Alby's Latest Posts
Song of the Day 2/20: The Association, “Windy”
Here’s a symptom of climate change you don’t hear about much in the States: destructive hurricane-force winter winds of more than 120 mph. There’s plenty of video to prove it. Suffice it to say this didn’t used to happen. Though they’re not much heard today, The Association was all the rage in the days of […]
Song of the Day 2/18: Cat Stevens, “Wild World”
Cat Stevens’ first Top 40 single as a performer wasn’t his biggest hit — it only reached No. 11, but it’s his most-covered by a wide margin. So far the song has been recorded by more than 100 artists, by talents ranging from Bette Midler to Garth Brooks. But its popularity with other singers isn’t […]
Song of the Day 2/16: C.W. McCall, “Convoy”
For conservatives, bad ideas never die, they just get recycled ad nauseam. So when a few dumbfuck truckers decide they’ve had enough of this mask-wearing, vaccine-taking reality, they retreat to the same dumb response their pappies and grandpappies did when faced with problems that, given their limited intellects, they couldn’t possibly understand. This was a […]
Song of the Day 2/15: Randy Rainbow, “The Tango: Vaccine”
It had been nearly nine months since Randy Rainbow’s last musical parody video before he dropped this one on the unsuspecting internet last week. I was concerned that, like earlier comedians who hitched their stars to a president — JFK impersonator Vaughn Meader is the poster boy for this — Rainbow wouldn’t be able to […]
Song of the Day 2/14: Randy Newman, “Falling in Love”
If you wanted to commission a love song for a late-’80s rom-com, is Randy Newman the guy you’d turn to? As his girlfriend asks in the video, “What’s the matter? Phil Collins busy?” He probably was, so they hired Newman, and even got him to act in a promotional video for the song. I’ve never […]
Song of the Day 2/13: Marillion, “Gazpacho”
I admit I never thought I’d actually find a song called “Gazpacho,” but when Congressdope Marjorie Taylor Greene expressed her thoughts about the gazpacho police — I understand they only take cold cases — I looked for one out of due diligence. Here it is, though unlike Trout Fishing in America’s “Pico de Gallo,” it’s […]
Predicting the Super Bowl By the Mascot Matchup Method – 2022
It almost goes without saying that there is virtually no scenario in which a Bengal Tiger doesn’t defeat a male sheep. But will they cover the points spread? My proprietary Mascot Matchup Method™ doesn’t have an opinion on that. ——————————————————————————- Until he abruptly stopped a few years ago, our own Jason 330 was the […]
Song of the Day 2/12: Weezer, “Hash Pipe”
Very little American media output crosses the Atlantic, the obsessions of right-wing agit-prop shops like Fox even less than the rest. But enough spam email has slipped through for me to learn that these rube-fleecers are claiming the Biden administration is handing out free crack pipes, as if anyone has used a crack pipe in […]
Song of the Day 2/11: Hot Chocolate, “Brother Louie”
Hot Chocolate was a British soul band best known for their 1975 international hit “You Sexy Thing,” a disco standard that reached No. 3 in the US. But it was another band that became a one-hit wonder with this tune by the band’s songwriting team of singer Errol Brown and bassist Tony Wilson. The band […]
Song of the Day 2/10: Todd Rundgren, “Dust in the Wind”
First off, no, this isn’t the Kansas tune. It predates it by six years. Fifty years ago this month, then 23-year-old Todd Rundgren released what’s widely regarded as his magnum opus, the double LP “Something/Anything?” For the first three sides of the album Rundgren, already an experienced producer, not only wrote and sang all the […]
Song of the Day 2/9: Fountains of Wayne, “Amity Gardens”
There are lots of songs about real places, but I don’t know of any song that celebrates a real place more obscure than Amity Gardens, Pa. That’s what you’d expect from the wry sense of humor that typified Fountains of Wayne, this century’s most accomplished power pop band. Composer Chris Collingwood, who founded the band […]
Song of the Day 2/8: Glen Campbell, “Just Another Piece of Paper”
The National Archives had to send — who? A-men? — to Mar a Lago to fetch Trump’s love letters from Kim Jong-un which, as the linked story dryly notes, “did not reduce tensions with North Korea.” The manbaby president’s habit of tearing up official papers has also been back in the headlines. Other presidents wrote […]
Song of the Day 2/7: The Beach Boys, “Sloop John B”
Seems like a good time for a vacation in the Bahamas, doesn’t it? Drunken first mate, cook with the fits, even, in the original version, a captain with a greedy pig — at least it’ll be warm. The origins of this sea shanty are unknown, though apparently there is or was a wreck in Nassau […]
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