Arts and Entertainment
Song of the Day 11/23: Thin Lizzy, “Fight or Fall”
Fans of Irish rockers Thin Lizzy all have the same lament: If you went by classic rock radio you’d think the band only released three songs. Their breakthrough hit, at least in the British Isles, was a rocked-out cover of the folk song “Whiskey in the Jar,” released in 1972. It was another four years […]
Song of the Day 11/22: The Electric Prunes, “I Had Too Much to Dream (Last Night)”
Garage rock wasn’t called that when bands were actually playing it in the mid-’60s — the name came a few years later, when the “Nuggets” collection was released in 1972 to collect what were by then forgotten tracks. (Yes, kids, that’s how quickly popular music evolved back then.) The name referred to music that critics […]
Song of the Day 11/20: The Undisputed Truth, “Papa Was a Rollin’ Stone”
This song won a Grammy for the Temptations in 1972 and is considered one of their greatest tracks. But it was first recorded and released earlier that year by a different Motown act, the Undisputed Truth. Producer Norman Whitfield and Barrett Strong wrote the tune to exploit the socially conscious “psychedelic soul” genre that by […]
Song of the Day 11/19: Two Sheds Jackson, “Long Long Way”
Guest post by Nathan Arizona The composer Arthur Jackson had two sheds, and a nickname to match. But he was furious when his interviewer kept calling him Two Sheds and asking him about the sheds instead of his new symphony. This was a Monty Python sketch, though, so naturally the interviewer kept doing it. But […]
Song of the Day 11/18: Pink Floyd, “Pigs (Three Different Ones)”
With feral pet pigs running wild in Delaware, it seems like the right time for Roger Waters’ bitter anti-capitalist prog-blues workout. The sort of pigs he was writing about in 1977 are of course still with us.
Song of the Day 11/17: The Philly Pops, “Gonna Fly Now”
The Philly Pops, founded in 1979, announced that it’s throwing in the towel after this season’s Christmas concerts. Cultural institutions have been in decline for years, but the Covid pandemic seems to have delivered the coup de grace. Frank Giordano, the group’s president, told the Inquirer he made up his mind to shutter the organization […]
Song of the Day 11/16: Major Lance, “Since I Lost My Baby’s Love”
El Somnambulo isn’t the only one who loves the soul music of the ’60s. There’s an entire scene built around it in England known as Northern Soul. The name has nothing to do with where the music comes from but rather where its fans reside: the northern industrial part of England, especially Manchester, where people […]
Song of the Day 11/15: Roberta Flack, “The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face”
Roberta Flack, the first person to win back-to-back Record of the Year Grammies, announced that she can no longer sing. The 85-year-old chanteuse is suffering from ALS, which is also robbing her of her speaking ability. This song gave Flack, who spent several years teaching music and singing in Washington, DC, clubs before going pro […]
Song of the Day 11/14: Bruce Springsteen, “One Step Up”
Martin Luther King’s moral arc of the universe is, by definition, not a straight line. Sometimes it takes two steps back. The third single from “Tunnel of Love,” Springsteen’s 1987 album about the breakup of his marriage to Julianne Phillips, reached No. 13. Springsteen plays all the instruments on the song except the drum machine. […]
Song of the Day 11/13: Jerry Butler, “Only the Strong Survive”
Bruce Springsteen has just released an album of the ’60s R&B songs he grew up listening to, with this as the title track. While Bruce does a passable job on them, mainly they made me want to listen to the originals again. Springsteen isn’t even the biggest name to cover what became Jerry Butler’s highest-charting […]
Song of the Day 11/12: The Kinks, “Victoria”
Guest post by Nathan Arizona A lot is going on with the British monarchy. There’s a third King Charles after 337 years. The second Queen Elizabeth, it turns out, couldn’t live forever. The “red-headed stepchild” is still sulking loudly in California. Diana fixation is coming back with a new season of “The Crown,” although she’s […]
Song of the Day 11/11: Eric Bogle, “No Man’s Land (The Green Fields of France)”
At 11 a.m. France fell silent for one minute to mark the end of World War I on the Western Front. It’s a solemn day — nearly 1.4 million French soldiers died in the conflict and the northeastern part of the country was devastated by four years of warfare — marked by military parades and […]
Song of the Day 11/10: Al Kooper, “Brand New Day”
Al Kooper spent the ’60s and ’70s showing that he could do almost anything musically, from writing songs to playing as a sideman for Bob Dylan, the Rolling Stones, Jimi Hendrix and dozens of others, to founding Blood, Sweat & Tears. Amid everything else, Kooper found time to write and record two songs for the […]
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