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.