The Brian May + Friends: Star Fleet Sessions box set will comprise two CDs, one vinyl LP, a vinyl single and other collector’s items. It’s available to preorder now. You can see the full track listing and listen to the newly mixed single version of the title track below.
The Queen guitarist conceived Star Fleet Project in early 1983 when his main band was on break, recruiting Van Halen, REO Speedwagon drummer Alan Gratzer, keyboardist Fred Mandel (Alice Cooper, Pink Floyd), bassist Phil Chen (Jeff Beck, Rod Stewart) and Queen drummer Roger Taylor (who provided backing vocals). The powerhouse lineup tore through a hard-rock rendition of the theme song from the Japanese television show X Bomber, renamed Star Fleet in the United Kingdom, after May’s 4-year-old son Jimmy got him hooked on the show.
The original Star Fleet Project was a three-song EP featuring the title track, the May solo composition “Let Me Out” and the incendiary, 13-minute “Blues Breaker Jam,” dedicated to Eric Clapton. The box set will feature remixed versions of all three songs, along with interviews, live recordings, alternate takes and additional jam sessions from the whirlwind two-day recording session at Los Angeles’ Record Plant studio in April 1983.
“We are going to give you everything … every take of every song, the things that went wrong, the laughing, the finding new things to do,” May wrote in the box set’s liner notes. “But it won’t be just a remaster – we’ve rescued everything from the original multitracks, every detail magnificently remixed and more! You’ll hear every take from the historic 1983 sessions plus fragments of conversations, outtakes and musical experimentation.” May further raved about the opportunity to dig into his jam sessions with the late Van Halen and Chen.
“It’s been very exciting to open up the vault to find these tapes where, in the blink of an eye, I’m trading licks with my friends, including the fantastic Ed Van Halen,” he said. “It’s highly emotional, especially since Ed is sadly no longer around. We have since also lost Phil, so the rest of us cherish these fleeting moments together.”
He also praised Van Halen for “never quite treading the same path twice” throughout “Star Fleet,” which features eight solos from the guitar virtuoso. “Ed was a wonderful soul,” May noted. “Listening to him and me, I feel completely outclassed by him in the studio. But in a very pleasant way – what a joy for me to be around a guy who could do all that. Such a privilege.”
Brian May + Friends, ‘Star Fleet Project’ 40th Anniversary Edition Track Listing CD1: Star Fleet Project + Beyond Star Fleet (Edited Single Version / 2023 Mix) Let Me Out (2023 Mix) Blues Breaker (2023 Mix) Cynthia Fox Release Day Interview 1983 Bob Coburn Rockline Interview 1984 Let Me Out (Live at The Palace Theater, LA / 1993) We Will Rock You (Live at The Palace Theater, LA / 1993) We Will Rock You – Fast (Live at The Palace Theater, LA / 1993) Star Fleet (Complete Version / 2023 Mix) CD2: Star Fleet – The Complete Sessions Star Fleet (Take 1) Star Fleet (Take 2) Star Fleet (Take 3) Star Fleet (Take 4) Star Fleet (Take 5) Solo Jam Star Fleet (Take 7) Star Fleet (Take 8) Star Fleet (Take 10) Star Fleet (Take 11) Star Fleet (Alternative Overdub EVH Solo) Jam Let Me Out (Rehearsal 1) Let Me Out (Rehearsal 2) Boogie Woogie Jam Let Me Out (Take 1) Jazz Police Let Me Out (Take 3) Let Me Out (Take 4) Jam (Let’s Do The Show Right Here) Let Me Out (Take 6) Funky Jam Let Me Out (Take 7 False Start) LP: Star Fleet Project (180g Red Vinyl) Star Fleet (2023 Mix) Let Me Out (2023 Mix) Blues Breaker (2023 Mix) 7″ Single “Star Fleet” Star Fleet (Edited Single Version / 2023 Mix) Son Of Star Fleet (2023 Mix) – Exclusive to the box set 7″
Eddie Van Halen Year by Year: 1977-2017 Photos
You’ll see him with long hair, short hair, a variety of his most famous guitars and all three of his band’s lead singers.
(Image credit: Kurt Cobain – Jeff Kravitz/FilmMagic, Inc / Madonna – Mondadori via Getty Images)
Courtney Love says that Nirvana‘s Kurt Cobain was as ambitious and hungry for success as Madonna was in the 1980s.
Love made the comment about her late husband during an interview on the 60 Songs That Explain The ’90s podcast, with The Ringer’s Rob Harvilla, in a recent episode discussing Nirvana’s breakthrough hit single Smells Like Teen Spirit.
After discussing some of Cobain’s unused lyrics for the song, featured in early drafts of the song, and talking about the success it brought Nirvana, Harvilla brings up a previous conversation with Love, saying “You told me… you said, Mr Cobain was one of the most wildly ambitious people to ever walk this earth, and that the whole thing about him not wanting to be a rock star is bullshit. You said he had more ambition than ’80s Madonna…”
“I would put Kurt and 1980s Madonna [on a par],” says Love. “He was canny, he was savvy… “
As an example of Cobain’s awareness of how the music industry works, Love then mentions guitarist Jason Everman, who briefly played with both Soundgarden and Nirvana, and implies that Everman was axed from Nirvana because he was showing up Cobain’s rudimentary guitar skills at that point: “Gimme a break… I wanna look like Soundgarden, but I don’t wanna play with a guy that can play.”
“He was jabbing, always,” says Love.
Love then says that the reason she had issues with riot grrrl bands such as Bikini Kill and Bratmobile wasn’t about personalities, but “principles”, pointing out that one of the cornerstones of the riot grrrl ‘manifesto’ was “We shall not learn instruments, instruments are the tools of the patriarchy.”
“And I’m like, Yeah, that’s bullshit, I’ll fucking learn [Aerosmith’s] Sweet Emotion, like right now. What the fuck?… What are you guys talking about?”
“Kurt got by without being a shredder,” she adds.
“With Nevermind, Kurt just straight went for it, like, [I’m] not hiding my light under a bushel anymore, fuck that, we’ve been granted permission, all systems go, I’m going to live my full potential.”
When Harvilla points out that, post-success, Cobain claimed to hate Butch Vig’s production on Nevermind, saying that it sounded like a Motley Crue record, Love dismissively says, “We all said a lot of things.”
“Lying to the press is one of the great sports in life,” Love adds.
Listen to the full podcast episode below:
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A music writer since 1993, formerly Editor of Kerrang! and Planet Rock magazine (RIP), Paul Brannigan is a Contributing Editor to Louder. Having previously written books on Lemmy, Dave Grohl (the Sunday Times best-seller This Is A Call) and Metallica (Birth School Metallica Death, co-authored with Ian Winwood), his Eddie Van Halen biography (Eruption in the UK, Unchained in the US) emerged in 2021. He has written for Rolling Stone, Mojo and Q, hung out with Fugazi at Dischord House, flown on Ozzy Osbourne’s private jet, played Angus Young’s Gibson SG, and interviewed everyone from Aerosmith and Beastie Boys to Young Gods and ZZ Top. Brannigan lives in North London and supports The Arsenal.
Metallica was such an odd group of people to be in a band together that it took a few goes to get right, and even then tragedy sometimes forced their hand. Strangest of all was the uneasy partnership at the band’s core, the one between intense, bottle-it-up frontman James Hetfield and breezy, let-it-all-out drummer Lars Ulrich.
They first met after Ulrich, fresh from seeing his dream of becoming a tennis pro fade away, placed an ad in the local paper looking for bandmates. He reminisced to Classic Rock about his first impressions of the singer. “We instantly connected over music,” he said. “He freaked out about my record collection and seeing all that stuff from England, and I didn’t know that much about the Aerosmiths of this world. We filled each other’s voids right there.”
Ulrich remembers the young Hetfield as an extremely shy presence around people. “We were a perfect match because I thought that I could help pull some of that stuff out of him,” Ulrich told Classic Rock. “He made up for some of my lack of talent. It was a yin and yang kind of thing. I felt it from the get-go.”
Talking about the group’s formative years, Hetfield once described Ulrich as being on a different planet to his bandmates, declaring, “We ate McDonald’s, he ate herring,” but the drummer says he’d already spent a large amount of time in the States and wasn’t the, umm, fish out of water that the singer makes him out to be. “Obviously there were cultural differences, but I was in America four four-to-six weeks out of every year when I was growing up,” he countered. “Being around McDonald’s or 39 channels on the television wasn’t new to me. I didn’t come over with a Danish flag going, “Come on everybody, let’s eat herring!”
Reflecting on their relationship now and how it’s endured over four decades, Ulrich thinks that he sees a side to Hetfield that others rarely get to witness. “He’s much sweeter and more vulnerable than people think he is,” opined the drummer. “I always felt he was a vey gentle soul and a very loving guy.”
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Niall Doherty is a writer for The Guardian, Variety and Classic Rock, and co-runs the music Substack letter The New Cue with fellow former editors of Q magazine Ted Kessler and Chris Catchpole. Niall has written for NME, X-Ray Magazine and XFM Online and interviewed some of music’s biggest stars, including Coldplay, Arctic Monkeys, St Vincent, The 1975, Depeche Mode, Radiohead and many more.
Corey Taylor has opened up about the difficulties he experienced as a parent while working as a touring musician, and the strain his job put about his relationship with his son, Griffin.
Noting how his earlier bond with his son was more strained due to the “toxic” complexities of his previous romantic relationship, Taylor muses over how Griffin fronting his own metal band, Vended, has now brought them closer together.
During an appearance on the Battleline podcast, the Slipknot frontman explains (as transcribed by Blabbermouth): “My son, I didn’t have to help him with anything, but he’s out on the road with his band, and they’re killing it. And in a way that’s brought he and I even closer, man, ’cause now he really, really gets it and we talk now more than we ever have, which, to me, it’s beautiful.”
Speculating over what might have added a strain onto his relationship with his son, Taylor continues, “There were definitely a couple of years where it was difficult. And part of that can just be human nature; part of that can be the fact that I was gone for giant chunks of his [early life]. It also didn’t help that the relationship I was in before my marriage now was very toxic; it was very hard on him. And in a lot of ways he blamed me, which he has every right to, because at the time I didn’t realise how bad it was.”
Although he notes how him and Griffin had “always been tight”, and that they share a “a very, very special bond”, the vocalist reveals how each time he had to leave to embark on a new tour, on returning home, he had to “relearn” who his son was “cause every time I’d come back, he was different”.
Speaking of how his relationship with his son changed once he got older, he adds: “There was definitely a push back and forth, because he was starting to kind of come into his own. And between the anger that he had for missing so much and the anger [from] the previous issues and the anxiety that kind of had sprung up in his life, because of my Midwestern way of being a father, which is to raise your voice and, ‘It doesn’t matter why. I want you to…’ — all of that shit. It was tough.
“So we butted heads for a few years, man. And then one year, everything just kind of clicked, man, and we both looked at each other in a very different way and we were able to really kind of reconcile. Not that it was ever really bad, but it was weird enough that I really felt like, I was, like, ‘Man, I’m gonna lose him.'”
Of what he has taken away from his experience of parenting, Taylor concludes: “You never give up. It takes being brutally honest with yourself, going, ‘I made mistakes.’ You love to think that you were the perfect father, you love to think that you were just doing it for their own good, and sometimes, guess what? Those universal ways of parenting didn’t always work.
“And for me, realising that maybe I contributed to some of his anxiety hurt. So I had to relearn how to be a parent, man. I had to relearn how to talk to my kid. And then I realized that he’s not a baby anymore, man. He’s gonna be 21 this year. It’s actually been easier for me to talk to him as an adult than it was when he was younger because I had no skillset as a father like that.”
Listen to the full podcast episode below:
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Liz works on keeping the Louder sites up to date with the latest news from the world of rock and metal. Prior to joining Louder as a full time staff writer, she completed a Diploma with the National Council for the Training of Journalists and received a First Class Honours Degree in Popular Music Journalism. She enjoys writing about anything from neo-glam rock to stoner, doom and progressive metal, and loves celebrating women in music.
In a moment that has punk enthusiasts and rock ‘n’ roll fans on the edge of their seats, the historic black leather Schott motorcycle jacket worn by punk pioneers Dee Dee Ramone and CJ Ramone is set to go under the hammer by Boston-based RR Auction.
This iconic garment, synonymous with the rebellious spirit of the Ramones, serves as a time capsule of punk rock history. Donned on stage for an impressive 11-year stretch, this jacket witnessed the pulsating energy of the Ramones’ unforgettable performances.
Dee Dee Ramone, the bassist known for his untamed presence, first acquired the jacket in 1985, and it quickly became his battle armor for Ramones concerts. From the explosive riffs of “Blitzkrieg Bop” to the wild intensity of “I Wanna Be Sedated,” this jacket bore witness to the Ramones’ trailblazing sonic onslaughts. With Dee Dee’s final show in July 1989, the jacket found itself enshrined in the band’s cherished wardrobe touring case, awaiting its next chapter.
Enter CJ Ramone, who stepped into the Ramones’ formidable lineage as their new bassist. Embracing the legacy with unparalleled passion, CJ inherited the mantle of the leather jacket. As he donned this sacred punk artifact during his inaugural Ramones live performance, it was clear that a new chapter in punk rock history was unfolding. Tour after tour, CJ channeled the essence of the Ramones through this very jacket, capturing the raw power and frenetic spirit that defined the band’s unrivaled musical legacy.
Adorned with the autographs of both Dee Dee and CJ, this leather jacket embodies the punk rock ethos, with its snap-down lapels, shoulder epaulets, zippered sleeve cuffs, and side pockets. The U.S. Air Force cap insignia on the right lapel and the U.S. Army captain rank pins on the epaulets, added by CJ Ramone himself, elevate this historic artifact to an emblem of punk rock defiance.
Renowned artist Andy [Armstrong] Gore, who now serves as the consignor of this remarkable piece, acquired the jacket directly from CJ Ramone upon the band’s retirement. The cherished artifact comes with an impeccable letter of provenance, in which Gore shares the tale of his unexpected acquisition. When the Ramones bid farewell to the stage, Gore mustered the courage to inquire if CJ would part with the iconic jacket. To his astonishment, CJ gifted him this legendary piece of punk history, asking only for a few screen-printed t-shirts for his new band, ‘Los Gusanos.’ A priceless exchange that solidified the jacket’s journey into the hands of a true devotee.
As the leather jacket embarks on its next chapter, anticipation builds among collectors and music enthusiasts alike. This transcendent artifact represents more than just a garment—it’s a portal into the maelstrom of punk rock’s golden era. With a starting bid of $5,000, the auction promises to be a battleground for those seeking to own a tangible piece of the Ramones’ unparalleled legacy.
Head to rrauction.com for more details and to place a bid.
Multi-platinum hard rock icons, Extreme, have been steadily building the anticipation for their much-awaited new album SIX – due June 9 via earMUSIC – with three previously released heavy-hitting rock singles (“Rise,” “Banshee” and “#Rebel”).
The band have today (May 31) revealed a fourth single, “Other Side Of The Rainbow”, which shows off their more intimate side in the vein of previous singles such as the RIAA gold-certified, Billboard Hot 100 #1 hit “More Than Words,” “Hole Hearted,” and “Seven Sundays”.
“Other Side Of The Rainbow” is one of Extreme’s most soulful journeys, taking listeners into the depths of the human heart. Stream/download it here. Watch the “Other Side Of The Rainbow” music video below.
“Every once in a while, we’ll harness some kind of magic, and I think we did on this one,” says frontman Gary Cherone. “It’s a universal theme. It’s about restoring someone’s faith in love… we feel that it’s the perfect marriage of lyrics and melody.”
Citing Brian May, Eddie Van Halen, and Neil Schon as particular influences, Extreme co-founder and guitarist Nuno Bettencourt asks, “How do you play a blistering solo, making it feel like a rainbow?” He goes on to share, “It’s a groove we’ve never done acoustically. It’s got my favorite guitar solo it’s an up-tempo, moving song.”
On SIX, Extreme swing between unapologetic fits of fret-burning hard rock and intimately introspective balladry. For the recording of the Bettencourt-produced 12-track album, the members buckled down at his home studio in Los Angeles to channel the electrifying eclecticism that defined their seminal output with a 21st century twist.
This dynamic affirms the iconic Boston quartet as one of rock’s most unpredictable, undeniable, and unbreakable groups whose songs course through the very fabric of popular culture. They’re the rare band whose music has appeared in an actual cult series a la Bill & Ted as well as the Netflix juggernaut Stranger Things. They’ve sold 10 million records, topped the Billboard Hot 100 at #1, packed major venues on multiple continents, memorably performed at the Freddie Mercury Tribute Concert in London, and regularly average over 5 million monthly listeners on Spotify. However, their dynamic approach hits harder than ever on their 2023 full-length offering, SIX.
“Rise” “#Rebel” “Banshee” “Other Side of the Rainbow” “Small Town Beautiful” “The Mask” “Thicker Than Blood” “Save Me” “Hurricane” “X Out” “Beautiful Girls” “Here’s To The Losers”
“Banshee” video:
“#Rebel” video:
“Rise” video:
Trailer:
Extreme’s headlining “Thicker Than Blood” world tour kicks off in the US on August 2, followed by stops in Australia and Japan in September and has already sold-out dates in cities including Detroit, Hampton Beach, Tokyo and Yokohama. The band recently announced an additional jaunt beginning November 27 in Newcastle, UK and wrapping December 16 in Milan, IT.
Special guests Living Colour (who will also be supporting Extreme on their US and Australian shows) will appear on the UK leg and The Last Internationale will appear across Europe. Tickets at extreme-band.com.
Extreme have remained one of rock’s most unpredictable, undeniable, and unbreakable groups, having sold 10 million records, topped the Billboard Hot 100 at #1, packed major venues on multiple continents, memorably performed at the Freddie Mercury Tribute Concert in London, and they regularly average over 5 million monthly listeners on Spotify. Extreme’s new album, SIX has seen unprecedented success following the release of three evocative hit singles and videos: “Rise,” “Banshee” and “#Rebel.”
Tour dates:
June 2 – Sao Paul, BR – Best of Blues and Rock Festival
August 2 – Portland, ME – State Theatre # 3 – Hampton Beach, NH – Hampton Beach Casino Ballroom # 5 – Boston, MA – Roadrunner # 6 – Huntington, NY – The Paramount # 8 – Reading, PA – Santander Performing Arts Center # 10 – Sayreville, NJ – Starland Ballroom # 11 – Hartford, CT – Webster Theater # 12 – Glenside, PA – Keswick Theater # 14 – Detroit, MI – St. Andrews Hall # 15 – Milwaukee, WI – Pabst Theater # 17 – Gary, IN – Hard Rock Live # 18 – Minneapolis, MN – Skyway Theatre # 19 – Cedar Rapids, IA – The Paramount # 21 – Denver, CO – The Ogden # 22 – Albuquerque, NM – Revel Entertainment Center # 24 – Anaheim, CA – House of Blues # 26 – San Francisco, CA – The Regency # 28 – Portland, OR – TBD # 29 – Seattle, WA – The Showbox #
September 6 – Perth, AU – Regal Theatre # 8 – Adelaide, AU – Hindley Street Music Hall # 10 – Melbourne, AU – Forum # 12 – Sydney, AU – Enmore Theatre # 13 – Brisbane, AU – Fortitude Music Hall # 17 – Sendai, JP – Sendai Gigs 19 – Yokohama, JP – KT Zepp Yokohama 21 – Tokyo, JP – Hitomi Memorial Hall 25 – Nagoya, JP – Shimin Kaikan Hall 26 – Osaka, JP – Zepp Namba
November 27 – Newcastle, UK – O2 City Hall # 28 – Glasgow, UK – O2 Academy # 30 – Manchester, UK – O2 Academy #
December 1 – Wolverhampton, UK – Civic Hall # 3 – Bristol, UK – O2 Academy # 4 – London, UK – O2 Forum # 8 – Pratteln, Switzerland – Z7 Konzertfabrik * 10 – Berlin, Germany – Huxleys * 11 – Cologne, Germany – Live Music Hall * 12 – Amsterdam, Netherlands – Melkweg Max * 14 – Antwerp, Belgium – Trix * 16 – Milan, Italy – Alcatraz *
# with Living Colour * with The Last Internationale
Pantera performed at the Metalhead Meeting at Romexpo in Bucharest, Romania on May 27. You can now watch fan-filmed footage of the full show, shot from the front row.
Setlist:
“A New Level” “Mouth For War” “Strength Beyond Strength” “Becoming” “I’m Broken” “Suicide Note Pt. II” “5 Minutes Alone” “This Love” “Yesterday Don’t Mean Shit” “Fucking Hostile” “Planet Caravan” (Black Sabbath cover) “Walk” “Hollow” “Cowboys From Hell”
Pantera’s next show is May 30 in Budapest, Hungary at Barba Negra, and it’s sold out! To view their complete tour schedule, visit this location.
40 years ago today (May 29th, 1983), Van Halen, Scorpions, Triumph, Judas Priest, Ozzy Osbourne, Mötley Crüe, and Quiet Riot appeared on one bill in front of nearly 500,000 people for “Heavy Metal Day” at the legendary US Festival, held at Glen Helen Regional Park near Devore, San Bernardino, California.
Spearheaded by Apple Computer co-founder Steve Wozniak, the US Festival was intended to be a celebration of technology and culture, with a temporary stage and open-air venue paid for by Wozniak himself just for the purposes of the festival.
In celebration of Memorial Day, SPIN.com has published an extensive article looking back at the festival. The following excerpt focuses on Day 2: “Heavy Metal Day”….
There was no momentum lost on Day 2 – appropriately dubbed “Heavy Metal Day,” because its lineup was pretty close to being a Reagan-era hesher’s wet dream.
The day kicked off at high noon, with Sunset Strip breakout stars Quiet Riot and Mötley Crüe performing back-to-back. They were followed by British metal icons Ozzy Osbourne and Judas Priest before more international heavy-hitters in Triumph (Canada) and Scorpions (Germany) took the stage. And Wozniak secured Van Halen, a band that was seemingly designed in a lab to host the biggest rock and roll party in SoCal history, to close out the day.
Gil Moore (drummer/co-vocalist, Triumph): “Any band on Heavy Metal Sunday could sell out an arena in California. When you add them all together, you went, ‘holy smokes.’ It was a powerful card.”
Building this lineup cost Wozniak a pretty penny. He shelled out a million bucks for Van Halen, which was busy working on its tide-shifting 1984 album, to headline Heavy Metal Day. That payday later ballooned to $1.5 million, though, thanks to the addition of David Bowie and a shrewd contractual move by Van Halen manager Noel Monk.
Michael Anthony (bassist, Van Halen): “We had a most favored nations clause in our contract, which meant we couldn’t make less than anybody else made.”
Barry Fey (Promoter): “David [Bowie] [told] me, ‘We’ll have to interrupt our tour and charter a [plane] to bring our equipment and get it right back again.’ So I went to Steve [Wozniak], ‘David’s gonna cost you a million and a half, but it’s gonna cost you an extra half a million for Van Halen.’ He just shrugged his shoulders: ‘So?’” (From The Forgotten Festival in OC Register, 2012.)
Noel Monk (Manager, Van Halen): “You don’t say no to that kind of offer. I mean, you can’t.” (From his 2017 book, Runnin’ With The Devil).
Anthony: “It was pretty crazy. But at that time, we loved playing to big crowds. And the outdoor festival thing was really big back then. So yeah, we were really excited to do it. Obviously, the financial part worked out. Just being on a show with all those acts – we always loved doing that kind of thing.”
Wozniak and Fey, meanwhile, were busy putting the finishing touches on Heavy Metal Day in the weeks – and in some cases, days – leading up to the festival.
Mike Levine (bassist/keyboardist, Triumph): “Wozniak flew up to Toronto and took us to dinner. We had a bit of an issue we were concerned about – our last play in Los Angeles had been a co-headliner with Journey at the Rose Bowl. And we were due for an indoor play in the L.A. area, so we also had the choice of playing a couple or three shows at the Long Beach Arena or doing the US Festival. And we’re like,’What the hell do we do with this festival thing? It’s going to be sensational because it’ll be a part of history. But we could end up blowing up the L.A. market for ourselves.’ But it was one of those things where we just felt that it’s better to be a part of history.”
Rudy Sarzo (bassist, Quiet Riot): “Quiet Riot was on tour with the Scorpions. We shared the same agency, and they were playing a three-week warmup tour for the US Festival. We did that little tour with them, and the last day of their tour was in Denver. And Barry Fey happened to be backstage, and after our set, he runs in and introduces himself. He says, ‘Listen, we have a spot available for the US Festival. Would you guys be interested?’ And we said, ‘What is that?’ [Laughs.]. He explained what it was, we looked at each other, and our manager happened to be there, and we accepted it right there on the spot. This is two days before the show. Logistically, we had to scramble to make it happen. It meant we had no road crew for the US Festival because our crew was driving our rented U-Haul truck to our gig the day after the US Festival in Detroit.”
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The Cramps – A Date With Elvis
(Image credit: Big Beat)
How Far Can Too Far Go? The Hot Pearl Snatch People Ain’t No Good What’s Inside a Girl? Can Your Pussy Do the Dog? Kizmiaz Cornfed Dames Chicken (Hot Pool Of) Womanneed Aloha from Hell It’s Just That Song
Released in 1986 – originally only in The UK – A Date With Elvis was the fourth studio album by The Cramps, and solidified their particular take on psychobilly, mixing the and’s usual influences from early rock’n’roll, rhythm and blues, surf music, horror movies and vintage Americana to frequently macabre effect.
Tracks like How Far Can Too Far Go?, People Ain’t No Good and Kizmiaz captured The Cramps’ untamed spirit, with trademark twangy guitar riffs and pounding drums providing a suitably gritty backing for Lux Interior’s distinctive, primal vocals.
A Date With Elvis maintained the band’s fascination with all things taboo and subversive, with songs exploring themes of lust, obsession, and the darker side of rock’n’roll culture, while the questioning Can Your Pussy Do the Dog? and What’s Inside A Girl? showcased the band’s irreverent and frequently unhinged approach to songwriting.
Every week, Album of the Week Club listens to and discusses the album in question, votes on how good it is, and publishes our findings, with the aim of giving people reliable reviews and the wider rock community the chance to contribute.
“Kizmiaz is unique in the band’s oeuvre, being a smarmy parody of 1960s hippie feel-good music; Ivy joins Interior on vocals here. Intonation is off in a few numbers (notably on Kizmiaz, The Hot Pearl Snatch, and Can Your Pussy Do the Dog?), but this is not enough to detract from the overall excellence. This rollicking and energetic platter in particular is the equal of any in their canon, and an essential listen.” (AllMusic)
“A Date With Elvis, originally released in 1986, opens with How Far Can Too Far Go?, as good a representation of psychobilly as you’ll find. Poison Ivy’s stinging guitar and Nick Knox’s steadfast drums work in simplistic tandem, there’s a wicked bassline for additional menace, and vocalist Lux Interior hogs the spotlight with manic glee.” (No Depression)
“The Cramps’ rampant gurning and soft-focus sleaze has been shaped into an institution of sorts. Transcending and fusing tribal instincts – goth’s dumb brooding and cheap mystery, punk’s phoney rebel stance and the ‘billy faithfuls’ love of the primal bellow and manic judders – they are a trans-Atlantic, 20th century medicine show.” (NME)
When Kirsty Wallace and Erick Purkhiser met and fell in love at college in Sacramento in 1972 they changed their names to Poison Ivy Rorschach and Lux Interior and moved to New York in 1975 to catch the start of the CBGB punk scene and welcomed into the dirty, steam-filled, night time streets, the screaming monster that was The Cramps.
You either get the 50s kitschy, B-movie, fetish-inspired aesthetic they created or you don’t, it’s that simple. Primitive rock’n’roll stripped back to its bare sexy voodoo bones with the addition of some X-rated sci-fi and horror imagery, and of course, a good risqué double-entendre lyric.
For some, the band and their music may have more in tune with The Rocky Horror Picture Show than Spinal Tap, and that’s fine, there is a connection. But a large number of metal heads and classic rockers do get it. However, it was the alternative kids, the punks and the goths, and the outsiders, that ran with it and were inspired to bring the Cramps influence into the bands they formed across numerous underground genres. Even the band themselves unintentionally created the ‘psychobilly’ scene by using the phrase from a Johnny Cash song on early fliers, simply to draw in an audience.
A line can even be drawn from The Cramps through the Gun Club, to Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds, and The Sisters of Mercy. From punk to Alternative to Goth. Without Bryan Gregory, their founding guitarist, there may have been no original 80s Batcave goth image as we know it. And in turn, a lot of what gets called alternative rock music that followed.
Strictly speaking, this is not the Cramps best album. It is a great album, but it’s not their best. They have darker, rawer, and more dangerous sounding material. And were a more dangerous band before this album was released. Go and watch early videos. It is however their most accessible, and highest charting album. And it contains two of their more notorious and well know song titles in Can Your Pussy Do The Dog? and What’s Inside A girl? Well, at least they were until the inclusion of Goo Goo Muck on Wednesday. It’s not a perfect album, or without its faults, but it is definitely a fun album with a unique feel and a great fitting DIY production that still stands up today.
A lot of bands have covered Cramps tracks, which is ironic considering a lot of The Cramps material is covers of old rockabilly, blues, doo wop and chicken-fried country songs. Although this, their third album (or fourth if you count the early singles compilation Off The Bone) is where they started to release albums with more original songs than covers, all written by Lux and Ivy.
From Ivy’s squawky, twangy, more Scotty Moore than Chet Atkins, with a bit of Bo Diddley thrown in, rocking guitar, in conjunction with Lux’s best reverb soaked, Elvis stuttering hiccup, on the most salacious of lyrics, The Cramps did nothing new, but they made it sound new by reviving the original underground elements of rock’n’roll, which had a lot more in common with punk than people would like to admit.
Yes, there is a lot of humour and sex in the music and image, as there was in that original underground rock and roll sound, but the band couldn’t have done the music justice if they hadn’t been serious about it. And they were. All driven by Ivy, musically and business wise. The uncrowned queen of rock’nroll who had all the gum-chewing, ice queen, dominatrix outfit-wearing moves, and riffs, but watched as all the guys in the band got the credit for it.
There will never be another band like them.
Steve Pereira: I’ve heard of The Cramps, but to the best of my knowledge had not heard anything by them. So I thought this would be interesting. However, I’ve now played the album, and I want that part of my life back!
This is very poor stuff. I get it’s a joke, but it all feels so dated, and it’s so badly done, it remind me of sixties gimmick bands like Screaming Lord Such. Tedious stuff. Poor songs, poorly played, and poorly produced. Not even as good/bad as Lord Such!
A Date With Elvis is genuinely bad: dull gimmicky trivia devoid of talent. It did, however, get me to play the original A Date With Elvis, which is a compilation album of Elvis’s Sun recordings. Wow! What a great album that is!
Chris Elliott: This is an interesting choice. Probably not where I’d begin with The Cramps but equally its not quite as raw and the edges have been smoothed off a little compared to their first two albums. Not to be taken seriously – played loud and enjoy. Gloriously primitive surf/rockabilly played by punks. My reservation is they’re a band who pretty much nailed their “thing” on the first album and never really went anywhere better afterwards. Equally a Cramps record is a Cramps record – you won’t forget it – whether you get it is a seperate thing.
Mark Russell: Saw them on this tour. Brilliant album.
Mike Canoe: I loved the Cramps long before I heard them: the weird hip cadaver look of singer Lux Interior and original second guitarist Bryan Gregory, the flaming red hair and menacing stare of guitarist Poison Ivy, the plentiful B-movie references, their scandalous album covers and/or titles, their live performances which I really only knew from breathless descriptions by friends.
For me, A Date With Elvis is the Cramps’ most fun and consistent album and has them walking the fine line (in stiletto heels) between campy, vampy rock’nroll and novelty act. Conventional wisdom describes the Cramps sound as rockabilly infused with the energy and outrageousness of punk. But rockabilly was already pretty energetic and outrageous to begin with. The Cramps just took the music they loved and repackaged it for a modern (if niche) audience.
Singer Lux Interior is a howling, yowling, spitting feral cat with the occasional bad case of the hiccups. As I wrote when I suggested this album, he rants and raves like an evangelist who has stepped down from the pulpit to embrace a more worldly god. His delivery sells dozens of double entendres that would make Bon Scott blush. It’s not every singer that can pull off a question like Can Your Pussy Do the Dog?
I don’t speak guitar but I know I like the sounds that Poison Ivy wrings out of hers. Plenty of reverb and sustain, howling in the right places. In particular, I like the noisy breakdown in Cornfed Dames where she essentially squares off against herself on bass. She can rumble like Link Wray on (Hot Pool of) Womanneed or play slinky seductive lines on What’s Inside a Girl?
Drummer Nick Knox, their only other consistent member at this point, provides a solid backbeat for the loving couple to go crazy over. And it helped that Lux and Ivy were a couple. What could be irredeemably icky in another band’s hands became playful and fun.
I was admittedly surprised when I saw A Date With Elvis was this week’s pick. Even though I suggested the album, it was a little like waking up hungover in Vegas and realizing you got married the night before. Whoops! I guess, to quote Lux Interior, I was wondering how far can too far go? It’s an album I love and will continue to love. I hope it nets some fans, new or old, and those that don’t like it can hang on until next week.
Gary Claydon: Rollicking. That’s the best word I can think of to describe A Date With Elvis. It’s as if Lux and Ivy dropped a load of speed then sat down to write the album while watching a ‘Best of The Carry On Films’ reel. ” How do you take your double-entendres sir?” “In an Elvis-rockabilly stylee, if you please, my good man, with a side order of twangy guitar thrown in.” “Coming right up, sir. Hot Pearl Snatch?” Oo-er, matron, Can Your Pussy Do The Dog?” Fnar-Fnar. Maybe it veers a little too close to self-parody at times and maybe the rough edges have been rounded off a bit too much, plus I do miss the b-movie horror/sci-fi schtick but this is fun – rollickingly-good fun, even.
Greg Schwepe: In listening to The Cramps A Date With Elvis I kept coming back to two thoughts; “Too Much” and “Not Enough.” After going through a few of the 15 tracks I’d think “yeah, that’s too much…” and then a few songs later “darn, just not enough.” And in this case the “Too Much” is the “twang” in the song and the “Not Enough” is the distortion level in guitars. Let’s get down to the details…
I’m not what you’d call a rockabilly purist by any means, and I don’t think you’d call The Cramps pure rockabilly either. Yes, music of this genre is that crazy hybrid of rockabilly, country, blues, punk, rock, roots, Americana, and so on. A pretty tasty musical stew made by throwing a whole bunch of stuff in the pot and letting it boil.
Over the years I’ve seen and bought albums of bands with styles similar to The Cramps. Orange County, CA favourites Social Distortion, Reverend Horton Heat, The Stray Cats and solo Brian Setzer. MTV one hit wonders The Georgia Satellites and Jason and the Scorchers. Heck, even some of Robert Plant’s music with Alison Krauss sounds like some of the songs on this album.
But with a lot of these other bands, none really busted the dial on my “ATL” (Acceptable Twang Level) meter. Many times on A Date With Elvis I redlined on that ATL level. “Too twangy, need more distortion.” A lot of other bands might have had more of a punk edge and the same Cramps riff played with a cranked Marshall probably wouldn’t bother me so much. All a matter of perspective.
Now, a number of songs did stick with me; Can Your Pussy Do the Dog?, Chicken, and (Hot Pool Of) Womanneed. And to be fair, if The Cramps were playing at a small bar or early in the day at a roots/Americana/blues type festival, I’d listen to their set and give them a big round of applause after every song. I just don’t think I’ll be streaming anything else by them. Not enough to keep me interested. Was slightly disappointed I wasn’t that into them after learning several members hail from my home state of Ohio. “Awww, darn…fellow Buckeyes. Oh well.”
Colin Bonney: Since buying Songs The Lord Taught Us when it first came out I have loved The Cramps, their distinctive sound and style and of course the humour. Enjoyed every album they have released since including A Date With Elvis. Yes, the Songs album was their masterpiece, but all were good.
Peter Barron: Definitely a band that has grown on me over the years, and if every song was as good as Human Fly they’d be as good as the Stones or Zep or something. As it is, there’s always something great on all their albums, and on this one for me it’s What’s Inside A Girl?. You have to be in the mood, but when you are it’s killer.
John Davidson: I’ve given this a good old go but it’s just not for me. I’ve always felt that the B-movie, horror pastiche should appeal, but the rockabilly, swamp-punk music just leaves me cold.
Mark Herrington: Bands like the Cramps that inhabit this crazy, comic book, rock world have always appealed to me. The B52’s, the Rezillo’s, Talking Heads, Split Enz and newer bands like Wet Leg. As much a manic grin, and an attitude, as a shared musical groove. Fun, frantic and totally nuts, this is a good time album that doesn’t take itself too seriously. An easy 8/10 for me.
Final score: 6.30 (41 votes cast, total score 265)
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John Fogerty has paid onstage tribute to Tina Turner, who died on May 24. The former Creedence Clearwater Revival man dedicated his old band’s Proud Mary – a hit for Ike & Tina Turner in 1971, two years after the original topped the Billboard chart – to Turner at the end of his set late last week at the AO Arena in Manchester, England.
“We just have lost the Queen Of Rock ‘n’ Roll, Tina Turner,” Fogerty told the crowd. “I toured with Tina way back about the year 2000. Of course, Tina recorded my song, Proud Mary, way back around 1971 and it was a breakthrough song for her, also a signature song.
“Man, I saw her on TV every week with that red dress on and the Ikette girls dancing in the background. She was amazing, and I’d like to dedicate doing Proud Mary – this is my first good song I ever wrote – I’d like to dedicate this to Tina Turner.”
Fogerty famously wrote the song immediately after receiving his discharge papers from the US army in 1968.
“I was so happy, I ran out into my little patch of lawn and turned cartwheels,” recalled Fogerty in Bad Moon Rising: The Unofficial History of Creedence Clearwater Revival. “Then I went into my house, picked up my guitar and started strumming. ‘Left a good job in the city’ and then several good lines came out of me immediately.
“I had the chord changes, the minor chord where it says, ‘Big wheel keep on turnin’/Proud Mary keep on burnin” (or ‘boinin’,’ using my funky pronunciation I got from Howling’ Wolf). By the time I hit ‘Rolling, rolling, rolling on the river,’ I knew I had written my best song.”
John Fogerty’s next show is at the O2 Arena in London on May 29. Full dates below.
John Fogerty 2023 tour dates
May 29: London The O2, UK May 31: Paris Boulogne-billancourt, France Jun 03: Ålesund Sparebanken Møre Arena, Norway Jun 05: Uppsala Botanical Garden, Sweden Jun 06: Malmö Arena, Sweden Jun 08: Antwerp Sportpaleis, Belgium Jun 09: Grolloo Holland International Blues Festival, Netherlands
Jun 30: Dauphin Countryfest, MB Jul 09: Highland Park Ravinia, IL Jul 14: Morrison Red Rocks Amphitheatre, CO Jul 25: Franklin FirstBank Amphitheater, TN Jul 26: Atlanta Cadence Bank Amphitheatre, GA Jul 28: St. Augustine Amphitheatre, FL Jul 29: Clearwater The Soud, FL Jul 30: Davie Hard Rock Live, FL Aug 04: Tulsa Margaritaville, OK Aug 05: Durant Choctaw Casino & Resort, OK Aug 11: Cuyahoga Falls Outlaw Music Festival, OH Aug 12: Burgettstown Outlaw Music Festival, PA Aug 13: Cincinnati Outlaw Music Festival, OH Aug 18: Atlantic City Circus Maximus Theater, NJ Aug 19: Vienna Filene Center at Wolf Trap, VA
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Online Editor at Louder/Classic Rock magazinesince 2014. 37 years in music industry, online for 24. Also bylines for: Metal Hammer, Prog Magazine, The Word Magazine, The Guardian, The New Statesman, Saga, Music365. Former Head of Music at Xfm Radio, A&R at Fiction Records, early blogger, ex-roadie, published author. Once appeared in a Cure video dressed as a cowboy, and thinks any situation can be improved by the introduction of cats. Favourite Serbian trumpeter: Dejan Petrović.
