Arts and Entertainment
Song of the Day 12/4: Amy Winehouse and Paul Weller, “I Heard It Through the Grapevine”
It’s been nearly a decade since Amy Winehouse died and she still hasn’t been replaced. In 2006, when she was on top of the world after the release of her second album, “Back to Black,” she teamed up with British blue-eyed soul icon Paul Weller on Jools Holland’s annual New Year’s Eve Hootenanny for this […]
Song of the Day 12/2: Climax Blues Band, “Couldn’t Get It Right”
It’s actually about the band on tour not being able to find the Holiday Inn — that’s the sign they were looking for in the middle of the night — but the title makes it a good theme song for the Trump coup plotters. Like the Top of the Pops host, I thought this lot […]
Song of the Day 12/1: Earl-Jean, “I’m Into Something Good”
If you’re old enough, you probably know this as the first record by British invaders Herman’s Hermits, one that reached No. 1 in the UK (and No. 13 in the U.S.). But the first to record this Gerry Goffin-Carole King tune was Earl-Jean Reavis, lead singer of the second incarnation of the Cookies (the original […]
‘Bulo’s Fave Tunes: November 2020
One more compelling eclectic set of music before I hunker down to put together my 50 Fave Tunes Of The Year. I featured something like 160 songs in my monthly sets this year, and I’ll be culling other Best-Of lists for any songs I overlooked. You deserve only the best (I’m still working on my […]
Song of the Day 11/30: Derek Trucks Band, “Down in the Flood (Crash on the Levee)”
Bob Dylan wrote this during the Basement Tapes sessions in 1967 and has recorded it three times (none are available on YouTube, which Dylan’s people police pretty closely). None of his renditions packed the punch Derek Trucks gave the song on his 2009 album “Already Free.” Trucks said he chose the tune because “I figured […]
Song of the Day 11/29: Raspberries, “Overnight Sensation (Hit Record)”
Though they’re now acknowledged as founding fathers of power pop, Raspberries weren’t fully appreciated in their time. Their Mod-based sound was considered lightweight, their teen-angst lyrics banal, their matching-suits look either eight years too early or eight years too late. In 1972 their bubblegummy “Go All the Way” hit No. 5, and several lesser hits […]
Song of the Day 11/27: L.T.D., “(Every Time I Turn Around) Back in Love Again”
For reasons that don’t matter anymore, disco mostly sucked. But it was closely related to funk, which meant some truly funky music got dance-floor exposure, too. L.T.D. (it stood for Love, Togetherness and Devotion) was founded in 1968 by four horn players from Sam & Dave’s backing orchestra; by the time they landed a recording […]
Song of the Day 11/26: Poi Dog Pondering, “Thanksgiving”
This song has nothing to do with the holiday, but I don’t care, I just like the tune. For me it’s the standout song on “Wishing Like a Maountain and Thinking Like the Sea,” the 1990 breakthrough album for what was then a world-music collective based in Austin, before leader Frank Orrall moved to Chicago […]
Song of the Day 11/25: Bruce Springsteen, “Last Man Standing”
Bruce Springsteen’s “Letter to You” album, released a month ago, got reviews I would characterize more as respectful than enthusiastic. Many of the songs replicate the arena-rock template Springsteen laid down 40 years ago, but most are neither written nor delivered with the passion he had in the ’80s — Springsteen said he wrote nine […]
Song of the Day 11/24: Dave Clark Five, “Glad All Over”
When the Beatles led the first wave of the British Invasion, the band that challenged them in popularity wasn’t the Rolling Stones, who were still playing blues covers — it was the Dave Clark 5. Unlike the skiffle-influenced Merseybeat sound of the Beatles and other Liverpool bands, the north London-based DC5 were straight-up rock-and-rollers. They […]
Song of the Day 11/23: Cream, “Badge”
Eric Clapton and George Harrison’s lives and careers were intertwined to a remarkable degree — they played on each other’s albums, they gave each other guitars, they even stayed friends as they vied for the same woman, Harrison’s first wife, Pattie Boyd. But they only wrote one song together. As Harrison explained years later, “Each […]
Song of the Day 11/22: Grand Funk Railroad, “I’m Your Captain/Closer to Home”
When it comes to guys cracking up, I like the classics. This song, probably best and most-popular in Grand Funk’s repertoire, has been open to wide interpretation — one view holds that the “captain” is Richard Nixon, and the song about Vietnam. I always thought it represented a guy losing control of both his life […]
Song of the Day 11/21: Laurie Anderson, “It’s Not the Bullet That Kills You (It’s the Hole)”
Laurie Anderson was a performance artist and musician with a following among New York’s boho art scene for years before she became suddenly famous in 1981, when star British DJ John Peel championed her single “O Superman.” He propelled it to No. 2 on the UK charts, and her resulting LP “Big Science” did the […]
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