Fur (Jennifer) Dixon - Songwriting, singing, rhythm guitar. Bands: the Whirlybirds & the Screamin' Sirens (1983), Hollywood Hillbillys (1984-86) the Cramps (1986), the Dixons (1987-1989). Solo in 1990. Joined up with Steve Werner in 2003.
BASS GUITARFUR THEN, 1986, Belgium-- on tour with the Cramps
FUR NOW (right) with partner Steve Werner
Fur Dixon and Steve Werner Hailing from Van Nuys, California, but equally at home anywhere under the western sky, well-traveled California folk favorites Fur and Steve will take you on a rollicking musical joyride through the back roads and highways of the American West. Known for their dazzling two-part harmonies, their spectacular yodeling, awesome guitar picking, wise-cracking humor all serve to compliment their old and new-timey traveling songs.
Steve Werner - Vocals, Travis and flat pick style guitar, songwriter. Previous bands: the Mentones-1983 This Train-1987 the Avengers-1989 Steve Werner and the Sleepwalkers-1991 Throughout the 90's: bandleader and rockabilly guitarist for Glen Glenn, Johnny Legend, Tony "Wildman" Conn, Ray Campi, Sonny Burgess, Jimmy Angel, Tommy Sands and Jewel Akins. 2001 released album "Biker Campfire" acoustic biker folk songs, available on CD Baby and I-Tunes.
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.
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)
(Not a terribly original title, I know. But what the hell else was I gonna call it?)
By Chuck Miller September 24, 2009
Like a lot of people I know, I took the death of Lux Interior pretty hard. The thing about Lux is, you either GET him or you don't. In order to really GET him, you have to be a certain kind of person, and there just ain't that many of us. If you're reading this at all, chances are you know exactly what I'm talking about. To say that Lux was my favorite singer would be like a Christian saying Jesus was their favorite guy that got nailed up on a cross. Technically true, but missing almost all of the emotional subtext.
We mourn his passing, and rightly so, for he was a rare bird whose like will never be seen again.
But leave us always remember and never forget: What Lux was to a set of vocal chords, Ivy was/is to an electric guitar.
The Cramps without Lux Interior would be like Elvis Presley without Elvis Presley. However, as Lux himself knew full well, there is no "I" in Cramps but if there were, it would stand for "Ivy." That doesn't make much sense, but sense is not what I'm shooting for. I'm trying, in the most roundabout way possible, to say that the Cramps were, essentially, a duo. Drummers and bassists and second guitarists could come and go-- and there were some great ones-- but in order to have the Cramps, you hve to have Lux AND Ivy.
Now, we only have Ivy. And we must continue to cherish her. The Cramps are no more and will never be again. But we still have a kick-ass nasty red-headed guitar heroine by the name of Poison Ivy Rorschach.
Back in about 1990, I had the very great good fortune to interview Poison Ivy for a little entertainment paper I worked for at the time. When I say "little," I mean just that. It was extremely local, given away for free at libraries, laundromats, college campuses, etc., in Mobile Alabama. Not exactly Vanity Fair, it was almost as prestigious as the Thrifty Nickel. Most of the writing was as boring and crappy as the small, parochial "music scene" it covered. (I also played guitar in a band called the Church of the Chainsaw, which might just as well have been a Cramps tribute band.)
So, I had a grandiose idea. I was going to try and get an interview with someone who was actually famous. I selected a few artists I really liked and wrote to their record companies or publicists. The Cramps, of course, were on the list. The very top, in fact. Some time went by and I heard nothing from anyone, which I had more or less expected. I had almost forgotten the whole business when one day, while I was at work, the phone rang. I answered, a female voice asked to speak to Chuck Miller, I admitted I was him. The caller said, "This is Poison Ivy of the Cramps."
Since reaching adulthood, I have never once shit in my pants. But if I had, that would have been it. I knew It was not a joke because any of my friends would know that they'd be signing their own death warrant with such a stunt. I got my shit together, got a tape recorder, and we talked for more than an hour. It was the highlight of my journalistic career, if not my whole fucking life. I wish I still had that tape.
Another thing I've never done is have a religious experience, but, again, that came very close.
I have interviewed a few more celebrities since then, but that was the only time I ever came away from it feeling that I had just talked with someone who genuinely appreciated my interest and who thought I was just as important as she was.
Years later, I got to meet both Lux and Ivy face-to-face, for all of about 15 seconds, at a club in New Orleans while they were making their way to the stage. I seriously doubt she actually remembered me, but she very sweetly pretended that she did.
I always had the impression that Ivy was the brains of the outfit. But not in a creepy Colonel Tom kind of way. More like an "I know that what we are doing is some incredibly great and unique shit, and I intend to take good care of it" way. She built and maintained the framework that allowed Lux to be the magnificent beast that he was. She was his foundation. Had there not been an Ivy, right now there might be only a handful of people mourning the death of that weird old Mister Purkhiser who ran that used record store out by the airport. Would young Eric ever have found the freedom to gleefully bounce around nearly naked on a stage in a pair of high heels? Maybe, maybe not. And had he not, how much poorer our lives would have been.
Now, I am not seriously suggesting that anyone here is likely to forget or even discount her. But with everything that has been written about Lux, a lot of it by me, I want to take the opportunity, now that some time has passed, to express my gratitude, admiration and appreciation to the Cramps' other half.
I have a friend in California with three daughters, all under the age of 15. They are lucky kids indeed because they all got to see the Cramps in 2006. The youngest was less than a year old. The two older girls were enthralled with Ivy. She touched something deep inside them. There is still a lot more sexism in the music world than anyone wants to admit. There are a few basic molds into which most female performers squeeze themselves. There are way more Pussycat Dolls than there are Girlschools or Runaways. Where can a young girl look to find a guitar heroine of her own? Not many places. But one of those places was the stage before which those girls stood on that day. And they will carry that with them for the rest of their lives.
IVY on MEETING LUX:
"We met in 1974 in college in Sacramento, California. Under the guise of the Art Department there were classes like "Art and Shamanism," which was really a study of amanita muscaria; the textbook was The Sacred Mushroom and the Cross. The class was real loose; the teacher would ask you, "What grade do you want, an A?" He would gravitate toward certain students and invite them to "heavier" classes at his home--he had this fabulous spread. Lux and I met in his class, although actually we met hitchhiking. We talked and discovered we were going to see each other again in this teacher's class. Actually, the first kiss was in this instructor's house--we'd taken mushrooms, I think." (From Incredibly Strange Music Vol. I)
Poison Ivy- Kristy Wallace (born Kristy Marlana Wallace February 20, 1953, San Bernardino, California), better known as Poison Ivy (or Poison Ivy Rorschach), is a founding member of the American garage punk band The Cramps. Wallace was married to Cramps' singer Lux Interior (Eric Purkhiser), with whom she had been for 37 years, until his death on February 4, 2009. Instruments played: guitars, echo-theremin. The band was formed when Lux Interior and Poison Ivy met during a college course on art and shamanism. The name originated in a dream and was initially "Poison Ivy Rorschach", the Rorschach referring to the Rorschach ink-blot test, however over the years it has been contracted to plain and simple "Poison Ivy". Her stage persona is best defined by as being the bad-girl vixen from next door; this is underlined by the sexually explicit cover-art which she has frequently posed for the band's albums. (Wikipedia)
From the KILLER KITTENS FROM BEYOND THE GRAVE Blog: http://killer--kittens.blogspot.com/2009/02/happy-birthday-poison-ivy-rorschach.html February 20, 2009-- A very special baby girl was delivered unto this Earth in Sacramento, California on this day in 1953. The babe's parents named her Kristina Marlana Wallace, but you can call her Poison Ivy.
Poison Ivy Rorschach is easily one of the hottest women in music. For the last 3 decades, she has been rockin' n' shockin' onstage with psychobilly pioneers The Cramps, alongside her larger than life husband, Lux Interior. Sadly, when Lux departed this mortal coil on February 4, 2009, he took the future of The Cramps with him. Now that the irreplaceable frontman is gone (but never forgotten), the amplifiers have fallen silent, the drum beat no longer keeps time, and the adoring fans stand perfectly still before the stage.
Thank gods for the 15 album legacy The Cramps were thoughtful enough to leave behind.
Bonne fête, Poison Ivy... Rock n' Roll Goddess.
AN INTERVIEW WITH IVY FROM http://www.geocities.com/jackyardbackoff/ivyguitarinterview.html
Stay Sick!, the first Cramps album to come near the mainstream, positively slithers with the procreante urge. Poison Ivy's distorted rockabilly riffs cover Lux Interior's monstrous, monotone vocals like cool Calamine, maximum reverb and tremolo, please. While Lux lampoons images of smoking poodles, drag racers on acid, and women swimmin' in chilli, Poison Ivy plays the straightwoman, creating 50s-approved guitar parts that pay tribute to the likes of Link Wray, Paul Burlison, and friends. Seldom has psychobilly been so appealingly packaged.
The Cramps finally seem to be crossing over into the mainstream.
Or are they crossing over to us?
Has your image or over-the-top performances style caused you trouble?
Not too much. Not anymore than most bands. In fact, lately not too much at all. We used to get in fights and stuff; people tried to pick fights with us. We haven�t been arrested . I think we've been pretty fortunate. It's great that this band has been a success for us on whatever level its been at. I don't think Lux and I can do anything else (laughs). I'm not sure we're even employable doing something else, so it's good we're allowed to do it.
Has your audience evolved?
Every time we play there are newer, younger people. When we started out in New York at CBGB's and Max's Kansas City, fixtures would always be at the show, but since then its changed. I actually see more variety at our shows than I do at other people's shows. I think there's these facets that reach different kinds of people. Some people like us for the instrumental aspects and someone else will like us because we're dangerous or scary.
How do your shows compare to the records?
They're different. Some people think that we don't get that thing we have live onto our records, and I don't agree. They'd feel different if they heasrd a tape of a show which I do a lot of times, because we tape all our shows. They don't always sound that great, and I think people get confused by the visual things that are going on. You have to be there. But when they talk about the wild aspect not being on the record, I think they're just wrong. They're just remembering how they felt, or maybe they were loaded at the show when all that stuff was going on. It's different. It's not sloppier live, but even if we play the same songs every night, they're never the same way twice. I suppose with recording, we do try to concentrate on the ultimate arrangement, the ultimate impact.
Do you record live? Some songs on the new album had to be recorded live - Muleskinner Blues, Shortnin Bread and Her Love Rubbed Off couldnt be recorded any other way because of the way we have to interact with each other and Lux singing. Other ones, though, were tracked with drums and bass first, although we do that together. We try to track the rythym together; it makes it easier to record songs.
Where did your idea of the marrige of rockabilly and punk originate?
Well we didn't think of it as that; others call it that. What happened was that Lux and I were living in Ohio, just finding wild records. At the time, the only way you could find rockabilly was on the original 45s; there weren't any reissues of it. We were finding some incredible records around the Akron area because a lot of people from the South had moved up North to work in the factories and dumped their records. So we were hearing all this stuff, and at the same time there were contemporary bands we liked. We loved the New York Dolls and the Stooges, so we were excited by that. We had boring jobs, we were taking speed, and with the combination of those things, we ended up going to New York. There was no place in Ohio where you could have an original band, and we knew that CBGBs was starting to happen. We even bought a P.A. -- we thought you needed to own your own P.A. in New York. I mean we didn't know anything about having a band. We'd written songs, so we got together with several various configurations before we actually played CBGBs. When we moved to New York, we saw the Ramones several times and it was all a combination of our excitement. We knew that rockabilly and the kind of music we were listening to was what everybody in the world wanted to hear! At the same time we were really moved and inspired by punk-rock bands that were happening in New York at the time. We didn't have any concept about putting it together; it just happened kind of naturally. Who we were was more out of control than some of the music we were listening to, and we were just shoved on in there.
What are the essential elements of the Poison Ivy sound?
Live it's always pretty much the same. My main live guitar is a 1958 Gretsch 6120 with the pre-patent Filter-Tron pickups. I play it through a Fender Pro Reverb with a blackface that's kind of unique - it has one 15� JBL that appears to have been done at the factory. I don�t know if someone had it custom ordered or what. I found it that way as a used amp. The big speaker sounds really great with that hollowbody guitar. I've started using a modern pedal, an Ibanez delay computer. It's pretty cool. And then I use two distortion units, A Univox Super Fuzz, that's the fuzz sound of the Cramps, and a pedal called (Tube Works) Real tube, whuich supposedly simulates overdrive, but it doesn't really. I don't use it on many songs.
Do you play any styles that might surprise your fans?
Not anything unusual, like, you know, classical.
You're not a closet bluegrasser?
Well, actually maybe some of the more country styles - you know some fingerpicking country that's not quite bluegrass. It's a simple, pure country style just when I'm foolin' around. I do straighter blues stuff too.
Do you practice?
I should. Not as much as I like. Most of the practice I get is onstage. Seems like I get spread thin doing other things. I'd be happy if all I did was play guitar, but I don't get an opportunity to. I'm not working on improving anything specific about my playing. I'm always listening to records and watching people. As I go along, things kind of become unveiled or revealed to me. After years of wondering what was gong on, things that seemed unfathomable sometimes become clear. It's kind of fun, and I guess that happens with any guitar player. That's going to happen for the rest of my life.
Do you always have a guitar around at home?
Oh yeah. The one I have at home-- I never play it live-- is a 1952 Gibson ES295. It's gold guitar and even has ivy on the pickguard. It's that famous Ersel Hickey guitar that everyone copies for the classic rock profile. It's a really great guitar. The neck is hard for me to play; it's really big and bulky, but it's a great-sounding guitar.
What's the best way to get a visceral tone in the studio? Mainly just try to get the recorded sound as close to what you're gonna want it to be before you mix, just through miking it. I play loudly on really small amps; almost the whole Stay Sick album was recorded on a Valco amp from 1959 or '60. This one has a tiny 10' speaker. The less processing the better.
You seem to have a tougher sound this time.
Yeah, well it worked (laughs).
Where did rockabilly guitar come from?
Oh, God, I don't know. I don�t know why rock and roll even happened. I mean, it was a product of the '50s, even though people will argue it was invented in the '20s and '30s. Well, it wasn't. It was a phenomenom of the '50s. I don't know if it had something to do with the atom bomb or Sputnik or what. I just think people were thinking really big. Electric guitar came to life in the '50s. It was just like dynamite in the hands of these players who were mainly teenagers. They were capturing electricity, making this music out of it. Have you ever seen this movie, Carnival Rock? James Burton is backing up both David Houston and Bob Luman, who were both Louisiana acts. Burton is just a kid, but oh, man, he's incredible.
Besides Cliff Gallup, James Burton, and Scotty Moore, who are some of the must-hear 50s cats? Link Wray. Even though he's known, he's not credited well enough. He had the most apocalyptic, monumental sound I ever heard-- real emotional and so simple and so violent. That stands for rock and roll, which is supposed to be violent and dangerous, and have this dangerous sound. Ike Turner isn't that well-known for his guitar playing -- he's more known for his associations with Tina, I guess. But he had an incredibly wild, unique guitar style, and he was also responsible for being a producer and an A&R man in the '50s.
Have you encountered much sexism in the business?
Anything negative has been pretty much trivial, like, I go into a guitar store and they call me sweetheart and tell me how to hold the guitar. I actually haven't had any obstacles. The main thing that's been sexist, I guess, is that if I am recognized or credited, people will say I play as tough as a guy. In a way that's insulting, because for one thing, I play different. It's got nothing to do with guys. No guy taught me how to play. I taught myself. And you,d be surprised how much you can learn yourself, just listening to a lot of records and watching people play and hanging out with a lot of players, rather than having someone show you his cliched way of playing. Try something original. And I'm sure there's even something about being a girl that has an original flair to it, and women should try to allow that to come out in their playing. And that can be something pretty scary, too. People expect us to be timid, and it can be the other way around.
Do you do anything special to keep your sanity on the road?
FUR THEN, 1986, Belgium-- on tour with the Cramps
FUR NOW (right) with partner Steve Werner
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.
Ma com'è stato tornare in sala dopo tanti anni?
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?
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?
