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TheCellarTapes · 09-03-2009, 01:51 PM

The Cramps - A Date With Elvis
(1986)

Tracks

1 How Far Can Too Far Go? 4:10
2 The Hot Pearl Snatch 3:19
3 People Ain't No Good 3:45
4 What's Inside a Girl? 3:21
5 Can Your Pussy Do the Dog? 3:21
6 Kizmiaz 3:01
7 Cornfed Dames 5:26
8 Chicken 1:40
9 (Hot Pool Of) Womanneed 3:09
10 Aloha from Hell 2:35
11 It's Just That Song 2:35

After well over four years of personnel changes and battles with the old record label, The Cramps were finally in the right place to make that long awaited comeback album. It’s a good job I was only 2 years old at the time they made it back into the studio, I don’t think I could have coped with the anticipation of it all. The personnel on this album is really the story, no longer a four piece Poison Ivy plays both lead and bass on this album following the departure of Kid Congo Powers back in 1983. But with the ever-present Nick Knox on drums and of course the marvellous Lux Interior on vocals, this album is far from a papering over the cracks exercise.

A Date With Elvis, released on Big Beat in 1986 after being recorded in 1985, was undoubtedly more of the same but after four years, it is no doubt a welcome edition to The Cramps catalogue and is entirely penned by Interior and Ivy, making this the first Cramps album to contain all original material, it should also be said, as well as laying down bass and some filthy fuzz filled guitar, Poison Ivy also Produced this record. The album begins with a noise more akin to the opener of I Had Too Much to Dream Last Night by The Electric Prunes from 1967; it soon beds in mind and returns to more Cramp like surroundings, How Far Can Too Far Go is what you’d expect.

The final bar of the opener merges nicely into the second track, the beautifully titled The Hot Pearl Snatch; again this is classic Cramps, thumping, filled with innuendo and musically filthy, the same can be said for the song What’s Inside a Girl and of course Can Your Pussy Do The Dog, for some reason when I hear Lux Interior sing these songs it sounds almost sweet and innocent. Track three; People Aint No Good starts with a school chorus of all things, a chorus that you can just about hear under the guitar and pounding drums if you listen close enough, all enhancing the normally retro sound of the band, marvellous!

Speaking of which, a first of first happens on track six, Kizmiaz, features the vocals of Poison Ivy, out of tune this may be, it reminds me of 1960’s all girl group The Shaggs, they were pretty dreadful, but this song aint too bad after a couple of listens, almost lovely after three listens, this song in particular is a departure for The Cramps.

Normal service is resumed for the final few tracks of this album, my favourite song Cornfed Dames, which sounds like a bastardised version of Not Fade Away, the beating yet sinister (Hot Pool of) Womanneed is glorious, and the album finishes well too, with the slow ballad of Its Just That Song, sang by Lux Interior like a slightly inebriated Elvis Presley, I ask you dear reader.....would you have it any other way? Its good to have you back!

09-03-2009, 01:51 PM	#9 (permalink)
TheCellarTapes Music Addict Join Date: Dec 2008 Posts: 490	The Cramps - A Date With Elvis *(1986)* Tracks 1 How Far Can Too Far Go? 4:10 2 The Hot Pearl Snatch 3:19 3 People Ain't No Good 3:45 4 What's Inside a Girl? 3:21 5 Can Your Pussy Do the Dog? 3:21 6 Kizmiaz 3:01 7 Cornfed Dames 5:26 8 Chicken 1:40 9 (Hot Pool Of) Womanneed 3:09 10 Aloha from Hell 2:35 11 It's Just That Song 2:35 After well over four years of personnel changes and battles with the old record label, The Cramps were finally in the right place to make that long awaited comeback album. It’s a good job I was only 2 years old at the time they made it back into the studio, I don’t think I could have coped with the anticipation of it all. The personnel on this album is really the story, no longer a four piece Poison Ivy plays both lead and bass on this album following the departure of Kid Congo Powers back in 1983. But with the ever-present Nick Knox on drums and of course the marvellous Lux Interior on vocals, this album is far from a papering over the cracks exercise. A Date With Elvis, released on Big Beat in 1986 after being recorded in 1985, was undoubtedly more of the same but after four years, it is no doubt a welcome edition to The Cramps catalogue and is entirely penned by Interior and Ivy, making this the first Cramps album to contain all original material, it should also be said, as well as laying down bass and some filthy fuzz filled guitar, Poison Ivy also Produced this record. The album begins with a noise more akin to the opener of I Had Too Much to Dream Last Night by The Electric Prunes from 1967; it soon beds in mind and returns to more Cramp like surroundings, How Far Can Too Far Go is what you’d expect. The final bar of the opener merges nicely into the second track, the beautifully titled The Hot Pearl Snatch; again this is classic Cramps, thumping, filled with innuendo and musically filthy, the same can be said for the song What’s Inside a Girl and of course Can Your Pussy Do The Dog, for some reason when I hear Lux Interior sing these songs it sounds almost sweet and innocent. Track three; People Aint No Good starts with a school chorus of all things, a chorus that you can just about hear under the guitar and pounding drums if you listen close enough, all enhancing the normally retro sound of the band, marvellous! Speaking of which, a first of first happens on track six, Kizmiaz, features the vocals of Poison Ivy, out of tune this may be, it reminds me of 1960’s all girl group The Shaggs, they were pretty dreadful, but this song aint too bad after a couple of listens, almost lovely after three listens, this song in particular is a departure for The Cramps. Normal service is resumed for the final few tracks of this album, my favourite song Cornfed Dames, which sounds like a bastardised version of Not Fade Away, the beating yet sinister (Hot Pool of) Womanneed is glorious, and the album finishes well too, with the slow ballad of Its Just That Song, sang by Lux Interior like a slightly inebriated Elvis Presley, I ask you dear reader.....would you have it any other way? Its good to have you back!