1. The Rolling Stones, Time Waits For No One . . . Stellar solo by Mick Taylor, a hypnotic, continually building line that remains one of his most memorable contributions to the Stones. It came to mind to play this over the past week as the world lost three icons: basketball and human rights pillar Bill Russell, trailblazing actress Nichelle Nichols, communications officer Uhura of Star Trek fame, and sports broadcaster Vin Scully, best known the voice of baseball’s Brookly/Los Angeles Dodgers but also widely acclaimed for his work on national network broadcast baseball games, NFL football and golf.

2. Black Sabbath, When Death Calls . . . Sticking with the death theme . . . From Sabbath’s 1989 Headless Cross album. It’s one of the five Sabbath studio albums featuring Tony Martin on lead vocals, which is more studio albums than Ronnie James Dio appeared on (three) and four fewer than the records with original singer Ozzy Osbourne. The Martin-sung albums were always the runts of the litter commercially and often critially speaking, produced amid ever-changing lineups during periods when guitarist Tony Iommi – the lone fixture on every Sabbath album – was doing his best to hold the band together until Ozzy or Ronnie might be convinced to return. Musically, the Martin albums are good, anyone actually giving them an open-minded chance would I think concede. And, somehow, to my ears anyway, perhaps because the songs aren’t as familiar or overplayed, Iommi’s riffs are somehow more powerful, cascading waterfalls of heavy guitar sound.

3. Rory Gallagher, In Your Town . . .Sometimes I think I should stop doing these commentaries, especially when it pertains to Rory Gallagher, one of my favorite artists. Not sure what else I can say about him, other than it’s mind-boggling he wasn’t bigger, on a wider commercial scale, than he was both while leading Taste and then going solo as on this track from his Deuce album.

4. King Crimson, Eyes Wide Open . . . I read in a YouTube comments field that King Crimson’s The Power To Believe album, which came out in 2003 and from which I pulled this track, is to be their final studio album statement. It would seem so, give that’s 19 years ago now although one never knows what leader Robert Fripp might come up with, or when, and put it under the Crimson banner.

5. Yes, Perpetual Change (live, Yessongs version) . . . One of those happy accidents over the last week. I pulled out the Yessongs live album. Hadn’t played it in ages. Geez, it’s good. It came out in 1973 as Yes compiled it from tracks supporting their then most recent albums, Close To The Edge and Fragile, classics both, although Perpetual Change is from the earlier The Yes Album. Alan White is the drummer on most of the live tracks although founding Yes member Bill Bruford, also noted for his work with King Crimson and live playing with early post-Peter Gabriel live Genesis, shines on this piece.

6. Nazareth, Beggars Day/Rose In The Heather . . . Rocked up version of Beggars Day, a Nils Lofgren-penned Crazy Horse (sans Neil Young) tune, paired with Nazareth’s own Rose In The Heather. It’s from the Hair of The Dog album.

7. The Doobie Brothers, Cotton Mouth . . . From Toulouse Street, during the down and dirty pre-Michael McDonald commercial juggernaut days of the Doobies. I’m not down on McDonald by any means. He’s a great artist, singer-songwriter and one of my favorite Doobies’ songs is his Takin’ It To The Streets and I also like his 1982 solo hit, I Keep Forgettin’. I just like the pre-McDonald Doobies a lot better.

8. King Curtis with Duane Allman, Games People Play . . . Instrumental take on Joe South’s hit, with Allman on guitar. It’s from the saxophone master’s Instant Groove album but also appears on one of two terrific compilations of Duane Allman’s session and some Allman Brothers’ work, titled An Anthology and Anthology Vol. II. Worth searching out; most of it’s available on YouTube.

9. Tracy Chapman, Telling Stories . . . Title cut from her 2000 album. Chapman, who shuns the spotlight, has not released new original studio work since 2008, alas, although she has told media she is not retired. Whatever she decides to do, her musical legacy is secure.

10. The Allman Brothers Band, Heart Of Stone . . . The Brothers do the Stones, in fine style, on their final studio album, 2003’s excellent Hittin’ The Note.

11. Jethro Tull, Fat Man . . . From, arguably, my favorite Tull album, Stand Up.

12. John Mayall, Took The Car . . . Mayall always produces great sounds, doesn’t he? It makes for a nice musical pairing, too, with Tull’s Fat Man, to my ears, anyway. This one’s from USA Union, the 1970 album that, via my older brother whose music influence I often cite, introduced me to Mayall. Speaking of cars but not related to the song: Sunday morning on my daily walk, I’m ambling down the trail beside some homes and I see two cars parked, one in front of the other, in a driveway, garage door closed. Next thing I know, the car in front starts up, lurches, then drives right through the garage door. Big bang. Funny and startling, could barely believe my eyes but I also immediately thought, geez, wonder if the driver had a heart attack or seizure or something, stepped on the gas and, boom. So I stopped and watched what ensued, considered heading over to check until someone emerged from the house, yelled ‘what the (you know what)!” called the driver an idiot and so I figured all was at least relatively well, health wise. I walked on. Not sure what the driver might have been thinking, or if he/she was thinking or drinking (although it was about 10 am) given there was nowhere to go, backwards or forwards. I can only assume the garage door opener didn’t work.

13. Mark Knopfler, Boom, Like That . . . I’ve never much been into Knopfler’s solo work, certainly not to the extent I love his stuff with Dire Straits. It’s just never resonated with me to the degree Dire Straits does. However, I’m starting to get there with Knopfler’s solo material, although the fact this single from his 2004 album Shangri-La was just his second solo Top 40 placing in the UK charts, behind Darling Pretty from his first solo record Golden Heart, maybe says I’m not alone in preferring Dire Straits to their leader’s solo work. This is definitely a good one, though.

14. Faces, Three Button Hand Me Down . . . It was suggested during a chat with friends that a Faces/Small Faces family tree type show would be fun. Such a theme would have many roots and branches: Rod Stewart, Ron Wood/Rolling Stones, The Jeff Beck Group (featuring Stewart and Wood), Humble Pie with Steve Marriott and Peter Frampton/Frampton solo, The Who (Kenney Jones), among others. For another week, perhaps. For this week, just Faces with this nice chugging tune.

15. Uriah Heep, Wonderworld . . . I’m playing this in fun, just to piss of those people who denigrate Uriah Heep. I like ’em, particularly the early stuff although all I actually own is a single disc compilation and comprehensive two-CD collection.

16. Mott The Hoople, Momma’s Little Jewel . . . A nice, er, jewel from the All The Young Dudes album that finally broke Mott The Hoople big via the David Bowie-penned title cut. The band was on the verge of breaking up until the Bowie tune salvaged the situation.

17. Steppenwolf, Tighten Up Your Wig . . . “Just before we go, I’d like to mention Junior Wells, we stole this thing from him, and he from someone else . . . he plays the blues like few before may he play forevermore.” As credited on Steppenwolf’s second album, The Second, the melody is from Wells’ Messin’ With The Kid. Good tunes, both.

18. Led Zeppelin, Black Country Woman . . . Great folk-rock tune from Physical Graffiti that was originally intended for the previous album, 1973’s Houses of The Holy. You can hear a plane flying overhead at the start of the song, as it was recorded outside in a garden at Stargroves, a manor house in the English countryside owned by Mick Jagger during the 1970s. The pre-song chatter is fun, as the band settles on leaving the sound of the aircraft in.

19. Bonnie Raitt, Gnawin’ On It . . . By the time of her 2002 Silver Lining album, the massive commercial success that Raitt achieved between 1989 and the mid-1990s that was so well-deserved as she worked her way up the ladder was gone, but of course she continues to release great music, as she did before radio discovered her. This infectious, snarling tune is an example.

     

20. Cat Stevens, Foreigner Suite . . . Foreigner, the band, came up in a barroom discussion with buddies last week about lousy successful bands, or those that got worse the more commercially successful they became. Bands like Chicago, Journey and some latter-day Genesis, although we conceded their ability to produce annoyingly catchy earworm music. Not playing Foreigner, whose stuff I actually for the most part like, the hits anyway, along with the Double Vision album, which to me is the only one from which I can legitimately draw decent deep cuts like Love Has Taken Its Toll. I’ve played that one on the show, albeit long ago. To finally get to the point of all this, the word foreigner stuck in my head (did I mention earworms?) so here we are with Stevens’ epic 18-minute love song. It’s one of those long tracks that seems shorter as it’s never aimless and one can listen to it for the varied music within, the lyrics, or both.

1. AC/DC, Let There Be Rock . . . There was fifteen million fingers, learning how to play . . .

2. Headstones, Absolutely . . . First of a few today from bands/artists that will be playing at this week’s Kitchener Blues Festival. Love these Canadian rockers.

3. The Kinks, Holiday . . . Holiday Monday in Canada, hence this one from the Kinks’ brilliant and to me best overall album, Muswell Hillbillies, 1971. It bombed, inexplicably, to me. No big hit singles the likely reason.

4. Steve Earle and The Del McCoury Band, Texas Eagle . . . This one’s for my old high school and college chum, who goes by 4C, a clever play on his surname. He’s a big Steve Earle fan, and I like Earle a lot too but did not have The Mountain album, a bluegrass record. I do have it now, and it’s terrific. Whenever I think of bluegrass music I think of being in college, late 1970s and going to the Carlisle, Ontario bluegrass festival with a couple buddies. None of us were bluegrass fans at the time we just went for the party. We had planned to drink Purple Jesus (alcool and grape juice) but forgot the funnel to mix the booze with the juice, so we just passed the alcool bottle back and forth, got totally shitfaced on what is essentially 95 per cent booze, and spent most of the weekend sleeping it off. We might have heard some music.

5. The Rolling Stones, Blinded By Rainbows . . . I’m reading a thriller novel and the hero is talking about Semtex bombs. So it tweaked my brain to this Stones’ song, about the ‘Troubles’ in Northern Ireland but could be about any war. Compelling, thought-provoking anti-war lyrics sung forcefully by Mick Jagger, a nice guitar solo by Ronnie Wood and the late great Charlie Watts’ drumming propel the song.

6. David Wilcox, Breakfast At The Circus . . Played Wilcox last week, and he’s coming to Kitchener for the blues festival again, so here you go.

7. Tim Curry, Charge It . . . It’s 1979, I’m in Sam The Record Man on Yonge St. in Toronto and this song comes on in the store. I had no idea, to that point, that Tim Curry released albums/songs other than his time as Dr. Frank-N-Furter in The Rocky Horror Picture Show, of which I was a big fan. So, the Fearless album became an instant impulse buy and I wound up getting all of Curry’s stuff.

8. Queen, Bring Back That Leroy Brown . . . I played Tenement Funster/Flick Of The Wrist/Lily Of The Valley from Queen’s Sheer Heart Attack album recently so, to quote the title of an obscure but good Stones’ song I should play sometime, Some Things Just Stick In Your Mind, the Queen album stuck in my mind. So here’s a nice little up-tempo ditty from that record. Which, naturally, leads to . . .

9. Jim Croce, Lover’s Cross . . . Another beautiful ballad from the late great artist.

10. Drive-By Truckers, Marry Me . . . Last in today’s series from acts appearing at this week’s Kitchener Blues Festival. I had an interesting chat with the owner of my favorite local – and likely the world’s best – music store late last week, lamenting the fact the festival has the Truckers and Headstones, two acts I want to see, on at practically the same time. Headstones start a half hour after the Truckers do. No, he said, that’s actually brilliant scheduling and come to think of it, as we wound up agreeing, he’s right. “Start with the Truckers; you’ll get bored after half an hour, then go to Headstones.” And he wasn’t crapping on the Truckers, merely suggesting, correctly, that I really like Headstones better, but want to see Truckers, so I’ll dip into them for a bit, then go see the H-Stones. Well, it made sense during our conversation, anyway. Ha! But seriously, folks, that’s the thing about a festival, you cruise . . . In any event, if the Truckers play this up-tempo guitar showcase, who knows, I might stay for their whole set. And they do have cool album covers.

11. Blood, Sweat & Tears, Children Of The Wind . . . A typical blast of horns introduces this one from a band that, along with Chicago and Lighthouse, really brought jazz-rock fusion to the fore in the early 1970s.

12. Gary Moore, Drowning In Tears . . . Moore dabbled in many genres during his too-short life and career both as a sometime member of Thin Lizzy, and otherwise. Rock, metal, blues, to which he returned for this slow-burning epic, from his Back To The Blues album, released in 2001.

13. Television, Marquee Moon . . . Title cut from one of those ‘influence’ albums raved about by music critics that I just never ‘got’ until one day a few years ago. I was in a used CD store and they had this track playing. I asked the clerk who it was, since it had never before resonated with me and I had long since traded the Television album in for, who knows, cash or some Slayer thrash/speed metal album I needed to help get me through blizzards on Ontario’s highway 401 when I was commuting to work before the marriage breakup. Anyway, I rebought the album specifically for this epic track with the cool, hypnotic guitar and go figure but somehow, I ‘get’ it all now about this record. Weird how that can work, particularly since the album came out in 1977, I was deep into all the new wave and punk stuff that was big then, yet somehow missed the boat on Television. Better late than never.

14. Rush, 2112 . . . Playing lots of long tracks today. This is the longest – the epic title cut. To quote the Quint character memorably played by Robert Shaw in Jaws: “You get the head, the tail, the whole damn thing.” All 20:34 of it. Long, for sure, but epic, never boring and embodies all that Rush was.

15. Atomic Rooster, Death Walks Behind You . . . My favorite Atomic Rooster song, played it before but playing it again today because I was inspired by hearing it this past week in a local used bookstore I frequent. That’s what I love about independent stores be they books, music, whatever. The people running them do as they wish, play what they want and so on, no corporate BS rules or whatever, because when has anyone ever heard anything other than Muzak or some hits playlist in a mainstream store of any kind, unless it’s sort of after hours late? I say that because I recall one time being in a chain grocery store, a 24-hour outlet or at least one that was open until 11 pm or so and hearing AC/DC’s Whole Lotta Rosie blasting over the sound system because the young staff was in charge on the night shift. I saw one of the youngish clerks, gave him the thumb’s up. I remember thinking, all we need now is the ‘mom’ in Frank Zappa’s Joe’s Garage to yell “turn it down!”.

16. Deep Purple, You Keep On Moving . . . Great cut from the one and only great album Purple did with Tommy Bolin on guitar, Come Taste The Band, 1975. Bolin was replacing Ritchie Blackmore, who had bailed to form Rainbow as he didn’t like what he termed Purple’s ‘shoe shine music’ direction fostered, in Blackmore’s mind, by the likes of bassist Glenn Hughes. Which has always perplexed me. Not that I give too many shits about it but I am a huge Deep Purple fan and Blackmore was the acknowledged leader, he got Hughes in the band, he played guitar, he was great on the previous (his last) Stormbringer album that he didn’t like . . . so if he didn’t like the direction why wasn’t he stronger in directing the band back to what he thought they ought to be? Sounds to me like he preferred to just bitch about it, but that’s Blackmore, the mercurial genius. Whatever. Great song. Purple would never have done it with Blackmore.

17. Groundhogs, Split (Parts 1-4) . . . Epic 20 minutes from the English blues rock band, something of an underground act but well known to music aficionados. Split can be consumed separately, in each of its parts, as separate songs of 4-5 minutes each, or as I’m presenting it today in its full form in all its hard rock, blues and progressive rock glory. And on that note, I’m splitting outta here. Thanks for listening and following.

1. The Clash, 1977
2. Elvis Presley, A Little Less Conversation
3. The Rolling Stones, Rip This Joint (live, 1977 El Mocambo club version)
4. The Beatles, Birthday
5. Peter Gabriel, A Wonderful Day In A One-Way World
6. The Police, It’s Alright For You
7. King Crimson, 21^st Century Schizoid Man
8. Pink Floyd, Careful With That Axe, Eugene (live version, from Ummagumma album)
9. David Gilmour, I Can’t Breathe Anymore
10. David Wilcox, Drop Down Baby
11. ZZ Top, Backdoor Love Affair
12. Jeff Beck, Let Me Love You
13. Rod Stewart, Passion
14. Bachman-Turner Overdrive, Flat Broke Love
15. Billy Joel, Stiletto
16. David + David, A Rock For The Forgotten
17. Canned Heat, Harley Davidson Blues
18. Warren Zevon, The Long Arm Of The Law
19. Eagles, Teenage Jail
20. Spirit, Animal Zoo
21. Neil Young, Albuquerque
22. Golden Earring, Sleepwalkin’
23. Talking Heads, Blind
24. Jethro Tull, The Zealot Gene
25. Queen, Tenement Funster/Flick Of The Wrist/Lily Of The Valley
26. Led Zeppelin, In My Time Of Dying
27. Bryan Ferry, It’s All Over Now, Baby Blue

Set list with my song-by-song commentary:

1. The Clash, 1977 . . . “No Elvis, Beatles or The Rolling Stones in 1977” So I’m going to play some – and I love The Clash.

2. Elvis Presley, A Little Less Conversation . . . Elvis, who died in 1977, is replying to The Clash, in advance, on this 1968 original version of the song. A remixed sort of techno version, at nearly twice the original 2:14 length, was released as a bonus track on the 2002 Elvis 30 #1 Hits compilation. It’s interesting, but I prefer the original.

3. The Rolling Stones, Rip This Joint (live, 1977 El Mocambo club version) . . . Here’s the Stones out-punking the punks on this 1,000 mph/km/h even faster version of the Exile On Main Street cut, from the recently-released and very good full Toronto El Mocambo shows. And, as far as The Clash went, Joe Strummer, who obviously was being deliberately provocative and contrarian about artists who inspired his band, later said he enjoyed all eras of the Stones.

4. The Beatles, Birthday . . . For my older son, who turns 34 today. It’s interesting that The Beatles, particularly John Lennon, who called it ‘garbage’ considered it something of a throwaway track, one that they came up with from scratch in the studio while recording The White Album. Some bands would kill for The Beatles’ throwaways.

5. Peter Gabriel, A Wonderful Day In A One-Way World . . . I was putting the show together on Saturday night and had notes scribbled all over the place but was tired, went to bed relatively early and now I can’t find the ones I scrawled about this tune. Maybe I forgot to even jot anything down. I think so, actually, as I see every other song in my set list represented. Anyway, a funky tune, from Gabriel’s “Scratch’ album, his second of the first four that were all simply called Peter Gabriel although they’ve come to be known, due to their covers, in order as “Car’, “Scratch’, “Melt” or “Melted Face” and “Security”. Security, the fourth album, was also self-titled in the UK and elsewhere but the record company, with reluctant approval from Gabriel, slapped the word ‘Security’ on it as a sticker for the US and Canadian markets. Post-2010 reissues of the album have reverted to its original title. I suppose it could go by “Distorted” or “Distorted Peter” or some such because that’s what the cover is, a distorted image of Gabriel taken from an experimental video. Oh, and back to A Wonderful Day In A One-Way World. Fun lyrics: “Oh, there’s an old man on the floor, so I summon my charm; I say ‘hey scumbag, has there been an alarm?” He said, “Yeah, been selling off eternal youth, they all got afraid ’cause I’m the living proof. My name is Einstein, do you know time is a curve?” I said, “stop old man, you got a nerve, ’cause there’s only one rule that I observe; time is money and money I serve.” Glad I couldn’t find, or didn’t actually write, any notes for the Gabriel track on Saturday night. I wouldn’t have gone off on this nutty tangent writing this on Sunday afternoon, otherwise.

6. The Police, It’s Alright For You . . . A fairly well-known Police track I think, could easily have been a single from their second album, Reggatta de Blanc, but it wasn’t. Instead the band went with Message In A Bottle and Walking On The Moon, to big success, slightly less so with the third and fourth singles – Bring On The Night and The Bed’s Too Big Without You.

7. King Crimson, 21^st Century Schizoid Man . . . This one, from the brilliant debut In The Court Of The Crimson King, embodies everything the influential band brings to the table – progressive rock, jazz rock, hard rock/metal. I like all of King Crimson’s work but their first album remains, for me, their best.

8. Pink Floyd, Careful With That Axe, Eugene (live version, from Ummagumma album) . . . The live stuff on Ummagumma (the album is split between live versions of existing material and new studio originals) arguably outdoes most of the original studio versions that appeared on previous albums. This is an example but in any incarnation, this spooky stuff is terrific. Great title, too.

9. David Gilmour, I Can’t Breathe Anymore . . . You’ve noticed the pattern, as I go playing with song titles again? From Birthday to here? No more hints. It’s pretty obvious. Anyway, nice one from Gilmour’s self-titled debut album, 1978. Starts as a slow, beautiful ballad, then ramps up with some frenzied guitar.

10. David Wilcox, Drop Down Baby . . . I like these sort of spoken-word songs by Wilcox. He’s great at it. He’ll be appearing, yet again and that’s good, at this year’s Kitchener Blues Festival coming up in a couple weeks, Aug. 4-7. And off we go again, on a song title tangent. Just can’t help myself.

11. ZZ Top, Backdoor Love Affair . . . ZZ Top just released a new album, Raw, comprised of new studio versions of many of their classic songs. I’ve listened to some of it, it’s good because ZZ Top is a good/great band and being the completist I am I’ll probably pick it up at some point while also wondering, what’s the point? I’d rather hear new original material from my favorite bands and I can’t say for sure of course but I think most fans feel the same way. Anyway, Backdoor Love Affair goes way back, to the first album which was called – wait for it – ZZ Top’s First Album. Clever and cheeky, those Texas troupers.

12. Jeff Beck, Let Me Love You . . . The cover tunes – Shapes Of Things, Morning Dew, You Shook Me and I Ain’t Superstitious – seem to get most of the attention on the Truth album. They’re terrific, of course; the whole album is killer. But I’ve also always loved this one, written by Jeff Beck and Rod Stewart, featuring the propulsive rat-a-tat attack of instrumentalists Beck, bassist Ronnie Wood and drummer Micky Waller. Interesting, perhaps, side note to Truth: It was credited to Jeff Beck but it is the Jeff Beck Group, first version of the band, featuring Stewart and Wood as constants on vocals and bass. The second album, Beck-Ola, was credited to the full group as were the two subsequent Jeff Beck Group albums, Rough and Ready and the self-titled fourth album, both issued after Stewart and Wood had gone on to Faces.

     

13. Rod Stewart, Passion . . . Stewart went Chicago-like schlock after the late 1970s, the rot starting to set in, musically after brilliant beginnings to a career, with the massive disco hit single Do Ya Think I’m Sexy (admittedly catchy) and that’s when I gave up on him. But, in fairness, understandably, one supposes, from a creative point of view many artists would think, and I get it, why repeat yourself once you’ve done albums like the earthy, excellent ones Every Picture Tells A Story, Gasoline Alley and such between 1969 and 1974, backed by Faces as Stewart maintained parallel careers. And his work remained good, albeit more slick, from 1975’s Atlantic Crossing on, once Stewart went completely solo backed by crack session men. Arguably the only band that shamelessly repeats itself is AC/DC, whose genius is its ability to repeat itself yet actually still sound fresh and different each time out because despite what critics say, every AC/DC album and song is NOT the same. In any event, back to Rod Stewart. Even into the 1980s, for me, while I stopped buying his albums I did enjoy some of his singles; like this one that you rarely nowadays hear. It’s from the 1980 Foolish Behaviour album. All hail compilation albums, from which I pulled this, not being so foolish as to actually buy the Behaviour album. Nowadays, of course, pretty much everything is available in some form or other via the internet.

14. Bachman-Turner Overdrive, Flat Broke Love . . . Have I often enough said I think Randy Bachman is a great composer, bandleader and guitarist but a for the very most part shitty, embarrassing singer? Rock Is My Life And This Is My Song, anyone? Ugh, I mean Christ Almighty nice tune but give it to Fred (C.F.) Turner to sing for crying out loud. Yes, I have said as much. So I say it again. And yes, RB has some ok to decent vocal performances like Takin’ Care Of Business and You Ain’t Seen Nothing Yet but overall his vocals are just too weak and ‘thin’ for me. So, goes without saying I prefer the Turner stuff, like this Turner-penned and sung track from the Four Wheel Drive album. Great bass line, too, naturally enough, since Turner played bass in the band. Egomaniacs, all these guys.

     

15. Billy Joel, Stiletto . . . I loved Piano Man and The Stranger but was starting to part ways with Billy along the time of 52^nd Street but still a quality album, and this one is one of my favorites of his. Some big hit singles – Big Shot, My Life, Honesty – came off the album but Stiletto remains for me the best track. The title cut is cool, too, short, sweet, smoky bar type bluesy, I’ll have to play it sometime. In fact I thought about it for tonight but went with Stiletto.

16. David + David, A Rock For The Forgotten . . . I know I harp on this album – by the firm of Davids Baerwald and Ricketts – as being a maybe unknown absolute gem but all who know it, love it. Every song is great, lyrically and musically. Here’s another example.

17. Canned Heat, Harley Davidson Blues . . . I was watching a documentary on William Harley and Arthur Davidson and their motorcycle company and I love Canned Heat so . . . It also stemmed from a chat I had with a friend about Altamont, the ill-fated Stones’ concert, “policed’ by the Hell’s Angels which got me thinking about motorcycles so I watched the documentary and, here we are.

18. Warren Zevon, The Long Arm Of The Law . . . I love Zevon for his music but obviously to anyone who knows his stuff it’s his lyrics, too. Like in this song: “After the war in Paraguay, back in nineteen ninety-nine; I was laying low in Lima, working both sides of the borderline.” It’s Roland The Headless Thompson Gunner type stuff, akin to “he found him in Mombassa in a barroom drinking gin; Roland aimed his Thompson gun – he didn’t say a word but he blew Van Owen’s body, from there to Johannesburg”. And in The Long Arm Of The Law it’s the music, too, how he comes in with that Paraguay line after the first chorus at the 1:05 mark. Brilliant. This is creativity of the highest order, melding history and whatever else with music and few if any ever did it as brilliantly as Zevon. I suppose it appeals to me also because several of his songs reference Latin America and I spent nearly four childhood years in Peru, unforgettable life-shaping years in terms of outlook towards life. And when Zevon writes of those places, the turmoil, the exploitation by great powers, etc. it truly resonates. Anyway, this one’s from his 1989 Transverse City album and it features one other perhaps obvious but brilliant lyric: Only the dead get off scott free. RIP, Warren Zevon.

19. Eagles, Teenage Jail . . . I’m not going to go into again how I think The Long Run, despite critics’ and even the band itself’s thoughts, is a brilliant album the equal of Hotel California. It just is, to me. And what a great, spooky, dark track this one is. “Loaaa-sst (lost) in the teenage jail” great vocals, lyrics, music.

20. Spirit, Animal Zoo . . . I was going through Spirit songs and was having difficulty settling on one so I thought, eff it, I’ll pick this one because it’s from Twelve Dreams Of Dr. Sardonicus and I recall some time back playing a Spirit track and an old work colleague of mine raving about the album, which is a great one and from which this song comes. You may expect some Spirit songs over the next few weeks though, we’ll see, because it was a tough choice as I went through their stuff for tonight’s show, so much great material.

21. Neil Young, Albuquerque . . . Typically dark sort of tune, and a good one, from an album of darkness and drugs, Tonight’s The Night. That said, can’t help myself but every time I hear of the city Albuquerque the first thing that comes to mind is ill-spent youth watching The Bugs Bunny/Road Runner Hour full of Looney Tunes cartoons including Bugs always going off course in his burrowing and uttering the line “I knew I shoulda taken that left turn at Albuquerque”.

22. Golden Earring, Sleepwalkin’ . . . They’re so much more than Radar Love, the entire Moontan album from which it came, and the later hit Twilight Zone. Great band. Nice boogie tune.

23. Talking Heads, Blind . . . One of those tunes where, back in the physical product buying days, you’ve long since given up on a band you liked but you pick up a comprehensive compilation and you find tracks like this you were unaware of but find you really like and of course most stuff is now available online to explore. It was the lead single from the Heads’ final album, 1988’s Naked. It was a minor success but, given its hypnotic groove, probably would have been more successful had it been on, say, the band’s first world music type album, the breakthrough 1980 release Remain In Light. Naked in fact was considered a return to that form, but the band broke up. The next release was the double disc compilation to which I refer, Sand In The Vaseline: Popular Favorites. It contains some previously-unreleased material along with the hits.

24. Jethro Tull, The Zealot Gene . . . Politically-charged Ian Anderson’s views of the world on this title cut from 2022’s Tull album, the first under the band moniker in 20 years or so. It’s good. Not much different than Ian Anderson’s recent solo stuff and Martin Barre is no longer there on guitar but somehow, not sure why that is, but I find I’ll listen to and enjoy a Tull album more than an Ian Anderson one. Perhaps, and I plead guilty, I haven’t given his solo work proper the requisite listens although I own it all, but nothing’s really compelled me to re-listen after first go. Yet I’ve listened to The Zealot Gene many times since release. Weird, maybe.

25. Queen, Tenement Funster/Flick Of The Wrist/Lily Of The Valley . . . Separate songs seamlessly weaved together from the Sheer Heart Attack album, 1974. It simply has to be listened to as an entire piece. So many great parts to it but the one-minute mark “ooh, give me a good guitar…” Sublime.

26. Led Zeppelin, In My Time Of Dying . . . One of those traditional blues tracks recorded as early as 1928 by Blind Willie Johnson that Zep shamelessly credited to the band itself but anyone who knows music knows all about that stain on Zep’s reputation. Bob Dylan covered it on his 1962 debut album and credited as ‘traditional, arranged by Dylan’. But Zep? No. So be it, they got and continue to get away with it other than various out of court financial settlements, and made and/or ‘adapted’ great music. Why they shamelessly stole, and are obviously uncomfortable in talking about it as many excuse/rationalization interviews over time suggest, only the band members, particularly Page and Plant, truly know.

27. Bryan Ferry, It’s All Over Now, Baby Blue . . . Another show is over and, speaking of Dylan, here’s Ferry’s cover of his classic, a speeded up version from, appropriately enough, the Frantic album. Ferry, like Rod Stewart, is a great interpreter and usually peppers his solo work with cover tunes. His first solo album outside Roxy Music, 1973’s These Foolish Things, was all covers and in 2007 he released Dylanesque, a full-blown Dylan covers album. Like Stewart, Ferry’s selections are usually well-chosen and he makes the songs his own, in his own way.

1. Camel, Freefall . . . A debut entry, progressive rock band Camel, on the So Old It’s New show. Not sure why I haven’t played them before, probably couldn’t find my CDs in my music mess that never seems to get resolved but I have come to believe helps my creativity given my proclivity for ‘top of the pile of CDs to file’ shows – CDs that never get refiled, of course. Anyway, here you go with a great track from the band, from what many consider their finest album, 1974’s Mirage, the song featuring nice guitar from Andrew Latimer who is the lone remaining founding member, from 1971 in a band which continues to tour but naturally nobody wants to listen to new albums by old bands these days so Camel has not released any new studio work since 2002 and that’s fine. I was inspired to play Freefall after watching a documentary on extreme parachutists, some with parachutes, some without, in, er, freefall. So that leads me into my usual song title madness, as will be described in the commentary on the next few songs. Enjoy, or not.

2. Elton John, Medley (Yell Help/Wednesday Night/Ugly) . . . Played it before, didn’t want to play it again but I have a very sensitive friend (kidding) with an easily bruised ego who suggested it some weeks ago. But I had already planned the show, so I didn’t play it but promised to, in time, so here it is but you must know, as stated when fragile friend suggested it, that if I’m going play it, everyone’s going to have to listen to even a truncated version of my story for this song and the album from whence it came – 1975’s Rock Of The Westies. That’s because it’s like a longtime band not playing tried and true ‘warhorses’ they might be sick of playing in concert: The diehards want to hear deep cuts but the band is in something of a bind since they risk someone seeing them for the first time not hearing a song they came to hear. So, the story, again: me and my football-playing teammates, lifting weights in our high school gym, 3 albums available to us to play on the school ‘record player’. The Beatles’ US compilation Something New, The Rolling Stones’ compilation Through The Past, Darkly (Big Hits, Vol. 2) and Westies, the lone studio album of original music in the lot. And that’s how I got into what is a terrific EJ album although it marked the beginning of his 1970s commercial decline. But heck, the guy was, by contract, releasing two albums a year, the creativity had to wane at some point and it matters not anyway, because the legacy has long since been left. Oh, and the Yell Help part of it refers to the previous song, by Camel, Free Fall so the jumper is yelling help, get it? Yeah, I know, enough, already.

3. U2, Last Night On Earth . . . A relatively underperforming single, the third one released from the Pop album, which divided fans and critics due to U2’s shift to electronica and such. This song is arguably less in that genre but regardless, it’s a great song, I like the album and so be it. As mentioned numerous times, I stick with bands I like on their creative travels, until and unless they totally lose me, like post-Terry Kath Chicago which, by the way, just released a new album, Born For This Moment. I discovered this new release had happened during a trip the other day to my favorite local music store. The new Chicago album is ok, I guess, and since I do like the band’s early work I always at least try their new stuff even while having given up on them. And, fortunately, there are means by which to sample music without feeling you’ve wasted money on something you don’t like although I do support buying artists’ material and am still into physical product. Anyway, the new Chicago sounds to me like the same type of shit they’ve been doing since the 1980s and I do admire the songwriting, but it’s just not the groundbreaking type jazz-rock fusion stuff they did early on. Which is interesting because if you look at Chicago set lists, they know where their bread is buttered as the majority of the songs they play live to this day are from the first three albums, plus the hits up to the end of the Kath era, 1978 and then some of the requisite huge hit schlock stuff. The first song on the new album is called If This Is Goodbye; wonder if that means Chicago is done, recording new stuff-wise, anyway. And how did I spend most of a U2 song segment on Chicago? Well, it’s done and was fun.

4. Pantera, Cemetery Gates . . . Don’t fret, listeners who may know that Pantera is a very heavy, extreme to a degree band. I agree, to my ears at least. I remember when I first tried them out during the 1990s at an HMV store (remember them?) where they had listening posts and I was curious. I put on a Pantera album, Far Beyond Driven it was, their 1994 album that was a new release at the time and I thought, ‘this isn’t even music’ as I listened to this just heavy heavy stuff complete with growled, yelled vocals. Yet, I got into it as time went on. But not all their stuff is that way and Cemetery Gates is an example, it’s a ballad, of sorts, gets heavy but certainly palatable to most ears I would think. In any event, it fit, title-wise, into my Freefall, Yell Help, Last Night On Earth you get the picture, things not going well for whoever as death calls, ha.

5. Slayer, Seasons In The Abyss . . . I’ve gotten back into Slayer recently. And my thoughts about them fit what I just said about Pantera. If you listen to, say, Slayer’s breakthrough album Reign In Blood it’s high velocity speed/thrash metal from start to finish, almost too much to take which is maybe why that album is just five seconds under 29 minutes long. Yet, the band could also slow things down, Black Sabbath-like, as with this title cut from their 1990 album and the preceding work, 1988’s South Of Heaven – a title I always remember my older son laughing about. Hellish, indeed.

6. Wishbone Ash, Phoenix . . . Just a bloody amazing epic from a band who, with their much-ballyhooed twin lead guitar attack, inspired and influenced bands ranging from Iron Maiden to Lynyrd Skynyrd. This track features so many styles but you can definitely hear, at points, where Maiden was inspired to its ‘galloping’ approach. Oh, and the set has now risen from the phoenix, so to speak.

7. The Rolling Stones, Brand New Car . . . It’s hilarious to read YouTube comments on this song, from 1994’s Voodoo Lounge, about being inspired to buy a car after listening to it. It’s about women; the lyrics are an old blues technique – as other commenters point out to the great unwashed/inexperienced. Anyway, critics savaged the track for its lyrics while apparently ignoring the nice wah wah guitar. I’ve always liked it, critics be damned, of course.

8. The Lovemongers, Battle of Evermore . . . So I dug out my Singles soundtrack to a movie I never saw nor care to see, most of it from Seattle grunge bands of the 1990s. It’s an excellent album, and I play a Mother Love Bone track that appeared on Singles, later in tonight’s set. Heart, though, was also from the American Northwest, worked out of Vancouver, BC in their early days, loved Led Zeppelin, covered Zep in concert and had a side project, The Lovemongers, who nicely did this Zep track.

9. Joe Jackson with lead vocals by Marianne Faithfull, Love Got Lost . . . I mentioned some time back, after playing a JJ tune from the 1983 Mike’s Murder soundtrack that was essentially a stylistic sequel to Jackson’s 1982 masterpiece Night and Day album, that he did do a Night and Day II, in 2000, and that I’d get to some stuff from it eventually. Tonight’s the night, as JJ pairs with Mick Jagger’s former lover for this torch tour de force.

10. David Bowie, ‘Tis A Pity She Was A Whore . . . I originally had Bowie’s Always Crashing In The Same Car, from the 70s Low album, in my set as part of my death or risking death title openers, which also prompted me to then play the Stones’ Brand New Car, as life had risen like Wishbone Ash’s Phoenix and a new car/woman was out and about. But I realized I’d played the earlier Bowie tune fairly recently so I decided to go with this to me great up tempo tune from the late great Bowie’s final album, 2016’s Blackstar. It was released just four days before Bowie’s death. He went out on top, creatively.

11. Taj Mahal, Satisfied ‘N’ Tickled Too . . . Taj, title-wise coming out of a session with Bowie’s whore from the previous song. Seriously, this is from 1976 and reflects Mahal’s unique approach to the blues. Brilliant artist.

12. Patti Smith, Smells Like Teen Spirit . . . From a covers album, Twelve (songs) I continue to revisit both for my own listening pleasure and for the show. A terrific reinterpretation of the song that made Nirvana a household name. I love female rock singers and Smith is one of the best ever.

13. Tom Petty and The Heartbreakers, Mystery Man . . . Love that Petty drawl or however one would describe it on this one, a nice lazy groove tune from his debut album in 1976.

14. Lee Harvey Osmond, Cuckoo’s Nest . . . Not sure what else I have to or can say about Tom Wilson, the great Canadian artist behind Junkhouse, Lee Harvey Osmond, solo work and his contributions to Black and The Rodeo Kings. There’s nothing he’s involved in, musically, I don’t like.

15. T. Rex, Jewel . . . Great stuff, guitar and otherwise, from the late great Marc Bolan’s band. Hypnotic.

16. Gillan and Glover, Telephone Box . . . I suppose we in Canada could have used more of what are now considered relics, telephone booths, last week during one of our providers’ embarrassing, ridiculous, largely indefensible and poorly responded to outages. Anyway, good tune from a side project by the Deep Purple singer and bass player. Accidentally On Purpose was the name of the album by Ian Gillan and Roger Glover, released in 1988. Dr. John plays piano on the album; noted session man Andy Newmark is the drummer.

17. Mother Love Bone, Chloe Dancer/Crown Of Thorns . . . Pulled this one, as mentioned previously in the set, from the Singles soundtrack. Extended piece, almost sounds like Guns ‘N Roses, vocally at least, in spots. To me, anyway.

18. Atlanta Rhythm Section, Jukin’ . . . Nice southern rock, or just rock in general. Saw these guys eons ago, first Rolling Stones’ show I ever saw, July 4, 1978 at Buffalo’s NFL football stadium as they opened for the Stones on the Some Girls tour.

19. John Lennon, I Found Out . . . Propulsive track from Lennon’s deeply personal 1970 album, Plastic Ono Band.

20. Traffic, Freedom Rider . . . I imagine I would have eventually become a Traffic fan regardless, but my older brother bringing home the one and only Blind Faith album in 1969 sped up the process. Steve Winwood of Traffic was in the band along with Cream members Eric Clapton and Ginger Baker, plus Ric Grech, most notably of Family. Cream I already knew about but Blind Faith spurred me to check into Winwood and Grech’s other bands.

21. Genesis, Eleventh Earl Of Mar . . . I find inspiration for the songs I play in many things. Things I hear, see, read, songs I know that are favorites, people I talk to about music, it can happen in the snap of a finger. That’s the wonderful thing, to me. This one was inspired some weeks ago, by a chat about a previous set list with an old high school and college friend with whom I’ve reconnected via the show. He didn’t mention this track, specifically. But the inspiration for playing it remained with me after I played a Genesis song from the And Then There Were Three album and my friend asked “is that from the first album they did without (guitarist Steve) Hackett?” I replied yes, but Hackett stuck in my mind and I thought of playing some of his solo stuff, which I have before but instead settled on this, from his last album with Genesis, the 1976 Wind and Wuthering release. It was the second post-Peter Gabriel on lead vocals album, after the very successful A Trick of the Tail proved Genesis would remain a force after Gabriel. Wind and Wuthering was arguably the last record where Genesis was for the most part still leaning more towards the earlier 1970s progressive rock direction than the increasingly pop music avenues they later followed, to huge commercial success.

1. The Kinks, Juke Box Music . . . A single from the 1977 Sleepwalker album that, as with so many great Kinks’ songs it seems, didn’t chart. Absurd! So, it’s a deep cut, says me.

2. New Barbarians (Ronnie Wood, Keith Richards and assorted members of Rolling Stones, Inc.), Rock Me Baby (live) . . . Drunken, stoned, ramshackle, sloppy, raunchy, beautiful rock and roll on the blues standard tune by the New Barbarians. That was the band Wood put together to tour in support of his 1979 album, Gimme Some Neck. The lineup of Wood, Richards, jazz fusion bassist Stanley Clarke, drummer Joseph Zigaboo Modeliste of funkmeisters The Meters, Faces keyboardist Ian McLagan and Stones’ henchman saxophonist Bobby Keys toured the United States but first appeared at a show I somehow was lucky enough to get tickets to, the April, 1979 Oshawa charity concert Richards did for the Canadian National Institute for the Blind as penance for his 1977 drug bust while the Stones were in Toronto for their El Mocambo shows. Those two nights were famously captured on one side of the Love You Live album and, more recently, the full club show release, which is excellent. The Barbarians opened the Oshawa concert, then on came the Rolling Stones for a short set, maybe an hour which is interesting because Mick Jagger long ago was quoted as saying that the best concert would be an hour or less, hit ’em hard, in, out, leave them wanting more. Which is what the Stones did that day. Anyway, I pulled this not from that show, which has never been officially released (many bootlegs available) but from a 2006 release on Wooden Records (get it?) called Buried Alive: Live In Maryland, from the Barbarians’ U.S. tour. The one-off group later opened for Led Zeppelin at Zep’s final big show, the Knebworth Festival in August, 1979.

3. Carlos Johnson, Out Of Control . . . From a covers CD I picked up some time back in my music travels, Chicago Plays The Stones. This is a, I’ll call it rockabilly blues reinterpretation by guitarist Johnson, and I love it, of the Stones’ tune from their 1997 Bridges To Babylon album. Which proves two things: Reinterpretations are worth listening to at least once (and more, in this case) and that latter-day Stones’ albums – like those of many major artists still doing it – are well worth anyone’s open-minded while.

4. Tommy Bolin, Bustin’ Out For Rosey . . . Great riff and song from the late great guitarist, often a replacement member (Deep Purple, James Gang) but an amazing talent in his own right. His playing is well worth checking out on Purple’s Come Taste The Band album, his James Gang records and his solo stuff – this one from the Private Eyes album.

5. AC/DC, Sweet Candy . . . So, having played Bustin’ Out For Rosey as the previous track, one would expect me to, if going with an AC/DC song next, to play Whole Lotta Rosie, no? Well, no. Hah. I admit I did consider it of course but . . . that’s . . . just what you’d be expecting. So I went with a more recent AC/DC tune, from 2014’s Rock Or Bust album. It’s a good one and fits with my show mantra, old bands, old tracks, old bands, their new stuff if they’re continuing to produce material.

6. The Beatles, Wait . . . I was listening to Rubber Soul the other day. So . . . Want to hear my story – again – about how my sister had the album when it came out, which is how I got into it? Well, that’s pretty much the story. And she liked dancing to it, as mentioned before; she even wrote she liked dancing to it on her copy of the album. “Good dances”. Enough. On to the next track.

7. Pretenders, The Wait . . . I was watching one of my Pretenders’ concert DVDs the other night once I got tired of reading and couldn’t watch TV due to my we’ll let them go unnamed but everyone knows who it is, internet provider’s screwup, and the band did a rousing version of this live so I decided to play the studio cut, from the debut album.

8. Led Zeppelin, Baby Come On Home . . . Blues track that was recorded in 1968 but did not appear officially until the 1993 Boxed Set 2 compilation.

9. Graham Parker and The Rumour, Empty Lives . . . The Up Escalator, the 1980 album from which this song comes, tends to get critically trashed, especially in comparison to Parker’s previous offering, Squeezing Out Sparks. To each their own; I like both albums equally and in fact was introduced to Parker via The Up Escalator.

10. Eagles, The Sad Cafe . . . Same thoughts as with the Parker tune and album, above. This one’s from The Long Run, which followed the monster Hotel California and was critically panned and also criticized by the band itself, yet I like each album equally, little to choose between them, for me. And The Long Run made No. 1 as well in most countries, so . . . ?

11. Chicago, Loneliness Is Just A Word . . . From the pre-schlock glory days (my opinion) of Chicago, the first three albums especially, this one from III, and up until Terry Kath’s passing.

12. Jefferson Airplane, Lather . . . The typewriter song. Listen, you’ll hear it, along with Grace Slick’s typically great vocals.

13. Bruce Cockburn, Understanding Nothing . . . Spooky track from his 1988 Big Circumstance album.

14. Elvis Costello, Beyond Belief . . . This one, from Imperial Bedroom, is on various Costello compilations yet while well known, wasn’t a single. Could easily have been.

15. Headstones, Pretty Little Death Song . . . Perhaps they’ll play this upbeat (ha) tune when they play the Kitchener Blues Festival in August.

16. Link Wray, Climbing A High Wall . . . I can only smile in appreciation and admiration of the razor-like guitar assault on this tune, one of the few with vocals from one of the fathers of distortion. The guy was amazing and so influential to the point where one thinks, this is Hendrixian stuff yet Wray came first, so maybe Hendrix, who I really like, was in many ways Wray-ian.

17. Iggy Pop, Cold Metal . . . Had to play this one when, while playing the Wray track online, I noticed a comment suggesting Iggy Pop/Stooges ought to be paying Link Wray royalties. A worthy thought. This one’s from Pop’s 1988 Instinct album. The record company expected a pop album, given, er, Pop’s previous pop-oriented and commercially successful Blah Blah Blah album. Naturally, Pop ignored the company and delivered a hard rock/metal record. Good for him.

18. Black Sabbath, Eternal Idol . . . Title cut from the band’s 1987 album during a state of flux period where guitarist Tony Iommi was the lone remaining original member. Yet while unsuccessful commercially without the lead vocals of original singer Ozzy Osbourne or great replacement Ronnie James Dio, it’s still a great album. Lead vocals by Tony Martin, for anyone with an open mind willing to listen to it and many of the Sabbath albums of the period. And that’s a testament to Iommi’s perseverance and, of course, amazing heavy riffs.

19. The Electric Flag, Another Country . . . From the Mike Bloomfield-led psychedelic jazz blues band. I love the transition around the 4:15 mark of this extended piece, from psychedelia back to more conventional jazzy rock.

20. Neil Young and Crazy Horse, Country Home . . . Raunchy track, typical of the distortion-heavy 1990 album Ragged Glory. It was originally recorded in the 1970s but didn’t appear on a studio record until Ragged Glory.

21. The Guess Who, Old Joe . . . Obscure one from Canned Wheat, but that’s what we’re about here – often obscure but nevertheless great tunes, this one written by and featuring typically great Burton Cummings vocals.

22. Buddy Guy, She Got The Devil In Her . . . Guy’s Sweet Tea album, 2001, is so good. Here’s yet another example.

23. George Harrison, Behind That Locked Door . . . A rare country-ish tune by Harrison, from All Things Must Pass and apparently written for Bob Dylan as encouragement for Dylan to return to the concert stage, which he did for Harrison’s Concert for Bangladesh. Dylan hasn’t stopped since on what’s become known as the Never Ending Tour.

24. Bob Dylan, Sad Eyed Lady Of The Lowlands . . . Forever memories for me of getting into the Blonde on Blonde album in 1981 (yes I know, late to the 1966 party despite my older brother’s influence), lying on a couch in a shared residence with friends, alone as everyone else was out on a Sunday afternoon, listening to my buddy’s cassette tape of the album. I knew Dylan’s hits of course, but that day prompted me to go back and get all the studio albums I’d missed, and moved on with the artist from there.

25. Dickey Betts, Long Time Gone . . . Ramblin’ Man-ish tune (and why wouldn’t it be, he wrote it) from the Allman Brothers Band guitarist, from his 1974 debut solo album, Highway Call. And on that note, we call it a night, for another week.

1. The J. Geils Band, (Ain’t Nothin’ But A) House Party (live) . . . “We are gonna blow your face out!’ is singer Peter Wolf’s intro to this song, giving the live album from whence it came, its name. And they did. As always, J. Geils Band best served live via this album, the earlier Full House and the later, less-renowned but very fine, Showtime! There’s also a great latter day from the archives CD release of a Rockpalast show from Germany, plus of course various songs and gigs available online at YouTube and elsewhere.

2. Bruce Springsteen, Independence Day . . . It’s July 4. Of course I’d play this, for my American friends in what is a sort of Can-Am show, given that Canada Day kicked off the weekend.

3. John Mellencamp, Justice and Independence ’85 . . . And this, re Independence Day, title-wise, anyway.

4. The Tragically Hip, Yawning Or Snarling . . . A brooding track from 1994’s somewhat dark Day For Night album.

5. Rush, Jacob’s Ladder . . . From Permanent Waves, it embodies the progressive side of Rush on an album that to some was a move away from that aspect of the band to tighter, more commercial songs – which ironically is what they started with before drummer Neil Peart joined the band after the first album.

6. Ted Nugent, Writing On The Wall . . . A then relatively unknown Meat Loaf handles lead vocals on this one, from the 1976 album Free-For-All. A year later, Meat Loaf unleashed Bat Out of Hell on the world while Nugent carried on with albums and songs like Cat Scratch Fever.

7. The Beach Boys, Hang On To Your Ego . . . Alternate version and original title of I Know There’s An Answer, from Pet Sounds. Written by Brian Wilson about an acid trip, the lyrics were rewritten after singer Mike Love refused to sing it as originally presented due to his objections to drug use. Space doesn’t permit, but it’s worth reading about the song which, musically, I like in both versions.

8. The Doors, Waiting For The Sun . . . Another of those songs, like Sheer Heart Attack by Queen, or Houses of the Holy by Led Zeppelin, where an apparent title cut isn’t on the album in question but is placed on a later album. Waiting For The Sun, the song, appeared on Morrison Hotel, two years and two albums after Waiting For The Sun, the album. Houses of the Holy was originally recorded for that album, which was released in 1973, but the song was shelved because at the time it was thought to be too similar to other tracks, like Dancing Days, on that album. Sheer Heart Attack, originally intended for that album in 1974, was unfinished so was delayed until the News of the World album in 1977.

9. Aerosmith, Bone To Bone (Coney Island Whitefish Boy) . . . Coney Island is where the annual US Independence Day hot-dog eating contest is held so, in keeping with my somewhat Can-Am theme today, here’s the Aerosmith tune from the raucous Night In The Ruts album.

10. Led Zeppelin, Hot Dog . . . Speaking of hot dogs, here’s Zep in fun rockabilly mode from In Through The Out Door.

11. The Guess Who, Orly . . . A fairly successful single, it made No. 21 in Canada in 1973 although it’s arguably relatively underplayed, if not at the time certainly by now when all you’ll likely hear on classic rock stations by The Guess Who is Undun, American Woman and No Time. I happened to be listening to it a while ago on a Guess Who personal compilation I made of hits, lesser hits and album tracks, so decided to play it. Good tune and another indication of how Burton Cummings is one of those distinctively great singers whose voice is an instrument in itself, more than that of most vocalists outside of people like, say, Van Morrison.

12. FM, Black Noise . . . Prog/space rock, this 10-minute title cut from the debut album, in 1978 of the Canadian band from whence Nash The Slash came.

13. Eric Clapton, Mean Old Frisco . . . Cover of the Arthur (Big Boy) Crudup blues track that Clapton cut for his 1977 release, Slowhand.

14. Peter Tosh, Legalize It . . . Tosh won, though he didn’t live to see pot being legalized in many countries by now. Title cut from his 1976 album.

     

15. David Wilcox, Blood Money . . . I played What’s The Buzz/Strange Thing Mystifying from the 1970 Jesus Christ Superstar soundtrack last week, resulting in me playing this track this week. Why? Because of how my mind works. One of the songs on the JC Superstar record is Damned For All Time/Blood Money, where Judas, performed outstandingly by Murray Head, is tormented by his coming betrayal of Christ. And that track was under my consideration for last week’s show. I didn’t play it, as it’s so difficult for me to choose from that amazing soundtrack. It stuck in my mind, though, hence the Wilcox tune, if that makes sense. It does to me.

16. Steve Miller Band, Baby’s House . . . Miller is deservedly well known for his irresistibly catchy big hits of the 1970s starting with The Joker and proceeding through the Fly Like An Eagle and Book of Dreams albums that made him a fixture on top 40 radio. But his earlier, progressive/psychedelic and bluesy stuff, like this extended piece from 1969’s Your Saving Grace album, is equally compelling in its own way, and it’s as if by a completely different artist.

17. Bobbie Gentry, Apartment 21 . . . I only played this because she references my favorite band, The Rolling Stones, in the lyrics. No, not really. It’s just another cool cut by an artist who is fascinating to me and many. A woman known of course for her amazing 1967 hit song Ode To Billie Joe but she was so much more, such great music but more importantly a woman who took charge of her own career during a time when it wasn’t a woman’s place to, for the most part, write, produce and record her own material. Gentry did so, was a star for a while, then did another cool thing – she essentially disappeared off the face of the earth, having had enough of that life.

18. The Band, Back To Memphis . . . A live cover of the Chuck Berry tune that appeared on the now out of print double-CD To Kingdom Come compilation, although this version of the tune is available on YouTube and other online avenues. I already had this in my show but it’s interesting in that later, after my planning was done, a buddy of mine over the weekend sent me a shot of his day 1 of vacation fun, a glass of of some sort of whiskey, can’t remember what, probably Scotch of some sort after a séance (inside joke) sitting beside his turntable while playing a Chuck Berry album. This friend of mine is often an inspiration as our music chats tweak my brain to things but don’t tell him because then he’ll start or keep offering more and more suggestions to which I then have to put my foot down and say, yeah, thanks but it’s my show, I’ll put it under advisement, I’ve probably already thought of it so shut up and leave me alone to create.

19. The Rolling Stones, Crazy Mama . . . Great Stones ‘belter’ as saying goes, or at least I read from a rock critic once, from Black and Blue. As often mentioned here, it’s a diverse and excellent album trashed upon release now considered a classic, but albums age like fine wine, as Keith Richards has said and he’s right. Many of the critics who originally carved Black and Blue to pieces now rank it as at least a 4 out of 5.

20. Steppenwolf, Renegade . . . Great tune, lyrics about lead singer John Kay’s fleeing, with his mother, his dad having been killed during World War II, from the then East Germany and the Iron Curtain of Soviet oppression in 1949. Previous to that, in 1945, Kay and his mother had fled the advancing Soviet troops, not knowing then that where they wound up would fall under the Iron Curtain. Eventually, of course, he settled in Canada, moved to California and Steppenwolf was born.

21. The Allman Brothers Band, It’s Not My Cross To Bear . . . Gregg Allman-penned blues cut from the debut album that, unless one knew Allman wrote it, could easily be misconstrued as another brilliant cover of the many blues artists the Allmans rightfully worshipped and were inspired by. As Keith Richards of The Rolling Stones has said, perhaps the best thing that an artist can do, or the best that can be said about an artist, is that ‘they passed it on’. Message received, by the Allmans, proven by this track, and then they obviously passed on their own genius.

22. The Doobie Brothers, I Cheat The Hangman . . . Great stuff from the Stampede album, well before the Michael McDonald schlock stuff set in. That said, and I’ve always said, McDonald is a brilliant artist who saved the band in the late 1970s by stepping in on lead vocals as founding member Tom Johnston’s health faltered. And his Takin’ It To The Streets remains one of my favorite Doobies tracks. After that, they went schlock but like Chicago in similar fashion, were more commercially successful but mostly to a new audience as the old guard fans abandoned their new sound. The Doobies have been back together for some time, with both Johnston and McDonald in the band, touring and releasing new studio albums, the most recent in 2021. The music is a sort of hybrid between the earlier, rockier Johnston-led sound and the later soulful stuff with McDonald. Decent, to me. But not worth me buying. Good thing the internet exists.

23. Paice Ashton Lord, Ghost Story . . . Cool track from the one and only album, 1977’s Malice In Wonderland, by this short-lived one-off offshoot of Deep Purple, featuring drummer Ian Paice and keyboard player Jon Lord along with singer/keyboardist Tony Ashton. Although not credited in the band name, soon to be Whitesnake member Bernie Marsden is the album’s guitarist as the family tree of Deep Purple expanded in various ways to include Rainbow, Whitesnake and Gillan/The Ian Gillan band. Nazareth, meantime, later used the same album title for its 1980 release that featured the hit Holiday.

1. Jesus Christ Superstar A Rock Opera (various artists, 1970 version), What’s the Buzz/Strange Thing Mystifying . . . Ian Gillan of Deep Purple fame as Jesus, Murray Head as Judas, Yvonne Elliman as Mary Magdalene, etc including Mike D’Abo – who wrote (and sang) the classic Handbags and Gladrags as brilliantly interpreted by Rod Stewart – as King Herod and the late Spooky Tooth, Grease Band and Paul McCartney and Wings guitarist Henry McCullough. Fantastic, timeless album, one of my all-time favorites by anyone.

2. Max Webster, Battle Scar . . . I wanted to play a Rush song this week, and a Max Webster tune. So in the end, I combine the two – all three members of Rush – singer/bassist Geddy Lee, guitarist Alex Lifeson and drummer Neil Peart – helping out on this wonderfully heavy track from Max’s Universal Juveniles album.

3. The J. Geils Band, Sanctuary . . . Take It Back was the single from the Sanctuary album, was hailed by critics but naturally for Geils during their brilliant but pre-hit 1970s days it did nothing on the charts. Perhaps they should have released the title cut, a much better song – tougher, grittier, better groove – in my opinion.

4. Elton John, Tower Of Babel . . . I must subconsciously be into various forms of religious or spiritual imagery today given I’ve delved into Jesus Christ (Superstar) and now the Tower of Babel. I’m actually a-religious or, in the fun phrase I’ve long since stolen from an old friend, a recovering/recovered Catholic but in any event, been meaning to get back to some Elton John the last few weeks but haven’t managed to, until now. From Captain Fantastic and The Brown Dirty Cowboy. Next week? Maybe Medley: Yell Help/Wednesday Night/Ugly from Rock of the Westies, which a good friend of mine raved about to me on a text trip down memory lane last week. To which I replied, yeah, thanks bud, all good, played it before, does not preclude of course me playing it again. But, if I do I’ll have to, as is my custom, regale and/or bore readers and listeners with my tales of tough workouts with football teammates in the high school weightlifting gym where Rock of the Westies was one of just three albums we had to play, and endlessly did – the other two being a Stones’ compilation, Through The Past, Darkly (Big Hits, Vol. II) and a Beatles’ US Capitol Records compilation, Something New. Or, I may ignore Elton John altogether next week, just to piss my friend off – the likely scenario.

5. Spooky Tooth, Fantasy Satisfier . . . Rocker from The Mirror album in 1974, after which the band split (only to later reunite, of course, as bands do) with guitarist Mick Jones (not the Clash’s Mick Jones) going on to form Foreigner while Gary Wright went solo to big success with the Dream Weaver album and title cut single, along with Love Is Alive.

6. Eric Burdon & War, Pretty Colors . . . What a combination of talents that gave us the funky, soulful albums Eric Burdon Declares War and The Black Man’s Burdon, this one from the latter record.

7. Billy Joel, Travelin’ Prayer . . . What a great banjo-fueled kick-butt country/bluegrass tune, a single that went relatively nowhere, didn’t crack the top 50 anywhere, from Joel’s 1974 Piano Man album which of course yielded his first big single, the title cut. That said, maybe surprisingly because it’s so well known, but Piano Man made ‘just’ No. 25 but that’s actually true of many hit singles people tend to assume made No. 1 when they didn’t, although they were major hits and naturally the artists who wrote or performed them include them in their concert sets.

8. Chris Whitley, Narcotic Prayer . . . Whitley did a 180 on his second album, Din of Ecstacy. He pivoted from the brilliant acoustic blues rock of his debut, Living With The Law in favor of the grungy guitar attack of the appropriately-titled Din. Critics disparaged it, I like it. But I’m like that with artists I like, appreciate and admire. I’ll travel with their muses, if and until they lose me, which rarely happens.

9. The Guess Who, Friends Of Mine (alternate version) . . . This is the alternate, about a minute longer, darker lyrically version of the 10-minute Doors-inspired cut that appeared on Wheatfield Soul. It’s terrific psychedelic stuff, un-Guess Who like if all one knows of The Guess Who are their brilliant singles. They were brilliant in long-form material, too. This is from the outakes, demos and other early stuff release, The Guess Who? This Time Long Ago compilations that came out in 2001.

10. Budgie, Breaking All The House Rules . . . Typically great extended rocker from the brilliant but, sales wise, underappreciated if influential Welsh wonders.

11. T Bone Burnett, Trap Door . . . Title cut from an EP the noted producer but a great artist in his own right released in 1982. Great lyrics.

12. The Beatles, Savoy Truffle . . . Came upon this one while searching for Savoy Brown songs. The George Harrison-penned Beatles’ track from the White Album, about Eric Clapton’s sweet tooth, came up in the computer system, I listened to it again for first time in long time and, yeah. So, I’m playing it.

13. Joni Mitchell, The Reoccurring Dream . . . About the shallowness of consumerism. Mitchell apparently pieced it together by recording TV commercials for two weeks. The track appeared on her 1988 album Chalk Mark In A Rain Storm and she put it on her “Misses” deep cuts self-selected compilation that accompanied her “Hits’ release in 1996.

14. Saga, Book Of Lies . . . From my hometown of Oakville, Ontario comes Saga, a Canadian band somewhat in the vein of, say, Rush yet not nearly as successful although, given their progressive rock stylings, Saga has been hugely popular in various European countries, Germany in particular. And Puerto Rico, go figure. This track, from their 2007 release 10,000 Days (yes, they’re still at it) is a fine combination of prog and rock elements including great guitar soloing by Ian Crichton.

15. Savoy Brown, Money Can’t Save Your Soul . . . Thought I’d forgotten about Savoy Brown when I mentioned them a while back, during my Beatles’ song commentary, didn’t you? It is to laugh. I have a great memory and creative mind if one permits me some bullshit arrogance, with a twinkle in my eye, of course. Anyway, one of my favorite Savoy songs, with obvious relationship-resonating lyrics for anyone, depending on one’s own circumstances.

16. Marianne Faithfull, The Blue Millionaire (extended version) . . . Eight-plus minute version of the 5-mins and change track that originally appeared on her 1983 album A Child’s Adventure. I’m forever fascinated by the creative process, given I create, in a manner of speaking, myself. It’s just interesting how many song forms there are that are appealing, like this hypnotic song, no real chorus or hook, arguably like some Dylan trips, yet all so compelling for that fact.

17. Concrete Blonde, Walking In London . . . Haven’t played Concrete Blonde in a while but, thankfully, stumbled upon the band in my usual prepping show trip through songs I’ve loaded into the station’s computer system. I can never get enough of Johnette Napolitano’s powerhouse, sexy, sultry and seductive vocals. For evidence, check out the transition at the 1:11 mark of this spooky title cut from the band’s 1992 album, then again at 3:27 – Desire!! Why this band wasn’t bigger than their one brief moment in the sun, 1990’s Bloodletting album and the single Joey, is one of music’s mysteries. Napolitano now apparently lives quietly in California, composing music for films, working as a gallery artist and tending to horses.

18. Family, Between Blue and Me . . . Love the somewhat tortured vocals by guitarist and band leader Roger Chapman. John Wetton, before becoming a longtime member of King Crimson and Asia with pit stops in Wishbone Ash, Uriah Heep and Roxy Music, handles bass and background vocals duties. Which reminds me, as I keep trying to remind myself, about time I got back to some Wishbone Ash. We’ll see. As I often say, in just two hours per week, so much music, so little time. But eventually I get to all I want to get to. Usually, given all the myriad show ideas that run through my undisciplined mind.

19. Pete Townshend, Time Is Passing . . . It is indeed, isn’t it, time passing I mean. From Townshend’s first solo album, 1972’s Who Came First. Terrific stuff, but then most Townshend tunes are, Who or otherwise.

20. The Moody Blues, Eternity Road . . . Another band I’ve been trying to fit in over the last few weeks and finally today is their time. Overdue. Sounds crazy, perhaps, in terms of fitting songs into the two-hour slot, ie just put the damn things in but easier said than done. Why? Because you have thoughts in mind, you plug songs in, others come up and it’s like, yeah, haven’t played/heard that in a while either and before you know it, given the flow of the show or even if there’s no deliberate flow, you’re soon at 22-26 songs which typically is the two-hour song length, and it’s on to the next week which I always ‘push ahead’, to be filtered, or not, for the next show. Enough pseudo-creative babble. Ride on to the next track.

21. The Rolling Stones, Ride On, Baby . . . From the Flowers compilation which my older sister owned which, along with Big Hits (High Tide and Green Grass) she also owned, is how I got into what became and remains and always will be my favorite band. She was, as all young people were then, major into The Beatles and, slightly less so, the Stones and also The Monkees (whereas big brother was the Zep, Tull, Hendrix, Cream, Purple etc. influence and glad for it). And, beating Billy Idol’s Dancing With Myself by many years, my sister went dancing with herself to the various albums she owned. You should have seen her going, in 1971, to Led Zep’s Misty Mountain Hop which I’ve mentioned before but anyway . . . I’ll always remember her ‘rating’ note scrawled in black magic marker on the back cover of Flowers: “some good dances”. Rubber Soul by The Beatles had “good dances’ written on it, so I discerned from that, that she liked Beatles better. At least for dancing. No competition, I love both bands but was interesting 10 years or so later when, for my 16^th birthday I got The Beatles’ 1967-70 ‘blue album” compilation and the Stones’ ’70s comp Made In The Shade as presents and all sister wanted to play was the Stones. Of course, she had just seen them on their 1975 tour appearance in Toronto so, obviously, she was on a concert high and major into them. Funny thing was, The Beatles’ tunes were more familiar to my younger brothers and I then so we wanted to hear the 67-70 album more than the Stones sbut for my youngest brother and me, that quickly shifted to Made In The Shade, the buying of every pre- and post-Stones actual studio albums and the rest is history.

22. Steve Winwood, Night Train . . . I love Traffic (and have played them a lot although not lately, see ‘so much music, so little time”) but not so much into Winwood’s solo stuff aside from Arc of A Diver album. The rest of it is too overproduced for my taste/ears, and Arc borders dangerously on that overproduced precipice but avoids it enough to make for a great album, great track. I feel I’ve played it too recently but so what, if so? And off into the night, on this train, we go . . . until next week. Cheers and take care, all, and thanks for listening/following.