Miriam Linna: My Dark Ages

Erick Purkhiser, better known as Cramps leader Lux Interior, died on February 4 (2009). Long ago, and for one year, he was my friend. I was the drummer in the first Cramps lineup which played forty-odd dates over an eight month period from the first show on All Saints Night 1976 through July 13, 1977, the date of the NYC blackout. With his passing came a mess of calls asking about the early days. After years of avoiding a backward glance, I was suddenly dropped headlong into the well. A moldering box of old stuff materialized from way back of the closet, and old friends began sending in decades-old snapshots, clippings, bits of correspondence. That first year in New York was my coming of age, at least in calendar years. It was also my first year behind the traps, on the flipside of fandom. It provided a hazing that alternately galvanized and confused my head, so these few words and pictures will seem sad and funny at the same time. I hope this helps clear the cobwebs for those who care. Walking through my dreams, like the Pretty Things would say. RIP, Lux.
Stuff started seeping out of the woodwork before the paint was dry. Phone calls, remember-whens, faded pictures, a couple grainy super-8’s, old letters, a stop-by. “Lux is dead,” they’d say. “He’s gone.” So I get a call from my first big town roommate, Pam, sister of the great and also-late Bryan Gregory, and we ruminate, a shot of white light into one hell of a moldy basement, and it’s with that conversation that I begin this slow descent into a year that time forgot. Round One is shot out of the cannon, a random blast. It was a lifetime ago-- everything’s changed, and nothing’s changed. Like when you spin around real fast and stop, and you’re digging your heels in, and everything around you is a whirling blur...

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