Musical Depreciation Revue: The Spike Jones Anthology by Spike Jones

Includes liner notes by Dr. Demento. A mad scientist of a musical genius, Spike Jones led an ever-rotating cast of crack (and cracked) players throughout the 1940s and '50s in a band he called his City Slickers. The music--a full assault on the senses--is characterized by zany humor, madcap tempos, whiplash stylistic shifts, and bizarre sound effects. MUSICAL DEPRECIATION REVUE is a definitive--if not comprehensive--look at the artist (the set leaves out Jones's later work and recordings by his "serious" project, the Other Orchestra). These two discs of utterly inspired insanity are part-genre pastiche, part-avant-garde sound experimentation (an endless cavalcade of bells, whistles, yelps, hiccups, sneezes, and gunfire) and part-sketch comedy (Jones was expert at both slapstick silliness and caustic satire, parodying many of the popular songs of the day). His hits--"Der Fuehrer's Face," "Cocktails for Two," "All I Want for Christmas (Is My Two Front Teeth)"--are all included. What's most impressive is ho... Minimize