Theme Time Radio Hour: Dogs and neighbours

Dogs and neighbours

By Tony Attwood

This is where I seriously begin to get worried abut Bob and his choice of music, or perhaps more accurately about my ability to write any more in this series.   And I wonder, am I am only one?   I mean the second song in this episode was “How much is that doggie in the window?” which I am not going to put in a link to here – I will leave that to you – because I think it is so ghastly.   Indeed the fact that the “dogs” episdoe actually ended with the theme music from “Lassie” made me worried too.

But of course I should have been prepared because Bob did write “If dogs run free” which is not one of my favourite Bob songs, and yes I know he has had dogs as pets.   So in this regard we are different people.   I didn’t even watch the TV series Lassie (the theme from whihc was actually part of this episode of “Theme Time”.)

So for the second time in this series I am going to jump an episode and move on to Friends and Neighbors (it is spelled differently in my country, but in deference to Bob, I’ll use the American spelling.)

But even here I really did have to ponder what Bob was up to by this time, as he chose as one of the songs, “Neighbours” by the Rolling Stones, which I find a pretty naff song.

And if you have considered that track compare it with this Carole King classic.   It is the other end of spectrum in terms of song writing.

Now you may have guessed already that again I am struggling to find any songs here that I would rave over.   Take this next one, “Why can’t we be freiends” which opens with the same line repeated over and over, followed by a couple of lines, and then back to that one repeated line.

Bob, what were you thinking about here?   Do you really play these songs?   Indeed if you (that is you, my reader, not Bob, who of course has better things to do) are reading and listening, can you explain to me why this song is included?   There was incidentally a Howlin Wolf piece from 1952 included, but I can’t find an online recording of it so maybe there is a copyrihgt injunction on that one.   Maybe it was the one good track!

Indeed the further I went on through Bob’s list of songs for this episode the more I felt like stopping the episode and going out for a very long walk.

And I really did try, but again in you want to hear Hank Williams Sr (as Luke The Drifter) perform “Too many parties and too many pals” you will have to go looking for it youself.  I certainly found it, but wish I hadn’t.

And even though Ronnie & Delinquents – Bad Neighborhood has a great name for the band and the song, it disappoints.  It’s under two minutes long and really not worth the effort, but if you insist it is on the internet.

So I began to wonder – really what was Bob doing here?   Surely he didn’t actually like all these songs did he?   Or was he caught out, having said he would do the series, and come up with the show titles, only to find there was not much going under that name

But I did find one bit of fun with T Bone Burnett…

OK it’s not my favourite song of all time, and maybe I have just been worn into the ground by the other songs in this selection, but I don wonder what Bob was up to in this selection.

So again, if you have an insight into how Bob made these selections, do write in and put me right.

But it does raise an interesting point, for me at least, even if no one else.  I love Bob’s music, as must be obvious, and up to around thsi point I have liked many of the the songs in the series that Bob selected – but now I find my interest drifting away.

I guess that is just me….

1. “Howdy Neighbor” – Porter Wagoner & the Wagonmasters (1967)
2. “Don’t Take Everybody To Be Your Friend” – Sister Rosetta Tharpe (1946)
3. “Diamonds Are a Girl’s Best Friend” – T Bone Burnett (1982)
4. “La Valse d’Amitie” – Doc Guidry (1966)
5. “Make Friends” – Moon Mullican (1963)
6. “My Next Door Neighbor” – Jerry McCain (1957)
7. “Let’s Invite Them Over” – George Jones & Melba Montgomery (1963)
8. “My Friends” – Howlin’ Wolf (1952)
9. “Last Night” – Little Walter (1952)
10. “You’ve Got a Friend” – Carole King (1971)
11. “Bad Neighborhood” – Ronnie & The Delinquents (1960)
12. “Neighbours” – Rolling Stones (1981)
13. “Too Many Parties and Too Many Pals” – Hank Williams Sr as Luke the Drifter (1953)
14. “Why Can’t We Be Friends?” – War (1975)

Unless anyone writes in and says, “You really must listen to…” and gives me the name of an episode, I am going to leave it there.