Here's another old one- More Favourite things- The Cramps!

The Cramps are absolutely one of my favourite goddamned bands of all time. My favourite album? I can't pick just one.

Honestly, I can't do it and here's why. Technology. When I was much younger, I used to get all my music on vinyl or cassette. Those were the 2 main options. Vinyl sounded better, and LOOKED a thousand times better (I really miss the 12 inch album cover) but portability sucked. So cassettes would be in the walkman, in the greasy boomboox at work (I was a cook for a lotta years, see) and in the car.

So I'd buy whichever format was cheaper, usually, but the vinyl for stuff I loved. And I fuckin' loved the Cramps. Still do. If a psycho blend of punk rock and rockabilly sounds like your kinda thing then the Cramps are simply essential. Buy their stuff. All of it. IMMEDIATELY.

Anyway- back to my favourite Cramps offering. There's two albums I'd call my favourite, only I basically think of them as one record.Date with Elvis from 1986 and the 1990 record Stay Sick! I had these copied on a 90 minute cassette, and would jam the tape in and just let it play on repeat basically forever. So after the cover of Charlie Feathers' It's Just That Song, I expect to hear Bop Pills. And when Muleskinner Blues ends, I want to hear How Far Can Too Far Go?

That's just the way it is for me. Even now that I'm listening to stuff either on a computer, or my phone just as likely, I always play these albums back to back as one complete, fantastic, listening experience. Go give it a try- it makes perfect sense to me.


 

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