KSHE KLASSICS SHOW, April 25th, 2021

[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 an American address. This week, according to https://whatismyipaddress.com/ i was listening from Santa Clara, California, pop.130,000.]

Quotation Of The Week ~ Joan Osborne: It's not just something that you do intellectually when you do music. You do it with your body, and you do it with your emotions, and you do it with every part of yourself. It engages your mind as well, but engages all parts of yourself.

This week's program gets a grade of “A+” for the inclusion of one of Dan Fogelberg's most poignant tunes (which, incidentally, was incorrectly identified on KSHE's website as being The Rolling Stones' Time Waits For No One), but if it hadn't been for that i may, just may, have managed a “B+”. There were two dreadful numbers (Meat Loaf and J.D. Blackfoot), and then there were Ted Nugent with his puerile cock-rock fiasco and Jimmy Barnes' cliche-driven disaster, and they threatened to sink the whole show. But let us not be hasty. There was enough fabulous music to make the whole thing worthwhile. Apart from Dan's song, i think the highlight of the morning was The Kings' number, which never fails to have me bopping in my chair. There were quite a few other highlights and so, with reservations, 'twas a wonderful four hours.

I commented recently that The Klassics Show rarely played solo female artists and along came Carolyne Mas this week to prove me wrong yet again. Although i'd heard the name, i'm not at all familiar with her music, although apparently back in the day she was marketed as a female Bruce Springsteen. Marketing types are not really famous for having imaginations, of course.

Here's the playlist, plus a portrait of the distaff side's answer to The Boss:

Nazareth – Star

Rush – The Analog Kid

Ted Nugent – Wang Dang Sweet Poontang

String Driven Thing – Starving In The Tropics

Firefall – You Are The Woman

Carolyne Mas – Still Sane

Eddie Money – Runnin' Away

The Rolling Stones – She's A Rainbow

The Who – The Song Is Over

The Jimi Hendrix Experience – Third Stone From The Sun

Fleetwood Mac – She's Changing Me

Jethro Tull – The Whistler

Brewer & Shipley – Witchi-Tai-To

April Wine – Sign Of The Gypsy Queen

J.D. Blackfoot – The Song Of Crazy Horse

Dire Straits – Skateaway

Santana – She's Not There

The Doors – The Wasp

Stillwater – Women (Beautiful Women)

Supertramp – Sister Moonshine

Dan Fogelberg – There's A Place In The World For A Gambler

The Kings – This Beat Goes On / Switchin'

Lynyrd Skynyrd – Workin' For MCA

Atlanta Rhythm Section – Sky High

Electric Light Orchestra – Showdown

Nazareth – This Flight Tonight

Jimmy Barnes – Working Class Man

Sammy Hagar – (Sittin' On) The Dock Of The Bay

Meat Loaf – You Took The Words Right Out Of My Mouth

The Marshall Tucker Band – This Ol' Cowboy

Wings – 1985

Chilliwack – Arms Of Mary

Max Webster – Battle Scar

Yeah, yeah, i know: another lengthy playlist from me this week, even with three multi-disc sets. Buck up, though: it could have been longer if i hadn't spent so much time on CNN and YouTube.....

Various Artists – Joni 75: A Joni Mitchell Birthday Celebration

Paula Cole – Harbinger

Various Artists – Respect: The Soul Generation Soundtrack (2 CDs)

Roxy Music – Stranded

Various Artists – Morris On

The Beatles – Past Masters Volume Two

Supertramp – Crisis? What Crisis?

Curved Air – Air Cut

Terje Rypdal – Crime Scene

Runrig – The Ones That Got Away

Lucinda Williams – Car Wheels On A Gravel Road

The Move – Message From The Country

Jeff Beck – Blow By Blow

Florence + The Machine – High As Hope

The Mahavishnu Orchestra – Birds Of Fire

Allan Holdsworth – Metal Fatigue

The Allman Brothers Band – Eat A Peach (2 CDs)

Talk Talk – Natural History: The Very Best Of Talk Talk

Alison Krauss & Union Station – New Favorite

Luna – Luna

Kate Bush – The Other Sides (4 CDs)

Various Artists – The Busby Berkeley Album

Various Artists – Tower Of Song: The Songs Of Leonard Cohen

Steely Dan – Countdown To Ecstasy

Bill Bruford's Earthworks – All Heaven Broke Loose

Deanna Durbin – The Ultimate Collection

Various Artists – Just Can't Get Enough: New Wave Hits Of The '80s

John Lennon – Mind Games

Zaz – Zaz

Stéphane Grappelli – Live At The Cambridge Folk Festival

Jon & Vangelis – Page Of Life

Keane – Under The Iron Sea

Genesis – Foxtrot

Bonnie Raitt – Fundamental

Caro Emerald – Acoustic Sessions

KSHE KLASSICS SHOW, April 18th, 2021

[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 an American address. This week, according to https://whatismyipaddress.com/ i was listening from Norfolk, Virginia.]

Quotation Of The Week ~ Lester Bangs: Music, you know, true music not just rock 'n' roll, chooses you.

Now that was more like it! After a couple of programs that were “merely” good, The Klassics Show was back on form this week with loads of bona fide classics and absolutely nothing annoying. It's a grade of A today, no question.

Unfortunately there was a pall over the show – the death from a heart attack of Rusty Young on Thursday. Rusty was a founding member of Poco and spent his last years in Steeleville, Missouri and was, from what i have heard, one heckuva nice man. I can't honestly say that i was a huge fan of Poco's, but they recorded one of Rusty's songs which is one of my all-time favourite tunes, Rose Of Cimarron....

Uman shared this story from Rusty's NBC News obit. When it became clear that [Richie] Furay was leaving [Poco]to start up the Souther-Hillman-Furay Band, Young said, there was a meeting where Geffen "starts with Tim and says, 'Now, Tim, you write songs and sing, don't you?' And Tim says, 'Yes' So he says, 'Well, don't you worry about Richie leaving; you'll be fine.' And he looks at Paul, and he says, 'You play guitar and sing and write songs, don't you?' And Paul says, 'Yes.' ... Then he looked at me and George, and he looked me in the eye, and he said, 'Now, you don't sing, and you don't write songs, do you?' And I said, 'No, I don't.' So he said, 'Well, you're in trouble.' And that was the day I became a singer-songwriter, and if it weren't for David Geffen saying that to me, it never would have happened, and I owe him greatly for that."

Otherwise, the show's highlights (for me) included The Kinks, Hendrix, ELO, Nilsson and Mott the Hoople (with a song by Mick Ralphs that was later recorded by Bad Company – i hadn't heard Mott's version before). It was nice to have a rare appearance by The Groundhogs, too. Lowlights, and they're not all that low, included Dave Mason (not a fan of most of his solo work) and Derek & The Dominos. Really. There is some nice schtuff on their album, but mostly it's an over-produced drugs-and-alcohol-infused mess.

Here's Rusty, and this week's playlist:

Eddie Money – Rock And Roll The Place

The Kinks – Sleepwalker

Dave Mason – So High (Rock Me Baby And Roll Me Away)

Derek & The Dominos – Why Does Love Got To Be So Sad

Journey – Spaceman

The Groundhogs – Split Part 2

Poco – Rose Of Cimarron

Steve Winwood – Valerie

Jimi Hendrix – Voodoo Child (Slight Return)

Bad English – When I See You Smile

The Ozark Mountain Daredevils – Spaceship Orion

Golden Earring – Vanilla Queen

Jefferson Starship – St Charles

GTR – When The Heart Rules The Mind

The Rolling Stones – When The Whip Comes Down

Poco – Stealaway

Kansas – Portrait (He Knew)

Electric Light Orchestra – Telephone Line

The Fabulous Thunderbirds – Stand Back

Planet P Project – Why Me

Eric Clapton – The Core

Sammy Hagar – You Make Me Crazy

Poco – Call It Love

Harry Nilsson – Spaceman

Randy Pie – Stand Up

38 Special – You Keep Runnin' Away

Journey – Stay Awhile

Poco – Crazy Love

Foghat – Stone Blue

The Doors – The End

Mott The Hoople – Ready For Love

Emerson, Lake & Palmer – Still ... You Turn Me On

April Wine – Like A Lover, Like A Song

Barclay James Harvest – Titles

The Allman Brothers Band – Whipping Post

Ace – You're All That I Need

My personal playlist is a long one this week, yes, but not as long as i anticipated because, let's face it, people are stupid. Two weeks ago we went into lockdown #3. That worked so well (not!) that last week, a “stay-at-home” order was issued and that started off okay but it disintegrated. At the beginning of this week, i left work early every day. By the end i was staying late, and it really ate into my music-listening time. I hate people. Anyway, here y'are:

Mark Knopfler – Local Hero

Zaz – Recto Verso

Peter Hammill – Live At Rockpalast, Hamburg 1981 (2CDs)

Afrocelts – Seed

The Band – Music From Big Pink

Various Artists – Hard Cash

Rod Stewart – If We Fall In Love Tonight

Various Artists – A Tribute To Dan Fogelberg

John Fogerty – Blue Moon Swamp

Court Yard Hounds – Amelita

Steeleye Span – Est'd. 1969

Roger Payne (comp.) -- Songs Of The Humpback Whale

Kate Bush – Aerial (2 CDs)

Roxy Music – For Your Pleasure

Joan Armatrading – Joan Armatrading.

The Kinks – Lola vs Powerman And The Moneygoround

Muddy Waters – The Best Of Muddy Waters

The Cranberries – Everybody Else Is Doing It, So Why Can't We

Sky – Sky 4: Forthcoming

Peter Green – In The Skies

Carolina Chocolate Drops – Genuine Negro Jig

Dengue Fever – Cannibal Courtship

Ian Dury – New Boots And Panties!!

Sandy Denny – The Best Of Sandy Denny

Radiohead – Pablo Honey

Pink – Greatest Hits ... So Far!

The Waterboys – Dream Harder.

Dan Fogelberg – High Country Snows

The Dave Weckl Band – Live In St Louis At The Chesterfield Jazz Festival 2019

Joan Osborne – Songs Of Bob Dylan

Fairport Convention – Fame And Glory

Kirsty MacColl – Galore

The Albion Band – The Vice Of The People

Tyrannosaurus Rex – Prophets, Seers And Sages, The Angels Of The Ages 

KSHE KLASSICS SHOW, April 11th, 2021

[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 an American address. This week, according to https://whatismyipaddress.com/ i was listening from Chicago, where i've been so often of late.]

Quotation Of The Week ~ Tom Petty: Music is probably the only real magic i have encountered in my life. There's not some trick involved with it. It's pure and it's real. It moves, it heals, it communicates and does all these incredible things.

After the first three hours of this morning's program, i was all set to give it a grade of “B+,” an improvement over the relatively lacklustre recent instalments, but then, but then... along came Harry Chapin, to completely ruin everything. All on its very own, that sank it to a “B-,” which is a dreadful score for The Klassics Show. And it's a dreadful song, histrionic and bathetic and painful to endure. It wasn't the only number to exasperate me, either – we had, as we so often do, the annoyances of Ted Nugent and REO Speedwagon, a good song by The Animals scuttled by Eric Burdon's pretentious lyrics, and The Charlie Daniels Band – a group whose music i generally enjoy – with their maudlin song about dead rock singers. Ugh.

It wasn't all a horrorshow, of course. There were favourite songs by Bob Dylan (a song produced by his brother David Zimmerman, although David received no credit at the time) (i believe this has since been rectified), Cream, ELO and one of Billy Joel's greatest, along with good stuff by The Police (a group i loved more in the eighties than i do now but today's song was a treat) and, oh, PG-era Genesis, which made a nice change from PC-era Genesis.

I have no opinion whatever about the Albert Hammond song – my computer crashed (yes, the dreaded BSOD) (a page fault in an unpaged area, apparently) and by the time i re-booted the song was over. It was great to hear Cheryl Dilcher – and wasn't i moaning just recently about how seldom solo female singers show up on this show? She was the only one today apart from Grace Slick on the Jefferson Airplane track and oh, my, how nice to hear Jefferson Airplane rather than Jefferson Starship!

Here's the playlist, and a portrait of the late and much-loved Duke Of Edinburgh – i don't know too much about his tastes in music, but i know he couldn't stand Elton John or Joe Cocker!

Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers – Rebels

Bob Dylan – Tangled Up In Blue

Steely Dan – The Caves Of Altamira

Dio – The Last In Line

Carilo – She Takes The Night

Manfred Mann's Earth Band – The Runner

Kansas – On The Other Side

The Charlie Daniels Band – Reflections

The Animals – Sky Pilot

Cream – Tales Of Brave Ulysses

Huey Lewis & The News – Tell Me A Little Lie

Electric Light Orchestra – Roll Over Beethoven

Billy Joel – Scenes From An Italian Restaurant

Dave Edmunds – Slipping Away

Jay Ferguson – Snakes On The Run

The Police – Walking On The Moon

Ted Nugent – Snakeskin Cowboys

Rush – Vital Signs

The Allman Brothers Band – Soulshine

Flash – Small Beginnings

Robin Trower – Victims Of The Fury

Journey – Something To Hide

Genesis – Visions Of Angels

REO Speedwagon – Son Of A Poor Man

Robbie Robertson – Showdown At Big Sky

Jefferson Airplane – Volunteers

Montrose – Spaceage Sacrifice

Albert Hammond – Smokey Factory Blues

Harry Chapin – Sniper

Loverboy – When It's Over

Molly Hatchet – Whiskey Man

Cheryl Dilcher – Who's The Captain (Of Rock And Roll)

Manfred Mann's Earth Band – Spirits In The Night

Frankly, i'm surprised my personal playlist isn't longer this week. Yes, there were two multi-disc sets, but also we're in lockdown again and, since Thursday, have been under a stay-at-home order. Unfortunately, i haven't been able to: still going to work six days a week. (Because, apparently, i'm “essential” ha ha.) Well, it's long enough! Read on:

Bruce Springsteen – The Rising

Paul Simon – The Rhythm Of The Saints

Joni Mitchell – The Hissing Of Summer Lawns

Eliza Gilkyson – Land Of Milk And Honey

Curved Air – Second Album

Badfinger – No Matter What: Revisiting The Hits

R.E.M. -- Automatic For The People

Robert Fripp – Exposure (deluxe edition) (2 CDs)

Kathleen Edwards – Back To Me

Dusty Springfield – The Silver Collection

Peter Hammill – The Fall Of The House Of Usher

Bob Seger – Smokin' O.P.'s

Various Artists – The Busby Berkeley Album

The Dave Brubeck Quartet – Time Out

The Faces – First Step

Florence + The Machine – Lungs

The Doobie Brothers – The Doobie Brothers

Free – Heartbreaker

David Lindley – El Rayo-X

Lindisfarne – The Very Best Of Lindisfarne

Matchbox 20 – Yourself Or Someone Like You

This Mortal Coil – It'll End In Tears

The Beach Boys – All-Time Greatest Hits

The Kinks – Misfits

Kate & Anna McGarrigle – Love Over And Over

Sky – Sky 2

Richard Thompson – Watching The Dark (3 CDs)

Maddy Prior & June Tabor – No More To The Dance

Steeleye Span – Live At Last!

Home – The Alchemist

Talking Heads – Fear Of Music

Stevie Ray Vaughan – The Real Deal: Greatest Hits Vol. 2

The Strokes – Is This It?

King Crimson – Starless And Bible Black

Roxy Music – Roxy Music

COVID-19 Update, Ontario Edition

 

As my dear old Dad used to say to me, people are stupid.

Last Saturday, Premier Doug Ford declared province-wide lockdown #3. I left work on Saturday afternoon and the streets were full of cars. It seemed to me that a lot of people had reacted to the lockdown by saying “Yay, let's go to Walmart!” (I walked past their parking lot and it was jam-packed.) What the f*** is wrong with people????

Today, Mr Ford instated a “stay at home” order. This seems to have worked. All afternoon we were all receiving emergency alerts on our phones reminding us that it's against the law now to go out except for essentials. (Fortunately, beer is considered an essential!) The streets were certainly quieter than they had been.

I went out: to the drug store, i needed a prescription renewed. And the grocery, for cat food (and beer tra la), And it staggers me how many people still don't know how to wear a mask properly.

I predict that this thing is going to go on for another year at least. I sympathise with the small businesses that are dying but it's our fellow irresponsible citizens who are responsible. And i shall become more and more distanced from the human race....

KSHE KLASSICS SHOW, April 4th, 2021

 [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 an American address. This week, according to https://whatismyipaddress.com/ i was listening from Chicago – it seems to be my usual spot these days.]

Quotation Of The Week ~ Haruki Murakami: Music brings a warm glow to my vision, thawing mind and muscle from their endless wintering.

"Save big money at Menard's!” “If you bring home $350 a week, you can get up to $25,000 in credit!” “There are many reasons to choose UMSL!” “111 Salvage in Granite City is hiring!” (Those are the highlights from this morning's ads. Unfortunately we also had to suffer “Pickleman!” and Tom Shane --- about four times each.)

It is with a heavy heart, a lead stomach and a pair of hobnail boots that i grade this week's show a mere “B+”. Yes, yes, there was some great music here today, no question, but not much that i can truly say i loved. Buffalo Springfield, April Wine, Rockpile and The Eagles and that's about it. Thin Lizzy, ELO, Rush, 10 c.c., Yes and even The Police are all groups that have created some fabulous music, but their selections today could never be included in a “best of” collection, Well, maybe the ELO. The soprano voice at the beginning of Rockaria! belonged to Mary Thomas, by the way.

But then we had jerkface from REO Speedwagon bleating about how he'd always be a music man (but is probably now earning his living stocking shelves at Walmart) and Eric Burdon at his most pretentious (on an otherwise pretty good Animals song). The Billy Joel and John Mellencamp numbers were pretty good, Marshall Tucker's number featured Dicky Betts on guitar and that was nice, and, unlike our host, i really don't see Supertramp's Crime Of The Century as being one of the greatest albums of all time. I don't even think it's Supertramp's best album. De gustibus non disputandum, as we say.

Things i learned today department. Once upon a time there was a great little band called Free (i saw them in Glasgow in 1970) and they had a great and greatly troubled guitarist called Paul Kossoff (pictured below). When Free disintegrated, Koss released a solo album called Back Street Crawler and and gathered a group of musicians behind him to tour in its support and they took the name of the album. When Koss died in 1976, aged twenty-six, of cerebral and pulmonary oedema, exacerbated by years of substance abuse, the band decided to carry on using the name Crawler, but they needed a guitarist. They approached Mick Taylor, who had recently quit The Stones, but he declined, saying he “didn't want to replace a dead guy” and Crawler faded away, leaving nothing but a couple of songs on the KSHE Klassics Show.

Here's the playlist:

Steppenwolf – The Pusher

John Mellencamp – Rain On The Scarecrow

Dave Mason – Only You Know And I Know

Buffalo Springfield – Rock 'N' Roll Woman

REO Speedwagon – Music Man

Thin Lizzy – Romeo And The Lonely Girl

The Rolling Stones -- Neighbours

Queen – One Vision

Eddie Money – No Control

The Charlie Daniels Band – Passing Lane

Kansas – People Of The South Wind

The Little River Band – Red-Headed Wild Flower

Crawler – Sail On

The Electric Light Orchestra – Rockaria!

The Animals – San Franciscan Nights

Rush – Roll The Bones

Billy Joel – Say Goodbye To Hollywood

10 c.c. -- Rubber Bullets

The Marshall Tucker Band – Searchin' For A Rainbow

Stevie Nicks – Talk To Me

Steve Winwood – Roll With It

April Wine – Say Hello

Rockpile – Teacher, Teacher

Supertramp – Rudy

Yes – Tempus Fugit

The Police – Secret Journey

Roger Daltrey – Under A Raging Moon

Sammy Hagar – Run For Your Life / Danger Zone

Arc Angels – Sent By Angels

Jay Ferguson – Shakedown Cruise

Eagles – The Last Resort

Slade – Run Runaway

The Grateful Dead – Shakedown Street

Huey Lewis & The News – The Only One

Charlie – She Loves To Be In Love

Led Zeppelin – The Rain Song

Yes, my personal playlist is a rather long one this time. For one thing, we're back in lockdown again, which means i've been leaving work early; for another, quite a few of these albums date back to the time when a record was, on average, about forty minutes long, unlike now when they're often seventy-plus minutes.

The Gin Blossoms – New Miserable Experience

Sky – Sky 3

Fairport Convention – Festival Bell

Beryl Davis – I'll Be Seeing You

Peter Gabriel – OVO

Roxy Music – Manifesto

April Wine – The Hits

London Grammar – If You Wait

Penguin Cafe Orchestra – Penguin Cafe Orchestra

Bob Dylan – Blood On The Tracks

Silly Wizard – A Glint Of Silver

The Allman Brothers Band – Idlewild South

The Tragically Hip – Yer Favourites (2 CDs)

Sheila Chandra – Weaving My Ancestors' Voices

Tyrannosaurus Rex – Unicorn

Christine McVie – In The Meantime

Curved Air – Phantasmagoria

Daryl Hall & John Oates – Greatest Hits

Squeeze – The Best Of Squeeze

Jeff Beck – Wired

Kate Rusby – Little Lights

Yo-Yo Ma & Friends – Songs Of Joy And Peace

Neil Young – Everybody Knows This Is Nowhere

Weezer – Six Hits

Emerson, Lake & Palmer – Black Moon

Alison Krauss & Union Station – So Long So Wrong

Arkells – Jackson Square

Jann Arden – Jann Arden

Talking Heads – Remain In Light

Richard Thompson – Mock Tudor

Rhiannon Giddens w. Francesco Turrisi – There Is No Other

Pink Floyd – The Endless River

The Beatles – Past Masters Volume Two

Rick Wakeman – The Six Wives Of Henry VIII

Bill Bruford – One Of A Kind

Rod Stradling – Rhythms Of The Wold.

Various Artists – Stone Free: A Tribute To Jimi Hendrix

Steeleye Span – Ten Man Mop, Or, Mr Reservoir Butler Rides Again