What's wrong with "Meet the Press" is "The Problem (Ray and I Will Be Fixing This Morning)."

Emails the Crack Emcee, alerting us to the new episode of Uncle Ray's "Psychedelic Soul" — [listen live]—  and linking to this Slate piece by David Weigel called "Will.i.am is Not What’s Wrong With Meet the Press."

On the radio show, they're counting down Ray's top albums, and we're starting with #38 N.W.A., "Straight Outta Compton," so language alert (I guess!). You can see the list by scrolling way down here, so Bob Marley, Van Halen, Stevie Wonder, U2, and Jimi Hendrix will be up soon enough.

As for "Meet the Press," somehow I didn't get to it yesterday, but Will.i.am was on. I had it on my DVR along with the other Sunday shows, but this week I watched "Fox News Sunday" and quit. Had to go sit on a rock amidst the trout lilies and consider what Jesus said about soul.

("Lynch mob... macabre..." That was a good rhyme.)

The Jesus quotes with "soul" are:

1. "And do not fear those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul; rather fear him who can destroy both soul and body in hell."

2. "Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me; for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.”"

3. (Asked by the Pharisees "Teacher, which is the great commandment in the law?”): “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind. This is the great and first commandment. And a second is like it, You shall love your neighbor as yourself. On these two commandments depend all the law and the prophets.” (Note the implication of 3 aspects of a person: heart, soul, and mind.)

4. At Gethsem′ane, to 3 disciples: “My soul is very sorrowful, even to death; remain here, and watch with me.” (This is right before the prayer: “My Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me; nevertheless, not as I will, but as thou wilt.”)

5. The Parable of the Rich Fool: "The land of a rich man brought forth plentifully; and he thought to himself, ‘What shall I do, for I have nowhere to store my crops?’ And he said, ‘I will do this: I will pull down my barns, and build larger ones; and there I will store all my grain and my goods. And I will say to my soul, Soul, you have ample goods laid up for many years; take your ease, eat, drink, be merry.’ But God said to him, ‘Fool! This night your soul is required of you; and the things you have prepared, whose will they be?’ So is he who lays up treasure for himself, and is not rich toward God.”

Whether any of that is the kind of soul Uncle Ray has in mind with "Psychedelic Soul" is just another riddle to contemplate along with how Ray and Crack are solving "the problem" and what "the problem" is.

UPDATE 1: "A touch of rain and sunshine made the flower grow/Into the lovely smile that's blooming…" They're up to Stevie Wonder. Solving the riddle, Crack demonstrates the kind of analysis he could bring to "Meet the Press" that Will.i.am did not bring. A propos of Rick Perry's qualifications for the presidency, Crack manages to say "Niggerhead" about 10 times.

UPDATE 2: Ray regrets putting "Unforgettable Fire" high on his list, and Crack ferrets out the Ray has had some personal connections to the band (U2), causing him to rank it more highly than it deserves, considering off-key singing and that time Bono wore a cape. Crack tells us he feels that way about INXS, but doesn't disclose the details of his personal relationship with Michael Hutchence. At least Crack got out of it alive. When Ray apologizes to anyone who might be offended by his disparagement about U2, Crack says: "You can do anything you want with U2. Nobody's going to be offended." The U2 song that gets played is that one about Martin Luther King, Jr., and let the record show that Crack laughed contemptuously.

UPDATE #3: They're up to #27, Velvet Underground's "Loaded," an album I've played many times, and the chosen track is "Who Loves the Sun," and Meade thinks that he's hearing George Harrison and I listen to it in that light and it makes sense. There's "Here Comes the Sun," by George Harrison. George Harrison is not on Ray's Top 100 list (though The Beatles come in at #11 with "Rubber Soul," the Beatles album with "soul" in the title).

After "Loaded" comes Nat King Cole "The After Midnight Sessions," with the track "Caravan," and Uncle Ray, setting it up before naming it, says it's the artist's "album for white people." And Crack, not unpredictably, says "What album made in America is not made for white people?" And Uncle Ray says "Straight Outta Compton."

UPDATE #4: Ray tells us Crack is wearing a T-shirt that says "Let it burn," which leads to a discussion of how kids toasting marshmallows are always admonished to just burnish them nicely brown, but the kids always want to burn them, and Crack explains that's because marshmallows are the only thing they let you burn. Then he notes that they are talking about marshmallow, and how could that be a solution to the "Meet the Press" problem rather than more of the same problem. "We could be talking about race," he says, then declares: "BURNING MARSHMALLOWS ARE RACIAL."