1. The J. Geils Band, Musta Got Lost (live, from Blow Your Face Out including Peter Wolf’s immortal intro rap) . . . The studio version was a No. 12 single in 1975 and arguably the band’s best-known song before the mass commercial success of the Freeze Frame album in 1981. But this live version is ‘the’ definitive version, thanks to lead singer Peter Wolf’s intro.

2. Roger Waters, Amused To Death (live) . . . No, not another show featuring songs from live albums. I intend to get back to that eventually, but just happened to start with a couple which I couldn’t/didn’t squeeze into the live album show of a few weeks ago. Nine-minute title cut from Waters’ 1992 album, this version taken from the In The Flesh live album, from 2000. The song title was inspired by Neil Postman’s 1985 book Amusing Ourselves To Death which had a big influence on my thinking and I highly recommend.

3. Pink Floyd, Pigs (Three Different Ones) . . . My favorite song from a personal favorite Floyd album, Animals, from 1977, a record which, to the mainstream, seems to get overlooked amid Dark Side, Wish You Were Here and The Wall. Meddle, the album before The Dark Side Of The Moon, shares that circumstance with Animals . . . Love the “You fucked up old hag…” A reference to UK morality campaigner Mary Whitehouse, who Deep Purple similarly disparaged in Mary Long from their 1973 Who Do We Think We Are album.

4. Led Zeppelin, What Is And What Should Never Be . . . I always remember when my older brother, by eight years, brought Led Zeppelin II home and, at first, being overwhelmed by the heaviness of it in contrast to the Beatles’ and Stones’ diet I had pretty much subsisted on to that point. And then being fascinated, hearing that guitar break coming out of first one speaker channel, then the other.

5. Queen, Dead On Time . . . Killer Queen rock, pun intended, from the Jazz album. Yet another great Queen track written by guitarist Brian May, who wrote so many of the great Queen tunes, hits or otherwise.

6. Black Sabbath, Heaven And Hell . . . From the terrific first Sabbath album featuring the late great Ronnie James Dio on lead vocals. I got into this album via the DJ at that bar, The Riverside in Oakville, Ontario that I often reference I worked at during college. We had live rock bands upstairs in the place, which featured a disco (we’re talking late 1970s), an acoustic downstairs cubbyhole, an outside patio (no live music) and the upstairs Boathouse as I recall it was called, where the rock bands played. Anyway, between sets we had a DJ playing stuff and Sabbath’s Heaven And Hell was one of those, along with Ted Nugent’s Double Live Gonzo, Judas Priest’s British Steel and Stained Class, and AC/DC’s Highway To Hell and Back In Black that he played the shit out of and as a result got me into those albums. Love the album cover, too, the Sabbath one, three angels smoking cigarettes. A particularly amazing album when one considers that Sabbath had just lost iconic singer Ozzy Osbourne, people wondered about the band and they responded with a stone-cold classic. Similar to what AC/DC did with Back In Black after Bon Scott died.

7. AC/DC, Problem Child . . . Kick butt rocker from the relatively early days of the band, the late Bon Scott on lead vocals. I like both versions of AC/DC but Bon’s vocals sometimes, wow. Like on this tune where, to me, like with lots of Ozzy stuff on early Sabbath albums, he, dunno how to explain it, seems to sort of come in from somewhere else, riding the opening riff and then off they all go to even greater heights. To me, this track is an example of that.

8. Deep Purple, No No No . . . From Fireball. Aside from Ian Gillan, the band members don’t seem to like this album but as a big Purple fan I think everything they’ve done, all versions of the band, is worthwhile.

9. Thin Lizzy, Opium Trail . . . I like Lizzy a lot and anyone who’s into them knows they are far more than The Boys Are Back In Town. This propulsive track is from the, to me, killer Bad Reputation (great title track I’ve played before) album, arguably a harder-rocking offering than some preceding work. Yet they released the relatively softer Dancing In The Moonlight (good song) as the lone single, backed with the title track.
   
10. The Doors, The Changeling . . . Nice bluesy track from what is perhaps my favorite Doors album, L.A. Woman.

11. The Rolling Stones, Melody . . . Essentially a duet between Mick Jagger and then Stones’ session man, keyboard player and great artist in his own right Billy Preston. From the album, Black And Blue, that Keith Richards has categorized as ‘auditioning guitar players’ from which the Stones settled on Ron Wood to replace the departed Mick Taylor. Jeff Beck, Rory Gallagher, Harvey Mandel (Canned Heat, John Mayall) and noted session player (for too many artists to count) Wayne Perkins (great solo on the album’s Hand Of Fate) auditioned. Another one of those songs that shows the Stones’ versatility and, more so perhaps, willingness to tackle any genre. The album was largely panned when it came out but, as is often the case, it’s now considered the classic we Stones fans knew it was, from the beginning.

12. Jethro Tull, Alive And Well And Living In . . . A track from the expanded re-release of the sometimes (aside from Tull fans like me) overlooked Benefit album, 1970. The song also came out on the North American CD release of the Living In The Past compilation, originally released in 1972.

13. Chicago, In The Country . . . You saw how I did that? From the Tull song title to . . . living In The Country. Ha! Anyway, another great tune from the second Chicago album, 1970. They were, to me, ridiculously good for the first three albums especially, and on until Terry Kath’s sad death at age 31 in 1978 via an unintentional self-inflicted gunshot wound.

14. The Kinks, Celluloid Heroes . . . Another late 1960s/early 1970s (this from 1972) Kinks’ song to not make the charts. Just absurd. A well-known song by the band, nevertheless, and deservedly so.

15. Rainbow, Self Portrait . . . Another nice tune featuring the lead vocals of Ronnie James Dio, this from the first Rainbow album. After two more Rainbow albums, Dio left to replace Ozzy in Black Sabbath on the Heaven And Hell album. Dio made any band he was in better. I can barely stomach the more pop-oriented Rainbow, aside from a few tracks, after Dio’s departure.

16. Blue Oyster Cult, Flaming Telepaths . . . Early Blue Oyster Cult, from Secret Treaties, their third album and last of the ‘black and white’ period of album covers. Typically spooky stuff from that period, this before the next studio album, Agents Of Fortune, which featured their deserved breakthrough hit, (Don’t Fear) The Reaper.

17. Jeff Beck, Max’s Tune . . . From Rough And Ready, from the second iteration of the Jeff Beck Group – first version with Rod Stewart and Ron Wood; second with Bobby Tench (vocals, rhythm guitar) Max Middleton (piano/keyboards) Clive Garman (bass) and Cozy Powell (drums). Also known as Raynes Park Blues. I don’t know how to describe this one, actually, mellow for the most part, jazzy. I just like it.

18. Savoy Brown, Money Can’t Save Your Soul . . . Nice bluesy track from a band I very much like and who I saw, great show, at a recent Kitchener Blues Festival.

19. ZZ Top, 2000 Blues . . . From 1990’s Recycler album which marked, somewhat, the band’s emergence from the huge hit, synthesizer-driven 1980s albums like Eliminator (Legs, etc.) and Afterburner and back to, at least on this one, the blues that was the band’s original bread and butter. Of course, they’ve been much less successful, commercially, since but I’ll just leave it at that – and I do like some of the ‘synthesizer’ stuff; good songs in there amid the murk.

20. Bruce Springsteen, Darkness On The Edge Of Town . . . Title track from the wall-to-wall quality 1978 album. As previously mentioned, I like his before and after work but my favorite albums of his remain Born To Run, this one, Darkness, and then The River. Age, time/place, whatever, to me he was at his peak musically and lyrically.

• 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).