Music
October 4, 2023 — Scott Johnson
I turn to the oracular Bob Dylan writing in William Blake’s prophetic mode for commentary on the deposition of Speaker Kevin McCarthy by Matt Gaetz and a few Republican colleagues joined by every House Democrat: All and all can only fall With a crashing but meaningless blow No sound ever comes from the Gates of Eden Well, we hear the sound coming from the Gaetz of Eden. There’s no avoiding
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September 17, 2023 — Scott Johnson
David Bromberg is a master of the blues and just about every other genre of popular American music. Tuesday he turns 78. To celebrate the occasion I want to revisit my comments after seeing him perform live over two nights in April 2022. When my friend Tom Edelstein invited me to see him perform at the Dakota back in 2019, I only vaguely remembered Bromberg as the blues virtuoso I
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September 15, 2023 — Scott Johnson
Marty Makary and Tracy Beth Høeg share the byline on the New York Post column “The real data behind the new COVID vaccines the White House is pushing.” Makary is a professor at the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine. Høeg is an epidemiologist at the University of California, San Francisco. Both are physicians. Their column takes on the new Covid vaccine that the Biden administration is peddling like Steppenwolf’s “Pusher.”
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August 27, 2023 — Scott Johnson
I researched and wrote this for Van Morrison’s 75th birthday three years ago. I slightly downsized it to pay tribute to Van when he turned 77 last year. I’d like to turn it into an annual celebration as he turns 78 this week. Van is a brilliant, eccentric, enigmatic, essential singer/songwriter, performer, and multi-instrumental musician. He may not be for everyone. If you respond to his aesthetic, however, there is
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August 13, 2023 — Scott Johnson
The Band’s Jaime Robbie Robertson died this past Wednesday at the age of 80. The Band’s Richard Manuel, Rick Danko, and Levon Helm predeceased him. Only Garth Hudson survives, at age 85. Among the obituaries worth reading to situate Robertson and his work are those by Jim Farber for the New York Times, Chris Morris for Variety, and Benjamin Kerstein for Quillette. I want to pay my respects this morning.
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July 30, 2023 — Scott Johnson
After paying tribute to the career of Tony Bennett last week, a friend wrote to recall the effect Sarah Vaughan’s Live At Kelly’s and the John Coltrane/Johnny Hartman album had on him. I love Sarah Vaughan and I love Sarah Vaughan’s I Love Brazil, her second album on Norman Granz’s Pablo label. Granz founded Pablo a decade after he sold Verve, the label he had founded to popularize Ella Fitzgerald.
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July 23, 2023 — John Hinderaker
You probably know about the controversy surrounding country singer Jason Aldean and his song “Try That In a Small Town.” I wrote about it here. Liberals attacked the song for being, among other things, “pro-lynching,” which of course is demented. But they succeeded in getting the song’s video banned by Country Music Television. Aldean, happily, is unapologetic. On Friday night he performed a concert in Cincinnati and addressed the attacks
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July 23, 2023 — Scott Johnson
Tony Bennett died on Friday at the age of 96. He was a year older than my dad, who died 31 years ago. He was a star longer than I’ve been alive. It seemed like he might live forever. Bennett was not only an effective proponent of the Great American Songbook in his art, he contributed to it himself. What a legacy he leaves. The New York Times posted Bruce
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July 20, 2023 — John Hinderaker
Today’s raging culture clash relates to a song by country superstar Jason Aldean called “Try That In a Small Town.” The song has been out since May, but for some reason it has recently attracted the attention of leftists. The context of the Left’s attack is that Aldean and his wife Brittany are “out” conservatives. Following attacks by liberals, Country Music TV banned the song’s video. Here it is: So
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July 19, 2023 — Scott Johnson
Country artist Luke Combs has returned Tracy Chapman’s “Fast Car” to the radio. It was an unforgettable hit of ginormous proportions in 1988 and Combs’s respectful cover follows Chapman’s original right down to the female sex of the narrator. Combs’s cover has reached No. 2 in the Billboard Hot 100. When Combs’s cover reached number 1 in country airplay, Billboard asked Chapman for a comment. She responded about as you
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July 17, 2023 — Steven Hayward
Sunday morning is Scott’s province for music notices, but that leaves the other six days of the week going begging, so why not join the fun. Last night I returned to the Hollywood Bowl for the first time since 1975 (when I saw Yes as a teen), taking in They Might Be Giants (I wore a Gentle Giant t-shirt just to confuse people), and then the headliner, Sparks. In other
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July 16, 2023 — Scott Johnson
Dion — Dion DiMucci — turns 84 on Tuesday. Three years ago he released a new set of recordings titled Blues With Friends. The friends ranged from Jeff Beck and Joe Bonamassa to Paul Simon and Bruce Springsteen. I thought Dion sounded like an artist in his prime. When I saw that the disc was going to be released in 2020 it served as the occasion for a special life
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July 9, 2023 — Scott Johnson
“Walk Away Renee” is the beautiful pop song written by Michael Brown, Bob Calilli, and Tony Sansone. Brown played keyboards in the Left Banke — “Banke” is a giveaway that we are in the era of the British Invasion. Brown was 16 when he wrote the lyrics. The song broke through to reach number 5 in 1966. Brown’s father, Harry Lookofsky, had the keys to the studio and helped produce
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June 25, 2023 — Scott Johnson
I had wanted to see vocalist Tracy Nelson sing since I was a college freshman and I came close. Having bought tickets to see her perform with Mother Earth in Boston in early 1970 or so, I waited patiently in the theater for her to take the stage. Some time after the appointed hour, Tracy came out to announce that the band’s instruments hadn’t made it from San Francisco. I
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June 23, 2023 — Scott Johnson
Taking a break from the news last night, I attended the 11th annual Grateful Dead Meet-Up At the Movies at the AMC multiplex in Edina, Minnesota. It featured the Dead’s first appearance at Chicago’s Soldier Field (June 22, 1991). The band played to a packed stadium on what must have been a somewhat cool evening. Most of the band were wearing sweatshirts and looked, almost unbelievably, well-groomed. With a running
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June 11, 2023 — Scott Johnson
John’s post about “Both Sides Now,” “Hermits’s Hermits,” and the New York Times has had me thinking. I have been thinking of other British Invasion groups (other than Herman’s Hermits, that is) such as The Zombies. How long before the Times attributes “The Rhyme of the Reason” to Harry and the Racefakers? I actually went to see Herman’s Hermits at the old Minneapolis Auditorium in July 1966. They headlined a
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June 7, 2023 — John Hinderaker
Scott does as much as anyone to promote knowledge of the history of popular music, and yet memories fade as the years go by. I found this correction in today’s New York Times depressing: An obituary on Saturday about the former Securities and Exchange Commission chairman Harvey Pitt misstated the name of a pop group that had many hits in the 1960s. They are Herman’s Hermits, not Hermit’s Hermits. The
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