When I was a kid, I discovered Creem magazine at the tender age of 14 years. My family had just moved to Tennessee from Pennsylvania and I was feeling like somewhat of a loner. While in PA, I had neighborhood kids to play ball with, shoot model rockets towards the windows of kids we didn’t like, and drink the small, airplane-sized bottles of booze that my old man collected on his travels and stored in a big box underneath his workbench in the basement.

I had always been into music in one form or another since I was in my single-digits, age-wise, but my musical education took a big leap forwards when I began hanging out with bikers and musicians alike in my Erie ‘hood…the Berg brothers introduced me to Black Sabbath, Led Zeppelin and Mountain while Rick DiBello turned me onto Spirit and Steppenwolf. I would steal copies of Rock magazine and Rolling Stone from the corner bookstore and return milk jugs that I pinched from the boxes on the porches of the city’s rich families to put together money to buy $4.00 albums with, 25-cents at a time.

Creem magazine, though, that was an entirely different story, the single influence that sent my musical evolution into the stratosphere. I remember all too well picking up my first issue in September 1971 at the Giant Foods store in Nashville while grocery shopping with my mother. One issue led onto another and I finally scraped up enough coin to just subscribe to the damn rag. Reading Dave Marsh and Lester Bangs and the other Creemsters became the catalyst for my decision to become a rock critic, and an early writing gig with Creem favorite and Bangs-acolyte Rick Johnson as my editor sealed my fate. Back in those days, the magazine was intelligent, irreverent, funny and beholden to neither pop culture nor counter-culture. These Pitchfork kids may think themselves “snarky” and full o’ piss-and-vinegar, but they couldn’t fill J. Kordosh’s jockstrap when it comes to attitude.

While living in Detroit during the late-70s/early-80s, I had the good fortune to sojourn up to Birmingham, Michigan a couple of times and hang around the Creem office. I corresponded with John Kordosh, who was particularly kind to this snot-nosed punk from Tennessee, as was Bill Holdship. Later, when Ranger Reek signed on as an editor, both Johnson and Kordosh published some of my inane scribblings in the magazine that I had idolized for a decade. Sadly, though, Creem magazine would come to a tragic end when founder/publisher Barry Kramer died in ’81 and his wife Connie couldn’t keep the rag going beyond 1985. The publication went into bankruptcy owing myself and many other people various sums (I think that they still owe me $15 for something or another) and Arnold Levitt of L.A. picked up the pieces for a pittance through the court.

Creem packed its bags and moved to Los Angeles, with Dave DiMartino, John Kordosh and Bill Holdship at the helm. Try as they might, they just couldn’t hold it together…the world of music had changed a lot since the rag’s mid-70s heyday…Marsh was gone, Bangs was dead, Johnson was largely forgotten and punk and heavy metal zines had become more relevant to young readers than any mainstream publication. By 1988, Creem was history. Levitt licensed the name to a group in NYC that published one truly sad issue, or maybe two in ’91, and that was it for another decade.

Robert Matheu, a freelance photographer that had been involved with Creem during the late-70s/early-80s, approached Levitt in 2001 about licensing the Creem name with an eye towards resurrecting the publication. Matheu set up a Creem web page that evolved into a sort of webzine, brought on talented local Detroit writer Brian J. Bowe as editor, and sold t-shirts and other Creem memorabilia. According to court documents (more about later), Matheu licensed the Creem name, logo and other “intellectual property” (including old articles) for a period of five years. In 2006, with the Creem licensing agreement coming to an end, Matheu attempted to scratch together enough coin to buy the property outright from Levitt, but came up a little short with his funds.

Here’s where things begin to get dicey…according to one story, Matheu approached J.J. Kramer, son of Creem founder Barry, and musician Chris Carter about investing in the overall purchase of the Creem name and all related IP rights from Levitt. For $25k each, they’d each individually receive 30% of Creem Media, Inc the figurehead corporation behind the web site that would manage the intellectual property. Based on an alleged verbal agreement, the two pitched in their cash and Creem magazine became the property of Creem Media, with Kramer and Carter, owning 60%, the majority owners.

At first, Kramer and Carter were psyched about being involved with the new publication, and the pair was provided seats on the company’s corporate board alongside Matheu and his longtime friend and backer Ken Kulpa (who received a 10% share of the company). From the beginning of their relationship with Matheu, however, the new owners were marginalized and ignored as Matheu evidently went his own way and did whatever he damn well pleased. Kramer helped Matheu put together a library of the magazine’s back issues, pulling from his family’s original stash. While Kramer and Carter were excited about the potential for a book (or books) documenting the Creem legacy (complete with original articles), Matheu downplayed the idea even while attempting to sell his own tome.

And now we’re at the point where the shit hits the fan. While the young Kramer couldn’t get Matheu to return his emails this past summer and fall, he stumbled across a Creem book, published by Harper Collins this past October, on Amazon.com. A trademark attorney, Kramer and his fellow co-owner Carter filed suit against Matheu and others, receiving an injunction against publication of the book. Harper Collins had already printed up thousands of copies, however, and the court allowed them to street the book rather than lose a truckload of cash.

So now there’s a fight over the future of Creem magazine, with Kramer and Carter on one side and Matheu and his gang on the other side. There seems to be a lot of bad blood between the two sides, and a lot of hearsay and innuendo, as they fight for control of the legendary publication and its rich legacy. The New York Observer ran an article last week about an alleged punch-up between Matheu and Kramer at a NYC book signing, and there’s no clear picture of who won and who lost, or even who started the damn fight in the first place. Then, a couple of days later, the other shoe dropped as the paper ran a follow-up story quoting legendary rock critic Dave Marsh – as integral a part of the origins of Creem as Barry Kramer – and other early era writers like Susan Whitall and Jaan Uhelszki, all complaining about the book’s lack of emphasis on the magazine’s influential early days, and other inaccuracies presented as truth by Matheu. The comments sections for either article on the New York Observer web site are endlessly entertaining.

Not surprisingly, perhaps, Matheu inflates his own contributions to the publication in the book that he put together, and in my experience I’ve found that there are always going to be people griping and bitching about any sort of publication that purports to be the comprehensive document of anything. However, I have nothing but respect and awe for Dave Marsh, a colleague and acquaintance of mine that has always treated me much better than I had any right to expect; as such, I have no reason to doubt Marsh’s criticism of the book, or the word of Whitall and Uhelszki, for that matter. I don’t know either one of these ladies, but I’ve always enjoyed their writing, and both have stellar reputations for niceness and honesty among people that I trust and respect. If any of these folks say that the book sucks, I’ll take it seriously. 

Now, I haven’t seen a copy of Creem: America’s Only Rock ‘n’ Roll Magazine, but from what I’ve read in reviews and articles, the book covers more of the magazine’s often-scattered ‘80s era than the beloved ‘70s material and writers…in other words, it includes the short time that I was involved in my own small way with Creem. Some who have criticized the magazine’s ‘80s-era issues have pointed to covers featuring David Lee Roth (the first issue with my writing included, if memory serves me), John Mellencamp and Michael Jackson (of course, who didn’t have Jackson on the cover at the time?) rather than ‘70s-era covers that offered up groundbreaking rockers like Iggy Pop.

These comparisons are unfair, however…Creem had its share of questionable pop culture figures on the cover during the ‘70s as well, and the two eras are separate and quite different. During the decade of the ‘70s, rock music was in its snotty teen years, and Creem – with its irreverent attitude and pre-punk posture – was uniquely situated to appeal to bored suburban kids like the Reverend. Centered on the outskirts of Detroit, a city that has always followed its own different drummer, musically, Creem wasn’t part of either the east coast or west coast publishing and entertainment concerns. By the ‘80s, though, rock music had entered its “settling-down-and-selling-out” years and the music was exploited and commercialized like no other era (until now, that is). Creem in the ‘80s was a different publication because the times were different and therefore required a different editorial focus and direction.

Regardless, the future of Creem is uncertain and, unfortunately, will be left up to the courts to decide. Although I don’t know either party in this fight, Matheu’s reputation for sleaziness and short-cuts precedes his current efforts. I’ll be pulling for Kramer and Carter, and although I don’t know that Creem magazine would succeed today as it did during the ‘70s, I’d like to give the pair the chance to try their hand at resurrecting the publication.

ARTICLE SOURCES AND LINKS:

New York Observer article "No Rock of Love as Gents Try to Creem Each Other"

New York Observer article "New Creem Retrospective Outrages Magazine's Alums"

Link to court papers asking for an injunction against the publication of the Creem book (interesting reading)