One of my favorite rock bands is the Cramps, founded in New York in the mid-1970’s.  They loved finding weird, obscure songs from the 1950’s and 1960’s and reintroducing them to the world in their albums and concerts, though their own original songs that were filtered through this sensibility are just as enjoyable.  A series of CD’s on Born Bad Records called Born Bad – a/k/a Songs the Cramps Taught Us (actually that might be two different CD series; I’ve never been able to tell for sure) – brought the original songs to the masses (as did a popular radio show by the band called The Purple Knif Show that was later released as an album also).  I have the first six volumes of Born Bad  (and were they expensive, too, at $18 a pop); but the price has come down recently, so I might see about getting some more.  (More about that another time).  At any rate:  Highly recommended.

 

Another cool thing about the Cramps is that they were always about half women, half men.  One of their drummers, Miriam Linna met Billy Miller at a record show in 1977; and their common musical interests led them to form a fanzine called Kicks, dedicated to obscure rock, soul and rockabilly.  They are now married.

 

(May 2011)