Bad News for Bad People

Lux Interior (Oct. 21, 1946 - Feb. 4, 2009)

Well you can't dig me you can't dig nothing.
Do you want the real thing or are you just talking?
Do you understand?
I'm your Garbageman.
~Cramps

Lux's vocals jumped and weaved around the jangly guitars and throbbing back beat. Like a child swinging through the monkey bars oblivious to time and surroundings. Ignorant of pressing issues - just having fun.

A black and yellow ghoul-like creature with a six foot pompadour leered at me off the cover of the album knowingly. Just slap that vein a few more times . . . The back cover offered no clues as to what was happening either. Lots of ghouls connected together by sinews and tendons and hair - a sort of Gothic escher painting.

This is one of my fondest rock and roll moments. As I searched for some hint as to what was going on I was being cleansed by the sounds coming out of the speakers a foot away. It dawned on me - John Cougar is bullshit, Bob Dylan is a whiny chatty Cathy, and I could do without Paul McCartney telling me that love will solve all of my problems. I would have no more 12 hour guitar solos from the Dead and I would ignore all "important" Elvis Costello music. I had no more room in me. It was being filled with schlock, puns, b-movie images, and soft core porn all over a bed of psychobilly. And it felt great.

This past Wednesday, Lux Interior, lead singer of the Cramps, died. Heart condition.

"We sell a lot of records, but somehow just hearing that you've sold so many records doesn't hit you quite as much as when a lot of people call you up and are obviously really broken up because you've died."
~Lux Interior

The Cramps have had a career as bizarre as their stage shows. Formed in 1976 by Lux and a hitchhiker he picked up who would later become his wife (learn from this kids), the Cramps created a sexually charged punk-rockabilly style that was truly unique at the time. Part of the CBGB's crowd, they never really fit in. They were not as crunching as the Ramones or as artsy as Television. They were, simply, fun.

The live shows were truly spectacular. I have seen the other members of the band leave the stage for a break while Lux licked a female audience member. For 10 minutes. She was soaking wet by the end of it. I have seen him cry while singing "It's just that Song" drinking wine from a shoe he grabbed from someone while squirming on the ground. Say one thing for Lux Interior, say he left it on the stage.

The last time I saw the Cramps perform was at the Vic Theater here in Chicago. The costumed crowed was singing, swaying, laughing, and rocking. Lux was clad in a leather g-string and at one point made an amazing climb up to the balcony (he was 60 at the time) where he proceeded to smash his microphone and dangle the remaining live wires into beers of the balconyers.

It's just so much fun. You pull in to one town and people scream, 'I love you, I love you, I love you.' And you go to a bar and have a great rock 'n' roll show and go to the next town and people scream, 'I love you, I love you, I love you, I love you.' It's hard to walk away from all that.
~Lux Interior

Lux Interior reminded me that rock is supposed to be fun. There is no shame in screaming at the top of your lungs, "Calling all cows down on the farm. Close the door, you born in a barn?" He gave us great songs, Don't Eat Stuff Off the Sidewalk, GooGooMuck, What's Inside a Girl, Bikini Girls with Machine Guns, end Over, I'll Drive, and Tear It Up. Unafraid, the Cramps have opened for the Police and headlined at the Napa State Mental Hospital. They have rocked, shlocked, hooked, and banged all over the world. And now it is over.

Lux Interior may be gone but his attitude, and his music, will live on.