PinK Gelatine!: ☠ Stray Cats, Harley’s and Hot Rods!

The Stray Cats became well known in the early 80s for their raucous vintage yet modern style of rockabilly music. In the US initially there wasn’t a lot of interest, so the three young men from Long Island hopped on a plane to England. Brian Setzer, Lee Rocker (Leon Drucker) and Slim Jim Phantom (James McDonnell) after living a stray cat life on the streets of London, caught the eye of producer/singer/guitarist Dave Edmunds and ended up making their first record called simply Stray Cats.

Stray Cats was a European only release and did the best it could in the European charts, with Runaway Boys becoming their first number 1 hit single, but Stray Cats also featured their signature songs Stray Cat Strut and Rock This Town. The Stray Cats established their name in Europe with that record which was the perfect show cast for their hot rod type of music. Hot Rod’s and rock and roll have always been part of the same scene, together with Harley’s and custom bikes. Stray Cats used all of that in their music and also on their record covers.

Their second European release, Gonna Ball in 1981 showed the Cats together with their own built Harley-Davidson Shovelheads in front of a typical US diner. That record also featured one of their first hot rod themed songs, Rev It Up And Go. In 1982 it became time for their first US album, called Built for Speed, featuring the song of the same name referring to every possible aspect of a custom car, black with flames and a fuel injection.

And off course the albums cover showing some of the coolest custom cars you could think off. The other songs on that record were a mixture of the best that their first two European albums featured. In 1983 it was followed both in the US as in Europe by Rant ‘n Rave with the Stray Cats, featuring songs like Look at that Cadillac and Hotrod Gang as well as a road song like 18 miles to Memphis. Of that record the single Sexy and 17 however is one of the most famous, and the 7” single showed off one of their best sleeves with a drawing by Ed “Big Daddy” Roth of the three cats in a hot rod. After a few years of absence the next album was Rock Therapy, showing a new hair style for the Stray Cats together with another cool car, and a great cover of the Gene Vincent song Race With The Devil. On 1989’s Blast Off they moved away from the car theme due to the dance style influences in the music industry, but bringing some good songs like Blast Off, Gene and Eddie and Rockabilly Rules. 1990’s Let’s go faster lost the car/bike theme further, with only the albums theme song referring to the hot rod spirit. 1991’s Choo Choo Hot Fish and 1992’s Original Cool had no references at all to any wheels but trains in the cover of Mystery Train. After this the Cats went their own way with some occasional touring together over the years. But they did well on their own solo careers as well and also in that they finally got back to their hot wheels origins.

Especially Brian Setzer is very succesvol in both his solo career as well as with his Brian Setzer Orchestra. On most of his record covers you can find images of cars, the most notably being his 2003 solo album Nitro Burning Funny Daddy showing his own Metalflake flame painted hot rod Ford. And a lot of his songs on the different albums including the BSO’s Christmas albums show reference to hot cars. Even Santa drives a 57 Chevrolet instead of a sleigh. Lee Rocker’s 2006 album Racin’ the Devil, has a real custom carstyle cover by Vince Ray, and some songs are back to the roots, like Funny Car Graveyard with references to Von Dutch and Daddy Roth. Still with every release these Cats come out with we’ll be excited to hear what ‘s new and exciting and how cool the covers will be.