THE CRAMPS
RARE TRACKS Demo, Rehearsals, B-Sides, Soundtracks
I’ve always had a soft spot for The Cramps. They’re one of
the (few) bands that I heard when I was first discovering non-commercial music way
back when, that have retained an appeal for me. I’m still buying their records
all these years later, and they feature on the playlist fairly regularly...........
Perhaps I should grow up. Ha Ha.
This double LP collection was released in about 2012, but I
only came across one in a record shop recently. I saw it in the rack, looked,
went hmmmm.... and put it back. I kept glancing back to check no one else
picked it up, then went “just go and get the fuckin’ thing”.
While I own most of the earlier vinyl stuff (up to 1990’S “Stay
Sick”), I’m no tragic when it comes to The Cramps. This compilation is geared
to the later period of the band, which I’m relatively unfamiliar with, but it’s
a great romp, and there’s something for
every Cramps fan.
The bulk of the two record set features B-sides of various singles and EP’s from 1985 -1994. The
first record (Yellow Vinyl) is all B-sides from this period, with the exception
of “Twist and Shout” from the “Songs The Lord Taught Us Sessions” Highlights of
the B-sides are mid period cuts ”Blue Moon Baby” the flipside of “Can Your
Pussy Do The Dog” and "Jackyard Backoff", the flipside from 1990’s “Bikini Girls
with Machine Guns” (I remembered that one from a LONG time ago when I bought
that 7” for a friend and wished I’d got one for myself). Interestingly, their
take on “Peter Gunn” and “Jailhouse Rock” steer right away from the traditional
(in The Cramps inimitable style) and veer on ridiculous, but you know they
wouldn’t have it any other way.
Record Two (Black Vinyl) comprises only two B –Sides, the rest is made up of miscellaneous recordings. As I said, there’s
something to please everyone. Although it doesn’t indicate it on the cover,
there are some live cuts here. “Beautiful Gardens” is pleasingly and appropriately
wild, as is “She said”, which is worth it for Lux’s monologue alone. “Surfin’ Dead” is the soundtrack song (From
Return of the Living Dead), which isn’t one of their more memorable songs.
“Rumble Blue” is an ’81 rehearsal, and I assume it features the original (Bryan
Gregory) line-up. The other rehearsal cuts -
“Lonesome Town”,” Journey to the Centre of a Girl”, and “Jackyard
Backoff” (here for the second time) are unfortunately a bit tame for my liking,
as is the studio cut of “Call of the Wighat”from ‘82 .
Package wise this is pretty damn good, particularly for a
bootleg. Containing 24 songs in all, it
comes in a huge fold out poster cover with heaps of pics. For the die-hard fan
there may yield nothing new picture wise, but it’s still pretty impressive, and
showcase all eras of the Cramps in their various incarnations. In some ways misleading
perhaps, the front cover features the Kid Congo era Line up, but I can’t be
sure if he actually features on any of the songs here (my guess is the live
songs though). The impressive back cover pic featuring short lived bassist
Candy Fur had no recorded output (studio
or live). One of the vinyls is coloured,
the other one is plain black, and there are varying combinations available. The
sound quality is pretty good, particularly the B-Sides, but the rehearsal and
live stuff are perfectly passable for what they are as well. The
only real quibble I have is that there’s minimal info on the songs - most have
no info- like what was the A-side of the song, what was the line up, when was
it recorded etc. That info, accompanied by pics of the singles would have
really topped off this collection.
All up, a great bookend to any Cramps collection. If your’e
a hard-core Cramps collector, it’s worth getting, there may be something you
don’t have, or just for the package alone, same if your’e more of a casual
Cramps fan – it’ll keep you entertained. If your’e looking for an introduction
(?) to The Cramps perhaps get one of the first Couple of LP’s and check’ em
out.
RIP LUX
PUNK- ROCK’N’FRICKENROLL
VINYL ONLY chrismccousin@gmail.com
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