"... whereas Creem’s pages first coined those genre’s names: 'punk rock' by Marsh, about ? and the Mysterians, and 'heavy metal' by Mike Saunders, about Sir Lord Baltimore, both in the May 1971 issue.... Subversive humor was the Creem lingua franca. Snarky photo captions and regular features like the Creem Dreems (tongue-in-cheek pinups of artists like Debbie Harry and Bebe Buell) were clearly intended for — and driven by — adolescent hormones.... [S]een through today’s eyes, some of the old Creem content can seem puerile, even offensive. The casual sexism and homophobia is sadly typical of its time, and racial sensitivity was nonexistent. Yet its anarchic attitude and early embrace of new wave and punk inspired future musicians like Sonic Youth’s Thurston Moore, Pearl Jam’s Jeff Ament and Metallica’s Kirk Hammett, who all appear in the film. In one scene, R.E.M.’s Michael Stipe recalls the first time he ever saw a copy of Creem, during detention in high school, and being mesmerized by a photo of Patti Smith. 'From that moment forward my entire life shifted and changed dramatically,' Stipe says. 'I was like, what world is this? Most people want to fit in somewhere. Because of my otherness, because of my queerness, I was trying to find that gang. I wasn’t going to find it in my high school. I found it in Creem magazine.'"
From "The Wild Story of Creem, Once ‘America’s Only Rock ’n’ Roll Magazine’/A new documentary traces the rise and fall of the irreverent, boundary-smashing music publication where Lester Bangs did some of his most famous work" (NYT).
Here's the trailer:
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The casual sexism and homophobia is sadly typical of its time
If by sadly typical they mean effin' awesome then they're spot on!!!
i grew up reading Creem (pronounced: Boy Howdy)
it was good.
[S]een through today’s eyes, some of the old Creem content can seem puerile, even offensive. The casual sexism and homophobia is sadly typical of its time, and racial sensitivity was nonexistent.
You know, I grew up in Bible Belt Northern Alabama in the 70s, and I swear that even Baptist & Church of Christ Church Ladies weren't such cultural pussies as today's Oh-So-Sophisticated Wokesters.
The stuff I would read as a 13 year old boy in National Lampoon, which I bought at the local shopping center's bookstore! I'm amazed my father (who loved Lampoon too!) let me do it!
"Rolling Stone felt comparatively stuffy, preoccupied with movies and politics and reluctant to cover loud and snotty subcultural movements like punk and metal...
That was one of the themes in Almost Famous, with Lester Bangs telling the kid reporter how to b.s. the editors at Rolling Stone. Great movie.
Yeah, Rolling Stone very quickly turned pompous & stuffy under Jann Wenner, who, by his own admission, wanted to use the mag to suck up to big rock stars so he could be their buddy. But, while we remember Creem, let's also not forget what was around in Underground Comix or the various 'zines that were available at the dodgier sorts of "independent" bookstores such as Paul Krasner's The Realist.
The casual sexism and homophobia is sadly typical of its time, and racial sensitivity was nonexistent.
Gays were amusing, neither hated no feared. As were women. That part hasn't changed.
And racial sensitivity is incompatible with drama.
I never heard of Creem. Mad Mag, National Lampoon, and that's about it for counterculture. What's his face - Al Goldstein - had Screw, which I didn't read, but the man himself was very amusing as an Imus interview. Self-deprecating dedication to porn.
Agree with Young Hegelian, the 70s was the golden age of magazine free speech. National Lampoon, Screw, Heavy Metal, Cosmopolitan, Hustler, OUI, et al.
Maybe I missed it, but when talking about a project like this, it would be nice to mention when it would be released and more importantly, where you can see it.
Philip Seymour Hoffman played a good Lester Bangs.
The juxtaposition between "casual sexism and homophobia" on the pages of Creem and Michael Stipe finding his "gang" there, despite his "queerness", is a bit jarring, at least by today's woke standards.
It's almost as if the world has some complexity and nuance.
Creem had the balls to cover metal and punk, as well as the rock du jour.
Rolling Stone was always tedious. Their cover cycle was entirely predictable month to month:
1. Brand new "breakout" band or singer no one's ever heard of, obviously being pushed by record labels.
2. A former "next big thing" band trying to break out of their sophomore slump.
3. 60's-70's throwbacks who weren't necessarily putting anything out -- RS just didn't wanna lose their old hippie readership.
Repeat.
I read Creem. I knew RS was pretentious and full of it even back then.
THEOLDMAN
Big Lou Reed fan
Mostly MC5 in the band performance shots there. MC5 and Stooges got a lot of ink. They were bad bad boys.
Lampoon's Radio Dinner album? NOT today!
It's almost as if the world has some complexity and nuance.
Aside from semantic games, em-pathetic appeals, an alt-faith, and secular Pro-Choice, selective, opportunistic quasi-religion, there is only normalization, tolerance, and rejection. Most people favor the first when there is a redeemable value, the last when there is not, and the second by default, and leave bigotry to the now mainstream activists.
Rolling Stone could have owned the music category, but chose to be a vehicle for Jann Wenner to get invited to better dinner parties. Spin in its golden age was wonderful. RS missed everything interesting about the 90s.
Everybody wants to be different, don't they? Unique. More special than their peers. But they also want to be accepted by their peers, and to do this they must control the thoughts and feelings of their peers, or at least their peers' expression of their thoughts and feelings.
They are all Anthony Fremont, and it's a good life.
Always preferred Trouser Press. Clued to a lot of great music in it’s pages. Back when college radio rode the alternative edge.
Blogger LordSomber said...
Rolling Stone was always tedious. Their cover cycle was entirely predictable month to month:
1. Brand new "breakout" band or singer no one's ever heard of, obviously being pushed by record labels.
2. A former "next big thing" band trying to break out of their sophomore slump.
"Tell him it's a think piece...hahaha...
about a mid level band struggling with their own limitations in the harsh face of stardom...hahaha. He'll wet himself."
You know what I regret?
I regret ever giving a moment's thought or a fraction of a fart what RS or Creem had to say.
It turned out that there's no snob like the rock'n'roll snob . . . (He says, boosting the volume on DeBussy's "Nocturnes.")
Narr
Radio Dinner? Remember Brown-25?
Creem was great. Read it in high school 1977-81. Great times for music.
Adrian pointed out, that ....
RS missed everything interesting about the 90s.
RS also missed everything interesting about the 80s.
RS also missed everything interesting about the 70s.
RS didn't even know who The Dictators were
💃those were the days my friend, we thought they’d never end. 🎶
Started reading Creem in '78, I remember it was because The Who had just put out the 'Who Are You' album and Creem did an article on Pete Townshend. I was a big fan of The Who and got hooked on the magazine because of it's irreverence. Read it up until I went to college in '81 and then couldn't get it because the newsstands in the town I went to school in didn't carry it. Bought my first, and only, Rolling Stone at that time. It was crap. All politics and album reviews for obscure jazz artist. I think Creem went belly up shortly there after.
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