First published in The Rag, 24 January 1972

Most people listen to rock ‘n’ roll. Yet others read about it, and some actually have the lunacy to write about it! Where there’s money to be made, there’re always crafty entrepreneurs to fill the gap. Some aren’t strictly in it for the money, though, they like to do this sort of stuff—write about rock ‘n’ roll—even if no one reads it anymore.

Once upon a time people did, back when Hit Parader had been around awhile, and Crawdaddy (Paul Williams, R. Meltzer, Jon Landau) and Mojo-Navigator (from San Francisco—David Harris and Greg Shaw) were the first to try and fill the void. They never did, though, as Rolling Stone debuted in late 1967 and became the first biggie of the field. Fusion and Creem gave birth about two years later, and after a while decay set in.

This is a brief survey of what’s left, in an effort to separate the good guys from the bad guys. Literacy is irrelevant.

CREEM: Creem’s success story of 1971 was actually very simple… Creem improved a bit while Rolling Stone slipped a lot, and the magazine finally found a good national distributor. Also, a whole flock of ex-Rolling Stone writers decided to make Creem their literary home: Greil Marcus, Ed Ward, John Morthland, Michael Goodwin, Langdon Winner, Jon Carroll. Add resident CREEMers Dave Marsh and Lester Bangs, plus columnist Greg Shaw (editor of Who Put The Bomp), and you’ve got a star-studded journalistic lineup for sure.

But no growth comes without its tragedies. To have a national distribution mag, Creem had to drastically cut down its review section, which in 1971 issues #1-#4 was the snazziest in rockmag history.

Musically, Creem promulgates the Creem Dogmatic School of Rock ‘n’ Roll Thought, which runs something like this: MC5, Stooges, Black Sabbath, Grand Funk, Van Morrison, Alice Cooper, and etc. You know the rest, you either like them or you don’t, you either like Creem or you don’t. Their musical tastes just might have something to do with the fact that the mag originally came out of Detroit.

ROLLING STONE: Since the firing of half its staff in mid-1970, Rolling Stone has gone straight downhill. Nowadays they don’t even have interviews anymore, and you can guess what any issue is like without reading it. Just like Billboard, ya know. One redeeming feature of RS is the record review section, which isn’t as bad as some think. Well, maybe I take that back, some of the reviews are that bad—but there sure are a lot of them. Which is good for all concerned. Lenny Kaye, Lester Bangs, and Jon Landau are ace writers, too.

As for the 50 pages that come before the record reviews, half of them are usually ads, and the rest is done by a bunch of faceless lackeys run by Jann Wenner and Ben Fong-Torres. Not even trained chimps, but a staff. Lots of typists anyway (not to mention the subscription room). Whatever happened to the San Francisco Sound? Or was that Bosstown??

FUSION: You wouldn’t know it from the current level of quality, but Fusion was once a very good mag, back in late 1969 and thereabouts. This year they’ve kept getting worse and worse, and the magazine’s layout is enough to blind a hippopotamus, it’s that dull. The reviews aren’t much better, not to mention the stories.

WHO PUT THE BOMP: This is a fanzine, i.e. a non-profit publication; and though it only comes out 3 or 4 times a year, the Bomp is one of the best rock ‘n’ roll mags around simply because it’s written by people who really care about the stuff they’re writing about. The loosely defined purpose of Who Put The Bomp is to cover the 1958-66 years of rock (pre-1958 having been thoroughly done by oldies mags, and 1967 on by existing rock magazines): forthcoming special issues will be on the English Invasion, Surf and Hot Rod Music, and 1966-7 American Punk Rock. WPTB has the finest cartoonist in the business, contributing editor John Ingham; the other contributing editor is the mysterious M. Saunders; and the editor himself is Greg Shaw, who puts the mag out from his home in Fairfax, California.

UNITED ARTISTS PHONOGRAPH MAGAZINE: Up-and-comers are always a treat, and this magazine is just that! They’ve been around awhile, but just recently have discovered the way to quality and fame: pay cash for articles and reviews, and you can get all the best writers scrawling for your mag. Indeed, rock writers John Mendelsohn and Ben Edmonds are now the editors of the magazine (previously, Martin Cerf of U.A. Records). It’s not a bad ruse either, the mag gets to plug UA artists to their heart’s content (though tastefully of course), and recent issues of the mag have had more good stuff than a year’s worth of Rolling Stone. Best of all, it’s free at your record store.

FLASH: Not the once-planned Flash, this is a new offset rock fanzine done by Mark Shipper of Los Angeles, all in follow-up to a letter of his in CREEM about obscure rock albums. The mag is incredible, and may become one of the best anywhere—they plan to start regular monthly publication in April. So it’s too early to rate them yet.

ROCK: Rock doesn’t quite match Fusion’s abominable layout, but they more than win on printed matter! It’s truly some of the worst anywhere. The letter section is strong as well, running second only to Rolling Stone: “My fave group is better than your fave group (man).” All this, and Rock still doesn’t like Black Sabbath, nor Grand Funk. I guess they’re appealing to the snob audience—those who’d rather read interviews with Keith Emerson, Alvin Lee, and Jimmy Page. Sheesh. Rock does usually have good oldies coverage.

CRAWDADDY: Is Crawdaddy defunct or not? Why don’t they make up their mind? They’ve changed the entire staff (again), and issues seem to be coming out in spurts these days. One was pretty good; the one with long interviews of all four members of the Who. Crawdaddy could probably beat out Fusion and Rock, if only they’d get organized about it. Better yet, they should hire R. Meltzer as editor, that’d be something.

Well, that’s it. There seem to be more losers than winners, yet that’s life. I read them all anyway; what better way to waste time? Dunno whatever happened to Zygote and Changes (not that I care), and I forgot Vibrations and Zig Zag is English and hence doesn’t count, but as for the rest, I’d rate them like this:

1. CREEM
2. UNITED ARTIST PHONOGRAPH MAGAZINE
3. WHO PUT THE BOMP
4. ROLLING STONE
5. FUSION
6. ROCK
CRAWDADDY

To all those who lost: better luck next year!

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