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

