81 82 83 84

81 82 83 84 Season 1 Episode 18: Hey Hey My My

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Well we survived 2021! Let’s hope 2022 is an improvement.

As I mention on this week’s show, I came across a truly bizarre live jam on YouTube this week – Neil Young and Devo, playing Hey Hey My My (Into the Black). Here’s the link: – if you can listen to the end you’re a stronger person than I am. (Note: this is NOT the version that’s in this episode.)

Here’s the latest installment of 81 82 83 84. Happy New Year everyone!

CKMS Community Connections, Shows

CKMS Community Connections for 31 December 2021: KWCon Music!

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This week I’m playing KWCon music, that is, music by local musicians from Kitchener, Waterloo, Cambridge, Wellesley, Wilmot, and Woolwich (and maybe some who have friends and relations in the area)… This is all new music from 2021, or newly discovered in 2021. Sadly, I’ve only got an hour, which covers barely half of the KWCon musicians I discovered this year. So that means there’s not enough time to provide bios or background information.

I hope this Covid is done soon. I want to bring all these musicians into the studio for interviews and maybe a Live, On-Air, In-Studio performance.

And for any musicians in Waterloo Region I’ve missed, drop us a line at office@radiowaterloo.ca with an MP3 of your music or a link to a download site, and we’ll get your songs on the air. I’m about six months behind in replying to e-mail, so please be patient. Or even better, join Radio Waterloo as a member, Start Your Own Show, and put Waterloo Region’s music on the air!

–Bob.

Index

Time Title Album Artist
0m00s Theme for CKMS Community Connections ccc
CKMS Community Connections		 Steve Todd
0m44s It’s Christmas Time It's Christmas Time | Written by Brian Chris | Illustrated by Brittany Barr (illustration of a blue snow globe full of children tumbled about on a red background) Brian Chris, featuring Amanda MacDonald and Brady Chris
3m57s The Christmas Song (picture of Josh David wearing a suit jacket sitting in front of trees) Josh David
6m46s Hold Me Close Amanda Kind | Hold Me Close (photo of a purple christmas tree ornament with a candle inside) Amanda Kind
9m40s I Will Stand I Will Stand | Tania Joy (portrait of Tania Joy on a dark background)
I Will Stand		 Tania Joy
13m07s Dirty Water Photo of JP Sunga at a microphone holding a guitar
(single)		 JP SUNGA
17m53s Sandalwood Southbound | Sandalwood (illustration of a man's head wearing glasses, all onpastel blue and pink background) Southbound
22m18s BAD BAD | Clarissa Diokno (Clarissa Diokno standing on stairs leaning against the wooden railing)
BAD		 Clarissa Diokno
25m39s You & Me & Everything You & Me & Everything | the macqueens (Kris and Liv MacQueen on a subway platform beside a train)
You & Me & Everything		 The MacQueens
28m51s Poor Man’s Dreams 1993 Hypnotic Mirage (blue water and waves) Hypnotic Mirage
32m43s Scuppernong and Fooferaw The Raoul Santodomingo Experience (nightscape of a carnival with fireworks, surrounded by the text in a circle around it)
The Raoul Santodomingo Experience		 The Raoul Santodomingo Experience
38m49s Decompress (a pirate holding a paddle standing in the water at the end of a wharf) Michael Masurkevitch
43m14s Fly Away Child Fly Away Child | Sammy Duke (black silhouttes of birds on a white background) Sammy Duke
46m49s Sanctuary Sanctuary | Taylor Davison (Taylor Davison upside-down lying in leaves)
Sanctuary		 Taylor Davison
51m11s Gone With The Wind Gpne With The Wind | Eryn Young (blue and white clouds, cursive black letters) Eryn Young
55m35s Extro Credits   Bob Jonkman
56m21s Standing Around (streaks of colour with lens flare)
Suun		 Petty Halfwit

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.

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CKMS | 102.7 FM | Radio Waterloo | Community ConnectionsSee all CKMS Community Connections shows!

Show notes and podcast interview content is Copyright © 2021 by the participants, and released under a CC BYCreative 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.

So Old It's New

So Old It’s New set list for Monday, Dec. 27, 2021 – on air 8-10 pm ET

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  1. Tramp, Put A Record On . . . Who is Tramp? Well, they were an on again, off again British blues band often comprised of assorted members of Fleetwood Mac like drummer Mick Fleetwood, original bassist Bob Brunning, who formed Tramp in 1969, and guitarist Danny Kirwan. Tramp, fronted by the brother sister guitarist/singer combo of Dave and Jo Ann Kelly, released just two albums. The debut was out in 1969 and then in 1974 came Put A Record On, the title cut of which appears on a Fleetwood Mac Family Album CD I have. The album features the outside and solo work of the various Mac members over the many years and lineups of the parent group. Jo Ann Kelly was so highly thought of that both Canned Heat and Johnny Winter wanted her to join their bands, but she declined due to her desire to stay in England. Sadly, she died in 1990 at age 46 of a brain tumor.
  1. The James Gang, The Bomber . . . Haven’t played the James Gang in a while. So I figured I’d bring them back into the loop via this epic, from the second album, Rides Again.
  1. The Who, The Punk and the Godfather . . . An old friend of mine loves The Who and always swore by Quadrophenia as their best, or at least his favorite album by the band but then he’s into ‘concept’ albums and likes The Lamb Lies Down On Broadway by Genesis, which I’ve never fully gotten into so, there’s that if one is considering sources, ha. He’s also the guy I once got into a fun drunken argument with over whether Genesis was even rock akin to, say, the raunch and roll of The Rolling Stones, his argument being “ever heard The Knife, dammit!” So yeah, I’ve heard The Knife, it’s heavy, it’s on the Trespass album; Genesis can play rock, of a sort though not raunch, so I concede the point but anyway . . . back to The Who. I like Tommy, which is a concept album, but of The Who’s works I’d say I like Who’s Next, Who Are You and yes, The Who By Numbers, which I grew up with, more. But I’m more a song guy than a concept guy, when it comes to music. I do like Quadrophenia, certainly several of the songs from it, like The Punk and the Godfather, so here you go. I’d still take the more well-known 5:15, The Real Me and Love, Reign O’er Me from Quad, ahead of it, though, but this is a deep cuts show. Actually, while I’m writing these commentary notes, I just put on the Lamb and, you know, I could get more deeply into it, actually, and I realize I do know the album pretty well, The Cage, Carpet Crawlers, the title cut, etc. Next!
  1. Bob Dylan, Everything Is Broken . . . Up-tempo Zimmy to kick off his fine 1989 album, Oh Mercy, wall to wall one of his best, any era. But you’ll get that when you hire Canada’s own Daniel Lanois as producer. Anything he touches turns to gold, ask U2, Peter Gabriel, Robbie Robertson, on and on. Lanois is not a bad music maker in his own right, either, judging by his solo albums.
  1. Joan Baez, Diamonds and Rust . . . Speaking of Dylan, this 1975 song is all about him and for my money is one of the finest songs about love, love lost and all that stuff, ever written. Always brings a tear to my eye. It’s brilliant, sung by the voice of an angel. Judas Priest, of course, later in the 1970s covered it in their metal fashion, had a hit with it and Baez liked it. A long time later, in the 2000s, Priest re-did it in acoustic, Baez style to great effect but one would expect nothing less, given Priest lead singer Rob Halford’s pipes.
  1. Leon Russell and Willie Nelson, Heartbreak Hotel . . . Leon and Willie team up on the song Elvis Presley made famous. It’s actually credited to Willie Nelson and Leon Russell but I pulled it from a Leon Russell compilation I own so I put Leon first. Just to be different.
  1. The Kinks, Hatred (A Duet) . . . Famously feuding and fighting brothers Ray and Dave Davies have great fun on this one, from The Kinks’ last studio album, Phobia, which came out in 1993. It’s a great commentary on their always-tempestuous relationship, and society in general. “Why don’t you just drop dead and don’t recover. I’m the mirror to your mood, you hate me and I hate you so at least we understand each other.” Ah, brotherly love. I imagine they had a riot recording it.
  1. Tim Curry, No Love On The Street . . . Great original tune by the multi-talented Curry, who came to fame as Dr. Frank-N-Furter (you’ll recall Sweet Transvestite) in The Rocky Horror Picture show. I was major into the whole Rocky Horror schtick at the time so when I heard Curry’s Fearless album playing in a record store in 1979, I liked it, bought it and soon owned the three albums he released between 1978 and 1981. He always had major music people helping him, too, like producers Michael Kamen and Bob Ezrin and guitarist Dick Wagner of Alice Cooper and Lou Reed fame. Curry, who was a scream in the 1985 movie adaptation of the board game Clue, alas is confined to a wheelchair after suffering a stroke in 2012, although he still does voice work.
  1. Bee Gees, Lonely Days . . . Probably my favorite Bee Gees’ song, essentially three songs in one as it quietly builds to a crescendo, calms down again, then rebuilds to another peak. These guys were so good, yes, even the disco stuff. Just great songwriters.
  1. Steppenwolf, It’s Never Too Late . . . Yet another great one by the Canadian-rooted band which is SO much more than endless classic rock station plays of Magic Carpet Ride and Born To Be Wild, great songs of course but . . .
  1. Bad Company, Company Of Strangers . . . Title cut from the band’s 1995 album, with Paul Rodgers soundalike Robert Hart on lead vocals. An old work colleague of mine once said that Bad Company without Rodgers singing isn’t Bad Company. I agree for the most part, certainly given the overproduced (though commercially successful) schlock they released with Brian Howe on lead vocals during the 1980s, which is when my old work friend commented. But Company of Strangers, which features founding guitarist Mick Ralphs and drummer Simon Kirke, is pretty good, actually. It could pass for the band’s 1970s work with Rodgers, I think.
  1. The Rolling Stones, Sway . . . Great guitar work, especially on the outro, from Mick Taylor on one of those what I term ‘effortlessly and effectively lazy’ Stones cuts, which nobody does better than, well, the Stones. This one’s from Sticky Fingers.
  1. The Guess Who, Key . . . A nice combo of psychedelia and pop rock on this epic, near 12-minute excursion from 1969’s Wheatfield Soul album.
  1. Simon and Garfunkel, Baby Driver . . . Like many 1960s and 70s albums, Bridge Over Troubled Water is so good any of its songs could have been singles. This one wasn’t though, which tells you what a quality work the album was.
  1. Steve Miller Band, Space Cowboy . . . By now this is a well-known Miller tune but it arguably wasn’t when it came out in 1969 on the Brave New World album when the Steve Miller Band was still in its psychedelic/blues rock phase. The band was still some years away from its commercial mid- to late-1970s heyday starting with The Joker album and subsequent releases Fly Like An Eagle, Book of Dreams and the ubiquitous Greatest Hits 1974-78 album. But if you’re looking to sample earlier Miller, I’d recommend The Anthology and The Best of 1968-73 compilations, either physical copies or online.
  1. Blue Rodeo, Diamond Mine . . . I’ve been meaning to get to some Blue Rodeo, was discussing them with a friend recently and mentioned to him that I ought to play them. Reason I haven’t, to be honest, is that my place is an unholy mess, CDs not racked (it’s a forever project) because I’m too lazy to put them away after each show. In a way, I think it helps my set list creativity because I just randomly pick up a disc, yeah I still own CDs, and load them into our station computer. So anyway, was rummaging around and, voila, found a Blue Rodeo disc so I figured I’d play the title cut, probably my favorite song of theirs, from their 1989 album. It’s quite Doors-ish, in my opinion, akin to The End or When The Music’s Over.
  1. Elton John, High Flying Bird . . . Here’s the problem with Elton John in the 1970s and doing a radio show just once a week. How are you supposed to choose among his many great songs and we’re talking deep cuts, let alone hits. So, at first I was going to go with Street Kids, a rocker I like from Rock of The Westies but I realized I’ve played that fairly recently. Then up came Slave, a nice country blues-ish tune from Honky Chateau which I’ve never played I don’t think, but then that CD rummage session revealed Elton’s Don’t Shoot Me I’m Only The Piano Player album so it came down to either High Flying Bird or Have Mercy On The Criminal, and Bird won out. But, now you have an indication of some Elton John titles to look for in future shows.
  1. Bloomfield Kooper Stills, His Holy Modal Majesty . . . From the legendary Super Session album, which features Al Kooper and guitarists Michael Bloomfield and Stephen Stills. It was a two-day session but Bloomfield, who played on this tribute to jazz giant John Coltrane, left – apparently he was having trouble sleeping and wanted to rest – so Kooper scrambled and brought Stills in to finish the album. The whole project, either guitarist, is terrific.
  1. Rory Gallagher, Calling Card . . . Anyone who knows me, and the show, knows how much I like Rory Gallagher, from his days leading Taste to his extensive solo work. Just a brilliant guitarist and songwriter, yet in many ways not well known to the masses. But his brother Donal has kept the late Rory’s music alive over the years via various reissue projects, compilations, concert film re-releases and the like. That’s a good thing. Rory was amazing. Asked once how it felt to be the greatest guitarist in the world, Jimi Hendrix is said to have said, “I don’t know. Go ask Rory Gallagher.”. But of course Hendrix said similar things about Chicago’s late great Terry Kath, and B.B. King said of Fleetwood Mac founder Peter Green that Green was ‘the only living guitarist to make me sweat. He had the sweetest tone I’ve ever heard.” Which really says it all about all these guys; it’s not a competition. It’s about their respective creative muses, and resulting mutual respect and admiration. 
  2. Neil Young & Crazy Horse, Sedan Delivery . . . Kick butt distortion tune, which is what Neil Young does when Crazy Horse is in the building with him. From 1979’s Rust Never Sleeps. Young originally recorded Sedan Delivery during the sessions for his 1975 album Zuma but it didn’t make the cut. The song was offered to Lynyrd Skynyrd for their final pre-plane crash album, Street Survivors, but they passed on it.
  1. Ocean Colour Scene, The Riverboat Song . . . What an infectious, irresistible riff from these Britpop boys. I’m not super up on them but heard them playing in one of my favorite local independent record stores some years back, that would be Encore Records in Kitchener, Ontario, Canada (free plug, boys), bought a compilation and here we are.
  1. Chuck Leavell, Evening Train . . . This is an interesting one, perhaps, in how I came to play it. Pianist/keyboard player Leavell, of course, is a former Allman Brother and has been playing live and on studio records with The Rolling Stones since the 1980s and also at one time fronted the Allmans’ offshoot band Sea Level, which I’ve periodically played. Anyway, I was digging through my stuff and back in 2019, the Stones’ Keith Richards was ‘guest editor’ of MOJO music magazine so the mag included with purchase a CD of some of Keef’s favorite tunes. It’s a diverse disc, featuring stuff like Funkadelic, Buckwhat Zydeco, Dion, Toots and The Maytalls (Richards loves reggae), Jimmy Reed, Chuck Berry and Muddy Waters. And, this bluesy Leavell track from his 2013 album, Back To The Woods, a tribute to the pioneers of blues piano.  
  2. Ringo Starr, Goodnight Vienna/Goodnight Vienna Reprise . . . Title cut, a fun rocker and its short reprise, from Ringo’s 1974 album, written by John Lennon. And on that note, goodnight until next week.
So Old It's New

So Old It’s New set list for Monday, December 20, 2021 – on air 8-10 pm ET

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  1. Jethro Tull, To Cry You A Song . . . I always listen to music in the gym but been using my workout time lately to dig back into and savor many of my favorite albums, particularly ones I haven’t listened to in a while, because I think what often happens is, for me at least, is you know an album so well that it’s as if you don’t need to play it because you know it in your mind. But then you actually do play it again and you think, wow, is this ever good. Like Tull’s third album, Benefit, from which this song comes. As always, credit to my late older brother for introducing me to Tull all those years ago.
  1. R.E.M., Oh, My Heart . . . Beautiful song from the band’s final album, 2011’s Collapse Into Now. It’s worth reading the Wikipedia entry about the album, which details how the group, which was on the down slope of commercial success, came to the decision to disband and it wasn’t just due to sales. And, also, how they developed the album as they accepted that times had changed concepts of what an ‘album’ meant. To pull a bit from Wikipedia, the group did videos for each song on the album, not just the singles,of which Oh, My Heart was the fourth. Lead singer Michael Stipe: “The idea was to present a 21st-century version of an album. What does an album mean in the year 2011, particularly to generations of people for whom the word ‘album’ is an archaic term? An album for me as a teenager in the ’70s was a fully-formed concept. It was a body of work from an artist I liked or trusted or who excited me. I wanted to present an idea of what an album could be in the era of YouTube and the internet. This is what we do. We put together and sequenced the strongest body of work we could possibly come up with at this moment in time and put it onto this record.” I love listening to creative people discuss their work, whoever it is because, while I like them, I’m not even a massive R.E.M. fan.
  1. George Harrison, I Dig Love . . . Same thing here as with my comments re the Jethro Tull song/album I started today’s show with. I hadn’t listened to Harrison’s All Things Must Pass in a long time but did so in the gym, over two workouts, last week. It’s a sprawling album, of course, three vinyl records in its original configuration as Harrison unleashed his muse after the breakup of The Beatles, using some material that didn’t ‘make’ Beatles’ albums, and his records is filled with gems. Like this very interesting, almost experimental/somewhat unconventional track. Very cool.
  1. The Beatles, She’s Leaving Home . . . Interesting how things change as time offers perspective. I always liked this song, and the whole Sgt. Pepper album, but as time and life experience goes on, it’s moved up to become one of my favorites on the album. Same with George Harrison’s sitar-laden and ultimately influential Within You Without You on Pepper, which in my youth was a song I skipped – and I wasn’t alone – by lifting the needle from the vinyl record (no programming in those days).
  1. Tyrannosaurus Rex, By The Light Of A Magical Moon . . . Great jaunty mid-tempo ballad with some nice guitar from 1970’s A Beard Of Stars, the last of four studio albums by the Marc Bolan-led band before they shortened their name and continued as T. Rex.
  1. The Doors, The Spy . . . Nothing intentional, just developed this way, maybe it’s some Freudian sort of thing, who knows, but many of the songs in the set tonight have to do with relationships. Like this one from the bluesy Morrison Hotel album.
  1. Johnny Cash, No Expectations . . . As I’ve often said, to me the best covers are reinventions, the most famous arguably being Jimi Hendrix’s reinterpretation of Bob Dylan’s All Along The Watchtower. No Expectations by the man in black isn’t as well known, but in 1978 he took the great Rolling Stones’ track from 1968’s Beggars Banquet and gave it the Cash rockabilly-type treatment. Great stuff.
  1. The Rolling Stones, Dance (Pt. 1)/If I Was A Dancer (Dance Pt. 2) . . . And, speaking of the Stones, now for something completely different, from 1980’s Emotional Rescue album. Part 1 was the opening cut on the album but Part 2 didn’t appear until the 1981 compilation, Sucking In The Seventies. I’ve slotted them back to back, and thanks to whoever, on YouTube, for connecting the tunes into one 10-minute package that I’ve used for the usual song clips on my Facebook page.
  1. Elvis Presley, Little Sister . . . Always loved this Elvis tune. And, see how it goes from the Stones’ Dance to Elvis’s Little Sister, a nod to the Stones’ Dance Little Sister? Clever, aren’t I? Ha.
  1. Van Morrison, Precious Time . . . I need to listen to this tune and its lyrics more because I have too many interests, which results in me having difficulty prioritizing, at times. Time is indeed precious, to be used wisely.
  1. Delaney and Bonnie (with Eric Clapton), Comin’ Home . . . Here’s what happens when you dig into a box set you haven’t listened to in a while, in this case Clapton’s 1988 release Crossroads. You remember this band and this song, a good rocker from the group/then married couple of Delaney and Bonnie Bramlett and friends which at various times featured Clapton, Duane and Gregg Allman, Dave Mason, George Harrison (under the pseudonym L’Angelo Misterioso), Bobby Keys, Gram Parsons, on and on and which led to the formation of . . .
  1. Derek and The Dominos, Got To Get Better In A Little While . . . Three members of Delaney Bramlett’s band, who had helped Clapton out on his first, self-titled solo album, had a falling out with Bramlett. So, Clapton scooped up keyboardist Bobby Whitlock, bassist Carl Radle and drummer Jim Gordon and the result was Derek and The Dominos. This is an early version, from the Crossroads box and without Whitlock, of a rocker scheduled for what was to be a second Dominos album, after the Layla and Other Assorted Love Songs album.

     

  2. Creedence Clearwater Revival, It’s Just A Thought . . . Who says CCR was just a hit singles band? They have many great deep cuts, like this nice groove tune from the Pendulum album.
  1. Blackie and The Rodeo Kings, 49 Tons . . . Cool shuffle from the Canadian combo of Stephen Fearing, Colin Linden and Tom Wilson. What began as something of a fun side project by guys with their own gigs – Fearing solo, Linden lots of production work and some solo stuff and Wilson with Junkhouse and assorted other projects – soon became a full-fledged band, and a good one.
  1. Rod Stewart, Stone Cold Sober . . . I feel like I’ve played this one too recently, although I can’t find it in 2021 shows but in any event, what the heck. Good, fun rocker from Stewart’s 1975 Atlantic Crossing album, his first after he moved to the United States and first without most members of Faces as his backing band for his solo work. The album was the first of a great run in Stewart’s second distinct solo period, one that brought him great commercial and critical success up until about 1980, after which he lost the plot, went schlock, and lost me.
  1. Joe Jackson, What’s The Use Of Getting Sober (When You’re Gonna Get Drunk Again) . . . J.J.’s version of a song Louis Jordan took to No. 1 on Billboard’s ‘race record chart’ (really, a ‘race’ record chart) in 1942. It appeared on Jackson’s 1981 jump blues/swing album Jumpin’ Jive, at which time, after his early angry young man punk/new wave period, I realized Jackson was an artist I wanted to follow in his various directions. He’s never disappointed me.
  1. Heart, White Lightning and Wine . . . I like most Heart stuff but prefer the 1970s stuff, like this album track from 1976’s Dreamboat Annie, to the band’s (typically for the period) at least somewhat overproduced 1980s sound, although that sound gave Heart huge commercial success for a few 80s albums.
  1. Mark Knopfler, Why Aye Man . . . I prefer Dire Straits to Knopfler’s solo material, which some friends remember I drunkenly and loudly proclaimed one day a few summers ago while throwing back beer on a lakeside patio. But I do like his solo work, like this tune, and need to dig back in.
  1. Dire Straits, Telegraph Road . . . One of those epic tunes, 14 minutes worth, that is so good the time just flies by.
  1. Buddy Guy, It’s A Jungle Out There . . . Written by Guy, the lone self-penned cut from his terrific 2001 album, Sweet Tea, which deservedly was nominated for a Grammy Award for Best Contemporary Blues Album.
  1. Bruce Cockburn, Tibetan Side Of Town . . . From the Big Circumstance album in 1988, nice groove and guitar picking by Cockburn and a nice sax solo by Richie Cannata, a member of Billy Joel’s band during my favorite Joel period, the mid- to late 1970s.
  1. The Allman Brothers Band, Instrumental Illness . . . Typically great extended (12 minutes) Allmans instrumental, from what turned out to be their last studio album, 2003’s Hittin’ The Note, although the band continued playing live until retiring in 2014.
So Old It's New

So Old It’s New set list for Monday, Dec. 13, 2021 – on air 8-10 pm ET

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  1. 54-40, Music Man . . . Apparently a single, I don’t remember it being such.  Nice groove including the wah-wah guitar. Got into 54-40 via the first two singles – Nice To Luv You and She La – from the Dear Dear album in 1992, from which I took this song. I saw them about a decade later, good show.
  1. Romantics, Open Up Your Door . . . A cover of the 1966 hit by Richard and The Young Lions released on the Romantics’ 1983 album In Heat. Good time, good rock and roll.
  1. Deep Purple, What’s Going On Here . . . Great boogie rock tune featuring nice dual vocals from David Coverdale and Glenn Hughes, from the first Mk. III Purple album, Burn. Already getting funky, Purple was, to the great distaste of mercurial guitarist and arguably de facto leader Ritchie Blackmore, yet he plays brilliantly on the album.
  1. The Allman Brothers Band, No One To Run With . . . Jaunty sort of tune from the reconstituted band’s 1994 album, Where It All Begins, guitarist Dickey Betts’ last studio work as a Brother. Speaking of the studio, Gregg Allman didn’t like recording in studios, preferring the live arena so, the story goes, producer Tom Dowd arranged for the band’s full concert setup to be housed on a Florida film sound stage owned by actor Burt Reynolds and the band recorded that way, as a live unit, rather than as many albums are done, with parts done individually and then mixed.
  1. Spooky Tooth, That Was Only Yesterday . . . Yet another great one from the Spooky Two album, which I think ought to be retitled No. 1 since it’s arguably the band’s best work.
  1. Tommy Bolin, Bustin’ Out For Rosey . . . From the late great Bolin, solo artist, replacement guitarist for Joe Walsh in the James Gang and Ritchie Blackmore in Deep Purple but a brilliant artist in his own right, gone too soon as a result of his drug demons.
  1. Genesis, Eleventh Earl Of Mar . . . Epic track from the second post-Peter Gabriel album, Wind and Wuthering, and the last one with guitarist Steve Hackett before his departure left Genesis a trio (Tony Banks, Mike Rutherford, Phil Collins) that would go on to huge commercial heights.
  1. Can, Spoon . . . Typically propulsive Can track, among their more accessible works in fact if you’re not into ‘weird’ stuff I’d recommend picking up, or listening to online, their Can: The Singles album, a good run-through of the band’s more conventional work.
  1. King Crimson, Larks’ Tongues In Aspic, Part 1 (abridged) . . . Slow build on this instrumental title cut to the 1973 album, until the heavy, metallic assault at the 3:45 mark and then again a minute later. The song is nearly 14 minutes long on the album but for tonight’s show I used bandleader Robert Fripp’s just under seven-minute, tighter abridged version which in some ways I like better; depends on my mood.
  1. Soft Machine, All White . . . By the time of the ‘5’ album, Soft Machine had dispensed with vocals and was essentially a jazz, or jazz-fusion band; this slow-building cut a great example.
  1. Iron Maiden, Hallowed Be Thy Name . . . I like Iron Maiden well enough but sometimes Bruce Dickinson’s somewhat to me overwrought ‘operatic’ vocals can be irritating. Not on this one, though. Early Maiden progressive metal I suppose one would call it, which they’ve expanded upon and continue to do, to great effect, on their latter-day releases. One of those bands I have great respect for in that they’ve maintained a high standard throughout their now 40-plus year career.
  1. Metallica, Poor Twisted Me . . . As described by one You Tube commenter, it’s a blues metal tune. This one from the Load album, a controversial release at the time because many Metallica fans still wanted thrash but the band was evolving into a more commercial entity.
  1. Pretenders, Bad Boys Get Spanked . . . From Pretenders II, released in 1981 when people were still pogo-ing on dance floors to punk and new wave music and this would be a perfect tune for that. It occurred to me for the first time in all these years, in playing it, that Concrete Blonde’s 1992 song Ghost Of A Texas Ladies Man, which I’ve played before on the show, has a very similar rhythm, to my ears, anyway. Not saying Concrete Blonde ‘pinched it’ as the Brits might say, and Concrete Blonde is a band I really like, but there it is. Interesting that I never really noticed it until now but I think that’s because I’ve actually played the Concrete Blonde tune more often.
  1. The Kinks, National Health . . . From Low Budget, 1979, great album that got lots of people back into The Kinks. And, around the same time, Kinks’ leader/chief songwriter Ray Davies was romantically involved with the Pretenders’ Chrissie Hynde, and Pretenders recorded the Kinks’ Stop Your Sobbing on their 1979 debut album. So, I must admit when I slotted in the Pretenders’ track that The Kinks came to mind, so there you have it. Besides, I can never get enough Kinks. Or Pretenders, for that matter.
  1. Chilliwack, Guilty . . . I’ve always liked the band’s 1979 Breakdown In Paradise album, or at least most of it, including this track featuring some nice piano playing amid a nice arrangement. The two other songs I really like on the record are Communication Breakdown (not the Zeppelin tune) and 148 Heavy, both of which I’ve played over time on the show. The album didn’t do well, though, thanks in part to promotion issues born of Mushroom Records’ financial problems at the time.
  1. BTO, A Long Time For A Little While . . . I played Madison Avenue from BTO’s first post-Randy Bachman album Street Action last week, which prompted a full re-listen to the 1978 effort for which the band brought in former April Wine stalwart Jim Clench on bass, with C.F. (Fred) Turner moving from bass to rhythm guitar along with lead axeman Blair Thornton and drummer Rob Bachman. It’s a good album, including this song, which reminds me a bit of Looking Out For No. 1, albeit heavier.
  1. Peter Frampton, Jumping Jack Flash (live) . . . Frampton covered the Stones’ tune on his 1972 studio album Winds of Change. I pulled this extended seven-minute version from Frampton’s breakthrough live album, Frampton Comes Alive.
  1. The Rolling Stones, Loving Cup . . . This completes my little Exile On Main St. trilogy, spread over about five weeks. Some weeks ago I couldn’t decide between Torn and Frayed, Let It Loose and Loving Cup from Exile, so decided to play all three, over a period of weeks, in and around some other Stones’ stuff (Have You Seen Your Mother, Baby, Standing In The Shadow and Salt Of The Earth). So, here’s Loving Cup.
  1. Pete Townshend, The Sea Refuses No River . . . Two singles – Face Dances Pt. 2 and Uniforms – were released from Townshend’s 1982 album All The Best Cowboys Have Chinese Eyes. I think he picked the wrong two. This song, and Exquisitely Bored, which I’ve played before and should again soon, are clearly better in my opinion.
  1. The Flying Burrito Brothers, Christine’s Tune (aka Devil In Disguise) . . . Posting YouTube clips of the songs I play often helps my commentary, given some of the comments one sees about songs. Like this one, about this track: “This is where country should have gone instead of morphing into sewage”. I’m not super up on modern country, know some of it, and the criticisms, so I’d have to agree with the sentiments expressed.
  1. Quicksilver Messenger Service, Fire Brothers . . . Spooky and haunting, enough said.
  1. Ten Years After, Let The Sky Fall . . . Was listening to TYA’s A Space In Time album in the gym the other day, this came on and I made a mental note to play it this week. Alvin Lee was always rightly revered for his guitar playing, but he’s no slouch as a singer, either. Always liked his bluesy vocals.
  1. Dire Straits, Where Do You Think You’re Going? . . . Journalism critics can be ridiculous. One wrote that Communique, the band’s second album and source for this great track, was nothing more than a pale imitation of the first Dire Straits album. Well, if that were true, then just about every J.J. Cale album is an imitation of the previous ones, yet Cale never released a poor album and neither did Dire Straits.
  1. Peter Gabriel, Home Sweet Home . . . From Gabriel’s second solo album, at the point at which all his albums were called “Peter Gabriel’ so people started ascribing titles to them based on the cover art, in this case, Scratch. No hits to speak of on the second one, after Solsbury Hill had charted on his debut solo album, but Scratch is nevertheless a good album and worth checking out.
Off The Air, Special Presentation

A Wilmot Christmas Carol

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The Weber Family sing during 'A Christmas Carol' in Trinity Lutheran Church
The Weber Family sing during ‘A Christmas Carol’
A dramatic reading of Charles Dickens’ classic novel, “A Christmas Carol”, has been a festive family favourite in the township of Wilmot for many years, with proceeds from the production being donated to local causes.

2021 was the first year the event was organized by the Wilmot Terry Fox Run, which Nigel and Cheryl Gordijk led from 2013 to 2023.

Because of the uncertainty surrounding in-person events due to COVID and public health, the show was pre-recorded and broadcast on Facebook. The audience was asked to show their appreciation by donating online to the Wilmot Terry Fox Run, with all proceeds going to the Terry Fox Foundation for cancer research. You can donate at The Terry Fox Foundation.

Radio Waterloo is pleased to present to you a special audio version of A Wilmot Christmas Carol on Tuesday 23 December 2025 at 8:00pm, and again on Christmas Eve at 11:00pm.

Check our schedule throughout December for other air times.

The performance took place on 11 December 2021 at Trinity Lutheran Church in New Hamburg. The readers are Nicole Lee Quesnel, Adrienne Enns, Brittlestar, Alison Enns, and Reid Spencer. Musical performances are by The Weber Family, Reid Spencer and Jamie Courtney, and Alison and Adrienne Enns. Technical production was by Rick Ritz, and Lisa Hagen was the producer and director.

View the video on Facebook at Charles Dickens’ A Christmas Carol | Wilmot Terry Fox Run

So Old It's New

So Old It’s New set list for Monday, Dec. 6, 2021 – on air 8-10 pm ET

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  1. Joe Jackson, Alchemy . . . From J.J.’s most recent album, 2019’s Fool. He opened (and closed, with a short reprise) his shows supporting the album with this track, a perhaps now typical late career jazzy excursion from one of my favorite artists. Jackson just announced another tour, starting in March, 2022.
  1. Deep Purple, Caught In The Act (Going Down/Green Onions/Hot ‘Lanta/Dazed and Confused/Gimme Some Lovin’) . . . From the new Turning To Crime covers album, short excerpts from each song to form a seven-minute medley during which the band, as on the entire album, is clearly having lots of fun. Purple has played Green Onions on various tours since Steve Morse joined on guitar, replacing Ritchie Blackmore, in the mid-1990s so no surprise it’s included in the medley. As I mentioned last week about covers albums, I prefer new original material by bands I like, like Purple, but – as with the Stones’ Blue and Lonesome covers album – it’s clear the boys had great fun putting it together and there are some interesting takes on the various tunes, in Purple’s case, like Bob Dylan’s Watching The River Flow, Love’s 7 and 7 Is and Peter Green-era Fleetwood Mac’s Oh Well. Also interesting, given the pandemic, IS how they recorded it as detailed in the album liner notes – mostly from each band members’ home studios aside from singer Ian Gillan who went into an an outside studio.
  1. Ohio Players, Jive Turkey . . . I just wanted to look at sexy Ohio Players album covers, in this case Skin Tight. No, seriously, I love funk, and the Players, and this came up during a station computer search of stuff I’d previously downloaded, hadn’t played the Players in a while, so here we are.
  1. Gov’t Mule, She Said She Said . . . I love it when the Mule does cover tunes in fact I pulled this off a CD I burned for myself long ago that features the Allmans offshoot doing covers of various classic rock tunes over the years. This one, from The Beatles of course, begins a mini-set of covers from the Revolver album, concluding with The Beatles themselves.

     

  2. Phil Collins, Tomorrow Never Knows . . . From Collins’ debut album, Face Value, in 1981 after which he started concurrent careers while becoming arguably as big, or bigger, solo as was Genesis.
  1. The Beatles, I’m Only Sleeping . . . Always liked this one, from Revolver, to conclude our little mini-set of Beatles’ tunes. Sgt. Pepper gets most of the hype but Revolver and Rubber Soul, when the boys – perhaps taking Dylan’s little dig at Lennon that ‘your songs don’t say anything’ seriously – really went to another level creatively, are easily as good.
  1. John Lennon, Bring On The Lucie (Freda People) . . . “All right boys, this is it, over the hill.” Lennon’s first line is worth the price of the album. Good song, too, from the Mind Games album, 1973.
  1. Groundhogs, Strange Town . . . I love the ascending, hypnotic riff to this tune by these Brit blues-rock boys, from 1970’sThank Christ For The Bomb album.
  1. BTO, Madison Avenue . . . An almost progressive tune, for this band at least, from the first post Randy Bachman album, Street Action, 1978. I remember having it on vinyl, almost out of curiousity at the time, and some years ago got it as a two-fer paired with the 1979 followup Rock ‘n’ Roll Nights. And you pretty much knew Randy had left simply by the album cover, of a woman, on the street, perhaps a hooker, which I doubt the strait-laced Bachman would ever have allowed. The band replaced Bachman with former April Wine member Jim Clench, who took over on bass while bassist C.F. (Fred) Turner moved to rhythm guitar alongside lead guitarist Blair Thornton and drummer Rob Bachman. And Turner handled most of the lead vocals, which suited me because I always liked the BTO songs he sung best and outside of, off top of my head, Takin’ Care of Business and You Ain’t Seen Nothing Yet, maybe Looking Out For No. 1, Randy Bachman’s vocals (Rock Is My Life, This Is My Song, anyone, yecch) are pretty much embarrassing in my view.
  1. Robin Trower, A Tale Untold . . . Trower was amazing during his heyday (he’s still going) in the 1970s, especially with the late great James Dewar on bass/lead vocals. This typical tour de force is from the For Earth Below album, which featured the typically cool Trower album covers of the period.
  1. Social Distortion, I Was Wrong . . . My favorite Social Distortion tune and the one that got me into the band, late, 1996 via the White Light, White Heat, White Trash album (cool cover) which by that point was their fifth studio platter but hell, when before this more commercial single was released did anyone ever hear Social Distortion on mainstream radio? Or ever again? They also did a nice cover of Johnny Cash’s Ring Of Fire, too, but I decided to go with this song, this time. Ring Of Fire maybe another week.
  1. Ozzy Osbourne, Diary Of A Madman . . . Almost prog metal, this title cut from Ozzy’s 1981 album. Iron Maiden, at the time just one album into their career, was probably listening, learning and being influenced.
  1. KK’s Priest, Hellfire Thunderbolt . .. Founding member/guitarist K.K. Downing left Judas Priest under acrimonious circumstances in 2011. In the meantime, he wrote a book about the band, and this kick butt metallic rocker is from his first post-Priest album, out just recently this year, featuring former Priest singer Ripper Owens on lead vocals. Owens, of course, famously was found by Priest in a Preist covers band when the group was searching for a replacement for Rob Halford, who left Priest for a few years to go solo during the mid-1990s. Owens did two studio albums with Priest, which I liked, before returning to relative obscurity (until now) once Halford returned for a reunion tour in 2004 (which I saw, good show) and subsequent studio work.
  1. Judas Priest, Blood Red Skies . . . And here’s Priest before all of the drama, a kinetic extended piece from the Ram It Down album, 1988.
  1. Marianne Faithfull, What’s The Hurry . . . Was listening to Faithfull’s terrific Broken English album, for first time in a long time in its entirety, in the gym the other day, had somewhat forgotten this propulsive track from that record.
  1. The Rolling Stones, Salt Of The Earth . . . Keith Richards croaks out the opening line in one of his early forays into singing on Stones’ tunes, then in comes Mick Jagger on this closer to 1968’s Beggars Banquet which marked the beginning of a whole new phase of brilliance from the band.
  1. The Tragically Hip, Born In The Water . . . I wanted to play a Hip song today. Road Apples album is always a good source.
  1. Headstones, Where Does It Go? . . . See the Hip reference above. Love these guys, Headstones, maybe more than I like the Hip, actually. Darker, dirtier, harder, rougher. . . maybe, to employ a cliché, akin to a Beatles-Stones thing although there, too, I love both bands.
  1. Tom Waits, Jockey Full Of Bourbon . . . I don’t even drink bourbon. Nor does Waits, anymore, apparently, having kicked booze. But drinking songs are great, aren’t they?
  1. Rare Earth, Long Time Leavin’ . . . Had my parents not sent we kids off to day camp, a ‘thing’ back in the early 1970s, perhaps still is, who knows how or if I would have gotten into Rare Earth. But, I did, because one of the camp counselors kept playing the shit out of Rare Earth’s live album. So, here we are. Speaking of day camp, mentioning it brought to mind an old Peanuts cartoon where Charlie Brown and Linus are celebrating the last day of school only to have Lucy immediately herd them onto a bus headed for summer camp, to which Linus asks, “whatever happened to going home?”
  1. U2, Last Night On Earth . . . OK, so I do a ‘deep cuts’ show with allowances (my rules) to play the occasional single, which this is, one of six, (SIX) U2 released out of 12 tracks on their 1997 album Pop.
  1. The Doors, When The Music’s Over . . . And off we go, for another week, via this epic Doors’ track from their second album, Strange Days. Akin, somewhat, to The End from the first studio album by the band. Great tunes, both.
81 82 83 84, Shows

81 82 83 84 Season 1 Episode 14: Do You Dream in Colour?

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If you’re not familiar with the music of Bill Nelson and/or Be Bop Deluxe, I do hope you’ll check them out. And my nephew just “discovered” Brian Eno this week and is going deep deep deep into the stacks to learn more. Always a fantastic feeling to uncover great music from years past.

Redeye Podcast, Shows, Syndicated

Redeye Podcast

The Redeye | 20/20 (alternating black and red letters arranged as an eyechart with a loudspeaker symbol in place of 'd' and '20/20' in the top left corner)Redeye Podcast is broadcast live every Saturday morning on Vancouver Cooperative Radio, CFRO 100.5FM. It is produced by an independent media collective at the studios of Coop Radio in Vancouver’s downtown eastside.

The show has been on the air for over 40 years, providing high-quality public affairs and arts programming to listeners looking for a progressive take on current events.

Redeye is activist radio. We don’t just give you the facts, we give you the information you need to take action and create change.

Redeye is alternative radio. We seek out the voices of those who don’t get heard and we cover issues that corporate media distorts or ignores or relegates to the back page.

Redeye is partisan radio. We take a critical view of the idea of objectivity and we believe there are more than two sides to any story. We aren’t interested in soundbites, and we give our guests the time and space to explain the issues as they see them.

Redeye is community radio. We encourage dialogue during our open line and we give our callers time to share their thoughts. We invite callers to share news from their community and we welcome comments on our programming.

Redeye is listener-supported radio. We are part of a cooperative — owned and supported by our members. We make our own editorial decisions, because we are accountable to our listeners, not to advertisers or government.

If this sounds like your kind of radio, give us a listen and see what you think.

CKMS-FM airs multiple episodes from the Redeye Podcast Wednesdays from 7:00am-8:00am.

So Old It's New

So Old It’s New set list for Monday, Nov. 29, 2021 – on air 8-10 pm ET

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  1. Ian Hunter, Noises . . . Let’s make some noise, starting with this experimental-type track from Hunter’s 1981 new wavish-album, Short Back ‘n’ Sides. And it presages, later in the set, some late 1970s-early 1980s my college days new wave, including one by The Clash, whose Mick Jones co-produced the Hunter album while Clash drummer Topper Headon played on a few tracks.
  1. Led Zeppelin, Night Flight . . . Always have liked the intro to this one from Physical Graffiti. The whole song, too, from a great album. Every major band seems to have a great what were then double vinyl studio albums. Zep has this one, Beatles’ White Album, Stones’ Exile On Main St., The Clash London Calling, just to name a few.
  1. The Rolling Stones, Let It Loose . . . Speaking of Exile…Two weeks ago I played the great Torn and Frayed from the album, settling on it from among a group of personal choices that week that included Let It Loose and Loving Cup. So you can probably expect Loving Cup next week, or soon.
  1. Molly Hatchet, Bounty Hunter . . . One of those tunes, and a great up tempo track it is, that I had previously loaded and came up in our station computer when I was looking for the Ian Hunter song, Noises, that started tonight’s show.
  1. Deep Purple, Fools . . . Played this one long long time ago, from the Fireball album,which prompted a show follower to comment that I play a fair bit of Deep Purple. True. I love Deep Purple, every version of the band. Which reminds me, I have to pick up their new covers album, just out. It’s called Turning To Crime and features a diverse set of tracks including Love’s 7 and 7 is, Little Feat’s Dixie Chicken, Bob Dylan’s Watching The River Flow and Fleetwood Mac’s Oh Well, among others. When I heard they were doing a new album, then heard it was covers, I was a bit disappointed as I prefer original material but I’ve heard it online and it’s good, but I still like getting physical copies of albums by bands I like.
  1. Warren Zevon, Genius . . . I first heard this typically great Zevon track on a latter-day compilation titled Genius: The Best of Warren Zevon, which prompted me to fill in some blanks I had in his catalog and get the song’s parent album, My Ride’s Here. Both the compilation and the studio album were released in 2002. And Zevon came to mind via yet another recent fun Twitter discussion with fellow music aficionados.

     

  2. Bruce Cockburn, All’s Quiet On The Inner City Front . . . And so, master singer-songwriter Zevon propels us into a mini-set by notable Canadian singer-songwriters, starting with this one from Cockburn’s 1981 Inner City Front album.
  1. Gordon Lightfoot, Hangdog Hotel Room . . . I played Songs The Minstrel Sang in a recent show, which prompted me to dig back into Lightfoot’s 1978 Endless Wire album, from which this track also comes. I like the guitar work but at the risk of erring, am loath to credit any one of the three session players, plus Lightfoot, who play the instrument on the album.
  1. Murray McLauchlan, Harder To Get Along . . . Speaking of some nice guitar work, here’s a fine one with a nice sort of descending rhythm motif, from McLauchlan’s 1976 On The Boulevard album. Typically good lyrics, too.
  1. The Guess Who, Got To Find Another Way . . . A nice ballad from the American Woman sessions that didn’t originally make the cut but was later included in various remastered re-releases of the album.
  1. Steve Winwood, Spanish Dancer . . . Difficult to pick a favorite tune from Winwood’s smash 1979 album Arc Of A Diver, it’s so good front to back but this song has always been right up there for me.
  1. Roxy Music, Angel Eyes . . . There are at least three versions of this tune. The one I’m playing, and prefer, is the more rock-oriented album cut from 1979’s Manifesto. A re-recorded, shorter and more disco-type version was later released as a single along with an extended near seven-minute dance remix.

     

  2. Elvis Costello, The Bridge I Burned . . . I pretty much gave up on Costello after his early, angry young man phase though I recognize he’s a great artist. Yet, unlike say, where I’ve followed his contemporary Joe Jackson’s various muses over the years, I really didn’t ride with Elvis much beyond about 1986. Then I recently found the perfect thing for me, a compilation, Extreme Honey, I had not to that point even heard of but found cheap in a used CD store. It came out in 1997 so is obviously already way out of date but for me it’s great because it collects tracks from albums like Spike and Mighty Like A Rose and beyond that, that I tried but gave up on. Yet by distilling it all down, it’s more palatable, for me, anyway. This song wasn’t on any of those albums, though. Costello wrote it, new, for the compilation after initially recording Prince’s song Pop Life only to have Prince deny Costello the right to release it. So, Elvis wrote and performed The Bridge I Burned in an arrangement he had envisioned for the Prince tune.
  1. Linda Ronstadt, Girls Talk . . . Speaking of Costello, Dave Edmunds made great hay with this Elvis-penned tune on his 1979 album Repeat When Necessary. Ronstadt did it a year later on her new-wavish Mad Love album. And so it launches us into a little new-wave themed set. Costello himself released Girls Talk as a B-side to his drastically rearranged 1980 single I Can’t Stand Up For Falling Down, originally popularized by Sam and Dave in a soul ballad version, 1967. And all of this research got me listening to a bunch of Sam and Dave tunes.
  1. Martha and The Muffins/M + M, Several Styles Of Blonde Girls Dancing . . . From 1983’s Danseparc album, the start of a brief period when, due to a spat between then-current and former band members, the Muffins briefly went by M + M, but the new moniker never really took hold and both names, as a compromise, appeared on the album cover, after which the band soon reverted to going by Marth and The Muffins.

     

  2. Ian Dury, Wake Up And Make Love With Me . . . I got into Dury, this tune and the album New Boots and Panties!! a year after its September 1977 release. One of those horizon-expanding college things where a classmate was driving us both to a party and threw a cassette of the album into the player. And so began my foray into Dury and all kinds of similar stuff that was breaking big at the time.
  1. Teenage Head, Somethin’ Else . . . Kick butt, and what else is Teenage Head but kick butt, version of the Eddie Cochran tune, from 1980’s Frantic City album, and a great album it is.
  1. Graham Parker and The Rumour, Howlin’ Wind . . . Title cut from Parker’s 1976 debut album, produced by Nick Lowe at the beginning of that period that would soon lead to Parker, Elvis Costello, Joe Jackson and Lowe himself breaking big as leaders of a new wave of artists.
  1. Talking Heads, Cities . . . Propulsive track from Fear Of Music, one of those albums one buys for a hit single (Life During Wartime) and then wind up liking the whole thing. Cities was actually the third single released from the album (the second was I Zimbra) but I don’t remember ever hearing Cities on radio, my memory perhaps dulled by time.
  1. Flash and The Pan, War Games . . . I’ve always played Flash and The Pan’s first two albums, the self-titled debut and Lights In The Night the most. They’re arguably the group’s most popular to this day but the more I’ve listened to Headlines, 1982’s third release, over the years the more I think it’s as good. And this short epic, if short can be construed as epic, is among many of Headlines’ fine tunes.
  1. The Clash, Police On My Back . . . From the sprawling (3 vinyl records upon release) 1980 album Sandinista! Written by Eddy Grant (well known for his 1983 smash hit Electric Avenue), it was originally done by his band The Equals, during the 1960s. Yet another example of what the Stones’ Keith Richards has said about the best thing musicians can do, pass it on. So you’re a college student immersed in The Clash at the time and then you dig into some of their source material for a cover tune and discover The Equals. And while you might not become a huge fan, you’re at least aware of them and might become one.
  1. The Police, Shadows In The Rain . . . I’ve always liked this hypnotic track from 1980’s Zenyatta Mondatta. Sting sped and jazzed it up in a rearranged version on his 1985 debut solo album, The Dream Of The Blue Turtles, which I had, and while his solo version is good, I much prefer the Police take on the tune.
  1. Jethro Tull, Baker St. Muse . . . And back we go, and run out the show, with more let’s say traditional fare, for me in terms of bands like Tull, the Stones etc. who I grew up on and will forever listen to. This is a true epic, 16 minutes and change, from the Minstrel In The Gallery album. But, like say The Allman Brothers Band albeit in a different context and genre, Tull can do epic tracks like this yet in such a way that it’s never boring and doesn’t seem like it’s 16 minutes long. A story song, in Ian Anderson’s words “a series of little observations on the pavements of Baker Street (London, where he was living at the time) and its surrounding area – the people you meet, the things you see.”
rabble radio, Shows, Syndicated

rabble radio

RABBLE RADIO | rabble.ca (red text, a white podcast icon, a white audio waveform)rabble radio is a weekly podcast and radio program that tunes in on the issues and actions that matter to you.

It is the flagship podcast of rabble.ca, an award-winning, independent, community-driven media. Among the first digital journalism organizations in Canada, and the first to incorporate as non-profit, rabble.ca has been at the forefront of reporting on national politics with a progressive lens that centres issues of social movements, of labour, and of grassroots activism..

rabble radio is syndicated on Radio Waterloo, and airs on CKMS-FM 102.7 on Mondays from 1:30pm to 2:00pm.

So Old It's New

So Old It’s New set list for Monday, Nov. 22, 2021 – on air 8-10 pm ET

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  1. Black Sabbath, Turn Up The Night . . . Kick butt Ronnie James Dio era Black Sabbath to start us off, from the Mob Rules album, 1981. I remember that album especially from working on a construction crew winter of 1981-82 in northern Alberta, minus-50 (really, OK was just one day it got that low but was usually at best minus-30; had to go in to the lunch trailer for regular breaks to avoid frostbite). Anyway, one of my colleagues, another Ontario transplant then, raved about the album at a time I wasn’t much into Sabbath, any version of the band. That soon changed.
  1. The Rolling Stones, Have You Seen Your Mother Baby, Standing In The Shadow? . . . Long ago now hit single, 1966, and I don’t play singles much but hey the show is called So Old It’s New and this is so old it’s new and when’s the last time you heard it on the radio or, for that matter, the last time the Stones played it live (Mick Jagger did on a solo tour years ago)? Quite possibly if my memory serves, first Rolling Stones track I ever really remember, via the Ed Sullivan Show and my older sister’s Flowers compilation. “Some good dances’ I remember her labeling her copy. In later years, she would presage Billy Idol’s Dancing With Myself by dancing to Zep’s Misty Mountain Hop and other Zep IV tracks in my older brother’s basement stereo room but that’s a whole other time and place. Anyway, after initially growing up on The Beatles, this was akin to metal, which hadn’t even been ‘invented’ yet, at the time, for me anyway and upon hearing it, I wanted to hear more from the Stones.
  1. Ted Nugent, Stranglehold . . . One of those tunes I got into via working in a bar during college when we had a DJ to play tunes between band sets. Often better than the bar bands themselves. The often-stoned, laid-back DJ we had, perhaps ironically seemed to have this rotating bunch of hard rock albums he drew from. Nugent’s Double Live Gonzo was one of them, along with Sabbath’s Heaven and Hell, Judas Priest’s British Steel and AC/DC’s Back In Black and Highway To Hell, among others. This, though, is the studio version of Stranglehold. Takes me back to those fun days and times of misspent youth.
  1. AC/DC, War Machine . . . AC/DC has a reputation as being a hard rock band, which they are, and metal, which to me they are not. In fact to me they’ve always been essentially a harder, heavier version of The Rolling Stones, same basic lineup – singer, two guitarists, bass and drummer and the Stones are big fans, especially Keith Richards, and have toured with them. Anyway, what to me separates AC/DC from your so-called average hard rock band is their groove, funk, even. As Richards has so wisely said, the ‘roll’ to go with the rock. Sounds crazy maybe I know but stay with me; to the uninitiated and I can see it, all AC/DC songs sound the same but…they’re not. Many of them have a sort of funk edgy groove, like this one from a recent effort, 2008’s excellent Black Ice album.
  1. Judas Priest, Victim Of Changes . . . Who can even describe this one other than to listen to it and think of it in one’s own way. The initial riff, Rob Halford’s voice in various forms including his typical banshee wail, the changing tempos of the song itself; just an epic composition and performance.
  1. Moby Grape, Changes . . . Deliberate song choice to change the pace of the show here, from the hard rock/metal first five tracks to a perhaps more traditional, for me, bluesy rock and so on approach for the rest of the set. Up tempo tune from a San Francisco band that never quite achieved the widespread admiration or commercial success of their contemporaries like the Grateful Dead or Jefferson Airplane, but were arguably as good.
  1. Commander Cody and His Lost Planet Airmen, Lost In The Ozone . . . Digging through my disorganized CDs that I keep lazily not organizing and up comes the Commander’s greatest hits album, from which I pulled this manic country rock music.
  1. Bonnie Raitt, Green Lights . . . Big oversight not playing Bonnie in long long time. Now rectified with this one from her earlier days. Saw her late 1980s, Toronto, during her hits commercial period, great show. Blues/R & B greats Ruth and Charles Brown guested, played a couple songs each, and were terrific. Wonderful concert.
  1. John Mayall, Ain’t No Brakeman . . . Later period Mayall, just nearly 30 years ago now, ha, from his 1995 Spinning Coin album. I saw him first in late 1980s in Toronto with former Stone and Bluesbreaker Mick Taylor opening, then joining Mayall’s band for a few songs, and then Mayall at a recent Kitchener Blues Festival, both great shows.
  1. Atomic Rooster, Broken Wings . . . And here’s progressive/hard rock band Rooster with their take on a favorite Mayall track of mine I’ve played before on the show. Mayall’s version, on his 1967 almost entirely solo The Blues Alone album, was spare, beautiful and so is the Rooster’s beautiful but they add their progressive and hard rock touches for the type of cover I always like, a re-interpretation that honors the original.
  1. Vanilla Fudge, Season Of The Witch . . . Here’s the second in a three-song little prog set, Vanilla Fudge’s spooky extended rendition of the Donovan song. The Fudge was so good at covers, including Beatles tracks like Ticket To Ride and Eleanor Rigby.
  1. FM, One O’Clock Tomorrow . . . From Black Noise, apparently inspired by an interview about space travel with Timothy Leary on The Tomorrow Show with Tom Snyder, which during its 1970s heyday came on at 1 am. I default to raunch and roll but gradually over the years came to prog, and in many ways the FM album may have stimulated that, er, progression in my listening habits.
  1. Lee Harvey Osmond, Lucifer’s Blues . . . Coincidental that today, Nov. 22, is the anniversary of the JFK assassination in me playing a Lee Harvey Osmond tune, because I’ve been thinking of and trying to get one in over the last few weeks since as show followers know I am a huge fan of everything Tom Wilson is involved in. Just a brilliant artist, Canadian or otherwise and of course he emerged with Junkhouse before going solo and with Blackie and The Rodeo Kings and Lee Harvey Osmond. Great bluesy track.
  1. The Byrds, He Was A Friend Of Mine . . . Now this one I did intend to play today, in memory of JFK. It’s an old folk tune, some lyrics rewritten by Jim aka Roger McGuinn in the wake of the assassination.
  1. Melissa Etheridge, Like The Way I Do . . . The beauty of this show, increasingly I find as time passes and it’s wonderful, is the feedback received, via in-person conversations and on social media which often triggers my brain to new tunes or artists I may have neglected or forgotten. Like Etheridge, whose music I came to, like many, via her first hit single, Bring Me Some Water in the 1980s. This tune, Like The Way I Do, was also a hit, but when’s last time you heard it, so it fits my ‘so old it’s new’ motif, to me anyway. I decided to play it,or at least something by Etheridge, after a friend of mine reported on his latest flea market cheapie CD run wherein he wound up getting some Melissa albums. I’ve long had her first two, and an excellent compilation which features Tom Petty’s Refugee and Another Piece of My Heart made famous by Janis Joplin, which are now back in my up front memory banks for future possible plays.
  1. Guns N’ Roses, 14 Years . . . I played some Izzy Stradlin solo stuff a while back. Here he is on lead vocals with backing by Axl Rose on a track I like from the Gunners’ Use Your Illusion II album, which came out on the same day as Illusion I in 1991. Remember that brief trend, which Bruce Springsteen followed a year later with his Lucky Town and Human Touch albums? I remember people lining up at record/CD stores to buy the Guns N’ Roses albums. Remember those days, we of a certain vintage? People lining up for albums, concert tickets, etc. Kind of a cool thing, actually, in some ways at least, or maybe it’s memory making things seem better or cooler. I remember getting tickets for the first Rolling Stones show I ever saw, 1978 in Buffalo. I lived in Oakville, Ontario at the time but had to go to the next city over, Burlington, to a mall with a ticket outlet, line up . . . People camped overnight, some came up with some ‘list’ they figured would assure them a place in line (it didn’t). I always remember a police officer at the door as people started getting rowdy, assuring them they were ‘in’ to get tickets. “Calm down! You’ll get tickets!” Then I recall a guy way up in the line, getting his and waving them triumphantly to the still-waiting crowd. You don’t get that sort of experience these days, such as it was, ordering online. Anyway, I did manage to get tickets to a great show.
  1. Canned Heat, Get Off My Back . . . Vocals by Alan Wilson on this, from the final incarnation of the original band. Love the fading in and out of the guitar breaks, just a cool bluesy rock song that goes through many tempo changes in five minutes yet remains a coherent whole.
  1. Steely Dan, Haitian Divorce . . . inspired by yet another Twitter conversation about great bands.
  1. Peter Green, Just For You . . . From the late great original Fleetwood Mac leader’s In The Skies album, beautiful blues rock.
  1. Little Feat, Dixie Chicken (live) . . . Twice the length of the studio version and featuring the Tower of Power horns, this great version features a terrific piano solo by Bill Payne, then horns, then a guitar duel between Lowell George and Paul Barrere to close things out. From one of the great live albums, Waiting For Columbus.
  1. George Harrison, Simply Shady . . . I was digging through my Harrison stuff and realized I had not mined the Dark Horse album in ages, if at all, for listening pleasure or the show itself. I remember a period in my life when I was major into Harrison’s solo work, as it came out, and I still always am but hadn’t listened to this album in a while. I think this very confessional tune as he examined himself at that particular time in his life, 1974, is arguably the best on a good album journalism critics found wanting, yet it’s quite good in my estimation. He took criticism over his perhaps ragged vocals on the album and particularly this track but apparently he had been suffering from laryngitis and in any event, I think the vocals actually add feeling to the song.
  1. The Tragically Hip, Fiddler’s Green . . . Beautiful track from one of the Hip’s best albums, Road Apples. It wasn’t a hit, not a single. Yet so revered among Hip fans that it made it onto the Yer Favourites compilation, partly selected by fan vote, and justifiably so.
  1. Kansas, Lonely Street . . . I got talking about Kansas on Twitter with some music acquaintances the other day and their Song For America album and its title cut came up. And it’s great, Song For America, and I like Kansas’s prog music, and they’re a prog band but more widely known in the mainstream for what really are somewhat uncharacteristic hits like Carry On Wayward Son and Dust In The Wind. At any rate, they can obviously do it all, which is why I wound up choosing this perhaps atypical bluesy rocking cut from that same Song For America album.
  1. J.J. Cale, Carry On . . . And we carry on to next week via J.J.’s typically brilliant shuffle. I have all his stuff and the guy to me was amazing; how he essentially mined the same groove song after song, album after album, yet never sounded repetitive.
Shows, The Gems Of Life

The Gems Of Life Show

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81 82 83 84, Shows

81 82 83 84 Season 1 Episode 12: There’s Always the Sun

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How many times have you been told
If you don’t ask, you don’t get?
How many lads have taken your money?
Your Mother said you shouldn’t bet
Who has the fun? Is it always a man with a gun?
Someone must have told you, if you work too hard, you can sweat?

There’s always the sun
There’s always the sun
Always, always, always the sun

 

Pretty sunset timelapse from Aruba a few years back. Only 82 seconds. Worth a watch!

 

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