The Cramps - Gravest Gravy The Cramps

The Cramps first show anywhere in Europe was in Glasgow on May 31st 1979 at the Glasgow Apollo, opening for (excuse my language) The Police. A fateful day for all that experienced it on any side of opinion. Roy Trakin’s statement in New York Rocker that they could be “Kiss big or Trashmen obscure” has always stuck with me. They lived up to an element of both. not in terms of conventional commerce but in the spiritual realm, they took too far the whole distance. I doubt there could be something nowadays like they were when this stuff was recorded. Those who exist to be offended would have a field day. 

Ancient knowledge, long considered lost to the world is to be shared in controlled substance style because too much of this might just be overwhelming. Commonly circulated versions of many of these songs were from the later Chris Spedding demos but these are Alex Chilton captures from Ardent Studios in Memphis, October 1977. Alex remains as the one that was able to catch the soul of what they were live. Salvaging the tapes and getting them to this stage provides access to a brief moment in time during gestation that I for one never expected to hear. The chemistry and coming together with him was one of those fateful accidents and for a combo that “never aimed/claimed to make any sense”, their twist on success has been a long, strange, treacle-slow trip. There’s a little extra audio tacked on to the end that was a total surprise. 12 songs, 6 per side that will ideally be featured in a documentary made by those that formed The Cramps Inc. have been given the rope to kick this venture off.

These were the rockabilly voodoo days but the garage disease was already present. The inclusion of Hungry and Can’t Find My Mind are the living (dead) proof. I don’t recall ever hearing a studio version of Paul Revere and the Raiders Hungry with Alex on organ. A veritable nugget if there ever was one.

Arguably the most influential combo there’s ever been, what they mined has been cross-culturally seismic. Many have tried to emulate their oeuvre and failed. They were also the most photogenic band ever and the Gravest Gravy jacket is adorned with finite examples that rubber stamp this claim. The front by the recently departed Stephanie Chernikowski and the (David) Godlis shot on the back. Entertainers of the calibre that we’ll never see the like of again and if you never heard of them far less heard them, I envy that condition that you should rectify forthwith.

 Ideally this endeavour will usher in a greater appreciation of the band and most importantly, leave the bootleggers in the dust. The Cramped are still legion and this way, they can be (re)discovered, not passed off as a relic by those that have written them out of some revisionist histories that have appeared of late. The promise of further instalments coming to pass has been made and here’s to a book of Lux’s 3D lenticular photos being part of the plan.

All of the Vengeance titles are also now back in print.

- Thanks to Lindsay Hutton for the excellent description