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Season of the Witch - Al Kooper, Mike Bloomfield, Stephen Stills
Fool in the Rain - Led Zeppelin
Set Me Free - The Kinks
I Put A Spell On You - CCR
Mean Mistreater - Grand Funk Railroad
Stray Cat Blues - Johnny Winter
Jumpin' Jack Flash [Live] - Johnny Winter
Smokestack Lightnin' - Howlin' Wolf
Smokestack Lightnin' - The Yardbirds
The Train Kept A Rollin' - Tiny Bradshaw
The Train Kept A Rollin' - The Yardbirds
Prodigal Son - The Rolling Stones
Sway - The Rolling Stones
Ballad Of A Thin Man - Bob Dylan & The Heartbreakers
Stay With Me - The Faces (w/ Rod Stewart)
Hot Legs - Rod Stewart
Rock N Roll Fantasy - Bad Company
Flute Thing [Monterey International Pop Festival] - The Blues Project
Cause We've Ended As Lovers - Jeff Beck
Hot Dog - Led Zeppelin
Call Me Lightning - The Who
Alabama - Neil Young
Oh, Lonesome Me - Neil Young
(When You're On) The Losing End - Neil Young
Notes: So this semester didn't have it's lack of no-themed shows, but at least now, as opposed to the previous semester, it was due more to a lack of ideas than a lack of interest.
If you remember what I said about the Robin Trower song Somebody Calling in the notes for a previous show, about laying on the couch in my dorm room, half-asleep, listening to music, and gaining a heightened appreciation for it, well, the same thing happened with the song Season of the Witch covered by Bloomfield/Kooper/Stills (the live version is Bloomfield and Kooper, the studio version is Kooper and Stills, and believe it or not, I like the studio version a little better, and I think that's the version I played here). It wasn't actually the first time I listened to the song, though. I don't remember specifically when it was, but I was back home, and I had driven out to the Guitar Center in Monroeville with my brother. I think it may have been the time I bought my acoustic guitar (Rhapsody). If so, it must have just occured the previous winter break. Anyhow, they played the Kooper and Stills version of Season of the Witch on the radio, and it blew me away. I was familiar with the tame-in-comparison Donovan version, but this was off the hook. I wasn't sure who it was at the time, but it didn't take too long to figure it out. I ended up getting the album Super Session just for that song, and I believe that was what originally introduced me to Michael Bloomfield, who I would eventually generate a huge interest in and admiration for. But that's the story of why I played that song here...
I remember dedicating Fool in the Rain to my little brother, because we had been talking about it some other time, and he was defending it since I didn't like it that much. To this day, it's one of my least favorite Led Zeppelin songs.
Set Me Free by The Kinks is an awesome song that I heard once on the radio around Christmas time (just a month or so earlier), while I was riding in the van with my family between my house and my grandma's house. We were taking our time driving the back way through the neighborhoods, admiring all the Christmas lights people had put up, and that song came on the radio. It was awesome. I'm not a huge Kinks fan, besides their more well-known rock classics, but I ended up buying a singles collection just to get that one song...
I had recently got the CCR greatest hits collection, and I was introduced to their cover of I Put A Spell On You, which instantly became my new favorite CCR song. I still like their version best, although the version I have with David Gilmour, Mica Paris, and Jools Holland is pretty good, too.
I had some fun with those two Johnny Winter tracks, since they were both Rolling Stones covers, I thought that was cool. The Smokestack Lightnin' thing and the Train Kept A Rollin' thing was like a foreshadowing of the Roots of Led Zeppelin special I was researching for. These cuts effectively give the idea of what the show would be like, except here it's with a couple Yardbirds songs instead of Led Zeppelin. That was a good way to give people a taste of what's to come, and to get them anticipating the Roots of Led Zeppelin show.
Sway was introduced to me by my brother, during a school-related film project he asked me to help him with. I had to read some lines, and he had that song playing in the background to give a bar atmosphere. I recall a scene that had something to do with Silvertide music, a Face Hugger plush, and some random camera motion. It was weird. But Sway is a great song.
I had also recently got some more Neil Young albums, early 70's-ish ones, and so I made a point to play a bunch of tracks from those, especially at the end of my shows. I like the line in Alabama - "the devil fools with the best laid plans." I can really relate to that statement.