Alby's Latest Posts
Song of the Day 6/6: Neil Sedaka, “Breaking Up Is Hard to Do”
I’m not convinced it’s permanent, but the Trump-Musk breakup looks real – it’s apparently costing both of them money, and I can’t imagine they’d take kayfabe that far. I can imagine it getting uglier, though, given Trump’s uncharacteristic restraint so far and Musk’s invocation of the Epstein Files. Everyone knows breaking up is hard to […]
Song of the Day 6/5: Heart, “Barracuda”
Lots of rock musicians have careers that read like soap operas, but few bands have had more bad luck than Heart. Ann and Nancy Wilson had to overcome industry misogyny, record company lawsuits and broken love affairs – and that was just in Heart’s first few years together in the ’70s. The band has broken […]
Song of the Day 6/4: The Edgar Winter Group, “Frankenstein”
Among the credits I left out of Rick Derringer’s CV the other day was his production of this 1973 No. 1 hit for the Edgar Winter Group, one of the great instrumentals of the classic rock era. Derringer edited a much longer studio jam down to under 5 minutes the way they had to do […]
Song of the Day 6/3: Marcus Hummon, “Rosanna”
I notice that when politicians and pundits talk about immigration, it’s usually as an abstract concept – immigration, as opposed to immigrants. That makes it much easier to ignore the fact that most of the people whose lives are being destroyed by have done nothing to deserve it. And it’s been going on for a […]
Song of the Day 6/2: Rick Derringer, “Real American”
When he died last week at age 77, the obituaries for Rick Derringer all mentioned the two songs he was best known for: “Hang On Sloopy,” a No. 1 hit for his band the McCoys, recorded when he was 17 and still went by his birth name, Zehringer; and “Rock and Roll, Hoochie Koo,” the […]
Song of the Day 6/1: Wishy, “Fly”
New music is El Somnambulo’s province, but he can’t listen to (or like) everything, so occasionally I plug something new I’ve heard. This is one of those times. This tune was all over WXPN for the past couple of weeks, in advance of Wishy playing the station’s weekly free concert last Friday. From the Indianapolis-based […]
Song of the Day 5/30: Taco, “Puttin’ on the Ritz”
I hear Trump is touchy about being called “TACO,” an acronym for Trump Always Chickens Out, and you don’t have to be Sigmund Freud to figure out he’s touchy because it’s true. So if we’re going to use the expression to mock him, let’s call in the real Taco. Taco Ockerse is an Indonesian-born Dutch […]
Song of the Day 5/29: The Beatles, “You Can’t Do That”
Yet another Trump executive order has been struck down by the courts. This time the Court of International Trade got its licks in, rejecting the flimsy excuse the president used to usurp Congress’ tariff power. It joins an ever-growing list of court defeats for Trump’s clearly illegal ragegasms, and every time he loses someone should […]
Song of the Day 5/28: Eurythmics, “Would I Lie to You”
Elon Musk says he will no longer be involved in running his DOGE reign of error and won’t donate money to politicians anymore. The media reports this without pointing out that Musk’s track record is one of a serial liar. The follow-up question to anything he says should be an automatic “Why should we believe […]
Song of the Day 5/27: Ron Moody, “You’ve Got to Pick a Pocket or Two”
Considering how Trump is doling out pardons not just to his usual criminal cronies but even dead people like Pete Rose, how long until he’s exonerating fictional crooks? I notice that all these malefactors he’s so concerned about were convicted of financial crimes, so I think somebody, just for shits and giggles, should get him […]
Song of the Day 5/26: Billy Joel, “And So It Goes”
Another veteran rocker has hit the disabled list. Billy Joel has cancelled all his concerts as he deals with a neurological issue. Normal pressure hydrocephalus involves swelling of the ventricles in the brain – fluid-filled sacs inside the organ that act as shock absorbers – causing problems with mobility and cognition. It’s treatable, but he’s […]
Song of the Day 5/23: War, “The World Is a Ghetto”
War framed the title phrase as a lament. Trump and his crew view it as an objective. I have no idea why this band, despite several nominations, is not in the Hall of Fame. As a single this title track of the band’s fifth album went to No. 7 on the Hot 100, one of […]
Song of the Day 5/22: Blur, “Barbaric”
To the extent Damon Albarn is known in the United States, it’s for his work with his side project, the virtual band Gorillaz. His real band, Blur, never cracked the Top 40 in the U.S. despite enormous success in Britain. During the heyday of Britpop in the ’90s, Blur vied with Oasis as the genre’s […]
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