Jukebox America

by William Bunch

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 vi