Alby's Latest Posts
Song of the Day 10/8: Climax Blues Band, “Couldn’t Get It Right”
Like the presenter of this Top of the Pops video, I thought these guys were Americans, but it turns out they just wanted to sound like they were. They weren’t a one-hit wonder, but “Couldn’t Get It Right” was their only Top 10 single in the U.S., and it it took them nearly a decade […]
DL Open Thread Tuesday, Oct. 8, 2024
Florida is about to get whacked with a second major hurricane in the past two weeks as the rapidly-developing Milton bears down on Tampa Bay. It’s expected to be the worst storm to hit that area since 1921. About 120,000 people lived there then; nearly 3 million live there now. The only good thing about […]
DL Open Thread Monday, Oct. 7, 2024
Residents of flood-ravaged Appalachia, having been hammered by a hurricane, are suffering further because of the MAGAts among them. Goosed by Russians working through Elon Musk’s propaganda platform, they’re spreading rumors about nefarious activity by FEMA that has their local officials, almost all of them Republican, begging them to knock it off. They’re country people, […]
Song of the Day 10/6: Pink Floyd, “See Emily Play”
Most rock fans are aware that Roger Waters of Pink Floyd has gone down the rabbit hole of right-wing politics. It appears it has cost him some major coin. Pink Floyd announced last week that it sold its music catalog to Sony for $400 million, about 80% of what they were asking before “Roger Waters” […]
Song of the Day 10/4: The Alan Parsons Project, “I Wouldn’t Want to Be Like You”
The more I hear from JD Vance, the more I think of this 1977 song. Though it was just a modest hit, No. 36 on the Hot 100, it helped push the band’s second LP, “I Robot,” into the Top 10, and it seems more apt today than ever. So does the concept album it […]
Song of the Day 10/3: Tears for Fears, “Sowing the Seeds of Love”
I’ve heard this No. 2 hit from 1989 in random places a couple of times lately, and though “Sowing the Seeds of Love” wears its psychedelic-era Beatles influences like a paisley-pattern Nehru jacket, its preposterous optimism does lift the spirits in these Trump-tainted times. Maybe that’s not an accident. Roland Olazabel wrote this in the […]
Song of the Day 10/1: Rod McKuen, “Jean”
For all the tributes to Dame Maggie Smith since her death last week, I haven’t seen a single one mention the No. 2 hit that its composer said was written for her. Every story mentioned Smith’s Oscar for Best Actress for “The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie,” the film adaptation of Muriel Spark’s lauded 1961 […]
DL Open Thread Wednesday, Oct. 2, 2024
Now that Israel has decapitated Iran’s proxy, Hezbollah, Iran itself has decided to get into the act, firing off almost 200 missiles at Israel. You don’t have to be Nostradamus to see this won’t end well for Iran, or anyone else. Is a proportional response too much to hope for? Media spin is that Tim […]
DL Open Thread Tuesday, Oct. 1, 2024
Israel has let slip its dogs of war with a military invasion of Lebanon. If the idea is to wipe out Hezbollah, well, it didn’t work last time, it almost certainly won’t work this time, and it won’t work next time they try it, either. Biden was willing to get us out of Afghanistan. Why […]
Song of the Day 9/30: Kris Kristofferson, “The Law Is for Protection of the People”
If Kris Kristofferson, who died Saturday at 88, had been invented by a novelist, the author would be accused of engaging in magical realism. C’mon, a Rhodes Scholar helicopter pilot turned country music star turned Hollywood actor with a string of famous wives and paramours – who’s buying that a real person could do all […]
DL Open Thread Monday, Sept. 30, 2024
Reading the news has convinced me that there are way, way too many people writing about the election, which most people don’t want to read about because Republicans make them want to vomit. So I’m ignoring all that crap, and you probably should, too. If you want something to worry about, the looming strike by […]
DL Open Thread Sunday, Sept. 28, 2024
Politicians will lie about anything, but a Republican running for Congress in Virginia’s 7th District has taken it to a new level. Derrick Anderson, an ex-Green Beret, is single, but he wanted to project a family-man vibe – so he borrowed a friend’s family for campaign photos and posed as if they were his own. […]
Song of the Day 9/28: Stevie Nicks, “The Lighthouse”
Stevie Nicks has never been a topical songwriter. Almost all her songs are personal and emotional, which makes the single she released Friday, her first new song in years, all the more powerful. It’s plenty emotional, but it’s a straight-up protest song, an outright feminist battle cry. [E]arly one morning I was watching the news […]
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