Classic Hits

Legendary rock band the Grateful Dead will be the subject of a new Stanford Continuing Studies course this fall.

Did It Matter? Does It Now? The Music and Culture of the Grateful Dead is an eight-week course that kicks off Oct. 3, taught by David Gans, producer and host of the nationally syndicated Grateful Dead Hour.

The course will feature a variety of Dead-related guest speakers, including David Lemieux, Grateful Dead archivist and legacy manager; Dennis McNally, former Grateful Dead publicist and author of A Long Strange Trip: The Inside History of the Grateful Dead; and Jesse Jarnow, producer/host of The Good Ol’ Grateful Deadcast. 

According to the description, the course “will feature a collection of stories and conversations with scholars and historians, each offering facts and personal perspectives illuminating every aspect of the Grateful Dead culture.”

It will use music from live and studio recordings “to learn what makes the Dead’s music-making unique and explore the broad musical universe the band created in its 30-year history.” The course will also explore the band’s impact on society, art, literature, social change and more.

The description notes, “By the end of the course, students will have a well-rounded appreciation for the roots, struggles, and milestones that shaped the Grateful Dead’s trajectory, an understanding of their profound impact on music and culture, and insight into a legacy that still resonates deeply today.”

Registration for the course is now open.

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Two reel-to-reel audio tapes featuring a soundboard recording of a Toronto Beatles concert may soon be up for sale. 

Billboard reports the owner, Piers Hemmingsen, a Toronto-based Beatles historian and author of The Beatles in Canada, is looking to sell the recordings, which were made at Toronto’s Maple Leaf Gardens on Aug. 17, 1965. 

“I have never offered it for sale before,” Hemmingsen shares. “This is the best recording of any Beatles concert in Canada, if not North America, other than what was professionally recorded for The Beatles themselves.”

The reels include The Beatles’ full half-hour set, including performances of “Twist and Shout,” “Ticket To Ride,” “Help!” and “A Hard Day’s Night,” along with recordings of the day’s opening acts and venue announcements. 

Hemmingsen says he has a copy of the concert on cassette, strictly for listening purposes, and while he’d like to keep it, he’s willing to sell it, as well. He didn’t say how much he wants for the recording, but Dan Muscatelli-Hampson, of U.K.-based music memorabilia and vinyl specialists Omega Auctions Ltd., estimated to Billboard it could be worth between $60,000 and $80,000.

So far Hemmingsen hasn’t put the reels on the market and says he’d prefer to sell it to Apple Corps, so Beatles fans may one day hear it.

“You can’t sit on a thing like this,” he says. “You want to share it with the world. On the other hand, there’s a commercial value to it and the only people that can release it are Apple.”

Hemmingsen plans to use the money toward printing his next two Beatles books, The Beatles in Canada: The Evolution 1964-1970, due out in September, and a follow-up, The Beatles In Canada: The Origins of Beatlemania!

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B-52s founding member Kate Pierson is sharing a new preview of her upcoming solo album, Radios and Rainbows, set to drop Sept. 20.

The latest is the club track “Take Me Back To The Party,” which she co-write with Jimmy Harry, who previously worked with Madonna, Pink and many others.

“I wanted this song to connect with B-52s fans,” Pierson shares. “It’s a disco song that conjures a younger Kate back in the day when I just couldn’t wait to get into clubs. It takes me back to my Party Girl past! I just love a good dance song.”

This is the second single released from Radios and Rainbows, Kate’s first solo album since her solo debut, 2015’s Guitars and Microphones. She previously released the track “Evil Love.“

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KISS is celebrating the 35th anniversary of their album Hot in the Shade with an all-new merch collection.

The line includes special limited-edition bundles; one features a 35th anniversary Hot in the Shade deluxe picture disc, along with a Hot in the Shade track list T-shirt, while another includes a limited-edition color vinyl with a hoodie.

The line also includes various T-shirts, a brown hoodie, tank top, hat, sunglasses and a bandana.

All are on sale now through the KISS store.

Released in October 1989, Hot in the Shade was the 15th studio album by KISS and came out during their non-makeup era. It was the final KISS album to feature drummer Eric Carr on all the songs. Carr was also featured on vocals for the song “Little Caesar,” the first time since 1981’s Music From The Elder that someone other than Paul Stanley or Gene Simmons handled lead vocals on a tune.

The biggest hit on the record was “Forever,” a ballad written by Stanley and Michael Bolton, which was a top 10 hit for the rockers.

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Def Leppard fans may debate which of their albums is better, 1983’s Pyromania or 1987’s Hysteria, but you won’t hear frontman Joe Elliott picking a favorite.

Elliott was asked to pick a fav in an interview with the Los Angeles Times and had a very diplomatic answer.

“Obviously, the breakthrough was Pyromania — the memories from that tour of being this band that got out of a bus and walked into a hotel to being this band that got off the bus and we couldn’t even get into the hotel because there were too many kids blocking the way,” he shares. “But by 1987, when it’s the second time, it’s the second time, you know what I mean? So what you had was the first and then the bigger.”

He adds, “Which of them is better? I just blend them together and go, The ’80s were great.”

Elliott also shared his thoughts on Taylor Swift, who the band did a CMT Crossroads with back in 2008. He says while nobody could have predicted the success she’d have, “you look at it now and it kind of makes sense.”

Elliott says in 2008 “there was no such thing as what she accomplished,” comparing her success to The Beatles and The Rolling Stones, noting, “for people born this century or in the ’90s, this is a phenomenon that’s never been seen before –  technically bigger than the Beatles and the Stones combined, at least commercially.”

“But I always knew she’d be big. And for all the hardships she’s gone though — the people who’ve tried to trip her up over the years at certain parts of her career — she’s just dusted herself down,” he adds. “She’s a fantastic role model for a generation of kids.”

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Bryan Adams has dropped a video for the song “War Machine,” which is his take on one of two songs he co-wrote in the ’80s with Jim Vallance and Gene Simmons for KISS.

The video opens with Adams walking through a field holding a white flag with a peace sign, and as the camera pans out you realize he’s next to a battlefield. That’s followed by combat footage, including fighter planes flying through the air and soldiers on the ground.

There’s also footage of men in suits in a war room making decisions about what’s happening on the battlefield, and it ends with the man in charge ordering the bombing of the area, only for the missile to turn around and drop on the big white house where the man is calling the shots.

Earlier in August, Adams dropped his version of the other song he co-wrote for KISS, “Rock and Roll Hell.” Both tracks appeared on KISS’ 1982 album, Creatures of the Night.

Adams is set to release both songs as a limited-edition double A-side 7-inch single on Aug. 30. It is available for preorder now at bryanadams.com.

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Daryl Hall was forced to cut his Thursday night concert short after not feeling well.

The singer, one half of the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame duo Hall & Oates, was performing in Vancouver when he walked off the stage after just three songs. A post on social media from his management revealed that he had started to feel ill during the show and later tested positive for COVID-19. 

Because of his positive test, Hall has now canceled his Friday appearance at the Albertsons Boise Open in Idaho.

“Daryl feels horrible about having to cancel and would like to thank the many concerned fans for their well wishes,” the post concluded.

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On This Day, Aug. 23, 1946 … 

Future The Who drummer Keith Moon was born in North West London.

Moon joined the band in 1964 before they recorded their first single and went on to play on eight of The Who’s albums, with his last being 1978’s Who Are You.

Throughout his musical career, he was known for his destructive nature and turned trashing hotel rooms into an art. 

He dealt with alcohol problems over the years and died in September 1978 from an overdose of a drug that was supposed to prevent alcohol withdrawal.

The Who’s Roger Daltrey has been very vocal about his attempts to make a Keith Moon biopic. In February 2023, he revealed that he had finished the script for the movie, but since then no other details about the film have been revealed.

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Pretenders frontwoman Chrissie Hynde wants people to stop and think before they eat meat again.

The rocker and well-known vegetarian is featured in a new billboard for PETA that just went up in Chicago ahead of the Pretenders’ concert in the city on Friday, urging folks to reconsider consuming animal products. 

“The animal you’re eating wanted his life just as much as you want yours,” the billboard reads. “Don’t pretend any different!”

PETA’s future plans include running the ad in Hynde’s hometown of Akron, Ohio, as well as in cities on Pretenders’ upcoming European tour.

Friday’s show at the Chicago Theatre is the last U.S. date on the Pretenders’ 2024 tour. The European leg kicks off Sept. 6 in Randers, Denmark. A complete list of dates can be found at thepretenders.com.

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Journey’s Neal Schon has once again addressed the ongoing dispute between him and bandmate Jonathan Cain, revealing on social media that they plan to bring in a third party to help them settle their issues.

“Anyone who follows Journey will know that Jon Cain and I don’t always see eye-to-eye on everything Or, sometimes, on pretty much anything,” Schon wrote. “Recently, Jon Cain made a number of claims and slanderous accusations about me and my wife – and I can’t stress enough how much it upset me and how wrong they are.” 

Regardless, Schon says his main goal is to stay focused on the band’s current tour, adding he’s “determined to take the high road and push all this aside for the moment.”

He says that he and Jon are now agreeing that “the current dynamic can’t continue,” so they plan to hire “someone impartial” to deal with their issues. He says the person’s aim will be to “help us resolve our disputes, bring clarity to what we’re doing and allow us, as a band, to get back to what we should all focus on – making music and performing for our fans.”

So far Cain hasn’t commented on Schon’s remarks, although he seems to be getting what he wants. On July 24 he filed a lawsuit in Delaware detailing what he claimed was Schon’s overspending, although in a statement he insisted the aim of the suit was to get the court to appoint a third, independent director to serve on the band’s Freedom 2020 board in order to deal with “growing issues” between them.

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