Wrapped up and Tangled Up in the Cramps

I am pleased to have the opportunity to bring you this great memoir by Kogar the Swinging Ape, about what the Cramps have meant to him. I think he speaks for a great many of us, and does it very eloquently. This is one of those things where you either get it or you don't. If he's talking to you, you'll understand. If not, you've obviously taken a wrong turn on the information superhighway. You should still listen, though... You never know when something might sink in.
-Chuck

Wrapped up and Tangled Up in the Cramps
by Kogar the Swinging Ape
Kogar's Jungle Juice, home of Kogar the Swinging Ape:
http://kogarsjunglejuice.blogspot.com/

Well, this Wednesday would have been Lux's 63rd birthday. Here is an article I wrote for a Canadian fanzine that has yet to materialize. I wrote it shortly after Lux passed away. I don't know if the fanzine will ever see the light of day, so here it is in all its "glory". Sorry if it seems all over the place, but when I was writing it, I was pretty emotional. Still am, I guess...


I went to fishin’ one day
And I put my hook out in the water
And somethin’ got a hold to it
And tried to get loose

When I pulled it up there was a big fish on the hook
He was twistin’ and turning there
Tryin to get loose
But the hook had him there
And he couldn’t get loose

And I said I wished the Lord would hook me one day
Like this hook has hooked his fin
And on one Friday evenin’, he came into my soul
And hooked he me with his spirit

And ever since that day
A song come into my mind
I had to say like Jerimiah say…
There’s a ffffffiiiiiiiiiiiiiirrrrrrrrrrrrrre keep on burnin’
Shadow up in my bones…
And I couldn’t hold my pee
-The Reverend Charlie Jackson – Wrapped up and Tangled Up in Jesus


The Cramps got their hook in me around 1989 or so.

Hearing The Cramps for the first time completed my musical puzzle. Up until that point, music wasn’t a big part of my life. It was just something I listened to passively. There was nothing I was hearing that was really moving me. Certainly I had not heard anything that I would want to collect or devote any serious time to.

Growing up, I was into all the “weird stuff” you’d expect me to be into if you know me now. I liked monsters, books, books about monsters, monster movies, comic books, etc. I spent hours and hours scouring the TV guide trying to find horror movies to watch.

My parents had decent taste in music. My dad was a teenager in the 50’s and 60’s, a glorious time for music. We always had music in the house, but it was as most people listen to music today; as a background, something to fill the empty air. It may have meant something to them, but it didn’t connect with me. Blue suede shoes? Who gave a fuck about blue suede shoes?! I was a kid that liked giant monkey movies for god sake!

Myself, growing up in the 70’s, in New Hampshire no less, there really wasn’t a lot musically going on. For some, the 70’s were a great time for music. But as an adolescent without a car, you were kind of at the mercy of geography. All the radio stations I could tune in at the time played 70’s arena rock or dance music.

At some point, I started running with a different crowd and a friend introduced me to punk, and then later, The Cramps.

At first I didn’t know what to make of them. I simply could not comprehend what I was hearing. It sort of sounded like the music my dad was always playing when I was younger, but it was somehow new and exciting. It seriously confused me. Being in my late teens, Punk was a no brainer. It was loud, fast, out of control. But The Cramps were different. It just seemed more real somehow.
The Cramps opened up a whole new world for me. I was amazed to find a band that seemed to be influenced (at least in part) by the movies I grew up watching! You could just hear it in the music. You could see it in their look. Hell, you could even see it in their amazing logo.

Songs like WHAT’S BEHIND THE MASK had me doing double takes. Surely this song was based on a segment of TALES FROM THE CRYPT, the classic comic from the 50’s read by JD’s and wide-eyed innocents alike.

Pretty soon I was a fanatic; I had to have everything they ever put out. I went from release to release aurally devouring everything within earshot. It was Cramps overload.

It is at this point where you can distinguish two kinds of Cramps fans. The casual fan that goes to the shows, buys the records, etc., and The Cramps fan that delves a little deeper, tries to find out what made this band the way they were. A truly rewarding experience waits for those who wish to dig deeper into the history of the band and where they came from.

Since Lux’s passing a back in February, there has been a lot written about the band and Lux in particular. Many of the hastily written pieces that appeared soon after his death were shoddy and, to be quite frank, embarrassing. Some even got his age incorrect, others had no idea how to describe their music. It was a sad tribute.

As the weeks went by, and more and more people put their thoughts on paper, or on the Internet, it really helped me deal with my grief and I think it was helpful for others as well. People I talked to were shocked at how bad they felt about Lux’s passing. We all felt like we lost a family member. A lot of people were in the same boat. I mentioned as much to my amazing and understanding wife (who is also a fan) and she said something that has really stuck with me. She said; “Of course you feel bad, The Cramps, in some way, have had an impact on your life almost every day.”

She was right; a day probably doesn’t go by when I’m not affected by The Cramps. Whether it be putting together the Lux and Ivy’s Favorites series or hearing a Link Wray tune, buying some 45 on Ebay, or watching some exploitation movie; The Cramps have had a wild impact on my life. I can honestly say I would not be the person I am today if I had never listened to The Cramps.

Since Lux’s passing, I’ve been trying to sort out my thoughts about this band that I completely love and that changed the direction of my life.

The Cramps are more than a band. Lux and Ivy, the driving force behind the band, are history teachers for those who care to listen. Read their interviews, listen to their records, listen to the records they listen to, watch the movies they like to watch. If you do, there is a whole world that will open to you, if you are willing to take the time to explore.

I transitioned from a casual fan to an obsessed nut job when I heard, THE PURPLE KNIF SHOW. It had to have been 91 or 92. I saw the CD in The Cramps CD section. I didn’t even know what the hell it was. It had a picture of Lux and Ivy on it, and wording that said; RADIO CRAMPS. I had no idea what it was, but I had to have it. Maybe it was a live show or something. Most of you probably know, it was a radio show that Lux had hosted where he had complete control over the play list.










The stuff he played was mind blowing. The door to my musical awakening was creaking open even further, like you’d see in an old Boris Karloff movie. Here were songs that defied description; a song about a baby brother that crawled around on the ceiling and then flew away into space, another song about turkey decapitation, further still a song about a Bohemian Café that I search for to this day (not the record, but the physical place!).

Then shortly after that, it was the BORN BAD LP’s. Here were songs The Cramps liberated from the past and incorporated into their music. I knew some of their songs were covers, but this series of LP’s opened my eyes wider to what The Cramps were doing with songs and artists from the past.The door opened even more.

Link Wray, Hasil Adkins, Andre Williams, The Mad Daddy, Mad Mike Metrovich, Ghoulardi, Russ Meyer, these are just some of the names they have introduced me to.

The door was blown off its hinges!

Soon, I was buying music like crazy. There were frequent trips to Boston; mail order; downloading; anything to get my music fix. Most, if not all of my disposable income went to the purchase of records, video tapes (later DVD’s), movie posters, etc. All of this can most likely be traced back to my discovery of The Cramps.

Over the years I saw The Cramps 8 or 9 times. A Cramps show was always an amazing experience. There was always something that happened to make it memorable. One time I got an empty wine bottle that Lux had drank from during a show, another time Lux used me as a lean post to get closer to the crowd (I spent the bulk of this show just looking up at him as he leaned on my shoulders to berate the crowd.), one time my friends and I fed him lines during the introduction for Alligator Stomp, another time a 5 foot tall girl physically attacked me for having the nerve to be standing in front of her (where I had been for 3 hours before she got there!). Blood, sweat, urine, wine, flying bodies, all par for the course at a Cramps show.

The last time I saw The Cramps live was a special one off show in NYC. It ended up being the last time they ever played in the city that sort of spawned them. That night they were on fire. Lux was like a man possessed. Drinking wine bottle after wine bottle, climbing speakers, bending mic stands.

At one point, while Lux was draping the club’s black curtains around himself (mimicking the Mad Daddy’s famous pose?), while teetering atop a 15-20 foot speaker stack. The crowd was going bonkers. All eyes were on Lux. What would he do next?
I guess I should say, not EVERY set of eyes was on Lux. Most of them were, but I was watching Ivy. She was playing with her usual sneer, but you could see the concern in her eyes for Lux as he balanced precariously atop the speakers. For a good 5-8 minutes she watched his antics and only went back to torturing her guitar with reckless abandon when he was safe back down on the stage.

At times like that I think of how lucky Lux and Ivy were to have found each other. For over 30 years they have been together. They started a band, toured the world dozens of times, helping create an interest in music of the past while always seeming to be looking towards the future.

While traveling the country together in the mid-seventies they were on a quest for the soul of rock and roll. They found it in junk shops, record stores, record warehouses, distributorships, etc. Buying 45 records all along the way that held the key to their musical future. This time spent together would eventually lead them to starting this amazingly influential band.

Lux said in an interview he and Ivy did with Rex Doane on WFMU’s Fool’s Paradise, that he believed ideas for musicians are floating around in space. Those ideas are then picked up by entities and shot like lightening bolts into the heads of people, and that’s how you end up with crazy, awe inspiring songs. Basically alluding to the fact that humans need a little cosmic interference once and I while. This is a fascinating concept. How else do you explain The Musical Linn Twins Rockin out the Blues? Surely extraterrestrial influence abounds on this absolutely insane 45.

I like to think that even though Lux isn’t on this world anymore, that he just may have graduated to being one of those entities in outer space. And if that’s the case, we can only hope that his touch will be shooting ideas into people’s heads for a very, very long time.


TO HEAR LUX AND IVY ON "FOOL'S PARADISE," GO HERE (mp3, 66 MB):
http://www.mediafire.com/download.php?d3tmzhthtmt

31 Days of Helly Homoween Corntinue.....

CRISWELL'S HAUNTED HISTORY'S MYSTERIES OUIJA SEANCE CHAMBER

"Criswell here! I'm gonna do you a BIG favor and not even pretend that this here is anything other than a lame effort to recycle some shit from a different blog. I was gonna go into this whole big routine about summoning spirits and learning the truth behind some of history's greatest conundrums, but quite frankly, I don't feel like fucking with it. It's Friday, I'm tired, I have better things to do. If you don't, poor thing, then read on..."


Kommandant Oberst Wilhelm Klink
(1891-1946)

Kommandant Oberst (Colonel) Wilhelm Klink was a German Luftwaffe (Air Corps) officer of aristocratic (Junker) Prussian descent. He was born in Leipzig in 1891, though he referred to Düsseldorf, where he attended the Gymnasium, as his home town. After failing exams to study law and medicine, he received an appointment from Kaiser Wilhelm II to a military academy, through the influence of his uncle, the Bürgermeister's barber, and graduated 95th in his class.

A veteran aviator of the First World War, Klink served as commandant of the German prisoner-of-war camp Stalag 13 during WWII. Colonel Klink was awarded the Citation of Merit-Second Class in 1944.

Although Klink had no connection to the concentration camps, nor does it appear to modern historians that he was guilty of any war crimes, he was among the defendants tried at Nuremberg after the end of the war. It is believed that his frequent-- and totally groundless-- boasting about his closeness and importance to the late dictator Adolf Hitler was taken seriously by Allied investigators who ordered his arrest.

Klink, like many officers in the German military, was never a member of the Nazi party. Nevertheless, he was tried for war crimes along with the high-ranking Nazi defendants. Klink was found guilty on October 1, 1946, on a four-count indictment: Conspiracy to commit crimes alleged in other accounts, Crimes against Peace, War Crimes, and Crimes against Humanity.

Sergeant Johann Schultz (pictured left), who served under Klink at Stalag 13, was compelled to testify at the trial. The Sergeant, who went into diabetic shock several times during the proceedings, claimed under oath that he "knew nothing" of Klink's wartime activities. However, he did recount for the court a number of his former commander's anecdotes and claims regarding his, Klink's, importance and influence among the higher echelons of the Nazi government. Though dismissed by the defense as hearsay, many believe that Schultz's recitation of Klink's grandiose claims tipped the balance among members of the tribunal in favor of a guilty verdict. Until that point, it was agreed among spectators and other trial participants that Klink would receive a lenient sentence, if not outright acquittal.

In the event, Wilhelm Klink was sentenced to death by hanging. His sentence was carried out at Landsberg prison on October 16, 1946.

There has been a great deal of speculation about Klink's enigmatic last words. Witnesses say that the condemned man shouted, in a strident voice, the syllables "Colonel Ho..." just as the trap beneath his feet was sprung.

Though histories of the period are filled with competing theories, we will probably never know the identity of the mysterious Colonel to whom Klink cried out with his last breath.

(Article researched and written by Chuck Miller)

NORWAY, CRAMPED

Gudfaren av psychobilly er død

Vokalist i kultbandet The Cramps døde bare 62 år gammel.
CECILIE ASKER
Publisert: 05.02.09 20:36
Oppdatert: 05.02.09

Lux Interior, vokalist i det amerikanske kultbandet The Cramps døde onsdag 4. februar på Glendale Memorial Hospital in Glendale, California.

Ifølge en pressemelding sendt ut samme dag av bandets pressetalsperson er dødsårsaken hjertesvikt. Interior, født Erick Lee Purkhiser, etterlater seg kona Kristy “Poison Ivy Rorschach” Wallace, som han både har vært gift med og spilt i band med i

Ved å blande rockabilly, punkrock og surferock, med sin pasjon for horror og gamle b-filmer, banet The Cramp vei for ny undergrunnsrock på slutten av 70-tallet. Og de får ofte æren for å være grunnleggerne av musikkgenren psychobilly, selv om Lux selv alltid har sagt at han ikke vil bli satt i bås.

Bandet har holdt det gående i mer en 36 år, og sluppet et tosifferet antall album. The Cramps fikk aldri et kommersielt gjennombrudd, men med en stor fanskare verden over, har det aldri vært et problemer for dem å få spillejobber. Forrige gang bandet spilte i Norge var på Øyafestivalen i 2006.

Lux Interior døde av hjertesvikt, ifølge pressemeldingen.
Foto: Nordby, Carl Martin

The Cramps
Enga Scene, Øyafestivalen - fredag 11. august 2006

Aldrende psykobilly med stil
Med en tydelig opplagt Lux Interior (Erick Purkhiser) i spissen inntok smått legendariske The Cramps Øyafestivalens hovedscene Enga fredag kveld. Her fengslet de tildels sitt publikum med sin like legendariske form for psychorockabilly.

Den nå 64 år(!) gamle Interior fremsto på scenen som en slags Grev Dracula i dagslys, og satte nærmest sin langt mer velkjente rival Iggy Pop i skyggen med sin til tider svært eksentriske fremtreden. Men også musikalsk viser The Cramps anno 2006 som et tight og stødig band og leverer en konsert som må sies å være langt mer enn hva man i forkant hadde våget å forvente.

Med seg fra originalbesetningen var også hans kjære Poison Ivy Rorschach (Kristy Wallace), mens resten av bandet synes langt yngre enn det aldrende paret i front.

Lux Interior og hans kompanjonger på scenen bød på et tidvis spennende, dog ikke veldig variert sett, mens psykedeliske riff satte helt tydelige preg over de mange fremmøtte på gresset bak og foran scenkanten i den nå nesten tørre Middelalderparken, etter noen regnskyll tidligere på kvelden. (PAN)

NB! På NRKs Nett-TV kan du eksklusivt se konsertene fra Øyafestivalen 2006 ut august!

The Italian Job II

The Cramps: il rock'n'roll come terapia
From "Be Nice To Mommy," an Italian "punkzine," 2003

http://www.benicetomommy.com/cramps_inter.html

Cinquantasette anni lui, cinquanta lei. Ed una disperata voglia di andare ancora in giro a far casino. Sempre così, un po' da perdenti, nonostante un nome ed una carriera che autorizzerebbero a pensare a ben altri successi e ben altri palcoscenici. E invece eccoli di nuovo qui a farsi insultare dal pubblico del solito gruppo "molto" punk californiano appena sbarcato su major (ma finiscono tutti così? C'è un copione già scritto?) sullo stage più sbagliato del momento, almeno per loro. Una sorta di deja-vu per chi ebbe l'occasione di vederli più di vent'anni fa aprire i concerti (e beccarsi raffiche di sputi) per i Police in una delle accoppiate più bizzarre della storia. Sting e soci, nel frattempo, sono molto invecchiati e giocano a fare i musicisti seri, fra jazz, tarantelle e comparsate pseudo-sociali, che non so perché, ma quando le fanno i miliardari mi viene sempre l'orticaria. Magari succederà anche ai Rancid, chissà. I Cramps no, i Cramps sono sempre gli stessi e sono tornati.
Rispolverata la loro Vengeance Records, hanno dato alle stampe un nuovo album, "Fiends of Dope Island", e sono partiti per un tour europeo che in Italia, purtroppo, ha toccato solo Bologna all'Indipendent festival. Di scandalo, non ci si crede, ne continuano a dare. Basta farsi un giro per le message board delle decine di webzine o siti "punk" per incontrare un fiorir di commenti di bambini spaventati: "Il cantante è frocio", "Era strafatto", "Cantava malissimo", "Cazzo... si è addirittura spogliato!". Le movenze di Lux Interior sul palco e l'ossessivo psycho-billy della loro musica hanno squarciato il velo di una "scena" un po' omofobica (tanto per cambiare) e degna del circolo delle Suore Benedettine. Chi lo avrebbe mai detto, da due vecchiacci così?

Ma com'è stato tornare in sala dopo tanti anni?
"Come una terapia intensiva", mi rispondono Lux e Ivy, contattati per un rapido scambio di mail prima della loro partenza per il tour. "C'è tanta gente che in studio ci passa la vita, per noi è sempre stato un po' come entrare in ospedale. Beh, insomma... vai lì per farti curare e poi ti senti meglio. Ma non c'è niente di divertente".
Come mai avete riesumato il marchio Vengeance dopo 25 anni e come si è chiusa la vostra esperienza con la Epitaph?
"La Epitaph in America fa schifo. E questo ci è sembrato un ottimo modo per non avere più a che fare con etichette che fanno schifo. Inoltre siamo rientrati in possesso dei diritto dei titoli precedenti".
Nel frattempo ci sono state novità anche nella formazione.
"Beh", risponde Lux, "Drumdini non è nuovo! E' con noi da più di dieci anni, ormai. Quello nuovo è il bassista, Chopper Franlin. Li abbiamo scelti entrambi perché sono dei pericolosi sbandati che sanno cos'è il rock'n'roll. Del resto, il rock'n'roll è sempre stato una cosa pericolosa".

La carriera di Erick Purkisher e Kristy Wallace, i veri nomi di Lux e Ivy, è iniziata piuttosto tardi e prima del sodalizio musicale ci fu senza dubbio quello sessuale. La storia vuole che i due si incontrino nel '72 in California, quando lui dà un passaggio a lei. Ancora insieme, oltre trent'anni dopo. E' più facile stare in una band quando si fa coppia anche nella vita? E' più facile trovare ispirazione per scrivere canzoni?
"Più facile? Più facile di cosa? E' solo facile. Le nostre canzoni possono nascere in milioni di modi diversi e comunque noi siamo sempre stati una coppia rock'n'roll, anche prima di formare una band".
E come vi è venuto in mente il nome del gruppo?
"Cramp è una parola che in slang significa erezione. Ci piaceva qualche cosa che avesse risvolti sessuali, ma in realtà volevamo un nome che assomigliasse a The Kinks".
La svolta arriva con la scena newyorchese e il Cbgb che a quel tempo ospitava i Ramones, ma anche i Television, piuttosto che i Talking Heads e i Blondie. Ai nostri sembrò un'idea vincente proporre il rockabilly nella Grande Mela, dove in effetti questo genere non aveva di sicuro lo stesso appeal che invece mostrava nella provincia. Ed è li che esordiscono, con due chitarristi e... niente basso. Oggi sembra quasi una moda. E i Cramps da parecchio tempo non adottano più questa soluzione un po' radicale. Meglio una band col basso o senza?
"Meglio i Cramps. Noi abbiamo sempre dettato il ritmo. Gli altri sono solo venuti dietro".

Qui in Italia vedervi suonare senza basso di spalla ai Police fu uno shock. E vi siete presi un sacco di insulti. Come fu la tournee?
"Per noi fu una grande esperienza. Ma non abbiamo niente di divertente da raccontare. Sono passati anche troppi anni".
Da parecchio tempo, tuttavia, Lux e Ivy, hanno lasciato New York per far ritorno in California. Come mai questa scelta?
"Volevamo diventare minatori! No... in realtà siamo persone a cui piace starsene per i fatti loro e New York non era semplicemente il posto giusto".
Siete sempre stati innamorati dei vecchi dischi ed avete contribuito alla riscoperta di tanti artisti del passato. Ma c'è qualche gruppo attuale che vi piace ascoltare?
"Possiamo dirti i dischi che abbiamo acquistato di recente: Dexter Romwebber, Hank Williams 3 e Johnny Cash".
Com'è vivere negli Usa al giorno d'oggi? Un sacco di musicisti esprimono parecchio sdegno per l'amministrazione Bush...
"Un sacco di musicisti farebbero meglio a concentrarsi di più sul rock'n'roll".
E i vostri progetti futuri?
"Causare problemi e divertirci... per ancora molto tempo".

Be Nice to Mommy - ottobre 2003
(Le foto dei Cramps all'Indipendent sono di Luigi Bagatella per Pogopop)

Rick

By Chuck Miller

Lux Interior was the sort of person who invited the most outlandish rumor and speculation about his personal life. Which is ironic, since he was probably considerably more stable than most of his fans-- this reporter included. I mean, how many people do you know who stay married to the same person for 37 years because they really want to? I am just now getting around to slogging through everything that has been written about his life and death since February. I just did not have the heart for it through the spring and summer. But there's something about the Fall that makes things easier, or at least more tolerable. It's almost October, and that means Lux's birthday, my birthday and Halloween. Time to buck up and take a look. I discovered, not surprisingly, an early rumor that Lux was a victim of autoerotic asphyxiation. I suppose the heroin overdose he was rumored to have died of in the 1980s was no longer sensational enough. I'm only surprised the rumor mill stopped there. It is fortunate indeed that he didn't live near a horse ranch in Seattle.

I'm a displaced Akronite myself. A little too young to have had firsthand knowledge of the Mad Daddy or Ghoulardi (though I was a huge fan of his successor, the Ghoul), but some of the other cultural (if that's the right word) icons (if that's the right word) that went into the crucible that produced Lux were still there. I actually lived in Cuyahoga Falls, which was right next to Lux's hometown of Stowe. For a few years there, we probably lived within five or six miles of one another.
And I, too, ended up playing in a band that was an homage to my inspirations-- in this case, the Cramps. I did not come up with a stage name, but I had this person in me that only came out on a stage in a club late at night, and it's a damn good thing. This person would do or say absolutely anything. He wasn't me, and yet he was. Possibly he was more me than the one who walked by day.
And I did not consciously invent him. More like I discovered him living down in my basement, so to speak. Which makes sense, when you consider the fact that most of us spend about 90 percent of our time refraining from doing whatever it is we REALLY want to do.
So, you can see that I'm not saying the Lux Interior stage persona was a phony, or even that it was artifice as such. In many ways, I suppose it was the purest distillation of what Erick Lee Purkhiser really was. However, it was a more complex and abstract creation than most people ever realized. Many observers took Lux's stage persona at once too seriously and not seriously enough, without really understanding just what they were seeing, and they got it hopelessly confused with the man behind it. Which it both was and was not.

As with most great fiction, it was closer to the truth than mere reality; it was authentic on a level the "real world" seldom reaches. And it is perfectly consistent with the man who was known and loved by his family and friends.

Now do you understand?

-- Chuck Miller

Sibling recalls Lux Interior, punk icon

Mike Purkhiser remembers artistic, music-loving brother who was a great inspiration

By Malcolm X Abram
Beacon Journal music writer
http://www.ohio.com/entertainment/enjoy/39447632.html#

To a couple of generations of music fans, he was Lux Interior, lead singer for campy punk and rockabilly icons the Cramps, seldom seen without his guitarist and wife of 37 years, Poison Ivy.

But to Mike Purkhiser, Lux Interior was just Rick, his older brother by nine years (their eldest brother Ron, 67, lives in Florida) and friend.

Mike Purkhiser, a musician who played with the Action and the Walking Clampetts and is currently sound engineer for Beatles tribute band 1964, remembers the man behind the patent leather pants and mascara. Lux Interior, who was 62, died Feb. 4 of a pre-existing heart condition at a hospital in Glendale, Calif.

Purkhiser remembers the young man who used to watch, listen and absorb the antics of Ernie ''Ghoulardi'' Anderson and Pete ''Mad Daddy'' Myers, the talented artist who always loved music and shared it with his younger sibling, though not always with the most noble intentions.

''He always had a lot of records, and when I was a kid, I was always coming up in his room and I'm sure I was pestering him, so he would make me promise that if I could be quiet for 24 hours, he'd give me a record,'' Purkhiser said.

''And I'd think, 'Man, that's a really good deal, I don't have to say nothing and I'll get a record?' And it didn't dawn on me until years later when I thought 'Damn him, he was just trying to get me to shut up for a day.' I did get a lot of records,'' he said laughing.

Purkhiser says all three brothers shared a dark sense of humor.

''Rick was definitely the one into Ghoulardi and Mad Daddy, and basically what the Cramps became is what he was into his whole life,'' he said.

When Rick left Akron for California in the late '60s, he was still an artist, while Mike was already playing guitar in bands. Mike recalls a letter he received from Rick.

"Basically he said 'I want to do what you're doing, I want to play in a band and make music like you do,' '' he said.

"And I thought that was pretty cool because I always knew him as an artist and as a music lover but not as a musician or performer.''

While in California, Rick met Ivy, and in 1973 the new couple moved back to Akron while deciding what to do with themselves. They worked odd jobs, saw movies and concerts at the Akron Civic Theatre and scoured garage sales and flea markets for rare albums and 45s. They would bring their finds to the family home and excitedly listen to the new vinyl treasures.

When Mike Purkhiser thinks of his brother, he says he thinks of both Rick and Lux, because Erick Lee Purkhiser and Kristy Wallace were Lux Interior and Poison Ivy for so long and the personas were so strong, most folks probably think the pair went grocery shopping in leather pants and 6-inch stilettos, or slept hanging upside-down like vampire bats. But though they wrote kitschy, provocative songs such as All Women Are Bad and Beat Out My Love, the couple's love for each other was more storybook romance than horror movie.

''They seemed very much like soulmates,'' Purkhiser said. ''They just loved each other, they were always seen together and they might have had disputes between the two of them, but I never heard them say a bad word about each other the way some couples do.''

During that transitional time, the pair started the Cramps, and Purkhiser recalls watching early rehearsals with drummer Miriam Linna shortly before they moved to New York and joined the punk scene centered around CBGB's. Though Purkhiser doesn't remember the first time he saw the Cramps onstage, he fondly recalls his band, the Action, playing a few gigs with them at the fabled club in 1977. Interior's wild stage antics managed to shock even the hardened NYC punk crowd, though Purkhiser was less surprised.

''It was so Ghoulardi, so Mad Daddy, it was that whole kind of schtick and I knew that was what Rick was all about and Ivy, too. So that didn't surprise me. The music surprised me because it was so raw, and I was the Beatles fan and he was the Stones fan, he liked the raw stuff. But later I realized what it was all about — it was about the feeling and the emotion just like those early records were. They weren't really doing anything too different than the early rockabilly or blues records, they just put their own twist on it,'' he said.

Mike Purkhiser said his brother and sister-in-law never aspired to be rock stars but were wholly dedicated to the rockin' beast they created.

''I think if they never got any notoriety out of it and they were just bound to play basements the rest of their lives, they would have been happy doing that. It wasn't about the money or about the fame. They just wanted to play rock 'n' roll.''

Purkhiser says it's hard to believe his big brother is actually gone.

''I was his first fan. He was pretty much preaching the rock 'n' roll gospel at a young age, like 'listen to this record' or 'listen to that record,' and I just always looked up to him,'' he said.

''I just thought he was the greatest, he was so inspiring and so alive. It's hard to think of him as dead right now because he was so alive. It just seems like he was somewhere else right now. And it's the same with Ivy, I swear I never heard those two down,'' he said.

Purkhiser said Rick and Lux were two sides of the same coin, and he has found some comfort in reading the many comments online praising his brother and the band for touching fans' lives. But while he knows the most indelible images of his brother will always be Lux Interior writhing on the floor in black leather briefs or hopping like a bunny on speed while singing to mental patients at Marin County Hospital (a popular video on YouTube) while Ivy bangs out three-chord rock, he also hopes people realize that underneath all the makeup, leather and B-movie schtick were two real people.

Purkhiser said that when he would take friends to meet Lux and Ivy, they would usually assume they were going to step into a horror-movie funhouse where the pair would play the creepy hosts. But unfailingly, those folks would come back and tell Purkhiser how surprised they were that the two were so ''normal.''

''They were so kind and so down to earth, and you'd expected that when you went to see them it would be some kind of horror show or they would act real creepy. But they were just very, very genuine people.''

1997 CRAMPS interview- free MP3 download:
http://www.toazted.com/interview/1191/The-Cramps.html


Erick Lee Purkhiser (October 21, 1946 – February 4, 2009), better known as Lux Interior, was an American singer and a founding member of the legendary garage punk band The Cramps from 1976 until his death in February 2009. Born in Akron, Ohio, he grew up in the Akron and Stow, Ohio area. He met his wife Kristy Wallace, better known as Poison Ivy, a.k.a. Ivy Rorschach, in Sacramento in 1972, allegedly while she was hitchhiking. The couple founded the band and moved from California to Ohio in 1973 and then to New York in 1975 where they became part of the flourishing punk scene. Lux Interior's name came "from an old car commercial", having previously flirted with the names Vip Vop and Raven Beauty, while his wife's name change was inspired by "a vision she received in a dream". The couple called their musical style psychobilly, originally claiming it to have been inspired by a Johnny Cash song, and later saying that they were just using the phrase as "carny terms to drum up business." Lux Interior died at 4:30 a.m. on February 4, 2009, in Glendale, California. The cause of death was aortic dissection. He is survived by his wife Ivy and two brothers, Michael Purkhiser and Ronald "Skip" Purkhiser. The memorial service for Lux was held on February 21st at the Windmill Chapel of the Self-Realization Fellowship Lake Shrine. This was a very private ceremony but a report of it, agreed to by Ivy, has been posted for fans of Lux by long time friend Jonny Whiteside. Lux's brother, Mike, also provided insight into his relationship with Lux in a newspaper article. (Wikipedia)

Aortic dissection is a tear in the wall of the aorta that causes blood to flow between the layers of the wall of the aorta and force the layers apart. Aortic dissection is a medical emergency and can quickly lead to death, even with optimal treatment. If the dissection tears the aorta completely open (through all three layers), massive and rapid blood loss occurs. Aortic dissections resulting in rupture have an 80% mortality rate, and 50% of patients die before they even reach the hospital. If the dissection reaches 6 cm, the patient must be taken for emergency surgery.



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