My track-by-track tales follow the bare-bones list.

1. Teenage Head, Disgusteen
2. Ian Dury, Wake Up And Make Love With Me
3. Graham Parker & The Rumour, Saturday Nite Is Dead
4. Elvis Costello, I’m Not Angry
5. The Clash, Brand New Cadillac
6. Blondie, Accidents Never Happen
7. The Cars, You Can’t Hold On Too Long
8. Joe Jackson, Throw It Away
9. Jefferson Airplane, She Has Funny Cars
10. Neil Young, Crime In The City (Sixty To Zero Part 1)
11. Motorhead, Ain’t My Crime
12. Billy Joel, Ain’t No Crime
13. Elton John, It Ain’t Gonna Be Easy
14. Leon Russell, Jumpin’ Jack Flash/Youngblood (live, from the Concert for Bangladesh)
15. The Rolling Stones, Child Of The Moon
16. Iron Maiden, Sign Of The Cross
17. Black Sabbath, Computer God
18. King Crimson, 21st Century Schizoid Man
19. Judas Priest, Beyond The Realms Of Death
20. KK’s Priest, Return Of The Sentinel
21. Bob Dylan, The Ballad Of Frankie Lee and Judas Priest
22. Van Halen, Mine All Mine

My track-by-track tales:

1. Teenage Head, Disgusteen . . . “Nice day for a party . . . isn’t it?” I can never get enough of that intro line and then of course the later playing off The Exorcist movie amid the incessant riff of the song . . . “Come on in, Father Karras. Regan’s inside here with me, she’s going nowhere. ‘But please, it’s so cold you must let her go.’ “She’s not going anywhere. Not till I’m finished with her, you understand.”

2. Ian Dury, Wake Up And Make Love With Me . . . Dury, one of those artists I got into via a college friend who, en route to a party, played me Dury’s Sex & Drugs & Rock & Roll on his car tape deck (yeah, I’m aging) which prompted me to investigate New Boots and Panties!! album from which Wake Up And Make Love With Me comes. Loved the album, still do, easily to me Dury’s best, most consistent work and I became a disciple of Dury, for a time, anyway, because aside from the slightly later hit, Hit Me With Your Rhythm Stick, the stuff he was releasing post-New Boots and Panties!! didn’t make it with me anymore. But, that does not take away from whatever it is he did and I’ve named just a few songs here and the point is, he did them.

3. Graham Parker & The Rumour, Saturday Nite Is Dead . . . From the ‘angry young man’ period of Parker’s career, from the album, Squeezing Out Sparks, arguably his best album, terrific front to back and featuring such songs as the single Local Girls and Protection. But, I must confess that I got into Parker via his next album, The Up Escalator, issued in 1980 which met with lukewarm reviews I’ve never understood I mean, Devil’s Sidewalk, Stupefaction, Endless Night, Empty Lives . . . anyway so I got into Parker via The Up Escalator, then I went back, and forward until he found marital bliss, lost the angry young man persona, got boring, to me anyway, and that was that. He’s still out there, though. Maybe I should see what he’s up to; we’ve both aged, maybe I’ll find some commonality.

4. Elvis Costello, I’m Not Angry . . . Speaking of ‘angry young men’, Costello, around the same time as Parker was considered part of that unofficial, media-created trio that also included Joe Jackson, who I’ll get to in a bit because if I play one of the ‘angry young men’ I feel compelled to play the other two, at least if I’m playing something from their late 1970s period. So here’s I’m Not Angry, from Costello’s 1977 debut release My Aim Is True which arguably could be categorized as a greatest hits album, it’s so full of great songs.

5. The Clash, Brand New Cadillac . . . The Clash’s explosive take on Vince Taylor’s 1959 rockabilly tune, released by The Clash on London Calling in 1979 and prompting music completists like me to take a trip back to Taylor, which is what a great cover tune can do and thankfully so. Taylor’s tune is terrific. And you can’t beat a lyric the Clash inserted, Baby, baby, drove up in a Cadillac I said, “Jesus Christ, where’d you get that Cadillac?” She said, “Balls to you, daddy, she ain’t never coming back.” Now, Vince Taylor may have wanted to write and sing such a lyric but allowable things were different in 1958 when he released his song, as a B-side (?!) but anyway 21 years later The Clash said it and all is well and good.

6. Blondie, Accidents Never Happen . . . My favorite song – and maybe my favorite Blondie song overall, hits and otherwise – from the Eat To The Beat album, the 1979 followup to the smash hit 1978 album Parallel Lines which featured the hits or at least well-known tracks Hanging On The Telephone, Heart Of Glass and One Way Or Another. Accidents Never Happen wasn’t released as a single, though. Killer track, to my ears.

7. The Cars, You Can’t Hold On Too Long . . . David Bowie-esque track from the second Cars album, Candy-O, released in 1979. Sung by bass player Benjamin Orr, who also handled vocals on such well-known Cars tunes as Just What I Needed, Drive, Let’s Go and Moving In Stereo.

8. Joe Jackson, Throw It Away . . . a rocker from JJ’s debut album, Look Sharp! in 1979 ends the opening salvo of songs and bands I got into during my college days.

9. Jefferson Airplane, She Has Funny Cars . . . Bo Diddley-esque beat on this one from Surrealistic Pillow, overshadowed by that album’s two hits and the songs – Somebody To Love and White Rabbit – for which the Airplane is best known to casual listeners. There’s so much more, if you dig.

10. Neil Young, Crime In The City (Sixty To Zero Part 1) . . . Rockin’ In The Free World, electric version (it also appeared in acoustic form on the record) was the hit single from Young’s 1989 album Freedom. But this epic ‘story’ song is arguably the heart of the album, a tune Young had road tested at varying lengths, up to 20 minutes, with the final album track coming in at just under nine minutes, prior to official studio album release. Lots of interesting reading about the song available online, although was an instant favorite of mine when I bought the album on CD when it was released, without knowing further to that point.

11. Motorhead, Ain’t My Crime . . . It just came up in the computer system when I was digging for the previous Neil Young song, also featuring the word ‘crime’ in the title. Same as the song after this one. Anyway, as for Motorhead, this is from the band’s 1986 album Orgasmatron, back during a time I wasn’t much into metal although I soon gave the genre more of a chance and embraced it, evidenced by some songs later in the set. Well, check that, re metal. I was into it, I liked Judas Priest, Black Sabbath (who I continue to categorize as hard rock but anyway) and similar bands but I had always thought Motorhead was just shit noise, based on a few listens, but I decided to keep listening, and I was rewarded as I finally ‘got it’.

12. Billy Joel, Ain’t No Crime . . . A song about hangovers, at least that’s how I read the lyrics, good tune, too, from Joel’s Piano Man album. Just get up, get out and move on, to quote a song by the band Fludd which I should play again sometime.
“You got to open your eyes in the morning
Nine o’clock comin’ without any warnin’
And you gotta get ready to go
You say you went out late last evenin’
Did a lot of drinkin’, come home stinkin’
And you went and fell asleep on the floor
And then your lady comes and finds you a-sleepin’
Starts into weepin’ ’bout the hours you been keepin’
And you better get your ass out the door
Ain’t no crime
Yeah, it’s good to get it on to get a load off your mind
It ain’t no crime,
Well, ev’rybody gets that way sometime
It ain’t no crime”

Agreed.

13. Elton John, It Ain’t Gonna Be Easy . . . Lengthy, bluesy piece, one of my favorites from EJ, from 1978’s A Single Man album during a period when he and songwriting partner Bernie Taupin had parted ways and Elton’s commercial fortunes – at least compared to his massive success earlier in the 1970s – were on the downslope. Great stuff, nevertheless.

14. Leon Russell, Jumpin’ Jack Flash/Youngblood (live, from the Concert for Bangladesh) . . . Third in a row in the set from an artist best known for piano/keyboard playing, from Russell’s appearance at the George Harrison-Ravi Shankar-organized benefit concert at New York City’s Madison Square Garden in 1971.

15. The Rolling Stones, Child Of The Moon . . . And here are the Stones, who weren’t at the Bangladesh concert, with the psychedelic sounding B-side to their hit single Jumpin’ Jack Flash. JJ Flash is an amazing song but the fact Child Of The Moon was relegated to B-side status shows how great the Stones are but for the zillionth time, don’t take my word for it, I’m a huge fan so there exists an inherent bias for me, towards them. We all like what we like, we hear things and are moved by them as we hear them, or not, and that’s the beauty of it.

16. Iron Maiden, Sign Of The Cross . . . Spooky, heavy, lengthy progressive metal from The X Factor album, released in 1995 and the first of two records with Blaze Bayley on lead vocals replacing Bruce Dickinson, who had left to pursue a solo career. Bayley never seemed to be fully accepted by the band’s fan base, or arguably the band itself as sales suffered and they asked him to leave at a band meeting as talks of a reunion with Dickinson percolated, although I like the albums Bayley performed on.
Bayley remains something of a footnote and soon enough, Dickinson was back in the band. Maiden has still performed some Bayley-era songs in concert, including Sign Of The Cross which has appeared on some subsequent compilations albeit in live versions with Dickinson singing which seems to me a cheap dig at Bayley but whatever. Frankly, while I truly like Iron Maiden I can only take Dickinson’s vocals in small doses and I’m not saying Bayley is or was better, but Dickinson’s sort of to me operatic whatever one might call it style I find grating after a few songs. And live? Bruce, spare us the ‘scream for me (insert city you’re playing in)” shit, OK? It’s as bad as Ozzy Osbourne’s “clap your hands” BS during his concerts. Uh, the music should make us clap our hands, no? If we need you to exhort us, then maybe the music ain’t quite making it? And I like Maiden, Sabbath, Ozzy solo. Just saying.

17. Black Sabbath, Computer God . . . Prescience from Sabbath’s 1992 album Dehumanizer, Ronnie James Dio on lead vocals and songwriting? “Virtual existence with a superhuman mind, the ultimate creation, destroyer of mankind” Da dum, as AI takes us over which of course has long been addressed in sci-fi, and we’re getting there if not already although so far, we humans appear to still be in charge.

18. King Crimson, 21st Century Schizoid Man . . . More in the same vein as Dehumanizer, in the song title, anyway. And maybe some of the lyrics: “Nothing he’s got he really needs. Twenty first century schizoid man.” It’s so very true about the ‘nothing’ I mean in the end what does one need but a roof over one’s head, food and…music. 🙂 Or maybe I’m overanalzying. In any case, progressive jazz rock metal, this one, from Crimson’s classic debut album, 1969’s In The Court Of The Crimson King.

19. Judas Priest, Beyond The Realms Of Death . . . Acoustic to metal and back again, repeat . . . guitar solos by Glenn Tipton and K.K. Downing. Classic stuff from Priest’s 1978 album Stained Class.

20. KK’s Priest, Return Of The Sentinel . . . Speaking of K.K. (Kenneth Keith) Downing . . . He’s dropped the periods in the title initials of his new project since parting with Priest. Not for his name, just the band name. Anyway, KK’s Priest has released two albums, 2021’s Sermons Of The Sinner, from which I pulled this lengthy obviously Priest-type piece what else would one expect and we now have essentially two Judas Priest bands to enjoy, and 2023’s The Sinner Rides Again. Both discs feature Tim ‘Ripper’ Owens on lead vocals. Owens replaced Rob Halford for two Priest albums, I liked them, in the late 1990s/early 2000s before Halford returned to JP.

21. Bob Dylan, The Ballad Of Frankie Lee and Judas Priest . . . Something completely different from the recent metallic nature of the set, from Dylan’s 1967 folk rock album John Wesley Harding. But . . . it is actually related, in that Judas Priest was inspired by the Dylan song in naming the band. And, later, Priest rocked up Diamonds and Rust, written by Joan Baez, who had been in a relationship with Dylan both musically and personally. It’s interesting how artists mining different genres within music can come together, in a fashion but that should be obvious as most people I would think open their ears to anything and everything. Baez loved Priest’s version of her song (and no doubt the royalties) which in a flip of things, Priest later did live in an acoustic setting, available on YouTube.

22. Van Halen, Mine All Mine . . . I saw/heard Van Halen, the Van (Sammy) Hagar incarnation of the band, open with this on Canada Day 1993 when Van Halen headlined a festival show in Barrie, Ontario. I remember some people bitched about why an American band was headlining a Canada Day show but whatever. We’ve long since had rock acts headlining supposed blues festivals (like in my town, Kitchener, Ontario) that really ought to be rebranded as music festivals with a blues element, so what’s the difference? You want to sell tickets, no?
Anyway, it’s a driving kinda funky track I immediatly liked upon purchase of the second Van Hagar album, OU812 incorporating thoughtful lyrics on life/humanity. Another case where a song could easily have been a single along with those released from the record: Black and Blue, Finish What You Started, When It’s Love and Feels So Good. Quality, all of them. And hey, with 10 tracks on the album you have to leave some for deep cuts DJs to play. 🙂