Monthly Archives: July 2009

by

Song of the Day #361: ‘Hand in Glove’ – The Smiths

thesmithsThe band reunion I’d most like to see — more than Talking Heads, Ben Folds Five, Led Zeppelin or Simon and Garfunkel — is The Smiths. It’s so tantalizingly close to happening — all the members are alive and well and active in the music industry — yet it likely never will. Morrissey and Johnny Marr hate each other like poison and they reportedly turned down $5 million dollars to reunite for a single song at a recent festival.

It just seems wrong that a band so influential and creative should have lit up and flamed out over the course of only five years in the mid-80s. By now The Smiths could have been as big as U2, with as many albums under their belts. Sure, Morrissey has released a series of fine solo albums, but his work apart from Marr has never been quite up to the level of the stuff The Smiths put out.

This week I’ll feature a handful of those songs by one of my favorite bands.

Continue reading →

by

Song of the Day #360: ‘Reach Out I’ll Be There’ – Four Tops

fourtops2This, of course, is the other ‘I’ll Be There’ with which I confused the Jackson 5 song. It’s every bit as much a classic, and arguably more so.

As I’ve mentioned before, I’m sort of at a loss for words when it comes to these Motown Weekends because I don’t have a ton of associations with the songs. Thank god Michael Jackson died and gave me fodder to write about over the past couple of weekends. In fact, on future weekends I might just treat these as a break from writing and simply present the lyrics. I’ll play it by ear.

Continue reading →

by

Song of the Day #359: ‘I’ll Be There’ – The Jackson 5

jackson5I’ve seen many mentions of ‘I’ll Be There’ since Michael Jackson’s death and every time I read the title I thought of an entirely different song (see tomorrow’s Song of the Day for that one). I didn’t remember Michael and the rest of the 5 singing that track, but I assumed they must have.

And then I YouTubed “Jackson 5 I’ll Be There” the other day, found this clip, and suddenly it all came back to me. Such a sweet and touching love song, even when performed by a pre-pubescent kid. Maybe especially when performed by a pre-pubescent kid. This one, anyway.

Continue reading →

by

Elvis Costello – Secret, Profane and Sugarcane

sugarcaneElvis Costello has been releasing albums both major and minor about once a year for three decades now, which is an achievement in itself. That only one or two of them can be considered mediocre, and not one truly bad, is an astonishing accomplishment. And his latest album, Secret, Profane and Sugarcane, puts him in no danger of breaking that streak.

It is, though, one of his “minor” albums, a genre exercise that recycles a few older tunes and doesn’t aim too high. It’s a low-key collection of old-timey bluegrass numbers about carnival men and slave traders, loose women and broken-hearted men. The songs are not as innovative or strong on melody as Costello’s best output, but they work well as a group.

Continue reading →

by

Night at the Museum: Battle of the Smithsonian

smithsonianI can’t imagine there is any better way to see Night at the Museum: Battle of the Smithsonian than the way I did — with my wife and two daughters on the last night of a week long trip to Washington D.C., having just spent hours at all of the places depicted in the film. That sort of experience basically renders moot any traditional criticism of the film.

The film certainly has its flaws, principal among them the complete absurdity of the premise. And no, I don’t mean the idea of museum exhibits coming to life at night — I can accept that. I mean the idea of, say, Abraham Lincoln’s statue rising from the seat of his memorial and walking across the city (and here’s the truly absurd part) seemingly undetected by any human being apart from Ben Stiller’s security guard-turned-entrepreneur. And I’m not sure why the Lincoln statue was affected by the magical museum re-animation tablet in the first place.

Continue reading →