04-27-09 tracks

The Purple Lagoon/Approximate - Frank Zappa (Zappa in New York)
Teenage Prostitute - Frank Zappa (Ship Arriving Too Late to Save a Drowning Witch)

(If you're going to sing about a woman who engages in the world's oldest profession, doing so in the most over-the-top operatic way is as good a way as any)

Backwater - Brian Eno (Before and After Science)
Crosstown Traffic - Jimi Hendrix Experience (Electric Ladyland)
I Don't Wanna Go Down to the Basement - The Ramones (Ramones)
The Nearest Faraway Place - The Beach Boys (20 20)
2. Adagio - Brahms (Violin Concerto: Hahn)
Lalena - Deep Purple (Deep Purple)
Rondo for Violin and Orchestra - Mozart
She Sells - Roxy Music (Siren)

(The second best track on a fine album. If there's such a thing as "sleazy vaudeville," that opening piano line is it)

Rainy Day in June - The Kinks (Face to Face)
3. Poco Allegretto - Brahms (Symphony 3: Solti)
The Legend of the Golden Arches - Frank Zappa (Uncle Meat)
Impromptu 4 in C# Minor - Chopin
Future Pasts - The Fall (Live at the Witch Trials)
Maybe Your Baby - Stevie Wonder (Talking Book)
It's Only Rock 'n Roll - The Rolling Stones (Love You Live)
3. Allegretto - Shostakovich (Cello Concerto 2)
Rambling, Gambling Willie - Bob Dylan (The Bootleg Series Vol 1-3)
Do You Want to Know a Secret? - The Beatles (Please Please Me)
Nobody's Home - Deep Purple (Knebworth '85)
Slip on Through - The Beach Boys (Sunflower)
ProzaKc Blues - King Crimson (The ConstruKction of Light)

(One of the sickest, most bizarre sounding "blues" songs ever. Clashing meters, ugly guitat sounds, and Adrian Belew doing an uncanny imitation of an old bluesman. Glorious)

Give the People What They Want - The Kinks (To the Bone)
It Won't be Wrong - The Byrds (In the Beginning)
He Was a Friend of Mine - The Byrds (Turn! Turn! Turn!)
Sat In Your Lap - Kate Bush (The Dreaming)
Pithecanthropus Erectus - Charles Mingus (Pithecanthropus Erectus)
Indian Summer - The Doors (Morrison Hotel)
Tryin' to Grow a Chin - Frank Zappa (You Can't Do That on Stage Vol 1)
Crossroads - Wings (Venus and Mars)
Brief Candles - The Zombies (Odessey & Oracle)
You Gotta Move - The Rolling Stones (Sticky Fingers)

(One of the lesser tracks on a classic album, but it's very tight, especially the great slide guitar work)

The Big Money - Rush (In Rio)
Is Your Love in Vain? - Bob Dylan (Live in Budokan)
Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde - The Who (Rarities 1966-72)
Garden of Serenity - The Ramones (Halfway to Sanity)

(A surprisingly good track from an underrated album)

4. Finale (quasi una fantasia) - Sibelius (Symphony 1)
Gates of Delirium - Yes (Live at Long Beach 1975)
Holloway Jail - The Kinks (Muswell Hillbillies)
Queen Jane Approximately - Bob Dylan (Dylan and the Dead)
Close to the Edge - Anderson Bruford Wakeman and Howe (An Evening of Yes Music Plus)
Hymn 43 - Jethro Tull (Aqualung)
Sweet Girl - Fleetwood Mac (The Dance)
Moog Raga - The Byrds (The Notorious Byrd Brothers)
Travel Weary Capricorn - King Crimson (Epitaph)
Ether - Gang of Four (Entertainment!)
3. Finale (Allegro Vivacissimo) - Tchaikovsky (Violin Concerto)
For You Blue - The Beatles (Let it Be ... Naked)
Show Me the Way to Go Home - Emerson Lake and Palmer (Works Vol 2)
Apotheosis: Apollo and the muses - Stravinsky (Apollo)
Today Your Love, Tomorrow the World - The Ramones (Ramones)

(I've long been fascinated by how this track, especially in the second half, provides such an effective "anthemic" capstone for an album that goes out of its way to minimize seriousness as much as possible)

Vintage Wine - The Moody Blues (Sur La Mer)
Picture in a Frame - Tom Waits (Mule Variations)
Prelude in B-flat Minor - Rachmaninoff (Piano Preludes)
To Ramona - Bob Dylan (Live 1964)
Rebellious Jukebox - The Fall (Live at the Witch Trials)
Setting Me Up - Dire Straits (Dire Straits)
Wicked Windows - Jethro Tull (J-Tull Dot Com)
5.45 - Gang of Four (Entertainment!)
3. Allegro - Beethoven (Piano Sonata 13: Brendel)
Have You Seen Your Mother, Baby, Standing in the Shadow? - The Rolling Stones (Got Live if You Want It)
Contrapunctus IV - Bach (The Art of Fugue)
Barbecutie - Sparks (Kimono My House)

(Oh man, the tone of the bass guitar in this song is really great)

Dead End Street - The Kinks (Kink Kronikles)
Nocturne No.2 in E-flat - Chopin
Transylvania Boogie - Frank Zappa (Chunga's Revenge)
Jack Tarr the Sailor - The Byrds (Ballad of Easy Rider)
3. Allegro - Bach (Brandenburg Concerto 5)
Billy 1 - Bob Dylan (Pat Garrett and Billy the Kid)
Catch Me Now I'm Falling - The Kinks (Low Budget)

(A song that works way better than it should. It's basically 3 parts repeated seemingly repeated ad infinitum, but they're good parts, dang it)

See My Friends - The Kinks (Kinkssize/Kinkdom)
You Want Blood (You've Got it) - AC/DC (Highway to Hell)
Summer Breeze - John Lodge (Natural Avenue)
Prelude in C Minor - Rachmaninoff (Piano Preludes)
The Spirit of Radio - Rush (In Rio)
Only Colombe - Gene Clark (Echoes)
Runnin' Blue - The Doors (The Soft Parade)
Bemsha Swing - Thelonious Monk (Brilliant Corners)
The Amazing Sound of Orgy - Radiohead

04-17-09 tracks

Stand in Line - The Flaming Lips (In a Priest Driven Ambulance)
I Don't Wanna Face it - John Lennon (Milk and Honey)

("You wanna save humanity, but its people you just can't stand." Pure poetry)

Knife Edge - Emerson Lake and Palmer (Works Live)
Biding My Time - Pink Floyd (Relics)
Up to Me - Jethro Tull (Aqualung)

(You know what my favorite part of the song is? It's a part in the middle where somebody seems to be playing a bongo with their hands, and the production makes the bongo sound like it's actually in the room. It's a fun moment!)

No Remorse - Metallica (Kill 'Em All)
Sunshine - Peter Hammill (Fool's Mate)
Fallout - Rahsaan Roland Kirk (Rig Rig and Panic)
Wot's Uh the Deal - Pink Floyd (Obscured by Clouds)

(One of the most underrated Floyd tunes of all time. Beautiful folkish guitar-piano pop with nice singing)

What You're Doing - Rush (Rush)
The Story of Bo Diddley - The Animals (The Complete Animals)
Heart on Ice - Emerson Lake and Palmer (In the Hot Seat)
The Main Monkey Business - Rush (Snakes and Arrows)

(The best Rush instrumental ever. Too bad not all of their tracks are this interesting)

One More Night - Bob Dylan (Nashville Skyline)
I Don't Believe You - Bob Dylan (Live 1964)
High Risk Insurance - The Ramones (End of the Century)
Flamenco Sketches (Alternate Take) - Miles Davis (Kind of Blue)
Shepherd's Delight - The Clash (Sandinista!)
Mikrokosmos 140-153 - Bartok (Solo Piano Music)
Spoon - Can (Ege Bamyasi)
Bye Bye Love - The Cars (The Cars)
Easy Money - King Crimson (The Night Watch)

(This may be the best version of this track I know. Plus, the live modifications to the lyrics are always a gross, perverted hoot)

2. Andante - Haydn (Symphony 95)
Forsaken Gardens - Peter Hammill (The Silent Corner and the Empty Stage)
I Walk the Line (Revisited) (with Rodney Crowell) - Johnny Cash (The Legend)
Seven Days - Bob Dylan (The Bootleg Series Vol 1-3)
Complicated - The Rolling Stones (Between the Buttons)
The Great Gig in the Sky - Pink Floyd (The Dark Side of the Moon)
She's So Fine - The Jimi Hendrix Experience (Axis: Bold as Love)
Sartori in Tangier - King Crimson (Beat)
3. Menuetto (Allegretto) / Trio - Mozart (Symphony 41: Bernstein)
Hoping Love Will Last - Steve Hackett (Please Don't Touch)
Every Bloody Emperor - Van Der Graaf Generator (The Present)

(It's really amazing to me that the band could break up for almost 30 years, come back and start the album off with a song that basically sounds exactly the same as the kind of music they'd done before. It's a good song, too, easily the best on the album)

King Billy - Ween (The Friends EP)
Home in Your Heart - Otis Redding (The Great Otis Redding Sings Soul Ballads)
Yesterday - The Beatles (Help!)
Roundabout - Yes (The House of Yes - Live from the House of Blues)
The Knife - Genesis (Live)
Prelude to the Afternoon of a Faun - Debussy

(Are there people who actually don't like this? Can they possibly exist?)

Two or Three Spectres - Peter Hammill (Nadir's Big Chance)
Last Carress - Metallica (Live Shit: Binge and Purge)
Not One of Us - Peter Gabriel (3)
White Car - Yes (Drama)
Hey Luciani - The Fall (458489 A Sides)
Revolution 1 - The Beatles (The Beatles)

(My favorite detail about this song is the fact that Lennon apparently sung it while lying on his back in the studio, to get just the right compressed lung sound in the vocals)

Hang On to Yourself - David Bowie (Ziggy Stardust)
Heaven - Talking Heads (Fear of Music)
The Wreck of the Hesperus - Procol Harum (A Salty Dog)

(One of the very best PH songs. The rolling piano line in the verses, plus the parts in the chorus where the orchestra and guitar swell up to make it sound like Poseidon emerging from the sea, are amazingly beautiful)

Memo from Turner - The Rolling Stones (Metamorphosis)
Aqualung - Jethro Tull (Live: Bursting Out)
Darling Nikki - Prince (Purple Rain)
You Really Got a Hold on Me - The Beatles (With the Beatles)
The Great Pretender - Brian Eno (Taking Tiger Mountain (By Strategy))
There Ain't No Good Chain Gang (with Waylon Jennings) - Johnny Cash (The Legend)
Zomby Woof - Frank Zappa (Overnite Sensation)
Sunset - Roxy Music (Stranded)
Nocturne 20 in C# Minor - Chopin
Foot of Pride - Bob Dylan (The Bootleg Series Vol 1-3)
In God's Country - U2 (The Joshua Tree)
Candle of Life - The Moody Blues (To Our Children's Children's Children)
Affairs of the Heart - Emerson Lake and Palmer (Black Moon)
Sacrificial Dance / The Chosen Victim - The Rite of Spring (Stravinsky: Stravinsky)
The Happiest Days of Our Lives / Another Brick in the Wall Pt. 2 - Roger Waters (In the Flesh)

(The best official live version of these songs out there. Somehow it's nowhere near as tacky when Waters does the song as when Pink Floyd proper does it)

04-09-09 tracks

She Bought a Hat Like Princess Marina - The Kinks (Arthur)
Here Comes the Flood (Piano Version) - Peter Gabriel

(Gorgeous, and ten times better than the original version from his debut)

Overture to a Holiday in Berlin - Frank Zappa (Burnt Weeny Sandwich)
Nausea - X (Los Angeles)
Stairway to Heaven - Frank Zappa (The Best Band You Never Heard In Your Life)

(One of the best and most inventive covers of a well-known song that could possibly exist. Having the horn section play the guitar solo of the original, almost note for note, was just a stroke of genius)

I'm Just a Singer in a Rock and Roll Band - The Moody Blues (Lovely to See You)
2. Andante Con Varazioni - Beethoven (Violin Sonata 9)
Memo from Turner - The Rolling Stones (Metamorphosis)
I've Been Waiting for You - David Bowie (Heathen)
Gonna Change My Way of Thinking - Bob Dylan (Slow Train Coming)
3. Allegro - Bach (Harpsichord Concerto in D Minor)
London Calling - The Clash (London Calling)
Desdemona - John's Children (Nuggets 2)
If I Don't Be There By Morning - Eric Clapton (Just One Night)
To Ramona - Bob Dylan (Another Side of Bob Dylan)
It's All Over Now - The Rolling Stones (12x5)

(One of the best early Stones tracks. The ending echoey fadeout is fascinatingly ahead of its time)

Laura - Ween (The Pod)
Invisible Kid - Metallica (St. Anger)
3. Allegretto - Shostakovich (Cello Concerto 2)
Big Love - Fleetwood Mac (The Dance)
Why Not Smile - R.E.M. (Up)
Mother Whale Eyeless - Brian Eno (Taking Tiger Mountain (By Strategy))
L.A. - The Fall (This Nation's Saving Grace)
I Took a Trip on a Gemini Spacecraft - David Bowie (Heathen)
Act 3. Appendix 1: Pas de deux: 1. Moderato / Andante - Tchaikovsky (Swan Lake)
Near Wild Heaven - R.E.M. (Out of Time)
Footsteps - Brain Eno and John Cale (Wrong Way Up)
Mistreated - Deep Purple (Made in Europe)

(The Coverdale/Hughes era of Deep Purple made very great tracks. This blues-metal workout was one of them, and it was even better live)

Empty Spaces / What Shall We Do Now? - Pink Floyd (Is There Anybody Out There)
Carpe Diem Baby - Metallica (Reload)
Who's Gene Autry? (with John Carter Cash) - Johnny Cash (The Legend)
4. Allegretto / Andante - Shostakovich (String Quartet 10)
Experience - Gentle Giant (In a Glass House)
Ghost Rider - Rush (In Rio)
Prove Yourself - Radiohead (Pablo Honey)
Thela Hun Gingeet - King Crimson (Absent Lovers)

(The original version was very good, even great. This version, starting from the initial echoey drum assault, to the last note, blows it away in every way)

Sweetness - Yes (Beyond and Before: BBC Sessions)
King Kong - Frank Zappa (Uncle Meat)

(One of the first jazz-fusion pieces ever written. I used to not like it much at all, apart from the main theme. Now I enjoy it for about eight or nine minutes before I start to get tired of it, though the last half is still pretty ok)

The Deception of the Thrush - King Crimson (Heavy ConstruKction)
Living in the Past - Jethro Tull (A Little Light Music)
Going to California - Led Zeppelin (BBC Sessions)
Easy Money - King Crimson (USA)
Bat Macumba - Os Mutantes (Nuggets 2)
The Seeker - The Who (Meaty Beaty Big and Bouncy)
Comfortably Numb - Pink Floyd (Is There Anybody Out There)
If You See Her, Say Hello - Bob Dylan (The Bootleg Series Vol 1-3)
The Torture Never Stops Part 2 - Frank Zappa (The Best Band You Never Heard In Your Life)
Prelude in G# Minor - Rachmaninoff (Piano Preludes)
Carol - The Rolling Stones (England's Newest Hitmakers)
Romance in Durango - Bob Dylan (Desire)
1. Allegro animato - Saint-Saens (Piano Concerto 5)
The Tide Rushes In - The Moody Blues (A Question of Balance)

(A quintessential Ray Thomas song, and one of his best)

Born to Rock 'N' Roll - The Byrds (Byrds)
Hey Hey - Eric Clapton (Unplugged)
Something in the Way - Nirvana (Nevermind)
Hasta Manana Monsieur - Sparks (Kimono My House)
Trick of the Light - The Who (Who Are You)
1. Adagio sostenuto - Beethoven (Piano Sonata 14: Brendel)
All Along the Watchtower - Bob Dylan (John Wesley Harding)

(Hendrix's cover is the best known version, but I still prefer the folk-mysticism of this one)

Alleluja (Exsultate, jubilate, K165) - Mozart
What's Going On - Husker Du (Zen Arcade)
Crucificion Lane - Procol Harum (A Salty Dog)
Starship Trooper - Anderson Bruford Wakeman and Howe (An Evening of Yes Music Plus)
Outlaw Blues - Bob Dylan (Bringing it All Back Home)
1. Presto alla tedesca - Beethoven (Piano Sonata 25: Brendel)
Among Fields of Crystal - Brian Eno and Harold Budd (The Plateaux of Mirror)
Batteries Not Included - Sparks (A Woofer in Tweeter's Clothing)
Act 2, No. 13. Danse des cygnes: 6. Tempo di valse: Tout le monde danse - Tchaikovsky (Swan Lake)
21st Century Schizoid Man - King Crimson (Epitaph)
Gonna Send You Back to Walker - The Animals (The Complete Animals)
Conundrum - Jethro Tull (Live: Bursting Out)
Layla - Eric Clapton (Unplugged)

(I know it's become fashionable to rip this, and I certainly don't like it more than the original, but I still find this very enjoyable)

Yours is No Disgrace (London 1971) - Yes (The Word is Live)

04-03-09 tracks

Alberta - Eric Clapton (Unplugged)
Summer Means New Love - The Beach Boys (Summer Days and Summer Nights)
The KKK Took My Baby Away - The Ramones (Pleasant Dreams)
Immigrant Song - Led Zeppelin (III)

(One of my favorite overplayed Zep rockers. It's as much proto-thrash and proto-punk as it is regular 70's heavy metal)

L'isle joyeuse L.106 - Debussy
Sunny Afternoon - The Kinks (To the Bone)
No. 13 Allegro Moderato - Tchaikovsky (Swan Lake)
3. Allegro Vivace - Bartok (Piano Concerto 3)

(I find myself wanting to listen to the third piano concerto the least of the three, but it's got a lot of great traits)

Cold Cold Ground - Tom Waits (Frank's Wild Years)
Lean On Me Tonight - The Moody Blues (Lovely to See You)
I Don't Know Where I Stand - Joni Mitchell (Clouds)
Hat and Beard - Eric Dolphy (Out to Lunch)
Wicked Annabella - The Kinks (The Village Green Preservation Society)
Make it Easy - Yes (90125: Bonus tracks)

(The verses, sung by Rabin, sound pretty lame, but the chorus is 80's Yes at its best. I like the introduction, used later in concert for introductions to Owner of a Lonely Heart, very much as well)

Uncle Son - The Kinks (Muswell Hillbillies)
Life During Wartime - Talking Heads (Fear of Music)
Sorry Charlie - Ween (The Pod)
Sweetness Follows - R.E.M. (Automatic for the People)
Pilgrim's Progress - Procol Harum (A Salty Dog)

(A very warm, happy ending to the original album, though I think I prefer the way the CD ends now, with the more 'rocking' Long Gone Geek)

Earthshine - Rush (In Rio)
Seven Stones - Genesis (Alone Within a Storm - France, 1972)

(Not an early Genesis track I especially love, but it's got some very pretty moments, and live it had some surprising power)

Sabbra Cadabra - Black Sabbath (Sabbath Bloody Sabbath)
Metal Militia - Metallica (Kill 'em All)
Pas de deux: Variation I (Tarantella) - Tchaikovsky (The Nutcracker)
1. Poco sostenuto / Vivace - Beethoven (Symphony 7: Toscanini)
3. Scherzo. Alla bulgarese - Bartok (String Quartet 5)
Prelude in B-flat major - Rachmaninoff
You Baby - The Mamas and Papas (If You Can Believe Your Eyes and Ears)
More Than This - Peter Gabriel (Up)
Seems So Long - Stevie Wonder (Music of My Mind)
Underneath the Neon Sign - The Kinks (Soap Opera)

(The album is stupid on the whole, but it's got some nice tracks, and this is one of them)

Bei Mir Bist Du Schon - Benny Goodman (Live at Carnegie Hall - 1937)
Heaven - The Rolling Stones (Tattoo You)

(One of my favorite I-Can't-Believe-It's-The-Rolling-Stones tracks. It's closer to Ambient music than to anything the Stones ever did before or after)

Perpetual Change - Yes (House of Yes - Live at the House of Blues)
Got to Get Better in a Little While - Derek and the Dominos (Live at the Fillmore)
Under - Brian Eno (Another Day on Earth)
1. Largo/Allegro/Adagio - Piano Sonata 17 (Beethoven: Brendel)
Emily's Song - The Moody Blues (Every Good Boy Deserves Favour)
Awaken - Yes (Going for the One)

(Jon Anderson, the band's leader and vocalist, considers this track the culmination of what Yes was all about. I wouldn't go that far, but I certainly wouldn't agree with those that consider this an overlong, bloated mess. I get plenty of catharsis out of this song when all's said and done)

Flower's Grave - Tom Waits (Alice)
While You Were Out - Frank Zappa (Shut Up 'n Play Yer Guitar)
Lucky - Radiohead (OK Computer)

(I still say it's mostly just built on atmosphere and wailing, Pink Floyd-ish guitar parts, but it uses those elements)

Gloomy - Creedence Clearwater Revival (Creedence Clearwater Revival)
Been Alone So Long - Peter Hammill (Nadir's Big Chance)
Running to Stand Still - U2 (The Joshua Tree)
Music Reincarnate Pt. 5: The Reaper - Rick Wakeman (No Earthly Connection)
Highway Star / Not Fade Away - Deep Purple (On the Wings of a Russian Foxbat)
Le Tombeau de Couperin/4. Rigaudon - Ravel (Orchestral Works)
Shadow Boxed - Procol Harum (The Well's on Fire)

(I'm so very glad that Procol Harum ended its career with this album instead of the horrible mess that was their 1991 album. This track is marvelous and stands up to their best 70's work)

Pas de Deux - Stravinsky (Orpheus)
Watcher of the Skies - Genesis (Alone Within a Storm - France, 1972)
The In Crowd - The Mamas and the Papas (If You Can Believe Your Eyes and Ears)
It Ain't Easy - David Bowie (Ziggy Stardust)
Dreamline - Rush (Different Stages)
Passing the Time - Cream (Wheels of Fire)
Willesden Green - The Kinks (Percy)
6. Gigue - Bach (Cello Suite 4)
Powerhouse at the Foot of the Mountain (from San Jacinto) - Peter Gabriel (Birdy)

(Grumbly guitar and synth ambience. It's glorious if you're into that sort of thing)

Catch the Rainbow - Rainbow (Richie Blackmore's Rainbow)
Stand by Me - John Lennon (Rock and Roll)
The Winner Takes it All - ABBA (Super Trouper)
Pick Me I'm Clean - Frank Zappa (Tinseltown Rebellion)
Three Wishes - Roger Waters (Amused to Death)
Happiness is a Warm Gun - The Beatles (The Beatles)
3. Presto - Bach (Harpsichord Concerto in F minor)
If Not For You - Bob Dylan (A New Morning)

(George Harrison's cover is better, I think, but this is full of lovely charm as well)

Bad Day - R.E.M.
With God On Our Side - Bob Dylan (Live 1964)
Stinkfoot - Frank Zappa (You Can't Do That On Stage Anymore Vol 2)
Hold On - Tom Waits (Mule Variations)
Dreamtime - Yes (Magnification)
Saturn - Stevie Wonder (Songs in the Key of Life)

(A great, uplifting way to end the day)

03-25-09 tracks

Mansion - The Fall (This Nation's Saving Grace)
You're Gonna Make Me Lonesome When You Go - Bob Dylan (Blood on the Tracks)
Brother of Mine - Anderson Bruford Wakeman and Howe (An Evening of Yes Music Plus)
Up in Heaven (Not Only Here) - The Clash (Sandinsta!)
Bravado - Rush (Roll the Bones)

(The album is overly polished and kinda insipid on the whole, but this is a very pretty track that I freely enjoy)

No Return - The Kinks (Something Else)
Run Like Hell - Pink Floyd (The Wall)
Decentre - Brian Eno (Nerve Net)
Trouble Every Day - Frank Zappa (Freak Out!)

(It can't be said enough; this is one of the best blues rock songs ever, and one of the best protest songs ever)

Children of the Sea - Black Sabbath (Heaven and Hell)
I Got You (At the End of the Century) - Wilco (Being There)
Airegin - Miles Davis (Cookin')
It's Only Rock'n'Roll - The Rolling Stones (Love You Live)
1. Toccata - Stravinsky (Violin Concerto: Hahn)

(This whole VC is just pure beauty. If you like some real passion and grit in your beauty, that is)

The Court of the Crimson King - King Crimson (In the Court of the Crimson King)
Maggie's Farm - Bob Dylan (Live at Budokan)
In the Flesh - Roger Waters (In the Flesh)

(I continue to get a chuckle from the idea of somebody opening a concert with a song about wanting to kill his audience)

Aybe Sea - Frank Zappa (Burnt Weeny Sandwich)
It Ain't Easy - David Bowie (Ziggy Stardust)
Barrelhouse Shakedown - Emerson Lake and Palmer (Works Vol. 2)
From a Deadbeat to an Old Greaser - Jethro Tull (Too Old to Rock and Roll, Too Young to Die)
Ruby Tuesday - The Rolling Stones (Between the Buttons)

(Is there anybody so macho that they don't like this song? And if so, what's wrong with them?)

I'm a Boy - The Who (Live at Leeds)
Run Run Run - The Who (A Quick One)
The Affiliated - The Dukes of Stratosphear (Chips from the Chocolate Fireball)
John Barleycorn - Jethro Tull (A Little Light Music)
Amongst His Tribe - Ween (Quebec)
Got to Get Better in a Little While - Derek and the Dominos (Live at the Fillmore)
Let Down - Radiohead (OK Computer)

(One of my two favorite tracks on the album. I've never worshipped the album like so many do, but this is a great bit of dreamy guitar pop lullaby)

Neal and Jack and Me - King Crimson (Beat)
Dachau Blues - Captain Beefheart (Trout Mask Replica)
I'll be Gone - Tom Waits (Real Gone)
Into the Fire - Deep Purple (In Rock)
Such a Shame - The Kinks (Kinksize/Kinkdom)
Last Gang in Town - The Clash (Give 'Em Enough Rope)
For Whom the Bell Tolls - Metallica (S & M)

(Aside from The Call of Kthulu, I'd be hardpressed to name a track on here better suited to the symphonic treatment. It's basically a 5-minute metal symphony, after all)

3. Scherzo (Allegro) & Trio - Beethoven (String Quartet in G Major - Op. 18)
Outside the Gates of Cerdes - Procol Harum (A Whiter Shade of Pale)

(The interaction of the basslines with the keyboards, especially in the introduction, entertains me every time)

Pieholden Suite - Wilco (Summerteeth)
The Ocean - Led Zeppelin (Houses of the Holy)
Twist and Shout - The Beatles (Please Please Me)
Smile Please - Stevie Wonder (Fulfilingness' First Finale)
Of Wolf and Man - Metallica (Live Shit: Binge and Purge)
Living the Blues - Bob Dylan (Self Portrait)
Waiting for the Worms - Pink Floyd (The Wall)

(I'm not as fond of this song as I might have been when I was 17 or so, but it's pretty decent when it's music, before the endless layering of sound effects come in)

Sun King - The Beatles (Abbey Road)
2. Prelude - Stravinsky (Agon)
Here Kitty - Sparks (Hello Young Lovers)
Mad Man Moon - Genesis (A Trick of the Tail)

(Probably my least favorite track on the album, as it's a bit too rambling and overlong, but it's got some very lovely bits, especially in the "Hey man, I'm the sandman" mid-section)

Lookout Joe - Neil Young (Tonight's the Night)
Canon alla Decima in Contrapuncto alla Terza - Bach (The Art of Fugue)
Xanadu - Rush (A Farewell to Kings)

(My favorite Rush track. And yes, I've kissed a girl)

2. L'absence-andante espressivo - Beethoven (Piano Sonata 26: Brendel)
Sunday Mornin' Comin' Down - Johnny Cash (The Legend)
King Kong - The Kinks (Kink Kronikles)
New Faces - The Rolling Stones (Voodoo Lounge)
Prelude in E-flat minor - Rachmaninoff (Piano Preludes)
Knocking at Your Back Door - Deep Purple (Perfect Strangers)
Nothing to Say - The Kinks (Arthur)
I Shall be Released - Bob Dylan (The Bootleg Series)
The Mighty Quinn - Bob Dylan (Self Portrait)

(I really don't get hating this album while liking its predecessor, Nashville Skyline. At least people usually like this song)

4. Scherzo. Allegro vivo - Tchaikovsky (Symphony 3: Bernstein)
No Reply at All - Genesis (Abacab)

(This song just keeps getting better the more I hear it. It sounds incredibly clumsy at first, but it's got soooo many good things going for it that I love it)

Show Don't Tell - Rush (Presto)
Entre Nous - Rush (Snakes and Arrows Live)
Let's Go - The Ramones (End of the Century)
Lisa Says - The Velvet Underground (1969 Live)
Good Day Sunshine - The Beatles (Revolver)
Natural Science - Rush (In Rio)

(Another incredibly dorky song from Rush that I happen to enjoy despite my general dislike of Rush. Go figure.)

Window - Genesis (From Genesis to Revelation)

03-12-09 tracks

Steppin in a Slide Zone - The Moody Blues (Lovely to See You)

(Such an incredibly dorky song, yet I've enjoyed it immensely at all three MB concerts I've gone to, and it's nice to have an officially released live version of it)

Mess of My - The Fall (The Peel Sessions)
Why (bonus - single version) - The Byrds (Fifth Dimension)
Neon Knights - Black Sabbath (Heaven and Hell)

(Another guilty pleasure. A great song marred by completely ridiculous lyrics)

My Baby Left Me - Creedence Clearwater Revival (Cosmo's Factory)
Broken Heart - Spiritualized (Royal Albert Hall 1997)
4. Finale. Vivace - Haydn (Symphony 95)
Brilliant Corners - Thelonious Monk (Brilliant Corners)
1. Andante sostenuto - Bartok (Violin Concerto 1)
Eternal Circle - Bob Dylan (The Bootleg Series Vol 1-3)
Marche Slave - Tchaikovsky
2. Adagio Grazioso - Beethoven (Piano Sonata 16)
Making Time - The Creation (Nuggets 2)
1. Allegro Moderato - Tchaikovsky (Violin Concerto)
Vision - Peter Hammill (Fool's Mate)
It Ain't Necessarily the Saint James Infirmary - Frank Zappa (Guitar)
I Need Your Love - The Ramones (Subterranean Jungle)

(Kinda plastic and overly slick, yes, but there's just something very alluring about the mix of the guitars and the vocals during the chorus)

Pavane - Jethro Tull (The Jethro Tull Christmas Album)
I've Got That Feeling - The Kinks (Kinkssize/Kinkdom)
Mushroom Festival in Hell - Ween (God Ween Satan)
Schizoid Men 7 - King Crimson (Ladies of the Road)
I Want to Tell You - The Beatles (Revolver)
Me and I - ABBA (Super Trouper)
Dali's Car - Captain Beefheart (Trout Mask Replica)
Hand of Fate - The Rolling Stones (Black and Blue)
4. Sarabande - Bach (Cello Suite)
Chamber of Horrors - Rick Wakeman (Criminal Record)

(A good track from what is far and away the best Wakeman solo album I've heard, and the best solo album from the various Yes members)

The Last Time - The Rolling Stones (Out of Our Heads)

(My favorite early Stones track.)

Don't Let it Show - The Alan Parsons Project (I, Robot)
Who'll Be the Next in Line - The Kinks (Kinkssize/Kinkdom)
Strange Brew - Cream (Disraeli Gears)
Locket Love - The Ramones (Rocket to Russia)
Barcarolle - Tom Waits (Alice)
The Long Black Veil - Johnny Cash (The Legend)
Supersonic Rocket Ship - The Kinks (Everybody's in Showbiz)

(A very light, fun and playful track, from the last album before Ray went off the deep end for a few years)

Sea and Sand - The Who (Quadrophenia)
Life's a Long Song - Jethro Tull (A Little Light Music)
2. Andantino in modo di canzona - Tchaikovsky (Symphony 4: Bernstein)
Phenomenal Cat - The Kinks (The Kinks are the Village Green Preservation Society)
Part One - Tchaikovsky (Concert Fantasy)
1. Largo - Shostakovich (String Quartet 8)
Prelude in C Major - Rachmaninoff
Serenade to a Cuckoo - Jethro Tull (This Was)

(A fine cover of a Rahsaan Roland Kirk song I have yet to hear in its original form. Rip Rig and Panic is a good album, though)

White Light/White Heat - The Velvet Underground (White Light/White Heat)
Can't Stand It - Wilco (Summerteeth)
Way Down in the Hole - Tom Waits (Frank's Wild Years)
Peak Hour - The Moody Blues (Caught Live + 5)
Cascades: I'm Not Your Lover - Deep Purple (Purpendicular)
Melt the Guns - XTC (English Settlement)
Rough Boys - Pete Townshend (Empty Glass)
King's Lead Hat - Brian Eno (Before and After Science)

("Time and motion/time and tide/all I know and all I have is time/and time and tide is on my side" is just a perfect line.)


Silent Sun - Genesis (From Genesis to Revelation)
(On Tuesdays She Used to do) Yoga - Peter Hammill (Over)
The Emperor in his War Room - Peter Hammill (In Camera: bonus tracks)

(The track works surprisingly well when stripped down to Peter's voice and a piano. I think I prefer this version to the original Van Der Graaf Generator version)

Floating - The Moody Blues (To Our Children's Children's Children)
Superstar - Andrew Lloyd Webber (Jesus Christ Superstar)
Feeling Gravity's Pull - R.E.M. (Fables of the Reconstruction)
Working Man - Rush (In Rio)
Nocturne in E flat major, op. 9 no.2 - Chopin
Stick it Out - Rush (Different Stages)
Abaddon's Bolero - Emerson Lake and Palmer (Trilogy)

(It may be pompous, and it may be done on dated synths, but that groove, and all of the sounds on top of it, sucks me in like crazy)

Canard Du Jour - Frank Zappa (Shut Up 'n Play Yer Guitar)
Goin' Away Baby - Eric Clapton (From the Cradle)
Voices Inside My Head - The Police (Zenyatta Mondatta)
Smile Away - Paul McCartney (Ram)
1. Moderato - Shostakovich (String Quartet 1)
1983...(A Merman I Should Turn to be) - Jimi Hendrix (Electric Ladyland)

03-06-09 tracks

5. Humoresque: Allegro - Shostakovich (String Quartet 11)
Isolation - John Lennon (Plastic Ono Band)
Juanita - The Flying Burrito Bros. (Gilded Palace of Sin)
Red Sector A - Rush (In Rio)
Blank Frank - Brian Eno (Here Come the Warm Jets)
Thick as Brick - Jethro Tull (Live: Bursting Out)
One of My Turns - Pink Floyd (Is There Anybody Out There?)

(I still think that the concept of doing a track like this live, and ESPECIALLY releasing a live version on a CD, is kinda silly)

David Watts - The Kinks (One for the Road)
Burning Down - R.E.M. (Dead Letter Office)
You See Me Crying - Aerosmith (Toys in the Attic)
The Messenger - Yes (The Ladder)
Sartori in Tangier - King Crimson (Absent Lovers)

(The studio version is good, but the drum sound is a little too quintessentially 80's at times. This version is pretty much perfect)

Just Step S'ways - The Fall (Hex Enduction Hour)
5. Swineheard's Dance - Bartok (Hungarian Sketches)
Subterranean Homesick Blues - Bob Dylan (Bringing it All Back Home)
Cinema - Yes (Live at the House of Blues)
2. Aria I - Stravinsky (Violin Concerto: Hahn)

(This is one of my favorite VCs. It's one of the most aggressively emotional pieces of music I can think of)

Bleed to Love Her - Fleetwood Mac (The Dance)
Your Party - Ween (La Cucaracha)
4. Les sons et les parfums tournent dans l'air du soir - Debussy (Preludes 1er livre L. 117)
Siberian Khatru - Yes (Live at Montreux 2003)

(Starts off disturbingly timid, but it picks up a lot of steam by the end)

My Carnival - Wings (Venus and Mars)
Dressing the Wound - Peter Gabriel (Birdy)
Cousin Kevin Model Child - The Who (Odds and Sods)
Jacob's Ladder - Rush (Exit: Stage Left)
You're Probably Wondering Why I'm Here - Frank Zappa (Freak Out!)
You're Innocent When You Dream (78) - Tom Waits (Frank's Wild Years)
Cleetus Awreetus-Awrightus - Frank Zappa (The Grand Wazoo)

(I'm not very fond of this album overall, but this song is an all-time classic)

I - Heaven and Hell (Radio City Music Hall 2007)
Living Wreck - Deep Purple (In Rock)
Circus - Tom Waits (Real Gone)
Pet Sounds - The Beach Boys (Pet Sounds)
1. First Movement - Bach (Concerto for 4 Harpsichords in A Minor)
Lover's Rock - The Clash (London Calling)
Positively 4th Street - The Byrds (Untitled)
She's Got Everything - The Kinks (Kink Kronikles)
Aggravation - The Kinks (UK Jive)

(The best song of an album that's much blander than such a bitter album should be)

Signe - Eric Clapton (Unplugged)
Gigues - Debussy (Images pour Orchestre)
Watcher of the Skies - Genesis (Foxtrot)

(The introduction might be slightly overlong, but I still think it's one of the absolute greatest lengthy album introductions of all time. The song itself is great too)

Boogie on Reggae Woman - Stevie Wonder (Fulfillingness' First Finale)
All Day and All of the Night - The Kinks (To the Bone)
Spindrift - Rush (Snakes and Arrows)
Scenario - Jethro Tull (The Chateau D'Isaster Tapes)
Worrywort - Radiohead
Round and Round - Neil Young (Everybody Knows This is Nowhere)
When You're In - Pink Floyd (Obscured by Clouds)

(I still say this album doesn't get nearly enough credit, and I enjoy the instrumentals plenty whenever they come on)

1. Andante Sostenuto - Saint-Saens (Piano Concerto 2)

(I find the Saint-Saens piano concertos a little dry and boring overall, but this PC is probably his best, and this movement stands out more than a bit)

Pavane pour une infante defunte - Ravel (Orchestral Works)
The Other Side of Life - The Moody Blues (A Night at Red Rocks)
In a Glass House - Gentle Giant (In a Glass House)
3. Allegro - Bach (Triosonate 1)
Larks' Tongues in Aspic 2 - King Crimson (Absent Lovers)
Aybe Sea - Frank Zappa (Burnt Weeny Sandwich)

(One of the few examples of pure beauty found in the Frank Zappa catalogue)

Object - Ween (La Cucaracha)
Listen to My Heart - The Ramones (It's Alive)
Cowgirl in the Sand - Neil Young (Everybody Knows This is Nowhere)
2. Andante, un poco adagio - Brahms (Piano Quintet)
Kicked in the Teeth - AC/DC (Powerage)
First Snow in Brooklyn - Jethro Tull (The Jethro Tull Christmas Album)
My Funny Valentine - Miles Davis (Cookin')

(All four albums from these sessions are full of enjoyable goodness if you're at all into jazz, and this is one of the clear highlights)