Creem: America's Only Rock 'n' Roll Magazine

For those who remember Cream, this is an interesting look back. Cream, as its fans know, was a far more honest and entertaining rock music fan mag than its dominate and long-ago sold out competitor, Rolling Stone. Along with Trouser Press, Cream had a real impact on rock fans as it was more singularly about rock music than RS and the writers were far better informed as to what music fans wanted to listen to. A point is made in the film that RS hated (and still does) heavy metal. The RS review of Led Zeppelin's first two albums, both panned and denounced in that mag, let alone the constant bad reviews of every Sabbath album, being but two of many examples. Much has been made, and is made here, of Cream's finding and publishing the great Lester Bangs, whose reviews hold up as great pieces of music criticism even now. However, what nearly ruins the film is the arrogant, self-congratulating appearance of Dave Marsh, in my opinion the most over-published and least insightful, let alone tasteless, rock critic ever. Just a complete boar (misspelling intentional). Of course, the fact Marsh went on to write his slop for RS after leaving Cream says it all. If you want to read the Yoko Ono Box Set of rock criticism, pick up Marsh's Rock Lives (but get it used and cheap). Still, overall a solid and honest look at the rise and fall of a once great fanzine.

I find the heyday of Creem to be the spring of 72 to the spring of 73. I understand that the magazine had to change with the times but there were little out of the way articles that were no longer in there. The album review section was fun but I thought Jann Ulhezski would've been more at home at the National Lampoon..As for this documentary I wish it could be longer.

While this worth a watch, I was a bit disappointed that it didn't capture the magic of the original mag to a teen in the 70's. It may be that one had to have been there; I don't know. It did hit me that Creem had a bigger influence on who I became than I thought: I thought it was mostly Bowie & Mott that turned me into a glam rocker by the 80's. This mag had a lot to do with it; along with the best Rock writer of all time, Lester Bangs. Bangs may have been a jerk, but man could he write! Think of an understandable Hunter S Thomson writing about rock & you'd be close!I don't know how much this will show that magic to those who were too you young to read Creem in it's glory days (or even read it at all). One thing I didn't know: Creem (like Rolling Stone last year) was sold to a corporate conglomerate (which again like Rolling Stone) totally destroyed the magazine. I'd stopped reading it by the late 70's - early 80's as I was really not into punk at the time; I was doing a singer songwriter thing. So I was fortunately spared how bad the mag became after it was sold.But Boy Howdy, what memories! If Rolling Stone was the intellectual side of rock back in the day, Creem was the irreverent glam side.Unfortunately with Bangs passed away, very little footage, & the music scene so different today; I'm unsure how the film makers could have gotten it right.

Fortunately I was able to travel a lot in an earlier life and occupation. This was at a time when it wasn't cool to name drop your home town as Detroit. When I would travel to England and people asked where I was from and I would reply Detroit the response was one of awe. John Lee Hooker, Motown, Aretha Franklin, Iggy & The Stooges, MC 5, Alice Cooper and later on Madonna, Eminem, The White Stripes. I then realized how revered is the world over.Then I watched the Creem Documentary. I used to buy Creem as a kid. When in Birmingham I used to pop into their offices and sometimes run errands for them. I was paid in Boy Howdy merchandise. Creem had attitude. It was unlike Circus, Crawdaddy and way different than Rolling Stone. Creem had Detroit swagger. I don't think Creem could have existed in any other city. I don't think it is a coincidence that Creem started around the same time the Grande Ballroom became the mecca venue to touring bands especially those from England.Watching the documentary you can see how much the magazine meant to those still around to tell it's story. And the writing? C'mon Lester Bangs?This is a must watch.

I went to High School with Chad Smith (RHCP Drummer) who is featured throughout this documentary. I was also a "regular reader" of CREEM . . . mostly because they had a lot of articles about KISS - who I adored when I was 15 years old. Like Chad, I also lived in Bloomfield Hills during my teen years - only a few miles from Creem's Birmingham, MI Office, although, at that time, I didn't realize how close I lived to such an EPIC publication. Unlike Chad, I never rode my bike there to check them out - unfortunately.This documentary is interesting - and overall it's decent "behind-the-scenes" look at what was happening at the magazine during that first "decade of decadence" (1969-1979). For my taste, the pace of editing is just too fast. It starts off quickly with a lot of imagery flying across the screen. I get that "quick edits" were supposed to help explain a LOT via photos and graphics in a short piece like this - but for me, it's too much. Personally, I prefer the video segments - especially the older footage that people were smart to capture as it was happening. I think it could be better, if they had gone deeper into some of the stories about Alice Cooper, KISS and other rock bands that CREEM covered on a regular basis throughout the 1970s.