December 1974
CONTENTS
DRUGGIE BACKLASH Haw! Haw! Haw! Your parody of a Readers Digest/Ann Landers “drug expose” in September’s issue was the funniest thing you’ve ever printed. Great reading while high. Keep up the good work. Euphorically yours, Keith Edwards Dubuque, Iowa
THE CHRISTGAU CONSUMER GUIDE
Robert Christgau
Paul Anka: “Anka” (United Artists). Sure it’s a cute little single, but the rest of the album is the usual abortion. C minus. Bobby Bland: “Dreamer” (Dunhill). A pop blues primer featuring refabricated intros worthy of Three Dog Night and prefabricated songs worthy of Bobby Bland.
ROCK'N' ROLL NEWS
The Rolling Stones plan to tour the States again this Spring but they’ve also indicated a desire to play behind the Iron Curtain and in Third World countries. Carly Simon’s uncle Peter Dean has made his recording debut with an album of vintage big band tunes on Buddah.
THE BEAT GOES ON
Kathy Miller
So What Else Is New? According to Secretary of Agriculture Earl Butz, milk consumption in the United States has declined by four percent since 1968, while beer and ale consumption has gone up by 27 percent. Is this further evidence of declining national morals?
Features
DOIN’ THAT OLD HARD SHOE
KEN BARNES
URIAH HEEP'S LESSON IN SURVIVAL
Some Jalapenas A Six pack Of Lone Star And Thou
Nick Tosches
Just another Holiday Inn Friday night in Harlingen, Texas. Downstairs in the El Cid Lounge, Dapper Bobby Denisio chinks his way through “Honey” on jaundiced Steinway keys as travel-numbed citrus buyers and Margarita-giddied steno queans evanesce in the dim.
Features
Lucky Demeter, Rhythm Sleuth, Meets Ray Manzarek
Wayne Robins
The sun beat down on Santa Monica like an overdose of Vitamin D as I walked along the boardwalk licking an ice cream cone.
DON’T TOUCH THAT DIAL
Donald Willson
I like Sam Cooke. I’ve even been known to argue that it was Cooke, not Otis Redding who was the greatest male soul balladeer of the ’60s. (And that Redding has the greater reputation chiefly on the basis of writing Aretha’s greatest — and first — hit “Respect,” and having been at Monterey.
Features
ZOMBIE TWITS MAKE GOOD
Barbara Charone
A Journey Into Worm World With Genesis
Features
FRANK ZAPPA vs. The Tooth Fairy
Ed Naha
Or, They're Only In It For The Pizza
10 years with the MOTHERS
Features
GEORGE HARRISON’S SEARCH FOR ANONYMITY
Ben Gepson
As of November, George Harrison is the first ex-Beatle to conduct a formal American tour.
Letter From Britain
Musical Choirs, Odds and Ends
Ian Mac Donald
Okay, boys and girls — a lot of facts this time around...And they’re going to be coming at you fast, so sit up, pay attention, and ferchrissake try to look interested.
Another Robin Files Solo
Ed Naha
Pug faced Robin Trower does not look like a rock and roll star until he gets up on stage. There, joined by bassist-vocalist James Dewar and drummer Reg Isidore, he grips his battle-scarred guitar, squints his equally battle-scarred face and lets loose with some of the densest, distorted licks heard since Jimi Hendrix first set the world (and his guitar) on fire in Monterrey during psychedelia’s embryonic years.
Hold On To What You've Got
Lisa Robinson
It wasn’t until I saw and heard Genevieve Waite sing that I decided I could finally write the proper thing about Miss Christine, who died two years ago this fall. Miss Christine was, for the purpose of the rock and roll archives, 1) a GTO, 2) Frank Zappa’s housekeeper when she was barely out of high school, 3) the first person to put Alice Cooper in a dress and 4) friend, influence, confidante, and paramour to many fortunate people — musicians in particular.
PULLING TEETH WITH KEITH RICHARD
Peter Erskine
A Study In Elegant Waste
DREEM BAND RICK WAKEMAN
Alice Cooper’s Trojan Jack Ass
Jaan Uhelszki
Alice Cooper, the wet nurse of glitter rock, has made a movie.
SHORT TAKES
John Morthland
11 HARROWHOUSE (Twentitieth Century Fox):: This is one more lovable thieves, “perfect robbery” movie, a genre you might have thought Watergate eradicated forever. Wheezy as the central idea is (a billion dollar diamond heist), 11 Harrowhouse works thanks to its sheer preposterousness: the robbery is performed with the help of a giant vacuum cleaner and some hand-painted cockroaches.
Confesssions of a FILM FOX
Hollywood has put its clothes back on. Cindy Williams, from American Graffiti is featured in the November Playboy... fully clothed! (Watch Wayne Robins uncover her in an upcoming CREEM interview) .● Raquel Welch turned down a starring role in Irving Wallace’s The Fan Club, because of her no-nude policy.
Creemedia
Ripoff Revisited
Ed Word
Ripping off the late great has always been a fascination of rock, but Jimi is something else. In terms of sheer ripoff value, it has Going Down With Janis beat hands down.
Off The Wall
PUBLIC WORKS: A HANDBOOK FOR SELF-RELIANT LIVING, edited and compiled by Walter Szykitka (Links):: Not all the bastard progeny of the Whole Earth Catalogue are smug hippie trips. This one here is a compilation of all kinds of government and other publications in the public domain telling you how to do nearly everything under the sun.
Records
The Inmates Have Taken Over
Richard Cromelin
John Cale, Nico, Eno and Kevin Ayers, having found themselves together on the same label, decided to present a concert at London’s Rainbow Theatre.
MR. NOSEITAL
BARNEY & MIKE
Bar Wilson