And now, for the rest of the round-trip drive to the fishing hole.

5. Do It Again – The Kinks (1984)
This tune was released as I headed into the home stretch of my senior year. It featured a catchy hook and paired with a fun video; it was a treat. Forty years, three “careers”, lots of hours, weekly paychecks, and gray hair later, the tune is still a favorite. However, it hits on a different level after all those decades of doing it again, and again…

4. Nightrain – Guns N’ Roses (1987)
While this song is a tribute to a cheap wine, me and my buddies were fonder of inexpensive beer. Green Oaks, campfires turned bonfires, a boom box, the Appetite for Destruction cassette tape, and just a few Milwaukee’s Bests with John, Hack, and Catfish. While the album was released in 1987, of course we waited until 1988 before such camping trips after all of us reached 21. (Insert winking emoji)

3. Peace of Mind – Boston (1976)
Nearly fifty years old, but it never gets old. And to think that Tom Scholz pretty much created it all in his basement. With the advent of the internet, it is interesting to check out the wide range of breakdowns of this tune. From creators marveling over the vocals, to musicians pulling apart the song track by track, it fosters a whole new appreciation for a song that’s still going strong on the radio.

2. Feeling That Way/Anytime – Journey (1978)
There are several incarnations of the band Journey. My vote for the best version spans 1978’s Infinity album through 1980’s Departure release. These begin with the addition of vocalist Steve Perry and end with Greg Rolie leaving the band. This song is one of my favorites as it features dual vocals from those members. In addition, when you get two songs for the price of one on the radio, it is always a treat.

1. Some Kind of Wonderful – Grand Funk Railroad (1974)
Love songs come in all shapes and sizes. And this one needs the volume turned up a notch for full effect. There’s much to be said for the ballads that get you misty-eyed but with a foot stompin’, sing along jam like this one, it’s your own fault if you have a bad time. On a side note, also see “Get Ready” from Rare Earth.

Next up is the latest Top 5 Update and I hope to add another strip mine report from Brent as the week progresses. Talk to you later. Troy

Getting caught up on the Trip Tunes as I bide my time to get back on the water.

5. Just Like Paradise – David Lee Roth (1988)
Roth is certainly one of a kind and made the original version of Van Halen better than the Van Hagar version in my opinion. He later made a few splashes on the solo side with a variety of entertaining tunes, from remakes to originals. And “original” definitely describes Diamond Dave.

4. Electric Blue – Icehouse (1987)
By 1987, Top 40 radio had lost me as a dedicated listener. I was more in tune with another wave of hair bands and country music, quite a combination. Of course, there were still plenty of popular tunes that caught my ear, and I always liked this one. When researching the tune for this post, I learned something new. The co-writer on the tune was John Oates, of Hall & Oates fame.

3. Rhiannon – Fleetwood Mac (1975)
As a kid, I had no idea there were multiple incarnations of Fleetwood Mac going back to the sixties. While I do enjoy songs from the early catalog, the 1975 and forward version was my Fleetwood Mac. Similarly, there are many great Stevie Nicks vocals, but this is my Stevie Nicks. The image, the sound, the persona, the whole works, what a way to introduce yourself as a member of the band.

2. Time – Pink Floyd (1973)
I love my tunes for lots of reasons and this one has many reasons for liking. Start with timely sound effects, move to an ominous intro, and then hit you upside the head with a vocal blast. But here’s what really hits home over the years, “And then one day you find ten years have got behind you, no one told you when to run, you missed the starting gun.” And those guys wrote this stuff before they reached thirty.

1. 50 Ways to Leave Your Lover – Paul Simon (1975)
As I was eight years old when I first heard this song, I had no clue about content or story, just knew it sounded cool. I am a big fan of unique words in lyrics, but it would be many years before I had any inkling that “misconstrued” was in there. I am also a fan of songs with names and this one makes for a great trivia question. What tune features the likes of Jack, Stan, Roy, Gus, and Lee? And while the song does not deliver precisely 50 ways as promised, who cares.

Next up, another report from Brent, this time covering an evening on the old home lake, Lake Storey. Talk to you later. Troy

Another fishing trip means another round of Trip Tunes.

5. (Shake, Shake, Shake) Shake Your Booty – K.C. & The Sunshine Band (1976)
There are some entertaining interviews with KC (Harry Wayne Casey) out there where he reveals his formula. He mentions working in a record store in his younger days where he would encounter customers who did not know the name of a song they were seeking. They would hum or provide a few words to provide a clue. KC stated, “When I started writing songs, I wanted to make sure that they knew the title when they came in to buy the record.” Mission accomplished and I’ll leave it to you to count the “shakes.”

4. Slit Skirts – Pete Townshend (1982)
I dig The Who and several of Pete Townshend’s solo tunes, but I find him a rather unlikeable guy from his interviews and sound bites over the years. And his whole destroy your guitar stunt never sat well with me. I’d never throw my fishing pole in the lake after a day of pursuing my passion. At any rate, his mid-life crisis cut, with its tempo changes, is a winner as it’s like getting multiple songs in one.

3. Houses of the Holy – Led Zeppelin (1975)
So, in 1973, Led Zeppelin released an album entitled Houses of the Holy that did not contain the song Houses of the Holy. Nope, that track was on Physical Graffiti from 1975. There’s so much to like in so many Led Zeppelin songs. For this one, I’ll chose my favorite lines of the tune, “Let me wander in your garden, And the seeds of love I’ll sow.”

2. Man on the Silver Mountain – Rainbow (1975)
Once upon a time, I trudged through a college class called “Freshman Preceptorial,” dissecting a diverse collection of literature of various forms. Most everyone was better at “interpreting” and their versions of a deeper meaning were lost on me. And that’s Ronne James Dio for me. There’s plenty stuff going on in his catalog with religious themes, ancient mysticism, good vs. evil, and so on. I just feel like shaking my head, flashing some “devil horns,” and doing my best Dio impression belting out, “Long Live Rock ‘n’ Roll.”

1. Evil Woman – Electric Light Orchestra (1975)
I’m a list guy as I steadily find myself making mental lists, frequently music related. In fact, that is what I am doing here with these Top 5 Trip Tunes. Were I to compile an official list of my favorite “Woman” songs of all-time, this one might top the list. And when considering a list of my favorite bands of all-time, ELO would rank high. They would also have another contender for my “Woman” list with Sweet Talkin’ Woman, which is kind of a more saccharine version of the Evil Woman character.

So far so good on keeping up with my Trip Tunes in 2025 and I must say that I am entertaining myself along the way. But back to the more direct fishing stuff with a Top 5 Update and another fishing report on the way. Talk to you later. Troy

Over the years, I have wandered into some music related posts on what is an outdoor blog. I call them “Trip Tunes” as they are a list of the Top 10 tunes that I encounter on the radio dial on my drive to the fishing hole. Well, the feature is back for 2023 so away we go.

10. Live to Tell – Madonna (1986)
Not much of a Madonna fan but she was all over the radio and MTV when I was a teenager, and I vote this one as her best. A haunting tune from an interesting movie, At Close Range.

9. Good Day Sunshine – The Beatles (1966)
You don’t hear The Beatles enough on the radio these days. Therefore, it’s always a treat and you can’t help but smile and sing along to this happy ditty.

8. Over the Mountain – Ozzy Osbourne (1981)
This one chugs along musically with an entertaining lyrical delivery and a batch of Randy Rhoads guitar work that is all over the place. Guitar solos that sound like they belong in several different songs but all part of the fun of the early Ozzy albums.

7. Funk #49 – James Gang (1970)
Joe Walsh had me at “Life’s Been Good” back in 1978. Later, I would discover that he was a member of this gang and always an interesting oddball before becoming an Eagle. But, seriously folks, is there anyone more fun in rock and roll than this talented, entertaining, legendary performer?

6. Baker Street – Gerry Rafferty (1978)
I love the radio and this one takes me back to WLS 890 AM and summer nights with a bedside clock radio. You know, the kind with the flip numbers. I often ponder musical lists and this one would get a spot on the best intro and best sax solo rankings.

5. Dream On – Aerosmith (1973)
It’s crazy to think how long these guys have been around. Maybe a bit too long in terms of some of their 90s chart success but who am I to judge? I like a lot of their 70s stuff, a handful of the 80s cuts, and one tune after that. My two cents are that their oldest single remains their best. Fifty years after the recording of “Dream On,” I still stop on the radio dial and sing along.

4. Rich Girl – Hall and Oates (1977)
Once upon a time, I was a nine-year-old kid wondering, “Did they just sing that word on the radio?” Well, it does rhyme with rich. Cool, but you’ve got to be careful to not sing that word around certain company. Just a great song and fun memory as now I can sing whatever I want, wherever I want. And funny that my boy, Zac, left out a word in “Black Betty” as he was singing along yesterday (not the “B” word, but the “D” word).

3. Use Ta Be My Girl – The O’Jays (1978)
What a fun, smooth song for a tune about losing your lady. Fortunately, I still have my girl and my favorite lines from the fellows in this cut offer up, “Not only good lookin’, the girl was so smart, can’t beat her cookin’”. What more could a guy ask for?

2. Band on the Run – Paul McCartney & Wings (1974)
I distinctly remember the summer of 1974 and the popularity of this tune on the radio dial as it made its way to the top of the Billboard chart. It was my favorite song and its peak coincided with a trip to the Wisconsin Dells with my grandparents and cousin. Early radio memories with the tune hitting #1 after “The Streak” and prior to “Billy Don’t Be a Hero.” Those were the days.

1. We Just Disagree – Dave Mason (1977)
I mentioned song lists in a blurb about an earlier cut and this tune would garner a high ranking on my ultimate list. Definitely a Top 10, probably a Top 5 on my personal all-time greatest hits list. A great sentiment on relationships over forty-five years after its release but I must be careful about what I write these days and “leave it alone, ‘cause we can’t see eye to eye” and I’ll leave it at that.

Been a while since I did one of these and I have to say that I miss my musical strolls down Memory Lane. And I do have another set of Trip Tunes waiting in the wings should I get around to another post. Talk to you later. Troy

The result of high gas prices has been a focus on the Hennepin Canal as opposed to my old Knox County strip mine ground. In fact, since April 15, all but one outing has been on the historic waterway (also hit a southern Illinois spot in June but that was on my employer’s dime while returning from a work assignment).

The Hennepin Canal trips have been a success, but they have put a damper on my Trip Tunes feature. For instance, my most recent visit covered a whole fifteen miles round trip. Quite different than the timeframe of just over a two hour round trip to the strip mines. Less time in the cab, means less tunes on the ride and no chance to accumulate the customary Top 10 Trip Tune list. Instead, we get a Top 3 Trip Tune list from my July 17 outing.

As detailed in an earlier post, my July 17 trip featured the goal of landing a bass with an old reel given to me by my friend, Matt Reynolds (aka Hack). Fittingly, the three tunes below showed up in back-to-back-to-back fashion over two stations on the ride home. They took me back to the days when Hack, the Junk brothers (John and Mark) and myself used to run around.

3. Stand Up – Mel McDaniel (1985)
Mel McDaniel always struck me as an artist who flew under the radar despite having a successful run of hit songs in the 1980s. And it was in the late 80’s when Hack and I took in a McDaniel concert at the Knox County Fairgrounds in Knoxville, Illinois. Those outdoor concerts were always a treat with grandstand seating and a basic stage set up on a dirt track. If my memory serves me correctly, a band named Sidewinder was the opening act. Seems like they got a fair amount of local airplay with a couple cuts, “Whiskey and Water” and “Memphis.” Try as I might though, I have yet to come across any references on the internet, so maybe my mind is fading.

2. Feels So Right – Alabama (1981)
Speaking of outdoor concerts, Hack and I took in multiple Alabama concerts in the 90s with the Junk brothers. Ranging from the Illinois State Fair in Springfield (with my brother, Brent, along for the show) all the way to the June Jam in Fort Payne, Alabama, home of the band. The greatest country band of all-time always put on an impressive show. We had every Alabama release on cassette back in those days (later CDs) and I recall kicking back in college with Hack and listening to our latest Alabama purchases start to finish.

1. Paradise City – Guns N’ Roses (1987)
In terms of albums that rock from start to finish, Appetite for Destruction, is one of the best. These guys had it dialed in with perhaps the greatest debut album of all-time. It features a killer collection of sound and subject matter that is dead-on rock and roll excess and success. Armed with a boom box cassette player and as much Milwaukee’s Best as we could afford, me, Hack, the Junk brothers, and other friends darn near wore out this cassette around raging campfires at Knox College’s Green Oaks field station. I’m not sure the other guys were quite as enthused about the band, but I suspect that they still recall those nights and know the words to most of the album.

Good songs that take me back to good times with good friends. And how fitting that this trio of tunes hit the airwaves on the short drive home from a fishing trip that had me reminiscing. Talk to you later. Troy