Arts and Entertainment
‘Bulo’s Fave Tunes For March 2022
17 songs this month. That’s a lot. I took another listen through the list on Sunday just to see if I should cut one or two. I couldn’t. Meaning, this is one of the best and deepest monthly gatherings of songs in quite some time. It’s that good. Hope you agree. Did I mention that […]
Song of the Day 3/31: Bruce Willis, “Respect Yourself”
Actor Bruce Willis’ family announced yesterday that he’s retiring from acting due to aphasia, a brain condition that affects language and communication. The 67-year-old Penns Grove, N.J., native rocketed to fame in the mid-’80s in the unconventional TV dramedy “Moonlighting,” where he occasionally burst into snatches of Motown tunes, and turned heads with a rendition […]
Song of the Day 3/30: Ray Charles, “What’d I Say”
Joe Biden ad-libbed nine words in his speech in Poland and pundits all weighed in, for or against. I’m only following the story by headlines, but it sounds like Joe didn’t think he’d said anything wrong, and it took a while to convince him to walk it back. So now every pundit is weighing in […]
Song of the Day 3/29: DJ Jazzy Jeff and the Fresh Prince, “I Think I Can Beat Mike Tyson”
Rap fans might remember that Will Smith had pugilistic fantasies going back to at least 1989, when this song was released on the duo’s “And in This Corner…” LP. As the album’s lead single, it also got the expensive video treatment, and the sharp-eyed will notice that one of the its guest stars, though not […]
Song of the Day 3/28: Taylor Hawkins, “Holy Man”
The headlines said Taylor Hawkins, who died at age 50 Friday in Colombia, was the drummer for the Foo Fighters, but that only captured a portion of his talent. He sang lead and played drums in a number of side projects, including his own band, Taylor Hawkins and the Coattail Riders, and sang lead on […]
Song of the Day 3/25: 10,000 Maniacs, “Peace Train”
How could a song that advocates peace become controversial? Well, how about if the guy who wrote it later supported the assassination of an author for blasphemy? Even when it was released on 1971’s “Teaser and the Firecat,” Cat Stevens’ first US Top 10 hit wasn’t universally admired. With the war in Vietnam still raging, […]
Song of the Day 3/24: U2, “Stuck in a Moment You Can’t Get Out Of”
As the Ukraine War grinds into its second month, this seems like a fitting commentary on Vladimir Putin’s predicament. Bono wrote the song, which appeared on the band’s 2000 LP “All That You Can’t Leave Behind,” after the suicide of his friend Michael Hutchence, lead singer of INXS, as an argument against suicide. Seems like […]
Song of the Day 3/23: Dead Kennedys, “Police Truck”
There’s a reason police act above the law: They are. The so-called “police bill of rights” is a list of special privileges that place them outside the laws that govern the rest of us, supposedly (we all know being white and rich makes you nearly as immune as a police badge). Anyway, here’s Jello Biafra’s […]
Song of the Day 3/22: Bobby Bloom, “Montego Bay”
Before Bob Marley, Caribbean music in the U.S. mostly had a Latin flavor and beats that favored ballroom-style dancing. But every once in a while a bit of calypso and its Jamaican cousin, mento, would slip through, as in 1970, when two Brooklynites — former doo-wop singer and jingle writer Bobby Bloom and tunesmith Jeff […]
Song of the Day 3/21: Бетон (Beton), “Kyiv Calling”
You know how musicians can avoid being sued for copyright infringement? Ask the copyright holders for permission. That’s what Ukrainian punk band Бетон, transliterated as Beton (“concrete” in Ukrainian), did before they repurposed The Clash’s 1979 cri de coeur as an anthem of resistance against the Russian invasion of their country. It was quickly granted. […]
Song of the Day 3/18: Gillian Welch, “Winter’s Come and Gone”
Yeah, it’s a few more days until it’s official, but it’s starting to feel like winter’s come and gone. This sounds like it came from the depths of the Depression — I can imagine the Joads singing it on the way to California — but it’s just more evidence that Welch and her partner, David […]
Song of the Day 3/16: Dolly Parton, “Jolene”
Millions of people think the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame should stick to honoring musicians who actually play rock music instead of inducting rappers and dance-pop superstars, but it took Dolly Parton to call them out on it. Parton told the institution she was withdrawing her name from consideration, and she did it with […]
Song of the Day 3/15: The Wailin’ Jennys, “One Voice”
One voice, the adage goes, makes more noise than 1,000 voices that remain silent. Marina Ovsyannikova, an editor of Russian state TV’s Channel One, staged a one-woman protest by interrupting a live broadcast with a sign that translates as “Stop the war. Don’t believe in propaganda. They’re lying to you.” She was immediately detained and […]
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