Arts and Entertainment
Song of the Day 10/12: Walter Becker, “Book of Liars”
This is one of the “11 Tracks of Whack” that constituted the first solo album from Walter Becker, half of Steely Dan, in 1994. It’s a good example of why Dan fans thought he should have sung once in a while on the band’s LPs. When Steely Dan regrouped in the ’90s, “Book of Liars” […]
Song of the Day 10/10: Public Enemy, “State of the Union (STFU)”
After what seemed like a split between Chuck D and Flavor Flav this spring, Public Enemy released a new album in June, “What You Gonna Do When the Grid Goes Down?” It might lack the power the group harnessed in its heyday, but it contains just as much anti-establishment fire. The chorus of this one […]
Song of the Day 10/9: Johnny Nash, “Hold Me Tight”
All the obituaries for Johnny Nash, who died Tuesday at 80, cited his biggest hit, “I Can See Clearly Now,” which topped the charts in 1972 and, thanks to TV commercials, has never left the public consciousness. It was the first reggae-influenced song to reach No. 1, but it wasn’t Nash’s first foray into Jamaican […]
Song of the Day 10/8: Roy Eldridge and Anita Love, “Ain’t No Flies on Me”
Everybody sing along! Uh, not you, Mike. Jazz trumpeter Roy Eldridge is considered the bridge between Louis Armstrong and Dizzy Gillespie — his rapid runs helped give birth to be-bop, but he didn’t like the style. He also grew tired of the racism he encountered as the only black musician in otherwise white bands, so […]
Song of the Day 10/7: Van Halen, “Right Now”
There are lots of songs that show Eddie Van Halen’s electric guitar wizardry, but focusing on his flash shortchanges his musicianship. Van Halen — who, it should be noted, was an immigrant with a half-Polynesian mother, making him a person of color — studied piano as a child, took up drums as an adolescent, then […]
Song of the Day 10/6: Lake Street Dive, “Making Do”
Don’t look now, but while we’re worried about COVID-19 and the future of democracy in the U.S., a more insidious threat to humanity just keeps rolling along. Climate change, the issue on which Republicans first took their science denial out for a spin, remains the greatest long-range problem our political culture refuses to deal with. […]
Song of the Day 10/5: Cab Calloway, “St. James Infirmary Blues”
Donald Trump is making lots of noises about leaving the hospital, doctors’ recommendations be damned. Once upon a time they put people like that in what was known as a “lock hospital” — one where patients were put in restraints. Originally used for lepers, by the mid-18th century the term referred to facilities that treated […]
Song of the Day 10/4: Warren Zevon, “Knockin’ on Heaven’s Door”
Odds are that Trump will recover from his bought of COVID, simply because most people who catch it, even those in high-risk categories, survive. But he is both old and obese, and reportedly got really scared when his temperature spiked (no surprise; high fever can cause delirium, so who knows what happens to someone who’s […]
Song of the Day 10/3: Foreigner, “Urgent”
The new White House theme song. Foreigner was among the most successful rock groups of its era, scoring 16 Top 40 hits between 1977 and 1988; nine of them reached the top 5. “Urgent” was the first single from the band’s 1981 LP “4,” which sold more than 6 million copies, while the single reached […]
Song of the Day 10/2: Tom Lehrer, “I Got It From Agnes”
For a hoax, this coronavirus sure gets around. This is how. Satirist Tom Lehrer, a child prodigy who graduated from Harvard at age 18, tickled the intellectual crowd with his ditties throughout the 1950s and early ’60s before retiring from public performances so he could concentrate on his academic career; he taught both mathematics and […]
Song of the Day 10/1: Mac Davis, “It’s Hard to Be Humble”
Mac Davis, who parlayed his songwriting and amiable personality into a recording career and his own TV variety show, died Tuesday at age 78. His best composition is probably “In the Ghetto,” one of several Davis songs that became hits for Elvis Presley, but he had a string of hits himself in the 1970s with […]
DL is Down – Provisional Open Thread
The site is broken.
We are looking into it. It is probably my fault (jason330). If the site was a car, it would be a car I got in 10 years ago, drove everyday and never checked the oil. I hope it can be saved because there is great reporting from El Som, Alby and others locked in the archives.
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– Trump has Covid. Not shocked. God (or whatever) will not be mocked.
Song of the Day 9/30: Third Eye Blind, “Semi-Charmed Life”
I didn’t watch the debate — masochism has its limits — but a few clips made it pretty clear that the mothafucka was cranked to the gills. Word is he snorts crushed Adderall, exactly the kind of prescription amphetamine I’d expect a wuss like Trump to do, though unlike people who actually studied in college, […]
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