Early Cramps Classics Back On Wax
Three seminal LPs back in stores now
VIDEO: The Cramps “Teenage Goo Goo Muck”
Just in time for Halloween, three key entries from the catalog of The Cramps are back on vinyl.
Originally released 45 years ago on I.R.S. Records, 1980’s Songs The Lord Taught Us emerged from the record store like a rock ‘n’ roll zombie restless in its shallow grave to bring a new level of camp and grime to the punkabilly movement they helped establish alongside groups like The Rousers and The Blasters. Produced by Alex Chilton a half-decade removed from Big Star’s dissolution, Lord is a relentless paean to those compilations of underground street rock from the ‘50s and ‘60s that served as the blueprint to their sound.
“What I think of as the really raunchy rockabilly most people didn’t hear,” guitarist Poison Ivy Rorschach explained to the Los Angeles Times. “It was underground music. The real wild stuff was either obscene or messy-sounding. I mean it’s beautiful, but I don’t see how anyone could have heard it unless they were in the town where that record came out or where that nut lived. The real filth, that’s what we listen to.”
For 1981’s Psychedelic Jungle, the band opted to produce themselves across this combination of original tunes and deep covers, the most famous of which is “Goo Goo Muck,” a 1962 single from Ronnie Cook and the Gaylads that was made famous thanks to the Addams Family reboot Wednesday. The songs penned by Ivy and her frontman husband Lux Interior here are a gas, no doubt, especially “Voodoo Idol,” “Caveman” and “Beautiful Gardens.” But it’s the covers that make Jungle such a classic, namely the ripping renditions of “Jungle Hop” by Kip Tyler and the Flips (1958), “Rockin’ Bones” by Ronnie Dawson (1959), “The Crusher” by the Novas (1964), “Primitive” by the Groupies (1966) and “Green Fuz” by Green Fuz (1969).
Bad Music For Bad People was originally released in 1984 by I.R.S. upon The Cramps’ departure from the label, seen by many in the music biz as a cynical, retaliatory move by the record company at the time.
“The music’s still great even if the scheming behind Bad Music for Bad People stinks of decay and corruption,” wrote Edwin Pouncey in his five-star review of the comp in the old UK music paper Sounds.
Yet in a strange twist of fate, Bad Music has become The Cramps’ most iconic album, thanks to its cover, a caricature of Lux drawn by the artist Stephen Blickenstaff — allegedly conceived on Halloween night in 1983 — against a solid yellow backdrop. Plus, the set ain’t bad at all — a great mix of early singles that’s a worthy addition to any educated punk collection.
These pressings include brand new Standard Black Vinyl LP versions of Songs The Lord Taught Us, Psychedelic Jungle and Bad Music For Bad People.
Alternately, uDiscover Music also exclusively features limited-edition pressings of Bad Music For Bad People on a Glow-In-The-Dark LP and Psychedelic Jungle on a Fluorescent Green LP — each with a special art print.
By taking their love of Saturday matinee kitsch and feral Link Wray riffs to new depths of nonconformity, The Cramps breathed new life into the corpse of early rock in a way that changed the trajectory of punk forevermore.
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