Hank Williams’ voice is a unique and a gigantic one in American culture, which means that it is also one familiar to those who listen to popular music all across the world. Hank Williams is recognizable singing, say, “I Saw The Light,” or “I’m So Lonesome I Could Cry,” even by people who couldn’t remotely [...]
Tony Bennett isn’t very well known for whispering. He’s a big singer—not in the sense that he over sings, but he certainly is known for the power to belt it out above muscular backing bands, and through his career he’s done plenty of that, and to good effect. And even in the plethora of latter [...]
Behold, you delight in truth in the inward being, and you teach me wisdom in the secret heart. (Psalms 51:6) I remember when I first heard Ron Sexsmith; not in a JFK-getting-shot sense, but generally that it was in the first half of the 1990s and the song was Secret Heart. It seemed like a [...]
Former mayor of New York City Ed Koch must have been feelin’ pretty groovy when the 59th St. Bridge was renamed in honor of Hizzoner. Koch is a big, likeable personality and a quintessential New Yorker without any doubt. Yet, it’s a little bit funny, this renaming of a bridge for him. Were the Koch [...]
Bing Sings Whilst Bregman Swings~ Bing Crosby (Polygram Records) It’s 1956, and you’re Bing Crosby. (Would I lie to you? And isn’t it better this way?) You’ve been a recording artist for more than twenty-five years. You are one of the originators of popular singing in the age of the microphone and the gramophone record. [...]
I haven’t finished reading the book, so this is not a proper review, as such. But, based on leafing through this 815 page tome, and having now begun reading it properly from the beginning, it’s safe to say a few things about it right off the bat. It is a monumental work, quite unlike your [...]
The Hilliker Curse: My Pursuit of Women by James Ellroy. (Knopf, 224 pages) I like James Ellroy. My favorite book of his — and I think his greatest — is American Tabloid,which is a take like no other on American history from 1958 to the end of 1963. Unlike the JFK conspiracy tracts and movies [...]
It’s said to be the final song that Johnny Cash composed, titled “I Corinthians 15:55,” and the refrain goes like this: Oh death, where is thy sting? Oh grave, where is thy victory? Oh life, you are a shining path And hope springs eternal just over the rise When I see my Redeemer beckoning me [...]
(Warning: Contains spoilers for those who still believe in Santa Claus) Bob Dylan’s album Christmas In the Heart struck me both strongly and delightfully upon the very first listen, and it continues to strike me that way after many further spins. However, rather than try to make a grand case here as to why others [...]
I have a piece today on Bob Dylan’s new album, Together Through Life, and thoughts generated out of listening to it and through reading recent interviews with him. It’s in The New Ledger: Bob Dylan: Keeping It Together. Together Through Life, the album just released by Bob Dylan, has entered both the U.S. and U.K. [...]
I purchased the RCA RP5435 AM/FM Clock Radio with an extra-large 1.4-inch display yesterday. And yes, I did it because (without my glasses on) I am virtually blind, at least when it comes to objects at a distance. I did not buy this clock radio for the various sexy selling points described on the box, [...]
It’s a dog’s life. That expression was originally coined and used to characterize a life of misery (where you might be treated like a dog, get sick as a dog, and die like a dog). In more contemporary times it’s often heard and used in exactly the opposite sense, that of a dog’s life as [...]
