Jukebox America: In Search of the Country's Greatest Jukebox by William Bunch

From the Publisher

Imagine John Steinbeck's Travels with Charley, to a soundtrack of Patsy Cline, Elvis Presley, and Frank Sinatra: Three years ago, Pulitzer Prizewinning journalist Will Bunch heard Nancy Sinatra's "These Boots Are Made for Walkin'" blaring from a New York City jukebox, and he knew he'd found his calling. He had to find America's Greatest Jukebox. What he was looking for wasn't the chrome-adorned item itself; it was the unique musical collection, the joyful, anarchic alchemy of golden hits and forgotten 45's that only an unsung, back-of-the-bar jukebox could offer. But more, much more that this, what he was looking for represented his youth - and the youth of his generation, the Rear Guard Baby Boomers, reaching back to the late nights and easy life of their twenties as thirtysomething marches on. He went to Detroit and Seattle, Chicago and Baltimore, the Mississippi Delta and Hoboken, New Jersey. He hit bars called the 924 Club and Rosa's and Honest? John's Bar and No Grill; he found vintage Seeburgs, sterile CD boxes, and, in one off-the-path stop, a juke operated via a jerry-rigged tape deck behind the bar. After thousands of miles and thousands of quarters, he did find, in as unlikely a place as any, the Juke of the Covenant. And, along with that fleeting youth, he found a piece of America's soul. Like Route 66 or Blue Highways, Jukebox America is a song of America lost and found again; like the Beatles "Twist and Shout" or an old Four Tops record, it is a one-of-a-kind, pure driven pleasure.

BookList

Yuppie journalist Bunch, a self-proclaimed Rear Guard Baby Boomer, takes off on a quest for the best jukebox in the country. In the process, he intends to bear witness to a bit of Americana rapidly becoming extinct. Jukeboxes saw their heyday several decades ago; now, with the advent of compact discs, stricter laws regarding drinking and driving, and encroaching suburbanization, the roadhouses that were the traditional venue for jukeboxes are, Bunch finds, down on their luck. Nevertheless, with Elvis Presley, Patsy Cline, and Frank Sinatra as his spiritual guides, Bunch travels to Hoboken, hoping to confirm a rumor of an all-Sinatra jukebox; to Chicago and vicinity to meet a guy named Dale Evans, the human jukebox, and to visit the Rock-Ola Manufacturing Corp., where workers once cranked out 125 jukeboxes daily (they're down to 30 or so today); to Greenville, Mississippi, where juke joints rule over jukeboxes; and finally, to Detroit, where, at Honest? John's Bar and No Grill, Bunch found what he considered to be the best jukebox . . . at least for three minutes. An entertaining taste of American popular culture.

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