Review: The raunchy, raucous history of Creem magazine is captured in a fast and fun documentary
The documentary “Creem: America’s Only Rock ’n’ Roll Magazine” is a fast and frisky jog through the archives of the legendarily outsider music publication — with an impressive roster of rock stars who were the mag’s fans and subjects.
Born on the wrong side of the tracks in Detroit, Creem was the brainchild of entrepreneur Barry Kramer, who owned several head shops in the Motor City, and its founding editor, Tony Reay. Kramer, the publisher, gave the magazine its downtown vibe; Reay gave it the name, a corruption of the band Cream — and an F.U. to the more upscale, hoity-toity attitude of its rival, Rolling Stone. One photo, of Rolling Stone founder Jann Wenner sitting next to Jackie Kennedy, says everything about what Creem was not.
If Creem wasn’t highbrow, what was it? Under Kramer and Reay — and, shortly after, Reay’s successor, Dave Marsh — it aimed to be irreverent, in-your-face and a little bit dangerous, like the music they liked. As one Michigander interviewed here, the actor Jeff Daniels, puts it, Creem was a little like Playboy, in that “you didn’t want your parents to find either of them.”
One example of the magazine’s humor: The Boy Howdy profile, a spoof of the Dewar’s Scotch ads, where they lampooned the bands they covered, and got the bands to pose with a fake beer brand, Boy Howdy. (The logo was drawn by underground comic artist R. Crumb, in exchange for paying for Crumb to see a doctor.)
Marsh brought a slashing writing style, and an enthusiasm for every kind of music Detroit could produce — from Wayne Kramer’s punk band MC5 to the outrageous sounds of George Clinton’s Parliament-Funkadelic, and everything in between. Marsh also brought in the prolific, and abrasive, rock critic Lester Bangs as a senior editor.
Bangs, recalls Cameron Crowe (who cast Philip Seymour Hoffman as Bangs in “Almost Famous”), warned that writers should never make friends with rock stars – but then Bangs did just that. Singer Peter Wolf recalls the time his group, the J. Geils Band, invited Bangs onstage to write his review, and Bangs ended up smashing his typewriter to bits.
Marsh and Crowe, along with Barry Kramer’s widow, Connie, and their son, J.J. (who’s the film’s producer), are among the Creem staffers who talk about the magazine’s rise and fall. Director Scott Crawford, who wrote the film with Creem alumna Jaan Uhelszki, also collects a slew of rock stars — some who were written about in the magazine, others grew up reading it — that includes Suzi Quatro, Michael Stipe, Chad Smith (of Red Hot Chili Peppers), Thurston Moore, Kirk Hammett (of Metallica) and Joan Jett, who wrote the magazine’s most infamous letter to the editor.
The documentary moves briskly, never settling on one thought or groove too long. As the images of low-resolution pages and fond rock-star remembrances wash over one’s psyche, what sticks in the mind is a perfect rock ’n’ roll paradox — that Creem must have been the most fun place to work, and the most aggravating.
——
‘Creem: America’s Only Rock ’n’ Roll Magazine’
★★★
Available Friday, August 7, in the Salt Lake Film Society’s SLFS@Home virtual cinema. Not rated, but probably R for language, sexual content and drug references. Running time: 76 minutes.