The Sprawling Eclectic Jug Band

Band from 1967 science fiction novel The Sword Swallower by Ron Goulart. They play The Sprawling Eclectic, a club set up in a "warren of storage rooms, under a stack of apartments."

They mostly play material by singer/songwriter Son Brewster, Jr..

Lineup:

• Dal
• Hank
• Butch
• Gramps

On the platform four white-haired boys in scarlet jumpsuits and ivory boots were setting up instruments, tuning, testing connections and ampli­fiers. A bass fiddle, three guitars, a forced-air sitar, a turbosax and a computerized viola.

"Will," said Son Brewster, Jr., "meet Dal, Hank, Butch and Gramps, the Sprawling Eclectic Jug Band. They're friends of mine, do mostly my material."

"Son is a better lyricist than Jordan and Gordon," said Hank. "Or any of those other old-time song-writer bastards." "You forgot to pack the jug again," said a very tall black-haired girl who entered from a dark doorway, She was dressed to match the Jug Band, carrying a squat aluminumized carafe.

"Mimi," said Son. "She's the publicist for the group.

"Mimi, this is Will Roxbury."

"You told me about him," said the girl. She was taller than Jolson and smelled of religious incense. "We'll play something until a crowd gathers," said Butch on the bandstand. "One of Son's."

The Jug Band began playing and a diploma sliced out of its frame and drifted off a pile of mementos. Gramps sang, "Two weeks ago Tuesday I went into a cafeteria and was a-orderin' hash. An' they told me they were all out of hash. What kind of god-awful universe is it when they can tell a lovin'-hearted young man things like-a that?"

See also

• Son Brewster, Jr.
• Turkus

External Links

• Snippet view on Google Books
• full novel on Archive.org (with account)