Here’s a Canadian music rabbit hole you might enjoy: citizenfreak.com
So Old It’s New set list for Monday, May 2, 2022 – on air 8-10 pm ET
- Max Webster, Here Among The Cats . . . Another selection derived from CD cleanup, up popped a Max Webster disc, realized I hadn’t played them in eons, so here we are.
- The Stooges, Down On The Street . . . Down and dirty rock from Iggy and the boys.
- The Stone Roses, Love Spreads . . . A lot of their other material has grown on me over the years but this remains the band’s best song, to me. Great riff/rocker with a sort of dreamy, drowsy hypnotic effect.
- Janis Joplin, Get It While You Can . . . From her final, posthumously-released studio album, Pearl. It’s another album, and artist, I thank my older siblings, in this case my older sister, for playing a lot and getting me into in my youth. I was 11 when it came out in 1970.
- Bachman-Turner Overdrive, Flat Broke Love . . . One of my favorite BTO tunes and, as you can see, we’re in yet another “Bald Boy song title connectivity” thing.
- Ohio Players, Love Rollercoaster . . . Many of the songs in tonight’s set result from personal CD cleanup and shelving. Along with the Max Webster CD mentioned earlier, I came across a bunch of personal mix CDs I had burned years ago, from which I pulled this and several others that follow. So, although many of the songs were hits, often one-hit wonders, and this is almost always a deep cuts show, it’s also called So Old It’s New – and many of these tunes are 40, 50 years old now, dating to 70s and 80s and in some cases, the 60s. So, enjoy. I am.
- Billy Preston, Will It Go Round In Circles . . . One of his big hit singles I most remember from the 1970s, the other being Nothing From Nothing.
- Supertramp, Another Man’s Woman . . . From Crisis, What Crisis and thanks again to my older brother for getting me into Supertramp – at least for the great run of albums starting with Crime of The Century, then Crisis followed by Even In The Quietest Moments. Then came the monster commercial success of Breakfast in America, whose tour I saw and was great, but the album itself I’ve always ranked below the other three mentioned. Most of the Breakfast songs are overplayed, the album is in many places way too poppy for me (says the guy playing lots of pop tonight from his old burned CDs) and just doesn’t measure up to the previous three more progressive records. And Breakfast, like hugely successful albums can sometimes do (J. Geils Band’s Freeze Frame is an example), led to a split in the band. The next record, Famous Last Words, indeed was just that, the last word for that incarnation of the band. It was total schlock but Rodger Hodgson wanted to continue in that pop direction, Rick Davies didn’t, and Hodgson left. Davies carried on with the Brother Where You Bound album, an excellent record, but after that, while still releasing some more albums, Supertramp sort of just faded away in terms of wide public awareness.
- Eurythmics, Would I Lie To You? . . . First time I’ve ever played a Eurythmics song on the show. Why? Because it’s a deep cuts show and none of their non-singles does anything for me. But, I do have a singles collection, which I like, and Would I Lie To You popped up on one of my mix discs, too, so here you go. Good rocker, one of my favorites by Eurythmics.
- Thomas Dolby, She Blinded Me With Science . . . Science!! Always liked how he belts out that word at various points in the song.
- Soft Cell, Tainted Love . . . An old tune, written by Ed Cobb of The Four Preps, who originated in the 1950s. Gloria Jones had a hit with it in 1964, worth checking out in her more R & B/soul version than the synth style Soft Cell used for their big hit. Jones was a keyboardist and vocalist in T. Rex in the 1970s and was in a relationship with Marc Bolan. Which reminds me, I’ve been meaning to get T. Rex into the last few shows, haven’t played them in a while. Perhaps next week.
- The Human League, Don’t You Want Me . . . Remember when all this sort of stuff was huge in the early 1980s? The Human League is actually still around, blow me down. Probably playing this to open concerts, then in the middle, then as the encore. Just kidding. They did have other hits, like Mirror Man, for instance.
- Simple Minds, Don’t You Forget About Me . . . Easily my favorite Simple Minds tune but then I don’t know many of them besides this. Aside from this song, not typically my type of music but it’s all a matter of taste, of course and that’s cool. Was in The Breakfast Club movie, which I never saw but I’m not a movie buff.
- Naked Eyes, Always Something There To Remind Me . . . My mom (RIP) loved this version of the song, a standard by Burt Bacharach/Hal David. A top 10 hit for Naked Eyes, it’s been done by many, including Dionne Warwick and US soul singer Lou Johnson, who took it to No. 49 on Billboard in 1964.
- Bonnie Raitt, Spit Of Love . . . Great groove on this one, written by Raitt, whose albums are usually covers-heavy which isn’t a criticism, since she’s always put her own unique and appealing stamp on them.
- Big Sugar, Dear Mr. Fantasy . . . Speaking of covers . . . Big Sugar’s heavier, distortion-fueled version of the Traffic classic.
- Re-Flex, The Politics Of Dancing (extended mix) . . . Another hit single by a synth pop band used in a few movies, apparently, none of which I’ve seen. Best part of the song, to me: “the politics of . . . ooh, feeling good.” Nice hook.
- Men Without Hats, The Safety Dance . . . This Canadian band, huge with this song of course, are also still around as are many of these arguable one-hit wonders.
- The Buggles, Video Killed The Radio Star . . . And then once they killed radio, a couple members of The Buggles – singer and bassist Trevor Horn and keyboardist Geoff Downes – joined Yes in a move that raised eyebrows but produced an excellent Yes album, the sometimes often almost metallic Drama, in 1980.
- Gary Numan, Cars . . . Another from college days . . . 1979. One of so many great new wave singles around that time.
- The Rolling Stones, Sweet Virginia . . . “Got to scrape the shit right off your shoes.” This might be the one track, aside from the hit Tumbling Dice, I’ve never played up to now on the show, from likely my favorite Stones’ album if forced into the impossible task of picking just one: Exile On Main St.
- Ozark Mountain Daredevils, Jackie Blue . . . Great tune. And they’re still around with, perhaps surprisingly, several members still hanging in from the band’s beginnings in 1972.
- Kim Carnes, Bette Davis Eyes . . . Always reminds me of being in California in the spring and part of the summer of 1981. San Francisco Bay Area, having helped my dad do the driving from Calgary after he was transferred for work. It was all over the radio along with stuff from The Moody Blues’ Long Distance Voyager album and Blue Oyster Cult’s Fire Of Unknown Origin record.
- Argent, Hold Your Head Up . . . The big hit from the band formed in 1969 by Rod Argent, keyboardist in The Zombies.
- The Lemon Pipers, Green Tambourine . . . Two studio albums, one massive single, this one No. 1 for the Ohio band in 1968.
- Albert Hammond, It Never Rains In Southern California . . . I suppose I should have put this before or after the Kim Carnes tune, since that one reminded me of California. But, I was living in Northern California, not Southern. Good tune, another from one of those pre-recorded mix CDs of hits that I later burned onto one of my own eclectic compilation discs.
- Santana, Blue Skies . . . From Santana’s 2019 album, Africa Speaks, which features Spanish singer Buika and is very good, sounding to me much like very early Santana including this 9-minute epic. It starts slowly, building into some fiery guitar before settling down again towards the end.
Musician’s FAQ Episode 33 featuring Lynn Jackson Monday May 2nd 2022
Please join me for an hour of music and chat with K-W Singer/Songwriter Lynn Jackson Monday May 2nd 2022
Featuring songs from her new album I Am Only the Moon
Cheers,
Stewart McKie
CKMS Community Connections for 29 April 2022: The May Day Show featuring Thieves Of Joy by The Soviet Influence
Show Notes
Today we’re featuring the new album Thieves Of Joy by The Soviet Influence, to be released on the first of May, otherwise know as May Day or Labour Day in other parts of the world.
You can get advance copies of Thieves Of Joy on Bandcamp.
Online:
Upcoming Events
-
May Day Rally
There’s a May Day rally organized by The Ontario Federation of Labour:
What: Kitchener-Waterloo Rally
When: 3:00pm – 6:00pm on Sunday, 1 May 2022 iCal
Where: Waterloo Region Courthouse
Location: 85 Frederick Street, Kitchener, Ontario Map
Website: https://ofl.ca/event/may-1-kitchener-waterloo/It’s time for a $20 minimum wage, decent work, affordable housing, paid sick days, well-funded public services, livable income support for all, climate justice, and an end to racism and oppression. Join us!
Other Resources
Jorts The Cat
Jorts The Cat gets a mention at 17m00s in the podcast.
- Twitter: @JortsTheCat (and Jean too)
- Reddit: AITA for “perpetuating ethnic stereotypes” about Jorts?
Council of Canadians
Podcast
Download: ckms-community-connections-2022-04-29-episode095.mp3 (54.3 MB, 56m27s, episode 095)
Index
All tracks today are by The Soviet Influence.
| Time | Title | Album |
|---|---|---|
| 0m00s | Theme for CKMS Community Connections by Steve Todd |  CKMS Community Connections |
| 1m21s | Plant The Bombs |  Abolition Now! |
| 7m15s | Pick You Up |  Thieves Of Joy |
| 9m49s | Exile | |
| 13m25s | The Hypocrite (Justin Trudeau Blackface) | |
| 19m34s | Thieves Of Joy | |
| 22m44s | If Punk Is Dead Long Live Punk | |
| 24m38s | The Catastrophe | |
| 29m20s | Boll Weevils | |
| 32m05s | Lies | |
| 38m08s | Workers Unite |  Socialism: An Introduction |
| 40m24s | These Chains | |
| 44m04s | The Guns of Brixton | Abolition Now! |
| 47m23s | The Summer of 85 (I am Not Free) | |
| 52m50s | The Riot | Socialism: An Introduction |
| 55m26s | End Credits |  |
CKMS Community Connections Hour One airs on CKMS-FM 102.7 on Monday from 11:00am to Noon, and Hour Two airs on Friday from 3:00pm to 4:00pm.
Got music, spoken word, or other interesting stuff? Let us know at office@radiowaterloo.ca or leave a comment on our “About” page.
Subscribe to the CKMS Community Connections podcast!
See all CKMS Community Connections shows!
Show notes and podcast interview content is Copyright © 2022 by the participants, and released under a 
Creative Commons Attribution Only license. Copy, re-use, and derivative works are allowed with attribution to Radio Waterloo and a link to this page. Music selections are copyright by the respective rights holders.
81 82 83 84 Season 1 Episode 35: Around the World in 60 Minutes
Making musical stops in Canada, the US, the UK, Trinidad and Tobago, Jamaica, and Nigeria. Have a nice trip!
So Old It’s New set list for Monday, April 25, 2022 – on air 8-10 pm ET
- Van Halen, Everybody Wants Some!! . . . Well-known Van Halen tune, although it wasn’t a single, from the Women and Children First album, 1980 complete with David Lee Roth’s fun bedroom rap about lines up the backs of stockings, sexy women’s shoes and so on. Hadn’t heard it in ages but happened to have one of my Van Halen personal mix CDs on in the car the other day, it brought me to laughter, so I decided to play it.
- Jerry Lee Lewis, Breathless . . . Continuing with the sex-type thing, er, theme, as you’ll notice from the next few titles. I just get going on this title/song content/theme connectivity stuff and can’t stop, what can I say?
- Elvis Presley, Baby, Let’s Play House . . . An Elvis B-side (of I’m Left, You’re Right, She’s Gone) in 1955 that is one of his B-sides to chart, making the No. 5 spot on the US country list.
- Powder Blues, Nothin’ But A Tease . . . Slow blues from the Vancouver band, led by transplanted Chicago musician/producer Tom Lavin, that broke fairly big in Canada at the start of the 1980s via up-tempo singles like Doin’ It Right, Boppin’ With The Blues and Thirsty Ears. Lavin has also produced records by Canadian bands Prism and April Wine as well as Long John Baldry.
- Buddy Holly, It Doesn’t Matter Anymore . . . So, if you’re following along the song title connectivity thing, he wanted some, didn’t get it, was left breathless and she, who was nothing but a tease, didn’t want to play house so it just doesn’t matter anymore. Time to move on. In putting together the beginning of this set, what a reminder of how good Elvis, Jerry Lee and Buddy Holly were. Just so much great stuff. And in playing Holly, I got reading about him again and was reminded of the plane crash that took his life and that of Richie Valens and “The Big Bopper’ J.P. Richardson. It was a winter tour package of bands, people were getting sick on the tour buses so Holly decided to charter a plane to the next stop. The Big Bopper, ill with the flu, swapped spots with Holly’s band member Waylon Jennings while Valens won a coin flip with another Holly band member, Tommy Allsup, and took his seat on the ill-fated aircraft. Fate: take this path, or that one?
- Blondie, Accidents Never Happen . . . One of my favorite Blondie songs, nice beat, nice groove. It wasn’t a single from the Eat To The Beat album although a video was done for it so perhaps a video single but I’m not much into videos. Unless they’re straight ‘performance’ videos of the band playing its song, videos to me are like when a book becomes a movie and re-releases of the book come with whoever plays the lead character on the cover. I like to form my own images of what characters look like, or interpret song lyrics for myself, although I have seen the Accidents video and it’s a simple band ‘performance’ thing.
- R.E.M., The Wake-Up Bomb . . . I prefer R.E.M.’s rockier stuff. Like this one from the New Adventures In Hi-Fi album, 1996. Critics tend to rave over 1992’s Automatic For The People album, and it’s good, but I tend to listen to New Adventures more, there’s more songs on it that I like than is the case with Automatic. Music is all about personal taste, of course, but apparently singer Michael Stipe considers New Adventures as his favorite. So there.
- Pretenders, Complex Person . . . I had left the Pretenders behind in the early 1980s, after 1983’s terrific Learning To Crawl album as far as new studio releases went. But a few years ago, likely fueled by seeing Pretenders open for The Who and because their stuff was so cheap in a used CD store, I caught up on the discography and am fully up to date, including Chrissie Hynde’s solo albums. And, at least to me, they’re one of those longtime bands/artists that continue to produce worthwhile music up to the present. This now 20 year (!?) old song, from 2002’s excellent Loose Screw album is an example.
- The Kinks, Complicated Life . . . The Kinks’ Ray Davies and Pretenders’ Chrissie Hynde were once a couple, so I put them back-to-back in my set, talking about complicated complexities. This one’s from a Kinks’ masterpiece, 1971’s Muswell Hillbillies which, criminally, didn’t even chart in the UK and made just No. 100 in the US. Ridiculous to me, because the album – like many underappreciated except for Kinks’ fans albums – is brilliant. Country rock, blues, music hall, they could do it all.
- The Guess Who, Life In The Bloodstream . . . Fairly well-known Guess Who track but it wasn’t a single. It’s from 1971’s So Long Bannatyne album but I pulled it off a personal Guess Who favorites CD of hits and deep cuts, two volumes, I burned years ago. And in going over those tracks as I planned this show, once again obvious was how the depth in quality of The Guess Who’s output is astounding.
- Murray McLauchlan, Sweeping The Spotlight Away . . . Title cut from the Canadian folk rocker’s 1974 album, which yielded one of his biggest hits, Down By The Henry Moore.
- George Harrison, It’s What You Value . . . I’ve always liked this pop rocker from Harrison’s 1976 album, 33 1/3. The lyrics are about Harrison paying noted session drummer Jim Keltner with a Mercedes in lieu of money, for playing on Harrison’s 1974 tour. It took some convincing for Harrison to get Keltner to go on tour, but he finally got him by promising Keltner a new car to replace his old van. Or so the story goes. According to Harrison’s liner notes on remastered versions of the album, the rest of his band members then moaned that all they got was money for playing, while Keltner got a Mercedes. If it were me, I’d want money and then spend it on what I want, even maybe a Mercedes. First world problems, as the saying goes.
- John Lennon, God . . . One of Lennon’s finest, musically and of course lyrically, from the Plastic Ono Band album. I’ve played it before, deliberately played it again to set up . . .
- U2, God Part II . . . U2’s fine, rockier sequel, which appeared on the Rattle and Hum combination studio-live album.
- J.J. Cale, Call The Doctor . . . This song is why you buy – or in the modern world, investigate online – studio albums, not just compilations, if you’re deeply interested in an artist. Typical J.J. Cale, as was often the case with him, a short, bluesy shuffle leaving you wanting more. But you’d have to have, or listen to, his 1971 debut album, Naturally, to hear it. One of my personal favorites, I find it amazing it’s not on any of the various J.J. Cale compilations.
- Dire Straits, Where Do You Think You’re Going? . . . One of my deja vu moments. I feel like I’ve played this too recently but, my research indicates no and in any event, my new thing is, so what if I did? Great tune, from the band’s second album, Communique, but of course Dire Straits was so consistently good throughout their six studio albums.
- Jim Croce, New York’s Not My Home . . . This wasn’t a single, although it appears on Croce’s posthumously-released greatest hits album. Good tune, as is most of this late artist’s work, sadly lost to us in the early 1970s, like Buddy Holly many years before him, in a plane crash flying between tour stops.
- Eagles, King Of Hollywood . . . I’ve said it before but I like The Long Run album, even though critics, and the band members themselves, have tended to dismiss it. I suppose, when you’re trying to follow up Hotel California, anything will pale in comparison but in some ways I find The Long Run rawer, edgier – like this tune – and better, which can tend to happen when a band is fried, fraying, having a difficult time in recording, etc. Conflict and difficult circumstances often makes for great art. All a matter of taste and opinion, of course.
- Steve Earle and The Dukes, The Tennessee Kid . . . Second time in 2-3 weeks I dig back into Earle’s 2015 Terraplane album, a terrific record I’ve only recently gotten into – and into it major I am – thanks to a recommendation from a music acquaintance on Twitter. Spoken word opening transitions into a pulsating groove overlaid with not so much singing but more of an ongoing spoken monologue.
- Bob Dylan, Stuck Inside Of Mobile With The Memphis Blues Again . . . It’s Dylan. Seven minutes, nine verses of typically great lyrics as only Dylan can enunciate them, with that great chorus, love the drumming, the playing, the feel, the song. All a matter of taste of course and some people, still, say Dylan can’t sing. Well, he’s distinctive, certainly not cookie cutter, and simply great – the best Bob Dylan singer there ever was or will be but, sure, not to everyone’s taste. I had always known Dylan, largely via my older brother who was a big fan and as I’ve often mentioned, a huge musical influence. I remember him bringing home the John Wesley Harding album when it came out, 1967. But I had been only a compilations collector of Dylan’s stuff until truly getting into this song, and the Blonde on Blonde album, one afternoon in Peace River, Alberta, 1981. Fresh out of college and having moved west in pursuit of my journalism dream, I was living in a house with several other people. Fun times, one of those life instances where you become friends with people by moving in with them to share rent, instead of becoming enemies by moving in with friends, as can happen.
Anyway, everyone was out and I happened to be alone, lying on the couch, reading, when I saw one of my roommates’ Blonde on Blonde pre-recorded cassette sitting on a coffee table. I popped it in the player and soon enough, as is the case with me and Dylan, down went the book because I can’t do other things when I listen to Dylan, he pulls me in to full attention. So I just lay back and took the whole album in, and the rest is history. I didn’t have to buy it for a while, because we all shared our music in that house, but soon enough, I was on my own and the album was a regular visitor to my turntable as were Dylan’s other studio works as I collected his entire output.
- Them, I’m Gonna Dress In Black . . . Early Them fronted, of course, by Van The Man Morrison. It’s largely due to the organ in this bluesy track but it struck me, in picking this tune, how some Them songs sound like early Animals or, I suppose, vice-versa. I pulled it from a wonderful 3-CD (including a rarities/outtakes disc) Them compilation I own – The Complete Them 1964-1967, with liner notes written by Van the Man. Morrison can often be, or come across as, a curmudgeon, but he’s obviously justifiably proud of Them’s work, ending his insightful notes with “I think of Them as good records. The best part was actually doing the tracks: the best part, and the most enjoyable. There’s a lot of good stuff here.” Indeed.
- Johnny Cash, Man In Black . . . Back to my song connectivity thing: The Them song title sets up this famous call to make things bright, as my set list actually grows darker, if anyone’s following along. I still am, ha. We’ve gone from sex to God to travel and approaching the dark side . . .
- The Rolling Stones, Dancing With Mr. D . . . via this Stones’ pseudo-sequel to Sympathy For The Devil. It was the opening cut on 1973’s Goats Head Soup album.
- Mike Oldfield, Tubular Bells, Part One . . . The first part of Oldfield’s masterpiece was used, of course, as the theme music to the horror film The Exorcist, which naturally boosted sales of Oldfield’s album. According to Wikipedia, Exorcist director William Friedkin had decided to scrap the original score for his movie, written by Lalo Schifrin (perhaps best known for the iconic theme music for the original Mission Impossible TV series) and was seeking alternatives. Friedkin decided on Tubular Bells when, on a visit to Atlantic Records president Ahmet Ertegun’s office, Friedkin saw the album lying around and put it on the stereo. The rest, as the saying goes, is history. I figured I’d play all 25 minutes of Part One by the same sort of happenstance. I was going through CDs, Tubular Bells popped up, I hadn’t played it in ages, did so, realized how much I still like it, how others might, too, and decided to go with it. So now I suppose I’m committed to playing the rest of the album, Part Two, at some future point, perhaps in another long song show. We shall see.
CKMS Community Connections for 22 April 2022: All KWCon Music
Show Notes
If you’re a Waterloo Region musician and want to get your music on the radio check out How To Submit Music and we’ll add it to our library!
Podcast
Download: ckms-community-connections-2022-04-22-episode094.mp3 (56.1 MB, 58m26s, episode 094)
Index
| Time | Title | Album | Artist |
|---|---|---|---|
| 0m00s | Theme for CKMS Community Connections ccc | CKMS Community Connections |
Steve Todd |
| 1m30s | Letter |  Truth or Deceiver |
HotKid |
| 4m07s | Mirror, Mirror | ||
| 7m36s | She |  (single) |
Courtney Wolfe |
| 12m01s | Renfield Drive (Story of a Woman) |  Electric Gas |
Electric Gas |
| 15m17s | The Pain Holds On | ||
| 20m22s | My Love Stays Dry |  The Scars Stay |
|
| 27m10s | Once Upon A Time |  Songs of Kitchener |
Mary Abel-Malek Neil |
| 30m19s | The Hohner Ave. Porch Party Song | ||
| 34m25s | For The Weary |  I’m Who I Am |
|
| 38m00s | Zarcero |  (singles) |
Steve Todd |
| 45m40s | I’m Not Over You Yet | ||
| 52m25s | California M 9 2 |  (single) |
Katy Topham |
| 56m11s | Stinging Nettle |  Ponysapien |
Ponysapien |
CKMS Community Connections Hour One airs on CKMS-FM 102.7 on Monday from 11:00am to Noon, and Hour Two airs on Friday from 3:00pm to 4:00pm.
Got music, spoken word, or other interesting stuff? Let us know at office@radiowaterloo.ca or leave a comment on our “About” page.
Subscribe to the CKMS Community Connections podcast!
See all CKMS Community Connections shows!
Show notes and podcast interview content is Copyright © 2022 by the participants, and released under a Creative Commons Attribution Only license. Copy, re-use, and derivative works are allowed with attribution to Radio Waterloo and a link to this page. Music selections are copyright by the respective rights holders.
Local Music is Sexy Party – 2009 by Austin Kleon is copyright © 2009 and used under a 
Creative Commons Attribution, Non-Commercial, No Derivatives license.
81 82 83 84 Season 1 Episode 34: It’s no fun starving just to keep your integrity
Sometimes I wonder why do I worry about those things that you do
And then I see you late on a Saturday and I know that you’re right
If I had a job you could come and live with me and I would see you every night
If I was working you might come and live with me and I would see you every night
episode 279 agriculture show april 12 2022
Krista Cressman is our guest today on The Agriculture Show. Krista works at the Turkey Farmers of Ontario head office. https://turkeyfarmers.on.ca/ Our playlist:
- Heroes by David Bowie
- Let Love Rule by Lenny Kravitz
- Sunshower by Chris Cornell
- Mehcinut by Jeremy Dutcher
- All People by Michael Franti
So Old It’s New set list for Monday, April 18/22: on air 8-10 pm ET
1. Tony Joe White, Even Trolls Love Rock and Roll
2. The Jeff Beck Group, Jailhouse Rock
3. David Baerwald, All For You
4. Soundgarden, Spoonman
5. Stone Temple Pilots, Vasoline
6. Alice In Chains, Dirt
7. Bob Seger, Ain’t Got No Money
8. Stampeders, Then Came The White Man
9. Queen, White Man
10. Steppenwolf, Don’t Step On The Grass, Sam
11. Johnny Rivers, Where Have All The Flowers Gone
12. The Marshall Tucker Band, 24 Hours At A Time
13. April Wine, Juvenile Delinquent ( from Live at the El Mocambo)
14. The Rolling Stones, Sister Morphine
15. Ike & Tina Turner, Come Together
16. Arlo Guthrie, Alice’s Restaurant Massacree
17. Spirit, Mechanical World
18. The Amboy Dukes, Migration
19. Klaatu, Little Neutrino
20. Billy Cobham, Stratus Continue reading So Old It’s New set list for Monday, April 18/22: on air 8-10 pm ET
Wadio Wam! Episode 8 – Sampled
Hey y’all! Hoping you’re enjoying your easter if you celebrate!
Sam wasn’t around last week, but here is last week’s episode where I looked at some of my favourite samples and sampled songs! Pretty fun episode.
This week there will not be a new episode due to Easter and both of us being busy, so we will be replaying our road trips episode from April 3rd, so if you missed it or wanna catch it again live then check it out. Have a great weekend, Wam on!
81 82 83 84 Season 1 Episode 33: What You Gonna Do When the River Runs Dry?
“What’s it all about?” they scream and then they shout
Don’t ask me, ’cause I don’t know
“What’s it all about?” they scream and then they shout
Don’t blame me, I told you so
So Old It’s New set list for Monday, April 11, 2022 – on air 8-10 pm ET
- David Wilcox, That Hypnotizin’ Boogie . . . From Wilcox’s debut album, Out Of The Woods, released in 1980. I was working in a bar, putting myself through college at the time and remember him playing this, before the album was released. As soon as the record was released, I bought it and have been a Wilcox fan since.
- Foghat, Chateau Lafitte ’59 Boogie . . . Speaking of boogie. . . I saw Foghat at the Kitchener Blues Festival some years back, good show.
- Paul McCartney & Wings, Nineteen Hundred And Eighty Five . . . One of the great deep cuts from Band On The Run but I suppose, given how solid that album is, it’s a fairly well-known track.
- The Plastic Ono Band, Blue Suede Shoes (live) . . . From Live Peace In Toronto 1969, the Rock ‘n’ Roll revival concert that featured such ’50s fathers of rock as Jerry Lee Lewis, Chuck Berry, Bo Diddley and Little Richard as well as Chicago, Alice Cooper and The Doors. I love the MC’s intro to the song: “Get your matches ready” (nowadays it would be, get your smart phones ready” and then John Lennon’s slightly sheepish “OK we’re just gonna play numbers we know, you know, cuz we’ve never played together before and mumble mumble . . . ” And it was true, that version of The Plastic Ono Band – Lennon, Eric Clapton, bassist Klaus Voorman, drummer Alan White (later of Yes) and singer-in-a-bag Yoko Ono, was put together quickly when Lennon was invited to play the show, rehearsed on the plane and the result is a fine, raw live album and a historic moment in rock and roll history.
- Traveling Wilburys, Tweeter and the Monkey Man . . . Bob Dylan handles lead vocals on this one, backed by his Wilbury brothers George Harrison, Tom Petty and Jeff Lynne, with session drummer to the stars Jim Keltner on skins. Roy Orbison, the fifth Wilbury, sat the session out. There’s varying opinions on who actually wrote the song – which Canada’s Headstones rocked up to great effect on their debut album Picture Of Health in 1993. The song is registered to Dylan’s publishing company, but Harrison said it was co-written by Petty with some lyrical input from him and Lynne. Who really knows; I’ve always considered it a Dylan song but in any event it’s a great one.
- Graham Parker and The Rumour, Devil’s Sidewalk . . . It wasn’t a single but it’s always been my favorite song from The Up Escalator album. That opening guitar hook did its job, reeling me in forever from the first time I heard it. It’s a great album, features Bruce Springsteen on backing vocals on the song Endless Night and E-Street Band keyboardist Danny Federici throughout. I’m a huge Parker fan and I’d put the record in a tie with Squeezing Out Sparks as maybe Parker’s best, although The Up Escalator didn’t meet with the widespread positive reviews Sparks did. Of course, then there’s earlier albums like Howlin’ Wind, Heat Treatment and Stick To Me so let’s just say that, early on, Parker was near-perfect. I suppose The Up Escalator resonates best with me, as much music does for anyone, because it was a time-and-place record and the first album of his I actually owned, although I knew his earlier hits like Local Girls from Sparks.
- Moon Martin, Bad News . . . Moon Martin is one of those artists largely known to the masses by one song, his 1979 hit Rolene. But he was great, beyond that. For one thing, he wrote Bad Case Of Loving You (Doctor Doctor) that Robert Palmer turned into a hit. Anyway, Martin started his music career as a rockabilly artist and he incorporated the genre into much of his work, including this cut from his 1980 album Street Fever.
- The Rolling Stones, I Got The Blues . . . “At three o’clock in the morning I’m singing my song to you.” I always think of that line when I think of this song, from Sticky Fingers. A slow blues tune maybe best in fact listened to at 3 a.m., half drunk, headphones on, lamenting a lost love.
- Peter Tosh, No Sympathy . . . Followers of the show have often detected a symmetry, at least sometimes, to my set lists and despite my internal reservations that I risk being contrived, I find I just naturally make certain connections between songs and artists in my shows. That’s whether it be by title, by lyrical content or, as in this case, by artists’ collaborations and song title. Peter Tosh, likely, being the straight shooter he was, would have had no sympathy for someone lamenting a lost love, and he also later collaborated with and opened for The Rolling Stones. So, here you are, from his fine Legalize It album in 1976, the album before he was signed to Rolling Stones Records and opened for the band on their 1978 tour. I saw that tour but alas, Tosh wasn’t on the bill I saw on Buffalo, July 4, 1978. I got April Wine (which we missed due to a traffic jam coming into the stadium), Atlanta Rhythm Section (great show) and Journey (meh, Tosh would have fit well there, instead). A later journalism colleague of mine saw the same tour, in Cleveland three days earlier I found out nearly 40 years later, and he got Tosh as an opener.
- Aerosmith, Reefer Headed Woman . . . Sometimes listed as Reefer Head Woman – in fact most of the YouTube posts refer to it that way although on Aerosmith’s Night In The Ruts album itself it’s listed as Reefer Headed Woman. Whatever, it’s a great Aerosmith treatment of an old blues cut from an album most critics dismissed but is in fact a kick-butt ‘Smiths album.
- Van Morrison, Big Time Operators . . . My favorite Van the Man cut many people may not know, a bluesy track from 1993’s Too Long In Exile album. It’s a great lyrical ‘eff you’ to the music industry with great lead guitar from Van himself.
- Steve Earle and The Dukes, Better Off Alone . . . I like Steve Earle, lots, got into him via the Copperhead Road album and single way back when and went back and forward with him and have most of his stuff. But I didn’t have, and hadn’t heard, his Terraplane album, from 2015, until a Twitter music acquaintance of mine suggested it and so here we be. Fantastic, all-originals bluesy album.
- Billy Joel, The Stranger . . . Title cut from his breakthrough album in 1977, was a single in some countries, notably Japan where it hit No. 2 but in any case just another great song from a great album.
- Townes Van Zandt, Brand New Companion . . . Playing a Steve Earle tune reminded me of Townes Van Zandt because Earle did a whole album of Townes tunes, called Townes, in 2009. This track was on it and this is the late great, troubled but appealingly warts and all human Van Zandt’s original.
- Free, Be My Friend . . . Great song from the band’s 1970 album Highway and a long overdue return to playing the band on the show.
- Bad Company, Heartbeat . . . And playing Free naturally, due to the band connections (Paul Rodgers especially on lead vocals) brought me to Bad Company.
- U2, Tryin’ To Throw Your Arms Around The World . . . I was trying to figure out a semi-deep cut from the Achtung Baby album to play which is arguably difficult since most of the tracks on the record are, deservedly, so well known. It came down to this one, or Until The End Of The World, whose lyrics I love, but that was a fairly successful single in some countries and this is supposed to be a deep cuts show and I’ve played it before. So, I’m playing this.
- Steely Dan, Aja . . . Jazzy title cut from the album.
- Stephen Stills, Treetop Flyer . . . Neil Young, and he’s great, is often more critically acclaimed than the other members of Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young but really, each guy has done fine work on his own, particularly, I would submit, Stills as with this one from his excellent 1991 Stills Alone album.
- Roxy Music, Re-Make/Re-Model . . . Great funky freaky tune from the early, more experimental days of Roxy Music and a deliberate choice because what follows are a couple cover tunes that indeed are remakes/remodels of well-known songs, which as I’ve often said are my favorite types of covers – they become new songs, essentially.
- Patti Smith, Smells Like Teen Spirit . . . An acoustic reinterpretation of the Nirvana song that broke that band big. It’s from an excellent album I’ve periodically mined, Smith’s 2007 covers album Twelve.
- Jose Feliciano, Light My Fire . . . I remember seeing Feliciano on some variety-type show my parents watched in the late 1960s or early ’70s. I didn’t get into him at the time but never forgot his performance and so, as let’s say a music explorer, eventually found my way back to him. The same thing has happened, maybe a function of age, who knows, for me with various artists my parents listened to – Tom Jones, Glen Campbell, Harry Belafonte, Johnny Cash . . . on and on. It’s a cool thing.
- Golden Earring, Kill Me (Ce Soir) . . . Said it a zillion times, Golden Earring so much more than the two hits they are best-known for, especially in North America – Radar Love and Twilight Zone.
- Frank Zappa, Muffin Man . . . “He turns to us and speaks. . . . Some people like cupcakes better. I for one, care less for them.” “Goodnight Austin, Texas, wherever you are.” Great Zappa madness, great tune, amazing guitar, what a fantastic artist and brilliant, thoughtful, no BS man he was.
Musician’s FAQ Episode 32 Featuring CJ Cooper April 11th 2022
Please join me for an hour of music and chat with Guelph singer/songwriter/musician CJ Cooper as we discuss her brand new Album
cheers,
Stewart McKie
81 82 83 84 Season 1 Episode 32: All to The Tune of This Very Simple Melody
I’m gonna kiss your PINEAPPLE!!!
Wadio Wam! Episode 7 – Roadtrip!
Hey y’all! Here’s last weeks episode where me and Sam looked at our favourite road trip songs. Give it a listen if you’re interested or if you’re going for a nice drive! We have a fun show planned for next week (hint: does that sound familiar?) so be sure to tune in on Sunday at 1PM. Wam On!
Spotify Link: https://open.spotify.com/playlist/4WeYL02iybxJ02avOetmCC?si=2152d4d63e0f47df
So Old It’s New set list for Monday, April 4, 2022 – on air 8-10 pm ET
- Yes, Awaken . . . Somehow or other, tonight’s set, which was going to begin with Otis Redding’s Satisfaction (which is later in the list) morphed into a prog-rock show, at least for the first several songs. Like this one, the lone epic-length (15 minutes) track from Yes’s 1977 album, Going For The One, which saw the band record mostly shorter tracks.
- The Alan Parsons Project, In The Lap Of The Gods . . . Spacey stuff from Parson’s 1978 album Pyramid, a concept record centered around Egypt’s pyramids and, apparently, the fact pyramid power was something of a ‘thing’ around that time. In fact I recall then-Toronto Maple Leafs’ hockey coach Red Kelly being into it but ultimately it still didn’t win the Leafs their first Stanley Cup since 1967, and they’re still trying.
- Jethro Tull, Mine Is The Mountain . . . I’m a big Tull fan anyway so I’ll tend to find value in everything the band releases, and I’m really liking the new album, The Zealot Gene and this to me is one of the stronger tracks on it. My liking of Tull includes even the sythnesizer-heavy 1984 album Under Wraps which I hated at first but has grown on me over time as yet another example of how I like when bands I like try different things. The new album is more let’s say traditional, recognizable Tull and it’s terrific, already after a relative few plays having embedded itself into my brain.
- King Crimson, Red . . . Heavy, metallic instrumental title cut from Crimson’s 1974 album, after which leader Robert Fripp put the band on hiatus until they returned with an updated, Talking Heads-type new wave sound for the Discipline-Beat-Three Of A Perfect Pair trilogy of albums starting in 1981.
- Emerson, Lake & Palmer, Toccata . . . ELP introduced many rock fans to, or reminded them of, classical music, this track an adaptation of Argentinian composer Alberto Ginastera’s piano concerto. It appeared on the Brain Salad Surgery album. It’s also probably the type of mind-bending track, especially the last two minutes, that a friend of mine was fearful of during college days when, stoned together, someone in our group sitting around my apartment suggested I put on some ELP and said friend – who moments earlier had been swimming the crawl stroke on my carpet – shrieked, ‘no, no, please, not that!” Luckily for him, I didn’t have any ELP handy at that point. Instead, I put on Pink Floyd’s Dark Side Of The Moon, which was likely worse for my friend’s psyche. If I recall, he then transitioned to swimming the backstroke. Just kidding about that, but he really did do the crawl. Fun times.
- Emerson, Lake & Powell, Step Aside . . . Drummer Carl Palmer wasn’t available due to contractual obligations to the band Asia when Keith Emerson and Greg Lake wanted to reform ELP in the mid-1980s. So, Emerson’s friend and drummer to the stars Cozy Powell stepped in for a new ELP’s lone, self-titled studio album from which I pulled this jazzy track.
- Saga, Wind Him Up . . . Second single from the Canadian band’s successful 1981 album, Worlds Apart which also gave us their top-30 Billboard single On The Loose.
- Rush, The Twilight Zone . . . From 2112 and a tribute to the classic TV show, the Rod Serling-created original one, not the 1980s remake, which I gather was not bad, or the god-awful, mercifully canceled 2020-21 version.
- Black Sabbath, Air Dance . . . Jazzy, progressive-type tune from Sabbath’s Never Say Die album. If you didn’t know it was Sabbath, you wouldn’t know it was Sabbath, in my opinion. I like it.
- Queen, Good Company . . . Yet another great Brian May-penned Queen song, this one a Dixieland jazz-type tune from A Night At The Opera.
- Neil Young, F*!#in’ Up . . . Not much to say aside from the chorus says it all.
- The Tragically Hip, Opiated . . . From the first full Hip album, 1989’s Up To Here, which followed their earlier self-titled EP. I bought this one, sight unseen, pre-internet, from a magazine review that said it was Stones-like and before songs like Blow At High Dough and New Orleans Is Sinking from it became hits. So it was kinda cool when they did, because I was rewarded by taking a chance on the review of what is, top to bottom, an excellent album.
- George Harrison, Let It Down . . . I’m having one of those deja vu moments again, feeling like I just played this in a recent show but, searches indicate not the case and in any event, so be it if so. Harrison originally offered this a Beatles’ tune during the Get Back/Let It Be sessions but, like the title cut from what became his All Things Must Pass album, it was rejected by John Lennon and Paul McCartney, which contributed to Harrison leaving those sessions for about a week as detailed in the Get Back documentary. He just up and leaves at one point, telling the rest of the guys “I’ll see you around the clubs.” The next day, when John, Paul and Ringo reassemble, Lennon seems to shrug it all off, musing “if he’s not back by Tuesday, we’ll get (Eric) Clapton in.”
- John Lennon, Meat City . . . A beautiful noise, I’d call this rocker, which was the B-side to the title cut Mind Games single from Lennon’s 1973 album.
- Jefferson Airplane, Blues From An Airplane . . . Lead cut from Takes Off, the Airplane’s 1966 debut album, sung by Marty Balin. Spooky sort of psychedelia, only problem with it is, it’s too short at two minutes, 10 seconds. Then again, good to leave people wanting more.
- Otis Redding, Satisfaction . . . The Otis treatment of the Stones’ classic and apparently, with the horns, the way Keith Richards initially envisioned it. I’m glad the Stones’ version turned out the way it did – although they’ve long incorporated horns on it on various tours – but also great that we have Redding’s interpretation. What an artist he was.
- The Rolling Stones, Jump On Top Of Me . . . This boogie rocker was the B-side to the 1994 Voodoo Lounge album’s second single, You Got Me Rocking (which has become a Stones’ concert staple). Jump On Top Of Me was also in the soundtrack to the movie Pret-A-Porter (Ready To Wear), a somewhat obscure, critically-carved movie I’ve never seen but it does feature an all-star cast that includes Sophia Loren (who received a supporting actress Golden Globe nomination), Tim Robbins, Julia Roberts and Kim Basinger, among many others.
- The Flying Burrito Brothers, High Fashion Queen . . . When I think of or play the Stones, the Burritos often come to mind due to Keith Richards’ friendship with the Burritos’ late leader Gram Parsons. So, here’s the country-boogie Burritos.
- Joe Cocker, Don’t Let Me Be Misunderstood . . . First recorded by the immortal Nina Simone (I’ll have to play her version sometime) and turned into a big hit by The Animals, this is Cocker’s also terrific interpretation. It’s from his 1969 debut album, With A Little Help From My Friends.
- Fleetwood Mac, Future Games . . . I’ve said it many times: the mid-period Fleetwood Mac featuring American guitarist/singer/songwriter Bob Welch is terrific, if often relatively underappreciated in between the original blues band led by founder Peter Green and the later Stevie Nicks-Lindsey Buckingham commercial juggernaut. This extended, Welch-penned ethereal title cut from the band’s 1971 album, Welch’s first with the group, is an indication. Welch later re-cut it, at less than half the eight-minute length,for one of his solo albums.
- The J. Geils Band, Monkey Island . . . A friend of mine texted me last week, excited over his purchase, after all this time (about time, bud, ha) since its 1972 release, of J. Geils’ terrific Full House live album. I’ve mined it for probably all of its eight songs, over time. Great band, and our discussion prompted me to play this spooky title cut from the band’s 1977 album, which didn’t do so well commercially but is for the most part a terrific deep, dark, moody work.
- Doug and The Slugs, Drifting Away . . . And we drift away into planning for next week’s show via one of my favorite relationship tunes, a time and place one for me as I was going through an, in the end, definitely ‘for the best’ breakup with a college girlfriend – although she was the one who introduced me to the Slugs.
Musician’s FAQ Episode 31 featuring John McKinley (part 2) April 4th 2022
Please join me Monday April 4th for an hour of music and chat with Kitchener Singer/Songwriter/Musician John McKinley on Musician’s FAQ
Cheers,
Stewart McKie
Bollywood Mirchi – April 1, 2022
Ajay Devgn’s birthday birthday special on our Radio Show Bollywood Mirchi.
https://radiowaterloo.ca/category/bollywood-mirchi/feed/?tag=podcast
Playlist’s are live!
Hey y’all!
Just here to update the peoples that our Spotify playlists are officially live! If you now go to an episode’s homepage, you’ll find a link to that week’s Spotify playlist. Hopefully this allows everyone to access the setlist’s they love at the drop of a hat! Thank you for tuning in, if you haven’t checked out Episode 6 yet, I would recommend it, probably one of my favourites yet. Wam on!
Link to our homepage: https://radiowaterloo.ca/wadio-wam/?highlight=wadio%20wam
Wadio Wam! Episode 6 – Girls Rule, Boys Drool
Here’s the latest show from Wadio Wam, where we looked at some of our favourite women in music! Wam on!
Also, if you’re a Spotify listener, we have a link to this week’s playlist! we’re working on getting the rest of the playlists up, but I will post when it happens
Spotify Link: https://open.spotify.com/playlist/2WSObiLrkt0PhxaDnsHHng?si=66e061d4b2b34296
81 82 83 84 Season 1 Episode 31: She Said “Boom”!
All-women post-punk Toronto-based bands from the early 80’s? There weren’t a lot of them, but we’ve got two for you this week.
So Old It’s New set list for Monday, March 28, 2022 – on air 8-10 pm ET
- Lou Reed, Rock ‘n’ Roll (live, from Rock ‘n’ Roll Animal) . . . From the liner notes of the year 2000 remastered edition of Rock ‘n’ Roll Animal: “Lou Reed sucks, but Rock ‘n’ Roll Animal rules.” – unsolicited customer review on Amazon.com . . . It wasn’t me, honest! For one thing, if and when I do use Amazon, I use Amazon.ca since I’m in Canada although I have been known to go to .com if I can’t find something here. Secondly, I like most of Lou Reed’s stuff and that of the Velvet Underground, most of whose songs he wrote. Like this one. Rock ‘n’ Roll Animal does, indeed, rule. And this live version kicks butt, featuring great twin guitar work by Steve Hunter and Dick Wagner, the latter of Alice Cooper fame.
- The Rolling Stones, My Obsession . . . Staccato-type track featuring terrific drumming by the late great Charlie Watts, from 1967’s Between The Buttons album.
- Johnny Winter, Silver Train . . . The first of several cover tunes, great artists doing other great artists’ songs, in tonight’s set. This is Winter’s version of the Rolling Stones’ song from 1973’s Goats Head Soup album. The typically Winter-ized version actually preceded the Stones’ release, as the Texas guitar slinger heard a demo of the tune and released it on his Still Alive and Well album that preceded Goats Head Soup by a few months. The song was written by Mick Jagger and Keith Richards in 1970 but was shelved before being polished for Goats Head Soup. Winter, who mined the Stones’ and Bob Dylan catalogs for such tunes as Jumping Jack Flash, Highway 61 Revisited and Like A Rolling Stone, also covered Let It Bleed on Still Alive and Well.
- Marianne Faithfull, Truth, Bitter Truth . . . From 1981’s Dangerous Acquaintances album, which didn’t do as well as the hard-act-to-follow Broken English. Faithfull herself said Dangerous Acquaintances was a difficult recording, everyone concerned with the project – Faithfull, her session players and the producer – weren’t always on the same page. Nevertheless, I think it’s a pretty good record, featuring such songs as the singles Intrigue and Sweetheart plus For Beauty’s Sake, Easy In The City, Tenderness and this one, a seven-minute epic that starts as almost spoken word before transitioning nicely into the main tune 1:15 in.
- Nazareth, Empty Arms, Empty Heart . . . As someone on YouTube commented, yet another great song (by anyone) that most people will never hear. That’s why Bald Boy is here, to dig into deep cuts like this one from Nazareth’s debut, self-titled album in 1971. It’s almost progressive hard rock, at least in terms of how many time signature changes they cram into a three-minute, 12 second song.
- Bachman-Turner Overdrive, The Letter . . .A song The Box Tops took to No. 1 on the charts in 1967 and was later covered by Joe Cocker and Al Green, among others. BTO’s rocked up version, whose main riff calls to mind Neil Young’s Southern Man, was recorded in 1971 as Brave Belt morphed into BTO but wasn’t officially released until the 2-CD BTO Anthology came out in 1993.
- Paul McCartney and Wings, Let Me Roll It (live, from Wings Over America) . . . Originally on the Band On The Run studio album, it was the B-side to Jet but may as well have been a single, as it’s one of Wings’ best-known tracks and one McCartney almost never fails to play in concert to this day – it appears on five Macca live albums.
- Led Zeppelin, Candy Store Rock . . . A shuddering sort of rockabilly tune, apparently one of Robert Plant’s favorites from 1976’s Presence album. It was a difficult album for Plant, who had suffered serious injuries in a car accident and sang from a wheelchair during the sessions.
- Budgie, Napoleon Bona Part One & Two . . . Clever, or silly, title, depending on one’s point of view but nevertheless another excellent almost progressive metal offering from the Welsh pioneers who influenced the likes of Iron Maiden and Metallica. Metallica has covered Budgie songs Breadfan, with its hellacious riff, and Crash Course in Brain Surgery. I’ve played Breadfan before but this reminds me to get to Crash Course in Brain Surgery at some point.
- Red Rider, Napoleon Sheds His Skin . . . Having fun with Napoleonic titles but aside from that, this is one of the many good tracks on Red Rider’s 1983 Neruda album.
- Patti Smith, Changing Of The Guards . . . Another cover, this one of the Bob Dylan song from his Street Legal album in 1978. Smith did it for her all-covers Twelve (for twelve tunes) album, released in 2007. I’ve played things like the Stones’ Gimme Shelter and Hendrix’s Are You Experienced? from it before but definitely an album worth returning to soon. It’s full of interesting Smith interpretations of such songs as the Jefferson Airplane’s White Rabbit and Nirvana’s Smells Like Teen Spirit, among others.
- Blood, Sweat & Tears, 40,000 Headmen . . . The BS & T jazz-rock fusion treatment, applied to the Traffic tune in a nice version from the ‘3’ album. I remember getting the album when my older sister, brother and I were in the Columbia Record Club in 1970 via which we also got Chicago’s second album and Santana’s Abraxas. Things were different, then, but I suppose a record club is really not much different than ordering online now. Speaking of Abraxas, great album: 1. I need to return to it for some songs soon. 2. I always remember playing charades and our mom hilariously doing pantomime trying to describe the poster of the band members that came with the album. We didn’t ‘get’ what she was trying to describe and were in hysterics, but just more evidence that mom was pretty cool.
- Traffic, Light Up Or Leave Me Alone . . . Jim Capaldi wrote and sang this one from The Low Spark Of High-Heeled Boys album while usual lead singer/multi-instrumentalist Steve Winwood provides some nice guitar licks.
- Creedence Clearwater Revival, Pagan Baby . . . Some might consider it repetitive. Others, hypnotic. Or, hypnotically repetitive, which to me is a good thing on yet another CCR deep cut that shows that while they were an amazing singles band and are well-served by compilations, the full picture – as with many bands – is revealed via the individual studio albums. This one’s from 1970’s Pendulum.
- Faces, You Can Make Me Dance, Sing Or Anything (Even Take The Dog For A Walk, Mend A Fuse, Fold Away The Ironing Board, Or Any Other Domestic Shortcomings) . . . Not sure what’s better, the song or the fun title, the in-parentheses part of which is not always used, but I like to be thorough. I like the song, a typically fun, shambolic Faces outing, which was their charm. It was the final Faces single, peaking at No. 12 in the UK charts.
- Gordon Lightfoot, Me and Bobby McGee . . . From Lightfoot’s 1970 album Sit Down Young Stranger, the title later changed to If You Could Read My Mind when that song from the record became a big hit. Lightfoot’s spare version, which was No. 1 on the Canadian country charts and No. 13 on the pop singles list, is one of the first recordings of the Kris Kristofferson song that soon after became a posthumous No. 1 Billboard hit for Janis Joplin. Roger Miller was the first to record it, taking it to No. 12 on the US country charts in 1969. Charley Pride, Jerry Lee Lewis and Kristofferson himself are among the many others who have covered what is simply a great song. Lewis had a No. 1 US country hit with it, a version I played on the show some time ago.
- The Grateful Dead, Throwing Stones . . . From the Dead’s 1987 album In The Dark which was a big commercial success thanks in large measure to the hit single Touch of Grey. This extended, jaunty piece about humanity, with lyrics like “a peaceful place, or so it looks from space; a closer look reveals the human race” was also a single but didn’t chart to my knowledge.
- Headstones, Cemetery . . . Hard rocker with upbeat lyrics (kidding) from what is still likely my favorite Headstones album, the debut Picture of Health, from 1993. And I have all of this consistently good Canadian band’s material. So we go, deliberately, from Throwing Stones to the Headstones in a cemetery. Yeah, I know, enough nonsense, Bald Boy. Next! Ha.
- Steppenwolf, Power Play . . . Little did I know, when at age nine in 1968 a friend played The Pusher from Steppenwolf’s debut album and our group of friends marveled that the lyrics said “god damn”, that I’d become a lifelong fan of the band that originated in Canada as The Sparrows. I’ve just always loved the band’s gritty sound and John Kay’s vocals. Steppenwolf was far more than the endless plays of Born To Be Wild and Magic Carpet Ride one hears on commercial radio. Great songs, but dig a bit, folks.
- Drive-By Truckers, 3 Dimes Down . . . As mentioned last time I played the Truckers, I quite enjoy their stuff, like this rocker from their 2008 album Brighter Than Creation’s Dark. Or maybe I decided to play it because of the album title, given I had just watched a documentary about the cosmic dawn, the period when light emerged, millions of years after the Big Bang, to illuminate what had to that point been a dark universe. On the other hand, if I played songs inspired by what documentaries I watch, then I would have played McCartney and Wings’ Spirits Of Ancient Egypt today since I had also recently watched a show about how we’d build the pyramids today as opposed to how the ancient Egyptians (or aliens, or helped by aliens) did it. I thought of doing just that, but then decided Let Me Roll it is a better Wings’ song than Spirits Of Ancient Egypt, so I played that instead. To refresh any failing memories, the Wings’ tune is No. 7 in tonight’s set.
- Uriah Heep, Bird Of Prey . . . A friend of mine occasionally has ribbed me when I play Uriah Heep but, what can I say, we all have guilty pleasures I suppose and I don’t even consider Heep a guilty pleasure. I like their stuff, especially the earlier material like this track from 1971’s Salisbury album. Depending on my mood I can do with or without the late singer David Byron’s operatic oohs and aahs but there’s no doubt bands like Queen and, much later, The Darkness were influenced by it.
- Rory Gallagher, Ride On Red, Ride On . . . Gallagher’s smokin’ cover of the song from Louisiana Red’s 1963 debut album, The Lowdown Backporch Blues. It appeared on Gallagher’s 1982 album Jinx.
- Bob Seger & The Silver Bullet Band, Get Out Of Denver (from Live Bullet) . . . As we, too, get out of here, for another week, riding the rhythms of Seger’s outstanding first live record.
Wadio Wam! Episode 5 – Intros and Outros
Here’s the audio for our March 20th episode, where we look at our favourite album intros and outros. Wam on!
Spotify Link: https://open.spotify.com/playlist/308cMH4dXtFYVeXD9Sg4pA?si=de466a8f8f01491e
81 82 83 84 Season 1 Episode 30: Hi, my name is Ricky and I’m a Pisces
Wanna be the empress of fashion?
Wanna be the president of Moscow?
Let’s meet and have a baby now!
