| Summary: | "A forensic investigation into a single LP: Dr. John, the night tripper's Gris-gris. Two-Headed Doctor is a forensic investigation into a single LP: Dr. John, the night tripper's Gris-gris. Gris-gris has accumulated legendary status over the decades for its strangeness, hybridity, and innovative production. It formed the launch pad for Dr. John's image and lengthy career and the ghostly presence of its so-called voodoo atmosphere hovers over numerous cover versions, samples, and re-invocations. Despite the respect given to the record, its making is shrouded in mystery, misunderstandings, and false conclusions. In this wide-reaching book, David Toop excavates the phantom persona of Dr. John, loosely based on dubious literary accounts of a notorious voodooist and freed slave, a nineteenth-century New Orleans resident known as Doctor John, which provided Malcolm "Mac" Rebennack with a lifelong mask through which to transform himself from session musician in order to construct a solo career. The story details the historical context of Gris-gris's music, how it came together, its literary sources, production and arrangements, and the nature of the recording studio as dream state. But it also examines as a disturbing undercurrent the volatile issue of race in twentieth-century music, how it doomed relationships and ambitious projects, exploited great talents, and distorted the cultural landscape." -- Back cover
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