Arts and Entertainment
Song of the Day 9/1: The Sanford-Townsend Band, “Smoke From a Distant Fire”
It’s wildfire season again in California, and smoke reaching the jet stream is creating spectacular sunsets across the Midwestern and Mountain states. Some of it has even reached Delaware, which brings us to this blue-eyed soul classic, which reached No. 9 on the Hot 100 in 1977. Ed Sanford and Johnny Townsend were both keyboard […]
Song of the Day 8/31: Big Country, “In a Big Country”
Remember when this Scottish band hit the shores of our much bigger country? MTV was young and this video was in heavy rotation, boosting the song to No. 3 on the rock chart and No. 17 on the Hot 100. Guitarists Bruce Watson and group founder Stuart Adamson got their guitars to sound like bagpipes […]
‘Bulo’s Fave Tunes For August 2020
A great month for new music. One of the greatest months I can recall. I hardly know where to begin. Which is why I always do these lists in alphabetical order, and not that phony internet alpha order based on the first name. Real alphabetical order, the way G-d intended it: Songs as short stories […]
Song of the Day 8/30: Yes, “America”
Recorded around the same time as the band’s “Fragile” LP, released in 1971, their 10-minute deconstruction of the Simon and Garfunkel classic was left off the album, but surfaced the next year on an Atlantic Records sampler of its various artists, where it incongruously followed John Prine’s “Sam Stone.” Guitarist Steve Howe, who had just […]
Song of the Day 8/28: The Beatles, “Happiness Is a Warm Gun”
The title phrase was the headline of an article in the NRA magazine The American Rifleman belonging to George Martin that John Lennon found laying around the Abbey Road studios. Lennon said he reaction was immediate. “I just thought it was a fantastic, insane thing to say. A warm gun means you just shot something.” […]
Song of the Day 8/27: Elvis Costello, “Monkey to Man”
When surveying the state of our society, I am reminded that, though humans like to put on intellectual airs, we’re actually just a bunch of apes — advanced monkeys — who invented agriculture and clothing. And nobody, outside of coconut plantations in Thailand, has ever said, “You know what would help this situation? Monkeys.” Nobody […]
Song of the Day 8/27: Haim, “The Steps”
I’m a sucker for a guitar pop song with a good hook, and this trio of sisters from the San Fernando Valley has come up with another one for their third LP, “Women in Music Pt. III.” I’m not sure why they aren’t more popular, but it might have to do with the fact that […]
Song of the Day 8/25: Justin Townes Earle, “Harlem River Blues”
Justin Townes Earle died last week at age 38 in Nashville, apparently of a drug overdose, cutting short a promising career conducted in the shadow of his famously hell-raising father, outlaw-country rocker Steve Earle. Steve wanted to name him after his old running buddy Townes van Zandt, but his mother vetoed that idea because she […]
Song of the Day 8/24: Old 97s, “Turn Off the TV”
I consider this timely advice for Americans who prefer to avoid the Republican Trump National Convention and its most common side effect, an overproduction of bile. This cut comes from the new album by Old 97s, one of the few surviving bands from the alt-country boom in the mid-’90s. The video features YouTube star Puddles […]
Song of the Day 8/22: Creedence Clearwater Revival, “Long As I Can See the Light”
Like many CCR songs, this one was part of a double A-side single in 1970 with “Lookin’ Out My Back Door,” one the band’s six singles to reach No. 2 (famously, CCR never had a No. 1). John Fogerty is nearly a one-man band on the track — that’s him on both the electric piano […]
Song of the Day 8/21: Harry Chapin, “30,000 Pounds of Bananas”
We’re going to hear a lot about Scranton, Pa., in coming weeks, as Delaware’s Joe Biden portrays himself as a son of coal country and Trump counters by holding rallies there. Most Americans know Scranton, if they know it at all, as the setting for “The Office,” but anyone who remembers this 1974 story song […]
Song of the Day 8/19: Phil Collins, “In the Air Tonight”
There are many examples of old hit songs re-entering the charts after being featured on soundtracks or in commercials, but we have entered a new age — one in which songs become hits again after being used in viral videos. That’s the case for this classic rock staple, which hit No. 2 on the iTunes […]
Song of the Day 8/18: The Marvelettes, “Please Mr. Postman”
In 1961, when the Marvelettes released this song — their debut single and the first Motown song to reach No. 1 on the Hot 100 — the story told in the lyrics was clear: The singer’s boyfriend had jilted her, and she had transferred her anxiety to her mail carrier. Nowadays the distant lover has […]
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