Yes, on tuesday, June 13, 1978, voodoo rockabilly avatars The Cramps (in their greatest line-up, Lux Interior and Poison Ivy backed by Nick Knox and Byron Gregory) rolled into the recreation room of Californiaโ€™s Napa State Mental Hospital, to play for the residents. Donโ€™t ask how this was ever allowed. Just give thanks someone had a camera.

Captured in black and white on rudimentary home video equipment, the 20 minutes of footage here?for 25 years a bootleg (un)holy grail?ranks alongside musicโ€™s most sacred artifacts, up there with Johnny Cashโ€™s prison shows, James Brownโ€™s Apollo stands, Dylanโ€™s electric storms of โ€™66.

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โ€œSomebody told me you people are crazy,โ€ says Lux, setting the tone while โ€œThe Way I Walkโ€ fires up. โ€œBut Iโ€™m not sure about that.โ€ As assembled patients, stirred by the sound, begin to shimmy, invade the stage, steal the mic, scream their souls out and try to escape, you might wonder how politically correct this is. But notice how the band treat this audience: exactly the same way they treat every other audience. The wildest night. The band may have sounded (fractionally) better on occasion, but theyโ€™ve never been so completelyโ€ฆ cramped. The very stuff, people, of legend.