NewYearsDayProject | a song a day blog

Written by Bob Dylan , yet often remembered as The Jimi Hendrix Experience's biggest radio hit, "All Along the Watchtower" is one of the biggest songs in rock music. Dylan's songwriting earned the 2016 Nobel Prize in literature. The cryptic lyrics of today's representative song, taking inspiration from Isaiah 21:5-9 , have been speculated to be about everything from a conversation between Dylan and Elvis Presley to an allegory for the Vietnam war or the apocalypse. Maybe it's because of Forest Gump    but the guitar solo on Hendrix's version of  "All Along the Watchtower" feels like a zeitgeist soundtrack to the chaotic '60s--a time of war, drugs, assassinations, and Civil Rights.  "THERE MUST BE SOME WAY OUT OF THIS." "All Along the Watched Tower" deserves its own post, and may get a lengthened post next year; however, today, I'm sharing a playlist in honor of the late, great Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. There are 17+

Netflix's  Song Exploder tells the story about the first single from The Killer's second album, Sam's Town .  Toward the end of touring for their debut record, Hot Fuss , The Killers started work on their second record . The band changed their musical direction slightly for Sam's Town , incorporating influences of Americana into their New-Wave sound. Taking musical and lyrical influence from Bruce Springsteen, The Killers set out to tell the stories about the West and Las Vegas, a town they call home. From the opening guitar riff, inspired by the feeling of driving in the desert, to the spiritual conations in the lyrics, " When You Were Young" is an early track that shows the themes of the band in more recent years. WAITING ON SOME BEAUTIFUL BOY TO SAVE YOU FROM YOUR OLD WAYS.  I mostly skipped over The Killers' sophomore release,  Sam's Town . Critics and fans, too, were mixed on the album. The band who had named themselves after a fictional band fro

U2 's third album,   War ,  brought the band a number 1 album in the UK, dethroning the King of Pop, Michael Jackson 's   Thriller . Previously the band wrote songs about growing up and spirituality, but, according to lead singer Bono , "War seemed the be the motif in 1982." Hence, the band released  War  on February 28, 1983. Many of the tracks on the album were inspired by the socio-political issues in the band's home country of Ireland, namely The Troubles, the conflict between Catholics and Protestants dividing the island. However, the album delves into other political subjects in a time when the world seemed divided during the Cold War. And this '80s zeitgeist album seems all the more relevant today. I WILL BE WITH YOU AGAIN.    Prior to the album's release, U2 issued their first single on January 1, 1983, what would be the third track on their breakthrough album. The Post-Punk, New Wave keyboards meeting the now signature delayed, clicky guitars of D

Following up the band's 2003 album How to Dismantle an Atomic Bomb, U2 released their 2009 album, No Line on the Horizon. Critics liked U2's 2009 effort, and it holds a 72% rating on Meta-critic. The band's next record, 2011's Songs of Innocence would make the band one of the most hated musical acts after they gave the record away for free in iTunes libraries. For a band that has been around for over forty years, in a world of constant changing musical landscapes, U2 has had hits and misses, yet somehow their anthemic sounds force their way into relevance, whether it's because they are catchy or frontman Bono's rock star activism. EVERY FACE WE CANNOT KNOW. No Line for the Horizon was a U2 album I passed on. I hadn't like the track listing of How to Dismantle an Atomic Bomb, but at least I liked some of the songs to get me to listen to the album. The lead single from Line was " Get on Your Boots " and it sounded like U2 was trying too hard to reli

In 2010 Rolling Stone named Darlene Love's 1963 song "(Christmas) Baby, Please Come Home" as the number 1 Christmas rock song ever recorded. Born Darlene Wright in 1941, and renamed Darlene Love by producer Phil Spector, Darlene began her musical career as the lead vocalist for the girl group the Blossoms. Besides her career with the Blossoms and her solo career, Love sang lead on two Crystals songs and back up for many notable artists including Sam Cooke, the Beach Boys, Elvis Presley, Sonny and Cher, and Tom Jones. Love also acted on Broadway and appeared in the  Lethal Weapon films.  Love performed "(Christmas) Baby, Please Come Home" every episode before Christmas on David Letterman from 1986-2014, except for 2007 during the writers' strike.  PRETTY LIGHTS ON THE TREE. "Baby, Please Come Home" has been covered by many artists including Mariah Carey, Michael Bublè , Death Cab for Cutie, Jars of Clay, among others. One of the most famous covers

Formed in 1994 first as Shrug and then as Polarbear but finally changing their name to Snow Patrol  due to other bands by their former names, the Northern Irish band became very popular in the early '00s. Their first single " Run " was a hit in the UK. But in America, the band would become famous because of their song " Chasing Cars " when it was included in the season 2 finale of Grey's Anatomy . "Chasing Cars" is the song most people know by Snow Patrol, and most wouldn't be able to associate the name with their hit song. The band continues to produce music, most recently releasing 2018's Wildness .    TRAIN THIS CHAOS, TURN IT INTO LIGHT . If you've had time to get into Taylor's Version of Red , you may have noticed a feature by Snow Patrol's Gary Lightbody . Once the Indie Rock band became recognized, the band members started working on pop music, and Lightbody writing for Taylor Swift and Ed Sheeran . The Snow Patrol singe

If you picked up Out of the Badlands , you may have been expecting Aaron Gillespie's third album to be in the vein of his prior solo releases. In 2016, Gillespie had long since left his drumming/singing duties in Underoath and had put his own Southern-influenced pop-punk band, The Almost, on hiatus. His next venture was signing to BEC, the Christian imprint of Tooth & Nail Records, and releasing an original Praise & Worship record followed by another one. But as much as he tried, the rough-n-tumble persona that Gillespie is--with his heavily tattooed body and penchant for an unguarded sailor-mouth--Praise & Worship music didn't pay the bills. What did pay the bills, Gillespie found, was drumming for 4 years of stadium tours with the band Paramore. On the podcast, Where Are All My Friends , Gillespie talks about this period with Paramore as an opportunity to lay his artistic endeavors aside, which ultimately inspired his next projects. These included a reunion with U

Formed in 1992 as the house band for a series UK youth outreach events called The Cutting Edge , delirious? became a full time band i after singer Martin Smith was hospitalized for several weeks after a car accident in 1995. Smith read Bill Flanagan's book U2: At the End of the World , inspiring him to make the band a full-time career. The band released their second full-length studio album,  King of Fools ,  and their first under the moniker Delirious. The song " Deeper " hit the UK pop charts , unexpectedly, peaking at number 20. The band would sign to Sparrow Records for their U.S. distribution, spanning several CCM and Christian Rock hits and helping to create the next generation of worship music. Delirious's music is usually worship, but at their core, they are a jam band, particularly evidenced on their follow up two follow up records to  King of Fools, Mezzamorphis and Glo . The band writes anthems that sound like U2 , but include electronic experimentation

  Back in 2010 we learned that yes, a pickle can get more likes than Nickelback , a band that had become the most hated "butt rock" band in the mid-'00s. In fact, the conclusions of the social media study found that a pickle had more likes than Oprah Winfrey or other beloved figures. It turns out that internet users' hate outweighs Internet love, or the terrible outweighs the good. In 2014, the most hated rock band would become U2 after their release of Songs of Innocence was forced into every iTunes users' library. People tried everything to scrub the songs from their shuffle. Today, people have mostly forgotten about Nickelback, and Apple Music no longer comes standard with that U2 album, so people have other musical axes to grind. Justin Bieber has grown up and is no longer blaring in our cultural continuousness. So who is the most hated band these days? After the 2019 Super Bowl it was Maroon 5 , for taking to the stage when the NFL was in the middle of rac

Yesterday was Children's Day in South Korea, so I had a nice day off of work. Today, it was back to work, but a song I listened to this morning took me back to a few earlier points in my life--not quite back to childhood. I wrote about "All These Things I've Done," back in February, talking about the conflict in Brandon Flowers' lyrics--the desire to keep the straight and narrow path of his faith and the temptations of the real world. And unlike the bands on Tooth & Nail who seem to have everything sorted out (granted, there is a spectrum of Christianity rather than one rather rigid denomination--Mormonism), The Killers' music is never resolved. "When You Were Young" examines the contrast between what you fantasize love would be when you were young with the reality of it. The person you fall in love with may not be the man who looks "like Jesus." He may not share the faith and ritual you grew up with. "But he talks like a gentlema

Last week I taught a lesson on Irish music to my students. I played examples of Celtic instrumental music. I showed videos of River Dance . I played sad songs like " The Parting Glass " and " Danny Boy ." Then I played some famous Irish artists like Enya ,  U2 , and  T he Cranberries . Then I played  Kodaline 's " High Hopes ."  When I asked my students which they like the best, they said Kodaline. Well, that's kind of a stupid question. There are times when I want to listen to Celtic bagpipes and jigs. There are times I want to go out and have fun an Irish pub and hear Celtic-punk rock. There are times I want to listen to U2, and it's certainly not the same day I want to listen to Enya, but those days happen too. But like my students, I think Kodaline's first album fits more into my everyday listening habits. BROKEN BOTTLES IN THE HOTEL LOBBY. While In A Perfect World  is a great everyday listen, you have to be careful watching the music

I first heard The Cranberries ' " Zombie " when I was at a 4-H state presentation. All the different counties of North Carolina sent their qualifiers in different categories to Charlotte to compete with other counties. My presentation was about coin collecting, which was something I was kinda-sorta into, and I'm pretty sure I qualified for State only because I was the only one in the category in that section. It was a good experience with public speaking; however, I realized that there was a talent show which was far more interesting than anything I could have presented. The only talent I remember was the gothic people, members of a 4-H group from another county. They performed "Zombie," and may have won the talent show. I T'S NOT ME; IT'S NOT MY FAMILY . Today is St. Patrick's Day. I like to pick Irish artists; however, this song is not a cheery song about drinking in the pub and dying the river green. Instead, this song delves into the issues i

U2's third album, War, brought the band a number 1 album in the UK, dethroning the King of Pop's Thriller . Previously the band wrote songs about growing up and spirituality, but, according to lead singer Bono, "War seemed the be the motif in 1982." Hence, the band released War on February 28, 1983. Many of the tracks on the album were inspired by the socio-political issues in the band's home country of Ireland, namely The Troubles, the conflict between Catholics and Protestants physically dividing the island. However, the album delves into other political subjects in a time when the world seemed divided during the Cold War. And this '80s zeitgeist album seems all the more relevant today. I WILL BE WITH YOU AGAIN.    Prior to the album's release, U2 issued their first single on January 1, 1983, what would be the third track on their breakthrough album. The Post-Punk, New Wave keyboards meeting the now signature delayed, clicky guitars of David Howell Evans