Arts and Entertainment
Song of the Day 11/22: Daryl Hall and John Oates, “I Can’t Go For That (No Can Do)”
Here’s the proof that we’re living in the most contentious times since the Civil War: Daryl Hall is suing John Oates. The lawsuit, filed in Nashville, is sealed, so we don’t know what it’s about. But that link to Philadelphia magazine includes an embedded video of an interview Hall did with Bill Maher last year, […]
Song of the Day 11/20: The Afghan Whigs, “I Know Your Little Secret”
Bethany Hall Long’s secrets don’t seem all that secret at this point. She might as well face the music. The Afghan Whigs, the vehicle for frontman and songwriter Greg Dulli, formed in Cincinnati around the time the grunge movement was getting started in Seattle, and in 1989 they were signed by Sub-Pop, the label that […]
Song of the Day 11/18: John Fred and His Playboy Band, “Judy in Disguise (With Glasses)”
Hard to believe it took this long, but it appears the George Santos saga is reaching its denouement. The guy who makes Donald Trump’s lying seem timid seems to have gotten his money from the family of an influential Miami lawyer, and the results of a House Ethics Committee investigation are so damning that it […]
Song of the Day 11/17: Brass Construction, “Movin'”
A little bit of Friday funk for Ruth Briggs King, who quit the General Assembly this week, effective immediately, because she moved into a new home just outside the district she represents. Credit where it’s due: Many’s the lawmaker who might try to finesse the rules to stay in office. Brass Construction was a Brooklyn-based […]
Song of the Day 11/16: The All-American Rejects, “Dirty Little Secret”
I’ll let you figure out who this song is dedicated to. I saw these guys when they made a radio station appearance at WSTW a decade or so ago. My lasting impression was of their lead singer, Tyson Ritter. He’s also an actor, and like a lot of Hollywood types, he’s tiny, like a human […]
Song of the Day 11/15: The Four Seasons, “Silence Is Golden”
Bethany Hall-Long is a too young to have been a fan of this tune when it came out in 1964 as the B-side to the No. 1 single “Rag Doll,” which like “Silence Is Golden” was a product of the Four Seasons’ hit songwriting team of Bob Crewe and Bod Gaudio. It didn’t get a […]
Song of the Day 11/14: Martha and the Vandellas, “Nowhere to Run”
So Bethany Hall-Long thinks she can brush her money troubles under the rug? Martha and the Vandellas have a message for her. Martha and the Vandellas took this Holland-Dozier-Holland banger – the percussion includes snow chains – to No. 8 on the Hot 100 in 1965. The song got one notable cover: On her 1971 […]
Song of the Day 11/13: Buffy Sainte Marie, “Universal Soldier”
Buffy Sainte-Marie has been in the news recently because a documentary has cast strong doubt on her claim to indigenous ancestry. She has long claimed she was born on a Cree reservation in western Canada before being adopted by the Massachusetts couple who raised her, but relatives have always denied this. The Cree nation, for […]
Song of the Day 11/12: The Pretenders, “Brass in Pocket”
Another entry on my Greatest Songs by Women ballot, this was the hit that ushered in the ’80s – in Great Britain, at least. It was the third single off the Pretenders’ debut album, released in fall 1979, and it hit No. 1 in UK when the new year began, making it the first No. […]
Song of the Day 11/11: Paul Simon, “Armistice Day”
We don’t call it that any more, of course. Armistice Day honors the end of the war that was going to end all wars. After the peace failed, so did the idea of honoring it. Instead we honor those who fought in all the wars we’ve engaged in since. Though it was released on his […]
Song of the Day 11/10: Jefferson Airplane, “White Rabbit”
Grace Slick faded relatively young, but back in the ’60s she was among the most important female artists in rock, the face of the San Francisco sound that turned made psychedelia the soundtrack to the Summer of Love. Slick joined the Jefferson Airplane in 1966, when singer Signe Anderson quit after the birth of her […]
Song of the Day 11/9: Janis Joplin, “Mercedes Benz”
Several Janis Joplin songs will make WXPN’s Greatest Songs by Women Countdown next month. This, the last one she ever recorded, got my vote. Joplin recorded the tune in one take on Oct. 1, 1970, three days before she died. She wrote it two months earlier in a bar in Port Chester, N.Y., by riffing […]
Song of the Day 11/8: Kristin Hersh, “Me and My Charms”
I engaged in lots of strategic voting when I filled out my list of the 10 greatest songs by women for WXPN. I didn’t agonize over which Joni Mitchell song to include, because I figure she’ll have 20 entries among the 885-song countdown. She doesn’t need my help. And while the rules allow any song […]
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