Monday 27 July 2020

KSHE KLASSICS SHOW, July 26th, 2020

[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 Norfolk, Virginia, where the governor is threatening to roll back to Stage Two after a disturbing rise in cases.]

Quotation Of The Week ~ Thomas Jefferson: The care of human life and happiness, and not their destruction, is the first and only object of good government.

I learned something this morning. According to the ad from the Sana Lake Recovery Center of Dittmer, Missouri (https://sanalake.com/ ), the leading cause of death in people under sixty is overdose. I wondered if that statement might be a bit self-serving as they're a for-profit medical facility and thought it would more likely be heart disease, but i did a very quick search and discovered that we're both wrong. It's actually malignant neoplasm. It's always disconcerting to me to hear hospitals and similar services advertising on the radio, and now we know that they're just like every other advertiser: they lie. Oh, er, i should say, exaggerate to their own ends. Tra La.

My personal ethical / medical qualms aside, what a very nice show today! There were some surprises (Leo Sayer, David Lee Roth and Melanie, none of whom is exactly a regular visitor to these shores) but none was an unwelcome surprise. In fact, there was nothing unwelcome at all this morning – nothing annoying whatsoever. I'm giving it a grade of “A.” As our neighbour to the south descends into chaos and anarchy and their miserable excuse for a president tramples all over the First Amendment, it's nice to find that the Klassics Show remains a beacon of stability.

There were as usual several songs i can truly say that i love, plus quite a few relatively obscure songs by performers i like – and those are always nice to hear. The longest track of the morning was the ten-minute “Child In Time,” which was probably the number i disliked the most – Ian Gillan's vocal being a just a little OTT for me – but when the worst track of the day is by Deep Purple, you know you're on a winner.

I picked up a couple of bits of musical trivia today, too. “South City Midnight Lady” is about a woman from San Francisco, not Chicago (or St Louis) as i had always supposed. In the “i should pay more attention to liner notes” department, i have had Crosby, Stills & Nash's debut album since its release in 1969 and i didn't know until today that Jerry Garcia played pedal steel guitar on “Teach Your Children.” Wow. Or, maybe, duh to me.

Anyway, here's the Norfolk skyline, and the playlist:



Blue Őyster Cult – I Love The Night
Todd Rundgren – Real Man
Roger Daltrey – Free Me
Trapeze – Black Clouds
The Grateful Dead – Not Fade Away / Goin' Down The Road Feeling Bad
The Doobie Brothers – South City Midnight Lady
Traffic – Glad
Wings – Venus And Mars / Rock Show
Leo Sayer – Long Tall Glasses
Dave Mason – Every Woman
Foreigner – Women
Triumvirat – Dimplicity / Last Dance
Crosby, Stills & Nash – Teach Your Children
Styx – This Old Man
Rush – A Passage To Bangkok
The Steve Miller Band – I Want To Make The World Turn Around
David Lee Roth – Just Like Paradise
Dwight Twilley – I'm On Fire
The Moody Blues – Gypsy / Eternity Road
Survivor – Is This Love
Head East – I Surrender
Uriah Heep – July Morning
Heart – Dog And Butterfly
The Beatles – Being For The Benefit Of Mr Kite
Bob Dylan – Just Like A Woman
Peter Frampton – I'm In You
Stingray – Lovesaver
The Spencer Davis Group – Gimme Some Loving
Taxxi – Walking Wounded
Jefferson Airplane – Lather
Dicky Betts – Long Time Gone
Santana – You Know That I Love You
Deep Purple – Child In Time 10 minutes
Melanie – Lay Down (Candle In The Rain)
Charlie – Fantasy Girls
Shooting Star – Hang On For Your Life

Let's see – one 3-CD set (Big Country), one two-disc set (Robert Johnson), and lots of Joan Osborne appeared on the corporate optical drive this week. (I love Joan Osborne!) Here's the list, and it's not overly lengthy:

Big Country – Wonderland: The Essential Big Country
Joan Osborne – Songs Of Bob Dylan
The Beatles – Rubber Soul
Various Artists – Hard Cash
Bruce Springsteen – Working On A Dream
The Kinks – Preservation Act 1
Alan Stivell – The Best Of Alan Stivell
Rosanne Cash – The Wheel
k.d. lang – Ingénue
Rob Hyman et al. -- Largo
Joan Osborne – Righteous Love
City Boy – Anthology
The Musicians Of The Nile – Luxor To Isna
Robert Johnson – The Complete Recordings
Marillion – With Friends From The Orchestra
Roxy Music – For Your Pleasure
Eagles – Desperado
Caro Emerald – The Shocking Miss Emerald
Dan Fogelberg – Souvenirs
Joan Osborne – How Sweet It Is
Rush – Power Windows
Camper Van Beethoven – Our Beloved Revolutionary Sweetheart
Genesis – Foxtrot
Manfred Mann's Earthband – Chance
Joan Osborne – Little Wild One
Jeff Beck – Live At B.B. King Blues Club
Rory Gallagher – Top Priority
Survivor – Vital Signs
Steeleye Span – Live At Last!
Kate Bush – Never For Ever
The Alan Parsons Project – I Robot
The Johnstons – The Johnstons
Peter Green w. Nigel Watson & The Splinter Group – The Robert Johnson Songbook
Loggins & Messina – Sittin' In Again
Roy Wood -- Mustard

Monday 20 July 2020

KSHE KLASSICS SHOW, July 19th, 2020

[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, where the big Black Lives Matter sign in front of Trump Tower – which the mayor helped to paint – coninues to piss off the Donald, he he.]

Quotation Of The Week ~ Winston Churchill: Americans always do the right thing – after they've tried everything else.

I learned today that our host, John Ulett, doesn't know how to pronounce the word “segue.” I've heard him mis-pronounce it before, but it wasn't until this morning that i went to dictionary dot com and confirmed that it is a two-syllable word. There is no shame, of course, in not knowing how pronounce something one has only ever read and never heard spoken. (I, personally, didn't know how to pronounce “tao” until i was corrected a few years ago. What hurt about that was that my informant was someone i can't stand....)

Enough sociolinguistics, though: on to the music. And it was going pretty well, too, until about three-quarters in and then, bam, a double-whammy of dreadful, Pavlov's Dog and REO Speedwagon. Double McYuck burgers. How did these guys ever make a living? It's also baffling how Uman can insist that Kenny Loggins' “Celebrate Me Home” is not a Christmas song. I like it and i'm perfectly happy to listen to it at any time of the year, but it seems pretty Yuletidal to me (quantum mechanics baffle me too, so maybe it's just me).

Just a few notes gleaned from our host's comments this morning and from my own feelings. Uman agrees with me that Steely Dan's “Aja” is just about a perfect album – along with “Sgt. Pepper” and “The Yes Album,” although nothing from the latter was played this morning. I had no idea that The Cars, at the start of their career, were so poorly-received that they were often booed off stage. They became such a great band. And there was an extrordinary amount of Canajun music this morning – especially if you include Heart, who were from Seattle but living in Vancouver when they got their big break, and Neil Young, who was born in Ontario but has spent most of his life in California. And The Band, of course, most of whose members were Canucks.

My personal favourite tracks today: The Doobie Brothers, ELO, The Cars, J. Geils and Poco. Pavlov's Dog and REO notwithstanding, i'm grading this morning's edition (drum roll, please) an “A.”

Here's the view from Rump, er, Trump Tower, and the playlist:


Crosby, Stills & Nash – Fair Game
Little Feat – Fat Man In The Bathtub
Elton John – Grey Seal
Steely Dan – Josie
The Electric Light Orchestra – So Fine / Livin' Thing
The Cars – Tonight She Comes
UFO – Only You Can Rock Me
Heart – Dreamboat Annie
April Wine – Roller
The Beatles – She's Leaving Home
Neil Young – Sugar Mountain
The Doobie Brothers – Natural Thing
The Little River Band – Take Me Home
Rush – Test For Echo
Triumph – I Can Survive
Michael Quatro – Rachmaninoff's Prelude
Prism – Julie
Stephen Stills – Love The One You're With
Giant – See You In My Dreams
Kansas – Two Cents' Worth
The J. Geils Band – Give It To Me
Lake – Between The Lines
Ian Matthews – Lonely Hunter
The Marshall Tucker Band – Windy City Blues
Supertramp – Fool's Overture
Pavlov's Dog – Late November
REO Speedwagon – That Ain't Love
Kenny Loggins – Celebrate Me Home
The Rolling Stones – Emotional Rescue
Poco – Good Feelin' To Know
Jackson Browne – In The Shape Of A Heart
Journey – Topaz
The Band – Ophelia
The Scorpions – Is There Anybody There
Michael Stanley – Rosewood Bitters
Queen – Stone Cold Crazy
The Charlie Daniels Band – Midnight Wind
Kayak – Keep The Change

As we have moved into Stage 3 of the re-opening here in this country's Tornado Alley, this week's personal playlist isn't as lengthy as those of the past five months, as i've been at work more and there has been the resultant reduction in music-listening time. I still managed one 4-CD box set, though: the Ashley Hutchings, which was a totally unnecessary acquisition: i have all of its great schtuff on other albums. Oh, well, more dollars than sense, that's me.

Joan Osborne – Relish
Renaissance – Novella
Carolina Chocolate Drops – Genuine Negro Jig
Court Yard Hounds – Court Yard Hounds
Ashley Hutchings – Burning Bright: The Life And Times Of Ashley Hutchings
Peter Gabriel – Rated PG
Free – Heartbreaker
The Allman Brothers Band – At Fillmore East
Argent – In Deep
Cat Stevens – Buddha And The Chocolate Box
Television – Marquee Moon
The Mothers Of Invention – Uncle Meat
Trigger Hippy – Trigger Hippy
Kate Rusby & Kathryn Roberts -- Kate Rusby & Kathryn Roberts
David Lindley – El Rayo-X
Great Big Sea – Play
Nik Kershaw – To Be Frank
10,000 Maniacs – In My Tribe
Florence + The Machine – Unplugged
Jefferson Airplane – Volunteers
Wings – Band On The Run
James Taylor – Greatest Hits
Jerry Douglas – Traveler
Elbow – Little Fictions
Fairport Convention – Angel Delight
Dick Gaughan – Gaughan
Peter Hammill – Sonix
Talking Heads – Fear Of Music
Brian Eno & David Byrne – My Life In The Bush Of Ghosts
Jefferson Airplane – Bless Its Pointed Little Head
Blodwyn Pig – Getting To This

Monday 13 July 2020

KSHE KLASSICS SHOW, July 12th, 2020


[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 Clifton, New Jersey, a place i've rarely visited. It's the birthplace of Vera Farmiga, you know. (New Jersey this week was one of only three American states to report a decline in new cases of coronavirus. My VPN was looking after me!)]

Quotation Of The Week ~ Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart: Silence is very important. The silence between the notes are as important as the notes themselves.

What to say about this one? I admit i came very close to grading it a mere “B+”. For one thing, Uman played the abrasive David Surkamp, Pavlov's Dog's singer, whose voice is fingernails on a blackboard to me. Secondly, there seemed to be more commercials than usual this week – including one really annoying one from Seliga Heating & Cooling on Gravois Road (call 314-481-7333 if you're interested – and if you live in St Louis).

But what the hey, i'm going with an “A.” First, there were a couple of delightful surprises: i don't think i'd ever heard Bob Marley on KSHE before, and there was also one of my favourite Mama's Pride songs. Plus there was so much else to love: CSNY, Yes, LRB. The Who, The Beatles.... But i think my fave today was Steely Dan – every time i listen to them i find further levels of meaning.

Just some random schtuff: 1. I must have heard “Time Loves A Hero” many times, here, there and everywhere, without knowing it was Little Feat. Duh! 2. Am i the only person in all of the Western World who doesn't own a copy of “Frampton Comes Alive!”? Not that there's anything wrong with it, it just didn't impress me much. 3. St Louis has always loved Canadian rock bands but there were more than usual this morning, four of them. In fact, a couple of weeks ago, someone Tweeted to Uman that he should put on a special all-Canadian edition of the Klassics Show. Impractical, i think. I personally, wouldn't care to listen to Loverboy twice an hour and as far as i can recall KSHE only ever plays one song by Max Webster.

Here's a pic of the gorgeous Vera Farmiga, followed by the playlist:




Little Feat – Time Loves A Hero
Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young – Carry On
Bob Seger – Heavy Music
Elton John – Captain Fantastic And The Brown Dirt Cowboy
John Mellencamp – A Little Night Dancin'
Gypsy – As Far As You Can See (As Much As You Can Feel)
Santana – All I Ever Wanted
Peter Frampton – Baby, I Love Your Way
Michael Stanley Band – He Can't Love You
Strawbs – Autumn
The Little River Band – Help Is On Its Way
April Wine – Shot Down
The Cars – Hello Again
Yes – Don't Kill The Whale
UFO – Too Hot To Handle
Phil Collins – Only You Know And I Know
The Who – Overture / It's A Boy)
Journey – Still They Ride
Steely Dan – The Royal Scam
Lou Reed – Sweet Jane (live)
Triumph – I Live For The Weekend
Pavlov's Dog – Julia
Loverboy – Queen Of The Broken Hearts
The Beatles – Fixing A Hole
Heart – White Lightning And Wine
Sammy Hagar – Crack In The World
Dave Mason – Feelin' Alright
The Marshall Tucker Band – I'll Be Loving You
The Babys – Midnight Rendezvous
Pete Townshend – Give Blood
Robin Trower – Little Bit Of Sympathy
Dire Straits – So Far Away
Bob Marley – Waiting In Vain
The Jimi Hendrix Experience – The Wind Cries Mary
Eric Clapton – See What Love Can Do
Mama's Pride – Can I Call You A Cab
Loggins & Messina – Lately My Love
The Guess Who – Albert Flasher
Bad Company – Holy Water

Here's my personal playlist for the week. Only a couple of 2-CD sets this week so the list is a bit longer than it has been recently:

Lyle Lovett – Pontiac
The Doobie Brothers – The Captain And Me
Amazing Blondel – Blondel
Richard Thompson – Bloody Noses
Various Artists – Vision: The Music Of Hildegard Von Bingen
Yo-Yo Ma – J.S. Bach: The Six Unaccompanied Cello Suites
City Boy – Anthology
Rory Gallagher – Irishman In New York
Nik Kershaw – The Best Of Nik Kershaw
Strawbs – A Choice Collection Of Strawbs
Paul Simon – The Essential Paul Simon
Various Artists – Two Rooms: Celebrating The Songs Of Elton John & Bernie Taupin
Elton John – Goodbye Yellow Brick Road
Allan Holdsworth – Metal Fatigue
James Taylor – Mud Slide Slim And The Blue Horizon
Marc Jordan – Mannequin
Various Artists – Songs Of Our Native Daughters
The Nice – The Best Of The Nice
Marillion – Sounds That Can't Be Made
Mike Oldfield – QE2
Sheryl Crow – Threads
Max Webster – Max Webster
Joan Osborne – Early Recordings
Jethro Tull – This Was
Mark Hollis – Mark Hollis
Camper Van Beethoven – Our Beloved Revolutionary Sweetheart
Paul Young – Wherever I Lay My Hat: The Best Of Paul Young
Eagles – Their Greatest Hits
Ray Davies – Americana
Eliza Carthy – Restitute
Renaissance – Song For All Seasons
Runrig – The Cutter And The Clan
Judy Collins -- Wildflowers
Florence + The Machine – High As Hope
Sharon Shannon – Sacred Earth
Alison Krauss – Essential Alison Krauss
Paula Cole – Harbinger
Argent – All Together Now
Players -- Players

Monday 6 July 2020

KSHE KLASSICS SHOW, July 5th, 2020


[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 Chicago again.]

Quotation Of The Week ~ Kurt Vonnegut: If i should ever die, God forbid, let this be my epitaph: The only proof he ever needed for the existence of God, was music.

I had a bit of a connectivity problem this morning, not too serious but i missed a lot of the Steely Dan song and the first bit of Brave Belt. It was too bad, because i love both of those. (I also missed some of the Ted Nugent song, but that's okay: what i heard was awful, and some of the Derek & The Dominos track and that was all right, too, their album was mostly a cocaine-fueled shambles....) I don't know if it's related, but i was using a different browser this week. My default browser is Pale Moon, but a few weeks ago, during a Windows Update, those nice people at Microsoft dumped their new, improved Edge browser onto my system. I wasn't really interested – i try to avoid using anything Microsofty (which is a little like trying to avoid Google) – but i decided to see what it could do and, hey, i like it! Pages seem to load more quickly and it's far more customisable than Pale Moon – as the latter is a relatively minor player in the browser wars, few developers bother to write extensions for it.

No matter how often i listen to KSHE, i simply cannot get used to hearing ads for gun shops and hospitals. Why on earth would hospitals being advertising now, for goodness' sake? They're overflowing down there! (In Canada, by contrast, they are rapidly emptying out....)

But enough of that, on to the music, and it was another excellent three hours of classic rock (four hours if you include the ads ha ha): definitely a grade of “A.”

A few words about some of the songs. For no known reason, i had “Mandolin Wind” running through my head all last week, and lo and behold, it shows up this week. (I always have music running through my head. Today it was Nik Kershaw's “The Riddle,” which, as far as i know, has never been played on KSHE.) Apparently, the country group Dixie Chicks took their name from the Little Feat song – i quite like Dixie Chicks, actually. Apparently they've changed their name to The Chicks – as any mention of Dixie is on shaky ground in Amerika these days, as they so gleefully try to eliminate their history....

More: The song credited to Paul McCartney was actually sung by Jimmy McCullogh, who was the guitarist in Wings for a while. It's a song about drug abuse. Ironically, he died of morphine and alcohol poisoning in 1979 – although he wasn't known as being a heavy drug user. The Lucifer's Friend piece was nice but went on for far too long. “Yours Is No Disgrace” is definitely a favourite song, as were the Mott The Hoople and The Little River Band. Damn'd good morning!

Here's a pic of the Dixie Chicks, er sorry, the Chicks. They're far more photogenic than Little Feat, and the one on the right can have me....



Here's today's playlist:

Fleetwood Mac – Bare Trees
Rod Stewart – Mandolin Wind
The Babys – Love Don't Prove I'm Right
Journey – When You're Alone (It Ain't Easy)
Little Feat – Dixie Chicken
Elton John – The Bitch Is Back
Bob Dylan – If Not For You
Robert Palmer – You're Gonna Get What's Coming
Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young – Everybody I Love You
Firefall – Cinderella
Steely Dan – FM (No Static At All)
Brave Belt – Another Way Out
John Mellencamp – Thundering Hearts
Santana – Searchin'
Jethro Tull – Bourée
The Beatles – I Want To Tell You
Yes – Yours Is No Disgrace
Loggins & Messina – Growin'
Paul McCartney – Medicine Jar
John Stewart – Gold
The Michael Stanley Band – All I Ever Wanted
Ted Nugent – Wango Tango
Spirit – Mr Skin
Nazareth – Shanghai'd In Shanghai
Eddie Money – You've Really Got A Hold On Me
Rick Derringer – Everything
The Little River Band – Home On Monday
Pure Prairie League – Country Song
Lucifer's Friend – Sorrow
Peter Frampton – All I Want To Be (Is By Your Side)
Derek & The Dominos – Any Day
The Quicksilver Messenger Service – Gypsy Lights
Chicago – Color My World
The Doobie Brothers – Evil Woman
Prism – Armaggedon
Dickie Betts – Hand Picked
Mott The Hoople – All The Young Dudes
Billy Idol – Hot In The City
Black Oak Arkansas – Hot And Nasty
The Blue Öyster Cult – Hot Rails To Hell
Kenny Loggins -- Heartlight

One of the few good things about the current lockdown is that i am home at Spriggs Towers more often, which means quite an increase in my music-listening time. I've been able to listen, for example, to multi-disc boxes, which i seldom do for lack of time. There was one 5-disc set this week – the collection by Free – which i think i'd only listened to twice since i bought it about twenty years ago! And it's pretty darned good, too (although a 4-CD set would have been more than adequate). Same with the Dixie Chicks' live double album. I love the Chicks (although what i've heard of their new reunion album it, to use a technical term, “sucks”) and it's a lovely set, but i can't remember the last time i played it. The Harry Nilsson and The Allman Brothers were both doubles, too. Here's the list:

Santana – Santana
Rush -- Exit ... Stage Left
Robin Trower – Live
Free – Songs Of Yesterday
Harry Nilsson – Personal Best: The Harry Nilsson Anthology
Kim Mitchell – Kimosabe
Mike Oldfield – Islands
Pink Floyd – Wish You Were Here
Peter Hammill – Chameleon In The Shadow Of The Night
Talk Talk – Spirit Of Eden
Dave Swarbrick & Simon Nicol – Another Fine Mess: Live In New York '84
Neil Young – Harvest
Jackson Browne – The Next Voice You Hear: The Best Of Jackson Browne
Dixie Chicks – Live: Top Of The World Tour
Marc Jordan – Mannequin
Art Garfunkel – Angel Clare
Martin Carthy – Crown Of Horn
The Allman Brothers Band – Eat A Peach (deluxe edition)
Steve Earle – El Corazón
Vince Guaraldi – The Very Best Of Vince Guaraldi
Kirsty MacColl – Galore
Tom Rush – No Regrets: The Very Best Of Tom Rush
Paul Simon – The Rhythm Of The Saints
Talking Heads – Fear Of Music
Jon & Vangelis – Short Stories
Susan Tedeschi – Live From Austin TX
Steeleye Span – Dodgy Bastards
The Tragically Hip – In Violet Light
The Albion Band – Stella Maris
Natalie Maines – Mother
The Kinks – Sleepwalker
Alison Krauss – Essential