Theme Time Radio Hour CDs - The List

A reader/listener wrote to Dreamtime recently asking if there were any "official" releases of Theme Time on CD, which got your host studying on the subject last night. As far as I know there are at least four different TTRH-related CDs either available, or soon to be available - all with different degrees of "officialness," I guess. In no particular order, those are:

Theme Time Radio Hour with Your Host Bob Dylan

From Ace Records U.K. To be released February 26, 2008. Available in the U.S. as an import from Amazon, or from Amazon. U.K. 50 tracks 2-CD set representing an excellent overview of the TTRH playlist. The full track list can be found here. Dylan's commentary is not included.

Ace claims this as the "authorized" TTRH compilation, done in conjunction with Theme Time producer Eddie Gorodetsky. The set is advertised as coming with a 40-page book of photographs, illustrations, and liner notes.

As a piece of trivia - which is what Dreamtime is all about after all - The Ace promotional copy notes that 828 songs were played on Theme Time in Season 1.

THE BEST OF BOB DYLAN'S THEME TIME RADIO HOUR

From ISIS Magazine. Available now. 2-CD 52-track set (one track from each TRRH show of Season 1, plus two extra songs from the Time and Hair episodes). Comes with 16-page booklet. Track list can be found at the link above. Dylan's commentary is not included.

Can be ordered through ISIS (see link above) or from Amazon U.K.

To editorialize, I suspect this not-quite-a-bootleg release is what prompted the "authorized" version. As far as I can determine, no one from TTRH was involved in its creation, and the track list relies heavily on artists whose music is out-of-copyright, at least in the U.K.

Radio Bob: 15 Brilliant Tracks from Dylan's Theme Time Radio Hour

A promotional CD that came with the 10th anniversary issue of Uncut magazine in 2007. Track list:

1 - Dave Alvin - Fourth of July
2 - Hank Williams - My Son Calls Another Man Daddy
3 - Jenny Lewis with the Watson Twins - The Big Guns
4 - Sonny Boy Williamson - Pontiac Blues
5 - Sexsmith & Kerr - Raindrops in My Coffee
6 - Bukka White - Fixin' to Die
7 - Laura Cantrell - When The Roses Bloom Again
8 - Blind Willie Johnson - John the Revelator
9 - The Detroit Cobras - Hot Dog (Watch Me Eat)
10- Robert Johnson - Me and the Devil Blues
11 - Mary Gauthier - I Drink
12 - Elmore James - Talk to Me Baby
13 - John Prine - Christmas in Prison
14 - Muddy Waters - Blow Wind Blow
15 - Richard & Linda Thompson - Shoot Out the Lights

No Dylan commentary. Not available in stores. Best way of tracking this one down is probably through eBay, where it can be found relatively cheaply. Nice compilation of music even without the TTRH connection, and it contains, as Dylan noted in Season 2, the first artist played on Theme Time: Muddy Waters and Blow Wind Blow.


Baseball: Theme Time Radio Hour with Your Host Bob Dylan

As close as we're likely to get to an "official" Theme Time release anytime soon. This was a promotional CD never, as the saying goes, sold in stores.

As with the Uncut CD, it can regularly be found on eBay and Amazon, sometimes at ridiculous prices, more often at prices more reasonable.

The complete Episode 4 of Season 1 first broadcast May 2006, including Dylan commentary. Track list:

* Take Me Out To The Ball Game - Bob Dylan
* Take Me Out To The Ball Game - The Skeletons
* Baseball Boogie - Mabel Scott
* Home Run - Chance Halladay
* Baseball Baby - Johnny Darling
* Baseball Canto - Lawrence Ferlinghetti
* Three Strikes And You're Out - Cowboy Copas
* The Ball Game - Sister Wynona Carr
* Did You See Jackie Robinson Hit That Ball - Buddy Johnson
* Joltin' Joe DiMaggio - Les Brown & His Orchestra (with Betty Bonney)
* Joe DiMaggio's Done It Again - Billy Bragg & Wilco
* Don Newcomb Really Throws That Ball - Teddy Brannon Orchestra
* Newk's Fadeaway - Sonny Rollins
* Say Hey - The Treniers
* The Wizard Of Oz - Sam Bush
* 3rd Base, Dodger Stadium - Ry Cooder
* Heart - Damn Yankees (Original Broadway Cast)

If you have an objection to "unofficial" collections of Theme Time, and want to give someone a taste of what the show is all about, this one is the one to get.

TTRH Authorized CD Set Available through Amazon U.S.

... as an import. Full information can be found at the Amazon U.S. site here (and if you're thinking of buying the set, please consider doing it through the Dreamtime link). Here's the full info from the product description...

2008 double CD paying tribute to Theme Time Radio Hour hosted by Bob Dylan.

For those that are new to the show, each program lasts an hour and has a different theme each week, for example Drink or Mother. Each track is introduced by Dylan with his dry humor, eclectic interest and vast musical knowledge. His voice does not appear on this CD, just tracks selected from the shows. It can be regarded as the best introduction to music ever. This is the only officially-authorized release - and is compiled by the show's producer Eddie Gorodetsky and Ace's own Roger Armstrong. Features 50 tracks, representing the 50 programs of the first series of radio shows. The tracklisting reflects Dylan's wide taste and ranges from Billie Holiday and George Jones, through Aretha Franklin to the Clash and the White Stripes. The sleeve notes include a track-by-track commentary by some of the world's great music writers including Barney Hoskyns, Colin Escott, Billy Vera and Fred Dellar. Each track, no matter how obscure, is illustrated with a sleeve, label shot or photo of the artist. Ace.

Amazon lists the set as to be released on February 26, 2008, but can be pre-ordered now. Current U.S. price is $27.99. Be interesting to find out how well this sells. As one fan noted over in the Expecting Rain TTRH forums, the hard-core Theme Time fan probably already has all the cuts with Dylanesque commentary on CD through one source or another. But on the other hand, I can see the less-technically sophisticated XM Radio listener, the completist, or someone who just wants a great collection of music that incidentally reflects Bob Dylan's tastes all purchasing this collection.

Authorized Theme Time Radio Compilation Coming in March

UPDATED January 15, 2008 - Ace has now released a full track list for the compilation and has a link to the set on the Amazon UK Web site. It doesn't appear that Dylan's commentary is included.

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Ace Records has announced that it will be releasing the first authorized CD compilation of TTRH on March 5, 2008. Grandpa Jones' Turn Your Radio On (featured on the Radio episode) will open the collection. Ace's announcement is below:

Ace are [sic] excited to announce the release of the authorised CD of music from award-winning XM music show “Theme Time Radio Hour with your host Bob Dylan” on March 5th 2008.

The compilation, a 2CD 50-track set, produced for reissue by “Theme Time Radio Hour” producer Eddie Gorodetsky and Ace’s own Roger Armstrong is based around the 828 tracks played in the 50 episodes of the first series.

The compilation represents the vast range of music played on the show, with a song list spanning ‘Papa’s On The Housetop’ by Leroy Carr and Scrapper Blackwell recorded in 1930 to Mary Gauthier’s ‘I Drink’ recorded in 2005. Artists as diverse as The White Stripes, Grandpa Jones, Jerry Butler, The Clash, Memphis Minnie, Bobby Darin, Sister Rosetta Tharpe, The Modern Lovers, Billie Holiday, George Jones, Bo Diddley, Alton Ellis, Louis Jordan, Santiago Jimenez, James Carr, Gerraint Watkins, Slim Gaillard, Otis Rush and many others sit happily side by side on this highly eclectic collection.

The package, designed by Phil Smee at Waldo’s Design and Dream Emporium, includes a fully illustrated 40-page book packed full of rare photographs and memorabilia alongside detailed notes on each track, by experts in each genre.

Bob Dylan's "Theme Time Radio Hour" debuted to popular and critical acclaim on XM Satellite Radio in May 2006, and was subsequently broadcast on both BBC Radio 2 and BBC 6 Music. The Times described the show as “the most consistently entertaining hour on radio”, while The Observer noted, “The triumph of Dylan's show is that it really is unlike anything else you could hear, and as such is priceless." Among the show’s accomplishments of the past year, the National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum added the "baseball" episode of "Theme Time Radio Hour" to its archives in June 2006.

Bob Dylan is one of the world's most popular and acclaimed songwriters, musicians and performers, having sold over 100 million albums and performed thousands of shows around the world in a career spanning five decades. His newest album, “Modern Times”, has already sold more than two million copies, reaching the number one slot in 13 countries. The first volume of his memoirs, Chronicles, was one of the most acclaimed and best-selling non-fiction works of 2004, and 2005’s No Direction Home film, directed by Martin Scorsese, captivated audiences worldwide as it documented Dylan's early career and rise to fame.

The announcement leaves the question open as to whether Dylan's original commentary on the tracks will be included. Eddie Gorodetsky's involvement is a good sign, though. Ace is a British label, and there's also no word as to whether the compilation will be available in the U.S.

Leave your radio on, though, and I'll provide updates as I find them.