The Cramps - Alex Chilton Demos 1977

IRS Demos / Session Outtakes
Sun Studios
Memphis, TN  
June 1977
  
soundboard recording (quality: VG+; sourced from IRS Records in-house cassette)

1-6: What's Behind the Mask?
(various takes, false starts, alt. mixes)

7-9: Rock On the Moon (takes 1-3) 

10: false start

11: Rock on the Moon (take 4)

12-14: Daddy Drives a UFO
(takes 1 & 2 + false start)

Ardent Studios
Memphis, TN
October 1977
  
soundboard recordings (quality: VG-; sounds like a multi-generation tape source)
  
01 TV Set
02 Domino
03 Can't Hardly Stand It
04 Lonesome Town
05 I Was a Teenage Werewolf 
06 Sunglasses after Dark
07 Human Fly
08 Love Me
09 Uranium Rock
10 The Way I Walk
11 Strychnine
12 Surfin' Bird
13 I'm Cramped
   
ROB SEZ: I've covered quite a bit of the Alex Chilton / Big Star story over the years via many ROIOs. Now we bring you an odd little chapter that's not yet been featured: Alex producing The Cramps in 1977. Thanks to fanatical Cramps collectors, here are the (nearly) complete demos & studio outtakes from The Cramps' Chilton sessions in Memphis in 1977. (I left off a few duplicative takes of "What's Behind the Mask" — how many of those do we need to hear in one sitting, anyway??)  The Chilton sessions led to the 1979 Gravest Hits EP & full-length Songs the Lord Taught Us, released in 1980. The Cramps aren't really my thing, but I can't deny there's a good bit of ghoulish, primal "rawk" fun to be found here. Enjoy.
  
FLAC
  
MP3@320

POST-DEADLINE BONUS: Here are 5 superior-sounding tracks (VG+) from the second set via an alternate source, plus artwork & photos. FLAC or MP3@320 (poke around a bit to find even more...)