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Song of the Day #3,356: ‘Green Grow the Rushes (Athens Demo)’ – R.E.M.

Note: I write these posts in advance, so as I’m scheduling this one, I have no idea if looming Hurricane Irma has laid waste to South Florida or spared us the worst of her wrath. I’m going to optimistically assume the latter and proceed as if it’s business as usual.

I roll my eyes at the Facebook equivalent of chain letters, where users are expected to post a certain thing in their status each day and encourage all of their friends to do the same. However, one I saw recently struck me as pretty good fodder for my blog, if not my Facebook page.

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Song of the Day #3,355: ‘Polka Dots and Moonbeams’ – Bob Dylan

I’ve praised Bob Dylan’s recent albums of standards originally performed by Frank Sinatra, though my readers generally aren’t as impressed. Today’s song comes from Dylan’s second such album, 2016’s Fallen Angels.

This time around, I’ll let professional music critics do the heavy lifting. Here are a few quotes compiled on the album’s Wikipedia page.

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Song of the Day #3,354: ‘Not My Idea’ – Garbage

Ah, the summer of 1995. I was working as a production assistant at a video studio in Boca Raton and befriended a couple of hip employees who introduced me to Garbage’s debut album.

They were hard rock types, and this album was a little harder than I normally go for, but I fell for it entirely anyway. Credit goes to the sexy, Scottish Shirley Manson, with whom I remain smitten to this day.

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Song of the Day #3,353: ‘Steal Away’ – Robbie Dupree

I’m wrapping up my two-week celebration of yacht rock with a song that really captures the era. Robbie Dupree’s ‘Steal Away’ has all the hallmarks of a great yacht rock song. It’s richly melodic, impeccably produced, smooth as all get-out and about nothing more or less than stealing away into the night with a forbidden love.

If only they were on a boat.

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Song of the Day #3,352: ‘Biggest Part of Me’ – Ambrosia

Thanks to Rob for suggesting Ambrosia as another entry in this yacht rock series. I know and like today’s song, ‘Biggest Part of Me,’ but I had no idea who performed it.

Ambrosia is an L.A. band that started in the mid 70s as a prog rock outfit but had their biggest success in 1980 with the album One Eighty, a yacht rock showcase.

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