Another show this week, and another pot-pourri of great music, questionable jokes, useful facts and pointless knowledge. That has to be why we keep coming back to “Theme Time Radio Hour with your host, Bob Dylan.”

After Roy Montrell’s Everytime I Hear That Mellow Saxophone it was:

The saxophone is a relatively young instrument, which combines the single-reed mouthpiece with the fingering patterns of the oboe, but produces tonal qualities of neither. The saxophone was invented by a Belgian manufacturer named Adolph Sax.

I wonder if his name was Moskowitz, if everyone would be playing the moskophone.

Ricky Jay guested with a story about a crying cello player.

After Nehemiah Reid’s The Fiddler, which features no fiddle on it, Dylan gave us this week’s history lesson, regarding Nero and his supposed fiddling while Rome burned. As Bob informed us, the fiddle hadn’t actually been invented yet, so Nero would probably have played either a lute or a lyre.

Dylan played Henry “Red” Allen ( “one of the last great New Orleans trumpet players”) doing Someone Stole Gabriel’s Horn, and said later:

The angel Gabriel is an important figure in Judaism, Christianity and Islam. He first appears in the Old Testament book of Daniel, as a messenger and revealer. In later Christian tradition, he is the unidentified angel in the Book of Revelations, who blows the horn announcing the Judgment Day. You got to have a lot of nerve to steal that guy’s horn.

Bob played the songwriter Johnny Mercer singing someone else’s song: Herman Hatfield’s When Yuba Plays the Rhumba on His Tuba (Down in Cuba). Dylan rather enviously noted the song’s great rhymes.

Dylan took a number of playful swipes at drummers during the show, including:

Well there’s one type of person who loves to hang around musicians, and that’s drummers.

Later:

Anyone know the difference between a drummer and a savings bond?
Eventually a savings bond will mature and earn money.

Responding to this week’s e-mail, Dylan talked about “dirty” songs. He said that:

Here on Theme Time Radio Hour we can play anything, but some radio stations still worry about what they play. Some people figure out a way to work around it, and write a song that seems to be about one thing, when it’s actually about another thing. Perhaps it’ll be easier if I give you an example.

Here’s Dinah Washington. She’s been in every bar, been in every honky-tonk, trying to find her daddy with that broke down piece of junk. You know what she’s talkin’ about, the big long slidin’ thing.

Indeed.

Before playing Stevie Wonder’s Hey Mr. Harmonica Man, Bob pithily provided the following fact:

The harmonica is the world’s best selling musical instrument.

You’re welcome.

Now, does he mean that he made the harmonica the world’s best selling musical instrument by popularizing it — or by buying so many himself?

Dylan dissertated a little on “trombone shout bands,” and the popularity of the trombone as “vocal support to sacred music of the church.”

Displaying no hard feelings over Tom Waits’ recent musical swipe at Israel, Dylan cued up his classic recording, The Piano Has Been Drinking.

Bob read an extract of John Clellon Holmes’ 1959 novel, “The Horn,” over some saxophone playing by Eddie “Lockjaw” Davis, before closing with a highly bopping track from Buddy Johnson and his Orchestra entitled Crazy Bout a Saxophone.

And DJ Dylan said bye-bye for another week.

… remember, don’t B sharp, don’t B flat. B natural.

Playlist:

Bonzo Dog Band - The Intro and the Outro
Roy Montrell - Everytime I Hear That Mellow Saxophone
Bill Monroe & His Bluegrass Boys - Uncle Pen
Ricky Jay talks about the cello
Bill Watkins - Big Guitar
Nehemiah Reid - The Fiddler
Henry “Red” Allen - Someone Stole Gabriel’s Horn
Johnny Mercer - When Yuba Plays the Rhumba on His Tuba
The Young Fresh Fellows - Hillbilly Drummer Girl
The Davis Sisters - Fiddle Diddle Boogie
Dinah Washington - Big Long Slidin’ Thing
Stevie Wonder - Hey Mr. Harmonica Man
Stone Poneys (with Linda Ronstadt) - Different Drum
Ken Mo talks about playing the guitar
Don Rich & The Buckaroos - Round Hole Guitar
Bessie Smith & Her Blue Boys (w/ Charlie Green) - Trombone Cholly
Tom Waits - The Piano Has Been Drinking (Not Me)
(Bob reads from John Clellon Holmes’ “The Horn”)
Buddy Johnson & His Orchestra - Crazy Bout A Saxophone

Next week’s theme: LUCK

...................
Share this!

Posts which might be related to this one based on a mysterious algorithm:

• Solid rock
• While I was prayin’
• Too many mornings
• Dreams, Schemes and Themes