Creem- America's ONLY Rock 'n Roll magazine

 

This was the first magazine I ever purchased about music.  I knew of Rolling Stone, of course, and had read some reprints of articles from that fine zine, but had never thought to buy one.  I had seen this magazine in the local newstand, but again, never wanted to own one.    That changed after I saw the Plasmatics perform on the mostly not very good Fridays variety show on ABC.  This was aired in December 1980, but I saw it in march of 1981. Say what you want about the "comedy" of the show, they really featured some outstanding musical acts for the scant three seasons it was on.  I wanted to learn more about this band that used chainsaws in their presentation.

However, that information was hard to find in 1981.  Finally, this issue, dated September 1981 showed up, and I purchased it.  I had no idea what I was getting myself into at first.  The articles were well written, but the captions for the photographs were not serious at all.  I was hooked on this magazine and it's irreverence toward rock and roll.  I bought almost every issue for several years.  I wish I still had these issues, but at some point they got traded or sold to make room for other things in my life.

The magazine ran from March 1969 to sometime in 1989.  By the time I had started reading it, my favorite band KISS was a running gag to them, though the magazine had been a big booster of the band for their first several years.  I should find some back issues, since they were mostly gold.  Reading this one issue that I own now, I see so many bands I have come to love.  Finding records by some of those bands was nearly impossible back then.

"Is this big normal for a kid my age, Wally?"