Alby's Latest Posts
Song of the Day 3/6: Cake, “I Will Survive”
A song for Ukraine, which Putin thought would crumble, lay down and die. Not so far. There have been nearly 200 covers of this song, in more than a dozen languages, since Gloria Gaynor’s original in 1978. Cake’s 1996 version is the only one I’ve heard that strips it down and gives the bass a […]
Song of the Day 3/4: Electric Light Orchestra, “Showdown”
It’s raining all over the world. From “On the Third Day,” ELO’s third LP and its first without co-founder Roy Wood, released in 1973. The single reached No. 12 in the UK but couldn’t crack the top 40 in the US. Jeff Lynne played the guitar solo on Marc Bolan’s Gibson Firebird. The song was […]
Song of the Day 3/3: Bob Marley and the Wailers, “Exodus”
As might be expected, the Russian war on Ukraine has produced lots of refugees — more than 1 million so far, according to the United Nations, about 2% of the country’s population. Officials expect that as many as 4 million people eventually will leave, with another 3 million displaced within the country. Most European Union […]
Song of the Day 3/2: Emerson, Lake & Palmer, “The Great Gates of Kiev”
Keith Emerson was probably the most technically accomplished keyboard player rock ever saw, and he loved to show off his chops by covering the classics. For The Nice, his band before ELP, he scored rock arrangements of pieces by composers from Sibelius to Bach to Dave Brubeck. So nobody was surprised in 1971 when his […]
Song of the Day 3/1: Paul Simon, “Take Me to the Mardi Gras”
In another sign that the pandemic is slackening, New Orleans is celebrating Mardi Gras this year after Covid forced last year’s cancellation. You can watch some of the parades live at a link provided at the link above. Though it’s now considered a minor song in his catalog, “Take Me to the Mardi Gras” was […]
Song of the Day 2/28: Sting, “Russians”
In 1985, when Ronald Reagan was saber-rattling against the Soviet Union, Sting included this song on his first solo album, “Dream of the Blue Turtles.” Released as the fourth single from the LP, it reached the top 10 in several European nations, but only No. 12 in the UK and No. 16 in the US, […]
Song of the Day 2/27: Rod Stewart, “Only a Hobo”
For a while in the early ’70s, Rod Stewart was the best Bob Dylan interpreter around. His recordings don’t make the “Best Bob Dylan Covers” lists anymore, but this one was so good it kept Dylan from officially releasing his own version for decades. It had been released to the public only once before Stewart […]
Song of the Day 2/26: Gabriel Sullivan, “The Rust, the Knife”
Guest post by Nathan Arizona The desert, with its big sky, endless waves of sand and scattered cactuses, has inspired a lot of music lately. It’s no surprise that dry and dusty New Mexico and Arizona are the center of this hybrid of Mexican-flavored rock guitars,Tex-Mex trumpets, Latin cumbia and spaghetti western/noir moodiness. Even the […]
Song of the Day 2/25: Procol Harum, “A Whiter Shade of Pale”
I don’t expect the death last week of Gary Brooker, frontman for Procol Harum, to put a stop to fans advocating for the band’s induction to the Rock Hall of Fame, but it does make it beside the point. Brooker, who founded the band from the remnants of his earlier group, the Paramounts, was its […]
Song of the Day 2/24: John Paul Jones and Playing for Change, “When the Levee Breaks”
Playing for Change, the non-profit music education charity that proselytizes and raises money by sharing covers featuring musicians both famous and obscure from all over the world, dropped a killer track this week. Featuring John Paul Jones of Led Zeppelin on bass, it answers the musical question, “If you replaced Jimmy Page with Derek Trucks, […]
Song of the Day 2/23: Screaming Trees, “Nearly Lost You”
While rock’s Jurassic generation keeps grinding on — look, another tour by 79-year-old Paul McCartney! — its more recent Cretaceous Period relics are dying out. Mark Lanegan, frontman for Screaming Trees and collaborator with Queens of the Stone Age, died at 57 at his home in rural Ireland. No cause of death was given, but […]
Song of the Day 2/22: Bill Evans, “Peace Piece”
I don’t know all that much about the situation in the Ukraine, and if you’re honest about it neither do you. I just think that the fewer innocent people who die over all this, the better. Bill Evans was so fucking great that he just sat at the piano after a recording session for his […]
Song of the Day 2/21: The Presidents of the United States of America, “Lump”
The second-biggest hit for the only band fit to play on Presidents Day, a No. 1 hit on the Modern Rock chart in 1995. They got the record’s sound by playing two guitars with a total of five strings between them, instruments frontman/composer/bassist Chris Ballew and guitarist Dave Dederer called them a “basitar” (two strings) […]
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