Set list with my track-by-track commentary follows the bare-bones list.

1. Chicago, Sing A Mean Tune Kid
2. Van Halen, Mean Street
3. Black Sabbath, Warning
4. April Wine, Crash and Burn
5. Bachman-Turner Overdrive, Flat Broke Love
6. Neil Young & Crazy Horse, F*!#N’ Up
7. Atomic Rooster, Stand By Me
8. Budgie, Parents
9. Golden Earring, Stand By Me
10. Warren Zevon, Nighttime In The Switching Yard
11. Savoy Brown, Hellbound Train
12. Rainbow, Man On The Silver Mountain
13. Deep Purple, The Mule
14. Electric Light Orchestra, Poker
15. Them, One Two Brown Eyes
16. The Rolling Stones, Can’t You Hear Me Knocking
17. Yes, Heart Of The Sunrise
18. Led Zeppelin, Achilles Last Stand 

    Set list with my track-by-track tales:

    1. Chicago, Sing A Mean Tune Kid . . . Extended funky jazz-rock fusion track that was the lead cut on Chicago III, 1971.
    2. Van Halen, Mean Street . . . Speaking of mean tunes. . . . Best song on Van Halen’s dark 1981 album Fair Warning. Played it too recently but, it fits the theme.
    3. Black Sabbath, Warning . . . A fair number of long tracks today, including this one from the debut Sabbath album. Spooky.
    4. April Wine, Crash and Burn . . . Longtime great Canadian band goes proto-metal in attempt to break the US market in 1981 via The Nature Of The Beast album. It worked, although I largely prefer the earlier stuff. Kick butt tune, though.
    5. Bachman-Turner Overdrive, Flat Broke Love . . . I watched an excellent documentary on Randy Bachman the other night. So, naturally . . .
    6. Neil Young & Crazy Horse, F*!#N’ Up . . . And Neil Young, Bachman’s longtime friend and sometime collaborator, was in the documentary but what really prompted me playing this was that I was talking with friends the other night about Young’s ‘distortion’ album Ragged Glory, although for the life of me (might have been the beer) couldn’t at the time remember the name of the album. None of my friends, did, either but then again we flit from topic to topic so fast who could be expected to keep track?
    7. Atomic Rooster, Stand By Me . . . Not the Ben E. King tune, covered by so many. This is an entirely different song, by the Brit prog/hard rockers.
       
    8. Budgie, Parents . . . Another of the extended pieces in tonight’s set, 10 minutes of slow, fast, soft, hard stuff of the type Budgie did so well.
    9. Golden Earring, Stand By Me . . . Again, not the Ben E. King tune, covered by so many. This is an entirely different song, not by the Brit prog/hard rockers Atomic Rooster that I played earlier, either. Can’t people think of unused song titles? Especially with well-known classics like Stand By Me. Many people might assume your song is a cover and not give it a chance because they figure, correctly in many cases, that the original can’t be improved upon. But what do I know? Nice guitar work, though.
       
    10. Warren Zevon, Nighttime In The Switching Yard . . . I’m playing this not only because it’s one of my favorites from Zevon’s Excitable Boy album (actually, every song from that terrific album is) but because the lyrics mention trains and I’m shamelessly using it to set up the next track. 
    11. Savoy Brown, Hellbound Train . . . Kim Simmonds, the only constant member of Savoy Brown from its formation in 1965 to 2022, died of colon cancer on Dec. 13. The band had still been active live and on record throughout, including studio material as recently as 2020, until in August of 2022 Simmonds announced all activity was ceasing as he was undergoing chemotherapy for stage four of the disease. A sad loss for blues rock. I saw Simmonds and his band at the Kitchener Blues Festival in 2013. Good show, with some video evidence of it and of course other shows, albums and assorted songs, on YouTube and other online sources.
    12. Rainbow, Man On The Silver Mountain . . . From the first Rainbow album, Ritchie Blackmore’s Rainbow, 1975, the first of three featuring Ronnie James Dio on lead vocals. After that, Blackmore wanted to go in a more commercial, almost pop, direction, Dio lost interest, and so did I – although I’m a big Blackmore fan.
    13. Deep Purple, The Mule . . . From Fireball. Inside joke I share with a good friend, on this one. It’s probably petty, I realize, but I know someone I call the mule due to their narrow-mindedness and the fact that talking to them and trying to get them to even remotely consider alternate points of view – you know, have an open mind – is like talking to a brick wall since they’re stubborn as a, well, mule.
    14. Electric Light Orchestra, Poker . . . Another from my ‘recent conversation inspiration’ files. Was out with the boys the other night, music inevitably comes into the conversation along with everything else under the sun and moon, and ELO was a brief topic. None of us are huge fans, but all of us remembered – but didn’t go see – when ELO on their late 1970s Out Of The Blue album tour had a stage set that included a flying saucer the band played under, the saucer housing the lights and such. ELO was a massive concert draw then, one of the biggest acts in the world at the time. A reported 70,000 people filled Toronto’s Exhibition Stadium to see them. Poker, quite the rocker, at least for ELO, isn’t from Out Of The Blue but from an earlier album, 1975’s Face The Music which yielded the hits Evil Woman and Strange Magic. 
    15. Them, One Two Brown Eyes . . . From 1965, I’ll call it a hypnotic shuffle rocker, written and sung of course by Van The Man Morrison. It appeared on an album simply titled Them in the US. In England, the album was more creatively called The Angry Young Them, but One Two Brown Eyes wasn’t on that version, back in the days when US and UK releases of the same album were often quite different in content, title and artwork.
    16. The Rolling Stones, Can’t You Hear Me Knocking . . . Keith Richards’ hellacious opening riff kicks off the song, one of three tracks I’ve played before but not for a long time. I could (and have) listen to that opening riff, and then Charlie Watts’ drums coming in, bap bap, countless times without getting tired of it. And then of course Mick Taylor with his extended Santana-esque coda. From Sticky Fingers. 
    17. Yes, Heart Of The Sunrise . . . One of the many tracks that puts a lie to the claim made by some that progressive rock isn’t really rock. Try that opening riff on for size. And it repeats throughout this epic from Fragile.
    18. Led Zeppelin, Achilles Last Stand . . . Back to the boys in the bar and my ‘recent conversation inspiration’. Another guy in the group and I have radio shows and we were chatting about song selections and such. I mentioned that one time, I was doing a double show, four hours, filling in the slot behind me for a DJ who was ill or whatever, and after my first two hours I put Zep’s Achilles on, great extended opener to the Presence album. Next thing I know, an old high school and college pal with whom I’ve reconnected via my show and our shared love of music, sends me a message saying ‘bathroom break?” Yup. So this is, in part, for him.

A Christmas show for Christmas Eve morning, at risk of being a show, at this busy time of year, that perhaps poses a variation on the question “if a tree falls in the forest and nobody’s there, does anyone hear it?” I’m leading off with classical guitarist Liona Boyd’s wonderful instrumental sampling of various carols. The set is anchored by Jethro Tull’s Christmas album, released in 2003 and featuring some traditionals and other re-recorded Tull tracks by the version of the band, in terms of personnel, as it then existed. As Tull leader Ian Anderson writes in the album’s liner notes, if you fancied the song Bouree, from Stand Up, and the Songs From The Wood album, you’ll likely enjoy the record. It is a truly fine Christmas – or any other time – set of songs.

Speaking of Christmas records, I forgot to include one of my favorite artists, Bob Dylan, croaking his Dylan-esque way through various carols on his 2009 Christmas In The Heart. Perhaps next year. Merry Christmas, all.

1. Liona Boyd, Christmas Overture
2. The Payolas, Christmas Is Coming
3. John Lennon, Happy Xmas (War Is Over)
4. Elton John, Step Into Christmas
5. Emerson, Lake & Palmer, I Believe In Father Christmas
6. The Kinks, Father Christmas
7. The Who, Christmas

The Jethro Tull Christmas Album (2003)

8. Birthday Card At Christmas
9. Holly Herald
10. A Christmas Song
11. Another Christmas Song
12. God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen
13. Jack Frost And The Hooded Crow
14. Last Man At The Party
15. Weathercock
16. Pavane
17. First Snow On Brooklyn
18. Greensleeved
19. Fire At Midnight
20. We Five Kings
21. Ring Out Solstice Bells
22. Bouree
23. A Winter Snowscape

24. Paul McCartney & Wings, Rudolph The Red-Nosed Reggae
25. Argent, Christmas For The Free
26. McKenna Mendelson Mainline, Don’t Give Me No Goose For Christmas, Grandma
27. AC/DC, Mistress For Christmas
28. Tom Waits, Christmas Card From A Hooker In Minneapolis
29. Chuck Berry, Merry Christmas Baby
30. Ramones, Merry Christmas (I Don’t Want To Fight Tonight)
31. Canned Heat, Christmas Blues

Set list with my track-by-track commentary follows the bare-bones list.

1. Black Sabbath, Turn Up The Night
2. Pantera, Cowboys From Hell
3. Metallica, Of Wolf And Man
4. Megadeth, Kill The King
5. Slayer, Dead Skin Mask
6. Judas Priest, Beyond The Realms Of Death
7. Van Halen, Atomic Punk
8. Link Wray, Climbing A High Wall
9. The Rolling Stones, Living In A Ghost Town
10. George Harrison, Brainwashed
11. Ian Hunter, Lisa Likes Rock ‘n’ Roll
12. The Clash, Pressure Drop
13. Rockpile, Play That Fast Thing (One More Time)
14. Elton John, Your Sister Can’t Twist But She Can Rock and Roll
15. T. Rex, Hot Love
16. Gordon Lightfoot, Make Way For The Lady
17. Iggy Pop, Nightclubbing
18. Otis Redding with Carla Thomas, Tramp
19. Queen, Get Down, Make Love
20. Pat Travers Band, Material Eyes
21. Bad Company, Master Of Ceremony
22. The Firm, Fortune Hunter
23. Shirley Bassey, The Fool On The Hill
24. Can, Spoon
25. April Wine, Mama Laye
26. Blackfoot, Road Fever (live)

    Set list with my track-by-track tales:

    1. Black Sabbath, Turn Up The Night . . . In a hard rock/metal mood, at least for the first few songs tonight. If you don’t like it, wait, as Mick Jagger once told a concert audience, on the Love You Live El Mocambo side, if memory serves. My mood changes. You’ll see. This rocker kicks off the second of the Sabbath albums, 1981’s Mob Rules, with Ronnie James Dio replacing Ozzy Osbourne, to great effect.

     

    2. Pantera, Cowboys From Hell . . . Title cut from the 1990 album from whence Pantera shed its original glam metal roots for the harder, metallic/thrash sound for which they came to be known. Very Metallica like, to me. A good blueprint to follow, obviously. Speaking of which . . .

     

    3. Metallica, Of Wolf And Man . . . One of these days, when I play Metallica, I’ll play something from their early thrash metal days. Which I like. But I suppose I’ve been playing 1991’s so-called Black Album on up through Loads I and II because they’re just as good, albeit obviously more commercial, than their predecessors, despite some fans’ continuing carping that the band ‘sold out’. As if Of Wolf And Man is ‘selling out’. Yeah, maybe, but if you can get more people to listen to you and buy your stuff, that gives you the freedom to later – as Metallica has – go back, at least somewhat, to your thrash roots. Smart business practice, really. And you can always play all of it, live.

        

    4. Megadeth, Kill The King . . . This machine-gun delivery type track first appeared on the, as far as I have researched, since deleted Capitol Punishment contractual obligation final record with the label. It was a best-of album Megadeth released in 2000. It’s since appeared on various newer collections issued by the band on current labels. A rare, perhaps, example of a track recorded for a compilation that is actually well worth hearing and not just a cheap inducement to buy other songs one already owns. This one’s definitely worth it.
    4. Slayer, Dead Skin Mask . . . If you don’t like thrash/speed metal, find it too intense/relatively tuneless and non-melodic, best not listen to Slayer. I like the band, every album, their brand of metal freed my mind somehow for instance seemed to focus me, bizarre as that may sound, driving through blizzards when I was commuting. But I’ll admit to this day, part of me thinks of some of their stuff (and Pantera’s) as “is this even music” while other parts of me are “yeah!”. But if you do want to sample the band, I’d suggest the album from which I pulled this track, Seasons In The Abyss. It’s more melodic, such as it is, and is essentially just good,  listenable hard rock. The title cut, which I’ve played before, is also well worth a listen.
    4. Judas Priest, Beyond The Realms Of Death . . . Power ballad rocker from the Stained Class album, one of those great fusions of guitar with Rob Halford’s typically powerful vocals. And that’s the thing with bands like Priest, which I was discussing with a friend and fellow fan of the band over beers the other week. People who haven’t heard them, or enough of them, consign them to some hard rock/metal place they may not want to visit, yet the band also has beautiful songs like this which, yes, ascend in parts to metal heights but actually within a ballad context well worth exploring. And remember, this is the band that covered Joan Baez’s absolutely beautiful Diamonds and Rust, rocked it up for a hit, then later did it acoustically, more faithful to the original Baez version, to great effect. Priest can do such things thanks to its amazingly versatile singer, Halford.
    7. Van Halen, Atomic Punk . . . Wild intro leads into one of the heaviest cuts on Van Halen’s debut album, 1978.

     

    8. Link Wray, Climbing A High Wall . . . He sings! Link Wray, I mean. Usually he just plays the instrumental shit out of his guitar, which he does here, too. The dean of distortion leans hard into this one from 1969’s Yesterday-Today album, a combo record of previous material on one side of the original vinyl and new, to that point, songs like Climbing A Wall on the other side.

     

    9. The Rolling Stones, Living In A Ghost Town . . . Stones’ pandemic single, issued in 2020 when everyone was under lockdown. A good song, regardless and to my knowledge and research, the last studio song by the band, to date, on which the late great drummer Charlie Watts appeared. The Stones played it as part of their set lists on their most recent, first tour without Watts, Steve Jordan now on the drum stool with Watts’s blessing.

     

    10. George Harrison, Brainwashed . . . Many years later, 2002, Harrison essentially channels old mate John Lennon’s lyrics from Working Class Hero from 1970 on this title cut from Harrison’s final studio album, issued after his death in 2001. The difference being, Harrison seems to perhaps see God as the ultimate answer where Lennon addressed that, too, in an obviously different way, in his own song titled God.

     

    11. Ian Hunter, Lisa Likes Rock ‘n’ Roll . . . Although this isn’t rock. It’s more Clash-ish reggae/dub/etc, not surprisingly as it comes from Hunter’s 1981 Short Back ‘n’ Sides album, produced by The Clash’s Mick Jones at a time Jones’ band was dabbling deeply into Caribbean island sounds.

     

    12. The Clash, Pressure Drop . . . Speaking of which, here’s the Clash’s cover of the Toots and The Maytals tune. A friend of mine was talking about the Clash version a fair bit of time back and I meant to eventually get to playing it on the show.

     

    13. Rockpile, Play That Fast Thing (One More Time) . . . A Nick Lowe-penned and sung tune from Seconds Of Pleasure, the one and only Rockpile album but not the only album the band recorded. What, you say? Well, Lowe and Dave Edmunds were the principals in the band and at one point in 1979, Rockpile backed Lowe on his Labour Of Lust album and also Edmunds on his Repeat When Necessary. I’m simplifying things in the interests of brevity but then they all reassembled for the one and only standalone Rockpile album, 1980’s Seconds Of Pleasure.

         

    14. Elton John, Your Sister Can’t Twist But She Can Rock and Roll . . . Speaking of fast songs . . .Here’s one of EJ’s fastest, from the Goodbye Yellow Brick Road album. Elton came to mind via a recent chat with my two sons, one of whom is going to be in the UK in the new year and will be seeing EJ on his farewell tour.

     

    15. T. Rex, Hot Love . . . Interesting how things happen. I was watching a documentary on the dinosaur and it occurred to me I hadn’t played the band in a while.

     

    16. Gordon Lightfoot, Make Way For The Lady . . . Nothing necessarily to do with music but Gordon Lightfoot does, or did, pay his TV cable bill on an annual basis. How do I know this, as I related last week to my beer-drinking, chicken-wing scarfing fat-inducing weekly group of great pals I’ve foolishly (fitness wise) rejoined recently? Well, someone in the group raised the point of people maybe foolishly paying by the year. So I said, that may be true but you know, Gordon Lightfoot does – although I doubt he has to worry about financial concerns. At least he did pay annually, at one point up to recently and perhaps even now. I know he did at least at one point, because I briefly in my retirement had a part-time gig in a call center and, lo and behold, one afternoon who calls up to renew, not Gord himself but his wife. True story. As for the music, this beautiful song is from his 1980 album Dream Street Rose, a somewhat under the radar release in that it yielded no big hit singles and arguably marked the beginning of a commercial though not necessarily creative decline after 1978’s Endless Wire album.

     

    17. Iggy Pop, Nightclubbing . . . Inspiration comes from everywhere, quite often conversations, which is often a lot of the fun in putting together shows. A good buddy told me he had a crazy week so, out came a glass or two of his beverage of choice and on went the music. I’ve always said the best bands/artists ever are the ones you are listening to, right now, if you like them, because it’s all so subjective, rendering ‘best ever’ lists irrelevant, albeit interesting to discuss, in my view. So Iggy Pop’s The Idiot, which my friend recently purchased on a prized pristine vinyl copy, went on his platter so I figured I’d play this cut from the album in both his and Iggy’s honor. It’s a great album, The Idiot, not idiotic at all but rather creative, industrial in spots and interesting, David Bowie, Iggy’s pal, is on it, helped write some tunes.

     

    18. Otis Redding with Carla Thomas, Tramp . . . And then artist 2 inspiration from my friend. He was listening to an Otis live album which I don’t have, nor could I find it in the station computer so I went with this fun collaboration with the Queen of Memphis Soul.

     

    19. Queen, Get Down, Make Love . . . Long been one of my favorite Queen tracks from News Of The World and among all the great cuts in the band’s catalog. I couldn’t begin to describe it. Start, stop? Yes. Great drumming? Magnificent. Vocals? Progressive-type sounds? Yes. Ah, hell, you know it, listen to it. From back when albums were a thing and, among the great bands at least, every cut on a record was usually well worth listening to – hence deep cuts shows like mine.

         

    20. Pat Travers Band, Material Eyes . . . Somewhat experimental, musically, progressive in spots track. It’s from Travers’ Crash and Burn album. I saw him at a recent Kitchener Blues Festival. Good show.

     

    21. Bad Company, Master Of Ceremony . . . Another of those extended, groove-type pieces you’ll never likely find on a compilation and I’m not down on compilations by any stretch. I own my share. But this is a great example of a deep cut by a band that had many hit singles yet had much depth in its albums via tracks like this one from Burnin’ Sky.

         

    22. The Firm, Fortune Hunter . . . Here’s a similar track from the Bad Company singer, Paul Rodgers, during his 1980s teamup with Led Zeppelin guitarist Jimmy Page for what became a two-album project. This Zep-like extended cut was on the second and final Firm album, Mean Business, in 1986. To me, it could easily have fit on Zep’s Presence album. It was written by Rodgers, Page and Chris Squire of Yes, who had collaborated on an unreleased demo of the track with Page for the aborted 1981 XYZ (for ex-Yes/Zeppelin) project that also included Yes drummer Alan White.

         

    23. Shirley Bassey, The Fool On The Hill . . . I’ve always loved Bassey’s Goldfinger, the theme song to the James Bond movie which I’ve played before and likely will again at some point. To wit, at one point I bought a CD featuring all the Bond themes, then decided I’d dig deeper and bought a Bassey compilation, of which this Beatles’ cover was part.

     

    24. Can, Spoon . . . They’re cracking down on plastic spoons in Canada soon. Here’s what the band Can thinks. No, not really. But anyway . . .

     

    25. April Wine, Mama Laye . . . Forever For Now, April Wine’s 1977 album, is a diverse release featuring country, blues, rock and this Caribbean-type track. The album had a sort of delayed effect, only gathering momentum months after its January release once radio and the public discovered what became the band’s biggest hit single to that point, You Won’t Dance With Me.

    26. Blackfoot, Road Fever (live) . . . Smoking hot live version from an album, Highway Song Live, that initially appeared only in the UK. It’s from an early 1980s tour by the southern rock stalwarts led by Rickey Medlocke. He was the drummer in an early version of Lynyrd Skynyrd, before they released an album, later becoming a full-time guitarist in the post-plane crash version of that band.

1. The Rolling Stones, Flip The Switch . . . One of those great kick butt album openers by the boys. At that point, it was 1997’s Bridges To Babylon album, the latest in a line of bracing opening tracks including Sticky Fingers’ Brown Sugar, Exile On Main St.’s Rocks Off, It’s Only Rock ‘n’ Roll’s If You Can’t Rock Me, Start Me Up from Tattoo You and One Hit (To The Body) from Dirty Work. And then in 2005 came Rough Justice, from the band’s most recent but to this fan hopefully not last full album of original recorded material, A Bigger Bang.

2. Jefferson Airplane, Blues From An Airplane . . . Opening cut from the band’s debut album, Jefferson Airplane Takes Off, in 1966. Written and sung by Marty Balin, before Grace Slick joined the group. Signe Anderson was the female vocalist at the time – with powerful lead singing on the record’s Chauffeur Blues – before quitting to raise a family. Yeah, I know. Why didn’t I play Chauffeur Blues, then? Didn’t think about it. Soon, perhaps.

3. Status Quo, Paper Plane . . . Good rocker from the appropriately titled Pile Driver album. It made No. 8 on the UK singles charts.

4. The Kinks, Give The People What They Want . . . Title cut from the band’s 1981 album. I like the tune, great lyrics as always from Ray Davies, but I’m playing it deliberately to set up a request I had after last Monday’s show.

5. Ry Cooder, Tattler . . . That request was for some Ry Cooder. No song specified, so I randomly picked this one from Cooder’s 1974 album Paradise and Lunch, featuring his typically fine guitar work. Linda Ronstadt covered the tune, written by American gospel artist George Washington Phillips under the title You Can’t Stop A Tattler, as The Tattler on her 1976 album Hasten Down The Wind.

6. Bert Jansch, Angie . . . Wonderful acoustic guitar picking instrumental from the influential Scottish artist and founder of the band Pentangle.

7. The Doobie Brothers, Steamer Lane Breakdown . . . Aside from the song Takin’ It To The Streets, I’m not big into the Michael McDonald-fronted, massively commercially successful version of The Doobie Brothers. But there’s a track here and there amid what I consider largely schlock that I like, like this toe-tapper instrumental by founding and forever band member Patrick Simmons.

8. Black Oak Arkansas, Jim Dandy . . . He’s not a household name, especially all these years later from the band’s1970s heyday, but were it not for Black Oak frontman Jim “Dandy’ Mangrum, Van Halen’s David Lee Roth might never have existed, so to speak. Check out some old live clips of Black Oak Arkansas.

9. Commander Cody and His Lost Planet Airmen, Lost In The Ozone . . . One drink of wine, two drinks of gin, I’m lost in the ozone again.

10. Pete Townshend/Ronnie Lane, Nowhere To Run . . . From one of those albums, 1977’s Rough Mix, you pick up at random because you’re a Who and Faces fan and are endlessly rewarded for it to this day and forever. One of the best albums of all time, period.

11. Leon Russell, Out In The Woods . . . Love this funky gumbo type stuff.

12. Steve Winwood, Night Train . . . Such a talent. Winwood played every instrument on his breakthrough 1980 solo album Arc Of A Diver, from which this track comes.

13. Supertramp, Brother Where You Bound . . . Epic, 16-minute title track from the band’s 1985 album, the first after the split between chief songwriters Rick Davies and Roger Hodgson, who departed for a solo career leaving Davies in charge. The group produced arguably a harder-edged album than some of the syrupy commercially-oriented material that had brought them mainstream success with Breakfast In America, and this song is indicative of that. David Gilmour of Pink Floyd fame guests on guitar.

14. Danny Kirwan, Ram Jam City . . . Up-tempo ditty from the late former Fleetwood Mac guitarist’s debut solo album, Second Chapter, released in 1975.

15. Warren Zevon, Things To Do In Denver When You’re Dead . . . From the Mr. Bad Example album, 1991. I was chatting with fellow music fan friends the other night, we were talking about great session players populating myriad albums and there he is, drummer Jim Keltner, on this track.

16. UFO, Mother Mary . . . Three words: Guitarist Michael Schenker.

17. Nick Lowe, Switchboard Susan . . . A minor hit single, in Canada at least, from Labour Of Lust, the album that got me into Lowe during my college days.

18. Headstones, Supersmart . . . Typical raunch and roll from one of my favorite bands, Canadian or otherwise.

19. Bob Dylan, Ballad Of A Thin Man . . . Because something is happening here but you don’t know what it is, do you, Mr. Jones? Poor Mr. Jones. So much available literature on this song. Worth reading.

20. Junkhouse, Down In The Liver . . . Harrowing lyrics by Tom Wilson, the subject matter reminiscent of Kris Kristofferson’s Sunday Mornin’ Comin’ Down.

21. Rush, Cinderella Man . . . One of my favorite Rush songs, from probably my favorite Rush album, 1977’s A Farewell To Kings. It’s one of the few songs whose lyrics weren’t written by drummer Neil Peart after he joined the band after the debut album, replacing John Rutsey as the group went in a more progressive rock direction. Bassist/singer Geddy Lee wrote the words.

22. Kansas, The Pinnacle . . . American prog from a band likely best known to the masses for the hits Carry On Wayward Son and Dust In The Wind but a catalog with far more depth than those two excellent songs. Kansas is celebrating its 50^th anniversary (!) in 2023, with a comprehensive new 3-CD career-spanning compilation just out to mark the milestone. It covers from their first release up to their most recent studio work, the 2020 album The Absence of Presence.

23. King Crimson, Red . . . British prog. Sort of. The highly-influential Crimson is a bit of everything, really, isn’t it? Metal, hard rock, ballads, inventive progressive stylings, often all in the same song. It’s what’s made them consistently great, amid myriad lineups under the direction of leader Robert Fripp, since the debut album in 1969.

24. Emerson, Lake & Palmer, Trilogy . . . More British prog, featuring beautiful piano from Keith Emerson on a track that eventually highlights the prowess of all the players including the ethereal vocals of Greg Lake.

25. The Beach Boys, Shut Down . . . OK, that’s enough. Here come The Beach Boys to shut down that indulgent prog stuff with a short rock and roller that was the B-side to Surfin’ USA and later a hit single in its own right.

26. T Bone Burnett, Kill Switch . . . Stones open with Flip The Switch. T Bone closes with Kill Switch. Outta here until Monday. Take care, all.

Set list with commentary follows the bare-bones list.

1. The Beatles, Taxman
2. Richie Havens, Here Comes The Sun
3. Love, You Set The Scene
4. Chet Atkins & Mark Knopfler, There’ll Be Some Changes Made
5. Doug and The Slugs, No No No (Nobody But Me)
6. The Guess Who, When The Band Was Singin’ Shakin’ All Over
7. Little Feat, Lafayette Railroad
8. Grand Funk Railroad, Sin’s A Good Man’s Brother
9. Hindu Love Gods, Raspberry Beret
10. Simon and Garfunkel, A Hazy Shade Of Winter
11. The Motels, Suddenly Last Summer
12. Procol Harum, Pandora’s Box
13. The Clash, Spanish Bombs
14. Flash and The Pan, War Games
15. Deep Purple, Sun Goes Down
16. The Rolling Stones, Take It Or Leave It
17. Joe Jackson, The Old Songs
18. Chuck Berry, Johnny B. Goode/Carol/Promised Land (Live, Toronto Rock ‘n’ Roll Revival 1969)
19. Canned Heat, Can’t Hold On Much Longer
20. The Steve Miller Band, Mercury Blues (Live at Monterey Pop Festival, 1967)
21. The Ozark Mountain Daredevils, Homemade Wine
22. Gerry Rafferty, Get It Right Next Time
23. Pink Floyd, Echoes
    
    Set list with my track-by-track tales: 
    1. The Beatles, Taxman . . . I read somewhere once where, during the early 1960s, Bob Dylan was talking to John Lennon and Dylan said that while he liked The Beatles, he told Lennon that ‘your songs don’t say anything’ because they were to that point what songs often typically are about, love and relationships. And that’s of course fine, and Dylan did and does write such songs too. But the slight criticism no doubt sparked Lennon, and The Beatles, to writing more topical, often politically-charged songs. Like this one, actually written by George Harrison, with some help on lyrics from Lennon and great and innovative musically with that ridiculously great guitar solo between 1:12 and 1:24, played by Paul McCartney. It’s the most effective sort of solo, too, in my view: short, compelling, leaves you wanting more which is often such a key to great art even though you want it to go on but in the end realize it’s better short, like CCR’s song Fortunate Son, for instance. Taxman (later covered by Stevie Ray Vaughan) was the lead cut on Revolver, which has recently been re-released in a big box set treatment, the latest in a series of such remastered/remixed Beatles re-releases.
    2. Richie Havens, Here Comes The Sun . . . Speaking of George Harrison, here’s Havens’ treatment of Harrison’s Abbey Road cut. Havens, who opened the Woodstock Festival (apparently wasn’t supposed to but other performers were stuck in traffic en route) to great acclaim, had that distinctive heavy acoustic guitar strumming that, to me at least, is instantly identifiable. A commenter on YouTube on this song perhaps put it best: “this is acoustic but it’s the most electric song I know.”
    3. Love, You Set The Scene . . . Another of my periodic digs into Love’s great Forever Changes album. It’s one of those records that is critically-renowned, didn’t sell much, one wonders what all the fuss is about, then one buys it and it’s like, OK, yeah, I get it, why wasn’t this massive commercially? Of course, then there are other critically-acclaimed albums one does that with and comes away with the thought, huh? The mysteries of life.
    4. Chet Atkins & Mark Knopfler, There’ll Be Some Changes Made . . . What a fun shuffle from the Neck and Neck 1990 album collaboration between the two great axemen. The song itself goes back a century, well worth reading up on, and has been covered by countless artists including Benny Goodman, Billie Holiday, Tony Bennett and in various styles and genres, often with adapted lyrics as on the Atkins-Knopfler version. Their extended take includes name-dropping Prince and Michael Jackson as well as fun references to their own songs and guitar playing. Just a great tune from a terrific album.

        

    5. Doug and The Slugs, No No No (Nobody But Me) . . . Written by members of The Isley Brothers, the track is one of the few cover tunes in the Slugs’ discography of which the vast majority were written by lead singer Doug Bennett. The Slugs’ version was the third single from Music For The Hard Of Thinking, released in 1982 but didn’t chart in Canada, although to me it’s arguably better than the Bennett-penned charting singles Who Knows How To Make Love Stay and Making It Work. I liked Doug Bennett’s work, and the album was nominated for a 1983 Juno Award although I’ll always prefer the debut release, Cognac and Bologna. And as I recall from a recent documentary I watched on the group, Doug and The Slugs and Me, by the Time Music For The Hard Of Thinking was released, the band members felt their creativity was being compromised by record company demands (a typical music industry story) and the decline set in although the original group continued on for several years, recording several more albums and backing the late Bennett on his solo album Animato, released in 1986. Bennett, a lifelong heavy drinker, died in 2004 of liver cirrhosis at age 52. By that point, the original band had long since broken up but Bennett was still fronting a rotating group of musicians, still billed as Doug and The Slugs. The original group reunited in 2009 and now does live shows with new lead singer Ted Okos. I highly recommend the documentary, which seems to be getting regular rotation on The Documentary Channel in Canada and apparently will get wider release on CBC TV sometime in 2023 and, hopefully, online.

        

    6. The Guess Who, When The Band Was Singin’ Shakin’ All Over . . . From 1975’s Power In The Music, the last album on which Burton Cummings sang lead vocals and featuring Domenic Triano on guitar in his second outing with The Guess Who, the first being the previous year’s Flavours album. The song references a time when, indeed, The Guess Who, then known as Chad Allan and The Expressions, had covered the Johnny Kidd and The Pirates’ tune, taking it to No. 1 in Canada in 1965.
    7. Little Feat, Lafayette Railroad . . . I feel like I’ve played this too recently. Ah, well, one can never get enough Little Feat, I say.
    8. Grand Funk Railroad, Sin’s A Good Man’s Brother . . . Last time I played a Grand Funk tune an old journalism pal good-naturedly ripped me but that’s the kind of thing the band itself dealt with from music snobs throughout their career. I like ’em – especially the earlier stuff – and ain’t apologizing.
    9. Hindu Love Gods, Raspberry Beret . . . In which Zevon and R.E.M.’s Bill Berry, Peter Buck and Mike Mills, who backed Zevon on his Sentimental Hygiene album in 1987 and were already a largely unrecorded R.E.M. side project, get drunk one night during the Hygiene sessions, record a bunch of blues standards and this Prince tune. It all came out three years later on the self-titled Hindu Love Gods album. I prefer the Love Gods’ reiterpretation but then while I respect him and have tried, I’ve really tried, I’ve just never ‘gotten’ Prince.

        

    10. Simon and Garfunkel, A Hazy Shade Of Winter . . . Interesting how you can be going through a band or artist’s work and immediately it’s like, oh yeah, this one. I know it was a top-20 hit, almost top 10 (No. 11 in Canada) but dunno, I had somewhat forgotten about it. Silly me. Here it is.
    11. The Motels, Suddenly Last Summer . . . I had The Motels on vinyl when I was out west in Alberta early 1980s but over time had gotten rid of the couple albums I owned. Then, a couple weeks ago, I was in my favorite friendly neighborhood record store and somebody had just dumped a pile of used CDs on them, including a Motels’ compilation. So, now I have the Motels again in my collection and yes I could just listen online and I do, but I still like owning physical copies. Anyway, I like this track which was a successful single but, perhaps contrary to some opinions, it has nothing to do with the Tennessee Williams play, nor the 1959 movie adapted from it, starring Katharine Hepburn, Elizabeth Taylor and Montgomery Clift. Good flick. Pure coincidence, according to the Motels’ Martha Davis, who had not read the play nor seen the movie until long after the song was released.
    12. Procol Harum, Pandora’s Box . . . From Procol’s Ninth, signifying the band’s ninth album (eight studio works) to that point, 1975.
    13. The Clash, Spanish Bombs . . . My younger son has of late taken great interest in the histories of various wars and international relations that bred them, which led us to talking a bit about the Spanish Civil War of 1936-39. It’s a conflict touched on, among other things, in this song from London Calling. So that’s probably why, unconsciously, I decided to play it, besides the fact anything from that album is, as the English soccer/football commentators say, quality.
    14. Flash and The Pan, War Games . . . From Headlines, 1982. Great lyrics.
    15. Deep Purple, Sun Goes Down . . . Kind of a heavy ballad, if that’s such a thing, from the 2003 album Bananas. It was the first to feature Don Airey on keyboards, with the blessing of Jon Lord, who had retired.

         

    16. The Rolling Stones, Take It Or Leave It . . . Back I go to my likely tiresome US/UK Aftermath/Between The Buttons/Flowers compilation discussion, as I’ve been mining those albums for Stones songs of late. It stems from back when track listings often differed depending on what country one was in. This song appeared on the UK version of Aftermath in 1966 but not on the version released in the colonies across the pond. I first heard it on the Flowers compilation put together by London Records, Decca’s North American distributor, that my older sister owned.
    17. Joe Jackson, The Old Songs . . . Another song that could be my theme song, along with Free’s Songs of Yesterday which I played recently. This is from JJ’s 1991 Laughter and Lust album, which came up in a discussion with friends last week. The lyrics are likely appropriate to many relationships including my long-over marriage. It sticks out because I saw the tour at Toronto’s Massey Hall with my then-wife but what started as a fun night went off the rails. Why? Well, we spent most of the day in Toronto, ate an early dinner then split up (before we actually split up 10 years later) to go shop our respective interests on Yonge St. Naturally, I went to Sam The Record Man where they happened to have a big sale on CDs, including those by The Rolling Stones, my favorite band. Bear in mind that back then, CDs were still new and expensive, but the store had the Stones’ stuff on for $10 each as I recall, so I bought 6 as I was in the process of replacing my vinyl. Ooh, that did not go over well. Here we were, combined making damn good money, but $60 plus tax was an undisciplined expense, apparently. And sure, I was let’s say a bit cavalier with money then but we never wanted for anything nor did our kids, you only live once and what, spend $60 for 6 or wait and spend, at the time, $20-$25 each, over time? I’ll take the bargain when it presents itself. Whatever. So, I got the silent treatment as we watched JJ from row 2 at Toronto’s Massey Hall. I still had fun. Turned out a solo ticket holder came down and sat beside me, he was a big JJ fan so we spent the evening chatting and enjoying. It pissed her off and we were talking again by the end. Ah, marriage/relationships.
    18. Chuck Berry, Johnny B. Goode/Carol/Promised Land (Live, Toronto Rock ‘n’ Roll Revival 1969) . . . Ever since Jerry Lee Lewis died a while ago and I played some tracks in tribute to him, plus a full live album on my Saturday show, I’ve really been back into the 1950s rock and roll greats. Like Chuck Berry, whose performance at the 1969 Toronto festival is now available on CD, which I picked up recently. Great medley, here, You can watch it, too, on YouTube where film of the performance – and Jerry Lee’s and Little Richard’s energetic sets at the same event – has long been available. This of course was the show, also with Chicago, Alice Cooper and The Doors among others, which featured John Lennon and his Plastic Ono Band, immortalized in film and on the Live Peace In Toronto album.
    19. Canned Heat, Can’t Hold On Much Longer . . . From Vintage, with the cool (or hot) cover of flames coming out of a can. I picked it up on CD recently. I’ve got two truly comprehensive Canned Heat compilations, one a 2-CD and the other a 3-CD version with not a lot of duplication, and Hooker N Heat, their collaboration with John Lee Hooker. So I’ve really seen no need to get the other individual albums but I saw this in a used rack and had to have it, largely for sentimental reasons in memory of my late older brother. He was such a musical influence on me, as I often mention in these missives, and who I remember having the record on vinyl. RIP, Rob.
    20. The Steve Miller Band, Mercury Blues (Live at Monterey Pop Festival, 1967) . . . Way different than the slower, recorded version on his later album Fly Like An Eagle and different again from perhaps the most well-known version by David Lindley. All three versions are well worth a listen.
    21. The Ozark Mountain Daredevils, Homemade Wine . . . Best known for Jackie Blue (great song which actually is arguably uncharacteristic of the band’s output) and If You Wanna Get To Heaven, the Daredevils are so much more than those two songs and worth checking out for their countryish southern rock. A great toe-tapper, this one. And, speaking of homemade wine, 3 things. 1. Forget it, buy from the liquor store. 2. My late uncle made his own, got better over the years but still, buy it from the liquor store. 3. Had a neighbor once, made wine and beer. Offered it to my then-wife and I. Great guy. But again: buy it from the liquor store. Sorry, I’m sure there are great home wine makers, distillers and brewers but I’ve yet to experience any such product.
    22. Gerry Rafferty, Get It Right Next Time . . . Speaking of drink, another victim, sadly. Anyway, great tune from his 1979 Night Owl album, was a successful single and I’m going to stop saying I rarely play singles because while this is a deep cuts show, I do play singles – just ones that may not have been massive hits or that you, me or we haven’t heard in ages. Like this one. Great stuff from a period when the former Stealers Wheel member was enjoying great solo success with 1978’s City To City album and its 1979 follow-up Night Owl, the two albums featuring such great singles as Baker Street, Right Down The Line (both from City To City), Days Gone Down (Still Got The Light In Your Eyes) and Get It Right Next Time (from Night Owl).
    23. Pink Floyd, Echoes . . . Always good to have a 23-minute cut in hand when you’re behind on the day, rushing to put the show together and need to fill time. But it’s not just for that reason I’m playing Echoes (again). I love the track, most people do, how could you not, and I was discussing the Meddle album with an old friend and work colleague the other day. So, here we go.

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

Elvis Costello – My Aim Is True

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

The Rolling Stones – Beggars Banquet

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

Lou Reed – Transformer

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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