it's a pretty fair assumption that anyone who would read my blog has heard the cramps. they were punk before there was punk. i mean, some people date punk from about 1976 when the ramones, heartbreakers, blondie, television, et. all began playing c.b.g.b.'s in new york.
1976. the cramps formed in 1972. a band out of time if there ever was one.
his passing comes only about a month after the death of ron asheton, founding guitarist of the stooges, the original proto punk band. also this week, i heard on the radio that this is the fiftieth anniversary of the plane crash that took the life of buddy holly, a music pioneer so original that he could only be labeled in the context of what came AFTER him.
so rock music is at least half a century old. that's a hard number for me to wrap my head around.
almost as hard of a number as sixty two, the stated age of lux interior.
recorded media seems to cause a sort of time displacement. elizabeth taylor will always be the liz taylor of Suddenly Last Summer or Cleopatra. we don't have to think about her being in her eighties if we choose not to.
this same time displacement effect hits me when i think of someone from a band like the cramps or the stooges hitting their sixth decade. recordable media of all kinds hold these people suspended in time, wild, crazy, maybe bare chested and drug fueled. rocking like there is no tomorrow, no future, only NOW. RIGHT NOW.
that these people dare to age, dare to live in the same time stream as us regular folks, seems almost deceitful. that our stars dare to have the same mundane problems as us, that they would die ordinary deaths in a hospital or while watching t.v. at home, seems to betray the idea of rock stars needing to die before they get old.
it is almost like there are two parallel time streams that cross over meet only to inform us that someone is not the person you remember from a decades old album cover or some concert back in 19-whenever.
i will remember lux interior by playing the cramps rockinandreeelininauklandnewzealand c.d. really loud tonight.
condolences to his wife and family.
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