Alby's Latest Posts
Song of the Day 7/11: Elvis Costello, “I’m Not Angry”
The national media have stumbled upon a story that anybody in Delaware could have told them decades ago — Joe Biden has a temper. Axios reported, rather breathlessly, that aides try to avoid one-on-one meetings with POTUS because of his explosive outbursts. Biden’s temper comes in the form of angry interrogations rather than erratic tantrums. […]
Song of the Day 7/10: The Pink Spiders, “Freakin’ Freakin’ Out”
Heard this one last night on Little Steven’s Underground Garage. It’s rare to hear a good new power pop song this late in the rock ‘n’ roll game — despite being designed for maximum pop appeal, power pop has rarely been popular, and most bands would like to make money. So I’m not even going […]
Song of the Day 7/8: Glen Campbell, “Turn Around, Look at Me”
The same Supreme Court justices who whinged a mighty whinge about protesters outside their homes hypocritically overruled the conviction of an egregious stalker a couple of weeks ago. I should have addressed the subject at the time, but I couldn’t decide which stalker song to go with. The Police classic “Every Breath You Take” would […]
Song of the Day 7/7: Roger Miller, “Me and Bobby McGee”
As Jason noted, Marge Greene got the boot from the Freedom Caucus. She’s the winner here — freedom, as Kris Kristofferson assured us, is just another word for nothin’ left to lose, so she’s freer than they are, because they could still lose their membership in the Freedom Caucus. So neener neener. Kristofferson wrote several […]
Song of the Day 7/6: Hem, “Half Acre”
Back in the ’00s TV advertisers indulged in a trend I liked. Instead of licensing songs that were already popular — remember Chevrolet beating Bob Seger’s No. 1 hit “Like a Rock” to death for 14 years? — they produced commercials with tunes most people had never heard before. The best-remembered example is Volkswagen’s use […]
Song of the Day 7/5: James Ingram, “I Believe I Can Fly”
Great news for fans of “The Jetsons” — you can sign up now, for a small deposit, for your flying car. Well, not exactly a car. As the article at the link notes, “To avoid automobile crash-test laws and other regulations, it will have a 25mph limit, and drive more like a golf cart than […]
Song of the Day 7/4: The Tubes, “Proud to Be an American”
Patriotism, as George Bernard Shaw pointed out, is the conviction that one’s country is superior to all others because one was born in it. Ambrose Bierce, in his “Devil’s Dictionary,” defined patriotism as “combustible rubbish ready to the torch of anyone ambitious to illuminate his name. In Dr. Johnson’s famous dictionary patriotism is defined as […]
Song of the Day 7/3: Train, “Meet Virginia”
Jason has already addressed the fallout from Virginia’s decision to put the onus of age verification on internet porn suppliers — Pornhub pulled the plug on the whole state. A reminder for those who didn’t pay attention in American history class: The Puritans landed in Massachusetts, not Virginia. The Cavaliers weren’t looking for religious freedom, […]
Song of the Day 7/1: Jackson Browne, “Call It a Loan”
The Supreme Court hath spoken, and it repeated its mantra: Money talks, everything else walks. Call it American justice: Bankruptcy can wipe out all the loans you can’t repay except the ones you took out when you were in or just out of your teens. The loan Jackson Browne was singing about was emotional, not […]
Song of the Day 6/30: Three Dog Night, “Black and White”
The day of jubilee is upon us! The Supreme Court, convinced of its power to dictate the terms of reality, has proclaimed that the nation is colorblind, so affirmative action is not only no longer necessary, it’s illegal! Note to SCOTUS:If you can’t tell the difference between black and white, that’s not colorblindness. It’s blindness. […]
Song of the Day 6/29: David Bromberg, “Sharon”
I just read in the News Journal about the final concert by Wilmington’s adoptive son, David Bromberg. He said the show he played at New York’s Beacon Theater June 10 with his band will be his last as a touring musician. Bromberg, who sold his violin repair shop a couple of years ago, is now […]
Song of the Day 6/28: Herb Alpert and the Tijuana Brass, “The Mexican Shuffle”
I’m so old I remember when Mexicans weren’t reviled – in fact, they were considered fun and exotic. Case in point: Herb Alpert and the Tijuana Brass. Though best-known now for founding of A&M Records with Jerry Moss, Boomers will remember Alpert as a trumpeter whose Latin-sounding instrumentals were everywhere in the early to mid-60s. […]
Song of the Day 6/27: Lynyrd Skynyrd, “Gimme Back My Bullets”
This one is for Cabela’s, though it doesn’t sound as if they’re all that concerned about all that missing inventory, does it? The title track to Lyrnyrd Skyrnyrd’s 1976 LP, its fourth but first without Al Kooper producing. It failed to chart as a single, but the album went gold in the wake of the […]
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