In response to the recent news of Bob Dylan winning the Pulitizer Prize, Vanity Fair has an intersting, illustrated piece, culminating the folkie chameleon's thoughts on his XM radio show.  Each weekly show has its own theme with Dylan DJ'ing his favorite artists to fit said theme.  Its an earnest attempt to dissecting the enigma that is Bob Zimmerman.  And, as you can gleem off his movie recommendations, (Rocky III??!?!), we know as little about the man as we did when he first released his self titled album in 1962.

A few factoid highlights:

Artists He Plays

Nine times: George Jones

Eight times: Tom Waits, Dinah Washington

Seven times: Bob Wills & His Texas Playboys, Louis Armstrong, Van Morrison

Six times: Buddy Johnson, Elvis Costello, Frank Sinatra, Hank Williams, Johnny Cash, Louis Jordan, Muddy Waters, Porter Wagoner, The Rolling Stones

Five times: Anita O’Day, Buck Owens, Howlin’ Wolf, James Brown, The Stanley Brothers

Four times: Bessie Smith, Big Joe Turner, Billie Holiday, Charlie Poole, Chuck Berry, Ella Johnson, Fats Domino, Fats Waller, Irma Thomas, June Christy, Little Walter, Loretta Lynn, Los Lobos, Prince Buster, Randy Newman, Ray Charles, Slim Gaillard, Smiley Lewis, Sonny Boy Williamson II, The Beatles, The Carter Family, The Everly Brothers, The Louvin Brothers, Wynonie Harris

Three times: Bo Diddley, Bobbie Womack, Charlie Parker, Count Basie, Duke Ellington, Eddie “Cleanhead” Vinson, Elvis Presley, Ernest Tubb, Etta James, Hank Ballard, Hank Penny, Hank Snow, Harry Nilsson, Huey “Piano” Smith, Jerry Lee Lewis, Jimmy Rodgers, Johnny Tyler, Joni Mitchell, Lefty Frizzell, Lou Reed, Memphis Slim, Merle Haggard, Milton Brown & His Musical Brownies, Otis Redding, Ricky Nelson, Roy Brown, Roy Orbison, Ruth Brown, Ry Cooder, Sam Cooke, Sir Douglas Quintet, Sister Rosetta Tharpe, The Clash, The Drifters, The Ink Spots, The Jimi Hendrix Experience, The Lovin’ Spoonful, The Staples Singers, Wanda Jackson, Warren Smith, Webb Pierce, Willie Nelson

The Years

—50% the songs he has played were recorded before 1960.

—Only 9% of the songs he has played were recorded in the 1980s or more recently.

Guest Commentators

Six times: Penn Jillette, Tom Waits

Five times: Billy Vera, Deke Dickerson, Elvis Costello, Richard Lewis

Three times: Jack White, Jimmy Kimmel, John C. Reilly, Luke Wilson, Marianne Faithful, Matt Groening, Peter Wolf, Ricky Gervais

Poets References

Aesop, W.H. Auden, St. Basil, Bertolt Brecht, Gwendolyn Brooks
Charles Bukowski, Samuel Taylor Coleridge, Gregory Corso, Stephen Crane
e.e. cummings, TS Eliot, Robert Frost, Ted Hughes, C.S. Lewis
Christopher Marlowe, Sylvia Plath, Alexander Pope, Rainer Maria Rilke
Anne Sexton, Shakespeare, Gertrude Stein, Jonathan Swift
Alfred Lord Tennyson, Dylan Thomas, William Butler Yeats

Authors Referenced

Cervantes, Anton Chekhov, Herman Hesse, Oliver Wendell Holmes, James Joyce, Jack Kerouac, Marcel Proust, Edgar Allan Poe

Playwrights Referenced

Molière, George Bernard Shaw

Movies Referenced

As Good As It Gets, An Affair to Remember, The Ballad of Cable Hogue, Barfly, Blow, Blue Hawaii, Blue Velvet, Bonnie & Clyde, Casablanca, Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, Charlie Chan’s Greatest Case, Chinatown, Coal Miner’s Daughter, Coffee and Cigarettes, Cool Hand Luke, Fast Times at Ridgemont High, For a Few Dollars More, Gentlemen Prefer Blondes, The Godfather, It’s a Wonderful Life, Life of Brian, The Maltese Falcon, Oh Brother, Where Art Thou, The Lost Weekend, The Night of the Hunter, Night Train, Paper Moon, Pee Wee’s Big Adventure, The Player, Raising Arizona, Rock & Roll High School, Rocky III, Runaway Train, The Shawshank Redemption, Sleeping Beauty, Snow White, Spinal Tap, Strangers on a Train, Streetcar Named Desire, Sweet Smell of Success, Taxi Driver, The Ten Commandments, The 39 Steps, The Wild Bunch

Deep Thoughts

“I don’t trust a man who doesn’t tear up a little watching Old Yeller.”

“All of our shows are for truckers, if not about truckers.”

“They say the earth’s warmin’ up. Be careful of that global warming, and wear your sunscreen.”

“Music City USA – one of the only places where a banjo player can make a six figure income.”

“You know, every shut-eye ain’t sleep. Sometimes you’re sleeping in the ground, taking a dirt nap, saying the big Goodbye.”

“The Harmonica is the world’s best-selling musical instrument. You’re welcome.”

“Sometimes when you look at a menu, it’s hard to decide what to get. Life is like that, full of difficult choices.”

“Lipstick traces on cigarettes can get you in trouble or remind you of the wonders of the night before.”

“Sticks and stones can break my bones but words can never hurt me…as opposed to when you grow up and you learn that…the pen is mightier than the sword. The world is fill of little contradictions like that.”

“I leave you with the words of Benjamin Franklin. ‘He that is of the opinion money will do everything may well be suspected of doing everything for money.’ Thank you, Ben. Peace out.”