My track-by-track tales follow the bare-bones list.
1. Pretenders, Tattooed Love Boys
2. Graham Parker, Devil’s Sidewalk
3. The Police, Shadows In The Rain
4. Midnight Oil, The Last Of The Diggers
5. Chuck Berry, Jaguar and Thunderbird
6. Golden Earring, She Flies On Strange Wings (from Live, 1977)
7. Rod Stewart, You’re My Girl (I Don’t Want To Discuss It)
8. (Long) John Baldry, Let’s Burn Down The Cornfield
9. Gordon Lightfoot, Mister Rock Of Ages
10. Creedence Clearwater Revival, Wrote A Song For Everyone
11. Tom Petty and The Heartbreakers, It Ain’t Nothin’ To Me
12. Paul Rodgers, Standing Around Crying
13. The Kinks, Celluloid Heroes
14. Johnny Winter, Stray Cat Blues
15. The Rolling Stones, Midnight Rambler (live, from Ladies & Gentlemen: The Rolling Stones)
16. Kansas, The Absence Of Presence
17. Led Zeppelin, For Your Life
18. Cream, Rollin’ And Tumblin’ (from Live Cream)
My track-by-track tales:
1. Pretenders, Tattooed Love Boys . . . . A staccato-type song walking a tightope between chaos and control, from the band’s self-titled debut album released in January, 1980. A soundscape that teeters on the edge of a cliff, seemingly, as if the song is always at risk of falling apart but it doesn’t and that’s what makes it compelling. Then, this example of compact fury just ends, boom. And you wish it was longer than just three minutes. But on the flip side, leave ’em wanting more . . .
2. Graham Parker, Devil’s Sidewalk . . . Nice descending guitar riff intro on this one, perhaps my favorite song – though it’s tough to pick – on the 1980 album The Up Escalator. A hit single that could have been, in my book although it wasn’t released as such. Stupefaction and Endless Night, the latter featuring Parker fan Bruce Springsteen on backing vocals, are likely the best-known songs on what I think is a consistent record that tends to get short shrift from critics who don’t like Jimmy Iovine‘s supposedly too slick production. Iovine had previously worked as an engineer on Springsteen’s Born To Run and Darkness On The Edge of Town albums, John Lennon’s Walls and Bridges and produced Patti Smith’s Easter and Tom Petty’s Damn The Torpedoes. A sterling resume, but there’s no pleasing some people although obviously it’s a matter of personal preference and taste. Perhaps it’s because it’s the Parker album I first heard front to back thanks to radio play which prompted me to purchase it, after which I went back in his catalogue. But to me The Up Escalator maintained his early, angry young man phase of consistency and is as good as its more acclaimed predecessor, Squeezing Out Sparks.
3. The Police, Shadows In The Rain . . . A hypnotic, brooding piece from the 1980 album Zenyatta Mondatta. Another example of why, while compilations serve a purpose, depending how deeply one wants to dig into particular artists, individual albums tell the full tale.
4. Midnight Oil, The Last Of The Diggers . . . From The Real Thing, a mostly live, mostly acoustic album, released in 2000 that featured Oils’ hits plus four new studio recordings including the title track and this mid-tempo rocker.
5. Chuck Berry, Jaguar and Thunderbird . . . Short, just under two minutes, punchy rocker with rockabilly and, some have suggested, rap – before rap was a recognized genre – elements in a Bo Diddley-ish approach. The music fits the subject matter of a race down the road, police in pursuit. A non-album single issued in 1960, it didn’t dent the charts but has appeared on various Berry compilation albums.
6. Golden Earring, She Flies On Strange Wings (from Live, released in 1977) . . . From short and sweet with Chuck Berry to long and involved with Golden Earring, a multifaceted song, hard rock in spots, mellow in others. Progressive hard rock, in short. It appeared in studio form on the band’s 1971 album Seven Tears.
7. Rod Stewart, You’re My Girl (I Don’t Want To Discuss It) . . . A funky, stop-start rocker from Gasoline Alley, released in 1970. It was Stewart’s second solo album during the amazing 1969-74 period when he was maintaining parallel careers, fronting Faces while also using many of that band’s members, particularly guitarist Ron Wood, on his solo stuff.
8. (Long) John Baldry, Let’s Burn Down The Cornfield . . . A more up-tempo treatment of Randy Newman’s rootsy, swampy version on his 1970 album 12 Songs. It came out on Baldry’s June 1971 album It Ain’t Easy which was co-produced by Rod Stewart and Elton John. John – under his birth name Reginald Dwight – was in the band Bluesology with Baldry during the 1960s. Stewart and John each produced a side of the original vinyl album with Let’s Burn Down The Cornfield produced by John and featuring guitarist Caleb Quaye and drummer Roger Pope. They were working with John at the time and played on his Madman Across The Water album, released in November 1971. The ubiquitous guitarist Ron Wood was among the Stewart associates who played on the Stewart-produced tracks including the title song and Don’t Try To Lay No Boogie Woogie On The King Of Rock & Roll.
9. Gordon Lightfoot, Mister Rock Of Ages . . . Beautiful song, thoughtful lyrics but it’s Lightfoot, what else would one expect? From the 1980 album Dream Street Rose.
10. Creedence Clearwater Revival, Wrote A Song For Everyone . . . From Green River, the middle of three – count ’em, 3! – albums released by CCR that year. It was bracketed by Bayou Country and Willy And The Poor Boys, all of consistently high quality. CCR singles from 1969 spread over the three albums: Proud Mary, Born On The Bayou, Bad Moon Rising, Lodi, Green River, Commotion, Down On The Corner, Fortunate Son. Eight singles, five of which – Proud Mary, Bad Moon Rising, Green River, Down On The Corner and Fortunate Son – made either No. 2 or 3 on the North American charts with Bad Moon Rising hitting No. 1 in the UK. A remarkable run by a remarkable band.
11. Tom Petty and The Heartbreakers, It Ain’t Nothin’ To Me . . . Nice intro bass line from Dave Stewart of Eurythmics, who co-wrote with Petty this horn-drenched song with a cool call-and-response hook using the song title. From the 1985 album Southern Accents which, aside from the hit single Don’t Come Around Here No More took some time to embed itself with me but long since has. Definitely a keeper.
12. Paul Rodgers, Standing Around Crying . . . David Gilmour on guitar, from Rodgers’ 1993 album Muddy Water Blues – A Tribute To Muddy Waters that featured an all-star cast of guitarists in addition to Pink Floyd’s Gilmour. Others on the album: Jeff Beck, Buddy Guy, Brian May (Queen), Steve Miller, Gary Moore, Trevor Rabin (Yes), Richie Sambora (Bon Jovi), Neil Schon (Santana, Journey), Brian Setzer (Stray Cats, The Brian Setzer Orchestra), Slash (Guns N’ Roses, Slash’s Snakepit, Velvet Revolver, etc.).
13. The Kinks, Celluloid Heroes . . . From the 1972 studio album Everybody’s In Show-Biz . . . I played Supersonic Rocket Ship from the album some weeks ago and mentioned Celluloid Heroes being a single that to me, amazingly, did not chart that I’ve played before and would play again. So here you go. Fantastic song, musically and lyrically, with Kinks’ writer Ray Davies name-checking actors Greta Garbo, Rudolph Valentino, Bela Lugosi, Bette Davis, George Sanders, Marilyn Monroe and Mickey Rooney. Kinks’ guitarist Dave Davies, often at odds with his brother, was quoted as saying it’s ‘one of my favorite songs ever, by anybody.’ I agree. Strange to me that it wasn’t more successful commercially but there’s maybe no accounting for time, place and taste but it is a well-known track to Kinks’ fans and appears on various compilations.
14. Johnny Winter, Stray Cat Blues . . . Winter’s cover, from his 1974 album Saints And Sinners, of the ribald Rolling Stones song originally on Beggars Banquet. Winter, however, more closely follows the slower, bluesier arrangement the Stones used on Get Yer Ya Ya’s Out!, the 1970 live album document of their 1969 tour although the boys have returned to the original approach when they’ve played the song on recent tours. All versions – Winter’s included which shouldn’t be surprising as he was a great interpreter of others’ material – are excellent. Winter also covered, at various times, the Stones songs Let It Bleed and Jumpin’ Jack Flash and Bob Dylan’s Highway 61 Revisited and Like A Rolling Stone.
15. The Rolling Stones, Midnight Rambler (live, from Ladies & Gentlemen: The Rolling Stones) . . . The Let It Bleed studio album song whose arguably definitive version remains the concert cut from Get Yer Ya Ya’s Out! The Ladies & Gentlemen take was recorded on the Stones’ 1972 tour promoting their then-current Exile On Main St. album and first saw limited official release in 1974 on the film document of that voyage. I still own bootleg copies of both movie and album although I’ve since bought the official releases which came out on DVD and Blu-ray in 2010 and on CD in 2017.
16. Kansas, The Absence Of Presence . . . . From the raunchy rock of The Rolling Stones to the prog-rock title cut of Kansas’ 2020 album. To quote the allmusic review site, ‘Kansas’ popularity is based on the canny balance of meaty prog and radio-friendly melodic rock’ and I agree. A typically epic tune from a band whose beautiful 1977 hit Dust In The Wind is actually something of an outlier in their oeuvre. Plus, I like the title, Absence of Presence, and the album cover and it gives me an opportunity to set up . . .
17. Led Zeppelin, For Your Life . . . Kansas, we do have Presence . . . or did, from the 1976 album Presence on this unconventionally compelling song driven by its stop-start riff.
18. Cream, Rollin’ And Tumblin’ (live) . . . Back to a Muddy Waters’ tune in this manic mostly just instrumental interplay Cream interpretation to close the show as I roll and tumble off the stage and outta here, so to speak. Jack Bruce sings, yes, but in many ways just ‘mouths’ sounds but it all works, very well. Recorded March 7, 1968 at the Fillmore West, San Francisco and released on Live Cream, June 1970. It’s also available online and on the 2-CD Cream Gold compilation which is split into studio and live recordings.