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

1. Joe Walsh, I Can Play That Rock & Roll
2. Black Sabbath, Heaven And Hell
3. Elvis Costello and The Attractions, Goon Squad
4. Tracy Chapman, The Rape Of The World
5. Atlanta Rhythm Section, Champagne Jam
6. Gov’t Mule, Monkey Man (Rolling Stones cover)
7. The Rolling Stones, Out Of Time
8. Aerosmith, The Farm
9. John Mellencamp, You’ve Got To Stand For Somethin’
10. Led Zeppelin, The Battle Of Evermore
11. Neil Young, Running Dry (Requiem For The Rockets)
12. Paul McCartney, Only Mama Knows
13. Free, Wild Indian Woman
14. The Black Crowes, Goodbye Daughters Of The Revolution
15. Bachman & Turner, Can’t Go Back To Memphis
16. Bruce Cockburn, Hoop Dancer
17. Bobbie Gentry, Ace Insurance Man
18. Bob Dylan, Isis
19. Ian Hunter, Old Records Never Die

My track-by-track tales:

1. Joe Walsh, I Can Play That Rock & Roll . . . Listen to the opening riff before the vocals kick in – and the entire song in fact – and you’d think it was a Rolling Stones track. And, according to Walsh, it is, or at least is a tribute to the Stones. The song was the lead cut on Walsh’s typically humorously-titled 1983 album You Bought It – You Name It but Walsh describes the genesis of the track in the liner notes to his Look What I Did! The Joe Walsh Anthology compilation, a 2-CD set released in 1995. Although Waddy Wachtel is not credited as a co-writer on the 1983 album, Walsh does name Wachtel, a pal of Keith Richards who later played in Richard’s solo band The X-Pensive Winos, as helping inspire the song.
“Written with Waddy Wachtel. Waddy showed me 5-string tuning that Keith Richards uses. We were trying to be The Rolling Stones. This is a tribute to them.” It’s a good one.

2. Black Sabbath, Heaven And Hell . . . Epic title cut to Sabbath’s 1980 album, the first with former Rainbow singer Ronnie James Dio taking over from Ozzy Osbourne. It’s one of those albums where a band loses its well-known and usually original lead singer yet manages to continue on to, sometimes, even more success, depending upon how one might define success whether it be commercial sales or critically successful artistic accomplishment. The other examples that immediately come to mind for me are AC/DC, which brought in Brian Johnson after the death of Bon Scott and released the monumental Back In Black, and the so-called Van Hagar version of Van Halen, when Sammy Hagar replaced David Lee Roth and the band, albeit with a different sound and lyrical approach, actually went on to bigger commercial success even though the Van Hagar band divided some of the original fan base. In any event, Heaven And Hell, the album and the song, rejuvenated Black Sabbath, which had been in decline for various reasons including substance abuse, over the course of the two previous albums with Ozzy, Never Say Die! and Technical Ecstasy which have their moments but were relative disappointments both commercially and critically.

3. Elvis Costello and The Attractions, Goon Squad . . . One of those songs with a driving beat one gets into for the music and then over time the lyrics start embedding themselves. Essentially a diatribe against attempts at groupthink control, at least that’s how I interpret it, released on 1979’s Armed Forces album.

4. Tracy Chapman, The Rape Of The World . . . An environmental activisim song by Chapman from her 1995 album New Beginning. She’s of course known for her breakthrough 1988 hit Fast Car and, later, Give Me One Reason from the New Beginning album but, now essentially retired from the industry, she’s not released any new material since 2008, alas. She has said she withdrew from performing because she was uncomfortable with being in the public eye which perhaps leaves the door open to her releasing new studio material at some point. Her most recent release was a hits compilation, issued in 2015.

5. Atlanta Rhythm Section, Champagne Jam . . . Title cut from the band’s 1978 album. The hit was Imaginary Lover but the band had come to prominence two years before with the hit single So Into You. So, they earned an opening slot – and they were excellent – on The Rolling Stones 1978 summer tour of the United States, my first Stones’ show, July 4, 1978 at what was then called Rich Stadium, where the NFL’s Bills play. Also on the bill were April Wine, whose set we missed because our tour bus from Toronto got stuck in ridiculous traffic entering the stadium, and pre-Steve Perry on lead vocals Journey.

6. Gov’t Mule, Monkey Man (Rolling Stones cover) . . . The Mule, led by guitarist/singer/songwriter Warren Haynes, who first attained prominence in Dickey Betts’ solo band then joined The Allman Brothers Band at the behest of Betts, is an amazing band in its own right playing its own material. But The Mule is also a fantastic covers band and has released many covers of classic rock tunes, live and studio versions, including material by Steppenwolf, Humble Pie, Deep Purple and many others. The Mule has also released full compilations of covers of bands they admire, like Pink Floyd (Dark Side Of The Mule) and the Stones, Stoned Side Of The Mule, from which I drew this cover originally on the Stones’ Let It Bleed album.

7. The Rolling Stones, Out Of Time . . . And here are the Stones, from the UK version of the Aftermath album, released in 1966 during a time when UK and USA track listings were somewhat different with bands like the Stones, Beatles and Kinks. I first heard this track on the 1967 North America-only compilation Flowers which my older sister owned and which collected singles and deeper cuts from the Stones’ previous UK releases that hadn’t made the US issues of their albums. The Flowers’ version was shortened by almost two minutes from the original 5-minute plus Aftermath release, which I’m playing tonight. The Stones played the song in the opening show of their current American tour, apparently the first time they’d ever played it live in the USA.

8. Aerosmith, The Farm . . . From 1997’s Nine Lives album, a hard rocking dronish tune harkening somewhat back to Aerosmith’s raunch and roll 1970s output.

9. John Mellencamp, You’ve Got To Stand For Somethin’ . . . Or you’ll fall for anything, as the lyrics state. From Mellencamp’s 1985 album Scarecrow.

10. Led Zeppelin, The Battle Of Evermore . . . The late great Sandy Denny, one of my favorites singers, of Fairport Convention fame, helps out Robert Plant on this one from the fourth Zep album; the one with Stairway To Heaven on it.

11. Neil Young, Running Dry (Requiem For The Rockets) . . . From Young’s second solo album, 1969’s Everybody Knows This Is Nowhere, backed by Crazy Horse. I leave it to Wikipedia entry for background:

“Running Dry (Requiem for the Rockets)” is dedicated to The Rockets, the six-piece band that evolved into Young’s collaborators Crazy Horse. Rocket violinist Bobby Notkoff plays on the track. Young expresses his feelings about breaking up The Rockets in the 1997 film Year of the Horse: “I asked those three guys to play with me as Crazy Horse. And I thought the Rockets could go on, too. But the truth is, I probably did steal them away from the other band, which was a good band. But only because what we did, we went somewhere. What they were doing, it didn’t go anywhere at that time, so this thing moved, this thing took off, and the other thing didn’t. But the other thing could have gone on, I guess. That’s the hardest part, is the guilt of the trail of destruction that I’ve left behind me.”

12. Paul McCartney, Only Mama Knows . . . Starts slow, then rocks. One of those great tracks by an amazing artist who most people always go back to for the obviously worthy tried and true like McCartney’s hits with The Beatles and Wings but if you keep following the guy and dig deeper, you get gems like this one from 2007’s Memory Almost Full album. McCartney re-released it on the 2016 compilation Pure McCartney, which came in 2- and 4-CD versions.

13. Free, Wild Indian Woman . . . Been a while since I’ve played Free. This one’s from the 1969 debut, Tons Of Sobs. All of the guys in the band including singer Paul Rodgers who of course later achieved great fame in Bad Company, were still teenagers at the time yet they sound like a veteran blues rock band.

14. The Black Crowes, Goodbye Daughters Of The Revolution . . . First single released from the 2008 album Warpaint by which time the Crowes had evolved from the hitmakers of their 1990 debut Shake Your Moneymaker to a jam type band, still quite quality material but not the type of stuff that sells or makes the charts. So, the single bombed and so, relatively speaking, did the album but the band persevered and, through various breakups is back together and continues to release music, the most recent of which is the fine 2024 album Happiness Bastards.

15. Bachman & Turner, Can’t Go Back To Memphis . . . Funky hard rocker from Randy Bachman and C.F. (Fred) Turner’s 2010 album which essentially, and it’s a good tune, sounds like an update on Bachman-Turner Overdrive’s 1970s glories. They had to be billed as Bachman & Turner due to various complicated lawsuits over band naming rights to do with who owns what re various former members of BTO, similar to the seemingly constant battles Randy Bachman and Burton Cummings have been fighting with former colleagues in The Guess Who.

16. Bruce Cockburn, Hoop Dancer . . . Hypnotic sort of spoken word intoxicating tune from Cockburn’s 1983 album The Trouble With Normal. This is why you listen to full albums. There’s the hits, like the title cut. Then there’s stuff like this amazing track.

17. Bobbie Gentry, Ace Insurance Man . . . She’s best known for her massive 1967 hit Ode To Billie Joe (sometimes writtten as Billy Joe) but her importance to music goes beyond that. She was one of the first female artists to write, produce and manage the direction of her own music and career and for that, subsequent artists owe a debt. And then, as of 1982, she elected to retire, quit, disappear, she lives in gated communities in either Memphis, Tennesse or Los Angeles, nobody’s quite sure. Good for her.

18. Bob Dylan, Isis . . . On one of his live albums, Dylan introduces this track from the 1975 studio album Desire with ‘this is a song about marriage’.

“Isis, oh, Isis, you mystical child
What drives me to you is what drives me insane . . . ”

19. Ian Hunter, Old Records Never Die . . . It’s never been absolutely confirmed but Hunter’s Short Back n’ Sides album came out in 1981 at a time when lots of people were doing tributes to John Lennon, who had been slain in December 1980. And the opening lyric:

“Sometimes you realize that there is an end to life
Yesterday I heard them say
A hero’s blown away.”

Would seem to indicate as much. In any event, beautiful, poignant song the spirit of which – old records never die – also serves my show.

A live album replay set list featuring two of my favorite live albums, both considered among the best alltime live sets – Bob Seger’s Live Bullet and Get Yer Ya-Ya’s Out! by The Rolling Stones.

Bob Seger & The Silver Bullet Band – Live Bullet

1. Nutbush City Limits
2. Travelin’ Man
3. Beautiful Loser
4. Jody Girl
5. I’ve Been Working
6. Turn The Page
7. U.M.C.
8. Bo Diddley
9. Ramblin’ Gamblin’ Man
10. Heavy Music
11. Katmandu
12. Lookin’ Back
13. Get Out Of Denver
14. Let It Rock

The Rolling Stones – Get Yer Ya-Ya’s Out!

1. Jumpin’ Jack Flash
2. Carol
3. Stray Cat Blues
4. Love In Vain
5. Midnight Rambler
6. Sympathy For The Devil
7. Live With Me
8. Little Queenie
9. Honky Tonk Women
10. Street Fighting Man

An obscurities set list drawn from a series of three, 3-CD box set compilations released between 2016 and 2021 under the title I’m A Freak Baby that take the listener, according to the series subtitle, on ‘a journey through the British heavy psych and hard rock underground scene’ covering the years 1968-1973. My track-by-track tales follow the bare-bones list.

1. Wicked Lady, I’m A Freak
2. Creepy John Thomas, This Is My Body
3. Iron Claw, Clawstrophobia
4. Distant Jim, Cosmarama
5. Eugene Carnan, Confusion
6. The Velvet Frogs, Jehovah
7. The Human Beast, Brush With The Midnight Butterfly
8. Crushed Butler, My Son’s Alive
9. Tear Gas, I’m Glad
10. Second Hand, Rhubarb!
11. Third World War, Hammersmith Guerrilla
12. Andromeda, Let’s All Watch The Sky Fall Down
13. Monument, First Taste Of Love
14. The Mooche, Hot Smoke And Sassafras
15. Sam Apple Pie, Winter Of My Love
16. Bram Stoker, Born To Be Free
17. The Gun, Race With The Devil
18. Hard Stuff, No Witch At All
19. Leaf Hound, Stagnant Pool
20. Curtis Knight Zeus, Mysterious Lady
21. Fuzzy Duck, Afternoon Out
22. Geordie, Keep On Rockin’

My track-by-track tales:

1. Wicked Lady, I’m A Freak . . . Motorhead-like propulsive track – and, like Motorhead, Wicked Lady, named after the cocktail, was a trio. The song features the lyric “I’m a freak baby on a losing streak” that also serves as the title track for the “I’m A Freak Baby” compilation series from which I’m drawing tonight’s set. This track is from the debut I’m A Freak Baby compilation, released in 2016. Wicked Lady existed from its formation in 1968 to 1972, played gigs throughout England but, according to the compilation’s liner notes, never released a formal album as the band couldn’t afford studio time. So, they taped a handful of rehearsal performances, like this one, which much later surfaced on releases such as 1994’s Psychotic Overkill . . . and then nicely packaged on the I’m A Freak Baby comp.

2. Creepy John Thomas, This Is My Body . . . Mid-tempo sort of psychedelic rocker, nice guitar work on this one from I’m A Freak Baby 3. The band was formed by a gent named John Thomas, who added the “Creepy’ to try to make his group stand out. I think his story alone – like that of many of these obscure artists – stands out, as told in the compilation’s typically detailed liner notes. Thomas hailed from Australia, then moved to Germany where he worked as a DJ, sold dope, apparently to touring acts like The Jefferson Airplane and also formed a pop group, concurrent with Creepy John Thomas, called Rust. Creepy John Thomas, the band, played the harder stuff, described in the compilation liner notes as “frazzled Lemmy-meets-(Captain) Beefheart blues rock’ although I hear more Beefheart than Motorhead. This Is My Body is from the 1971 album Brother Bat Bone, which was supposed to be called Brother Bad Bone but the producer, Conny Plank (and what a name that is) misunderstood Thomas’s accent regarding the title of the album during a transatlantic phone call, so Brother Bat Bone it became. There’s another fun story in that vein, re what a band or album was supposed to be called as opposed to what it wound up being called, in a few tracks. It concerns an Apollo astronaut. The well-travelled John Thomas, meantime, left the UK for a brief time in San Francisco, then returned to Great Britain to join the still relatively obscure but more well-known Edgar Broughton Band. The Broughton Band has some tracks spread over the various I’m A Freak Baby comps, but I’m not playing one today. Perhaps next time.

3. Iron Claw, Clawstrophobia . . . From compilation 2 in the Freak series. Black Sabbath-like stuff from 1970, also reminds me of much later California stoner rock band Fu Manchu who of course are derivative ‘sons’ of Sabbath. Iron Claw, who took their name from the last two words of the opening line – Cat’s foot iron claw – of King Crimson’s song 21st Century Schizoid Man – actually incorporated Sabbath’s entire first album into their early live gigs.

4. Distant Jim, Cosmarama . . . Psychedelic stuff from 1971. According to the third Freak compilation liner notes, band member Craig Austin likely made more money as, apparently, the first person to design flared pants with no pockets. I don’t recall having a pair of those but for we Canadians, remember those I think it was GWG brand flared jeans with the Canadian flag in the flares? I digress . . .

5. Eugene Carnan, Confusion . . . Here, in this boogie rocker from 1972, is the NASA astronaut I mentioned a few songs ago. Sort of. This trio mined the songs of Sabbath, Rory Gallagher’s early band Taste and Wishbone Ash as cover material but also wrote their own stuff, like Confusion. It’s an appropriate title, turns out, because the band was supposed to be called Eugene Cernan in honor of the Apollo 17 astronaut who was the last man, so far, to walk on the moon, in December, 1972, unless you’re one of those conspiracy theorists who believe humankind never actually went there.

Anyway, similar to Creepy John Thomas and that band’s album name that was supposed to be Brother Bad Bone but turned out as Brother Bat Bone due to a misunderstood phone call, Eugene Carnan was supposed to honor the astronaut Eugene Cernan but the printer screwed up the band’s business cards and like many of these obscure artists, the group didn’t have the money to pay for a reprint so they just went with “Eugene Carnan”.

6. The Velvet Frogs, Jehovah . . . Velvet is in the band name which suggests a Velvet Underground influence which is what the liner notes in the I’m A Freak Baby first compilation notes suggest. I respect that opinion and it’s a dark tune, also Doors-ish, to me. But I also hear Iron Maiden of the Blaze Bailey on lead vocals era, on epic-length Maiden songs like Sign Of The Cross. And isn’t it interesting, albeit perhaps natural, perhaps, that with these obscure bands we tend to analyze them in terms of bands we think they might sound like or were influenced by, rather than just, actually, themselves?

7. The Human Beast, Brush With The Midnight Butterfly…Dark, heavy, somewhat spooky guitar-drenched tune from 1970.

8. Crushed Butler, My Son’s Alive . . . Yet another Black Sabbath-influenced rocker by a band that the Freak liner notes suggest has been considered the first British punk band. Not sure about that; it’s a so-called classic rock sound to me, although the driving nature of it is punky. In any event, a great tune.

9. Tear Gas, I’m Glad . . . Wicked guitar from a band some of whose members, according to the Freak 3 liner notes, later became members of The Sensational Alex Harvey Band.

10. Second Hand, Rhubarb! . . . It’s been termed a Jimi Hendrix type tune … and I agree. But as the band explains in the I’m A Freak first compilation liner notes, they were apparently hung out to dry by the record company in terms of lack of promotion so the album, Reality, with the cool cover of an X-ray of a hand, and the song faded without a trace.

11. Third World War, Hammersmith Guerrilla . . . Interesting track from 1972. It’s epic, eight minutes and change, good straight ahead continually cascading bluesy rock to my ears, some nice prog-ish keyboard breaks…but the UK media didn’t like it or the band . . . one reviewer, according to the Freak 3 liner notes, wrote “they are the worst band I have ever heard perform. I felt like soaking myself in vodka, setting myself alight and flinging myself from a balcony in protest.” Well, that’s a guy I’d like to get to know but as for his musical opinon, I beg to differ. As did future Clash man Joe Strummer and The Who’s Pete Townshend, who pulled some strings and got Third World War’s album released on The Who’s Track Records. So there, music critics.

12. Andromeda, Let’s All Watch The Sky Fall Down . . . Driving prog metallic stuff that never quite made a dent on charts. One of the band members, guitarist John Cann, later going by the stage name John Du Cann, eventually joined Atomic Rooster.

13. Monument, First Taste Of Love . . . Organ-heavy driving rocker featuring a tasty guitar solo from a gent named John Truba, from 1971.

14. The Mooche, Hot Smoke And Sassafras . . . Not confirmed but apparently and almost certainly named for the Duke Ellington song The Mooche, the band does a heavier take on this fine tune and top 20 hit originally done in 1969 by Texas band Bubble Puppy.

15. Sam Apple Pie, Winter Of My Love . . . Bluesy, psychedelic 7-minute track from 1969, from a band who had associations with Frank Zappa and Atomic Rooster.

16. Bram Stoker, Born To Be Free . . . Driving rocker from a band that never quite made it but did open for The Who, also recorded by invitation at Who singer Roger Daltrey’s home studio and worked with members of the Deep Purple entourage. Interesting how some bands ‘make it’ and some don’t but even those that don’t sometimes hang around with those that do.

17. The Gun, Race With The Devil . . . The band was also known as just ‘Gun’. A White Room (by Cream) related intro evolves into a great galloping tune from 1968 that unlike most songs on the Freak compilations actually charted; it made the top 10 in the UK and was later recorded by Judas Priest during sessions for the Stained Class album and was later added to expanded releases of Priest’s 1977 album Sin After Sin.

18. Hard Stuff, No Witch At All . . . Straight ahead rocker from 1972 from a band whose various members had been in groups like Deep Purple family tree band Episode Six, Quatermass and, later, Roxy Music.
19. Leaf Hound, Stagnant Pool . . . Led Zeppelin derivatives for sure and critics derided them as such but it makes me laugh whenever people talk about people ripping off Led Zeppelin, considering the ripping off Zep did of blues artists. I like Zep, the music is irresistible I just am not a fan of their methods.

20. Curtis Knight Zeus, Mysterious Lady . . . These Freak compilations are to do with British rock but Curtis Knight, like the Aussie John Thomas I played earlier in the set, was a relocated American. His claim to fame perhaps is the fact Jimi Hendrix had played in Knight’s band Curtis Knight and The Squires. This bruising Hendrix-like track is from 1973.

21. Fuzzy Duck, Afternoon Out . . . Bluesy rock from a band whose members included former members of Tucky Buzzard, who have maintained a musical relationship with former Rolling Stones bassist Bill Wyman since the days he produced some Tucky Buzzard albums during the 1970s.

22. Geordie, Keep On Rockin’ . . . From the first album, 1973’s Hope You Like It (and I do) released by Geordie, whose first lead vocalist was future AC/DC singer Brian Johnson.

A mostly female singer set list.

1. Koko Taylor, I’m A Woman (adaptation of Bo Diddley/Muddy Waters’ I’m A Man/Mannish Boy)
2. Emmylou Harris, Here I Am
3. Bonnie Raitt, Gnawin’ On It
4. Pat Benatar, Rated X
5. Linda Ronstadt, The Dark End Of The Street
6. Yvonne Elliman (as Mary Magdalene) with Murray Head (Judas) and Ian Gillan (Jesus) from Jesus Christ Superstar original 1970 soundtrack, Everything’s Alright
7. Carla Olson & Mick Taylor, Sway (Rolling Stones cover)
8. Ike & Tina Turner, Funkier Than A Mosquita’s Tweeter
9. Pretenders, Mystery Achievement
10. Joni Mitchell, This Flight Tonight (arguably relatively unheard from the Blue album, it was a hit by Nazareth, later tongue-in-cheek introduced in concert by Mitchell as ‘a Nazareth song’)
11. Heart, White Lightning and Wine
12. Fleetwood Mac, Storms (Stevie Nicks lead vocals)
13. Jefferson Airplane, Lather (Grace Slick lead vocals)
14. Marianne Faithfull, Working Class Hero (John Lennon cover)
15. Janis Joplin/Big Brother and The Holding Company, Roadblock
16. The Mamas & The Papas, The In Crowd (Cass Elliot lead vocals)
17. Eric Clapton with Marcy Levy co-lead vocals, The Core
18. Concrete Blonde, It’s A Man’s World (cover of James Brown’s It’s A Man’s Man’s Man’s World, Johnette Napolitano lead vocals)
19. Carole King with James Taylor, Will You Love Me Tomorrow/Some Kind Of Wonderful/Up On The Roof (live)
20. Willie Mae ‘Big Mama’ Thornton, Hound Dog
21. Melissa Etheridge, Refugee (Tom Petty cover)
22. Patti Smith, Soul Kitchen (The Doors cover)
23. Aretha Franklin, Bridge Over Troubled Water (Simon and Garfunkel cover)
24. Billie Holiday, Come Rain Or Come Shine
25. Blondie, Fade Away And Radiate