Sunday, 26th March 2017
Pic by Chele Drappel
Def Leppard singer Joe Elliott hosted another edition of his weekly radio show last night on Planet Rock.
This week's show included songs by David Bowie, Pat Travers and The Beatles.
Joe paid tribute to Chuck Berry for 11 of the 12 songs on this week's show after his recent death.
He also mentioned the death of former Boston drummer Sib Hashian who died on board the MSC Divina cruise ship during a performance this past week. The same ship used on Def Leppard's Hysteria On The High Seas cruise. (Stay away from the boat!...)
The full playlist is shown below and a full transcript.
The show is available until next Saturday using the On Demand feature. It is also repeated on Tuesdays at 9pm.
The Joe Elliott Show - 25th March 2017 Playlist (#345)
- 01 - Chuck Berry - Little Queenie
- 02 - Electric Light Orchestra - Roll Over Beethoven
- 03 - Steve Gibbons Band - Tulane
- 04 - Rolling Stones - Let It Rock (Live)
- 05 - David Bowie - Round And Round
- 06 - The Faces - Memphis
- 07 - Pat Travers - Mabellene
- 08 - Tom Petty And The Heartbreakers - Jaguar & Thunderbird (Live)
- 09 - Dr. Feelgood - Route 66
- 10 - The Beatles - Rock And Roll Music
- 11 - Status Quo - Bye Bye Johnny
- 12 - Boston - Foreplay Long Time
Show Intro
"Evening all and welcome to the Joe Elliott show right here on the wonderful Planet Rock. Tonight is a special show. Tonight we're gonna pay tribute to one of the innovators of rock 'n' roll who passed away earlier this week at the grand old age of 90. What an innings. I am of course talking about Mr. Chuck Berry. You take Chuck Berry out the equation and every hero that you have is gone because he pretty much influenced every guitar player that you ever listened to. There may be listeners out there that are only familiar with Chuck Berry with the likes of My Ding-A-Ling for example. Well to judge Chuck Berry on My Ding-A-Ling, would be to judge David Bowie on The Laughing Gnome. It goes a little deeper than that, as we shall hear over the next sixty minutes or so. So let's listen to the great man himself to start off the show. This is Chuck Berry."
Chuck Berry
"You may notice a similarity in the songs as we go through this next hour or so because rock 'n' roll in the 50s was born out of simplicity. Take a band like AC/DC. You can always tell it's them. With Chuck Berry they always seem to have this little riff that started the song off. Very, very familiar phrasing and it's something that occurred throughout his music. But it did go deeper than that. That song we just heard Little Queenie for example. You hear Queen singing that hook out of the end of Now I'm Here from their Sheer Heart Attack album. You also hear the line 'Meanwhile, I'm still thinking' on the ride out of Get It On by T. Rex. So it was more than just guitars that influenced musicians across the Planet when you're talking about Chuck Berry."
Electric Light Orchestra
"He also inspired people like Jeff Lynne to bring out the Orchestra."
"And before that the Electric Light Orchestra with the incredible version of Roll Over Beethoven."
Steve Gibbons Band
"Two artists back to back there from the Black Country who obviously grew up as huge fans of Chuck Berry. The one we just heard Steve Gibbons from 1976. His version of Tulane."
Rolling Stones
"Rock 'n' roll was born out of the blues and out of R 'n' B in America and brought over to the UK by a lot of white artists who really wanted to embrace this music and show the world what it sounded like. No better exponents of that than the Rolling Stones."
"And before that we heard the Rolling Stones from the album From The Vault Live at The Marquee in London in 1971 with their version of Let It Rock."
David Bowie
"He may well have been at the frontier of space in 1972 when David Bowie was fronting The Spiders from Mars with the Ziggy Stardust persona, but at the end of the day he could still rock. As he did there with The Spiders from Mars on their version of Chuck Berry's Round And Round."
"You are listening to a special Joe Elliott show this week on Planet Rock celebrating the life and the music of one Mr. Chuck Berry. It's time for a little break and when we come back, well, we're off to Tennessee with Rod Stewart and the Faces."
The Faces
"And before that The Faces from the album A Nod's As Good As A Wink To A Blind Horse. Nice boys... We heard Memphis."
Pat Travers
"I saw Pat Travers playing that song in front of 15 people and a dog probably at Sheffield Polytechnic 1976 with a fantastic band. He had Roy Dyer on drums, Mars Cowling on bass, and it was a far cry from the Pat Travers that Def Leppard opened for four years later when we were playing to 12/15,000 people in arenas up and down the West Coast of America, but there from Pat Travers' debut album we heard his version of Chuck Berry's Mabellene."
Tom Petty And The Heartbreakers
"OK a couple of live versions of Chuck Berry songs right now. In a couple of minutes time we're gonna head off down to Kursaal to listen to the Feelgoods. But right now let's head over to the States. This is Tom Petty And The Heartbreakers."
"And before that we heard Tom Petty And The Heartbreakers from the Official Live Leg album. Came out just after his debut album in '76. With their version of Jaguar & Thunderbird."
Dr. Feelgood
"One of many Chuck Berry songs covered by Dr. Feelgood. They did a lot of Chuck Berry, especially in the early days and there taking us all down Route 66 all the way to Southend. We heard Dr. Feelgood from the album Live At The Kursaal with Route 66."
The Beatles
"Now you couldn't do a Chuck Berry special without playing something by the Fab Four could you?. Course not."
"And before that we heard The Beatles and their version of Rock And Roll Music."
Status Quo
"So as we wave bye bye to Johnny courtesy of Status Quo from their On The Level album. We say goodbye to Mr. Chuck Berry, who passed away earlier this week at the grand old age of 90. He left behind some phenomenal music. He influenced everybody all the way back to Jimi Hendrix and Bob Dylan. And think about it, the house of cards. Take those out, there's nobody left standing. That's how much his influence was on everybody that's involved in rock 'n' roll."
Show Outro
"And that's about it for this week folks. It's been a pleasure as always. I shall be back with you next week god willing at the same time."
"Until then we're gonna go completely left filed for the last song. Absolutely nothing to do with Chuck Berry whatsoever. This is paying tribute to yet one other musician that we lost this week. Sadly on Wednesday night Sib Hashian, the drummer from Boston passed away on the boat. Yes, the boat that took my voice away and took Jimmy Bain away. I think there's a clue there. Stay away from the boat. Until next week, here's Boston. See ya!."
- Listen to the show (until next Saturday) at - planetrock.com
- Previous Show - 19th March 2017