I just finished David Toop's magisterial book, Two-Headed Doctor, all about the mysteries of Dr. John the Night Tripper's incredible first album, Gris-Gris. For my money, Malcolm "Old Mac" Rebennack (as my pal Vivian Stanshall referred to him) never made a better album--and it stands as a singular testimony to his love of N'Awlins Black musical traditions, voodoo legends and hoodoo jive, folklore, fake-lore, and the overall vibe which enshrouds the city like an impenetrable mist (especially post-Katrina, which was the last time I visited there with Peter Stampfel to work on a second Du-Tels album).
This is absolutely the best book about music and related literary and cultural ephemera I've read in years. The only music-related book that has given me such a frisson in the last few years was Mike Barnes's weighty book about Prog-Rock, A New Day Yesterday.
Parceling out reading David Toop's book every night in the wee wee hours over the last couple weeks before I visited dreamland, I did not want it to end--it's that good. Exceedingly well-written and erudite, I found David's scholarly research into all possible antecedents to this album fascinating and impressive (just when you think you know about a particular musical subject, you discover entirely new realms of information courtesy of Mr. Toop).
My relationship with the Gris-Gris album began upon hearing individual tracks spun on the free-form FM stations of the day back in the late '60s (esp. WAER in Syracuse and WBCN in Boston), which I found mystical, scary, and enchanting, especially when stoned, which I was most of the time :-)
Years later, after moving to NYC in 1977, I was driven by inner spirits, you could say compelled, to finally buy the vinyl (along with John Cale's Fear album the same day). Needless to say, I was not disappointed. The album still holds up in all its glory, particularly thanks to the fantastic, way-ahead-of-its-time production, co-writing, and playing of Harold Battiste and the soulful, immaculate contributions of some of The Wrecking Crew ("Pink Panther" saxophonist Plas Johnson especially), and Big Easy singing legends like Shirley Goodman and Tami Lynn.
ESSENTIAL READING.