The Purple Knif Show is a highly sought-after, classic Hollywood radio show from July 1984 hosted by Lux Interior of The Cramps. The Purple Knif is in reference and in tribute to Cleveland’s horror TV show host from 1963-’66 and former DJ Ernie (Ghoulardi) Anderson who used to say: “Stay Sick!,” “Cool it with the boom-booms,” and “The whole world is a purple knif” (“knif” being the word “fink” spelled backwards, of course). What works so well on this wonderful DJ mix which runs the gamut from raw ’60s punk, garage, and rockabilly, to Polynesian jungle rhythms and jazz themes is that Lux has picked some great music and DJs in an appropriate, heavily reverbed DJ’s voice. This not only enhances the whole thing perfectly, but also helps to take us back to the era of the early rock’n'roll DJ personality. Lux did a wonderful job DJing this set of music which no doubt inspired The Cramps. He was certainly ahead of his time in regard to how a lot of what he played on radio back in 1984 went on to be compiled in our age of the compilation. This show is finally available on CD from the fine folks at Munster Records.
Posted by kopper in Other Shows, Podcast | 11 Comments »
2006-02-20 at 05:30
Hot shite, dude! The Purple Knif Show is one of my all time favourites! Lux is truly amazing in the DJ seat :)
2006-02-20 at 07:10
The bible !
2006-02-25 at 04:48
i’m nearly dying… how can i go home & stop to listen???
2006-03-02 at 13:55
Great!! The roots of the Cramps…..by the way, are they still alive????
Greetzzz Juup
2008-08-17 at 11:52
Lots of fun, I saw this at a record store along time ago, I’m glad it resurfaced here so I can finally listen to it!
2009-02-05 at 12:19
[...] Lux Interior, of course, was the singer in the legendary Cramps, a band so storied and quintessentially, darkly American that they almost came to hold a kind of Norman Rockwell-ish stature. He died yesterday. In the last few years, we’ve been listening to the Cramps more than we ever thought we would back when we first heard them in high school, and maybe it’s because over the last few years, Reagan-era punk rock suddenly got super-relevant again. But the Cramps were more than a blood-n-guts kitsch monster mash act, though — they were educators. The mp3 stream above is that of Interior’s much-sought-after Purple Knif radio show, originally broadcast on Los Angeles community radio in July 1984. It’s epic: In it, Lux lays down tracks that not only articulate the Cramps musical ethos perfectly — trashy, spooky, desperate — but also pays tribute to those who anonymously went before him. Give it a listen, and Lux, long may you ghoul. [MP3 hat tip to GaragePunk.com] [...]
2009-02-05 at 14:44
[...] a running theme at Michael Kaiser’s Haus, ain’t he?!) made me a cassette copy of “The Purple KNIF/Radio Delux” recording, and the very opening lines of “Put on your magic decoder rings boys and [...]
2009-02-05 at 16:09
RIP LUX!!
2009-02-19 at 05:00
The MAESTRO!!!!
This is one of my favourites!
2009-03-20 at 21:50
I’ll miss him
2010-04-07 at 17:34
[...] or anything like that. Much of the vibe takes inspiration from Lux Interior’s infamous Purple Knif radio show, which I first heard a few years ago and immediately fell in love with, so this podcast is also an [...]