Released in 1986 (originally only in The UK) A Date With Elvis was the fourth studio album by The Cramps, and solidified their particular take on psychobilly, mixing the band's usual influences from early rock'n'roll, rhythm and blues, surf music, horror movies and vintage Americana to frequently macabre effect. Tracks like How Far Can Too Far Go?, People Ain't No Good and Kizmiaz captured The Cramps' untamed spirit, with trademark twangy guitar riffs and pounding drums providing a suitably gritty backing for Lux Interior's distinctive, primal vocals. A Date With Elvis maintained the band's fascination with all things taboo and subversive, with songs exploring themes of lust, obsession, and the darker side of rock'n'roll culture, while the questioning Can Your Pussy Do the Dog? and What's Inside A Girl? Show cased the band's irreverent and frequently unhinged approach to song writing.
When Kirsty Wallace and Erick Purkhiser met and fell in love at college in Sacramento in 1972 they changed their names to Poison Ivy Rorschach and Lux Interior and moved to New York in 1975 to catch the start of the CBGB punk scene and welcomed into the dirty, steam-filled, night time streets, the screaming monster that was The Cramps. You either get the 50s kitschy, B-movie, fetish-inspired aesthetic they created or you don’t, and it’s that simple. Primitive rock'n'roll stripped back to its bare sexy voodoo bones with the addition of some X-rated sci-fi and horror imagery, and of course, a good risqué double-entendre lyric.
For some, the band and their music may have more in tune with The Rocky Horror Picture Show than Spinal Tap, and that’s fine, there is a connection. But a large number of metal heads and classic rockers do get it. However, it was the alternative kids, the punks and the goths, and the outsiders, that ran with it and were inspired to bring the Cramps influence into the bands they formed across numerous underground genres. Even the band themselves unintentionally created the ‘psychobilly’ scene by using the phrase from a Johnny Cash song on early fliers, simply to draw in an audience. A line can even be drawn from The Cramps through the Gun Club, to Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds, and The Sisters of Mercy. From punk to Alternative to Goth. Without Bryan Gregory, their founding guitarist, there may have been no original 80s Batcave goth image as we know it. And in turn, a lot of what gets called alternative rock music that followed.
Strictly speaking, this is not the Cramps best album. It is a great album, but it’s not their best. They have darker, rawer, and more dangerous sounding material. And were a more dangerous band before this album was released. Go and watch early videos. It is however their most accessible, and highest charting album. And it contains two of their more notorious and well known song titles in Can Your Pussy Do The Dog? and What’s Inside A Girl? It’s not a perfect album, or without its faults, but it is definitely a fun album with a unique feel and a great fitting DIY production that still stands up today.
A lot of bands have covered Cramps tracks, which is ironic considering a lot of The Cramps material is covers of old rockabilly, blues, doo wop and chicken-fried country songs. Although this, their third album (or fourth if you count the early singles compilation Off The Bone) is where they started to release albums with more original songs than covers, all written by Lux and Ivy. From Ivy’s squawky, twangy, more Scotty Moore than Chet Atkins, with a bit of Bo Diddley thrown in, rocking guitar, in conjunction with Lux’s best reverb soaked, Elvis stuttering hiccup, on the most salacious of lyrics, The Cramps did nothing new, but they made it sound new by reviving the original underground elements of rock'n'roll, which had a lot more in common with punk than people would like to admit. Yes, there is a lot of humour and sex in the music and image, as there was in that original underground rock and roll sound, but the band couldn’t have done the music justice if they hadn’t been serious about it. And they were. All driven by Ivy, musically and business wise. The uncrowned queen of rock'nroll who had all the gum-chewing, ice queen, dominatrix outfit-wearing moves, and riffs, but watched as all the guys in the band got the credit for it.
There will never be another band like them.
Ripped to MP3
For some, the band and their music may have more in tune with The Rocky Horror Picture Show than Spinal Tap, and that’s fine, there is a connection. But a large number of metal heads and classic rockers do get it. However, it was the alternative kids, the punks and the goths, and the outsiders, that ran with it and were inspired to bring the Cramps influence into the bands they formed across numerous underground genres. Even the band themselves unintentionally created the ‘psychobilly’ scene by using the phrase from a Johnny Cash song on early fliers, simply to draw in an audience. A line can even be drawn from The Cramps through the Gun Club, to Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds, and The Sisters of Mercy. From punk to Alternative to Goth. Without Bryan Gregory, their founding guitarist, there may have been no original 80s Batcave goth image as we know it. And in turn, a lot of what gets called alternative rock music that followed.
Strictly speaking, this is not the Cramps best album. It is a great album, but it’s not their best. They have darker, rawer, and more dangerous sounding material. And were a more dangerous band before this album was released. Go and watch early videos. It is however their most accessible, and highest charting album. And it contains two of their more notorious and well known song titles in Can Your Pussy Do The Dog? and What’s Inside A Girl? It’s not a perfect album, or without its faults, but it is definitely a fun album with a unique feel and a great fitting DIY production that still stands up today.
A lot of bands have covered Cramps tracks, which is ironic considering a lot of The Cramps material is covers of old rockabilly, blues, doo wop and chicken-fried country songs. Although this, their third album (or fourth if you count the early singles compilation Off The Bone) is where they started to release albums with more original songs than covers, all written by Lux and Ivy. From Ivy’s squawky, twangy, more Scotty Moore than Chet Atkins, with a bit of Bo Diddley thrown in, rocking guitar, in conjunction with Lux’s best reverb soaked, Elvis stuttering hiccup, on the most salacious of lyrics, The Cramps did nothing new, but they made it sound new by reviving the original underground elements of rock'n'roll, which had a lot more in common with punk than people would like to admit. Yes, there is a lot of humour and sex in the music and image, as there was in that original underground rock and roll sound, but the band couldn’t have done the music justice if they hadn’t been serious about it. And they were. All driven by Ivy, musically and business wise. The uncrowned queen of rock'nroll who had all the gum-chewing, ice queen, dominatrix outfit-wearing moves, and riffs, but watched as all the guys in the band got the credit for it.
There will never be another band like them.
Ripped to MP3
01 How Far Can Too Far Go?
02 The Hot Pearl Snatch
03 People Ain't No Good
04 What's Inside A Girl?
05 Can Your Pussy Do The Dog?
06 Kizmiaz
07 Cornfed Dames
08 Chicken
09 (Hot Pool Of) Womanneed
10 Aloha From Hell
11 It's Just That Song
TY for posting! This album broke my Cramp's cherry. I bought a used cassette of it at a local record store and never turned back. I was fortunate to see the Cramps live only once in 1992 when Lux, Ivy, & Nick Knox were joined by Slim Chance. Even though they were well into their career they delivered a smoking hot concert that I'll never forget. RIP Lux Interior
ReplyDeleteI only saw them once in Glasgow...can't say for sure what year, but it might have been 92
DeleteThis just in from the Garbage Man-Stick out your can!
ReplyDeleteVelvet Elvis paintings and real rebels abound.
Thank You Very Much.
It's bin day...thanks for the heads up
Delete