Alby's Latest Posts
Song of the Day: Daryl Hall & John Oates, “Las Vegas Turnaround (The Stewardess Song)”
John Oates, who’s headlining this year’s newly resumed Philadelphia Folk Festival, is widely perceived as the junior partner in Hall & Oates because Daryl Hall sang lead on most of their ’80s hits. But it wasn’t always that way. In the duo’s early years in the ’70s, they split vocals and songwriting pretty much equally. […]
DL Open Thread Tuesday, April 16, 2024
And so the torch is passed. Just days after O.J. Simpson, defendant in last century’s Trial of the Century, hurdled off this mortal coil, Donald J. Trump donned the mantle of rich womanizing defendant for what the infotainment industry hopes will be a similar ratings bonanza. The big story on Day 1: Trump fell asleep. […]
Song of the Day 4/15: Cheap Trick, “Taxman, Mr. Thief”
Today’s the deadline for mailing their 2023 federal tax return for most people. If you live in Massachusetts or Maine you get a break because of the Patriot’s Day holiday, and if you live in a disaster area you get until June, because you have bigger problems. “Taxman, Mr. Thief” appeared on Cheap Trick’s 1977 […]
Song of the Day 4/14: The Byrds, “Eight Miles High”
In popular consciousness, “Eight Miles High” is a drug song. Radio stations certainly thought so when it was released in 1966 – many refused to play it, so it only reached No. 14 on the Hot 100. But it’s considered by many critics and historians to be the first psychedelic rock song. The musical inspirations […]
Song of the Day 4/13: Paula Cole, “I Don’t Want to Wait”
Yet another Trump stunt to delay his hush-money trial got rejected yesterday, so it’s almost certain to start Monday. Almost certain. The title of this song sums up my feelings on the matter. Paula Cole burned briefly but brightly in 1997, when two singles from “This Fire,” her self-produced second album, scaled the Billboard charts. […]
DL Open Thread Saturday, April 13, 2024
People who thought Ron DeSantis might stop acting like a tinhorn dictator after his presidential-race embarrassment can abandon that hope. He signed a bill that turns police oversight boards over to the police. In what’s now a running gag, Truth Social’s stock price fell again. It would make a better reality show than the one […]
Song of the Day 4/12: Dada, “Dizz Knee Land”
The worst thing about this timeline is that it makes me root for people and institutions I hate. The FBI and CIA, for instance. I hate them, but I hate Trump more, so I end up rooting for the FBI and CIA. I resent that, and it’s far from the only example – Liz Cheney, […]
Song of the Day 4/11: Dan Hicks and His Hot Licks, “Where’s the Money?”
Turns out Donald Trump’s $175 million bond was posted by a company that isn’t licensed to do so, doesn’t have the capital required to back it up and doesn’t promise to pay up if Trump loses his appeal. That means that he’s once again running out of time to come up with someone else’s money. […]
Song of the Day 4/10: Huey Lewis and the News, “Back in Time”
In its third installment the “Back to the Future” film series sent Marty McFly back to the Old West. Arizona’s Supreme Court did the same thing to Arizona’s womenfolk yesterday. You might recall that the original film, released in 1985, featured a couple of songs by Huey Lewis and the News, the Hootie and the […]
DL Open Thread Wednesday, April 10, 2024
The day after Trump pretended he’d let the states make their own decisions about abortion, the Arizona Supreme Court gave away the game by reinstating an 1864 ban on the procedure, notable because Arizona wasn’t even a state back then. The result: Republicans rushed to pretend they had nothing to do with it. The White […]
Song of the Day 4/9: Clarence “Frogman” Henry, “Ain’t Got No Home”
You don’t have to check, puck. Singer and pianist Clarence “Frogman” Henry died Sunday in his native New Orleans, age 87. His ability to sing in a frog’s croak, a skill he said he developed to scare the girls at school, gave him both his nickname and his most enduring hit. Henry was just 18 […]
DL Open Thread Tuesday, April 9, 2024
The news, apparently spooked by yesterday’s eclipse, went into hiding, so the media, as always, fell back on Trump. After a big buildup teasing his position on abortion – can you name another candidate who, eight years after entering the White House, still hadn’t formulated one? – only to chicken out and say the decision […]
Song of the Day 4/8: Pink Floyd, “Eclipse”
C’mon, what else would you expect? The final track from the LP that has spent more than 1,000 weeks on the Billboard album chart, with sales of more than 45 million. For those who’ve never used the record as an alternate soundtrack to “The Wizard of Oz,” the heartbeat fade-out plays just as the Tin […]
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