Supercharged Cramps Discography Part Two

Criswell here! Drop yer cocks and grab yer socks, fright fans! Time to quit yankin' yer cranks, and start groovin' with this ginchiest of guides to that phucking phantastic phenomenon that was and is and will be THE CRAMPS! Here, for your putrid perusal is PART TWO of the SUPER FUCKADELIC ELVIS FUCKING CRAMPS DISCOHAGIOGRAPHY! From the far reaches of mankind's filthiest restrooms, from the VERY LIMITS of the slatternly, inflamed, toadstool-infested atrocities of the nastiest, most damp and neglected corners of the babbling, blubbering, blistered human mind, we bring to you what can ONLY be described as "this right here."

So astounding is it that some of you may fart! Some of you may feel irresistibly compelled to sodomize the nearest domestic animal or shiny kitchen appliance! Go with that! Let it all hang out! Monsters to be pitied! Monsters to be despised! What the fuck am I talking about? I don't know, and neither will you! Are you ready to blow your minds? A mind is a wonderful thing to blow, don't you think?

1983
SMELL OF
FEMALE

1 "Thee Most Exalted Potentate of Love"
2 "You Got Good Taste"
3 "Call of the Wighat"


4 "Faster Pussycat" (Bert Shefter)


5 "I Ain't Nuthin' But a Gorehound"

6 "Psychotic Reaction"

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.


"Send more paramedics..." ...Hehe! This movie, which puts a twist on Night of the Living Dead, is full of grisly images and humor. If you can appreciate the humor involved with a pack of zombies munching police officers, then grabbing the radio and asking for backup. Everything starts out with Frank showing the FNG a group of barrels stored in the basement. Seems that they contain bodies, the U.S. Army had cleaned up a chemical spill and put all the contaminated parts into the barrels, due to a small mistake in shipping the darn things arrived at Burt's warehouse. Barrels, filled with toxic chemicals and rotting bodies show up on the doorstep, what would you do? Burt kept them. Bad Burt. Frank just has to slap one of the things to prove how sturdy it is and gas floods out, both guys drop like stones while the vapors permeate everything. They do not wake up in Oz, it's still the same drab warehouse, but now the split dogs (Veterinary thing.) and frozen cadavers are running amok. Burt's bright idea number two is cremating the zombies, when rain contaminated by the smoke starts soaking the graveyard all heck breaks loose. On the off chance you didn't read the character descriptions, don't grow attached to anyone, they're either zombie chow or fallout. Even Trash, she has the misfortune of experiencing her greatest fear, being stripped down naked and eaten by old men. Not that nudity frightens her, I'm still trying to decide if the girl was wearing a leotard carefully blended with her skin or if she was darn good with a mirror and razor.
-- by Andrew Borntreger
http://www.badmovies.org/movies/returndead/

*"SURFIN' DEAD"

1986
A DATE WITH
A Date with Elvis is the seventh fucking album by the American garage punk band The Cramps. It was released on Big Beat Records. It was recorded in the fucking fall of 1985 and engineered by Steve McMillan and Mark Ettel at Ocean Way Studios Hollywood, CA. The Cramps reissued the fucking album on their own Vengeance Records in 2001 with the fucking bonus tracks "Blue Moon Baby" "Georgia Lee Brown" "Give Me A Woman" and "Get off the Road," which were a bunch of fucking b-sides and shit. The album was dedicated to Ricky Nelson, who had a fucking hit with the song "Lonesome Town", which was also covered by The Cramps and is available on their first fucking EP Gravest Hits and compilation album ...Off the Bone. (FUCKIPEDIA)

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?"

Pussy is an English word meaning cat. It may also refer to the female genitalia in slang, or be used as a pejorative term that implies cowardice or weakness. Used in conjunction with "some", the phrase "some pussy" refers to sexual intercourse itself. Most dictionaries mark the anatomical meaning as "vulgar" or "offensive" and its use is frowned upon in polite company.
The origins of the word are unknown. The Oxford English Dictionary (OED) says that the word puss is common to several Germanic languages, usually as a call name for the cat — not a synonym for cat, as it is in English.The medieval French word pucelle referred to a young adolescent girl or a virgin, although this comes from a slang term for virginity puce (= flea) rather than referring to cats (but cf. French chatte (female cat), a current vulgarism for the female genitalia).
In the 17th century, the term was also used to refer to women in general. Philip Stubbs, an English pamphleteer, wrote in his 1583 book "The Anatomie of Abuses" that "the word pussie is now used of a woman". The German form is cognate (Fotze; compare "Puss-y" to "Fotz-e" [in the style of Futs-sy]), and the (vulgar) French term is "chatte" (literally a female cat). (PUSSIPEDIA)

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, 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. 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. Yummy! (HEADLESSCHICKENPEDIA)

http://www.miketheheadlesschicken.org/index.php

*3 (Hot Pool Of) Womanneed

4 Aloha from Hell

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

1990
STAY SICK

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."

Kiss kiss! Bang bang! Everything Goes! ;D
August 14, 2003

By	Pamela Scarangello (Middletown, NJ USA) - See all my reviews

1989's "Stay Sick!" is another energetic rock album that clearly marks the highest point of the Cramps' musical creativity. Interestingly, the songs of this particular CD have rejuvenated lyrical elements of the band's outrageous obsession with cheesy science fiction films and off-the-wall frightfests (which were temporarily lost in 1986's "A Date with Elvis.") In fact, the title of "Stay Sick!" was once a spooky catchphrase spoken by Ghoulardi, an early television horror host who became popular in Lux Interior's home state of Ohio. As a whole, this record is fueled by twisted rockabilly tunes, simplified chorus hooks and groovy pop rhythms. Supported by Poison Ivy's raw, vibrating guitar strings, Lux the frontman adapts an audio persona more warped than ever before; while belting out his vocals, he emits a fury of bestial growls, puppy dog yelps and strangely sexy croons. "Stay Sick!" has, of course, quite a few highlights. The CD's upbeat single "Bikini Girls with Machine Guns" is an underground party hit heavily drawn from alcohol binges, psychedelic drugs and a whole other variety of forbidden excesses. "All Women are Bad" is definitely the most well written track here, as it briefly explains how enticing vamps in history led men to their ruin (and why we all love them for it!). In "Creature from the Black Leather Lagoon," (obviously dedicated to the Hollywood monster of the same name) good ol' Lux shimmers his hips in a hilarious Elvis Presley spoof! Speaking of the King, the Cramps' dizzying cover of his celebrated hit "Jailhouse Rock" can best be described as a hyperactive noise riot done after swallowing one too many Twinkies! Beware, freaks and riff raffs: the sexual content on "Stay Sick!" is the most explicit ever presented (other than 2003's "Fiends of Dope Island"). There is no doubt in my mind that it was intended to press the panic buttons of mainstream censorship. "Everything Goes" is a throbbing country tune where Lux pushes fetishism to its most absurd level! "Mama OO Pow Pow" is a naughty barnyard ditty about spankings, bondage and other acts of kinky behavior. However, one of the CD's bonus tracks, a nostalgic cover of Carl Perkins's "Her Love Rubbed Off," is probably the ONE Cramps track that officially crosses the invisible line of obscenity. Snatch this incredible album...IF YOU DARE! ;)

Side one

1 Bop Pills (McNatt, Macy Skipper)
Originally by Macy Skipper

An obscure Rockabilly singer, born September 2, 1920 in Saint Louis but based in Memphis. Macy (Skip) Skipper did some demos in the mid 50's for Sun and issued a single in 1957 on Light, then a single for Stax in 1961 (Goofin' Off / Night Rock). He died on April 17, 2001..

2 God Damn Rock & Roll

3 Bikini Girls With Machine Guns


It is the dawn of the '90s (memo to Wardrobe Dept.: stock up on plaid flannel!) and we find our heroes, the Cramps, facing censorship by MTV. The clips in question were the tunes "Creature From the Black Leather Lagoon" and "Bikini Girls With Machine Guns."

"Well, 'Bikini Girls,' I didn't understand," says Ivy, "I thought it was such a quaint thing. There's a scene where I'm shooting the machine gun, and the vibration makes my panties fall down." The camera showed nothing but the panties around her ankles, but that was enough to make MTV's top brass spit their Perrier out on their Gucci loafers. Doing the only honourable thing, The Cramps proceeded to make an even more offensive video. "For some reason, our boss at Enigma Records just said put in everything they wouldn't want. We thought, 'Well, he's paying for it, okay.'" Inspired by the teen riot that opens shlockmeister H. G. Lewis' film Just for the Hell of It, the band found an empty house, filled it with thrift-shop junk and then promptly trashed it. "There's stuff in there, like Lux huffing glue from a paper bag, or me sitting on his face. But I think what got them was smashing the TV with a sledgehammer."

4 All Women Are Bad

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



Originally a traditional Negro plantation song in the southern USA. First generally popularized by Lawrence Tibbett in the early 20th century. Then sung by Nelson Eddy in 1937/38. In 1938 it was a big charted hit for The Andrews Sisters. Then done by many others like Fats Waller (1941) and Paul Robeson.
In the 1950s, rock and roll singers started picking it up - The Collins Kids, Tony Crombie ...
The reason it attracts so much attention now is the hard rock recording by Paul Chaplain and his Emeralds in 1960. It wasn't a big hit but has now rightfully become a legend. The Bellnotes also released a rock version that year.
Meanwhile back in England it achieved better hit status sung by the vocal trio The Viscounts.

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" was, along with "Turn Blue," a trademark ejaculation of GHOULARDI, who was born Ernie Anderson, but saw no reason to stick with that exclusively.

This Ghoulardi documentary actually aired LAST night, but to err is human, to Turn Blue divine!

New Ghoulardi documentary airs tonight on PBS
Posted by Jeff Niesel on Tue, Oct 27, 2009 at 11:08 AM
http://www.clevescene.com/reel-cleveland/archives/2009/10/27/new-ghoulardi-documentary-airs-tonight-on-pbs

Based on a book by Gray Publishing, Turn Blue: The Short Life of Ghoulardi is an hour-long documentary about the infamous Cleveland late-night horror movie host. Directed by Phil Hoffman, a University of Akron professor and general manager of University of Akron’s Z-TV, it shows how Ghoulardi (Ernie Anderson) went from being a cast-out to the king of Cleveland TV during his short reign from 1963-66. It premieres at 9 tonight on Western Reserve PBS 45/49 and has subsequent airings at 2 a.m. Wednesday, Oct. 28 and at 4 p.m. Saturday, Oct. 31. It’ll also be shown on Western Reserve Public Media’s new Fusion channel at 8 p.m. Thursday, Oct. 29 and at 7:30 p.m. Saturday, Oct. 31. Hoffman, who hopes to have the film out on DVD by the end of the year, recently spoke about his movie.

You showed the film this past weekend at Ghoulardifest. How did that go over?
It was really crowded and that was awesome. I have no way to gauge the attendance because I’m not sure if the physical size of the facility was the same as last year’s. But I do know the place was jammed, so that was good.

That is probably your toughest audience. How did viewers react?
It’s always great to sit in the back of a theater when you produce something like this and see if people react the way you thought they would. In this case, I felt like I hit the nail on the head. At one point, they all burst out singing along with the film. Those kinds of things happen and you go, “OK. I did that right.”

At the beginning of your movie, you talk about how Ernie Anderson was fired from most of his gigs. How did he last so long in Cleveland?
Well, it’s funny because he came here to work at WHK radio and he didn’t last very long there. In that case, he left of his own accord and then went to Channel 3 and didn’t last long there either and left of his own accord there. Really, when he came to WJW, it was ’62 and he was gone by ’66. It was a relatively short tenure. He was a restless guy. He was always looking to go to the next thing. As a creative person, he didn’t want to get into a rut. He was feeling like he was in a rut toward the end.

The character of Ghoulardi had a unique look and his own set of slogans. From where did Anderson get that material?
A lot of it was just plain Ernie. He was an unusual guy. He was a big fan of jazz music and if you think of a beatnik type of a character, that was Ernie. He disguised himself as Ghoulardi and the real Ernie came out to a certain extent. Part of it was that when he worked at WHK, there was a guy on there with him called Pete “The Mad Daddy” Myers who was an early rock 'n’ roll DJ who was rhyming and jiving and a little bit of that rubbed off on Ernie in terms of his delivery style.

You did a great job of tracking down the local characters he knew Anderson. Was there anything you were surprised to find out about him?
I was surprised that he was so careless about money. That didn’t wind up in the film but it will be on the DVD extras. Big Chuck talks about how Ernie left and he was in California and he was talking to him on the phone one day and Ernie asked him to go in his desk and see if he left anything. There were like nine un-cashed checks lying there. The idea that you would leave paychecks lying around boggles my mind. But it shows Ernie’s character. He wasn’t motivated by money necessarily though I’m sure he liked it. It wasn’t the primary factor for him. He just liked doing what he was doing and when he got tired of doing it, it was time to move on. The more that I learned about the guy, the more I could relate to him. If you’ve ever worked in media at all, sometimes you get frustrated with your bosses and feel they don’t understand what you’re trying to do. Not only was Ernie like that but he was one of the first guys to go on air and mock his bosses.

You mention his son, movie director P.T. Anderson, in passing. What did you learn about his relationship with his father?
We contacted Paul about being in the film and his response was that he wasn’t born yet and has no memories of Cleveland. He was coming off a film and was fried. I thought it was interesting that Ernie secretly harbored the notion that he would be in a classic film of some kind that would last beyond his days. It just never happened but you look at Paul’s work and that’s obviously going to be around for a long time. It’s kind of ironic.

Many of the people you interview are nostalgic for that era in TV history. Do you think there will be another Ghoulardi in TV culture?
I have to say that TV has lost its ability to have that kind of impact. Everything is nationalized now. The local product is mostly news. That’s one of the things that got me started in looking at this film. If you get off an expressway anywhere in the United States, everything looks the same. You have the same stores and restaurants. You can go into a store in Albuquerque, New Mexico and it is the same as one here in Tallmadge. That kind of bums me out. I like going to different areas of the country and finding that quirky, unique, local flavor. TV was part of that and it isn’t now. You flip on the local channel and you’ll see Access Hollywood or whatever. It’s all the same stuff. There are formats that fundamentally don’t change from market to market. That’s the thing I miss the most, that local flavor you used to get. It’s not as pronounced anymore. It’s not that it’s not there but it’s not as easy to plug into.

The 31 Days of Halloween Continue to Continue Continuing

THE SCARECROW WALKS!
by Jack Kirby and Dick Ayers, scanned from the collection of FAMAC

All images and comic book titles © Marvel Enterprises Inc. and used here for informational purposes only. From MONSTER BLOG!
CRISWELL sez: "This here is some #@$!ed-up $#&%, man!"

Click on pages to enlarge big enough to read without ruining your damn eyes.

For the Love of Ivy

(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?

No, I'm hopelessly insane. It's too late now.

Any special messages for guitarists?

Just stay sick and turn blue!