There are a few rules that I've followed from day one with Self Help Radio, & those rules are as arbitrary as the show, & they're not rules I've publicized or otherwise written out - I've just known I would do the show this way & I have.
One of them is this: the themes are about the songs, not the bands. Or, to put it another way, I don't allow the name of the band (or any of the people in the band) to qualify for a show's theme. For example, there was a fellow in Austin who always wanted me to do spectacularly easy themes - he once said I should do a show about "cars" - & he called in when I did a show about zombies. "Are you going to play the Zombies?" he asked.
If the Zombies did a song about zombies, I would play them, I told him. It seemed just too lazy to say, "Since this show is about the living dead, here's an unrelated band that happens to have the same name as today's theme, let's listen to 'She's Not There!'"
Which is my long-winded way of saying I won't be playing the band Swans during the show. Unless they have a song about swans I don't at this moment know about.
I did one time want to do a show about songs about bands. You know, people singing about the Beatles or what-not. It turns out that another show the day I thought of it had just completed that show. That was in 2002. I am still trying to make sure there's a safe enough distance between our two shows so that it won't seem like I am copying the other show.
Oh, & I also one day will do a show about bands who have songs that are the band's name. Like, you know, Belle & Sebastian have a song called "Belle & Sebastian." I have hesitated because I am unsure whether I can count songs like "Bob Dylan's 115th Dream." Can I?
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