Consumer Guide Album

Ed Sanders: Sanders' Truck Stop [Reprise, 1970]
This is literally a country-rock takeoff--not a parody but a departure. But though I hesitate to criticize a man who is not only a saint and a genius but who says hello to me at the post office, I must point out that the yodeling country twang Sanders developed with the Fugs has never known the difference between parody and departure, which makes some of these songs seem crueller than they're intended to be. Of course, sometimes they're cruel on purpose--like "The Iliad," a saga of good old queer-bashing with a Greek-to-me intro. And sometimes, like "Jimmy Joe, the Hippybilly Boy," they're--snurfle--lyrical and sad. B