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

1. The Who, Getting In Tune
2. The Rolling Stones, Turd On The Run
3. Rory Gallagher, Moonchild
4. Billy Joel, Zanzibar
5. Warren Zevon, A Certain Girl
6. Elton John, Dirty Little Girl
7. Bob Dylan, Isis
8. Joe Cocker, Let’s Go Get Stoned (live, from Mad Dogs and Englishmen)
9. Supertramp, Sister Moonshine
10. Van Halen, Cabo Wabo
11. Alice Cooper, Blue Turk
12. Three Dog Night, One Man Band
13. Pink Floyd, Sheep
14. Drive-By Truckers, 3 Dimes Down
15. The Joe Perry Project, Discount Dogs
16. Aerosmith, Bone To Bone (Coney Island Whitefish Boy)
17. Bachman-Turner Overdrive, Quick Change Artist
18. Long John Baldry, Conditional Discharge/Don’t Try To Lay No Boogie Woogie On The King Of Rock & Roll
19. John Mayall, Good Time Boogie (live, from Jazz/Blues Fusion)
20. The Jimi Hendrix Experience, 1983 . . . (A Merman I Should Turn To Be)
21. Them, It’s All Over Now Baby Blue

    My track-by-track tales:

    1. The Who, Getting In Tune . . . Not that this Who’s Next song isn’t a rocker, it is, although it’s light and shade, so to speak in terms of slow and fast, repeating, and I usually go with an overall faster, harder rocking tune to start things off, which is how I also like concerts I attend to open. But, by title this is an obvious opener and a rocker nevertheless. From Who’s Next, the Who album that like all such tour de force records could double as a hits compilation.
    2. The Rolling Stones, Turd On The Run . . . Not sure what to say about this one from Exile On Main St. aside from the fact I like it, always have, and it’s a glorious, propulsive, infectious noise describing what sounds to be a, er, shitty relationship.
    3. Rory Gallagher, Moonchild . . . I always find it hard to pick a Rory Gallagher song when I play him, same with his earlier band Taste, before he went solo. He’s just so consistently good on guitar, arrangements, songs. So I threw darts and hit on this typically good riff rocker, from his 1976 Calling Card album.
    4. Billy Joel, Zanzibar . . . A jazzy, almost calypso type track from Joel’s 1978 album 52^nd Street, the successful (a tough thing to do) follow-up to his massively successful breakthrough 1977 album The Stranger. The song, because apparently Joel figured he didn’t know enough about the place to write about it though he liked the name for a song title, is not about the Tanzanian island province off the African coast but about activities in a bar, fictional or otherwise, and the protagonist’s attempts to pick up a waitress. I suppose I relate in some way, having worked in a bar during my college days and seeing/participating in humanity acting as it will. Lots of sports references, too, including to baseball player Pete Rose, then an active star for the Cincinnati Reds before his banishment from the game due to gambling issues. The original lyrics said Rose was ‘a credit to the game’ but apparently Joel, in concert, has subsequently adjusted them to Rose never making the baseball hall of fame. And that’s a whole other topic.
    5. Warren Zevon, A Certain Girl . . . I played The Yardbirds’ version of this Allen Toussaint-penned track (credited under his pen name Naomi Neville) last September, which prompted one of my show followers in the USA to mention the Zevon cover. So, here it is, from his 1980 album Bad Luck Streak In Dancing School. It was a moderate hit single from that record, which did decently, commercially, as a follow-up to Zevon’s 1978 breakthrough record Excitable Boy. The thing with Zevon, though, is that all his albums are consistently good, even if they may sometimes lack the commercial immediacy of the songs on Excitable Boy. He was an amazing songwriter, sometimes requiring repeat listens as music paired with lyrics sunk in, but amazing nonetheless. That said, if I were forced to pick a Zevon ‘desert island’ disc, it would be Excitable Boy but I’d lobby whoever was forcing me to pick to allow me a second disc, even an EP, containing the songs A Certain Girl, Sentimental Hygiene, Boom Boom Mancini, Hit Somebody (The Hockey Song) and Genius. Probably The Envoy, too. At least.
    6. Elton John, Dirty Little Girl . . . It’s called a mondegreen, the mishearing or misinterpretation of a phrase, often in song lyrics. A well-known example in rock/popular music is ‘scuse me while I kiss this guy’ instead of the real lyric ‘scuse me while I kiss the sky’ in Jimi Hendrix’s Purple Haze. I mention this because when I first heard Dirty Little Girl, without looking at the lyric sheet accompanying my younger brother’s copy of the Goodbye Yellow Brick Road album, I thought Elton John was singing ‘bat shit’ instead of ‘I bet she . . . ‘ in the chorus. I still think of it as the ‘bat shit’ song. It’s a good one, regardless, although the possible mondegreen nature of it isn’t well known, if it’s known at all to anyone or anything but my ears, because Dirty Little Girl is a deep cut. Other fun examples:

       * “There’s a bathroom on the right’ instead of the real lyric “there’s a bad moon on the rise’ in Creedence Clearwater Revival’s Bad Moon Rising (although honestly I think ‘bad moon’ is pretty distinct and I never heard ‘bathroom’ until reading about it years ago).
       * ‘wrapped up like a douche’ which got great mileage in high school days, har har, eye rolls now, instead of ‘revved up like a deuce’ in Manfred Mann’s Earth Band’s reworked lyrics of Bruce Springsteen’s original wording ‘cut loose like a deuce’ in Blinded By The Light.

       Apparently, Hendrix and CCR’s John Fogerty eventually took to singing the mondegreen versions of their songs, for fun, in concert. Interesting reading about mondegreens, actually, it covers many songs including the US national anthem, poems, etc. I recommend doing so.

    7. Bob Dylan, Isis . . . Some time back I played something from Dylan’s Desire album, One More Cup Of Coffee as I recall, and an old high school and college friend with whom I’ve wonderfully reconnected via the show regaled me with a tale of his, somewhat drunken, impromptu belting out of portions of Isis to a startled family gathering. I told him I wholeheartedly approved. As Dylan often introduced the song at live shows during the 1975 Rolling Thunder Review tour, ‘this is a song about marriage.’ Full of great lines, this one apparently quoted by my friend to his audience: “I came in from the east with sun in my eyes; I cursed her one time then I rode on ahead.’ I’ll maybe bore you with one more, one of my favorites along with the ‘cursed’ line, from the song: “The wind it was howlin’ and the snow was outrageous. We chopped through the night and we chopped through the dawn. When he died I was hopin’ it wasn’t contagious; but I made up my mind that I had to go on.” Death as something contagious. Ah, Dylan. If you ‘get’ him, you do. If you don’t, well, try harder. It doesn’t take much. Just listen to the man. And yes, he CAN sing. He’s the best singer of Bob Dylan tunes ever, because they are his and he’s best suited to sing them. If you don’ get it, again, try harder. You’ll be rewarded.
    8. Joe Cocker, Let’s Go Get Stoned (live, from Mad Dogs and Englishmen) . . . I love the Mad Dogs and Englishmen album. It’s loose, raw, raunchy, jazzy, bluesy, overpopulated with musicians and singers, hence somewhat out of control, which makes it great.
    9. Supertramp, Sister Moonshine . . . Cocker was actually talking more about booze, if you read the lyrics to Let’s Go Get Stoned and of course ‘stoned’ is also a term for getting drunk although likely less used today, with more a connotation towards drug use, than it was regarding drinking, as it was more so in the late 1960s and early 1970s. But in any event, Cocker’s rhapsodizing about boozing got me thinking of moonshine whiskey even though the Supertramp song isn’t about booze, but about light.
    10. Van Halen, Cabo Wabo . . . One of my favorite Van Hagar period songs, and I like both the David Lee Roth and Sammy Hagar versions of Van Halen. This song, something of a rarity for VH given its 7-minute length, from the second Van Hagar album, OU812, is a paean to the Mexican town of Cabo San Lucas, which later inspired Hagar the astute businessman’s founding of Cabo Wabo Tequila. He later sold the brand to a big name distillery for $80M. I wish I was born with or taught that ‘making money’ sense.
    11. Alice Cooper, Blue Turk . . . Killer bass by Dennis Dunaway to this jazzy piece from the School’s Out album. So many great deep cuts like this in the original Alice Cooper band’s early catalog.
    12. Three Dog Night, One Man Band . . . Something of a ‘lesser’ hit for a band – it made ‘only’ No. 19 in the USA but No. 6 in Canada – that was amazingly dominant on the singles charts during the 1970s, particularly up until the mid-70s. Just ridiculous how many hits/great songs they had and I’m playing them because, when I did my live albums show last Saturday, I got feedback regarding a Three Dog Night Live album from a friend, an album I don’t have – Captured Live At The Forum – but am checking out and so far so great, but in any event another from the ‘songs inspired by conversation’ file.
    13. Pink Floyd, Sheep . . . Another ‘conversation-inspired’ song. Someone in the USA I’ve gotten to know a bit via Facebook, a follower of the show but we now often discuss many things, posted the song. I commented about how much I like the Animals album and so I decided to play Sheep even though, given the album has just five songs, three extended pieces and two short interludes, over time I’ve played it all and I don’t like repeating myself at least too often. But. . . As my friend mentioned, early incarnations of Sheep were known as Raving and Drooling and played live before the studio album was out, and worth looking into online or on various re-issues; Raving and Drooling being to my ears more stripped down, less orchestral, bass especially higher in the mix, it’s good stuff in its early, studio incarnations and on the released album itself.
    14. Drive-By Truckers, 3 Dimes Down . . . I was watching a rock show I like on YouTube the other day, a show in which they rate albums, discuss music, etc. I should get off my butt and do one. In any event…the topic of ‘just what does ‘classic rock’ mean anymore’ came up in terms of how now 1990s music is in some quarters considered to be so-called classic rock when at first that term applied to 1960s and 1970s rock acts. Those bands (Stones, Beatles, Zep, etc.) seem now to be categorized as ‘legacy’ acts as age moving on seems to prompt whoever ‘names’ these things to new nomenclature. Which would make acts that started in the 1950s like Elvis Presley, Jerry Lee Lewis and Chuck Berry, among many others, what, precambrian acts? Good music is good music, it should be resistant to categorization and it is, actually, it’s just that we humans tend to need to put it into various boxes, which is understandable, it’s a means of keeping some semblance of order. In any event, after all that, Drive-By Truckers emerged in the mid-1990s. So, of the bands of that period, they may be my favorites although I’d separate them from grunge acts like Nirvana, Pearl Jam, Soundgarden, Alice In Chains etc. To me, the Truckers are just good music, maybe southern rock to some extent, I just like it, it knows no time period and could stand proudly in any era. As someone in a YouTube comment field said, ‘no bullshit, just music.’ Yes.
    15. The Joe Perry Project, Discount Dogs . . . Guitarist Joe Perry was a man somewhat in two bands at the point of his first Joe Perry Project album, 1980’s released Let The Music Do The Talking (also a song by the Perry Project and later redone by Aerosmith on the Done With Mirrors album). Perry formed his new band at the same time he was still in but soon to be departing Aerosmith, for which he co-wrote the next song in my list, from the Night In The Ruts album. As for Discount Dogs, it’s a funky rock track with Ralph Morman on lead vocals. Morman was in the Aerosmith circle and sold Perry on his value as a singer, and the rest is history although the association was brief as Morman was fired during the band’s first tour due to excessive boozing, according to web reports. Morman went on to sing in later editions of Savoy Brown but died in 2014 of an undisclosed illness.
    16. Aerosmith, Bone To Bone (Coney Island Whitefish Boy) . . . Perry co-wrote this one with Aerosmith singer Steven Tyler, great rocker from the Night In The Ruts album which, while the band was in tatters, remains one of my and many other Aerosmith fans’ favorites. It’s arguably the last of the early, raunchy, kick butt Aerosmith albums before new production techniques, outside writers and other such factors led to much greater commercial success but arguably a loss of the grittiness that made the band appealing in the first place.
    17. Bachman-Turner Overdrive, Quick Change Artist . . . From Four Wheel Drive. It was a single but only in Canada, and yet another great BTO tune sung by bassist C.F. (Fred) Turner in his gritty style.
    18. Long John Baldry, Conditional Discharge/Don’t Try To Lay No Boogie Woogie On The King Of Rock & Roll . . . I love the spoken word intro. “Boo-gee woo-gee” . Reminds me of a Brit I knew late 1970s when I took a year off after high school to work and save to put myself through college. Reggae, largely via Eric Clapton’s cover of Bob Marley’s I Shot The Sherriff, was big as most classic rockers were embracing it and my Brit friend referred to it, with contempt, as ‘reggie”. You had to be there, perhaps.
    19. John Mayall, Good Time Boogie (live, from Jazz/Blues Fusion) . . . So anyway, as far as Boogie Woogie, or boo-gee woo-gee goes, take that, Long John, from another John of the blues and various and sundry other genres he chose to experiment in over the many years.
    20. The Jimi Hendrix Experience, 1983 . . . (A Merman I Should Turn To Be) . . .Extendend, brilliant, intoxicating space rock/sci fi/psychedelic, hard rock, studio tricks . . . the track has it all, reflecting Hendrix’s genius, from the Electric Ladyland album.
    21. Them, It’s All Over Now Baby Blue . . . I actually saw the Them Again album in a used rack yesterday. They had a horde of used Van Morrison stuff, almost bought the Them album as a completist, but I have this Bob Dylan cover from the Van-fronted Them on various compilations. In any event, a great song, regardless who does it but thank you, Bob Dylan.

All live albums show. My track-by-track tales follow this bare-bones list.

1. Deep Purple, Burn (from Made In Europe)
2. The Rolling Stones, Out Of Control (from No Security)
3. The Byrds, This Wheel’s On Fire (Live at the Fillmore February 1969)
4. Free, Fire and Water (Free Live)
5. George Thorogood & The Destroyers, Bottom Of The Sea (from Live, 1986)
6. Blue Oyster Cult, Kick Out The Jams (from Some Enchanted Evening)
7. Thin Lizzy, The Rocker (Live and Dangerous)
8. Black Sabbath, Neon Knights (Live Evil)
9. The Who, Shakin’ All Over (Live at Leeds)
10. David Bowie, Moonage Daydream (David Live)
11. Lynyrd Skynyrd, Crossroads (from One More From The Road)
12. The Beatles, She’s A Woman (Live At The Hollywood Bowl)
13. Pretenders, Boots Of Chinese Plastic (Live In London)
14. Concrete Blonde, Mercedes Benz (live, issued on hits compilation)
15. The J. Geils Band, Chimes (from Blow Your Face Out)
16. Ten Years After, I’m Going Home (at Woodstock)
17. The Allman Brothers Band, Mountain Jam (from Eat A Peach/Fillmore East)

    My track-by-track tales. 

    1. Deep Purple, Burn (from Made In Europe) . . . Made in Europe is not nearly as celebrated as Purple’s Made In Japan but it’s as terrific an album in my estimation and one I also played a lot – and still do – in high school and subsequent days. It’s the so-called Mk. III version of the band at work here, David Coverdale on lead vocals and Glenn Hughes on bass/vocals replacing singer Ian Gillan and bassist Roger Glover, still teamed up with guitarist Ritchie Blackmore, drummer Ian Paice and keyboardist Jon Lord. I’ve always loved the intro to this title tune from the Burn album. Noodling and doodling instrumentally and then, at approximately the 52-second mark of what will be a 7-minute rendition, Coverdale mouths a simple ‘rock and roll’ and the band kicks in in blistering fashion.
    2. The Rolling Stones, Out Of Control (from No Security) . . . One of my favorite latter-day tunes by the boys, a great live vehicle and a highlight of the No Security album which was a document of the Bridges To Babylon 1997 album tour but a live album, No Security, done in a more interesting and welcome way, at least to Stones’ deeper cuts aficionados in that it was comprised of mostly album tracks, not singles. Naturally, it sold poorly, relatively speaking. So what? At least in the Stones’ case it wasn’t as if their career depended on the record’s success or lack thereof. A great live album, latter day or otherwise.
    3. The Byrds, This Wheel’s On Fire (Live at the Fillmore February 1969) . . . From an album whose tracks laid in the vaults until being released in 2000. It features the great guitar playing of latter-day Byrds member Clarence White. The Byrds to me are a great and always fascinating example of a band that splintered, membership wise, as time passed yet always had the constant leadership of founder member Roger McGuinn involved and always released quality, yet also different, music influenced by lineup changes, whether in the original configuration that included David Crosby of Crosby, Stills and Nash and Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young fame, the Gram Parsons country period, or the later Clarence White period which actually was long-serving, five albums worth, after he replaced Parsons following the Sweetheart Of The Rodeo album.
    4. Free, Fire and Water (Free Live) . . . Keeping in tune with the early ‘fire’ theme of the show.
    5. George Thorogood & The Destroyers, Bottom Of The Sea (from Live, 1986) . . . Another artist, along with as I often mention, The J. Geils Band (I’m playing them later) who are arguably best heard live. This is from Thorogood’s first live record.
    6. Blue Oyster Cult, Kick Out The Jams (from Some Enchanted Evening) . . . Kick-ass version of the kick-ass MC5 tune.
    7. Thin Lizzy, The Rocker (Live and Dangerous) . . . Like Judas Priest’s Unleashed In The East, which over the years has been jokingly derided as actually being Unleashed In The Studio due to overdubs and other fixes, Lizzy’s Live and Dangerous has been similarly accused of doctoring. But, in the end, so what, really. Not excusing it but especially given we’re in and long have been in an era where such fixing has been accepted, as have been backing studio tracks used in live concerts, etc. maybe much ado about relatively nothing? Milli Vanilli’s career was destroyed when they were found to be lip-synching yet nowadays nobody bats an eye at such things. Not saying it’s right, one could argue that going to a concert these days is, in many ways, virtual reality, but so be it. Live and Dangerous, like Unleashed In The East and many other such live albums, are great listens.
    8. Black Sabbath, Neon Knights (Live Evil) . . . Killer version of the opening cut to the first Black Sabbath album, 1980’s Heaven and Hell, with Ronnie James Dio on lead vocals replacing Ozzy Osbourne. It’s one of the albums that really got me deeper into hard rock/metal and for that I’ll always credit Gord, the pot-smoking DJ at the Oakville bar, The Riverside, at which I worked during my 1978-80 college days. Gord would play music between live band sets in the pub and he played the ever-loving shit out of five albums: Sabbath’s Heaven and Hell, AC/DC’s Highway To Hell and Back In Black, then just out, Ted Nugent’s Double Live Gonzo and Judas Priest’s British Steel. Thanks, Gord.
    9. The Who, Shakin’ All Over (Live at Leeds) . . . Cover of the Johnny Kidd & The Pirates classic which I played, original version, recently on a “old classic rock and roll’ show.
    10. David Bowie, Moonage Daydream (David Live) . . . Earl Slick whaling away on guitar, as opposed to the late great Mick Ronson who played on the Ziggy Stardust studio album. David Live was Slick’s first release with Bowie, leading to a long association that included the 1970s studio albums that followed, Young Americans, Station To Station and, in the new millenium, Heathen, Reality and The Next Day. Slick also played on John Lennon’s 1980 return to recording, Double Fantasy, and the posthumously-released Milk and Honey album among many other sessions plus solo work.
    11. Lynyrd Skynyrd, Crossroads (from One More From The Road) . . . The ‘Cream treatment’ of the Robert Johnson tune, from Skynyrd’s definitive, pre-plane crash, live album.
    12. The Beatles, She’s A Woman (Live At The Hollywood Bowl) . . . The energy, the fans screaming, is amazing on early Beatles’ live recordings. And this is a great one, redone, remastered, etc. for the 2016 CD release coinciding with director Ron Howard’s film Eight Days A Week: The Touring Years, a film well worth watching.
    13. Pretenders, Boots Of Chinese Plastic (Live In London) . . . Chinese plastic used for weather/surveillance/whatever balloons. Sorry, couldn’t resist. 🙂 My favorite and it’s arguably the best song on the band’s 2008 studio release Break Up The Concrete. The album did reasonably well on the charts, top 30 or better, depending on chart and there are so many these days including digital only. Interestingly, to me, I wonder whether the band might have had a crisis of confidence about the album. The version I bought and admit I was enticed by, was it turns out the UK version double disc that in addition to Break Up The Concrete included a best-of CD. In any event, a solid song done well live by Chrissie Hynde and friends.
    14. Concrete Blonde, Mercedes Benz (live, issued on hits compilation) . . . Singer Johnette Napolitano, and what a singer she is, channels her inner Janis Joplin on this cover, issued on the 1996 Concrete Blonde compilation Recollection.
    15. The J. Geils Band, Chimes (from Blow Your Face Out) . . . Spooky sort of tune. Geez these guys were great, particularly in their earlier days, before the big commerical succuss of songs like Centerfold from the Freeze Frame album. Good songs for sure, but the best Geils to me and many is the earlier Geils and in fact the later success divided the band. Lead singer/frontman Peter Wolf wanted to stick to the previous, less commercial rock/blues/soul/R & B foundation while the others wanted to continue to embrace pop and one can see, of course, being in favor of ever-increasing bank accounts. So, Wolf either quit or was asked to leave, moving on to a relatively successful solo career. J. Geils issued one more album, without him, it of course bombed and that was that, but for some later live reunions but no new studio work.
    16. Ten Years After, I’m Going Home (at Woodstock) . . . They’re so much more than this song but it remains the classic version, from the 1969 festival, that made Ten Years After a household name.
    17. The Allman Brothers Band, Mountain Jam (from Eat A Peach/Fillmore East) . . . Filling a request from a few weeks ago for this 33-minute track and, as discussed then, demonstrates that wonderful ability the Allmans had of being able to do extended pieces like this while maintaining the flow of a song and never being boring or tedious. This live version, recorded at Fillmore East in New York in 1971, did not appear on that original live album but rather on the combined studio/live album Eat A Peach a year later, although this version of Mountain Jam has appeared on later reworkings/expanded versions of the classic At Fillmore East live album.

     

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

1. The Kinks, Around The Dial
2. Golden Earring, Are You Receiving Me
3. Paul McCartney, Coming Up (live)
4. The Rolling Stones, Midnight Rambler (with Mick Taylor, from Grrr Live!)
5. Family, The Weaver’s Answer
6. James Gang, Take A Look Around
7. Jeff Beck, My Tiled White Floor
8. The Stooges, 1969
9. The Stooges, 1970
10. Deep Purple, Rat Bat Blue
11. Procol Harum, Bringing Home The Bacon
12. Judas Priest, Exciter
13. Black Sabbath, Sabbra Cadabra
14. Iron Maiden, Sign Of The Cross
15. John Lennon, Bring On The Lucie (Freda People)
16. Mountain, Nantucket Sleighride (To Owen Coffin)
17. Queen, Innuendo
18. Fleetwood Mac, Oh Well (Parts 1 & 2)
19. Jethro Tull, Back To The Family 

    My track-by-track tales:

    1. The Kinks, Around The Dial . . . Good rocker with telling lyrics about corporate radio, and this is from 1981 when commercial rock radio actually would play a deeper cut like this. It was the lead song on the Give The People What They Want album, issued during a commercial hot streak for The Kinks that started with 1979’s Low Budget album and continued through State of Confusion in 1983 with the hit single Come Dancing and to a lesser extent with 1984’s Word of Mouth and the Do It Again single, although I think the Dave Davies-penned Living On A Thin Line about the decline of England, the third single from that album, and a track I should return to at some point, is the best song on the record. But back to Around The Dial and its lyrics: “You always played the best records, you never followed any trend, FM, AM, where are you? You gotta be out there somewhere on the dial” . . . “Where did you go, Mr. DJ, did they take you off the air? Was it something you said to the corporation guys upstairs? . . . somehow I’m gonna find ya . . . keep on searchin’ around the dial.” Try independent radio, you’ll find ’em. 🙂
    2. Golden Earring, Are You Receiving Me . . . I’ve said this a million times so I won’t repeat myself, too much. Ha. As discussed with a fellow random customer in my favorite local record store the other week, Radar Love isn’t the only, maybe not the best thing that Golden Earring ever did. Nor is the song Twilight Zone, good as it is – and the original TV series, side point, WAS amazing – but the song Twilight Zone isn’t from the Moontan album, which is the topic at hand here. Heck, Radar Love might not even be the best song on Moontan, which is a wall-to-wall great trek through just five extended cuts, including this song, in its original North American release.
    3. Paul McCartney, Coming Up (live) . . . This is the first version of the McCartney II album single I heard and probably a good thing because this live version, from a show in Glasgow, Scotland and later also released on McCartney’s All The Best compilation, and as a single, easily in my opinion trumps the synth-laden, speeded up vocals sound of not only the 1980 studio version of Coming Up but the entire II album. And, given McCartney released the live version on a compilation, he apparently realized which one was better or, at least, which one listeners preferred. As for the studio album, I admire all McCartney’s done, his legacy is obviously assured, and appreciate he was experimenting on II but, as I recall the FM radio DJ saying after playing the studio version and a few other songs from the album upon its debut in 1980, back when commercial rock stations did such things: “I dunno, Paulie, I dunno.”
    4. The Rolling Stones, Midnight Rambler (with Mick Taylor, from Grrr Live!) . . . I’ve been playing the recently-released live album, from a 2012 show in Newark, NJ of late in the car and this classic tune happened to come on as I pulled in to get some wine for Saturday night’s midnight ramble, so . . . A great 12-minute version as the Stones welcomed back their former guitarist Taylor for selected songs on the tour. Originally on the Let It Bleed album, the definitive version of Rambler arguably remains the live version, when Taylor was in the band, from Get Yer Ya Ya’s Out! which documents the Stones’ 1969 tour, but this one is epic as well as are all renditions I’ve seen live and heard, Taylor contributing, or not. The cool thing at the reunion shows with Taylor, was how when the Stones took their final bows they included him as one of the principals in the band. Definitely an emotional moment for him, and the fans. And from all accounts, he still can’t fully explain why he left the band in 1974 other than maybe songwriting credits, drug use and the overall travelling circus of being a Rolling Stone. But he certainly, by body language, enjoyed playing with them again and the feeling was obviously mutual including from his replacement, Ronnie Wood, a longtime friend and sometime collaborator.
    5. Family, The Weaver’s Answer . . . Well, it’s a holiday Monday in Canada, designated as Family Day in five provinces including my home province of Ontario, so I had to play something from Family, I suppose. It’s their signature tune.
    6. James Gang, Take A Look Around . . . Somewhat psychedelic, to my ears anyway, track from the debut, Yer Album, 1969. Penned by singer/guitarist/band leader Joe Walsh who of course went on to solo success and as a member of the Eagles.
    7. Jeff Beck, My Tiled White Floor . . . This song demonstrates to me why Jeff Beck was deservedly acclaimed for his versatility and diversity, musically. It’s from 2015’s Live + album of a 2014 tour plus two studio cuts, this one being one of them. It features drummer/singer Veronica Bellino, from the American alternative metal band Life Of Agony. It’s interesting, though, I find, given how such collaborations are viewed as people seem to be pigeonholed. Mick Jagger did the Superheavy album in 2011, a hybrid of rock, reggae, electronic pop and soul, with collaborators including Eurthymics’ Dave Stewart, and was trashed for it. Keith Richards on the other hand will do reggae albums like Wingless Angels that few have heard and is praised for them because he’s seen as the soul of the Stones, and I like both main songwriters in the Stones. I didn’t care for Superheavy much, either, at first although I’ve warmed to that album because I tend to recognize that artists may want to step out of their comfort zones and Jagger does that to a greater extent than any individual Stone. And commercially speaking, Superheavy did better than most Jeff Beck albums.
    8. The Stooges, 1969 . . . From the punk influencer’s self-titled debut album in, well, 1969. Great, infectious song. It’s hilarious reading some old reviews of the album. The critics liked this then-new band, but apparently hated admitting it. Rolling Stone magazine’s critic termed it ‘loud, boring, tasteless, unimaginative and childish . . . but I kind of liked it.” Famed rock music critic Robert Cristgau called it ‘stupid rock at its best” but gave it a B +. Years later, like when punk/new wave broke big in the late 1970s, these guys were probably saying people were ripping off ‘classic’ Stooges. Critics are often idiots. Me aside, of course. If the music moves you, just enjoy it for crying out loud. To quote Frank Zappa: “Most rock journalism is people who can’t write, interviewing people who can’t talk (or think, depending on source), for people who can’t read.” I still read about rock, though, and Zappa, who gave many interviews, was also criticizing himself one would think.
    9. The Stooges, 1970 . . . The sequel, I suppose, although I prefer 1969 the song but 1970, from Full House, is up there in terms of quality, ‘stupid rock’ as it may be.
    10. Deep Purple, Rat Bat Blue . . . This just popped into my head while driving around doing errands on Saturday. So . . . It’s from 1973’s Who Do We Think We Are which is a great album despite what critics and even some band members may think. Woman From Tokyo, Mary Long, this, Our Lady, c’mon, it’s great, even if the so-called Mk II version of the band was in tatters at the time and soon broke up, with David Coverdale (vocals) and Glenn Hughes (bass/vocals) coming in to replace singer Ian Gillan and bassist Roger Glover for 1974’s Burn album.
    11. Procol Harum, Bringing Home The Bacon . . . Up-tempo tune from 1973’s Grand Hotel album, after the departure of guitarist Robin Trower for solo success although Trower wasn’t an original band member and not involved in arguably the band’s best-known song, A Whiter Shade Of Pale. Trower was there for the debut album in 1967 which followed shortly after Pale became a hit. The debut album included Conquistador, which was later re-released in a live version and became a hit in 1972.
    12. Judas Priest, Exciter . . . Fall to your knees and repent if you please. ‘Nuff said for this classic.
    13. Black Sabbath, Sabbra Cadabra . . . From 1973’s Sabbath Bloody Sabbath. Any time I play anything from the album I’m reminded of a poetry study segment from high school English class. We were assigned to provide poetry examples and one guy in class brings in the Sabbath album lyrics. It didn’t go over too well with the teacher, as I recall although I would have awarded points for creativity. The scenario is actually what prompted me to investigate the album.
    14. Iron Maiden, Sign Of The Cross . . . From the X Factor, the 1995 album that was the first of two with Blaze Bayley replacing Bruce Dickinson as Maiden’s lead singer. Good albums, in my view, including the second one, Virtual XI, although the fan base in general didn’t accept Bayley, as sales showed. Interestingly, though, Maiden still plays several Bayley-era tunes in its live sets, including this epic.
    15. John Lennon, Bring On The Lucie (Freda People) . . . All right boys, this is it, over the hill . . . the opening statement on this tune, from the Mind Games album.
    16. Mountain, Nantucket Sleighride (To Owen Coffin) . . . Title cut from Mountain’s 1971 album, about whaling. Owen Coffin was a seaman on a whaling ship rammed and sunk by a sperm whale in 1820. Mississippi Queen gets most of the accolades as Mountain’s signature song and it’s warranted, but I have a tough time choosing between the two but of course they’re entirely different songs. Mississippi Queen is hooked by that hellacious riff while Nantucket Sleighride is more moody, mysterious and spooky. Like a whaling trip might be.
    17. Queen, Innuendo . . . Title cut from the 1991 album that was the last released in lead singer Freddie Mercury’s lifetime. And an excellent album it is, at least for fans who favor the earlier hard-rocking with progressive rock flourishes, like this track, of what Queen released until about 1980 after which their style changed.
    18. Fleetwood Mac, Oh Well (Parts 1 & 2) . . . It’s the way of compilations and I generally have the actual studio albums of bands I like, but it’s irritating that one never finds the full version of this amazing song, both parts, unless you happen to own or listen online to the fabulous Then Play On album. It’s the 1969 record that was the last in the band for founding member/guitarist Peter Green. And another album I got into thanks to the influence of my older brother.
    19. Jethro Tull, Back To The Family . . . And that’s a wrap for Family Day, with this family-oriented cut from the Stand Up album.

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

1. Bob Dylan, As I Went Out One Morning
2. The Rolling Stones w/John Mayer & Gary Clark, Jr., Going Down (from Grrr Live!)
3. The J. Geils Band, It Ain’t What You Do (It’s How You Do It)
4. Mott The Hoople, Ready For Love/After Lights
5. The Who, In A Hand Or A Face
6. The Black Keys, Sinister Kid
7. The Butterfield Blues Band, Last Hope’s Gone
8. Janis Joplin, Misery’n
9. U2, Some Days Are Better Than Others
10. Bryan Ferry, This Is Tomorrow
11. Santana, Hope You’re Feeling Better
12. The Tragically Hip, Bring It All Back
13. Joan Baez, Imagine
14. Murray McLauchlan, Old Man’s Song
15. Robert Palmer, Remember To Remember
16. Bruce Cockburn, You Get Bigger As You Go
17. Blackfoot, Gimme, Gimme, Gimme
18. The Beach Boys, The Trader
19. The Monkees, What Am I Doing Hangin’ Round?
20. John Mayall, Fly Tomorrow
21. Led Zeppelin, In The Light
22. Deep Purple, Soldier Of Fortune
23. Coverdale/Page, Over Now
24. Genesis, Los EndosMy track-by-track tales:
    1. Bob Dylan, As I Went Out One Morning . . . Appropriate by title opener for a morning show. From 1967’s John Wesley Harding, the first Bob Dylan studio album (as opposed to individual song) I truly remember, since it’s yet another that my older, by eight years, RIP brother brought home. He would have been age 16 then. I cite him a lot because of what he was – a big musical influence which we often discussed as we grew up: Dylan, Jimi Hendrix, Jethro Tull, Led Zeppelin, Cream, Deep Purple’s In Rock album . . . I never much got into Barry White, though, although I respect the material and, of course, voice.
    2. The Rolling Stones w/John Mayer & Gary Clark, Jr., Going Down (from Grrr Live!) . . . The Stones, Mayer and Clark kick butt on the Don Nix tune covered by many artists including Freddie King and Jeff Beck. Four guitarists – including the Stones’ duo of Ron Wood and Keith Richards – riffing and each taking a solo in this order: Mayer, Wood, Clark and Richards. I confess that, while I know Mayer is a successful artist I’m unfamliar with his work and the material I know is mellow, to me. So, I didn’t realize he could shred like he does here, with the Stones on this new release which covers a show the band did in 2012 in Newark, New Jersey. Mayer also guests, as effectively, on the Some Girls track Respectable on the DVD bonus portion of the CD-DVD set. The concert is excellent and reminds me how good the 50 and Counting tour of 2012-13 was – somewhat stripped down, not as horn-dominated, guitars mixed up front. I saw the 2013 Toronto show. And now they’re beyond 60 and counting, minus drummer Charlie Watts, alas. I’m a massive, ridiculously so, Stones fan but 2013 was my last show. I remember walking out of the then Air Canada Centre in Toronto thinking, Christ they were good tonight and they were, and wanting to leave it at that because as they age one never knows, and I often worried about, could they still ‘bring it’ and I didn’t want to risk seeing a poor performance. And they’re still bringing it, my eldest son saw them while on a business trip to Chicago in 2019 and we communicated, fabulously, throughout the set when he contacted me on Facebook saying he was there, and other friends saw them that same tour in the Toronto area and said they were amazing but, huge fan that I am, I’m leaving it at that after seeing them approaching 20 times since 1978.
    3. The J. Geils Band, It Ain’t What You Do (It’s How You Do It) . . . Manic, propulsive stuff from The Morning After album although I doubt anyone could be this energetic the morning after a night before. J. Geils I always maintain is best served and heard live, and I hold to that, but this is live-sounding. I can’t imagine how it must have sounded in live shows, if they played it but stands to reason would have been amazing. Interestingly, they named their second live album, Blow Your Face Out, after a lyric in the song. Appropriate.
    4. Mott The Hoople, Ready For Love/After Lights . . . From the All The Young Dudes album, whose David Bowie-penned hit single saved Mott The Hoople from oblivion as the band was on the verge of breaking up before the song broke them big. Ready For Love, with the After Lights instrumental coda, was written and sung by guitarist Mick Ralphs as Mott singer Ian Hunter didn’t have the necessary range. It later of course became a Bad Company tune, sung by one of the great voices of rock, Paul Rodgers, when Ralphs left Mott The Hoople to form Bad Co. Ralphs isn’t the singer Rodgers is, few people are, but his vocals lend a grit to the tune that casts it in a different light than the Bad Company version which is great in its own way.
    5. The Who, In A Hand Or A Face . . . Geez, you read some critics’ reviews of The Who By Numbers album and you’d think it was the worst album the band ever made. Fools! And not just because the album, a time and place one from high school, 1975, is one of my favorites. “Below par musically for an album closer’ this song is termed in one book I have. And what, praytell, oh great god critic, is a ‘par’ or ‘above par musically’ gauge for an album closer, if there is such a thing. Besides, in golf, below par is good so . . . Oh, the guy didn’t like the ‘repetitive three-chord riff’. Jesus H you know who! Rock is built on riffs! The riff makes the song and, for my money, there ain’t a bad one on the whole bloody record. OK, I’m better now. Phew.
    6. The Black Keys, Sinister Kid . . . I like The Black Key among relatively new, modern bands although of course by now they’ve been around for ages. For an aging classic rocker like me, they’re more than palatable, nice riffs, heavy (usually) sound from what I know and have. This one, from the Brothers album, is similar yet different in its hypnotic riff. Reminds me, somewhat, of the Stones’ Ventilator Blues from Exile On Main St. in how one instrument, in this case the drums as opposed to Ventilator’s guitar, essentially mines the same groove, along with the guitar to a lesser extent, throughout. And speaking of the Stones, I suppose I’m playing the Keys because they also appear on the Grrr Live album, teaming up the boys for a cover of Bo Diddley’s Who Do You Love? But I decided to go with the more rousing guitar attack, in my opinion, on Going Down.
    7. The Butterfield Blues Band, Last Hope’s Gone . . . From 1968’s In My Own Dream album, continuing in the more soulful, horn-drenched direction Paul Butterfield took after his first two pretty much straight blues albums. A young saxophonist who went on to some renown, David Sanborn, appears on the album, his second of six studio and one live Butterfield album on which he played, starting with The Resurrection Of Pigboy Crabshaw, which preceded In My Own Dream.
    8. Janis Joplin, Misery’n . . . Outtake from the Cheap Thrills album sessions, first appeared officially on the Janis box set, 1993. What a voice. Obviously.
    9. U2, Some Days Are Better Than Others . . . I could be wrong but I predict an old pal of mine, Gerry, may like this even give it a thumb’s up. He was major into U2’s Zooropa album particularly, as I recall, the song Lemon. I think I prefer this one. But the whole album is great and while I wasn’t into it so much upon release, a weak followup in my mind to the amazing Achtung Baby, Zooropa has grown on me as time goes on, which is the beauty of music/albums of course. As Keith Richards of the Stones has said, albums and songs in some cases marinate over time so while not maybe hitting everyone immediately, eventually they hit and when they do . . .
    10. Bryan Ferry, This Is Tomorrow . . . Not sure anyone remembers this fact now, 46 (!!) years later but this was a hit single, at least in the UK, in 1977 upon release on the Roxy Music singer’s fourth solo studio album In Your Mind. It was the first Ferry solo album on which he wrote all the songs, no covers. Roxy’s guitarist Phil Manzanera guests on the album although it’s session man to many Chris Spedding with the fine guitar solo on the song.
    11. Santana, Hope You’re Feeling Better . . . Great song throughout but the opening just makes this tune from Santana’s second album, the brilliant Abraxas. Arguably, the song is better, or at least as good, for my money, as Santana’s cover of the Fleetwood Mac song Black Magic Woman which was the big hit single and rightly so. Abraxas is the first Santana I knew, age 11, from the 1970 Columbia (mail order) Record Club days with my older sister and brother. We weren’t in the club long, but long enough to get two more classics: Chicago’s second album (the one with 25 or 6 to 4 on it) and Blood, Sweat & Tears 3. Have I mentioned, yes I have, but here goes again, the poster that came with the original vinyl and my ‘with it’ (70s terminology?) mom, age 40 at the time, getting into it with her kids and using the poster art as pantomime material with which to play the game charades? You had to be there, I grant. But, fun loving memories.
    12. The Tragically Hip, Bring It All Back . . . While the late great singer Gord Dowie was alive, The Hip released 14 studio albums. I know they are worshipped in my country, Canada, but fact – OK, my opinion – is, their first seven albums up to and including Phantom Power in 1998 are excellent. After that, not so much and this is a fact, their sales and concert set lists show it. That said, they did what they did, and that’s to be respected because it’s there to hear for eternity, although people who hail them as Canada’s greatest ever band or artist (maybe to them and that’s fine) are in my opinion let’s just say not thinking clearly when one considers The Guess Who, Rush, BTO, April Wine, Gordon Lightfoot, Bruce Cockburn, Murray McLauchlan, Joni Mitchell, Neil Young, etc. etc. even though the latter two arguably became almost American.All that said, this is a great song from the Hip’s great period, from the Road Apples album.
    13. Joan Baez, Imagine . . . All I can ever say about Joan Baez’s voice is that, to me, she’s that maybe cliché, but the voice of an angel. And here she is, on the John Lennon song.
    14. Murray McLauchlan, Old Man’s Song . . . Beautiful. Touching. Moving. For anyone who has been fortunate enough to have lived a life to anything middle age and beyond, this song may resonate. And I say ‘fortunate enough’ because not just via this song but sometimes for whatever reason out of the blue and while listening to this song in deciding upon it for the set, a guy named Russ Harness  comes to mind, perhaps because in this instance I was also doing some tidying and came across some old school yearbooks. He was an early high school friend of mine, fun and funny guy, smart, vibrant, then in the summer between grades 9 and 10 he contracted and then died of cancer alas at age 14, before his life even had a real chance to get going. He was denied relationships, whatever dreams he may have had . . . I just wrote that, re-read it, thought of removing it as maybe too self-indulgent or sentimental but no. It stays. It’s how I write, soul-baring sometimes. Anyway, I still have my faculties, I’m still pretty fit, work out, some things maybe don’t work as well at 63 as they did at 18 which I forever think of myself as and aim to maintain while knowing it’s impossible, particularly maybe given some vices, but I actually like aging and the perspective it brings.
    15. Robert Palmer, Remember To Remember . . . I’m a big fan of Palmer’s 1979 album Secrets, have mined it for many tracks over time, for the show. But I don’t think I’ve played this one yet. Like all of the album, hits and otherwise, it’s a winner in my view.
    16. Bruce Cockburn, You Get Bigger As You Go . . . From the brilliant Humans album, 1980. Not sure what else to say about it but it’s one of those albums where every song arguably could have been a single. And most of them are that well known, at least in Canada and perhaps elsewhere. That said, I recall living in a commune-type setup in Alberta in 1981-82 and a girl from Washington state who was part of our household had zero idea who Cockburn was until we Canadians introduced him to her. She liked his stuff and wondered why it wasn’t more well-known. We were cynically polite in response.
    17. Blackfoot, Gimme, Gimme, Gimme . . . Kick butt rocker from the Tomcattin’ album, 1980. Blackfoot was led by singer/guitarist Rickey Medlocke, who played drums in pre-studio album versions of Lynyryd Skynyrd then joined post-plane crash versions of Skynyrd, as a guitarist, and remains in the reconstituted band to this day.
    18. The Beach Boys, The Trader . . . From the 1973 album Holland. The Beach Boys did lots of interesting stuff, like this, after their early surfer hits period. It didn’t sell and arguably too bad as they became locked in, even to some band members, as a nostalgia act. All of it of course is now online and worth checking out if one is so inclined and not inclined to actually buy the physical albums.
    19. The Monkees, What Am I Doing Hangin’ Round? . . . Nice country tune sung (but not written) by Mike Nesmith, the most musically and otherwise talented of The Monkees who later became one of the pioneers (for better or worse) of music video production in addition to his own country music career and songwriting which included Monkees songs like Mary, Mary (also done by Paul Butterfield), You Just May Be The One, You Told Me and the spooky Daily Nightly.
    20. John Mayall, Fly Tomorrow . . . From the Blues From Laurel Canyon album in 1968, after the first breakup of The Bluesbreakers. Mick Taylor shines on guitar, after which he joined The Rolling Stones upon Mayall’s recommendation.
    21. Led Zeppelin, In The Light . . . An ‘eastern’ type track akin somewhat to the similarly epic and much more hyped Kashmir, both from the Physical Graffiti album. Apparently, Jimmy Page considers it his favorite from the record.
    22. Deep Purple, Soldier Of Fortune . . . One of my favorite Purple songs, a beautiful ballad from 1974’s Stormbringer, from Mk III version with David Coverdale on lead vocals, leading into Coverdale, many years later and . . .
    23. Coverdale/Page, Over Now . . . His collaboration for just the one album, and a great one in my opinion, with Zep’s Jimmy Page.
    24. Genesis, Los Endos . . . Instrumental track incorporating some songs, like Squonk, from the first post-Peter Gabriel album, the 1976 record A Trick Of The Tail. Interesting that so many fans and critics wondered whether Genesis could survive without Gabriel yet they went on to greater commercial triumphs without him and Trick was the album that arguably broke them to a wider audience when they were still a progressive rock band. I couldn’t fit this in this past Monday in my prog show. I already had Supper’s Ready by Genesis as my opener and thought of this as an obvious bookend closer, but couldn’t fit it in. So, here it is. Until Monday.

All progressive rock show, 2 hours, 6 (!) songs, all clocking in at 20-minutes plus except for King Crimson’s Epitaph which comes in a shade under a paltry 9 minutes. 🙂 I at first thought to myself, am I being lazy with such a long-song show? Then I got listening to the songs in advance and it reminded me how much I like them all. I’m a raunch and roller at heart, a sometime metalhead but now and then, I like my prog.

1. Genesis, Supper’s Ready
2. Pink Floyd, Shine On You Crazy Diamond (full song, appeared on Wish You Were Here album as first and last song on the album, divided into parts I to V and VI to IX)
3. Yes, Close To The Edge
4. Rush, 2112
5. Emerson, Lake & Palmer, Tarkus
6. King Crimson, Epitaph

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

1. Lighthouse, One Fine Morning
2. Eric Clapton, Early In The Morning (live, from Just One Night)
3. Grateful Dead, Morning Dew
4. Chicago, At The Sunrise
5. The Rolling Stones, Hang Fire
6. McKenna Mendelson Mainline, One Way Ticket
7. McKenna Mendelson Mainline, Bad Women
8. McKenna Mendelson Mainline, Mainline
9. Screaming Trees, Alice Said
10. Elton John, All The Girls Love Alice
11. Bob Dylan, Sweetheart Like You
12. Queen, Sweet Lady
13. Gov’t Mule, Ain’t No Love In The Heart Of The City
14. The Allman Brothers Band, Nobody Knows
15. Fu Manchu, Missing Link
16. Stray, All In Your Mind
17. Metallica, Mama Said
18. Bad Company, Man Needs Woman
19. The Beatles, I Should Have Known Better
20. Frank Zappa, My Guitar Wants To Kill Your Mama
21. Peter Frampton, I Want To Go To The Sun (from Frampton Comes Alive!)

    My track-by-track tales:

    1. Lighthouse, One Fine Morning . . . A logical one to start an early morning show with, in fact my first four offerings are in that vein, particularly because after a pile of grey days here in the home base of southern Ontario, we’re forecast to finally see the sun – for two consecutive days – this weekend, starting Saturday. As for Lighthouse, yes, this is one of their hits so why play it on what is a deep cuts show? Well, to be honest, I don’t like any Lighthouse deep cuts or at least haven’t found any I like; all their best stuff was their hits. Secondly, I’ve always reserved the right to play singles you haven’t heard in a long time. And when’s the last time you heard this?
    2. Eric Clapton, Early In The Morning (live, from Just One Night) . . . I had a eureka moment in my favorite local independent record store the other day. I was flipping through the used CD racks and voila! Up came Clapton’s live album Just One Night, from 1980. I had it ages ago on vinyl, lost it in the mists of time and it’s fairly rare, at least I’ve never been able to find it again. Even the very knowledgeable store staff said they were amazed when it came in for used sale as they hadn’t seen it since pretty much ever. I presume it’s out of print although I did see it on Amazon and some time ago put it in my cart as it’s apparently been re-released/remastered, although I’ve never actually pushed it from the cart to purchase point. And now I won’t have to. Perhaps a subconscious thing, somehow knowing that eureka moment would happen.

        

    3. Grateful Dead, Morning Dew . . . I was just watching one of my favorite ‘rate albums/bands etc.’ shows on YouTube and since Baby Please Don’t Go came up on one of the albums they were discussing, the hosts were joking about how they have an imaginary “no more Baby Please Don’t Go and Morning Dew covers, please’ sign atop their studio. So just to tick them off I’m playing yet another cover of Morning Dew. Actually, I had it in the lineup before I saw the show, but anyway. Great tune, an anti-nuke war song written by Canadian folk singer/songwriter Bonnie Dobson that I think is impossible for any band to screw up. I’ve never played the Dead’s version, was on their debut album, although I’d rate it, as a cover, behind the Jeff Beck Group’s version from Truth and Nazareth’s, from their debut album. Robert Plant also did a nice version.
    4. Chicago, At The Sunrise . . . I won’t yet again get into how much I love the first three Chicago albums. This is from Chicago III.
    5. The Rolling Stones, Hang Fire . . . I played No Use In Crying from Tattoo You last Saturday and mentioned that I prefer side 2 of the original vinyl, the slow side from which No Use In Crying comes. But that doesn’t mean I dislike the fast side, especially this tune. I do think, however, to use a phrase from my favorite high school history teacher, that the second verse lyrics would be better if they said not “you know marrying money is a full time job I don’t need the aggravation I’m a lazy slob” but ‘you know earning money is a full time job…” And I ‘get’ what they’re saying, and marriage can be an aggravation, lol, but I would have gone with ‘earning’ especially when the opening verse is: “In the sweet old country where I come from nobody ever works nothing ever gets done.”
    6. McKenna Mendelson Mainline, One Way Ticket . . . Mendelson Joe/Joe Mendelson (he went by both names at various times but in later years was Mendelson Joe, from all I’ve read) died at age 78 on Tuesday, by his own choice, using MAID (Medical Assistance In Dying as he had, he wrote in an end of life statement, had enough after suffering from Parkinson’s for several years. So, a mini-tribute set from the Stink album, which I was joking with a friend on Facebook about, that every Canadian home seems to have a copy. I also have the band’s Blues album but I couldn’t find my copy as I’m in the process of, finally, reshelving my CDs which have tended to be all over the place because I’ve been too lazy to put them back on the shelves (I know, sounds silly and it is) after using them for my shows. So, we’re going with exclusively the Stink album which, after all, is MMM’s best-known work. At least in Canada. Joe would probably appreciate the humor of opening a tribute mini-set with a song called One Way Ticket.
    7. McKenna Mendelson Mainline, Bad Women . . . Further re Joe . . . I first cottoned to him via his being an inveterate letters to the editor writer to the Toronto Star newspaper when I was in high school during the 1970s. And that’s where I saw him, via his ‘signature’, go from Joe Mendelson to Mendelson Joe and back again, several times, often wondering by which name he’d choose to go, next time.
    8. McKenna Mendelson Mainline, Mainline . . . And further re my CD shelving. I’m almost done and I actually put the CDs I’m using back in their slots. I will be thus disciplined henceforth. Great album, Stink, by the way.
    9. Screaming Trees, Alice Said . . . From the Seattle grungers, led by the late great Mark Lanegan, who later went solo. Similar sounding to their arguably best-known track, which was on the Singles movie soundtrack, Nearly Lost You. Perhaps why I like it so much.
    10. Elton John, All The Girls Love Alice . . . Like all the greats, Elton John’s classic albums – in this case Goodbye Yellow Brick Road – are full of deep cuts that other bands/artists would sell their souls to have as singles.
    11. Bob Dylan, Sweetheart Like You . . . Speaking of great deep cuts, and the thing is with the great artists, even their deep cuts become well known, certainly at least to their fans . . . Great lyrics, including a maybe obvious but bang on segment channeling the 1775 statement by Samuel Johnson: “They say that patriotism is the last refuge to which a scoundrel clings; steal a little and they throw you in jail; steal a lot and they make you king.”
    12. Queen, Sweet Lady . . . How good is an album, A Night At The Opera, when its big hit, the great but overplayed Bohemian Rhapsody, is in the end just another of the great cuts on the record?
    13. Gov’t Mule, Ain’t No Love In The Heart Of The City . . . Lovely, great song written in 1974 by Michael Price and Dan Walsh. I first heard it via Whitesnake’s version, during the early, bluesier Whitesnake period, then went back to the version that Bobby ‘Blue’ Bland took to No. 9 on the soul singles chart. Covered by so many artists, Gov’t Mule’s take on it appeared on their 2021 album of covers and original material, Heavy Load Blues.
    14. The Allman Brothers Band, Nobody Knows . . Gov’t Mule is led by guitarist/singer/songwriter/producer Warren Haynes, among the busiest men in show business, including stints as a key member in latter-day versions of the Allmans. So, here is Haynes and the rest of the boys with an epic from 1991’s Shades Of Two Worlds release.

         

    15. Fu Manchu, Missing Link . . . I remember years ago walking into a used CD store and a band that sounded very much to me like Black Sabbath was playing. It was Fu Manchu, from the In Search Of . . . album. Impulse buy, and my intro to so-called stoner rock.
    16. Stray, All In Your Mind . . . Epic, prog/hard rock from a band I got into via the first of three outstanding compilations titled I’m A Freak Baby. The (so far) three, 3-CD compilations issued over the last few years are a journey worth taking through, as the subtitle of the compilation suggests, the British prog and hard rock underground scene from 1968 to 1973.
    17. Metallica, Mama Said . . . Third single from the Load album, a country blues song that likely threw most thrash metal-oriented Metallica fans even more than the rest of the album did. One either ‘travels’ with a band in whatever direction they take, or one doesn’t. I did. Great song and, as Metallica drummer Lars Ulrich was quoted as saying: “The minute you stop exploring, just sit down and (expletive) die.” Great track. Great music is great music, whoever does it, Metallica or The Monkees. Speaking of which, haven’t played The Monkees lately. Soon, again.
    18. Bad Company, Man Needs Woman . . . Notice a pattern to the song titles? Just having fun, as always, although it’s somewhat coincidental, really, just playing good music. This one’s from the Burnin’ Sky album, 1977.
    19. The Beatles, I Should Have Known Better . . . From A Hard Day’s Night, the B-side to the title cut.
    20. Frank Zappa, My Guitar Wants To Kill Your Mama . . . From Weasels Ripped My Flesh, hilarious album cover from a funny, brilliant man. Great song, too, nice riff/guitar playing.
    21. Peter Frampton, I Want To Go To The Sun (from Frampton Comes Alive!) . . . It’s amazing how one album can change one’s life. Frampton goes into it as a well-known, relatively successful and respected artist and former member of Humble Pie with four solo albums under his belt and comes out of it a superstar with one of the best-selling live albums, and albums period, of all time. Deservedly so.