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“In the spring of 1976, The CRAMPS began to fester in a NYC apartment. Without fresh air or natural light, the group developed its uniquely mutant strain of rock’n'roll aided only by the sickly blue rays of late night TV. While the jackhammer rhythms of punk were proliferating in NYC, The CRAMPS dove into the deepest recesses of the rock’n'roll psyche for the most primal of all rhythmic impulses — rockabilly — the sound of southern culture falling apart in a blaze of shudders and hiccups. As late night sci-fi reruns colored the room, The CRAMPS also picked and chose amongst the psychotic debris of previous rock eras - instrumental rock, surf, psychedelia, and sixties punk. And then they added the junkiest element of all — themselves.” J. H. Sasfy, Professor of Rockology, from the liner notes of The Cramps 1979 release Gravest Hits

The Cramps were one of my favourite bands when I was in my mid to late teens. They were pretty out there, as this footage from a gig they played at the Napa Vally Mental Hospital in California in 1978 attests. (Oh don’t look at me like that, they used to call such places by such names back then.)

“The Way I Walk” was one of my favourite Cramps songs and was on the 12″ EP referred to above (which I still have somewhere, in an old archive box).

http://youtube.com/watch?v=n5OMuj4FpII

Edit: Here’s another another Cramps video (there’s no shortage of them on YouTube), check out Lux Interior’s gravity-defying “hipsters”: Tear it Up.