Golden Earring, Are You Receiving Me . . . I’ve been digging back into the Moontan album lately, both on the show and just to listen to, and could have sworn I must have played this recently and was repeating myself too quickly, but no. Haven’t played this particular track of late. It was Candy’s Going Bad I played most recently on the show, one of four of the five extended cuts on the North American version of the album (the European version has six tracks) I’ve played over time. The only one I haven’t played is Radar Love, but this is a deep cuts show for the most part. Solid album, front to back and Are You Receiving Me is one of the best, almost prog-metal/hard rock. Around even longer than The Rolling Stones, who began in 1962, Golden Earring began in 1961 but finally closed up shop, sadly, in February of 2021 after longtime guitarist George Kooymans was diagnosed with Lou Gehrig’s disease. Great band, although to my ears they got a bit too poppy at some points. But they’re definitely much more than just the Moontan album, Radar Love and their other worldwide hit, Twilight Zone. Tracks like Mad Love’s Comin’, for instance, which I’ve showcased before. More soon, perhaps, from the Dutchmen.
Tom Waits, Heartattack And Vine . . . Yes, heartattack, one word. Title cut from the 1980 album and a change of pace from tonight’s opener, via Waits’ indiosyncratic style and sandpaper vocals. Haven’t played him in a while but the, er, Waits is now over. Screamin’ Jay Hawkins covered this tune, in his own unique style.
Traffic, John Barleycorn . . . Traditional English/Scottish tune, done by many bands including Jethro Tull on their semi-acoustic 1992 live album A Little Light Music. From Traffic’s John Barleycorn Must Die album. One of my favorites by one of my favorite bands. It occurred to me to play them this week after I played Steely Dan last week, which led to a discussion with a show follower that included Steve Winwood, which led me to think of playing, er, in Traffic.
The Guess Who, Attila’s Blues . . . Back I go into 1974’s Road Food album, the title cut of which I played some time ago. I always remember a buddy of mine having this album in high school. The hits were Star Baby and Clap For The Wolfman. Nice jaunty tune, with fun lyrics: ‘Have you ever had an aardvark sandwich’ among the many.
The Who, Imagine A Man . . . Beautiful track, lyrically musically, from one of my favorite Who albums and the first studio one I ever bought with my own money and thus kind of grew up with, The Who By Numbers.
Little Feat, All That You Dream . . . Linda Ronstadt helps out Lowell George on vocals on this propulsive track from The Last Record Album (which it wasn’t, from the band).
Atomic Rooster, People You Can’t Trust . . . A funky outing from the previously prog-heavy Rooster. Chris Farlowe, who did covers of various Rolling Stones’ tunes in the 1960s including a No. 1 hit with Out Of Time in 1966, came in on lead vocals in a reconfigured band that retained only founder member Vincent Crane as they embarked on a new direction.
Bert Jansch, 900 Miles . . . The Scottish folkie, usually on guitar, does some banjo picking on this traditional. Jansch founded the band Pentangle and influenced a host of artists including Jimmy Page, Ian Anderson, Al Stewart, Neil Young, Elton John. Well worth digging into both his solo work and Pentangle, you haven’t.
Moby Grape, 8:05 . . . Great and maybe two short a tune by a band that, along with the Jefferson Airplane, Grateful Dead and others emerged out of the San Francisco scene in the 1960s. They fused country, blues, rock and jazz into a unique stew but were never as successful as some of their musical colleagues, in large measure to to management hassles, well worth reading up on.
Bob Seger, Ain’t Got No Money . . . Good rocker, a cover of a song by Scottish rock singer-songwriter and actor Frankie Miller, from Seger’s 1978 blockbuster Stranger in Town album. Seger cites Miller as a big influence and one only needs to listen to a few Miller tracks to hear it.
Can, I Want More . . . OK, here we go into my maybe increasingly silly song title thing but I just can’t seem to help myself. If you care, here’s how it happens since, due to the studio being closed due to Covid protocols, I’ve been programming my shows. Often, I just search a word in our station computer system to which I’ve loaded thousands of tunes I own, and see what comes up. Or, I’ll search a band and the word comes up in a song title along with similar titles from other bands. So, here come five straight tunes with the word “more’ in their titles/lyrics. Which reminds me: I need to load the Pink Floyd movie soundtrack album More into our system. Anyway, a typically cool track from Can, the German experimentalists. This was a hit single in 1976 in the UK, from the Flow Motion album, a controversial record for the band’s followers, because it dabbled in disco. But I always like it when bands/artists I like take a different path; I tend to follow them wherever they go, until and if, like latter-day Chicago, they lose me.
Can, . . . And More . . . I couldn’t resist adding the companion piece, which was, naturally, the single’s B-side.
Love, Andmoreagain . . . From the classic and influential Forever Changes album which, typical of some such albums, didn’t burn up the charts but rewards the listener.
Bruce Cockburn, More Not More . . . A buddy of mine texted me the other night to tell me he throwing back some tequilla while listening to music, including some Cockburn. That prompted me playing this tune from Humans in 1980. Just a terrific record, front to back, best known perhaps for the single Tokyo, but every one of its 10 songs, like this one, is solid.
Phil Collins, I Don’t Care Anymore . . . I suppose, just occurred to me, I could have played Aerosmith’s No More No More because by this point even I’m tired of this ‘more’ stuff. All good tunes, though, connected only by that one word. And, I played the Aerosmith song fairly recently. This was a hit single from Collins’ second solo album, Hello, I Must Be Going, released in 1982. Heavy metal band Hellyeah, which featured the late Pantera founder and drummer Vinnie Paul, later covered Collins’ tune.
David Bowie, Aladdin Sane . . . Title cut from Bowie’s 1973 album. Atmospheric cut with great piano, and piano solo, by Mike Garson, who worked on many Bowie albums and whose credits also include work with Nine Inch Nails and Smashing Pumpkins.
Rainbow, Black Sheep Of The Family . . . Cover of a tune by British progressive band Quatermass. Ritchie Blackmore’s bandmates in Deep Purple didn’t want to do the cover during sessions for the Stormbringer album in 1974, so Blackmore recorded it for the first Rainbow record a year later.
The Rolling Stones, Worried About You . . . Originally recorded in 1975 for the Black and Blue album, the track didn’t see the light of day on record until 1981’s Tattoo You album, although the Stones did play it at one of their two El Mocambo shows in 1977 in Toronto. The song features a nice guitar solo from Wayne Perkins, who also contributed a great solo to Black and Blue’s Hand Of Fate and nearly got the gig that eventually went to Ron Wood.
Robin Trower,Gonna Be More Suspicious . . . Smokin’ opening riff and typically great playing from Trower on this cut from For Earth Below, 1975. The album also features the late James Dewar, the outstanding vocalist and bass player in Trower’s 1970s band.
Robbie Robertson, American Roulette . . . Great rocker from Robertson’s self-titled first solo album in 1987. It references, without naming them, James Dean, Elvis Presley and Marilyn Monroe and the consequences of their fame.
Lou Reed, Last Great American Whale . . . 1989 was a pretty good year for classic rocker comeback albums: Bob Dylan with Oh Mercy, Neil Young with Freedom, the Stones with Steel Wheels and Reed, with New York, from which I pulled this track.
T-Bone Burnett, House Of Mirrors . . . I’ve said it before but what an artist T-Bone is. Worked with Bob Dylan during the 1970s, producer to the stars, and terrific solo stuff. This could be a companion piece, vocally, to the Lou Reed track above. Very similar style; T-Bone’s tune coming out in 1980 and Reed’s nine years later.
Led Zeppelin, The Battle Of Evermore . . . Beautiful track from Zep IV, with Fairport Convention’s late great Sandy Denny adding her amazing voice to Robert Plant’s.
Rory Gallagher, Crest Of A Wave . . . A ‘galloping’ track, with typically exquisite guitar, from Gallagher’ Deuce album in 1971.
John Mayall, Fly Tomorrow . . . Nine-minute slow-building track from Mayall’s late 1968 album, Blues From Laurel Canyon. It features Mick Taylor on guitar. A year later, he was in The Rolling Stones, on Mayall’s recommendation to the band. Mayall and Taylor later reunited, off and on, on Mayall’s albums. I saw them on the same bill in the mid-1980s at Ontario Place in Toronto. Taylor opened, then joined Mayall’s then-current version of the Bluesbreakers for a few songs.