Black Sabbath, Turn Up The Night . . . Kick butt Ronnie James Dio era Black Sabbath to start us off, from the Mob Rules album, 1981. I remember that album especially from working on a construction crew winter of 1981-82 in northern Alberta, minus-50 (really, OK was just one day it got that low but was usually at best minus-30; had to go in to the lunch trailer for regular breaks to avoid frostbite). Anyway, one of my colleagues, another Ontario transplant then, raved about the album at a time I wasn’t much into Sabbath, any version of the band. That soon changed.
The Rolling Stones, Have You Seen Your Mother Baby, Standing In The Shadow? . . . Long ago now hit single, 1966, and I don’t play singles much but hey the show is called So Old It’s New and this is so old it’s new and when’s the last time you heard it on the radio or, for that matter, the last time the Stones played it live (Mick Jagger did on a solo tour years ago)? Quite possibly if my memory serves, first Rolling Stones track I ever really remember, via the Ed Sullivan Show and my older sister’s Flowers compilation. “Some good dances’ I remember her labeling her copy. In later years, she would presage Billy Idol’s Dancing With Myself by dancing to Zep’s Misty Mountain Hop and other Zep IV tracks in my older brother’s basement stereo room but that’s a whole other time and place. Anyway, after initially growing up on The Beatles, this was akin to metal, which hadn’t even been ‘invented’ yet, at the time, for me anyway and upon hearing it, I wanted to hear more from the Stones.
Ted Nugent, Stranglehold . . . One of those tunes I got into via working in a bar during college when we had a DJ to play tunes between band sets. Often better than the bar bands themselves. The often-stoned, laid-back DJ we had, perhaps ironically seemed to have this rotating bunch of hard rock albums he drew from. Nugent’s Double Live Gonzo was one of them, along with Sabbath’s Heaven and Hell, Judas Priest’s British Steel and AC/DC’s Back In Black and Highway To Hell, among others. This, though, is the studio version of Stranglehold. Takes me back to those fun days and times of misspent youth.
AC/DC, War Machine . . . AC/DC has a reputation as being a hard rock band, which they are, and metal, which to me they are not. In fact to me they’ve always been essentially a harder, heavier version of The Rolling Stones, same basic lineup – singer, two guitarists, bass and drummer and the Stones are big fans, especially Keith Richards, and have toured with them. Anyway, what to me separates AC/DC from your so-called average hard rock band is their groove, funk, even. As Richards has so wisely said, the ‘roll’ to go with the rock. Sounds crazy maybe I know but stay with me; to the uninitiated and I can see it, all AC/DC songs sound the same but…they’re not. Many of them have a sort of funk edgy groove, like this one from a recent effort, 2008’s excellent Black Ice album.
Judas Priest, Victim Of Changes . . . Who can even describe this one other than to listen to it and think of it in one’s own way. The initial riff, Rob Halford’s voice in various forms including his typical banshee wail, the changing tempos of the song itself; just an epic composition and performance.
Moby Grape, Changes . . . Deliberate song choice to change the pace of the show here, from the hard rock/metal first five tracks to a perhaps more traditional, for me, bluesy rock and so on approach for the rest of the set. Up tempo tune from a San Francisco band that never quite achieved the widespread admiration or commercial success of their contemporaries like the Grateful Dead or Jefferson Airplane, but were arguably as good.
Commander Cody and His Lost Planet Airmen, Lost In The Ozone . . . Digging through my disorganized CDs that I keep lazily not organizing and up comes the Commander’s greatest hits album, from which I pulled this manic country rock music.
Bonnie Raitt, Green Lights . . . Big oversight not playing Bonnie in long long time. Now rectified with this one from her earlier days. Saw her late 1980s, Toronto, during her hits commercial period, great show. Blues/R & B greats Ruth and Charles Brown guested, played a couple songs each, and were terrific. Wonderful concert.
John Mayall, Ain’t No Brakeman . . . Later period Mayall, just nearly 30 years ago now, ha, from his 1995 Spinning Coin album. I saw him first in late 1980s in Toronto with former Stone and Bluesbreaker Mick Taylor opening, then joining Mayall’s band for a few songs, and then Mayall at a recent Kitchener Blues Festival, both great shows.
Atomic Rooster, Broken Wings . . . And here’s progressive/hard rock band Rooster with their take on a favorite Mayall track of mine I’ve played before on the show. Mayall’s version, on his 1967 almost entirely solo The Blues Alone album, was spare, beautiful and so is the Rooster’s beautiful but they add their progressive and hard rock touches for the type of cover I always like, a re-interpretation that honors the original.
Vanilla Fudge, Season Of The Witch . . . Here’s the second in a three-song little prog set, Vanilla Fudge’s spooky extended rendition of the Donovan song. The Fudge was so good at covers, including Beatles tracks like Ticket To Ride and Eleanor Rigby.
FM, One O’Clock Tomorrow . . . From Black Noise, apparently inspired by an interview about space travel with Timothy Leary on The Tomorrow Show with Tom Snyder, which during its 1970s heyday came on at 1 am. I default to raunch and roll but gradually over the years came to prog, and in many ways the FM album may have stimulated that, er, progression in my listening habits.
Lee Harvey Osmond, Lucifer’s Blues . . . Coincidental that today, Nov. 22, is the anniversary of the JFK assassination in me playing a Lee Harvey Osmond tune, because I’ve been thinking of and trying to get one in over the last few weeks since as show followers know I am a huge fan of everything Tom Wilson is involved in. Just a brilliant artist, Canadian or otherwise and of course he emerged with Junkhouse before going solo and with Blackie and The Rodeo Kings and Lee Harvey Osmond. Great bluesy track.
The Byrds, He Was A Friend Of Mine . . . Now this one I did intend to play today, in memory of JFK. It’s an old folk tune, some lyrics rewritten by Jim aka Roger McGuinn in the wake of the assassination.
Melissa Etheridge, Like The Way I Do . . . The beauty of this show, increasingly I find as time passes and it’s wonderful, is the feedback received, via in-person conversations and on social media which often triggers my brain to new tunes or artists I may have neglected or forgotten. Like Etheridge, whose music I came to, like many, via her first hit single, Bring Me Some Water in the 1980s. This tune, Like The Way I Do, was also a hit, but when’s last time you heard it, so it fits my ‘so old it’s new’ motif, to me anyway. I decided to play it,or at least something by Etheridge, after a friend of mine reported on his latest flea market cheapie CD run wherein he wound up getting some Melissa albums. I’ve long had her first two, and an excellent compilation which features Tom Petty’s Refugee and Another Piece of My Heart made famous by Janis Joplin, which are now back in my up front memory banks for future possible plays.
Guns N’ Roses, 14 Years . . . I played some Izzy Stradlin solo stuff a while back. Here he is on lead vocals with backing by Axl Rose on a track I like from the Gunners’ Use Your Illusion II album, which came out on the same day as Illusion I in 1991. Remember that brief trend, which Bruce Springsteen followed a year later with his Lucky Town and Human Touch albums? I remember people lining up at record/CD stores to buy the Guns N’ Roses albums. Remember those days, we of a certain vintage? People lining up for albums, concert tickets, etc. Kind of a cool thing, actually, in some ways at least, or maybe it’s memory making things seem better or cooler. I remember getting tickets for the first Rolling Stones show I ever saw, 1978 in Buffalo. I lived in Oakville, Ontario at the time but had to go to the next city over, Burlington, to a mall with a ticket outlet, line up . . . People camped overnight, some came up with some ‘list’ they figured would assure them a place in line (it didn’t). I always remember a police officer at the door as people started getting rowdy, assuring them they were ‘in’ to get tickets. “Calm down! You’ll get tickets!” Then I recall a guy way up in the line, getting his and waving them triumphantly to the still-waiting crowd. You don’t get that sort of experience these days, such as it was, ordering online. Anyway, I did manage to get tickets to a great show.
Canned Heat, Get Off My Back . . . Vocals by Alan Wilson on this, from the final incarnation of the original band. Love the fading in and out of the guitar breaks, just a cool bluesy rock song that goes through many tempo changes in five minutes yet remains a coherent whole.
Steely Dan, Haitian Divorce . . . inspired by yet another Twitter conversation about great bands.
Peter Green, Just For You . . . From the late great original Fleetwood Mac leader’s In The Skies album, beautiful blues rock.
Little Feat, Dixie Chicken (live) . . . Twice the length of the studio version and featuring the Tower of Power horns, this great version features a terrific piano solo by Bill Payne, then horns, then a guitar duel between Lowell George and Paul Barrere to close things out. From one of the great live albums, Waiting For Columbus.
George Harrison, Simply Shady . . . I was digging through my Harrison stuff and realized I had not mined the Dark Horse album in ages, if at all, for listening pleasure or the show itself. I remember a period in my life when I was major into Harrison’s solo work, as it came out, and I still always am but hadn’t listened to this album in a while. I think this very confessional tune as he examined himself at that particular time in his life, 1974, is arguably the best on a good album journalism critics found wanting, yet it’s quite good in my estimation. He took criticism over his perhaps ragged vocals on the album and particularly this track but apparently he had been suffering from laryngitis and in any event, I think the vocals actually add feeling to the song.
The Tragically Hip, Fiddler’s Green . . . Beautiful track from one of the Hip’s best albums, Road Apples. It wasn’t a hit, not a single. Yet so revered among Hip fans that it made it onto the Yer Favourites compilation, partly selected by fan vote, and justifiably so.
Kansas, Lonely Street . . . I got talking about Kansas on Twitter with some music acquaintances the other day and their Song For America album and its title cut came up. And it’s great, Song For America, and I like Kansas’s prog music, and they’re a prog band but more widely known in the mainstream for what really are somewhat uncharacteristic hits like Carry On Wayward Son and Dust In The Wind. At any rate, they can obviously do it all, which is why I wound up choosing this perhaps atypical bluesy rocking cut from that same Song For America album.
J.J. Cale, Carry On . . . And we carry on to next week via J.J.’s typically brilliant shuffle. I have all his stuff and the guy to me was amazing; how he essentially mined the same groove song after song, album after album, yet never sounded repetitive.
Emerson, Lake & Palmer, Fanfare For The Common Man (single edit) . . . So much of my life has revolved around my love for The Rolling Stones. So while I likely knew Aaron Copeland’s 1942 composition by osmosis, I first cottoned to it via its use as the intro music on the Stones’ 1975-76 Tour of the Americas/Europe, and the Love You Live album commemorating the tour. They were still using it when I saw them for the first time, in 1978 in Buffalo, N.Y. ELP did a 10-minute version on their 1977 Works Vol. 1 album.
Hawkwind, Sonic Attack . . . Crazy nutty fun spoken word stuff from the boys, reflecting my nutty mood as I put together tonight’s show, at least the early tracks. “Do not panic!” etc.
Frank Zappa, The Central Scrutinizer . . . Here comes the narrator of Zappa’s epic 1979 concept album, Joe’s Garage.
Frank Zappa, Joe’s Garage . . . His mama was screamin’ “Turn it down! No. We won’t. This song still never fails to crack me up.
Saga, The Security Of Illusion . . . Nice progressive rock type ballad from the Canadian band, from my hometown of Oakville, Ont. Arguably more popular in Europe than North America, they were also huge in . . . Puerto Rico.
King Crimson, 21st Century Schizoid Man . . . From the brilliant 1969 debut album, In The Court Of The Crimson King and something of an anomaly on the record, easily its hardest-rocking cut.
Queen, Brighton Rock . . . Queen kicking butt in 1974 on the Sheer Heart Attack album. The sort of back-and-forth guitar riff, at least in the early part of the song, makes me think that’s how it feel be to be careening along in a bobsled run at the Olympics.
Alan Parsons Project, (The System Of) Dr. Tarr And Professor Fether . . . Cool track from Tales Of Mystery And Imagination, the Edgar Allan Poe-themed debut album by the Project, in 1976. The personnel on this particular project ran the gamut from Arthur Brown of The Crazy World Of Arthur Brown fame to movie maven Orson Welles, doing narration on the 1987 remix of the record.
Electric Light Orchestra, Dreaming Of 4000 . . . I feel like I’ve played this too recently, although I couldn’t find exactly when in my searches. Whatever, I like the killer riff on the song, from the 1973 album On The Third Day.
Genesis, Another Record . . . So we go from a lot of progressive rock-oriented stuff to a song by a prog band that by the time of this release, on 1981’s Abacab album, had almost abandoned the genre. I like the Abacab album and all phases of Genesis, one of those bands I traveled with, so to speak, and they never completely lost me . . . aside from Illegal Alien or the title cut from Invisible Touch which I can see are nicely constructed songs but, yechh.
Todd Rundgren, Hello It’s Me . . . Not super into Rundgren, although I do like his hits, like this one. So, even though it’s a deep cuts show, how often do you hear Rundgren on the radio, especially nowadays?
Robert Palmer, Can We Still Be Friends? . . . And here’s Robert Palmer doing a Rundgren tune, a by-the-book version I’m more familiar with but only because I heard the Palmer version first, via his Secrets album.
Gordon Lightfoot, Songs The Minstrel Sang . . . One of those tracks I threw into our station system some time back and forgot all about until I was searching something else for tonight’s show and saw it. Nice tune and wah wah guitar on this one from the Canadian icon.
The Plastic Ono Band, Yer Blues (live, from Live Peace In Toronto 1969) . . . I thought of being silly and playing some shrieks from Yoko Ono ‘singing’ from her bag on stage, from this concert album but then thought, why waste good minutes in a two-hour show? Nice work on the John Lennon-penned Beatles cut from Lennon, Eric Clapton, bassist Klaus Voormann and drummer Alan White. As you can see in the video, taken from the concert film, Yoko is holding a lyric sheet while she wails along with John. Why she needed it, who knows; I guess to time her shriek spots. I love how she’s credited on the album under personnel: ‘wind, presence, backing (notice it doesn’t say vocals), art.” I don’t mind Yoko, really.
Pete Townshend, Cat’s In The Cupboard . . . Another one I feel like I may have played too recently, or was that I Am An Animal, from Townshend’s terrific Empty Glass album, 1980. No matter. Imagine you were in The Who at the time, coming off the great 1978 Who Are You album, Keith Moon is gone and Pete’s going solo with this, instead of using at least some of the great Empty Glass songs for a Who album instead of what was left for the decent, but weaker, Face Dances Who album that came out in 1981. No wonder they broke up shortly after, for a while at least.
The Rolling Stones, Torn And Frayed . . . One of my favorite cuts from Exile On Main St., just a great groove. Most bands would kill to have something like this as a single.
Ry Cooder, Down In Hollywood . . . Indeed a ‘boppy’ tune from Cooder’s 1979 album Bop Till You Drop album which, aside from this song, was a covers album of early R & B and rock and roll classics. Bop Till You Drop is also significant in that it was, apparently, the first all-digitally recorded major label album in popular music.
Flash And The Pan, California . . . This came up due to the searching for the Cooder track, so stuff to do with California came up in the system. A good thing, because I can never get enough Flash And The Pan.
Buddy Holly, Learning The Game . . . I played Blind Faith’s version of Holly’s Well All Right last week, prompting a discussion with a friend about early rock and rollers and how great they were and in some cases still are. So I thought I’d go with a Holly tune, which in this instance I pulled off a compilation of rock and roll tracks that inspired the Stones. Keith Richards did this one live in Texas (naturally, since Holly was born there) in 2005 during his usual two-song set within a Stones’ concert in Austin.
Jerry Lee Lewis, Me and Bobby McGee . . . Very cool arrangement, by The Killer, of the Kris Kristofferson classic made immortal by Janis Joplin. Lewis’s version came out in 1971 and to me is how covers ought to be done – reinterpret them as to make them almost an entirely new song. Good examples of that are Hendrix’s take on Dylan’s All Along The Watchtower and Devo’s version of the Stones’ Satisfaction.
Bruce Cockburn, How I Spent My Fall Vacation . . . I’ve played so many tunes on the show over time, obviously, that I keep thinking I’m repeating myself. Probably for the most part not, although I have often dug into Cockburn’s magnificent 1980 album Humans. Not a bad track on it. Here’s yet another good one from that platter.
Elton John, Tell Me When The Whistle Blows . . . One of my favorite Elton John songs, period, hit or deep cut. This one’s from the Captain Fantastic album in 1975, coming to the end of a run when everything EJ did was, indeed, fantastic.
Rod Stewart, The Killing Of Georgie (Part I and II) . . . From Stewart’s hit album Tonight’s The Night, 1976. Space does not permit but . . . It’s worth reading up on the song, about a gay friend of the Faces who was killed, and the coda’s resemblance to the Beatles’ Don’t Let Me Down, starting at about the five-minute mark, and John Lennon (‘the lawyers didn’t notice’) and Stewart’s reaction to it. I had never actually thought about the similarity until fairly recently, all these years later.
Savoy Brown, Leavin’ Again . . . It was cool that a Twitter acquaintance I’ve developed over shared love of music mentioned he’d gotten into some Savoy Brown via various discussions, so I thought I’d play some…again. Love the band, including this long bluesy jam.
Steve Earle, Goodbye’s All We Got Left To Say . . . Another from Twitter discussions about various great artists. And that’s indeed all that’s left to say, for this week.
The Moody Blues, Veteran Cosmic Rocker . . . Not sure how much or if I’m cosmic, but definitely, by now, having grown up with what’s now classified as classic rock, a veteran rocker. This one’s from arguably my favorite Moodies album because, aside from hits compilations, it’s the studio album I know track-for-track, having grown up with it in 1981 when it was high on the charts.
Joe Jackson, Man In The Street . . . Playing this for a good friend, who recently found the Big World album, from 1986, cheap at a flea market and is enjoying it. Great album by a great artist, show followers will know JJ is one of my favorites; no matter the various directions he’s taken in his eclectic career, he’s never lost me yet. I saw the Big World tour at Kingswood Music Theatre at Canada’s Wonderland and this was the closing track in a 26-song set, extended from its 5-minute studio length as Jackson seemed transported into another realm by the music.
Boston, Hitch A Ride . . . I remember when the first, self-titled Boston album came out, a bit of a backlash later ensued as critics started accusing the band, led by MIT-trained engineer Tom Scholz, of using computers and synthesizers to achieve their sound. So on the second album, Don’t Look Back,the band made a point of noting that no computers or synthesizers were used. Nobody gives a damn about that, these days, the use of computers, samples, etc being widely accepted though not everyone is fond of such developments. Anyway, hard to pick a deep cut on Boston’s debut album because just about all of it has been played, and played, and played, on classic rock radio since 1976 when it was released. So, this is the song I decided on. Might be the first time – or certainly first time in eons – I’ve played Boston on the show. To be honest their music hasn’t aged all that well to me, sort of a guilty pleasure by now but loads still love ’em and I don’t begrudge that.
Joe Cocker, Many Rivers To Cross . . . Nice interpretation of the Jimmy Cliff tune on Cocker’s reggae-tinged Sheffield Steel album in 1982 that featured the noted rhythm section of drummer Sly Dunbar and bassist Robbie Shakespeare.
The Band, Across The Great Divide (live) . . . From the great live album, Rock of Ages.
John Mayall, Nature’s Disappearing . . . I remember my older brother, who I often cite here because he was such a huge musical influence on me, bringing home Mayall’s USA Union album. “No drummer!’ my brother said. This was during the period Mayall indeed used no drummer, although if you didn’t know that, listening to the album, you probably wouldn’t have noticed. Anyway, it was Mayall (guitar, vocals, harmonica and piano) guitarist Harvey Mandel of Canned Heat and Stones’ Black and Blue album sessions fame, Larry Taylor on bass and Don “Sugarcane” Harris on violin. Good stuff. And an early environmental initiative statement, to boot.
Gov’t Mule, Monkey Hill . . . Another one from one of my favorite Mule albums, the Tri-Star Sessions. It’s a set of more raw recordings, the actual original demos for much of what became the Allman Brothers offshoot’s self-titled debut album, in 1995.
Buddy Guy, Tramp . . . Buddy’s take on the Lowell Fulson-Jimmy McCracklin tune, first recorded by Fulson in 1967. This version of the soulful blues track is from Guy’s excellent 2001 album, Sweet Tea.
Deep Purple, Lazy . . . Great albums become so well-known that those of us who grew up with them can play them, mentally, in our sleep hence maybe don’t play them so much anymore. Then you do – which of late I’ve been doing – and you’re reminded just why they’re so great, every track a gem. Like Purple’s Machine Head, of course, which I listened to in the gym the other day. Lazy is just another example of Purple at their best with that amazing blend of all instruments and vocals.
David Baerwald, Hello Mary . . . Nice relationship, or former relationship, song. It’s from Baerwald’s debut solo album Bedtime Stories, released in 1990 after David + David (with David Ricketts) broke up after their fine debut album, Boomtown, in 1986. Ricketts, who co-wrote a couple tunes on Bedtime Stories, but not this one, went into mostly production work while Baerwald has released sporadic solo work while writing musical scores for film and TV. Both Davids played on and co-wrote many of the songs on Sheryl Crow’s debut solo album, Tuesday Night Music Club, in 1993.
The Rolling Stones, Wish I’d Never Met You . . . Another bluesy cut from the Stones’ B-side collection, this one was the flip of the Terrifying single, from the Steel Wheels album, in 1989. It later appeared on the live album Flashpoint + Collectibles disc in 1991 and in 2005 on the Rarities 1971-2003 collection.
Keith Richards, Heartstopper . . . Nice boogie type tune from his 2015 solo release, Crosseyed Heart.
Marianne Faithfull, For Beauty’s Sake . . . And we conclude the little Stones, Inc. interlude with this one from 1981’s Dangerous Acquaintances, which continued a hot streak that began with the previous ‘comeback’ album, Broken English, in 1979. It wasn’t as successful, critically, as Broken English (which would be difficult to top) and Faithfull herself described the recording process as an arduous affair, but it’s got lots of good stuff on it, for my money.
Blind Faith, Well All Right . . . Blind Faith’s take on the Buddy Holly classic. Another from the older-brother-as-huge influence file, which also happened to get me more into Buddy Holly beyond some of his perhaps more obvious hits.
David Bowie, Blackstar . . . Terrific, extended title cut from Bowie’s final album, released in 2016. He died two days after its release. The song reached as high as No. 61 on some charts, remarkable for a 10-minute track but the song is akin to, in my view, the title cut to his Station To Station album. Someone in the comments field on YouTube had a nice description, suggesting Blackstar is like, and Bowie knew he was dying, a sort of retrospective look at the myriad styles he tried and embraced throughout his career.
Pink Floyd, A Pillow Of Winds . . . From Meddle, one of those great albums some of us get into from a band after embracing a later work, in this case the next one, the monster The Dark Side Of The Moon. Then, you go back. Or, forward in a way because, older brother influence reference again, I first became aware of Pink Floyd when he brought home Ummagumma, which I found weird at first but have grown to embrace and play on the show and will again. The coolest thing about Ummagumma, at first glance, is the cover as each band member trades positions and if you know the cover you know what I mean.
Pat Travers Band, Born Under A Bad Sign . . . Off we go into a bit of a blues phase in the show, via Canadian artist Travers’ take (great guitar work) on the blues classic. Saw him at the Kitchener Blues Festival some years back now, good show.
Arc Angels, Sent By Angels . . . Out of the ashes of the late great Stevie Ray Vaughan’s band Double Trouble came Arc Angels with their terrific (and lone) 1992 self-titled album. Featured were two members of SRV’s band, drummer Chris Layton and bassist Tommy Shannon, plus guitarist/singers Doyle Bramhall II (later in Roger Waters’ touring band) and Charlie Sexton. Arc Angels lasted just the one album in terms of recorded work, apparently due to some drug issues within the band which led to various other issues.
Stevie Ray Vaughan, Texas Flood . . . And here’s SRV himself…Terrific artist. Like the next guy I’m playing, another Texan who at the time brought blues and let’s say more commercial blues rock back to prominence.
Johnny Winter, Lone Wolf . . . Kick butt song to end our Texas trio of tunes, from his 2004 I’m A Bluesman album. I finally saw Winter, in his later days but he was still delivering, even sitting down, when he appeared at the 2011 Kitchener blues festival. That one had one of the fest’s best-ever lineups, which is saying a lot but we had Gregg Allman, John Mayall and the Winter brothers, although Johnny and Edgar did separate sets on different days.
April Wine, Mama Laye . . . Always liked this Latin/calypso type track from the Forever For Now album in 1977.
Alannah Myles, Our World Our Times . . . Myles had huge success, largely via the monster Black Velvet single, with her debut self-titled album in 1989. But I think her follow-up, Rockinghorse, is as good and this hypnotic, pulsating track is evidence of that.
Chicago, Free Form Guitar . . . I was debating whether to play this 6-minutes plus of guitar wank from the late great Terry Kath, from the debut Chicago album, Chicago Transit Authority but then thought, WTF, this show does what FM radio used to do but no longer seems to, at least not commercial rock radio. You used to hear let’s call it acid rock like this. Some think it’s creative, some think it’s self-indulgent crap, all I think would agree Terry Kath was a great guitarist. So, here you go.
AC/DC, Let There Be Rock . . . Scorcher from the early, Bon Scott days, perfect for the hard rocking start to tonight’s set.
Led Zeppelin, We’re Gonna Groove . . . Kick butt rocker from 1969/70 first appeared officially on the 1982 compilation of outtakes album, Coda.
Uriah Heep, Gypsy . . . Not a huge Heep fan but when I listen to ’em, I like what I hear but confess to knowing mostly just the early stuff, like this. The Heep did make a great contribution to music journalism criticism, though. When the band first appeared, Rolling Stone magazine critic Melissa Mills began her review: “If this group makes it I’ll have to commit suicide. From the first note you know you don’t want to hear any more.” Funny but on other hand pretty insensitive comment, first off, about a serious issue and no word on what Melissa did, since Heep did make it big. And Rolling Stone has rarely been kind to heavier music.
R.E.M., Crush With Eyeliner . . . Speaking of which, I like R.E.M. especially when they lean towards the heavy side, like on this one from the Monster album, released in 1994.
Ted Nugent, Baby Please Don’t Go (live) . . . Smokin’, breathless version from Double Live Gonzo! of the Big Joe Williams tune, done by many, including an absolutely scorching studio version by AC/DC I must return to soon.
Heart, Bebe Le Strange . . . This title cut from Heart’s 1980 album was an unsuccessful single, only made it to No. 109, but I like it. Maybe not ‘hooky’ enough to be a big hit but it kicks butt, in my opinion, in a propulsive way. And Ann Wilson could, as the saying goes, sing the phone book (are there still phone books?) and I’d listen. What a voice.
The Yardbirds, Evil Hearted You . . . To me, there seemed to be a period – and maybe it was evolving and improving recording techniques – where 60s pop started becoming rock, and this is another song from 1965 (like the Stones’ Satisfaction and much of The Beatles’ Rubber Soul album) that suggests that. Great Jeff Beck guitar playing and love the vocals by Keith Relf on a song penned by Graham Gouldman, who wrote the previous Yardbirds hits For Your Love and Heart Full Of Soul and went on to become a member of 10cc.
Cream, Swlabr . . . The B-side to Sunshine Of Your Love from 1967’s smash album Disraeli Gears, and a well-known tune in its own right after appearing on several Cream compilations. The letters of the song title are an abbreviation for She Walks (or Was, depending on the source) Like A Bearded Rainbow.
U2, Trip Through Your Wires . . . Always liked this one from the monster hit album The Joshua Tree. The album had 11 songs, five of which (not this one) were released as singles and they all could have been, the album is that strong.
ZZ Top, 2000 Blues . . . Typically great bluesy cut, what ZZ Top to me has always done best, from the 1990 album Recycler. It was in large measure a continuation of the big hits synthesizer sound of the previous two albums that yielded hits like Legs and made ZZ Top music video stars. But Recycler was recorded in two different sets of sessions and by the second go-round, when this track was recorded, the band was in a different place, recording material like this blues cut. As a result, Billy Gibbons has said the band considers the album their Tres Hombres/Eliminator album.
David Wilcox, Cheap Beer Joint . . . Makes you want to either be sitting in that cheap beer joint or lying on the floor, headphones on, drink beside you, thinking of being in that cheap beer joint.
Murray McLauchlan, Out Past The Timberline . . . I played this terrific paean to Canada as recently as my Canada Day show this year but was inspired to play it again as I was in the car the other day and switched over to sound.fm and heard it. Another DJ was using a song I’d uploaded, one of thousands although I’m still waiting for my royalty residuals for filling the station library, ha ha. Just kidding around, management, happy to contribute my collection.
Rush, Natural Science . . . Typically great Rush instrumental passages in this extended outing from 1980’s Permanent Waves album. Another fairly recent repeat but I thought of this one due to a Twitter discussion the other day about great Rush tunes, and this one was mentioned by several people. So many to choose from, obviously.
Bruce Springsteen, Johnny 99 . . . From the spare, dark, mostly acoustic and purely solo, Springsteen alone with his guitar and various other instruments album Nebraska, released in 1982. Early Dylan-like, but uniquely Springsteen, and excellent.
The Rolling Stones, Fancy Man Blues . . . Great original blues by the boys, originally released as the B-side to the Steel Wheels album single Mixed Emotions, although to me this is clearly the better tune. But a blues single likely wouldn’t wash (although the Stones had a No. 1 in the UK in the early days with Little Red Rooster). The song was also the lead cut on After the Hurricane, a George Martin of Beatles fame-produced album to benefit victims of Hurricane Hugo in 1989. The song is also on the Collectibles portion of the expanded release of the live album Flashpoint and on the Rarities 1971-2003 compilation, if anyone’s still buying physical product.
Don Henley, Workin’ It . . . Typically caustic Henley lyrics on this one from the Inside Job album in 2000. It wasn’t a single although I do remember some airplay. In any event, it’s my favorite from that album.
Eddie Money, Baby Hold On . . . Mine is a deep cuts show but occasionally I’ll throw in a hit single or at least one that hasn’t been heard in a long time, or didn’t do so well. This one did, one of Money’s two big hits, the other being Two Tickets To Paradise. It came to mind as I got in the car the other day, older car, no satellite radio and other such accouterments, and needed some music to listen to. So I pulled out a CD of material I had burned ages ago, and this was on it. Great tune.
Robin Trower, It’s Only Money . . . Just thought I’d play it since it came up via key words while I was looking up the Eddie Money tune. I feel as if I’ve played this too recently, so risking a repeat but not according to my searches. In any event, so what, I can never get enough of Trower’s blues rock, particularly the 70s halycon days with the late great James Dewar on bass and vocals.
Warren Zevon, Lawyers, Guns and Money . . . Another that came up thanks to the word ‘money’. Great stuff from the Excitable Boy album which, via Werewolves of London, broke Zevon big. “I went home with the waitress, the way I always do…How was I to know she was with the Russians too.” … “send lawyers guns and money, the shit has hit the fan.” I could listen to Zevon all day.
The Kinks, Misfits . . . Title cut from the 1978 album, just before the Kinks’ commercial resurgence with the next album, Low Budget. This was a B-side. A B-side. Most bands would kill to have this as an A-side. The only single that charted from this album was A Rock ‘n’ Roll Fantasy, great tune I’ve played before, which only made No. 30 or so. But of course, chart success isn’t necessarily indicative of quality.
Jeff Beck, Ice Cream Cakes . . . The version of the Jeff Beck Group fronted by Rod Stewart with Ron Wood on bass, the group that released the Truth album in 1968, tends to get the most accolades. But the later version, with Bobby Tench (vocals), Max Middleton (keyboards), Clive Chaman (bass) and drummer to the stars Cozy Powell was no slouch, as proven by this progressive/rock/bluesy track.
Dickey Betts & Great Southern, Back On The Road Again . . . As described by an AllMusic reviewer of Betts’s 1978 album Atlanta’s Burning Down: “Allman Brothers guitarist Dickey Betts moves back into the deep-fried Southern boogie that the Brothers are (in)famous for and serves it up with just a smidgen of country and comes out with another winner.” Agreed.
The Beatles, Abbey Road Medley (You Never Give Me Your Money/Sun King/Mean Mr. Mustard/Polythene Pam/She Came In Through The Bathroom Window/Golden Slumbers/Carry That Weight/The End/Her Majesty) . . . Played this to end the show long ago, figured I’d do it again after listening to it while in the gym. This is the original version, with Her Majesty, then a hidden track not listed (and I still have an original copy) on the album cover. A recent expanded re-release of Abbey Road puts Her Majesty where it originally was, in the middle of the medley, between Mustard and Pam, but Paul McCartney didn’t think it worked back then and I tend to agree, having listened to the re-released version. It’s still good, but . . . That said, it’s likely because we’ve become so used to the original released sequence that any adjustments seem out of place.
Leonard Ro first started programming on CKWR 98.7FM now CKWR 98.5FM in 1995 and then at CSCR 90.3FM in Toronto, Ontario. Democracy in Perspective on CKMS 102.7FM is the first show in the Tri-City that allows the general public to voice their opinion on political and socio-economic issues. Leonard Ro gives the listeners the platform to voice their opinions on the air by calling 1-800-765-0877 and leave a 20-30 second message.
Call 1-800-765-0877
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Democracy In Perspective / Elevation Hour is no longer on the CKMS-FM schedule.
Check out the new Mano A Mano experimental podcast series directed and DJ’d by bands, hosted by DJ Steel. In this Episode we check out the Bend Sinister Play it Forward Playlist. Who did they choose?…..
Muddy Waters, The Blues Had A Baby And They Named It Rock & Roll . . . From Muddy’s 1977 album, Hard Again, the first of three with Johnny Winter playing guitar and producing. Among others helping out were blues greats Pinetop Perkins (piano) and James Cotton (harmonica), who also accompanied Waters on the subsequent tour which resulted in the Muddy “Mississippi’ Waters Live album. Other studio releases in the series – the last studio work of Waters’ life – were I’m Ready in 1978 and King Bee in 1981, two years before Muddy’s passing. If you’re still into owning physical product, the trio of studio albums are available on one of those price is right “Original album series’ releases.
UFO, Rock Bottom (live) . . . Smokin’ version, from the acclaimed live album, Strangers In The Night, released in January, 1979.
Humble Pie, Stone Cold Fever (live) . . . Playing a few live tracks today, just happenstance, really, not the full-bore all live albums show I did recently and likely will again at some point. There was a period during the 1970s when double vinyl (and sometimes triple, like Wings Over America) live albums were a big thing. Stuff like Kiss Alive, Bob Seger’s Live Bullet, Frampton Comes Alive, among others. And Performance Rockin’ The Fillmore, from which I pulled this piece of Pie.
Rory Gallagher, Bourbon . . . Scorching ‘life on the road’ song by the late great Gallagher. It involves drinking. I never acquired a taste for the hard stuff, but perhaps I’ll give it a go.
The Guess Who, Pain Train (live) . . . From Live At The Paramount. Nice guitar work by Kurt Winter, who co-wrote the tune with Burton Cummings.
George Thorogood, So Much Trouble . . . Typical ramped up Thorogood treatment of an old blues tune, this one by Brownie McGhee. It appeared on Thorogood and The Destroyers’ second album, Move It On Over, in 1978.
Paice Ashton Lord, Malice In Wonderland . . . Title cut from the one and only release from Deep Purple’s Ian Paice (drums) and Jon Lord (keyboards), teamed with keyboard player/singer Tony Ashton. It came out in 1977, after the breakup of the Mk. IV version of Deep Purple that featured singer David Coverdale, bassist/singer Glenn Hughes and guitarist Tommy Bolin. That version of Purple, which I quite like, took some fans aback as the band drifted into some R & B and funk directions, a direction which on the previous album Stormbringer is what drove guitarist Ritchie Blackmore out of the band to form Rainbow. But the thing is, and as Bolin said when he auditioned with Purple, obviously the Purple players could really groove, not just play hard rock. That’s evident on the Malice album, which runs the gamut from hard rock to R & B to funk to prog. Also in the band is guitarist Bernie Marsden, who soon after this release formed the first, more blues-oriented version of Whitesnake, with Coverdale.
Love, You Set The Scene . . . Another great song from the classic Forever Changes album. It didn’t sell well, only making No. 154 on the charts, no hit singles. Yet unlike some critically-acclaimed albums that are impenetrable and you wonder what the professional journalist critics are thinking (often it’s just ‘cool’ to them to like something unlistenable is what I think), Forever Changes is truly great, as is all of Love’s stuff. But then, I, er, love the band.
The Rolling Stones, Memory Motel . . . The combined Mick Jagger-Keith Richards co-lead vocals ‘make’ this tune, with Richards’ ‘she got a mind of her own and she use it well . . . and she use it mighty fine’ parts indeed so fine. But the whole song is terrific, loved it ever since I bought the Black and Blue album when it came out in 1976. The album, as many Stones’ albums seem to be, was largely panned at the time, but most ‘retrospective’ reviews I’ve seen since tend to have it as at least a 4 out of 5. That’s not a criticism of music critics, as I’ve said before. Lots of albums take repeated listens to ingrain themselves, and journalists don’t usually have that luxury when an album is released and a review is due immediately.
The Ronnie Wood Band, Mr. Luck (live) . . . Extended workout of the Jimmy Reed tune, from Wood’s 2021 release Mr. Luck – A Tribute To Jimmy Reed: Live at the Royal Albert Hall. It was recorded in 2013 and features the Stones’ Wood and former Stone Mick Taylor (to typically great effect) on guitars, with Bobby Womack contributing on two tracks. It’s the second in what looks to possibly be a series of such albums by Wood, who released a similar live tribute to Chuck Berry in 2019.
Peter Green, A Fool No More . . . Long, slow beautiful blues from one of the masters. This one’s from the former (and late great) Fleetwood Mac blues period leader’s 1979 album, In The Skies.
Love Sculpture, In The Land Of The Few . . . I don’t own Love Sculpture’s 1970 album Forms and Feelings, from which this comes. But I do have The Dave Edmunds Anthology (1968-90). It’s a great 2CD compilation of his material with Love Sculpture, his subsequent solo work – which I got into during my college days via the Repeat When Necessary album – and some material from Rockpile. As the compilation’s liner notes suggest, In The Land Of The Few ‘exudes an arty cosmic rock feel’. Yes, and some great guitar, too.
Warren Zevon, Transverse City . . . Title cut from Zevon’s 1989 album. It’s co-written by Canadian actor/musician Stefan Arngrim, who apparently is best known for a long-ago TV series I know of but never watched, Land Of The Giants. I can’t be sure, but I can’t help but think that the lyrics are all Zevon so apologies to all concerned, if not. But who else writes lyrics like “”we’ll go down to Transverse City, life is cheap and death is free, past the condensation silos, past the all-night trauma stand.” Or “here’s the hum of desperation, here’s the test tube mating call, here’s the latest carbon cycle, here’s the clergy of the mall.” Etc, etc. The tune’s good, too. It features the Grateful Dead’s Jerry Garcia on guitar and the album itself, typical of Zevon, has contributions from assorted music luminaries including David Gilmour of Pink Floyd fame, Mike Campbell of Tom Petty’s Heartbreakers, Richie Hayward of Little Feat, Jack Casady of Jefferson Airplane and jazz keyboardist/composer Chick Corea. Obviously Zevon was so well-respected and connected he could call on anyone, yet for all that, aside from the Excitable Boy album he never had a massive commercial hit. Weird. The guy was brilliant.
Jesus Christ Superstar soundtrack (1970 version), King Herod’s Song (Try It And See) . . . Said it a million times but the 1970 version of this soundtrack, with Murray Head as Judas, Deep Purple’s Ian Gillan as Jesus and Yvonne Elliman as Mary Magdalene remains one of my all-time favorite albums. That’s a credit to the songwriting of Andrew Lloyd Webber and Tim Rice, but the performances – like this one by Mike D’Abo as King Herod, are terrific. D’Abo, who fronted Manfred Mann (before the Earth Band period) also wrote one of my favorite songs, as covered by Rod Stewart: Handbags and Gladrags. Just a beautiful song, that one, and D’Abo’s original is terrific, too although Stewart’s take on it is a rare time I find I prefer a cover to an original version.
Pink Floyd, Young Lust . . . In putting together this show I realized that of all Pink Floyd’s albums in the monster commercial period that started with The Dark Side Of The Moon and ended with The Wall, I probably listen to The Wall the least. It’s a good album for sure, but I tend to listen to Dark Side, Wish You Were Here and Animals much more, same with Meddle, which preceded Dark Side. Of course, so many of these classic albums, by all bands, are so ingrained in our minds one tends to almost play them in one’s head without actually playing them. But I can’t remember the last time I played The Wall front to back, probably because its well-known tunes (Another Brick In The Wall Part II, Comfortably Numb, etc.) are so well known that I haven’t felt the need. But now that I say that, I do intend to play the whole thing soon. Didn’t have time as I put together the show. All that said, Young Lust is also quite well known. Due to the “I need a dirty woman’ line, the song always makes me think of this guy who lived down the hall from me in a small apartment complex when I was in college. I was going to bed one night when out of the blue comes this drunken shout “I want a woman!” And he wasn’t playing music, let alone this tune.
Linda Ronstadt, Party Girl . . . A friend of mine who follows the show suggested some Elvis, either Presley or Costello, this week. Well, here’s Costello, in a way, since he wrote this tune, sung beautifully of course by Ronstadt. And I won’t accept any beefs about not playing either actual Elvis, it just didn’t work out and besides, I played a Guess Who track from Live At The Paramount, one of the same buddy’s favorite albums, so how much am I supposed to give?
The Who, Love Ain’t For Keeping . . . Only thing wrong with this track from Who’s Next is that, at a mere 2:11, it’s far too short. Leave them wanting more, I guess. Great song.
Blodwyn Pig, See My Way . . . The way the Brits used to do albums (maybe they still do) can be confusing. See early Beatles and Rolling Stones albums, where the UK versions were often at least somewhat different than the North American ones. This is because in Britain, they never put singles on full albums, the buggers, so you had to buy both unless you were just into singles and were content to wait around for a hits compilation. So, this was a single by the band Mick Abrahams formed when he left Jethro Tull after one album because he wanted to continue in a blues direction while Ian Anderson didn’t. But the single only appeared on the US version of Ahead Rings Out, the Pig’s first album, in 1969. It later appeared on the band’s second album, Getting To This, in 1970. At least in the UK. That’s why you see comments on YouTube like ‘buddy, you have the wrong album cover with the song’ when maybe they don’t. Depends where you are, or were. A good track, this, an up-tempo progressive blues song which to me could have fit on any Tull album. By the way, Blodwyn Pig is one of the best band names around, apparently coined by a stoned friend of the band, according to my research.
Jethro Tull, It’s Breaking Me Up . . .And here’s a straight blues track (interesting title given the subsequent band split) featuring Abrahams playing on the first Tull album, This Was. The album name, as Anderson wrote in liner notes on a subsequent expanded re-release, resulted from him wanting to make a statement that ‘this was’ the band’s musical style before the group moved on to incorporate other influences. Which, of course, Tull did to great sales and acclaim, with Martin Barre taking Abrahams’ place in the lineup.
Alice Cooper, Blue Turk . . . Interesting, perhaps, how things go. Last week, my muse produced a more eclectic set where this week I seem largely in a bluesy vein for most of the list including this jazz/blues cut from 1972’s School’s Out album. If you played it to someone whose only knowledge of Alice Cooper’s output was hits albums, I doubt they’d peg this as a Cooper song. Nice bass work by Dennis Dunaway and trombone by session player Wayne Andre.
The Velvet Underground, Oh! Sweet Nuthin’ . . . From Loaded, a double entendre album title but mostly so named because the record company wanted more accessible stuff from the band, asking for an album ‘loaded with hits.’ At seven minutes and change, this bluesy number is too long (without being edited as sometimes happens) to be a single although it was a B-side on an album whose singles included the well-known Velvets’ tracks Sweet Jane and Rock & Roll, written and sung by Lou Reed. Reed didn’t sing this one, those duties handled by lead guitarist/multi-instrumentalist Doug Yule.
Noel Gallagher’s High Flying Birds, The Dying Of The Light . . . Beautiful song by the former Oasis man. Interesting for me with Oasis. Been back into them a bit of late, played their live cover of The Beatles’ I Am The Walrus a couple weeks ago. I don’t own any of the band’s individual albums aside from a live record, nor do I have any individual album by either Noel or Liam Gallagher. I did, at one point, but dunno, never really got into them so for me I suppose Oasis, Inc. is a compilation band. Which means Liam needs to issue one or I need to compile my own and I do like some of his work with Beady Eye and more recently releases under his own name. I pulled this one from the just-released Noel compilation, Back The Way We Came, Vol. I and it’s quite good, I even recognized some tracks so they must have somehow embedded themselves so perhaps I’ll go back at some point to the individual albums which no doubt have some great deep cuts. And that’s part of the point of compilations, of course, induce listeners to maybe investigate further. But for now, a couple Oasis comps and this new one by Noel will do me fine.
Joe Jackson, Caravan . . . JJ’s take on the Duke Ellington tune, taken from Jackson’s 2012 tribute album Duke, wherein he covered and in some cases reinterpreted the master’s music. It’s a lot of the reason I like Jackson so much, one of those artists I’ve followed since his new wave beginnings into his various musical explorations including classical. So far, he’s never let me down and along the way introduced me to some great music, his own and that of others.
Roxy Music, The Main Thing . . . I played Roxy Music last week (Same Old Scene from 1980’s Flesh and Blood), which prompted a request to play something from the subsequent (and, so far, final) studio work, the brilliant Avalon. So, voila. Great stuff, Roxy, all phases, along with, of course, Bryan Ferry’s ongoing solo work.
Atomic Rooster, Breakthrough . . . Psychedelic rocker, good music, arguably troubling lyrics from a guy, Vincent Crane, who battled lifelong mental health issues and sadly wound up taking his own life via a deliberate overdose of painkillers. Prior to Atomic Rooster, Crane was in The Crazy World Of Arthur Brown and co-wrote the hit Fire.
Pink Floyd, The Nile Song . . . Hard rock, arguably uncharacteristic and definitely one of the heavier songs by Pink Floyd, from their 1969 soundtrack album for the movie More.
Aerosmith, Seasons Of Wither . . . I see that now, on Wikipedia, is defined as a power ballad, a term I don’t recall existing in 1974 when it was released on the Get Your Wings album. Of course, ‘classic’ rock wasn’t a term then, either. Aerosmith later had huge commercial success with various ‘power ballads’ but none of them, in my view, could match this beauty.
The Tragically Hip, An Inch An Hour . . . Straight ahead rocker, good lyrics, from 1994’s Day For Night album, named after the 1973 film directed by Francois Truffaut and starring Jacqueline Bisset and many largely unknown (to North Americans) European actors. Recommended, both the album and movie – which is a movie about the making of a movie, and, I thought, quite good. And I’m not even a huge movie buff. But I had heard a lot about the film, it came on TV one time, I watched it, and was rewarded.
Neil Young, Eldorado . . . From Young’s 1989 Freedom album, something of a commercial comeback after his experimental Geffen Records phase, which got him sued (he won) by the company for not doing “Neil Young-type music’ which is interesting in that an artist’s output and creativity should be, and is, whatever they deem that to be at a given time. But I can see Geffen’s view, too; they were expecting stuff like Harvest or After The Gold Rush and got rockabilly on Everybody’s Rockin’ and Kraftwerk-like techno on Trans. Anyway, this is a nice Latin-tinged tune that first appeared on a Japan and Australia-only EP before being remixed for Freedom.
Rory Gallagher, They Don’t Make Them Like You Anymore . . . Appropriate title for the late great guitarist/songwriter. Great jazz/boogie/rock fusion.
The Rolling Stones, Casino Boogie . . . Nice groove tune from Exile On Main St. I love the way Charlie Watts ‘enters’ the tune, as my musician eldest son would say.
Izzy Stradlin, Shuffle It All . . . The former Guns N’ Roses guitarist’s first album, 1992’s Izzy Stradlin and the Ju Ju Hounds, could be a Keith Richards or Ron Wood solo work, so Stones-ish is it. Wood plays on one track, his own Take A Look At The Guy, which appeared on Wood’s first solo album I’ve Got My Own Album To Do, in 1974. Other Stones’ henchmen contributing to the album are former Face Ian McLagan and Nicky Hopkins, both on keyboards/piano.
Patti Smith, Changing Of The Guards . . . Nice cover of the Bob Dylan track which appeared on his 1978 release, Street Legal. The Smith version is on her fine covers album, Twelve, which came out in 2007.
Peter Tosh, Hammer (extended version) . . . Speaking of changing of the guards and shuffling it all, here we come with a style shift in the set. On to some reggae and other departures, the first one via this track that appears on the 2002 expanded re-release of Tosh’s 1977 Equal Rights album.
Santana, Batuka . . . I like most of Santana’s stuff but tend to always gravitate to his first three albums which feature terrific stuff like this instrumental, from the self-titled third album.
The Clash, The Equaliser . . . An intoxicating soundscape of a song from the sprawling and wildly diverse Sandinista!, 1980. Three vinyl records long on the original release, it’s a terrific if sometimes self-indulgent amalgam of so many genres – funk, reggae, jazz, gospel, dub, rap, disco, R & B, you name it. Oftentimes with sprawling release like this, critics suggest it could have been edited down to a single album. A view that has merit, but then you might not get intriguing, hypnotic tracks like this.
Flash And The Pan, Walking In The Rain/Lights In The Night . . . Two songs, two different albums (their first two) but whenever I play Walking In The Rain, I always pair it with the title cut from the next album, since to me they are of a piece, at least in style. Walking In The Rain is the first Flash And The Pan song I ever heard, and I was sold. I thought of playing it due to all the rain we’ve been having where I live, although looks like we’re back to sun for a few days to start the week.
Graham Parker & The Rumour, Local Girls . . . This was the third single from the terrific Squeezing Out Sparks album, which Parker revisited in a decent 40th anniversary all-acoustic version in 2019. I still prefer the original, from a time I was major into Parker. Released as the third single from the album, in North America only, in 1979, difficult to believe it did not chart. But I remember hearing it a lot on radio then.
Ramones, Mama’s Boy . . . I find I don’t know what to think about the Ramones. Sometimes, often, all their songs sound the same to me; other times, I dig ’em. No doubt they were influential, but generally speaking, just a matter of taste, I tend not to listen to a full album of theirs (even though they’re usually pretty short) in one go, due to that sameness thing. But, anyway, here you go, from the Too Tough To Die album in 1984, an album that at the time was considered a return to form as reflected in the band’s first four albums.
Midnight Oil, Run By Night . . . Quite Ramones-like, this one, which means it’s also Stooges-like, as was the previous track by Ramones. This was the first single from the first Oils album, Midnight Oil, in 1978.
Van Halen, Mean Street . . . Might be my favorite Van Halen tune, certainly one of them, from the David Lee Roth era and I like his vocals on it. It came out on 1981’s Fair Warning (cited lyrically in this song) album.
Curtis Mayfield, Pusherman . . . Great funky soul, from Superfly.
Funkadelic, Super Stupid . . . The late great Eddie Hazel on lead guitar, ably assisted by Lucious ‘Tawl’ Ross on rhythm. From the great Maggot Brain album, the 10-minute Hazel tour de force title cut of which I’ve played before on the show and was tempted to again, but decided on a different selection. This time. But no matter, because the whole album is great, as is much of Funkadelic’s stuff.
Gary Moore, Cold Black Night . . . I’ve been in a Gary Moore phase of late,which tells me I should be in a Gary Moore phase more often. Great stuff from a late great artist who was comfortable in myriad styles/genres including metal, rock, blues and some experimental stuff. And he played in Thin Lizzy for a time, too.
Eric Burdon & War, Sun/Moon . . . Back to Burdon I go, for the first time in a while. Too much great music, too little time in two hours once a week. Smooth, jazzy, funky stuff, this one an extended late night type smoky bar room piece from The Black-Man’s Burdon, the second of the two great albums Burdon did with War in 1970.
Tom Petty, The Last DJ . . . Caustic lyrics about the music industry and commercial radio, pretty much encapsulates why I started and continue to do this show. A minor hit single and title cut from Petty’s 2002 album, the song was banned by many stations – proving Petty’s point.
Roxy Music, Same Old Scene . . . Didn’t do huge business as a hit single, at least in North America, but a great tune from the Flesh and Blood album, 1980 which was panned upon release as I recall . But, as is typical, “retrospective’ reviews have been kinder. All of which proves that early reviews, and in fairness to rock critics, are based on a few listens where many if not most albums take repeated listens to resonate.
The Byrds, Goin’ Back . . . Covered by many artists, by the songwriting team of Gerry Goffin and Carole King. David Crosby didn’t want The Byrds to do it, thought it was fluff, which caused a divide in the band and eventually Crosby left/was fired. Which was probably justified, if he didn’t like this tune. Maybe it’s lightweight. But it’s good.
Talking Heads, Electric Guitar . . . One of those hypnotic Heads’ tunes they started doing once they hooked up with the experimentally-oriented Brian Eno. This one’s from Fear Of Music, which is full of one-word song titles, for whatever that’s worth. Good album, regardless.
Paul Rodgers, Talking Guitar Blues . . . From Rodgers’ first solo, truly solo (he played everything) album, Cut Loose, 1983, after the original lineup of Bad Company broke up. Sounded pretty much like a Bad Co. album, which means it’s good.
Grand Funk Railroad, Paranoid (live) . . . Not the Black Sabbath track. This is Grand Funk’s own song, a guitar workout both in studio and on this live version.
Led Zeppelin, Celebration Day . . . Fantastic intro, fantastic up-tempo tune.
Gordon Lightfoot, Talking In Your Sleep . . . Ah, the secrets we might unintentionally share.
Blackie & The Rodeo Kings, Summer Side Of Life . . . Great cover of the Lightfoot tune by the Canadian collective of Stephen Fearing, Colin Linden and one of my favorite alltime artists, Tom Wilson of Junkhouse and various other projects’ fame.
Sniff ‘N’ The Tears, Rodeo Drive . . . Known best for their big 1979 hit single, Driver’s Seat, this one came a year later, totally different, extended, hypnotic, great stuff. It bombed, alas.
Oasis, I Am The Walrus (live) . . . Oasis worships and acknowledges the huge influence of The Beatles (and the Stones and Who and so on) on their music,so why the heck not do this one? Nice version. As are their stabs at the Stones’ Street Fighting Man and The Who’s My Generation. Worth checking out.
Peter Frampton, Penny For Your Thoughts/(I’ll Give You) Money (live) . . . Nice little guitar ditty from Frampton Comes Alive I segued into the great rocker, Money, from the same monster-selling album.
The Kinks, A Gallon Of Gas . . . 42 years after this song’s release on the Low Budget album, it appears little has changed as gas prices soar.
Elton John, It Ain’t Gonna Be Easy . . . Great extended blues cut from the A Single Man album, 1978. The huge hit 70s glory days had faded, the band was different, Bernie Taupin wasn’t around much, but it’s a terrific album for my money.
Bob Dylan, All Along The Watchtower . . . Call me crazy and I’ve always loved the Jimi Hendrix version, so did Dylan, who attempted to then play it in Hendrix style live, but I’ve always liked Dylan’s original better. The key with Dylan is not only the tunes, which are usually great, but the lyrics, how they fit the tune, and how he enunciates them. No different with Watchtower. First non-compilation Dylan album I remember – my older brother and huge musical influence brought it home. So began my Dylan experience. Tentative at first, then fully immersed.
Jimmy Buffett, He Went To Paris . . . Speaking of Dylan, he apparently liked this story tune. It’s a good one. I confess to knowing little of Buffett aside from obvious hits like Cheeseburger In Paradise. But a fellow music aficionado I’ve ‘met’ on Twitter is a huge fan and posts regularly about him, so I figured I’d dip into the catalog for a tune.
George Harrison, Tired Of Midnight Blue . . . Same Twitter friend was doing a ‘list several tracks from X artist” thing the other day. Harrison was his artist for the day. Being a deep cuts guy, this was one of my offerings. It’s a from 1975’s Extra Texture album.
Freddy Cannon, Tallahassee Lassie . . . Pulled this from a compilation I have that features songs that influenced The Rolling Stones and/or tunes they covered. They did cover this one and released it on the expanded Some Girls album re-release a few years ago but while I like the Stones a lot, Cannon’s version is best.
The Rolling Stones, She Smiled Sweetly . . . I’ve been into the Brian Jones early era of my favorite band of late. So inventive, so different, much pop (which is interesting in that Jones was the sworn blues guy in the band) yet such quality in terms of experimentation and instrumentation, directions the band never reallytook again once Jones was gone. But it’s all down on the albums,forever, thankfully, preserved.
Warhorse, Ritual . . . Original Deep Purple bassist Nick Simper formed Warhorse, a hard rock/progressive band, after he and original singer Rod Evans were sacked in favor of Roger Glover and Ian Gillan. The band released two albums, lasted from 1970-74 and has reunited for live work sporadically since.
Hawkwind, Steppenwolf . . . Epic cut from the space rockers. One of the band members had been reading Herman Hesse’s book, hence the song title.
Steppenwolf, Jupiter’s Child . . . So Steppenwolf the song segues, naturally, into Steppenwolf, the band. And, seeing as I just watched (again) the Jupiter-centric 2001: A Space Odyssey and its sequel 2010 (underappreciated I think) as they both came on TV last week, I figured this would be a logical tune to play. Great song, regardless, by a great band, Steppenwolf, that is so much more than all you ever seem to hear on radio – Magic Carpet Ride and Born To Be Wild.
Lynyrd Skynyrd, Born To Run . . . From 1993’s The Last Rebel album, the second, at the time, from the reconstituted post-crash band. People seem of two views, understandably, about the latter-day Skynyrd. People consider them either a glorified covers band – despite, to me, much quality in the post-crash studio work – or a band continuing to honor the legacy of those who came before. I tend to the latter view, that they continue to honor the legacy. One thing can’t be argued – they still kick butt live. Saw them in 2004. Great show.
Zephyr, Sail On . . . So I was in my favorite local music store, Encore Records, last week and a great tune was on. Turned out to be this one, from one of Tommy Bolin’s early bands. And I thought, I have this tune, and indeed I do on a great (and I believe out of print) 2-CD Bolin compilation (The Ultimate) which features his early work, including Zephyr, plus his solo/session work, and that with Deep Purple and The James Gang. Zephyr had a great singer, the late Candy Givens who to me rivals Janis Joplin and Grace Slick, among others. Great stuff.
Welcome to the Gems Of Life Show, join us for an inspirational conversation as Steve Ashton shares his GEMS of life today at 7pm, please visit our YouTube channel for the complete interview.
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Check out the new Mano A Mano experimental podcast series directed and DJ’d by bands, hosted by DJ Steel. In this Episode we check out the Mouthfeel Play it Forward Playlist. Who did they choose?…..
April Wine, Electric Jewels . . . Terrific title cut from the band’s 1973 album. This is why you buy albums, not just compilations. Unless they’re comprehensive comps like the 4-CD April Wine box set I own and from which I pulled the song.
Ten Years After, Love Like A Man . . . Speaking of compilations, although I own every TYA album, last week, after my show I pulled out an excellent 2-CD collection of theirs, got discussing great British blues rock with a buddy and decided this week would be a TYA week on the show. This is the nearly 8-minute Cricklewood Green 1970 album version. As a single, at less than half the length, went top 10 in the UK, No. 56 in Canada and No. 98 in the U.S.
Rod Stewart, You’re My Girl (I Don’t Want To Discuss It) . . . Rod Stewart, 1969-74 period – with members of Faces usually backing him as he pursued concurrent careers that eventually led to the breakup of that band – was amazing. Scintillating stuff from Stewart during that period, great combination of self-penned and well-chosen and interpreted cover material in a run of albums of rock and roll, roots rock, folk rock and blue-eyed soul.
The Who, In A Hand Or A Face . . . Love the opening riff to this one, from The Who By Numbers, an arguably somewhat overlooked album but one I grew up with, first Who record I bought with my own money and just a terrific platter, regardless.
Paul McCartney/Wings, I’ve Just Seen A Face (live) . . . An almost rockabilly version of one of my favorite mid-period Beatles tunes, from the Rubber Soul album. This version is from McCartney’s massive 1975-76 world tour that yielded the then triple-vinyl Wings Over America live album. I remember playing the heck out of it, great live album, great album, period.
The Rolling Stones, Almost Hear You Sigh . . . Great ballad and one of my favorite tunes from the Stones’ 1989 Steel Wheels album. Co-written by Steve Jordan, now the Stones’ touring drummer in the wake of the death of Charlie Watts. It was originally targeted for Keith Richards’ 1988 solo album Talk Is Cheap, Jordan being part of Richards’ X-Pensive Winos band. But it was reworked and appeared on the Stones’ album and was a single, third from the album although (surprisingly to me) didn’t make a big impact on the charts. I’m a huge Stones fan and often think they choose the wrong singles from their albums. The lead single from Steel Wheels was Mixed Emotions, decent enough tune but I think Almost Hear You Sigh, had it been out first, might have achieved near-Angie level success. The Stones have played it live only rarely, but I’ve been wondering whether they now will on their current tour, with Jordan behind the drum kit and doing a fine job judging by the tour clips I’ve seen. They haven’t played it yet, two shows into the current tour, but we’ll see.
It’s A Beautiful Day, Girl With No Eyes . . . I first heard of this band when I was 19 or so, taking a year off after high school to work for a year and build up some money to put myself through college. A guy at the place I worked, the engineering company at which my dad worked, mentioned them to me and at first, I didn’t pursue them but never forgot the reference and eventually wound up hearing the immortal White Bird, which I’ve played on the show before. That led me to deeper investigation of this San Francisco band and their synthesis of folk, jazz and psychedelia. Terrific band and, with replacement members, still around.
Iron Butterfly, I Can’t Help But Deceive You Little Girl . . . So much more, these guys, than In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida.
Little Feat, Truck Stop Girl . . . Love Little Feat, play them a fair bit on the show. Was reminded to play them this week after a Twitter music friend was canvassing for people’s favorite Feat songs and this one came up.
Elton John, Razor Face . . . I played the title cut from the Madman Across The Water album to great feedback some time back. Then recently, an old friend posted a video to Facebook of someone covering that song which prompted me to think of the terrific album, yet another wall-to-wall great 70s one from Elton John, this being one of those great tracks.
Booker T. and The MGs, Heads Or Tails . . . Everyone knows the fabulous Green Onions but another band that is so much more than one song. Great stuff.
Marianne Faithfull, Running For Our Lives . . . Loads of people, me included, were sort of reintroduced to Faithfull via her terrific Broken English album in 1979 that led to a series of great outings including the subsequent releases Dangerous Acquaintances and A Child’s Adventure, which is referenced in the lyrics to this great track from that album.
Concrete Blonde, City Screaming . . . I’ve had this on the burner, so to speak, for a few weeks but due to show flow or fit or whatever, haven’t managed to get it in. So here it is. Great, perhaps underappreciated band, hest known for their biggest hit, Joey, during the 1990s. Amazing singer in Johnette Napolitano. Ridiculously powerful vocals, probably deserves to be on the level of Janis Joplin in terms of reputation and legacy, but such recognition tends to be of a time and place and Napolitano’s time came arguably after the foundational bedrock of which Joplin was part.
Pretenders, Room Full Of Mirrors . . . Killer cover of the Hendrix tune, from the Get Close album.
Midnight Oil, King Of The Mountain . . . One of those songs, and a great one by the Oils, I came across in the radio station computer system via key words while searching for Mountain songs – one of which I did settle on, Blood Of The Sun, coming later in the set.
Lynyrd Skynyrd, (I Got The) Same Old Blues . . . Another band I love, keep meaning to play, but haven’t managed to work in in recent weeks. Another cover by Skynyrd (they also did Call Me The Breeze) of a great J.J. Cale tune. Cale is/was one of those artists, akin perhaps to Tom Waits, who has wonderful work in his own right but whose songs are arguably more recognized via cover versions done by higher-profile artists. Like Eric Clapton (After Midnight and Cocaine), for instance.
Stevie Ray Vaughan, Mary Had A Little Lamb (live) . . . Now here’s an artist I haven’t played in ages. Oversight corrected.
Roy Buchanan, After Hours . . . This guy’s guitar playing, bluesy and otherwise, was ridiculously great. Another troubled soul lost early, age 48, apparently by suicide though friends and family disputed that finding.
Black Sabbath, After Forever . . . The supposed Satanists embrace god, the Pope and Christianity. But, who knows. Great tune, regardless.
Nazareth, Beggars Day/Rose In The Heather . . . This is from the Hair Of The Dog album, 1975. Love Hurts and the title cut were the hits/best-known tracks. But as someone on YouTube commented, “every song on this record is the best song on this record.” I agree. Fits my belief that the best band, album or song is the one you are listening to now, if you like it.
Mountain, Blood Of The Sun . . . From Mountain before they were Mountain, so to speak. The song originally appeared on Leslie West’s debut album, titled Mountain, which then became the name of the band.
Queen, Bring Back That Leroy Brown . . . Always loved this fun little ditty from the Sheer Heart Attack album, 1974.
Jethro Tull, When Jesus Came To Play . . . From 1991’s excellent, in my opinion, Catfish Rising album, a bluesy record that, on this tune, harkens lyrically back to Aqualung via Ian Anderson’s caustic observations on God, Jesus, religion, faith.
Junkhouse, Jesus Sings The Blues . . . Great bluesy cut from the debut Junkhouse album, Strays, in 1993. It led to my forever following of everything Junkhouse leader Tom Wilson has done – Junkhouse, solo, Blackie and The Rodeo Kings, Lee Harvey Osmond . . .
Savoy Brown, Money Can’t Save Your Soul . . . Another selection that arose, like my playing Ten Years After early in the set, from that discussion I had with a friend about somewhat under the radar British blues rock. Terrific band that at one point early on split in two, the result giving us Foghat.
Jackson Browne, The Next Voice You Hear . . . Great hypnotic track, a new tune at the time, which served as the title cut to a greatest hits compilation released by Browne in 1997. Was used in the TV series Mr. Mercedes, based on the Stephen King series of books, but I only found that out when I searched the song on YouTube since I’m not much of a TV series watcher, though I’m a fan of King’s books. Haven’t got round to reading the Mercedes series yet, though. Too many interests, too little time/inability to make choices sometimes.
Pink Floyd, Welcome To The Machine . . . The B-side, in North America, to the Have A Cigar single from Wish You Were Here but like all great albums, anyone who knows anything about the band in question knows all the songs so well they all may as well be hit singles.
The Who, Amazing Journey/Sparks (from Live at Leeds expanded version) . . . fierce live version of the back-to-back tracks from the Tommy album.
The Beatles, I Want You (She’s So Heavy) . . . One of my favorite Beatles’ tracks, heavy, bluesy, great. With the abrupt ‘cut it right there’ ending John Lennon decided upon rather than having the song fade out.
Bob Seger & The Silver Bullet Band, Heavy Music/Katmandu (from Live Bullet) . . . What a great album Live Bullet is, and it proved to be Seger’s breakthrough to a wider audience outside Detroit and Michigan. Deservedly so. Heavy music segues into Katmandu on the album, so I kept them together for the show for 14 minutes of sterling Seger.
Budgie, Breadfan . . . hellacious riff on this one from the influential yet never super successful commercially Welsh hard rockers. Metallica covered it on their Garage, Inc. album.
Jethro Tull, For A Thousand Mothers . . . So many great albums and songs by Tull, one of my favorite bands so I can’t say Stand Up is my favorite album of theirs, but definitely one of them. All killer, no filler, as the saying goes. This one’s special for me, too, since the band opened with it when I took my older son, then 12, to his first Tull show, at Hamilton Place in 2000. It was the first of four Tull concerts we saw together.
The Rolling Stones, 100 Years Ago . . . Great stuff from Goats Head Soup and the first song I ever played on this show, many moons ago now. I figured the title fit the name I coined for my show, So Old It’s New.
Blue Oyster Cult, Harvester Of Eyes . . . Typically dark, spooky stuff from the early and arguably best days of Blue Oyster Cult, this one from Secret Treaties,their third album, in 1974.
Headstones, Cemetery . . . Kick butt rocker from one of my favorite Canadian bands, and bands in general.
Led Zeppelin, Trampled Underfoot . . . dune da dune da dune, dune da dune, dune da dune da dune, dune da dune…etc. Hypnotizing stuff from Physical Graffiti.
Deep Purple, Sail Away . . . I’ve always thought this sounded at least somewhat like a slower version of Zep’s Trampled Underfoot, hence why I put them back-to-back. It’s from Purple’s Burn, the first album from the Mk. III lineup featuring David Coverdale (vocals) and Glenn Hughes (bass, vocals) which was recorded starting in late 1973 and released in February ’74. Physical Graffiti came out in 1975 so I’m not saying Zeppelin ‘pinched it’, as the Brits say, because Graffiti was recorded at various points between 1970 and 1974, although Trampled Underfoot itself was recorded in January-February 1974. I just find it interesting, being a Purple/Coverdale fan, how Robert Plant, when Coverdale’s Whitesnake was huge commercially in the late 1980s, called him David Cover-version when Zeppelin has had some issues of its own with ‘borrowing’. I always thought it was a clear case of pot, meet kettle and besides which, the earlier, bluesier Whitesnake fronted by Coverdale, was a much different beast than the later, more overproduced yes somewhat Zep soundalike Whitesnake that was deliberately tailored for the American market. Anyway all three – Zep, Purple, (especially to me early) Whitesnake – are great bands, great tunes, moving on to the next track now, ha.
Blind Faith, Presence Of The Lord . . . Eric Clapton’s guitar solo alone makes this one worth the price of admission.
Rainbow, Self Portrait . . . Speaking of Deep Purple, another from the family tree, this from Ritchie Blackmore’s Rainbow, the first album he did, backed by lead singer Ronnie James Dio’s then-band Elf, after leaving Deep Purple after 1974’s Stormbringer album. I’ve said it before but I’ve always liked Dio’s work with Rainbow and Black Sabbath better than his own stuff fronting his namesake band, Dio. I like Dio, the band, but not to me as good as the Rainbow and Sabbath stuff.
The Guess Who, Proper Stranger . . . Bouncy tune from the American Woman album with some nice guitar from Randy Bachman.
Goddo, Under My Hat . . . I saw the reunited (then) Goddo at a gig in Cambridge a few years ago that also served as a reunion fun time with two childhood friends from our time in Peru that, at that point, I had not seen in 40 years. Was a great show, a great time and we’ve stayed in touch.
Van Halen, Ice Cream Man . . . From Van Halen’s great self-titled debut album in 1978, a cover of a tune by Chicago blues guitarist/songwriter John Brim.
Chicago, I Don’t Want Your Money . . . Early Chicago, particularly the first three albums, on up to the time Terry Kath died, is the only Chicago for me. Here’s another great one, from Chicago III, featuring Kath’s amazing guitar playing, Robert Lamm’s vocals and that early, brilliant, jazz-rock fusion that made the band so terrific.
Jimi Hendrix, Machine Gun (live, Band Of Gypsys album version) . . . Speaking of great guitarists (and Hendrix was quoted as saying he thought Kath was better than him) . . . Doesn’t matter, so many great ones out there and through history but Hendrix obviously at or near the summit, in anyone’s book. Terrific cut demonstrating his abilities, from the live Band Of Gypsys album, recorded in New York as 1969 became 1970. Copyright issues make it difficult to access Hendrix stuff online, so I’ve used a clip, same song length, from a Copenhagen, Denmark performance of Machine Gun, later in 1970.
Queen, It’s Late . . . Late in the show, but never too late for another great Brian May penned Queen track. This one’s from News Of The World, the album featuring the We Will Rock You/We Are The Champions (overplayed,alas) monster hit. It’s Late was the third single from the album in some countries including North America, albeit at about half its 6:32 album length, but didn’t make the top 50.
Fleetwood Mac, That’s All For Everyone . . . That’s it, that’s all for this week, taking my leave via one of my favorite songs from the Tusk album, 1979.
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