Arts and Entertainment
‘Bulo’s Fave Tunes: March, 2019
If you’re seeking musical diversity, this is the month for you. We’ve got pretty much everything but death metal and show tunes. Presented, as almost always, in alphabetical order by artist’s name: The ‘John Wayne’ reference is to the airport in Orange County, CA (formerly the home of the John Birch Society): On the […]
Song of the Day 3/31: Rolling Stones, “Dead Flowers”
The Rolling Stones have postponed their North American tour because Mike Jagger is undergoing medical treatment for an unspecified reason. So for now we’ll have to make do with YouTube videos, like this one from 1972.
Song of the Day 3/30: Shades of Blue, “Oh How Happy”
The sweet soul music of the ’60s was so intoxicating that lots of white groups tried their hands at it, giving rise to what became known as blue-eyed soul. Even those that succeeded were mostly one-hit wonders, but what great hits they were. The Shades of Blue hailed from the Detroit suburb of Livonia, Mich., […]
Song of the Day 3/29: Matthew Sweet, “I’ve Been Waiting”
Let’s cheer things up with a little ’90s power pop, courtesy of one of its top practitioners. “I’ve Been Waiting” was the second single from Sweet’s 1991 album “Girlfriend,” declared the top power pop album of the ’90s by the AV Club. He wrote the songs in the wake of a divorce and the commercial […]
Song of the Day 3/28: The (English) Beat, “Stand Down Margaret”
British pop lost another voice this week when Ranking Roger of the English Beat died of cancer at just 56 years old. The Beat was at the forefront of England’s ska revival, and Roger Charlery’s island-flavored vocals were at the forefront of the Beat. Roger was just 16 and drumming for a band called the […]
Song of the Day 3/27: The Walker Brothers, “The Sun Ain’t Gonna Shine Anymore”
UK music critics and fans are mourning the March 22 death of Scott Walker, pop idol-turned-avant garde composer. He’s most widely known as lead singer of the Walker Brothers, a Los Angeles trio that reversed the British Invasion formula by hitting it big in England in the mid-1960s, first with the Bacharach/David classic “Make It […]
Song of the Day 3/26: Was (Not Was), “Somewhere in America There’s a Street Named After My Dad”
When Detroit natives David Weiss and Don Fagenson formed Was (Not Was), they both adopted the surname Was and combined to create music based on a simple philosophy. In the words of lyricist David, “the groove can handle anything,” a credo they put to the test frequently in composer Don’s mix of funk, R&B and […]
Song of the Day 3/25: Jay and the Techniques, “Keep the Ball Rollin’ “
Most soul music of the ’60s came out of Detroit, or Memphis, or Chicago. But sometimes it came from the most unlikely places, like Allentown, Pa. That’s where singer Jay Proctor assembled his integrated band the Techniques, who hit the Top 10 with “Apples, Peaches, Pumpkin Pie.” The band might better have been called the […]
Song of the Day 3/23: Linus of Hollywood, “Don’t Fuck It Up”
Musicians who record power pop must realize by now that it’s almost impossible to make a living at it, so Kevin Dotson, better known as Linus of Hollywood, keeps lots of irons in the fire. Not only does the multi-instrumentalist record solo records, he plays with the geek-rock band Nerf Herder, writes music for TV […]
Song of the Day 3/22: Stevie Wonder and Tom Jones, “A Place In The Sun/Uptight/It’s Not Unusual”
“Ebony and Ivory,” the duet by Stevie Wonder and Paul McCartney, hit the top of the charts on both sides of the Atlantic in 1982. But it wasn’t the first time Stevie paired with a British singer. Welshman Tom Jones, who won the Grammy for Best New Artist in 1966, was so popular by 1969 […]
Song of the Day 3/21: The Buckinghams, “Kind of a Drag”
In 1965 a Chicago group called the Pulsations was hired as house band for a local TV station’s music show. With the British Invasion in full swing, the show’s producers asked them to change their name to capitalize on it, and the Buckinghams were born. They recorded several songs for a local record label the […]
Song of the Day 3/20: Godley & Creme, “Cry”
Kevin Godley and Lol Creme were half of the art-rock band 10cc for much of the 1970s, but left to pursue an invention called the gizmotron, a device that attached to the bridge of an electric guitar and gave its strings indefinite sustain. It never really caught on, and the duo returned to making music […]
Song of the Day 3/19: Michael Jackson, “Black or White”
As long as everybody is arguing about racism, let’s listen to what was intended as a condemnation of it. Here’s the song alone, stripped down to just the music — no controversial video segments, just a mid-tempo dance tune with catchy riff and a social message. Of course, that’s not how anyone remembers the song. […]
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