Arts and Entertainment
Song of the Day 5/14: Frank Zappa and the Mothers of Invention, “Sofa No. 1” and “Sofa No. 2”
Happy Mother’s Day. Get off your feet and onto a couple of sofas. From “One Size Fits All,” the 1975 LP that was the last one credited to the Mothers of Invention, who would have been the Mothers until record company execs balked.
Song of the Day 5/12: Bob Marley, “Could You Be Loved (demo)”
Before Bob Marley recorded this song with the Wailers for his last LP, “Uprising,” he recorded a series of demos, experimenting with its key and tempo. Some of them sound better than the more slickly produced original. This early version, played to a beat box, is a little faster and in a higher key than […]
Song of the Day 5/11: Imagine Dragons, “Crushed”
Imagine Dragons, in case you don’t keep up with such things, is about as corporate as rock bands get these days, selling out arenas with a generic sound that has earned them as much scorn today as Nickelback and Creed did in theirs. So I don’t know whether it’s a surprise or not that they’ve […]
Song of the Day 5/10: Bill Withers, “Lovely Day”
Been waiting for months for a day like this, and I don’t mean just the weather. This 1977 smooth soul classic was Bill Withers’ last Top 40 solo single. Though it only reached No. 30 on the Hot 100, it scored much better on the R&B chart (No. 6) and marked Withers’ first appearance in […]
Song of the Day 5/9: Fine Young Cannibals, “Don’t Look Back”
Fine Young Cannibals burned brightly but briefly. Their year was 1989, when their second album, “The Raw & the Cooked,” went double platinum and spawned two No. 1 singles. Their overnight success, five years in the making, ended a lot quicker than that — though there was no acrimonious breakup, they never recorded another LP. […]
Song of the Day 5/6: Go West, “The King of Wishful Thinking”
You have to feel a bit sorry for Charles III. Not only does he have to start a new job at age 74, he has to listen to an endless debate about whether the job should continue to exist. My guess is yes: the royal family reportedly generates the equivalent of nearly $2 billion annually […]
Song of the Day 5/5: Rage Against the Machine, “Guerrilla Radio”
The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame released its list of honorees for 2023 the other day and, as usual, the headliners don’t scream rock and roll. Nobody begrudges Willie Nelson any honor that comes his way, but he just turned 90 and he’s been a country music legend longer than most modern hitmakers have […]
Song of the Day 5/3: Kiss, “Love Gun”
Apparently every American citizen is now required to voice a position on transgendered youth. Paul Stanley, lead singer and rhythm guitarist of glam rockers Kiss, went public the other day with his take — he thinks it’s a “sad and dangerous fad” — which brought him praise from conservatives and charges of laughable hypocrisy from […]
Song of the Day 5/2: Gordon Lightfoot, “If You Could Read My Mind”
Flags in Canada should be at half-staff today — singer-songwriter Gordon Lightfoot, considered the nation’s troubadour, died yesterday at age 84. Lightfoot, who came out of the same Toronto folk scene that nurtured Joni Mitchell, Neil Young and Leonard Cohen, first reached the Canadian charts in 1962. But he was little known in the US […]
‘Bulo’s Fave Tunes: April 2023
What strikes your fancy or, in the case of dance numbers, your fanny?: Might want to do the Horizontal Mambo to this one: MY kind of band!: Already the second song from this artist to make it on to my Best-Ofs this year. Love the Toni Morrison mash-up: Whoa. Last-minute addition, and it’s quite a […]
Song of the Day 4/30: The Heavy Heavy, “Go Down River”
I caught half of this song on the radio the other day and thought it was some rediscovered ’60s nugget. Turns out the Heavy Heavy is a Brighton, UK, band led by Will Turner and Georgie Fuller. Their shared vocals and psychedelic jangle give them a Delaney and Bonnie vibe, especially on this tune, the […]
Song of the Day 4/28: Marvin Gaye, “Let’s Get It On”
Guest post by Nathan Arizona There aren’t all that many chords and chord progressions in music. If a songwriter uses some that already exist, is that plagiarism? Can he or she even avoid it? What if the rhythm is similar too? Is it plagiarism if a song is strongly “reminiscent” of another one? Is it […]
Song of the Day 4/27: Yoon Suk-yeol, “American Pie”
Joe Biden hosted a state dinner at the White House and, I guess because guest of honor Yoon Suk-yeol is president of South Korea, he turned into karaoke night. After being told “American Pie” was Yoon’s favorite song when he was in school, Biden said, “Well, we want to hear you sing it.” Yoon obliged. […]
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