Arts and Entertainment
DL Open Thread Wednesday, Oct. 9, 2024
Hurricane Milton will dominate news coverage today. Too bad none of the precipitation will make it up north; all of Delaware is either “abnormally dry” or in “moderate drought,” and might not get significant rainfall until next month. A teenager in Gaza, Hassan Hamad, kept filming the destruction caused by the Israeli assault and posting […]
Song of the Day 10/8: Climax Blues Band, “Couldn’t Get It Right”
Like the presenter of this Top of the Pops video, I thought these guys were Americans, but it turns out they just wanted to sound like they were. They weren’t a one-hit wonder, but “Couldn’t Get It Right” was their only Top 10 single in the U.S., and it it took them nearly a decade […]
Song of the Day 10/6: Pink Floyd, “See Emily Play”
Most rock fans are aware that Roger Waters of Pink Floyd has gone down the rabbit hole of right-wing politics. It appears it has cost him some major coin. Pink Floyd announced last week that it sold its music catalog to Sony for $400 million, about 80% of what they were asking before “Roger Waters” […]
Song of the Day 10/4: The Alan Parsons Project, “I Wouldn’t Want to Be Like You”
The more I hear from JD Vance, the more I think of this 1977 song. Though it was just a modest hit, No. 36 on the Hot 100, it helped push the band’s second LP, “I Robot,” into the Top 10, and it seems more apt today than ever. So does the concept album it […]
Song of the Day 10/3: Tears for Fears, “Sowing the Seeds of Love”
I’ve heard this No. 2 hit from 1989 in random places a couple of times lately, and though “Sowing the Seeds of Love” wears its psychedelic-era Beatles influences like a paisley-pattern Nehru jacket, its preposterous optimism does lift the spirits in these Trump-tainted times. Maybe that’s not an accident. Roland Olazabel wrote this in the […]
Song of the Day 10/1: Rod McKuen, “Jean”
For all the tributes to Dame Maggie Smith since her death last week, I haven’t seen a single one mention the No. 2 hit that its composer said was written for her. Every story mentioned Smith’s Oscar for Best Actress for “The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie,” the film adaptation of Muriel Spark’s lauded 1961 […]
‘Bulo’s Fave Tunes: September, 2024
Yet another cool band out of Philly. Power pop fans, check this one out: How’s this for a last-minute unexpected surprise?: Kind-of a Sonic Youth feel. ”Cept they really ARE youthful: Jonatan Leandoer 96: Voice like Ryan Adams, attitude like early Mac Demarco (‘Viceroy’), with a soupcon of Freedy Johnston. Nathan’s favorite?: “I dropped all […]
Song of the Day 9/30: Kris Kristofferson, “The Law Is for Protection of the People”
If Kris Kristofferson, who died Saturday at 88, had been invented by a novelist, the author would be accused of engaging in magical realism. C’mon, a Rhodes Scholar helicopter pilot turned country music star turned Hollywood actor with a string of famous wives and paramours – who’s buying that a real person could do all […]
Song of the Day 9/28: Stevie Nicks, “The Lighthouse”
Stevie Nicks has never been a topical songwriter. Almost all her songs are personal and emotional, which makes the single she released Friday, her first new song in years, all the more powerful. It’s plenty emotional, but it’s a straight-up protest song, an outright feminist battle cry. [E]arly one morning I was watching the news […]
Song of the Day 9/27: The Cure, “Friday I’m in Love”
The Cure, the venerable British band led by Robert Smith, released its first new song in 16 years this week ahead of the November release of a new album. “Alone” doesn’t sound goth but it won’t dispel the label that’s dogged Smith since the ’80s, regardless of what his music has sounded like. That’s what […]
Song of the Day 9/26: Scorpions, “Rock You Like a Hurricane”
As Hurricane Helene prepares to strike Florida’s Gulf Coast, I’m reminded of how frequently those storms come up in popular music, at least here in the Western Hemisphere. Hurricanes go all the way back to the source in rock ‘n’ roll. It’s right there in the second verse of Chuck Berry’s “Rock and Roll Music,” […]
Song of the Day 9/25: Los Bravos, “Black Is Black”
Janet Jackson – ‘memba her? – returned to public attention the past few days by weighing in on the Democratic Party’s presidential candidate. “She’s not Black. That’s what I heard. That she’s Indian,” Jackson said of Kamala Harris, whose mother is Indian. “Her father’s white. That’s what I was told. I mean, I haven’t watched […]
Song of the Day 9/24: Wolfgang Mozart, “Eine Ganz Kleine Nachtmusik”
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart dropped a new single this weekend. No, really. Music archivists digging through manuscripts in the Leipzig Municipal Library found the transcription of music for a string trio that, though not in his hand, is credited to “Wolfgang Mozart.” Mozart scholars are over the moon – it’s the classical-music equivalent of a new […]
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