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Song of the Day #1,187: ‘Friday’ – “Bob Dylan”

Rebecca Black’s ‘Friday’ was excoriated as everything wrong with the modern music industry — the epitome of packaged product and the removal of talent from the commercial equation.

Indeed, Black is the logical extension of Britney Spears. Spears proved that you didn’t need vocal talent to become a superstar… just a sexy image and a group of top hit-makers and producers behind you.

The Ark Music Factory removed the sex appeal and the proven behind-the-scenes talent from the equation and still managed to score a big hit, if only an ironic one.

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Song of the Day #1,186: ‘Moves Like Jagger’ – Maroon 5

Even now that I’m making an effort to keep up to at least some degree with what the kids are listening to these days, I miss things.

I saw the first ever performance of today’s SOTD, Maroon 5’s ‘Moves Like Jagger,’ when front man Adam Levine performed it on The Voice with fellow coach Christina Aguilera.

But then it fell completely off my radar. And, I assumed, neither did anybody else. I dismissed it as a failed attempt to capitalize on a large TV audience. Nice enough song, but instantly forgotten.

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Song of the Day #1,185: ‘The Dangling Conversation’ – Simon & Garfunkel

The third single from Parsely, Sage, Rosemary and Thyme might not have the instant familiarity of ‘Scarborough Fair’ and ‘Homeward Bound’ but it is a dazzler nonetheless.

‘The Dangling Conversation’ sets a sad scene of the relationship that has dissolved into apathy. Simon, all of 25 years old when he wrote this, beautifully captures the numbness of faded love.

You can picture these two intellectuals, “couched in… indifference,” reading their poetry and having superficial conversations about analysis and the theater — this is 70s Woody Allen territory a decade earlier.

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Song of the Day #1,184: ‘Homeward Bound’ – Simon & Garfunkel

Simon & Garfunkel’s third album, Parsley, Sage, Rosemary and Thyme, was recorded and released in 1966, the same year that Sounds of Silence introduced their sound to a large audience.

The new album, their third, was even more successful than its predecessor, achieving triple platinum status and sending three singles up the charts.

One was the duo’s rendition of the classic folk tune ‘Scarborough Fair,’ blended with a counter melody inspired by Simon’s solo track ‘The Side of a Hill.’

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Song of the Day #1,183: ‘Electrolite’ – R.E.M.

R.E.M.’s last album as a quartet — and therefore the last “true” R.E.M. album — was 1996’s New Adventures in Hi-Fi.

It would be easy to dismiss the band’s subsequent output as a pale reflection on its first ten albums, but that’s a bit too easy. The five albums R.E.M. recorded after Bill Berry’s departure include some memorable work. Most notably, 1998’s Up, the band’s first record as a trio, is a rich and resonant album.

At the time of Up‘s release, Berry made the very gracious statement that he left the band only to see them record their best album yet. An exaggeration, perhaps, but certainly a sign that his was an amicable departure.

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