Category Archives: pop music

‘Will Ye Go Lassie Go’


It’s a good day to listen to “Will Ye Go Lassie Go” by the Clancy Brothers and Tommy Makem. It was also recorded by Joan Baez, and by the Byrds, as “Wild Mountain Thyme,” and has been sung for hundreds of years. … Continue reading

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Gabriel to Limbaugh: Lay off my tunes


It looks like Rush Limbaugh might have to stoop to using Ted Nugent’s music as soundtracks for his rants. I can’t think of any other rocker who might be a good fit. From USA Today: Peter Gabriel doesn’t want Rush … Continue reading

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Ash Wednesday blues


A butcher friend of mine on Ninth Street said hello today, and I couldn’t help but notice the thin black cross on his forehead. I realized this was the first day of Lent and the cross was ash rubbed into … Continue reading

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‘I’m Looking Through You’


I assumed for many years, because of the scorned and scornful tone of the lyrics, that this was a Lennon song. Actually, McCartney wrote most of it. The fact that he’s the lead singer should have tipped me off. John … Continue reading

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‘Who Do You Love?’


I walked 47 miles of barbed wire/Used a cobra snake for a neck tie/Got a brand new house on the roadside/And it’s made out of rattlesnake hide/I got a brand new chimney put on top/Made out of human skulls/Come on … Continue reading

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‘Third Stone From the Sun’


Your people I do not understand So to you I shall put an end And you’ll never hear surf music again

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When he was good


From Rod Stewart’s first solo album (1969), released not long after he broke with the great guitarist Jeff Beck. This was before Stewart stopped singing songs about working-class misfits and turned into a Hollywood poof (“Do Ya Think I’m Sexy”). … Continue reading

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Naomi Wolf’s Madonna crush


Madonna is “that forbidden thing, the Nietzschean creative woman.” I didn’t know this until I read journalist Naomi Wolf’s complaint about reporters who diss the Material Girl whenever she “steps out of her pretty-girl-pop-music bandwidth” to make a movie or … Continue reading

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Madonna exits, Mitt marches on


The concepts were unintentionally funny, the players about as exciting as assembly-line robots. I mean the Republican presidential debates, not the Super Bowl halftime show. Madonna and her minions were on stage for only a few minutes, but the GOP … Continue reading

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Hope you don’t find no shadow…


Groundhog people with your groundhog ways I see you in the sun but you fly when the shadows get long This is an alternate version of the song that appeared on Clear, the third Spirit album (1969).

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