Classic Hits

Elton John got some criticism recently for comments he made about former President Donald Trump, which he’s now clarifying.

Variety reported that Elton was asked about Donald Trump calling North Korean leader Kim Jong Un “Little Rocket Man” several years back. Elton said, “I laughed. I thought that was brilliant. I just thought, ‘Good on you, Donald’ … Donald’s always been a fan of mine and he’s been to my concerts many, many times … I’ve always been friendly toward him and I thank him for his support.”

But Elton’s taken to Instagram to say that he wasn’t throwing his support behind Trump.

“Part of an interview I gave … is being taken out of context and falsely misconstrued as a personal endorsement of Donald Trump,” Elton wrote. “It’s not. I was simply acknowledging the fact that Trump has long been a fan of my music, and that historically he’s been very kind to me about that.”

His message included a video of a portion of the “misconstrued” interview, in which he is seen saying, “I don’t go onstage and say to people, ‘You mustn’t vote for the Republicans, you mustn’t vote for the Democrats.’ It’s none of my business how they vote. They come to see me, and I’m so grateful they have.”

He goes on to say, “I just want people to vote for things that are just, things that are important to people: the right to choose, the right to be who you are, and not let anybody else tell you who to be. And that goes all the way up to the Supreme Court.”

Elton concluded his post, “My fans know these are my true values and they are reflected in my personal life, my music and my philanthropic work with the Elton John AIDS Foundation.”

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David Gilmour‘s new album, Luck And Strange, has landed him his third solo #1 album in his native U.K.

The Pink Floyd guitarist fought off a strong challenge from Oasis, whose album catalog has returned to the charts in full force since they announced a reunion tour. They currently occupy three of the top five positions on the U.K.’s Official Album Chart.

“I’d like to thank everyone who’s bought my new album, Luck And Strange, and helped to make it Number 1 in the Official Albums Chart,” Gilmour said in a statement. He’d previously topped the chart with On An Island from 2006 and Rattle That Lock from 2015.

Gilmour also addressed yet again the question of whether Pink Floyd would ever reunite. Speaking to the U.K.’s ITV News, he said, “Dream on. I mean, it’s not gonna happen. There’s only three people left and we’re not talking, and are unlikely to – so it’s not gonna happen.”

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A play inspired by an infamous drug bust involving The Rolling Stones‘ Mick Jagger, Keith Richards and Jagger’s then-girlfriend Marianne Faithfull has inspired a new play, which will premiere Sept. 20 at the Chichester Festival Theatre.

The play, Redlands, is named after Richards’ country house in West Sussex, England. It tells the story of how Jagger, Richards, Faithfull were hanging out at Redlands when it was raided by police, and Jagger and Richards were subsequently charged for drug possession. The raid was put into motion by the tabloid paper News of the World, which was trying to get dirt on Jagger.

There were actually very few drugs found at the house, but the tabloids turned the story into a salacious one,  gleefully reporting the detail that Faithfull had just taken a shower and was naked at the time of the raid.

Jagger and Richards were taken to jail, put on trial and sentenced to prison. But after public outcry, a famous editorial by The Times protesting the harsh sentences and a full-page ad signed by celebrities, Richards’ sentence was overturned on appeal, while Jagger was given a conditional discharge.

The play focuses on those events, as well as the lawyer who defended the Stones in court — Michael Havers — and his teenage son Nigel Havers, who went on to become a famous actor.

The theater’s artistic director, Justin Audibert, tells The Sussex Express, “Really it was the moment when the established order was really challenged by elements that it didn’t understand, and then through the trial it was revealed that the general population actually wanted to live in a different way and wanted to embrace elements of the counter culture that The Rolling Stones represented.”

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Queen has just released a new video for “The Night Comes Down,” a track on their debut album, Queen I, which is getting a “collector’s edition” release on Oct. 25.

The video features archival footage of the band from the ’70s, including shots of them performing onstage. However, according to the band, “Following a collaboration with an artist specializing in AI, some of those images have been given a whole new dimension. Hopefully, the end result is a sense of what it was like being around the band as their extraordinary journey began.”

The AI aspect of the video seems largely to involve psychedelic animation of the footage of the band performing, but it’s not clear. 

“The track is something I’m incredibly proud of; I wrote it 50 years ago and it’s taken all this time for it to become a single … so I’m excited,” said Queen guitarist Brian May in an Instagram post. “I hope you enjoy.”

As previously reported, a physical 7-inch vinyl single of the song is available for preorder now; it’ll be released Oct. 4. As for the collector’s edition of Queen I, it comes with six CDs and one LP, featuring 63 tracks with 43 brand new mixes, plus a 108-page book featuring handwritten lyrics and memorabilia. It’ll also be released as a single CD and two-CD deluxe edition, as well as on vinyl, picture disc and cassette.

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Forget about halfway there, Bon Jovi has made it.

Their classic “Livin’ on a Prayer” has been RIAA-certified Diamond for sales of 10 million units. It’s the second such certification for the band, following the Diamond certification of their album Slippery When Wet. In case you’re wondering, “Wanted Dead or Alive” has “only” sold 6 million units, while “You Give Love a Bad Name” currently stands at a measly 5 million units.

“Livin’ on a Prayer” is included on Bon Jovi’s Greatest Hits, which makes its vinyl debut Sept. 13 as either a two-LP or one-LP version. The collection, first released on 2010, has been RIAA-certified Platinum and includes all the band’s hits from their first 30 years. 

In addition to “Wanted,” “You Give Love” and “Livin’,” the album features classics like “It’s My Life,” “Bad Medicine,” “Born to Be My Baby,” “Lay Your Hands on Me,” “Who Says You Can’t Go Home,” “Always” and “Runaway,” as well as two songs the band recorded especially for the album: “What Do You Got?” and “No Apologies.”

In other Bon Jovi news, Jon Bon Jovi joined Pitbull onstage to perform “It’s My Life” on Sept. 12 when the Miami rapper performed at Jones Beach Theater on Long Island, New York. Pitbull said on Instagram that they have a “new collab coming soon.“

Here’s the track listing for the two-LP version:

LP1 – Side A
“Livin’ On A Prayer”
“You Give Love A Bad Name”
“It’s My Life”
“Have A Nice Day”
“Wanted Dead Or Alive”

LP1 – Side B
“Bad Medicine”
“We Weren’t Born To Follow”
“I’ll Be There For You”

LP2 – Side C
“Born To Be My Baby”
“Blaze Of Glory”
“Who Says You Can’t Go Home”
“Lay Your Hands On Me”

LP2 – Side D
“Always”
“Runaway”
“What Do You Got?”
“No Apologies”

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On This Day, Sept. 13, 1965 …

The Beatles released “Yesterday,” written by Paul McCartney, although it’s credited to both McCartney and John Lennon.

McCartney is the only Beatle to appear on the track, which was featured on the album Help!, except for in the U.S., where it eventually appeared on the album Yesterday and Today.

The Beatles decided not to release it as a single in the U.K., although they did in the U.S., where it hit #1 and spent four weeks on top of the chart.

It became one of the most recorded songs in popular history, with more than 2,000 cover versions.

The tune was inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame in 1997.

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Elvis Costello is revisiting his 1986 album, King Of America, by doing a super deep dive, not just into that album, but all the albums he made in the U.S. over the last 40 years.

This musical project, titled King Of America and Other Realms, is due out Nov 1. The centerpiece is a six-disc boxed set that includes the original remastered album, and a disc of demos and outtakes from 1985. There’s also a disc that documents a 1987 concert at London’s Royal Albert Hall, and three discs of songs — featuring collaborations, demos, outtakes and live recordings — from albums that Costello recorded in America and released between 1989 and 2018. 

Those albums include 1989’s Spike; 2004’s The Delivery Man; 2006’s The River In Reverse; 2008’s Momofuku; 2009’s Secret, Profane & Sugarcane; 2010’s National Ransom; and 2018’s Look Now.

The six-CD box set comes with a 35-page essay by Costello, plus rare and unseen photos, in a 57-page booklet. For a full track listing, visit Elvis’ official online store.

If that’s a bit too much Elvis for you, King Of America and Other Realms is also available as a double CD, featuring the new remaster of the album and highlights of the box set. The new remaster will also be available on 140-gram black vinyl and limited-edition 140-gram gold nugget-colored vinyl.

The first taste of the project is the 2024 remaster of the King Of America track “Indoor Fireworks.” Other tracks of interest include a first draft version of the album’s single, “Brilliant Mistake,” and collaborations with Emmylou Harris, Lucinda Williams, Rosanne Cash and Kris Kristofferson.

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Bruce Springsteen and The E Street Band got their start in Asbury Park, New Jersey, and now they are set to return to the beachside town on Sunday to headline the annual Sea.Hear.Now festival.

The Boss’ longtime friend and E Street Band guitarist Stevie Van Zandt is certainly looking forward to heading back to where it all started for them and knows it’s going to be quite an experience for fans.

“You don’t want to be within a hundred miles. I mean, it’s gonna be insane,” he tells ABC Audio. “It’s going to be crazy and wild and fun, obviously.”

Sea.Hear.Now was launched in 2018 and has been part of the continuing resurgence of Asbury Park, which Van Zandt says had been “just a wasteland” for the past 20 to 25 years.

“And now it’s happening, man, you know, lots of new restaurants, hotels and all kinds of fun things down there,” he shares. “So, you know, it’s gonna be fun, man.” 

The Sea.Hear.Now festival, which runs Sept. 14-15, will feature fellow New Jersey natives The Gaslight Anthem on the same bill as The Boss, which sets up the possibility for an onstage collaboration. The two artists have performed together in the past, and Springsteen has appeared on the Gaslight song “History Books,” the title track from their most recent album.

Other artists on the Sea.Hear.Now bill include Noah Kahan, who’ll headline Saturday, The Black Crowes, Trey Anastasio Band, Kool & The Gang, Norah Jones and 311. Check out seahearnowfestival.com for a complete lineup.

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Tears For Fears have finally captured one of their performances live for both an album and a concert film. The album, Songs For a Nervous Planet, is due out Oct. 25, while the film, Tears For Fears Live (A Tipping Point Film), will be shown in theaters Oct. 24 and Oct. 26.

In addition to live versions of hits like “Everybody Wants to Rule the World,” “Sowing the Seeds of Love,” “Mad World,” “Shout” and “Head Over Heels,” the album features four new studio tracks, including “The Girl That I Call Home,” which is available now.

The concert film was shot in Franklin, Tennessee, during the band’s Tipping Point Tour Part 2. It’s being distributed in more than 1,000 theaters worldwide, and tickets go on sale Sept. 19. A clip of the band’s “Sowing the Seeds of Love” performance from the film is available on YouTube now.

Tears for Fears member Curt Smith says, “We decided to film the live show last year. I think a lot of people don’t know that we are a good live band, actually!” He adds, “Over the years, we’ve vastly improved since our heyday back in the Eighties.”

Bandmate Roland Orzabal notes, “We’ve never released an official live album, so you could say this is an album forty years in the making.”

Tears For Fears recently announced a three-night stand at the BleauLive Theater at Fontainebleau Las Vegas on Oct. 30, Nov. 1 and Nov. 2.

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Eric Clapton is the only artist to date who’s been inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame three times — as a solo artist, and as a member of The Yardbirds and Cream. Despite that, he doesn’t think much of the institution.

In an interview with The Real Music Observer, Clapton reacted to the fact that guitarist J.J. Cale isn’t in the Rock Hall by launching into a diss of its existence.

“I came to that thing, whatever it is — I think of it as a frat boys club that happened to lure [me] in — I think the fact that they had [late Atlantic Records executive] Ahmet Ertegun was the ticket for me,” he said.

Clapton said he initially admired the fact that Ertegun, who was then chairman of the Hall, was attempting to get recognition for early artists like Ruth Brown and The Drifters “that were being forgotten.” But then, he added, “It just kind of started to snowball.”

Clapton noted he became “suspicious” of the Hall because Rolling Stone magazine was very involved with it and claimed it was his late friend Robbie Robertson who “persuaded” him to be a part of it as well. While Clapton did describe his reunion with Cream for their induction as “magic,” he now calls the Hall “a get-together … a schmooze.”

Clapton also complained, “The fact that someone like J.J. has never even been suggested is proof of what that thing is, or proof of what it isn’t … he’s too anonymous for those guys.”

When the fact that neither Paul Rodgers nor his band Bad Company are in the Hall was brought up, Clapton said, “He’s a rebel. It’s not a place for rebels. It’s establishment stuff.”

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