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

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1. Rush, The Main Monkey Business
2. Rush, The Seeker
3. The Rolling Stones, Stop Breaking Down
4. The Rolling Stones, No Spare Parts
5. Deep Purple, Anthem
6. Chicago, Prelude To Aire/Aire
7. The Moody Blues, The Actor
8. The Silkie, You’ve Got To Hide Your Love Away
9. Billy Joel, Until The Night
10. The Kinks, Supersonic Rocket Ship
11. Montrose, Space Station #5
12. Pink Floyd, Is There Anybody Out There?
13. Heart, Soul Of The Sea
14. John Mayall, Possessive Emotions
15. Headstones, Pretty Little Death Song
16. Bruce Springsteen, Johnny 99
17. John Mellencamp, The Full Catastrophe
18. Tom Wilson, What A Bummer
19. Bob Dylan, Man Of Constant Sorrow
20. The Specials, Maggie’s Farm
21. Gerry Groom, Mick Taylor And Friends, Long Distance Call

My track-by-track tales:

1. Rush, The Main Monkey Business . . . Hard-driving and heavy in spots yet melodic throughout, this six-minute instrumental highlights Rush’s technical prowess. Described by drummer Neil Peart as “a tour-de-force to write, arrange, and perform” it’s one of three instrumentals – the most ever on a Rush album – from the 2007 release Snakes & Arrows.

2. Rush, The Seeker . . . One of my favorite Who tracks faithfully done by Rush on the covers EP Feedback, released in 2004 to mark the 30th anniversary of the band’s self-titled debut album. That record featured original drummer John Rutsey, replaced by Neil Peart the same year, 1974.

Covering songs like The Seeker and others on the EP like Summertime Blues (in the Blue Cheer arrangement of the Eddie Cochran song) and Cream’s fiery take on Robert Johnson’s Crossroads might seem at first glance a departure given Rush’s progressive (albeit often hard rock) leanings. But as Peart points out in the Feedback liner notes, the songs Rush covered were ones he, bassist/lead singer Geddy Lee and guitarist Alex Lifeson grew up learning and playing in their pre-Rush formative years/bands. And musically, the 1974 debut album was influenced by bands like The Who, Cream and Led Zeppelin, although Rush soon ventured down trails blazed by such British prog rock bands as Yes, Genesis and Pink Floyd.

Members of Rush have suggested in various interviews that they were recharged by the simpler approach taken for the type of songs on Feedback. It inspired them as a working template for their next full studio album, Snakes & Arrows, from which I drew for The Main Monkey Business set opener. Snakes & Arrows is still a typical Rush album in the sense of it having progressive rock elements but I’m forever fascinated by the creative process. For Rush, that included Lifeson meeting Pink Floyd guitarist David Gilmour during a Gilmour tour stop in Toronto. Gilmour recommended writing songs on an acoustic guitar to best test a song’s strength. The suggestion earned Gilmour a ‘thank you’ from Lifeson in the Snakes & Arrows liner notes.

3. The Rolling Stones, Stop Breaking Down . . . The greatest gift my favorite band gave me besides their own original music is the fact they were rooted in the blues. That sent me down paths in pursuit of the amazing artists who had inspired – and been covered by – the Stones as on Robert Johnson’s renowned piece as interpreted to typically raunchy electrified effect on Exile On Main St.

4. The Rolling Stones, No Spare Parts . . . A country rock road-trip tune done during the sessions for 1978’s Some Girls album. It was dressed up with some new lyrics and vocals by Mick Jagger and came out in 2011 on the bonus disc of previously unreleased material on an expanded reissue of Some Girls.

“The idea for the song began at the Some Girls sessions,” Jagger is quoted in the book The Rolling Stones All The Songs – The Story Behind Every Track. “but I finished the idea and turned it into a complete piece. It’s all about driving from San Antonio to Los Angeles to meet a woman, which I did once, so it’s based on my own experience.”

5. Deep Purple, Anthem . . . Psychedelic, progressive, orchestral, classical, rock. This track from 1968’s The Book Of Taliesyn, the second of the three albums released by the first incarnation of Deep Purple, is all of those things. But aside from the hit single Hush, the lineup featuring Rod Evans on lead vocals and Nick Simper on bass along with guitarist Ritchie Blackmore, drummer Ian Paice and keyboardist Jon Lord is largely underappreciated by if not unknown to casual listeners and none of the three albums made much, if any, dent in the charts. To many, Deep Purple really began in 1970 when singer Ian Gillan and bassist Roger Glover joined the group for the so-called Mark II unit that debuted with the In Rock album, later went on to record Smoke On The Water and is widely considered the classic lineup. I’m not disputing that but the other ‘Marks’ in the band’s long career – including the various periods with singer David Coverdale, singer/bassist Glenn Hughes and guitarists Tommy Bolin, Steve Morse and new axeman Simon McBride – are worthy of investigation as most, er, deeply invested fans appreciate.

6. Chicago, Prelude To Aire/Aire . . . It was February 24th, interestingly enough given today is March 24th, when I played the 10-minute instrumental jazz-rock fusion piece Devil’s Sweet from 1974’s Chicago VII album that featured the hit singles (I’ve Been) Searchin’ So Long, Wishing You Were Here and Call On Me. At the time, I couldn’t decide between Devil’s Sweet and Prelude To Aire/Aire. So here’s that other option, two pieces totalling nearly 10 minutes and best heard, via direct segue, as one. It opened the album and, with Devil’s Sweet, formed an all-instrumental jazz/progressive rock fusion side one on the original vinyl of the double LP. Like Devil’s Sweet, Prelude To Aire is driven by Danny Seraphine’s drumming before the band more fully joins him nearly three minutes later on Aire, featuring Chicago’s typical for that period intricate horn arrangements and the late great Terry Kath’s guitar. As I wrote a month ago about Devil’s Sweet, it’s a universe away from the schlock show, albeit a commercially successful schlock show, Chicago later became.

7. The Moody Blues, The Actor . . . Beautiful, introspective ballad from In Search of the Lost Chord, released in 1968. A typically lush Moody Blues arrangement featuring the interesting instruments in the band’s arsenal including Mellotron and flute supporting Justin Hayward’s delicate, almost plaintive vocals as he either waits for, or just thinks about, his absent – or former – lover on a rainy day. But who knows? Beyond the obvious, lyrically, songs can be interpreted in as many ways as they have listeners. Which is as it should be, arguably, and also why for me it’s usually music first, or at least at first, lyrics second because if the music isn’t enough to draw you in, you’ll never listen to the lyrics.

8. The Silkie, You’ve Got To Hide Your Love Away . . . Here’s one that randomly found a spot in the set after I picked up a “British Invasion” compilation while putting CDs back on my shelves. A Beatles’ cover, faithful if softer than the original, released around the same time as the Fab Four’s version on their 1965 album Help! John Lennon and Paul McCartney produced what became the only chart hit – unsurprisingly given the Beatles’ popularity – for The Silkie, an English folk group along the lines of American act Peter, Paul and Mary.

9. Billy Joel, Until The Night . . . From 1978’s 52nd Street, the almost equally-successful in sales followup to Joel’s blockbuster breakthrough 1977 album The Stranger. Apparently written as a tribute to The Righteous Brothers of You’ve Lost That Lovin’ Feelin’ fame. It does have the feel of a Brothers’ song as written and/or produced by Phil Spector, who did the honors, using his famous Wall of Sound technique, on You’ve Lost That Lovin’ Feelin’ and others by the duo. According to Wikipedia, one reviewer called Joel’s song “a schlock masterpiece.” Until The Night made No. 50 in the UK but wasn’t released as a single across the Atlantic, although it’s a fairly well-known track as is most of 52nd Street.

10. The Kinks, Supersonic Rocket Ship . . . As we lift off into the ‘spacey’ section of the set via this reggae/calypso tune from the 1972 album Everybody’s In Show-Biz. It was a top-20 hit in the UK but didn’t crack the top 100 elsewhere, sadly par for the course for songs from an album that also featured the brilliant single Celluloid Heroes which, ridiculously, didn’t chart anywhere. I’ll have to play ‘Heroes’ again sometime soon.

11. Montrose, Space Station #5 . . . Fifty seconds of floating in space via the atmospheric intro then you’re jolted from your reverie by the riff rock of guitarist Ronnie Montrose coupled with Sammy Hagar’s vocals. It’s from Montrose’s self-titled debut album, released in 1973. The platter was produced by Ted Templeman, which leads into one of those musical family tree tales. Templeman was later at the helm of many Van Halen albums including the 1978 debut where, the story goes, the band asked him to help achieve a sound akin to the first album by Montrose, some of whose songs an embyronic Van Halen had covered. Still later, of course, Sammy Hagar wound up fronting Van Halen after the first departure of lead singer David Lee Roth.

12. Pink Floyd, Is There Anybody Out There? . . . Eerie, minimalist piece from 1979’s The Wall, just the title repeated a few times – after an initial excerpt of dialogue from the old Gunsmoke TV western – followed by an acoustic/classical guitar solo. It’s often paired with the next song on the album, Nobody Home, but in this instance I was looking for the sparse, spooky effect of just the one song, hauntingly reinforcing the album’s concept of isolation.

13. Heart, Soul Of The Sea . . . An ethereal, mystical ballad that gets funky in spots, spoken-word in others, no real chorus or hook but that’s what makes it compelling over its six minutes, complete with sounds of the sea. It’s from Heart’s debut album, Dreamboat Annie, released in 1975 and featuring the singles Magic Man, Crazy On You and the title track.

14. John Mayall, Possessive Emotions . . . Funky blues from the 1970 album USA Union which always reminds me of my late older brother by eight years who I often cite because he introduced me in my pre-teen years to so much music – Cream, Jimi Hendrix, Led Zeppelin, Jethro Tull . . . and John Mayall via USA Union. The album features former Canned Heat members Harvey Mandel (guitar) and Larry Taylor (bass) along with violinist Don “Sugarcane” Harris with Mayall on lead vocals, guitar, harmonica and keyboards. And no drums, as my brother pointed out to my initial disbelief. The album came during a period when the ever-experimenting if not innovative Mayall had, as he wrote in the liner notes to the 1969 live album The Turning Point, “decided to dispense with heavy lead guitar and drums, usually a ‘must’ for blues groups today” in an effort to “explore seldom-used areas within the framework of low-volume music.”

15. Headstones, Pretty Little Death Song . . . Into a dark period of the set, either by song title, lyrics or mood, opening with the Canadian band Headstones. Among my favorite artists, they work within the framework of high volume intensity, evidenced by this catchy riff rocker from the 1996 album Smile & Wave. I was prompted to play them when a friend advised me this week that he’d picked up a cheap used copy of The High Co$t Of Low Living, a 2005 album by Headstones’ lead singer (and actor) Hugh Dillon and his band The Redemption Choir.

16. Bruce Springsteen, Johnny 99 . . . A dark tale of a laid-off worker turning to violence, from Springsteen’s influential, stripped down, lo-fi album Nebraska, released in 1982. It’s just Springsteen, recorded at home on what initially were demos to be worked on by the E Street Band only to be released as a pure solo album when the band sessions failed to capture what Springsteen felt was the spirit of most of what he’d put on tape. It’s one of those creative accidents that can result in highly-acclaimed and lasting art. That said, several demos – Born In The U.S.A, Working On The Highway and Downbound Train – did work in full band treatment, emerging on Springsteen’s blockbuster 1984 album Born In The U.S.A.

17. John Mellencamp, The Full Catastrophe . . . A shufflling jazz/blues song with interesting instrumentation including violins and assorted horns, from the 1996 album Mr. Happy Go Lucky. Lyrically, it’s a reflection on the ups and downs of life inspired by a line by actor Anthony Quinn in the 1964 movie Zorba The Greek. Asked if he is married, Quinn (Zorba) replies: “Am I not a man? And is not a man stupid? I’m a man, so I’m married. Wife, children, house—everything. The full catastrophe.”

18. Tom Wilson, What A Bummer . . . Second song in the set inspired by the same friend who reminded me of the Headstones, in this case advising me he’d also purchased, used, Wilson’s album Planet Love, a 2001 release from which I pulled this hypnotic groove track. As often stated, I’m a big Wilson fan via his work with The Florida Razors, Junkhouse, Blackie and The Rodeo Kings, Lee Harvey Osmond and solo.

19. Bob Dylan, Man Of Constant Sorrow . . . My computer screen saver gives me time, date, weather, and current and historical news items and told me last week that it was 63 years ago, March 19, 1962, that Dylan’s self-titled debut album was released. So, I thought I’d play something from it. Dylan became one of the greatest-ever writers of original songs but his first album was comprised mainly of traditional folk and blues standards like Man Of Constant Sorrow. It’s been covered and reinterpreted by many artists including Rod Stewart, whose version was the first I heard. It was released on Stewart’s 1969 debut solo album An Old Raincoat Won’t Ever Let You Down, retitled The Rod Stewart Album in North America.

20. The Specials, Maggie’s Farm . . . A ska reinvention, great rhythmic percussion/drumming, of the Bob Dylan classic from his 1965 album Bringing It All Back Home. Another of those choices that came to mind, like The Silkie cover of The Beatles’ You’ve Got To Hide Your Love Away earlier in the set, while tidying CDs. In this case I was putting The Specials: The Singles Collection back on the shelf although now, along with the British Invasion compilation, it’s coming with me to the Radio Waterloo studio.

21. Gerry Groom, Mick Taylor And Friends, Long Distance Call . . . . Lengthy, soulful, acoustic blues treatment of the Muddy Waters classic by Groom and former Rolling Stone guitarist Taylor released on the 1991 album Once In A Blue Moon that, Stones’ completist that I am, I picked up somewhere along the way in my musical travels. The album also features drummer Matt Abts, who worked with Dickey Betts of The Allman Brothers Band during the 1980s and in 1994 was, along with guitarist Warren Haynes and bassist Allen Woody, a founding member of the Allmans’ offshoot Gov’t Mule and is, with Haynes, still a Mule member. Woody died, apparently of a heroin overdose, at age 44 in 2000. Groom, who according to the album liner notes died in a scuba diving accident in 1992, was a singer/guitarist from Florida about whom not much information is available other than he was a protege of Duane Allman’s and widely respected and admired within the blues community, having rubbed shoulders with the likes of Buddy Guy, Junior Wells, James Cotton and Willie Dixon.

Three classic albums: Who’s Next along with Pearl, Janis Joplin’s posthumously released last recorded statement, and Led Zeppelin’s fourth album. All came out in the amazing year for popular music that was 1971. More thoughts on 1971 below the show’s track list.

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The Who – Who’s Next

1. Baba O’Riley
2. Bargain
3. Love Ain’t For Keeping
4. My Wife
5. The Song Is Over
6. Getting In Tune
7. Going Mobile
8. Behind Blue Eyes
9. Won’t Get Fooled Again

Janis Joplin – Pearl

1. Move Over
2. Cry Baby
3. A Woman Left Lonely
4. Half Moon
5. Buried Alive In The Blues
6. My Baby
7. Me And Bobby McGee
8. Mercedes Benz
9. Trust Me
10. Get It While You Can

Led Zeppelin (aka IV, Untitled, Zoso, Four Symbols, The Runes)

1. Black Dog
2. Rock And Roll
3. The Battle Of Evermore
4. Stairway To Heaven
5. Misty Mountain Hop
6. Four Sticks
7. Going To California
8. When The Levee Breaks

I went with the three albums I’m playing in part because, to be honest, they’re the ones that best fit my two-hour slot in a three-album play but of course all three are worthy of appearance, among many contenders from that year. And at some point I’ll perhaps do a show filled with songs from 1971, or any other year. It’s the sort of project I started once, beginning in 1964, but only got a couple years into before, well, not continuing. Definitely an idea worth revisiting.

As for 1971 albums there’s almost too many to list but among the other notable records released that year: The Rolling Stones’ Sticky Fingers, Jethro Tull’s Aqualung, Carole King’s Tapestry, John Lennon’s Imagine, Rod Stewart’s Every Picture Tells A Story along with him fronting Faces’ A Nod Is As Good As A Wink . . . To A Blind Horse and before that, Faces’ Long Player in a busy year for Rod; The Doors’ L.A. Woman (which I played recently), Joni Mitchell’s Blue (played last Saturday), Fragile by Yes, Pink Floyd’s Meddle, which I played in full a year ago, Elton John’s Madman Across The Water, The Kinks’ Muswell Hillbillies, Traffic’s The Low Spark Of High Heeled Boys, Marvin Gaye’s What’s Going On . . . and I could go on, and on. So many great years for music, obviously, but an argument can be made that 1971 was among the best. A recent book, Never a Dull Moment: 1971 The Year That Rock Exploded, makes that point and is the basis of a documentary series 1971: The Year That Music Changed Everything, available on Apple TV+.

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A St. Patrick’s Day set featuring Irish bands/artists and/or songs about Ireland. My track-by-track tales follow the bare-bones list.

1. The Boomtown Rats, Up All Night
2. Taste, On The Boards
3. Rory Gallagher, Walk On Hot Coals (from Check Shirt Wizard Live In ’77)
4. Van Morrison, Cyprus Avenue
5. Gary Moore & Phil Lynott, Out In The Fields
6. U2, Bullet The Blue Sky
7. Paul McCartney/Wings, Give Ireland Back To The Irish
8. John Lennon, The Luck Of The Irish
9. The Chieftains with The Rolling Stones, The Rocky Road To Dublin
10. Rory Gallagher, Too Much Alcohol (live, Irish Tour ’74)
11. Van Morrison, It’s All In The Game/You Know What They’re Writing About (from Live At The Grand Opera House Belfast)
12. Rory Gallagher, A Million Miles Away (from Check Shirt Wizard Live In ’77)
13. The Chieftains with Mick Jagger, The Long Black Veil
14. Van Morrison, Rave On John Donne/Rave On Part Two (from Live At The Grand Opera House Belfast)
15. Rory Gallagher, Bad Penny
16. Van Morrison, And The Healing Has Begun
17. U2, Exit

My track-by-track tales:

1. The Boomtown Rats, Up All Night . . . While I was still – to paraphrase the lyrics to the song All The Young Dudes – for the most part at home with my Beatles and my Stones, there was a period during my college days and for a brief time after when I was sampling most of the punk and new wave stuff coming to North America from across the Atlantic. Not too many of those bands seemed to have staying power, though, or at least were more singles sellers than full album artists, which is fine. So my ride with the Rats was shortlived – three albums or, I should probably say, three songs – I Don’t Like Mondays from 1979’s The Fine Art Of Surfacing, Banana Republic from Mondo Bongo in 1981 and Up All Night, a catchy tune/ode to insomnia from V Deep in 1982. “Up all night ooh za za ooh staying up all night.” V Deep, by the way, is pronounced ‘five’ Deep as in the Roman numeral V, representing the group’s fifth album and the fact they had gone from a six- to five-piece band. Their commercial performance was falling, however, and soon enough frontman/chief songwriter Bob Geldof was making a bigger name for himself as an activist and organizer of benefit concerts like Live Aid and Live 8. The band broke up in 1986, two years after their to that point last studio album, 1984’s In the Long Grass. They reformed in 2013 for live gigs and released a studio album, Citizens Of Boomtown, in 2020.

2. Taste, On The Boards . . . Beautiful jazz-blues title track to Taste’s second album, with bandleader Rory Gallagher adding saxophone passages to the piece. On The Boards was Taste’s final studio album, coming out in 1970 although two live albums, Live Taste and Live At The Isle Of Wight, both recorded at 1970 concerts, were released in 1971 after the band broke up with Gallagher going solo. Live At The Isle Of Wight was reissued in expanded form in 2015 and retitled What’s Going On – Live At The Isle Of Wight.

3. Rory Gallagher, Walk On Hot Coals (from Check Shirt Wizard Live In ’77) . . . Speaking of Gallagher’s solo career . . . Live fireworks from the late great guitarist on this blistering version of a track originally on his 1973 studio album Blueprint. It’s one of two songs I’ve selected for the show from the 2020 archival release Check Shirt Wizard, put together from four concerts in early 1977.

4. Van Morrison, Cyprus Avenue . . . Slowing the pace down with this evocative jazz/folk rock piece from Van The Man’s 1968 masterpiece Astral Weeks. It’s one of those critically-acclaimed records that can admittedly take some time to appreciate but once immersed in its grooves, once you ‘get it’, you’re forever in its embrace. The song is a wistful reflection on Morrison’s adolescence including, depending upon interpretation, apparent frustration regarding an unattainable love interest that he can only observe but not reach, one living outside his own economic station. Morrison described Cyprus Avenue as “a street in Belfast, a place where there’s a lot of wealth. It wasn’t far from where I was brought up and it was a very different scene. To me it was a very mystical place. It was a whole avenue lined with trees and I found it a place where I could think.”

5. Gary Moore & Phil Lynott, Out In The Fields . . . Piercing guitar playing from Moore on this rocker, an anti-war anthem about ‘The Troubles’ in Northern Ireland, issued as a single in 1985 in a singing and playing collaboration with Lynott, Thin Lizzy’s frontman and Moore’s one-time bandmate in that group. The track also appeared on Moore’s 1985 hard rock/metal studio album Run For Cover which features Deep Purple family tree members Glenn Hughes (bass, vocals) and Don Airey (keyboards) among other of Moore’s musical friends.

6. U2, Bullet The Blue Sky . . . Nothing to do with Ireland, but it is from an Irish band and happens to be among my favorite U2 songs. From the 1987 blockbuster album The Joshua Tree, it’s a musically and lyrically powerful, politically-charged track inspired by U.S. involvement in Central America though its themes apply anywhere. U2 of course often wrote about their home country and in particular ‘The Troubles’ in the band’s hit single from 1983’s War album, Sunday Bloody Sunday.

7. Paul McCartney/Wings, Give Ireland Back To The Irish . . . Speaking of Bloody Sunday . . . an uncharacteristically overtly political song by McCartney, released as Wings’ first single in February 1972 in response to Bloody Sunday, an incident during ‘The Troubles’ when British soldiers shot and killed 13 civilians, injuring others, during a protest march in Derry, Northern Ireland. The song was banned from broadcast in the UK by the BBC and others, and McCartney was condemned by British media for his seemingly pro-IRA stance. The single, a mid-tempo rocker which topped the Irish charts, still made No. 16 in the UK and the top 40 elsewhere. It later appeared on CD reissues of Wild Life, the 1971 debut album by McCartney’s Wings band.

8. John Lennon, The Luck Of The Irish . . . A few months after the McCartney single, out came his old Beatles’ bandmate Lennon (with wife Yoko Ono) and his similar take on ‘The Troubles’ on this folk/waltz piece from the 1972 album Some Time In New York City, released in June. By that time, the former songwriting partners had resolved to stop taking shots at each other through song and, apparently, albeit briefly, separately took aim at the UK. The Luck Of The Irish was written in late 1971 and had already been performed live before its studio release. It was one of two such Irish situation-themed diatribes on Some Time In New York City, the other being the pulsating rocker Sunday Bloody Sunday, a title U2 later used for their musically and lyrically unrelated hit single.

9. The Chieftains with The Rolling Stones, The Rocky Road To Dublin . . . A mischievous momentary lick of the riff from (I Can’t Get No) Satisfaction spices up this treatment of a fast-paced Irish folk tune done by world-renowned Dubliners The Chieftains teamed with the obviously delightfully engaged Rolling Stones. The track is from the 1995 release The Long Black Veil. The album, credited to The Chieftains, featured an all-star aggregation of artists including Van Morrison, Sting, Sinead O’Connor, Mark Knopfler, Ry Cooder, Tom Jones, Colin James, Marianne Faithfull and Mick Jagger – who I’ll get to in a bit, singing the title cut. Morrison also worked with The Chieftains on Irish Heartbeat, a 1983 album of mostly traditional tunes.

10. Rory Gallagher, Too Much Alcohol (from Irish Tour ’74) . . . More live magic from Mr. Gallagher on this extended blues workout, a cover of a tune written by American bluesman J.B. Hutto.

11. Van Morrison, It’s All In The Game/You Know What They’re Writing About (from Live At The Grand Opera House Belfast) . . . Morrison combines the standard It’s All In The Game with an original piece in a meditative, emotional performance during a March, 1983 show released on his 1984 live album. The two songs first appeared back to back as the closing tracks on Morrison’s 1979 studio album Into The Music.

12. Rory Gallagher, A Million Miles Away (from Check Shirt Wizard Live In ’77) . . . Originally on the 1973 studio album Tattoo, beautiful mid-tempo blues rock propelled by Gallagher’s graceful guitar and lyrical imagery.

This hotel bar is full of people,
The piano man is really laying it down,
The old bartender is as high as a steeple,
So why tonight should I wear a frown? . . .

This hotel bar has lost all its people,
The piano man has caught the last bus home,
The old bartender just collapsed in the corner,
Why I’m still here, I just don’t know, I don’t know.

13. The Chieftains with Mick Jagger, The Long Black Veil . . . Spooky treatment, particularly the instrumental opening followed by Jagger’s haunting vocals on a traditional tune covered by countless artists, notably Johnny Cash and The Band. Colin James plays guitar and mandolin with Darryl Jones, bassist on most Stones’ studio albums and all tours since the departure of Bill Wyman in 1993, also contributing.

14. Van Morrison, Rave On John Donne/Rave On Part Two (from Live At The Grand Opera House Belfast) . . . A tribute to poets and visionaries in one of Morrison’s spiritual and mystical pieces. He name-checks John Donne and other literary figures (William Butler Yeats, Walt Whitman among others) in a typically passionate vocal and instrumental performance blending blues, jazz, and Irish folk influences. And as of this show, off into a Van The Man phase I go. Again.

15. Rory Gallagher, Bad Penny . . . Or a Rory Gallagher phase, or one with any of these excellent artists. I always say that the best song/artist/album is the one you are listening to right now, in the moment, if you like it. That said, if I had to pick just one Gallagher tune, pretty sure it would be Bad Penny, a gritty blues-rocker from his 1979 album Top Priority. Great riff, searing solo, biting lyrics. I never tire of it, as soon as it ends, off I often go with it again.

16. Van Morrison, And The Healing Has Begun . . . Soulful song from 1979’s Into The Music, a terrific tune featuring the best of all instruments on his albums, Morrison’s voice.

“And we’ll walk down the avenue again, and we’ll sing all the songs from way back when, yeah, and we’ll walk down the avenue again and the healing has begun. . . . I want you to put on your pretty summer dress. You can wear your Easter bonnet and all the rest and I wanna make love to you yes, yes, yes.”

It occurred to me while prepping the show, just popped into my head after all these years and only he would know for sure, but the tapestry of threads that is a life had me wondering whether Morrison in 1979 was, at least figuratively, referring to that girl back on Cyprus Avenue from the Astral Weeks album in 1968?

17. U2, Exit . . . Dark, intense, atmospheric track from The Joshua Tree that ebbs and flows, slowly building to a climax then receding only to speed up again before the final fade.

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A folk rock-oriented set from Canadian-born artists Neil Young, Joni Mitchell and Bruce Cockburn. I’m playing Young’s 1978 album Comes A Time, Mitchell’s Blue from 1971 and Cockburn’s Humans, released in 1980.

My individual album thoughts appear under each record’s song list.

Neil Young – Comes A Time

1. Goin’ Back
2. Comes A Time
3. Look Out For My Love
4. Lotta Love
5. Peace Of Mind
6. Human Highway
7. Already One
8. Field Of Opportunity
9. Motorcycle Mama
10. Four Strong Winds

An album that balances folk and country influences and is also a showcase for Nicolette Larson, Young’s harmony vocals accomplice throughout most of the album including a great performance on the lone rocker on the record, the duet Motorcycle Mama. Interestingly, Larson didn’t sing on Young’s Lotta Love, which later became one of her solo hits.

Joni Mitchell – Blue

1. All I Want
2. My Old Man
3. Little Green
4. Carey
5. Blue
6. California
7. This Flight Tonight
8. River
9. A Case Of You
10. The Last Time I Saw Richard

Likely Mitchell’s most acclaimed album, a great fusion of folk, jazz and storytelling, said by some to be arguably the most confessional singer-songwriter album ever made as she laid bare her soul during and after relationships with Graham Nash and James Taylor, among others. Hard rock band Nazareth transformed This Flight Tonight into a hit single in 1973 to the point that Mitchell, who liked their version (and, no doubt, the royalty cheques), took to introducing it in her own concerts as “a Nazareth song.”

Bruce Cockburn – Humans

1. Grim Travellers
2. Rumours Of Glory
3. More Not More
4. You Get Bigger As You Go
5. What About The Bond
6. How I Spent My Fall Vacation
7. Guerilla Betrayed
8. Tokyo
9. Fascist Architecture
10. The Rose Above The Sky

In late 2022, the American website allmusic.com did an article on Cockburn headlined ‘Canada’s Forgotten Singer-Songwriter”. Outside of Canada, at least. He’s legendary here and rightly so but in fairness, the article was positive about his work; it was merely discussing his US success, or relative lack thereof, as compared to that of Joni Mitchell and Neil Young.

Years before that article, I experienced that sentiment firsthand. I was living in Peace River, northern Alberta, went out west 1981-83 for my first journalism job and wound up sharing a house with several people including a woman from Washington state who was getting into Cockburn and one day approached me, marvelling at how good he was but surprised at his relative anonymity in the United States. That’s not unique to Cockburn; many artists are popular in some countries but not in others, for various reasons including the distribution and/or marketing of their albums, or have particularly passionate fan bases in one country, like Cheap Trick in Japan. In any case, she’d never heard Cockburn, or of him, nor had any of her American circle of friends, until her entry point since moving north, the Humans album. By then, I was a big fan, having gotten into Cockburn myself not much earlier, during my second-last year of college back in Ontario via his previous album, the 1979 release Dancing In The Dragon’s Jaws and its hit single Wondering Where The Lions Are.

A great artist throughout his discography with by now many perhaps universally or at least relatively well-known tunes like The Trouble With Normal, Lovers In A Dangerous Time, If I Had A Rocket Launcher and Call It Democracy , among others. But Humans, which featured the hit single Tokyo (at least in Canada) remains probably his favorite of mine, a superbly consistent release.