I go from mostly short and sweet with my Brian Wilson/Beach Boys tribute set last Saturday – 42 songs including the 13 from Wilson’s masterpiece album Pet Sounds – to just nine total songs this week: Lengthy progressive rock pieces bracketing a few shorter psychedelic soul funk rock cuts from Sly And The Family Stone in tribute to the passing of Sly Stone, two days before Wilson last week, both age 82. A genre-shifting set perhaps, but that’s how my mind sometimes works so here you go. My track tales follow the bare-bones list. This is my final show.
1. Pink Floyd, Shine On You Crazy Diamond (Part One)
2. The Alan Parsons Project, The Turn Of A Friendly Card (Suite) – The Turn Of A Friendly Card/Snake Eyes/The Ace Of Swords/Nothing Left To Lose/The Turn Of A Friendly Card (Part II)
3. Emerson, Lake & Palmer, Tarkus (Eruption/Stones Of Years/Iconoclast/Mass/Manticore/Battlefield/Aquatarkus)
4. Sly & The Family Stone, Thank You For Talkin’ To Me, Africa
5. Sly & The Family Stone, Frisky
6. Sly & The Family Stone, Just Like A Baby
7. Sly & The Family Stone, I Want To Take You Higher
8. Yes, Shoot High Aim Low
9. Pink Floyd, Shine On You Crazy Diamond (Part Two)
My track tales:
1. Pink Floyd, Shine On You Crazy Diamond (Part One) . . . Lead track on 1975’s Wish You Were Here, part two of which closes that album as it will close my set.
2. The Alan Parsons Project, The Turn Of A Friendly Card (Suite) – The Turn Of A Friendly Card/Snake Eyes/The Ace Of Swords/Nothing Left To Lose/The Turn Of A Friendly Card (Part II) . . . Title track to the 1980 album, a near-17 minute suite blending pop accessibility with prog structure. The various pieces within the overall suite are distinct yet contribute thematically to the whole.
3. Emerson, Lake & Palmer, Tarkus (Eruption/Stones Of Years/Iconoclast/Mass/Manticore/Battlefield/Aquatarkus) . . . A shade under 21 minutes of prog rock excess if one views it that way and finds the genre pretentious, which is fair comment. I get it and share that view when I’m in my raunch and roll phases which is the majority of the time. But, music is all about mood so to me right now it’s a shade under 21 minutes of prog rock perfection or at least magnificence, this title cut to ELP’s 1971 album. Besides which, any time one can listen to Greg Lake’s beautiful singing voice – which I first cottoned to via his performance on King Crimson’s 1969 debut album In The Court Of The Crimson King – is time well spent amid the overall epic.
4. Sly & The Family Stone, Thank You For Talkin’ To Me, Africa . . . Hypnotic, funky, rhythmic jam from 1971’s There’s A Riot Goin’ On album. A reimagined slower version of the band’s 1969 hit Thank You (Falettinme Be Mice Elf Agin).
5. Sly & The Family Stone, Frisky . . . Another intoxicating track, this one from 1973’s Fresh album.
Alternate cover
6. Sly & The Family Stone, Just Like A Baby . . . Funky and soul-inflected which is what one would expect from the artist but I find it somewhat bluesy as well. Great groove, from There’s A Riot Goin’ On.
7. Sly & The Family Stone, I Want To Take You Higher . . . A well-known track, and a great one it is. It appears on various compilations but was actually a B-side to Stand in 1969.
8. Yes, Shoot High Aim Low . . . From 1987’s Big Generator album. Despite the somewhat sleek 1980s production from the 90125 album/Owner Of A Lonely Heart hit single version of Yes, Shoot High Aim Low – featuring guitarist Trevor Rabin instead of Yes perennial Steve Howe, who was in the supergroup Asia by then – is something of a throwback to the classic 1970s sound of earlier versions of the band. I had intended to play some early classic Yes, perhaps something like Close To The Edge but then I got tinkering with my trusty YesYears box set, from which I pulled Shoot High Aim Low. I don’t own Big Generator – well, I did once but traded it in – because I wasn’t into the 1980s production, but obviously a track I’d overlooked.
Big Generator was the followup studio album to 1983’s 90125 during a time when Yes had splintered into so many camps, starting with 1980’s Drama album, that it was difficult to keep track of who was in what group. The, er, drama began when members of The Buggles of Video Killed The Radio Star hit single fame entered the picture. Trevor Horn took over from Jon Anderson on lead vocals with Geoff Downes, later in Asia with Howe, on keyboards. But first, Downes replaced Rick Wakeman in Yes, with Wakeman later joining the Yes-ish band Anderson (drummer Bill) Bruford Wakeman Howe, all of whom had been Yes-men at one time or another.
As the actor Robert Shaw’s crime boss character in the 1973 award winning movie The Sting starring Paul Newman and Robert Redford was wont to say, ‘ya falla (follow)?’
Take your time catching up while I finish connecting the dots in the wacky world of Yes and associated lineups. Originally, the 90125 version of Yes, with Rabin, was going to be called Cinema but during the recording sessions, an invitation was extended to Jon Anderson to return as lead singer and so it became a Yes album – which included an instrumental called Cinema among its tracks.
Eventually, everyone kissed and made up for 1991’s Union album and tour of merged members, eight in all, followed by future splits in the extended family that continue to this day.
9. Pink Floyd, Shine On You Crazy Diamond (Part Two) . . . We end where we began, Part Two of the Wish You Were Here track.
A tribute to Brian Wilson of The Beach Boys, who died on Wednesday. I’m playing his magnum opus, the 1966 album Pet Sounds followed by some deeper Beach Boys tracks from their post-surfer hits days, then closing with a mixture of well-known hits and album tracks. Many of those, picked by Wilson himself, were packaged on The Beach Boys Classics selected by Brian Wilson, a diverse collection released in 2002. I also drew from Greatest Hits Volume Three: Best of the Brother Years 1970–1986.
I plan to get to some Sly and The Family Stone material on my Monday June 16 show, a week after Sly Stone‘s passing, like Wilson also at age 82. My commentary on Pet Sounds, the rest of The Beach Boys material and some personal memories triggered by Wilson’s passing follows the track listings.
1. Wouldn’t It Be Nice
2. You Still Believe In Me
3. That’s Not Me
4. Don’t Talk (Put Your Head On My Shoulder)
5. I’m Waiting For The Day
6. Let’s Go Away For A While
7. Sloop John B
8. God Only Knows
9. I Know There’s An Answer
10. Here Today
11. I Just Wasn’t Made For These Times
12. Pet Sounds
13. Caroline No
—————–
1. Add Some Music To Your Day
2. All Summer Long
3. The Warmth Of The Sun
4. In My Room
5. Busy Doin’ Nothin’
6. This Whole World
7. Heroes And Villains
8. We’re Together Again
9. Time To Get Alone
10. Marcella
11. Honkin’ Down The Highway
12. It’s O.K.
13. Good Timin’
14. Goin’ On
15. Do It Again
16. I Get Around
17. Rock And Roll Music (Chuck Berry cover)
18. California Girls
19. Do You Wanna Dance
20. Help Me Rhonda
21. Surfer Girl
22. Surfin’ Safari
23. Surfin’ USA
24. Good Vibrations
25. Fun, Fun, Fun
26. ‘Til I Die
27. Shut Down
28. Surf’s Up
29. Sail On, Sailor
My track tales/musical memories:
My formative musical listening years were shaped in large measure by my two older siblings in our family of five kids, me being the middle child ahead of two younger brothers. In their mid- to late teens at the time, my older brother and sister were experiencing the explosion of rock and pop music and culture, things like 1967’s Summer Of Love, at that age when one’s eyes and ears are truly opening and so I was fortunate to bask in the reflected glow of the great music to which they helped introduce me.
My older brother by eight years opened my ears to artists like Jimi Hendrix, Cream, Led Zeppelin and Jethro Tull. My sister, four years older, turned me on to The Beatles, Rolling Stones and Beach Boys which my older brother also liked but my sister played more often while he tended to lean towards heavier material. So, I got the best of both worlds.
I remember, age 5, seeing The Beatles and the Stones on The Ed Sullivan Show within months of each other in 1964 and hearing some of their early songs. But my sister was the one who truly introduced me to their records via the Stones compilation albums Big Hits (High Tide And Green Grass) and Flowers plus Beatles studio albums Rubber Soul, Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club and, a bit later, Abbey Road. She never did own The Beatles (best known as The White Album) that I recall, silly sis, 🙂 but I heard it first via a friend and later bought it myself. Somehow, amid various moves and family members now spread throughout North America, I wound up in possession of and still have her original vinyl release of Abbey Road. It’s now somewhat unique in that it does not list the hidden track Her Majesty on the cover as subsequent re-releases do.
All of which in a roundabout down memory lane sort of way brings us to Pet Sounds which my sister also owned and is definitely tied to The Beatles. All artists influence each other and from what I’ve read, Brian Wilson was inspired at least in part by 1965’s Rubber Soul in creating Pet Sounds, out in 1966, which then inspired The Beatles, particularly Paul McCartney, to respond with Sgt. Pepper, released in 1967.
“The biggest influence on Sgt. Pepper was Pet Sounds by The Beach Boys,” McCartney was quoted as saying in a 1980 interview as related in the 1994 book of album-by-album/song analysis The Complete Guide To The Music Of The Beatles. “That album just flipped me. When I heard it, I thought ‘Oh dear, this is the album of all time. What the hell are we going to do?’ My ideas took off from that standard.”
Yet Pepper is/was a much more instantly accessible listen, at least for me and perhaps others in comparison to Pet Sounds. I instantly liked Wouldn’t It Be Nice and the traditional Caribbean cover Sloop John B but the rest of it, including the brilliant God Only Knows, took me a bit longer. But, like any great art, once you ‘get it’ it’s embedded forever. Such is the lasting and influential legacy of Wilson’s wonderful work, an album he considered a solo record.
It started a move away from the surfer hits that had sustained the Beach Boys to that point and made them stars and a consistent presence on the singles and album charts. The decline, at least commercially but I’d maintain definitely not musically, then set in where their albums sold progressively less while it could be argued their music advanced in many ways or, at least, took different, interesting directions. Yet while their commercial fortunes faded on home shores in America, Beach Boys albums from Pet Sounds forward consistently sold better in the UK and elsewhere than in the USA. That is, until the 1976 album 15 Big Ones that, driven by their top 5 cover of Chuck Berry’s Rock And Roll Music, made No. 8 on the US album charts but only No. 31 in the UK.
The Beach Boys later had a worldwide No. 1 hit with 1988’s Kokomo which Brian Wilson played no part in and while perhaps a guilty pleasure, yeah it’s catchy but it’s also latter-day Chicago-level schlock to me.
I’m closing things out with one of my favorite Beach Boys tracks, their top-50 1973 hit Sail On, Sailor which I think appropriate as Wilson sails off into the sunset. He co-wrote the song, one he said he didn’t like, yet he selected it for the aforementioned compilation The Beach Boys Classics selected by Brian Wilson, saying in the liner notes “I love how this song rocks.” And it does. It’s sung by Blondie Chaplin, briefly a member of The Beach Boys who starting in 1997 spent more than a decade as a touring musician with The Rolling Stones.
1. The Rolling Stones, Out Of Control (live, from No Security)
2. The Stooges, No Fun
3. Jethro Tull, Hymn 43
4. Deep Purple, Lady Double Dealer
5. Black Sabbath, Turn Up The Night
6. Fight, Into The Pit
7. Budgie, Hot As A Docker’s Armpit
8. Steppenwolf, Hippo Stomp
9. Led Zeppelin, Heartbreaker (live, from How The West Was Won)
10. Genesis, Dodo/Lurker
11. Stevie Ray Vaughan, Couldn’t Stand The Weather
12. April Wine, Electric Jewels
13. The Who, Now I’m A Farmer
14. The Flying Burrito Brothers, Wild Horses
15. Blood, Sweat & Tears, Mean Ole World (live)
16. The Allman Brothers Band, I’m Gonna Move To The Outskirts Of Town (from Live At Ludlow Garage, 1970)
My track-by-track tales:
1. The Rolling Stones, Out Of Control (live, from No Security) . . . A prime example of a song truly coming, er, alive in a concert setting. Inspired by and somewhat derivative, particularly the bass line, of The Temptations Papa Was A Rollin’ Stone, Out Of Control was one of the highlights of the 1997 Stones’ album Bridges To Babylon and compelling enough in its 4:43 track time studio version. That’s about the time when this propulsive eight-minute live version from the Babylon tour truly takes off with the guitar assault – including terrific wah wah from Ronnie Wood – kicking in and building to a crescendo, Mick Jagger’s wailing harmonica adding to the mix when he’s not verbally egging the band on. To me, Out Of Control is something of a latter-day Midnight Rambler (from 1969’s Let It Bleed album) if one draws comparisons between live and studio versions. Both are compelling tracks regardless but truly take off live, evidenced by the concert rendition of Midnight Rambler from Get Yer Ya Ya’s Out!, widely considered the definitive version.
2. The Stooges, No Fun . . . Rollicking raunch from the garage rock greats’ self-titled debut album, released in 1969. Down and dirty droning, gritty guitar from Ron Asheton coupled with Iggy Pop’s tossed-off, drawling vocal delivery. Great, influential stuff by the proto-punk pioneers.
3. Jethro Tull, Hymn 43 . . . From Aqualung, Tull’s 1971 album and one of their best rockers complete with caustic commentary – as is the whole album – on organized religion. ‘If Jesus saves, well, he better save himself from the gory glory seekers who use his name in death.’
4. Deep Purple, Lady Double Dealer . . . A good demonstration of bassist Glenn Hughes adding, with his ‘oh baby’ break, to David Coverdale’s lead vocals on this charging rocker from Stormbringer. It was the Mark III version of Deep Purple’s second album and second one, after Burn, released in 1974. The Mark III lineup: Ritchie Blackmore (guitar), Ian Paice (drums), Jon Lord (keyboards), Coverdale (lead vocals), Hughes (bass, vocals). Deep Purple is now at Mark IX – Ian Gillan (long since back on lead vocals), Roger Glover (bass), Paice (drums), Don Airey (keyboards) and Simon McBride (guitar).
5. Black Sabbath, Turn Up The Night . . . A hot rocker from the 1981 Mob Rules album, the second featuring Ronnie James Dio on lead vocals, replacing Ozzy Osbourne. It’s something to me of a companion piece to Neon Knights from Heaven And Hell, the 1980 album that marked Dio’s debut with Sabbath. Both are kick-butt rockers, both lead off their respective albums, with each record also featuring similar epics in Children Of The Sea from Heaven And Hell and The Sign Of The Southern Cross on Mob Rules. Similar but different, all of them superb.
6. Fight, Into The Pit . . . From War Of Words, the debut Fight album released in 1993 after lead singer Rob Halford left Judas Priest. He was replaced by Tim ‘Ripper’ Owens for the studio albums Jugulator (1997) and Demolition (2001) and two live records. Halford returned for a reunion tour I saw in 2004 followed by the 2005 studio album Angel Of Retribution and subsequent Priest releases to the present day. Into The Pit is a screaming shredder in line with the speed metal of Painkiller, the 1990 album that was Halford’s last with Priest before he temporarily moved on.
7. Budgie, Hot As A Docker’s Armpit . . . What a title and what a riff. A stop-start rocker from the influential if not supremely commercially successful Welsh metal mavens. Budgie has been cited by Metallica, Megadeth and Iron Maiden, among others, as being an important influence with Metallica covering Breadfan and Crash Course In Brain Surgery. Docker’s Armpit is from the 1972 album Squawk with cover art of a dive-bombing fighter jet budgie by Roger Dean. Dean is likely best known for his Yes album covers but did several for Budgie as well as Uriah Heep and Asia.
8. Steppenwolf, Hippo Stomp . . . Swampy groove from Steppenwolf 7, released in 1970. The album was so named due to its being the band’s seventh overall to that point, counting two live albums.
9. Led Zeppelin, Heartbreaker (live, from How The West Was Won) . . . Slightly speeded up, as live music can tend to be, version of the Led Zeppelin II track. This raucous version was released on the 2003 triple-CD How The West Was Won, culled from a pair of 1972 California concerts in Los Angeles and nearby Long Beach.
10. Genesis, Dodo/Lurker . . . I like the driving nature of this one, similar in that way to the title track from the album from whence it came, 1981’s Abacab. The Phil Collins-fronted Genesis was well down the path of accessible, commercial hit-making by then but I thought still nicely retained and combined elements of their early progressive rock sound.
11. Stevie Ray Vaughan, Couldn’t Stand The Weather . . . Can’t do much about the weather I suppose but nevertheless I’ve been uncharacteristically bitching about our largely lousy, rainy for the most part spring in southern Ontario. But, to quote the Vulcan elder T’Pau in the Star Trek original series episode Amok Time, ‘the air is the air’ when Dr. McCoy complains to her that Captain Kirk doesn’t have a chance in a forced fight with Mr. Spock due to the heat and thinner air on Vulcan. The weather is the weather. Inspiration comes from everywhere, hence this title track to SRV’s 1984 album.
12. April Wine, Electric Jewels . . . I can never get enough of this atmospheric title track from the 1973 album. From prog to hard rock to ballad and back again, all within six minutes.
13. The Who, Now I’m A Farmer . . . Ah, that unique rat-a-tat just on the edge of losing control drumming of Keith Moon, but just a fun romp overall. Issued on an album of outtakes and such compiled by Who bassist John Entwistle, appropriately titled Odds & Sods, that filled a gap between proper studio albums when released in 1974. It did the job nicely, hitting No. 10 in the UK and 15 in the USA. Originally a 10-track release, it was expanded to a 23-song CD in 1998 which is appropriate in that it was originally conceived as a double album given the volume of material Entwistle said was available in the vaults.
14. The Flying Burrito Brothers, Wild Horses . . . One of those songs that was released by someone else before the band for which it is famous put it out. The country-rocking Burritos, led by Gram Parsons who was particularly friendly with and an influence on Keith Richards, released the Richards-Mick Jagger-penned piece on their second album, 1970’s Burrito Deluxe.
15. Blood, Sweat & Tears, Mean Ole World (live) . . . Not quite rock, not quite blues, not quite jazz, just BS & T. Recorded in 1975, the song appeared on In Concert which was released only in Europe and Japan. It was re-released worldwide in 1991 under the album title Live and Improvised.
16. The Allman Brothers Band, I’m Gonna Move To The Outskirts Of Town (from Live At Ludlow Garage, 1970) . . . Extended slow to mid-tempo how I like my blues. It was recorded in April 1970 at the Cincinnati venue Ludlow Garage featuring the original lineup of Gregg (vocals, organ) and Duane (guitar) Allman, Dickey Betts (guitar), Berry Oakley (bass), Butch Trucks (drums, percussion) and Jai Johanny (aka Jaimoe) Johanson. The song first came out officially on the Dreams box set in 1989 and then on Live At Ludlow Garage, released in 1990. The entire Ludlow set has since been added to expanded re-releases of the second Allmans studio album Idlewild South which originally came out in September 1970.
A ‘27 Club‘ album set featuring artists from the so-called 27 Club of those who died at age 27: Jimi Hendrix, Kurt Cobain of Nirvana and Jim Morrison of The Doors. On the menu: Hendrix’s incendiary performance at the 1967 Monterey International Pop Festival, Nirvana’s 1991 grunge breakthrough Nevermind and The Doors’ Strange Days, the second of two albums, including the debut, the band released in 1967. My thoughts on the albums follow the track listings.
1. Introduction by Brian Jones (also a member of the 27 Club) of The Rolling Stones
2. Killing Floor
3. Foxey Lady
4. Like A Rolling Stone
5. Rock Me Baby
6. Hey Joe
7. Can You See Me
8. The Wind Cries Mary
9. Purple Haze
10. Wild Thing
1. Smells Like Teen Spirit
2. In Bloom
3. Come As You Are
4. Breed
5. Lithium
6. Polly
7. Territorial Pissings
8. Drain You
9. Lounge Act
10. Stay Away
11. On A Plain
12. Something In The Way
1. Strange Days
2. You’re Lost Little Girl
3. Love Me Two Times
4. Unhappy Girl
5. Horse Latitudes
6. Moonlight Drive
7. People Are Strange
8. My Eyes Have Seen You
9. I Can’t See Your Face In My Mind
10. When The Music’s Over
My track tales/album analyses:
The Jimi Hendrix Experience Live At Monterey (2007 Experience Hendrix family trust release)
I first heard songs from this album, which has come out in various forms in whole or in part, when my older brother, who introduced me to so much great music, brought home Historic Performances Recorded at the Monterey International Pop Festival.
Side one of that original vinyl, released in 1970, had four songs by Hendrix; side two was five by Otis Redding. I was immediately struck by Hendrix’s performance of Bob Dylan’s Like A Rolling Stone and Redding’s reworking of The Rolling Stones’ Satisfaction plus his own Respect – including Redding’s playful intro about how Aretha Franklin had taken the song from him. Otis’s 1965 single reached No. 4 on the R & B charts and No. 35 on the overall Hot 100 while in 1967 Aretha’s version went to No. 1 on both lists.
“This is another one of mine, a song we’d like to do for everybody . . . a song that a girl took away from me, a good friend of mine, this girl she just took this song, but I’m still gonna do it anyway.”
Sadly, six months out from the Monterey festival, held June 16-18, 1967, Redding died in a plane crash between tour stops, two months after turning 26. But we still have his immortal music including the Monterey performance. It was issued as part of a terrific 4-CD box set package of the festival, released by Union Square Music’s classic album reissue label Salvo in 2013. Among the artists: The Who, Jefferson Airplane, Big Brother And The Holding Company (Janis Joplin) and The Byrds.
In addition to the four songs on ‘Historic Performances’, Hendrix’s Monterey set was released on its own in 1986 as Jimi Plays Monterey before the Hendrix family trust took over and re-issued it as The Jimi Hendrix Experience Live At Monterey in 2007.
Nirvana’s Nevermind was the album – fueled by its biggest hit single Smells Like Teen Spirit – that broke the Seattle grunge sound big and opened the commercial success door to such bands as Pearl Jam, Soundgarden, Alice In Chains and any other act from that city that record companies, for a brief time at least, figured they could milk profit from. Most who have heard the album know its singles like Teen Spirit, Come As You Are, Lithium, In Bloom . . . yet among my favorites, certainly my favorite deep cut from the album, is Polly. It’s a compellingly catchy acoustic song I liked from the first time I heard it, without at first knowing its background.
Upon learning what inspired it – an arguably perversely beautiful song about a horrible, life-damaging event, which I suppose was writer Kurt Cobain’s intent – I’ve since been somewhat conflicted about liking it. It’s harrowing listening once you know the subject matter. On the flip side, what is great art if not to inform and perhaps force us to think and feel? Polly is about the abduction, rape, and torture of a 14-year-old girl returning home from a punk rock concert in Tacoma, Washington in 1987. Thankfully, the girl escaped and the perpetrator, Gerald Friend, was captured and is currently serving two consecutive 75-year prison terms. And, hopefully, his victim is alive and as well as one could be, if that’s even possible, after the trauma of such an event. She’d be age 52 now.
I am missing one track in my play of the Nevermind album, that being the experimental ‘noise rock’ ‘song’ Endless, Nameless that was a hidden track after Something In The Way, the last listed song on the record. It took 10 minutes of silence to get there. Was it worth the wait? I don’t think so and I’m all for, uh, creativity. I listened to it once, when I first got the album and noticed the CD player time still ticking, interminably. Never listened to it again until I checked it out on YouTube, where it’s available as an isolated track, while prepping the show. It’s an OK track, I guess, but all these years later it’s confirmed that I haven’t missed much, if anything. And the fact it’s not included on vinyl re-releases of the album – although it was included as a separate song on expanded CD reissues – says something.
According to various sources, the hidden track was inspired by Her Majesty from The Beatles’ Abbey Road, arguably the most famous if not the first hidden track in rock music history. If so, geez, Nirvana, gimme a break. The Beatles didn’t make you wait through 10 minutes of dead air, in the Fab Four’s case it was a few seconds, as was the case 10 years later with The Clash on London Calling and Train in Vain (Stand by Me), a last minute addition to that album. I suppose one could fast forward Something In The Way, the last listed Nirvana track on Nevermind, to get to the hidden song which occupies the same track as Something In The Way. Not worth the effort. And then other bands started doing similar long waits until a hidden track, something of a short-lived fad. Sorry, I don’t have the patience for that BS. If your song is any good, put it within easily accessible reach on the album or as a separate single. But at least we have good citizens out there who extract such songs and put them on platforms like YouTube, so they’re there if anyone is interested.
We conclude with The Doors and the ‘just what you’d be expecting’ set closer, When The Music’s Over from Strange Days. No sophomore slump for these guys on their second album, their second of 1967, released in September after the self-titled debut came out eight months earlier. A great selection of songs, Strange Days, from its opening Moog synthesizer-driven title track through familiar fare like People Are Strange (No. 1 in Canada, No. 10 in the USA), You’re Lost Little Girl, Love Me Two Times and Moonlight Drive. Just another of those classic albums that’s a compelling front-to-back listen.
1. Triumph, Blinding Light Show/Moonchild
2. Argent, The Coming Of Kohoutek/Once Around The Sun/Infinite Wanderer
3. Supertramp, A Soapbox Opera
4. Ian Hunter, Noises
5. Roxy Music, For Your Pleasure (live, from 2003 reunion tour)
6. U2, God Part II
7. Arc Angels, Sent By Angels
8. Headstones, Tweeter And The Monkey Man (acoustic version)
9. Dire Straits, Millionaire Blues
10. The Allman Brothers Band, Loaded Dice
11. The Allman Brothers Band, Gambler’s Roll
12. Jose Feliciano, You’re No Good
13. Linda Ronstadt, You’re No Good
14. Van Halen, You’re No Good
15. Nazareth, Alcatraz
16. Mike Bloomfield/Al Kooper/Steve Stills, Season Of The Witch
17. The Rolling Stones, How Can I Stop
My track-by-track tales:
1. Triumph, Blinding Light Show/Moonchild . . . Progressive hard rocker from the Canadian trio to open the show, from the band’s self-titled debut album released in 1976, later retitled In The Beginning on a 1995 CD re-release.
2. Argent, The Coming Of Kohoutek/Once Around The Sun/Infinite Wanderer . . . An all instrumental cosmic journey making one song out of three from the first three tracks of Argent’s 1974 album Nexus. Best known for the 1971 single Hold Your Head Up, Rod Argent of Zombies fame’s later band was often much more. As for Kohoutek, those of a certain age, like me at closing in on 66, well remember the hype about that comet in 1973 which by all accounts was spectacular viewing in space but for we earthlings wedded to our planet, not so much. But songs came out of it, including The Coming Of Kohoutek as the first of three consecutive instrumental tracks from the Nexus album that flow like a mini-symphony.
3. Supertramp, A Soapbox Opera . . .Speaking of symphonies, somewhat symphonic rock from the 1975 album Crisis? What Crisis? with that familiar infectious refrain of ‘I said, Father Washington, you’re all mixed up collecting sinners in an old tin cup’ . . . A deep cut but a familiar one as were most of the songs on the sterling series of albums – Crime Of The Century, Crisis, Even In The Quietest Moments and Breakfast In America – Supertramp released between 1974 and 1979.
4. Ian Hunter, Noises . . . Beautifully metallic and industrial, er, noise indeed, from Hunter’s 1981 album Short Back n’ Sides from which this track is drawn. Funky electronica of sorts, played on and co-produced, along with guitarist Mick Ronson, by The Clash members Mick Jones and Topper Headon.
5. Roxy Music, For Your Pleasure (live) . . . Quirky, hypnotic title cut to Roxy’s 1973 album given the live treatment on the band’s 2001 reunion tour that was given live release in 2003 as Roxy Music Live.
6. U2, God Part II . . I played John Lennon’s Plastic Ono Band album last Saturday, a record that contained the classic song God which inspired U2 to this terrific rocked up recital of U2’s own beliefs, or not, as with Lennon’s original tune. It came out on the live/studio hybrid album Rattle And Hum in 1988.
7. Arc Angels, Sent By Angels . . . Blues rock from the one and only album, self-titled, released in 1992 featuring friends – guitarists Doyle Bramhall II and Charlie Sexton – and former members – drummer Chris Layton and bassist Tommy Shannon – of Stevie Ray Vaughan’s band Double Trouble. The group formed after Vaughan’s death and is still around, doing live gigs although no new studio material has ever been released. No singles were issued from the album although Sent By Angels and Living In A Dream got a fair bit of FM radio play. Bramhall went on to work extensively with Eric Clapton and also was a fixture on tours by Roger Waters of Pink Floyd fame, his guitar prominent on Waters’ 2000 CD/DVD release In the Flesh – Live.
8. Headstones, Tweeter And The Monkey Man (acoustic version) . . . Headstones covered this Bob Dylan-penned Traveling Wilburys track in rocked up raucous style on their debut 1993 album Picture Of Health. They re-did it, unplugged and more in line with the original Wilburys version, on the 2014 release One In The Chamber Music which featured acoustic versions of well-known Headstones songs such as When Something Stands For Nothing and Smile And Wave.
9. Dire Straits, Millionaire Blues . . . A nice groove on this blues shuffle. I was prompted to play it thanks to a Dire Straits discussion I had with a friend and show follower after I recently played The Man’s Too Strong from the 1985 album Brothers In Arms. Millionaire Blues was a B-side to the single Calling Elvis from what turned out to be Dire Straits’ last studio album, the 1991 release On Every Street.
10. The Allman Brothers Band, Loaded Dice . . . From Seven Turns, the 1990 reunion album that followed a successful tour the Allmans undertook after the 1989 release of the Dreams box set, a great collection which renewed interest in the band. Lead vocals on this one by guitarist Warren Haynes in his first outing with the Allmans, joining them after having been in guitarist Dickey Betts’s solo band. Haynes went on to form Gov’t Mule while remaining a key cog in the Allmans, also appearing on their final three studio albums – Shades Of Two Worlds (1991), Where It All Begins (1994) and Hittin’ The Note (2003) – and multiple live releases.
11. The Allman Brothers Band, Gambler’s Roll . . . Gregg Allman back on lead vocals with his typical soulful delivery on this slow blues, also from the Seven Turns album.
12. Jose Feliciano, You’re No Good . . . I got stuck in a rut but it’s a good one as here come three different versions of You’re No Good, which goes back to 1963 and was arguably most notably done by Linda Ronstadt, whose No. 1 hit version from 1974’s Heart Like A Wheel album I’m playing in about three minutes. But first, Feliciano, the Puerto Rican musician who puts his typical Latin stamp on the song, as he did with countless covers including the Doors’ Light My Fire and California Dreamin’ by The Mamas & The Papas. But he could write, too, notably Feliz Navidad and the theme music to the 1970s sitcom Chico and the Man.
13. Linda Ronstadt, You’re No Good . . . Every time I play or think of Linda Ronstadt three things come to mind. 1. Her great music. 2. The excellent 2019 documentary Linda Ronstadt: The Sound of My Voice which I highly recommend. 3. The fact that beautiful singing voice has been taken from her, and us, as a result of her having progressive supranuclear palsy, often misdiagnosed as Parkinson’s disease, all of which is touched upon in the documentary.
14. Van Halen, You’re No Good . . . Heavy stuff, which is what one would expect from Van Halen, from Van Halen II, released in 1979 with David Lee Roth on lead vocals. Another in a long line of Van Halen-ized covers that includes The Kinks’ You Really Got Me and Where Have All The Good Times Gone, Roy Orbison’s Oh, Pretty Woman and Dancing in the Street made famous by Martha and the Vandellas.
15. Nazareth, Alcatraz . . . Raunchy stuff written by Leon Russell and further rocked up by Nazareth on 1973’s Razamanaz album. It’ll probably send me back for another round of ‘did they make it?’ escape from Alcatraz documentaries as well as Clint Eastwood’s 1979 movie Escape From Alcatraz.
16. Mike Bloomfield/Al Kooper/Steve Stills, Season Of The Witch . . . A Donovan Leitch song covered by, among others, Vanilla Fudge. This version, from 1968’s Super Session album and sung by Kooper, features Stills on guitar. He was a hastily-recruited replacement for Bloomfield, who abruptly left after the first day of the scheduled two-day session citing fatigue due to insomnia. Bloomfield played on the five tracks that became side one of the original vinyl album, with Stills on board for the four songs on side two.
17. The Rolling Stones, How Can I Stop . . . A Keith Richards song that closes the Stones’ 1997 album Bridges To Babylon. He’s considered a raunchy rock and roller, which he is. Yet many of his songs, like this slow, soulful burner featuring jazz great Wayne Shorter on saxophone, are beautiful ballads.
A solo Beatles triple play: John Lennon/Plastic Ono Band from 1970 which featured drummer Ringo Starr on seven of the 11 original release tracks followed by George Harrison’s 33 & 1/3 from 1976 and Paul McCartney & Wings’ 1973 blockbuster Band On The Run. My thoughts on each album follow the track listings.
1. Woman Don’t You Cry For Me
2. Dear One
3. Beautiful Girl
4. This Song
5. See Yourself
6. It’s What You Value
7. True Love
8. Pure Smokey
9. Crackerbox Palace
10. Learning How To Love You
1. Band On The Run
2. Jet
3. Bluebird
4. Mrs Vandebilt
5. Let Me Roll It
6. Mamunia
7. No Words
8. Picasso’s Last Words (Drink To Me)
9. Nineteen Hundred And Eighty Five
Leading off with the track-for-track cathartic album for Lennon as has been analyzed at length over time. I like the whole album but for me, it has always come down to two songs which were influential on my impressionable young mind, especially as I grew into teen years after the 1970 album release.
Working Class Hero and God. But before I delve more deeply I’ll preface my thoughts by saying I’ll likely go on longer about Lennon’s album but that doesn’t mean I necessarily rate it higher than Harrison’s or McCartney’s. For one thing, I’ll be honest; these three albums – all of which I enjoy – perfectly fit my two-hour slot. That said, each of the albums are different, all have their merits, good to great songs and particularly in McCartney’s case with a largely worldwide No. 1, high chart placings although all three albums did well. Lennon’s was top 10 in most countries with Harrison’s in the top 20. I love and grew up with The Beatles and enjoy much if not all of their material both band and solo, and for all three albums I’m playing it really comes down to just a few songs on each, if forced to choose. But the Lennon album is different in that it’s primal, personal, unvarnished, brutally honest and most shaped my thinking, particularly via Working Class Hero and God.
Working Class Hero: I remember being stunned – albeit in a ‘right on’ kind of way – on first listen that Lennon used the F word, twice. Few would bat an eye at what’s become relatively common usage on recorded works now, but in 1970, it was startling. And the line that got me thinking: ‘Keep you doped with religion and sex and TV’ which sends me off on a perhaps self-indulgent tangent. Years later, at 26, I had a similar reaction after reading what became something of a bible to me: Neil Postman‘s 1985 book Amusing Ourselves To Death: Public Discourse In The Age Of Show Business.
It’s a short book, just 163 pages, within which Postman posits that it was more Aldous Huxley in his 1932 book Brave New World than George Orwell in Nineteen Eighty-Four who pinpointed humanity’s potential problems. He wasn’t critical of or questioning Orwell by any stretch but an excerpt from the short forward to Postman’s book boils things down to his point.
“We were keeping our eye on 1984. When the year came and the prophecy didn’t, thoughtful Americans sang softly in praise of themselves. The roots of liberal democracy had held . . . But we had forgotten that alongside Orwell’s dark vision, there was another – slightly older, slightly less well known, equally chilling: Aldous Huxley’s Brave New World. Contrary to common belief even among the educated, Huxley and Orwell did not prophesy the same thing. Orwell warns that we will be overcome by an externally opposed oppression. But in Huxley’s vision, no Big Brother is required to deprive people of their autonomy, maturity and history. As he saw it, people will come to love their oppression, to adore the technologies that undo their capacities to think. . . . This book is about the possibility that Huxley, not Orwell, was right.”
At the time of writing, Postman, who died at age 72 in 2003, put forth the premise that TV, including the news as presented on TV, was the drug Soma from Brave New World. Forty years later, one could say the same about social media and the internet. Postman – and Huxley – was prescient.
Back to Lennon, and God, the other influential song on me with its opening line ‘God is a concept by which we measure our pain’ and on into the list of all the things Lennon, in the wake of The Beatles’ breakup, didn’t believe in, culminating in the dramatic ‘I don’t believe in Beatles’ and ‘the dream is over . . . and so, dear friends, you’ll just have to carry on.’
And all The Beatles did, albeit individually although Lennon, Harrison and Ringo did work on some of each other’s albums with McCartney joinng the fray for Starr’s 1973 album Ringo.
This song has nothing tricky about it
This song ain’t black or white and as far as I know
Don’t infringe on anyone’s copyright
This Song made the top 30 while the infectious Crackerbox Palace slipped inside the top 20. But the funky It’s What You Value is arguably my favorite. It opens with the line ‘Someone’s driving a 450’, a reference to Harrison paying session drummer to the stars Jim Keltner with a Mercedes 450 SL, apparently at Keltner’s request, for playing on Harrison’s 1974 Dark Horse Tour.
And back to 1973 we go for the wall-to-wall classic Band On The Run where, after a few good if inconsistent albums to start his post-Beatles career, McCartney put it all together. The opening one-two punch of the title track and Jet, Let Me Roll It, Nineteen Hundred And Eighty Five, etc. People know it, most at least like it, I could go on but . . . the music speaks for itself.
My track-by-track tales follow the bare-bones list.
1. Deep Purple, ‘A’ 200
2. Deep Purple, Child In Time (live, from Made In Japan)
3. It’s A Beautiful Day, Bombay Calling
4. Black Sabbath, E5150
5. Black Sabbath, Master Of Insanity
6. UFO, Love To Love
7. AC/DC, Soul Stripper
8. The Rolling Stones, Soul Survivor
9. Grand Funk Railroad, Gimme Shelter
10. Blue Oyster Cult, O.D.’d On Life Itself
11. Flash And The Pan, Searching For A Headline
12. The Kinks, Dear Margaret
13. Jethro Tull, Working John, Working Joe
14. Dire Straits, The Man’s Too Strong
15. Dire Straits, Twisting By The Pool
16. Queen, (You’re So Square) Baby I Don’t Care /Hello Mary Lou (Goodbye Heart) /Tutti Frutti /Gimme Some Lovin’, medley from Live At Wembley ’86
17. Robin Trower/Jack Bruce, The Last Door
My track-by-track tales:
1. Deep Purple, ‘A’ 200 . . . A synthesizer-based instrumental track courtesy keyboardist Jon Lord with a fiery guitar solo from Ritchie Blackmore and pitter-patter drumming from Ian Paice. I’m opening with what closed the 1974 album Burn. It was the first release of the so-called Mark III version of Deep Purple, with the then-unknown David Coverdale (vocals) and Glenn Hughes of Trapeze fame (bass/vocals) replacing, respectively, Ian Gillan and Roger Glover.
2. Deep Purple, Child In Time (live, from Made In Japan) . . . A musical monster from the 1970 album In Rock by the Mark II Purple (with Gillan and Glover) taken to even greater heights on the 1972 classic Made In Japan album. At age 79, Gillan no longer has the vocal range so Deep Purple hasn’t played Child In Time live in a long time and likely never will again, but we’ll always be able to enjoy it on In Rock and Made In Japan. The song itself has interesting ties to my next track.
3. It’s A Beautiful Day, Bombay Calling . . . From whence Deep Purple’s Child In Time came. The opening organ riff in is taken from It’s A Beautiful Day’s song from the San Francisco psychedelic band’s self-titled 1969 debut album, which Purple keyboardist Jon Lord started playing in studio after which it was adapted into what became Child In Time. No lawsuits. Instead, in return It’s A Beautiful Day borrowed Purple’s instrumental Wring That Neck, from the 1968 album The Book of Taliesyn as a basis for their song Don And Dewey that appeared on the 1970 album Marrying Maiden. Furthering the connection in 2004 came a Purple live album release/film, Bombay Calling, which included Child In Time in the set taken from a 1995 show in what’s now known as Mumbai, India. The show – also available on a 4-DVD set Around The World Live released in 2008 – was an early one in guitarist Steve Morse’s time in Deep Purple.
4. Black Sabbath, E5150 . . . Sinister, spooky instrumental from the second album Sabbath did with Ronnie James Dio on lead vocals, the 1981 release Mob Rules. The title E plus the Roman numerals for 5 (V), 1 (I) and 50 (L) spells E-V-I-L. Black Sabbath used it as a setting-the-stage opener on the supporting tour before ripping into Neon Knights from the first album with Dio, 1980’s Heaven And Hell. It’s all captured on the tour document Live Evil album, released in 1983. The title is similar to Eddie Van Halen’s studio 5150, built in 1983 although Van Halen’s source material was the California legal code used for dealing with individuals experiencing a mental health crisis.
5. Black Sabbath, Master Of Insanity . . . From the darkly metallic, industrial-sounding Dehumanizer album that, in 1992, marked the reunion of the Mob Rules-era lineup of Dio, guitarist Tony Iommi, bassist Geezer Butler and drummer Vinny Appice. After another breakup, the foursome reunited yet again to cut three new studio tracks for the 2007 compilation album Black Sabbath: The Dio Years after which the group rebranded as Heaven And Hell and released the 2009 studio work The Devil You Know, sandwiched between two live albums.
6. UFO, Love To Love . . . Heavy – you might call it lights out – riffing from guitarist Michael Schenker on this slow-building ballad turned rocker from the 1977 album Lights Out.
7. AC/DC, Soul Stripper . . . Bon Scott on lead vocals era AC/DC. Hypnotic and sleazy, a raw, pulsating performance from the fiery five-song EP ’74 Jailbreak, released worldwide in 1984 but made up of tracks recorded between 1974 and ’76 but only previously released in Australia.
8. The Rolling Stones, Soul Survivor . . . Love the way this one, the last cut on the seminal 1972 album Exile On Main St., sort of slides in on a ‘backwards’ riff is how I usually describe it – if one can even put music into words. But I’m writing, so I have to try. Murky, raw, ragged and remarkable, the song and the whole album.
9. Grand Funk Railroad, Gimme Shelter . . . Cover of the classic Stones tune, taken at a quicker pace, from the 1971 album Survival. I’ve heard it criticized, I’ve heard it celebrated, I’m a huge Stones fan and I think it’s pretty good besides which I’ve never understood what seem to me to be snooty criticisms of Grand Funk Railroad. Pretty good band if you ask me; certainly in their early days. Frank Zappa liked them, and produced one of their later albums, the 1976 release Good Singin’, Good Playin’. But, to each their own, of course; lots of people don’t like or ‘get’ Zappa, either.
10. Blue Oyster Cult, O.D.’d On Life Itself . . . Relentless rocker from the second BOC studio album, the 1973 release Tyranny And Mutation. BOC is much more than just (Don’t Fear) The Reaper and Burnin’ for You, their highest-charting singles.
11. Flash And The Pan, Searching For A Headline . . . Catchy rocker with an infectious bass line, from the Aussie new wave project’s 1992 album Burning Up The Night, an album many people have likely never heard of. Probably best known for their first two albums, the self-titled 1978 debut and its 1980 followup Lights In The Night and songs like Hey St. Peter and Walking In The Rain (the track that got me into them), Flash And The Pan released six studio records between 1978 and 1992, with Burning Up The Night the final one.
Flash And The Pan may seem an outlier in a largely heavy rock set but I like throwing curveballs, besides which there is a deep connection. Flash And The Pan was the brainchild of Harry Vanda and George Young, former members of the Easybeats who had a worldwide hit in 1966 with Friday On My Mind. Vanda and Young, the older brother of AC/DC guitarists Angus and Malcolm, together produced all the early AC/DC albums until 1979’s Highway To Hell when Robert John “Mutt” Lange took over. Young returned to produce AC/DC’s Stiff Upper Lip album in 2000.
12. The Kinks, Dear Margaret . . . One never had to search hard for Margaret headlines when she was around, Margaret being former British Prime Minister Thatcher, who held the top office from 1979-90. This Dave Davies-penned hard-rocking diatribe of disappointment in the Iron Lady (without specifically naming her) is from another under-the-radar record, 1989’s UK Jive. It didn’t chart, as The Kinks’ commercial fortunes had faded after 1984’s Word Of Mouth album and its hit single Do It Again.
13. Jethro Tull, Working John, Working Joe . . . Among my favorites from A, an album released in 1980 that started life as an Ian Anderson solo work, hence the name A for Anderson which is how the master tapes were marked during recording. Under pressure from Chrysalis Records, however, the album came out as a Jethro Tull album which resulted, aside from guitarist Martin Barre, in a new Tull lineup. Out were 70s’ Tull stalwarts like drummer Barriemore Barlow and keyboardist John Evan. In came drummer Mark Craney and keyboardist Eddie Jobson, who Anderson had recruited for his planned solo album featuring a more synthesizer-based sound while remaining unmistakably Tull.
The solo album becoming a band record scenario has repeated itself in the last few years, albeit deliberately in this case. Anderson had put Tull in mothballs in favor of releasing material under his own name through the 2000s, only to recently rebrand his solo group as Jethro Tull and unleash the studio albums The Zealot Gene (2022), RokFlote (2023) and Curious Ruminant (2025). The ‘casualty’ this time was longtime guitarist Barre after a falling out with Anderson, much to the consternation of many Tull fans. Interestingly, Anderson is quoted in David Rees’s 1998 book Minstrels In The Gallery: A History of Jethro Tull as saying no Barre in the band, no Tull.
“To use another guitarist after all this time would be like getting divorced and then marrying again the next day,” Anderson said.
Cue the wedding bells. As for Barre, he started a solo career during the 1990s while still in Tull, releasing often largely instrumental studio albums. He now tours, playing mostly classic Tull material using assorted vocalists and releasing live albums from those treks.
14. Dire Straits, The Man’s Too Strong . . . From 1985’s Brothers In Arms album, the recording – thanks in large measure to the hit single Money For Nothing – that made Dire Straits and guitarist/singer/leader Mark Knopfler superstars. The album had nine songs. Five were released as singles although The Man’s Too Strong wasn’t one of them. It’s singles-worthy but we’re probably better off as things transpired, not having it overplayed to the point where, with many singles, you get sick of them while acknowledging their greatness. I heard The Man’s Too Strong – a terrific track with the acoustic buildup to the rocking payoff of ‘the man’s too big, the man’s too strong’ – for the first time in the since closed original Sam The Record Man store on Yonge St. in Toronto. Dire Straits was always an automatic buy for me since the 1978 debut album and hit single Sultans Of Swing. But it so happened that Brothers In Arms was released the day I walked into Sam’s. I can’t remember if I went in specifically to buy it but The Man’s Too Strong was playing on the store’s sound system which, not that I needed it, confirmed my purchase of the album.
15. Dire Straits, Twisting By The Pool . . . A total tonal switch from The Man’s Too Strong on this fun rocking romp released on a three- or four-song EP (depending on market) in 1983. It was a top 20 hit in most countries and hit No. 1 in New Zealand and 2 in Australia.
16. Queen, (You’re So Square) Baby I Don’t Care /Hello Mary Lou (Goodbye Heart) /Tutti Frutti /Gimme Some Lovin’, medley from Live At Wembley ’86 . . . More fun, from the Magic Tour in support of Queen’s 1986 album A King Of Magic. It came a year after the band’s triumphant Live Aid appearance, also at Wembley Stadium. The Magic Tour marked the last concert appearances for lead singer Freddie Mercury, who died in 1991.
17. Robin Trower/Jack Bruce, The Last Door . . . And out the door I go, for this show, via this eerily soulful and bluesy collaboration between guitarist Trower and Cream singer/bassist Bruce from the 2007 album Seven Moons. Trower and Bruce had previously worked together on the 1981 album B.L.T. (for Bruce, drummer Bill Lordan and Trower) and 1982’s Truce.
Two perhaps tied together forever 1967 albums – The Beatles’ groundbreaking Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band and The Rolling Stones’ supposed attempted copy of it, Their Satanic Majesties Request. And, to fill in the 2-hour primarily psychedelic playlist, the live side of Pink Floyd’s 1969 studio/live album Ummagumma. My thoughts on the albums appear after the track lists.
1. Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band
2. With A Little Help From My Friends
3. Lucy In The Sky With Diamonds
4. Getting Better
5. Fixing A Hole
6. She’s Leaving Home
7. Being For The Benefit Of Mr. Kite!
8. Within You Without You
9. When I’m Sixty-Four
10. Lovely Rita
11. Good Morning Good Morning
12. Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band (Reprise)
13. A Day In The Life
1. Sing This All Together
2. Citadel
3. In Another Land
4. 2000 Man
5. Sing This All Together (See What Happens)
6. She’s A Rainbow
7. The Lantern
8. Gomper
9. 2000 Light Years From Home
10. On With The Show
1. Astronomy Domine
2. Careful With That Axe, Eugene
3. Set The Controls For The Heart Of The Sun
4. A Saucerful Of Secrets
The easy established narrative about Pepper and Satanic Majesties is that The Rolling Stones were attempting – and failed – to copy The Beatles’ Sgt. Pepper album. That may well be but I’ve always quite honestly thought the two records, musically – and for what it’s worth this view is supported by some music critics – are quite different. And if either one was truly ‘psychedelic’ as was the thing at the time, 1967, an argument can be made that it was the Stones’ album rather than Pepper, if you really give each album a deep listen.
The Stones are doing some ‘weird shit’, certainly for them, in terms of their blues/rock/pop output to that point. It’s perhaps why Keith Richards later dismissed the album as ‘a load of crap’. I think he’s wrong about a record that came out December 8, 1967 and was originally to be called Cosmic Christmas which I think may have been a title opportunity missed, given the release date and content.
Granted, I’m a huge Rolling Stones fan but I never was into the notion that one had to like one band – Beatles or Stones – over the other. Why choose? They were/are both amazing.
Still, even as a Stones fan, I think Pepper is the better album. It’s consistent throughout as were most Beatles albums, although it’s interesting how perspective changes. I remember in my youth, I was 8 when Pepper was released, not very much liking She’s Leaving Home or George Harrison’s raga rock song Within You Without You. A friend of mine in high school said he lifted the needle on the vinyl record to move to the next track when Within You Without You came on and even by then a teenager, I could relate. Yet nearly 60 (!) years later I’ve long since embraced those tunes. Lovely Rita was dismissed by some critics as Paul McCartney lightweight stuff along with When I’m Sixty-Four but that intro to Lovely Rita just makes the song for me and the whole thing is good as is When I’m Sixty-Four. Good Morning Good Morning is another one, a John Lennon-penned tune. Album tracks most bands would kill for to have as singles. The whole record is remarkable.
Majesties is less consistent, often messy. I regularly listen to just six of its 10 tracks (which I suppose is not bad for any album) but when it’s good, it’s great. Great riff intro and ongoing throughout Citadel. Had it been released as a single people may have thought, hmm, another great Stones’ riff rocker, certainly the intro, and not even noticed they’d gone or tried to go ‘psychedelic’ on the parent album. 2000 Man (which KISS later covered), the spookily great in my opinion The Lantern, the hit single She’s A Rainbow, the Bill Wyman-penned and sung In Another Land with Mick Jagger on chorus “was this some kind of joke?” some suggested as being a dig at Wyman writing a song but it’s a good one . . . And the brilliant 2000 Light Years From Home (later covered by sludge/stoner/space rock/metal band Monster Magnet) which the Stones pulled out of mothballs and did live, with cool lighting effects, on the 1989-90 Steel Wheels/Urban Jungle North America/Europe tours.
It’s likely true that Satanic Majesties wouldn’t exist without Pepper. The Stones took cues from the Beatles, but it’s not a clone. Majesties is darker, murkier, and more unstable — a bizarro-world Pepper. And retrospective reviews, for whatever that is worth, continue to grow more positive. Some critics, in various books I own, have suggested Satanic Majesties is a path the Stones might have further pursued. We’ll never know but we do know they were always experimenting while retaining their unique stamp, witness later albums like Black And Blue with its funk/disco/salsa elements, then the hit disco single Miss You from the otherwise largely out and out rocking album Some Girls in 1978.
That leaves us with Pink Floyd and the live side of Ummagumma, which I remember my older brother by eight years bringing home when it came out. I liked the front cover of the band members changing positions in the ‘picture within a picture’ Droste effect and the back cover photo of the band’s instruments laid out, to look like a jet fighter, on an airport runway. Appropriate, since the band often headed into air/head space. Ummagumma, particularly the live album, is prime early Floyd perhaps lesser known to those who joined the Pink party with 1973’s The Dark Side Of The Moon blockbuster.
Victoria Day in Canada set. All songs involve queens, kings, royalty, whether by band, song title or mention in lyrics. My track-by-track tales follow the bare-bones list.
1. The Beatles, Her Majesty
2. The Kinks, Victoria
3. Sex Pistols, God Save The Queen
4. The Who, The Acid Queen
5. Aerosmith, Kings And Queens
6. The Doors, Queen Of The Highway
7. Van Morrison, Queen Of The Slipstream
8. David Bowie, Queen Bitch
9. T. Rex, Planet Queen
10. Bob Dylan, Queen Jane Approximately
11. The Rolling Stones, Jigsaw Puzzle
12. Jerry Lee Lewis, Little Queenie
13. Bruce Springsteen, Mary Queen Of Arkansas
14. The Flying Burrito Brothers, High Fashion Queen
15. The Byrds, Tiffany Queen
16. Dave Edmunds, Queen Of Hearts
17. Jethro Tull, Queen And Country
18. Stephen Stills, Black Queen
19. Queen, The March Of The Black Queen
20. Queen, Great King Rat
21. Queen, White Queen (As It Began)
22. Black Sabbath, Heaven And Hell
23. Steely Dan, The Royal Scam
My track-by-track tales:
1. The Beatles, Her Majesty . . . One of the first if not ‘the’ original, or at least arguably best known, hidden track on a rock music album, the closing – after a break of silence – 23 seconds to the Abbey Road album. Originally, it wasn’t listed on the original vinyl I still own but subsequent physical releases do show it on the track list. Yes, perhaps played best in context of the full side two medley on the original vinyl album but I’ve played the medley in full before, Her Majesty specifically fits my theme so I deliberately chose this route, an I think perfect short intro to . . .
2. The Kinks, Victoria . . . My traditional show opener each year on Victoria Day. Last year I went with a live version from the 1980 release One For The Road, issued as a document of the tour in support of the 1979 studio album Low Budget. Back to the original studio release I go this time. It was the lead track on the 1969 album Arthur (Or the Decline and Fall of the British Empire). While it’s a well-known Kinks song, it did only moderate business on the singles charts – anywhere from the top 70 to top 40 depending on country – except for in Canada, where nationally it was No. 33 but No. 9 in Toronto, on AM radio station CHUM‘s top 30 list. A major, influential AM radio station at the time along with its FM counterpart, CHUM-AM is now a sports radio station.
4. The Who, The Acid Queen . . . From the rock opera Tommy, released in 1969. Also covered by, among others, Tina Turner, who played the character in the 1975 movie.
5. Aerosmith, Kings And Queens . . . No obvious hook yet a driving, almost doom rock hypnotic piece from the 1977 album Draw The Line, fitting perfectly with the subject matter. To quote lead singer Steven Tyler, from the liner notes to 1991’s Pandora’s Box set:
“I’ve always had a fancy to do songs about anarchy and the church and the government. . . The band comes up with the licks, and then the music talks to me and tells me what it’s about. This one was just about how many people died from holy wars because of their beliefs, or non-beliefs. With that one, my brain was back with the knights of the round table and that shit – I do a lot of fantasizing.”
Kings And Queens was the second single released from Draw The Line, after the title track. It managed only No. 70 on the charts but it’s a popular Aerosmith song, regularly played in concert and has appeared on several compilations albeit in edited single release form, a minute shorter than the album version with many of the guitar parts removed. The album version is ‘the’ one, I’d suggest. A fun – and pretty accurate – take on the track that I read somewhere once: It’s grandiose and medieval — like Queen if they were from Boston and did harder drugs.
6. The Doors, Queen Of The Highway . . . One of those great Doors’ deep cuts, kinda country, jaunty, bluesy, great playing, all apparently about lead singer Jim Morrison’s up and down relationship with longtime girlfriend Pamela Courson. It’s from the 1970 album Morrison Hotel, which I played in full back in February but one should always be open to more Doors, I say, and the song fits this show’s theme.
7. Van Morrison, Queen Of The Slipstream . . . Ethereal and poetic and thus appropriate since it’s drawn from Van The Man’s 1987 album Poetic Champions Compose. It was released as a single in the UK but didn’t chart but then it doesn’t have the immediacy of most singles, beyond which, Van couldn’t care less, he just does what he does, says, writes, sings, thinks and always has, pleases himself – and discerning fans. As he said in 1994, a quote reproduced in the preface to the 2002 oral history biography Van Morrison: Can You Feel The Silence, by Clinton Heylin: “I never, ever said that I was a nice guy.” Maybe not. He’s blunt, direct, often caustic and even seemingly intolerant but geez he’s made lots of nice, beautiful, amazing music but that can be the thing with many creative people: they may not ‘properly’ express themselves interpersonally, may come across as aloof, distant, whatever. But read, listen to or observe their art and you’ll find their unvarnished essence unleashed in often deeply open and emotional ways that they themselves perhaps wish they could more easily impart in social situations.
8. David Bowie, Queen Bitch . . . Propulsive riff from Mick Ronson on this apparent tribute to The Velvet Underground in general and, specifically, that band’s lead singer/songwriter/guitarist Lou Reed. It’s from Bowie’s 1971 album Hunky Dory which also contained tribute tracks to the artist Andy Warhol and Song For Bob Dylan. I like most if not all Bowie, but early Bowie is truly brilliant.
9. T. Rex, Planet Queen . . . T. Rex just had a unique sound. And in many ways a precursor to the ‘industrial’ genre, I’ll posit, looking back and listening to – as I often do – this late 1960s into the 1970s band cut short by the car accident death of leader Marc Bolan in 1977. Whether it’s the production, the arrangements, Bolan’s vocals and guitar, I find it intoxicating. This one’s from the album Electric Warrior, which gave the world the hit single Get It On (retitled Bang a Gong (Get It On) ) in the US. Like, say, the band Free with its big North American hit single All Right Now but little business from elsewhere in the catalogue, like Free, T. Rex was so much more than that one North American hit single.
10. Bob Dylan, Queen Jane Approximately . . . From Dylan’s 1965 album Highway 61 Revisited which featured arguably his signature song (but truly impossible to pick I’d suggest) Like A Rolling Stone. Queen Jane has been compared to Like A Rolling Stone although it’s been suggested Dylan goes easier on the subject of his ire but, frankly, I just enjoy the music, the playing, and Dylan’s forever distinctive vocals. As I’ve repeatedly said to people who suggest he’s a lousy singer: Perhaps, it’s obviously a matter of taste but he’s the best singer of Bob Dylan songs there ever was or could be. It just simply works and even though there’s many great covers of Dylan tunes, nobody can match his delivery to the extent where, sure, you listen to the music but he almost impels you to listen to the always at least interesting lyrics. Dylan’s to me a sort of hand-me-down I didn’t ‘get’ at first when my older brother by eight years introduced me to him. Then I introduced him to my sons who, at first, were like me and didn’t ‘get’ him. I recall my elder son saying “Dad, he’s got one song (Like A Rolling Stone).” Then, later, “OK, Dad, he’s got more songs…”
11. The Rolling Stones, Jigsaw Puzzle . . . Speaking of Dylan, it’s been suggested that this tune from Beggars Banquet, lengthy lyrics and a ‘story’ song of sorts, is influenced by Dylan and that may be true or at least worthy of consideration. For me, it’s just a great Stones’ song and, thanks to the immortal lyric “There’s a regiment of soldiers. standing looking on, and the Queen is bravely shouting, ‘What the HELL is going on?’ ” it fits into the ‘royalty’ set.
12. Jerry Lee Lewis, Little Queenie . . . A, naturally given the instrument he most played and was known for, piano-driven Jerry Lee version of the normally guitar-driven Chuck Berry song done by many including the Rolling Stones in a live version on the 1970 Get Yer Ya Ya’s Out! document of their 1969 tour.
14. The Flying Burrito Brothers, High Fashion Queen . . . Short, sweet, fun rockabilly written by Bryds associates and one-album member (Sweetheart Of The Rodeo) Gram Parsons and original Byrd Chris Hillman, from the second Burritos album, Burrito Deluxe, released in 1970.
15. The Byrds, Tiffany Queen . . . Nice mid-tempo rocker from the latter-day Bryds lineup of the perennial Roger McGuinn (guitar, vocals), Clarence White (guitar, mandolin, vocals), Skip Battin (electric bass, piano, vocals) and Gene Parsons (drums, guitar, harmonica, pedal steel guitar, banjo, vocals) on the 1971 release Farther Along. The Byrds’ latter-day stuff tends to get short shrift from critics still perhaps wedded to the early days of Turn! Turn! Turn! and so on including the band’s various covers of Bob Dylan tunes, but lots of quality music and performances throughout the catalogue.
16. Dave Edmunds, Queen Of Hearts . . . From Repeat When Necessary, the 1979 album which got me into Edmunds via songs like his cover of the Elvis Costello tune Girls Talk, Graham Parker’s Crawling From The Wreckage and this one, by American musician/songwriter Hank DeVito that became a top 10 hit for Juice Newton in 1981.
17. Jethro Tull, Queen And Country . . . Uniquely and typically Tull. Offbeat orchestral arrangement, not immediate like the hit single Bungle In The Jungle from the parent album, 1974’s War Child, but as with much Tull it embeds itself upon repeat exposure.
18. Stephen Stills, Black Queen . . . Great finger-pickin’ acoustic folk blues from Still’s 1970 album Stephen Stills which featured his hit single Love The One You’re With.
19. Queen, The March Of The Black Queen . . . First of three from Queen, natch, in such a ‘royalty’ set. This one, from Queen II, 1974, launches a segment featuring the operatic, progressive hard rock of early Queen.
20. Queen, Great King Rat . . . Galloping rocker from the 1973 self-titled debut album.
21. Queen, White Queen (As It Began) . . . And back to Queen II, as it ends for the Queen mini-set.
22. Black Sabbath, Heaven And Hell . . . Monumental title track to the 1980 album, Sabbath’s first with Ronnie James Dio replacing Ozzy Osbourne on lead vocals. It’s an album I couldn’t help but get into as the DJ in a pub I worked in, putting myself through college, played it (and Ted Nugent’s Double Live Gonzo! and British Steel by Judas Priest) to death and thankfully so. Great album with lyrics appropriate to a ‘kings and queens’ show and, perhaps, harkening back, years later, knowingly or not, to Aerosmith’s Kings And Queens I played earlier in the set:
“The world is full of kings and queens
who blind your eyes and steal your dreams
it’s Heaven and Hell . . . ”
23. Steely Dan, The Royal Scam . . . Which royalty may well be, a scam. I tend to think so, accidents of birth providing privileged place in society and all of that while others revel in its reality. That’s fine. The song isn’t even about royalty or the monarchy, it’s about immigration but the title fits tonight’s tale. Besides which, musically it’s one of my favorite Steely Dan tunes, the dark title track to the 1976 album, so here you go.
A two-album play, second of two such Saturday shows after last week playing The Rolling Stones’ Steel Wheels and Neil Young’s Freedom, highlighting ‘comeback’ albums released in 1989 by major artists who had relatively spotty results earlier in the decade. This week, Bob Dylan’s Oh Mercy and Eric Clapton’s Journeyman. My thoughts on each album under the respective records’ song lists.
1. Political World
2. Where Teardrops Fall
3. Everything Is Broken
4. Ring Them Bells
5. Man In The Long Black Coat
6. Most Of The Time
7. What Good Am I?
8. Disease Of Conceit
9. What Was It You Wanted
10. Shooting Star
Perhaps fueled by working with the likes of Tom Petty, George Harrison, Roy Orbison and Jeff Lynne in the Traveling Wilburys, Dylan in 1989 unleashed – with help from producer extraordinaire Daniel Lanois’s atmospheric touch – one of his best-ever albums. Oh Mercy is a sterling listen front to back which includes several of my personal favorite Dylan tunes led by Man In The Long Black Coat amid, really, a perfect 10 tracks. Some critics suggested it was his best since 1975’s Blood On The Tracks. I’d say it’s simply among his best, period.
1. Pretending
2. Anything For Your Love
3. Bad Love
4. Running On Faith
5. Hard Times
6. Hound Dog
7. No Alibis
8. Run So Far
9. Old Love
10. Breaking Point
11. Lead Me On
12. Before You Accuse Me
At least something of a return to form after some shoddy, typically alas 1980s overly slick, overproduced albeit commercially successful albums. Journeyman is still relatively slick but, thankfully, the production this time doesn’t overwhelm the music and some truly quality slow blues like Old Love, written with Robert Cray, take priority in the overall mix of music.
1. Pretenders, Tattooed Love Boys
2. Graham Parker, Devil’s Sidewalk
3. The Police, Shadows In The Rain
4. Midnight Oil, The Last Of The Diggers
5. Chuck Berry, Jaguar and Thunderbird
6. Golden Earring, She Flies On Strange Wings (from Live, 1977)
7. Rod Stewart, You’re My Girl (I Don’t Want To Discuss It)
8. (Long) John Baldry, Let’s Burn Down The Cornfield
9. Gordon Lightfoot, Mister Rock Of Ages
10. Creedence Clearwater Revival, Wrote A Song For Everyone
11. Tom Petty and The Heartbreakers, It Ain’t Nothin’ To Me
12. Paul Rodgers, Standing Around Crying
13. The Kinks, Celluloid Heroes
14. Johnny Winter, Stray Cat Blues
15. The Rolling Stones, Midnight Rambler (live, from Ladies & Gentlemen: The Rolling Stones)
16. Kansas, The Absence Of Presence
17. Led Zeppelin, For Your Life
18. Cream, Rollin’ And Tumblin’ (from Live Cream)
My track-by-track tales:
1. Pretenders, Tattooed Love Boys . . . . A staccato-type song walking a tightope between chaos and control, from the band’s self-titled debut album released in January, 1980. A soundscape that teeters on the edge of a cliff, seemingly, as if the song is always at risk of falling apart but it doesn’t and that’s what makes it compelling. Then, this example of compact fury just ends, boom. And you wish it was longer than just three minutes. But on the flip side, leave ’em wanting more . . .
2. Graham Parker, Devil’s Sidewalk . . . Nice descending guitar riff intro on this one, perhaps my favorite song – though it’s tough to pick – on the 1980 album The Up Escalator. A hit single that could have been, in my book although it wasn’t released as such. Stupefaction and Endless Night, the latter featuring Parker fan Bruce Springsteen on backing vocals, are likely the best-known songs on what I think is a consistent record that tends to get short shrift from critics who don’t like Jimmy Iovine‘s supposedly too slick production. Iovine had previously worked as an engineer on Springsteen’s Born To Run and Darkness On The Edge of Town albums, John Lennon’s Walls and Bridges and produced Patti Smith’s Easter and Tom Petty’s Damn The Torpedoes. A sterling resume, but there’s no pleasing some people although obviously it’s a matter of personal preference and taste. Perhaps it’s because it’s the Parker album I first heard front to back thanks to radio play which prompted me to purchase it, after which I went back in his catalogue. But to me The Up Escalator maintained his early, angry young man phase of consistency and is as good as its more acclaimed predecessor, Squeezing Out Sparks.
3. The Police, Shadows In The Rain . . . A hypnotic, brooding piece from the 1980 album Zenyatta Mondatta. Another example of why, while compilations serve a purpose, depending how deeply one wants to dig into particular artists, individual albums tell the full tale.
4. Midnight Oil, The Last Of The Diggers . . . From The Real Thing, a mostly live, mostly acoustic album, released in 2000 that featured Oils’ hits plus four new studio recordings including the title track and this mid-tempo rocker.
5. Chuck Berry, Jaguar and Thunderbird . . . Short, just under two minutes, punchy rocker with rockabilly and, some have suggested, rap – before rap was a recognized genre – elements in a Bo Diddley-ish approach. The music fits the subject matter of a race down the road, police in pursuit. A non-album single issued in 1960, it didn’t dent the charts but has appeared on various Berry compilation albums.
6. Golden Earring, She Flies On Strange Wings (from Live, released in 1977) . . . From short and sweet with Chuck Berry to long and involved with Golden Earring, a multifaceted song, hard rock in spots, mellow in others. Progressive hard rock, in short. It appeared in studio form on the band’s 1971 album Seven Tears.
7. Rod Stewart, You’re My Girl (I Don’t Want To Discuss It) . . . A funky, stop-start rocker from Gasoline Alley, released in 1970. It was Stewart’s second solo album during the amazing 1969-74 period when he was maintaining parallel careers, fronting Faces while also using many of that band’s members, particularly guitarist Ron Wood, on his solo stuff.
8. (Long) John Baldry, Let’s Burn Down The Cornfield . . . A more up-tempo treatment of Randy Newman’s rootsy, swampy version on his 1970 album 12 Songs. It came out on Baldry’s June 1971 album It Ain’t Easy which was co-produced by Rod Stewart and Elton John. John – under his birth name Reginald Dwight – was in the band Bluesology with Baldry during the 1960s. Stewart and John each produced a side of the original vinyl album with Let’s Burn Down The Cornfield produced by John and featuring guitarist Caleb Quaye and drummer Roger Pope. They were working with John at the time and played on his Madman Across The Water album, released in November 1971. The ubiquitous guitarist Ron Wood was among the Stewart associates who played on the Stewart-produced tracks including the title song and Don’t Try To Lay No Boogie Woogie On The King Of Rock & Roll.
9. Gordon Lightfoot, Mister Rock Of Ages . . . Beautiful song, thoughtful lyrics but it’s Lightfoot, what else would one expect? From the 1980 album Dream Street Rose.
10. Creedence Clearwater Revival, Wrote A Song For Everyone . . . From Green River, the middle of three – count ’em, 3! – albums released by CCR that year. It was bracketed by Bayou Country and Willy And The Poor Boys, all of consistently high quality. CCR singles from 1969 spread over the three albums: Proud Mary, Born On The Bayou, Bad Moon Rising, Lodi, Green River, Commotion, Down On The Corner, Fortunate Son. Eight singles, five of which – Proud Mary, Bad Moon Rising, Green River, Down On The Corner and Fortunate Son – made either No. 2 or 3 on the North American charts with Bad Moon Rising hitting No. 1 in the UK. A remarkable run by a remarkable band.
11. Tom Petty and The Heartbreakers, It Ain’t Nothin’ To Me . . . Nice intro bass line from Dave Stewart of Eurythmics, who co-wrote with Petty this horn-drenched song with a cool call-and-response hook using the song title. From the 1985 album Southern Accents which, aside from the hit single Don’t Come Around Here No More took some time to embed itself with me but long since has. Definitely a keeper.
12. Paul Rodgers, Standing Around Crying . . . David Gilmour on guitar, from Rodgers’ 1993 album Muddy Water Blues – A Tribute To Muddy Waters that featured an all-star cast of guitarists in addition to Pink Floyd’s Gilmour. Others on the album: Jeff Beck, Buddy Guy, Brian May (Queen), Steve Miller, Gary Moore, Trevor Rabin (Yes), Richie Sambora (Bon Jovi), Neil Schon (Santana, Journey), Brian Setzer (Stray Cats, The Brian Setzer Orchestra), Slash (Guns N’ Roses, Slash’s Snakepit, Velvet Revolver, etc.).
13. The Kinks, Celluloid Heroes . . . From the 1972 studio album Everybody’s In Show-Biz . . . I played Supersonic Rocket Ship from the album some weeks ago and mentioned Celluloid Heroes being a single that to me, amazingly, did not chart that I’ve played before and would play again. So here you go. Fantastic song, musically and lyrically, with Kinks’ writer Ray Davies name-checking actors Greta Garbo, Rudolph Valentino, Bela Lugosi, Bette Davis, George Sanders, Marilyn Monroe and Mickey Rooney. Kinks’ guitarist Dave Davies, often at odds with his brother, was quoted as saying it’s ‘one of my favorite songs ever, by anybody.’ I agree. Strange to me that it wasn’t more successful commercially but there’s maybe no accounting for time, place and taste but it is a well-known track to Kinks’ fans and appears on various compilations.
14. Johnny Winter, Stray Cat Blues . . . Winter’s cover, from his 1974 album Saints And Sinners, of the ribald Rolling Stones song originally on Beggars Banquet. Winter, however, more closely follows the slower, bluesier arrangement the Stones used on Get Yer Ya Ya’s Out!, the 1970 live album document of their 1969 tour although the boys have returned to the original approach when they’ve played the song on recent tours. All versions – Winter’s included which shouldn’t be surprising as he was a great interpreter of others’ material – are excellent. Winter also covered, at various times, the Stones songs Let It Bleed and Jumpin’ Jack Flash and Bob Dylan’s Highway 61 Revisited and Like A Rolling Stone.
15. The Rolling Stones, Midnight Rambler (live, from Ladies & Gentlemen: The Rolling Stones) . . . The Let It Bleed studio album song whose arguably definitive version remains the concert cut from Get Yer Ya Ya’s Out! The Ladies & Gentlemen take was recorded on the Stones’ 1972 tour promoting their then-current Exile On Main St. album and first saw limited official release in 1974 on the film document of that voyage. I still own bootleg copies of both movie and album although I’ve since bought the official releases which came out on DVD and Blu-ray in 2010 and on CD in 2017.
16. Kansas, The Absence Of Presence . . . . From the raunchy rock of The Rolling Stones to the prog-rock title cut of Kansas’ 2020 album. To quote the allmusic review site, ‘Kansas’ popularity is based on the canny balance of meaty prog and radio-friendly melodic rock’ and I agree. A typically epic tune from a band whose beautiful 1977 hit Dust In The Wind is actually something of an outlier in their oeuvre. Plus, I like the title, Absence of Presence, and the album cover and it gives me an opportunity to set up . . .
17. Led Zeppelin, For Your Life . . . Kansas, we do have Presence . . . or did, from the 1976 album Presence on this unconventionally compelling song driven by its stop-start riff.
18. Cream, Rollin’ And Tumblin’ (live) . . . Back to a Muddy Waters’ tune in this manic mostly just instrumental interplay Cream interpretation to close the show as I roll and tumble off the stage and outta here, so to speak. Jack Bruce sings, yes, but in many ways just ‘mouths’ sounds but it all works, very well. Recorded March 7, 1968 at the Fillmore West, San Francisco and released on Live Cream, June 1970. It’s also available online and on the 2-CD Cream Gold compilation which is split into studio and live recordings.
So Old It’s New set featuring two albums released in 1989 – Steel Wheels by The Rolling Stones and Neil Young’s Freedom. Why 1989? Well, I was dipping into a book about the Berlin Wall, which fell in 1989 so, the way my mind works, one thing led to another, the year 1989 stuck and on with the show.
It was an interesting year musically with lots of great or at least solid ‘comeback’ albums, at least by critical assessments, released by so-called classic rock artists as the Stones and Young but also Eric Clapton (Journeyman), Bob Dylan (Oh Mercy), Lou Reed (New York), among others so this may be installment one in a short series of Saturday morning shows. But, who knows where I’ll go next? My thoughts on each album appear at the bottom of this post.
1. Sad Sad Sad
2. Mixed Emotions
3. Terrifying
4. Hold On To Your Hat
5. Hearts For Sale
6. Blinded By Love
7. Rock And A Hard Place
8. Can’t Be Seen
9. Almost Hear You Sigh
10. Continental Drift
11. Break The Spell
12. Slipping Away
1. Rockin’ In The Free World (acoustic)
2. Crime In The City (Sixty To Zero Part I)
3. Don’t Cry
4. Hangin’ On A Limb
5. Eldorado
6. The Ways Of Love
7. Someday
8. On Broadway
9. Wrecking Ball
10. No More
11. Too Far Gone
12. Rockin’ In The Free World (electric)
My thoughts on Steel Wheels:
As the narrative goes, Steel Wheels was a reunion album by an apparently broken band that was in tatters or not even existing given what’s been termed “World War Three” as chief Stones’ songwriters Mick Jagger and Keith Richards were at odds in the mid-1980s thanks in part to Richards’ emergence from a decade-or more long dalliance with booze and drugs.
What’s maybe weird is, while I knew via reports of the Stones’ internal dynamics around this time, I as a fan didn’t make much if anything of it. They’d released an album (the under-appreciated in my book Dirty Work, 1986) and were working on the next one which came out as Steel Wheels. Three years between albums, by that time, didn’t seem like a lot even to those of us who grew up on an album (or 2 in Elton John’s case via his then-contract) a year by most artists.
But to the gossipers among the citizenry who seize on things . . . As the story goes, Richards was now at least relatively clean and coherent and seeking to reassert more influence in group activities beyond merely playing guitar. Jagger, meanwhile, who had essentially been the lone man at the tiller since the 1970s for the most part, certainly in a business sense, and become used to full leadership, bristled at his old friend’s desire to more fully direct Stones’ activities.
This was exacerbated by Jagger’s pursuit of a solo career which annoyed all of the band but mostly Richards. Keith famously said he’d ‘slit his throat’ if Jagger toured without the Stones and Mick did, with the brilliant Jeff Beck on guitar and survived, slitless. I have a couple bootlegs of those shows and they’re good but I must say don’t really have that ‘Stones’ sound, which maybe Mick didn’t want. They missed the Richards’ raunch which the technically obviously brilliant Beck didn’t arguably best provide but again, maybe that’s what Jagger wanted. Yet if you’re going to play Stones tunes . . .
What truly annoyed Richards primarily and the rest of the Stones was that Jagger largely built his tour on a Stones set list. Jagger had refused a Stones tour after the 1986 album Dirty Work yet subsequently goes on the road playing . . . mostly Stones tunes. I like and admire both guys, but I think Keith and the others had a point.
At any rate, Keith crowed, lyrically, once he decided, eff it, I’ll do my own album. Out came Talk Is Cheap in 1988. Keef’s critically-acclaimed as the best Stones albeit not exactly Stones release since whenever (although lagging way behind Jaggers’ solo album sales). Talk Is Cheap contained the song You Don’t Move Me including the lyric passage ‘Now you wanna roll the dice you already crapped out twice’ in reference to Jagger’s solo albums She’s The Boss and Primitive Cool which, certainly sales wise, actually did well on the charts and by far better than any Richards’ solo release. But the musical point was made, the boys buried the hatchet and Steel Wheels was the result. Listened to objectively without any baggage of who the Stones have been, it’s quite the great album including the nice touch of Continental Drift, a compelling, intoxicating track which via the use of the Master Musicians of Joujouka paid homage to founding Stones’ member Brian Jones and his work with that musical assemblage in 1968. The Stones used excerpts from Continental Drift as intro music on the Steel Wheels tour.
Overall, beyond the studio album itself Steel Wheels and its supporting tour opened a new phase in the career of The Rolling Stones in terms of their massive tours, huge stages and so on. It was now a tight, arguably scripted show, full of backup musicians and singers live band, a revue, almost. Not to all tastes yet still undeniably The Rolling Stones who at various times – the stripped down No Security Tour, the Stripped album and concerts from the 1990s, the 2013 killer unvarnished show I saw in Toronto among many of mine starting with the raunchily ragged resounding 1978 Some Girls tour stop in Buffalo with the Stones – were at their rawest.
I mentioned earlier in this ramble how Steel Wheels was seen as a return to form from the 1986 album Dirty Work which to me is groupthink at work. Say something often enough and people apparently believe it, even if they haven’t read or listened to whatever it is the media shapers are talking about.
Yes, I’m a huge Stones fan thus will arguably find merit in whatever they do but I immediately liked Dirty Work, despite reviews few of which I actually read before buying the album because the Stones were always just an automatic buy for me.
I do distinctly recall Peter Goddard, then a respected music writer at the Toronto Star, calling it an ‘angry’ and great album. Goddard didn’t expound on it very much as I recall, just reviewed the songs and the album overall, so can’t be sure if he meant the ‘anger’ in terms of the aggression in the music – which is what I took from his review, simply musically – or the anger that then existed between Stones’ songwriting principals Jagger and Richards as imposing itself on the music, as most other critics suggested.
Whatever. All in all it maybe proves another point, that being: just listen to the record and make one’s own judgement. Often, and obviously, the less you read in terms of critics’ reviews, certainly at least before consuming a book or listening to an album the more you come to things unvarnished and uninfluenced and thus make your own judgments although it can be interesting reading other viewpoints but, I’d submit, only after you’ve read or listened and formed your own opinion.
And my thoughts on Neil Young’s Freedom:
Best track on this album to me is Crime In The City, which I’ve played independently on the show. Just a brilliant story song, lengthy at nearly nine minutes but well worth the trip. Just a terrific album all of it, a combination of all Young does/has done well, acoustic tunes, rock, hard rock, everything Geffen was expecting when that record company signed Young earlier in the 1980s but were met with a shift in Young’s creative muse, resulting in albums like Trans and its Kraftwrerk-like electronic sounds, the rockabilly of Everybody’s Rockin’ and the pure country of Old Ways. Geffen was appalled, sued Young as being un-Young like, he counter sued in the name of artistic independence and a settlement was quickly reached.
In the meantime Young returned to his former longtime home Reprise Records and in 1988 released a quality jump blues album This Note’s For You which also led to some legal issues. It was first sold as Neil Young and The Bluenotes. But after a lawsuit from Harold Melvin & The Blue Notes original R & B band dating to the 1950s, Young had to change the album labelling from Neil Young & The Bluenotes to just Neil Young . . . I have both versions. Not sure if the one with ‘Bluenotes’ on the cover is rare or worth anything, just as I have the original Rolling Stones vinyl album cover of Some Girls which later, due to threatened lawsuits by various movie stars depicted on the cover, was amended to ‘under reconstruction’. The Stones one I’d submit probably is worth more, if it’s worth anything but I probably stupidly completely reduced any value it might have via me putting my initials on it for organizational purposes during a move. But, actually, I’m happy to still own it as well as the original Neil Young album cover.
1. The Allman Brothers Band, Instrumental Illness
2. Paul McCartney/Wings, Big Barn Red
3. Paul McCartney/Wings, Medley (Hold Me Tight/Lazy Dynamite/Hands Of Love/Power Cut)
4. Alvin Lee, I Want You (She’s So Heavy)
5. Elton John, Where To Now, St. Peter?
6. Tom Jones, The Young New Mexican Puppeteer
7. Bob Dylan, Ballad Of A Thin Man
8. The Dirty Mac, Yer Blues (from The Rolling Stones Rock And Roll Circus)
9. The Rolling Stones, Prodigal Son
10. Rev. Robert Wilkins, That’s No Way To Get Along (1928 version, re-recorded by Wilkins during the 1960s as The Prodigal Son)
11. Atomic Rooster, Broken Wings
12. Faces (I Know) I’m Losing You (live at the BBC 1971, taken from Five Guys Walk Into A Bar box set)
13. Rush, Cygnus X-1
14. Rush, Cyngus X-1 Book II
1. The Allman Brothers Band, Instrumental Illness . . . From the 2003 studio album Hittin’ The Note. It’s the last original recorded work by the band and the first and only Allmans’ album to not include original guitarist Dickey Betts. He was dismissed in 2000 in what became a difficult divorce, including lawsuits, stemming from other band members’ concerns over Betts’ alcohol and substance abuse. Betts and Gregg Allman did reconcile before Allman’s death in 2017, with Betts passing away in 2024 at age 80.
Replacing Betts on Hittin’ The Note, including on this extended jazz-rock fusion instrumental featuring terrific guitar interplay, was Derek Trucks, nephew of Allmans’ drummer Butch Trucks and also a member of the Tedeschi Trucks Band with his wife Susan Tedeschi. Derek Trucks continued the tradition of the Allmans’ two-guitar attack dating to the original duo of Betts and Duane Allman. Trucks teamed with Warren Haynes, who was originally brought into the Allmans in the late 1980s from Betts’ solo band in yet another example of the various branches of musical family trees. It’s a terrific song, and album, leaving the Allmans, who continued touring until 2014, to exit studio work hittin’ a high note.
2. Paul McCartney/Wings, Big Barn Red . . . The first of two tracks from McCartney and Wings’ 1973 album Red Rose Speedway. I was inspired to play it via a text last week from a friend out of the blue, as he and I tend to in a fun way via random thoughts do. He simply said “isn’t Red Rose Speedway a terrifically underrated album?” to which I admitted that while I own the album and have pretty much all of McCartney’s material, I’ve never – beyond the hit single My Love – got into it much. The album is overshadowed by McCartney’s next two, Band On The Run and Venus And Mars. So, his text prompted me to play the song he suggested I listen to and here is, Big Barn Red. It’s a, I would say, quirky, bouncy kind of tune, great playing, kinda loose, kinda tight, kinda inconsequential on the surface yet consequential if that makes sense.
3. Paul McCartney/Wings, Medley (Hold Me Tight/Lazy Dynamite/Hands Of Love/Power Cut) . . . Another one from Red Rose Speedway which I mentioned to my friend during our text conversation as one from the album I definitely was familiar with. Some have likened it to the Abbey Road medley and while I don’t think it’s on that level – what could be, or maybe I just haven’t listened to it enough – it’s still pretty good. Of particular note to me is the Hands Of Love part, a jaunty juxtaposition within the overall offering and featuring some stinging guitar work by, presumably, Henry McCulloch who is listed as lead guitarist on the album although Macca can and does play pretty much every instrument. Power Cut, it’s been suggested by some, should have been extracted as a single and it, along with the three other parts of the medley, are available separately on YouTube. Red Rose Speedway was originally intended as a double album and in 2018 was re-issued in that form as part of the Paul McCartney Archive Collection.
4. Alvin Lee, I Want You (She’s So Heavy) . . . I often speak of the interconnected threads in music, as earlier in the set with The Allman Brothers Band, Dickey Betts, Derek and Butch Trucks, Warren Haynes (who also formed the formidable entity in itself Gov’t Mule). Probably I go overboard with it while understanding that in any field of endeavour there will be cross-pollination and collaboration of creativity. Still, I find it fascinating while also recognizing that many of the threads connecting bands and/or artists who might admire/respect each other from afar, were you to put them together in an attempt to form a band, it might not work for long. Which is why ‘supergroups’ like Cream, Blind Faith etc. didn’t last long although others like, say, Bad Company which is often categorized as a supergroup, did. So, it obviously depends on whatever chemistry may or may not exist.
In any case, on my April 14/25 show I played Alvin Lee’s slow blues The Bluest Blues, a terrific cut featuring his Beatle friend George Harrison on slide guitar, from Lee’s Nineteen Ninety-Four album released that year. Lee, the former Ten Years After frontman/guitarist, and Harrison were great pals, lived in the same neighborhood for at least some time and as Lee related in various album liner notes, he’d encourage Harrison to drop by and make music. The Bluest Blues was one result and another was their pairing on Lee’s cover of the John Lennon-penned Beatles tune I Want You (She’s So Heavy). It’s also from Nineteen Ninety-Four and is a terrific reinterpretation while holding true to the original on Abbey Road. Lennon deliberately and brilliantly abruptly chopped off the ending on the Abbey Road album where Lee lets it fade albeit after a descending crescendo of sound, each effective in their own way.
Also interesting to me is how Harrison’s playing, juxtaposed against that of an acknowledged virtuoso like Lee, becomes somehow more compelling in that environment vis-a-vis his great work within The Beatles who, amazing as they were, didn’t feature a Lee or a Hendrix etc. type individual player because they were always about the song, which is what ultimately resonates. And as Lee said in those various liner notes, he wanted Harrison’s slide, not just anyone’s slide, but George’s. He loved Harrison’s sound, he got it, and we, thankfully, have it to listen to on some of Lee’s solo tracks.
5. Elton John, Where To Now, St. Peter? . . . Another track, my favorite probably on the 1970 album Tumbleweed Connection, that was actually on my list of possible plays for this show but I settled on something from that album again via the text talk with my friend. He had just picked up Tumbleweed Connection (expanded re-released version no less) for bargain-basement prices at a thrift store. He’s as much a music fan as me so I was surprised he had to pick it up, me presuming he must have owned it already (which turns out he did, on vinyl but he went for the cheapie expanded CD, too). As I said to him, no huge hits but a great album as Elton – and lyrics collaborator Bernie Taupin – was starting to truly bloom both creatively and commercially.
After the lovely piano intro in comes guitar and we’re off. An interesting and compelling arrangement that builds upon itself.
6. Tom Jones, The Young New Mexican Puppeteer . . . A total outlier, perhaps as here we have Tom Jones. I’ve never played him before and faithful show followers may be thinking WTF although I do very much like his biggest hits like It’s Not Unusual and She’s A Lady. Good songs are good songs, regardless. Anyway, playing this one came about while shelving CDs and up came Tom Jones Gold, a two-disc compilation containing this track. It always reminds me of my (RIP) parents therefore I will never get rid of it although I can always easily call it up online. They loved the song, danced to it and so it conjures up fond memories. And it leads into a bunch of ‘Jones’-related material. Me and my music ‘threads’ thing again.
7. Bob Dylan, Ballad Of A Thin Man . . . Tom Jones to Mr. Jones to, you’ll see, Lennon referencing Dylan mentioning Mr. Jones. What a devastating rip job, a lacerating track, so many interpretations of it including a takedown of clueless bourgeois types trying to decode the then counterculture. ‘Something is happening here but you don’t know what it is, do you, Mr. Jones? From Dylan’s 1965 album Highway 61 Revisited.
8. The Dirty Mac, Yer Blues (from The Rolling Stones Rock And Roll Circus) . . . After finally seeing the film and listening to the album upon their initial official release in 1996, I’ve never understood why the Stones held back, or supposedly did, release of The Rolling Stones Rock And Roll Circus based on their view that they had been upstaged by The Who with its version of A Quick One While He’s Away. A good song, I guess, I’ve never gotten into and that’s not due to me comparing The Who to the Stones. I just don’t see what’s so great about A Quick One, studio version or the live Rock And Roll Circus take. The Who, one of my favorite bands, have countless other better songs.
Anyway granted I’m a big fan and if they were ‘off’ on the show I’d say so but I thought the Stones were excellent so, whatever. As for Yer Blues and The Dirty Mac, this is The Beatles track from The White Album as done by John Lennon and Eric Clapton on guitars, drummer Mitch Mitchell from the Jimi Hendrix Experience and Keith Richards of the Stones on bass. Interestingly, perhaps, my elder son, a musician himself, is a huge Beatles (and Stones) fan; he told me once he preferred this arguably rawer, heavier, unpolished yet compellingly unvarnished version to The Beatles’ White Album version. I like them both.
9. The Rolling Stones, Prodigal Son . . . A Stones’ involvement on the previous tune (Richards) brings me to this skeletal, reverential blues cover from around the same time as the Circus show. It appeared on the Beggars Banquet album, released in 1968.
10. Rev. Robert Wilkins, That’s No Way To Get Along ((1928 version, re-recorded by Wilkins during the 1960s as The Prodigal Son) . . . And here’s the original, in a slow, spoken-sung style. Almost more sermon than song that gave the Stones something to build on and also revealed the depth of their blues knowledge and appreciation, which then fueled my own. Again, as Keith Richards has said, the best thing an artist can do is ‘pass it on’.
11. Atomic Rooster, Broken Wings . . . A few weeks ago on the show I played John Mayall’s beautiful original from his 1967 album The Blues Alone and mentioned that Atomic Rooster had, maybe uncharacteristically, covered it and promised to play it at some point soon. Here it is, from the band’s self-titled 1970 debut album. More operatic and ‘prog’ even ‘doomy’ in Rooster’s style perhaps but a great homage to the original. A worthwhile listen.
12. Faces, (I Know) I’m Losing You (live at the BBC 1971, taken from the box set Five Guys Walk Into A Bar . . . ) . . . Absolutely killer version of this tune made famous by The Temptations that Faces forntman Rod Stewart also did, with Faces backing during his dual career period, on his 1971 studio album Every Picture Tells A Story.
13. Rush, Cygnus X-1 . . .Total genre change but I’ve been meaning to get the epic 2-fer of Cygnus X-1 and Cygnus X-1 Book II in. It’s all of a piece, part I from A Farewell To Kings, the 1977 album that truly got me into Rush and arguably my favorite to this day, and Part II from the next album, 1978’s Hemispheres. Part I closed A Farewell To Kings and Part II, lead cut on Hemispheres, continued the cerebral/philosophical story.
14. Rush, Cyngus X-1, Book II . . . And that’s the end of the story, for this set.
A two-album play: Joe Jackson’s 1980 release Beat Crazy and London Calling by The Clash, from 1979. My thoughts on each album run below that record’s song list.
1. Beat Crazy
2. One To One
3. In Every Dream Home (A Nightmare)
4. The Evil Eye
5. Mad At You
6. Crime Don’t Pay
7. Someone Up There
8. Battleground
9. Biology
10. Pretty Boys
11. Fit
I’m a huge Joe Jackson fan and, as I probably too often repeat, follow him and his muse wherever it takes him and me along with it which has meant punk rock/new wave, reggae, ska, big band, classical, you name it. Yet for whatever reason, it took me a bit to get into his 1980 release Beat Crazy. I bought it, automatic purchase of something by a preferred artist when it came out, listened to it, liked it, liked the driving, musically jagged title cut (sung by bassist Graham Maby) but that was sort of it and I shelved the album for a time. Not sure why, perhaps there were other more immediate albums I was more interested in then.
But once I truly dug back into Beat Crazy, wow. Jackson was still in his early career ‘angry young man’ new wave phase at the time, before the shift first into the jazz/swing covers album Jumpin’ Jive in 1981 then into what’s been described as the ‘sophisti-pop’ of the 1982 album Night And Day which featured the hit single Steppin’ Out. But by Beat Crazy Jackson was already clearly evolving, incorporating new sounds like ska and I found a new maturity or seriousness in his songwriting. It was a darker if (likely due to its darkness) more poorly commercially performing album than his straight ahead debut Look Sharp! and its followup I’m The Man. Those were both socially conscious with biting commentary too, but also ‘party’ records featuring obvious hits like Is She Really Going Out With Him? and I’m The Man.
Beat Crazy made you think. JJ addressed, in the title cut, youth attitudes/culture of the day wrapped in allusions to the Cold War via the lyric “and if the Russians ever come they’ll all be beating bongo drums”perfectly in sync with the music. Then there’s the stirring In Every Dream Home (A Nightmare) tale of relationships including the ‘who is she, really?’ look at a high-class prostitute, the blurred morality of Crime Don’t Pay – “I got a nice suit, I got a nice car, it’s been a nice day, don’t tell me that crime don’t pay” to the racism of ‘black niggers and white niggers’ in Battleground to the superficiality of Pretty Boys to the gender identity issues of Fit. A tremendous album, ahead of its time perhaps, although ‘ahead of its time’ is arguably a cliche phrase, given that it happened at that time so it’s obviously of its time.
1. London Calling
2. Brand New Cadillac
3. Jimmy Jazz
4. Hateful
5. Rudie Can’t Fail
6. Spanish Bombs
7. The Right Profile
8. Lost In The Supermarket
9. Clampdown
10. The Guns Of Brixton
11. Wrong ‘Em Boyo
12. Death Or Glory
13. Koka Kola
14. The Card Cheat
15. Lover’s Rock
16. Four Horsemen
17. I’m Not Down
18. Revolution Rock
19. Train In Vain (Stand By Me) (hidden track on original vinyl double album)
London Calling is so full of great songs it’s ridiculous. In choosing this 1979 release to play and revisiting it after a long time between listens – although like all great albums I can pretty much play it in my head – the depth in terms of the quality and variety of music is amazing. The Clash were, as I recall a sticker on the album wrap suggesting, ‘the only band that matters’ at least at the time and I agreed and embraced them, totally. They rivalled my forever favorites, The Rolling Stones, as my favorite band at that time.
There’s the title cut with the line ‘phony Beatlemania has bitten the dust’ which I on first listen and generally took to be about the quick rise and fall of the Bay City Rollers of the 1970s, although their song Saturday Night was a pretty good guilty pleasure. Others have legitimately suggested it’s a reference to what The Clash was seeing as the decline, already, within just a few years, of punk rock as a movement. Or something of a companion to the band’s earlier song 1977 which contained the lyric “No Elvis, Beatles or The Rolling Stones in 1977”. Even as The Clash appropriated, as an homage, the artwork of Elvis’s 1956 debut album for the London Calling cover . . .
By any interpretation, a great song and opener.
Then comes Brand New Cadillac, the Vince Taylor cover spiced up with the immortal not in the original lyrics interjection ‘Jesus Christ, where’d you get that Cadillac!’ which just ‘makes’ the song . . . Train In Vain (Stand By Me) the early single and a ‘hidden track’ to end the original album . . . beyond that . . . the reggae of Revolution Rock, Spanish Bombs evoking the Spanish Civil War but updated by incorporating contemporary issues . . . Lost In The Supermarket’s tale of suburban disillusionment and rampant consumerism . . . the ‘what are we gonna do now?’ call to arms of Clampdown . . . The Right Profile with another couple of stirring screams in the chorus ‘that’s Montgomery Clift honey!’ and ‘but I prefer alcohol!!” And, to me the (literally) killer cut, The Guns Of Brixton with that intoxicating introductory bass line followed by the defiant opening lines ‘When they kick at your front door how you gonna come, with your hands on your head or on the trigger of your gun . . . when the law break in how you gonna go? Shot down on the pavement or waiting in death row’ . . .
The excellence is in the maybe not grammatically perfect yet perfectly imperfect lyrics. It’s maybe ‘wrong’, as great art often is, but sounds right, better, it just works. Akin, for just one example, to Smoke On The Water by Deep Purple where the lyrics are so much better – and probably aid in the singing tempo – as released: ‘some stupid (not some stupid idiot, just ‘some stupid’) with a flare gun burned the place to the ground’ and ‘The Rolling truck Stones thing just outside, making our music there’; putting ‘truck’ in between Rolling and Stones takes it from just another lyric mentioning the Stones’ mobile recording studio into a memorable line.
Crazy good album, London Calling. I have friends who swear by the earlier Clash stuff, the raucous debut punk rock album and all that and I get it, I like the earlier material too. But some tend to dismiss London Calling as a sellout for commercial gain. I disagree. First off, one wants to sell records, no? Otherwise, it’s like saying you’ll work for free. Noble maybe, but you have to eat and maintain roof overhead. Further, London Calling is still topical, still political, if that’s what one wants from The Clash, but it’s wrapped in more accessible songs. If that’s ‘selling out’ then I’m all for it because few are going to listen to your lyrics if the musicality of the songs themselves doesn’t first draw you in. And London Calling achieves that. Easily one of the greatest albums of all time.
So Old It’s New three-album play, a singer-songwriter set featuring three classic, seminal albums: Simon and Garfunkel’s Bridge Over Troubled Water from 1970, Carole King’s Tapestry from 1971 and John Wesley Harding by Bob Dylan, released in 1967. My thoughts on each album appear under that record’s song list. No show on my usual Monday night; I’m preempted for the station’s coverage of the Canadian federal election.
1. Bridge Over Troubled Water
2. El Condor Pasa (If I Could)
3. Cecilia
4. Keep The Customer Satisfied
5. So Long, Frank Lloyd Wright
6. The Boxer
7. Baby Driver
8. The Only Living Boy In New York
9. Why Don’t You Write Me
10. Bye Bye Love
11. Song For The Asking
Personal memories of this album go back to when I was in Grade 7 in the school year 1970-71 and part of the school choir as per our compulsory music curriculum. If memory serves it was a Christmas assembly but in any case it was a public performance in front of family, friends and anyone who wanted to drop by and we closed the evening with the title track, Bridge Over Troubled Water. I remember our 5-foot nothing, or less, music teacher with her pitch pipe, endlessly – and sometimes annoyingly 🙂 such was her pursuit of perfection – drilling us for what she hoped for and intended to be a peak performance. And it was. We nailed it on the night, complete with all the transitional vocal harmonies amid the various voices – sopranos, altos, tenors (me, then) and basses. She was so proud of us, Miss Lee was her name as I recall and we of her particularly as a lesson in dedication, focus and persistence.
Later that year I remember smiling at a school dance as she slow-danced with her boyfriend, easily a foot and a half taller than she was, while I took the last slow dance with a friend and classmate named Cecilia, the title of one of the tracks, albeit an uptempo and excellent tune on Bridge Over Troubled Water. I was so naive then in relationships I had no idea a ‘last dance’ might represent something of significance. Nothing ever ensued between Cecilia and me, due to streaming of students based on where we lived she went to a different high school, but she does come to mind in a fun way when I hear the song. Part of it might also be that she was of Spanish background and in 1970 my family had just returned from four years living in Peru, a formative, defining time for me, so she perhaps resonated as somewhat representative of that experience.
Further re the album itself there is the classic song The Boxer with that distinctive ‘cheeuuh’ if I can ‘write’ a sound, one achieved by drummer Hal Blaine via a heavily reverbed snare drum. Blaine, according to analyses, I’m no drummer, pounded the snare drum hard while recording, and the reverberation of the sound in a hallway near an elevator shaft created the desired effect. Overall, just a great album musically and lyrically.
1. I Feel The Earth Move
2. So Far Away
3. It’s Too Late
4. Home Again
5. Beautiful
6. Way Over Yonder
7. You’ve Got A Friend
8. Where You Lead
9. Will You Love Me Tomorrow?
10. Smackwater Jack
11. Tapestry
12. (You Make Me Feel Like) A Natural Woman
Simply one of the greatest albums ever. Not sure what else to say about it or what could be said though much has been written and is easily available. It’s all in the music and lyrics. A greatest hits album, essentially, a must-have/listen. A true telling of Carole King though, I think can be furthered by looking at the 2-CD Essential Carole King. Four of the songs on it – I Feel The Earth Move, So Far Away, It’s Too Late and You’ve Got A Friend – come from Tapestry along with other quality King material. But the compilation is nicely split by the two discs – one of her as ‘The Singer’, the other as ‘The Songwriter’, often with then-husband Gerry Goffin, on such songs as Pleasant Valley Sunday by The Monkees and The Loco-Motion by Little Eva and also done by Grand Funk Railroad. Tied as a companion to Tapestry, it’s terrific stuff.
1. John Wesley Harding
2. As I Went Out One Morning
3. I Dreamed I Saw St. Augustine
4. All Along The Watchtower
5. The Ballad Of Frankie Lee And Judas Priest
6. Drifter’s Escape
7. Dear Landlord
8. I Am A Lonesome Hobo
9. I Pity The Poor Immigrant
10. The Wicked Messenger
11. Down Along The Cove
12. I’ll Be Your Baby Tonight
A notable album for among other songs, the one from which the hard rock/metal band Judas Priest took its name, The Ballad Of Frankie Lee and Judas Priest, plus other great tracks like my favorites As I Went Out One Morning and Dylan’s original All Along The Watchtower. Sounds like sacrilege to some, probably, but I truly prefer Dylan’s original – maybe better expressed it’s a tie – to the more famous Jimi Hendrix cover version which Dylan himself later started attempting to do, in concert, in Hendrix style. In my view he needn’t have. Dylan’s version is classic if not by now as well remembered or recognized but to me it’s a matter of lyrics and delivery. As great as the Hendrix version is, the lyrical impact is lost amid the amazing playing relative to how it comes out in Dylan’s original. And it was a mutual admiration society; Hendrix also famously and brilliantly covered Dylan’s Like A Rolling Stone at the 1967 Monterey Pop Festival including that wonderful interaction with an audience member “yeah I know I missed a verse, don’t worry” as Jimi played on.
1. AC/DC, Let There Be Rock
2. AC/DC, Demon Fire
3. Black Sabbath, Into The Void
4. Bachman-Turner Overdrive, Sledgehammer
5. Blackfoot, Gimme Gimme Gimme
6. Lynyrd Skynyrd, Devil In The Bottle
7. Jimi Hendrix, Bold As Love
8. Deep Purple, April
9. Queen, The Hitman
10. Aerosmith, Jailbait
11. Robin Trower, Too Rolling Stoned
12. The Rolling Stones, Tops
13. Joe Jackson, Girl (live)
14. The Beatles, Cry Baby Cry
15. Neil Young, Like An Inca
16. Groundhogs, Split, Parts 1-4
My track-by-track tales:
1. AC/DC, Let There Be Rock . . . Title cut from the 1977 album, Bon Scott still alive and on lead vocals, uncompromising raunch and roll setting the tone for at least the first few songs of the set.
2. AC/DC, Demon Fire . . . One of two tracks – Shot In The Dark the other – AC/DC is playing on its just-begun Power Up tour in support of its 2020 album. A long time between the record release and its supporting tour but lots happened in between: Covid, lead singer Brian Johnson’s hearing issues such that he was replaced by Axl Rose of Guns ‘N Roses on a previous tour – including a period where Rose, with a broken leg, sang from a wheelchair. Kudos to Rose, he did a fine job overall in my view based on available video. Johnson, 77, recovered and alongside lead guitarist Angus Young, 70, AC/DC is still around, alive and kicking by all concert review accounts so far. As for Demon Fire, it’s got a similar funky infectious riff to Safe In New York City from the 2000 album Stiff Upper Lip. That’s a good thing. Are they ripping themselves off? Of course, but that’s AC/DC’s genius – doing variations on a theme for years yet still sounding fresh because discerning listeners know it’s not all the same if one actually investigates the albums, deep cuts and all. Still, Young had fun with that perception years ago:
“I’m sick to death of people saying we’ve made 11 albums (at the time) that sound exactly the same. In fact, we’ve made 12 albums that sound exactly the same.”
3. Black Sabbath, Into The Void . . . Hugely influential metal/doom sludge rock track before there were such categorizations, riding one of guitarist Tony Iommi’s darkest riffs, from Sabbath’s 1971 album Master Of Reality.
4. Bachman-Turner Overdrive, Sledgehammer . . . Another band revived and on tour. BTO has been on the road since April 1 in Canada playing all the expected hits plus Guess Who tracks from Randy Bachman’s time in the band plus an encore medley of rock and roll from various artists including BTO: Hey You / All Right Now / Rock’n Me / You Shook Me All Night Long / Honky Tonk Women / Get It On (Bang a Gong) / (I Can’t Get No) Satisfaction / Old Time Rock and Roll / Hey You (reprise). No Sledgehammer, though, which is of course cool but a fine deep track with combined lead vocals by Bachman and bassist C.F. (Fred) Turner from 1973’s Not Fragile album which featured the hit single You Ain’t Seen Nothing Yet. BTO wraps up the Canadian leg of its tour in early May before starting a series of US dates in mid-July, running through the summer.
5. Blackfoot, Gimme Gimme Gimme . . . Straight ahead southern riff raunch and roll from 1980’s Tomcattin’ album, fuelled by leader Rickey Medlocke’s guitar and lead vocals. Medlocke was an early, pre-released recordings member of Lynyrd Skynyrd, playing drums on demos, some of which eventually surfaced on the post-plane crash compilation Skynyrd’s First and… Last which was later expanded and re-released as Skynyrd’s First: The Complete Muscle Shoals Album. Medlocke rejoined Skynyrd full time, on guitar, for the 1997 album Twenty and has been a core member of the reconstituted band since.
6. Lynyrd Skynyrd, Devil In The Bottle . . . Speaking of Skynyrd (without Medlocke) . . . A touching tale about demon alcohol from the unplugged 1994 album Endangered Species that featured classic pre-plane crash Skynyrd tracks like Sweet Home Alabama, Down South Jukin’, Saturday Night Special and I Ain’t The One as well as material done by the reconstituted band and a cover of Elvis’s Heartbreak Hotel. At the time of Endangered Species, the group still featured several of the plane crash survivors or previous, pre-crash players in the band.
The lineup: Gary Rossington and Ed King on guitars; Leon Wilkeson bass; Billy Powell piano from the classic-era group plus lead singer Johnny Van Zant, the departed singer Ronnie Van Zant’s brother. I like all Skynyrd stuff. I think – and that’s cool – people who criticize the latter-day group as being nothing more than a tribute band may not have sampled and thus are missing lots of good music but that’s ok and understandable. But if people can’t make the full leap from band version to version, I’d recommend Endangered Species as a possible entry point if one is at all curious.
7. Jimi Hendrix, Bold As Love . . . Title cut to Axis: Bold As Love. There’s no real hook to it, yet it’s completely compelling with of course fine playing by Hendrix and band as you float along on the bed of instrumentation they lay down.
8. Deep Purple, April . . . I had to get this classical/progressive/hard rock piece in before the end of April. It’s from the so-called Mark I version of Deep Purple. The lineup featured Nick Simper on bass and Rod Evans on lead vocals although Evans doesn’t come in until almost nine minutes into this 12-minute track from the third and final album done by Mark I, simply titled Deep Purple. It was released in 1969. An underappreciated, inventive period of Purple.
9. Queen, The Hitman . . . A hard rocker from 1991’s excellent Innuendo album, the last record the band released while lead singer Freddie Mercury was alive and a nod to classic 1970s Queen not only on this song but throughout the record.
10. Aerosmith, Jailbait . . . Sleazy start/stop/start rocker from the 1982 album Rock In A Hard Place. It’s an appropriate album title in that guitarists Joe Perry and Brad Whitford had left a band disintegrating amid drug abuse and other issues. They were replaced by Jimmy Crespo (sessions with Rod Stewart, Stevie Nicks and Meat Loaf among others) and Rick Dufay (various sessions). Yet, some quality Aerosmith material was still produced, like this bluesy boozy raunchy rolling track that starts with a wild intro, comes to a stop, then winds up again. Lightning Strikes, which I’ve played before, perhaps too often, remains to me the best track on the album but this rocker isn’t far behind.
11. Robin Trower, Too Rolling Stoned . . . My favorite Trower track from arguably his best album, the 1974 release Bridge Of Sighs. It also serves as an obvious segue to the next band/song.
12. The Rolling Stones, Tops . . . The Stones, wanting a new studio album to tour behind in 1981 but pressed for time, visited their vaults to cobble leftovers into the chart-topping feast that became the Tattoo You album propelled by the hit single Start Me Up. But there’s so much depth to the album including this mid-tempo ballad whose history goes back to 1972 sessions and features great drumming from Charlie Watts and lead guitar from Mick Taylor.
13. Joe Jackson, Girl (from Live Music) . . . No guitars. Piano-driven cover of The Beatles’ cut from Rubber Soul, issued on Jackson’s 2011 live album taken from a 2010 tour of Europe. JJ labeled his band at the time the Joe Jackson Trio, a terrific unit featuring his perennial on bass (Graham Maby) going back to the 1979 debut album Look Sharp! David Houghton, the drummer on Look Sharp! and Jackson’s first few albums and several later ones, is also on board.
14. The Beatles, Cry Baby Cry . . . Haunting yet beautiful track from The White Album, written and sung by John Lennon and punctuated by Paul McCartney’s ‘can you take me back’ coda.
15. Neil Young, Like An Inca . . . How can you not get into, or at least try, a track that starts with the lyric ‘said the condor to the preying mantis’ ? This extended piece from 1982’s off the wall Kraftwerk-like electronic album Trans is actually a curveball within the context of the record, given it’s a ‘traditional’ or conventional-sounding Young song on an otherwise experimental entry. Geffen Records sued Young at the time for not sounding like Neil Young (?!, he obviously should be open to creating as his muse moves him but, understandably perhaps, Geffen would have been expecting Neil Young as folk or grunge Neil Young, not Kraftwerk or whatever). Young countersued in the interests of creative freedom. Both lawsuits were soon dropped and Young received a personal apology from label leader David Geffen for interfering in the creative process. Trans is an interesting album as are all Young’s experiments – albeit not to all tastes – while he was signed to Geffen including Everybody’s Rockin’ (rockabilly) in 1983 and the country album Old Ways in 1985.
16. Groundhogs, Split, Parts 1-4 . . . Time to ‘split’ from the studio via this multi-part title suite from the British blues rock band’s 1971 album. They’re all individual songs, they each ‘end’ on a fadeout and aren’t conventionally connected yet are an overall unified piece.
A mishmash ‘throw stuff at the wall see what sticks’ set, including some leftovers I couldn’t fit into previous shows. My track-by-track tales follow the bare-bones list.
1. Muddy Waters, All Aboard
2. Buddy Holly, Early In The Morning
3. Mott The Hoople, All The Way From Memphis
4. Eric Burdon and War, Blues For Memphis Slim
5. The Band, Back To Memphis
6. Stray Cats, 18 Miles To Memphis
7. Roy Buchanan, Down By The River (live)
8. Alan Parsons Project, In The Lap Of The Gods
9. Alan Parsons Project, Lucifer
10. James Gang, Alexis
11. MC5, Come Together
12. Colin James, I’m Losing You
13. Pearl Jam, Glorified G
14. Peter Tosh, Bush Doctor (from Captured Live)
15. Alannah Myles, Tumbleweed
16. Talking Heads, Gangster Of Love
17. Elton John, You’re So Static
18. Jason and The Scorchers, 19th Nervous Breakdown
19. The Rolling Stones, Baby Break It Down
20. Little Feat, Day At The Dog Races (live, from Waiting For Columbus)
21. Patti Smith Group, Easter
My track-by-track tales:
1. Muddy Waters, All Aboard (from Fathers and Sons featuring Otis Spann, Mike Bloomfield, Paul Butterfield, Donald ‘Duck’ Dunn, Sam Lay and Buddy Miles) . . . You feel like you’re on a train on this one about love lost and maybe regained with someone new, chugging along complete with opening train whistle. Not much more to say beyond my list of who plays on Muddy’s 1969 album, other than it’s great. It was wonderful how, as an elder statesman of the blues by then, Muddy’s ‘sons’ flocked to help him out on albums, including as the decade of the 1970s progressed, Johnny Winter who played on and produced three late period Muddy albums plus the excellent Muddy ‘Mississippi’ Waters live record.
2. Buddy Holly, Early In The Morning . . . One of those ‘what might have been’ tracks in terms of directions Holly might have taken had he lived. The shuffling rock and roll tune co-written by Bobby Darin of Splish Splash fame and his somewhat regular writing partner Woody Harris was recorded by Holly in 1958 including gospel-tinged background vocals by The Helen Way Singers. Darin did his own version of the song around the same time.
North America album cover
UK album cover
3. Mott The Hoople, All The Way From Memphis . . . We start a mini-Memphis-themed set with this rousing lead cut from the 1973 album Mott, driven by Mick Ralphs’ guitar riff and a sizzling saxophone solo from Andy Mackay of Roxy Music. The song went top 10 in the UK but didn’t chart in North America, although it did get considerable FM radio airplay and is one of the band’s best-known tracks.
4. Eric Burdon and War, Blues For Memphis Slim . . . Extended, 13-minute piece of jazzy funk blues from the April 1970 release Eric Burdon Declares ‘War’. A great meeting of musical minds between the Animals’ singer and the progressive soul and R & B band that resulted in the great single Spill The Wine, from the same album. Eight months later, December, 1970, came The Black-Man’s Burdon album after which the pairing parted ways.
5. The Band, Back To Memphis . . . A Chuck Berry tune that first appeared in a live version on the comprehensive 2-CD compilation To Kingdom Come: The Definitive Collection released in 1989 and now out of print. I’ve long had my copy so I’m good. The track, in studio form and recorded at the time, was later added to expanded releases of The Band’s 1973 covers album Moondog Matinee, where it’s titled Going Back To Memphis.
6. Stray Cats, 18 Miles To Memphis . . . Typically terrific rockabilly boogie by the band, channeling the 1950s, as was their wont, on the 1983 album Rant N’ Rave With The Stray Cats.
7. Roy Buchanan, Down By The River (live) . . . A previously – until 1992’s Sweet Dreams: The Anthology and 2006’s Definitive Collection – unreleased live version by the great blues/rock guitarist of the Neil Young classic originally on Young’s second solo album, Everybody Knows This Is Nowhere, recorded with Crazy Horse.
8. Alan Parsons Project, In The Lap Of The Gods . . . A moody, orchestral prog-rock piece from 1978’s Pyramid with that great album cover, the first of two straight instrumentals, from consecutive albums by the Project.
9. Alan Parsons Project, Lucifer . . . An eerie yet funky and, once you hear the hook, instantly familiar lead track from the 1979 album Eve.
10. James Gang, Alexis . . . What starts as a mellow ballad builds into a guitar showcase for future Deep Purple member Tommy Bolin, who also sings the song, during his period with the James Gang. It’s from the 1973 album Bang, Bolin’s first of two with the group after founding guitarist Joe Walsh and his replacement, Domenic Triano left. After 1974’s Miami album off, too, went Bolin to a solo career and Deep Purple for one album, the 1975 release Come Taste The Band.
11. MC5, Come Together . . . Not The Beatles tune but rather manic Motor City-area mayhem from the punk rock pioneers’ debut album, the live Kick Out The Jams, released in 1969. It was recorded at a late 1968 concert in Detroit.
12. Colin James, I’m Losing You . . . Faithful cover, great guitar, of the John Lennon tune from 1980’s Double Fantasy album. Canadian blues singer/guitarist James’s version came out on his 2003 album Traveler.
13. Pearl Jam, Glorified G . . . This funky and sarcastic diatribe against gun culture wasn’t a single but for my money is one of the best songs on the band’s second album, 1993’s Vs. Many apparently agree since it got enough airplay to make No. 39 on the US Billboard chart.
14. Peter Tosh, Bush Doctor (from Captured Live) . . . Fiery live version of the title cut from Tosh’s 1978 studio album which featured Rolling Stones guitarist Keith Richards on the track and Mick Jagger with co-lead vocals on the single (You Gotta Walk And) Don’t Look Back, a cover of The Temptations’ 1965 hit they titled Don’t Look Back. The Bush Doctor album came during a period when Tosh, signed to Rolling Stones Records at the time, was often an opening act at Stones concerts. As for Bush Doctor the song, it’s something of a companion piece to the title track from Tosh’s 1976 studio album Legalize It, celebrating in Tosh’s view the health benefits of and calling for the legalization of marijuana.
15. Alannah Myles, Tumbleweed . . . Country-tinged pop-rock tune with Myles’ sultry voice floating over the bluesy guitar riffs. Myles’ self-titled debut album in 1989 gets most of the hype in large measure due to its worldwide hit single Black Velvet. But I find 1992’s Rockinghorse, her second album from which Tumbleweed is taken, equally good.
16. Talking Heads, Gangster Of Love . . . Not Steve Miller’s cover of the Johnny ‘Guitar’ Watson song but a rhythmic, worldbeat type track from sessions that produced the albums Remain In Light (1980) and Naked (1988). The band eventually polished and released the song in 1992 on the 2-disc compilation Popular Favorites 1976–1992: Sand in the Vaseline.
17. Elton John, You’re So Static . . . Funky pop rock tune fueled by the Tower Of Power horn section. Catchy stuff, from the 1974 album Caribou.
18. Jason and The Scorchers, 19th Nervous Breakdown . . . An, er, scorching version of the Stones’ hit single from 1966. It was released on The Scorchers’ 1986 album Still Standing. It also appears on the 1998 album Cover You: A Tribute To The Rolling Stones which contains covers of Stones’ songs by artists like Otis Redding (Satisfaction), Linda Ronstadt (Tumbling Dice), Johnny Cash (No Expectations) and Johnny Winter (Jumpin’ Jack Flash) among others.
19. The Rolling Stones, Baby Break It Down . . . Mid-tempo track from 1994’s Voodoo Lounge album featuring a great pedal steel guitar solo from Ron Wood. Another one of those largely unknown – other than to Stones freaks like me – gems that pepper their studio albums, particularly their latter-day releases.
20. Little Feat, Day At The Dog Races (live, from Waiting For Columbus) . . . Twice the length of the six-minute studio track from the 1977 album Time Loves A Hero, this instrumental Weather Report-like jazz fusion jam didn’t appear on the original 1978 release of the classic live album Waiting For Columbus although it was recorded on the 1977 tour from which Columbus came. Day At The Dog Races was one of several bonus tracks from that tour added to a 2002 re-release of the live album.
21. Patti Smith Group, Easter . . . Well, it is Easter weekend – Happy Easter, everyone – so how could I resist playing this haunting, evocative title track to the 1978 album?
A blues rock set, albeit alas limited within the confines of my two-hour slot, to just some of the myriad masters of the genre and only scratching the surface of artists they inspired. The set wound up, as it often does, going in different directions once into it by just letting it flow, resulting in some duplicate tracks – originals and covers – as things evolved but the great thing in a way is, many of the artists ‘left out’ so to speak and not in this set stay in mind for future such shows. My track-by-track tales follow the bare-bones list.
1. Alvin Lee, The Bluest Blues
2. Robert Johnson, Preachin’ Blues (Up Jumped The Devil)
3. Mississippi Fred McDowell, You Gotta Move
4. The Rolling Stones, You Gotta Move (from Love You Live)
5. The Rolling Stones, Down In The Hole
6. Keith Richards, Blues In The Morning
7. John Lee Hooker, I Don’t Wanna Go To Vietnam
8. Canned Heat & John Lee Hooker, The World Today (from Hooker ‘N Heat)
9. Van Morrison with John Lee Hooker, Gloria . . . (from Van Morrison’s Too Long In Exile)
10. Blind Willie Johnson, It’s Nobody’s Fault But Mine
11. Led Zeppelin, Nobody’s Fault But Mine
12. John Mayall, Broken Wings
13. Buddy Guy, Stone Crazy
14. Kansas Joe McCoy and Memphis Minnie, When The Levee Breaks
15. Led Zeppelin, When The Levee Breaks
16. Eric Clapton with Santana, Eyesight To The Blind / Why Does Love Got To Be So Sad? (from Crossroads 2 live in the seventies box set)
My track-by-track tales:
1. Alvin Lee, The Bluest Blues . . . Beatle George Harrison on slide guitar on this slow-burner from the Ten Years After frontman/guitarist’s 1994 solo album named, what else, Nineteen Ninety-Four although in the USA it was called I Hear You Rockin’. To quote Lee about Harrison’s contribution, from the liner notes to a Lee compilation released in 2003:
“It’s one of the best slide guitar solos I’ve ever heard. I did a version of it, before George came down, and played my usual mad guitar solo. Then I said ‘George, how about putting some slide on there?’ He did the first solo and he did this beautiful slow, laid back and lifting solo and it made me change my whole attitude. I had to take off more gently from there, rather than blowing at the speed of light. It turned the song into something special for me. George lived down the road, and he was always up for coming over to make music. I loved his slide playing. George had perfect pitch. He was a lovely man and he is sorely missed.” As is Lee, who died in 2013. Harrison passed away in 2001.
2. Robert Johnson, Preachin’ Blues (Up Jumped The Devil) . . . Not as often covered by rock greats as his songs like Crossroad Blues, Ramblin’ On My Mind, Traveling Riverside Blues, Stop Breaking Down Blues and Love In Vain, among others. But this boogie yet haunting tune embodies the crossroads mythology surrounding Johnson having made a deal with the devil, trading his soul for musical mastery.
3. Mississippi Fred McDowell, You Gotta Move . . . A song I, and perhaps many of my age, first heard on The Rolling Stones’ 1971 album Sticky Fingers although they’d previously played it during their 1969 American tour and it’s appeared on subsequent expanded re-releases of Get Yer Ya Ya’s Out! , the classic 1970 live album document of that trip. I have McDowell’s earthy, hypnotic version on a few compilations including 2018’s Confessin’ The Blues which was curated by members of the Stones – including cover art by guitarist Ron Wood. The comp features McDowell and many other blues greats from whom the Stones drew inspiration.
4. The Rolling Stones, You Gotta Move, (from Love You Live) . . . I thought I’d go not with the studio version from Sticky Fingers, nor the live version from 1969 but this jam-type sing-along rendition from the Stones’ 1975-76 tour of North America and Europe that appeared on their 1977 live release.
5. The Rolling Stones, Down In The Hole . . . A great original blues from 1980’s Emotional Rescue, almost out of place on an album otherwise infused with disco, reggae and straight-ahead pop-rock songs plus the off the wall but addictive multi-part title track. Down In The Hole, featuring fabulous harmonica from Sugar Blue, was the B-side to the Emotional Rescue single and appeared directly before it in the album track order – jarring, cleverly effective juxtapositions in my book.
6. Keith Richards, Blues In The Morning . . . I suppose I should be playing this up-tempo rootsy rocker featuring that distinctive Richards’ riffing on my Saturday morning show. But . . . that’s just what you’d be expecting. An almost casually tossed off yet compelling piece from Keef’s most recent solo album, the 2015 release Crosseyed Heart.
7. John Lee Hooker, I Don’t Wanna Go To Vietnam . . . The first of three straight songs featuring Hooker on his own or in collaboration with others. A typically hypnotic Hooker groove on this anti-war excursion that still resonates, aside from the specific war it’s discussing, released on his 1969 album Simply The Truth.
We got so much trouble at home
We don’t need to go to Vietnam
Yeah, yeah, there’s a whole lot of trouble right here at home
Don’t need to go to Vietnam
We oughta stay at home, stay out of trouble
I don’t wanna go
I don’t wanna go
Vietnam
8. Canned Heat & John Lee Hooker, The World Today (from Hooker ‘N Heat) . . . An extended conversation about conflict, written by Hooker. Minimalist, strikingly almost spoken-word blues from the respective artists’ 1971 collaboration.
9. Van Morrison with John Lee Hooker, Gloria . . . From Van The Man’s 1993 album Too Long In Exile, a terrific, extended version of Them’s Morrison-penned 1965 hit. Two vocal virtuosos in tandem amid intoxicating instrumentation.
10. Blind Willie Johnson, It’s Nobody’s Fault But Mine . . . Another one of those, like Mississippi Fred McDowell and The Rolling Stones covering You Gotta Move, where a rock band introduces you to the brilliance of those who inspired them. As Keith Richards of the Stones has said, arguably the greatest compliment one can grant a musician is that they passed it on. In this case, Led Zeppelin took the baton from Blind Willie and transformed his acoustic, spiritual version recorded in 1927 into a powerhouse, rocked up production on the 1976 album Presence, while retaining the essence of the original.
11. Led Zeppelin, Nobody’s Fault But Mine . . . See my thoughts on Blind Willie Johnson.
12. John Mayall, Broken Wings . . . A beautiful if sad ballad, one of my favorite songs by Mayall from one of my favorite of his albums, the 1967 release The Blues Alone. The album title is somewhat misleading, as the album does feature contributions from drummer Keith “Keef” Hartley but it is mostly Mayall – on vocals, guitar, harmonica, piano, organ and . . . drums on two tracks although it’s Hartley on this one.
13. Buddy Guy, Stone Crazy . . . Straight slow blues from 1961, drenched in Guy’s great guitar and soulful vocals to the extent that B.B. King anointed Guy, then 25, his heir apparent. It was released on the 1970 compilation I Was Walking Through The Woods, part of the Chess Records Vintage Series and comprised of Guy’s material recorded between 1960 and 1964.
14. Kansas Joe McCoy and Memphis Minnie, When The Levee Breaks. . . Recorded by blues artists and then-married couple McCoy and Minnie (birth name Lizzie Douglas) in 1929, a haunting historical snapshot of the Great Mississippi Flood of 1927.
15. Led Zeppelin, When The Levee Breaks . . . Another one reimagined and transformed by Led Zep, featuring that defining drumbeat by John Bonham.
16. Eric Clapton with Santana, Eyesight To The Blind / Why Does Love Got To Be So Sad ? (from Crossroads 2 live in the seventies box set) . . . A sprawling, fiery finale to the show blending a Sonny Boy Williamson song with a soulful Derek And The Dominos number, from Clapton’s 1975 tour. Santana served as the opening act, joining Clapton on stage for an epic 24-minute encore.
A three-Pete performance of my favorite Townshend albums, including a nice collaboration with Ronnie Lane of Faces fame.
The show features Rough Mix (1977), Empty Glass (1980) and All The Best Cowboys Have Chinese Eyes (1982). It was inspired by me having recently read various biographies of Who members but also thanks to finding, while doing some filing, my long apparently lost copy of Pete Townshend Gold. It’s a 2-CD compilation I own because, after the three studio albums I’m playing, and his 1972 debut Who Came First featuring the great song Sheraton Gibson, I found Townshend was increasingly losing me full album wise, aside from occasional quality tracks (that rightly made the compilation) like Give Blood, Face The Face and Secondhand Love from White City: A Novel. White City, released in 1985, was the first of three consecutive concept albums that included The Iron Man: The Musical by Pete Townshend (1989) and Psychoderelict (1993). OK stuff I probably should revisit as full listens but . . . the market maybe told the tale as the latter two didn’t chart and Townshend hasn’t released a solo album since amid various Who tours and two latter-day Who studio albums – Endless Wire in 2006 and WHO in 2019.
So here, to me, is prime Pete, helped along by Rough Mix with Faces bassist/singer Lane that also includes appearances by musical friends including Rolling Stones’ drummer Charlie Watts, Eric Clapton, Bad Company bassist Boz Burrell and Townshend’s Who partner in crime, bassist John Entwistle. Further thoughts on each album, under each record’s track list.
1. My Baby Gives It Away
2. Nowhere To Run
3. Rough Mix
4. Annie
5. Keep Me Turning
6. Catmelody
7. Misunderstood
8. April Fool
9. Street In The City
10. Heart To Hang Onto
11. Till The Rivers All Run Dry
An album full of great tracks like Keep Me Turning, Misunderstood, Street In The City and perhaps my favorite, the emotive Heart To Hang Onto with shared vocals by Lane and Townshend. I was always into The Who but I remember exploring a Toronto record store, I would have been 18 in 1977 and I came across Rough Mix in The Who rack, shortly after it came out. I’d been unaware of it to that point but, trusting the names on the album sleeve, bought it sight unseen and I’ve been immensely and repeatedly rewarded ever since.
1. Rough Boys
2. I Am An Animal
3. And I Moved
4. Let My Love Open The Door
5. Jools And Jim
6. Keep On Working
7. Cat’s In The Cupboard
8. A Little Is Enough
9. Empty Glass
10. Gonna Get Ya
Empty Glass is simply one of those albums where every track is excellent. An album so good that at the time, Who singer Roger Daltrey said he felt Townshend was maybe holding back his best work for solo albums. I respect and understand Roger’s view but at the same time, Daltrey was often reluctant – as on 1975’s The Who By Numbers – to sing very personal, ‘confessional’ Townshend tunes like However Much I Booze which Townshend wound up singing himself. So, given that many of the tracks on Empty Glass are indeed personal, despite Daltrey’s concerns, it’s likely best how it came out – a Townshend solo record. I’d rate it his best.
1. Stop Hurting People
2. The Sea Refuses No River
3. Prelude
4. Face Dances Part Two
5. Exquisitely Bored
6. Communication
7. Stardom In Action
8. Uniforms (Corp d’esprit)
9. North Country Girl
10. Somebody Saved Me
11. Slit Skirts
Inconsistent, to my ears, certainly as compared to the sustained brilliance of Empty Glass albeit a very good album, beyond which I think the choice of singles (Face Dances Part 2 and Uniforms) was questionable. Ever heard them much? Didn’t think so. The fact the excellent Exquisitely Bored, to me the best song on the album with The Sea Refuses No River a close second (and also not a single), wasn’t chosen as a single release is mind boggling. Townshend, or his record company, addressed this obvious error by putting both songs on the 2-CD Gold compilation, released in 2005. Uniforms made the comp, but Face Dances Part 2 didn’t, which tells you something.
“We all came out to . . . make records with a mobile”, to quote Deep Purple’s Smoke On The Water lyric as a description of this set made up of tunes by various artists recorded using The Rolling Stones Mobile Studio aka the mobile ‘unit’ or ‘the Rolling truck Stones thing’ as further described in the lyrics to Smoke On The Water. Here’s a couple videos about the mobile, total time about 15 minutes.
My track-by-track tales follow the bare-bones list.
1. Dire Straits, Telegraph Road (from Alchemy – Dire Straits Live)
2. Bob Marley and The Wailers, No Woman No Cry (from Live!)
3. Santana, Dance Sister Dance (live, from Moonflower)
4. Ten Years After, Help Me (from Recorded Live)
5. Led Zeppelin, The Rover
6. Fleetwood Mac, Hypnotized
7. Nazareth, Silver Dollar Forger (Parts 1 & 2)
8. Deep Purple, When A Blind Man Cries
9. Iron Maiden, Tailgunner
10. The Rolling Stones, Let It Rock (live, Leeds University 1971)
11. Bad Company, Silver, Blue & Gold
12. The Who, Water (live, 1971 appeared on Who’s Next deluxe expanded release)
13. Wishbone Ash, Baby What You Want Me To Do (from Live Dates)
14. Dire Straits, Solid Rock/Going Home – Theme From ‘Local Hero’ (from Alchemy – Dire Straits Live)
1. Dire Straits, Telegraph Road (from Alchemy – Dire Straits Live) . . . Epic storytelling track released on the band’s 1984 live album, originally on the studio record Love Over Gold from 1982.
2. Bob Marley and The Wailers, No Woman No Cry (from Live!) . . . Originally on the 1974 studio album Natty Dread, this soulful version from 1975’s Live! has become, to many, the definitive one, evidenced by its appearance on various Marley compilations.
3. Santana, Dance Sister Dance (live, from Moonflower) . . . From the 1977 release, a part studio, part live album, the live album recorded using the Stones’ mobile unit. A blend of Latin rhythms, fusion, and extended jamming; intoxicating, as much of Santana’s best work tends to be.
4. Ten Years After, Help Me (from Recorded Live) . . . A driving riff by guitarist/singer Alvin Lee on the Willie Dixon tune as interpreted not only by TYA but by blues great Sonny Boy Williamson II aka Rice Miller, from whom TYA drew inspiration. A raw, gritty, blues-rock odyssey from TYA’s 1973 album.
5. Led Zeppelin, The Rover . . . I love the sort of, how would I describe it, ‘backwards entry’ of the killer riff off the initial drumbeat on this one from 1975’s Physical Graffiti. To my ears, it’s like it comes in from where one might not expect yet when it comes, there it is as if that’s where it obviously should have been. It all works and tends to conjure up in me an image of a plane coming in for a landing for some reason, not sure why but I feel like I’m flying when I listen to it.
6. Fleetwood Mac, Hypnotized . . . Trippy, dreamy laid back groove, a mesmerizing and, er, hypnotizing track that is one of my favorites from the middle period of Fleetwood Mac featuring Bob Welch on guitar, often lead vocals and songwriting duties. This one’s from the 1973 album Mystery To Me. Two years and one album later, out was Welch, in came guitarist Lindsey Buckingham and singer Stevie Nicks and Fleetwood Mac became a pop-rock phenomenon. I like that version of the band but am still partial to the initial Peter Green-fronted early blues years and the, I think, underappreciated Welch lineup.
7. Nazareth, Silver Dollar Forger (Parts 1 & 2) . . . A heavy riff rocker from the 1974 album Rampant, produced by Roger Glover of Deep Purple bass-playing fame. He was at the helm of several Nazareth albums, others being the previous releases to Rampant and among the band’s most successful – Razamanaz and Loud ‘n’ Proud.
8. Deep Purple, When A Blind Man Cries . . . B-side to the single Never Before, issued from 1972’s Machine Head album that yielded Purple’s signature song, Smoke On The Water which, perhaps strangely, none of the band members apparently thought would be a hit although it obviously became an iconic rock track. Never Before made No. 4 in Switzerland and No. 35 in the UK while Smoke On The Water made the top five in most countries, No. 3 in the US and No. 2 in Canada although never No. 1. As for When A Blind Man Cries, it’s a beautiful blues ballad. It was recorded for Machine Head but according to singer Ian Gillan, guitarist Ritchie Blackmore ”no like” (despite his typically fine playing) so it didn’t make the album until subsequent remastered re-releases. The song has, since Blackmore’s departure from Purple in the mid-1990s, being replaced by Steve Morse and then Simon McBride, been regularly played in concert.
9. Iron Maiden, Tailgunner . . . Pulsating war-themed lead cut from the 1990 album No Prayer For The Dying, recorded in bass player Steve Harris’s barn using the Stones mobile. Maiden was attempting – and succeeding at, via mobile studio methods or otherwise – to achieve a more earthy, stripped down production sound within the typical Maiden metal method.
10. The Rolling Stones, Let It Rock (live, Leeds University 1971) . . . Great version of the Chuck Berry classic from the Stones’ 1971 so-called Goodbye Britain tour where they were escaping the onerous UK taxman, eventually resulting in them being at a villa in southern France, using their mobile truck again, to come up with 1972’s classic Exile On Main St. album. I first heard this version of a song the Stones have done various times on the terrific Get Your Leeds Lungs Out! bootleg I still own. The album has subsequently been officially released, with Let It Rock also included on the Rarities 1971-2003 compilation.
11. Bad Company, Silver, Blue & Gold . . . Not a single but could have been and a Bad Co. fan favorite by all accounts, and definitely one of mine by the band. It’s from the 1976 album Run With The Pack.
12. The Who, Water (live, 1971 appeared on Who’s Next deluxe expanded release, 2003) . . . Stirring, gritty vocals by Roger Daltrey on a relatively obscure track The Who did in typically raw fashion during a London gig. It appeared on later, expanded versions of the Who’s Next album. Explosive stuff, Daltrey rising above but also enveloped in that all-encompassing volcanic Who sound.
13. Wishbone Ash, Baby What You Want Me To Do (from Live Dates) . . . Wishbone Ash was a for the most part progressive hard rock band but they had roots in the British blues and here they are on their 1973 album Live Dates with an extended, more electrified version of the Jimmy Reed tune – Ash-ified as it were while retaining key elements of the original.
14. Dire Straits, Solid Rock/Going Home – Theme From ‘Local Hero’ (from Alchemy – Dire Straits Live) . . . Coming full circle to close the set with Dire Straits live, putting the songs together as they appeared in order on Alchemy. Solid Rock, taken from the studio album Making Movies, is paired with the majestic instrumental Going Home from the soundtrack to the 1983 movie Local Hero, composed by Straits’ leader Mark Knopfler.
A three-headed monster mash featuring 1980 albums by Teenage Head and Talking Heads plus Headstones’ 2022 release Flight Risk. To quote the opening line from Teenage Head’s Disgusteen: Nice day for a party, isn’t it? Which I did a fair bit of with Frantic City by Teenage Head and Talking Heads’ Remain In Light as a soundtrack during college daze, including seeing Teenage Head live when they played at my school.
1. Wild One
2. Somethin’ On My Mind
3. Total Love
4. Let’s Shake
5. Infected
6. Those Things You Do
7. Somethin’ Else
8. Take It
9. Brand New Cadillac
10. Disgusteen – notable not only for “Nice day for a party, isn’t it?” but the conversation with the dark side, adapted from The Exorcist:
Come on in, Father Karras.
Regan’s inside here with me, she’s going nowhere.
But please, it’s so cold, you must let her go.
She’s not going anywhere.
Not till I’m finished with her, you understand.
Just untie my hands,
Let me free, I’ll show you the power
The power of Christ doesn’t compel anyone, not today, understand.
1. Born Under Punches (The Heat Goes On)
2. Crosseyed And Painless
3. The Great Curve
4. Once In A Lifetime
5. Houses In Motion
6. Seen And Not Seen
7. Listening Wind
8. The Overload
1. Headlight Holds A Deer
2. Everything Or Nothing At All
3. Flight Risk
4. When It Goes Badly
5. Tangled
6. Hotel Room
7. Neon Rome
8. Ashes
9. Psychotropic
10. Pilot Light
11. Rink
A program split between ‘fool’ songs, including several from the Deep Purple family, in advance of April Fool’s Day tomorrow, and some random fare. Some of the ‘fool’ songs are repeats from a Saturday morning show I did on April 1, 2023. My track-by-track tales follow the bare-bones list.
1. Quicksilver Messenger Service, The Fool
2. Deep Purple, Fools
3. Deep Purple, You Fool No One, live from Made In Europe
4. Whitesnake, Fool For Your Loving (original 1980 version from Ready An’ Willing album)
5. Peter Green, A Fool No More
6. Joe Jackson, Fool
7. Bobbie Gentry, Find Em, Fool Em, Forget About Em
8. ZZ Top, Made Into A Movie
9. Rod Stewart, Alright For An Hour
10. Jethro Tull, Black Sunday
11. Robert Plant, Wreckless Love
12. Warren Zevon, Bad Luck Streak In Dancing School
13. Moby Grape, Miller’s Blues (live)
14. Nazareth, Telegram (Part 1: On Your Way/Part 2: So You Want To Be A Rock ‘N’ Roll Star/Part 3: Sound Check/Part 4: Here We Are Again)
15. Charlie Watts Quintet . . . Going, Going, Going, Gone
My track-by-track tales:
1. Quicksilver Messenger Service, The Fool . . . My opener this week, a spooky, psychedelic piece that swerves into folk, blues and acid rock, from the San Francisco band’s self-titled 1968 debut that I played late in what became a 28-song set two years ago on April 1. At the time, I marvelled at how many songs have ‘fool’ in their title, particularly deep cuts which are the foundation of my show. Especially when, as I wrote then, I had initially thought I might struggle to fill a set only to find I had four hours’ worth of songs I had to shave down for my two-hour slot.
But it’s not actually April 1 yet so I’m not doing an entire ‘fools’ show this time, as mentioned in my preamble and due to some lengthy songs like this 12-minute voyage, the set is about half the number of tunes, at 15. As for Quicksilver’s The Fool, according to Wikipedia “the multi-sectional, quasi-symphonic psych epic The Fool had begun with lyrics typed on a typewriter during an LSD trip.” And, as I mentioned two years ago, quite the trip it is, in line with what Quicksilver Messenger Service, at least on their various such lengthy tracks like the Who Do You Love suite on the 1969 album Happy Trails, were all about.
2. Deep Purple, Fools . . . A Purple classic in my opinion but, granted, I’m a huge fan of the band, all phases during its long existence. I love the slow, almost sinister buildup until things explode into a hard rocker with progressive accents including the power of Ian Gillan’s vocals, adaptable to any situation, as they were in his prime at the time of the 1971 album Fireball from which Fools comes. Perhaps that’s at least part of why Gillan has said it’s his favorite Purple album although critics tend to find it wanting relatively speaking, coming as it did between the explosive first album of the Mark II Purple unit, In Rock and the Smoke On The Water, Highway Star and other Purple perfections of Machine Head. All I can say is that an album with songs like the title cut, No No No, Strange Kind Of Woman and No One Came along with Fools is equally worthy.
3. Deep Purple, You Fool No One, live from Made In Europe . . . I played this boogie rock tune from the 1974 album Burn the last time I did an April Fool’s show, a four-minutes and change song in its original studio form. I’m going the epic route this time, 16 minutes and 42 seconds from the Made In Europe album, which highlighted the so-called Mark III version of Purple (David Coverdale lead vocals; Glenn Hughes on bass and vocals). Tracks were drawn from the two studio albums done by that lineup – Burn and Stormbringer – during a time when guitarist Ritchie Blackmore was already planning his exit to form Rainbow although he performed remarkably as evidenced on the live material from that Purple period.
Aside from Blackmore’s brilliance and the ever-reliable Ian Paice on drums and Jon Lord on keyboards, it can be risky going with an extended live piece from that era of Purple. Hughes’ vocal histrionics and, particularly, stage patter seemingly trying to upstage Coverdale (although they apparently were and have been great pals) can get annoying. But in fairness, Hughes had come to Purple after being the frontman in Trapeze although from what I’ve read he occasionally had to be reminded that it was Coverdale who was hired as lead singer. That said, I do like his and Coverdale’s tandem vocal work and Hughes’ lead singing efforts in Purple, with Holy Man from Stormbringer a particular standout. Much of Hughes’ solo stuff is worthy as well as are his contributions to hard blues-rocking Black Country Communion alongside guitarist Joe Bonamassa and drummer Jason Bonham.
This live treatment of You Fool No One starts with Blackmore playfully fiddling around with Hava Nagila before he rips into the song proper, then into some Hendrixian pyrotechnics followed by a bluesy interlude before returning to the familiar tune. Along the way is a short drum solo on what became Paice’s showcase in the Mark III version, replacing The Mule from the Ian Gillan-Roger Glover Mark II lineup as heard on the live classic Made In Japan. Made In Europe doesn’t get the accolades of Made In Japan, but as a high school teen at the time, I embraced both albums equally.
4. Whitesnake, Fool For Your Loving (original 1980 version from Ready An’ Willing album) . . . From the bluesy and my favorite phase of Whitesnake, immediately after David Coverdale left Deep Purple after that band’s first and thought at the time to be final breakup. The later ‘hair metal’ version of Whitesnake redid the song in 1989 after the band became big worldwide, particularly in a United States/North America that had, relatively speaking, ignored them to that point. Here I Go Again, originally released in 1982, was also similarly reworked into a ‘hair metal’ hit. I like all the versions but much prefer the less dressed up with studio gunk originals, which in addition to Coverdale also featured original Purple players Ian Paice on drums and Jon Lord on keyboards who by that point had joined Whitesnake. Interestingly, perhaps, the original Fool For Your Loving charted higher (No. 13) in the UK than did the ‘Americanized’ version that hit No. 2 in the US but only No. 43 in the UK. I’m with the UK listeners.
5. Peter Green, A Fool No More . . . Long and slow and intoxicatingly so, a haunting track from the Fleetwood Mac founder’s 1979 album In The Skies.
6. Joe Jackson, Fool . . . It’s rock, it’s jazz, it’s funk, it’s great. It’s the title cut to JJ’s 2019 album Fool as I continue to travel with him wherever he’s gone since his 1979 punk rock/new wave debut album Look Sharp! New wave, rock, reggae/ska, big band, jazz, classical – I’ve always followed, seen him live twice, never been disappointed.
7. Bobbie Gentry, Find Em, Fool Em, Forget About Em . . . From Gentry’s 1970 studio album Fancy. To quote from my April 1, 2023 track tales: Soul country, I suppose one would describe this one from the Ode To Billie Joe singer, one of the first American women to compose and produce her own material. She had 11 chart hits, including Billie Joe, the 1967 No. 1 that propelled her to stardom. Some years ago I was listening to Ode To Billie Joe, amazing song of course, and decided to dig deeper into Gentry’s work. I’ve been reaping the rewards ever since. One of those music mysteries, too. She was active until April, 1982 when she left the industry and essentially disappeared off the face of the earth after appearing at a country music awards show. She’d just had enough, apparently, which I find kinda cool. I’m done, see ya. She’d be 82 now, with various reports having her living in a gated community near Memphis, Tennessee. Or Los Angeles, depending on one’s source. She was once briefly married to casino magnate Bill Harrah and later to Jim Stafford, known for the 1970s hits Spiders & Snakes and the double entendre My Girl Bill.
8. ZZ Top, Made Into A Movie . . . Slow, hard, swampy almost metallic blues from the 1999 album XXX so named to mark the band’s 30th anniversary during a time when ZZ Top was slowly but surely returning to the blues and blues rock from which the band originated. The shift started with the Antenna album in 1994, a departure or at least the beginning of one from the synthesizer phase of massive hit singles/videos like Legs during the 1980s. In terms of sales, the return to their original foundation didn’t help ZZ Top much through albums like XXX, its predecessor Rhythmeen and later efforts like Mescalaro and La Futura, but there’s loads of quality music within.
9. Rod Stewart, Alright For An Hour . . . From Atlantic Crossing, Stewart’s appropriately-titled 1975 album as he’d crossed the ocean – as shown on the cool album cover – in reality and musically. No longer were members of former band Faces backing him, no longer was he maintaining concurrent careers; now it was Stewart and studio musicians, some of whom eventually morphed into what briefly became known as The Rod Stewart Group at least in terms of studio credits. A great funky, swaggering tune on an album that proved to be the launching point for subsequent hit releases A Night On The Town, Footloose And Fancy Free and Blondes Have More Fun.
10. Jethro Tull, Black Sunday . . . Ian Anderson goes into the studio in 1980 intending to record a solo album but, under record company pressure which he’s since been quoted as saying he regrets succumbing to, the album comes out as ‘A’ – ostensibly for Anderson solo as the tapes were apparently marked as such – but as a Jethro Tull release. There are myriad tales about what transpired but in short, the musicians Anderson was using for what he initially planned as a solo album became Jethro Tull, in some ways similar to what’s transpired with Tull in the 2020s since Anderson revived the Tull brand. In 1980, it resulted in the dismissal/departure of such 1970s Tull stalwarts as drummer Barriemore Barlow and keyboardist John Evan, among others. As well, Tull, or Anderson, were moving in a more synthesizer and electronic sounds direction, a precursor to the next few albums: Tull’s The Broadsword And The Beast in 1982, Anderson’s first actual solo album Walk Into Light in 1983 and the full-blown, uncharacteristically sounding synth-pop albeit interesting 1984 Tull album Under Wraps which threw me (and many Tull fans) for a loop at first but I’ve come to appreciate.
All of that said, Black Sunday is an, er, A-list track featuring changing time signatures typical of Tull with an ominous, almost progressive-metal feel in places.
11. Robert Plant, Wreckless Love . . . . Speaking of Tull and Barriemore Barlow, the drummer slaps the skins on this funky cool one from Plant’s 1983 album The Principle Of Moments.
12. Warren Zevon, Bad Luck Streak In Dancing School . . . Rollicking title track to Zevon’s 1980 followup album to 1978’s breakthrough Excitable Boy with its hit single Werewolves Of London and other well-known songs from that record. Zevon managed a minor hit with his cover on Bad Luck Streak In Dancing School of the Yardbirds’ song A Certain Girl, written by Allen Toussaint, both versions of which I’ve previously played. Bad Luck Streak may not have sold as much, nor done as well on the charts but it’s Zevon, which means it’s full of typical witty storytelling and acerbic lyrics.
13. Moby Grape, Miller’s Blues (live) . . . . A live version of a blues track, in spots slow and emotionally stirring and in others rousing and raunchy, by the San Francisco psychedelic band, written by Grape guitarist Jerry Miller. It originally appeared in studio form on the Wow album in April of 1968. This version didn’t see official release until the comprehensive 2-CD compilation Vintage: The Very Best of Moby Grape came out in 1993.
14. Nazareth, Telegram (Part 1: On Your Way/Part 2: So You Want To Be A Rock ‘N’ Roll Star/Part 3: Sound Check/Part 4: Here We Are Again) . . . A multi-part ‘life on the road’ suite from Nazareth’s 1976 album Close Enough for Rock ‘n’ Roll, effectively incorporating The Byrds’ So You Want To Be A Rock ‘N’ Roll Star.
15. Charlie Watts Quintet . . . Going, Going, Going, Gone . . . Beautiful, mellow music from the live album A Tribute to Charlie Parker With Strings, released in 1992 in honor of the iconic jazz saxophonist, and jazz in general, including narration and some singing by Rolling Stones’ backup vocalist Bernard Fowler. It was done during the 1992-93 period when the various individual Stones were releasing excellent, worthwhile and satisfying solo projects in between the 1989 studio album Steel Wheels and 1994’s Voodoo Lounge. The so-called World War III of the Dirty Work album era of the mid- to late 1980s had ended in a truce when it seemed to become understood by all parties that solo work didn’t have to detract from the Stones but could in fact fuel the members’ collective creativity. Out of it came excellent albums by Keith Richards (1992’s Main Offender), Ron Wood’s 1992 effort Slide On This and arguably Mick Jagger’s best solo work, 1993’s Wandering Spirit. All of which led to, when the mother ship again sailed, the strong album Voodoo Lounge.
A soul/funk/R & B album set, something of a progression within those genres starting with a classic James Brown live album followed by Otis Redding and ending with, via the Funkadelic album Maggot Brain and the amazing guitar of the late great Eddie Hazel, an off ramp into heavy acid rock and psychedelic soul. Each album is explosive in its own way—Brown’s live intensity, Otis’s aching soul, Funkadelic’s mind-melting funk-rock.
1. Introduction
2. I’ll Go Crazy
3. Try Me
4. Think
5. I Don’t Mind
6. Lost Someone
7. Medley: Please Please Please/You’ve Got The Power/I Found Someone/Why Do You Do Me/I Want You So Bad/I Love You, Yes I Do/Strange Things Happen/Bewildered/Please Please Please
8. Night Train
1. Ole Man Trouble
2. Respect
3. Change Gonna Come
4. Down In The Valley
5. I’ve Been Loving You Too Long
6. Shake
7. My Girl
8. Wonderful World
9. Rock Me Baby
10. Satisfaction
11. You Don’t Miss Your Water
1. Maggot Brain
2. Can You Get To That
3. Hit It And Quit It
4. You And Your Folks, Me And My Folks
5. Super Stupid
6. Back In Our Minds
7. Wars Of Armageddon
1. Rush, The Main Monkey Business
2. Rush, The Seeker
3. The Rolling Stones, Stop Breaking Down
4. The Rolling Stones, No Spare Parts
5. Deep Purple, Anthem
6. Chicago, Prelude To Aire/Aire
7. The Moody Blues, The Actor
8. The Silkie, You’ve Got To Hide Your Love Away
9. Billy Joel, Until The Night
10. The Kinks, Supersonic Rocket Ship
11. Montrose, Space Station #5
12. Pink Floyd, Is There Anybody Out There?
13. Heart, Soul Of The Sea
14. John Mayall, Possessive Emotions
15. Headstones, Pretty Little Death Song
16. Bruce Springsteen, Johnny 99
17. John Mellencamp, The Full Catastrophe
18. Tom Wilson, What A Bummer
19. Bob Dylan, Man Of Constant Sorrow
20. The Specials, Maggie’s Farm
21. Gerry Groom, Mick Taylor And Friends, Long Distance Call
My track-by-track tales:
1. Rush, The Main Monkey Business . . . Hard-driving and heavy in spots yet melodic throughout, this six-minute instrumental highlights Rush’s technical prowess. Described by drummer Neil Peart as “a tour-de-force to write, arrange, and perform” it’s one of three instrumentals – the most ever on a Rush album – from the 2007 release Snakes & Arrows.
2. Rush, The Seeker . . . One of my favorite Who tracks faithfully done by Rush on the covers EP Feedback, released in 2004 to mark the 30th anniversary of the band’s self-titled debut album. That record featured original drummer John Rutsey, replaced by Neil Peart the same year, 1974.
Covering songs like The Seeker and others on the EP like Summertime Blues (in the Blue Cheer arrangement of the Eddie Cochran song) and Cream’s fiery take on Robert Johnson’s Crossroads might seem at first glance a departure given Rush’s progressive (albeit often hard rock) leanings. But as Peart points out in the Feedback liner notes, the songs Rush covered were ones he, bassist/lead singer Geddy Lee and guitarist Alex Lifeson grew up learning and playing in their pre-Rush formative years/bands. And musically, the 1974 debut album was influenced by bands like The Who, Cream and Led Zeppelin, although Rush soon ventured down trails blazed by such British prog rock bands as Yes, Genesis and Pink Floyd.
Members of Rush have suggested in various interviews that they were recharged by the simpler approach taken for the type of songs on Feedback. It inspired them as a working template for their next full studio album, Snakes & Arrows, from which I drew for The Main Monkey Business set opener. Snakes & Arrows is still a typical Rush album in the sense of it having progressive rock elements but I’m forever fascinated by the creative process. For Rush, that included Lifeson meeting Pink Floyd guitarist David Gilmour during a Gilmour tour stop in Toronto. Gilmour recommended writing songs on an acoustic guitar to best test a song’s strength. The suggestion earned Gilmour a ‘thank you’ from Lifeson in the Snakes & Arrows liner notes.
3. The Rolling Stones, Stop Breaking Down . . . The greatest gift my favorite band gave me besides their own original music is the fact they were rooted in the blues. That sent me down paths in pursuit of the amazing artists who had inspired – and been covered by – the Stones as on Robert Johnson’s renowned piece as interpreted to typically raunchy electrified effect on Exile On Main St.
4. The Rolling Stones, No Spare Parts . . . A country rock road-trip tune done during the sessions for 1978’s Some Girls album. It was dressed up with some new lyrics and vocals by Mick Jagger and came out in 2011 on the bonus disc of previously unreleased material on an expanded reissue of Some Girls.
“The idea for the song began at the Some Girls sessions,” Jagger is quoted in the book The Rolling Stones All The Songs – The Story Behind Every Track. “but I finished the idea and turned it into a complete piece. It’s all about driving from San Antonio to Los Angeles to meet a woman, which I did once, so it’s based on my own experience.”
5. Deep Purple, Anthem . . . Psychedelic, progressive, orchestral, classical, rock. This track from 1968’s The Book Of Taliesyn, the second of the three albums released by the first incarnation of Deep Purple, is all of those things. But aside from the hit single Hush, the lineup featuring Rod Evans on lead vocals and Nick Simper on bass along with guitarist Ritchie Blackmore, drummer Ian Paice and keyboardist Jon Lord is largely underappreciated by if not unknown to casual listeners and none of the three albums made much, if any, dent in the charts. To many, Deep Purple really began in 1970 when singer Ian Gillan and bassist Roger Glover joined the group for the so-called Mark II unit that debuted with the In Rock album, later went on to record Smoke On The Water and is widely considered the classic lineup. I’m not disputing that but the other ‘Marks’ in the band’s long career – including the various periods with singer David Coverdale, singer/bassist Glenn Hughes and guitarists Tommy Bolin, Steve Morse and new axeman Simon McBride – are worthy of investigation as most, er, deeply invested fans appreciate.
6. Chicago, Prelude To Aire/Aire . . . It was February 24th, interestingly enough given today is March 24th, when I played the 10-minute instrumental jazz-rock fusion piece Devil’s Sweet from 1974’s Chicago VII album that featured the hit singles (I’ve Been) Searchin’ So Long, Wishing You Were Here and Call On Me. At the time, I couldn’t decide between Devil’s Sweet and Prelude To Aire/Aire. So here’s that other option, two pieces totalling nearly 10 minutes and best heard, via direct segue, as one. It opened the album and, with Devil’s Sweet, formed an all-instrumental jazz/progressive rock fusion side one on the original vinyl of the double LP. Like Devil’s Sweet, Prelude To Aire is driven by Danny Seraphine’s drumming before the band more fully joins him nearly three minutes later on Aire, featuring Chicago’s typical for that period intricate horn arrangements and the late great Terry Kath’s guitar. As I wrote a month ago about Devil’s Sweet, it’s a universe away from the schlock show, albeit a commercially successful schlock show, Chicago later became.
7. The Moody Blues, The Actor . . . Beautiful, introspective ballad from In Search of the Lost Chord, released in 1968. A typically lush Moody Blues arrangement featuring the interesting instruments in the band’s arsenal including Mellotron and flute supporting Justin Hayward’s delicate, almost plaintive vocals as he either waits for, or just thinks about, his absent – or former – lover on a rainy day. But who knows? Beyond the obvious, lyrically, songs can be interpreted in as many ways as they have listeners. Which is as it should be, arguably, and also why for me it’s usually music first, or at least at first, lyrics second because if the music isn’t enough to draw you in, you’ll never listen to the lyrics.
8. The Silkie, You’ve Got To Hide Your Love Away . . . Here’s one that randomly found a spot in the set after I picked up a “British Invasion” compilation while putting CDs back on my shelves. A Beatles’ cover, faithful if softer than the original, released around the same time as the Fab Four’s version on their 1965 album Help! John Lennon and Paul McCartney produced what became the only chart hit – unsurprisingly given the Beatles’ popularity – for The Silkie, an English folk group along the lines of American act Peter, Paul and Mary.
9. Billy Joel, Until The Night . . . From 1978’s 52nd Street, the almost equally-successful in sales followup to Joel’s blockbuster breakthrough 1977 album The Stranger. Apparently written as a tribute to The Righteous Brothers of You’ve Lost That Lovin’ Feelin’ fame. It does have the feel of a Brothers’ song as written and/or produced by Phil Spector, who did the honors, using his famous Wall of Sound technique, on You’ve Lost That Lovin’ Feelin’ and others by the duo. According to Wikipedia, one reviewer called Joel’s song “a schlock masterpiece.” Until The Night made No. 50 in the UK but wasn’t released as a single across the Atlantic, although it’s a fairly well-known track as is most of 52nd Street.
10. The Kinks, Supersonic Rocket Ship . . . As we lift off into the ‘spacey’ section of the set via this reggae/calypso tune from the 1972 album Everybody’s In Show-Biz. It was a top-20 hit in the UK but didn’t crack the top 100 elsewhere, sadly par for the course for songs from an album that also featured the brilliant single Celluloid Heroes which, ridiculously, didn’t chart anywhere. I’ll have to play ‘Heroes’ again sometime soon.
11. Montrose, Space Station #5 . . . Fifty seconds of floating in space via the atmospheric intro then you’re jolted from your reverie by the riff rock of guitarist Ronnie Montrose coupled with Sammy Hagar’s vocals. It’s from Montrose’s self-titled debut album, released in 1973. The platter was produced by Ted Templeman, which leads into one of those musical family tree tales. Templeman was later at the helm of many Van Halen albums including the 1978 debut where, the story goes, the band asked him to help achieve a sound akin to the first album by Montrose, some of whose songs an embyronic Van Halen had covered. Still later, of course, Sammy Hagar wound up fronting Van Halen after the first departure of lead singer David Lee Roth.
12. Pink Floyd, Is There Anybody Out There? . . . Eerie, minimalist piece from 1979’s The Wall, just the title repeated a few times – after an initial excerpt of dialogue from the old Gunsmoke TV western – followed by an acoustic/classical guitar solo. It’s often paired with the next song on the album, Nobody Home, but in this instance I was looking for the sparse, spooky effect of just the one song, hauntingly reinforcing the album’s concept of isolation.
13. Heart, Soul Of The Sea . . . An ethereal, mystical ballad that gets funky in spots, spoken-word in others, no real chorus or hook but that’s what makes it compelling over its six minutes, complete with sounds of the sea. It’s from Heart’s debut album, Dreamboat Annie, released in 1975 and featuring the singles Magic Man, Crazy On You and the title track.
14. John Mayall, Possessive Emotions . . . Funky blues from the 1970 album USA Union which always reminds me of my late older brother by eight years who I often cite because he introduced me in my pre-teen years to so much music – Cream, Jimi Hendrix, Led Zeppelin, Jethro Tull . . . and John Mayall via USA Union. The album features former Canned Heat members Harvey Mandel (guitar) and Larry Taylor (bass) along with violinist Don “Sugarcane” Harris with Mayall on lead vocals, guitar, harmonica and keyboards. And no drums, as my brother pointed out to my initial disbelief. The album came during a period when the ever-experimenting if not innovative Mayall had, as he wrote in the liner notes to the 1969 live album The Turning Point, “decided to dispense with heavy lead guitar and drums, usually a ‘must’ for blues groups today” in an effort to “explore seldom-used areas within the framework of low-volume music.”
15. Headstones, Pretty Little Death Song . . . Into a dark period of the set, either by song title, lyrics or mood, opening with the Canadian band Headstones. Among my favorite artists, they work within the framework of high volume intensity, evidenced by this catchy riff rocker from the 1996 album Smile & Wave. I was prompted to play them when a friend advised me this week that he’d picked up a cheap used copy of The High Co$t Of Low Living, a 2005 album by Headstones’ lead singer (and actor) Hugh Dillon and his band The Redemption Choir.
16. Bruce Springsteen, Johnny 99 . . . A dark tale of a laid-off worker turning to violence, from Springsteen’s influential, stripped down, lo-fi album Nebraska, released in 1982. It’s just Springsteen, recorded at home on what initially were demos to be worked on by the E Street Band only to be released as a pure solo album when the band sessions failed to capture what Springsteen felt was the spirit of most of what he’d put on tape. It’s one of those creative accidents that can result in highly-acclaimed and lasting art. That said, several demos – Born In The U.S.A, Working On The Highway and Downbound Train – did work in full band treatment, emerging on Springsteen’s blockbuster 1984 album Born In The U.S.A.
17. John Mellencamp, The Full Catastrophe . . . A shufflling jazz/blues song with interesting instrumentation including violins and assorted horns, from the 1996 album Mr. Happy Go Lucky. Lyrically, it’s a reflection on the ups and downs of life inspired by a line by actor Anthony Quinn in the 1964 movie Zorba The Greek. Asked if he is married, Quinn (Zorba) replies: “Am I not a man? And is not a man stupid? I’m a man, so I’m married. Wife, children, house—everything. The full catastrophe.”
18. Tom Wilson, What A Bummer . . . Second song in the set inspired by the same friend who reminded me of the Headstones, in this case advising me he’d also purchased, used, Wilson’s album Planet Love, a 2001 release from which I pulled this hypnotic groove track. As often stated, I’m a big Wilson fan via his work with The Florida Razors, Junkhouse, Blackie and The Rodeo Kings, Lee Harvey Osmond and solo.
19. Bob Dylan, Man Of Constant Sorrow . . . My computer screen saver gives me time, date, weather, and current and historical news items and told me last week that it was 63 years ago, March 19, 1962, that Dylan’s self-titled debut album was released. So, I thought I’d play something from it. Dylan became one of the greatest-ever writers of original songs but his first album was comprised mainly of traditional folk and blues standards like Man Of Constant Sorrow. It’s been covered and reinterpreted by many artists including Rod Stewart, whose version was the first I heard. It was released on Stewart’s 1969 debut solo album An Old Raincoat Won’t Ever Let You Down, retitled The Rod Stewart Album in North America.
20. The Specials, Maggie’s Farm . . . A ska reinvention, great rhythmic percussion/drumming, of the Bob Dylan classic from his 1965 album Bringing It All Back Home. Another of those choices that came to mind, like The Silkie cover of The Beatles’ You’ve Got To Hide Your Love Away earlier in the set, while tidying CDs. In this case I was putting The Specials: The Singles Collection back on the shelf although now, along with the British Invasion compilation, it’s coming with me to the Radio Waterloo studio.
21. Gerry Groom, Mick Taylor And Friends, Long Distance Call . . . . Lengthy, soulful, acoustic blues treatment of the Muddy Waters classic by Groom and former Rolling Stone guitarist Taylor released on the 1991 album Once In A Blue Moon that, Stones’ completist that I am, I picked up somewhere along the way in my musical travels. The album also features drummer Matt Abts, who worked with Dickey Betts of The Allman Brothers Band during the 1980s and in 1994 was, along with guitarist Warren Haynes and bassist Allen Woody, a founding member of the Allmans’ offshoot Gov’t Mule and is, with Haynes, still a Mule member. Woody died, apparently of a heroin overdose, at age 44 in 2000. Groom, who according to the album liner notes died in a scuba diving accident in 1992, was a singer/guitarist from Florida about whom not much information is available other than he was a protege of Duane Allman’s and widely respected and admired within the blues community, having rubbed shoulders with the likes of Buddy Guy, Junior Wells, James Cotton and Willie Dixon.
Three classic albums: Who’s Next along with Pearl, Janis Joplin’s posthumously released last recorded statement, and Led Zeppelin’s fourth album. All came out in the amazing year for popular music that was 1971. More thoughts on 1971 below the show’s track list.
1. Baba O’Riley
2. Bargain
3. Love Ain’t For Keeping
4. My Wife
5. The Song Is Over
6. Getting In Tune
7. Going Mobile
8. Behind Blue Eyes
9. Won’t Get Fooled Again
1. Move Over
2. Cry Baby
3. A Woman Left Lonely
4. Half Moon
5. Buried Alive In The Blues
6. My Baby
7. Me And Bobby McGee
8. Mercedes Benz
9. Trust Me
10. Get It While You Can
1. Black Dog
2. Rock And Roll
3. The Battle Of Evermore
4. Stairway To Heaven
5. Misty Mountain Hop
6. Four Sticks
7. Going To California
8. When The Levee Breaks
I went with the three albums I’m playing in part because, to be honest, they’re the ones that best fit my two-hour slot in a three-album play but of course all three are worthy of appearance, among many contenders from that year. And at some point I’ll perhaps do a show filled with songs from 1971, or any other year. It’s the sort of project I started once, beginning in 1964, but only got a couple years into before, well, not continuing. Definitely an idea worth revisiting.
As for 1971 albums there’s almost too many to list but among the other notable records released that year: The Rolling Stones’ Sticky Fingers, Jethro Tull’s Aqualung, Carole King’s Tapestry, John Lennon’s Imagine, Rod Stewart’s Every Picture Tells A Story along with him fronting Faces’ A Nod Is As Good As A Wink . . . To A Blind Horse and before that, Faces’ Long Player in a busy year for Rod; The Doors’ L.A. Woman (which I played recently), Joni Mitchell’s Blue (played last Saturday), Fragile by Yes, Pink Floyd’s Meddle, which I played in full a year ago, Elton John’s Madman Across The Water, The Kinks’ Muswell Hillbillies, Traffic’s The Low Spark Of High Heeled Boys, Marvin Gaye’s What’s Going On . . . and I could go on, and on. So many great years for music, obviously, but an argument can be made that 1971 was among the best. A recent book, Never a Dull Moment: 1971 The Year That Rock Exploded, makes that point and is the basis of a documentary series 1971: The Year That Music Changed Everything, available on Apple TV+.
