KSHE Klassics, Oct. 29, 2017

Quotation du jour ~ Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart: Forgive me, Majesty. I am a vulgar man! But I assure you, my music is not.

It was a hassle-free listening experience this week, folks, with very few brief connection drop-outs and, better yet, no BSODs (Blue Screens Of Death). I had a couple during the week, but none on Sunday, so i was able to listen to all of this excellent edition of The Klassics Show virtually uninterrupted.

I want to blether a bit about the outfit that streams KSHE's audio, listenlive [dot] co. When i first started listening to KSHE, all those years ago, it was a different company that handled the stream (i forget its name), and one of the things that piqued my interest in St Louis was listening to the local ads. I'll never forget listening to Arnold, owner of the Goodfeet Store (which also has a branch in Shiloh, Illinois, you know) -- he's quite a character! -- although it struck me as very odd hearing ads for hospitals....

But about three years ago, listenlive [dot] co. took over and decided to block the audio stream to my country. I now need to listen using a VPN.* But worse than that, listen deletes the local advertising and replaces it with ads aimed at my geographical area which, thanks to the VPN, is usually New York City (although i've been hearing an ad for a restaurant in Santa Clara, California, recently).

It gets worser: listenlive also inserts songs of their own choosing that are generally wildly inappropriate, often poorly recorded, and sometimes utterly abysmal. Every week, for instance, i have to suffer two songs i hate but two bands i can't stand, KISS and Aerosmith. The things i have to endure to listen to the best radio program that i know of -- and to bring you this playlist each week....

Oh, look, there's Dickie Betts:

Dickie Betts -- Hand Picked
Dave Mason -- Mystic Traveler
Off Broadway -- Full Moon Turn Your Head Around
Santana -- She's Not There
Brave Belt -- Another Way Out
Joe Walsh -- Meadows
Ronnie Montrose -- Town Without Pity
Traffic -- Empty Pages
Strawbs -- Autumn
Robin Trower -- My Love (Burning Love)
Bob Dylan -- Blowin' In The Wind
Arthur Brown -- Fire
The Who -- Slip Kid
Chicago -- Make Me Smile
.38 Special -- Rock And Roll Strategy
Steve Walsh -- Every Step Of The Way
Cat Stevens -- Bitterblue
Leon Russell -- Tightrope
Creedence Clearwater Revival -- Midnight Special
Loggins & Messina -- Angry Eyes
Rick Derringer -- Don't Ever Say Goodbye
Foreigner -- Women
April Wine -- Roller
Frankie And The Knockouts -- Running Into The Night
The Boomtown Rats -- I Don't Like Mondays
Jethro Tull -- Living In The Past
Wet Willie -- Everything That You Do (Will Come Back To You)
John Mellencamp -- Small Paradise
Patti Smith -- Because The Night
Ted Nugent & The Amboy Dukes -- Call Of The Wild
Lou Reed -- Sweet Jane
Electric Light Orchestra -- Poker
Styx -- Lady
The Rolling Stones -- Wild Horses
REO Speedwagon -- Son Of A Poor Man

Here's what we've been “grooving” to (as we hipsters say) at home this week:

Bruce Cockburn – In The Falling Dark
Thin Lizzy – Live And Dangerous
Dan Fogelberg & Tim Weisberg – No Resemblance Whatsoever
Various Artists – Passion Sources
Pink Floyd – Ummagumma
Dan Fogelberg – Full Circle
Jeff Beck – You Had It Coming
The Fray – How To Save A Life
Mr Fox – Join Us In Our Game
Dan Fogelberg – Nether Lands
Fairport Convention – The Five Seasons
Electric Light Orchestra – Early Years
Peter Hammill – Fireships
Jefferson Airplane – Bless Its Pointed Little Head
Joni Mitchell – Night Ride Home
Matchbox 20 – Yourself Or Someone Like You
Bob Dylan – Highway 61 Revisited
Dead Can Dance – Spiritchaser
Various Artists – Boogie Nights 2
Shirley & Dolly Collins – Anthems In Eden
Jennifer Warnes – Famous Blue Raincoat
Supertramp – Crisis? What Crisis?
Jeff Beck – Live At The Hollywood Bowl
Joan Osborne – Songs Of Bob Dylan
Five Hand Reel – Earl O' Moray
The Tragically Hip – Up To Here
Stan Rogers – Fogarty's Cove
Santana – Milagro
Pink Floyd – Wish You Were Here
The Byrds – Free Flyte

*My VPN is Tunnel Bear and i'd recommend them highly. https://www.tunnelbear.com/ They have a free version that gives you 500 MB of data a month, but i pay $9.99 (USD) a month for unlimited and it's worth every cent.

The KSHE Klassics Program, Oct. 22, 2017

Quotation du jour ~ Gord Downie: We want to bring good music to the people. That’s what it’s all about.

My regular reader will recall that, earlier this year, i had a lot of problems listening to this program: something called netio.sys kept crashing my system. But then it stopped, and streaming the audio was -- with one or two notable exceptions -- pretty painless for quite a while. I thought i'd solved the problem by running a few maintenance tasks.

I may have to run those maintenance tasks again, though: netio.sys (it's a system service exception error)  has reared its ugly head again this weekend and crashed my system right in the middle of Chilliwack's "Baby Blue." I missed very little of the program though, but i had to listen on my iPad for maybe five minutes. Not quite the same as my computer speakers are very good ones and the iPad sound leaves a lot to be desired (and of course i have no idea where the earbuds are).

Overall, a darned good show today.

I need to say a few words about Gord Downie of The Tragically Hip, who died last Tuesday. He really deserves a post of his own, but i don't think i'm articulate (or sober) enough to write a substantial and worthy one.

KSHE has never played The Tragically Hip (which is odd, as they play a goodly amount of Canadian schtuff), but my friend Tommy, who is the overnight deejay there during the week, knows their music and played it at a station he used to work for. He sends his condolences. Sadly, the band is virtually unknown in the States. Perhaps their music dealt too much with Canadian themes: who else would write a song called "Bobcaygeon"? Who in the USA would know what the heck it meant? But then there was "New Orleans Is Sinking" -- maybe it just touched too many nerves after Hurricane Katrina, although it was written long before....

But to Canadians, he was a hero: not just as a musician but as a writer and as an activist for native rights. Our Prime Minister spoke to the press about him and had tears rolling down his cheeks. (A lot of people in Canada were familiar with tears rolling down their cheeks this week.) As Justin Trudeau said, this country is less of a place with him gone.

Anyway, or, as Canadians say, anyways, here's the playlist:

R.I.P., Gord






Stephen Stills -- Love The One You're With
Supertramp -- Even In The Quietest Moments
Nantucket -- Quite Like You
Charlie Daniels -- Caballo Diablo
Andy Pratt -- Avenging Annie
Thin Lizzy -- Romeo And The Lonely Girl
Rare Earth -- Get Ready
UFO -- Lights Out
The Grateful Dead -- Friend Of The Devil
Bruce Springsteen -- Prove It All Night
Brewer & Shipley -- One Toke Over The Line
Yes -- Siberian Khatru
Rocky Burnette -- Tired Of Toein' The Line
Wet Willie -- Baby Fat
Outlaws -- Green Grass And High Tides
Shooting Star -- Bring It On
Emerson, Lake & Palmer -- Still ... You Turn Me On
Gary Wright -- Love Is Alive
King Crimson -- 21st Century Schizoid Man
The Little River Band -- It's Not A Wonder
Blackfoot -- Train, Train
Journey -- Topaz
Robin Trower -- Little Bit Of Sympathy
Ambrosia -- Holdin' On To Yesterday
Sniff 'N' The Tears -- Driver's Seat
Chilliwack -- Baby Blue
The Moody Blues -- Ride My See-Saw
April Wine -- Wings Of Love
The Marshall Tucker Band -- Blue Ridge Mountain Sky
Charlie -- She Loves To Be In Love
Foghat -- Stone Blue
Jethro Tull -- Too Old To Rock'N'Roll, Too Young To Die
Stillwater -- Women (Beautiful Women)
Saga -- On The Loose
Crawler -- Sail On
Blue Cheer -- Summertime Blues

And this is what my cat has been dancing to at home this week:

Maddy Prior & June Tabor – No More To The Dance
Jane Siberry – When I Was A Boy
Björk – Homogenic
Planxty – The Well Below The Valley
Peter Hammill – Everyone You Hold
Caro Emerald – The Shocking Miss Emerald (Deluxe Edition)
Talk Talk – Spirit Of Eden
The Boswell Sisters – Shout, Sister, Shout!
Rory Gallagher – Deuce
The Tragically Hip – In Violet Light
Bruce Springsteen – High Hopes
The Allman Brothers Band – At Fillmore East
P.J. Harvey – White Chalk
Florence + The Machine – Lungs
Nanci Griffith – The MCA Years: A Retrospective
Yes – The Yes Album
Monty Python – Monty Python Sings.
John Kirkpatrick – Coat-Tails Flying
Kathy Mattea – Walking Away A Winner
Blowzabella – Vanilla
Alan Stivell – Live In Dublin
Paul Simon – Graceland
Van der Graaf Generator – A Grounding In Numbers
Jennifer Warnes – Famous Blue Raincoat
Steeleye Span – Bedlam Born
The Beatles – Please Please Me

Just My Imagination (Runnin' Away With Me)

Someone said to me recently that i had a "very unique" imagination and it was the semantic howler as much as anything else that started me thinking about the subject. ("Unique" is an absolute and doesn't take kindly to qualifiers.)

Do i have a unique imagination? Well, of course i do -- anyone with an imagination has one that is unique to themself. But i find that very few people these days seem to have any imagination at all and i started wondering why.

Donald Fagen, in his memoirs -- the excellent "Eminent Hipsters" -- called them TV Babies: people born since 1960 who grew up being babysat by mindless programming on television. They never developed an imagination because they didn't have to, they had everything handed to them. I didn't: i watched television, sure, but i preferred reading books. I don't even now own a working TV -- i did, but as i rarely watched anything, why bother to replace it?

Someone, and i wish i could remember who, once said that they "prefer the radio to television because the pictures are better." Absolutely!

(Full disclosure: i do have a few television series on DVD, and i watch those occasionally, but they are mostly series that are pretty insane, like "The Big Bang Theory" and "Father Ted.")

It's not going to get any better. Kids nowadays rarely seem to get their faces out of their phones; well, not just kids!

The KSHE Klassics Program, Oct. 15, 2017

Quotation du jour ~ Rod Stewart: Instead of getting married again, I'm going to find a woman I don't like and just give her a house.

After last week's program, which was so overwhelmingly good, this week's was a bit of a let-down. Last week's show would have been difficult to top and it's still the best four hours of radio that i know of, and although there were many performers this morning that i love, there were few songs that made me want to say, "OMG! I haven't heard that since...."

I need to say a few words about Rod Stewart. Although nowadays he's irrelevant, early in his career -- both solo and with The Jeff Beck Group, he released some amazing music. Then he became rich and materialistic. He could still release some thrilling music, but each subsequent album contained less and less of interest until, in 2002, he released the first volume in what became a 5-CD set, "The Great American Songbook," in which he managed to render some of the greatest pop music standards of the thirties, forties and fifties, utterly boring. Mind you, they were some of the best-selling albums of his career, so what the hell do i know? (He also released, a few years later, possibly the worst Christmas album i have ever heard this side of Alvin And The Chipmunks'.)

I read his autobiography a year or so ago. As with his musical career, it started out well -- some of it was laugh-out-loud funny -- but then he became rich and famous and he started writing about nothing but his latest possessions, his new mansions, his latest conquests of the female persuasion, pffft.

Relevant Rod, there.

Rod Stewart -- Every Picture Tells A Story

The Michael Stanley Band -- One Good Reason

Robin Trower -- Sweet Wine Of Love

Angel -- The Tower

Santana -- Winning

Dave Mason -- Only You Know And I Know

Emerson, Lake & Palmer -- From The Beginning

The Grateful Dead -- A Touch Of Grey

Eric Clapton -- Motherless Children

Shooting Star -- Last Chance

Billy Joel -- The Entertainer

Utopia -- Love Is The Answer

Climax Blues Band -- Using The Power

Steely Dan -- Aja

The Sutherland Brothers & Quiver -- Slipstream

Dr John -- Right Place, Wrong Time

Big Country -- In A Big Country

John Waite -- Change

Denim -- Throw Away

Atlanta Rhythm Section -- Angel (What In The World's Come Over Us)

Blind Faith -- Sea Of Joy

Steve Winwood -- Arc Of A Diver

Dire Straits -- Skateaway

The Babys -- Looking For Love

Les Dudek -- City Magic

Yes -- Time And A Word

Charlie -- Killer Cut

The Byrds -- Turn! Turn! Turn!

Jefferson Airplane -- Volunteers

Kenny Loggins -- Celebrate Me Home

Ambrosia -- Nice, Nice, Very Nice

The Moody Blues -- The Story In Your Eyes

Elton John -- Where To Now St Peter

Rainbow -- Long Live Rock And Roll

Horslips -- Sure The Boy Was Green

And here's what i've been torturing the neighbours with this week:

Dan Fogelberg – The Wild Places

Eagles – One Of These Nights

Television – Marquee Moon

Marillion – Be My Prog Friends Barcelona 2

Mama's Pride – Mama's Pride

Brand X – Unorthodox Behaviour

Kate Bush – Director's Cut

P.J. Harvey – Stories From The City, Stories From The Sea

The White Stripes – Under Great White Northern Lights

June Tabor – Angel Tiger

Peter Hammill – Sitting Targets

The Soundtrack Of Our Lives – Behind The Music

Ivie Anderson – I Got It Good And That Ain't Bad

The Beatles – Revolver

Ray Davies – Thanksgiving Day

David Bowie – The Best Of David Bowie 1974/1979

Sheryl Crow – Tuesday Night Music Club

Rory Gallagher – Rory Gallagher

Home – Pause For A Hoarse Horse

Procol Harum – A Salty Dog

Steeleye Span – Hark! The Village Wait

The Allman Brothers Band – Brothers And Sisters

Paul Simon – The Rhythm Of The Saints

The Bothy Band – Old Hag You Have Killed Me

Dead Can Dance – Toward The Within

Talk Talk – Spirit Of Eden

The KSHE Klassics Program, Oct. 8, 2017

Quotation du jour ~ Tom Petty: If no one ever wrote another song, we’d be fine. There’s plenty of songs. But I still do it. I love it, it’s a gift.

Sadly, Tom Petty no longer does it...

Personally, i'm not crazy about this week's show's opener, The Charlie Daniels Band: oh, they're listenable enough, but i wouldn't necessarily choose to listen to them. Things picked up immediately, however, with Rush, a band who has created some much-loved music. I wouldn't include "Jacob's Ladder" in a list of my all-time favourite songs, though (good as it is), but i would include The Hooters' song, the Dan Fogelberg, and the Mott The Hoople, plus there many of my favourite groups this morning -- Steely Dan, The Doobies, Yes, The Sutherland Brothers, etc. etc. In fact there was only one song this morning that i actively disliked -- the one by Aphrodite's Child (although the Ted Nugent was kind of moronic, but then so is Ted Nugent).

It was a virtually seamless listening experience as far as the audio stream was concerned (unlike the horrorshow of a fortnight ago). Sure, there were a few drop-outs, but as they lasted for little more than a second each time, i was happy.

John Ulett (the program's host) mentioned that there will be a Dan Fogelberg tribute album released on Nov. 17 https://www.broadwayworld.com/bwwmusic/article/Long-Awaited-Dan-Fogelberg-Tribute-Album-Out-1117-20170929 I'll be very interested in that: so much of his music means so much to me and i don't think i've ever heard any cover versions of his songs....

Anyway, i know, just shut up and give us the playlist (i hear you say), so here 'tis.

The Charlie Daniels Band -- The Devil Went Down To Georgia
Rush -- Jacob's Ladder
Tycoon -- Such A Woman
Steely Dan -- Black Cow
Bruce Springsteen -- Jungleland
The Fixx -- Stand Or Fall
Badfinger -- Perfection
The Hooters -- All You Zombies
Dan Fogelberg -- Illinois
Alvin Lee w. Mylon LeFevre -- So Sad (No Love Of His Own)
Joe Satriani -- Always With Me, Always With You
The Doobie Brothers -- Natural Thing
Yes -- America
Steve Winwood -- While You See A Chance
Elton John -- Harmony
Michael Murphey -- Geronimo's Cadillac
Aphrodite's Child -- Loud Loud Loud/4 Horsemen
Steve Miller -- The Stake
Derek & The Dominos -- Why Does Love Got To Be So Sad
The Sutherland Brothers & Quiver -- Arms Of Mary
Mott The Hoople -- All The Way From Memphis
Emerson, Lake & Palmer -- Tank
Procol Harum -- A Whiter Shade Of Pale
The Marshall Tucker Band -- 24 Hours At A Time
King Crimson -- The Court Of The Crimson King
Heart -- Kick It Out
Ted Nugent -- Hey Baby
The Babys -- California
Supertramp -- Sister Moonshine
Fleetwood Mac -- She's Changing Me
The Doors -- The Wasp
The Byrds -- So You Want To Be A Rock 'n' Roll Star
Todd Rundgren -- Hello It's Me

And here's what's been under the laser here at World HQ this week:

Dan Fogelberg – River Of Souls
The Albion Band – Albion Heart
Broadway Revival Cast 1992 – Guys And Dolls
Peter Hammill – pH7
Eagles – One Of These Nights
Pink Floyd – Wish You Were Here
Madonna – American Life*
Carole King – Tapestry
James Taylor – Before This World
Jeff Beck – Jeff
Steve Earle – Essential Steve Earle
Neverending White Lights – Goodbye Friends Of The Heavenly Bodies
Rory Gallagher – Defender
Joan Osborne – Righteous Love
Simon Nicol – Before Your Time
Roger McGuinn – Live From Mars
Sandy Denny – Rendezvous
Genesis – Foxtrot
Radiohead – In Rainbows
The Pretty Reckless – Going To Hell
Focus – Hamburger Concerto
Mike Oldfield – Return To Ommadawn
Five Hand Reel – Five Hand Reel
Talk Talk – Spirit Of Eden
Runrig – The Cutter And The Clan
Marillion – F.E.A.R.
Joni Mitchell – Turbulent Indigo
Caro Emerald – Emerald Island
Various Artists – The Mother Of All Morris
Chris Leslie – Origins
Kronos Quartet w. Bob Ostertag – All The Rage

*No, really. It's the only album of hers i've ever bought. It was also her worst-selling album ever and was absolutely slammed by the critics. I like it, what can I tell ya.

USPS Revisited

I posted a few weeks ago (https://spriggsblog.blogspot.ca/2017/09/usps.html) about the United States Postal Service and their lousy performance record in shipping to Canada -- it really is beyond my comprehension why it should take a package coming from Illinois or Missouri eight weeks to arrive (which is the norm) when packages coming from Holland arrive in less than a fortnight.

I may have to reconsider. A couple of weeks ago, i ordered a 2018 St Louis calendar from a place in Georgia and i was expecting it at the end of October, yet it arrived on Friday.

I still can't forgive them for delivering the Christmas Cards i ordered last year, at the end of October, at the end of December, i.e., after Christmas.

I know, First World problems....

The KSHE Klassics Show, October 1st, 2017

Quotation du jour: Albert Einstein ~ If I were not a physicist, I would probably be a musician. I often think in music. I live my daydreams in music. I see my life in terms of music.

Now, that's more like it! After last Sunday's horrendous listening experience, a nightmare of both laptop (hardware) and connection problems, today's experience was as smooth as a baby's bum. I called my man Bryan at tech support on Monday and he suggested i do something and it made my connection rock solid. Give the man a medal -- i've been having connection problems off and on for years, and no one had ever mentioned his solution before. I wonder why?

And it was an excellent program today -- guess life is worth living after all.

One of my favourite album covers of all time:

Badfinger -- Day After Day
Kansas -- Miracles Out Of Nowhere
Alice Cooper Billion Dollar Babies
Steely Dan -- Deacon Blues
Supertramp -- Bloody Well Right
April Wine -- Like A Lover, Like A Song
Tony Carey -- A Fine, Fine Day
The James Gang -- Midnight Man
Spooky Tooth -- Cotton Growin' Man
Poco -- You Better Think Twice
Tom Petty -- Listen To Her Heart
Lake -- Between The Lines
Ten Years After -- I'd Love To Change The World
John Mellencamp -- Hot Night In A Cold Town
Brownsville Station -- (The) Martian Boogie
Bob Dylan -- Positively 4th Street
Lighthouse -- One Fine Morning
Journey -- On A Saturday Night
Bruce Springsteen -- Kitty's Back
Creedence Clearwater Revival -- Green River
Bob Seger -- Turn The Page
Starcastle -- Lady Of The Lake
Black Oak Arkansas -- Jim Dandy
Stingray -- The Man In My Shoes
Rare Earth -- I Just Want To Celebrate
Little Feat -- Time Loves A Hero
Yes -- Yours Is No Disgrace
Emerson, Lake & Palmer -- Hoedown
The Ozark Mountain Daredevils -- Chicken Train
The Rolling Stones -- When The Whip Comes Down
Ian MacLagan -- Little Troublemaker
Stillwater -- I Reserve The Right
String Driven Thing -- Circus
Traffic -- Rock & Roll Stew
Wet Willie -- Keep On Smilin'

Here's what I persecuted the neighbours with this week:

Idjah Hadidjah – Tonggeret
Ashley Hutchings – By Gloucester Docks I Sat Down And Wept
Waterson:Carthy – Holy Heathens And The Old Green Man
Planxty – Old Hag You Have Killed Me
Van der Graaf Generator – Do Not Disturb
Emerson, Lake & Palmer – Trilogy
Tori Amos – Little Earthquakes
George Harrison – Best Of Dark Horse 1976 – 1989
Kathleen Edwards – Back To Me
Talk Talk – Spirit Of Eden
Survivor – Vital Signs
Yes – Going For The One
Jethro Tull – A Passion Play
Buddy Guy – Bring 'Em In
Dan Fogelberg – The Wild Places
Rockpile – Seconds Of Pleasure
ABBA – The Visitors
Ian Anderson – Thick As A Brick 2
The Beatles – Let It Be
Paula Cole – This Bright Red Feeling
Seether – Poison The Parish
Steeleye Span – Dodgy Bastards
Don Henley – The End Of The Innocence