Archive | Sunday Song Lyric

Above the Law reports that a federal district court judge cited Jay-Z’s “99 Problems” (and a relevant law review article) in a recent opinion. (We’ve cited it too.) Judicial Watch is not amused, as if judicial notice of iconic rap songs is a threat to the legal order.

The Kennedy Center will honor country legend Merle Haggard at the 33rd annual Kennedy Center honors this December.  Now in his seventies, Haggard has had a remarkable — and remarkably influential — music career.  Though he has a new album, I’d rather highlight one of his oldies, “The Bottle Let Me Down,” from 1966, a […]

Live’s “Overcome” was not written as a 9/11 anthem, but it became one for many anyway.  It was written before the attack, and appeared on Live’s mediocre “experimental” V, released in September 2001.  In the wake of the World Trade Center’s collapse, the song struck a chord.  Here’s the first verse: Even now the world is […]

It’s Labor Day weekend.  I’m not ready for summer to be over, but it’s not like I have much choice in the matter.  Death Cab for Cutie‘s “Summer Skin” seems appropriate. Here’s the second verse: I don’t recall a single care Just greenery and humid air Then Labor Day came and went And we shed […]

The Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority (WMATA) will no longer allow D.C. metro riders to exit the system with negative balances on their SmarTrip cards.  Instead, riders will have to use the cash-only “ExitFare” machines to pay the remaining fare.  Before, a rider could exit with a negative balance but could not use the card […]

Somewhere along the way former Fugee Wyclef Jean got the idea he should be the President of Haiti.  And as the Washington Post reported just last week, he could have been a contender.  Haiti’s electoral council had other ideas, however, disqualifying him for failing to satisfy the residency requirement.  Although he was born in Haiti, […]

I’ve never thought of Sam Cooke’s “Wonderful World” as a political song, but given some of my recent posts I may need to reconsider.  Co-written with Lou Adler and Herb Alpert, the song has been covered by acts from Herman’s Hermits and Art Garfunkel to Bryan Ferry and Rod Stewart, the song made Rolling Stone‘s […]

Ellen has pretty good music tastes for a nine-year-old girl.  That’s another way of saying her tastes extend beyond Miley Cyrus, Ke$ha, and the Jonas Brothers.  One of her current favorites is Paramore, a band she learned to like even before the “Twilight” soundtrack made them cool. One of their recent singles is “The Only […]

“Him’s now a real boy!”  So exclaimed Madeline Joyce with wonder and excitement at the conclusion of Disney’s Pinocchio yesterday.  The movie may have been made 70 years ago, but it still has the  ability to capture the imagination of a 2-and-a-half-year-old girl.  It’s nice to know the frenetic displays that pass for children’s programming […]

What rock bands have the most consecutive gold or platinum albums?  The Beatles and the  Rolling Stones are obviously one and two, but would you believe number three is Rush?!? I was surprised (and maybe a bit gratified), but after watching the Beyond the Lighted Stage, an excellent new documentary about the 40-plus-year-old band, it […]

I don’t follow celebrity divorces much, but one recent Hollywood split inspired a reader to recommend this week’s song lyric.  He writes: “In the wake of Sandra Bullock’s marital betrayal by Jesse James, I was a little startled by this lyric to “Poor Poor Pitiful Me” (sung by Linda Ronstadt, not Warren Zevon, the lyrics’ […]

Growing  up in Philadelphia, it was probably inevitable that I’d prefer “God Bless America” over the “Star Spangled Banner.”  The former became the de facto national anthem for the Philadelphia Flyers after their Stanley Cup championships of 1974 and 1975, at which the song was sung by Kate Smith.  That it was written by Irving […]

Following on Ken’s post below, I thought I’d highlight a lyric from Blows Against the Empire, the first album released by Paul Kantner, et al. as “Jefferson Starship” (as opposed to Jefferson Airplane; I like to pretend that the thing called “Starship” never existed), and it includes appearances by a wide range of folks, including […]

Donna Summer’s “Last Dance” (written by Paul Jabara) won both a Golden Globe and Academy Award in 1978.  So one might not expect it to provoke much controversy in 2010 — at least that’s what folks at Wendy’s thought when it included the song in a kids meal “Car Karaoke” music CD.  Not so fast.  […]

It seems like a good day to dip back into the great American songbook, so how about Irving Berlin’s  “A Pretty Girl Is Like a Melody.” Said ABC Radio in 1945: “If the Ziegfield Follies glorified the American girl, it was Irving Berlin who painted her picture in music.  Here’s a song that reflects all […]