Arts and Entertainment
Song of the Day 1/1: Ferko String Band, “Oh, Dem Golden Slippers”
With luck, the cancellation of the Mummers Parade this year should forestall yet another blackface incident, but let’s face it — mummery’s roots are intertwined with minstrelsy’s, and not everybody is OK with that. Ferko String Band found that out in 2013 when the went with the theme “Bringin’ Back the Minstrel Days.” What they […]
Top Songs of the Day for 2020
I’m not a big fan of year-end lists, but everybody else seems to like them. Yossarian was right: If everybody else feels that way, then I’d certainly be a damned fool to feel any other way, wouldn’t I? These are the 2020 Songs of the Day that got the most hits: John Prine, “That’s How […]
Song of the Day 12/31: Dougie MacLean, “Old Lang Syne”
I imagine lots of people will ignore the risks to hold New Year’s Eve parties, though I doubt they’ll be as big or raucous as usual. But no matter how people celebrate the turning of the calendar, it’s quite likely they’ll mark the moment by singing, or at least listening to, the song most of […]
Song of the Day 12/30: Tony Rice, “Church Street Blues”
The deadly year of 2020 claimed yet another notable musician on Christmas Day when influential bluegrass guitarist Tony Rice died, age 69, at his North Carolina home — according to longtime friend and collaborator Ricky Skaggs, while he was making his morning coffee. Rice’s impeccable flat-picking influenced virtually every bluegrass flat-picker since his days with […]
‘Bulo’s Fave Tunes Of 2020: The Top Ten!
Well, actually, 11. How do I fit 11 songs into my Top 10? You’ll just have to scroll through the list to find out. But, first, a recap for all of you latecomers and/or those who just want to have all this goodness in one place: ‘Bulo’s Fave Tunes Of 2020: #’s 50-41 ‘Bulo’s Fave […]
Song of the Day 12/29: The Bee Gees, “Fanny (Be Tender With My Love)”
However you felt about them at the time, the new documentary “The Bee Gees: How Can You Mend a Broken Heart” on HBO takes viewers on a roller-coaster ride tracking the course of their career. The brothers Gibb had three separate periods of success, each time followed by popular rejection that forced them to reinvent […]
‘Bulo’s Fave Tunes Of 2020: #’s 20-11
20. 19. 18. 17. Yves Tumor: Gospel For A New Century. Click ‘n watch. 16. 15. 14. 13. Sheer mastery. With a suitably goth video to match. 12. 11.
Song of the Day 12/28: Petula Clark, “Downtown”
Given that there’s no sign yet that Nashville suicide bomber Anthony Quinn Warner left a suicide note, let alone a manifesto, people grasping for his motive have seized on the fact that he chose* this 1964 Petula Clark smash to blast over a loudspeaker in his RV between warnings to evacuate the area. Is there […]
‘Bulo’s Fave Tunes Of 2020: #’s 30-21
30. There will always be a place for Japanese math rock here for as long as I do these lists: 29. 28. 27. 26. Tie: 24. Choosing between these two artists and these two songs is like choosing between my two daughters. Ain’t gonna happen. They have performed at the Arden Gild Hall, they […]
Song of the Day 12/27: Incubus, “Pardon Me”
This one’s for all the criminals, creeps and Republicans — but I repeat myself — who want a last-minute pardon from Donnie Two Scoops. This is the song that exposed Incubus to a wide audience. The version on the “Make Yourself” LP, released in 1999, is an alt-metal squall of sound that hammers home the […]
Song of the Day 12/26: The Pretenders, “2000 Miles”
No, I am not extending the Christmas music season with this tune because, contrary to popular belief and usage, it isn’t a Christmas song, or wasn’t intended as one. Pretenders leader Chrissie Hynde wrote it in 1983 during the recording of the band’s third LP, “Learning to Crawl,” their first after the deaths of bassist […]
Song of the Day 12/25: Philadelphia Orchestra, “God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen”
“The Glorious Sound of Christmas,” recorded in 1962 by the Philadelphia Orchestra under Eugene Normandy, remains the best-selling classical holiday album ever — it sold 1 million copies before Christmas 1963, and has continued to sell well in every recording medium since invented. Why? I think it’s because it’s the rare classical album that doesn’t […]
Song of the Day 12/24: Darlene Love, “Christmastime for the Jews”
Speaking of Jewish songwriters composing so many great Christmas songs, there’s one Christmas song that’s not only written by a Jew, Robert Smigel, the comic genius behind SNL’s “TV Funhouse” and Triumph the Insult Comic Dog — it was written specifically for the Jews. “You grow up Jewish and you can’t help it,” Smigel said. […]
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