. Many of the songs in Tom Lehrer’s small, dark canon of work still seem relevant today, though nearly all of them were written in the 1950s and 60s. Lehrer often wrote about subjects that were in the news of the day. For example, his song “Smut” (which may be heard in the video below) …
Month: December 2010
. At 21, she had a few years on me; nonetheless, I was sure that Maria McKee and I could somehow work it out. Oh, how I was in love with this girl during my last gasps of high school in 1985-1986. Coming along after X and the Blasters but years before the terms “Americana” …
. Even considering what a sucker I am for a love song, I do not think I’m overstating the sublimity of the lyric masterpiece She by Elvis Costello. Like many folks, the first time I heard the song was in the soundtrack for Notting Hill. Had Costello written it for the film, he surely would …
Nathaniel Hawthorne once observed that “easy reading is damned hard writing.” The same holds true in music, where great mastery is often found in the simplest performances. Booker T and the MGs, one of the greatest backing bands of all time, played with such a profoundly deep groove that little elaboration was needed. It’s fitting …
. I don’t know if you were aware of the major underground movement at my college, North Park University in Chicago, among the gals when this song came out. Many girls of a certain era know this song word for word and know how to wield that curling iron or hair brush as a mic…great …
. Chavela Vargas is something of a legend in Mexico City where I live. She’s still making records at 91. Muse to both the Spanish filmmaker Pedro Almodovar and the Mexican painter Frida Kahlo (and reputedly also her lover), her endurance, depth of passion, outsized personality, and gorgeously fierce voice make here one-of-a-kind. She was …
. Scot-king songwriter, dark-hearted minstrel, troubled and temper-torn troubadour, bitter balladeer extraordinaire, roiling ace back alley jig picker Richard Thompson. I love this king of all the sad bastards with the golden hands, his records ooze delight and despair in the most organic and ornery of ways. Plays like the devil and knows all his …