Thanks to the unlikely agency of The New York Lottery, my favorite new song is “Are You Ready?” by Fatty Gets a Stylist, which is masterminded and largely comprised by the Australian sensations Kate Miller-Heidke and Keir Nuttall. It’s catchy, it’s summery, it made my buy a Mega Millions ticket, and I love it.
At a Paul Simon concert in Toronto last week, a Newfoundland woman named Rayna Ford called out for Simon to play “Duncan,” saying that it was the song on which she learned to play guitar. Perhaps feeling groovey, in any event feeling light-hearted, Simon promptly invited Ford onstage to pay the song. The video records …
My new favorite commercial is this Volvo ad, featuring the unique song stylings of the Swedish singer Miss Li. Lots of pizzazz.
Aztec Camera was a Scottish new wave band from Glasgow whose creative engine was a young man named Roddy Frame. This cover of Van Halen‘s Jump, circa 1984, not only takes the party song and turns it into something strangely heartfelt, it then takes the resulting ballad and takes it. . . someplace wild. You’ll …
Just finished Bob Dylan: Like a Complete Unknown, by the cultural critic David Yaffe. Very stimulating! Yaffe is a close, attentive, erudite listener and student, and a wise interpreter of the great Dylan. The book makes me wish I had paid closer attention to Dylan as an artist over the years, instead of just “liking” …
I think from the moment I saw this album cover in 1965 or 1966, without ever consciously thinking it or being able to articulate it, I wanted to be that guy, on that street, with that girl.
On Day Two I was immersed in Williamsburg, and I continued to have a great time. In the morning, we attended a performance by some of Williamsburg’s historic character interpreters, most of whom were playing slaves in the Colonial Era. The scenarios did an excellent job bringing to life the conflicts and pressures experienced by …
On Saturday night, Ginny and I and our friends Cathy, Tim, Greg, Susan, Jo and Dave took a limo (!) up to Woodstock to see the legendary Levon Helm perform at his studio/home. In this warm, intimate atmosphere (the audience couldn’t have numbered more than 200), Helm and his wonderful band (among the players: Larry …
In 1998, when I was editing the Notebook section of Time, I had to find someone to compose a 300 word eulogy for Tammy Wynette, the great country singer who had died that week. I decided to approach a fledgling short story writer named Roseanne Cash; of course, it didn’t hurt that Cash was a …
Sam Brown – “Horse to the water”?????? Andria | MySpace Video From The Concert for George, which she utterly stole from Paul McCartney, Ringo Starr, Eric Clapton et al. Magnificent–and what a smile! Why was she never a major star?