This City Never Sleeps

There’s only one city that carries the sobriquet City That Never Sleeps, and she’s been a muse to songwriters for as long as insomniac creative types have been flocking there. The Eurythmics were only the latest to pay tribute to the New York City subway, …

That Girl is Rock’n’Roll

As far as Ian Hunter is concerned, 1972 never ended. Mott the Hoople may have broken up, and their slightly grungy brand of glam rock gone out of fashion. But Hunter hired Mick Ronson as his axeman, and went right on making records that sound …

Tension

10,000 Maniacs were one of the weirder alternative rock bands of the 80’s. Natalie Merchant, in her solo work, somehow gained a reputation (in my mind, at least) for making “mom music”. I’m still not sure how those two statements tie together. Robert Christgau, hearing …

Tender is the Night

There’s only so much late-70’s soft rock that you can take seriously, and that niche is filled by heavy hitters like Paul Simon and Cat Stevens. So I forget about some of the B-List artists, like Jackson Browne here, who is really bringing the ‘adult …

Talking in Your Sleep

And now, a break from bleakness and deep thoughts. There’s nothing like crappy 80’s pop hits to take you out of the darkest timeline. The 80’s were a pretty terrible decade, as all decades are, but it was a peak time for escapist music. Who …

Take a Chance

Another example of cool things from Australia not washing up on American shores. The Sydney-based punk-rock band Divinyls gained a reputation for controversy for releasing a song called I Touch Myself. That was in 1991 and they were ten years into their career, and in …

Synchro System

In 1983 King Sunny Ade became the first Nigerian musician to be honored with a Grammy nomination for his album Synchro System. It is unknown what category he was nominated in. But at the time, the Grammys were very much the highest standard of acclaim, …

Sweet Dreams (Are Made of This)

Funny how they never specified what ‘this’ is. That’s for you to figure out, I guess. The message, it seems, is that everyone’s sweet dreams consist of something different. Pretty edgy. After being the soundtrack of ten thousand 80’s themed dance parties, it might feel …

Sweat

Discerning movie lovers will be familiar with the many film scores written by composer Danny Elfman, most iconic of all, the soundtrack of The Nightmare Before Christmas. What you may not know is that before his Hollywood career, Elfman was the frontman of the New …

Swamp

What is any Talking Heads song about? I don’t know, especially this one. I don’t what the title means, or the words. It is, as promised, just David Byrne speaking in actual tongues. With, of course, an irresistible groove to lead you into a trancelike …