The mysterious Dr. John, the Night Tripper didn't just spring forth fully formed from some second-line psychedelic vacuum, tossing gris-gris and voodoo trinkets to the winds and modeling the wildest threads to come out of the deepest recesses of the south Louisiana swamp, to take a seat behind the 88s and gleefully expand the outermost limits of late '60s pop music.

A full decade earlier, his short hair greased back and a Telecaster in his mitts, the same musical force was a teenage A&R man with a cherubic face at Johnny Vincent's Ace Records, learning his craft as a Crescent City songwriter, producer, session man, and occasional recording artist named Mac Rebennack. Those glorious early sides are the basis of the compilation.