Hey Agent Double-Oh-No, I too was at the 1982 Peppermint Lounge show. I even have a couple blurry polaroids taken there… One of them is of a Poison Ivy high-heeled foot on stage, framed all askew and everything. Now that I think of it, maybe that’s why at at later show (1984?) at the New Peppermint Lounge, a guy rushed through the frantic hysterical crowd and stole a stiletto from my girlfriend’s foot! This concert is probably the most chaotic demented outrageous glorious ecstatic fun show I’ve ever attended. With your permission, I’d say the Cramps ruined my life as well, and I DON”T REGRET IT.

Lux was wearing some tight, tight pants that night. At one point in the performance someone in the audience yelled in a sing-song: “Lux has a hard-on!” Ever up to any challenge, Lux swaggered: ” I ALWAYS HAVE A HARD ON.”

The whole show – the humor, Lux’s genuine strangeness, Ivy’s cool guitar, Nick Knox’s relentless beat, Kid Congo’s nubile androgeny – was one of the greatest things I’ve ever witnessed. Some of that show was recorded and released as “The Smell of Female.” Gonna throw down that vinyl slab and have a howl for ole Lux !

THE CRAMPS ARE MORE THAN A BAND
THEY ARE A LOVE STORY

I’m drinkin’ red wine & cryin’

My high school crush got me into The Cramps. I have to say that was the best damn thing he ever did (besides getting me into some other music that I wouldn’t have normally listened).

The Cramps had album covers that touched on all I thought was cool. They were a mix of B-Movie posters. pulp novels, and 50′s mens mags. I would later buy 2 copies of most all their albums just to tack em up on my wall. So off the bat I was hooked even before hearing a track. I picked up Stay Sick! and A Date With Elvis then quickly went on my way looking at liner notes on the bus ride home.

I’d never been so curiously confused in all my life. Why the odd names? What’s with the song titles? Why are the guys dressed as women?! Why does it all seem so cool and fun?!

I couldn’t hit play fast enough on my CD player. I don’t think I ever hit stop as songs on those albums continue to be ones I listen to pretty regularly. The energy, lyrics, and deliciously wicked guitars & vocals made everything else on the radio at the time feel way too serious and boring. I couldn’t go back. I didn’t want to. Aloha From Hell and all that…I was happily gone and lost in it all.

Lux & Ivy would leave an impression I remain grateful for since they made all the crazyness of the albums and live shows feel like rock n roll was suppose to be. Never really saw them in terms of the other labels they’d later fall under…they were 50′s fueled sure but via all the cool parts of Hell. Their cover of Shortnin’ Bread alone proved that.

Lux will be missed and whatever side of the eternal coin he landed on…that’s the place I wanna one day be. His voice remains one of my favorite to hear when I’m feeling bad or good and escaping into the music has kept me far more sane than much else…as odd as that may be.

R.I.P Lux!

Take a listen to The Cramps cover of Route 66 if you get a chance today. Easily the most beautiful that song has ever sounded. Lux could be quite the crooner sometimes…

I second the loving thoughts for Ivy…can’t even imagine what she’s feeling right now.