Arts and Entertainment
Song of the Day 9/22: Bruce Springsteen, “If I Was the Priest”
I mentioned the other day that Bruce Springsteen’s upcoming album will feature new recordings of three songs from his earliest back catalog that have never seen official release. This is, to a large extent, a case of scraping the barrel bottom. “If I Was the Priest,” “Song for Orphans” and “Janey Needs a Shooter” all […]
Song of the Day 9/21: Bob Mould, “Siberian Butterfly”
Bob Mould released this a couple of week ago to preview his new album, “Blue Hearts,” due out Friday. It’s a throwback to his Hüsker Dü days — fast, loud and short. Bob’s look has changed, of course, but he’s the rare aging rocker who hasn’t mellowed.
Song of the Day 9/20: Bruce Springsteen, “Letter to You”
Bruce Springsteen dropped a new single Sept. 10, the title track to an upcoming album with the E Street Band recorded live in Springsteen’s home studio, no overdubs, in just five days last December. When I heard it the day it was released I was underwhelmed. It’s mid-tempo, soft-rocking and musically basic, nothing rousing or […]
Song of the Day 9/19: AI/DC, “Great Balls”
This is a few months old but I just found it the other day, and I still crack up when I listen to it. Back in May some YouTuber who goes by Funk Turkey fed all AC/DC’s lyrics into a computer program that spit out a “new” AC/DC song that, despite having total nonsense for […]
Song of the Day 9/18: Twisted Sister, “We’re Not Gonna Take It”
Let’s say you have two aging rock stars, one a legendary Irish R&B singer, the other a Long Island hair-metal has-been. If I told you one was a virulent anti-masker, which would you think was more likely to be the selfish asshole? If you picked Dee Snider of Twister Sister, sorry, we don’t even have […]
Song of the Day 9/17: Carroll O’Connor and Jean Stapleton, “Those Were the Days”
So I’m in the shower the other day and suddenly the theme song to “All in the Family” pops into my head, and it occurs to me that all the complaints Archie Bunker listed — welfare recipients, gender fluidity, crappy modern music — are pretty much the same complaints conservatives are whinging about today. They’re […]
Song of the Day 9/16: Three Dog Night, “Celebrate”
The best night for progressives in Delaware primary history is certainly something to celebrate. Sarah McBride, Marie Pinkney, Eric Morrison, Madinah Wilson-Anton, Larry Lambert — all of them are going to the celebrity ball. As Danny Hutton relates to this Soundstage audience in 1975, Three Dog Night used this as their closing number for several […]
Song of the Day 9/15: Brandi Carlile, “Madman Across the Water”
After Elton John released the LP named for this song in 1971, many Americans took to the theory that the title referenced Richard Nixon, a notion that bemused lyricist Bernie Taupin. “Back in the seventies, when people were saying that ‘Madman Across the Water’ was about Richard Nixon, I thought, That is genius. I could […]
Song of the Day 9/14: The A’s, “A Woman’s Got the Power”
Trump keeps trying to insult Kamala Harris, and he looks weaker every time he does. Her presence on the Democratic Party ticket clearly infuriates him — what doesn’t, right? — so I think she should be front and center for the rest of the campaign. I also think she should adopt this as her campaign […]
Song of the Day 9/13: Will Sheridan, “Set Fire to the Streets”
Bear, Delaware, native Will Sheridan Jr. was a basketball star at Sanford School before playing at Villanova University from 2003 to 2007 and, briefly, as a pro in Italy. When he returned to the US he became a rapper and musician in New York City; his first LP, “G.I.A.N.T.,” was released in 2012. This track […]
Song of the Day 9/12: Toots and the Maytals, “Do the Reggay”
Frederick “Toots” Hibbert, the Jamaican vocalist and multi-instrumentalist who gave reggae music its name and wrote some of its classic tunes, including “Pressure Drop” and “Monkey Man,” died yesterday, apparently of complications of COVID-19. He was 78. The Maytals, led by Hibbert’s powerful voice, were already a popular vocal group when they released “Do the […]
Song of the Day 9/11: Kool & the Gang, “Jungle Boogie”
Ronald Bell, later Khalis Bayyan, a co-founder of Kool & the Gang who co-wrote most of their biggest hits, died this week, age 68, at his home in the U.S. Virgin Islands. The band he and his younger brother, Robert “Kool” Bell, started as teenagers cycled through many musical styles over the years, from jazz […]
Song of the Day 9/10: Billy J. Kramer and the Dakotas, “Do You Want to Know a Secret”
Bob Woodward is coming under fire for recording Trump back in March, when he was publicly downplaying COVID-19, saying that the new coronavirus was “deadly” and worse than the flu — and then sitting on the recordings until now, the better to flog his latest tome. If you want to know the rest of the […]
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