Posts by Alby

This song contains a not-quite-rhyming couplet that many people consider, in the words of British author Dylan Jones, "one of the most exquisite romantic couplets in the history of song."…

Randy Bachman wrote a lot of classic rock hits for the Guess Who and Bachman-Turner Overdrive, most of them on a guitar he bought when he was 19 years old…

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…

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,…

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,…

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…

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…

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…

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…

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 --…

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…