Arts and Entertainment
Song of the Day 8/25: Justin Townes Earle, “Harlem River Blues”
Justin Townes Earle died last week at age 38 in Nashville, apparently of a drug overdose, cutting short a promising career conducted in the shadow of his famously hell-raising father, outlaw-country rocker Steve Earle. Steve wanted to name him after his old running buddy Townes van Zandt, but his mother vetoed that idea because she […]
Song of the Day 8/24: Old 97s, “Turn Off the TV”
I consider this timely advice for Americans who prefer to avoid the Republican Trump National Convention and its most common side effect, an overproduction of bile. This cut comes from the new album by Old 97s, one of the few surviving bands from the alt-country boom in the mid-’90s. The video features YouTube star Puddles […]
Song of the Day 8/22: Creedence Clearwater Revival, “Long As I Can See the Light”
Like many CCR songs, this one was part of a double A-side single in 1970 with “Lookin’ Out My Back Door,” one the band’s six singles to reach No. 2 (famously, CCR never had a No. 1). John Fogerty is nearly a one-man band on the track — that’s him on both the electric piano […]
Song of the Day 8/21: Harry Chapin, “30,000 Pounds of Bananas”
We’re going to hear a lot about Scranton, Pa., in coming weeks, as Delaware’s Joe Biden portrays himself as a son of coal country and Trump counters by holding rallies there. Most Americans know Scranton, if they know it at all, as the setting for “The Office,” but anyone who remembers this 1974 story song […]
Song of the Day 8/19: Phil Collins, “In the Air Tonight”
There are many examples of old hit songs re-entering the charts after being featured on soundtracks or in commercials, but we have entered a new age — one in which songs become hits again after being used in viral videos. That’s the case for this classic rock staple, which hit No. 2 on the iTunes […]
Song of the Day 8/18: The Marvelettes, “Please Mr. Postman”
In 1961, when the Marvelettes released this song — their debut single and the first Motown song to reach No. 1 on the Hot 100 — the story told in the lyrics was clear: The singer’s boyfriend had jilted her, and she had transferred her anxiety to her mail carrier. Nowadays the distant lover has […]
Song of the Day 8/17: Randy Rainbow, “Kamala”
Did you notice that Kamala, when pronounced correctly, sounds a lot like Camelot? Randy Rainbow did, and the rest was … well, not easy, but Randy makes it look easy. There are plenty of musical parodists out there, but nobody else makes videos with such high production values.
Song of the Day 8/16: The Band, “The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down”
Does “The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down” glorify the Lost Cause? Is it racist? Rolling Stone magazine suddenly thinks so. After praising it for 50 years as a classic of the rock era, the magazine last week published a story in which writer Simon Vozick-Levinson calls it a “troubling requiem for the Confederate cause” […]
Song of the Day 8/15: Santigold, “Lights Out”
Catching up with some new Sylvan Esso on YouTube, this oldie popped up on my feed — is it proper to call a song an oldie if it was released 12 years ago? I remember how ear-catching it was back then, ethereal vocals over a new wave beat, a sound Pitchfork pegged as a blend […]
Song of the Day 8/14: Ray LaMontagne, “Strong Enough”
No message today, just a song I like. I knew without looking that it would be on WXPN’s playlist and sure enough, it’s in heavy rotation. LaMontagne’s soulful Americana sound hits AAA radio’s sweet spot and, geezer that I am, it sounds good to me. It might be the song’s upbeat feel, a welcome respite […]
Song of the Day 8/13: Carly Simon, “You’re So Vain”
An anti-Trump political ad that showed up in my wife’s FB feed yesterday uses Carly Simon’s most famous song to address America’s most notorious narcissist. I didn’t realize until I looked it up that the ad was released back in 2016, and obviously did not stop the election of Orangulus. The song, released in November […]
Song of the Day 8/12: Trini Lopez, “If I Had a Hammer”
Trini Lopez, a Dallas-born ’50s rock-‘n’-roller who rode the Great Folk Music Scare to stardom in the ’60s, died yesterday of the COVID. He was 83. This Pete Seeger tune was his biggest hit, reaching No. 3 in 1963. Lopez started out as a teen, forming a group called the Big Beats. He left for […]
Song of the Day 8/11: Talking Heads, “Burning Down the House”
This is the song Trump should be playing at his rallies. The first single taken from the band’s 1983 “Speaking in Tongues” LP, it became the highest-charting single of their career, peaking at No. 9. The song grew out of a jam by drummer Chris Frantz, who was inspired by seeing a Parliament/Funkadelic concert, and […]
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