Posts by Alby

Sorry I've been absent for a couple of days -- I came down with one of the various viruses (non-computer variety) making the rounds. I doubt it was actually "chest…

Neil Peart, widely considered among the best drummers in rock history, died this week at age 67, three years after learning he had brain cancer. Though he joined Rush after…

This song was released in the U.S. 50 years ago -- Jan. 12, 1970 -- and it kicked off the tragic career of the recently renamed Welsh band The Iveys,…

Peter Gabriel's anti-war song was released on his third self-titled album, an effort rejected by his record company as "commercial suicide." Atlantic rued the decision when Gabriel took the album…

Though Barry McGuire's anguished version is the one that hit No. 1 on the charts, it was the Turtles who first recorded the song by P.F. Sloan ("Secret Agent Man")…

Perhaps the most beautiful and poignant composition of Brian Wilson's late period was the lead single to his self-titled 1988 album, recorded near the end of his relationship with disgraced…

Sorry for being so obvious, but back in the days of the draft most people didn't need so much convincing that war was a racket. Of course, back then it…

For many years after its 1966 release, this song was one of the most difficult Beatles songs to find. Though recorded during the sessions for "Revolver," it didn't appear on…

The Mummers Parade is in trouble again, this time because two members of the Froggy Carr comic brigade wore blackface during their march. This has elicited, yet again, calls from…

The obituaries mostly said "Neil Innes of Monty Python" died Dec. 29, age 75, but that shortchanges one of the best comedy-music composers since Spike Jones. Before he worked with…