Segment 27

Every now and then I like to take a minute to explain what it is we do here in the Way Back Studios because as you know new folks are jumping on the Deep Tracks bus every day of the week – and you might be one of them. And if so you might be asking yourself, what’s this guy up to? Well, the main thing is, we’re tryin’ to have some fun with the music. As we like to say, it’s not just what we play, it’s how we play it. Sometimes, we’re all about mash-ups and segues and plunder-phonics. Other times we find a theme and we stick to it, a sort of head-trip theme-time radio half-hour if you will. Occasionally we’ll just concentrate on putting the right songs in the right order. In other words, we like to mix things up, keep things interesting, variety being the spice of life as they say. And today’s batch of All Hand Mixed Vinyl is a good example because it’s none-of-the-above. Instead, we’re going places. From the Grand Opera House in Belfast to Cobo Hall in Detroit. From the Santa Barbara County Bowl to the Orpheum Theater in Minneapolis. From the Park West in Chicago to the Brixton Academy in England.

But we’re gonna start with Loudon Wainwright III at McCabe’s Guitar Shop in Los Angeles in 1978. Loudon once famously sang, “God I hate women, they mess up your life. I’ll kill your mother if you’ll kill my wife.” Maybe we can all chip in and pay for some anger management classes for Loudon. Reviewing his album, A Live One, Rolling Stone said: “it’s a comprehensive and cracked compendium of one lunatic’s refusal to deal with the world on any terms other than his own.” Be sure to listen for Loudon’s imitation of Van Morrison toward the end of the song; it’s fabulous. Later in the set we’ll hear one from Van himself, and later still, we got Bob Seger doing a cover of Morrison’s “I’ve Been Working.” We’ll also hear from The Pat Metheny Group, by themselves, and later, as Joni Mitchell’s backing band. And we’ll round it out with one each from Pete Townshend and Bonnie Raitt. Music the way it’s supposed to be heard: performed live. So sit back, relax, and enjoy another All Hand Mixed Vinyl concert.

From the last show of her tour in 1980, that’s Bonnie Raitt on stage at the Orpheum Theatre in Minneapolis, Minnesota with “Three Time Loser.” Before that, from Cobo Hall in Detroit, Michigan, 1975, Mr. Ramblin’ Gamlin’ Man, Bob Seger and the Silver Bullet band gave us a cover Van Morrison’s “I’ve Been Working.” A little earlier in the set, from March of 1982, Van himself live from the Grand Opera House in Belfast. Starting with a tricky little intro, the band does a few bars from “Into the Mystic” before segueing into a few bars of “Inarticulate Speech of the Heart” before segueing into “Dweller on the Threshold.” And sticking with the Van Morrison theme for a moment, the set opened with Loudon Wainwright the third, recorded live at McCabe’s Guitar Shop in Los Angeles in 1978. Toward the end of “Kings and Queens” Loudon lapses into an imitation of Van Morrison, and admits it.

After the Dead Skunk guy, we heard one from The Pat Metheny Group performing at Park West in Chicago. We heard “Cross the Heartland” which was originally on the album American Garage from 1980. Two songs later, we’d moved to the Santa Barbara County Bowl for a date on Joni Mitchell’s Mingus tour where she was backed by a variation of The Pat Metheny group with Lyle Mays, Jaco Pastorius, Don Alias, and the late great Michael Brecker on Joni’s classic “Free Man In Paris.” And somewhere near the middle of the set, we dipped into Pete Townshend’s Deep End Live album for a cover of “Save It For Later,” a song that was the English Beat’s biggest hit in the U.S. And that’s all the time we’ve got for stoking the star making machinery behind the popular song. I’m Bill Fitzhugh and you can read all about it at billfitzhughdotcom. I’ll be back with another batch of All Hand Mixed Vinyl before you know it and I hope you can join us, right here in the Deep Tracks.