Play List - Hour of the Wolf

I guest-hosted for Jim Freund's show Hour of the Wolf on October 4, 2003 from 5:00 AM to 7:00 PM. He was recovering from hospitalization (he's fine!) and urged me to do a free-form talk show, not just 'Nuff Said!. I sort of did, playing a lot of music, telling stories and playing portions of three interviews with comic book creators that I had done the previous month. I had a lot of fun with the show and am grateful to Jim for giving me the air time. For more information on the people I interviewed, click to Guest List Archives Page 17.

Jim plays a lot of Steeleye Span, so I wanted to open with something in a similar vein. I chose a local band that often plays at the Medieval Festival that is held near the Cloisters every September. "Can't You Dance the Polka?" is also covered by Steeleye Span.

In the following list, the artist comes first then the song title and I skip a line between sets.

Quite a mixed set: ska, rock and roll and Irish music. That's my taste in music: all over the place. I continue to go all over the place for the rest of the show.

Ray is a very clever songwriter, making some excellent social or political points with wonderful humor. Margo's song is about the Indian Point Nuclear Plant, again using humor to make her point. I experienced some of the CSN song when I, too, stopped at Winchester Cathedral on my way to Stonehenge. I'm sure the lyric "wiped a cobweb off a face" refers to the bishops' crypts inside the cathedral.

I don't know who did "Star Trek Rhapsody." A friend of mine found it on the internet. It's Queen's "Bohemian Rhapsody" done with Star Trek lyrics. I wonder if Freddie Mercury would have appreciated the cleverness or would he have been angry at someone not taking his song seriously?

Alan Stivell is a Breton musician and one of the foremost Celtic musicians in the world today. "Blame Florida" is someone's statement on the presidential election of 2000 done to the tune of the South Park song that preceeded it. I closed the show with some modern didjeridu music (a deep-droning wind instrument native to Australia) and two pieces of carousel music played on a Wurlitzer 125 band organ. The second piece is better known as the Looney Tunes theme and Simon Loekle (whose show follows "Hour of the Wolf") joined me and credited Eddie Cantor as the author of that song, but knew no more about it.