Author: LRussell

Sammy Hagar has explained why Kenny Aronoff took over for Jason Bonham on the Red Rocker’s Best of All Worlds tour.

He said Bonham had tried to keep working after his mother suffered a stroke, but in the end realized he had to visit her in a U.K. hospital.

And the singer added that Aronoff had done a great job in covering for Bonham, joking that he was actually performing the Van Halen-heavy set list better than Hagar was himself.

READ MORE: Watch Sammy Hagar Fight 114-Degree Heat in Arizona

“His mother had a stroke and went into a coma, and it’s serious,” Hagar told KSHE 95 in a new interview (below). “The whole family went over there, and he held out for two or three days. [Then] he says, ‘I gotta go; I gotta go.’ I said, ‘You go – go.’

“So we told Kenny; he had about 24-hour notice, and he came in [for] the first night… at six in the morning. We played that night in Cincinnati, and he did a 90-percent perfect show. I swear to you, I make more mistakes every night than he did! So that’s a big hats-off to this guy.”

Sammy Hagar Hails Kenny Aronoff’s attitude

With the North American dates now complete, Hagar is set to tour Japan with Michael Anthony, Joe Satriani and Ray Thistlethwayte. “If Jason is still with his mom, he’s gotta be there till she either comes through or… whatever,” Hagar said, admitting he shouldn’t speculate. “But he’s got a medical emergency with his mother. You don’t ignore that.”

Returning to Aronoff – who previously stood in for Chad Smith in Chickenfoot, which also featured Hagar, Anthony and Satriani – the vocalist said: “We got Kenny, thank God. And if we have to go to Japan with him, we’ll go to Japan. I just love playing with him… he’s so enthusiastic. He’s the most enthusiastic guy – ‘Oh man, we’re gonna kill it! ‘Oh, don’t worry about me!’ He’s like, foaming at the mouth. He’s crazy!”

Watch Sammy Hagar’s Interview

Jeff “Skunk” Baxter recalled how he helped make Donna Summer’s “Hot Stuff” a hit using a $35 guitar.

And the Steely Dan co-founder, who went on to work with the Doobie Brothers, said he nearly hadn’t bothered attending the session for Summer’s 1979 album Bad Girls.

The single was Summer’s second of four No. 1 hits. It opened her music to new listeners with a more rock-oriented sound as she crossed over from disco music under the auspices of Italian producer Giorgio Moroder.

READ MORE: The Best Songs of 1979

“It almost didn’t happen,” Baxter told Vertex Effects in a recent interview (below). “My assistant forgot to tell me that Giorgio had called. I saw it on a message pad. So I called him back; I said, ‘What kind of music is it?’”

On being told it was disco, the guitarist’s response was muted, because he and his musical partner Jay Graydon had played a lot of sessions in the genre. “[N]ot to be snotty about it – but Jay and I [would] get together on a Monday and decide what riff we’re gonna play, for the whole week!” he explained. “To us it was all the same.”

So he told Moroder: “There’s a million guitar players who can do this. If you want something different, then I’m happy to do it. But I’d like to have some space.” The producer’s reply was: “Play whatever you want.”

The next issue was that Baxter was moving into a new house at the time, meaning he didn’t have access to his guitars. He went down to the nearby Hollywood branch of Guitar Center and spoke to the manager. “I said, ‘Paul, I need a guitar – now!’ So he laughed [and] pointed to a box in the middle of the store. The box said, ‘Buy me – $25.’ It had a bunch of weird guitars in it.”

Did ‘Skunk’ Baxter Know ‘Hot Stuff’ Was a Hit?

For some reason he was drawn to an instrument that didn’t even have matching tuning pegs. “I picked it up, plugged it in, played it – ‘Okay, fine.’ I gave him $35. Bought a six-pack of Bud, went down to Rusk studios. And they played me the song… I turned everything up to 10, plugged the guitar in and said, ‘Roll tape.’ That was it – one take.”

Asked if he’d known how successful “Hot Stuff” would be, Baxter allowed: “I don’t think I had any foresight… After it was over, I thought, ‘Wow, this is different.’ And I said to Giorgio, ‘I think I know what you wanted to do.’ … [H]e said, ‘Absolutely.’”

He reflected: “All we can do is sew the body back up and see what happens!”

Listen to Donna Summer Perform ‘Hot Stuff’

Watch Jeff ‘Skunk’ Baxter’s Vertex Effects Interview

Scorpions guitarist Matthias Jabs has detailed the injury that forced his band to cancel all of their September tour dates.

“Dear fans and friends, as you might have heard already, I had a bad accident in my rented summer house,” the rocker explained in a social media post. “I fell down the stairs with 16 steps and broke my left pinky twice and I also broke my left heel. I had surgeries on both, hand and foot, by the best specialists I could find in Hamburg. Now it is time to heal and start the physical rehabilitation for a speedy recovery.”

“I will try everything to be able to play guitar again on stage as soon as possible,” the guitarist continued. “I am sorry to tell you, that the shows in September won’t be happening, but I am very optimistic that we will see us again very soon. Rock n Roll forever, Yours Matthias.”

At present, no dates are listed on the Scorpions website beyond their now canceled September shows.

 

Statement From Scorpions

In a separate statement, released prior to Jabs’, Scorpions announced the cancelation of five shows in their home country of Germany. The impacted dates were the last scheduled stops on the band’s Love at First Sting 40th anniversary tour.

The statement reads:

We deeply regret, especially Matthias Jabs, that due to the accident of our friend and SCORPIONS lead guitarist, the five concerts on our German tour cannot take place in September as planned and we will work closely with the tour organizer to announce new information as soon as possible. We kindly ask for your understanding from all our fans, all the Rock Believers in Germany who were looking forward to the shows with us.

READ MORE: Top 100 ’80s Rock Albums

Scorpions’ Canceled Dates

The five affected tour dates, all in Germany, fall between Sept. 11 and 20.

Sept. 11 – Nuremberg, Germany @ Arena Nurnberger Versicherung
Sept. 13 – Hamburg, Germany @ Barclays Arena
Sept. 15 – Leipzig, Germany @ Quarterback Immobilien Arena
Sept. 18 – Cologne, Germany @ LANXESS Arena
Sept. 20 – Frankfurt, Germany @ Festhalle

Scorpions’ most recent show, which took place on Aug. 1, was at Germany’s Wacken Open Air Festival. They played 18 songs and even welcomed fellow German icon Doro Pesch onstage during “Big City Nights.”

Brian May has suffered a minor stroke that briefly left him unable to move his left arm.

The Queen guitarist says he hasn’t discussed the emergency because he didn’t want any public attention. He added that he was making a full recovery while observing doctors’ orders to do nothing but rest.

“The good news is that I can play guitar after the events of the last few days,” May, 77, said in the social media video below. “I say this because it was in some doubt, because [a] little health hiccup… happened about a week ago – what they called it was a minor stroke.”

READ MORE: Top 10 Brian May Queen Songs

He continued: “All of a sudden, out of the blue, I didn’t have any control over this arm. So it was a little scary, I have to say.” He thanked the staff at the hospital he’d attended, recalling the experience of “blue lights flashing, the lot” as “very exciting.”

May had kept quiet, he explained, because “I didn’t want anything surrounding it. I really don’t want sympathy – please don’t do that, because it’ll clutter up my inbox, and I hate that.”

He added: “I’m okay and doing what I’m told, which is basically nothing. I’m grounded; I’m not allowed to go out, drive, get on a plane; I’m not allowed to raise the heart rate too high. But I am good.”

Last month May appeared on BBC TV in the U.K. to host a documentary titled Brian May: The Badgers, The Farmers And Me, in which he continued his campaign against badger culling. The animals are destroyed in a bid to prevent the spread of bovine tuberculosis – but May has long argued that there’s no need for the extreme response, and aimed to prove it on the show, where he worked with a farmer to eradicate the disease without harming any badgers.

Watch Brian May’s Health Update

Neil Young is slowly but surely putting together another run of concerts after abruptly canceling a tour with Crazy Horse.

Just weeks after announcing an appearance at 2024’s Farm Aid, Young has confirmed a shared date with Stephen Stills, his former bandmate in Buffalo Springfield and then Crosby Stills Nash and Young. They’ll appear together at the charity Harvest Moon concert on Oct. 5 at the Painted Turtle Camp in Lakes Hughes, California. Proceeds benefit the camp and the Bridge School.

“This event not only brings together amazing musicians and families but also raises vital funds for two organizations committed to changing lives,” April Tani, executive director of the Painted Turtle, said in an official statement. “It’s a day of music, fun, and philanthropy — what could be better?”

READ MORE: Top 10 Neil Young Songs

In the meantime, Young has also hinted at mounting a series of theater shows, but this time with guitarist Micah Nelson, bassist Corey McCormic and drummer Anthony Logerfo rather than Crazy Horse. “I can play a little bit of acoustic, and then have the band come out and play,” Young said. “They won’t be marathons. They won’t be two hours and 10 minutes of blasting rock ‘n’ roll like it was with Crazy Horse.”

Young’s tour with Crazy Horse began in April before grinding to a halt in June. Young cited health issues as dates scheduled for July through September were called off. Farm Aid will be held on Sept. 21 in Saratoga Springs, New York. Also appearing are  Willie Nelson, John Mellencamp and Dave Matthews, Mavis Staples, Nathaniel Rateliff and Lukas Nelson, among others.

This will be the second Harvest Moon charity concert, following the 2019 edition where Young played a 15-song acoustic set that concluded with an all-star rendition of the title track from 1992’s Harvest Moon. Young also previously performed benefit shows for the Bridge School from 1986 to 2016 at the Shoreline Amphitheater in Mountain View, California.

The Best Crosby Stills Nash and Young Fight Stories

It took more than a year – and one extraordinarily drastic legal measure – but the Guess Who has settled an argument over control of the band.

Classic-era frontman Burton Cummings and co-founding guitarist Randy Bachman filed suit in 2023 against original members Jim Kale and Garry Peterson over false advertising claims. Kale and Peterson had continued to tour as the Guess Who even after Bachman and then Cummings departed – giving the impression that fans would see the creators of such hits as “American Woman,” “No Time,” “These Eyes” and “Undun.” Instead, Bachman and Cummings described the act as a “cover band.”

Cummings then took things one step further, terminating the performing rights for those hits. No one, including the touring edition of the Guess Who, would be allowed to sing their songs – and royalty payments from concerts, TV and movie placements and radio plays abruptly stopped. The move was both unprecedented and effective.

READ MORE: How the Guess Who Carried on After Randy Bachman

“It was painful, but we’d have done it indefinitely just to stop that fake band from taking over our history,” Cummings tells Rolling Stone. “They took over streaming sites; they were using old photos of me and Randy. It gets me going thinking about it, but that’s over. It’s a painful success. It cost a lot of money with lawyers and I gave up a lot of publishing money, but we finally won this terrible battle.”

Details of this new settlement were not released, but Cummings and Bachman confirm that trademark details have been worked out with Peterson after hours of mediation in Los Angeles. They both expressed relief that this ugly standoff was over. Cummings is even talking about touring again.

“If there is a group out there calling themselves the Guess Who, it’s going to have the lead singer who wrote the songs and the guitarist who made the riffs,” he said. “It’s going to have Bachman and Cummings in it. I say ‘if’ because we don’t know. Randy has a lot of bookings and I’ve got solo gigs. What we do know is that Randy and I are happy because there isn’t a fake Guess Who out there anymore.”

Who Owns the Guess Who Trademark?

The Guess Who apparently never filed a trademark for the band name during their turn-of-the-’70s glory years. Kale belatedly secured one in 1986, then began mounting tours as the Guess Who. Peterson rejoined him in the late ’80s, though the rest of the lineup regularly changed. Then Kale retired in 2016 and Peterson began playing more infrequently, leaving the Guess Who without any direct connection to the past.

It was a bridge too far for Cummings. “We’re trying to preserve the history and the legacy of the Guess Who for our fans all over the place who have followed the real band and the real songs,” he said.

What becomes of the group that had been calling themselves the Guess Who is unclear. Their Facebook page has vanished. The band’s official account on X has been scrubbed of all content except a screenshot and link to coverage of this settlement – and an older post promoting their most recent album, 2023’s Plein D’Amour. Cummings said the LP is going to be removed from the Guess Who’s official discography, though Plein D’Amour remains on Spotify.

“I’m not concerned with the other band. Don’t even know who they are. It doesn’t matter to me,” Bachman said. “When you’re a football player, you’re not thinking about who gets traded for you when you get signed by a team. As far as I know, they’ve been earning a living for decades, trading off the Guess Who names and playing the songs that Burton and I wrote, pretending they were us.”

Tom Morello is imploring the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame to induct one of its biggest holdouts: Iron Maiden.

The Rage Against the Machine guitarist has long advocated for hard rock and metal — subgenres routinely overlooked by the Rock Hall — and he previously inducted Randy Rhoads in 2021 and Kiss in 2014. (His own band was inducted by Ice-T in 2023.) Now, Morello is setting his sights on the British metal titans, who have been eligible since 2005 and were nominated in 2021 and 2023.

“Mother-flippin’ Maiden, dude! That’s been on the top of my list for a while,” Morello told the Paltrocast With Darren Paltrowitz podcast. “I feel very, very fortunate that they let me into that — I’m not sure how fortunate they feel — but I feel very fortunate that they let me into that room to make my case for the Randy Rhoadses and the Kisses and the Stevie Ray Vaughans, Rush, Judas Priest and MC5 — but Maiden’s next.”

READ MORE: Will Taylor Swift Get Into the Rock Hall Before Iron Maiden?

Iron Maiden Leads Current Rock Hall Fan Vote

Morello is far from alone in his crusade get Iron Maiden into the Rock Hall. As of this week, the band topped the leaderboard at the Hall’s in-person “Voice Your Choice” voting kiosk, besting Blink-182, Styx, “Weird Al” Yankovic and Motley Crue.

One person who’s less excited about the prospect of Iron Maiden’s Rock Hall induction is the band’s own singer, Bruce Dickinson. The frontman previously called the Rock Hall “an utter and complete load of bollocks” that is “run by a bunch of sanctimonious bloody Americans who wouldn’t know rock ‘n’ roll if it hit them in the face.” He claimed he was “really happy we’re not there and I would never want to be there. If we’re ever inducted, I will refuse — they won’t bloody be having my corpse in there.”

“Rock ‘n’ roll music does not belong in a mausoleum in Cleveland,” Dickinson continued. “It’s a living, breathing thing, and if you put it in a museum, then it’s dead. It’s worse than horrible, it’s vulgar.”

On the one hand, it’s cause for celebration that it took Neil Young only four years to release the third volume in his multidisc and career-spanning Archives series after an 11-year break between the first two editions; on the other hand, of the 198 tracks covered on Archives Vol. III (1976-1987)‘s 17 CDs, nearly a third collect material from widely derided ’80s albums such as Trans, Everybody’s Rockin’ and Landing on Water.

However, as the previous two excellent volumes have proven, within the proper context, even the most disparaged records in Young’s catalog can be reevaluated and, in some cases, redeemed. It’s been done before, especially by Young’s closest contemporary regarding the breadth of output and decades-spanning influence, Bob Dylan, whose critically and commercially berated 1970 LP Self Portrait found new relevance in a 2013 Bootleg Series volume.

Paired up with the unreleased 1982 album Johnny’s Island on Archives Vol. III, songs that found a home on Trans – a mostly electronic record with Young feeding his vocals through a vocoder – tell a more pointed picture of where Young was heading at the dawn of the decade. Following Re-ac-tor, a 1981 album made with longtime backing band Crazy Horse and represented here with a selection of songs, Young switched record companies and stepped into a new era with synthesizers replacing guitars.

The next several years found the singer and songwriter and his label at odds; at one point Geffen sued Young for not making and delivering records that were uncharacteristic of his ’70s albums. He eventually retreated to the sanctuary of his original home, Reprise, but Archives Vol. III wraps up before the change. And if discs 12 through 17 – documented by a handful of previously released album tracks, unreleased songs, live versions and the 1987 shelved LP Summer Songs – reach a supposedly fallow point in Young’s timeline, understanding their place in the restlessness that has defined and supported his creativity is more clear now.

READ MORE: Neil Young Archives Albums Ranked

Better is the material leading to the era. Covering Hitchhiker (first issued in 2017), Comes a Time, Rust Never Sleeps and Hawks & Doves, the first 11 discs of Archives Vol. III features a bounty of unreleased tracks, shelved songs, live cuts (including selections from the terrific 1979 Crazy Horse collaboration Live Rust) and entire albums that were never released at the time. The 11 years the box spans, a larger period than either of the previous volumes, includes 15 new songs among the 120-plus tracks that have never been heard before. They’re a welcome addition to one of music’s most fascinating and often complicated discographies.

Archives Vol. III starts where Vol. II left off – there’s even some spillover from Young’s March 1976 shows in London and Tokyo with Crazy Horse; 22 new live tracks from the concerts (a simmering “Cortez the Killer” from London is a highlight) join the 10 found on the earlier set. Live songs comprise a large portion of the box, with previously released tracks from the individual Archives series albums Songs for Judy, High Flyin’ and A Treasure mixed with unreleased onstage cuts covering the 1976-87 period. Of particular note is Young’s 1978 collaboration with Devo, which resulted in a gloriously chaotic nine-and-a-half-minute performance of “Hey Hey, My My (Into the Black)” that turned up in different form in Young’s 1982 film Human Highway.

But the heart of Archives Vol. III, as it has been with the other two volumes, are the previously unavailable studio tracks, best heard here in the fabled shelved albums Oceanside/Countryside, Johnny’s Island and Summer Songs. Recorded in Nashville in 1977, the first was an early stab at Comes at Time, some of its songs ending up on that 1978 album (“Field of Opportunity”), on Rust Never Sleeps (“Sail Away”), on Hawks & Doves (“Lost in Space”) and elsewhere over the years; the Trans-era Johnny’s Island includes a combination of songs reworked later: “Silver & Gold” from the 2000 album of the same name, “Soul of a Woman” on 2015’s live Bluenote Cafe. Summer Songs – which concludes Archives Vol. III – serves as a redemption moment for the occasionally disruptive ’80s, and a sign of the salvation that arrived with 1989’s Freedom, in eight solo acoustic numbers, including “American Dream,” used on Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young‘s 1988 reunion album, and a moving version of Freedom‘s “Someday” featuring just Young at the piano. They bode well for the next chapter in this essential series.

Led Zeppelin was together for only a little over a decade, and they have not musically reunited — or at least fully — since their breakup in 1980.

That means there have been a lot of years in which the former members have been releasing solo projects, sometimes entirely on their own and sometimes with famous collaborators. Their output ranges in quantity — Jimmy Page only has one official solo album to his name, while Robert Plant has over 10 of them. John Paul Jones, meanwhile, has often teamed up with other artists, as well as composed a number of film soundtracks.

John Bonham died in 1980 — part of the catalyst for Led Zeppelin’s breakup that year — but he’s also still a part of the below list featuring the Top 20 Led Zeppelin Solo Songs.

20. “Everybody Clap,” Lulu (With John Bonham)
From: 1971 Single

When you are Maurice Gibb of the Bee Gees, you have friends in high places. In 1971, Gibb and fellow singer-songwriter Billy Lawrie co-wrote a song called “Everybody Clap” for Gibb’s then-wife and Lawrie’s sister, Lulu, to sing. To round out the rhythm section, Gibb called up Jack Bruce of Cream to play bass and Bonham to play drums.

 

19. “Fortune Hunter,” The Firm (With Jimmy Page)
From: Mean Business (1986)

The Firm formed in 1984, featuring singer Paul Rodgers, drummer Chris Slade, bassist Tony Franklin and Page on guitar. Rodgers, for one, knew a thing or two about band breakups having come from Bad Company, but Page’s name really carried some serious wight. “Just to be associated with Led Zeppelin was a big boost, because people would go, ‘Who are these guys?'” Rodgers recalled to Eddie Trunk in 2019. “We weren’t instantly dismissed.” And it turned out that Page got on pretty well with Rodgers songwriting-wise — “Fortune Hunter” is one of several of their co-writes to appear on the Firm’s debut album, Mean Business (1984).

 

18. “When You Fall in Love,” John Paul Jones
From: Scream for Help (1985)

If you’ve never heard Jones take the lead vocal, we would like to direct your attention to “When You Fall in Love,” one of nine tracks he contributed to the soundtrack of Scream for Help, a British horror film directed by Michael Winner. Imagine if Jones had sung some of Led Zeppelin’s songs…

 

17. “Rainbow,” Robert Plant
From: lullaby and…The Ceaseless Roar (2014)

Plant has had the most plentiful of all the former Led Zeppelin members’ solo careers. The below track, “Rainbow,” comes from one of his more recent solo albums, lullaby and… The Ceaseless Roar. It was recorded with Plant’s then-band the Sensational Space Shifters, and described by Plant himself at the time as “very crunchy and gritty, very West African and very Massive Attack-y.” That certainly comes through in the percussion work on “Rainbow” with traditional instruments like bendirs, djembes and kologos.

 

16. “So Glad to See You Here,” Paul McCartney and Wings (With John Bonham)
From: Back to the Egg (1979)

Bonham was just one of several famous rock musicians to appear on this track by Paul McCartney and Wings from 1979’s Back to the Egg — there was also Ronnie Lane, Bruce Thomas, Pete Townshend, David Gilmour and more. Nevertheless, Bonham has, for decades, stood out in the former Beatles’ mind. When asked by Howard Stern in 2020 about his favorite drummers, he replied: “I’d go Ringo [Starr] top — he’s something else. Second, I’d go Bonzo.”

 

15. “Radioactive,” The Firm (With Jimmy Page)
From: The Firm (1985)

Long after the Firm split up in 1986, Paul Rodgers continued to perform “Radioactive” at his solo concerts, albeit without Page by his side serving up those wah-wah pedal solo bits.  When the Firm made a music video for the song, it marked the first time Page had participated in one since the late ’60s. “People will say ‘Well, there’s the hypocrite,'” he said in a 1985 interview with Chris Welch. “It’s not that. The idea is to go out and have a play and show people who have had a lot of faith in me that I’m ready to work.”

 

14. “Scumbag Blues,” Them Crooked Vultures (With John Paul Jones)
From: Them Crooked Vultures (2009)

John Paul Jones, Dave Grohl and Josh Homme walk into a bar. Just kidding — they actually walked into a recording studio in 2009 to release an album under the name Them Crooked Vultures, which would become a Top 15 hit in the U.S. The self-titled release is overall quite strong, but “Scumbag Blues” is particularly fun with a funky clavinet part from Jones.

 

13. “Bluebirds Over the Mountain,” Robert Plant (With Chrissie Hynde)
From: Carry Fire (2017)

Plant just seems to have a knack for singing incredibly well with American women, from Alison Krauss to Patty Griffin to Chrissie Hynde, the lattermost of whom can be heard on his 2017 cover of “Bluebirds Over the Mountain.” That’s another thing Plant has a talent for: covering older American songs. “Bluebirds Over the Mountain” was written in 1958 by the rockabilly singer Ersel Hickey, and recorded later by Richie Valens and the Beach Boys. “I respect and relish my past works, but each time I feel the trawl and incentive to create new work,” Plant said in a statement at the time. “I must mix old with new.”

 

12. “Don’t Freak Me Out,” Jimmy Stevens (With John Bonham)
From: Don’t Freak Me Out (1972)

Jimmy Stevens released exactly one album: 1972’s Don’t Freak Me Out. But he sure did make the most of it, inviting Bonham to play drums on the title track and another song called “Is It Me Babe.” Oh, plus Peter Frampton contributed guitar and Maurice Gibb played bass and organ. If you listen to no other part of this song, let it be Bonham’s drum fill around the 2:30 mark…

 

11. “Leafy Meadows,” John Paul Jones
From: The Thunderthief (2001)

There’s two reasons you’ll want to listen to Jones’ “Leafy Meadows.” For one thing, it’s just plain solid bass work from arguably one of the best bassists in the world. But also, that’s Robert Fripp playing the guitar solo. “What a pleasure,” Fripp wrote in his digital diary on Aug. 4, 1999, referring to a lunch he had with Jones, “talking with an outstanding player of my own generation who has more experience, and a greater breadth and depth of knowledge, than I do. And a nice guy.”

 

10. “Pride and Joy,” Jimmy Page (With David Coverdale)
From: Coverdale-Page (1993)

It sort of makes all the sense in the world that Page would team up with David Coverdale in the ’90s, another powerhouse of a British singer, for an album. “Pride and Joy” was one of 11 songs they co-wrote together, with Coverdale playing acoustic guitar while Page does what he does best on electric, also adding in some dulcimer and harmonica. “I took the creative side of working with Jimmy Page very seriously because I’d been a fan and an admirer of Jimmy Page since way before Zeppelin,” Coverdale told Classic Rock in 2011. “Page is a lovely, lovely, lovely man to work and to socialize with.”

 

9. “Nineteen Forty Eightish,” Roy Harper (With Jimmy Page)
From: Whatever Happened to Jugala? (1985)

The thing about Page is that not only is he a master of rock ‘n’ roll guitar riffs, he also has a way of being able to tell a story with his instrument. Here’s one such example: a nearly 10-minute song called “Nineteen Forty-Eightish” which appeared on Roy Harper’s 1985 album Whatever Happened to Jugula? Yes, it’s a cheeky reference to George Orwell’s dystopian book 1984.

 

8. “Keep Your Hands on the Wheel (Said Marie to the Driver),” Roy Wood (With John Bonham)
From: On the Road Again (1979)

Roy Wood is best known for being the co-founder of not just one band, but three: the Move, Electric Light Orchestra and Wizzard. He also enjoyed a solo career, releasing four of his own albums. On 1979’s On the Road Again, Bonham made a guest appearance. Here he is playing loud and proud on one of the album’s singles, “Keep Your Hands on the Wheel (Said Marie to the Driver).”

 

7. “Burning Down on One Side,” Robert Plant
From: Pictures at Eleven (1982)

Here’s the thing: every solo song of Plant’s is going to remind people at least a tiny bit of Led Zeppelin since there isn’t much the singer can do about those famous vocal cords of his. This was especially true in the early ’80s as Plant found his footing as a solo artist, trying quite hard to separate himself from his history. But with a little help from Phil Collins on the drums, there were songs like “Burning Down on One Side,” which cracked the Top 100 in both the U.K. and U.S.

 

6. “Zooma,” John Paul Jones
From: Zooma (1999)

Jones proved two things with his 1999 solo debut, Zooma. Firstly: it is never too late to start a solo career, even if nearly two decades has passed since the breakup of your band. Secondly: lyrics are lovely, but not required. Zooma is primarily an instrumental album, which is excellent considering your full auditory attention is suggested for a song like “Zooma,” the title track — there is a reason Jones is considered one of the best rock bassists in the world.

 

5. “Wasting My Time,” Jimmy Page
From: Outrider (1988)

To the surprise of many, Page really hasn’t spent much time exploring a solo career post-Led Zeppelin — or at least, not in the way you might expect from one of rock’s most inventive guitarists. In any case, his lone solo album, 1988’s Outrider, featured a number of fruitful collaborations. “Wasting My Time” is one of them, co-written with the fellow English musician John Miles, who also sang lead vocals on it. “We’d both jam and come up with riffs,” Miles recalled to Classic Rock in 2014. “It took a while to get to know him, but we hit it off.”

 

4. “Gone Gone Gone (Done Moved On),” Robert Plant (With Alison Krauss)
From: Raising Sand (2007)

Plant and Alison Krauss come from entirely different worlds. He from the land of heavy blues-based rock ‘n’ roll, she from plucky bluegrass-country. And yet, when they came together for the first time in 2007 for Raising Sand, something just seemed to click. With “Gone Gone Gone (Done Moved On),” originally written and recorded by the Everly Brothers, Plant and Krauss unequivocally proved that opposites do indeed attract.

 

3. “Tall Cool One,” Robert Plant
From: Now and Zen (1988)

You can take the frontman out of the band, but you cannot take the band out of the frontman, even when he embarks on a solo career. Not to mention, who better to sample on a new song than yourself? This is what Plant did with “Tall Cool One” from 1988’s Now and Zen, which borrowed bits from “Black Dog,” “The Ocean,” “Dazed and Confused,” “Custard Pie” and “Whole Lotta Love.” Oh yeah, and that’s Page playing guitar on it, arguably the only guitarist qualified for this particular job.

 

2. “Emerald Eyes,” Jimmy Page
From: Outrider (1988)

If you took all the best parts of Page’s career as a guitarist with Led Zeppelin and somehow stirred them all into one solo song, it might sound like “Emerald Eyes” from Outrider — polished acoustic rhythm guitar, intercut with mellifluous lead electric guitar. It’s an instrumental that expertly highlights his talent for arrangement, assisted by Barriemore Barlow of Jethro Tull on drums.

 

1. “Big Log,” Robert Plant
From: The Principle of Moments (1983)

Look, not every ’80s song made using a drum machine aged all that well. “Big Log,” we argue, is an exception. “I was into [British label] 4AD and the stuff that was going on with Jesus and Mary Chain and all that,” Plant said in a 2019 episode of his Digging Deep podcast. “There was just loads and loads of music that I was interested in — that kind of, almost darkened shadow of the music of that time.” “Big Log” turned out to be Plant’s first Top 40 hit as a solo artist, reaching No. 20 in the U.S. and No. 11 in the U.K.

David Gilmour says he wants to “be rid” of the Pink Floyd catalog, but his motive for selling has nothing to do with money.

During a recent conversation with Rolling Stone, the guitarist admitted that a sale of Pink Floyd’s catalog is “something that is still in discussion.”

Rumors have suggested that such a deal could net the band $500 million, however that’s not the reason Gilmour is eager to sell.

“To be rid of the decision making and the arguments that are involved with keeping it going is my dream,” the rocker declared, alluding to the ongoing drama he’s endured with former bandmate Roger Waters. “I am not interested in [a catalog sale] from a financial standpoint. I’m only interested in it from getting out of the mud bath that it has been (going) for quite a while.”

READ MORE: Top 10 David Gilmour Pink Floyd Songs

Gilmour further noted that Pink Floyd decisions are made “on a veto system,” and that they often end up being “three people saying yes, but one person saying no.”

In 2022, reports indicated that the band was on the cusp of a massive deal, but negotiation hold ups – as well as a new round of controversial political remarks from Waters – brought those conversations to a halt. Despite Gilmour’s willingness, it seems a catalog sale is no longer imminent.

Gilmour Calls His Feud With Waters a ‘One-Way Thing’

In a separate part of the Rolling Stone interview, Gilmour eluded questions about his ongoing disputes with Waters.

“It’s something I’ll talk about one day, but I’m not going to talk about that right now,” the guitarist insisted. “It’s boring. It’s over. As I said before, he left our pop group when I was in my 30s, and I’m a pretty old chap now, and the relevance of it is not there. I don’t really know his work since. So I don’t have anything to say on the topic.”

READ MORE: All 167 Pink Floyd Songs Ranked Worst to Best

When reminded of the strongly worded tweets he and wife Polly Samson shared in 2023 – including Samson calling Waters “antisemitic to your rotten core” – Gilmour was forthright.

“People talk about the battle, but to me it’s a one-way thing that’s been going on since he left with different levels of intensity,” he explained. “I agreed with [Polly’s] piece and said so. Again, that’s all. I don’t really have anything extra to add to this, any other lights to shine on that.”

Could the Brian Wilson Band return without its namesake? Fellow Beach Boys co-founder Al Jardine, a long-time solo touring partner, is considering dates.

“Brian has agreed to allow me to use the name of his band to resurrect that incredible Brian band that we worked with so wonderfully for the last 20 or 30 years,” Jardine tells Rolling Stone. “I’m looking forward to meeting up with him shortly and working out a schedule to do a couple of benefit concerts that we can do in L.A., and then maybe kick off an actual tour from there maybe early next year.”

Jardine has only played a few small-scale concerts since Wilson came off the road in the summer of 2022. Wilson has since been placed in a conservatorship after being diagnosed with a “major neurocognitive disorder” and now uses a wheelchair.

READ MORE: Beach Boys’ Best Post-‘Pet Sounds’ Songs

If Wilson takes part in these proposed dates, it would be on a one-off basis. “Brian just isn’t physically in shape to join us,” Jardine said, “but … it wouldn’t surprise me if he could make a few of the shows in the Los Angeles area where we intend to do a trial performance.” The tour might be dubbed Brian Wilson Band Presented by Fellow Beach Boy Al Jardine, he mused.

Jardine has vowed to add an element to the tour that Wilson always shied away from. “We never did video with Brian’s band,” he said. “I never understood that, but I think that dimension would really improve the quality of the show. I’ll also tell stories to inform the audience about how the music was made essentially. It could be a lot of fun.”

Will Al Jardine Reunite With the Beach Boys?

He memorably toured with former bandmate Mike Love during the Beach Boys’ 2012 reunion tour, then worked with Love during the promotional cycle for the recent Disney+ documentary The Beach Boys. Still, there are no plans to get back together again. “I’ve got my hands full,” Jardine said. “If we’re going to get this Brian Wilson Band going again, I’m going to be pretty busy.”

Jardine’s return to the road follows the release of a long-unfinished song called “Wish” with veteran writing partner Larry Dvoskin. He said he hopes to complete a new album early in 2025. Jardine’s most recent LP dates back to 2010’s A Postcard From California, and featured Wilson, Love and early Beach Boys member David Marks as guests.

Jardine is still considering which songs might be played on tour but hints that his focus would be on lesser-played ’70s-era songs like “Roller Skating Child” from The Beach Boys Love You. “Mike does the ’60s really well. That can be a blessing and a curse,” Jardine added, “but apparently people are still coming to see him. People love to hear the same songs, and there’s a new generation of fans – and Mike seems to enjoy that. That’s the important part. But I found it tedious after a while.”

Listen to the Beach Boys’ ‘Roller Skating Child’

Elton John has taken to social media to share that he’s currently recovering from a serious eye infection that caused temporary blindness in one eye.

“Over the summer, I’ve been dealing with a severe eye infection that has unfortunately left me with only limited vision in one eye,” he said. “I am healing, but it’s an extremely slow process and it will take some time before sight returns to the impacted eye.

“I am so grateful for the excellent team of doctors and nurses and my family, who have taken such good care of me over the last several weeks,” John continued. “I have been quietly spending the summer recuperating at home, and am feeling positive about the progress I have made in my healing and recovery thus far.”

Elton John’s Other Recent Health Issues

John has experience a number of health-related obstacles in the last couple of years.

In 2023, he fell at his home in the South of France, but was found to be “in good health” after visiting local doctors. The year before that he was forced to postpone several concerts when he tested positive for COVID-19, and in 2021, he underwent hip surgery that was prompted by an injury.

READ MORE: Underrated Elton John: The Most Overlooked Song From Every Album

But there has also been good news from the John camp: he and his longtime collaborator Bernie Taupin have made a new album, though a release date has yet to be revealed.

“It’s absolutely wonderful,” John said about the album at last year’s Rock & Roll Hall of Fame induction ceremony. “It’s full of youth and it’s full of vitality, and it’s a wonderful place to be after we’ve been together for 56 years.”

Alex Van Halen has shared a snippet of an unreleased track written with his late brother Eddie called “Unfinished,” which is scheduled to arrive next month alongside the release of his memoir Brothers.

You can listen to the preview of “Unfinished” via Instagram below.

The brothers’ handiwork should be immediately evident to Van Halen fans. The snippet of “Unfinished” features Eddie’s harmonic overtones, soaring bends and light vibrato atop delicately strummed acoustic guitar, along with a steady beat (and signature snare drum sound) from Alex.

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

When Can Fans Hear All of Eddie and Alex Van Halen’s ‘Unfinished’?

“Unfinished” will arrive on Oct. 22 to coincide with the release of Brothers. The track will be featured in the audio edition of the memoir, which Alex voiced himself. Publisher HarperCollins confirmed that “Unfinished” is “the last piece of music they wrote together” before Eddie’s death at age 65 in 2020.

Aside from the release of Brothers and “Unfinished,” fans shouldn’t expect to see or hear additional musical output from Alex Van Halen. The drummer announced the auction of his musical equipment earlier this year, much to the dismay of former bandmate Sammy Hagar, who is currently paying homage to the Van Halen catalog on his Best of All Worlds tour with Michael Anthony, Joe Satriani and Jason Bonham.

“Mike and I reached out to Alex before we did this,” Hagar told UCR over the summer. “We reached out to him a dozen times before this tour, in every way. Email, text message, phone call, message on the machine, OK? No response. No response. … I was saying, ‘He’ll come to a show, he’s got to in L.A. or something. I’m sure he’ll come.’ But no, no, he sold all of his equipment. That was his statement. That was like, ‘Nah, I ain’t coming nowhere.'”

Bruce Hall confirmed months ago that he was healthy enough following November 2023 back surgery to return to touring with REO Speedwagon – but there was one issue: “The consensus feeling is that I don’t have good enough posture to perform at the level expected by our fans.”

Fill-in former Elton John sideman Matt Bissonette continues as the group’s touring bassist behind long-standing frontman Kevin Cronin. Ongoing summer dates with Train are now wrapping up, with the final show set for Sept. 11 in Phoenix, Arizona.

“It was my intention to be back on the road again by now, for sure,” added Hall, who joined REO just before 1978’s breakthrough You Can Tune a Piano, but You Can’t Tuna Fish. “I’m feeling better every day and have been cleared by my doctor to perform. If it were up to just me, I’d be there rocking tonight … but it’s unfortunately not.”

READ MORE: Top 10 REO Speedwagon Songs

Cronin assured fans last November that Hall would return to the lineup as soon as possible. “Bruce is our brother – and times like these test us all,” Cronin said. “We have faith that Bruce’s surgery will be successful, that he will make a complete recovery, and that he will be back to being the hard-rocking bassist/singer that we all know.”

Now Hall’s daughter is asking why it hasn’t happened yet: “My dad has poured his entire life into his craft and this band,” Sara Siders says in a social media post, “just to be told he can’t play or be on stage anymore because of how tall he can stand? What a joke.”

Is Bruce Hall Retiring From REO Speedwagon?

Cronin is now the last remaining classic-era member of the group after co-founding keyboardist Neal Doughty left the road in 2023. The other members joined in the late ’80s. Derek Hilland is touring in Doughty’s place following concert appearances with Whitesnake and Foreigner.

“Trust me, I have no intention of retiring or walking away from the band I have loved for almost 50 years,” Hall said in his June social media post. “I would never ever walk away. I love my band too much. I love our crew. I love all of you, the best fans of all time, so very much.”

The previous two albums released by David Gilmour – the 2015 solo record Rattle That Lock and Pink Floyd‘s The Endless River, out a year earlier – double as snapshots of the time. Both conceived after the death of original Floyd keyboardist Richard Wright in 2008 (though The Endless River was made up of leftovers from the last Pink Floyd album Wright performed on, 1994’s The Division Bell), the LPs serve as double bookends to an era the singer and guitarist was ready to close.

Scatterings since then – a 2017 live album culled from a 2016 concert, a 2020 single and a one-off Floyd reunion song with drummer Nick Mason in 2022 in support of Ukraine’s effort against the Russian invasion – have moved away from the predominantly meditative work that peaked with the mostly instrumental Endless River. But with his fifth solo album, Luck and Strange, Gilmour returns to a thoughtful and occasional melancholy stage, undoubtedly spurred by the events of the past several years, especially the pandemic.

That 2020 song, “Yes, I Have Ghosts,” is a bonus track on deluxe editions of Luck and Strange and underlines the album’s musical and thematic center. Cowritten with wife Polly Samson and featuring vocals by daughter Romany Gilmour, both of whom contribute throughout the LP, it’s a summoning of spirits from the past. But with the aid of Alt-J producer Charlie Andrew, who pushed Gilmour to try something new, Luck and Strange often draws the singer and guitarist away from fixed expectations.

READ MORE: 2024’s Best Rock Albums Reviewed

That doesn’t mean Pink Floyd has been entirely wiped from the album; Gilmour’s powerful and flowing solos in “The Piper’s Call” and the seven-and-a-half-minute closing song “Scattered” can’t help but recall celebrated moments from the band’s catalog. Neither can the slippery “Dark and Velvet Nights.” But the emphasis here is on coming to terms with aging and mortality (see: “A Single Spark”), which are persistent reminders that have been even more nagging since the pandemic. As Gilmour sings on the bluesy title track, “In the light before the dawn, shadows snake in my peripheral.”

The 90-second instrumental intro “Black Cat” is the gateway to Luck and Strange and, with its softly stinging guitar and delicate piano, a preemptive nudge signaling Gilmour’s steps into somewhat unfamiliar territory (“A Single Spark” again). “Between Points,” a cover of a 1999 song by British dream-pop duo the Montgolfier Brothers sung by Romany, is the album’s biggest left turn, though it shares a thread with Pink Floyd’s more anodyne recordings. Through it all Gilmour sounds in fine voice, its still-rich warmness driving home the poignancy of many of the songs; his luminous guitar is even better, averting a total break from the past. If Luck and Strange suggests Gilmour’s future, it will be a bright one, even in the darkness.

If the fans who are visiting the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame get their way, Iron Maiden, Styx and Motley Crue will soon have their own plaques at the Cleveland-based museum.

Read More: Will Taylor Swift Get Into the Rock Hall of Fame Before Iron Maiden?

Future Rock Legends posted a shot of the recent standings in the museum’s “Voice Your Choice” voting kiosk, where visitors are allowed to choose who they think should be inducted into the Rock Hall of Fame. Despite (or perhaps because of) singer Bruce Dickinson’s vow to turn down an induction – his exact words were “they won’t bloody be having my corpse in there” – Iron Maiden is solidly in the lead so far this year.

Punk-pop’s Blink-182 are in second place, followed closely by Styx, “Weird Al” Yankovic and Motley Crue, with Boston also appearing in the Top 10. Unlike the Rock Hall’s annual online fan vote (which is used to fill out one ballot for each year’s induction class) the “Voice Your Choice” results have no automatic impact on the induction process, although Future Rock Legends notes that the ranking are typically shared at the nominating committee meeting as a gauge of fan interest.

Foreigner, Ozzy Osbourne and Peter Frampton Will Be Inducted This Fall

It will be a while before we see if this early fan vote has any impact on the next class of Rock Hall nominees. Before that happens, last year’s winners still need to be formally inducted. That will happen for Foreigner, Peter Frampton, Cher, Ozzy Osbourne, Mary J. Blige, Dave Matthews Band, Kool & the Gang and A Tribe Called Quest during an Oct. 19 ceremony that will stream live on Disney+.

In a recent interview, Gene Simmons not only quickly identified Kiss‘ worst studio album, but also took full blame for its creation.

His choice, 1981’s Music From ‘The Elder,‘ will come as little surprise to the band’s fans. Originally intended as a back-to-basics hard rock album that would undo the fan base damage caused by the disco and pop flirtations of 1979’s Dynasty and 1980’s Unmasked, The Elder instead transformed into an extremely ill-fated attempt at earning critical acclaim with a high-minded, medieval times-themed concept album.

Read More: 10 Things That Went Wrong with Kiss’ Music From ‘The Elder’

“I take the blame for it, because it was my idea,” Simmons told Classic Rock. “I remember telling [producer] Bob Ezrin that I was writing a movie script, we were making a concept album based on that, and he said: “Let’s do our own Tommy!” I said: ‘Yeah. If the Who can do it, why can’t we?’ Well, the straight answer is because we’re not the Who! There are some fans who love that record. To me it was dishonest.”

Gene Simmons Says Kiss Never Spent Enough Time in the Studio

In the same interview, Simmons declared that The Elder wasn’t even Kiss’ “most dishonest” album, instead giving that dubious honor to 1997’s grunge-influenced Carnival of Souls (The Final Sessions) while admitting, “we were trying to follow a trend instead of just being ourselves…. In hindsight, Kiss never really spent enough time in the studio. [1976’s] Destroyer is okay, and I like [1992’s] Revenge, but Kiss was always more about the live experience.”

Simmons won’t get much argument about Carnival of Souls from his longtime band mate Paul Stanley, who declared that he was “dead-set against doing that kind of an album” in the band’s 2001 book Kiss: Behind the Mask. “I never believed the world needed a second-rate Soundgarden, Metallica or Alice in Chains.”

Pink Floyd fans will spot a familiar name in the credits of David Gilmour’s new album: Richard Wright.

The keyboardist, who spent decades as Gimour’s Pink Floyd bandmate, died in 2008. Still, an old recording was used in the title track of Gilmour’s upcoming LP, Luck and Strange.

“It’s a strange admission that I’m using pieces recorded over 20 years ago,” the guitarist confessed during a recent conversation with The Sun. “At the end of the ‘On an Island’ tour in 2006, I thought we were playing so well together that I got the core band together in this barn — Rick [Wright], Guy [Pratt] and drummer Steve DiStanislao.”

As Gilmour recalled, the recording session inside the barn was “effing freezing,” still the rockers managed to hammer out a song idea.

READ MORE: David Gilmour’s 10 Best Solo Songs

“I had this little riff and we jammed for 15 minutes,” he explained. “That is the track which became ‘Luck and Strange.’ All the verses, the introduction, the ending are on that original take — no rehear­sal, no thought beforehand.”

Gilmour went on to describe Wright as “a one-off with a very singular style.” “Rick had heart and soul,” the guitarist noted. “We didn’t always see eye to eye, but he was a valuable partner.”

When Does David Gilmour’s New Album Come Out?

Luck and Strange, the fifth album of Gilmour’s solo career, will be released on Sept. 6. It marks the musician’s first new LP in nine years.

In support of the release, Gilmour will perform a series of concerts in Italy and London before coming Stateside for further dates. He has four shows scheduled in Los Angeles in late October, followed by a run of concerts at New York’s Madison Square Garden in November.

When Bush turned in the Sixteen Stone album, a couple of things happened. They were told there were no singles on the record. A short time later, they lost their distribution deal with Hollywood Records.

While some bands would have folded up shop right there, Bush kept pushing. “You have to remember that every single thing we did on that record was against the backdrop of abject failure and a complete zero success,” vocalist and songwriter Gavin Rossdale tells UCR now.

They had the last laugh when Interscope Records, led by Jimmy Iovine and Ted Field, picked up the distribution rights for Sixteen Stone, which was finally released on Dec. 6, 1994. They dispatched five hit singles to rock radio and by the time they had wrapped up touring behind the album, it had sold millions of copies.

In the midst of the band’s current tour with Jerry Cantrell and Candlebox, Rossdale connected with Ultimate Classic Rock Nights host Matt Wardlaw to discuss Sixteen Stone and what’s ahead for Bush.

These summer shows have been a lot of fun. What have you enjoyed about the experience?
I’ve been enjoying the good energy backstage. We’ve always been in situations where everyone is very cool. We’ve done a lot of co-headlines, we opened for Alice in Chains and have done some other opener things. It just feels really good having a harmonious backstage. You know, the Candlebox guys are great. I watched them last night for the first time and they were excellent. I see them every day and it’s a nice energy when you go to work and everyone is getting along. Everyone’s in it for the same reasons, you know, to have a great night of music. That’s it.

READ MORE: 75 Best Rock Songs of the ’90s

How did you bond with Jerry back in the day?
Obviously, there’s been a lot of respect over the years with Alice in Chains. “Man in the Box” was a pivotal song for me as a songwriter and a young musician trying to figure out my own aesthetic. It’s such a powerful, amazing song and they’re an amazing band. Tyler Bates is a very good friend of mine and I’ve written a bunch of songs with him. He’s great friends with Jerry, so he’s been sort of the bridge between us socially, a little bit. We’ve hung out a lot in that capacity. When we first went on tour together, originally Tyler was playing with Jerry. So there’s that social connection. He’s a great guy and an amazing musician. There’s some incredible history there. He’s such an interesting writer and frontperson. There’s not many guys like [Jerry]. We get along and we’ve been eating a lot together in catering. We seem to be on the same feeding schedule. [Laughs] I wore his shirt last night and he came on stage with us, to play “Comedown.”

You’ve got a new EP coming out this fall, Loads of Remixes, with new versions of some of your classic songs. What was the most intriguing thing for you about doing that?
I love when people do remixes. I think Corey [Britz] did a great job with “Glycerine,” Jason Butler with “Everything Zen,” you know there’s a mix from [Michael Shuman of] Queens of the Stone Age. He did an amazing mix of “Swallowed.” I did “Machinehead,” I was like, “This is too much fun, can I have a go?” So I did one. It’s so sexy and it’s really fun to have these reimagined [versions of our songs]. Remixes are so fun, I did “Machinehead” how I wanted to remix it.

Watch Bush’s ‘Everything Zen’ Remix Video

How did you land on doing “Machinehead” as the one you picked?
It was the only one that hadn’t been done and we had the stems for it. It was like, “Well, I’d better do that one then.” You know, the point is, I’ll just try it and if it sucks and doesn’t work, let’s pretend that I didn’t do it. So I did it and it worked. We had a fun afternoon and I’ve got a great engineer. We flew through it and I’m looking forward to people hearing it. I thought that Loads of Remixes was a hilarious title as well. [Laughs]

The intros for things like “Machinehead” and “Little Things” still really stick out on the radio. Obviously, the idea is always to hook the listener in quickly. But how did you figure that out?
It always [came] down to what we liked. You have to remember that every single thing we did on that record was against the backdrop of abject failure and a complete zero success. I just thought the chance to make a record was exciting for a small label in the valley of America in Los Angeles. It was the only option we had. I never had an actual concept of success. I didn’t make the songs thinking we’d talk about them 30 years later. I’d made the songs [before that] and tried to make them good, but it hadn’t worked. So when we recorded Sixteen Stone, I didn’t have the slightest idea of the potential. All I had was, “Wow, you’re going to get a chance to make a record. This is your legacy before you go back and paint houses for the rest of your life. Just feel [good] that you’ve made a record and you weren’t such a loser. You pursued music and you failed for many, many years.” Because as the story goes, that’s what it always takes.

READ MORE: Top 100 ’90s Rock Albums

I didn’t know if the story would ever turn and that I would get a [record] deal. I would go out to night clubs in London all of the time as a kid and I’d see all of the A&R guys. All of them. I’d see them across the room and everyone else would be having a good time and I’m thinking, “Oh, that fucker’s got my future in his hands! Doesn’t he realize, if he signed us, we could do something? I could be in that friend group, I’m fun!” Of course, nothing ever happened and they share never shared any drugs with us. They didn’t buy us any drinks and we didn’t go on holidays with them. They didn’t take us out with their expense accounts. I was used to being a bit of an urchin, a bit of an extra. I couldn’t get a break. That was it and I was used to that. So when I got a chance to make a record, I jumped at that chance. That’s as far as I could see. My imagination couldn’t take me any further than, “Okay, we’ll do a cool intro.” That’s it.

Watch Bush’s ‘Machinehead’ Video

You’d been through so much that at the point you are being told that there’s no viable singles on Sixteen Stone. You have this resolve that’s been built up and I’m guessing you’re not going to give up.
That’s funny, because you know, there was four or five months after we handed the record in where we lost the distribution deal. I spent the summer and the next few months just working back in London and everything did die away. I wasn’t surprised. Nothing had really gone right, so I was like, “Well, at least we made a record.’ We lost the distribution deal, okay, I didn’t know what that really meant, truthfully. Outside of just knowing, “Oh, so we don’t have a record deal now.” I was really confused by it. In November when I came to America and met Jimmy Iovine and Ted Field, because “Everything Zen” was becoming a hit on the radio, that’s sort of when everything changed. It deeply changed and it hasn’t been the same since. That was a pivotal shift where it went from a band that was not working to a band that suddenly had a crazy slipstream of work. We were suddenly in a whole different stratosphere.

How did you deal with the success when it came?
We just didn’t stop touring for a couple of years. For two or three years, we just played and played in all of the clubs, over and over. It was a lot, but it felt for the first time [like we were getting somewhere]. Before then, it was such a disconnect. Because we couldn’t get a break, so it was just hard to just always be wanting to prove yourself. What was so cool about having a hit song and playing the clubs is that every night, you got a chance to prove that you could do it. I think that may be why I love playing live so much. Every night, I get a chance to prove I can do it. When people come to shows and they’ve named their son after me — which happens a lot [Rossdale chuckles] — I just think, “Thank God, I’m still singing and thank God I’m still doing that.” I want to be a good role model for someone, if you name your kid after me. Thank you for not naming your kid after some loser with two records and that was it, they fucked off, you know? But the staying power and this connection with people, that makes you feel really good. You know, it was much harder to exist in life as an abject failure than it was to exist with some kind of audience.

What’s up ahead as far as the next album?
We did the record. It’s recorded. Part of my psychiatric process of doing this celebration of the greatest hits [with the Loaded compilation and current tour], is to have a new record. It just felt better to have a whole new record, so we recorded 10 new songs. I’m sure we’ll add a couple more. I like the idea that the body of work is done. It feels really good to know where that is and I know how all of those songs would fit into this lineup. It’s interesting, because it’s like having another stable of really strong racehorses that are gently training and being groomed, looked after and fed. A lot of TLC and they’re ready to do the business. I would probably think at the beginning of the year. We thought we’d have a single out for this run and then it was like, “Hang on, just calm down. One thing at a time.” I’m super excited about the record, because I feel really proud of it. I wrote a bunch of it and there are some collaborations with the producer we worked with. I made sure and got those out of the way and then did a bunch of stuff myself. Because if I don’t do the collaborations, everyone’s like, “Well, what’s it like if you collaborate a bit?” So we started with the collaborations and I’ve got a couple of killer songs, so I’m super excited.

Watch Bush’s ‘Nowhere to Go But Everywhere’ Video

Did King Crimson invent progressive rock? Were Yes and Genesis principally responsible for creating its accepted formulations – all while furiously pushing its boundaries? Did Rush‘s forays into synth-driven modernity open the door for similar transformations by Yes, Genesis and a host of others?

Deciding who the “Big 4” bands of prog rock are depends on answering these kinds of deep questions.

Inevitably, of course, important acts get left out. What about the outsized musical excursions and even more outsized concert performances of Emerson Lake and Palmer? The groundbreaking folk-melded prog of Jethro Tull? Wait, is Pink Floyd actually a progressive rock band? What about Frank Zappa?

READ MORE: Top 10 Peter Gabriel Genesis Songs

Again, the questions run deep – and reasonable fans can disagree. In the end, however, settling on the Big 4 requires taking in these myriad impacts and accomplishments and then adding an overlay of popularity. You don’t reach the final four without having been a part of a lot of people’s lives.

Pink Floyd and Frank Zappa, quite frankly, were far too rangy to be considered strictly prog. Emerson Lake and Palmer and Jethro Tull may have held sway too briefly. Kansas and the Moody Blues were usually more focused on pop. Others, like Gentle Giant and Camel were sadly very niche.

So where does that leave us? Actually, back where we started. Here’s a look at the Big 4 in prog rock:

King Crimson

King Crimson fired the progressive-rock shot heard ’round the world with 1969’s In the Court of the Crimson King, then made genre-refedining records in each of the three decades to follow. The faces around stalwart Robert Fripp would change, as Greg Lake, John Wetton, Bill Bruford, Adrian Belew and others cycled in and out of the band. But King Crimson somehow never lost the creative alchemy that produced triumphs like 1973’s Larks’ Tongues in Aspic, 1981’s Discipline and 1995’s Thrak. Larks’ Tongue marked a career-shifting move toward more free improvisation. Discipline added a jolt of new wave energy with a remade lineup that featured Belew and Tony Levin. Sadly, Thrak was the lone studio project from an eruptive double trio lineup that also included Trey Gunn and Pat Mastelotto.

Yes

Like each of the remaining members of the “Big 4” of prog rock, Yes scarcely resembled their future selves on the earliest recordings. The addition of Steve Howe and then Rick Wakeman helped transform a Jon Anderson-fronted group that sometimes dabbled in twee folk music into a dynamic long-form juggernaut on a trio of early ’70s albums highlighted by 1971’s blockbuster Fragile. By the time they returned to the Billboard Top 10 with 1983’s multiplatinum 90125, the lineup had been reconfigured around Howe replacement Trevor Rabin and Yes had completely modernized their sound. This transformation provided proof of concept that the group could survive any lineup change – even the death of cofounder Chris Squire, who’d been part of every era. They kept touring and recording, with the now-returned Howe at the helm.

Genesis

Genesis didn’t really find their creative footing until drummer Phil Collins and guitarist Steve Hackett joined. By the time 1973’s gold-selling U.K. Top 5 smash Selling England by the Pound arrived, the Peter Gabriel-led group had completely come into its own. With subject matter and musical approaches shifting literally from song to song, Genesis was unlike anyone else. Then Gabriel left after one more LP, followed by Hackett a couple of albums later. Collins earned an in-house promotion to frontman and within a few years, Genesis had been transformed from a band that occasionally dabbled in pop (among many, many, many other things) into a pop band that occasionally dabbled in prog – but only on deep cuts. Millions bought their singles, never knowing about the occasionally twisted, yet strikingly beautiful weirdness of Genesis at their ’70s best.

Rush

Rush didn’t seem all that interesting at first either, as they trudged through surprisingly pedestrian songs like “Working Man.” Enter Neil Peart. His importance may not have always been self-evident on transitional early LPs like Fly by Night and Caress of Steel, but Peart unquestionably saved the band with 1976’s long-form 2112. By letting his imagination run very wild, Rush redefined themselves (and avoided getting dropped by Mercury). Hemispheres pointed the way forward in the late ’70s, including both the 18-minute Book II of their “Cygnus X-1” epic and a second side of more compact song ideas. “Tom Sawyer,” “New World Man” and “Subdivisions” then became synth-driven early-’80s U.S. hits – but by the 2000s, they were extending songs past the six-minute mark again. Rush’s last album included the even longer epic “Headlong Flight.”

How We Ranked Every Genesis Song

The creator of an AI song intended to sound like the Kinks deleted it after guitarist Dave Davies reacted negatively to the piece.

The guitarist recently discovered the track “Hop Skip Jump!” which had been assembled using the band’s music as source material.

When he shared his horrified response to hearing it, the person behind the digital development quickly apologized.

READ MORE: Hear 25 AI ‘James Hetfield’ Covers: Toto, Wham!, Seal and More

“What the fuk is this???” Davies wrote on X. “This Kinks AI cover is like horror show – sounds fukin horrible.” He provided a link to YouTuber Leeroy’s Musical Journey’s song, which has since been removed.

Leeroy replied to Davies, saying: “Sorry Dave; I’m a big fan and my favourite all time band. I meant no disrespect. I have taken down. Hopefully you prefer my cover of ‘Living in a Thin Line.’”

He provided a link to that track, to which Davies responded: “I really like your cover.”

Dave Davies Says Kinks AI Song Sounded Nothing Like His Band

Leeroy – who has 2,000 subscribers on YouTube and 451 videos on his channel, including 11 Kinks songs – explained in his intro: “I love making music in my spare time using Cubase, which has opened up a whole world of musical sounds and creation. I like to cover songs and make my own originals.”

He added: “If you have your own basic tune that you would like to see get additional instruments and mixing let me know. I love the challenge.”

Following the interaction, Davies reacted to commentary by saying: “It wasn’t even vaguely like a Kinks song… I’m glad it’s not.”

Tim Burton didn’t want to “tick any boxes” by re-casting Alec Baldwin and Geena Davis in the Beetlejuice sequel.

The pair played ghost couple Adam and Barbara Maitland from the original 1988 flick, but the filmmaker didn’t feel their presence was necessary for the story he wanted to tell in Beetlejuice Beetlejuice, which focuses on the Deetz family.

He told People Magazine: “I think the thing was for me I didn’t want to just tick any boxes. So even though they were such an amazing integral part of the first one, I was focusing on something else.”

READ MORE: We Ate Every Single Thing on Denny’s Beetlejuice Menu

Adam and Barbara summoned the titular trickster ghoul, who is played by Michael Keaton, after they drowned in a river and became ghosts. They get Beetlejuice to scare away the new family that moved into their home. Charlie and Delia Deetz can’t see them, but their death-obsessed daughter Lydia can.

Winona Ryder and Catherine O’Hara reprise their roles as Lydia and Delia, while Jenna Ortega plays the former’s daughter Astrid Deetz.

Burton added: “A sequel like this, it really had to do with the time. That was my hook into it, the three generations of mother, daughter, granddaughter. And that [would] be the nucleus of it. I couldn’t have made this personally back in 1989 or whatever.”

Time has moved on with Lydia now a mother herself, and Ryder recently admitted she initially struggled to see Lydia move beyond her gothic phase to become a parent.

She told /Film: “I think certainly, I never pictured Lydia either having children or in any type of relationship. I just always thought she was just probably in her own world as she got older. Just sort of in the attic and happy, but alone.”

The Stranger Things actress added that as soon as she started working with Jenna and Justin Theroux — who plays Lydia’s husband Rory — on the project, she was able to get a better grasp of this new version of the character.

She explained: “I think once we got there and once Jenna and I bonded and once Justin came on board … I mean, I think everyone who’s as old as I am now, we’ve all been in those things where you’re just like, ‘What was I thinking, in terms of the relationship I have?’”

“But I don’t know with young Lydia, I don’t think she would ever have expected to be in front of a camera.”

Beetlejuice Beetlejuice opens in theaters on September 6.

Summer has descended with the intensity of a relentless inferno, leaving many American towns simmering in its wake. I don’t recall summers ever feeling this hot when I was a kid, but that probably has something to do with the fact we were always soaking ourselves with cold water in some manner.

Summer Adventures Requires Some Serious Toys

Every day was a new adventure when you had very few responsibilities, except for maybe a paper route or babysitting the neighbor’s brats. We always made sure to be back in the house before the streetlights came on and re-runs of Laverne & Shirley started (dating myself here).

READ MORE: Things You’d See in a 1980s Garage

With no screens to distract us (outside, at least), we made our own entertainment, and we were really good at it. Hide ‘n Seek was a favorite, though we’re still not sure if we ever found Derek. Red Rover, Red Rover was fun, and I still have the scars to prove it. Come to think of it, many of the things we did to keep ourselves busy were really quite dangerous.

The Potential for Danger Only Made Us Tougher

And when I say dangerous, I mean even the toys we played with. Water toys turned us into little stunt professionals (or amateurs) and were quite plentiful. I remember buying low-grade fireworks at the candy store. Many of these toys were likely to poke your eye out, stab your foot, or practically strangle you.

READ MORE: 10 Somewhat Shocking Wacky Pack Cards From the ’70s

But here we are, mostly okay. So let’s take a look at some of the summer toys that kept us busy while we were pretty much running wild in our neighborhoods. From the wet and wild to the shootin’ and tootin’, these playthings had us keeping cool, looking cool, and only a few trips and falls away from the emergency room.

The earlybird window for Oasis reunion tickets resulted in some buyers demanding as much as $8,000 on resale sites.

Tickets began appearing on third-party dealers’ pages soon after the three-hour pre-sale window for official purchases closed last night (Aug. 30).

With people asking up to 40 times the face value of those early tickets, the band warned any sales that turned out to be illegal would be canceled.

READ MORE: Betting Firms Offer 4/1 Odds on Oasis Split During Reunion Tour

Around 1.4 million tickets are expected to be sold for the 17 U.K. and Ireland shows announced so far. Official prices range from about £70 to £200 ($90-260) for seats, about £150 ($200) for standing and around £500 ($650) for premium packages.

The BBC identified lots on resale sited that included £6,000 ($7,880) for the London show on July 26, £4,500 ($5,900) for the opening concert in Cardiff, over £4,000 ($5,250) for Edinburgh on Aug. 12 and over £2,500 ($3,280) for the band’s first homecoming event in Manchester on July 12.

Concert Ticket Resales Prevent Scams, Argues Reseller

“We have noticed people attempting to sell tickets on the secondary market since the start of the pre-sale,” a statement from Oasis read. “Please note, tickets can ONLY be resold, at face value, via Ticketmaster and Twickets. Tickets sold in breach of the terms and conditions will be cancelled by the promoters.”

Reselling is not illegal in the U.K., as third-party dealer Viagogo said in its own statement. “We oppose anti-competitive actions taken by event organizers to restrict purchasing and resale options to certain platforms in an attempt to control the market,” the corporation said, arguing that such moves “ultimately harm fans by limiting their choice” and lead to a “surge in scams.”

General ticket sales began this morning (Aug. 31).

Andy Summers reflected on the “weird kind of karma” that connects him with Robert Fripp, and he recalled being knocked out when he recently heard 12 tracks they’d recorded together in the ‘80s, which he’d decided not to release at the time.

The future Police guitarist grew up in the same area of southwest England as his King Crimson counterpart. They decided to collaborate in the early ‘80s, resulting in the records I Advance Masked and Bewitched.

Fripp has prepared a box set to be released in September, which includes a third disc of unheard music, after Summers sent the master tapes to him. In a new interview with Ultimate Guitar, Summers – who described himself as de facto producer of the sessions – said the result was worth the wait.

“I was quite … I don’t know, perhaps ‘shocked,’ is too strong a word, but we got them and I was kind of knocked out – they’re great tracks,” Summers said. “I thought, ‘My God, why didn’t we put these on the album?'”

How Did Andy Summers and Robert Fripp Meet?

READ MORE: Andy Summers Still Has Regrets About the End of the Police

Reflecting on meeting Fripp, Summers said: “We both came from the same town in England, and he was this other guy that I’d heard about, but I’d never met him. … The weird thing was I played in this hotel. I was like 16 years old, and I got a gig and became a professional musician at 16 in this hotel group – until they threw me out for chasing the girls there. Fripp took over from me. It was a weird kind of karma: he became the next guitar player and he was a very different player.”

Summers continued: “I can’t remember much else in between; except, many years later, he helped me out – he got me a gig before I was in the Police. I’d lived in California, then I came back to England and there was a whole scene in London. I met Robert one night, and I was trying to get started again into playing in England, and he got me hooked up.”

When the Police were at the height of their powers, Summers said, he felt the desire to “do something else outside of the band, just to sort of prove that I could do it.” He admitted it was partly because he’d become “so used to playing the same Police songs over and over and over again.”

The thought of working with Fripp occurred to him, “particularly because we had this local tie-up in our lives.” The pair began working together in New York, and after agreeing the project had potential, they decided to set up in their English hometown.

“There was a little recording studio, which was run by a guy that we grew up with,” Summers recalled. “It was called Arny’s Shack, a peculiar little recording studio. He was a sort of eccentric. He smoked a pipe while he recorded. We got there, and then we just started working things out.”

Andy Summers Thought He’d Hate Abandoned Songs With Robert Fripp

After I Advance Masked was released in 1982 and Bewitched followed two years later, nothing else came of Summers and Fripp’s collaboration until a member of Fripp’s team recently asked about the master tapes, subsequently cleaning up a dozen tracks which had remained on the shelf.

“Well, it was surprising,” Summers said of revisiting the tracks. “I went, ‘God, why didn’t we do this? Why was I throwing those out?’ Because I was essentially the producer. But listening to some of these songs all these years later, I thought I’d listen to them and think, ‘Oh, my God, well, I see why. They were no good. They’re terrible. That’s why we didn’t use them.’

“But they weren’t. They’re all really much like the other tracks that we actually put out. And my God, it’s a good album. So who knows where that’s going.”

David Gilmour was never fully comfortable taking over the role as Pink Floyd’s de facto leader.

In 1985, two years after the release of The Final Cut, frontman Roger Waters unceremoniously quit the group. His decision brought an end to Pink Floyd’s classic era, which had featured Waters alongside Gilmour and drummer Nick Mason. Keyboardist Richard Wright, who was also an important part of Pink Floyd’s classic run, had already departed in 1981.

Despite the departure of Waters – who wore many hats as the band’s bassist, primary songwriter and occasional vocalist – the decision was made for Pink Floyd to soldier onward. The move left Gilmour in an unfamiliar position.

“I was thrust into being band leader of Pink Floyd,” the rocker admitted during a recent conversation with The Sun. “But I feel a more collaborative approach is better for me.”

READ MORE: David’s Gilmour’s 10 Best Solo Songs

Wright eventually returned to help shoulder some of Gilmour’s burden. The success of 1987’s A Momentary Lapse of Reason showed that Pink Floyd could still be a formidable force, even if it didn’t match the artistic heights of the Waters era. Things fared even better with 1994’s The Division Bell, which ultimately offered the last great glimpse of the band’s prowess.

In his conversation with The Sun, Gilmour expressed amazement at the way Pink Floyd’s impact has endured. “Joining the band and having that whole life with it was wonderful,” the rocker admitted. “It’s always amazing to me that Pink Floyd didn’t fizzle out the way others do. In some way, it has kept going to the present day.”

Is David Gilmour on Tour?

Gilmour will be touring this fall in support of his upcoming fifth solo album, Luck and Strange. The rocker will perform a series of concerts in Italy and London before coming stateside in October.

Gilmour only has two U.S. cities lined up for shows – Los Angeles, where he’ll perform Oct. 25, 29, 30 and 31; and New York, where he’ll play five concerts at Madison Square Garden from Nov. 4 to 10. The dates mark his first U.S. live shows in eight years.

“f***” has gotten a pretty bad rap over the years.

Decried as a “bad word,” it has long been censored on radio, television and just about any other public display you can think of. But the thing is, “f***” is actually an incredibly versatile word. It can express anger, bewilderment, confusion or betrayal. It can be inflammatory at one point and erotic at another. Is there any other word in the English language that wields such broad ability? We don’t think so.

While using the f-word has become commonplace in modern music, it’s often just for show. Artists — correctly or incorrectly — seem to believe that placing it in their lyrics gives them more edge or street cred. Still, when “f***” is used to its full ability, it has the power to significantly impact a song.

With that in mind, here are the 20 Greatest F-Bombs in Rock History.

20. Guns N’ Roses, “Right Next Door to Hell”
“f*** you, bitch!

About two minutes into “Right Next Door to Hell,” Axl Rose unleashes a “f*** you” of epic proportions. The singer squeezes every last bit of air out of his lungs as he delivers the phrase, then Slash swoops in with a fiery solo immediately afterward. The anger in Rose’s voice on this Use Your Illusion track isn’t just for show. The singer wrote “Right Next Door to Hell” about his neighbor at the time, Gabriela Kantor, who accused the singer of assaulting her with a wine bottle outside of their swanky West Hollywood condo building.

 

19. Sex Pistols, “Bodies”
“Ah! f*** this and f*** that / f*** it all the f*** out of the f***ing brat”

The subject matter of the Sex Pistols’ “Bodies” would be controversial regardless of what era it was released in. That the band was willing to deliver an unflinching portrayal of abortion in 1977 was downright shocking. Inspired by a mentally unstable fan who regaled the band with the stories of her abortions, and the raw emotion of the subject is driven home with several f-bombs. While some have argued “Bodies” is anti-abortion, Sex Pistols’ Johnny Rotten has always insisted it never took a side. “That song was hated and loathed,” the singer recalled to the BBC in 2007. “It’s not anti-abortion, it’s not pro-abortion. It’s: ‘Think about it. Don’t be callous about a human being, but don’t be limited about a thing as ‘morals’ either.”

 

18. Soundgarden, “Ty Cobb”
“Hard headed f*** you all / Hard headed f*** you all / Hard headed f*** you all”

A blitzkrieg of f-bombs – 21 in total – blast listeners of Soundgarden’s 1996 song “Ty Cobb.” The tune was named after the infamous baseball player, a Hall of Famer on the field, but whose legacy is tainted by his racism and abusive history. Still, the song wasn’t overtly about Cobb, but rather the type of person he embodied. “It was basically coming from the frame of mind of some sort of hardcore pissed-off idiot, and that’s why we titled it that,” Chris Cornell explained to Kerrang in 1997. “We weren’t writing the song about Ty Cobb at all—I didn’t even know anything about him. I was just thinking of a character who was a combination of a lot of people I’ve met and didn’t like.”

 

17. Prince, “Sexy M.F.”
“Come here, baby, yeah / You sexy motherf***er”

Remember when we said f-bombs could be erotic? Leave it to Prince to get the formula just right. Given the profanity, “Sexy M.F.” certainly turned plenty of heads when it was released as the lead single from 1992’s Love Symbol album. Still, Prince was no stranger to controversy, and the funky, brass-tigned tune oozed with exactly the type of sexual energy that its name would imply. Prince eventually dropped “Sexy M.F.” from his set lists, largely due to his discomfort with the lyrical themes after converting to Jehovah’s Witness. The final time he performed the song was in 1998.

 

16. Babys, “Midnight Rendezvous”
“All I really wanna do / Oh I really wanna f*** you”

The Babys scored a minor hit with their 1980 single “Midnight Rendezvous.” The catchy tune followed well trodden lyrical ground, chronicling romance and desire. While the song largely finds singer John Waite keeping his emotions in check, listeners who stay to the every end get rewarded with a lustful f-bomb amid the song’s final tones.

 

15. Pearl Jam, “Jeremy”
“Clearly I remember / Pickin’ on the boy / Seemed a harmless little f***”

The lone f-bomb in Pearl Jam’s 1992 hit “Jeremy” is delivered with spite and vitriol, like singer Eddie Vedder is embodying the bullies who plagued Jeremy Wade Delle, the real life 15 year-old who inspired the song after committing suicide in front of his sophomore class. It’s biting, powerful, and serves the tune to dramatic perfection.

 

14. Pink Floyd, “Not Now John”
“f*** all that, we’ve got to get on with these / (f*** all that, f*** all that) / Got to compete with the wily Japanese”

Profanity is pretty rare in Pink Floyd songs, but “Not Now John” is a notable exception. The word “f***” occurs in the album version of the song seven times, including six instances of the phrase “f*** all that” (the line quoted above comes from the song’s opening verse). Like most Floyd tunes, there was deeper meaning within “Not Now John”’s lyrics: The song argued for the importance of humanity in the face of war.

 

13. The Clash, “Death or Glory”
“But I believe in this and it’s been tested by research / He who f***s nuns will later join the church”

The Clash – and, more specifically, their acerbic lead singer, Joe Strummer – had no time for hypocrisy, especially when it came from fellow rock stars. In “Death or Glory,” Strummer took aim at the generation of rockers who swore they’d die before getting old and selling out, only to later do both. Here he uses an f-bomb alongside a metaphor, likening sanctimonious rock stars to religious zealots.

 

12. The Offspring, “Bad Habit”
“Something’s odd / I feel like I’m God / You stupid dumbshit goddamn motherf***er!”

SoCal punks the Offspring capture the insanity of road rage on their 1994 single “Bad Habit.” According to the band’s guitarist Noodles, the song, which chronicles the fury of a man who resorts to gun violence in response to rude drivers, was meant to be a “tongue-in-cheek look at psychosis.” However, this was lost on many parent groups at the time, who criticized the song’s themes and lyrical content. Regardless, “Bad Habit” became one of the Offspring’s breakout hits, and audiences across the globe can still be found yelling “dumbshit goddamn motherf***er” with glee.

 

11. Led Zeppelin, “Hots on for Nowhere”
“The timing is right growin’ older / I’ve got friends who will give me f*** all”

The trying situation surrounding the recording of Presence has been well-chronicled. Led Zeppelin had to alter their plans after singer Robert Plant was seriously injured in a car crash. While recovering in Malibu, California, he and the band decided to work on a new album. The lyrics on “Hots on for Nowhere” reflect Plants growing frustrations at the time, not only with his physical limitations, but with his bumpy relationship with Jimmy Page and band manager Peter Grant that the time. Reportedly, Plant tried to slur his f-bomb when recording the line “I’ve got friends who would give me f*** all” in an effort to avoid radio censorship. It didn’t work.

 

10. Joni Mitchell, “Women of Heart and Mind”
“Push your papers / Win your medals / f*** your strangers / Don’t it leave you on the empty side”

Arguably the most surprising entry on our list comes from Joni Mitchell. The revered singer-songwriter, known for her gorgeous, poetic lyrics, seems like an unlikely candidate to go around dropping f-bombs. Perhaps that’s why her use of “f***” in the 1972 song “Women of Heart and Mind” hits so hard. The tune finds Mitchell grappling with her own success, while also enduring heartbreak. Her frustration and vulnerability comes cascading throughout the tune, highlighted by its memorable four-letter word.

 

9. Violent Femmes, “Add It Up”
“Why can’t I get just one f***? / Why can’t I get just one f***? / I guess it’s got something to do with luck / But I waited my whole life for just one”

Violent Femmes tapped in to adolescent sexual anxiety for their 1983 single “Add It Up.” With each verse, the song’s narrator grows exponentially more frustrated — questioning why he can’t get a kiss, a screw, and eventually, a “f***.” The frenzied tune later hits its climax during a hysterical instrumental break, suggesting that the song’s character has finally gone over the edge.

 

8. Guns N’ Roses, “It’s So Easy”
“I see you standin’ there / You think you’re so cool / Why don’t you just / f*** off?”

Guns N’ Roses may not have been rich in the early part of 1987, but they were certainly becoming a must-see act on the Sunset Strip. “It’s So Easy” reflects the effortlessness with which the band was suddenly meeting women. “There’s a lot to say for that period of time when you start to lose the excitement of chasing chicks,” Slash explained in a press release at the time. “You start going after really bizarre girls, like librarians and stuff, just to catch them and say I finally went out and caught a girl that wouldn’t be my normal date. Because everything else was starting to get … it’s so easy.” The tune features a different vibe than many other Appetite for Destruction tracks, as Axl Rose delivers his vocals in an aggressive, lower register. In the line quoted above, Rose throws his disdain towards Hollywood ladies who pretend they’re too glamorous to be seen with his band. Later, he delivers a further series of f-bomb aftershocks, professing over and over again “it’s so easy, so f***in’ easy.”

 

7. The Pretenders, “Precious”
“But not me, baby, I’m too precious / I had to f*** off!”

Chrissie Hynde‘s early career was spent hanging around such anti-establishment rockers as the Sex Pistols. Her punk roots certainly shine through on “Precious,” a muscular and assertive track from the Pretenders‘ 1980 debut. For much of the tune, Hynde spits out lyrics with constrained intensity, but things ratchet up towards the end when the singer shows she’s anything but the precious little girl society wants her to be. You can practically hear the middle fingers in the air as Hynde declares: “But not me, baby, I’m too precious / I had to f*** off!”

 

6. Nine Inch Nails, “Closer”
“I wanna f*** you like an animal / I wanna feel you from the inside”

There is perhaps no more raw or carnal delivery of an f-bomb in music history than Trent Reznor’s famous lines in “Closer.” The Nine Inch Nails singer embodies rage and pure aggression on the track, yet for all of its taboos, “Closer” is often misunderstood. Though the track has plenty of sexual overtones, it was not designed as an ode to animalistic lust. Instead, Reznor crafted the song as a reflection of his own self-loathing.

 

5. The Who, “Who Are You?”
“Oh, who the f*** are you? (Who are you? Who, who, who, who?)”

In a career overflowing with classic songs, the Who’s “Who Are You” ranks among their most memorable. Pete Townshend wrote the tune after a night of drinking with members of the Sex Pistols. But it was singer Roger Daltrey who gave the track its notable fire and aggression, inspired by – or, more likely, in response to – the budding sound of punk at the time. “Who the f*** are you” was added by Daltrey towards “Who Are You”’s latter half, infusing further bite to the song’s tone.

 

4. Harry Nilsson, “You’re Breaking My Heart”
“You’re breakin’ my heart / You’re tearing it apart / So f*** you”

The contrast in Harry Nilsson‘s 1972 tune “You’re Breaking My Heart” is both jarring and wildly entertaining. Musically, the track is upbeat and buoyant, a bouncy little ditty that plays along a happy piano line. But lyrically, it’s dark and disarming, the confessions of a man whose life is crumbling around him. The largely autobiographical track finds Nilsson laughing through the pain of his own messy divorce. It also features a couple of his famous friends, most notably George Harrison and Peter Frampton, who both played on the track.

 

3. Radiohead, “Creep”
“I wish I was special / You’re so f***in’ special / But I’m a creep”

Radiohead has always offered a voice to outcasts, making heady, artistic rock that never conformed to any mainstream style or fad. It’s ironic, then, that the band’s breakthrough outsider anthem was also their biggest commercial hit. “Creep” ranks among the the most popular songs of the ‘90s, a powerful track so globally embraced that Radiohead refused to play it for years, partly because they didn’t want to be known as the “Creep” band. For radio and MTV, the tune was censored, with “you’re so very special” appearing in the chorus. But the original version is still the most compelling, with f-bombs helping to power Thom Yorke’s dynamic vocals.

 

2. John Lennon, “Working Class Hero”
“Keep you doped with religion and sex and TV / And you think you’re so clever and classless and free / But you’re still f***ing peasants as far as I can see”

It was extremely rare for the Beatles to use any profanity in their lyrics, but John Lennon mixed in choice curse words with his solo material. The most impactful example came on his classic 1970 single “Working Class Hero.” Described by the singer as a “revolutionary song,” the track finds Lennon tearing apart class structure and social standards. The rock legend – who grew up in a lower class home – declares his disdain for elites throughout the tune, and his f-bomb on the song’s second-to-last verse rattles with rage. “I think it’s for the people like me who are working class, who are supposed to be processed into the middle classes, or into the machinery,” Lennon once explained of the song. “It’s my experience, and I hope it’s just a warning to people, Working Class Hero.”

 

1. Rage Against the Machine, “Killing in the Name”
“f*** you, I won’t do what you tell me”

Rage Against the Machine’s 1992 single “Killing in the Name” ranks among the most powerful political rock songs ever recorded. The scorching track attacks police brutality head on, with frontman Zack de la Rocha deriving his lines with unbridled fury. This is fist-in-the-air, call-to-arms rock. And for the song’s emphatic ending, “f*** you, I won’t do what you tell me” is repeated 16 times. The words burn through the speaker like a car fire in a riot. Songs like “Killing in the Name” are why the f-bomb was invented.

David Gilmour believes success hindered Pink Floyd‘s ability to accept criticism.

During a conversation with The Sun, Gilmour explained how the band’s creative dynamic changed.

“After you achieve these dizzying heights, people tend to show you way too much deference,” the guitarist explained. “It becomes hard to retrieve the setup you had when you were young.”

As Gilmour pointed out, success made it difficult for members of the group to accept opinions different than their own.

READ MORE: Pink Floyd Albums Ranked

“In the earlier stages of Pink Floyd, we could be as rude and insulting to each other about our personalities and our music as we wanted,” the rocker noted, “and yet everything would be all right in the end.”

Of course, then the day came that things were no longer all right.

“No one ever stomped off permanently — until that bloke did.”

“That bloke” who Gilmour is referring to is Roger Waters, the band’s bassist and primary songwriter, who acrimoniously quit Pink Floyd in 1985.

READ MORE: The Best Song From Every Pink Floyd Album

“We never managed to come to a common view of the dynamic that existed within the band, of who did what and whether or not it was right,” Waters declared to Rolling Stone two years later. “It was an irritation to start with, and it became an impossible irritation towards the end.”

Pink Floyd’s most famous lineup would only reunite one more time. In 2005, Gilmour, Waters, Richard Wright and Nick Mason performed a brief set at the Live 8 benefit concert in London.

What Is David Gilmour Doing Now?

Gilmour’s fifth studio album, Luck and Strange, is set for release on Sept. 6. It marks the musician’s first solo LP in nine years.

According to The Sun, the guitarist claimed the new album is his most satisfying work since The Dark Side of the Moon.

“There’s a wholeness to it that I can’t pin down,” Gilmour explained. “It goes all the way through without any concept album bullshit.”

Solo Eagles songs have often had an intriguing way of sounding nothing like an Eagles song.

Whether it was Glenn Frey‘s penchant for a wailing sax or Don Henley‘s surprising flirtations with synthesizers, these tracks could end up a world away from the main band’s acoustic-picking country-rock roots. Our list of Top 20 Eagles solo songs sorts through the very best of these often distinctly un-Eagles-sounding moments.

Some of their solo musical dalliances aged better than others, particularly for anyone who preferred their Eagles duded up in Old West outfits. But they also offered fans a new way to approach these familiar voices, while attracting new legions of fans who might not have considered an extended stay amid the dark paneling and ’70s shag of the Hotel California.

READ MORE: Ranking Every Eagles Album

The following countdown of Top 20 Eagles solo songs also highlights those infrequent times when the former members of the group returned to more familiar settings. Sometimes, but only on the rarest of occasions, they sounded like their old selves again – and that tended to nicely balance their period-specific experimentalism.

No. 20. “The Heat Is On”
Glenn Frey, Beverly Hills Cop Soundtrack (1984)

Frey began separating himself from his country-rock past with 1982’s Top 20 hit “The One You Love,” featuring a rather unlikely sax. So why not try again? But the horn part in “The Heat Is On” wasn’t actually his doing. Frey was approached with a largely completed demo to be used in 1984’s Beverly Hills Cop. All he did was add vocals and guitar to this No. 2 hit. Frey was handed a $15,000 check, then stood by as “The Heat Is On” became the highest-charting solo Eagles single.

 
No. 19. “Don’t Give Up”
Timothy B. Schmit, Timothy B (1987)

Timothy B. Schmit tended to get lost amid the all-star cast of his 1984 solo debut, which featured members of Toto, the Beach Boys and and his main band. So he stripped everything down to a baseline of keyboards and programming. Unfortunately, this ended up overwhelming Schmit’s reliably sweet romanticism, too. “Don’t Give Up” was a Top 30 hit on the adult-contemporary charts in the late ’80s – and it sounds like every word in that phrase.

 
No. 18. “All Night Long”
Joe Walsh, Urban Cowboy Soundtrack (1980)

The New Jersey-reared Joe Walsh‘s appearance on the boot-scootin’ Urban Cowboy soundtrack made as much sense as the New Jersey-born John Travolta playing the lead role. That didn’t keep record buyers away. “All Night Long” peaked at No. 19 a month after the film premiered in the summer of 1980, becoming the third of Walsh’s four Top 40 solo singles. Eagles promptly placed the anthemic song on their set lists, joining a long line of pilfered Walsh solo tracks that included “Rocky Mountain Way” and “In the City.”

 
No. 17. “Not Enough Love in the World”
Don Henley, Building the Perfect Beast (1984)

The Henley of the ’80s sometimes had no trouble recalling the Henley from the ’70s. “Not Enough Love in the World,” with a beseeching vocal that can’t quite disguise his subtle digs, is a perfect example. Take away the Henley’s pleated pants in the accompanying video, and this could have been the much stronger (much, much stronger) song that 1979’s The Long Run needed instead of “The Disco Strangler” or “Teenage Jail.”

 
No. 16. “Sunset Grill”
Don Henley, Building the Perfect Beast (1984)

Henley places his typically aimless and discontent characters into a distinctly modern context, but finds far more success than Timothy B. Schmit’s contemporary experiments with synths. Credit a rather surprising programming assist from Randy Newman, who helped create a swirling orchestral feel, and the able playing of a huge cast of keyboardists that included co-arrangers Michael Boddicker and Benmont Tench. It’s an assumed element now, but guitarist Danny Kortchmar’s subsequent synthesizer solo was once one of the most surprising things that’s ever happened on an Eagles record.

 
No. 15. “You Belong to the City”
Glenn Frey, Miami Vice Soundtrack (1985)

Unlike Frey’s most recent soundtrack smash, he was deeply involved with the creation of this song. Frey co-wrote, sang and played all the instruments on “You Belong to the City” during late-1984 sessions held at New York City’s Fool on the Hill Studios, except for drums (handled by long-time Frey sideman Michael Huey) and – yes – saxophone (studio musician Bill Bergman). Written specifically for the TV show Miami Vice, “You Belong to the City” would again take Frey to the No. 2 spot on the Billboard Hot 100.

 
No. 14. “All She Wants to Do Is Dance”
Don Henley, Building the Perfect Beast (1984)

Principal Henley collaborator Danny Kortchmar was a guitarist by trade. But “All She Wants to Do Is Dance” actually grew out of Kortchmar’s early attempts at mastering one of the first Yamaha DX7s, a synthesizer that would dominate the next few years in pop music. His resulting groove served as a funky counterweight to some of Henley’s most biting political criticisms, this time over the U.S. involvement in Central America’s ’80s-era Contra War.

 
No. 13. “Hearts on Fire”
Randy Meisner, One More Song (1980)

Meisner left the lineup after struggling with the pressure to build on the successes of 1975’s “Take It to the Limit,” a No. 4 Eagles smash that he co-wrote and sang. He ended up largely disappearing from the music scene, but not before scoring one more Top 20 hit. “Hearts on Fire” ratified Meisner’s often-overlooked contributions to his former band while providing a rare ’80s-era call back to the early Eagles’ groundbreaking country-rock sound.

 
No. 12. “Smuggler’s Blues”
Glenn Frey, The Allnighter (1985)

“You Belong to the City” wasn’t Glenn Frey’s first intersection with the breakout ’80s television series Miami Vice. Thanks go to the accompanying video for “Smuggler’s Blues,” which fleshed out its illicit themes. Executive producer Michael Mann saw the clip and had an entire first-season episode of Miami Vice built around Frey’s song, even including some lyrics in the dialog. Frey appeared as a guitar-playing pilot in the adaptation, then wrote “You Belong to the City” for the second season’s opener.

 
No. 11. “Dirty Laundry”
Don Henley, I Can’t Stand Still (1982)

Credit Henley for taking swipes at sensationalism in news long before the advent of 24-hour cable news, the internet or social media. Debit Henley for never quite figuring out how to end “Dirty Laundry,” a gold-selling No. 3 hit that starts with a truly nasty groove before devolving into a bunch of shouting. Reports that the album’s cover image was an actual photograph of Henley mulling things over remain unconfirmed.

 
No. 10. “Rocky Mountain Way”
Joe Walsh, The Smoker You Drink, The Player You Get (1973)

Walsh moved around a lot as a kid before finishing high school in New Jersey, then heading to Kent State University and forming the James Gang in Cleveland. His debut solo single “Rocky Mountain Way” was sparked by a move to Colorado after the James Gang split. Walsh has said he was out mowing his grass during that first summer in Boulder County when he was stuck by snow-capped mountains in the distance. He realized, “the Rocky Mountain way is better than the way I had” – and a song was born.

 
No. 9. “The Heart of the Matter”
Don Henley, The End of the Innocence (1989)

Mike Campbell of Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers outlined the song itself. Henley and co-lyricist J.D. Souther had both just split with their fiancees, and Henley was in the mood to talk about forgiveness. It all came together on “The Heart of the Matter.” Of course, in keeping with tradition, Henley once again finds a way to express the deepest of heartbreaks with a subtle putdown or two. But he asks some very big questions along the way. As on all his best songs, those grace notes end up overshadowing the rest.

 
No. 8. “True Love”
Glenn Frey, Soul Searchin’ (1988)

Despite being introduced to the wider public through the overtly rootsy “Take It Easy,” Glenn Frey always had the deepest of affections for the kind of soul-lifting R&B that’s associated with his hometown of Detroit. “True Love,” a Top 15 hit co-written with stalwart collaborator Jack Tempchin, provides the perfect vehicle for Frey to inhabit that musical space while still making his unique presence very much felt.

 
No. 7. “The Last Worthless Evening”
Don Henley, Building the Perfect Beast (1984)

This single, co-written by John Corey and Mike Campbell’s Heartbreakers bandmate Stan Lynch, just missed the Top 20 – but that’s no reflection on its lasting emotional power. Henley avoids the usual verbal jabs, instead allowing himself to open his whole heart to someone. The results are a wonder. Whether or not it all was inspired by a withering putdown from the then-recently divorced actress Michelle Pfeiffer becomes utterly beside the point.

 
No. 6. “A Life of Illusion”
Joe Walsh, There Goes the Neighborhood (1981)

By the early ’80s, Joe Walsh was slipping into addiction and then off the charts. So it was smart to return to the outline of a song dating back to sessions for 1973’s The Smoker You Drink, the Player You Get in his pre-Eagles heyday. A bouncy Top 40 hit, “Life of Illusion” finds co-writer Kenny Passarelli playing both guitarron and mariachi-style trumpet – reportedly in a drunken stupor. It’s all very fun, but still begs a question that’s entirely in keeping with this song’s larger theme: Who knows why?

 
No. 5. “The One You Love”
Glenn Frey, No Fun Aloud (1982)

Frey had a way of making solo songs that sounded nothing like his old Eagles stuff – but “The One You Love” wasn’t one of them. That’s probably because this early No. 15 hit came together with his old friend Jack Tempchin, co-writer of “Peaceful Easy Feeling,” “Already Gone” and others. On the other hand, Frey also establishes what will become a stubborn penchant for the sax. So “The One You Love” deftly accomplishes what every introductory solo hit should, with Frey’s feet firmly planted on each of his two musical worlds.

 
No. 4. “New York Minute”
Don Henley, The End of the Innocence (1989)

Henley likely heard “New York minute” while growing up in northeast Texas, and it stuck with him. He returned to the old Southern idiom – referencing how things seem to happen at a much faster pace among the city’s hustle and bustle – when Danny Kortchmar provided him with a particularly autumnal set of chord changes during sessions for The End of the Innocence. Henley’s gift for creating lost and searching characters, this time placed in resonant settings like Wall Street and Central Park, did the rest.

 
No. 3. “Life’s Been Good”
Joe Walsh, But Seriously Folks … (1978)

The winkingly debauched No. 12 hit “Life’s Been Good” follows the curious excesses and often wrong decisions of a guy who’s just lovable enough that people will put up with his bullshit. Meaning this song basically writes itself when you’re Joe Walsh in the late ’70s. Over the next few years, however, life wouldn’t be all that good. Walsh thankfully lived long enough (or more particularly, got sober enough) that these lyrical misadventures could be recalled with a happy sense of irony.

 
No. 2. “The End of the Innocence”
Don Henley, The End of the Innocence (1989)

Having already had such success finding lyrical inspiration in the finished musical ideas of others, Henley decided to cold call Bruce Hornsby. This was a few years after Hornsby rose to wider notice with his piano-driven “The Way It Is,” and he dug out a similarly constructed track from the discard pile before Henley arrived for a visit. It worked: Hornsby said Henley was only a few blocks away after leaving his house when he excitedly called back to discuss this future Top 10 hit’s new direction.

 
No. 1. “Boys of Summer”
Don Henley, Building the Perfect Beast (1984)

Henley’s signature No. 5 single began as a moody programmed track that Mike Campbell created with a drum machine – but his boss Tom Petty didn’t feel like its modern feel fit Southern Accents, the rootsier project the Heartbreakers were then working on. Campbell pitched the demo to Henley on the advice of producer Jimmy Iovine. When Henley popped it in his car’s cassette player, his thoughts turned to the way aging can impact us. Special thanks to the local Cadillac drive who affixed that Grateful Dead bumper sticker.

See Glenn Frey in 25 Interesting Rock Movie Facts

Stevie Wonder surprised fans with a new single titled “Can We Fix Our Nation’s Broken Heart,” marking his first solo release since 2020.

You can listen to the song below.

“Can We Fix Our Nation’s Broken Heart” finds Wonder reflecting on a nation torn asunder by strife, miscommunication and sorrow. “Children marching on the boulevard / Tears are streaming down their face / The tension in the air is so bizarre / Love is gone without a trace,” he sings atop delicate acoustic guitars and a languid beat.

He also suggests a solution: “If we listen to different thoughts and point of views / All my brothers and sisters / We don’t have to lose humanity / We’re family / So can we please fix our nation’s broken heart?”

READ MORE: How ‘Talking Book’ Began Stevie Wonder’s Amazing Run

Stevie Wonder’s Recent Releases and Appearances

Although Wonder hasn’t released an album since 2005’s A Time to Love, he’s issued several singles since then. “Can We Fix Our Nation’s Broken Heart” follows 2020’s “Can’t Put It in the Hands of Fate,” a funky, fiery track on which Wonder and rappers Rapsody, Chika, Cordae and Busta Rhymes criticized the glacial progress of racial justice in America. (“You say that you believe that all lives matter / I say, I don’t believe the fuck you do,” Wonder memorably proclaimed on that song.)

“Can We Fix Our Nation’s Broken Heart” arrives roughly one week after Wonder’s appearance at the 2024 Democratic National Convention, where he performed his classic song “Higher Ground.” The themes of the song mirror those in his DNC speech.

“Beyond prayer, I know the importance of action,” Wonder told the audience. “And now is the time to understand where we are and what it will take to win — win the broken hearts, win the disenchanted, win the angry spirits. Now is the time. This is the moment to remember, when you tell your children where you were and what you did. As we stand between history’s pain and tomorrow’s promises, we must choose courage over complacency. It is time to get up and go vote!”

If you’re heading to an NFL game this year be sure to bring your appetite, and maybe leave your calorie-counting app turned off. The home stadiums of football’s most popular teams have once again outdone themselves with a staggering array of Frankenstein-ed food creations, such as pizza burgers, cotton candy burritos and cannoli nachos.

You can see 16 of the wildest foods sold in NFL stadiums in the gallery below.

Can’t decide between a pizza or a burger? The Dallas Cowboys and AT&T Stadium have you covered with the Pizza Burger, which features a 16-ounce Angus beef patty sandwiched between two pepperoni pizzas with lettuce, tomato, marinara and melted mozzarella cheese.

Meanwhile, the Arizona Cardinals have made a strong case for most the “most intriguing / disgusting dessert menu item” championship belt with the Craft Culinary Concepts Cotton Candy Burrito, which finds ice cream, fruity pebbles, Skittles, M&Ms, gummy bears and sprinkles surrounded by sheets of blue or pink cotton candy.

Read More: Top 5 Super Bowl Halftime Show Performances

For a slightly less neon dessert experience, the cannoli nachos, sold at the Philadelphia Eagles’ Lincoln Finacial Field, contains cannoli nacho chips topped with Valrhona chocolate, whipped ricotta, diced strawberries, strawberry pearls, pistachio dust, caramel sauce, espresso dirt, and topped with micro mint, lemon, and donut sugar.

You’ll Have Six Months to Try and Eat All This NFL Stadium Food

The 2024 NFL season kicks off on Thursday, Sept. 5 with the reigning Super Bowl champion Kansas City Chiefs facing off against the Baltimore Ravens. Super Bowl LIX will be played in New Orleans on February 9, 2025.

Neil Young has shared a previously unreleased performance of “Thrasher” from the upcoming Archives Vol. III (1976-1987) box set. Check it out below.

The recording is from a May 1978 residency at the Boarding House in San Francisco, some of which was memorably included on Young’s 1979 live album, Rust Never Sleeps. Young debuted “Thrasher” on May 24, his opening date, and played both early and late shows over five days.

Inspiration for the song came during a drive through the American west. “I wrote ‘Thrasher’ in a car on my way to Albuquerque from Taos, New Mexico. I was being driven by Carpio, a native American who I was introduced to by Dennis Hopper filming Human Highway,” Young said on his official site.

READ MORE: Top 10 Neil Young Songs

“Driving through the magnificent beauty of New Mexico, the words just kept coming to me,” Young added. “I saw the eagles circling, the deep canyons, the road ahead, reflecting on my journey through recent years, and thankful to be where I was.”

This newly released version of “Thrasher” is from the early show on May 27. It’s one of 198 featured tracks on the 17-CD, 5 Blu-ray Neil Young Archives Vol. III (1976-1987), including live material, studio performances and new mixes and edits. More than 120 of the songs are previously unreleased.

The deluxe edition Blu-rays feature 11 films, four of which are previously unreleased, with a total of 14 hours of video. Neil Young Archives Vol. III (1976-1987) is due on Sept. 6.

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Co-founders Roger McGuinn and Chris Hillman are commemorating the Byrds‘ pioneering 1968 country-rock gem Sweetheart of the Rodeo on a new 24-song live album recorded with Marty Stuart.

Roger McGuinn, Chris Hillman with Marty Stuart and His Fabulous Superlatives Celebrate the 50th Anniversary of Sweetheart of the Rodeo is out today via Friday Music. Exclusive bundles include a poster, T-shirt and concert laminate. See a complete track listing below.

Recorded during a 27-show 50th anniversary tour in 2018, the LP was previously only available as a limited-edition Record Store Day vinyl release. “It was one of the best tours — if not the best — I was ever on in 60 years of being in music,” Hillman said in an official statement. “Every night was exciting.”

READ MORE: Top 10 Byrds Songs

Singer-songwriter Gram Parsons and drummer Kevin Kelley, the other two official members of the Byrds at the time, have both died. So members of Stuart’s band, the Fabulous Superlatives, rounded out the lineup. “I love the songs and playing with wonderful musicians,” McGuinn said. “I loved playing with Marty and the Superlatives, and Chris too. It’s a great band to play with, and they are pros.”

Listen to the Encore Performance of ‘Eight Miles High’

What Songs Are on the Byrds’ New Live Album?

Songs for the live album were selected Stuart’s audio engineer Mick Conley, who also served as producer. They included the complete reading of Sweetheart of the Rodeo, as well as related songs like Hillman’s seminal “Time Between,” Bob Dylan‘s “My Back Pages” and the Hillman-McGuinn collaboration “Old John Robertson.” Instruments from the original sessions were also featured.

The shows typically ended with encore performances of two Byrds classics, “So You Want to Be a Rock ‘n’ Roll Star” and “Turn! Turn! Turn!” Roger McGuinn, Chris Hillman with Marty Stuart and His Fabulous Superlatives Celebrate the 50th Anniversary of Sweetheart of the Rodeo also includes a final-night rendition of “Eight Miles High,” performed for the first and only time during this tour.

 

Roger McGuinn, Chris Hillman with Marty Stuart and His Fabulous Superlatives Celebrate the 50th Anniversary of Sweetheart of the Rodeo Track Listing
“My Back Pages”
“A Satisfied Mind”
“Mr. Spaceman”
“Time Between”
“Old John Robertson”
“Wasn’t Born to Follow”
“Sing Me Back Home”
“Drug Store Truck Drivin’ Man”
“Mr. Tambourine Man”
“You Ain’t Goin’ Nowhere”
“Pretty Boy Floyd”
“Hickory Wind”
“Life In Prison”
“One Hundred Years From Now”
“Nothing Was Delivered”
“Blue Canadian Rockies”
“The Christian Life”
“You’re Still on My Mind”
“You Don’t Miss Your Water”
“I Am a Pilgrim”
“So You Want to Be a Rock ‘n’ Roll Star”
“I Feel a Whole Lot Better”
“Eight Miles High”
“Turn! Turn! Turn!”

A new deluxe Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers box set is on the way. This one will feature music from 1982’s Long After Dark.

In addition to the remastered original album, the set boasts 12 that have been newly mixed, plus versions taken from French TV sessions, commentary from Jimmy Iovine and Cameron Crowe and archival photographs.

“Long After Dark, we thought we had it,” Iovine said in a statement. “Sounded like [Bob Dylan‘s] ‘Positively Fourth Street,’ sounded like one of those records, you know. By the way, I think it is!”

A complete track listing is available for viewing below, as well as the French TV version of “Straight Into Darkness.” The box set will be released on Oct. 18.

The Making of ‘Long After Dark’

Long After Dark is notable for being the first Heartbreakers album to feature Howie Epstein on bass and harmony vocals. It fared quite well in the U.S., reaching No. 9 on the Billboard 200 and spawning the hit “You Got Lucky,” but even so, Petty himself had some reservations.

READ MORE: The Best Song From Every Tom Petty Album

“It wasn’t that I didn’t like it,” he explained in 2005’s Conversations With Tom Petty. “I just had this feeling that we were treading water. I would say it’s a good record, and when I hear it now, it’s much better than I thought it was. But the only complaint I had with Long After Dark was that I’m not sure that we’re really moving forward here. It’s a good little rock and roll record with good songs and good playing. But I don’t know that we advanced a lot on that record.”

In related events, the Wallflowers will perform the entirety of Long After Dark at one of their own concerts in Los Angeles on Oct. 2.

Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers, ‘Long After Dark (Deluxe Edition),’ Track Listing
DISC 1
1. “A One Story Town”
2. “You Got Lucky”
3. “Deliver Me”
4. “Change of Heart”
5. “Finding Out”
6. “We Stand a Chance”
7. “Straight Into Darkness”
8. “The Same Old You”
9. “Between Two Worlds”
10. “A Wasted Life”

DISC 2
1. “Stories We Could Tell” (French TV)
2. “Never Be You” *
3. “Turning Point” (Original Drums Version)
4. “Don’t Make Me Walk The Line” *
5. “I’m Finding Out” (French TV) *
6. “Heartbreakers Beach Party” (Extended Version)
7. “Keeping Me Alive” (French TV)
8. “Straight Into Darkness” (French TV)
9. “Ways to Be Wicked” (Denver Sessions) *
10. “Between Two Worlds” (French TV) *
11. “One On One” *
12. “Wild Thing” *

* previously unreleased

Tom Petty Albums Ranked

He’s a rock ‘n’ roll rarity: an artist who was consistent until the very end.

Gallery Credit: Bryan Wawzenek