Secret History of Rock. The Most Influential Bands You've Never Heard (24 page)

Back in his childhood home, Drake became more withdrawn than ever. Rarely seeing friends – and at times alienating them – Drake spent most of his days sitting in his favorite orange armchair and listening to records of classical music; at night he stayed up trying to write. Then one day Drake entered producer John Wood’s studio and, barely uttering a word, proceeded to record 11 new songs with only his own guitar and piano accompaniment. Declining to add anything to the spare tracks, Drake took the master tapes and dropped them off unannounced at his record company’s reception desk.

Though Island was delighted to have Drake’s third album, which they released as
Pink Moon
, the label had no illusions that this collection of gorgeous but desolate music would succeed commercially. When their fears were realized, Drake’s mental state worsened to a point where he briefly entered a psychiatric facility. He decided to quit music altogether, and even looked into a job as a computer programmer, but was soon unable to work at all.

Jim O’Rourke, solo / Gastr del Sol:

One of the greatest songwriters ever. Very pure and specific, with a very simple use of language. The ability to use a few words to say so much is a gift only given to certain people, and he was definitely one of them. He was a beautiful singer, and he meant it. Whenever I hear someone who’s genuine, it helps me keep going.

By 1973, Drake had begun taking antidepression medication and his condition eased enough for him to begin writing songs again. Encouraged by French chanteuse Françoise Hardy’s interest in recording his music, and wanting to make another album of his own, Drake recorded four new songs and went to live in France. There, Drake tried to see Hardy, but she was not at home and he was turned away. In November of 1974, while returning for a visit to Far Leys, Drake overdosed on his medication and died in the night. His death was ruled a suicide, though his family says it was an accident. Either way, the fragile 26-year-old never lived to witness the slow bloom of his “fruit tree.”

DISCOGRAPHY

Five Leaves Left
(Island; 1969; Hannibal, 1986)
; this debut album features Drake at his most mystical, with light accompaniment.

Bryter Later
(Island, 1970; Hannibal, 1986)
; this record dresses Drake’s songs up with drums, strings, and horn arrangements, and is his brightest, most pop-oriented record.

Pink Moon
(Island, 1972; Hannibal, 1986)
; recorded in two days and featuring only Drake accompanying himself, this is his most spare and depressed work.

Time of No Reply
(Hannibal, 1986)
; a collection of early recordings and demos for a never completed fourth album.

Fruit Tree: The Complete Works of Nick Drake
(Hannibal, 1986)
; a box set containing all of Drake’s available music.

Way to Blue: An Introduction to Nick Drake
(Hannibal, 1994)
; a compilation drawing from all of Drake’s albums.

TRIBUTE: Various Artists,
Brittle Days. A Tribute to Nick Drake
(Imaginary Records, 1992)
; this English release features Drake’s songs done by the High Llamas, Nikki Sudden (of Swell Naps), Loop, and others.

THE CRAMPS

Birdstuff, Man or Astroman?:

My initial exposure to the deranged universe of the Cramps severely affected my psychological circuitry, displacing all previously known parameters of the Rock ‘n’ Roll medium. For the next year and a half of my pimple-fighting adolescence, I played my
Bad Music for Bad People
cassette until it sounded like Duane Eddy being blasted through an underwater PA system on the 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea ride at Disneyland. When I finally witnessed the Cramps live, my alien genetic code was quickly re-sequenced during the chaotic sonic centrifuge of the show-terminating
Surfin’ Bird
. Without question, my perception was forever thereafter permanently askew: The essence of potent music lies not in technology or endless hours of practiced virtuosity, but in energy, lust and obsession... My final stage of Crampdom was manifested in actually being a chem-activated exothermic stage-warmer-upper for those aforementioned “Lords Who Indeed Taught Us Songs.” Obviously, this was a thrill unable to be described in any non-direct-nerval communication.

Though they looked like a bunch of goons who’d just emerged from a cemetery crypt, the Cramps are covertly some of the most astute connoisseurs and musicologists in rock. They reintroduced to a post-punk world the characteristically American weirdness and insanity just under the surface of early rock ‘n’ roll. They were among the earliest indulgers in a “junk aesthetic” of white trash, fast food, Vegas lounge acts, late-night horror films, and low-budget teen rebellion that extends through current art and entertainment, from Tarantino films to Elvis sightings. The Cramps’ cultural significance lies in its disposable idiocy.

The band’s black leather, rock-animal approach to punk can be seen today in bands like D-Generation, Dash Rip Rock, and Jon Spencer Blues Explosion, and their skill in unleashing rock’s forgotten primordial ooze inspired the recent proliferation of twangy guitar bands with tongue-in-cheek concepts, from the space-age surfers of Man Or Astroman? to the trailer park tramps of Southern Culture on the Skids. Still going strong after more than two decades, Cramps’ disciples now constitute a genre – coined from early Cramps gig posters – known as “psychobilly.”

Kate Schellenbach, Luscious Jackson:

They haven’t really gotten the credit that’s due, as far as influence on today’s alternative bands. Jon Spencer Blues Explosion owes a lot to the Cramps, especially with the guitar-only line-up. They were very entertaining, horror-rock monsters. They played New York so often in the early ‘80s that their shows were like this really fun social scene.

Erick Purkhiser and Christine Wallace – who’d met during college in California – conceived the Cramps while living in Purkhiser’s hometown of Akron, Ohio. Hearing about the outrageous costumes of the New York Dolls and the thriving punk scene around CBGB, the couple moved to New York in 1975, then recruited guitarist Bryan Gregory and his sister, drummer Pam “Balam” Gregory. When Erick remade himself as the “Elvis crossed with Vincent Price” singer known as Lux Interior and Christine became the guitar-wielding icy vixen called Poison Ivy Rorschach, the Cramps became reality.

David Yow, Jesus Lizard:

I liked the Cramps quite a bit. Watching Lux Interior was a real blast. I can imagine that working its way into my thing. I liked how Elvis Presley had obviously had a big impact on his voice. I think I liked his Elvis more than Elvis’s Elvis.

By the time the Cramps started gigging at CBGB, the Dolls were long gone and the band’s haunted-house theatrics were quite out of place around the sober poetics of acts like Patti Smith and
Television
. But the Cramps’ hyperactive rockabilly – inspired by ‘50s guitar madmen such as Link Wray and Basil Adkins – provided just the energy release (and comic relief) the scene needed. After some personnel changes, Nick Knox became the group’s steady drummer, and the band emerged as one of the city’s premier live draws. Having developed a name for themselves, the Cramps journeyed to the heart of twisted old-time rock and roll – Memphis, Tennessee – where they recorded a series of singles (collected as
Gravest Hits
) with former
Big Star
leader Alex Chilton.

Gravest Hits
, which consisted mostly of covers, provided only a taste of what was to come. Returning to Chilton’s studio in 1980, the Cramps recorded their debut album,
Songs the Lord Taught Us
, which fully mined the aesthetic that would define them for years to come. With originals that celebrated trash television (
TV Set
), trash movies (
I Was a Teenage Werewolf
), and just plain trash (
Garbageman
) – and covers of twisted garage rock obscurities (the Sonics’
Strychnine
) and mangled pop classics (
Fever
) – the Cramps’ kitsch obsessions and rock ‘n’ roll exaggerations were sufficiently original and infectious to spark a genre of punk rockabilly – or psychobilly – that continues to thrive.

Kins Coffey, Butthole Surfers:

We played with them once and I was star struck. They arrived for sound check dressed in full regalia, and a few hours later their fuzz guitars and echo boxes filled the room. Rarely have I been happier.
Songs the Lord Taught Us
is a great, scary album-they were able to fuse such distinctly American stuff to make their own weird thing. Later people copied what they were doing and it became known as psychobilly, but really the Cramps were in their own league. Sometimes the Butthole Surfers can go into a rockabilly thing, and I think we’re tapping into “songs the Cramps taught us.”

As the Cramps ventured out on national and international tours, word quickly spread of their highly entertaining rock / freak show. Audiences were thrilled by Lux’s seemingly endless energy on stage – where he’d often end up mostly naked in a frenzy of microphone-swallowing howls – while Ivy projected cool sexuality and stayed in character by never cracking a smile. They caught on particularly well in England, where, oddly, they were coupled on tour with the Police and Morrissey was an early member of their fan club, Legion of the Cramped.

Nick Cave:

I remember seeing a Cramps show in the very early days, the first time they came to England. That was an extraordinary event, just the anarchy of the performance. It was mind-blowing, really hilarious and irreverent. The
Birthday Party
[Cave’s first band] were similar in some respects. And what England was going through was just so boring and safe.

In 1980, the band moved to Los Angeles. After Bryan Gregory left the band (for a variety of pursuits, including witchcraft and acting), Kid Congo Powers of the Gun dub joined for the second album,
Psychedelic Jungle
. While tracks like
Goo Goo Muck
and
Voodoo Idol
were certainly along the lines of what fans had come to expert from the band, the record suffered from being somewhat slower and more polished in places. Frustrated by their label’s inability to parlay the band’s growing following into larger record sales, following
Psychedelic Jungle
the Cramps sued IRS Records to be released from its contract. The issue was settled out of court, and in 1981 the Cramps, for better or worse, parted ways with IRS.

Through most of the ‘80s, the Cramps focused on nearly constant touring, while much of the group’s album releases were either compilations of previously released material or live records. What studio recordings they made – such as 1986’s
A Date with Elvis
– were at first released only in the U.K. While the Cramps maintained their psychobilly sound and image, the late ‘80s saw the group’s themes shift slightly away from horror movies and more toward the glittery sleaze of Las Vegas and the sexploitation of Russ Meyer films. Songs like
Can Your Pussy Do the Dog?
and
Bikini Girls with Machine Guns
(from 1989’s
Stay Sick
) parody misogyny so convincingly they’re apt to offend, though behind it all was Ivy, as producer and star of the group’s increasingly ridiculous album covers.

Ian MacKaye, Fugazi /
Minor Threat
:

I saw the Cramps in my junior year of high school and it was life-altering. Period. It was the most incredible show I’d ever seen. It sort of came to me in a rush that this was what I was looking for in music. All the times I’d seen Ted Nugent and Queen, where it was always such a spectator sport, I was actually participating in this Cramps concert. And I also found this underground world where people were willing to really question and confront life on many different levels. Challenging the conventions of sexuality, or politics, or religion.

In the ‘90s, the Cramps have continued doing what they do best. While band members – including
Lydia Lunch
/ Nick Cave drummer Jim Sclavunos, and current rhythm section of Slim Chance and Harry Drumdini – have changed, Lux and Ivy remain constants, and so have the group’s hypersexual, high-octane roots rock and demonic bad-ass schtick. For over 20 years they’ve told the same joke, but with such brilliant energy and style that one was all they needed.

DISCOGRAPHY

Gravest Hits
EP
(IRS, 1979; 1989)
; a five-song EP collecting the group’s earliest singles.

Songs the Lord Taught Us
(IRS, 1980; 1989)
; produced in Memphis by
Big Star
’s Alex Chilton, this record laid out the course the band has followed since.

Psychedelic Jungle
(IRS, 1981; 1989)
; a slightly toned down collection, reissued together on one CD with
Gravest Hits
.

Smell of Female
(Vengeance, 1983; Restless, 1990)
; a live mini album recorded at the Peppermint Lounge in New York, later expanded to a full album with bonus tracks.

Bad Music for Bad People
(IRS, 1984; 1987)
; a compilation of the group’s IRS material.

A Date with Elvis
(Big Beat, 1986; Restless/Vengeance, 1994)
.

Rockinnreelininaucklandnewzealandxxx
(Vengeance, 1987; Restless, 1991)
; a live album recorded in 1986 that well represents the band’s stage show.

Stay Sick!
(Enigma, 1990)
; from this point on, the Cramps offered pretty good imitations of their earlier records.

Look Mom No Head!
(Restless, 1991)
.

Flamejob
(Medicine, 1994; Epitaph, 1994)
.

Big Beat From Badsville
(Epitaph, 1997)
.

TRIBUTE:
Songs the Cramps Taught Us
(Born Bad)
; more of a reverse tribute, this record collects the obscure original versions of twisted songs the Cramps later appropriated.