Alby's Latest Posts
Song of the Day 11/22: Bennett Wilson Poole, “Soon Enough”
Guest post by Nathan Arizona UK Americana sounds like a contradiction, but don’t tell the British. A lot of fans and websites there are devoted to both contemporary and classic Americana (aka alt-country). Hovering over all this is the sound of the Byrds, who some would call the best or at least most important American […]
Song of the Day 11/21: John Wesley Harding, “There’s A Starbucks (Where The Starbucks Used To Be)”
If John Wesley Harding were as popular with the public as he is with other musicians, he’d be a household name. Or would Wesley Stace be a household name? The former JWH now records under his real name, the one under which he teaches university classes and published four critically acclaimed novels. Whatever name he […]
Song of the Day 11/20: The Clash, “Somebody Got Murdered”
Actually, two somebodies. Their names were Joseph Rosenbaum and Anthony Huber, and while a Wisconsin jury and the judge who oversaw their killer’s trial exonerated him, they were murdered nonetheless, as dead as the lie that America is a noble experiment. It’s not — it’s an experiment to see how far capitalism can go in […]
Song of the Day 11/18: Lee Moses, “Bad Girl”
People who love soul music have to deal with the fact that artists stopped making it about the time that disco gobbled up R&B and funk in its Hustle-dancing wake. The obsessives deal with it by finding and sharing rare recordings of obscure groups, and some of those nuggets make you wonder why the artists […]
Song of the Day 11/17: Bob McFadden and Dor (Rod McKuen), “The Beat Generation”
The French apparently have a weird idea of American music, at least if what they play in the local supermarché is any guide. This 1959 novelty single, for example, written by Rod McKuen — yes, that Rod McKuen; that’s him adding the “beatnik” asides. To portray the square-sounding hipster, McKuen recruited Bob McFadden, a radio […]
Song of the Day 11/16: Wings, “Give Ireland Back to the Irish”
Today’s Open Thread notes the completely foreseeable problem Northern Ireland is posing to the feeble, delusional brains behind Brexit. The solution to the problem is simple: Give Ireland back to the Irish. Even Paul McCartney could see that back in 1972. When British troops killed 13 unarmed civil rights protesters in Derry on Jan. 31, […]
Song of the Day 11/14: John Cale, “Half Past France”
Most American music fans know Welsh musician John Cale through his role as a founding member of the Velvet Underground. But his career in avant-garde music began years before he met Andy Warhol and continues to this day. Most of it, from the ethereal droning of La Monte Young’s Theatre of Eternal Music to his […]
Song of the Day 11/12: The Jam, “All Around the World”
Guest post by Nathan Arizona Before TV fragmented so you never have to watch something that’s not exactly what you want, you had to take what they gave you. On music shows in music-mad, trend-crazy Britain, you could count on seeing hot new bands pretty much every week. But they sometimes had to jostle for […]
Song of the Day 11/11: The Royal Guardsmen, “Snoopy vs. the Red Baron”
In France, Armistice Day is still a big deal — a natural reaction, I suppose, considering most of the fighting in what was dubbed a “world” war was done on French soil. Nov. 11 is a national holiday, and it doesn’t get moved near a weekend. A minute of silence is still observed at 11:11, […]
Song of the Day 11/10: Jarvis Cocker (as Tip-Top), “Aline”
I’m not a Wes Anderson buff, so I don’t know if the hubbub surrounding “The French Dispatch” accompanies all his films. Or if every time he gets a guy to sing a period piece as a period singer he talks the guy into recording an entire LP in character as a “companion piece” to the […]
Song of the Day 11/9: The Clash, “Death or Glory”
So I’m talking the other night to a young millennial woman from London and during the conversation I tried to illustrate a point about someone going back on his stated beliefs by quoting the closing couplet of the second verse: “I believe in this and it’s been tested by research/He who fucks nuns will later […]
Song of the Day 11/8: John Prine, “Long Monday”
It’s been a long week. Time for a little John Prine. From “Fair and Square,” the 2005 album he released after his bout with cancer.
Song of the Day 11/5: Robert Plant and Alison Krauss, “Can’t Let Go”
It took 14 years, but Robert Plant and Alison Krauss have finally recorded a follow-up to their “Raising Sand,” the 2007 LP that won both Grammy and Americana awards. “Raise the Roof” gets its official release Nov. 19, but three songs have been released over the past few months to prime the pump. This Randy […]
Recent Comments