Creem
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CREEM, "America's Only Rock 'n' Roll Magazine," was a monthly rock 'n' roll publication started in 1969 by Barry Kramer and founding editor Tony Reay. It suspended production in 1988. The late Lester Bangs, who is generally considered to be "America's Greatest Rock Critic," was one of CREEM's original editors. The term "punk rock" was coined by this magazine in 1971. The term "heavy metal" was also first used in its pages.
The magazine was based in Detroit, later Birmingham, MI, and its separation from the entertainment industry in the United States encouraged a certain irreverent, deprecatory and humorous tone that permeated the magazine. The magazine became famous for its hilarious photo captions, which poked fun at rock stars and the magazine itself. Its location also encouraged it to be amongst the first national publications to cover local artists such as Iggy Pop, The Stooges, Alice Cooper, Bob Seger, Ted Nugent The MC5, Parliament-Funkadelic and other Midwesterners, such as Cheap Trick and The Raspberries, in great depth. CREEM picked up on the punk rock (which many claim the magazine and, especially, Bangs helped to conceptualize, if not invent) and New Wave movements early on, years before other magazines like Rolling Stone finally woke up. It gave massive exposure to artists like Lou Reed, David Bowie and The New York Dolls years before the mainstream press. In the '80s, it also led the pack on coverage of upcoming rock icons such as The Replacements, Robyn Hitchcock, R.E.M. and The Cure, among numerous others. It was also among the first to sing the kudos of metal acts like KISS and Van Halen. Kurt Cobain later confessed to RIP Magazine that he'd first learned about punk rock from reading CREEM as a youngster.
The famous "Boy Howdy!" milk-bottle logo was drawn by artist R. Crumb. He was paid $50 for the soon-to-be iconic image.
Writers for CREEM included Lester Bangs, Billy Altman, Robert Christgau, Richard Meltzer, Nick Tosches, Greil Marcus, Dave Marsh, John Mendelssohn, Jeff Nesin, Mark J. Norton, John "The Mad" Peck, Robert A. Hull, Rick Johnson, Richard Riegel, Richard C. Walls, Jon Young, Vicki Arkoff, Linda Barber, Richard Riegel, Mitch Cohen, Cynthia Rose, Sylvie Simmons, Jaan Uhelszki, Penny Valentine, Gregg Turner, Rob Tyner, Patti Smith, Cameron Crowe, Dave DiMartino, John Kordosh and Bill Holdship who became one of the final editors of CREEM in the mid-1980s. The magazine moved its base of operations to Los Angeles shortly before its demise.
Bill Holdship and John Kordosh were involved in CREEM's move to Los Angeles after it was purchased by Arnold Levitt, but both of them had already left the magazine before its move to NYC, after Levitt licensed the name to a publisher there, and its ultimate demise. Steve Peters and David Sprague, both fine and able CREEM writers, were the last men standing in the original editorial chain that went back to 1969.
Robert Matheu, a regular CREEM photographer since 1978, and his business partner Ken Kulpa head up the current online resurrection with a talented new staff that includes Editor-in-Chief Brian J. Bowe and veteran CREEM alumnus Jeffrey Morgan, who serves as Canadian Editor.
