My track-by-track tales follow the bare-bones list.
1. Triumph, Blinding Light Show/Moonchild
2. Argent, The Coming Of Kohoutek/Once Around The Sun/Infinite Wanderer
3. Supertramp, A Soapbox Opera
4. Ian Hunter, Noises
5. Roxy Music, For Your Pleasure (live, from 2003 reunion tour)
6. U2, God Part II
7. Arc Angels, Sent By Angels
8. Headstones, Tweeter And The Monkey Man (acoustic version)
9. Dire Straits, Millionaire Blues
10. The Allman Brothers Band, Loaded Dice
11. The Allman Brothers Band, Gambler’s Roll
12. Jose Feliciano, You’re No Good
13. Linda Ronstadt, You’re No Good
14. Van Halen, You’re No Good
15. Nazareth, Alcatraz
16. Mike Bloomfield/Al Kooper/Steve Stills, Season Of The Witch
17. The Rolling Stones, How Can I Stop
My track-by-track tales:
1. Triumph, Blinding Light Show/Moonchild . . . Progressive hard rocker from the Canadian trio to open the show, from the band’s self-titled debut album released in 1976, later retitled In The Beginning on a 1995 CD re-release.
2. Argent, The Coming Of Kohoutek/Once Around The Sun/Infinite Wanderer . . . An all instrumental cosmic journey making one song out of three from the first three tracks of Argent’s 1974 album Nexus. Best known for the 1971 single Hold Your Head Up, Rod Argent of Zombies fame’s later band was often much more. As for Kohoutek, those of a certain age, like me at closing in on 66, well remember the hype about that comet in 1973 which by all accounts was spectacular viewing in space but for we earthlings wedded to our planet, not so much. But songs came out of it, including The Coming Of Kohoutek as the first of three consecutive instrumental tracks from the Nexus album that flow like a mini-symphony.
3. Supertramp, A Soapbox Opera . . .Speaking of symphonies, somewhat symphonic rock from the 1975 album Crisis? What Crisis? with that familiar infectious refrain of ‘I said, Father Washington, you’re all mixed up collecting sinners in an old tin cup’ . . . A deep cut but a familiar one as were most of the songs on the sterling series of albums – Crime Of The Century, Crisis, Even In The Quietest Moments and Breakfast In America – Supertramp released between 1974 and 1979.
4. Ian Hunter, Noises . . . Beautifully metallic and industrial, er, noise indeed, from Hunter’s 1981 album Short Back n’ Sides from which this track is drawn. Funky electronica of sorts, played on and co-produced, along with guitarist Mick Ronson, by The Clash members Mick Jones and Topper Headon.
5. Roxy Music, For Your Pleasure (live) . . . Quirky, hypnotic title cut to Roxy’s 1973 album given the live treatment on the band’s 2001 reunion tour that was given live release in 2003 as Roxy Music Live.
6. U2, God Part II . . I played John Lennon’s Plastic Ono Band album last Saturday, a record that contained the classic song God which inspired U2 to this terrific rocked up recital of U2’s own beliefs, or not, as with Lennon’s original tune. It came out on the live/studio hybrid album Rattle And Hum in 1988.
7. Arc Angels, Sent By Angels . . . Blues rock from the one and only album, self-titled, released in 1992 featuring friends – guitarists Doyle Bramhall II and Charlie Sexton – and former members – drummer Chris Layton and bassist Tommy Shannon – of Stevie Ray Vaughan’s band Double Trouble. The group formed after Vaughan’s death and is still around, doing live gigs although no new studio material has ever been released. No singles were issued from the album although Sent By Angels and Living In A Dream got a fair bit of FM radio play. Bramhall went on to work extensively with Eric Clapton and also was a fixture on tours by Roger Waters of Pink Floyd fame, his guitar prominent on Waters’ 2000 CD/DVD release In the Flesh – Live.
8. Headstones, Tweeter And The Monkey Man (acoustic version) . . . Headstones covered this Bob Dylan-penned Traveling Wilburys track in rocked up raucous style on their debut 1993 album Picture Of Health. They re-did it, unplugged and more in line with the original Wilburys version, on the 2014 release One In The Chamber Music which featured acoustic versions of well-known Headstones songs such as When Something Stands For Nothing and Smile And Wave.
9. Dire Straits, Millionaire Blues . . . A nice groove on this blues shuffle. I was prompted to play it thanks to a Dire Straits discussion I had with a friend and show follower after I recently played The Man’s Too Strong from the 1985 album Brothers In Arms. Millionaire Blues was a B-side to the single Calling Elvis from what turned out to be Dire Straits’ last studio album, the 1991 release On Every Street.
10. The Allman Brothers Band, Loaded Dice . . . From Seven Turns, the 1990 reunion album that followed a successful tour the Allmans undertook after the 1989 release of the Dreams box set, a great collection which renewed interest in the band. Lead vocals on this one by guitarist Warren Haynes in his first outing with the Allmans, joining them after having been in guitarist Dickey Betts’s solo band. Haynes went on to form Gov’t Mule while remaining a key cog in the Allmans, also appearing on their final three studio albums – Shades Of Two Worlds (1991), Where It All Begins (1994) and Hittin’ The Note (2003) – and multiple live releases.
11. The Allman Brothers Band, Gambler’s Roll . . . Gregg Allman back on lead vocals with his typical soulful delivery on this slow blues, also from the Seven Turns album.
12. Jose Feliciano, You’re No Good . . . I got stuck in a rut but it’s a good one as here come three different versions of You’re No Good, which goes back to 1963 and was arguably most notably done by Linda Ronstadt, whose No. 1 hit version from 1974’s Heart Like A Wheel album I’m playing in about three minutes. But first, Feliciano, the Puerto Rican musician who puts his typical Latin stamp on the song, as he did with countless covers including the Doors’ Light My Fire and California Dreamin’ by The Mamas & The Papas. But he could write, too, notably Feliz Navidad and the theme music to the 1970s sitcom Chico and the Man.
13. Linda Ronstadt, You’re No Good . . . Every time I play or think of Linda Ronstadt three things come to mind. 1. Her great music. 2. The excellent 2019 documentary Linda Ronstadt: The Sound of My Voice which I highly recommend. 3. The fact that beautiful singing voice has been taken from her, and us, as a result of her having progressive supranuclear palsy, often misdiagnosed as Parkinson’s disease, all of which is touched upon in the documentary.
14. Van Halen, You’re No Good . . . Heavy stuff, which is what one would expect from Van Halen, from Van Halen II, released in 1979 with David Lee Roth on lead vocals. Another in a long line of Van Halen-ized covers that includes The Kinks’ You Really Got Me and Where Have All The Good Times Gone, Roy Orbison’s Oh, Pretty Woman and Dancing in the Street made famous by Martha and the Vandellas.
15. Nazareth, Alcatraz . . . Raunchy stuff written by Leon Russell and further rocked up by Nazareth on 1973’s Razamanaz album. It’ll probably send me back for another round of ‘did they make it?’ escape from Alcatraz documentaries as well as Clint Eastwood’s 1979 movie Escape From Alcatraz.
16. Mike Bloomfield/Al Kooper/Steve Stills, Season Of The Witch . . . A Donovan Leitch song covered by, among others, Vanilla Fudge. This version, from 1968’s Super Session album and sung by Kooper, features Stills on guitar. He was a hastily-recruited replacement for Bloomfield, who abruptly left after the first day of the scheduled two-day session citing fatigue due to insomnia. Bloomfield played on the five tracks that became side one of the original vinyl album, with Stills on board for the four songs on side two.
17. The Rolling Stones, How Can I Stop . . . A Keith Richards song that closes the Stones’ 1997 album Bridges To Babylon. He’s considered a raunchy rock and roller, which he is. Yet many of his songs, like this slow, soulful burner featuring jazz great Wayne Shorter on saxophone, are beautiful ballads.