New Creem Magazine pays tribute to the late Lester Bangs

Are you ever too old to read Creem? I’ll have to ask the magazine’s mascot, Boy Howdy!

In the meantime, I talked with Susan Whitall, who as a quiet but curious Michigan State University graduate in the ‘70s was catapulted to the helm of Creem Magazine, an iconic Detroit-based rock ‘n’ roll publication.

Whitall worked for Creem from 1975 to 1983 and was instrumental in turning the magazine into a-no holds-barred alternative to Rolling Stone. One of the important distinctions between the publications was that Creem focused on the fans’ perspectives, she said.

In addition to Whitall, a number of other MSU graduates were writers and photographers at the original Creem magazine, such as J.J. and Connie Kramer, the son and wife of the magazine’s founder, Barry Kramer. Whitall said J.J. Kramer is responsible for clawing back the rights to Creem and launching its new publishing effort, which began in 2022 after a decades-long hiatus.

When I saw the Facebook post stating that Creem would be issuing a collection of the six issues it has published since the hiatus, I knew I had to get my hands on it — especially since the most recent issue is a tribute to one of the magazine’s distinguished writers and editors, Lester Bangs.

The 128-page large-format magazine includes cover art by commercial illustrator Gary Ciccarelli, depicting the mad-man-like Bangs during what appears to be one of his legendary streams of consciousness.

Within the issue, there are reprints of some of Bangs’ classic rock ‘n’ roll writings that show both his genius and his irreverence. There is also a Q&A feature about Bangs with former editors of the magazine.

From left: editors Robert Duncan, Susan Whitall and Lester Bangs at the Creem Magazine office in 1976.

The Q&A is an intense look at Bangs and all of his faults. An introduction calls Bangs a misogynist, a homophobe, slovenly and the “king of the dorks.”

Some may remember Philip Seymour Hoffman playing the role of Bangs in the 2000 film “Almost Famous,” serving as the crusty mentor to William Miller, a teenager who’s trying to break into writing about rock ‘n’ roll for Rolling Stone. The movie was somewhat based on filmmaker and journalist Cameron Crowe, who freelanced for Creem and wrote the screenplay for the movie.

Despite some of his well-documented and outlandish antics, Whitall said she saw Bangs in a different light.

“I worked with Lester for a particularly long time, and it was life-changing. It’s a very emotional subject for me, talking about Lester,” she said. “He was my buddy, my pal and my mentor.” Bangs eventually left Creem to work at Rolling Stone and died in 1982 at age 33 from a drug overdose.

Whitall remembers Bangs as a member of the “girl gang” at the magazine. She says in the Q&A, “Lester loved women … He was that big-brother figure — always protective and full of advice.” She later says, “Lester had white-knight syndrome — he liked to save damsels in distress.”

In a long article for The New Yorker, writer Maria Bustillos wrote, “Bangs never held anything at arm’s length in his life; he was rushing headlong into the sea of the world, arms thrown wide open, to embrace it, to drown in it.”

The only way to access the original issues of Creem online is by buying a subscription to the new issues for $93, including taxes and shipping. The subscription provides access to a searchable database of “old” Creem magazines.

But back to Whitall, who left Creem in 1983 for a 15-year career writing about rock ‘n’ roll at the Detroit News and has also published three books: “Women of Motown: An Oral History” (1998), “Fever: Little Willie John: A Fast Life, Mysterious Death, and the Birth of Soul” (2011) and “Joni on Joni: Interviews and Encounters with Joni Mitchell” (2018). The writer won a Michigan Notable Book Award for her book on Little Willie John. She is also a member of the Michigan Journalism Hall of Fame.

Imagine Whitall walking into Creem as a 22-year-old recent graduate of MSU and getting the opportunity to work with some of the giants of rock ‘n’ roll. Maybe she needs to write her own memoir about her time as a Detroit rock ‘n’ roll writer. They were heady times, and she could probably tell some amazing stories. Well, those are off the record — for now.