Dr. West's Medicine Show & Junk Band

Odder than the Jim Kweskin Jug Band and more aligned with the straight folk/jug band tradition than <a href="spotify:artist:5ZjKW4JhcFuOXLpuJrr8wJ">the Holy Modal Rounders</a> were, Dr. West's Medicine Show & Junk Band were among the more notable 1960s groups that updated the old-timey/jug band spirit with a modern attitude and rock influences. Most known as the starting point for leader and chief songwriter <a href="spotify:artist:7f8LNBVXN0h35veHrpxQFL">Norman Greenbaum</a> (there was no "Dr. West"), who would have a huge rock hit in 1970 with "Spirit in the Sky," they didn't achieve even the modest profile of <a href="spotify:artist:3b5nT2xx5jbjaYuQJWhZG7">Kweskin</a> or <a href="spotify:artist:5ZjKW4JhcFuOXLpuJrr8wJ">the Holy Modal Rounders</a>. <a href="spotify:artist:7f8LNBVXN0h35veHrpxQFL">Greenbaum</a> once described himself as "a cross between <a href="spotify:artist:2ebK4ueGwhVaXUm060m1BS">Captain Beefheart</a> and <a href="spotify:artist:117YLv0bvUKDzQgaHwTF7b">Spike Jones</a>," and while Dr. West sounded much more like <a href="spotify:artist:117YLv0bvUKDzQgaHwTF7b">Jones</a> than <a href="spotify:artist:2ebK4ueGwhVaXUm060m1BS">Beefheart</a>, <a href="spotify:artist:7f8LNBVXN0h35veHrpxQFL">Greenbaum</a> and his cohorts certainly had a knack for witty, often absurd modern-day jug band-style tunes. On-stage, Dr. West would go through medicine show routines between songs, a shtick which even drew the praise of <a href="spotify:artist:6ra4GIOgCZQZMOaUECftGN">Frank Zappa</a>. Dr. West's sole album, The Eggplant That Ate Chicago, was chock-full of tunes embedded with blasé weirdness, like the title track, which would be tailor-made for airplay on <a href="spotify:artist:5cW7DNcJpkeUIkIlHxjWDf">Dr. Demento</a>'s show a few years later. A few post-album singles saw Dr. West filling out their sound with more rock-flavored arrangements that dovetailed with folk-rock and mild psychedelia, although the lyrical focus remained off the beaten track, with songs about a New York Hooker ("Bullet La Verne") and "Gondoliers, Shakespeares, Overseers, Playboys, and Bums." ~ Richie Unterberger