Author name: Michael Baginski

By Michael Baginski/ The song is over a decade old, but there’s something that just seems very current about The Record Company’s “Hard Day Coming Down.”

By MICHAEL BAGINSKI/ Last summer I shared my discovery of the year (which held for the rest of the calendar) – a “brand new” 30-year-old band from Scotland I had managed to miss before, prompting an enraged Scottish fellow to point at me at a trade show in Mexico of all places and yell – in full, glorious brogue – “How could ya ha’ missed Primal Scream?”

By MICHAEL BAGINSKI/ With St. Patrick’s Day past, and the appreciation of Irish culture having hit its zenith in mid March, it behooves us to remember that the Emerald’s isle’s musical contributions to the world can’t simply be pigeonholed into ethereal folk songs or and lively jigs and reels (“trad” – traditional – music as it is called).

Lost in the fog of war was the loss late last month of Neil Sedaka, the singer-songwriter whose boyish soprano and bright melodies made him a top act in the early years of rock ‘n’ roll and led to a second run of success in the 1970s with hits that included hits like “Breaking Up Is Hard to Do” and “Laughter in the Rain.” He was 86.

By Michael Baginski/ If you frequent the Internet, you’ll no doubt have come across the new “if such and such was performed by so and so” trend. Pink Floyd as Dire Straits, Perry Como as Metallica, and so forth. Don’t hate me, but I’ve pulled one of these stylistic AI remakes to celebrate St. Patrick’s Day (March 17) this year: Fleetwood Mac if it was an Irish folk song.

By Michael Baginski/ Good God, ya’ll, we first ran this song when Russia invaded Ukraine – almost four years ago to the day. That one is still going on. Now we have Iran and its hard not to wonder if a similar tragic trajectory will ensue. Either way, the song remains the same.

A collection of Paul McCartney instruments, outfits, handwritten lyrics, unseen photos and tour memorabilia will be part of an exhibit at the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame this summer, billed as the first major museum show to feature McCartney and Wings.

By Michael Baginski/ I’ve certainly never forgotten David Wilcox, but it took a Petro-Canada commercial during the Winter Olympics backed by “Do the Bearcat” to nudge the Canadian treasure back into my current consciousness.

By Michael Baginski/ In case you missed it, I regret to inform that 50 years have transpired since 1976 – a fact I myself realized when I read that it’s been half a century since Boston’s classic debut record, but also a year that featured dozens of bands and songs that still resonate today (read on!)

By Michael Baginski/ The Eagles have landed… the best-selling album in the history of the United States. Always mooted as one of the top-selling albums of all time, The Eagles’ “Their Greatest Hits (1971-75)” was officially certified by the Recording Industry Association of America this week for having sold 40 million copies – quadruple diamond – the first record to have done so.

By Michael Baginski/ Rob Hirst, the drummer for Midnight Oil, died this week at age 70, but the great Aussie band had already been in the back of my mind for awhile now. In these crazy days of Trump, wars, kidnappings, wild weather and “cats and dogs living together” (as Bill Murray said in “Ghostbusters”), it really does seem like our “beds are burning.”

By Michael Baginski/ It doesn’t seem right that it was only as recently 2022 that the great Carly Simon was inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame. After all, the New York (City)-born singer had 13 top 40 hits in the 1970s and ‘80s, notably including the theme song for the James Bond film “Nobody Does It Better” – song that summed up her career