This week’s edition of XM Radio’s “Theme Time Radio Hour with your host Bob Dylan” was dedicated to Gov. Schwarzenegger’s great state of Kaleefawnya.

It’s also an adopted home state for Bob, as we know, but the city of Malibu received no namecheck.

( Opens with Bob talking over the Dragnet TV show theme, imitating the voice-over intro from that show. )
Al Jolson — California Here I Come
( “Richard Nixon asked for that song to be played softly and slowly at his funeral.” )
Joni Mitchell — California
( Dylan talks about California’s history, quotes John Steinbeck, and plays a clip of — I think — Jimmie Rodgers talking about the state. )
Webb Pierce — California Blues
( Bob talks about the hilarious and “disastrous opening day” of Disneyland )
Geraint Watkins — Go West
Dionne Warwick — Do You Know The Way To San Jose?
( Bob gives precise directions to San Jose from downtown LA. )
Sir Douglas Quintet — Mendocino
( “… featuring Augie Meyers on the Vox keyboards” )
( “The Spanish explorers originally thought that California was an island. A couple more tremors, and it might be.” )
( “There’s a lot of earthquakes in California. If you feel a tremor, there’s two things you should do. Get under a doorway, and make sure that doorway’s in Cleveland.” )
( “Join us next week, it’s our special Classic Rock show!” )
[ That's going to be show about rocks, right? -ed. ]
( “We have a first time caller! Am I supposed to pick up line 1? Hello, caller, what’s your name?”
“Hi Bob, my name is Lamont Duane.”
“Where are calling from, Lamont?”
“I’m calling from Silverlake, California.”
“Well that’s good, we’re doing our California show today.”
“I know you are, I’ve been listening.”
“Uh huh.”
“I got a question and I’ve got a request. I’ve been wondering if you could play Whittier Boulevard by the Midnighters.”
“We’re gonna look for that record for ya. What’s your question?”
“Isn’t there a famous Nikita Khrushchev quote about automobiles from the Cold War?”
“Well, yes there is, Lamont! I believe it was in nineteen and fifty six. During the famous kitchen debates, Nikita Khrushchev was speaking to Nixon, and he said to him, ‘Whether you like it or not, history is on our side. We’ll strangle your cities with traffic. We will draw you into fighting useless wars. We’ll send in developers to ravage your land, and replace your individual farms with corporations. We will force your citizens into the slavery of credit card debt. We’ll send gangsters into your schools to sell your children drugs. We’ll replace each of your meals with empty junk food. One way or another, you will see who comes out on top.’ Thanks for you call, Lamont, and keep listening. Well it wasn’t an empty threat at all. Almost a quarter of the land mass in Los Angeles is taken up by automobiles. — This one’s for you, Lamont.” )
The Midnighters — Whittier Boulevard
Don Tosti Y Su Conjunto — Mambo Del Pachuco (clip)
( Bob tells the story of the “Zoot Suit Riots” )
Dave Alvin — Surfer Girl ( “… originally done by the Beach Boys, who I kind of think of as the Kennedy family with surfboards.” )
( Bob talks about Jesse Fuller and his one-man-band style, and recommends searching Jesse Fuller on YouTube )
Jesse Fuller — The San Francisco Bay Blues
( Lamont calls in again, thanks Bob for playing the song, says he thought the Khruschev/Nixon thing was really heavy. Bob continues the story:
“Nixon took a step back, took a deep breath, looked Khrushchev straight in the eye, with the power of millions of citizens behind him, and said, ‘Oh no you won’t.’ The two squared off, neither willing to give an inch. According to reports, someone banged their shoe on the table, but it’s unclear which of the two.” )
Dorothy Shay ( “the Park Avenue hillbilly” ) — I’ve Been To Hollywood
( Bob reads an email from “Stuart Cornfeld,” asking whether Bob knows anything about a version of California Dreamin’ once used in a car commercial. Bob does! )
Bobby Womack — California Dreamin’
( Comedian Richard Lewis talks about California, sort-of. )
Jolie Holland — Goodbye California
( Bob quotes Woody Guthrie, from “Bound For Glory,” on his first sight of Los Angeles:

We rounded a few hills and knolls, curving in our little jitney, and all at once, coming over a high place, the lights of Los Angeles jumped up, running from north to south as far as I could see, and hanging around on the hills and mountains just as if it was level ground. Red and green neon flickering for eats, sleeps, sprees, salvation, money made, lent, blowed, spent. There was an electric sign for dirty clothes, clean clothes, honky tonky tonks, no clothes, floor shows, gyp-joints, furniture in and out of homes. The fog was trying to get a headlock on the houses along the high places, patches of damp clouds whiffed along the paving in crazy, disorganized little bunches, hunting some more clouds to work with. Los Angeles was lost in its own pretty lights and trying to hold out against the big fog that rolls in from that ocean, and the people that roll in just as reckless, and rambling, from the country as big as the ocean back East.

“Woody Guthrie, ramblin’ poet.” )

Next week’s theme: CLASSIC ROCK

A few comments: Make of Dylan’s fantastical story about Khrushchev and Nixon whatever you like, but the most remarkable thing to me is that Richard Nixon stands as by far the most-mentioned public figure on Theme Time Radio Hour so far. And Bob sure is putting more into his little routines. His comic timing is only getting sharper. Fun stuff.

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