Ozzy Osbourne Celebrated With All-Star Performance at Rock Hall


A star-studded lineup of rockers joined forces to honor Ozzy Osbourne during the 2024 Rock & Roll Hall of Fame induction ceremony.

The backing band for Ozzy’s set was impressive, featuring Red Hot Chili Peppers drummer Chad SmithMetallica bassist Robert Trujillo, producer and multi-instrumentalist Andrew Watt and keyboardist Adam Wakeman. All of the musicians have history with Osbourne: Smith and Watt contributed to 2020’s Ordinary Man and 2022’s Patient Number 9Trujillo also played on the latter album, while Wakeman — son of YesRick Wakeman — co-wrote five songs on Osbourne’s 2010 LP Scream.

That group was joined by Tool frontman Maynard James Keenan and Wolfgang Van Halen for the first song of the set, Osbourne’s 1980 classic “Crazy Train.” Ozzy himself got the tune started, providing his distinctive demonic cry of “All aboard!” before Keenan took over vocal duties.

READ MORE: Ozzy Osbourne Inducted Into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame

Ozzy’s longtime guitarist, Zakk Wylde, and country star Jelly Roll joined for the next song, “Mama I’m Coming Home.” The 1991 power ballad marked Osbourne’s only Top 40 hit.

Billy Idol Performs ‘No More Tears’ at Ozzy Osbourne Hall of Fame Induction

Osbourne’s close friend Billy Idol got in on the fun during the third and final song of the set, “No More Tears.” Idol was joined by Steve Stevens, his longtime guitarist and collaborator. Prior to the ceremony, Ozzy campaigned for Idol to be inducted one day as well. “Billy Idol is a rock icon,” Osbourne declared earlier this month. “His music is timeless. Billy Idol should be inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.”

READ MORE: Ozzy Osbourne Albums Ranked Worst to Best

Saturday’s all-star performance celebrated Osbourne’s second enshrinement in the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame. The legendary singer was previously inducted in 2006 as a member of Black Sabbath.

The Best Song From Every Ozzy Osbourne Album

A journey through Ozzy Osbourne’s solo output seems to mirror the Black Sabbath icon’s life and times.

Gallery Credit: Ultimate Classic Rock Staff





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2024 Rock Hall Ceremony Concludes With ‘Burning Down the House’


The 2024 Rock & Roll Hall of Fame ceremony came to a close on Saturday night with a performance of Talking Heads‘ “Burning Down the House” by the Dave Matthews Band.

Friday marked the 40th anniversary of Stop Making Sense, the Talking Heads concert film that included “Burning Down the House,” as well as the accompanying live album.

This Year’s Class of Inductees

This year’s inductees were Mary J. Blige, CherDave Matthews Band, ForeignerPeter FramptonKool & the GangOzzy Osbourne and A Tribe Called Quest. Four of them — Cher, Foreigner, Kool & the Gang and Frampton — were on the ballot for the first time in their careers.

Alexis Korner, John Mayall and Big Mama Thornton were given the Musical Influence Award. Jimmy BuffettMC5, Dionne Warwick and Norman Whitfield earned the Musical Excellence Award, and Suzanne de Passe was given the Ahmet Ertegun Award.

READ MORE: Metal Snubs: The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame’s 10 Worst Omissions

“Rock & Roll is an ever-evolving amalgam of sounds that impacts culture and moves generations,” Chairman of the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame Foundation John Sykes said in a previous press release. “This diverse group of inductees each broke down musical barriers and influenced countless artists that followed in their footsteps.”

The full 2024 ceremony will be available for viewing via a special primetime broadcast on ABC on Jan. 1, 2025. It will also be streaming on Hulu and Disney+ on Jan. 2.

145 Artists Not in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame

Many have shared their thoughts on possible induction.

Gallery Credit: Ultimate Classic Rock Staff





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Rock and Roll Hall of Fame 2024 Induction Ceremony: Photo Gallery


The 2024 Rock & Roll Hall of Fame induction ceremony was really long and featured some incredibly self-indulgent speeches. But in between all the talking there were some genuinely exciting musical moments.

You can see dozens of pictures from the 2024 Rock & Roll Hall of Fame induction ceremony below.

Read More: Cher, Foreigner Unveil Their Rock Hall of Fame Plaques

Cher was the first musician to be honored Saturday night. She was inducted by Zendaya after sharing the stage with pop star Dua Lipa, and used part of her speech to gently poke fun at the Rock Hall for taking so long to induct her.

Sammy Hagar inducted Foreigner next, first with a passionate speech and then by joining Slash, Kelly Clarkson and various past and present members of the band for a medley of their biggest hits.

James Taylor and Dave Matthews, the latter of whom was also inducted Saturday night, helped honor Jimmy Buffett, Matthews with a solo performance and Taylor with assistance from country star Kenny Chesney.

Who frontman Roger Daltrey gave a charming introduction speech for Peter Frampton, who offered up a blistering guitar duel with Keith Urban on “Do You Feel Like I Do.”

Jack Black saluted new solo inductee Ozzy Osbourne with a powerful and funny story about how the Blizzard of Ozz album changed his life forever. Osbourne himself appeared on a giant bat-shaped throne, thanking his fans and musical collaborators before helping an all-star tribute band kick-start “Crazy Train” with a strong “ALL ABOARD!”

2024 Rock & Roll Hall of Fame Induction Ceremony

Ozzy Osbourne, Cher, Peter Frampton and Foreigner highlight this year’s HOF class.

Gallery Credit: Matthew Wilkening





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Jimmy Buffett Inducted Into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame


Jimmy Buffett has been inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame as part of the 2024 class’ Musical Excellence award. Even though he had been eligible since 1998, Buffett was never nominated for induction.

The singer-songwriter received the award posthumously Saturday night with an introductory performance by fellow Class of 2024 inductee Dave Matthews, who sang a solo acoustic version of Buffett’s 1974 song “A Pirate Looks at Forty.” “He made me feel very special,” Matthews said.

James Taylor inducted Buffett, noting, “For so many of us, Jimmy was like a heroic figure in a Greek myth. His adventure was our adventure. We got to share his huge love of this life. He loved being Jimmy Buffett.

READ MORE: MC5 Inducted Into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame

“He was larger than life but somehow at the same time always right-sized and always authentic. Jimmy was the self-made man and a poet, and there won’t be another like him.”

Jimmy Buffett Is in the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame

Taylor then joined Kenny Chesney and Mac McAnally for a performance of Buffett’s “Come Monday” to close out his induction.

Buffett, who rose to fame in the ’70s on the hits “Margaritaville” and “Fins,” died at 76 on Sept. 1, 2023, of Merkel-cell carcinoma, a rare skin cancer that he had been diagnosed with four years earlier.

An album he was working on at the time, Equal Strain on All Parts, was released two months later and included appearances by  Paul McCartney, Emmylou Harris and the Preservation Hall Jazz Band.

In April, a show called Keep the Party Going: A Tribute to Jimmy Buffett was held in Los Angeles and featured performances by McCartney, EaglesJon Bon Jovi and Jackson Browne.

145 Artists Not in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame

Many have shared their thoughts on possible induction.

Gallery Credit: Ultimate Classic Rock Staff





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Peter Frampton Inducted Into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame


Peter Frampton was inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame on Saturday night.

“Thank you, thank you, thank you,” Frampton said from the stage, noting his gratitude for Bill Wyman, Steve Marriott (his late Humble Pie bandmate), George Harrison, Harry Nilsson, David Bowie. “Kindness is key. … Thank you so much to the Rock Hall for this incredible honor. It’s something beyond all my dreams…and I share it with all of you that have been with me on this beautiful journey, especially you my fans, who have brought me here tonight.”

Just prior to accepting the award, Frampton performed “Baby (Somethin’s Happening)” and was then joined by Keith Urban for “Do You Feel Like We Do?”

Though not a nominee at the time, Frampton appeared at last year’s induction ceremony, joining inductee Sheryl Crow for a rendition of “Every Day Is a Winding Road.”

Earlier this year, Frampton received the second most votes in the Rock Hall’s fan vote category, coming in behind the Dave Matthews Band.

Peter Frampton’s Current Plans

Though Frampton has been on the road performing for much of 2024, he does not have any concerts currently scheduled. He has continued to state publicly that although his IBM (Inclusion Body Myositis, a degenerative disease that affects a person’s muscles) presents challenges, he is adjusting as best he can.

READ MORE: How Peter Frampton Finally Hit With ‘Frampton Comes Alive!’

“I have adapted, and I really enjoyed playing on this tour,” Frampton recently told Pollstar, referring to his Positively Thankful tour. “It might not be as many notes, but every note has a lot of soul in it, it has a lot of heart in it, because I know deep down that one day I’ll be playing my last note. So I treasure every note I can play right now.”

Artists Who Should Be in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame

Let’s pause for a moment to recognize the many artists who’ve yet to be recognized.

Gallery Credit: UCR Staff





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Foreigner Inducted Into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame


Foreigner was inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame on Saturday night. Present to accept the award was original singer Lou Gramm, keyboardist Al Greenwood, and bassist Rick Wills.

Mick Jones and Dennis Elliott were not in attendance, while Ian McDonald and Ed Gagliardi, died in 2022 and 2014, respectively.

“I’m really sad [Jones] is not here tonight,” Sammy Hagar, who inducted the band, said from the stage. “Mick, we love and miss you and congratulations.”

Hagar also spoke about his own experiences listening to Foreigner’s music, particularly songs like “Jukebox Hero,” when he himself was coming up as a rock singer.

“The first time you heard that song you know you were jealous,” he said. “To me that’s one of the greatest rock vocal performances ever.”

Following Hagar’s speech, an all-star performance of their music took place, featuring Hagar, Slash, Chad Smith, Demi Lovato and Kelly Clarkson.

READ MORE: The Enduring Legacy of Foreigner’s ‘I Want to Know What Love Is’

Lovato took on the lead vocal for “Feels Like the First Time,” followed by “Hot Blooded” featuring Hagar singing lead, with some assistance from current Foreigner singer Kelly Hansen. Then Clarkson came on for “I Want to Know What Love Is,” who was joined by Gramm himself.

Clarkson has covered Foreigner previously, posting a video of her singing “I Want to Know What Love Is” in 2016, dedicated to the victims of the Orlando nightclub shooting.

In February, Slash and Smith appeared in a video posted by the producer Mark Ronson, the son-in-law of Mick Jones, advocating for Foreigner to be inducted. “I can’t believe they’re not in already — oh my God,” Smith said. Other artists in the video included Paul McCartney, Dave Grohl and Jack Black.

Jones’ daughter, Annabelle Dexter-Jones, was on hand to help accept the award.

“He’s in New York and he’s watching from home,” she said. “I’m going to speak his words. … Thanks to my brothers in song and rock and roll who helped build this legacy from the very first single. .. I want to thank the fans, the listeners, the dreamers who made this journey possible. Thank you to everyone who has been a part of this incredible odyssey. Rock and roll is forever.”

“We didn’t always agree about Foreigner’s musical direction,” Gramm added, “but all told we were very fortunate to be in Foreigner together and our music continues to stand the test of time.”

‘Justice Has Been Done’

“We’ve waited basically 21 years for this to happen,” Wills said in June. “So when it did happen, it was a surprise in a sense. But it was also a relief that we finally could join our peers in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame because I think we’ve definitely earned our place with the singles and the songs we’ve written and performed over the years. You know, what did we do wrong? I don’t know.”

Though it took decades for Foreigner to be nominated and ultimately inducted into the Rock Hall, singer Lou Gramm is content. “It gives the ultimate credibility to all the creativity and work that myself and Mick and the whole Foreigner band has been doing for decades,” he told Rolling Stone in April. “Justice has been done.”

145 Artists Not in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame

Many have shared their thoughts on possible induction.

Gallery Credit: Ultimate Classic Rock Staff





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Cher Accepts Long-Overdue Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Induction


Cher kicked off Saturday night’s Rock & Roll Hall of Fame ceremony by accepting her long-overdue induction while crediting her mother with inspiring her to never quit.

“It was easier getting divorced from two men than it was to get into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame,” she joked at the beginning of her speech. “I want to thank my guardian David Geffen, because yeah, he wrote a letter and sent it to the directors and so.. ha ha here I am. So anyway thank you David, thank you for caring so much about me.”

She then acknowledged the self-reliance her mother instilled in her as a young girl, even as she struggled with her school work. “[She taught me] If you’re down and you’re out, you get up again. And in my life I’ve been so down, like as my mother would say, lower than a snake’s belly, OK, that’s how down I’ve been. People have told me that I’m finished and that I was through, I have 10 minutes [left]. The one thing I got from my mom is that I never gave up.”

Prior to her induction, Cher kicked off the Rock Hall ceremony by joining pop star Dua Lipa for a performance of her 1998 hit “Believe.”

The actress Zendaya, wearing a daring Bob Mackie-style dress as a tribute to the honoree, started her induction speech by asking, “Where do I even begin? There is not one person in this room, in this country and pretty much in the whole world who doesn’t know who I’m here to honor tonight. So iconic, she only needs one name. …She does it all and may I add.. really fucking well.”

After Zendaya’s speech, Cher retook the stage to perform her 1989 smash “If I Could Turn Back Time” with help from Trans-Siberian Orchestra / Whitesnake guitarist Joel Hokestra.

Although Cher entered the Rock Hall on her first nomination, that nomination was decades overdue. The “Goddess of Pop” made her recording debut in 1965 and scored a No. 1 hit the same year with the Sonny & Cher ballad “I Got You Babe.” She’s won a Grammy, an Emmy and an Oscar, and she receive the Kennedy Center Honors in 2018.

Cher has not minced words about her disdain for the Rock Hall in the past. The superstar noted during a December 2023 appearance on The Kelly Clarkson show that she’s one of only two acts to have earned No. 1 hits in seven different decades and yet, the Hall still hadn’t acknowledged her achievements at the time.

“It took four of them to be one of me … [it’s] the Rolling Stones and me,” Cher said. “And I’m not in the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame. You know what, I wouldn’t be in it now if they gave me a million dollars. I’m not kidding you, I was about to say I’m not shitting you. I’m never changing my mind. They can just go you-know-what-themselves.”

Ozzy Osbourne Foreigner Join Cher for 2024 Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Class

Ozzy Osbourne, Foreigner, Peter Frampton, the Dave Matthews Band, Mary J. Blige, A Tribe Called Quest and Kool & the Gang join Cher as inductees in the performer category at this year’s Rock Hall induction. MC5, Jimmy Buffett, Dionne Warwick and Norman Whitfield will receive the Musical Excellence award.

145 Artists Not in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame

Many have shared their thoughts on possible induction.

Gallery Credit: Ultimate Classic Rock Staff





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Dua Lipa Performs With Cher at Rock and Roll Hall Fame Ceremony


Dua Lipa performed a tribute segment to 2024 inductee Cher at the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame ceremony on Saturday night.

As opener of the evening, the pop star sang a portion of the 1988 hit “Believe,” before being joined by Cher herself for the rest of the song.

Back in 2022, fans on social media compared Lipa to the 78-year-old singer, calling her the “the Cher of our generation.” “How many yrs are in a generation,” Cher cheekily replied (via Billboard.)

Cher’s Thoughts on the Rock Hall

In December of 2023, Cher, who has been eligible for the Rock Hall since 1991, made clear that she was not interested.

“I wouldn’t be in it now if they gave me a million dollars,” she said on The Kelly Clarkson Show. “I’m not kidding you, I was about to say I’m not shitting you. I’m never gonna change my mind. They can just go you-know-what themselves.”

READ MORE: When Cher Made a Triumphant Return to Music

Back in May, a few weeks after she was revealed to be a 2024 inductee, the singer shared some new thoughts.

“I can thank [record executive] David Geffen, my friend and most wonderful person ever, and [chairman of the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame] John Sykes,” the singer noted. “I’m going to have some words to say. I’m going to accept it in my Cher [way], as me.”

145 Artists Not in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame

Many have shared their thoughts on possible induction.

Gallery Credit: Ultimate Classic Rock Staff





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Cher, Foreigner Attend Rock Hall of Fame Plaque Ceremony: Photos


Dave Matthews surprised fans with a sweet story about his Foreigner fandom during the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame’s plaque dedication ceremony on Friday afternoon in the plaza outside the museum.

A number of this year’s inductees – including Peter Frampton, three members of Foreigner (Lou Gramm, Rick Wills and Al Greenwood), Mary J. Blige, Kool & the Gang’s Robert “Kool” Bell and JT Taylor, and Ahmet Ertegun Award recipient Suzanee de Passe – attended the unveiling on a sun-soaked afternoon, in front of several hundred fans who cheered everything from their arrival to their brief comments during the ceremony.

Rock Hall CEO Greg Harris also acknowledged family members of deceased inductees who were sitting in a VIP area in front of the stage, including Jimmy Buffett’s widow and children, the son and wife (respectively) of late Foreigner members Ian McDonald and Ed Gagliardi, the parents and widow of A Tribe Called Quest’s Phife Dawg, some Kool & the Gang survivors and a contingent representing MC5, including Fred “Sonic” Smith’s children Jackson and Jesse – whose mother, Patti Smith, was inducted into the Rock Hall in 2007.

Read More: All-Star Lineups Announced for 2024 Rock Hall Induction Ceremony

The current members of Foreigner — which will be performing during Saturday night’s induction ceremony – was also in attendance.

Foreigner was top of mind for Matthews as he made his ostensibly unprepared remarks on Friday. “I don’t know in the communication line who didn’t tell me I was gonna have to talk today,” he cracked at the outset, adding that, “It feels like I’m in the deep end of the pool. So many heroes are up here. I didn’t get to everybody but I got to say to a few people up here that they are people that, I don’t want to say worship ‘cause then things get uncomfortable, (but) they’re people that were a huge part of my life that are up here and for why I wanted to play music…It’s an honor to be in the same pack being inducted here and being acknowledged together as a family.”

Matthews then launched into “one quick story,” about, “When I was a little kid, I was taking guitar lessons and my guitar teacher moved to a different place, it was above a studio. And one day I was waiting for my mom to pick me up and they started bringing in all these crates on wheels, cases…and I looked at one of them and it said Foreigner. And I was like, ‘What the fuck?!” And then my mom even told me when I came out to the car, and I was, ‘Wha…!’ And then the first time we ever recorded in a recording studio…we were in one studio room and in the next one was Foreigner, and then we were like, ‘What the fu…!’ And now we’re getting into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame with Foreigner. What the fu….!’”

Original Foreigner frontman Lou Gramm began the remarks with simple thanks “to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame for this wonderful acknowledgement and this stunning award that represents our contributions to the rock community and the band we continue to have with our millions of loyal fans…We are honored and extremely proud.” Foreigner founder Mick Jones will not be at the ceremony due to health issues, while original drummer Dennis Elliott withdrew on Thursday, citing “totally unacceptable” conditions with the weekend schedule.

Frampton – who, like Foreigner, Buffett and MC5 has long been considered one of the Rock Hall’s most egregious slights – spoke about putting a QR code on his concert video screen during the public voting process “and we just stopped playing and I made you vote…I guess it worked, right?” He did add that, “Getting nominated is one thing, getting inducted is something I didn’t believe would ever happen, and I’m totally overwhelmed. I can’t thank the fans enough or voting for me. You are the ones who made this happen, and I’ll keep on thanking you, so thanks again.”

Both de Passe and Taylor choked up while talking about the honor, while Bell said that while he was recently on safari in Africa “we said, ‘All roads lead to Cleveland, to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame’ – without the jungle boogie.” Blige was similarly moved, saying “this honor is above me.” And after the plaque unveiling, Taylor led an audience singalong to a recorded version of Kool & the Gang’s appropriate “Celebration.”

The plaque, featuring etchings of each of the inductees’ signatures, was quickly moved inside the Rock Hall and was on display during the evening’s VIP party. The induction ceremony takes place at 7 p.m. from Rocket Mortgage FieldHouse in Cleveland, streaming live on Disney+.

Stacey Sherman, UCR

Stacey Sherman, UCR

Kevin Mazur, Getty Images

Kevin Mazur, Getty Images

Kevin Mazur, Getty Images

Kevin Mazur, Getty Images

 

Kevin Mazur, Getty Images

Kevin Mazur, Getty Images

Most Awkward Rock Hall of Fame Moments

Rambling speeches, fights between ex-bandmates and bad performances have marked many induction ceremonies over the years.

Gallery Credit: Dave Lifton





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How One Person Saved Foreigner From Obscurity


The history of Foreigner is nearing the 50 year mark. But as original members, vocalist Lou Gramm and keyboardist Al Greenwood, detailed in the below conversation, their entire ride might have ended if they hadn’t encountered legendary A&R man John Kalodner.

Every label had passed on the future AOR superstars, including their eventual home, Atlantic Records. It was Kalodner who helped to turn the tide.

Long before the ink was dry on the contract and before there even was such a document, the band’s founder, guitarist Mick Jones, had brought in a song idea that would turn into “Feels Like the First Time.” Before long, they had songs, but still no record label. Thankfully, the group persevered, even as lineup shuffles continued and when their self-titled debut was released in 1977, the music within — and the record sales that followed — proved that it had been worth the hard work and resilient spirit.

Here in 2024, Foreigner is being inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame and though Jones will miss the ceremonies this weekend due to his ongoing issues with Parkinson’s disease, Gramm and Greenwood, joined by bassist Rick Wills, will be in Cleveland to accept the honor on behalf of the band. 

In separate conversations prior to the induction weekend, Gramm and Greenwood shared some stories from the band’s early days. They were also both enthused about the release of “Turning Back the Time,” a newly completed song from the ’90s that features Gramm on vocals alongside Jones and serves as the anchor track on a new compilation of the same name. It’s a nice full circle moment and the latest reminder that the music they’ve created over the years will remain as a permanent soundtrack long after they’ve left the stage.

Lou, what’s the moment where you really found yourself as a singer?
Lou Gramm: I think it was about two or three years into Black Sheep. I started out as a drummer with other bands in high school. When Black Sheep started, I was the band and the singer. But we were doing cuts from Traffic, Free, Humble Pie and stuff like that. We had one or two originals, but as the band progressed, we put more originals [in the set]. It was difficult for me to put the song across from behind a huge set of drums. So we decided to audition singers. We auditioned about six or seven singers and none of them fit the bill for the style that we needed.

How did Foreigner eventually start to come together?
Al Greenwood: I had a band of my own that was I getting together and I was doing session work and stuff like that. I got a phone call from Mick Jones. I didn’t know who he was at the time, but he explained that he was in Spooky Tooth [and had worked with] Leslie West and all of that stuff. He was putting a project together, would I be interested in joining? I told him that I had my own band at the moment, but I thought to myself, “Well, he’s probably in a beter place than I am, so I might as well check this out.” We got together in the office of Bud Prager, who [later] became our manager. He had an office on Broadway in Manhattan and in the middle of his office, he had a storage area. We’d push all of the file cabinets aside, set up our instruments and start jamming.

The first rehearsal of Foreigner was Mick Jones, myself, Stan Williams on drums and Jay Davis on bass, just the four of us. We’d come in and jam every day and this would go on for a while. After about two weeks, I said, “I don’t know if this is for me.” There’s no songs, we’re just jamming. It’s fun to jam, but I thought we’d have some songs put together [by that point]. I went in [the next day] and I’m about to go to Mick [to give him the news]. He turns to me and says, “I have this song” and he started playing “Feels Like the First Time” on guitar. So I thought, “Okay, now I think we’ve got something here.” The rest is history — I stayed with it and that’s how I met Mick.

Watch Foreigner’s ‘Feels Like the First Time’ Video

Lou, how did you get the call to audition?
Gramm: My dad called me and said, “This guy named Mick Jones just called. Do you know him?” I said, “I’ve met him.” He says, “Well, he’s left his number, he wants you to call him back.” I talked to Mick and he asked me to come down and audition for his new, unnamed band.” I said, “Thanks for the opportunity, I’m going through some tough times with my band. I have to decided whether we want to continue or put it to rest.” So I asked if I could call him in a couple of weeks and he said that was fine. I told the guys in Black Sheep that Mick had called and they said, “Lou, we’re done. We’ve got the worst stroke of luck that could ever happen. We can’t meet our obligation, the record company dropped us. Go to New York and audition and see if you can make something happen for yourself”. They acquiesced and more or less gave me the chance to do something else and I’ll never forget them for that. I went to New York and auditioned. My tape ended up being the one that Foreigner’s manager sent out to all of the record companies as a demo to get them interested. One at a time, they’d come to hear us rehearse. Atlantic Records was interested and eventually gave us a contract.

Greenwood: Lou walked into the studio, the same as all of the other singers. We were sitting in the control room and he was out in the studio with the microphone and the lyrics. He started singing “Feels Like the First Time” and within a couple of lines, we said, “This is the guy.” It was just magic, a perfect fit.

Gramm: Mick asked me to stick around and come and work on a couple of song ideas with him. But after all of that time, he hadn’t told me if I was in or not in. He never said, “We want you to be the lead singer of the band, would you consider that?” But he asked me to come over for dinner. “We’ll fool around with some songs.” We did that for three or four nights and I told him, “You know, Mick, when I came down here, I thought it was only going to be for a day. I only brought two changes of underpants and a couple of t-shirts and I’ve been wearing the same jeans for four days. I said, “You’ve got to tell me, am I in?” He says, “Of course you’re in!”

Greenwood: We brought that demo tape [that Lou mentioned] to every label and they all rejected us. Two members left — Stan Williams, the drummer and Jay Davis, the bass player. But Bud Prager said, “Look, I really think Atlantic Records is the [label] you should be on. They’ve got Led Zeppelin, the Stones, it’s a great label.” So he says, “I’m going to bring it back up there.” He brings the demo tape back up there and this time, it lands on John Kalodner’s desk. When he listened to it, he said, “I think this is something.” He brings it up to Jerry Greenberg and Jerry says, “We already passed on these guys.” But John Kalodner says, “No, this is going to be something. It’s going to be big.” That’s how we got our deal. But [the problem was] we didn’t have a band, because two of the members left. So now we had to audition for a drummer and a bass player and that’s how we got Dennis Elliott and Ed Gagliardi. That’s [how we completed] the band. We went right into the studio for the first record and the whole process took about a year.

READ MORE: How Foreigner Started a Rocket Ride to Fame

Foreigner played a show with the Stones in 1978. That seems like it would have been quite an experience.
Greenwood: It was a cold and rainy day in Philadelphia when we played with the Stones. It was at JFK Stadium, a big outdoor venue. That was crazy, playing with the Stones. [Laughs] They were in their own trailer and cordoned off. But that was an amazing gig. It was really a lot of fun to do.

Lou, you later got to sing some Led Zeppelin songs with Robert Plant. How did that come about?
Gramm:
 I believe we were in Munich. Foreigner was touring Europe and when we got to Munich, it was an outdoor show with wall to wall people. I think was about 60,000 people. We walked off stage after our last song, but before our encore, we walked into our dressing room and Robert Plant and Jimmy Page were in there. Mick had known them for years and years and they hugged. I had met them before, so I said hi to them. Jimmy had his guitar strapped on, so he wanted to come out. But they both wanted to come out on the encore and play with us. It wasn’t until we were walking out on stage that they started talking about, “Well, what are we going to play?” Leave it to the last minute, you know? [Laughs] They played a little bit of “Whole Lotta Love.” I sang with Robert on that song and then we did a little bit of “Stairway to Heaven.” We finished off with “Hot Blooded” and they played with us on that too. It was so great.

There was certainly no way to imagine that something like this Rock Hall honor would happen back when Foreigner first began.
Greenwood: I never would have imagined it. There’s no way that I would have said that 47 years later, this would still be relevant, and we’d still be talking about it. Having the new song out, “Turning Back the Time,” with Lou’s vocal, he sounds great and the new collection, which is just to help celebrate the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame is really exciting.

READ MORE: Rock & Roll Hall of Fame 2024 Inductees

What are you looking forward to the most about the Rock Hall induction ceremonies?
Greenwood:
Well, I’m just completely honored to be part of this induction class and the amazing artists that are with us. I’m looking forward to seeing all of the artists play.

Gramm: I think the surviving members of the band being together and accepting that award, I know it means the world to all of us. It’s important, you know, at this point of our careers, to be recognized and appreciated. I think playing a song is going to be fun for the the original band again. It’s just going to be a real treat. I’ve got my my children and their wives or girlfriends coming. We’re all riding down together in a big 18-passenger van. We’re going to make it a ton of fun.

Listen to Foreigner’s ‘Turning Back the Time’

Foreigner Albums Ranked

It’s hard to imagine rock radio without the string of hit singles Foreigner peeled off in the ’70s and ’80s.

Gallery Credit: Jeff Giles

 





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Cyndi Lauper Launches Farewell Tour: Set List, Video


Cyndi Lauper launched her Girls Just Wanna Have Fun Farewell Tour on Friday night in Montreal, Canada.

The singer performed several of her hits during the show in front of an array of colorful visuals, opening with “She Bop” and concluding with two of her most popular songs, “True Colors” and “Girls Just Want to Have Fun.”

You can view a complete set list, along with fan-filmed video from the show, below.

Where Does Cyndi Lauper’s Tour Go From Here?

Lauper’s next show is scheduled for Oct. 20 in Toronto. Then she’ll come to the U.S. for shows in cities like Boston, New York, Nashville, Houston, San Francisco, Chicago and more. In April of 2025, the tour will head to Australia for a string of six concerts.

READ MORE: 46 Farewell Tours: When Rock Stars Said Goodbye

Lauper has said that her goal is to finish her touring career on a high note.

“I’m not doing the trains, planes, and automobiles anymore,” she said to Jimmy Kimmel back in June. “I’m strong now, but I don’t know what I’m going to be like in four years. I wanted to a chance to just do this when I’m feeling strong and, you know, celebrate with people.”

Watch Cyndi Lauper Perform ‘She Bop’ at Tour Kickoff

Watch Cyndi Lauper Perform ‘True Colors’ at Tour Kickoff

Watch Cyndi Lauper Perform ‘Girls Just Want to Have Fun’ at Tour Kickoff

Cyndi Lauper, Bell Centre, Montreal, Canada, 10/18/24, Set List:
1. “She Bop”
2. “The Goonies ‘R’ Good Enough”
3. “When You Were Mine” (Prince cover)
4. “I Drove All Night”
5. “Who Let in the Rain”
6. “Iko Iko” (Sugar Boy and His Cane Cutters cover)
7. “Funnel of Love” (Wanda Jackson cover)
8. “Sally’s Pigeons”
9. “I’m Gonna Be Strong” (Frankie Laine cover)
10. “Sisters of Avalon”
11. “Change of Heart”
12. “Time After Time”
13. “Money Changes Everything” (The Brains cover)
14. “Shine”
15. “True Colors”
16. “Girls Just Want to Have Fun”

Fall 2024 Rock Tours

Many of rock’s biggest artists will hit the road for performances once more in 2024.

Gallery Credit: Corey Irwin





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Unheard Van Halen Music Is Coming, but You May Not Like It


Alex Van Halen says he’s determined to keep making music, and that unheard Van Halen material will be released – although he warned that some fans wouldn’t like what they heard.

In a new interview with Billboard the drummer reported that his recent equipment auction had been misinterpreted as a signal of retirement, and that despite some health issues, he planned to be back in action within five years.

“I’m not quitting,” Van Halen stated. “I don’t know where that came from. I’ll die with sticks in my hand.” He added that spine issues and an injury sustained in 2022 were causing him problems, but “with modern technology we have now I should be OK in about five years.”

Read More: Hear Alex Van Halen Eulogize Eddie Van Halen in ‘Brothers’

Following the release of the instrumental track “Unfinished” in connection with the publication of Van Halen’s memoir, Brothers, the drummer confirmed more material would appear “when it feels right.”

He explained: “I’m not in a hurry. I do have a certain obligation to keep it to Ed‘s standards. … I need to have access to the right takes, ’cause not every day did we play at our best.

“We didn’t go in the studio like, ‘Yeah, we’re gonna make a record from beginning to end.’ We had little pieces here, little pieces there; you put ’em away until the time comes and you go, ‘Hey, I think I like that piece…’ and then go back to it and build something from there.”

Alex Van Halen Will Gather ‘Right Team’ for Future Releases

He added: “I know people want to hear it…the other side of the coin is this doesn’t sound like Van Halen. You’re damned if you do, damned if you don’t.”

In the meantime he said he was “looking forward to getting some people involved…other musicians and producers,” noting: “You have to have the right team, because not everybody can do everything. So we’ll see.”

Eddie Van Halen Year by Year: 1977-2017 Photos

You’ll see him with long hair, short hair, a variety of his most famous guitars and all three of his band’s lead singers.

Gallery Credit: Matthew Wilkening





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Jake E. Lee’s Shooter Fired at Him 15 Times


Jake E. Lee revealed that the unknown person who left him with three bullet wounds had actually fired at him 15 times.

The guitarist, 67, was walking his dog near his Las Vegas home late at night on Oct. 15 when the seemingly random attack took place.

Former Guns N’ Roses guitarist Ashba later shared a message exchange between the friends, in which Lee said he was feeling “lucky” and expected to make a full recovery.

READ MORE: Ozzy Osbourne Guitar Players: A Complete History

In his latest update via the Facebook page of his band Red Dragon Cartel, Lee said: “I deeply appreciate all the concern and well wishes. Makes everything going on a little better.”

He continued: “To clarify, I was shot three times. I was on my way back home from walking my dog Coco (I didn’t name him so don’t!). Don’t want to go into details now – I’m tired – but I feel relatively very lucky. The police found 15 shell casings at the scene, which means he emptied his clip on me.

“I could only dodge so many, so one bullet went through my forearm, one through my foot, and one in the back, which broke a rib and damaged a lung.”

Lee added that the current priority was to “keep draining my lung till it’s done crying” before his more minor injuries were dealt with. He signed off with: “And by the way, Coco’s fine and appreciates your inquiries!”

Jake E. Lee Among Hundred of Las Vegas Gun Crimes This Year

A member of Ozzy Osbourne’s band from 1982 to 1987 – notably appearing on the 1983 album Bark at the Moon – Lee went on to play with Badlands and release solo albums before forming Red Dragon Cartel in 2013. Osbourne, who said he hadn’t spoken to his former colleague in nearly 40 years, said: “[T]hat still doesn’t take away from the shock of hearing what happened to him… It’s just another senseless act of gun violence.”

More messages of support came from members of Journey, Poison, Ratt and Night Ranger.

According to the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department’s most recently-published figures, there have been 3,602 firearm crimes in the area during 2024 – a year-on-year drop of about 10 per cent. A total of 241 victims were reported as a result of those crimes, up about 40 per cent year-on-year.

Ozzy Osbourne Albums Ranked

Gallery Credit: Ultimate Classic Rock Staff





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Nikki Sixx Says Motley Crue ‘Were Forced’ Into Firing Mick Mars


Nikki Sixx has offered further exposition into Motley Crue’s decision to split with founding guitarist Mick Mars.

It was October 2022 when the band announced Mars was exiting the Crue. At the time, the decision was presented as amicable — Mars would be involved behind the scenes, but no longer tour due to his ongoing battle with ankylosing spondylitis. However, shortly after John 5 was announced as his replacement, Mars took legal action, claiming that he was forced out of the band.

According to Sixx, it wasn’t an individual who pushed for Mars’ dismissal, but rather the circumstances that pressured Motley Crue into making the change.

READ MORE: Motley Crue Albums Ranked Worst to Best

“Listen, we were forced,” the bassist explained during a recent conversation with Guitar World. “Guy’s gotta choose: you want to break up? Do you want to fuck over [concert promoter] Live Nation? You want to screw [tourmates] Def Leppard? All those tickets, all that planning that we’d done because one of your band members is too ill to perform live?”

Though the decision wasn’t an easy one, Sixx insists his band made the right call.

“We really had to think about it,” the rocker continued. “Like, do you think we wanted to take the grief we took, and end up in a lawsuit? But what were we supposed to do? Go home and fucking mow the lawn? It’s like your fucking football team; if one of your guys can’t play anymore, they bring in another guy.”

Motley Crue Has Been Busy Since John 5’s Arrival

Motley Crue has remained active since switching guitarists, embarking on a world tour and performing at many of rock’s top festivals. The band also released an EP titled Cancelled, their first material with John 5 in the lineup, earlier this month.

“We’re still here, and we are still creative,” Sixx declared to Guitar World. “We’re able to tour – and not tour to the point in the old days where you break the spirit of the human beings. We get to go out, play some badass shows, reinvent the band here or there, and really enjoy this time.”

Motley Crue Lineup Changes: A Complete Guide

The complete story of Motley Crue’s lineup changes.

Gallery Credit: Matthew Wilkening





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Geezer Butler Had to Tell Ozzy Osbourne What ‘Paranoid’ Meant


“Paranoid” ranks among Black Sabbath’s most famous songs, but Geezer Butler says he had to explain the word’s meaning to Ozzy Osbourne during recording.

During an appearance on the Bob Lefsetz podcast, Butler recalled the session that birthed “Paranoid.”

“We went in to record the second album and the producer said, ‘You’ve got to come up with another three minutes,’” the bassist explained. “Because in those days, an album wasn’t classed as an album unless it was over forty minutes or something. You had to have forty minutes worth of material for it to be classed as an LP. And this is just short of like three minutes, you’ve got to come up with something quick.”

READ MORE: 10 Best Black Sabbath Songs

The members of Black Sabbath had to record another tune to complete their album, and it was Tony Iommi who sparked a new idea.

“I think me and Ozzy and Bill [Ward] went out to get a sandwich,” Butler remembered. “We came back in and Tony had come up with the riff to ‘Paranoid’. Oh that’s good. And Ozzy came up with the vocal lines straight away, I scribbled down the lyrics and we wrote and recorded it in about two or three hours.”

‘What Does Paranoid Mean Anyway?’

According to Butler, Osbourne “hated writing lyrics,” so the bassist was tasked with coming up with “Paranoid”’s words. The process was fast, as Butler “wrote [the lyrics] down, showed them to Ozzy, he literally was reading them as he was singing the song in the studio.”

At one point, the frontman posed a question to his bandmate: “What does ‘paranoid’ mean anyway?” Butler recalled with a laugh. “I explained what paranoid meant and he was all OK with it.”

Released in 1970 as the first single from the album of the same name, “Paranoid” became one of Black Sabbath’s defining hits. In America, it peaked at No. 61 on the Billboard Hot 100, and it is generally regarded as one of the greatest songs in heavy metal history.

Listen to Black Sabbath’s ‘Paranoid’

Black Sabbath Albums Ranked

From Ozzy to Dio and beyond, we look at all of the band’s studio LPs.

Gallery Credit: Eduardo Rivadavia





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Alex Van Halen Says Sammy Hagar Isn’t ‘Doing the Band Justice’


Alex Van Halen has explained why he refused to join his former bandmates Sammy Hagar and Michael Anthony on this summer’s Best of All Worlds tour, which was designed as a celebration of Hagar’s time in Van Halen.

“I’m not interested,” Van Halen told Billboard in a new interview promoting his upcoming book Brothers. “They’re not doing the band justice. They can do what they want to do. That’s not my business.”

Read More: Hear Alex Van Halen Eulogize Eddie Van Halen in ‘Brothers’

Brothers focuses almost exclusively on David Lee Roth‘s first era in Van Halen, largely ignoring Hagar’s decade-long run as the group’s lead singer as well as their brief collaboration with Extreme vocalist Gary Cherone. “What happened after Dave left is not the same band,” Van Halen explained. “I’m not saying it was better or worse of any of that. …But the magic was in the first years, when we didn’t know what we were doing, when we were willing to try anything.”

Van Halen also cautions fans not to expect very much mudslinging in his new book. “It’s not about the dirt. If I start throwing dirt, it’ll never end. I think some people would like that; that’s how projects are sold nowadays. I think it divides the audience, and we’re not here to divide.”

He will promote the book with a pair of East Coast book signings on Oct. 21 and 22nd, and then take part in a live conversation on Oct. 24 at the Frost Auditorium in Culver City, Calif. “People can ask whatever they like – that’s their prerogative,” Van Halen says of the event. “It’s my prerogative to answer. Or not answer.”

How Van Halen Conquered the World in Just 10 Shows

Van Halen’s meteoric rise to fame during their first world tour in 1978 included 10 particularly important performances. Here’s a look.

Gallery Credit: Matthew Wilkening

 





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Eric Clapton Leads All-Star Tribute to Band’s Robbie Robertson


Thursday night’s Life Is a Carnival: A Musical Celebration of Robbie Robertson found Eric Clapton, Van Morrison and others paying tribute to the late Band songwriter and guitarist. See videos and a complete look at the four sets of songs, which included material from the Band, Robertson’s solo career and other favorites.

Clapton played the entire third set, with “The Shape I’m In” as a highlight. The bill at the Kia Forum in Los Angeles also included Elvis CostelloWarren HaynesMike Campbell, Bruce Hornsby, Don Was and Bobby Weir. Several of these performers will now take the show on the road, leading “Life Is a Carnival: Last Waltz Tour ’24” dates that begin this weekend.

Robertson passed away in August 2023 at 80, leaving Garth Hudson as the sole surviving member of the Band. His three adult children then claimed elder abuse in a legal action against Robertson’s widow. He’d succumbed to cancer just months after a private marriage to Toronto restaurateur Janet Zuccarini.

READ MORE: When the Band’s Robbie Robertson Finally Went Solo

Martin Scorsese produced Life Is a Carnival: A Musical Celebration and will convert the concert into a film, just as he did with 1978’s The Last Waltz. That marked the final appearance of the Band’s five-man lineup. Robertson launched his solo career with 1987’s Robbie Robertson while the Band released a trio of studio albums without him, beginning with 1993’s Jericho.

Robertson also worked on a string of celebrated soundtracks for other Scorsese films, including 1982’s The King of Comedy, 2002’s Gangs of New York, and most recently 2023’s Killers of the Flower Moon.

Watch ‘The Shape I’m In’ From ‘Live is a Carnival’

Watch ‘The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down’ From ‘Live is a Carnival’

Watch ‘The Weight’ From ‘Live is a Carnival’

Watch ‘Stage Fright’ From ‘Live is a Carnival’

Watch ‘It Makes No Difference’ From ‘Live is a Carnival’

Watch ‘I Shall Be Released’ From ‘Live is a Carnival’

‘Life Is a Carnival: A Musical Celebration of Robbie Robertson’ Set List, Oct. 17, 2014

SET 1
“Up on Cripple Creek” (with Eric Church)
“Ophelia” (with Ryan Bingham)
“The Best of Everything” (with Mike Campbell)
“Evangeline” (with Margo Price)
“Acadian Driftwood” (with Alison Russell)
“Straight Down the Line” (with Robert Randolph)
“Who Do You Love?” (with Taj Mahal and Robert Randolph)
“Go Back to Your Woods” (with Bruce Hornsby)
“King Harvest (Has Surely Come)” (with Bruce Hornsby)
“The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down” (with Jamey Johnson)

SET 2
“Broken Arrow” (with Daniel Lanois)
“Life Is a Carnival” (with Warren Haynes and Taj Mahal)
“Whispering Pines” (with Lucinda Williams)
“Twilight” (with Nathaniel Rateliff)
“Across the Great Divide” (with Nathaniel Rateliff)
“Rag Mama Rag” (with Jamey Johnson and Bruce Hornsby)
“Baby Don’t You Do It” (with Nathaniel Rateliff)
“Tupelo Honey” (with Van Morrison)
“Days Like This” (with Van Morrison)
“Wonderful Remark” (with Van Morrison)

SET 3
“The Shape I’m In” (with Eric Clapton)
“Out of the Blue” (with Eric Clapton)
“Forbidden Fruit” (with Eric Clapton)
“Chest Fever” (with Eric Clapton)
“Further On Up the Road” (with Eric Clapton)

SET 4
“Forever Young” (with Nathaniel Rateliff, Ryan Bingham and Margo Price)
“It Makes No Difference” (with Jim James)
“Stage Fright” (with Warren Haynes)
“Caravan” (with Warren Haynes)
“When I Paint My Masterpiece” (with Bob Weir)
“The Unfaithful Servant” (with Trey Anastasio)
“Look Out Cleveland” (with Trey Anastasio)
“The Weight” (Mavis Staples, Trey Anastasio and Bob Weir)
“I Shall Be Released” (with all-star ensemble)

‘The Last Waltz’: Where Are They Now?

Here’s what the cast of one of rock’s best concert films has been up to since.

Gallery Credit: Allison Rapp

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All 45 Journey ’70s Songs Ranked Worst to Best


Journey managed to cram two complete eras into a five-album run in the ’70s.

Emerging from the ashes of Santana‘s classic-era lineup, Journey began as a hard-rocking fusion-leaning four piece led by Woodstock veteran Gregg Rolie and hot-shot guitarist Neal Schon. The initial lineup was completed with fellow Bay Area stalwart Ross Valory and Aynsley Dunbar, a journeyman drummer from Liverpool best known for his work with Frank Zappa.

The original group issued three albums in three years, beginning with Journey’s self-titled debut album. Look Into the Future and Next followed, but Journey was still struggling to find an audience. The highest any of those LPs could get was a No. 85 finish in 1977 with Next. Columbia Records was growing impatient.

READ MORE: Top 35 Journey Videos – Together and Apart

That’s when Journey added Steve Perry as frontman – after brief flirtation with Robert Fleischman. Drummer Steve Smith then replaced Dunbar as the group began reeling off multi-platinum albums. By the end of the decade, they had unlocked their potential on radio, too. “Lovin’, Touchin’, Squeezin'” became Journey’s first-ever Top 20 single – but far from the last.

They were well-positioned for the ’80s, as Journey jumped to stadium shows while selling 10 million copies of 1981’s Escape in the U.S. alone. Rolie had departed, though, having made his biggest mark during the previous decade, first without and then with Perry.

Here’s a comprehensive look back as we rank all 45 Journey songs from the ’70s:

No. 45. “Can Do” from ‘Infinity’ (1978)

Actually, can’t.

No. 44. “La Do Da” from ‘Infinity’ (1978)

Steve Perry’s initial collaborations with Neal Schon were a revelation. So many of the group’s foundational songs emerged from those initial writing sessions. And then there was this.

No. 43. “Lady Luck” from ‘Evolution’ (1979)

Journey joined several artists who have sung tracks called “Lady Luck,” including Deep Purple, Rod Stewart and David Lee Roth. Come to think of it, none of those are really any good either.

No. 42. “Karma” from ‘Next’ (1977)

The last pre-Perry album ends with a grinding, unfocused rocker featuring Schon at the mic. Changes were coming.

No. 41. “Topaz” from ‘Journey’ (1975)

There’s no denying the level of musicianship here. It’s just not very interesting music.

No. 40. “In the Morning Day” from ‘Journey’ (1975)

This serviceable mid-tempo song abruptly turns into a mostly shapeless jam.

No. 39. “Majestic” from ‘Evolution’ (1979)

An abbreviated multi-tracked instrumental that was used as this album’s opening theme, their last with producer Roy Thomas Baker. It’s probably best remembered as the taped intro music for Journey concerts during this era.

No. 38. “Next” from ‘Next’ (1977)

Journey reminds you of their canny knack for achieving liftoff here, but this time it’s only window dressing for a song that doesn’t feel completed.

No. 37. “City of the Angels” from ‘Evolution’ (1979)

“Lights,” found later on our list of Journey ’70s Songs Ranked Worst to Best, was originally about Los Angeles, before Perry shifted its locale to his new home base in San Francisco. He later returned to the idea of paying tribute to L.A., with much poorer results.

No. 36. “Winds of March” from ‘Infinity’ (1978)

Credited to a crowd including Matt and Neal Schon, drive-by frontman Robert Fleischman, Gregg Rolie and Steve Perry, “Winds of March” actually sounds like a meeting of two minds: Perry, who deftly croons his way through the first two minutes, and his new bandmates – who absolutely tear through the remaining three.

No. 35. “Midnight Dreamer” from ‘Look Into the Future’ (1976)

The book on Journey was always that Perry arrived and they suddenly shook themselves awake to commercial considerations. One listen to “Midnight Dreamer,” and a good portion of the album it originated from, makes a powerful counter-argument. They still stretch out – dig that crazy keyboard solo! – but “Midnight Dreamer” wasn’t that far from what album-oriented radio was playing at the time.

No. 34. “For You” From ‘Time3’ (1992)

An important, if not entirely successful, song from the demo phase for 1978’s Infinity when they tried out Robert Fleischman as a singer. “For You” points directly to their next radio-ready direction, even if it was recorded before Perry arrived.

No. 33. “In My Lonely Feeling / Conversations” from ‘Journey’ (1975)

The cool interplay between Schon and quickly departed co-founding rhythm guitarist George Tickner is perhaps best showcased on this composition by Rolie and Ross Valory. Tickner was given two subsequent songwriting credits for 1976’s Look Into the Future, but was already gone by the time it was released.

No. 32. “People” from ‘Next’ (1977)

Journey get proggy, and it would’ve worked – a few years earlier.

No. 31. “On a Saturday Nite” from ‘Look Into the Future’ (1976)

Rolie opens their second album with an approachable yet still tough-minded song that confidently moves Journey more toward traditional classic rock, if not all the way over to the pop-leaning sound that later sent them to the top of the charts.

No. 30. “Look Into the Future” from ‘Look Into the Future’ (1976)

Everybody was into Led Zeppelin at this point, including Journey.

No. 29. “She Makes Me (Feel Alright)” from ‘Look Into the Future’ (1976)

“She Makes Me (Feel Alright)” builds on Rolie’s album-opening foray into more digestible song structures, though Schon’s metallic asides nearly push it into hard rock.

No. 28. “Mystery Mountain” from ‘Journey’ (1975)

“The way I look at the early Journey stuff is, if we played that now, we’d be out with Phish, or the [Dave] Matthews Band,” Rolie admitted in 2011. “We were a great jam band.” Exhibit A: their trippy debut album-closing “Magic Mountain,” written by Rolie and Tickner with help from Valory’s wife.

No. 27. “Sweet and Simple” from ‘Evolution’ (1979)

Perry brought this dream-like song with him, having written it years before while looking out over Lake Tahoe. Journey completed it with a quickly ascending final segment that matched now-patented multi-tracked vocals with Schon’s typical pyro.

No. 26. “Cookie Duster” from ‘Time3’ (1992)

Journey’s label asked that they replace this underrated Ross Valory instrumental with something more commercial for 1977’s Next. The album stalled at No. 85 anyway.

No. 25. “Spaceman” from ‘Next’ (1977)

Co-written by Aynsley Dunbar and Gregg Rolie, “Spaceman” offers Journey fans some of the most obvious initial flowerings of a pop sensibility. They placed it first on the album, and released it as a single. “Spaceman” failed to chart and Journey was ordered to rework their lineup. Robert Fleischman arrived shortly after this album’s release, toured with the band and even received co-writing credit on three songs for Journey’s following LP, but they eventually settled on Perry.

No. 24. “It’s All Too Much” from ‘Look into the Future’ (1976)

Journey drills down to the marrow on this throwaway piece of psychedelia, finding a seriously nasty groove beneath the Beatles‘ old atmospherics.

No. 23. “Nickel and Dime” from ‘Next’ (1977)

This very Mahavishnu Orchestra-influenced instrumental was originally constructed in three parts. The final section was cut off, however, leaving a pair of segments with unusual Aynsley Dunbar signatures – thus the name, “Nickel and Dime.”

No. 22. “I’m Gonna Leave You” from ‘Look Into the Future’ (1976)

George Tickner joined Journey after a stint in the San Francisco psych-rock band Frumious Bandersnatch with Ross Valory, but wasn’t around long. He left behind this intriguingly offbeat 5/4 shuffle for fans to ponder what might have been.

No. 21. “Lovin’ You Is Easy” from ‘Evolution’ (1979)

This starts out as another cookie-cutter ’70s-era Journey song, then Steve Perry gets to the ear-worm title lyric and everything changes.

No. 20. “Anyway” from ‘Look Into the Future’ (1976)

A dark then searching rocker from Journey’s second album, featuring one of Rolie’s most desirous vocals.

No. 19. “Hustler” from ‘Next’ (1977)

An explosion of heavy-rocking sexuality, “Hustler” found Journey considerably toughening up its by-then-established fusion-based formula — something the group would eventually return to, but only decades later, with 2011’s muscular Eclipse.

No. 18. “To Play Some Music” from ‘Journey’ (1975)

The most accessible song on Journey’s self-titled debut, “To Play Some Music” provides a down-to-earth vocal vehicle for Gregg Rolie on an album dominated by epic, often spacey instrumentals.

No. 17. “Patiently” from ‘Infinity’ (1978)

Schon memorably gave Perry a ride home after sitting in with Azteca in San Francisco, but had no idea his passenger was a singer. Five years later, Perry finally got the chance to make an impression. He stopped by Schon’s hotel the day after a Journey show in Denver, and they wrote this song. “It was really about the determination of me wanting to get next to those players,” Perry said in the Time3 box set’s liner notes.

No. 16. “I Would Find You” from ‘Next’ (1977)

Neal Schon takes a rare vocal turn with Journey, and it’s his most successful.

No. 15. “Kohoutek” from ‘Journey’ (1975)

Named after a comet then approaching Earth’s orbit, “Kohoutek” bridges the sounds that Rolie and Schon made earlier as part of Santana with those to come from their new band. Makes sense: This track dates back to Journey’s earliest rehearsals.

No. 14. “You’re on Your Own” from ‘Look Into the Future’ (1976)

Their slow-fast approach gives “You’re on Your Own” a noticeably modern feel; Rolie’s heartfelt singing centers it all.

No. 13. “Here We Are” from ‘Next’ (1977)

Perhaps Journey’s heaviest-ever pop song. Rolie had a knack for Beatles-esque touches (see their earlier cover of George Harrison‘s “It’s All Too Much”), even if it was buried in a cacophony of sound from Schon and Dunbar (see their earlier cover, etc. etc.).

No. 12. “Somethin’ to Hide” from ‘Infinity’ (1978)

Journey’s first attempt at a power ballad was devastatingly effective, though it arrived years before “Open Arms.” Perry’s final cry is just astonishing.

No. 11. “Of a Lifetime” from ‘Journey’ (1975)

Journey’s recorded output begins here, with a seven-minute jazz fusion-influenced, at times Pink Floyd-ish excursion that boldly stepped away from Rolie and Schon’s previous work in Santana. Years later, Rolie admitted: “The last thing I was to see for the rest of my life is conga drums!”

No. 10. “Opened the Door” from ‘Infinity’ (1978)

The last song on the first album to feature Perry, “Open the Door” begins like every gorgeous, ear-wormy love song they ever hit with a few years later — but after Perry’s initial three minutes, Rolie joins in a huge vocal bridge (“Yeah, you opened …”), and from there Schon and company are loosened from those binding conventions. Aynsley Dunbar, on his final recording date with Journey, sets a thunderous cadence, and Schon powers the song — and this career-turning album — to its quickly elevating conclusion.

No. 9. “When You’re Alone (It Ain’t Easy)” from ‘Evolution’ (1979)

Steve Perry chirps and coos his way through this winking tease of a song – that is, until about a third of the way through, when Schon provides a moment of release.

No. 8. “Wheel in the Sky” from ‘Infinity’ (1978)

He never got much credit, but Robert Fleischman played an important role in Journey. “Wheel in the Sky,” the band’s initial Billboard chart entry, was originally a poem written by Ross Valory’s wife – until Fleischman rounded it into song form. Schon added a guitar melody, and they handed it to Steve Perry after Fleischman’s ouster. The rest is, as they say, history.

No. 7. “Too Late” from ‘Evolution’ (1979)

A delicate, beautifully conveyed song of encouragement, “Too Late” was aimed at a friend of Perry’s who had fallen into drug abuse.

No. 6. “Do You Recall” from ‘Evolution’ (1979)

Maybe the perfect blending of Journey’s tough early sound and Perry’s sun-flecked sense of reminiscence. Roy Thomas Baker’s familiar stacked vocals propel the bridge to untold heights.

No. 5. “Lovin’, Touchin’, Squeezin'” from ‘Evolution’ (1979)

A song with a real-life storyline, “Lovin’, Touchin’, Squeezin'” came to life in another Journey jam session, then went on to become their first Top 20 hit. Rolie’s Nicky Hopkins-esque honky tonk piano rides atop a stuttering, 12/8 rhythm, building inexorably toward a cloud-bursting nah-nah-nah conclusion. Steve Smith has compared that blues shuffle to “Nothing Can Change This Love” by key Perry influence Sam Cooke. The heartbroken Perry, who’s described the writing of this song as “love justice,” actually played bass on the initial sessions. The results opened the pop-chart floodgates.

No. 4. “Daydream” from ‘Evolution’ (1979)

An episodic triumph, “Daydream” is defined by dreamy, Jon Anderson-esque verses, rangy guitar riffs and forward-thinking keyboard asides – very much in keeping with the prog-rock pretensions of the ’70s, though that sound had already become decidedly passe.

No. 3. “Just the Same Way” from ‘Evolution’ (1979)

Built off a Rolie piano riff, “Just the Same Way” once again leveraged Journey’s layered harmony vocals, already a trademark of producer Roy Thomas Baker from his previous work with Queen. Baker achieved this effect by having Perry and Rolie double and triple their parts, an incredibly time-consuming new approach that almost derailed “Anytime.” (Rolie and Schon still considered themselves jam guys at this point.) But that’s what ultimately gave this song – and Journey themselves – such a striking propulsion.

No. 2. “Lights” from ‘Infinity’ (1978)

Perry had an early version of this song in his back pocket when he joined Journey, and it’s a good thing. Rolie has said that the rest of the band wasn’t sold on Perry until they harmonized on “Lights” while backstage at the Swing Auditorium in San Bernardino. “It dawned on me right then,” Rolie later admitted in the Time3 notes, “that this could really be great.”

No. 1. “Feeling That Way” / “Anytime” from ‘Infinity’ (1978)

These paired songs took a convoluted path, as everyone worked and reworked both halves into a legacy-defining moment for Journey and their new singer. “Feeling That Way” began as a shelved Rolie track called “Velvet Curtain.” When Perry arrived, he added a gliding new chorus, and they were halfway there. Journey was also stuck on the Fleischman co-written “Anytime,” which was released as a separate No. 83-charting single but forever linked on the album and rock radio. Then Schon decided to tap the music of his childhood by adding a Beatles-like phrase, “anytime that you want me.” The then-new mixture of Perry and Rolie’s voices did the rest. “As soon as the vocals were put in, the song came alive,” Rolie remembered in 2014, laughing. “I’m glad we didn’t can it!” The results deftly fuse their earthy first era with the pop-facing second era to come. It’ll always be the perfect Journey moment.

Nick DeRiso is author of the Amazon best-selling rock band bio ‘Journey: Worlds Apart,’ available now at all major bookseller websites.

Journey Albums Ranked

Some Journey lineups were respected but low-selling, while others were bestsellers who got critically ignored. But which one was best?

Gallery Credit: UCR Staff

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Ringo Starr Is Releasing a Country Album, ‘Look Up’


Ringo Starr will release a new album early next year. Look Up is a country record consisting of 11 original songs, most of them cowritten by the album’s producer, T Bone Burnett.

The former Beatle cowrote one of the new songs in addition to playing drums and singing on the project. Alison Krauss, Billy Strings, Larkin Poe, Lucius and Molly Tuttle appear on the tracks.

“I’ve always loved country music,” Starr notes in a press release announcing the album. “And when I asked T Bone to write me a song, I didn’t even think at the time that it would be a country song – but of course it was, and it was so beautiful.

READ MORE: Top 10 Ringo Starr Beatles Songs

“I had been making EPs at the time and so I thought we would do a country EP – but when he brought me nine songs I knew we had to make an album. And I am so glad we did. I want to thank and send peace and love to T Bone and all the great musicians who helped make this record. It was a joy making it and I hope it is a joy to listen to.”

You can listen to the first song released from Look Up, “Time on My Hands,” below. The album will be released on Jan. 10.

Starr teased the project earlier this year when he mentioned that he was working on the album with Burnett in an interview. In a way, it marks a return to the genre that started Starr’s solo career in 1970, when he released his first LP, the country-leaning Beaucoup of Blues.

READ MORE: Top 10 Ringo Starr Beatles Songs

Before that, several of the songs he sang on Beatles albums – including “Act Naturally,” “What Goes On” and “Don’t Pass Me By” – were country in origin.

Why Did Ringo Starr Make a Country Album?

Starr first met Burnett in the ’70s; they recently reconnected at an event in Los Angeles, and Starr asked Burnett to write a song for a new EP he was recording. Burnett handed him enough songs for a new album, his first since 2019.

“I have loved Ringo Starr and his playing and his singing and his aesthetic for as long as I can remember,” Burnett says. “He changed the way every drummer after him played, with his inventive approach to the instrument. And he has always sung killer rockabilly, as well as being a heartbreaking ballad singer.

“To get to make this music with him was something like the realization of a 60-year dream I’ve been living. None of the work that I have done through a long life in music would have happened if not for him and his band. Among other things, this album is a way I can say thank you for all he has given me and us.”

Starr will play two shows at Nashville’s famous Ryman Auditorium to promote the album on Jan. 14 and 15. Tickets go on sale Oct. 25.

You can see the track listing for Look Up below.

Ringo Starr, ‘Look Up’ Track Listing
Breathless (featuring Billy Strings)
Look Up (featuring Molly Tuttle)
Time On My Hands
Never Let Me Go (featuring Billy Strings)
I Live For Your Love (featuring Molly Tuttle)
Come Back (featuring Lucius)
Can You Hear Me Call (featuring Molly Tuttle)
Rosetta (featuring Billy Strings and Larkin Poe)
You Want Some
String Theory (featuring Molly Tuttle)
Thankful (featuring Alison Krauss)

Beatles Albums Ranked

From the cheery ‘Please Please Me’ to the kinda dreary ‘Let It Be,’ we rank all of the group’s studio LPs.

Gallery Credit: Michael Gallucci





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Why Foreigner’s Mick Jones, Dennis Elliott Won’t Be at Rock Hall


According to a new report, Foreigner stars Mick Jones and Dennis Elliott are skipping the band’s Rock & Roll Hall of Fame induction ceremony for different reasons.

Elliott, who served as the group’s drummer from 1976 to 1993, announced on Thursday that he would not be attending due to an unspecified but “totally unacceptable” issue with the schedule he was provided for the event.

“We were finally given the schedule last night, and it is not to our satisfaction,” he wrote on Facebook. “So we are staying home. We have been asking for this for weeks, and they have waited until the very last minute to send it knowing we were all packed and going to bed.”

Read More: Foreigner Drummer to Skip Rock Hall Over ‘Unacceptable’ Situation

According to Billboard, “one specific bone of contention was that only band members were to walk the red carpet before the show, without their spouses.” The story goes on to explain that Jones will not be attending as a result of his current battle with Parkinson’s disease, a diagnosis the band’s founding guitarist revealed earlier this year.

The band issued their own statement, noting that “original members Lou Gramm, Al Greenwood, and Rick Wills will be there to accept the awards on behalf of the band’s leader and founder Mick Jones and Dennis Elliott, along [with] those of Ian McDonald and Ed Gagliardi who passed away some years ago.”

Slash, Sammy Hagar, Chad Smith, Demi Lovato and Kelly Clarkson will perform in Foreigner’s honor at the ceremony, with Hagar noting on Instagram that he will be singing the band’s 1978 hit “Hot Blooded.” The ceremony takes place at Cleveland’s Rocket Mortgage FieldHouse Saturday night and will be aired live on Disney Plus.

Foreigner Albums Ranked

It’s hard to imagine rock radio without the string of hit singles Foreigner peeled off in the ’70s and ’80s.

Gallery Credit: Jeff Giles

 





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Foreigner Drummer to Skip Rock Hall Over ‘Unacceptable’ Situation


Foreigner’s original drummer, Dennis Elliott, has announced he will not take part in the band’s upcoming induction into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame.

“Dear Foreigner Fans & Friends, Don’t look too hard, we will not be there,” the rocker began in a message posted to Facebook. “We were finally given the schedule last night, and it is not to our satisfaction. So we are staying home. We have been asking for this for weeks, and they have waited until the very last minute to send it knowing we were all packed and going to bed.”

After further describing the situation as “totally unacceptable,” Elliott closed by expressing well-wishes to the band’s fans. “Hope you have a good time.”

READ MORE: 145 Artists Not in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame

A social media post on Foreigner’s official account seems to corroborate Elliott’s absence from the Hall of Fame event. The band noted that “original members Lou Gramm, Al Greenwood, and Rick Wills will be there to accept the awards on behalf of the band’s leader and founder Mick Jones and Dennis Elliot, along [with] those of Ian McDonald and Ed Gagliardi who passed away some years ago.”

Foreigner’s Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Plans

Elliott was behind the kit for Foreigner’s heyday, drumming for the group from 1976 to 1991. His absence takes a bit of the shine off of the band’s much-hyped Hall of Fame induction. Foreigner had been eligible since 2003, but didn’t receive their first nomination until this year.

Of Foreigner’s inductees, only Jones is still a member of the band. The guitarist, who revealed his Parkinson’s disease diagnosis earlier this year, has not performed with the group since 2022.

Slash, Sammy Hagar, Chad Smith, Demi Lovato and Kelly Clarkson have been announced as special guests who will perform at the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame ceremony to honor Foreigner.

Foreigner Albums Ranked

It’s hard to imagine rock radio without the string of hit singles Foreigner peeled off in the ’70s and ’80s.

Gallery Credit: Jeff Giles





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Pretenders Are Now Kicking Fans Out of the Front Row


Pretenders say they’ll remove concertgoers from the first row if they attend more than one show.

“When we go on tour, the whole point of it for the band is that we are playing to a different audience every night. That’s why we go on tour!” Chrissie Hynde said in a social media post, garnering lots of angry responses. “We appreciate those of you who follow us and buy tickets for multiple nights, so please don’t be offended if we request you to move out of the front row.”

Their ongoing tour began in the U.S. back in July, and included a string of dates with Foo Fighters. The Pretenders are now on a run through the U.K., performing in support of 2023’s Relentless. Hynde’s post went up just before last night’s Usher Hall show in Edinburgh.

READ MORE: Top 10 Pretenders Songs

Hynde has also complained about being stopped for autographs while out on the road. “I used to, but certain individuals have made it too much brain damage to deal with,” she said. “It’s the guys with stacks of albums and guitars they want signed. Personally, I appreciate a good scam, but c’mon! How cheap. You would not believe how entitled some people think they are. Aggressive? Don’t get me started.”

Pretenders shows continue through Nov. 1 in Sheffield. Band cofounders Hynde and drummer Martin Chambers are touring with guitarists James Walbourne and Eric Heywood, bassist Nick Wilkinson and keyboardist Carwyn Ellis.

“We’re in the homestretch of this year’s tour and it’s been a real pleasure. Fantastic cities and fantastic audiences. We’ve had a great time playing for you,” Hynde said in the new post, found below. “All we are asking is that you give the local fans a chance. This is what keeps it new for us … especially after being on tour for so many months.”

Pretenders and Chrissie Hynde Albums Ranked

From punk beginnings to middle-of-the-road balladry to Dylan covers.

Gallery Credit: Michael Gallucci





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Martin Scorsese Will Direct Robbie Robertson Tribute Concert Film


Martin Scorsese will direct the filming of Thursday night’s Life Is a Carnival: A Musical Celebration of Robbie Robertson.

The concert is taking place at the Kia Forum in Los Angeles, and is scheduled to feature Trey Anastasio, Ryan Bingham, Mike Campbell, Eric Church, Eric ClaptonElvis CostelloWarren HaynesBruce Hornsby, Jim James, Jamey Johnson, Noah Kahan, Daniel Lanois, Taj Mahal, Van Morrison, Margo Price, Robert Randolph, Nathaniel Rateliff, Allison Russell, Mavis Staples, Benmont TenchDon WasBobby Weir and Lucinda Williams.

Scorsese was already listed as a producer of the concert, though further details on what format the film will take have not been announced. Several of the aforementioned musicians will take the show on the road for the Life Is a Carnival: Last Waltz Tour ’24, which begins Oct. 19.

Martin Scorsese and Robbie Robertson’s Relationship

Scorsese and Robertson’s working relationship and friendship went back decades. Scorsese directed the 1976 concert film The Last Waltz, marking the last performance of the Band‘s five-man lineup. In the years that followed, Robertson often scored music for Scorsese’s films, including but not limited to The King of Comedy (1982), Gangs of New York (2002) and most recently Killers of the Flower Moon (2023).

“I mean, we’re in awe ourselves that our brotherhood has outlasted everything,” Robertson said in an interview with Variety not long before he passed away in August of 2023. “I am so proud of our friendship and our work. It’s been just a gift in life.”

READ MORE: Why Robbie Robertson Never Reunited With the Band

“Robbie Robertson was one of my closest friends, a constant in my life and my work. I could always go to him as a confidante. A collaborator. An advisor. I tried to be the same for him,” Scorsese said in a statement following Robertson’s death. “It goes without saying that he was a giant, that his effect on the art form was profound and lasting. There’s never enough time with anyone you love. And I loved Robbie.”

‘The Last Waltz’: Where Are They Now?

Here’s what the cast of one of rock’s best concert films has been up to since.

Gallery Credit: Allison Rapp





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How Chicago Continued to Evolve in the ‘70s


Chicago was on a roll in 1971. They’d amassed three albums of studio material released across a two-year timespan. By the time they hit the stage at the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in September of that year, they were nearly ready to record their fourth album.

“We were almost never off the road,” trumpet player Lee Loughnane says now, during a new conversation with UCR. “We only knew the road and that was the only time we got to rehearse. So when we came home and went in the studio, the writing was still going on. That’s where we finished songs off.”

The band was one of the first musical acts to perform at the Kennedy Center, helping to christen the now-legendary venue a little more than a week after its opening. For nearly two and a half hours, they played through an expansive set that was markedly different than the week’s worth of concerts they’d recorded earlier that year for the 4 LP Chicago at Carnegie Hall live album. The songs were also different, with a number of shorter and tighter compositions making their debut.

On this particular night, the recording truck was rolling tape as well, though for reasons Loughnane himself is unaware of, the JFK recordings went unreleased. Now, more than 50 years later, fans can finally hear what they missed that night, thanks to Rhino Entertainment, which has made the complete concert available in several different formats.

The band was playing new songs all of the time. It’s really striking to see the difference between the Carnegie Hall shows and this one from just a matter of months later.
Yeah, it actually shocked me as well when we started doing this. Jimmy [Pankow] announced from the stage that we were playing “Saturday in the Park” for the first time, a brand new song. I went, “Really? Okay! I guess that was sort of early on in our career!” I was surprised again to hear Peter Cetera singing the lead vocal. So we obviously hadn’t decided who was going to sing lead. Robert [Lamm], as you know, sings lead on his song, “Saturday in the Park” and it’s been that way forever!

Listen to Chicago Perform ‘Saturday in the Park’

There’s the commentary in the introduction prior to “Saturday in the Park” about how it’s not a political song.
Yes and I think probably by that time, we were being harassed or at least asked, many times, from either young Republicans or young Democrats to join various organizations and be more active. We kept pointing them to Robert, because he was the one who wrote those songs. He was the one who had those ideas and you guys happen to agree with him. Go talk to Robert, because we’re interested in playing music and that’s what we’re focused on and what we’re going to be doing.

It speaks to the free form nature of the band that you were presenting almost rough sketches of some of these songs before they were done. What were the inspirational drivers behind that approach?
I think the record company allowed us to do that. We were surprised that we were able to get away with it, I think. Either that or we weren’t surprised at all and we were just doing what we did organically and naturally. An idea would come up for a song, we’d start rehearsing it and then throw it into the show. As you heard on this album, it was commonplace for us. We were changing the set from night to night, because the production levels weren’t to a point where we had to let the light operator know everything that was going to happen and how it was going to happen. They just sort of flooded the stage with lights. [Laughs] It was the same with the sound guy, he just had all of the microphones on. So if somebody walked up to sing or talk, there was a microphone to accommodate that.

READ MORE: Why. Chicago’s ‘Carnegie Hall’ Had ‘Thousands of Problems’

The difficulties you encountered with the Carnegie Hall recordings are legendary. Was it easier at all working with the tapes for this show?
No, it was very similar to what we did with Chicago at Carnegie Hall. But we were used to the fact that there were going to be problems. We’d just play the tape and [make note] of things we’d have to check out. We went in one problem at a time, solve it to the best of our ability and then move on and make things sound as good as we possibly could. Tim Jessup, the engineer, he took on the drums first. We went through the rhythm section first, so he pretty much got a rhythm section sound together and then we started honing in on various other aspects.

Listen to Chicago Perform ‘It Better End Soon’

One thing that’s common between this new show and the Carnegie Hall performances is the longer pieces like “It Better End Soon” and “Ballet for a Girl in Buchannon.” How did you guys approach putting longer pieces like that together in the studio back then?
Jimmy Pankow had the idea for the Ballet while we were on the road. He’d set up a keyboard in the hotel room in between two beds and just start writing what he envisioned as the song. I know the music came first for him, at least that’s what I’m assuming — because that’s the way I’d approach it too being an instrumentalist. That’s the way I approached “Call on Me” and “No Tell Lover,” the lyrics came later, the music came first. So I’m assuming he approached it similarly. By the time we got into the studio, he was still writing parts and connecting things together. So it was all brand new as we were recording it. As we took it out on the road and started performing it in one fell swoop all of the way through, we were improving or screwing it up from night to night. But I think most of the time, we were getting through it well enough for it to pass. Because people didn’t throw things at us. [Laughs] That was commonplace [then] and we were unscathed. The music played well for us.

In that vein, “It Better End Soon,” listening to the Carnegie shows, it expands and contracts and morphs from night to night. The way it’s tracked out as movements, is a very classical kind of presentation.
Yeah and you know, Terry [Kath] had his own preach section, Walt [Parazaider] had his solo section. We had the meat of the song, the verses and it somehow just made sense, especially to us back then and all of the audiences that came to see us. “It Better End Soon” was a good example of that. “Poem for the People” was a well-thought out piece that I’ve always liked, because it starts in one place and then seems to go full circle and end almost like a Yes song. We were in that progressive mode of music.

How did the horn section bond originally? What do you remember about the moment where the three of you really connected?
I don’t know that there was any particular moment. Because after Jimmy wrote the parts, we’d rehearse it by ourselves. Especially some of the more intricate passages. Once we got it under our fingers, we were ready to play it with everybody else in the band. So when the band cranked it up, we were ready for it. As things happen on stage, where you can’t hear as well — because the monitors were…..

Not great.
Not that good and always really loud. They were so close to you that by the time the sound hits you, it’s already passed. There was never a time when somebody said, “Hey, could you turn my monitor down?” It was always up. I got to the point where I stopped using the monitor, even though it was blasting in front of me. I’d put cigarette filters off of my smokes inside my ears, so my monitor was in between my ears. Sound-wise, it wasn’t what I wanted to hear, but I could tell if I was in tune. I could tell if I was with the rest of the guys are not, so that was my ancient monitor and it worked for me. When things went wrong, we just kept going. We were adamant that once we started the song, we weren’t going to stop until we got to the end, even if we got lost in the process. Sometimes, that actually happened, where all of the sudden, it was a cacophony of sound, because somebody went to the bridge and somebody else went back to another verse. You know, the changes are different. But Terry, out of nowhere, he’d do a whistle and then 2-3-4 and we’d go to a bridge or back to a verse and it would be harmonious again.

READ MORE: When Chicago Got Meta on ’25 or 6 to 4′

The new songs the band was playing at JFK were shorter and Chicago V ended up being an album of shorter songs. It was a shift away from the double LPs that had come prior to that. What triggered that shift?
I think probably they had fewer songs. “Saturday in the Park” was shorter. [Things like] “It Better End Soon,” the longer songs, were on the double record sets because there was more room to be able to add that stuff. Also, the record companies, this was probably mainly the reason for that type of a shift [with the fifth album], they stopped paying copyrights on unlimited songs. They decided they were only going to pay copyrights on 10 songs. The songwriters, in their infinite wisdom, didn’t want to share. If we had 11 songs, they wanted a full share for all of the songs that they wrote, which makes perfect sense. So the songs got shorter and you had to grab people’s attention in a shorter period of time. The entire industry changed around that time. 

Chicago Albums Ranked

This list of Chicago albums reminds us once more of the opposing forces that always drove the band.

Gallery Credit: Nick DeRiso





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Top 50 Hard Rock Songs of the ’70s


The ’70s were defined by music ranging from pop and punk to country rock and metal, but one genre stands out in the classic rock field: hard rock.

Easily encompassing many of the above styles, as well as several others, hard rock was, in many ways, a holdover from the late-’60s emergence of blues-powered electric rock. Bands that arrived in that era – such as Deep Purple and Led Zeppelin – helped shape the music in the new decade.

The below list of the Top 50 Hard Rock Songs of the ’70s, voted on by UCR staff, reads like the ultimate classic rock radio playlist, featuring some of the decade’s biggest artists and some lesser-known ones, too, that plugged in, turned up and created the soundtrack of a generation.

50. AC/DC, “T.N.T.” (from T.N.T., 1975)

“T.N.T.” started Side Two of AC/DC‘s first international album, High Voltage. But fans in the band’s home country of Australia were familiar with the song a couple of years earlier when it was the title track of their second LP (it led the second side there, too). It’s among the first songs to zero in on the band’s electric boogie blues, which has been their stock in trade for half a century. Often replicated, this is where it begins.

 

49. Edgar Winter Group, “Frankenstein” (From They Only Come Out at Night, 1972)

Edgar Winter Group’s 1972 instrumental “Frankenstein” was named such because a long studio jam had to be edited piece by piece before it was ready for release. Winter himself handled several of the song’s instruments, including synths, saxophone and timbales. The others were played by his ace band: guitarist Ronnie Montrose, bassist Dan Hartman and drummer Chuck Ruff. A No. 1 hit for the Texas-born musician.

 

48. Edgar Winter Group, “Free Ride” (From They Only Come Out at Night, 1972)

Coming off a surprise No. 1 with the instrumental “Frankenstein,” Edgar Winter Group wasted little time issuing a follow-up single in “Free Ride” that reached No. 14. Written and sung by Dan Hartman – who had the disco hit “Instant Replay” later in the decade and the Top 10 “I Can Dream About You” in 1984 – “Free Ride” tapped into the soul music he was drawn to in the ’60s. His Winter Group bandmates give it some edge.

 

47. Alice Cooper, “I’m Eighteen” (From Love It to Death, 1971)

After two albums with Frank Zappa‘s Straight Records, the Alice Cooper group released a single on Warner Bros., “Eighteen,” in late 1970. The song made it to No. 21, prompting the label to sign up the band for an album. Love It to Death arrived in the first part of 1971, signaling a change of course for the previously wayward group. Three classic LPs followed over the next two years before the singer went solo with the name.

 

46. Neil Young & Crazy Horse, “Like a Hurricane” (From American Stars ‘n Bars, 1977)

Like many songs from Neil Young‘s ’70s, “Like a Hurricane” was scheduled and then rescheduled for a few different albums before it was shelved and eventually found a home on his and Crazy Horse‘s 1977 LP American Stars ‘n Bars, a hodgepodge of tracks recorded between 1974 and 1977. “Hurricane” is one of Young and Crazy Horse’s most ferocious songs and a showcase staple of their live sets for five decades.

 

45. Joe Walsh, “Rocky Mountain Way” (From The Smoker You Drink, the Player You Get, 1973)

Best known for its guitar talk box, “Rocky Mountain Way” was a stop for Joe Walsh between James Gang and the Eagles, and the highlight of a sporadic solo career that’s spanned more than four decades. Taken from his 1973 album, The Smoker You Drink, the Player You Get – a continuation of the previous year’s Barnstorm with bassist Kenny Passarelli and drummer Joe Vitale – the song is modern blues updated for the ’70s.

 

44. Fleetwood Mac, “The Green Manalishi (With the Two Prong Crown)” (From 1970 Single)

Peter Green was tiring of the corner he painted himself in with Fleetwood Mac‘s early strict adherence to American blues. By 1970 he was ready to move on – in all respects. Before he left the band he formed for good, he delivered one of his fiercest and greatest performances in “The Green Manalishi (With the Two Prong Crown),” a sinister-sounding blues played as part dirge, part summoning of demon from hell. A milestone.

 

43. Kiss, “Black Diamond” (From Kiss, 1974)

Like other songs on Kiss‘ self-titled 1974 debut, the closing song “Black Diamond” gained a more rugged base during many live performances over the years. But the studio version nearly perfected its progression – from a deceptively acoustic beginning that gives way to a barrage of full-throttle Kiss. Later covered – straight, no irony – by the Replacements on their 1984 college rock masterpiece Let It Be.

 

42. Ram Jam, “Black Betty” (From Ram Jam, 1977)

“Black Betty” had been around in song form since at least the 1930s; it possibly dates back even further than the version musicologist John Lomax uncovered in 1934. No doubt Lead Belly and other period folk artists weren’t expecting the souped-up take Ram Jam, a New York band hastily assembled around ex-Lemon Piper Bill Bartlett, took to the Top 20 in 1977. The group was short-lived, but the song still receives airplay.

41. Brownsville Station, “Smokin’ in the Boys Room” (From Yeah!, 1973)

Brownsville Station was a Michigan band led by rock writer Cub Koda that played riff-heavy rock ‘n’ roll equally inspired by Chuck Berry and the Rolling Stones. Most of their albums barely cracked the Top 200, but 1973’s Yeah!, their third, made it to No. 98 thanks to “Smokin’ in the Boys Room,” a rowdy schoolboy sing-along about bad behavior. A cover favorite among artists as diverse as R.E.M. and Motley Crue.

40. Deep Purple, “Highway Star” (From Machine Head, 1972)

Finally settling into their classic Mark II lineup, Deep Purple released their masterwork Machine Head in 1972. Its opening track highlighted the revigorated band’s tightness and newfound path to success by piling on riffs, solos and heavens-reaching vocals by Ian Gillan. “Highway Star” drives harder and faster than almost anything Deep Purple has done in their long career. The guitar and organ interplay has rarely been topped.

 

READ MORE: Top 35 Southern Rock Songs

 

 

39. The Stooges, “Search and Destroy” (From Raw Power, 1973)

The Stooges broke up after their second album, Fun House, in 1970. By 1973, three-fourths of the original quartet was reunited (thanks to some encouragement from fan David Bowie), and with singer Iggy Pop temporarily clean, plus the addition of energizing guitarist James Williamson, made a third record. The opening track “Search and Destroy” was inspired by Vietnam; it’s since become a statement of purpose.

 

38. Foghat, “Slow Ride” (From Fool for the City, 1975)

Foghat‘s best-known song started as a jam session between the veteran band and its new bassist. The London group was five albums into its career when it released Fool for the City in 1975. Soon they had their first Top 40 hit, a skulking heavy blues built on a relatively simple riff that was open-ended enough to allow for much onstage exploration. No surprise that “Slow Ride” often extended past the 10-minute marker in concert.

 

37. The Runaways, “Cherry Bomb” (From The Runaways, 1976)

The Runaways‘ debut single was written in haste after it turned out the teenage band wasn’t capable of playing the song it was given to audition singer Cherie Currie. Producer Kim Fowley put together the group as an “all-girl answer to Grand Funk.” What he got instead was an appealingly raw mix of period hard rock and glam that resulted in something closer to punk. “Cherry Bomb” explodes all preconceptions.

 

36. Kansas, “Carry On Wayward Son” (From Leftoverture, 1976)

Kansas was struggling to crack the Top 50 when they released their fourth album, Leftoverture, in 1976. They soon had their first Top 10 on their hands after its lead single, “Carry On Wayward Son,” rose on the charts. Scaling back their Midwest prog for a leaner classic rock approach, the band tapped into its spiritual side on “Wayward Son,” a strategy repeated in the next year’s “Dust in the Wind,” an even bigger hit.

 

35. AC/DC, “Dirty Deeds Done Dirt Cheap” (From Dirty Deeds Done Dirt Cheap, 1976)

Like other AC/DC releases at the start of their career, Dirty Deeds Done Dirt Cheap has a tangled history, originally released as the band’s third album in their native Australia and Europe. But in the U.S. the album didn’t come out until after the success of Back in Black, the group’s debut with Brian Johnson, who replaced Bon Scott after the singer’s 1980 death. The title song is all swaggering hard-rock blues, a highlight of the Scott era.

 

34. Led Zeppelin, “Trampled Under Foot” (From Physical Graffiti, 1975)

Robert Johnson meets Stevie Wonder in one of Led Zeppelin’s funkiest songs. “Trampled Under Foot” was one of a handful of new songs recorded for the band’s double-record mishmash Physical Graffiti and released as its only single by the singles-averse group. John Paul Jones set his clavinet to Wonder’s “Superstition,” while Robert Plant appropriated lyrics from bluesman Johnson’s pioneering “Terraplane Blues.”

 

33. Alice Cooper, “No More Mr. Nice Guy” (From Billion Dollar Babies, 1973)

Alice Cooper’s sixth album, and only No. 1, is home to four hit singles; “No More Mr. Guy” was the biggest. Written as a reaction to critics of the band’s stage shows, in particular the church group the singer’s mom belonged to, the song features one of the original Alice Cooper group’s chewiest choruses, near power pop in its radio-ready execution. The tongue-in-cheek declaration makes for one of Cooper’s defining songs.

 

32. Queen, “We Will Rock You” (From News of the World, 1977)

Often coupled with the cooling-down boast anthem “We Are the Champions,” “We Will Rock You,” on its own, is two minutes of feet-stomping percussion and busy fretwork that serves as a perfect opener to Queen‘s sixth album, News of the World. The band got the idea for the stripped-back approach to the song from a 1976 concert, where fans continued to clap and chant after Queen left the stage. An instant classic was born.

31. Kiss, “Rock and Roll All Nite” (From Dressed to Kill, 1975)

Kiss knew what they had in “Rock and Roll All Nite,” the final track on their third album, Dressed to Kill, and their concert-ending song pretty much since the time of its 1975 debut. Determined to write a fist-raising closer, best experienced in the 1975 live version, Paul Stanley and Gene Simmons spared no creative expense in crafting their most popular song; everyone from crew to spouses contributed to the chorus.

30. Van Halen, “Ain’t Talkin’ ‘Bout Love” (From Van Halen, 1978)

Eddie Van Halen originally wrote “Ain’t Talkin’ ‘Bout Love” as a punk parody, but by the time his band recorded it for their debut album it had become something way closer to the looming hair metal genre of the next decade. Like many songs on that first record, the track builds on a guitar riff that interlocks with the rest of the band, its stinging notes discovering the vacant places in the mix. A fully formed template for things to come.

 

29. The Who, “Baba O’Riley” (From Who’s Next, 1971)

Flush from Tommy‘s success and a tour that helped make their legend, the Who started work on another Pete Townshend rock opera that was eventually abandoned for the scaled-down Who’s Next. One of the leftover pieces, “Baba O’Riley,” became the record’s opening track, adorned with percolating synths and a violin solo that culminates in one of the band’s greatest songs and kicking off a prosperous decade for the group.

 

28. Bachman-Turner Overdrive, “You Ain’t Seen Nothing Yet” (From Not Fragile, 1974)

Randy Bachman has said his band recorded its only No. 1 song as a joke to give to his brother, who had a stutter. Bachman-Turner Overdrive originally cut “You Ain’t Seen Nothing Yet” with Bachman singing the chorus with a stammer, but when they needed another song for their third album, Not Fragile, it was pulled off the shelf. Bachman tried it without the stutter but everyone preferred the early version. It became the lead single.

 

READ MORE: Top 10 Pre-Lindsey Buckingham & Stevie Nicks Fleetwood Mac Songs

 

27. Black Sabbath, “War Pigs” (From Paranoid, 1970)

“War Pigs” was originally closer to the dark concepts introduced on Black Sabbath‘s debut, released seven months earlier. Conceived as “Walpurgis,” a celebration that lyric writer Geezer Butler called “Christmas for Satanists,” the song became sharpened as a protest of the Vietnam War. As the opening track on Paranoid, “War Pigs” helped set the template for heavy metal, still a few years from finding its ground. This is a start.

 

26. ZZ Top, “La Grange” (From Tres Hombres, 1973)

ZZ Top found their groove with their third album, Tres Hombres, released in 1973. Not straying too far from the desert-blown boogie of their first two records, the Texas trio borrowed a riff and greasy tone from John Lee Hooker and amped it up through their modern take on electric blues. The result was their first hit album and single, a not-so-subtle tribute to the famous Chicken Ranch brothel. “Haw haw haw haw” indeed.

 

25. Aerosmith, “Walk This Way” (From Toys in the Attic, 1975)

The second and third lives of Aerosmith‘s “Walk This Way” has earned it a special place in rock history. Released as a single from 1975’s Toys in the Attic, the song initially stalled on the chart until a rerelease a year later went Top 10. A decade after that, Run-D.M.C. fused their hip-hop remake to cameos by Joe Perry and Steven Tyler, sparking Aerosmith’s comeback. No matter its form, the song is one of the band’s best.

 

24. Alice Cooper, “School’s Out” (From School’s Out, 1972)

Killer finally gave Alice Cooper a Top 20 hit in 1971 and by the next year, the band was poised for even bigger success. Both album and single School’s Out made the Top 10, securing Alice Cooper’s status as one of the biggest acts of the era. The target audience for “School’s Out” was clear, as was its release just weeks before kids were out of school for the summer. An instant anthem that has survived the decades.

 

23. Heart, “Barracuda” (From Little Queen, 1977)

As a women-fronted band, Heart faced its share of misogyny over the years, especially when it started attracting national attention in the mid-’70s. Their first label pushed a story about sisters Ann and Nancy Wilson being romantically involved that so enraged the siblings that they wrote “Barracuda.” The chugging riff and Ann Wilson’s serrated vocals can’t bother to disguise their disgust. Their next LP was with a new company.

 

22. Montrose, “Rock Candy” (From Montrose, 1973)

Guitarist Ronnie Montrose got his start working with Herbie Hancock, Van Morrison and Edgar Winter, and was given a chance in 1973 to front a band of his own featuring newcomer Sammy Hagar. Lyrically, there’s not much there – “You’re rock candy, baby / You’re hard, sweet and sticky” goes the chorus – but the brontosaurus-sized rhythm doesn’t let up over its five trampling minutes. From the band’s only platinum album.

 

21. Neil Young & Crazy Horse, “Hey Hey, My My (Into the Black”) (From Rust Never Sleeps, 1979)

Neil Young recorded two versions of his tribute to the punk music swelling around him in the late ’70s: an acoustic version titled “My My, Hey Hey (Out of the Blue),” which opens his 1979 album Rust Never Sleeps, and a plugged-in electric take with Crazy Horse called “Hey Hey, My My (Into the Black)” that closes the LP. Both blur the line between Young’s generation and the new breed: “It’s better to burn out than to fade away.”

20. Ted Nugent, “Stranglehold” (From Ted Nugent, 1975)

Ted Nugent peaked on the first song from his first solo album. The eight-and-a-half-minute “Stranglehold” amounts to little more than a guitar riff and extended solo, but when the results are this mammoth, not much else is needed. Derek St. Holmes, who sang on Nugent’s first three albums, manages to find his place within the song, but it’s the guitarist’s wild soloing – reportedly achieved in a single take – that stands out.

 

19. Mountain, “Mississippi Queen” (From Climbing!, 1970)

The ’70s got off to a positively heavy start thanks to songs like Mountain‘s eternal “Mississippi Queen” with its monster chugging guitar riff and thunderous cowbell that sounds like it’s summoning a netherworld beast. Leslie West delivers a complementary vocal that’s somewhere between the blues and heavy metal. Few songs in rock history have since matched the intensity laid down by the fittingly named quartet on its debut.

 

18. Led Zeppelin, “Immigrant Song” (From Led Zeppelin III, 1970)

The opening track on Led Zeppelin’s third album was somewhat misleading. After two albums of reworked blues and heavy riffs, the superstar quartet scaled back a bit on Led Zeppelin III, unplugging for a mostly acoustic album rooted in American folk and rural blues. But “Immigrant Song,” which charges onto the record with battle-tested precision, can’t prepare listeners for what’s ahead. Which is probably the point.

 

17. Led Zeppelin, “Rock and Roll” (From Led Zeppelin IV, 1971)

Led Zeppelin III threw a wrench into the workings of the band’s successful formula of power-upping the blues on their first two albums. But after their dalliance with acoustic music, the quartet was ready to get back to action on their fourth album, declaring as much on its second song: “It’s been a long time since I rock and rolled,” Robert Plant sings over a rhythm discovered somewhere between Chuck Berry and ’70s rock.

 

16. Blue Oyster Cult, “(Don’t Fear) The Reaper” (From Agents of Fortune, 1976)

“(Don’t Fear) The Reaper” has become known as “that cowbell song” thanks to a Saturday Night Live sketch, but it originated as Blue Oyster Cult singer and songwriter Buck Dharma contemplated his early death. It didn’t come to pass, thankfully, but the tuneful song pushed the Long Island-based band into the Top 10 for the only time. The famous cowbell, by the way, wasn’t on the initial recording; it was overdubbed later.

 

15. The Rolling Stones, “Bitch” (From Sticky Fingers, 1971)

As the B-side to the advance single “Brown Sugar” from the Rolling Stones’ eagerly anticipated Sticky Fingers album, “Bitch” netted almost as much airplay as its No. 1 flip. Working along similar R&B-dotted lines, with a horn section doing the heavy lifting for a large portion of the song, “Bitch” remains one of the band’s toughest numbers, with a snarling Mick Jagger vocal sliding in and out of the endlessly stabbing brass.

 

14. Thin Lizzy, “The Boys Are Back in Town” (From Jailbreak, 1976)

“The Boys Are Back in Town” wasn’t greenlighted at first by Thin Lizzy for a spot on their sixth album, Jailbreak. But it soon became the Irish band’s signature song, a mix of twin-guitar fireworks and an achingly heartfelt vocal performance by Phil Lynott, who relates a tale of a gang not too far removed from Bruce Springsteen‘s street toughs. A year removed from Born to Run, Thin Lizzy’s masterpiece is cut from a similar cloth.

 

13. Lynyrd Skynyrd, “Free Bird” (From [Pronounced ‘Lĕh-‘nérd ‘Skin-‘nérd], 1973)

Lighters up! Lynyrd Skynyrd‘s eternal anthem takes many forms: a Southern rock classic, a jam-band favorite and a ballad-to-rocker template shared by hundreds of artists over the years. But once “Free Bird” kicks in during the muscular back half with intertwining guitar solos and (in the famous live version) a barnstorming finale, it’s the foundation on which ’70s hard rock was built. The song earned its classic rank long ago.

 

12. Free, “All Right Now” (From Fire and Water, 1970)

One of rock’s greatest riffs came about after a lukewarm gig by Free, who, after two albums, wasn’t generating the frenzied audience enthusiasm they’d seen so many of their peers receive. So bassist Andy Fraser and singer Paul Rodgers penned a set-closing roof-shaker nobody could resist. It paid off: “All Right Now” reached the Top 10 in both the U.S. and U.K. and has since become a perennial at classic rock radio.

 

11. The Who, “Love, Reign O’er Me” (From Quadrophenia, 1973)

As the mid-’70s rolled around, and the Who’s commercial stock never higher, Pete Townshend was still not finished with the rock opera concept he standardized in 1969’s Tommy. After a couple of aborted attempts earlier in the decade, the songwriter and guitarist found his muse in 1973’s Quadrophenia, the band’s story of coming of age in 1960s England. The double album’s centerpiece closes the record on an epic scale.

10. AC/DC, “Let There Be Rock” (From Let There Be Rock, 1970)

Few bands celebrated rock ‘n’ roll history – directly and indirectly – as consistently as AC/DC did in the ’70s. Taking a cue from Chuck Berry, the Australian rockers gaze at music’s storied past through a foggy lens in “Let There Be Rock,” somehow linking Romantic classical compositions to decibel-shattering young guitarists seeking fortune and fame  Live, the group goes all in with an unaccompanied shredding solo.

 

 

READ MORE: Top 50 American Rock Albums

 

9. Led Zeppelin, “Stairway to Heaven” (From Led Zeppelin IV, 1971)

It takes several minutes before Led Zeppelin reaches the hard-rock apex in their best-known song, methodically building to the moment, one pastoral passage after another before it all crashes into John Bonham‘s tumbling drums and Jimmy Page‘s majestic guitar solo. “Stairway to Heaven” has been mythologized ad nauseam since its release but that hasn’t diluted its impact. A masterly triumph of time, place and performance.

 

8. Van Halen, “Runnin’ With the Devil” (From Van Halen, 1978)

There are instances in ’70s rock that sound like pivotal moments, not just in a band’s career but in the genre itself. “Runnin’ With the Devil” is one such moment. As the opening track on the debut album by Van Halen, the song introduced a new way of remaking American rock ‘n’ roll as an image of changing times. Eddie Van Halen’s guitar revolutionized the instrument, just as the LP signaled a new era on the horizon.

 

7. Black Sabbath, “Paranoid” (From Paranoid, 1970)

The stop-start sludge of Paranoid‘s opening song “War Pigs” pushed Black Sabbath into new conceptual territory, but the album’s next track carried them even further from their center. “Paranoid” clocks in at less than three minutes, the shortest song on the album by almost two minutes (barring the short instrumental “Rat Salad”), and a near-pop song in its tone and construct. No surprise then it’s their only U.K. Top 10 single.

 

6. The Who, “Won’t Get Fooled Again” (From Who’s Next, 1971)

The Who had always considered “Won’t Get Fooled Again” as the centerpiece of their first post-Tommy project. Originally envisioned as the closing track on Pete Townshend’s ambitious Lifehouse, the song inherited the same position when the record was scaled down to the fat-free Who’s Next. As the longest song on the album, it doubles as a vocal showcase for Roger Daltrey, whose climatic scream is still a wonder.

 

5. AC/DC, “Highway to Hell” (From Highway to Hell, 1979)

The “highway” in “Highway to Hell” is a reference to the constant, and increasing, touring AC/DC had done in support of their first five albums. By the time the promotional cycle for their sixth album had ended, the title song had taken on a different meaning after singer Bon Scott was found unconscious in his car, and later pronounced dead, after a night of drinking. As legacy and requiem, “Highway to Hell” stands tall.

 

4. Deep Purple, “Smoke on the Water” (From Machine Head, 1972)

The king of hard-rock riffs from the moment it was introduced on Deep Purple’s 1972 album Machine Head, “Smoke on the Water” has lost little of its capacity to inspire budding guitarists’ rock dreams in the decades since its release. Inspired by the true story of an overzealous Frank Zappa fan who inadvertently torched the Swiss venue where Deep Purple was recording, “Smoke on the Water” has endured like few others.

 

3. Led Zeppelin, “Kashmir” (From Physical Graffiti, 1975)

Led Zeppelin’s sixth album is both a logical progression of the band’s restlessness over the decade and an anything-goes grab bag of old and new material. As the biggest band in the world in 1975, they were free to test new genres, adding clavinet here, lap steel there. Physical Graffiti‘s most epic song, “Kashmir,” was inspired by a trip to Morocco, but its references are wider. World, progressive and rock’s greatest summit.

 

2. Aerosmith, “Sweet Emotion” (From Toys in the Attic, 1975)

Three albums into their career, Aerosmith was still looking for a commercial breakthrough when they released the slippery “Sweet Emotion” as a single from Toys in the Attic. They soon had their first Top 40 hit, a move that triggered their record company to rerelease “Dream On” from their 1973 debut as the follow-up; that song went Top 10, finally giving the Boston band the success it was craving from day one.

 

1. Led Zeppelin, “Black Dog” (From Led Zeppelin IV, 1971)

Is there a more exciting, or fitting, moment in hard rock than the opening seconds of Led Zeppelin’s fourth album? A collage of guitars, tuning up and preparing for battle, followed by the briefest of pauses before Robert Plant storms in: “Hey, hey, mama, said the way you move… ” And then the band reveals its real hand, pushing and pulling at the verses (there’s no chorus to speak of in “Black Dog”), back and forth, as singer and band call-and-response (a trick Jimmy Page cribbed from Fleetwood Mac’s “Oh Well”). It’s five minutes of exciting release that always appears ready to spring into place before it resets itself. It’s a masterclass in hard-rock record-making played by hard-rock royalty at their best.

Top 35 Hard Rock Albums of the ’70s

From holdover electric blues to the birth of heavy metal, these records pretty much summed up the decade.

Gallery Credit: Michael Gallucci





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Bill Wyman Says Rolling Stones Had ‘No F—ing Money’ Despite Fame


Former Rolling Stones bassist Bill Wyman has revealed the financial troubles he faced during his tenure in the band.

In an interview with Classic Rock, Wyman pointed to the rock group’s precarious situation in the early ‘70s. The Stones had reached international fame with a run of hugely popular albums — including Beggars Banquet, Let It Bleed and Sticky Fingers. Despite the success, they found themselves cash-strapped.

“We had no fucking money,” the bassist insisted. “[Former Stones manager, Allen] Klein had all the money, and when you wanted anything you begged him to send you some money. You’re in the red with your bank, so you weren’t partying all the time, you were worrying about how to pay your bills. It was a nightmare.”

READ MORE: Top 10 Rolling Stones Bill Wyman Songs

“And then [Prime Minister Harold] Wilson comes in, and puts tax up to ninety-three per cent, it was absurd,” Wyman continued, noting a period in which the Stones left the U.K. and became tax exiles. “We had to leave because we owed the Inland Revenue so much money that, with ninety-three per cent tax, we could never make enough to pay it back. So we had to leave, and then we were accused of being multimillionaires, leaving because we didn’t want to pay our way, but we weren’t.”

Bill Wyman Says He Should Have Left the Rolling Stones ‘A Lot Earlier’

The Rolling Stones’ financial troubles weren’t isolated to the ‘70s. In a separate part of the interview, Wyman – who left the band in 1993 – admitted he should have quit the group sooner.

“I should’ve done it a lot earlier… in the eighties,” he explained. “I hung on for a three-tour ending across ’89 and ’90 [three legs of the Steel Wheels/Urban Jungle tour], after seven years of nothing, and I’d ended up with a bank overdraft of £200,000, because we weren’t earning anything.”

READ MORE: Rolling Stones Lineup Changes: A Complete Guide

Wyman went on to note that some members of the band were doing a lot better than others. According to the bassist, the Rolling Stones were split into the haves and have-nots.

“When Brian {Jones] died he was over thirty thousand pounds in debt,” Wyman noted. “When I bought that manor in Suffolk I had a thousand pounds in the bank, had to scrape together a mortgage and hope I could continue to make enough money to keep it.”

Mick [Jagger] and Keith [Richards] were totally wealthy, so they weren’t bothered,” Wyman continued. “But me, Charlie [Watts] and Ronnie [Wood] were scraping by. Ronnie started to do art to feed his family. Anyway, I only started playing with them again in the hope it’d only be a couple of years, because I had all these other things I wanted to do.”

Wyman recently released Drive My Car, his first new solo album in nine years.

Rolling Stones Solo Albums Ranked

They didn’t necessarily become huge commercial or critical hits, but some produced career-changing moments anyway.

Gallery Credit: Nick DeRiso





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Andrew Bird, Madison Cunningham, ‘Cunningham Bird’: Album Review


In 1973, a little-known California-based duo named Buckingham Nicks released an album that didn’t even crack the Billboard Top 200. A half-century later, Buckingham Nicks still hasn’t received an official CD release. Within two years, Lindsey Buckingham and Stevie Nicks would anchor a revitalized Fleetwood Mac, setting the stage for their worldwide chart domination by the end of the ’70s.

More than half a century later, singer-songwriters Andrew Bird and Madison Cunningham have remade Buckingham Nicks – song by song, note for note – for a new generation. Like others over the years, the pair has found inspiration in the 10 cuts that served as a warm-up to 1975’s career-altering Fleetwood Mac. (Besides its other fans, the album encouraged Mick Fleetwood to take a chance on the fledgling singers and songwriters when he was looking for someone to fill a spot in his band.)

Cunningham Bird doesn’t offer any revelations; the album’s best-known songs have already etched themselves in Mac history: Nicks’ “Long Distance Winner” and Buckingham’s instrumental “Stephanie” appeared on solo retrospectives, “Don’t Let Me Down Again” and “Crying in the Night” have been played in concert, and “Crystal” was reworked for Buckingham and Nicks’ Fleetwood Mac debut.

READ MORE: Ranking Every Classic Era Fleetwood Mac Song

Still, there’s a delicate loveliness to Bird and Cunningham’s tribute lacking on the original LP, even when their reverence for the music often means the connect-the-dots approach doesn’t leave much room for spontaneity or personality. Some new arrangements, however, glisten with strings and harmonies not found in Buckingham Nicks “Without a Leg to Stand On,” “Long Distance Winner” and others.

Bird first collaborated with Cunningham on his 2019 album My Finest Work Yet, so their camaraderie is cozy and effortless throughout Cunningham Bird, making their vocal blend on standout tracks “Crying in the Night,” “Crystal” and “Frozen Love” seem second nature. A boutique release remaking a cult album, Cunningham Bird likely won’t attract many fans who aren’t already familiar with Buckingham Nicks. At least this one should be easier to find.

Top 15 Rock Albums of 2024 (So Far)

Reports of the genre’s death have been greatly exaggerated. 

Gallery Credit: Michael Gallucci





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Steve Perry Says He Has ‘So Much Music’ That’s ‘Yet to Be Heard’


Former Journey frontman Steve Perry has signed a new record deal, and the singer is excited for what lies ahead.

“I am so pleased to announce that I have just signed with George Harrison‘s label, Dark Horse Records,” Perry announced via statement. “I’ve so much music in me that has yet to be heard. To be able to work with a team of people who support and respect my creative expressions, is a dream come true.”

Perry has not released a studio album of new material since 2018’s Traces. He followed with a remixed version of that LP, Traces (Alternate Versions & Sketches), in 2020 and the holiday album The Season in 2021.

Steve Perry Has More Holiday Music on the Way

Perry’s first effort with Dark Horse will continue his love of the holidays, as he’ll add six more songs to his ongoing collection with The Season 3.

READ MORE: Ranking Every Steve Perry Album

“I’ve always loved the magic in holiday songs,” the rocker explained when his latest project was announced. “When I was a child, I would hear them on the radio in my grandmother’s kitchen while she was cooking. Today when I hear those songs, they take me back to so many wonderful memories.”

“The magic of music is a very emotional gift,” Perry continued. “The idea of me recording a holiday record started many years ago and now has grown into my latest collection, ‘The Season 3’. I have added six new tracks to this latest compilation, which now totals 16.”

In addition to Yuletide tracks like “Jingle Bell Rock” and “Santa Claus Is Coming to Town,” The Season 3 includes renditions of the classic tunes “What a Wonderful World” and “Call Me Irresponsible.” The latter song won an Academy Award in 1963 and has been covered by such vaunted artists as Frank Sinatra and Bobby Darin. Perry’s version is a duet with his late father, Ray Perry, who was also a musician.

Journey Lineup Changes: A Complete Guide

Journey has a deep history outside of the platinum-selling Steve Perry era. Here’s a look.

Gallery Credit: Nick DeRiso





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Record Store Day Needs to Evolve or Go Away


In July 2021, a teenage kid tried to cut in front of me in line on Record Store Day. When I politely stopped him from doing so, he began cursing me out. When I picked up the store’s final copy of the Foo FightersBee Gees tribute album, he lost his mind.

He sent so much anger — and spittle — my way that I briefly thought about smashing the record over my knee, just to see if his head would actually explode. (I wasn’t buying it for myself, but for a coworker who shall remain nameless.) But truth be told, I also felt bad for him, and I wondered what either of us was doing in this situation.

Hail Satin was one of the most sought-after titles of Record Store Day 2021. The store I visited had five copies, and they were all gone after eight customers made their picks. Only 12,000 copies of the album were pressed, a small fraction of the number of copies a typical Foo Fighters album sells. Buying it that day was probably the only chance this kid had to own this record, which was the whole reason he got in line early that morning. The cheapest copy on Discogs right now will set you back $160.

Read More: Van Halen, Beatles, Motley Crue Lead Record Store Day 2024

Now, obviously, this doesn’t even register on the scale of real-life problems. But it’s one reason that Record Store Day needs to either end or, preferably, evolve into something better. (Another reason: Let’s face it, a lot of veteran acts have already released most, if not all, of what’s worth releasing from their archives. There’s an increasing amount of “first time on purple vinyl!” type-listings on this year’s list.)

We all have (or should have) better things to do with our lives than wait in line for hours for an album that may not even have been sent to our local store. The only people who benefit from the artificial scarcity of these limited-edition releases are the ones who flip them for big profits on eBay and Discogs. None of that extra money goes to the artist, and more importantly, none of it goes to the record stores this event is designed to help.

Wouldn’t it be better to just make these Record Store Day exclusive albums available all the time at these same participating record stores? Or to offer a preorder window, with pickup only available at those same locations? Do we all need to cram in there on the same day? Can’t we just cut the resellers out of the picture and let the stores make more sales, while also reducing the amount of disappointed customers?

Most importantly, what if that kid’s been taking martial arts classes and comes looking for me next Record Store Day?

145 Artists Not in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame

Many have shared their thoughts on possible induction.

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Ozzy Osbourne Offers Support to Jake E. Lee Following Shooting


Ozzy Osbourne has expressed his support for Jake E. Lee, his former guitarist who was shot multiple times during an incident in Las Vegas on Tuesday morning.

“It’s been 37 years since I’ve seen Jake E. Lee, but that still doesn’t take away from the shock of hearing what happened to him today,” the Prince of Darkness noted in a statement shared with TMZ. “It’s just another senseless act of gun violence. I send my thoughts to him and his beautiful daughter, Jade. I just hope he’ll be OK.”

Osbourne recruited Lee to join his solo band in 1983. The guitarist contributed to a pair of Ozzy’s studio albums: 1983’s Bark at the Moon and 1986’s The Ultimate Sin. Lee was dismissed from Osbourne’s band in 1987 and went on to form the groups Badlands and Red Dragon Cartel.

Other Rockers Share Support for Jake E. Lee

As news of Lee’s shooting became public, fellow musicians took to social media to express their support.

READ MORE: Ozzy Osbourne Guitar Players: A Complete History

“To our friend Jake E. Lee – our thoughts, prayers and concerns go out to you, my friend, after hearing the news of you being shot in Las Vegas today,” Poison frontman Bret Michaels wrote on X (formerly Twitter). “We are all pulling for you & hoping that you will have a speedy & incredible recovery.

In a tweet of his own, Journey guitarist Neal Schon said: “Crazy world. Take care Jake,” alongside the emoji for prayers.

“I just heard about Jake E Lee. Glad to hear he is doing well,” shared Night Ranger guitarist Brad Gillis, whom Lee replaced in Ozzy’s solo band in 1983. “My thoughts are with ya, buddy!”

Meanwhile, Stephen Pearcy, who was briefly bandmates with Lee in Ratt, wished the guitarist a “Speed[y] recovery, brother. Prayers are with ya.”

What Do We Know About the Jake E. Lee Shooting?

Authorities believe Lee was the victim of a random shooting, which took place around 2:40AM on Tuesday morning. The guitarist was out walking his dog when he was gunned down in the 11000 block of Alora Street, a suburban area approximately 10 miles south of the Las Vegas Strip.

In a tweet, SiriusXM radio host Eddie Trunk noted he’d been in contact with Lee’s manager. “[Jake] was hit three times — in the chest, arm and foot,” Trunk shared. “Bullets missed all major organs except lung. But he is doing well and expected to make a full recovery.”

Ozzy Osbourne Albums Ranked

Gallery Credit: Ultimate Classic Rock Staff





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Eddie’s Wilderness Years ‘Really Made Me Angry’


Alex Van Halen suggests in his upcoming memoir Brothers that Eddie Van Halen was haunted by the “flashes of genuine ingenuity” that catapulted Van Halen into the hard rock stratosphere.

The drummer recently spoke to The New York Times in anticipation of Brothers, which comes out on Oct. 22. The book chronicles Alex and Eddie’s personal and professional relationship, and it finds Alex sympathizing with his late brother and bandmate for his musical genius, which served as a double-edged sword.

“You can spend your whole life trying to make what happened before happen again,” Alex writes in the book. “I honestly believe that’s what cost my brother his life.”

Alex also reflected on Eddie’s turbulent later years, which were characterized by substance abuse, shambolic performances and head-scratching theories about the cause of his cancer. He said revisiting this behavior “really, really made me angry. I wanted to grab him by the throat and shake him and go, ‘What the [expletive] were you thinking, Ed?’ But it’s too late now.”

READ MORE: Alex Van Halen Says David Lee Roth Tanked EVH Tribute Tour

Alex Van Halen Says Van Halen Was ‘Getting Ready to Make Another Record’

Even when their lives were in disarray, the Van Halen brothers constantly worked on new music, and the audio version of Brothers will feature the final track they worked on together, titled “Unfinished.” Alex told the Times that Van Halen was “getting ready to make another record” following their final show in 2015, and he admired his brother’s tenacity up until his death in October 2020 at the age of 65.

“I really wanted to emphasize the fact that Ed was brave up until the last minute,” Alex said. “At the end of the day, he’s got nothing to be ashamed of. And I wish that he was here and that I could say, ‘Ed, let’s try it one more time.’ Because I know he had it in him.”

Eddie Van Halen Year by Year: 1977-2017 Photos

You’ll see him with long hair, short hair, a variety of his most famous guitars and all three of his band’s lead singers.

Gallery Credit: Matthew Wilkening





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The Gift Tom Petty Gave to Cameron Crowe


By the time Cameron Crowe signed on to help Tom Petty make a movie, he was already a well-respected journalist. But once he finished Tom Petty: Heartbreakers Beach Party, he had a new job title, “director.”

“That was really a step that I didn’t ever think I’d ever be capable of making,” he tells UCR. “Though it was kind of a joke and a gift from him at the time, I never stopped directing.”

As Crowe shares in the below conversation, Heartbreakers Beach Party aired only once on MTV in 1983, an innovative promotional tool of sorts to shed light on the band’s latest album at the time, Long After Dark. But more than 40 years later, it goes far beyond than that, as a time capsule that chronicles the impressive journey that Petty and the Heartbreakers had taken in less than a decade.

As he details, the film captures the group navigating past a crossroads of sorts. Where were they headed? Some of the important particulars of the potential answers to that question were going to be determined by the decisions they were making collectively. In that way, Heartbreakers Beach Party helps to shed new light on Long After Dark, which has sometimes undeservedly felt like one of the odd records out in Petty’s catalog.

But heard from beginning to end, it’s clear that they were actually writing and recording some of the best music of their still-developing career. An expanded edition of the album, which lands on Friday (Oct. 18) helps to further colorize those thoughts.

Crowe shares his assessment of the Long After Dark period and also, some behind the scenes moments from Heartbreakers Beach Party, which screens this week on Oct. 17 and Oct. 20 courtesy of Trafalgar Releasing. You can find theaters and times at the film’s official website.

It’s always been clear how much Tom’s music lives in your DNA. What’s the moment that really cemented your love for Tom and the band?
I loved that first album. When I heard “American Girl,” I thought it was the greatest Byrds-influenced song that I’d ever heard. Later, we find out that it was a Bo Diddley riff that started it. It wasn’t even a Byrds thing. I just loved that that was a band that I could claim as my own. At Rolling Stone, there was always little fiefdoms where like, Dave Marsh wrote about Bruce Springsteen and the Who. And so and so wrote about Van Morrison and stuff. I was happy to say, like, I’m your Tom Petty guy here. I’m going to tell you that Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers are a great band. I pledged my love to that band very early on and went to see them at the Whisky where they opened for Blondie. They were amazing.

They opened with “Surrender” and they were killer that night. That’s where I met them and started writing about them. I was able to write about them through the years [after that]. There was one moment where I went on the road with them on the West Coast, I think from Seattle to San Francisco and L.A. I think they did a show in Seattle, where it was my first time seeing them at that stage [of their career]. They did this thing that made me think, “Well, this guy is going the distance. Petty knows how to put a show together.” It was all of the great songs from that era, but then the walkout music, they ended on a real high note and then boom, the lights come up and what is he playing? He’s playing the instrumental track, no vocal, of “Ruby Tuesday” as the audience walks out. It was like, that is the coolest walkout music I’ve ever heard — and what a vibe it sets! That was kind of when I knew that this was the horse that was going to go a long way.

I appreciated hearing Adria Petty talk in the film about how the perception of Long After Dark has evolved. It seems like you have a good amount of appreciation for the album as well.
I do. He really had something to say. I think he was at the crossroads then. I think he felt that there was a shot this band was going to go the distance. [Hard Promises] was a thoughtful follow-up to Damn the Torpedoes. But now, it was a time to kind of remind people that they did have rock in their arsenal. They did know how to blow it out and write all kinds of songs in many different genres. This was something that was going to last maybe into a place that years from now, you might still hear those records on the radio, as he says at the very end [of Heartbreakers Beach Party]. So, I felt like they were at the crossroads of believing that they had it in them to be one of the great bands. But it wasn’t going to be easy. That’s kind of where he is and that’s what he talks about, like really, from his heart, in the film and at that point.

READ MORE: Why Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers Faced Another Battle With ‘Hard Promises’

How did you get involved with doing this film?
My buddy Danny Bramson had done great work at Universal by making their amphitheater this cool rock experience. So they kind of paid him back with a bonus: You get your own record company. He’d signed Nils Lofgren and it was good, he was signing some really cool people that were on the rise. Tom Petty had his blowup with MCA because they wanted to price his album at $8.98 and he didn’t want to go up another dollar with the money the fans would have to spend for a record, so he went into a protest mode. There was a legal dispute and all of that stuff. It was settled by [agreeing that] he would make records for Backstreet [Records], Danny’s label. Danny was smart enough at the beginning of MTV to say, “Well, let’s use some of the publicity budget and make a film. I’ll get my buddy Cameron to do a video interview and my other buddies [can handle the rest of it.”

Phil Savenick had a tiny bit of TV experience and [he also knew] a great editor, Doug Dowdle, who had worked with Stevie [Nicks]. “Let me just throw some money at this, instead of taking ads that may or may not work, let’s make a film.” That was how I got the shot. I was really kind of nervous about being on camera. Then, I started to feel like, “Oh wow, this is pretty cool. You can have Tom Petty with his guitar showing you how he wrote ‘The Waiting’? That’s cool.” You can ask him to tell [the story of] “The Wild One, Forever.” How’d you do that? There he is, showing you. So I kind of started getting really excited. Towards the end of it, he told me to pick up a camera and film him doing a song called “I’m Stupid.” I put the camera down and he said, “Congratulations, you’re a director.” I was like, wow! That was really a step that I didn’t ever think I’d ever be capable of making. Though it was kind of a joke and a gift from him at the time, I never stopped directing.

Watch the ‘Heartbreakers Beach Party’ Trailer

You’d done profiles before and you’d been on the road with bands. Still, it seems like this would have been a leap. What were the challenges in doing the film, for you?
Well, I look like a goofball to myself, asking the questions. But you know, as time went on, I began to realize that nobody was going to look at me. They’d be looking at Tom Petty, which made it easier. We have shots where it’s the two of us in the back of the limo and I’m asking questions and stuff like that. It’s just so funny to me today that he looks timeless, man. He looks timeless. I’m in a weird shirt I picked out because I wasn’t sure how to look cool and I’m asking him these questions. And he never throws a question back at me. He answered every question. He made me feel really comfortable. What he did was he created an atmosphere where you realize that a true documentary of someone you admire is about getting out of the way. Show them for who they are and also show them having fun. Because you don’t get into music or any job that you love for the grind of it. You get into it because it’s also fun!

So he made sure that we put the fun in there. The first cut of it was a little too traditional. He said, “You know, let’s make this more like a joint passed among friends.” So we went to Germany and he filmed some stuff, with the band walking around at night. It looked really good, the whole bit that ended up getting co-opted by Spinal Tap of being led into the wrong rooms and stuff, that came from Tom. There was just funny stuff, like the opening where Stan [Lynch] wakes him up — that’s real. They wake him up way too early and he gets pissed off and it’s like, this is the fun of the Heartbreakers, knowing they’re a real band, with a ways to go and a ways behind them. It’s a snapshot of the band. If you love the band, that’s a real sweet chapter to have documented. And he taught us to get out of the way.

I love that we get to see a bit of what was going on behind the scenes on the “You Got Lucky” video shoot. That’s a really cool clip.
It is cool. It tells a story and one of the reasons I think MTV didn’t want to show the film more than once, besides the fact that I think they thought it had some illegal footage in it, was that we did sneak in the showing of some of their videos. I think they were like, “Well, we’ll make the decision of when we show those videos.” We showed the whole “You Got Lucky” video. I remember the vibe going out there. You can see it in the movie — they hear “You Got Lucky” on the radio for the first time and Stan is playing drums with it and they’re really vibing with it. Petty starts playing Elvis [Presley] songs, you know, it’s like the first thing in the morning. They’re playing these Elvis songs and I’m really proud of this in the outtakes reel that’s at the end…it’s part of the film now, I guess.

Watch Tom Petty’s ‘You Got Lucky’ Video

He plays the Elvis song, “(Marie’s the Name) His Latest Flame” and it’s so galvanizing. It’s amazing. Suddenly, we’re not just making fun of Elvis, but he’s really singing his song and it’s so [cool]. It was the thing that didn’t fit into the Heartbreakers Beach Party film that was first shown. That was the heartbreaking thing about that film, that that piece wasn’t in it. So we went back and put it in the additional [footage] and that’s the moment I think where you see everything to come. You see this guy and he’s going to be able to do everything he wants to do as a singer-songwriter and an artist and also be with that band. It’s not going to be Rod Stewart and the Faces, where Tom splits off. He can do it all in the course of this band. I just felt it in the back of the RV going to that video shoot that day.

READ MORE: How Tom Petty Embraced the Future With ‘You Got Lucky’

You spoke to this a little bit, but with hindsight, how do you think Heartbreakers Beach Party shaped you with the things you have gone on to do, as far as method and structure, things like that?
[Crowe pauses] There’s a couple of things and it’s a wonderful question. I’m honored to have that question. Tom’s been kind of a voice in my head all along, even in Jerry Maguire, when Tom Cruise sings “Free Fallin’” in the car, that’s kind of the voice of Tom that never left me, that began with Heartbreakers Beach Party. It’s the marriage of what you love with the music that you love with the thing that you love to do — which is tell a story. I’m still doing it. It’s like, let the music guide you to that place in your heart where you have a story to tell and tell it with your whole heart. People will show up and people will feel it too. They’ll feel it, not only in your lifetime, but if you’re Tom Petty, way past that time. So that voice always did stay with me and it’s with me still.

Tom Petty’s Heartbreakers: Where Are They Now?

The surviving members continue to forge new paths. 

Gallery Credit: Allison Rapp





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Eagles Extend Their 2025 Live Dates


Eagles have added more shows to their 2025 list of concerts. Like all of their dates lined up so far for next year, the new concerts will take place at Las Vegas’ Sphere as part of the band’s residency there.

Four shows have been added to the current itinerary, all happening during the first two weekends in March.

That brings the Eagles’ total number of shows at Sphere to 28 over 14 weekends. They started their concert series at the Las Vegas venue in September, performing songs from throughout their career – including “Take It Easy,” “Lyin’ Eyes,” “Hotel California” and “Heartache Tonight” – as well as solo cuts from band cofounder Don Henley (“The Boys of Summer”) and longtime guitarist Joe Walsh (“Rocky Mountain Way”).

READ MORE: How Eagles Galloped Into the Old West on ‘Desperado’

Tickets for the new shows start on Oct. 25 at 1 p.m. EDT; artist presales go on sale on Oct. 22 at 1 p.m. EDT, while Live Nation and SiriusXM presales begin on Oct. 24 at 1 p.m. EDT.

When Are Eagles Playing Concerts in 2025?

The next performance in Eagles’ Live in Concert at Sphere residency happens on Oct. 18. Their weekend dates run through the end of 2024; the newly announced dates – March 7, 8, 14 and 15 – are now scheduled to last through the first quarter of 2025.

You can see all of the Eagles’ current concert dates at Las Vegas’ Sphere below. More information can be found on the band’s website.

Eagles Live in Concert at Sphere
Friday, October 18
Saturday, October 19
Friday, November 1
Saturday, November 2
Friday, November 8
Saturday, November 9
Friday, December 6
Saturday, December 7
Friday, December 13
Saturday, December 14
Friday, January 17
Saturday, January 18
Friday, January 24
Saturday, January 25
Friday, February 14, 2025
Saturday, February 15, 2025
Friday, February 21, 2025
Saturday, February 22, 2025
Friday, March 7, 2025
Saturday, March 8, 2025
Friday, March 14, 2025
Saturday, March 15, 2025

Eagles Albums Ranked

The Eagles have been rightly praised for their canny combining of Glenn Frey’s city-slicker R&B with Don Henley’s country-fried rockabilly. But which LP goes this distance?

Gallery Credit: Nick DeRiso





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40 Rock Songs Featuring Violin


When one thinks of the instrumentation of the average rock band, the usual suspects come to mind: guitar, bass, drums, vocals, perhaps a keyboardist or a few horns thrown in.

How about some violin? Sure, it’s most often considered an orchestral instrument, and doesn’t exactly emit the gritty, sexy type of sound rock bands are typically looking for. But the violin is capable of fitting in with more genres than you might think, including rock ‘n’ roll.

Below, we’ve compiled 40 of the best instances of violins being used in rock songs. Readers will notice that tracks featuring more involved string sections are not included here — this list is for numbers in which the fiddle alone is a standout and essential part.

1. “Acadian Driftwood,” The Band
From: Northern Lights — Southern Cross (1975)

Kansas-born Byron Berline started playing the violin at five years old and essentially never stopped. His resume of rock ‘n’ roll collaborations ranges from Bob Dylan to Elton John, Rod Stewart to Eagles and many others. More on that later, but to begin with, here he is on the Band’s “Acadian Driftwood.”

 

2. “Amy,” Elton John
From: Honky Chateau (1972)

“Amy” is actually one of two songs on Elton John’s Honky Chateau to feature fiddle. The other is “Mellow,” and both of them are thanks to the work of Jean-Luc Ponty, a French musician who attended the Paris Conservatory when he was just 16 years old. In the years that followed, he became one of the world’s most renown jazz violinists.

 

3. “Baba O’Reily,” The Who
From: Who’s Next (1971)

Violinist Dave Arbus is a founding member of the British prog rock band East of Eden, who had a Top 10 hit in 1970 with a song called “Jig-a-Jig.” The year after that, Arbus was a guest musician on the Who’s “Baba O’Riley,” playing a now-iconic violin part that brings the song to a dramatic finish. (Arbus also played fiddle on Roger Daltrey‘s 1973 debut solo album, Daltrey.)

 

4. “Black Water,” The Doobie Brothers
From: What Were Once Vices Are Now Habits (1974)

Technically speaking, “Black Water” by the Doobie Brothers features not a violin but a viola, a slightly larger and lower-sounding instrument. But we’re counting it for this list since it really wouldn’t be the same song without it. In this case, the viola is played by Novi Novog, who played on multiple Doobie Brothers albums, as well as releases by Carly Simon, Montrose, Prince and more.

 

5. “Come On Eileen,” Dexys Midnight Runners
From: Too-Rye-Ay (1982)

What would “Come On Eileen” by Dexys Midnight Runners be without that driving violin melody? There’s actually two people behind that part, both playing the violin: Helen O’Hara and Steve Brennan, known as the Emerald Express.

 

6. “Country Honk,” The Rolling Stones
From: Let It Bleed (1969)

Byron Berline was introduced to the Rolling Stones via Gram Parsons. The band personally flew Berline out to Los Angeles, where they convened in the studio to record “Country Honk.” “I was in the studio for a couple of passes through, and they said, ‘Hey, we want you to come in, we want to talk to you,’ and I thought, oh, they don’t like it, they’re going to dump it,” Berline recalled in an interview with BlueGrass West! “But I went in and they said, ‘We want you to stand outside in the street on the sidewalk and record it…we’ll get a nice ambiance, we think,’ and I kind of giggled and said, ‘Well, whatever you want to do.’ So that’s what we did. That’s where they got the car horn.”

 

7. “Cut Across Shorty,” Rod Stewart
From: Gasoline Alley (1970)

There are two people credited as the violinists on Rod Stewart’s Gasoline Alley album: Dennis O’Flynn and Dick Powell. The latter of those two played on several of Stewart’s albums. It’s not clear which of the two plays on “Cut Across Shorty,” but either way, it’s a great instrumental break.

 

8. “Directly From My Heart to You,” Frank Zappa and the Mothers of Invention
From: Weasels Ripped My Flesh (1970)

There is very much such a thing as rock ‘n’ roll violin, and Don “Sugarcane” Harris was one of the pioneers of plugging the instrument in. Though he studied classical violin as a child, he eventually moved over to the electric violin. Here he is on Frank Zappa’s cover of “Directly from My Heart to You” by Little Richard.

 

9. “Don’t Pass Me By,” The Beatles
From: The White Album (1968)

Violinist Jack Fallon played and studied with the London Symphony Orchestra as a young man, but eventually expanded his repertoire to jazz and early rock ‘n’ roll music. He also worked as a booker and promoter in the ’60s, which led him to connecting with the Beatles, who asked him to play fiddle on 1968’s “Don’t Pass Me By.”

 

10. “Dust in the Wind,” Kansas
From: Point of Know Return (1977)

Not many rock bands have a full time violin player, but Kansas was one of them. Robby Steinhardt‘s violin and viola work undoubtedly helped define the band’s sound — just take a listen to their biggest hit, “Dust in the Wind,” for proof.

 

11. “Flight of the Phoenix,” Grand Funk Railroad
From: Phoenix (1972)

By the time fiddle player Doug Kershaw, heard here on Grand Funk Railroad’s “Flight of the Phoenix,” had started to become known in the folk and rock music world, he’d already enjoyed a successful career as a duo with his brother Rusty. In 1969 he appeared on The Johnny Cash Show, followed by a run of performances as the opening act for Derek and the Dominos in New York City. and then he appeared at the Newport Folk Festival. In 1970, he contributed fiddle to Arlo Guthrie‘s “Alice’s Restaurant.”

 

12. “Guilty,” Bonham
From: The Disregard of Timekeeping (1989)

Here’s something from the spawn of a rock ‘n’ roll legend. Jason Bonham, son of Led Zeppelin‘s John Bonham, formed the Jason Bonham Band in 1988. A year later they released their debut album The Disregard of Timekeeping. The fiddle here on “Guilty” is by John Smithson, who also worked with the likes of Paul Rodgers, Rod Stewart and Steve Lukather.

 

13. “Hurricane,” Bob Dylan
From: Desire (1976)

There’s a lot of great fiddle work across the entirety of Bob Dylan’s 1976 album Desire, but arguably the piece de resistance is “Hurricane.” That’s Scarlet Rivera on violin, who had also been a part of Dylan’s Rolling Thunder Revue tour. “I did replace Eric Clapton on Desire,” Rivera said in a 2020 interview. (Clapton did play guitar on one Desire song, “Romance in Durango.”) “The reason that I flew to New York to break into music was not to be the string-section sweet sound that violins have been known for. This was the way I heard violin: I could replace a lead guitar. My lines were like lead guitar because I made them that way. I heard them that way.”

 

14. “Image of Me,” The Flying Burrito Brothers
From: Burrito Deluxe (1970)

Here’s another Byron Berline track, this time with the Flying Burrito Brothers. For Berline, transitioning from playing more traditional bluegrass to working with rock ‘n’ rollers was a challenge, but a worthy one. “The music is closely related, but you had to really study it in a way,” he said in the aforementioned interview. “Be able to improvise enough to get by with it.”

 

15. “Jungleland,” Bruce Springsteen
From: Born to Run (1975)

Sure, there’s an incredibly soulful saxophone solo by Clarence Clemons in Bruce Springsteen’s “Jungleland,” but don’t dismiss the beguiling violin intro by Suki Lahav. An Israeli native, Lahav moved to the U.S. in 1971 with her husband, a recording engineer. Within just a couple years the couple was working with the Boss on his music.

 

16. “Keep Your Lamps Trimmed and Burning,” Hot Tuna
From: First Pull Up, Then Pull Down (1971)

“Keep Your Lamps Trimmed and Burning” is a traditional gospel blues song, which Hot Tuna often played live at their concerts. They also committed it to record on their 1971 album First Pull Up, Then Pull Down, featuring Papa John Creach on violin. Creach also worked with Louis Armstrong, Jefferson Airplane, the Grateful Dead and more.

 

17. “Livin’ Thing,” Electric Light Orchestra
From: A New World Record (1976)

As their name suggests, Electric Light Orchestra was well-versed in string sections, which doesn’t count for this list. However, a slight amendment should be made for “Livin’ Thing,” which features both a lush string section and a hypnotic violin solo, played by Mik Kaminski.

 

18. “Lose This Skin,” The Clash
From: Sandinista! (1980)

When you think of the Clash, you probably don’t think of violins or of someone else singing the lead vocal apart from Joe Strummer. But “Lose This Skin” has both those things. It appeared on 1980’s Sandinista! and featured Tymon Dogg on lead vocals and violin. In fact, Dogg contributed violin to a total of six tracks on the album.

 

19. “Losing It,” Rush
From: Signals (1982)

Ben Mink is best known for being a longtime collaborator of the Canadian singer k.d. lang. So it makes sense then that he’d team up with another famous Canadian act: Rush. Mink played electric violin on “Losing It,” from 1982’s Signals. Years later, Mink contributed to another Rush song, “Faithless” from 2007’s Snakes & Arrows.

 

20. “Milk Train,” Jefferson Airplane
From: Long John Silver (1972)

Here’s some more electric violin action from Papa John Creach, who first became a member of the band in 1970, staying until 1972. “When I joined, the volume level was a big switch,” Creach told the Los Angeles Times in 1986. “I wasn’t used to it. So the first thing I did was get earplugs.”

 

21. “Mississippi Half-Step Uptown Toodleoo,” The Grateful Dead
From: Wake of the Flood (1973)

Fiddler Vassar Clements’ first foray into the rock ‘n’ roll side of the music industry was with the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band on their 1972 album Will the Circle Be Unbroken. Following that, he contributed to the Grateful Dead’s Wake of the Flood (1973) and Jimmy Buffett‘s A White Sport Coat and a Pink Crustacean (1973).

 

22. “Once Upon a Long Ago,” Paul McCartney
From: 1987 Single

Violinist Nigel Kennedy’s background is in classical music, but he occasionally has dabbled in rock. For example, he contributed to Paul McCartney’s 40th single, “Once Upon a Long Ago.” He also appeared on a Robert Plant solo song called “Calling to You,” and played the “Baba O’Riley” violin solo heard on the Who’s 2003 release Live at the Royal Albert Hall, to name just a few projects.

 

23. “Out of the Blue,” Roxy Music
From: Country Life (1974)

Roxy Music was just one band that Eddie Jobson, whose violin playing is featured on the 1974 song “Out of the Blue,” was part of. At various other points in his career he was a member of Frank Zappa’s band and Jethro Tull. And it wasn’t even his first instrument — that title belonged to the piano. “I never enjoyed learning violin very much, to tell you the truth,” Jobson admitted in a 1995 interview. “But I was very good at it. So it didn’t make any sense to quit because I was naturally good at it. I was lucky that way.”

 

24. “Paper in Fire,” John Mellencamp
From: The Lonesome Jubilee (1987)

Like Dylan’s Desire, John Mellencamp’s The Lonesome Jubilee is stuffed with great violin work. That’s the doing of Lisa Germano, who appeared on multiple Mellencamp albums. For this album, we suggest the big hits: “Paper in Fire,” “Check It Out” and “Cherry Bomb.” Germano has also contributed to albums by David Bowie, Bob Seger, Iggy Pop and more.

 

25. “Rag Mama Rag,” The Band
From: The Band (1969)

When you think of Rick Danko, you probably picture him with his bass strapped on, but he was also quite a talented fiddle player, as evidenced by songs like “Rag Mama Rag.” (An honorable mention must be given to John Simon, who contributed the tuba parts to this song.)

 

26. “Running Dry (Requiem for the Rockets),” Neil Young
From: Everybody Knows This Is Nowhere (1969)

Neil Young’s “Running Dry (Requiem for the Rockets)” features Bobby Notkoff on violin. Notkoff also played on albums by Electric Flag (1968’s Long Time Comin’), Karen Dalton (1971’s In My Own Time), Joni Mitchell (1972’s For the Roses) and more.

 

27. “Sea of Joy,” Blind Faith
From: Blind Faith (1969)

Blind Faith released exactly one album in their brief time together, but it certainly did well on the charts, grabbing the No. 1 spot in both the U.S. and U.K. On that self-titled 1969 LP was the song “Sea of Joy,” a Steve Winwood contribution, with violin provided by Ric Grech.

 

28. “Stop Right There,” The Hollies
From: Evolution (1967)

Well, we attempted to find out who plays the violin solo on the Hollies’ “Stop Right There” and came up empty-handed. Nevertheless, it’s an enticing middle section of the song.

 

29. “Sunday Bloody Sunday,” U2
From: War (1983)

Violinist Steve Wickham was a longtime member of the Waterboys, a band we’ll get to shortly, but he also played on songs by the likes of Elvis Costello, Sinead O’ Connor and U2. That’s him on “Sunday Bloody Sunday,” a gig he got after running into the Edge at a bus stop one day. “[I] said, ‘Hey, if you need a fiddle on your next record, I’m your man,'” Wickham told Hot Press in 2017. “He said ‘sure’ and took my number, and then he got on the bus to Malahide while I went home to Bayside.” Not long after that he joined U2 in the studio.

 

30. “This Ol’ Cowboy,” Marshall Tucker Band
From: Where We All Belong (1974)

It wouldn’t be right to have a list like this one that doesn’t include Charlie Daniels somewhere. Daniels played fiddle on two songs from the Marshall Tucker Band’s 1974 album Where We All Belong: “This Ol’ Cowboy” and “24 Hours at a Time.”

 

31. “Travelin’ Prayer,” Billy Joel
From: Piano Man (1973)

There is a reason Billy Armstrong was once voted “Fiddle Player of the Year” 13 years in a row by the Academy of Country Music. He lent that talent to “Travelin’ Prayer,” a song from Billy Joel’s Piano Man album. (Dolly Parton would record her own version of the song in 1999.)

 

32. “Venus in Furs,” The Velvet Underground
From: The Velvet Underground & Nico (1967)

John Cale of the Velvet Underground was a gifted string player from pretty much the very beginning —  he joined the National Youth Orchestra of Wales at age 13 and later received a scholarship to study music at the University of London. He brought this talent to the table when he started working with Lou Reed in late 1964, adding electric viola to songs like “Venus in Furs.”

 

33. “Violence,” Mott the Hoople
From: Mott (1973)

Violinist Graham Preskett played on not one but two Mott the Hoople albums, Mott in 1973 and The Hoople in 1974. He then went on to play on albums by Edwin Starr, Gerry Rafferty, Whitesnake, Yes and more, as well as compose film scores.

 

34. “Violin,” Kate Bush
From: Never for Ever (1980)

It kind of doesn’t get more self-explanatory than “Violin” by Kate Bush — “four strings has across the bridge,” she sings. The violin on this 1980 song was played by the Irish musician Kevin Burke.

 

35. “We Will Not Be Lovers,” The Waterboys
From: Fisherman’s Blues (1988)

We’re back to the Waterboys. Steve Wickham’s violin playing propels “We Will Not Be Lovers” from 1988’s Fisherman Blues. “I’ve always seen myself as a violinist, not a songwriter,” Wickham explained to the Irish Daily Mirror in 2021. “My role in the Waterboys has been to serve that song – and to try and inhabit the feeling or the thought in the lyric or the song.”

 

36. “And the Healing Has Begun,” Van Morrison
From: Into the Mystic (1979)

Violinist Toni Marcus was something of a child prodigy, exhibiting great skill on the instrument from an early age. In the ’70s, she crossed paths with Van Morrison. “I don’t know how he met her – it was like a leaflet on a telephone pole or something,” bassist David Hayes recalled to Uncut in 2015, speaking to Marcus’ role on Morrison’s 1979 album Into the Mystic, “and Van just kind of turned her loose! She was a real character.”

 

37. “Wild Turkey,” Jefferson Airplane
From: Bark (1971)

Here’s one more Papa John Creach song for you, who somehow is capable of making his violin sound more like a rock guitar than a classical instrument.

 

38. “Wish You Were Here,” Pink Floyd
From: Wish You Were Here (1975)

You might be thinking to yourself: There’s no violin in Pink Floyd’s “Wish You Were Here.” That’s true, but there is a “lost” version of the song. At one point, jazz violinist Stephane Grappelli was brought into the studio to contribute a part, but in the end, this was removed. “You can just hear him if you listen very, very, very hard right at the end of ‘Wish You Were Here,’ you can just hear a violin come in after all the wind stuff starts—just!” Roger Waters recalled in a 1993 interview. “We decided not to give him credit, because we thought it might be a bit of an insult. He got his £300, though.”

 

39. “You Wear It Well,” Rod Stewart
From: Never a Dull Moment (1972)

Once again, Dick Powell is present on a Rod Stewart song. He even joined Stewart and the Faces when they performed the song on BBC’s Top of the Pops, as seen below.

 

40. “99 Year Blues,” Hot Tuna
From: Burgers (1972)

Just kidding, here’s one more Papa John Creach song to close out this list. “I’ve always been listening to more than one thing,” he told the Los Angeles Times in 1986. “And I’ve got great big ears. So any direction you want to go in, just give me the beat and I’ll go with you.”

Top 40 Debut Rock Albums

You get only one shot at a first impression.

Gallery Credit: Ultimate Classic Rock Staff





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November 2024 New Music Releases


November returns with another jam-packed Record Store Day Black Friday – and lots of Beatles stuff, too.

The latest edition of RSD’s late-year sibling features exclusive and sneak peek material from Van Halen, the Grateful Dead, Jimi Hendrix, Motley Crue and the Doors, among many others. There are also two expansive Beatles-related reissues and an exclusive RSD single on the way – in addition to Beatles ’64, a new documentary debuting on Disney+ in November.

The Beatles: 1964 U.S. Albums in Mono vinyl box set restores the original sound to seven albums originally issued between January 1964 and March 1965. George Harrison‘s gold-selling international Top 5 smash Living in the Material World returns in a suite of expanded 50th-anniversary reissue packages.

The Cure‘s first studio project in more than 15 years is set to arrive with Songs of a Lost World. U2‘s new album How to Re-Assemble an Atomic Bomb features previously unreleased material from sessions for 2004’s How to Dismantle an Atomic Bomb. Talking Heads‘ debut, Talking Heads: 77 will be rexamined over three-CDs and a Blu-ray or four vinyl LPs. The six-disc King of America and Other Realms set takes a deep dive into Elvis Costello‘s late-’80s King of America period.

READ MORE: Van Halen, Beatles, Motley Crue Lead 2024’s RSD Black Friday

Steve Perry is here to make your winter merry and bright, expanding The Season again with six more holiday-themed songs. Among the live releases of note: The Allman Brothers Band‘s epic last show will be celebrated with Final Concert 10-28-14. Chicago is also commemorating the anniversary of their double-platinum debut with Live at 55, a guest-packed show featuring Steve Vai and others.

More information on these and other pending rock albums can be found below. Remember to follow our continuously updated list of new music releases for details on records issued throughout the year.

Nov. 1
The Cure, Songs of a Lost World
Elvis Costello, King of America and Other Realms (6CD box)
T. Rex, Bolan Boogie: The Best of T. Rex (2CDs or 2LPs)
Todd Rundgren, Arena (expanded reissue)
Warren Haynes [Allman Brothers Band], Million Voices Whisper
Weezer, Weezer (The Blue Album): 30th Anniversary Edition (3CD set)

Nov. 8
Beach Boys, The Beach Boys’ Christmas Album (60th anniversary zoetrope vinyl reissue)
Neil Young, On the Beach (limited-edition clear vinyl reissue)
Paul Carrack [Squeeze / Mike + the Mechanics], How Long Has This Been Going On? (50th anniversary greatest-hits collection)
Pete Townshend [The Who] and Rachel Fuller, The Seeker
Rick Wakeman, Yessonata (compact disc edition)
Steve Perry, The Season 3
Talking Heads, Talking Heads: 77 (super deluxe 3CD/Blu-ray or 4LP reissue)
Widespread Panic, Hailbound Queen

Nov. 15
Black Keys, Ohio Players (purple double vinyl edition)
Bryan Adams, Live at the Royal Albert Hall 2024 (3CD/1Blu-ray box)
Burton Cummings [The Guess Who], A Few Good Moments
Don Henley, Building the Perfect Beast (expanded 40th anniversary vinyl reissue)
George Harrison, Living in the Material World (expanded 50th anniversary reissue)
Iron Maiden, Powerslave (40th anniversary zoetrope picture-disc vinyl reissue)
John Cale [Velvet Underground], The Academy in Peril; Paris 1919: Deluxe Remastered Edition (vinyl reissues)
Linkin Park, From Zero
Various artists, Playing For Change Presents: Songs For Humanity (Carlos Santana, Peter Gabriel, Ringo Starr, Robbie Robertson, John Paul Jones, Slash, Jackson Browne, others)
Various artists, Weird Scenes From the Hangout: Psychedelic and Freakbeat Dancefloor Anthems 1967-1982 (The Velvet Underground, the Turtles, the Nazz, Can, others)

Nov. 22
Allman Brothers Band, Final Concert 10-28-14 (3CD set)
Beatles, 1964 U.S. Albums in Mono
Can, Can Live in Keele 1977
Chicago, Live at 55
Don Henley, I Can’t Stand Still; Cass County (multi-format reissues)
The Doors, The Doors 1967-1971 (6LP box)
Judas Priest, Rocka Rolla: 50th Anniversary Edition (red opaque vinyl reissue)
Motley Crue, Dr. Feelgood: 35th Anniversary Deluxe Edition (3CD set)
Neil Young, On the Beach (clear vinyl reissue)
Smashing Pumpkins, Aghori Mhori Mei (vinyl edition)
U2, How to Dismantle an Atomic Bomb: 20th Anniversary Reissue (CD; limited edition 5CD or 8LP super deluxe box; cassette); How to Dismantle an Atomic Bomb: Re-Assemble Edition (expanded digital release)
Van Zant [Lynyrd Skynyrd/.38 Special], Always Look Up

Nov. 29
Eric Clapton, Crossroads Guitar Festival 2023 (4CD/2 Blu-ray set)
Southside Johnny and the Asbury Jukes, Live at the Capitol Theater, Passaic, New Jersey – December 30, 1978 (3LP set including yellow marbled edition; with Steven Van Zandt)
U2, How to Re-Assemble an Atomic Bomb: 20th Anniversary Reissue (standard digital release)
War, The CD Collection 1977-1994 (4CD set)
Wilco, Hot Sun Cool Shroud

Record Store Day Black Friday
RSD EXCLUSIVES
Big Brother and the Holding Company, Live at the Grande Ballroom Detroit March 2, 1968 (2LP)
The Doors, Live in Detroit (4LP)
Duff Mckagan, Live at Easy Street (LP)
Grateful Dead, Veterans Memorial Coliseum, New Haven, CT 5/5/77 (4LP)
Jane’s Addiction, “Imminent Redemption” (12″ vinyl single)
Jimi Hendrix, Songs For Groovy Children: The Fillmore East Concerts (LP)
Joni Mitchell, Hejira Demos (LP)
Jorma Kaukonen and Jack Casady, Reno Road: Unreleased tracks from the ’60s (2LP)
Motley Crue, Dr. Feelgood (35th anniversary 7″ single box)
Pearl Jam, “Waiting For Stevie: Live” b/w “Wreckage: Live” (12″ single)
Phil Collins, Live From the Board … The Official Bootleg (10″ EP)
Ramones, Greatest Hits (LP)
Stevie Nicks, “The Lighthouse” (7″ vinyl single)
Stone Temple Pilots, Purple Rarities (LP)
Todd Rundgren, Todd Rundgren’s Utopia (LP)
U2, How to Re-Assemble an Atomic Bomb (LP)
Van Halen, Live in Dallas 1991 (2LP)
War, The Vinyl 1977-1994 (5LP)
Yes, Fragile Outtakes (LP)

RSD FIRST
Allman Brothers Band, Manley Field House, Syracuse NY April 7, 1972 (3LP)
The Beatles, “I Wanna Hold Your Hand” b/w “I Saw Her Standing There” (7″ vinyl)
The Byrds and Buffalo Springfield, Live at the Monterey International Pop Festival (2LP)
Cat Stevens, Saturnight: Cat Stevens Live in Tokyo (LP)
Christopher Cross, A Christopher Cross Christmas (LP)
Dickey Betts and Great Southern, Liberation Hall (3LP)
Foghat, “On Tonsils and Sneakers” (7″ red translucent vinyl)
Jerry Garcia, Electric on the Eel August 29th, 1987 (3LP)
Leon Russell, Hymns of Christmas (LP)
Rolling Stones, Get Yer Ya-Ya’s Out! (LP)
Santana, “Let the Guitar Play” (12″ single)
T. Rex, Tanx (LP)
Tony Levin, Bringing It Down (2LP)

RSD LIMITED/REGIONAL
Jorma Kaukonen and Jack Casady, Reno Road: Unreleased tracks from the ’60s (CD)

December and Beyond
Jethro Tull, The Jethro Tull Christmas Album: Fresh Snow at Christmas
Various artists, Silver Patron Saints: The Songs of Jesse Malin (2CD set with Bruce Springsteen, Elvis Costello, Billie Joe Armstrong, MC5’s Wayne Kramer, others)
Eric Clapton, Meanwhile (vinyl and compact disc release)
Dream Theater, Parasomnia
The Darkness, Dreams on Toast

Top 15 Rock Albums of 2024 (So Far)

Reports of the genre’s death have been greatly exaggerated. 

Gallery Credit: Michael Gallucci

Rock’s Most Expensive Out-of-Print LPs





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Queen’s Roger Taylor Hints at Return to the Studio


Queen hasn’t released an album of new material in more than 15 years – but that could change soon.

Roger Taylor says he’s discussed a return to the studio with fellow Queen co-founder Brian May. “I think we might,” Taylor told Uncut. “Brian and myself were talking the other day, and we both said that if we feel we have some good material, why not? We can still play. We can still sing. So I don’t see why not.”

Queen collaborated with Paul Rodgers in 2008 to complete The Cosmos Rocks. Before that, their most recent album was 1995’s Made in Heaven, which collected unfinished Freddie Mercury songs following his AIDS-related death in 1991.

READ MORE: Ranking Every Queen LP

They’ve been touring with Adam Lambert since 2011, and just completed the globe-spanning Rhapsody Tour in February. Only a few songs have followed, and all of them were scraps from the Mercury era.

May revealed last year that Queen had made some tentative steps toward new songs. He also mentioned new music in 2021. “We have dabbled a little. It is just that you haven’t heard any of it,” he said. “It would have to be something so special that we would feel we would want to launch it on the public.”

Lambert has become comfortable interpreting Mercury’s songs on stage, but acknowledged the inherent risks of stepping into his shoes for any studio recording.

“It’s a lot of pressure if you think about it. If they’re going to put something out that’s new, it’s got to be at a certain level,” Lambert said. “It has to be the right thing – and I’ve always said, ‘Is it appropriate for me to be doing new material?’ I feel like it scares me.”

Queen hasn’t announced any future concerts while May recovers from a minor stroke. The band reportedly agreed to sell their recording, publishing and other rights to Sony Music for a record-smashing $1.27 billion. Then, in September, Queen announced an expanded six-CD/1-LP Collector’s Edition reissue of their 1973 debut album, now dubbed Queen I. It’s due on Oct. 25.

The Best Song From Every Queen Album

A thread runs through it all: a hard-won sense of individuality. Queen were a band like no other.

Gallery Credit: Nick DeRiso

Queen’s Outsized Influence





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Top 10 CBGB Bands


When CBGB closed its doors for good on Oct. 15, 2006, it brought the story of one of rock’s most hallowed venues to an end.

The small club, opened by Hilly Kristal in the East Village in Manhattan in 1973, was far from glamorous. Its bathroom was notoriously gross and covered with graffiti. Dogs who guarded CBGB at night were known to urinate inside. The venue had all the prestige of a dive bar – mainly because that’s exactly what it was.

“It was pretty much a dump,” rock photographer and former CBGB employee Roberta Bayley, admitted to the New York Post in 2023. “It was just a drinking bar — you know, for professional drinkers that just drink. It wasn’t a happening club.”

READ MORE: Top 30 Punk Rock Songs

Still, for fledgling bands looking for anywhere to perform, CBGB offered opportunity. Originally conceptualized as a country and bluegrass club – the full name, CBGB & OMFUG stands for “Country, Bluegrass, Blues, and Other Music For Uplifting Gourmandizers” – Kristal soon recognized that most of New York’s other clubs wanted cover bands or acts with record deals. At the suggestion of local promoters, he made CBGB accessible to new artists, so long as they followed two rules: 1) They must move their own equipment. 2) They must play mostly original tunes.

CBGB became the mecca America’s punk and new wave movements, ranking among the most legendary venues in the U.S.A. The Ramones, Talking Heads and Blondie were just some of the many famous bands to get their start on its stage. Sadly, financial disputes eventually forced the venue to close, and since 2006 the once hallowed rock ground has been used as retail space.

Still, CBGB will always hold and important place in rock history as the creative breeding ground for a long list of acts. Here are our picks for the Top 10 CBGB Bands.

Top 10 CBGB Bands





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Guitarist Jake E. Lee Shot Multiple Times in Las Vegas


Jake E. Lee, the guitarist best known for playing on Ozzy Osbourne‘s Bark at the Moon album, was shot Tuesday morning in Las Vegas.

According to a press release issued by his publicist, the 67-year-old guitarist was shot “multiple times” and is now recovering in a Las Vegas hospital.

“As confirmed by management, legendary rock guitarist Jake E. Lee was shot multiple times early this morning in a Las Vegas street shooting,” reads the statement. “Lee is fully conscious and doing well in an intensive care unit at a Las Vegas hospital. He is expected to fully recover.

READ MORE: When Jake E. Lee Joined Ozzy Osbourne’s Band

“Las Vegas authorities believe the shooting was completely random and occurred while Lee took his dog out for a walk in the early morning hours. As the incident is under police investigation, no further comments will be forthcoming. Lee and his family appreciate respecting their privacy at this time.”

What Records Has Jake E. Lee Played On?

Lee’s career began in the early ’80s when he was approached by singer Ronnie James Dio to join his solo band. The guitarist made some recordings while rehearsing with the group, but Dio shelved the project.

He was then asked by Osbourne to replace his departing guitar player Brad Gillis. Lee joined the former Black Sabbath singer’s band in 1983, appearing on that year’s Bark at the Moon album, as well as the follow-up, The Ultimate Sin, on which Lee shared songwriting credits with Osbourne.

Lee told UCR in 2018 that going on tour with Osbourne wasn’t easy. “I had a lot of ‘Randy Rhoads rules, you suck,'” he recalled. ” That option is gone, you know? Randy’s gone, and it’s not like he’s gone to go play in some other band. So either you guys want Ozzy to hang up his coat and call it quits or cut me a little slack. But all the way through Ozzy, there was always a faction of ‘You suck, Randy rules.’ So, it gave me tough skin.”

In 1988 Lee formed Badlands, followed by Wicked Alliance in the mid-’90s. He’s also released three solo records since 1996. Since 2014 he’s been a member of Red Dragon Cartel, whose latest album, Patina, came out in 2018.

Ozzy Osbourne Albums Ranked

Gallery Credit: Ultimate Classic Rock Staff





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Jerry Cantrell Announces ‘I Want Blood’ 2025 North American Tour


Jerry Cantrell has announced 2025 North American tour dates in support of his new album, I Want Blood, which comes out on Friday.

The Alice in Chains founder will launch his solo trek on Jan. 31 in Niagara Falls, Ontario, and wrap things up on March 9 in Seattle. Filter will provide support.

Tickets go on sale to the general public on Friday. You can see the full list of tour dates below.

READ MORE: Top 30 Grunge Albums

Jerry Cantrell Calls ‘I Want Blood’ a ‘Motherf—er’ of an Album

Cantrell has previewed I Want Blood with three singles so far: “Vilified,” “Afterglow” and the title track. The album follows 2021’s Brighten and features contributions from Duff McKagan of Guns N’ RosesRobert Trujillo of Metallica, Mike Bordin of Faith No More and others.

“This record is a serious piece of work. It’s a motherfucker,” Cantrell said in a press release. “It’s hard, no doubt, and completely unlike Brighten. And that’s what you want, to end up in a different place. There’s a confidence to this album. I think it’s some of my best songwriting and playing, and certainly some of my best singing.”

Cantrell told UCR that his heavy touring in support of Brighten lit a fire under him to work on a new solo album. “We did a bunch of touring, and so I was pretty energized,” he said. “Only took me a few months, maybe, if that, to get into like, ‘OK, I need to start doing some demos, man. I want to do this one more time.’ And I didn’t really intend for it to be the case. But, you know, life often gives you signs if you’re doing the right thing.”

Jerry Cantrell, ‘I Want Blood’ 2025 North American Tour
Jan. 31 – Niagara Falls, ON @ Fallsview Casino Resort
Feb. 1 – Sayreville, NJ @ Starland Ballroom
Feb. 2 – Portland, ME @ Aura
Feb. 4 – Boston, MA @ Citizens House of Blues Boston
Feb. 5 – New York, NY @ Irving Plaza
Feb. 7 – Silver Spring, MD @ The Fillmore – Silver Spring
Feb. 8 – Bensalem, PA @ Parx Xcite Center
Feb. 11 – Huntington, NY @ The Paramount
Feb. 12 – Norfolk, VA @ The NorVa
Feb. 14 – Raleigh, NC @ The Ritz
Feb. 15 – Atlanta, GA @ Buckhead Theatre
Feb. 16 – Louisville, KY @ Mercury Ballroom
Feb. 18 – Columbus, OH @ The Bluestone
Feb. 19 – Indianapolis, IN @ Murat Egyptian Room at Old National Centre
Feb. 22 – St. Louis, MO @ The Hawthorn
Feb. 23 – Chicago, IL @ The Vic Theatre
Feb. 25 – Tulsa, OK @ Tulsa Theater
Feb. 26 – Houston, TX @ House of Blues Houston
Feb. 27 – San Antonio, TX @ The Aztec Theatre
March 1 – Mesa, AZ @ The Nile Theater
March 2 – Las Vegas, NV @ House of Blues Las Vegas
March 4 – Los Angeles, CA @ The Belasco
March 5 – Ventura, CA @ The Majestic Ventura Theater
March 7 – Spokane, WA @ Knitting Factory – Spokane
March 8 – Portland, OR @ Wonder Ballroom
March 9 – Seattle, WA @ Moore Theatre

Rock’s Best Backing Vocalists

This genre is a team sport.

Gallery Credit: Bryan Rolli





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‘I Just Don’t F—ing Get’ Why Eddie Did ‘Beat It’


Alex Van Halen has revealed that he’s still bitter over his brother’s decision to play on Michael Jackson’s “Beat It.”

It was 1982 when Eddie Van Halen, guitar god for the biggest band in the world, was approached by producer Quincy Jones to play on Jackson’s song. Eddie knew that doing so would break a Van Halen band rule regarding outside work, but he decided to take the gig anyway, much to the dismay of Alex.

“Why would you lend your talents to Michael Jackson?” the drummer declared during a recent interview with Rolling Stone, his first since Eddie’s death. “I just don’t fucking get it.”

READ MORE: Eddie Van Halen Broke a Band Rule to Play on ‘Beat It’

Eddie’s solo on “Beat It” became one of the most identifiable guitar riffs of the ‘80s, rivaling anything he recorded with his own band. Alex saw it as treason.

“And the funny part was that Ed fibbed his way out of it by saying, ‘Oh, who knows that kid anyway?’” the drummer recalled. “You made the mistake! Fess up. Don’t add insult to injury by acting stupid.”

The impact of Eddie’s “Beat It” cameo resonated beyond hurt feelings. Seeing the guitarist stretch beyond Van Halen, singer David Lee Roth decided to venture into solo work as well. Cracks within the band were growing. Meanwhile, Jackson’s Thriller became the biggest album in the world, and its popularity kept Van Halen’s 1984 from ever reaching No. 1 on the Billboard chart.

When Does Alex Van Halen’s Memoir Come Out?

Alex’s new memoir, Brothers, will be released on Oct. 22. The book details the drummer’s close, yet complicated relationship with Eddie. It covers everything from their childhood and immigration to America, through playing backyard parties and their ascent to stardom. It culminates with the original Van Halen lineup’s breakup in 1984.

The Best Song From Every Van Halen Album

They released a dozen albums over their career. These are the songs for your playlist.

Gallery Credit: Matthew Wilkening





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Ozzy Osbourne and Chris Cornell Nearly Sang for Van Halen


Van Halen has had a number of singers over the years. Among those considered for the role, bassist Alex Van Halen says, were Ozzy Osbourne and Chris Cornell.

In approximately 2001, singer-less Van Halen eyed Osbourne. Both Alex and Eddie Van Halen met with the Black Sabbath singer’s wife and manager Sharon Osbourne to discuss a potential album with Ozzy as lead singer.

“When you get a dog, you don’t expect it to be a cat,” Alex recently told Rolling Stone. “When you get an Ozzy, you get Ozzy. Play the music, he’ll sing, and it’s gonna be great.”

But not long after that, the Osbourne’s launched their reality show and the Van Halen plans went unrealized.

“Yes, we were discussing it,” Ozzy confirmed to Rolling Stone. “It is something that if it had come to fruition, would have been phenomenal. Eddie and Alex were great friends of mine for a very long time and it’s a regret of mine that we never got it together. The Osbournes got in the way of creating new music at that time, unfortunately.”

Another Option

Alex also said Cornell seemed like a solid option at one point. Though he wasn’t able to recall exactly when, he remembered jamming with Cornell and thinking the Soundgarden frontman could be a good fit for Van Halen.

“Chris was in a very fragile part of his life, so to speak,” he said. “I got behind the drums, and he started playing bass. We played for 45 minutes. This motherfucker got so into it he started bleeding. I said, ‘This is the man you want.’ And then he died.”

READ MORE: When Van Halen Played Their First Show on the Sunset Strip

Of course, in the end, Sammy Hagar rejoined the band for a few years, followed by the return of David Lee Roth. And as Alex sees it, Van Halen’s 1974 to 1985 lineup is the irreplaceable one: “The heart and the soul and the creativity and the magic was Dave, Ed, Mike [Anthony], and me.”

How Van Halen Conquered the World in Just 10 Shows

Van Halen’s meteoric rise to fame during their first world tour in 1978 included 10 particularly important performances. Here’s a look.

Gallery Credit: Matthew Wilkening





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Alex Van Halen Says David Lee Roth Tanked EVH Tribute Tour


Alex Van Halen confirmed the rumors of a Van Halen tribute tour following the death of Eddie Van Halen in a new Rolling Stone interview — and he placed the blame for its dissolution squarely on singer David Lee Roth.

Rumors of the tour surfaced in April 2022 when former Metallica bassist Jason Newsted said he received an invitation to jam with Alex Van Halen and Joe Satriani, who would have handled guitar duties on the trek. (Original Van Halen bassist Michael Anthony was also reportedly considered for the gig.) But Alex claimed that when he suggested an explicit recognition of his brother during each show, Roth lost his cool.

“The thing that broke the camel’s back, and I can be honest about this now,” Alex told Rolling Stone, “was I said, ‘Dave, at some point, we have to have a very overt — not a bowing — but an acknowledgment of Ed in the gig. If you look at how Queen does it, they show old footage.’ And the moment I said we gotta acknowledge Ed, Dave fuckin’ popped a fuse. … The vitriol that came out was unbelievable.”

Alex, unsurprisingly, didn’t take kindly to Roth’s refusal to acknowledge his brother onstage. “I’m from the street,” he said. “‘You talk to me like that, motherfucker, I’m gonna beat your fucking brains out. You got it?’ And I mean that. And that’s how it ended.”

The drummer said he still keeps in touch with Roth following the blowup, but it left him bewildered. “It’s just, my God. It’s like I didn’t know him anymore,” he added. “I have nothing but the utmost respect for his work ethic and all that. But, Dave, you gotta work as a community, motherfucker. It’s not you alone anymore.”

READ MORE: All 75 David Lee Roth-Era Van Halen Songs Ranked Worst to Best

Alex Van Halen’s Spinal Injury Has Kept Him From Drumming

Ultimately, Alex wouldn’t have been able to take part in the tribute tour anyway, as he suffered a spinal injury during a trip to a shooting range in 2022 that made it difficult for him to move, let alone play drums. “The rifle kicked me on my ass,” he said, “and broke my back, instantly. And then I spent a year on the floor. Just staring at the ceiling. We became best friends.”

In hindsight, Alex said he doesn’t regret missing out on the proposed Van Halen tribute tour. “It’s too bad on one hand, but it’s fine on the other,” he explained. “Because now, in retrospect, playing the old songs is not really paying tribute to anybody. That’s just like a jukebox, in my opinion. … To find a replacement for Ed? It’s just not the same.”

READ MORE: Hear Alex Van Halen Eulogize Eddie Van Halen in ‘Brothers’ Clip

Alex Van Halen’s ‘Brothers’ Memoir Arriving This Month

Alex Van Halen will release his memoir, Brothers, on Oct. 22. Described as a “love letter” to the late Eddie Van Halen, the book will detail Alex’s one-of-a-kind personal and musical relationship with his brother, and the audio version will include previously unreleased music from the duo.

Alex is also clear about which version of Van Halen he considers definitive, writing in his book: “The heart and the soul and the creativity and the magic was Dave, Ed, Mike and me.”

Van Halen Lineup Changes

Three different singers and two different bassists joined the Van Halen brothers over the years.





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Watch the Trailer for Bruce Springsteen’s Upcoming ABC Special


Bruce Springsteen will take viewers behind the scenes of his massive 2024 world tour in a new ABC special titled Bruce Springsteen: Backstage and Backstreets, which will premiere on Oct. 20.

You can watch the trailer below.

Hosted by Good Morning America‘s George Stephanopoulos, Bruce Springsteen: Backstage and Backstreets was filmed during the final weeks of the Boss’ most recent tour, according to Rolling Stone. The trailer shows Springsteen lighting up stages, flipping through binders’ worth of set lists and paying a visit to the Stone Pony club in Asbury Park, New Jersey, where he cut his teeth and later met his wife and bandmate, Patti Scialfa.

READ MORE: When Bruce Springsteen Married Patti Scialfa

‘Bruce Springsteen: Backstage and Backstreets’ Addresses Patti Scialfa’s Health Issues

The ABC special also addresses Scialfa’s blood cancer diagnosis, which she revealed in last month’s Road Diary: Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band documentary. (It premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival on Sept. 8 and will be officially released via Hulu and Disney+ on Oct. 25.) The illness affects Scialfa’s immune system and has limited her capacity for touring; “Every once in a while, I come to a show or two and I can sing a few songs onstage, and that’s been a treat,” she explained.

“She’s doing good. We caught it early, which was important,” Springsteen says in the Backstage and Backstreets trailer. “It’s a tough disease, it’s very fatiguing.”

For the most part, the Backstage and Backstreets trailer remains light and triumphant. “I still feel like that 16-year-old kid who picked the guitar up. It’s fun,” Springsteen says. And when Stephanopoulos suggests after a show that Springsteen has the best job in the world, he replies, “Hell yes, I do!”

Bruce Springsteen: Backstage and Backstreets will be available to stream on Hulu following its premiere on ABC.

Bruce Springsteen Albums Ranked

From scrappy Dylan disciple to one of the leading singer-songwriters of his generation, the Boss’ catalog includes both big and small statements of purpose.

Gallery Credit: Michael Gallucci





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Watch an Exclusive Clip From ‘The Session Man: Nicky Hopkins’


Keyboardist Nicky Hopkins is the subject of a documentary coming out in November. Session Man: Nicky Hopkins features interviews with many artists Hopkins worked with over 30 years starting in the mid-’60s.

The movie reflects on the life and career of the late keyboardist, who appeared on more than 250 albums by the Beatles, the KinksRod Stewart, the Who and many others, including the Rolling Stones, who share their thoughts on Hopkins in an exclusive clip.

In it, Keith Richards recalls how the band’s longtime keyboardist, Ian Stewart, recommended Hopkins to the Stones. Hopkins began an association with the Rolling Stones in 1967 that lasted from Their Satanic Majesties Request through Tattoo You, appearing on almost all of their albums during this period.

READ MORE: The Kinks Albums Ranked

“We were coming up with songs [that were] absolutely beyond Stew’s level of capability,” Richard says. “Stew called and said, ‘The only guy that can handle this is Nicky Hopkins.” Session pianist Paddy Milner then notes the “great” introduction to “She’s a Rainbow.” “It sets up the song, hugely identifying [it],” he says.

You can watch the exclusive clip below.

The Session Man: Nicky Hopkins will arrive on Nov. 5 as a digital release; a DVD will follow in December. The film includes interviews with Peter FramptonMick JaggerPete Townshend and other musicians Hopkins played with.

“What started as the germs of an idea for a film quickly became a work of passion that has taken just over five years to reach this point,” director Mike Treen tells UCR. “Such was the continuing appeal of the Nicky Hopkins story. Quite simply, he was a virtuoso pianist, living with a debilitating chronic illness, who played with some of rock ‘n’ roll’s greatest bands and solo artists.

“Over a 30-year period, the harmonic richness and melodic flair he brought to recording sessions meant that he would go on to contribute on over 250 albums. His distinctive piano riffs and musical motifs can be found on some of the most iconic and memorable tracks of that era.”

What Records Did Nicky Hopkins Play On?

Because of medical issues, the Middlesex, England-born Hopkins could not tour much, so he spent most of his career as a session pianist and organist. After a stint with British blues pioneer Cyril Davies, Hopkins played on the Who’s 1965 debut album, My Generation, and worked with the Kinks around the same time.

For the next three decades, he played on many of rock’s best records, including dates with the Beatles (that’s him on “Revolution”) and, after their breakup, on solo albums by all four members.

Over the years he played with Jefferson Airplane (he also performed onstage with them at Woodstock), BadfingerJoe Cocker, Donovan, the Hollies, Harry Nilsson, Quicksilver Messenger Service, Carly SimonCat StevensJoe Walsh and dozens of other artists.

Hopkins died at age 50 in 1994 from complications resulting from Crohn’s disease.

Rolling Stones Live Albums Ranked

Many of the band’s concert records can seem like quick cash grabs or stop-gaps between studio LPs, but there are gems to uncover.

Gallery Credit: Michael Gallucci





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MC5, ‘Heavy Lifting’: Album Review


MC5‘s first album of new material in 53 years arrives at a bittersweet moment. Not long after completing work on Heavy Lifting, the band’s first studio record since 1971’s High Time, mainstay singer and guitarist Wayne Kramer died of cancer in February 2024 at age 75. Three months later, original drummer Dennis Thompson, who plays on two Heavy Lifting songs, also died. (Between those two deaths, the band’s former firebrand manager John Sinclair also passed away.)

The album has been in the works for the past two years, first announced around the time Kramer reignited the MC5 name for a tour featuring members of Jane’s Addiction and David Bowie and Mavis Staples’ bands. On top of all this, MC5 will be inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame in the musical excellence category one day after Heavy Lifting‘s release with no original members around to accept the award. (Singer Rob Tyner died in 1991, guitarist Fred “Sonic” Smith in 1994 and bassist Michael Davis in 2012.)

That leaves Heavy Lifting as the band’s final word, five decades on since the release of only their second studio LP, High Time, a somewhat compromised album following 1970’s super-charged studio debut, Back in the USA, and 1969’s history-shaking live bow, Kick Out the Jams. Kramer isn’t alone here, having recruited famous friends and fans Tom Morello, Vernon Reid, Slash, Don Was and producer Bob Ezrin to revitalize MC5 one last time.

READ MORE: Reviews of 2024’s Best Rock Albums

This isn’t anything new for Kramer, who’s released a half-dozen solo LPs and collaborated with like-minded artists since his release from prison on drug charges in 1979. In that sense, Heavy Lifting can be viewed as a Kramer solo album under his old band’s name; many of his accomplices here have worked with him over the years, including Was and Morello. The songs proudly bask in MC5’s unflinching legacy, from the metal attack in the record-opening title track to the life-affirming, funk-inflected mantra of the LP’s closer “Hit It Hard.”

But is it an MC5 album? Maybe in name, and maybe in spirit, but that’s about it. Heavy Lifting is more like a tribute album laced with some of the last performances by one of the honorees. On songs such as “The Edge of the Switchblade,” “I Am the Fun” and “Can’t Be Found,” the collected musicians rouse up enough MC5-style energy to make this a worthy tribute to the influential band. Kramer throughout sounds like he had a blast resurrecting the group and its militant essence once again. That five-decade gap, however, is an enormous amount of time between albums to overcome. Heavy Lifting does an honorable job of bridging it even if it’s not quite the MC5 of yesteryear.

Top 15 Rock Albums of 2024 (So Far)

Reports of the genre’s death have been greatly exaggerated. 

Gallery Credit: Michael Gallucci





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Hear a Lost Tom Petty Radio Broadcast This Week


Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers released Long After Dark, their fifth studio album, in Nov. 1982. Barely two weeks after the record was out, the band was in the studio taking calls from fans to discuss the album on the syndicated radio program Rockline.

With an expanded edition of Long After Dark arriving this week, Ultimate Classic Rock Nights will rebroadcast the Petty Rockline episode for the first time since its original airing on Wednesday (Oct. 14) at 10pm EST. You can listen on affiliate stations or stream it live here at that time.

It was an important time for the group, as director Cameron Crowe recently shared with UCR. He joined the band in studio that night at Rockline, because they were also filming for what would become 1983’s Tom Petty: Heartbreakers Beach Party.

“[Tom Petty] really had something to say. I think he was at the crossroads then. I think he felt that there was a shot this band was going to go the distance. [Hard Promises] was a thoughtful follow-up to Damn the Torpedoes,” Crowe explains. “But now, it was a time to kind of remind people that they did have rock in their arsenal. They did know how to blow it out and write all kinds of songs in many different genres.”

READ MORE: How Tom Petty Made a Quick Return on ‘Long After Dark’

“It’s about the band. The band was f–king unbelievable, first album,” Adria Petty told UCR in a separate conversation. “You know, some people have one hit and they have a career — or three hits, that’s a career forever. But they had that on the first record. I think in the case of Long After Dark, there was more of a revelation there maybe than we thought, in terms of the importance of where the band was at.”

Listen to Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers’ ‘Straight Into Darkness’ From ‘Long After Dark’

Petty and the group were in good spirits during the Rockline broadcast, as they sat with host Bob Coburn, talking to listeners and answering a variety of questions. Though they had been a band for less than a decade, a lot had happened in that time, as Petty detailed, telling Coburn about their journey from being on Leon Russell and Denny Cordell’s Shelter Records to the present day events of Long After Dark.

Thanks to the generosity of Coburn and Petty’s respective estates, fans can hear the original broadcast one more time on Wednesday evening at 10pm EST.

Tom Petty: Heartbreakers Beach Party will be in theaters for the first time ever on Thursday (Oct. 17) and Sunday (Oct. 20) courtesy of Trafalgar Releasing. Find local showtimes in your area via the film’s website.

The Best Song From Every Tom Petty Album

There’s a common thread running through Tom Petty’s catalog, and it’s the Heartbreakers. 

Gallery Credit: Nick DeRiso





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17 Musicians Who Secretly Performed on Kiss Albums


If you want to know who played which instruments on a Kiss album, the liner notes will probably not tell you the complete story.

“A lot of the Kiss records, they way things are done is that sometimes the instruments that you think are members of the band are not members of the band at all, or the member of the band you think is playing the instrument,” Gene Simmons explains in the band’s 2005 book Kiss: Behind the Mask.

Below you will find a list of 17 musicians who secretly performed on one or more of the band’s studio albums, including three guitarists who would later wind up officially joining Kiss.

Read More: Kiss Live Albums Ranked Worst to Best

Of course, to maintain the band’s mysterious image, none of these guest musicians were listed on the original credits for the albums on which they performed. “They wanted to make it seem like the group is playing everything,” Lou Reed and Alice Cooper guitarist Dick Wagner (who played on two Kiss albums) explained in Behind the Mask. “So at that particular point in their career they didn’t really want to give credits. I’m sure today they’d feel differently. There’s always a feeling of ‘It would be nice if they gave me credit.’ But to say that it made me crazy, no. I had a lot of fun with them. They’re great guys, it was fun to hang out with them.”

Dick Wagner

WagnerMusic.com

Dick Wagner
Destroyer (1976), Revenge (1992)

Dick Wagner, who had worked with Bob Ezrin on classic albums by Lou Reed and Alice Cooper, was recruited by the producer for some secret contributions on Kiss’ 1976 album Destroyer. He can be heard on “Beth,” “Flaming Youth,” “Great Expectations” and to Ace Frehley‘s extreme displeasure, performing the solo on “Sweet Pain.” “I had done a solo on ‘Sweet Pain’ and it was okay,” Frehley recalled in Behind the Mask. “I said, ‘Maybe I’ll come in tomorrow and take another shot at it.’ Instead… When I first played the record back, I go, ‘That’s not my fucking solo! What the fuck is this shit?’ I called Gene and tore him a new asshole. He gave me some bullshit saying, ‘We tried to call you but we couldn’t find you.’ one of many bullshit stories, lies, lies, lies.” (Frehley’s solo was restored for 2012’s Destroyer: Resurrected reissue.) When Erzin teamed up with Kiss for a third time on 1992’s Revenge, he called in Wagner once again for the solo on the ballad “Every Time I Look at You.”

 

Redferns, Getty Images

Redferns, Getty Images

Jimmy Maelen
Love Gun (1977)

Jimmy Maelen was a highly popular studio musician, playing percussion for everybody from Roxy Music, Peter Gabriel, Dire Straits, Madonna, Duran Duran and David Bowie. His conga playing added an exotic dimension to “Almost Human” from 1977’s Love Gun.

 

Archive Photos, Getty Images

Archive Photos, Getty Images

Ray Simpson of the Village People
Love Gun (1977)

Just as Tommy Thayer wasn’t the first Spaceman in Kiss, Ray Simpson wasn’t the first cop in the Village People. He took over the role and lead singing duties in the popular disco band in 1979, two years after appearing as a backup singer on Love Gun‘s “Tomorrow and Tonight.”

 

Gabriel Olsen, Getty Images

Gabriel Olsen, Getty Images

Bob Kulick
Alive II (1977), Unmasked (1980), Killers (1982)

Bob Kulick auditioned for the job as Kiss’ lead guitarist back in 1972. Though he was beaten out by Ace Frehley, the rest of the band were impressed enough by his work to invite him back when Frehley was unavailable to record new songs for the studio side of 1977’s Alive II. In 2018 Kulick told UCR he had no problem keeping his contributions a secret. “In this circumstance, being friends with Gene [Simmons] and Paul [Stanley], it was important to me that when they said ‘This has to be between us and us only,’ that I’m going to keep my word. It’s all about integrity, and that’s how I’m able to keep going.”

Kulick was brought back for more work on 1980’s Unmasked and 1982’s Killers. He was also hired, and this time credited, as lead guitarist on Stanley’s 1978 solo album, and filled that role on Stanley’s 1989 solo tour. His younger brother, Bruce Kulick, eventually got the job Bob had originally gone after, serving as Kiss’ lead guitarist between 1984 and 1996.

 

Ebet Roberts, Getty Images

Ebet Roberts, Getty Images

 

Anton Fig
Dynasty (1979), Unmasked (1980)

With Peter Criss recovering from a nasty car accident – and generally at odds with his soon-to-be-former bandmates – Anton Fig was brought in to play drums for all but one song on 1979’s Dynasty, after having played on Ace Frehley’s 1978 solo album. Fig also performed every song on 1980’s Unmasked. “[Criss] had broken his arm or something like that. It took about 10 days to record all my drum tracks. I was under the gun, but we worked real hard and everything went very smoothly,” Fig recalled in Behind the Mask. “I got paid $10,000 or $15,000 on Dynasty, and on Unmasked I got $20,000. Not bad for 10 days’ work.” Eric Carr took over for Criss beginning with 1981’s Music From ‘The Elder.

 

ABC Photo Archives, Getty Images

ABC Photo Archives, Getty Images

Holly Knight
Unmasked (1980)

Anton Fig’s Spider bandmate Holly Knight also appeared in an unaccredited role on 1980’s Unmasked, performing keyboards on the album after bumping into Gene Simmons at their manager’s office. Wanting to have proof that she had played on the record, in 2017 Knight told SleazeRoxx.com that she xeroxed and kept her royalty checks: “I still have them!” She would go on to have a highly successful songwriting career, co-authoring hits such as Aerosmith‘s “Rag Doll,” Pat Benatar’s “Love is a Battlefield,” Tina Turner‘s “The Best” and Kiss’ “Hide Your Heart.”

 

Allan Schwartzberg
Music From ‘The Elder’ (1981), Animalize (1984), Asylum (1985)

After playing on Gene Simmons’ 1978 solo album, studio drummer extraordinaire Allan Schwartzberg – who’s played on everything from James Brown’s “Funky President” to Tony Orlando and Dawn’s “Tie a Yellow Ribbon Round the Ole Oak Tree” and Peter Gabriel’s “Solsbury Hill” – was occasionally called in to help Kiss out with specific songs or overdubs. “We started playing ‘I’ and Eric [Carr] had just joined the band and couldn’t cop the feel so we had to use Allan,” Simmons said of Schwartzberg’s work on 1981’s Music From ‘The Elder.’ “Eric just couldn’t play that feel and he was devastated.”

 

Michael Ochs Archives, Getty Images

Michael Ochs Archives, Getty Images

Vinnie Vincent
Creatures of the Night (1982)

Ace Frehley quit Kiss after 1981’s Music From ‘The Elder,’ but with the band’s commercial fortunes already in free-fall the group tried to keep the news quiet, leaving his face on the cover of 1982’s Creatures of the Night while secretly replacing him with a variety of guitarists. The relatively unknown Vinnie Vincent wound up playing on six of the songs and co-writing three tracks. He would up being chosen as Frehley’s replacement for the tour in support of Creatures of the Night, although personality conflicts would see him exit the group after just one more album and tour.

 

Ebet Roberts, Getty Images

Ebet Roberts, Getty Images

Steve Farris of Mr. Mister
Creatures of the Night (1982)

Three years before his band Mr. Mister had two chart-topping hits with 1985’s “Broken Wings” and “Kryie,” guitarist Steve Farris was briefly in the running to replace Ace Frehley in Kiss. After auditioning for the group he was peppered with a series of questions: “They said, ‘Will you dye your hair black?’ ‘Sure.’ Can you wear high heels?’ ‘I’ll give it a try.’ … For a couple weeks I thought I might be the new guitar player,” he told Tone-Talk. The solo he played for the song “Creatures of the Night” during his audition wound up being used on the record – without being credited, of course – but ultimately Kiss decided to go with Vinnie Vincent instead.

 

ullstein bild, Getty Images

ullstein bild, Getty Images

Mike Porcaro of Toto
Creatures of the Night (1982)

Paul Stanley and Eric Carr are the only two members of Kiss to perform on the title track from Creatures of the Night. In addition to Steve Farris’ previously mentioned lead guitar work, the duo were joined by Toto bassist Mike Porcaro on the track. Talk about a missed opportunity for a supergroup.

Michael Ochs Archives, Getty Images

Michael Ochs Archives, Getty Images

Robben Ford
Creatures of the Night (1982)

Jazz-fusion guitar hero Robben Ford described his time with Kiss as the weirdest gig of his career. The Yellowjackets member played the solos on “I Still Love You” and “Rock and Roll Hell.” He told D’Addario (as reported by Guitar Player), “I spent nine days in the studio with Gene Simmons and Paul Stanley. And that was rather unusual. That whole situation there was rather unusual. I’d heard a lot about their stories and was playing music that I don’t play, and I never listen to.”

 

Redferns, Getty Images

Redferns, Getty Images

Jimmy Haslip
Creatures of the Night (1982)

Jazz fusion bassist Jimmy Haslip, who was in the short-lived band Blackjack alongside Michael Bolton and Bruce Kulick, found himself welcomed into the world of secret Kiss collaborators as the result of a breakup. In a 2008 interview he recalled Creatures of the Night producer Michael James Jackson calling him late one night. “He sounded really desperate and he said to me that he had a deadline to have the album ready in about three days and Gene Simmons refused to play his bass parts because he had just broke up with Diana Ross and he wasn’t in a mood for that stuff! He asked me if I would be interested in coming by the studio and lay down some bass tracks for the album. When I entered the studio… at about 12 midnight… they were all there… Gene Simmons, Paul Stanley, Vinnie Vincent…in another room was Eric Carr with Steve Ferris and I think there was also Bob Kulick in there. I think that every single person who was in the studio that night was used by Kiss for a recording session.”

 

Ed Perlstein, Getty Images

Ed Perlstein, Getty Images

Rick Derringer
Lick it Up (1983)

After secretly performing on Kiss’ Creatures of the Night, Vinnie Vincent officially replaced Ace Frehley as Kiss’ lead guitarist on their next album, Lick it Up. He soon found himself on the other side of the equation when his solo for the opening track “Exciter” was switched out for one performed by Rick Derringer. “I don’t think Gene and Paul liked what I played on the song, and I did.. I loved it,” Vincent explained in Behind the Mask. “I that that it was one of my best pieces and it angered me quite a bit, because I wasn’t told about it until after it was done.” In the same book, Paul Stanley stands by the decision: “Moments like this were difficult for Vinnie, but the attitude all of us maintained was that the quality of the record would always be the priority rather than anybody’s ego.”

 

Bruce Kulick

Ethan Miller, Getty Images

Bruce Kulick
Animalize (1984), Psycho Circus (1998)

After Vinnie Vincent’s acrimonious departure, Kiss selected Mark St. John as their third lead guitar player. Bruce Kulick, who’s brother Bob had secretly played on several Kiss albums by that point, knew it was a bad fit. “I had respect for Mark St. John,” Kulick told UCR in 2014, “and I was very shocked they chose him [as their new guitarist], because he was into Allan Holdsworth, a brilliant guitar player. He was into John McLaughlin. He was into these more very fusion-jazz shredders, that I was like, ‘That’s not Kiss!’”

Sure enough, St. John quickly drove Paul Stanley crazy with his flashy style and inability to replicate the same solo twice. Kulick was called in to provide uncredited solos for two songs on 1984’s Animalize. After a medical condition forced St. John off the road, Kulick became Kiss’ new lead guitar player, a position he held for 12 years before the group reunited with their original lineup. Even then, Kulick wasn’t done with Kiss. After Stanley and Gene Simmons decided Ace Frehley and Peter Criss weren’t up for recording a new album, Kulick was brought in to play bass and / or guitar for five tracks on 1998’s pseudo-reunion album Psycho Circus.

 

BSR Agency, Getty Images

BSR Agency, Getty Images

Jean Beauvoir
Animalize (1984), Asylum (1985)

With Gene Simmons largely absent from the sessions for 1984’s Animalize due to his pursuit of a career in Hollywood, Paul Stanley recruited his friend and former Plasmatics bassist Jean Beauvoir to play three songs (“Get All You Can Take,” “Under the Gun” and “Thrills in the Night,” the latter of which he also co-wrote) on the album. The following year Beauvoir co-wrote and performed on the Asylum singles “Who Wants to be Lonely” and “Uh! All Night.”

 

Tommy Thayer

Kevin Winter, Getty Images

Tommy Thayer
Hot in the Shade (1989), Psycho Circus (1998)

After Gene Simmons produced two Black ‘N Blue albums, he stayed in touch with the band’s guitarist, Tommy Thayer. The duo co-wrote “Betrayed” and “The Street Giveth and the Street Taketh Away” for Kiss’ 1989 album Hot in the Shade. Since the band decided to add overdubs to their original demos instead of completely re-recording the songs, Thayer’s guitar can be heard on those two tracks. “‘Betrayed’ ended up being the B-side of the single ‘Forever,” Thayer told The Story of Rock and Roll Radio (as reported by Bravewords). “That was a big song – it was a Top 10 record. I didn’t have any money at the time, and one day I went to my mailbox and there was a check from the publishing company for $25,000. I couldn’t believe it.”

Thayer also served as the secret primary lead guitarist on Kiss’ 1998 in-name only original lineup “reunion” album Psycho Circus, and permanently replaced Frehley in 2000.

 

Kevin Valentine
Hot in the Shade (1989), Revenge (1992), Psycho Circus (1998)

Just like Tommy Thayer, Donnie Iris and the Cruisers drummer Kevin Valentine first worked on a Kiss record via Hot in the Shade demos – although he was working with Paul Stanley, not Gene Simmons, on the tracks “King of Hearts” and “You Love Me to Hate You.” When Eric Singer had to briefly leave the studio during sessions for 1992’s Revenge Valentine came in to play on the song “Take It Off.” “I’m sure if Eric had time, they would have done some more takes and it would have been fine, but he had to go,” Valentine told Bravewords. He was then called in to perform on all but one song on 1998’s Psycho Circus, but later admitted he preferred Criss’ work on the track “Into the Void.” “Truthfully, I like it more than the stuff I played on because it sounded like the early original Kiss stuff.”

Kiss Solo Albums Ranked Worst to Best

Counting down solo albums released by various members of Kiss.

Gallery Credit: Matthew Wilkening





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How George Benson Shocked the World With His ‘Abbey Road’


The Beatles released their classic Abbey Road in late 1969. Less than a year later, George Benson revealed his own take on a number of songs from the record, cleverly titled The Other Side of Abbey Road.

Backed by a now-legendary cast of characters from the jazz world, including Herbie Hancock and Bob James, The Other Side of Abbey Road offers a really cool and at times, funky, alternate view of what the Abbey Road songs could have sounded like.

As James tells UCR now, the reaction to what he had done in 1970 was not good, but he was happy he did it. “It actually boosted my career,” he says. “It’s one of the best records I think I’ve ever made.”

Paul McCartney agreed, as word filtered back to Benson. “Man, we love what you did with our music.

Though Benson would become a superstar in the jazz world, he’s always — and continues to find himself crossing multiple genres with his music. Peter Frampton was an early fan — and one who eventually inspired Benson to reexamine his own musical process. He also tackled songs by Leon Russell and James Taylor and worked with countless musicians on his recordings, including the members of Toto.

Toto’s Steve Lukather is one of the many impressive guitarists who will join Benson in January for his inaugural Breezin’ With the Stars, an immersive four day musical event happening in Phoenix. During a recent phone conversation, Benson shared some great stories from across his career.

Breezin’ With the Stars seems like it’s going to be so much fun. What are you hoping that people are going to take away from the experience?
With a thing like that, you never know. Because those guys have such a reputation themselves and they are among the top guitar players of our time! I’m there for the same reason they are — trying to add to my resume, or my collection of ideas. Tunes and things. Most of the guys there, I know personally. But I never see them in one shot together, so it makes it really unique.

There’s an incredible spread of players, guys like Steve Lukather, John Scofield and Lee Ritenour, just to name a few. What’s striking to me about the lineup is it feels very true to the varied spirits of the collaborations that have colored your own career.
No doubt about it, man. When they tell me I’m going to play with any one of those guys, or even in the same town, we try to hook up and check each other out! I always hear something or learn something that I didn’t know yesterday. Because I’m still interested. As a guitar player, I’m never bored with other guitar players. There’s always something that another guy’s doing that you never thought of. So you say, Well how come I didn’t think of that first! [Laughs] I’m really looking forward to it. I think the people who come there are going to see us from a point of view that they might not have seen us [do] before.

I’m here in Cleveland. You worked with the late Tommy LiPuma on a number of your records. What did he add to your process that you liked?
He reminded me of the greatest producer of jazz records in history and that was Mr. John Hammond of Columbia Records. Tommy, like him, did not bother me about my playing, at least in the early days. [Laughs] He just said, “Man, go in there play! Whatever you like!” He brought me songs, that was the difference between him and John. he said, “Have you ever heard of a guy named Leon Russell?” I said, “No.” He said, “Do you know the song, ‘This Masquerade’”? I said, “No.” He said, “I’m going to send it to you.” So he sent it to me and I didn’t listen to it. Then, he called me back, “Well, how’d you like that song?” I said, “What song?” He did that three times before I decided to listen to it! I listened to it, because the keyboard player, Jorge Dalto, and his wife came to visit me at my house.

I was telling him about the new record that I was getting ready to do and he was going to be a part of it. I mentioned “This Masquerade” and his wife said, “Oh, that’s my favorite song and that’s my favorite artist, Leon Russell!” I said, “How in the heck can she know about something in the music business that I don’t know!” Because at that time, I didn’t know she was a singer! [Benson chuckles] So I decided to listen to the song. I listened to it and I learned it. We got to the studio and we did one take of that song, because Tommy LiPuma decided he was not going to put a vocal on this wonderful instrumental album that we had just finished. He said, “No, it does not need a vocal, I don’t want a vocal on it.” I said, “Well, man, you made me learn this crazy song! We’ve got to record it at least once.” And so we did. One time, one take. Everybody that heard it after that said, “Dang, man, first of all, who’s that singing? Man, you gotta put that out.” Tommy said, “No,” and then they pressured him and he said, “Okay.” He played it for the record company and they said, “When can we get that? We want it now!”

But Tommy LiPuma himself, changed my whole life. He made me do something I hardly ever thought about. Tune the guitar up. In the middle of the song, he’d stop us and say, “George, check your tuning.” It became annoying at first, but then I realized [he was right] when I heard it back. I couldn’t tell what was wrong with the song before because I was so used to hearing myself play out of tune, I guess. After that, everything sounded right. He covered that by paying attention and then he had the great engineer with him, Al Schmitt. Al made that album a must-have in your collection if you were an audiophile. I had all of that going for me and I had the brand new guitar that I had just purchased from a brave young man who went to his girlfriend’s former boyfriend’s house and told him he had to give up the guitar she bought him. I said, “Man, that guy has a lot of nerve. He’s got a lot of heart!” He didn’t know anything about guitars, so he brought it to the house and sold it to me and that was the guitar I used on Breezin’. I’d never played it before in my life except on that record. I also had a Polytone amplifier. They rolled one in for me, fresh off the press and that sound became the Breezin’ sound. People heard me play in a way they’d never heard before and the record just went to the moon.

Listen to George Benson’s Version of Leon Russell’s ‘This Masquerade’

That guitar is one of the ones you’re about to sell in your new official Reverb shop. I like the idea that you’re looking at the chance for these instruments to bring new magic to other players like they have for you.
They’re like my relatives, like my babies, man! [Benson laughs, taking on a weepy tone] Take good care of my babies! I think you’re going to get the same joy that I had raising them, you know. Playing some new and interesting things on them, there’s just nothing like it. To realize that they’re in existence because of me, it makes me feel like a real father! And I am the father of seven boys, so I know what fatherhood is supposed to be anyway! It’s been great, man. I’m really hoping that they get out of those guitars the inspiration that they gave to me, to move to different heights in their career.

How did you land on the concept of doing The Other Side of Abbey Road? It’s a fantastic record.
I can tell you this, at that time for music, this is before the crossover period. I mean, stars are starting to pop up and playing crossover music, but it wasn’t popular yet. Probably the most popular crossover song was done by Ella Fitzgerald, [when she recorded] “Can’t Buy Me Love” [Benson sings a short section of the song]. It was like, “Wow, Ella Fitzgerald is singing a Beatles tune! She tore it up to show that it could be done, first of all — and it could be popular! Creed Taylor [record producer and label owner] invited me to his office one night and said, “George, take this home and listen to this record.” I took Abbey Road home and listened to it. I came back the next day and he said, “What do you think?” I said, “Man, everything on here is a monster.”

He said, “Good! We’ll do the whole album!” I said, “What? The whole album! You’ve got to be kidding me! That will make me the enemy of the jazz world, man!” I already had conflict there, because my stuff was considered too commercial. But we got in the studio and the great arranger, Don Sebesky, arranged these beautiful things for a chamber orchestra. He invited New York’s top musicians from the New York Symphony Orchestra to play them with us. Man, I had to sing one of the first songs, “Golden Slumbers” and a lot of those guys had never heard me sing before. So they’re looking at me like I am crazy. “What? George is singin’, man!” We moved to the guitar part and the guitar part came out fairly well too. So Creed Taylor’s idea to do Abbey Road, it was a little too early [for what we did] with that album. But it became popular — like I knew it would, years later after Breezin’ came out. People went back and discovered The Other Side of Abbey Road and it actually boosted my career. I was glad that happened. It’s one of the best records I think I’ve ever made.

Listen to George Benson’s Versions of ‘Golden Slumbers’ and ‘You Never Give Me Your Money’ by the Beatles

The Stories Behind Every Beatles LP Cover

In some ways, the Beatles’ album art could be just as fascinating as the music inside. 

Gallery Credit: Nick DeRiso





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New Order Drummer Recalls Chaos of ‘Top of the Pops’ Performance


Drummer Stephen Morris has shared his memories of the “chaos” surrounding New Order’s 1983 performance on Top of the Pops.

The band’s biggest hit, “Blue Monday,” had only been out for a couple of weeks, but it was already racing up the U.K. charts. New Order was quickly booked on BBC’s famed music show, and unlike many other performers, the group was determined to play live rather than lip-synch. Given the amount of new technologies New Order was using – including synthesizers and sequencers – technical difficulties were all but guaranteed.

“The BBC had to come and test every plug before we could plug it in,” Morris noted during a recent appearance on the Rockonteurs podcast, adding that the TV production crew was unhappy with the band’s deadpan stage presence.

READ MORE: Top 100 ’80s Rock Albums

“What was it the cameraman said? ‘I don’t know what we’re going to do with this lot. They don’t move a muscle,’” the drummer recalled while laughing. “I think they were expecting us to do a bit of dancing about.”

What Went Wrong During New Order’s ‘Top of the Pops’ Performance?

Sure enough, the band’s synthesizer parts went off the track during the live performance, including misplayed notes, timing problems and the wrong sample getting played. At points, members of New Order seemed to be holding back laughter as they continued through the song.

“It was ridiculous. And we thought we made a mess of it, pressed the wrong button… chaos,” Morris admitted (he previously even suggested that “Blue Monday” was the only single to go down on the chart following a Top of the Pops performance).

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Still, something strange happened with New Order’s lone appearance on the show. Fans have since gravitated to the performance, likely because of its honest, mistakes-and-all presentation.

“It was really funny when we did that because a lot of [other artists] came up to us because we were doing it live, saying, ‘Yeah, it’s great. We wanted to do it live as well, but they wouldn’t let us,” Morris recalled, skeptically. “It was an experience.”

Watch New Order’s 1983 Performance of ‘Blue Monday’ on ‘Top of the Pops’

Top 40 New Wave Albums

From the B-52’s to XTC, Blondie to Talking Heads, a look at the genre’s best LPs.

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Watch Tom Hamilton Play First Show With New Band, Close Enemies


Aerosmith bassist Tom Hamilton returned to the stage on Friday to play his debut show with his new band, Close Enemies, at the Eastside Bowl in Nashville.

You can see videos from the performance, including both original songs and Aerosmith covers, below.

Close Enemies consists of Hamilton, guitarists Trace Foster (Hamilton’s bass tech) and Peter Stroud (who plays with Sheryl Crow), drummer Tony Brock (the Babys, Rod Stewart) and singer Chasen Hampton. Gary Stier serves as the band’s lyricist.

“When I joined, these guys had worked up a bunch of great songs, and I was able to contribute something I had,” Hamilton told AARP in August. “Hopefully, when the time comes, we’ll work up some others I’ve had in my pocket for a while. All of these guys are great musicians, and it’s an honor and a challenge to be part of it all. I’m looking forward to seeing how people like it. I think they’ll be pleasantly amazed!”

READ MORE: Top 20 Aerosmith Songs

Tom Hamilton Moving on After Aerosmith’s Retirement From Touring

Hamilton’s live debut with Close Enemies comes a little over two months after Aerosmith announced their retirement from touring due to Steven Tyler‘s insurmountable vocal cord injury. Hamilton told Guitar World “it was a punch in the gut finding our touring days are over,” but holds out hope that “maybe someday we can do something again, but it won’t be a tour.”

In the meantime, Close Enemies hope to keep building on their early momentum. “We want to thank everyone who came out Friday night and made this an incredible evening,” the band wrote on Facebook. “Your response to our original songs was incredible. We are looking forward to getting this new music in your hands soon and are looking forward to playing shows in your area!!!”

Watch Close Enemies Play Original Song ‘Battlefield’ in Nashville on 10/11/24

Watch Close Enemies Cover Aerosmith’s ‘Sweet Emotion’ in Nashville on 10/11/24

Watch Close Enemies Cover Aerosmith’s ‘Sick as a Dog’ in Nashville on 10/11/24

Watch Close Enemies Perform in Nashville on 10/11/24

Aerosmith Albums Ranked

Any worst-to-best ranking of Aerosmith must deal with two distinct eras: their sleazy ’70s work and the slicker, more successful ’80s comeback. But which one was better?

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