699. Harry Belafonte

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(December 2025) Episode 699 of the “opus project” is HARRY BELAFONTE. In music, he is primarily known for popularizing calypso music with songs like “Day-O (The Banana Boat Song)” and “Jump in the Line,” although he successfully applied his silky voice to a range of styles including standards, show tunes, gospel, pop and Christmas. Calypso is evocative of a time and place, and I still chuckle that some predicted it would become the New Thing instead of rock-and-roll. Otherwise a lot of his recordings are in that 50s-60s saccharine pop style that I’m not a fan of. But much of his stature comes beyond music — acting in films, organizing within the civil rights and anti-Apartheid movements, and his social justice and humanitarian work.

Favorite album: Swing Dat Hammer

Favorite song: Jamaica Farewell

Compared to expectations: same

Recommendation: The albums Calypso and Jump Up Calypso cover that style, but I prefer him singing blues, folk, and gospel, such as on Swing Dat Hammer and Ballads Blues and Boasters

698. The Edgar Broughton Band

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(December 2025) Episode 698 is the EDGAR BROUGHTON BAND. I came upon them in a list of UK bands considered precursors of heavy metal. They heavy bass and fuzzy guitar place them among the many acts putting out psychedelic/bluesey music in 1968-69. At times Edgar sings in a gravelly Howlin’ Wolf voice, making his band an answer to the question: what would it sound like if Captain Beefheart played with Iron Butterfly? In fact, they mashed up Beefheart’s “Drop Out Boogie” with the Shadows’ “Apache” to create “Apache Dropout.”  The first two albums had a manic quality, evoking the Crazy World of Arthur Brown. But rather than follow peers into boogie rock riches, they mellowed out, producing some good songs (“Hotel Room” would fit right in on Pink Floyd’s Obscured by Clouds), but mostly rather bland stuff. A reformed band put out a synthy concept album, Superchip, in 1982, which has a strange allure.

Favourite album: Sing Brother Sing

Favourite song: Death of an Electric Citizen

Compared to expectations: ↓

Recommendation: The first two albums are good, if odd, period pieces, but all of this is admittedly for deep divers.

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697. Mission of Burma

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(December 2025) Episode 697 is MISSION OF BURMA. The last episode was on Roger Miller, so naturally I turn to the other Roger Miller, frontman for Mission of Burma. They were big in Boston in the early 80s and apparently a very loud live act. This is post-punk: more of a raucous sonic assault than traditional rock but less aggressive and fast than punk. I wasn’t into it at the time, and while I’ve become more exposed, I’m less sold than I think should be. Mission of Burma had a brief recording career, but reunited in the Oughts with some good albums, notably The Obliterati.

Favorite album: vs.

Favorite song: Max Ernst

Compared to expectations: ↓

Recommendation: The first EP and LP are their core sound, but the later albums are surprisingly good for a reunited band.

696. Roger Miller

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(December 2025) Episode 696 is ROGER MILLER. I’ve always admired his “King of the Road” as an exceptional feat of songwriting — concise storytelling, simple yet tuneful. His style gets him labelled as a country artist although he made his mark with novelty songs like “Dang Me!” His voice was plain but could be subtly wry, putting some charm into his honky-tonk flavor.

Favorite album: The Third Time Around

Favorite song: King of the Road

Compared to expectations: same

Recommendation: A greatest hits disc will do

695. The Beat / General Public

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(November 2025) Episode 695 is THE (English) BEAT. One will observe the lack of 80s pop/rock acts in the Project. This is because I spent my teens rejecting music popular with peers while adhering to classic rock orthodoxy. The Beat is an group I didn’t hate, but I didn’t listen to them because others did. Their new wave/ska mixture is very distinctive for its time and place but, as the three Beat albums in the last decade by, separately, Ranking Roger and Dave Wakeling show, it does not sound dated. By the time they morphed into GENERAL PUBLIC, the obligatory 80s synths and gated drums were added, which turns me off.

Favourite album: I Just Can’t Stop It

Favourite song: Mirror in the Bathroom

Compared to expectations: same

Recommendation: The three original Beat albums are decent, especially for a certain 80s nostalgia.

694. Kittie

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(November 2025) Episode 694 is KITTIE, an all-female heavy metal group from Canada. Their first album (1999) has a nu metal feel but they move into punishing death metal, except for their fourth album which is a departure in a more melodic direction. Vocalist Monica alternates between clean singing and throat screaming. It’s simultaneously intense and fun music.

Favorite album: In the Black

Favorite song: Ugly

Compared to expectations: same

Recommendation: Try Spit for the nu stuff, or I recommend In the Black and Fire for death fare.

693. Sonny Boy Williamson II

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(November 2025) Episode 693 of the “opus project” is SONNY BOY WILLIAMSON II, a harmonica-playing blues musician in the Chicago Blues mode whose career included playing with both Robert Johnson and Jimmy Page. Born as Alex Ford but at the urging of his sponsor he performed under the name of an older bluesman Sonny Boy Williamson and (perjuriously IMO) kept it, so is thus identified in the literature as SBW II. Based on his recordings in the 1950s-60s, this is what many people will hear as standard blues, historicism aside. He toured Europe several times, helping popularize the genre there.

Favorite album: The Real Folk Blues

Favorite song: Bring It On Home

Compared to expectations: same

Recommendation: The Essential Sonny Boy Williamson is a good two-disc compilation.

692. Charlie Parker

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(November 2025) Episode 692 is CHARLIE PARKER. I’ll use this occasion to commit heresy. First, I admit I don’t like bebop, to the shame of all the jazz people I grew up with (including my father). To me it comes off as noodling for noodling’s sake, in the same way I react to jam bands. It doesn’t provide the emotional response I seek in melodic lines, hooks, or sonic textures and mood. Second, I’ve never really liked Charlie Parker; there’s a reason he slipped all the way to episode 692. This goes way back as part of a trumpet player’s reflexive aversion to the saxophone. I appreciate his legendary skill and immense influence on jazz music. But what I hear is music that makes virtuosity an end in itself rather than a means to a musical whole (not entirely unlike an Al Di Meola or Yngwie Malmsteen) which has limited appeal to me. I know I border on sacrilege here, but just being honest.

Favourite album: Bird and Diz*

Favourite song: A Night in Tunisia

Compared to expectations: same

Recommendation: Jazz aficionados will point you to his most sublime live performances but I can’t.

* Did you notice that? My favorite album is half trumpet.

691. The Fratellis

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(November 2025) Episode 691 is The FRATELLIS. This Scottish indie rock’s first two albums from the 00s offer poppy, peppy songs full of melodic hooks. You may recognize “Chelsea Dagger” from its get-the-crowd-singing use by sports teams, including as the goal song for the Chicago Blackhawks. But thereafter, each successive album gets less interesting, devolving into typical 2010s shiny pop-rock where over-production substitutes for creativity.

Favourite album: Here We Stand

Favourite song: Babydoll

Compared to expectations: ↓

Recommendation: The first two albums Costello Songs and Here We Stand are a fun listen

690. Deftones

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Episode 690 is DEFTONES. I make a habit of launching an episode when I visit an artist’s city or country. And so I started Deftones while in Sacramento (our mutual hometown). I was disappointed. They are rooted in metal, as their first groove/nu-ish album showed. But the emo-vocal alt-metal style they settled into is not to my taste. It’s like Coldplay with distorted guitars. I saw someone describe them as “the Radiohead of metal.” Well, invoking the old Simpsons gag – I like nuts and I like gum, but I do not like them together.

Favorite album: Adrenaline

Favorite song: Minus Blindfold

Compared to expectations: ↓

Recommendation: Mmm, not much of one. Maybe the first album.