Welcome to RockScenester, my complete and completely
free online archive of Rock Scene magazine (1973-1982)

The first issue of Rock Scene magazine hit the stands before I'd blown out a single birthday candle. Thirty something years later, I still hadn't thumbed through an issue. A long overdue introduction finally got underway thanks to a deep dig through a delightfully jam-packed Los Angeles garage. Being far more interested in punk fanzines than commercial rock mags, I probably would've ignored Rock Scene had the Ramones not graced a couple covers. What elevated Rock Scene above other 70's rock rags (Hit Parader, Creem, Circus) was their wholehearted embrace of punk in its earliest formations. Every issue was packed full of non-stop photography from the likes of Richard Creamer, Bob Gruen, Leee Black Childers, Roberta Bayley and Stephanie Chernikowski. Truth be told though, it was the appearances by ridiculously obscure groups (O. Rex, Max Load, Freestone, Zolar X) in the "New Bands" section that really hooked me all these years later. Mix in a serious childhood KISS obsession, and my collecting of Rock Scene issues quickly reached fever pitch. I had to have 'em all!

RockScenester is an extreme labor of love. The amount of time I've spent putting the site together should become obvious once you've flipped through a few issues below. My hope is that RockScenester will serve as a resource for fans and collectors and people looking for new ways to procrastinate or plunge work productivity to new lows. I figure now is also a fine time to introduce Rock Scene to a whole new crowd and to give the "remember when" crowd another ride on the wayback machine while I'm at it. The accolades garnered by my Star magazine site earlier this year definitely inspired me to saddle up and tackle this one, an undertaking literally ten times the scale: 54 issues! Every single issue from 1973 through 1982 has been scanned cover to cover and made available here. Out-of-pocket expenses for creating RockScenester ran nearly $1500, dwarfing the not-insignificant outlay for Star1973. Soliciting donations or accepting advertising or even making the site subscription-based all seemed like reasonable propositions. Still, I've managed to avoid such pitfalls with all my other sites so starting now seemed like a drag. Having said that... if you wanna support this and future endeavors, why not do a little shopping over at Ryebread Rodeo where, among other things, you can find Rock Scene back issues. Feel the original artifacts' electricity buzzing through your fingertips!

If you can dig it (I knew that you could), please show some appreciation by hyping RockScenester elsewhere online. Facebook, Twitter and Google widgets can be found below. If you really wanna show some love, kick some referrals my way! I'm a rabid collector of 70's and early 80's punk rock records, fliers, fanzines and photos. If you know someone selling their collection, please send 'em to my want list page and encourage 'em to e-mail me. I'm also after all things Rock Scene related... original shirts, decals, stationery, whatever.

And finally a few THANKS are in order. Thanks to my friend Allison for spending hours meticulously recreating the the original hand-drawn Rock Scene logo. Thanks to Minnie at CSS Bakery for the elegant grid coding below. A particularly big thanks to Jacqueline for helping this johnny-come-lately complete his Rock Scene collection in record time. Richard Robinson... Lisa Robinson... I'd love to hear from y'all sometime!

Ryan Richardson
Austin, Texas
8.13.2011

A post-script about the watermarked pages... sometimes extracting a li'l common courtesy online can be difficult. Some web denizens don't even bother tipping their hats — not so much as a link — to sources of copied content and so watermarks become necessary. Hell, I even discovered one dirtbag selling CD-R's on eBay comprised entirely of images downloaded from my paperback sites! Don't get me wrong, I'm down with re-blogging and sharing. I just want a little credit for my efforts. And in a PS to the PS, I'd like to emphasize that my Rock Scene archive has absolutely zero association with the later hair metal rag of the same name and has nothing to do with its unholy rockscene.com reincarnation.

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via rockscenester.com

Welcome to RockScenester, my complete and completely free online archive of Rock Scene magazine (1973-1982) The first issue of Rock Scene magazine hit the stands before I'd blown out a single birthday candle. Thirty something years later, I still hadn't thumbed through an issue. A long overdue intro ...»See Ya

I've decided to ring in the 2011 New Year with my own misguided version of public service: an online archive of a scandalous and short-lived 70's teen magazine! The first issue of Star hit the stands in February 1973. With its over-the-top advice and irreverent coverage of LA's teenage groupie scene, it wasn't long before Petersen Publishing was feeling the heat from "concerned citizens". Five issues and five months later, publication ceased. A sixth issue was planned but never printed. Such controversy along with coverage of "new breed" Sunset Strip groupies (Shray Mecham, Sable Starr, Lori Lightning, Queenie Glam) and glam venues like Rodney Bingenheimer's English Disco cemented the mag's later cult status among fans and collectors.

After spending endless hours and a sizeable cash stack to secure all five original issues, there was only one illogical step left: do it all over again by making every page of this impossibly rare groupie mag available online. Actually, the website idea was the very thing that induced a former Star staffer — the only one among several I tracked down who'd actually kept any issues — to sell the mags. My quest was veering toward hopeless so a big thanks to Judy Shane for making this happen. I promised a website and here it is... in record time, too!

This is the most recent and elaborate of several just-for-fun, archival sites I've created over the past decade. A complete list can be found over here. I don't accept advertising or other means of offsetting the costs of creating and hosting the sites. I will, however gladly accept referrals to collections. Know someone selling their records, fliers, fanzines or photos? Please send 'em to my want list page and encourage 'em to e-mail me. I am, of course, very interested in original Star issues and all related ephemera! My thanks to Lisa Fancher for hipping me to the mag.

Dig star1973.com? Please show some appreciation by hyping it elsewhere online! Google +1, Facebook and Twitter widgets can be found at the bottom of this page.

— Ryan Richardson

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A post-script about the watermarked pages... sometimes extracting even a wee bit of online civility can be difficult. Some web denizens don't bother handing out a speck o' credit — not so much as a link — to sources of copied content. Hell, I even discovered one dirtbag selling CD-R's on eBay comprised entirely of images downloaded from my paperback sites! In a better world, the watermarks wouldn't be necessary. Don't get me wrong, I'm down with re-blogging and sharing. I just want a li'l credit for the time and money I've put into the site.

Issue #1 • February 1973

Issue #2 • March 1973

Issue #3 • April 1973

Issue #4 • May 1973

Issue #5 • June 1973

via star1973.com

I've decided to ring in the 2011 New Year with my own misguided version of public service: an online archive of a scandalous and short-lived 70's teen magazine! The first issue of Star hit the stands in February 1973. With its over-the-top advice and irreverent coverage of LA's teenage groupie scene ...»See Ya

MAGAZINE REVIEW! ROCK SCENE, JULY 1975 ISSUE (still only 75 cents!)

You can tell that I'm scraping the bottom of the proverbial trashcan of seventies kultur by reviewing yet another newsstand wrap, but as Mussolini once said, eh! I mean that little bitta pertinent factoid's certainly TRUE, but once you get down to the bare facts why should anyone lose any sweat over it! Given that this is a blog that's devoted to exposing the nitty gritty of the best high energy exponents of the fifties, sixties, seventies and even beyond, why not spend some time discussing these artyfacts of past accomplishment especially since they blow away (calm down Dave!) all of the laurel-resting and general antipathy towards the rock ideal that have been going on ever since the jaded seventies gave way to the Mickey Mouse eighties.

I've blabbed on and on about the overall attitude and style of ROCK SCENE in past reviews...do a search for my previous opines since I'm to lazy to link any up myself, but for now let's talk about this particular July '75 ish which naturally displays the same sense of wonderment that was custom made for not only the ugly low-IQ remedial farting kids too cubed out to even belong to the Audio-Visual Club, but those like myself who wanted to rise above all that!

None other than Dame Elton John's on the cover which only goes to remind you not only just how long that particular buttwipe has been in the public eye, but how he was being used to push magazines to unaware teenbos who probably actually thought he was hetero back then. Here John's all dolled up as the Pinball Wizard which also goes to remind one of that big TOMMY push that was going on in '75, a year that in many ways coulda been the worst of times if you hadda rely on radio, friends and family to tell you what was "good for you", but WONDERFUL if you had developed a mind of your own and were willing to grab a piece of that big juicy glorious universe for your very own. (Hmmmm, even I'm impressed with that, and I should be since I swiped that line from Nick Tosches!)

Of course Ken Russell's film gets the royal treatment and you can always ignore that if your own personal constitution is lacking a preamble, but for me I always go for the juicy underbelly of it all first and leave the scraps for you lower menials. First place I go is Lenny Kaye aka "Doc Rock"'s column where those very same blobs of unbridled fat cells that I mentioned in the previous paragrah get to ask the Patti Smith guitarist questions about groups that I'm sure Kaye never gave the time of day to outside of his column! Naturally it's all fun, big-guy-mingles-with-the-hoi-polloi stuff, with smart questions like "Whatever happ'd to the Modern Lovers album?" being followed by groupie wannabes asking where they could write to Uriah Heap! Sure shows you what kind of a chasm existed between the good and the bad during those days of snide.

Also on my hotcha list is Wayne County's advice column which is a hoot in itself as Mr. County answers queries (no pun intended) sent in by fat suburban kids of "questionable" gender inquiring about everything from the right kind of eyeliner and rouge to use to their strange fascination with the new gym teacher. Somehow I think that no psychiatrists, clergymen, teachers or experts of any kind were consulted in the crafting of the advice given since County's remarks certainly don't jibe with the kind that Ann and Abby would dish out! But eh, once you boil down to it County sure makes a lot more sense than that Dr. Bryan guy who used to do "Into Your Head" for CIRCUS around the same nanosecond.

So what else is there besides the pictures? Marc Zakarin does a column regarding the import releases of the day telling of what new albums are not going to arrive at your local disc emporium unless you happen to live in Paris, while JAMZ/ROCK MARKETPLACE/NEW YORK ROCKER's very own Alan Betrock had his own column regarding collecting those black slabs o' disc, this time talking about such esoterica that used to really confuse the bejabbers outta me like non-LP b-sides! Donald Lyons does the moom pitcher column (not so hot this time unless you have a thing for Hollywood flotsam like THE WAY WE WERE) while none other than Lance Loud gives his impressions on...Black Oak Arkansas!

But hey, I still like ROCK SCENE for that cliched myriad assortment pix I'm always talking about, and there are plenty of 'em from the fruity (Elton hamming it up with Neil Sedaka and Monti Rock III acting beautiful because he finally got his hit record) to the hard-edged (Aerosmith trying to be the Dolls, the Dolls trying to be communists!). Keeping with the commercial aims of this magazine there are tons of snaps of the guys in Led Zep and their manager Peter Grant trying to act human and all, but even those make for passing fun while you're getting to some of the more attuned to this blog matter at hand. The page on the Television/Mumps show at CBGB was pretty good for a couple of reasons, first being that I didn't know that there was a different awning on the club before the more famous one was put up shortly after, plus I gotta give Keith Moon credit for hanging out there (with Cyrinda Fox!) long before it became the new hotcha "to-be-seen" place to be photographed not only in the pages of ROCK SCENE but elsewhere!

The "New Bands" section is always educational because you sometimes get to see a few photos of some of those under-the-cover groups who used to play CBGB and Max's but never went anywhere (other'n perhaps a member or two to a newer, more successful outfit). This time Tuff Darts, the Harlots of 42nd Street (the second go 'round for 'em and I'm not even mentioning all of the group spinoffs to come!) and Rags get the publicity amidst the usual bunch of groups already well-known (Rush) or trying to make it big even though they're from Podunk Illinois that get slapped into this section, and hey it's always fun to look at these long-haired hippie types slapping on some makeup so they could pass for glam innovators in their local burghs! Makes a great Halloween costume if you ask me.

Who could also forget all of those ads for corny iron-ons to glitter, horoscopes and miniature posters that used to appear not only here but in "sister" magazine HIT PARADER! I'll say one thing, the advertisers for this mag really had their target audience down pat if they thought clueless 14-year-olds were willing to sell greeting cards door-to-door!

And of course there are tons of photos of Alice, Brian, Rod, David and Andy, but that's not really why kids bought up issues of ROCK SCENE is it? OK maybe so, but ya gotta give Richard and Lisa Robinson as well as Lenny Kaye and Cyrinda Fox credit for warping more than a few innocent minds out there with all of that cool decadent stuff, eh?

via black2com.blogspot.com

MAGAZINE REVIEW! ROCK SCENE, JULY 1975 ISSUE ( still only 75 cents!) You can tell that I'm scraping the bottom of the proverbial trashcan of seventies kultur by reviewing yet another newsstand wrap, but as Mussolini once said, eh! I mean that little bitta pertinent factoid's certainly TRUE , but onc ...»See Ya

Favorite Vicious Mug

via bobgruen.com

via bobgruen.com ...»See Ya