Victoria Day in Canada set. All songs involve queens, kings, royalty, whether by band, song title or mention in lyrics. My track-by-track tales follow the bare-bones list.

So Old It’s New show archive

Facebook page

1. The Beatles, Her Majesty
2. The Kinks, Victoria
3. Sex Pistols, God Save The Queen
4. The Who, The Acid Queen
5. Aerosmith, Kings And Queens
6. The Doors, Queen Of The Highway
7. Van Morrison, Queen Of The Slipstream
8. David Bowie, Queen Bitch
9. T. Rex, Planet Queen
10. Bob Dylan, Queen Jane Approximately
11. The Rolling Stones, Jigsaw Puzzle
12. Jerry Lee Lewis, Little Queenie
13. Bruce Springsteen, Mary Queen Of Arkansas
14. The Flying Burrito Brothers, High Fashion Queen
15. The Byrds, Tiffany Queen
16. Dave Edmunds, Queen Of Hearts
17. Jethro Tull, Queen And Country
18. Stephen Stills, Black Queen
19. Queen, The March Of The Black Queen
20. Queen, Great King Rat
21. Queen, White Queen (As It Began)
22. Black Sabbath, Heaven And Hell
23. Steely Dan, The Royal Scam

My track-by-track tales:

1. The Beatles, Her Majesty . . . One of the first if not ‘the’ original, or at least arguably best known, hidden track on a rock music album, the closing – after a break of silence – 23 seconds to the Abbey Road album. Originally, it wasn’t listed on the original vinyl I still own but subsequent physical releases do show it on the track list. Yes, perhaps played best in context of the full side two medley on the original vinyl album but I’ve played the medley in full before, Her Majesty specifically fits my theme so I deliberately chose this route, an I think perfect short intro to . . .

2. The Kinks, Victoria . . . My traditional show opener each year on Victoria Day. Last year I went with a live version from the 1980 release One For The Road, issued as a document of the tour in support of the 1979 studio album Low Budget. Back to the original studio release I go this time. It was the lead track on the 1969 album Arthur (Or the Decline and Fall of the British Empire). While it’s a well-known Kinks song, it did only moderate business on the singles charts – anywhere from the top 70 to top 40 depending on country – except for in Canada, where nationally it was No. 33 but No. 9 in Toronto, on AM radio station CHUM‘s top 30 list. A major, influential AM radio station at the time along with its FM counterpart, CHUM-AM is now a sports radio station.

3. Sex Pistols, God Save The Queen . . . It was loved, it was loathed, it was banned by the BBC. Its legacy – and that of its parent album, Never Mind The Bollocks, Here’s The Sex Pistols, is lasting.

4. The Who, The Acid Queen . . . From the rock opera Tommy, released in 1969. Also covered by, among others, Tina Turner, who played the character in the 1975 movie.

5. Aerosmith, Kings And Queens . . . No obvious hook yet a driving, almost doom rock hypnotic piece from the 1977 album Draw The Line, fitting perfectly with the subject matter. To quote lead singer Steven Tyler, from the liner notes to 1991’s Pandora’s Box set:

“I’ve always had a fancy to do songs about anarchy and the church and the government. . . The band comes up with the licks, and then the music talks to me and tells me what it’s about. This one was just about how many people died from holy wars because of their beliefs, or non-beliefs. With that one, my brain was back with the knights of the round table and that shit – I do a lot of fantasizing.”

Kings And Queens was the second single released from Draw The Line, after the title track. It managed only No. 70 on the charts but it’s a popular Aerosmith song, regularly played in concert and has appeared on several compilations albeit in edited single release form, a minute shorter than the album version with many of the guitar parts removed. The album version is ‘the’ one, I’d suggest. A fun – and pretty accurate – take on the track that I read somewhere once: It’s grandiose and medieval — like Queen if they were from Boston and did harder drugs.

6. The Doors, Queen Of The Highway . . . One of those great Doors’ deep cuts, kinda country, jaunty, bluesy, great playing, all apparently about lead singer Jim Morrison’s up and down relationship with longtime girlfriend Pamela Courson. It’s from the 1970 album Morrison Hotel, which I played in full back in February but one should always be open to more Doors, I say, and the song fits this show’s theme.

7. Van Morrison, Queen Of The Slipstream . . . Ethereal and poetic and thus appropriate since it’s drawn from Van The Man’s 1987 album Poetic Champions Compose. It was released as a single in the UK but didn’t chart but then it doesn’t have the immediacy of most singles, beyond which, Van couldn’t care less, he just does what he does, says, writes, sings, thinks and always has, pleases himself – and discerning fans. As he said in 1994, a quote reproduced in the preface to the 2002 oral history biography Van Morrison: Can You Feel The Silence, by Clinton Heylin: “I never, ever said that I was a nice guy.” Maybe not. He’s blunt, direct, often caustic and even seemingly intolerant but geez he’s made lots of nice, beautiful, amazing music but that can be the thing with many creative people: they may not ‘properly’ express themselves interpersonally, may come across as aloof, distant, whatever. But read, listen to or observe their art and you’ll find their unvarnished essence unleashed in often deeply open and emotional ways that they themselves perhaps wish they could more easily impart in social situations.

8. David Bowie, Queen Bitch . . . Propulsive riff from Mick Ronson on this apparent tribute to The Velvet Underground in general and, specifically, that band’s lead singer/songwriter/guitarist Lou Reed. It’s from Bowie’s 1971 album Hunky Dory which also contained tribute tracks to the artist Andy Warhol and Song For Bob Dylan. I like most if not all Bowie, but early Bowie is truly brilliant.

9. T. Rex, Planet Queen . . . T. Rex just had a unique sound. And in many ways a precursor to the ‘industrial’ genre, I’ll posit, looking back and listening to – as I often do – this late 1960s into the 1970s band cut short by the car accident death of leader Marc Bolan in 1977. Whether it’s the production, the arrangements, Bolan’s vocals and guitar, I find it intoxicating. This one’s from the album Electric Warrior, which gave the world the hit single Get It On (retitled Bang a Gong (Get It On) ) in the US. Like, say, the band Free with its big North American hit single All Right Now but little business from elsewhere in the catalogue, like Free, T. Rex was so much more than that one North American hit single.

10. Bob Dylan, Queen Jane Approximately . . . From Dylan’s 1965 album Highway 61 Revisited which featured arguably his signature song (but truly impossible to pick I’d suggest) Like A Rolling Stone. Queen Jane has been compared to Like A Rolling Stone although it’s been suggested Dylan goes easier on the subject of his ire but, frankly, I just enjoy the music, the playing, and Dylan’s forever distinctive vocals. As I’ve repeatedly said to people who suggest he’s a lousy singer: Perhaps, it’s obviously a matter of taste but he’s the best singer of Bob Dylan songs there ever was or could be. It just simply works and even though there’s many great covers of Dylan tunes, nobody can match his delivery to the extent where, sure, you listen to the music but he almost impels you to listen to the always at least interesting lyrics. Dylan’s to me a sort of hand-me-down I didn’t ‘get’ at first when my older brother by eight years introduced me to him. Then I introduced him to my sons who, at first, were like me and didn’t ‘get’ him. I recall my elder son saying “Dad, he’s got one song (Like A Rolling Stone).” Then, later, “OK, Dad, he’s got more songs…”

11. The Rolling Stones, Jigsaw Puzzle . . . Speaking of Dylan, it’s been suggested that this tune from Beggars Banquet, lengthy lyrics and a ‘story’ song of sorts, is influenced by Dylan and that may be true or at least worthy of consideration. For me, it’s just a great Stones’ song and, thanks to the immortal lyric “There’s a regiment of soldiers. standing looking on, and the Queen is bravely shouting, ‘What the HELL is going on?’ ” it fits into the ‘royalty’ set.

12. Jerry Lee Lewis, Little Queenie . . . A, naturally given the instrument he most played and was known for, piano-driven Jerry Lee version of the normally guitar-driven Chuck Berry song done by many including the Rolling Stones in a live version on the 1970 Get Yer Ya Ya’s Out! document of their 1969 tour.

13. Bruce Springsteen, Mary Queen Of Arkansas . . . From his first studio album, 1973’s Greetings From Asbury Park N.J. A slow, acoustic country-ish song, apparently about a drag queen.

14. The Flying Burrito Brothers, High Fashion Queen . . . Short, sweet, fun rockabilly written by Bryds associates and one-album member (Sweetheart Of The Rodeo) Gram Parsons and original Byrd Chris Hillman, from the second Burritos album, Burrito Deluxe, released in 1970.

15. The Byrds, Tiffany Queen . . . Nice mid-tempo rocker from the latter-day Bryds lineup of the perennial Roger McGuinn (guitar, vocals), Clarence White (guitar, mandolin, vocals), Skip Battin (electric bass, piano, vocals) and Gene Parsons (drums, guitar, harmonica, pedal steel guitar, banjo, vocals) on the 1971 release Farther Along. The Byrds’ latter-day stuff tends to get short shrift from critics still perhaps wedded to the early days of Turn! Turn! Turn! and so on including the band’s various covers of Bob Dylan tunes, but lots of quality music and performances throughout the catalogue.

16. Dave Edmunds, Queen Of Hearts . . . From Repeat When Necessary, the 1979 album which got me into Edmunds via songs like his cover of the Elvis Costello tune Girls Talk, Graham Parker’s Crawling From The Wreckage and this one, by American musician/songwriter Hank DeVito that became a top 10 hit for Juice Newton in 1981.

17. Jethro Tull, Queen And Country . . . Uniquely and typically Tull. Offbeat orchestral arrangement, not immediate like the hit single Bungle In The Jungle from the parent album, 1974’s War Child, but as with much Tull it embeds itself upon repeat exposure.

18. Stephen Stills, Black Queen . . . Great finger-pickin’ acoustic folk blues from Still’s 1970 album Stephen Stills which featured his hit single Love The One You’re With.

19. Queen, The March Of The Black Queen . . . First of three from Queen, natch, in such a ‘royalty’ set. This one, from Queen II, 1974, launches a segment featuring the operatic, progressive hard rock of early Queen.

20. Queen, Great King Rat . . . Galloping rocker from the 1973 self-titled debut album.

21. Queen, White Queen (As It Began) . . . And back to Queen II, as it ends for the Queen mini-set.

22. Black Sabbath, Heaven And Hell . . . Monumental title track to the 1980 album, Sabbath’s first with Ronnie James Dio replacing Ozzy Osbourne on lead vocals. It’s an album I couldn’t help but get into as the DJ in a pub I worked in, putting myself through college, played it (and Ted Nugent’s Double Live Gonzo! and British Steel by Judas Priest) to death and thankfully so. Great album with lyrics appropriate to a ‘kings and queens’ show and, perhaps, harkening back, years later, knowingly or not, to Aerosmith’s Kings And Queens I played earlier in the set:

“The world is full of kings and queens
who blind your eyes and steal your dreams
it’s Heaven and Hell . . . ”

23. Steely Dan, The Royal Scam . . . Which royalty may well be, a scam. I tend to think so, accidents of birth providing privileged place in society and all of that while others revel in its reality. That’s fine. The song isn’t even about royalty or the monarchy, it’s about immigration but the title fits tonight’s tale. Besides which, musically it’s one of my favorite Steely Dan tunes, the dark title track to the 1976 album, so here you go.

A two-album play, second of two such Saturday shows after last week playing The Rolling Stones’ Steel Wheels and Neil Young’s Freedom, highlighting ‘comeback’ albums released in 1989 by major artists who had relatively spotty results earlier in the decade. This week, Bob Dylan’s Oh Mercy and Eric Clapton’s Journeyman. My thoughts on each album under the respective records’ song lists.

So Old It’s New show archive

Facebook page

Bob Dylan – Oh Mercy

1. Political World
2. Where Teardrops Fall
3. Everything Is Broken
4. Ring Them Bells
5. Man In The Long Black Coat
6. Most Of The Time
7. What Good Am I?
8. Disease Of Conceit
9. What Was It You Wanted
10. Shooting Star

Perhaps fueled by working with the likes of Tom Petty, George Harrison, Roy Orbison and Jeff Lynne in the Traveling Wilburys, Dylan in 1989 unleashed – with help from producer extraordinaire Daniel Lanois’s atmospheric touch – one of his best-ever albums. Oh Mercy is a sterling listen front to back which includes several of my personal favorite Dylan tunes led by Man In The Long Black Coat amid, really, a perfect 10 tracks. Some critics suggested it was his best since 1975’s Blood On The Tracks. I’d say it’s simply among his best, period.

Eric Clapton – Journeyman

1. Pretending
2. Anything For Your Love
3. Bad Love
4. Running On Faith
5. Hard Times
6. Hound Dog
7. No Alibis
8. Run So Far
9. Old Love
10. Breaking Point
11. Lead Me On
12. Before You Accuse Me

At least something of a return to form after some shoddy, typically alas 1980s overly slick, overproduced albeit commercially successful albums. Journeyman is still relatively slick but, thankfully, the production this time doesn’t overwhelm the music and some truly quality slow blues like Old Love, written with Robert Cray, take priority in the overall mix of music.

My track-by-track tales follow the bare-bones list.

So Old It’s New show archive

Facebook page

1. Pretenders, Tattooed Love Boys
2. Graham Parker, Devil’s Sidewalk
3. The Police, Shadows In The Rain
4. Midnight Oil, The Last Of The Diggers
5. Chuck Berry, Jaguar and Thunderbird
6. Golden Earring, She Flies On Strange Wings (from Live, 1977)
7. Rod Stewart, You’re My Girl (I Don’t Want To Discuss It)
8. (Long) John Baldry, Let’s Burn Down The Cornfield
9. Gordon Lightfoot, Mister Rock Of Ages
10. Creedence Clearwater Revival, Wrote A Song For Everyone
11. Tom Petty and The Heartbreakers, It Ain’t Nothin’ To Me
12. Paul Rodgers, Standing Around Crying
13. The Kinks, Celluloid Heroes
14. Johnny Winter, Stray Cat Blues
15. The Rolling Stones, Midnight Rambler (live, from Ladies & Gentlemen: The Rolling Stones)
16. Kansas, The Absence Of Presence
17. Led Zeppelin, For Your Life
18. Cream, Rollin’ And Tumblin’ (from Live Cream)

My track-by-track tales:

1. Pretenders, Tattooed Love Boys . . . . A staccato-type song walking a tightope between chaos and control, from the band’s self-titled debut album released in January, 1980. A soundscape that teeters on the edge of a cliff, seemingly, as if the song is always at risk of falling apart but it doesn’t and that’s what makes it compelling. Then, this example of compact fury just ends, boom. And you wish it was longer than just three minutes. But on the flip side, leave ’em wanting more . . .

2. Graham Parker, Devil’s Sidewalk . . . Nice descending guitar riff intro on this one, perhaps my favorite song – though it’s tough to pick – on the 1980 album The Up Escalator. A hit single that could have been, in my book although it wasn’t released as such. Stupefaction and Endless Night, the latter featuring Parker fan Bruce Springsteen on backing vocals, are likely the best-known songs on what I think is a consistent record that tends to get short shrift from critics who don’t like Jimmy Iovine‘s supposedly too slick production. Iovine had previously worked as an engineer on Springsteen’s Born To Run and Darkness On The Edge of Town albums, John Lennon’s Walls and Bridges and produced Patti Smith’s Easter and Tom Petty’s Damn The Torpedoes. A sterling resume, but there’s no pleasing some people although obviously it’s a matter of personal preference and taste. Perhaps it’s because it’s the Parker album I first heard front to back thanks to radio play which prompted me to purchase it, after which I went back in his catalogue. But to me The Up Escalator maintained his early, angry young man phase of consistency and is as good as its more acclaimed predecessor, Squeezing Out Sparks.

3. The Police, Shadows In The Rain . . . A hypnotic, brooding piece from the 1980 album Zenyatta Mondatta. Another example of why, while compilations serve a purpose, depending how deeply one wants to dig into particular artists, individual albums tell the full tale.

4. Midnight Oil, The Last Of The Diggers . . . From The Real Thing, a mostly live, mostly acoustic album, released in 2000 that featured Oils’ hits plus four new studio recordings including the title track and this mid-tempo rocker.

5. Chuck Berry, Jaguar and Thunderbird . . . Short, just under two minutes, punchy rocker with rockabilly and, some have suggested, rap – before rap was a recognized genre – elements in a Bo Diddley-ish approach. The music fits the subject matter of a race down the road, police in pursuit. A non-album single issued in 1960, it didn’t dent the charts but has appeared on various Berry compilation albums.

6. Golden Earring, She Flies On Strange Wings (from Live, released in 1977) . . . From short and sweet with Chuck Berry to long and involved with Golden Earring, a multifaceted song, hard rock in spots, mellow in others. Progressive hard rock, in short. It appeared in studio form on the band’s 1971 album Seven Tears.

7. Rod Stewart, You’re My Girl (I Don’t Want To Discuss It) . . . A funky, stop-start rocker from Gasoline Alley, released in 1970. It was Stewart’s second solo album during the amazing 1969-74 period when he was maintaining parallel careers, fronting Faces while also using many of that band’s members, particularly guitarist Ron Wood, on his solo stuff.

8. (Long) John Baldry, Let’s Burn Down The Cornfield . . . A more up-tempo treatment of Randy Newman’s rootsy, swampy version on his 1970 album 12 Songs. It came out on Baldry’s June 1971 album It Ain’t Easy which was co-produced by Rod Stewart and Elton John. John – under his birth name Reginald Dwight – was in the band Bluesology with Baldry during the 1960s. Stewart and John each produced a side of the original vinyl album with Let’s Burn Down The Cornfield produced by John and featuring guitarist Caleb Quaye and drummer Roger Pope. They were working with John at the time and played on his Madman Across The Water album, released in November 1971. The ubiquitous guitarist Ron Wood was among the Stewart associates who played on the Stewart-produced tracks including the title song and Don’t Try To Lay No Boogie Woogie On The King Of Rock & Roll.

9. Gordon Lightfoot, Mister Rock Of Ages . . . Beautiful song, thoughtful lyrics but it’s Lightfoot, what else would one expect? From the 1980 album Dream Street Rose.

10. Creedence Clearwater Revival, Wrote A Song For Everyone . . . From Green River, the middle of three – count ’em, 3! – albums released by CCR that year. It was bracketed by Bayou Country and Willy And The Poor Boys, all of consistently high quality. CCR singles from 1969 spread over the three albums: Proud Mary, Born On The Bayou, Bad Moon Rising, Lodi, Green River, Commotion, Down On The Corner, Fortunate Son. Eight singles, five of which – Proud Mary, Bad Moon Rising, Green River, Down On The Corner and Fortunate Son – made either No. 2 or 3 on the North American charts with Bad Moon Rising hitting No. 1 in the UK. A remarkable run by a remarkable band.

11. Tom Petty and The Heartbreakers, It Ain’t Nothin’ To Me . . . Nice intro bass line from Dave Stewart of Eurythmics, who co-wrote with Petty this horn-drenched song with a cool call-and-response hook using the song title. From the 1985 album Southern Accents which, aside from the hit single Don’t Come Around Here No More took some time to embed itself with me but long since has. Definitely a keeper.

12. Paul Rodgers, Standing Around Crying . . . David Gilmour on guitar, from Rodgers’ 1993 album Muddy Water Blues – A Tribute To Muddy Waters that featured an all-star cast of guitarists in addition to Pink Floyd’s Gilmour. Others on the album: Jeff Beck, Buddy Guy, Brian May (Queen), Steve Miller, Gary Moore, Trevor Rabin (Yes), Richie Sambora (Bon Jovi), Neil Schon (Santana, Journey), Brian Setzer (Stray Cats, The Brian Setzer Orchestra), Slash (Guns N’ Roses, Slash’s Snakepit, Velvet Revolver, etc.).

13. The Kinks, Celluloid Heroes . . . From the 1972 studio album Everybody’s In Show-Biz . . . I played Supersonic Rocket Ship from the album some weeks ago and mentioned Celluloid Heroes being a single that to me, amazingly, did not chart that I’ve played before and would play again. So here you go. Fantastic song, musically and lyrically, with Kinks’ writer Ray Davies name-checking actors Greta Garbo, Rudolph Valentino, Bela Lugosi, Bette Davis, George Sanders, Marilyn Monroe and Mickey Rooney. Kinks’ guitarist Dave Davies, often at odds with his brother, was quoted as saying it’s ‘one of my favorite songs ever, by anybody.’ I agree. Strange to me that it wasn’t more successful commercially but there’s maybe no accounting for time, place and taste but it is a well-known track to Kinks’ fans and appears on various compilations.

14. Johnny Winter, Stray Cat Blues . . . Winter’s cover, from his 1974 album Saints And Sinners, of the ribald Rolling Stones song originally on Beggars Banquet. Winter, however, more closely follows the slower, bluesier arrangement the Stones used on Get Yer Ya Ya’s Out!, the 1970 live album document of their 1969 tour although the boys have returned to the original approach when they’ve played the song on recent tours. All versions – Winter’s included which shouldn’t be surprising as he was a great interpreter of others’ material – are excellent. Winter also covered, at various times, the Stones songs Let It Bleed and Jumpin’ Jack Flash and Bob Dylan’s Highway 61 Revisited and Like A Rolling Stone.

15. The Rolling Stones, Midnight Rambler (live, from Ladies & Gentlemen: The Rolling Stones) . . . The Let It Bleed studio album song whose arguably definitive version remains the concert cut from Get Yer Ya Ya’s Out! The Ladies & Gentlemen take was recorded on the Stones’ 1972 tour promoting their then-current Exile On Main St. album and first saw limited official release in 1974 on the film document of that voyage. I still own bootleg copies of both movie and album although I’ve since bought the official releases which came out on DVD and Blu-ray in 2010 and on CD in 2017.

16. Kansas, The Absence Of Presence . . . . From the raunchy rock of The Rolling Stones to the prog-rock title cut of Kansas’ 2020 album. To quote the allmusic review site, ‘Kansas’ popularity is based on the canny balance of meaty prog and radio-friendly melodic rock’ and I agree. A typically epic tune from a band whose beautiful 1977 hit Dust In The Wind is actually something of an outlier in their oeuvre. Plus, I like the title, Absence of Presence, and the album cover and it gives me an opportunity to set up . . .

17. Led Zeppelin, For Your Life . . . Kansas, we do have Presence . . . or did, from the 1976 album Presence on this unconventionally compelling song driven by its stop-start riff.

18. Cream, Rollin’ And Tumblin’ (live) . . . Back to a Muddy Waters’ tune in this manic mostly just instrumental interplay Cream interpretation to close the show as I roll and tumble off the stage and outta here, so to speak. Jack Bruce sings, yes, but in many ways just ‘mouths’ sounds but it all works, very well. Recorded March 7, 1968 at the Fillmore West, San Francisco and released on Live Cream, June 1970. It’s also available online and on the 2-CD Cream Gold compilation which is split into studio and live recordings.

So Old It’s New set featuring two albums released in 1989 – Steel Wheels by The Rolling Stones and Neil Young’s Freedom. Why 1989? Well, I was dipping into a book about the Berlin Wall, which fell in 1989 so, the way my mind works, one thing led to another, the year 1989 stuck and on with the show.

It was an interesting year musically with lots of great or at least solid ‘comeback’ albums, at least by critical assessments, released by so-called classic rock artists as the Stones and Young but also Eric Clapton (Journeyman), Bob Dylan (Oh Mercy), Lou Reed (New York), among others so this may be installment one in a short series of Saturday morning shows. But, who knows where I’ll go next? My thoughts on each album appear at the bottom of this post.

The Rolling Stones – Steel Wheels

1. Sad Sad Sad
2. Mixed Emotions
3. Terrifying
4. Hold On To Your Hat
5. Hearts For Sale
6. Blinded By Love
7. Rock And A Hard Place
8. Can’t Be Seen
9. Almost Hear You Sigh
10. Continental Drift
11. Break The Spell
12. Slipping Away

Neil Young – Freedom

1. Rockin’ In The Free World (acoustic)
2. Crime In The City (Sixty To Zero Part I)
3. Don’t Cry
4. Hangin’ On A Limb
5. Eldorado
6. The Ways Of Love
7. Someday
8. On Broadway
9. Wrecking Ball
10. No More
11. Too Far Gone
12. Rockin’ In The Free World (electric)

My thoughts on Steel Wheels:

As the narrative goes, Steel Wheels was a reunion album by an apparently broken band that was in tatters or not even existing given what’s been termed “World War Three” as chief Stones’ songwriters Mick Jagger and Keith Richards were at odds in the mid-1980s thanks in part to Richards’ emergence from a decade-or more long dalliance with booze and drugs.

What’s maybe weird is, while I knew via reports of the Stones’ internal dynamics around this time, I as a fan didn’t make much if anything of it. They’d released an album (the under-appreciated in my book Dirty Work, 1986) and were working on the next one which came out as Steel Wheels. Three years between albums, by that time, didn’t seem like a lot even to those of us who grew up on an album (or 2 in Elton John’s case via his then-contract) a year by most artists.

But to the gossipers among the citizenry who seize on things . . . As the story goes, Richards was now at least relatively clean and coherent and seeking to reassert more influence in group activities beyond merely playing guitar. Jagger, meanwhile, who had essentially been the lone man at the tiller since the 1970s for the most part, certainly in a business sense, and become used to full leadership, bristled at his old friend’s desire to more fully direct Stones’ activities.

This was exacerbated by Jagger’s pursuit of a solo career which annoyed all of the band but mostly Richards. Keith famously said he’d ‘slit his throat’ if Jagger toured without the Stones and Mick did, with the brilliant Jeff Beck on guitar and survived, slitless. I have a couple bootlegs of those shows and they’re good but I must say don’t really have that ‘Stones’ sound, which maybe Mick didn’t want. They missed the Richards’ raunch which the technically obviously brilliant Beck didn’t arguably best provide but again, maybe that’s what Jagger wanted. Yet if you’re going to play Stones tunes . . .

What truly annoyed Richards primarily and the rest of the Stones was that Jagger largely built his tour on a Stones set list. Jagger had refused a Stones tour after the 1986 album Dirty Work yet subsequently goes on the road playing . . . mostly Stones tunes. I like and admire both guys, but I think Keith and the others had a point.

At any rate, Keith crowed, lyrically, once he decided, eff it, I’ll do my own album. Out came Talk Is Cheap in 1988. Keef’s critically-acclaimed as the best Stones albeit not exactly Stones release since whenever (although lagging way behind Jaggers’ solo album sales). Talk Is Cheap contained the song You Don’t Move Me including the lyric passage ‘Now you wanna roll the dice you already crapped out twice’ in reference to Jagger’s solo albums She’s The Boss and Primitive Cool which, certainly sales wise, actually did well on the charts and by far better than any Richards’ solo release. But the musical point was made, the boys buried the hatchet and Steel Wheels was the result. Listened to objectively without any baggage of who the Stones have been, it’s quite the great album including the nice touch of Continental Drift, a compelling, intoxicating track which via the use of the Master Musicians of Joujouka paid homage to founding Stones’ member Brian Jones and his work with that musical assemblage in 1968. The Stones used excerpts from Continental Drift as intro music on the Steel Wheels tour.

Overall, beyond the studio album itself Steel Wheels and its supporting tour opened a new phase in the career of The Rolling Stones in terms of their massive tours, huge stages and so on. It was now a tight, arguably scripted show, full of backup musicians and singers live band, a revue, almost. Not to all tastes yet still undeniably The Rolling Stones who at various times – the stripped down No Security Tour, the Stripped album and concerts from the 1990s, the 2013 killer unvarnished show I saw in Toronto among many of mine starting with the raunchily ragged resounding 1978 Some Girls tour stop in Buffalo with the Stones – were at their rawest.

I mentioned earlier in this ramble how Steel Wheels was seen as a return to form from the 1986 album Dirty Work which to me is groupthink at work. Say something often enough and people apparently believe it, even if they haven’t read or listened to whatever it is the media shapers are talking about.

Yes, I’m a huge Stones fan thus will arguably find merit in whatever they do but I immediately liked Dirty Work, despite reviews few of which I actually read before buying the album because the Stones were always just an automatic buy for me.

I do distinctly recall Peter Goddard, then a respected music writer at the Toronto Star, calling it an ‘angry’ and great album. Goddard didn’t expound on it very much as I recall, just reviewed the songs and the album overall, so can’t be sure if he meant the ‘anger’ in terms of the aggression in the music – which is what I took from his review, simply musically – or the anger that then existed between Stones’ songwriting principals Jagger and Richards as imposing itself on the music, as most other critics suggested.

Whatever. All in all it maybe proves another point, that being: just listen to the record and make one’s own judgement. Often, and obviously, the less you read in terms of critics’ reviews, certainly at least before consuming a book or listening to an album the more you come to things unvarnished and uninfluenced and thus make your own judgments although it can be interesting reading other viewpoints but, I’d submit, only after you’ve read or listened and formed your own opinion.

And my thoughts on Neil Young’s Freedom:

Best track on this album to me is Crime In The City, which I’ve played independently on the show. Just a brilliant story song, lengthy at nearly nine minutes but well worth the trip. Just a terrific album all of it, a combination of all Young does/has done well, acoustic tunes, rock, hard rock, everything Geffen was expecting when that record company signed Young earlier in the 1980s but were met with a shift in Young’s creative muse, resulting in albums like Trans and its Kraftwrerk-like electronic sounds, the rockabilly of Everybody’s Rockin’ and the pure country of Old Ways. Geffen was appalled, sued Young as being un-Young like, he counter sued in the name of artistic independence and a settlement was quickly reached.

In the meantime Young returned to his former longtime home Reprise Records and in 1988 released a quality jump blues album This Note’s For You which also led to some legal issues. It was first sold as Neil Young and The Bluenotes. But after a lawsuit from Harold Melvin & The Blue Notes original R & B band dating to the 1950s, Young had to change the album labelling from Neil Young & The Bluenotes to just Neil Young . . . I have both versions. Not sure if the one with ‘Bluenotes’ on the cover is rare or worth anything, just as I have the original Rolling Stones vinyl album cover of Some Girls which later, due to threatened lawsuits by various movie stars depicted on the cover, was amended to ‘under reconstruction’. The Stones one I’d submit probably is worth more, if it’s worth anything but I probably stupidly completely reduced any value it might have via me putting my initials on it for organizational purposes during a move. But, actually, I’m happy to still own it as well as the original Neil Young album cover.