KEEPING UP WITH THE JONESES: I always liked radio DJ’s who cleverly bunch songs together. There weren’t and still aren’t all that many DJ’s with enough cleverness to do it well. I know that I couldn’t; as I ponder this matter, I can hardly think of any subtle segues between seemingly dissimilar songs. But I can come up with three songs that would have been interesting to have heard together, even if the connections between them were rather obvious — i.e., they all dealt with a mythical man named Mister Jones.

Here’s the list: First, from 1965, Bob Dylan’s Balad of a Thin Man, with its refrain “something is happening here, but you don’t know what it is, do you, Mister Jones”. Second, Mister Jones by Counting Crows, from 1993. “Mr. Jones and me, stublin ’round thru the barrio”. Then finally, Mister Jones by Talking Heads (1988 — ah, the Eighties). This is the liveliest song of the bunch; the liberation of Mister Jones is celebrated by David Byrne with a Latin beat.

Still, the mystery remains. Just who is Mister Jones and what about him inspired three different song writers over three different decades? What does he stand for? And what is his first name?

Perhaps we’ll never know.