Arts and Entertainment
‘Bulo’s Fave Tunes: February 2021
OK, I’ll admit it. Last month, I might have reached for a song or two that otherwise did not meet my demanding musical standards. You need have no such concerns this month. On a more incongruous note, I believe that this is the first month where I’ve had two songs by artists whose names begin […]
Song of the Day 2/27: Peter Gabriel and Playing for Change, “Biko”
Playing for Change, the music-education non-profit that records musicians around the world playing the same song and edits them into videos, released this Peter Gabriel classic a couple of weeks ago, 40 years after its original release, repurposing the anti-apartheid anthem to address police brutality. The notion has legitimate connection to the issue — after […]
Song of the Day 2/25: Warren Zevon, “Lawyers, Guns and Money”
I don’t know how I missed it, but until this Zevon classic from 1978’s “Excitable Boy” came up on a Spotify playlist last night I never realized it fit The Last Guy™ so well. What did he spend weeks asking for? A steady supply of lawyers, Proud Boy/Oath Keeper guns, and money — lots and […]
Song of the Day 2/24: John Prine, “Humidity Built the Snowman”
It’s been just over a year since John Prine’s last concert, at Cafe de la Danse in Paris, one my wife was lucky enough to attend. This tune was on the set list, as it often was since its release on his 1995 LP “Lost Dogs and Mixed Blessings,” an album full of songs about […]
Song of the Day 2/22: David Bowie, “Life on Mars?”
Perseverance, NASA’s latest Mars rover, landed on the Red Planet last week, and today the space agency unveiled video of its descent from the lander itself. It’s looking, of course, for life on Mars. Bowie included the song, featuring Rick Wakeman on piano and a string arrangement by guitarist Mick Ronson, on his 1971 “Hunky […]
Song of the Day 2/21: The Go-Go’s, “Vacation”
In one sense I can sympathize with Ted Cruz — who doesn’t want a vacation from the cold and snow? Cruz is such a wuss he vamoosed after a cold couple of days. Northerners have put up with it for weeks now. The Go-Go’s released this title song in 1982 as the first single from […]
Song of the Day 2/19: The Bangles, “Hazy Shade of Winter”
The Bangles had been playing this Paul Simon composition in concert for several years when they were approached about contributing a song to the “Less Than Zero” soundtrack (which doesn’t contain Elvis Costello’s “Less Than Zero,” maybe because that’s who author Bret Easton Ellis stole the title from). Under Rick Rubin’s production, the song reached […]
Song of the Day 2/18: James Taylor, “Mexico”
Sorry for all the James Taylor lately — I’ve been suffering from insomnia — but the chance to belittle Ted Cruz was just too strong to pass up. Cruz is coming home from his “long-planned family vacation” amid an avalanche of criticism, which stands to get worse once more people find out he was staying […]
Song of the Day 2/17: The Eagles, “Love Will Keep Us Alive”
Gee, sure is cold in Texas. Just goes to show that, on occasion, hell freezes over. That was the name of the 1994 reunion tour on which introduced this tune, with lead vocal by bassist Timothy B. Schmit. The ultimate SoCal soft rockers had disbanded in 1980, and didn’t have much new material for the […]
Song of the Day 2/15: Space Cadet, “Bad Luck”
With apologies to El Som, I actually hear other new music once in a while, though not nearly so much as he does because I’m so technologically inept. I’m so old-school I actually heard this song thanks to my email — I always had my work inbox routed to my personal one so I could […]
Song of the Day 2/14: 10cc, “I’m Not in Love”
Something special for Valentine’s Day: A song Eric Stewart wrote because his wife complained that he rarely told her he loved her.”I had this crazy idea in my mind that repeating those words would somehow degrade the meaning,” Stewart said, “so I told her, ‘Well, if I say every day “I love you, darling, I […]
Song of the Day 2/13: Joni Mitchell and James Taylor, “You Can Close Your Eyes”
The Senate Republican caucus could adopt this as a theme song, but their voices wouldn’t — ahem — do it justice. James Taylor’s wrote this bittersweet lullaby for his then-girlfriend Joni Mitchell. He was in New Mexico in 1970 filming a movie, Two-Lane Blacktop, about drag racers taking on challengers across the country (Taylor played […]
Song of the Day 2/12: Chick Corea, “Hymn of the 7th Galaxy”
Guest post by Nathan Arizona There were few more polarizing figures in jazz than Chick Corea, who died Tuesday from a rare form of cancer. But there was never any doubt that he was one of the best keyboard players in the business. He’s best known as the main force behind electrified jazz-rock fusion in […]
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