Song of the Day 8/14: Ray LaMontagne, “Strong Enough”
No message today, just a song I like. I knew without looking that it would be on WXPN's playlist and sure enough, it's in heavy rotation. LaMontagne's soulful Americana sound…
Song of the Day 8/13: Carly Simon, “You’re So Vain”
An anti-Trump political ad that showed up in my wife's FB feed yesterday uses Carly Simon's most famous song to address America's most notorious narcissist. I didn't realize until I…
Song of the Day 8/12: Trini Lopez, “If I Had a Hammer”
Trini Lopez, a Dallas-born '50s rock-'n'-roller who rode the Great Folk Music Scare to stardom in the '60s, died yesterday of the COVID. He was 83. This Pete Seeger tune…
Song of the Day 8/11: Talking Heads, “Burning Down the House”
This is the song Trump should be playing at his rallies. The first single taken from the band's 1983 "Speaking in Tongues" LP, it became the highest-charting single of their…
Song of the Day 8/10: Graham Parker and the Rumour, “Devil’s Sidewalk”
This isn't the same song as Neil Young's composition that triggered his lawsuit against the Trump campaign -- it was written 20 years earlier and in my humble opinion is…
Song of the Day 8/9: Neil Young, “Devil’s Sidewalk”
You've heard about Neil Young's lawsuit against the Trump campaign over its use of two of Young's songs at campaign events. Naturally, one of the tunes was "Rockin' in the…
Song of the Day 8/7: Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers, “The Waiting”
Anything can happen, 2016, blah blah blah...what bullshit. At least 52% of the voting populace impatiently awaits the chance to vote against Trump. And the waiting is the hardest part.…
Song of the Day 8/5: Curtis Mayfield, “Move On Up”
I've seen a lot of stories about musicians upset over candidates using their music without permission; Neil Young has filed suit against the Trump campaign over it. There's a simple…
Song of the Day 8/4: Dave Mason and the Quarantines, “Feelin’ Alright”
One thing that's made the pandemic the teensiest bit more bearable: The scores, or hundreds, of musicians recording from quarantine and posting the results to YouTube. Dave Mason, who wrote…
Song of the Day 8/3: Elliot Lurie and Yonge Guns, “Brandy (You’re a Fine Girl)”
It's been almost half a century since this pop confection topped the American singles chart for one week in 1972, but it's still going strong, as evidenced by this new…
Song of the Day 7/31: Emitt Rhodes, “Fresh as a Daisy”
Sunshine pop lost a legendary cult figure two weeks ago with the death of Emitt Rhodes, once touted as the "one-man Beatles." When he released his eponymous debut LP in…
Song of the Day 7/30: Woody Guthrie, “All You Fascists Bound to Lose”
Woody Guthrie is famous for championing the common people in the United States, but when fascism rose to power in the 1930s and World War II broke out, he extended…
Song of the Day 7/29: Johnny Cash, “Cry, Cry, Cry”
This was Johnny Cash's first hit for Sun Records in 1955, when it was the B-side to "Hey, Porter," the first composition he took to the studio. Unimpressed executives told…