The Cramps "Highlights For Lowlifes"

.....From February 17th to March 9th of this year I laid out a pretty extensive discography of the band The Cramps on my Livejournal page (also under the name pblfsda) with the intention of picking from it 2 to 3 hours of songs to compile into a definitive career retrospective and replace a well-worn and well-loved cassette compilation I put together in the mid 1990's. (See the previous post on this blog for details.)

.....My plans were to return to each of my blogs in turn and slowly get them back onto some semblance of a schedule. This one would complete Volume 4 (interrupted some time late January), then give my progress report on the new compilation before beginning posts for Volume 5 in April. Unrelated news preoccupied me elsewhere and none of that happened. To keep a toe in I'm going to fill a request from a comment on the previous post and give the track listing for that earlier first edition of the Cramps compilation. It was compiled before the release of FLAMEJOB (I think) and only goes as far as 1991. Also, as I posted a couple months ago, it omits "JOURNEY TO THE CENTER OF A GIRL" and some others for reasons a new compilation should make moot. In spite of everything else, it makes for great listening:

....."HIGHLIGHTS FOR LOWLIFES" Side A

05:07 SURFIN' BIRD (Sonny Harris, Turner Wilson, Carl White, Al Frazier)

----- A-side 7" Vengeance 666 (US) 04/78

02:15 HUMAN FLY

----- A-side 7" Vengeance 668 (US) 11/78

03:01 RED HEADED WOMAN (Sonny Burgess) [backing James Luther Dickinson 10/77]

----- from VALP ROCKABILLY PSYCHOSIS AND THE GARAGE DISEASE Big Beat WIK18 (UK) 06/84

02:41 MYSTERY PLANE (original mix)

----- unreleased B-side scheduled for 12/79

03:12 TV SET

----- from LP SONGS THE LORD TAUGHT US I.R.S. SP007 (US) 04/80

03:37 GARBAGE MAN

----- A-side 7" I.R.S. IR9014 (US) 05/80

02:36 DRUG TRAIN

----- A-side 7" Illegal ILS0021 (UK) 09/80

02:27 URANIUM ROCK (Warren Smith)

----- from VA2LP I.R.S. GREATEST HITS VOLUMES 2&3 I.R.S. SP70800 (US) 01/81

03:59 TEAR IT UP (Johnny Burnette, Dorsey Burnette, Paul Burlison)

----- from VA2LP URGH! A MUSIC WAR A&M SP6019 (US) 05/81

02:49 ROCKIN' BONES (Jack Rhodes, Don Carter, Dub Nalls)

----- from LP PSYCHEDELIC JUNGLE I.R.S. SP70016 (US) 04/81

03:05 GOO GOO MUCK (Ronnie Cook, Ed James)

----- A-side 7" I.R.S. IR9021 (US) 05/81

01:48 THE CRUSHER (Bob Nolan)

----- A-side 12" I.R.S. PFSX1008 (UK) 09/81

03:31 NEW KIND OF KICK

----- B-side 12" I.R.S. PFSX1008 (UK) 09/81

02:48 FASTER PUSSYCAT (Bert Schefter)

----- A-side 7" New Rose NEW 28 (France) 02/84

03:16 I AIN'T NOTHIN' BUT A GORE HOUND

----- A-side 7" New Rose NEW 33 (France) 04/84

....."HIGHLIGHTS FOR LOWLIFES" Side B

04:12 SURFIN' DEAD (Ivy Rorschach, Lux Interior, Nick Knox)

----- from VALP RETURN OF THE LIVING DEAD [OMPS] Enigma 72004-1 (US) 06/85

03:21 CAN YOUR PUSSY DO THE DOG?

----- A-side 7" Big Beat NS110 (UK) 11/85

02:41 BLUE MOON BABY (Satalsky and Rowe?)

----- B-side 7" Big Beat NS110 (UK) 11/85

03:22 WHAT'S INSIDE A GIRL?

----- A-side 7" Big Beat NS115 (UK) 04/86

03:13 GET OFF THE ROAD (Herschell Lewis)

----- B-side 12" Big Beat NST115 (UK) 04/86

03:01 KIZMIAZ

----- A-side 7" New Rose NEW71 (France) 06/86

03:18 BIKINI GIRLS WITH MACHINE GUNS

----- A-side 7" Enigma ENV17 (UK) 01/90

02:31 JAILHOUSE ROCK (Jerry Leiber, Mike Stoller)

----- from VA2LP THE LAST TEMPTATION OF ELVIS New Musical Express NME LP038/039 (UK) 02/90

03:09 ALL WOMEN ARE BAD

----- A-side 7" Enigma ENV19 (UK) 03/90

03:04 TEENAGE RAGE (2-track demo)

----- B-side 12" Enigma 12ENV19 (UK) 03/90

03:52 HIGH SCHOOL HELLCATS (2-track demo)

----- B-side 12" Enigma 12ENV19 (UK) 03/90

03:13 CREATURE FROM THE BLACK LEATHER LAGOON

----- A-side 7" Enigma ENV22 (UK) 08/90

03:21 EYEBALL IN MY MARTINI

----- A-side 7" Big Beat NS135 (UK) 09/91

04:19 I WANNA GET IN YOUR PANTS

----- B-side 12" Big Beat NST135 (UK) 09/91

All songs not otherwise credited were written by Ivy Rorschach and Lux Interior.

.....All but a handful of these songs are either album tracks or bonus tracks on the Vengeance label CD editions of their albums. Good luck finding the rest, if you want to piece together the tape yourself. Of course, most folks would likely opt to download a slightly shorter selection to burn to CD, so it's just a matter of how much you can find. Or you can wait two months and look at the revised edition here after Volume 4 has finished posting.