Creem – America’s Only Rock ‘n’ Roll Magazine, Reviewed Issue By Issue – November 1984 (Volume 16, Number 6)

Creem seemed to be going somewhat through a cover crisis at this time. The October 1984 issue had the ill-conceived “Duets from Hell” as its cover story and the November 1984 issue included Quiet Riot, The Cars, Prince, and Cyndi Lauper, pointing toward a lack of a firm direction at this time.

As of this issue Ann Marie Fazio was no longer an Editorial Assistant. She was replaced by Joanne Carnegie.

Future gloom God Nick Cave was featured in “The Beat Goes On.” He raved a bit about enjoying Elvis’s in decline period. This is a particularly interesting “TBGO” section that also includes pieces on INXS and Robin Gibb.

Features:

“Reckhining & Rolling with Greg Kihn!,” by Jeff Tamarkin

“Rhythms of Life in ‘Heartbeat City,’” by Toby Goldstein

“Little Steven: Threat or Menace?,” by Laura Fissinger

“Quiet Riot: Very Serious About Not Being Serious,” by David Keeps

“Can I Have My Money Back? Pink Floyd’s Post-Partum Party,” by Dave DiMartino

“Do Bananarama Have Appeal?,” by L.E. Agnelli

“Lou Reed’s New Rock Sensations,” by Bill Holdship

Greg Kihn was feeling the pressure of following his 1983 single “Jeopardy,” a #2 pop hit. His failure to do so didn’t keep him from being an entertaining interview subject.

The Cars were doing damage control in their interviews with Toby Goldstein. Ric Ocasek had previously made negative comments about Elliot Easton’s contribution to the band. Ocasek, “He’s a phenomenal guitar player, I exaggerated the whole point in a moment of madness.” All of the involved parties probably felt calmer after their 1984 “Heartbeat City” album sold over four million copies.

Laura Fissinger noted on her piece on Little Steven that he primarily was relevant to the media due to his relationship with Bruce Springsteen. His attire is pretty retrospectively humorous, in that he looks like a somber extra working at Disney’s “Pirates of the Caribbean” ride.

Quiet Riot spend 1984 riding the momentum of “Mama Weer All Crazee Now,” their second commercially successful Slade cover.

Dave DiMartino examined the scattered pieces of Pink Floyd, interviewing David Gilmour and attending a Roger Waters show. One must admire the patience that Gilmour had to work with Waters as long as he did.

Bill Holdship conducted a good, conversational interview with Lou Reed about his highly regarded “New Sensations” album. Reed came across as a serious, thoughtful musician without the “I-am-an-artist” pretentiousness he had in the 1970s.

Quotable Quotes:

LaToya Jackson, “Michael will come right out and tell me I’m getting fat, but I don’t mind. I have a tendency to gain a little, especially in the booty.”

Nick Cave on his music, “Basically they’re just sorta murder ballads – they’re little tragedies in the classic sense.”

Robin Gibb, “Although the groups might not like to admit it, I can hear the Bee Gees in a lot of the stuff that’s happening today. When I went to England, Frankie Goes to Hollywood had come on the charts with that song ‘Two Tribes.’ Well, to me, the groove and the sound is the same as ‘Tragedy.’”

Greg Kihn, “My record company fears me…They know that inside I’m a seething Wild Man Fischer. I could go into the studio any minute now and record ‘Merry-Go-Round.’”

Greg Kihn, “When I watch a Duran Duran video, I get so horny I have to leave the room!”

Ric Ocasek, “There’s nothing wrong with appealing to a lot of people. It just depends HOW you appeal to them, whether it’s fake, or it’s real.”

Kevin DuBrow, “Money…the root of all freedom. If you have money you can do whatever you want.”

David Gilmour on Roger Waters, “There’s an air of competition between us. Roger does think – and has said – that he IS the Pink Floyd. That he is the reason for what Pink Floyd is.”

Ken Barnes on Cyndi Lauper’s “She Bop,” “An interesting exercise in heavy metal synthabilly and the biggest hit I can recall on the subject of autoeroticism (and I don’t mean making out in cars).”

Gregg Turner, reviewing Quiet Riot’s “Critical Condition” and Twisted Sister’s “Stay Hungry” as a WWF wrestling match, “Mr. Fuji has just jumped into the ring with a trashcan of money…THIS IS UNBELIEVABLE! He’s dumped it over both teams and they’re…GROVELING in it.”

Summary: Not only were DiMartion and Holdship busy editing the magazine, their features were humble “this is how it’s done, folks” illustrations.

Grade: B+

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