After my release of Bailout Blues for the Broke and Busted back in July, I received a few requests for a redux, along with some suggested recordings that I should include. I started gathering some choice clips to edit down for the music mix, but the project stalled – like most things here this year – due to new life responsibilities. I just don’t seem to be able to find the time to create the kind of “produced” compilations I prefer to offer up.
As you know, yesterday I discovered an mp3 archive of Bob Dylan’s Theme Time Radio Hour. The first show I downloaded was themed around water [episode 23 from 4 October 2006]. Before I knew it I had my laptop plugged into my office stereo and I was caught up in the show.
I noticed that most of the shows had simple one-word themes and that they downloaded very quickly, so I went back to CROZ-FM and downloaded all 100 episodes. Then I noticed that Bob did a 2-episode special on Money to open season-3 on October 8th and 15th, 2008. Since I may never get around to producing my own redux, I thought it would be good to re-post Bob’s show that is all about the Benjamins.
Bob Dylan’s Bailout Blues Redux
Money – Part 1 – originally aired 8 October 2008
It’s night in the big city. A man says a prayer, puts down a $20 and rolls the dice. The faucet won’t stop dripping.
“Welcome to Season Three of Theme Time Radio Hour, and we’re glad to have ya. We’ve had a lot of fun the last couple of years, presenting the greats and near-greats, the fondly remembered and the almost forgotten, performing a wide variety of music on a veritable cornucopia of subjects. But as we start season 3 we’re gonna take our cue from a sign Harry S. Truman kept on his desk: The Buck Stops Here. And not just the buck, the yen, the sheckle, the nickel and dime, and if you still subscribe to the barter system, maybe a bushel of corn. So break open your piggy banks and cash in your bonds. This week’s episode of Three of Theme Time Radio Hour is most definitely cash and carry.”
The Singers and the Songs:
Jerry McCain & His Upstarts – That’s What They Want
Louis Prima – Pennies From Heaven
Papa Charlie Jackson – You Put it in, I’ll Take it out – “If ya listen, it’s a very unusual instrument he’s playing. It’s kinda half banjo, half guitar. It’s a six string instrument, tuned and fingered like a guitar but with a banjo body, so it has that trebly banjo sound, but there’s more notes available.”
Van Morrison – Blue Money – “I almost think we play too much Van Morrison. Then I listen to one of his records and I think, no we don’t!”
Ray Charles – Greenbacks – “There’s a great baritone sax solo on this record. It’s probably Howard Cooper, and you can almost hear him stepping back into the reed section to blend back in at the end of his solo. I always like to give you a little something to listen to in a song; I find it makes you listen to the whole thing more carefully.”
Mel Blanc – Money
Buddy Johnson and His Band – It’s the Gold
Nic Jones – Farewell To The Gold
Lefty Frizzell – My Baby’s Just Like Money – “One of the true honky-tonk heroes”
Buddy Guy (Amigo Hombre) – 100 Dollar Bill – “Sounds a little bit like Barrett Strong’s ‘Money’ – not enough to get sued I guess.”
P. Diddy (Featurning Lil’ Kim, The Lox, and the Notorious B.I.G.) – It’s All About the Benjamins
The Clovers – Your Cash Ain’t Nothin’ But Trash – “It’s because of them we have the familiar sound of the saxophone solo on vocal group records. You see what happened was, back on February 22nd, 19 and 51, tenor saxophonist Frank ‘Floorshow’ Culley brought his band into the Atlantic studios to back the clovers. Well Ahmet Ertegun only wanted to use the rhythm section; Frank knew if he didn’t play he wasn’t gonna get paid. Ahmet said to him, ‘Now listen man, if I pay you, you’re gonna play!’ so play he did and it was the first saxophone solo on a vocal group record. It reached number one, and the bootin’ tenor solo was a mainstay on vocal group records ever since.”
Jessie Price – You Can’t Take It With You – “One reason you can’t take it with you is that is usually leaves before you do.”
Money – Part 2 – originally aired 15 October 2008
The Singers and the Songs:
Moon Mullican & The Blue Ridge Playboys – Gimme My Dime Back, Gimme My Money – “The king of the hillbilly piano players…Many people think he was an uncredited co-writer on Hank Williams’ Jambalaya, and I can believe it, ‘cause it has that bounce.”
James Brown – I’ve Got Money
Eric “Monty” Morris – Penny Reel
Clyde McPhatter & The Drifters – Money Honey – “This one’s for you Aaron (Neville)”
Johnny Dove and the Magnolia Playboys – Lookin’ for Money
Slim Harpo – I Need Money (Keep Your Alibis)
Everly Brothers – Man with Money
Elvis Costello & The Attractions – Clean Money
Johnnie Taylor – Last Two Dollars
Johnny Paycheck – Down To My Last Dime
Tiny Grimes – Romance Without Finance – “He once told me that money isn’t the key to happiness, but if you have enough, you can have a key made.”
The O’Jays – For the Love of Money
Johnny “Guitar” Watson – You Can’t Take it With You
I am the creator and site administrator at The Basement Rug. I have been collecting LP's and CD's for more than 30 years. I 
