Arts and Entertainment
Song of the Day 1/15: Dolly Parton, “Here You Come Again”
Fans have been worried about Dolly Parton’s health since October, when her sister put out a public appeal for prayers, a couple of weeks after the country music diva missed a scheduled event at her theme park, Dollywood. Despite reassurances that the situation was nothing serious, she hasn’t appeared in public since, and this week […]
Song of the Day 1/14: Jake Xerxes Fussell, “The Bells of Rhymney”
Guest post by Nathan Arizona The best-known version of “The Bells of Rhymney” came out of sunny southern California when the Byrds put it on their first album in 1965. But the song was born amid the dank coal mines of South Wales. It grew from a poem written in 1938 and based on an […]
Song of the Day 1/13: The Moody Blues, “Isn’t Life Strange”
Scanning one of those People We Lost in 2025 lists the other day, I realized I missed memorializing John Lodge, bassist for the Moody Blues, back when he died in October at age 82. Lodge wasn’t an original member of the band. He joined along with guitarist Justin Hayward in 1966, after its first lineup […]
Song of the Day 1/12: The Grateful Dead, “Playing in the Band”
Bob Weir, the co-founder of the Grateful Dead who died Saturday at 78, was the subject of countless Deadhead debates over the years. Was he an essential member of the band, or totally extraneous? Did he add to their jams or gum them up? Did his songs help structure their sprawling concerts or interrupt the […]
Song of the Day 1/11: Bob Dylan, “Barbara Allen”
Guest post by Nathan Arizona “Barbara Allen” is the best known of all the old ballads, its different versions collected more than any other folk song by preservers of the past. Samuel Pepys, the famous diarist and biographer of Samuel Johnson, felt “perfect pleasure” when he heard a young woman sing it at a New […]
Song of the Day 1/9: Jesse Welles, “Good vs. ICE”
The execution of Renee Good by ICE agent Jonathan Ross has shocked and horrified everyone but MAGAts and their enablers, but I’m still impressed by how fast modern protest singer Jesse Welles has made his feelings known.
Song of the Day 1/8: The Northern Pikes, “Girl With a Problem”
Trump’s desecration of the Department of Justice faces more roadblocks than most targets of his crime spree, if only because many federal judges – even Trump judges – are trying to apply the rule of law to a fundamentally lawless bunch of thugs. And while most get overruled by the Supremes, they keep trying. For […]
Song of the Day 1/7: Belá Fleck, “Rhapsody in Blue(grass)”
Everybody who’s anybody is cancelling gigs at the former Kennedy Center these days. The latest artist to join the honor roll: Bela Fleck, probably the world’s most famous banjo player. He was scheduled to perform with the National Symphony on three dates next month, but yesterday announced, “Performing there has become charged and political, at […]
Song of the Day 1/6: Björk, “Human Behavior”
The demented little asshole running the country, Stephen Miller, is a quivering wimp – you can tell by the way he takes every opportunity to act butch. His ego swelled by the Venezuela adventure, he went on CNN to proclaim that Greenland will belong to the Reich United States. This attitude has been criticized in […]
Song of the Day 1/5: Billy Squier, “The Stroke”
The signs are obvious – the drooping right side of his face, his slack right-handed salute, his inability to flip a coin at the Army-Navy game – but the strongest argument for “something is wrong with Trump” is his panicky reaction to the media reporting on it. The smart money says that, among other things, […]
Song of the Day 1/4: Billy Joel, “Big Shot”
I could dedicate this song to Trump, but the real reason for setting aside my aversion to Billy Joel is that he sang in public Friday for the first time since May, when he announced he had a brain condition that ruled out performing and cancelled all future concerts. Joel, who owns a home in […]
Song of the Day 1/2: The American Breed, “Bend Me, Shape Me”
This song, a No. 5 hit for the American Breed in 1968, was prophetically titled – several bands covered it in the ’60s, and it sounded different each time. Credited to Scott English, best known for co-writing Barry Manilow’s “Mandy,” and Larry Weiss, who co-wrote “Rhinestone Cowboy,” it was first recorded by the Outsiders for […]
Song of the Day 1/1: Ferko String Band, “When You’re Smiling”
When I think of Mummers string bands, I imagine the string bands of my childhood – masses of banjos in parade formation, supplemented by saxophones and glockenspiels, all played by guys wearing sequins and plywood backpieces adorned with ostrich feathers. They probably had their heyday in post-WWII era, when Ferko String Band cut some LPs. […]
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