Arts and Entertainment
Song of the Day 9/27: The Beatles, “Back in the USSR”
One one level it’s just a parody of American exceptionalism as espoused by Chuck Berry and the Beach Boys. But it doesn’t seem so funny when Russia flexes its military muscle. At least that’s how some people felt when this appeared as the first track on the double-LP White Album, released in November 1968 — […]
Song of the Day 9/26: Paul McCartney, “My Brave Face”
Paul McCartney scored a couple of big hits in the ’80s with other artists, but his duets with Stevie Wonder and Michael Jackson weren’t musical collaborations. McCartney wrote “Ebony and Ivory” and asked Wonder to sing it with him. Jackson wrote “The Girl Is Mine.” In 1987 McCartney’s manager suggested he get together with Elvis […]
‘Attend The Tale’: First Draft Complete!
“Attend the Tale of Speaker Pete His fall from grace is well nigh complete His cargo shorts and his sun-baked pate Did nothing to save Speaker Pete from his fate With KMG he felt complete Did Speaker Pete The Laughingstock of Rehoboth. He ran the show in Dover Town He scared the minions, then chopped […]
Song of the Day 9/25: The Righteous Brothers, “Unchained Melody”
According to its publisher, this song has been recorded more than 1,500 times by nearly 700 different artists. Most listeners agree that Bobby Hatfield of the Righteous Brothers sang the definitive version, and most people nowadays are familiar with the song recorded for a 1965 LP. That became a No. 4 hit despite starting out […]
Song of the Day 9/23: Modern English, “I Melt With You”
Vladimir Putin is threatening to use nuclear weapons to bail himself out of the war he needlessly started. That strikes me as similar to a man who’s freezing to death deciding to set himself on fire, but it has frightened a lot people. We’ll have to see if the sentiment adds to the stockpile of […]
Song of the Day 9/22: Warren Zevon, “A Certain Girl”
This Allen Toussaint oldie is for my friend Jonny, who’s crushing on a co-worker who’s already got a boyfriend. Warren Zevon recorded it for the 1980 LP “Bad Luck Streak in Dancing School,” but it works best as a live number. The original by Ernie K-Doe was released in 1961, one of a string of […]
Song of the Day 9/21: Blondie, “One Way or Another”
Trump got his special master. Now will the special master get him? Donnie Two Scoops is more slippery than an eel — uglier, too. But one way or another… Debbie Harry’s lyrics were inspired by an ex-boyfriend who turned stalker, causing her to move out of New Jersey. The music is by Nigel Harrison, Blondie’s […]
Song of the Day 9/20: Freddy Fender, “Across the Borderline”
Operation Immigrant Dump needed Donald Trump to steal the idea from ’60s Southern racists, Texas Gov. Greg Abbott to put it into practice, and Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis to fuck it up before it captured the news cycle. My question is, now that they’re turned the “immigrant caravans” of their imagination into real ones, are […]
Song of the Day 9/19: Elton John, “Funeral for a Friend/Love Lies Bleeding”
Though Queen Elizabeth remains dead, Britain’s almost endless period of mourning — even our British friends said yesterday that enough was enough — will come to a close today with another day-long ceremony culminating in her burial. The music will be somber — sorry, I meant sombre — but it won’t include this Elton John […]
Song of the Day 9/18: The James Gang, “Funk #49”
If you weren’t a fan of the Foo Fighters you probably never heard of Taylor Hawkins before he died in March at age 50. But you’ve definitely heard of some of his admirers. Dave Grohl assembled them at London’s Wembley Stadium two weeks ago for a tribute concert, and the lineup rivaled any all-star concert […]
Song of the Day 9/16: King Harvest, “Dancing in the Moonlight”
Connoisseurs of yacht rock trace the roots of the retroactively-defined genre to the Southern California soft-rock boom of the mid-’70s, so this song is technically a precursor. No matter. One-hit wonder King Harvest released it in 1971, and though it only reached No. 13 on the Hot 100, it’s had a long afterlife on soundtracks. […]
Song of the Day 9/15: World Party, “Way Down Now”
The TV watching public (which is everybody but me, basically) is in a tizzy. The streaming services that have replaced cable TV, which replaced broadcast TV, are slashing programming, removing archived shows and pulling the plug on green-lighted productions, all because subscriber growth has slowed. Yeah, that’s the ticket — raise prices and reduce product, […]
Song of the Day 9/14: Smokey Robinson and the Miracles, “The Tears of a Clown”
Colin Bonini always reminded me of a clown. Not figuratively, literally. He’s a large man — his everyday shoes are clown-sized — but his smile isn’t painted on, it’s real. All he lacks is a squirting flower in his lapel. Bonini is an old-fashioned conservative who believes that taxes are too high because government spends […]
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