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Post by Partridge on Jul 8, 2022 23:24:40 GMT -5
January 1977 February 1977  March 1977    May 1977 
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Post by RobGNYC on Jul 9, 2022 0:03:16 GMT -5
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Post by erik on Jul 9, 2022 0:09:00 GMT -5
Quote by RobGNYC re. Robert Christgau:
That, and he just couldn't help himself in slamming Linda...for the umpteenth frigging time.
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Post by RobGNYC on Jul 9, 2022 0:30:53 GMT -5
Quote by RobGNYC re. Robert Christgau: That, and he just couldn't help himself in slamming Linda...for the umpteenth frigging time. Still over the long haul, it was one of his more positive Linda reviews. According to his grading system: "A B- is a competent or mildly interesting record that will usually feature at least three worthwhile cuts." Linda's best grades in Christgau's Consumer Guide were an A- for Heart Like a Wheel and a B+ for Greatest Hits, Retrospective, Simple Dreams, and Trio. "An A- is a very good record. If one of its sides doesn't provide intense and consistent satisfaction, then both include several cuts that do." "A B+ is a good record, at least one of whose sides can be played with lasting interest and the other of which includes at least one enjoyable cut." Her worst Consumer Guide grade to date is a C- for What's New but I think that review was slanted by his criticism of her for playing South Africa. "A C- is a regrettably successful exploitation or a basically honest but quite incompetent stab at something more." www.robertchristgau.com/xg/bk-cg70/grades.php |
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heartbreaker dreammaker
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Post by heartbreaker dreammaker on Jul 9, 2022 2:05:57 GMT -5
Sometimes it seems like Creem did nothing but awards issues. They only did one a year-- the awards issue usually featured Linda as a reader favorite. I think they finally got so irritated that the readers chose Linda over Patti Smith that they criticized the readers' selection. The awards issue started coming earlier in the year as the production of the magazine got more professional. I think the earliest rewards issue was 6 months into the new year based on the cover date, but also the cover date was if I recall correctly about three months ahead of the calendar month. As I was perusing these issues tonight, I came across a well-written review that actually discussed the music. Most of the reviews would be rejected by most music magazines. In the scathing review of Hotel California, the Eagles were criticized for being millionaires. |
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Post by Partridge on Jul 9, 2022 2:31:05 GMT -5
Odd that Linda could not come in at #1 as Sex Object of the Year, being bested by David Bowie or in this year by Peter Frampton. I picture the readership as skewing mostly hetero male. I did not notice it when I was a reader back in the day, but the magazine was extremely homophobic. It is being resurrected in a new incarnation www.creem.com - $5 per month digital - $79 per year for print + digital -$129 per year if you just want to give them an extra $60. And I think I mentioned this before, but every issue of the original run is available online on their website to read. |
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Post by Partridge on Jul 10, 2022 2:24:56 GMT -5
August 1977 September 1977 November 1977 December 1977 
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Post by eddiejinnj on Jul 10, 2022 7:53:32 GMT -5
Wow, the Simple Dreams review is brutal and the comments on the tennis pics, also. What the..... eddiejinnj
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The Partridge Family
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Post by The Partridge Family on Jul 10, 2022 7:57:20 GMT -5
Linda twisting her ankle was not an occasion I knew of before.
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Post by Partridge on Jul 10, 2022 13:49:28 GMT -5
It just goes to show you how influential a bad review, especially from a respected magazine like Creem, can be. Probably cut sales in half. Still, her biggest album, her biggest single, two simultaneous Top 10 songs.
Also, on the contents page, it has the photo sending you to page 56, leading you to believe there is something of note there. But no article, just the picture and terrible caption.
I just noticed I had the link wrong for one of the photos... I have corrected that. There have been so many reports in Creem of movies in development with Linda Ronstadt in mind, and I don't think any of them ever came to fruition.
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Post by guest on Jul 10, 2022 15:50:41 GMT -5
In her 1986 (between PoP & Canciones eras) "Off The Record" conversation with Joe Smith, Linda said "let them write bad reviews, it doesn't stop records selling". Linda was replying to the issue that her albums were slammed for being too formulaic.
Be nice to have a reference thread on friendly, appreciative articles & reviews on Linda!
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Post by Partridge on Jul 10, 2022 16:14:23 GMT -5
The review of Simple Dreams complains that Linda is following a formula. Then they complain that she is not following the expected formula. It's a poorly written review but it has some salient points. At the time I thought the album was too full of songs with slogging tempos, but it was more energetic than Hasten Down the Wind. While the review acknowledges her vocal control and expertise, Linda did not do a lot of stretching with this album. But what is given us is good.
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Post by erik on Jul 10, 2022 18:46:27 GMT -5
Quote by Partridge re. Creem review of Simple Dreams:
This is probably true. I'm not one to say that Linda never made any mistakes, although I think it happened much later on, in the 1990's. But I also don't much care for the kind of what I find to be the frequently gratuitous criticism she so often got at the apex of her career from publications like Creem and Rolling Stone, because, in my opinion, it was done because she suddenly starts selling millions of albums after being unable to go much beyond maybe 100,000 for the first eight years of her career.
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Post by RobGNYC on Jul 10, 2022 19:13:08 GMT -5
I don't understand why Creem reported on Linda so much. The magazine covered mostly hard rock, heavy metal, punk, and new wave. Wildman Lester Bangs was the editor. I guess they had to report on her because she was selling so many records (and selling a lot of magazines I suppose, if the readers' polls and number of times she was on the cover are any indication). But apart from the "Queen of Rock"/sex symbol angle, Creem just doesn't seem to fit with her music. Maybe that explains some of the negative reviews--they just didn't get it. Circus wasn't such a great match for Linda either but they did cover more pop music, at least in the '70s.
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Post by Partridge on Jul 10, 2022 22:53:33 GMT -5
I don't recall Linda ever being on the cover of Creem, that is, a full cover photo. Just a shout out once a year when she was a Readers' Choice. But they probably had Patti Smith in each issue. They were high on Linda early on because she was good and unknown. But they were never satisfied with the music that made her popular. And wealthy, which made them really despise her (and the Eagles). They never seemed to have any problem with the Rolling Stones or the Beatles or Rod Stewart being wealthy. Oddly, Linda never flaunted her wealth, never seemed to even try to be a "celebrity."
The only female artists to have a cover feature in the 1970's were Grace Slick and Debby Harry.
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Post by RobGNYC on Jul 11, 2022 5:38:39 GMT -5
You’re right about Linda not getting solo Creem covers. I was thinking of Circus, which put her on the cover alone several times.
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