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    David Cheal

    Arts sub-editor

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    • Monday, 6 February, 2023
      Life of a Song
      Sloop John B — the story behind The Beach Boys’ hit runs deep

      Traces of this song from the Bahamas go back to the turn of the 20th century

    • Monday, 23 January, 2023
      ReviewMusic
      Sound Unwrapped concert series opens with drums, chimes, mallets . . . and moonbathing

      The Colin Currie Quartet made Kings Place resound with radical rhythms and technical precision

    • Monday, 26 December, 2022
      Life of a Song
      A New Year Carol — how Benjamin Britten popularised a mysterious song

      The composer took the piece back to its roots in Wales

    • Monday, 14 November, 2022
      Life of a Song
      Girls Just Want to Have Fun — Cyndi Lauper’s breakthrough hit had unlikely origins

      The singer’s 1983 anthem to female solidarity started life in a very different milieu

    • Monday, 29 August, 2022
      Life of a Song
      Freight Train — how Elizabeth Cotten’s song was revived by the skiffle boom

      The track was covered by dozens of acts including The Quarrymen, and became the subject of a legal dispute

    • Monday, 27 June, 2022
      Life of a Song
      You Keep Me Hangin’ On — The Supremes’ hit gave rise to a classic cover version

      Their 1966 track was radically revised by a New York band, and others followed suit

    • Wednesday, 11 May, 2022
      InterviewMusic
      Bruce Hornsby: ‘I want to use all the notes — black and white’

      Never afraid to raise hackles with ‘difficult’ harmonics, the singer/songwriter is keeping things simpler on his new album

    • Tuesday, 3 May, 2022
      ReviewMusic
      Anna Meredith at the Barbican: big, exuberant — and loud

      Featuring a 55-piece orchestra, the crossover composer’s London show was a bold experiment

    • Monday, 11 April, 2022
      Life of a Song
      Crossroads — Robert Johnson’s song lies at the heart of a darkly seductive myth

      The track that helped foster the ‘deal with the devil’ story was transformed by Cream in 1968

    • Monday, 21 March, 2022
      ReviewMusic
      Frank Zappa at the Barbican — orchestral music of serious wit

      The BBC Symphony Orchestra celebrated the musician’s non-rock compositions in a day of concerts, talks and film

    • Monday, 7 February, 2022
      Life of a Song
      Trans-Europe Express — Kraftwerk’s train-inspired track travelled far and wide

      The group’s hugely influential 1977 song gained traction when it was picked up by DJs and clubbers in the US

    • Monday, 24 January, 2022
      Life of a Song
      You Don’t Have to Say You Love Me — Dusty Springfield’s 1966 hit is rich in drama and history

      From its origins in an Italian song contest, the track went on to be covered hundreds of times

    • Tuesday, 18 January, 2022
      ReviewTelevision
      Ozark is back for a fourth season of peril and implausibility

      Jason Bateman and Laura Linney return for the final series of Netflix’s dark drugs drama

    • Monday, 27 December, 2021
      Life of a Song
      What Are You Doing New Year’s Eve? — a widely misunderstood invitation

      Frank Loesser was irked by singers who didn’t ‘get’ his 1947 song

    • Monday, 20 September, 2021
      Life of a Song
      Electric Avenue — Eddy Grant’s response to riots in London made waves around the world

      The singer’s 1983 hit was sparked by unrest in south London 40 years ago

    • Monday, 23 August, 2021
      Best of Life of a Song
      Nightclubbing — how Iggy Pop and David Bowie created a stone-cold classic

      The icy 1977 track went on to be covered by greats such as Grace Jones

    • Monday, 12 July, 2021
      Life of a Song
      John the Revelator — a blues classic with biblical roots

      Blind Willie Johnson was the first to record this apocalyptic song

    • Sunday, 23 May, 2021
      ReviewMusic
      Glastonbury — a wet Coldplay, a Radiohead side-project and a charismatic Kano

      The Live at Worthy Farm festival stream offered a rainy but musically varied and visually striking evening

    • Friday, 30 April, 2021
      ReviewAlbums
      Royal Blood’s Typhoons — infectiously danceable and crunchingly powerful

      The rock duo’s latest album unleashes an unrelenting energy while venturing into new territory

    • Friday, 30 April, 2021
      ReviewAlbums
      Dawn Richard: Second Line — thoroughly contemporary

      The singer’s inventive sixth album celebrates her family history and heritage through electronic music

    • Friday, 30 April, 2021
      ReviewAlbums
      Teenage Fanclub: Endless Arcade — warm and reassuring

      The Scottish band’s 11th album is full of comforting harmonies and heartfelt sentiments

    • Tuesday, 9 March, 2021
      FT SeriesWhy music matters
      Good vibrations: can music ease us through anxious times?

      We know instinctively that songs can make us feel better — and scientific research proves it

    • Saturday, 27 February, 2021
      FT SeriesFantasy dinner parties
      David Cheal’s fantasy dinner — Bowie, the Bard and the blues

      ‘Shakespeare is here to provide a clue to the wellspring of his creativity — a theme of the evening’

    • Friday, 8 January, 2021
      ReviewAlbums
      Passenger: Songs for the Drunk and Broken-Hearted — intimate and lilting

      There is something comforting about these sweet, sad, sentimental songs

    • Thursday, 7 January, 2021
      ReviewAlbums
      Lice make a head-scratching debut with Wasteland: What Ails Our People

      The satirical Bristol band’s influences range from the Italian Futurists to French philosopher Louis Althusser

    Previous page You are on page 1 Next page

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