My track-by-track tales follow the bare-bones list. Audio log of the show unavailable, alas, this week.

1. Montrose, Space Station #5
2. Atomic Rooster, Head In The Sky
3. Camel, Never Let Go
4. J.J. Cale, Stay Around
5. Steely Dan, I Got The News
6. The Rolling Stones, Terrifying
7. Boz Scaggs, Runnin’ Blue
8. Paris, Black Book
9. Fleetwood Mac, Born Enchanter
10. Joe Cocker, Hitchcock Railway
11. Jimi Hendrix, Ezy Ryder
12. Bill Withers, Harlem
13. Peter Gabriel, The Rhythm Of The Heat
14. Pink Floyd, Cymbaline
15. Ten Years After, Convention Prevention
16. Steve Earle, I’m Looking Through You (Beatles cover)
17. Traffic, Many A Mile To Freedom
18. Frank Zappa/The Mothers Of Invention (credited as The Mothers), Fifty-Fifty
19. Rare Earth, Ma

My track-by-track tales:

1. Montrose, Space Station #5 . . . Montrose has been top of mind because I watched a documentary on Sammy Hagar last week, so here you go. Cool ‘space’ intro and then into a propulsive hard rock tune from Montrose’s self-titled debut album, released in 1973 with Hagar of course on lead vocals. It’s where the eventual connections between Hagar and Van Halen arguably began. Eddie Van Halen was a fan of Montrose guitarist Ronnie Montrose and the Montrose album was produced by Ted Templeman, five years before Van Halen’s debut which was produced by Templeman among many Van Halen albums he was involved with, although just one, For Unlawful Carnal Knowledge, with the Van Hagar version of the band. Templeman, well-known for his production work with The Doobie Brothers and Van Morrison, also worked on solo albums by both Hagar and David Lee Roth.

2. Atomic Rooster, Head In The Sky . . . Driving rocker from a progressive British band whose roots are traced to The Crazy World Of Arthur Brown (known for the single Fire) which featured the late keyboardist Vincent Crane and drummer Carl Palmer, before he left in 1970 after one album with Rooster to join Emerson, Lake and Palmer. This is from the band’s third album, In Hearing Of, released in 1971.

3. Camel, Never Let Go . . . From the English progressive rock band’s self-titled debut album in 1973, melding acoustic and harder rock flourishes.

4. J.J. Cale, Stay Around . . . Typical bluesy, relaxed groove from J.J., an artist I often say did essentially the same thing for countless albums yet was always different enough to never be boring or repetitive. This is the title cut from a 2019 posthumous release of to that point unreleased material. It was put together by Cale’s widow Christine Lakeland, who was a member of his band and appeared on many albums, and his longtime friend and manager, Mike Kappus, who also worked extensively with John Lee Hooker and Robert Cray, among others.

5. Steely Dan, I Got The News . . . Funky, jazzy track from an often funky, jazzy band, from 1977’s Aja album.

6. The Rolling Stones, Terrifying . . . A swinging tune from the 1989 album Steel Wheels. It was the fourth single released from the album, did reasonably well yet isn’t among the band’s well-known tracks in terms of widespread recognition. So, I’m happy to use it as a relative deep cut.

7. Boz Scaggs, Runnin’ Blue . . . Many people I think remember Boz Scaggs for hits like Lido Shuffle and Lowdown but, long before those hits he was a member of the pre-commercial hits Steve Miller Band during that group’s early, psychedelic and blues period, then a fine solo artist in his own right as evidenced by this rhythm and blues tune from his 1971 album Boz Scaggs & Band.

8. Paris, Black Book . . . Hard rocking tune by a hard rocking, Led Zeppelin-ish band put together by mid-period Fleetwood Mac member and, later, solo artist Bob Welch, after he left Fleetwood Mac following 1974’s Heroes Are Hard To Find album. Also in the band, which released two albums in 1976, was former/original Jethro Tull bass player Glenn Cornick.

9. Fleetwood Mac, Born Enchanter . . . And here’s Welch in a different light, on this jazzy, er, enchanting tune he wrote and sang for the aforementioned 1974 Fleetwood Mac album Heroes Are Hard To Find. It was Welch’s last of five albums with the Mac, which recruited Stevie Nicks and Lindsey Buckingham and went on to massive commercial success. The band was essentially three different groups: the early, blues-oriented outfit led by Peter Green, the Welch period and the Nicks-Buckingham lineup, all excellent in their own ways.

10. Joe Cocker, Hitchcock Railway . . . Bouncy, jaunty track from Cocker’s second album, the 1969 release Joe Cocker! Cocker is joined by a host of session players including The Grease Band. That group, which backed Cocker at Woodstock, included such luminaries as keyboardist/bassist Chris Stainton, whose long list of credits include albums with Eric Clapton, Leon Russell (who also plays on the Cocker album), Spooky Tooth, Pete Townshend and Ian Hunter, and guitarist Henry McCullough, later of Paul McCartney and Wings.

11. Jimi Hendrix, Ezy Ryder . . . From the first of countless posthumous Hendrix releases, the Cry Of Love which came out in March, 1971. I remember my older brother having it, him being a big Hendrix fan who introduced me to Jimi’s music. The album was comprised of material Hendrix was working on for a planned fourth studio album, which he never completed before his death. Ezy Ryder, a funk-driven rocker, is one of the few available studio recordings by the Band of Gypsys – Hendrix, bass player Billy Cox and drummer Buddy Miles. The trio is well-known for the album Band of Gypsys, recorded at New York City’s Fillmore East venue as the calendar flipped from 1969 to 1970.

12. Bill Withers, Harlem . . . Ever-escalating soul track from Withers’ 1971 album Just As I Am. It’s the one featuring his biggest hit, Ain’t No Sunshine and is notable for the who’s who of musicians backing Withers, including Stephen Stills, Booker T. Jones and Donald ‘Duck’ Dunn of of Booker T. and The M.G.’s fame, and session drummer to the stars Jim Keltner.

13. Peter Gabriel, The Rhythm Of The Heat . . . Haunting track from Gabriel’s 1982 album, his fourth. It was called Security in North America and featured the hit Shock The Monkey, although Gabriel reluctantly went along with the ‘Security’ nomenclature the record company wanted in order to differentiate the album from what preceded it. The first four Gabriel albums are officially called, simply, Peter Gabriel but the first three are also unofficially known and identifiable as, in order, Car, Scratch and Melt based on their cover art.

14. Pink Floyd, Cymbaline . . . Early Floyd, a pastoral-type track whose sound is at odds with the dark lyrics. It’s from the More movie soundtrack, released in 1969. The movie, about drug addiction, is currently available on YouTube but, regardless, the album hangs together well as a stand-alone statement.

15. Ten Years After, Convention Prevention . . . Typically fine boogie rock from TYA, from 1972’s Rock & Roll Music To The World album.

16. Steve Earle, I’m Looking Through You (Beatles cover) . . . Earle gives the Rubber Soul song the country/bluegrass treatment; from his 1995 album Train a Comin’.

17. Traffic, Many A Mile To Freedom . . . Beautiful track from The Low Spark Of High Heeled Boys album, released in 1971. Jethro Tull, and I love that band, isn’t the only group employing fabulous flute playing – here courtesy Chris Wood.

18. Frank Zappa/The Mothers Of Invention (credited as simply The Mothers), Fifty-Fifty . . . Typically great guitar by Zappa on this one from 1973’s Over-Nite Sensation, coupled with the renowned Jean-Luc Ponty on violin. Vocals by Ricky Lancelotti, lost to the world to a drug overdose in 1980, age 35.

19. Rare Earth, Ma . . . Epic, 17-minutes and change title track from the band’s 1973 album. Written by Motown ace songwriter/producer Norman Whitfield, who often teamed with Barrett Strong to write such classics as Papa Was A Rollin’ Stone, to which Ma is considered to be something of a companion piece. Among their other collaborations: I Heard It Through The Grapevine, War and Just My Imagination (Running Away With Me).

I’m featuring late 1970s-early 1980s punk/new wave and ska songs, stuff I got into during my college days, plus a segment, near the end of the set, of one-hit wonder type material of the kind one used to find on compilations from record labels like K-tel. I’ve done full shows of one-hit wonder stuff in the past, likely will do so again at some point.

This show includes Reunion’s Life Is A Rock (But The Radio Rolled Me), which famously name-checks myriad artists, songs and record companies, and Blue Swede’s Hooked On A Feeling, aka the Ooga-Chaka song (Ooga-Chaka Ooga-Ooga Ooga-Chaka Ooga-Ooga Ooga-Chaka …). The Blue Swede song returned to prominence via its presence in the first Guardians Of The Galaxy movie and as lead cut on the soundtrack, in 2014.

Sugarloaf, meantime, was at least a two-hit wonder. Besides what I’m playing, Don’t Call Us, We’ll Call You, the group’s Green-Eyed Lady was an even bigger hit. And Hot Chocolate, represented in the set by the song Emma (you may recall the lyric Emma, Emmalene…a sad song, actually) had many hits in the UK and North America, including You Sexy Thing, Every 1’s A Winner, You Could Have Been A Lady (a North American hit single for April Wine) and Brother Louie, which American band Stories turned into the North American chart-topping version I’m playing on the show.

I’ve got a double dip of Flash and The Pan because I think those two, similar songs, Walking In The Rain from the first album and the title cut from the second release, Lights In the Night, are something of a piece, to my ears anyway.

1. Madness, One Step Beyond
2. The Selecter, On My Radio
3. The Clash, Revolution Rock
4. Dead Kennedys, Too Drunk To Fuck
5. Devo, (I Can’t Get No) Satisfaction
6. Blondie, I Know But I Don’t Know
7. Ramones, I Just Want To Have Something To Do
8. The Specials, Rat Race
9. Flash and The Pan, Walking In The Rain
10. Flash and The Pan, Lights In The Night
11. Elvis Costello, Waiting For The End Of The World
12. Joe Jackson, Throw It Away
13. Teenage Head, Brand New Cadillac
14. Graham Parker and The Rumour, The Heat In Harlem
15. Talking Heads, The Overload
16. The Police, Deathwish
17. Nick Lowe, Big Kick, Plain Scrap!
18. Split Enz, What’s The Matter With You
19. Ian Dury, There Ain’t Half Been Some Clever Bastards
20. Pretenders, Private Life
21. The Boomtown Rats, Up All Night
22. The Cars, You Can’t Hold On Too Long
23. The Motels, Take The L
24. XTC, Ten Feet Tall
25. Reunion, Life Is A Rock (But The Radio Rolled Me)
26. Stories, Brother Louie
27. Sammy Johns, Chevy Van
28. Redbone, Come And Get Your Love
29. Sugarloaf, Don’t Call Us, We’ll Call You
30. Hot Chocolate, Emma
31. Blue Swede, Hooked On A Feeling
32. Billy Swan, I Can Help
33. Hot Butter, Popcorn

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

1. New Barbarians (Ron Wood, Keith Richards and friends), Am I Grooving You (live)
2. John Mayall, Gimme Some Of That Gumbo
3. Robin Trower, Victims Of The Fury
4. UFO, Queen Of The Deep
5. Pat Benatar, My Clone Sleeps Alone
6. Budgie, Parents
7. Dio, Don’t Talk To Strangers
8. Black Sabbath, End Of The Beginning
9. Bad Company, Evil Wind
10. Jeff Beck, Let Me Love You
11. ZZ Top, Snappy Kakkie
12. Stevie Wonder, Another Star
13. Joe Jackson, Blaze Of Glory
14. Jethro Tull, Occasional Demons
15. Little Feat, I Do What The Telephone Tells Me To Do
16. Santana, Every Step Of The Way (live, from Lotus)

My track-by-track tales:

1. New Barbarians (Ron Wood, Keith Richards and famous musician friends), Am I Grooving You (live) . . . A song I first heard on Wood’s debut solo record, 1974’s I’ve Got My Own Album To Do, first recorded in 1967 by American soul singer Freddie Scott. The New Barbarians were comprised of Wood, Richards, saxophonist and Rolling Stones session player/touring member Bobby Keys, renowned bassist Stanley Clarke, keyboardist Ian McLagan of Faces fame, who also played with the Stones on their 1978 tour of the United States, and drummer Joseph (Ziggy/Zigaboo) Modeliste of funk band The Meters. They toured the US in 1979 in support of Wood’s then new album Gimme Some Neck. They also stopped in Oshawa, Ontario for the Keith Richards/New Barbarians/Rolling Stones show I still can barely believe I somehow managed to get tickets to, proceeds to the Canadian National Institute for the Blind (CNIB). It was Richards’ sentence for his 1978 conviction on drug charges resulting from an arrest in Toronto in 1977 around the time the Stones were in the city leading up to their famous club shows at the El Mocambo. That resulted in one vinyl side of the live album Love You Live and, more recently, a full-blown (and mind-blowing) 2-CD release of the shows, El Mocambo 1977, issued in 2022.

This live version is from New Barbarians: Live In Maryland – Buried Alive, a document of the tour that was released in a 2-CD package in 2006. Am I Grooving You was c0-written by Bert Berns (aka Bert Russell; he was born Bert Russell Berns) and Jeff Barry, hitmakers extraordinaire with a long list they either wrote or co-wrote with others. From Berns: Twist and Shout, Piece Of My Heart, Here Comes The Night, Hang On Sloopy, Cry To Me and Everybody Needs Somebody To Love. From Barry: Do Wah Diddy Diddy, Da Doo Ron Ron, River Deep-Mountain High, Leader Of The Pack, Sugar Sugar and I Honestly Love You. Berns wasn’t with us long. He had a history of cardiac trouble after his heart was damaged by a childhood bout with rheumatic fever and died of heart failure in 1967, age 38. He was the subject of the 2016 film Bang! The Bert Berns Story.

2. John Mayall, Gimme Some Of That Gumbo . . . Now age 90, the blues legend announced his retirement from touring in 2021, but left open the possibility of doing shows close to his California home. He’s released new studio albums, consistently, every two or three years, the most recent being The Sun Is Shining Down in 2022. This funky, bluesy number, featuring some fine lead guitar work from Rocky Athas, no longer in the band but who was with Mayall when I saw him at the 2011 Kitchener Blues Festival, is from the 2016 album Talk About That.

3. Robin Trower, Victims Of The Fury . . . Spooky title track from Trower’s 1980 album, the last to feature the guitarist’s classic trio of himself, bassist/soulful singer James Dewar and drummer Bill Lordan.

4. UFO, Queen Of The Deep . . . From 1974’s Phenomenon album, the third UFO album and first to feature guitarist Michael Schenker as the band moved to a more straightforward hard rock sound from their earlier space rock, psychedelic approach.

5. Pat Benatar, My Clone Sleeps Alone . . . From her first, and still for my money best album, the 1979 debut release In The Heat Of The Night. Benatar hit it really big a year later with the Hit Me With Your Best Shot single from the Crimes Of Passion album, a good record, but I still prefer the first one.

6. Budgie, Parents . . . And we enter the hard rock/metal portion of the show with this 10-minute piece from the Welsh band that never achieved widespread commercial success but was influential. Among Budgie’s disciples are Iron Maiden and Metallica, who covered Breadfan, a hellacious riff rocker I’ve played before on the show, on the Garage, Inc. covers album.

7. Dio, Don’t Talk To Strangers . . . The late Ronnie James Dio was a fantastic singer and while I like his work with his namesake band, I prefer his stuff fronting Rainbow and Black Sabbath during the time he was with those groups. Perhaps it’s because, while Dio the band had lots of fine guitarists, in Rainbow and Sabbath, Dio the singer was working with all-time great guitarist/songwriters Ritchie Blackmore and Tony Iommi. Still, as mentioned I do like Dio the band and this is a good song if you’re into hard rock/metal, from a solid record, Dio’s debut release, 1983’s Holy Diver.

8. Black Sabbath, End Of The Beginning . . . Speaking of Sabbath, a doom metal track from 13, the final studio album by the group, released in 2013 which, according to bassist Geezer Butler, is part of the reason for the album title, apparently suggested by singer Ozzy Osbourne. Also according to Butler, the band was being pressured by the record company for a 13-song album but in the end just eight songs made the standard edition although my deluxe 2-CD version has 11 tracks. The original lineup – Ozzy, Butler, guitarist Tony Iommi and drummer Bill Ward – had previously reunited for a concert that resulted in the 1998 live album Reuion, which featured two new studio songs including the hit single Psycho Man. But 13 wasn’t a full reunion as Ward did not participate, citing contractual issues. Brad Wilk of Rage Against The Machine and Audioslave fame handled the drumsticks in Ward’s place.

The song title reminds me of Winston Churchill’s famous line, one of my favorites of his many, after the British victory over the Germans at El Alamein in North Africa in November, 1942 as the tide of World War II turned in favor of the Allies: “Now this is not the end. It is not even the beginning of the end. But it is, perhaps, the end of the beginning.” What an orator Churchill was.

9. Bad Company, Evil Wind . . . Rock ‘n’ Roll Fantasy was the big hit on the 1979 album Desolation Angels, and it’s a good one along with the other single, Gone Gone Gone, but the release is full of great songs, this being one of them. “That was full of Paul’s (singer Rodgers) tumbleweed across the plains imagery,” drummer Simon Kirke is quoted as saying in the liner notes booklet to The “Original” Bad Company Anthology. “I think Paul was a cowboy or one of those bounty hunters in another life.”

10. Jeff Beck, Let Me Love You . . . The Truth is, the album from which this comes is ridiculously good.

11. ZZ Top, Snappy Kakkie . . . If you played this funky groove tune to casual, hits-oriented listeners and asked them to identify the band, I wonder whether they could. And it’s OK if they couldn’t. We’re all into what we’re into, as deeply as we want to be. But that’s what of course makes great bands and albums and shows the value of listening to deep cuts. From the Tejas album, 1976.

12. Stevie Wonder, Another Star . . . I was spinning Wonder’s Songs In The Key Of Life the other day and was ‘oh yeah’ on this one, remembering it, having not heard it in a while. I’m playing the full 8:28 album version, which was cut down to five minutes and change for single release. The Latin-influenced exercise in rhythm was the fourth of five singles released from the album. I Wish, Isn’t She Lovely, Sir Duke and As were the others. Another Star made No. 32 on the US Billboard chart, No. 29 in the UK, No. 51 in Canada and No. 2 on Billboard’s dance/disco list.

13. Joe Jackson, Blaze Of Glory . . . Title track to JJ’s 1989 album. Despite being full of good songs, like this one, it had just one single that charted to any great degree. That was Nineteen Forever, which made the top 20 in the USA. Another good one, Down To London, managed to make, wait for it, No. 126 in Australia, despite much critical acclaim both for the song and album. No wonder Jackson was disappointed; he thought the record represented some of his finest work and I agree, but then I’m a huge fan.

14. Jethro Tull, Occasional Demons . . . Good rocker from the 1993 release Catfish Rising, one of my favorite later period (30 years ago now!) Tull albums.

15. Little Feat, I Do What The Telephone Tells Me To Do . . . Prescient, perhaps, given the ubiquity of people and their (smart)phones although this song, from 2003’s latter-day Kickin’ It At The Barn album, is more about actually calling on a phone or waiting for it to ring than, say, walking, head down and oblivious, texting or scrolling and risking bumping into people or something worse, say at a crosswalk. “Head’s up!” I have been known to say, sometimes to a ‘thank you’ response, other times drawing a dirty look. Anyway . . . Little Feat is still around, with original member and keyboard player Bill Payne still in the band as are longtime stalwarts Sam Clayton (congas, percussion, vocals) and bassist Kenny Gradney, both of whom have been in the lineup since 1972. And they’ve just released a new album. It’s called Sam’s Place, Clayton does most of the singing and is well-suited to the mostly blues covers like Got My Mojo Working and Long Distance Call, which features Bonnie Raitt on co-lead vocals with Clayton.

16. Santana, Every Step Of The Way (live, from Lotus) . . . Intoxicating instrumental that saw studio release as a nine-minute cut on 1972’s Caravanserai, whose 10 tracks included seven instrumentals as Santana moved in a jazz fusion direction. The Lotus version runs 11 minutes, 30 seconds featuring typically fiery fretwork from Carlos Santana along with the usual Santana band brew of bongos, congas and maracas.

An all R.E.M. set list, inspired by one of my show’s followers who had posted to Facebook R.E.M.’s song Low, a hypnotic favorite of mine from the band’s Out Of Time album. As a result, we got discussing the band and, since I’ve of late been doing themed shows for my Saturday programmed sets, live albums for the last four weeks, he suggested that at some point I might do an R.E.M. playlist.

So, here it is, mostly deeper cuts from throughout the band’s career as they went from an alternative ‘college radio’ band to worldwide mainstream success to, in their later days as a trio after the retirement of drummer Bill Berry 1997, declining sales and chart success in North America but solid sales and high chart placings for both albums and singles in the UK.

Berry, incidentally, became a farmer in the band’s home state of Georgia and did some sporadic music work before returning to the industry in 2022 as part of the Georgia band The Bad Ends, who released an album in 2023. I was always aware of R.E.M. but didn’t get into them until they hit the mainstream with the single The One I Love from 1987’s Document album. As tends to happen if one likes what one is hearing, I went back, and forward with them on each subsequent release. The band amicably called it a day in 2011 but not before assembling the terrific 2-CD compilation Part Lies, Part Heart, Part Truth, Part Garbage 1982-2011.

Here’s the set list, with source album information.

1. Begin The Begin . . . From Lifes Rich Pageant album, 1986
2. The Wake-Up Bomb . . . New Adventures in Hi-Fi, 1996
3. A Month Of Saturdays . . . unreleased until issued on Part Lies, Part Heart, Part Truth, Part Garbage 1982-2011, 2011.
4. Living Well Is The Best Revenge . . . Accelerate, 2008
5. Alligator Aviator Autopilot Antimatter . . . Collapse Into Now, 2011
6. Low . . . Out Of Time, 1991
7. Bad Day . . . first issued in 2003 as a single from In Time: The Best Of R.E.M. 1988-2003, later also on the Part Lies . . . compilation, 2011.
8. Talk About The Passion . . . Murmur, 1983
9. Gardening At Night . . . Chronic Town EP, 1982
10. Supernatural Superserious . . . Accelerate, 2008
11. We All Go Back To Where We Belong . . . unreleased until issued on Part Lies, Part Heart, Part Truth, Part Garbage 1982-2011, 2011.
12. The Great Beyond . . . Man On The Moon movie soundtrack, 1999
13. New Test Leper . . . New Adventures In Hi-Fi, 1996
14. Country Feedback . . . Out Of Time, 1991
15. Finest Worksong . . . Document, 1987
16. Driver 8 . . . Fables Of The Reconstruction, 1985
17. Lotus . . . Up, 1998
18. How The West Was Won And Where It Got Us . . . New Adventures In Hi-Fi, 1996
19. I Took Your Name . . . Monster, 1994
20. Tongue . . . Monster, 1994
21. Fall On Me . . . Lifes Rich Pageant, 1986
22. Sitting Still . . . Murmur, 1983
23. Imitation Of Life . . . Reveal, 2001
24. King Of Comedy . . . Monster, 1994
25. Uberlin . . . Collapse Into Now, 2011
26. Star 69 . . . Monster, 1994
27. Hallelujah . . . unreleased until issued on Part Lies, Part Heart, Part Truth, Part Garbage 1982-2011, 2011.
28. Radio Song . . . Out Of Time, 1991
29. (Don’t Go Back To) Rockville . . . Reckoning, 1984