Glenn Miller, In The Mood . . . My sentiments exactly, as I was rummaging through some oldies CDs. And who doesn’t like/can’t resist this timeless tune?
Warren Zevon, Johnny Strikes Up The Band . . . Lead cut and the first single from the Excitable Boy album that didn’t break big until the third single, Werewolves of London made Zevon a household name. The title track was the second of five singles released from the record which has grown, over time, into essentially a greatest hits release.
Paul McCartney & Wings, Spin It On . . . Paulie goes punk on this short rocker from 1979’s Back To The Egg album. The original vinyl LP release sides were labeled Sunny Side Up and Over Easy.
April Wine, Crash and Burn . . . April Wine goes almost metallic on this raver from 1981’s The Nature of The Beast, by which time the band had adopted a harder-rocking arguably simplified sound catered to the American market. And it worked, as the album went platinum in the US – although their earlier stuff is better, to my ears. But it’s all worth playing.
The Rolling Stones, Parachute Woman . . . Another one of those songs whose only bad point is it’s too short. Great cut from a great album, Beggars Banquet.
John Mayall, Possessive Emotions . . . Another from the ‘albums my older brother introduced me to” – Mayall’s 1970 release USA Union. It featured former Canned Heat members Harvey Mandel on guitar and bassist Larry Taylor along with violinist Don “Sugarcane’ Harris. And no drummer, which my brother proudly advised me of and I found fascinating at the time, age 11. Funky tune, yet another example of the interesting sounds Mayall and friends always achieve.
Jackson Browne, Fountain Of Sorrow . . . A relationship song. It could be about Joni Mitchell. It could be about Browne’s deceased wife. It could be about any one of his former flames. Depends on what you read, if you read about it on songmeanings.com or other such sites. In any event, lyrics that could apply to anyone and their relationships.
Fleetwood Mac, Brown Eyes . . . I came across this one via word searching Jackson Browne for the previous track. It’s a beautiful, relatively unknown Christine McVie-penned gem from the Tusk album. Mac founding guitarist Peter Green was invited to play on the song by Mick Fleetwood although his playing is only included in the fadeout.
Mott The Hoople, The Moon Upstairs . . . Raw, raunchy rocker from 1971’s Brain Capers album, the one before the band finally broke big with All The Young Dudes, the album and single, a year later.
George Thorogood, New Hawaiian Boogie . . . I’ve never heard definitively that Link Wray was among Thorogood’s influences, but based on his raw playing on this Elmore James tune, I’d say so.
Link Wray, Big City After Dark . . . Speaking of Wray . . . I can’t do better than a description of this tune I read in a comments field on YouTube: “It sounds like he’s playing barbed wire strings with a switchblade knife.”
Tommy James and The Shondells, Sweet Cherry Wine . . . Psychedelic top 10 hit in Canada and the US in 1969.
Roy Buchanan, After Hours . . . Fantastic guitarist who lived a troubled life of addiction, died young at 48, ruled a suicide, hanged himself in jail after being busted for public intoxication although family and friends disputed the finding. His musical tree includes playing with Ronnie Hawkins and, as a result, tutoring Robbie Robertson of The Band fame.
Ten Years After, I Woke Up This Morning . . . Haven’t played one of my favorite British blues rock bands in a while. So, here we are. From Ssssh, in 1969. I’ve probably said it before but while TYA leader Alvin Lee was justifiably celebrated for his guitar playing, I’ve always liked his singing, too. Great blues rock voice.
Chicago, At The Sunrise . . . I like the contrasting vocals between Peter Cetera and the raunchier Robert Lamm. From the Travel Suite segment of Chicago III, inspired by life on the road for a touring band. Do I have to say I love early jazz-rock fusion Chicago before the schlock shit show they became after Terry Kath died or have I said that too often? Heck, even they recognize it. If you check their set lists, they’re dominated by the early stuff and justifiably so.
Gregg Allman, Wolf’s A Howlin’ . . . One of the few non-cover tunes from what I think is one of Allman’s finest solo records, 1997’s Searching For Simplicity. And a nice setup for my next two tracks.
Gov’t Mule, I Asked For Water (She Gave Me Gasoline) . . . I love the original but can’t get enough of this 9-minute, heavy reinvention of Howlin’ Wolf’s tune. It’s from Heavy Load Blues, an album of covers and originals released by the Mule in late 2021.
Howlin’ Wolf, Three Hundred Pounds Of Joy . . . Speaking of the Wolf . . .
Neil Young, Dirty Old Man . . . Good rocker from Chrome Dreams II, 2007. Funny, or depressing, lyrics depending on one’s perspective. “I like to get hammered on Friday night sometimes I can’t wait so Monday’s alright. It’s a battle with the bottle I win it alright but I lost another round in the bar last night. . . . Yeah I’m gonna get fired for drinkin’ on the job got caught with the boss’s wife in the parkin’ lot.” Etc.
Aerosmith, Hangman Jury . . . From the big comeback album, Permanent Vacation, which came out in 1987 and was also, for old time Aerosmithians, the beginning of the descent into commercially-successful schlock what with outside writers and so on. Still, this one’s a keeper, featuring nice harmonica playing and vocals from Steven Tyler.
Stray, Yesterday’s Promises . . . Spooky, psychedelic track from the relatively unknown English hard rockers. I discovered them a few years ago via a compilation of obscure songs from the UK hard rock and psychedelic scene of the late 1960s to early 70s. I liked the Stray track on it – It’s All In Your Mind, which I’ve played before on the show – so much I picked up a 2-CD compilation of Stray’s material.
Jon Lord with The Hoochie Coochie Men and Jimmy Barnes, Green Onions (live) . . . From a great album of mostly covers, Live At The Basement, a renowned Sydney, Australia blues and jazz club, released in 2003. It featured Lord, the iconic Deep Purple keyboard player, Scottish-born Australian singer/musician Barnes and the Aussie blues band The Hoochie Coochie Men.
Deep Purple, When A Blind Man Cries . . . There’s no figuring out the mercurial Ritchie Blackmore. But he is interesting. He didn’t like this great bluesy ballad, recorded during the Machine Head sessions and the B-side of the Never Before single from the album that gave us Smoke On The Water. “Ritchie no like” I remember singer Ian Gillan saying in some documentary. So, Purple never played it live while Blackmore was in the band, although it’s a fixture in most of their set lists since guitarist Steve Morse replaced Ritchie in the mid-1990s. Yet Blackmore plays, typically, brilliantly on it, as he did on Purple albums like Stormbringer he didn’t like because they were too funky for his taste. Which has always made me wonder why, as arguably the key member of Purple, he didn’t pull rank so to speak and steer the band back in the more hard-rock direction he professed to want and did take with Rainbow. That is, before he turned Rainbow into pretty much a pop band (ugh) in search of mostly US commercial success after singer Ronnie James Dio left, which was why Dio left. Creative differences and all that. Guitar geniuses. What are we to do with them? Listen, I suppose.
Derek and The Dominos, Roll It Over (live) . . . From the Live At The Fillmore album, released in 1994 as an expanded version of the band’s In Concert album that was recorded in 1970 and released in 1973. This track appears on both records.
Savoy Brown, Leavin’ Again . . . As we take our leave, until next week.