LETTERS

LETTERS

Mail Dept., CREEM Magazine, P.O. Box 931869, Los Angeles, CA 90093

45¢ SHORT! ($1.00 IN CANADA!)

I started to notice your magazine (again) about a year ago when you put the Cure on the cover (following R.E.M.!) and now for the last six months it’s been consistently decent covers. So how come the only major U.S. ’zine to put the Cure, the Smiths, the Cult and the Cure on the cover kinda embarrasses me to buy, and if I should do so, it usually ends up in the trash a day after for fear someone might spot it in my possession? Well, for one thing, it looks terrible. The current CREEM is laid out like some cheap early ’80s video game magazine. In other words, it just doesn’t look rock ’n’ roll (even Star Hits has you beat by 2000 light years). And another thing, you need a format (no, in the late ’80s, rock ’n’ roll is not a format). Just ’cause you put the Cure on the cover it doesn’t mean the half million cultsters that buy their records and concert tickets are gonna buy a rag that’s filled with Top 40 hasbeens and mellow metal ho-hos, and no one needs to read about the major pop gods that are all over TV and the newspapers and magazines your parents buy (’cause that’s free). So Rolling Stone’s got the mainstream yupsters, Star Hits has the pre-teen popster and there’s a zillion ’zines for the unfortunate products of broken homes. Oh yeah, and Spin for the schizo intellectual speedmetal/MTV college radio fan. That leaves a big void and I think I’m in it. Since CREEM’s the ’zine that first got me addicted to rock ’n’ roll back in the mid-’70s (followed by Punk, Trouser Press, NY Rocker, Sniffin’ Glue, Slash, Search & Destroy, NO, The Face, Flexipop. ..) why can’t it do the same to another unsuspecting generation? Why can’t it be intelligent and trashy (not to mention fun)? The writing already ranges from adequate to neargreat (Craig Lee’s a good addition). Cut out the embarrassing disposable commercial sludge (i.e. Patty Smyth, Lou Gramm, Genesis, Aerosmith, etc.), add a little dangerous, untamed rock ’n’ roll energy (i.e. Sonic Youth, Redd Kross, Butthole Surfers, etc.), mess up the visuals and you got something that’s worth. . .oh, about $2.50.

Love and kisses,

Mark

Visulia, CA

MELLENCAMP,

BOBO

CRUELLY CONFUSED!

Your December issue definitely deserves a 10. Upon recently seeing the opening show of John Mellencamp’s “Lonesome Jubilee” tour, let me tell you...your rave review is right on target. Anyone who appreciates the meaning and strength he pours into a record is in for a real treat if they see the man live.

I know the answer to your question in the Records section, “Who’s The Boss?” But his name is not “The Boss” or Johnny or Cougar. The name is John Mellencamp!

Ron Kelly

Frankton, IN

PSYCHOTIC HOMOSEXUAL SUICIDAL ATHEIST DRUG ADDICT COMFORTABLE WITH SELF-IMAGE

Although this is the first letter I have ever written to you, it feels as though I have written to you, or had some type of communication with you handsome CREEM editors at many different times in my life. I have often bought CREEM, usually every month, at the Perry’s drug store at the corner, dating back to 1976 when I was just a young twerp. (Still a twerp? Probably, but I hope not.)

CREEM is almost always right about everything that you write anything about! The only time you are off, it seems to me, is when you say a new band (or book or movie) will become Michael Jacksonlike-famous or should have John Lennon/Robert Smith-God-like status, but the “public” ends up not buying, you know? (Harry & The Hendersons, Irangate [can ya believe it? Oliver North for president of the United States. Maybe we do deserve it, though], Iggy Pop, Jesus & Mary Chain and others.) Anyway, I always look forward to the upcoming issues. When will you publish weekly? That would be great!

(Did you notice, B’eo, that I stole your analogy to Robyn Hitchcock as God? Hell, of course you did [I am deeply influenced by what you all write]. Oh hell Jeezus, I feel like a bloody idiot for even bringing it up. Dare I continue?)

This last bit (the God analogy) brings up my actual subject of this letter (there is a subject, there is a subject). You see, it’s the Cure, really (thanx so much for covering them as you have, thank you, thanx again), because that’s who I listen to right now (at this very second, actually; there’s nothing left but Faith) besides Joy Division, Smiths, Jesus & Mary Chain, Replacements and New Order, it’s just the Cure.

The first time I ever heard of them was on the Back Porch Video (or BPV—get it—a really yucky college video channel based in, I think, Dearborn [do not these wonderful Detroit names bring back fond memories?] on the hardcore hour, as opposed to the yuppie hour [Duran Duran, fer sure, and oh my God!], the skinhead hour [presumably, much like the hardcore hour, only bald], and the dance hour), all hosted by students (one of whom went on to become the drummer in the New Monkees\) playing “Close To Me.” Then I heard “In Between Days” and started to buy everything and anything by the Cure.

Soon after this, my favorite magazine (can U guess?) started to cover them (remember that Sylvie Simmons piece, you know, the one with the weird dream quote at the beginning?). Then there was that kind-of-like-interview with Robert while they were making the new album, Kiss Me, Kiss Me, Kiss Me.

Anyway, you were covering them and now (here we are at last, at last) I repeat, now you have a great cover picture of Robert Smith with the words, “The Cure: Buy Them, Buy Them, Buy Them,” a rave album review, a funny and even better interview, funny and great pictures, with our friend Robert Smith!!!

Pleez embarrass me fully by titling this letter with.. .“Psychotic Homosexual Suicidal Atheist Drug Addict Wants To Change.”

Or (more obvious)... “Still A Twerp.”

Richard Smith,

Belleville, Ml

THANKS, MR. LEVITT!

I am writing this letter to tell you how satisfied I am with your magazine.

Your fan,

Jeff Robjohns

Livingston, NJ

DEE-LIGHTFUL

I’d just like to say to all the aimless, lowlife rejects that are constantly putting your magazine down, that “you are hopeless losers with nothing better to do than put down what may be America’s Only Rock ’n’ Roll Magazine.” Your magazine is just bully, but I think there should be more material devoted to the Thin White Duke—your friend and mine, David Bowie. I think after all those years of -hard work, he deserves more attention.

Jodi Laney

Royal Oak, Ml

MAKING UP LETTERS;

IT’S GREAT!

Regarding the November issue (the one that never made it to this subscriber’s house), I was surprised to find a letter from Steven Crawford of Rector, Arizona in there. His letter was very similar to one I wrote but my last line was “I, for one, have had enough,” not “I, for one, has ever done.” In the future, if Steven Crawford and I write you simultaneously, use my letter. It’ll be a little more coherent than his.

Steven Crawford

Rector, AR

P.S. I am not fictitious.