40 April 4 • 2019
jn
DON COHEN CONTRIBUTING WRITER
Reel Rock
‘
n’
Roll
Freep Film Festival’
s opener chronicles
CREEM magazine’
s Jewish founder, one of an
“unruly band of outsiders, misfi
ts and punks.”
I
f Rock ‘
n’
Roll never forgets, as Bob
Seger famously sang, then rock
‘
n’
roll can certainly never forget
CREEM magazine.
Started in Detroit 50 years ago by
Barry Kramer, a Jewish counterculture
figure who owned a record store, book
store and head shop, CREEM went from
being sold out of the trunk of his car
to becoming the nation’
s No. 2 music
magazine. Strutting Detroit swagger, it
branded itself “
America’
s Only Rock ’
n’
Roll Magazine,” giving the middle finger
to No. 1 Rolling Stone.
It’
s rise and fall is told in Boy Howdy!
The Story of CREEM Magazine, the
opening night offering of the sixth
annual Freep Film Festival on April 10
at the Fillmore Detroit.
The new documentary explores the
magazine’
s start in 1969 in the Cass
Corridor and its rise to become a
national powerhouse by the mid-’
70s.
It also chronicles the magazine’
s demise
following the tragic, untimely deaths
of its publisher (Kramer) and its most
famous alum (writer/editor Lester
Bangs).
CREEM was irreverent, rude, comic,
opinionated, original and ground-
breaking. While other music publica-
tions largely ignored them, CREEM
covered controversial and now-iconic
bands such as Iggy Pop, MC5, Lou
Reed, J. Geils, Patti Smith, The Clash,
Ramones, Alice Cooper, KISS, Cheap
Trick and Blondie.
At the same time, it nurtured some
of the best and craziest young rock
writers and journalists — Dave Marsh,
Lester Bangs, Robert Christgau, Sylvie
Simmons, Cameron Crowe, Greil
Marcus, Richard Marcus and Ric Siegel,
to name a few — who, much like the
rock n’
roll business at the time, made it
up as they went along.
JJ Kramer, 42, the film’
s producer
and the son of CREEM founder Barry
Kramer, describes his father and the rest
of the staff as an “unruly band of out-
siders, misfits and punks.”
“The film is an authentic story, a
Detroit story,” JJ explains. “It evolved
into a gritty, no-holds-barred look
behind the curtain of the CREEM offic-
es and the relationship the writers had
with each other and the artists they cov-
ered — all with the Detroit music scene
exploding around them.
“Detroit gave it a blue-collar aesthet-
ic,” JJ says. “The film is really a story
about the do-it-yourself spirit, rolling
up your sleeves and doing things on
your own terms. It is about being so
passionate that you will it into exis-
tence.”
Working on the film with director
Scott Crawford and CREEM alums,
including Jaan Uhelszki who also
wrote and produced, helped JJ better
fi
lm/on the cover
arts&life
details:
Boy Howdy! The Story of CREEM
Magazine, in its Michigan premiere
sponsored by Chemical Bank,
kicks off the Freep Film Festival
Wednesday, April 10, at the
Fillmore Detroit. A VIP party starts
at 6:30 p.m., doors open at 7 p.m.,
with the film at 8 p.m. An encore
showing will be at 9 p.m. Friday,
April 21, at Emagine Royal Oak.
For tickets and schedules, go to
freepfilmfestival.com. For more
about CREEM magazine, go to
creemmag.com. The festival runs
through April 14.
CREEM founder Barry
Kramer, left, with
editors Dave Marsh
and Lester Bangs on
the stoop of the Cass
Corridor magazine
office
Film producer
JJ Kramer with
Alice Cooper