Songs The Lord Taught Us

The Cramps…am I right ladies? A fitting name for…J/k…I know I’m NOT allowed to make that joke. My apologies and I withdraw the entire approach. I’ll stick with the Strychnine angle. Ironically I’m Cramped is the least offensive song because there are very few words. They must have known the minimal words made this track stand out because the song is on the album twice, and sounds essentially the same. I don’t even know what to say. Rock On The Moon should be renamed Let’s Make Loosely Synchronized Noise Quickly. There’s a lot to say about this album, and not much of it is good so I won’t pile on too much. The album is a disjointed mess, which is mostly on the lead singer who comes in and out of tempo at will. The guitar and drums are in synch (a ha! a good thing to say) if not almost entirely basic in their composition (well almost), but still the guitarist played the somberly, monotonic line to Fever OK…the whole song (ahhh the ‘ol complement sandwich). In I Was A Teenage Werewolf (With False Start) someone interrupts a recording session and a member of the band says, “Man, nobody fuckin’ stops a take of The Cramps in the fuckin’ studio! Now get outta here! I mean it. Get the fuck out!” Oh I wish they had stopped all the takes, saved the band their $80/hr for studio time, and mercifully saved me from listening to this album.

Pushead. The common denominator uniting, among others, Thrasher, Metalica, Zorlac and The Cramps in the 80's. In those days, Thrasher magazine had a full on music section featuring interviews with bands like The Cramps, TSOL, JFA, D.R.I. along with black and white photos of shows and general punk rock mayhem. Before I even heard them, I knew I'd like them because of Pushead's contribution to their album art.(https://tinyurl.com/4xedxr63). However, I really didn't listen. It was just music that everyone listened to while skating backyard ramps. I hadn't really thought much about their music until this album popped up. After spending the better part of the past day listening to The Cramps with a different ear several things emerged. First, my parents had no idea the shit I was exposed to. Second, this is great stuff, I hear Jack White, Makeup, Horton Heat and John Spencer in this. Visually though, I think of this as an alternate version of Sally Field's Gidget character, from the 60's TV program 'Gidget.' In this version Gidget is dead, roams the Malibu beaches as a powdery white zombie vampire, preys on goody-two-shoes surfers, worships satan and drinks blood around campfires. The Cramps provide the tracks for the opening / closing credits and a maybe a zombie dance montage on the beach. Songs The Lord Taught Us plays like a ghoulish take on Dick Dale, rockabilly punk with some Charles Manson thrown in. It's easy to get lost in the beach drums, surf guitar and acid tripping of this, but be careful. Every episode ends when Zombie Gidget sexxy dances toward you, bludgeons you to death and sinks her teeth into your neck for a midnight snack.

My grandmother, Cookie, and I used to sit up late on Saturday nights in her Galveston beach house and watch the local ABC affiliate’s weekly broadcast of 'WEIRD,' mc-ed by a campy host in a black cape who introduced whatever horror movies they were running that evening. This was in the 1960s mind you, so the horror flicks were mostly things like ‘Day of the Triffids,’ and ‘Invasion of the Body Snatchers,’ stuff like that. And, of course, the classic unholy trinity of ‘Frankenstein,’ ‘Dracula,’ and ‘The Werewolf.’ I was always scared, yet not really. It was different than the time a neighbor’s dog chased me down the block on my Schwinn nipping at my heels, or the time I ran home fast because a perv in a van (honest to God) offered me candy for a ride. That was legitimate, real life fear. The monster movies were only pretend fear, and served the purpose of a cathartic release, a confrontation of terror with the goal of a purification at the end. You may not buy this, finding no value whatsoever in the horror genre of literature and film, but for those of you who do, who have had a similar positive experience to mine, you will love The Cramps’ 'Songs The Lord Taught Us.' (Incidentally, the significance of the title of this record is lost on me. I would’ve gone with the more obvious 'Rock Around the Shock,' or something of that nature, but anyway…) It would come as no surprise to me that many folks will hate this record with the kind of distaste one feels immediately upon realizing that they’ve stepped in dog shit. So, allow me to address that group. Forget all the horror imagery and think of this record, instead, as satire. I believe that’s the real and greater intent of The Cramps than to simply terrorize us. Satire, as I understand it, involves the use of exaggeration, often in humorous ways, to expose and critique things in the general culture. Listen to some of these lyrics, ignoring the horror, and concentrate on what the lyricist might be trying to satirize: ‘I was a teenage werewolf, braces on my fangs… You know, I have puberty rights, and I have puberty wrongs (‘I Was a Teenage Werewolf’).’ ‘I been seeing you for months coming to this place. Now what I wanna know is, honey, when can I see your face?... Ooh, let me have a look in here… Eeeeeek! Well, curiosity killed this cat, sorry I ever asked. What I don’t know can’t hurt me as much as what’s behind the mask (‘What’s Behind the Mask’).’ ‘Mystery Plane,’ about a woman impregnated by an alien: ‘Now I just can’t identify with this world so I don’t try. Square pegs don’t fit into round holes, and I can’t fit into these clothes. My daddy’ unidentified. My mom says I just appeared inside. Looks like a case of hit and run, but off the record it’s no fun.’ Or my personal favorite, ‘Sunglasses After Dark’: ‘I got something to say to you and you better listen. I’m’a tell ya how to be cool in one easy lesson. Sunglasses after dark… Went out last Saturday night. Got myself in a knife fight. Everybody got cut includin’ me, ‘cause not one of us cats could see!’ Musically, The Cramps have arched completely over the swing set bar, a full 360 degrees, and turned inside out as a result; meaning, that they’re so bad they’re good. Oh, how they need a standup bass, though. That would really give their thrillbilly sound a good bottom. And I could play it, I know I could, even with no prior experience. I’d need about a weekend’s practice, and then I’d be good to go. Nick Knox is appropriately pounding away on this toms signaling the zombies to rise from the dead and shuffle on down to the dance hall. Bryan Gregory and Poison Ivy Rorschach on guitars take everything wonderful about the interplay between Keith Richards and Mick Taylor’s guitar work in the Rolling Stones’ glory years, and toss it out the window to it’s death. At times, many times, Poison Ivy’s lead guitar seems to be purposefully playing in a different key entirely to the one in which Gregory’s playing. But, in a good way, strange as that may sound. And it does. And Lux Interior’s vocals are kind of like Elvis on meth, while still chewing on a peanut butter & ‘nanner sandwich. In fact, the entire band sounds like a cross between Bill Hailey & the Comets, and The Munsters, on a Red Bull bender. It’s one rollicking mess. I mean, when you begin an LP with tribal drums, followed by pure garage guitar with heavy echo (and the uniquely squeaky sound of a hand on the fret board changing chords), and then lyrics like: ‘Oh baby I see you on my TV set… I cut your head off and put it on my TV set. I use your eyeballs for dial on my TV set. I watch TV since I put you on my TV set,’ you pretty much know you’re traveling off the beaten path. This ain’t Toto by a long shot. Oh, and when the next verse describes his baby’s other parts dripping all down the radio, I think they were actually turning a radio dial randomly back and forth for a solo! A radio dial solo! This is a first for me in listening history. When they play ‘Tear It Up,’ they don’t mean it figuratively, like most rockabilly bands. They really mean tear it up, accentuated by Poison Ivy’s screaming in the background for the entire song. I imagine all of these songs were all one-takers in the studio, and the whole thing from recording to release might have occurred on a Saturday, with time left over to do the live gig that evening. And that’s a good thing. The Cramps would suffer from too much practice, too much studio polish. They’ve got the attitude. Just turn the amps up and let ‘em rock n’ roil. Great fun. True originals. A band that might even twist a chuckle out of the otherwise dour belly of Leonard Cohen. They sure showed me a good time. And isn’t that one of the reasons why we love to rock anyway? 5/5 (for entirely different reasons than the 5/5 I gave the Rolling Stones’ Sticky Fingers)

I was a teenager, sitting up late one night watching Rage on the TV. I got a lot of my musical education sitting up into the wee small hours watching music videos, which often delved into the esoteric and alternative as the night wore on. And it was probably about 2am when I saw this live footage of the Cramps performing 'Can your pussy do the dog?' (https://youtu.be/Bta9s0hONRo?t=413), and I immediately sat up and recognized this as the real deal. It was cool and sexy and dangerous and raw. The Cramps always had that. Over their career, you can see the way they refined their aesthetic (and Poison Ivy's guitar playing had certainly improved by 1986), but this debut album is such a great example of what rock and roll is. To loosely paraphrase Charles Shaar Murray, if rock and roll was about technique, then Emerson lake and Palmer would be the greatest rock band of all time (hock, spit). But it isn't. This album sounds like it was recorded in a tin shed with one microphone (Phillips Recording, in Memphis), and I'll est my hat if this took more than a day to record. No overdubs and not a lot of re-takes, this is a warts and all blast of rock and roll, taking the blueprint of rockabilly, and hyping it up into something even bigger. It's fast and loud and dangerous and sexy and cool and wild and raw, and all the things that make rock and roll really great. to try and confine this to a pigeonhole of 'psychobilly' protects us from the frightening implication that _this_ is what true rock sounds like, and not something new and niche. The originals fit in seamlessly with the covers, showing that this is not an aberration, but part of the continuum of rock. I have been listening to this record obsessively for the past few days. It is, in many ways, a terrible record -- poorly recorded, badly played, juvenile in spirit, obnoxious and wild -- and for all those things, I love it. It is a tonic to my soul after enduring so many pretentious, overproduced, too refined albums (Stephen Stills, I';m looking at you). It is a great regret in my life that I never saw the Cramps live. Mea maxima culpa.

Before they were a ubiquitous band tee, The Cramps were a punkabilly band, combining the manic energy of punk with bluesy basslines and twangy rockabilly guitar. Top it off with the goth aesthetic of Misfits, and you have a recipe for a thrashy, lo-fi punk hoedown. Songs The Lord Taught Us was close to an hour long, and even with the remastering, the production was just passable enough for one to make out the walking blues bass lines and jangly guitar solos on tracks like Rock On The Moon. The band also covered Fever, a typically jazz (?) number that sounded more Bauhaus and less Billie Holiday. The Cramps succeeded in carving a little niche for themselves as a goth psychobilly group, paving the way for future acts like the Nekromantiks, Tiger Army and the Horrorpops. While that in itself is a noteworthy feat, what impresses this writer is the ability for a forebear of what is a pretty niche subgenre to have such dynamic range within a single record. Apart from the aforementioned Fever reinterpretation and straight up rockabilly anthem, songs like I Was A Teenage Werewolf sees the band exercise a bluesy swagger that ZZ Top would approve of. Overall, we really see the band push the boundaries of their rockabilly influences by ripping off boogie-woogie, blues and country, all while keeping true to the punk spirit of simplicity.

How can I not like this album? Raucous, primal, swampy punk produced by Alex Chilton no less. My only regret is that the Cramps never really hit my ears and loins until way past my teens when they would have been so potent. I can't fault this album. I will admit that it is maybe not for everyone but isn't that the case for all great bands

This was more fun than I had expected to have at the outset. SONGS THE LORD TAUGHT US is chock full of punk-meets-rock-and-heads-to-the-beach songs. It includes a cover of “Fever” that I had listened to in the past. There’s a lot of silliness in the lyrics - a song about wearing “Sunglasses at Night” to be cool (causing injuries during a knife fight), being a “Teenage Werewolf”, or ones daddy driving a UFO (“Mystery Plane”). But the apparent silliness only slightly obscures some real angst like getting abandoned by your father, being a misfit, or trying to fit in. I ended up liking this album much more than I had expected. My main complaint for the original 13 tracks were the muddiness of the vocals in the mix. Interestingly tracks 14-18 include a few different recordings and a few new songs and all sounded much better to me. My favorite songs: “Garbageman”, “Mystery Plane”, “Fever”, “Mad Daddy”, “Tear It Up” Enjoyed many songs on this. Not exactly something I want to listen to as a whole album necessarily but happy to revisit a lot of these songs. Probably then rates a 3.5 but I’ll round up for the clever lyrics.

It’s a psycho billy freak out! The Cramps, one of the best live bands ever. They used to go absolutely wild on stage and Lux Interior is one of the craziest frontmen I’ve ever scene. They clearly love punk, garage and surf music and I love it too. This record got a whole bunch of weirdos into punk music and I’m grateful for it. Favorite track: Garbageman Least favorite track: Sunglasses After Dark, I suppose

Good album. I found the psychobilly sound really interesting. There's a horror campiness to the album with excellent guitar licks and some psychedelic influence. ***

Okay, I get what they were shooting for, the rockabilly and the surf rock sounds etc; but that doesn’t make it good. I mean, I can play baseball but that doesn’t mean I can make a living at it, nor should I pretend I can. This album is crap.

What punk rock was supposed to be

Their work, Lux once said, was “a rallying point for certain kinds of people to come together and for certain kinds of people to stay out.” The Cramps' singer take on what they do is as clear as it can get, and *Songs The Lord Taught Us* probably exemplifies this philosophy the best. With this first LP, they established the 'psychobilly' genre: an outré, deranged take on rockabilly attracting misfits, outcasts and other weirdoes gathering around tales of teenage werewolves, zombies and alien daddies abandoning their traumatized offspring on earth. Punk twisted those old 50s references into a pure carnival. And it's one many rock fans might be inclined to return to for years to come. Musically, you can't expect anything more than barebones touches to honor the lyrical program: Poison Ivy's simple yet evocative guitar lines are earworms ready to suck on your brain like so many extraterrestrial leeches, Lux Interior's demented screeches and howls can have a mesmerizing effect on what's left of it, and the overall sound is just a messy mudpit. Is it *good* or interesting music? Maybe not. But sometimes atmosphere and moods are more important than compositions (and a lot of covers are here anyway, with "Fever" once again attracting most of the spotlight). As for the lyrics, they are outrageously funny. Just imagine that "Zombie Dance" mocking the so-called "normality" of self-righteous people, and you'll get the idea of how Ivy and Interior the rest of society at large. Maybe through their tales of the undead and other monsters, The Cramps just wanted to point out they were more alive than most people in their lives. If that's the case, it's a job well-done. 3 or 3.5 for the music. 5 for the lyrics and the overall artictic intent. Which rounds up to a 4 and an album you must listen to at least once in your life, even if you won't come back to it later one. Number of albums left to review or just listen to: 965 Number of albums from the list I find relevant enough to be mandatory listens: 15 (including this one) Albums from the list I *might* include in mine later on: 8 (including this one) Albums from the list I will *not* include in mine (as I think many others are more important): 11 Albums I might not be able to judge (some might end up on my final list but it's because I recognize how culturally important they are): 2

Wasn't expecting such a fun surfer rock/rock-a-billy sound from The Cramps. This was a good time. The cover of Fever was superb.

I love Kate bush and this is her at her best

Two consecutive albums featuring "Fever" (Elvis being the other). As long as you don't take this work too seriously and recognize it for the novelty project that it is, it is great fun! 3 dancing zombies out of 5. 🧟🧟🧟

This wasn't bad, generally my cup of tea but I didn't like it as much as I thought I would to be honest.

A bit one note. Enjoyable but it dragged on too long

Punk is a vast world of various genre fusions that definitely makes it one of the most over encompassing spaces in music. But it’s truthfully not one I find much interest in. There are very few punk records that I have been super on board with. It’s why Another Music in a Different Kitchen stood out so much. That album felt like it was made for me. I also haven’t heard too many big names yet. No Bad Brains or Dead Kennedys. I get that Sex Pistols count. But I’ve probably spoken enough about why I don’t like them by now. I guess you could make the argument that this album is anything but normal punk music. Which wouldn’t be totally wrong. It’s more like punk for the kids who are obsessed with Halloween. The only experience I’ve previously had with “psychobilly” is The Gun Club. Which was ok, I guess. But probably still better than this. This released in 1980. The 80s were very much the decade for punk. And it’s when everything really took off. Some of its best releases came out within a year of this. But I wouldn’t lob this into that group. It’s a strange set of rather simple songs, that feel very flat most of the time. But it has a dark and twisted sense of lyricism. It’s sort of a glimpse into the early workings of what The Cure would do better only a few years later on Pornography. It’s just as overtly and creepily sexual and hedonistic as Nico on the Velvet Underground debut. I mean, the husband-and-wife duo that leads the band are named Lux Interior and Poison Ivy respectively. If that doesn’t give you a good idea of what this is like, I don’t know what will. But it’s not that entertaining to say the least. And something I will not be coming back to. Rating: 4/10

I like music that doesn’t take itself too seriously but this got tiresome very quickly.

Brilliant of course. *Zombie Dance*

Great rock/punk/rockabilly

God bless the punk rock movement. God bless rock-a-billy . And God bless the Cramps for bringing the two together. The Cramps should be thanked and credited with keeping it simple. Great toe tapping and head bobbing music. Loved every second. Music doesn't need to be polished, technical and pretty to be amazing! Liked it so much I was sad when it was over.... Time to relisten! .

I really enjoyed this album which kind of surprised me! Without the bonus tracks it’s a perfect length to enjoy the vibe without getting saturated.

This is a great album and massive fun to listen to. I regret never having seen The Cramps live! Standout tracks are TV Set, Garbageman and Fever, but the album as a whole is just a great listen throughout and a nice mix of covers and originals.

Great find. Rockabilly punk.

This is so much fun. Love this band. Enjoying this way more than expected. It’s fucking rad. Atmospheric, sexy, cinematic vampire Rockabilly. No one can do it like they did. No flaws. 5/5

Buffy vibes, was in the bronze for a sec.

The Cramps came on my radar after Goo Goo Muck was featured on the Netflix show Wednesday. I've wanted to check out more of their stuff, so I was excited when they showed up on my review list. I loved it and will listen again.

I am glad to hear this record and need more, fast.

If these are the songs that The Lord taught The Cramps, then why did He leave us with all the banal preachy ones? Running roughshod for all of fifty-three minutes, bonus tracks and all, The Cramps give us some of the most ragged and demented punk-laden rockabilly that's at once psychotic and confrontational. Surging with adrenaline, Songs The Lord Taught Us ensures itself that it can stay imprinted in the brain of the listener and never leave. Lord have mercy.

Actually amazing. It somewhat reminds me of like Elvis Presley’s self titled but for the garage rocks/gothabilly genre. It’s just a jam all around and I very much enjoy it. I think more specifically I’d give it a 9/10

I love this weird mix of punk and rockabilly. I also dig how two genres of music at the same time were watching too many horror movies. Instead of the vampire macabre of the goths, this is straight creature feature b-movie.

One of my alltime favourites! It has everything a good record needs. The energy level is constantly high and the lyrics are funny and crazy at the same time. What else do you want?

I love the Cramps and was excited to get an album that I actually wanted to listen to, although I’ve heard this album a million times, it never gets okd

Punk and Surf, irreverence, swagger, tongue in cheek and actually good songs. It might not be a masterpiece but it feels like it was written right for me - rockabilly madness, a touch of horror and a complete album. A lot of the best songs from the Cramps aren’t here but as a record it’s perfect.

Absolutely love The Cramps. Everybody should. Distilled rock n roll chaos. Met my beloved after she'd been to see them and she excitedly told me about seeing Lux's bare arse. I showed her this record this afternoon and she got shivers so it had quite the impact. The riffs in I Was A Teenage Werewolf are ABSOLUTELY FILTHY and I love it. Lux yelps like he's insane and I love it. And noone even said "Thanks"(!!!) There probably isn't a perfect Cramps album but they're all good and contain 2 or 3 stone cold bangers (Sunglasses After Dark here), and this one is popular. Resurgence in popularity thanks to Wednesday, I really hope Ivy is rolling royalty cheques now.

I was a teenager staying up late one Saturday night watching rage when the Cramps came on, performing Can Your Pussy Do The Dog? on the Tube (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZfvCDyVlVIw) It was one of those moments that changes everything; it was the first time I had heard or seen the Cramps, and it totally blew my mind. Lux Interior writhing around on the floor barking like a dog and almost fellating the microphone was one of the most rock and roll things I had ever seen. The sound was tough, and more than a little rough around the edges. Poison Ivy Rorschach's guitar technique wasn't as polished or flashy as (say) Joe Satriani, but it rocked like hell. The Cramps are one of the bands that showed me that I really love loose, gritty, tough rock and roll. I don't care if it is badly recorded, sloppily performed (even better, sometimes), or almost stupidly simple, but it needs to rock. The Cramps are dangerous and sexy and they rock. And this album is where it all started. I love that Alex Hilton knew not to polish the edges off them. One of my great regrets is that I never saw them live, although that performance on the Tube is burned in my psyche, and has informed everything I look for in rock and roll ever since. God bless you, the Cramps, you changed me forever.

A total classic of pent up sexual frustration and swampy punk rockabilly. An absolute essential release, and one of my favorite albums of all time.

I sometimes forget how good The Cramps were. THIS is how to do retro with a twist. Homage, covers and originals all in one seductive seditious package. And with a dash of humour to top it all off. Had to play Sunglasses and What's Behind the mask several times each, and they made me chuckle every time. This formula got a bit threadbare later on, but this is loud and lewd, without taking any of it all that seriously, and I LOVE it.

Crazy good

Actual sewer dweller music

Not high-brow but awesome for what it is.

I love The Cramps and I love this record. They were just so out there and committed to being only what they wanted. Whatever that was. I guess a B-horror movie punk-a-billy outfit.

Very cool vibe to this album, the rockabilly without the stupid look, they had their own more original stupid look(that I love and think improves the whole package).

Did not expect to like this album as much as I did. I guess this is termed as "psycho-billy" instead of Rockabilly, and honestly I don't know that you need to listen to any other examples of the genre. This is it. They nailed it, and the album is a consistent sound that kicks balls.

Paradoxical review incoming. I might never listen to this album ever again because it's just not my thing. Still, it's getting five stars. It seemed so clear that The Cramps were just saying what they felt like saying and making whatever sounds they thought matched that. That's cool in my book, even if the music isn't my thing. I think this album is the first time I felt a real appreciation for punk. It has an edge for sure because "just saying what we feel like saying". But for whatever reason it doesn't feel like the same pretentious rebellion and anger that I get from other punk bands from that era. Good job Cramps. I both dislike and love this record and I'm OK with that.

That's my jam!

Slightly patchy but still articulate and deep pop electronic influenced melancholy

4.5

Ironici, potenti, energetici e anche un po’ folli!

another group that i have heard the name of but didn't know anything about except that they were "punk" - holy cow I was not expecting this. I absolutely loved everything about this album. it's like a mixture of 60s garage rock, surf rock, and punk. it feels slimey and grungy and just everything it ought to be. excellent stuff!

Oh man, I love this. Never heard of psychobilly before, but it sounds like rockabilly meets the Misfits, and I dig it. I love me some dirty, surf rock/rockabilly-style guitar, and this album's got it in spades. There isn't a weak link in this particular chain. Their cover of "Strychnine" by the Sonics isn't as good as the original, but that song's about as close to perfect as it gets, so it's hard to blame the Cramps for not clearing that high bar. I see myself listening to this album many more times in the near future, and I'll definitely be delving further into their discography.

This is awesooooome!! I love the simple, dirty smash up of rockabilly and punk with some of those surf rock licks sprinkled around. If I would have been cooler as a kid I would have listened to the Cramps - good thing I’m so fuckin cool now!!

Oh fuck yeah. I'd like to thank the owner of Rabbitfoot Records, Rob, for getting me into garage rock and psychobilly music back in 2013. I used to run the shop on weekends, and we had a ton of 60s garage music. I'd spin The Cramps frequently to get customers invested in their shopping experience. If you don't involuntarily light up a cigarette and put pomade in your hair when I Was A Teenage Werewolf comes on, you might not be human.

Nice

love these guys

I love The Cramps. I was very happy to see this here. I just love their overall sound that just "oozes". I'm assuming the Misfits didn't make the list (shame) but this works for some Halloween time music

Liked it never heard of them before

Love this album! Not every song is top notch, but those who are, really are! A unique band

Where Psychobilly started. True classic album.

All the rockabilly punk you never knew you wanted but need.

Simple concept... What if 1950s rock and roll was as depraved as Christian America feared? The answer... IT WOULD BE AS AWESOME AS YOU'D IMAGINE! Side note - Lux Interior may be the greatest stage name ever.

Amazing album. Psychobilly and punk classic. All the songs are really energetic and have this nice country rock 'n roll twang to them.

Another great band from the 70s NYC punk movement. The stripped bare rockabilly punk would inform generations of garage bands for decades to come. Produced by the legend Alex Chilton, this is music at its rawest, most amazing best.

Great album, great band. Looking for this on vinyl.

4.5

I like late 70s and early 80s punk rock. And I like this album. Nice mix of some rockabilly with the punk on this one.

  I know the name and some people who like them but really didn’t know what to expect. This album is a lot of fun. Rolling Stone’s description of their music as Phsychobilly fits perfectly. The lead guitar is simple but is played on a guitar that is a beast and played to sound hollow. To be sure, this is a compliment.

Stone cold classic - love the cramps

Albums like this are the reason I listen to this list

I really liked this album, a few of the songs I have listened to before, but never the album in its entirety.

Tight, atavistic rock'n'roll. You can tell their songs on this album were honed over years of playing live. Easily the greatest Cramps album.

Dirty and vampiric songwriting with a rockabilly edge. Great to hear a band with the confidence to do their own thing.

Not content with merely subverting the conventions of punk music to incorporate obscure relics of low-brow white trash culture, The Cramps proceed to beat you over the head with their new concoction named Psychobilly. Leaving aside my prior adoration of this group’s catalogue, I expected this album to draw criticism for a lack of variation in their style of musical attack. But such trifles simply don’t enter my thinking while Lux Interior breathlessly splutters and yelps over Poison Ivy’s spidery guitar lines - her sensually twangy solo in the midst of the absurd chaos of “Garbageman” is the precise moment I fell in love with this group. Whatever you think about this genre of music, its importance is absolutely irrefutable. The Cramps took one look at the pristine image of middle class America in 1980 and instead embraced its concealed obverse, its Mr Hyde, contorting the authentic fantasy of rockabilly USA. Whatever their formula lacks in subtlety, it matters. Profoundly.

Classic garage rock and roll

Pure trash in all the right ways.

If there was ever a band's image that matches the sound of the group, it would be The Cramps. With the band name written in a "Tales From The Crypt"-like typeset, The Cramps primitive, lo-fi sound wouldn't be out of place as a band on the Flintstones, as they keep the beats simple and ghoulish. They are an acquired taste and not for everyone, but their sound is accessible and not unlike similar sounding goth bands that followed. I bought this on vinyl when I was a teen and glad I did, it still gets some plays even now and is a classic in it's own right.

4.5 - A joyfully whacked out punk reimagining reminiscent of the B-52's debut record, with a similarly campy-queer frontman-quasi-gameshow-host, Lux Interior. They've twisted a lot of "traditional" punk elements, adding horror-inspired flair to lyrics (see "TV Set") and over-amped buzzsaw guitar(see "Mystery Plane"). The thumping, urgent drums help keep things tethered.

That's some good shit. That wonderful dirty dirty rock.

8/10 lots of fun! what’s not to love?

Great googley moogley!

Banger album, whole thing sounds like it was recorded in an echoey alleyway at night. Catchy, danceable, dark, and campy.

Knasigt och härligt! Tycker mycket om!

What a wonderful piece of weirdness.

Punk, pschobilly, really like it. Weird, fast, good

I was hovering around 3 stars for this, but some additional listens have bumped it up to 4 stars. It's a lot of fun! B-52s meets the Addams family! Fave track - "What's Behind the Mask?", maybe? "Garbageman" and "I Was a Teenage Werewolf" are both great too....

This album was some solid Rockabilly/psychobilly tunes

"Songs The Lord Taught Us" is the debut album by America rock band The Cramps. Their genre styles are described as being garage rock, garage punk, pyschobilly and neo-rockabillly. Yep, it's all that. Some great descriptions of the band: "Campy, exaggerated and lewd" and "Pyschobilly way beyond the kitshiest moments of The Ramones and Blondie into a whole realm of garbage -trash novelty." The album was produced by Alex Chilton and recorded at Phillips Recording in Memphis. Some of the coolest band member names too: Lux Interior ( vocals), Poison Ivy Rorschach (guitar), Bryan Gregory (guitar) and Nick Knox drums). Loud guitar riffs and pounding drums open "TV Set." We get a fair bit of distorted guitar. Lux Interior's demented 50's style vocals stating "I see you on my tv set. I use your eyeballs for dials on my tv set." Their only single "Garbageman" has a grinding guitar and, oh my, a solid almost danceable beat. The guitar turns into more of a 50's rockabilly style. I think this about getting speed. As if this band needs more drugs. Lux whispers and howls on "I was a Teenage Werewolf." It's slower with a creepy guitar. The songs morphs into more a bluesy number. Jack White has to be a fan. "Zombie Dance" has a frantic pace with pounding drums and a sped up rockabilly guitar. Lux's vocals are muddled as he compares normal people in the world to zombies. The Cramps are known for doing interesting and campy cover versions. There's too really good ones here. They cover The Sonics' "Strychnine." Besides the rockabilly, you hear a lot of 60's garage rock in their music and no better song and band of that genre than this. This song was made for The zcramps and, yes, Lux would like the taste of "Strychnine." The album ends with the Little Willie John cover of "Fever." A slow, plodding, evil version. Lux talks, stumbles, whispers his way through deliriously. This album has a great pounding, driving sound. It's a mixture of 50's rockabilly, 60's garage rock and punk. Some creepy, oblique and unique guitar noises and solos. Not many albums cover topics of zombies, werewolves, eyeballs and poison. The production and lyrics are muddled; Alex Chilton wanted to re-record this but the band said no. Yeah, the last thing you want to do is over-produce something like this. The swampiness adds to its mystique.

Great, not an everyday listen, but great

when i saw the description i was worried about more bad 80s punk but this was quite good! very pleasantly surprised

I've been meaning to listen to the Cramps for a while after I was introduced to them by the No Dogs In Space podcast. I thought this was cool overall. They seem like a band that would be really fun live, though this album didn't particularly grab me at many points. It was consistently pretty good, but never really great 4/5, but on the low end of 4

It's growing on me. I know this is an influence for a lot of music I do love.

A fun cheesy sort of punk, I think it maybe missed a little of something to flip it over the edge.

I really liked this album! I've only heard a song or two by The Cramps so it was nice to listen to a full one that doesn't have their most popular song on it.

Fun early horror punk

A very similar sound to the Stray Cats, rooted in blues and bluegrass riffs and chord progressions, with the punk attitude and rhythms of the late 70s. A fun live experience I imagine for sure.

Dope

Haha, The Cramps!

If the Munsters were a punk rock band they would be the Cramps. The Cramps are the answer to the question you didn't know you wanted to ask: can a four-person band have two guitars, a singer, a drummer and no bass? Yes. Does this album belong on a list of albums you must hear? If you listen to this album and think for a moment you heard the newest Jack White vault release from when the White Stripes opened a Burger King, then you have your answer.

The band that gave me the second largest amount of bruises live or on the dance floor. Only The Birthday Party gave me more.