Lux and Ivy's Favorites Volume 18

 

Welcome to Lux and Ivy’s Favorites Volume 18! The last one was over 10 years ago, believe it or not. What a crazy 10 years it’s been. I stopped (or took a break) at 17 because of all the bootlegs that began appearing at that time. I had been approached for at least decade before that about putting these out and said “NO” emphatically, and so folks started doing their own (even down to using some of my personal 45 rips, I recently discovered!).  I can’t imagine ANY self-respecting fan buying these things. But I digress, and won’t waste space talking about them.

In that time I would pick up a new song here or there, or identify a song from the Vip Vop tapes (that have ALSO been booted, haha) and threw them in the “LAIF” folder.  Back in 2012 someone sent me a tape with NO track listing called Lux’s Space Discs. Lux had given this 90 minute tape to the person who eventually sent it to me. The tape includes all sorts of amazing space related songs from either 45 or LP’s.  A bunch of these songs have appeared already on other volumes that I was able to find from other reference points over the years.

This volume is a nice mix (I think) of some of those “space discs” as well as a BUNCH of songs that I was able to finally identify from the Vip Vop Tapes. I always used to go by the belief that many of those songs came from the original 45’s, but in a few cases they came from one of the many LP compilations that came from Europe in the 70’s and 80’s.  If you check out the track listing from American Rock 'N' Roll Instrumentals Vol 4 you’ll see what I mean, half the songs on that record are ON the Vip Vop Tapes.  I stumbled upon this accidently and discovered a few of the unnamed VV songs.

The lead off track on this volume is the amazing and overlooked Enchanted Island that is on the Spark Plugs album (where Chicken was originally sourced from). The person who did the original Born Bad LP’s had wanted to include that track back then, as it was the source for……Kizmiaz!  Now, some say it was Duane Eddy’s Lost Island, but listen to the ending of Enchanted Island and hear the “ooh, ooh” parts and it’s totally from Enchanted Island. That ISN’T to say that The Spark Plugs (or whoever this band was) didn’t copy it from Eddy’s song originally.

Let’s see, a few other notables. Get Me to the World on Time was mentioned in the new and amazing Kid Congo book as the inspiration for the guitar sound on New Kind of Kick. Thanks Kid for an amazing and moving book, as well for giving us this piece of info about one of my favorite Cramps tunes.

Another big song for me was Discoteque Dance Party by the Panics. On the Vip Vop Tapes it’s about a two minute song, so I had always assumed that it was from a 45. For YEARS I searched for a 45 called “Dance Everybody Dance” or something like that. Turns out the song is by The Panics and comes from an LP and is part of an almost 5 minute song! The whole song is included here.

Recently, someone sent me about 90 minutes’ worth of audio of the time The Cramps appeared on Rodney’s show on KROQ. It’s a great show from around the time that Psychedelic Jungle came out (Lux hilariously reads the concert listings and purposely messes up the names or makes snide comments, much to Rodney’s chagrin), and features a handful of records they brought to the studio.

Other songs are odds and ends I’ve picked up over the years.

I’m very happy with the way this cover turned out. I had wanted to use this image for years. It is from the amazing LP by Jimmie Haskell called COUNT DOWN. The Mad Daddy was a huge fan of this record and used it on his radio show. So I figured it would work for a cover because of some of the “space” related songs, and EVERYONE knows what a fan of Lux was of the Mad one.  Two Haskell songs appeared on LAIF #12. Adam Fitch did the design and layout from my idea. Thanks Adam!

That’s it, in the words of Lux; “Hope you enjoy the riiiiiiiiiiiiiiide!”

Thanks to Bruce Milne, DJ Not Rodney, West Brook, Howie Pyro (who is the ONLY person I told about Enchanted Island) and anyone else who helped along the way!

LAIF #18