Well, I guess it wasn’t all that difficult and I surely wasn’t alone, but in the summary of last week’s show I did predict that the Classic Rock edition of “Theme Time Radio Hour with your host Bob Dylan” would indeed be about rocks. And stone me if it wasn’t.

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( Ellen Barkin’s and Bob’s intro is spoken over Jimi Hendrix’s “Third Stone From The Sun” )
The Staple Singers — Be Careful of The Stones That You Throw
( Bob declaims in a brief but edifying manner against gossip. )
( Bob describes execution by stoning in some detail and then continues, “Let he who is without sin cast the first stone, which is what Jesus says in John, Chapter 8, verse 7. It’s probably the first anti-death-penalty statement. That’s the kind of wisdom you could be hearing for the next hour, on our Classic Rock show.” )
Ray Anthony — Rock Around The Rock Pile
Muddy Waters — Rollin’ Stone
( Bob tells the story of how Augustus Montague Toplady came to write the hymn “Rock of Ages.” )
The Stanley Brothers — Rock of Ages
Ray Charles — Sticks and Stones
Sid “Hardrock” Gunter — Gonna Dance All Night
( “You know why that record sounds so good? Because it was a performance. The whole band was playing together in the studio. It wasn’t a thing assembled from parts, put together in little bits and pieces, until you had a complete take. Everyone started at the same time, and finished pretty much at the same time. And all the time in between, you just hung on for dear life.” )
The Heartbreakers — Chinese Rocks
( Bob talks about Johnny Thunders’ life, and death, “a victim of too many Chinese rocks.” )
( Bob reads an email from “Molly Long,” asking about who wrote the Everly Bros. hit, “Bird Dog.” Bob tells the story of the great songwriting duo Felice and Boudleaux Bryant. )
The Osborne Brothers — Rocky Top
Dick Curless — Tombstone Every Mile
( Bob reads some famous headstone inscriptions, starting with W.C. Fields’, “I’d rather be in Philadelphia.” )
The Marigolds (with Johnny Bragg, also of The Prisonaires) — Rolling Stone
( “For all you first time listeners, this is how we roll, with nothing but Classic Rock.” )
Warren Smith — Uranium Rock
( Bob talks about Warren Smith’s life; his rise, decline, partial comeback and death. )
The Dirt Bombs — Your Love Belongs Under a Rock
( Jack White talks about a great Classic Rock he saw in Australia. )
Swamp Dogg — Sam Stone (by John Prine)
( Bob closes by quoting Jacob Riis:

Look at a stone cutter hammering away at his rock, perhaps a hundred times without as much as a crack showing in it. Yet at the hundred-and-first blow it will split in two, and I know it was not the last blow that did it, but all that had gone before.

and Bob adds, “I know that sometimes you feel like you’re rolling that rock up the hill alone. But you gotta remember, it’s not the hundred and first blow that does it, it’s all the blows before. You never know when things will break your way, but they don’t have much chance of doing it if you don’t keep trying. I know it’s hard, but we all got to do it. It just gets a little easier if we all help eachother. I’ll see you next week. Until then, rock on.” )

Next week’s theme: CADILLAC

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