LOONEY TOONS

LOONEY TOONS

BY

DAVE MARSH

Four More Years?

Someone just reminded me that as of this issue, CREEM is four years old. A remarkable event, maybe, but true, anyway.

Egomaniacally enough, CREEM and yours truly have the same birthday. Or, more to the point, CREEM’s first issue appeared on the day I turned (uh...) 19. I am now 23. I now feel about 35, and age about a year a day.

But some days I feel better than others. What I have been doing lately , in between doing certain other things, some of which will make their appearance in the very magazine we are discussing, is having a laugh and a go at sorting out the results of the First Annual CREEM Reader Poll. The results should be in the next issue.

We got one thousand responses to the Rolling Stones Contest, which is about 1% or so of our readership, which is statistically what you are after, say our mail order experts. I am happy to inform you, if I can dig my way out of the stack of envelopes in my office, that the Poll just about doubled that — 1800 responses, in a poll that was hoping for 1,000 when it breached its nose into the universe in our February issue. About 600 of them are compiled. For a while, we were getting about 30 a day, and then the jump began: the biggest morning arrival thus far has been, by my codht, 125, and we’ve come close to that a couple times.

The contest is closed by the time you read this, and god knows, I’ll be happy. Some fine lines are being drawn here and there, but clear cut victors have emerged in a number of categories. The Rolling Stones seem to be the only group or thing which is coming close to polling a majoritv in any category. But Eric Clapton as best guitarist, Rod Stewart as best male singer (which amazes me, Faces’ maniac that I am) and A1 Green as best rhythm and blues singer are all zooming away with their own respective categories. Jack Bruce and Keith Emerson look like winners as keyboard and bass performers, leading to the supposition — given the likelihood of the victory of Charlie Watts or Keith Moon as best drummer — that the CREEM All Star Rock ’n’ Roll Band might be just as confused-sounding as anyone else’s.

Record-wise, it’s “All the Young Dudes,” “Tumbling Dice,” “SehboPs Out” and —believe it or not —— “Burning Love” (so' far) as singles of the year, and Exile, Never A Dull Moment, Ziggy Stardust, Eat a Peach and Everybody ’s In Show Biz fighting it but in the best album spot.

Next year, we will do a poll that’s a little simpler to add up, I hope. We’re going to try to publish as many results as possible — the top twenty or thirty albums, I hope.

Interestingly enough, the Poll might wind up confirming more than denying rock critic taste. At least for people who read rock magazines and\ respond to rock polls — David Bowie is showing a lot stronger than he would in a poll taken of the general population at Woodstock or somewhere.

Which is strange. Because right now, with about a third of the ballots compiled, guess who looks like a big victor as Worst Group? You got it: Grand Funk Railroad.

Nothing like a majority have’voted against Grand Funk, of course, because nothing like a majority have voted FOR anything else, except the Rolling Stones who — I would submit — hardly count. They’re bigger than anything. Bob Dylan? The Beatles? Alice Cooper? The Faces? Allmans? You name it, they stand beneath the Stones, in any category where the Stones are operating as a unit.

But everyone is splintered about everything else, and 55% to 60% are in disagreement about the Stones. Over 200 albums have a vote or more in the Best Albums category, and over 300 persons have been named in the Most Valuable Player balloting. As a consequence, anyone who can gather, say, 15 to 20% of the vote is a remarkably popular performer.

None of\ those results are final, of course, and in a way it is unfair to talk about preliminary results in a poll like this. But the balloting will be over by the time you read this, and I have been confused, amazed and occasionally delighted with the response. And I can’t think of anything at all that sums up better the idea of CREEM than a Reader Poll nor the limited but real success we have achieved than that the Reader Poll is the most successful “contest” we’ve ever run.

It’s your birthday too, so have one on us.