Arts and Entertainment
Song of the Day 10/5: Loretta Lynn, “The Pill”
It’s hard for those born later to understand the profound change the oral contraceptive pill brought to society in 1960. Some Christian conservatives haven’t gotten over it yet. Loretta Lynn, who died yesterday at 90, was a conservative Christian, but in 1972 she recorded this paean to The Pill, and she sang from personal experience […]
Song of the Day 10/4: Jean-Luc Ponty, “New Country”
Maybe you recognize his name from his time playing with Frank Zappa and Elton John 50 years ago. Or maybe you heard him with John McLaughlin’s Mahavishnu Orchestra, or Chick Correa, or Bela Fleck, or on his LPs and gigs with Stanley Clarke and Al DiMeola. Jazz violinist Jean-Luc Ponty sure has gotten around, spreading […]
‘Bulo’s Fave Tunes For September, 2022
Fewer songs this month. Why? Because several really good songs are on albums that won’t be released until 2023. Since I make the rules and enforce the rules, I’ve ruled those songs as out-of-order until then. Lesser quantity doesn’t mean lesser quality, though. So here goes: Not an easy month to predict Nathan’s fave. Gonna […]
Song of the Day 10/1: Lizzo, “About Damn Time”
I have to admit that before this latest right-wing freak out I had very little idea of who Lizzo was. I heard her name enough to know she was famous, but what little I’d heard of her music didn’t make a deep impression. I like dance music just fine, but at my age I don’t […]
Song of the Day 9/30: The Zombies, “Time of the Season”
Guest post by Nathan Arizona You could say the Zombies saved their best song for the end. Actually, past the end. The British band had already broken up when “Time of the Season” came out in 1969. Nobody had paid much attention to the song or the few other tunes that been been released from […]
Song of the Day 9/29: Bob Dylan, “High Water (For Charley Patton)”
I know people in Naples, Fla. I feel even sorrier for them than usual today. Most blues songs about high water trace back to the Great Mississippi Flood of 1927, but Bob Dylan has contributed his share to the canon, from “Down in the Flood” on the Basement Tapes to this tune from 2001’s “Love […]
Song of the Day 9/28: Michael Martin Murphey, “Geronimo’s Cadillac”
As the link in today’s open thread illustrates, we never do right by native Americans, even though we’ve admitted the injustices for a long time now. For example, it was almost exactly 50 years ago when this title track and lead single from Michael Murphey’s debut LP reached the charts. Murphey wrote the song after […]
Song of the Day 9/27: The Beatles, “Back in the USSR”
One one level it’s just a parody of American exceptionalism as espoused by Chuck Berry and the Beach Boys. But it doesn’t seem so funny when Russia flexes its military muscle. At least that’s how some people felt when this appeared as the first track on the double-LP White Album, released in November 1968 — […]
Song of the Day 9/26: Paul McCartney, “My Brave Face”
Paul McCartney scored a couple of big hits in the ’80s with other artists, but his duets with Stevie Wonder and Michael Jackson weren’t musical collaborations. McCartney wrote “Ebony and Ivory” and asked Wonder to sing it with him. Jackson wrote “The Girl Is Mine.” In 1987 McCartney’s manager suggested he get together with Elvis […]
‘Attend The Tale’: First Draft Complete!
“Attend the Tale of Speaker Pete His fall from grace is well nigh complete His cargo shorts and his sun-baked pate Did nothing to save Speaker Pete from his fate With KMG he felt complete Did Speaker Pete The Laughingstock of Rehoboth. He ran the show in Dover Town He scared the minions, then chopped […]
Song of the Day 9/25: The Righteous Brothers, “Unchained Melody”
According to its publisher, this song has been recorded more than 1,500 times by nearly 700 different artists. Most listeners agree that Bobby Hatfield of the Righteous Brothers sang the definitive version, and most people nowadays are familiar with the song recorded for a 1965 LP. That became a No. 4 hit despite starting out […]
Song of the Day 9/23: Modern English, “I Melt With You”
Vladimir Putin is threatening to use nuclear weapons to bail himself out of the war he needlessly started. That strikes me as similar to a man who’s freezing to death deciding to set himself on fire, but it has frightened a lot people. We’ll have to see if the sentiment adds to the stockpile of […]
Song of the Day 9/22: Warren Zevon, “A Certain Girl”
This Allen Toussaint oldie is for my friend Jonny, who’s crushing on a co-worker who’s already got a boyfriend. Warren Zevon recorded it for the 1980 LP “Bad Luck Streak in Dancing School,” but it works best as a live number. The original by Ernie K-Doe was released in 1961, one of a string of […]
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