Arts and Entertainment
Song of the Day 7/22: Elvis Costello, “Radio, Radio”
WDEL is holding an open house today from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. to celebrate its 100th anniversary, and I’ll be on the air with Rick Jensen at 11 a.m. You better do as you were told: You better listen to the radio. This was the song that got Elvis Costello banned from “Saturday Night […]
Song of the Day 7/21: David Bowie, “I’m Afraid of Americans”
David Bowie included this one, co-written with Brian Eno, on his 1997 album “Earthlings.” As is so often the case, its point has been sharpened in the years since its release. Though the video’s critique of American culture centers on guns, Bowie’s intent was broader. A press release for the LP quoted him: It’s not […]
Song of the Day 7/20: Little Anthony and the Imperials, “Tears on My Pillow”
In honor of my cat, Little Anthony, who passed on this morning, age 17. Jerome Anthony Gourdine started out as the lead singer for the group that became the Imperials, and that’s how they were billed on the label of this, their first single under that name (leader Clarence Collins first called the group the […]
Song of the Day 7/19: War, “Slippin’ Into Darkness”
After two albums with Eric Burdon, who left the band in the middle of a tour, War was on its second LP without him when it scored its first hit in 1971. “Slippin’ Into Darkness” doesn’t really get started until two minutes in, but its funky groove kicked off several years of hits for the […]
Song of the Day 7/18: Dan Auerbach, “Shine on Me”
As centuries go, this one totally sucks so far, and I can’t see it doing enough in the second half to make up for this shitshow. So I’m going to keep looking for music that lightens the mood, like this tune off Black Key Dan Auerbach’s second solo LP, 2017’s “Waiting on a Song,” recorded […]
Song of the Day 7/17: Billy Bragg, “Waiting for the Great Leap Forwards”
Billy Bragg wrote this upbeat sing-along, a “wait ’til next year!” anthem for progressives, after Margaret Thatcher’s Tories swept the 1987 general elections. He called it “my way of owning up to the ambiguities of being a political pop star while stating clearly that I still believed in Sam Cooke’s promise that a change was […]
Song of the Day 7/16: The Delfonics, “La-La (Means I Love You)”
William “Poogie” Hart, whose soaring falsetto as lead singer of the Delfonics helped define Philly soul, died Thursday in Philadelphia at age 77. Hart and his brother Wilbert had formed vocal groups with various classmates at Overbrook High, but Hart was singing on his job at a barbershop when an impressario named Stan Watson heard […]
Song of the Day 7/15: The New Pornographers, “The Laws Have Changed”
I have no idea what prompted Carl Newman to write “It was crime at the time but the laws we changed ’em” — this song appeared on the band’s second LP, “Electric Version,” back in 2003, and besides, they’re Canadian — but it certainly seems to apply these days, doesn’t it? Except nowadays the title […]
Song of the Day 7/13: Graham Gouldman and Brian May, “Floating in Heaven”
NASA has released the first batch of images captured by the Webb space telescope, and rock’s top astrophysicist, Brian May, has teamed up with 10cc songwriter Graham Gouldman on a new tune to celebrate the occasion. You’ve probably seen this widely reproduced image showing scores of galaxies. What you might not have seen is how […]
Song of the Day 7/12: Bob Dylan, “Blowin’ in the Wind”
Joseph Henry “T Bone” Burnett is probably best known for producing the soundtracks to the Coen brothers’ movies, particularly “O Brother, Where Art Thou?” and “Inside Llewyn Davis,” but he’s also got a side line: Designing new analog sound recording/playback systems. Back in 2008 he announced something called CODE, which purported to reproduce master-tape sound […]
Song of the Day 7/10: The Heimatdamisch, “Highway to Hell”
It’s not showing up on the GPS, but I’m pretty sure we’re rolling down the highway to hell, which gets us there a lot faster than that old ferry boat ever could. As my dad used to say, we’re making good time. The Heimatdamisch is a Bavarian band in the New Folk movement — what, […]
Song of the Day 7/8: Chris Isaak, “Somebody’s Crying”
You’ve probably noticed that pronouns have become politically loaded. It’s become more common for people to declare themselves non-binary and ask that people use “they” instead of “he” or “she” because they don’t want to be assigned a gender or its attendant roles. I admit it irks me sometimes, particularly when I’m reading an article […]
Song of the Day 7/7: The Who, “Boris the Spider”
Despite what Pete Townsend says in the introduction, it’s not a very strange song — it was just decades ahead of its time when it debuted on “A Quick One” in 1966. Yeah, sure, it’s supposedly about a spider. He couldn’t very well have called it Boris the Johnson, now, could he? That would have […]
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