagine there’s no countries/imagine no possessions”. But, doesn’t that kind of eliminate the “us”?

“Give Peace a Chance” was naive, but so is “Power to the People.” I don’t see how it becomes “less naive” just because it’s “expressive of a more radical naivete”. His being naive with radical thoughts just seems to make him more dangerous — both to the “us” and the “them.” You criticise Imagine on several different levels: sexist, naive, petty and vendictive. John in his khaki uniform is the new rebel leader of Woodstock Nation. But one angle you forgot to use as a means of criticism was how his music rated in the field of art. And that’s what music is all about, isn’t it? A form of artistic expression? Perhaps you were wise, to overlook this as an area of criticism, because Imagine has nothing at all to do with art. It is not bad art or good art. It just isn’t art..

In the famous Rolling Stone interview, John’s pettiness comes across very clearly. He is offended that George and Paul had distinct identities, while he had none. (His statement sounded very thoughtless to me as concerning Ringo.) Though it went unsaid, he probably was offended that George was probably the best guitar player around, Paul the best bass player, and Ringo one of the better drummers while his guitar playing was little better than average. At least he wrote some good songs in the past.

I have learned to be sceptical of people who constantly change their opinion on major issues. John takes this one step further. Not only does his thinking change, but he always ends up damning those ideas that were once important enough to devote his entire life to. He has condemned the Beatles. Onee he believed in a nonviolent revolution, but now he has made room in his mind for violence. (What happened to the John who wrote “Revolution”?) Remember his yogi guru? Now he says that he was fooled and admits that he was wrong. Janov’s Primal Scream wasn’t too far in the past, but now even this belief has been thrown into the toilet. Who knows that the “us” that Mr. Marsh talks about won’t be the next to go. John really doesn’t seem to be able to make up his mind about anything. Once he felt benevolent to Paul and let him be the Walrus. Well, he seems to have gotten mad at Paul and decided that he wants to be the Walrus again. But now he isn’t the Walrus any more. He’s just John (presumably with an upper case “J”). “I am you and you are me ... ” John seems to want to be everything and everyone but succeeds only in being nothing. You see,, a few disguises are O.K., but John has overdone it. He has overdone it to the point where first he was merely a buffoon and now he has ceased to exist. Don’t lose any sleep over it, Dave. It was no great loss.

Continued on page 65.

Continued from page 8.

The review closes with a statement that Dylan made to Peter Fonda about giving people hope. I would have been far more relevant to close the review with a statement that Dylan made to all of us many years ago: “Don’t follow leaders/Watch the parking meters.”

Allen Pasternak

Houston, Texas

DearCREEM:

Going over the shitty magazine selection at the corner drug store, your cover caught my eye (Nov. issue). I’m only able to say that I’m really sorry that I’ve missed all of your previous issues.

Your magazine is what I’ve been looking for, but was unable to find. If I had, I’d subscribe. It is truly a well-written, informative magazine. And, if it weren’t'for all the fuckin’ establishment types in my neighborhood, your sales would definitely be up around here.

Might I add that the article on Grand Funk was simply fantastic. Thank you, Lenny Kaye.

Kim Ristola

Detroit MI.

DearCREEM:

Dave Marsh, what are you, some kind of an egoistic, hipper than thou, high energy asshole? That was the most fucked up review of Surfs Up ever. That was the most fucked up put down of the Beach Boys ever. Who the fuck cares about “409,” “Fun, Fun, Fun” or “Surfin’ ”? The only Beach Boys I know are the Beach Boys I saw in Big Sur a year ago. And if you really dig high energy, Dave, I advise that you go see the Beach Boys in live concert, before you start bitchin’ about how boring they are. Where’s your head at man? Grand Funk? It would be interesting to know how many chords Mark Farner can play on the guitar as compared to Carl Wilson. What’s so bad about the politics in “Student Demonstration Time?” The guys didn’t want your ass shot. Look, man, it’s time to start wising up and stop kidding ourselves. If you think that we can really overthrow this fucking system by force, you’re really stupid. You don’t know what you’re up against. It is a very complex Socio-Economic Mechanized System. The only way to defeat it is to infiltrate it from inside, send people who we can trust inside the system. I wish you’d wise up, man. Don’t build another dream, we just got over one.

Look man, Grand Funk is alright in the open air, smashed and just shit kicking. But there are times when I just wanna lay in bed, smoke grass, drink wine, get horny and finger mytwat, while listening to the Beach Boys. You stopped digging the Beach Boys when Pet Sounds came out? Gee, that’s the time when I first noticed the Beach Boys. Pet Sounds was my first Beach Boys lp, and I bought all their LP’s after that. Did you ever give a listen to 20/20 or Sunflower? No, I don’t think so, you’re too hip for that right?

It’s a shame that people like you would have anything to do with a magazine like CREEM. It’s too bad that the revolution has you on it’s side. Are you? It’s a fucking shame that you exist_ as all, Dave, it’s a fucking shame. They were right, you are incapable of appreciating art. It’s a shame that too many of us are reading your articles. You are extremely illogical, boring and hung up.

“ .. . you better take care of your life, cuz nobody else will ...”

(Alan Jar dine)

Barbara Kievats

Perry, Michigan

P.S. My brother, who is a freshman at U of M and residing in Ann Arbor, said that you, Dave Marsh, have a distorted point of view of the revolution and that you are viewing it from a bourgeois standpoint.

Dear CREEM:

Holy Fuck!! Do you always have to rip off everything that Rolling Stone exalts, even if it involves important and valuable figures of our generation? Goddamn it, OK, we know that you hate Jann Wenner and his apostles (for some reasons that are not really clear to the public), that you cater to the third generation musicians and poets more than anything else, that you don’t dig anything softer than Grand Funk but O.K., enough already. You’ve made your point. Shit.

I was on my way to the library last night to do a research and decided to stop by the Paramount news center on Michigan Ave. I saw the new CREEM and eagerly bought a copy. Moments later, I was in the library with the proper books and material for my research. Being a music freak, I turned the pages of CREEM to the record review section first. I read Jon Carroll’s review of the Band’s Cahoots first. It was so shitty that I could have puked but I didn’t wanna attract the attention of the other students inside the library. Carroll really did a shitty job on that one. The Band. Hell, the Band is one of the best, accomplished, organized Rock bands there is around.

Then I turned the pages — Geezus Kraist!! Surfs Up - a fucking great album . . . torn to pieces. I mean, Geezus, how can you do that to a fucking great work of art? Surf s Up is a fantastic album, although not as great as Sunflower, which is magnificient. But goddamn man, you’re being overhip yourself. The Beachboys are one of the strangest phenomena in Rock and if you haven’t been into them the past six years, since Pet Sounds, then you’re notinto them at all and you have no qualification to review any of their present day albums. If you don’t dig the group why can’t you assign somebody else to do a review instead of pulling a fucked up one like that? Now I wonder whether you guys wait until you find out what Rolling Stone has to say first and then go ahead and make a reversal statement of everything that is printed on it.

Grand Funk, MC5, Black Sabbath and the rest of the third generation bands are OK, but they have a tendency to be repetitious, monotonic, uncreative and definitely boring. Energy — that’s what they are, pure energy but nothing really musical. If energy is your bag then it’s OK, Grand Funk suits you fine. But if music is what you’re looking for, you might as well turn your head on to David Crosby, Roger McGuinn, Brian Wilson, Neil Young, the Band, Pentangle, Pink Floyd, the Who, the Beach Boys, and the rest of our generation’s musicians who are truly dedicated to music. Give some punks on the street a set of drums and super amplified electric guitars and enough promotion and they can be third generation super stars in a flash. Even Grand Funk has a lot to learn from the .Cream, Jimi Hendrix, the Who and Van Morrison.

As for you, Dave Marsh, you’re a plastic, fucking, overhip, son of a bitch who is trying to capitalize on the third world by trying to appeal to its people . .. the under 21’s. Well, fuck you, I’m 19 and I know where my head’s at, I can distinguish good shit from bad shit. But you are neither. You are just plain ordinary shit. You might as well cut your hair, you’re a disgrace to the people, to the generation — to the revolution. The revolution respects all the people that helped shape rock’n’roll into whatsit is now. The Beachboys are one of those factors. It is sacrilege to rip off the Beachboys, or the Beatles, or Dylan, or the Dead, the Airplane — because without them, where could you have been?

Goddamn it, Dave, you really got me uptight man. You did it, you revealed to the world just what you are. A fucking son of a bitch. With people like you around I doubt if this revolution can materialize. Nobody rips off the Beachboys and gets away with it. You better watch your ass man. This ain’t a peaceful society anymore. Throw a rock at me .. . I’ll throw back shit at you . .. softer but more upsetting.

You are trying to alienate you readers towards most pre-Grand Funk musicians. Why? It’s a shame that you write for CREEM. It is a good magazine. But you, Dave Marsh, is fucked up. Please watch it. O.K.?

Julian Ravine

Michigan State University

E. Lansing, Mich.

DearCREEM:

I have been checking out your publication to see if it is fit for my own personal consumption over the past several months. No fucking way. One of your major contributers, Dave Marsh (just to kick things off) is either the biggest ripoff journalist in history or else he’s a Certified schizophrenic — hating the Who, liking Grand Funk, which is the most untalented and excessive band in history, then liking Lennon’s latest but accusing him of being excessive irj “How Do You Sleep”.

Then he comes back and says he likes Who’s Next!

Of course the reason is supplied by oT Dave hizbadself, when he says in Dec. LooneyToones he doesn’t KNOW anything about music. That’s about the only place where I agree with him. He shows us how hipocritical (sic) all the DJS who refuse to play anything by Black Pie, Humble Funk or Grand Sabbath (sicer) are by making the most silly-ass comparisons I ever saw. Like the one where the dj sez that 3G rock is aesthetically offensive and then plays Frank Zappa telling terrible jokes and calls that offensive. I assume that Marsh would dismiss Lenny Bruce the same way then, from the way he stressed “OFFENSIVE”.

Then there’s the one about the traveling salesman - whoops, that’s dj — got carried away ^ the dj who weeps about how they’re controlled by evil capitalists and so on, and then plays music from the biggest media conglomerates in the world. You completely missed the boat here, Dave. When you talk about capitalists controlling Grand. Fund (I admit I know nothing of the others and wish I didn’t know anything about GFR either) you are not talking about Capitol records, you’re talking about Terry Knight. I do not pretend to be anti-capitalist because I know that’s like claiming the earth is flat — hysterical and impractical ^ but any fool can plainly see that Terry Knight represents everything that’s wrong with capitalism. Let me compare him against the Beatles’ managers, since everything GFR does lately is so compared. Epstein may have controlled the Beatles in the beginning, but by 1966 they were their own men. And while Epstein was in it for all he could get -25% to be precise - he never resorted to hype and never got behind — personally, that is — such drivel as t-shirts and cosmetics (Didn’t you hear about Grand Funk Brand Deodorant and Cologne after the first of the year? They oughtta develop a room deodorizer and give away a can with every album). And for all the nasty things that are said about Allan Klein, at least he’s honest - he admits that he’s a hustler and that he gets 20% for doing the dirty work. You don’t hear him answering back Terry Knight by saying “Yeah but the Beatles sold out Shea twicer and Klein hustles for many acts, whereas Knight wasn’t coordinated enough to handle both GFR and Bloodrock at the same time and the latter dropped him.

Marsh then tries to tell us that a dj actually told him that 3G rock makes kids take downers. That was no dj Dave: that was Mike Curb! If you’re stupid enough to quote somebody like that and take him seriously, then you probably think that rock music is an aphrodisiac and also contributes to juvenile deliquency.

Anybody who doesn’t like Grand Pie, Humble Sabbath or Black Funk is SCARED? Of fucking what? Maybe the djs don’t understand but I sure as Funk sold out Shea in 72 hours do! 3G rock is all bullshit music. Alice Cooper is tolerable for his? her? its? stage act, but the music* isn’t much, although some of the songs are a cut above the rest of the pack. If you think that any of these bands have talent let me just tell you that on a mutual bet, a friend and myself composed fifteen GFR type songs in five minutes actual time. In honesty I must add that none had any lyrics, but we were confident that, since the lyrics are always hardest, a full twenty-five minutes would be necessary to complete them.

George Harrison banished to a colony tended by lepers? That’ll happen when Mark Farmer is locked up in a padded cell with an acoustic guitar and a copy of Mel Bay Guitar Method For Beginners and Terry Knight becomes president of General Motors. Paul McCartney as elevator muzak? Where the fuck have you been sinpe the days of the Hollyridge Strings? We need no reminder of how messed up McCartney is from you.

Holy round silver plated album jackets! I intended to knock the whole magazine, not just Marsh! Oh well, here’s a fuck you -that the whole staff can share, and one parting shot: if those letters are the best ones you get, you oughtta drop your letters column.

Francis M. Volpe

Elizabeth, Pa.

(Only one comment — Mike Curb is not the person - according to Mr. Marsh - referred to in the December Looney Toons. Names were withheld because to use them in the column would have been petty and vicious.

“I do think, ” Dave said, “that rock does have aphrodasiac and j.d. propinquities. That’s one reason why we say “Rock and roll builds strong bodies twelve ways. ” —Ed.)