Song of the Day: A triple-song tribute the Mark Hollis, founder songwriter and frontman of the extraordinarily innovative and influential 80s band, whose death, at 64, was recently reported
Read moreDavey Graham – Neighbour Neighbour
Song of the Day: After the ‘fuss and fight’ of the Paragons and later Massive Attack on Man Next Door, and reverse of perspective from the neighbour making the noise, in a powerful version by the great and underrated English folk guitarist and singer
Read moreJohn Holt & The Paragons / Massive Attack – I've Got To Get Away / Man Next Door
Song of the Day: After A Quiet Place by Garnet Mimms, more neighbour disturbance with a ‘68 rocksteady classic inspired by another song penned by Paul Witt, and then an electronic landmark sung by Horace Andy from 1998’s album Mezzanine
Read moreGarnet Mimms & The Enchanters – A Quiet Place
Song of the Day: Following Miles Davis with In A Silent Way, a beautiful ‘64 soul number pleading for silence on a noisy street by the artist who grew up in Philadelphia and developed his Sam Cooke-like voice in church and doo-wop bands
Read moreMiles Davis – In A Silent Way
Album of the Day: A special edition to mark the anniversary of a unique masterpiece recorded 50 years ago today on 18 February 1969 at New York’s CBS 30th Street Studio. Davis’s contribution was small, but key, fitting perfectly alongside the work of other greats
Read moreThe Staple Singers – Bridges Instead of Walls
Song of the Day: On the day Donald Trump calls an attention-seeking national emergency to get funding for his controversial wall project, a song from 1973 by the great soul and gospel family with a message that’s loud and clear
Read moreThe Beatles – Birthday
Song of the Day: Combining two birthdays, one for the Song Bar itself - now three years old, and less significantly, the Bar’s Landlord, this off-the-cuff rock number was written during the White Album recordings on 18 September 1968
Read moreThe Groundhogs – Cherry Red / Eccentric Man (plus John Lee Hooker)
Song of the Day: Deliberately one day after the traditional date of Groundhog Day, life and music repeats itself with two songs by the British 60s band were inspired the great American bluesman and one of his numbers
Read moreSandie Shaw / Ron Moody / Galliano – Reviewing The Situation
Song of the Day: To capture the current state of farcical flux and political impasse over Brexit and US government shutdown, a classic written by Lionel Bart for the musical Oliver!, which also became a feminist 60s pop hit for the female star
Read moreAlabama 3 – Woke Up This Morning
Song of the Day: After Miss Otis Regrets, another songs about a women who decided to stop taking abuse from a man, this time by the band from Brixton whose song eventually became synonymous with the Sopranos
Read moreElla Fitzgerald / Ethel Waters – Miss Otis Regrets (She's Unable To Lunch Today)
Song of the Day: After yesterday’s She Drew The Gun songs, let’s go back to an original Cole Porter number from 1934, which contains that shot line of defiance and revenge, a tragic tale about a society woman who simply would not take it anymore
Read moreShe Drew The Gun – Something For The Pain / Resister
Song of the Day: A pair of finely crafted and powerful songs addressing pain and ongoing social problems from the Liverpool indie pop band fronted by singer and songwriter Louisa Roach from the 2018 album Revolution of Mind
Read moreDavid Bowie – Blackstar
Song of the Day: Exactly three years ago Bowie released his final album, on his birthday, and two days before he died. Was that opening track a coda for a stellar career, referencing a life’s work, his demons and impending death?
Read more3rd Bass – Problem Child
Song of the Day: After R.E.M.’s The Wrong Child, a more discursive number about teenage problems, ranging from drugs, gangs, sexual abuse, to depression and suicide by one of the finest New York rap outfits from the golden age of early 90s hip hop
Read moreR.E.M. – The Wrong Child
Song of the Day: After yesterday’s Problem Child by Hed Ogledd, a rarely played, but beautiful, pathos-rich song from the perspective of an outsider, perhaps with a physical or mental disability, looking at other children playing
Read moreHen Ogledd – Problem Child
Song of the Day: It’s impossible to categorise this brilliant, heady mixture of folk and electronica with thudding bass, and oddball vocals, except it has an echo of late-70s Peter Gabriel about it
Read moreThe Zombies – This Will Be Our Year
Song of the Day: A positive start to 2019, with a simple and gorgeous piano-based melody and love song from the pioneering British psych rock and pop band formed in St Albans in 1961 from their classic album of 1968, Odessey and Oracle
Read moreTom Waits – New Year's Eve
Song of the Day: An annual theme from a perennial Song Bar favourite - Tom Waits’ and Kathleen Brennan’s gentle song captures some of the chaos, fireworks, fights, arguments and emotional turmoil as the year unstoppably turns
Read moreSufjan Stevens – Christmas In The Room
Song of the Day: From the prolific US singer-songwriter’s second box set of festive songs, Silver and Gold, a cosy, beautiful, if slightly melancholy of depiction of a couple-only non-family occasion of just watching TV
Read moreTracy Chapman – Hard Wired
Song of the Day: The next song in min-series of brain theme is this prophetic number by the Cleveland, Ohio singer from her 2002 album Let It Rain, highlighting the effect technology has on our most precious and complex organ
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