The official video for “Move” — the single that reunites “Smooth” duo Carlos Santana with Matchbox Twenty frontman Rob Thomas — has arrived.
The black-and-white clip features Thomas singing alone under a stormy, lightning-filled sky, while Santana tosses off his signature guitar licks standing on a mirror in a black void.
In the second verse, American Authors singer Zac Barnett joins Santana on the mirror, which begins to crack. Later, Santana stands on top of a massive pile of speakers, playing the maracas.
“Move” is from Santana’s new album, Blessings and Miracles, which arrives October 15.
Regarding the song, Santana previously said it’s “about awakening your molecules. Ignite and activate yourself – you know, move. When Rob and I work together, we have a sound that’s splendiferous.”
John Mellencamp, the Indiana-born singer/songwriter who came to fame in the early ’80s under the name John Cougar, was born 70 years ago today.
Known for his roots-rock songs often celebrating small-town life in America, Mellencamp enjoyed his major commercial breakthrough with his fifth studio album, 1982’s American Fool, released under the John Cougar moniker.
American Fool is John’s only album to date to top the Billboard 200 chart, spending nine weeks at #1. It features his classic songs “Jack and Diane” and “Hurts So Good,” which peaked at #1 and #2, respectively, on the Billboard Hot 100.
Starting with his next album, 1983’s Uh-Huh, he began releasing his records under the name John Cougar Mellencamp, and beginning in 1991, he dropped “Cougar” altogether.
Among the other hits Mellencamp has scored during his long career are “Crumblin’ Down,” “Pink Houses,” “Lonely Ol’ Night,” “Small Town,” “R.O.C.K. in the U.S.A. (A Salute to ’60s Rock),” “Cherry Bomb,” and a cover of Van Morrison‘s “Wild Night,” the latter a duet with Me’Shell Ndegéocello.
In 1985, Mellencamp, along with Willie Nelson and Neil Young, organized the first Farm Aid concert, and the charity event continues to raise money to support family farms each year.
Mellencamp was inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame in 2008, and the Songwriters Hall of Fame in 2018.
John’s resumé also includes a collaboration with horror author Stephen King on the Southern Gothic stage musical Ghost Brothers of Darkland County, which premiered in 2012. In addition, Mellencamp is an accomplished painter whose artwork has been exhibited numerous times.
Mellencamp’s latest release is a duet with Bruce Springsteen titled “Wasted Days,” and the track also will appear on John’s next studio album, Strictly a One-Eyed Jack, due out in 2022.
Robert Plant and Alison Krauss have shared another new song from their upcoming collaborative album, Raise the Roof.
The track, titled “High and Lonesome,” was written by the Led Zeppelin vocalist alongside producer T Bone Burnett. It’s the lone original tune on Raise the Roof, which is otherwise filled with covers of “legends and unsung heroes of folk, blues, country and soul music.”
You can listen to “High and Lonesome” now via digital outlets.
“High and Lonesome” is the second song to be released from Raise the Roof, following the lead single “Can’t Let Go,” originally written by Randy Weeks. The whole album is set to arrive November 19.
Plant and Krauss, of course, previously collaborated on the 2007 album Raising Sand. The record won a total of five Grammys in 2009, including Album of the Year.
Alice Cooper delves into his many adventures as a famous shock rocker in a new installment of Audible’s Words + Music audio series, Who I Really Am: The Diary of a Vampire, debuting today.
The two-hour feature captures the Rock & Roll Hall of Famer discussing how the original Alice Cooper band came together and, with their edgy sound and over-the-top, horror-inspired stage show, became one of the biggest rock group’s of the early 1970s.
Cooper, whose given name is Vincent Furnier, tells ABC Audio that he tapped his longtime producer Bob Ezrin to work with him on the Audible project.
“Bob and I are the only two that actually know the character Alice Cooper,” he notes. “I mean, we’ve created him over the years.”
Interspersed in the feature are acoustic renditions of some of Cooper’s biggest hits, including “I’m Eighteen,” “School’s Out,” and “Poison,” recorded especially for Who I Really Am.
“[T]hat was actually one of the more fun things to do, was to go revisit those songs in an acoustic version,” Alice says.
Who I Really Am also features Cooper discussing his childhood as the son of an evangelist; the inspiration behind some of his famous songs; his experiences with other famous rockers; his descent into alcohol and substance abuse; meeting his wife, Sheryl; and his Christian faith.
Reflecting on the incongruous aspects of his life, Cooper notes, “[T]he idea that I came from a Christian home, and that I went as far away as I could and then came back. The fact that I’ve been married 45 years to the greatest girl. I mean, there’s so many things that you would never, ever expect the Alice Cooper story to be.”
Visit Audible.com to find out how to access the Words + Music series.
A little over a year after the release of their last studio effort, Whoosh!, Deep Purple has announced plans to put out a new album titled Turning to Crime on November 26.
The new collection, which was produced by the band’s frequent collaborator, Bob Ezrin, features the British hard-rock legends putting their own spin on 12 songs originally recorded by other artists.
Turning to Crime, which is Deep Purple’s first-ever covers album, includes versions of Fleetwood Mac‘s “Oh Well,” Bob Dylan‘s “Watching the River Flow,” Little Feat‘s “Dixie Chicken,” The Yardbirds‘ “Shapes of Things,” Cream‘s “White Room,” and more.
The final track is a medley titled “Caught in the Act” that features sections of songs by Booker T & the MG’s, The Allman Brothers Band, Led Zeppelin, and The Spencer Davis Group.
According to a making-of video posted on the earMUSIC label’s YouTube channel, the album came together remotely while the band members were separated during the COVID-19 pandemic. Each member chose songs they wanted to record and then the group voted on the final list of tunes.
In advance of Turning to Crime, the Rock & Roll Hall of Famers have released the album’s lead track, a prog-flavored version of Love‘s 1966 garage-rock classic “7 and 7 Is,” as a digital single.
Turning to Crime can be pre-ordered now, and will be available on CD, as a two-LP vinyl set, as a five-LP/DVD box set and digitally.
You can check out more details about the album at TurningToCrime.com. Fans who sign up for Deep Purple’s newsletter at the site will receive a free download of a non-album track on November 12.
Here’s the full Turning to Crime track list:
“7 and 7 Is”
“Rockin’ Pneumonia and the Boogie Woogie Flu”
“Oh Well”
“Jenny Take a Ride!”
“Watching the River Flow”
“Let the Good Times Roll”
“Dixie Chicken”
“Shapes of Things”
“The Battle of New Orleans”
“Lucifer”
“White Room”
“Caught in the Act” (Medley: “Going Down”/”Green Onions”/”Hot ‘Lanta”/”Dazed and Confused”/”Gimme Some Lovin'”)
A recording of Bruce Springsteen recording a passage from John Steinbeck‘s classic book The Grapes of Wrath is featured in a new Italian documentary titled Ants, about the plight of African and Asia migrants trying to make their way to Europe to find a better life.
A segment of Springsteen’s spoken-word soliloquy can be heard in a new trailer for the film that got its exclusive premiere at Variety.com.
In the clip, interspersed with scenes of various migrants in the midst of their journeys, we hear The Boss read, “The great companies did not know that the line between hunger and anger is a thin line…On the highways the people moved like ants and searched for work, for food. And the anger began to ferment.”
Ants producer Davide Azzolini tells Variety that he reached out to Springsteen via his manager, David Landau, to see if Bruce would do the reading, which he felt would give the film a “more universal” appeal.
The Grapes of Wrath, of course, was written during the Great Depression and focuses on people who left their homes in the Dust Bowl region of the U.S. to travel to California seeking a better future. Springsteen’s song “The Ghost of Tom Joad” was inspired by the novel’s main character.
Azzolini says he wasn’t hopeful about Springsteen agreeing to the request, but a few weeks later, he was informed that Bruce “would tape [the reading] in his studio.”
A few days later, Azzolini says he was emailed “two different takes of his recordings.”
Ants, which was directed by Italian journalist and filmmaker Valerio Nicolosi, features footage shot on rescue vessels, in crowded migrant camps on the Greek island of Lesbos, and in the Balkans. The movie currently is being submitted to international film festivals.
Wolfgang Van Halen has shared a post honoring his father, Eddie Van Halen, on the one-year anniversary of the iconic guitarist’s death.
“You fought so hard for so long, but you were still taken away,” Wolf writes alongside a photo of him and Eddie smiling and playing music together. “It’s just so unfair.”
He continues, “I’m not OK. I don’t think I’ll ever be OK. There’s so much I wish I could show you. So many things I wish I could share with you. I wish I could laugh with you again. I wish I could hug you again. I miss you so much it hurts.”
Wolf adds that he’s “trying to do my best here without you, but it’s really f***ing hard.”
“I hope you’re still proud,” he says. “I love you with all of my heart, Pop. Watch over me.”
Eddie died October 6, 2020, following a battle with cancer. He was 65.
If you happen to be in Fox Creek neighborhood of Detroit, you can now mail a letter or package at a post office that’s named after the late Queen of Soul.
On Monday, the Fox Creek Station post office, located at at 12711 E. Jefferson Ave., was officially renamed the Aretha Franklin Post Office Building, Patch.com reports.
Legislation to have the post office named in Aretha Franklin‘s honor was introduced in the House of Representatives last year by Michigan congresswoman Brenda Lawrence, a close friend of Franklin’s. Former President Donald Trump signed it into law in January 2021.
Lawrence visited the post office Monday for a dedication ceremony celebrating the rechristening, along with Michigan’s two U.S. senators — Gary Peters and Debbie Stabenow — and Franklin family members.
“This building will always stand as a reminder that we all deserve a little RESPECT,” Rep. Lawrence said. She also posted photos from the event on her Twitter feed.
Added Sen. Peters, “Aretha Franklin was not just the Queen of Soul — she was a Detroit icon whose legacy of music and activism will forever symbolize Detroit’s strength and resilience.”
A postal service press release announcing the building’s name change gave some background information about Aretha’s life and achievements. It noted that she was a child prodigy who sang gospel at Detroit’s New Bethel Baptist Church, where her father, Reverend C. L. Franklin, was a minister; that she “found acclaim and commercial success” after signing with Atlantic Records in 1966; and that she went on to become “a symbol of Black empowerment during the civil rights movement.”
Aretha died of cancer at her Detroit home on August 16, 2018, at the age of 76.
Today marks the one-year anniversary of Eddie Van Halen‘s death.
The legendary guitar virtuoso and Van Halen co-founder died October 6, 2020, following a battle with cancer. He was 65.
Eddie and his older brother, Alex, were born in The Netherlands before the Van Halen family moved to Pasadena, California, in 1962. The two were interested in music in an early age and played in several bands together before forming Van Halen in the early ’70s with Eddie on guitar and Alex on drums. They soon found vocalist David Lee Roth and bassist Michael Anthony, who comprised Van Halen’s “classic” lineup.
Though each member of Van Halen brought their own personality to the band, Eddie’s guitar playing was always the star of the show. He was particularly renowned for his finger-tapping technique, famously heard in the Van Halen instrumental “Eruption,” which is now considered to be among the greatest guitar solos of all time.
Van Halen’s classic lineup released six albums, from 1978’s self-titled debut to 1984’s 1984, and produced classic singles in “Runnin’ with the Devil,” “Ain’t Talkin’ ’bout Love,” “Dance the Night Away,” “Unchained,” “Panama,” and the number-one hit, “Jump.”
In between all that, Eddie married actress Valerie Bertinelli in 1981 — with whom he had a son, Wolfgang, in 1991 — and played the solo on Michael Jackson‘s hit “Beat It.”
Roth left Van Halen in 1985 and was replaced by Sammy Hagar, whose tenure fronting the band produced four-straight number-one albums. Hagar was then replaced by Gary Cherone for one more album before Van Halen disbanded in 1999.
During the group’s hiatus, Eddie underwent treatment for tongue cancer and separated from Bertinelli. The couple eventually divorced in 2007, and Eddie married his second wife, publicist Janie Liszewski, in 2009.
Van Halen reunited briefly in the mid-2000s with Hagar singing before reforming again in 2006, with Roth back and a then-teenage Wolfgang playing bass instead of Anthony. That lineup would produce a final Van Halen album, 2012’s A Different Kind of Truth, before playing their last tour together in 2015.
Following his father’s death, Wolfgang revealed that there had been plans for a so-called “Kitchen Sink” Van Halen reunion tour, which would potentially feature Anthony back along with all three of the band’s singers. However, those plans were put on hold due to Eddie’s declining health.
Wolfgang, meanwhile, is carrying on the family legacy with his solo band, Mammoth WVH. The project has already scored two number-one Billboard rock singles.
Here’s wishing a happy 70th birthday to longtime REO Speedwagon frontman Kevin Cronin.
Cronin first joined the Illinois-based band in 1972 in time to record their second album, R.E.O./T.W.O., but he left the group because of creative differences during the making of their next record, Ridin’ the Storm Out.
In 1976, Kevin rejoined REO Speewagon and has fronted the band ever since. During the group’s heyday in the late 1970s and early ’80s, Cronin split main songwriting duties with guitarist Gary Richrath. In 1978, REO scored minor hits with the Cronin-penned “Roll with the Changes” and “Time for Me to Fly,” which were both featured on the band’s You Can Tune a Piano, but You Can’t Tuna Fish album.
REO Speedwagon’s real commercial breakthrough came in 1980 with Hi Infidelity. The album spent 15 non-consective weeks at #1 on the Billboard 200 in 1981, more than any other album that year. It featured the chart-topping ballad “Keep On Loving You” and the #5 hit “Take It on the Run,” both written by Cronin. Hi Infidelity has gone on to be certified Diamond by the RIAA for sales of over 10 million in the U.S.
Numerous other Cronin-penned Billboard Hot 100 hits followed for REO Speedwagon during the ’80s, including “Keep the Fire Burnin’,” which peaked at #7 in 1982, and the band’s second chart-topping single, “Can’t Fight This Feeling,” which was #1 for three weeks in 1985.
Richrath was fired from REO over conflicts with Cronin in 1989, and Kevin has continued to lead the band. REO’s most recent studio album was the 2009 holiday collection Not So Silent Night…Christmas with REO Speedwagon, but the group still tours regularly.
The band’s next concert is scheduled for this Friday, October 8, in Boerne, Texas.
