Alby's Latest Posts
Song of the Day 7/6: Ella Fitzgerald, “Too Darn Hot”
Just walking to the mailbox the past couple of days brought to mind this little rhyme I think I first heard in junior high school: When the weather’s hot and sticky That’s no time for dunkin’ dickie When the frost is on the pumpkin That’s the time for dickie dunkin’ I always liked that bit […]
Song of the Day 7/5: The Ramones, “The Job That Ate My Brain”
Joe Biden’s fight for survival wasn’t helped by telling his staff he needs an early bedtime, and he’s clearly made an enemy of the New York Times. So we’ve got three old guys running for president. To paraphrase Billy Martin, one’s got brain worms and the other two are senile. Trump and RFK Jr. have […]
Song of the Day 7/4: Trey Parker, “America, Fuck Yeah!”
The South Park team’s marionette movie, “Team America: World Police,” was released 20 years ago, during the Iraq War, when patriotism was running high and Hollywood action movies pandered to it. Trey Parker and Matt Stone mocked both America’s imperialism and Hollywood’s outspoken liberal contingent, but the list of American cultural exports – McDonald’s! Disney […]
Song of the Day 7/3: Neil Sedaka, “Breakin’ Up Is Hard to Do”
A song for Joe Biden, sung by a guy who’s even older than he is. Sedaka was an established star as both a performer and songwriter with several Top 10 hits under his belt before “Breakin’ Up Is Hard to Do” hit No. 1 in 1962. His career was among the notable casualties of the […]
DL Open Thread Wednesday, July 3, 2024
Democrats, faced with adversity, are doing what they do best: Panicking and looking weak. A group of about two dozen House Democrats are planning to call on Biden to drop out. Yes, when danger rears its ugly head, they bravely turned their tails and fled. Extra bonus irony: A lot of these people are the […]
Song of the Day 7/2: The Human League, “Don’t You Want Me”
They can play this one at the Democratic National Convention, no matter who the nominee turns out to be. I like to bust on record executives who don’t recognize a hit when they hear one, but this is an example of the artist himself lacking a clue. The Human League formed in the late ’70s, […]
DL Open Thread Tuesday, July 2, 2024
All you people who were freaking out over Joe Biden’s stumblebum debate performance now have something bigger to freak out about, as the nation’s corrupt Supreme Court just made Richard Nixon’s claim – “If the president does it, it’s not illegal” – the law of the land. I’ve scoured what we used to call the […]
Song of the Day 7/1: Tom Lehrer, “I Wanna Go Back to Dixie”
First Kinky Friedman, then Martin Mull. It could be one of Friedman’s mysteries, about someone bumping off the musical satirists of the ’70s. In that scenario we should maybe worry about the greatest musical satirist of the ’60s, Tom Lehrer, who’s still with us at age 96. He wrote this one in 1960, when the […]
DL Open Thread Monday, July 1, 2024
Joe Biden’s terrible debate performance set off several days of Democratic soul searching, but sadly, the search has been fruitless. They still haven’t found one. Frankly, the widespread panic embodies why right-wingers hold us in contempt – we run around flapping our hands at every setback. We like to mock them for listening to Fox […]
Song of the Day 6/30: Martin Mull, “Ukelele Blues”
Martin Mull, who died last week at age 80, is mostly remembered for his long career as a comic actor, which began in 1976 when producer Norman Lear tapped him for a role as a comic villain on his spoof of soap operas, “Mary Hartman, Mary Hartman.” But he only landed the gig because Lear […]
Song of the Day 6/28: Kinky Friedman, “They Ain’t Makin’ Jews Like Jesus Anymore”
They ain’t makin’ Jews like Kinky Friedman anymore, either. In the ’70s he was the singing-songwriting leader of the satirical Texas Jewboys, a Western swing forerunner of raucous acts like Mojo Nixon. After the band broke up at the end of the decade he became an author of offbeat detective novels and, in 2006, an […]
Song of the Day 6/27: Spin Doctors, “How Could You Want Him (When You Know You Can Have Me)”
The Spin Doctors’ lament is really about being friend zoned, but it’s the same question the Biden campaign could ask anyone who’s voting for his felonious opponent. The Spin Doctors came out of the same early ’90s jam band scene that produced Phish and Blues Traveler. Their debut album, “Pocket Full of Kryptonite,” was released […]
Song of the Day 6/26: Neil Innes, “Brave Sir Robin”
This one’s for Bethany Hall Long who, put in a position to cast an important tie-breaking vote, showed her leadership skills: She bravely turned her tail and fled. Neil Innes was the guy the Monty Python troupe turned to whenever music was required. A veteran of the irreverent Bonzo Dog Doo-Dah Band, he provided the […]
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