Getting More Tale #585: Days Full of Music
I might not rock and roll all night, or party every day. I do, however, sleep well at night because I rock and roll most of the day.
I play music every day. I have played music every day with only a few exceptions for the last 30+ years. A grade 8 weeklong Catholic school retreat at Mt. Mary meant a week of no music, so I listened to as much Kiss as I could beforehand. I hoped to have the tunes in my head all week. Unfortunately that’s not a substitute for the real thing, but I did survive Mt. Mary.
I have always said that listening to the radio at work is a much better fate than listening to whatever was popular at the Record Store in the later days. Better for me, anyway, rather than being force-fed Franz Ferdinand, Alicia Keys, or Big Shiny Tunes all day. I’d much rather check out what’s on the local rock airwaves. The higher-ups at the Record Store didn’t like my kind of music much, so when they were around I stuck to the stuff they wanted played. I didn’t want to get in shit for playing Kiss in store anymore.
Below you’ll find what a typical happy day at work sounds like today. I used July 5 2017 as a sample date. There are a few readers here who listen to the same radio station I do (107.5 Dave Rocks where I have done guest shots in the past) so some will know these songs well. Then there are others who loathe the radio (which is fine) and they can skip this one.
I started my daily commute that day with the second disc of Rush’s 2112, the 40th anniversary edition. The drive to work consisted of the cover tunes by Foo Fighters, Billy Talent, Steven Wilson, Jacob Moon and Alice in Chains. On this trip I was struck by how little like Alice in Chains they sounded. I was also very impressed (as usual) with Jacob Moon. I’m almost embarrassed to add that Billy Talent is gradually growing on me, and this Rush cover doesn’t hurt their case.
When I got into the office I turned on the radio to hear One Bad Son. They are a new hard rock band from Saskatoon, but they sound international. A band to keep an ear to the ground for. The day went on as you see it below. I have marked all Canadian Content songs with a red CC, since radio stations in Canada must play certain percentages of CanCon.
Here was my music for the day of July 5:
Car: Rush – 2112 40th anniversary edition (first half of disc 2)
1. One Bad Son – “Raging Bull” – Great rock reminiscent of Skid Row! CC
2. Spacehog – “In the Meantime”
3. Alice in Chains – “Check My Brain” –Killer track, it’s been a while.
4. April Wine – “Weeping Widow” – I’ve never heard this smoking track before. CC
5. Motley Crue – “Don’t Go Away Mad (Just Go Away)”
6. Age of Electric – “Ugly” – Vintage Canadian alternarock! CC
7. The Cars – “Just What I Needed” – I will never get tired of this.
8. The Struts – “Kiss This” – I absolutely hate this song.
9. The Tragically Hip – “Fully Completely” CC
10. Bon Jovi – “Born to Be My Baby” – Old classic back in circulation.
11. Soundgarden – “Rusty Cage”
12. U2 – “Beautiful Day”
13. The Guess Who – “American Woman” CC
14. Bryan Adams – “Kids Wanna Rock” CC
15. Foo Fighters – “All My Life”
16. Bachman-Turner Overdrive – “Hold Back the Water” CC
17. Papa Roach – “Help”
18. J. Geils Band – “Love Stinks”
19. The Trews – “So She’s Leaving” CC
20. Aerosmith – “Back in the Saddle” – I did air guitar in my office for this song.
21. Metallica – “Until it Sleeps”
22. Harlequin – “Thinking of You”— A great old tune that deserves your attention. CC
23. Monster Truck – “The Enforcer” CC
24. The Kinks – “You Really Got Me”
25. Sublime – “Santeria”
26. The Killjoys – “Today I Hate Everyone” CC
27. Led Zeppelin – “Night Flight” – Points for a more obscure song!
28. Pop Evil – “Footsteps” – Sorry Pop Evil fans. I can’t get into this band at all.
29. The Cult – “Wildflower”
30. The Wild! – “Living Free” – Tyler Generoux is into these guys. CC
31. Kaleo – “Glass House”
32. Moist – “Resurrection” CC
33. Guns N’ Roses – “You Could Be Mine”
34. Rush – “The Big Money” CC
35. The Rolling Stones – “Rocks Off”
36. Soundgarden – “Burden In My Hand”
37. The Who – “I’m Free”
38. Blink 182 – “Bored to Death – I’ve really been enjoying their new songs with Matt Skiba.
39. Nirvana – “Breed”
40. Neil Young – “When You Dance You Can Really Love” CC
41. Sloan – “She Says What She Means” CC
42. Our Lady Peace – “Supersatellite” CC
43. AC/DC – “Rock N’ Roll Train” – It’s nice to hear “newer” Black Ice material.
44. Led Zeppelin – “Four Sticks” – The second Zep of the shift.
45. Stone Sour – “Bother”
46. Scorpions – “The Zoo”
47. Jimi Hendrix – “Fire”
48. Metallica – “The Unforgiven”
49. ZZ Top – “Sharp Dressed Man”
50. Nickelback – “Feed the Machine” – First and thankfully only Nickelback of the shift. CC
51. Max Webster – “Paradise Skies” CC
52. Sam Roberts Band – “If You Want It” CC
53. Foo Fighters – “D.O.A.” – Second Foo Fighters of the shift.
54. Van Halen – “Hot For Teacher”
55. Hole – “Awful” – Ironically not awful!
56. Rush – The Analog Kid” – Second Rush of the shift. CC
57. The Guess Who – “Bus Rider” – Second Guess Who of the shift. CC
58. 311 – “Down” – I hated them then, and I hate them now.
59. The Glorious Sons – “Mama” CC
60. Big Sugar – “Dear Mr. Fantasy” CC
61. Led Zeppelin – “Rock and Roll” – Third Zep for the shift and the most typical.
62. The Offspring – “Gone Away” – A band I never ever liked.
63. Def Leppard – “Hysteria” – Their greatest ballad ever.
64. Bon Jovi – “Lay Your Hands On Me” – Second Jovi of the shift and second from New Jersey.
65. The Trews – “Lotta Work Little Love” – Second Trews of the shift. CC
66. Soundgarden – “Blow Up the Outside World” – Second Soundgarden and second from Down on the Upside.
67. Triumph – “Lay It On the Line” (remixed) CC
68. The Rolling Stones – “Gimme Shelter” – Second and best Stones of the shift.
69. Green Day – “Revolution Radio”
70. The Clash – “Rock the Casbah” – Booooring.
71. The Standstills – “Orleans” – Great Canadian blues rock duo. Check them out. CC
72. Van Halen – “Unchained” – Second Van Halen of the shift. It’s the Craig Fee Show!
73. AC/DC – “Who Made Who” – Second AC/DC of the shift.
74. Bryan Adams – “Summer of ‘69” – Second Bryan of the shift. CC
75. Big Wreck – “You Don’t Even Know” CC
76. Foreigner – “Hot Blooded”
And that was it. That’s 7:30 to 4:30 right there, not a bad shift to work. I went home resuming the Rush, and that got me to the door.
Car: Rush – 2112 40th anniversary edition (live songs from disc 2)
How do you like that day? There were very few stinkers in that list of songs. I could leave behind the Nickelback, the “Rock the Casbah”, and the Struts among others. Those tracks aside, this was a very solid day of great rock and roll, new and old. No repeat. Only a few bands had more than one song played. A good number of songs were off the beaten track. Pretty good for a full day at the office, right? I count my blessings every day, believe me! I am very grateful I get to listen to such great music at work.
I’m the office Milton. I even have the red stapler.
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