The Cramps - "Smell of Female" Vinyl, 12", 45 rpm, Reissue, 1983 (Big Beat Records)

Is it even possible to dislike The Cramps?  Another definition of 'perfection' is The Cramps.  To call them psycho-billy or rockabilly or even rock n' roll seems to limit their greatness.  "Smell of Female" is a live recording that took place at The Peppermint Lounge, February 25 & 26 1983.  There are many reasons to buy and enjoy this mini-album, but what makes it essential is their version of the Russ Mayer theme song to "Faster Pussycat Kill Kill."  One of the great unknown songs that I don't think ever was properly released is a DNA piece of work for The Cramps.  

Which brings to mind another aspect of their greatness.  Poison Ivy and Lux Interior are tastemakers as well as brilliant curators of everything 1950s culture and beyond.  They are never corny, and I imagine what it must be like to spend an hour in their home in Glendale, California.  A live-in museum, but the fact is, that they are cultural historians of great importance.   The death of Lux is one of the significant losses in the 21st century.  Nevertheless, with the brilliance of the late Nick Knox on drums, and at this point of time of the recording, Congo Powers on the second guitar - they transcend an aural sound that is also visual, and you can feel it in your sexual being.   For me, the two guitars and no bass is the prime Cramps.   

The Cramps - "Songs The Lord Taught Us " Vinyl, LP, Album, 2016/1980 (Drastic Plastic Records)

The first full-length Cramps album.  Originally released in 1980.  Alex Chilton is the producer.  If I was at these recordings in the studio, I would sit by the exit just in case something weird breaks out.  More likely nothing odd happened during the recording of "Songs The Lord Taught Us" but sound wise it sounds like mayhem and within its vinyl grooves there are these people trapped within those grooves and they're trying to break free.  In other words, this is very much an intense listening experience.   It is also the perfect rock n' roll album.

The genius aspect of the early version of The Cramps is that they didn't have a bass player, neither an electric or stand-up bass.   It's two electric guitars, a voice, and drums without cymbals.  On paper, it sounds primitive, and that is an often descriptive term for their sound, but for me, that is like saying Harry Partch's music is primitive.  It's actually so simple that it's complex within the wave of sounds between the two guitarists with the addition of the big beat of the drums. 

Alex Chilton doesn't smooth out the sound but allows it to go crazy within the studio landscape.  It's Sun Records, but leave out the sanity button on the mixing/recording table.  It's both a tribute to the Sun sound and also acknowledging that it is using that 'sound' as the foundation to go onward.  The beauty of The Cramps is not their originality (which they have plenty of those ingredients) but also the fact that they are curators of a sound that they know well, and what they convey to the listener is the real deal. 

Chilton is the perfect producer for The Cramps.   The band knows a fellow traveler by instinct and it's interesting that afterward they never used an outside producer for future recordings.  In that sense, The Cramps became an isolated group that kept their world within its reach, and never comprise its sound or image to another corporation or another artist - unless it's a tribute to their sensibility of rock n' roll history.    In the nutshell, the perfect band making the perfect album, with the perfect producer of that time.  The Cramps with the help and assistance of Alex Chilton.   Perfection in practice. 

Vince Taylor and his Playboys - "Le Rock C'est Ca! Vinyl, LP, Compilation, 2015 (Rumble Records)

All serious students of David Bowie know that Vince Taylor had a role in Ziggy Stardust mythology. Vince was an American who moved to England at a young age, became a rock n' roller before the Fab Four hit the radio waves.  Eventually, he became a mega-star in France and had a series of hit songs/EPs.  He also went insane for a while, which at this point, David Bowie met him somewhere in London, and Vince went off about God, and therefore the long link from religion to rocking.  More than his music, Vince Taylor had a strong visual image that was extreme and highly sexual.  Watching old film clips of Vince and band on YouTube, is a combination of a Kenneth Anger film and a visual interpretation of the entrance of hell, through a rock n' roll performance.  Clad in black leather and heavy chains around his neck, Vince even outdid Elvis with his hips, which seems to be more made out of flexible rubber than bone. 

To be honest, his actual singing is just average, but the whole package is the real deal, the real art.  Vince Taylor and the Playboys are a combination of classic Gene Vincent and genius Eddie Cochran. The 18 songs on "Le Rock C'est Ca!" is a snapshot of how a French sensibility eroticizes the rock n' roll imagery.  Mostly a collection of French EP's released in the early 1960s, this is music that will go will with the photographs of Swiss photographer Karlheinz Weinberger, another European sensibility who understood the visual and erotic power of rock n' roll. Musically not as important as Gene Vincent, but visually and presence:  Essential rock n' roll.  

Andy Starr - "Rockin' Rolllin' Stone" 2 x Vinyl, 7", 45 RPM, EP, Limited Edition (Sundazed/MGM)

Rockabilly music is for sure, falling into the rabbit hole and struggling to get up for some air.  It's a potential minefield of great recordings lost to history.  I have never heard of Andy Starr, until one day at Rockaway record shop, I decided to pick up this disc due to its cover.  I'm glad I did because it's an excellent record.

I imagine at one time there were thousands of Andy Starrs' out there, making records and then having those recordings disappear into the mist of time.   Luckily, this has recently been released as a double 45 single set,  and it's hardcore rockabilly that reminds me of the essence of someone like Jack Scott.   The band on these recordings are excellent - and very much the standard set-up of stand-up bass, electric guitar, and acoustic guitar.  The backup vocalists are also superb, which again, reminds me of Scott's arrangements and recordings.  Nevertheless,  Starr is not unique, but clearly wonderful. 

The four songs here pretty much captures the Starr universe.  I don't think there are any more recordings by Starr in commercial existence, but what we have here is four exceptional performances with great vocals and band, doing their best to burn down the studio and elsewhere beyond its walls.   Great rockabilly music.  

The Cramps - Gravest Hits (Drastic Plastic Records) Vinyl 12", 45 RPM Red Vinyl

The Cramps are perfect.   Perfect as a concept, and perfect sound.  This five-song E.P. is a fabulous introduction to one of the great American bands.  So American, I often think they came from France or another foreign country.  I write that because it seems to me that they came from the outside to comment on their culture.  Which are a world of horror and obscure rockabilly recordings.  The Cramps are very much about curating and collecting as well as making music.  At the time of this album's original release, 1979, I only knew "Surfin' Bird."  Although the other songs are now well-known, for instance, Jack Scott's "The Way I Walk" and Ricky Nelson's "Lonesome Town." At that time I wasn't familiar with the 1950s rock world.  Roy Orbison's "Pretty Woman" of course, but his Sun Records version of "Domino," no.  So this particular E.P. not only introduced me to this band but also a whole music culture that I wasn't aware of.  I suspect that many of their fans and listeners were in the same boat as me.  Ignorant! 

Alex Chilton's crazed production that was both a tribute to the original recordings, as well as a new sound - at least for me, was a huge 'oh wow.'    The genius real life couple of Lux Interior and Poison Ivy, plus the additional guitar (no bass!) of the goth-like Bryan Gregory, with the minimal drumming by Nick Knox, was a force that hit me in the stomach hard - but in a somewhat healthy way.  As I mentioned, total perfection.  

JACK SCOTT "The Legendary Jack Scott (Big Beat Records) 1958

Jack Scott, an artist who worked and recorded in Detroit Michigan, is a superb talent. There is something very working class about him.  Not eccentric like Elvis, or insane like Vince Taylor.  A regular "Jack," who sounds decent as the sun arriving every morning.  Yet, there is menace in his music.  It's very sexy.  The great do-wop backup vocals on almost all the songs, are like angels looking over Jack Scott's shoulder.  If he makes the wrong move, they are there to protect him.  And on top of that, you get Stan Getz on sax.  The two classic cuts on this album are "The Way I Walk," and "Goodbye Baby."  The Mono edition of this album is sonically superb.  

Andy Starr - "Rockin' Rollin' Stone" 2 x Vinyl 45 RPM EP (Record Store Day)

Andy Starr - Rockin’ Rollin’ Stone

2 x Vinyl, 45 RPM, EP, Limited Edition, Gatefold, U.S. 2013

Sundazed Music

“Hey R-rrr-oo-c-k, R-rrr-oo-c-k” pretty much says it for this limited edition double  45 rpm vinyl set.  Andy Starr is an artist I know noting about, nor have I ever heard of him till I looked up the Sundazed website to see what they were offering  today on Black Friday Record Store day.   Once I saw the cover, I rolled down to Rockaway Records to pick a copy up.   It’s a fantastic set.

“I Wanna Go South” is the key cut for me, because it really builds, builds to a slow burning intensity.  There is something nasty in these tracks and I mean nasty in the right way.  The rhythm is a slow train heading towards the South, where our singer will eventually start his own church and it seemed he made a few X-Rated comedy records as well (according to the liner notes). 

Starr is the real deal.  It is odd of a man such wonderful talent comes to only two EP’s and eight songs in all.  But perhaps that is all needed to light up the world.  The two EP’s were recorded in different times from each other.  The first one is just voice, one guitar, stand-up bass, and drums.  The second disk has back-up vocals, and if you compare the two, the second disk is Elvis at RCA, and the first one is Sun.  Nevertheless it was a mood that made me buy this record, and it shows one needs to be in tuned with one’s mood.  It never fails man.