LETTERS

LETTERS

Please send your letters to: Mail Dept., CREEM Magazine P.O. Box P-1064 Birmingham, Ml 48012.

ONCE WORKED HERE!

Barbara Pepe’s disinformation about Sun City and South Africa in the March issue is more than distressing. It reeks ot the apologetics voiced by apartheid’s most trusted servants and it not only misses the point, it does its best to deny the most relevant facts.

Even if it were true that Sun City somehow betrays the less than 10 percent of South Africans who rule the country because they have white skin, which it does not, it is deceitful to imply that the question of apartheid is an internal question and that external meddlers like Steve Van Zandt (or, for that matter, myself) only muddy the waters. Racism is a dominant international issue in our century and one need know nothing more than that apartheid’s legal struc-` ture is modeled on the black codes of the U.S. South to understand how close to home the issue really strikes.

But more than that, Sun City is an issue entirely germane to the performers on the record for three reasons. First, that resort does recruit American and British performers to play there, and that support is construed in South Africa as support of the current regime. For instance, Derek Hannan, head of WEA’s South African operation, tells Variety (1/22/86, pg. 90) that by playing Sun City, Frank Sinatra and Rod Stewart “have stood up for what they believed.” By any reasonable standard this is an extremely appropriate matter to write and sing about.

Second, by supporting Sun City, one supports also the concept of the “tribal homelands,” a fundamental part of apartheid’s battle to deny citizenship rights to the black majority. The tribal homelands concept is a policy of systematic removal of the black population to the least valuable bits of South African territory; again, the idea was directly taken from U.S. history, only this time our victims were Native Americans, rather than blacks. The relevance of this is as great as—to choose a not altogether far-

fetched comparison—it would be for a group of German musicians to attack genocide.

Finally, there is the support that Sun City lends to the struggle for liberation within South Africa. While it is true that singing about apartheid in the U.S. isn’t going to abolish it 7000 miles away, it is the obligation of those who oppose apartheid to apply as much external pressure as possible in order to force the apartheid state to surrender to majority rule. If Pepe’s only conception of black rule is a bloodbath, that’s her problem. In many nations, Africans have already established self rule at least as humane as the colonization that preceded them.

It is curious, to say the least, that while Pepe shouts loudly about how “political systems, no matter how repressive, can’t stop people from putting tunes to words,” but that she is unable to find a single example to support her case. Of course it is possible to prevent native South Africans from recording their real sentiments—as Sipho Mabuse explained during his appearance at the New Music Seminar’s Anti-Apartheid panel last fall. In that light, it becomes all the more urgent for those who have the ability to speak to do so as loudly as possible. One does not have to travel to South Africa to realize this; one only has to read Pepe’s review to come to this conclusion. Someday, I am confident both she and CREEM’s editors will come to regard it with the shame it is due.

Dave Marsh New York, NY

TIME, NEWSWEEK HUMBLED Here’s something: the bass line in John Cougar’s “R.O.C.K. In The U.S.A.” and the Romantics’ “What I Like About You” are exactly the samel The tempo is the same, too. Somebody should tell Wally Palmar about this.

Brett Martin Oregon City, OR

A LETTER

by TIMOTHY WHITE FYI, re: my letter of 12-30-85 (CREEM, April ’86), the quotes from John Mellencamp in the letter were taken directly from the transcripts of a taped interview with me conducted in his home in June, 1985. It was John who told me of his talk with Lee Ballinger in this same June interview.

Just thought you might be curious. And when I referred to the Feb. ’85 ish, | meant Feb. ’86, of course. March ’86 also looks good.

Best,

Timothy White New York, NY

(How utterly fascinating.—Ed.) M0ND0 KUDOS

I buy CREEM every month because there’s always at least one hip American band covered. Congratulations! Last month, you outdid yourselves—fine articles on the L.A. psychedelic scene, Robyn Hitchcock and that awesome band, the Del Fuegos. I’ve been a big fan of theirs for awhile and it’s great to finally see a decent article in a major mag. They’re the best band around right now, besides the fact that they rock— they’re unpretentious, fun-lovin’, beerdrinkin’ guys. What more can you ask for? (Just a tip: next time, drop the stupid Beantown jokes and the quips that make them sound like they’re from Harlem or sit on haystacks and chew tobacco in Oklahoma.)

Val Diluigi Downingtown, PA

BONO, FAN MEMORIZE WORDY CH0RUS...THIRD WORLD CELEBRATES Please fire this person: J. Kordosh. Reason: I.Q. of a coffee table.

If it will help, I will personally start a petition.

Case in point: (this part of the letter is addressed to J. Kordosh). Dear J. Kordosh: If you had half a brain you would realize that U2 performed segments of

Stones songs (“Ruby Tuesday,” “Sympathy For The Devil”), not to mention the chorus of Lou Reed’s “Walk On The Wild Side.” But nooo! You had to state that “they still haven’t bothered to learn any Stones song” (no plural). But I guess that’s what is expected of someone who happens to be a COMPLETE IMBECILE! Nothing personal, of course.

Do Do Do Do Do Do Do,

Lori Dover

Lake Charles, LA

CLASH OF THE MERE MORTALS!

For you non-believers who said Van Halen would flop without the Roth show, think again. The Van Halen boys are proving they can hold their own without the big blond mouth. They seem to have a whole new energy now—that they wouldn’t have had if Dave were still running the show (or claiming to). It’s great to see them speak for themselves, especially Eddie, since his riffs are the main ingredient in the unmistakable Van Halen sound.

So we welcome Sammy, the red one, with open arms, and urge Eddie, Al and Mike to rock on. Sorry, non-believers, but Van Halendom will continue happily without the one-man show.

Christina McEntee

New York, NY

Heee. Just wanted to take this opportunity to eulogize (?) the Great Band That Was...Van Halen.

Once upon a time, there were four great guys. They had a very successful band. Two of the four guys had massive egos. And, as massive egos are wont to do, they clashed. Suddenly, there was only room in the band for one massive

ego, so, the one massive ego went off to become a Star and the other became the Serious Voice in the name of musicianship. Only problem was, it was difficult to take the Serious Voice seriously when he hired an Outsider to replace (!!!) the Star. Not just any Outsider, mind you...a very doofish, grovelling, tactless Outsider who a) hasn’t got a prayer in even coming close to the talents possessed by the Serious Voice, thereby not competing with him; b)whose record sales last year were, let’s face it, not platinumplus by any means, good patriotic intentions or not; and, c) coincidentally records on an associated label of the. Serious Voice’s record company! (This eulogizer believes that the whole ball of wax was shrewd move on the part of WEA.) Go ahead, call me jaded, call me a cynic, I really don’t care...personally, as I kneel before the Shrine of the Great Musical Gods, I will mourn the loss of Dave in the band...not just because I admire his, ahem, person, but because the four of them together were magic—the ideal band, if there ever was such a thing, and any other lineup of Van Halen is sheer blasphemyl The moral of this story/premature eulogy is that it’s just as important to be able to communicate with the masses with style as well as substance. Eddie Van Halen, you need look no further than your President, Ronald Reagan, to see this. No, no, no, it was fun while it lasted, but I can’t imagine your big buddy, Sammy Hagar, singing “Ice Cream Man” and not having to be admitted to an intensive care unit from serious laughing in the name of disbelief.

Melle Mel Greensburg, PA

HELEN KELLER ZELLER FELLER To Craig Zeller: Congratulations, fishbreath! In ripping apart Pete Townshend’s White City and Who’s Missing in the April ish, you have not only shown yourself to be mentally incompetent, but tasteless, vile and a tad lobotomized. White City happens to be a prototype classic and Who’s Missing may not be artistic, but it is charming in its (relative) innocence—and insightful. Let us not forget, the Who were doing it when you were still making messy in your Pampers. The Who, together or apart, can still kick ass. I guess you can still make the messy, too—only you put it on paper and get paid for it.

Zeller, old sock, I feel I should warn you that steps have been taken. If something looking like Roger Daltrey is sent to you and it ticks, it’s not because of the clock in his bellybutton. Wise up—or, better yet, die before you get old.

The Ox’s Love Slave LaCrosse, Wl