A Halloween/horror-themed set. My track-by-track tales follow the bare-bones list.

1. The Rocky Horror Picture Show soundtrack, Science Fiction/Double Feature
2. The Rocky Horror Picture Show soundtrack, Over At The Frankenstein Place
3. Alice Cooper, Welcome To My Nightmare
4. Screamin’ Jay Hawkins, Little Demon
5. Ramones, I Don’t Wanna Go Down To The Basement
6. David Bowie, Subterraneans
7. Blue Oyster Cult, Subhuman (live, from On Your Feet Or On Your Knees)
8. The Rolling Stones, Dancing With Mr. D
9. Alice Cooper, Devil’s Food/The Black Widow
10. Link Wray, The Black Widow
11. Link Wray, Switchblade
12. Ramones, Chain Saw
13. Link Wray, Jack The Ripper
14. Talking Heads, Psycho Killer (live, from Stop Making Sense)
15. Alice Cooper, I Love The Dead
16. Tom Waits, Whistlin’ Past The Graveyard
17. Black Sabbath, Disturbing The Priest
18. Link Wray, The Shadow Knows
19. AC/DC, Night Prowler
20. Concrete Blonde, Bloodletting (The Vampire Song)
21. Tim Curry, No Love On The Street
22. Savoy Brown, Hellbound Train

My track-by-track tales:

1. The Rocky Horror Picture Show soundtrack, Science Fiction/Double Feature . . . College daze memories come flooding back listening to any song from this album, released along with the movie in 1975. Thanks to the brilliance of singer/songwriter/musician/producer and brains behind the whole thing Richard O’Brien, who played Riff Raff in the movie, plus Tim Curry as Frank-N-Furter, it’s a terrific and fun listen. This album opener name drops many classic sci-fi or horror movies and features that to me classic line sung so memorably by O’Brien: “I wanna go . . . in the back row.” A pre-Bat Out Of Hell album (released in 1977) Meat Loaf appears in the movie as delivery boy/biker Eddie, performing the song Hot Patootie – Bless My Soul.

I first saw the film in a quiet college auditorium in 1978 as part of a film elective I took during my journalism school days so I first saw it unvarnished, without all the rice-throwing and other participatory elements that became part of the Rocky Horror cult phenomenon. So I actually had an appreciation for it as a movie, such as it was, without having to figure out whatever actual plot or flow existed amid the extraneous stuff that developed around the movie and stage plays of it.

I did, however, soon enough get into all of it, attending and participating in the movie, six times as I recall, at a theatre in Burlington, Ontario that ran it throughout the summer of 1979. Fun times.

2. The Rocky Horror Picture Show soundtrack, Over At The Frankenstein Place . . . Triple vocalists – Richard O’Brien again with his stirring “into my life . . . into my liiiiiffe’ refrain halfway through – Susan Sarandon in one of her first film roles and her co-star/fiance in the movie, Barry Bostwick.

3. Alice Cooper, Welcome To My Nightmare . . . It’s a deep cuts show and this was a single but I do play the occasional single, obscure, not heard in ages, or otherwise. Title track from the 1975 album whose big hit was Only Women Bleed. Welcome To My Nightmare made it to No. 45 on the Billboard charts and has been ranked in the top 10 on many lists of best Halloween songs.

4. Screamin’ Jay Hawkins, Little Demon . . . Best, I think, to let the influential shock rocker tell his own tale:

“You gotta be real cool to hear the words he said . . . Mugmgmgugmgubumububmub” . . .

“He made the sky turn green, he made the grass turn red
He even put pretty hair on Grandma’s bald head
He made the moon back up, he even pushed back time
He took the Frutti out of Tutti, he had the devil drinkin’ wine”

Etc.

5. Ramones, I Don’t Wanna Go Down To The Basement . . . Nor do you want to look under your bed, your pillow, all those childhood scare locations. The monsters await . . .

6. David Bowie, Subterraneans . . . underneath, in the caverns real or imagined in your mind. Bowie, dark, ambient, from Low, part of his 1970s Berlin trilogy of albums – the others being Heroes and Lodger. This minimalist, lyrically speaking, musical piece has nothing to do with Halloween or horror, but it fits.

7. Blue Oyster Cult, Subhuman (live, from On Your Feet Or On Your Knees) . . . Extended live version of the typically early BOC-spooky type piece, originally – three minutes shorter than this 7-plus minute version – on the studio album Secret Treaties, released in 1974.

8. The Rolling Stones, Dancing With Mr. D . . . From the 1973 album Goats Head Soup, thought to be something of a sequel to 1968’s Sympathy For The Devil, depending on who is analyzing the Stones’ output. A different vibe, more pedestrian perhaps as some critics have dismissed it, but compelling.

9. Alice Cooper, Devil’s Food/The Black Widow . . . From the Welcome To My Nightmare album featuring a fun spoken word cameo from actor Vincent Price in celebration of would-be spider supremacy.

10. Link Wray, The Black Widow . . . Not the same Black Widow song. Just typical instrumental intensity from the original master and maybe inventor of the power chord, depending on who and what one reads.

11. Link Wray, Switchblade . . . From Wray’s 1979 Bullshot album, with a similar riff to the B-52’s song Planet Claire, released on that band’s debut album from the same year.

12. Ramones, Chain Saw . . . Switchblades, now chainsaws, leading to . . . a no doubt foggy night. In London.

13. Link Wray, Jack The Ripper . . . Dark, spooky, moody, expressive.

14. Talking Heads, Psycho Killer (live, from Stop Making Sense movie/soundtrack album) . . . A different, similar and recognizable but funkier live arrangement of the hit (although while well known it just scaped inside the top 100 at No. 97) from the Heads’ 1977 debut album Talking Heads: 77. In the concert movie, Head, er, Head David Bryne notably wore an oversized suit.

15. Alice Cooper, I Love The Dead . . . The Billion Dollar Babies album, released in February, 1973, was a constant presence on my high school cafeteria juke box. You could count on hearing a tune from it no matter what time of day you went in for breakfast, lunch, a card game or just a break. But it was usually Hello Hooray, Elected, Generation Landslide, the title cut and No More Mr. Nice Guy, not this tongue in cheek take on necrophilia. Probably wouldn’t have been allowed.

16. Tom Waits, Whistlin’ Past The Graveyard . . . Originally on Waits’ 1978 album Blue Valentine, it was later covered by Screamin’ Jay Hawkins, who I played earlier, and definitely fits Hawkins’ shock rock persona such that some think Waits covered Hawkins.

17. Black Sabbath, Disturbing The Priest . . . I could have chosen any number of Sabbath songs for a show like this, from all eras and singers of Sabbath. But I decided to go with this one, from the 1983 album Born Again, the one and only album Sabbath did – complete with controversial devil baby album cover – with Deep Purple singer Ian Gillan out front as lead singer and whose maniacal vocals are the feature attraction along with Tony Iommi’s cascading, metallic guitar riffs.

18. Link Wray, The Shadow Knows . . . Who knows what evil lurks in the hearts of men . . . followed by diabolical cackles. ‘Nuff said.

19. AC/DC, Night Prowler . . . Bluesy hard rocker from the last album, Highway To Hell, the band did before lead singer Bon Scott’s death. It caused AC/DC controversy as serial killer/rapist Richard Ramirez, an AC/DC fan, used the song title as one of his nicknames (actually the Night Stalker but Night Prowler was a favorite song of his) although the band always said it’s about a boy sneaking into his girlfriend’s room at night. However, reading the lyrics – and I’m not criticizing the band – one can see a disturbed person using them for their own ends.

20. Concrete Blonde, Bloodletting (The Vampire Song) . . . Brooding title cut from the band’s commercial breakthrough album, released in 1990 and featuring the compelling vocals of one of my favorite singers, Johnette Napolitano. The song was the first single from the album but didn’t do much on the charts. It was the later-released singles, Joey in particular plus Caroline and Tomorrow, Wendy which had the biggest impact.

21. Tim Curry, No Love On The Street . . . The song, from Curry’s 1979 album Fearless, has nothing – that I can tell – to do with Halloween or horror. But, guitarist Dick Wagner of Alice Cooper fame plays on it, I played Alice earlier in the set and Curry was the key character Dr. Frank-N-Furter in The Rocky Horror Picture Show, which I opened the set with, so here you go. Curry, as I’ve often mentioned, is a terrific talent; a scream as an actor/singer in Rocky Horror and also the movie Clue, a 1985 film adaptation of the board game where he hilariously plays the butler. Curry sadly suffered a serious stroke in 2012 but continues to perform as a voice actor and singer.

22. Savoy Brown, Hellbound Train . . . Pulsating, propulsive nine-minute title cut from the British blues band’s 1972 album. I saw them in 2013 at the Kitchener Blues Festival, great show with some of the performances available on YouTube. Founding and forever member, guitarist and chief songwriter Kim Simmonds died in 2022, and the band with him.

Three albums I think are classics: Dire Straits’ self-titled debut, released in 1978, Jethro Tull’s Stand Up from 1969 and Fragile by Yes, released in 1971. My album commentaries are beneath each record’s track list.

Dire Straits – Dire Straits

1. Down To The Waterline
2. Water Of Love
3. Setting Me Up
4. Six Blade Knife
5. Southbound Again
6. Sultans Of Swing
7. In The Gallery
8. Wild West End
9. Lions

I was in college when the first Dire Straits album came out in 1978 and its one of those cases where one buys an album for the hit single, in this case Sultans Of Swing, only to be rewarded with a stellar start to finish blues-rock record in the vein of J.J. Cale and what Eric Clapton had been offering via his 1970s albums like 461 Ocean Boulevard, Slowhand and such. It showed that Dire Straits was a band with staying power. I was inspired to play it thanks to a conversation with an old high school and college friend who mentioned to me he had been working out to Dire Straits’ third album, Making Movies, the other day. I replied that it was a good reminder to me to play the band, since I had not in a while. So here we are and since my pal “4C” (his clever nomenclature, a play on his surname) just listened to Making Movies, I thought I’d not repeat that one – great album though it is as is all Dire Straits and Mark Knopfler solo work – and go with the debut.

Jethro Tull – Stand Up

1. A New Day Yesterday
2. Jeffrey Goes To Leicester Square
3. Bouree
4. Back To The Family
5. Look Into The Sun
6. Nothing Is Easy
7. Fat Man
8. We Used To Know
9. Reasons For Waiting
10. For A Thousand Mothers

From what I’ve read over the years, including in liner notes on various re-issues, Stand Up is perhaps Tull leader Ian Anderson’s favorite Jethro Tull album. Mine, too, even if I didn’t know of Anderson’s opinion. Anderson tends to look at it from the point of view, and he’s said this on the record, that to him it was in essence the first Jethro Tull album although it was the second release by the band, coming out in 1969. This Was was the actual first Tull release, in 1968. But, while excellent, that was a blues-rock album with blues-oriented guitarist Mick Abrahams in the band and, as Anderson has said, the title This Was perfectly reflects the situation because that’s where Tull ‘was’ with Abrahams on board.

Anderson wanted to diversify the sound to, as he describes in the expanded Stand Up release liner notes, not just blues but to jazz, classical, folk and what wasn’t yet termed ‘world’ music. Abrahams didn’t and left. In came new guitarist Martin Barre and the tone of Tull was set for the future as the band, in various lineups but always until recently with the core duo of Anderson and Barre leading the way, went on to the wonderfully eclectic and unique sound of Jethro Tull’s music in all its myriad forms as anyone who has ever dipped more than a toe into Tull’s ouvre would recognize.

Stand Up is full of great songs, including We Used To Know, which the Eagles – who had toured with Tull in 1972 – have long been accused of plagiarizing for their hit Hotel California. However Don Felder of the Eagles, who wrote the music, didn’t join the Eagles until 1974 and has said he was unaware of Tull outside of the fact he knew their leader played flute. And Ian Anderson has always been gracious – there’s a video on YouTube of him discussing it – that while the Eagles may have subconsciously been influenced by We Used To Know, it wasn’t ripped off and he’s complimentary about Hotel California. “It’s not plagiarism,” Anderson has been quoted as saying while further suggesting there are only so many notes and chord sequences available in a rock music context.

“It’s just the same chord sequence. It’s in a different time signature, different key, different context. … Harmonic progression — it’s almost a mathematical certainty that you’re going to crop up with the same thing sooner or later if you’re strumming a few chords on a guitar.”

I have two distinct memories tied to the Stand Up album, beyond just playing it often as I never tire of it even 55 (!) years later. The first came in 1969 when my family was living in Peru 1967-70 as my dad was working there. Many of the older kids would go back to the United States or Canada for high school, and so every holiday time became a wonderful reunion as they returned to Peru and their families for Christmas, Easter, Thanksgiving . . . and they’d often bring with them what was new and big in music at the time in North America. We could get it all in Peru, eventually, but this was a different time, obviously, not the instant time of today in all things, so sometimes it took a while but we had a sort of quicker messenger service via our older siblings.

So, in 1969 here came my older brother Rob, then age 18, with two new albums, Led Zeppelin II and Jethro Tull Stand Up. I was going to play Zep II as well on this show until I checked and saw I’d played it on a recent Saturday album replay. In any case, for we younger siblings still listening to earlier Beatles, Rolling Stones and Monkees, Zeppelin and Tull represented something entirely new, often heavier (certainly in Zep’s case) and simply different. It was jarring at first, to be honest, but we quickly grew to like it and it’s via Stand Up that I became a Jethro Tull fan, and I remain so to this day, having seen the band in concert numerous times.

And having seen Tull in concert leads to my other cherished memory, thanks to Stand Up. I had seen Tull in 1987 at Toronto’s Maple Leaf Gardens with my then-wife and in 1988 our first of two sons was born, the second in 1992 and they were both soon immersed in my what’s now termed classic rock music to the point where we created our own fun air guitar band with which we’d play and sing along to the Stones, Tull, AC/DC, The Beatles, Deep Purple, Led Zeppelin and whoever else. And by 1998 I had taken my older son, then age 9, to see The Rolling Stones in Toronto on their Bridges To Babylon album tour and by 2000 there we were in Hamilton Place, taking in Jethro Tull two days after my eldest son Mark’s 12th birthday. By then he knew all of Tull’s familiar tunes like Aqualung but the lights go down and here comes Ian Anderson from stage right doing a one-legged jig cutting across the stage, his flute ferociously accompanying the band kicking into the set opener For A Thousand Mothers, from Stand Up and then quickly into Nothing Is Easy from the same album. The opening reminded me somewhat of that first time I saw Tull, the 1987 tour in support of the then-current album Crest Of A Knave when they opened with Songs From The Wood and Anderson just appeared way, way stage right almost, from our vantage point, as if he were in the seats, and on with that concert.

Back to the Hamilton show. Mark had heard the Stand Up album, of course. But as the show went on and Tull went with an arguably deeper cuts set that included Ian Anderson solo stuff to material from the then-new album J-Tull Dot Com (this was still relatively early days of the internet, accounting for the then-maybe clever but now dated album title) I worried that perhaps they weren’t playing enough classic material familiar to him although Aqualung, Locomotive Breath and Thick As A Brick were present and accounted for.

Yet, I was gratified that Mark thoroughly enjoyed what was an entertaining show and we went on together to become a father-son Tull touring buddy duo, seeing the band again in 2002, 2005 and 2007 until, sadly, in 2007 we looked at each other midway through and acknowledged that, decent enough show at Toronto’s Massey Hall but Ian Anderson’s voice was just too shot – hence the band playing long instrumental passages that don’t exist on the actual recorded songs to cover for him – to enjoy seeing and hearing live anymore although Anderson and Tull continue to record and tour to this day. But we’ll always of course have the brilliant albums, and the memories, of which Stand Up is one.

Yes – Fragile

1. Roundabout
2. Cans And Brahms
3. We Have Heaven
4. South Side Of The Sky
5. Five Per Cent For Nothing
6. Long Distance Runaround
7. The Fish (Schindleria Praematurus)
8. Mood For A Day
9. Heart Of The Sunrise

Progressive rock, which to some, and understandably, can mean long and interminable yet not so with this great album which is prog and commercial all at once. A high school friend of mine, football teammate and sometime gym workout partner swore by this album and why not? I wasn’t much into progressive rock at the time although I, like most people, knew the hit single Roundabout. But him often talking about Fragile prompted me to eventually listen to the whole thing and buy it, never a regret. Also about Yes and Fragile; same friend told me of someone he knew, who only listened to Yes. Nothing else. Not sure I fully believed it but I’m sure it was close to being accurate and I get it because I often feel that way about The Rolling Stones, or Deep Purple or Jethro Tull or The Beatles, just to name a few of my favorite bands. As I often say, the best band/artist, song or album ever is the one you are listening to right now, in the moment, if you like it.

I later knew a work colleague who was the same with Bruce Springsteen. I was kidding him one day and said something like “you don’t listen to anything else?” and he replied, ‘no, why would I?”. I fully respect that and it also reminds me of a good pal who defaults to listening to the Stones’ Beggars Banquet album depending on mood – good, bad or indifferent – as a sort of cure-all and a great one it is. And that’s the thing about great music. Sure, it’s great to explore new stuff, and I do, we all do and we arguably should. Even if ‘new’ might mean not just actual new bands and songs but old stuff we overlooked or just weren’t exposed to previously. But, every minute spent exploring new stuff means fewer minutes to listen yet again and have that satisfying experience of listening to, say, Beggars Banquet – or Fragile – for the millionth time. At some of our ages there’s more time behind us than ahead, so why waste it and not just do and listen to what one enjoys?

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

1. Camel, Ice
2. Carlos Santana & Buddy Miles, Them Changes (from Carlos Santana & Buddy Miles! Live!)
3. John McLaughlin, Marbles
4. Ten Years After, Love Like A Man
5. Elf, Hoochie Koochie Lady
6. The Rolling Stones, Heaven/Feel On Baby
7. The Crazy World Of Arthur Brown, Time/Confusion
8. Atomic Rooster, Sleeping For Years
9. The Byrds, Full Circle
10. Professor Longhair, Byrd’s Blues
11. Albert King, Blues Power (live)
12. The Smithereens, Blues Before And After
13. Jimmy Reed, Little Rain
14. B.B. King, Don’t Answer The Door
15. Taj Mahal, The Celebrated Walkin’ Blues
16. Fairport Convention, Who Knows Where The Time Goes

My track-by-track tales:

1. Camel, Ice . . . Beautiful 10-minutes and change instrumental from the English progressive rock band’s 1979 album I Can See Your House From Here. It features fine electric and acoustic guitar from Camel founding member and main songwriter Andrew Latimer. The unrelated Collins boys, Phil of Genesis fame (on percussion) and saxophonist Mel (King Crimson, among other bands) are guest musicians on the album.

2. Carlos Santana & Buddy Miles, Them Changes (from Carlos Santana & Buddy Miles! Live!) . . . Fiery title cut written by drummer Miles (the Electric Flag, Jimi Hendrix’s Band Of Gypsys) for his 1970 album, recorded on tour with the Santana band on Jan. 1, 1972 inside the Diamond Head crater on Oahu, Hawaii. The concert was part of the 1970s series of Diamond Head Crater Festivals, sometimes called the Sunshine Festival, on New Year’s Eve/Day and the Fourth Of July. Other acts appearing over the years were the Grateful Dead, America, Styx, Journey, War, and Tower of Power.

3. John McLaughlin, Marbles . . . Santana and Miles covered McLaughlin’s Marbles on their Hawaii show’s live album and both collaborated with the English guitarist (Miles played drums on the original studio recording) at various points. So, here’s McLaughlin, shredding up a storm from his 1970 album Devotion.

4. Ten Years After, Love Like A Man . . . Speaking of shredding, typically fine riffing and soloing from Alvin Lee on this one from the 1970 album Cricklewood Green.

5. Elf, Hoochie Koochie Lady . . . Bluesy rocker by Ronnie James Dio’s first band of significance which, after touring with Deep Purple in the mid-1970s, wound up being absorbed into Purple guitarist Ritchie Blackmore’s new project Rainbow for that group’s first album, released in 1975. Hoochie Koochie Lady is from Elf’s self-titled debut album, produced by Deep Purple bassist Roger Glover and drummer Ian Paice and released in 1972.

“This was Elf, kind of piano based rock,” Dio writes in the liner notes to Stand Up And Shout: The Anthology, a fine 2003 compilation of his work fronting his own bands as well as Rainbow and Black Sabbath. “We wanted to write a Rolling Stones song, and this was it. Hoochie koochie ladies were like honky-tonk women. This was the first vocalizing for me, the first ‘stone’, first ripple in the pond.”

6. The Rolling Stones, Heaven/Feel On Baby . . . And here are the Stones, although a different sort of Stones, not rocking at all like Hoochie Koochie Lady or Honky Tonk Women, but showing their versatility in different musical approaches. Two songs from two different albums (Heaven from 1981’s Tattoo You; Feel On Baby from 1983’s Undercover) that I like putting together as one near 10-minute hypnotic groove. There’s the ethereal, tranquil and, well, heavenly Heaven (an amazing listen on headphones) followed by the soulful reggae of Feel On Baby. Feel On Baby features the famed reggae tandem of Sly (Dunbar) and Robbie (Shakespeare) on percussion and bass, respectively, although while Shakespeare is credited in a few Stones track-by-track who-played-what books I own, he isn’t on the actual Undercover album liner notes.

7. The Crazy World Of Arthur Brown, Time/Confusion . . . Another song title with a slash in it but unlike my intentionally putting two Rolling Stones songs together, Time/Confusion is one song, albeit transitioning about halfway through its five minutes from a spooky part spoken word approach to heavier rock. The self-titled 1968 album, known for its hit single Fire, is described as being from the psychedelic soul genre and that’s what it is, with at times unsettling vocals by “crazy”Arthur Brown, whose singing and performance style were influential on the likes of Alice Cooper, David Bowie, Peter Gabriel and Kiss. Of note is that the album originally was released in the UK on Track Records, the label started by then Who managers Kit Lambert and Chris Stamp, and is produced by Lambert and co-produced by The Who’s Pete Townshend. The hit single Fire was co-written by Arthur Brown and Vincent Crane, his keyboard player who also handled orchestral arrangements and went on to form Atomic Rooster with drummer Carl Palmer. Palmer had joined Brown’s band in mid-tour when original drummer Drachen Theaker, who had played on the debut album, quit. Palmer left Atomic Rooster after their self-titled first album in 1970 and went on to further fame with Emerson, Lake & Palmer.

8. Atomic Rooster, Sleeping For Years . . . Speaking of Atomic Rooster . . . Progressive hard rock near metal built around the guitar work of John Du Cann, who wrote this tune that appeared on the Rooster’s second album Death Walks Behind You, also released in 1970.

9. The Byrds, Full Circle . . . Some softer stuff, a catchy countryish tune written by Gene Clark as The Byrds indeed come full circle on their self-titled reunion album, released in 1973 . It featured original 1960s members Clark, Roger McGuinn, Michael Clarke, David Crosby and Chris Hillman.

10. Professor Longhair, Byrd’s Blues . . . Swampy piano boogie woogie by the Professor, birth name Henry Roeland Byrd who went by Roy and was also known as Fess. This track, recorded in New Orleans in 1949 under the credit of Roy Byrd and His Blues Jumpers, also features some sterling saxophone dueling between Big Easy legends Lee Allen and Leroy “Batman’ Rankin. Allen, who collaborated with T-Bone Walker, Big Joe Turner, Dr. John and the Stray Cats among others, also appeared with The Rolling Stones for a few dates on their 1981 American tour.

11. Albert King, Blues Power (live) . . . A 10-minute guitar showcase before a San Francisco audience, released on the 1968 album Live Wire/Blues Power.

12. The Smithereens, Blues Before And After . . . I played some blues before this song, and more is coming after it. An infectious rocker released in 1989 by the New Jersey band also known for the hit single A Girl Like You. The group’s lead singer, guitarist and chief songwrtier Pat DiNizio died in 2017 but the group is still doing live work using an assortment of guest vocalists including Marshall Crenshaw.

13. Jimmy Reed, Little Rain . . . Slow blues from 1957, guitar and harmonica by Reed, whose rhythmic foot tapping represents raindrops falling. A hugely influential artist, Reed’s Bright Lights Big City was recorded by many bands including The Animals and Them. The Rolling Stones, who covered Reed’s Honest I Do on their debut studio album, included Bright Lights Big City, Ain’t That Lovin’ You Baby and Shame Shame Shame in their early concert set lists and came full circle with Reed when they did Little Rain on their well-received 2016 covers album Blue & Lonesome.

14. B.B. King, Don’t Answer The Door . . . Another great slow blues, a No. 2 hit on the R & B charts for King in 1966.

15. Taj Mahal, The Celebrated Walkin’ Blues . . . Intoxicating stuff from Mahal’s self-titled 1968 debut album which featured Mahal’s old Rising Sons bandmate Ry Cooder on rythym guitar and mandolin along with ace session guitarist to the stars Jesse Ed Davis. Davis played on countless albums including ones by Eric Clapton, John Lennon, George Harrison, Ringo Starr, Bryan Ferry and Rod Stewart.

16. Fairport Convention, Who Knows Where The Time Goes . . . Indeed, as time’s up on this show as we take our leave via the beautiful voice of the late Sandy Denny, who also wrote this stirring song that appeared on the 1969 album Unhalfbricking.

A hard-rocking set to wake you up on a Saturday morning: Black Sabbath’s 1980 album Heaven And Hell, Machine Head from Deep Purple, released in 1972 and Aerosmith’s 1976 album Rocks. My album commentaries are below each record’s track list.

Black Sabbath – Heaven And Hell

1. Neon Knights
2. Children Of The Sea
3. Lady Evil
4. Heaven And Hell
5. Wishing Well
6. Die Young
7. Walk Away
8. Lonely Is The Word

One of those albums where a band replaces an iconic singer perhaps thought to be irreplaceable and rolls on, sometimes to greater at least commercial if not always critical success, depending on the critics’ tastes. Three other albums and bands come immediately to mind: AC/DC in 1980 – the same year Heaven And Hell was released – with Back In Black, Brian Johnson replacing (RIP) Bon Scott, Van Halen with Sammy Hagar taking over for David Lee Roth for the 1986 album 5150 and Genesis with Phil Collins as lead singer in place of Peter Gabriel starting with the 1976 album A Trick Of The Tail.

In Sabbath’s case, replacing Ozzy Osbourne with Ronnie James Dio rejuvenated the band, which was somewhat in disarray due to substance abuse and a perceived dropoff in quality of their at that point most recent two albums – Technical Ecstasy and Never Say Die! I’ve always seen merit in both, and have played material from them like Johnny Blade and Junior’s Eyes, just to name two songs, on the show over time. But that’s true of me with every Sabbath release. I’m a fan of the band, all eras and singers including Tony Martin and Ian Gillan of Deep Purple’s one album foray (for 1983’s Born Again) as frontman.

As for Heaven And Hell, interesting that the last song recorded during the sessions, Neon Knights, is the first song on the album and a scorcher it is, intentionally or not a signal to listeners that – as with Back In Black’s opener Hells Bells – all’s well with this new version of the band. A classic track on a classic release full of great songs, as is the case with the other two albums I’m playing on this show.

Deep Purple – Machine Head

1. Highway Star
2. Maybe I’m A Leo
3. Pictures Of Home
4. Never Before
5. Smoke On The Water
6. Lazy
7. Space Truckin’

The album which gave the world Deep Purple’s best-known song Smoke On The Water and other familiar tunes like Highway Star, the propulsive opener Purple has also often used to open its concerts to this day, and Space Truckin’. May as well mention the rest of them: Maybe I’m A Leo, Pictures Of Home, Never Before and Lazy. An essential album for lovers of rock music.

Aerosmith – Rocks

1. Back In The Saddle
2. Last Child
3. Rats In The Cellar
4. Combination
5. Sick As A Dog
6. Nobody’s Fault
7. Get The Lead Out
8. Lick And A Promise
9. Home Tonight

It’s arguably a tie amongst many Aerosmith aficionados between Toys In The Attic from 1975, featuring such classics as Walk This Way and Sweet Emotion, and the 1976 followup Rocks as the band’s best. And not only does Rocks feature such well-known hit tunes as Back In The Saddle and Last Child that find their way to most compilations but it also contains likely my favorite Aerosmith deep cut and song of theirs in general, the apocalyptic Nobody’s Fault. Rocks is definitely an appropriate title as the album does just that – except for the slightly less rocking ballad Home Tonight that closes the record. The lyrics in the opening verse of Home Tonight can be seen as taking on a different meaning now, given that Aerosmith announced in August that it was cancelling its farewell tour and retiring from the road as a result of a vocal cord injury to lead singer Steven Tyler.

“Now it’s time
To say good night to you
Now its time
To bid you sweet adieu”