Alby's Latest Posts
Song of the Day 4/25: Starship, “Sara”
A reminder of how far Republican politics has sunk was highlighted earlier this week in New York when Sarah Palin – ‘memba her? – lost her libel case against the New York Times again. The woman who broke the intellectual glass floor on holding important public office set the template for a whole generation of […]
Song of the Day 4/24: The Pointer Sisters, “Fire”
New Jersey’s largest wildfire in 20 years has consumed more than 13,000 acres in Ocean County, not far from Bruce Springsteen’s old stomping grounds. That’s not the kind of fire he wrote this song about, though. After he saw Elvis Presley perform at the Spectrum in May 1977, Springsteen wrote this slow-burner and sent a […]
Song of the Day 4/23: The Contours, “First I Look at the Purse”
MAGAts like to project a tough, scary image, but their frequent fuck-ups undercut the bluster. For instance, Homeland Security chief Kristie Noem, known as ICE Barbie for posing in combat gear whenever possible, got her purse snatched the other day in a D.C. restaurant, Capital Burger. Her Secret Service detail never noticed though, to be […]
Song of the Day 4/22: Loudon Wainwright III, “Hard Day on the Planet”
This seems like an appropriate song for Earth Day in the age of Trump. Nearly every affliction Loudon Wainwright listed back in 1986 is still a problem today. He knows it, too. “I wrote it in the mid-80s when it seemed like everything was going to end. And so, it’s kind of a perennial, I […]
Song of the Day 4/21: The Stanley Brothers, “Angel Band”
Pope Francis has rung down the curtain and joined the choir invisible, apparently after a surprisingly active Easter considering he was at death’s door last month. Also, it seems that JD Vance has shown himself a worthy successor to Trump, at least on the “everything he touches dies” front. We’ll probably hear lots of lugubrious […]
Song of the Day 4/20: The Beatles, “Got to Get You Into My Life”
It wasn’t until 1997 that Paul McCartney revealed that this song wasn’t written about someone but rather something. “It’s actually an ode to pot,” he acknowledged, “like someone else might write an ode to chocolate or a good claret.” When it debuted on in 1965 on “Revolver,” the Motown-inspired tune, the first Beatles song to […]
Song of the Day 4/18: John Lennon, “Power to the People”
Welcome to the resistance…what? Who? David Brooks? Seriously? Milquetoast center-right New York Times columnist David Brooks is calling for widespread resistance to the Trump regime? You better believe it, baby. In a piece headlined “What’s Happening Is Not Normal. America Needs an Uprising That Is Not Normal,” the usually somnolent Brooks wrote: It’s time for […]
Song of the Day 4/16: The Gun, “Race With the Devil”
The notion that the devil has all the best tunes didn’t start with rock and roll. It goes all the way back to the 18th century, when Anglican cleric George Whitefield responded to criticism of the Methodists using popular melodies for their hymns by asking, “Why should the devil have all the best tunes?” Though […]
Song of the Day 4/15: Johnny Paycheck, “Me and the I.R.S.”
It’s too bad Johnny Paycheck didn’t live long enough to see what Trump and Musk have done to the Internal Revenue Service: A projected $500 billion will go uncollected because they gutted the agency. Audits? You have a better chance of hitting the lottery. Ol’ Johnny had his problems with the taxman, declaring bankruptcy when […]
Song of the Day 4/14: Chicago, “An Hour in the Shower”
You probably didn’t notice this last week, what with the destruction of the world economy and all, but Donald Trump renewed his war on water efficiency standards. He took time out of his busy schedule of making shit up as he goes along to issue an executive order on the important issue of “Maintaining Acceptable […]
Song of the Day 4/13: Kraftwerk, “Computer Love”
OK, from now on the tariff on Chinese goods is … eleventy jillion percent! Oh, wait, hold on a sec … um, except for smartphones and computers and stuff like that. We didn’t mean computers! That’s so crazy that you thought we meant computers! We love computers! So does Kraftwerk. If that wasn’t clear from […]
Song of the Day 4/11: T’Pau, “China in Your Hand”
Master negotiator Donald Trump claims he lured China into this trade war, which I suppose makes him a master baiter, and I’m not above pointing it out. He thinks he’s got America’s biggest trading partner right where he wants them. He also bankrupted multiple casinos and called it “winning,” so don’t bet your 401k on […]
Song of the Day 4/10: 10cc, “The Wall Street Shuffle”
Credit where it’s due: Turns out that all sorts of scandals pale to insignificance when you threaten to destroy the global economy, and if you time everything right there’s money in it, too. If you know anybody who works in the financial services industry – this being Delaware you likely do – have pity on […]
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