As suggested by one of my show’s followers/listeners, a set list of songs to do with drinking.  My track-by-track tales follow this bare-bones list.

1. The Who, However Much I Booze
2. Paice Ashton Lord, I’m Gonna Stop Drinking Again
3. Joe Jackson, What’s The Use Of Getting Sober (When You’re Gonna Get Drunk Again)
4. The Rolling Stones, Might As Well Get Juiced
5. The Butterfield Blues Band, Drunk Again
6. Jeff Beck Group, I’ve Been Drinking
7. The Kinks, Alcohol
8. Nazareth, Let The Whiskey Flow
9. Budgie, Whiskey River
10. Junkhouse, Down In The Liver
11. Screamin’ Jay Hawkins, I Found My Way To Wine
12. Family, Drowned In Wine
13. AC/DC, Have A Drink On Me
14. Black Sabbath, Trashed
15. Powder Blues Band, What’ve I Been Drinkin’
16. Jerry Lee Lewis, Drinking Wine Spo-Dee O’Dee
17. Ramones, Somebody Put Something In My Drink
18. David Wilcox, Cheap Beer Joint
19. Roy Buchanan, Beer Drinking Woman
20. Toby Keith with Willie Nelson, Beer For My Horses
21. Canned Heat and John Lee Hooker, Whiskey And Wimmen
22. Molly Hatchet, Whiskey Man
23. Mott The Hoople, Whiskey Women
24. Tommy James and The Shondells, Sweet Cherry Wine
25. The Ozark Mountain Daredevils, Homemade Wine
26. Derek and The Dominos, Bottle Of Red Wine (from Live at The Fillmore)
27. Oasis, Cigarettes & Alcohol
28. Sammy Hagar, Mas Tequila
29. Van Halen, Take Your Whiskey Home
30. Kris Kristofferson, Sunday Mornin’ Comin’ Down

    My track-by-track tales:

    1. The Who, However Much I Booze . . . I’ve often tried to find a good way to describe Keith Moon’s drumming. I finally found it, via someone who I think nailed it perfectly, in a YouTube comment field about this song. “It always makes me smile when Moonie comes tumbling in to a song.” Perfectly stated by the commenter. That ‘tumble’ happens six seconds into this confessional Pete Townshend tune from The Who By Numbers album, but it’s evident on so many Who songs. Moon, like all greats in any field, truly was distinct.
       
    2. Paice Ashton Lord, I’m Gonna Stop Drinking Again . . . I suppose all songs about drinking have lyrical similarities, but this one from the one-album-and-done Deep Purple offshoot band reminds me of Kris Kristofferson’s Sunday Mornin’ Comin’ Down, which I’m closing the set with, and also a passage in Gregg Allman’s autobiography, My Cross To Bear where he’s talking to a girlfriend about how he has to keep drinking to feel good, before he finally kicked the habit. As for Paice Ashton Lord, the album is Malice In Wonderland, a collaboration between Deep Purple drummer Ian Paice, keyboardist Jon Lord and English musician Tony Ashton, released in 1977, three years before Nazareth used the same title for an album that featured their hit Holiday. The lyrics, to start: “I came ’round this morning and I was feeling like hell; telephone exploded, I went, ‘oh, that bell’ . . . going on to describe someone experiencing withdrawal effects: “I’m gonna lay down and cry, I get this feelin’ every time that I’m dry.” As The Kinks will sing later in the set, oh demon alcohol.
       
    3. Joe Jackson, What’s The Use Of Getting Sober (When You’re Gonna Get Drunk Again) . . . From JJ’s Jumpin’ Jive, a 1981 album of covers highlighting 1940s swing and jump blues classics. It’s the album that served notice that Jackson was not merely the new wave artist who burst upon the scene two years earlier via his first two albums Look Sharp and I’m The Man and then the reggae and ska-tinged Beat Crazy in 1980, but one who would continually follow his muse in whatever directions it took him. As often mentioned, I’ve stayed on board his entire journey, never been disappointed.
       
    4. The Rolling Stones, Might As Well Get Juiced . . . From the Stones’ 1997 album Bridges To Babylon which became a ‘Mick Jagger working with his people and producers and Keith Richards working with his’ sort of album although, depending upon what one reads, it was a deliberate decision made in order to explore new sounds, ideas and approaches. The journalistic narrative is that Richards has always been the one wanting to keep the Stones at least somewhat on their original bluesy path while Jagger is the supposed experimental artist although that’s to me an easy oversimplification as they both obviously are blues-influenced. On this one, apparently Richards did the song, originally as a blues cut, then gave it to Jagger who had the Dust Brothers, the producers he was working with at the time, add their synthesized techniques to it. It works, if you ask me. The slow burner of a tune might be, as some have suggested, the most ‘un-Stones’ like song on the album, but what is a ‘Stones-sounding song’ really, given their vast catalog? It can depend on what album/time period you’re listening to, when you grew up, when you came to a particular song or album, as is the case with any longlasting band. Case in point: I remember when the Emotional Rescue album came out in 1980 and She’s So Cold was one of the singles. A rock critic dismissed it as lightweight and opined “this is the same band that gave us Gimme Shelter?!” I’m a big Stones fan, and while She’s So Cold is catchy, I agreed with the critic. Yet, in 2005 I saw the band in Toronto on the Bigger Bang tour, they played She’s So Cold and the place went positively nuts. So, go figure. Might As Well Get Juiced is different, but it’s unmistakably the Stones, once again illustrating their musical diversity.

        

    5. The Butterfield Blues Band, Drunk Again . . . Guitarist Elvin Bishop, who went on to a solo career after the Butterfield Band’s 1968 album In My Own Dream, exited in style by humorously handling lead vocal duties on this one. “My woman says it’s a dog gone shame the way some men bring their wives money and furs and jewelry and I come home, ain’t got a dime and smelling like a brewery. I’m drunk again . . . ”
       
    6. Jeff Beck Group, I’ve Been Drinking . . . Originally a B-side, it was released on the 2006 expanded CD reissue of 1968’s seminal Truth album. The song was reconfigured by Rod Stewart and Jeff Beck from the Johnny Mercer-penned song Drinking Again, a 1962 torch tune done by Frank Sinatra, Aretha Franklin and others including, much later, Bette Midler.
       
    7. The Kinks, Alcohol . . . From, as often stated, likely my favorite Kinks album, Muswell Hillbillies, released in 1971. It didn’t chart, but so what? It’s great, and to my knowledge has never gone out of print, it’s been re-released a few times, remastered and in expanded form, which says a lot about its quality and staying power.
       
    8. Nazareth, Let The Whiskey Flow . . . From Surviving The Law, the second Nazareth album done – with the late original lead singer Dan McCafferty’s blessing once his health started failing and he retired in 2014 – with new singer Carl Sentance. Tattooed On My Brain, released in 2018, was the first album with Sentance, with Surviving The Law coming out last year. So-called legacy bands continuing on without key original members is often cause for controversy although my view has always been that, if the music remains good/if I like it, there’s no issue. As with Nazareth, latter-day Lynyrd Skynyrd, etc. Just how I look at things, I suppose, and I take it on an as-case basis. While I’ve hung in with Nazareth and Skynyrd, I’ve no time for post-Terry Kath Chicago, for instance.
       
    9. Budgie, Whiskey River . . . Lead track from the Welsh hard rocking band’s second album, 1972’s Squawk. It’s an aviation term to do with air traffic control, hence the album cover art of an aircraft with a bird beak nose, diving, possibly out of control, done by Roger Dean, best known for his Yes album covers.
       
    10. Junkhouse, Down In The Liver . . . As far as I know, Junkhouse leader Tom Wilson long ago quit drinking and remains clean and sober. But he got some great tunes out of the habit.
        
    11. Screamin’ Jay Hawkins, I Found My Way To Wine . . . Hawkins is rightly remembered for his I Put A Spell On You, but he released lots of worthwhile material including this song, released as a single in 1954, two years before the breakthrough success of his big hit which in addition to Hawkins’ stage performances also helped lay the foundation for so-called shock rock.
        
    12. Family, Drowned In Wine . . . Lead track from the British progressive band’s 1970 album A Song For Me, by which time bassist Ric Grech had long since left the group – after the prior album Family Entertainment in fact – to join the short-lived supergroup Blind Faith along with Eric Clapton, Ginger Baker and Steve Winwood.
        
    13. AC/DC, Have A Drink On Me . . . One of the few I’ll say sort of deep cuts on the Back In Black album, because it’s arguable that Back In Black has no deep cuts, since the record is so well-known, front to back. And, obviously, deservedly so.
        
    14. Black Sabbath, Trashed . . . From 1983’s Born Again, the so-called Deep Sabbath album featuring Deep Purple singer Ian Gillan. Sabbath guitarist and lone forever member Tony Iommi, at the time, told a rock magazine that Gillan – because ‘his shriek is legendary’ – was the best candidate to replace Ronnie James Dio, who had left after two albums replacing original Sabbath singer Ozzy Osbourne. And that shriek, along with Iommi’s equally shrieking guitar sound, simply ‘makes’ this tale of drunken excess. “So we went back to the bar and hit the bottle again but there was no tequila. Then we started on the whiskey just to settle our brains ’cause there was no tequila.” Sounds like how Gillan, in a couple books, described joining Sabbath. He was out with Iommi and bass player Geezer Butler, throwing ’em back, crashed, got up in the morning to take a call from his agent who said something like ‘next time you decide to join a band, please let me know first.” I’m a fan of all eras of Black Sabbath but recommended reading, to bring a smile to your face, or make you shake your head, is everything about the Born Again album and subsequent tour, which provided some of the fodder for the rock and roll sendup movie This Is Spinal Tap.
        
    15. Powder Blues Band, What’ve I Been Drinkin’ . . . It’s interesting when you read histories of famous bands, like The Beatles, Rolling Stones, etc. The members often say they never expected to last more than a few weeks, months, maybe a year or two, given the nature of the business and public tastes. And yet so many of them keep on rolling, to this day with varying degrees of success and audience. It’s what they do. Powder Blues isn’t on the level of such famous groups but they’re actually still around playing live shows as are so many bands now in their 40^th, 50^th, 60^th years, albeit in varying membership configurations as life and business takes its inevitable toll. Powder Blues broke fairly big, particularly in Canada, with their 1980 single Doin’ It Right. They’re now known as Tom Lavin and The Legendary Powder Blues. ‘Legendary’ seems to me a bit of a conceit, but whatever. Lavin is the Chicago-born founding member who has also produced albums by Long John Baldry and Canadian bands Prism and April Wine.
        
    16. Jerry Lee Lewis, Drinking Wine Spo-Dee O’Dee . . . I had to throw this in for the buddy of mine who suggested the drinking theme show. He’s a big Jerry Lee fan and has rekindled my own interest in The Killer. And what has occurred to me, sort of second time around for me with Lewis, and I realize it may sound obvious but it’s that beyond the piano playing and wild man act, the guy could really sing and command a recording studio session and a live audience. Such confidently terrific stuff.
        
    17. Ramones, Somebody Put Something In My Drink . . . From the band’s 1986 album Animal Boy. Written by latter-day Ramones drummer Richie Ramone (real name Richard Reinhardt but they were all Ramones, don’t ya know), it was apparently based on an actual incident where Ramone was given a drink spiked with LSD. It was later covered by an Australian band with the clever name Tequila Mockingbyrd. Theirs was a decent enough version but not as down and dirty, particularly the vocals, as the Ramones original.
        
    18. David Wilcox, Cheap Beer Joint . . . The song is perfect. Listen to it and you are in a smoky, cheap beer joint. I always kinda liked dives, if they’re still called that. They have character, and characters, from all walks of life.
        
    19. Roy Buchanan, Beer Drinking Woman . . . From the late great blues/rock artist’s 1986 album Dancing On The Edge. Delbert McClinton sang on a few songs on the record, although Buchanan handled this one.
        
    20. Toby Keith with Willie Nelson, Beer For My Horses . . . This is a first. I’ve never played Toby Keith or Willie Nelson on the show. I know Nelson’s music, who doesn’t know at least some of it, but I confess, not being much of a country fan, I’m not at all up on Keith although definitely heard of him. However, the song, which I’d never heard, came up in the station system while searching something else. I listened, it fits today’s theme, I like it, here you go. It led to a 2008 comedy film of the same name which I have not seen, co-writtten by and co-starring Keith.
        
    21. Canned Heat and John Lee Hooker, Whiskey And Wimmen . . . From the excellent 1971 collaboration Hooker ‘N’ Heat album, the vast majority of tunes, including this one, being Hooker compositions.
        
    22. Molly Hatchet, Whiskey Man . . . Hard rocker from the Flirtin’ With Disaster album whose title cut remains the band’s signature tune.
        
    23. Mott The Hoople, Whiskey Women . . . Early Mott, from the band’s third album, 1971’s Wildlife, before the success that came via Mott’s version of David Bowie’s All The Young Dudes. Whiskey Women was written by guitarist Mick Ralphs, who later left Mott The Hoople to form Bad Company.
        
    24. Tommy James and The Shondells, Sweet Cherry Wine . . . Psychedelia that was a top 10 hit in both Canada and the US in 1969.
        
    25. The Ozark Mountain Daredevils, Homemade Wine . . . Rockabilly country pickin’ from a band I seem to be playing a lot lately while rediscovering that they had lots of good songs besides the hits Jackie Blue and If You Wanna Get To Heaven. And, the song fits the theme. The kind of song I can see being played live, around a campfire.
        
    26. Derek and The Dominos, Bottle Of Red Wine (from Live At The Fillmore) . . . From the short-lived blues rock band fronted by Eric Clapton that also featured keyboardist/singer Bobby Whitlock, bassist Carl Radle and drummer Jim Gordon. The Dominos are one of those interesting family tree acts, the roots of the band going back to the various members playing on sessions for George Harrison’s All Things Must Pass album. The live version of Bottle Of Red Wine, recorded in New York in October 1970, originally appeared on the Dominos’ 1973 In Concert album. It was included on Live At The Fillmore, an expanded version of those 1970 shows, released in 1994.
        
    27. Oasis, Cigarettes & Alcohol . . . A hit single in the UK and Europe, albeit uncomfortably close to T. Rex’s Get It On (Bang A Gong). I like Oasis’s stuff well enough, but they were nearly as bad as Led Zeppelin in terms of ‘borrowing’ things, as any website search will reveal. But, as with Zep, I still enjoy the music.
        
    28. Sammy Hagar, Mas Tequila . . . Tequila has been very good for Hagar, an entrepreneur as well as a musician, who had big success with his Cabo Wabo brand, eventually selling it for $80 to $100M, according to various reports. He’s still in the booze biz wih a new tequila, Santos, as well as a chain of restaurants. Some people just have that money-making knack.
        
    29. Van Halen, Take Your Whiskey Home . . . Van Halen’s Women and Children First album has been great, of late, for themed shows I’ve done. I used Fools from the album for my April Fool show earlier this month, and Take Your Whiskey Home obviously fits a drinking-themed show. Same sorts of songs, too. At the beginning of Fools, singer David Lee Roth channels his inner Janis Joplin, akin to her Summertime vocals, before all hell breaks loose on the Van Halen track. All hell breaks loose on Take Your Whiskey Home, too, but only after an early, acoustic boogie start complete with Roth’s sort of talk singing, then into the heavy, infectious groove. “Well my baby don’t want me around; she said she’s tired of watching me fall down; she wants the good life, only the best; but I like the bottle better than the rest.”
        
    30. Kris Kristofferson, Sunday Mornin’ Comin’ Down . . . Amazing songwriter yet it was other artists who had the big hits with his songs – Janis Joplin with Me and Bobby McGee and Johnny Cash with this one. I’m a big Johnny Cash fan but I prefer Kristofferson’s more raw treatment of Sunday Mornin’ Comin’ Down. Both songs appeared on Kristofferson’s self-titled debut album, which was a commercial failure when released in June 1970. But, in a demonstration of the power and name recognition of a hit single, once Joplin’s version of Bobby McGee became a No. 1 hit in 1971, Kristofferson’s record company reissued his debut album under the title Me and Bobby McGee and it went gold, hitting No. 10 on the country charts and No. 43 on Billboard’s pop list.

     

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

1. Maria Muldaur, Get Up, Get Ready
2. Elton John, Tell Me When The Whistle Blows
3. The Rolling Stones, Sway
4. The Beatles, Fixing A Hole
5. Stillwater, Mind Bender
6. Dixie Dregs, Refried Funky Chicken
7. The Ozark Mountain Daredevils, E.E. Lawson
8. Peter Tosh, Brand New Second Hand
9. Bob Marley and The Wailers, Concrete Jungle
10. Sheila Hylton, The Bed’s Too Big Without You
11. The Police, It’s Alright For You
12. David Lindley, Bye Bye Love
13. Sea Level, Storm Warning
14. Rush, The Way The Wind Blows
15. Junkhouse, Flood
16. Bruce Springsteen, Lost In The Flood
17. The Law, Laying Down The Law
18. The Clash, The Guns Of Brixton
19. Chris Whitley, Living With The Law
20. Elvis Costello, My Dark Life
21. Billy Joel, Captain Jack
22. T. Rex, Jeepster
23. Streetheart, Here Comes The Night
24. Van Morrison, Lonely Avenue
25. Chicago, What Else Can I Say
26. Graham Parker & The Rumour, Saturday Nite Is Dead

    My track-by-track tales:

    1. Maria Muldaur, Get Up, Get Ready . . . OK, it’s 7 am. I’m up. I’m ready. On with the show. She’s arguably best known for her 1973 soft rock/pop hit Midnight At The Oasis but Muldaur is one of many artists who are so much more than one big hit single. Now 80, she’s been active since 1963 in the folk, blues, country, gospel and R & B idioms and besides her own work has contributed, mostly vocals, to albums by, among others, solo work by Jerry Garcia of Grateful Dead fame, Paul Butterfield, Linda Ronstadt and The Doobie Brothers. This is from her Southland Of The Heart album, out in 1998 but she remains current, her most recent release in 2021.
       
    2. Elton John, Tell Me When The Whistle Blows . . . One of my favorite EJ songs, it’s from the 1975 album Captain Fantastic and The Brown Dirty Cowboy. As with most Elton John albums during that halcyon period of the early to mid-1970s, most songs on his records, like this one, could have been hit singles given the quality of what he was releasing at the time. In fact, so prolific and excellent was Elton then, I’ve read that in early 1974, with 1973’s Goodbye Yellow Brick Road album – his second in 1973 after Don’t Shoot Me I’m Only The Piano Player – still riding high, it was decided to stop releasing singles from Yellow Brick Road in order to not risk adversely affecting potential sales of his next album, Caribou, which came out in June 1974.
       
    3. The Rolling Stones, Sway . . . onnnne, twooooo, threeee, fouuurrrrr . . . da na na na na na (guitar) bang bang (drums)…that’s my written ‘take’ on Mick Jagger’s wonderfully fatigued-sounding count in into Mick Taylor’s virtuoso lead guitar and soloing, along with Charlie Watts’ drumming . . . So down and dirty, even with Keith Richards, who didn’t play on the song but did help out on backing vocals. Classic raunch and roll Stones, how I like them most.

        

    4. The Beatles, Fixing A Hole . . . One of the great book series to come out in recent years is “All The Songs’. The books aren’t on the level or depth of Bald Boy’s Track-By-Track Tales of course, nothing could be. But, there are myriad interesting stories behind all the songs, at least at the time of book publication, by various major artists, mostly, so far, in the classic rock area. The books are big, fat, thick, full of info way beyond other such books I’ve accumulated over the years and so far I’ve got four of them: Beatles, Stones, Pink Floyd and Bob Dylan but they’ve been popping up like mushrooms after a good rain. We’ll see how my bank account holds up but I’ve so far seen (and web searched) others on Led Zeppelin, Bruce Springsteen, Elton John, David Bowie, Queen and Prince. Zeppelin I may get, or I may pass on, since it’ll just get me riled again about their plagiarism. Or give me fuel for more diatribes. Springsteen I like a lot but maybe not enough. Elton John, I perused it in a bookstore – where I read that tidbit mentioned earlier about holding back singles as a new album approached release date. But the reality is it’s not worth it to me because I really don’t give a shit for Elton John’s music after the 1970s, aside from the occasional decent single but even then, that ended for me in the 1980s. Bowie, yes, eventually. Queen, sure. As with Bowie, I’m more a 70s Queen fan but their later stuff, especially the Innuendo album which I’ve drawn from for the show and harkens back to early Queen, is worthy enough. Prince? No. I respect his work, I realize his impact and greatness but beyond a few songs, sorry, I’ve tried, not for me although a must watch on YouTube is his mind-blowing guitar soloing on a live version of Beatle George Harrison’s While My Guitar Gently Weeps while teamed up with Tom Petty, Jeff Lynne and others. Other than that performance, all I can name, off the top of my head and I do like these, are When Doves Cry, Purple Rain and Raspberry Beret which Hindu Love Gods (Warren Zevon and members of R.E.M.) did to great effect.

       So, the point of my out of control ramble? Well, not sure how well known this story is, I’m fairly up on Beatles lore and I’d never heard it. Or maybe I’d forgotten it. Anyway, so Paul McCartney writes Fixing A Hole, which people thought was about heroin (the title, get it?) but Macca said was merely about pot but the lyrics are also about McCartney’s growing annoyance with the intrusiveness of Beatles fans. So he’s got the song pretty much ready to go and is just about off to the studio to join the other Fabs to record it, when who knocks on his door but Jesus. Yes, Christ. Or, at least, someone claiming to be the Son of God. So Paul humors him, invites him in for tea and says he, Jesus, can attend the recording session if he keeps quiet. Which is interesting in that Paul and the other Beatles didn’t much like Yoko Ono sitting around, attached to John Lennon, during reording sessions. Anyway, off Paul and Jesus go and, as the book says, one more miracle for the Sgt. Pepper album. But of course the Jesus story is all BS, or Jesus couldn’t perform miracles, because as we all know, Paul was killed in a car crash around 1966 – the real reason The Beatles stopped touring then – and was replaced by a look-alike, which accounts for later middling albums like, say, Wings Wild Life. It’s true. I have a book on that subject. It’s called The Walrus Was Paul: The Great Beatle Death Clues. A fun read.
       

    5. Stillwater, Mind Bender . . . Talking box guitar extravaganza by a Georgia band whose brief shining moment was this track from their self-titled 1977 album. I pulled it from a southern rock compilation album I bought ages ago. The set features well-known bands like the Allmans and Lynyrd Skynyrd but also relatively obsure material like Stillwater.
       
    6. Dixie Dregs, Refried Funky Chicken . . . Definitely funky, this almost prog-jazz excursion from another Georgia band, well-known for guitarist Steve Morse who went on to latter-day incarations of Deep Purple.
       
    7. The Ozark Mountain Daredevils, E.E. Lawson . . . Great swamp rock song from the band best known for the hit singles Jackie Blue and If You Wanna Get To Heaven. This one’s from the band’s second album, It’ll Shine When It Shines, which included Jackie Blue and was released in 1974. The Daredevils are still around, not only playing but marketing their Ozark Dry Gin through their EE Lawson Distillery.
       
    8. Peter Tosh, Brand New Second Hand . . . I’ve been meaning to get back to some reggae on the show, so here comes a mini-set starting with this one from Tosh’s Legalize It album, his first solo effort after leaving The Wailers.
       
    9. Bob Marley and The Wailers, Concrete Jungle . . . Speaking of which . . . From the Catch A Fire album. Session guitarist to the stars Wayne Perkins, who played the fine solo on Hand Of Fate from The Rolling Stones’ Black and Blue album, handles lead guitar on this Marley song.
       
    10. Sheila Hylton, The Bed’s Too Big Without You . . . The Police dabbled in reggae, so reggae artists dabbled back. Hylton had a No. 35 UK hit in 1981 with her version of the song that was the fourth single from the second Police album, Reggatta de Blanc, released in 1979.
        
    11. The Police, It’s Alright For You . . . From Reggatta de Blanc, one of those songs by a great band that could easily have been a single. It’s arguably as well known as many Police hits.
        
    12. David Lindley, Bye Bye Love . . . A reggae version of the song made famous by The Everly Brothers. It appeared on the late guitarist/string instrumentalist Lindley’s El Rayo-X album, released in 1981 and produced by Jackson Browne, with whom Lindley had a long association dating to the 1970s. In addition to his solo work, Lindley was a contributor to a vast catalogue of recordings by artists like Linda Ronstadt and Warren Zevon, among many others. It’s an impressive resume.
        
    13. Sea Level, Storm Warning . . . Funky jazz rock instrumental from the Allman Brothers Band offshoot led by keyboardist Chuck Leavell. The band, so named as a pun – C. Leavell – on Leavell’s name, released five studio albums between 1977 and 1981. Leavell, who joined the Allmans for their Brothers and Sisters album in 1973, has toured and recorded with Eric Clapton, George Harrison, David Gilmour and another Allmans offshoot, Gov’t Mule, among others. He’s been a regular sideman with The Rolling Stones on both tours and albums since 1982.
        
    14. Rush, The Way The Wind Blows . . . Propulsive song, rising and falling in intensity throughout its six-plus minutes, from 2007’s Snakes And Arrows album. It was late drummer Neil Peart’s favorite from the album and features his usual fine work, complemented by nice guitar licks from Alex Lifeson and Geddy Lee’s understated vocals – a respite for some who aren’t fond of some of his more histrionic excursions.
        
    15. Junkhouse, Flood . . . Mid-tempo burner from what turned out to be the Canadian band’s final studio album, 1997’s Fuzz. Leader Tom Wilson has gone on to myriad projects including solo work, Blackie and The Rodeo Kings with Colin Linden and Stephen Fearing and Lee Harvey Osmond with members of Cowboy Junkies and Skydiggers. I ran into him at the cash in a coffee shop in Kitchener some years ago, the morning after Junkhouse reunited to play the blues festival. Just a quick “I admire your work’ chat with a modest, humble, great artist.
        
    16. Bruce Springsteen, Lost In The Flood . . . Majestic, epic in its five minutes, apocalyptic story song, in part about a war veteran, from Springsteen’s early days, his 1973 debut Greetings From Asbury Park N.J. It’s the kind of song one might discover one day or night, you maybe don’t know an album well but you might be alone at home, you decide to put it on, preferably with headphones, no distractions, and just let it all – lyrics and sparse music – wash over you and seep into your consciousness. That happened with me, years ago, with Bob Dylan’s Sad Eyed Lady Of The Lowlands from Blonde on Blonde. Same thing with this tune on a Springsteen album that, perhaps like many people, I came to later – along with his second 1973 release The Wild, The Innocent & The E Street Shuffle – after he broke big with Born To Run in 1975. That’s often the case. An artist has a breakthrough commercial success, prompting some of us into deeper investigation of the back catalog, if there is one, then you move forward with each subsequent new release.
        
    17. The Law, Laying Down The Law . . . A Paul Rodgers-penned tune, naturally enough perhaps Bad Company-like, from the one and only self-titled album he did in collaboration, under the moniker The Law, with former Faces and Who drummer Kenney Jones. The record came out in early 1991, Laying Down The Law was a hit single, at least in the US, but the album otherwise bombed, and plans for a second release were shelved. Among those appearing on the album, although not on this track, were guitarists David Gilmour and Chris Rea. Also in the backup band was latter day Who and prolific session bassist Pino Paladino.
        
    18. The Clash, The Guns Of Brixton . . . One of my favorite Clash songs, from London Calling, a pulsating reggae groove about real life events. Written and sung, in a rare lead vocal performance, by bass player Paul Simenon, who grew up in the Brixton area of London. “When they kick at your front door, how you gonna come, with your hands on your head or on the trigger of your gun . . . ” At the time, The Clash may truly have been, as their publicity suggested, the only band that mattered.
        
    19. Chris Whitley, Living With The Law . . . Title cut from the late great but perhaps underappreciated/relatively unknown American singer songwriter/guitarist’s 1991 debut album. Whitley died of lung cancer in 2005 at age 45 but left us a lengthy discography although it’s his debut that remains my favorite. The album has a Canadian connection, produced by musician/producer/recording engineer Malcom Burn, who played keyboards and tambourine on the record, at Daniel Lanois’ Kingsway Studio in New Orleans.
        
    20. Elvis Costello, My Dark Life . . . A collaboration with Brian Eno, the spooky soundscape appeared on the X-Files TV show-themed record Songs In The Key Of X released in 1996. It later appeared on the Costello compilation Extreme Honey and on a bonus disc on a 2001 re-release of his 1996 studio album All This Useless Beauty.
        
    21. Billy Joel, Captain Jack . . . The title cut from Joel’s 1973 album Piano Man gets most of the acclaim, and deservedly so, but Captain Jack is probably my favorite on the album and might be my favorite Joel song, period. It’s one of those songs that wasn’t a single, at more than seven minutes long that would be unusual although not unheard of, but became well known back in the heyday of commercial FM radio, when album tracks and indeed full albums were played. The song’s popularity originally stemmed from a Philadelphia radio station having Joel on for a studio concert in 1972, after which the sation continued to play the live version it had recorded. It caught the attention of major record labels, and the rest is history. It’s akin to how a Cleveland station helped break Rush beyond Canada, in 1974, by playing the song Working Man from the debut album.
        
    22. T. Rex, Jeepster . . . Second single from the Electric Warrior album, whose big hit everywhere – and often the only T. Rex song you ever seem to hear, at least in North America – was Get It On, retitled Bang A Gong (Get It On) in the US to avoid conflict with the song Get It On by the 1970s jazz rock group Chase. Chase’s Get It On is a good song, too. So is Jeepster by T. Rex, which has far more to offer than just Get It On, however one titles it.
        
    23. Streetheart, Here Comes The Night . . . Streetheart cover of the song made famous by Van Morrison’s Them. It was written by Bert Berns, an American songwriter/producer whose many credits included Twist and Shout, Piece of My Heart, Hang On Sloopy, Cry To Me and Everybody Needs Somebody To Love. What else might have been – Berns, who had heart issues resulting from contracting rheumatic fever during childhood, died of heart failure in 1967 at age 38.
        
    24. Van Morrison, Lonely Avenue . . . Cover of the Doc Pomus tune, an R & B hit for Ray Charles in 1956. Van The Man did it justice, including some great saxophone and harmoica playing, on his solid 1993 album Too Long In Exile.
        
    25. Chicago, What Else Can I Say . . . Yes, I know that, when I play Chicago, I usually draw from their first three albums. What can I say, they’re easily my favorites, amazing stuff. This one’s from Chicago III.
        
    26. Graham Parker & The Rumour, Saturday Nite Is Dead . . . From Parker’s great 1979 album Squeezing Out Sparks, where it was listed as ‘nite’. Some compilations have it as ‘night’. In any event, a raving rocker, for sure, about Parker’s formative years in suburbia, written and sung when Parker was still an angry young man along with his contemporaries Elvis Costello and Joe Jackson. It’s interesting looking back now at what Parker said then about his song. “It’s a pretty angry song delivered in a very angry way. Attitude is what’s behind it. If you sing in a sort of wimpy attitude, that shows you’ve been distorted by getting old, that shows you’ve mellowed, more than the specifics of the songs.” He did eventually mellow, as perhaps most of us do as we inevitably age although there are many artists, Neil Young comes to mind, who can and do still kick butt with edgy stuff as they age. In Parker’s case, at least, the more he mellowed in his music, which became bland to me by the mid-1980s, the more he lost me. But we still have the old and angry stuff, so his legacy is secure.

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

1. Taste, Blister On The Moon
2. Deep Purple, Comin’ Home
3. The Kinks, The Hard Way
4. Budgie, Truth Drug
5. The Rolling Stones, Citadel
6. Pete Townshend, I Am An Animal
7. Led Zeppelin, The Lemon Song
8. Jeff Beck Group, Ice Cream Cakes
9. Cream, World Of Pain
10. Steppenwolf, The Ostrich
11. April Wine, Weeping Widow
12. Yes, Does It Really Happen?
13. Genesis, Squonk
14. Triumph, Blinding Light Show/Moonchild
15. Bob Seger, Love The One You’re With
16. Stephen Stills, Blind Fiddler Medley
17. Steve Earle, The Week Of Living Dangerously
18. Dave Edmunds, Queen Of Hearts
19. Bob Dylan, Union Sundown
20. Jimi Hendrix, Johnny B. Goode (live, from Hendrix In The West)
21. Spooky Tooth, Fantasy Satisfier
22. Paul Simon, Take Me To The Mardi Gras
23. Savoy Brown, Leavin’ Again
24. Cheap Trick, Auf Wiedersehen (live, from At Budokan: The Complete Concert expanded reissue)

    My track-by-track tales:

    1. Taste, Blister On The Moon . . . The genesis of playing this track by the band Rory Gallagher led before he went solo has roots in the Valles Marineris system of canyons on Mars. Hang with me and all will be revealed. I had in mind to play a Taste track but couldn’t decide on which one. Then, I was watching a documentary about Mars on Saturday night while starting to prep the show and of course the canyons came up. Essentially, it’s a big rip in the surface of the planet. So, I thought, rip, blister . . . And here we are. One might ask, if I was watching a documentary about Mars why did I not then play David Bowie’s Life On Mars? Well, because I didn’t think of it until I started writing this, I’ve set up my show and so maybe Bowie’s tune finds its way into a future set. As for the Taste track, typically fine guitar from Gallagher, I love the sort of here comes the riff from this side, then that side, nature of it, before the vocals come in. And it’s not a speaker effect, simply the way he plays it.
       
    2. Deep Purple, Comin’ Home . . . To each their own but I’ve never understood Deep Purple fans who claim or lament that the band moved away from hard rock towards funk and R & B starting with the so-called Mk. III version of the band that debuted with 1974’s Burn album and featuring singer David Coverdale and bassist/singer Glenn Hughes. Burn, the title cut, rocks like crazy. As does Stormbringer, the title song from the next album. As does Comin’ Home, from the one and only album the band did with Tommy Bolin replacing Ritchie Blackmore on guitar. Sure, the band did change direction, which I think was a positive thing demonstrating versatility, but to suggest they lost the ability to rock is ridiculous.
       
    3. The Kinks, The Hard Way . . . It can be difficult sometimes to pull single tracks from a concept album and have them still make sense. But The Hard Way, a terrific riff rocker from The Kinks’ 1975 Schoolboys In Disgrace record, is at least one definite exception. The band loved playing it live and it was used as the opener for at least some shows on their Low Budget album tour that yielded the One For The Road live record in 1980.
       
    4. Budgie, Truth Drug . . . Great guitar shredding on this one from Welsh hard rockers Budgie’s 1982 album Deliver Us From Evil. It’s got a touch of the overproduced 1980s production sound I am not fond of but the guitar work salvages things for me. It’s the type of sound and album that, at the time, likely lumped Budgie in with bands they’d influenced, the so-called New Wave Of British Heavy Metal (NWOBHM). Yet this was Budgie’s 10^th album by then and their roots go as far back as 1967. So, I suppose it could be argued they were pandering a bit to the newer sounds.
       
    5. The Rolling Stones, Citadel . . . The prevailing, accepted wisdom has always been that the Stones Satanic Majesties album is crap, a poor imitation of The Beatles’ Sgt. Pepper and so on. Even the band dismisses it – although they obviously thought enough of it to play 2000 Light Years From Home on the 1989-90 Steel Wheels/Urban Jungle tour, to great effect with lighting and such. Granted, I’m a huge Stones fan so take my opinions for what you may think they are worth but. . . It’s a good album. Sure, maybe it was inspired by and sort of a copy of The Beatles’ Sgt. Pepper but 1. The actual album, the songs, are not at all like Sgt. Pepper. 2. Given Brit sensibilities and sense of humor, it’s quite possible it’s, as the Brits say, a sendup (spoof) of Pepper, especially the cover. 3. The boys were heavy into drugs at the time. 4. Citadel has a great guitar riff, typical Stones, really, and is one of many worthwhile songs on the album. Like 2000 Light Years From Home, 2000 Man, The Lantern, She’s A Rainbow and, yes, even Bill Wyman’s In Another Land.
       
    6. Pete Townshend, I Am An Animal . . . From Empty Glass, Townshend’s brilliant and still arguably best solo album, from 1980. But if you were another member of The Who at the time you’d no doubt be wondering why Pete was saving his best stuff for his solo career. I’ll forever remember this tune for the lyric “I will be immersed, queen of the effing universe.” Back then, such lyrics made you sit up and take notice.
       
    7. Led Zeppelin, The Lemon Song . . . I’m not going to get into Zep’s plagiarism issues this time. I probably do it too much. They apply to this song, too. You can read all about it. From Zep II, good song, nice riff.
       
    8. Jeff Beck Group, Ice Cream Cakes . . . From 1972’s self-titled album, the so-called ‘orange album’ due to the fruit atop the cover art. It was the second and final record from the second version of the Jeff Beck Group featuring singer Bobby Tench, drummer Cozy Powell and keyboardist Max Middleton before the ever eclectic late great guitarist Beck moved on to Beck, Bogert & Appice and then jazz fusion and instrumental rock excursions via such albums as Blow By Blow, Wired and beyond.
       
    9. Cream, World Of Pain . . . Bluesy psychedelia from 1967’s Disraeli Gears, the album that featured the hits Strange Brew and Sunshine Of Your Love. World Of Pain was co-written by producer Felix Pappalardi – later the bassist in Mountain – and his wife Gail Collins, who in 1983 shot and killed Pappalardi after he had returned from being with his girlfriend. Supposedly, Collins and Pappalardi had an open marriage but perhaps not as open as Pappalardi thought.
       
    10. Steppenwolf, The Ostrich . . . Rocker from the band’s debut album, 1968. It covers lots of ground, lyrically: societal programming, expectations and groupthink, censorship, environmental issues and more. The words still apply today, and forever.
        
    11. April Wine, Weeping Widow . . . Rocking second single from 1973’s Electric Jewels album, it made No. 4 in home country Canada after Lady Run, Lady Hide hit No. 19 on the national charts.
        
    12. Yes, Does It Really Happen? . . . What? So said the progressive rock world in 1980. Jon Anderson and Rick Wakeman are out and The Buggles boys of Video Killed The Radio Star fame Trevor Horn and Geoff Downes are now in Yes? So, er, yes, it really happened and, well, so? Turned out the new blood Buggles helped kick the brand out of its complacency while producing a kick butt, almost metallic progressive rock album that is among my favorites – and that of many I’ve talked to – by the band. As for Yes lineup changes, read the history. Fascinating stuff, but you might need a family tree spreadsheet to keep it all coherent.
        
    13. Genesis, Squonk . . . Perhaps my favorite Genesis song, played it on the show long ago, so it’s about time for a replay. It’s from A Trick Of The Tail, the first album after original lead singer Peter Gabriel left to go solo. The questions as to whether Genesis could successfully continue were quickly answered in the affirmative.
        
    14. Triumph, Blinding Light Show/Moonchild . . . I admit I’m not much of a Triumph fan. But I do like some of their stuff, particularly Rock & Roll Machine, Lay It On The Line, their cover of Joe Walsh’s Rocky Mountain Way and this progressive hard rock epic from their 1976 debut album.
        
    15. Bob Seger, Love The One You’re With . . . A souped up version of the Stephen Stills song from before Seger broke big beyond his home state of Michigan and environs. It was released on 1972’s Smokin’ O.P.’s (other people’s songs) on what is for the most part a covers album.
        
    16. Stephen Stills, Blind Fiddler Medley . . . Speaking of Stills, from Stills Alone, his excellent 1991 album. Just him and his guitar, with percussion on some tracks. One of those albums I bought on a ‘let’s give it a try’ basis when I saw it in a used bin years ago and what a treasure it is.
        
    17. Steve Earle, The Week Of Living Dangerously . . . Up tempo country rock, from Earle’s second album, Exit 0, released in 1987. Earle’s voice to me, like that of Bob Dylan, Van Morrison or John Fogerty, is one of those that is truly an instrument in itself. His music, like that of the others mentioned, isn’t the same if he’s not singing it.
        
    18. Dave Edmunds, Queen Of Hearts . . . From Repeat When Necessary, Edmunds’ 1979 album recorded concurrently with Nick Lowe’s Labour of Lust by the members of Rockpile – Edmunds, Lowe, guitarist Billy Bremner and drummer Terry Williams. The song, which in 1981 resulted in a big hit for Juice Newton, was written by Hank Devito, for many years the pedal steel guitarist in Emmylou Harris’s band.
        
    19. Bob Dylan, Union Sundown . . . Rocker featuring Dylan’s typically cynically and wonderfully enunciated lyrics, from 1983’s Infidels album. Guitarists Mark Knopfler of Dire Straits and Mick Taylor of Rolling Stones fame join him on the album, co-produced by Knopfler and Dylan. Also on board are the noted Jamaican rhythm section team of Sly and Robbie – drummer Sly Dunbar and the late bass player Robbie Shakespeare.
        
    20. Jimi Hendrix, Johnny B. Goode (live, from Hendrix In The West) . . . Speed rock version of the Chuck Berry classic.
        
    21. Spooky Tooth, Fantasy Satisfier . . . Nice guitar riffing from future Foreigner leader Mick Jones on this one from 1974’s The Mirror album.
        
    22. Paul Simon, Take Me To The Mardi Gras . . . From the There Goes Rhymin’ Simon album, 1973. Mardi Gras was a single but only charted in the UK. Jazz keyboardist Bob James did an instrumental version two years later that has since been widely sampled by hip hop artists.
        
    23. Savoy Brown, Leavin’ Again . . . For some reason, whenever I play Spooky Tooth, see song 21, I think of Savoy Brown, and vice-versa. Both great if perhaps underappreciated bands. This lengthy, bluesy jam was on 1970’s Looking In album, after which all band members but leader/guitarist Kim Simmonds left to form Foghat. Simmonds then rebuilt Savoy Brown using some former members of fellow British blues band Chicken Shack, not including Christine McVie who had already joined post-Peter Green versions of Fleetwood Mac.
        
    24. Cheap Trick, Auf Wiedersehen (live, from At Budokan: The Complete Concert expanded reissue) . . . As the song title says, see ya.

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

1. Lou Reed, Hangin’ ‘Round
2. Eric Burdon & The Animals, St. James Infirmary
3. Simon and Garfunkel, Fakin’ It
4. David Bowie, After All
5. Jeff Beck Group, I’ve Been Used
6. Nina Simone, Don’t Let Me Be Misunderstood
7. Elton John, I’ve Seen That Movie Too
8. Solomon Burke, Cry To Me
9. The Butterfield Blues Band, I Got A Mind To Give Up Living
10. Iron Butterfly, In The Time Of Our Lives
11. Faces, Wicked Messenger
12. Creedence Clearwater Revival, Penthouse Pauper
13. Free, Walk In My Shadow
14. Humble Pie, Beckton Dumps
15. Aerosmith, Combination
16. The Byrds, Medley: Turn! Turn! Turn! (To Everything There Is A Season)/Mr. Tambourine Man/Eight Miles High (live)
17. R.E.M., Alligator Aviator Autopilot Antimatter
18. Mountain, Bardot Damage
19. ZZ Top, 2000 Blues
20. Jimi Hendrix, Cherokee Mist
21. Eric Clapton, Mean Old Frisco
22. Moby Grape, Hoochie
23. Manfred Mann’s Earth Band, Circles
24. Rare Earth, In Bed
25. Jethro Tull, Cold Wind To Valhalla
26. T Bone Burnett, Shut It Tight
27. Boogaloo & His Gallant Crew, Cops and Robbers
28. The Rolling Stones, Gotta Get Away

    My track-by-track tales:

    1. Lou Reed, Hangin’ ‘Round . . . Rocker from Reed’s breakthrough solo album Transformer, released in 1972 and produced by admirers of Reed’s Velvet Underground David Bowie and guitarist Mick Ronson, then a member of Bowie’s band. Bowie and Ronson were among the musicians on the record, along with longtime Beatles’ associate and former Manfred Mann bassist Klaus Voormann.
       
    2. Eric Burdon & The Animals, St. James Infirmary . . . Psychedelic blues on this traditional tune arranged by Burdon. It appeared on 1968’s Every One Of Us album. Burdon is forever involved in great music, whether it be the early British Invasion days of The Animals, the psychedelic phase under the moniker Eric Burdon & The Animals, his funk rock explorations with War and his solo work. He put on a great show when I saw him at the 2016 Kitchener Blues Festival, which he also played in 2007. I admittedly have some catching up to do on his solo stuff. His most recent studio work came in 2013 but I can say that his 2004 album, My Secret Life, which I found for about a buck at a flea market years ago, is excellent. I’ve played some stuff from it before and ought to get back to it for the show.
       
    3. Simon and Garfunkel, Fakin’ It . . . From the Bookends album, which was recorded gradually, starting in 1966 until its release in April of 1968 although many of the songs came out earlier as singles, as Fakin’ It did in August of 1967. It gets somewhat confusing as, for instance, the hit single Mrs. Robinson is on Bookends but also, in different form, on the soundtrack album to the movie The Graduate, which came out in 1967 when Mrs. Robinson, the song, was still a work in progress. I direct you to the internet for further reading. As for Fakin’ It, it’s a well-known tune, the early part of it sounds a bit like The Mamas and The Papas to me, or they sounded like Simon and Garfunkel.
       
    4. David Bowie, After All . . . Psychedelic folk rock from The Man Who Sold The World album, the 1970 record (1971 release in the UK) that marked the first appearance of guitarist Mick Ronson on a Bowie record. Lots of Bowie and Ronson in what’s turning into something of a family tree set. See song No. 1.
       
    5. Jeff Beck Group, I’ve Been Used . . . Stomper from 1971’s Rough and Ready, the first album released by the second Jeff Beck Group. Rod Stewart and Ron Wood were now in the Faces while Beck’s new lineup featured drummer Cozy Powell, later of Rainbow, various incarnations of Black Sabbath, Emerson, Lake and Powell and other projects, and singer Bobby Tench. Alex Ligertwood, later lead vocalist in various stints with Santana between 1979 and 1994, was to be the Beck group’s singer but apparently the record company didn’t like his vocals. I think the right choice was made. I prefer Tench’s raunchier approach but then I preferred Gregg Rolie’s singing on the first few Santana records, still my favorites, to Ligertwood’s poppier, to my ears, vocals although of course Santana has had various singers over time.
       
    6. Nina Simone, Don’t Let Me Be Misunderstood . . . What an emotive vocal performance on this original 1964 version. But that was Simone, what a singer. The Animals had a big hit with the song a year later. It’s been covered by many artists including Joe Cocker on his 1969 debut album With A Little Help From My Friends and Elvis Costello on King Of America in 1986.
    7. Elton John, I’ve Seen That Movie Too . . . Another of the many terrific deep cuts on the Goodbye Yellow Brick Road album.
       
    8. Solomon Burke, Cry To Me . . . From the late great R & B/soul singer. It’s the first of two tracks I’m pulling from a CD of songs covered by The Rolling Stones that came with a MOJO Magazine issue I bought years ago. I’ve got some Solomon Burke on his own, including Cry To Me, but such compilation CDs on many of the excellent UK magazines, like MOJO, Uncut, Classic Rock etc. are often revelatory, usually tied to articles in the publication. Cry To Me was included on the 1965 Stones album Out Of Our Heads, one of the few songs that appeared on both the UK and US versions of that record, which had a different cover on either side of the pond. Those were the days when track listings, album covers and even album names of British Invasion bands were often different due in part to the UK practice of singles not usually appearing on albums, leading to repackaging for the North American market done by the record companies. So you wound up with early period US/North American albums like the Stones’ 12 X 5 and December’s Children (And Everybody’s), Beatles ’65, Beatles VI, etc.
       
    9. The Butterfield Blues Band, I Got A Mind To Give Up Living . . . “I’ve got a mind to give up living and go shopping instead . . . ” Nice opening line to this traditional blues tune from the band’s second album, East-West. It was the last of the group’s records to feature the twin guitar attack of Mike Bloomfield and Elvin Bishop. Bloomfield left after East-West to form The Electric Flag.
       
    10. Iron Butterfly, In The Time Of Our Lives . . . Spooky psychedelic rock from the Ball album, 1969.
        
    11. Faces, Wicked Messenger . . . Typically raunchy Faces treatment of the Bob Dylan tune from his 1967 John Wesley Harding album, although it’s titled The
        Wicked Messenger on the Dylan record. It appeared on 1970’s First Step album, the first to feature Rod Stewart and Rod Wood from the original Jeff Beck Group. They joined the remnants of the Small Faces (Ronnie Lane, Kenney Jones and Ian McLagan) after Steve Marriott left Small Faces to form Humble Pie.
        
    12. Creedence Clearwater Revival, Penthouse Pauper . . . Down and dirty raunch from Bayou Country, CCR’s second album overall and first of three (!) equally consistent records the band released in 1969. The others were Green River and Willy and the Poor Boys, all stuffed with classic singles like Proud Mary, Bad Moon Rising, Green River, Down On The Corner, Fortunate Son . . . and fine deep cuts like Penthouse Pauper. Amazing band, CCR, amazing songwriter, John Fogerty.
        
    13. Free, Walk In My Shadow . . . Blues rock from 1969’s debut album Tons Of Sobs. All the band members – Paul Rodgers (vocals), Paul Kossoff (guitar), Andy Fraser (bass) and Simon Kirke (drums) were still in their late teens while recording the record.
        
    14. Humble Pie, Beckton Dumps . . . I didn’t really realize it until getting into my track tales, but as touched on earlier, there’s a lot of connective tissue in today’s set. Accidentally on purpose, perhaps, or something like that, since I was really just randomly picking songs although my mind does tend to naturally work that way with music, and writing. So we have Lou Reed to Bowie and Mick Ronson, Nina Simone to The Animals, Jeff Beck to the Faces to . . . Humble Pie with this one from the Eat It album, released in 1973. Beckton, part of Greater London, is where Humble Pie guitarist/singer Steve Marriott grew up.

    15. Aerosmith, Combination . . . Everything on the Rocks album er, rocks. Great record. Lead guitarist Joe Perry shares vocals with Steven Tyler.
        
    16. The Byrds, Medley: Turn! Turn! Turn! (To Everything There Is A Season)/Mr. Tambourine Man/Eight Miles High (live) . . . Aerosmith’s Combination leads into . . . a combination of songs. I don’t usually play hits, this being a deep cuts show. But this near 10-minute medley, recorded in 1969 but not released commercially until the Live At The Fillmore February 1969 album came out in 2000, is something of a deep cut. It’s a later Byrds lineup and worth the price of admission for the playing of lead guitarist Clarence White alone. White had joined the group for the Dr. Byrds & Mr. Hyde studio album the same year.
        
    17. R.E.M., Alligator Aviator Autopilot Antimatter . . . Blistering rocker in the vein of What’s The Frequency, Kenneth? from what turned out to be the band’s last studio album, 2011’s Collapse Into Now. Could easily have been a single, but wasn’t.
        
    18. Mountain, Bardot Damage . . . Mountain had been dormant, studio recording-wise, since 1974 until the Go For Your Life album came out in 1985 although Leslie West had been doing solo material. The album was pretty much ignored, making it to No. 166 on the charts. I don’t own it, but I do own a comprehensive 2CD Mountain compilation, Over The Top, on which the song appears. It’s what you’d expect of a project involving guitarist/singer West, hard-rocking pyrotechnics that thankfully largely avoids the overproduction of so much 1980s material.
        
    19. ZZ Top, 2000 Blues . . . Even at the height of their synthesizer period, ZZ Top still featured the occasional bluesy rock track on their albums, harkening back to their earlier days. I Need You Tonight, from the 1983 commercial monster Eliminator album featuring such hits as Legs comes to mind. By 1990’s Recyler, the band was heading back, at least to some degree, in their original direction, evidenced by 2000 Blues. Like I Need You Tonight, it made the grade for the group’s 1994 compilation One Foot In The Blues alongside such early material as Brown Sugar (not the Stones’ song) from their first album and Sure Got Cold After The Rain Fell, from Rio Grande Mud.
        
    20. Jimi Hendrix, Cherokee Mist . . . Just Hendrix on guitar and sitar along with drummer Mitch Mitchell on this brooding seven-minute instrumental recorded in May, 1968. It remained officially unreleased until the Both Sides Of The Sky album, yet another posthumous but worthwhile batch of archival material, came out in 2018.
        
    21. Eric Clapton, Mean Old Frisco . . . Cover of a blues tune written by Arthur Cruddup, whose That’s All Right became Elvis Presley’s first single, released in 1954. Mean Old Frisco appeared on Clapton’s 1977 album Slowhand, well known for Lay Down Sally, Wonderful Tonight and a cover of J.J. Cale’s Cocaine.
        
    22. Moby Grape, Hoochie . . . Toe-tapping rocker from the San Francisco band’s ’69 album, issued in, wait for it, 1969. A good driving down the highway tune.
        
    23. Manfred Mann’s Earth Band, Circles . . . Progressive sort of rocker from the band’s Watch album, released in 1978. It wasn’t a single, but later wound up on some compilations. Watch was original drummer Chris Slade’s last album with the Earth Band, which formed in 1971 and was a different entity than the earlier Manfred Mann of such hits as Do Wah Diddy Diddy and Mighty Quinn, their retitled cover of Bob Dylan’s The Mighty Quinn (Quinn The Eskimo). Slade, in a massive missed opportunity by both parties, was never in the band Slade. Both Slades are still around, so there’s always hope. Chris Slade did go on to stints with AC/DC, notably on the Razors Edge album, and The Firm with Jimmy Page and Paul Rodgers.
        
    24. Rare Earth, In Bed . . . Nice groove on this one from the second Rare Earth album, Get Ready, released in 1969. Only an edited version of the epic, 21-minute title cut was given a single release although In Bed is on various compilations and I seem to recall hearing it a fair bit on radio.
        
    25. Jethro Tull, Cold Wind To Valhalla . . . From 1975’s Minstrel In The Gallery album. It’s one of those songs, among many of course but perhaps more than most, that demonstrate all of what Tull at its best brings to the table. Progressive rock, folk rock, heavy rock, all in one four-minutes and change trip.
        
    26. T Bone Burnett, Shut It Tight . . . Countryish folk rock tune from T Bone’s 1983 album Proof Through The Night. The record featured contributions from a host of noted guitarists including Ry Cooder, Pete Townshend and, there he is again with a mention in this set, Mick Ronson. The guy was everywhere, but not on this track. It’s Richard Thompson of Fairport Convention fame doing the honors.
        
    27. Boogaloo & His Gallant Crew, Cops and Robbers . . . Second cut, covered by The Rolling Stones in the early days and a hit for Bo Diddley, from that MOJO mag CD I mentioned earlier. Boogaloo was the stage name for American songwriter and record producer Kent Harris, who died in 2019 at age 88.
        
    28. The Rolling Stones, Gotta Get Away . . . Critics often dismiss this early mid-tempo number by the Jagger-Richards songwriting team. Appreciation of the arts is subjective, of course, and I’ve always liked it although as a huge fan of the band, I’m likely the wrong person to ask to differentiate between great and not so great Stones songs. OK, I will say I’m not too big on Summer Romance and Where The Boys Go, both on the Emotional Rescue album, two that immediately come to mind. Good playing, as always, listenable enough but they seem to me to be formulaic throwaways. Back to Gotta Get Away: It was the B-side to As Tears Go By in the US and was on the UK version of the Out Of Our Heads album. In the US, it was on the aformentioned (see my take on song No. 8 in my list) December’s Children (And Everybody’s) record, which used the same cover photo of the band that was used for Out Of Our Heads in the UK. Whole book chapters have been written on this title/album configuration/cover art thing. Well, as the song says, gotta get away. Until Monday’s show . . . Happy Easter, everyone.