This week’s episode of Bob Dylan’s show on XM Satellite Radio was a highly corporeal affair, leastways on the surface.

Playlist and a few random notes:

Smokey Robinson and the Miracles — From Head To Toe
The Delta Rhythm Boys — Dry Bones
( Bob talks about The Delta Rhythm Boys’ founder Lee Gaines, how he died in Finland in 1987, and how fellow member Hugh Bryant sang at his funeral … and how he then “died on the spot. Both of them now little more than dry bones.” )
Louis Prima and Keely Smith — I’ve Got You Under My Skin
( “Louis was an influence on many people. As a matter of fact, back in the 50s, when they asked Elvis Presley where he got his wiggle, he told them, ‘From Louis Prima, of-course.’A lot of you probably know Louis Prima best as the voice of King Louey, the orangutan, in the award-winning Disney production of the Jungle Book.” )
( Bob claims to be “on-location” in Cannes. )
Loretta Lynn — Fist City
Johnny Copeland — Down On Bended Knee
Sol (Solomon) Hoopii — Ten Tiny Toes, One Baby Nose
( “In nineteen and thirty-eight, Sol gave up his career in secular music to join the crusade of the evangelist Aimee Semple McPherson. It was popular music’s loss.” )
( Bob talks about the human nose. A clip of Jimmy Durante plays. )
Hank Ballard & The Midnighters — Hey Now, Hey Now, Finger Poppin’ Time
The Monroe Brothers ( “like the speedmetal of bluegrass” ) — Roll In My Sweet Baby’s Arms
( “I don’t tell a lot of people this, but Tom Waits and I have been sending cassettes back and forth to eachother for quite some time. I told him about the show we’re doing this week, and two days later, I found this in my mailbox.” Tom Waits begins speaking, thanks Bob for an investment tip, then talks at length and rather fantastically about women’s feet in rural China. )
Gene Phillips — Big Legs
The Barbarians — Moulty
Archibald — She’s Scattered Everywhere
( Email from “Mickey Flores of Houston, Texas.” Complains that Bob is playing too much “rhythm and blues,” wants to hear music with “mad beats” instead. Bob says, “Beats, no matter how mad they are, are just rhythm,” and explains that “great music is not a prisoner of time. I love listening to stuff from a hundred years ago, and I love stuff made last Tuesday. There’s a whole world out there, and I hate to think you’re going through it wearing blinders. Stick around, and we’ll try to play some mad beats for ya.” )
( Tom Waits pipes up again, “Hey Bob, Tom again here. Um, pertaining to body parts, in the 70s, I was in a Blarney Stone up by Penn Station, when a strange little man came in wagering that he could open up a bottle of beer by inserting the neck into the socket of his eye. Patrons in the saloon were astonished … ” etc. You’re better off hearing it. Bob comments at the end with an eloquent, “Wow.” )
( “We would like to remind you that what soap is to the body, laughter is to the soul. And the more you use of your brain, the more brain you will have to use.” )
Bob Wills & His Texas Playboys — Brain Cloudy Blues
Pete Seeger — Waist Deep in the Big Muddy ( Bob talks about the controversy caused when Seeger sang this song on the Smothers Brothers TV show, as the song was seen as an allegorical comment on LBJ and the war in Vietnam. )
Rilo Kiley — With Arms Outstretched
( Bob closes by quoting some of Walt Whitman, “I Sing The Body Electric.” )
( “Au revoir from Cannes.” )

Next week’s theme: SMOKING

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