Song of the Day

Song of the Day (64): September – Earth, Wind and Fire

It is September, how can we not play this song. And I bet you’re starting to sway with the music and smiling. It works. YouTube: https://youtu.be/AWXub7E5moM?si=w1-D6EdHOnYSQzR-Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/track/2grjqo0Frpf2okIBiifQKs?si=36b69f991cf34f2b

Song of the Day (63): Back in the USA – Chuck Berry

I could stay busy just posting songs by Check Berry. Chuck Berry helped launch hundreds if not thousands of bands inspired by his guitar playing and three-minute songs. Here’s a fun one that the Beatles used as their model for Back in the USSR. That’s the imitable Johnnie Johnson banging the piano keys. Willie Dixon […]

Song of the Day (62): Murder in the City – The Avett Brothers

I don’t think I could love a song any more than I love this song. It captures the bonds of family love as much as any song or poem I know. As a son in a family with four children and a father of three sons, the second verse resonates deeply: I wonder which brother […]

Song of the Day (61): Old Hippie – the Bellamy Brothers

Yes, it is a little sappy and sentimental. And it is dated, but at age 66 I can relate even if I was never a hippie. (Kind of anti-hippie even if I hung out with people who could be card carrying members of that tribe including my bride, but that’s another story). First heard this […]

Song of the Day (60): Ten Year Night – Lucy Kaplansky

I love the smoothness of this song, the way it glides along as the singer’s thoughts unwind in a late night car ride. The verse about their first night captures that passion, lust, desire that leads to love: I felt your skin, I felt the heatAs you pulled me out into the streetAnd you kissed […]

Song of the Day (59): People Who Died – Jim Carroll

Athlete, Poet, Memoirist, singer, Jim Carroll proved to be a force in the East Village music and literary scene in the 70’s and early 80’s. In your spare time, check out his Basketball Diaries (yes, there is a movie version), tracking his evolution from basketball prodigy to junkie with insight, hilarity and pathos along the […]

Song of the Day (58): Amazing Grace – Aretha Franklin

Aretha came out of the gospel singing church. She’s the daughter of a renowned preacher, the Reverend C.L Franklin. In 1972, she released Amazing Grace, an album of gospel songs recorded live at the New Temple Baptist Church Los Angeles. Listen to the power of her voice, the strength of her conviction. It is enough […]

Song of the Day (57): Unsatisfied – The Replacements

Is there any song that makes angst more tangible? The inchoate cry of something deep in the bones when all seems to fail. You can feel the ache. Bob Stinson’s guitar bends with the song and takes your heart with him. Look me in the eyeThen, tell me that I’m satisfiedHey, are you satisfied? Written […]

Song of the Day (56): Highway 61 Revisited – Bob

Oh God said to Abraham, “Kill me a son”Abe says, “Man, you must be puttin’ me on” With those opening lines, this song takes off down the highway that runs through the heart of America, a highway filled with characters that spring from the American imagination and ends with a promoter (Bill Graham?) assuring the […]