The Cramps
A Date with Elvis

“We can't read music, but we're good at shaking our butts in time” (Poison Ivy).

Lux Interior... for years I was convinced that Erick Purkisher had deliberately chosen a stage name in Latin to assume a more gothic, esoteric aura and for the meaning, Inner Light. Much more prosaically, however, that name was borrowed from a very kitsch ad for the luxurious interiors of a car. Which, however, seems in line with the trash imagery created around the Cramps, whose members flaunted costumes ranging from the black outfits of the Addams family to burlesque, from latex to stiletto heels.

But let's start from the beginning. From my Beginning.

The first time I laid eyes on the cover of A Date with Elvis and the alluring features of Poison Ivy, I was eighteen years old and knew nothing about the Cramps. Filippo, a lifelong friend with whom I still share a passion for music and some of our free time, gave me this vinyl, infecting me with a virus from which I would never recover, something for which - mind you - I am grateful to him. And I remember that in that distant 1986 (or maybe it was 1987?) I wondered - after placing the needle on the vinyl - where that sound came from. From the '50s? From the future? From Hell?

In the summer of 1972, the Cramps did not yet exist, not even in the vicious mind of Erick Lee Purkisher, originally from Stow, Ohio, and seeking fortune in Sacramento, California. That summer day, Erick was cruising with a friend in an old convertible when a red-haired, sinuous girl appeared hitchhiking by the side of the road. Erick picked her up, and thus began their love story and the musical adventure of the Cramps.

Kristy Marlana Wallace - that's the name of the Californian hitchhiker - was not yet twenty and already boasted a series of small roles in softcore films. According to her, she had two passions, Chuck Berry's riffs and sex, which were almost the same thing.

Kristy and Erick soon discovered they had in common a love for early rock'n'roll, country-blues, Voodoo, and B-movie horror and sci-fi. They moved first to Akron and then in 1975 to New York, where together with Bryan Gregory (born Greg Beckerleg) - a guitarist passionate about the occult - and Bryan's sister who called herself Pam Balam - a drummer - they decided to form a band.

The Cramps were born - the Spasms, a name that allegedly referred to menstrual cramps - mixing in their witchcraft cauldron the most primitive and rural rock'n'roll, psychotic fragments of surf, sixties psychedelia and garage-punk, saturation and reverb, skeletal tribal rhythms, sci-fi and horror, chills and sobs, swamp muck, moonlight and nitroglycerin, creating a dangerous and unstable potion, sulfurous and corrosive, which they baptized Psychobilly or Voodoobilly.

Lux and Ivy created alter egos in pure B-Movie style. Erick became Lux Interior (whose etymology has already been mentioned) and Kristy became Poison Ivy Rorschach, a name inspired by the old Coasters song, to which she added the surname Rorschach (later abandoned), of the inventor of the famous psychological test.

Our heroes became part of the punk rock scene that included bands like the Ramones, New York Dolls, Patti Smith, and Television, revolving around the historic Manhattan club CBGB, where they debuted in 1976.

The band changed drummers twice. Miriam Linna replaced Pam Ballam, and in September 1977, Nick Knox (born Nicholas Stephanoff) took over. In the same year, the Cramps, produced by Alex Chilton, recorded two independent singles at Memphis's Ardent Studios, before being signed by Miles Copeland for I.R.S. Records. On June 13, 1978, the band performed a legendary free concert for the patients of a mental illness ward, an event recorded with a video camera and later released under the title Live at Napa State Mental Hospital. In 1979, they recorded the EP titled Gravest Hits (which includes the two singles recorded in 1977) before Chilton brought them back to Memphis, to the legendary Sun Studios, to record Songs the Lord Taught Us, an exceptional 33 rpm debut in which they codified their sound recipe, dismantling tradition and estranging it also due to the rhythm section without bass.

In the spring of 1980, the Cramps toured Europe as the opening act for the Police, but they did not achieve much success with the audience attending the English band's concerts and on their return, they lost Bryan Gregory, who decided to move to California to follow a religious sect and was replaced by Kid Congo Powers, the guitarist of the Gun Club.

In 1981, the second LP, Psychedelic Jungle, was released, but Miles Copeland fired the band, and the Cramps began a legal battle that, in fact, paralyzed their career, preventing the release of records until 1983, the year in which the live EP Smell of Female (live at New York's Peppermint Lounge) was released. After this album, Kid Congo Powers would leave the Cramps to return to the Gun Club. Speaking of those years, Kid recalled: "“Those shows were crazy, magical, pervaded with voodoo and Lux did incredible things on stage, dangerous and crazy, like jumping off a stack of speakers or whirling the microphone with a cord so long I thought he'd decapitate me sooner or later […] He'd tie my legs with the microphone cable and drag me around the stage while I played - usually during Surfin' Bird”.

A Cramps concert is primordial chaos unleashed by the subversive and deformed sound of their Psychobilly. Lux is an incontrollable performer, endowed with a deep and expressive voice, presenting himself to the audience with his frenetic, total, and provocative performances. Extremely thin, shirtless, glistening with sweat, he moves like Iggy Pop, bulges his eyes, exhibits diabolical grins, and indulges in orgiastic dances more akin to epileptic fits, during which he sticks the microphone into his mouth and almost swallows it. A journalist defined him as, “A psychosexual werewolf, an infernal hybrid of Elvis”. Poison Ivy, on the other hand, on stage is a priestess dressed as a stripper, seductive and devilish but expressionless and enigmatic, seemingly uninterested in anything except delivering fiery chords. Ivy is essentially a rhythm guitarist who favors open tunings, capable of igniting Lux's performances with the slashes of her 1958 Gretsch, suspended between a dark and dramatic sound, inspired by the tutelary deity Link Wray's "Rumble," and the authentic sound chaos caused by a wall of feedback, distortions, reverbs, and dissonances.

In 1986, the Cramps released their third studio album, A Date With Elvis, dedicated to Ricky Nelson, which achieved good success in Europe, where sales exceeded 250,000 copies, while in the United States the group struggled to find a record label to release the record. With this album, the band presented with a partially renewed sound and image. Indeed, for the first time, the line-up introduced the bass, played (temporarily) by Ivy as well, giving the sound a more defined and substantial quality. Furthermore, the deliberately boisterous obsession with sex intensified even more. Consider the crude double entendres of "What's Inside a Girl?," "The Hot Pearl Snatch," "Cornfed Dames," "(Hot Pool of) Womanneed," "How Far Can Too Far Go?," and the extraordinary single "Can Your Pussy Do the Dog?". The style is less eccentric compared to previous works - also due to the presence of the bass that "normalizes" the sound - and veers even more towards rockabilly and the most irreverent and provocative garage rock, with Poison Ivy's fuzz guitar prominently on display and Lux Interior in excellent form, showcasing great variety in his singing approach, more than ever inspired by the '50s.

A Date With Elvis is the last masterpiece by the Cramps, which together with the first two albums form an unholy and indispensable triptych. An album with an apocalyptic sound that is at the same time simple and captivating, offering much better production than previous works, yet as raw and wild as rock'n'roll should be. A Date With Elvis contains excellent tracks that possess that touch of malice that makes the Cramps so enjoyable and exciting. "How Far Can Too Far Go?" with the reverb of Poison Ivy's guitar shaking the guts, Nick Knox's resolute drumming working in tandem with a ruthless bass line, and Lux Interior's morbid voice looming sinisterly. The incredible "The Hot Pearl Snatch," where Ivy's thunderous Gretsch is accompanied by a metallurgical rhythm section. In the pulsating "People Ain't No Good," Lux Interior, with a syncopated and breathless voice, transforms into a drunken Jerry Lee Lewis possessed by the devil, creating an unsettling contrast with the children's choir singing the chorus. In "What's Inside a Girl?" the Cramps disembowel rockabilly and expose its guts, while the magnificent and bawdy boogie of "Can Your Pussy Do The Dog?" stuns on first listen and Lux, in the closing cover of Charlie Feathers, "It's Just That Song," almost perfectly imitates Elvis. In between, there are the hippy parody of "Kizmiaz," the derailing rock and roll of "Cornfed Dames," the raped traditional of "Chicken," the country-punk of "(Hot Pool Of) Womanneed," and the postcard from Hell of "Aloha from Hell." This album is a cocktail with two parts sex and one part rock'n'roll, to be shaken hard and served flambé.

Poison Ivy stated: "“By playing rock'n'roll we are somehow also a blues band. A lot of people say we're too obsessed with sex, as if this were an abnormal trend, but I never heard anyone say Muddy Waters was a sex maniac for singing 'Little Red Rooster.' Or Willie Dixon, or Howlin' Wolf, were never called obsessed with sex for what they sang about, and yet the subject was always the same”

Indeed, while the Cramps don't exactly play blues, they rediscover its authentic roots, not the black, Christianized singing of gospel and spirituals, but the electrifying, sensual, and sexual explosion of vital energy that white puritans had labeled the Devil's Music.

Again, Ivy, in response to accusations of sexism regarding the Cramps' lyrics and attitudes, particularly from the press, stated: "“It's a bit strange, we may be sexist, but they have never really focused on my particular guitar playing style, they've never commented on it, and that's what I consider truly sexist. The nicest thing they could say is that I manage to play like a man. That's a very sexist statement. My style is unmistakable, innovative, original. I produce this band, I manage this band, and anyone who says we're sexist is dull-witted and bigoted”.

And Lux adds: "“We'd like to bring a bit more vicious humor into rock'n'roll, which today is far too wholesome. It's horrible, intolerable - all these rock stars doing good around the world, etc. - damn, when enough is enough, it's enough!”. And in this lies the intimate essence of the Cramps, darkly sinister and subversive, yet at the same time sly and humorous.

After A Date with Elvis, amid ups and downs, the Cramps would continue to carve out an indelible groove in the rock music scene throughout the 1990s and the early 2000s. Their cult career abruptly halted at 4:30 in the morning on February 4, 2009, at the Glendale Memorial Hospital, when Erick's heart stopped after 62 years.

Lux Interior said: "“I've always thought of us as surrealists from the beginning. I think whenever someone feels too comfortable or decides to neatly box how things ought to be... an artist will come and turn everything upside down. It's always healthy. It means people are thinking; they're not just doing what they're told. It means they are moved by a spirit... Gaugin said Art is plagiarism or revolution... We are revolutionaries”.