"Radio Radio" Bob Dylan's Theme Time Radio Hour - Vol 4 - disc 2

Bob Dylan transformed songwriting in the 20th century by dumping everything into a creative blender, from beat poetry to ancient ballads restrung with vibrantly new lyrics, and he has been inherently postmodern, well aware -- even if it was by accident -- of how to navigate the emerging ocean of pop culture and the blessing/curse of celebrity...
...And he's done it with his integrity and privacy intact -- quite a feat. And he's done it, for the most part, in public -- he releases studio albums regularly, he tours in never-ending fashion, and, since 2006, he has hosted Bob Dylan’s Theme Time Radio Hour on the airwaves. His shows aren’t just some celebrity DJ spinning favorite records (although Dylan obviously loves what he spins on the air), but are really concise history lessons in American music in all genres and eras, from blues, folk, and country to jazz, R&B, soul, rock & roll, bebop, country, and even rap and spoken word, embracing the entire spectrum of ordered recorded sound from the early 1900s forward. Releases like this one, which collects 110 of the sides Dylan has spun on his show, reveal just how impressive all of it is. From an incredibly diverse litany of recording artists that includes Mel Blanc, Lefty Frizzell, Ike Turner, Brenda Lee, Steve Allen, Roy Rogers, Tex Ritter, Cousin Emmy, Billie Holiday, Peppermint Harris, and many, many others, Dylan clusters songs around themes ranging from powerful topics like money, war, and happiness to whimsical ones like fruit, cats, sugar, and candy, until what he has assembled is a delightfully varied playlist of what we have been singing about, complaining about, celebrating, berating, adoring, and bemoaning for the past 200 years. Dylan's own recorded legacy is a testament to his searching intelligence and vision, but so, too, is his radio show. Call it all a dialogue with America. Hopefully everyone is listening. (Steve Leggett, Allmusic)

CD 2:
1. Tutti-Frutti - Little Richard 2. Cherry Pink and Apple Blossom White - Pérez Prado 3. W-P-L-J - The Four Deuces 4. Yes, We Have No Bananas (Featuring June Hutton) - Johnny Mercer & The Pied Pipers 5. The Banana Boat Song (Day-O) - Harry Belafonte 6. Strange Fruit - Billie Holiday 7. 61 Highway - Mississippi Fred McDowell 8. (Get Your Kick On) Route 66 - Nat King Cole Trio 9. Route 90 - Clarence "Bon Ton" Garlowe 10. Going Down the Road Feeling Bad - Woody Guthrie 11. My Boy Elvis - Janis Martin 12. Jean Harlow - Lead Belly 13. Forty Days and Forty Nights - Muddy Waters 14. Ninety Nine - Sonny Boy Williamson (II) 15. Rocket 69 - Connie Allen w/The Todd Rhodes Orchestra 16. A Man With One Million Dollars - Joe Mooney 17. Call It Stormy Monday (But Tuesday Is Just As Bad) - T-Bone Walker 18. Nice Work If You Can Get It - Sarah Vaughan 19. I'll Do Anything But Work - Ray Charles 20. Whistle While You Work - Adriana Caselotti 21. Sweet Nothin's - Brenda Lee 22. I Got Plenty O'Nuttin' - Frank Sinatra 23. That Ain't Nothin' But Right - Mac Curtis 24. Do Something for Me - Billy Ward & The Dominoes 25. This Could Be the Start of Something Big - Steve Allen 26. Somethin' Else - Eddie Cochran 27. Something Goin' on in My Room - Daddy Cleanhead
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