1. Teenage Head, Disgusteen . . . Nice day for a party, isn’t it? Great spoken intro, plays on scenes from The Exorcist, hypnotic hook, what else can one ask for?

2. Ramones, Do You Remember Rock ‘N’ Roll Radio? . . . The Ramones under the influene of exacting “wall of sound’ producer Phil Spector, from their 1980 album End Of The Century. The marriage was a divorce waiting to happen, given Spector’s painstaking, perfectionist producing of a band that was, by its nature, anything but polished and was used to doing things very quickly and damn the details. Yet for all that, what is something of an outlier album in the Ramones’ ouvre is the highest-charting (No. 44 on Billboard) of their records and achieved its intent – breaking the band to a more mainstream audience.

3. Sex Pistols, EMI . . . An eff you to their previous record company, which dropped them out of fear of the label’s reputation being damaged due to the band’s antics. Kick-butt tune, musically, as is the entire Never Mind The Bollocks album.

4. Graham Parker & The Rumour, Passion Is No Ordinary Word . . . Never a single yet one of those tracks that becomes widely associated with an artist. He even used it as the title to his excellent 1993 two-CD compilation album.

5. Elvis Costello, I’m Not Angry . . . Yes you are. Or were. That’s why I bracketed you with GP and JJ, the other two ‘angry young men’ of that late 1970s period when punk and new wave were all the rage, coinciding with my college years. Great times.

6. Joe Jackson, Mad At You . . . One can never account for why and how some things succeed and others don’t. The easy answer is that if something’s good, it will be successful, and vice-versa. But art is not so cut and dried, obviously. The Beat Crazy album, to me, is one of JJ’s finest achievements, the third and last of his early, new wave period. Cut for cut, it’s easily as good as his first two, Look Sharp and I’m the Man. Yet it didn’t get much airplay and bombed, relatively speaking, as did this infectious, bass-driven beauty, which was the first single.

7. Blondie, 11:59 . . . Up-tempo tune from Parallel Lines, the 1978 album full of well-known tracks like Heart of Glass, Hanging On The Telephone and One Way Or Another, in many ways the core of Blondie’s catalog.

8. Talking Heads, Drugs . . . The hypnotic music perfectly matches the title in this creation by the band and producer Brian Eno, who co-wrote the track with head Head David Byrne.

9. The Clash, Charlie Don’t Surf . . . Cue the classic scene, featuring Robert Duvall, from Apocalypse Now. From Sandinista! It’s a sprawling album, three vinyl records worth upon release in December 1980. It followed the double album mainstream breakthrough London Calling, and while the argument is often made by critics that double or (rare) triple studio albums would be better edited down to one, tighter release, I disagree but grant that it likely depends on the album. I was listening to Sandinista in the car this week, first time in a long time listening to it all the way through. And while one could argue there’s some filler, the album wouldn’t be the same without it as the band fuses myriad genres into an intoxicating whole. It’s akin to The Beatles’ White Album, which acclaimed producer George Martin said would better have been shaved to one disc. With all due respect to Sir George, I disagree.

10. Flash And The Pan, Walking In The Rain/Lights In The Night . . . Two songs from two different albums, Flash And The Pan’s debut and the title cut from the album that followed it, but to me they’ve always been of a piece in style and content, so I always tie them together. Great lyrics, at least to me, particularly in Lights In The Night: Talking to the ceiling, feeling kinda ill, if the radio doesn’t get me, the TV will. . . . Kiss another bottle, sink another drink, throw away the feeling, throw away the pill, if the bottle doesn’t get me, the thinking will.

11. Ian Dury, Wake Up And Make Love With Me . . . So there I was, first year college student still, like the brother back at home with his Beatles and his Stones from Mott The Hoople’s David Bowie-penned All The Young Dudes, and a new classmate puts on the New Boots and Panties album as we drive to a party. I was hooked. My big, tough football teammates thought I was insane and wondered what happened to the Beatles, Stones, Deep Purple, Zeppelin, etc. in my listening habits. I said, open your ears and minds; they’re all still there, you can like more than one thing at once. Then I put on the Talking Heads to drive them even more nuts.  
12. Television, Friction . . . It took me ages to get into Television’s Marquee Moon album. I could never ‘get’ why it was considered such a classic. Then, one day, it all clicked.

13. Dead Kennedys, The Prey . . . Spooky track, scary subject, an assault.

14. The B-52’s, Lava . . . I must admit I’m not that big on the B-52’s, the band I mean. The drink’s ok, although I haven’t had many, never having acquired much of a taste for the so-called hard stuff. I’ve dabbled, just never gone further. As for the band, outside of Planet Claire, easily their best song, and maybe Rock Lobster, which I don’t think has aged well, the B-52’s are more, to me, a goofball curio from a place and time although they’re still around. Anyway, I figured a show featuring late ’70s/early ’80s punk/new wave would be lacking without one of their songs, so here you go. Yeah, I know, what a backhanded endorsement. So be it. 
15. Martha and The Muffins, Paint By Number Heart . . . Third single from their Echo Beach-dominated 1980 debut, Metro Music. Nice saxophone work by Andy Haas.

16. BB Gabor, Big Yellow Taxi . . . As we transition, via Gabor’s reinvention of the Joni Mitchell hit, from a punk/new wave show into my more typical fare, so-called classic rock. I just realized I forgot to play Devo in the new wave portion, and The Police, too. Probably others. Oh well, the show is set and, well, maybe next time.

17. Bruce Springsteen, Drive All Night . . . I was reading a review of The River album, one of my favorites by Springsteen along with Born To Run and Darkness On The Edge of Town, wherein the critic mentioned Springsteen’s sometimes ‘overwrought’ singing which is the best description I’ve heard and is evident towards the end of this track. Still, it’s a fine, lengthy piece about lost love or, in the words of the same reviewer about the whole album: ‘a bitter empathy, these are the wages of young romantic love among those who get paid by the hour.’ It’s the root of Springsteen’s appeal, or at least was, during his early days.

18. Gregg Allman, Dark End Of The Street . . . Allman’s version of the classic soul song, covered countless times by various artists and worth reading up on. This one’s from Allman’s excellent 1997 album Searching For Simplicity.

19. The Allman Brothers Band, Dreams . . . I was cruising the web the other day and up popped an article detailing ‘the five Allman Brothers deep cuts you must hear”. Maybe because I’m a big fan of the band, I never thought of Dreams as a deep cut; it’s quite well known. At least to Allmans fans. On the other hand, aside from Ramblin’ Man, which made No. 2, the Allmans never had a top 10 single, amazingly enough, perhaps. So, I suppose to casual listeners, Dreams would be a deep cut. Works for me.

20. John Mellencamp, Circling Around The Moon . . . Every now and then you go back to albums you haven’t listened to in ages, like Mellencamp’s 1996 release Mr. Happy Go Lucky and think, wow, that’s a great album, and that’s a great song. And it is. What a relatively unknown, underappreciated gem, musically and lyrically: “On the day we met, I began to want you; on the day we met I began to lose you, too.”

21. Van Morrison, Hymns To The Silence . . . Lengthy title cut, a shade under 10 mnutes, from Van The Man’s 1991 album. A brilliant artist on so many levels, he’s very good at long songs, always compelling, never boring, seemingly shorter than their actual length because time passes quickly listening to them.

22. The Rolling Stones, Goin’ Home . . . From Aftermath, the fine 1966 album which, for the first time, featured no cover tunes, all songs by Mick Jagger and Keith Richards as the band continued to blossom creatively. Going Home is perhaps an atypical Stones’ track, certainly in terms of length. At 11 ½ minutes, it was, at the time, the longest studio track ever released by a major rock band. And, on that note, I am goin’ home.

1. Pink Floyd, Welcome To The Machine . . This song, and much of the Wish You Were Here album, particularly Have A Cigar, is about record company BS but it could also be taken in a dystopian sense which, by titles at least, my first few selections tonight represent although as always there are stories, inspirations and motivations behind playing them.

2. Yes, Machine Messiah . . . This came up by word association while searching Welcome To The Machine. So, while I’ve played it fairly recently but not too recently, I thought what the heck, it fits the early theme of the show in both a prog rock, lyrical and song title sense. It’s from the sort of outlier Drama album by Yes, 1980, when singer Jon Anderson and keyboardist Rick Wakeman had left the band and in came singer Trevor Horn and keyboardist Geoff Downes from The Buggles and Video Killed The Radio Star fame. It seemed a bizarre addition but then out came Drama, leading off with this epic and it was like relax, Yes fans, we’re still prog rock and . . . perhaps even a bit metallic. Cool cut from one of my favorite Yes albums.

3. Genesis, The Colony of Slippermen . . . Any time I listen to or hear anything from The Lamb Lies Down On Broadway album I inevitably think of an old and still, from afar, buddy of mine, Gerry. He loved and still (I think) loves Genesis and would always wax rapturously about the album, starting by saying simply, “The Lamb…” and then getting into whatever point he was making. He follows the show, much appreciated. This one’s for you, friend. I like it, too.
   
4. Soft Machine, Chloe and The Pirates . . . Chloe is stuck with pirates on the colony of slippermen. No, I don’t know that, just felt like connecting the two and who knows what Chloe is or was thinking and doing? Nobody is talking because by this point, Soft Machine was an instrumental jazz progressive rock band.
   
5. Rush, Cygnus X-1 . . . From likely my favorite Rush album, A Farewell To Kings, all things considered. It’s the one I grew up with, know best and play most often although as with any great band, the catalog is deep and worthwhile listening throughout, even some of the mid- to late 80s synthesizer-dominated stuff, to a point. Playing this song tonight resulted from an auto correct typo. I was texting with one of my boys on Saturday evening and one word in whatever it was I said became Cygnus and I didn’t notice it before sending. So, I quickly recouped, blamed auto correct (not my poor editing skills), mentioned it was a Rush song, or at least part of one, and so here we are. Cygnus X-1 is, as many know, a black hole in the constellation Cygnus. Many bands write about sex, drugs and rock and roll. Rush writes about black holes which I suppose could be taken sexually. In fact, I remember although never saw the 1979 movie The Black Hole, which one of my buddies at the time in college referenced with respect to another friend’s girlfriend and, well, I better shut up now especially given the often ‘cancel culture’ nature of society these days. It’s a joke, people! As for Rush, Cygnus X-1 is part one of a two-parter. Full title Cygnus X-1 Book I: The Voyage, it was the last song on A Farewell To Kings. On the next album, Hemispheres, they completed the epic by opening with Cygnus X-1 Book II: Hemispheres. Yeah, I know, perhaps I should have paired them today but I did that long ago and, well, just didn’t feel like it but perhaps a revisit is in order on some future full-blown prog rock show. Wonder what might have happened if, after Book I, the band broke up after promising a Book II? Well, it didn’t happen but it’s like when (Van Halen Best of Volume I comes to mind) a band releases a ‘volume I” compilation album but, due to breakup, whatever, there’s never a Volume II. I wouldn’t risk the possible bad karma, but that’s me. Anyway, Rush of course survived until retirement.
   
6. FM, Black Noise . . . From the Canadian band from which Nash The Slash came. Great track. Love the instrumental transition then heavy into the bass around the seven-minute mark of the 10-minute epic. But that’s prog rock for you, and a great thing.
   
7. King Crimson, Moonchild . . . From the ridiculously brilliant debut album, 1969, In The Court Of The Crimson King. Still and forever, although I like all their stuff, my favorite King Crimson album.

8. Joe Walsh, Decades . . . We depart from the prog theme of the first seven songs, although this is still prog-ish, in length at least, at 12 minutes. I wanted to play something from the sometimes almost deliberate but not necessarily true goofball persona that is Joe Walsh and here he, the apparent forever joker, comes with serious shit. It’s Walsh’s overview observations, sometimes autobiographical, decade by decade, of humanity’s various exercises in nonsense, mostly war, over the century of the 1900s. Worthwhile reading of the lyrics, even if you’re not into the music. From his 1992 album Songs For A Dying Planet. It bombed commercially, interestingly enough, since he mentions the A-bomb in this song’s lyrics.
   
9. The Rolling Stones, 2000 Man . . . Walsh’s album came out before the 20^th century was out, so I’m having the Stones fill in the blanks up to 2000, so to speak, by title, in this somewhat prescient tale from 1967 and the Satanic Majesties album. “Well my name is a number a piece of plastic film . . . ” “I’m having an affair with the random computer.” Etc. Kiss covered 2000 Man on their Dynasty album, released in 1979 and containing their disco-ish hit I Was Made For Lovin’ You which, and I’m not a Kiss fan, to me is a brilliant track although it naturally confused and split their fan base.

10. Deep Purple, Flight Of The Rat . . . Propulsive rocker from In Rock, the brilliant first album (and fourth overall under the Deep Purple moniker) released in 1970 by the Mk. II and most famous and successful version of the band: Ian Gillan (vocals); Ritchie Blackmore (guitar); Roger Glover (bass); Ian Paice (drums); Jon Lord (keyboards).

11. Led Zeppelin, Four Sticks . . . From Zep IV, the one with the overplayed (albeit great) Stairway To Heaven on it. Hypnotic stuff.

12. Saga, The Security Of Illusion . . . From the Canadian prog rockers, and they’re from my hometown of Oakville, Ontario, too. Nice lyrics. Sort of fit, or could be applied to, my concluding two tracks from Jethro Tull and Ian Anderson’s diatribes against organized religion. As a recovering Catholic long distanced from the church or any organzied religion, I approve of such diatribes. There is faith, especially in oneself, there is spirituality. Religion and especially religious dogma are irrelevant societal/business constructs.

13. Jethro Tull, My God . . . I blew my then age 9 or 10 elder son’s mind playing this track from Aqualung for him one night. To that point, he had only heard or been into Tull’s best-known songs/hits. So, we laid on the floor, between two speakers, and just let it wash over us. He popped up and said “dad, holy shit.” About the lyrics. And the music. Later on, as he was learning/becoming expert on guitar, we did the same between the headphones thing one night listening to the live version of the Stones’ Sympathy For The Devil, from Get Yer Ya Ya’s Out as my son so wonderfully explained the separation in a great guitar tandem (Keith Richards and Mick Taylor then) between rhythm and lead playing as so well exemplified on that Stones track where first Richards, with a brilliant solo, then Taylor to finish up, are out of this world.

14. Jethro Tull, Wind Up . . . Another perfect title to end a show and, while I usually, unless I’m doing a themed show, don’t play two in a row from a band, I’ve always seen My God and Wind Up, also from Aqualung, as lyrically connected although they are separated by other songs on the album.

Here, there and everywhere we go with the Fab Four. My Beatles’ listening habits tend to focus on the Rubber Soul album forward, Rubber Soul being the first of the band’s studio albums I ever heard, upon release in 1965 via my older sister’s collection. But in putting together today’s show, I found myself rediscovering albums I like a lot but seem to play less often, like the UK version of Help! and, in particular 1963’s With The Beatles from which I drew Please Mr. Postman, You Really Got A Hold On Me, Not A Second Time and the relatively obscure gem Don’t Bother Me. Don’t Bother Me was George Harrison’s first credited composition on a Beatles’ disc. I hadn’t heard it in ages but, as with many relatively obscure Beatles’ tunes, my reaction was “oh,  I remember this.”

Great stuff from an amazing band, particularly when one considers how these are deeper cuts yet because it’s The Beatles, many of the songs are as well known as their big hit singles. Like, for instance,  the slowed down White Album version of Revolution 1, coupled with the wacky weirdness of Revolution 9. Numbah 9…Numbah 9…on with the show which, as is often my wont, in several spots tells interconnected tales via song titles and lyrics within.

1. Good Morning Good Morning
2. I’m Only Sleeping
3. I’m So Tired
4. The Night Before
5. Dizzy Miss Lizzie
6. Getting Better
7. And Your Bird Can Sing
8. Blackbird
9. Hey Bulldog
10. Everybody’s Got Something To Hide Except Me And My Monkey
11. Fixing A Hole
12. Being For The Benefit Of Mr. Kite
13. Please Mr. Postman
14. Dear Prudence
15. For You Blue
16. Girl
17. I’m Looking Through You
18. Not A Second Time
19. Cry Baby Cry
20. Oh! Darling
21. You’ve Got To Hide Your Love Away
22. You Won’t See Me
23. Lovely Rita
24. Wait
25. I Want You (She’s So Heavy)
26. You Really Got A Hold On Me
27. Why Don’t We Do It In The Road?
28. When I’m Sixty-Four
29. Dig It
30. The Word
31. Happiness Is A Warm Gun
32. Don’t Bother Me
33. Think For Yourself
34. She Said She Said
35. Tomorrow Never Knows
36. Glass Onion
37. Rain
38. Revolution 1
39. Revolution 9
40. Long, Long, Long
41. The End

1. Five Man Electrical Band, We Play Rock ‘N Roll . . . And the sign said the band known mostly for that great song, Signs, did a lot of other good stuff. Like this one, cliché band making music lyrics aside.

2. Jethro Tull, When Jesus Came To Play . . . 1991’s Catfish Rising album, from which I pulled this typically hilariously cynical Ian Anderson-penned cut, seems to get short shrift, even from Tull fans of which I am a big one. Not sure why, except for the reality that everyone hears things differently and that’s cool. It’s one of my favorite Tull albums – good hard rocking bluesy stuff for the most part full of great songs like Rocks On The Road, Roll Your Own, this one and many others.

3. Doug and The Slugs, Thunder Makes The Noise . . . The tyranny of too many choices ruling our lives but particularly our TV and internet packages and indeed home entertainment options these days means, unless we’re disciplined, that we often don’t get to or, hell, don’t even know all that’s available to us. Like, for me, The Documentary Channel in my TV package I only recently discovered I have but then I’m not a huge TV or for that matter streaming service consumer. I just have what I have, mostly for sports channels, then find that things like The Documentary Channel come with it. All of which is my usual stream of consciousness way of saying that I recently noticed, and recorded, a documentary on Doug and The Slugs, which prompted me playing the band today. Have I watched the doc yet? Of course not. It’s in my ‘to watch’ list along with books, etc. I’ll get to it, eventually, but definitely sooner than later. I saw the Slugs in 1979 in a bar in Oakville, Ontario thanks to a girl I was dating at the time during my college days, before most people knew of the band.

4. Fleetwood Mac, One Sunny Day . . . Need I tell you the story again of my older brother bringing home the Then Play On album and how much of a great musical influence he was on me? Anyway, another from that terrific album, the last of the Peter Green era.

    

5. The Rolling Stones, Loving Cup . . . This was one of mine when a Twitter music aficionado acquaintance last week asked people to name four favorite tracks from Exile On Main Street. I did add the point that, favorites are, really, each of the 18 songs on arguably the Stones’ best album, and likely my favorite album of theirs although so difficult to pick.

6. Murray McLauchlan, Playin’ Your Emotions . . . He’s obviously well known to people of a certain vintage but the breadth of McLauchlan’s songwriting and musical talent is truly revealed by the 2-CD Songs From The Street compilation, also available online, that came out several years ago and was an important release for those who still like physical product, since many of his albums have gone out of print, alas.

7. The Lovin’ Spoonful, Darlin’ Companion . . . I first heard this song, written by the Spoonful’s John Sebastian, via Johnny Cash covering it in a duet with his wife, June Carter Cash, on my dad’s Johnny Cash At San Quentin live album. Sebastian later wrote Welcome Back, the theme song to the 1970s sitcom Welcome Back, Kotter along with of course the big Spoonful hits Do You Believe In Magic and Summer In The City, the latter co-written with his brother Mark and Spoonful bandmate Steve Boone.

    

8. Elton John, Blues For Baby And Me . . . Sometimes credited as Blues For My Baby And Me. Either way, another great early to mid-1970s EJ song, a time when everything he touched turned to gold. Or platinum. Multiple times. This one’s from the Don’t Shoot Me I’m Only The Piano Player album.

    

9. Bob Dylan, Love Sick . . . The joy of having fellow music aficionado friends: You get texts like this, out of the blue: “When was the last time you listened to Time Out Of Mind straight through? Highly recommended for someone in need of something making sense. Just finished! Two bourbons and phew, peace for a minute.” It’s been a while, for me, listening to Dylan’s brilliant 1997 album, front to back but I will again soon, thanks to my friend’s text. And I promised him I’d play something from it today, inspired by his message and reminder of the record. Love Sick, the opening song on the Time Out Of Mind album, was released as a single but as is often now typical for classic rock artists, didn’t chart that I’m aware of and in fact made a list of ‘greatest Dylan songs that aren’t the greatest hits.” It’s pretty great, to me. But then I’m a huge fan and admire and like all his work. And I do mean all of it, even those songs that might be considered by some to be outlier failures, like some of his Christian period material for instance.

10. Meat Loaf, Life Is A Lemon and I Want My Money Back . . . Arguably a guilty pleasure for me, Meat Loaf. Just so over the top and bombastic, it’s great. Plus, sometimes, one can’t help but agree with the song title. This comes from the second Bat Out Of Hell album, Bat Out Of Hell II: Back Into Hell, released in 1993. It was almost as good as the first blockbuster, released in 1977. The third and last in the series, Bat Out Of Hell III: The Monster Is Loose, came out in 2006. It wasn’t as successful but it did spawn a tour which yielded a great DVD, 3 Bats Live, taken from a London, Ontario show from that trek. Great show, during which Meat Loaf did justice to the Stones’ Gimme Shelter in a closing concert assault of covers that also featured Black Betty and Mercury Blues. I confess that, while I own a Meat Loaf 2-CD compilation that covers some of his other stuff, all I ever really listen to are the first two Bat Out Of Hell albums. And speaking of Meat Loaf DVDs, also well worth seeking out or finding online is The Original Tour, a 1978 German Rockpalast show from the original Bat Out Of Hell tour.

11. Van Morrison, T.B. Sheets . . . I think this is one of Van The Man’s best but of course they are so many, this one being yet another of those where his voice is an amazing instrument in itself. A dark tale about tuberculosis, I can’t do justice to analyzing it but it is worth reading the Wikepedia entry on it which delves into various reactions to and interpretations of it.

12. Eric Burdon and War, Blues For Memphis Slim . . . Extended, 13-minute piece of jazzy funk blues including the “Mother Earth’ segments noting the truism of men (and some women) coming out of somewhere then spending the rest of their lives trying to get back in. Burdon and War were an amazing combination over the three studio albums they did together.

13. Jon Lord with The Hoochie Coochie Men and Jimmy Barnes, 12 Bar Blow Jam (live) . . . The late great Deep Purple keyboardist at the helm for this kick ass jam from the Live At The Basement album, recorded in Australia and released in 2004.

14. John Mayall/Bluesbreakers, Ain’t No Brakeman . . . I was playing a 1990s period Mayall compilation, from his days on the Silvertone label, in the car last week. This came up, so in it goes, on the show. Originally on 1995’s Spinning Coin album.

15. Stephen Stills, Johnny’s Garden . . . Amazingly, this was not a single from the Manassas album, released in 1972. It’s well-known though, and rightly so.

16. Bloomfield/Kooper/Stills, His Holy Modal Majesty . . . Speaking of Stills, he’s credited on the overall Super Session album project but didn’t play on this tribute to John Coltrane. It’s Mike Bloomfield on guitar, before he left the sessions claiming he was having issues sleeping. So Al Kooper, who was running the show, called Stills in for the songs – including a great, extended cover of Donovan’s Season Of The Witch – that appeared on side 2 of the original vinyl album release.
    
17. The Moody Blues, English Sunset . . . I’m not typically fond of synthesizer-driven tracks but I do like this up tempo one from the 1990 Strange Times album, which barely scraped into the Top 100. English Sunset, the opening cut on the album, was the only single. It didn’t chart.

     

18. Love, You Set The Scene . . . From the the Forever Changes album, Love starts us down the scenic route (you’ll see) to close the show.

19. Billy Joel, Scenes From An Italian Restaurant . . . From the blockbuster The Stranger album. Interestingly, his record company was close to dropping Joel before he produced arguably his finest work and a deserved hit album commercially and creatively. Not a single although a well-known and popular Joel track. As for the wine of which he speaks, I started with whites but once I took a chance and realized it didn’t trigger my migraine headaches, moved to reds. And, thankfully, the migraines have faded to almost never having them, as I’ve aged. Must be the red wine. Who knew?

20. Bob Seger, The Famous Final Scene . . . Haven’t played Seger in a while. This is a studio cut from Stranger In Town but occurs to me in playing it that I meant to include something from Seger’s Live Bullet on last Saturday’s all live albums show, but I forgot amid the various other tracks. So many great songs, so little time, even with now two, two-hour shows for me each week. I’m sure I’ll get to Live Bullet again, either independently or on another live albums show somewhere down the line.

1. Paul McCartney and Wings, Venus and Mars/Rock Show/Jet (from Wings Over America)
2. Paul McCartney and Wings, Beware My Love (Wings Over America)
3. The J. Geils Band, (Ain’t Nothin’ But A) House Party (Blow Your Face Out)
4. Blue Oyster Cult, Dominance and Submission (Extraterrestrial Live)
5. The Rolling Stones, Dance Little Sister (El Mocambo 1977)
6. Ted Nugent, Yank Me Crank Me (Double Live Gonzo!)
7. Roxy Music, In Every Dream Home A Heartache (Viva! Roxy Music)
8. Lynyrd Skynyrd, Searching (One More From The Road)
9. Peter Tosh, Coming In Hot (Captured Live)
10. Bob Marley & The Wailers, War/No More Trouble (Babylon By Bus)
11. Eric Clapton, Driftin’ Blues (E.C. Was Here)
12. The Guess Who, Pain Train (Live At The Paramount)
13. Rory Gallagher, Too Much Alcohol (Irish Tour ’74)
14. The Allman Brothers Band, Instrumental Illness (One Way Out)
15. Yes, Close To The Edge (Yesssongs)

1. Ian Hunter, Cleveland Rocks
2. Judas Priest, Ram It Down
3. Black Sabbath, Disturbing The Priest
4. KK’s Priest, Return Of The Sentinel
5. Deep Purple, Pictures Of Home
6. Robert Palmer, Love Stop
7. Trooper, Baby Woncha Please Come Home
8. Blodwyn Pig, Ain’t Ya Comin’ Home, Babe?
9. Stray, Mama’s Coming Home
10. The Doors, Been Down So Long
11. David Bowie, Be My Wife
12. Tom Petty and The Heartbreakers, You Can Still Change Your Mind
13. David + David, Being Alone Together
14. David Wilcox, Between The Lines
15. Carlos Santana and Buddy Miles, Them Changes (live)
16. Stories, Brother Louie
17. Robin Trower, Confessin’ Midnight
18. Van Halen, Can’t Get This Stuff No More
19. Chicago, It Better End Soon suite from Chicago II/movements 1-4 plus Where Do We Go From Here?
20. Sea Level, That’s Your Secret
21. New Barbarians (Ron Wood/Keith Richards and friends), F.U.C. Her (live)
22. The Rolling Stones, Please Go Home
23. Tom Waits, Earth Died Screaming

1. Maria Muldaur, I’m A Woman . . . Perfect song to kick off my all-woman lead vocals show (with one sneaky exception you’ll see, coming up). Muldaur is argualby best known for her 1973 hit, Midnight at the Oasis, from her first, self-titled album but in many ways that song isn’t representative of some of her bluesier, swampy style stuff she once termed “bluesiana’ – a combination of blues and Louisiana good-time music. I’m A Woman, once done by Peggy Lee, is from her second album, Waitress In A Donut Shop.

2. Koko Taylor, I’m A Woman . . . Not the same song as the Muldaur track. This one is blues belter Taylor’s reinterpretation, lyrically, from a woman’s point of view, of the Muddy Waters/Bo Diddley/Mel London-penned Mannish Boy. Da na na na num, boom de boom.

3. Pretenders, Stop Your Sobbing . . . A cover of the Ray Davies-written Kinks’ tune, which led to a relationship between Pretenders’ frontwoman Chrissie Hynde and Davies. The song appeared on the Kinks’ first album in 1964 and the Pretenders’ debut in 1979. It’s one of those few instances where I prefer the cover version and I’m a huge Kinks fan. It’s not markedly different, just sounds better to me, perhaps due to more advanced sound and production techniques. The Kinks’ version on their live One For The Road album kicks better butt given it was done later, on their tour promoting the 1979 major comeback Low Budget album.

4. Bonnie Raitt, Spit Of Love . . . Raitt’s albums are usually heavy on covers of songs by great writers like John Hiatt but she wrote this nice groove tune, from her 1998 album Fundamental.

5. Linda Ronstadt, Mental Revenge . . . A Mel Tillis song from her 1970 album Silk Purse. Early stuff. Very country, more so, arguably, than Tillis’s own version. Like Raitt, to an even greater degree Ronstadt was more an interpreter, and a great one, of songs written by others, than a writer herself. That’s not meant as a criticism by any stretch. There have been many artists – Elvis Presley for one – who didn’t write much of their own material although in Elvis’s case, he might have written but it was more a matter of that’s how the industry worked then; writers and performers were often separate. And in any behind-the-scenes looks at Elvis recording, it’s apparent he’s in command of the sessions so it’s not as if he and those like him were just voices for other people’s words. In Ronstadt’s case, there’s lots to be said for an artist’s ability to select great material to cover and she once said that some of the favorites among the songs she sang were not her hits, but deeper cuts. Like this one. Sadly, I had to say Ronstadt ‘was’ more an interpreter because she’s long since retired – her amazing and versatile voice has been silenced by progressive supranuclear palsy, a degenerative disease affecting the brain. Her wonderful career, including her sad decline, is well covered in the excellent documentary, The Sound of My Voice. A must watch for any music fan.

6. Pat Benatar, Rated X . . . Likely my favorite Benatar tune from my favorite album of hers, the debut In The Heat Of The Night, 1979. Rated X, surprisingly to me not on any compilation Benatar has released, was the first song I heard from the album and hence the first Benatar I ever heard, back when commerical rock radio dug a little deeper, because the song was only released as a single in France where it made No. 30. Written and also performed by England-born, Vancouver-raised Nick Gilder of Sweeney Todd and solo fame.

7. Keith Richards/Norah Jones, Illusion . . . Here’s my sneaky exception to the all-woman show theme, although there are occasional male voices on other songs in the set, via backing vocals. But no outright duets like this one with Jones from Richards’ most recent solo album, Crosseyed Heart, released in 2015. I play something from my favorite band, the Stones or Stones-related (what I call Stones, Inc.) material every Monday on my other show. And while I don’t intend to do that on this still-new Saturday gig (although I do plan to do a solo Stones show at some point along with solo Beatles, etc.), I wanted to play something from Jones and, well, this came up first in the computer when I was searching Heart tracks. Later, I saw other Norah stuff but, by then I was set so . . .

8. Marianne Faithfull, Guilt . . . Another from Stones, Inc. I suppose one could say, Faithfull of course once having been involved with Mick Jagger. From her brilliant Broken English album.

9. Fleetwood Mac, Storms . . . Stevie Nicks wrote and sang this one, from 1979’s Tusk album. Some people, critics included, were perplexed by the double album given the immediacy and more commercial appeal of the two records – the self-titled so-called white album and Rumours – that preceded Tusk but like so many doublt albums, it’s full of gems that reward repeat listens.

10. Alannah Myles, Rockinghorse . . . Myles had the massive hit with Black Velvet, from her debut album, along with several other big singles but this title cut from her second album, while not released as a single, remains one of my favorites of hers.

11. Sass Jordan, Ugly . . . Kick butt rocker from the Rats album. George Clinton of Parliament/Funkadelic fame is credited with ‘talking, backing vocals’ on the record and I’m pretty sure that’s him yakking on the intro and outro although there’s other guys playing instruments and providing backup singing on the track. Jordan has entered the covers album industry and that’s a good thing. She’s released two blues covers albums since 2020, the latest coming out in June of 2022. Rebel Moon Blues and Bitches Blues are terrific albums and unsurprisingly so, given Jordan’s throaty, seductive voice. It’s made for deep blues.

12. Jefferson Airplane, Greasy Heart . . . One of the great examples, to me, of Grace Slick’s singing. Viciously aggressive I’d call it, over top of great rhythm guitar work by Martin Balin and Paul Kantner. Jorma Kaukonen provides the lead guitar theatrics.

13. Janis Joplin, Half Moon . . . From Pearl, her final album, released in January of 1971, three months after Joplin died. Track for track, it’s her best, in my opinion but it’s the one I know best since I grew up with it thanks to my older sister playing the shit out of it and why wouldn’t she? It’s a great album. I had great sibling role models for my music in my older sister and brother, who I’ve often mentioned.

14. Bobbie Gentry, Apartment 21 . . . I’ve said it enough whenever I play her but it bears repeating for those who only know Gentry for her big hit, Ode To Billie Joe. I strongly suggest digging deeper. Great artist, one of the first women who wrote and produced much of her own material. She quit the music industry in the late 1970s, having had enough. I find that kinda cool. I’ve done it, I’m done, kind of thing. I like nonconformists, being one myself and it’s not contrived, it’s just one’s nature. She last performed publicly in 1981 and last appeared in public at the Academy of Country Music Awards in 1982 after which she essentially disappeared off the face of the earth. Now 80, presuming she’s still around, she lives in a gated community near Memphis, Tennessee, according to some reports. Or, according to other reports, she’s in Los Angeles.

     

15. Heart, Bebe Le Strange . . . Title cut rocker from the band’s 1980 album. It was released as a single but, ridiculously, didn’t make the top 100 on Billboard, the first Heart single not to achieve that status.

16. The Mamas & The Papas, Dream A Little Dream Of Me . . . Mama Cass, Cass Elliott, takes lead vocals on this standard that dates to 1931. John Phillips, prime papa, says so at the beginning of the song. And I trust him.

17. Melissa Etheridge, Refugee . . . Yes, it’s the Tom Petty song, done semi-acoustically, at least to start things off. It was a ‘new’ track on Etheridge’s 2005 greatest hits album. Nice version.

18. Martha and The Muffins/M + M, Obedience . . . This is an outlier among the more rock and blues-oriented sound of this set, a new wave, techno Talking Heads-type track from 1983’s Danseparc album, issued during the band’s brief and ultimately unsuccessful attempt to rebrand as M + M. The evolution of the band’s name is interesting reading. Originally, Martha and The Muffins was supposed to be a temporary name, but the name stuck, thanks in large measure to the band’s first and best-known hit, Echo Beach.

19. Patti Smith, Soul Kitchen . . . Cover of the Doors’ song, from the excellent all-covers album, Twelve, which I often mine for my shows if and when I play Patti.

20. Nina Simone, Wild Is The Wind . . . Great song, amazing voice. Thanks to David Bowie for introducing me to it via his version that appeared on the 1976 album Station To Station. Johnny Mathis also did it.

21. Willie Mae “Big Mama” Thornton, Hound Dog . . . Made famous in the mainstream by Elvis Presley, this is the original version of the Jerry Leiber-Mike Stoller track, recorded by Thornton in 1952 and released in 1953 and a big hit for her on the blues and R & B charts. Elvis followed it in 1956.

22. Joni Mitchell, The Wolf That Lives In Lindsey . . . Terrific experimental track from Mingus, the 1979 album Mitchell recorded with jazz legend Charles Mingus, his final musical project, recorded in the months before he died. Other jazz and jazz-fusion luminaries on the album are bassist Jaco Pastorius, sax player Wayne Shorter and pianist Herbie Hancock.

23. Blackmore’s Night, Fires At Midnight . . . From former Deep Purple founding guitarist Ritchie Blackmore’s folk, rock and medieval rock project in collaboration with his wife and lead vocalist, Candice Night.

24. Fairport Convention, Who Knows Where The Time Goes . . . Where does it go, indeed? The wonderful voice of the late great Sandy Denny, who also wrote the song, searches for answers. Led Zeppelin fans likely cottoned to her via her shared vocals with Robert Plant on The Battle of Evermore, from Zep IV.

25. Joan Baez, Simple Twist Of Fate . . . Baez covers one of her former flame’s tunes. I love how Baez, starting at the 2:24 mark for 25 seconds, sounds almost exactly like Bob Dylan. Maybe it is him. Good sense of humor, Joan.

26. Billie Holiday, Let’s Call The Whole Thing Off . . . I played Billie’s Ain’t Nobody’s Business If I Do on my Monday show last week. It came down to a choice between that song and this one, so I pushed this to Saturday, knowing I’d be doing a women’s artist show.

27. Dinah Washington, Baby Get Lost . . . All right, I’m leaving soon. Calm down, Dinah, alhough you’re sexy when you’re angry. Be happy you had a No. 1 R & B hit with this in 1949. I wasn’t even around then, so gimme a break; you’re obviously mistaking me for someone else. I showed up on the planet 10 years later.

28. Blondie, Fade Away and Radiate . . . From Parallel Lines, the 1979 album that broke Blondie big with hits like Heart of Glass, Hanging On The Telephone and One Way Or Another. This has a much different vibe than those songs, almost progressive rock in spots, and one of my favorite Blondie tracks.

1. R.E.M., Radio Song . . . Fun ditty spoofing radio was the fourth single from Out of Time, the band’s blockbuster 1991 album that featured the big hit single Losing My Religion. Radio Song was a minor hit everywhere and did make No. 5 in Ireland. The ‘hey hey hey’ refrain, as I remember it, was a bit of a shot at The Rolling Stones’ Satisfaction or, at least, classic rock radio playing the same songs by the same bands over and over again – which is exactly why I started this deep cuts show long ago.

2. Ian Dury, Dance Little Rude Boy . . . So much music, so little time that sometimes, one discovers ‘new’ music among stuff you already own but have never made the time to fully go through, or listen to very much. Such is the case for an Ian Dury compilation I own, The Very Best of Ian Dury & The Blockheads – Reasons To Be Cheerful. I own his early studio albums like New Boots and Panties!! but picked up the compilation some years ago to fill in the blanks, so to speak. And, on that compilation, up pop a few cool cuts, like this one, from his final, posthumous album, Ten More Turnips for the Tip.

3. The Rolling Stones, Suck On The Jugular . . . I almost played this funk tune from the Voodoo Lounge album last week but settled on Sparks Will Fly to open the show. But I kept it in mind so, sticking with the same album for my weekly Stones’ cut, here it is.

    

4. The Paul Butterfield Blues Band, Blind Leading The Blind . . . Bluesy, funky, horn-drenched catchy tune from the final album, Sometimes I Just Feel Like Smilin’, under the Butterfield Blues Band moniker, before he formed Paul Butterfield’s Better Days.

5. Roxy Music, The Space Between . . . An old work colleague of mine swears by the Avalon album, with good reason. So when I decided to get back to a Roxy Music cut this week, to that album I went. It’s an intoxicating listen, track for track.

6. Blue Cheer, Fruit And Icebergs . . . Somewhat spooky psychedelic hard rock from the band’s third album, New! Improved! Released in 1969, it’s a hybrid album in that the two sides of the original vinyl release were recorded by two different band lineups. Side two, including this track, features the writing and playing of new guitarist Randy Holden, who replaced original axeman Leigh Stephens.

7. Bad Company, Electricland . . . The only single from the original lineup’s final pre-breakup studio album, 1982’s Rough Diamonds. There’s been various reunions since for live work but it remains the last studio work with Paul Rodgers on lead vocals. The album and single were among the worst performing, commercially speaking, for the band. Good tune, though.

8. Dire Straits, Once Upon A Time In The West . . . I had a plan in mind to pair this with R.E.M.’s How The West Was Won And Where It Got Us and perhaps should have. But, best laid plans fell apart when I decided to open with R.E.M.’s Radio Song. I suppose I could have played two R.E.M. songs, and considered that, but I tend not to have a one-band, one-song policy. Enough of my mental, retrospective, gymnastics. Next tune . . .

9. The Monkees, Mary, Mary . . . Another great Mike Nesmith-penned Monkees song. The Butterfield Blues Band, who I played earlier in the set, covered it on their second album, East-West, released in 1966.

10. Billie Holiday, Ain’t Nobody’s Business If I Do . . . What a singer the lady was. And I agree with her sentiments as expressed in the title and lyrics.

11. Marvin Gaye, Inner City Blues (Make Me Wanna Holler) . . . As we now enter the ‘message’ song segment of tonight’s set. Just listen to the lyrics of the next few songs. I was inspired to play Gaye in perhaps a surprising way: Members of a nostalgia football group I’m in on Facebook were discussing Lem Barney, a defensive back for the Detroit Lions of the 1960s and 70s and someone asked, ‘wasn’t he one of the voices on Marvin Gaye’s song What’s Going On?” Yes, he was, along with his teammate Mel Farr. So, I dug up my What’s Going On album, and here we are.

12. Stevie Wonder, Black Man . . . Not sure what to say so I’ll keep it short. Wonder is a, er, wonder. Musical genius.

13. Queen, White Man . . . I played this fairly recently if I recall correctly and too lazy to look it up. But it fits with the ‘message’ theme, lyrically. Musically, a terrific cut from A Day At The Races, 1976.

14. Joe Jackson, Battleground . . . JJ likely would never get away with the lyrics to this song, from 1980’s Beat Crazy, in today’s so-called cancel culture. But again, there’s a message beyond superficial assessments.

15. Peter Tosh, Babylon Queendom . . . One of those tunes I came upon, as often happens, when I go searching for one band (Queen) in our station computer that’s filled with so many downloads from my personal collection I ought to be getting royalties. An outtake from the Equal Rights album, it later appeared on expanded re-releases of that record.

16. Golden Earring, Vanilla Queen . . . Another from the Queen (band) search. It’s like throwing darts and often works for me at least some of the time. Killer cut from the band’s most well-known album (and rightly so), Moontan.

17. Screaming Trees, Alice Said . . . From the Seattle sound of things. Screaming Trees never seemed to get the hype of other such bands like Nirvana, Pearl Jam, Soundgarden and Alice in Chains but there’s lots of great stuff in their catalog. Good riff rocker.

18. Neil Young, Hangin’ On A Limb . . . Beautiful song from Young’s 1989 album Freedom. That’s Linda Ronstadt helping Neil out on vocals.

19. Free, Be My Friend . . . Another beauty, from the great if relatively unheralded band Paul Rodgers was in before Bad Company. Free is/was so much more than All Right Now, which is all one ever hears on commercial rock radio.

20. Patti Smith Group, Privilege (Set Me Free) . . . Interesting how one gets into bands/artists. I was a doorman in a bar, working my way through college. A covers band we had in one weekend played Because The Night, co-written by Smith and Bruce Springsteen. So I went out and bought her Easter album, from which this song comes. And the rest, as the saying goes, is history.

21. The Beatles, Because . . . One of those songs that, as a kid, was perhaps one of my least favorite from Abbey Road, as was the case with Within You Without You from Sgt. Pepper. Slow, boring, whatever. Then you start growing up, and things change.

     

22. The Byrds, Tiffany Queen . . . Yup, from that Queen search mentioned earlier. See what I mean, though? Throw darts at the board and…great little pop rocker from the later version of the band featuring the late great innovative and influential guitarist Clarence White.

23. Gillan and Glover, I Can’t Dance To That . . . From one of the many branches of Deep Purple, Inc. This rocker appeared on Accidentally on Purpose, released by Purple singer Ian Gillan and bassist Roger Glover in 1988. Well worth a listen. Dr. John (piano) and session ace Andy Newmark (drums) are the ‘name’ musician friends lending a hand. Ira Siegel and Nick Maroch aren’t household names but shine on guitars.

24. ZZ Top, 2000 Blues . . . The band was still immersed in its big commercial success synthesizer sound by 1990’s Recycler album, but a return to their blues roots was obviously brewing.

25. Gov’t Mule, I Shall Return . . . And I shall return – Saturday with my new So Old It’s New ‘2’ show, from 7-9 am ET and my regular Monday 8-10 pm ET gig.

1. Are You Ready (Brian Johnson vocals)
2. For Those About To Rock (We Salute You) (Johnson)
3. If You Want Blood (You’ve Got It) (Bon Scott vocals)
4. Bad Boy Boogie (Scott)
5. Whole Lotta Rosie (Scott)
6. What Do You Do For Money Honey (Johnson)
7. Soul Stripper (Scott)
8. Let’s Get It Up (Johnson)
9. Go Down (Scott)
10. Givin The Dog A Bone (Johnson)
11. Girls Got Rhythm (Scott)
12. Got You By The Balls (Johnson)
13. Problem Child (Scott)
14. Walk All Over You (Scott)
15. Shot Down In Flames (Scott)
16. Baby Please Don’t Go (Scott)
17. Down Payment Blues (Scott)
18. Hell Ain’t A Bad Place To Be (Scott)
19. Live Wire (Scott)
20. High Voltage (Scott)
21. Jailbreak (Scott)
22. Bedlam In Belgium (Johnson)
23. Night Prowler (Scott)
24. Overdose (Scott)
25. Rock N Roll Damnation (Scott)

So, behold my AC/DC show for Saturday, Oct. 1. Of the 25 studio recordings, 18 are sung by the late Bon Scott, the band’s original lead vocalist, and seven by Brian Johnson, who replaced Scott starting with 1980’s blockbuster Back In Black album. The numbers don’t lean heavily one way because I like Scott’s songs better; I’m a big AC/DC fan and have no preference between the singers. But, in putting the set together I was cognizant of the fact Johnson’s been at the helm vocally for just over 40 years now while Scott was the frontman for about five years before his death so perhaps subconsciously I wanted to favor Bon in terms of volume, since he obviously can’t contribute anymore. So the set just came together as it did. For my own listening pleasure, some years ago I burned seven (!?) CDs of AC/DC material – two discs featuring both singers plus a Bon 1 and 2 and a Brian 1, 2 and 3, from which I drew much of this set. At some point I may do separate shows with each singer, or a set more heavily featuring Johnson-sung material. I couldn’t help but smile while putting it together, given some of the song titles and lyrics, which support what Johnson was once quoted as saying: “We’re a filthy band.”

1. The Rolling Stones, Sparks Will Fly . . . One of those latter day Stones’ songs, from 1994’s Voodoo Lounge album, that perhaps is known only to aficionados of the band but, in another time, might have been a hit single. The whole album is arguably that way. Guitar World magazine, in a retrospective 2014 review, had the record at No. 42 on its ‘Superunknown Top 50 iconic albums that defined 1994’ list which, naturally, featured Soundgarden’s great album Superunknown from that year.

2. Dead Kennedys, Police Truck . . . It’s fun perusing YouTube comments on songs. Two come to mind re this ‘message track’, musically speaking, which could apply to most if not all Dead Kennedy’s songs: “This band has a kinda creepy sound to their music,’ says one observer. “It’s due to the guitar playing. It’s like evil surf rock,” responds another person. Yes.

3. David Bowie, D.J. . . . That’s me, your DJ. A minor hit single, Talking Heads-like, from Bowie/s1979 Lodger album.

4. Talking Heads, Born Under Punches (The Heat Goes On) . . . And here’s they are, from the excellent Remain in Light album, in their style of the time.

5. Sugarloaf, Don’t Call Us, We’ll Call You . . . Little wonder this was a hit single, from two-hit wonders Sugarloaf, the other being Green Eyed Lady. I don’t usually play hit singles on this deep cuts show but, what the hell. Sometimes I do, and after all, It’s So Old It’s New. It came up while searching something else. A nascent Van Halen, I also discovered, did a cover of Don’t Call Us in 1975. That version is available on a bootleg recording on YouTube. David Lee Roth introduces it by saying “I was against doing it when we learned it, but check it out, it’s good.” And it is.

6. Big Sugar, Skull Ring . . . Reggae rock from the Canadian band. Good thing we’re listening to it on the radio, not live, so you can control the volume. Great band, but geez they play too effing loud, or at least did. Saw them once in a club in Toronto, 2004. Good show but my ears were ringing for three days and I was on the verge of seeking treatment, really, before things got back to normal, thankfully. One and done seeing them live, for me, as a result. Yeah, call me an old fart but try them sometime. Don’t say I didn’t warn you. Unnecessarily loud.

    

7. The Police, Shadows In The Rain . . . It was raining, on and off in my town this weekend, perhaps inspiring this terrific track from Zenyatta Mondatta.

8. Fleetwood Mac, Sugar Daddy . . . I came upon this one, written and sung by Christine McVie, in the station computer system while searching Big Sugar songs. It wasn’t a single, but may as well have been given the airplay the band’s self-titled 1975 album justifiably received. It was the first one with Stevie Nicks and Lindsey Buckingham in the band, marked a shift in musical direction, yielded hit singles like Over My Head, Rhiannon and Say You Love Me and two years later came the similar but bigger commercial monster Rumours.

9. Jeff Beck, Head For Backstage Pass . . . To say Jeff Beck is eclectic is, well, it goes without saying. Short, sweet, superb, from his 1976 album Wired, his second straight great instrumental album, Blow By Blow the previous one.

10. Peter Frampton, White Sugar (live) . . . Another one I noticed during the Big Sugar search. Originally on the Frampton’s Camel studio album in 1973, it was played on the tour that yielded the blockbuster breakthrough Frampton Comes Alive in 1976 but didn’t appear on the first issue of that album but was included on subsequent expanded re-releases, beginning with the 25^th anniversary set. It’s interesting how Frampton’s solo studio stuff was not so much ignored as it didn’t do well, commercially, when he came out of Humble Pie but then boom, the live album happened and the rest is history. Same thing happened, to varying degrees, with Kiss and Kiss Alive and Bob Seger and Live Bullet, both of which arguably fueled the double live album trend of the 1970s that Paul McCartney took one full vinyl record further with his triple Wings Over America.

11. Bob Dylan, Man Of Peace . . . Put on your best “how does it fee-el” Bob Dylan voice and sing “you know that sometimes Satan comes as a man of peace.” Yes, evil people do just that and there are many in our midst, always. Great song, great lyrics, from 1983’s Infidels.

12. Electric Light Orchestra, Tightrope . . . Never a single but a well-known cut by ELO. It’s the first song on the 1976 album A New World Record, was played extensively live and to me with its orchestral opening seguing into rock and roll would have been a great concert opener and perhaps it was although I can’t find much evidence of that on the various set list sites. ELO lost me after the 1970s but boy, were they big then. I remember the Out Of The Blue album tour, 1978. Well, not actually, I didn’t go so I wasn’t among the 70,000 or so at Toronto’s Exhibition Stadium. I didn’t like ELO THAT much and, frankly, glad I didn’t because from what I’ve seen they’re kinda boring live. Great studio band and songs, though. And, I have seen the show on YouTube (search Electric Light Orchestra Live in USA 1978) and I remember reading about it. They had a flying saucer stage setup that opened to reveal the band, although you don’t see the saucer on the concert film which tells me whoever posted the video should have prefaced it with Jefferson Airplane’s song Have You Seen The Saucers? But you can’t expect such depth of music knowledge from most people. And besides, a flying saucer opening I don’t think compares to Pink Floyd crashing a model airplane while playing On The Run live.

13. Donovan, Atlantis . . . It’s worth reading about this great song, how the various record company people on either side of the pond debated it as being either an A- or B-side, thinking its spoken-word early part would not resonate. But as often happens, the execs didn’t properly read how the public hears or otherwise accepts things that the so-called experts deem to not be of value. In short, it became a hit, and justifiably so.

14. Flash and The Pan, Atlantis Calling . . . Well, I just had to play this after playing the Donovan track. And, as listeners/followers of the show know, Flash and The Pan remains one of my favorite bands. I won’t drone on, OK maybe just a bit, about how Harry Vanda and George Young, the brains behind the band, produced early AC/DC records, with George Young being the older brother to AC/DC’s Angus and Malcolm Young.

15. Streetheart, Can You Feel It . . . I originally had this rocker pegged for my debut So Old It’s New ‘2” show this past Saturday which featured kick-ass hard-rocking tunes but given the nature of much of what I played, I took it out as not ‘hard’ enough to fit the theme. It could have, still, but anyway I went with a different lineup so here it comes at you tonight.

16. The Yardbirds, A Certain Girl . . . I’ll be honest. I actually prefer Warren Zevon’s cover of this to the Yardbirds’ version but I’ll admit it’s also perhaps a production thing, 1960s to 70s-early 80s achievable sounds, akin to Aerosmith maybe doing a better job on Train Kept A Rollin’ than did the Yardbirds. Then again, the guitar solo just kicked in so dismiss everything I just said and besides, given Clapton was in the Yardbirds, it sets up the next song, which was my intention in the first place.

17. Eric Clapton, Next Time You See Her . . . A Certain Girl…Next Time You See Her…Get it? Oh, shut up, Bald Boy with your silly word play. Always loved this one, from Slowhand which, as I’ve said before when I’ve played stuff from it, is just a brilliant album, excellence personified track for track.

18. Neil Young, Come On Baby Let’s Go Downtown . . . Great song from Tonight’s The Night and another deliberate setup for my next tune.

19. Petula Clark, Downtown . . . I’ve always loved this song and forever will. One of the first songs I remember hearing, in 1964, age 5, along with early Beatles and Rolling Stones songs. Was a hit, of course, and this is a deep cuts show but as my mantra goes, So Old It’s New (with occasional long lost or unknown singles like the Sugarloaf song I played earlier) and to some or many, it may be new. Clark never matched Downtown commercially but she had lots of great stuff like I Know A Place, My Love and many more. Just a great singer, one of those you might listen to beyond Downtown and think, oh, that’s her?

20. John Lee Hooker and Canned Heat, Burning Hell . . . This is the full version, from Hooker N Heat, with about 90 seconds of pre-song dialogue between Hooker and the band, well worth hearing before the typical sort of Hooker shuffle backed the Heat.

21. Canned Heat, Fried Hockey Boogie . . . And here’s the Heat, on their own. Playing it largely because not only do I like Canned Heat but perhaps unbelievably, although it’s believable of course because it’s happening, it’s already hockey season again with teams in camp and pre-season games at all levels being played.

22. Faces, Wicked Messenger . . . Faces do Dylan, from their first album, First Step, after the breakup of The Small Faces, with Rod Stewart and Ron Wood now in the band. Dylan’s song appeared on his 1967 John Wesley Harding album. Another of those tunes that’s worth reading up on, given its Biblical inspirations, that space here does not permit.

23. Tom Waits, Clap Hands . . . I love Tom Waits’ music, which sometimes isn’t even conventional music. Sometimes he reminds me, vocally, of the teacher in the old Charlie Brown cartoons you’d see on TV, wah wah, wah wah wah, wah. Like Dylan sometimes, almost not understandable. Yet great, This song isn’t one of those but I just thought I’d mention it. Not to mention the fact Keith Richards of The Rolling Stones, my favorite band, played on the album from which this comes, Rain Dogs.

24. Van Morrison, Till We Get The Healing Done . . . Maybe a sequel, sounds sort of like one, from his 1979 song I cherish, And The Healing Has Begun from Into The Music but regardless, another brilliant, extended, Van The Man tune. From 1993’s Too Long In Exile album.

25. Lynyrd Skynyrd, Don’t Ask Me No Questions . . . I haven’t played Skynyrd in a while. Wanted to play some. I threw darts at the board because you can’t go wrong with Skynyrd. This hit the bullseye.

26. Pink Floyd, Eclipse . . . I spoke of Pink Floyd and crashing a plane and all that, earlier in tonight’s set. So, here they are. It’s perhaps folly to pull a separate track from an album like The Dark Side Of The Moon because all of the songs flow together in an artistic statement, but so be it. It’s probably, even subconsciously, why thanks to a station slot opening I’ve started my new Saturday morning show (7 to 9 am ET) because not only does it give me two more hours a week to play with but will enable me to not only fit more music in beyond Mondays but do themed shows, full album plays and so on. And The Dark Side Of The Moon is obviously and definitely a full album play candidate. This coming Saturday, Oct. 1, though, I’m leaning towards an AC/DC show split between Brian Johnson and Bon Scott vocals.

1. Murray McLauchlan, Hard Rock Town . . . not the hardest rocking tune, but appropriate to introduce the rest of this week’s ‘wake up the neighbors’ hard rocking show. I plan to get back to full commentaries for this new Saturday show (in addition to my 8-10 pm ET Monday show), next week. 
2. Judas Priest, Delivering The Goods
3. Blue Oyster Cult, Before The Kiss, A Redcap
4. Accept, Balls To The Wall
5. AC/DC, Let Me Put My Love Into You
6. Soundgarden, Birth Ritual
7. Black Sabbath, A National Acrobat
8. Pantera, Drag The Waters
9. Slayer, Dead Skin Mask
10. Queen, Brighton Rock
11. Led Zeppelin, Communication Breakdown
12. Whitesnake, Ain’t Gonna Cry No More
13. Rainbow, Gates Of Babylon
14. Mountain, Back Where I Belong
15. Deep Purple, Bad Attitude
16. The Rolling Stones, Lies
17. Headstones, Hindsight
18. Aerosmith, Nobody’s Fault
19. Pink Floyd, The Nile Song
20. April Wine, 21^st Century Schizoid Man
21. Metallica, The Outlaw Torn
22. Megadeth, Tornado Of Souls
23. The Amboy Dukes, Flight Of The Bird
24. Iron Maiden, Where Eagles Dare

1. Keith Richards, Whip It Up . . . From Richards’ first solo album, Talk Is Cheap, 1988. Solo albums were something Richards previously had said he didn’t want or need to make because he could fulfull his creativity within The Rolling Stones. But, as is well-documented, by the 1980s the relationship between him and Mick Jagger was almost (but thankfully not) irreparably frayed so Richards finally relented, almost in response to Jagger’s debut solo album, She’s The Boss, of the previous year. Mick won the sales battle, Keith that of the critics, many referring to his album as the best Stones album in years. By 1989, they were back together for the Steel Wheels album and tour, the reunion coming with the realization that band members, particularly the two chief songwriters, could do solo work without sinking the mother ship.
2. George Thorogood & The Destroyers, Howlin’ For My Baby . . . Typical Thorogood raunch, from the Haircut album.

3. Styx, Prelude 12/Suite Madame Blue . . . Not a Styx fan, really, one of my younger brothers was major into them during the 1970s and I know and like their hits. But this well-known but arguably deep cut may be my favorite.

4. Garland Jeffreys, 96 Tears . . . Great cover of ? And the Mysterians’ big hit. It prompted me to buy Jeffreys’ Escape Artist album, to further reward.

5. Johnny Winter, Memory Pain . . . I played Edgar last week, so here’s Johnny, this week.
6. Love, Signed D.C. . . . Beautiful song, my favorite by Love, about a harrowing subject, heroin addiction.

7. Aerosmith, The Hop . . . From Done With Mirrors, a relative commercial failure from 1985. It was the last release, and a down and dirty one it was, from Aerosmith before their big comeback, often using outside writers, via such albums as Permanent Vacation, Pump and so on. All good stuff, but I still prefer the earlier material. As someone on a rock show I watched the other day said, the more cleaned up from drugs and booze the boys in Aerosmith became, the worse their music got – at least to those of us more fond of the raunchier stuff.

8. Buckwheat Zydeco, The Wrong Side . . . From Memory Motel: Inside The World Of Keith Richards, a collection of the Rolling Stones’ guitarist’s favorites, from various artists. I have own a Buckwheat compilation but pulled this one from a rock magazine I bought some years ago. It was on one of those promo CDs stuck to the cover. One never knows where one finds music, which is the beauty of it.
9. Pretenders, Bad Boys Get Spanked . . . Pretenders II didn’t have the immediacy, or the hits, of the self-titled debut by the band, but it’s still a solid record, evidenced by this propulsive track. Concrete Blonde, a band I like very much, might have been listening in 1981 when this was released, because Ghost Of A Texas Ladies Man, released in 1992 on their Walking In London album, seems very much influenced by it. 

10. Van Halen, Dirty Movies . . . No bit hits on it aside from Unchained, but Fair Warning might be my favorite Van Halen album, although that’s a dangerous thing to say because, as I often say and believe, the best album or band or artist ever is the one you are listening to right now, if you like it. And I like the deep, dark tone of this record, and this tune.

11. Alice Cooper, Luney Tune . . . I’ve mentioned it before and it’s obvious but nevertheless amazing/crazy how the brain works. Or maybe it’s just me. Somehow or other the other day, while perusing YouTube in watching a music show I like, I happened upon some old Flintstones cartoons – Fred and Barney were bowling – which then got me thinking about old cartoons, like the classic Looney Tunes stuff (Bugs Bunny, Daffy Duck, The Roadrunner, Tweety and Sylvester, etc.). Which then brought me to this deep Luney Tune, different spelling, from the School’s Out album.

12. Patti Smith, Midnight Rider . . . Back to the Twelve album I go. It’s the covers album Smith released in 2007 and well worth checking out. This time, she tackles the great Allman Brothers Band tune.

13. The Allman Brothers Band, Can’t Lose What You Never Had . . . Speaking of which, the Allmans themselves tackle a cover, in this case a Muddy Waters song. It appeared on 1975’s Win, Lose or Draw album.

14. Steppenwolf, Desperation . . . Bleak yet hopeful “think positively’ lyrics set to an appropriately dark arrangement on this one, from Steppenwolf’s debut, 1968. The album gave us Born To Be Wild as well as The Pusher and Sookie Sookie, among others.

15. The Tragically Hip, Bring It All Back . . . Bluesy, raunchy, great guitar on this terrific cut from Road Apples.

16. Fairport Convention, Sloth . . . I’m feeling lazy. I think I’ll listen to Fairport Convention for nine minutes and change.

17. Graham Parker and The Rumour, Empty Lives . . . Great tune, great lyrics including the line ‘on the up escalator going down all the cracks’ that gave its parent album, The Up Escalator its name and was my full blown intro to Parker in 1980, having somehow at first missed the previous breakthrough, Squeezing Out Sparks. Anyway, I quickly caught up, went back and then forward with the then ‘angry young man” but soon enough, he found domestic bliss, the music got worse the happier he became and I lost interest. But, good for him on the home front. I have no idea what he’s up to, at home or on record, since about 1991. That’s when, after several albums I bought by habit and loyalty until I realized I was wasting money, I gave up. He’s still out there, though, and I’m not usually so judgemental so perhaps I should pay an old friend a visit sometime. OK, I just did. Verdict? No. Sorry GP. Cloud Symbols, from 2018, cool album cover but…and you know you’re pretty much done commercially when you redo Squeezing Out Sparks, acoustically, as a 40^th anniversary reissue for 2019. As well, it’s trouble when you can’t even link to any albums on Wikipedia since 1991. I think I’ll stick to my early stuff plus the terrific compilation Passion Is No Ordinary Word: The Graham Parker Anthology, from 1993. I’m not really that down on GP, just having fun because one could say similar things about lots of longtime artists and I do have immense respect for the fact they’re still out there and in many cases still very successful. Just not necessarily for me, anymore. And the stuff they did that I do like is obviously readily available to listen to at any time. “He passed it on” as Keith Richards has said about musicians’ legacies.

18. Robert Plant, Like I’ve Never Been Gone . . . So, it’s two years after John Bonham dies and Led Zeppelin calls it quits and Plant does what one would think would come naturally and kudos to him, he pursues a solo career with a terrific first album, Pictures At Eleven, from which I pulled this song. And more has consistently come, from Plant, up until the present day. Meantime, his partner in songwriting/plagiarizing crime Jimmy Page spends his time trying to get Plant to reunite while dabbling in some semi-successful bands like The Firm and Coverdale-Page while endlessly remastering and reissuing Zep albums. OK, rant over. Next!

19. Aretha Franklin, The Weight . . . Aretha does The Band’s tune, helped by Duane Allman on guitar on one of many sessions he did outside and often before forming The Allman Brothers Band. I’ve mentioned it before but there’s two terrific Duane Allman collections out there – An Anthology and An Anthology 2 – featuring the band’s work but arguably more interestingly, his session stuff. Find them, by however means. You won’t be disappointed.

20. Elvis Costello, Riot Act . . . Speaking of angry young men like Graham Parker who I eventually gave up on. . . Well, as with every artist, we have what they’ve left behind in recorded form. Terrific cut from Get Happy!

21. Bruce Cockburn, What About The Bond . . . I’ve probably played this too recently, but so what? I love the Humans album, arguably Cockburn’s best, and I’ve always liked this track. So, here it is.

22. Warren Zevon, Genius . . . This is a superb song. Lyrically, of course, because Zevon was such a great writer. So much so that sometimes, his lyrics arguably overshadow his music and you need good music to pull people into listening to your lyrics. Mission accomplished here. The late great must have liked the song a lot himself, bccause one of his compilations, released in 2002 a year before his death, was titled Genius: The Best of Warren Zevon. It originally appeared on the studio album, My Ride’s Here, released earlier the same year.

23. The Who, However Much I Booze . . . I was discussing drinking with a friend the other night. This is the result, at least in terms of my set for this show.

24. Joni Mitchell, This Flight Tonight . . . A big hit for Nazareth, of course, so much so that Mitchell took to jokingly introducing it as “a Nazareth song’ when she played it live. It’s one of three examples that come immediately to my mind of a hard rock band taking a folk tune or ballad, rocking it up, getting a hit out of it and, arguably, redefining it. The others are Jimi Hendrix with Bob Dylan’s All Along The Watchtower and Joan Baez’s tearjerker Diamonds and Rust reinvented by Judas Priest. All of which tells you a further cool thing; it doesn’t matter what genre you actually work in, most people listen to everything with an open mind and in the case of musicians, obviously think, “We can do something with that.” And they do, with often wonderful results although I like Dylan’s original a lot and Baez’s Diamonds and Rust, her paean to former flame Dylan, often brings tears to my eyes.

25. The Guess Who, Bye Bye Babe . . . As we say bye bye for another week, on Mondays at least. Starting this Saturday morning, Sept. 24, I’m beginning a new show, So Old It’s New 2, from 7-9 am. The station has some available slots open, so I’m filling one and going to wake up the neighbors with more of the same of what I currently do but I’m also going to use the extra slot for stuff that I can’t cram into my Monday show, or I may do some themed shows like heavy rock/metal, or reggae, or punk/new wave, or full album plays. It’s a blank canvas I plan to fill by following my muse.

1. Stray, Feel Like I’ve Been Here Before . . . Yeah, like last Monday evening, I was here before, playing tunes. OK, I stole the line from a Star Trek The Next Generation episode. Cause and Effect, where the Enterprise crew is caught in a time loop and keeps repeating the same scenario during which the ship is destroyed during a collision with another vessel, also caught in the loop. As the crew begins to experience deja vu, Lt. Worf, during the officers’ weekly poker game, says that he feels like he’s done this before to which First Officer Riker says, ‘yeah, last Tuesday night.” But all soon deduce that something is up. As for the song, it’s a riff rocker by Stray, a band I’ve played before and discovered some years ago now via a terrific compilation called I’m A Freak, Baby – A Journey Through The British Heavy Psych and Hard Rock Underground Scene, 1968-72. There’s since been a I’m A Freak, Baby 2 and, I discovered the other day, a No. 3 I’ll have to pick up. A great way to discover some great, obscure music.

2. Edgar Winter, Give It Everything You Got . . . Funky rocker from the White Trash album, 1971.

3. Blue Oyster Cult, Stairway To The Stars . . . From the debut, self-titled BOC album in 1972. It’s the first of three from the so-called Black and White period covering the first three records (Blue Oyster Cult, Tyranny and Mutation and Secret Treaties) even though there’s red in some of the album covers. Many fans consider the first three albums the zenith of BOC’s career, before the big hits like (Don’t Fear) The Reaper and Burnin’ For You when the band went more commercial. I like all of it but the first three records are spookier and more experimental, certainly for the time, and therefore were influential on the hard rock and metal scene.

    

4. Steve Hackett, Star Of Sirius . . . Guitarist Hackett was still in Genesis when he issued his first solo album, Voyage of the Acolyte, in 1975. It features bandmates Mike Rutherford on bass and drummer (and lead singer on this track) Phil Collins. As such, it could be a Genesis album and in some ways, lead singer Peter Gabriel having departed, set the stage for the next phase of Genesis’s career, as Hackett relates in the liner notes to a 2005 reissue of his album. “Phil Collins sang lead vocals on Star of Sirius, which in hindsight might be seen as perhaps paving the way for him taking over as singer in Genesis . . . The album was very well received and I think all of us in the band felt that if there was such an amount of interest in my solo career, then there would certainly be a large amount of interest in anything the four of us (including keyboard player Tony Banks) as Genesis could produce.” Hackett was right on two counts – his record gave the band the confidence to produce the excellent first post-Gabriel album, A Trick of the Tail, and also gave him confidence to fully strike out on his own, which he did after Wind and Wuthering, which followed A Trick of the Tail.

5. Creedence Clearwater Revival, Born To Move . . . Ridiculously great band, CCR, and so much more than their many hits, as this funky, jazzy jam tune from the Pendulum album confirms. Remarkably prolific, remarkably consistent, and obviously great, Pendulum being the band’s second studio album of 1970. The lazy bastards were slacking off after releasing three, 3! studio records in 1969.

    

6. Jack Bruce, How’s Tricks . . . Funky title tune from The Jack Bruce Band’s 1977 album, which was trashed by critics, many of whom, of course, are not progressing past the admittedly great Cream records on which Bruce played such a large part. Two critics’ quotes I pulled from the web about the album: “An uninspired set of 10 lacklustre tunes.” and “A journeyman effort hardly worth dredging up.” Whatever. Did you actually listen, more than once? Didn’t think so.

7. Dave Edmunds, As Lovers Do . . . As we enter the, by titles at least, “relationships gone bad’ phase of the set via this country-ish Edmunds’ tune. “We’re just falling out of love, as lovers do.” Some lovers. Some stay together, despite everything; some dissolve, despite what in retrospect may have been easily overcome issues.

8. Ry Cooder, Alimony . . . And then, sometimes, comes what Ry is ruminating on and the lawyers all go home richer.

9. Genesis, Robbery, Assault and Battery . . . You just knew I’d get back to Genesis after playing the Steve Hackett tune and mentioning the A Trick of the Tail album earlier, didn’t you? Regular show followers, if they know me at all, had it nailed right off but were just wondering whether I’d get to it immediately after Hackett (which is just what one might be expecting) or wait a bit. I waited. And the title could fit into the relationship theme.

10. The Kinks, To The Bone . . . As could this fine Kinks’ tune, as in taken financially to the bone. It’s the title cut to a terrific, somewhat unplugged, live album that became the band’s final release, in 1994. The album features myriad Kinks’ hits pulled from their 1993-94 US and UK tours, plus some played to a small audience at the band’s Konk Studios. To The Bone was a new studio track recorded at that time by the band and, to me, says they had much of value left in the tank. The Kinks are one of my favorite bands, often criminally overlooked against the widespread appeal of their original British Invasion mates like The Beatles, Rolling Stones and Who. I’ve continued to follow the careers of the Davies brothers, Ray and Dave, via their solo work but I’d submit that, as with the similarly often at odds Gallagher brothers of Oasis fame, the solo work doesn’t hold up against what they produced together. That said, I’d prefer both bands leave things as they were because reunion studio work, as so often happens, would likely leave fans disappointed given the passage of time, musical directions and, perhaps, lost chemistry.

11. Ten Years After, 50,000 Miles Beneath My Brain . . . Another of my favorite bands, TYA, I have not revisited in a while. Long overdue.

12. Lou Reed, Busload Of Faith . . . Transformer is arguably, probably obviously, Lou Reed’s masterpiece as a solo album but I’d put 1989’s New York album up there with it. It’s brilliant, musically and, as usual with Reed, lyrically as evidenced by this rocker. I remember buying New York upon release, sight unseen and unheard, based on a review I read in a magazine or newspaper, and have been forever rewarded.

13. Queen, The Prophet’s Song . . . Not a fan of the monarchy – a ridiculous anachronism in my view – although I don’t begrudge those who are fond of it. But, I suppose, contrary to my nature, I should at least acknowledge Queen Elizabeth’s passing in some measure, so I will by playing this epic by Queen, from A Night At The Opera. I did think of playing the Sex Pistols’ God Save The Queen but I played the Pistols just a few weeks ago so, no. Another obvious option would have been The Smiths’ The Queen Is Dead but I’m not into The Smiths. I’ve tried them, and Morrissey and I know they’re loved by many but, sorry, I don’t get it.

14. The Rolling Stones, I Am Waiting . . . I’ve been on an early Stones’ kick of late. Here’s another cut, from 1966’s Aftermath album, that could be a completely different band (and I suppose was) from the ‘classic’ band they became via the so-called Big Four albums – Beggars Banquet, Let It Bleed, Sticky Fingers and Exile on Main St. They’ve been around 60 years so it’s natural but still amazing, the variety and depth of the Stones’ music.

15. Eagles, Long Road Out Of Eden . . . The band was just in Toronto this past weekend, prompting me to play this title cut (which they didn’t play) from their likely final studio work, from 2007. It’s the only studio album since The Long Run in 1979 and the band’s original breakup, and it’s essentially the Don Henley band now, he being the lone original member left, but so be it. I find that, with longstanding rock bands, after a period of time members who were not original members (in the Eagles’ case, Joe Walsh and Timothy B. Schmit) eventually have been around long enough that they’re almost ‘original’, as with, say, guitarist Rickey Medlocke and singer Johnny Van Zant in Lynyrd Skynyrd. Skynyrd gets criticized (unlike, unless I’ve missed it, Eagles) for being a glorified cover band and I can appreciate that, yet since 1991 has continued to release new studio work up to 2014. In any event, as far as the Eagles go, this extended piece is a great song, lyrically and musically.

16. Steve Miller Band, Journey From Eden . . . From Miller’s pre-commercial hits period. I like his hits but his stuff before that, tracks like this progressive, ethereal work, is worth investigating.

17. The Firm, Fortune Hunter . . . Sounds like Led Zeppelin. But why wouldn’t it, given Jimmy Page was in The Firm, along with singer Paul Rodgers of Free and Bad Company fame.

18. Led Zeppelin, The Wanton Song . . . Speaking of Zep . . . I was reminded of this track, from Physical Graffiti, via a rock ‘album reviews’ show I was recently watching on YouTube.

19. Ian Hunter, Old Records Never Die . . . The So Old It’s New theme song, arguably. Great stuff from a great artist, still rocking, as of this writing, at age 83, with studio work as recently as 2016.

20. Moxy, Time To Move On . . . Featuring Tommy Bolin of Deep Purple, James Gang and solo fame on guitar solos in his only appearance with the Canadian hard rockers, on their Moxy 1 debut in 1975. I pulled this from my terrific Bolin box set Ultimate: The Best Of Tommy Bolin, released in 1989.

21. Chicago, Liberation . . . I can hear my (RIP) older brother saying, ‘this is acid rock’. He usually was referring to Jimi Hendrix but Hendrix admired Chicago guitarist Terry Kath so it fits, this terrific, lengthy, almost completely instrumental track from the debut Chicago album, when they were known as Chicago Transity Authority. Released in 1969, the song, and album, showcases all that early CTA/Chicago was – guitar, jazz, horns. Sublime.

1. Chilliwack, Are You With Me . . . Not too many studio recordings I can think of, off the top of my head, anyway, that start with a drum solo. This one’s by the late guitarist/multi-instrumentalist Brian MacLeod, who sadly died age 39 of brain cancer. MacLeod, who later formed the band Headpins, played drums, in addition to guitar, on most of the 1979 Breakdown In Paradise album’s songs as Chilliwack was in a state of flux in large measure due to the demise of their record label, Mushroom Records. Mushroom also was home to Heart in that band’s early days, which gave Heart, originally from Seattle, a large part of its Canadian connection that also included Ann Wilson dating a Vietnam War draft dodger and following him to Canada, where Heart set up shop in Vancouver.

   But enough about Heart. Chilliwack co-founder and stalwart Bill Henderson was, at the time of the Breakdown album, the only other full-time member. When I see the title of this song I think of concerts. Why? Because George Thorogood often yells “are ya with me?!” before launching into some song or other during his shows. It works for him, but not so much for others I’ve heard on live albums from bands I like but have not actually seen live, partly for this very reason, and I place these two in the annoying category: 1. Bruce Dickinson of Iron Maiden, or as a solo act, screaming “Scream for me (insert country/city; he’s even got a solo live album called Scream For Me Brazil. Hey, Bruce, make them scream via your music, if you have to ask, maybe your music’s not moving anyone). 2. Ozzy Osbourne with his “clap your effing hands…” Hey, Ozzy, see my comments on Bruce: shouldn’t your music prompt people to clap their hands on their own? Shut the eff up, speaking of the F word, and sing.

   Oh, right, back to Chilliwack. I saw them, Henderson at the helm, at the Kitchener Blues Festival in 2016; excellent show and not surprising, given their extensive list of hits. And they’re still out there doing it, most recently in Kelowna, BC, in early August. Which got me thinking: if you’re a band or artist with, say, 10 songs worthy of putting on a compilation, and Chilliwack has 13 on one of theirs, you can do a good 90-minute show. Play the 10 or so tracks, extend some of them, throw in some obscurities like Are You With Me, maybe a cover or two and bingo, done. And now I’m done with Chilliwack, a band I like but would never have thought would inspire a long ramble like this. Next!

2. The Who, Getting In Tune . . . From Who’s Next, one of those classic albums that is wall-to-wall great, from opening cut (Baba O’Reilly and no, some folks, it’s not called Teenage Wasteland, that’s part of the lyrics to the song, memorable for sure but not the title) to Won’t Get Fooled Again, the closer on the original release, before the inevitable remasterings and repackagings pushed the album from nine to 16 tracks. Anyway, this gets us in tune for . . .

3. Rush, Working Man . . . The opener of my little Labour Day set, Canadian/Brit spelling with what I think is the ridiculous and unnecessary ‘u’, whether the songs truly have anything to do with working or not. Why didn’t I open the set with this today, Labour Day? Because I did last year for Labour Day and that’s . . . just what you’d be expecting.

4. Bruce Springsteen, Factory . . . Haunting song from Darkness On The Edge Of Town. It’s a depressing song for the most part yet somehow, I also find it uplifting. I do remember working construction, and then at a moving company, as a student and thinking, Jesus, how can these guys stand this stuff, day after day, as a career while at the same time having immense respect for people doing such sometimes hard labor and more so, in most cases the ability to work with one’s hands, a skill I lack outside of bed, just the self-sufficiency of that ability.

5. The Paul Butterfield Blues Band, Work Song . . . Extended cover of the standard written by jazz musician Nat Adderley, showing off the guitar tandem of Mike Bloomfield and Elvin Bishop, plus Butterfield’s own harmonica playing.

6. R.E.M., Finest Worksong . . . Nothing really to do with Labor Day, US spelling this time for a US band, but the title works, and I like the song. It was the third single (made No. 50) from Document, the 1987 album that, via the hit single The One I Love, broke the band to a wide audience. The middle single from the album was It’s The End Of The World As We Know It (And I Feel Fine).

7. John Lennon, Working Class Hero . . . Classic from Lennon’s first solo album proper (not counting the Two Virgins avant garde releases), Plastic Ono Band, 1970. Said it before but I’ll bore you again – a hugely influential song and album to my young (age 11) at the time way of thinking, along with God from the same album and, a year later, I Just Want To See His Face from the Stones’ Exile on Main Street album.

8. AC/DC, The Razors Edge . . . Dark, menacing, arugably somewhat uncharacteristically spooky track from the boys and the title cut from the 1990 album that brought us the well-known songs Thunderstruck, Are You Ready and Moneytalks. It also displayed AC/DC’s cheeky defiance of punctuation, as the song indeed is named The Razors Edge, no apostrophe in Razors.

9. Flash and The Pan, Down Among The Dead Men . . . This was on my menu for last week. Didn’t make the cut in the shaving down for my two-hour show, as it didn’t fit, thematically. Then again, Flash and The Pan is so relatively and wonderfully unique, their work tends to always be square peg in round hole stuff, and brilliantly so.

10. Collective Soul, Blame . . . I was sorting stuff and came across an old Collective Soul/Bush compilation I burned ages ago. So, expect to hear some Bush stuff soon, perhaps, although all that I burned and know are their hits, so I may have to make one of my periodic exceptions to the deep cuts nature of So Old It’s New. Interestingly enough, I was at the gym this morning and a Bush song, Machinehead, came on the sound system.

11. David Wilcox, The Natural Edge . . . Love the sort of stair step arrangement of this one, the title song from Wilcox’s 1989 album.

12. The Marshall Tucker Band, Blue Ridge Mountain Sky . . . A jaunty paean to the mountain range, some of which is in the state of Virginia – setting up my next song – although the lyrics in this tune focus on the Carolinas.

13. The Rolling Stones, Sweet Virginia . . . Speaking of Virginia . . . geez, I’m full of shit clever and so maybe ought to follow the band’s advice: “Got to scrape the shit right off your shoes.” From Exile on Main St.

14. Leslie West, Dreams Of Milk and Honey . . . That earworm by Anthony Newley, “Gonna build a mount-ayn” also covered by Sammy Davis Jr. and turned into an earworm now via a commercial for a Canadian hardware store likely prompted me playing Leslie West/Mountain. That, and I was watching a show on YouTube that was rating Mountain’s albums, so here we go. Actually, the song is from the 1969 album Mountain, credited to West, after which he and Felix Pappalardi, who played bass and produced the record, formed the band Mountain.

15. The Doors, The WASP (Texas Radio and The Big Beat) . . . Love Jim Morrison’s vocals on the LA Woman album, this track being great evidence of what I mean. What a terrific song.

16. ZZ Top, Heaven, Hell or Houston . . . Can’t talk about Texas radio without playing that little ol’ band from Texas. A cool track, too, from 1981’s El Loco album. It’s similar, to my ears, to Manic Mechanic from the previous studio album, 1979’s Deguello. “So farewell, my darling,’ Heaven, Hell or Houston concludes, “Perhaps we’ll meet again on some sin-infested street corner in Houston, Texas.”

17. Dr. John, Loop Garoo . . . Typical funky gumbo from the doctor.

18. Alan Parsons Project, (The System Of) Dr. Tarr and Professor Fether . . . From the 1976 debut, the Edgar Allan Poe-inspired Tales of Mystery and Imagination album.

19. The Amboy Dukes, Dr. Slingshot . . . I struck up a chat with a random fellow in a music store a few days ago when he recognized Bald Boy in his secret identity of Karlo Berkovich. It was the type of thing where you’re flipping through albums, can’t help but comment on some good one someone beside you has pulled out, worry for a moment they’ll ignore you or take offence to your butting in, then all’s well and you spend the rest of your browsing time musing about music. Somehow or other, the conversation came around to the Amboy Dukes, where Ted Nugent first made his name. But I cannot tell a lie. Dr. Slingshot also came up because I was searching Dr. John songs in the station’s computer system, although the Amboy Dukes’ cut reminded me of the fun record store discussion. So, you see the result in the set with various ‘doctor’ tunes.

20. Parliament, Dr. Funkenstein . . . Appropriate title for this workout.

21. Chris Isaak, Blue Hotel . . . He’s best known for the sultry 1989 hit Wicked Game, which got me and likely many people into his music. But Isaak is much more than that one song.

22. Frank Zappa, Crew Slut . . . “The Central Scrutinizer’ introduces more Zappa zaniness, from Joe’s Garage.

23. April Wine, Electric Jewels . . . Propulsive title cut from the band’s 1973 album.

24. Traffic, Roll Right Stones . . . Extended piece from Shoot Out at the Fantasy Factory. I’ve always liked the album cover, too.

1. 54-40, Music Man . . . My kind of tune, funky, nice bass line, wah wah guitar. From 1992’s Dear Dear album, which got me into 54-40 via the hit singles She-La and Nice To Luv You. Music Man was also a single, but didn’t do as well. Hence, it’s a deep cut, for my purposes.

2. Santana, All Aboard/Conquistador Rides Again (live) . . . All Aboard is a fiery instrumental from IV, the 2016 album that reunited most of the surviving members of the original Santana band of the early 1970s. I merged it with Santana’s extended interpretation of jazz drummer/bandleader Chico Hamilton’s Conquistador Rides Again, from the Live at The Fillmore ’68 album that didn’t see official release until 1997.

    

3. Little Feat, Day Or Night (live) . . . From one of the great live albums, Waiting For Columbus.

4. Elton John, Boogie Pilgrim . . . Speaking of Little Feat, EJ does a good impersonation on this funky jam from Blue Moves, a sprawling double album I largely dismissed upon its 1976 release. And except for the massive single Sorry Seems To Be The Hardest Word it did signal the start of a decline in Elton John’s commercial and critical fortunes. But, it’s one of those albums that, over time and repeat listens, continues to reveal its many gems.

5. Moby Grape, Changes . . . Haven’t played these guys, from the 60s San Francisco scene that also bred the Grateful Dead and Jefferson Airplane, among others, in a while. So, here you go with this up-tempo tune from their 1967 debut.

6. Gov’t Mule, Birth Of The Mule . . . One would think the band would have put this on their first album, the self-titled debut in 1995. But it’s on their second studio work, Dose, from 1998. Then again, a different song, Mule, is on the first album. Anyway, this one’s a tribute to Miles Davis and his Birth of The Cool album.

7. Budgie, Black Velvet Stallion . . . From one of my favorite bands, the arguably underappreciated yet influential Budgie. This came out in 1976 and the Eagles may have been listening, as Those Shoes (one of my favorite Eagles’ songs, from 1979’s The Long Run album) is similar.

8. Procol Harum, Bringing Home The Bacon . . . So much great music out there, so (relatively) little time in a weekly two-hour show so it sometimes feels like I’m on a long, circular track or winding road, with various band/artist stops along the way that I eventually get back to. Like Procol Harum. This is from 1973’s Grand Hotel album. Nice guitar work from Mick Grabham, who replaced Dave Ball, who had replaced Robin Trower.

9. Billy Gibbons, Desert High . . . Spooky, bluesy track from Gibbons’ third solo album, Hardware, released in 2021. He’s said ZZ Top will be releasing new studio work, although we’ve had nothing since 2012’s La Futura. Bassist Dusty Hill, who died last year and has been replaced by his bass tech Elwood Francis, did apparently leave behind recorded instrumental and vocal tracks for a new album of original material.

10. Headstones, Do That Thing . . . Love the stop-start pace of this one, from the 1997 album Smile and Wave. Typically fun Headstones’ lyrics: “We got Jesus, He’s drinkin’ beer, He’s playin’ cards, He’s shootin’ dice, He’s drinkin’ whiskey and He beats his wife; and it’s the same song He always sings, He’s got it all ’cause His dad’s the king . . . ”

11. The Rolling Stones, Complicated . . . Inspired by a recent chat with a friend about the Stones’ early stuff, during which I mentioned how much the Between The Buttons album has grown on me over the many years since its 1967 release. It’s a very inventive record, from which I pulled this song.

12. Supertramp, A Soapbox Opera (live) . . . Originally on 1975’s Crisis? What Crisis?, this is the live version from the Paris album, released in 1980 and recorded on the massive Breakfast In America album tour, which is when I saw the band in Toronto.

13. Eric Clapton, The Core . . . Slowhand is such a great album, every track a worthwhile listen, full of hits and well-known tunes like Cocaine, Lay Down Sally, Wonderful Tonight and Next Time You See Her. Yet this extended, nearly 9-minute workout, with Marcy Levy sharing lead vocals with EC, might be my favorite of them all. Depends on time, place and mood, of course.

14. Spooky Tooth, Weird . . . 1967 psychedelia from another band I haven’t played in a while but really like. Gary Wright on lead vocals, eventually to go solo and give us the mid-70s hits Dream Weaver and Love Is Alive. He wasn’t in the band in 1967, but future Foreigner mastermind and guitarist Mick Jones (different guy than The Clash’s Mick Jones) was in Spooky Tooth in a later incarnation, 1972-74.

15. Grateful Dead, Attics Of My Life . . . From American Beauty. Sounds like/could be The Byrds, to me, songs like that band’s He Was A Friend Of Mine, and the Dead was hanging out a bit with former Byrd David Crosby at the time and were admittedly influenced by Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young.

16. Vanilla Fudge, All In Your Mind . . . More psychedelia, from 1968.

17. Bob Dylan, What Was It You Wanted . . . From the brilliant, Daniel Lanois-produced, Oh Mercy album, 1989. Who are you, anyway? – Dylan.

18. Peter Frampton, I Wanna Go To The Sun (live) . . . From, what else, the 1976 ubiquitous monster, Frampton Comes Alive! Another in a long list of big and in some cases career-defining 1970s live double albums, like Little Feat’s Waiting For Columbus, which I played earlier, Bob Seger’s Live Bullet, Kiss Alive, Wings Over America . . .

19. Dire Straits, Where Do You Think You’re Going? . . . It’s interesting reading reviews of Dire Straits’ second album, Communique, from which this song is drawn. Many such reviews suggest it’s a pale imitation of the debut. I disagree. A remarkably consistent band over the course of their six studio albums.

20. The Animals, Baby Let Me Take You Home . . . The band’s first single, 1964. It made No. 21 in the UK, No. 102 in the US and didn’t chart anywhere else. Yet, it’s an influential track and makes for interesting reading in that it’s similar to the traditional folk tune Baby Let Me Follow You Down as covered by Bob Dylan on his 1962 debut album, and the Animals’ electric treatment of it was apparently an influence on Dylan going electric.

21. George Harrison, Bye Bye, Love . . . Another revamping, this one Harrison’s interpretation of a song made famous by The Everly Brothers, from the Dark Horse album, 1974.

     

22. John Mayall, Looking Back . . . Mayall’s version of the Johnny ‘Guitar’ Watson tune. “I was looking back to see if she was looking back to see if I was looking back at her.” So true.

23. J.J. Cale, Thirteen Days . . . Like Dire Straits, which he greatly influenced, Cale is to me another artist whose work is/was remarkably consistent. Every album and song sounds somewhat the same but in a reliable yet different sort of way, always compelling, never boring.

24. The Allman Brothers Band, End Of The Line . . . And we reach the end of the line for another week.

1. The Rolling Stones, Hold On To Your Hat . . . I can’t remember what song it was, not this one, but I recall reading a review of a Rolling Stones’ album once, about a particular track, and it was described as “a typical Stones’ belter.” Anyway, Hold On To Your Hat, from the Steel Wheels album, is another of those. It’s a stripped-down Stones, Keith Richards and (yes) Mick Jagger on guitars, Charlie Watts on drums and Ron Wood on bass in place of the absent Bill Wyman, who was probably off whining about being denied song credits or something – which his for the most part bland solo albums show was the right thing to do, just have him shut up and play bass on Stones’ material. Ah, I remember the other ‘typical Stones’ belter’ now. Interesting how that happens, one thought prompting another. The other song is Sad Sad Sad, with the ‘typical Stones’ belter’ reference coming from my trusty The Rolling Stones Complete Recording Sessions book. Wyman doesn’t play on Sad Sad Sad, either. Actually, he was in Antigua at the time for a press conference to discuss his then upcoming 1989 marriage to Mandy Smith, who was age 13 at the time they met, 18 when they married and now 52, which was Wyman’s age on wedding day. They divorced after 23 months. Later, Wyman’s age 30 son married Smith’s mother, then age 46. That one lasted a couple years. On to the next tune.
2. Ramones, Journey To The Center Of The Mind . . . Not sure why but some critics, and even the band members themselves, savaged Acid Eaters, the band’s 1993 covers album of songs from their favorite artists of the 1960s. I like it, including this version of the Amboy Dukes’ hit.

3. Sex Pistols, Pretty Vacant . . . From, of course, Never Mind The Bollocks, Here’s The Sex Pistols album, the shooting star band’s one and only official studio album. That’s it, that’s all, we’re done, folks. But what a legacy we left.

4. Dead Kennedys, Holiday In Cambodia . . . Not sure how I got into this punk phase on the show, it just happens as I let my muse move where it might take me, which can be all over the place which is the fun of it. Anyway, played this one before, probably too recently, but I like it, so here it is.

5. Link Wray, Jack The Ripper . . . I watched a great documentary the other day about how indigenous music mingled with black music to help fuel rock and roll. It was very enlightening, both from a musical and social point of view. It was called Rumble, after Link Wray’s most famous tune, which popularized the power chord and distortion. He had so many great tunes, Jack The Ripper being another of them.

6. The Monkees, You Told Me . . . So many songs, so little time each week, relatively speaking. I had this one pegged for last week’s show but in putting it together, I got up the next morning, saw I had forgotten it to include it, didn’t want to reshuffle my song order, so pushed it ahead to this week. Another good one written by Mike Nesmith, who went on to a country music career among other diverse pursuits to do with entertainment.
7. Joe Jackson, A Slow Song . . . A counterpoint, from a guy who started out as an angry young man punk/new wave rocker, to that sort of thing, and all aggressive music. Even JJ would acknowledge, though, that music is all about mood, and deliberate changes of direction – for instance going from Link Wray to the Monkees to a contemplative Joe Jackson.

8. Bloomfield/Kooper/Stills, Really . . . From the first side, or half on CD, of the Super Session album featuring Al Kooper and guitarists Mike Bloomfield and Stephen Stills. Bloomfield does the honors on this one. He checked out and went home after the first day of sessions, saying he’d been unable to sleep, which was how Stills – heeding Kooper’s desperation call – wound up on the album.

9. The Sensational Alex Harvey Band, Midnight Moses . . . Could be an AC/DC song, or vice-versa. Harvey beat ’em to it, though, with this riff rocker that originally was released in 1969 on Harvey’s solo album Roman Wall Blues, then was re-released in 1972 on the Sensational Alex Harvey Band’s Framed album. Nice riff, great vocals.

10. Ian Dury & the Blockheads, It Ain’t Cool . . . Funky tune from the final Blockheads’ album, Ten More Turnips From The Tip. It was recorded at various times over a 10-year period and finally compiled and released in 2002, two years after Dury’s death. As the story goes, Dury’s wife found a list of songs under what became the album title in her husband’s papers and gave the surviving band members her blessing to complete the album.

11. Peter Tosh, 400 Years . . . Written by Tosh, it first appeared on The Wailers’ Catch A Fire album in 1973. Tosh later re-recorded it and it came out as an extra track on a reissue of Tosh’s 1977 album, Equal Rights. Space doesn’t permit, but the convoluted history of the Wailers, Bob Marley and The Wailers, their record releases and how they were labelled, does make for interesting reading.

12. Bob Marley and The Wailers, Concrete Jungle . . . Speaking of that convoluted early Wailers’ discography . . . This one is from Catch A Fire, which was a Wailers’ album. Or a Bob Marley and The Wailers album. Different covers, too. OK, you can read all about it at your leisure. I’m moving on.

13. Deep Purple, Nobody’s Home . . . From the very successful 1984 reunion album of the so-called Mark II version of Purple – Ian Gillan, Roger Glover, Jon Lord, Ian Paice and Ritchie Blackmore, the first time they’d recorded together since 1973’s Who Do We Think We Are album. It sounded like they’d never been away.

14. Lee Harvey Osmond, Blade Of Grass . . . Tom Wilson is an amazing artist. I say that often. He’s demonstrated it with Junkhouse, on his own, as a member of Black and The Rodeo King and with his Oswald, er, Osmond project. That’s it, that’s all.

15. Big Brother and The Holding Company, Combination Of The Two (live at Monterey Pop Festival) . . . A version of this was on the Cheap Thrills studio album, which was dressed up with crowd noise recordings to sound like a live album. This version actually is Janis Joplin and company, live at Monterey.

16. Queen, Good Company . . . Written and sung by guitarist Brian May, many of whose songs are among Queen’s best. He also plays ukulele. Great Dixieland-type tune.

17. Bad Company, Nuthin’ On The TV . . . From 1982’s Rough Diamonds album, the last studio work featuring the original lineup of singer Paul Rodgers, guitarist Mick Ralphs, drummer Simon Kirke and bass player Boz Burrell. Another in a line of rock songs that dismiss TV, among them the ‘Thirteen channels of shit on the TV” lyric in Pink Floyd’s Nobody Home and Bruce Springsteen’s 57 Channels (And Nothin’ On), both of which I’ve played recently. 

18. Ten Years After, Hold Me Tight . . . TYA wrote the song but it could easily be a Jerry Lee Lewis number. Well done, too.

19. Kansas, Bringing It Back . . . Good, tight rocker from the debut, self-titled Kansas album in 1974.

20. Moon Martin, Hothouse Baby . . . If you only know Moon Martin from his well-known hit Rolene, or Robert Palmer’s version of Bad Case Of Loving You (Doctor, Doctor), you’re only scratching the surface of a good, usually rocking, artist’s ouvre.

21. Dave Loggins, Please Come To Boston . . . This one, from 1974, came out of nowhere. Or, more accurately, from me perusing songs I’ve loaded into the station computer system over time. It was a big hit for singer/songwriter Loggins and also for Joan Baez. I hadn’t heard it in ages, was reminded of it, so I’m playing it. So Old It’s New, and all that. Oh, and Dave Loggins is the second cousin of Kenny Loggins.
22. Five Man Electrical Band, Absolutely Right . . . See previous thoughts re Please Come To Boston.

23. Stevie Ray Vaughan, The Things That I Used To Do . . . SRV’s cover of the Guitar Slim (Eddie Jones) 1954 hit. It appeared on SRV’s second album, Couldn’t Stand The Weather, 1984.

24. Bob Seger and The Silver Bullet Band, New Coat Of Paint . . . Singles choices from albums are often interesting. Seger didn’t pick this excellent cover of a Tom Waits’ tune as a single from his 1991 album The Fire Inside. I think it, along with his own Take A Chance, are the best songs on the record – better, to me, than the actual singles, The Real Love and The Fire Inside.

25. Alice Cooper, Unfinished Sweet . . . I’ve always loved the “I come off the gas’ return to Alice singing, off the instrumental break, in this tune from Billion Dollar Babies.
26. Pink Floyd, Dogs . . .Epic from one of my favorite Floyd albums, Animals. Inspired by new neighbors who just moved into the unit across the hall from me. They have dogs. How do I know? Just about every time I leave my place now, I hear barking as my movements apparently stir the dogs to action. I met them for the first time the other day as I was leaving my unit just as the dogs, two monsters, came out of their unit to take one of their humans for a walk.

1. Triumph, Street Fighter/Street Fighter Reprise . . . Two-part rocker that transitions into a softer, then back to rock reprise piece at the 3:35 mark. It’s from the self-titled debut album in 1976, later re-released on CD with a different cover and re-titled In The Beginning.

2. The Rolling Stones, Who’s Driving Your Plane? . . . Bluesy, Dylanesque boogie-woogie B-side to Have You Seen Your Mother, Baby, Standing In The Shadow? Relatively unknown to all but Stones’ fanatics, it’s appeared on some unauthorized Decca/London Records compilations like No Stone Unturned, released by the band’s old label when they acrimoniously terminated their contract with Decca in 1971. It also appears on the 3-CD Singles Collection: The London Years package when the pre-1971 Stones’ albums came out in remastered versions in 2002.

    

3. Klaatu, Around The Universe In Eighty Days . . . Prog rock from the Canadian band that, at first, some people in the mid- to late 1970s thought was The Beatles under an assumed name. The rumors started when a US journalist speculated that Klaatu’s at least somewhat Beatles-sounding music might be the Fab Four operating under a pseudonym. I like what the UK’s New Musical Express wrote about the rumor, according to Wikipedia: “Deaf idiot journalist starts Beatle rumor”.

4. Bruce Springsteen, Meeting Across The River . . . Haunting track that was the B-side to the Born To Run single, featuring terrific trumpet playing from Randy Brecker, a bandleader and session player whose work appears on countless albums in a diverse career covering jazz, funk, R & B and rock. It’s quite amazing when one looks at his discography. The song itself is about a small-time criminal needing to borrow money from his friend, Eddie, and having to meet a man ‘across the river.” I like most of Springsteen’s stuff, particularly the trilogy of albums comprised of Born To Run in 1975, Darkness on the Edge of Town in 1978 and The River in 1980. But I’m not on the level of fan to know every detail of his catalog and can’t find any references to it, but it strikes me that the song might have been inspired by the 1973 movie The Friends Of Eddie Coyle, starring Robert Mitchum and based on a 1970 novel by George V. Higgins.

5. Muddy Waters, Deep Down In Florida (live) . . From Muddy “Mississippi” Waters Live, with Johnny Winter on guitar. It’s a song that first appeared on Hard Again. That was the first of three late 1970s albums from Muddy produced and played on by Winter, released in 1977. Then came I’m Ready in 1978 and King Bee in 1981.

6. Roger Waters, Amused To Death (live) . . . Live version, from In The Flesh, of the title cut from Waters’ 1992 album which was inspired by Neil Postman’s seminal 1985 book, and one of my bibles, Amusing Ourselves To Death. It posits that it was more Aldous Huxley than the more celebrated, and obviously prescient, George Orwell, who more accurately described in Brave New World where the human race was headed. From the forward: “What Orwell feared was those who would ban books. What Huxley feared was that there would be no reason to ban a book, for there would be no one who wanted to read one. Orwell feared those who would deprive us of information. Huxley feared those who would give us so much that we would be reduced to passivity and egoism.” Etc. The forward goes on in more depth and, in this short attention span world, for those not inclined to read the full 163-page Postman book, I’d recommend finding it in a library or bookstore or wherever you can, and just reading the page and one-quarter forward, it tells you all you ought to think about.

7. Humble Pie, As Safe As Yesterday Is . . . Or isn’t. Sometimes the album title and its title cut are listed with the ‘Is’, sometimes not. In any event, I find it a great, almost prog tune in spots, from the Steve Marriott-Peter Frampton-led band’s debut album, 1969.

8. Tom Waits, A Sight For Sore Eyes . . . Lots of great old-time baseball player references in this one. And a good song, too, in typical Waits fashion.

9. Steely Dan, Green Earrings . . . Funky tune from 1976’s The Royal Scam album that, it never occurred to me before prepping it for this week’s show but in some ways presages the later Talking Heads ‘world music’ sound from that band’s Remain In Light period. Maybe I’m wrong, but just what I heard on most recent listen.

    

10. Free, Heavy Load . . . Can never get enough of Free’s bluesy sound, or Paul Rodgers’ voice.

11. Midnight Oil, King Of The Mountain . . . Third single from the Blue Sky Mining album that made only No. 76 in Canada compared to No. 3 (alternative) and 20 (mainstream) on the US charts. I find that interesting in that Canada embraced Midnight Oil long before the US did, which also happened with, for instance, another Aussie export, Men At Work. Even the Aussie charts only took it to No. 25. Good song, regardless.

12. The Jeff Beck Group, Rice Pudding . . . Beck, on guitar of course, Ronnie Wood on bass and session man to the stars Nicky Hopkins display their prowess on this instrumental from Beck-Ola. To quote a Dire Straits song title, heavy fuel.

13. The Mamas & The Papas, Free Advice . . . Too lazy to check but I feel like I’ve played this song far too recently. But, so what? The title leads perfectly into the next track, title-wise anyway, in today’s show.

14. Rod Stewart, You’re Insane . . . Funk rock tune from Footloose and Fancy Free in 1978, shortly before Stewart went totally schlock.

15. Ohio Players, I Want To Be Free . . . Speaking of funk . . .

16. David Bowie, Somebody Up There Likes Me . . . I’m sure loads of people, ‘up there’ if there is an ‘up there’, do like Bowie and all the others in heaven’s rock band.

17. Peter Green, Seven Stars . . . Speaking of which, a spiritual song, lyrically, from Green’s In The Skies album. And what mellifluous guitar playing, which of course was to be expected from the late great Green.

18. The Specials, Rat Race . . . A top 5 single in the UK that, as has been the practice there, did not appear on the second Specials album More Specials, although it was on the album here in the colonies. A great tune musically and lyrically, about the realities and arguable unfairness of privilege, accidents of birth, that type of thing.

     

19. The Byrds, Satisfied Mind . . . Cover tune, written by Joe “Red’ Hayes and Jack Rhodes, done by many including the Byrds, great interpreters that they were, on the Turn! Turn! Turn! album. Essentially, the song says, money isn’t everything, can’t buy satisfaction or happiness, etc.

20. Neil Young, Ordinary People . . . Second week in a row I wrap up with an 18-minute, compelling story song (last week, Foreigner Suite by Cat Stevens). Listen to the lyrics and the song will fly by. Another of those long ones that seem much shorter.

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.

1. Johnny Winter, Rock and Roll People . . . Written by John Lennon, from Winter’s 1974 album John Dawson Winter III.

2. David Bowie, Let’s Spend The Night Together . . . Faster version of the Stones’ hit, from Bowie’s Aladdin Sane album released in April 1973. I like both versions. Interesting that just six months later, with his record company wanting another album by Christmas 1973 to cash in on Bowie’s commercial success,he released a full-blown covers album, Pin Ups.

3. Blue Oyster Cult, Cities On Flame With Rock and Roll . . . I stole this apropos comment about BOC from a YouTube field: “A versatile band – as heavy metal as Iron Maiden, dark and ominous as Black Sabbath, as progressive as Pink Floyd, as smart as Rush and as pop as any top 40 band.” Great riff to this one, too.

4. Rainbow, Gates Of Babylon . . . a great one, but aren’t they all, from the Ronnie James Dio on lead vocals era of Rainbow.

5. The Rolling Stones, Miss Amanda Jones . . . Down and down she goes. Great tune from Between The Buttons which, over time, has become one of my favorite Stones’ albums. I read it derided once by a critic as being too Kinks-like but so what if it is, and what’s wrong with the Kinks and besides it’s a cool, funky, diverse album, the last of their poppier ones before Satanic Majesties and then the deeper, dirtier blues rock of Beggars Banquet and subsequent albums.

6. The Mamas & The Papas, No Salt On Her Tail . . . Beautiful harmonies on this one.

7. Bachman-Turner Overdrive, Stayed Awake All Night (extended version) . . . Eight minutes plus version of a this pulsating, driving rocker from BTO’s debut album. The extended cut was released on the 2-CD BTO Anthology that came out some years back and featured a few unreleased tracks. I usually much prefer BTO songs where C.F. (Fred) Turner takes lead vocals with his gruff, tough style but this is one where Randy Bachman shines. There’s a nice live version of this available on YouTube featuring the Bachman-Turner (sans Overdrive) band that segues into American Woman, from a concert in Rama, Ontario – with Turner howlin’ up a storm. If you’re up for some great Bachman-Turner stuff featuring some Guess Who tracks as well, highly recommended is Bachman & Turner Live at the Roseland Ballroom, NYC, available on DVD and YouTube.

8. Bruce Springsteen, 57 Channels (And Nothin’ On) . . . Told you I was going to play this soon. If you don’t follow the show, you’ve no idea what I’m talking about but a few weeks ago I played Pink Floyd’s Nobody Home from The Wall, which contains the lyric “I’ve got 13 channels of shit on the TV to choose from” and I mentioned Springsteen picked up on that theme years later on his 1992 Human Touch album. And, by now there’s unlimited channels of, often, nothing of substance on the tube and streaming services.

9. Paul Rodgers, Cut Loose . . . Title cut from Rodgers’ first solo album, 1983, after the original version of Bad Company broke up. Sounds like Bad Company, which is good, and why wouldn’t it, since Rodgers was the exquisite voice of that band and, of course, Free before it.

10. Rory Gallagher, A Million Miles Away . . . Heard this playing in a music store the other day so I decided to play it, besides which I love Rory Gallagher’s music. Always loved this tune, the lyric “this hotel bar is full of people, the piano man is really laying it down…even the old bartender is high as a steeple . . . ” Just puts you in a smoky booze joint, late at night, with all that entails and what might ensue from it.

11. Joe Jackson, Zemeo . . . Jazzy, extended (11 minutes) instrumental cut from an album I often return to, JJ’s soundtrack to a movie few people (including me) ever saw, starred Debra Winger, Mike’s Murder, 1983. Essentially a musical followup for Jackson from his chart-topping Night and Day album of the year before. It’s a terrific listen.

12. Bryan Ferry, A Fool For Love . . . What would the word be, luscious, in terms of the sound of this track from Ferry, from his 2002 album Frantic.

13. Jethro Tull, Bends Like A Willow . . . Blow me down. I’m a big Tull fan but didn’t realize until I decided to play this song from the 1999 album J-Tull Dot Com that it was the single (went relatively nowhere) from that album. A ‘dated’ album title now given how ubiquitous the internet has become, but interesting in terms of the context and year of the album’s release. Essentially, the title trying to encourage people to visit the band’s then relatively new website. Also a significant album for me because I saw the tour with my then age 11 son, who quickly became my Tull-concert going partner.

14. Love, A House Is Not A Motel . . . A band I, er, love but one I have not played in a while. Great lyric: “The news today will be the movies for tomorrow” – and of course distorted usually beyond recognition by Hollywood, yet becomes for so many people the actual (often false) narrative of people and events they describe. For instance, there’s a new Elvis Presley biopic coming to theatres soon. I hate biopics. Never watch them. No interest. They’re not real, and yeah it’s ‘just a movie” yet too many people form their opinions of the people they depict from Hollywood’s ‘creative licence” descriptions. Such is life, I guess.

15. Cry Of Love, Peace Pipe . . . Why this 1990s band wasn’t bigger remains a mystery to me. Free-like. But then, besides All Right Now, Free was never a big commercial success, either.

16. Gordon Lightfoot, Cherokee Bend . . . Not as celebrated as, say, Lightfoot’s The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald but, musically and lyrically (in a different context), just as touching and meaningful. Brilliant artist.

17. Genesis, Ripples . . . From A Trick of the Tail, first album post-Peter Gabriel when people wondered about the future of Genesis. They had one.

18. Steely Dan, Dirty Work . . . One of my favorite Steely Dan tunes. For whatever reason I always think of a bar band/Steely Dan tribute band playing this in a pub when I hear it. Probably because I never saw Steely Dan live.

19. Streetheart, Miss Plaza Suite . . . Three things. 1. This is a great song. 2. Someone on YouTube, in a comments field on this song, said Streetheart was an underrated band. I really wish people would learn the difference between underrated and underappreciated. Streetheart had lots of hits. They weren’t underrated. Underappreciated, maybe. 3. They also had great album covers. Check out Meanwhile Back in Paris, Under Heaven Over Hell and Quicksand Shoes, for starters. The album Miss Plaza Suite comes from, simply called Streetheart, has a good cover, too, but the aforementioned three are my favorites.

20. Santana, Blues Magic . . From the IV album, released in 2016 and a reunion of most of the original Santana band members who made the band’s first three albums, which remain my favorites. IV is right up there and naturally would be, given who made it and how it sounds in a throwback way. Gregg Rolie does his best Peter Green vocal impression on this track to the point where I continue to check the liner notes to see if it actually wasn’t Green singing. And of course Green, via Fleetwood Mac, gave Santana its biggest early hit with Black Magic Woman.

21. Canned Heat, Lookin’ For My Rainbow . . . Gospel artist Clara Mae Ward, beautifully, shares lead vocals with the Heat’s James Shane on this one, from the band’s 1973 album The New Age.

22. Beck Bogert, Appice, Black Cat Moan (live) . . . From the power trio’s live album, issued only on Japan so something of a rarity although that album is available online and this track also is on Jeff Beck’s Beckology box set.

23. Linda Ronstadt, Rescue Me . . . From her self-titled 1972 album which was a landmark in leading to the formation of the Eagles, whose original members – Glenn Frey, Don Henley, Randy Meisner and Bernie Leadon – had backed Ronstadt on a tour and then were among the session musicians on her record.