Born on February 20: Poison Ivy, the Cramps' poisonous guitarist

This is obviously a pseudonym since the flamboyant redhead was born in 1953 under the name Kristy Marlana Wallace, in San Bernardino (California).

Before they even considered producing music together, she met Erick Lee Purkhiser in 1972 at a college in Sacramento. At the time, the two lovebirds hadn't yet cultivated a inclination towards colorful pseudonyms. After a stopover in Akron, they landed in New York in 1976 and obtained managed to gey into the emerging punk scene. Obviously, a touch of provocation is essential for them as they didn't have to force themselves to achieve it. Their group therefore is given the name The Cramps in reference to the sometimes painful menstrual pains. Erick becomes Lux Interior (the interior light!) and in reference to a North American stinging plant, Kristy transforms into Poison Ivy. Unless she was inspired by the DC Comics character who was born in 1966 to fight Batman. A bit of both, certainly...

To cut a long story short, until Erick Lux's death in 2009, The Cramps invented a salacious and enjoyable psychobilly that owes as much to the belches of their singer as to Kristy Poison's incisive riffs on her imposing 1958 Gretsch 6120. With an offbeat humor but also a kind of seriousness, the group has put together anthology albums of this genre (admittedly alternative) such as "Songs The Lord Taught Us" (1980), "Psychedelic Jungle" (1981) or "A Date With Elvis" (1986). Not to mention "Smell Of Female", a live mini-album recorded at the Peppermint Lounge in New York in November 1983.

After 37 years of living with her soul mate, Poison Ivy ended The Cramps adventure when Lux Interior died and completely disappeared from the radar. There are certainly other Poison Ivys active in very different musical genres but none of them ever had the idea, admittedly crazy, to write a song called "What's Inside A Girl?"...

(Stéphane Soupart - Tr.: MH - Phoro: © Etienne Tordoir)
Photo: Poison Ivy with The Cramps on stage at the Sunshine Festival in Brussels on May 31, 1981