For The Love Of Lux Interior: 1946-2009
13 Reasons "She Said" The Cramps
1. Lux Interior in his growling, yowling, screaming, microphone sucking, high heel wearing glory was the ultimate macho fey and the Pied Piper of kink. No longer would I want just a rocker, I'd want a freaky, sleazy, degenerate rocker who could holler Hasil Adkins, borrow your pumps and quite possibly make out with both your sister and your brother when you weren't looking.
2. Poison Ivy remains one of my rock goddess Idols. The quintessence of too-cool-for-school, she'd stalk across the stage like a disinterested kitty cat -- slinky, sexy, unapproachable, perfect.
3. The Cramps blasted rockabilly out of the tired retro affectations of the perfectly coiffed, Eisenhower youth, rock-and-roll-at-the-hop-hop-hop-hop tedium. They knew Link Wray was a bad-ass. They worshipped crazy man Hasil Adkins. They dug the Sonics, Screamin' Jay Hawkins, The Ventures and they brought bump and grind to Jimmie Rogers. Fuck Fonzie. Long live Lux.
4. Poison Ivy got me into her idol, Bo Diddley's brilliant The Duchess. I bow down to her for this.
5. I didn't need to take drugs or get drunk to get high at a Cramps show (though that's fun too). They were also the perfect first date show. My longest relationship (now kaput) was aided by The Cramps (with Famous Monsters). A night of a new kind of kick indeed.
6. For some reason, The Cramps always make me think of what Christmas should really be like. I always wanted to spend Christmas with The Cramps.
7. Poison Ivy inspired one of the greatest songs by one of my favorite bands, The Gun Club, aptly titled, "For the love of Ivy." It features the sublimely violent erotic line: "I'm gonna buy me a gun just as long as my arm."
8. Lux and Ivy actually make marriage seem like a good idea. They were the surprisingly clean living Charles and Morticia Adams of rock.
9. "Bend over, I'll drive, bend over I'll drive. Is this the way Ernie Kovacs died? Bend over, I'll drive."
10. The Cramps had great taste. Lux found rockabilly singers like Charlie Feathers, Sonny Burgess and Malcolm Yelvington as kindred spirits to his other major influence: the Surrealists. In an interview Lux stated: "Marcel Duchamp is quite an inspiration... Because he kind of single-handedly demolished all that had gone before, and made a brand-new art. Man Ray was great too... We're just people who remain ever-curious. We're just attracted to whatever comes in handy. Again, like the Surrealists, anything you run across is actually beautiful; within a single city block, you find miraculous things. It's a good planet -- and good things can happen." Beautiful.
11. Garage Punk, Psychobilly, whatever-the-hell. They were The Cramps.
12. The Cramps make you believe that sexy almost always has to be sleazy.
13. Lux Interior was Louis Prima to Poison Ivy's Keely Smith. He was speed to her heroin. The living to her dead. They were sickness, health, young and old. He's can't possibly be gone.
Loading comments…
Want to reply to a comment? Hint: Click "Reply" at the bottom of the comment; after being approved your comment will appear directly underneath the comment you replied to
Oh yes. Yes to that Gun Club tune too, though they made Christmas seem like it could be even more spectacular... "Watch the lights blink on and off while you/Have your fun with me."
But more than anything, YES to those shows at Danceteria and the Pep and the Ritz with Lux singing "You Got Good Taste" and shoving the mike down his pants. Who could be cooler than Ivy? I ask ya. Still an inspiration to me. I had pictures of her all over my apartment in little old Victorian Saratoga Springs, NY. American womanhood, stand up for Ivyness!
Live is short/Filled with stuff. Carry on dirty—
The man taught me how to rock the latex.
RIP
this is so sad. i had the occasion a bunch of years ago to work as a PA on a photo shoot of theirs (it was a birthday present from a photographer friend). lux showed up at the hotel carrying a bunch of shopping bags and wearing the highest heels i'd ever seen a guy wear. being in love with ivy, i asked her to sign a picture i'd brought. she scrawled all over it, making it into an old EC comic book cover. i was standing there in awe of her and lux came up to me, real shy and asked, "hey, would it be okay if i signed it too?" lux asking to give me his autograph! ha! they were really, really nice that day and i never forgot it. they were one of my favorite bands as a young punk, and now that i'm an old punk... they still are. and always will be.
here's to ya, lux! ivy, i'm so sorry...
Sad news for punk and rock fans. RIP Lux!
I'm putting on "Bikini Girls with Machine Guns" Stay Sick!
The Light Inside
What a great band. This is a sad loss.
Kim--
Really nice tribute--best piece I've seen yet. Thanks.
Dead on about the drugs being nice but unnecessary--a line that I think says a lot.
37 years the two of them were together. Yes, laughing, of all the couples to make marirage seem like a good idea...
My own obit's at
http://www.nosuppertonight.com
You knew them better. It shows. Thanks again for a smile.
What a dynamic performer. The Cramps were electric.
Rock In Peace, Lux.
I feel like my youth just died. There's no replacing a band like that, or a man with the swagger of Lux Interior.
You must be logged in to comment. Log in or connect with
