Russell Davies played Mark Steyn’s latest single last Sunday (you have about 18 hours to hear it). Yes, that Mark Steyn. Davies says that when Steyn wrote about music he found him to be right about just about everything, but that when he turned to politics “I was going to have to look a lot harder to find any political common ground with him”. This comment perhaps explains even more than the music he plays why I never miss Davies’s show; it’s the music that explains why I am always careful to do so when no-one else is around (my wife and daughters ridicule me for listening to “show tunes” which is how they carelessly refer to it; let’s hope that the little lad has better taste).
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Delicious Pundit 12.28.08 at 3:24 am
“Show tunes”!? You know who writes show tunes is David Javerbaum, who was also head writer for “The Daily Show.” He and Adam Schlesenger (of Fountains of Wayne) wrote the songs for the Colbert Christmas special — “Another Christmas Song” is still free at iTunes — which I thought were really funny.
Tom Hurka 12.28.08 at 7:03 pm
Steyn’s singing is pretty lame, but his website — if it wouldn’t freak you out to go there — has a lovely essay about the song, as well as ones about other Christmas songs like “Jingle Bells.” He tends not to like the Phil Spector versions — e.g. Darlene Love is too fast with “Marshmallow World” — which is heresy to me. But the essays are a good read.
Francis Xavier Holden 01.01.09 at 11:01 am
Steyn is great on most music but wonderful on “musicals”. I re-read his book on musicals at least once a year. He is sometimes wrong on music but always worth reading. It’s a shame about his writing on other stuff.
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