A show loosely tied – via song titles, band names and a couple compilations I’ve drawn from – to the Family Day holiday in most Canadian provinces. Also, a ‘winter’ portion as a nod to the relentless snow we’ve been getting in southern Ontario and much of Canada of late. In between, a week late, a celebration of the 55th anniversary release of a classic Doors album – Morrison Hotel – I was reminded of by a friend which was timely, since I was thinking of playing The Doors in any event. My track-by-track tales follow the bare-bones list. Audio log will be posted after the show airs. Song clips also available on my Facebook page.

1. Family, The Weaver’s Answer
2. Jethro Tull, Back To The Family
3. John Mellencamp, Case 795 (The Family)
4. The Rolling Stones, Family
5. Danny Kirwan, Ram Jam City (from his solo album Second Chapter via The Fleetwood Mac Family Album compilation)
6. Rossington Collins Band, Tashauna (from the 1981 album This Is The Way via the Lynyrd Skynyrd: Family compilation)
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The Doors – Morrison Hotel

Original vinyl

Side One – Hard Rock Cafe (original name for the album)

1. Roadhouse Blues
2. Waiting For The Sun
3. You Make Me Real
4. Peace Frog
5. Blue Sunday
6. Ship Of Fools

Side Two – Morrison Hotel

7. Land Ho!
8. The Spy
9. Queen Of The Highway
10. Indian Summer
11. Maggie M’Gill

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7. Judas Priest, Winter/Deep Freeze/Winter Retreat
8. Genesis, Snowbound
9. Black Sabbath, Snowblind
10. Joe Jackson, Heart Of Ice
11. J. Geils Band, The Lady Makes Demands
12. Santana, Savor/Toussaint L’Overture (live, from Moonflower)

My track-by-track tales:

1. Family, The Weaver’s Answer . . . From the English progressive rock band’s 1969 album Family Entertainment, their second studio release. Arguably the band’s signature song, it tells the tale of a man looking back on his life as he nears death. Roger Chapman’s vibrato vocals add an urgent, theatrical quality to the shifting time signatures arrangement.

2. Jethro Tull, Back To The Family . . . A track that blends rock and folk, with often sarcastic lyrics contrasting the comforts of family life with its realities and one’s desire for independence from it. The song is from Stand Up, Tull’s 1969 album. It was the band’s second studio release and marked a change in direction – and introduced new guitarist Martin Barre – from the blues-based sound of the 1968 debut This Was that featured guitarist Mick Abrahams. Abrahams and lead singer/songwriter/flautist/multi-instrumentalist Ian Anderson then clashed over musical direction, with Abrahams leaving to continue his blues approach with Blodwyn Pig, a great if short-lived band in its own right I’ve played recently. Anderson has forever referred to This Was as being an appropriate album title, given that it ‘was’ Jethro Tull, at the time, before his creative vision prevailed although Tull has often still delved into the blues, just not in as singularly pronounced a manner as on the debut album.

I remember my musically influential on me older brother, by eight years, bringing Stand Up – and Led Zeppelin II – home upon release. We were living in Peru at the time, where my father was working. My older brother and sister were attending high school in Canada and in those days, the late 1960s, things weren’t as immediate as they are now. So, when the older siblings attending school in North America came home for holidays, it was not only a reunion celebration for all the American and Canadian families in town but a window, via what they brought back with them, through which we could see what was fresh and happening, particularly in entertainment. Hence albums like Stand Up and Zep II, which shook us out of our early Beatles and Stones listening habits, great as they obviously were, and further expanded our musical horizons.

3. John Mellencamp, Case 795 (The Family) . . . A gritty, grisly, bluesy song from Mellencamp’s 1993 album Human Wheels. The lyrics reveal a definitely dysfunctional family where things are rationalized as ‘everything’s all right’ despite various instances of violence amid family struggles, economic hardship and personal conflict. Not exactly Family Day fare, perhaps, but the title fits. Great tune, regardless, nice swampy groove.

4. The Rolling Stones, Family . . . An obscure Stones track, darkly cynical in a spare, mostly acoustic arrangement with unsettling lyrics about dysfunction and decay within a family in which, among other things, a daughter aspires to be a prostitute having her father as a customer and other such upbeat ideas. It’s from the 1968 Beggars Banquet album sessions, finally appearing in 1975 on Metamorphosis, a pseudo-official compilation of outtakes and alternate versions. It was issued by the Stones’ former manager Allen Klein, who at that point still retained rights to the band’s pre-1971 material, coming out on the same day as the Stones’ first authorized 1970s hits compilation, Made In The Shade.

5. Danny Kirwan, Ram Jam City . . . From the former Fleetwood Mac guitarist’s debut solo album, Second Chapter, issued in 1975. It ties into Family Day because I pulled it from a compilation – The Fleetwood Mac Family album – I own that features solo and offshoot band material from Fleetwood Mac members past and present. A melodic track with a folk-rock feel, it’s described in the compilation liner notes, accurately enough, as having a Celtic feel within a bluegrass – and I’d suggest almost rockabilly – context. Engaging stuff.

6. Rossington Collins Band, Tashauna . . . Beautiful, Lynyrd Skynyrd-like track but then that’s to be expected from a band formed from the surviving post-1977 plane crash members of Skynyrd, issued on the Rossington Collins band’s second release, 1981’s This Is The Way. Among the Skynyrd alumni on the album were guitarists Gary Rossington and Allen Collins, bassist Leon Wilkeson and pianist Billy Powell backing the terrifically atmospheric and emotional lead vocals of Dale Krantz-Rossington, Gary’s wife. I pulled it from another ‘family’ album, the 2006 compilation Lynyrd Skynyrd: Family that features various Skynyrd tracks as well as those by offshoot bands.

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The Doors – Morrison Hotel

Original vinyl Side One Hard Rock Cafe (original name for the album)

1. Roadhouse Blues . . . Likely the best-known track on the album, a blues-rock anthem driven by a gritty riff and Jim Morrison’s commanding vocal delivery. “Keep your eyes on the road, your hands upon the wheel . . . let it roll, baby, roll . . . ”

2. Waiting For The Sun . . . It could have been the title cut to the band’s 1968 album but one of those cases – like Queen’s Sheer Heart Attack just one example – where a song done for one album wound up being held back for a future release. Sheer Heart Attack was left unfinished during the sessions for Queen’s 1974 album of that name and didn’t appear on record until three releases later, 1977’s News Of The World. Similar happened with The Doors on this hazy, dreamlike, spooky track with an anthemic chorus, finally released on Morrison Hotel in 1970.

3. You Make Me Real . . . A fast-paced, piano-driven energetic toe-tapping rocker that showcases Ray Manzarek’s rollicking keyboard work combined with Jim Morrison’s wild and playful vocals.

4. Peace Frog . . . Funky rocker with striking lyrical imagery, referencing police violence and blood on the streets, mentioning various American cities including Chicago, a reference to the violence-plagued 1968 Democratic Party convention. Then the song abruptly stops and we’re into . . .

5. Blue Sunday . . . A slow, crooning love song contrasting sharply with Peace Frog. The pacing on the album is exemplary. It’s why, while hits compilations are great, often it pays to immerse oneself in a full album as a statement designed by an artist.

6. Ship Of Fools . . . A mid-tempo track lyrically playing on the metaphor of a world heading toward destruction. Musically compelling to draw you in, social commentary lyrics to make you think.

Side Two Morrison Hotel

7. Land Ho! . . . A lighthearted sea shanty-style rocker with a catchy chorus. Propulsive.

8. The Spy . . . A slow, sultry blues number I played, independent of the album, some time ago. Dark, mysterious and at once seductive and almost menacing, but such could be the quality of Jim Morrison’s vocals coupled with the band’s music.

9. Queen Of The Highway . . . Hypnotic groove with a driving rhythm fueled by the bassline and percussion.

10. Indian Summer . . . A quiet, meditative piece, sparse instrumentation and gentle delivery. Personal preference of course but it’s one of those songs that is another argument for listening to individual albums over just hits compilations, as good as those usually are.

11. Maggie M’Gill . . . A gritty album closer with a swampy feel arguably presaging the bluesy brilliance of the band’s next album, L.A. Woman. The opening part of this one could easily fit on something like ZZ Top’s Deguello album – nine years before the ZZ record was released. Perhaps the Texas trio was listening.

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7. Judas Priest, Winter/Deep Freeze/Winter Retreat . . . We start the ‘winter’ portion of the overall set with this trilogy from the first Priest album, 1974’s Rocka Rolla. It was a time before the band fully embraced metal and was more a hard rocking yet bluesy band with progressive rock elements. It’s dark, eerie and atmospheric across the near seven minutes of the combined songs, best heard as a single piece.

8. Genesis, Snowbound . . . A delicate, haunting track from the 1978 album And Then There Were Three which, via its hit single Follow You Follow Me introduced many people to Genesis – which to that point was rarely if ever played on AM radio. It broadened the band’s horizons and fan base while causing many who were more fond of the fully progressive rock epics of the Peter Gabriel era to abandon ship. Still, after Gabriel left, the group was able to strike a balance between prog and mass popularity on albums like 1976’s A Trick Of The Tail, And Then There Were Three and Duke in 1980 before 1981’s Abacab, which I really like, brought a new, even more commercial sound including horns.

9. Black Sabbath, Snowblind . . . A heavy, sludgy slab from 1972’s Vol. 4 album. The musical heaviness is trademark Sabbath of course but what often strikes me about early Sabbath is Ozzy Osbourne’s detached vocals. Perhaps it’s a function of production, or how I hear things, but however it comes about, his voice seems to enter each song from sideways somehow, from parts unknown if that description makes sense. It’s a potent mix of musical talent, both vocal and instrumental.

10. Joe Jackson, Heart Of Ice . . . A moody, jazz-infused track that starts and continues for the longest time in its seven-minute duration as an instrumental but finally incorporates sparse, haunting vocals in an intoxicating arrangement featuring saxophone and keyboards. It’s from JJ’s 1984 album Body And Soul which featured the hit single You Can’t Get What You Want (Until You Know What You Want).

11. J. Geils Band, The Lady Makes Demands . . . Typical J. Geils R & B/rock fusion energy on a track from the band’s 1973 album Ladies Invited. Lyrically, it pretty much sums up the push-and-pull of at least some relationships. From a man’s perspective, at least.

12. Santana, Savor/Toussaint L’Overture (live, from Moonflower) . . . An extended 13-minute jam highlighting Santana’s blend of Latin rock, jazz fusion and typically great playing, from the 1977 album that combined live with studio cuts.

Two classic albums. One of them – Electric Ladyland by The Jimi Hendrix Experience – is widely celebrated with at least three songs on it – Crosstown Traffic, All Along The Watchtower and Voodoo Child (Slight Return) – known by even casual rock music fans. The other – Love’s Forever Changes – is arguably relatively obscure to many but an influential album incorporating myriad genres from psychedelia to pop to folk rock.

The artists are connected, as Hendrix and Love leader Arthur Lee had a friendly relationship with Hendrix – then working with The Isley Brothers – playing on some pre-Love sessions of Lee’s as early as 1964. And at one point they discussed forming a band together. Later on, Lee’s 1972 solo album Vindicator, which I’ve delved into on the show and eventually will again, was a guitar-fueled hard rock record reflecting Hendrix’s influence.

I’m starting the set with Love, as a nod to Valentine’s Day. More of my commentary on the albums, under each record’s track list.

Love – Forever Changes

1. Alone Again Or
2. A House Is Not A Motel
3. Andmoreagain
4. The Daily Planet
5. Old Man
6. The Red Telephone
7. Maybe The People Would Be The Times Or Between Clark And Hilldale
8. Live And Let Live
9. The Good Humor Man He Sees Everything Like This
10. Bummer In The Summer
11. You Set The Scene

It’s been said of The Velvet Underground that the group, noted for its creative force Lou Reed, sold few records, but everyone who bought one started a band. The same could arguably be applied to Love, a brilliant band I was initially drawn to long ago by the critical hype over an album that I’d never heard. Or even heard of. So, I bought it. And soon enough, I ‘got it’, realized why it was so well-regarded, loved the music and by extension the band to the point I over time have accumulated every studio album, all of now late leader Arthur Lee’s solo stuff, and assorted compilations that include previously unreleased tracks.

I agree with most music writer critics that 1967’s Forever Changes is likely Love’s masterpiece but perhaps interestingly, probably my favorite song of Love’s is Signed D.C., a harrowing yet musically beautiful song, a bluesy acoustic ballad about heroin addiction I’ve played before on the show. It’s from the group’s self-titled debut album, released in 1966. As for Forever Changes, it’s a terrific full listen – much as Hendrix’s Electric Ladyland is – but favorite tracks for me are the jaunty pop-rocker Bummer In The Summer, the uptempo, slightly wonderfully off-kilter album opener Alone Again Or followed immediately on the album by A House Is Not A Motel. Highly recommended, all of it, as is the rest of Love/Arthur Lee.

The Jimi Hendrix Experience – Electric Ladyland

1. . . . And The Gods Made Love
2. Have You Ever Been (To Electric Ladyland)
3. Crosstown Traffic
4. Voodoo Chile
5. Little Miss Strange
6. Long Hot Summer Night
7. Come On (Let The Good Times Roll)
8. Gypsy Eyes
9. Burning Of The Midnight Lamp
10. Rainy Day, Dream Away
11. 1983 . . . (A Merman I Should Turn To Be)
12. Moon, Turn The Tides . . . gently gently away
13. Still Raining, Still Dreaming
14. House Burning Down
15. All Along The Watchtower
16. Voodoo Child (Slight Return)

A few weeks ago I played 1983 . . . (A Merman I Should Turn To Be) and said on air how, by playing the extended psychedelic track, I was reminded how great an album Electric Ladyland is and that I may play it in full on one of my album shows. Here it is. A terrific sonic experience, mind-blowing, really, Hendrix arguably at his creative peak in terms of myriad musical directions and production all on one double vinyl album. It was the final studio release, unleashed upon us in October 1968, by the Experience lineup of Hendrix, drummer Mitch Mitchell and bassist Noel Redding, who sings lead vocals on the track Little Miss Strange.

Among those contributing to the album as session players were Traffic members Chris Wood (flute on 1983 . . . ) and Steve Winwood, organ on the lengthy, psychedelic Voodoo Chile, a companion piece to its shorter, better-known cousin Voodoo Child (Slight Return) which features that immortal opening guitar riff, a song that closes the record and is on most Hendrix compilations. Winwood’s presence is interesting in that at one point there was talk of Hendrix forming a band with Winwood and Love’s Arthur Lee, though it never happened. According to Lee, it was to be called Band Aid, suggested by Hendrix. Lee liked the name and wound up using it on the album I mentioned in my overall preamble, Lee’s 1972 Hendrix-like solo album Vindicator, subtitled “With the group Band-Aid.”

My track-by-track tales follow the bare-bones list. Song clips also available on my Facebook page.

1. Wishbone Ash, The King Will Come
2. Bill Wyman, Every Sixty Seconds
3. Mick Taylor, Late At Night
4. Mick Taylor, Blind Willie McTell (Bob Dylan cover)
5. The Rolling Stones, Watching The River Flow (Bob Dylan cover)
6. Mark Knopfler, Boom, Like That
7. John Mayall’s Bluesbreakers, Bare Wires Suite
8. Spooky Tooth, Weird
9. Ian Hunter, Rain
10. Phil Collins, The Roof Is Leaking
11. Robert Palmer, Sneakin’ Sally Through The Alley
12. Bruce Springsteen, Missing
13. Johnny and Edgar Winter, Baby, Watcha Want Me To Do (live)
14. Van Morrison, Take Me Back

My track-by-track tales:

1. Wishbone Ash, The King Will Come . . . Progressive rock from arguably the definitive Ash album, 1972’s Argus. Famous for the twin guitar attack of Andy Powell and Ted Turner that proved a big influence on Thin Lizzy, Iron Maiden, and others. The song has a mythic, medieval feel, common to at least some British bands of the time and beyond, with lyrics that could be interpreted in a biblical or fantasy context.

2. Bill Wyman, Every Sixty Seconds . . . From the former/longtime Rolling Stones bassist’s second solo album, the 1976 release Stone Alone, a title he later used for his 1990 book about the band. It’s a lazy in a great way tune featuring Wyman on bass and guitar, Joe Walsh on slide guitar, Van the Man Morrison on harmonica and session drummer to the stars Jim Keltner. The album overall features a long list of musical luminaries of the time, and forever, like Dr. John, Bob Welch, Nicky Hopkins, Al Kooper and Ron Wood, among others.

3. Mick Taylor, Late At Night . . . Nice groove on this one from the former Rolling Stones’ guitarist’s 2000 release A Stone’s Throw. Some have suggested it could be a Steely Dan track in terms of sound and production, which I can see/hear. It’s an excellent jazz rock tune, written and sung by Taylor, that also features longtime Who collaborator John “Rabbit’ Bundrick on keyboards.

4. Mick Taylor, Blind Willie McTell (Bob Dylan cover) . . . This reinterpretation of the Dylan classic – it starts slow and bluesy before shifting into a harder-edged blues rocker two minutes into its near nine-minutes duration – is also from Taylor’s A Stone’s Throw album. Blind Willie McTell, recorded during the sessions for Dylan’s 1983 album Infidels that Taylor played on, wasn’t released until 1991 when it came out on Dylan’s The Bootleg Series Volumes 1–3 (Rare & Unreleased) 1961–1991. That was the first installment of what is now a 17-volume series. When it was revealed that Blind Willie McTell was an outtake from Infidels, the music world was perplexed as to why Dylan had decided to not include such a great track on the album. He later told interviewers that he didn’t think he “recorded it right” but in any event it was finally released and has since been placed on various Dylan compilations. I played it a few weeks ago as part of a blue/blues rock show.

5. The Rolling Stones, Watching The River Flow (Bob Dylan cover) . . . A Dylan tune that appeared on the Boogie 4 Stu tribute album to the late “sixth Stone” pianist Ian Stewart, who was originally in the band but then deemed not to have the right ‘look’ by management although Stewart continued to play on the group’s albums and most tours. Watching The River Flow is not an ‘official’ Stones’ release technically but the various band members past and present at the time were easily convinced to come together in studio or online in tribute to their cherished friend, who died of a heart attack at age 47 in 1985. The Boogie 4 Stu album, released in 2011 and featuring a variety of musicians, was assembled and coordinated by English pianist Ben Waters. He’s worked with the Stones including solo excursions by Ron Wood and Mick Taylor as well as Rod Stewart, Jeff Beck and The Kinks’ Ray Davies.

6. Mark Knopfler, Boom, Like That . . . Up-tempo tune from the former Dire Straits leader’s 2004 album Shangri-La, inspired by Knopfler’s reading of a book about McDonald’s entrepreneur Ray Kroc.

7. John Mayall’s Bluesbreakers, Bare Wires Suite (Bare Wires/Where Did I Belong/I Started Walking/Open Up A New Door/Fire/I Know Now/Look In The Mirror. . . Intoxicating extended trip from Mayall’s 1968 album Bare Wires which featured future Rolling Stone Mick Taylor on guitar. The various parts of the piece feature a host of approaches, mellow to heavy, over the 23 minutes.

8. Spooky Tooth, Weird . . . Non-album B-side to a 1968 single, Sunshine Help Me, which did not chart at least in North America. Weird is, apropos to its title, a moody, atmospheric, psychedelic piece featuring the eerie, hypnotic keyboard work of Gary Wright who later successfully went solo, achieving hit status via his 1975 Dream Weaver album which featured the title cut single along with Love Is Alive. Not on this track but two notables who later passed through Spooky Tooth lineups were Henry McCullough, guitarist/drummer with Paul McCartney’s Wings, and Mick Jones who went on to form Foreigner.

9. Ian Hunter, Rain . . . From 1981’s Short Back N’ Sides album from the former frontman for Mott The Hoople. Hunter was coming off a solo commercial sales rebirth via his excellent 1979 album You’re Never Alone With A Schizophrenic and followup live disc Welcome To The Club. He then released this equally excellent but somewhat different in sound album co-produced by The Clash’s Mick Jones (not the Foreigner guy) and Hunter’s perennial guitarist Mick Ronson. Topper Headon of The Clash is on drums with Ellen Foley of Meat Loaf, Clash and solo fame on backing vocals. It’s a somber and reflective tune with a touch of reggae influence, perhaps a nod, given who was producing, to various Clash tracks from the London Calling and Sandinista! albums of that period.

10. Phil Collins, The Roof Is Leaking . . . One of those deep cuts, this from Collins’ 1981 debut solo album, Face Value, that when I play it, as I did the other day as a possible show candidate, it immediately comes to mind as an ‘oh yeah, I remember this’ tune beyond the hits from that album – In The Air Tonight and I Missed Again. I’ve been doing a lot of that lately, playing albums I have not played in eons, revisiting them, listening to them straight through and being rewarded by their enduring quality at least some of which I intend to keep passing on, via my show, as songs occur.

11. Robert Palmer, Sneakin’ Sally Through The Alley . . . I got into Robert Palmer while in college through his 1979 album Secrets which featured hits/great songs like Bad Case Of Loving You (Doctor, Doctor) and riff-rocker Jealous, among many others. I followed him from then on but also went back to things like this earlier relative hit, the title cut from his 1974 debut album. It’s a great funky tune, written by Allen Toussaint of myriad musical genres fame, with Lowell George of Little Feat on guitar and in fact Palmer opens the album with Feat’s Sailin’ Shoes, written by George.

12. Bruce Springsteen, Missing . . . . Sparse, dark, haunting track written during the 1990s but finally officially released on a Springteeen album on the excellent 2003 compilation The Essential Bruce Springsteen. It’s on the limited edition 3-CD bonus disc on that album and also long available on the web. According to Springsteen’s own liner notes on the compilation, after writing it he played it for Sean Penn, who liked and used it in the 1995 movie The Crossing Guard which Penn wrote, directed and co-produced, starring Jack Nicholson.

13. Johnny and Edgar Winter, Baby, Watcha Want Me To Do (live) . . . A rousing 11-minute cover of the Jimmy Reed tune. Johnny’s typically great guitar teamed with Edgar’s sax and keyboard accents is compelling as the Winter brothers’ bands of the time combine forces on the ‘Together’ live album, released in 1976.

14. Van Morrison, Take Me Back . . . A typical Van The Man epic, this one from the Hymns To The Silence album, released in 1991. It’s another of those tracks where his vocalizations are so stirring and compelling. Nobody can repeat lines ‘take me back take me back take me back’ and not bore you but instead draw you further into the song, as Van can as on this musical trip through R & B, folk, pop, Celtic, rock and gospel. It’s a satisfying journey through the mystic, to paraphrase one of his song titles, that Morrison has always travelled.