THE CRAMPS - GRAVEST HITS @ 45

 

Celebrating 45 years on the shelf this month is the debut EP from The Cramps, Gravest Hits, which was released in July of 1979. The 12" EP compiles both of their prior 1978 released 7" singles, Human Fly b/w Domino, & Surfin' Bird b/w The Way I Walk, and adds a fifth track, Lonesome Town. All of the included recordings were produced by former Big Star front man, Alex Chilton and were all recorded in 1977 at Ardent Studios in Memphis, TN. Collectively, these recordings constitute some of the earliest examples of the rockabilly revival, which would later be characterized as "Psychobilly" due to its grafting of sleazy horror and science fiction B-movie themes with this foundational genre of American 1950s era rock 'n' roll.

Lux Interior (born Erick Lee Purkhiser) and Poison Ivy (born Kristy Marlana Wallace) met in Sacramento, California, in 1972. In light of their common artistic interests and shared devotion to record collecting, they decided to form the Cramps. Lux took his stage name from a car ad, and Ivy claimed to have received hers in a dream (she was first Poison Ivy Rorschach, taking her last name from that of the inventor of the Rorschach test). In 1973, they moved to Akron, Ohio, and then to New York in 1975, soon entering into CBGB's early punk scene with other emerging acts like Suicide, the Ramones, Patti Smith, Television, Blondie, Talking Heads, and Mink DeVille. The lineup in 1976 was Poison Ivy Rorschach, Lux Interior, Bryan Gregory (guitar), and his sister Pam "Balam" (drums), later replaced by Nick Knox (formerly with the Electric Eels) in 1977 by the time they started recording their first singles.

I remember when I first spotted this on the shelves of my local record shop, which was in a small strip mall next to the Burger King I worked at in 1979, when I was 16 years old. I glanced at that cover for weeks, every time I popped into the shop before or after work, and always felt vaguely uneasy about it, though also intrigued, until I finally plucked up the nerve to give it a shot. I was into "new" music at that time, "punk" and "new wave", but these folk didn't seem to fit into either of those slots. There was something "out of time" about them that didn't quite align with the other trends of the day. I wasn't even sure when the record was actually recorded. It looked like it could have been something from another decade. And the band were SO gnarly looking, especially Bryan Gregory, who looked like he was 60 years old, with his gaunt menacing glare and that shock of grey hair hanging down the side of his sunken, ghoulish face.

When I finally brought it home, Human Fly sounded so fucked up that I wasn't even sure what speed to play the record at. After I got that sorted, I immediately became enthralled by the odd spookiness of it all. The fact they had no bass guitar, but instead used duelling twang vs fuzz guitars, with only Knox's kick drum anchoring the bottom end, gave their sound a distinctive edge. What was even more surprising to me was the day I came home from school to find my mother had been listening to it! She was once a teenage bobby soxer in the '50s, so their rockabilly vibe caught her ear. It was quite a surprise to me when she actually dug one of my freaky records!

Years later, I got a chance to see them live, twice in the 1990s, which immediately reaffirmed why I've always loved the band, ever since this amazing record found its way into my collection.