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”

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

1. John Lennon/Plastic Ono Band, Cold Turkey
2. The Marshall Tucker Band, Ramblin’
3. Nazareth, Kentucky Fried Blues
4. The Monks Bad Habits
5. The Monkees No Time
6. Warren Zevon, Boom Boom Mancini
7. The Rolling Stones, Long Long While
8. Neil Young, Birds
9. AC/DC, Let’s Get It Up
10. Peter Frampton, While My Guitar Gently Weeps
11. Cat Stevens, Foreigner Suite
12. Steely Dan, Two Against Nature
13. John Lee Hooker, John L’s House Rent Boogie/One Bourbon, One Scotch, One Beer
14. Lynyrd Skynyrd, Lend A Helpin’ Hand
15. Funkadelic, Wars Of Armaggedon
16. Bruce Springsteen, Drive All Night

My track-by-track tales:

1. John Lennon/Plastic Ono Band, Cold Turkey . . . Nothing to do with Thanksgiving, of course, it’s a harrowing track about withdrawal from addiction, specifically in this case heroin addiction, but I figured I’d play something turkey-related on this Canadian Thanksgiving Monday/weekend and this is the first song that occurred to me. Plus, well, I like it. Apologies if it may be in poor taste but hey, lighten up, maybe Lennon was really writing about turkey leftovers in the fridge. 🙂

Released in October of 1969 under the moniker of the Plastic Ono Band, it features Beatle Ringo on drums, Eric Clapton on guitar and longtime Beatles’ associate Klaus Voorman, who designed the cover art for the Revolver album and played on a total of 10 solo albums spread amongst Lennon, Ringo Starr and George Harrison, on bass. It was the first single Lennon ever released under his sole songwriting credit. He had released Give Peace A Chance earlier that year while still, as he was when Cold Turkey came out, with The Beatles but Give Peace A Chance was at first credited as a Lennon-McCartney tune, later changed to just Lennon. According to The Love You Make, one of the 67 million books available on The Beatles, Lennon offered Cold Turkey as a possible Beatles single but Paul McCartney took one listen and said no, to which, according to the book, Lennon replied “well, bugger you” and released it as a Plastic Ono Band song. A great song, regardless.

2. The Marshall Tucker Band, Ramblin’ . . . Five minutes and seven seconds worth of southern fried boogie from the band likely best known for their hit single Can’t You See which, like Ramblin’, was released on the group’s self-titled debut album in 1973.

3. Nazareth, Kentucky Fried Blues . . . Pulsating dirty, bluesy jam from the Expect No Mercy album, 1977.

4. The Monks Bad Habits . . . Title cut from the 1979 album which yielded the hit single, at least in the UK, Nice Legs Shame About Her Face which ascended to No. 19. But that was only one of many catchy songs on an album that achieved its greatest success in Canada where Drugs In My Pocket was a top 20 hit while songs like Johnny B. Rotten, especially, and Love In Stereo and Ain’t Gettin’ Any got significant airplay. One of my college days/daze albums/memories.

5. The Monkees No Time . . . Always liked this short and sweet rocker, Micky Dolenz on lead vocals, from the time my older sister brought home the Headquarters album, released in 1967.

6. Warren Zevon, Boom Boom Mancini . . . I seem to be playing a fair bit of Zevon of late, he came up again because I was watching some old boxing matches over the weekend and Ray (Boom Boom) Mancini was involved in one of the bouts I came across. From Zevon’s 1987 album Sentimental Hygiene, with members of R.E.M. – drummer Bill Berry, guitarist Peter Buck and bassist Mike Mills – providing instrumental backup on most of the tunes.

7. The Rolling Stones, Long Long While . . . A nice ballad B-side to Paint It Black in the UK. A rare occasion at that time, 1966, when the Stones, who had been writing songs like Under My Thumb as putdowns of women, took the opposite approach with lyrics like “I was so wrong girl and you were right.” Yet in North America, the B-side to Paint It Black was Stupid Girl, which also appeared on both the UK and North American versions of the Aftemath album. Long Long While first came out on an album in 1972 on the More Hot Rocks (Big Hits & Fazed Cookies) compilation and 1989’s The Singles Collection – The London Years which features every Stones single and accompanying B-side during the band’s time with Decca Records in the UK and its North American cousin London Records.

8. Neil Young, Birds . . . Beautiful ballad from Young’s 1970 album After The Goldrush, a song covered by Linda Ronstadt on her self-titled third solo album, released in 1972.

9. AC/DC Let’s Get It Up . . . A genre switch from the beautiful ballads to AC/DC’s ‘filth’, as described by lead singer Brian Johnson of the track released on the followup to Back In Black, 1981’s For Those About To Rock We Salute You album which I’d been playing in the car, so the CD was handy and here it is. “Filth, pure filth. We’re a filthy band,” Johnson told UK publication Kerrang! Filthy good, I say.

10. Peter Frampton, While My Guitar Gently Weeps . . . As someone on YouTube commented, Frampton honors George Harrison with his take on The Beatles’ classic. Frampton’s seven-minute version of what was originally a shade under five-minute tune appeared on his 2003 album Now.

11. Cat Stevens, Foreigner Suite . . . Imagine, you’re to that point largely known for tight hit singles like Moonshadow, Peace Train, Wild World and Morning Has Broken and then . . . you lead off your next album, 1973’s Foreigner, with an 18-plus minute epic that was the whole of side one of the original vinyl, perhaps risking alienating those who might not cotton to lengthy songs, at least before they listen to it. Once you tune in, it’s a wonderful trip through changing tempos, always interesting, never boring, even leaves you wishing it wouldn’t end. Truly a sweet suite.

12. Steely Dan, Two Against Nature . . . Funky, jazzy title cut from Steely Dan’s 2000 album release that marked Donald Fagen and Walter Becker’s first full album collaboration since 1980’s Gaucho. In between, the duo had reunited for a tour in the early 1990s that resulted in the 1995 live album Alive In America.

13. John Lee Hooker, John L’s House Rent Boogie/One Bourbon, One Scotch, One Beer . . . Two separate Hooker tunes, House Rent Boogie from 1950 and One Bourbon from 1966 that I’m weaving together, as George Thorogood did, simply calling the combined song One Bourbon, One Scotch, One Beer on his self-titled 1977 debut album. Hooker wrote House Rent Boogie and is credited as writing One Bourbon, One Scotch, One Beer on most compilations and its parent studio album, The Real Folk Blues. The song, originally written by American bluesman Rudy Toombs as One Scotch, One Bourbon, One Beer, was recorded and released by R & B singer Amos Milburn in 1953. Hooker revised it, adapted and added some lyrics and dialogue, in short, Hookerized it, in the words of biographer Charles Shaar Murray in his book Boogie Man: The Adventures of John Lee Hooker In The American Twentieth Century. Then Thorogood Thorogoodized it further. Toombs is credited as the writer on the 1991 Hooker compilation The Ultimate Collection 1948-1990.

14. Lynyrd Skynyrd, Lend A Helpin’ Hand . . . Fiery up tempo track recorded in 1971 at Muscle Shoals Sound Studios in Alabama with an early version of Skynyrd that included Rickey Medlocke, since 1996 one of the reconstituted post-plane crash band’s guitarists, on drums. The song was originally released on the compilation Skynyrd’s First And . . . Last which came out in 1978, a year after the tragedy, by which time Medlocke had long since left to front Blackfoot, which he had helped form in 1969. Skynyrd’s First And . . . Last was expanded and reissued in 1998 as Skynyrd’s First: The Complete Muscle Shoals Album. It’s a nice package that includes original versions of well-known songs like Free Bird, Gimme Three Steps, I Ain’t The One and others that were recorded a year or two before Skynyrd’s 1973 debut album, plus other previously-unreleased songs, some featuring Medlocke on lead vocals instead of Ronnie Van Zant.

15. Funkadelic, Wars Of Armaggedon . . . Extended funk rock guitar workout featuring the late great Eddie Hazel, from 1970’s Maggot Brain, the title cut of which is also a Hazel showcase but I’ve played it before, relatively recently, so decided to go in another direction this time. The whole album is worthwhile listening.

16. Bruce Springsteen, Drive All Night . . . A lengthy lament to lost love with a typically great saxophone solo from The Big Man, Clarence Clemons. From The River album, 1980.

A 3-album replay: The Doors’ 1971 record L.A. Woman, Bad Company’s Desolation Angels from 1979 and The Beatles’ 1964 album A Hard Day’s Night (UK version). My album commentaries are below each record’s track list.

The Doors – L.A. Woman

1. The Changeling
2. Love Her Madly
3. Been Down So Long
4. Cars Hiss By My Window
5. L.A. Woman
6. L’America
7. Hyacinth House
8. Crawling King Snake
9. The Wasp (Texas Radio and the Big Beat)
10. Riders On The Storm

L.A. Woman is probably my favorite Doors record although the 1967 self-titled debut album, with Break On Through (To The Other Side), Light My Fire, Back Door Man and The End on it, is right up there but while I like all the band’s work, L.A. Woman is one I most consistently listen to straight through. From the opening cut The Changeling, the classic title track placed, intentionally or not, smack in the middle of the 10-song album, anchoring the record, to the closing, brooding Riders On The Storm. I just like the dark, bluesy vibe that is enhanced by, some critics have suggested, Jim Morrison’s worn-out, rough hewn vocals – but that’s what makes them, and the album, great. It was the last Doors album to feature Morrison on lead vocals, during his lifetime, as he died two months after its release. The title track, brilliant vocal and propulsive band performance, always sticks in my mind and often reminds me of an old high school and college friend and football teammate who would, impromptu, often break into song. L.A. Woman, with its evocative opening line “Well I just got into town about an hour ago, took a look around see which way the wind blow. . .” was one of them.

So was The Rolling Stones’ If You Really Want To Be My Friend, from the It’s Only Rock ‘N’ Roll album, which back then confirmed to me that, ‘this is a guy worth knowing; he actually, like me, knows Stones’ deep cuts’. As for the present day, that memory made me think of playing the Stones’ album but it wouldn’t fit into this 3-album play in my 2-hour slot and I didn’t want to play just two albums and fill the rest with random tracks, as the three albums I’m playing fit the slot perfectly. So, perhaps next time, or soon, for It’s Only Rock ‘N’ Roll, in whole or in part.

Bad Company – Desolation Angels

1. Rock ‘n’ Roll Fantasy
2. Crazy Circles
3. Gone, Gone, Gone
4. Evil Wind
5. Early In The Morning
6. Lonely For Your Love
7. Oh, Atlanta
8. Take The Time
9. Rhythm Machine
10. She Brings Me Love

Desolation Angels is the fifth of six studio albums by the original Bad Company, with Paul Rodgers on lead vocals. The less said about the later Brian Howe (RIP) lead singer version – aside from, I’ll grant you, the song Holy Water, title cut from Howe-fronted 1990 album – the better. But I’ll say a lot, anyway. The Howe period, from 1986 to 1992, was actually quite commercially successful but there’s no accounting for why and how millions of people apparently like that overproduced post-Terry Kath Chicago, or Foreigner’s sappy period, type schlock. And I like a fair bit of early Foreigner, the rocking stuff. But then, acts like Bon Jovi, with that same annoying (to me) sound, are hugely successful, too. It’s all subjective to personal taste, of course and I mean no harm by it, enjoy what you enjoy, of course, as will I, just having a little fun.

I remember when Bad Company – which still did feature original members Mick Ralphs on guitar and Simon Kirke on drums – reconvened with Howe, who had fronted Ted Nugent’s band for a time, on lead vocals, telling a work colleague who replied “no Paul Rodgers, no Bad Company.” Hey, I agree, was just advising in case you might be interested. In fairness, apparently the record company insisted to Ralphs and Kirke that the new project still be called Bad Company, as it’s arguably easier to sell (or tarnish?) a known brand name. Later on, Bad Company replaced Howe with Rodgers sound-alike Robert Hart for the 1995 album Company Of Strangers which I truly do like – because it sounds like Paul Rodgers singing and also isn’t buried under the Howe-era production murk – and have played on the show on occasion and will again. Rodgers did later rejoin Bad Co. for some tours and live albums, as well as the excellent 1999 2-CD The ‘Original’ Bad Co. Anthology which featured four new studio tracks and led to a reunion tour.
All that self-indulgent verbosity to bring us back to Desolation Angels which, propelled by the hit single Rock ‘n’ Roll Fantasy, did good business for Bad Co. As it should have, because, while fans and critics, from what I’ve seen, tend to lean to the first two albums as being Bad Company’s best, I think the band, with Rodgers, released consistently solid front-to-back albums and Desolation Angels is another of them. I find merit every song on it, Crazy Circles probably being my second favorite, after Rock ‘n’ Roll Fantasy.

The Beatles – A Hard Day’s Night

1. A Hard Day’s Night
2. I Should Have Known Better
3. If I Fell
4. I’m Happy Just To Dance With You
5. And I Love Her
6. Tell Me Why
7. Can’t Buy Me Love
8. Any Time At All
9. I’ll Cry Instead
10. Things We Said Today
11. When I Get Home
12. You Can’t Do That
13. I’ll Be Back

A Hard Day’s Night was the third studio album and first that was all band-penned, no cover tunes, all songs written by John Lennon and Paul McCartney. It’s the first and only Beatles album that featured songs from that musical partnership and none from their bandmates George Harrison and Ringo Starr. It is, however, a Lennon-dominated album given that he lead-composed and/or sang on 10 of the 13 tracks but that’s not to take away from McCartney’s contributions like And I Love Her and Things We Said Today. A remarkable record, in any event, not only for its excellent songs – essentially it could be a greatest hits album – but particularly given the time pressures under which it was produced by this remarkable band. The Beatles had just returned from their first U.S. appearances, then had to write and record songs for the film, and more to fill out the album, while shooting the movie. As the saying goes, if you want something done, ask a busy person. There are, as often happened in the early days of British Invasion bands, two versions of the record. There’s the UK release, which I’m playing, whose first seven songs – side one of the original vinyl – were used in the film A Hard Day’s Night. And the U.S./North American album – subtitled Original Motion Picture Soundtrack – which spreads the songs used in the film over the original vinyl’s two sides, interspersed with record producer George Martin’s orchestral contributions.

My track-by-track tales follow the bare-bones list that includes a mini-Kris Kristofferson set in tribute to the singer-songwriter who died last week at age 88.

1. Cream, Those Were The Days
2. Blind Faith, Sea Of Joy
3. Led Zeppelin, The Ocean
4. Marianne Faithfull, House Of The Rising Sun
5. The Rolling Stones, Get Close
6. Simon and Garfunkel, Baby Driver
7. Traveling Wilburys, Tweeter And The Monkey Man
8. Bob Dylan, It’s Alright Ma, (I’m Only Bleeding) live, from Before The Flood
9. The Band, Endless Highway, live, from Before The Flood
10. Kris Kristofferson, The Law Is For Protection Of The People
11. Kris Kristofferson, Just the Other Side Of Nowhere
12. Kris Kristofferson, The Junkie and the Juicehead, Minus Me
13. Kris Kristofferson, The Silver Tongued Devil And I
14. Kris Kristofferson, If You Don’t Like Hank Williams
15. Hank Williams, Weary Blues From Waitin’
16. Cheap Trick, Need Your Love (live) from At Budokan
17. Kiss/Ace Frehley, Rocket Ride
18. Alice Cooper, Killer
19. Traffic, Roll Right Stones

My track-by-track tales:

1. Cream, Those Were The Days . . . Short, sweet, seven seconds under three minutes, like a lot of Cream songs as they were often two different bands, the studio band of shorter stuff and the live band with lots of extended workouts of their material, as evidenced on the album from which this track comes, the 1968 release Wheels Of Fire. It was a two-disc set split between studio and live cuts. Those Were The Days was a studio recording yet, within its three minutes, displays all the elements that this “three guys who made a hell of a lot of noise” band as an old friend once described them, could bring to bear. The three guys making a fine musical noise of course being guitarist Eric Clapton, bassist/primary singer Jack Bruce and drummer Ginger Baker.

2. Blind Faith, Sea Of Joy . . . Speaking of Clapton and Baker, they soon – along with Traffic’s Steve Winwood and Family’s Rick Grech – formed another supergroup, Blind Faith, after the breakup of Cream. The one studio release is brilliant, yet another of those albums I will forever thank my late older brother for turning me on to, what a musical influence he was as I often cite him as being. RIP, brother Robert.

3. Led Zeppelin, The Ocean . . . Sticking with the water/sea/ocean motif, here’s Zep, dan dan dun dun dun (my word approximation of the opening riff), singing in the sunshine (that’s the opening lyric) . . . and on we go, from the 1973 album Houses Of The Holy.

4. Marianne Faithfull, House Of The Rising Sun . . . Haunting 1964 version of this perennial, made most famous by The Animals but it’s a traditional tune, authorship unknown although web searches well worth doing simply due to the fascinating stories involved around the song. It’s been covered, of course, by countless artists including Bob Dylan on his self-titled debut album, released in 1962. It’s interesting for me, re Faithfull, being a major Rolling Stones fan and therefore of course knowing about her via her 1960s relationship with Mick Jagger, and I knew she had recorded and released music during the 1960s, including covers of some Stones tunes like As Tears Go By, and that she had co-written Sister Morphine from the 1971 album Sticky Fingers. Then she largely faded from view before re-emerging in the public consciousness via her brilliant 1979 ‘comeback’ album Broken English. But it was as if she was an entirely different artist, having gone through and still not totally recovered from various addictions, her singing voice by 1979 entirely different than during the 1960s, having become cigarette-and-booze addled yet as a result compelling on that remarkable album. A great singer/artist, regardless the time period.

5. The Rolling Stones, Get Close . . . Elton John helps out the boys on this typically Stones-ish groover from the 2023 album Hackney Diamonds. Great album, universally and rightly praised, and apparently they recorded enough tunes for a followup as band members have confirmed, in various interviews, so let’s go, boys, release another studio set, soon, don’t wait 18 years like last time, between new original material releases. Amazing that band principals Mick Jagger and Keith Richards are 81 and 80 now, Richards turns 81 a week before Christmas, and still going strong. The music seems to keep them alive and spry and brings always to me to mind the great Tom Petty lyric ‘you never slow down you never get old’ from his song Mary Jane’s Last Dance although, sadly, Petty only made it to age 66. Heck, I’m 65, still going strong, work out, honestly feel pretty much how I’ve always felt but who knows what’s around the next corner so here’s hoping, and Petty was found to have had various drug issues, mostly to do with a serious hip injury and subsequent treatments.

6. Simon and Garfunkel, Baby Driver . . . Cool little ditty, always loved it, from the 1970 album Bridge Over Troubled Water, the title cut of which was a massive hit, No. 1 single pretty much throughout planet Earth but the album itself is so good in terms of depth that it’s not just singles like the title cut or The Boxer or Cecilia, the other official singles (more on an actual Cecilia, from a personal point of view, in a minute) but essentially every song on the record is a worthy listen.

The song Bridge Over Troubled Water always brings me back to Grade 8. We had a school choir. Can’t recall if we all had to be in it, but anyway I wound up in it, alto voice section, my voice wasn’t yet deep enough for bass, and I remember, we were going to sing the song for a school assembly for whatever function and we rehearsed the absolute shit out of it for weeks, and when the night came, parents in the audience, we nailed it.

Shortly after comes the Grade 8 graduation dance and Cecilia, a girl in my Grade 7 and 8 classes. And I had spent 1967-70 in Peru where my father was working at the time so I knew something of Spanish culture but whatever, I had never ‘hit’ on Cecilia my classmate, lovely girl, but somehow or other wound up slow dancing with her that night, but not being aware enough in relationships at that point, that that last dance slow dance might signify something. Which it might have. Who knows what she might have been thinking. A fun what if. 🙂

7. Traveling Wilburys, Tweeter And The Monkey Man . . . I remember this song striking me when the first Wilburys album came out in 1988 featuring Bob Dylan, Tom Petty, Jeff Lynne, Roy Orbison and George Harrison. Two years later they did a good but less commercially successful second album, cheekily titled Vol. 3, after the passing of Orbison. He died of a heart attack at age 52, two months after the release of Traveling Wilburys Vol. 1. Both albums are full of good songs but because I’m a big Dylan fan, this is the song that initially hit me. The hard-rocking Canadian band Headstones, love ’em, soon enough did a raucous cover version of Tweeter, which became a hit for them. Both versions are worthy excursions in their own ways.

8. Bob Dylan, It’s Alright Ma, (I’m Only Bleeding) live, from Before The Flood . . . An angry, fiery version of the song which first saw studio release on Dylan’s 1965 album Bringing It All Back Home. At the time of release, via its perhaps most renowned line among so many: “But even the president of the United State sometimes must have to stand naked” it could easily have been seen as a diatribe against then US President Lyndon B. Johnson, embroiled in the Vietnam War. By the time of the 1974 Dylan tour with The Band, that lyrical passage took on different resonance given the Watergate scandal which a few months later, in August 1974, ended in the resignation of President Richard Nixon. The 1974 Dylan/The Band tour, beyond the original excellent Before The Flood album, has within the last month been re-released in an expanded 27-CD, 431-track collection from the entire tour. Major Dylan fan that I am, I’ll wait until I can afford it (it’s only about $200 but still) because for one thing, there’s lots of duplication in set lists through the tour and, I’m hoping, as with Dylan’s ongoing Bootleg series, perhaps a 2-CD distillation of it all will be released. But if not, all good; I have Before The Flood, had it since it came out, an excellent live album by Dylan/The Band.

9. The Band, Endless Highway, live, from Before The Flood . . . From that same album, The Band on its own as was Dylan on his own on the previous track although on Before The Flood and through the tour, the artists collaborated as well, with The Band backing Dylan, as they had in the early days, on several songs. A web search of the Before The Flood album will inform as to who played what, when, on the released album.

10. Kris Kristofferson, The Law Is For Protection Of The People . . . From his first, self-titled album, released in 1970. It’s the first of a few tracks, as promised last week and I did play one, Blame It On The Stones, on last Saturday’s show, as a teaser, in honor of and tribute to the amazing songwriter we lost last week at age 88. He truly had a way with words, and what a compelling, forceful voice that could move people. This is the first of several in my mini-KK tribute that I drew from his first album, Kristofferson. Always/often lyrics that rightly call into question the authority of ‘the authorities’, in his subversive manner. Great stuff.

11. Kris Kristofferson, Just the Other Side Of Nowhere . . . Another from his first album, typically heartfelt, relatable lyrics.

12. Kris Kristofferson, The Junkie and the Juicehead, Minus Me . . . Funky type of tune, from 1970, didn’t see official release, as far as I am aware, until a re-released expanded version of his debut album.

13. Kris Kristofferson, The Silver Tongued Devil And I . . . Another of those hurtin’ type tunes from KK, lots of booze-etc fuelled lyrics which reflected a lifestyle Kristofferson eventually kicked. Title cut from his 1971 album.

14. Kris Kristofferson, If You Don’t Like Hank Williams . . . “Honey, you can kiss my ass.” From the 1976 release Surreal Thing wherein KK name drops the great Williams along with many others like Bob Dylan, Johnny Cash, Joni Mitchell, Waylon Jennings, the Allman Brothers, Linda Ronstadt and The Rolling Stones, again, dating back to Blame It On The Stones, apparently a band he truly adnired and cared about.

15. Hank Williams, Weary Blues From Waitin’ . . . Speaking of Hank Williams . . . A song he originally recorded in 1951, eventually released in September 1953, nine months after Williams died, at age 29, on New Year’s Day of that year. A typical Williams hurtin’ tune:

“Through tears I watch young lovers
As they go strolling by
For all the things that might have been
God forgive me if I cry.”

16. Cheap Trick, Need Your Love (live) from At Budokan . . . A slow-building groove that eventually takes off into hard riff rock during its near-nine minute voyage.

17. Kiss/Ace Frehley, Rocket Ride . . . Good rocker, a double entendre lyrically about space travel and sex. It was one of five new at the time studio tracks that were slapped onto the vinyl side four of the initial release of Kiss Alive II, which came out in 1977. I’m not much of a Kiss fan, but this is a case of not necessarily liking a band, but liking a particular song in this case one written and sung by the band’s lead guitarist. And I always seem to think of Kiss when I play Cheap Trick, largely because I saw them on tour together at the old Pontiac Silverdome, outside Detroit, in 1979. Cheap Trick was big at the time thanks to the hit live album At Budokan. A college buddy of mine and I missed their Toronto show but caught them about a week later in Michigan. Unbeknownst to us, until we picked up a Detroit newspaper, this is pre-internet days, was that Cheap Trick was opening for Kiss as a ‘special guest’ on the Kiss tour. So, I saw, by accident, Kiss’s typically over the top hilarious but good performance, preceded by Cheap Trick’s solid show. One of my younger brothers was the big Kiss fan in the family but never managed to see them live.

18. Alice Cooper, Killer . . . Deep, dark, spooky, early Alice, the title cut from the 1971 album that yielded the singles Under My Wheels and Be My Lover. A year later came the album School’s Out with the title track hit single, in 1973 Billion Dollar Babies, and superstardom.

19. Traffic, Roll Right Stones . . . Typically intoxicating Traffic, to me, anyway, that lovely percussive rhythm that permeates so many of their tracks, particularly on extended pieces like this near-14 minute epic from the 1973 album Shoot Out At The Fantasy Factory.