Thank Dave Davies, metal kids. Punk kids, too. His idea to take a razor to his Elpico prior to the Kinks’ recording the distortion-soaked “You Really Got Me” birthed a thousand garage bands. “Little Green Amp” takes you right back there.

People forget that it was Richard Manuel, that lost, beautiful soul, who created some of the Band’s first original compositions — including this one, which serves as the debut track for Across the Great Divide.

Though neither has recently recorded with the groups that made them superstars, Joseph Williams and Bill Champlin remain inextricably linked to Toto and Chicago, respectively, both on tour and in our collective consciousness.

Ray Wilson is enjoying the best of both worlds these days, having just released a terrific new solo project even while joining Steve Hackett for a series of concerts focusing on classic-era Genesis.

Sounding more like the Eagles than anything so raw and rootsy as Creedence Clearwater Revival, John Fogerty’s new song “Mystic Highway” offers a country-rocking groove to go with a dreamily optimistic lyric.

Too often, Queen has become the sum of its over-stated parts — the operatic singer, the layered vocals, the anthematic balladry. What’s lost is the group’s ability to unleash round house after round house of knuckle-sandwich heavy rock.

Even as bassist Billy Talbot prepares for a round of European shows with Neil Young and Crazy Horse, he’s issuing a new studio album with his own band. On the Road to Spearfish is due today from Vapor Records.

Apart, and most certainly together, Bob James and David Sanborn have most often been associated with a sound more easy-going and palatable than necessarily challenging. Not here.

With the sad anniversary of Ronnie James Dio’s death some three years ago comes an opportunity to return to a muscular concert offering that finds him near the peak of his solo powers.

Even as Steven Wilson focuses more determinedly on his solo career, Blackfield — his concurrent, more pop-focused project with Aviv Geffen — continues forward.