Friday Night Rock coincided with the last moments of Radio CPR — in its current location. Forced out of the place that has been its studio for many years, the station is still in the middle of finding its next home. Optimistic that will happen, I tried not to dwell on the goodbye forever theme. [...]
Started with some Miles Davis, then some Cuban sounds from Rhythms del Mundo. Turned the clock back 50 years to the day when the Beatles were creating “Being for the Benefit of Mr. Kite!” Songs from Chuck Prophet’s new album “Bobby Fuller Died for Your Sins” led naturally to some Bobby Fuller Four. Also a [...]
After concluding the Firesign Theatre album begun last week, there was a substantial salute to Smokey Robinson, who was being honored on TV for winning the Gershwin Prize from the Library of Congress. Valentine’s Day got some attention, including a handful of songs with “Valentine” as the title from performers as diverse as David Bowie, [...]
After a healthy half of a Firesign Theatre album, it was all about the plane crash, 58 years ago today, that killed Buddy Holly, Ritchie Valens and The Big Bopper, including a number of covers of Holly songs by artists from Lou Reed to Marshall Crenshaw, who was also playing in the area tonight. Rhett [...]
What’s to say after the inauguration? Well, if I did have something to say, I couldn’t, since I failed to get the microphones to work. So the music did the talking. A night of resistance music began with Bob Marley, and there was plenty of Marvin Gaye, Curtis Mayfield, Randy Newman and the Clash as [...]
The last Friday Night Rock show of the year had its usual onslaught of New Year’s songs, heavy on the variations of “What Are You Doing New Year’s Eve?” and “Auld Lang Syne,” from performers as diverse as Chuck Brown, Andrew Bird, Jimi Hendrix and Bobby Darin. But there were also so many significant deaths [...]
Of course the Christmas Eve Eve show was going to be holiday music top to bottom. But not only Christmas; there were a half dozen or so Hanukkah songs in there as well. Kacey Musgraves, Mike Doughty and Major Lazer all had new songs, but there were some oldies in there too from Bob Seger [...]
A lot of things to commemorate today: The 50th anniversary of “Hey Joe,” the 51st for a double A-side Beatles single; the anniversary of Cream’s first album and the night Nirvana’s “Unplugged” first aired (in 1993). And the premiere of Frank Zappa’s “200 Motels” in 1971. Then some music from Los Lobos, NRBQ and Southside [...]
Started by marking the birthdays of Neil Innes of the Bonzo Dog Band and Dan Hicks. Noted the passing of Greg Lake this week at 69. Then a bunch of songs expressing concern about the elections — 12 years ago. Closed with not quite Christmas songs that nonetheless spoke of oncoming winter weather, the buying [...]
Began with some Crystals and moved to its unsung occasional lead singer Darlene Love. Then to a couple of new albums from a couple of old rockers — The Rolling Stones and their new blues album out today, followed by their blues work in the past; and then Neil Young, with his new album and [...]