Pop Song of the Week: "Run Rabbit Run"

The one song that Anya Jenkins really, really hates. So it's a good thing she's only a fictional character.

Pop Song of the Week: "Boulevard of Broken Dreams"

My favorite version of a classic song from the 1930s. (Apart from Ms. Winehouse's version, of course.)

Dueling Quotes

Here is where you'll always find me,
Always walking up and down.
--Al Dubin and Harry Warren, "Boulevard of Broken Dreams"

And the LORD said unto Satan, Whence comest thou? Then Satan answered the LORD, and said, From going to and fro in the earth, and from walking up and down in it.
--Job 1:7, King James Version

Pop Song of the Week: "Boulevard of Broken Dreams"

I was going to post the Helen Ward version of this song since that is the version I most listen to and that's obviously my favorite. But then when I was doing research on the Internet, I discovered this live cover version -- made by the one singer I would have never associated with this song. And she sings it Latin style as well -- which makes her a honorary Latina.

Sadly, the singer in question is no longer with us but then neither are a lot of people I think about nowadays. Then again it's always depressing to reflect upon the number of young celebrities that I managed to outlive.

Pop Song of the Week: “Put a Lid on It”

Embeddable music videos are fast becoming extinct on the Net so I might well start posting a few before they vanish altogether.

This week I post a song from the Squirrel Nut Zippers' 1996 album Hot. After all, we seem to be still reliving the 30s and the Squirrel Nut Zippers captured the spirit of those days a whole lot better than any of their contemporaries. Plus I like how lead vocalist Katharine Whalen channels the spirit of the late Billie Holiday. Not many female singers can pull off such a feat without looking stupid and many wouldn't even try. But then Ms. Whalen is a goddess. So there.

I hope you all enjoy it.

Pop Song of the Week: “Boulevard of Broken Dreams”

I wish I could take credit for this video's creation but, alas, I can only take credit for my decision to post it here. Apparently the creator took clips from a bunch of old movies -- especially movies in the film noir genre -- and created this short film, set to the Ted Weems version of one of my favorite Harry Warren songs.

The Ted Weems version isn't exactly my favorite version of this tune but I like it far better than the more recent Green Day song that bears the same title. And, of course, the clips are nice, too, though I'm not sure why the filmmaker chose to end with a clip of Sharon Stone.

I hope you all enjoy it... even if it is a bit... ahem... out of the past.

Pop Song of the Week: “Ten Cents a Dance”

I'll probably be posting less songs with the advent of Lent next week. Not that I consider these posts to be all that sinful but I originally started this blog to give me an opportunity to do a lot more writing than I'm actually do at the moment. And not hunting down songs to post every week should give me time to do that. I'll probably ease up on the quotes, too. We'll see.

In the meantime, I'm posting one of my favorite songs from the 1930s, 1930's “Ten Cents a Dance” from the High Hatters. It's a nifty tune in which lead singer Welcome Lewis -- no, I didn't make that name up -- manages to sum up the downside of being a taxi dancer far more succinctly than Shirley MacLaine's Charity Hope Valentine managed to do in an entire movie. I originally encountered the song on an old CD of 1930s tunes that I recently purchased and I liked it so much I tracked it down on YouTube. I hope you all like the song and don't mind the less-than-interesting visuals.

And God bless those taxi dancers!

What I've Been Listening to Lately



Actually I've had this album since last year. Ever since I started listening to the Dresden Dolls, I've gotten obsessed with the type of 20s and 30s music that inspired the Dresden Dolls and this is the most concise collection of such material that I've found thus far. (It didn't hurt that my father used to make my siblings and me listen to recording of 20s music when I was younger. So I'm almost genetically programmed to like the stuff.)

Anyway, I've recently become obsessed with it again. Almost as if the powers that be were trying to tell me something...