For the record, Ben Blackwell is in the Dirtbombs, which a great band.
And, for the record, this web version of Creem, which contains the article in question, is nothing more than a large infomercial for selling Boy Howdy t-shirts and hats. Not that the Creem name is worth much anyway, given that in the last years of its publication Creem had people like Poison and Dave Lee Roth on its cover.
I’ve noticed that that this "boy howdy" character is posting the article in all the vu Lou related groups. Trying to up the amount of visitors to the website?
Had Blackwell written this rant when "No Money Down" or "Video Violence" were still on Lou's setlists, it would make more sense. I saw a couple of Lou shows during that period and he really didn't seem to give a shit. But what strikes me about he current tour is that Lou does seem to give a shit. (Same with the VU reunion stuff). And, with the Raven, he took a real commercial chance.
This makes me suspect that Blackwell chose Lou solely because of the Lester precedent (he references one of the L.B. articles in question in the review’s title).
More than anything, this article looks like a (failed) attempt to write something “edgy” for the new revamped Creem. And how does one write something “new and edgy”: by copying Lester Bangs.
But it's a pale imitation. Whether you agreed with him or not, Lester wrote with passion and even erudition. His gripe with Lou was that Lou didn't seem to give a shit anymore....and his anger at lou had to do with his own sense of Lou's unrealized potential. The point of Lester's rants on Lou were never to take pot shots at an easy target. ((..btw, I wonder how the new Dirtbombs album sounds in 40 years…) Lester also gave Lou credit for his post-Vu achievements (and no one has praised MMM more…).
All of this makes me think that Blackwell’s article takes the Lester B. pose, but that it lacks the substance that characterized Lester B.’s prose.
To quote Blackwell. " I have a theory about rock writers. After a certain age, most of them become irrelevant. They are out of tune with the youth and the culture and fail to recognize any significant movements. Instead, they reminisce about the same five bands they've talked about their whole life. Which is fine by me, no one knows better than someone who witnessed it…just keep your nose out of shit you don't know."
The last line is the one that seems to best apply. With all the talk about sunglasses, the writer doesn't seem to be all that knowledgable about the music.
(For an article about Lou by a writer who does know what he’s talking about---a musician who has also written an important piece on Lamonte Young’s theatre of Eternal Music-- see “Give them Enough No” in the issue of the Wire with Lou on the cover.)
BTW, I found an interesting account of what Creem used to be, what it became and what it's publishers are trying to make it become.
http://www.freewilliamsburg.com/may_2003/creem.html
The interesting Creem was.. Lester Bangs,Greil Marcus,R.Meltzer, even Peter Laughner (I think)... here and there an interview with Burroughs, cartoons by Robert Crumb. But by the end of its run, long after Bang’s death, Creem had bands like Poison and people David Lee Roth on the cover page. People who wanted to read relevant rock criticism turned to Forced Exposure, or AP. Now it’s BB Gun ,Arthur, or the Wire.
Anyway, according to its. architects , the "plan" for the new Creem is to is to give pride of place to Detroit bands like the Mc5 .(And they’re selling a Stooges DVD..which I have to admit is actually very nice) …so that makes 2…looks more like an afterlife than a scene.
Oh, and the..the Dirtbombs are from Detroit... bow howdy, Detroit...
Anyway, back to the whoring of Creem:
After all, what could be "creem"ier than a Lester-styled critique of Lou with a reference to Lester's article in the title?. After his death, Lou once said something about the way Lester idealized him, and how this made him(Lester) unable to deal with his imperfections. Well, Blackwell, repeats this gesture too:”Lou , how could you ruin Sunday Morning” for me.” Except, unlike Lester, Blackwell sounds about as sincere as a junky asking for 10$ in bus money to get home…
.Is this low rent version of Lester's rants on Lou indicative of what the new Creem is going to be like?
Does Blackwell not see the irony of accusing Lou of trading in on nostalgia, when this accusation comes in an article in a Creem-y (also cheesy…) website? I mean, getting nostalgic for old VU songs understs is more understandable than getting nostalgic for old Rock ‘zines.
Is the new Creem going to consist solely of watered down imitations of good ol' Lester? Is Boy Howdy now Lester Light?