The Cramps - Songs The Lord Taught Us (Full Album)

Even for them, a long chapter of the Reverend... the beginning to savor their birth...

The story begins in Sacramento, California, around 1972. Erick Purkisher (Akron, Ohio, October 21, 1946) is cruising around in a car with a friend. They’re listening to an old tape of Hasil Adkins and talking about the usual things: women, drugs, and rock and roll. Suddenly, as the speakers crackle with Sally Weedy Waddy Woody Wally, Erick's erotic dream materializes by the roadside, moving with the panther-like grace of Kirsty Wallace (Sacramento, February 20, 1953): red hair, a stunning physique, a crop top, and minishorts on her ivory legs. She raises her finger, not to give him the finger, but to ask for a ride. She gets into the car, and thus begins one of the most beautiful rock and roll love stories ever told.

Erick and Kristy are immediately attracted to each other. They both love art and the vinyl records they obsessively collect. She also plays guitar, he hums a tune, and so they decide to form a band. They will call themselves The Cramps, meaning cramps, but also menstrual pain. He changes his name to Lux Interior, inspired by a car advertisement, while she transforms into Poison Ivy Rorschach, combining the name of the poisonous ivy with that of the inventor of the famous psychological test stains. Later, she will simply be Poison Ivy, for friends and foes alike. Struck on stage by The Duchess, Bo Diddley’s guitarist whom she will also imitate in her wardrobe, taking it to extremes: latex costumes, golden bikinis, and sky-high heels.