Arts and Entertainment
Song of the Day 5/27: Emitt Rhodes, “You Should Be Ashamed”
This one’s for all the people who think that gun violence can be curtailed by doing anything other than restricting access to guns. The song, released on Rhodes’ eponymous 1970 LP, is a good example of why people thought this was actually Paul McCartney recording incognito. Rhodes’ three early ’70s albums made him a cult […]
Song of the Day 5/26: Nilsson, “Jump Into the Fire”
I didn’t even have to finish reading the headline about actor Ray Liotta’s death at age 67 for this song to start playing in my head. As any Scorsese fan knows, this is the tune that accompanies Henry Hill’s paranoid drive while a police helicopter shadows him, and it does an effective job of heightening […]
Song of the Day 5/25: Candlebox, “I’ve Got a Gun”
Candlebox released this cri de coeur about gun violence in 2016, long after the Seattle band’s grunge-era heyday. Frontman Kevin Martin, asked about the song’s inspiration by Songfacts, said: At the time when it was being written there was a lot going on in the world with gun violence and it’s still happening on a […]
Song of the Day 5/22: The Velvet Underground, “All Tomorrow’s Parties”
Andy Warhol, who launched the Velvet Underground by making them part of his Exploding Plastic Inevitable, called this first single from the band’s debut album his favorite VU song. Composer Lou Reed claimed it was about the scene at Warhol’s Factory, but the song was written before Warhol became their manager. According to John Cale, […]
Song of the Day 5/20: Kevin Morby, “This Is a Photograph”
With apologies to El Somnambulo, who handles the new music feature round these parts, I’ve been in the car a lot the past few days and have heard this one on WXPN a couple of times. The song, the title track to Morby’s seventh solo LP since 2013, certainly arrests your attention while you’re driving […]
Song of the Day 5/18: Eric Clapton, “Change the World”
Eric Clapton, who’s been in the news several times during the pandemic for his anti-vax and anti-quarantine views, has had to cancel some concerts because, inevitably, he’s caught Covid. What’s surprising is that he’s touring at all, considering his claims about his reaction to getting the Astra-Zeneca vaccine last year. I took the first jab […]
Song of the Day 5/17: Cheryl Wheeler, “If It Were Up to Me”
Folksinger Cheryl Wheeler wrote this in 1998, in the aftermath of the Jonesboro, Ark., school shootings. They were shocking at the time because the murderers were just 13 and 11 years old, but Columbine happened the next year so Jonesboro is largely forgotten. No wonder — there have been more than 230 school shootings since. […]
Song of the Day 5/15: Spinal Tap, “Rock and Roll Nightmare”
They’re not asking for my two cents, but I think the Rock Hall of Fame is squandering a golden opportunity by not enshrining Spinal Tap. Not only are they known and loved by a wide swath of the rock-fan public, they’re almost universally loved by musicians. Everybody would want to play at the ceremony. Spinal […]
Song of the Day 5/14: Big Thief, “Little Things”
I know El Somnambulo doesn’t care for this band all that much, but this was the first thing I heard by them when it came out last year and I still really like it. I get the impression they’re some sort of indie darlings — the fact that leader Adrianne Lenker spent her childhood in […]
Song of the Day 5/12: Leonard Cohen, “Everybody Knows”
I assume everybody knows this Cohen classic, if not from his 1988 album “I’m Your Man,” then from its plentiful covers and frequent use in movies and TV soundtracks. But El Somnambulo quoted it to conclude today’s open thread, so you can use this as a soundtrack. The song was Cohen’s first of many collaborations […]
Song of the Day 5/10: Steve Miller Band, “Living in the U.S.A.”
For historical context, musicians like Steve Miller were trashing the emptiness of American culture way back in 1968, when Boz Scaggs was still in the band and Miller still delivered raw San Francisco blues-rock. He wasn’t wrong, so conservatives, rather than addressing the criticism, have been having a hissy fit about it ever since. Our […]
Song of the Day 5/9: The Judds, “Mama He’s Crazy”
The Judds ruled country music in the ’80s. This song was their second single, the first of a nearly unbroken string of 14 that reached No. 1 on the country charts from 1984 through 1989. The mother-daughter duo ended in 1991, when Naomi was diagnosed with Hepatitis C and retired. Musically Wynonna’s husky, bluesy voice […]
Song of the Day 5/7: Dave Alvin, “Plastic Rose”
When Dave Alvin released his second solo album, “Blue Blvd,” in 1991, the Washington Post reviewer complimented it by saying the songs were like Raymond Carver stories. Alvin once told an interviewer that because he never became a star, he didn’t travel in a plane or tour bus, so he was free to observe the […]
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