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Around the world via satellite's Theme Time Radio Hour
BERNARD PERUSSE, The Gazette
Published: Saturday, November 04, 2006
If there's one compelling reason for Bob Dylan fans to take the plunge and invest in satellite radio, it's his wonderful weekly show, Theme Time Radio Hour, which is repeated eight times every week after its initial broadcast on XM's Deep Tracks station every Wednesday morning at 10.
As the title suggests, each week's show centres on a specific topic. To date, Dylan has tackled such themes as baseball, coffee, flowers, cars, the devil, the Bible, school, guns and, most recently, Halloween.
The music is pretty much what you'd expect Dylan to select: heavy on obscure, lo-fi rockabilly, country and blues, but fans of soul, pop or rock 'n' roll rarely leave empty-handed. He's played the Clash, Johnny Cash, Ron Sexsmith and Don Kerr, the Kinks, the Streets, George Jones, Alice Cooper, Albert King, Robert Johnson, Patti Page, the Bonzo Dog Band and LL Cool J.
But the records - great as they may be - are secondary to the main attraction: Dylan's between-songs storytelling and jokes. Cornball puns and goofy one-liners belie his dour reputation and share space with genuinely informative background material about the artists and their recordings.
Recently, he played Richard and Linda Thompson's Shoot Out the Lights, and as the song's ominous two-chord opening played in the background, sounding very reminiscent of Link Wray's most famous instrumental, Dylan wondered aloud, "You ever heard Rumble, Richard?"
Part of the fun is the show's attempt to create a golden-age-of-radio world, with the show supposedly being recorded at the non-existent "Abernathy Building" and Dylan and his buddies going for coffee at "Samson's Diner." Brief interview clips with "friends" like Elvis Costello and Charlie Sheen are always set up as chance encounters, during which Dylan happened to be carrying a tape recorder.
All that - and no commercials. After hearing the show, who could listen to the FM band's usual fare of insipid chatter and moronic advertising again?
Theme Time Radio Hour airs on XM Radio's Deep Tracks station Wednesdays at 10 a.m. For the times of encore presentations on both Deep Tracks and The Village, go to the website www.xmradio.com/bobdylan/
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