music Archives - Ramblin' with Roger

May rambling: We Cannot Remain Silent

When the U.S. Is No Longer the Good Guy

We Cannot Remain Silent: A Statement on the National Moment from Albany Presbytery, PCUSA (May 1, 2025)

Who broke the internet?

Cardinal Robert Prevost Becomes First American Pope, Will Take the Name Leo XIV; he plays Wordle!

David H. Souter, Republican Justice Who Allied With Court’s Liberal Wing, Dies at 85. He left conservatives bitterly disappointed with his migration from right to left, leading to the cry of “no more Souters.” I saw him speak in 2013. “A demand for saving art, keeping music, teaching civics in the schools is not asking for favors. Rather, it is vital for the stability, even the very survival of the United States, which is hampered by a voting citizenry that is grossly unaware about how the government of the country is supposed to work.”

This month, the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture is celebrating the 100th anniversary of its founding! It is a national landmark and world-renowned research center located in the heart of Harlem.

John Green – “Everything Is Tuberculosis” | The Daily Show

The Remote Work Paradox: Higher Engagement, Lower Wellbeing

Pulitzer Prize for a distinguished portfolio of editorial cartoons or other illustrated work (still, animated, or both) characterized by political insight, editorial effectiveness, or public service value: Ann Telnaes of The Washington Post: “For delivering piercing commentary on powerful people and institutions with deftness, creativity – and a fearlessness that led to her departure from the news organization after 17 years. The Cartoonist Who Crushed the Oligarchs: An Interview with Ann Telnaes.

What was food like before the FDA? Formaldehyde, brick dust, lead, and borax once made grocery shopping a minefield.

Measles Cases Top 1,000: A Crisis of Complacency— This situation is an avoidable public health failure

Baloney

How Will We Know When We Have Lost Our Democracy?

We Have To Deal with Presidential Power

“Once a government is committed to the principle of silencing the voice of opposition, it has only one way to go, and that is down the path of increasingly repressive measures, until it becomes a source of terror to all its citizens and creates a country where everyone lives in fear. “-Harry S. Truman, 33rd US president (8 May 1884-1972)

FOTUS family crypto firm raises concerns over potential conflicts of interest. Crypto landscape is like a ‘Walking Dead, post-apocalyptic anarchy. Tell Congress: Ban Government Officials From Issuing Cryptocurrencies

The firing of the Librarian of Congress, Carla Hayden, is the latest move in the upheaval of U.S. cultural institutions.

MAGA news network OAN to take over venerable government-funded outlet, Voice of America

Bill Gates says Elon Musk is ‘killing the world’s poorest children’

The battle is here: GOP health care cuts and tax giveaways to the rich

What Happens to Hollywood When the U.S. Is No Longer the Good Guy? For decades, the studios have churned out movies that celebrated truth, justice, and the American way. Now, as FOTUS attacks allies, tears down democratic institutions, and cozies up to dictators, U.S. exceptionalism is a hard sell onscreen.

100% Tariff on Movies: 8 Key Questions the Industry Is Now Pondering and Dreading

PBS President Says Executive Order to End Funding Is “Blatantly Unlawful”

New Oklahoma Curriculum Requires Students To Learn 2020 Election Fraud Conspiracies

Sherman Tanks have no use for Elon Musk

Plus

Anne Frank: The Exhibition: Opened on International Holocaust Remembrance Day, January 27, 2025, to mark the 80th commemoration of the liberation of Auschwitz. It has been extended until October 31, 2025. It’s at the Center for Jewish History, 15 West 16th Street, New York, NY (between 5th and 6th Avenues).

EFF How to Fix the Internet Podcast Episode: Digital Autonomy for Bodily Autonomy

Little Bosses Everywhere review: Pyramid schemes are as American as apple pie.

The Diabolical World of Phone Scams

Family-Vlogger Documentary Trend Magnifies a Serious Societal Problem

A scientist was urged not to take a risky cosmic image. He didn’t listen.

Ruth Buzzi, the Lady With the Handbag on ‘Laugh-In,’ Dies at 88

Monty Python’s Life of Brian. It’s hilarious, but is it in any way accurate? Answered for us by classicist Honor Cargill-Martin

Pentasyllabic is a word that both means and is five syllables long.

Do The Spike Thing — The Defiant Director on Reuniting With Denzel, Bad Money and Resisting

Armed Services Vocational Aptitude Battery

Why the Laugh Track Won’t Die

Why the U.S. Government Really Wants Some People To Take Vacations and The Phone Calls That Cost €220 Million a Minute (for Life) and How Jibberish Beat a Prison Sentence and The Rain of Fish

MUSIC

Never Let Me Go – Andy Bey; Smooth Sailing -Andy & The Bey Sisters; In Memoriam: Andy Bey, 1939-2025

Jill Sobule, “I Kissed A Girl” and “Supermodel” Singer, Dies at 66. Singer Vance Gilbert wrote on Facebook (May 3): “Backstage, Jill and I bonded with the idea of someday doing an album of the saddest songs we could think of. When we were last hanging out, the list looked like this: Ballad Of The Sad Young Men; Sweet Bitter Love; Do What You Gotta Do; Train Off The Track.

“While we were waiting to go on, I’d play one of these songs, and Jill and I would cry, and then try to put on some kind of game face while laughing for the set. Just last year, I had signed with a new agency, Black Oak Artists, and Jill and I shared an agent, and there were plans for sending us out together to do shows.

“Tomorrow really is never guaranteed. I will forever feel the loss of not having that future time together.”

Incompetent! – A Randy Rainbow Song Parody

Ablassen by Gottfried Reiche

From -Bon Iver

Coverville 1532: The Foreigner Cover Story II and 1533: Tribute to Mike Peters and Captain & Tennille Cover Story

Never Enough – Turnstile

Here – Pavement

Who is Broken Peach?

offa me -davido feat victoria monet

Gentle On My Mind – The Band Perry

Yesterday Was Just The Beginning Of My Life – Mark Williams

Star Wars – The Throne Room and End Title

Husky – Jimmie Nicol, a Beatle for two weeks

The 1945 #1 hits

Les Brown, Bing Crosby, Harry James

Here are the 1945 #1 hits, when World War II finally ended. Because there were multiple charts, there were 73 weeks of recordings. I recognize many songs, though I hadn’t been born yet.

Rum and Coca-Cola – Andrews Sisters (Decca), 10 weeks at #1, gold record

Till The End Of Time – Perry Como, the orchestra conducted by Russell Case (Victor), 10 weeks at #1, gold record. Based on Chopin’s Polonaise.

Sentimental Journey – Les Brown and his orchestra with Doris Day (Columbia), nine weeks at #1. gold record

On The Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe – Johnny Mercer and the Pied Pipers with Paul Weston and his orchestra (Capitol), eight weeks at #1. From the MGM picture Harvey Girls.

My Dreams Are Getting Better All The Time – Les Brown and his orchestra with Doris Day, (Columbia), seven weeks at #1, from In Society.

There! I Said It Again – Vaughn Monroe, his orchestra, and the Norton Sisters (Victor), six weeks at #1, gold record. The song went to #1, covered by Bobby Vinton, early in 1964; the next #1 was I Want To Hold Your Hand by some British Invasion group.

I Can’t Begin To Tell You – Bing Crosby with Carmen Cavallaro at the piano (Decca), six weeks at #1, gold record

A very goofy song

Chickery Chick – Swing and sway with Sammy Kaye with Nancy Norman, Billy Williams, and the Kaye Choir (Victor), four weeks at #1

It’s Been A Long, Long Time – Harry James and his orchestra with Kitty Kallen (Columbia), three weeks at #1. Written by Sammy Kahn and Jule Styne

I’m Beginning To See The Light – Harry James and his orchestra with Kitty Kallen (Columbia), 2 weeks at #1—Co-written by Duke Ellington, James, and two others.

Ac-Cent-Tch-Ate The Positive – Johnny Mercer and The Pied Pipers, orchestra conducted by Paul Weston (Capitol), two weeks at #1. Written by Mercer-Harold Arlen, from the film Here Come The Waves

It’s Been A Long, Long Time – Bing Crosby with Les Paul and his trio (Decca), two weeks at #1. Written by Jule Styne-Sammy Cahn

White Christmas – Bing Crosby with the Ken Darby Singers, orchestra conducted by John Scott Trotter (Decca), two weeks at #1. This is the 1942 version which was #1 for 11 weeks that year and a week in 1946. After that, the 1947 version predominated in recordings and airplay.

Candy – Johnny Mercer with Jo Stafford, the Pied Pipers, and Paul Weston and his orchestra (Capitol)

Dream – The Pied Pipers with Paul Weston and his orchestra (Capitol). Written by Johnny Mercer

April rambling: humanity in motion

Metonymy and metalepsis

To Understand Global Migration, You Have to See It First. New estimates based on location data from Meta reveal a picture of humanity in motion.

‘60 Minutes’ Calls Out Paramount for Executive Producer’s Exit in Rare On-Air Rebuke; Has ’60 Minutes’ Run Out of Time? Shari Redstone’s Big Decision. The Paramount mogul is stuck in the middle of an impossible choice. Fight djt and blow up her $8 billion Skydance deal, or cave to the president and torch the most valuable news property in her media empire. Tick, tick, tick…

RFK Jr. & HHS: Last Week Tonight with John Oliver

Fraserherman: Why, yes, diversity is a plus.

In April in years ending in 5

1775: Ride Paul Ride – The 2025 Showdown between Patriots and Loyalists

1865: Lincoln assassination, end of the American Civil War

1925: The Great Gatsby by Francis Scott Key Fitzgerald was published, and Art Deco hit the international stage

1945: Hitler dies

1975: On April 30, “the city of Saigon, the capital of South Vietnam, was taken by the army of North Vietnam, ending the conflict that had grown out of the Vietnamese war for independence from France and a proxy war for the conflict between the US and the Soviet Union.”

1995: The bombing in Oklahoma City on April 19 killed 168 people. There was a woman I knew who worked for an SBDC in OKC. Her building was right across the street from the Murrah Building. She suffered severe injuries from flying glass and other items that acted as shrapnel. She wrote a very moving story about her recovery the following year, which I published in a newsletter. Another aftermath story, about forgiveness, I wrote about here.

The usual weird stuff

Three R’s: Resist. Rebel. Rebuild.

The US intensifies its crackdown on peaceful protests. Forty-one anti-protest bills in 22 states have been introduced since the start of 2025, according to the law tracker.

DEI Programs Are Lawful Under Federal Civil Rights Laws and Supreme Court Precedent

Pope Francis shames the crap out of JD Vance in final acts on earth; Pope dies at 88

A whistleblower’s disclosure details how DOGE may have taken sensitive labor data

Team That Investigates Line-of-Duty Fire Deaths slashed; cuts will also halt a first-of-its-kind study of the causes of thousands of firefighters’ cancer cases.

US FDA suspends milk quality tests amid workforce cuts

Law Firms Made Deals. Now He Wants More From Them

Environmental rollbacks would boost pollution and endanger lives

Congress’s Biggest Financial Priority Is “Stablecoin.” What the Hell Is That? Instead of tackling crashing markets, Congress is pushing a crypto sector in which FOTUS’ family is financially involved.

FOTUS Demands Investigations Into Negative Approval Rating Polls

Hegseth blames the ‘deep state’ for his being so bad at his job

DEMAND ACCOUNTABILITY. IMPEACH. HIM. AGAIN.

FOTUS, dementia, and the duty to warn

Also

Space Monsters #1 Kickstarter: “An all-new horror/sci-fi/fantasy magazine in a cool new format! The initial 200 copies will be serial numbered on the back cover.” by FantaCo Enterprises LLC

A collection of Street Academy of Albany / Harriet Gibbons High School yearbooks

From the Books: John Feinstein’s Where Nobody Knows Your Name

Careless People, Sarah Wynn-Williams’s tell-all memoir about her years running global policy for Facebook

My Mother, the Hollywood Scab

Wink Martindale, Prolific Game Show Host, Dies at 91

Will Hutchins, Star of ABC’s ‘Sugarfoot,’ Dies at 94

Jane Fonda is Far from Finished with Fitness or Activism

Oscars: Film Academy Establishes Stunt Design Award

Metonymy and metalepsis are two concepts that explain how we use substitutions in our speech.

Why are people never smiling in old photos?

The Oatmeal: Believe

Now I Know: Ben Franklin’s One Simple Trick to Save Sailors from Drowning and Maybe There Is an “I” in “Team” and The Childhood Terror That Turned Kind Of Nice and The Fashion Accessory That Prevents False Alarms and The Church of the World’s Oldest Tennis Ball

MUSIC

Lawyers, Guns, and Money – Warren Zevon

Traficano Rap – J Noa, LOWLIGHT

Streets of London by Ralph McTell

Tubthumping -Chumbawamba

Coverville 1530 The ABBA Cover Story V and 1531: The Buzzcocks Cover Story

Love In Real Life – Lizzo

Pump It Up -Elvis Costello & The Attractions

Annabel Lee – Sarah Jarosz

Purple Haze – The Jimi Hendrix Experience

Party at Ground Zero – Fishbone

A garden of flourishing paths by Jeffrey Mumford

We Are The World -USA for Africa

Eine kleine nachtmusik

How ‘Star Wars’ Is Changing Its Tune

Beatles songs not on US Capitol albums

adding songs to the CDs?

Every February, I play the American versions of the Beatles albums. Why is that? George was the first Beatle to visit the United States when he visited his sister Louise before Beatlemania broke. George’s birthday is in February.

Anyway, I’m reminded again of The Beatles songs, which were not on the US Capitol albums while the group was still together. I grew up on the Capitol and later Apple albums; for the former, it was what I got with my Capitol Record Club membership in 1966 and 1967.

I’m not talking about different versions of the same song, such as the single Love Me Do or even Sie Liebt Dich, the German version of She Loves You. The latter song appeared in the Rarities versions (1978-UK, 1980-US).

Misery and There’s A Place were both on the first UK album, Please Please Me, and the US Vee-Jay album, Introducing the Beatles. I heard them in the Beatles cartoons. But they didn’t make it onto The Early Beatles, Capitol’s belated version of Introducing. They finally showed up on the US Rarities.

From Me To You – a bust of a Vee-Jay single in the US in 1963, though it got up to #41 in ’64. Its B-side, Thank You Girl, was on The Beatles’ Second Album. From Me To You is not on The Early Beatles, either. It appears on the Red album (1973), functionally a greatest hits album for 1962-1966. It is the Beatles song I have the most difficult time recalling.

Movie non-soundtrack

A Hard Day’s Night—The movie soundtrack for the first Beatles movie was on the United Artists label in the United States. Capitol could use some of the songs – they did on the Something New album – but could not label the collection a soundtrack. I Should Have Known Better and Can’t Buy Me Love finally appeared on the Beatles Again/Hey Jude album. A Hard Day’s Night is first on the Red album.

I’m Down – The B-side of the Help single appears on the Rock ‘n’ Roll Music Collection (1976), the only new song on the double LP. I knew the song existed from the live version on the TV broadcast of The Beatles at Shea Stadium. It would have fit nicely on the Yesterday and Today album.

The Inner Light, the B-side of Lady Madonna, and You Know My Name (Look Up the Number), the B-side of Let It Be appear on both Rarities versions.

All of them, save You Know My Name, could/should have been on The Beatles Again.

Ah, the Beatles CDs

Of course, everything is made right in the CD era, using the British LPs plus Past Masters 1 and 2. I remember when the CDs first came out. There was speculation that the singles would be added to the albums. But why would they do that, aside from the fact that the early CDs were less than 40 minutes long and had a capacity of more than 70 minutes?

Still, From Me To You/Thank You Girl and She Loves You/I’ll Get You would easily fit on Please Please Me. One could throw in Sie liebt dich.

I Want To Hold Your Hand/This Boy plus Komm gib mir deine Hand might have appeared on With The Beatles; the first two were on the US near-equivalent Meet The Beatles.

The EP Long Tall Sally/I Call Your Name/Slow Down/Matchbox could have augmented A Hard Day’s Night.

Add I Feel Fine/She’s A Woman to Beatles for Sale.

Yes, It Is (the B-side of Ticket To Ride) and I’m Down (the B-side of Help), along with the US-only Bad Boy (from Beatles VI), could be added to Help.

Also:

Day Tripper/We Can Work It Out to Rubber Soul

Paperback Writer/Rain to Revolver

Lady Madonna/The Inner Light to Magical Mystery Tour

Hey Jude/Revolution to the white album

Get Back/Don’t Bring Me Down and You Know My Name (B-side of Let It Be) to Let It Be

Ballad Of John and Yoko/Old Brown Shoe to Abbey Road

Or maybe those latter singles in that singles-heavy period needed their own collection.

Part 2 of the 1935 #1 hits

Rodgers & Hart

Here is Part 2 of the 1935 #1 hits.

“In 1934, two separate top 20 charts began: one for best-selling records (based primarily on the record label charts and Murrells, supplemented by other sources such as Kinkle and Ewan) and one for Your Hit Parade and radio airplay. The latter charts were based solely on radio airplay in 1934 and early 1935. Starting in April of 1935, Your Hit Parade and radio airplay rankings were weighed together for” The Century of Pop Music Charts. Thus, the charts show 77 weeks of #1 hits.

Two weeks at #1

East Of The Sun (And West Of The Moon) – Tom Coakley, vocals by Carl Ravazza (Victor) From the Princeton Triangle Club’s production “Stags At Bay.”

It’s Easy To Remember – Bing Crosby with George Stoll and his orchestra (Decca), “‘Mississippi’ was one of Crosby’s finest Paramount musicals” and boasted several Rodgers & Hart songs

What’s The Reason (I’m Not Pleasin’ You)? – Guy Lombardo and his Royal Canadians, vocals by Carmen Lombardo (Decca)

Life’s A Song (Let’s Sing It Together) – Ruth Etting (Columbia)

Lullabye of Broadway – Dorsey Brothers Orchestra, vocals by Bob Crosby (Decca) Warren & Dubin tune from “Gold Diggers of 1935”

The Object Of My Affection – Boswell Sisters with Jimmie Grier and his orchestra (Brunswick). This was also a 1934 #1 hit by Jimmie Grier with Pinky Tomlin

Let’s Swing It – Ray Noble and his orchestra, vocals by The Freshman (Victor) from Earl Carroll’s “Sketch Book of 1935”

Red Sails In The Sunset – Bing Crosby with Victor Young and his orchestra (Decca)

A Little Bit Independent – Fats Waller and his Rhythm (Victor)

A single week at #1

On Treasure Island – Tommy Dorsey and his orchestra, vocals by Edythe Wright (Victor)

Rhythm Is Our Business – Jimmy Lunsford and his orchestra, vocals by Willie Smith (Decca) Written by Sammy Cahn (his 1st credit) / Jimmie Lunceford / Saul Chaplin

Soon – Bing Crosby withn George Stoll and his orchestra (Decca), another Rodgers & Hart song from “Mississippi”

And Then Some – Ozzie Nelson and his orchestra (Brunswick). Yes, the guy from The Adventures of Ozzie and Harriet.

Paris In The Spring – Ray Noble and his orchestra, vocals by Al Bowlly (Victor). The title song from a 1935 Paramount movie