Arts and Entertainment
Song of the Day 6/13: Billy Ocean, “When the Going Gets Tough, the Tough Get Going”
This song was born in the wrong decade. If it had been written and released before the mid-’70s it would be considered a Carolina beach music classic — it’s got that shag-shuffle beat. Instead Billy Ocean and his co-writers/producers went into the studio in the synth-drenched mid-’80s, dialed up the reverb on the drum track […]
Song of the Day 6/12: The Velvet Underground, “Rock & Roll”
The LP was named “Loaded” because the band’s new record company wanted an album “loaded with hits.” The result was the most pop-oriented set of Lou Reed’s career. Of course, none were actual Top 40 hits, but this one should have been. On the notes of interest front, that’s Doug Yule, not Mo Tucker, on […]
Song of the Day 6/11: Courtney Hadwin, “Hard to Handle”
This clip is from last year, but I didn’t know about it until the weekend, when it popped up on my YouTube feed because I had clicked on a different vocal-competition clip. I almost didn’t watch it because I avoid singing-contest shows in general, but like everybody else I was aware of Susan Boyle, the […]
Song of the Day 6/9: Billy Preston, “That’s the Way God Planned It”
This song, one of the best fusions of rock and gospel ever written, became famous from Preston’s roof-raising performance at George Harrison’s Concert for Bangladesh in 1971, but the original album release in 1969 deserves some love, too, considering the all-star band that backs him on the recording. Preston met the Beatles during the band’s […]
Song of the Day 6/7: Dr. John, “Iko Iko” and “Such a Night” in SCTV’s “Polynesiantown”
In all his long career, through his more than two dozen albums and endless session work, Malcolm John “Mac” Rebennack Jr., who died Thursday at 77, made his strongest public impression in the early ’70s as Dr. John the Night Tripper, a voodoo-inspired New Orleans pianist and singer (he took up piano after a bullet […]
Song of the Day 6/6: Weezer ft. Tears for Fears, “Everybody Wants to Rule the World”
Weezer is finding new life as a cover band for iconic songs of the ’80s. They hit the charts with their recording of Toto’s “Africa” and released a whole LP of covers, “The Teal Album,” in January (to vicious reviews from some critics who either didn’t get or didn’t like the joke), including a nearly […]
Song of the Day 6/5: XTC, “King for a Day”
While Donald Trump is in England having monarch envy, the lads of XTC had his sort pegged back in the Thatcher era. “King for a Day,” which appears on the band’s 1989 album “Oranges and Lemons, was written and sung by bassist Colin Moulding, the less prolific of the band’s two songwriters (guitarist Andy Partridge […]
Song of the Day 6/4: The Kinks, “Sunny Afternoon”
The Kinks had a string of hits during the original British Invasion that became instant garage-rock classics. “Sunny Afternoon,” released in the summer of 1966, continued Ray Davies’ move toward more sophisticated music and socially conscious lyrics that had begun with “Well Respected Man” the year before. It also demonstrated his strong music-hall leanings. Davies […]
Song of the Day 6/3: 13th Floor Elevators, “It’s All Over Now, Baby Blue”
Roky Erickson, one of rock’s most famous burnout cases, died Friday in Texas. Erickson’s 13th Floor Elevators, formed when he was still a teenager, pioneered psychedelic rock (and championed psychedelics) until Erickson had a psychotic break and was diagnosed as schizophrenic. He was institutionalized for three years and subjected to electroshock therapy, breaking up the […]
Song of the Day 6/2: Charles Bradley, “Lucifer”
Two posthumous singles by the late Charles Bradley, the Screaming Eagle of Soul, have been released in the past month. They were recorded in late 2016, shortly after Bradley learned he had stomach cancer and was undergoing chemotherapy. He died less than a year later. Bradley, who had little education, usually wrote by ad-libbing vocals […]
Song of the Day 6/1: Paul Simon, “Mother and Child Reunion”
Ever since “Graceland” Paul Simon has been scorned over his penchant for what’s now called cultural appropriation. But time was he wasn’t universally condemned for traveling abroad to tap into foreign musical traditions. Back in the day musicians celebrated the broader exposure. “Mother and Child Reunion,” for example, helped introduce reggae to a broad U.S. […]
Song of the Day 5/31: Leon Redbone, “Diddy Wah Diddy”
Leon Redbone died Thursday. As best anyone could tell, he was 69. Most people first saw him on TV in the mid-’70s, maybe on Saturday Night Live or the Tonight Show. He usually came on with the briefest of introductions, sometimes alone, sometimes accompanied by, say, a single clarinet, a droll, mysterious man out of […]
‘Bulo’s Fave Tunes: May 2019
A couple of slices of Orbison Noir are but two (or three) of the many standouts in a great month for music. Arranged alphabetically as always. Enjoy this month’s feast for your ears: The band’s name is Goon: He may already be too big for the Gild Hall, but we’re trying: One of our fave […]
Recent Comments