RUSH: Here’s Roger in Chicago. Roger, great to have you on the EIB Network. Hello.
CALLER: Thanks, Rush. You’ve got the greatest bumper music of anybody on the radio and I got a question about the bumper music.
RUSH: Yeah.
CALLER: I heard you sing along one day to a tune, you said Way Down in Memphis, and out of all the bumper music that you play, I have not been able to identify that song. Can you tell me what it is?
RUSH: Yeah, it’s not Way Down in Memphis, if it’s the same one you’re talking about. It’s Way Down in the Hole, and it’s by Steve Earle, and it was the theme song to season five of The Wire on HBO. They used the same song all five years with different artists each year performing it, and the Steve Earle version is my favorite, and that was for season five.
CALLER: It’s a great song.
RUSH: It is. It really is, especially when you watch that song used as the show open for The Wire. The Wire opens with whatever malcontent activity on that week’s episode, and they get you all hepped up and then they go to the credit roll with highlights of what’s happening in the episode with that song playing, and it’s just ideal. It’s the best version of the song for all five seasons.
CALLER: Thanks, Rush. I greatly appreciate it. Keep up the great work.
RUSH: Thank you. Steve Earle, it’s E-a-r-l-e. Let me double-check that, but I’m pretty sure there’s an E on the end of the name. I’ll have to find it in the break, but Steve Earle, you can’t miss it. I can’t think of the album name right now, but Mike, you have it handy? You want to hear a little bit of it? We put together a loop of it here for the bump. (playing of song) This is what he was talking about. There are no vocals in this. You’ll have to get the song yourself for the vocals. (continued playing of song) But it just fits. The vocal kicks in, just fits that show, The Wire, to a T. (continued playing of song)
BREAK TRANSCRIPT
RUSH: The Steve Earle album that has the tune Way Down in the Hole on it is called Washington Square Serenade, for those of you interested, our last caller.