Arts and Entertainment
‘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. […]
Song of the Day 4/26: Harry Belafonte, “Day-O (The Banana Boat Song)”
A 96-year lifetime of EGOT fame and anti-racist activism and what is Harry Belafonte best remembered for today? A calypso-flavored Jamaican work song he recorded nearly 70 years ago, because a snippet of it has survived into popular culture as a stadium chant. Belafonte trained as an actor but broke into stardom as a singer […]
Song of the Day 4/25: Bobby Sherman, “Easy Come, Easy Go”
Tucker Carlson has joined Glenn Beck and Bill O’Reilly on the list of Fox News blowhards who angered and concerned liberals only to lose their soapbox when Ol’ Rupe pulled it out from under them. Any bets on who does better in the divorce? Bobby Sherman was a teen idol for about a year and […]
Song of the Day 4/24: Old & In the Way, “Old and In the Way”
This one’s for Dianne Feinstein who, almost everyone agrees, is both old and in the way. Feinstein was on the San Francisco Board of Supervisors when those hippies Jerry Garcia and David Grisman put together their bluegrass supergroup in 1973 and named the project after this Grisman tune. They were not yet 30. Grisman is […]
Song of the Day 4/21: Katrina and the Waves, “Walking on Sunshine”
For no better reason than the nice weather, a slice of sunshine pop that’s become a standard since its release in 1985, when it reached No. 9 on the Hot 100. It’s been used in countless ads and soundtracks ever since. Technically, Katrina and the Waves weren’t a one-hit wonder — they had two other […]
Song of the Day 4/20: Charlie Worsham, “I Hope I’m Stoned (When Jesus Takes Me Home)”
John Carney’s attitude toward cannabis is the same as Nancy Reagan’s — he just says no, and there’s no way that will change today. Especially not today. Mississippi singer-songwriter Charlie Worsham sang this tune he calls “stoner gospel” music in concert for years before he released this official version in 2019. He was touring with […]
Song of the Day 4/19: The Bar-Kays, “Soul Finger”
Is Bear man the local version of Florida man? Back in the Before Times, in December 2017, Bear man Michael Rohana went to an Ugly Christmas Sweater party at the Franklin Institute. The then-24-year-old drank too much, snuck into the roped-off display of 10 of China’s famous terra cotta warriors and, horsing around, broke off […]
Song of the Day 4/18: George Thorogood and the Destroyers, “I Drink Alone”
Get-well wishes go out to homeboy George Thorogood, who announced the cancellation of the first month of his 50th-anniversary tour due to “a very serious medical condition that will require immediate surgery and quite a few weeks of recouperation [sic] and healing.” The 73-year-old blues guitarist’s reps told the News Journal he’s aiming to be […]
Song of the Day 4/17: The Beatles, “Tomorrow Never Knows”
The Dominion-Fox lawsuit has been postponed until tomorrow. Will it even happen, or will the parties reach a settlement first? As Ringo Starr once put it, tomorrow never knows, an observation that became this song’s title when John Lennon thought its working title, “The Void,” would be off-putting. Lennon’s trippy meditation on his LSD experience, […]
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