James Taylor is sharing another throwback video with fans. The singer just posted a “vintage” live performance of the tune “Brother Trucker.”
The video shows James and his band performing the song at the Blossom Music Center in Cuyahoga Falls, Ohio, on July 18, 1979. Taylor has since played Blossom 26 times, more than any other featured performer.
This performance of “Brother Trucker” was previously available as part of James Taylor – In Concert, which was his first commercial video release.
Taylor wrote “Brother Trucker” for the musical Working. It was later included on his 1979 album, Flag.
Back in 2020, TheRolling Stones teamed up with Brazilian DJ Alok for a remix of “Living in a Ghost Town,” and Alok said it wasn’t easy getting Mick Jagger to OK the tune.
Alok tells Rolling Stone Jagger had him redo that track 10 times before he was happy with it. Alok even has a recording of a call with the Rock & Roll Hall of Famer, in which he expressed his frustration.
“I answered the call, and I told him, ‘Listen, now I understand why you did this song “I Can Get No Satisfaction” because you’re never satisfied,’” Alok says. “This is my last try with the tenth version.”
This wasn’t the first time Alok worked with Jagger. In 2017 he remixed Jagger’s solo tune “Gotta Get A Grip,” which apparently took six tries to get right.
Are we about to get some new music from Joan Jett? Well, that’s the speculation after the Rock & Roll Hall of Famer teased fans on Instagram with a photo of her in the studio.
She captioned the shot, “Back in the studio. Big announcement coming…”
If the speculation is true, it will be the first new album from Joan Jett and the Blackhearts since 2022’s Changeup, an acoustic record that featured new versions of classic hits like “Bad Reputation” and “Crimson and Clover.” Their last album of all new material was the 2014 record Unvarnished.
Joan Jett & The Blackhearts will be busy on the road this summer. They have shows in Tulsa, Oklahoma, and Richardson, Texas, on May 19 and 20, respectively, and then on June 6 they kick off a tour with Bryan Adams in Baltimore, Maryland. A complete list of dates can be found at joanjett.com.
Eric Clapton is celebrating his friend, the late Jeff Beck, with the release of a new cover of the 1961 classic “Moon River,” along with an animated video in which they are both featured.
Longtime Clapton collaborator Simon Climie says he and Clapton recorded a version of the song in January 2022, noting it “was more of a ballad – and naturally the guitar and vocals were brilliant.” He adds, “When we were happy with the track, Eric asked me to send it over to Jeff. Jeff loved it. And soon after that in the spring of 2022, Jeff added his unmistakable guitar part. It knocked us off our feet.”
The tune is now out across all digital platforms. A double A-side 7-inch vinyl, which also features the new song “How Could We Know” featuring Judith Hill, Climie and Daniel Santiago, will be released July 14. It is available for preorder now.
The collaboration comes ahead of Clapton’s upcoming Jeff Beck tribute concerts, taking place May 22 and 23 at London’s Royal Albert Hall. The shows, dubbed A Tribute to Jeff Beck by Eric Clapton & Friends, will feature special guests Ronnie Wood, Joe Perry, Rod Stewart, ZZ Top’s Billy F. Gibbons and more.
The Rolling Stones released the double album Exile on Main St. on their own label Rolling Stone Records. The album went to number one in the U.S. and spent four weeks on the top of the charts.
Recorded mostly in a villa in the South of France, where the band had moved to escape paying U.K. taxes, the album featured such classics as “Happy,” featuring Keith Richards on vocals, “Tumbling Dice,” “Rocks Off,” “Rip This Joint,” “All Down the Line” and more.
Considered a classic album by the band, Exile on Main St. ranked at seven on Rolling Stone magazine’s list of the 500 Greatest Albums of All Time in both 2003 and 2012. In 2012 it was inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame.
A remastered version of the record was released in 2010, featuring a bonus disc with 10 new tracks. It debuted at number one on the U.K. chart and number two in the U.S.
In celebrating the 51st anniversary of the album, guitarist Keith Richardsshared on Instagram, “If I see a copy of Exile hanging about, I nick it and play it,” adding, “I still love that record very much. I would say there is the best of the Stones in there – up till now.”
Queen is back with the latest installment in their weekly YouTube series Queen The Greatest Live, and this week they’re delving into what goes into creating a great set list for a show.
“Set lists are a very interesting case. You have all these songs and everything and what is the optimum way to put them across?” guitarist Brian May shares. “Do you just go in there and randomly work your way through where you can and that’s how everybody starts. But wouldn’t it be nice if you can take the audience on a journey and optimize the mood that happens?”
May adds that for Queen, their philosophy has always been to “come on big, give them what they’ve been waiting for.”
“They’re full of adrenaline. They want to rock hard, hard, hard,” he says. “So the first two or three songs hit them hard in different ways, different tempos, different kind of atmospheres, but all hard rock.”
After going hard out of the gate, Roger Taylor says it gives them the freedom to “meander all over the place with different styles of stuff,” including their infamous acoustic sets on a B-stage, before coming back and building up to a huge end with songs like “The Show Must Go On,” “Radio Gaga,” “We Will Rock You,” and “We Are the Champions.“
Notes Taylor, “I think we like to send our audiences home feeling they’ve had a real experience.”
The Police made their fans very happy when they reunited for a huge tour in 2007 and 2008. The tour wound up being the third highest-grossing tour at the time, which certainly makes reuniting an appealing idea for bands.
So, would Sting recommend other bands do it? “Once,” he tells the British publication Music Week with a laugh. “You should do it once and the timing should be right. When The Police reunited it had been long enough and it was the right time to do it. “
Sting takes full credit for the decision to reunite with his bandmates Stewart Copeland and Andy Summers, but don’t expect it to ever happen again. “Doing it again would just be gratuitous and that won’t happen,” he says. “But we did it, and everyone was happy that mum and dad got back together again and had one last fling.”
While Sting says he and his bandmates “still love each other and respect each other,” he notes, “I’m happy not to be in a band.” He says they “didn’t even try” to make new music during the time of the reunion, noting “it was, what’s the word, nostalgia, with recreating that thing for a short time.”
At 71 some may wonder how much longer Sting plans to perform, but it doesn’t sound like he’s ready to slow down. He notes, “I’m not wearing a corset or anything. As long as I can get into my rock star pants, I’ll be fine.”
Next up for Sting, he’ll be honored as a Fellow of the Ivors Academy at the Ivor Awards on May 18 in London. He’ll then kick off a European tour in Bilbao, Spain, on June 1. A complete list of dates can be found at Sting.com.
Callaway Arts & Entertainment/ Hachette Book Group
Here’s something every Bob Dylan fan will want to get their hands on.
Callaway Arts & Entertainment just announced a new comprehensive book, Bob Dylan: Mixing Up The Medicine, described as “a richly illustrated book that is the first panoramic look at” the Bob Dylan Archive, which is currently housed in Tulsa, Oklahoma.
The 608-page book features close to 1,000 images, many of which have never been seen by the public. There’s also Dylan draft lyrics, writings, drawings and more, along with essays from writers and artists who were asked to pick an item from the archive that inspires them and write about it.
“This is the long-awaited book that Dylan fans have been dreaming of since the 1960s, and it introduces the full scope of this artist’s monumental creativity and achievements to a new generation,” Nicholas Callaway shares. “This is a book for the ages.”
The book is being done in cooperation with the Bob Dylan Archive, with Mark Davidson, its curator and director, who wrote and edited the book with archivist Parker Fishel, noting it “is unlike any book on Bob Dylan ever produced.”
Bob Dylan: Mixing Up The Medicine will be released October 24.
Steve Perry is one of the many artists set to appear on Dolly Parton’s upcoming rock record, Rockstar, collaborating with the icon on the Journey classic “Open Arms.”
In a post on Facebook, Perry expressed how “thrilled” he is about the excitement surrounding the record, noting, “I have been a Dolly Parton fan for years and years and to sing one of my songs with her was truly a thrill.”
He adds, “When I first got the track I could not believe how strong and amazing her voice was. I did my very best to keep up with that girl, but boy she’s got fire! And to quote her on my telephone she said ‘I think we harmonize well together, don’t you?’ And I said ‘Absolutely my dear. Absolutely.'”
Dolly’s Rockstar will be released November 17. In addition to Perry, it features a whole host of rock stars, including Paul McCartney and Ringo Starr, Steven Tyler, Elton John and Stevie Nicks. It is available for preorder now.
A Bob Marley classic has returned to the top of the charts, and it’s all because of the hit Apple TV+ series Ted Lasso.
Billboardreports that the Marley and The Wailers classic “Three Little Birds” is number one on the Top TV Songs chart, after appearing in sixth episode of Lasso‘s current third season.
The episode focused on AFC Richmond and company’s free night in Amsterdam and ends with Rebecca, played by Hannah Waddingham, launching into the song, sparking a team singalong. The inclusion of the song resulted in 9.6 million on-demand U.S. streams, as well as 4,000 new downloads last month.
And that’s not the only song Ted Lasso has helped return to the chart. The Peter, Paul & Mary song “Don’t Think Twice, It’s All Right” lands on the same chart at 10, thanks to its appearance in the fourth episode.
