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Editor's Note: This was contributed by Shaun Rogan, whose previous ZIO blog A Trip Thru Hell with the C.A. Quintet reignited interest in one of the great - but often overlooked - psychedelic albums. 

Prologue

Summer 1983: The boy watched the man on tv dressed in nothing but black leather jeans and six inch stilettos. The boy watched the man stick the microphone into his mouth to the hilt, then take it out and push it down the front of his pants, then whip it back out again screaming, "TEAR IT UP UP UP UP UP!!! TEAR IT UP!!!! TEAR IT UP!!!!. The boy watched the man in silent awe, his young mind soaking up the spectacle like a lizard soaking up the suns at high noon, in rapt reverence and fascination. The boy noted the name of the act come up on the base of the tv screen.

It bore the legend - The Cramps.

That few minutes changed the boys life irrevocably.  That 14 year-old boy was me.
 

In Memoriam

Lux Interior was that man clad (barely) in black leather fronting his band The Cramps, the man literally possessed by rock 'n' roll. That man sadly passed away on February 4th, 2009. He was, unbelievably, 63 years old. For many of my generation he was the epitome of cool, savage rock 'n' roll music. But before we say adieu (never goodbye), let's roll back the years and see why myself and so many others are in mourning.

I'm Cramped! (1973 - 1979) 

When Luxy Met Ivy...

Lux and Poison Ivy first hooked up in Sacremento California in 1972, thrown together by a mutual interest in b-movies, old rock 'n' roll and collecting records. This was around the time that Lenny Kaye would issue the seminal Nuggets compilation of first generation American punk. However, Lux and Ivy were well ahead of the game at this point, having an expert's knowledge of both that genre and the earlier primitive rock 'n' roll and exploitation dj records of the late 1950s and early 1960s.

Via a short stay in Akron, Ohio they moved to NYC and the first seeds of The Cramps emerged in the New York City club scene that would spawn Patti Smith, New York Dolls, Ramones and Television.  It was 1973 and the pair were struggling to get the sound together that would match their vision, all while looking for suitable conspirators who also had such an insatiable appetite for the underbelly of rock 'n' roll. Amazingly, they succeeded and ended up with a revolving door of musicians supplying a backbeat and occasionally bass.

The Cramps' manifesto was simple, taking a chainsaw to a slew of obscure rock 'n' roll obscurities and mining the rich seam of 1960's no hit wonder garage bands. They created a unique new sound. God saw that this was good and named it Psychobilly.  Like its immediate forebears it was incredibly crude, but the sheer passion and ferocity of its delivery would make it irrresistible. Their own material aped the very gods that Lux and Ivy worshipped - a glorious trip through B-movie heaven, of roadhouses lit by full moons and occupied by the living dead. The stage presence was dominated by the twin contrasting presences of Lux Interior and Poison Ivy. Lux all sweat, snot, bearly clad rock 'n' roll mayhem and psychosis, positively exorcising himself at every gig combined with Ivy - beautiful, cool, giving death stares to anyone who looked on her with their naked eye, holding a Gretsch guitar like Lizzie Borden held an axe. They were simply irresistible. All the boys wanted to be Lux and wanted to date Ivy. It. Was. That. Simple. 

By 1977 the band's line up had stabilised, and the zeitgeist had caught up with them. With the inimitable Nick Knox on drums and living voodoo doll, Bryan Gregory on second guitar, The Cramps cut their first 45s under the supervision of alt rock legend, Alex Chilton. The first of these efforts was a raucous deconstruction of The Trashmen's early 60s wipe out, Surfin Bird. The second was a number that would define The Cramps for the rest of their careers, encapsulating everything they stood for.  It was called Human Fly, and it was one of the freakiest, most insane records ever to be released in any time or space.  It rocked like Vincent Price on crack.

1978 saw them give a free concert for the inmates of the Califronia State Mental Hospital. This concert has been preserved for posterity on shitty, but utterly compelling video footage and released by Target Video on several formats in the intervening years. The concert was an act of perfect perversion and utterly bad taste. Witness the female patient confront Lux midway through a number on stage, seize the mike from him and bellow, "I GOT CRAMPS WHAT YOU GONNA DO ABOUT IT?"  Lux demurs suitably and with great charm, "I don't know dear, I suffer from them myself!"  If George Romero had filmed a concert... well that was the point really.  Track it down.

The Cramps debut long player, Songs The Lord Taught Us followed in the same and was a stunning debut.  Produced once more by Alex Chilton, the record was a collection of well-chosen covers from the late 50s and 60s coupled with their own original material.  The songs subject matter was pure schlock and crude sexual innuendo ranging from the b-movie mutterings of "I was A Teenage Werewolf" to the bone crunching sheets of sound that was "TV Set."

At some point in 1979 Bryan Gregory left the band, and (as legend has it) he took almost all of their equipment with him. Kid Congo Powers stepped in to helm as rhythm guitar on the second full length player Psychedelic Jungle.  This was a murkier affair, but its opening number and lead single "Goo Goo Muck" was a blast of pure garage heaven. "You better duck! When I show off the goo goo muck!" Yes indeed.  As with its predecessor, it did brisk business in Europe and picked up a lot of airtime with discerning rock jocks.

The Most Exalted Potentates of Love (1980 - 1990)

The Cramps were picking up increasing amounts of press in the UK with highly influential music weeklies - Sounds, Melody Maker and NME.  This, coupled with heavy airplay from the peerless John Peel ensured that trips to the UK would be sold out affairs from now on. Their wild and compulsive live shows were garnering the band, in Europe at least, as one of the hottest tickets around.

TV exposure quickly followed with a feature on crucial UK Channel 4 music show, The Tube. The band premiered two tracks from their forthcoming masterpiece, Smell of Female.  The two tracks "Most Exalted Potentate of Love" and "You Got Good Taste" would burn themselves onto the collective retinas of a generation of disaffected post-punk youth desperate for a fix of something dangerous. Videos were primed and endlessly rerun. Yhe looks, the hair, the moves, everything about The Cramps reeked of illicit sex and debauchery. The Cramps, as they would do throughout most of their long career, delivered in spades. To be a schoolkid with the Cramps logo painted onto your kitbag was a sign of independence and self affirmation. If you liked The Cramps you were beyond cool.  Period.  Dont believe me?  Ask my schoolmate, Paul.

The Mid 1980s: Lux and Ivy were now fully established as the most recognisable rock 'n' roll partnership since the days of Fred "Sonic" and Patti Smith. They were ruling the roost in the European music press and lording it up like the stars they had grown into. Unsurprisingly, back in the US they were still struggling to get arrested. Which sadly would be the case for the rest of their careers.  Clearly, America would never be ready for this unique mutation of their own musical heritage

1986 would be the crowning year of The Cramps careers with the release of the Date With Elvis long player.  Loaded with well-drilled rockabilly guitars and brimming with sexual innuendo, the record would go on to sell over 250,000 copies in Europe alone. It spawned minor hit singles in "Whats Inside A Girl?" and the wonderfully dirty "Can Your Pussy Do The Dog!"  Again, despite this success they struggled to get an American label to release the record.  1986 would also be the year that they found a permanent bass player in amazonian female, Candy Del Mar.  Her pink fur brassiere and hot pants garb won her an immediate horde of admirers.

As the 1990s dawned, The Cramps had one last hurrah with the pop charts with the Russ Meyer inspired "Bikini Girls With Machine Guns," the sleeve of which depicted a bikin clad Poison Ivy letting a few rounds of an M16 off in everyone's general direction.  The accompanying long player Stay Sick (1990) would be their last record of real note as the times they were a-changin' - flannel and introspection would replace the cheerful, sexually retarded insanity The Cramps purveyed.

Keeping the Flame (job) a-burning (1991 - 2008) 

The Cramps ploughed on through the 90s, blithely ignoring grunge and all other assorted musical dilettantism and staying true to their warped vision of technicolour three chord madness.  They recorded for a succession of independent labels with seemingly diminishing returns (in terms of recognition and sales anyway) Look Mom, No Head! (1991), Flame Job (1994), Big Beat From Badsville (1997), Fiends of Dope Island (2003) and How To Make A Monster (2006). All followed, all gratefully received by the faithful, but somehow never being picked up and championed by the new brigade of assorted hacks in the music press. This was even more strange and perverse when one considers the championing of The White Stripes, who were clearly heavily influenced by the spare, distorted sound of The Cramps. No matter. They had done their job and were playing European shows with regularity, managing to still be as thrilling and visceral as they were some 30 years before. Their last UK gig at the Astoria Theatre in London in 2007 is rather apt as it too has subsequently been taken from us.

2009: Already a terrible year for Rock 'n' Roll

The bad news hit these shores a week or so past.  We were just getting over losing Ron Asheton from The Stooges the month before.  Now we have Lux Interior passing away from a long standing heart complaint.  The gods have robbed us of one of our brightest, smartest and most loved loved entertainers.  Yet somewhere in the back of my mind I can see him clearly exhorting us to "TEAR IT UP!"  I take comfort from that and so should you.

Bye Lux, we will miss you. You had a lot of rhythm in your rockin' bones.

A Closing Thank You 

This blog is dedicated to Lindsay Hutton, the unsung backroom fan club organiser of 'The Legion of the Cramped' and David Measor for hiring "Urgh! A Music War" from the video store on that summer day in 1983.

Shaun has been an avid collector of rare and esoteric sounds for over 25 years. In music terms, he cut his teeth with pioneering industrial noise terrorists God in the late 1980's sharing stages with the likes of Henry Rollins, Butthole Surfers and My Bloody Valentine. He currently slings a guitar with South London punk veterans The Phobicsand has his own garage-psyche ensemble, The Call Ons.

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