1 June 2012 But the doctor said give him jug band music,

“I was down in Savannah
Eatin' Cream and Bananas
When the heat just made me faint
I began to get cross-eyed
I thought I was lost
I'd begun to see things as they ain't.
As the relatives gathered to see what's the matter
The doctor came to see was I dyin’.
But the doctor said give him jug band music,
It seems to make him feel just fine.”

Cassi Creek:         Jug Band music is feel good music, often “Po-Folks music”or “Pie-in-the-sky” music.

                It doesn’t require a lot of hardware.  It doesn’t require grammatical purity or musical purity.  Throw in an incorrect chord and a butchered verse; it doesn’t matter.  The Grateful Dead played jug band derived music for 30 years without ever getting the chords and the lyrics down pat. 

                The people playing in the jug band are playing for personal reasons.  The people listening often can’t afford to go see anyone who’s tickets cost more than the wash tub bass driven, home grown stuff.  There’s a catch to listening to such music.  It can be fun to be where it is being played.  It can be addictive.  The performers are often just like most of the audience in education, upbringing, customs, and interests. 

                That provides a hook for many political propagandists.

                If you bombard my television with country musicians telling me how evil Obama is while their music plays in the background and a slide show of national red, white, and blue images are used to block independent thought; I’m going to ignore the ad and discard its message as the BS all political ads are. 

                However, if you put John B Sebastian on the screen with his acoustic music playing, I’m going to stop my finger from pressing the kill switch and, at least, try to figure out who made this commercial and what they are trying to sell me. 

                Something put a fragment of “Jug Band Music “into my skull during the last 48 hours.  I don’t know who.  I don’t know why.  I know that the call was strong enough for me to download the entire song this morning when I should have been doing something more productive.  Music is a powerful motivator, a strong fixative for memories and associations.  I warrant that, should I hear this song at any time with a political message attached, I’m going to hope that it is being used for someone like our local Senatorial candidate, Park Overall. 

                I’m not going to let anyone sell me bull shit from the GOP/teavangelist “Liars Central” factory while using Good Ol’ Lovin’ Spoonful” or good ol’ Grateful Dead.”  I know what those bands were associated with when they were new.  I’m not going to listen to Lee Greenwood and others misappropriate national symbols while denigrating dissent.  I recall their love it or leave positions from my youth and I know that the teavangelists have become even more intolerant and unlikely to compromise in order to preserve the nation that we have built on the backs of refugees, political dissenters, unions, and others who make up the middle class.  I know that country music is being played to bring in the base that disdains education and intellect.  And unlike the GOP, I know that the teavangelists are going to make another effort to destroy this nation, making it what they want believe it was although it never was that. 

                The doctor is correct.  We need to see if we’re dyin’.  But I’m afraid it will take more than Jug Band Music to open our national eyes and make them shine this time.