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.