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

Song clips also available on my Facebook page.

1. Budgie, Napoleon Bona Part 1 & 2
2. George Thorogood and The Destroyers, Night Time (from Live In Boston 1982: The Complete Concert
3. The Sensational Alex Harvey Band, Midnight Moses
4. The Everly Brothers, Lord Of The Manor
5. Murray McLauchlan, Child’s Song
6. Gene Clark, Some Misunderstanding
7. Joe Jackson, Fools In Love (from Live 1980-86)
8. Bob Seger & The Silver Bullet Band, Brave Strangers
9. David Bowie, Beauty And The Beast (live, from Stage)
10. King Crimson, Frame By Frame
11. Lee Harvey Osmond, Kingdom Come
12. T-Bone Burnett, Monkey Dance
13. T. Rex, Life’s An Elevator
14. The Rolling Stones, Moonlight Mile
15. Quicksilver Messenger Service, Mona/Maiden Of The Cancer Moon/Calvary (live, from Happy Trails)

My track-by-track tales:

1. Budgie, Napoleon Bona Part 1 & 2 . . . A slow build for two minutes then the musical “galloping” begins and from 2:45 onward in this seven-minute track we’re in Iron Maiden territory . . . except that Iron Maiden, which came into existence after Budgie had long been around with its galloping sound, complete with great echo effect, is actually in and has always been, in Budgie territory. A highly influential band from Wales but as can happen, Budgie was not nearly as commercially successful as many of the groups (like Maiden and Metallica to name two, both of whom have covered Budgie songs like, in Metallica’s case, Breadfan and Crash Course In Brain Surgery) it influenced.

2. George Thorogood and The Destroyers, Night Time (from Live In Boston 1982: The Complete Concert) . . . From a concert initially released that year as a 12-track album simply called Live In Boston, 1982 but re-released as the full 25-song show (plus two spoken-word intro to song tracks including audience participation) in a 2-CD set in 2020. Typical Thorogood raunch and roll, taken to more raucous heights in the live arena.

3. The Sensational Alex Harvey Band, Midnight Moses . . . A driving rocker from the band’s 1972 debut album Frame. Nice guitar work from Zal Cleminson, later a member of Nazareth for two albums – 1979’s No Mean City and the 1980 release Malice In Wonderland with its hit single Holiday.

4. The Everly Brothers, Lord Of The Manor . . . A haunting soundscape from 1968. Hey, that rhymes. 🙂 An at least somewhat uncharacteristic song if all you know about the Everlys is their early hits and sound, material like Bye Bye Love and Wake Up Little Susie. Great ones, those two, and many others, to be sure. But this one, after their halcyon days, is as good in its own way.

5. Murray McLauchlan, Child’s Song . . . A beautiful, touching, at least somewhat sad, definitely thought-provoking song about family. It’s from MM’s 1971 debut album Song From The Street, a title echoed in the excellent 2-disc compilation The Best Of Murray McLauchlan: Songs From The Street, released in 2007.

6. Gene Clark, Some Misunderstanding . . . From a song about family by Murray McLauchlan to one digging even deeper, perhaps. A meaning of life song of questions and attempts at answers from what was apparently a tortured soul in Clark, a founding member of The Byrds who arguably – despite his writing such Byrds hits as I’ll Feel A Whole Lot Better and Eight Miles High – tends to be given short shrift as compared to Jim/Roger McGuinn and David Crosby of that great group. Clark later went solo and the highlight of his output, to me, anyway, is the 1974 album No Other with its terrific title cut I’ve played on the show before, among many great songs, like this outstanding extended ballad. Yet the album bombed, commercially, much to the fragile Clark’s consternation as he, thanks in part to circumstances such as a divorce, and drug abuse, declined both personally and professionally. He died at age 46, in 1991 from heart disease resulting in part from a bleeding ulcer after he had already been diagnosed with throat cancer.

7. Joe Jackson, Fools In Love (from Live 1980-86) . . . As the album subtitle says “new interpretations of 22 classic songs featuring four different bands”. It’s divided into selections from various Jackson albums and their supporting tours between 1980 and ’86. Songs are drawn from the 1980 Beat Crazy tour, the Night And Day trek of 1982-83, Body And Soul in 1984 and the Big World tour of 1986 which was the first time I saw him live. The twist is, you get revamps of songs, like this seven-minute version of Fools In Love. It first appeared, at a shade more than half this live length, on JJ’s punk/new wave album debut Look Sharp! in 1979. But, taken from the Night And Day tour for the live album, it’s rearranged (while still recognizable) in the jazzy style of that 1982 studio record that featured the top 10 single Steppin’ Out. Not to all tastes, perhaps, but I like this version. I’m a big fan, seen Jackson in concert a few times and, as he writes in the live album liner notes, he likes to keep things interesting for himself and his bands and hopefully the audiences appreciate it. I think most of his fan base does, knowing his wide variety of musical approaches through the years. And, as he says, you can always play the studio albums if you prefer those versions although inevitably, you might jar some concert-goers not fully up on Jackson and expecting note-for-note copies of the studio songs.

8. Bob Seger & The Silver Bullet Band, Brave Strangers . . . . From that period of the mid- to late 1970s into the 1980s when Seger was on an amazing hot streak of hit albums and singles. The breakthrough came via Live Bullet in 1976 which – as with Kiss Alive and Frampton Comes Alive! – featured his earlier material like Turn The Page and Beautiful Loser, done in the live environment and released on what became a hit double vinyl album. Then came the studio album Night Moves in 1976 with its title cut hit single along with the song Mainstreet followed in 1978 by the Stranger In Town album that yielded Brave Strangers but also four of Seger’s enduring songs – Still The Same, Hollywood Nights, We’ve Got Tonite and the ubiquitous party hit Old Time Rock and Roll. The roll continued with the 1980 album Against The Wind, its title cut hit single and others like Fire Lake and You’ll Accomp’ny Me. I remember browsing in the old Yonge Street Sam The Record Man store in downtown Toronto when Against The Wind came out; it was playing on the store’s sound system and I overheard someone perusing the records racks close to me and all he said was ‘sounds like new Seger’ and it was. Instant buy.

9. David Bowie, Beauty And The Beast (live, from Stage) . . . From Bowie’s 1978 tour, live version of a song that met with minor singles chart success in the UK, from Bowie’s 1977 studio album “Heroes”. Fine guitar interplay between Carlos Alomar, who was in Bowie’s band from the mid-1970s to the early 2000s, and Adrian Belew, known for stints with Frank Zappa, guest appearances with Talking Heads around the time of the Heads’ 1980 album Remain In Light, and as a member of King Crimson from 1981-2013.

10. King Crimson, Frame By Frame . . . Speaking of Adrian Belew in King Crimson . . . From the 1981 album Discipline which marked the return of King Crimson, with a Talking Heads-like sound of that period, after the initial disbanding of the group in 1974. The new lineup – initially called Discipline – was founding member/leader Robert Fripp on guitar along with Belew, drummer Bill Bruford, noted for his work in Yes and earlier versions of King Crimson, and bassist Tony Levin. Frame By Frame also became the name of a 1991 Crimson box set.

11. Lee Harvey Osmond, Kingdom Come . . . Up tempo chugger from one of Canadian artist Tom Wilson’s many projects, all of which I’m a big fan of including The Florida Razors, Junkhouse, Blackie and The Rodeo Kings and his solo work.

12. T-Bone Burnett, Monkey Dance . . . Swirling, hypnotic stuff from Burnett’s 1987 album The Talking Animals. A reputable artist in his own right, Burnett, a guitarist in Bob Dylan’s band during the 1970s, is perhaps better known for his production work with myriad musicians – Elvis Costello, John Mellencamp, Los Lobos, Alison Krauss and Robert Plant, Elton John and Gregg Allman among them – as well as film soundtrack work including the Johnny Cash biopic Walk The Line.

13. T. Rex, Life’s An Elevator . . . A spooky, acoustic selection about how, yes, life, like an elevator, goes up and down. Profound. 🙂 T. Rex, led by the late Marc Bolan, remains universally known for the 1972 hit Get It On aka Bang A Gong (Get It On) but consistently topped the singles and album charts in the UK. Life’s An Elevator was the B-side to the 1976 non-album single Laser Love.

14. The Rolling Stones, Moonlight Mile . . . About cocaine (‘a head full of snow”) although Mick Jagger denied it, although given the lyrics it’s part of it. But, more so, a tale of life on the road for a rock band, any touring artist or, really, people like long-haul truck drivers.

Here’s the full lyrics of this beautiful song from the Sticky Fingers album, a deep cut (although well-known and highly regarded by Stones fans) which I was blown away to see and hear the band play in 1999 in Toronto on their No Security tour.

When the wind blows and the rain feels cold
with a head full of snow
with a head full of snow
In the window there’s a face you know
Don’t the night pass slow
Don’t the night pass slow

I’m hiding sister and I’m dreaming
I’m riding down your moonlight mile
I’m hiding sister and I’m dreaming
I’m riding down your moonlight mile
There I go now coming home now baby
Yeah, there I go now coming home now baby
Yeah, I’m coming home ’cause
I’m just about a moonlight mile on down the road
On down the road, down the road

15. Quicksilver Messenger Service, Mona/Maiden Of The Cancer Moon/Calvary (live, from Happy Trails) . . . Improvisational psychedelic/acid rock from the San Francisco band that incorporates Bo Diddley’s Mona with two of Quicksilver’s instrumental originals. The songs, which segue into each other, total almost 24 minutes which momentarily gave me pause in terms of whether to play them together but this is independent radio, we’re not wedded to formatted or corporately-mandated song sets so, what the heck? I’ve done similar before with long pieces like Pink Floyd’s 23-minute Echoes, just one example. I was originally just going to go with the 13-minute Calvary but the three songs belong together as a suite. Besides which, it’s never boring, at least to me, and features great guitar interplay between John Cipollina on lead and Gary Duncan on rhythm. It formed most of the second side of the original vinyl of 1969’s Happy Trails album which concludes with the band’s version of that Roy Rogers/Dale Evans song as the title track. The first side was Quicksilver’s take on Diddley’s Who Do You Love, known as the Who Do You Love Suite. It’s split into Diddley’s song, which opens and closes the suite, around improvisations from the individual band members titled When You Love, Where You Love, How You Love and Which Do You Love.

No So Old It’s New classic rock deep cuts show until Monday, Jan. 13, at least not with me at the mixing board/controls. Taking a break. Happy New Year to all. If you happen to tune in, AI (i.e. the auto computer feed, da dum) will be selecting songs in the genre I generally play, usually from stuff I’ve entered into the system, between 8-10 pm ET Mondays and 8-10 am ET Saturdays. I’m curious myself as to what the system will select. It better be good and if so, I might be out of a (volunteer) job. 🙂 Take care, everyone.

Hard rock/metal set, a bit less of a deep cuts show than usual in spots. My track-by-track tales follow the bare-bones list.

1. Ted Nugent, Wang Dang Sweet Poontang (from Double Live Gonzo!)
2. Judas Priest, Ram It Down
3. UFO, Rock Bottom (live, from Strangers In The Night)
4. Iron Maiden, Bring Your Daughter . . . To The Slaughter
5. Black Sabbath, Digital Bitch
6. The Rolling Stones, Bitch
7. Metallica, Ain’t My Bitch
8. Slayer, Seasons In The Abyss
9. Pantera, Drag The Waters
10. AC/DC, Emission Control
11. The Who, Trick Of The Light
12. Led Zeppelin, Communication Breakdown
13. Deep Purple, Speed King
14. April Wine, 21st Century Schizoid Man
15. Nazareth, Steamroller
16. Uriah Heep, One Way Or Another
17. Pink Floyd, The Nile Song
18. Iggy & The Stooges, I’m Sick Of You
19. Blue Oyster Cult, Mommy
20. Whitesnake, Sweet Talker
21. Grand Funk Railroad, Mr. Limousine Driver
22. Ted Nugent, Motor City Madhouse (from Double Live Gonzo!)

My track-by-track tales:

1. Ted Nugent, Wang Dang Sweet Poontang (from Double Live Gonzo!) . . . At risk of repetition (guilty) this has become an occasional go-to song for me whenever I decide on a hard rock/metal show. The song itself is a driving rocker but what makes it the perfect intro is Nugent’s classic, politically incorrect pre-song rap, not to all tastes but . . . “Anybody wants to get mellow you can turn around and get the fuck out of here . . . This is a love song, I’d like to dedicate this to all that Nashville pussy.”

That last line, as the song is taken from a 1977 show in Nashville, inspired the name of an actual band, hard rock/southern rock group Nashville Pussy (from Georgia, actually). Two of that band’s four members are women, lead guitarist Ruyter Suys (pronounced Rider Sighs and wife of rhythm guitarist/lead vocalist Blaine Cartwright) and bassist Bonnie Buitrago. I’ve heard them but can’t say I’m familiar with any Nashville Pussy material but I do find it interesting how bands come by their names, including song names. The title of Southern rock band the Outlaws’ signature song Green Grass and High Tides, for instance, was a play on The Rolling Stones’ 1966 compilation album title Big Hits (High Tide and Green Grass).

I’m not necessarily a fan of Nugent’s political views but I can still like much of his music. It is possible and I’d suggest even necessary, with any artist, to separate the two as previously mentioned when playing Nugent. So, as I dig myself out of this lengthy digression, with the original working title, More Fast Numbers, to The Rolling Stones’ 1978 album Some Girls in mind, here we go, nothing slow for a Saturday morning. I’d say wake up the neighbors, to paraphrase a Bryan Adams album title but I’m not into his music. So, think of it as your alarm clock, even if you do sleep in on weekends.

2. Judas Priest, Ram It Down . . . A pile-driving title cut from Priest’s 1988 album. It starts with lead singer Rob Halford’s banshee wail and goes from there. ‘Metal maniacs’ is in the lyrics, appropriately.

3. UFO, Rock Bottom (live, from Strangers In The Night) . . . UFO extends the original six-minute studio cut to nearly twice the length on this version from one of the acknowledged best live albums of all time, certainly in the hard rock genre. It’s one I was listening to in the car while on various runnings around this past week.

4. Iron Maiden, Bring Your Daughter . . . To The Slaughter . . . As with Nugent, speaking of politically incorrect. But, an irresistible rocker and that’s what usually draws me in, music first, lyrics later because, my theory is, you could write the greatest lyrics ever but if your tune doesn’t compel people to listen, nobody will ever hear your words of wisdom. And if you don’t like the lyrics, you can still enjoy the music.

5. Black Sabbath, Digital Bitch . . . From the controversial 1983 album Born Again, sometimes referred to as Deep Sabbath or Black Purple because Deep Purple singer Ian Gillan was fronting Sabbath, for just one album, after original singer Ozzy Osbourne’s replacement Ronnie James Dio left. Space does not permit, so I’m linking to a couple articles about the escapades that in part inspired the classic comedy This Is Spinal Tap. All that said, I like the album, among Sabbath’s heaviest.

6. The Rolling Stones, Bitch . . . Pretty well known B-side to hit single Brown Sugar from the Sticky Fingers album, released in 1971 and among my favorite Stones tunes, and albums.

The story of the song, via engineer/producer Andy Johns, from various books on the band:
“When we were doing “Bitch”, Keith (Richards) was very late. (Mick) Jagger and Mick Taylor had been playing the song without him and it didn’t sound very good. I walked out of the kitchen and he was sitting on the floor with no shoes, eating a bowl of cereal. Suddenly he said, Oi, Andy! Give me that guitar. I handed him his guitar, he put it on, kicked the song up in tempo, and just put the vibe right on it. Instantly, it went from being this laconic mess into a real groove. And I thought, Wow. THAT’S what he does.”

Included is a great Richards solo in the middle which Mick Taylor, certainly more a virtuoso than Richards in purely technical terms, but they obviously worked well musically together, acknowledged as among Keith’s best. But the whole band is firing on all cylinders.

7. Metallica, Ain’t My Bitch . . . I like Metallica’s early thrash stuff, which they’ve returned to in some measure in recent years. I like their more conventional melodic stuff that began with the so-called Black album, the self-titled 1991 record that made them superstars via commercial hit songs like Enter Sandman, Nothing Else Matters and The Unforgiven. And they weren’t forgiven by some fans for then, egads, cutting their hair and embracing an even more commercial sound for the 1996 album Load, from which this track comes. Yet this is heavy, driving, quality rock and roll. Bands evolve. Be stuck in the past if you want, but you might miss something good.

8. Slayer, Seasons In The Abyss . . . What starts out like doomy Black Sabbath before speeding up is one of Slayer’s most conventional and accessible songs for those who might not like their speed metal/thrash stuff like Raining Blood, etc. I got into Slayer 30-plus years ago when I decided to sample them after reading an album guide to heavy metal bands. At first, as with Pantera (more on them in a moment) I thought, this isn’t even music as I was jarred by and unused to the thrash nature of their output. But it soon grew on me and it wound up for whatever reason, when I was commuting for work on my then hourlong drive, being my “in blizzard” music. Somehow, maybe the violence of the music, Slayer seemed to focus me as I drove through the sometimes scary snowstorms. As did Pantera.

9. Pantera, Drag The Waters . . . As with Slayer, same story, one of Pantera’s more conventional, accessible tunes. Heavy, yet melodic.

10. AC/DC, Emission Control . . . AC/DC’s climate change anthem. No, not really. It seems to be about sex. From the 2016 album Rock Or Bust.

11. The Who, Trick Of The Light . . . I’m about halfway through a biography of the late Who bassist John Entwistle, called The Ox, his nickname, written by Paul Rees. So he and The Who have been top of mind. This heavy rocker, written by Entwistle, has always been musically and lyrically one of my favorites from the 1978 album Who Are You as it describes a session with a prostitute with typical wry/dry Entwistle humor evidenced in previous Who songs he wrote like Boris The Spider and My Wife.

“Did I take you to the height of ecstacy, did a shadow of emotion cross your face or was it just another trick of the light?

“And I’d like to get to know you
On closer terms than this
But I guess you’ve heard it all before
Lady of the night
Won’t you steal away with me?
Lady of the night
Won’t you steal away with me?
The money’s lyin’ on the floor, she looks at me
Shakes her head and sighs
Out of time, out the door
Red light shinin’ in my eyes

But was I all right?”

12. Led Zeppelin, Communication Breakdown . . . From the first Zep album. Driving riff, passionate vocals, the whole band in sync. Short, sweet, superb.

13. Deep Purple, Speed King . . . A well-known Purple song from In Rock, the 1970 album that firmly established the band’s hard rock bona fides, yet perhaps surprisingly it didn’t chart as a single.

14. April Wine, 21st Century Schizoid Man . . . April Wine’s take, pretty much rote but worthwhile and perhaps they sent some people in the direction of the King Crimson classic which was the opening cut to Crimson’s seminal 1969 album In The Court Of The Crimson King. April Wine’s version appeared on the band’s 1979 album Harder . . . . Faster which spawned such well-known Wine tracks as I Like To Rock and Say Hello.

15. Nazareth, Steamroller . . . From the 1994 album Move Me, which was criticized from being overproduced and too much schlock rock as Nazareth seemed to be chasing musical trends around this time rather than doing what the band does best: rock. It’s a good assessment but on this one, they definitely do rock, perfectly reflecting the song title.

16. Uriah Heep, One Way Or Another . . . Great hook on this one, a riff underlying the whole song that is incessant throughout; you’re almost unknowingly immersed in it as you listen to the song as a whole, with all its other instrumental excursions. It’s from the 1976 album High And Mighty.

17. Pink Floyd, The Nile Song . . . What’s a Pink Floyd song doing in a hard rock set? Seems uncharacteristic, but listen. A heavy tune, raging vocals by David Gilmour also of course on guitar, from the More movie soundtrack that also serves as an official Floyd album, released in 1969.

18. Iggy & The Stooges, I’m Sick Of You . . . A track from the sessions for the 1973 album Raw Power that didn’t see wide release until an EP of the same name came out in 1977. The song has subsequently appeared on various Iggy Pop/Stooges compilations. A slow building track for the first two of its six-plus minutes, before all hell breaks loose.

19. Blue Oyster Cult, Mommy . . . Driving rocker outtake from the sessions for the 1974 album Secret Treaties.

20. Whitesnake, Sweet Talker . . . From the early days of Whitesnake before they went hair metal in the mid-1980s, to much commercial success and I like a lot of that stuff but . . . Before that, coming out of Deep Purple, lead singer David Coverdale and friends were more a blues-hard rock band. It’s my favorite period of the group via songs like this from the 1980 album Ready an’ Willing which also featured Deep Purple alumni Ian Paice (drums) and Jon Lord (keyboards). “The bitch is in heat’ is one of the lyrics so I suppose I should have placed this higher up with Sabbath’s Digital Bitch, the Stones’ Bitch and Metallica’s Ain’t My Bitch but, well, life’s a bitch sometimes.

21. Grand Funk Railroad, Mr. Limousine Driver . . . Funky rocker from the Railroad’s second record, simply titled Grand Funk, released in late December, 1969.

22. Ted Nugent, Motor City Madhouse (from Double Live Gonzo!) . . . Started with “The Nuge” and finishing with the Motor City Madman as he takes the original almost five-minute studio cut to epic 10-minute lengths filled with guitar and other assorted pyrotechnics.