This is a netherworld frequently visited by record companies in the last few years. I have to admit I’ve been there myself on a number of occasions when my Giant Steps label issued self-explanatory albums including Crime Scene USA and Atomic Cocktails. This new plundering of the genre canvases material ranging from Harry ‘The Hipster’ Gibson's ‘Who Put The Benzedrine In Mrs. Murphy's Ovaltine’ to Eddie ‘Cleanhead’ Vinson's ‘When I Get Drunk’.

Seeing as most of the jump and blues music collected here was originally made mainly for black audiences (though Gibson was white), there was little real heed paid to the content which was usually witty and light hearted. Nevertheless, such jukebox fodder seldom warned of the devastation and misery caused by such indulgences, though Barney Bigard's ‘Sweet Marijuana Brown’ and Johnny Moore's Three Blazers ‘Snuff Dippin’ Mama’ are to some extent cautionary tales. Elsewhere, there was a certain ambivalence to the subject matter as Stuff Smith's ‘Here Comes The Man With The Jive’ demonstrates. Similarly, Cab Calloway's ‘The Man From Harlem’ – a precursor to The Velvets ‘Waiting For the Man’ – was just one of many records (‘Reefer Man’ included) in which Cab continually pursued this particular theme.