Arts and Entertainment
Song of the Day 12/13: Brenda Lee, “Rockin’ Around the Christmas Tree”
If you venture out in public much you’re probably sick of Christmas music by now, but it’s my policy to listen to only 12 days of Christmas music. I’m starting a day early this year because a record most people have heard their entire lives just made it to No. 1 on the Hot 100. […]
Song of the Day 12/12: Carole King, “Will You Love Me Tomorrow”
WXPN’s contest countdown is nearly through (as I post this there are fewer than 60 songs to go) and most of the entries I put on my ballot because I thought they’d be underrepresented have been played. So have most of my late rejects. This song has been played, too, but not by this artist. […]
Song of the Day 12/11: Laurie Anderson, “O Superman”
WXPN’s year-end countdown of the 885 Greatest Songs by Women – I know, the title sounds more ridiculous every time you hear it – reached my pick for No. 1 yesterday afternoon. “O Superman” clocked in at No. 262, between Phoebe Snow’s “Poetry Man” and Patsy Cline’s “I Fall to Pieces.” I don’t know if […]
Song of the Day 12/8: Imogen Heap, “Hide and Seek”
WXPN’s countdown of the 885 Greatest Songs By Women – yes, it’s grandiose, but they had to call it something – has passed the halfway mark, and my strategy of picking cuts I thought might otherwise be ignored isn’t looking too successful. So far only two of my 10 selections, “Birthday” by the Bjork-led Sugarcubes […]
Song of the Day 12/7: Denny Laine’s Electric String Band, “Why Did You Come”
Denny Laine, who died Tuesday at 79, might have been who Andy Warhol had in mind when he said everyone would get 15 minutes of fame. For about that long in 1964 it looked like the guy born Brian Hines would be a big rock ‘n’ roll star. The band he fronted, the Moody Blues, […]
Song of the Day 12/5: Nine Inch Nails, “The Beginning of the End”
Could this be a message for Valerie Longhurst? You decide. It comes from Trent Reznor’s 2007 LP “Year Zero,” a concept album about an American dystopia. Reznor set his tale of a United States beset by terrorists and ruled by a Christofascist regime in 2022, 15 years in the future, because that was the year […]
Song of the Day 12/4: Jim Bryant, “Something’s Coming”
El Somnambulo insisted I feature this tune today. I have no idea why, but when a man in a luchador mask tells you to do something, you do it. Though Richard Beymer portrayed Tony in the film, his singing was dubbed by Jim Bryant. The music is by Leonard Bernstein, lately portrayed by Bradley Cooper […]
Song of the Day 12/3: Ratboys, “The Window”
El Som included a tune from Chicago band Ratboys in his monthly favorite new tunes post back when their fifth studio LP, “The Window,” came out in August. The album, produced by former Death Cab for Cutie guitarist Chris Walla, got good reviews from the music press, and almost all of them cite the soaring […]
Song of the Day 12/2: The Pogues, “Yeah Yeah Yeah Yeah Yeah”
It’s been a tough year for Ireland’s musicians. Sinead O’Connor died in July, and this week Shane MacGowan, frontman for the Pogues, died a week after being discharged from a hospital. He was 65 and, given his problems with alcohol and heroin, many people were surprised he lived that long. MacGowan is often called a […]
‘Bulo’s Fave Tunes: November 2023
A shorter list this month. Always happens in November as some of the best tunes I heard will not be released until 2024. February, in particular, looks real promising. Shorter, though, doesn’t mean less quality. In fact, I’ll let you be the judge: This video’s amazing. All done in one take. My kind of music, […]
Song of the Day 11/30: Billy Joel, “Only the Good Die Young”
Henry Kissinger was already 54 years old when Billy Joel, a scamp half his age at the time, released this banger in 1977. The third single from “The Stranger,” his best-selling album, it only reached No. 24 on the Hot 100 but has lived on via classic rock radio. He introduces this live performance on […]
Song of the Day 11/29: André 3000, “I Swear, I Really Wanted to Make a ‘Rap’ Album but This Is Literally the Way the Wind Blew Me This Time”
The music world is still trying to figure out what to make of the new album from André 3000, best known as half of the hip-hop duo Outkast. Though he’s chipped in guest vocals for lots of other artists in the 17 years since the last Outkast LP, André, unlike his former partner Big Boi, […]
Song of the Day 11/28: Spinal Tap, “Warmer Than Hell”
Director Rob Reiner – or was it Marty DiBergi? – confirmed yesterday that filming on a sequel to “This Is Spinal Tap” will begin in February. The new movie reportedly will be patterned on the Band’s farewell concert film “The Last Waltz” and will feature guest spots by Paul McCartney, Elton John and Garth Brooks […]
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