Arts and Entertainment
‘Bulo’s Fave Tunes: June 2019
Another monster month, aided and abetted by some songs I’d missed that made NPR’s best songs list for the first half of 2019. I’m cheating on this one, but it’s a classic from the new 25th anniversary re-release of perhaps my all-time fave roots/Americana album: BTW: Here’s a review of the re-release of ‘King Of […]
Song of the Day 6/27: Jakob Dylan and Jade Castrinos, “Go Where You Wanna Go”
In case you hadn’t noticed, Laurel Canyon is having a moment, and it’s not just the new Springsteen album. Jakob Dylan has put together a documentary called “Echo in the Canyon” about the music scene in that part of Los Angeles in the late ’60s. The film has gotten mixed reviews — one big criticism […]
Song of the Day 6/26: John Prine, “Lake Marie”
This isn’t John Prine’s most famous song, but it’s the one that many of his fans — including Bob Dylan — consider his greatest. Unlike most of his story songs, this one has an inscrutable plot — each of the three verses seems unrelated to the others. The first is about how the Twin Lakes, […]
Song of the Day 6/25: George Harrison, “Wah Wah”
Here’s another song that, for reasons I can’t fathom, has never been employed for its obvious calling as a TV commercial. It’s Hoagiefest time at the region’s favorite convenience store, and though the chain has in the past used Beatles-esque music and Peter Max-style visuals, it has never made the no-brainer decision to use the […]
Song of the Day 6/24: Blue Swede, “Hooked on a Feeling”
“Hooked on a Feeling” had been a hit twice and been recorded by several artists before it hit No. 1 in America in 1974 with this version by a group of Swedes, who reached the top by doing a cover of a cover. The song was written by Mark James, best known for writing “Suspicious […]
Song of the Day 6/22: Death Cab for Cutie, “Cath…”
Huzzah! Tonight’s Firefly lineup actually includes a band whose name I recognize. After a string of successful albums in the ’00s, Death Cab seemed to peak in 2008 with its “Narrow Stairs” album, which included this melancholy retelling of “Wuthering Heights.” Songwriter Ben Gibbard, who started the band as a solo project, is known for […]
Song of the Day 6/21: Yes, “Your Move/All Good People”
A message slipped into this chess metaphor was as close to political as Yes ever got. If you only heard it on AM radio when it was released as a single in 1971, you could easily miss the “Give Peace a Chance” quote in the background vocals (according to Jon Anderson, the song is actually […]
Song of the Day 6/19: Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band, “Kitty’s Back”
As an antidote to the new Bruce Springsteen album, a pleasant enough departure from his usual sound but about as energetic as a Perry Como record, here’s the song that might be the most rollicking rave-up in his catalog. There’s no debating that “The Wild, The Innocent and the E Street Shuffle” represented the peak […]
Song of the Day 6/18: The Thorns, “No Blue Sky”
The Thorns was an interesting experiment. Solo artists Shawn Mullins, Pete Droge and Matthew Sweet began working together as a CS&N-style acoustic harmony group in 2002 for an album that turned out to be a one-off, but it wasn’t for lack of effort. The trio and backing band toured for almost a year behind the […]
Song of the Day 6/17: Al Kooper, “God Sheds His Grace on Thee”
Al Kooper is one of rock’s Zelig characters. His career started in the 1950s as a member of the Royal Teens, responsible for the single “Short Shorts.” In the 1960s he co-wrote “This Diamond Ring,” a hit for Gary Lewis and the Playboys, founded Blood, Sweat & Tears, took part in the famous “Super Session” […]
Song of the Day 6/16: New York Philharmonic Orchestra, “Fanfare for the Common Man”
This is probably the only piece of music in the classical canon inspired by a political speech. Henry A. Wallace, FDR’s third-term vice president, proclaimed in early 1942, “Some have spoken of the ‘American Century.’ I say that the century on which we are entering — the century which will come out of this war […]
Song of the Day 6/15: The James Gang, “Tend My Garden/Garden Gate”
Back when Midwestern power trios like Grand Funk Railroad ruled American rock, none was better than the classic lineup of the James Gang — Jim Fox on drums, Dale Peters on bass and Joe Walsh singing and playing guitar. Walsh, who of course went on to later fame solo and with the Eagles, wrote most […]
Song of the Day 6/14: Baltimora, “Tarzan Boy”
After that ’80s-sounding song yesterday, I got to wondering what would be the most ’80s song ever — the one that best embodied the sound of the decade, for good and ill. Online lists mostly look for the best ’80s songs, so you get hits by Michael Jackson and Madonna, and that Simple Minds tune […]
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