During interviews, unrepentant crate-diggers Lux Interior and Poison Ivy never missed an opportunity to rave about their ever-growing record collection and relentless quest for rock’n’roll’s untamed Holy Grail, which often resulted in many obscure gems hot-wiring their own creations. Sadly, The Cramps ended with Lux’s untimely death last year, but their legacy and that mission lives on, not least in this latest addition to Chrome Dreams’ Jukebox series, which shifts away from the turf trodden by recent sets to present 30 whooping examples of rock’n’roll in its most primitive forms.
Compiled and annotated by Alan Clayson, the set is studded with seminal classics from the likes of former Blue Cap Paul Peek, Playboys, Johnny Kidd, Sheriff & The Ravels, the truly deranged Portugese Joe (leading his aptly-titled Teenage Riot) and Ron Thompson with the screaming psycho hoedown of Switchblade. It’s fun spotting which songs spawned Cramps classics, such as The Shades’ Strollin’ After Dark (I Was A Teenage Werewolf), Riptides’ Machine Gun (Call Of The Wighat) and Instrumentals’ Chop Suey Rock (Can Your Pussy Do The Dog), while Jack Scott’s The Way I Walk provided a highlight of their Gravest Hits debut. Lux and Ivy talk about their obsession on the bonus disc.
