Classic Hits

For his 1973 album Pin Ups, David Bowie recorded his version of The Who‘s “I Can’t Explain.” But a different take from Bowie on the Who classic has been released ahead of an upcoming box set.

This previously unheard version, called “I Can’t Explain (Trident Studios Version – Take 2),” was recorded in London in 1972, and it’s much faster than the slowed-down version that Bowie eventually put on Pin Ups. It’s included on the five-CD/Blue-ray audio box set Rock ‘N’ Roll Star!, due out June 14.

As previously reported, the box set features 29 unreleased tracks that show Bowie’s musical journey from February 1971 to the release of 1972’s The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars. Those tracks include early songwriting demos, rehearsals from Bowie’s home, BBC sessions, live performances, outtakes and alternative versions.

The Blu-ray adds the 2012 remaster of the original Ziggy Stardust album, additional mixes from 2003 and an alternate version of the album, Waiting in the Sky (Before the Starman Came to Earth), featuring recordings made at Trident Studios in December 1971. Two books are also included in the package, including a 36-page reproduction of Bowie’s personal Ziggy Stardust-era notebooks.

Rock ‘N’ Roll Star! is available for preorder now.

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Since he’s British, Mick Jagger is not eligible to vote in the upcoming U.S. presidential election this November — but he wants American Rolling Stones fans to be sure they do.

While onstage at Gillette Stadium in Foxborough, Massachusetts, on Thursday, Jagger introduced the portion of the show where the Stones play a song voted on by fans. In fan-recorded video, Jagger can be seen telling the crowd, “Now we’ve got the vote song for you, which everyone got really involved in, I wanna thank you … so many people voted.”

“And what’s more important than that is, November, there’s a presidential election, so don’t forget to vote in that,” Jagger continued. “Don’t take anything for granted!”

The band then performed the song that the fans chose: “Emotional Rescue,” which they hadn’t played onstage since 2014.

Jagger, of course, didn’t tell the crowd who to vote for, though in the past the Stones have had multiple disagreements with former President Donald Trump over the unauthorized use of their songs at his campaign events.

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In addition to the record-setting $2.9 million sale of John Lennon‘s 12-string guitar, the two-day Music Icons sale by Julien’s Auctions brought big bucks for instruments by other rock legends.

The 1965 Fender Telecaster guitar played by Bob Dylan on his album Blonde on Blonde and on his now-legendary 1966 tour, and subsequently used by The Band‘s Robbie Robertson on countless other recordings, sold for $650,000. Jerry Garcia‘s Travis Bean “Winterland Ballroom” guitar went for $520,000. The Les Paul guitar played by Steve Jones during his time in The Sex Pistols went for $390,000.

The 1959 Gibson Les Paul that The Guess Who‘s Randy Bachman used to write and record the #1 hit “American Woman” went for more than $285,000. All told, the auction sold 187 of Bachman’s guitars.

Instruments used by U2 also did well: Bono‘s autographed 2005 Gretsch Irish Falcon guitar and a Fender bass used by Adam Clayton during the band’s Las Vegas residency each brought $260,000.

A yellow “Cloud 3″ electric guitar used by Prince in the ’80s and ’90s, once believed to be lost, went for a whopping $910,000, setting a new record for the most expensive Prince guitar ever sold at auction.

Other fun items that were sold at the auction include a red wrestling singlet worn onstage by Queen‘s Freddie Mercury in 1984, which went for $91,000; the sneakers Adam Clayton wore during U2’s Vegas residency, which went for more than $11,000; and a Versace dress worn by Tina Turner during her 1996 Wildest Dreams tour, which sold for $38,100.

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Rush’s Alex Lifeson helped his bandmate Geddy Lee promote his memoir, My Effin Life, last year, popping up at some book tour stops where he and Geddy got to share stories from their days in Rush. 

Lifeson, of course, plays a big role in Geddy’s story, so he appears in the book often. So, how did he feel reading about himself and their times together?

“(Geddy) sent me a copy of the first edited version,” he tells ABC Audio. “I cried, I laughed out loud, I was mesmerized by it.” 

“When I read it, it really struck me that we have this amazing friendship that’s lasted for half a century,” he adds. “And it started out as just two kids in junior high school who were buddies and then started a basement band that became a garage band, that became a high school band and on and on.”

Lifeson notes that what happened to them was a “dream come true for so many young musicians and so many certainly male teenagers. It’s a remarkable story.”

Now that Geddy’s written his memoir, does Lifeson feel the need to tell his side of things with his own?

“I’m way too lazy for that,” he says. “But I keep getting asked that and my wife says I should do it just because there’s stories I tell, road stories, she said are so hilarious, if you put them in a nice little book, it could be a real fun thing.” 

He adds, “So who knows, maybe if I can get some motivation.”

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It appears as though Queen‘s catalog is still up for grabs.

There have been multiple reports that the beloved British rockers’ catalog of hits was being offered for sale, and Bloomberg reports that Sony, along with another investor, is looking to purchase it in a deal that could be worth $1 billion. That would make it the biggest deal of its kind, surpassing the $500 million Sony paid for Bruce Springsteen‘s catalog a few years ago.

According to the BBC, the deal is still being negotiated and may not end up resulting in a sale. If it does go through, it would cover all the band’s songs, plus its logos, videos, merch, publishing and more.

The BBC notes that Queen is more popular than Springsteen worldwide, boasting 52 million monthly listeners on Spotify as opposed to Bruce’s 20 million. The group’s company, Queen Productions Ltd., earned $52 million in 2022, the last year for which financial statements are available.

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Art, sculptures and historic collectables from the Deer Island, Maine, estate of late singer/songwriter Dan Fogelberg will be sold by Thomaston Place Auction Galleries on June 28, 29 and 30.

The items came from a cottage Fogelberg purchased in the mid-’80s and include European marble and bronze sculptures, European prints — including a Rembrandt etching, Native American artifacts and decorative arts. In a statement, his wife Jean said, “Dan’s taste in art was as diverse and eclectic as his taste in music and he collected from all over the country.”

“As an art major at the University of Illinois, he studied American and European masters and their techniques,” she continued. “After his first hit records, he left Los Angeles for a ranch in Colorado and became immersed in the western and Native American cultures of the Four Corners region of the southwest.”

Jean notes that after he purchased the cottage, Dan “sailed the coast of New England until the last months of his life.”

The auction is accessible online for those who can’t make it to Maine. Visit thomastonauction.com for more details.

Fogelberg announced in 2004 that he’d been diagnosed with prostate cancer. He died at the Deer Island home in 2007 at the age of 56. Among his many hits were “Leader of the Band,” “Longer,” “Same Old Lang Syne,” “Part of the Plan,” “Run for the Roses” and “Hard to Say.”

In 2023, a controlling interest in his catalog, name, image and likeness was purchased by Irving Azoff‘s Iconic Artists Group. In addition to being a legendary music executive, Azoff was Fogelberg’s old college buddy and his former manager.

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Jon Bon Jovi is marrying his kids off faster than we can track. Within a few weeks in May his son Jesse got married, followed by his son Jake, who wed Millie Bobby Brown in secret. Jon is now sharing the song that he wrote for his daughter, Stephanie, who is engaged to be married.

Back in February Jon said that he’d written the “wedding song of the century” for Stephanie’s impending nuptials. On Wednesday he posted a clip of the ballad, which is from Bon Jovi‘s upcoming album, FOREVER.

“‘Kiss the Bride’ was written for my daughter, Stephanie, who is engaged to be married,” Jon says. “I hope that you like it as much as I do, [and] maybe even consider it a wedding song for someone you know.”

“But my little baby, who I wrote ‘I Got the Girl’ for when she was 5 years old, is now 30 years old,” he continues. “Different place in my life, different place in her life. But she’s always gonna still be my 5-year-old princess.”

Jon sings in the song, “‘Just married’ sign, you drive away/ First dance, then you cut the cake/ We say each word and hold a glass up high/ You may kiss the bride.”

FOREVER arrives June 7.

By the way, Jon has one more child who isn’t married or engaged: 20-year-old Romeo.

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Van Morrison just announced a new live album called Be Just and Fear Not: Live at Orangefield, which was recorded during a series of concerts in August 2014 at his old high school in Belfast, Northern Ireland. In July, he’s returning to Belfast to preview what might be yet another new album.

Van the Man will do a special lunchtime concert on July 11 at East Belfast’s Stormont Hotel, during which, according to Tourism Ireland, he’ll “play a selection of his new songs for the very first time.” According to the hotel, the concert is an “album launch,” but it’s not clear what album is being launched.

Either way, tickets for the intimate show are available now via Ticketmaster. With prices starting at about $320 each, they aren’t cheap, but they do come with a four-course lunch.

Live at Orangefield will be Morrison’s first live album since a box set version of 1974’s It’s Too Late to Stop Now came out in 2016. His last album of new, original material is 2022’s What’s It Gonna Take?

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Blondie‘s Debbie Harry is an occasional actress, and her latest role is in Catharsis, a 17-minute experimental film that will have its world premiere June 14 at this year’s Tribeca Festival.

According to Variety, the movie is about Alex, a dancer whose destructive behavior is being fueled by his grief over the death of his mother. Harry plays his superstitious aunt, Anya, who thinks that Alex’s behavior is caused by a family curse. She talks him into going to see a therapist who uses unorthodox methods to help him “confront his inner demons.”

The movie is directed by Brian Logvinsky and stars Harrison Ball as Alex. Logvinsky met Harry through Ball and cast her in the movie. “Debbie is a real star, a legend of culture, and an incredibly beautiful human being,” he told Variety. 

Harry isn’t the only one in the cast with a rock pedigree: it also stars Jemima Kirke, the actress daughter of Bad Company drummer Simon Kirke.

Prior to Catharsis, Debbie Harry’s most recent acting job was appearing as herself in a 2020 episode of the TV series High Fidelity.

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Dire Straits frontman Mark Knopfler, AC/DC and Chaka Khan are among the honorees at this year’s Silver Clef Awards, a charity gala scheduled to take place July 5 in London.

The annual ceremony is presented by the charity Nordoff and Robbins, which provides music therapy to those “living with life-limiting illness, disability and isolation.”

Knopfler is being honored with the Icon Award. He says in a statement, “It’s a privilege to support an event that is directly part of such important music therapy work.”

He adds, “Nordoff and Robbins believes in sharing the value of music with everyone who needs it – that’s why I’m a longtime supporter and will continue to help raise funds so Nordoff and Robbins’ music therapists can continue their vital work.”

AC/DC is receiving the Legend Award at the event. Singer Brian Johnson says in a statement, “As a band, we’ve been dishing out our own brand of music therapy for the past five decades, so to hear all about how Nordoff and Robbins helps the young and the old with the power of music is something that we understand and salute.”

Chaka Khan is receiving the Global Impact Award. “I’m grateful for this beautiful honor to be part of the Nordoff and Robbins creative community, where the power of music is used to transform, inspire, and bring love to the world,” Khan says. “Music really does heal.”

The awards, which have been presented since 1976, have raised more than $16.5 million for Nordoff and Robbins’ music therapy services. Past honorees have included Paul McCartney, The Rolling Stones, Roger Waters and David Bowie.

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