Mick Jagger, Too Many Cooks (Spoil The Soup) . . . Funky tune, produced by John Lennon, that Jagger recorded with a host of big-name musician friends that finally saw official release on The Very Best of Mick Jagger compilation in 2007. Jack Bruce of Cream fame lays down a great bass line. Others featured on the recording are Al Kooper and noted session guitar aces Danny Kortchmar and Jesse Ed Davis and drummer Jim Keltner. Singer-songwriter Harry Nilsson, one of Lennon’s sidekicks during the 18 months of his ‘lost weekend’ separation from Yoko Ono, sings backing vocals.
Steve Earle, Snake Oil . . . Nice one from Copperhead Road, starts slowly but quickly builds into quite the raver.
George Thorogood and The Destroyers, One Way Ticket (live) . . . Smokin’ version of the John Lee Hooker tune from Thorogood’s Live in Boston 1982 album that was re-released in 2020, now containing the full show.
Bruce Springsteen, Adam Raised A Cain . . . I like most Springsteen but tend to mostly go back to the three outstanding albums of his I grew up on – Born To Run, Darkness On The Edge Of Town, from which I pulled this track, and The River, all of which came out in that order. Quite the run.
Elvis Costello, Blame It On Cain . . . From his debut, My Aim Is True, in 1977 and an appropriate title for an album that hits the target in every tune. The title is also in the lyrics to the hit Alison.
Graham Parker, I’m Gonna Tear Your Playhouse Down . . . Written by Memphis songwriter Earl Randle, Parker’s version, and a good one it is, appeared on his 1977 album, Stick To Me.
Midnight Oil, Surf’s Up Tonight . . . From the Breathe album, 1996, some see it as a tribute to The Beach Boys but of course surfing is hardly just a California thing.
The Clash, The Magnificent Seven . . . Third single from the wildly and wonderfully diverse, and sprawling, Sandinista! Apparently inspired by the New York hip hop and rap scene. I don’t consider that I’m into either of those genres, but I do like when rock bands I like delve into other sounds and approaches.
Bob Dylan, The Ballad Of Frankie Lee and Judas Priest . . . From Dylan’s 1967 John Wesley Harding album I remember my older brother bringing home. It’s somewhat unique in that it’s a long story song, without a chorus, but typically interesting Dylan lyrics. And it was the inspiration for the next band in my set’s name.
Judas Priest, Exciter . . . Just because you’re hard rock/metal doesn’t mean you don’t listen to or are inspired by artists from other genres. Life would be boring were that the case. The Dylan song inspired Priest’s band name. “Fall to your knees and repent if you please” is such a memorable line in this scorcher that some people have been known to think it’s the actual title.
Motorhead, Speedfreak . . . Appropriate title for this cut from the Iron Fist album, the last featuring the so-called classic lineup trio of Lemmy Kilmister (vocals/bass), “Fast” Eddie Clarke (guitar) and Phil “Philthy Animal Taylor (drums).
Black Sabbath, Megalomania . . . I wanted to play a Sabbath song tonight but had trouble picking one, since with great bands like this I could easily do – and maybe should – a show consisting of only their material. In any case, I wound up settling on this epic from the Sabotage album.
Nazareth, Psycho Skies . . . I mentioned a couple weeks ago, while playing Nazareth’s Red Light Lady from their debut album in 1971, that the band had a new album out, their second with lead singer Carl Sentance. He replaced the retired from touring Dan McCafferty a few years ago. The new album, Surviving The Law, is very good in my opinion, and this song, written by Sentance, is an example of its quality.
Deep Purple, Child In Time . . . The epic that was the centerpiece of In Rock, with Ian Gillan in all his vocal glory but the whole band is typically on fire.
Groundhogs, Strange Town . . .From the English blues-rock band’s 1970 album Thank Christ For The Bomb, engineered by the late Martin Birch, whose extensive and impressive production resume included Deep Purple, mid-period Fleetwood Mac, Wishbone Ash, Rainbow, Whitesnake mostly during their early, more blues-rock oriented period, Black Sabbath during the Ronnie James Dio years, Blue Oyster Cult, Iron Maiden, on and on.
Dire Straits, In The Gallery . . . From the sterling debut album, 1978. Of course, what Dire Straits album isn’t sterling? Amazingly consistent band during their time.
Led Zeppelin, The Lemon Song . . . Great song but as was typical of Zeppelin, one of the many where they liberally ‘borrowed’ from and ‘adapted’ songs like Howlin’ Wolf’s Killing Floor, took full credit, got sued and wound up having to, on later releases of Zep II and other albums, give the old blues greats they pilfered from due credit. I like Zeppelin’s music, a lot, but why they felt they had to do some of the sleazy things they did in terms of songwriting, and think they could get away with it, and they sometimes did, remains beyond me. And yes, I ‘get’ that credits on many old blues tunes were pretty fluid over time, even the old blues artists borrowed from each other, but Zep usually never even attempted to give credit where it was due, until forced to by lawsuits.
Duane Allman, Goin’ Down Slow . . . In addition to his typically brilliant guitar playing, Duane handles lead vocals, a rarity, with fellow future Allman Brother Berry Oakley on bass on this blues cover recorded in 1969 for a proposed solo album that was never completed. I pulled it from one of two Duane Allman anthologies that came out ages ago, are likely out of print but worth searching out if you’re still into physical copies. The two double albums feature Allman’s session work with such artists as Wilson Pickett and Aretha Franklin, among others, plus his time with the Allman Brothers.
Jethro Tull, Hymn 43 . . . Always loved this rocker, and its lyrics, from Aqualung.
Spirit, 1984 . . . I read something in a YouTube comment field on this terrific psychedelic rocker I agree with. “Growing up in 70s LA, there were two bands you listened to if you were really in the know: Spirit and Love. Didn’t matter what anyone else thought.” Love was actually more a ’60s band but the writer’s sentiment is accurate I think; two arguably underappreciated but influential bands.
UFO, Dance Your Life Away . . . Haven’t played these guys in a while, good rocker, nice Michael Schenker guitar as always, from the Force It album, 1975.
Pink Floyd, Nobody Home . . . “I got thirteen channels of shit on the TV to choose from . . . ” Well, it was 1979 and most of us did have only about that many channels available to us. Things got better, or worse, by the time of Bruce Springsteen’s 1992 song 57 Channels (And Nothin’ On) which I should dig up and play and now it’s unlimited, pretty much, channels available and nothing on.
Headstones, Cut . . . From 1993’s terrific debut album, Picture of Health. Headstones will be at the 2022 Kitchener Blues Festival although scheduling them at about the same time as Drive By Truckers at another stage irks me as bit, since I like both bands.
The Rolling Stones, Till The Next Goodbye . . . Beautiful ballad from the It’s Only Rock ‘N Roll album to close the show and deliberately frame it all in between two cuts from Rolling Stones Inc.; started with Mick Jagger, ending with the full unit.