From a profile of disgraced lobbyist Jack Abramoff in the Washington Post this week : Jack Abramoff liked to slip into dialogue from “The Godfather” as he led his lobbying colleagues in planning their next conquest on Capitol Hill. In a favorite bit, he would mimic an ice-cold Michael Corleone facing down a crooked politician’s [...]
“We’ll tak a right gude-willie waught, for auld lang syne.”
Hope you have a great New Year’s celebration. Here’s one last bit of party music for the festivities. Earlier tunes here and here. In December of 1969, Jimi Hendrix, Billy Cox (bass) and Buddy Miles (drums) rehearsed for an upcoming gig at Fillmore East. (Jimi’s first band was the Experience, with Mitch Mitchell on drums [...]
Dance, Dance, Resolutions
Continuing our countdown to New Year’s… Perhaps one of the biggest names on Stax/Volt was Otis Redding. The first artist to bring success to the label was Carla Thomas. In late 1966, the two recorded the album King & Queen, which produced “Tramp” and also included the song “New Year’s Resolution.” In April of ’67, [...]
My love, my love, my love, my hate
As the year comes to an end, it’s traditional to look back and offer some sort of “Best Of, Worst Of” designation. I’m not sure I’m really up to it, but let’s pretend I care, for a second. Worst Song of the Year For months, I’ve been hearing complaints about the Black Eyed Peas‘ hit [...]
Da Chronic — WHAT?
At this stage, you’ve undoubtedly heard about the “Lazy Sunday” video from SNL. (If you haven’t — say what? — watch it here.) I didn’t see it on TV on December 17, but I saw it on the Internet a day or two later. Over the week, it was clear that the video was making [...]
Coming to the end.
Birthday wishes go out to Johnny Otis, a Bay Area Greek who became one of the most prominent figures in the history of R&B. Otis turns 84 today. He was born Ioannis (Yannis) Veliotes in Vallejo, California. He took up the drums as a kid and later learned piano and vibraphone. At the age of [...]
Gelt, guilt, whichever…
The dreidel is a four-sided top with a Hebrew letter on each side: Nun, Gimel, Hey, Shin. This stands for the phrase Nes Gadol Haya Sham – “A great miracle happened there.” The dreidel doesn’t seem to get much respect. You win chocolate money with it. Now, if they had competitive dreidel on TV, maybe [...]
Me? I use sour cream AND applesauce.
The last time Hannakuh started on Christmas was back in 1959. Some of these songs don’t really work when Christmas comes first, but just use your imagination or hold on to these songs until next year. First, a song that captures that outsider status that Jews sometimes hold in America. But then we get another [...]
Choosing latkes over Christmas ham.
Hannukah comes unusually late this year; it’s typically over by Christmas, thus leaving Jews out in the cold. But what’s a Jew to do on Christmas Day? Here are two potential options. Adam Goren of Atom & His Package is kinda punk and kinda pop and very funny. The band Atom & His Package was [...]
Last Call
We’ve posted round-ups before, here and here. This is the final part of the collection of Christmas tunes — 44 songs in 27 days. On December 28, they all come down. Have a good Christmas. The Hannukah songs start tomorrow. No, really; I’m not joking. (The most popular download for the month? Mavis Staples, singing [...]