Saturday, December 18, 2010

Oh, I forgot the important thing, the group's record is excellent/Big Star "When My Baby's Beside Me" 45/UA Records "House Freak" Marty Cerf

Name checked in Marty Cerf's February 1973 Big Star 45 review: Paul McCartney, Emmit Rhodes, the Count Five, the Yardbirds, the Guess Who, Alice Cooper, Albert Hammond (Snr.), the Troggs, Roy Head and the Traits, Johnny Kidd and the Pirates, Vince Taylor, Elvin Jones, Sonny & Cher, the Hollies, the Beatles, the Honeycombs, the Doobie Brothers and the Byrds. For some reason, Marty never really gets his due as a writer. He and Greg Shaw were responsible for making Phonograph Record Magazine so great during its brief and golden run. Meltzer even said that Marty was one of the few editors who let the writers write. Always nice for an excuse to look into some of the referenced artists - maybe some records you need to dig out yourself. From the barn archive and the PRM stash purchased from the Shaws.


PRM Magazine, February 1973












And a little gratuitous Guess Who - first a Neil cover and then a ripping "Shakin' All Over":



2 comments:

  1. Wow! I remember seeing this review and (if memory serves) a review of Mama Weer All Crazee Now in the same issue. Ran out to Tower on Sunset & grabbed both. Changed my life.

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  2. Cerf didn't just write about 'em -- he gave 'em room and board:

    "Bell stayed for a while at Cerf's house, sleeping on his couch while still, occasionally, working on demo recordings. `Cerf's house was something of a circus at the time,' recalls Shaw. `Also crashing there was Screaming Lord Sutch's girlfriend, Thann Quantrill, and their young child Tristan, who was also screaming. David Sutch himself would drop by frequently. Chris, I'm pretty sure, was in a state of depression, and seemed quite vulnerable; there could well have been some drug abuse as well, knowing the people who were around him.'" (BIG STAR: THE STORY OF ROCK'S FORGOTTEN BAND by Rob Jovanovic, pp.166)

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