Alby's Latest Posts
Song of the Day 11/11: Eric Bogle, “No Man’s Land (The Green Fields of France)”
At 11 a.m. France fell silent for one minute to mark the end of World War I on the Western Front. It’s a solemn day — nearly 1.4 million French soldiers died in the conflict and the northeastern part of the country was devastated by four years of warfare — marked by military parades and […]
Song of the Day 11/10: Al Kooper, “Brand New Day”
Al Kooper spent the ’60s and ’70s showing that he could do almost anything musically, from writing songs to playing as a sideman for Bob Dylan, the Rolling Stones, Jimi Hendrix and dozens of others, to founding Blood, Sweat & Tears. Amid everything else, Kooper found time to write and record two songs for the […]
Song of the Day 11/9: Ten Years After, “You Can’t Win Them All”
Nationally, Democrats did better than expected, if not as well as hoped. “You Can’t Win Them All” was included on the 1972 album “Rock and Roll Music to the World,” Ten Years After’s seventh LP and last one to chart in the UK as blues-rock faded in popularity.
Song of the Day 11/8: The 4 Seasons, “Let’s Hang On!”
Yes, the party in power typically loses seats in midterm elections, but history can guide us only so far — in the World Series, teams that won game 3 to take a 2-1 lead had captured the championship more than 60% of the time. That didn’t help the Phillies. Nobody knows how this election will […]
Song of the Day 11/7: Wilson Phillips, “Hold On”
Don’t make yourself miserable. Try to remember that these midterms are going to be a shitshow by Republican design, and that making liberals suffer is part of the point. They are miserable people and they don’t actually love company, they just want everyone else to be as miserable as they are because they’re, y’know, assholes. […]
Song of the Day 11/6: Peter Gabriel and Kate Bush, “Don’t Give Up”
I don’t need to be in America to know that Democrats are demoralized about the midterms — our site traffic took a dive after the primaries, a sure sign of progressive malaise. This song is for them. Peter Gabriel released this duet on his “So” album in 1986. At that point Margaret Thatcher, who infamously […]
Song of the Day 11/5: The Five Stairsteps, “O-o-h Child”
Before the Jacksons stole their title, the Five Stairsteps were known as the First Family of Soul. The five children of Chicago police detective Clarence Burke Sr. went from winning a talent contest in 1965 to a contract with Curtis Mayfield’s record company and a five-year run of nine Top 10 hits on the R&B […]
Song of the Day 11/3: Dr. Feelgood, “Roxette”
Without Dr. Feelgood, punk rock never happens. The Ramones played fast, but they weren’t threatening. Neither were the dozens of British bands in the back-to-basics pub rock scene, where country rock and R&B provided good-time music for drinkers. Dr. Feelgood was something beyond that. Hailing from Canvey, a dingy English seaside town, snarling front man […]
Remember When Joe Told Us the Fever Would Break?
I’m so old I remember the first time. It was in an interview on Nov. 4, 2012, with Chris Matthews, when Biden predicted an Obama victory would be the game-changer: “We need leaders that can control their party, and I think you’re gonna see the fever break.” He sang the same tune in May 2019, […]
Song of the Day 11/2: Dr. Hook and the Medicine Show, “Sylvia’s Mother”
Shel Silverstein was a true triple threat. Though most remembered today for his children’s books, he was also a Playboy cartoonist and a songwriter. Dr. Hook and the Medicine Show was a North Jersey bar band hired to perform Silverstein’s music for a 1971 Dustin Hoffman movie about a pop songwriter, “Who Is Harry Kellerman […]
Song of the Day 11/1: Louis Armstrong, “When the Saints Go Marching In”
France has an odd relationship with religion. Those cathedrals and basilicas the tourists visit are owned not by the Catholic church but by the state, which nationalized all church property during the revolution and has never given it back. Yet the country’s holiday schedule still revolves around the main holy days of obligation observed by […]
Song of the Day 10/31: Santana and Peter Green, “Black Magic Woman”
A song in honor of our modern celebration of the Celtic pagan harvest festival Samhain. Peter Green, the founder and original guitarist for Fleetwood Mac, wrote it about his girlfriend. Carlos Santana and his eponymous band made it a classic rock staple. On only one occasion did they play it together. By coincidence, or perhaps […]
Song of the Day 10/30: Rick Wakeman, “Morning Has Broken”
It’s rare for a hymn to become a hit on the pop charts, but that’s what happened with Cat Stevens’ “Morning Has Broken,” which owes much of its popularity to Rick Wakeman’s piano arrangement. Wakeman has performed it in concert for years, but without any vocals. Because there are no lyrics, Wakeman technically isn’t playing […]
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