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Thursday 20 November 2008

Dylan obsession

Charles Spencer on turning into a Bob Dylan obsessive

But in recent weeks, I have become a bit of a Dylan nut myself. Say what you will about Dylan’s music, one thing is in no doubt. He is a great DJ — perhaps the greatest ever.

His Theme Time Radio Hour, which goes out on the XM subscription station in America but which has been picked up here by the BBC for both Radio Two and the digital station 6 Music, is a total delight. I’ve always longed for a programme that would play every kind of popular music — soul, blues, jazz, reggae, r’n’b, country, gospel, rock, reggae, folk, western swing — and Dylan plays all that and more. Many of the songs are old and unfamiliar, some are acknowledged classics, and each show is devoted to a single theme. Of the shows I’ve caught recently, these have included New York, Flowers, Dreams and Women’s Names.

Unlike most vacuously prattling, self-obsessed DJs, Dylan gives you both the name of the artist and the title of song before and after playing the record, but he also gives you a great deal more — revealing nuggets about the performers’ lives — and often their deaths, too; quotes from poets such as Shakespeare, Rilke and Walt Whitman who may also have something to say on that week’s chosen theme; pithy and often wise comments of his own and some endearingly dreadful jokes. One moment you are hearing how the brilliant but alcoholic country singer George Jones was reduced to driving to the liquor store on his lawnmower because his wife, Tammy Wynette, had thrown the alcohol down the sink and hidden his car keys, the next he is dispensing helpful hints on how to deal with toddlers’ tantrums. With engaging modesty he never plays any of his own recordings and he often repeats lyrics he especially admires after the song has played to draw attention to their quality.

There’s an addictive night-time atmosphere to the show, and Dylan’s speaking voice, wry, leathery and stained with experience, has a beauty that for me his singing lacks. But what shines through most is Dylan’s enduring love for popular music in almost all its forms. ‘I never understood no border control when it comes to music,’ Dylan once said and he has movingly described how old songs are at the heart of his spiritual values. He apprehends his God through the songs of Hank Williams and the Carter Family.

Thanks to the BBC’s i-player you can listen to the programme whenever it suits you via your computer, and three double CD collections are available featuring some of the superbly varied music featured on the programme, the best being Theme Time Radio Hour on Ace Records (CDCH2 1202) since this contains recent recordings as well as those that are out of copyright. And should any readers have any CD bootlegs of the show available I would be extremely interested to hear from them. After all these years I’m turning into a Dylan obsessive myself.

Charles Spencer is theatre critic of the Daily Telegraph.

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