Music for a Monday night. My track-by-track tales follow the bare-bones list.

1. Emerson, Lake & Palmer, Nut Rocker (live, from Pictures at an Exhibition)
2. Golden Earring, Sleepwalkin’
3. Deep Purple, A Bit On The Side
4. Jethro Tull, Rock Island
5. David Bowie, Shadow Man
6. The Rolling Stones, Laugh I Nearly Died
7. Elvis Costello, Tonight The Bottle Let Me Down
8. The Byrds, You’re Still On My Mind
9. Warren Zevon, Poisonous Lookalike
10. The Kingsmen, Death Of An Angel
11. Grand Funk Railroad, Creepin’
12. Manfred Mann’s Earth Band, Don’t Kill It Carol
13. Gov’t Mule, Silent Scream
14. Eric Clapton, Black Summer Rain
15. Rory Gallagher, I’m Not Awake Yet
16. The Butterfield Blues Band, Just To Be With You
17. Kansas, Throwing Mountains
18. Patti Smith, Birdland
19. George Thorogood & The Destroyers, That’s It, I Quit

My track-by-track tales:

1. Emerson, Lake & Palmer, Nut Rocker (live, from Pictures at an Exhibition) . . . One of ELP’s several rock interpretations of classical works, this one from the album where the band put its stamp on the piano suite by Russian composer Modest Mussorgsky. Nut Rocker, however, was the last track on the album and lone piece not by Mussorgsky. It was ELP’s adaptation of a work by another Russian composer, Tchaikovsky’s The Nutcracker. Nut Rocker was also a hit single in 1962 for American instrumental ensemble B. Bumble and the Stingers, who were famously among the many artists name-checked by the one-hit wonder band Reunion on their 1974 hit Life Is A Rock (But The Radio Rolled Me), which I played a few weeks ago although B. Bumble is referred to as B.B. Bumble in the first verse of the Reunion song.

2. Golden Earring, Sleepwalkin’ . . . Funky boogie boppin’ single, didn’t chart, from the 1976 album To The Hilt. Much more to the Dutch band than just the songs Radar Love and Twilight Zone.

3. Deep Purple, A Bit On The Side . . . Chugging, driving rocker from the new Deep Purple album, = 1, released this past Friday, July 19, to celebrate my birthday. 🙂 Officially a senior now, at 65. Just coincidence, of course, but a nice birthday present to myself. It’s the first studio album to feature Purple’s new guitarist, Northern Irish player Simon McBride. McBride replaces Steve Morse, who McBride filled in for on tour a couple years ago when Morse took a break from the band to care for his ailing wife who has, alas, since died. Morse eventually left the group and McBride was made a fulltime member. I liked the Morse period, which covered eight studio albums from 1996 to 2021, but McBride has fit right in and the album, rightly, is getting good reviews but I’m probably the wrong person to ask, being a huge Deep Purple fan. As for the album’s title, according to Wikipedia “the album has been described as having a loose concept around the idea that in a world growing ever more complex, everything eventually simplifies down to a single, unified essence. Everything equals one.” There’s a mathematical equation on the inside sleeve of the album cover, which gives me nightmares about high school algebra, but the cover is cool: a simple = 1 and “Deep Purple” on an otherwise entirely white background, somewhat akin to The Beatles’ White Album.

4. Jethro Tull, Rock Island . . . I’ve been going through some of Tull’s more recent albums of late, and played Occasional Demons from 1993’s Catfish Rising a couple weeks ago. This is the title cut from the album preceding that one, released in 1989. Typical Tull, part ballad, some riff rocking, nice.

5. David Bowie, Shadow Man . . . Haunting, spooky track featuring a stirring vocal performance by Bowie. It was originally recorded in 1971, but left unfinished, during the sessions for the classic 1972 album The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and The Spiders From Mars. Bowie reworked it in 2000 for the Toy album project, which wasn’t released on its own until 2021 although Shadow Man was included on the 3-CD deluxe edition of the compilation Nothing Has Changed, released in 2014.

6. The Rolling Stones, Laugh I Nearly Died . . . Slow burning bluesy funk track, if that makes sense but I think you can marry myriad genres, a mashup of sorts. Apparently used in the TV series Supernatural, which I’ve never seen but aside from sports, history documentaries and Star Trek I’m not a big TV watcher although all of that consumes enough time. Probably a good thing I’ve not seen Supernatural, although now I’m tempted, because then I’d think of scenes from the show instead of enjoying the song. It’s like when a novel becomes a movie and the paperback is re-released with a character or two, as portrayed by actors, on the cover. Just not my cup of tea – I prefer to imagine what characters look like or interpret the song for myself, but I ‘get’ the tie-ins.

7. Elvis Costello, Tonight The Bottle Let Me Down . . . Just randomly picked Almost Blue, Costello’s 1981 country and western covers album, off the shelf and played it driving back and forth to the gym this past week. A Merle Haggard tune, nicely done, on a solid album. The older I get, the more I seem to enjoy country music. Interesting.

8. The Byrds, You’re Still On My Mind . . . Still in the country groove, here’s another hurtin’ tune, from the Sweetheart Of The Rodeo album, the one record Gram Parsons, who sings the tune, did with the Byrds before leaving to form The Flying Burrito Brothers.

9. Warren Zevon, Poisonous Lookalike . . . About a relationship gone bad, from Zevon’s 1995 album Mutineer. David Lindley helps out on fiddle and cittern, a guitar-like stringed instrument, similar to a lute, dating to the Renaissance. Lindley, who had an extensive session playing history with many artists including Zevon, Jackson Browne and Linda Ronstadt, is perhaps best known on his own for his 1981 debut solo album El Rayo-X. That record featured the hit single Mercury Blues (also done by Steve Miller on the Fly Like An Eagle album), written by blues musicians K. C. Douglas and Robert Geddins and first recorded by Douglas in 1948.

10. The Kingsmen, Death Of An Angel . . . Slightly speeded up version of a spooky sort of song originally done in 1955 by the Los Angeles-based doo-wop vocal group Donald Woods and The Vel-Aires. It was released on the 1964 album The Kingsmen Volume II, subtitled “More Great Songs From The Group That Gave You ‘Louie, Louie’ “.

11. Grand Funk Railroad, Creepin’ . . . Inspired to play it by a friend mentioning it, an appropriately-titled track from 1973’s We’re An American Band album, it was the B-side to the title cut No. 1 single.

12. Manfred Mann’s Earth Band, Don’t Kill It Carol . . . Two different English bands with one leader. There’s the 1960s Manfred Mann of hits like Do Wah Diddy Diddy, Pretty Flamingo and their cover of Bob Dylan’s Quinn The Eskimo (The Mighty Quinn), released as Mighty Quinn by Manfred Mann. Then there’s the 1970s progressive/jazz rock Manfred Mann’s Earth Band, best known for their 1976 hit single cover of Bruce Springsteen’s Blinded By The Light. The trippy, psychedelic Don’t Kill It Carol, from 1979’s Angel Station album, made it just inside the top 50 in the UK.

13. Gov’t Mule, Silent Scream . . . Bluesy, dark, near 11-minute epic from the Mule’s 2004 album Deja Voodoo.

14. Eric Clapton, Black Summer Rain . . . Lovely track from the 1976 album No Reason To Cry. Among the personnel on the album were Bob Dylan, all members of The Band, Ron Wood, ace session guitarist Jesse Ed Davis and Yvonne Elliman, who contributed vocals to four Clapton studio albums during the 1970s and was part of his touring band.

15. Rory Gallagher, I’m Not Awake Yet . . . Typically fine guitar picking on this cantering cut from Gallagher’s second solo album – Deuce, released in 1971 – after the 1970 breakup of Taste.

16. The Butterfield Blues Band, Just To Be With You . . . Soulful blues from Paul Buttefield and friends from the In Your Own Dream album, released in 1968.

17. Kansas, Throwing Mountains . . . Great prog rock from a band that, like a lot of people, I first appreciated during the 1970s for their hits Carry On Wayward Son and Dust In The Wind but investigated more deeply, and was rewarded, as time passed. This one’s from a latter day album with a great title – The Absence of Presence – released in 2020.

18. Patti Smith, Birdland . . . I’d describe this harrowing, nine-minute production from Smith’s debut release, the 1975 album Horses, as progressive punk stirring spoken word art rock. According to Wikipedia, it was inspired by A Book of Dreams, a 1973 memoir of Austrian psychoanalyst Wilhelm Reich by his son Peter, and revolves around a narrative in which Peter, at his father’s funeral, imagines leaving on a UFO piloted by his father’s spirit.

19. George Thorogood & The Destroyers, That’s It, I Quit . . . I’m outta here, quitting for the night as Thorogood covers a Nick Lowe-penned song, from The Destroyers’ 2003 album Ride ‘Til I Die. The song was also done by English band Dr. Feelgood, released on the 1977 album Be Seeing You, produced by Lowe.