Arts and Entertainment
‘Bulo’s Fave Tunes Of 2023: #’s 20-11
20. 19. 18. 17. 16. 15. 14. 13. 12. My favorite match of song and video this year. A little tab’ll do ya’: 11.
Song of the Day 12/28: The Smothers Brothers, “Boil That Cabbage Down”
Tom Smothers, the comic half of the squabbling Smothers Brothers, died Tuesday at age 86. Though they’ll always be remembered for having their top-rated variety show axed by CBS in 1969 for its criticism of the war in Vietnam, I remember them more for bringing some levity to audiences years earlier, during the Great Folk […]
‘Bulo’s Fave Tunes Of 2023: #’s 40-31
40. ‘You don’t like me then, you won’t like me now.’ 39. 38. 37. 36. 35. 34. 33. 32. 31.
‘Bulo’s Fave Tunes Of 2023: #’s 50-41
This could be the best list I’ve ever put together. Not b/c the tunes were necessarily better this year, but because I listened to the tunes without the videos, and wasn’t influenced by a great video perhaps elevating a not-so-great song onto the list. I started out with 118 songs before gradually whittling them down […]
Song of the Day 12/25: Top 10 Most-Viewed Christmas Songs of the Day
According to one of those sketchy “favorite (noun) of every state” lists, Mariah Carey’s “All I Want for Christmas Is You” is the most popular Christmas song in Delaware. Well, maybe, but not here at Delaware Liberal. I’ve been running the 12 Days and Only 12 Days of Christmas Music for five years now, and […]
Song of the Day 12/24: Bruce Cockburn, “Cry of a Tiny Babe”
Most retellings of the nativity understandably dwell on the spiritual aspects. Canadian singer-songwriter Bruce Cockburn went in another direction. I wanted to put it into terms people can relate to now, because the story itself is so familiar, that its been reduced to traditional images that really work against our understanding of it as a […]
Song of the Day 12/23: John Prine, “Christmas in Prison”
In the five years I’ve been writing the Song of the Day feature, nobody has compiled more page views than John Prine. Prine loved Christmas – he told Rolling Stone once that he used to keep a Christmas tree up all year – but when he finally released a Christmas album in 1993, it was […]
Song of the Day 12/22: The Beach Boys, “Alone on Christmas Day”
You’re probably familiar with “Little Saint Nick,” the Beach Boys’ tune about Santa’s new hot rod. Alternate transporation for Santa was a popular theme back in the ’50s and ’60s, when various songs placed Kris Kringle in airplanes, helicopters, rocket ships, UFOs – anything but that so-19th-century sleigh. It debuted in 1963, then appeared on […]
Song of the Day 12/21: Mannheim Steamroller, “Good King Wenceslas”
Mannheim Steamroller sounds like the name of a Krautrock outfit, but it’s really mostly one guy, composer/producer Chip Davis, who would have a footnote in music history even without the Steamroller. He was the composer of the music for “Convoy,” the trucker anthem that swept the nation and helped kick off the CB radio craze […]
Song of the Day 12/20: Seymour Swine and the Squeelers, “Blue Christmas”
Elvis Presley made this cowboy Christmas song a classic, but I can’t listen to it without thinking of this porcine parody, which pretty much ruined Elvis’ version for me. Yes, I know it’s politically incorrect to laugh at stutterers. So does everybody else, and they’ve made this a popular if polarizing record anyway. The novelty […]
DL Open Thread Wednesday, Dec. 20, 2023
The media is having a newsgasm because Colorado’s Supreme Court barred Trump from the ballot there, based on the 14th Amendment’s insurrection clause. The appeal to SCOTUS will determine the issue, and you can find dozens of pundits who’ll tell you exactly what they’re going to do with the case. Few of them agree, but […]
Song of the Day 12/19: The Ronettes, “Sleigh Ride”
Here’s another piece of evidence supporting the theory that time makes songs Christmas classics: The LP “A Christmas Gift for You from Phillies Records” was a flop when it was released. It wasn’t until 1972, when it was rereleased by Apple Records (with the title’s prepositional phrase changed to “from Phil Spector”) that people realized […]
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