Bio from Allmusic.com

by Mark Deming http://www.allmusic.com/cg/amg.dll?p=amg&sql=11:aifuxqw5ldte~T1 Conjuring a fiendish witches' brew of primal rockabilly, grease-stained '60s garage rock, vintage monster movies, perverse and glistening sex, and the detritus and effluvia of 50 years of American pop culture, the Cramps are a truly American creation much in the manner of the Cadillac, the White Castle hamburger, the Fender Stratocaster, and Jayne Mansfield. Often imitated, but never with the same psychic resonance as the original, the Cramps celebrate all that is dirty and gaudy with a perverse joy that draws in listeners with its fleshy decadence, not unlike an enchanted gingerbread house on the Las Vegas strip. The entire psychobilly scene would be unthinkable without them, and their prescient celebration of the echoey menace of first-generation rock & roll had a primal (if little acknowledged) influence on the rockabilly revival and the later roots rock movement. The saga of the Cramps begins in 1972 in Sacramento, CA, when LSD enthusiast and Alice Cooper fan Erick Purkhiser picked up a hitchhiker, a woman with a highly evolved rock & roll fashion sense named Kristy Wallace. The two quickly took note of one another, but major sparks didn't began to fly until a few weeks later, when they discovered they were both enrolled in a course on "Art and Shamanism" at Sacramento City College. These two lovebirds were soon sharing both an apartment and their collective enthusiasm for the stranger and more obscure sounds of rock's first era, as well as the more flamboyant music of the day. Their passion for music led them to the conclusion that they should form a band, and Kristy picked up a guitar and adopted the stage name Poison Ivy Rorschach, while future vocalist Erick became Lux Interior, after short spells as Raven Beauty and Vip Vop. Ivy and Lux hit the road for Ohio, and after living frugally in Akron for a year and a half, they made their way to New York City in 1975 in search of stardom. While working at a record store, Interior made the acquaintance of fellow employee Greg Beckerleg, who had recently arrived from Detroit and also wanted to form a band. Beckerleg transformed himself into primal noise guitarist Bryan Gregory, and even persuaded his sister to join the nascent combo as a drummer. However, Pam Beckerleg didn't work out on traps, and so Miriam Linna, an Ohio transplant who had gotten to know Lux and Ivy during their sojourn in the Buckeye State, finalized the first proper lineup of the band they called the Cramps. Between Ivy's twangy single-note leads, Bryan's shower-of-sparks reports of noise, Lux's demented banshee howling, and Miriam's primitive stomp, the Cramps didn't sound like anyone else on the budding New York punk scene, and the foursome soon began attracting both crowds and buzz with their shows at CBGB's and Max's Kansas City. After about a year of gigging in and around New York, Linna left the group (she would later co-found frantic cultural journal Kicks Magazine and exemplary reissue label Norton Records), and another former Ohioan, Nick Stephanoff (known to his fans as Nick Knox and previously a member of infamous Cleveland noise terrorists the Electric Eels) took over behind the drums, and this version of the Cramps released the group's first recordings, a pair of 7" singles recorded in Memphis with Alex Chilton as producer and issued by the band's own Vengeance Records label. In 1979, Miles Copeland signed the band to his fledgling new wave label I.R.S. Records, and their first 12" release was an EP featuring the material from their self-released singles, entitled Gravest Hits. That same year, the band traveled to Europe for the first time, playing as opening act for the Police and stealing the show from the peroxide-addled pop stars many nights. The Cramps returned to Memphis with Chilton to record their first full-length album, 1980's masterful Songs the Lord Taught Us, but what should have been a triumphant U.S. tour following its release was scuttled when Gregory unceremoniously quit the band by leaving unannounced with a van full of their equipment; at the time, a story circulated that Gregory left the Cramps to pursue an interest in Satanism, though in later interviews Lux and Ivy said there was no truth to these rumors and his actions were more likely the result of his addiction to heroin. Lux, Ivy, and Nick opted to move the band to Hollywood, CA, and recruited Gun Club guitarist Kid Congo Powers to take over as second guitarist in time to record their second long-player, Psychedelic Jungle. In 1981, the Cramps filed suit against I.R.S. Records over unpaid royalties; the court case prevented the band from recording new material for two years, and when they returned to America's record racks, it was with a live album, 1983's Smell of Female, recording during a pair of dates at New York City's Peppermint Lounge. Kid Congo amicably parted ways with the band shortly afterward, and the search for the right record company kept the Cramps out of the studio until the U.K.-based Big Beat label released the ultra-lascivious A Date With Elvis in 1986; while several guitarists had come and gone since Kid Congo, for these sessions Poison Ivy ended up overdubbing herself on bass. In 1987, the group finally found a simpatico bassist in the form of tough gal Candy Del Mar, whom Lux and Ivy met in the parking lot of a liquor store. Del Mar made her recorded debut on the live album Rockin n Reelin in Aukland New Zealand, and she was still on board when the Cramps finally signed a U.S. record deal with Enigma Records and recorded the fine and full-bodied Stay Sick! in 1990. Only a year later, the Cramps were back with a new studio album, Look Mom No Head!, but in a surprising move Nick Knox had left the band, and was replaced by Jim Sclavunos; after Jim's short tenure with the group, Nickey Beat (aka Nicky Alexander, former timekeeper with the Weirdos) took over the drum throne before one Harry Drumdini signed on. Less startlingly, Candy Del Mar was also out of the lineup, replaced by Slim Chance, a one-time member of the Mad Daddys. Harry and Slim joined Lux and Ivy in 1994 for the Cramps' first major-label album, Flamejob, released by the Warner Bros.-distributed Medicine imprint. As usual, much touring followed, and the band even made an appearance on the popular youth-centric soap opera Beverly Hills 90210 in 1995. The Cramps' major-label period proved to be brief, with Cal-punk indie label Epitaph inking a deal with the group to release 1997's Big Beat from Badsville, which featured the same lineup as Flamejob. In 2001, Lux Interior and Poison Ivy Rorschach celebrated the 25th anniversary of the Cramps by taking the matters of record-making into their own hands; they revived the long-dormant Vengeance label and reissued their entire post-I.R.S. album catalog (except for Flamejob) on expanded and remastered CDs and colored vinyl LPs. A new Cramps album followed in 2003, Fiends of Dope Island, which (of course) featured yet another personal change, with Chopper Franklin becoming the band's latest bassist. And with the Cramps continuing their unholy mission well into the 21st century, they offered their fans a look back with 2004's How to Make a Monster, a collection of rare live material and demos.

WE GOT A DATE-- a Sit-Down With the Haze

Madison Madman: Hasil Adkins

by Deuce of Clubs

(First published in Planet Magazine, Aug. 1, 1995)

http://www.deuceofclubs.com/write/adkins.htm

"An American original"—the appellation is an overused one, but Hasil "The Haze" Adkins could have occurred nowhere other than the dark woods of West Virginia. It's impossible to imagine Adkins' screaming vocals, frantic guitar style, and freewheeling approach to rhythm emanating from any other corner of the world. The wonder of the Adkins sound—preserved for future generations in the form of rough recordings made at his Madison, West Virginia home during the 50s and 60s— becomes even more amazing when you learn that Adkins plays all the instruments on his recordings—all at the same time.

Perhaps only The Legendary Stardust Cowboy—another one-man band- -approaches Hasil's manic style, but Adkins is so altogether unique as to comprise a backwoods genre unto himself: sooey generis, you might say. When The Cramps covered Adkins' best known song, "She Said," Lux Interior reportedly had to stuff styrofoam cups into his mouth to get anywhere near Adkins' vocal sound. (Sometimes, Adkins says, people pay him not to play "She Said.")

Not that Hasil (rhymes with "hassle," not "hazel") is always wild; some of his best stuff is contained on the Norton LP Moon Over Madison, a collection of mostly melancholy songs sung with passionate sincerity.

Adkins' act has constituted one-half of some of the strangest double-bills in rock and roll history. One of the strangest (yet most appropriate) was when Hasil opened for Public Image, Ltd. I asked what John Lydon had thought of him. "He liked me. He seemed to like everything." That's Hasil Adkins—not an unkind word about anyone—not even Johnny Rotten. (And not even when personally and viciously attacked—by, for example, shlockmeister Sting.)

A documentary film, The Wild and Wacky World of Hasil Adkins, is due for release this fall, one of two upcoming films to feature the inventor of the Slop, the Hunch, and the Chicken Walk.

Deuce of Clubs: How did you come up with your sound? It's so different from anything else I've ever heard.

Hasil Adkins: What I done, I learnt to play, you know, by myself and everything, and I just, you know...well, what I'm doin is, you know, what's in my mind and stuff. I don't—what it is, I don't play to no beat, you know, like 2-, 4-beat, or 6-, 8-, or 12 & all that. You know. Ain't nobody can play with me. You know, I just play what's in my mind, you know. Change when I get ready, go up and down. I've tried a lot of bands, but you know, I can't do—well, in other words, if I go up they go down or somethin, if I go down they go up, so...

Sometimes I listen to your records and I think, How is he doing all that? So you're working the drums with your feet?

Do what now?

You're working the drums with your feet, then?

Yeah, I play drums, bass, & lead, & rhythm, harp—you know, harmonica—around your neck. I can play organ & piano with my elbows. I'm riggin' that up now. I can play about anything, but I gotta get it all rigged where I could get to it, you know, so I can play it all at the same time.

That's the thing I find hard to understand. For example, the song "The Slop"—

Do what now?

Your song, "The Slop."

Yeah?

You can hear the guitar playing, and then there's drums, and then there's also, sounds like, what is that—spoons? You're playing the spoons?

Yeah.

How do you have that rigged so you can do that all at one time?

Well, I just get it all, get it all close where I can get to all of it & everything, you know, at the same time. Put the harp around my neck, you know, then I play the lead. What I do, I play lead, rhythm, & I don't know how many different things on the guitar, and I play the drums, hi-hat—& I play 'em with my hands, too, at times, you know.

I read in Kicks magazine that there's a documentary film you're in.

Yeah, yeah.

Do you know what the name of that is?

It's The Wild and Wacky World of Hasil Adkins. They're gettin ready to start distributin' now. We worked on that, I don't know, they got a whole bunch they're comin out with, you know. The first one they're comin out with, I got some of it here now, but I guess it'll come out some time this Fall.

Who exactly is making that film?

Well, I think it was the whole [unintelligible] shop, one of the main ones. There's a whole bunch of 'em, on out in L.A. & Kentucky, uh, just different ones. But the main doin's of it is out in Kentucky. They're havin a time with distributin it, now. Course the ones wantin to distribute it, you know, are wantin too much money. But I think they got it worked out now, got it worked out where...it's out in Chicago, I can't think of the name, but there's a big distributor out there. They seen it & they wanna, you know, distribute it across the world & everything, get it out there where people can buy it & everything. If it would sell. They been workin on it for a while. But I think they got it straightened out now.

So is it pronounced hassle or hazel?

Hassle.

Oh, I thought it was Hazel, 'cos you're The Haze.

I know, everybody... nah, it's "hassel," what it is. Everybody call me—well, not everybody—most of 'em call me "Hazel," but I mean, you know, after they get to know me or seen me or somethin, why, you know, [I] tell 'em....

Ah. Cos you've got a brother named Basil—or is it "bassle"?

Do what now?

Your brother's named Basil or Bazel?

Uh, well, they call him both things, Basil & Bazel, but his real name's Basil. But they call him Bazel.

Okay. Now I also read somewhere that you had lectured at a college—where was that?

Do what now?

That you had given a lecture at a college.

Yeah, uh, in Louisville, Kentucky.

How did that come about?

That's when we was makin this video stuff. They went all over the place makin it. And they was wantin to know, at the college, how I got started playin and how do I do everything—you know, all that.

Was that a lot of fun?

Oh yeah, yeah. Kids wanna know everything, they did.

Do you still play live much?

Yeah. Well, I been workin here at home for a while now, I got a lot of [ ] stuff to do & everything. I could be workin 'bout eight nights, if I wanted to, but it gets old, you know, like that. I'm gonna play Charleston, I guess, Saturday night. Could be Friday Night. Friday or Saturday night, one of the two.

Wow, I wish I was out there! I'd like to see you play. So you going to be touring around any more, you think?

Oh yeah, yeah.

Think you're ever going to get out Arizona way again?

I just got back from Chicago ... huh?

You think you'll ever get out Arizona way?

Uh, yeah, they're workin on something, get out through Arizona, and I think San Francisco, L.A. I been to L.A., about a year ago now.

Wow, I wish I'd have known that.

Yeah. And I'm goin off of that, uh—well, this record'll be out pretty soon. I don't know what they're gonna call it yet. I.R.S. Records—you hearda them, ain'tcha? Miles Copeland?

I.R.S.? Yeah.

I cut about two albums for them.

Oh really? I only have your albums that were on Norton. Also a Dutch import.

Yeah. Well, I don't know, Capitol's gonna be—A&M Records, I know you know of them—them & I.R.S. Records, they all know each other, and get together, so they're gonna get—they'll put it over when they get it out. They been workin on it. So I went out there almost a year ago or somethin, cut, I mean, two or three albums' worth. So they been workin on it, you know, gettin it all...

Do you keep in touch with Miriam and Billy [from Kicks Magazine and Norton Records] at all?

Oh yeah, yeah, I talked to 'em, oh, I don't know, 'bout a week & a half ago, somethin like that.

How many songs have you written?

I got over 7,000 all the way written. I don't know just what now, 7,000-&-somethin. I got it marked down out to the house out there.

If you had to pick a favorite, what would it be?

It'd be hard. Well, they're gettin ready to come out with this one—well, it's been out, but it was, you know, way back, on a small label—a love song, "She's Gone," one of the first songs I ever wrote. The number six song I ever wrote, I wrote it way back when I was young. And if I had to pick, I would pick that. There's been so many. I like that "She Said," but ... there's so many to pick from.

Besides The Cramps, do you know of other bands who have recorded your songs?

Yeah, well there's been—I can't think of all of 'em, but I know you know of The Cramps.

Oh yeah.

And Percolators—you ever hear of them, outta Germany?

The Percolators, yeah.

They recorded "Chicken Walk." It's doin good, what they told me. They just come out with it. And there's been ... if I had all the names here, I don't know how many, there've been all kinds of groups, you know. Now there's another group, I don't know who they belong to, I can't think of their name. I know it but I can't, you know, it's hard...

What kind of guitar are you playing these days?

Yamaha.

How many guitars have you had over the years?

You mean how many I've got?

How many have you had altogether, do you think?

Oh Lord, I ... it'd be up in the thousands. I've got about forty now, forty-five, something like that.

What kind of equipment do you use to record yourself when you're playing at home?

Well, I've still got—have you heard of that movie they're comin out with, Tear It Up? They got Elvis, Carl Perkins, Chet Atkins, man, you name it, they got everybody! I guess it'll be out sometime this Fall with it. Honest, they come & interviewed me about six hours' worth. "We gonna want you in it!" you know. They gotta little bit of everybody in there. Well, the first tape recorder I had—that I recorded "She Said," you know, a lot of songs on that. I've got the same thing here now. Not the same one, but the same kind. Looks just like it & everything. 3M company made it. I been gettin all kinda mail from fans all over the world wantin me to record more at home. That's what I'm tryin to get done now. I bought me a trailer to tear it all out & put a studio in it, & I'm doin pretty good with it. I got a lot more to do to it, get it all lined up the way I want it. It's about a forty by ten trailer. Forty feet long, ten feet wide.

I have to ask you this: what exactly is "commodity meat?" What does that mean?

You mean commodity meat? Well, see, way back in the place of welfare, what they call it now, or "Human Services" & all that, you know, they changed all the names, but way back there they had that what they called the DPA—that's Dependent Children of Americans—and they used to give out, well, peanut butter, commodity meat, you know, the government give it out, commodity is what it was. Surplus stuff from the Army men, or all that kinda thing when they got back [after World War II], and they would give so much of that out every month for the people that's on welfare—well, it ain't welfare, now, but what it was, same thing, only different name. And they would give 'em so much, like, powdered milk, powdered eggs, & cheese, & peanut butter, commodity meat, uh, I don't know, just a little bit of everything. But that commodity meat is good, man!

Is it beef, or what?

Uh, you eat it.

No, I mean is it beef, or pork, or what?

Oh, it was pork, and...I think they had two different cans, I think one of 'em was beef and one of 'em was pork.

Is it kind of like Spam?

Yeah, yeah. Somethin similar to that. But that beef was something like the old-timey barbecues used to buy, you know, the barbecue sandwich. It taste just like you couldn't tell it. I mean, it looked just like it & everything. To me it's just like that barbecue they used in the real stuff, they made it. It was good. Real good!

It's interesting that you bring up barbecue, because what we do in every issue of our magazine, we have some famous person give us a barbecue recipe. Do you have a barbecue recipe you could tell me?

No, I, uh...I like all kinds of barbecue stuff, you know. But I got no recipes for ya.

How about if you make one up? You know, how you fool around with human heads, and that kind of stuff?

Oh yeah. Well, I'm workin on more of them now. Like "This Ain't No Rock & Roll Show," or "I Need Your Head," or, you know, "We Got A Date." Stuff like that?

Yeah!

I really made them up back in the fifties for a joke, you know, kinda all us kids runnin around together, you know, girls & boys & stuff. I don't know, I just had the recording stuff set up, so I just done it, really, for, you know, just bein doin somethin, you know, have somethin to do. And then they took off, man, they loved it! I get letters, I got letters from every place in the world, man. So if they like 'em that good, you know.... Every place I go & sing 'em—I just got back from Chicago a couple weeks ago, put a show on over there, it went over great out there. I had to do one of 'em out there, & people tell, you know, what they think of it, how they like it, & any of them songs with screamin' & hollerin', all that stuff, "cut your head off"—they love that! I really done that, you know, really, just to be doin somethin, 'cos back when I was young, all us girls & boys, we'd get together at night & run around along about ten, eleven o'clock at night, until. From about four or five in the evenin. And we all played, screwy things, you know, jokes & stuff. I just picked it up, a little bit from here & there, and sat down a-doin it just to be doin it. I never meant to put 'em out or anything. But after it got to Europe & then they wanted to put 'em out, & then after the people went & buy 'em, they wanted more of 'em. I've got a lotta them I made up back then, & then I've gotta lot I made up now. From the way they're goin with them, I got stuff what's fifty times worse than what they are! So they really should like the others coming in behind 'em!

© Deuce of Clubs

---

See also: Crapmaster Sting attacks Hasil Adkins in print

You can still get Hasil Adkins recordings from Norton Records, Box 646 Cooper Station, NY, NY 10003.

Selected Hasil Adkins recordings are also available at Amazon.

02/22/98: Now The Haze has an official place on the Web: http://members.tripod.com/~Hasil_Adkins/

04/09/98: And here's more words of the man himself http://www.yall.com/music/hasil/

Later still: Here's Wagner carousing with Hasil at the Rhythm Room.

NO MORE HOT DOGS

Hasil Adkins (pronounced "Hassle," not "Haysil") (April 29, 1937 – April 25, 2005) was an Appalachian country, rock and roll, and blues musician, though he was frequently considered rockabilly and sometimes primitive jazz. He generally performed as a one-man band, playing guitar and drums at the same time and singing. Hasil was equally skilled on the harmonica and on keyboard.
Nicknamed "The Haze", Adkins claimed a repertoire of over 9,000 songs including over 7,000 original compositions (though it has been said he has been known to have grossly exaggerated these figures), recorded scores of small, micro-label 45s, and is responsible for the birth of Norton Records, Psychobilly, and a dance called "The Hunch". His music can be sad, humorous, and/or frantic. He was well known for shrieking certain catchphrases, such as "hot dogs", "I want your head", and "AaaaaaaaaaaaaHeeeeeeeeeeee-Wooo!!!!"
Hasil Adkins made an appearance in the cult film Die You Zombie Bastards! as himself On April 15, 2005, Adkins was deliberately run over in his front yard by a teenager on an ATV. The perpetrator was apprehended by police (after running over another person a short distance down the road from Adkins' house), and Adkins identified him in a picture the police showed him. Ten days later, on April 25, Adkins was found dead in his home.

http://www.hasiladkins.com/




Hasil was born in Boone County, West Virginia, where he lived his entire life. Although many sources list 1937 as his year of birth, Hasil's official Web site states that the year of his birth is actually unknown, citing "a missing family Bible" that lists his birth as "April 29, 193?". He was the youngest of 10 children, and was both severely depressive and hyperactive. Growing up in a tarpaper shack on property rented from the local coal company, Hasil attended four days of school total and never really worked at anything other than being a musician. He would occasionally repair various items such as cars or washing machines and turn them over for some income. Hasil could fix just about anything he could lay his hands on. Hasil's neighbor was Jesco White, a.k.a. the Dancin' Outlaw from Boone County, an Elvis disciple who now openly acknowledges Hasil's influence.

Recurring themes in Adkins' work include love, heartbreak, "hunchin'", police, death, decapitation, hot dogs, aliens, and chickens. Adkins often noted in interviews that his primary heroes and influences were Hank Williams Sr., Jimmie Rodgers, Little Richard, and Col. Harlan Sanders, the inventor of Kentucky Fried Chicken.

Some of his best known songs are "She Said," "No More Hot Dogs," "My Blue Star," "The Hunch," "Beautiful Hills," "We Got A Date,", "Chicken Walk", "Sally Weedy Waddy Woody Wally".

Adkins recorded an entire album devoted to chickens entitled Poultry in Motion also including such songs as "Chicken Run", "Chicken Hop", "Chicken Flop", "Chicken Wobble", and "Chicken On The Bone". In addition to making many albums and CDs, Hasil Adkins also appeared in several movies and television shows. Adkins was also the subject of the Julien Nitzberg documentary "The Wild World Of Hasil Adkins", distributed by Appalshop.

After the mid-1990s, he began performing less often, though he retained his popularity with music critics and other celebrants of outsider music, such as Joe Coleman and John Zorn. Hasil Adkins had a strong influence on the band The Cramps, as well as the Flat Duo Jets, who have recorded Hasil. All three bands have played various shows together in different combinations. Adkins's cult status is kept alive to the present day by the growing appreciation of, and demand for, outsider music.

http://www.hasiladkins.com/biography.php
The year of Hasil Adkins' birth is unknown. The date recorded in a missing family Bible (April 29,193?) will probably remain a mystery. Hasil is actually the subject of a good deal of conjecture and myth, much of which is surprisingly true.

Hasil (pronounced "Hassle") was the youngest of 10 children of coal miner Wid Adkins and natural singer Alice Hale. He was born into severe poverty in the backwoods of Boone County, West Virginia with the great depression in full bloom. His early memories included plenty of hunger and not getting his first pair of shoes till four or five years old. He was schooled for all of four days.

At a very early age Hasil thought that musicians, like Jimmie Rodgers, on the radio played all the instruments themselves. He set out to do the same. He started beating on a milk can. The sound of him banging on that milk can aggravated his daddy. He told Hasil, "Son, go beat that thing out there at the chimney corner." which is where Hasil would sit for hours every day beating out rhythms on his milk can. Hasil worked his way up from a milk can to a four pound lard bucket, then an eight pound lard bucket. When his mommy was gone he would turn her washtub and dish pan into instruments, making music from anything available and learning to be the greatest One Man Band that ever lived.
Hasil saw his first guitar at a neighbor's house. He would go watch the man play for hours on end, completely mesmerized by the sounds and studying what the man was doing. He would wait for hours and days until the grown ups got drunk enough to agree to let him touch the guitar. That is how Hasil Adkins first got his hands on a guitar as a young boy. He fashioned his own guitars out of barbed wire and water buckets and such. His parents recognized his gift and saw it as a way for their son to escape life in the coal mines. The family saved up and finally were able to buy him a guitar when he was a teenager.

Hasil traveled the country for years playing honky tonks and bars, sent tapes of himself to every record label imaginable, and had several near misses with fame. He never wavered from his style, staying true to himself and his vision, arguably, inventing punk rock along the way. Some of his early singles he actually cut at home making him the first diy bedroom band. For several years Hasil stopped touring in order to stay home and take care of his mother, still recording and sending tapes all the while. He started his own publishing company and record label A.R.C. Records. Later the Cramps helped turn Hasil into an underground phenomenon when they covered his song, "She Said."

Hasil released 16 albums and 21 singles in the United States along with several demos and European releases. He wrote over 7,000 songs and knew about 2,000 cover songs. His live performances were simultaneously chaotic, graceful, and mesmerizing. Occasionally, Hasil would bring a guest to play with him for a song or two but no one could really keep up with him. That's why he always remained a one man band. During one session with a band, a musician asked Hasil "In what time is the song?" Hasil's only response was a scream.

Hasil Adkins was not a novelty act. He liked his wild, "Halloween" songs but was most proud of his country songs through which he could express his deepest feelings that speech could not. He was very complex and could be raw and primitive at times but also very spiritual, unschooled yet brilliant, always joking but quite serious. Hasil was as authentic and genuine a person as ever walked the earth. If he felt like getting happy and destroying your drum kit, he did it. If he felt serious, sad, quiet, and lonely, he would sing about that. If he wanted to eat ten pounds of tomatoes in one sitting, ten pounds of tomatoes would be eaten. Whatever Hasil did he did with sincerity and with complete abandon.

On April 16, 2005, Hasil was intentionally run down by someone on an ATV he had never seen before while on his back porch. The kid then went down the road and ran down someone else for good measure. Hasil survived the incident, identified him from a picture, and said he hoped the kid would only do 5 years or so, learn his lesson and still have a chance to do right in the world. We lost him 10 days later.

Throughout the history of music there have been a few originals and many imitators. Hasil Adkins is certainly among the most original of them all. He was a rare individual who carved out a completely new road from the wilderness and then burned the ground behind him making it nearly impossible for anyone to truly follow.

God Bless Hasil Adkins, may he finally Rest in Peace!

DISCOGRAPHY Part Two

(An asterisk * denotes a clickable link to something.)

THE CRAMPS contributed an original song-- Surfin' Dead-- to the soundtrack for the 1985 film "Return of the Living Dead," a sort-of-but-not-really sequel to George A. Romero's 1968 classic "Night of the Living Dead."

When a bumbling pair of employees at a medical supply warehouse accidentally release a deadly gas into the air, the vapors cause the dead to re-animate as they go on a rampage through Louisville, Kentucky seeking their favorite food, brains.

Starring Clu Gulager, Don Calfa, James Karen, Linnea Quigley, and a few hundred rotting cadavers. Directed by Dan O'Bannon.

In an unprecedented move, a fan of the film started an internet campaign to get the movie released on DVD. Going beyond simple fan petitions, Michael Allred created a web page consolidating every bit of news relating to the film, and contacted many of the film's principals including the writer and director Dan O'Bannon. He went on to put O'Bannon in touch with MGM (the studio that owned the film) and work began on getting the film released on DVD. O'Bannon and others who worked on the film credited Allred and his campaign for getting the movie released on DVD.

*"SURFIN' DEAD"

1986
A DATE WITH
"Mah bird can do the dawg, if yore pussy can!"

SIDE ONE

* 1 "How Far Can Too Far Go?"

* 2 "The Hot Pearl Snatch"

3 "People Ain't No Good"

4 "What's Inside a Girl?"

5 "Can Your Pussy Do the Dog?"

6 Kizmiaz

Take a magic carpet to the olden days. To a mythical land where everybody lays. Around in the clouds in a happy daze in Kizmiaz...Kizmiaz. Flamingos stand easy on bended knees. Palm trees wave over tropical seas of azure waves and lazy breeze in Kizmiaz...Kizmiaz. Over raspberry skies spires of the Shaz. Point to the heavens that this place has. You would swim all the way from Alcatraz to Kizmiaz...Kizmiaz. It lies on the horizon in a golden haze. No one believes their eyes the legend says. Held hypnotized in a frozen gaze on Kizmiaz...Kizmiaz. The vibrations kiss the ships would pass. Kizmiaz...Kizmiaz.

SIDE TWO:

1 Cornfed Dames


2 Chicken (Traditional; arr. by Interior and Rorschach)

Mike the Headless Chicken (April 1945 – March 1947), also known as Miracle Mike,[1] was a Wyandotte rooster that lived for 18 months after its head had been mostly cut off. Thought by many to be a hoax, the bird was taken by its owner to the University of Utah in Salt Lake City to establish its authenticity.
On September 10, 1945, farmer Lloyd Olsen of Fruita, Colorado, had his mother-in-law around for supper and was sent out to the yard by his wife to bring back a chicken. Olsen failed to completely decapitate the five-and-a-half month old bird named Mike. The axe missed the jugular vein, leaving one ear and most of the brain stem intact.[3][4] Despite Olsen's botched handiwork, Mike was still able to balance on a perch and walk clumsily; he even attempted to preen and crow, although he could do neither. After the bird did not die, a surprised Mr. Olsen decided to continue to care permanently for Mike, feeding him a mixture of milk and water via an eyedropper; he was also fed small grains of corn. Mike occasionally choked on his own mucus, which the Olsen family would clear using a syringe.
http://www.miketheheadlesschicken.org/index.php

3 (Hot Pool Of) Womanneed

4 Aloha from Hell

5 It's Just That Song (Charlie Feathers, Maupin)

A Date with Elvis is the seventh album by the American garage punk band The Cramps. It was released on Big Beat Records. It was recorded in the fall of 1985 and engineered by Steve McMillan and Mark Ettel at Ocean Way Studios Hollywood, CA. The Cramps reissued the album on their own Vengeance Records in 2001 with the bonus tracks "Blue Moon Baby" "Georgia Lee Brown" "Give Me A Woman" and "Get off the Road"
The album was dedicated to Ricky Nelson, who had a hit with the song "Lonesome Town", which was also covered by The Cramps and is available on their first EP Gravest Hits and compilation album ...Off the Bone. (WIKIPEDIA)

http://www.thetimes.co.za/PrintEdition/Magazine/Article.aspx?id=1054212
Jaxon Rice of the Diesel Whores chats to Caro Rayner about awkward times and his first grope
The one that made me go into music:
A DATE WITH ELVIS (The Cramps, 1986)
I always wanted to be a musician, but the album that inspired me most to really want to play music — and especially Rockabilly music — would be A Date With Elvis by The Cramps. It was the greatest live gig I’ve ever seen, that anyone ever played, and when Poison Ivy walked out onstage — she’s the female guitarist in The Cramps — my whole life changed totally and I could never play any other kind of music than the music I play today.


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_Date_with_Elvis_(The_Cramps_album)

1990
STAY SICK
Side one
* 1 "Bop Pills" (McNatt, Macy Skipper)

2 God Damn Rock & Roll

*3 "Bikini Girls With Machine Guns"


4


Are

Adam and eve, sittin' in the woods, eve said 'man i got somethin' real good - it's in that tree, you'll get smart fast!' adam said 'sure, satan my ass - i don't see no snakes but all women are bad'



[chorus:] all women are bad, all women are bad, that's what he said, all women are bad, groovy wiggly tails, horns on their head, all women are bad, all women are bad...

Samson and Delilah, talkin' bout groomin', delilah said 'sam, you don't look human!' took some scissors, went snip-snip, said 'now everybody's gunna think you're hip' sam felt his head and said 'all women are bad'

there's one with you, lookin' so sweet, but she's just a wolf dressed up like sheep, secret gadgets up under their clothes - stuff you hear about but nobody knows, and it ain't no use...all women are bad


save me the label of that perfume on the table, so i can remember what made a wreck of me
all women are bad, all women are bad, that's what he said, all women are bad, groovy wiggly tails, horns on their head, all women are bad, all women are bad...

*5 The Creature From the Black Leather Lagoon


* 6 "Shortnin' Bread"

Side two

1 Daisys Up Your Butterfly

2 Everything Goes

3 Journey to the Center of a Girl

4 Mama Oo Pow Pow

5 Saddle Up a Buzz Buzz

6 Muleskinner Blues (Jimmie Rodgers)

Stay Sick! is the ninth album by the American garage punk band The Cramps. It was released on Enigma Records. It was engineered by Steve McMillan and recorded at Music Finder, Hollywood California. It was self-produced by Poison Ivy. The Cramps re-released the album on their own Vengeance Records in 2001 containing the bonus tracks "Bikini Girls With Machine Guns" (live), "Beat Out My Love," "Jailhouse Rock" and "Jackyard Backoff."

CLICK ON ME TO GO TO PART THREE!