Classic Hits

It’s been over 30 years since Talking Heads split up on bad terms, and frontman David Byrne is feeling bad about what went down.

“As a younger person, I was not as pleasant to be around. When I was working on some Talking Heads shows, I was more of a little tyrant,” he tells People in a new interview. “And then I learned to relax, and I also learned that collaborating with people, both sides get more if there’s a good relationship instead of me telling everybody what to do.” 

He adds, “I think [the end] wasn’t handled well. It was kind of ugly.”

Talking Heads released their last album, Naked, in 1988, and in 1992, drummer Chris Frantz revealed in a Los Angeles Times interview that Byrne basically left the band and they were over. 

“I have regrets on how that was handled,” Byrne says. “I don’t think I did it in the best way, but I think it was kind of inevitable that would happen anyway.” He now describes his relationship with his former bandmates as “cordial,” adding, “We’re sort of in touch, but we don’t hang out together.” 

Talking Heads did reunite in 2002 to perform at their Rock & Roll Hall of Fame induction ceremony, and they are set to unite again September 11 at the Toronto Film Festival. All four members — Byne, Frantz, Tina Weymouth and Jerry Harrison — will take part in a Q&A to mark the 40th anniversary of their iconic concert film, Stop Making Sense.

The film is also being rereleased in theaters September 22; a new trailer for it has just dropped. 

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Joni Mitchell has announced the latest addition to her Archives series.  

Joni Mitchell Archives, Vol. 3: The Asylum Years (1972-1975), dropping October 6, will feature never-before-heard demos, performances and early and alternative versions of songs from three of her albums: 1972’s For The Roses, 1974’s Court And Spark, and 1975’s The Hissing Of Summer Lawns.

The set includes an early cut of “Cold Blue Steel and Sweet Fire” from sessions with Graham Nash and David Crosby, as well as Joni’s entire 1972 concert at Carnegie Hall, performances in Montreal in 1973 and Los Angeles in 1974 and a whole lot more. There’s also an early demo of the Court and Spark classic “Help Me,” which is available now.

Volume 3 will be released in a variety of formats, including a five-CD/digital version and a shorter four-LP version. Both physical versions include a book with archival photos along with a conversation between Joni and director and friend Cameron Crowe.

Joni Mitchell Archives, Vol. 3: The Asylum Years (1972-1975) is available for preorder now.

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Eric Clapton hit #1 on the Billboard 200 with his second solo studio album, 461 Ocean Boulevard.

The album, named after the home in Golden Beach, Florida, where Clapton was living when he recorded the record, spent four weeks on top of the chart; it also went to #1 in Canada and to #3 in the U.K. 

461 Ocean Boulevard was Clapton’s first album after battling heroin addiction. It contained several covers, including his classic cover of Bob Marley’s “I Shot The Sheriff.”

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Pretenders are currently on the road opening for Guns N’ Roses on their stadium tour, but they are using their off days to get a little closer to their fans. The Rock & Roll Hall of Famers just launched a new club tour at the Bowery Ballroom in New York City, on Wednesday, August 16.

Frontwoman Chrissie Hynde was in top form as she treated the crowd to a relatively hit-free set, and the audience ate up the mix of new tunes and deep cuts. 

The band kicked off the show with “Losing My Sense of Taste,” the opening track of their upcoming album Relentless, with the set featuring several other songs from the record, including “A Love,” “Let The Sun Come In” and “Domestic Silence.”

More well-known songs in the set included “Time The Avenger,” “Boots of Chinese Plastic,” “The Adultress,” “Thumbelina” and more, with the night ending with a rendition of “Tattooed Love Boys.”

Next up, Pretenders are back onstage opening for Guns N’ Roses in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, Friday, August 18. Their next club show is happening August 26 in Nashville, Tennessee. A complete list of dates can be found at thepretenders.com.

Relentless is due out September 1. It is available for preorder now.

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Queen + Adam Lambert are due to hit the road on their Rhapsody tour in the fall — and there’s a chance it may be the last time folks see them on tour. 

May, 76, teased during the tour announcement, “This may be the last time … who knows?” And in a new interview with Planet Rock, he shares some more thoughts on the subject.

When asked if this will be their last tour, May said, “Y’know it always feels a bit that way. It’s like, how long can we do this? … You get problems as you get older, which you don’t really want to talk about, but it makes doing what you do that bit harder every time.”

“But there will come a day when we can’t, it ain’t gonna work. For the time being, if we can do it, we do it,” May added.

Being away from family is also an issue, with May noting that the upcoming tour will have him away for two months. He said if they do tour again in the future, it probably won’t be for such long stretches of time. 

“I’m thinking maybe it [the Rhapsody tour] will be the last time I want to be away from home for such a long time, cause I don’t know how much time I have left,” he says. “I would probably prefer to do it in shorter stabs.”

Queen + Adam Lambert will kick off their Rhapsody tour in North America October 15 in Baltimore, Maryland. They have also booked dates in Japan in 2024. A complete list of dates can be found at queenonline.com.

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AC/DC’s Brian Johnson made a surprise visit to a pub in England over the weekend.

The BBC reports the rocker “got a little bit lost” while out driving a friend’s car in Polebrook, Northamptonshire, so he stopped at the Kings Arms pub and chatted with employees for about 45 minutes, while enjoying a glass of white wine.

Staff reports that he talked to them about cars and even shared a family secret.

“He talked about his mum’s tomato sauce recipe,” AC/DC fan and staffer Ollie De Gaunza shares. “Apparently the secret is an Oxo cube (a stock cube).”

De Gaunza said that Johnson’s visit was “very unexpected on a quiet Saturday afternoon,” adding that he was “a really nice down-to-earth guy.”

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Picking the “greatest” anything is always the subject of huge debate, and no doubt that will be the case with Billboard’s latest list. The magazine has just come out with its picks for the 50 greatest rock lead singers of all time, and it’s sure to illicit some strong opinions.

Topping the list is The Rolling Stones’ Mick Jagger, with the mag noting, “No one has moves like Jagger — nor the voice, the image, the fashion sense, or the remarkably enduring charisma of the frontman for the Greatest Rock ‘n’ Roll Band In The World.”

They add, “After so many years, Mick Jagger continues to personify not only the Rolling Stones but rock ’n’ roll itself – powerfully sexual, threatening, liberating and joyous, all at once.”

Coming in at two is Fleetwood Mac’s Stevie Nicks, with Billboard noting she has an “ability to tap into the deepest crevices of her own soul to mesmerize and haunt listeners, in a way no other lead singer could ever hope to match.” 

Just behind Stevie is Queen’s Freddie Mercury, followed Led Zeppelin’s Robert Plant at four and Nirvana’s Kurt Cobain at five.

Rounding out the top 10 are: Talking Heads’ David Byrne at six, Blondie’s Debbie Harry at seven, Parliament/Funkadelic’s George Clinton at eight, U2’s Bono at nine and Guns N’ Roses’ Axl Rose at 10.

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Bruce Springsteen and The E Street Band just kicked off the second leg of their North American tour, but they’ve already run into a problem.

Springsteen announced on social media that his upcoming shows at Citizens Bank Park in Philadelphia on August 16 and 18 have been postponed because he has “taken ill.”  The post adds, “We are working on rescheduling the dates so please hold on to your tickets as they will be valid for the rescheduled shows.”

The latest leg of the Springsteen tour launched with a two-night stand at Chicago’s Wrigley Field on August 9 and 11. His next scheduled stop is at Gillette Stadium in Foxborough, Massachusetts, on August 24 and 26. A complete list of dates can be found at brucespringsteen.net.

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Pink Floyd’s “Another Brick in the Wall, Part 1” may one day help people who are unable to communicate and share their thoughts with others.

The Wall Street Journal reports the tune was part of a study by neuroscientists at University of California, Berkley, which may one day lead to the creation of a device that could express a person’s thoughts out loud, in order to help folks with brain injuries.  

In the study, 29 patients undergoing brain surgery were played the song. Thanks to electrodes placed on different regions of the brain, scientists were able to reconstruct the tune using recordings of the brain activity. While the results didn’t sound exactly like the song, it was enough that you could recognize it.

As for the choice of using “Another Brick in the Wall, Part 1,” it turns out the researchers were Pink Floyd fans. 

Ludovic Bellier, a computational neuroscientist who was one of the study’s authors, said that “Part 1” is “something that people are kind of familiar with, but not everyone has heard it” since it’s not as well-known as the other two parts of the track. He notes, “It’s kind of in a sweet spot of familiarity.”

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Madonna is getting ready to launch The Celebration Tour this fall, but before that, she’ll revisit her Madame X tour, which had her playing smaller theaters around the world.

A film of the tour was released in 2021, and now, the soundtrack, Madame X: Music From The Theater Xperience, will be released on vinyl for the very first time. The release features 22 songs recorded January 2020 in Lisbon, Portugal, along with two previously unreleased tracks: “Sodade” and “Crave” featuring Swae Lee.

Other songs on the album include live versions of Madame X tracks “Dark Ballet,” “I Don’t Search I Find” and more, along with classic hits like “Vogue,” Like A Prayer” and “Frozen.” 

Dropping September 22, Madame X: Music From The Theater Xperience will be released to all retailers as a three-LP black vinyl set. A limited edition three-LP picture disc will also be sold exclusively on Madonna’s website and at Rhino.com, as well as at Warner Music Group D2C stores. 

Madonna will kick off The Celebration Tour on October 14 in London. It hits the States on December 13 in Brooklyn, New York. A complete list of dates can be found at Madonna.com.

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