Nick Flessa, Austin Leonard Jones - "Theme From the Dick Gibson Show"

The Dick Gibson Show is a 1971 novel written by author Stanley Elkin. The plot centers on an itinerant disk jockey who graces the radio airwaves deep into the night, spouting nonsensical ramblings, fielding calls from a cast of characters, and sometimes playing old-timey tunes. If you’ve read the novel, you may have imagined a theme song for the fictional talk show. Thanks to Austin Leonard Jones and Nick Flessa, you now have an inkling of what it would sound like in “Theme From the Dick Gibson Show.” I think Elkin would approve.

“Theme From The Dick Gibson Show,” which was written by Jones, has the feeling of a noir Western. It’s gritty, eerie, and dark, combining wailing pedal steel with stark lyrics that immediately set a vividly sketchy desert scene. Flessa’s warm croon perfectly brings the setting to life: “Drinking beer in a bamboo robe. Weather report on the radio In the courtyard of a sun-drenched motel. Women in the windows through the hallways of hell Smoggy mountains in the silver palace. Science fiction of the west surrounds us.” I pictured something straight out of No Country For Old Men.

Stream the track below:

“Theme From the Dick Gibson Show” appears on Flessa’s new album, The Politics of Personal Destruction, which you can purchase on Bandcamp or stream on Spotify. Keep up with Flessa by following him on Instagram.