Ian Hunter, Noises . . . Let’s make some noise, starting with this experimental-type track from Hunter’s 1981 new wavish-album, Short Back ‘n’ Sides. And it presages, later in the set, some late 1970s-early 1980s my college days new wave, including one by The Clash, whose Mick Jones co-produced the Hunter album while Clash drummer Topper Headon played on a few tracks.
Led Zeppelin, Night Flight . . . Always have liked the intro to this one from Physical Graffiti. The whole song, too, from a great album. Every major band seems to have a great what were then double vinyl studio albums. Zep has this one, Beatles’ White Album, Stones’ Exile On Main St., The Clash London Calling, just to name a few.
The Rolling Stones, Let It Loose . . . Speaking of Exile…Two weeks ago I played the great Torn and Frayed from the album, settling on it from among a group of personal choices that week that included Let It Loose and Loving Cup. So you can probably expect Loving Cup next week, or soon.
Molly Hatchet, Bounty Hunter . . . One of those tunes, and a great up tempo track it is, that I had previously loaded and came up in our station computer when I was looking for the Ian Hunter song, Noises, that started tonight’s show.
Deep Purple, Fools . . . Played this one long long time ago, from the Fireball album,which prompted a show follower to comment that I play a fair bit of Deep Purple. True. I love Deep Purple, every version of the band. Which reminds me, I have to pick up their new covers album, just out. It’s called Turning To Crime and features a diverse set of tracks including Love’s 7 and 7 is, Little Feat’s Dixie Chicken, Bob Dylan’s Watching The River Flow and Fleetwood Mac’s Oh Well, among others. When I heard they were doing a new album, then heard it was covers, I was a bit disappointed as I prefer original material but I’ve heard it online and it’s good, but I still like getting physical copies of albums by bands I like.
Warren Zevon, Genius . . . I first heard this typically great Zevon track on a latter-day compilation titled Genius: The Best of Warren Zevon, which prompted me to fill in some blanks I had in his catalog and get the song’s parent album, My Ride’s Here. Both the compilation and the studio album were released in 2002. And Zevon came to mind via yet another recent fun Twitter discussion with fellow music aficionados.
Bruce Cockburn, All’s Quiet On The Inner City Front . . . And so, master singer-songwriter Zevon propels us into a mini-set by notable Canadian singer-songwriters, starting with this one from Cockburn’s 1981 Inner City Front album.
Gordon Lightfoot, Hangdog Hotel Room . . . I played Songs The Minstrel Sang in a recent show, which prompted me to dig back into Lightfoot’s 1978 Endless Wire album, from which this track also comes. I like the guitar work but at the risk of erring, am loath to credit any one of the three session players, plus Lightfoot, who play the instrument on the album.
Murray McLauchlan, Harder To Get Along . . . Speaking of some nice guitar work, here’s a fine one with a nice sort of descending rhythm motif, from McLauchlan’s 1976 On The Boulevard album. Typically good lyrics, too.
The Guess Who, Got To Find Another Way . . . A nice ballad from the American Woman sessions that didn’t originally make the cut but was later included in various remastered re-releases of the album.
Steve Winwood, Spanish Dancer . . . Difficult to pick a favorite tune from Winwood’s smash 1979 album Arc Of A Diver, it’s so good front to back but this song has always been right up there for me.
Roxy Music, Angel Eyes . . . There are at least three versions of this tune. The one I’m playing, and prefer, is the more rock-oriented album cut from 1979’s Manifesto. A re-recorded, shorter and more disco-type version was later released as a single along with an extended near seven-minute dance remix.
Elvis Costello, The Bridge I Burned . . . I pretty much gave up on Costello after his early, angry young man phase though I recognize he’s a great artist. Yet, unlike say, where I’ve followed his contemporary Joe Jackson’s various muses over the years, I really didn’t ride with Elvis much beyond about 1986. Then I recently found the perfect thing for me, a compilation, Extreme Honey, I had not to that point even heard of but found cheap in a used CD store. It came out in 1997 so is obviously already way out of date but for me it’s great because it collects tracks from albums like Spike and Mighty Like A Rose and beyond that, that I tried but gave up on. Yet by distilling it all down, it’s more palatable, for me, anyway. This song wasn’t on any of those albums, though. Costello wrote it, new, for the compilation after initially recording Prince’s song Pop Life only to have Prince deny Costello the right to release it. So, Elvis wrote and performed The Bridge I Burned in an arrangement he had envisioned for the Prince tune.
Linda Ronstadt, Girls Talk . . . Speaking of Costello, Dave Edmunds made great hay with this Elvis-penned tune on his 1979 album Repeat When Necessary. Ronstadt did it a year later on her new-wavish Mad Love album. And so it launches us into a little new-wave themed set. Costello himself released Girls Talk as a B-side to his drastically rearranged 1980 single I Can’t Stand Up For Falling Down, originally popularized by Sam and Dave in a soul ballad version, 1967. And all of this research got me listening to a bunch of Sam and Dave tunes.
Martha and The Muffins/M + M, Several Styles Of Blonde Girls Dancing . . . From 1983’s Danseparc album, the start of a brief period when, due to a spat between then-current and former band members, the Muffins briefly went by M + M, but the new moniker never really took hold and both names, as a compromise, appeared on the album cover, after which the band soon reverted to going by Marth and The Muffins.
Ian Dury, Wake Up And Make Love With Me . . . I got into Dury, this tune and the album New Boots and Panties!! a year after its September 1977 release. One of those horizon-expanding college things where a classmate was driving us both to a party and threw a cassette of the album into the player. And so began my foray into Dury and all kinds of similar stuff that was breaking big at the time.
Teenage Head, Somethin’ Else . . . Kick butt, and what else is Teenage Head but kick butt, version of the Eddie Cochran tune, from 1980’s Frantic City album, and a great album it is.
Graham Parker and The Rumour, Howlin’ Wind . . . Title cut from Parker’s 1976 debut album, produced by Nick Lowe at the beginning of that period that would soon lead to Parker, Elvis Costello, Joe Jackson and Lowe himself breaking big as leaders of a new wave of artists.
Talking Heads, Cities . . . Propulsive track from Fear Of Music, one of those albums one buys for a hit single (Life During Wartime) and then wind up liking the whole thing. Cities was actually the third single released from the album (the second was I Zimbra) but I don’t remember ever hearing Cities on radio, my memory perhaps dulled by time.
Flash and The Pan, War Games . . . I’ve always played Flash and The Pan’s first two albums, the self-titled debut and Lights In The Night the most. They’re arguably the group’s most popular to this day but the more I’ve listened to Headlines, 1982’s third release, over the years the more I think it’s as good. And this short epic, if short can be construed as epic, is among many of Headlines’ fine tunes.
The Clash, Police On My Back . . . From the sprawling (3 vinyl records upon release) 1980 album Sandinista! Written by Eddy Grant (well known for his 1983 smash hit Electric Avenue), it was originally done by his band The Equals, during the 1960s. Yet another example of what the Stones’ Keith Richards has said about the best thing musicians can do, pass it on. So you’re a college student immersed in The Clash at the time and then you dig into some of their source material for a cover tune and discover The Equals. And while you might not become a huge fan, you’re at least aware of them and might become one.
The Police, Shadows In The Rain . . . I’ve always liked this hypnotic track from 1980’s Zenyatta Mondatta. Sting sped and jazzed it up in a rearranged version on his 1985 debut solo album, The Dream Of The Blue Turtles, which I had, and while his solo version is good, I much prefer the Police take on the tune.
Jethro Tull, Baker St. Muse . . . And back we go, and run out the show, with more let’s say traditional fare, for me in terms of bands like Tull, the Stones etc. who I grew up on and will forever listen to. This is a true epic, 16 minutes and change, from the Minstrel In The Gallery album. But, like say The Allman Brothers Band albeit in a different context and genre, Tull can do epic tracks like this yet in such a way that it’s never boring and doesn’t seem like it’s 16 minutes long. A story song, in Ian Anderson’s words “a series of little observations on the pavements of Baker Street (London, where he was living at the time) and its surrounding area – the people you meet, the things you see.”