Capital Radio saluted the last Soul Man, Sam Moore, who died Friday at 89, with a handful of hits from Sam & Dave, as well as some of his work with Bruce Springsteen in the decades since. We also paid tribute to Peter Yarrow, the second to go in Peter, Paul & Mary. He died
Aside from a number of birthdays — of Syd Barrett, Sandy Denny, Doris Troy, Nino Tempo, Van McCoy, Earl Scruggs and Malcolm Young of AC/DC — the first Capital Radio episode of 2025 was largely given over to remembering those who we lost in 2024. There were more than 40 people included, from Kris Kristofferson,
As if to even the ante set by other holidays, there were a bunch of New Year’s Eve songs to play on today’s Capital Radio — and a few to honor its tradition at midnight: a kiss. But Dec. 30 also had an abnormally large number of birthdays to note, ranging from Bo Diddley, born
On the day designated for airing of grievances and feats of strength, there was no way we couldn’t celebrate Festivus, for the rest of us. But who knew there were a half dozen songs about the holiday that made itself known through a 1997 episode of “Seinfeld”? There were a lot of other holidays to
Reports of mysterious drones in New Jersey and beyond prompted a handful of songs with drones in the title, at least. There were far more songs, of course, about flying saucers and UFOS, from Jefferson Airplane to Jimmy Durante to Hüsker Dü, among others. This led to a Flaming Lips connection of space to Santa,
Succumbing to the holidays starts with putting up the tree, so there was a 21-song salute on today’s Capital Radio to growing, cutting , trucking, choosing, lighting, decorating and otherwise trimming them, as they say. There were tunes about tiny trees, topping trees, and getting stuff beneath them, too. There was time for a half
We turn to the last leaf on the wall calendar and consider aspects of December minus the holiday dominance at its end. There were a lot of metaphors relating to the month’s fleeting snow and especially its cold. Which was exactly what hit hereabouts recently. So a lot of songs about chill — and four
Cutting into the annual 24 Hours of Christmas programming for my own holiday edition of Capital Radio, I tried to concentrate on somber, more solemn numbers appropriate for the day rather than dazzle dazzle of jingle bells. Themes of “Christmas Day is Here” were much favored over “Christmas time is coming.” Nice to have Coltrane
The last show before Christmas warrants the annual avalanche of holiday songs, starting with the Bosstones, Aimee Mann and Nick Lowe, shifting to ’60s oddities from Bobby Goldsboro and Brian Hyland, and enduring rokcers from the Kinks and the Ramones. There was so much Yuletide, there wasn’t time for the usual birthday salutes, except for
Things don’t always go right when you pre-record a show. Sometimes, last week’s show repeats by mistake, which it did today. And as happy as I was with that show, I’m sadder that the today’s Shane MacGowan-dominated show didn’t go live. But here it is, a few hours later, in archived form. Besides our full-bodied
