Three classics for this Saturday: Elvis Costello’s 1977 debut My Aim Is True, The Rolling Stones’ Beggars Banquet from 1968 and Lou Reed’s Transformer, from 1972.

Elvis Costello – My Aim Is True

1. Welcome To The Working Week
2. Miracle Man
3. No Dancing
4. Blame It On Cain
5. Alison
6. Sneaky Feelings
7. Watching The Detectives (UK single, added as last track on original side one of North American vinyl release)
8. (The Angels Wanna Wear My) Red Shoes
9. Less Than Zero
10. Mystery Dance
11. Pay It Back
12. I’m Not Angry
13. Waiting For The End Of The World

The Rolling Stones – Beggars Banquet

1. Sympathy For The Devil
2. No Expectations
3. Dear Doctor
4. Parachute Woman
5. Jigsaw Puzzle
6. Street Fighting Man
7. Prodigal Son
8. Stray Cat Blues
9. Factory Girl
10. Salt Of The Earth

Lou Reed – Transformer

1. Vicious
2. Andy’s Chest
3. Perfect Day
4. Hangin’ ‘Round
5. Walk On The Wild Side
6. Make Up
7. Satellite Of Love
8. Wagon Wheel
9. New York Telephone Conversation
10. I’m So Free
11. Goodnight Ladies

1. Chicago, Movin’ In . . . From the Chicago I like, the early jazz-rock fusion version, this one from the second album, 1970. I got into a fun bar-room discussion about pre-Terry Kath and post-Terry Kath Chicago the other day. For those who may not know, Kath was the band’s original guitarist and, along with keyboard player Robert Lamm, arguably the man who kept Chicago to its jazz-rock fusion roots. After his untimely death due to a self-inflicted accidental gunshot wound in 1978 when he put what he thought was an unloaded gun to his head, the band slid into commercially successful but artistically awful schlock although the malaise had already set in two years earlier with the successful syrupy single If You Leave Me Now. That was sung by bass player Peter Cetera who had earlier sung such great hits as 25 or 6 to 4. But the massive success of the single – and I do like it but not as a template for every future song – got the record company thinking, hmm, can you guys do that again and keep doing it, maybe ditch the horns for the most part while we make Cetera the focus of the group even though you guys had always previously and firmly been a collective enterprise?All of which is a long way of getting to the point that, the consensus among the beer-drinking, chicken-wing inhaling group at our gathering was that schlock producer David Foster, the energy behind most of the excrement, was the real villain of the piece as he led Chicago to middle of the road success while producing maudlin music that actually sold, proving that most people have awful ears.

2. Free, Songs Of Yesterday . . . Could easily be my show’s theme song. You know the catch line: Old bands, old tracks, old bands, their new stuff if they’re still around, alive and kicking.

3. Paul Kossoff, Molten Gold . . . An interesting one. It’s a Free song, in large measure yet credited to Free guitarist Kossoff from his first solo album, Back Street Crawler. Kossoff’s record came out in 1973, the same year Free disbanded. Paul Rodgers, who went on to big commercial success with Bad Company, sings lead vocals on the track, backed by guitarist Jess Roden and that’s because the track had its genesis in the sessions for Free’s 1972 album Free At Last. But it didn’t come out until Kossoff’s record. Apparently the band, or the record company, thought enough of it that it’s the title of and appears on a Free compilation. 
4. Funkadelic, Super Stupid . . . Yet another guitar showcase from the late great Eddie Hazel, who co-wrote the tune for Funkadelic’s 1971 album Maggot Brain.

5. Atomic Rooster, Winter . . . The band from which drummer Carl Palmer of Emerson, Lake and Palmer came, not to mention Vincent Crane, the troubled keyboardist and once a member of The Crazy World Of Arthur Brown. Crane co-wrote The Crazy World Of Arthur Brown’s hit single Fire.

6. The Rolling Stones, Backstreet Girl . . . A beautiful song that belies its lyrics of forbidden, or hidden, love and sex. According to the book The Rolling Stones Complete Recording Sessions, Mick Jagger rated it his favorite from 1967’s Between The Buttons album, UK version. It wasn’t on the US/North American version of the record but did appear on the North American compilation Flowers. That was one of the first Stones’ albums I heard, along with 1966’s Big Hits (High Tide and Green Grass), another of the compilations my older sister owned. This was back in the days when UK and North American versions of albums often differed due to the British practice of not putting singles on albums, while the North American labels often offered bastardized versions of similarly-titled albums or their own, stand-alone compilations – like the excellent Flowers.

7. Todd Rundgren, Can We Still Be Friends . . . I was actually looking for Robert Palmer songs in the station computer system when this came up, since Palmer covered it for his 1979 Secrets album. So, what the heck, rarely play Rundgren.I know he’s renowned and I respect that, especially his production work (like with Meat Loaf, for instance) but I’m not much into him besides his hits (of which this was one). And we’ll get to Palmer in a few minutes.

8. Rory Gallagher, In Your Town . . . I’m a huge fan so admittedly biased, but there’s nothing from the late great Gallagher I won’t listen to or think is worthwhile listening – whether that be in his solo career or before that, with Taste. This one’s from the Gallagher album Deuce, 1971. 
9. Robert Palmer, Woman You’re Wonderful . . . Speaking of Robert Palmer and the Secrets album . . . A funky cool song in its own right but I’m deliberately using it as an intro to a six-song set of songs sung by Christine (Perfect) McVie’s career with British blues band Chicken Shack, her early solo work and later stuff that she’s best known for with Fleetwood Mac. McVie died last week at age 79. Yet another classic rocker passing but the sad reality is so many of the greats those of a certain vintage (like me) grew up listening to are in their 70s and 80s now so . . . As I mentioned to my buddies over beer last week, The Atlantic magazine recently did an article about exactly that. But the great thing is, we and our descendants, if they are interested, have the music to listen to, forever.

10. Chicken Shack, I’d Rather Go Blind . . . Christine McVie singing lead vocals on the blues classic co-written by Etta James in this version for Chicken Shack. McVie also covered the tune after leaving that band, and before she joined Fleetwood Mac, on her self-titled debut solo album under her maiden name Christine Perfect, in 1970.

11. Christine Perfect (McVie), When You Say . . . Speaking of that Christine Perfect debut album. Beautiful stuff.

12. Fleetwood Mac, Show Me A Smile . . . From the 1971 album Future Games, the first on which McVie was a full Fleetwood Mac band member and contributed writing. She wrote three songs for the record, all of which she also sang lead vocals on, and this is one of them.

13. Fleetwood Mac, Over And Over . . . From Tusk, the 1979 album that followed the monster commerical success of 1977’s Rumours. Tusk sold millions as well, just not as many millions, so was considered a relative failure in that sense although, given that it was a double album, it contains many overlooked and lasting gems. 
14. Fleetwood Mac, Honey Hi . . . Another McVie lead vocal from the Tusk album.

15. Fleetwood Mac, Morning Rain . . . Back to Future Games we go for this uptempo number, another one written and sung by McVie and featuring fine guitar interplay from Bob Welch and Danny Kirwan.

16. Rare Earth, (I Know) I’m Losing You (live) . . . I can’t imagine how much money from royalties the mainly Motown songwriters/musicians Cornelius Grant, Eddie Holland and Norman Whitfield made with this amazing tune, covered by countless including Rod Stewart/Faces, The Commodores, many others and, originally, a 1966 hit by The Temptations for which Grant played guitar. This is the 14-minute epic from Rare Earth’s ‘backpack cover’ live album In Concert. The album always sticks in my memory not only because I own it but because I probably own it because a camp counsellor at day camp the summer before high school started for me, September, 1972, played the living you know what out of it on his prerecorded cassette tape copy. Great stuff.

17. David Bowie, Saviour Machine . . . From The Man Who Sold The World album, which did poorly upon initial release in 1970 but was more successful upon re-release in 1972, by which time Bowie had released the Ziggy Stardust album and, as a result, was a household name. The Man Who Sold The World marked the first appearance of guitarist Mick Ronson as part of Bowie’s band.

18. Groundhogs, Earth Is Not Room Enough . . . From the 1972 album Who Will Save The World? The Mighty Groundhogs. It’s a concept album, of sorts, dealing with the ills of war, over-population, war, religion, pollution, all the perpetual real and/or perceived evils we still have no real answers for. Yet we’re still here, somehow.

19. Frank Zappa, Wonderful Wino . . . Sad, funny, typical Zappa I suppose, as social commentary coupled with typically fine guitar playing, from 1976’s Zoot Allures album, one of his most commercially accessible releases.

20. Paice Ashton Lord, I’m Gonna Stop Drinking Again . . . I keep trying. But I like the vino. From Malice In Wonderland, the 1977 album put together as a one-off by Deep Purple mates Ian Paice (drums) and Jon Lord (keyboards), accompanied by singer/instrumentalist Tony Ashton. I’ve mentioned it before, but Nazareth released an album by the same title, in 1980, featuring the hit Holiday. I like Nazareth a lot, but I remember when their album came out I thought, you lazy you know whats, come up with your own title. But of course, few people aside from Purple fanatics like me knew of the somewhat obscure Paice Ashton Lord release.

21. The Butterfield Blues Band, Driftin’ and Driftin’ . . . Extended (13 minutes plus) version from The Butterfield Blues Band Live album, 1970, featuring the fine harmonica playing one would expect of Paul Butterfield.

22. Aerosmith, Movin’ Out (alternate version) . . . Different albeit still similar version from the same sessions that resulted in the band’s debut album in 1973, on which the song appears. This version was released on the Pandora’s Box 3-cd compilation, in 1991.

The latest in my periodic/ongoing series of album replay shows: I’m opening with a progressive rock/concept album in Pink Floyd’s 1977 work Animals, which is one of my favorites by the band yet seemingly sometimes overlooked amid the run of great albums the band released starting with Meddle in 1971 (also often overlooked), The Dark Side Of The Moon in 1973 and continuing through Wish You Were Here in 1975, Animals and The Wall in 1979.

And then a genre shift as we go full reggae with Peter Tosh’s first solo album after he left The (Bob Marley’s) Wailers, the 1976 release Legalize It. Wrapping things up is one of the best live albums of all time, Jerry Lee Lewis’s Live At The Star-Club, Hamburg, from 1964. I’ve been in a Jerry Lee mood since he died recently, built one of my recent shows around him and his 1950s rock and roll contemporaries, so here he is again in that blistering 1964 release.

Set list:

Pink Floyd – Animals

1. Pigs On The Wing (Part One)
2. Dogs
3. Pigs (Three Different Ones)
4. Sheep
5. Pigs On The Wing (Part Two)

Peter Tosh – Legalize It

1. Legalize It
2. Burial
3. Watcha Gonna Do
4. No Sympathy
5. Why Must I Cry
6. Igziabeher (Let Jah Be Praised)
7. Ketchy Shuby
8. Till Your Well Runs Dry
9. Brand New Second Hand

Jerry Lee Lewis – Live At The Star-Club, Hamburg

1. I Got A Woman (Mean Woman Blues)
2. High School Confidential
3. Money
4. Matchbox
5. What’d I Say – Part I
6. What’d I Say – Part II
7. Great Balls Of Fire
8. Good Golly, Miss Molly
9. Lewis’ Boogie
10. Your Cheating Heart
11. Hound Dog
12. Long Tall Sally
13. Whole Lotta Shakin’ Goin’ On

1. Nazareth, Just To Get Into It . . . Getting into tonight’s show with this rocker, in honor of original Nazareth lead singer Dan McCafferty, who died three weeks ago to, sadly, little fanfare. I’ll have a mini Nazareth set, as a tribute, in the middle of my overall set list. 
2. Nash The Slash, Dopes On The Water . . . Nash’s take, with altered lyrics, on the Deep Purple classic Smoke On The Water. It came out on 1981’s Children of The Night album which also featured covers of Jan and Dean’s Dead Man’s Curve and The Rolling Stones’ 19^th Nervous Breakdown.

3. Cheap Trick, Need Your Love (live, from At Budokan album) . . . Not a huge Cheap Trick fan but I like hypnotic, extended cuts like this one. 
4. XTC, Dear God . . . A friend mentioned this tune as coming to mind after last Saturday’s Jesus Christ Superstar and a few other somewhat related songs show, although I didn’t include Dear God. Forgot about it/didn’t have room. So, here it is.

5. The Tragically Hip, Trickle Down . . . From Up To Here, the 1989 release that was the Hip’s first full studio album (there was an earlier EP) and contained what became standards like Blow at High Dough and New Orleans Is Sinking. I remember reading a review of the record, bought it sight unseen and heard in those days before technology put everything just a keystroke or voice command away, and was happily rewarded.

6. Robbie Robertson, Hell’s Half Acre . . . From The Band man’s first, self-titled solo album, in 1987.

7. Nick Lowe, The Gee and the Rick and the Three Card Trick . . . Country-ish tune from Lowe’s 1984 album Nick Lowe and His Cowboy Outfit.

8. Aerosmith, Kings and Queens . . . Was a single but not a hit from the Draw The Line album in 1977. It’s a good one, though, and the band obviously liked it enough that it was put on their first greatest hits album.

9. John Mayall, Room To Move . . . I got talking Mayall with an old friend dating to high school the other day. Turns out we attended, separately, the same Mayall show, with former Rolling Stone and Bluesbreaker Mick Taylor opening, during the 1980s at the old Ontario Place Forum, which featured a rotating stage. He mentioned the excellent Jazz Blues Fusion album so I dug it out and intended to play something from it. But I also pulled out The Turning Point and decided on this fairly famous, at least to Mayall aficionados, harmonica workout. I’m aiming to get back to Jazz Blues Fusion at some point.

10. Van Morrison, Angelou . . . From 1979’s Into The Music, yet another of those songs where Morrison’s great voice is, I’d argue more so than with most artists, an instrument in itself.

11. Faces, Ooh La La . . . A rare instance where Ron Wood took lead vocals on a Faces song. Nicely done. Versions were recorded with lead singer Rod Stewart and bassist Ronnie Lane taking vocal turns but neither liked their own efforts, so the band went with Woody’s for official release as the title cut from the band’s 1973 album.

12. Nazareth, Light Comes Down . . . And off we go into our main Nazareth set with this one from 1998’s Boogaloo album. By this point, after a period in the wilderness of exploring some slightly different styles, Nazareth had returned to its hard-rocking roots and for a time opened shows with this song.

13. Nazareth, Vigilante Man . . . Slow blues cover of the Woody Guthrie tune, from 1973’s Razamanaz album, one of the foundations of Nazareth’s 1970s output.

14. Nazareth, Steamroller . . . Appropriate title for this cut from 1994’s Move Me album.

15. Nazareth, Hire and Fire . . . Few but band die-hards were listening by this point, 1991. As a result, much great music was missed, like this perhaps a touch overproduced but nevertheless great cut from the No Jive album.

16. Nazareth, Crazy (A Suitable Case For Treatment) . . . Nice hard rocking groove on this one. It appeared on the 1981 Heavy Metal movie soundtrack and later expanded re-releases of The Fool Circle album.

17. Nazareth, Expect No Mercy . . . Scorcher of a title cut from the band’s 1977 album.

18. Nazareth, Big Dog’s Gonna Howl . . . Latter-day Nazareth, still kicking butt on this one from 2011’s Big Dogz album. Yes, Dogz, with a ‘z’.

19. The Boomtown Rats, Up All Night . . . Well, what would you expect, after Big Dog’s been howling? I actually decided on this one after some recent insomnia kept me, well, up all night.

20. Queen, Sleeping On The Sidewalk . . . Maybe this would have worked. Yet another winner written and sung by guitarist Brian May, from 1977’s News Of The World album.

21. The Kinks, Holloway Jail . . . From the brilliant, and inexplicable to me commercial failure that was 1971’s Muswell Hillbillies album. It’s a Kinks’ masterpiece.

22. Nazareth, Silver Dollar Forger (Parts 1 & 2) . . . Back to Nazareth we go, one more time, to set up a ‘silver’ set. I’m shameless in my contrived creativity.

23. The Rolling Stones, You Got The Silver . . . Keith Richards sings this one, from Let It Bleed and it often forms part of his usual 2-3 song mini-set within Stones concerts.

24. Steve Miller Band, Quicksilver Girl . . . From the pre-hit, psychedelic era and a nice intro for our next band.

25. Quicksilver Messenger Service, Pride Of Man . . . Cover of the Hamilton Camp tune, from Quicksilver’s debut album in 1968. Canada’s Gordon Lightfoot, among many others, also covered the song as did Gram Parsons, each of them taking varied and interesting approaches.

26. Santana, Blue Skies . . . Extended cut from Santana’s excellent 2019 album Africa Speaks, A beautiful ballad before some fierce Santana fretwork takes over the tune halfway through. It’s sung by Buika, a Spaniard who did lead vocals on the album, with help, on just this track, from British singer Laura Mvula.

Every time I play a track from what I think is the brilliant 1970 soundtrack version of Jesus Christ Superstar, I say that one of these days, I’ll play the entire album because that’s how the songs are best heard, in my view. That day has come. It’s a terrific album I’ve enjoyed since my older brother and sister got it as members of the old Columbia Record Club back in the mail order days. It’s the best version of the show, in my opinion, featuring such artists as Deep Purple’s Ian Gillan (Jesus), Murray Head (Judas in a brilliant performance), Yvonne Elliman as Mary Magdalene and Mike D’Abo of Handbags and Gladrags song fame (interpreted wonderfully by Rod Stewart) as King Herod. And among those in the band is guitarist Henry McCulloch, who played with Paul McCartney & Wings, Joe Cocker and Spooky Tooth, among others.

So, here it is. I’ve filled in the remaining time in my two-hour slot with somewhat related material from various artists before wrapping with The Who’s Underture, from Tommy, to bracket JC Superstar’s opening Overture.

Set list:

1. Overture
2. Heaven On Their Minds
3. What’s The Buzz/Strange Thing Mystifying
4. Everything’s Alright
5. This Jesus Must Die
6. Hosanna
7. Simon Zealotes/Poor Jerusalem
8. Pilate’s Dream
9. The Temple
10. Everything’s Alright (reprise)
11. I Don’t Know How To Love Him
12. Damned For All Time/Blood Money
13. The Last Supper
14. Gethsemane (I Only Want To Say)
15. The Arrest
16. Peter’s Denial
17. Pilate and Christ
18. King Herod’s Song (Try It And See)
19. Judas’ Death
20. Trial Before Pilate (including the 39 Lashes)
21. Superstar
22. Crucifixion
23. John Nineteen Forty-One
24. Bob Dylan, Man Gave Names To All The Animals
25. Jethro Tull, When Jesus Came To Play
26. John Lennon, God
27. Motorhead, (Don’t Need) Religion
28. The Rolling Stones, I Just Want To See His Face
29. The Who, Underture

1. Madness, One Step Beyond . . . Lead and title cut from the UK ska band’s debut album, 1979. It’s a cover of a tune by Jamaican ska singer Prince Buster, recorded in 1964. Madness hooked me with this particular tune, although I’m not a huge fan of the band. I first saw/heard it as a video on Toronto TV station CITY-TVs old The New Music show – predating the more celebrated US MTV. The spoken-word intro makes you sit up and take notice, then off you go riding the main riff and simple lyrics – just the title, shouted occasionally – the rest of the way. Some people I know didn’t get it. To quote one of my younger brothers, used to me mostly listening to raunch and roll stuff like the Stones: “What’s happened to you?” Nothing. It’s called having an open mind.

2. Doug and The Slugs, To Be Laughing . . . I like Doug and The Slugs anyway but was prompted to play them after watching a terrific documentary, released this year, Doug and The Slugs and Me, on the Documentary Channel in Canada. It’s well worth a look.

3. The Rolling Stones, Let It Loose . . . We’re about to, er, let loose, via this great gospelish Stones’ tune from Exile On Main St., with the kick-butt tunes that follow.

4. MC5, Kick Out The Jams (live) . . . What kind of band issues a live album as their first release? The MC5 did. Great intro, to all mothereffers. Listen to it and you’ll hear what I mean, if you don’t already.

5. The Stooges, 1969 . . . The MC5 album was released in 1969 so I figured I’d play one from their punk-ish brothers, Stooges.

6. Lou Reed, Vicious . . . From his most commercial album, Transformer, the one with Walk On The Wild Side on it. Vicious was a B-side and then later a single on its own. Didn’t chart. Ridiculous.

7. Neil Young & Crazy Horse, T-Bone . . . Got mashed potatoes. Ain’t got no T-bone. Seven words. Repeated, around grungy guitars and other assorted instruments, for 9-plus minutes. That takes talent, in my book. Hypnotic.

8. Argent, Thunder and Lightning . . . Former Zombie Rod Argent, singer-guitarist songwriter Russ Ballard and friends did far more than their well-known song Hold Your Head Up. Here’s an example. This pulsating track reminds me of some of the work of the one-off Deep Purple late 1970s offshoot, Paice Ashton Lord, which reminds me to get back to playing some of their work. So much music, so little time.

9. Delaney and Bonnie, Soul Shake . . . Funky tune from the then-married singer-songwriter duo of Delaney and Bonnie Bramlett, who famously toured with Eric Clapton and other music friends and released a live album from it. Duane Allman guests on guitar, on this one.

10. Johnny Jenkins, Down Along The Cove . . . Another one featuring Duane Allman I pulled from one of two outstanding Anthology double-disc CD compilations – An Anthology and An Anthology Volume II – that feature his session work and Allman Brothers Band material. This one’s a cover of the Bob Dylan tune, from the 1967 John Wesley Harding album, released by blues master Jenkins on his 1970 record Ton-Ton Macoute!

11. The Allman Brothers Band, Melissa . . . A single from the Eat A Peach album, didn’t chart. Absurd. One of my younger son’s favorite songs. Good taste.

12. Eric Burdon & War, Gun . . . An amazing combination of rock, funk, soul and R & B, Burdon and War. This tune is yet another example, from The Black-Man’s Burdon, the second of the two albums (the other, Eric Burdon Declares War) from their collaboration.

13. Tim Curry, Paradise Garage . . . From the Rocky Horror Picture Show’s Dr. Frank N. Furter’s Fearless album, released in 1979. I was into the movie and its attendant activities at the time and remember being in Toronto’s downtown Sam The Record Man, just browsing one day, and the album was playing on the sound system. It turned into a worthwhile impulse buy.

14. Bruce Cockburn, Burn . . . “Never mind what the government said, they’re either lying or they’ve been misled.” Great lyric, pretty much applicable to any government and circumstance.

15. Murray McLauchlan, Out Past The Timberline . . . I only came to this song some years ago via a compilation album. But to me, lyrically, musically, it’s arguably MM’s best song. It rings so true, as McLauchlan cuts to the bone about elites vs ‘real’ people in terms of who and what truly represents a country.

16. Syd Barrett, Octopus . . . Solo, weird-ish work from the onetime, late great, Pink Floyd leader.

17. The Hollies, King Midas In Reverse . . . A song that, apparently, was the impetus for Graham Nash’s eventual departure from The Hollies. He wrote the tune, which was different than most Hollies’ more pop-ish stuff to that point, 1967. It was a hit, but didn’t match their previous chart success and soon enough, Nash had moved on to collaborations with David Crosby, Stephen Stills and Neil Young.

18. Arlo Guthrie, City Of New Orleans . . . Cover of the Steve Goodman-penned well-known tune was the son of Woody Guthrie’s lone top 40 hit, although he issued much quality music including Alice’s Restaurant.

19. April Wine, Juvenile Delinquent (live) . . . From April Wine’s Live at the El Mocambo album, recorded the weekend they played there in support of The Rolling Stones’ famous club gigs. It’s written by Bob Segarini, an American singer-songwriter who had some success in Canada in the late 1970s and 80s. He performed at a pub during my college days. As far as I can tell, April Wine never recorded a studio version of it.

20. Camel, Slow Yourself Down . . . One of those prog songs that neatly wraps up so much, including various time signature changes, all within just under five minutes.

21. Elton John, Mellow . . . Haven’t played EJ in a while. Overdue. So I threw darts at my Honky Chateau album board and hit this one, not that one could go wrong picking any 1970s Elton John tune.

22. Jethro Tull, No Lullaby . . . Great drumming by Barriemore Barlow introduces this epic from Tull’s Heavy Horses album.

23. Wishbone Ash, Time Was . . . An old friend of mine tells me I’ve turned him into a Wishbone Ash fan by my occasional playing of that progressive/hard rock/guitar-oriented band’s stuff. Cool.

24. The Guess Who, So Long, Bannatyne . . . Title cut story song from the band’s 1971 album. Bannatyne is a common name for streets, schools and other landmarks in Winnipeg, The Guess Who’s hometown, honoring one of the city’s leading citizens.