A three-headed monster mash featuring 1980 albums by Teenage Head and Talking Heads plus Headstones’ 2022 release Flight Risk. To quote the opening line from Teenage Head’s Disgusteen: Nice day for a party, isn’t it? Which I did a fair bit of with Frantic City by Teenage Head and Talking Heads’ Remain In Light as a soundtrack during college daze, including seeing Teenage Head live when they played at my school.

So Old It’s New show archive

Facebook page

Teenage Head – Frantic City

1. Wild One
2. Somethin’ On My Mind
3. Total Love
4. Let’s Shake
5. Infected
6. Those Things You Do
7. Somethin’ Else
8. Take It
9. Brand New Cadillac
10. Disgusteen – notable not only for “Nice day for a party, isn’t it?” but the conversation with the dark side, adapted from The Exorcist:

Come on in, Father Karras.
Regan’s inside here with me, she’s going nowhere.
But please, it’s so cold, you must let her go.
She’s not going anywhere.
Not till I’m finished with her, you understand.
Just untie my hands,
Let me free, I’ll show you the power
The power of Christ doesn’t compel anyone, not today, understand.

Talking Heads – Remain In Light

1. Born Under Punches (The Heat Goes On)
2. Crosseyed And Painless
3. The Great Curve
4. Once In A Lifetime
5. Houses In Motion
6. Seen And Not Seen
7. Listening Wind
8. The Overload

Headstones – Flight Risk

1. Headlight Holds A Deer
2. Everything Or Nothing At All
3. Flight Risk
4. When It Goes Badly
5. Tangled
6. Hotel Room
7. Neon Rome
8. Ashes
9. Psychotropic
10. Pilot Light
11. Rink

A program split between ‘fool’ songs, including several from the Deep Purple family, in advance of April Fool’s Day tomorrow, and some random fare. Some of the ‘fool’ songs are repeats from a Saturday morning show I did on April 1, 2023. My track-by-track tales follow the bare-bones list.

So Old It’s New show archive

Facebook page

1. Quicksilver Messenger Service, The Fool
2. Deep Purple, Fools
3. Deep Purple, You Fool No One, live from Made In Europe
4. Whitesnake, Fool For Your Loving (original 1980 version from Ready An’ Willing album)
5. Peter Green, A Fool No More
6. Joe Jackson, Fool
7. Bobbie Gentry, Find Em, Fool Em, Forget About Em
8. ZZ Top, Made Into A Movie
9. Rod Stewart, Alright For An Hour
10. Jethro Tull, Black Sunday
11. Robert Plant, Wreckless Love
12. Warren Zevon, Bad Luck Streak In Dancing School
13. Moby Grape, Miller’s Blues (live)
14. Nazareth, Telegram (Part 1: On Your Way/Part 2: So You Want To Be A Rock ‘N’ Roll Star/Part 3: Sound Check/Part 4: Here We Are Again)
15. Charlie Watts Quintet . . . Going, Going, Going, Gone

My track-by-track tales:

1. Quicksilver Messenger Service, The Fool . . . My opener this week, a spooky, psychedelic piece that swerves into folk, blues and acid rock, from the San Francisco band’s self-titled 1968 debut that I played late in what became a 28-song set two years ago on April 1. At the time, I marvelled at how many songs have ‘fool’ in their title, particularly deep cuts which are the foundation of my show. Especially when, as I wrote then, I had initially thought I might struggle to fill a set only to find I had four hours’ worth of songs I had to shave down for my two-hour slot.

But it’s not actually April 1 yet so I’m not doing an entire ‘fools’ show this time, as mentioned in my preamble and due to some lengthy songs like this 12-minute voyage, the set is about half the number of tunes, at 15. As for Quicksilver’s The Fool, according to Wikipedia “the multi-sectional, quasi-symphonic psych epic The Fool had begun with lyrics typed on a typewriter during an LSD trip.” And, as I mentioned two years ago, quite the trip it is, in line with what Quicksilver Messenger Service, at least on their various such lengthy tracks like the Who Do You Love suite on the 1969 album Happy Trails, were all about.

2. Deep Purple, Fools . . . A Purple classic in my opinion but, granted, I’m a huge fan of the band, all phases during its long existence. I love the slow, almost sinister buildup until things explode into a hard rocker with progressive accents including the power of Ian Gillan’s vocals, adaptable to any situation, as they were in his prime at the time of the 1971 album Fireball from which Fools comes. Perhaps that’s at least part of why Gillan has said it’s his favorite Purple album although critics tend to find it wanting relatively speaking, coming as it did between the explosive first album of the Mark II Purple unit, In Rock and the Smoke On The Water, Highway Star and other Purple perfections of Machine Head. All I can say is that an album with songs like the title cut, No No No, Strange Kind Of Woman and No One Came along with Fools is equally worthy.

3. Deep Purple, You Fool No One, live from Made In Europe . . . I played this boogie rock tune from the 1974 album Burn the last time I did an April Fool’s show, a four-minutes and change song in its original studio form. I’m going the epic route this time, 16 minutes and 42 seconds from the Made In Europe album, which highlighted the so-called Mark III version of Purple (David Coverdale lead vocals; Glenn Hughes on bass and vocals). Tracks were drawn from the two studio albums done by that lineup – Burn and Stormbringer – during a time when guitarist Ritchie Blackmore was already planning his exit to form Rainbow although he performed remarkably as evidenced on the live material from that Purple period.

Aside from Blackmore’s brilliance and the ever-reliable Ian Paice on drums and Jon Lord on keyboards, it can be risky going with an extended live piece from that era of Purple. Hughes’ vocal histrionics and, particularly, stage patter seemingly trying to upstage Coverdale (although they apparently were and have been great pals) can get annoying. But in fairness, Hughes had come to Purple after being the frontman in Trapeze although from what I’ve read he occasionally had to be reminded that it was Coverdale who was hired as lead singer. That said, I do like his and Coverdale’s tandem vocal work and Hughes’ lead singing efforts in Purple, with Holy Man from Stormbringer a particular standout. Much of Hughes’ solo stuff is worthy as well as are his contributions to hard blues-rocking Black Country Communion alongside guitarist Joe Bonamassa and drummer Jason Bonham.

This live treatment of You Fool No One starts with Blackmore playfully fiddling around with Hava Nagila before he rips into the song proper, then into some Hendrixian pyrotechnics followed by a bluesy interlude before returning to the familiar tune. Along the way is a short drum solo on what became Paice’s showcase in the Mark III version, replacing The Mule from the Ian Gillan-Roger Glover Mark II lineup as heard on the live classic Made In Japan. Made In Europe doesn’t get the accolades of Made In Japan, but as a high school teen at the time, I embraced both albums equally.

4. Whitesnake, Fool For Your Loving (original 1980 version from Ready An’ Willing album) . . . From the bluesy and my favorite phase of Whitesnake, immediately after David Coverdale left Deep Purple after that band’s first and thought at the time to be final breakup. The later ‘hair metal’ version of Whitesnake redid the song in 1989 after the band became big worldwide, particularly in a United States/North America that had, relatively speaking, ignored them to that point. Here I Go Again, originally released in 1982, was also similarly reworked into a ‘hair metal’ hit. I like all the versions but much prefer the less dressed up with studio gunk originals, which in addition to Coverdale also featured original Purple players Ian Paice on drums and Jon Lord on keyboards who by that point had joined Whitesnake. Interestingly, perhaps, the original Fool For Your Loving charted higher (No. 13) in the UK than did the ‘Americanized’ version that hit No. 2 in the US but only No. 43 in the UK. I’m with the UK listeners.

5. Peter Green, A Fool No More . . . Long and slow and intoxicatingly so, a haunting track from the Fleetwood Mac founder’s 1979 album In The Skies.

6. Joe Jackson, Fool . . . It’s rock, it’s jazz, it’s funk, it’s great. It’s the title cut to JJ’s 2019 album Fool as I continue to travel with him wherever he’s gone since his 1979 punk rock/new wave debut album Look Sharp! New wave, rock, reggae/ska, big band, jazz, classical – I’ve always followed, seen him live twice, never been disappointed.

7. Bobbie Gentry, Find Em, Fool Em, Forget About Em . . . From Gentry’s 1970 studio album Fancy. To quote from my April 1, 2023 track tales: Soul country, I suppose one would describe this one from the Ode To Billie Joe singer, one of the first American women to compose and produce her own material. She had 11 chart hits, including Billie Joe, the 1967 No. 1 that propelled her to stardom. Some years ago I was listening to Ode To Billie Joe, amazing song of course, and decided to dig deeper into Gentry’s work. I’ve been reaping the rewards ever since. One of those music mysteries, too. She was active until April, 1982 when she left the industry and essentially disappeared off the face of the earth after appearing at a country music awards show. She’d just had enough, apparently, which I find kinda cool. I’m done, see ya. She’d be 82 now, with various reports having her living in a gated community near Memphis, Tennessee. Or Los Angeles, depending on one’s source. She was once briefly married to casino magnate Bill Harrah and later to Jim Stafford, known for the 1970s hits Spiders & Snakes and the double entendre My Girl Bill.

8. ZZ Top, Made Into A Movie . . . Slow, hard, swampy almost metallic blues from the 1999 album XXX so named to mark the band’s 30th anniversary during a time when ZZ Top was slowly but surely returning to the blues and blues rock from which the band originated. The shift started with the Antenna album in 1994, a departure or at least the beginning of one from the synthesizer phase of massive hit singles/videos like Legs during the 1980s. In terms of sales, the return to their original foundation didn’t help ZZ Top much through albums like XXX, its predecessor Rhythmeen and later efforts like Mescalaro and La Futura, but there’s loads of quality music within.

9. Rod Stewart, Alright For An Hour . . . From Atlantic Crossing, Stewart’s appropriately-titled 1975 album as he’d crossed the ocean – as shown on the cool album cover – in reality and musically. No longer were members of former band Faces backing him, no longer was he maintaining concurrent careers; now it was Stewart and studio musicians, some of whom eventually morphed into what briefly became known as The Rod Stewart Group at least in terms of studio credits. A great funky, swaggering tune on an album that proved to be the launching point for subsequent hit releases A Night On The Town, Footloose And Fancy Free and Blondes Have More Fun.

10. Jethro Tull, Black Sunday . . . Ian Anderson goes into the studio in 1980 intending to record a solo album but, under record company pressure which he’s since been quoted as saying he regrets succumbing to, the album comes out as ‘A’ – ostensibly for Anderson solo as the tapes were apparently marked as such – but as a Jethro Tull release. There are myriad tales about what transpired but in short, the musicians Anderson was using for what he initially planned as a solo album became Jethro Tull, in some ways similar to what’s transpired with Tull in the 2020s since Anderson revived the Tull brand. In 1980, it resulted in the dismissal/departure of such 1970s Tull stalwarts as drummer Barriemore Barlow and keyboardist John Evan, among others. As well, Tull, or Anderson, were moving in a more synthesizer and electronic sounds direction, a precursor to the next few albums: Tull’s The Broadsword And The Beast in 1982, Anderson’s first actual solo album Walk Into Light in 1983 and the full-blown, uncharacteristically sounding synth-pop albeit interesting 1984 Tull album Under Wraps which threw me (and many Tull fans) for a loop at first but I’ve come to appreciate.

All of that said, Black Sunday is an, er, A-list track featuring changing time signatures typical of Tull with an ominous, almost progressive-metal feel in places.

11. Robert Plant, Wreckless Love . . . . Speaking of Tull and Barriemore Barlow, the drummer slaps the skins on this funky cool one from Plant’s 1983 album The Principle Of Moments.

12. Warren Zevon, Bad Luck Streak In Dancing School . . . Rollicking title track to Zevon’s 1980 followup album to 1978’s breakthrough Excitable Boy with its hit single Werewolves Of London and other well-known songs from that record. Zevon managed a minor hit with his cover on Bad Luck Streak In Dancing School of the Yardbirds’ song A Certain Girl, written by Allen Toussaint, both versions of which I’ve previously played. Bad Luck Streak may not have sold as much, nor done as well on the charts but it’s Zevon, which means it’s full of typical witty storytelling and acerbic lyrics.

13. Moby Grape, Miller’s Blues (live) . . . . A live version of a blues track, in spots slow and emotionally stirring and in others rousing and raunchy, by the San Francisco psychedelic band, written by Grape guitarist Jerry Miller. It originally appeared in studio form on the Wow album in April of 1968. This version didn’t see official release until the comprehensive 2-CD compilation Vintage: The Very Best of Moby Grape came out in 1993.

14. Nazareth, Telegram (Part 1: On Your Way/Part 2: So You Want To Be A Rock ‘N’ Roll Star/Part 3: Sound Check/Part 4: Here We Are Again) . . . A multi-part ‘life on the road’ suite from Nazareth’s 1976 album Close Enough for Rock ‘n’ Roll, effectively incorporating The Byrds’ So You Want To Be A Rock ‘N’ Roll Star.

15. Charlie Watts Quintet . . . Going, Going, Going, Gone . . . Beautiful, mellow music from the live album A Tribute to Charlie Parker With Strings, released in 1992 in honor of the iconic jazz saxophonist, and jazz in general, including narration and some singing by Rolling Stones’ backup vocalist Bernard Fowler. It was done during the 1992-93 period when the various individual Stones were releasing excellent, worthwhile and satisfying solo projects in between the 1989 studio album Steel Wheels and 1994’s Voodoo Lounge. The so-called World War III of the Dirty Work album era of the mid- to late 1980s had ended in a truce when it seemed to become understood by all parties that solo work didn’t have to detract from the Stones but could in fact fuel the members’ collective creativity. Out of it came excellent albums by Keith Richards (1992’s Main Offender), Ron Wood’s 1992 effort Slide On This and arguably Mick Jagger’s best solo work, 1993’s Wandering Spirit. All of which led to, when the mother ship again sailed, the strong album Voodoo Lounge.

So Old It’s New show archive

Facebook page

A soul/funk/R & B album set, something of a progression within those genres starting with a classic James Brown live album followed by Otis Redding and ending with, via the Funkadelic album Maggot Brain and the amazing guitar of the late great Eddie Hazel, an off ramp into heavy acid rock and psychedelic soul. Each album is explosive in its own way—Brown’s live intensity, Otis’s aching soul, Funkadelic’s mind-melting funk-rock.

James Brown – Live At The Apollo (recorded October 1962, released May 1963)

1. Introduction
2. I’ll Go Crazy
3. Try Me
4. Think
5. I Don’t Mind
6. Lost Someone
7. Medley: Please Please Please/You’ve Got The Power/I Found Someone/Why Do You Do Me/I Want You So Bad/I Love You, Yes I Do/Strange Things Happen/Bewildered/Please Please Please
8. Night Train

Otis Redding – Otis Blue/Otis Redding Sings Soul (released September 1965)

1. Ole Man Trouble
2. Respect
3. Change Gonna Come
4. Down In The Valley
5. I’ve Been Loving You Too Long
6. Shake
7. My Girl
8. Wonderful World
9. Rock Me Baby
10. Satisfaction
11. You Don’t Miss Your Water

Funkadelic – Maggot Brain (released July 1971)

1. Maggot Brain
2. Can You Get To That
3. Hit It And Quit It
4. You And Your Folks, Me And My Folks
5. Super Stupid
6. Back In Our Minds
7. Wars Of Armageddon