DOES ANYONE REMEMBER CARMEN MIRANDA?

Dear Readers,
Finally catching up with last week's Theme Time Radio Hour, 'Fruit'. I believe this is the first time Dylan has featured an entire category of victuals, but it's a sweet mixture, to be sure. Even though Bob's corny humor sometime borders on the overripe, he manages to keep the theme colorful and fresh with his usual mix of eclectic tunes and pips of wisdom and information.
I liked the fact that he included a few evergreens from the 1920's and 30's among his ambrosia of sound. The Memphis Jug Band gets a rare airing with it's 'Peaches In The Springtime', a track that oozes with the joy of making music that seems lost on today's calculating artistes. I don't know much about Sam Montgomery, but his 'Where The Sweet Old Oranges Grow' seems to channel the spirit and sound of Robert Johnson. Who knew that 'W-P-L-J' meant a workingman's drink of white port and lemon juice? I thought it was a defunct New York City Rock N' Roll station. Props to The Four Deuces for setting me straight. The Beatles check in with Strawberry Fields Forever, a record that never fails to impress me with it's genius. And to think those guys were singing 'Yeah, Yeah, Yeah' only 24 months before! The 1930's make another appearance with Crown Prince Waterford's joyful 'Eatin' Watermelon', a song that takes back the pure pleasure of devouring that particular southern fruit from the old-timey racists (who I know for a fact loved it, too). I'll skip lightly over Bob's inclusion of the hoary 'Banana Boat Song (Day-O)' to the finale of Billie Holiday's eerie 'Strange Fruit', which remains one of the most unsettling songs in musical history (after 'Snoopy Vs. The Red Baron', obviously), delivered by Lady 'Day with her unique mixture of accusation and sadness.
Dylan uses the theme to provide lists of desserts and ways of consuming fruit that would put Martha Stewart to shame, but all in all, it's a show that whets one's appetite on many different levels.