This week, Chelsea Handler had her final episode of her late-night E!talk show, Chelsea Lately. A number of her famous friends stopped by to say goodbye, and many of them took the stage with her to sing “Goodbye to E!”
The lineup for the parody of 1980s social awareness songs included Gwen Stefani, Dave Grohl, Trace Adkins, Sammy Hagar, Jennifer Aniston, Fergie, Avril Lavigne, Gerard Butler, Kate Beckinsale,Selena Gomez, Kelly Osbourne, LeAnn Rimes, Kathy Griffin, Marlee Matlin, and Melissa McCarthy. Check it out. [September 2014 Update: Unfortunately, the video of the song is no longer available on YouTube, so instead below is an Entertainment Tonight video of “The 6 Best Moments From the ‘Chelsea Lately’ Series Finale.”]
What will you miss most about Chelsea Lately? Leave your two cents in the comments.
Jerry Lee Lewis is releasing a new album on October 28, Rock & Roll Time. Like his other recent albums of duets, Last Man Standing (2006) and Mean Old Man (2010), the new album features help from some famous names like Keith Richards, Ron Wood, Neil Young, Robbie Robertson, Shelby Lynne, and Nils Lofgren.
The Memphis Commercial Appeal reports that the album will have eleven tracks, with roughly half originals and half covers (like “Folsom Prison Blues” and Bob Dylan’s “Stepchild”). Check out the title track, “Rock & Roll Time,” below.
Rock & Roll Time is not all we will be hearing from Jerry Lee Lewis. On September 23, Saguaro Road Records is releasing The Knox Phillips Sessions, a previously unreleased 1970s album from Lewis that was produced by Knox Phillips (the son of the legendary producer Sam Phillips). Additionally, a new Jerry Lee Lewis authorized biography Jerry Lee Lewis: His Own Story hits bookstores October 28. For the book, Lewis sat for interviews with author Rick Bragg.
It looks like there’s going to be a lot of Jerry Lee Lewis this Fall. The more Killer the better.
What is your favorite Jerry Lee Lewis song? Leave your two cents in the comments.
Spike Lee, who directed and played Mookie in Do the Right Thing (1989), recently visited the movie’s Bedford–Stuyvesant neighborhood in a video made for the twenty-fifth anniversary of the film. In the 22-minute documentary from Beats Music, Lee is joined on the streets of Brooklyn by Danny Aiello, who played Sal in the film, as well as by other stars like Rosie Perez and by other people who worked on the film.
The documentary then ends with a 25th Anniversary Block Party with guests that include Dave Chappelle, Wesley Snipes, Yasiin Bey (aka Mos Def), Erykah Badu, and Public Enemy. 2025 Update: Unfortunately, the video is no longer available online, though you can find some celebrations of the 35th anniversary if you search on YouTube.
Singer-songwriter Kasey Chambers will release her seventh album, Bittersweet (2014), later this month, and she has already released a video for one of the songs from the new album, “Wheelbarrow.”
The video for “Wheelbarrow” was directed by Renny Wijeyamohan, who recorded parts of the video in the Southern Highlands of New South Wales. The Australian singer’s song rocks out with electric guitars, while the video features a robbery by two lovers, as well as a wheelbarrow. Check it out.
Bittersweet, which is Chambers’s first solo album in four years, will be released on August 29.
What is your favorite Kasey Chambers song? Leave your two cents in the comments.
On August 23, 1927, Nicola Sacco and Bartolomeo Vanzetti were executed in the electric chair. The execution of the Italian-born anarchists drew worldwide protests from people who believed the two men were innocent of the murder charges against them. Many today still debate whether or not the two were guilty of the crime, but most agree that anti-immigrant sentiment and other factors affected the fairness of their trial.
The saga of Sacco and Vanzetti has inspired various forms of art, including songs. Chimesfreedom previously addressed the songs that Woody Guthrie wrote about the case.
Charlie King’s “Two Good Arms”
Additionally, folksinger Charlie King wrote an excellent song about the case called “Two Good Arms,” and I have seen him perform it on several occasions. King, who grew up in Massachusetts and has been performing for fifty years, is not as well known as he should be. But artists like Pete Seeger have recognized his talent.
Here is King’s “Two Good Arms” below.
For another version, here is Holly Near covering his song at the 1987 Philadelphia Folk Festival. And you may hear King’s original version on his webpage and a live performance here.
King took much of the lyrics of “Two Good Arms” directly from the speech that Vanzetti made at his sentencing. It is interesting how he recognized the poetry in Vanzetti’s own words.
At the sentencing, the native Italian speaker presented his plea in English: “That I am not only innocent of these two crimes, but in all my life I have never stolen and I have never killed and I have never spilled blood. . . . Not only am I innocent of these two crimes, not only in all my life I have never stolen, never killed, never spilled blood, but I have struggled all my life, since I began to reason, to eliminate crime from the earth. Everybody that knows these two arms knows very well that I did not need to go into the streets and kill a man or try to take money. I can live by my two hands and live well.”
Legacy of Sacco and Vanzetti
The fate of Sacco and Vanzetti remains relevant today, as many debate whether states have executed innocent people in recent years. A new book, The Wrong Carlos: Anatomy of a Wrongful Execution, recounts how Texas may have executed an innocent man when it executed Carlos DeLuna. Others claim that other executed men like Cameron Todd Willingham were innocent.
It is difficult to prove innocence to everyone’s satisfaction after someone has been executed, but these and other cases certainly raise questions about the justice system, as any system run by humans is bound to make mistakes at some point. Thus, one may wonder whether society should execute people rather than holding them in prison. These ongoing risks make it important that we answer the opening question of Charlie King’s song with an affirmation that we all will remember past injustices and work to prevent them in the future.
Photo of Vanzetti (left) and Sacco (right) via public domain.
. Like his other recent albums of duets, Last Man Standing (2006) and Mean Old Man (2010), the new album features help from some famous names like Keith Richards, Ron Wood, Neil Young, Robbie Robertson, Shelby Lynne, and Nils Lofgren.
, recounts how Texas may have executed an innocent man when it executed Carlos DeLuna. Others claim that other executed men like 
