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

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1. Spirit, Fresh Garbage
2. Led Zeppelin, In My Time Of Dying
3. Bob Dylan, Ain’t Gonna Go To Hell For Anybody (previously unreleased track recorded live in 1980 in Montreal, taken from The Bootleg Series Vol. 13 Trouble No More 1979-1981, Dylan’s ‘Christian’ period
4. Bob Dylan, Murder Most Foul
5. Slim Harpo, Folsom Prison Blues
6. Gary Moore, The Prophet
7. The Rolling Stones, Parachute Woman
8. Neil Young, Ordinary People
9. Little Feat, Rock & Roll Everynight (from Live From Neon Park)
10. J.J. Cale, Money Talks
11. T. Rex, Mambo Sun
12. Graham Parker, Howlin’ Wind
13. Parliament, Chocolate City
14. James Brown, It’s Too Funky In Here
15. Wilson Pickett, In The Midnight Hour (live extended version)

My track-by-track tales:

1. Spirit, Fresh Garbage . . . Jazzy psychedelic rock from Spirit’s self-titled debut album, 1968, featuring Randy California’s sharp guitar work. An impressive trip in various musical directions, all in just a shade over three minutes.

2. Led Zeppelin, In My Time Of Dying . . . From the 1975 double vinyl album Physical Graffiti. One of the things I think of when I think of Physical Graffiti, it being a double studio album, is how so many great groups/artists seem to have at least one classic double vinyl studio album in their catalogue. I’m not talking albums like Cream’s Wheels Of Fire which featured sides of live tracks; great as they were but I’m speaking of original studio material spread over four sides of vinyl. That’s a lot of work, lots of songs, yet in all cases, consistent quality which is a testament to these great artists’ abilities and creativity.

Albums like, and it’s quite a list, just off the top of my head while I’m sure I’ve left more than a few out: The Beatles White Album, Exile On Main St. from The Rolling Stones, Bob Dylan’s Blonde On Blonde, The Who’s Tommy and Quadrophenia, Elton John’s Goodbye Yellow Brick Road, The Lamb Lies Down On Broadway from Genesis and yes, even the overblown and not to all tastes four-song, one per vinyl side, Yes album Tales From Topographic Oceans, arguably the ultimate in prog rock excess . . . Bruce Springsteen’s The River, Pink Floyd’s The Wall, London Calling from The Clash followed up by their triple-vinyl studio release Sandinista! . . .

As for Zep’s Physical Graffiti and the song In My Time Of Dying . . . it’s a traditional, composer actually unknown – as far as is, uh, known 🙂 – but originally known to be first recorded if not perhaps written by bluesman Blind Willie Johnson in 1927. Bob Dylan recorded it on his debut album in 1962. Zep, as was their often disturbing plaigiaristic wont, ‘adapted’ it and took full songwriting credit although later releases of Graffiti do add Johnson to the credits. All that aside, I love that initial drum break – and John Bonham’s drums throughout – off the slow intro and then into Jimmy Page’s guitar riff, the full band comes in followed by Robert Plant’s bluesy vocal. A raw and apocalyptic adventure, nicely done.

3. Bob Dylan, Ain’t Gonna Go To Hell For Anybody (previously unreleased track recorded live in 1980 in Montreal, taken from The Bootleg Series Vol. 13 Trouble No More 1979-1981) . . . A fiery track including effective female gospel backup singers, from Dylan’s controversial ‘Christian’ period. It was a time during which he released the albums Slow Train Coming, Saved and Shot Of Love although by Shot Of Love in 1981 it was evident he, mercurial and ‘do whatever I feel like, whenever’ as always, was already moving on from that period. He was soon to release the great 1983 album Infidels featuring Mark Knopfler of Dire Straits fame and former Rolling Stone Mick Taylor on guitar.

While the ‘Christian’ period is a controversial time in Dylan’s career given his then-new religious leanings, musically it was a brilliant slice in time during which he employed, as always, crack bands. Knopfler guested on guitar on Slow Train Coming while aces like latter-day Little Feat guitarist Fred Tackett, keyboardist/producer/man for all seasons musically Al Kooper and session drumming ace Jim Keltner were in Dylan’s touring band. Over time, I think, the ‘religious’ controversy around that period of Dylan’s career has rightly faded such that one can simply enjoy the great music on the individual albums and in the live environment on Vol. 13 of his ongoing Bootleg Series, released in 2017. It’s really good.

4. Bob Dylan, Murder Most Foul . . . The Dylan of today, or at least his talk-singing voice of recent times. It’s still very effective as he adapts to his aging vocal limitations. This 17-minute epic from the 2020 album Rough And Rowdy Ways takes us through the assassination of JFK in 1963 fused with all manner of cultural and musical references – The Rolling Stones’ ill-fated 1969 Altamont concert, John Lee Hooker, Guitar Slim, Etta James, members of The Beach Boys, Wolfman Jack, Billy Joel referenced not in name but by the title of his song Only The Good Die Young, the Eagles, Oscar Peterson, Houdini gets a mention, on and on . . . it’s Dylan at his best both in the spare musical treatment and lyrically in this tapestry of pop culture, history, and mysticism. Dylan has many great long songs. Sad Eyed Lady Of The Lowlands, Brownsville Girl, Highlands just to name three that immediately come to mind for me. Murder Most Foul takes its place among them.

5. Slim Harpo, Folsom Prison Blues . . . Harpo gives Johnny Cash’s signature song a swamp-blues groove makeover with classic, understated but effective harmonica playing on a track recorded in 1969. Another example of what to me makes a great cover – it’s a reinvention.

6. Gary Moore, The Prophet . . . Expressive slow blues via Moore’s guitar on this track from his 2001 album Back To The Blues as he continued to go back and forth between always interesting and compelling rock, hard rock/metal and blues albums. Sadly long lost to us in 2011 to a heart attack at age 58, Moore was marvelous as he continually straddled myriad genres – rock (including with Thin Lizzy for a time), hard rock/metal, and blues including not only his big hit Still Got The Blues (For You) but albums like Blues For Greeny, his 1995 covers tribute to Fleetwood Mac founder/guitarist Peter Green.

7. The Rolling Stones, Parachute Woman . . . A friend of mine has ‘Beggars Banquet’ nights, whether his mood is good, bad, or indifferent it seems to be his go-to album, drink(s) in hand, just letting one of the Stones’ classic albums envelop him. I like it, too. Including, from Beggars, this dirty, swampy blues track, full of murky guitar and Mick Jagger’s slurred, suggestive vocals as the Stones embrace their roots while adding their own sleazy edge.

The production is raw and unpolished, giving it an almost demo-like feel that works in its favor. It’s one of their deep cuts that perfectly captures the band’s bluesy swagger. And for me, major Stones fan, it’s amazing how, within a year, 1967 to 1968, and I like all their albums, the Stones progressed or changed from the pop/psychedelia of releases like Their Satanic Majesties Request and Between The Buttons to the down and dirty nature of Beggars Banquet and songs like Parachute Woman. It’s as if they were an entirely new and different band. However it transpired creatively, it signalled a new phase of The Rolling Stones, soon to be fortified by the addition of virtuoso guitarist Mick Taylor starting with the next album, Let It Bleed. It was a period that yielded the so-called in Stones’ lore ‘Big Four’ albums Beggars Banquet, Let It Bleed, Sticky Fingers and Exile On Main St. and I’ll always add a fifth album, the live Get Yer Ya Ya’s Out smack in the middle of the studio releases. All in all a widely acknowledged brilliant period for a band who I submit, despite some critics’ and fans’ views, has continued to issue quality music to the present day. The eclecticism of their output over 60-plus years of recording is remarkable.

8. Neil Young, Ordinary People . . . Dylan-like, albeit with grungier guitar accents, a lengthy ‘story’ track of 18 minutes that is so compelling it flies by. It’s from the Chrome Dreams II album released in 2007. There was a Chrome Dreams I, held back but eventually released in 2023 and it’s more a compilation – with some previously unreleased tracks – of reworked or remixed or otherwise redone songs like Like A Hurricane, Pocahontas, Sedan Delivery and Powderfinger that had appeared on previous Neil Young albums.

9. Little Feat, Rock & Roll Everynight (from Live From Neon Park) . . . Shaun Murphy on lead vocals during her time with the latter day configuration of Little Feat on this up-tempo boogie number from Live From Neon Park that first appeared on the band’s 1995 studio album Ain’t Had Enough Fun. Nice boogie-woogie piano by the perennial Bill Payne, co-founder of the band in 1969 along with (RIP) Lowell George. Payne is the last original member of Little Feat, which continues to record and tour to this day. And yes, ‘Everynight’ is written that way, one word, on both the studio and live albums.

10. J.J. Cale, Money Talks . . . Typical signature shuffle, detached delivery from J.J. and another example of his huge influence on people like Eric Clapton and Mark Knopfler. It’s from his eighth studio album, issued in 1983 and titled, wait for it, #8, in line with his fifth album (5) and 10th (Number 10) although J.J. for the most part used more creative/conventional titles like Naturally, his 1972 debut, Really, Shades, Grasshopper, Guitar Man, etc.

11. T. Rex, Mambo Sun . . . From 1971’s Electric Warrior, the album that featured the band’s big hit – at least in North America; the UK had long since embraced the group where it was consistently high on the charts – Get It On, which was retitled Bang a Gong (Get It On) for the US market. But, like, say, a band like Free known by some, particularly in North America, only for the hit single All Right Now, T. Rex was so much more. Earlier known as full dinosaur Tyrannosaurus Rex, they’d already seen success on home shores in the UK before the worldwide breakthrough as T. Rex via Get It On. Some things are just a matter of time and place. As for Mambo Sun, it’s the lead track on Electric Warrior and could easily have been a single; a funky, slinky song driven by Marc Bolan’s hypnotic guitar riff and signature boogie swagger.

12. Graham Parker, Howlin’ Wind . . . We’ve had some windy weather of late where I live in southern Ontario, so I’ve been planning to play this and finally getting around to doing so, naturally enough now that the wind, for the most part, has waned. It’s the title track from Parker’s debut album in 1976.

13. Parliament, Chocolate City . . . Typical funk excursion by Parliament in a tribute to Washington, D.C. and its black cultural influence, the title cut to an album released in April, 1975. The lyrics assign various political positions to black icons including Muhammad Ali as president, James Brown as VP, Stevie Wonder as Secretary of Fine Arts and Aretha Franklin as First Lady.

14. James Brown, It’s Too Funky In Here . . . Every time I listen to James Brown I find myself singing along, out loud or in my mind, engaging along with him in various vocalizations like ‘ugh, agh, humph, hump, yeah, yeh, oooww” . . . etc. You don’t even need any musical instruments, just groove to his voice. He’s another of those artists – Bob Dylan, Van Morrison come to my mind – whose voices are intrinsic to their sound. A song by any of them, great as covers can be, is simply not the same if it’s not them singing. And Brown kept that going through this cut from his 1979 album The Original Disco Man, and beyond.

15. Wilson Pickett, In The Midnight Hour (live extended version) . . . From the excellent, arguably all you really need 2-CD compilation A Man And A Half. It’s a previously unreleased version where Pickett, backed by Booker T. & The MGs, transforms one of his signature songs into an eight-minute, still recognizable soul workout.

I’m featuring The Concert For Bangladesh from George Harrison and musical friends released in December 1971 after the actual concert at New York’s Madison Square Garden on August 1 of that year. The show was a triumph for Harrison – whose 82nd birthday would have been this past Tuesday, February 25 – and set a precedent for benefit concerts, inspiring Live Aid and other major charity events. I’ve filled in the remainder of my 2-hour slot with a couple instrumental tracks from the “Apple Jam” portion of the former Beatle’s 1970 triple album All Things Must Pass.

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The Concert For Bangladesh

1. George Harrison/Ravi Shankar Introduction
2. Ravi Shankar, Bangla Dhun
3. George Harrison, Wah-Wah
4. George Harrison, My Sweet Lord
5. George Harrison, Awaiting On You All
6. Billy Preston, That’s The Way God Planned It
7. Ringo Starr, It Don’t Come Easy
8. George Harrison and Leon Russell, Beware Of Darkness
9. George Harrison with Eric Clapton, While My Guitar Gently Weeps
10. Leon Russell, Jumpin’ Jack Flash/Youngblood
11. George Harrison, Here Comes The Sun
12. Bob Dylan, A Hard Rain’s Gonna Fall
13. Bob Dylan, It Takes A Lot To Laugh, It Takes A Train To Cry
14. Bob Dylan, Blowin’ In The Wind
15. Bob Dylan, Mr. Tambourine Man
16. Bob Dylan, Just Like A Woman
17. George Harrison, Something
18. George Harrison, Bangla Desh

Apple Jam (from All Things Must Pass)

19. Plug Me In
20. Out Of The Blue

My track-by-track tales follow the bare-bones list and are also on my Facebook page.

So Old It’s New archive

1. Elton John, Have Mercy On The Criminal
2. Black Sabbath, Falling Off The Edge Of The World
3. Steppenwolf, Renegade
4. Bad Company, Painted Face
5. Warren Zevon, Roland The Headless Thompson Gunner (live, from Learning To Flinch)
6. The Tragically Hip, Fight
7. Roxy Music, My Only Love (from Roxy Music Live, a document of the band’s 2001 reunion tour, released in 2003)
8. The Beach Boys, I Know There’s An Answer
9. Frank Zappa, Dumb All Over (previously unreleased live version of the You Are What You Is studio track from 1981, issued on the 1997 compilation Have I Offended Someone?)
10. John Lennon, Well Well Well
11. Pete Townshend, I Am An Animal
12. The Rolling Stones, Too Tight
13. Chicago, Devil’s Sweet
14. Tom Waits, Shore Leave
15. The Butterfield Blues Band, Driftin’ And Driftin’ (from The Butterfield Blues Band Live)

My track-by-track tales:

1. Elton John, Have Mercy On The Criminal . . . Yet another deep cut from EJ’s 1970s heyday that essentially made all or most of his studio albums hits compilations. It’s from 1973’s Don’t Shoot Me I’m Only The Piano Player which yielded the hit singles Daniel and Crocodile Rock but is filled with great songs, like this one. Noted arranger, composer, conductor and longtime Elton John collaborator Paul Buckmaster handled the orchestration on a song that starts with a dramatic, fast flourish before settling in to a ballad painting, via Bernie Taupin’s lyrics, a picture of an outlaw on the run.

2. Black Sabbath, Falling Off The Edge Of The World . . . I went down the internet rabbit hole the other day when an article popped up in my feed listing what the author thought were the best Sabbath songs from the Ronnie James Dio on lead vocals era. This song, from 1981’s Mob Rules album, Dio’s second with Sabbath after 1980’s Heaven And Hell, was on the list and I agree. A moody, atmospheric opening builds the tension that you know is going to soon explode, as it does, into a full-throttle hard rock/metal assault.

3. Steppenwolf, Renegade . . . A brooding, bluesy autobiographical track about Steppenwolf leader/singer John Kay, then age 4, and his mother’s 1948 escape to the West from the Soviet occupation zone in Germany, where Kay was born. It’s from the album Steppenwolf 7, released in 1970.

4. Bad Company, Painted Face . . . Funky boogie from 1982’s Rough Diamonds album. It was the last studio album from the original Paul Rodgers-fronted Bad Company lineup that also included guitarist Mick Ralphs, drummer Simon Kirke and bassist Boz Burrell. Rodgers later returned, off and on, in various later configurations of the band for tours and to record four then-new songs for the 1999 original lineup reunion compilation The ‘Original’ Bad Co. Anthology.

5. Warren Zevon, Roland The Headless Thompson Gunner (live, from Learning To Flinch) . . . Live albums aren’t everyone’s cup of tea and while I generally prefer studio versions of songs, I do like concert albums because they can obviously go down entirely new avenues as artists may rearrange or otherwise adjust and adapt their tunes. This version of the track originally on Zevon’s 1978 breakthrough album Excitable Boy (which featured the hit single Werwolves Of London) is a perfect example. Learning To Flinch, released in 1993, is from a solo acoustic world tour Zevon did in 1992, just him on guitar, keyboards, harmonica and vocals. On Roland, he takes what was a shade under four-minute studio track and reworks it into an 11-minute haunting epic. It starts with “Roland Chorale”, an instrumental intro that merges into a familiar yet, in Zevon’s voice and piano playing, transformed yet still-recognizable song about his fictional mercenary.

6. The Tragically Hip, Fight . . . I had the Hip on my list of artists I hadn’t played in a while so here they are, finally, again prompted in some measure by a discussion about the band I had with a friend last week. Fight is from the classic 1991 album Road Apples. It’s a bluesy groove tune with lyrics to which anyone who’s been in a relationship can relate.

“We wake up different, rifle through our dreams
Another placid day ripples at the seams
Do you think I bow out ’cause I think you’re right
Or ’cause I don’t want to fight?
Do you think I bow out ’cause I think you’re right

“We lay down seething, smell our pillows burn
And drift off to the place where you’d think we’d learn
Do you think I bow out ’cause I think you’re right
Or ’cause I don’t want to fight?
“Do you think I bow out ’cause I think you’re right
Or ’cause I don’t want to fight?
Oh, go ahead and fight
I give, oh, I give, I said, I give”

7. Roxy Music, My Only Love (from Roxy Music Live, a document of the band’s 2001 reunion tour, released in 2003) . . . Extended version of a song originally on 1980’s Flesh And Blood studio album. It’s a terrific live album with, on this track, Phil Manzanera’s expressive guitar solo near the end leading into a showcase, as lead singer Bryan Ferry cedes the stage, for the vocalizations of backing singers Sarah Brown, Yanick Etienne, Michelle John and Sharon White. It’s reminiscent to me of Clare Torry’s performance on Pink Floyd’s The Great Gig In The Sky.

8. The Beach Boys, I Know There’s An Answer . . . From Pet Sounds, the 1966 album that, by most accounts, inspired The Beatles to produce their Sgt. Pepper album, released in 1967. I Know There’s An Answer was originally titled Hang On To Your Ego but objections arose within the band as to lyrics referring to drug culture, so it was rewritten although Hang On To Your Ego has appeared as a bonus track on various reissues of Pet Sounds. Musically, the song features an unorthodox structure driven by myriad instruments including guitars, tambourine, piano, banjo, clarinets, flutes, electric keyboards, timpani and harmonica.

9. Frank Zappa, Dumb All Over (previously unreleased live version of the You Are What You Is studio track from 1981, issued on the 1997 compilation Have I Offended Someone?) . . . A typically scathing Zappa social commentary punctuated by an incendiary guitar solo.

10. John Lennon, Well Well Well . . . Grungy guitars from well before ‘grunge’ was a musical genre, spare production, raw, primal scream therapy vocals, all from the harrowing, personal, Plastic Ono Band album, released in 1970. Hugely influential album on my impressionable young mind, musically but particularly lyrically in the songs God and Working Class Hero, both of which I’ve played before on the show and inevitably will return to.

11. Pete Townshend, I Am An Animal . . . . An introspective song from 1980’s Empty Glass, featuring the immortal line “I will be immersed, Queen of the fucking universe.” A terrific hit album full of great songs that prompted Who singer Roger Daltrey to suggest that Townshend was by that point saving his best stuff for himself or, at least, spreading himself too thin in terms of providing material for the mother ship band. The counter to Daltrey’s argument would be that Townshend’s songs can be intensely personal and even as far back as 1975’s album The Who By Numbers, Daltrey was reluctant to sing songs like However Much I Booze – lead vocals by Townshend – since they were so clearly tales of Townshend’s travails.

12. The Rolling Stones, Too Tight . . . The kind of energetic riff rocker the Stones seem to be able to toss off in their sleep, which isn’t a criticism by any stretch. It’s another indication of their innate songwriting abilities resulting in deep cuts like this, from 1997’s Bridges To Babylon album, that many bands would love to have as a single.

13. Chicago, Devil’s Sweet . . . Some have compared this 10-minute instrumental jazz-rock fusion piece from Chicago VII in 1974 to Weather Report with slices of Miles Davis, Santana and Soft Machine. It’s all of those things in at least some measure but really, it’s simply Chicago in their early glory days of inventive, experimental energy, this time propelled by shifting time signatures and Danny Seraphine’s great drumming. A universe away from the schlock show, albeit a commercially successful schlock show, they later became.

14. Tom Waits, Shore Leave . . . Surreal, percussive, almost industrial sounds on this noir-like track from 1983’s Swordfishtrombones album. And that’s just the music. Lyrically, we follow . . . No, check that, we ‘see’, through Waits’ words, a sailor on shore leave through various encounters in, apparently, Hong Kong while “trying to make it all last, squeezing all the life out of a lousy two day pass.”

Someone on YouTube summed it up nicely: “A movie in 4:16” (the song time).

15. The Butterfield Blues Band, Driftin’ And Driftin’ (from The Butterfield Blues Band Live) . . . Live version of a track originally on the third Butterfield Band studio album, The Resurrection Of Pigboy Crabshaw, released in 1967. By the time of The Butterfield Blues Band Live’s recording at The Troubador in Los Angeles in early 1970, Pigboy (guitarist Elvin Bishop’s nickname) had left the band which now featured a four-man horn section with Ralph Wash on guitar. The group had evolved into a blues outfit with jazz and R & B chops ranging all over the musical map. It’s compelling stuff, led always by Butterfield’s singing and harmonica playing which is well described in liner notes.

“His mix of amplified and acoustic work on Driftin’ and Driftin’ show how he could capture and enthrall an audience with his emotive style; his instrumental is a mini-history of the blues harp, not only calling to mind Butterfield’s mentor Little Walter but Sonny Boy Williamson, Rice Miller (aka Sonny Boy Williamson II) and others. However it is never the work of a copyist. It is always the immediately recognizable sound and style of Paul Butterfield.”