Alby's Latest Posts
Song of the Day 1/28: Grace Jones, “Demolition Man”
It’s easier to wreck things than build them. It requires very little brain – three-year-olds are good at it, which lines right up with Trump being good at it. When a powerful man with the mind of a three-year-old throws a tantrum, the clean-up is going to take a lot more time. Sting wrote this […]
Song of the Day 1/27: Noël Coward, “Don’t Let’s Be Beastly to the Germans”
There are those who think we should be nicer to MAGAts, because – this is their theory, not mine – MAGAts vote against their own self-interests in response to liberals looking down on them. That’ll show us, I suppose. Noël Coward wrote the tune in 1943 as, he said years later, “a satire directed against […]
Song of the Day 1/26: Cheap Perfume, “It’s Okay to Punch Nazis”
Elon Musk told Germany’s far-right party that Germans should get over their guilt about that whole Holocaust thing. So here’s a message for “Misunderstood Gesture” Musk from the – gasp! – female-fronted, Denver-based punk band Cheap Perfume. “It’s Okay to Punch Nazis” appeared on the group’s LP “Burn It Down,” released in 2019 during the […]
Song of the Day 1/25: Willie Nelson, “I Gotta Get Drunk”
Raise a glass for Pete Hegseth. He’s probably already raised a few himself. Willie Nelson recorded this in 1970, before he became an outlaw, though he does look a lot like Johnny Cash in that cover photo for “Both Sides Now.” It didn’t help; the album failed to chart. Willie Nelson wrote the song back […]
Song of the Day 1/24: Stan Rogers, “Barrett’s Privateers”
It’s said that if you walk into any bar in Nova Scotia and sing, “Oh, the year was 1778,” you’re sure to be answered, “How I wish I was in Sherbrooke now!” because everybody knows what’s become the province’s most popular drinking song. You might have heard “Barrett’s Privateers” during the pandemic, when TikTok set […]
Song of the Day 1/23: John Anderson, “Down in the Orange Grove”
Best way to cope with the firehose of MAGA sewage spewing from the media is to skip stories about what might happen or what various things could mean, stick to stories about stuff that actually happens. For example, oranges are about to get a lot more expensive, because immigrant workers aren’t showing up to pick […]
Song of the Day 1/22: The Band, “The Genetic Method”
Everybody calls Garth Hudson, who died yesterday at 87, the Band’s secret weapon, but anybody who knows the Band at all knows he was far from secret. Fans knew he was what elevated the quintet above the level of a bar band backing Ronnie Hawkins, filling out the basic quartet sound with organ, accordion, saxophone, […]
Song of the Day 1/21: Amanda Shires & Jason Isbell, “Born in the U.S.A.”
Trump and his jackals want to end birthright citizenship, so brace for lots of stories about whether they can or can’t and the legalities and the sure-to-follow lawsuits. This is all catnip for the media, of course – why do you think they sanewashed him all this while? I won’t fall for it. You don’t […]
Song of the Day: 1/20: Alice Cooper, “Welcome to My Nightmare”
It’s gonna be bad, but remember, each and every one of these people, from Trump on down, is a consummate fuck-up. So while it will be fucked up, it will be fucked up for them, too, because they don’t know what they’re doing and will just be winging it. Will their inevitable fuck-ups cost them […]
Song of the Day 1/19: The Beatles, “The End”
If this is indeed the end of the American Republic – I tend to doubt it, but I’m safely overseas – then I think it should bow out with the words of Paul McCartney. The amount of love Trump and his testosterone-poisoned minions will take will indeed equal the amount they make. That number, whether […]
Song of the Day 1/17: Arthur Conley, “Funky Street”
One-hit wonders get more attention, but there are lots of two-hit wonders out there, too. Arthur Conley, for example. Conley was singing for minor labels from the late ’50s to the mid-’60s when Otis Redding heard him and signed him to his fledgling label. Together they reworked a Sam Cooke tune into “Sweet Soul Music,” […]
Song of the Day 1/16: Kesha, “Tik Tok”
The deadline for whatever happens to TikTok is fast approaching. I don’t use social media, so it won’t affect me directly no matter what happens, but lots of people are worked up about it so it’s all over the news. This might be why when I searched for Kesha, one of the auto-prompt questions that […]
Song of the Day 1/14: The Kossoy Sisters, “I’ll Fly Away”
Flying away from it all is a pretty common wish these days, and apparently it always has been. Slaves working the fields and prisoners behind bars traditionally invoke that desire, often extolling the path to freedom that leads through the pearly gates. So flying up to heaven was a common trope by the time prolific […]
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