Ballroom Blitz was the Detroit version of Los Angeles’ Back Door Man or Seattle’s Chatterbox – pre-punk 70s fanzines high on energy and attitude, and desperate for anything with loud guitars and the correct amount of raw, underdeveloped talent. This fanzine is smaller than those – Ballroom Blitz #19 is only 12 pages – and more or less put together by two guys, Jim Heddle and Mike McDowell. It’s mostly Michigan-centric and delightfully rocknroll-crazed, and at this juncture, March 1977, very much aware that something interesting seems to be underway in music.

The opening editorial has editor Jim Heddle talking about his radio station music survey collecting obsession, and he lists his wants right there on the editorial page. This is followed by a tribute to a Michigan band called The Woolies whom I’ve never heard nor heard of, but right off the bat you get, “The Woolies are without a doubt the longest-lasting punk rock band in the history of rock and roll”. For real? They started in 1965, but at this point, they haven’t released anything since “The Hootchie Cootchie Man is Back” in 1974. “The Woolies have stuck it out, waiting for that big break”. 12 years of punk. I guess some of these bands have subsequently been left waiting much longer, haven’t they? Anyway, here’s what raw feral punkers The Woolies sounded like. 

In the Bits & Pieces column by McDowell, there’s also talk of 60s punkers The Cryan Shames, the Ides of March and The Remains – the latter of whom apparently “blew the Beatles off the stage” in Detroit in 1966. Another column by the editor loves the Suicide Commandos, the Flamin’ Groovies and Thundertrain. McDowell’s also got a piece that not a lot of folks were writing in 1977 – “It can be argued that the world of rock and roll has produced 15-20 people that can truly wear the tag of genius. It can also be argued that one of these people is Michael Nesmith”. It’s actually a really good essay, with huge love for the First National Band and for a new Nesmith record that’s just come out that year. 

Keeping with the can’t-keep-up excitement of the era, there’s a piece on Cheap Trick that identifies them as being from Boston, despite actually being from Chicago, only a four hour’s drive away. In the reviews, there’s a new one of the Death “Politicians in my Eye” 45, and a thing about a 1971 Dave Clark Five single where they covered “Southern Man”, which I had no idea existed. “Neil Young is the prime example of everything you’ve always hated about the early 70’s, but couldn’t quite put your finger on. His “Southern Man” remains the most banal thirteen minutes of vinyl in history”. Thirteen minutes?!? I suppose if you play it 2.5 times, sure. I really wish people wouldn’t say things like that about Neil.

And finally, an effusive and excited review of a Sonic’s Rendezvous Band show in Ann Arbor 2/22/77, in which “they got the audience so high on their music”. They’re probably one of the fifty or so live bands I wish I’d have been able to see – check this out. And here’s an actual video’ed live performance. Ballroom Blitz is supremely bummed that they’re playing small bars and not large arenas, but as we punkers are prone to say, “careful what you wish for”.