Alby's Latest Posts
Song of the Day 8/31: Graham Nash and David Crosby, “Frozen Smiles”
Mitch McConnell’s freeze-up yesterday seems like a gift for all those people who wished something would shut him up, but it’s also a reminder – and old people need them often – of what you get with a Government of Grandpas. When Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young broke up in 1971, each of the quartet […]
Song of the Day 8/30: The Wonder Stuff, “The Size of a Cow”
I swear this isn’t a reference to Donald Trump, though it could be. Not because he’s the size of a cow – hey, give him his due, he’s a 6’3″ monument to unearned male vanity – but because, like the song’s narrator, he’s blown up his problems that big. The Wonder Stuff came out of […]
Song of the Day 8/29: Big Star, “The Ballad of El Goodo”
Power pop was, in a way, the first alternative rock. In the early ’70s, a time when the heavy rock of Led Zeppelin and Deep Purple was ascendant, three bands assembled power pop from the discarded sounds of the second British invasion and the Byrds. Badfinger and the Raspberries actually sold some records at the […]
Song of the Day 8/28: Al Green, “Perfect Day”
Soul legend Al Green hasn’t released an LP since 2008 or a single since 2018, so he got a lot of attention last week when he dropped a cover of the Lou Reed classic “Perfect Day.” At 77, he’s still got a fine instrument, even if he reaches for fewer high notes than you might […]
Song of the Day 8/26: Vince Gill, “Danny Boy”
Guest post by Nathan Arizona If country music is leaving a poor taste in your mouth thanks to Jason Aldean’s confrontational “Try That in a Small Town” or Oliver Anthony’s “Rich Men North of Richmond,” you can cleanse your palate with another newly-released song by a country artist, a song about as beloved as any […]
Song of the Day 8/25: Santana feat. Michelle Branch, “The Game Of Love”
You can better understand the sentiment behind the line “hope I die before I get old” when you see what reactionaries some of rock’s elder statesmen have become. Eric Clapton and Van Morrison revealed themselves – well, re-revealed themselves – as selfish twits during the Covid crisis. Now Carlos Santana has come out, mid-concert, as […]
Song of the Day 8/24: The Tubes, “She’s a Beauty”
The biggest surprise about the right-wing freakout over drag queens is that they haven’t yet shifted the focus to porn. If they’re going to get upset over men putting women’s clothes on, imagine their reaction to women taking their clothes off. Maybe they’re just so accustomed to sex being used to sell everything else that […]
Song of the Day 8/23: The Specials, “You’re Wondering Now”
The stories about all those Jan. 6 co-conspirators crying the blues about their legal bills … as someone put it, they signed up for fucking around, not finding out. As always with Trump, the finding out involves being stuck with the invoice. The Specials popularized this 1964 ska tune by seminal producer Coxsone Dodd (credited […]
Song of the Day 8/22: Tim Hardin, “Reason to Believe”
Guest post by Nathan Arizona Tim Hardin and his fans had a reason to believe. He could write much-loved songs like the one with that title. “If I Were a Carpenter” was his too. And “Misty Roses.” And “Don’t Make Promises.” Bob Dylan called him the best singer-songwriter of the ‘60s. He was offered the […]
Song of the Day 8/21: Steve Miller Band, “Take the Money and Run”
All the Republicans taking part in their upcoming debate can breathe a sigh of relief now that brave Sir Donald has run away. The indignity they would have had to display, fawning over someone they were supposed to be challenging, would have been the ruination of them all. Donald ducks danger, too. Imagine if three […]
Song of the Day 8/19: Sonny Till and the Orioles, “Crying in the Chapel”
When George Lucas’ “American Graffiti” hit theaters in August 1973, its September 1962 setting seemed a long time gone. The coming-of-age movie evoked a time of lost innocence, before the Kennedy assassination or Vietnam or even the Cuban Missile Crisis, and nostalgic Watergate-era audiences responded in droves. The film, made for $770,000, grossed more than […]
Song of the Day 8/17: Joan Osborne, “One of Us”
If WJBR is going to go religious, it doesn’t have to leave music behind. Even leaving aside gospel music, there are lots of songs about Jesus they could play. Granted, most of them aren’t very interesting – they’re mostly about the singer’s gratitude over being saved from a life of sin – but a country […]
Song of the Day 8/16: The Killers, “Human”
If you think our Georgia has problems, check out the country straddling Europe and Asia between the Black and Caspian seas. Americans have mostly forgotten, if they ever knew, that in 2008 in that Georgia Russia pulled a trick they tried to repeat in Ukraine. After two regions adjacent to Russian territory declared independence, Russia, […]
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