Alby's Latest Posts
Song of the Day 2/6: Urge Overkill, “Positive Bleeding”
I keep rediscovering bands from the ’90s, the last decade when there were so many you might miss a few. Until I heard this tune on a throwback radio show recently I had forgotten all about this Chicago power trio. Urge Overkill was two guys who met at Northwestern University in 1985, along with a […]
Song of the Day 2/5: Mason Williams, “Classical Gas”
Once upon a time it wasn’t uncommon for instrumental tracks to become massive hits. One of the biggest came from one of the most unconventional people to ever create one. Mason Williams was a classically trained guitarist, but that’s not how he made his living. During the folk-crazy ’60s he worked in comedy clubs playing […]
Song of the Day 2/4: Fela Kuti, “Why Black Men Dey Suffer”
Guest post by Nathan Arizona For the second year in a row, the most interesting Rock and Roll Hall of Fame nominee is probably the Nigerian Fela Kuti. And once again he’s probably the least known to a general audience. Kuti (often known just as Fela) didn’t make it his first year and might not […]
Song of the Day 2/3: Aoife O’Donovan, “Passengers”
El Somnambulo did not include anything from Aoife O’Donovan’s new album “Age of Apathy” in his January new music roundup, so I’ll plug it here. O’Donovan gained attention as frontwoman for the Boston-based neo-bluegrass outfit Crooked Still. This tune doesn’t sound like Crooked Still — more like Belly-era Tanya Donelly, which is more than OK […]
Song of the Day 2/2: Joni Mitchell, “The Circle Game”
Neil Young’s protest against Spotify has found sympathy among some of his old friends. Graham Nash and, more significantly, Joni Mitchell have also asked the streaming platform to remove their music. It appears other artists are taking the opportunity to complain about the service’s stingy fee setup as well. Young and Mitchell go way back, […]
Song of the Day 1/31: Jonathan Richman and the Modern Lovers, “Pablo Picasso”
Google Maps claims I live an 11-minute walk from the Picasso Museum in the Marais, but if I pace myself to this song it’s more like eight minutes. You can tell from the lyrics that Jonathan Richman is a true art lover. Richman recorded the song in 1972, but it wasn’t released until the first […]
Song of the Day 1/29: Philip Glass, “Freezing”
Though it’s just a trifle amid the long career of minimalist composer Philip Glass, “Songs From Liquid Days” is reportedly among his best-selling albums. For the 1986 album Glass scored lyrics by David Byrne, Paul Simon, Laurie Anderson and Suzanne Vega, who wrote “Freezing.” Vocals are by Linda Ronstadt, accompanied by the Kronos Quartet.
Song of the Day 1/28: Neil Young, “Hey Hey My My (Into the Black)”
For John Kowalko Neil Young refuses to fade away. He pulled his music off Spotify this week after he gave the service an ultimatum: Either you drop Joe Rogan over spreading Covid misinformation or I’m gone. He’s gone, and for an obvious reason: Rogan is the linchpin of Spotify’s highly profitable podcast division, while Young […]
Song of the Day 1/26: Jane’s Addiction, “Been Caught Stealing”
Yeah, I know, the guy is probably suffering from something worse than PTSD, but how could I resist? Besides, I like the song, even if I think Perry Farrell is an odd duck. This video was all over MTV when it came out in 1990 on “Ritual de lo Habitual,” and the song stayed big […]
Song of the Day 1/25: Arcade Fire, “Games Without Frontiers”
I have featured Peter Gabriel’s song about international diplomacy before, but it seems apt today in light of all the recent media saber-rattling. Besides, I had forgotten about this cover Arcade Fire recorded for 2013’s “And I’ll Scratch Yours,” a Gabriel-commissioned project featuring artists whose songs he covered on “Scratch My Back.” The recurrent phrase […]
Song of the Day 1/24: Smith, “Baby It’s You”
“Baby It’s You” was released as a single by first-ballot Hall of Fame groups the Shirelles and the Beatles. But the band who scored the biggest hit with the Burt Bacharach composition (with lyrics by Mack David, Hal’s older brother) was a now-forgotten group called Smith. The band was playing in a Los Angeles bar […]
Song of the Day 1/23: Laura Nyro, “And When I Die”
Readers following the thread spawned by Wednesday’s Song of the Day know that El Somnambulo has no love for the second Blood, Sweat and Tears LP, which spent seven weeks at No. 1 on the Billboard album chart and spawned three No. 2 singles, including this tune, written by a 17-year-old Laura Nyro. Nyro wasn’t […]
Song of the Day 1/22: Naked Eyes, “Always Something There to Remind Me”
Burt Bacharach has written hundreds of songs, most from the 1950s through the 1980s. Of those, 73 have made the US Top 40. This one took the longest to get there. Bacharach wrote it in 1963, when he recorded a demo of it with Dionne Warwick. Two different singles were released in 1964, by two […]
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