April Wine, Electric Jewels . . . Terrific title cut from the band’s 1973 album. This is why you buy albums, not just compilations. Unless they’re comprehensive comps like the 4-CD April Wine box set I own and from which I pulled the song.
Ten Years After, Love Like A Man . . . Speaking of compilations, although I own every TYA album, last week, after my show I pulled out an excellent 2-CD collection of theirs, got discussing great British blues rock with a buddy and decided this week would be a TYA week on the show. This is the nearly 8-minute Cricklewood Green 1970 album version. As a single, at less than half the length, went top 10 in the UK, No. 56 in Canada and No. 98 in the U.S.
Rod Stewart, You’re My Girl (I Don’t Want To Discuss It) . . . Rod Stewart, 1969-74 period – with members of Faces usually backing him as he pursued concurrent careers that eventually led to the breakup of that band – was amazing. Scintillating stuff from Stewart during that period, great combination of self-penned and well-chosen and interpreted cover material in a run of albums of rock and roll, roots rock, folk rock and blue-eyed soul.
The Who, In A Hand Or A Face . . . Love the opening riff to this one, from The Who By Numbers, an arguably somewhat overlooked album but one I grew up with, first Who record I bought with my own money and just a terrific platter, regardless.
Paul McCartney/Wings, I’ve Just Seen A Face (live) . . . An almost rockabilly version of one of my favorite mid-period Beatles tunes, from the Rubber Soul album. This version is from McCartney’s massive 1975-76 world tour that yielded the then triple-vinyl Wings Over America live album. I remember playing the heck out of it, great live album, great album, period.
The Rolling Stones, Almost Hear You Sigh . . . Great ballad and one of my favorite tunes from the Stones’ 1989 Steel Wheels album. Co-written by Steve Jordan, now the Stones’ touring drummer in the wake of the death of Charlie Watts. It was originally targeted for Keith Richards’ 1988 solo album Talk Is Cheap, Jordan being part of Richards’ X-Pensive Winos band. But it was reworked and appeared on the Stones’ album and was a single, third from the album although (surprisingly to me) didn’t make a big impact on the charts. I’m a huge Stones fan and often think they choose the wrong singles from their albums. The lead single from Steel Wheels was Mixed Emotions, decent enough tune but I think Almost Hear You Sigh, had it been out first, might have achieved near-Angie level success. The Stones have played it live only rarely, but I’ve been wondering whether they now will on their current tour, with Jordan behind the drum kit and doing a fine job judging by the tour clips I’ve seen. They haven’t played it yet, two shows into the current tour, but we’ll see.
It’s A Beautiful Day, Girl With No Eyes . . . I first heard of this band when I was 19 or so, taking a year off after high school to work for a year and build up some money to put myself through college. A guy at the place I worked, the engineering company at which my dad worked, mentioned them to me and at first, I didn’t pursue them but never forgot the reference and eventually wound up hearing the immortal White Bird, which I’ve played on the show before. That led me to deeper investigation of this San Francisco band and their synthesis of folk, jazz and psychedelia. Terrific band and, with replacement members, still around.
Iron Butterfly, I Can’t Help But Deceive You Little Girl . . . So much more, these guys, than In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida.
Little Feat, Truck Stop Girl . . . Love Little Feat, play them a fair bit on the show. Was reminded to play them this week after a Twitter music friend was canvassing for people’s favorite Feat songs and this one came up.
Elton John, Razor Face . . . I played the title cut from the Madman Across The Water album to great feedback some time back. Then recently, an old friend posted a video to Facebook of someone covering that song which prompted me to think of the terrific album, yet another wall-to-wall great 70s one from Elton John, this being one of those great tracks.
Booker T. and The MGs, Heads Or Tails . . . Everyone knows the fabulous Green Onions but another band that is so much more than one song. Great stuff.
Marianne Faithfull, Running For Our Lives . . . Loads of people, me included, were sort of reintroduced to Faithfull via her terrific Broken English album in 1979 that led to a series of great outings including the subsequent releases Dangerous Acquaintances and A Child’s Adventure, which is referenced in the lyrics to this great track from that album.
Concrete Blonde, City Screaming . . . I’ve had this on the burner, so to speak, for a few weeks but due to show flow or fit or whatever, haven’t managed to get it in. So here it is. Great, perhaps underappreciated band, hest known for their biggest hit, Joey, during the 1990s. Amazing singer in Johnette Napolitano. Ridiculously powerful vocals, probably deserves to be on the level of Janis Joplin in terms of reputation and legacy, but such recognition tends to be of a time and place and Napolitano’s time came arguably after the foundational bedrock of which Joplin was part.
Pretenders, Room Full Of Mirrors . . . Killer cover of the Hendrix tune, from the Get Close album.
Midnight Oil, King Of The Mountain . . . One of those songs, and a great one by the Oils, I came across in the radio station computer system via key words while searching for Mountain songs – one of which I did settle on, Blood Of The Sun, coming later in the set.
Lynyrd Skynyrd, (I Got The) Same Old Blues . . . Another band I love, keep meaning to play, but haven’t managed to work in in recent weeks. Another cover by Skynyrd (they also did Call Me The Breeze) of a great J.J. Cale tune. Cale is/was one of those artists, akin perhaps to Tom Waits, who has wonderful work in his own right but whose songs are arguably more recognized via cover versions done by higher-profile artists. Like Eric Clapton (After Midnight and Cocaine), for instance.
Stevie Ray Vaughan, Mary Had A Little Lamb (live) . . . Now here’s an artist I haven’t played in ages. Oversight corrected.
Roy Buchanan, After Hours . . . This guy’s guitar playing, bluesy and otherwise, was ridiculously great. Another troubled soul lost early, age 48, apparently by suicide though friends and family disputed that finding.
Black Sabbath, After Forever . . . The supposed Satanists embrace god, the Pope and Christianity. But, who knows. Great tune, regardless.
Nazareth, Beggars Day/Rose In The Heather . . . This is from the Hair Of The Dog album, 1975. Love Hurts and the title cut were the hits/best-known tracks. But as someone on YouTube commented, “every song on this record is the best song on this record.” I agree. Fits my belief that the best band, album or song is the one you are listening to now, if you like it.
Mountain, Blood Of The Sun . . . From Mountain before they were Mountain, so to speak. The song originally appeared on Leslie West’s debut album, titled Mountain, which then became the name of the band.
Queen, Bring Back That Leroy Brown . . . Always loved this fun little ditty from the Sheer Heart Attack album, 1974.
Jethro Tull, When Jesus Came To Play . . . From 1991’s excellent, in my opinion, Catfish Rising album, a bluesy record that, on this tune, harkens lyrically back to Aqualung via Ian Anderson’s caustic observations on God, Jesus, religion, faith.
Junkhouse, Jesus Sings The Blues . . . Great bluesy cut from the debut Junkhouse album, Strays, in 1993. It led to my forever following of everything Junkhouse leader Tom Wilson has done – Junkhouse, solo, Blackie and The Rodeo Kings, Lee Harvey Osmond . . .
Savoy Brown, Money Can’t Save Your Soul . . . Another selection that arose, like my playing Ten Years After early in the set, from that discussion I had with a friend about somewhat under the radar British blues rock. Terrific band that at one point early on split in two, the result giving us Foghat.
Jackson Browne, The Next Voice You Hear . . . Great hypnotic track, a new tune at the time, which served as the title cut to a greatest hits compilation released by Browne in 1997. Was used in the TV series Mr. Mercedes, based on the Stephen King series of books, but I only found that out when I searched the song on YouTube since I’m not much of a TV series watcher, though I’m a fan of King’s books. Haven’t got round to reading the Mercedes series yet, though. Too many interests, too little time/inability to make choices sometimes.