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To See Where I Hide - Silvertide
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Armageddon (Self-Titled Debut) [1975]
Buzzard
Silver Tightrope
Paths and Planes and Future Gains
Last Stand Before
Basking In The White Of The Midnight Sun
- Warning Comin' On
- Basking in the White of the Midnight Sun
- Brother Ego
- Basking in the White of the Midnight Sun (Reprise)
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Good Times Bad Times - Led Zeppelin
The Wizard - Black Sabbath
Flying High - Country Joe & The Fish
Not So Sweet Martha Lorraine - Country Joe & The Fish
Topaz - Journey
In My Lonely Feeling/Conversations - Journey
Shapes of Things - Jeff Beck
Let Me Love You - Jeff Beck
Morning Dew - Jeff Beck
Out of Focus - Blue Cheer
Parchment Farm - Blue Cheer
In The Morning Day - Journey
Epitaph - King Crimson
Wicked World - Black Sabbath
Notes: I'm fascinated by rock family trees, and I got the idea to do a show dedicated to artists connected to the band The Yardbirds. I'd include the various bands that Eric Clapton, Jeff Beck, and Jimmy Page were involved with, as well as Keith Relf's final project, Armageddon. I never really got around to doing that theme, but I did take the time to spotlight Armageddon (and I managed to throw in a couple Led Zeppelin and Jeff Beck songs on this show, in the family vein). In fact, I even played albums from Captain Beyond and Steamhammer, both bands that had musicians that were members of Armageddon (I believe it was the drummer from Captain Beyond and the guitarist from Steamhammer), but as it turned out, the family idea kinda got spread out between a couple shows. Anyway...
Armageddon is a fantastic album released by a heavy rock band in 1975, formed by Keith Relf, formerly of the Yardbirds, and a number of marginally big names from the rock landscape of the time. It's not all that well-known to this day, but I consider it a heavy metal milestone (at least from the perspective of a guy who likes heavy rock over actual metal). Unfortunately, shortly after the album was made, Keith Relf electrocuted himself to death playing guitar in the bathtub. If there's any better way to sum up the energy of this album, well, I don't care because that was damn good enough!
I guess I was kind of in a 'protometal' mood during this show. In addition to the Armageddon, I also played a lot of early Black Sabbath and Blue Cheer, both bands that have been named as some of the earliest progenitors of the 'heavy metal sound'. I was also obviously (at least, to me) finishing off some tracks from Journey's debut album as well as Country Joe & The Fish's Electric Music For The Mind And Body.
As for Epitaph (my favorite King Crimson song by the way), there's kind of an interesting story behind why I decided to play it this night. Earlier that day, I had woken up and for no apparent reason I started thinking about my own funeral. Now, I tend to do that every now and then. I mean, it's interesting to think about what kind of songs you'd want to be played at your funeral. Well, I was thinking about that, and I decided that I would definitely want King Crimson's song Epitaph played at my funeral, though preferably performed by a live band. I put that decision up on my away message on AIM, and my friend Scott happened to ask me about it while I was at WVBU doing my show that evening. He was unfamiliar with the song, so I told him I'd play it on my show so he could listen to it. And there you have it.
P.S. I had to go back and actually listen to this show in order to remember what the other hidden theme was. It's debut albums! All the tracks I played on this show just happen to be from various bands' debut albums!