I’ve been listening to a lot of Beatles music lately so I figured I’d try to identify MY Top 40 Beatles songs....
The Singers
My dad said he didn’t sleep well his first night in the assisted-living facility. It was because of the music. This was in October. After some eight years in an associated independent living facility down the street, he’d had two hospitalizations in six months, each followed by a short stint in a rehab facility....
David Gray Live
A few years ago—OK, the date was October 17, 2014*—we saw David Gray in concert at the Touhill Center in St. Louis. He was touring in support of his album Mutineers, which had been released earlier that year. Personally, I hadn’t taken to Mutineers right away. It was a somewhat unusual David Gray album,...
Rock-Star Autobiographies
There’s a micro-genre of books that I’ve come to love: rock-star autobiographies. Many of the musicians I followed when I was younger have probably finished up the most interesting and/or lucrative portions of their music careers, and have turned to the written word as a different outlet. Having told stories through their songs over...
The Day Aldous Huxley Died
I hadn’t listened to Sheryl Crow much lately; I don’t currently have any of her CDs on my computer. But the other day I was driving to work and the song “My Favorite Mistake” came on, and I was reminded of what a great song that is, and the general excellence of “The Globe...
The Hoot
One week ago tonight, I was privileged to attend The Hoover Hootenanny in Asbury Park, N.J.. This was the sixth go-round for the Hootenanny, but, for one reason or another—mostly because they’re in Asbury Park and I live a thousand miles away in St. Louis—I was never able to attend before. But this year, with...
Trade In These Wings On Some Wheels
I was driving to work this morning, listening to The Loft, my new favorite SiriusXM station. The DJ listed the songs he’d just played, including some before I tuned in. One was Thunder Road by Cowboy Junkies. Holy magic in the night! I didn’t know that existed! I got to work and immediately looked...
List: Top Five Story Songs — No. 1
This week, it’s been all about Story Songs, those songs that adopt their own meanings, sometimes far from what the original artists meant. Previous editions are here and here and here and here. And finally, we come to: 1. Stay Free, by The Clash. Way back then, in the early early 1980s, we wrote...
List: Top Five Story Songs — No. 2
2. Christmas In Cape Town—by Randy Newman. This is possibly the darkest, ugliest song that Randy Newman has ever written, and he’s written some ugly ones. Consider yourself warned: Listen. The thing you have to understand about Randy Newman, though, is that he often writes songs from the viewpoint of despicable characters—polar opposites from...
List: Top Five Story Songs — No. 3
3. Sunday, Bloody Sunday, by U2. October 27, 1985: Denkinger screwed up, and the Cardinals were ticked. After the nightmare finish to Game 6 of the 1985 World Series, it was easy to see that Game 7 was going to be a powder keg. The only question was, who was going to set it...