It’s a bank holiday weekend here in Blighty (May Day) which many business have decided to work through, which means I can go shopping, meet friends for coffee, go for dinner in the evening…I don’t see the point of having a Bank Holiday when retail, leisure, hospitality and tourism don’t recognise it…we don’t all work in the Banking, Insurance and office based industries…rant, rant, rant!! So without any further introduction…Stay Sick! is the fourth studio album by the American rock band the Cramps. It was released on February 12, 1990, by Enigma Records, recorded at Music Grinder in Hollywood, self-produced by guitarist Poison Ivy and engineered by Steve McMillan.
Review by Mark Deming
"I dig that god damn rock & roll/The kind of stuff that don't save souls." Less than three minutes into 1990's Stay Sick!, the Cramps had summed up their entire aesthetic in a mere 16 words, and even if Lux Interior hadn't bothered to wail that deathless phrase, the buzzy, reverb-soaked report of Poison Ivy Rorschach's guitar and the primal earthquake stomp of Nick Knox's drums reminded us this band liked its music dirty, both sonically and thematically. If 1986's A Date with Elvis was an impressive return to form after a long recording layoff, 1990's Stay Sick! was in some respects an even more powerful example of the Cramps' singular oozing psychobilly madness; with Candy del Mar, they had their best fourth wheel since Bryan Gregory left the band, a bassist whose solid, ferocious low-end thump made more room for Ivy's feral guitar work, and the band rarely sounded tighter or more effective than it did here. Songs the Lord Taught Us was arguably Lux Interior's high point as a vocalist, but he rarely sounded as strong and committed as he does on Stay Sick!, howling and hiccupping like a madman and keeping up with the band at all times. The Cramps remained obsessed with sex at its least wholesome on Stay Sick!, but "Daisys Up Your Butterfly," "Creature from the Black Leather Lagoon," and "Journey to the Centre of a Girl" demonstrated they were capable of finding new varieties of perversity around every corner, and the opening cover of Macy Skipper's "Bop Pills" is on hand to reassure us that they hadn't forgotten about the importance of dangerous drugs. The production (by Poison Ivy herself) is big and boomy but absolutely fits the outsized personality of the band, and these celebrations of all manner of bad behaviour are funny, exciting, and suitable for exotic dancing. Stay Sick! would prove to be the band's last album with Nick Knox on drums, and the Cramps were never quite this good again, but these wild grooves are a pulsating reminder of what they could achieve at the height of their powers.
Punk bands come and go, but The Cramps were in a class of their own. Like The Ramones, they defined rock ‘n’ roll in its purest terms: rattling rhythm and noise aggression - no frills. Bargain-bin archaeologists, they understood that music labelled “novelty”, derided by the cognoscenti as “gimmicky”, is vital to rock ‘n’ roll’s spirit and form.
The Cramps' core members were the husband and wife team of singer Lux Interior (Erick Purkhiser) and guitarist Poison Ivy Rorschach (Kristy Wallace): art-school bohemians who met in Sacramento, California. After a stint in Ohio, they found kindred souls in the nascent New York CBGB’s punk scene. Their blend of rockabilly and punk thrash set them apart, and their wild shows gained them rabid followers. On one side you had Interior dressed in a gender-bending costume, commanding the stage like a shrewd carny, his singing peppered with howls, growls, and pants. On the other you had Poison Ivy looking like a Burlesque queen, shaking a blaze of red curls over her vintage Gretsch guitar. Self-taught, she had developed her unique picking style listening to Fifties greats like Link Wray and Cliff Gallup.
Stay Sick! was the group’s fourth studio album and their first with a bass player. 1986's A Date With Elvis, their previous album, marked a turning point when Poison Ivy added bass to the patterned Cramps sound. Bass duties for Stay Sick! were handled by Candy Del Mar, and the guitar and bass interaction with Poison Ivy is one of the album’s joys.
Like previous Cramps records, Stay Sick! is a celebration of trash culture. The band’s aesthetic finds nourishment in sci-fi and horror movies, low-brow art, thrift-store junk, and girlie mags, summed up in this line: “G-strings ‘n’ gin ‘n’ nylon hose/ Chicken pot pie… everything goes!” All nine originals here are about cheap thrills and lurid sex, and The Cramps were masters of the tongue in cheek. In a song like God Damn Rock ‘N’ Roll, no redemption is sought in the music, which “don’t save souls and I’m just horny enough to throw a flying screw thru' some halo”. This suggestive edge is played to maximum effect in songs like Daisys Up Your Butterfly, Saddle Up A Buzz Buzz, and Bikini Girls With Machine Gun, the latter becoming the group’s highest charting hit in the UK.
One could always depend on the group to give a new spin to non-originals. Bop Pills and old chestnut, Shortnin’ Bread, get the red-lightning treatment, and Muleskinner Blues will make you laugh. The most valuable player here is Poison Ivy, whose crisp production makes this one of the best sounding Cramps records. An under-rated guitarist, her showcase here is Journey To The Center Of A Girl, where she lays down a dizzying combination of reverb, tremolo, and feedback. By the way, that’s her in fishnets on the album’s cover, the liner notes identifying her as “Ukhan Kizmiaz”.
Stay Sick! is loaded with fun, a great party record for people who like hard and fast rock ‘n’ roll. Sadly, Lux Interior is no longer with us, but his memory will linger on for old and new fans in albums like this. Considering the great legacy of music he left behind, The Cramps will pass into legend.
By Angel Aguilar 5 November, 2011
1 Bop Pills
2 God Damn Rock'n'roll
3 Bikini Girls With Machine Guns
4 All Women Are Bad
5 The Creature From The Black Leather Lagoon
6 Shortnin' Bread
7 Daisys Up Your Butterfly
8 Everything Goes
9 Journey To The Center Of A Girl
10 Mama Oo Pow Pow
11 Saddle Up A Buzz Buzz
12 Muleskinner Blues
13 Her Love Rubbed Off
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