Monday 27 August 2018

KSHE Klassics Show, August 26, 2018




Quotation du jour: Courtney Love ~ I can turn on the radio right now and be inspired.

[As you may or may not know, i live in Canada, and for some reason KSHE doesn't stream their audio to here. I have to connect via a VPN to spoof a non-Canadian address. This week, according to https://whatismyipaddress.com/, i was listening from the village of Saltford, Somerset, England. I've never been there before.]

I have to admit that i approached this week's show with some uneasiness, especially after the last two less-than-brilliant editions.

When Hubbard Radio bought KSHE back in April or May, they promised that there would be no changes to the programming, but i had begun to wonder. Hubbard has also been on the receiving end of some severe criticism on KSHE's Facebook page. Then, last week, i learned that the host of my other favourite KSHE program, "The Rock Magazine" (weekday mornings at 4 a.m. Eastern Time) and the overnight deejay (and my Facebook friend) Tommy T.  had been let go. But according to another KSHE deejay, Favazz, Hubbard is a good company to work for, so Tommy's redundancy may not have had anything to do with them but was a simple matter of economics: very few radio stations have overnight deejays any more, it's all automated. (KSHE now calls its overnight man "Otto Mation.")

Still, it's sad about Tommy and i worried that the Klassics Show had been fucked with. It seems i worried for nowt. Today's show was far better than the last two.

The inclusion of Dan Fogelberg automatically gives it an A+ but, truth to tell, i would probably have scored it that highly anyway. There were tedious moments, for sure – Giuffria and Black Sabbath, i'm talking to you here – and only one song i seriously disliked (the Harry Chapin) but otherwise there was a load of wonderful music, and quite a lot i can honestly say i love. Blind Faith, Renaissance, Peter Gabriel ... the list goes on. Truly the highlight of my week.












.38 Special – Stone Cold Believer
The Youngbloods – Darkness, Darkness
Rod Stewart – Tonight's The Night
Blind Faith – Had To Cry Today
The Doors – Moonlight Drive
Renaissance – Northern Lights
The Band – Life Is A Carnival
The Charlie Daniels Band – Blue Star
Giuffria – Call To The Heart
Dan Fogelberg – Missing You
Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young – Ohio
Bob Dylan – Lily, Rosemary And The Jack Of Hearts
The Moody Blues – Lovely To See You
Steely Dan – The Caves Of Altamira
Sammy Hagar – Run For Your Life Girl
The Doobie Brothers – Turn It Loose
Black Sabbath – Changes
The Little River Band – Statue Of Liberty
Charlie – Fantasy Girl
Axe – Rock And Roll Party In The Streets
Yes – Don't Kill The Whale
Russ Ballard – Rene Didn't Do It
Pete Townshend – Let's See Action
Tom Petty – A Woman In Love (It's Not Me)
The Marshall Tucker Band – Ramblin'
Jefferson Starship – Ride The Tiger
Peter Gabriel – Red Rain
The Pousette-Dart Band – Amnesia
Eric Clapton – I've Got A Rock 'n' Roll Heart
The J. Geils Band – Musta Got Lost
Manfred Mann's Earth Band – Don't Kill It Carol
April Wine – Shot Down
Harry Chapin – WOLD
The Alan Parsons Project – I Wouldn't Want To Be Like You
Billy Thorpe – In My Room
Gary Wright – Silent Fury
The Atlanta Rhythm Section – Neon Nights
The Steve Miller Band – Living In The USA

Our nerves are shot here at Spriggs Towers. The pressure this week was virtually unrelenting. Work-related, mostly. The albums that appeared on the corporate CD drive helped a lot:

Richard Thompson – More Guitar
Collective Soul – Youth
This Mortal Coil – Filigree And Shadow
Humble Pie – Performance: Rockin' The Fillmore
Elvis Costello – This Year's Model
3 – … To The Power Of Three
Joe Cocker – With A Little Help From My Friends
Wishbone Ash – The Best Of Wishbone Ash
The Who – Meaty, Beaty, Big And Bouncy
Sparks – Li'l Beethoven
Highly Strung – When The Winds Begin To Sing
Simon Nicol – Consonant Please Carol
Robert Plant – The Principle Of Moments
Emerson Lake & Palmer – Trilogy
The Kinks – Muswell Hillbillies
Maddy Prior – Woman In The Wings
Rod Stewart – Every Picture Tells A Story
Caro Emerald – Deleted Scenes From The Cutting Room Floor
Van Morrison – His Band And The Street Choir
Various Artists – The Earth Greets The Sun: Gamelan Music From Bali
Buffalo Springfield – Last Time Around
Dixie Chicks – Taking The Long Way
Various Artists – Dylan Covered
Fairport Convention – Who Knows Where The Time Goes?
Colin James – Traveler
Planxty – Cold Blow And The Rainy Night
Steeleye Span – Ten Man Mop, Or, Mr Reservoir Butler Rides Again
Rod Stewart – Out Of Order
Paul Simon – The Rhythm Of The Saints
The Jimi Hendrix Experience – Are You Experienced?
Various Artists – Shining Bright: The Songs Of Lal & Mike Waterson

Monday 20 August 2018

KSHE Klassics Show, August 19th, 2018


Quotation du jour: Lester Bangs ~ "Music, you know, true music not just rock 'n' roll, chooses you."

[As you may or may not know, i live in Canada, and for some reason KSHE doesn't stream their audio to here. I have to connect via a VPN to spoof a non-Canadian address. This week, according to https://whatismyipaddress.com/, i was listening from New York City again, somewhere in Manhattan.]

Oh, this is tough one. After last week's underwhelming instalment, which scored a measly B+, i'm very sorry to say that i have to give this week's even less whelming edition a B: primarily because of the inclusion of one band i cannot abide – Aerosmith – but also because a lot of it was, frankly, tedious. I mean, c'mon John: Michael Fennelly? Jimmy Spheeris? Why did we have Sugarloaf lead off the show for the second time this month? Where were all the regulars like Jackson Browne, Elton John and Steely Dan?

For the second week running, we were 2½ hours in before a song came on that i truly love: the Wishbone Ash. There was lots of schtuff before that that i liked, of course, but "Phoenix" was definitely the highlight for me today. I enjoyed hearing Brian Auger, too; i rarely hear him on KSHE.



Sugarloaf – Green-Eyed Lady
Aerosmith – Big Ten Inch Record
38 Special – Fantasy Girl
Rush – Xanadu
John Waite – Change
Fleetwood Mac – Danny's Chant
The Marshall Tucker Band – Fly Like An Eagle
Todd Rundgren – Love Of The Common Man
Trooper – Knock 'Em Dead Kid
The Who – Another Tricky Day
Pete Townshend – A Little Is Enough
Bob Dylan – Stuck Inside Of Mobile With The Memphis Blues Again
Michael Fennelly – Touch My Soul
The Electric Light Orchestra – Poker
The Allman Brothers Band – Don't Want You No More/Not My Cross To Bear
Journey – Spaceman
Jimmy Spheeris – I Am The Mercury
Tom Petty – A Thing About You
The Butts Band – Be With Me
Head East – Since You Been Gone
Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young – Our House
Wishbone Ash – Phoenix
Thunderclap Newman – Something In The Air
Gamma – Voyager
Rod Stewart – Blondes (Have More Fun)
Brian Auger – Happiness Is Just Around The Bend
Black Sabbath – The Wizard
Styx – Father O.S.A.
The Police – Driven To Tears
Pat Travers – Snortin' Whiskey
Shooting Star – Tonight
Michael Stanley – He Can't Love You
Eric Clapton – She's Waiting
The Amboy Dukes – Journey To The Center Of The Mind
Prism – Julie
The Rolling Stones – When The Whip Comes Down
Charlie Daniels – Long-Haired Country Boy

And here's what kept the doctor away at home this week:

Cheryl Dilcher – Special Songs
Davy Spillane – Out Of The Air
Buffalo Springfield – Buffalo Springfield Again
Laurie Anderson & Kronos Quartet – Landfall
Dan Fogelberg – Love In Time
Steeleye Span – Parcel Of Rogues
Yes – Fragile
Terje Rypdal – Chaser
Marillion – Holidays In Eden
Rory Gallagher – Tattoo
Brian Plummer – No Questions
Rush – Power Windows
Atlanta Rhythm Section – Third Annual Pipe Dream
P.J. Harvey – White Chalk
Saga – Silent Knight
Maddy Prior – Woman In The Wings
The Beatles – Let It Be
Happy Rhodes – Ectotrophia
John Fogerty – Blue Moon Swamp
The Bothy Band – Old Hag You Have Killed Me
Dire Straits – Alchemy
Al Di Meola – Casino
Annie Haslam – Annie Haslam
Wishbone Ash – There's The Rub
Yes – Close To The Edge
Pink Floyd – Animals
Fish – A Feast Of Consequnces
David Gilmour – Rattle That Lock
Kathy Mattea – Love Travels
Martin & Eliza Carthy – The Moral Of The Elephant
Steely Dan – A Decade Of Steely Dan
Sharon Shannon – Out The Gap
Blodwyn Pig – Getting To This

Sunday 12 August 2018

KSHE Klassics Show, August 12th, 2018



Quotation du jour: Elmore Leonard ~ My purpose is to entertain and please myself. I feel that if I am entertained, then there will be enough other readers who will be entertained, too.

[As you may or may not know, i live in Canada, and for some reason KSHE doesn't stream their audio to here. I have to connect via a VPN to spoof a non-Canadian address. This week, according to https://whatismyipaddress.com/, i was listening from New York City again, somewhere in Manhattan. Great! I love NYC.]

It's difficult to know what to say about this morning's show. There was quite a lot that was pretty ordinary, and a few songs i could have happily lived without. I almost gave it a B, but when "Friends Of Mr Cairo" came on, that was automatically bumped up to B+

I have occasionally listened to an online station called St Louis Classic Rock [dot] com. They pride themselves on how long they can go without repeating a song. The last time i looked, they were well over 5000. (Your average radio station – not that i ever listen to average radio stations – plays the same 300 songs every day.) The problem there, though, and the reason i rarely listen, is that, by necessity, some of what St Louis Classic Rock plays is really obscure, and deserves to be!

I had that feeling this morning – that a lot of what Uman played was utterly dispensible. Michael Bolton – really, John! -- Runner, Gypsy, Rainbow.... Quelle blague! But there were a few songs that i love. Not a huge number, but enough to make the show the highlight of my week, as it usually is, and there was nothing that i hated, so, yes.



Runner – Fooling Myself
,38 Special – Rock And Roll Strategy
Little Feat – Oh, Atlanta
Todd Rundgren – Just One Victory
Paul Kantner, Grace Slick & David Freiberg – Across The Board
Stephen Stills – Turn Back The Pages
Dave Mason – Look At You, Look At Me
April Wine – Say Hello
Jay Ferguson – Thunder Island
Bachman-Turner Overdrive – Hey You
Michael Bolton – Fool's Game
Bruce Cockburn – If I Had A Rocket Launcher
Montrose – Town Without Pity
Pure Prairie League – Amie
Billy Joel – The Ballad Of Billy The Kid
The Little River Band – Every Day Of My Life
Justin Hayward – Forever Autumn
Steely Dan – Black Cow
Thin Lizzy – Dancing In The Moonlight
The Rolling Stones – Wild Horses
Gypsy – Dead And Gone
The Charlie Daniels Band – Orange Blossom Special
Mott The Hoople – All The Young Dudes
John Mellencamp – Small Paradise
The Moody Blues – Gypsy/Eternity Road
Elton John – Take Me To The Pilot
Eagles – Outlaw Man
The Grateful Dead – Playing In The Band
Jefferson Airplane – Volunteers
Richie Blackmore's Rainbow – Long Live Rock And Roll
Fleetwood Mac – Hypnotized
Jimi Hendrix Experience – Little Wing
Jon & Vangelis – The Friends Of Mr Cairo
Manassas – It Doesn't Matter
Trooper – Raise A Little Hell
Santana – Well Alright
Queen – I Want It All
Shooting Star -- Breakout

I had a rough week at the office. At home, these albums, along with the imbibing of a certain hops-based beverage, were my medicine:

The Nice – The Nice
Radiohead – O.K. Computer
Tyrannosaurus Rex – Prophets, Seers And Sages, The Angels Of The Ages
Kronos Quartet – Pieces Of Africa
Various Arists – A Tribute To Dan Fogelberg
The Kinks – The Collection
Dan Fogelberg – Something Old, Something New, Something Borrowed … And Some Blues
Runrig – Heartland
Fairport Convention – Live In Finland, 1971
The Kinks – Lola Versus Powerman And The Moneygoround
Wolfscote – Turn The Glass
Florence + The Machine – High As Hope
Loggins And Messina – Sittin' In Again
Harry Nilsson – The Harry Nilsson Anthology: Personal Best
Runrig – The Ones That Got Away
Happy Rhodes – Ectotrophia
Garfield – Out There Tonight
The Electric Light Orchestra – No Answer
Maddy Prior – Year
Mott The Hoople – Mott
Mike Oldfield – QE2
Peter Gabriel – So
Little Johnny England – Mercs And Cherokees
City Boy – Young Men Gone West
The Kinks – Sleepwalker
Pink – Try This
Garmarna – Hildegard von Bingen
Genesis – Foxtrot

Monday 6 August 2018

KSHE Klassics Show, August 5th, 2018



Quotation du jour: Bob Dylan ~ This land is your land and this land is my land, sure, but the world is run by those that never listen to music anyway.

[As you may or may not know, i live in Canada, and for some reason KSHE doesn't stream their audio to here. I have to connect via a VPN to spoof a non-Canadian address. This week, according to https://whatismyipaddress.com/, i was listening from New York City again. Great! I love NYC.]

I must confess that, before today's show began, I was worried. Yes, I was: I was listening to Radio Paradise, and their audio stream kept dropping every few minutes. I tried re-booting the modem and the router, but that didn't seem to help and I thought, if this keeps up, The Klassics Show could be a disconcering listening experience. I'm well aware that my Internet connection isn't the greatest, thanks to my noisy 'phone line, but, as it turned out, KSHE's audio stream was virtually uninterrupted for the full four hours. (The were two momentary dropouts, nothing to tear one's hair out over.) So I suppose the problem must have been at Radio Paradise's end.

As for today's show, i'm reluctantly giving it an A Minus. There was nothing that I hated, but it included too much that was merely “okay”. Jimmy Spheeris? Michael Fennelly? Judas Priest (a band I didn't really think belonged here anyway)? Automatic Man? Yawn. But there was quite a lot that I loved, too, and I think I almost came very close to being on the verge of tears when Uman played that beautiful Renaissance song, which was definitely the highlight for me.

And lookie there! It's Sugarloaf Mountain a.k.a. Pão de Açúcar in Rio de Janeiro (1299 feet if you must know).



Sugarloaf – Green-Eyed Lady
Lynyrd Skynyrd – I Know A Little
Trooper – Knock 'Em Dead Kid
The Youngbloods – Darkness, Darkness
Jimmy Spheeris – I Am The Mercury
Todd Rundgren – Can We Still Be Friends
Michael Fennelly – Touch My Soul
Gerry Rafferty – Right Down The Line
Giuffria – Call To The Heart
Santana – Everybody's Everything
The Amboy Dukes – Journey To The Center Of The Mind
The Allman Brothers Band – One Way Out
Russ Ballard – Rene Didn't Do It
Yes – America
April Wine – Shot Down
John Mellencamp – Hot Night In A Cold Town
The Alan Parsons Project – I Wouldn't Want To Be Like You
Blue Őyster Cult – Shooting Shark
The Michael Stanley Band – Nothing's Gonna Change My Mind
Grinderswitch – Higher Ground
Little Feat – Fat Man In The Bathtub
Thin Lizzy – Showdown
Gary Wright – Love Is Alive
Wings – Venus And Mars Rock Show
Renaissance – Northern Lights
Montrose – I Got The Fire
The Doobie Brothers – Jesus Is Just Alright
Van Morrison – Moondance
The Byrds – So You Want To Be A Rock & Roll Star
38 Special – Stone Cold Believer
Judas Priest – The Ripper
Automatic Man – My Pearl
Elton John – Where To Now St Peter
Brownsville Station – Lady (Put The Light On Me)
The Moody Blues – Legend Of A Mind
The Dixon House Band – Sooner Or Later
Pete Townshend – Rough Boys
Joe Walsh – Turn To Stone
Nazareth – Razamanaz
Jethro Tull – Thick As A Brick (not the full album, but a radio edit)
Flash And The Pan – Down Among The Dead Men

It's an unusually long list of the schtuff we played at home to annoy the neighbours this week. What annoyed them even more – and the reason for the list's length – was that I had the week off. Bwahaha!

Cheryl Dilcher – Special Songs
Peter Hammill – Skin
The Who – Who's Next
Terje Rypdal – After The Rain
Cassandra Wilson – Silver Pony
James Taylor – Greatest Hits, Vol. 2
Mark Knopfler – Shangri-La
Marillion – All One Tonight
Runrig – Live At Celtic Connections, 2000
French, Frith, Kaiser, Thompson – Invisible Means
June Tabor – Aqaba
Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young – Déjà Vu
Capercaillie – Sidewaulk
Caro Emerald – Live From Emerald Island
Dan Fogelberg – River Of Souls
Fairport Convention – Jewel In The Crown
Wolfscote – Turn The Glass
Tyrannosaurus Rex – A Beard Of Stars
Steely Dan – Countdown To Ecstasy
Propaganda – A Secret Wish
Steeleye Span – Tempted And Tried
Wishbone Ash – Thirtieth Anniversary Concert (DVD)
Lyle Lovett – Pontiac
Yes – Tales From Topographic Oceans
Rory Gallagher – Deuce
Cocteau Twins – Heaven Or Las Vegas
The Kinks – Misfits
Davy Spillane – Atlantic Bridge
Genesis – Selling England By The Pound
Elvis Costello – Spike
Various Artists – City Of Angels (O.S.T.)
Dick Gaughan – Gaughan
The Albion Band – Acousticity
Jeff Beck – Emotion And Commotion
Various Artists – The Who Covered
Laurie Anderson & Kronos Quartet – Landfall
Siouxsie & The Banshees – The Rapture
Terje Rypdal & David Darling – Eos
The Beatles – A Hard Day's Night
Flash – Flash
Patti Smith – Outside Society
Spirit – Clear
Steeleye Span – Hark! The Village Wait
Peter Hammill – Fools Mate
Roger McGuinn – Live From Mars
Pink Floyd – Animals
Randy Newman – Little Criminals