Johnny Winter, Rock and Roll People . . . Written by John Lennon, from Winter’s 1974 album John Dawson Winter III.
David Bowie, Let’s Spend The Night Together . . . Faster version of the Stones’ hit, from Bowie’s Aladdin Sane album released in April 1973. I like both versions. Interesting that just six months later, with his record company wanting another album by Christmas 1973 to cash in on Bowie’s commercial success,he released a full-blown covers album, Pin Ups.
Blue Oyster Cult, Cities On Flame With Rock and Roll . . . I stole this apropos comment about BOC from a YouTube field: “A versatile band – as heavy metal as Iron Maiden, dark and ominous as Black Sabbath, as progressive as Pink Floyd, as smart as Rush and as pop as any top 40 band.” Great riff to this one, too.
Rainbow, Gates Of Babylon . . . a great one, but aren’t they all, from the Ronnie James Dio on lead vocals era of Rainbow.
The Rolling Stones, Miss Amanda Jones . . . Down and down she goes. Great tune from Between The Buttons which, over time, has become one of my favorite Stones’ albums. I read it derided once by a critic as being too Kinks-like but so what if it is, and what’s wrong with the Kinks and besides it’s a cool, funky, diverse album, the last of their poppier ones before Satanic Majesties and then the deeper, dirtier blues rock of Beggars Banquet and subsequent albums.
The Mamas & The Papas, No Salt On Her Tail . . . Beautiful harmonies on this one.
Bachman-Turner Overdrive, Stayed Awake All Night (extended version) . . . Eight minutes plus version of a this pulsating, driving rocker from BTO’s debut album. The extended cut was released on the 2-CD BTO Anthology that came out some years back and featured a few unreleased tracks. I usually much prefer BTO songs where C.F. (Fred) Turner takes lead vocals with his gruff, tough style but this is one where Randy Bachman shines. There’s a nice live version of this available on YouTube featuring the Bachman-Turner (sans Overdrive) band that segues into American Woman, from a concert in Rama, Ontario – with Turner howlin’ up a storm. If you’re up for some great Bachman-Turner stuff featuring some Guess Who tracks as well, highly recommended is Bachman & Turner Live at the Roseland Ballroom, NYC, available on DVD and YouTube.
Bruce Springsteen, 57 Channels (And Nothin’ On) . . . Told you I was going to play this soon. If you don’t follow the show, you’ve no idea what I’m talking about but a few weeks ago I played Pink Floyd’s Nobody Home from The Wall, which contains the lyric “I’ve got 13 channels of shit on the TV to choose from” and I mentioned Springsteen picked up on that theme years later on his 1992 Human Touch album. And, by now there’s unlimited channels of, often, nothing of substance on the tube and streaming services.
Paul Rodgers, Cut Loose . . . Title cut from Rodgers’ first solo album, 1983, after the original version of Bad Company broke up. Sounds like Bad Company, which is good, and why wouldn’t it, since Rodgers was the exquisite voice of that band and, of course, Free before it.
Rory Gallagher, A Million Miles Away . . . Heard this playing in a music store the other day so I decided to play it, besides which I love Rory Gallagher’s music. Always loved this tune, the lyric “this hotel bar is full of people, the piano man is really laying it down…even the old bartender is high as a steeple . . . ” Just puts you in a smoky booze joint, late at night, with all that entails and what might ensue from it.
Joe Jackson, Zemeo . . . Jazzy, extended (11 minutes) instrumental cut from an album I often return to, JJ’s soundtrack to a movie few people (including me) ever saw, starred Debra Winger, Mike’s Murder, 1983. Essentially a musical followup for Jackson from his chart-topping Night and Day album of the year before. It’s a terrific listen.
Bryan Ferry, A Fool For Love . . . What would the word be, luscious, in terms of the sound of this track from Ferry, from his 2002 album Frantic.
Jethro Tull, Bends Like A Willow . . . Blow me down. I’m a big Tull fan but didn’t realize until I decided to play this song from the 1999 album J-Tull Dot Com that it was the single (went relatively nowhere) from that album. A ‘dated’ album title now given how ubiquitous the internet has become, but interesting in terms of the context and year of the album’s release. Essentially, the title trying to encourage people to visit the band’s then relatively new website. Also a significant album for me because I saw the tour with my then age 11 son, who quickly became my Tull-concert going partner.
Love, A House Is Not A Motel . . . A band I, er, love but one I have not played in a while. Great lyric: “The news today will be the movies for tomorrow” – and of course distorted usually beyond recognition by Hollywood, yet becomes for so many people the actual (often false) narrative of people and events they describe. For instance, there’s a new Elvis Presley biopic coming to theatres soon. I hate biopics. Never watch them. No interest. They’re not real, and yeah it’s ‘just a movie” yet too many people form their opinions of the people they depict from Hollywood’s ‘creative licence” descriptions. Such is life, I guess.
Cry Of Love, Peace Pipe . . . Why this 1990s band wasn’t bigger remains a mystery to me. Free-like. But then, besides All Right Now, Free was never a big commercial success, either.
Gordon Lightfoot, Cherokee Bend . . . Not as celebrated as, say, Lightfoot’s The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald but, musically and lyrically (in a different context), just as touching and meaningful. Brilliant artist.
Genesis, Ripples . . . From A Trick of the Tail, first album post-Peter Gabriel when people wondered about the future of Genesis. They had one.
Steely Dan, Dirty Work . . . One of my favorite Steely Dan tunes. For whatever reason I always think of a bar band/Steely Dan tribute band playing this in a pub when I hear it. Probably because I never saw Steely Dan live.
Streetheart, Miss Plaza Suite . . . Three things. 1. This is a great song. 2. Someone on YouTube, in a comments field on this song, said Streetheart was an underrated band. I really wish people would learn the difference between underrated and underappreciated. Streetheart had lots of hits. They weren’t underrated. Underappreciated, maybe. 3. They also had great album covers. Check out Meanwhile Back in Paris, Under Heaven Over Hell and Quicksand Shoes, for starters. The album Miss Plaza Suite comes from, simply called Streetheart, has a good cover, too, but the aforementioned three are my favorites.
Santana, Blues Magic . . From the IV album, released in 2016 and a reunion of most of the original Santana band members who made the band’s first three albums, which remain my favorites. IV is right up there and naturally would be, given who made it and how it sounds in a throwback way. Gregg Rolie does his best Peter Green vocal impression on this track to the point where I continue to check the liner notes to see if it actually wasn’t Green singing. And of course Green, via Fleetwood Mac, gave Santana its biggest early hit with Black Magic Woman.
Canned Heat, Lookin’ For My Rainbow . . . Gospel artist Clara Mae Ward, beautifully, shares lead vocals with the Heat’s James Shane on this one, from the band’s 1973 album The New Age.
Beck Bogert, Appice, Black Cat Moan (live) . . . From the power trio’s live album, issued only on Japan so something of a rarity although that album is available online and this track also is on Jeff Beck’s Beckology box set.
Linda Ronstadt, Rescue Me . . . From her self-titled 1972 album which was a landmark in leading to the formation of the Eagles, whose original members – Glenn Frey, Don Henley, Randy Meisner and Bernie Leadon – had backed Ronstadt on a tour and then were among the session musicians on her record.