this makes me so so so sad. is it true? he's "died" many times... i'm sad, tho i never met the cramps, only saw them perform (not sure how many times). but isn't that what used to make movie stars STARS??? they were not FRIENDS, they weren't like us, & i never deluded myself i'd get to know such stars. they were punk-rock royalty, beautiful monsters, vinyl fetishists, dadaists, preservers & purveyors of the best of american shlocky movie & musical midnight CULTure. historians. archivists! art used to manage them (they fired him; he can tell that story) but saw them at the movies a few yrs back & said, w/typical understatement, "lux & ivy still cut quite a figure." greg got snubbed, heck, screwed by them when he printed his interview w/them in the wrong mag. (he can tell that story.) but really, who expects nicety from such folks? they were above & below that. yrs ago, our old bassist robert ran a crazy mag out of vegas & he erased the tape he interviewed lux on, so he just made it up. it was one of the funniest things i ever read; wish i had a copy.
they were monstrous & magical & probably saved 1000s of outsider kids & people in general from committing suicide, just be BEING. (i know i felt less alien & horrible when i listened to the cramps & gazed at their alluring amazing mythical weird & wild visages & dreamed about being that cool & bad & knowing i never would & feeling transcended...) yet for their site, they picked this lovely pic, which is "tarzan & his mate"-old-hollywood glamorous. there was so much romance riding under the dark wild thrills of the cramps.
i guess i just wrote a lot. this whole thing ain't about me, but part of my youth just died, so that merits a bit of blabla, is what i think. :(
here's the report. be sure to watch the videos. my favorite interview's not yet on youtube: in it, lux, looking like boris karloff in drag, drops weird, gentle, spacy one-liners like jonathan winters. it made me wish i knew him. a real star has fallen.
http://www.thedailyswarm.com/headlines/cramps-lux-interior-rip/
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addendum:
well, it turns out many people i know knew the cramps. and lux was a gentleman. when offstage, gentle. a nice person. and they were into health food. and they really loved each other, tho the nature of the love changed when they got older. and they were true blue & knew what they were & didn't compromise one iota, & that's even more what made them special. and, and, and... the more i learn, the more i know i missed out. should've made more attempt to meet them. but oh well; what's most important is all the great music we all got from the cramps, & their terrific example of sticking to one's guns, how that's really the ticket, not compromising just to try to be popular... (me) (that is, ynnej)
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