Arts and Entertainment
‘Bulo’s Fave Tunes Of 2019: #’s 30-21
Some of our most senior readers have requested that I slow down the pace of this thread, all the better to savor the tunes in a more languid fashion. I’m all for languor, so: 30. 29. 28. 27. 26. 25. 24. 23. 22. 21.
Song of the Day 12/17: Louis Armstrong w/ Benny Carter and his Orchestra, “Christmas Night in Harlem”
TRIGGER WARNING: When this was written by Raymond Scott in 1934, it was perfectly acceptable for white men to mock black society and call it comedy (this was shortly after the Harlem Renaissance was put to rest by the Depression). Some people will find the original by the Paul Whiteman Orchestra, linked below, to be […]
‘Bulo’s Fave Tunes Of 2019: #’s 50-31
OK, let’s get a few things out of the way first. I’m a 68-year-old white guy. I consider myself musically adventurous–for a 68-year-old white guy. Some genres just don’t appeal to me. ‘Dance pop’, whatever that is, being one of them. Rap, while represented on my list, will invariably be underrepresented. Death metal will not […]
Song of the Day 12/16: Johnny and Edgar Winter, “Please Come Home for Christmas”
Brothers singing harmony always sound special, but we rarely got to hear these two together because they each led their own bands. Both Johnny and Edgar were musical prodigies, performing together even as kids. They first teamed up on this holiday blues in 1961, the year after it was written and recorded by Charles Brown. […]
Song of the Day 12/15: Donny Hathaway, “This Christmas”
Donny Hathaway had a lofty goal when he wrote and sang what’s easily the most soulful song ever to attain the status of a Christmas classic — he wanted it to represent a distinctly African-American expression of the holiday. Sadly, Hathaway died years before it ascended to the yuletide pantheon. Hathaway started out working for […]
Song of the Day 12/14: John Coltrane Quartet, “My Favorite Things”
I totally get it if you’re one of those people who can’t stand Christmas music. Even people who don’t mind it are sick of it by this date. I therefore observe a strict rule about Christmas music: 12 days of it is plenty. So starting today I’ll feature holiday music through Christmas day, then that’s […]
Song of the Day 12/13: Prince, “I Could Never Take the Place of Your Man”
In his heyday, Prince was often compared to Michael Jackson, but while both could sing and dance like nobody else, Prince also wrote his own songs, produced his own albums and might have been the most underrated great guitarist in rock. He wrote this song in 1982, when he still mixed a lot of pop […]
Song of the Day 12/12: The Tubes, “What Do You Want From Life?”
The Tubes were — actually, still are — a comic theater-rock troupe that formed in San Francisco in the early ’70s. They never sold all that many records, but their live shows were legendarily loopy, and they created some catchy tunes while they were at it. Their biggest hit came in the MTV era with […]
Song of the Day 12/10: Sammy Davis Jr., “The Candy Man”
Today’s song is in honor of former White House physician Dr. Ronny Jackson, who yesterday filed to run for Congress in a deep-red Texas district. Dr. Jackson, who also served in that position for presidents Bush and Obama, was known as the Candy Man for his willingness to dispense pharmaceuticals without any of that bothersome […]
Song of the Day 12/6: The Rolling Stones, “You Got the Silver”
It was 50 years ago today that the Peace ‘n’ Love era ended with the free concert at Altamont Speedway outside Oakland, infamous for the stabbing death of a young fan at the hands of the Hell’s Angels. It was just one day earlier that the band dropped its classic “Let It Bleed” LP, which […]
Song of the Day 12/4: Willie Nelson and Merle Haggard, “It’s All Going to Pot”
Weed-culture icon Willie Nelson told a TV interviewer the other day that he’s given up smoking marijuana because his 86-year-old lungs won’t take it anymore. So in tribute to America’s Secretary of Cannabis, here’s him and ol’ Merle paying tribute to Mother Nature. The video was made in the recording studio, and I don’t think […]
Song of the Day 12/3: Robbie Robertson and Van Morrison, “I Hear You Paint Houses”
Martin Scorsese’s new film “The Irishman” has sent the book it’s based on, Delaware prosecutor-turned-author Charlie Brandt’s Frank Sheeran confessional “I Heard You Paint Houses,” to the top of the New York Times bestseller list 15 years after its initial publication. As with most Scorsese movies, Robbie Robertson produced the soundtrack, which includes a couple […]
A Serious Question
And one you’ll never get corporate-humping journalists to ask corporate-humping Democrats: Why are proposals from Elizabeth Warren and Bernie Sanders called “unrealistic” when the favorite centrist candidate, punch-drunk Joe Biden, is basing his campaign on the oh-so-realistic claim that Republicans will have an epiphany? That’s a fuck-ton less realistic than the idea that we can […]
Recent Comments