PSALM23.20

26 wild and crazy tunes spun by Lux and Ivy

Record collecting was a way of life for The Cramps’ Lux Interior and Poison Ivy of The Cramps. Featured in the great Re/Search book Incredibly Strange Music, they’re shot in a room festooned with 45s, a vision that’s as exciting as their enthusiasm for wayward sounds they’d unearthed.

These 26 tracks are records they’ve spun over the years on their various radio shows, some of which they’ve covered or re-imagined as The Cramps. All of them have an offbeat charm that’s distinctly theirs, from the opening cut by the woefully obscure Keith Courvale which clocks in at two minutes of rockabilly mayhem, where the thumping bass riff and Courvale’s phrasing make it an absolute monster to the haunting ‘Death Of An Angel’ by Donald Woods And The Belairs.

Rockabilly provided much source material for Lux and Ivy, with the heroes of the genre, like Charlie Feathers continuously featured, along with rock ‘n’ roll movers and shakers like Carl Perkins and former hillbilly performer Dale Hawkins who was later to hit big with ‘Suzie Q’.

But many of The Cramps’ favourites were incredibly obscure, from the mysterious Bill Allen And The Backbeats through to Walter Brown And His Band, or ‘Got Rockin' On My Mind            ‘ by Curley Griffin, it is all about what’s in the grooves, rather than who made the tunes, having said that some of the stories of the perpetrators are legendary.

Invariably the music was wild and extrovert and the likes of the simmering ‘Blues Blues Blues’ by Hayden Thompson or The Phantom’s madcap ‘Love Me’ both hail back to primal Presley, while there’s more than a hint of Jerry Lee in places and there’s old school harmonica blues from Ligthnin’ Slim and some voodoo rumblings from Slim Harpo.

The Cramps often disseminated the original tunes they found and gave them new life. They covered the rampant ‘Rockin' Bones’ by Elroy Dietzel And The Rhythm Bandits, an unkempt slice of driving irreverence which was also covered by Ronnie Dawson way back in the ‘50s, while ‘Storm Warning’ by Mac Rebenack And His Band, which revolves around a throbbing, reverbed guitar, provided the inspiration for the wired riffs on The Cramps’ ‘Corn-Fed Dames’ in all its Link Wray screwdriver-in-the-amp glory.

Indeed, guitar noises are big news here. Willie Joe And His Unitar and the rocking ‘Green Mosquito’ by The Tune Rockers, as well as a track from Jimmie Haskell And His Orchestra’s exceptional early concept album ‘Countdown!’ were all essential parts of the mix, as was Jett Powers’ ‘Go Girl Go’, a wild rockabilly stomp that The Cramps used as inspiration for ‘The Lowdown’ and eventually ‘Weekend On Mars’, while they covered ‘Bop Pills’ – a homage to the amphetamine-fuelled ‘50s - by Macy "Skip" Skipper on their ‘Stay Sick’ album.           

There was always a sleazy underbelly and Vegas strip club feel to proceedings on Lux and Ivy’s radio shows and the bizarre ‘Hully Gully All Night Long’ by The Peridots, with all its name checking of heroes from Batman to Jackie Gleason sounds like its straight from the dancefloor. Lewd and loud, the likes of The Banger’s ‘Baby Let Me Bang Your Box’ and the cursory tale of poor behaviour south of the border on ‘Blue Moon Baby’ by Dave ‘Diddle’ Day are true buried treasures.

This collection vibrates with all the wild excess of a Cramps’ show, whether live or on radio. Thank God for the crate diggers.

TRACKLISTING

1 Trapped Love            2:00            Keith Courvale                       

2 Tornado            2:25            Dale Hawkins                       

3 Save It            2:06            Mel Robbins                                   

4 Green Mosquito            2:19            Tune Rockers                                   

5 Astrosonic            1:59            Jimmie Haskell And His Orchestra

6 Unitar Rock            2:24            Willie Joe And His Unitar                                   

7 Bop Crazy Baby            1:44            Vern Pullens                                   

8 Please Give Me Something            2:16            Bill Allen And The Backbeats           

9 Blues Blues Blues            2:22            Hayden Thompson                                                           

10 Storm Warning            3:19            Mac Rebenack                                   

11 Love Me            1:32            The Phantom                       

12 Strange Love            2:09            Slim Harpo                       

13 Can't Hardly Stand It            2:46            Charlie Feathers           

14 Give Me A Woman            2:24            Andy Starr                       

15 It's Mighty Crazy            2:36            Lightnin' Slim                                   

16 Bop Pills            2:25            Macy "Skip" Skipper                                   

17 Death Of An Angel            3:11            Donald Woods And The Belairs                                   

18 Hully Gully All Night Long            2:47            The Peridots           

19 Go Girl Go            2:21            Jett Powers           

20 Baby Let Me Bang Your Box            2:37            The Bangers                                                           

21 Rockin' Bones            1:57            Elroy Dietzel And The Rhythm Bandits

22 Got Rockin' On My Mind            2:31            Curley Griffin

23 Blue Moon Baby            2:49            Dave Diddle Day

24 Her Love Rubbed Off            2:49            Carl Perkins

25 Red Headed Woman            2:08            Sonny Burgess

26 Jelly Roll Rock            2:14            Walter Brown And His Band           

“If you look for bad in people, you will surely find it.” Abraham Lincoln