Arts and Entertainment
Song of the Day 1/21: Amanda Shires & Jason Isbell, “Born in the U.S.A.”
Trump and his jackals want to end birthright citizenship, so brace for lots of stories about whether they can or can’t and the legalities and the sure-to-follow lawsuits. This is all catnip for the media, of course – why do you think they sanewashed him all this while? I won’t fall for it. You don’t […]
Song of the Day: 1/20: Alice Cooper, “Welcome to My Nightmare”
It’s gonna be bad, but remember, each and every one of these people, from Trump on down, is a consummate fuck-up. So while it will be fucked up, it will be fucked up for them, too, because they don’t know what they’re doing and will just be winging it. Will their inevitable fuck-ups cost them […]
Song of the Day 1/19: The Beatles, “The End”
If this is indeed the end of the American Republic – I tend to doubt it, but I’m safely overseas – then I think it should bow out with the words of Paul McCartney. The amount of love Trump and his testosterone-poisoned minions will take will indeed equal the amount they make. That number, whether […]
David Lynch: An Appreciation
Guest Post By Gary Mullinax: David Lynch was a movie director who started with a slimy baby that looks like a skinned rabbit (and might really have been one), then gave us a red-suited midget who talks and sings backwards and a severed ear covered with bugs resting on a plush suburban lawn. What were […]
Song of the Day 1/17: Arthur Conley, “Funky Street”
One-hit wonders get more attention, but there are lots of two-hit wonders out there, too. Arthur Conley, for example. Conley was singing for minor labels from the late ’50s to the mid-’60s when Otis Redding heard him and signed him to his fledgling label. Together they reworked a Sam Cooke tune into “Sweet Soul Music,” […]
Song of the Day 1/16: Kesha, “Tik Tok”
The deadline for whatever happens to TikTok is fast approaching. I don’t use social media, so it won’t affect me directly no matter what happens, but lots of people are worked up about it so it’s all over the news. This might be why when I searched for Kesha, one of the auto-prompt questions that […]
Song Of The Day 1/15: Mahalia Jackson, “Elijah Rock”
Al’s in transit, so I’m not sure he’s got a song in mind. However, I was blown away by the Delaware State University Choir that opened yesterday’s House session, doing a version of this song: Not only was Mahalia Jackson a singer beyond compare, she wrote the song and lyrics. Think she debuted it around […]
Song of the Day 1/14: The Kossoy Sisters, “I’ll Fly Away”
Flying away from it all is a pretty common wish these days, and apparently it always has been. Slaves working the fields and prisoners behind bars traditionally invoke that desire, often extolling the path to freedom that leads through the pearly gates. So flying up to heaven was a common trope by the time prolific […]
Song of the Day 1/13: Ian and Sylvia, “Four Strong Winds”
Guest post by Nathan Arizona As the guy who signed and managed Bob Dylan, smart, aggressive, tyrannical Albert Grossman has a big part in the new Dylan movie, “A Complete Unknown.” He was a driving force behind the whole 1960s folk movement. Grossman created Peter, Paul and Mary, one of the most important acts of […]
Song of the Day 1/12: The Move, “Fire Brigade”
Those wily Mexicans have launched a new front in their invasion of El Norte: They’ve sent firefighters to help battle the Los Angeles blazes. I don’t know how much it will help in containing the devastation, but it certainly sticks a thumb in the eye of the xenophobic asshole politicians catering to the xenophobic asshole […]
Song of the Day 1/10: Peter, Paul and Mary, “Puff, the Magic Dragon”
Peter Yarrow, who died earlier this week at age 86, fought a decades-long battle against an insidious rumor: that “Puff, the Magic Dragon” was about marijuana. In his defense, Yarrow pointed out that he wrote the song while an undergraduate at Cornell in 1959, a time and place where marijuana was still rare. The story […]
Song of the Day 1/9: Ohio Players, “Fire”
You know the California fires are bad – Hollywood is cancelling movie premieres and awards shows. In a way, the victims are lucky this happened now and not next month, when Lex Luthor with a bad rug will take over the White House. “Fire” defined the Ohio Players, the finest funk band ever to come […]
Song of the Day 1/8: Guns N’ Roses, “You’re Crazy”
Axl Rose wrote it about an overenthusiastic female fan, but when a senile dolt elected president by a nation of dolts talks about going to war over Greenland, the only response is this song’s refrain: “You’re fuckin’ crazy.” The profanity wasn’t originally part of the song – Rose ad-libbed it one night in concert when […]
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