• Teenage Head, Disgusteen . . . I’ve played it long ago, just love it and a perfect opener with the “Nice day for a party, isn’t it?’ line to kick off the song. Plus, of course, the Exorcist takeoff later on. I saw the original band at a college concert way back when.

• Rush, Here Again . . . early, bluesy Rush from the debut album, with the late John Rutsey on drums, before Neil Peart arrived and the band started moving in a more progressive rock direction, musically and lyrically.

• Stampeders, Playin’ In The Band . . . This ‘only’ made No. 23 in Canada among the many great Stampeders’ singles, but it’s perhaps my favorite of their songs.

• Danko Jones, Bounce . . . Kick-butt rocker, an early tune of his and remains my favorite, perhaps because I don’t know his entire output, not a major fan but what I’ve heard I like.
• Trooper, The Boys In The Bright White Sports Car . . . Interesting, this one. It was originally on Trooper’s Two For The Show album in 1976 but didn’t become a big hit until three years later, when it was re-released as the opening cut of the ubiquitous Hot Shots compilation.
• Headstones, Judy . . . Another great raunch and roller from the outstanding debut and arguably still best album, Picture of Health. For my sister Judy. No, not really although I think of her every time I listen to it, simply due to the title, not necessarily any lyrics.
• Junkhouse, Jesus Sings The Blues . . . I’m not going to repeat my usual lines about Junkhouse, how much I like the band, how much I admire leader Tom Wilson as an artist and have followed him everywhere – solo, Blackie and The Rodeo Kings, Lee Harvey Osmond. Or how, after Junkhouse reunited a few years back to play the Kitchener Blues Festival, I ran into and had a nice chat with Wilson as we both waited in line the next morning to buy a coffee at a local joint.

• Chilliwack, 148 Heavy . . . It’s about a flight from Vancouver to Toronto, always liked this tune, a reference to an aviation term describing maximum takeoff weight assigned to an aircraft, and among my favorites by the band. They didn’t play it – it’s relatively obscure from the Breakdown In Paradise album in 1979 – during a terrific set that brought the house down at a recent Kitchener Blues Festival.

• Murray McLauchlan, Out Past The Timberline . . . Evocative lyrics from one of Canada’s master singer-songwriters. I just love this tune, it IS Canada, really, or at least part of it. I always get sort of emotional listening to it, dunno, I just do.

• BB Gabor, Big Yellow Taxi . . . What to me represents a great cover from the late great Gabor, a reinvention rather than just a pretty much note-for-note copy. And it leads into the next tune, Joni, doing Joni.

• Joni Mitchell, This Flight Tonight . . . From the classic Blue album. Nazareth, of course, turned this into a big hit with their rocked-up version which then prompted Mitchell to introduce it when she played it at her concerts as “a Nazareth song.” I like her original version, too.

• The Guess Who, Proper Stranger…One of the, to me, great Guess Who deep cuts, from the American Woman album. I often feel like I’m trotting along atop a horse, given the pace of the tune.

• Sass Jordan, Ugly . . . A nice, dirty, raunchy track from the Rats album. She’s so great, Sass, saw her on the SARS bill in 2003 along with the many acts that opened for The Rolling Stones that day. I was reading up on her where she said she was always much more influenced by great male blues/rock singers like Free/Bad Co’s Paul Rodgers than she was by female singers, and she shows those qualities here. I remember at one point in the Van Halen saga, after Sammy Hagar left for the second time, there was some talk or speculation of maybe wishful thinking from people thinking she would be a great lead vocalist for the band. Would have been interesting for sure and certainly likely would have worked better than the ill-fated Gary Cherone period. I just discovered she’s got a blues covers album out, called Rebel Moon Blues. It’s great, available on YouTube and worth checking out.

• Colin James, Hide . . . Funky, up-tempo track from the Fuse album.

• David Wilcox, Bump Up Ahead . . . Wilcox is pretty consistent, I doubt there’s a tune of his I don’t like and he’s now been around a long time. I won’t tell you in an on purpose run-on sentence about the time he played the bar I worked in during college, you know, regular readers, when he came in, I was at the door, and he asked me where the bands played and at first I thought he was a customer but he told me he was there for the sound check and later, with his trio highlighted only by a white spotlight unlike the cover bands with their often ridiculous stage setups, blew the roof off the place.

• Doug And The Slugs, Thunder Makes The Noise . . . Yet another great tune from the Cognac and Bologna album, their first (and to me best) release, 1980. And I won’t tell you my usual story about seeing them at that same bar in Oakville, Ontario (I was off duty) with my then-girlfriend who had come to love the band when she discovered them while in Vancouver for a year, so we went. And I became a fan.

• Bachman-Turner Overdrive, I Think You Better Slow Down/Slow Down Boogie . . . Nearly 10 minutes of raunch from the debut album sessions that wasn’t officially released until much later, on the BTO Anthology 2-CD compilation.

• Bruce Cockburn, What About The Bond . . . One of my favorites from the excellent Humans album, 1980.

• Neil Young, Come On Baby Let’s Go Downtown . . . Up-tempo tune, musically at least, from the downbeat, dark Tonight’s The Night album. Recorded live at the Fillmore, New York, in 1970 and released five years later on the otherwise all-studio album.

• The Tea Party, Paint It Black . . . I’ll always find a way to get a Stones’ tune in, hee hee, no matter what the possible limitations of any themed show I might be doing are. Nice cover of a great band, by a pretty decent band.

• Streetheart, Tin Soldier . . . Streetheart’s version of the Small Faces tune, released on the Drugstore Dancer album in 1980. Actually, at the time, prompted me to dig back into the Small Faces.

• April Wine, Silver Dollar . . . Among my favorite April Wine songs, dark, menacing. From First Glance, the first album of theirs aside from compilations that I actually bought, mostly for the hot single at the time, Rock N Roll Is A Vicious Game, but it’s track for track an excellent album.

• Alannah Myles, Rockinghorse . . . Title cut and, for my money, easily the best song on her second album, a good one. But this wasn’t one of the, count ’em, five singles released from the record.

• The Tragically Hip, Yawning Or Snarling . . . A brooding, hypnotic track from one of my favorite Hip albums, the darker (for them) Day For Night, 1994.

• Martha and The Muffins/M + M, Danseparc (Every Day It’s Tomorrow) . . . This was a relatively successful single, No. 31 on Canadian charts and while I rarely or try not to play singles on what’s supposed to be a deep cuts show, 30-plus years later it’s probably a deep cut and, by now, fits into my show’s title – So Old It’s New. Just love the vibe, the instrumentation, all of it. From the period of time when the band went by the M + M name.

• Steppenwolf, The Pusher . . . I suppose Steppenwolf, formed in Los Angeles, is more properly a Canadian-American band but, they did originate from the remnants of the Canadian band The Sparrows, from which Steppenwolf founders John Kay, Jerry Edmonton and Goldy McJohn came. A well-known Steppenwolf tune, the first of two penned by Hoyt Axton (the other being Snowblind Friend) that Steppenwolf popularized further. Axton’s originals are terrific, too. You don’t tend to hear The Pusher on radio much though, perhaps due to the subject matter and it wasn’t one of the singles from the debut album. I remember when it came out, I was 9 and I remember my friends and I marvelling at the fact they said ‘god damn” in a song. That was somewhat ‘way out there’ back then, at least to our young, impressionable ears.

• The Band, (I Don’t Want To) Hang Up My Rock And Roll Shoes . . . But, I must hang it up for another week, with this cover, from the Rock Of Ages live album, of a tune written by 1950s rock and rhythm and blues artist Chuck Willis, taken at the peak of his career at age 32. Perhaps best known for his No. 1 on the R &B charts hit version of C.C. Rider, Willis, a heavy drinker who suffered from stomach ulcers, died of peritonitis, an inflammation of the abdomen, during surgery in 1958.

So Old It’s New set list for Monday, June 21, 2021, airing 8-10 pm ET at Radio Waterloo. All selections are from live albums, something I did eons ago on the show and figured would be fun to reprise. Some people like live albums, some don’t, I tend to prefer studio versions in most cases but, that said, live albums are often exciting and interesting in terms of perhaps new and/or extended arrangements of familiar tunes. Which is the same as the concert experience and, as Joe Jackson (and perhaps many others) once said, if you want the note-for-note studio versions, that’s what the studio albums are for.

Amazing how many live albums I have, actually, as I discovered while going through them for tonight’s set. But, then again, I’m the type who owns pretty much everything released by artists I like, accumulated over the years. And look at the famous live albums that were on my original list of sources that I didn’t wind up using – Frampton Comes Alive!, Thin Lizzy’s Live and Dangerous, Unleashed In The East by Judas Priest, Ted Nugent’s Double Live Gonzo!, Allman Brothers At Fillmore East (because I played In Memory Of Elizabeth Reed from that album last week), Genesis Seconds Out, on and on . . All of which means I’ll likely do a volume 2 and 3 and on of this theme in future shows. Next week, though, it’s likely an all-Canadian show in advance of Canada Day. Then maybe back to live stuff or, we’ll see. Anyway, off we go . . .

1. Bob Seger & The Silver Bullet Band, Let It Rock (from Live Bullet) …This album, along with Night Moves and that album’s title cut, are what broke Seger big into the wider public consciousness. This Chuck Berry cover actually closed the Cobo Hall show from which Live Bullet is drawn, but I figured it would be a good opener for tonight’s show, which I’m starting with a series of old rock and roll classics covered by some of the big rock acts these tunes originally inspired.

2. The Rolling Stones, Around and Around (from Love You Live) . . . Smokin’ version from the El Mocambo side of what was originally a 2-record vinyl release.

3. Johnny and Edgar Winter, Rock & Roll Medley – Slippin’ and Slidin’; Jailhouse Rock; Tutti-Frutti; Sick and Tired; I’m Ready; Reelin’ and Rockin’; Blue Suede Shoes; Jenny Take A Ride; Good Golly Miss Molly (from Together) . . . Little snippets of each track, put together by the Winter brothers to form a great 6-minute medley.

4. Jimi Hendrix, Johnny B. Goode (from Hendrix In The West) . . . Absolutely blistering version of what George Thorogood once called, on one of his live albums, ‘the rock and roll national anthem’. In The West, which my late older brother had on vinyl (he was my intro to Hendrix), is a selection of live tracks largely pulled from Hendrix shows in San Diego and the San Francisco area between 1968 and 1970. This take on yet another Chuck Berry classic is from a show at the Berkeley Community Center on May 30, 1970.

5. Mountain, Roll Over Beethoven (edit from Dream Sequence, Flowers Of Evil album) . . . Flowers of Evil is split into studio and live sides, with Roll Over Beethoven pulled from within the 25-minute Dream Sequence, recorded in June, 1971 at New York’s Fillmore East.

6. The Who, Shakin’ All Over (from Live At Leeds) . . . Great Who take on the Johnny Kidd & The Pirates classic.

7. Santana, Dance Sister Dance (from Moonflower) . . . Santana’s in full flight on this one, a case in my view where a live version is better than the studio take, which is on the Amigos album.

    

8. Bruce Springsteen, Because The Night (from Live 1975-85 box set) . . . A tune co-written by Springsteen and Patti Smith, whose version, from the Easter album, I’ve previously played on my show. To my knowledge/research, Springsteen has never released a studio version of it as he apparently never thought it was up to snuff, to the consternation of his band mates, who thought otherwise. But, he’s played it live over the years and included this live version, from Long Island’s Nassau Coliseum in 1980, on the live boxed set.

9. The Butterfield Blues Band, The Boxer (from The Butterfield Blues Band Live) . . . Love this up-tempo boogie-type blues from this horn-drenched version of the Butterfield band. Not the Simon and Garfunkel tune.

10. Eric Clapton, Presence Of The Lord (from E.C. Was Here) . . . Yvonne Elliman, who was such a big part of Clapton’s ’70s albums, helps out on vocals on this somewhat rearranged version of the tune that first was heard on the one and only Blind Faith studio album. Different guitar solo than the amazing one on the studio version but great in its own way.

11. Muddy Waters, Deep Down In Florida (from Muddy “Mississippi’ Waters Live) . . . Johnny Winter, who produced and played on a string of Muddy’s albums in the late 1970s, accompanied Waters on the tour for Hard Again, which featured this typical slow blues, my favorite kind.

12. Stephen Stills, Jet Set (Sigh)/Rocky Mountain Way/Jet Set (Sigh) (from Stephen Stills Live) . . . Interesting, perhaps, that I came somewhat late to Stills’ solo work, aside from Love The One You’re With, despite liking Buffalo Springfield, Crosby, Stills & Nash and Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young. But unlike with Neil Young, I never deeply followed Stills’ solo career. That is, until I heard Tree Top Flyer (which I’ve played on the show) from his brilliant Stills Alone album some years ago. That sent me back into his catalog and here we are. Nice combo version of his own Jet Set (Sigh) and Joe Walsh/Barnstorm’s Rocky Mountain Way.

13. Beck, Bogert, Appice, Black Cat Moan (from Live In Japan) . . . Big use of the ‘talk box’ guitar effects unit that was something of a ‘thing’ back in the 1970s and used also by Peter Frampton on the Frampton Comes Alive album. Beck handles lead vocals himself on this Don Nix cover. I don’t own the album, which is available on YouTube but was released only in Japan in 1974. I pulled this one from my copy of the Beckology box set.

14. Grand Funk Railroad, Paranoid (from Live: The 1971 Tour) . . . Not the Black Sabbath tune. This is Grand Funk’s own riff-rocker, and a fine one it is.

15. Roy Buchanan, Down By The River (from Sweet Dreams: The Anthology, previously unreleased live version) . . . Crazy good guitar by the late great Buchanan on this cover of the Neil Young tune. Lead vocals by Billy Price, who collaborated with Buchanan in the mid-1970s.

16. Van Morrison, I’ve Been Working (from It’s Too Late To Stop Now) . . . Well, I really haven’t been. This isn’t working, it’s fun putting together these shows. Often takes me on my own rediscovery trips through my music collection, like this up tempo tune from Van The Man’s 1974 live release. This is from the original album. An expanded, different version, called Volumes II, III and IV and also featuring a DVD of a show from that period, was released in 2016. It’s great, all of it.

17. Roxy Music, Out Of The Blue (from Viva!) . . . This song, originally on the Country Life studio album, seems to bubble up from underground, is how I’d describe it. Or, I could just say, it’s great. Creativity to me is endlessly fascinating in a ‘how did they think of that, where do they find these arrangements?’ kind of way.

     

18. Faces, (I Know) I’m Losing You (Live at the BBC, 1971, from Five Guys Walk Into A Bar box set) . . . Crackling version of such a great song originally taken to No. 1 by The Temptations. Besides his dirty guitar, love Ronnie Wood’s ‘yeah’ just before Rod Stewart kicks in with the lead vocal. Oh, and a nice drum solo by Kenney Jones, too. What a great band Faces were. And they backed Stewart on the studio version he released on Every Picture Tells A Story.

19. Blue Oyster Cult, We Gotta Get Out Of This Place (from Some Enchanted Evening) . . . And we’re outta here for another week with BOC’s cover of a song, written by the husband-wife team of Barry Mann and Cynthia Weil, likely best known via The Animals’ version.

1. The Rolling Stones, Oh No Not You Again . . . Oh yes, I’m back with another show, with this opening rocker from the most recent studio album of original material by the Stones, A Bigger Bang in 2005. Originally, there was talk of this being the title of the album. I think they should have gone with it, but too late now. Speaking of late, or overdue, as a Stones’ fan, I just wish they’d release some new material. They keep talking about it, but all we’ve seen since is the blues cover album, Blue and Lonesome, in 2016. A fine record but I want some original, new, studio stuff!

2. Booker T. and The MGs, Melting Pot . . . Some great, extended sould/funk/R & B from the band best known for Green Onions although they have so many great tunes.

3. Little Feat, Let It Roll . . . Up-tempo title cut from the band’s 1988 album, the first one without founding member and chief songwriter Lowell George, who died in 1979. Like so many veteran bands, they’re still around, with various replacement members, carrying on even after the death in 2019 of guitarist/singer Paul Barrere, who joined Little Feat for their third album, Dixie Chicken, in 1973 and essentially assumed leadership of the reformed group after George’s passing. I saw them in 2004 in a club in Hamilton, Ont. Great show.

4. UFO, Love Lost Love . . . Typically great guitar from Michael Schenker on this one from 1975’s Force It album.

5. Ancient Relic, Via Maris … Another Iron Maiden-like track from Toronto artist/one-man band Jesse Feyen. Jesse contacted me some months ago to see whether I’d play some of his stuff which he figured fit into the type of material I play. And I do occasionally play metal, his stuff is Maiden-influenced so, why not? He’s working on an album and for now, his stuff is available on You Tube.

6. James Gang, The Bomber … I’ve played a few Eagles’ tunes on the show in recent weeks,which got me thinking of Joe Walsh and the James Gang. This extended piece, great stuff, is from Rides Again, the band’s second album, in 1970.

7. Chicago, Fancy Colours . . . I’ve always loved this tune, from the second album. Some have suggested it’s about a drug trip, who knows, who cares. Great guitar as always, including wah-wah, by Terry Kath. I remember getting this album via the Columbia Record Club my older brother and sister joined way back then, 1970, which led us to Chicago and other Columbia acts at the time, including Blood, Sweat & Tears and Santana.

8. Marianne Faithfull, Sister Morphine (12” version, 1979) . . . Co-written by Faithfull with Mick Jagger and Keith Richards, it was originally released by Faithfull in 1969 and featured Jagger on acoustic guitar, Ry Cooder on slide guitar and bass and Charlie Watts on drums. The Stones released their own version, with slightly different lyrics and also featuring Cooder, in 1971 on the Sticky Fingers album. This version is from 1979, when Faithfull re-recorded it for her great comeback album, Broken English. It wasn’t on the original album but was released as 7- and 12-inch singles as the flip side to the song Broken English. It later came out on an expanded 2-CD re-release of the Broken English album and is available on some compilations, and online. Harrowing stuff, every version.

9. John Lennon, Working Class Hero . . . From Plastic Ono Band, Lennon’s 1970 album which contains two songs, this one and Oh God, whose lyrics were hugely influential on my young, developing mind.

10. Blind Faith, Sea Of Joy . . . Not a bad song on the one and only Blind Faith studio album. Sort of a combination of Cream (Eric Clapton and Ginger Baker), Traffic (Steve Winwood) and Family (Ric Grech). The result? A fabulous album I never tire of.

11. David Wilcox, Somethin’s Shakin’ . . . Great tune from this outstanding Canadian artist who, repeating myself as I do every time I play him, I first saw while working as a doorman at a bar in Oakville, Ont., putting myself through college in the late 1970s. In walks Wilcox a few hours before he was on, just a regular guy in street clothes, asking me where the bands played as he was in for a sound check. And, later that night, still in those regular streets clothes, just a white spotlight as stage lighting for his trio, blew the roof off the joint.

12. Garland Jeffreys, True Confessions . . . I bought 1981’s Escape Artist album for his cover of ? And The Mysterians’ 96 Tears and became a fan. Love when that happens. Some real heavyweights on the album including Springsteen’s E Street Band members Roy Bittan and the late Danny Federici.

13. T-Bone Burnett, Primitives . . . Spooky track by Burnett, well-known as a producer with too many great album credits to count, Burnett first came to prominence as a member of Bob Dylan’s band during the 1970s. His resume is pretty much mind-blowing given his own music, production credits,music for film and TV. Just a brilliant artist.

14. Carlos Santana and Buddy Miles, Marbles (live) . . . Blazing instrumental, a John McLaughlin tune released on the 1972 live album by Santana and Miles. It was recorded inside the Diamond Head volcano in Hawaii, which was a ‘thing’ bands did during the 1970s in collaboration with local artists, until the state canceled the deal due to noise and environmental impact concerns.

15. The J. Geils Band, Detroit Breakdown . . . Got talking about The Who (they’re coming up later in the set) with some friends this week, concerts we had seen and who opened. One friend saw J. Geils (and Heart) open for The Who back in 1980 so the great blues-rock outfit Geils came to mind. Fantastic live outfit, this is the studio version. It might be the first time I’ve played a studio version of one of their songs on the show, actually, their live versions are so terrific. But so is the studio stuff.

16. Talking Heads, The Overload . . . One of my younger brothers thought I had become a stoner when he heard me listening to this droning track from 1980’s Remain In Light. Well, I was experimenting a bit at the time.

17. Bruce Cockburn, Radium Rain . . . Extended, self-explanatory piece from Cockburn’s 1986 Big Circumstance album, when things like acid rain were a hot topic. Whatever happened to that, anyway? Well, general talk about climate change is more widespread and acid rain itself, yes I looked this up, does not have as big an impact these days as it did in the 1970s and 80s, due to stronger air pollution regulations.

18. Warren Zevon, Veracruz . . . I’ve always loved this track from Excitable Boy, great ballad about the battle for the city, between the United States and Mexico in 1914.

19. Screaming Trees, Who Lies In Darkness . . . Just saw this one lying around in the station computer system, from a previous download of mine, and decided to play it. From one of the Seattle grunge bands like Nirvana, Pearl Jam, Soundgarden and Alice In Chains which shook up the music world in the early 1990s.

20. The Who, Music Must Change . . . I told you, a few songs ago, that I’d get to The Who in the show. This is a great one from 1978’s Who Are You album, drummer Keith Moon’s swan song. Love the coin drop intro.

21. Led Zeppelin, Night Flight . . . So much great stuff on Physical Graffiti, can’t go wrong picking any song for the show but I do have to fly out of here soon so perhaps that’s why, subconsciously, went with this one and placed it here, near the end of the set.

22. The Allman Brothers Band, In Memory Of Elizabeth Reed (live) . . . Typically great Allmans instrumental, one of their best. This version is from At Fillmore East, widely acknowledged as one of rock’s greatest live albums. Written by guitarist Dickey Betts, it’s about a woman he was involved with but Elizabeth Reed wasn’t her name; Betts took it from the name on a headstone in Macon, Georgia, where the band was largely based after forming in Jacksonville, Florida.

23. Badfinger, It’s Over . . . And so it is, for another week. Great tune by the first band to be signed to The Beatles’ Apple Records. They had a string of hits in the early 1970s – Come And Get It (written and produced by Paul McCartney); No Matter What (produced by Beatles’ personal assistant Mal Evans); Day After Day (produced by George Harrison) and Baby Blue (produced by Todd Rundgren).

1. Atomic Rooster, Head In The Sky . . . Up tempo tune from the UK progressive rock band originally formed by  Crazy World Of Arthur Brown alumni Vincent Crane and Carl Palmer, the drummer who is not featured on this track from the third album, In Hearing Of Atomic Rooster. Palmer had departed by then to join Emerson, Lake & Palmer.

2. Romantics, Rock You Up . . . I dug this one up while sorting my CDs, another band from my college days. Perhaps best known for their first hit, What I Like About You, in 1980, they released this track in 1983. It was the second single from the In Heat album, which yielded the top 5 single Talking In Your Sleep.

3. The Rolling Stones, Stray Cat Blues . . . One of my favorite Stones’ tunes, for the lascivious opening alone but just a great track throughout. I was undecided as to whether to play this or Sister Morphine, from Sticky Fingers (perhaps next week; I always play a song from my favorite band). So I ran it by a buddy of mine and, not surprisingly since he loves the Beggars Banquet album, he suggested I go with Stray Cat.

4. Bruce Springsteen, Candy’s Room . . . I’ve been in a Springsteen phase of late. This great rocker comes from the brilliant Darkness On The Edge Of Town album, so good it could be a greatest hits album.

5. Collective Soul, Love Lifted Me . . . I’ve loved this Georgia band’s sound, gritty, grungy guitars, since their debut album Hints, Allegations and Things Left Unsaid in 1993. Like most people, perhaps, got into them via their debut No. 1 single, Shine, from that album. Love Lifted Me is a nice deep cut from the same record, up tempo, typically hypnotic Collective Soul riff.

6. Eagles, The Greeks Don’t Want No Freaks . . . Fun little ditty from The Long Run, the followup to the monster Hotel California album which, to me, gets unfairly panned. I think it’s a terrific album, The Long Run, full of great songs and what do the rock critics know, anyway? Sales aren’t necessarily the barometer of great art, but it’s a great album and has sold more than eight million copies in the USA alone.

7. Elton John, Madman Across The Water . . . I love this somewhat spooky title track from EJ’s 1971 album. It was originally scheduled for the previous album, Tumbleweed Connection, but was held back and came out as the title cut to the next record. I didn’t know this until a while ago but apparently when it came out, some thought the lyrics were about then-US President Richard Nixon and maybe they were, although lyricist Bernie Taupin said no: “I thought, that is genius. I could never have thought of that.” I never thought of it, either, and reading the lyrics well, maybe, but, doubtful, to me. It matters not. Great song.

8. Carole King, Smackwater Jack . . . I mentioned earlier in the set how Springsteen’s Darkness On The Edge Of Town could be a greatest hits album. If any album could be seen that way, it’s King’s Tapestry, from which I pulled this relative deep cut. What a ridiculously great album Tapestry is.

9. Headstones, Leave It All Behind . . . Active from their great debut, Picture Of Health in 1993 until 2003, these hard-rocking Canadian boys got back together in 2011 and picked up as if they never left. This typical blistering track is from their most recent release, 2019’s PeopleSkills.

10. AC/DC, Burnin’ Alive . . . Great, slow-building track from the, I think, underappreciated Ballbreaker album in 1995. AC/DC generally isn’t a political band in terms of lyrics, but there are various theories as to what this one’s about. Many think it’s about the Waco, Texas siege in 1993 and I tend to subscribe to that notion, but I just read another view, that it could be about Centralia, Pennsylvania, where a coal mine fire has been burning beneath the almost-completely abandoned town since 1962. That’s a fascinating story in itself, well worth researching.

11. Creedence Clearwater Revival, Graveyard Train . . . CCR has so many great singles but when you dig deeper they are so much more in terms of album tracks, including this extended, hypnotic, bluesy excursion from Bayou Country, 1969.

12. Janis Joplin, Mercedes Benz . . . Fun little tune from Joplin’s last, posthumously-released album, Pearl. This was the last song she ever recorded. Love her spoken word intro, and cackle at the end.
    
13. John Lee Hooker, John L’s House Rent Boogie (1950 version) . . . George Thorogood later famously took this tune and combined it with the next one I’m playing by Hooker, into his own extended version of One Bourbon, One Scotch, One Beer that appeared on Thorogood’s 1977 debut album. Great blues by an original master, Hooker.

14. John Lee Hooker, One Bourbon, One Scotch, One Beer . . . From Hooker’s 1966 release, The Real Folk Blues. Great stuff.
    
15. Bobbie Gentry, Mississippi Delta . . . Best known for her 1967 smash Ode To Billie Joe, Gentry has many great tunes and was one of the first female artists to compose and produce her own material. This great track featuring Gentry’s gritty vocals, different than her singing on Ode To Billie Joe, was the B-side to that hit and then later released as a single on its own. In Japan, Mississippi Delta was the A-side and Billie Joe the flip.
    
16. John Cougar Mellencamp, You’ve Got To Stand For Somethin’ . . . Love this tune, good lyrics, from the standout Scarecrow album. Not a bad song on it.
    
17. Peter Tosh, Downpressor Man . . . Somewhat all over the map on today’s show, accidentally on purpose I suppose. Part of the creative fun. So, here we go with some reggae from the late great Tosh. I got into him way back, sort of via Bob Marley who, perhaps like many, I was introduced to via Eric Clapton’s version of I Shot The Sheriff in 1974. After that, it seemed all the big rock acts starting delving into reggae, at least a bit, including The Rolling Stones, who signed Tosh to their Rolling Stones Records label and with whom Mick Jagger did the hit duet (You Gotta Walk) Don’t Look Back on Tosh’s Bush Doctor album in 1978. But by that time, I was already well into Tosh via albums/songs like Legalize It – which I’ve played before on the show and almost certainly will again. Great artists, both he and Marley.

18. The Moody Blues, Melancholy Man . . . Another sort of random selection I came across while loading tracks into the station’s computer system. I threw this one into the system some time back, saw it, realized I had not played the Moodies in some time so, no time like the present. Beautiful, somewhat sad lyrically, tune from A Question Of Balance, in 1970.

19. Bob Dylan, Man In The Long Black Coat . . . 1989 was a pretty good year for veteran acts in terms of albums released. Eric Clapton’s Journeyman, Neil Young’s Freedom and The Rolling Stones’ Steel Wheels are among the notable ones I like. And Oh Mercy, from Dylan from which I pulled this great track, one of my all-time favorites from him.

21. Cowboy Junkies, Southern Rain . . . Wonderful up-tempo track featuring the ethereal vocals of Margo Timmins. Just an amazing singer, great band I saw at a recent Kitchener Blues Festival.
22. Dishwalla, Moisture . . . Great tune that starts slow, almost electronic, then rocks out. It’s from the band that gave us the 1996 hit Counting Blue Cars, from the same album I pulled this one from, Pet Your Friends. One of those albums you buy (or at least did, back then) for the hit single and then are rewarded by the depth of quality on the record.

22. U2, Numb . . . This was the first single from the somewhat experimental album, Zooropa, produced in part by Brian Eno, who had done similar pushing-the-envelope work with David Bowie during the latter’s Berlin period in the late 1970s. The spoken-word, droning vocals are by guitarist The Edge on a track that was a leftover from the previous album, Achtung Baby.

23. Elvis Costello, Green Shirt . . . From the Armed Forces album in 1979, it wasn’t released as a single until 1985 on a compilation. It got to No. 68 in the UK. Nice tune, perhaps somewhat unknown and underappreciated.

24. Pearl Jam, Nothing As It Seems . . . I was really into Pearl Jam’s first two albums but I confess they’ve lost me as time passes, nothing compelling enough to prompt me to purchase or listen to any of their more recent releases. Out of loyalty, I kept up until a few years ago but decided time is too precious than to keep trying to like stuff I just can’t get into even after repeated listens, although I certainly don’t begrudge the band’s dedicated, loyal and passionate fan base. That said, I just checked out a few tracks from their most recent release, Gigaton, and, not bad. So maybe worth a revisit of the most recent stuff. Until then, I’m left with the first two albums and a fine 2-CD compilation, from which I pulled this great single from the Binaural album in 2000.

25. Paul McCartney/Wings, Name And Address . . . Nice boogie/rockabilly type shuffle from London Town in 1978. McCartney, like most great artists, has so many lesser-known gems.

26. Pink Floyd, Summer ’68 . . . From Atom Heart Mother, the album with the cow on the cover. One of the few Floyd tracks written and sung by the late keyboardist Richard Wright, it’s a catchy pop tune, apparently about an encounter Wright had with a groupie in 1968.

27. Bad Company, Passing Time . . . A jaunty little tune from Bad Co’s Burnin’ Sky album, 1977. There’s not a bad tune, really, by this band – when fronted by Paul Rodgers. I can do without the Brian Howe version of the band, except for the Holy Water single. Too overproduced, 80s-type sound for me, other than that tune. I will say they did a non-Rodgers album, Company Of Strangers, in 1995 with Robert Hart on lead vocals, that I like because it harkens back to the Rodgers-era sound and Hart sounds much like Rodgers, to me. I played the title cut from the album ages ago on the show and now that I’m talking to myself about it, I will revisit. The prime stuff is, of course, the Rodgers era but Company Of Strangers is pretty good. So why didn’t I play it today? Well, I didn’t think of it until I started rambling on about it here.

28. Doug And The Slugs, Drifting Away . . . And so we drift away for another week, taking our leave with this breakup song by Doug And The Slugs, one of my favorites by that band. I was inspired to play them by a friend who texted me about some foible he saw in policy from Ontario Premier Doug Ford’s government, referring to him and his government as Doug and the slugs.

1. Fleetwood Mac, These Strange Times . . . Appropriate song title for these times we’re living in but aside from that an interesting spoken word track – with Mick Fleetwood handling lead vocals – from the Mac’s 1995 album, Time. The album, without Lindsey Buckingham and Stevie Nicks, bombed commercially and I confess I don’t listen to it much, but I do like this cut, one of the rare Mac songs written by Fleetwood, who also plays guitar on it. Good lyrics, including references to former Mac leader Peter Green: ”these strange times, I think of a friend they said was a man of the world. . . . ”. The record featured ex-Traffic guitarist Dave Mason and singer Bekka Bramlett, the daughter of Delaney and Bonnie, who worked with Eric Clapton, among others.

2. Genesis, In The Cage . . . Another fitting title for current circumstances, and just a tour de force extended piece from 1974’s The Lamb Lies Down On Broadway album, Peter Gabriel’s last with Genesis before going solo.

3. Eagles, Journey Of The Sorcerer . . . Great instrumental from One Of These Nights, featuring Bernie Leadon on banjo in his last album with the band. The music was used as the theme music for Douglas Adams’ Hitchhiker’s Guide To The Galaxy BBC radio series in 1978 and ’79.

4. Wishbone Ash, Throw Down The Sword . . .  Progressive rock featuring the twin guitars of Andy Powell and Ted Turner. The album was produced by Martin Birch, well-known for his work with Deep Purple, Ronnie James Dio-period Black Sabbath and Iron Maiden, who in their early days at least, acknowledged that they were heavily influenced by Wishbone Ash’s work.

5. Link Wray, The Shadow Knows . . . From one of the, if not the, acknowledged fathers of distortion and power chords. Love his diabolical laugh on what is otherwise, like most of his work, an instrumental.

6. Family, See Through Windows . . . I first heard of Family via my older brother’s copy of Blind Faith’s one and only album, which featured Ric Grech who was the bass, violin and cello player in Family. This is from the Music In A Doll’s House album in 1968. The Beatles apparently wanted to title the album they were working on at the time A Doll’s House, but Family released their album so The Beatles went with the self-titled album that quickly came to be better known as the White Album.

7. Izzy Stradlin, Somebody Knockin’ . . . Great Stones/Keith Richards/Ron Wood-ish track from Stradlin’s first album after he left Guns N’ Roses in 1991. The album, Izzy Stradlin and The Ju Ju Hounds, came out in 1993, around the time the individual Rolling Stones were doing lots of solo work. Wood plays guitar on one track on the album, his own Take A Look At The Guy, while sometimes-Stones session players Nicky Hopkins and former Face Ian McLagan contribute on piano and organ, respectively.

8. Chicago, Movin’ In . . . Great jazz-rock fusion from the second Chicago album. I love early Chicago, particularly the first three albums and on up until guitarist Terry Kath died, after which the band was never the same, albeit commercially more successful with schlock.

9. The Doors, The WASP (Texas Radio And The Big Beat) . . . Great track from perhaps my favorite Doors album, L.A. Woman, arguably the band’s grittiest and bluesiest. I’m in a bit of a Doors phase after a discussion with a friend about our favorite albums of theirs, so you might see some stuff from their debut and Morrison Hotel, the two others we talked about, in the coming weeks.

10. The Rolling Stones, Tops . . . From 1981’s Tattoo You, the album the band cobbled together from various outtakes and unfinished tracks from over the years as they wanted something to tour behind that year. This one goes all the way back to 1972 and features Mick Taylor, who left the band in 1974, on guitar. He wasn’t credited on the album and sued the band for royalties.

11. Dire Straits, The Man’s Too Strong . . . From Brothers In Arms, which featured the big hit Money For Nothing, an obviously great if overplayed tune, as so many hits are. I first heard this one while browsing in Sam The Record Man on Yonge St. in Toronto. I was already a big fan of the band so would have bought the album anyway, but hearing the track clinched an instant purchase that day.

12. Rush, Cinderella Man . . . One of my favorite songs from perhaps my favorite Rush album, A Farewell To Kings. I remember getting it for the hit single, Closer To The Heart, first Rush album I ever bought, to great reward. Cinderella Man’s lyrics were written by bass player Geddy Lee, one of the few Rush songs whose words were not written by drummer Neil Peart.

13. Neil Young, Motorcycle Mama . . . Something of an outlier rock track on the otherwise more folky Comes A Time album, released in 1978. The late Nicolette Larson shares lead vocals with Young on the song.

14. The Mamas & The Papas, Straight Shooter . . . Great tune from the debut, If You Can Believe Your Eyes And Ears, another album I got into via my older sister and the one with the cover of the band in a bathtub. Wasn’t a single, but easily could have been from an album whose singles were Go Where You Wanna Go, California Dreamin’, Monday Monday and Do You Wanna Dance?

15. Heart, Love Alive . . . Early, and my preferred version of Heart, before the big production (and big hits) mid-1980s to 1990s version. I like that stuff, but much prefer the earlier, more earthy version of the band. This is a great example of that period which also of course featured great rockers like Barracuda, etc.

16. Johnny Winter, Memory Pain . . . Blues-rock from Second Winter, the first Johnny Winter studio album I bought way back when, likely if memory serves for his great cover of Bob Dylan’s Highway 61 Revisited.

17. David Lee Roth, Ladies Nite In Buffalo? . . . From Roth’s first post-Van Halen album, Eat ‘Em And Smile. A bluesy, funky kind of shuffle, it’s easily the best solo song he’s ever done, in my opinion.

18. Bruce Springsteen, She’s The One . . . I was going to play this for old friends who recently celebrated their 27^th wedding anniversary, but it was suggested that I play Thunder Road instead, since it was more applicable, lyrically, to their story. But, I promised I’d play this one eventually, so here you go.

19. The Cars, Dangerous Type . . . The second Cars album, Candy-O, had a hard act to follow after the classic debut. But it’s still a decent album, and this might be my favorite from it, perhaps tied with the title track.

20. Elton John, Amy . . . One of my favorite EJ deep cuts, from the terrific Honky Chateau album. Jean-Luc Ponty plays electric violin.

21. The Grateful Dead, Easy Wind . . . From the rootsy Workingman’s Dead album. Lead vocals by keyboardist/harmonica player Pigpen (Ron McKernan). With a nice harmonica solo.

22. Deep Purple, No One Came . . . Always difficult for me to pick a Purple track, since I like all of the band’s work, all lineups. This propulsive song is from the Fireball album.

23. Steve Winwood, Night Train . . . Such a great album, Arc of A Diver, my favorite of Winwood’s solo stuff. And it’s truly a solo album, as Winwood plays every instrument on it.

24. The Beach Boys, Sail On Sailor . . . One of my favorite Beach Boys tunes, from 1973’s Holland album. It’s sung by Blondie Chaplin, perhaps best known in recent times thanks to his work as a backup musician/singer on Rolling Stones’ tours and sessions. Released, twice, as a single, it made No. 79 in 1973 and No. 49 on a reissue in 1975. Ridiculous. Great song.

25. Ian Hunter, Old Records Never Die . . . Could be the theme song for my show. This one from Short Back ‘n’ Sides in 1981. Mick Jones (guitar) and Topper Headon (drums) of The Clash contribute to the album along with then-regular Hunter guitarist, the late great Mick Ronson.