New (old) shows added (nearly) every week.
ADDED 2/6/22:
From twenty-five years ago!: Idiot's Delight from April 6, 1997.
Remembering Alan Ginsberg on the night after he died. Vin plays
portions of the poet's visits to Idiot's Delight. Merrie Amsterburg
performs songs from her first album.
NOVEMBER 5, 2017. Vin Scelsa on WFMU.
| 2015 | 2014 | 2013 | 2012 | 2011 |
| 2010 | 2009 | 2008 | 2007 | 2006 |
| 2005 | 2004 | 2003 | 2002 | 2001 |
| 2000 | 1999 | 1998 | 1997 | 1996 |
| 1995 | 1994 | 1993 | 1992 | 1991 |
| 1990 | 1989 | 1988 | 1987 | 1986 |
| 1985 | 1984 | 1983 | 1982 | 1981 |
| 1980 | 1979 | 1978 | 1977 | 1976 |
ADDED 3/16/21:
From twenty years ago!: Live at Lunch from March 1, 2001
ADDED 2/27/21:
From twenty years ago!: Live at Lunch from February 6 through
February 14, 2001. Vin's guest on February 14, 2001 is Mila Drumke.
ADDED 2/5/21:
From twenty years ago!: Live at Lunch from January 30 through
February 1, 2001. Vin's guests are Vernon Reid (1/30/01) and Tim
Easton (1/31/01).
ADDED 1/29/21:
From twenty years ago!: Live at Lunch from January 23-25, 2001.
Vin is on vacation and Rita Houston fills in. Her guest on 1/25 is
Kelly Joe Phelps.
ADDED 1/22/21:
From twenty years ago!: Live at Lunch from January 16-18, 2001,
with guests Toshi Reagan (1/16) and Karl Mullen (1/18).
ADDED 1/13/21:
From twenty years ago!: Live at Lunch from January 9-11, 2001,
with guests Suzanne Vega (1/9) and Sid Bernstein (1/10).
ADDED 1/3/21:
From twenty years ago!: Live at Lunch from January 2-4, 2001
ADDED 7/21/18:
From 2007: The entire month of May, both WFUV and Sirius
shows. guests included Anat Cohen (May 5, previously added),
author Nathan Englander (May 12), and Kelly Flint (May 26).
ADDED 4/29/18:
From May 1, 2010: It is the first of May and Vin trots out
all
the songs about May including “Forever Young.” “Forever
Young”? (MAY God
bless and keep you always/MAY your
wishes all come true . . .)
From May 5, 2007: Vin’s guest is
Anat Cohen.
From May 5, 2001: Vin’s guests are
Ian Hunter, James
Mastro, and Rich Pagano.
ADDED 4/22/18: From 2001: Jenifer Jackson and David
Fricke join Vin on a show originally broadcast on April 21,
less than a week after the death of Joey Ramone.
ADDED 4/16/18: From 1998: the guest
appearance of
Marc Ribot y Los Cubanos Postizos on a show originally
broadcast
on June 28, 1998.
ADDED 4/8/18: From 2001: April 14, 2001 was the
night before Easter and Vin stayed home, waiting for
Easter Mass to conclude so he could begin Idiot's
Delight. It was the first time he broadcasted from the
home studio on WFUV and he and Engineer Kevin
had to navigate a few technical challenges.
ADDED 4/1/18: From 2012: Two shows from Sirius/XM,
originally presented live on Wednesday, April 11, and
Thursday, April 12.
Starting with “April Showers,” there’s
a Spring mix on Wednesday, and on Thursday, a folk song
written
by Joey Ramone that was first introduced on one of
Vin’s Easter morning
broadcasts.
ADDED 3/25/18: From 2003: Idiot's Delight from
March 29, 2003. It is Vin's first show following the landing
of American troops in Iraq and he's trying to find songs
that fit the mood. Alexi Murdoch, accompanied by
Amy Correia, join Vin in Studio A.
ADDED 3/18/18: From 2003: Idiot's Delight from
March 15, 2003. Spring is in the air, but so is war, as
in five days the first assualts against Baghdad will
begin. Hear Vin talk with Kate, who is in Washington
protesting the upcoming invasion.
ADDED 3/11/18: From 2006: Idiot's Delight from
December 9, 2006. The first two hours were only on
the internet, while WFUV broadcast a college basket-
ball game over the air. The second half featured a
live performance by Golem.
ADDED 3/4/18: From 2007: Frankie Faison's second visit to
Idiot's Delight. Frankie was starring in a production of August
Wilson's Two Trains Running and The Wire. This is one of the
first shows that Vin prerecorded.
ADDED 12/17/17: From 1988: Excerpts from
a show originally broadcast on
October 30,
featuring Glen Burtnick and Fred Schneider.
From 2002: On a show originally broadcast
on December 7, the
bear is in his cave, playing
a wintry mix and pondering the move of his
therapist to Montana.
are both among the artists I most admire: Vin,
for his innovative radio work, breaking through
the artificial boundaries of radio formatting,
making connections between literature and music
and across generations of artists and listeners;
Patti, for an unflinching willingness to engage
with all manner of artists and musicians with a
leap of faith that it is all about the journey and
not the destination. That said, when Vin and
Patti did radio together there was always a sense
of foreboding that things could go very wrong
very quickly.
From 1996: Patti joins Vin for a conversation
originally broadcast on August 18, 1996.
From 1997: Vin and Patti seem to be getting
along until they aren’t, after which Patti and her
band perform several songs on a show originally
broadcast on December 14, 1997. Was this the
last time they did radio together? Did something
happen off the air or in a segment missing from
the tape from which these files were digitized?
Clearly, when it was over, it was over, but
there must be more to the story than we have
here.
ADDED 12/2/17. From 1997: It was nearly twenty
years ago today—12/7/97—when Art Garfunkel
and Eric Weisberg visited Idiot’s Delight to talk
and perform some songs. With special thanks to
Bruce Giordano, who sent this file along with
several other 1990’s guest segments that will
eventually migrate to VINdication.
ADDED 11-23-17. From 2017: Vin Scelsa on WFMU.
ADDED 11-5-17. From 1996: Four cassettes simply labelled
4/14.1, 4/14.2,
4/14.3, and 4/14.4. Vin promised an action-packed
show and did not disappoint.
Golden Smog was set up and ready
to play and Vin surprised them by bringing out
Roseanne Cash
to join them on their cover of her Seven-Year Ache. Then, after
their set, Roseanne previewed songs
from her new release,
10 Song Demo,
as well as reading from her newly published
book of stories, Bodies of Water. Then, Bill Morrissey,
also
with a new CD and a newly published novel. Closing out the
evening, Mike
Marrone called in . . .
ADDED 10-22-17. From 1996: Donovan’s visit to Sunday
Night with Vin Scelsa. When it comes to Linked In, I generally
prefer to link out, but when an e-mail arrived early this week
from Sean Poust asking me to add him to my LinkedIn network,
it included an offer I couldn’t refuse—his digitized recording
from 11-10-96 when Donovan was a guest. Thank you, Sean!
ADDED 10-15-17. From 1997: An Idiot’s Delight originally
broadcast on August 17 on WNEW-FM. It is the night
following the 20th anniversary of the death of Elvis Presley,
and Vin, after an opening set of surf songs, says, “Man, if
we could surf forever, Elvis would still be alive. Rest assured
the man is dead. There’s nothing left of him. The ants and the
maggots have had their way over 20 years and there’s nothing
left.” Poet Dana Bryant is Vin’s guest. This air check runs
6 hours and 46 minutes, missing only the last few minutes of
the show. From 1996: Pamela’s cassettes were packed in
nine trays of 60 each, and not in chronological order.
Nevertheless I was surprised (and delighted) to find the
missing three hours of the August 25 show, including much
more conversation and live music with Jimmie Dale Gilmore.
The revised, complete show is now on the 1996 page.
ADDED 10-8-17. From 1997: An Idiot's Delight originally
broadcast on September 21 on WNEW-FM. Shortly after
opening for Jimmie Dale Gilmore at The Bottom Line, The
Hackberry Ramblers dropped by and played spirited Cajun
versions of songs by George Jones, Merle Haggard, and
John Fogerty. From 1996: Portions of an Idiot's Delight
originally broadcast on August 25, 1996 with Jimme Dale
Gilmore.
ADDED 9-30-17. From 1997: An Idiot's Delight originally
broadcast on August 24 on WNEW-FM. Dar Williams dropped by.
This is the first upload digitized from cassettes provided by
Pamela Somers, whose collection of over 550 cassette will be
a rich source for all of us in the weeks to come!
ADDED 9-24-17.
Two shows from 2002: (1) Sept 14, 2002.
Founding
member and lead singer of the Violent Femmes,
Gordon
Gano had just released his first solo album, unique
in that
most of the vocals were performed by other singers--
including
PJ Harvey, Lou Reed, John Cale, Frank Black,
They Might
Be Giants, Mary Lou Lord and Martha
Wainwright.
conceived as a
same name (which has
the songs were written by
voices. On this show he performed
his own distinctive vocal instrument, as
old Femmes song and some new things! He
himself on acoustic guitar. (2) Sept 21, 2002. The "Short
Stack" edition of Idiot's Delight. There was a Fordham
football game that night, so the show was extremely short;
Vin didn't get started until almost 10:45.
ADDED 9-16-17. Two shows! From 2000: A Live at Lunch
streamed on September 7. Dan Hicks visited Studio V and
tried to explain when his Hit Licks became the Hot Licks.
This completes the week of Live at Lunch that I have been
adding over the last few weeks. All three feature songs from
Matthew Ryan’s second album, which was released just a
few weeks before these shows streamed.
From 1998: Matthew Ryan visits Vin and plays songs
from his debut album on WNEW-FM on a show original
broadcast on April 19.
ADDED 9-10-17: From 2000: Live at Lunch originally
streamed on September 5. Dar Williams declares that
Kate Scelsa is an honorary Canadian girl. Vin proves
to Dar that The Good Rats are not a figment of his
imagination.
ADDED 9-3-17: From 2000: Live at Lunch originally
streamed on September 6. It was a beautiful day. The
windows were open in Studio V. And while it is probably
too late to take up Vin's invitation to drop by for a barbecue,
it is not too late to enjoy the show!
ADDED 6-26-16: From 2002: Idiot's Delight originally
broadcast on June 22, with guest David Hajdu (pronounced
“hay-du”), the author of the non-fiction book
Positively 4th Street: The Lives And Times Of Joan
Baez, Bob Dylan, Mimi Baez Fariņa, and Richard Fariņa”
– a look into the early Sixties Greenwich Village scene as
it centered around the lives of these key players. Hadju is
also author of the highly acclaimed and beautiful Lush Life
(1996), a biography of jazz great Billy Strayhorn, the
composer/arranger who worked closely with Duke Ellington
for several decades. Vin and David devoted most of their
time talking about the wonderful stories and complicated
people in these two books ... with music played to illustrate
the conversation.
ADDED 6-12-16: From 2010: Idiot's Delight originally
broadcast on June 5, June 19, and June 26.
ADDED 6-5-16: From 2006: All Idiot's Delight originally
broadcast or streamed in June 2006!
ADDED 5-29-16: From 2014: All Idiot's Delight originally
broadcast or streamed from the merry month of May!
ADDED 3-13-16: From 1996: Idiot's Delight originally
broadcast June 6, 1996, with Alejandro Escovedo.
ADDED 3-6-16: From 2001: Idiot's Delight shows originally
broadcast May 26, June 16, June 30, July 7, July 14, July 28,
and August 4.
ADDED 12-24-15: From 1996: "Christmas at Upsala
College" (December 22, 1996). ADDED 12-23-15: From
1993: Writers in the Round from February 19, with
Luka Bloom, David Byrne, Rosanne Cash, and Lou Reed.
ADDED 12-6-15: From 2011: All Idiot's Delights originally
aired from Wednesday, November 23, through Thursday,
December 8.
ADDED 11-14-15: From 2004: An Idiot's Delights originally
aired on Saturday, October 30, with Lenny Kaye and others.
ADDED 11-8-15: From 2011: All Idiot's Delights originally
aired from Saturday, November 5, through Saturday, November 19.
ADDED 10-25-15: From 2011: All Idiot's Delights originally
aired from Saturday, October 15, through Saturday, October 29.
ADDED 10-11-15: From 2011: All Idiot's Delights originally
aired from Saturday, October 1, through Thursday, October 13.
ADDED 9-27-15: From 2011: Idiot's Delight originally aired
Saturday September 24, Wednesday September 28, and Thursday
September 29, 2011.
ADDED 9-20-15: From 1989: Graham Parker's visit to
Idiot's Delight, originally broadcast on November 26, 1989.
ADDED 9-7-15: From 2003: Idiot's Delight, originally
broadcast on September 20, 2003, with Loudon Wainwright III.
Vin wrote at the time:
Loudon and I have been doing radio shows together since the
mid-70s, so I decided to
try something different with him tonight. Every time
he's been on the show he's brought
his guitar and played a few songs live (just
as every artist who plays a guitar brings it to
do a radio guest spot these days
- like it is a rule or something! Enough already!).
This time I said, "Leave
the guitar home. We'll play stuff from the new live album
So Damn Happy and
just talk ... maybe bring some other people's music that you
like and do the
guest deejay thing ..." And he said, "Fine. I hate lugging that
guitar to
every radio station." So that's what we did. We played tracks
from the new live album
(and a few other related things), chatted about his
move to L.A., tried to sort
through the maze of the Wainwright-McGarrigle-Roche
Family Tree as best we
could, and discussed his burgeoning acting career (he's in
upcoming films by
Tim Burton and Martin Scorsese).
Our visit was short by ID standards - a mere 75 minutes -
but that was because
he wanted get back to Manhattan for the 10:30 PM A Mighty
Wind live concert at
Town Hall. It wasn’t my choice.Me? I coulda danced all
night!
So we never really got around to comparing mental health
notes. But ya know? - we
both seemed pretty damn happy. I mean, for a couple of
guys moving closer and faster
to the maw of the eternal abyss!
Hoffman - Paul Thomas Anderson - Philip Baker Hall -
Vincent Anthony Scelsa - Laura Rose Cantrell" edition of
Idiot's Delight, originally broadcast on November 23, 2002,
with Laura Cantrell.
ADDED 8-23-15: From 1996: Idiot's Delight, from a
program originally broadcast on November 3, 1996, with
Kurt Vonnegut.
ADDED 8-16-15: From 1999: Idiot's Delight, from a
program originally broadcast on November 6, 1999, with
Ronnie Spector and Joey Ramone.
ADDED 8-1-15: From 2009: Idiot's Delight, originally
broadcast on April 4, 2009, with the Felice Brothers.
ADDED 7-26-15: From 2007: Idiot's Delight, originally
broadcast on November 10, 2007, celebrating Vin's 40th
Anniversary in radio.
ADDED 7-19-15: From 2002: July 27 (The "A Couple of
Lapsed Catholics Sittin' Around In Studio A" Edition of Idiot's
Delight with Eleanor McEvoy), August 3 (The "Beached
Whales and Deadly Lightening" Edition of Idiot's Delight
with Rebecca Martin), and August 10 (The "You Can't Fool
the Fat Man" Edition of Idiot's Delight with David Poe.
ADDED 7-11-15: Idiot's Delight Easter Sunday Acoustic
Extravaganza, from March 31, 1986, and The "Prodigious
Practitioner of Procrastination" Edition of Idiot's Delight
from July 13, 2002.
ADDED 7-5-15: Vin Scelsa, Fare Thee Well Concert,
on June 8, 2015 at City Winery, and broadcast on WFUV on
July 4, 2015
ADDED 7-2-15: Hungerthon 1995 with Southside Johnny
(November 19, 1995) and, from 2002, Idiot's Delight with
Eleni Mandell (June 29, 2002).
ADDED 6-27-15: The first half of the 50-30 celebration of
Vin's 50th birthday and 30th year in radio, from The Bottom
Line on December 12, 1997. This is the complete early
show.
Also, three Live at Lunch shows from June and July
2000 (June 7, July 13 with a "Ramones attack," and July 18).
ADDED 6-14-15: Four Live at Lunch shows from May 2000
(May 4 with Jill Sobule, May 17 with Steven Van Zandt, May 23,
and May 24).
ADDED 6-6-15: All June and July 2014 (10 SXM and 5 FUV
shows).
ADDED 5-30-15: January 27, 2000 (Warren Zevon with Vin,
1 hr 16m); August-December 2014 (42 SXM shows).
ADDED 5-23-15: September 29, 2001 (Norah Jones's first visit
to Idiot's Delight); January 31, 2004 (Norah Jones's second
visit); January 20, 1992 (the Calling Elvis show); June 13, 1993
(with Leonard Cohen).
ADDED 5-17-15: January 5 and February 23, 1997 (the week
Townes died and the "To live is to fly" tribute); March 28, 2001
Live at Lunch.
ADDED 5-10-15: September 27, 1998 (Elvis Costello on
Idiot's Delight) and March 29, 2001 (Dan Bern on the final
Live at Lunch).
OPENING DAY 5-4-15: 2015 (complete), 2014 (August-
December, WFUV), 2000 (December 24 & 31, WNEW), 1976
(April 18, WNEW, with Steve Goodman).