The official punk rock party line is that punk is the most democratic of all types of music because you don't even know how to play your instrument to be in a band. But for me, as a youngster in the late 1960s, it was jug-band music that opened the door. With a jug band, you didn't even need to have a real instrument to join in. Antiquated household appliances like the washtub and washboard could be turned into a rhythm section, kindergarten percussion instruments were welcome, and kazoos were mandatory.
The 1960s jug-band revival was a hip underground stream, barely noticed by outsiders. Jim Kweskin and his Jug Band (themselves reprised with the newly released Acoustic Swing & Jug on Vanguard) set out to revive the raucous sounds of the 1920s and '30s, such as the Memphis Jug Band, the Mississippi Sheiks and Cannon's Jug Stompers. The Nitty Gritty Dirt Band did a slicker version of Kweskin. Jerry Garcia had a group called Mother McCree's Uptown Jug Champions before The Grateful Dead. Country Joe & the Fish dabbled in it, the Lovin' Spoonful and Creedence Clearwater Revival paid tribute to it, and Dan Hicks would later refine it.
But some of the most original neo-jug music was made by a California band called Dr. West's Medicine Show & Junk Band, led by Norman Greenbaum, who later would become famous for the Jesus boogie "Spirit In The Sky". Dr. West also had a hit, albeit a minor one, in 1966. You can debate whether "The Eggplant That Ate Chicago", the title song of the band's first album, is sublime or merely stupid, but like the giant space vegetable said of the Windy City, this silly ditty "was a treat, it was sweet, it was just like sugar."
That magical first album is included in its entirety on this compilation. And several tunes are even more endearing than "Eggplant". "A Summer Love Song" unapologetically rhymes "moon," "June," "croon" and "swoon." "The Old Fruit Peddler" is a child's lesson in simple human decency. But the coolest tune here is the "secret-drug-lyrics"-packed "How Lew Sin Ate."
Unfortunately, after the first albums, the songs get spottier. "Grandma's Blues," "Girl With The Oom Pah Pah Pah" (which sounds like the Squirrel Nut Zippers) and "Bullets La Vern" (which the Zippers should consider covering) have the old Eggplant spirit, thought they sound slightly more produced, lacking some of the handmade charm of the earlier tunes.
But many of the latter selections -- "You Can Fly", "Nothing Changes" "Lady Rain" -- are just putrid pop. These musical missteps aside, having the best songs of Dr. West available on CD makes me happier than a kid getting a free banana from an old fruit peddler.
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