Lux Interior

I am feeling older every day: Lux Interior, lead singer of The Cramps has died, aged 60:

http://www.mercurynews.com/ci_11634029?source=most_emailed

I saw The Cramps a half dozen or more times "back in the day", starting with small club dates when they still had Bryan Gregory and Nick Knox, and on through ever-bigger venues.

It certainly is a memento mori when the "stars" of your generation start dying off ...

 

Well, it might make you feel older, but getting old is the better alternative, doncha think?

Anyway, RIP Lux.

The Cramps, besides being a great, fun band had a vast knowledge and love of the history and underlying joy of rock and roll. More than any other band I listened to in the early 80s, The Cramps acquainted me with genres and artists I was vastly unfamiliar with: rockabilly, 60s "garage punk", Charlie Feathers, Jack Scott, The Rumblers, etc. Many of these artists, Hasil Adkins to name one, had their careers relaunched as a result of The Cramps' devotion. Miriam Linna, the original drummer of the band, along with Billy Miller of The Zantees, founded Kicks magazine and Norton Records - both monuments to the history of the raw spirit of early rock and roll. Norton Records not only digs up from obscurity and handsomely reissues these forgotten gems of American youth culture, but promotes the artists whose material they sell (Adkins, Esquerita and Young Jesse are/were all Norton label recording artists).

The Cramps deserve as much praise as any wealthy bibliophile who has rescued precious texts from oblivion and preserved them in a meaningful collation for new generations.

I always loved the Cramps, and yes they were great keepers of some fantastic early sounds. Check out WFMU's blog: there are 12 volumes of "Lux and Ivy's Favorites." Original artists and inspirations. Wow.

http://blog.wfmu.org/freeform/2009/02/lux-and-ivys-favorites-mp3s.html