Posts by Alby

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…

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…

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…

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…

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…

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…

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…

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…

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.…