Bob Dylan began this week’s “Theme Time Radio Hour” on XM Radio thusly:

Pour yourself a hot steamin’ cup of joe, ’cause we’re gonna talk about the amber liquid of life. No matter what you call it, it’s a drink made from the shrub of a tree. I’m talking about coffee: the common man’s gold, and like gold, it brings to every person the feeling of luxury and nobility. Thank you, Juan Valdez.

Not only the smell of good strong coffee, but a distinct waft of tobacco smoke hung over this week’s show. Cigarettes and coffee go together “like bagels and lox, like Flatt and Scruggs,” Bob told us. Or, as Lefty Frizzell put it, “ciga-rats and coffee.” “All those cigarettes and coffee didn’t help Lefty Frizzell,” Dylan said after playing his record. “He passed away at age 47. Sleep well, Lefty. You’re part of our dreams, themes and schemes.”

The e-mail today was from Mike in Saratoga, New York, who said he liked the show, but wondered why there were so many old songs, and whether Dylan had anything against new songs. Bob answered: “I know it seems like we play a lot of old songs, but the truth is, there’s a lot more old songs than there are new songs. We’ve got nothing against new songs, so just keep listening, and thanks for the note.”

And indeed fans of more modern recordings could enjoy such new kids on the block as Squeeze, Ron Sexmith and even Blur on this week’s program.

The playlist today:

Ink Spots - Java Jive
Jerry Irby - One Cup of Coffee and a Cigarette
Frank Sinatra - The Coffee Song
Squeeze - Black Coffee In Bed
Otis Redding - Cigarettes and Coffee
Curtis Gordon - Caffeine and Nicotine
Lefty Frizzell - Cigarettes and Coffee Blues
Lightnin’ Hopkins - Coffee Blues
Scatman Caruthers - Keep That Coffee Hot
The Larks - Coffee, Cigarettes and Tears
Bobby Darin - Black Coffee
Sexmith and Kerr - Raindrops In My Coffee
Blur - Coffee and TV
Ella Mae Morse - Forty Cups of Coffee
Glenn Miller Orchestra - Let’s Have Another Cup Of Coffee

Guest appearance this week was by one Billy Vera, who talked about The Larks and Tex Ritter in advance of Dylan playing The Larks’ great tune “Coffee, Cigarettes and Tears.” I must say, it was most preferable to hear a musician talking about music in the guest spot, as opposed to a comedian blandly musing on the theme of the week, as has previously been the case.

Dylan also quoted Henry Ward Beecher ( “def poet” ) on the subject at hand:

“A cup of coffee - real coffee - home-browned, home ground, home made, that comes to you dark as a hazel-eye, but changes to a golden bronze as you temper it with cream that never cheated, but was real cream from its birth, thick, tenderly yellow, perfectly sweet, neither lumpy nor frothing on the Java: such a cup of coffee is a match for twenty blue devils
and will exorcise them all.”

A most enjoyable show, all in all, and it definitely induced a strong craving in yours truly to indulge in some imbibing of that hot brown stimulant. It also might be responsible for my taking up smoking again. Listening to the radio can be dangerous.

…

Next week’s theme: JAIL

Theme Time Radio Hour with your host, Bob Dylan, on XM Radio.

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