Arts and Entertainment – Page 80

Song of the Day 6/19: The Rascals, “People Got to Be Free”

By Alby June 19, 20233 Comments

How does an old white guy celebrate Juneteenth? I'm going with blue-eyed soul from some of its early practitioners, the Rascals. The sentiment sounds hokey today -- they don't play…

Song of the Day 6/17: Mungo Jerry, “In the Summertime”

By Alby June 17, 2023

Some people insist summer starts with the equinox on June 21. Bollocks. June, July and August constitute "the summer," and the people prove it every year by swarming the country's…

Song of the Day 6/16: Pat Benatar, “Hell Is for Children”

By Alby June 16, 20234 Comments

We all realize that Republicans live in a heavily insulated bubble, but I don't think we can grasp how weird it is in there. Every once in a while, though,…

Song of the Day 6/15: Rod Stewart, “Handbags and Gladrags”

By Alby June 15, 20231 Comment

Old-timers bitching about the feckless younger generation has been a constant throughout human history, and it always seems to find an eager audience. Consider this song, written in 1967 by…

Song of the Day 6/14: Frank and Nancy Sinatra, “Somethin’ Stupid”

By Alby June 14, 2023

Republicans are always saying something stupid, but it's rarely "I love you." When this song surged up the charts in 1967 the lyrics puzzled me -- how could the singer…

Song of the Day 6/13: Dave Matthews Band, “Busted Stuff”

By Alby June 13, 2023

Unless I'm missing some nuance, MAGAt Nation is threatening to bust stuff up just because their hero is being called to account for his lawbreaking. Yes, nothing says "we're the…

Song of the Day 6/12: AC/DC, “Highway to Hell”

By Alby June 12, 2023

Yesterday's I-95 fire and overpass collapse in Northeast Philadelphia quickly acquired a soundtrack. Somebody posted to social media a drive-by of the fire a few minutes before the collapse, black…

Song of the Day 6/10: Billy Joel, “An Innocent Man”

By Alby June 10, 20232 Comments

I didn't believe it when Billy Joel sang it, and I don't believe it when Donald Trump says it. Joel intended it as a tribute to the Drifters, and it…

Song of the Day 6/9: Greta Van Fleet, “Black Smoke Rising”

By Alby June 9, 2023

We're still under a bad-air advisory, but forecasters say the smoke from the Quebec wildfires should start to dissipate by later today. Greta Van Fleet is the band, composed of…

Song of the Day 6/8: Astrud Gilberto, “The Girl from Ipanema”

By Alby June 8, 2023

Guest post by Nathan Arizona Turns out the Girl From Ipanema was also a Girl From Philadelphia. After Astrud Gilberto died there on Tuesday, many were surprised to hear that…

Song of the Day 6/7: Klaatu, “Calling Occupants of Interplanetary Craft”

By Alby June 7, 20233 Comments

I don't know if you saw this, but a whistleblower with a high security clearance says there's a secret government program that has retrieved wreckage of non-human origin. This isn't…

Song of the Day 6/6: The Beatles*, “Grow Old With Me”

By Alby June 6, 20234 Comments

The asterisk is because this isn't really the Beatles. People who worry about the AI menace have been too busy fretting about job losses and armageddon to notice it much,…

Song of the Day 6/5: Max Frost and the Troopers, “Shape of Things to Come”

By Alby June 5, 20233 Comments

Cynthia Weil, the lyricist who with her composer husband Barry Mann wrote some of the hits that made the Brill Building famous, died last week at age 82. Their biggest…