Come over to the dark side. We have music. A deep dive into a few numbers you might have missed so far on your journey through life. 1: “Midnight Man” by The James Gang 2: “Starless” by the Unthanks 3: “Ach heile mich” by Cassiber 4: “Opening Theme” by Morte Macabre 5: “Gotta Go” by Bud Shank 6: “Night Life” by Ray Price 6a: “Repent Walpurgis” by Procol…

5 Bob Dylan spoofs (“She seemed to be a rutabaga…”) — Song parodies were popular in the 30’s-50’s (see my previous article), but the 1960's-70's’ were the golden age of musical satire (including two most serious funny groups of all time, The Mothers of Invention and The Bonzo Dog Band). The “Question Everything” generation had no qualms about lambasting even their…

The smoky, gentle folksinger doesn’t sound much like Radiohead — or does she? — When my newsfeed featured the New Musical Express headline, “Thom Yorke selects IDLES, Miles Davis and more for new Sonos mix” (whose subtitle asks “what is music or any art in such a time of death, violence and horror?”), …

Dissonance, downtempo, and wordless stories from the 1950's — “It isn’t like anything you’ve ever heard before, we hope, because that was the intention.” (Liner notes by Samuel Mines for “Impressions from Outer Space”) “Nothing like it has ever been recorded before.” (Liner notes by Gilbert Millstein for “Music for Barefoot Ballerinas and Others”) In my late teens (1967)…

A few songs from the paleolithic era. Plethora of Pop challenge. — I was born at the end of 1950, which means that as a 16-year old, I didn’t benefit from most of the wonderful music most people take for granted today. But 1966 was such a revolutionary point in rock music that I can’t complain (of course, a number of amazing…

Part 1: The 1930’s-50’s (Your grandparents’ generation was cooler than you think) — Musical parodies, like satire in general, are often directed at individuals or ideas that the parodist considers pompous or out of touch. …

His goal is to foster amorality, not praise the Russian dictator. — “I could stand in the middle of Fifth Avenue and shoot somebody, and I wouldn’t lose any voters, OK?” Trump remarked at a campaign stop at Dordt College in Sioux Center, Iowa. “It’s, like, incredible.” (NPR) In 2004, ethicist Peter Singer published The President of Good and Evil: The Ethics…