Among the working titles for The Rolling Stones’ 1978 album Some Girls was More Fast Numbers. With that in mind, I’m opening a fast numbers set with a Stones’ rocker not from Some Girls (that’s just what you’d be expecting 🙂 ) but from their 1989 release Steel Wheels. Then into some interconnected hard rock and metal for a Monday, finishing off with heavy psychedelia from Iron Butterfly. My track-by-track tales follow the bare-bones list.

1. The Rolling Stones, Hold Onto Your Hat
2. Led Zeppelin, Achilles Last Stand
3. Coverdale/Page, Absolution Blues
4. Whitesnake, Take Me With You
5. Rainbow, Stargazer
6. Gillan, Don’t Want The Truth
7. Black Sabbath, Warning
8. Heaven & Hell, Double The Pain
9. Judas Priest, Dissident Aggressor
10. Fight, Little Crazy
11. Iron Maiden, Powerslave
12. Blue Oyster Cult, 7 Screaming Diz-Busters
13. AC/DC, Kick You When You’re Down
14. Van Halen, Pleasure Dome
15. The Joe Perry Project, Rockin’ Train
16. MC5, Sister Anne
17. Pantera, Cemetery Gates
18. Brian May, Resurrection
19. Iron Butterfly, Termination

My track-by-track tales:

1. The Rolling Stones, Hold Onto Your Hat . . . Bill Wyman was still in the Stones at the time of this rocker from 1989’s Steel Wheels album, Wyman’s last with the group, but he doesn’t play bass on it. Ron Wood, who played bass in the original Jeff Beck Group, handles the bottom end while Mick Jagger and Keith Richards trade guitar licks, with Charlie Watts on drums. That’s it, just the four guys, on a stripped-down ‘belter’ as a music writer termed it, akin to, say, Rip This Joint from Exile On Main St. nearly two decades previous. I considered opening this hard-rocking set with Rip This Joint but have played that recently so I figured I’d go with something newer from the Stones although, time flying as it does, this song is already 35 years old (!?).

2. Led Zeppelin, Achilles Last Stand . . . Epic opener to Zep’s 1976 album Presence, as we embark upon a series of songs released by artists who are all connected in one way or another.

3. Coverdale/Page, Absolution Blues . . . From the one-off collaboration between Whitesnake (and onetime Deep Purple) singer David Coverdale and Zeppelin’s Jimmy Page, released in 1993. The collective wisdom at the time, which Page called BS but only Page really knows, was that Page partnered with Coverdale to tick Robert Plant off and push Plant into a Zeppelin reunion because the success of the Coverdale/Page album prompted rumours that a new Led Zeppelin, featuring Coverdale, Page, John Paul Jones and Jason Bonham on his father John’s drum stool, would take flight. Plant, who to that point had rebuffed Page’s seemingly endless overtures to reunite (and good for Plant, I thought, move on, you know?), had been critical of Coverdale and Whitesnake, particularly the later 1980s glam/hair metal version of Whitesnake, for ripping off Plant’s vocal style and Led Zeppelin’s music. It’s an argument with some merit but is also a case of pot meeting kettle, given Zep’s own issues over the years in terms of plagiarism problems or, at best, borrowing. In any case, Page and Plant did reunite a year later, without Zeppelin bassist John Paul Jones, who was apparently miffed at not being invited, for the 1994 Page/Plant live album/MTV Unplugged film No Quarter: Unledded, featuring reinterpretations of Zep songs. And, later, for the 1998 Page/Plant studio album Walking Into Clarksdale and in 2007 the famous reunion concert, with John Paul Jones and Jason Bonham, at the O2 in London.

As for the Coverdale/Page album, it divided critics and likely some fans, but I’ve always liked it, but then I like Led Zeppelin, Deep Purple and, certainly, earlier, more blues-rock Whitesnake. Coverdale has said there are a few unreleased tracks from the Coverdale/Page sessions that may see release at some point in an expanded version of the album.

4. Whitesnake, Take Me With You . . . Speaking of early Whitesnake, this propulsive rocker is from that band’s first album, Trouble, released in 1978. White Snake, two words, was the name of Coverdale’s first solo record, released in 1977 after Deep Purple, Mark IV version with Tommy Bolin on guitar replacing Ritchie Blackmore who had formed Rainbow, broke up after the 1975 album Come Taste The Band. Along with Coverdale’s second solo effort, 1978’s Northwinds, White Snake the album was produced by Roger Glover, who had been the bass player in the pre-Coverdale days of Deep Purple (and is again now) when Ian Gillan, as he is now, was Purple’s lead singer before being replaced by Coverdale. Coverdale went on to name his band Whitesnake and Trouble included his former Deep Purple mate Jon Lord on keyboards, soon to be joined in early Whitesnake by Purple drummer Ian Paice for three studio albums – Ready and Willin’ (1980), Come An’ Get It (1981) and Saints & Sinners (1982). Paice and Lord then departed for the 1984 reunion of the famed Mark II version of Purple – Blackmore, Gillan, Lord, Paice and Glover – and the Perfect Strangers (1984) and House Of Blue Light (1987) albums before another breakup and round round we go . . . Did I mention how these bands/artists are all connected? Or, perhaps better expressed, convoluted?

5. Rainbow, Stargazer . . . And we’re not done yet with the wider Deep Purple population, which soon enough will bleed into Black Sabbath. But first, here’s Ritchie Blackmore and Rainbow, Ronnie James Dio on lead vocals, from the classic second Rainbow album, Rising, released in 1976.

6. Gillan, Don’t Want The Truth . . . Here’s Ian Gillan, who from 1976 to early 1978 did a jazz fusion/progressive rock thing with The Ian Gillan Band. That group released good, interesting stuff over the course of three studio albums, like Clear Air Turbulence which I’ve previously played on the show, before Gillan returned to hard rock with songs like Don’t Want The Truth from his band simply titled Gillan. The song is on the 1981 release Future Shock, one of five Gillan band studio albums through 1982 after which Ian Gillan joined Black Sabbath. Sabbath had just lost Dio (who after leaving Rainbow had replaced Ozzy Osbourne on lead vocals) to a solo career and had considered Robert Plant and David Coverdale, before settling on Gillan for what became his lone effort with Sabbath, the 1983 album Born Again. As the Robert Shaw character in the 1973 Paul Newman-Robert Redford movie The Sting was wont to say, ‘ya falla?” (follow).

7. Black Sabbath, Warning . . . The original Black Sabbath – Ozzy, Tony Iommi (guitar), Geezer Butler (bass) and Bill Ward (drums) – from the self-titled first album, released in 1970. Warning is a cover of a late 1960s song by The Aynsley Dunbar Retaliation that Sabbath expanded from three minutes and change into a 10-minute epic. Dunbar, a drummer, has an extensive musical resume including stints with John Mayall’s Bluesbreakers and appearances or full band membership on albums by countless artists including Frank Zappa, David Bowie, Lou Reed, Ian Hunter, Journey, UFO, Michael Schenker and, them again, Whitesnake.

8. Heaven & Hell, Double The Pain . . . Black Sabbath with Dio in all but name, Heaven And Hell the band – Ronnie James Dio, Tony Iommi, Geezer Butler and Vinny Appice – was named after the 1980 Sabbath album on which Ronnie James Dio first replaced Ozzy Osbourne, who went on to a hugely successful solo career, later to reunite with the original Sabbath members at various times although drummer Bill Ward has not been involved in recent years. Appice replaced Ward for the 1981 Mob Rules album and the 1992 Dio/Sabbath release Dehumanizer, and when that lineup came together to record three new songs for the 2007 compilaton Black Sabbath – The Dio Years, the band went on tour as Heaven & Hell. They did so to fully differentiate themselves from the Ozzy-fronted Sabbath which by that point had reunited various times for concerts and eventually released a new studio album, 13, in 2013. Double The Pain is from Heaven & Hell’s lone studio release, The Devil You Know. It came out in 2009, a year before Dio died of cancer.

9. Judas Priest, Dissident Aggressor . . . Early Priest, kick butt hard rock/metal from the 1977 album Sin After Sin, produced by Roger Glover in another one of those myriad connections within the set. I’m probably over-emphasizing it, there were similar connections among artists in an early rock ‘n’ roll mostly 1950s set I played last Monday, Aug. 19, and such is true of any industry and it’s natural that there would be such cross-pollination within the hard rock/metal genre but I do find it interesting. And it’s why we have things like English music journalist/historian Peter Frame’s Rock Family Trees books, which were turned into a 1990s BBC TV series, and various similar books and websites. And going from a Sabbath with Ronnie James Dio song situation is a reminder that Judas Priest’s Rob Halford sang lead vocals for Black Sabbath at two 1992 shows in Costa Mesa, California, part of the Los Angeles metropolitan area. Ozzy Osbourne, who had announced a retirement he didn’t follow up on, was playing there and asked Black Sabbath, then on their Dehumanizer tour fronted by Dio, to open for him. Dio refused and quit, and Sabbath guitarist Tony Iommi asked Halford to fill in and he pulled off two Sabbath shows, opening for Ozzy. And then Sabbath’s musicians, sans Dio or Halford, backed Ozzy for an encore of Sabbath songs on the second night of his Costa Mesa dates.

10. Fight, Little Crazy . . . Halford was available for those Sabbath shows in part because he had left Judas Priest to form his thrash metal band Fight, which in 1993 released its first of two studio albums, War of Words, from which I pulled this song. Halford returned to Priest – which continued with Tim “Ripper’ Owens on lead vocals for two studio albums and several live releases – in 2003. I saw the reunion tour with Halford in 2004 with Slayer, who covered Priest’s Dissident Aggressor on their 1988 album South of Heaven, opening an excellent double bill. Owens is now the lead singer in former Priest guitarist K.K. Downing’s band, KK’s Priest which has released two studio records in the last four years.

11. Iron Maiden, Powerslave . . . Somewhat typical ‘galloping’ type of Iron Maiden cut, a 7-minute title track to the band’s 1984 album. It was one of many Maiden albums produced by the late Martin Birch. Birch was at the helm for all of Deep Purple’s 1970s albums in addition to the early Rainbow and Whitesnake albums and Black Sabbath’s Ronnie James Dio-fronted records Heaven and Hell and Mob Rules. And two albums – Cultosaurus Erectus (1980) and Fire Of Unknown Origin (1981) featuring the hit single Burnin’ For You – by the next band in the set, Blue Oyster Cult.

12. Blue Oyster Cult, 7 Screaming Diz-Busters . . . Birch wasn’t involved with the album from which this track comes, Tyranny and Mutation, BOC’s second record, released in 1973. Not sure how to describe this one but it’s typical of early BOC. Dark, great riffing, psychedelic in spots, mysterious and spooky in others, an intoxicating 7-minute (one for each titular scream, I suppose) listening experience in my opinion.

13. AC/DC, Kick You When You’re Down . . . As someone on YouTube commented, tasty riff. Hypnotic, irresistible shake and shimmy. From the band’s most recent album, the 2020 release PWR/Up. Recorded at The Warehouse studio in Vancouver, owned by Bryan Adams and where AC/DC has cut its last four studio releases. Other bands/artists having recorded there include Adams himself, The Tragically Hip, Billy Joel, Elvis Costello, R.E.M., Slayer and Colin James.

14. Van Halen, Pleasure Dome . . . I’d describe this, from the Van Hagar-era 1991 For Unlawful Carnal Knowledge album, as progressive hard rock/metal. There’s no real rythmic hook, just Alex Van Halen’s incessant drumming and brother Eddie’s guitar licks but the song itself is the overall hook, careening along in a compelling fashion.

15. The Joe Perry Project, Rockin’ Train . . . Aerosmith was in a chaotic state of drug abuse and other issues when guitarist Perry left during the recording of their 1979 album Night In The Ruts, although he played on six of that album’s nine tracks. I love that raunchy, rocking album, actually; it’s arguably the last featuring the original Aerosmith sound before they cleaned up and ascended massive commercial heights from the late 1980s onward but maybe lost some of their soul what with bringing in outside songwriters and getting into the power ballad hit-making business. I like the later stuff, too, the band still rocks for the most part outside the power ballads, but given a choice I’d take the earlier material.

Anyway, back then Perry formed his own band with a gent named Ralph Morman, who had been in an early 1980s version of Savoy Brown, on lead vocals. At least, he sang on the first of three albums done with various vocalists by Perry’s Project, the 1980 release Let The Music Do The Talking from where I pulled this funky, R & B type rocker. The title track for the Perry Project album was later re-recorded by Aerosmith and released on their 1985 reunion album Done With Mirrors, which to me and many fans comes closest to early Aerosmith as it’s the last of their albums where every song is fully group-penned. Yet, most of the band is on record as being dissatisfied with it. Perry did two more Project albums, 1981’s I’ve Got The Rock ‘n’ Rolls Again and 1983’s Once A Rocker, Always A Rocker, before returning to the mother ship for Done With Mirrors.

16. MC5, Sister Anne . . . Pulsating proto-punk garage rock from the influential Michigan mavens’ 1971 album High Time.

17. Pantera, Cemetery Gates . . . A power ballad with, hey, it’s Pantera, some powerfully heavy passages to it, from the thrash/groove metal band’s breakthrough 1990 album Cowboys From Hell. The album marked the completion of Pantera’s transition from their gla/hair metal beginnings in the 1980s, spandex and all, to what they became. But, while the band has for the most part disowned its earlier material and its then-look, it was pretty heavy, too, albeit probably too derivative of, say, Judas Priest or Kiss to be successful in its own right.

18. Brian May, Resurrection . . . A space rock ethereal intro into some heavy riffing from the Queen guitarist’s first solo album, 1992’s Back To The Light. The late Cozy Powell, whose extensive credits included stints with Jeff Beck, Rainbow, Whitesnake and Black Sabbath, on drums. Powell died in a car crash at age 50 in 1998.

19. Iron Butterfly, Termination . . . As we terminate the show with some hard rocking psychedelia from 1968’s In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida album. This is a good tune, but like every other song on that album was overshadowed by the 17-minute title cut that was edited down to 2:52 for single release.