As you may have heard, Lux Interior died this morning. I was never that into the Cramps, but I am deeply indebted to Lux for putting together The Purple Knif Show, a one-off radio special that aired out of Hollywood in 1984 and landed on vinyl shortly thereafter. Lux's DJ set is a groovy grab-bag of the songs that influenced his band: primitive 60s garage rock, early punk, some soul 45s, one-off novelty tunes, surf jams, and familiar staples from old gods like the Trashmen and Link Wray.The show/album is also a tribute to Cleveland television personality Ghoulardi, a dada-drenched beatnik and mad scientist partial to cheesy psychotropic visual effects and interrupting the schlocky horror films on his program with way-out rock 'n' roll overdubs and outright mockery. Among his popular catchphrases were "STAY SICK!" and the observation that "The whole world is a purple knif"--a knif being a fink in reverse, or something. Lux himself holds forth like Wolfman Jack on Mars, growling and joking in deadpan through a thick layer of echo, busting in on songs with Ghoulardian glee to imitate a rocket launch or loose a space-age sound effect on the primitive life forms tuned in at home. Taken as a whole, The Purple Knif Show is a perfect little capsule of the primordial goop from which Lux, the Cramps, and an entire school of punk rock staggered forth. The radio station is his laboratory, the show is a hootenany voodoo Frankenstein, and the lucky listeners are its willing victims. Hope you enjoy it as much as I did. Stay sick!MATTHEW CARON
Click here to download it.
