Alby's Latest Posts
Song of the Day 11/11: Paul Simon, “Armistice Day”
We don’t call it that any more, of course. Armistice Day honors the end of the war that was going to end all wars. After the peace failed, so did the idea of honoring it. Instead we honor those who fought in all the wars we’ve engaged in since. Though it was released on his […]
Song of the Day 11/10: Jefferson Airplane, “White Rabbit”
Grace Slick faded relatively young, but back in the ’60s she was among the most important female artists in rock, the face of the San Francisco sound that turned made psychedelia the soundtrack to the Summer of Love. Slick joined the Jefferson Airplane in 1966, when singer Signe Anderson quit after the birth of her […]
Song of the Day 11/9: Janis Joplin, “Mercedes Benz”
Several Janis Joplin songs will make WXPN’s Greatest Songs by Women Countdown next month. This, the last one she ever recorded, got my vote. Joplin recorded the tune in one take on Oct. 1, 1970, three days before she died. She wrote it two months earlier in a bar in Port Chester, N.Y., by riffing […]
Song of the Day 11/8: Kristin Hersh, “Me and My Charms”
I engaged in lots of strategic voting when I filled out my list of the 10 greatest songs by women for WXPN. I didn’t agonize over which Joni Mitchell song to include, because I figure she’ll have 20 entries among the 885-song countdown. She doesn’t need my help. And while the rules allow any song […]
DL Open Thread Wednesday, Nov. 9, 2023
Voters in Ohio added abortion rights to the state constitution Tuesday, and it wasn’t particularly close – more than 56% voted “yes.” Abortion wasn’t on the ballot in Virginia but Democrats ran on the issue and took control of both houses of the legislature. The Democratic governor of Kentucky was re-elected, even as most down-ballot […]
Song of the Day 11/7: Wayne County and the Electric Chairs, “Out of Control”
In honor of Trump’s meltdown on the stand in his fraud trial yesterday. Wayne County, who became Jayne County more than 40 years ago, was involved with Andy Warhol in the New York avant-garde scene and formed a proto-punk band in the early ’70s that influenced David Bowie and the glam rock trend. Her penchant […]
DL Open Thread Tuesday, Nov. 7, 2023
Trump took the stand in his New York civil trial for fraud yesterday and, as was widely predicted, he did not comport himself in a professional manner. Y’all can believe what you want to believe, but I believe a country that could elect this malicious fucknugget is probably beyond redemption. As always seems to happen, […]
Song of the Day 11/6: The Sugarcubes, “Birthday (Ammæli)”
Here’s one from my WXPN list of Greatest Songs by Women. The not-yet-mononomous Bjôrk Guðmundsdóttir fronted the Icelandic avant-rock sextet the Sugarcubes when she wrote the lyrics to the song that broke the band, and Icelandic music in general, to a world audience in 1987. Of the enigmatic lyrics she said, “It was only an […]
DL Open Thread Monday, Nov. 6, 2023
Didja ever notice that the more fundamentalist religious people are, the more hung up they are about sex? Another day, another story about what a weird creepazoid new House speaker Mike Johnson is. Seems he has a deal where he and someone else monitor each other’s online activity, acting as the porn police. Johnson’s partner […]
Song of the Day 11/5: The Beatles, “Now and Then”
Forty-six years ago John Lennon sat down at his piano, turned on his tape recorder and played a song he was working on that wasn’t quite complete. Last week, after decades of musical massaging, “Now and Then” finally got an official release as the final Beatles song. It’s incorrect to call it a “new” Beatles […]
Song of the Day 11/3: Kate Bush, “Hounds of Love”
El Somnambulo posted yesterday about WXPN’s year-end countdown being devoted to female artists this year. So is this year’s class at the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, being inducted tonight in Brooklyn. There are three, count ’em, three women among the seven honorees: Missy Elliott, Sheryl Crow and Kate Bush. Elliott and Crow are […]
Song of the Day 11/12: Eva Cassidy, “Autumn Leaves”
Who looks at fallen leaves and thinks of lost love instead of hours of raking and bagging? A guy without a lawn, that’s who. Iconic lyricist Johnny Mercer spent most of his life in New York and Hollywood, so I doubt he ever heard a gas-powered leaf blower. But then Mercer wasn’t working from scratch. […]
Song of the Day 11/1: The Jaynetts, “Sally Go ‘Round the Roses”
El Somnambulo’s fave tunes for October includes a psychedelic cover of this 1963 girl-group nugget by the Jaynetts, who are considered a one-hit wonder but didn’t really exist at all. The Jaynetts and the song were both the brainchildren of an A&R man for Chess Records named Abner Spector, who wrote and produced a hit […]
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