videos
The Cramps live at Napa State Mental Hospital Infamous bootleg of the moment in 1978 when the psychobilly band played the California Mental Hospital.
Mystery Plane fades. The frontman to the crowd: “We’re The Cramps, and we’re from New York City and we drove 3,000 miles to play for you people.”
“Fuck you!” a patient yells back.
He cracks a smile. “And somebody told me you people are crazy! But I’m not so sure about that; you seem to be all right to me.”
One of the greatest moments in music history, bootlegged at source, has now surfaced on the internet, tipped by the really-worth-adding-to-your-RSS-feed aggregation site The Documentarian.
In 1978, The Cramps – a bunch of weirdos who invented this rabid, camp music called psychcobilly – toured California and took in a date at one of the country’s largest mental hospitals. For such an extreme band, this could be taken as a cynical, exploitative publicity stunt, but, instead, it’s as powerful a testament to speaking for the marginalised as Johnny Cash at Fulsome Prison, and an embrace of the moment, wherever it will take us.
- 29.09.11