The Cramps - Songs the Lord Taught Us

The debut. Recorded in Memphis with Alex Chilton behind the board and released in 1980, Songs the Lord Taught Us is where psychobilly starts — not as a marketing term but as an actual sound, invented in real time by four people who had been listening to the wrong records for years and finally decided to do something about it.

There is no bass player. There are two guitars, drums, and Lux Interior, and somehow that is more than enough. "TV Set" is four minutes of domestic horror delivered in a croon, "Garbage Man" hits with the greatest opening line the band ever wrote, "I Was a Teenage Werewolf" turns drive-in schlock into genuine menace, and "Human Fly" — well, everybody knows "Human Fly." The covers are just as essential: The Sonics' "Strychnine," Johnny Burnette's "Tear It Up," and a closing "Fever" that slows to a crawl and gets under your skin.

Chilton's production is the secret weapon. It is dry, close and unforgiving, capturing the band at their rawest without polishing a single edge. Four and a half decades later it still sounds like it was recorded in a basement in a bad part of town, which is exactly right.

This is the Illegal Records / Capitol reissue. One of the most important American rock records of its era, and non-negotiable for anyone building a collection.