Music

We can do better than a humble brag — As we approach the end of 2022, I’ve asked a few people whose words and wisdom I deeply respect to share what’s been on their minds. Here is the poet, educator and hip hop artist Paul Barman with some thoughts about his year’s biggest challenge: helping a son apply to…

Even Springsteen would agree — Anyone who knows me, has read a few of my articles, or stood near me in the grocery store checkout line for more than two minutes knows that if I could only listen to one song for the rest of my life it would be Bruce Springsteen’s “Born to Run.”…

“The main reason Santa is so jolly is because he knows where all the bad girls live.” — George Carlin — “Wonderful Christmastime” by Paul McCartney Paul McCartney played every instrument on 1979’s “Wonderful Christmastime,” including the synthesizer that created all of its echoey chord progressions. It was McCartney’s first solo effort after Wings’ final LP, 1979’s Back to the Egg. …

An 80s Trend: Guitar Solos in Dance Tracks — Michael Jackson’s Thriller, an album playing leapfrog with the Eagle’s first greatest hits package for the best-selling album of all time crown, turned 40 years old last month. I’m not going to bother researching exactly how many copies Thriller has sold. Why omit such a valuable piece of information? The…