Easter (Patti Smith Group album)
Easter is the third studio album by the Patti Smith Group, released in March 1978 on Arista Records. Produced by Jimmy Iovine, it is regarded as the group's commercial breakthrough, owing to the success of the single, "Because the Night", which reached #13 on the Billboard Hot 100 and #5 in the UK; the first album released since Smith had suffered a neck injury while touring for Radio Ethiopia, Easter has been called the most commercially accessible of the Patti Smith Group's catalogue. Unlike its two predecessors, Easter incorporated a diversity of musical styles, though still including classic rock and roll, spoken word and pop music. Easter is the only 1970s album of Smith's that does not feature Richard Sohl as part of the Patti Smith Group. Bruce Brody is credited as the keyboard player, Richard Sohl makes a guest appearance contributing keyboards to "Space Monkey", along with Blue Öyster Cult keyboardist Allen Lanier; the cover photograph is by Lynn Goldsmith and liner notes photography by Cindy Black and Robert Mapplethorpe.
In addition to the religious allusion of its title, the album is replete with biblical and Christian imagery. "Privilege" is taken from the British fame- and authoritarianism-satirizing film Privilege. The LP insert reproduces a First Communion portrait of Frederic and Arthur Rimbaud, Smith's notes for the song "Easter" invoke Catholic imagery of baptism and the blood of Christ. A solitary hand-drawn cross is placed below the group member credits on the sleeve insert, the last sentence of the liner notes is a quote from Second Epistle to Timothy 4:7 -- "I have fought a good fight, I have finished my course..." Easter was acclaimed upon its release. Writing in Rolling Stone, Dave Marsh called the album "transcendent and fulfilled." In Creem, Nick Tosches described it as "an album of Christian obsessions those of death and resurrection", called it Smith's "best work." Robert Christgau of The Village Voice wrote that "the miracle is that most of these songs are rousing in the way they're meant to be."
Lester Bangs, on the other hand, began his review of the album, "Dear Patti, start the revolution without me", contended that while Horses had changed his life, Easter "is just a good album." Easter ranked at number 14 in The Village Voice's Pazz & Jop critics' poll of the best albums of 1978, while NME magazine ranked the album 46th best of the year. Patti Smith Group Patti Smith – vocals, guitar Lenny Kaye – guitar, bass guitar, vocals Jay Dee Daugherty – drums, percussion Ivan Kral – bass guitar, guitar Bruce Brody – keyboards, synthesizerAdditional personnel Jimmy Iovine – producer Richard Sohl – keyboards on "Space Monkey" Allen Lanier – keyboards on "Space Monkey" John Paul Fetta – bass on "Till Victory" & "Privilege" Andi Ostrowe – percussion on "Ghost Dance" Jim Maxwell – bagpipes on "Easter" Tom Verlaine – arrangement on "We Three" Todd Smith – head of crewTechnical Jimmy Iovine – production, mixing Shelly Yakus – mixing Greg Calbi – mastering Thom Panunzio – engineering Gray Russell – engineering Charlie Conrad – engineering Joe Intile – engineeringDesign Lynn Goldsmith – cover photography Robert Mapplethorpe – insert photography Cindy Black – insert photography John Roberts – insert photography Maude Gilman – insert design In the insert with the original LP release, Smith's self-penned liner notes refer, among other things, to: Arthur Rimbaud – 19th century French poet, sometime companion of Paul Verlaine.
Lived in Ethiopia for the last 11 years of his life. Frédéric Rimbaud – Arthur's brother. 42nd Street and Ninth Avenue, New York – 1970s crime-ridden zone. Privilege – 1967 British movie. Ladies and Gentlemen: The Rolling Stones – A concert movie released in 1974. Alain Delon – French actor. Pier Paolo Pasolini – 1960s Italian poet and film director. Bernardo Bertolucci – 1960s Italian writer and film director. Jean-Luc Godard – 1960s Franco-Swiss filmmaker. August 16, 1977 – date of Elvis Presley's death. Ghost Dance – 19th century religious movement among some Native American tribes. R.e.f.m. – Radio Ethiopia Field Marshal. Jean Shrimpton – 1960s British model and actress. Paul Jones – 1960s British musician and actor. Charles Baudelaire – 19th century French poet. CBGB – New York music club. Little Richard – 20th century American singer-songwriter. New Jersey; the UN's declaration of 1979 as International Year of the Child. Easter at AllMusic
Luka (song)
"Luka" is a song written and recorded by Suzanne Vega, released as a single in 1987. It remains her highest-charting hit in the United States, reaching No. 3 on the Billboard Hot 100. Worldwide, the song charted the highest in Poland and Sweden, peaking at No. 1 and No. 2 and reached the top 10 in Austria, New Zealand, South Africa. Shawn Colvin sang background vocals on the record."Luka" earned Vega nominations at the 1988 Grammy Awards, including Record of the Year, Song of the Year and Best Female Pop Vocal Performance. Vega recorded a Spanish-language version of the song, included on the single release; the song deals with the issue of child abuse. On a 1987 Swedish television special, Vega revealed her inspiration for Luka: A few years ago, I used to see this group of children playing in front of my building, there was one of them, whose name was Luka, who seemed a little bit distinctive from the other children. I always remembered his name, I always remembered his face, I didn't know much about him, but he just seemed set apart from these other children that I would see playing.
And his character is. In the song, the boy Luka is an abused child -- in real life. I think; this video was directed by Candice Reckinge. It was shot over three days, in New York City; the part of Luka was played by actor Jason Cerbone, chosen after the directors auditioned more than 90 children for the part. During a 2012 episode of BBC Radio 4's Mastertapes, Vega revealed that she had written a follow-up to "Luka", from the point of view of the character as he looked back on his life; the song, titled "Song of the Stoic" appeared on her 2014 album Tales from the Realm of the Queen of Pentacles. The song was covered by the Lemonheads on Lick; the Lemonheads' singer is wearing a "Hello My Name is Luka" name tag in the music video for their rendition of "Mrs. Robinson". British indie band Easyworld covered the song on the B-side to their 2004 single "'Til the Day"; the song was covered in a bossa nova style by Japanese band the Indigo on their 2004 album My Fair Melodies 2. Laith Al-Deen covered the song on his 2009 album Session.
Olivia Ong covered the song on her eponymous 2010 album. Kasey Chambers covered the song on Storybook. Slug interpolated the song in the song "Suzanne Vega" by Felt. Hildur Vala Einarsdóttir covered the song on her eponymous 2005 album. "Luka" on YouTube Lyrics of this song at MetroLyrics Vega on writing "Luka" Fan letter from Prince to Suzanne Vega in which he refers to Luka as "the most compelling piece of music I've heard in a long time"
New York City
The City of New York called either New York City or New York, is the most populous city in the United States. With an estimated 2017 population of 8,622,698 distributed over a land area of about 302.6 square miles, New York is the most densely populated major city in the United States. Located at the southern tip of the state of New York, the city is the center of the New York metropolitan area, the largest metropolitan area in the world by urban landmass and one of the world's most populous megacities, with an estimated 20,320,876 people in its 2017 Metropolitan Statistical Area and 23,876,155 residents in its Combined Statistical Area. A global power city, New York City has been described as the cultural and media capital of the world, exerts a significant impact upon commerce, research, education, tourism, art and sports; the city's fast pace has inspired the term New York minute. Home to the headquarters of the United Nations, New York is an important center for international diplomacy.
Situated on one of the world's largest natural harbors, New York City consists of five boroughs, each of, a separate county of the State of New York. The five boroughs – Brooklyn, Manhattan, The Bronx, Staten Island – were consolidated into a single city in 1898; the city and its metropolitan area constitute the premier gateway for legal immigration to the United States. As many as 800 languages are spoken in New York, making it the most linguistically diverse city in the world. New York City is home to more than 3.2 million residents born outside the United States, the largest foreign-born population of any city in the world. In 2017, the New York metropolitan area produced a gross metropolitan product of US$1.73 trillion. If greater New York City were a sovereign state, it would have the 12th highest GDP in the world. New York is home to the highest number of billionaires of any city in the world. New York City traces its origins to a trading post founded by colonists from the Dutch Republic in 1624 on Lower Manhattan.
The city and its surroundings came under English control in 1664 and were renamed New York after King Charles II of England granted the lands to his brother, the Duke of York. New York served as the capital of the United States from 1785 until 1790, it has been the country's largest city since 1790. The Statue of Liberty greeted millions of immigrants as they came to the U. S. by ship in the late 19th and early 20th centuries and is an international symbol of the U. S. and its ideals of liberty and peace. In the 21st century, New York has emerged as a global node of creativity and entrepreneurship, social tolerance, environmental sustainability, as a symbol of freedom and cultural diversity. Many districts and landmarks in New York City are well known, with the city having three of the world's ten most visited tourist attractions in 2013 and receiving a record 62.8 million tourists in 2017. Several sources have ranked New York the most photographed city in the world. Times Square, iconic as the world's "heart" and its "Crossroads", is the brightly illuminated hub of the Broadway Theater District, one of the world's busiest pedestrian intersections, a major center of the world's entertainment industry.
The names of many of the city's landmarks and parks are known around the world. Manhattan's real estate market is among the most expensive in the world. New York is home to the largest ethnic Chinese population outside of Asia, with multiple signature Chinatowns developing across the city. Providing continuous 24/7 service, the New York City Subway is the largest single-operator rapid transit system worldwide, with 472 rail stations. Over 120 colleges and universities are located in New York City, including Columbia University, New York University, Rockefeller University, which have been ranked among the top universities in the world. Anchored by Wall Street in the Financial District of Lower Manhattan, New York has been called both the most economically powerful city and the leading financial center of the world, the city is home to the world's two largest stock exchanges by total market capitalization, the New York Stock Exchange and NASDAQ. In 1664, the city was named in honor of the Duke of York.
James's older brother, King Charles II, had appointed the Duke proprietor of the former territory of New Netherland, including the city of New Amsterdam, which England had seized from the Dutch. During the Wisconsinan glaciation, 75,000 to 11,000 years ago, the New York City region was situated at the edge of a large ice sheet over 1,000 feet in depth; the erosive forward movement of the ice contributed to the separation of what is now Long Island and Staten Island. That action left bedrock at a shallow depth, providing a solid foundation for most of Manhattan's skyscrapers. In the precolonial era, the area of present-day New York City was inhabited by Algonquian Native Americans, including the Lenape, whose homeland, known as Lenapehoking, included Staten Island; the first documented visit into New York Harbor by a European was in 1524 by Giovanni da Verrazzano, a Florentine explorer in the service of the French crown. He named it Nouvelle Angoulême. A Spanish expedition led by captain Estêvão Gomes, a Portuguese sailing for Emperor Charles V, arrived in New York Harbor in January 1525 and charted the mouth of the Hudson River, which he named Río de San Antonio.
The Padrón Rea
North Brunswick, New Jersey
North Brunswick is a township in Middlesex County, New Jersey, United States. At the 2010 United States Census, the population was 40,742, reflecting an increase of 4,455 from the 36,287 counted in the 2000 Census, which had in turn increased by 5,000 from the 31,287 counted in the 1990 Census. Located south of the city of New Brunswick, North Brunswick was named for its earlier-established neighbor, South Brunswick, New Jersey; the "Brunswick" comes from New Brunswick, named after the German city of Braunschweig or for the British royal House of Brunswick. North and South Brunswick, in turn, became the namesakes for East Brunswick. Alternatively, the city gets its name from King George II of Great Britain, the Duke of Brunswick-Lüneburg. North Brunswick was first mentioned in Middlesex Freeholder Board minutes of February 28, 1779. North Brunswick Township was incorporated on February 21, 1798 by the New Jersey Legislature's Township Act of 1798 as the state's initial group of 104 townships.
Portions of the township have since separated into East Brunswick Township, Milltown. According to the United States Census Bureau, the township had a total area of 12.272 square miles, including 11.997 square miles of land and 0.275 square miles of water. Unincorporated communities and place names located or within the township include Adams, Berdines Corner, Black Horse, Bodines Corner, Franklin Park, Georges Road, Livingston Park, Maple Meade, Patricks Corner and Red Lion; the northern portion of the township, near the New Brunswick border, is middle class while the southern and eastern sections tend to be more affluent, with a few homes priced around $1 million. The township borders East Brunswick Township, New Brunswick and South Brunswick Township in Middlesex County, Franklin Township in Somerset County. Like many other New Jersey communities, North Brunswick is faced with the issues of suburban sprawl and open space preservation; the 105.21-acre Otken Farm property on Route 130 between Adams Lane and Renaissance Boulevard was purchased by the township to be converted into North Brunswick Community Park, which opened in April 2007.
The nearby Pulda Farm, on Route 130 at Wood Avenue, however may be developed into an age-restricted community pending legal challenge. Re-development of the site of the former Johnson & Johnson pharmaceutical plant on U. S. Route 1 between Adams Lane and Aaron Road is the subject of a public hearing process that will determine what may be built on the property. There is discussion of building an NJ Transit commuter railroad station on the site, along the Northeast Corridor Line. Other parcels slated for development into retail shopping centers include the wooded corner of Route 130 and Adams Lane diagonally across from the Maple Meade Plaza; as of the 2010 United States Census, there were 40,742 people, 14,551 households, 10,403.965 families residing in the township. The population density was 3,396.2 per square mile. There were 15,045 housing units at an average density of 1,254.1 per square mile. The racial makeup of the township was 46.61% White, 17.47% Black or African American, 0.42% Native American, 24.27% Asian, 0.04% Pacific Islander, 8.16% from other races, 3.04% from two or more races.
Hispanic or Latino of any race were 17.73% of the population. There were 14,551 households out of which 35.7% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 53.4% were married couples living together, 13.5% had a female householder with no husband present, 28.5% were non-families. 22.3% of all households were made up of individuals, 6.3% had someone living alone, 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.72 and the average family size was 3.22. In the township, the population was spread out with 23.4% under the age of 18, 8.4% from 18 to 24, 33.3% from 25 to 44, 25.6% from 45 to 64, 9.3% who were 65 years of age or older. The median age was 35.5 years. For every 100 females there were 97.6 males. For every 100 females ages 18 and older there were 95.2 males. The Census Bureau's 2006-2010 American Community Survey showed that median household income was $78,469 and the median family income was $91,053. Males had a median income of $60,285 versus $50,018 for females; the per capita income for the township was $32,944.
About 4.5% of families and 6.8% of the population were below the poverty line, including 7.2% of those under age 18 and 5.3% of those age 65 or over. At the 2000 United States Census there were 36,287 people, 13,635 households and 9,367 families residing in the township; the population density was 3,018.3 per square mile. There were 13,932 housing units at an average density of 1,158.8 per square mile. The racial makeup of the township was 62.73% White, 15.27% African American, 0.17% Native American, 14.20% Asian, 0.03% Pacific Islander, 4.70% from other races, 2.89% from two or more races. Hispanic or Latino of any race were 10.40% of the population. There were 13,635 households of which 33.3% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 53.4% were married couples living together, 11.6% had a female householder with no husband present, 31.3% were non-families. 24.5% of all households were made up of individuals and 7.5% had someone living alone, 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.58 and the average family size was 3.12.23.0% of the population were under the age of 18, 8.0% from 18 to 24, 36
Allen Ginsberg
Irwin Allen Ginsberg was an American poet and writer. He is considered to be one of the leading figures of both the Beat Generation during the 1950s and the counterculture that soon followed, he vigorously opposed militarism, economic materialism, sexual repression and was known as embodying various aspects of this counterculture, such as his views on drugs, hostility to bureaucracy and openness to Eastern religions. He was one of many influential American writers of his time known as the Beat Generation, which included famous writers such as Jack Kerouac and William S. Burroughs. Ginsberg is best known for his poem "Howl", in which he denounced what he saw as the destructive forces of capitalism and conformity in the United States. In 1956, "Howl" was seized by US Customs. In 1957, it attracted widespread publicity when it became the subject of an obscenity trial, as it described heterosexual and homosexual sex at a time when sodomy laws made homosexual acts a crime in every U. S. state. "Howl" reflected Ginsberg's own bisexuality and his relationships with a number of men, including Peter Orlovsky, his lifelong partner.
Judge Clayton W. Horn ruled that "Howl" was not obscene, adding, "Would there be any freedom of press or speech if one must reduce his vocabulary to vapid innocuous euphemisms?"Ginsberg was a practicing Buddhist who studied Eastern religious disciplines extensively. He lived modestly, buying his clothing in second-hand stores and residing in downscale apartments in New York's East Village. One of his most influential teachers was the Tibetan Buddhist Chögyam Trungpa, the founder of the Naropa Institute in Boulder, Colorado. At Trungpa's urging and poet Anne Waldman started The Jack Kerouac School of Disembodied Poetics there in 1974. Ginsberg took part in decades of non-violent political protest against everything from the Vietnam War to the War on Drugs, his poem "September on Jessore Road", calling attention to the plight of Bangladeshi refugees, exemplifies what the literary critic Helen Vendler described as Ginsberg's tireless persistence in protesting against "imperial politics, persecution of the powerless."His collection The Fall of America shared the annual U.
S. National Book Award for Poetry in 1974. In 1979, he received the National Arts Club gold medal and was inducted into the American Academy and Institute of Arts and Letters. Ginsberg was a Pulitzer Prize finalist in 1995 for his book Cosmopolitan Greetings: Poems 1986–1992. Ginsberg was born into a Jewish family in Newark, New Jersey, grew up in nearby Paterson; as a young teenager, Ginsberg began to write letters to The New York Times about political issues, such as World War II and workers' rights. While in high school, Ginsberg began reading Walt Whitman, inspired by his teacher's passionate reading. In 1943, Ginsberg graduated from Eastside High School and attended Montclair State College before entering Columbia University on a scholarship from the Young Men's Hebrew Association of Paterson. In 1945, he joined the Merchant Marine to earn money to continue his education at Columbia. While at Columbia, Ginsberg contributed to the Columbia Review literary journal, the Jester humor magazine, won the Woodberry Poetry Prize, served as president of the Philolexian Society, joined Boar's Head Society.
Ginsberg has stated that he considered his required freshman seminar in Great Books, taught by Lionel Trilling, to be his favorite Columbia course. According to The Poetry Foundation, Ginsberg spent several months in a mental institution after he pleaded insanity during a hearing, he was being prosecuted for harboring stolen goods in his dorm room. It belonged to an acquaintance. Ginsberg referred to his parents, in a 1985 interview, as "old-fashioned delicatessen philosophers", his father, Louis Ginsberg, was a high school teacher. Ginsberg's mother, Naomi Livergant Ginsberg, was affected by a psychological illness, never properly diagnosed, she was an active member of the Communist Party and took Ginsberg and his brother Eugene to party meetings. Ginsberg said that his mother "made up bedtime stories that all went something like:'The good king rode forth from his castle, saw the suffering workers and healed them.'" Of his father Ginsberg said "My father would go around the house either reciting Emily Dickinson and Longfellow under his breath or attacking T. S. Eliot for ruining poetry with his'obscurantism.'
I grew suspicious of both sides."Naomi Ginsberg's mental illness manifested as paranoid delusions. She would claim, for example, that the president had implanted listening devices in their home and that her mother-in-law was trying to kill her, her suspicion of those around her caused Naomi to draw closer to young Allen, "her little pet", as Bill Morgan says in his biography of Ginsberg, titled, I Celebrate Myself: The Somewhat Private Life of Allen Ginsberg. She tried to kill herself by slitting her wrists and was soon taken to Greystone, a mental hospital, his experiences with his mother and her mental illness were a major inspiration for his two major works, "Howl" and his long autobiographical poem "Kaddish for Naomi Ginsberg". When he was in junior high school, he accompanied his mother by bus to her therapist; the trip disturbed Ginsberg – he mentioned it and other moments from his childhood in "Kaddish". His experiences with his mother's mental illness and her institutionalization are frequently referred to in "Howl".
For example, "Pilgrim State and Grey Stone's foetid halls" is a reference to institutions frequented by his mother and Carl Solomon
Collapse into Now
Collapse into Now is the 15th and final studio album by the American alternative rock band R. E. M. Released on March 7, 2011, on Warner Bros. Produced by Jacknife Lee, who worked with the band on Accelerate, the album was preceded by the singles, "It Happened Today," "Mine Smell Like Honey", "Überlin" and "Oh My Heart". Regarding the album's title, lead singer Michael Stipe noted, "It's the final thing I sing, the last song on the record before the record goes into a coda and reprises the first song. In my head, it's like I'm addressing a nine-year-old and I'm saying,'I come from a faraway place called the 20th century, and these are the values and these are the mistakes we've made and these are the triumphs. These are the things; these are the things to learn from."As of September 2011, the album had sold 142,000 copies in the United States. At the time of the band's breakup, bassist Mike Mills noted that the album's lyrical content contained "indications" that the band were planning to split.
The band never played any of the songs live, though Michael Stipe did play "Every Day Is Yours to Win" live without R. E. M. for the Tibethouse Annual Benefit Concert. In 2008, while touring in support of Accelerate, R. E. M. Discussed the possibility of ending the band in the near future. Entering the studio with producer Jacknife Lee, the band began recording a final studio album, with the intention of "going out on a high note." Regarding these initial discussions, bassist Mike Mills stated, "We knew we had some decisions to make regarding our contract with Warner Bros. We had to make some decision about how to continue going forward as a recording unit, if we still wanted to tour together. Oddly enough, I think that independently, we all arrived at the conclusion that this was such a great opportunity to walk away on our own terms, that we thought,'Why not take advantage of it?'" Buck would state that the final decision to end the band came when Stipe remarked that "I need to be away from this for a long time."
Buck suggested "How about forever?" and they thus decided to break up. Collapse into Now was recorded in four different cities: Berlin, Nashville and New Orleans, with demoing taking place at Jackpot Studios, in Portland, Oregon. Regarding the recording process, the fact that it marked the conception of their final studio album, Mills noted, "We tried to enjoy it as much as possible and make it as fun as possible, but we’re not super-sentimental people in that sense; the only time we got poignant was when we were working in Berlin, they have a beautiful room there, Meister Halle, where we recorded seven or eight songs. There was no one there except some friends and significant others, we knew, the last time we would play together as R. E. M; that was a pretty fraught day. But it was fun."In comparing the record to the band's previous release, Mills noted that the band, "wanted this new one to be more expansive. We wanted to put more variety into it and not limit ourselves to any one type of song.
There are some slow, beautiful songs. He has spoken about the album's theme. Current events do come into our mind when we write, but the themes here are more universal."The album features guest appearances by Patti Smith, Pearl Jam's Eddie Vedder, Lenny Kaye and Joel Gibb. According to Michael Stipe, the album contains "one of the only autobiographical songs of my entire career as a songwriter, in the opening track, "Discoverer". It's a song of discovery. It's about realizing that the city offers you opportunity. That's what New York offered me." To promote the album, the band released music videos for each song on the album, featuring directors such as James Franco, Sam Taylor-Wood, Jim Herbert, lead singer Michael Stipe. Stipe notes that: "The idea was to present a 21st-century version of an album. What does an album mean in the year 2011 to generations of people for whom the word album is an archaic term? An album for me as a teenager in the'70s was a formed concept, it was a body of work from an artist I liked or trusted or who excited me..
I wanted to present an idea of what an album could be in the age of the Internet. Not from Kanye West, not from Lady Gaga, not from Beyoncé; this is. We put together and sequenced the strongest body of work that we could come up with in this moment in time and put it onto this record."During promotion, the band stated that it had no intention of touring to support the album, with Peter Buck citing in an interview with NME that "it does seem like we've toured a lot in the last eight or ten years. To some degree it felt like we'd just been doing kind of the same thing we did last time. You just don't want to repeat yourself in that way." He stated that touring doesn't help album sales and concluded, "It seems like less and less people are buying albums, so do what you want."Complying with their resolution of not engaging in a new tour, R. E. M. Disbanded as a group in September 2011, six months after the album was released. For 2011's Record Store Day, the band released R. E. M. Three—a package of three 7"s containing each of the commercial singles for the album.
Collapse into Now was met with positive reviews from critics. At Metacritic, which assigns a normalized rating out of 100 to reviews from mainstream publications, the album received an average score of 71, based on 37 reviews. Pitchfork's Matt LeMay stated that "Collapse into Now h
Creem
Creem, "America's Only Rock'n' Roll Magazine", was a monthly rock'n' roll publication first published in March 1969 by Barry Kramer and founding editor Tony Reay. It suspended production in 1989 but received a short-lived renaissance in the early 1990s as a glossy tabloid. Lester Bangs cited as "America's Greatest Rock Critic", became editor in 1971; the term "punk rock" was coined by the magazine in May 1971, in Dave Marsh's Looney Tunes column about Question Mark & the Mysterians. In the winter of 1969, Barry Kramer owned the Detroit record store Full Circle as well as Mixed Media, a head shop/bookstore and was an unsuccessful concert promoter and band manager. In a fit of pique at the local alternative paper rejecting his concert review, he decided to publish his own paper. Tony Reay, a clerk at the record store, became the first editor, naming the publication after his favorite band, Cream. Charlie Auringer became the photo editor and designer, Dave Marsh joined soon after at age 19; the first issue was distributed only in Detroit as a tabloid-sized newspaper.
A deal was struck with a distributor, but many copies were ordered by porn shops who were confused by the faintly suggestive title, who displayed it next to the sized Screw magazine. Richard Siegel became circulation director and within two years CREEM had become a glossy color magazine, sized for newsstand distribution, secured a national distribution deal; the original offices were at 3729 Cass Avenue in Detroit for the first two years. An armed robbery of the offices convinced Kramer to move the operation to a 120-acre farm in Walled Lake, Michigan at 13 Mile and Haggerty Road. Just before the move, Lester Bangs was hired to write a feature on Alice Cooper, he had been fired from rival music magazine Rolling Stone by publisher Jann Wenner for "disrespecting musicians" after a harsh review of the group Canned Heat. Bangs fell in love with Detroit, calling it "rock's only hope", remained there for five years. Many of the staff members lived in the Walled Lake farmhouse, with occasional physical altercations between writers.
Marsh had objected to Bangs' poorly housebroken dog, placed the dog's dung on Bangs' typewriter. This resulted in a fistfight; the magazine was successful enough to move to professional editorial offices in downtown Birmingham, Michigan. After becoming editor in 1971, Bangs left the magazine in 1976 and never wrote for it again. On January 29, 1981, Kramer died of an overdose of nitrous oxide, Bangs died a year on April 30, 1982 in New York City of an accidental Darvon overdose; this geographical separation from the majority of the entertainment industry in the United States focused in Hollywood and New York City, resulted in a certain irreverence, a deprecatory and humorous tone that permeated the magazine throughout its existence. The magazine became famous for its comical photo captions, which poked fun at rock stars, the industry, the magazine itself; every year, the tall Plexiglas pyramid presented as the American Music Award was dubbed "The Object From Space", was attributed with the power to force celebrities to look ridiculous while holding it.
The location meant CREEM was among the first national publications with in-depth coverage of many popular Detroit-area artists, such as Bob Seger, Mitch Ryder, Alice Cooper, The MC5, The Stooges, Iggy Pop, Parliament-Funkadelic, as well as other Midwestern acts such as Raspberries and Cheap Trick. CREEM picked up on punk rock and new wave movements early on. CREEM gave massive exposure to artists like Lou Reed, David Bowie, Roxy Music and The New York Dolls years before the mainstream press. In the 1980s, it led the pack on coverage of such upcoming rock icons as R. E. M; the Replacements, The Smiths, The Go-Go's and The Cure, among numerous others. It was among the first to sing the praises of metal acts like Motörhead, Judas Priest, Van Halen. Melvins guitarist Roger "Buzz" Osborne taught Kurt Cobain about punk by loaning him records and old copies of CREEM. Alice Cooper referenced the magazine in his song "Detroit City" – "But the Riff kept a Rockin', the Creem kept a-talkin', the streets still smokin' today".
Thurston Moore of Sonic Youth said: "Having a certain sense of humor in the rock'n'roll culture – CREEM nailed it in a way that nobody else was. It informed a lot of people's sensibilities." Publishers and writers for CREEM included Barry Kramer, Lester Bangs, Dave Marsh, Billy Altman, Bob Fleck, John Morthland, Ben Edmonds, Ed Ward, Richard Riegel, Ric Siegel, Robert Christgau, Richard Meltzer, Nick Tosches, Greil Marcus, Jeffrey Morgan, Richard C. Walls, Rob Tyner, Patti Smith, Peter Laughner, Cameron Crowe, Trixie A. Balm, Craig Karpel, Linda Barber, Catherine Gisi, Charlie Auringer, Todd Weinstein, Laura Levine, Judy Adams, Jaan Uhelszki, Penny Valentine, Susan Whitall, John "The Mad" Peck, Robot A. Hull, Edward Kelleher, Rick Johnson, Bruce Malamut, Lotta D. Blooz, John Mendelsohn, Jon Young, Lisa Robinson, Vicki Arkoff, Deborah Frost, Cynthia Rose, Mike Gormley, Sylvie Simmons, Gregg Turner, Chuck Eddy, Mark J. Norton, Alan Niester, Robert Duncan, Alan Madlane, Judy Wieder, Colman Andrews, Jim Esposito, Dave DiMartino, Bill Holdship and John Kordosh.
These last three edited the final versions of CREEM in the 1980s. The magazine moved its base of operations to Los Angeles in January 1987 shortly before it ceased publication. Holdship and Kordosh were
