Alby's Latest Posts
Song of the Day 1/1: Uptown String Band, “I’m Looking Over a Four Leaf Clover”
The Mummers Parade is hanging in there, even if it’s much diminished. The march nowadays runs only from City Hall to Washington Street, in the wrong direction, and it doesn’t air on WPHL-17 anymore (you can livestream it, though). As critics note in this Philadelphia Inquirer article, the parade has roots in minstrelsy, and a […]
DL Open Thread Monday, Jan. 1, 2024
Benjamin Netanyahu must think the high road has been mined, because he steadfastly refuses to take it. As the slaughter in Gaza continues, he promised to continue what he calls a war for another year. I think history is more likely to call it a massacre. Frustration makes people say things they haven’t thought through. […]
Song of the Day 12/31: Ella Fitzgerald, “What Are You Doing New Year’s Eve?”
We apparently have the Romans to thank for the annual night of bacchanalia that accompanies the final hours of the waning year. But it’s German folklore, which held that how you rang in midnight determined your luck for the coming year, that made the midnight kiss a tradition. That’s why New Year’s Eve is, after […]
Song of the Day 12/29: Matthew Sabatella & The Rambling String Band, “The Battle Cry of Freedom”
Nikki Haley’s answer to the trick question “What caused the Civil War?” has caused her no end of grief in much of the country, but should sound familiar to anyone educated in the South. Public schools there might not call it the War of Northern Aggression anymore, but I’ll bet a lot of the home […]
Song of the Day 12/28: The Smothers Brothers, “Boil That Cabbage Down”
Tom Smothers, the comic half of the squabbling Smothers Brothers, died Tuesday at age 86. Though they’ll always be remembered for having their top-rated variety show axed by CBS in 1969 for its criticism of the war in Vietnam, I remember them more for bringing some levity to audiences years earlier, during the Great Folk […]
DL Open Thread Wednesday, Dec. 27, 2023
Thom Hartmann warns that Trump is following the fascist playbook by goading his supporters to violence. And it wasn’t just WWII-era fascists – Orban is doing the same thing in Hungary today. Story after story tells us that Trump is winning the 2024 presidential race. What they don’t tell you: Those same polls show that […]
DL Open Thread Tuesday, Dec. 26, 2023
Pope Francis, fresh off his controversial decision to allow the blessing of same-sex relationships, used his Christmas message to take aim at the weapons industry, which means he took aim squarely at the United States, arms merchant to the world, even if he didn’t say so directly. One Democratic congressman from North Jersey illustrates the […]
Song of the Day 12/25: Top 10 Most-Viewed Christmas Songs of the Day
According to one of those sketchy “favorite (noun) of every state” lists, Mariah Carey’s “All I Want for Christmas Is You” is the most popular Christmas song in Delaware. Well, maybe, but not here at Delaware Liberal. I’ve been running the 12 Days and Only 12 Days of Christmas Music for five years now, and […]
DL Open Thread Monday, Dec. 25, 2023
Digby, noting Trump’s claim to have won the war on Christmas, has an interesting story about the Nazis’ attempts to modify Christmas to their particular tastes. Let’s just say peace on Earth was not viewed as a priority. You know who wants a present from taxpayers? The owners of America’s professional sports teams, who are […]
Song of the Day 12/24: Bruce Cockburn, “Cry of a Tiny Babe”
Most retellings of the nativity understandably dwell on the spiritual aspects. Canadian singer-songwriter Bruce Cockburn went in another direction. I wanted to put it into terms people can relate to now, because the story itself is so familiar, that its been reduced to traditional images that really work against our understanding of it as a […]
Song of the Day 12/23: John Prine, “Christmas in Prison”
In the five years I’ve been writing the Song of the Day feature, nobody has compiled more page views than John Prine. Prine loved Christmas – he told Rolling Stone once that he used to keep a Christmas tree up all year – but when he finally released a Christmas album in 1993, it was […]
Song of the Day 12/22: The Beach Boys, “Alone on Christmas Day”
You’re probably familiar with “Little Saint Nick,” the Beach Boys’ tune about Santa’s new hot rod. Alternate transporation for Santa was a popular theme back in the ’50s and ’60s, when various songs placed Kris Kringle in airplanes, helicopters, rocket ships, UFOs – anything but that so-19th-century sleigh. It debuted in 1963, then appeared on […]
Song of the Day 12/21: Mannheim Steamroller, “Good King Wenceslas”
Mannheim Steamroller sounds like the name of a Krautrock outfit, but it’s really mostly one guy, composer/producer Chip Davis, who would have a footnote in music history even without the Steamroller. He was the composer of the music for “Convoy,” the trucker anthem that swept the nation and helped kick off the CB radio craze […]
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