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Robert Forster - from the cover of his 2019 album, Inferno
Song of the Day: As summer simmers on, a hot weather cracker from the new album by the Australian singer-songwriter and co-founder of the Go-Betweens, about his native Brisbane, but one that also hints heavily at global warming
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D-day – 6 June 1944
Song of the Day: To mark the 75th anniversary of the D-day landings in Normandy, three songs of contrasting styles, beginning with one by Hull-born 90-year D-day veteran, old folk singer and peace campaigner
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Sean Lennon and Les Claypool
Song of the Day: After worms and slugs, we turn to a toad, but this time this metaphor by Sean Lennon and Les Claypool’s band appears to lambast the disgraced Hollywood producer Harvey Weinstein, from their 2019 album South of Reality
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Squid’s in? Squid’s out …
Song of the Day: As spring comes into full bloom, a brilliant new song and band also bursting into life, but with an energetic twist – about not being able to afford a house or garden, nor plan for your future
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Dick Dale in the full 60s surf mode with the Del-Tones
Song of the Day: A tribute to the king of the surf guitar after his recent passing aged 81, hugely influential on Jimi Hendrix and other rock guitarists, the left-hander’s rock guitar style was shaped by his Lebanese background
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Talk Talk’s Mark Hollis, 1955-2019
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
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The Beatles recording the White Album at Abbey Road in 1968
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
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The Groundhogs
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
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Coda for a stellar career? David Bowie’s 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?
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From the cover of R.E.M.’s 1988 album
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
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Pink Floyd in 1973, the year of Dark Side Of The Moon
Song of the Day: Following our previous song The Old Brain, a Floyd-influenced work by Once & Future Band, let’s enjoy that older, but still fresh sounding brain song and final work from that 1973 masterpiece, Dark Side of the Moon
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Once & Future Band
Song of the Day: After the frenzied blood in the brain by Pom Poko, a slower, but rather beautiful number on grey matter by the rock band from Oakland, California fronted by Joel Robinow
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Christian Fitness aka Andrew Falkous
Song of the Day: “Hard work is a trap.” Continuing the employment theme, an explosion of hilarious, caustic wit and rapier guitar riffs of angry moral decency from Cardiff-based Andrew "Falco" Falkous
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High, tender voice? Lemmy lands a few surprises in this song
Song of the Day: Continuing a week of WW1 anniversary songs, in an unusually tender song from the heavy rock band, it’s a tragic first-person narration of the Battle of the Somme where 19,000 British soldiers were killed before noon
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One version of the cover The Kinks’ album Arthur (Or the Decline and Fall of the British Empire)
Song of the Day: Next in a week of songs dedicated to the First World War Armistice centenary, a deeply sad and vivid song by Ray Davies about the fleeting life of a young soldier killed in 1916 from the 1969 album, Arthur
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Alice Cooper waves the election banner
Song of the Day: In the wake of the most vital mid-term US elections in a generation, the 1972 rock song that is often wheeled out on these occasions, but less known is that it is a reworking of an earlier song, Reflected
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Dread rocker Lenny Kravitz
Song of the Day: After Arctic Monkeys taxi rank scenes in Sheffield night-life, a double header focusing on the drivers with a dismissive attitude and different attempts to hail them on either side of the pond
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Waiting for a cab? Arctic Monkeys in their early days, with frontman Alex Turner, second from right
Song of the Day: After Jens Lekman’s quiet, contemplative black cab ride, a riot of vivid images and late-night chaos clambering into a taxi in Sheffield with Alex Turner and co from their 2006 debut album
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Pub perfection: Chas Hodges on piano, with Dave Peacock on bass
Song of the Day: Moving from Otis Redding to a rolling rockney number may seem unlikely, but it’s a fitting tribute on the passing of pianist and singer Chas Hodges with this song’s strong melody and seamlessly emotional key changes
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The Animals may have done the best-known cover version, but there are arguably others than better it
To some it’s a masterpiece, to others a dirge, but from 17th century England to 20th century New Orleans, with artists that include Woody Guthrie, Nina Simone, The Animals and alt-J it’s a song that keeps evolving
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