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

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

    

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

    

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

     

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

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

1. The Rolling Stones, Time Waits For No One . . . Stellar solo by Mick Taylor, a hypnotic, continually building line that remains one of his most memorable contributions to the Stones. It came to mind to play this over the past week as the world lost three icons: basketball and human rights pillar Bill Russell, trailblazing actress Nichelle Nichols, communications officer Uhura of Star Trek fame, and sports broadcaster Vin Scully, best known the voice of baseball’s Brookly/Los Angeles Dodgers but also widely acclaimed for his work on national network broadcast baseball games, NFL football and golf.

2. Black Sabbath, When Death Calls . . . Sticking with the death theme . . . From Sabbath’s 1989 Headless Cross album. It’s one of the five Sabbath studio albums featuring Tony Martin on lead vocals, which is more studio albums than Ronnie James Dio appeared on (three) and four fewer than the records with original singer Ozzy Osbourne. The Martin-sung albums were always the runts of the litter commercially and often critially speaking, produced amid ever-changing lineups during periods when guitarist Tony Iommi – the lone fixture on every Sabbath album – was doing his best to hold the band together until Ozzy or Ronnie might be convinced to return. Musically, the Martin albums are good, anyone actually giving them an open-minded chance would I think concede. And, somehow, to my ears anyway, perhaps because the songs aren’t as familiar or overplayed, Iommi’s riffs are somehow more powerful, cascading waterfalls of heavy guitar sound.

3. Rory Gallagher, In Your Town . . .Sometimes I think I should stop doing these commentaries, especially when it pertains to Rory Gallagher, one of my favorite artists. Not sure what else I can say about him, other than it’s mind-boggling he wasn’t bigger, on a wider commercial scale, than he was both while leading Taste and then going solo as on this track from his Deuce album.

4. King Crimson, Eyes Wide Open . . . I read in a YouTube comments field that King Crimson’s The Power To Believe album, which came out in 2003 and from which I pulled this track, is to be their final studio album statement. It would seem so, give that’s 19 years ago now although one never knows what leader Robert Fripp might come up with, or when, and put it under the Crimson banner.

5. Yes, Perpetual Change (live, Yessongs version) . . . One of those happy accidents over the last week. I pulled out the Yessongs live album. Hadn’t played it in ages. Geez, it’s good. It came out in 1973 as Yes compiled it from tracks supporting their then most recent albums, Close To The Edge and Fragile, classics both, although Perpetual Change is from the earlier The Yes Album. Alan White is the drummer on most of the live tracks although founding Yes member Bill Bruford, also noted for his work with King Crimson and live playing with early post-Peter Gabriel live Genesis, shines on this piece.

6. Nazareth, Beggars Day/Rose In The Heather . . . Rocked up version of Beggars Day, a Nils Lofgren-penned Crazy Horse (sans Neil Young) tune, paired with Nazareth’s own Rose In The Heather. It’s from the Hair of The Dog album.

7. The Doobie Brothers, Cotton Mouth . . . From Toulouse Street, during the down and dirty pre-Michael McDonald commercial juggernaut days of the Doobies. I’m not down on McDonald by any means. He’s a great artist, singer-songwriter and one of my favorite Doobies’ songs is his Takin’ It To The Streets and I also like his 1982 solo hit, I Keep Forgettin’. I just like the pre-McDonald Doobies a lot better.

8. King Curtis with Duane Allman, Games People Play . . . Instrumental take on Joe South’s hit, with Allman on guitar. It’s from the saxophone master’s Instant Groove album but also appears on one of two terrific compilations of Duane Allman’s session and some Allman Brothers’ work, titled An Anthology and Anthology Vol. II. Worth searching out; most of it’s available on YouTube.

9. Tracy Chapman, Telling Stories . . . Title cut from her 2000 album. Chapman, who shuns the spotlight, has not released new original studio work since 2008, alas, although she has told media she is not retired. Whatever she decides to do, her musical legacy is secure.

10. The Allman Brothers Band, Heart Of Stone . . . The Brothers do the Stones, in fine style, on their final studio album, 2003’s excellent Hittin’ The Note.

11. Jethro Tull, Fat Man . . . From, arguably, my favorite Tull album, Stand Up.

12. John Mayall, Took The Car . . . Mayall always produces great sounds, doesn’t he? It makes for a nice musical pairing, too, with Tull’s Fat Man, to my ears, anyway. This one’s from USA Union, the 1970 album that, via my older brother whose music influence I often cite, introduced me to Mayall. Speaking of cars but not related to the song: Sunday morning on my daily walk, I’m ambling down the trail beside some homes and I see two cars parked, one in front of the other, in a driveway, garage door closed. Next thing I know, the car in front starts up, lurches, then drives right through the garage door. Big bang. Funny and startling, could barely believe my eyes but I also immediately thought, geez, wonder if the driver had a heart attack or seizure or something, stepped on the gas and, boom. So I stopped and watched what ensued, considered heading over to check until someone emerged from the house, yelled ‘what the (you know what)!” called the driver an idiot and so I figured all was at least relatively well, health wise. I walked on. Not sure what the driver might have been thinking, or if he/she was thinking or drinking (although it was about 10 am) given there was nowhere to go, backwards or forwards. I can only assume the garage door opener didn’t work.

13. Mark Knopfler, Boom, Like That . . . I’ve never much been into Knopfler’s solo work, certainly not to the extent I love his stuff with Dire Straits. It’s just never resonated with me to the degree Dire Straits does. However, I’m starting to get there with Knopfler’s solo material, although the fact this single from his 2004 album Shangri-La was just his second solo Top 40 placing in the UK charts, behind Darling Pretty from his first solo record Golden Heart, maybe says I’m not alone in preferring Dire Straits to their leader’s solo work. This is definitely a good one, though.

14. Faces, Three Button Hand Me Down . . . It was suggested during a chat with friends that a Faces/Small Faces family tree type show would be fun. Such a theme would have many roots and branches: Rod Stewart, Ron Wood/Rolling Stones, The Jeff Beck Group (featuring Stewart and Wood), Humble Pie with Steve Marriott and Peter Frampton/Frampton solo, The Who (Kenney Jones), among others. For another week, perhaps. For this week, just Faces with this nice chugging tune.

15. Uriah Heep, Wonderworld . . . I’m playing this in fun, just to piss of those people who denigrate Uriah Heep. I like ’em, particularly the early stuff although all I actually own is a single disc compilation and comprehensive two-CD collection.

16. Mott The Hoople, Momma’s Little Jewel . . . A nice, er, jewel from the All The Young Dudes album that finally broke Mott The Hoople big via the David Bowie-penned title cut. The band was on the verge of breaking up until the Bowie tune salvaged the situation.

17. Steppenwolf, Tighten Up Your Wig . . . “Just before we go, I’d like to mention Junior Wells, we stole this thing from him, and he from someone else . . . he plays the blues like few before may he play forevermore.” As credited on Steppenwolf’s second album, The Second, the melody is from Wells’ Messin’ With The Kid. Good tunes, both.

18. Led Zeppelin, Black Country Woman . . . Great folk-rock tune from Physical Graffiti that was originally intended for the previous album, 1973’s Houses of The Holy. You can hear a plane flying overhead at the start of the song, as it was recorded outside in a garden at Stargroves, a manor house in the English countryside owned by Mick Jagger during the 1970s. The pre-song chatter is fun, as the band settles on leaving the sound of the aircraft in.

19. Bonnie Raitt, Gnawin’ On It . . . By the time of her 2002 Silver Lining album, the massive commercial success that Raitt achieved between 1989 and the mid-1990s that was so well-deserved as she worked her way up the ladder was gone, but of course she continues to release great music, as she did before radio discovered her. This infectious, snarling tune is an example.

     

20. Cat Stevens, Foreigner Suite . . . Foreigner, the band, came up in a barroom discussion with buddies last week about lousy successful bands, or those that got worse the more commercially successful they became. Bands like Chicago, Journey and some latter-day Genesis, although we conceded their ability to produce annoyingly catchy earworm music. Not playing Foreigner, whose stuff I actually for the most part like, the hits anyway, along with the Double Vision album, which to me is the only one from which I can legitimately draw decent deep cuts like Love Has Taken Its Toll. I’ve played that one on the show, albeit long ago. To finally get to the point of all this, the word foreigner stuck in my head (did I mention earworms?) so here we are with Stevens’ epic 18-minute love song. It’s one of those long tracks that seems shorter as it’s never aimless and one can listen to it for the varied music within, the lyrics, or both.

1. AC/DC, Let There Be Rock . . . There was fifteen million fingers, learning how to play . . .

2. Headstones, Absolutely . . . First of a few today from bands/artists that will be playing at this week’s Kitchener Blues Festival. Love these Canadian rockers.

3. The Kinks, Holiday . . . Holiday Monday in Canada, hence this one from the Kinks’ brilliant and to me best overall album, Muswell Hillbillies, 1971. It bombed, inexplicably, to me. No big hit singles the likely reason.

4. Steve Earle and The Del McCoury Band, Texas Eagle . . . This one’s for my old high school and college chum, who goes by 4C, a clever play on his surname. He’s a big Steve Earle fan, and I like Earle a lot too but did not have The Mountain album, a bluegrass record. I do have it now, and it’s terrific. Whenever I think of bluegrass music I think of being in college, late 1970s and going to the Carlisle, Ontario bluegrass festival with a couple buddies. None of us were bluegrass fans at the time we just went for the party. We had planned to drink Purple Jesus (alcool and grape juice) but forgot the funnel to mix the booze with the juice, so we just passed the alcool bottle back and forth, got totally shitfaced on what is essentially 95 per cent booze, and spent most of the weekend sleeping it off. We might have heard some music.

5. The Rolling Stones, Blinded By Rainbows . . . I’m reading a thriller novel and the hero is talking about Semtex bombs. So it tweaked my brain to this Stones’ song, about the ‘Troubles’ in Northern Ireland but could be about any war. Compelling, thought-provoking anti-war lyrics sung forcefully by Mick Jagger, a nice guitar solo by Ronnie Wood and the late great Charlie Watts’ drumming propel the song.

6. David Wilcox, Breakfast At The Circus . . Played Wilcox last week, and he’s coming to Kitchener for the blues festival again, so here you go.

7. Tim Curry, Charge It . . . It’s 1979, I’m in Sam The Record Man on Yonge St. in Toronto and this song comes on in the store. I had no idea, to that point, that Tim Curry released albums/songs other than his time as Dr. Frank-N-Furter in The Rocky Horror Picture Show, of which I was a big fan. So, the Fearless album became an instant impulse buy and I wound up getting all of Curry’s stuff.

8. Queen, Bring Back That Leroy Brown . . . I played Tenement Funster/Flick Of The Wrist/Lily Of The Valley from Queen’s Sheer Heart Attack album recently so, to quote the title of an obscure but good Stones’ song I should play sometime, Some Things Just Stick In Your Mind, the Queen album stuck in my mind. So here’s a nice little up-tempo ditty from that record. Which, naturally, leads to . . .

9. Jim Croce, Lover’s Cross . . . Another beautiful ballad from the late great artist.

10. Drive-By Truckers, Marry Me . . . Last in today’s series from acts appearing at this week’s Kitchener Blues Festival. I had an interesting chat with the owner of my favorite local – and likely the world’s best – music store late last week, lamenting the fact the festival has the Truckers and Headstones, two acts I want to see, on at practically the same time. Headstones start a half hour after the Truckers do. No, he said, that’s actually brilliant scheduling and come to think of it, as we wound up agreeing, he’s right. “Start with the Truckers; you’ll get bored after half an hour, then go to Headstones.” And he wasn’t crapping on the Truckers, merely suggesting, correctly, that I really like Headstones better, but want to see Truckers, so I’ll dip into them for a bit, then go see the H-Stones. Well, it made sense during our conversation, anyway. Ha! But seriously, folks, that’s the thing about a festival, you cruise . . . In any event, if the Truckers play this up-tempo guitar showcase, who knows, I might stay for their whole set. And they do have cool album covers.

11. Blood, Sweat & Tears, Children Of The Wind . . . A typical blast of horns introduces this one from a band that, along with Chicago and Lighthouse, really brought jazz-rock fusion to the fore in the early 1970s.

12. Gary Moore, Drowning In Tears . . . Moore dabbled in many genres during his too-short life and career both as a sometime member of Thin Lizzy, and otherwise. Rock, metal, blues, to which he returned for this slow-burning epic, from his Back To The Blues album, released in 2001.

13. Television, Marquee Moon . . . Title cut from one of those ‘influence’ albums raved about by music critics that I just never ‘got’ until one day a few years ago. I was in a used CD store and they had this track playing. I asked the clerk who it was, since it had never before resonated with me and I had long since traded the Television album in for, who knows, cash or some Slayer thrash/speed metal album I needed to help get me through blizzards on Ontario’s highway 401 when I was commuting to work before the marriage breakup. Anyway, I rebought the album specifically for this epic track with the cool, hypnotic guitar and go figure but somehow, I ‘get’ it all now about this record. Weird how that can work, particularly since the album came out in 1977, I was deep into all the new wave and punk stuff that was big then, yet somehow missed the boat on Television. Better late than never.

14. Rush, 2112 . . . Playing lots of long tracks today. This is the longest – the epic title cut. To quote the Quint character memorably played by Robert Shaw in Jaws: “You get the head, the tail, the whole damn thing.” All 20:34 of it. Long, for sure, but epic, never boring and embodies all that Rush was.

15. Atomic Rooster, Death Walks Behind You . . . My favorite Atomic Rooster song, played it before but playing it again today because I was inspired by hearing it this past week in a local used bookstore I frequent. That’s what I love about independent stores be they books, music, whatever. The people running them do as they wish, play what they want and so on, no corporate BS rules or whatever, because when has anyone ever heard anything other than Muzak or some hits playlist in a mainstream store of any kind, unless it’s sort of after hours late? I say that because I recall one time being in a chain grocery store, a 24-hour outlet or at least one that was open until 11 pm or so and hearing AC/DC’s Whole Lotta Rosie blasting over the sound system because the young staff was in charge on the night shift. I saw one of the youngish clerks, gave him the thumb’s up. I remember thinking, all we need now is the ‘mom’ in Frank Zappa’s Joe’s Garage to yell “turn it down!”.

16. Deep Purple, You Keep On Moving . . . Great cut from the one and only great album Purple did with Tommy Bolin on guitar, Come Taste The Band, 1975. Bolin was replacing Ritchie Blackmore, who had bailed to form Rainbow as he didn’t like what he termed Purple’s ‘shoe shine music’ direction fostered, in Blackmore’s mind, by the likes of bassist Glenn Hughes. Which has always perplexed me. Not that I give too many shits about it but I am a huge Deep Purple fan and Blackmore was the acknowledged leader, he got Hughes in the band, he played guitar, he was great on the previous (his last) Stormbringer album that he didn’t like . . . so if he didn’t like the direction why wasn’t he stronger in directing the band back to what he thought they ought to be? Sounds to me like he preferred to just bitch about it, but that’s Blackmore, the mercurial genius. Whatever. Great song. Purple would never have done it with Blackmore.

17. Groundhogs, Split (Parts 1-4) . . . Epic 20 minutes from the English blues rock band, something of an underground act but well known to music aficionados. Split can be consumed separately, in each of its parts, as separate songs of 4-5 minutes each, or as I’m presenting it today in its full form in all its hard rock, blues and progressive rock glory. And on that note, I’m splitting outta here. Thanks for listening and following.

1. The Clash, 1977
2. Elvis Presley, A Little Less Conversation
3. The Rolling Stones, Rip This Joint (live, 1977 El Mocambo club version)
4. The Beatles, Birthday
5. Peter Gabriel, A Wonderful Day In A One-Way World
6. The Police, It’s Alright For You
7. King Crimson, 21^st Century Schizoid Man
8. Pink Floyd, Careful With That Axe, Eugene (live version, from Ummagumma album)
9. David Gilmour, I Can’t Breathe Anymore
10. David Wilcox, Drop Down Baby
11. ZZ Top, Backdoor Love Affair
12. Jeff Beck, Let Me Love You
13. Rod Stewart, Passion
14. Bachman-Turner Overdrive, Flat Broke Love
15. Billy Joel, Stiletto
16. David + David, A Rock For The Forgotten
17. Canned Heat, Harley Davidson Blues
18. Warren Zevon, The Long Arm Of The Law
19. Eagles, Teenage Jail
20. Spirit, Animal Zoo
21. Neil Young, Albuquerque
22. Golden Earring, Sleepwalkin’
23. Talking Heads, Blind
24. Jethro Tull, The Zealot Gene
25. Queen, Tenement Funster/Flick Of The Wrist/Lily Of The Valley
26. Led Zeppelin, In My Time Of Dying
27. Bryan Ferry, It’s All Over Now, Baby Blue

Set list with my song-by-song commentary:

1. The Clash, 1977 . . . “No Elvis, Beatles or The Rolling Stones in 1977” So I’m going to play some – and I love The Clash.

2. Elvis Presley, A Little Less Conversation . . . Elvis, who died in 1977, is replying to The Clash, in advance, on this 1968 original version of the song. A remixed sort of techno version, at nearly twice the original 2:14 length, was released as a bonus track on the 2002 Elvis 30 #1 Hits compilation. It’s interesting, but I prefer the original.

3. The Rolling Stones, Rip This Joint (live, 1977 El Mocambo club version) . . . Here’s the Stones out-punking the punks on this 1,000 mph/km/h even faster version of the Exile On Main Street cut, from the recently-released and very good full Toronto El Mocambo shows. And, as far as The Clash went, Joe Strummer, who obviously was being deliberately provocative and contrarian about artists who inspired his band, later said he enjoyed all eras of the Stones.

4. The Beatles, Birthday . . . For my older son, who turns 34 today. It’s interesting that The Beatles, particularly John Lennon, who called it ‘garbage’ considered it something of a throwaway track, one that they came up with from scratch in the studio while recording The White Album. Some bands would kill for The Beatles’ throwaways.

5. Peter Gabriel, A Wonderful Day In A One-Way World . . . I was putting the show together on Saturday night and had notes scribbled all over the place but was tired, went to bed relatively early and now I can’t find the ones I scrawled about this tune. Maybe I forgot to even jot anything down. I think so, actually, as I see every other song in my set list represented. Anyway, a funky tune, from Gabriel’s “Scratch’ album, his second of the first four that were all simply called Peter Gabriel although they’ve come to be known, due to their covers, in order as “Car’, “Scratch’, “Melt” or “Melted Face” and “Security”. Security, the fourth album, was also self-titled in the UK and elsewhere but the record company, with reluctant approval from Gabriel, slapped the word ‘Security’ on it as a sticker for the US and Canadian markets. Post-2010 reissues of the album have reverted to its original title. I suppose it could go by “Distorted” or “Distorted Peter” or some such because that’s what the cover is, a distorted image of Gabriel taken from an experimental video. Oh, and back to A Wonderful Day In A One-Way World. Fun lyrics: “Oh, there’s an old man on the floor, so I summon my charm; I say ‘hey scumbag, has there been an alarm?” He said, “Yeah, been selling off eternal youth, they all got afraid ’cause I’m the living proof. My name is Einstein, do you know time is a curve?” I said, “stop old man, you got a nerve, ’cause there’s only one rule that I observe; time is money and money I serve.” Glad I couldn’t find, or didn’t actually write, any notes for the Gabriel track on Saturday night. I wouldn’t have gone off on this nutty tangent writing this on Sunday afternoon, otherwise.

6. The Police, It’s Alright For You . . . A fairly well-known Police track I think, could easily have been a single from their second album, Reggatta de Blanc, but it wasn’t. Instead the band went with Message In A Bottle and Walking On The Moon, to big success, slightly less so with the third and fourth singles – Bring On The Night and The Bed’s Too Big Without You.

7. King Crimson, 21^st Century Schizoid Man . . . This one, from the brilliant debut In The Court Of The Crimson King, embodies everything the influential band brings to the table – progressive rock, jazz rock, hard rock/metal. I like all of King Crimson’s work but their first album remains, for me, their best.

8. Pink Floyd, Careful With That Axe, Eugene (live version, from Ummagumma album) . . . The live stuff on Ummagumma (the album is split between live versions of existing material and new studio originals) arguably outdoes most of the original studio versions that appeared on previous albums. This is an example but in any incarnation, this spooky stuff is terrific. Great title, too.

9. David Gilmour, I Can’t Breathe Anymore . . . You’ve noticed the pattern, as I go playing with song titles again? From Birthday to here? No more hints. It’s pretty obvious. Anyway, nice one from Gilmour’s self-titled debut album, 1978. Starts as a slow, beautiful ballad, then ramps up with some frenzied guitar.

10. David Wilcox, Drop Down Baby . . . I like these sort of spoken-word songs by Wilcox. He’s great at it. He’ll be appearing, yet again and that’s good, at this year’s Kitchener Blues Festival coming up in a couple weeks, Aug. 4-7. And off we go again, on a song title tangent. Just can’t help myself.

11. ZZ Top, Backdoor Love Affair . . . ZZ Top just released a new album, Raw, comprised of new studio versions of many of their classic songs. I’ve listened to some of it, it’s good because ZZ Top is a good/great band and being the completist I am I’ll probably pick it up at some point while also wondering, what’s the point? I’d rather hear new original material from my favorite bands and I can’t say for sure of course but I think most fans feel the same way. Anyway, Backdoor Love Affair goes way back, to the first album which was called – wait for it – ZZ Top’s First Album. Clever and cheeky, those Texas troupers.

12. Jeff Beck, Let Me Love You . . . The cover tunes – Shapes Of Things, Morning Dew, You Shook Me and I Ain’t Superstitious – seem to get most of the attention on the Truth album. They’re terrific, of course; the whole album is killer. But I’ve also always loved this one, written by Jeff Beck and Rod Stewart, featuring the propulsive rat-a-tat attack of instrumentalists Beck, bassist Ronnie Wood and drummer Micky Waller. Interesting, perhaps, side note to Truth: It was credited to Jeff Beck but it is the Jeff Beck Group, first version of the band, featuring Stewart and Wood as constants on vocals and bass. The second album, Beck-Ola, was credited to the full group as were the two subsequent Jeff Beck Group albums, Rough and Ready and the self-titled fourth album, both issued after Stewart and Wood had gone on to Faces.

     

13. Rod Stewart, Passion . . . Stewart went Chicago-like schlock after the late 1970s, the rot starting to set in, musically after brilliant beginnings to a career, with the massive disco hit single Do Ya Think I’m Sexy (admittedly catchy) and that’s when I gave up on him. But, in fairness, understandably, one supposes, from a creative point of view many artists would think, and I get it, why repeat yourself once you’ve done albums like the earthy, excellent ones Every Picture Tells A Story, Gasoline Alley and such between 1969 and 1974, backed by Faces as Stewart maintained parallel careers. And his work remained good, albeit more slick, from 1975’s Atlantic Crossing on, once Stewart went completely solo backed by crack session men. Arguably the only band that shamelessly repeats itself is AC/DC, whose genius is its ability to repeat itself yet actually still sound fresh and different each time out because despite what critics say, every AC/DC album and song is NOT the same. In any event, back to Rod Stewart. Even into the 1980s, for me, while I stopped buying his albums I did enjoy some of his singles; like this one that you rarely nowadays hear. It’s from the 1980 Foolish Behaviour album. All hail compilation albums, from which I pulled this, not being so foolish as to actually buy the Behaviour album. Nowadays, of course, pretty much everything is available in some form or other via the internet.

14. Bachman-Turner Overdrive, Flat Broke Love . . . Have I often enough said I think Randy Bachman is a great composer, bandleader and guitarist but a for the very most part shitty, embarrassing singer? Rock Is My Life And This Is My Song, anyone? Ugh, I mean Christ Almighty nice tune but give it to Fred (C.F.) Turner to sing for crying out loud. Yes, I have said as much. So I say it again. And yes, RB has some ok to decent vocal performances like Takin’ Care Of Business and You Ain’t Seen Nothing Yet but overall his vocals are just too weak and ‘thin’ for me. So, goes without saying I prefer the Turner stuff, like this Turner-penned and sung track from the Four Wheel Drive album. Great bass line, too, naturally enough, since Turner played bass in the band. Egomaniacs, all these guys.

     

15. Billy Joel, Stiletto . . . I loved Piano Man and The Stranger but was starting to part ways with Billy along the time of 52^nd Street but still a quality album, and this one is one of my favorites of his. Some big hit singles – Big Shot, My Life, Honesty – came off the album but Stiletto remains for me the best track. The title cut is cool, too, short, sweet, smoky bar type bluesy, I’ll have to play it sometime. In fact I thought about it for tonight but went with Stiletto.

16. David + David, A Rock For The Forgotten . . . I know I harp on this album – by the firm of Davids Baerwald and Ricketts – as being a maybe unknown absolute gem but all who know it, love it. Every song is great, lyrically and musically. Here’s another example.

17. Canned Heat, Harley Davidson Blues . . . I was watching a documentary on William Harley and Arthur Davidson and their motorcycle company and I love Canned Heat so . . . It also stemmed from a chat I had with a friend about Altamont, the ill-fated Stones’ concert, “policed’ by the Hell’s Angels which got me thinking about motorcycles so I watched the documentary and, here we are.

18. Warren Zevon, The Long Arm Of The Law . . . I love Zevon for his music but obviously to anyone who knows his stuff it’s his lyrics, too. Like in this song: “After the war in Paraguay, back in nineteen ninety-nine; I was laying low in Lima, working both sides of the borderline.” It’s Roland The Headless Thompson Gunner type stuff, akin to “he found him in Mombassa in a barroom drinking gin; Roland aimed his Thompson gun – he didn’t say a word but he blew Van Owen’s body, from there to Johannesburg”. And in The Long Arm Of The Law it’s the music, too, how he comes in with that Paraguay line after the first chorus at the 1:05 mark. Brilliant. This is creativity of the highest order, melding history and whatever else with music and few if any ever did it as brilliantly as Zevon. I suppose it appeals to me also because several of his songs reference Latin America and I spent nearly four childhood years in Peru, unforgettable life-shaping years in terms of outlook towards life. And when Zevon writes of those places, the turmoil, the exploitation by great powers, etc. it truly resonates. Anyway, this one’s from his 1989 Transverse City album and it features one other perhaps obvious but brilliant lyric: Only the dead get off scott free. RIP, Warren Zevon.

19. Eagles, Teenage Jail . . . I’m not going to go into again how I think The Long Run, despite critics’ and even the band itself’s thoughts, is a brilliant album the equal of Hotel California. It just is, to me. And what a great, spooky, dark track this one is. “Loaaa-sst (lost) in the teenage jail” great vocals, lyrics, music.

20. Spirit, Animal Zoo . . . I was going through Spirit songs and was having difficulty settling on one so I thought, eff it, I’ll pick this one because it’s from Twelve Dreams Of Dr. Sardonicus and I recall some time back playing a Spirit track and an old work colleague of mine raving about the album, which is a great one and from which this song comes. You may expect some Spirit songs over the next few weeks though, we’ll see, because it was a tough choice as I went through their stuff for tonight’s show, so much great material.

21. Neil Young, Albuquerque . . . Typically dark sort of tune, and a good one, from an album of darkness and drugs, Tonight’s The Night. That said, can’t help myself but every time I hear of the city Albuquerque the first thing that comes to mind is ill-spent youth watching The Bugs Bunny/Road Runner Hour full of Looney Tunes cartoons including Bugs always going off course in his burrowing and uttering the line “I knew I shoulda taken that left turn at Albuquerque”.

22. Golden Earring, Sleepwalkin’ . . . They’re so much more than Radar Love, the entire Moontan album from which it came, and the later hit Twilight Zone. Great band. Nice boogie tune.

23. Talking Heads, Blind . . . One of those tunes where, back in the physical product buying days, you’ve long since given up on a band you liked but you pick up a comprehensive compilation and you find tracks like this you were unaware of but find you really like and of course most stuff is now available online to explore. It was the lead single from the Heads’ final album, 1988’s Naked. It was a minor success but, given its hypnotic groove, probably would have been more successful had it been on, say, the band’s first world music type album, the breakthrough 1980 release Remain In Light. Naked in fact was considered a return to that form, but the band broke up. The next release was the double disc compilation to which I refer, Sand In The Vaseline: Popular Favorites. It contains some previously-unreleased material along with the hits.

24. Jethro Tull, The Zealot Gene . . . Politically-charged Ian Anderson’s views of the world on this title cut from 2022’s Tull album, the first under the band moniker in 20 years or so. It’s good. Not much different than Ian Anderson’s recent solo stuff and Martin Barre is no longer there on guitar but somehow, not sure why that is, but I find I’ll listen to and enjoy a Tull album more than an Ian Anderson one. Perhaps, and I plead guilty, I haven’t given his solo work proper the requisite listens although I own it all, but nothing’s really compelled me to re-listen after first go. Yet I’ve listened to The Zealot Gene many times since release. Weird, maybe.

25. Queen, Tenement Funster/Flick Of The Wrist/Lily Of The Valley . . . Separate songs seamlessly weaved together from the Sheer Heart Attack album, 1974. It simply has to be listened to as an entire piece. So many great parts to it but the one-minute mark “ooh, give me a good guitar…” Sublime.

26. Led Zeppelin, In My Time Of Dying . . . One of those traditional blues tracks recorded as early as 1928 by Blind Willie Johnson that Zep shamelessly credited to the band itself but anyone who knows music knows all about that stain on Zep’s reputation. Bob Dylan covered it on his 1962 debut album and credited as ‘traditional, arranged by Dylan’. But Zep? No. So be it, they got and continue to get away with it other than various out of court financial settlements, and made and/or ‘adapted’ great music. Why they shamelessly stole, and are obviously uncomfortable in talking about it as many excuse/rationalization interviews over time suggest, only the band members, particularly Page and Plant, truly know.

27. Bryan Ferry, It’s All Over Now, Baby Blue . . . Another show is over and, speaking of Dylan, here’s Ferry’s cover of his classic, a speeded up version from, appropriately enough, the Frantic album. Ferry, like Rod Stewart, is a great interpreter and usually peppers his solo work with cover tunes. His first solo album outside Roxy Music, 1973’s These Foolish Things, was all covers and in 2007 he released Dylanesque, a full-blown Dylan covers album. Like Stewart, Ferry’s selections are usually well-chosen and he makes the songs his own, in his own way.

1. Camel, Freefall . . . A debut entry, progressive rock band Camel, on the So Old It’s New show. Not sure why I haven’t played them before, probably couldn’t find my CDs in my music mess that never seems to get resolved but I have come to believe helps my creativity given my proclivity for ‘top of the pile of CDs to file’ shows – CDs that never get refiled, of course. Anyway, here you go with a great track from the band, from what many consider their finest album, 1974’s Mirage, the song featuring nice guitar from Andrew Latimer who is the lone remaining founding member, from 1971 in a band which continues to tour but naturally nobody wants to listen to new albums by old bands these days so Camel has not released any new studio work since 2002 and that’s fine. I was inspired to play Freefall after watching a documentary on extreme parachutists, some with parachutes, some without, in, er, freefall. So that leads me into my usual song title madness, as will be described in the commentary on the next few songs. Enjoy, or not.

2. Elton John, Medley (Yell Help/Wednesday Night/Ugly) . . . Played it before, didn’t want to play it again but I have a very sensitive friend (kidding) with an easily bruised ego who suggested it some weeks ago. But I had already planned the show, so I didn’t play it but promised to, in time, so here it is but you must know, as stated when fragile friend suggested it, that if I’m going play it, everyone’s going to have to listen to even a truncated version of my story for this song and the album from whence it came – 1975’s Rock Of The Westies. That’s because it’s like a longtime band not playing tried and true ‘warhorses’ they might be sick of playing in concert: The diehards want to hear deep cuts but the band is in something of a bind since they risk someone seeing them for the first time not hearing a song they came to hear. So, the story, again: me and my football-playing teammates, lifting weights in our high school gym, 3 albums available to us to play on the school ‘record player’. The Beatles’ US compilation Something New, The Rolling Stones’ compilation Through The Past, Darkly (Big Hits, Vol. 2) and Westies, the lone studio album of original music in the lot. And that’s how I got into what is a terrific EJ album although it marked the beginning of his 1970s commercial decline. But heck, the guy was, by contract, releasing two albums a year, the creativity had to wane at some point and it matters not anyway, because the legacy has long since been left. Oh, and the Yell Help part of it refers to the previous song, by Camel, Free Fall so the jumper is yelling help, get it? Yeah, I know, enough, already.

3. U2, Last Night On Earth . . . A relatively underperforming single, the third one released from the Pop album, which divided fans and critics due to U2’s shift to electronica and such. This song is arguably less in that genre but regardless, it’s a great song, I like the album and so be it. As mentioned numerous times, I stick with bands I like on their creative travels, until and unless they totally lose me, like post-Terry Kath Chicago which, by the way, just released a new album, Born For This Moment. I discovered this new release had happened during a trip the other day to my favorite local music store. The new Chicago album is ok, I guess, and since I do like the band’s early work I always at least try their new stuff even while having given up on them. And, fortunately, there are means by which to sample music without feeling you’ve wasted money on something you don’t like although I do support buying artists’ material and am still into physical product. Anyway, the new Chicago sounds to me like the same type of shit they’ve been doing since the 1980s and I do admire the songwriting, but it’s just not the groundbreaking type jazz-rock fusion stuff they did early on. Which is interesting because if you look at Chicago set lists, they know where their bread is buttered as the majority of the songs they play live to this day are from the first three albums, plus the hits up to the end of the Kath era, 1978 and then some of the requisite huge hit schlock stuff. The first song on the new album is called If This Is Goodbye; wonder if that means Chicago is done, recording new stuff-wise, anyway. And how did I spend most of a U2 song segment on Chicago? Well, it’s done and was fun.

4. Pantera, Cemetery Gates . . . Don’t fret, listeners who may know that Pantera is a very heavy, extreme to a degree band. I agree, to my ears at least. I remember when I first tried them out during the 1990s at an HMV store (remember them?) where they had listening posts and I was curious. I put on a Pantera album, Far Beyond Driven it was, their 1994 album that was a new release at the time and I thought, ‘this isn’t even music’ as I listened to this just heavy heavy stuff complete with growled, yelled vocals. Yet, I got into it as time went on. But not all their stuff is that way and Cemetery Gates is an example, it’s a ballad, of sorts, gets heavy but certainly palatable to most ears I would think. In any event, it fit, title-wise, into my Freefall, Yell Help, Last Night On Earth you get the picture, things not going well for whoever as death calls, ha.

5. Slayer, Seasons In The Abyss . . . I’ve gotten back into Slayer recently. And my thoughts about them fit what I just said about Pantera. If you listen to, say, Slayer’s breakthrough album Reign In Blood it’s high velocity speed/thrash metal from start to finish, almost too much to take which is maybe why that album is just five seconds under 29 minutes long. Yet, the band could also slow things down, Black Sabbath-like, as with this title cut from their 1990 album and the preceding work, 1988’s South Of Heaven – a title I always remember my older son laughing about. Hellish, indeed.

6. Wishbone Ash, Phoenix . . . Just a bloody amazing epic from a band who, with their much-ballyhooed twin lead guitar attack, inspired and influenced bands ranging from Iron Maiden to Lynyrd Skynyrd. This track features so many styles but you can definitely hear, at points, where Maiden was inspired to its ‘galloping’ approach. Oh, and the set has now risen from the phoenix, so to speak.

7. The Rolling Stones, Brand New Car . . . It’s hilarious to read YouTube comments on this song, from 1994’s Voodoo Lounge, about being inspired to buy a car after listening to it. It’s about women; the lyrics are an old blues technique – as other commenters point out to the great unwashed/inexperienced. Anyway, critics savaged the track for its lyrics while apparently ignoring the nice wah wah guitar. I’ve always liked it, critics be damned, of course.

8. The Lovemongers, Battle of Evermore . . . So I dug out my Singles soundtrack to a movie I never saw nor care to see, most of it from Seattle grunge bands of the 1990s. It’s an excellent album, and I play a Mother Love Bone track that appeared on Singles, later in tonight’s set. Heart, though, was also from the American Northwest, worked out of Vancouver, BC in their early days, loved Led Zeppelin, covered Zep in concert and had a side project, The Lovemongers, who nicely did this Zep track.

9. Joe Jackson with lead vocals by Marianne Faithfull, Love Got Lost . . . I mentioned some time back, after playing a JJ tune from the 1983 Mike’s Murder soundtrack that was essentially a stylistic sequel to Jackson’s 1982 masterpiece Night and Day album, that he did do a Night and Day II, in 2000, and that I’d get to some stuff from it eventually. Tonight’s the night, as JJ pairs with Mick Jagger’s former lover for this torch tour de force.

10. David Bowie, ‘Tis A Pity She Was A Whore . . . I originally had Bowie’s Always Crashing In The Same Car, from the 70s Low album, in my set as part of my death or risking death title openers, which also prompted me to then play the Stones’ Brand New Car, as life had risen like Wishbone Ash’s Phoenix and a new car/woman was out and about. But I realized I’d played the earlier Bowie tune fairly recently so I decided to go with this to me great up tempo tune from the late great Bowie’s final album, 2016’s Blackstar. It was released just four days before Bowie’s death. He went out on top, creatively.

11. Taj Mahal, Satisfied ‘N’ Tickled Too . . . Taj, title-wise coming out of a session with Bowie’s whore from the previous song. Seriously, this is from 1976 and reflects Mahal’s unique approach to the blues. Brilliant artist.

12. Patti Smith, Smells Like Teen Spirit . . . From a covers album, Twelve (songs) I continue to revisit both for my own listening pleasure and for the show. A terrific reinterpretation of the song that made Nirvana a household name. I love female rock singers and Smith is one of the best ever.

13. Tom Petty and The Heartbreakers, Mystery Man . . . Love that Petty drawl or however one would describe it on this one, a nice lazy groove tune from his debut album in 1976.

14. Lee Harvey Osmond, Cuckoo’s Nest . . . Not sure what else I have to or can say about Tom Wilson, the great Canadian artist behind Junkhouse, Lee Harvey Osmond, solo work and his contributions to Black and The Rodeo Kings. There’s nothing he’s involved in, musically, I don’t like.

15. T. Rex, Jewel . . . Great stuff, guitar and otherwise, from the late great Marc Bolan’s band. Hypnotic.

16. Gillan and Glover, Telephone Box . . . I suppose we in Canada could have used more of what are now considered relics, telephone booths, last week during one of our providers’ embarrassing, ridiculous, largely indefensible and poorly responded to outages. Anyway, good tune from a side project by the Deep Purple singer and bass player. Accidentally On Purpose was the name of the album by Ian Gillan and Roger Glover, released in 1988. Dr. John plays piano on the album; noted session man Andy Newmark is the drummer.

17. Mother Love Bone, Chloe Dancer/Crown Of Thorns . . . Pulled this one, as mentioned previously in the set, from the Singles soundtrack. Extended piece, almost sounds like Guns ‘N Roses, vocally at least, in spots. To me, anyway.

18. Atlanta Rhythm Section, Jukin’ . . . Nice southern rock, or just rock in general. Saw these guys eons ago, first Rolling Stones’ show I ever saw, July 4, 1978 at Buffalo’s NFL football stadium as they opened for the Stones on the Some Girls tour.

19. John Lennon, I Found Out . . . Propulsive track from Lennon’s deeply personal 1970 album, Plastic Ono Band.

20. Traffic, Freedom Rider . . . I imagine I would have eventually become a Traffic fan regardless, but my older brother bringing home the one and only Blind Faith album in 1969 sped up the process. Steve Winwood of Traffic was in the band along with Cream members Eric Clapton and Ginger Baker, plus Ric Grech, most notably of Family. Cream I already knew about but Blind Faith spurred me to check into Winwood and Grech’s other bands.

21. Genesis, Eleventh Earl Of Mar . . . I find inspiration for the songs I play in many things. Things I hear, see, read, songs I know that are favorites, people I talk to about music, it can happen in the snap of a finger. That’s the wonderful thing, to me. This one was inspired some weeks ago, by a chat about a previous set list with an old high school and college friend with whom I’ve reconnected via the show. He didn’t mention this track, specifically. But the inspiration for playing it remained with me after I played a Genesis song from the And Then There Were Three album and my friend asked “is that from the first album they did without (guitarist Steve) Hackett?” I replied yes, but Hackett stuck in my mind and I thought of playing some of his solo stuff, which I have before but instead settled on this, from his last album with Genesis, the 1976 Wind and Wuthering release. It was the second post-Peter Gabriel on lead vocals album, after the very successful A Trick of the Tail proved Genesis would remain a force after Gabriel. Wind and Wuthering was arguably the last record where Genesis was for the most part still leaning more towards the earlier 1970s progressive rock direction than the increasingly pop music avenues they later followed, to huge commercial success.