Hard rock/metal set, a bit less of a deep cuts show than usual in spots. My track-by-track tales follow the bare-bones list.

1. Ted Nugent, Wang Dang Sweet Poontang (from Double Live Gonzo!)
2. Judas Priest, Ram It Down
3. UFO, Rock Bottom (live, from Strangers In The Night)
4. Iron Maiden, Bring Your Daughter . . . To The Slaughter
5. Black Sabbath, Digital Bitch
6. The Rolling Stones, Bitch
7. Metallica, Ain’t My Bitch
8. Slayer, Seasons In The Abyss
9. Pantera, Drag The Waters
10. AC/DC, Emission Control
11. The Who, Trick Of The Light
12. Led Zeppelin, Communication Breakdown
13. Deep Purple, Speed King
14. April Wine, 21st Century Schizoid Man
15. Nazareth, Steamroller
16. Uriah Heep, One Way Or Another
17. Pink Floyd, The Nile Song
18. Iggy & The Stooges, I’m Sick Of You
19. Blue Oyster Cult, Mommy
20. Whitesnake, Sweet Talker
21. Grand Funk Railroad, Mr. Limousine Driver
22. Ted Nugent, Motor City Madhouse (from Double Live Gonzo!)

My track-by-track tales:

1. Ted Nugent, Wang Dang Sweet Poontang (from Double Live Gonzo!) . . . At risk of repetition (guilty) this has become an occasional go-to song for me whenever I decide on a hard rock/metal show. The song itself is a driving rocker but what makes it the perfect intro is Nugent’s classic, politically incorrect pre-song rap, not to all tastes but . . . “Anybody wants to get mellow you can turn around and get the fuck out of here . . . This is a love song, I’d like to dedicate this to all that Nashville pussy.”

That last line, as the song is taken from a 1977 show in Nashville, inspired the name of an actual band, hard rock/southern rock group Nashville Pussy (from Georgia, actually). Two of that band’s four members are women, lead guitarist Ruyter Suys (pronounced Rider Sighs and wife of rhythm guitarist/lead vocalist Blaine Cartwright) and bassist Bonnie Buitrago. I’ve heard them but can’t say I’m familiar with any Nashville Pussy material but I do find it interesting how bands come by their names, including song names. The title of Southern rock band the Outlaws’ signature song Green Grass and High Tides, for instance, was a play on The Rolling Stones’ 1966 compilation album title Big Hits (High Tide and Green Grass).

I’m not necessarily a fan of Nugent’s political views but I can still like much of his music. It is possible and I’d suggest even necessary, with any artist, to separate the two as previously mentioned when playing Nugent. So, as I dig myself out of this lengthy digression, with the original working title, More Fast Numbers, to The Rolling Stones’ 1978 album Some Girls in mind, here we go, nothing slow for a Saturday morning. I’d say wake up the neighbors, to paraphrase a Bryan Adams album title but I’m not into his music. So, think of it as your alarm clock, even if you do sleep in on weekends.

2. Judas Priest, Ram It Down . . . A pile-driving title cut from Priest’s 1988 album. It starts with lead singer Rob Halford’s banshee wail and goes from there. ‘Metal maniacs’ is in the lyrics, appropriately.

3. UFO, Rock Bottom (live, from Strangers In The Night) . . . UFO extends the original six-minute studio cut to nearly twice the length on this version from one of the acknowledged best live albums of all time, certainly in the hard rock genre. It’s one I was listening to in the car while on various runnings around this past week.

4. Iron Maiden, Bring Your Daughter . . . To The Slaughter . . . As with Nugent, speaking of politically incorrect. But, an irresistible rocker and that’s what usually draws me in, music first, lyrics later because, my theory is, you could write the greatest lyrics ever but if your tune doesn’t compel people to listen, nobody will ever hear your words of wisdom. And if you don’t like the lyrics, you can still enjoy the music.

5. Black Sabbath, Digital Bitch . . . From the controversial 1983 album Born Again, sometimes referred to as Deep Sabbath or Black Purple because Deep Purple singer Ian Gillan was fronting Sabbath, for just one album, after original singer Ozzy Osbourne’s replacement Ronnie James Dio left. Space does not permit, so I’m linking to a couple articles about the escapades that in part inspired the classic comedy This Is Spinal Tap. All that said, I like the album, among Sabbath’s heaviest.

6. The Rolling Stones, Bitch . . . Pretty well known B-side to hit single Brown Sugar from the Sticky Fingers album, released in 1971 and among my favorite Stones tunes, and albums.

The story of the song, via engineer/producer Andy Johns, from various books on the band:
“When we were doing “Bitch”, Keith (Richards) was very late. (Mick) Jagger and Mick Taylor had been playing the song without him and it didn’t sound very good. I walked out of the kitchen and he was sitting on the floor with no shoes, eating a bowl of cereal. Suddenly he said, Oi, Andy! Give me that guitar. I handed him his guitar, he put it on, kicked the song up in tempo, and just put the vibe right on it. Instantly, it went from being this laconic mess into a real groove. And I thought, Wow. THAT’S what he does.”

Included is a great Richards solo in the middle which Mick Taylor, certainly more a virtuoso than Richards in purely technical terms, but they obviously worked well musically together, acknowledged as among Keith’s best. But the whole band is firing on all cylinders.

7. Metallica, Ain’t My Bitch . . . I like Metallica’s early thrash stuff, which they’ve returned to in some measure in recent years. I like their more conventional melodic stuff that began with the so-called Black album, the self-titled 1991 record that made them superstars via commercial hit songs like Enter Sandman, Nothing Else Matters and The Unforgiven. And they weren’t forgiven by some fans for then, egads, cutting their hair and embracing an even more commercial sound for the 1996 album Load, from which this track comes. Yet this is heavy, driving, quality rock and roll. Bands evolve. Be stuck in the past if you want, but you might miss something good.

8. Slayer, Seasons In The Abyss . . . What starts out like doomy Black Sabbath before speeding up is one of Slayer’s most conventional and accessible songs for those who might not like their speed metal/thrash stuff like Raining Blood, etc. I got into Slayer 30-plus years ago when I decided to sample them after reading an album guide to heavy metal bands. At first, as with Pantera (more on them in a moment) I thought, this isn’t even music as I was jarred by and unused to the thrash nature of their output. But it soon grew on me and it wound up for whatever reason, when I was commuting for work on my then hourlong drive, being my “in blizzard” music. Somehow, maybe the violence of the music, Slayer seemed to focus me as I drove through the sometimes scary snowstorms. As did Pantera.

9. Pantera, Drag The Waters . . . As with Slayer, same story, one of Pantera’s more conventional, accessible tunes. Heavy, yet melodic.

10. AC/DC, Emission Control . . . AC/DC’s climate change anthem. No, not really. It seems to be about sex. From the 2016 album Rock Or Bust.

11. The Who, Trick Of The Light . . . I’m about halfway through a biography of the late Who bassist John Entwistle, called The Ox, his nickname, written by Paul Rees. So he and The Who have been top of mind. This heavy rocker, written by Entwistle, has always been musically and lyrically one of my favorites from the 1978 album Who Are You as it describes a session with a prostitute with typical wry/dry Entwistle humor evidenced in previous Who songs he wrote like Boris The Spider and My Wife.

“Did I take you to the height of ecstacy, did a shadow of emotion cross your face or was it just another trick of the light?

“And I’d like to get to know you
On closer terms than this
But I guess you’ve heard it all before
Lady of the night
Won’t you steal away with me?
Lady of the night
Won’t you steal away with me?
The money’s lyin’ on the floor, she looks at me
Shakes her head and sighs
Out of time, out the door
Red light shinin’ in my eyes

But was I all right?”

12. Led Zeppelin, Communication Breakdown . . . From the first Zep album. Driving riff, passionate vocals, the whole band in sync. Short, sweet, superb.

13. Deep Purple, Speed King . . . A well-known Purple song from In Rock, the 1970 album that firmly established the band’s hard rock bona fides, yet perhaps surprisingly it didn’t chart as a single.

14. April Wine, 21st Century Schizoid Man . . . April Wine’s take, pretty much rote but worthwhile and perhaps they sent some people in the direction of the King Crimson classic which was the opening cut to Crimson’s seminal 1969 album In The Court Of The Crimson King. April Wine’s version appeared on the band’s 1979 album Harder . . . . Faster which spawned such well-known Wine tracks as I Like To Rock and Say Hello.

15. Nazareth, Steamroller . . . From the 1994 album Move Me, which was criticized from being overproduced and too much schlock rock as Nazareth seemed to be chasing musical trends around this time rather than doing what the band does best: rock. It’s a good assessment but on this one, they definitely do rock, perfectly reflecting the song title.

16. Uriah Heep, One Way Or Another . . . Great hook on this one, a riff underlying the whole song that is incessant throughout; you’re almost unknowingly immersed in it as you listen to the song as a whole, with all its other instrumental excursions. It’s from the 1976 album High And Mighty.

17. Pink Floyd, The Nile Song . . . What’s a Pink Floyd song doing in a hard rock set? Seems uncharacteristic, but listen. A heavy tune, raging vocals by David Gilmour also of course on guitar, from the More movie soundtrack that also serves as an official Floyd album, released in 1969.

18. Iggy & The Stooges, I’m Sick Of You . . . A track from the sessions for the 1973 album Raw Power that didn’t see wide release until an EP of the same name came out in 1977. The song has subsequently appeared on various Iggy Pop/Stooges compilations. A slow building track for the first two of its six-plus minutes, before all hell breaks loose.

19. Blue Oyster Cult, Mommy . . . Driving rocker outtake from the sessions for the 1974 album Secret Treaties.

20. Whitesnake, Sweet Talker . . . From the early days of Whitesnake before they went hair metal in the mid-1980s, to much commercial success and I like a lot of that stuff but . . . Before that, coming out of Deep Purple, lead singer David Coverdale and friends were more a blues-hard rock band. It’s my favorite period of the group via songs like this from the 1980 album Ready an’ Willing which also featured Deep Purple alumni Ian Paice (drums) and Jon Lord (keyboards). “The bitch is in heat’ is one of the lyrics so I suppose I should have placed this higher up with Sabbath’s Digital Bitch, the Stones’ Bitch and Metallica’s Ain’t My Bitch but, well, life’s a bitch sometimes.

21. Grand Funk Railroad, Mr. Limousine Driver . . . Funky rocker from the Railroad’s second record, simply titled Grand Funk, released in late December, 1969.

22. Ted Nugent, Motor City Madhouse (from Double Live Gonzo!) . . . Started with “The Nuge” and finishing with the Motor City Madman as he takes the original almost five-minute studio cut to epic 10-minute lengths filled with guitar and other assorted pyrotechnics.