DESCRIPTION:
An Awesome Record.
www.thecramps.com

0:00 TV Set
3:12 Rock on the Moon
5:06 Garbageman
8:43 I was a Teenage Werewolf
11:46 Sunglasses After Dark
15:34 The Mad Daddy
19:23 Mystery Plane
22:07 Zombie Dance
24:02 What's Behind the Mask
26:08 Strychnine
28:33 I'm Cramped
31:11 Tear it Up
33:44 Fever
38:01 I was a Teenage Werewolf (with false start)
42:49 Mystery Plane (original mix)
45:30 Twist and Shout
48:03 I'm Cramped (original mix)
50:40 The Mad Daddy (original mix)

www.thecramps.com
In the spring of 1976, The CRAMPS began to fester in a NYC apartment. Without fresh air or natural light, the group developed its uniquely mutant strain of rock'n'roll aided only by the sickly blue rays of late night TV. While the jackhammer rhythms of punk were proliferating in NYC, The CRAMPS dove into the deepest recesses of the rock'n'roll psyche for the most primal of all rhythmic impulses — rockabilly — the sound of southern culture falling apart in a blaze of shudders and hiccups. As late night sci-fi reruns colored the room, The CRAMPS also picked and chose amongst the psychotic debris of previous rock eras - instrumental rock, surf, psychedelia, and sixties punk. And then they added the junkiest element of all — themselves.

It would be almost impossible to have never heard of The CRAMPS. Their career has been the stuff of legend. Dangerously bizarre but most of all cool, The CRAMPS represent everything that is truly reprehensible about rock'n'roll. Founding members Lux Interior (the psycho-sexual Elvis/Werewolf hybrid from hell) and guitar-slinging soul-mate Poison Ivy (the ultimate bad girl vixen) are the architects of a wicked sound that distills a cross of swamp water, moonshine and nitro down to a dangerous and unstable musical substance. Their cultural impact has spawned a legion of devil cults and dance-floor catfights, and created in its wake a cavalcade of cave-stomping imitators. As punk rock pioneers in the late seventies, they cut their teeth on the stages of CBGB and Max's Kansas City and recorded their first record at Sam Phillips legendary Sun Studios, funded mainly by Ivy's income as a dominatrix in NYC. They coined the now popular term "psychobilly" on their 1976 gig posters. Their hair-raising live performances are still a total, no-holds-barred rock'n'roll assault. After a quarter century of mayhem, they're too far gone to even consider any other course.

— J. H. Sasfy, Professor of Rockology
from the liner notes of The Cramps 1979 release Gravest Hits


Lux Interior - vocals
Poison Ivy Rorschach - guitar
Bryan Gregory - guitar
Nick Knox - drums
Booker C - organ on "Fever"
Alex Chilton - Producer