My track-by-track tales follow this bare-bones list.

1. Emerson, Lake & Powell, The Score
2. Thin Lizzy, Angel Of Death
3. Black Sabbath, Master Of Insanity
4. Can, Mother Sky
5. Ramones, She Talks To Rainbows
6. Curtis Mayfield, (Don’t Worry) If There’s A Hell Below We’re All Going To Go
7. The Clash, Straight To Hell (extended version)
8. The Rolling Stones, Dancing With Mr. D
9. Spooky Tooth, Hell Or High Water
10. Meat Loaf, Objects In The Rear View Mirror May Appear Closer Than They Are
11. Genesis, Fly On A Windshield
12. Dire Straits, The Bug
13. Gary Moore, Enough Of The Blues
14. Eric Burdon & The Animals, White Houses
15. Steely Dan, Don’t Take Me Alive
16. The Beatles, When I’m Sixty-Four
17. Paul McCartney/Wings, Mull of Kintyre
18. Joe Jackson, The In Crowd/Down To London (live)
19. Traffic, Shouldn’t Have Took More Than You Gave (live)
20. Talking Heads, The Overload 

    My track-by-track tales:

    1. Emerson, Lake & Powell, The Score . . . It’s 1984 and Keith Emerson and Greg Lake want to do another Emerson, Lake & Palmer album. But drummer Carl Palmer can’t do it, as he’s contractually committed to the band Asia. So, they audition various drummers who don’t work out and wind up approaching Emerson’s longtime friend Cozy Powell, drummer in many bands including various permutations of Rainbow and Black Sabbath. The band members said it was just coincidental that they wound up with another drummer whose surname began with ‘P’, enabling them to maintain the moniker ELP. They did joke that they approached Phil ‘Pollins’ and Ringo ‘Parr’ to fill the spot. As for the music on the self-titled album that came out in 1986, it’s, well, just like Emerson, Lake & Palmer, including this epic.
    2. Thin Lizzy, Angel Of Death . . . From the Renegade album, 1981. Hard rock with elements of prog, to my ears. Iron Maiden, still in its infancy at the time, must have been listening to the ‘galloping’ nature of the song, which has always been a feature of Iron Maiden’s music.
    3. Black Sabbath, Master Of Insanity . . . A song from Sabbath’s 1982 Dehumanizer album was top of mind because last Saturday I played a Dio (band) track, Strange Highways, which is very metallic and prompted me to mention the similarity to the heavy sound of Sabbath’s album two years previous, which Ronnie James Dio did lead vocals on.
    4. Can, Mother Sky . . . Edited, six-and-a-half minute version of the original 14-minute epic from the Soundtracks album. I pulled this from the Cananthology compilation which, years ago, got me into the Kraut/experimental rockers. Propulsive track that I don’t think loses any power in its truncated form.
    5. Ramones, She Talks To Rainbows . . . From the last Ramones studio record, 1995’s Adios Amigos! I’ve never been a major Ramones fan, I like them, have lots of their stuff and recognize their obvious influence but much of their material sounds the same if you ask me, which I realize isn’t a novel opinion. Yet this song seems more polished to my ears, almost non-Ramones like, and yes I know the Ramones are not about ‘polish’. Nevertheless, that’s how I feel about this cut, and maybe why I like it.
    6. Curtis Mayfield, (Don’t Worry) If There’s A Hell Below We’re All Going To Go . . . Great tune about race relations, musically and lyrically, from 1970.
    7. The Clash, Straight To Hell (extended version) . . . By almost two minutes, of the track from the Combat Rock album. Intoxicating, in any form. The song was originally intended for the album in this six seconds short of seven minutes version, but when Combat Rock was edited down from a proposed double album to a single vinyl record, the song was pared down. The extended version was released on the 1991 3-CD box set Clash On Broadway which I never owned until a couple years ago when I picked it up for, amazingly, about $10 at a flea market.
    8. The Rolling Stones, Dancing With Mr. D . . . Some fans and critics consider this opener to 1973’s Goats Head Soup album to be a sequel to Sympathy For The Devil, and since the subject matter about the prince of darkness is similar, albeit more obvious (hence losing the power of Sympathy) I suppose it is. I just like the song, even though I can appreciate some critics’ view of it as rather languid. But I like everything the Stones do. It is interesting that it was the lead cut on the album. Usually, the Stones open their records with a rocker, which is interesting in that Mr. D was the B-side to Goats Head Soup’s second single, Doo Doo Doo Doo Doo (Heartbreaker), a kick-butt tune that arguably would have been a better album opener.
    9. Spooky Tooth, Hell Or High Water . . . Good rocker from 1974’s The Mirror album featuring some nice guitar from Mick Jones, who went on to form Foreigner. Another stalwart in Spooky Tooth was singer/keyboardist Gary Wright, who went on to solo success via The Dream Weaver album and its title cut single, along with Love Is Alive.
    10. Meat Loaf, Objects In The Rear View Mirror May Appear Closer Than They Are . . . Fun title but actually a dark, sad song from Bat Out Of Hell II (Back Into Hell). Another in the fine tradition of Meat Loaf epics. The only Meat Loaf albums I’ve ever liked are the first two Bat albums. The third one wasn’t as good, nor is the rest of his stuff, to me. That said, Meat Loaf was great live, I’ve got a couple DVDs of his, the first from his first tour, the second is called 3 Bats Live, recorded in London, Ontario in 2007. Great stuff.
    11. Genesis, Fly On A Windshield . . . The Lamb Lies Down On Broadway album has come up in a couple discussions with friends of late, so I figured I’d play something from it. But more so, I’m playing this particular song to set up the next one.
    12. Dire Straits, The Bug . . . See what I mean? Genesis talks about a fly on the windshield and then Dire Straits takes it to the obvious conclusion on their up tempo rockabilly type tune from the On Every Street album, the last before leader Mark Knopfler went solo.
    13. Gary Moore, Enough Of The Blues . . . Gary Moore broke big into the mainstream with the title cut hit single from 1990s Still Got The Blues album. Outside of that he was a diverse artist, dabbling in metal, hard rock both solo and with Thin Lizzy, he did a Peter Green tribute album, Blues For Greeny and even a dance pop album, 1999’s A Different Beat. He came Back To The Blues with his 2001 album, from which I pulled this song.
    14. Eric Burdon & The Animals, White Houses . . . Fairly well known song and a great one, from Burdon and friends’ psychedelic period, yet it made just No. 46 in Canada and No. 67 in the US upon release in 1968.
    15. Steely Dan, Don’t Take Me Alive . . . Nice guitar by Larry Carleton on this one from The Royal Scam album. In addition to his own solo work, Carleton has played on countless albums including ones by Steely Dan, Joni Mitchell, Johnny Rivers, Wayne Newton, Barbra Streisand, Leo Sayer and The Partridge Family (!) just to name a few.
    16. The Beatles, When I’m Sixty-Four . . . One of my good pals is turning 64 today, and requested this. Actually, he turned 64 yesterday, since he’s currently on the other side of the date line down under cruising around Oceania. But it’s still Feb. 6 here so . . .
    17. Paul McCartney/Wings, Mull of Kintyre . . . I don’t usually play big hits on this deep cuts show but for whatever reason, this song popped into my head on Saturday while out for my walk. So, I figured I’d play it. Plus, it affords me the chance to share a memory. College days, getting polluted in a pub after school one afternoon/evening. We wind up yakking with an older guy, a Brit, also at least half in the bag, who starts rhapsodizing about the greatness of McCartney and, in particular, Mull of Kintyre. We couldn’t – and still can’t – help but agree.
    18. Joe Jackson, The In Crowd/Down To London (live) . . . From JJ’s 2000 Live album Summer In The City: Live In New York wherein he effectively merges an instrumental intro of The In Crowd written by Billy Page, made famous by Dobie Gray and later covered by The Mamas and The Papas and Bryan Ferry, with his own Down To London.
    19. Traffic, Shouldn’t Have Took More Than You Gave (live) . . . A Dave Mason-penned tune from the live album Welcome To The Canteen. It’s a Traffic album, yet as originally released the name Traffic was nowhere to be found – it was instead credited to the musicians, including Mason, Steve Winwood, Jim Capaldi, Chris Wood and Ric Grech who played on it. Later re-releases included the name Traffic, or at least the band’s familiar logo. My CD copy just has the logo on the inner sleeve and on the actual CD it says ‘Steve Winwood – Welcome To The Canteen’. Hmm. Anyway, good album, some extended versions of Traffic songs like Dear Mr. Fantasy and Winwood’s earlier band, the Spencer Davis Group’s Gimme Some Lovin’, and this song.
    20. Talking Heads, The Overload . . . During my college days, when the Heads’ album Remain In Light came out and I was dabbling in drugs, you know, just college fun experimentation although not making light of what can ensue, one of my younger brothers said this dirge-like tune was perfect for me. Probably true, at the time. But I was just a weekend sort of stoner, never overdid it, played varsity football, worked in a pub (bad influence), worked out, got good grades. What of it?