Arts and Entertainment
Song of the Day 9/16: Three Dog Night, “Celebrate”
The best night for progressives in Delaware primary history is certainly something to celebrate. Sarah McBride, Marie Pinkney, Eric Morrison, Madinah Wilson-Anton, Larry Lambert — all of them are going to the celebrity ball. As Danny Hutton relates to this Soundstage audience in 1975, Three Dog Night used this as their closing number for several […]
Song of the Day 9/15: Brandi Carlile, “Madman Across the Water”
After Elton John released the LP named for this song in 1971, many Americans took to the theory that the title referenced Richard Nixon, a notion that bemused lyricist Bernie Taupin. “Back in the seventies, when people were saying that ‘Madman Across the Water’ was about Richard Nixon, I thought, That is genius. I could […]
Song of the Day 9/14: The A’s, “A Woman’s Got the Power”
Trump keeps trying to insult Kamala Harris, and he looks weaker every time he does. Her presence on the Democratic Party ticket clearly infuriates him — what doesn’t, right? — so I think she should be front and center for the rest of the campaign. I also think she should adopt this as her campaign […]
Song of the Day 9/13: Will Sheridan, “Set Fire to the Streets”
Bear, Delaware, native Will Sheridan Jr. was a basketball star at Sanford School before playing at Villanova University from 2003 to 2007 and, briefly, as a pro in Italy. When he returned to the US he became a rapper and musician in New York City; his first LP, “G.I.A.N.T.,” was released in 2012. This track […]
Song of the Day 9/12: Toots and the Maytals, “Do the Reggay”
Frederick “Toots” Hibbert, the Jamaican vocalist and multi-instrumentalist who gave reggae music its name and wrote some of its classic tunes, including “Pressure Drop” and “Monkey Man,” died yesterday, apparently of complications of COVID-19. He was 78. The Maytals, led by Hibbert’s powerful voice, were already a popular vocal group when they released “Do the […]
Song of the Day 9/11: Kool & the Gang, “Jungle Boogie”
Ronald Bell, later Khalis Bayyan, a co-founder of Kool & the Gang who co-wrote most of their biggest hits, died this week, age 68, at his home in the U.S. Virgin Islands. The band he and his younger brother, Robert “Kool” Bell, started as teenagers cycled through many musical styles over the years, from jazz […]
Song of the Day 9/10: Billy J. Kramer and the Dakotas, “Do You Want to Know a Secret”
Bob Woodward is coming under fire for recording Trump back in March, when he was publicly downplaying COVID-19, saying that the new coronavirus was “deadly” and worse than the flu — and then sitting on the recordings until now, the better to flog his latest tome. If you want to know the rest of the […]
Song of the Day 9/9: Randy Newman, “Mr. President (Have Pity on the Working Man)”
Randy Newman’s “Good Old Boys,” his controversial 1974 concept album sung from the viewpoint of a Southern everyman named Johnny Cutler, was put together over many months and included a couple of songs that preceded the project. This one, though, was a late addition to the LP, which was released when the first Arab oil […]
Song of the Day 9/8: Gary U.S. Bonds, “Out of Work”
For 11.5 million Americans, Labor Day wasn’t a day off — they have no job to go back to. Bruce Springsteen wrote this song for Bonds during the singer’s early-80s comeback, which corresponded with the Reagan Recession. Bonds hadn’t had a hit since 1962 until he hooked up with Springsteen in 1981, when his album […]
Song of the Day 9/7: Huey Lewis and the News, “Workin’ for a Living”
For those too young to have lived through their heyday, at least as music fans, Huey Lewis and the News were sort of the Hootie and the Blowfish of their generation — upbeat, major-chord mainstream rock shorn of any rough edges, with enough melody to hum along with and enough energy to be a good-time […]
Song of the Day 9/6: Bob Marley and the Wailers, “Three Little Birds”
Like every other Democrat, I’m worried about how much damage Trump can do before he’s shitcanned for good, but for just this weekend, fuck it. The weather’s great, Trumpers are sinking their boats out of incompetence, and now the Turd Reich is even pissing off the military. I’m not gonna worry about a thing.
Song of the Day 9/4: The Cure, “The Last Day of Summer”
Summer unofficially ends this weekend, and if it feels weird it might be because, except for the hot weather, it hasn’t felt much like summer at all — no graduation parties, no beach vacations, no Fourth of July fireworks, a fragment of a baseball season. Still, it’s just about over now, and who better to […]
Song of the Day 9/2: Bowling for Soup, “1985”
Now that Antifa’s secret weapon, soup, has been uncovered by ace detective Donald Trump, it’s time to reveal where we got the idea: from Bowling for Soup, the Texas-based band that hit its peak in the early ’00s with “Girl All the Bad Guys Want” and this pop-punk sendup of the music of their childhood […]
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