Mixed CD Continuation...

Well I last left off after track #4 on Sunday evening. I didn't feel like typing after my workday, and my Costco run and my chauffering of the Prodigal Son. To be truthful I am not in a good mood right now. Just one of those days and I will refrain from divulging more because you just never know who reads my ramblings.

Here we go onto the next track on the CD...

5. Down By The Waterfront - Walter Rossi (1980)
One of my favorite homegrown talents. I remember being in my early 20s and at Phantasmagoria on Park Avenue putting on the headphones to listen to the 1st of Walter Rossi's greatest hits packages which was called "Picks". I have that one from 1982 on cassette. I also have a more recent compilation on CD that was released in 1990 called "All My Best". This song appears on both compilations. It's funny I have listened to this song for over 20 years and I've only come to realize now what the song is about. I never realized that it was song about the have nots that live on the wrong side of the tracks or the waterfront in this case. In particular it's about a lady named Babylon who turned tricks to get the money that she needed to leave that life and how one day something real bad happened. I only figured out the subject matter now after listening to the song three four times in a row. The tempo of the song is upbeat and the sax line is peppy. I never realized the sadness of the song.

6. The World I Know - Collective Soul (1995)
Holy eff I must have been really depressed the day I burned this CD. Another song laced with sadness. A song about disillusionment. Homelessness. Suicidal thoughts. Wow. Weird looking back several years after burning the CD. I must have been in a weird place. Song starts off with an acoustic guitar. Then strings. Then the sad, sad lyrics. Then right at the end a splash of contentment, realization and irony appears which I hope is the reason I am attracted to the song. That even in sad or dark times, there is light somewhere. Hope. Joy.

7. Estranged - Guns and Roses (1991)
Oh boy another happy song. Axl Rose wrote this song after his short marriage to Erin Everly was annulled. I started listening to this song when my marriage was breaking up. It's no wonder that I identified with this song right off the bat. I used to listen to the cassette version of this song while doing accounting homework late into the night at the kitchen table. I would listen to the almost 10 minute version of this song over and over. Rewind. Play. Rewind. Play. Rewind. Play. This song and the "So Fine" which was the track before on "Use Your Illusion II" were played over and over. Even today the lyrics touch something down deep inside of me. Isn't that what music is supposed to do? Even if it isn't always bringing you to a happy place.

8. Long Stick Goes Boom - Krokus (1982)
Okay not exactly a love song. LOL. To say the least. I'm thinking that this gives Def Leppard's stripper anthem "Pour Some Sugar On Me" a run for the money for the double entendres. The first line in the song "we all know about 69", Marc Storace was not talking about the year like in the Bryan Adams song. Anyways it is a 5 minute ditty about sex. When you're 20 years old like I was when the song came out that was a pretty big thing. Today singing "long stick goes boom" (LOL) is embarrassing I think. I still like the song so sue me. It's a good driving song. It isn't like I am about to start listening to Roger Whitaker sing "The Last Farewell" when I am driving to work. LOL.

9. Democracy - Leonard Cohen (1992)
So I must have felt guilty after the Krokus track because I went all intellectual with this song. I lived on St. Urbain St. after I got divorced. It's almost like I have to love Leonard Cohen as a result of this. How many songs refer to Tiananmen Square in the second line of a song? Probably no others. Even today 20 years after its' release the lyrics are as timely today as they were back then. I think even more so when you think of the attacks on the democratic process that are occurring on a daily basis in countries like my adopted land. "and I'm neither left or right I'm just staying home tonight." Truer words are hard to find.

10. It's Only Rock'n'Roll (But I Like It) - The Rolling Stones (1974)
Ah the Strolling Bones at their finest. Mick Jagger sneering away. Keith Richard's atypical dirty guitar. A memorable singalong chorus. Damn this song is 37 yrs. old. I'm listening to it now and it still rocks. It still sneers. And I like it, like it, yes I do.

11. Year Of The Knife - Tears For Fears (1989)
I first heard this song while living on Park Avenue with my middle brother Randolf, Shane from NS and Mark from England. I remember buying the cassette of "The Seeds of Love" and playing it in the kitchen and Mark coming by and asking me what the heck was playing. It was so catchy. It was Beatlesque. Very Sgt. Pepper-like especially the title track. Off this album came "Sowing The Seeds", "Woman In Chains" and "Year Of The Knife". The musicality of this album was not something we were hearing much from then. For Tears for Fears this was way more artistic that the sparser "Songs From The Big Chair" This song was never released as a single. CHOM played it though by request I believe. I love this song! No idea what it means. I just like it. Listen to the live version and I guarantee ya that you're bopping to the first minute or so. You can't help it. I swear!

12. Beck's Bolero - Jeff Beck (1967)
Okay time to travel on the way back machine to 1967 to an allstar instrumental rendition of Ravel's classic Bolero. Jeff Beck, Jimmy Page, John-Paul Jones, Nicky Hopkins and Keith Moon. What a band. What players. What a version. Jeff makes that guitar cry. Jimmy fills in the gaps. Keith when he has the chance plays like the madman drummer he was. So cool. 44 yr old song. Effing incredible.

13. Thinking Of You - Harlequin (1981)
An under the radar band from Winnipeg. How many bands are from Winnipeg anyways? The Guess Who. That pretty much sums Winnipeg rock I think besides the boys that made up Harlequin. Okay their songs will never be mistaken for "Stairway To Heaven" or "C'est La Vie". What they wrote were catchy 3-4 minute songs that the average Canuck could relate to when they heard the song or songs from Harlequin. "Superstitious Feeling". "Innocence". "Sweet Things In Life". Or this song which was catchy. I loved that lyric "lit another cigarette and waited". I used to smoke. LOL.

14. Before The Dawn - April Wine (1979)
Oh another CanCon song. This one from another Montreal band. This track came from the classic "Harder...Faster" album. This was an album track. Never released as a single. One of the few songs that Brian Greenway sang lead on. He also did the classic King Crimson song "21st Century Schizoid Man" on this album. Many people think that "Before" is called "Laurie Laura Laurie Lorelei" due to the opening lyrics. A true power ballad. You know that genre that became super popular with the hair bands of the 80s. April Wine did it first. They did it well.

15. Double Vie - Richard Seguin (1985)
One of my favorite Quebecois chansonniers. This track taken from the 1985 album of the same name. I have this song from a live CD as well. I would love to see this guy live if they allow federalists to attend his shows. LOL. I always thought he looked like he was related to my Mom's side of the family. The Boules. With the dark hair and complexion he would have fit right in on "Jour de L'An". This song is catchy. I have had unilingual anglophones listen to this song in my car and they think it is pretty catchy even if they don't understand what the dang Frenchy is singing about. They call us Frenchies. LOL.

Okay that's it for this CD. Took me a while to finish this blog. I like the CD. A bit sad at times but quite eclectic. Rock on Rock on.