About twenty-three years ago, Dylan wrote:

Oh, man has invented his doom,
First step was touching the moon.

He said later in an interview that he meant that line; that he really felt going to the moon was not a good thing to do. One wonders how he felt this very week — the week of his moon-themed show on XM Radio — with more talk in the news about future lunar landings and bases? None of that stuff came up for discussion. This was an entirely positive program dedicated to the Earth’s largest natural satellite.

It started with a joke, musical and otherwise:

This is your man-in-the-moon, welcoming you to sixty minutes of lunar melodies. In the background, Charlie Parker playing Ornithology, based on the chord structure of How High the Moon, which tells you that the moon is far away and love is far away too. Tonight, we’ll be talking about the moon.

After Ornithology played out, he said:

Wow, that one should knock some heads together.

Next up, we’ve got a song based on the chord structure of Ornithology. Les Paul and Mary Ford: How High The Moon.

From someone who is far from averse to borrowing some chord structures himself, the point was hard to miss.

He told us some interesting facts about Mary and Les, and then said:

He opened a restaurant on the moon. It had great food, people say, but no atmosphere.

Dylan points out the calypso influence on Chuck Berry’s Havana Moon, and says:

Chuck didn’t turn a deaf ear to anything. Calypso influences in songs like this, the hillbilly influence in songs like Maybelline, and straight blues in songs like Jay McShann’s Confessin’ the Blues.

So many great moon records have been made; Dylan was barely able to scratch the surface in this show, but there were plenty of great tunes.

After Bill Monroe’s Blue Moon of Kentucky, Dylan says that Bill was

Born in nineteen and eleven in Rosine, Kentucky. A descendant of the President, James Monroe. Bill’s considered the founder of bluegrass music.

After Red Le Blanc’s Blue Moon on the Bayou, we naturally got some definitions:

A bayou is a body of water such as a creek or a small river, and is a tributary to a larger body of water, like they have down in Louisiana. A blue moon is the second full moon in a calendar month. It doesn’t happen that often, and that’s why they say, “Once in a blue moon.”

Dylan played the Neville Brothers’ Yellow Moon, which happens to come from an album produced by Daniel Lanois, on which they also recorded more than one song by Dylan himself.

Cliffie Stone “brought country music to Hollywood,” and we hear his When My Blue Moon Turns to Gold Again, a smooth and sweet recording.

Come and take a trip, in my rocket-ship. We’ll have a super-sonic rendezvous. Breakin’ out of the clouds at midnight, present like an archangel at the creation of light and of the world. The risin’ moon that looks for us again. Straight to the moon. I’ll be out of this world with you. Earth will be like a toy balloon. Destination moon. The great Dinah Washington.

The preceding intro to Dinah’s Destination Moon seems to be a combination of some of the lyrics of that song, along with quotes from Emerson and Edward Fitzgerald.

After the song plays, he says:

It’s a quarter of a million miles from the Earth to the moon, and there’s no one I’d rather go with than Dinah Washington.

That, I think, was purely Bob speaking.

Preceding another version of How High the Mooon, this time by Bulee “Slim” Gaillard, Dylan gave us his longest on-air reading to date — a passage relating to Slim Gaillard from Jack Kerouac’s “On the Road.” His reading goes on and on … and on and on and on, till you wonder if Bob’s going to abandon playing records and just read the whole book. It’s obvious that he’s really relishing the reading. Piano tinkling and bar sounds are added in the background for atmosphere at one point. The whole thing is paid off with the final line. You need to hear it.

The fact that there are now recordings like this, of Bob Dylan reading Kerouac, or Shakespeare, or Dylan Thomas, or whoever else, is, I think, an unexpected and delectable gift for posterity.

After Slim Gaillard’s unique take on How High the Moon, Dylan tells us about some songs that Slim wrote, and says that:

Flat Foot Floogie was so popular that it was buried in the 1939 World’s Fair time capsule, along with Stars and Stripes Forever and Gershwin’s Rhapsody in Blue. The time capsule is set to be open in the year 6939. I wonder what they’ll make of Slim Gaillard then?

To the background strains of Moonriver, Dylan closes the show:

And now it’s time to say goodbye. The moon is slowly sinking and the sun is coming up from behind the Abernathy Building. Remember to shoot for the moon, because if you miss, you will still be among the stars. See ya next week, here on Theme Time Radio Hour.

Playlist:

Charlie Parker Septet – Ornithology
Les Paul & Mary Ford – How High the Moon
Chuck Berry – Havana Moon
Los Lobos – Kiko and the Lavender Moon
Fats Waller – By the Light of the Silvery Moon
Bill Monroe – Blue Moon of Kentucky
Piano Red – Mister Moonlight
Ella Fitzgerald and Louis Armstrong – Moonlight in Vermont
Big Dee Irwin – It’s Only a Paper Moon
Red Le Blance & His Crescent Boys – Blue Moon on the Bayou
The Neville Brothers – Yellow Moon
Cliffie Stone – When My Blue Moon Turns to Gold Again
Dinah Washington – Destination Moon
Capris – There’s a Moon Out Tonight
Bobby Womack – Fly Me to the Moon
Slim Gaillard – How High The Moon

Next week’s theme: COUNTDOWN

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