There:

• “Bad to the Bone” – George Thorogood
• “You’ve Lost That Lovin’ Feelin’” – The Firm (Not the guys who did Star Trekkin’ but the ‘80s supergroup featuring Jimmy Page and Paul Rodgers)
• “Silver and Gold” (Live) – U2
• “Tangram (Future Part)” – Tangerine Dream (This makes surprisingly good walking music)
• “See You in the Next One (Have a Good Time) – The Verve
•  “Mexican Cantina” – Fabio Frizzi, Franco Bixio & Vince Tempera (From Carambola a 1974 spaghetti western)
• “I Still Miss Someone” – Johnny Cash
• “Siamese Twins” – The Rainmakers (It’s a shame Bob Walkenhorst hasn’t released any new material since his 2003 solo album The Beginner but at least many of Bob’s live shows, plus several vintage Rainamkers gigs, are available for download at Internet Archive)

And back again:

• “She’s Got a Way” (Live) – Billy Joel
• “She’s Always a Woman” – Billy Joel (The Shuffle was obviously in the mood for some lurve on the way home)
• “Whiskey Burnin’” – Larry Crane (Crane sounds surprisingly like John Mellencamp, though perhaps not that surprisingly given that the song is from Mellencamp’s film Falling From Grace )
• “I Love You” (Live) – Ocean Colour Scene (I’m partial to OCS’s retro pop/rock but this dirge sounds like Roy Orbison on a three week bender)
• “Twenty One Years” – Marty Robbins
• “Too Many Ways to Fall” – Arc Angels (Charlie Sexton + Doyle Bramhall II + Double Trouble’s rhythm section, Chris Layton and Tommy Shannon + Little Steven on production = classic blues rock album)
• “Motorcycle Driver” – Joe Satriani

Today’s post title comes from Billy Joel and “She’s Always a Woman”.

There:

• “Fisherman’s Daughter” – Daniel Lanois
• “Superstition” (Live) – Stevie Ray Vaughn and Double Trouble (A performance that really shows what a great band Double Trouble were)
• “I Can’t Help It (If I’m Still in Love with You)” – Johnny Cash
• “The Middle of the Road” – Alabama 3 (A surprisingly restrained song from their latest album)
• “96 Tears” – The Stranglers
• “If a Tree Falls” – Bruce Cockburn (Bruce the musical eco-warrior)
• “Is That Love” – Squeeze
• “The Longest Time” – Billy Joel

And back again:

• “Morning Glory Wine” – Mark Lanegan (This would have fit in better on the way to work but it’s such a good song it’s always welcome)
• “Burn Bitch Burn” – Kiss
• “Rollercoaster” (Demo Version) – Robert Plant (I got a ticket to see Plant and Alison Krauss live for my birthday! Roll on May 5th)
• “Green Ballet II” – Adrian Legg (Legg’s a great guitarist but this hasn’t really got a beat you can walk to)
• “Tremor Christ” – Pearl Jam
• “Lady Luck” – J.J. Cale (Now here’s a guitarist who writes songs that get you moving!)
• “Tangled Up in Blue” – Bob Dylan (I love a good story song and this is a classic)

Today’s post title comes from “Burn Bitch Burn” by the one and only Gene Simmons and Kiss. But you probably guessed that, right?

There:

• “Wildflower” (Acoustic version) – Sheryl Crow
• “Since I’ve Been Loving You” – Page & Plant
• “You Know What I Mean” – Phil Collins
• “If I Should Fall Behind” (Live) – Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band (Steve, Patti, Nils and Clarence get to give their tonsils a workout alongside Bruce)
• “Super Sex” – Morphine (Who needs guitars?)

And back again:

• “Don’t Get Me Wrong” – The Pretenders
• “Find You At Last” – John Hiatt
• “Thundercrack” – Bruce Springsteen & the E Street Band
• “Rock ‘N’ Roll Mercenaries” – Meatloaf (You can’t beat a bit of Meat)
• “Glass Jar” – Lloyd Cole (Just over a minutes worth of electronic tinkling from Lloyd’s self indulgent Plastic Wood album)
• “Babe, I Got You Bad” – Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds (No one writes a love song quite like Nick Cave)
• “Shriner’s Park” – Melissa Etheridge

Less songs today, am I walking faster of are they just longer tracks? You should by now have got the answer to that question I posed at the start; it is of course “Super Sex” by the unique and sadly missed Morphine. Somehow I don’t think they were singing about George W.

Getting the thing working with Vista wasn’t my idea of fun, plug-and-play it ain’t. I was torn between putting it on eBay or getting a hammer and smashing the little bastard to pieces. Instead I persevered, and after, much googleing and several false hopes, managed to get it working. I’m glad I did as it’s a pretty cool little gadget.

Now for a little background info. Prior to Christmas, in fact for the past couple of months, I’ve had a problem with my feet (the left one in particular). Having seen the doctor I was told there were four possible courses of action – a) avoid whatever aggravates it (working in retail and being on my feet all day this was a no go) b) take anti-inflammatory tablets (this seemed to do the trick) c) steroid injections (this didn’t sound like fun) d) an operation (this sounded even less like fun). While the tablets worked the thought of taking them for the rest of my life was less than appealing but this was the impression I was given by the doctor who told me I didn’t need to make another appointment when they ran out, just phone and ask for a repeat prescription.

But, thought I, if I don’t stop taking them how do I know the problem is still there? So with New Year approaching I decided to get off the pills and get back to walking. Walking to work was something I’d been doing for several months and the pain had only got really bad when I stopped and got the bus (caused by a few weeks of crappy weather). I’d told the doctor that I though walking might actually be good for it (surely it was working the tendons in a similar way to the stretching exercises I’d been told to try?) but the doc poo-pooed this saying it was probably a delayed reaction.

Anyway I stopped taking the pills on January 1^st and so far the pain is no worse than it was when I was on them (it was always there, just much less pronounced). So today it was time to give the Shuffle a work out, and hope that shuffling wasn’t what I’d end up doing.

I let iTunes autofill the player and here is what it gave me for my journey -

There:

• “Shame on the Moon” – Bob Seger and the Silver Bullet Band (I’d forgotten what a great song this is!)
• “Fortunate Son” (Live) – John Fogerty
• “Dusty” – Kings of Leon (One of my favourite new(ish) bands)
• “Pretoria” – Little Steven £ the Disciples of Soul (Silvio Dante gets a bit political)
• “Jim, I Wore a Tie Today” – Johnny Cash
• “The Risk” – Warren Zevon
• “The Thrill is Gone “ – Dishwalla (Great song from the soundtrack to a great film – Things to Do in Denver When You’re Dead)
• “Death of a Train” – Daniel Lanois (I’ve not played Lanois second album for ages but I really enjoyed this so maybe it’s time for a revisit)
• “Wreck of the Old 97” (Live) – Johnny Cash

And back again:

• “What Is and What Should Never Be” (Live BBC Session) – Led Zeppelin
• “Dazed and Confused/Walter’s Walk/The Crunge” (Live) – Led Zeppelin (At a mammoth 25 minutes this got me most of the way home)
• “Don’t Look Now” – Creedence Clearwater Revival
• “State Trooper” – Bruce Springsteen
• “Oxygene 9” – Jean-Michel Jarre (Definitely the odd one out of this list)
• “Big River” (Live) - Johnny Cash
• “Baker’s Song” – Burning Tree (They only made one album but at least it was a great one)
• “Paper Doll” – Fleetwood Mac

It seems the Shuffle has a liking for the late great Mr Cash (I’ve got a fair bit of Cash but nowhere near as much as other artists), which of course means it has great taste.

Not sure if this’ll be a one off or a regular series, maybe I’ll let my feet decide.