Category Archives: song of the day

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Song of the Day #2,815: ‘Baby Driver’ – Simon & Garfunkel

bridgeoverMy fourth favorite album from 1970 is the final record by Simon & garfunkel, Bridge Over Troubled Water. I’ve already featured five of this album’s 11 songs on the blog so clearly it hits a nerve.

This record was a smash hit for the duo. In fact, for the decade before the release of Michael Jackson’s Thriller in 1982, this was the best-selling album of all time. But Simon and Garfunkel has already decided to part ways. The front cover, with Simon partially obscuring Garfunkel’s face, was perhaps unintentionally symbolic of the dynamic between them.

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Song of the Day #2,814: ‘I Me Mine’ – The Beatles

letitbeLast year I started a new ‘Decades’ series by focusing on my birth year, 1972, then 1982, 1992 and 2002, counting down my own favorite albums from each of those years and then 10-15 unfamiliar (to me) albums that received acclaim at the time.

I’m doing the same thing again, backing up a couple of years and focusing on 1970, ’80, ’90 and ’00. The next several weeks will be dedicated to 1970.

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Song of the Day #2,812: ‘Unfinished’ – Barenaked Ladies

everythingLast Saturday the Random iTunes Fairy served up a Barenaked Ladies song and exactly a week later she’s at it again. The previous track was from the band’s debut album, Gordon, while this one is from their antepenultimate record, Everything to Everyone.

I’m just happy I get to use the word antepenultimate, which means third from last.

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Song of the Day #2,811: ‘Way Down in the Hole’ – Steve Earle

wire_season_fiveThe fifth and final season of The Wire focuses on the staff of The Baltimore Sun, with editors and reporters serving as fictionalized stand-ins for David Simon’s former co-workers at the same publication.

Simon paints unflattering portraits of the paper’s top editors, who are more eager to win prizes than practice ethical journalism. Tom McCarthy (who later went on to direct and co-write the Oscar-winning Spotlight) plays a Stephen Glass-esque reporter who is celebrated by the bosses even when the accuracy of his stories is questioned.

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