Pure Punk Picks
You Got Good Taste – The Cramps
“This song is dedicated to all you Gucci bag carriers out there. It’s called “You Got Good Taste.”
Andy and I went to see The Cramps at a New Year’s Eve show in the mid eighties. A popular, big venue at that time that bordered on the line between South Boston and Boston.
And during the show I talked to a young lady in the crowd who I noticed was taking notes. Turned out she was a music writer/critic for The Boston Globe.
Andy and I continued to chat with her and her female friend, during the show and afterwards.
And then a pretty red-headed girl came upon us who was friends with both of these ladies. I recognized her as the girlfriend of the guitarist from Human Sexual Response, a local new wave/punk band that we followed.
“Hey, I know you,” I said to her, “You’re Richards’ girlfriend!”
“Well, I was,” she responded with a sad pout. Obviously, there had been a bad break up. And it created an unhappy, awkward situation amongst us.
The writers’ friend turned to me and Andy and said, “So why don’t you guys just fuck off!”
Which we did, indeed do.
After the show, Andy and I went to a New Years Party that I knew was happening, thrown by someone who I worked with in a big warehouse state tax type office along with two or three hundred people.
The party was in a triple decker and as I was standing in a hallway- a door, not securely shut, creaked open on its own accord. And there, lo and behold, stood a supervisor from my office, the boss of a girl I was friendly back in the office, and he was standing there making out with another guy.
We noticed each other and shook hands, the supervisor asked me to keep this incident quiet back at the office which I did. If I ever told Mary, that was the girl I was friendly with and the subordinate of this supervisor, she would have spread the news like wildfire.
Oh, and Mary used to flash her tits to me in work and sometimes let me fondle them, we used to “make out” much like her supervisor and friend did, during lunch. But we never did manage to see each other outside of work.
But I guess, that’s another story.
With some reverb drenched, tasty, surf guitar licks surging into a heavy, garage chord crunch. This song has a lumbering, lurch- careening and colliding powerfully and gracefully with a flippant, frolicking, feeling- flying forwards in the vocal.
The mixture of surf, garage, fifties rock’n’roll (the guitar lick recalls Link Wray) along with salaciously suggestive lyrics create a recipe of wildness, lewdness and fun- and one that I will always be eager to savor and taste.
“You got good taste, you got good taste, come over here and sit on my…lap.”
Being an inexperienced, innocent waif. I figured that last word should’ve been “place” and, I mean- lap doesn’t even rhyme like place- does it?
“I got this stuff on the tip of my tongue, chandeliers light up the pictures you hung…Whooooooo! (He sings like going down a water ride). You got good taste!”
Well, as they say, beauty is in the eye of the beholder and good taste? Well, I guess, that’s below the waist. And, hopefully, inside your face!
The Cramps are gone, Lux Interior, the lead singer, died a while ago.
The fuzz, the reverb, the echoing great guitar licks, the primitive but powerful rhythms, the outrageous stage presentation and flamboyant, frolicking vocals have all been put to rest.
But the rock’n’roll spirit that they embraced, the punk spirit that they inhabited. The rock’n’roll, rockabilly energy. The grung-y, sixties garage rock after that, followed by seventies glam and punk that they fed upon will never be forgotten, at least I believe, will never die off.
One of The Cramps best albums was called “Bad Music For Bad People.”
Asked what kind of music I like? I often reply, “Bad music”. And when I’m pressed to explain, I say, “Well, it’s music that’s too loud, is often played improperly. It’s played too fast, with lyrics that are often offensive and almost always shouted or growled or screamed. All elements would be considered bad compared to almost any conventional music standards. But I truly love it.”
And when I say this, of course, what I’m referring to is punk.
Did you know that The Cramps, though they originated in Sacramento, were part of the original New York punk scene? I didn’t even know this until fairly recently, though I suppose, though they certainly qualify for punk, they were really a true, great rock’n’roll band.
I love The Cramps and I hope you do, too.
And if you like them, one thing I’m almost sure that I know about you.
Though I’ve never got one single lick.
Is that you got good taste.
(Slimedog)
