The Incredibly Strange Creatures Of Rock & Roll

I can't go too much further into this Blog without acknowledging the significant global contribution of Tim Warren & Crypt Records  to the world of 1950's and 1960's punk, rockabilly and sleazy instrumentals.  The indispensable compilations Back From The Grave, Las Vegas Grind, & Jungle Exotica (to name but a few) have become the standard by which all other similar compilations in the genre are judged. One of the greatest contributions to the world of psychotic breathless roackabilly/ garage punk greatness is Scream! by Ralph Neilsen & The Chancellors.  Unless I'm told differently by the 60's punk gods, this song is THE most insane 45 ever drudged up from rural New Jersey.  Scream was recorded in some guy's basement in 1962 in Princeton New Jersey and can be described as the Burnette's "Train Kept A Rollin"played at 78 rpm with a frantic male voice yelling "C'mon & Scream yeah, yeah" over a female voca...

There's not much to tell about Bill Carter & "Baby Brother" certainly defies description.  in 1959 country & gospel artist Bill Carter briefly embraced rockabilly by recording "Cool Tom Cat" on the Ozark & Blackjack record labels with "Baby Brother" on the flip.  He was backed on both songs by the Rovin' Gamblers. This journey into the weird side of country music gave us the gift of a truly bizarre set to off key lap guitar telling the story of the strange behavior of a a sibling learning to swim in a goldfish bowl & flapping his arms and chasing his toy balloon into the sky.  I first heard this song 15 years ago on a 1984 radio broadcast..  Turns out that someone had the brilliant foresight to slip a blank cassette in and record Lux Interior spinning his own records as a guest DJ at a local Hollywood radio station.  The broadcast was released by my friends Lindsay & Inigo Munster on Munster Records as The Purple Knif ...

One of the better (identifiable) singles on the Vip Vop Tapes that represents the primordial musical ooze from which The Cramps slithered is B.B. Cunningham Jr.'s Electrode. Electrode was released in 1959 on Buddy senior's own Cover record label in Memphis.  The A side, "Trip To The Bandstand", is a pretty standard country rocker in 4/4 time.  Electrode has more of a shuffling beat with an great sleazy, twangy  sounding guitar track that dominates a wall of drums and honky tonk piano. In 1961 Cunningham became a member of Ronnie & The Daytonas (whom we'll look at in a later).  The group's leader "Ronnie" disliked touring so an alternate member lineup was created for this purpose.  This alternate touring roster eventually became The Hombres who even scored a #12 hit with "Let It Out (Let It All Hang Out)".  B.B. was the vocalist and keyboard player of Hombres and even played a little bass on some tracks.  The Hombres...

To know The Cramps is to know the namesake for one of their more popular songs and a huge influence on Lux & Ivy.  Pete "MAD DADDY" Myers first mesmerized listeners on January 1958 at WJW in Cleveland as the nighttime disc jockey.  There must have been something in the water in Northeast Ohio combined with the repression of blue collar monotony that spawn countercultural heroes Mad Daddy, Alan "Moondog" Freed and Ernie "Ghoulardi" Anderson (whom many claim was influenced by Mad Daddy).  On the radio Mad Daddy clearly drew upon his acting experience from the Royal Academy Of Dramatic Art In London to create his Mad Daddy character with a flowing black cape and signature phrases still used today like "mellow as Jell-O", "Wavy Gravy" and "Hang Loose, Mother Goose." With the help of an extremely high IQ (174) and copious amounts of amphetamines his style was punctuated by rapid spontaneous rhyming through an entire four...

I think it would be a catastrophic mistake for me not to briefly pay tribute the spirit and genius of The Cramps.  My life has been a journey of obsessively hunting down rare & obscure sleazy instrumentals, rockabilly, garage and surf 45's from the 1960's and 50's.  What happened?  Why did I start this collecting frenzy?  The Cramps.  The Cramps are a self described "psychobilly" band who coveres obscure artists like Warren Smith, Charlie Feathers & Ronnie Cook & The Gaylads.  But this wasn't just music they played & recorded but music they listened to and collected in their spare time.  The gateway into my obsession was the Born Bad (a.k.a. "Songs The Cramps Taught Us) compilations that came out back in the 1980's. The Born Bad series evolved into eight volumes of songs that The Cramps covered during their three decade history.  Without these indispensable volumes I never would have heard the original version of...