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Under the Covers: A Musical Parlor Game

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Michael Sigman: It’s a drag that pop music has become so fragmented that we’ve lost the communal feeling of the culture-wide hits that used to fill the airwaves.

Politics and Songwriting: An Uneasy Alliance

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Michael Sigman: MSNBC’s Morning Joe host and former congressman (R-FL) Joe Scarborough has released one of the cheesier 9/11 homages cluttering America’s bandwidth, a self-penned song and video called “Reason To Believe.”

The Wonderful World of Irony

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Michael Sigman: The 50-year journey of “What a Wonderful World” shows the versatility of pop songs that encourage interpretations far afield from whatever the writers might have had in mind, if indeed they had anything particular in mind.

15 Things You Should Probably Know About Van Dyke Parks

van dyke parks

There’s good news from Van Dyke Parks, the indefatigable composer-lyricist-producer-conductor-musician-arranger whose brilliant collaborations with Brian Wilson — especially the epic Smile project — are only a small part of the story. The man who’s been producing his own first-rate work since the ’60s — and has played a key role in the careers of too [...]

8-Track Slice of Music History

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Michael Sigman: For Generation iPod-ers, who might think “8-track” refers to a railroad complex, Burnett’s ventures can supply an essential chapter in the story of how listeners have experienced recorded music over the past 120 years.

Donnie Kirshner: Music, Basketball and the Manhattan Phone Book

Don Kirshner

A publisher, producer, impresario and entrepreneur, Don Kirshner was key to the development of American popular music from the 1950s into the ’80s.

Moogy’s Gotta Have Friends

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Michael Sigman: It’s awful to find out that an old friend is ill and only then to express appreciation. But in the words of my brother Jeff — one of the many who began making music with Moogy long, long ago — “better late than later.”

This Is Your Brain on Crosswords

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Michael Sigman; I grew up believing my songwriter dad could’ve written more hits if he hadn’t wasted thousands of hours on the daily New York Times crossword puzzle and whatever acrostics he could get his hands on.

Will The Real Keith Please Stand Up?

Keith Richards

An imaginary Mick Jagger responded in Slate Friday to some nasty stuff in fellow Rolling Stone Keith Richards’ memoir. We’ve just exclusively obtained this entry from Keith’s diary, given to us by someone who would only identify himself as “Deep Tongue.”

The Adventures of Ozzy and Sanity

ozzy osbourne

Michael Sigman: Call him crazy, but even the famously uncivil Ozzy Osbourne has suggested that a profound hope for progress may be built into us, singing “Watching better turn to worse/One more time/Try to civilize the universe.”

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