Big Clarence Sale Roundup

And that's not a typo, Mr. D., deciding to do a show as much about Clarences as in cleaning off the shelves of that dusty old stock for the big two-hour special this week.  And thus we had music by Clarence Ashley, Clarence 'Frogman' Henry, Clarence 'Gatemouth' Brown among other Clarences, and anecdotes about Clarence Darrow, Clarence Clemons, and Clarence Birdseye. Plus music that hadn't made the first cut from the "Work," "Happiness," "Noah's Ark," "Street Map," "Family," "Money," "Fruit," "Somethging," "Nothing," "Sugar," "Eleven on Up," "Sugar and Candy," and "Blood" shows.

Roger Murdock: We have clearance, Clarence.
Captain Oveur: Roger, Roger. What's our vector, Victor?
Tower voice: Tower's radio clearance, over!
Captain Oveur: That's Clarence Oveur. Over.
Tower voice: Over.
Captain Oveur: Roger.
Roger Murdock: Huh?
Tower voice: Roger, over!
Roger Murdock: What?
Captain Oveur: Huh?
Victor Basta: Who?

From my perspective "The Big Clearance Sale" ranks right up there as one of the best Theme Time Radio Hours ever... maybe because of the preponderance of stuff from the `30s and `40s, which I'm a sucker for. Maybe 'cause it had some yodelin', courtesy Mr. Rex Griffin, which I'm also a sucker for, much to the chagrin of both Jailbait Jones and the Top Cats.

Maybe because the show just felt looser than it usually does, not being totally constrained by a theme much other than "Clarence." I love the idea of the themes, but sometimes I think we get stuff that is only there because it fits the theme. Maybe because of the absence of email and phone calls, which again I like, but their absence was refreshing. Mr. D. just seemed to be totally into being a deejay with this show.

Maybe because Tex Carbone speaks!

As I've said before, I don't know whether next week's "Goodbye" show is going to be goodbye to TTRH altogether, although it's almost certainly the final show of Season 3. According to Rolling Stone, there are two Season 3 shows still unaired, "Furniture" and "Carnival."  I spoke to the reporter when he was researching his article on Season 3 and can tell you he was meticulous about verifying facts.  Every announced but unaired show from Season 2 eventually appeared in Season 3, so that's a good indication that we may have a Season 4.

But if this one and "Goodbye" is it for the show,it looks like we'll be going out on a high note.