The Cramps Albums Poll

would think the winner's a no-brainer, esp without Bad Music for Bad People or Gravest Hits in the mix

but yes the world needs more Cramps threads!

Yeah, was just gonna say Bad Music is a great collection. I've honestly played Stay Sick the most of these, which is probably a minority opinion.

I'd vote for Gravest Hits EP over any of these. They found their right sound from the start.

I think I'd rate these by order of release. some days I think I prefer psychedelic jungle better than the debut album.

I probably would've included Gravest Hits, even though it's just an EP. Since those 7-inchess weren't super easy to find, it was pretty much the public's introduction to The Cramps.

can't say any of these are actually bad (although I haven't heard Fiends from Dope Island). Flamejob is a lot of fun

I swear I was about to include Gravest Hits but was afraid someone would call me out on it for not putting the other EPs as well (and yet noone in their sane mind would have voted any of the other EPs over the rest of the discography).

I tend to like their live albums the best ... but maybe they are mostly bootlegs? The Aukland "Lonesome Town" cover is a personal fave.

which was the album they were touring when they played that asylum? were they at their peak around then? i know nothing about The Cramps except that asylum footage and 'let's get fucked up' both of which i enjoy immensely. really should check them out.

Bad Music for Bad People is too incomplete to be definitive. I'd probably just pick it for "New Kind of Kick" which is a b-side to 'the crusher' and pretty difficult to comeby otherwise.

which was the album they were touring when they played that asylum? were they at their peak around then?

that wasn't part of a tour, may have been even before the first album came out? While this is a band whose recorded output varied over time I can't honestly say they ever really "peaked", esp as a live act they always delivered.

re: Live albums - yeah RockinandreelininAucklandNewZealand is great, also much love for their "official" live album, "Smell of Female" ("You've Got gooooooooood taste! come on over here and sit on my... lap")

speaking of which, does anybody know if there's any vinyl reissues for the Bad Music comp or the debut album coming anytime soon? I've been searching for those two without luck.

They used to be plentiful at online sellers and on ebay. I haven't really been buying records since the early 00s, though, so I bet there's a smaller supply these days.

I haven't seen any reissues altho who knows why. vinyl copies I have were used/originals.

Holy shit! Just about every original 1979 copy of Gravest Hits on ebay is in the $40+ range now. I bought it for probably $5.

that one I don't have on vinyl, but I do have Bad Music and Songs the Lord Taught Us, which were hardly expensive for quite a long time

lol

http://www.amazon.com/The-Cramps-Songs-Taught-Vinyl/dp/B001GRYHDM

yikes! I honestly don't care about original pressings I don't collect albums with the intention of selling them so if the reissue sounds good I couldn't care less.

We need Cramps reissues!

Now I'm curious. Did the Cramps vinyl market balloon when Lux passed away?

Cramps vinyl was getting tough to find even before Lux's passing imo. I think fans just loved the records and never sold them.

I'd probably just pick it for "New Kind of Kick"

One of my all time favorite Cramps songs. "Life is short... filled with stuff..."

I feel like over the last decade all I see in Cramps vinyl bins are live reissues and random comps

and as noted those live reissues are mostly bootlegs

I'm so stoked for the Journey to the Centre of The Cramps book...

wait what

i have A Date with Elvis on vinyl -- based on the sticker it was "import only" at the time, and I got it in the mid-90s

Feels like Smell of Female should be included here. Even though it was recorded live it was all new songs. Back when I was a kid it was only this and Off The Bone that you could even find in record shops.

Bad Music for Bad People and Smell of Female should definitely have been included. Of the available options, I'm going with Psychedelic Jungle, 'cause "Rockin' Bones" and "Voodoo Idol" are amazing, and "Caveman" cracks me up. ("Look, man/Make tool/Caveman no fool")

I had the version of Off the Bone with the 3D cover in high school.

likewise, "smell of female" and "off the bone" were the only ones i ever saw in record shops here for many years. "off the bone" still turns up a lot second hand but i guess people held onto their copies of "smell of female" as i very rarely see copies of it (it was a huge record in the uk and i'm pretty sure it charted).

Never bought anything after A Date with Elvis. Songs the Lord Taught Us by far, Gravest Hits next. I did like the two after that, or at least at the time. My "New Kind of Kick" 12-inch is autographed by Lux, Ivy, Kid Congo, and whoever else was in the band at the time.

How to Make (Create?) A Monster was a legit mopping up of early material too. May even have some Miriam Linna era stuff on.

I mainly stick with 1st 2 studio, SoF & Off The Bone plus whatever live bootlegs i have on my computer. May have lost a load in a crash though.
I like the idea of Songs The Cramps taught us but don't think I have the cds. Think they were one of the first bands to get fans compiling sets like that. Though I do have a cd of the originals of Rolling Stones blues/r'n'b stuff which is at least early 90s.

The first such comp predates that Stones one though - "Rockabilly Psychosis and the Garage Disease" on the Big Beat label in 1989 has one side of vintage material that influenced the Cramps (The Crusher, Surfin' Bird etc) and another side of bands influenced by the Cramps. Also a friend of mine had a bootleg cassette of such material including an interview with Lux on BBC Radio 1 in the mid-80s sometime playing a selection of the type of songs that ended up on those comps. Don't remember what was actually on it except for Please Pass the Biscuits - probably Andre Williams' version.

I wouldn't think of Rockabilly Psychosis and the Garage disease as being that similar. I think the originals that were unearthed for the first side weren't that obscure and most of them might have already been in a discerning music fans collection, probably things being spun at any remotely psychobilly targeted disco anyway plus it had a side of contemporary artists.

I would think that the attraction of most of the lps like Songs the Cramps and possibly the Stones things included was pretty obscure stuff that was unearthed.

Born Bad compilation series is basically Songs The Cramps Taught Us under a different name but from 1986:

http://www.discogs.com/Various-Born-Bad-Volume-One/release/1416404

Funny that, I think I was picturing the born Bad sleeves when I said Songs The Cramps.
Can't see a release date for the Songs The Cramps since they appear to be boots.

Voted Psychedelic Jungle

Gravest Hits ep then....trying to decide

Born Bad compilation series is basically Songs The Cramps Taught Us under a different name but from 1986:

http://www.discogs.com/Various-Born-Bad-Volume-One/release/1416404

― Just noise and screaming and no musical value at all. (Colonel Poo), miércoles 22 de julio de 2015 11:07 (3 hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

That is too much of a coincidence! Did the Cramps had anything to do with this?

i don't think the cramps had anything to do with the comps. the closest they came to comping the songs that influenced them was this (great) recording of lux's (crazed) radio show.

http://www.discogs.com/Various-Radio-Cramps-The-Purple-Knif-Show/release/1426574

I'm sure I've posted this link before, but these mp3 files are godhead:

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

I wouldn't think of Rockabilly Psychosis and the Garage disease as being that similar. I think the originals that were unearthed for the first side weren't that obscure and most of them might have already been in a discerning music fans collection, probably things being spun at any remotely psychobilly targeted disco anyway plus it had a side of contemporary artists.

I would think that the attraction of most of the lps like Songs the Cramps and possibly the Stones things included was pretty obscure stuff that was unearthed.

― Stevolende, Wednesday, 22 July 2015 10:03 (6 hours ago) Permalink

Can't lay my hands on my copy of this right now but I'm sure the sleevenotes specifically place it in the context of the Cramps. Yeah, side 2 is totally ignorable but the tracks on side 1 were rare at the time, with the possible exception of Surfin' Bird (it was released in 1984 btw, not 1989 as I wrongly typed upthread) at least in the UK.

Songs the Cramps Taught Us was one of the first things I downloaded when I started down that road in 2003. The one song that dwarfed everything else for me was "Shombalor" by Sheriff & the Ravels (there's also a YouTube clip of the Cramps doing it, but their cover doesn't come close to the original).

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IIoDjffjp2w

The answer is
Psych jungle

Yes Psych Jungle was my first and will always be my favorite. I do like the Ohio Demos a lot tho.

Psych Jungle is my favorite right now. It has the worst album cover of all their records though.

http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51hMoh1BGDL.jpg

No way that is awesome.

Like halfway between 80's goth and the 60's Batman TV show.

http://www.edinburghgigarchive.com/userimages/crampsastoria80ticket.jpg

first scottish cramps gig, 1980.

Oh i love those fonts

wow nice find stirry

Just to be pedantic, the Cramps played at the Glasgow Apollo on May 31 1979 and the Edinburgh Odeon the following day, supporting The Police.

Guy I know posted this on fb recently: I remember in 1979, turning the corner from Gordon St. and walking up Renfield St. and being confronted by all four Cramps walking together in full stage gear, like a mad version of The Monkees "walkin' down the street". You know all that stuff about 'looking like they had been beamed in from another planet'? Well, they did! Fantastic Rock 'n' Roll Animals. What do you say, when you bump into The Cramps? You say, 'Waaaaaah!'

ah, ok. as an arch pedant myself i appreciate that info. i guess this was their first headlining tour. it was actually a school friend of mine's dad who put that edinburgh gig on. my friend would bring in signed posters the next day of all the bands his dad put on and give me them. as i had never heard of the cramps at that time i stupidly threw them out as i was more excited by the jags ones he gave me, as i had seen them on top of the pops.

Legend has it that Lux fell off stage onto Clare Grogan but that seems too good to be true.

Reminds me of that Birthday Party video where you see Nick Cave kick somebody in the head and the head belongs to the future singer of the Inca Babies.
She should be so lucky.

Automatic thread bump. This poll is closing tomorrow.

Automatic thread bump. This poll's results are now in.

So there's like a bazillion Cramps-inspired compilations. Here's a new one:

http://www.cherryred.co.uk/product/61-classics-from-the-cramps-crazy-collection-deeper-into-the-world-of-incredibly-strange-music/

Which one(s) are the best?

That's pretty unusual, in that it goes into easy listening and Ken Nordine and such. For comps that stick to wild rock 'n' roll, the early volumes of the Sin Alley series are my favs.

I don't own physical compilations, but will totally rep for these:

http://blog.wfmu.org/freeform/2006/04/lux_and_ivys_fa.html

need new poll with smell of female and gravest hits
maybe I will do this sometime

Gravest Hits is one of the greatest records ever made so no-brainer for me.

I think I was up for a Cramps artist poll. No idea when though.

My go-to Cramps is the "File Under Sacred Music" singles comp, which has all my favorite stuff.