Alby's Latest Posts
Song of the Day 10/21: Crash Test Dummies, “Superman’s Song”
I don’t know if anything was lost in translation, but I hear the Faux News Freakout of the Week is over DC Comics changing Superman’s slogan from “Truth, Justice and the American Way” to “Truth, Justice and a Better Tomorrow.” Never mind that DC Comics are sold around the world, and that the majority of […]
Song of the Day 10/19: Jonathan Richman, “Velvet Underground”
I haven’t seen the new Todd Haynes documentary about the Velvet Underground yet, but many of the reviews make a point of praising his affecting interview with Jonathan Richman. Though VU influenced thousands of bands, Richman is the sole musician Haynes shows talking about that. Richman met the Velvets as a teenager — the documentary […]
Song of the Day 10/17: Future Islands, “Seasons (Waiting on You)”
I was walking through a metro station the other day when I saw an advertising poster for Future Islands, and my mind instantly flashed back to this performance from 2014, when the band made its television debut on David Letterman’s show. Thanks to frontman Samuel T. Herring’s impassioned delivery the performance went viral, which was […]
Song of the Day 10/15: Lemonheads, “Into Your Arms”
The Lemonheads might have been the most commercially viable jangle-pop band of the early ’90s, and this was their biggest hit. Like many of Evan Dando’s best songs, it’s melodic, a little melancholy and it clocks in at under 3 minutes. It spent nine weeks at No. 1 on the Modern Rock Tracks chart, though […]
Song of the Day 10/14: Gary Bartz, Adrian Younge and Ali Shaheed Muhammad, “Day By Day”
Guest post by Nathan Arizona The title says “Jazz Is Dead,” but they don’t mean it. I guess you could say it’s ironic. Adrian Younge and Ali Shaheed Muhammad’s recording series by that name features plenty of jazz. But they mix it up with soul, R&B, hip-hop and some electronics. This is almost nothing like […]
Song of the Day 10/13: Bob Dylan, “Things Have Changed”
This song won the Academy Award for Best Original Song in 2001 for its inclusion on the soundtrack of “The Wonder Boys,” and its chorus about sums it up for me — people are crazy and times are strange. I’m locked in tight. I’m out of range. I used to care, but things have changed. […]
Song of the Day 10/12: Lulu and the Lampshades, “Cups (When I’m Gone)”
In 1928 A.P. Carter, patriarch of the singing Carter family, asked the musical question “Will You Miss Me When I’m Gone?” Three years later he answered it in the affirmative with “When I’m Gone,” popularly known as “You’ll Miss Me When I’m Gone” after it was reworked a few years later by J.E. Mainer and […]
Song of the Day 10/11: Dave Clark Five, “Any Way You Want It”
Unless you were alive at the time, it’s almost impossible to believe that the Dave Clark Five weren’t just the first British band to follow the Beatles in the British Invasion — they played the Ed Sullivan Show twice in March 1964, the month after the Beatles debuted there — they actually rivaled the Fab […]
Song of the Day 10/10: Marvin Gaye, “Too Busy Thinking About My Baby”
This was Marvin Gaye’s follow-up single to his No. 1 smash “Heard It Through the Grapevine,” and like that song it was written by Norman Whitfield and Barrett Strong — but not for that purpose. The tune was first released on a 1966 Temptation album, but was never released as a single. Whitfield retooled it […]
DL Open Thread Sunday, October 10, 2021
Sit down for this one: Donald Trump lied about how much money his DC hotel brought in. It ran in the red, of course — this is a guy who figured out how to lose money running casinos — and lost $70 million, despite L’il Donnie Two Scoops accepting $3.7 million from foreign governments. This […]
Song of the Day 10/9: Alan Kalter, “Send in the Clowns” [Updated]
OK, I can take a hint. Until I play some Sondheim I won’t be forgiven for polluting the blog with Andrew Lloyd Webber. So, in the spirit of El Som’s “stealth Sondheim,” here’s his best-known tune performed by someone you wouldn’t expect — Alan Kalter, the announcer on David Letterman’s late-night show for 20 years, […]
Song of the Day 10/8: Laurie Anderson, “Language Is a Virus”
The Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden in Washington wanted to mount a Laurie Anderson career retrospective. She wasn’t interested, but she agreed to put together a new multi-media show instead. So through next July 31, you can see “The Weather,” billed as her largest-ever U.S. installation. The Hirshhorn is part of the Smithsonian, so admission […]
Song of the Day 10/7: Edwin Starr, “25 Miles”
Speaking from experience, I think this is a metaphor. I think they were days, not miles, and it wasn’t his feet that were hurting so bad. This 1968 release was Edwin Starr’s first hit for Motown, reaching No. 6, after Berry Gordy bought the Ric-Tic label and all its artists’ contracts. He had a much […]
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