I’ve divided tonight’s show into segments: progressive rock followed by metal/hard rock, then singer/songwriters, then some new wave from my college days before finishing up with The Doors, a different version of Bad Company featuring Paul Rodgers soundalike vocalist Robert Hart, The Rolling Stones and a Mark Knopfler project, The Notting Hillbillies.

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

1. Genesis, Deep In The Motherlode
2. Pink Floyd, A Pillow Of Winds
3. Yes, And You And I
4. Emerson, Lake & Palmer, Knife-Edge
5. King Crimson, Fallen Angel
6. Black Sabbath, Falling Off The Edge Of The World
7. Tipton, Entwistle and Powell, Resolution
8. Judas Priest, Traitors’ Gate
9. Iron Maiden, The Clairvoyant
10. Deep Purple, A Gypsy’s Kiss
11. Joni Mitchell, The Beat Of Black Wings
12. Cat Stevens, Lady D’Arbanville
13. Murray McLauchlan, Train Song
14. Bruce Cockburn, Justice
15. The Clash, Ghetto Defendant
16. The Specials, Gangsters
17. Flash And The Pan, Captain Beware
18. Blondie, Dragonfly
19. The Doors, Orange County Suite
20. Bad Company, Abandoned And Alone
21. The Rolling Stones, I Got The Blues
22. The Notting Hillbillies, Will You Miss Me

    My track-by-track tales:

    1. Genesis, Deep In The Motherlode . . . From the . . . And Then There Were Three . . . album, released in 1978. The record saw the band – with the departure of guitarist Steve Hackett, two albums after the departure of original lead singer Peter Gabriel – reduced to the trio of singer/drummer Phil Collins, keyboardist Tony Banks and bassist/guitarist Mike Rutherford. I had always been aware of Genesis but aside from Pink Floyd and knowing Yes songs like Roundabout and ELP stuff like Lucky Man, had not to that point been much into progressive rock. So the album was my full listening gateway into Genesis via the single Follow You Follow Me, a hit that presaged the transformation of the band into a more widely accessible act. But the album retained, albeit in shorter songs, elements of earlier Genesis on tracks like Deep In The Motherlode and I soon was going back to the beginning, and advancing with the band through the Duke album and beyond.
       
    2. Pink Floyd, A Pillow Of Winds . . . Speaking of Pink Floyd . . . a beautiful, atmospheric piece from the Meddle album. You do feel as if you are floating on the wind.
       
    3. Yes, And You And I . . . As one reviewer of the Close To The Edge album suggested, if one wants an example of progressive rock, at least Yes’s version of it, this would be a good song to sample, “blending four part vocal harmony with expert musicianship.”
       
    4. Emerson, Lake & Palmer, Knife-Edge . . . I mentioned Lucky Man earlier. This was its B-side, from the band’s self-titled debut album in 1970 and more representative of the group’s overall sound. But singles entice people to buy albums. If they don’t like the rest of it, and that can definitely happen with some artists, that’s why hits compilations exist.
       
    5. King Crimson, Fallen Angel . . . The debut Crimson album, 1969’s In The Court Of The Crimson King, will always be my favorite but 1974’s Red, from which I pulled Fallen Angel, is up there. The album has been described as displaying a balance between bone-crushing brutality and cerebral complexity. On the surface, one might not tend to see a marriage between prog and metal, but Red is a heavy album and an influence on metal acts and much of King Crimson’s extensive output rocks. The band’s genius has been that ability to merge heavy material with cerebral complexity.
       
    6. Black Sabbath, Falling Off The Edge Of The World . . . From 1981’s Mob Rules album, the second studio release with singer Ronnie James Dio, who delivers, along with rest of the band, an epic metallic masterpiece performance.
       
    7. Tipton, Entwistle and Powell, Resolution . . . Judas Priest guitarist Glenn Tipton released a solo album, Baptizm of Fire, in 1997, with Who bassist John Entwistle and noted drummer Cozy Powell among the session players. Tipton took the songs that didn’t make that album, like this melodic heavy rocker, and released them, in memory of the recent deaths of his friends and colleagues, in 2006 as the Edge Of The World record. Like Baptizm of Fire, it sounds like a Judas Priest album without Rob Halford singing, and while some Priest fans have criticized Tipton’s singing, I don’t mind it.
       
    8. Judas Priest, Traitors’ Gate . . . From 2018’s Firepower. It’s Priest’s most recent album. released in 2018 and an absolute corker, melodic metal mayhem from start to finish. It’s somewhat rare for a longtime band to come up with such a classic so late in their career, but Priest pulled it off. Meantime, Tipton has been diagnosed with Parkinson’s Disease and while he played on Firepower, the affliction has limited his touring with the band and he’s been replaced by English guitarist Andy Sneap for stage performances since 2018 although Tipton has appeared occasionally for a song or two, usually encores. At one point, Priest singer Rob Halford suggested he still tour using backing tracks or a backstage guitarist to cover for him, but Tipton, to his credit I think, rejected those options.
       
    9. Iron Maiden, The Clairvoyant . . . A Maiden classic from the 1988 album Seventh Son Of A Seventh Son. Looked at cynically, the lyric “there’s a time to live but isn’t it strange that as soon as you’re born you’re dying’ is maybe a lame, obvious attempt to sound profound. But on the other hand, it’s akin to essentially all of the lyrics for Pink Floyd’s Time from The Dark Side Of The Moon, including the passage: “. . . the sun is the same in a relative way but you’re older, shorter of breath and one day closer to death.” Someone has to publicly articulate such thoughts. And on that happy albeit realistic note . . .
       
    10. Deep Purple, A Gypsy’s Kiss . . . A scorcher from 1984’s Perfect Strangers album, it reminds me of Highway Star in the sense you can imagine yourself driving, too fast, down a long, otherwise empty stretch of highway while grooving to the song turned up to 11. The album reunited the so-called Mark II classic Purple lineup of guitarist Ritchie Blackmore, singer Ian Gillan, drummer Ian Paice, bassist Roger Glover and keyboardist Jon Lord. But as usual, Gillan and Blackmore got at each other’s throats again and, to make a long well-known story I’ve told before short, another studio album ensued, a fractious tour, another breakup, another reunion, then a final breakup of the Mark II version in the middle of another tour. There’s a funny 3-minute video clip from years ago, around the time of the first reunion’s first breakup, called “Blackmore-Gillan battle of words” on YouTube where the two men, separately, discuss their differences. Gillan calls Blackmore a giant among guitarists but ‘he’s an intellectual dwarf . . . I didn’t say that . . . he’s insecure . . . I didn’t say that . . . yes I did.” Cut to Blackmore in a separate interview, deadpan with a bit of a twinkle in his eye: “One of these days when we’re playing, on the road, I’m going to attack Ian Gillan in the back alley . . . he’s bigger than me, he’s probably a better fighter, so I’m going to do it with a few friends of mine, probably Swedish, and we’ll beat him up, but he won’t know it’s me.”
        
    11. Joni Mitchell, The Beat Of Black Wings . . . From Mitchell’s 1988 album Chalk In A Rainstorm, a compelling tale of an embittered Vietnam War veteran who has difficulty getting the sound of helicopter blades from his head. I don’t have the album. I like Joni’s stuff well enough and have the albums Blue, Court and Spark and one of her live albums, Miles of Aisles and a few others, but am mostly into her well-known singles. What I also have, though, is a terrific compilation of her lesser known material that she selected, released in 1996, called Misses. It’s a companion album to Hits, released on the same day on the proviso that the record company also accede to her request and issue Misses, which is where I first heard The Beat Of Black Wings, and other great deep cuts.
        
    12. Cat Stevens, Lady D’Arbanville . . . Written about a former girlfriend, actress Patti D’Arbanville, it appeared on the interestingly titled 1970 album Mona Bone Jakon – a name Stevens coined for his, er, penis.
        
    13. Murray McLauchlan, Train Song . . . From the Canadian singer-songwriter’s 1976 album Boulevard. Such great stuff, MM’s work, as a trip through an excellent 2-CD career retrospective, Songs From The Street, also available online, reveals, if you don’t have or know the individual albums.
        
    14. Bruce Cockburn, Justice . . . What’s been done in the name of, you name it, religion, peace, civilization itself, etc. Lyric “list’ songs like these are usually effective, John Lennon’s God being a prime example, although obviously the music has to be compelling enough to prompt people to listen. It’s from 1981’s Inner City Front album, with Cockburn concluding that ‘everybody loves to see justice done . . . on somebody else.” Murray McLauchlan contributes backing vocals on the album.
        
    15. The Clash, Ghetto Defendant . . . Terrific, different, partially spoken word track, easily my favorite on the Combat Rock album, featuring vocal contribution from Beat Generation writer/poet Allen Ginsberg.
        
    16. The Specials, Gangsters . . . First Specials song I ever heard, as I recall on Toronto TV station City’s The New Music show, during my late 1970s college days. It was a single, a terrific track and I was hooked, prompting my younger brother’s classic reaction – ‘what’s happened to you?’ – as I dug deep into The Specials, The Selecter, Madness and so on. Love my siblings but he was, to quote Mott The Hoople’s David Bowie-penned hit All The Young Dudes, still ‘back at home with his Beatles and his Stones . . . ” I was, too, but that didn’t preclude expanding horizons.
        
    17. Flash And The Pan, Captain Beware . . . From Lights In The Night, the second Flash And The Pan album, released in 1980. I read where some critic said the synthesized vocals get tiring. Uh, the synthesized vocals are a big part of the point of Flash And The Pan.
        
    18. Blondie, Dragonfly . . . Interesting sci-fi-themed mini-epic from The Hunter, the band’s 1982 album. It was a relative failure commercially and critically, particularly in comparison to hit albums Parallel Lines, Eat To The Beat and Autoamerican that preceded it. I don’t have The Hunter, having given up on Blondie by then, but I did along the way pick up a two-disc compilation of hits and album tracks issued years later. It’s called The Platinum Collection, which is how I became familiar with Dragonfly.
        
    19. The Doors, Orange County Suite . . . Originally a piano-only piece written in 1969 by Jim Morrison, about his partner Pamela, it was later dressed up with added instrumentation by surviving members of The Doors after Morrison’s death. The reworked track, which retains the spare approach of the original, was released on the band’s 1997 box set and on an expanded 2006 re-release of the L.A. Woman album. All versions are available online, at least on YouTube.
        
    20. Bad Company, Abandoned And Alone . . . It sounds like Paul Rodgers singing on this one from 1995’s Company Of Strangers album, but it isn’t. It’s Robert Hart, who replaced the previous Rodgers replacement, Brian Howe. Bad Co. had lots of commercial success with Howe singing, but I didn’t like the overproduced 1980s sound of those years, corporate rock it’s derisively called, and could only tolerate one song, the title cut from the Holy Water album. But while Paul Rodgers is without doubt THE Bad Company singer, and has been back at the mic since 2008 as the band continues to tour, Hart was a fine replacement, certainly much better than Howe was to my ears, and Company Of Strangers is a good album harkening back to the original Bad Company sound. Hart sang on one more album, the 1996 record Stories Told & Untold. That hybrid of new material and reworkings of Bad Co. classics like Can’t Get Enough wasn’t as good as Company Of Strangers as, perhaps strangely, Hart started sounding like Howe on the new material amid a baffling, to me, return to the studio slick gunk production. That was that, and Hart moved on to other projects, becoming become lead singer of the latest incarnation of Manfred Mann’s Earth Band in 2011.
        
    21. The Rolling Stones, I Got The Blues . . . Billy Preston, a regular session player on Stones albums in the early 1970s who also toured with the band, contributes a fine organ solo on this late night lament to a lost lover, from the Sticky Fingers album.
        
    22. The Notting Hillbillies, Will You Miss Me . . . From the wonderful one-off 1990 country rock, bluesy album Missing . . . Presumed Having A Good Time. And the band, led by Mark Knopfler of Dire Straits, indeed does have a blast on a low-key album of covers, traditional songs and some originals.

I’m going fairly deep for Saturday, drawing from a wonderful compilation series  called I’m A Freak, Baby – A Journey Through The British Heavy Psych and Hard Rock Underground Scene 1968-72. I’m digging into the first 3-CD compilation that was released in 2016 and I was turned on to by a fellow music aficionado friend. There’s since been two more releases, in 2019 and 2021, expanding the palate to 1973 and I intend to get to those songs eventually, individually or collectively, as I’ve done piecemeal since first release. There’s 154 songs, total, over the series so far. It’s great stuff from which I’m drawing half of this set, the rest being my usual classic rock deep cuts and otherwise fare. My track-by-track tales follow this bare-bones list.

1. Rory Gallagher, Bullfrog Blues (from Live In Europe)
2. Wicked Lady, I’m A Freak
3. The Gun, Race With The Devil
4. Neil Young & Crazy Horse, Rapid Transit
5. Iron Claw, Skullcrusher
6. The Move, Brontosaurus
7. Third World War, Ascension Day
8. Chicken Shack, Going Down
9. BTO, Amelia Earhart
10. Bachman and Turner, Moonlight Rider
11. Skid Row (Ireland), Go, I’m Never Gonna Let You
12. Bare Sole, Flash
13. The Open Mind, Cast A Spell
14. Stack Waddy, Bring It To Jerome
15. Writing On The Wall, Bogeyman
16. Barnabus, Apocalypse
17. The Who, Under My Thumb
18. Aerosmith, 3 Mile Smile
19. The Tragically Hip, An Inch An Hour
20. Midnight Oil, Best Of Both Worlds
21. Romantics, A Night Like This
22. Dave Edmunds, Almost Saturday Night
23. Bob Seger & The Silver Bullet Band, Betty Lou’s Gettin’ Out Tonight
24. Ian Hunter, Overnight Angels
25. The Deviants, I’m Coming HomeMy track-by-track tales:

     

    1. Rory Gallagher, Bullfrog Blues (from Live In Europe) . . . From Irish guitar legend Gallagher’s first live album, recorded and released in 1972, culled from shows throughout Europe in February and March of that year. Guitarist The Edge of U2, according to Live In Europe’s 1999 expanded re-release liner notes, was inspired by the album to learn the instrument and play in a band. I often think of Rory Gallagher as I do The J. Geils Band. I like their studio stuff, but they’re arguably best heard live and thankfully both artists have multiple live albums available.
       
    2. Wicked Lady, I’m A Freak . . . First of a bunch of songs, comprising half my set today, of relative obscurities from the British hard rock and psychedelic scene released between 1968-72. I’m A Freak, from 1972, is a Motorhead-like propulsive track recorded three years before there was a Motorhead, and serves as a sort of title track for a compilation I’m drawing from for the show. A 3-CD set released in 2016, it’s called I’m A Freak, Baby . . . A Journey Through The British Heavy Psych and Hard Rock Underground scene 1968-72. It’s a terrific compilation I was directed to around the time it came out by a music aficionado friend who sent me a succinct message on Facebook: ‘You have to get this!” So I got it. I liked it. I still like it. So much so that since then, I’ve purchased the sequels – I’m A Freak Baby 2 and 3, released in 2019 and 2021, respectively, as further journeys through that underground scene, this time covering 1968-73 although for this show I’ve selected material only from the first compilation.Off the top I said ‘relative obscurities’ because the compilations are relative to one’s depth of musical knowledge of such bands. Most of them were unknown to me when I bought the first compilation, but all three comps are spiced with material from very well known acts like Deep Purple (and some of its family tree bands, like Episode Six and Warhorse), early, bluesy Fleetwood Mac, The Yardbirds and Uriah Heep and maybe some slightly less widely known to the masses bands like The Move (out of which Electric Light Orchestra formed), Groundhogs, Atomic Rooster, Budgie and Love Sculpture, among others. I’ve delved into individual tracks from the compilations over time, but this is the first show where I’m devoting a large portion of my set to those releases, and I imagine I’ll be doing another, similar show again at some point given the volume of material – 154 songs – available. Deep cuts, indeed.
    3. The Gun, Race With The Devil . . . Heavy, primal, propulsive hard rock from 1968 with a nod at the start to Cream’s hit White Room, released around the same time. Judas Priest recorded this song by The Gun during sessions for Priest’s 1978 album Stained Class, and it appeared as a bonus track on the expanded 2001 re-release of Priest’s 1977 album Sin After Sin.
       
    4. Neil Young & Crazy Horse, Rapid Transit . . . I’d say Neil and Crazy Horse, mostly used when he’s in a heavy rock mood wanting to make lots of noise, fits with the I’m A Freak stuff. Rapid Transit is from 1981’s Re-ac-tor record, which most critics dismissed but, well, whatever. It’s great. Who else do you know who can get nine-plus minutes of magnificent distortion mayhem out of seven words – Got mashed potatoes, ain’t got no T-bone’ – as Neil and Crazy Horse do on T-Bone, which I’ve played before from the album, and no doubt will again sometime.
       
    5. Iron Claw, Skullcrusher . . . Doom-ish rock from 1970 that, yeah, crushes it. Iron Claw were Black Sabbath obsessives/soundalikes from Scotland but perhaps followed their heroes a bit too closely. According to the I’m A Freak compilation liner notes, Iron Claw sent Sabbath a demo of their first album in hopes of getting some promotional support but instead, Sabbath management made veiled threats of possible legal action. Good song, Skullcrusher, but I can see Sabbath’s point. To my knowledge, no lawsuits resulted, Iron Claw disbanded by 1971, briefly reformed in 2010 and released an album in 2011 before splitting again. Their early 1970s sessions didn’t yield an album at that time but tapes of 16 songs recorded between 1970 and 1974 were released on CD in 2009 after an earlier bootleg of the recordings was issued by a German label in 1996.
       
    6. The Move, Brontosaurus . . . Heavy rock from Looking On, the third Move album, released in 1970. It was the first with singer and multi-instrumentalist Jeff Lynne, who later formed Electric Light Orchestra with Move co-founder Roy Wood, who handles lead vocals on this one. The duo was recording the first ELO album, which came out in 1971, at the same time as Looking On, and elements of the early ELO sound are evident in Brontosaurus.
    7. Third World War, Ascension Day . . . Hard rock blues and apparently a big influence on early punk, from the band’s 1971 self-titled debut. Always interesting to me are the roots and branches of musical groups and Third World War is no different. Thunderclap Newman bassist Jim Avery was in the band and also appearing on various tracks on the debut album were English keyboardist/singer Tony Ashton, perhaps best known for his collaborations with various members of Deep Purple, and Rolling Stones sidemen Jim Price (trumpet and trombone) and Bobby Keys (saxophone).
       
    8. Chicken Shack, Going Down . . . Who hasn’t covered Don Nix’s Going Down? It’s as ubiquitous as the much-covered Bonnie Dobson-penned tune Morning Dew. Not that this is a bad thing – they’re both great songs. And this is another good version, from Chicken Shack’s 1972 album Imagination Lady, via the I’m A Freak Baby compilation. By this point, the lady in the Shack, Christine (Perfect) McVie had long since left to join Fleetwood Mac and Chicken Shack was down to a harder-rocking trio of guitarist/singer Stan Webb, drummer Paul Hancox and bassist John Glascock. Glascock later joined Jethro Tull and played on the studio albums Too Old To Rock ‘n’ Roll: Too Young To Die, Songs From The Wood, Heavy Horses and some of 1979’s Stormwatch. Glascock, who had a congenital heart valve defect exacerbated by his party lifestyle, died in 1979 at age 28.
       
    9. BTO, Amelia Earhart . . . Extended soft-rock ode to the American aviation pioneer, who disappeared over the Pacific Ocean while attempting a circumnavigational flight of the earth in 1937. The song is on the 1979 album Rock ‘n’ Roll Nights, the second, after 1978’s Street Action, by the band after the departure of guitarist/songwriter/singer/producer Randy Bachman. That resulted in a trademark agreement with Bachman, requiring the band to release the two albums remaining on its existing record contract as BTO, not Bachman-Turner Overdrive. The albums featured former April Wine member Jim Clench, who sings Amelia Earhart, on bass with singer/bassist C.F. (Fred) Turner moving to guitar in tandem with Blair Thornton. I prefer the heavier sound of Street Action, a deliberate move by the remaining members, who chafed at Bachman’s mostly mellow direction on the previous album Freeways to the extent that Turner said it should have been a Bachman solo record. So it’s interesting that they then did a ballad like Amelia Earhart but by that point, unlike on Street Action, outside songwriters like the team of Jim Vallance and Bryan Adams were brought in and it was becoming a latter-day Aerosmith, or a failed attempt at that hit-making level of success. I do like the song Amelia Earhart, perhaps because her story fuels fascination. But while the albums have their moments, they weren’t widely accepted by critics or customers, and, not surprisingly given the loss of such a key member as Randy Bachman, they sold poorly. But I’m a completist, with some bands, anyway, and one is sometimes rewarded with interesting discoveries and even hidden gems.
       
    10. Bachman and Turner, Moonlight Rider . . . Essentially BTO without the Overdrive, again due to contractual and legal issues that resulted when so-called classic era BTO members Rob Bachman and Blair Thornton sued to prevent Randy Bachman and Fred Turner from recording and touring as BTO. Which is interesting, given what happened earlier and as described above, when Randy Bachman left after the Freeways album and Turner was still in, er, BTO although that scenario seemed mutually amicable. Ah, naming rights issues in rock. In any event, Randy Bachman was working on a solo album, thought Turner’s vocals fit a tune, sent it to him, things clicked and the result was the Bachman & Turner album released in 2010. It features songs Turner had written between 2002 and 2004, including Moonlight Rider, some Bachman tunes and some co-writes. I was late to the Bachman and Turner album but I like it. It mostly harkens back to early 1970s BTO in terms of heaviness and most of the songs have a nice groove, like this well put-together tune that features some nice soloing by Bachman and Turner’s distinctive, gruff and gritty vocals.
        
    11. Skid Row (Ireland), Go, I’m Never Gonna Let You . . . Back to I’m A Freak, Baby we go. This isn’t the Skid Row once fronted by Canadian-born singer Sebastian Bach. That Skid Row is still around, two or three singers moved on from Bach as the lineup changes in music tend to spin. I was never into that Skid Row, although I remember the Slave To The Grind album. This Skid Row was formed in Dublin in 1967 with future Thin Lizzy frontman/bassist Phil Lynott as lead singer although the band didn’t record any material with Lynott, at least nothing that’s available. Later, another future Thin Lizzy member, guitarist Gary Moore, joined the group, after Lynott left. Moore was on board for two albums, 1970’s Skid and 1971’s 34 Hours, so named for the amount of time it took to record. 34 Hours included this near nine-minute epic featuring some fine soloing and shredding by Moore, who then went on to Thin Lizzy, with Lynott, for stints in 1973-74 and 1977-79. Skid, without Moore, hit the, er, skids.
        
    12. Bare Sole, Flash . . . Bare Sole was well thought of enough that they earned opening act slots for The Small Faces, The Move, Status Quo and Family. Or, maybe those band picked them because they didn’t want to risk being upstaged and thought Bare Sole wasn’t good enough to do so. Trust me, some bands want to be pushed, others don’t. In any event, Bare Sole’s manager took this sort of ever-ascending track, it’s decent enough, to Decca Records, who turned it down. Well, Decca turned down The Beatles too, so Bare Sole has that feather in its cap. I think one of the issues with some of these bands is their names. I’m serious. Call the band Flash and the song Bare Sole, maybe. Look down the list, past this tune. Writing On The Wall, band name; song name, Bogeyman. Wouldn’t the reverse be better, more memorable? Ladies and gentlemen, please welcome, Bogeyman! Same with Barnabus (band name) and Apocalypse (song). Wouldn’t Apocalpyse be a more memorable name for a band? But who knows what possible duplication/legal issues may be involved.
        
    13. The Open Mind, Cast A Spell . . . A short, shade over two-minute psychedelic trip from 1969 that, when I first heard it, nagged at my brain because it’s derivative of something but I just couldn’t place what. Then it occurred to me that it sounds sort of like Cream, but also, maybe strangely, especially the chorus “it’s all in the mind” like some songs by hard rock Aussie band Wolfmother, which didn’t exist until 2004. Which means Wolfmother, which is derivative of bands like Led Zeppelin, Black Sabbath and Blue Cheer, may have given Cast A Spell a listen or two. Cast A Spell was the B-side to Magic Potion, which if you’re old enough, it’ll start and you may think, oh yeah, I remember that song. It’s a heavy, driving rocker with an insistent riff including some wah-wah guitar pedal work. Why the powers behind the I’m A Freak Baby, series didn’t put it on the compilations as well is beyond me. But, it’s available on YouTube, at least.
        
    14. Stack Waddy, Bring It To Jerome . . . Killer cover – or as the Freak compilation liner notes suggest – untutored assault – on the Bo Diddley tune. It’s infectious, menacing. Lead singer John Knail (no word on whether that’s a stage name) seems to come in sideways off the guitar riff, sort of how I’d describe Ozzy Osbourne on some early Black Sabbath records, a voice suddenly appearing, from some dark elsewhere, although Knail sounds more like AC/DC’s Bon Scott, actually. Anyway, he, er, nails the vocal. The band was known for cover tunes. This one’s from their first, self-titled album, released in 1971 after they had caught the attention of noted British DJ John Peel, who signed them to his short-lived Dandelion Records label. The debut includes another Diddley tune, Roadrunner, plus Susie Q and Muddy Waters’ Rolling Stone. Stack Waddy recorded one more album, Peel again serving as executive producer, named it Bugger Off! And then did exactly that, buggered off, although they have reunited now and then, most recently in 2007. Peel did the liner notes for the second album and related that the band did every song in a single live take, refusing to use overdubs or any studio tricks in order not to compromise their raw sound. Peel recalled that he made the mistake of asking for a second take of a song to which the band responded “Bugger off, Peel”, resulting in the album title. The band would likely have been bigger had they done more original material although George Thorogood has done well by covers and, oh, had Knail not relieved himself on the audience at a gig set up by Dandelion Records in an effort to impress the president of the label’s US distributor, Elektra. Knail, what were you thinking?
        
    15. Writing On The Wall, Bogeyman . . . The Scottish band starts this one with 40 seconds of Scotland The Brave on harmonica before ripping into an infectious, heavy riff. Accept used a similar intro idea for its 1986 song Fast As A Shark, using a snap, crackle and pop old vinyl recording of a traditional German tune before you hear the needle scratching the record as all speed metallic hell is unleashed. Bogeyman is from Writing On the Wall’s one and only album, The Power Of The Picts, released in 1969. John Peel, a man obviously of good taste given his support of previous entry Stack Waddy, was involved to some extent with Writing On The Wall. He recorded them for his BBC Radio sessions, but the band’s progress was stymied by eventual issues with its manager/record label owner, according to the I’m A Freak liner notes.
        
    16. Barnabus, Apocalypse . . . Heavy shit, as the saying goes. These guys were on the periphery of and rubbed shoulders with more successful outfits, opening for Hawkwind among others, and winning a stage in a contest, featuring Black Sabbath members Ozzy Osbourne and Tony Iommi as judges, run by then hugely influential Brit weekly music magazine Melody Maker. But, while good and interesting, as all of the material on these very enjoyable Freak compilations is, that has to be at least a factor in why so many of these bands remained obscure, or never made it past one album or single: they were influenced by but perhaps too derivative of bands like Black Sabbath. This Barnabus song, for instance, is pretty much a dead ringer for Sabbath’s War Pigs, to my ears. I like it, but . . . So it becomes a case of, well why should I get into another Black Sabbath-type band when I already have Black Sabbath to listen to? It’s a common issue, obviously, to this day. It’s difficult to be original. That said, the beauty of the Freak comps is that they have introduced me to good music I’d otherwise likely never have heard. And in one case, with the band Stray who I’ve previously played on the show, it prompted deeper investigation to the point where I acquired a fine 2-CD Stray compilation that gets regular rotation on my players. And there’s other such bands that, wallet permitting, will no doubt repeat the pattern. Yes, I can listen online of course but as often stated, I’m still a physical product guy with stuff I like.
        
    17. The Who, Under My Thumb . . . When Mick Jagger and Keith Richards of The Rolling Stones were busted and jailed on drug charges in 1967, The Who rallied in support of their colleagues, releasing a cover of this Stones tune, coupled with The Last Time. The Who’s intention was to keep recording and releasing Jagger/Richards songs as long as the Stones’ songwriters were jailed, but they were quickly released before The Who had a chance to dig deeper into the Stones’ catalog. Good that the Stones were released, but it would have been interesting to hear what The Who next selected to cover, and how they’d have played it. I like The Who version of Under My Thumb, they’re a great band, it’s a great song, pretty difficult to mess up, really. The Who version was later reissued on the expanded 1998 re-release of the Odds & Sods album, a great compilation of previously shelved stuff that Who bassist John Entwistle put together for original release in 1974. It was, essentially, a new/old Who album, it filled a gap between Quadrophenia in 1973 and The Who By Numbers in 1975 and was so good that it made No. 10 on the UK charts and No. 15 in the US and left many people wondering why the band had held such great material back.But that’s true of so many great artists. Bob Dylan comes to mind. In 1991, Dylan released the first of his archival Bootleg series, a 3-CD set issued as Volumes 1-3 that followed by a few years the Biograph box set compilation which, Dylan ever the trend-setter, prompted the box set bonanza that really took off, commercially, via Eric Clapton’s Crossroads. Dylan is now up to Volume 17 in his bootleg series and it’s an amazing trip for Dylan fans through unreleased songs, different versions, different versions of albums, live stuff, etc. But in 1991, stuck in among the many songs on Volumes 1-3 was the mind-blowing Blind Willie McTell in honor of the blues legend, that Dylan had seemingly inexplicably left off his 1983 album Infidels. Infidels is one of my favorite Dylan albums, it’s a great record and as a creative person I have at least some inkling as to how such a mind works so maybe Dylan thought Blind Willie McTell might overwhelm Infidels and leave such great songs as Jokerman, I and I and so on, less appreciated. Hence, maybe his reasoning for holding it back. In any event, it eventually came out and, like many of the previously unreleased songs on The Who’s Odds & Sods, reveals the just damn goodness of these great artists, the depth of their creativity.
    18. Aerosmith, 3 Mile Smile . . . From the down, dirty, band is drugged and boozed out, in chaos and breaking up but they’re so good they still kick ass 1979 album Night In The Ruts. Zeppelin-ish which is interesting because Aerosmith’s so-called Toxic Twins of singer Steven Tyler and lead guitarist Joe Perry are often compared to, and indeed drew inspiration from, The Rolling Stones Glimmer Twins tandem of Mick Jagger and Keith Richards. And Aerosmith is, obviously, Stones-like. But I think it was Perry, or someone around the band, or a rock critic, who once said that Aerosmith, at least early Aerosmith, is at least as much Zeppelin-ish as Stones-ish. I agree. Anyway, great track from a great album that critics dismissed but most Aero fans revere as the last great, kick butt, no outside writers or syrupy in pursuit of mainstream hits production, version of the band.
        
    19. The Tragically Hip, An Inch An Hour . . . Smokin’ track from one of my favorite Hip albums, the maybe dark but good because it is dark, 1994 album Day For Night. I haven’t played these Canadian boys in a long time, love ’em, especially their early stuff and up to about 2000 when as previously stated I think they either lost the ability to write compelling hooks, did so on purpose in pursuit of ‘art’, or became the late great Gord Downie’s backing band in his pursuit of the obscure. For those who suggest they’re Canada’s best ever band, again, I like loads of their stuff but, no. Ever hear of The Guess Who, just a for instance. Rush? Bands that actually people outside Canada know of? Not I guess that such things should matter, but, I think they do. It’s like a maybe good local artist in a city who nobody outside the city has ever heard of. You can talk management, promotion, this that as reasons why but bottom line, if you’re good enough, resonate enough, talent knows no boundaries and let’s be honest, in that sense the Hip, for whatever reason, was limited. Or limited themselves. In no way are they Canada’s best ever band, they were terrific but reality is their sales, even in Canada, were in sharp decline the latter part of their career because they were no longer releasing tunes with hooks that made you want to listen again. Anyway, enough rambling. My old pal 4C will appreciate me playing this one/The Hip.
        
    20. Midnight Oil, Best Of Both Worlds . . . From before Midnight Oil broke big outside Australia via the Diesel and Dust album, the Beds Are Burning and magnificent to me The Dead Heart singles. This one’s from 1984, three years before the worldwide breakthrough, kick ass metallic punk rock take no prisoners stuff from the Red Sails In The Sunset album. I well remember hearing in the mid-1980s about this ’emerging’ hard ass politically-fuelled band. Emerging to we North Americans, but they had already been kicking ass Down Under since 1978, my college days when I got into so much new stuff but somehow missed them. But, in fairness, that was pre-internet, you didn’t hear Midnight Oil on radio, and you didn’t come to things as quickly as we can now. In any event, Diesel and Dust came out, I finally got a Midnight Oil album, went back, and forward ever since, and been always rewarded.
        
    21. Romantics, A Night Like This . . . One of those, “this came up in the system while searching for something else, listened to it, cool, I like it, let’s play it”, songs. It’s often a fun way to fill out a set because there are obviously so many songs from which to choose. So, danger danger, lol, it’s the computer, AI, helping out which seems to be the current media-created bullshit fear. Hey, I’m a Battlestar Galactica fan; we create them, if they come for us, whatever, let’s see what happens. This is from the second Romantics album, National Breakout, released in 1980. They were coming off their hugely successful self-titled debut from earlier that year which featured the hit What I Like About You which seemed to be a much bigger hit than its actual chart placing, No. 49 on Billboard in the US. It probably did better in Canada, based on my recollections of hearing it in college days, but I can’t find any Canadian chart info.
        
    22. Dave Edmunds, Almost Saturday Night . . . Another that just came up via search but one can never get enough Dave Edmunds. And, soon, it will again be Saturday night. And yes, there’s quite a few ‘night’ songs in a Saturday morning show, but it’s of course intentional via my twisted mind.
        
    23. Bob Seger & The Silver Bullet Band, Betty Lou’s Gettin’ Out Tonight . . . She’s a bad babe, Betty Lou. The song is from, maybe surprisingly, Seger’s only No. 1. album, Against The Wind. It dislodged Pink Floyd’s The Wall from that summit way back then, 1980.
        
    24. Ian Hunter, Overnight Angels . . . Title cut from the former Mott The Hoople main vocal man’s 1977 album. I’ve always liked the album cover, Hunter in caricature black and white, in full cry. Two years later he broke big as a solo artist with the brilliant You’re Never Alone With A Schizophrenic album, a title some doctors castigated him for because, more accurately, it should be You’re Never Alone As A Schizophrenic but whatever, it’s a great album.
        
    25. The Deviants, I’m Coming Home . . . Spooky stuff, acknowledged by the band as Velvet Underground inspired. See ya Monday night! Take care all, thanks for listening and following. 

     

     

As suggested by one of my show’s followers/listeners, a set list of songs to do with drinking.  My track-by-track tales follow this bare-bones list.

1. The Who, However Much I Booze
2. Paice Ashton Lord, I’m Gonna Stop Drinking Again
3. Joe Jackson, What’s The Use Of Getting Sober (When You’re Gonna Get Drunk Again)
4. The Rolling Stones, Might As Well Get Juiced
5. The Butterfield Blues Band, Drunk Again
6. Jeff Beck Group, I’ve Been Drinking
7. The Kinks, Alcohol
8. Nazareth, Let The Whiskey Flow
9. Budgie, Whiskey River
10. Junkhouse, Down In The Liver
11. Screamin’ Jay Hawkins, I Found My Way To Wine
12. Family, Drowned In Wine
13. AC/DC, Have A Drink On Me
14. Black Sabbath, Trashed
15. Powder Blues Band, What’ve I Been Drinkin’
16. Jerry Lee Lewis, Drinking Wine Spo-Dee O’Dee
17. Ramones, Somebody Put Something In My Drink
18. David Wilcox, Cheap Beer Joint
19. Roy Buchanan, Beer Drinking Woman
20. Toby Keith with Willie Nelson, Beer For My Horses
21. Canned Heat and John Lee Hooker, Whiskey And Wimmen
22. Molly Hatchet, Whiskey Man
23. Mott The Hoople, Whiskey Women
24. Tommy James and The Shondells, Sweet Cherry Wine
25. The Ozark Mountain Daredevils, Homemade Wine
26. Derek and The Dominos, Bottle Of Red Wine (from Live at The Fillmore)
27. Oasis, Cigarettes & Alcohol
28. Sammy Hagar, Mas Tequila
29. Van Halen, Take Your Whiskey Home
30. Kris Kristofferson, Sunday Mornin’ Comin’ Down

    My track-by-track tales:

    1. The Who, However Much I Booze . . . I’ve often tried to find a good way to describe Keith Moon’s drumming. I finally found it, via someone who I think nailed it perfectly, in a YouTube comment field about this song. “It always makes me smile when Moonie comes tumbling in to a song.” Perfectly stated by the commenter. That ‘tumble’ happens six seconds into this confessional Pete Townshend tune from The Who By Numbers album, but it’s evident on so many Who songs. Moon, like all greats in any field, truly was distinct.
       
    2. Paice Ashton Lord, I’m Gonna Stop Drinking Again . . . I suppose all songs about drinking have lyrical similarities, but this one from the one-album-and-done Deep Purple offshoot band reminds me of Kris Kristofferson’s Sunday Mornin’ Comin’ Down, which I’m closing the set with, and also a passage in Gregg Allman’s autobiography, My Cross To Bear where he’s talking to a girlfriend about how he has to keep drinking to feel good, before he finally kicked the habit. As for Paice Ashton Lord, the album is Malice In Wonderland, a collaboration between Deep Purple drummer Ian Paice, keyboardist Jon Lord and English musician Tony Ashton, released in 1977, three years before Nazareth used the same title for an album that featured their hit Holiday. The lyrics, to start: “I came ’round this morning and I was feeling like hell; telephone exploded, I went, ‘oh, that bell’ . . . going on to describe someone experiencing withdrawal effects: “I’m gonna lay down and cry, I get this feelin’ every time that I’m dry.” As The Kinks will sing later in the set, oh demon alcohol.
       
    3. Joe Jackson, What’s The Use Of Getting Sober (When You’re Gonna Get Drunk Again) . . . From JJ’s Jumpin’ Jive, a 1981 album of covers highlighting 1940s swing and jump blues classics. It’s the album that served notice that Jackson was not merely the new wave artist who burst upon the scene two years earlier via his first two albums Look Sharp and I’m The Man and then the reggae and ska-tinged Beat Crazy in 1980, but one who would continually follow his muse in whatever directions it took him. As often mentioned, I’ve stayed on board his entire journey, never been disappointed.
       
    4. The Rolling Stones, Might As Well Get Juiced . . . From the Stones’ 1997 album Bridges To Babylon which became a ‘Mick Jagger working with his people and producers and Keith Richards working with his’ sort of album although, depending upon what one reads, it was a deliberate decision made in order to explore new sounds, ideas and approaches. The journalistic narrative is that Richards has always been the one wanting to keep the Stones at least somewhat on their original bluesy path while Jagger is the supposed experimental artist although that’s to me an easy oversimplification as they both obviously are blues-influenced. On this one, apparently Richards did the song, originally as a blues cut, then gave it to Jagger who had the Dust Brothers, the producers he was working with at the time, add their synthesized techniques to it. It works, if you ask me. The slow burner of a tune might be, as some have suggested, the most ‘un-Stones’ like song on the album, but what is a ‘Stones-sounding song’ really, given their vast catalog? It can depend on what album/time period you’re listening to, when you grew up, when you came to a particular song or album, as is the case with any longlasting band. Case in point: I remember when the Emotional Rescue album came out in 1980 and She’s So Cold was one of the singles. A rock critic dismissed it as lightweight and opined “this is the same band that gave us Gimme Shelter?!” I’m a big Stones fan, and while She’s So Cold is catchy, I agreed with the critic. Yet, in 2005 I saw the band in Toronto on the Bigger Bang tour, they played She’s So Cold and the place went positively nuts. So, go figure. Might As Well Get Juiced is different, but it’s unmistakably the Stones, once again illustrating their musical diversity.

        

    5. The Butterfield Blues Band, Drunk Again . . . Guitarist Elvin Bishop, who went on to a solo career after the Butterfield Band’s 1968 album In My Own Dream, exited in style by humorously handling lead vocal duties on this one. “My woman says it’s a dog gone shame the way some men bring their wives money and furs and jewelry and I come home, ain’t got a dime and smelling like a brewery. I’m drunk again . . . ”
       
    6. Jeff Beck Group, I’ve Been Drinking . . . Originally a B-side, it was released on the 2006 expanded CD reissue of 1968’s seminal Truth album. The song was reconfigured by Rod Stewart and Jeff Beck from the Johnny Mercer-penned song Drinking Again, a 1962 torch tune done by Frank Sinatra, Aretha Franklin and others including, much later, Bette Midler.
       
    7. The Kinks, Alcohol . . . From, as often stated, likely my favorite Kinks album, Muswell Hillbillies, released in 1971. It didn’t chart, but so what? It’s great, and to my knowledge has never gone out of print, it’s been re-released a few times, remastered and in expanded form, which says a lot about its quality and staying power.
       
    8. Nazareth, Let The Whiskey Flow . . . From Surviving The Law, the second Nazareth album done – with the late original lead singer Dan McCafferty’s blessing once his health started failing and he retired in 2014 – with new singer Carl Sentance. Tattooed On My Brain, released in 2018, was the first album with Sentance, with Surviving The Law coming out last year. So-called legacy bands continuing on without key original members is often cause for controversy although my view has always been that, if the music remains good/if I like it, there’s no issue. As with Nazareth, latter-day Lynyrd Skynyrd, etc. Just how I look at things, I suppose, and I take it on an as-case basis. While I’ve hung in with Nazareth and Skynyrd, I’ve no time for post-Terry Kath Chicago, for instance.
       
    9. Budgie, Whiskey River . . . Lead track from the Welsh hard rocking band’s second album, 1972’s Squawk. It’s an aviation term to do with air traffic control, hence the album cover art of an aircraft with a bird beak nose, diving, possibly out of control, done by Roger Dean, best known for his Yes album covers.
       
    10. Junkhouse, Down In The Liver . . . As far as I know, Junkhouse leader Tom Wilson long ago quit drinking and remains clean and sober. But he got some great tunes out of the habit.
        
    11. Screamin’ Jay Hawkins, I Found My Way To Wine . . . Hawkins is rightly remembered for his I Put A Spell On You, but he released lots of worthwhile material including this song, released as a single in 1954, two years before the breakthrough success of his big hit which in addition to Hawkins’ stage performances also helped lay the foundation for so-called shock rock.
        
    12. Family, Drowned In Wine . . . Lead track from the British progressive band’s 1970 album A Song For Me, by which time bassist Ric Grech had long since left the group – after the prior album Family Entertainment in fact – to join the short-lived supergroup Blind Faith along with Eric Clapton, Ginger Baker and Steve Winwood.
        
    13. AC/DC, Have A Drink On Me . . . One of the few I’ll say sort of deep cuts on the Back In Black album, because it’s arguable that Back In Black has no deep cuts, since the record is so well-known, front to back. And, obviously, deservedly so.
        
    14. Black Sabbath, Trashed . . . From 1983’s Born Again, the so-called Deep Sabbath album featuring Deep Purple singer Ian Gillan. Sabbath guitarist and lone forever member Tony Iommi, at the time, told a rock magazine that Gillan – because ‘his shriek is legendary’ – was the best candidate to replace Ronnie James Dio, who had left after two albums replacing original Sabbath singer Ozzy Osbourne. And that shriek, along with Iommi’s equally shrieking guitar sound, simply ‘makes’ this tale of drunken excess. “So we went back to the bar and hit the bottle again but there was no tequila. Then we started on the whiskey just to settle our brains ’cause there was no tequila.” Sounds like how Gillan, in a couple books, described joining Sabbath. He was out with Iommi and bass player Geezer Butler, throwing ’em back, crashed, got up in the morning to take a call from his agent who said something like ‘next time you decide to join a band, please let me know first.” I’m a fan of all eras of Black Sabbath but recommended reading, to bring a smile to your face, or make you shake your head, is everything about the Born Again album and subsequent tour, which provided some of the fodder for the rock and roll sendup movie This Is Spinal Tap.
        
    15. Powder Blues Band, What’ve I Been Drinkin’ . . . It’s interesting when you read histories of famous bands, like The Beatles, Rolling Stones, etc. The members often say they never expected to last more than a few weeks, months, maybe a year or two, given the nature of the business and public tastes. And yet so many of them keep on rolling, to this day with varying degrees of success and audience. It’s what they do. Powder Blues isn’t on the level of such famous groups but they’re actually still around playing live shows as are so many bands now in their 40^th, 50^th, 60^th years, albeit in varying membership configurations as life and business takes its inevitable toll. Powder Blues broke fairly big, particularly in Canada, with their 1980 single Doin’ It Right. They’re now known as Tom Lavin and The Legendary Powder Blues. ‘Legendary’ seems to me a bit of a conceit, but whatever. Lavin is the Chicago-born founding member who has also produced albums by Long John Baldry and Canadian bands Prism and April Wine.
        
    16. Jerry Lee Lewis, Drinking Wine Spo-Dee O’Dee . . . I had to throw this in for the buddy of mine who suggested the drinking theme show. He’s a big Jerry Lee fan and has rekindled my own interest in The Killer. And what has occurred to me, sort of second time around for me with Lewis, and I realize it may sound obvious but it’s that beyond the piano playing and wild man act, the guy could really sing and command a recording studio session and a live audience. Such confidently terrific stuff.
        
    17. Ramones, Somebody Put Something In My Drink . . . From the band’s 1986 album Animal Boy. Written by latter-day Ramones drummer Richie Ramone (real name Richard Reinhardt but they were all Ramones, don’t ya know), it was apparently based on an actual incident where Ramone was given a drink spiked with LSD. It was later covered by an Australian band with the clever name Tequila Mockingbyrd. Theirs was a decent enough version but not as down and dirty, particularly the vocals, as the Ramones original.
        
    18. David Wilcox, Cheap Beer Joint . . . The song is perfect. Listen to it and you are in a smoky, cheap beer joint. I always kinda liked dives, if they’re still called that. They have character, and characters, from all walks of life.
        
    19. Roy Buchanan, Beer Drinking Woman . . . From the late great blues/rock artist’s 1986 album Dancing On The Edge. Delbert McClinton sang on a few songs on the record, although Buchanan handled this one.
        
    20. Toby Keith with Willie Nelson, Beer For My Horses . . . This is a first. I’ve never played Toby Keith or Willie Nelson on the show. I know Nelson’s music, who doesn’t know at least some of it, but I confess, not being much of a country fan, I’m not at all up on Keith although definitely heard of him. However, the song, which I’d never heard, came up in the station system while searching something else. I listened, it fits today’s theme, I like it, here you go. It led to a 2008 comedy film of the same name which I have not seen, co-writtten by and co-starring Keith.
        
    21. Canned Heat and John Lee Hooker, Whiskey And Wimmen . . . From the excellent 1971 collaboration Hooker ‘N’ Heat album, the vast majority of tunes, including this one, being Hooker compositions.
        
    22. Molly Hatchet, Whiskey Man . . . Hard rocker from the Flirtin’ With Disaster album whose title cut remains the band’s signature tune.
        
    23. Mott The Hoople, Whiskey Women . . . Early Mott, from the band’s third album, 1971’s Wildlife, before the success that came via Mott’s version of David Bowie’s All The Young Dudes. Whiskey Women was written by guitarist Mick Ralphs, who later left Mott The Hoople to form Bad Company.
        
    24. Tommy James and The Shondells, Sweet Cherry Wine . . . Psychedelia that was a top 10 hit in both Canada and the US in 1969.
        
    25. The Ozark Mountain Daredevils, Homemade Wine . . . Rockabilly country pickin’ from a band I seem to be playing a lot lately while rediscovering that they had lots of good songs besides the hits Jackie Blue and If You Wanna Get To Heaven. And, the song fits the theme. The kind of song I can see being played live, around a campfire.
        
    26. Derek and The Dominos, Bottle Of Red Wine (from Live At The Fillmore) . . . From the short-lived blues rock band fronted by Eric Clapton that also featured keyboardist/singer Bobby Whitlock, bassist Carl Radle and drummer Jim Gordon. The Dominos are one of those interesting family tree acts, the roots of the band going back to the various members playing on sessions for George Harrison’s All Things Must Pass album. The live version of Bottle Of Red Wine, recorded in New York in October 1970, originally appeared on the Dominos’ 1973 In Concert album. It was included on Live At The Fillmore, an expanded version of those 1970 shows, released in 1994.
        
    27. Oasis, Cigarettes & Alcohol . . . A hit single in the UK and Europe, albeit uncomfortably close to T. Rex’s Get It On (Bang A Gong). I like Oasis’s stuff well enough, but they were nearly as bad as Led Zeppelin in terms of ‘borrowing’ things, as any website search will reveal. But, as with Zep, I still enjoy the music.
        
    28. Sammy Hagar, Mas Tequila . . . Tequila has been very good for Hagar, an entrepreneur as well as a musician, who had big success with his Cabo Wabo brand, eventually selling it for $80 to $100M, according to various reports. He’s still in the booze biz wih a new tequila, Santos, as well as a chain of restaurants. Some people just have that money-making knack.
        
    29. Van Halen, Take Your Whiskey Home . . . Van Halen’s Women and Children First album has been great, of late, for themed shows I’ve done. I used Fools from the album for my April Fool show earlier this month, and Take Your Whiskey Home obviously fits a drinking-themed show. Same sorts of songs, too. At the beginning of Fools, singer David Lee Roth channels his inner Janis Joplin, akin to her Summertime vocals, before all hell breaks loose on the Van Halen track. All hell breaks loose on Take Your Whiskey Home, too, but only after an early, acoustic boogie start complete with Roth’s sort of talk singing, then into the heavy, infectious groove. “Well my baby don’t want me around; she said she’s tired of watching me fall down; she wants the good life, only the best; but I like the bottle better than the rest.”
        
    30. Kris Kristofferson, Sunday Mornin’ Comin’ Down . . . Amazing songwriter yet it was other artists who had the big hits with his songs – Janis Joplin with Me and Bobby McGee and Johnny Cash with this one. I’m a big Johnny Cash fan but I prefer Kristofferson’s more raw treatment of Sunday Mornin’ Comin’ Down. Both songs appeared on Kristofferson’s self-titled debut album, which was a commercial failure when released in June 1970. But, in a demonstration of the power and name recognition of a hit single, once Joplin’s version of Bobby McGee became a No. 1 hit in 1971, Kristofferson’s record company reissued his debut album under the title Me and Bobby McGee and it went gold, hitting No. 10 on the country charts and No. 43 on Billboard’s pop list.

     

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

1. Maria Muldaur, Get Up, Get Ready
2. Elton John, Tell Me When The Whistle Blows
3. The Rolling Stones, Sway
4. The Beatles, Fixing A Hole
5. Stillwater, Mind Bender
6. Dixie Dregs, Refried Funky Chicken
7. The Ozark Mountain Daredevils, E.E. Lawson
8. Peter Tosh, Brand New Second Hand
9. Bob Marley and The Wailers, Concrete Jungle
10. Sheila Hylton, The Bed’s Too Big Without You
11. The Police, It’s Alright For You
12. David Lindley, Bye Bye Love
13. Sea Level, Storm Warning
14. Rush, The Way The Wind Blows
15. Junkhouse, Flood
16. Bruce Springsteen, Lost In The Flood
17. The Law, Laying Down The Law
18. The Clash, The Guns Of Brixton
19. Chris Whitley, Living With The Law
20. Elvis Costello, My Dark Life
21. Billy Joel, Captain Jack
22. T. Rex, Jeepster
23. Streetheart, Here Comes The Night
24. Van Morrison, Lonely Avenue
25. Chicago, What Else Can I Say
26. Graham Parker & The Rumour, Saturday Nite Is Dead

    My track-by-track tales:

    1. Maria Muldaur, Get Up, Get Ready . . . OK, it’s 7 am. I’m up. I’m ready. On with the show. She’s arguably best known for her 1973 soft rock/pop hit Midnight At The Oasis but Muldaur is one of many artists who are so much more than one big hit single. Now 80, she’s been active since 1963 in the folk, blues, country, gospel and R & B idioms and besides her own work has contributed, mostly vocals, to albums by, among others, solo work by Jerry Garcia of Grateful Dead fame, Paul Butterfield, Linda Ronstadt and The Doobie Brothers. This is from her Southland Of The Heart album, out in 1998 but she remains current, her most recent release in 2021.
       
    2. Elton John, Tell Me When The Whistle Blows . . . One of my favorite EJ songs, it’s from the 1975 album Captain Fantastic and The Brown Dirty Cowboy. As with most Elton John albums during that halcyon period of the early to mid-1970s, most songs on his records, like this one, could have been hit singles given the quality of what he was releasing at the time. In fact, so prolific and excellent was Elton then, I’ve read that in early 1974, with 1973’s Goodbye Yellow Brick Road album – his second in 1973 after Don’t Shoot Me I’m Only The Piano Player – still riding high, it was decided to stop releasing singles from Yellow Brick Road in order to not risk adversely affecting potential sales of his next album, Caribou, which came out in June 1974.
       
    3. The Rolling Stones, Sway . . . onnnne, twooooo, threeee, fouuurrrrr . . . da na na na na na (guitar) bang bang (drums)…that’s my written ‘take’ on Mick Jagger’s wonderfully fatigued-sounding count in into Mick Taylor’s virtuoso lead guitar and soloing, along with Charlie Watts’ drumming . . . So down and dirty, even with Keith Richards, who didn’t play on the song but did help out on backing vocals. Classic raunch and roll Stones, how I like them most.

        

    4. The Beatles, Fixing A Hole . . . One of the great book series to come out in recent years is “All The Songs’. The books aren’t on the level or depth of Bald Boy’s Track-By-Track Tales of course, nothing could be. But, there are myriad interesting stories behind all the songs, at least at the time of book publication, by various major artists, mostly, so far, in the classic rock area. The books are big, fat, thick, full of info way beyond other such books I’ve accumulated over the years and so far I’ve got four of them: Beatles, Stones, Pink Floyd and Bob Dylan but they’ve been popping up like mushrooms after a good rain. We’ll see how my bank account holds up but I’ve so far seen (and web searched) others on Led Zeppelin, Bruce Springsteen, Elton John, David Bowie, Queen and Prince. Zeppelin I may get, or I may pass on, since it’ll just get me riled again about their plagiarism. Or give me fuel for more diatribes. Springsteen I like a lot but maybe not enough. Elton John, I perused it in a bookstore – where I read that tidbit mentioned earlier about holding back singles as a new album approached release date. But the reality is it’s not worth it to me because I really don’t give a shit for Elton John’s music after the 1970s, aside from the occasional decent single but even then, that ended for me in the 1980s. Bowie, yes, eventually. Queen, sure. As with Bowie, I’m more a 70s Queen fan but their later stuff, especially the Innuendo album which I’ve drawn from for the show and harkens back to early Queen, is worthy enough. Prince? No. I respect his work, I realize his impact and greatness but beyond a few songs, sorry, I’ve tried, not for me although a must watch on YouTube is his mind-blowing guitar soloing on a live version of Beatle George Harrison’s While My Guitar Gently Weeps while teamed up with Tom Petty, Jeff Lynne and others. Other than that performance, all I can name, off the top of my head and I do like these, are When Doves Cry, Purple Rain and Raspberry Beret which Hindu Love Gods (Warren Zevon and members of R.E.M.) did to great effect.

       So, the point of my out of control ramble? Well, not sure how well known this story is, I’m fairly up on Beatles lore and I’d never heard it. Or maybe I’d forgotten it. Anyway, so Paul McCartney writes Fixing A Hole, which people thought was about heroin (the title, get it?) but Macca said was merely about pot but the lyrics are also about McCartney’s growing annoyance with the intrusiveness of Beatles fans. So he’s got the song pretty much ready to go and is just about off to the studio to join the other Fabs to record it, when who knocks on his door but Jesus. Yes, Christ. Or, at least, someone claiming to be the Son of God. So Paul humors him, invites him in for tea and says he, Jesus, can attend the recording session if he keeps quiet. Which is interesting in that Paul and the other Beatles didn’t much like Yoko Ono sitting around, attached to John Lennon, during reording sessions. Anyway, off Paul and Jesus go and, as the book says, one more miracle for the Sgt. Pepper album. But of course the Jesus story is all BS, or Jesus couldn’t perform miracles, because as we all know, Paul was killed in a car crash around 1966 – the real reason The Beatles stopped touring then – and was replaced by a look-alike, which accounts for later middling albums like, say, Wings Wild Life. It’s true. I have a book on that subject. It’s called The Walrus Was Paul: The Great Beatle Death Clues. A fun read.
       

    5. Stillwater, Mind Bender . . . Talking box guitar extravaganza by a Georgia band whose brief shining moment was this track from their self-titled 1977 album. I pulled it from a southern rock compilation album I bought ages ago. The set features well-known bands like the Allmans and Lynyrd Skynyrd but also relatively obsure material like Stillwater.
       
    6. Dixie Dregs, Refried Funky Chicken . . . Definitely funky, this almost prog-jazz excursion from another Georgia band, well-known for guitarist Steve Morse who went on to latter-day incarations of Deep Purple.
       
    7. The Ozark Mountain Daredevils, E.E. Lawson . . . Great swamp rock song from the band best known for the hit singles Jackie Blue and If You Wanna Get To Heaven. This one’s from the band’s second album, It’ll Shine When It Shines, which included Jackie Blue and was released in 1974. The Daredevils are still around, not only playing but marketing their Ozark Dry Gin through their EE Lawson Distillery.
       
    8. Peter Tosh, Brand New Second Hand . . . I’ve been meaning to get back to some reggae on the show, so here comes a mini-set starting with this one from Tosh’s Legalize It album, his first solo effort after leaving The Wailers.
       
    9. Bob Marley and The Wailers, Concrete Jungle . . . Speaking of which . . . From the Catch A Fire album. Session guitarist to the stars Wayne Perkins, who played the fine solo on Hand Of Fate from The Rolling Stones’ Black and Blue album, handles lead guitar on this Marley song.
       
    10. Sheila Hylton, The Bed’s Too Big Without You . . . The Police dabbled in reggae, so reggae artists dabbled back. Hylton had a No. 35 UK hit in 1981 with her version of the song that was the fourth single from the second Police album, Reggatta de Blanc, released in 1979.
        
    11. The Police, It’s Alright For You . . . From Reggatta de Blanc, one of those songs by a great band that could easily have been a single. It’s arguably as well known as many Police hits.
        
    12. David Lindley, Bye Bye Love . . . A reggae version of the song made famous by The Everly Brothers. It appeared on the late guitarist/string instrumentalist Lindley’s El Rayo-X album, released in 1981 and produced by Jackson Browne, with whom Lindley had a long association dating to the 1970s. In addition to his solo work, Lindley was a contributor to a vast catalogue of recordings by artists like Linda Ronstadt and Warren Zevon, among many others. It’s an impressive resume.
        
    13. Sea Level, Storm Warning . . . Funky jazz rock instrumental from the Allman Brothers Band offshoot led by keyboardist Chuck Leavell. The band, so named as a pun – C. Leavell – on Leavell’s name, released five studio albums between 1977 and 1981. Leavell, who joined the Allmans for their Brothers and Sisters album in 1973, has toured and recorded with Eric Clapton, George Harrison, David Gilmour and another Allmans offshoot, Gov’t Mule, among others. He’s been a regular sideman with The Rolling Stones on both tours and albums since 1982.
        
    14. Rush, The Way The Wind Blows . . . Propulsive song, rising and falling in intensity throughout its six-plus minutes, from 2007’s Snakes And Arrows album. It was late drummer Neil Peart’s favorite from the album and features his usual fine work, complemented by nice guitar licks from Alex Lifeson and Geddy Lee’s understated vocals – a respite for some who aren’t fond of some of his more histrionic excursions.
        
    15. Junkhouse, Flood . . . Mid-tempo burner from what turned out to be the Canadian band’s final studio album, 1997’s Fuzz. Leader Tom Wilson has gone on to myriad projects including solo work, Blackie and The Rodeo Kings with Colin Linden and Stephen Fearing and Lee Harvey Osmond with members of Cowboy Junkies and Skydiggers. I ran into him at the cash in a coffee shop in Kitchener some years ago, the morning after Junkhouse reunited to play the blues festival. Just a quick “I admire your work’ chat with a modest, humble, great artist.
        
    16. Bruce Springsteen, Lost In The Flood . . . Majestic, epic in its five minutes, apocalyptic story song, in part about a war veteran, from Springsteen’s early days, his 1973 debut Greetings From Asbury Park N.J. It’s the kind of song one might discover one day or night, you maybe don’t know an album well but you might be alone at home, you decide to put it on, preferably with headphones, no distractions, and just let it all – lyrics and sparse music – wash over you and seep into your consciousness. That happened with me, years ago, with Bob Dylan’s Sad Eyed Lady Of The Lowlands from Blonde on Blonde. Same thing with this tune on a Springsteen album that, perhaps like many people, I came to later – along with his second 1973 release The Wild, The Innocent & The E Street Shuffle – after he broke big with Born To Run in 1975. That’s often the case. An artist has a breakthrough commercial success, prompting some of us into deeper investigation of the back catalog, if there is one, then you move forward with each subsequent new release.
        
    17. The Law, Laying Down The Law . . . A Paul Rodgers-penned tune, naturally enough perhaps Bad Company-like, from the one and only self-titled album he did in collaboration, under the moniker The Law, with former Faces and Who drummer Kenney Jones. The record came out in early 1991, Laying Down The Law was a hit single, at least in the US, but the album otherwise bombed, and plans for a second release were shelved. Among those appearing on the album, although not on this track, were guitarists David Gilmour and Chris Rea. Also in the backup band was latter day Who and prolific session bassist Pino Paladino.
        
    18. The Clash, The Guns Of Brixton . . . One of my favorite Clash songs, from London Calling, a pulsating reggae groove about real life events. Written and sung, in a rare lead vocal performance, by bass player Paul Simenon, who grew up in the Brixton area of London. “When they kick at your front door, how you gonna come, with your hands on your head or on the trigger of your gun . . . ” At the time, The Clash may truly have been, as their publicity suggested, the only band that mattered.
        
    19. Chris Whitley, Living With The Law . . . Title cut from the late great but perhaps underappreciated/relatively unknown American singer songwriter/guitarist’s 1991 debut album. Whitley died of lung cancer in 2005 at age 45 but left us a lengthy discography although it’s his debut that remains my favorite. The album has a Canadian connection, produced by musician/producer/recording engineer Malcom Burn, who played keyboards and tambourine on the record, at Daniel Lanois’ Kingsway Studio in New Orleans.
        
    20. Elvis Costello, My Dark Life . . . A collaboration with Brian Eno, the spooky soundscape appeared on the X-Files TV show-themed record Songs In The Key Of X released in 1996. It later appeared on the Costello compilation Extreme Honey and on a bonus disc on a 2001 re-release of his 1996 studio album All This Useless Beauty.
        
    21. Billy Joel, Captain Jack . . . The title cut from Joel’s 1973 album Piano Man gets most of the acclaim, and deservedly so, but Captain Jack is probably my favorite on the album and might be my favorite Joel song, period. It’s one of those songs that wasn’t a single, at more than seven minutes long that would be unusual although not unheard of, but became well known back in the heyday of commercial FM radio, when album tracks and indeed full albums were played. The song’s popularity originally stemmed from a Philadelphia radio station having Joel on for a studio concert in 1972, after which the sation continued to play the live version it had recorded. It caught the attention of major record labels, and the rest is history. It’s akin to how a Cleveland station helped break Rush beyond Canada, in 1974, by playing the song Working Man from the debut album.
        
    22. T. Rex, Jeepster . . . Second single from the Electric Warrior album, whose big hit everywhere – and often the only T. Rex song you ever seem to hear, at least in North America – was Get It On, retitled Bang A Gong (Get It On) in the US to avoid conflict with the song Get It On by the 1970s jazz rock group Chase. Chase’s Get It On is a good song, too. So is Jeepster by T. Rex, which has far more to offer than just Get It On, however one titles it.
        
    23. Streetheart, Here Comes The Night . . . Streetheart cover of the song made famous by Van Morrison’s Them. It was written by Bert Berns, an American songwriter/producer whose many credits included Twist and Shout, Piece of My Heart, Hang On Sloopy, Cry To Me and Everybody Needs Somebody To Love. What else might have been – Berns, who had heart issues resulting from contracting rheumatic fever during childhood, died of heart failure in 1967 at age 38.
        
    24. Van Morrison, Lonely Avenue . . . Cover of the Doc Pomus tune, an R & B hit for Ray Charles in 1956. Van The Man did it justice, including some great saxophone and harmoica playing, on his solid 1993 album Too Long In Exile.
        
    25. Chicago, What Else Can I Say . . . Yes, I know that, when I play Chicago, I usually draw from their first three albums. What can I say, they’re easily my favorites, amazing stuff. This one’s from Chicago III.
        
    26. Graham Parker & The Rumour, Saturday Nite Is Dead . . . From Parker’s great 1979 album Squeezing Out Sparks, where it was listed as ‘nite’. Some compilations have it as ‘night’. In any event, a raving rocker, for sure, about Parker’s formative years in suburbia, written and sung when Parker was still an angry young man along with his contemporaries Elvis Costello and Joe Jackson. It’s interesting looking back now at what Parker said then about his song. “It’s a pretty angry song delivered in a very angry way. Attitude is what’s behind it. If you sing in a sort of wimpy attitude, that shows you’ve been distorted by getting old, that shows you’ve mellowed, more than the specifics of the songs.” He did eventually mellow, as perhaps most of us do as we inevitably age although there are many artists, Neil Young comes to mind, who can and do still kick butt with edgy stuff as they age. In Parker’s case, at least, the more he mellowed in his music, which became bland to me by the mid-1980s, the more he lost me. But we still have the old and angry stuff, so his legacy is secure.

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

1. Taste, Blister On The Moon
2. Deep Purple, Comin’ Home
3. The Kinks, The Hard Way
4. Budgie, Truth Drug
5. The Rolling Stones, Citadel
6. Pete Townshend, I Am An Animal
7. Led Zeppelin, The Lemon Song
8. Jeff Beck Group, Ice Cream Cakes
9. Cream, World Of Pain
10. Steppenwolf, The Ostrich
11. April Wine, Weeping Widow
12. Yes, Does It Really Happen?
13. Genesis, Squonk
14. Triumph, Blinding Light Show/Moonchild
15. Bob Seger, Love The One You’re With
16. Stephen Stills, Blind Fiddler Medley
17. Steve Earle, The Week Of Living Dangerously
18. Dave Edmunds, Queen Of Hearts
19. Bob Dylan, Union Sundown
20. Jimi Hendrix, Johnny B. Goode (live, from Hendrix In The West)
21. Spooky Tooth, Fantasy Satisfier
22. Paul Simon, Take Me To The Mardi Gras
23. Savoy Brown, Leavin’ Again
24. Cheap Trick, Auf Wiedersehen (live, from At Budokan: The Complete Concert expanded reissue)

    My track-by-track tales:

    1. Taste, Blister On The Moon . . . The genesis of playing this track by the band Rory Gallagher led before he went solo has roots in the Valles Marineris system of canyons on Mars. Hang with me and all will be revealed. I had in mind to play a Taste track but couldn’t decide on which one. Then, I was watching a documentary about Mars on Saturday night while starting to prep the show and of course the canyons came up. Essentially, it’s a big rip in the surface of the planet. So, I thought, rip, blister . . . And here we are. One might ask, if I was watching a documentary about Mars why did I not then play David Bowie’s Life On Mars? Well, because I didn’t think of it until I started writing this, I’ve set up my show and so maybe Bowie’s tune finds its way into a future set. As for the Taste track, typically fine guitar from Gallagher, I love the sort of here comes the riff from this side, then that side, nature of it, before the vocals come in. And it’s not a speaker effect, simply the way he plays it.
       
    2. Deep Purple, Comin’ Home . . . To each their own but I’ve never understood Deep Purple fans who claim or lament that the band moved away from hard rock towards funk and R & B starting with the so-called Mk. III version of the band that debuted with 1974’s Burn album and featuring singer David Coverdale and bassist/singer Glenn Hughes. Burn, the title cut, rocks like crazy. As does Stormbringer, the title song from the next album. As does Comin’ Home, from the one and only album the band did with Tommy Bolin replacing Ritchie Blackmore on guitar. Sure, the band did change direction, which I think was a positive thing demonstrating versatility, but to suggest they lost the ability to rock is ridiculous.
       
    3. The Kinks, The Hard Way . . . It can be difficult sometimes to pull single tracks from a concept album and have them still make sense. But The Hard Way, a terrific riff rocker from The Kinks’ 1975 Schoolboys In Disgrace record, is at least one definite exception. The band loved playing it live and it was used as the opener for at least some shows on their Low Budget album tour that yielded the One For The Road live record in 1980.
       
    4. Budgie, Truth Drug . . . Great guitar shredding on this one from Welsh hard rockers Budgie’s 1982 album Deliver Us From Evil. It’s got a touch of the overproduced 1980s production sound I am not fond of but the guitar work salvages things for me. It’s the type of sound and album that, at the time, likely lumped Budgie in with bands they’d influenced, the so-called New Wave Of British Heavy Metal (NWOBHM). Yet this was Budgie’s 10^th album by then and their roots go as far back as 1967. So, I suppose it could be argued they were pandering a bit to the newer sounds.
       
    5. The Rolling Stones, Citadel . . . The prevailing, accepted wisdom has always been that the Stones Satanic Majesties album is crap, a poor imitation of The Beatles’ Sgt. Pepper and so on. Even the band dismisses it – although they obviously thought enough of it to play 2000 Light Years From Home on the 1989-90 Steel Wheels/Urban Jungle tour, to great effect with lighting and such. Granted, I’m a huge Stones fan so take my opinions for what you may think they are worth but. . . It’s a good album. Sure, maybe it was inspired by and sort of a copy of The Beatles’ Sgt. Pepper but 1. The actual album, the songs, are not at all like Sgt. Pepper. 2. Given Brit sensibilities and sense of humor, it’s quite possible it’s, as the Brits say, a sendup (spoof) of Pepper, especially the cover. 3. The boys were heavy into drugs at the time. 4. Citadel has a great guitar riff, typical Stones, really, and is one of many worthwhile songs on the album. Like 2000 Light Years From Home, 2000 Man, The Lantern, She’s A Rainbow and, yes, even Bill Wyman’s In Another Land.
       
    6. Pete Townshend, I Am An Animal . . . From Empty Glass, Townshend’s brilliant and still arguably best solo album, from 1980. But if you were another member of The Who at the time you’d no doubt be wondering why Pete was saving his best stuff for his solo career. I’ll forever remember this tune for the lyric “I will be immersed, queen of the effing universe.” Back then, such lyrics made you sit up and take notice.
       
    7. Led Zeppelin, The Lemon Song . . . I’m not going to get into Zep’s plagiarism issues this time. I probably do it too much. They apply to this song, too. You can read all about it. From Zep II, good song, nice riff.
       
    8. Jeff Beck Group, Ice Cream Cakes . . . From 1972’s self-titled album, the so-called ‘orange album’ due to the fruit atop the cover art. It was the second and final record from the second version of the Jeff Beck Group featuring singer Bobby Tench, drummer Cozy Powell and keyboardist Max Middleton before the ever eclectic late great guitarist Beck moved on to Beck, Bogert & Appice and then jazz fusion and instrumental rock excursions via such albums as Blow By Blow, Wired and beyond.
       
    9. Cream, World Of Pain . . . Bluesy psychedelia from 1967’s Disraeli Gears, the album that featured the hits Strange Brew and Sunshine Of Your Love. World Of Pain was co-written by producer Felix Pappalardi – later the bassist in Mountain – and his wife Gail Collins, who in 1983 shot and killed Pappalardi after he had returned from being with his girlfriend. Supposedly, Collins and Pappalardi had an open marriage but perhaps not as open as Pappalardi thought.
       
    10. Steppenwolf, The Ostrich . . . Rocker from the band’s debut album, 1968. It covers lots of ground, lyrically: societal programming, expectations and groupthink, censorship, environmental issues and more. The words still apply today, and forever.
        
    11. April Wine, Weeping Widow . . . Rocking second single from 1973’s Electric Jewels album, it made No. 4 in home country Canada after Lady Run, Lady Hide hit No. 19 on the national charts.
        
    12. Yes, Does It Really Happen? . . . What? So said the progressive rock world in 1980. Jon Anderson and Rick Wakeman are out and The Buggles boys of Video Killed The Radio Star fame Trevor Horn and Geoff Downes are now in Yes? So, er, yes, it really happened and, well, so? Turned out the new blood Buggles helped kick the brand out of its complacency while producing a kick butt, almost metallic progressive rock album that is among my favorites – and that of many I’ve talked to – by the band. As for Yes lineup changes, read the history. Fascinating stuff, but you might need a family tree spreadsheet to keep it all coherent.
        
    13. Genesis, Squonk . . . Perhaps my favorite Genesis song, played it on the show long ago, so it’s about time for a replay. It’s from A Trick Of The Tail, the first album after original lead singer Peter Gabriel left to go solo. The questions as to whether Genesis could successfully continue were quickly answered in the affirmative.
        
    14. Triumph, Blinding Light Show/Moonchild . . . I admit I’m not much of a Triumph fan. But I do like some of their stuff, particularly Rock & Roll Machine, Lay It On The Line, their cover of Joe Walsh’s Rocky Mountain Way and this progressive hard rock epic from their 1976 debut album.
        
    15. Bob Seger, Love The One You’re With . . . A souped up version of the Stephen Stills song from before Seger broke big beyond his home state of Michigan and environs. It was released on 1972’s Smokin’ O.P.’s (other people’s songs) on what is for the most part a covers album.
        
    16. Stephen Stills, Blind Fiddler Medley . . . Speaking of Stills, from Stills Alone, his excellent 1991 album. Just him and his guitar, with percussion on some tracks. One of those albums I bought on a ‘let’s give it a try’ basis when I saw it in a used bin years ago and what a treasure it is.
        
    17. Steve Earle, The Week Of Living Dangerously . . . Up tempo country rock, from Earle’s second album, Exit 0, released in 1987. Earle’s voice to me, like that of Bob Dylan, Van Morrison or John Fogerty, is one of those that is truly an instrument in itself. His music, like that of the others mentioned, isn’t the same if he’s not singing it.
        
    18. Dave Edmunds, Queen Of Hearts . . . From Repeat When Necessary, Edmunds’ 1979 album recorded concurrently with Nick Lowe’s Labour of Lust by the members of Rockpile – Edmunds, Lowe, guitarist Billy Bremner and drummer Terry Williams. The song, which in 1981 resulted in a big hit for Juice Newton, was written by Hank Devito, for many years the pedal steel guitarist in Emmylou Harris’s band.
        
    19. Bob Dylan, Union Sundown . . . Rocker featuring Dylan’s typically cynically and wonderfully enunciated lyrics, from 1983’s Infidels album. Guitarists Mark Knopfler of Dire Straits and Mick Taylor of Rolling Stones fame join him on the album, co-produced by Knopfler and Dylan. Also on board are the noted Jamaican rhythm section team of Sly and Robbie – drummer Sly Dunbar and the late bass player Robbie Shakespeare.
        
    20. Jimi Hendrix, Johnny B. Goode (live, from Hendrix In The West) . . . Speed rock version of the Chuck Berry classic.
        
    21. Spooky Tooth, Fantasy Satisfier . . . Nice guitar riffing from future Foreigner leader Mick Jones on this one from 1974’s The Mirror album.
        
    22. Paul Simon, Take Me To The Mardi Gras . . . From the There Goes Rhymin’ Simon album, 1973. Mardi Gras was a single but only charted in the UK. Jazz keyboardist Bob James did an instrumental version two years later that has since been widely sampled by hip hop artists.
        
    23. Savoy Brown, Leavin’ Again . . . For some reason, whenever I play Spooky Tooth, see song 21, I think of Savoy Brown, and vice-versa. Both great if perhaps underappreciated bands. This lengthy, bluesy jam was on 1970’s Looking In album, after which all band members but leader/guitarist Kim Simmonds left to form Foghat. Simmonds then rebuilt Savoy Brown using some former members of fellow British blues band Chicken Shack, not including Christine McVie who had already joined post-Peter Green versions of Fleetwood Mac.
        
    24. Cheap Trick, Auf Wiedersehen (live, from At Budokan: The Complete Concert expanded reissue) . . . As the song title says, see ya.