Later, Lux

it was 1982 and way past my bedtime. in fact, i had to sneak out of my bedroom, turn my doorknob very very slowly and then silently - at my most teenage paranoid - creep down the hall to the tv in the living room. it was midnight and Night Flight was on channel 50 (out of Santa Rosa, CA). i wanted to watch "URGH! A music war," but my parents would never allow it. for one it included staying up past 9pm (no matter that i'm an insomniac) and secondly, it involved punk rock (what is it? they wondered, alarmed) on the TV. "why would a midnight movie be any good for our daughter?"

so i snuck. i put big floor pillows around the screen, through which i peered. this cut the light that seemed gigantic in our small house, where my unpredictably raging step-dad lived and ruled. we had a vcr. it was pretty new. it was a top-loader, which i always considered more sophisticated, contradictory to what turned out to be the trend. i slid my tape in. i had the volume dial turned all the way down but i couldn't get it quiet enough. i pressed play. god, those machines were loud. any minute i could be discovered and grounded forever.

and then it came on. the movie. i watched it for the Police but then i saw The Cramps, among many others of an ilk i knew nothing of. i was just catching on to Punk Rock but swayed by the pretty boys of New Wave. i watched Lux Interior slither around like a snake/lizard. poison ivy swirled her hips like a whirlpool in the works. i remember feeling nothing but frozen, i was MESMERIZED and scared at the same time. i had no idea what was going on, but it was out of this world and i couldn't stop watching.

now Lux is dead. i'm 38 and Lux has died.

the last time i saw The Cramps...is hard to say. they played SF every halloween for a good decade. I went four times. I think.

what's more ingrained in my memory is the second time i ever heard them.

my friend JP had moved into a studio on Harriet, right off 6th and Howard in the City. he was painting and listening to this instantly, almost-too perfect, hip-swaying, shot-shootin', rowdy, dirty, grindy punk rock. i asked who it was. he laughed a little and said, "The Cramps." it was 1995. i couldn't believe it. i remembered seeing Lux as a 12-year-old and this, THIS is the music he wrote?! that scary man with the slithery body?

and JP said, yeah, you know, THE CRAMPS!* hahhahaha.



so sad to hear Lux left today. his death came too soon for a man never a note, a grind, a kiss, a sway different than on he was on Night Flight at midnight in 1982.


*(they're instantly lovable. JP gave me some tapes. i couldn't believe i did not know. they were so accessible and fun, "Can your pussy do the dog?" AND they played NAPA STATE. how cool can you get?)

Favorite Cramps Song: The Most Exalted Potentate of Love.