Max Webster, Here Among The Cats . . . Another selection derived from CD cleanup, up popped a Max Webster disc, realized I hadn’t played them in eons, so here we are.
The Stooges, Down On The Street . . . Down and dirty rock from Iggy and the boys.
The Stone Roses, Love Spreads . . . A lot of their other material has grown on me over the years but this remains the band’s best song, to me. Great riff/rocker with a sort of dreamy, drowsy hypnotic effect.
Janis Joplin, Get It While You Can . . . From her final, posthumously-released studio album, Pearl. It’s another album, and artist, I thank my older siblings, in this case my older sister, for playing a lot and getting me into in my youth. I was 11 when it came out in 1970.
Bachman-Turner Overdrive, Flat Broke Love . . . One of my favorite BTO tunes and, as you can see, we’re in yet another “Bald Boy song title connectivity” thing.
Ohio Players, Love Rollercoaster . . . Many of the songs in tonight’s set result from personal CD cleanup and shelving. Along with the Max Webster CD mentioned earlier, I came across a bunch of personal mix CDs I had burned years ago, from which I pulled this and several others that follow. So, although many of the songs were hits, often one-hit wonders, and this is almost always a deep cuts show, it’s also called So Old It’s New – and many of these tunes are 40, 50 years old now, dating to 70s and 80s and in some cases, the 60s. So, enjoy. I am.
Billy Preston, Will It Go Round In Circles . . . One of his big hit singles I most remember from the 1970s, the other being Nothing From Nothing.
Supertramp, Another Man’s Woman . . . From Crisis, What Crisis and thanks again to my older brother for getting me into Supertramp – at least for the great run of albums starting with Crime of The Century, then Crisis followed by Even In The Quietest Moments. Then came the monster commercial success of Breakfast in America, whose tour I saw and was great, but the album itself I’ve always ranked below the other three mentioned. Most of the Breakfast songs are overplayed, the album is in many places way too poppy for me (says the guy playing lots of pop tonight from his old burned CDs) and just doesn’t measure up to the previous three more progressive records. And Breakfast, like hugely successful albums can sometimes do (J. Geils Band’s Freeze Frame is an example), led to a split in the band. The next record, Famous Last Words, indeed was just that, the last word for that incarnation of the band. It was total schlock but Rodger Hodgson wanted to continue in that pop direction, Rick Davies didn’t, and Hodgson left. Davies carried on with the Brother Where You Bound album, an excellent record, but after that, while still releasing some more albums, Supertramp sort of just faded away in terms of wide public awareness.
Eurythmics, Would I Lie To You? . . . First time I’ve ever played a Eurythmics song on the show. Why? Because it’s a deep cuts show and none of their non-singles does anything for me. But, I do have a singles collection, which I like, and Would I Lie To You popped up on one of my mix discs, too, so here you go. Good rocker, one of my favorites by Eurythmics.
Thomas Dolby, She Blinded Me With Science . . . Science!! Always liked how he belts out that word at various points in the song.
Soft Cell, Tainted Love . . . An old tune, written by Ed Cobb of The Four Preps, who originated in the 1950s. Gloria Jones had a hit with it in 1964, worth checking out in her more R & B/soul version than the synth style Soft Cell used for their big hit. Jones was a keyboardist and vocalist in T. Rex in the 1970s and was in a relationship with Marc Bolan. Which reminds me, I’ve been meaning to get T. Rex into the last few shows, haven’t played them in a while. Perhaps next week.
The Human League, Don’t You Want Me . . . Remember when all this sort of stuff was huge in the early 1980s? The Human League is actually still around, blow me down. Probably playing this to open concerts, then in the middle, then as the encore. Just kidding. They did have other hits, like Mirror Man, for instance.
Simple Minds, Don’t You Forget About Me . . . Easily my favorite Simple Minds tune but then I don’t know many of them besides this. Aside from this song, not typically my type of music but it’s all a matter of taste, of course and that’s cool. Was in The Breakfast Club movie, which I never saw but I’m not a movie buff.
Naked Eyes, Always Something There To Remind Me . . . My mom (RIP) loved this version of the song, a standard by Burt Bacharach/Hal David. A top 10 hit for Naked Eyes, it’s been done by many, including Dionne Warwick and US soul singer Lou Johnson, who took it to No. 49 on Billboard in 1964.
Bonnie Raitt, Spit Of Love . . . Great groove on this one, written by Raitt, whose albums are usually covers-heavy which isn’t a criticism, since she’s always put her own unique and appealing stamp on them.
Big Sugar, Dear Mr. Fantasy . . . Speaking of covers . . . Big Sugar’s heavier, distortion-fueled version of the Traffic classic.
Re-Flex, The Politics Of Dancing (extended mix) . . . Another hit single by a synth pop band used in a few movies, apparently, none of which I’ve seen. Best part of the song, to me: “the politics of . . . ooh, feeling good.” Nice hook.
Men Without Hats, The Safety Dance . . . This Canadian band, huge with this song of course, are also still around as are many of these arguable one-hit wonders.
The Buggles, Video Killed The Radio Star . . . And then once they killed radio, a couple members of The Buggles – singer and bassist Trevor Horn and keyboardist Geoff Downes – joined Yes in a move that raised eyebrows but produced an excellent Yes album, the sometimes often almost metallic Drama, in 1980.
Gary Numan, Cars . . . Another from college days . . . 1979. One of so many great new wave singles around that time.
The Rolling Stones, Sweet Virginia . . . “Got to scrape the shit right off your shoes.” This might be the one track, aside from the hit Tumbling Dice, I’ve never played up to now on the show, from likely my favorite Stones’ album if forced into the impossible task of picking just one: Exile On Main St.
Ozark Mountain Daredevils, Jackie Blue . . . Great tune. And they’re still around with, perhaps surprisingly, several members still hanging in from the band’s beginnings in 1972.
Kim Carnes, Bette Davis Eyes . . . Always reminds me of being in California in the spring and part of the summer of 1981. San Francisco Bay Area, having helped my dad do the driving from Calgary after he was transferred for work. It was all over the radio along with stuff from The Moody Blues’ Long Distance Voyager album and Blue Oyster Cult’s Fire Of Unknown Origin record.
Argent, Hold Your Head Up . . . The big hit from the band formed in 1969 by Rod Argent, keyboardist in The Zombies.
The Lemon Pipers, Green Tambourine . . . Two studio albums, one massive single, this one No. 1 for the Ohio band in 1968.
Albert Hammond, It Never Rains In Southern California . . . I suppose I should have put this before or after the Kim Carnes tune, since that one reminded me of California. But, I was living in Northern California, not Southern. Good tune, another from one of those pre-recorded mix CDs of hits that I later burned onto one of my own eclectic compilation discs.
Santana, Blue Skies . . . From Santana’s 2019 album, Africa Speaks, which features Spanish singer Buika and is very good, sounding to me much like very early Santana including this 9-minute epic. It starts slowly, building into some fiery guitar before settling down again towards the end.