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Street Dogs - State of Grace

The Cramps

Songs the Lord Taught Us
1980
Vengeance

The Cramps - Songs the Lord Taught Us (Cover Artwork)


Review by: im-dead
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www.thecramps.com (link)

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Published on September 25th 2005

Without them, there would be no Misfits (Danzig's got nothing on Lux), no Damned, no Tiger Army and Nekromantix, no Rancid...the list of the influenced is endless. This group of wonderfully weird dudes and a dudette invented the whole fuckin' rockabilly genre. They are the Cramps, baby, an entity unto themselves!

Formed in '76, and fueled by late night campy horror flicks, the Cramps dug deep into the senses of rock'n'roll, incorprating elements of sixties punk, surf, psychedelia, and instrumental rock into their music to create something truly unique. Their music was not pretty by any means, but it sure was beautifully ugly. And this, a collection of their best, dubbed Songs the Lord Taught Us, is a true masterpiece in every sense of the word.

KIcking things off is "TV Set," complete with an infectious riff and superb lyricism by Lux Interior, who sounds like a hybrid of Elvis Presley and Frankenstein's monster. Other highlights for me include "Garbageman," the very surfy "Rock on the Moon," "I'm Cramped" (a wonderful instrumental with the words of the title repeated throughout), and my personal favourite "I Was a Teenage Werewolf," but you'll find your own. And if you're lucky, you might just find the special edition version, which features a bunch of remixes and a brand new song, "Twist and Shout."

Bottom line: The Cramps are just as vital today as they were in their prime. And while there have been many imitators, nothing can compare to the raw power of this tantalizing travesty. So just buy this damn record and let the music crawl and slither into your ears.

The Cramps don't pummel and you won't Pogo. They Ooze, You Throb
-- Dr J.H Sasfy, Professor of Rockology, American Rock'n'Roll Institute.

Please excuse me, my friends, as I kiss the sky.



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    Posted by Anonymous on Monday, January 16, 2006 at 11:44 PM (EST)

    any cd by the cramps is good you idiot, why even vote on it?

    Posted by lushj on 2005-09-29 02:30:52
    My Score:

    This is a classic album, and helped bridge the gap between the 60's punk/fuzz guitar nuts, the 50's rockabilly purists, and help put an evil yet sexy face on psychobilly.

    P.S.- When I saw them in the mid-90s Lux was still completely nuts and bone-thin. He went through 6 microphones in one show, great stuff!

    Posted by Fuzzy on 2005-09-29 00:53:08

    Definitely not ageist. I just think you're wrong a lot of times, and you happen to be young. There's no corrolation.

    Posted by joeg on 2005-09-27 19:52:39

    No. Not at all. But especially since you guys are all ageist and don't think high schoolers make good music, I feel the need to point out that in the late 70's Ian and his friends were what you would now call "fashion punks."

    DC had numerous punk bands before the Bad Brains or Minor Threat...

    -Will

    -dude, you seriously need to chill with the whole "ageism" hangup because i don't see it that much, if at all around here. minor threat were made up of a bunch of young kids. we know it and we get it. tootles!

    Posted by rkl on 2005-09-27 19:48:06

    damnit, bsd. i agree with you more than anyone on this site..
    but you gotta stop riding the hell out of one anchors comments.
    its anchors.
    everyone knows hes full of shit, stop letting it bother you, damn.

    Posted by Anonymous on Tuesday, September 27, 2005 at 3:13 PM (EDT)

    No. Not at all. But especially since you guys are all ageist and don't think high schoolers make good music, I feel the need to point out that in the late 70's Ian and his friends were what you would now call "fashion punks."

    DC had numerous punk bands before the Bad Brains or Minor Threat...

    -Will

    Posted by Fuzzy on 2005-09-26 23:59:17

    Oh man, Will's gone over the edge now. He's so punk even Minor Threat are posers!

    Posted by Anonymous on Monday, September 26, 2005 at 8:23 PM (EDT)

    "the cramps are playing bars. what the fuck are you gonna play a bar for? nobody can see them! that's bullshit man"

    i'm pretty sure the majority of people who want to see the cramps are over 21

    Posted by joeg on 2005-09-26 20:09:06

    "The Cramps - Songs the Lord Taught Us
    Posted by joeg on 2005-09-26 17:09:14

    the cramps are playing bars. what the fuck are you gonna play a bar for? nobody can see them! that's bullshit man
    except people that were born in or before 1987.
    if youre really upset, kiddo, go punch your mom in the kidney and scream at her for not spreading her legs earlier. its not the cramps' fault she had morals prior to downing a fifth of skol"

    apparently you've never seen 'another state of mind' you see there's this one scene.......ah forget it.

    Posted by Anonymous on Monday, September 26, 2005 at 7:51 PM (EDT)

    You are a moron

    Rockabilly was invented in the mid 1950's by a bunch of white country singers trying to do black r&b. Please don't make the mistake of saying the genre didn't exist untill the cramps formed in the late 70's

    second of all
    The Damned and The Misfits were going to exist without the cramps.
    Untill 1980 the cramps were just a local nyc punk act. the damned had already formed, broken up, and got back together

    I love the cramps
    but you are stupid

    Posted by rkl on 2005-09-26 17:44:09

    The Cramps - Songs the Lord Taught Us
    Posted by joeg on 2005-09-26 17:09:14

    the cramps are playing bars. what the fuck are you gonna play a bar for? nobody can see them! that's bullshit man

    except people that were born in or before 1987.
    if youre really upset, kiddo, go punch your mom in the kidney and scream at her for not spreading her legs earlier. its not the cramps' fault she had morals prior to downing a fifth of skol.

    Posted by joeg on 2005-09-26 17:09:14

    the cramps are playing bars. what the fuck are you gonna play a bar for? nobody can see them! that's bullshit man

    Posted by Anonymous on Monday, September 26, 2005 at 4:13 PM (EDT)

    DC punk was around before Ian and his friends saw the Cramps... In fact, they were kind of the posers of the day.

    -Will

    Posted by Anonymous on Monday, September 26, 2005 at 3:07 PM (EDT)

    "This is an amazing piece of rock n' roll sleaze. Definitely one of the best bands ever to crawl out of the muck!"

    haha worst comment ever. EVER.

    and i could do without danzig, hes a dumb fucker

    Posted by Anonymous on Monday, September 26, 2005 at 3:04 PM (EDT)

    Cramps over the damned any day. No fucking contest.

    Posted by Jet on 2005-09-26 13:41:04

    Hey kids,

    Matt Skiba likes this band!!

    -Best Buy

    Posted by Mr_Pink on 2005-09-26 12:26:24

    DC punk began at a Cramps show. Ian & Co. were there, and that planted the seed. I still need to see that psych ward show dvd. Cramps were/are/always will be great.

    Posted by stevejonestherealbones on 2005-09-26 01:53:22

    what instrument does the floating head play?

    - jones the bones

    - stevejones8770@yahoo..com

    Posted by Fuzzy on 2005-09-26 00:40:37

    Alice Cooper definitely wasn't doing the horror rock schlock bit before these guys.......

    Posted by sirens on 2005-09-25 21:38:21

    YESSSQ!QQ!!!
    Fuck the craps,

    Superdude is back.

    Posted by Anonymous on Sunday, September 25, 2005 at 6:20 PM (EDT)

    invented rockabilly. come on, thats a strech. there would be no damned or misfits without the cramps. i dont think so. the misfits were forming at the same time as the cramps and the damned were forming before the cramps even became popular. the cramps are a great band, but the author of this review makes them to be more than they are.

    Posted by rkl on 2005-09-25 18:18:46

    didnt one of the original members of the cramps form a white power band?

    -too lazy to look shit up

    Posted by stevejonestherealbones on 2005-09-25 17:49:32

    since that duder is a doctor of rockology, he may as well just change his name to Sassy from Sasfy..not like it means anything. it doesnt matter, none of that stuff means anything anyway. just say smith. none of this matters . it dont matter. just say smith

    - jones the bones

    - stevejones8770@yahoo.com

    Posted by Anonymous on Sunday, September 25, 2005 at 5:24 PM (EDT)
    My Score:

    This is an amazing piece of rock n' roll sleaze. Definitely one of the best bands ever to crawl out of the muck!

    Posted by tylerdurden8136 on 2005-09-25 16:39:02
    My Score:

    this album is pure goodness, along with pretty much anything else the cramps have done.

    Posted by Anonymous on Sunday, September 25, 2005 at 4:20 PM (EDT)

    if there is any band the cramps are responsible for creating, it's minor threat. ian mackaye has stated many times that he was introduced to punk rock by seeing the cramps one day and was very inspired.

    Posted by joeg on 2005-09-25 12:13:11

    after picking this up, i suggest getting 'psychedilic jungle/gravest hits' next which i actually like a little better than this one.

    Posted by joeg on 2005-09-25 12:05:06
    My Score:

    awesome

    Posted by Anonymous on Sunday, September 25, 2005 at 11:04 AM (EDT)

    i imagine the fellow meant the creation of psychobilly as a genre. which, if you ask me, is not a genre at all. all it amounts to, to me, is a change in lyrical content.

    don't forget about screamin jay either for that horror rock thing (or gimmick). and that was in the early days of rock and roll as well.

    Posted by superdude on 2005-09-25 09:55:18

    Dear the Cramps,

    So I bought this album the other day because my girlfriend said she had cramps and she didn't want to make out. So I start thinking, why would some old band make my girlfriend not want to make out with me?

    After looking around the record store for a while I got this album and then I took it home and called her and said "Don't worry, I don't need to make out either, I've got The Cramps too." Then I turned it on and fiogured it all out.

    Your band totally makes people not want to make out. I think it even makes people sick, mostly girls. At school I always hear girls saying, "Oh, my cramps are so bad." And I'm like, "Well, why don't you just try listening to something else?"

    But trust me, the real money is is make-out music. Just ask R. Kelly.

    Yours,
    Superdude

    Posted by inanechild on 2005-09-25 09:21:12
    My Score:

    Yeah, I think the reviewer meant to say that they're singlehandedly responsible for making it cool to mix rockabilly with punk - they showed up about 20 years too late for the original rockabilly.

    Posted by Anonymous on Sunday, September 25, 2005 at 8:40 AM (EDT)
    My Score:

    this is a fuckin great album from the cramps ...hey the cramps only released great Albums (except their last regular one was not too great)...at least it is reviewed here

    Posted by Anonymous on Sunday, September 25, 2005 at 3:52 AM (EDT)

    This review sucks. The fact that you say "This group of wonderfully weird dudes and a dudette invented the whole fuckin' rockabilly genre." is so blindingly ignorant that I think I can hear Carl Perkins rolling over in his grave.

    Posted by Anonymous on Sunday, September 25, 2005 at 2:09 AM (EDT)

    The Damned actually formed before them. The Misfits sound nothing like them.

    Praising them for being the first horror rock group is faulty, because Screaming Lord Sutch was kicking out sides in the early 60's, and he most certainly had a horror theme that he mixed with 50's rock.

    And oh yeah, the Damneds' first album is ten times better than this. Just because Dave Vanian wore Dracula make up doesn't make them "horror rock." The Damned were above that sort of nonsense back when they had a talented song writer (their guitarist Brian James).

    -Will

    Posted by Anonymous on Sunday, September 25, 2005 at 2:05 AM (EDT)

    The Damned and Misfits were all formed only shortly after Cramps. It's a bit of an exaggeration to say they wouldnt exist if it wasnt for the Cramps. They were more of their peers than mentors.

    Posted by wehavecomeforyourchildren on 2005-09-25 01:11:24

    i'm with you on pretty much everything except for the claim about rancid.

    do you really think rancid wouldn't have existed without the cramps? i mean, i don't even like rancid, but i don't think the cramps had that much of an influence on them or the bands that directly influenced them.

    Posted by Anonymous on Sunday, September 25, 2005 at 12:57 AM (EDT)

    This band was too cool for a bassist. They are awesome.

    That said, the sight of make-up caked 50-somethings running around on stage acting wild is kind of gross and unwanted.

    -Will

    Posted by gladimnotemo on 2005-09-25 00:47:46
    My Score:

    This is one of the best rock and roll albums of all time.