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