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"My mind turns your life into folklore." That line, from the song "Gold Rush," is the only time the word "folklore" is spoken on either of Taylor Swift's 2020 records, Folklore and Evermore , the latter of which is where the song appears. The presence of the line indicates that "Gold Rush" is a pivotal song not only in Swift's lockdown duology, but in her maturation as a songwriter.  Swift's early albums often drew heavily from her own experiences, with fans and the media scouring her lyrics for clues as to which ex-boyfriend her numerous breakup songs referred. Her tumultuous dating life made as many headlines as her music, in part because it informed so much of the music. The discourse was often ridiculous and reductive, and thankfully, that period of her career is over (Swift has been in a relationship with the actor Joe Alwyn since 2016).  Both of her 2020 albums have their fair share of autobiographical songs, but they also see ...

Last month, for school I had to write a long research paper about 17th century Flemish flower paintings, which was a bit outside my comfort zone. So, I needed writing music and a lot of it. After listening a bit to Amazon Music's playlist "Big Band Christmas", I came across the song "Warm in December" by Julie London. It was a name I'd heard before, but I knew next to nothing about her. But the song was good enough to send me to Wikipedia, where I learned that London released 30 albums in the 14 years between 1955 and 1969. Most of the material she recorded was standards, the kind I spent most of 2020 listening to, so I decided that listening to London's entire discography (in order) would be perfect for writing my paper. Now, the paper's done ( I got an A), and I'm left with many, many thoughts about Julie London.  A film actress before releasing her first album, Julie is Her Name , in 1955, London had a mega-hit single with "Cry Me a River...

Stephen Sondheim's 10 Best Songs  Today, March 22, is Stephen Sondheim's 90th birthday. In celebration, I thought I would rank the ten best songs with music and lyrics by the greatest musical theater composer there is. Honorable mentions: "Send in the Clowns," "Not Getting Married," "Sooner or Later," "Loving You," "Ladies Who Lunch," "I Never Do Anything Twice," "The Glamorous Life,""Could I Leave You?," "Putting It Together," "A Weekend in the Country," "Isn't He Something?," "Finishing the Hat" 10. "Too Many Mornings" How much time can we hope that here will be? Not much time, but it's time enough for me. If there's time to look up and see Sally standing at the door, Sally moving to the bed, Sally resting in my arms, with your head against my head. A beautiful, very sad duet from Follies , where two charac...

In 1983, Sissy Spacek, at the height of her success as an actress, released a country music album called Hangin' Up My Heart .  It did not lead to any more albums or a long musical career for Spacek. When I recently learned of the album's existence, I was surprised I had never heard of it, so I immediately had to download it from iTunes.  According to this  1979 Rolling Stone profile on Spacek  (which was written by Cameron Crowe!), Sissy Spacek moved to New York in the late 1960s with her guitar in the hopes of becoming a musician, not an actress. When 18-year-old Spacek first moved to out New York from her home town of Quitman, Texas, she stayed with her cousin Rip Torn and his wife Geraldine Page. With the intention of becoming a rock star, she hung around Greenwich Village and recorded a demo that went nowhere. Eventually, in 1969, she (using the name "Rainbo") recorded a single for Roulette Records, a novelty song she had written called "John, You Went ...

Ranking the Songs of Muppets Most Wanted Since it is still technically opening weekend for the latest installment in the Muppet franchise, I thought it'd be appropriate to rank the original songs featured in the film, from worst to best. Bret Mckenzie, who won an Oscar writing songs for "The Muppets" returns to write them again this time around. "Most Waned" is definitely more of a musical than the last one, and, in my opinion, the songs are better. None of them are duds, each one great in their own way. That's why ranking them isn't an easy thing to do, but I'll try anyway.  6. Interrogation Song Despite being ranked last on this list, "Interrogation Song" is in no way a bad song. It's just that I thought the others were better. Hilariously preformed by Ty Burrell and the Muppet performers, mainly Eric Jacobson, who preforms Sam Eagle, the song is almost all plot and lacks a catchy tune that the others have. Even though it...