music Archives - Ramblin' with Roger

Sept. rambling: Murdering 60 Minutes

Baseball Walk Up Song Database

**Lonnie G. Bunch III, Secretary of the Smithsonian, at the Natural History Museum. Marvin Joseph / The Washington Post via Getty Images**

UN rights chief Volker Türk raises alarm over AI’s ‘existential’ risk to humanity

What students lose when they stop writing

“Murdering 60 Minutes” is what it would look like if “60 Minutes” covered what happened to itself after Bari Weiss took over. The film is available to watch for free on YouTube and at www.murdering60minutes.com.

It’s Not Just Flock. Police Can’t Be Trusted With Our Data

Gloria Steinem Dies at 92. She challenged sexist assumptions, helping women develop self-worth and gain a measure of equality at work, at home, and in society at large. Somewhere in the attic is my copy of the premiere issue of Ms. magazine.

Americans Agree on Almost Nothing. Except Data Centers. Three-fourths of Americans oppose them.

As A Teen, I Wrote A Famous Musician A Fan Letter. 23 Years After His Death, I Finally Got A Response.

Bob Mackie, Designer Who Bedazzled Carol Burnett and Cher, Dies at 87

It’s One of Our Greatest and Most Controversial Novels. How Should “Adventures of Huckleberry Finn” Be Taught?

He Was a Top Lawn Care Influencer on YouTube. Then Everything Went Haywire.

I Study Successful People. They Have One Habit in Common. The habit is asking for help when you get stuck.

The Glare

The 92-Year-Old Mathematician and the Teenage Apprentice

Any Human Ever

To Protect and Swerve and All Price Tags Go To Heaven, and Denim Dresses Were the Old Black and How Hippos Swim:

Hmm…

‘Beware my power’: White House shares AI-generated video of FOTUS as Green Lantern

EPA Takes ‘Yet Another Sledgehammer’ to Clean Water Act

Vance lies through his teeth about regime’s military missteps

Hegseth vs. the Deep Pentagon

Dozens of Joint Staff members subject to polygraph tests in leak hunt

At $5.85 a Gallon, Diesel Price Hits All-Time High thanks to War on Iran

RFK Jr.’s vaccine lies finally catch up to him

Regime to rescind rule protecting old-growth forests. “The public has until 21 September to comment on the plan.”

Why did FOTUS order up 660 million pounds of mystery meat?

Russian Businessman Paid for DT Jr.’s Lavish Wedding After-Party

U.N. approves Equal Earth map in 164-1 vote as U.S. slams it as ideological

Lonnie G. Bunch III has announced his decision to depart as Smithsonian’s Secretary after 38 years of service to the institution. With a storied career dating back to the 1970s, Bunch leaves a remarkable legacy, most notably the founding of the National Museum of African American History and Culture, which we visited in 2024. I heard him speak in 2019 at the Apollo Theater in Harlem.

MUSIC

Baseball Walk Up Song Database

You’re Not Alone – Mavis Staples

Canticle of Light by Akira Nishimura

Best Albums of 2026 (Third Quarter) Report

Brahms’ Academic Overture – The Cleveland Orchestra

Coverville 1592: The Dolly Parton Tribute and 1593: The Bee Gees Cover Story V

Sunshine Boots – Johnson Mkhalali

Gumboots -Paul Simon featuring The Boyoyo Boys

Nightflyer – Alison Russell

Joan Osborne issued an album of 12 Bob Dylan covers circa 2017; she performed some of them live. Full Session – 8/31/2017 – Paste Studios – New York, NY

A Song For You – Donny Hathaway

Beautiful Dawn – The Wailin’ Jennys

Harvest Moon – Cassandra Wilson, jazz star, who died at 70, which reminds me of my late friend Donna

Peter Sprague Plays The Wind Cries Mary, featuring Lisa Hightower, and George, Tell It Like It Is, featuring Sinne Eeg

STAR TREK edition

Do You Miss Me Darlin’ – The Guess Who

This Time Tomorrow – Brandi Carlile

Higher Love – Steve Winwood

We Shall Be Known – MaMuse

Venus – Bananarama

Dopamine (Jamie xx Remix) – Robyn

Something To Love – Jason Isbell and the 400 Unit

Goodbye, Dolly Parton

9:25

I’m not surprised that I was sad to hear about the passing of Dolly Parton. (Do I need a series of descriptors for her – singer, actor, philanthropist, et al.? I think not.) But the melancholy frankly astonished me.

I have only one of her albums. The Grass is Blue, which I bought at a library deaccession sale. It starts with a cover version of Billy Joel’s Travelin’ Prayer. I do have the three Trio albums with Linda Ronstadt and Emmylou Harris; the three-part harmony on the chorus of Telling Me Lies always makes me weepy.

Watching a bunch of television coverage reminded me of her grace. My favorite Dolly story involves the song I Will Always Love You. Incidentally, a guy on NBC News said that the song was written in response to someone’s death, which I knew to be untrue.

When The Times included Parton on its 30 Greatest Songwriters list earlier this year, their pop critic Lindsay Zoladz wrote:

“Perhaps the rich emotional range of her vast body of work is best expressed in those two songs she supposedly wrote in a single night. “Jolene” crackles with nervous envy, anxiety and desperation. “I Will Always Love You,” her huge-hearted farewell to her mentor Porter Wagoner, is sung with the omniscient benevolence of a guardian angel. The human and the divine: Dolly Parton is a little bit of both.

In an interview with Dan Rather, she talks about Elvis wanting to record IWALY, which thrilled Dolly. But his manager, Col. Tom Parker, informed her that Elvis would get 50% of the publishing royalties. She was disappointed and declined the offer, but didn’t blame Presley or Parker; she graciously acknowledged that the Colonel was just being a shrewd businessman. Of course, Parton was just as clever.

Cinema

Little wonder that Jane Fonda saw that Dolly would be perfect for the movie 9 To 5. (The Empire State Building was lit on Tuesday night at 9:25.) The fact that she memorized everybody’s lines, which may have made her performance stronger, and wrote and recorded the iconic title track, was a bonus.

She was probably underestimated for a time. The New York notes that “at the time of her death, Parton reportedly had more than 350 wigs and 2,000 pairs of shoes. She embraced rural stereotypes and kitsch to develop a chic all her own.

Dolly said, “I’ve created this [caricatured public persona] and played it up. But this isn’t all I am. It’s not even most of what I am. Hopefully people can see beneath the hair to know there’s a brain, beneath the boobs to know there’s a heart, and behind all the other stuff to know there’s some talent.”

Definitely, heart. She has a children’s hospital named after her and helped fund the Moderna mRNA COVID vaccine. “She was the first in her family to graduate from high school; years later, her philanthropic organization donated more than 200 million books to children.”

What really caught me was something Heather Delaney Resse wrote: “Dolly Parton died. She was 80 years old, too. And suddenly, I found myself thinking about 80 years in an entirely different way. About how much life that really is. How many choices it holds. How many opportunities we are given to make someone else’s life a little better, or a little worse. And ultimately, how differently two people can choose to spend the time they are given.”

Read the NYT obit and a piece from the Smithsonian.

August rambling: dowfart

Waiting for a Library Book?

Catbird: “When I viewed it again, it looked like a heart that had been run over by a tire, which reflected my yet-unrealized reaction to what doge had just started. My conscious mind didn’t know yet, but my hand did. What a revelation!”

Dowfart – Meaning: 1. A dimwit. 2. A coward.

Digital sewer socialism: Mamdani’s Public Interest Technologists are what DOGE should have been.

Talarico Explains Infamous ‘Powell Memo’ to Texas Voters. The top 1% put the American Dream behind a paywall,” said the Texas Democrat as he unveiled a framework for his economic vision.

History Wars: The Declaration of Independence

First Came the Flock Cameras. Now Local Cops Want Autonomous Drones. Hundreds of local police departments have received waivers to fly surveillance drones that navigate with AI. Also, are Flock cameras in your neighborhood?

The Manosphere and MAHA Have Merged. I Worry for My Pre-Teen Son

FDA Approves First mRNA Flu Vaccine — Approval is for people 50 years or older

‘The Good Maharaja’: How an Indian Prince Saved Hundreds of Polish Children During WWII. When the world looked away, Maharaja Digvijaysinhji Jadeja stepped forward to provide refuge and hope to young castaways

A High Schooler Invents a Plant-Based Plastic That Removes Microplastics From the Environment as It Biodegrades.

Waiting for a Library Book? This Man Makes Sure You Get It

Sydney Towle, who chronicled her cancer on TikTok, dies at 26

Tommy John, Dodgers pitcher and medical pioneer, dies at 83. After tearing an elbow ligament, he underwent a risky procedure and returned at his best, changing baseball and giving new hope to injured players.

Why Gen Z and millennials are embracing “grandma hobbies”

When His Church Goes Dark, They Talk to His Digital Twin

Can Robots Save an Aging Japan?

Ireland (The Words)

Memories of Goldmine

The Reality TV Show That Wasn’t Out of This World and The Driver That Can’t Give the Cops the Split and When Astronauts Smuggled Mail into Space and The Worst 2.6% of the Planet? and The Baseball Steroid Testing Loophole of 2003 and Jeopardy! is Full of Lies

FOTUS

Treasury Confirms $1.4 Trillion FY 2026 Deficit So Far, Higher Than 2025

& the DOJ: Last Week Tonight with John Oliver (HBO)

Inside the New York court where children face deportation without access to attorneys

Draft dodger sure loves big battleships and military cosplay

Helicopter hiccup shows air traffic control is still a mess

Proposed arch could obstruct views of Washington’s historic sites

MUSIC

Funk music is as unapologetically Black as the musicians who pioneered it

The Enduring Power Of Stevie Wonder’s “As,” R&B’s Greatest Song Ever, and you could make a strong case for it being the greatest song ever recorded, period.

Claustrophobia – Bee Gees

Andy Warhol – David Bowie

Vienna — Billy Joel

Black Coffee In Bed – Squeeze

Under A Violet Moon -Blackmore’s Night

Radar Love – Golden Earring

That’s The Way I Always Heard It Should Be – Carly Simon

Coverville 1588: Queen’s Final 1986 Concert and 1589: The Glen Hansard Tribute

Glen Hansard edition

Grand March from the opera La reine de Saba by Charles Gounod

1976 Hot Country Singles of 1976, part two

Conway Twitty

Here are the 1976 Hot Country Singles, Part Two. They were all #1 for a single week, in part a function of market manipulation.

It’s fascinating to me that I know many of the artists, but not the music, at least in this decade: Bill Anderson, Ronnie Milsap, Conway Twitty, and Tammy Wynette, to name a few.

You’ll Lose A Good Thing – Freddy Fender

Till I Can Make It On My Own – Tammy Wynette; her stated personal favorite among all that she had written and recorded.

Drinking My Baby (Off My Mind) – Eddie Rabbit

Together Again – Emmylou Harris, a 1964 Buck Owens song; I think I own this on vinyl

Don’t The Girls All Get Prettier At Closing Time – Mickey Gilley

My Eyes Can Only See as Far As You – Charlie Pride

What Goes On When The Sun Goes Down – Ronnie Milsap

After All The Good Is Gone – Conway Twitty. He broke through in 1955. He died during surgery in 1993 at the age of 59. Conway was inducted into the Tennessee Sports Hall of Fame.

I’ll Get Over You – Crystal Gayle; my greatest hits albums of hers I’ve got from my late FIL’s collection

All These Things – Joe Stampley

The Door Is Always Open – Dave and Sugar

Golden Ring – George Jones and Tammy Wynette

Say It Again – Don Williams

Covers

Bring It On Home To Me – Mickey Gilley. Yes, the Sam Cooke classic from 1962

If You’ve Got The Money, I’ve Got The Time – Willie Nelson, a #1 hit for Left Frizell, who co-wrote it, in 1950

Here’s Some Love – Tanya Tucker

The Games That Daddies Play – Conway Twitty. He didn’t write every one of his hits, but he did pen this one

Among My Souvenirs – Marty Robbins. This was a $1 song by Paul Whiteman in 1928!

Cherokee Maiden – Merle Haggard. Bob Wills had first recorded this song in 1941:

More 1976 pop #1s

TV and movie themes, dance, and a rue story

Here are more 1976 pop #1s. The first group includes songs that reached #1 on the Billboard charts but spent 7 weeks or fewer in the top 10.

Boogie Fever – Sylvers (Capitol), gold record

Theme from Mahogany (Do You Know Where You’re Going To – Diana Ross (Motown)

You Should Be Dancing – Bee Gees (RSO), gold record

Let Your Love Flow – Bellamy Brothers (Warner Curb)

Convoy – C.W. McCall (MGM), gold record, novelty; also #1 CB and RW for three weeks each

Welcome Back – John Sebastian (Reprise), gold record. Theme from Welcome Back, Kotter TV show

Love Machine (Part 1) – The Miracles (Tamla). Post Smokey

Theme from S.W.A.T. – Rhythm Heritage (ABC), gold record, instrumental;

Saturday Night – Bay City Rollers (Arista), gold record

Rock’n Me – Steve Miller (Capitol)

#1, non-BB

The next grouping contains the songs that reached #1 on the pop charts in Record World (RW) and/or Cash Box (CB) but NOT on Billboard.

All By Myself – Eric Carmen (Arista), #1 on CB and RW, #2 for three weeks on BB, gold record

Dream Weaver – Gary Wright (Warner), #1 on CB and RW, #2 for three weeks on BB, gold record

Right Back Where We Started From – Maxine Nightingale (United Artists), #1 on CB and RW, #2 for two weeks on BB, gold record

The Wreck Of The Edmund Fitzgerald – Gordon Lightfoot (Reprise), #1 on CB, #2 for two weeks on BB. “The true story of an ore vessel, named after a Milwaukee civic leader, that sank in Lake Superior on 11/10/1975.”

Get Up and Boogie (That’s Right) – Silver Convention, #1 on CB and RW, #2 on BB, gold record

Lonely Night (Angel Face) – Captain and Tennille (A&M), #1 on CB and RW, #3 for three weeks on BB, gold record

Love To Love You Baby – Donna Summer (Oasis), #1 on RW; #2 for two weeks on BB, gold record

Lowdown – Boz Scaggs (Columbia), #1 on CB, #3 for two weeks on BB, gold record

Let ‘Em In – Wings (Capitol), #1 on CB, #3 on BB, gold record. “Phil and Don.”

More, More, More – Andrea True Connection (Buddah) – #1 on RW, #4 on BB, gold record