My track-by-track tales follow the bare-bones list.
1. The Rolling Stones, Out Of Control (live, from No Security)
2. The Stooges, No Fun
3. Jethro Tull, Hymn 43
4. Deep Purple, Lady Double Dealer
5. Black Sabbath, Turn Up The Night
6. Fight, Into The Pit
7. Budgie, Hot As A Docker’s Armpit
8. Steppenwolf, Hippo Stomp
9. Led Zeppelin, Heartbreaker (live, from How The West Was Won)
10. Genesis, Dodo/Lurker
11. Stevie Ray Vaughan, Couldn’t Stand The Weather
12. April Wine, Electric Jewels
13. The Who, Now I’m A Farmer
14. The Flying Burrito Brothers, Wild Horses
15. Blood, Sweat & Tears, Mean Ole World (live)
16. The Allman Brothers Band, I’m Gonna Move To The Outskirts Of Town (from Live At Ludlow Garage, 1970)
My track-by-track tales:
1. The Rolling Stones, Out Of Control (live, from No Security) . . . A prime example of a song truly coming, er, alive in a concert setting. Inspired by and somewhat derivative, particularly the bass line, of The Temptations Papa Was A Rollin’ Stone, Out Of Control was one of the highlights of the 1997 Stones’ album Bridges To Babylon and compelling enough in its 4:43 track time studio version. That’s about the time when this propulsive eight-minute live version from the Babylon tour truly takes off with the guitar assault – including terrific wah wah from Ronnie Wood – kicking in and building to a crescendo, Mick Jagger’s wailing harmonica adding to the mix when he’s not verbally egging the band on. To me, Out Of Control is something of a latter-day Midnight Rambler (from 1969’s Let It Bleed album) if one draws comparisons between live and studio versions. Both are compelling tracks regardless but truly take off live, evidenced by the concert rendition of Midnight Rambler from Get Yer Ya Ya’s Out!, widely considered the definitive version.
2. The Stooges, No Fun . . . Rollicking raunch from the garage rock greats’ self-titled debut album, released in 1969. Down and dirty droning, gritty guitar from Ron Asheton coupled with Iggy Pop’s tossed-off, drawling vocal delivery. Great, influential stuff by the proto-punk pioneers.
3. Jethro Tull, Hymn 43 . . . From Aqualung, Tull’s 1971 album and one of their best rockers complete with caustic commentary – as is the whole album – on organized religion. ‘If Jesus saves, well, he better save himself from the gory glory seekers who use his name in death.’
4. Deep Purple, Lady Double Dealer . . . A good demonstration of bassist Glenn Hughes adding, with his ‘oh baby’ break, to David Coverdale’s lead vocals on this charging rocker from Stormbringer. It was the Mark III version of Deep Purple’s second album and second one, after Burn, released in 1974. The Mark III lineup: Ritchie Blackmore (guitar), Ian Paice (drums), Jon Lord (keyboards), Coverdale (lead vocals), Hughes (bass, vocals). Deep Purple is now at Mark IX – Ian Gillan (long since back on lead vocals), Roger Glover (bass), Paice (drums), Don Airey (keyboards) and Simon McBride (guitar).
5. Black Sabbath, Turn Up The Night . . . A hot rocker from the 1981 Mob Rules album, the second featuring Ronnie James Dio on lead vocals, replacing Ozzy Osbourne. It’s something to me of a companion piece to Neon Knights from Heaven And Hell, the 1980 album that marked Dio’s debut with Sabbath. Both are kick-butt rockers, both lead off their respective albums, with each record also featuring similar epics in Children Of The Sea from Heaven And Hell and The Sign Of The Southern Cross on Mob Rules. Similar but different, all of them superb.
6. Fight, Into The Pit . . . From War Of Words, the debut Fight album released in 1993 after lead singer Rob Halford left Judas Priest. He was replaced by Tim ‘Ripper’ Owens for the studio albums Jugulator (1997) and Demolition (2001) and two live records. Halford returned for a reunion tour I saw in 2004 followed by the 2005 studio album Angel Of Retribution and subsequent Priest releases to the present day. Into The Pit is a screaming shredder in line with the speed metal of Painkiller, the 1990 album that was Halford’s last with Priest before he temporarily moved on.
7. Budgie, Hot As A Docker’s Armpit . . . What a title and what a riff. A stop-start rocker from the influential if not supremely commercially successful Welsh metal mavens. Budgie has been cited by Metallica, Megadeth and Iron Maiden, among others, as being an important influence with Metallica covering Breadfan and Crash Course In Brain Surgery. Docker’s Armpit is from the 1972 album Squawk with cover art of a dive-bombing fighter jet budgie by Roger Dean. Dean is likely best known for his Yes album covers but did several for Budgie as well as Uriah Heep and Asia.
8. Steppenwolf, Hippo Stomp . . . Swampy groove from Steppenwolf 7, released in 1970. The album was so named due to its being the band’s seventh overall to that point, counting two live albums.
9. Led Zeppelin, Heartbreaker (live, from How The West Was Won) . . . Slightly speeded up, as live music can tend to be, version of the Led Zeppelin II track. This raucous version was released on the 2003 triple-CD How The West Was Won, culled from a pair of 1972 California concerts in Los Angeles and nearby Long Beach.
10. Genesis, Dodo/Lurker . . . I like the driving nature of this one, similar in that way to the title track from the album from whence it came, 1981’s Abacab. The Phil Collins-fronted Genesis was well down the path of accessible, commercial hit-making by then but I thought still nicely retained and combined elements of their early progressive rock sound.
11. Stevie Ray Vaughan, Couldn’t Stand The Weather . . . Can’t do much about the weather I suppose but nevertheless I’ve been uncharacteristically bitching about our largely lousy, rainy for the most part spring in southern Ontario. But, to quote the Vulcan elder T’Pau in the Star Trek original series episode Amok Time, ‘the air is the air’ when Dr. McCoy complains to her that Captain Kirk doesn’t have a chance in a forced fight with Mr. Spock due to the heat and thinner air on Vulcan. The weather is the weather. Inspiration comes from everywhere, hence this title track to SRV’s 1984 album.
12. April Wine, Electric Jewels . . . I can never get enough of this atmospheric title track from the 1973 album. From prog to hard rock to ballad and back again, all within six minutes.
13. The Who, Now I’m A Farmer . . . Ah, that unique rat-a-tat just on the edge of losing control drumming of Keith Moon, but just a fun romp overall. Issued on an album of outtakes and such compiled by Who bassist John Entwistle, appropriately titled Odds & Sods, that filled a gap between proper studio albums when released in 1974. It did the job nicely, hitting No. 10 in the UK and 15 in the USA. Originally a 10-track release, it was expanded to a 23-song CD in 1998 which is appropriate in that it was originally conceived as a double album given the volume of material Entwistle said was available in the vaults.
14. The Flying Burrito Brothers, Wild Horses . . . One of those songs that was released by someone else before the band for which it is famous put it out. The country-rocking Burritos, led by Gram Parsons who was particularly friendly with and an influence on Keith Richards, released the Richards-Mick Jagger-penned piece on their second album, 1970’s Burrito Deluxe.
15. Blood, Sweat & Tears, Mean Ole World (live) . . . Not quite rock, not quite blues, not quite jazz, just BS & T. Recorded in 1975, the song appeared on In Concert which was released only in Europe and Japan. It was re-released worldwide in 1991 under the album title Live and Improvised.
16. The Allman Brothers Band, I’m Gonna Move To The Outskirts Of Town (from Live At Ludlow Garage, 1970) . . . Extended slow to mid-tempo how I like my blues. It was recorded in April 1970 at the Cincinnati venue Ludlow Garage featuring the original lineup of Gregg (vocals, organ) and Duane (guitar) Allman, Dickey Betts (guitar), Berry Oakley (bass), Butch Trucks (drums, percussion) and Jai Johanny (aka Jaimoe) Johanson. The song first came out officially on the Dreams box set in 1989 and then on Live At Ludlow Garage, released in 1990. The entire Ludlow set has since been added to expanded re-releases of the second Allmans studio album Idlewild South which originally came out in September 1970.