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My track-by-track tales follow the bare-bones list.

1. The Rolling Stones, Look What The Cat Dragged In
2. The Monkees, Take A Giant Step
3. The Beatles, Tomorrow Never Knows
4. John Lennon, Meat City
5. Paul McCartney/Wings, Rockestra Theme
6. Paul McCartney/Wings, Old Siam, Sir
7. The Who, The Good’s Gone
8. Jethro Tull, Drink From The Same Well
9. Frank Zappa, Cosmik Debris
10. The Stooges, Dirt
11. Three Dog Night, Play Something Sweet (Brickyard Blues)
12. Joe Cocker, Blue Medley (I’ll Drown In My Own Tears/When Something Is Wrong With My Baby/I’ve Been Loving You Too Long) live, from Mad Dogs & Englishmen)
13. The Guess Who, Love And A Yellow Rose
14. Them, The Story of Them Parts 1 and 2
15. Detroit (featuring Mitch Ryder), Rock ‘N Roll
16. Peter Gabriel, The Family And The Fishing Net (from Peter Gabriel/Plays Live)
17. R.E.M., Living Well Is the Best Revenge
18. Queen, It’s Late

My track-by-track tales:

1. The Rolling Stones, Look What The Cat Dragged In . . . Garage riff rocker featuring some particularly fine soloing from guitarist Ron Wood, from 2005’s A Bigger Bang album. The song is described as ‘an absolute rocket’ in the album-by-album, track-by-track book The Rolling Stones: All The Songs. The riff bears a resemblance and is perhaps an homage to the 1987 INXS hit Need You Tonight although taken at a much faster tempo by the Stones.

2. The Monkees, Take A Giant Step . . . Terrific proto-psychedelic track from the self-titled 1966 debut album, written by the powerhouse songwriting team and onetime partners in love Carole King and Gerry Goffin. The pitter-patter percussion hook at various points just ‘makes’ the song for me. It was the B-side to the single Last Train To Clarksville and was later covered by bluesman/genre bending artist Taj Mahal in a rearranged version that was the title track to his 1969 double album Giant Step/De Ole Folks At Home, comprised of electric (Giant Step) and acoustic (De Ole Folks At Home) albums.

3. The Beatles, Tomorrow Never Knows . . . Speaking of taking a giant step outside your mind, to quote the Monkees’ lyric . . . A mesmerizing, drug-influenced masterpiece from the 1966 album Revolver, a great leap forward in studio sophistication for The Beatles, beyond even the advances they’d made on the previous record, 1965’s Rubber Soul. The entire period is nicely summed up in the 1994 book The Complete Guide To The Music Of The Beatles as a time when John Lennon and Paul McCartney, still at the time the band’s prime songwriters, began “creating mind movies, extending webs of noise that were based around tape loops and ‘found sounds’.”

4. John Lennon, Meat City . . . Jagged, distortion-fueled funky boogie rocker that was the compellingly chaotic B-side to the single Mind Games, the title cut to that 1973 album.

5. Paul McCartney/Wings, Rockestra Theme . . . From the last album by Wings, Back To The Egg, released in 1979 before McCartney returned to releasing material solely under his own name. I distinctly recall the hype around not so much the album as this track due to it featuring a who’s who of rock stars of the day who formed the ‘rockestra’. Among the biggest names: David Gilmour (Pink Floyd), Pete Townshend (The Who), John Paul Jones and John Bonham of Led Zeppelin and Ronnie Lane and Kenney Jones of Faces fame. Jones by then was a member of The Who, having replaced Keith Moon, who had been scheduled to appear on the song but died a month before the recording sessions. Released as a single in France, the guitar-driven track won the 1980 Grammy Award for best rock instrumental performance.

6. Paul McCartney/Wings, Old Siam, Sir . . . Always loved this tune, also from Back To The Egg. A gritty rocker with a relatively slow tempo that just sort of marches along, to great effect. It was the B-side to Rockestra Theme in France, an A-side in the UK where it made No. 35 on the charts and a B-side to the US/North American single Arrow Through Me.

7. The Who, The Good’s Gone . . . From the band’s 1965 debut album, My Generation, a dark, droning song about a relationship breakup, apparently inspired by The Kinks’ song See My Friends that came out earlier the same year. Roger Daltrey’s vocals, sung in a deeper register than usual, fuels the brooding atmosphere.

8. Jethro Tull, Drink From The Same Well . . . Near 17-minute epic from the new Jethro Tull album, Curious Ruminant, released last Friday, March 7. After a listen or two, I’d describe the album as a placid overall performance and that’s meant in a positive way. It rocks in spots but overall is a very much flute-driven, meditative release. That’s particularly true of this song, an instrumental until halfway through. It was finally polished from a demo which, Tull leader Ian Anderson advises in his liner notes, had been lying around unfinished for several years.

9. Frank Zappa, Cosmik Debris . . . Funky, jazz-bluesy strut featuring Zappa’s typically great guitar and biting talk-singing delivery, from the 1974 album Apostrophe (‘)

10. The Stooges, Dirt . . . Primal, slow-burning blues, masterfully, menacingly ‘dirty’ indeed, from 1970’s Fun House album.

11. Three Dog Night, Play Something Sweet (Brickyard Blues) . . . Soulful number, written by Allen Toussaint, which naturally lends the song its New Orleans rhythm to go with Three Dog Night’s rock renderings. From the 1974 album Hard Labor whose cover art depicting the birth of a vinyl record was controversial. It was then re-released with a band-aid covering the birth but the original album art has since been restored on subsequent physical releases.

12. Joe Cocker, Blue Medley (I’ll Drown In My Own Tears/When Something Is Wrong With My Baby/I’ve Been Loving You Too Long) live, from Mad Dogs & Englishmen) . . . A typical vocal tour de force from Cocker backed by his traveling road show of singers/musicians that included Leon Russell, Rita Coolidge, session drummer supreme Jim Keltner, saxophone specialist Bobby Keys of Rolling Stones touring and session fame and various members of Delaney & Bonnie and Friends and Eric Clapton’s Derek and The Dominos.

13. The Guess Who, Love And A Yellow Rose . . . A great deep cut from the 1969 album Wheatfield Soul. I’d wager that if you played this atypical psychedelic raga-rock in spots piece for someone who’s only ever heard the band’s hits, they’d never guess – unless they recognized Burton Cumming’s voice but even then – that it was The Guess Who. And that’s a cool thing, the essence of an album track.

14. Them, The Story of Them Parts 1 and 2 . . . Early, bluesy brilliance from Them featuring the incomparable vocals of Van The Man Morrison, all of that and hypnotic harmonica playing, too.

15. Detroit (featuring Mitch Ryder), Rock ‘N Roll . . From the one and only album Ryder, of Mitch Ryder & The Detroit Wheels fame, released under the band name Detroit. It came out in 1971 and Lou Reed liked this cover of his Velvet Underground song so much he was quoted as saying the Detroit version was how the song was supposed to sound. Reed then recruited Detroit guitarist Steve Hunter for his own band, with Hunter appearing on the 1973 Reed studio album Berlin and subsequent live albums Rock ‘n Roll Animal and Lou Reed Live.

16. Peter Gabriel, The Family And The Fishing Net (from Peter Gabriel/Plays Live) . . . A typically percussive soundscape of a song about wedding rituals that is even more pronounced in the live environment. It was originally released on Gabriel’s fourth solo album, released in 1982 and featuring the hit single Shock The Monkey. Each of Gabriel’s first four albums were titled simply ‘Peter Gabriel’ although, to Gabriel’s chagrin, a sticker with the word ‘Security’ was slapped on the album wrapping in North America, which is what it became known as for many.

17. R.E.M., Living Well Is the Best Revenge . . . Fiery, fast-paced rocker that, appropriately enough, kicks off Accelerate, the band’s 2008 studio album of largely up-tempo tunes.

18. Queen, It’s Late . . . A terrific track written by guitarist Brian May in the form of a three-scene play alternating between power balladry and hard rock, from 1977’s News Of The World, the album that gave us the ubiquitous We Will Rock You/We Are The Champions.

A progressive rock show – ending with a Gov’t Mule blues/rock/jam band twist given the Mule’s take on a King Crimson song. Nothing to do with music, perhaps, but March 8 also happens to be the 54th anniversary of the so-called Fight Of The Century, the first Muhammad Ali-Joe Frazier boxing match between then-unbeaten heavyweights at New York’s Madison Square Garden, March 8, 1971. And, to digress further, 54 was my football number in high school and college. OK, enough of that; on with the show.

As for the artwork, it’s a progression of rocks, in acknowledgement of the progressive rock theme.

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1. King Crimson, Book Of Saturday
2. Genesis, The Musical Box
3. Emerson, Lake & Palmer, Knife-Edge
4. Yes, The Gates Of Delirium
5. Soft Machine, Chloe And The Pirates
6. Kansas, The Pinnacle
7. Jethro Tull, Baker St. Muse
8. Supertramp, Rudy (live, from Paris)
9. Pink Floyd, Echoes
10. Gov’t Mule, 21st Century Schizoid Man (King Crimson cover, live, from Mulennium)

My track-by-track tales:

1. King Crimson, Book Of Saturday . . . A natural for a Saturday show, from Crimson’s 1973 album Larks’ Tongues In Aspic. A pastoral song with typically interesting instrumental accents courtesy Robert Fripp’s guitar and David Cross’s violin, all propelled by John Wetton’s warm vocals. Wetton was later part of the first lineup of prog/pop rock band Asia that also featured drummer Carl Palmer of Atomic Rooster and Emerson, Lake & Palmer fame, plus Yes-men Steve Howe on guitar and keyboardist Geoff Downes. Downes, back in Yes since 2011, played on the one-off Yes album Drama, released in 1980 featuring former Buggles members Downes and vocalist/bassistTrevor Horn of Video Killed The Radio Star fame. It was a controversial albeit I think excellent Yes release featuring my favorite track from that period, the metallic Machine Messiah.

2. Genesis, The Musical Box . . . A powerful performance of shifting elements of light and heavy music from 1971’s Nursery Cryme album, the first to feature drummer Phil Collins and guitarist Steve Hackett in what fans of truly prog-period Genesis consider the classic lineup of Collins, Hackett, singer Peter Gabriel, bassist/guitarist Mike Rutherford and keyboardist Tony Banks.

3. Emerson, Lake & Palmer, Knife-Edge . . . A hard-edged, dark track from ELP’s self-titled 1970 debut album, adapting classical pieces – as ELP often did – in this case by Czech composer Leoš Janáček and Germany’s Johann Sebastian Bach. The classical-meets-rock approach is, to use a term music critics love to employ, accurate but overused so I write it with tongue planted firmly in cheek, “quintessential” ELP.

4. Yes, The Gates Of Delirium . . . Music is is an experience often fueled by one’s mood, so while obviously I’m primed for progressive rock for this show, it’s still fun to suggest that Yes represents the ultimate in prog-rock excess. Between 1972 and 1974 the band released three studio albums – Close To The Edge, double vinyl album Tales From Topographic Oceans and Relayer, from which The Gates Of Delirium comes. Total song count over the three albums: 10 – three on Close To The Edge (albeit two of them featuring multi-part suites, essentially songs in themselves), four (one per vinyl album side) on Topographic Oceans and three on Relayer. Relayer is the only Yes studio album to feature keyboardist Patrick Moraz, who brought jazz fusion elements to the party. The 22-minute Gates Of Delirium is loosely based on the novel War and Peace by Leo Tolstoy and includes heavy rock portions depicting battle, with the soothing final section, Soon, extracted as a single.

5. Soft Machine, Chloe And The Pirates . . . Hauntingly beautiful, dreamlike jazz fusion from Six, the 1973 release split between live and studio albums, by which time the band and its ever-changing roster of musicians had long since abandoned vocals and become a purely instrumental unit.

6. Kansas, The Pinnacle . . . Perhaps the, er, pinnacle of Kansas’s progressive rock achievements? Difficult to say, lots to choose from although this symphonic epic from the 1975 album Masque is up there with the band’s best such statements. It took me a while to embrace Kansas as a prog act. Like perhaps many people, I discovered them via their 1970s hit singles Carry On Wayward Son and Dust In The Wind and aside from, in high school, owning Dust In The Wind’s parent album Point Of Know Return and thus discovering excellent songs like Portrait (He Knew), I really wasn’t much aware of their output beyond those singles and compilation albums. Until, that is, I got into other progressive rock acts, almost exclusively British bands like Genesis, Yes, ELP and King Crimson and finally decided to take a full crack at this American act that was travelling some of the same territory. It’s been a rewarding experience.

7. Jethro Tull, Baker St. Muse . . . I’m a big Jethro Tull fan and about to go out and purchase the new album Curious Ruminant, released today, once I finish writing these track tales on Friday, March 7, in advance of Saturday’s show. Curious Ruminant is the suddenly wildly productive band’s third album in four years after a long hiatus of formal Jethro Tull releases during which leader/singer/flautist/multi-instrumentalist Ian Anderson was releasing albums under his own name, eventually essentially stamping his solo band with the Tull label.

The new album has been getting mostly good to excellent reviews, despite the challenges faced by Anderson’s ‘shot’ voice which is too painful even for me, fan that I am, to consider ever seeing the band live again since the disappointment of a less-than stellar 2007 gig in Toronto. The show was still decent enough, but not up to previous standards I had experienced. But the studio setting, particularly on new material, can be tailored to adapt to those vocal limitations, as has been the case on recent Anderson and Tull releases. We shall see and hear of course. I’ve heard a couple earlier-released tracks online, they’re fine, harken somewhat back to the period of the album Songs From The Wood in 1977, and I plan to play at least one cut from the new record on Monday night’s show.

All of which is a long, roundabout way of saying that the new album features a long song – Drink From The Same Well – of exactly the same length, 16 minutes, 42 seconds, as Baker St. Muse from 1975’s Minstrel In The Gallery album. Perhaps that’s why the new track is titled, with a twinkle in Anderson’s eye, what it is. As for Baker St. Muse, the lyrics muse, with a typical Tull mixture of wit and introspective social commentary, about city life amid a musical menu of acoustic passages and full-band bombast.

8. Supertramp, Rudy (live, from Paris album) . . . A song from 1974’s studio album Crime Of The Century, taken from the live document of 1979’s Breakfast In America tour, when Supertramp was among the biggest bands on the planet. I saw the tour in Toronto, the last of three summer stadium shows before a combined audience of more than 150,000. I hadn’t planned on going but, on a whim one Saturday afternoon, a college friend and I decided to head to the show, ticketless but aiming to purchase entry from scalpers. We got tickets, at not much higher than list price, perhaps an hour before the gates opened only to soon discover that our tickets were forged, good forgeries but lacking the grocery store chain logo of legitimate tickets. Thankfully, they were general admission tickets, not assigned seats, we got in, unlikely these days with scanners and such, ran like hell in the stampede to the front of the stage, and enjoyed the show. But I remember thinking ‘there but for the grace of god go I’ might-have-been of that risky race to the Supertramp stage when, sadly, five months later dozens of people were trampled and 11 died in similar general admission circumstances at a Who show in Cincinnati, at least temporarily putting a pause on what’s known as festival seating.

9. Pink Floyd, Echoes . . . Mind-blowing music that closes 1971’s Meddle. It’s the album that arguably broke Pink Floyd more into the mainstream after the band’s earlier more experimental phase often guided in large measure by the creative vision of co-founder Syd Barrett. Thanks in part to drug use, Barrett sadly became increasingly erratic and was ousted from the band in 1968, leaving one to wonder sometimes in what direction Pink Floyd might have headed, would they have been as commercially successful, had he stayed. At 23 minutes and change, Echoes is an immersive experience in various musical forms from spacey atmospherics to blues-based improvisation, not to mention those ‘pings’ that start the song and always make me think of submarine warfare books and movies. And then, after Meddle, came The Dark Side Of The Moon, Wish You Were Here, Animals and The Wall during a dynamically creative period through the 1970s.

10. Gov’t Mule, 21st Century Schizoid Man (King Crimson cover, live, from Mulennium) . . . A twist in the prog tale, a progressive rock group’s song covered by a blues rock jam band. That said, 21st Century Schizoid Man, from King Crimson’s 1969 debut album In The Court Of The Crimson King is more hard rock, even metal, than it is progressive rock but then again, there are myriad heavy musical moments throughout the influential King Crimson catalogue. This live version by the Mule appeared on the band’s 2010 release Mulennium, documenting a show at the Roxy Theatre in Atlanta, Georgia as 1999 became 2000. Gov’t Mule, a band led by guitarist/singer/songwriter Warren Haynes that formed in 1994 as a side project of The Allman Brothers Band, shines on its own material but has proved so proficient on covers of classic rock tunes that, long ago, I burned my own mix CD of that material.

The list is a long one, including The Beatles’ She Said She Said and Helter Skelter, Steppenwolf’s Don’t Step On The Grass, Sam, Free’s Mr. Big, War Pigs by Black Sabbath, Humble Pie’s 30 Days In The Hole, Deep Purple’s Maybe I’m A Leo and Lynyrd Skynyrd’s Simple Man. The Mule has also pulled off excellent full covers albums like Dark Side Of The Mule (Pink Floyd), Stoned Side Of The Mule (The Rolling Stones) and Dub Side Of The Mule, a largely reggae-tinged release of Mule songs, classic rock covers and a set fronted by the late Toots Hibbert of the Maytals fame, featuring tracks like Pressure Drop and Reggae Got Soul.

My track-by-track tales follow the bare-bones list.

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1. Spirit, Fresh Garbage
2. Led Zeppelin, In My Time Of Dying
3. Bob Dylan, Ain’t Gonna Go To Hell For Anybody (previously unreleased track recorded live in 1980 in Montreal, taken from The Bootleg Series Vol. 13 Trouble No More 1979-1981, Dylan’s ‘Christian’ period
4. Bob Dylan, Murder Most Foul
5. Slim Harpo, Folsom Prison Blues
6. Gary Moore, The Prophet
7. The Rolling Stones, Parachute Woman
8. Neil Young, Ordinary People
9. Little Feat, Rock & Roll Everynight (from Live From Neon Park)
10. J.J. Cale, Money Talks
11. T. Rex, Mambo Sun
12. Graham Parker, Howlin’ Wind
13. Parliament, Chocolate City
14. James Brown, It’s Too Funky In Here
15. Wilson Pickett, In The Midnight Hour (live extended version)

My track-by-track tales:

1. Spirit, Fresh Garbage . . . Jazzy psychedelic rock from Spirit’s self-titled debut album, 1968, featuring Randy California’s sharp guitar work. An impressive trip in various musical directions, all in just a shade over three minutes.

2. Led Zeppelin, In My Time Of Dying . . . From the 1975 double vinyl album Physical Graffiti. One of the things I think of when I think of Physical Graffiti, it being a double studio album, is how so many great groups/artists seem to have at least one classic double vinyl studio album in their catalogue. I’m not talking albums like Cream’s Wheels Of Fire which featured sides of live tracks; great as they were but I’m speaking of original studio material spread over four sides of vinyl. That’s a lot of work, lots of songs, yet in all cases, consistent quality which is a testament to these great artists’ abilities and creativity.

Albums like, and it’s quite a list, just off the top of my head while I’m sure I’ve left more than a few out: The Beatles White Album, Exile On Main St. from The Rolling Stones, Bob Dylan’s Blonde On Blonde, The Who’s Tommy and Quadrophenia, Elton John’s Goodbye Yellow Brick Road, The Lamb Lies Down On Broadway from Genesis and yes, even the overblown and not to all tastes four-song, one per vinyl side, Yes album Tales From Topographic Oceans, arguably the ultimate in prog rock excess . . . Bruce Springsteen’s The River, Pink Floyd’s The Wall, London Calling from The Clash followed up by their triple-vinyl studio release Sandinista! . . .

As for Zep’s Physical Graffiti and the song In My Time Of Dying . . . it’s a traditional, composer actually unknown – as far as is, uh, known 🙂 – but originally known to be first recorded if not perhaps written by bluesman Blind Willie Johnson in 1927. Bob Dylan recorded it on his debut album in 1962. Zep, as was their often disturbing plaigiaristic wont, ‘adapted’ it and took full songwriting credit although later releases of Graffiti do add Johnson to the credits. All that aside, I love that initial drum break – and John Bonham’s drums throughout – off the slow intro and then into Jimmy Page’s guitar riff, the full band comes in followed by Robert Plant’s bluesy vocal. A raw and apocalyptic adventure, nicely done.

3. Bob Dylan, Ain’t Gonna Go To Hell For Anybody (previously unreleased track recorded live in 1980 in Montreal, taken from The Bootleg Series Vol. 13 Trouble No More 1979-1981) . . . A fiery track including effective female gospel backup singers, from Dylan’s controversial ‘Christian’ period. It was a time during which he released the albums Slow Train Coming, Saved and Shot Of Love although by Shot Of Love in 1981 it was evident he, mercurial and ‘do whatever I feel like, whenever’ as always, was already moving on from that period. He was soon to release the great 1983 album Infidels featuring Mark Knopfler of Dire Straits fame and former Rolling Stone Mick Taylor on guitar.

While the ‘Christian’ period is a controversial time in Dylan’s career given his then-new religious leanings, musically it was a brilliant slice in time during which he employed, as always, crack bands. Knopfler guested on guitar on Slow Train Coming while aces like latter-day Little Feat guitarist Fred Tackett, keyboardist/producer/man for all seasons musically Al Kooper and session drumming ace Jim Keltner were in Dylan’s touring band. Over time, I think, the ‘religious’ controversy around that period of Dylan’s career has rightly faded such that one can simply enjoy the great music on the individual albums and in the live environment on Vol. 13 of his ongoing Bootleg Series, released in 2017. It’s really good.

4. Bob Dylan, Murder Most Foul . . . The Dylan of today, or at least his talk-singing voice of recent times. It’s still very effective as he adapts to his aging vocal limitations. This 17-minute epic from the 2020 album Rough And Rowdy Ways takes us through the assassination of JFK in 1963 fused with all manner of cultural and musical references – The Rolling Stones’ ill-fated 1969 Altamont concert, John Lee Hooker, Guitar Slim, Etta James, members of The Beach Boys, Wolfman Jack, Billy Joel referenced not in name but by the title of his song Only The Good Die Young, the Eagles, Oscar Peterson, Houdini gets a mention, on and on . . . it’s Dylan at his best both in the spare musical treatment and lyrically in this tapestry of pop culture, history, and mysticism. Dylan has many great long songs. Sad Eyed Lady Of The Lowlands, Brownsville Girl, Highlands just to name three that immediately come to mind for me. Murder Most Foul takes its place among them.

5. Slim Harpo, Folsom Prison Blues . . . Harpo gives Johnny Cash’s signature song a swamp-blues groove makeover with classic, understated but effective harmonica playing on a track recorded in 1969. Another example of what to me makes a great cover – it’s a reinvention.

6. Gary Moore, The Prophet . . . Expressive slow blues via Moore’s guitar on this track from his 2001 album Back To The Blues as he continued to go back and forth between always interesting and compelling rock, hard rock/metal and blues albums. Sadly long lost to us in 2011 to a heart attack at age 58, Moore was marvelous as he continually straddled myriad genres – rock (including with Thin Lizzy for a time), hard rock/metal, and blues including not only his big hit Still Got The Blues (For You) but albums like Blues For Greeny, his 1995 covers tribute to Fleetwood Mac founder/guitarist Peter Green.

7. The Rolling Stones, Parachute Woman . . . A friend of mine has ‘Beggars Banquet’ nights, whether his mood is good, bad, or indifferent it seems to be his go-to album, drink(s) in hand, just letting one of the Stones’ classic albums envelop him. I like it, too. Including, from Beggars, this dirty, swampy blues track, full of murky guitar and Mick Jagger’s slurred, suggestive vocals as the Stones embrace their roots while adding their own sleazy edge.

The production is raw and unpolished, giving it an almost demo-like feel that works in its favor. It’s one of their deep cuts that perfectly captures the band’s bluesy swagger. And for me, major Stones fan, it’s amazing how, within a year, 1967 to 1968, and I like all their albums, the Stones progressed or changed from the pop/psychedelia of releases like Their Satanic Majesties Request and Between The Buttons to the down and dirty nature of Beggars Banquet and songs like Parachute Woman. It’s as if they were an entirely new and different band. However it transpired creatively, it signalled a new phase of The Rolling Stones, soon to be fortified by the addition of virtuoso guitarist Mick Taylor starting with the next album, Let It Bleed. It was a period that yielded the so-called in Stones’ lore ‘Big Four’ albums Beggars Banquet, Let It Bleed, Sticky Fingers and Exile On Main St. and I’ll always add a fifth album, the live Get Yer Ya Ya’s Out smack in the middle of the studio releases. All in all a widely acknowledged brilliant period for a band who I submit, despite some critics’ and fans’ views, has continued to issue quality music to the present day. The eclecticism of their output over 60-plus years of recording is remarkable.

8. Neil Young, Ordinary People . . . Dylan-like, albeit with grungier guitar accents, a lengthy ‘story’ track of 18 minutes that is so compelling it flies by. It’s from the Chrome Dreams II album released in 2007. There was a Chrome Dreams I, held back but eventually released in 2023 and it’s more a compilation – with some previously unreleased tracks – of reworked or remixed or otherwise redone songs like Like A Hurricane, Pocahontas, Sedan Delivery and Powderfinger that had appeared on previous Neil Young albums.

9. Little Feat, Rock & Roll Everynight (from Live From Neon Park) . . . Shaun Murphy on lead vocals during her time with the latter day configuration of Little Feat on this up-tempo boogie number from Live From Neon Park that first appeared on the band’s 1995 studio album Ain’t Had Enough Fun. Nice boogie-woogie piano by the perennial Bill Payne, co-founder of the band in 1969 along with (RIP) Lowell George. Payne is the last original member of Little Feat, which continues to record and tour to this day. And yes, ‘Everynight’ is written that way, one word, on both the studio and live albums.

10. J.J. Cale, Money Talks . . . Typical signature shuffle, detached delivery from J.J. and another example of his huge influence on people like Eric Clapton and Mark Knopfler. It’s from his eighth studio album, issued in 1983 and titled, wait for it, #8, in line with his fifth album (5) and 10th (Number 10) although J.J. for the most part used more creative/conventional titles like Naturally, his 1972 debut, Really, Shades, Grasshopper, Guitar Man, etc.

11. T. Rex, Mambo Sun . . . From 1971’s Electric Warrior, the album that featured the band’s big hit – at least in North America; the UK had long since embraced the group where it was consistently high on the charts – Get It On, which was retitled Bang a Gong (Get It On) for the US market. But, like, say, a band like Free known by some, particularly in North America, only for the hit single All Right Now, T. Rex was so much more. Earlier known as full dinosaur Tyrannosaurus Rex, they’d already seen success on home shores in the UK before the worldwide breakthrough as T. Rex via Get It On. Some things are just a matter of time and place. As for Mambo Sun, it’s the lead track on Electric Warrior and could easily have been a single; a funky, slinky song driven by Marc Bolan’s hypnotic guitar riff and signature boogie swagger.

12. Graham Parker, Howlin’ Wind . . . We’ve had some windy weather of late where I live in southern Ontario, so I’ve been planning to play this and finally getting around to doing so, naturally enough now that the wind, for the most part, has waned. It’s the title track from Parker’s debut album in 1976.

13. Parliament, Chocolate City . . . Typical funk excursion by Parliament in a tribute to Washington, D.C. and its black cultural influence, the title cut to an album released in April, 1975. The lyrics assign various political positions to black icons including Muhammad Ali as president, James Brown as VP, Stevie Wonder as Secretary of Fine Arts and Aretha Franklin as First Lady.

14. James Brown, It’s Too Funky In Here . . . Every time I listen to James Brown I find myself singing along, out loud or in my mind, engaging along with him in various vocalizations like ‘ugh, agh, humph, hump, yeah, yeh, oooww” . . . etc. You don’t even need any musical instruments, just groove to his voice. He’s another of those artists – Bob Dylan, Van Morrison come to my mind – whose voices are intrinsic to their sound. A song by any of them, great as covers can be, is simply not the same if it’s not them singing. And Brown kept that going through this cut from his 1979 album The Original Disco Man, and beyond.

15. Wilson Pickett, In The Midnight Hour (live extended version) . . . From the excellent, arguably all you really need 2-CD compilation A Man And A Half. It’s a previously unreleased version where Pickett, backed by Booker T. & The MGs, transforms one of his signature songs into an eight-minute, still recognizable soul workout.

I’m featuring The Concert For Bangladesh from George Harrison and musical friends released in December 1971 after the actual concert at New York’s Madison Square Garden on August 1 of that year. The show was a triumph for Harrison – whose 82nd birthday would have been this past Tuesday, February 25 – and set a precedent for benefit concerts, inspiring Live Aid and other major charity events. I’ve filled in the remainder of my 2-hour slot with a couple instrumental tracks from the “Apple Jam” portion of the former Beatle’s 1970 triple album All Things Must Pass.

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The Concert For Bangladesh

1. George Harrison/Ravi Shankar Introduction
2. Ravi Shankar, Bangla Dhun
3. George Harrison, Wah-Wah
4. George Harrison, My Sweet Lord
5. George Harrison, Awaiting On You All
6. Billy Preston, That’s The Way God Planned It
7. Ringo Starr, It Don’t Come Easy
8. George Harrison and Leon Russell, Beware Of Darkness
9. George Harrison with Eric Clapton, While My Guitar Gently Weeps
10. Leon Russell, Jumpin’ Jack Flash/Youngblood
11. George Harrison, Here Comes The Sun
12. Bob Dylan, A Hard Rain’s Gonna Fall
13. Bob Dylan, It Takes A Lot To Laugh, It Takes A Train To Cry
14. Bob Dylan, Blowin’ In The Wind
15. Bob Dylan, Mr. Tambourine Man
16. Bob Dylan, Just Like A Woman
17. George Harrison, Something
18. George Harrison, Bangla Desh

Apple Jam (from All Things Must Pass)

19. Plug Me In
20. Out Of The Blue

My track-by-track tales follow the bare-bones list and are also on my Facebook page.

So Old It’s New archive

1. Elton John, Have Mercy On The Criminal
2. Black Sabbath, Falling Off The Edge Of The World
3. Steppenwolf, Renegade
4. Bad Company, Painted Face
5. Warren Zevon, Roland The Headless Thompson Gunner (live, from Learning To Flinch)
6. The Tragically Hip, Fight
7. Roxy Music, My Only Love (from Roxy Music Live, a document of the band’s 2001 reunion tour, released in 2003)
8. The Beach Boys, I Know There’s An Answer
9. Frank Zappa, Dumb All Over (previously unreleased live version of the You Are What You Is studio track from 1981, issued on the 1997 compilation Have I Offended Someone?)
10. John Lennon, Well Well Well
11. Pete Townshend, I Am An Animal
12. The Rolling Stones, Too Tight
13. Chicago, Devil’s Sweet
14. Tom Waits, Shore Leave
15. The Butterfield Blues Band, Driftin’ And Driftin’ (from The Butterfield Blues Band Live)

My track-by-track tales:

1. Elton John, Have Mercy On The Criminal . . . Yet another deep cut from EJ’s 1970s heyday that essentially made all or most of his studio albums hits compilations. It’s from 1973’s Don’t Shoot Me I’m Only The Piano Player which yielded the hit singles Daniel and Crocodile Rock but is filled with great songs, like this one. Noted arranger, composer, conductor and longtime Elton John collaborator Paul Buckmaster handled the orchestration on a song that starts with a dramatic, fast flourish before settling in to a ballad painting, via Bernie Taupin’s lyrics, a picture of an outlaw on the run.

2. Black Sabbath, Falling Off The Edge Of The World . . . I went down the internet rabbit hole the other day when an article popped up in my feed listing what the author thought were the best Sabbath songs from the Ronnie James Dio on lead vocals era. This song, from 1981’s Mob Rules album, Dio’s second with Sabbath after 1980’s Heaven And Hell, was on the list and I agree. A moody, atmospheric opening builds the tension that you know is going to soon explode, as it does, into a full-throttle hard rock/metal assault.

3. Steppenwolf, Renegade . . . A brooding, bluesy autobiographical track about Steppenwolf leader/singer John Kay, then age 4, and his mother’s 1948 escape to the West from the Soviet occupation zone in Germany, where Kay was born. It’s from the album Steppenwolf 7, released in 1970.

4. Bad Company, Painted Face . . . Funky boogie from 1982’s Rough Diamonds album. It was the last studio album from the original Paul Rodgers-fronted Bad Company lineup that also included guitarist Mick Ralphs, drummer Simon Kirke and bassist Boz Burrell. Rodgers later returned, off and on, in various later configurations of the band for tours and to record four then-new songs for the 1999 original lineup reunion compilation The ‘Original’ Bad Co. Anthology.

5. Warren Zevon, Roland The Headless Thompson Gunner (live, from Learning To Flinch) . . . Live albums aren’t everyone’s cup of tea and while I generally prefer studio versions of songs, I do like concert albums because they can obviously go down entirely new avenues as artists may rearrange or otherwise adjust and adapt their tunes. This version of the track originally on Zevon’s 1978 breakthrough album Excitable Boy (which featured the hit single Werwolves Of London) is a perfect example. Learning To Flinch, released in 1993, is from a solo acoustic world tour Zevon did in 1992, just him on guitar, keyboards, harmonica and vocals. On Roland, he takes what was a shade under four-minute studio track and reworks it into an 11-minute haunting epic. It starts with “Roland Chorale”, an instrumental intro that merges into a familiar yet, in Zevon’s voice and piano playing, transformed yet still-recognizable song about his fictional mercenary.

6. The Tragically Hip, Fight . . . I had the Hip on my list of artists I hadn’t played in a while so here they are, finally, again prompted in some measure by a discussion about the band I had with a friend last week. Fight is from the classic 1991 album Road Apples. It’s a bluesy groove tune with lyrics to which anyone who’s been in a relationship can relate.

“We wake up different, rifle through our dreams
Another placid day ripples at the seams
Do you think I bow out ’cause I think you’re right
Or ’cause I don’t want to fight?
Do you think I bow out ’cause I think you’re right

“We lay down seething, smell our pillows burn
And drift off to the place where you’d think we’d learn
Do you think I bow out ’cause I think you’re right
Or ’cause I don’t want to fight?
“Do you think I bow out ’cause I think you’re right
Or ’cause I don’t want to fight?
Oh, go ahead and fight
I give, oh, I give, I said, I give”

7. Roxy Music, My Only Love (from Roxy Music Live, a document of the band’s 2001 reunion tour, released in 2003) . . . Extended version of a song originally on 1980’s Flesh And Blood studio album. It’s a terrific live album with, on this track, Phil Manzanera’s expressive guitar solo near the end leading into a showcase, as lead singer Bryan Ferry cedes the stage, for the vocalizations of backing singers Sarah Brown, Yanick Etienne, Michelle John and Sharon White. It’s reminiscent to me of Clare Torry’s performance on Pink Floyd’s The Great Gig In The Sky.

8. The Beach Boys, I Know There’s An Answer . . . From Pet Sounds, the 1966 album that, by most accounts, inspired The Beatles to produce their Sgt. Pepper album, released in 1967. I Know There’s An Answer was originally titled Hang On To Your Ego but objections arose within the band as to lyrics referring to drug culture, so it was rewritten although Hang On To Your Ego has appeared as a bonus track on various reissues of Pet Sounds. Musically, the song features an unorthodox structure driven by myriad instruments including guitars, tambourine, piano, banjo, clarinets, flutes, electric keyboards, timpani and harmonica.

9. Frank Zappa, Dumb All Over (previously unreleased live version of the You Are What You Is studio track from 1981, issued on the 1997 compilation Have I Offended Someone?) . . . A typically scathing Zappa social commentary punctuated by an incendiary guitar solo.

10. John Lennon, Well Well Well . . . Grungy guitars from well before ‘grunge’ was a musical genre, spare production, raw, primal scream therapy vocals, all from the harrowing, personal, Plastic Ono Band album, released in 1970. Hugely influential album on my impressionable young mind, musically but particularly lyrically in the songs God and Working Class Hero, both of which I’ve played before on the show and inevitably will return to.

11. Pete Townshend, I Am An Animal . . . . An introspective song from 1980’s Empty Glass, featuring the immortal line “I will be immersed, Queen of the fucking universe.” A terrific hit album full of great songs that prompted Who singer Roger Daltrey to suggest that Townshend was by that point saving his best stuff for himself or, at least, spreading himself too thin in terms of providing material for the mother ship band. The counter to Daltrey’s argument would be that Townshend’s songs can be intensely personal and even as far back as 1975’s album The Who By Numbers, Daltrey was reluctant to sing songs like However Much I Booze – lead vocals by Townshend – since they were so clearly tales of Townshend’s travails.

12. The Rolling Stones, Too Tight . . . The kind of energetic riff rocker the Stones seem to be able to toss off in their sleep, which isn’t a criticism by any stretch. It’s another indication of their innate songwriting abilities resulting in deep cuts like this, from 1997’s Bridges To Babylon album, that many bands would love to have as a single.

13. Chicago, Devil’s Sweet . . . Some have compared this 10-minute instrumental jazz-rock fusion piece from Chicago VII in 1974 to Weather Report with slices of Miles Davis, Santana and Soft Machine. It’s all of those things in at least some measure but really, it’s simply Chicago in their early glory days of inventive, experimental energy, this time propelled by shifting time signatures and Danny Seraphine’s great drumming. A universe away from the schlock show, albeit a commercially successful schlock show, they later became.

14. Tom Waits, Shore Leave . . . Surreal, percussive, almost industrial sounds on this noir-like track from 1983’s Swordfishtrombones album. And that’s just the music. Lyrically, we follow . . . No, check that, we ‘see’, through Waits’ words, a sailor on shore leave through various encounters in, apparently, Hong Kong while “trying to make it all last, squeezing all the life out of a lousy two day pass.”

Someone on YouTube summed it up nicely: “A movie in 4:16” (the song time).

15. The Butterfield Blues Band, Driftin’ And Driftin’ (from The Butterfield Blues Band Live) . . . Live version of a track originally on the third Butterfield Band studio album, The Resurrection Of Pigboy Crabshaw, released in 1967. By the time of The Butterfield Blues Band Live’s recording at The Troubador in Los Angeles in early 1970, Pigboy (guitarist Elvin Bishop’s nickname) had left the band which now featured a four-man horn section with Ralph Wash on guitar. The group had evolved into a blues outfit with jazz and R & B chops ranging all over the musical map. It’s compelling stuff, led always by Butterfield’s singing and harmonica playing which is well described in liner notes.

“His mix of amplified and acoustic work on Driftin’ and Driftin’ show how he could capture and enthrall an audience with his emotive style; his instrumental is a mini-history of the blues harp, not only calling to mind Butterfield’s mentor Little Walter but Sonny Boy Williamson, Rice Miller (aka Sonny Boy Williamson II) and others. However it is never the work of a copyist. It is always the immediately recognizable sound and style of Paul Butterfield.”