Track Listing

1. Singing in the Bathtub
2. Chile Blues
3. Dream of Heaven
4. Suits Crybaby Blues
5. Collier Medley: Ben Hur March & Napoleon March
6. Shopping Mall
7. Yearing and Blue
8. Hula Girl
9. Pedal Your Blues Away
10. Gima Polka
11. Sing Song Girl
12. Home
13. My Gal Sal
14. Hano Hano Hawaii

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #107792 in Music
• Released on: 1993-04-22
• Number of discs: 1
• Dimensions: .20 pounds

Amazon.com
In the late '70s the Cheap Suit Serenaders--fronted by comix legend Robert Crumb but also featuring fellow old-time music artistes Robert Armstrong, Bob Brozman, Al Dodge, Tom Marion, and Terry Zwigoff (who would later produce a whole film on Crumb)--were the only group around who would even think about still producing 78s. After all, that's where all their favorite music came from. Those platters are now highly collectible, but their albums live on, reissued on CD. Singing in the Bathtub collects some of their best work--humorous originals such as "Suits Crybaby Blues" and plenty of covers of tunes from obscure 78s. Their playing is flawless (you probably haven't heard the steel guitar, banjo mandolin, or musical saw played with such virtuosity as here), the tunes are mostly fun and spirited, and the music styles are varied. In the hands of the Cheap Suits, old-time music is alive and well. --Jason Verlinde

Customer Reviews

"Sensitive guys who play old outdated tunes"; what a treat!
I have all three of the original vinyl LP albums and thought I'd never get to hear these wonderful tunes again when my turntable broke and I switched to CDs. Crumb & Company complain in their self-mocking Suits Crybaby Blues: "Nobody likes our music, they all want stuff that's loud". Whatever the market may be, this music makes my soul soar. It's not "Camp", that 60s fad where truly bad pop culture was held up as unconscious self-parody. These multi-talented, multimedia artists lovingly render these obscure, high-spirited and quaintly corny echoes from a more innocent era. Naive, a bit goofy, and even somewhat racist in an innocent way ( "Sing Song Girl" portrays cartoonish orientals)this music evokes the enthusiastic rowdiness of an America on a binge. Much like R. Crumb's comix, the stuff may be a bit politically incorrect and even grotesque, but it is raucously entertaining.

Happy, heartfelt, tongue-in-cheek .. this is music my friend
As if it weren't enough that Robert Crumb was one of the outstanding inventors of the 60's style underground cartoon art (often imitated, never duplicated .. remember Janis Joplin's first album cover?) .. this album has got to be one of the understated works of our time. Robert has an outstanding line up (for example, Brozman who is a slack key style player, and also appears as an instructor in Home Spun Video tape courses). I love this stuff! It makes me happy .. it's sincere and heartfelt .. qualities which are completely absent in so much of today's modern over marketed trend ridden music! This CD actually put me in touch with a part of myself that had been long lost .. experiencing the fun and enjoyment of listening to good music performed with spirit. -- Big Nick

thugs with jugs
I happen to own the original three records of Robert Crumb and his CSS. Grand is the only word to fill the title on this album.