I wasn’t going to do a Valentine’s Day-themed show – because I abhor cliches/never like doing what anyone might be expecting. But I was going to dip into it a bit, as maybe an admittedly juvenile joke, and start the show with Zappa’s Dinah Moe Humm followed by The Who’s Trick of the Light, about an encounter with a hooker. Then, lo and behold as I was into show prep on Saturday evening, a friend and show supporter texted me and asked what I might be playing specific to Valentine’s Day. He knows my nature but I did mention to him my Zappa and Who plans, after which he requested The Beatles’ Run For Your Life. That set us off on a  tangent after his Beatles’ suggestion prompted me to think of The Rolling Stones’ Stupid Girl. He then mentioned that a work colleague of his has a playlist he calls Psycho Love Songs. Just having fun. In any event, I wound up going on a quite different path for tonight’s show than my original plans. The result is not so much a Valentine’s Day show but a show whose song titles and lyrics reflect the human condition in the ongoing ups and downs of relationships.

1. Goddo, Cock On . . . The title of this tune, featuring great guitar work from Gino Scarpelli, dates to Greg Godovitz’s days in Fludd. That band wanted to title its second album Cock On, with the group dressed as flashers in trenchcoats on the cover, but it didn’t, er, fly with their record company. Subsequent companies that distributed Goddo’s work weren’t as skittish. I would never have seen Goddo live if it weren’t for a wonderful reunion I had about seven years ago with two brothers with whom I grew up as we spent some of our childhood years together in Peru, where our parents were working from the late 1960s to early 1970s. Hadn’t seen the boys in, by that time, nearly 50 years but we had earlier reconnected via social media, discovered a shared love for music, settled on our reunion get-together being a rock show, and Goddo came through for us at a great show in Cambridge, Ontario.

1. 2. Frank Zappa, Dinah Moe Humm . . . Yeah, well. The lyrics tell the tale.

1. 3. The Firm, Satisfaction Guaranteed . . . Nice tune, was a single, from the short-lived Firm featuring Zep’s Jimmy Page and Free/Bad Company’s voice of all rock voices, Paul Rodgers. Chris Slade, best known for drumming on several AC/DC albums including the big seller The Razors Edge (yes, Razors, AC/DC doesn’t believe in much punctuation) that brought us Thunderstruck, was behind the kit for The Firm. Bassist to the stars Tony Franklin held down the bottom end.

1. 4. Electric Light Orchestra, Little Town Flirt . . . ELO leader Jeff Lynne’s tribute to Del Shannon’s hit. It was played around with on the sessions for ELO’s 1979 Discovery album but never finished and released until the 2001 CD re-issue of the album, which featured the hits Don’t Bring Me Down, Shine A Little Love and Confusion.

1. 5. The Who, Trick Of The Light . . . John Entwistle’s adventure with a prostitute or, at least, his thoughts on what that might be like. Killer track, loud, aggressive, one of my favorite Who songs from one of my favorite Who albums, Who Are You, the final one with Keith Moon on drums.

1. 6. The Rolling Stones, Stupid Girl . . . Typical early Stones put down of women. From Aftermath, 1966. Mick Jagger must have just been in an argument with his girl at the time, Chrissie Shrimpton. Shrimpton, a model and actrress, was apparently embarrassed by this song and the similar tone of several tracks on the album, which she figured, with reason, many people associated with her relationship with Jagger. The couple broke up the same year.

1. 7. Bob Dylan, Idiot Wind (The Bootleg Series Vol. 14 version) . . . Spare, acoustic treatment of what, as the song progresses, goes from a diatribe to shared guilt at the breaking up of a relationship. From ‘you’re an idiot, babe’ to ‘we’re idiots, babe”. Originally released on the Blood On The Tracks album with more instrumentation, there are many versions of this on the various Dylan bootleg series albums. This one’s from More Blood, More Tracks, No. 14. Blood On The Tracks is often considered and reviewed as autobiographical in terms of Dylan’s relationship with his then-wife Sara. Yet he has said his life is not the source material. It makes for interesting reading and analysis of the album. In any event, Blood On The Tracks, and to a slightly lesser extent the follow-up, Desire, particularly in the song Sara, are raw treatments of the emotions of relationships that would resonate with anyone, just brilliant stuff. Pain is, maybe sadly, good for art.

1. 8. The Beatles, Run For Your Life . . . John Lennon apparently regretted this song, it might be autobiographical, he wasn’t always the nicest individual. Yet musically, I’ve always liked it, despite many critics dismissing it. It was one of the songs that always stood out to me when my older sister brought Rubber Soul home, and played it to death.

1. 9. Robert Palmer, In Walks Love Again . . . From Secrets, the album that got me into Palmer via the hits Bad Case Of Loving You (Doctor Doctor) and, especially for me, Jealous, great riff tune from a great album, top to bottom.

1. 10. Robert Plant, Dance With You Tonight . . . Lovely ballad of love and loss from his most recent studio album, Carry Fire, 2017.

1. 11. King Crimson, Three Of A Perfect Pair . . . Not necessarily about a threesome, I don’t think. Telling lyrics, though, from the third in the set of albums Crimson did upon their return to recording after seven years away, with a new lineup, starting with 1981’s Discipline. Other albums in the threesome are Beat, 1982, and this one, 1984. I’m not alone in calling it the Talking Heads-sound alike version of Crimson although who influenced who, given Crimson’s pedigree, who can say?

1. 12. The Guess Who, Silver Bird . . . Outtake, with typically beautiful vocals by Burton Cummings, from the Canned Wheat sessions but not released, or at least added, to the album until an expanded re-release in 2000. The track also appeared on a bonus disc on an expanded re-release of the American Woman album.

1. 13. The Animals, A Girl Named Sandoz . . . This was going to be in my set tonight regardless of Valentine’s Day or a ‘relationship’ set so, while it fits the theme, it’s a ‘survivor’ of my original plan, which also included some prog like early Genesis. But as I went along with the theme, that stuff (Genesis, etc.) just didn’t fit. Next week, perhaps. In any event, what a brilliant, heavy, psychedelic, whatever you want to call it, track by The Animals.

1. 14. Iron Butterfly, Possession . . . Same with this one, like the Animals track preceding it, was in my original set before ‘the text’ from my buddy set the show off in another direction. Said it before but these guys were so much more than In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida. It’s almost menacing stuff, the sound, to me, including Doug Ingle’s vocals. Deep and dark. Short, sweet or not so sweet, and to the point lyrics. One verse, that’s it. “When a man has a woman and he doesn’t really love her, why does he turn inside, when she starts to love another . . . it’s possession (repeated).”

1. 15. Stevie Ray Vaughan, Dirty Pool . . . Typical ‘I been done wrong’ lyrics to this great slow blues original from SRV’s debut album, Texas Flood.

1. 16. Parliament, All Your Goodies Are Gone . . . I love Parliament, and Funkadelic, too. George Clinton is a genius. Haven’t played anything from his collective in a while. Here we are.

1. 17. Joe Jackson, We Can’t Live Together . . . JJ”s lyrics, on this cut from his 1986 Big World album arguably accurately sum up lots of relationships.

1. 18. Bobby “Blue” Bland, Ain’t No Love In The Heart Of The City . . . I feel as if I’ve played this beauty fairly recently, too recently, but it fit the show. Whitesnake did a cover I really like, during their early, bluesier period shortly after Deep Purple broke up in 1976 and final (at the time) leader singer David Coverdale formed Whitesnake, eventually incorporating former Purple mates Ian Paice (drums) and Jon Lord (keyboards) into his new band.

1. 19. Stevie Wonder, Blame It On The Sun . . . Beautiful ballad, touching lyrics of love lost, from Talking Book, which gave us the hit Superstition.

1. 20. Leonard Cohen, The Guests . . . Genius, really, from this late Canadian icon. Great song, great lyrics, great delivery.

1. 21. Paul Butterfield’s Better Days, Take Your Pleasure Where You Find It . . . I realized, after I did my blues show last week, that I had not played any Paul Butterfield, a blues icon I admire. I have before of course and in any event, I played 29 songs which of course left out countless others which is why I intend to revisit the blues show soon. And I do include blues throughout my sets, because that’s of course the roots of the classic rock I play. This one, from Butterfield’s later band, Better Days, isn’t necessarily blues, though. It’s a funky cool workout from the second Better Days album, It All Comes Back.

1. 22. Love, Always See Your Face . . . Despite my natural misgivings about cliches, I could not do a show, on Valentine’s Day, without playing a song by a band named Love, which I planned to do regardless. I love Love, terrific band led by the immortal Arthur Lee. Love never sold a lot but so influential and beyond that, just great to listen to. They, to me, are one of those bands that, when one gets deeper into music, sees an album like Forever Changes which to that point one has not heard, acclaimed as one of the greatest albums in history to which the initial response might be, then why have I not heard it? Well, because it didn’t get played much, for whatever reason. But then you listen to it, and all of the band’s stuff, and you are blown away in fact my favorite Love song if I had to pick one from so many, and which I’ve played on the show before, Signed D.C. , about drug addiction, isn’t even on Forever Changes. It’s on the self-titled debut album. Always See Your Face is from the band’s fourth album, Four Sail, by which time the group was already splintering in terms of membership from the core original band led by Lee that had produced the first three albums.

1. 23. Van Morrison, Warm Love (live, from It’s Too Late To Stop Now) . . . A hit single of some note originally on the Hard Nose The Highway studio album, this is the live version from Van The Man’s terrific 1974 live album It’s Too Late To Stop Now. Either version is terrific, the live one might be, as live versions can be, slightly more up-tempo; I just happened to pick the concert version.

1. 24. Mountain, Back Where I Belong . . . Hard rocker from Mountain’s Avalanche album.

1. 25. The Doors, You Make Me Real . . . Smokin’ track from Morrison Hotel. This one goes out to my old, and renewed acquaintance, high school and college friend 4C (names changed to protect the innocent but it’s his cool nomenclature). A cool guy I’ve known since 1972 (!!) with whom I’ve reconnected via a shared deep love of music. 4C discovered my show at some point and the rest is now not so much history but happening. And through it all I’ve discovered he loves the Doors, likely more than me although I love ’em, and particularly it seems the Morrison Hotel album from which I drew this wonderful track. Only problem with it is it’s too short!

1. 26. Elton John, It Ain’t Gonna Be Easy . . . Long, slow blues, always been my favorite song from 1978’s A Single Man album and another one I feel as if I’ve played too recently but it fits the show theme so . . . A Single Man album was interesting in that EJ had parted ways with lyricist/collaborator Bernie Taupin, entering into a working relationship with lyricist Gary Osborne for several albums, as EJ’s commercial fortunes faded. To my ears, EJ still had this one good album left in him, particularly this track and others like Part Time Love, the single, and Big Dipper. Then, arguably, he went off the rails, at least to my taste.

1. 27. John Mayall (featuring Buddy Guy), I Could Cry . . . Guy shares vocals with Mayall – and is directly referenced in the somewhat adjusted lyrics – on this tune from Mayall’s 1993 album Wake Up Call. The original song was written by longtime Guy collaborator and blues legend Junior Wells. Amazing guitar solo but what else would one expect from Buddy Guy. That said, there’s a terrific live version of this song available on YouTube, with Mayall, featuring Coco Montoya, then in the Bluesbreakers and who later went solo, matching Guy’s brilliance.

1. 28. Ian Hunter, We Gotta Get Out Of Here . . . From Ian Hunter’s 1980 live album, Welcome To The Club. Always credited as a live version, sure sounds like a studio add-on to me and always has. In any case, backup singer/foil Ellen Foley, who was Meat Loaf’s foil on Paradise By The Dashboard Light, just makes the track with her rant near the end.“Oh please I don’t want to go home yet. Come on, can’t you do anything I want to do? . . . What are we gonna do? Go home and watch the (pregnant pause) Super Bowl? (well, yes, actually). Re-runs of the Muhammad Ali, uh, Marlene Dietrich fight?” The uh, plus the pairing of Ali and actress Dietrich, just makes the line. Too funny, worth checking out the whole verse, and the song. And now I’m outta here because as I write this Sunday evening, I actually am going to go watch the Super Bowl.

1. Buddy Guy, Damn Right, I’ve Got The Blues . . . Title cut from the 1991 album that brought Buddy Guy back to mainstream prominence. He had not released a studio album for nine years to that point. Little Feat drummer Richie Hayward was in the core band on the record, which also featured guest spots on assorted tracks by guitarists Jeff Beck, Eric Clapton and Mark Knopfler. The album was the start of a three-album best contemporary blues album Grammy Award streak for Guy, with his next two albums, Feels Like Rain (title cut written by John Hiatt) and Slippin’ In earning Grammy laurels.

2. Albert King, I’ll Play The Blues For You, Parts 1 & 2 . . . Soulful blues brilliance by one of the three Kings of the blues, the others of course B.B. and Freddie. They weren’t related, in fact Albert’s birth surname was Nelson and Freddie’s was Christian, though he later took the King surname of his mother. But, as B.B. was quoted as saying, about Albert and could be applied to Freddie, “he’s not my brother by blood, but he is my brother in blues.” But Albert is the only King I’m playing tonight. Just didn’t fit the others in and besides, I’ve enjoyed putting this blues show together so much there will be more, perhaps as soon as next week.

3. Alvin Lee, The Bluest Blues . . . Most of tonight’s show is comprised of cuts from many of the fathers and mothers of the blues from which the inspiration of so many classic rockers came. But I’ve thrown a few from those classic rockers into the set, including this beautiful slow blues from Lee, the late leader of Ten Years After who by 1994 had – aside from a 1989 reunion album of the original band – long since gone solo. This one features Lee’s good friend George Harrison, from some band you may have heard of, on slide guitar. The two met in a pub in the early 1970s, Harrison offered Lee the song So Sad, which appeared on Harrison’s Dark Horse album, Lee used it on one of his records and so began several collaborations between the two artists.

4. Blind Willie Johnson, Dark Was The Night Cold Was The Ground . . . Speaking of the bluest blues, this is truly deep blues stuff. Spooky gospel blues, written and recorded by Johnson in 1927. I’ve always loved this tune, just the title alone is cool, and somewhat menacing, to me. Throw in vocals that are essentially just humming and moaning, more vocalizations than articulated words, and, well, it’s great. So good that it’s one of 27 samples of music on the Voyager Golden Record, sent into space, as a sort of time capsule, in 1977 on Voyager space probes. The music, sounds and images were selected to portray the diversity of life and culture on Earth to any intelligent extraterrestrial life that might encounter them. Chuck Berry’s Johnny B. Goode represents rock and roll among the classical works by the likes of Bach and Mozart featured on the sounds sent to space.

5. Muddy Waters, Rollin’ Stone . . . The song that gave my favorite band their name, which leads into an original, and recent, blues tune of The Rolling Stones’ own plus a run of originals of blues songs the Stones, among others, covered. And that’s the beauty of music, isn’t it? It’s arguably the greatest gift humanity has given itself, and it keeps on giving. I can say without reservation that my calmest, most carefree moments come while listening to music I love including putting this show together every week. It speaks to a point made by Keith Richards of the Stones; that being that the greatest legacy a musician – and I would add music aficionados – can have is that they ‘passed it on.” Muddy took from his roots, passed it on to the Stones and so many others, and here we are, enriched forever by it.

6. The Rolling Stones, Back Of My Hand . . . Mick Jagger is thought of, generally and obviously, as a singer, but as Keith Richards has said, the pure Mick Jagger comes out when he plays harmonica. And he’s become a decent guitarist, too, including his nice slide work on top of his harp playing on this original blues track from 2005’s A Bigger Bang album. It’s the most recent album of original material by the boys, who did release the excellent blues covers album Blue and Lonesome in 2016. Who knows what will happen in the wake of Charlie Watts’ death; the band has always spoken since A Bigger Bang of having lots of material in the can, being worked on, etc. which was actually the genesis for Blue and Lonesome, where they as usual warmed up for a new release by playing old blues tracks until they realized, heck, this is great, let’s release this. As a big fan, I’d love to see them polish up the various tracks they’ve apparently been working on over the years, with Watts drumming, and finally release the long-promised new studio album of originals. I’d also be up for them continuing with studio work with Steve Jordan on the drum kit. Jordan, of course, is an accomplished musician and songwriter who came to widespread prominence playing in Richards’ X-Pensive Winos solo band both live and on studio record, and filled in admirably for Watts, to great reviews, on the most recent Stones’ tour. So, we’ll see, obviously.

    

7. Rev. Robert Wilkins, Prodigal Son . . . Ten minutes of hypnotic brilliance. The Stones covered it, in truncated form on the Beggars Banquet album. The Stones also played it on their 1969 American tour, just Keith Richards and Mick Jagger would come out, Richards strumming on a stool and Jagger singing, as an acoustic blues interlude. My own great memory of the Stones playing Prodigal Son live was the 1979 Keith Richards benefit for the blind concert in Oshawa, Ontario, his sentence/penance for the 1977 heroin drug bust in Toronto during the time the Stones appeared at the El Mocambo and were recording tracks that eventually appeared on Love You Live. Anyway, Keith and Ron Wood’s New Barbarians band had completed their opening set, the lights went down, except for a spotlight, back out came Richards on an acoustic and then out of the dark came Jagger, all dressed in white, and the dynamic duo broke into Prodigal Son. Great entrance, and then all hell broke loose, on came the rest of the Stones with Chuck Berry’s Let It Rock and on we rocked in the afternoon show. My buddy and I tried to stay for the evening reprise, hid in an arena bathroom, but security found and tossed us.

8. Robert Johnson, Stop Breaking Down Blues . . . Covered by many, Stones rocked it up on Exile On Main St. Back in ’72, just 13, it drew me to Robert Johnson.

9. Mississippi Fred McDowell, You Gotta Move . . . The great thing about bands you like, to me, is digging back into their influences – again, the ‘passed it on’ thing to which Keith Richards refers. It’s how I got into blues, and tracks like this, first heard by me on the Stones’ Sticky Fingers. But as much as I love the Stones, when I listen to the originals, Mick Jagger’s thoughts on Slim Harpo’s I’m A King Bee come to mind, although I have a tough time picking versions, if pressed. “What’s the point of listening to us doing “I’m A King Bee’ when you can hear Slim Harpo do it?” Agreed, Mick. BUT, you guys did it, and tunes like You Gotta Move, and it took many of us back to the originals and hence deeper into the blues greats’ catalogs, to endless reward. It’s actually what often perplexed the Stones and other British Invasion bands like The Beatles, Who and Kinks; that in many respects all they were doing was bringing American music to Americans who already had it, but didn’t apparently appreciate it.

10. Slim Harpo, Shake Your Hips . . . Speaking of Slim Harpo, not I’m A King Bee but another one the Stones covered for Exile On Main Street. Charlie Watts’s drumming is ridiculous. It’s not just the backbeat; to me it’s the little touches now and then that sound like someone hitting an empty pop can, plastic pail or garbage can or whatever, just the occasional single stroke. Pop! Brilliant. Yeah, sorry; I’m talking more about the Stones than Slim Harpo. Well, my excuse is that among my sources for tonight’s show is an excellent double CD compilation, curated by the Stones, from 2018. It’s called Confessin’ The Blues, features artwork by Ron Wood, and is excellent as an overall blues collection.

11. Howlin’ Wolf, Little Baby . . . The Stones covered this one on 1995’s Stripped, their excellent semi-acoustic let’s sort of do an unplugged album which was all the rage in the early to mid-1990s. But, we’re the Stones so we’ll do it our way with studio and live cuts including some plugged-in material.

12. Jimmy Reed, Little Rain . . . Great slow blues from Reed, somewhat uncharacteristic to me from other material I know from him. It’s another I plucked from the CD curated by the Stones and one they covered for the Blue and Lonesome album.

13. Son Seals, Telephone Angel . . . A modern electric blues guitarist/singer, he definitely led the stereotypical life of the blues. Shot in the jaw by his wife, requiring reconstructive surgery, lost part of his left leg due to diabetes complications, lost his belongings in a house fire while away on tour . . . He died in 2004 at age 62 of complications from diabetes. But he left us much enduring work, like this tune from his 1976 release, Midnight Son, acknowledged by many as his best album.

14. Bob Dylan, Blind Willie McTell . . . When this Infidels album outtake from 1983 came out on Dylan’s Bootleg Series Vol. 1-3 in 1991, fans and critics alike were amazed and perplexed all at once. How could he have held this back from release at the time? Well, that’s Dylan. Just a brilliant song, with spiritual overtones, like much of Dylan’s work, both musically and lyrically.

15. Blind Willie McTell, Statesboro Blues . . . And here’s Blind Willie himself, singing those blues as nobody else could or can, on a song The Allman Brothers later took to the masses via their live version on At Fillmore East.

16. Hound Dog Taylor & The Houserockers, Taylor’s Rock . . . Blistering instrumental featuring Taylor’s great guitar playing, from the longtime bluesman’s first studio album, Hound Dog Taylor and The Houserockers, which came out in 1971 after many unrecorded years on the road.

17. John Lee Hooker, It Serves You Right To Suffer . . . Spooky Hooker tune, the title cut from his 1966 album. The J. Geils Band later recorded an extended near-10 minute version on their great Live Full House album.

18. Bo Diddley, Crawdad . . . B-side to Diddley’s Walkin’ and Talkin’ single in 1960; typical of the propulsive Diddley sound. I like it better than the A-side.

19. Robert Nighthawk & His Flames Of Rhythm, Maxwell Street Medley . . . Nighthawk taught Muddy Waters and our next player, Earl Hooker, slide guitar but never achieved the commercial success of, particularly, Waters. And Nighthawk was influential beyond those two greats; B.B. King adapted parts of this tune for his own Sweet Little Angel.

20. Earl Hooker, Wah Wah Blues . . . Speaking of Earl Hooker . . . A great wah wah guitar instrumental from 1968.

21. Koko Taylor, I’m A Woman . . . Taylor’s adapted lyrics answer, from a female perspective, to Bo Diddley’s I’m A Man and Muddy Waters’ Mannish Boy. Terrific stuff, from her appropriately titled 1978 release, The Earthshaker.

22. Willie Mae “Big Mama’ Thornton, Hound Dog . . . Yes, the Jerry Leiber and Mike Stoller-penned tune that Elvis Presley made famous. But it was a No. 1 hit for Thornton on the R & B charts for seven of the 14 weeks it spent on that list in 1953. Elvis did his more rocked-up version in 1956. Great versions, both.

23. Zu Zu Bollin, Why Don’t You Eat Where You Slept Last Night . . . Up tempo jazzy blues recorded in 1952 by the somewhat obscure Bollin that I dug up from a great series of blues compilations I own, a multi-volume set called Blues Masters: The Essential Blues Collection. Bollin, a Texas bluesman, worked with such arguably better-known talents as Duke Robillard and Percy Mayfield.

24. Johnny Copeland, Down On Bending Knees . . . Fun relationship-oriented stuff from Copeland, a T-Bone Walker disciple.

25. Dinah Washington, Baby, Get Lost . . . Speaking of relationships, Dinah ain’t taking no shit, here. “I got so many men they’re standing in line’ she sings. No kidding. She was married seven (!) times. Or six, depending on your source. All in 39 years on the planet, a life cut short due to hard living, booze and pills she took to battle insomnia, apparently. Her last husband was 1950s and 60s football great Dick (Night Train) Lane. A sad loss of a wonderful, expressive voice.

26. Lightnin’ Hopkins, Mojo Hand . . . Great up-tempo title cut from the Texas guitarist-songwriter’s 1962 album.

27. Bessie Smith, Me & My Gin . . . You listen to these old blues tracks and so much of it is so mind-blowing; one can hear the obvious influences on the artists, especially the white blues rock/rock and rollers, that followed. Sight unseen, I hear Janis Joplin in Smith’s terrific raw vocals, and Joplin indeed credited Smith as an influence.

28. Little Walter, I Got To Go . . . A giant of blues harmonica, a major influence on so many, including Mick Jagger. The Rolling Stones covered it, one of four Little Walter (born Marion Walter Jacobs)-penned tunes, on their 2016 album Blue and Lonesome.

29. Lead Belly, Good Night, Irene . . . So many versions of this standard, including several by Lead Belly (Huddie William Ledbetter) himself. This is the 2:38-length version I pulled from The Essential Recordings. And on that note, good night until next week.

1. Creedence Clearwater Revival, It Came Out Of The Sky . . . Satirical Chuck Berry-type rock and roller about what happens when a UFO falls on an Illinois farmer’s land. It was a single in some countries but is largely considered a CCR deep cut. It appeared on the band’s third album release – Willy and The Poor Boys – in one year (!!), 1969, just three months after their previous album, Green River, which came out eight months after Bayou Country. CCR lore has it that bandleader John Fogerty pushed the group to continue releasing albums as quickly as possible as he feared the band would be forgotten if they didn’t appear in the charts. This caused friction with the other band members, who chafed at the workload and figured it wiser to spread things out.

2. Gov’t Mule, Revolution Come, Revolution Go . . . Eight-minute title cut, with a nice groove, from the Mule’s most recent studio album, released in 2017. Gov’t Mule is an Allman Brothers Band offshoot that started in 1994, which sounds funny now since the Warren Haynes-led band has become a much-lauded entity in itself, having released 10 studio albums and a long list of live albums.

3. Warren Zevon, Hit Somebody (The Hockey Song) . . . A tune that I’d say accurately sums up the role and perhaps plight of enforcers in hockey, particularly up to the time of the song’s release on Zevon’s 2002 album My Ride’s Here. The lyrics were co-written with former sports journalist turned acclaimed author (Tuesdays With Morrie, etc.) and multi-media talent Mitch Albom. David Letterman, a big Zevon fan who had the late great on his show many times, does the ‘hit somebody!’ backing vocals on the track.

4. Ian Thomas, Painted Ladies . . . Mine is a deep cuts show but I’m not so rigid as to ignore an occasional single, especially one that is now nearly 50 years old! This one came up in the station computer system while, as often happens, I was looking for something else – which often leads to welcome finds. Great song, most of us of a certain vintage know and remember it well. It was a No. 4 Canadian hit for Thomas in 1973. It made No. 34 on the US charts.

5. Bruce Springsteen, Johnny 99 . . . I was discussing Springsteen’s sometimes harrowing Nebraska album with a friend some time back. I thought I had played this. But I think I just thought about playing it, because I didn’t, my searches show. Now I am. Good tune, lyrics, album – an essential Springsteen release.

6. The Guess Who, Of A Dropping Pin . . . Jaunty track was the first single from 1969’s Canned Wheat album but barely scraped into the top 100 (No. 98) in Canada. Laughing/Undun, a two-sided single, the big hits off the album although they preceded the full record. Space does not permit but it makes interesting reading: suffice it to say Canned Wheat has an interesting history. The band and the record company haggled over which studio best served the band’s sound, the result being that the Laughing/Undun release was surreptitiously recorded in The Guess Who’s preferred studio while the rest of the record was done elsewhere. No Time, which appears on Canned Wheat, was later re-recorded for the American Woman album and that version became a hit single.

7. Drive-By Truckers, Zip City . . . I don’t know a lot by the Drive-By Truckers but what I do, I like, like this mid-tempo tune. The band has cool album covers, too.

8. Ronnie Wood & Bo Diddley, Who Do You Love (from Live at The Ritz) . . . Extended blitz through the Diddley classic, from the live album Rolling Stone Wood did with Mr. Elias McDaniel, aka Bo, or maybe it’s Bo aka Elias, in 1987 in New York. The album was released in 1988.

9. The Who, How Can You Do It Alone . . . A song about masturbation. A good one, too, the song I mean. It’s from the first post-Keith Moon Who album, Face Dances, with Kenney Jones on drums, from 1981. Despite what some critics say about the post-Moon work, it’s a good album, perhaps leaning towards being a Pete Townshend solo record, but I’ve always liked it.

10. Metallica, Low Man’s Lyric . . . Bluesy tune from 1997’s Reload album. Metallica took heat from some of their fan base for ‘selling out’ starting arguably with 1991’s Black Album and those criticisms got stronger with the Load (1996) and Reload albums which had a more mainstream sound, certainly for the most part different from the band’s previous thrash leanings. But I agree with a fan’s thoughts on it, via a YouTube comments field. “Metallica took a big chance that would see them look and sound different. Songs such as this were risky but the lyrics to their more accessible songs still had a sharp edge to them and were meaningful. This song is an example.”

11. Rush, The Way The Wind Blows . . . Beautiful latter-day tune featuring Alex Lifeson’s hypnotic guitar riff, and the late great Neil Peart’s typically fine drumming, from 2007’s Snakes & Arrows album. Peart named it as his favorite track on the record, from a drumming, and listening, perspective.

12. Spooky Tooth, The Mirror . . . Gary Wright of Dream Weaver and Love Is Alive fame was in Spooky Tooth. So, later and on this tune, was Mick Jones, of Foreigner fame. Great band, could rock, often with a pinch of blues, go psychedelic and prog-ish, just one of those perhaps somewhat under the radar British bands that, to use a British expression, I’ve always fancied.

13. U2, Silver and Gold . . . Perhaps the best-known version of this pulsating track is the live version from Rattle and Hum. This is the studio version, about a minute shorter and equally good. It was the B-side to the Joshua Tree’s Where The Streets Have No Name single.

14. John Mayall, Got To Find A Better Way . . . The mantra for my show, one of my catch phrases, has long been: So old it’s new – old bands, old tracks, old bands, their new stuff if they’re still around, alive and kicking. As Mayall is, at age 88 currently on what he’s announced will finally be his last tour. In any event, this is a typically fine, self-penned cut from Mayall’s freshly-released new album, The Sun Is Shining Down, which came out this past Friday, Jan. 28.

15. Jethro Tull, Where Did Saturday Go? . . . Another new one, from old friends. Ian Anderson has been releasing albums under his own name for about 20 years now but has revived the Tull moniker for a new album, The Zealot Game, which also came out this past Friday. “At last, the new collection of songs you have not really been waiting for,” Anderson quips in his typically witty album liner notes. In many ways, Anderson’s recent work is interchangeable as Tull because in so many respects he has long BEEN Tull, and his solo work has featured current Tull band members. So, one wonders what the difference is, really. Maybe it’s all done for tax reasons for Anderson’s myriad companies, always listed on his work as The Ian Anderson Group of Companies Ltd. But what do I know? I’m just a huge Tull/Anderson fan, musically, even though his sometimes snotty supercilious arrogance in interviews can rub me the wrong way. But hey, leader types can tend to be that way; they have a vision and they’re going to pursue it how they so choose. Anyway, a typical acoustic-type Tull track, this one, and one listen in, a fine addition to the extensive Tull/Anderson album catalog.

16. The Jimi Hendrix Experience, Gypsy Eyes . . . From Electric Ladyland, an album featuring well-known Hendrix tracks like Crosstown Traffic, Voodoo Child (Slight Return) and of course his immortal reinvention of Bob Dylan’s All Along The Watchtower. Gypsy Eyes is another of the more conventional songs on the album amid some of the interesting experimentation or simple jamming exhibited elsewhere in extended workouts like Voodoo Chile and 1983 . . . (A Merman I Should Turn To Be).

17. Bob Dylan, I and I . . . “Been so long since a strange woman has slept in my bed . . . Look how sweet she sleeps . . . Think I’ll go out and go for a walk. Not much happenin’ here, nothin’ ever does. Besides, if she wakes up now, she’ll just want me to talk; I got nothing to say, especially about whatever was.” Dylan, arguably nailing relationships, or potential ones.

18. Santana, Taboo . . . Said it many times, while I like most Santana, the first three albums remain for me the zenith of the band’s work. As evidence, I offer this intoxicating piece from the third album.

19. Roxy Music, Both Ends Burning . . . A song in the vein of Roxy’s edgier, early work, although the same 1975 Siren album featured their breakthrough, more conventional hit, Love Is The Drug. Oh, and that’s Roxy singer/songwriter Bryan Ferry’s then-girlfriend Jerry Hall, soon to be stolen by Mick Jagger, crawling on the album cover, which also got let’s say somewhat duller as Roxy Music became more mainstream.

20. The Beatles, Happiness Is A Warm Gun . . . One of my all-time favorite Beatles’ tunes. “She’s well-acquainted with the touch of a velvet hand like a lizard on a window pane…” then shortly after into that great wahhhaaawaaa guitar in what is about three or four songs in one – the intro, I need a fix, Mother Superior, happiness is a warm gun – all with great lyrics, all in two minutes, 44 seconds. Brilliance.

21. The Allman Brothers Band, Seven Turns . . . Title cut, and a beauty written by guitarist Dickey Betts, from the band’s 1990 album.

22. Lynyrd Skynyrd, Tuesday’s Gone . . . Another beauty, from another great southern rock band.

23. The Rolling Stones, Gotta Get Away . . . Short, sweet and terrific early Stones and in some ways a precursor to their later what I call ‘effortlessly and confidently casual’ tunes such as Tumbling Dice, Torn and Frayed and many others. And on that note, getting away until next week.

1. J. Geils Band, First I Look At The Purse (live, from Full House) . . . Probably my favorite J. Geils song and version; they are best served live, terrific band, propulsive track I could listen to 100 times in a row and never tire of.

2. The Rolling Stones, Rocks Off . . . ‘The sunshine bores the daylights out of me.” etc. That lyric ‘makes’ this song, the opening cut to the Exile On Main St. album, for me.

3. Groundhogs, Cherry Red . . . Not sure how I got into the Groundhogs, the British blues-rock powerhouse yet something of an underground act. Probably one of those times, ages ago now, I was in a music store, an independent one like Kitchener’s amazing Encore Records, and the band was playing. In any event, glad I did.

4. AC/DC, Demon Fire . . . Similar riff to Safe In New York City from the band’s 2000 album Stiff Upper Lip but what the heck, it’s 20 years later, this one’s from the most recent record Power Up in 2020 and when has AC/DC not repeated itself – yet remained excellent? And, Angus Young did raid the vaults of unreleased material in putting together the album, which was a tribute to longtime rhythm guitarist and band co-founder Malcolm Young, who died in 2017. He’s since been replaced by Stevie Young, Malcolm’s nephew. The new album was something of a comeback/reunion album for the boys, what with drummer Phil Rudd returning from legal issues, singer Brian Johnson returning from hearing issues and bassist Cliff Williams back in the fold after coming out of retirement. Demonstrating the staying power of classic rock bands, it was a No. 1 album in many countries, including the US, UK and Germany, and was 2020’s sixth-best album, worldwide, in sales counting physical copies, downloads, etc.

5. Judas Priest, Lightning Strike . . . Smokin’ track from the powerhouse 2018 album Firepower, wherein Priest got away from the somewhat progressive concept metal of their previous two albums, Nostradamus and Redeemer of Souls and largely turned the clock back to the 1970s or 80s. The two previous albums are good, but Firepower is a return to more straight-ahead blistering songwriting, with Lightning Strike, one of the singles from the album, a perfect example. Great stuff, if you like Priest and hard rock/metal.

6. Black Sabbath, The Shining . . . From The Eternal Idol, from the underappreciated – aside from dedicated Sabbath fans – Tony Martin on lead vocals version of Sabbath. Very interesting period in the band’s history; guitarist Tony Iommi the only constant, holding it all together and producing some terrific, if relatively unheard, material with typically monstrous riffs.

7. Ozzy Osbourne, Over The Mountain . . . A single and well-known track from Ozzy’s second solo album, 1981’s Diary of A Madman, the second and final Ozzy album featuring the late great guitarist Randy Rhodes. I like the tune, and the album but to me it also marks perhaps the beginning of the overproduced 80s sound that became pervasive in all genres and frankly I don’t like. The sound became the staple of ‘hair metal’ bands, mostly garbage like Poison and Winger and whoever else, Bon Jovi whose success I’ve never understood beyond the song Wanted Dead Or Alive and crap like Motley Crue, which has to be the absolute worst successful band in music history, just shit to my ears . . . OK, stream of consciousness rant over. Ozzy wasn’t shit here, but the sound was getting there. Interestingly, Sabbath, with Dio at the same time doing albums like Heaven and Hell and Mob Rules, avoided the overproduction sound.

8. Thin Lizzy, Bad Reputation . . . So many great Thin Lizzy songs beyond The Boys Are Back In Town, a great song but which, to some, particularly hockey arena programmers, is the only thing the band ever did. There’s so much depth to Lizzy’s catalog it’s ridiculous. This title cut to the band’s 1977 album is a perfect example.

9. Rory Gallagher, Big Guns . . . Title cut to a compilation that years ago truly got me deep into Rory Gallagher. The song was originally on 1982’s Jinx album. I love Gallagher’s music and that of his previous band, Taste, but was somewhat late to the party but have long since made up for lost time. I recall Rory auditioning for the Stones at the Black and Blue sessions (that would have been interesting and likely amazing, Rory in the Stones) but more so I recall a college friend late 1970s raving about Rory, which further turned me on to him and so here I am, again, playing the late great guitarist/songwriter.

10. Pink Floyd, One Of These Days . . . Classic bass line on this one, the well-known instrumental opener from Meddle, the 1971 album preceding the monster The Dark Side Of The Moon.

11. Traffic, Rock and Roll Stew, Parts 1 & 2 . . . Traffic recorded various versions of this one, which appeared as a four-minute plus track on The Low Spark OF High Heeled Boys album and then, as Parts 1 & 2, as a longer single that later appeared on expanded reissues of the album and on the 2-CD Gold compilation. Great tune from a great band, in any version.

12. Pete Townshend/Ronnie Lane, Heart To Hang Onto . . . 1977’s Rough Mix, credited to The Who’s Pete Townshend and Faces’ Ronnie Lane helped out by a host of their musical friends including the likes of Eric Clapton and Charlie Watts, is quite simply one of the greatest albums ever, in my book. This is just one of many terrific songs on it.

13. Jefferson Airplane, She Has Funny Cars . . . Opening track to Surrealistic Pillow, another of those albums handed down to me, so to speak, by my older siblings, in this case my older sister. The hits were the only two top 40 hits the Airplane ever had, Somebody To Love and White Rabbit, eternal classics of course, but the whole album is amazing.

14. Murray McLauchlan, Sixteen Lanes Of Highway . . . From McLauchlan’s 1971 debut album, Songs From The Street. The track also appears on the wonderful 2-CD compilation, issued in 2007, The Best of Murray McLauchlan: Songs From The Street.

15. Junkhouse, Burned Out Car . . . Speaking of McLauchlan, his own version of this song about homelessness is on the Songs from the Street compilation. The Junkhouse version, which came out on the Birthday Boy album in 1995, features duet vocals by Sarah McLauchlan and Junkhouse leader and artiste extraordinaire Tom Wilson.

16. Headstones, Heart Of Darkness . . . From the Picture of Health debut album, 1993. If Headstones did nothing else, and they’ve done lots since, this album alone would cement their legacy and brilliance, in my opinion. Just kick butt rock and roll.

17. Bruce Cockburn, You Get Bigger As You Go . . . Another from Humans, arguably my favorite Cockburn album and one I tend to dig into for the show every now and then.

18. Elton John, Midnight Creeper . . . The last in my Elton John series, for now. It started several weeks ago when I couldn’t decide between this song, Have Mercy On The Criminal and High Flying Bird, all from the Don’t Shoot Me I’m Only The Piano Player album, or Slave, from Honky Chateau. So, over the last while, I’ve now played them all.

19. Ten Years After, If You Should Love Me . . . Still fresh, bluesy and excellent after all these years. From TYA’s 1969 release, Ssssh.

20. Little Feat, All That You Dream . . . Linda Ronstadt helps out Lowell George on vocals on this cut from 1975’s The Last Record Album, which it wasn’t as the band kept going Somehow I feel like I’ve said the exact same thing fairly recently after playing this song. Oh well, if so. Great band, great tune.

21. The Band featuring Van Morrison, Caravan (live from The Last Waltz) . . . Originally on Van the Man’s 1970 Moondance album, this is a terrific live version with The Band.

22. Savoy Brown, Hellbound Train . . . Spooky, hypnotic, nine-minute blues-rock title cut from the band’s 1972 album.

23. Tommy Bolin, Post Toastee . . . Another nine-minute epic as we close the show with some extended stuff. Great riff on this one from the late great Bolin’s second solo album, 1976’s Private Eyes, after his version of Deep Purple broke up following that lineup’s lone, and fine, album Come Taste The Band.

24. Deep Purple, Bird Has Flown . . . Any follower of the show by now knows I’m a huge Deep Purple fan, all eras of the band, and its offshoots like Rainbow, early Whitesnake, Gillan, etc. It wasn’t always this way but in recent years, OK, the last 30, ha, I’ve really come to appreciate the early, progressive/psychedelic material produced by the first incarnation of Purple with Rod Evans on lead vocals and Nick Simper on bass. Like this track, from the third and final album before Evans and Simper left to be replaced by Ian Gillan and Roger Glover for 1970’s In Rock.

1. Nazareth, Morning Dew . . . Written by Canadian singer-songwriter Bonnie Dobson and covered by so many, including the Rod Stewart-fronted Jeff Beck Group on Truth, The Grateful Dead, Lulu, Robert Plant, Long John Baldry, early incarnations of what became The Allman Brothers Band and many others. I could do a whole Morning Dew show, or leave it to you, the listener, to try the various versions, all good, that are readily available online including a stirring duet between Dobson and Plant during a 2000s Plant concert. So hard to choose, but Nazareth’s extended seven-minute version from their self-titled 1971 debut album remains among my favorites, particularly for its pulsating, hypnotic, intro. Most of the well-known covers follow the rocked-up pattern of the Tim Rose version, for which he controversially claimed a writing credit after rearranging Dobson’s more pure folk version. Lots of interesting literature about the song, a post-apocalyptic lament Dobson was inspired to write and sing in her ethereal tone by the 1959 movie On The Beach, starring Gregory Peck. It’s a good movie (spoiler alert) about inhabitants of the earth’s southern hemisphere, specifically Australia, awaiting the inevitable as air currents slowly carry nuclear fallout south from the devastated north.

2. The Beatles, Rain . . . The B-side to Paperback Writer, yet another example of bands as fine as The Beatles having B-sides or album tracks that most bands would sell their souls for. Ringo considers it his best recorded drumming and the song demonstrated the band’s increasing use of the studio as an instrument in itself, what with a backing track recorded at high speed, then slowed down for release, and the opposite being done on John Lennon’s lead vocal. As detailed in a Beatles’ book I own, “the juxtaposition of speed and laziness heightened the unearthly tension of this brilliant record.” Indeed.

3. The Rolling Stones, Child Of The Moon . . . Spacey track with remnants of the sound of 1967’s Satanic Majesties album, this was the B-side to the Stones’ return to kick-butt rock and roll, Jumpin’ Jack Flash, in 1968.

4. Paul McCartney/Wings, Famous Groupies . . . Fun little ditty of the type McCartney has always done so well, in my opinion. It just happened to come up while I was plotting this little Beatles-Stones mini-set, so I decided to play it. From 1978’s London Town album.

5. Ron Wood, Ain’t Rock ‘n’ Roll . . . Terrific cut from, for me, Wood’s best solo album (and he’s got many good ones), 1992’s Slide On This.

6. The Monkees, Daily Nightly . . . One of my favorite Monkees’ tunes (and there are many), this somewhat spooky 1967 song about the 1966 Sunset Strip curfew riots in Hollywood, penned by guitarist Mike Nesmith and sung by drummer Mickey Dolenz, is apparently one of the first commercial rock/pop songs to feature the Moog synthesizer, played by Dolenz.

7. Free, Broad Daylight . . . Haven’t played Free in a while. I have played Bad Company, the band which evolved out of the ashes of Free. Bad Co was of course much more successful commercially, but in many ways I (and many others) still prefer the rawer, bluesier, in some cases heavier band that was Free, both groups fronted of course by the incomparably great rock singer Paul Rodgers. Hard to pick between the two bands, though, both great. Nice guitar solo by the late great Paul Kossoff on this one, from the second, self-titled, Free album.

8. Jeff Beck, Blue Wind . . . Written by Jan Hammer, who by the time of 1976’s Wired album was collaborating extensively with Beck. Great jazz/rock/funk fusion, Beck’s fingers are on fire on the fretboard. You actually used to hear stuff like this on commercial FM radio during the 1970s.

9. George Thorogood & The Destroyers, Want Ad Blues . . . Nice bass line to open this extended cover of the John Lee Hooker tune. Thorogood, of course, doesn’t write much, but he built a solid career out of his ability, born of his love for the music that inspired him, for choosing and covering/re-interpreting some fine material. All with gloriously ‘dirty’ guitar, of course.

10. Aerosmith, No Surprize . . . Lead cut telling the story of the band from the kick-ass Night In The Ruts (Right In The Nuts on the back cover) album, 1979. It got critically panned, the band was largely out of it on booze and drugs, guitarist Joe Perry left partway through but many Aerosmith fans, me included, consider it among their best albums. It rocks. The black and white cover of the band, all grimy in a mine shaft, with “Aerosmith” and the album title scrawled on the rocks, is cool and, well, it’s just a great album, critics be damned. One of those examples in rock and roll of a band fraying at the edges yet still producing good music. And the best part, paradoxically, is that because it wasn’t hugely successful, the album has not been overplayed to death over the years so remains fresh. And how can you beat a lyric like “Midnight lady situation fetal vaccinate your ass with a phonograph needle” or the bang-on commentary on the music industry: “Candy store rock and roll corporation jelly roll play the singles it ain’t me it’s programmed insanity” ‘Nuff said.

11. Humble Pie, I Wonder . . . Out goes guitarist Peter Frampton for a successful solo career, in comes Clem Clempson for 1972’s Smokin’ album, which lived up to its title and, thanks to the hit single 30 Days In The Hole, became the Steve Marriott-led band’s best-selling album. Clempson’s guitar work on this extended slow blues cut ain’t bad, either.

12. Rod Stewart, My Way Of Giving . . . The Small Faces originally did this one, written by Steve Marriott and Ronnie Lane, before Rod Stewart and Ron Wood came out of The Jeff Beck Group to form what became Faces – many of whom, as was typical of the period, played on Stewart’s solo version of the track, on 1970’s Gasoline Alley album.

13. Led Zeppelin, Over The Hills And Far Away . . . For some unknown reason, this song, and a good one it is, was playing in my head the other night when I got up in the middle of the night to answer nature’s call. So I went back to bed, got up in the morning and was thinking “what’s the name of that Zep song that starts slow, with ‘hey lady’ and then gets gloriously heavy? I should play it.” So, I am.

14. Fleetwood Mac, Although The Sun Is Shining . . . Beautiful song, penned by guitarist Danny Kirwan for the final Peter Green-led Mac album, 1969’s brilliant Then Play On. One of the formative records of my youth, among many brought home to me by my older brother, eight years senior. What a resource and influence he was.

15. John Stewart, Gold . . . Speaking of Fleetwood Mac, remember this hit single by Stewart from 1979? Great tune, nice memories, pulled from a “Fleetwood Mac Family Album” CD I own that features various Mac members and their solo and/or collaborative ventures. Stevie Nicks of Mac is on backing vocals. Apparently Stewart, who also wrote The Monkees’ Daydream Believer, grew to dislike Gold, refusing to perform it live, calling it ‘vapid’ and ’empty’ and having no meaning for him, saying he did it for the money and to please his record company. I can see his view. If you research Stewart he was an accomplished artist and songwriter who then perhaps became associated with one song that to him perhaps became an albatross. But a good tune, nonetheless, and a deserved hit.

16. Eagles, Hollywood Waltz . . . Not much to say about this one. Hadn’t heard it in a while, came up on the computer while programming something else, nice tune from the One Of These Nights album, decided to play it.

17. Queen, Sleeping On The Sidewalk . . . I’ve said it perhaps too many times, and I haven’t actually added them up but I’d say most of my favorite Queen songs are those written by guitarist Brian May; this being yet another. Nice bluesy tune from News Of The World, 1977, a terrific album overshadowed by the good, but by now ridiculously overplayed, particularly in sports arenas, hit singles We Will Rock You/We Are The Champions.

18. Elton John, Slave . . . So, a few weeks back I mentioned I was having difficulty choosing between several Elton John tunes, and would eventually get to them all. Songs on the docket were three from 1973’s Don’t Shoot Me, I’m Only The Piano Player (High Flying Bird, Have Mercy On The Criminal and Midnight Creeper) and this one, Slave, a countryish tune from Honky Chateau in 1972. All that’s now left to play from my list, in an upcoming show, perhaps next week, maybe later, is Midnight Creeper.

19. ZZ Top, A Fool For Your Stockings . . . One of my all-time favorite ZZ tunes, from 1979’s Deguello, a few years before synthesizers and huge commercial success came into the equation. I read it described by a rock journalist as ‘a fine fetish blues.”

20. Van Morrison, Tupelo Honey . . . Title cut from Van Morrison’s 1971 album, simply, to me, one of his finest ever songs.

21. Leon Russell, Out In The Woods . . . Such a funky, cool track; the instrumentation and of course the vocals. It’s obvious and self-evident but vocals, the styling, the tone, the pitch, are such an immense instrument in themselves in music.

22. Peter Tosh, Equal Rights/Downpressor Man (live) . . . It didn’t occur to me while I was planning the show but perhaps some sort of thing was going on because today, Monday, January 17 is Martin Luther King Day in the United States. And so, unplanned yet fitting, here’s this combo track from Tosh’s great Captured Live album. “Everyone is crying out for peace, none is crying out for justice. But there will be no peace, ’til man gets equal rights and justice.”

23. Bob Marley & The Wailers, Could You Be Loved . . . Funky reggae from the late great . . . and great lyrics, too, open to interpretation in an individual or collective sense. To each one’s own.

24. The Allman Brothers Band, Old Friend . . . Fantastic acoustic guitar pickin’ by Warren Haynes and Derek Trucks on this blues cut. Not sure they intended it this way because the band kept up with live performance for many years until retiring in 2014, so there was always the possibility of another studio album. But perhaps in retrospect and appropriately, it’s the last song on the last Allmans studio album, 2003’s Hittin’ The Note. The whole album is terrific but I’m a huge fan. In any event, they did hit the note on what became their final studio release.

25. Shirley Bassey, If You Go Away . . . Many versions of this song but I love Shirley Bassey’s vocals and she did several James Bond themes including the immortal version of Goldfinger, which I’ve played before and will again, perhaps in another ‘Bond’ set at some point. In any event, this came up as I was sorting CDs and came across a Bassey singles collection I own. Beautiful, sad song. And on that note, going away until next week.

1. Elvis Costello, Welcome To The Working Week
2. Elvis Costello, Waiting For The End Of The World
3. The Selecter, On My Radio
4. Pretenders, Mystery Achievement
5. Graham Parker and The Rumour, Don’t Ask Me Questions
6. Talking Heads, Born Under Punches (The Heat Goes On)
7. Ramones, Beat On The Brat
8. Blondie, Rip Her To Shreds
9. Dead Kennedys, Holiday In Cambodia
10. The Clash, The Guns Of Brixton
11. BB Gabor, Simulated Groove
12. XTC, Ten Feet Tall
13. Teenage Head, Brand New Cadillac
14. Ian Dury, I’m Partial To Your Abracadabra
15. The Boomtown Rats, Mary Of The 4^th Form
16. The Cars, Dangerous Type
17. The Police, Bring On The Night
18. Joe Jackson, In Every Dream Home (A Nightmare)
19. The Beat, Tears Of A Clown
20. The B-52’s, Planet Claire
21. Nick Lowe, American Squirm
22. The Specials, Ghost Town
23. The Sex Pistols, Submission
24. Love Sculpture, Sabre Dance (single version)
25. The Rolling Stones, Hey Negrita
26. Joe Walsh, I Can Play That Rock & Roll
27. Chet Atkins & Mark Knopfler, Yakety Axe
28. The Paul Butterfield Blues Band, Lovin’ Cup
29. J.J. Cale, Crazy Mama
30. Elton John, Have Mercy On The Criminal
31. David Bowie, Fascination

It was suggested to me I might play a punk/new wave show and I dabble in such tunes on occasion, what I call my ‘college days’ soundtrack, for me that being 1978-80. But I’ve rarely done the bulk of a show to this extent. So anyway, here it is, happy to do it, followed towards the end by some more let’s say my typical classic rock fare. It was interesting in putting the set together because while I still like the ‘new wave’ tunes, and it was a fun period in my musical life, it also occurred to me that many of the bands represented, to me anyway, were good singles bands but didn’t have much depth to their catalogs. Blondie, for instance. I like the hits but not much else grabs me, the same certainly for The B-52’s – two good songs/singles to me, Planet Claire and even Rock Lobster hasn’t aged well – and XTC whose music, aside from a few cuts, I find to be pretty wimpy Brit pop type stuff. Even The Police, to me, have not aged well and I was a huge fan at one time. Just my changing ears, what can I say? And the Ramones, I dunno, love-hate relationship, I ‘get’ them and their influence I guess but at same time, it’s pretty much all one interchangeable song. Most of the early punk and new wave bands that lasted (The Clash, Joe Jackson, Nick Lowe, Elvis Costello, Pretenders, Talking Heads etc.) wound up doing exactly what some of them initially criticized their forebears for doing – creatively expanding their musical palettes. Nothing wrong with that, in my book.

1. The Mothers of Invention/Frank Zappa, My Guitar Wants To Kill Your Mama . . . Among Zappa’s more conventional tunes, complete with an acoustic guitar solo in the middle and an electric one towards the end. All in three and a half minutes.

2. Neil Young, Down By The River . . . One of my favorite Neil Young tunes, edited from nine minutes to three for a single release; this is the full version. Simple, repetitive yet hypnotic guitar, starting at five seconds from the two minute mark, makes the tune.

3. Whitesnake, Sweet Talker . . . Early, bluesier, better (in my opinion) Whitesnake, from 1980 and featuring three fifths of the Mk III version of Deep Purple – Whitesnake leader/singer David Coverdale with old Purple mates Jon Lord on keyboards and drummer Ian Paice.

4. Deep Purple, You Fool No One . . . And here’s Coverdale pre-Whitesnake, belting out a funky tune in harmony with bassist Glenn Hughes on 1974’s Burn album, the first of the Mk III lineup.

5. Guns N’ Roses, Estranged . . . A nine-minute epic single, that as far as I’ve researched was not released in any edited form, and a good thing, too, editing would have ruined it. It came out on Use Your Illusion II which, along with Illusion I was released on the same day in 1991. I remember people lining up at record stores to buy the albums, G N’ R was so big at the time. I’ve always liked the way the vocals change from mellow to rock on the second verse “so nobody every told you baby, how it was gonna be…”

6. The Rolling Stones, Out Of Tears . . . Here I go again, by accident or design, getting into another of these song title things; notice the pattern? First off, Mama is under siege down by the river…then a bunch of relationship titles including this one, not that any of them are necessarily connected and I can say at this point in my life have zero to do with me, but anyway.

7. Bad Company, Weep No More . . . Sticking with the weeping motif, from Bad Co’s second album, Straight Shooter, in 1974.

8. Rare Earth, What I’d Say (live) . . . I feel like I played this recently, although my research suggests it wasn’t too recently, although I did play a different Rare Earth song, Long Time Leavin’, some weeks back. I have played the studio version of Rare Earth’s interpretation of this Ray Charles classic. This is the live version, from 1971’s In Concert album, the ‘backpack cover’ one, which is how one of my old friends refers to it.

9. Blood, Sweat & Tears, I Love You More Than You’ll Ever Know . . . Bluesy cut from Child Is Father To The Man, the first BS & T album, after which founder/leader Al Kooper left, David Clayton-Thomas came in on lead vocals, the band went in more of a pop direction and, for a few albums, was a massive commercial success. Kooper, meantime, went into production and session work. His extensive resume includes producing and playing on early Lynyrd Skynyrd albums as well as releases by The Who, Bob Dylan, George Harrison and Ringo Starr among many others. He also played piano, french horn and organ on the studio version of The Rolling Stones’ You Can’t Always Get What You Want.

10. Bob Welch, Hot Love, Cold World . . . From Bob Welch’s debut solo album, French Kiss, in 1977. This was the third single from the album and a minor hit behind the two previous singles – Ebony Eyes and Sentimental Lady, which Welch wrote for Fleetwood Mac’s Bare Trees album in 1972 and updated for his solo release.

11. Bob Dylan, When You Gonna Wake Up . . . There are many opinions on Dylan’s Christian album period from 1979-81 but there’s no denying the quality of the music, and the musicians (like Mark Knopfler and Pick Withers of Dire Straits) he had in his band at the time.

12. The Byrds, This Wheel’s On Fire . . . The Byrds were great interpreters, especially of Dylan stuff, and I’ve always liked this more rocked-up treatment, great gritty vocals by Roger McGuinn, of a tune written by Dylan and The Band’s Rick Danko. It appeared on The Band’s Music From Big Pink and the Dylan/Band collaboration The Basement Tapes. Three different versions, all excellent.

13. Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers, My Life/Your World . . . I was discussing Petty deep cuts with a U.S.-based music aficionado acquaintance on Twitter the other day. He was looking for suggestions for a deep cuts playlist, I mentioned this one, so I decided to play it myself. I like what I describe as hypnotic tracks, of which this is a great example.

14. Joe Cocker, Sandpaper Cadillac . . . Appropriate album title, With A Little Help From My Friends, on which Cocker famously covered The Beatles’ tune. Helping him out on his 1969 solo album debut were such luminaries as Jimmy Page, Steve Winwood, Henry McCulloch of McCartney and Wings fame, etc.

15. Yes, Heart Of The Sunrise . . . From bluesy to prog to, next track, punk as we steer the show in a couple different directions. Killer riff on this one, from Fragile, another one of those 10-minute songs that, while extended, remains compelling as it goes back and forth between riff rock and the quieter sections.

16. The Sex Pistols, Holidays In The Sun . . . So, the story goes, the Pistols really did want a holiday in the sun, on the Channel island of Jersey. But they got thrown out and went instead to Berlin, which was still divided by the wall at the time, hence the lyrics. Kick-butt rocker, regardless.

17. Black Sabbath, Junior’s Eyes . . . Sabbath’s 1978 album Never Say Die seems to get panned by critics and even fans. The band was falling apart, out of it on booze and drugs in large measure, Ozzy had temporarily quit and returned but in view of all that, they still managed to produce some good stuff. Side one of the original vinyl, in particular, is quite good, featuring the title cut, Johnny Blade and this nicely-arranged industrial-type track.

18. The Who, Pictures Of Lily . . . I was talking about essential Who albums with a friend the other day and we agreed that, although it’s a compilation, 1971’s Meaty Beaty Big and Bouncy is one of them, collecting as it does the band’s 60s singles, like this one, in one tight, intoxicating package.

19. Jim Croce, Roller Derby Queen . . . I suppose this song, which came out in 1973, could be about Raquel Welch in the 1972 movie Kansas City Bomber but Raquel wasn’t fat and two-fifteen, as go the song’s lyrics. Maybe Croce was disguising it, who knows? I saw the movie ages ago, having watched roller derby a bit as a kid during the early 1970s and, OK, because I wanted to see Raquel, but I barely remember it, much less whether it was any good. Welch, apparently, said it was the first movie she ever did where she actually liked her own performance. Oh, the song’s pretty good, too. Croce, alas, died at age 30 in a plane crash in 1973, while on tour.

20. Procol Harum, Simple Sister . . . Nice hard rock riff amid the progressive, somewhat operatic leanings of the band.

21. Chris Whitley, Poison Girl . . . Whitely died of lung cancer in 2005 at age 45 but he left behind a fine catalog of blues and blues rock, including this one from his 1991 debut and I think his best album, Living With The Law.

22. Nina Simone, Wild Is The Wind . . . Written by composer Dimitri Tiomkin and lyricist Ned Washington for the 1957 film of the same name, it was a hit at the time for Johnny Mathis. Simone did a live version in 1959 and then this more well-known studio version in 1966. David Bowie covered it 10 years later, as a tribute to Simone, on his Station To Station album. I’ve played Bowie’s version before so I figured I’d go with Simone this time.