CREEM: America's Only Rock 'N' Roll Magazine

List Price: $23.95 Discount Price: $30.50

Customer Reviews:

Great, fun, magazine that has very little in common with this book. [Posted on 2008-04-07]
Yeah, it's got some great articles. Yeah, it's got some Creem Profiles and photos. But.... it's boring. Unless you want to read about Alice Cooper, David Lee Roth, etc, there's just not much else going on here. What made the magazine so much fun were things like the AWESOME letters section, the laugh-yourself-silly-sometimes photo captions, the smaller articles and the fantastic photography (where is the great Lynn Goldsmith???) Where is any of that, where is the stuff we never got to see, the behind the scenes stories and photos?

This is one of those books that goes from 'Wow!' to 'hmmm.....ZZZzzzzz' in less than half an hour.

Where's the rest? [Posted on 2008-06-23]
I don't know the whole story but there's all sorts of BS about who controls Creem these days. This book is great but is missing lots of great stuff. Maybe it's just Volume 1? One of the best articles I remember was the one Greg Turner (of the Angry Samoans) wrote about Motorhead on the Ace Of Spades tour. That's one of the only old issues I still have in a box somewhere.

Check out Mighty High...In Drug City

It's not perfect [Posted on 2008-08-22]
What would make this book perfect is if it was single issues bound as one. Complete issues from cover to cover.
Instead we get a great compilation of a great magazine. I don't care much for the 80's stuff, but it is what it is - the magazine was around the 80's.
The best part is the Boy Howdy ads, the Stars and Their Cars photos and the cover gallery (not complete by any stretch).
I love this book though!

America's ONLY Rock 'n' Roll Magazine? - NOT! [Posted on 2008-08-30]
I have always felt Creem's claim of "America's Only Rock 'n' Roll Magazine" was not only arrogant - but pure hype.

If you MUST buy the Creem book - or if you can only afford one purchase on the subject of Rock & Roll - do not pass up Suzy Shaw-Mick Farren's truly exciting, "Bomp! - Saving The World One Record At A Time".

Bomp! was a powerfull force in the explosion of underground Punk-PowerPop bands that began with The Ramones, Blondie, The Clash and the Sex Pistols - and changed the face of pop music forever. Bomp! Magazine made the news that Creem stood on the sidelines and wrote about. It isn't overkill to claim Greg Shaw played a role in the success of practically every Punk-PowerPop act to emerge during the late 1970s.

The book begins with Bomp! Magazine's original incarnation as the world's first R&R fanzine, "Mojo Navigator Rock & Roll News". Launched by a teenaged Greg Shaw in 1966, it's mimeographed pages covered San Francisco's emerging hippy music scene, and became a model for Jan Wenner's Rolling Stone.

You won't be reading a neatly-fonted version of the original text on clean, white paper - but full-scale prints of the actual pages of Mojo Navigator in all their mimeographed glory. Let's see Creem top THAT!

Mojo Navigator was the first zine to interview The Doors - and yes, this rare interview is in the book. So are very early interviews with the Grateful Dead, Big Brother & The Holding Company w/Janis Joplin, Country Joe & The Fish...Greg didn't just write about the scene - he LIVED in Haight Ashbury.

Moving south to LA with his wife, Suzie Shaw, Greg reinvented Mojo Navigator in the early 1970s as "Who Put The Bomp" (later shortened to Bomp!). In '76 the Bomp! Records label and distribution was launched, and Greg becoming one of the very first independent records distributors - just in time to handle the new wave of unsigned Punk and PowerPop bands.

You'll find crammed (and I mean CRAMMED) within these page, articulate Rock & Roll writing, historic photos, band fliers and incredible one-of-a-kind memorabilia. There isn't an ounce of 'dull' in this cutting edge account. You'll feel like you're back in the 1960s and '70s discovering R&R for the first time.

Now, here's a little tip for ya: On Amazon, as I write this, you can buy a used copy of the Creem book for only $9.20. You can't find a used copy of The Bomp! book for less than $19.99. What does that tell you?

Nostalgia over easy... [Posted on 2008-11-30]
I bought my 1st Creem in early 1978 when I was 14 & was instantly hooked. I couldn't believe the photo captions, reviews & general piss-taking that the mag exhibited. I immediately ordered all the back issues I could afford as well as subscribing to it for 2 years. Despite the fact that I no longer have nearly 20 years of Creems to my name (long story), it has long been the root of my musical obsessions.

Cut to 2008, 30 years since I 1st saw Creem on the news-stand. This is a hard-bound book, compiled by long-time Creem photog Bob Matheu & ably assisted by the e-editor of Creem's website Brian Bowe. It features glossy pages, comments by the subjects & cover stories. However it does NOT feature any stories more cultural than "Androgyny in Rock" from August 1973 which was an overview of the glam-rock greats of the time. No stories extolling drug use, no Jay Gatsby (the Most Wasted Boy Alive), no Hollywood Groupies or guides to So.Cal. What's left?

Stories about the MC5 & New York Dolls & Iggy Pop from the early issues. Punk rock greats the Sex Pistols, the Dead Boys & the Ramones. Many Stars Cars and Creem Dreams. Bruce Springsteen, Bob Seger & Judas Priest. It's enough for those who didn't grow up on Creem (poor saps!) but just a tease for those of us who remember the mag more fondly.

To buy or to buy? At the price it is currently on Amazon you'd be a fool not to! Just be sure to order something else so you get free shipping too!

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