October 1974
CONTENTS
BOY HOWDY? DEAR CREEM One nite while listening to my Ziggy album someone entered my room, it wuz “Boy Howdy”. He said, “I just dropped by to say I just married!!!” I said that’s great who’s the lucky woman??? Then she walked in MS. HOWDY!!! “Wow!!”
BARNEY & MIKE
Bolwiloon
THE CHRISTGAU CONSUMER GUIDE
Robert Christgau
Queen: “Queen II” (Elektra). Wimpoid royaloid heavyoid android void. C minus. Elton John: “Caribou” (MCA). I give up. Of course he’s a machine, but haven’t you ever loved a machine so much that it took on personality? I was reminded of my first car, a ‘50 Plymouth.
ROCK 'N' ROLL NEWS
Big money, no takers. The Rolling Stones recently turned down an offer of $1 million for a four-week stand at MGM’s Grand Hotel in Las Vegas. Charlie Rich turned his back on $300,000 for a one-nighter in Tokyo; he didn’t have time to do it before getting his act together for a July opening at the Vegas Hilton.
THG BEAT GOES ON
Jaan Uhelszki
Ingenious Boy Photographer had a real good idea when he saw those five banners of beauty queendom at the garage sale that day. “Five for five bucks, take it or leave it,” growled the suburban proprietor. Boy Photographer thought this was some good find, so he forked over the fiver.
Features
C’Mon Sugar, Let’s Go All-Nite Jukin’ With Wet Wille
Lester Bangs
“Wet willie,” from whence this passel o’ scragglers derived their handle, is a regionalism referring to an Alabamian practice consisting of sucking on your finger and then shoving it up somebody’s ear. It also means that dirty stuff you’re thinking right now.
Features
FROM WHITE LIGHT TO GREY EMINENCE
Mick Gold
The Mysterious Journey of John Cale
Letter From Britain
Thank God It’s Not Summer (Anymore)
Ion MacDonald
It’s a tax-loss-honoured tradition of British rock that Nothing Happens in July (or May, June, and August, for that matter), except rancid open-air scaled-down replicas of Altamont.
YET ANOTHER SIDE OF BOB DYLAN
JOE CRATER
You remember Bob Dylan, don’t you? Folk; hero of the sixties?
DON'T TOUCH THAT DIAL
David March
I’ve seen Bruce Springsteen twice in the last few months. He is better than anything on the radio, and he has a new single, “Born to Run,” which, if we are at all fortunate, will be played across the land by now. Given the current paucity of interesting subject matter, he’s the subject of this column.
Rod Promises Some Surprises
Ben Edmonds
It’s, 4:15 PM, which puts Mr. Rod Stewart a full 45 minutes beyond our pre-arranged connection point. Assured by Shirley Arnold that the subject is in transit from his country estate (which sits almost within the Queen’s view from Windsor Castle and a proverbial stone’s throw from the similarly palatial digs of Elton John and George Harrison), I sink back into the Faces’ office couch and take in the tales that the road crew are gleefully tossing back and forth: stories of hotel demolition and car-meets-telephone-pole drama.
...And Woody’s Got Keith Richard
Nick Kent
The rehearsal hall is twenty minutes outside London at Shepperton Studios, where a hefty chunk of those dreary English films that fill up your late-nite TV hours were brought into being.
Pimps on Parade in Gotham
Lisa Robinson
When Eric Clapton was in New York recently, he asked if there was anywhere to go at night besides the Club 82 or Max’s. When told that there really wasn’t (he’s not the sort to go shlepping around to black discos, even if Bowie is), he sadly replied, “Well, I guess it’s just my apartment, then.”
OBVIOUSLY FOUR BELIEVERS
David Marsh
Ten years on with The Who.
CLAPTON: Wanted? Dead? or Alive
Patrick Carr
Maybe by now Eric Clapton is a figment of the hip imagination, a character filling a spot somewhere between death and glory, but here at the Garden, stooped, scared, and looking stoned to someplace you don’t want to think about, he’s only too real.
Creemedia
Don’t Bogart that Catnip
Wayne Robbins
My friend Marya has a cat named Irwin who spends most of his spare time masturbating in the hallway.
SHORT TAKES
Susan Ives Cook
THE NINE LIVES OF FRITZ THE CAT Directed by Robert Taylor (American International) My friend Marya has a cat named Irwin who spends most of his spare time masturbating in the hallway. Fritz and his offspring do much of the same thing, except they do it on the movie screen.
Confessions of a FILMFOX
This month is No More Mr. Nice Guy month. Hayley Mills is admitting vehemently that she hated that image Uncle Disney created for her. Hayley exclaimed dramatically that she hated all the girls she has played who were so fluffy and good that they made her sick.
Junkie Gossip as History
Tony Clover
LADIES AND GENTLEMEN, LENNY BRUCE!! Albert Goldman & Lawrence Schiller (Random House) In the years when Lenny was working the club circuit around the country, he was already an underground legend. Lots of fans (beatniks) who couldn't afford the cover charges at the gigs knew the numbers about the reporter interviewing him as he walked thru the town, Bruce popping cough drops as they talked — after half a box he absent-mindedly offered the reporter one, he takes it and immediately zones out for a good 18 hours ... or about the time he thought he could fly and went but a hotel window screaming "It's Super-Jew!" True or not, stories like these had as much to do with his popularity in certain circles as did his work.
Whining Through the Paradox
Robert Christgau
NEIL YOUNG On the Beach (Reprise) We have reached the second stanza of the title song of Neil Young's new album, On the Beach, and Young is still whining: "I need a crowd of people/But I can't face them day to day." The words are uncharacteristically direct, but there's nothing new about the tone of voice; Young's singing borders on whining even at its most mellow.
Rock · a · Rama
JOBRIATH — Creatures of the Street (Elektra):: Jerry Brandt, the world's greatest promoter, now brings you ... (fanfare) ... Jobriath, a wizard, and a true fairy, not to mention the first 70's rocker that isn't a repackage of the 60's (no, just a repackage of Ziggy Stardust).
JACK IT UP & JAM IT TIGHT: A Future Perfect Guide to Musical Artillery
Michael Brooks
Since the time of its earliest predecessor (roughly 2500 B.C.), the guitar has evolved far beyond what anyone imagined. What was once a simple five course French guitar is now a complex system of potentiometers, wires, woods, capacitors, transistors, switches and music.
Johnny Winter Says: "Uh-oh, looks like I'll need a new pick"
This guitar is made by Harmony, and is based on their old 1265 model. It was made five years ago, a task which took some 600 man hours, it is nine feet tail and weighs 85 pounds (380 pounds in its packing crate). It is 16,000 cubic inches, as compared to 1024 cubic inches for, a regular guitar.