While weeding out my library the other day (I have far too many books for my own good!) I came across a small gem that I received as a present many years ago. It's called "R.Crumb's Heroes of Blues, Jazz and Country".
It is hard-cover, about 6x8 inches and has 238 pages of wonderful, hand-drawn images of early, early musicians and a little of their life story.
The artist and author is the same R. Crumb who gave us Fritz the Cat, Mr. Natural, the iconic Keep on Truckin' t-shirts and the album art (back when real music came in real album covers) for Cheap Thrills with Big Brother and the Holding Company, featuring Janis Joplin, among other things.
He was one of the original "underground comix" creators (remember The Four Furry Freak Brothers by Gilbert Shelton?) and a great fan of early American music and musicians.
It even had a CD stuck inside the back cover featuring 21 cuts from such folks as "Dock" Boggs, Charlie Poole and the North Carolina Ramblers, Uncle Dave Macon and His Fruit jar Drinkers, Al Hopkins and His Buckle Busters, Jimmie Rodgers, The Carter Family, Ernest Stoneman and the Blue Ridge Corn Shuckers among dozens of other great old time string, and country bands.
Of the above I only recognize Uncle Dave Macon, Jimmie Rodgers and, of course, The Carter Family.
But I sure put on that CD (which has disappeared under mountains of CD's I have tumbling out of cabinets in the dining room) and I became acquainted with the rest.
There are also two other sections in the book devoted to jazz, and the blues, featuring Blind Willie McTell, Son House, Furry Lewis, Big Bill Broonzy, Bix Beiderbeck,Eddie Lang (a superb jazz guitarist), Mary Lou Williams, Benny Goodman and Johnny Dodds to mention just a few.
This is a terrific book for those scholars interested in adding to their music libraries or just regular folks like you and me to keep around for a handy reference.
The pictures are bright and lovingly sketched and colored by Crumb who knows his way around a drawing board. Incidentally, after the documentary about him, which was shot and produced by Terry Swigoff, Crumb received such notoriety that he fled the country and is now living in France.
Crumb is not like other folks. He is very reclusive, as you can see and marches to the beat of another drummer. Just recently he released his graphic version of "Genesis", the first book of the bible.
As for "Heroes" if you find a cheap copy somewhere, check first to see if the CD is still there, then, grab it and enjoy.
(C) 2011 George Locke
2 comments
on “R. Crumb Jumps and Jives”
coelhoe Says:
Tuesday, February 1, 2011 @10:38:04 AM
There a lot of copies of this book around, including new remainders for less than $10/ Overstock they say but new in wrapper. Check Amazon.
coelhoe Says:
Tuesday, February 1, 2011 @10:38:35 AM
The above comment is for Heroes of Jazz...etc.
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