The Cramps seemed to permeate northeastern Ohio culture in an insidious way. Even if you had never heard of the Cramps before, you somehow instinctively knew that Lux Interior was from Akron. That’s the way it felt, anyway. And the fact that my mother clipped Lux’s obituary from The Akron Beacon Journal for me when I’m certain that, if I mentioned the Cramps to her at all, it was only once or twice in the distant past bares this out.
One of the Cramps’ best-known songs is the deliciously depraved “Goo Goo Muck”.
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n7RVymaTMkc]
You may know that “Goo Goo Muck” is a cover of a 1962 tune by Ronnie Cook & the Gaylads. Little information is available about this band, and the only other song mentioned by them is the b-side to “Goo Goo Muck”, “The Scotch”.
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pn2kjIac8jk]
In the 1960s, instrumental bands were a happening thing in American rock ‘n’ roll. Groups like the Ventures, the Surfaris and, of course, Booker T. and the MGs experienced success to rival their vocals-enabled peers. When I began researching instrumental band the Fireballs, their 1958 single “Torquay” struck me as sounding very familiar…
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vs76somm2k4]