Arts and Entertainment

50 years ago today marked John Lennon's last public concert appearance, with Elton John at New York's Madison Square Garden – to honor a lost bet. "Whatever Gets You Through…

Gotta make it quick today due to Thanksgiving prep, including picking up the bird and getting it brined, which made me think of "Surfin' Bird," the 1963 No. Billboard 4…

Americans love horror stories, and Trump's selection of a cabinet designed mainly to trigger the libs provides the media with plenty of them. As Boz Scaggs related in this blues…

"American Fool" is the name of John Mellencamp's breakthrough 1982 album, the one that led off with "Hurts So Good" and "Jack and Diane," the two biggest hits of his…

This one's for George Frankel, the state senate candidate who wants to employ ex-Green Berets to keep order in high schools. "The Ballad of the Green Berets," written by a…

Yacht Rock might be the only music genre that got its name long after it had passed from prominence. Back when it was made, between the mid-'70s and mid-'80s, the…

The title track to the 1986 debut album by They Might Be Giants is my go-to response to anyone who wants to talk to me about politics these days. To…

No rock singer/songwriter/guitarist has done more while being appreciated less than Bob Mould. Whether with Hüsker Dü, Sugar or solo, he has forged rage, despair and cynicism, alloyed with a…

Record producer Shel Talmy died last week at age 87, and if the name is unfamiliar to you, the music he crafted isn't. The earliest hits by the Kinks and…

I'm not sure why this 30-year-old song popped into my head yesterday – maybe because it's been such a common response from various quarters to various Trump cabinet picks. Weezer…

Prophesies of doom are pretty common in Jamaican music, but they don't necessarily get all minor-key gloomy about it. Willi Williams' "Armagedeon Time" talks about people going hungry and needing…