NEW YORK — Creem, which billed itself as “America’s only rock ‘n’ roll magazine” during its decades of existence that ended in 1989, is being revived next month.
The return is a remarkable story of persistence by J.J. Kramer, who was bequeathed the magazine at age 4 upon the death of his father, founder Barry Kramer. It will reappear during far different times, with a marketing plan that the late writer Lester Bangs or makers of the fake “Boy Howdy” beer could hardly conceive of.
Though known best for Motown soul, Detroit was also a rock ‘n’ roll hotbed with artists like MC5, Iggy Pop, Alice Cooper, Mitch Ryder and Bob Seger. Hard-rocking bands, and then the onslaught of punk, provided the magazine’s backbone in its 1970s heyday. In a 2019 documentary about the magazine, former R.E.M. singer Michael Stipe — who once downplayed his intellectual bona fides by describing himself as a high-school graduate and a magazine reader — recalled first seeing Creem while in detention, recognizing he’d found the perfect gang of misfits.
In his 9-year-old bravado, J.J. Kramer remembers telling his mother he would get it back some day. “I’ve really spent most of my adult life trying to get to this point,” he told the Associated Press in advance of the revival. “It’s something I felt like I had to do. There’s a magnet that draws me to Creem. It’s almost like it was predetermined in a way that I couldn’t fight it.”
“Why is there not a Creemfest?” Martin asked. “That’s something that sounds like it should exist, and it will exist.”