Martin Sheen: Heart of Darkness Heart of Gold 

written by Jean Vallely for Rolling Stone magazine (November 1st 1979)

Shit," says Martin Sheen as the makeup man fusses over him, "I've got this deformed left arm, three inches shorter than the right, can't do a thing with it and, gee, I'm just this little guy, five feet eight, 151 pounds. How can that be a star?" He shrugs his shoulders. "Maybe if I looked like Ray," he cracks as a member of the crew walks by, "I'd be a star. You know, I have this reputation of being choosy about my roles when, in…

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Boy Howdy: Mary Lucia's ode to Creem Magazine 

originally posted on The Current July 19, 2016

I love books, but man, do I LOVE rock magazines. My mail carrier most likely hates my guts.

Growing up, copies of Rolling Stone, Trouser Press, NY Rocker, Spin and Creem magazines were littered across the family coffee table. I'd catch heat every time I tore out pages with photos of Bowie, Joe Perry, Debbie Harry or The Clash to adorn my bedroom walls. All the rest of the dirtbags in the family felt they should have the magazine intact to peruse before I got…

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The original photo used on Ministry's Land of Rape & Honey album cover (and the story behind it) 

The album cover is an electronically processed image of a burned corpse in the Leipzig-Thekla subcamp of Buchenwald.  Jourgensen took a picture of the holocaust from a documentary on television and distorted the image himself. It was originally rejected by the record label but they later changed their mind after Jourgensen presented a head of a roadkilled deer he had found on the road. He cut off the head, put it in his truck, drove from Austin to Los Angeles, went into the Sire Records building, threw…

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Happiness Is A Warm Jet (NME Brian Eno article by Nick Kent) 

New Musical Express OCTOBER 13, 1973 - by Nick Kent

Being an account of the latest recorded work of Mr. Brian Eno, late of Roxy Music, and featuring Blank Frank, friend of the Massive Mario.

Clapham, that exotic part of town where folk of differing creed and colour mingle suitably inebriated with natural joie de vivre, will soon gain immortality not merely because yours sincerely has taken up residence within its sacred borders but also because it has set the scene for some of the more intriguing…

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Prince: Strange Tales from Andre’s Basement… and other fantasies come true 

Musician Magazine - September 1983

Sure he’s a weird kid. For Prince Rogers Nelson, a man whom Henry Miller and Howard Hughes are undoubtedly behavioral models, the two S’s of sex and secrecy are paramount. His reluctance to talk to the press is well established and his role as a beacon of sexual controversy is past legendary. Jimi Hendrix may have helped open the floodgates when he asked an innocent generation, “Are you experienced?” But Prince didn’t have to ask. His sexual excesses in a dank, dark…

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Lou Reed - Coney Island Baby (review by Peter Laughner) 

CREEM MAGAZINE - March 1976

This album made me so morose and depressed when I got the advance copy that I stayed drunk for three days. I didn't go to work. I had a horrible physical fight with my wife over a stupid bottle of 10 mg. Valiums. (She threw an ashtray, a brick, and a five foot candelabra at me, but I got her down and sat on her chest and beat her head on the wooden floor.)

I called up the editor of this magazine (on my bill) and did virtually nothing but cough up phlegm in an alcoholic stupor…

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Stagger Lee Was A Woman by Lester Bangs 

(from Creem Magazine - February 1976)

Patti Smith will survive the media blitz and everybody’s hunger for another "superstar," because she’s an artist in a way that’s right old-fashioned; Horses lunges with raw urgency, but her approach is very methodical. She could have done this a long time ago, and has been building steadily, paying dues and learning music fit for the reaches of her poetry so as, when the song is finally delivered, to fulfill all her promises.

What must be recognized is that she…

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