Colors

It’s night time in the big city
A truck driver runs a red light
A ringing phone goes unanswered. Somewhere Over The Rainbow – in background

The Singers and Songs

  • (Somewhere Over The Rainbow) (Background during intro)
    (Somewhere Over The Rainbow) (Background during intro)
  • Ella Mae Morse
    House of Blue Lights
    “The first song ever to use the popular term ‘homey’ in it.”
  • Joe Liggins And His Honeydrippers
    Pink Champagne
  • Lefty Frizzell
    Long Black Veil
  • The Beatles
    Baby’s in Black
    “It’s time for four mop-tops from Liverpool, who changed the course of popular music and cut into the heavy sugar.”
  • Warren Smith
    Red Cadillac and a Black Mustache
    “There used to be a lot of record labels, not like today, and each of those record companies had their own sound. When you dropped the needle on a Specialty Record, you knew it was a Specialty Record. Same with Imperial, Chess, King, and a million others. Perhaps the most distinctive were those that came out of the Sam Phillips Memphis Recording Studio and were put out on his Sun record label, like this one.”
  • The Ravens
    Deep Purple
    “One of the pioneering R & B vocal groups.”
  • Bob Luman
    Blue Days, Black Nights
  • Della Reese
    Blue and Orange Birds
  • Johnnie Ray
    The Little White Cloud
  • Joni Mitchell
    Little Green
  • Nat King Cole
    Orange Colored Sky
  • Clint West
    Big Blue Diamonds
  • Jimmy Rushing and Count Basie
    Blue Skies
    “The man known as Mr. 5 X 5, because he was five feet tall and five feet wide.”
  • Sammy Masters
    Pink Cadillac
  • Screamin’ Jay Hawkins
    Yellow Coat
  • Jimi Hendrx
    Purple Haze
    “His music is rare and valuable, and he’s one of the kings of the guitar…The activating, energizing, vitalizing, vigorous, forceful Jimi Hendrix, Purple Haze.”

The Other People and Players

  • Earle Scheib
  • Ollie Rasmussen and his Nebraska Cornhuskers
  • Belle Baker
  • Joe Williams
  • Helen Humes
  • The Fabulous Kings
  • The Boogie Kings
  • The Vidrine Playboys
  • Vincent Van Gogh
  • Claude Monet
    “Color is my daylong obsession, joy and torment.”
  • Erskine Hawkins Orchestra
  • The Meditation Singers
  • Mahalia Jackson
  • Peter De Rose
  • Mitchell Parish
  • Deep Purple
  • Rudolph Valentino
  • Marijohn Wilkin
  • Danny Dill
  • Jimmy Liggins And His Drops Of Joy
  • Freddy Slack
  • Jimmy Dorsey
  • Red Foley
  • Spade Cooley
    Killed his wife
  • Bob Wills
    and the (Light Crust Doughboys) Texas Playboys
  • Billie Holiday
    "Back then, Songwriters used to write songs and let the artist interpret 'em. Nowadays, People just write songs for themselves. They put themselves in boxes, ticky-tacky boxes. We've lost out on the whole art form on interpretive singing."
  • Sweet Lorraine
    “Nat King Cole was a great jazz piano player. He never planned on being a singer but when a drunk audience member kept requesting that he sing the song Sweet Lorraine, Nat finally did it, just to shut him up. The audience loved it, Nat recorded it, and he became one of the most popular vocalists of the 20th century.”
  • Irving Berlin
  • Buddy Holly
  • Sam Phillips

The Other Songs and Albums

The Guests

The Poets

  • Emily Dickinson
    "Blue Poet"

The Books and Poems

  • A Slash of Blue
    (Bob recites)
    A slash of Blue—
    A sweep of Gray—
    Some scarlet patches on the way,
    Compose an Evening Sky—
    A little purple—slipped between—
    Some Ruby Trousers hurried on—
    A Wave of Gold—
    A Bank of Day—
    This just makes out the Morning Sky. -- Emily Dickinson “blue poet”

The Movies and TV Shows

The Places

  • Sasakawa, OK
  • Calgary
  • Puerto Rico
  • Bowhead City, AZ
  • Louise, MS
  • Texas
  • Memphis

Record Labels

Radio Shows

  • Grand Ole Opry