Creem – America’s Only Rock ‘n’ Roll Magazine, Reviewed Issue By Issue – June 1984 (Volume 16, Number 1)
Boy George, everybody’s favorite non-threatening gender bending icon of the 1980s, took the cover slot for the June 1984 issue of Creem. Boy held court on several topics including – his goal of spreading tolerance, the impact of David Bowie, the difficulty that women have in the music industry, and lifestyle changes due to fame (“I’m a recluse now”). He also took some shots at Frankie Goes to Hollywood and Morrisey. You can imagine him being a talk show guest in this interview, selling his latest project and commenting about any news or gossip of the day. His stardom was no happy accident.
Reader Jim Sullivan contributed the following Q and A, “Q: If you had three apples, and I took three apples away from you, what would you be left with? A: Toto.”
Features:
“The Smiths: Through Being Cool,” by Merle Ginsberg
“Re-Flex: Hit ‘En with a Hammer!,” by David Keeps
“Proof Thru the Night: T-Bone Burnett Offers 100%,” by Cynthia Rose
“Electric Superman: Rick Derringer Can’t Be Stopped,” by Toby Goldstein
“Now It Can Be Told! I Was a Monk for Ozzy Osbourne! My Secret Shame…,” by John Kordosh
“Agony & Ecstasy of ABC,” by Karen Schlosberg
Merle Ginsberg, future gossip maven and judge on “RuPaul’s Drag Race,” compared the lyrics of the Smiths to “Oscar Wilde or Noel Coward plays, or even Blake poems.” Johnny Marr gushed about his major influences – the Velvet Underground, Patti Smith, and Television. The author also seemed quite smitten by Morrisey.
Re-Flex (remember “The Politics of Dancing”?) shared stories about stage ribs between them and the Police in their interview with David Keeps. They seemed like the kind of guys who stood in the corner at parties and laughed at their own jokes.
U.K. scribe Cynthia Rose found herself in a Fort Worth honkytonk, interviewing T-Bone Burnett about his “Proof Through the Night” album. T-Bone said stuff like, “We live in a materialistic age which is always trying to prove the truth by numbers and that’s a disease which strikes down the human spirit.” Can you imagine the groupies this guy got? However, he was an extremely articulate man and he delved into the concept of what we would later call Americana music in this piece.
Rick Derringer discussed his disappoint with CBS Records and his new life as an independent recording artist as well as producing, no joke, Weird Al Yankovic.
Ozzy Osbourne complained about his image woes, applauded Boy George and David Lee Roth, and seemed a bit insecure in his interview with John Kordosh. An interesting read.
Goodness, was it already time for ANOTHER feature on ABC? Guess so. Martin Fry waxed eloquently about the differences between “The Lexicon of Love” and “Beauty Stab” albums. (Somebody, wake me up!)
Quotable Quotes:
Johnny Marr, “We’re so uncool – we’re the fucking COOLEST.”
Morrisey, “We’re the most important band in Britain right now. I mean, how could you even COMPARE us to, say, the Police.”
Robert Christgau on Swans, “Percussion techniques borrowed from the scrap industry and a guitar bottom that lows like mechanical cattle and howls like the wind in a zombie movie.”
Ozzy Osbourne, “I’m a Christian guy, in my own way.”
Ozzy on Kevin DuBrow, “He’s got more mouth than a cow’s twat.”
Dave DiMartino on the Smiths, “They are an important band. The sing about things that no other band has ever sung about, and they do it well.”
Summary: A lot of the Creem A team, such as Richard Riegel, John Mendelssohn, Rick Johnson, Bill Holdship, and Nick Tosches were M.I.A. for this issue
Grade: B
Latest price on eBay: $12.00 to “Buy It Now.”
