Arts and Entertainment
‘Bulo’s Fave Tunes: July 2020
Including a song from an artist that I never ever thought I would feature here. But I’m getting ahead of myself. An incredibly diverse swath of sound this month: Wow, chill-inducing: OK, here’s the artist I never would have expected to feature. Of course, Bon Iver had more than a little something to do with […]
Song of the Day 7/31: Emitt Rhodes, “Fresh as a Daisy”
Sunshine pop lost a legendary cult figure two weeks ago with the death of Emitt Rhodes, once touted as the “one-man Beatles.” When he released his eponymous debut LP in 1970 it sounded as if Paul McCartney was working under an alias. No song on the album, which reached No. 29 on the Billboard chart, […]
Song of the Day 7/30: Woody Guthrie, “All You Fascists Bound to Lose”
Woody Guthrie is famous for championing the common people in the United States, but when fascism rose to power in the 1930s and World War II broke out, he extended his vision overseas. He condemned fascism not just because it was authoritarian but because it was “a highly illegitimate criminal endeavor intended to exploit the […]
Song of the Day 7/29: Johnny Cash, “Cry, Cry, Cry”
This was Johnny Cash’s first hit for Sun Records in 1955, when it was the B-side to “Hey, Porter,” the first composition he took to the studio. Unimpressed executives told him to come back with a song that Sun owner Sam Phillips would be able to sell. Cash wrote “Cry! Cry! Cry!” overnight and played […]
Song of the Day 7/28: Nick Lowe, “Nutted By Reality”
“He had been living in a different world, then he was nutted by reality,” sounds like a perfect description of Donald Trump’s 2020. It’s also appropriate for Trump since the first two verses were stolen reapportioned from the Jackson 5’s “I Want You Back.” The track appears on Lowe’s 1978 “Jesus of Cool” LP (“Pure […]
Song of the Day 7/27: Asylum Street Spankers, “Leaf Blower”
H/t to El Somnambulo, without whom I would never have heard of this now-defunct Austin collective of actor/musicians, let alone their song about noise pollution and those who perpetrate it. They couldn’t know that someday leaf blowers would deserve Woody Guthrie’s “This Machine Fights Fascists” label.
Song of the Day 7/26: Fleetwood Mac feat. Peter Green, “Black Magic Woman”
To most Americans, Fleetwood Mac is a Los Angeles-based pop-rock group. To most Brits, it was among the best bands of the late-’60s electric blues explosion behind its singer and guitarist, Peter Green. That version of the band didn’t sell many records in the U.S., where Eric Clapton, Jeff Beck and Jimmy Page satisfied the […]
Song of the Day 7/25: The Rolling Stones, “Street Fighting Man”
If I had any skillz I’d set this to video of Portland dudes deploying leaf blowers against the federal fascists who tear-gas them. Protests sure have changed since the ’60s. “Street Fighting Man” was the lead single from “Beggar’s Banquet” in 1968, but it only reached No. 41 when some radio stations refused to play […]
Song of the Day 7/24: Bryan Ferry, “Positively 4th Street”
Bob Dylan has had some excellent musical interpreters over the years — the Byrds, the Band, early Rod Stewart — but one of the most consistent and surprising is Roxy Music lead singer Bryan Ferry. Ferry’s mannered, louche vocals would seem an odd match for the material, but he has covered Dylan repeatedly since his […]
Song of the Day 7/23: Graham Parker, “Local Girls”
Graham Parker is nearly forgotten today, but back in the ’70s, during British music’s transition from pub rock to punk/new wave, Parker was viewed as one of the scene’s angry young men, on a par with Elvis Costello and Joe Jackson. His record company thought this song, from his third LP, “Squeezing Out Sparks,” would […]
Song of the Day 7/22: Randy Rainbow, “Gee, Anthony Fauci!”
With apologies to bamboozer, another topical tune, the latest number from Randy Rainbow, this one to the music of “Gee, Officer Krupke” from “West Side Story.” There are lots of people doing political parody songs, but nobody can match the production values the valuable Mr. Rainbow displays (btw, that’s his real name — his father, […]
Song of the Day 7/21: Squeeze, “Crying in My Sleep”
Another one for Diaper Donnie’s lachrymose playlist. I can keep this up until they pry his oval orifice out of the Oval Office. From the album I consider Squeeze’s masterpiece, the criminally underrated “Play,” released in 1991.
Song of the Day 7/19: Ben Folds, “2020”
Ben Folds was in the midst of an Australian tour when the coronavirus struck, and he’s been there ever since. He’s staying put and is recording his next album. Last month he released this ballad, even though the year in question is only halfway over. “We seem to be currently reliving and cramming a number […]
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