The Cramps: A Short History of Rock 'n' Roll Psychosis

Book Description

Lux Interior (Erick Purkhiser) and Poison Ivy Rorschach (Kristy Wallace) formed The Cramps in the late 1970s. They quickly gained acclaim, notoriety, and hitmaker status for campy, sexy studio LPs like Songs the Lord Taught Us and Gravest Hits, as well as for their legendary, over-the-top concerts that brought to mind circus freak shows. This illustrated book with exclusive interviews presents a detailed examination of The Cramps' strange and terrible journey from sleazy, theatrical inventors of a mutant fusion of punk, garage rock, psychobilly, and rock 'n' roll to genuine cult icons with devoted fan bases around the globe.

Customer Reviews:

great book about a great band.......2007-08-27

The Cramps have always existed under the radar even in alternative circles, probably because they are pretty much the sole practitioners of "psychobilly" (traditional rockabilly with a junk-culture/horror movie aesthetic) and thus have bounced from label to label in the course of their 30 year career. this book sheds some well-needed light on their history, and is an entertaining read not just for fans but also for those interested in the struggles of 2 people (Lux Interior and Poison Ivy, who are married) to stay true to their personal vision and perservere in the face of adversity. includes great pictures of the band and a discography. highly recommended.

god damn rock n roll.......2007-05-09

Great book - a little short on info about the cramps recent history - Its got everything the Wild Wild World of the cramps has and a little more - Although if you already have the www of the cramps its not that necessary - A great read if your a Cramps fiend

The Only Psychedelic Voodoo Rockabilly Band That Matters.......2007-03-26

This book rocks! Made me pull out every Cramps CD I own and go nuts all over again.

Amazon.com

Some people will go to the ends of the earth for a good story; Nick Reding went to the end of the road, which turned out to be one and the same. When the Pan American Highway was extended into Chilean Patagonia, it exposed a people long believed to be extinct--the gauchos. While the gauchos had struggled for centuries with the hantavirus, extreme isolation, and visits by the devil, what the road brought was truly overwhelming. Reding befriends the likes of Duck, an alcoholic slowly breaking from the pressure of the outside; John of the Cows, a cattle thief on the lam; and Don Luis, an aging gaucho with terrific stories to tell. From its dramatic opening to its turbulent end, this elegant, brutal, and funny dispatch from one of the world's most forlorn places attempts to answer the inconceivable: What happens when you suddenly find yourself two centuries in the future? --Lesley Reed

Book Description

Gaucho conjures up an image as iconic as the word cowboy. But according to historians and anthropologists, their semi-nomadic culture disappeared at the end of the nineteenth century, and no one has seen the gauchos since. Until now.

Twenty-five years ago, the government of Chile began building a road into Chilean Patagonia, one of the least-populated regions in the world. In 1995, when Nick Reding traveled down that still-unfinished road into an unmapped river valley, he found himself in a closed chapter of history: a last, undetected, and unexplored outpost of gauchos so isolated that many of them, some of whom are boys as young as thirteen, still live completely alone with their herds, hours on horseback from the nearest neighbors. In 1998, Nick returned to the valley to witness what happens when time catches up to a people whom history has forgotten.

Reding’s account of the ten months he spent in Middle Cisnes, Patagonia, is a riveting, novelistic exploration of the longing for change by a people and a culture that, according to history books and the Chilean government, do not even exist. There’s Duck, the alcoholic with whom Reding lives and who takes Reding on long cattle drives, teaching him to ride and work as gauchos have for centuries; Duck’s wife, Edith, who is convinced she is reliving the life of her estranged mother, who was, according to legend, wed to the Devil; John of the Cows, a famed cattle thief wanted for murder who takes Reding to the secret place in the mountains where he hides his stolen stock; and Don Tito and Alfredo, two brothers who are unsure of their age and communicate with each other through smoke signals.

In Middle Cisnes, Reding watches a singular—and ultimately murderous—conflict take hold between those who want to trade life in the nineteenth century for life in the twenty-first and those who want to keep living as gauchos have for hundreds of years. What all of them understand is the near impossibility of a journey through a world where everything from the fierce landscape to a ravaging disease conspires against them, a journey whose terminus—the Outside, the only town in central Patagonia’s 42,000 square miles—is a place where the gauchos are not only ill-equipped to live, but clearly unwelcome.

The Last Cowboys at the End of the World is a story of regeneration through violence and tragedy. When the people of Middle Cisnes finally try to take their place in the modern world, the results are as horrifying and surprising as they are heroic. In the collision of the gaucho past, our present, and an unknown future, Nick Reding captures a moment in time that we have never before seen and will never see again.

Customer Reviews:

Lose yourself in order to find yourself.......2006-04-26

This is an exceptional study of the Patagonian gauchos and their life style and habitat before it is extinguished forever by western values, money and culture. As a tourist in Patagonia it should be required reading, especially if you are attempting a riding trip there as we were, across the Andes. For a moment you can understand what you are seeing and experiencing, for a second you are part of the scenary, not just watching it voyeuristically unfold before you. I don't think I understood travel until I read this book.I will never travel again with my eyes open and my mind closed.

A Fascinating Person and a Fascinating Story.......2003-05-24

I had the pleasure of meeting Nick Reding earlier this year, and as I chatted with him over some drinks, I was really struck by the thought, "This guy has led a really amazing life!" As a result, I went out and grabbed this book and as I read it, I became even more amazed.

Nick tells the story of his experiences in the Chilean Patagonia in a way that draw you in to every moment. The vividness of his writing and the beauty of some of his comparisons made this quite an enjoyable read. His attention to detail leaves the reader with a feeling that they are right there staring over Nick's shoulder as he goes about life in a very different part of the world.

Nick has that knack that some of the best writers have of being able to see the common thread that exists between very different experiences and places. This book is also extremely well researched with a lot of attention to historical detail, but this detail is not integrated in a dry textbook like manner. Instead when Nick feels it is neccessary to illuminate the reader about a particular piece of history to provide context for an event, he explains that history without distracting from the main storyline.

Overall, this is an excellent piece of writing and I look forward to future books by Nick (he assures me at least one more is on the way).

Gauchos are not chilean.......2003-01-13

This is just to correct a gross mistake from one of the other reviewers. Gauchos are the archetypical argentine country men, not chilean. and Patagonia is argentinean in more than 90% of its extension.
Gaucho literature is almost exclusively argentinian. An obligatory introduction to the world of gauchos is José Hernández' Martin Fierro. See this book first to get a glance at the gaucho's rough life before embarking in a second-hand misleading historiography.

A Great Read!!!.......2002-06-16

If you have been to Cisnes,Patagonia (or want to go there) this is a must book to read. I spent 10 days in this area in February, 2002 and saw some of the people that Nick writes about. In reading the book Nick made me feel that I was back there as I could visualize where the events were taking place. The changes to Coyhaique have continued since 1999 as I found it to be a very modern town. After reading this book I would like to make a return trip.

A book you won't forget.......2002-06-16

If you cherish the ways in which John McPhee and Barry Lopez make meaning out of landscape, if you appreciate a writer with an observant heart and a feel for language, and if you wonder how people manage to live--for well and for ill--in a world turned inside out, this is the book for you. By turns harrowing, hilarious, and touching, "The Last Cowboys" will command your attention and remain in your thoughts long after you have read the last page.

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The Gaucho, Martin Fierro

Manufacturer: Ed. Pampa, Buenos Aires
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
ASIN: B000EE5KHK

El Gaucho Insufrible (Narrativas Hispanicas)

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El Gaucho Insufrible (Narrativas Hispanicas)
Roberto Bolano
Manufacturer: Anagrama
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

General | Short Stories | Literature & Fiction | Subjects | Books

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ASIN: 8433968505

The Gaucho Martin Fierro (UNESCO Collection of Representative Works. Latin-American)

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What the book IS
What Martin Fierro means today
A masterpiece in many different languages
Martín Fierro is Argentina's image
EXCELLENT BOOK

The Gaucho Martin Fierro (UNESCO Collection of Representative Works. Latin-American)
Jose Hernandez
Manufacturer: State University of New York Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 0873952847

Customer Reviews:

What the book IS.......2006-09-15

To say that the Argentina of the Martin Fierro is "not very different as what it its today with unjustice and segregation" is a little bit short sighted. Things are completely different today. It is true that segregation might exist from a economical point of view, but no one sees gauchos as an inferior people nowadays.

Martin Fierro is an account of an era long time gone, but that it existed, an the book is interesting as a somewhat reliable historical account. If we want to see Hernandez as a sort of George Orwell, we are reading too much into it.

What Martin Fierro means today.......2001-11-02

Martin Fierro was written by Jose Hernandez in an era of gauchos and caudillos, not very different as what it its today with unjustice and segregation. Gives a plain message of values, courage and validates the ability of the people to survive under the worst conditions and succeed. A very actual approach at very current problems. The advise he gives to his kids could be the same we today give to our kids "sibbling be united , ..."
Agreat book, with a wonderfull content, some historic points of view and a nice look to lthe 1800 argentinean society from a gaucho's side .

A masterpiece in many different languages.......2000-05-12

Martin Fierro is a work of art. While describing in poetry the life of Martin Fierro (a Gaucho in the Pampas in the mid to late 1800's), this poem was also a political complaint and a message of unification against the modern world for the gauchos. Herandez's greatest achievement was to unite, in one poem, a message for all the social and cultural classes. Hernandez was a self made man, ruled by simple principles based on honesty and dignity. These principles are well reflected in his book. When Martin Fierro meets his sons, and counsels them, it is Hernandez speaking to all of us.

Martín Fierro is Argentina's image.......1998-09-06

Martín Fierro is, in some way, a national hero for Argentinian people, even for those who haven't read the book. And it seems pretty difficult to analyse this poem knowing that, because Fierro is basically a dirty, filthy, lazy and bane gaucho. Anyway, being Fierro for Argentinian people as Cid for Spanish or Achilles for Greek, the reader should know that this book defends a savage way of life with reasonable ideas, and that is what makes it unique. Martín Fierro belongs to a special time in Argentinian history, and because of this fact the reader should take over this book in a special way and try to understand it by entering the soul of the typical gaucho poetry. This book, written 120 years ago is still very very recommendable in this age of Grishams and Sheldons.

EXCELLENT BOOK.......1997-08-13

This is a great book which describes the situation of the gauchos in ARGENTINA (of course, long ago). I recomend the readers to check the wise tips given by "el viejo vizcacha", in one of the chapters. (They are great (and real)).

Gaucho Laird: The Life of R. B. Don Roberto Cunninghame Graham

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Gaucho Laird: The Life of R. B. Don Roberto Cunninghame Graham
Jean Cunninghame Graham , and Murray Grigor
Manufacturer: Long Riders' Guild Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

General | Biographies & Memoirs | Subjects | Books

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Look Inside Home & Garden Books | Trip | Specialty Stores | Books
ASIN: 1590481798

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Pampas, a place in the world.

On the Pampas
Maria Cristina Brusca
Manufacturer: Henry Holth & Co (J)
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: School & Library Binding

Central & South America | History & Historical Fiction | Children's Books | Subjects | Books

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ASIN: 0805015485

Customer Reviews:

Pampas, a place in the world........2000-04-13

This book describes very well the adventures of a little girl on the pampas, in Argentina. It also would provide a great learning time and enjoyment. Teachers in multicultural communities would be delighful to read it and they can be confident about the truth of the descriptive pictures and message. As an argentinean person, I highly recomend this book for everybody who likes to learn about other places in the world.

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Gaucho
Gaucho

Gaucho
Gloria Gonzalez
Manufacturer: Random House Books for Young Readers
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

General | Ages 9-12 | Children's Books | Subjects | Books
ASIN: 0679839321
Release Date: 1993-03-09

Customer Reviews:

Gaucho.......2002-03-05

The book Gaucho is about a Pertuo Rican boy that wants to get to his homeland in Pertuo Rico. Gaucho lives in New York with his brother Angel. Gaucho desperately wants to get out of the bad streets of New York. Blacho tells Gaucho that he knows were fast money can be made. Unwittliy, he becomes involed with a dangerous scheme, which ends in a chase throughout Chinatown. Gauchos fear, vulaberlaty and finally his trouble with a fearful secret. Gaucho was a good book that shows how you should think of something before you do it. The book had alot of good description of the character and how they played their role. I would recommend this book to people that want to find out their ethic identity, and how Gaucho did it

Gaucho.......2002-02-08

How would you feel if you were promised the opportunity to go somewhere, but then got disappointed? In Gaucho, written by Gloria Gonzalez, a young boy wants to go back to Puerto Rico, but he can't. His brother promised to take him, but then he got married, so Gaucho had to get the money on his own. First he sold his gold watch. Then he started to work for a gangster named Blanco, who paid him to make deliveries to other gangsters. Does Gaucho get caught making the deliveries? Does he get the money to go to Puerto Rico? If you are between the ages of 11 and 13, read Gaucho to find out for yourself. This is a book that will really knock your socks off.

Average customer rating:

History of a Cultural Extinction

A fascinating glimpse of a lifestyle long gone

A fine intro. to Argentine history for US readers.

Gauchos and the Vanishing Frontier
Richard W. Slatta
Manufacturer: University of Nebraska Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

Argentina | South America | Americas | History | Subjects | Books
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Similar Items:

Latin America and Its People, Volume II: 1800 to Present (2nd Edition)

Children of God's Fire: A Documentary History of Black Slavery in Brazil

The Caste War of Yucatan: Revised Edition

The City of Mexico in the Age of Díaz

The War of the End of the World

ASIN: 0803292155

Book Description

Although as much romanticized as the American cowboy, the Argentine gaucho lived a persecuted, marginal existence, beleaguered by mandatory passports, vagrancy laws, and forced military service. The story of this nineteenth-century migratory ranch hand is told in vivid detail by Richard W. Slatta, a professor of history at North Carolina State University at Raleigh and the author of Cowboys of the Americas (1990).

Customer Reviews:

History of a Cultural Extinction.......2000-12-31

Slatta brings the Argentine gaucho alive in all his splendor and squalor. One gains an appreciation for the extraordinary lives of this equestrian people who almost literally lived in the saddle. The author depicts life on the pampa in sometimes searing realism: a hard, state-of-nature life, but one the gaucho himself would not have changed (and did not change at the few junctures where he had the chance).

Slatta presents a structuralist history of one of the W. Hemisphere's most colorful and renowned peoples. In other hands this approach might minimize the role of personality and personal choice, as though the gaucho bobbed helplessly on the rough seas of impersonal historical force acting thru the medium of latin culture.

Not so here. The author dispassionately shows that the gaucho's fierce independence and tribalism contributed directly to the demise of his culture in its collision with mainstream Argentine society on the pampa. It could not be otherwise. Modernity was simply incomprehensible to the gaucho. One could not be gaucho and latino at the same time, and civilization destroyed the gaucho way of life.

Slatta explores obvious parallels with other horse cultures such as that of the Mongols, the American Indian and the American cowboy. He demonstrates subject mastery in a wealth of detail concerning equipment, words, and convergent ways of handling similar challenges. The inherent drama of the gaucho story had echoes of "Monte Walsh" sounding in my mind as I finished the work.

This thoroughly readable book is enjoyable both as history and as entertainment.

A fascinating glimpse of a lifestyle long gone.......1999-06-15

This thoroughly readable book is enjoyable both as history and as entertainment.

A fine intro. to Argentine history for US readers........1999-02-16

Slatta's book works well when assigned to college undergraduates, because he covers complex and important issues in an engaging style. The subject of gauchos should be fascinating as well to lay readers interested in US cowboys & frontier history, because Slatta provides a clear basis for comparative history. 10-15 years ago it would have deserved a 5-star rating, but "Gauchos" has stimulated further research which is beginning to modify, or at least extend, its conclusions (cf. J. Lynch, "Massacre in the Pampas 1872"). Nevertheless, Slatta's book remains the place to begin expanding one's understanding of New World frontier history.

Heroes on Horseback: A Life and Times of the Last Gaucho Caudillos (Dialogos)

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Examining Caudillismo
Examining Caudillismo

Heroes on Horseback: A Life and Times of the Last Gaucho Caudillos (Dialogos)
John Charles Chasteen
Manufacturer: University of New Mexico Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 0826315984

Book Description

Heroes on Horseback takes a new look at a topic that will not go away: the charismatic leadership known as caudillismo that has characterized so much of South American history. Why were there so many Spanish American caudillos and so few in Brazil? Where did caudillos get their power? Answers emerge in John Charles Chasteen's account of the short careers of two back-country caudillos, Gumercindo and Aparicio Saravia, sons of a Brazilian immigrant family in northern Uruguay. Their story is set in the borderland where Brazil and Spanish America met and mingled in the nineteenth century.

Rather by accident, they became the last of the gaucho caudillos when, in the 1890s, they led hopeless revolts of mounted lancers against modern armies equipped with Mausers and Krupp artillery. Chasteen braids a powerful narrative out of an unusual variety of sources, from short stories to census data, from partisan oratory to private letters, from folklore to probate inventories and criminal case records. Explored are topics as varied as myth, gender, material life, political culture, state formation, charismatic leadership, and the search for national identity. The resulting multifaceted book is socio-political history at its best.

A sweeping narrative of two 19th century charismatic leaders and their powerful armies on the Brazil/Uruguay border.

Customer Reviews:

Examining Caudillismo.......2000-04-29

In "Heroes on Horseback," John Charles Chasteen varies his narrative by alternating chapters following the story of two Brazilian caudillos with those examining the political environment of the Uruguay-Brazil borderland in the late 19th century. While a little slow in parts, it does explore the conceptions of identities among those in the borderland, particularly for the numerous Brazilian immigrants living in Uruguay. It also provides a closer look at the lives of two brothers, Gumercindo and Aparicio Saravia, as they lead their milita in hopes of bringing revolution to Brazil. Most interesting, however, is Chasteen's inquiry into the phenomenon of caudillismo itself and how the charisma of the leaders inspired the borderland residents to enlist their support. Overall, a worthwhile look at a unique area of Latin American political history.

Examining Caudillismo.......2000-04-29

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My Mama's Little Ranch on the Pampas
Maria Cristina Brusca
Manufacturer: Henry Holt & Company
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

Central & South America | History & Historical Fiction | Children's Books | Subjects | Books

General | History & Historical Fiction | Children's Books | Subjects | Books

General | Ages 4-8 | Children's Books | Subjects | Books

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ASIN: 0805027823

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