Classic Hits

Is Bruce Springsteen America’s greatest protest singer? He made a decent case for it Tuesday night, when he brought his Land of Hope and Dreams American tour to Belmont, New York. 

“The E Street Band was built for hard times,” Springsteen remarked, as he cherry-picked his massive catalog to spotlight tales of crumbling cities, death and powerlessness, punctuated by the message that hope is possible if we work together. As Springsteen put it in one of several speeches on Tuesday night railing against the current administration, “This American tragedy can only be stopped by the American people.”

Kicking off with the one-two punch of Edwin Starr’s “War” and his own “Born in the U.S.A.,” Springsteen led the band and guest guitarist/vocalist Tom Morello through songs whose titles alone conjured the story he’s telling with this tour: a cover of The Clash’s “Clampdown,” “Death to My Hometown,” “No Surrender,” “Darkness on the Edge of Town,” “My City of Ruins,” “Wrecking Ball,” “Badlands,” “Murder Incorporated” and what Springsteen called “our immigrant song,” “American Land.”

The setlist also highlighted how songs Springsteen wrote years ago — most notably “American Skin (41 Shots)” and “The Ghost of Tom Joad” — are scarily relevant again. They sat comfortably next to his recent song, “Streets of Minneapolis,” which details the deaths of Renee Good and Alex Pretti. Springsteen led the crowd in chants of “ICE out now!” during that number. 

But the show wasn’t all despair and anger: Springsteen lightened the mood periodically with songs like “The Promised Land,” “Two Hearts,” “Land of Hope and Dreams” and “Hungry Heart,” while the encore featured the joyous singalongs “Born to Run,” “Dancing in the Dark” and “Tenth Avenue Freeze-Out.” With it being Cinco de Mayo, he even accepted and downed a shot offered by some women in the crowd.

The show ended on a hopeful note with a song by another great American protest singer, Bob Dylan. Springsteen sang “Chimes of Freedom” and then closed the circle with his walk-off music: Dylan’s mentor Woody Guthrie singing “This Land Is Your Land.”

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The Rolling Stones celebrated the announcement of their new album, Foreign Tongues, at a launch party in Brooklyn, New York, Tuesday, where they sat down to chat with comedian Conan O’Brien.

At the event, those in attendance got to hear three songs from the album, including “Mr. Charm” and “Jealous Lover,” and got a peak of the video for the album’s first single, “In the Stars,” featuring actress Odessa A’zion.

Foreign Tongues is the followup to 2023’s Hackney Diamonds, and like Diamonds, it was produced by Andrew Watt. So, how is Foreign Tongues different than their last record?

On the red carpet for the event, Mick Jagger told ABC Audio Foreign Tongues is sort of a “continuation” of Hackney Diamonds, but notes, “it is somehow, I don’t know in what way, it’s different.”

He added that Foreign Tongues has “more variation” and fans can expect to hear everything from blues, pop and even country and “two or three dance songs.”

Ronnie Wood revealed that the album has “a lot of explosive rock and roll, which I think the fans will really dig,” adding it has “heavy spontaneity and more solos.”

The Stones have been putting out records for more than 60 years, and according to Keith Richards “there’s no fixed plan” when it comes to making them.

“There’s more in there and the boys want to play and you can’t ignore stuff like that, you know?” he said. “At least from my point of view, I follow the energy and I follow what’s happening.” 

Foreign Tongues, dropping July 10, features an appearance by the band’s late drummer, Charlie Watts,  and also includes guest appearances by Paul McCartney, Steve Winwood, The Cure’s Robert Smith and Red Hot Chili Peppers drummer Chad Smith.

Foreign Tongues is available for preorder now.

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A documentary about the life of Rock & Roll of Famer Darlene Love is in the works from TPH Entertainment, actress Taraji P. Henson’s production company.

Darlene Love: I Know Where I’ve Been tells the story of the singer’s six-decade career against the backdrop of the racism she faced throughout her career, as well as the civil rights movement. The story will be told “in her own words and through her own eyes,” according to a press release.

Among those interviewed in the documentary are Bruce Springsteen, Steven Van Zandt, Cher, Dionne Warwick, Nancy Sinatra, Jimmy Fallon and David Letterman. Love famously performed her signature hit “Christmas (Baby Please Come Home)” annually on Late Night with David Letterman from 1986 to 1993, and then on The Late Show with David Letterman annually from 1993 to 2014.

Love began as a backup singer for artists ranging from Sam Cooke to Frank Sinatra to The Beach Boys. When she began working with producer Phil Spector, he released many of the records she sang on under different names, including the #1 hit “He’s a Rebel” credited to The Crystals. As a result, Love’s voice was famous, but she wasn’t. The 2013 documentary 20 Feet from Stardom, about backup singers, shed light on her contributions.

Love was inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame in 2011. She’s also had an acting career, including playing Trish Murtaugh, the wife of Danny Glover’s character, in the four Lethal Weapon movies.

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Squeeze is set to hit the road this summer on a North American tour.

The “Tempted” band has announced dates for a new tour, featuring special guests Adam Ant, Haircut 100 and Leon Tilbrook, son of Squeeze’s Glenn Tilbrook.

The tour kicks off Aug. 16 in Nashville and features stops in Atlanta, New York, Boston, Las Vegas, Los Angeles and more before wrapping Sept. 27 in Detroit.

An artist presale is set to begin Wednesday, with tickets going on sale to the general public Friday at 10 a.m. local time.

The tour follows the March release of Squeeze’s new album, Trixies, which featured some of the first songs Squeeze’s Chris Difford and Glenn Tilbrook ever wrote together. They were written by the duo back in 1974 when they were teens and recording was beyond their skill set.

A complete list of tour dates can be found at SqueezeOfficial.com.

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Paul McCartney will let fans hear one of the most eagerly anticipated tracks on his new album, The Boys of Dungeon Lane, on Friday.

That’s the day he’s releasing “Home to Us,” which features his old bandmate Ringo Starr on vocals and drums. You can hear a snippet of the song, minus the vocals, on McCartney’s Instagram. 

But Starr’s voice isn’t the only one you’ll hear on the track: Backing vocals were provided by Pretenders frontwoman Chrissie Hynde and Sharleen Spiteri from the band Texas. 

McCartney says in a statement, “This song [was] done totally with Ringo in mind. In writing the song, I’m talking about where we came from. In common with a lot of people, you come from nothing and you build yourself up.”

He adds, referring to his and Starr’s rough Liverpool upbringing, “Even though it was crazy, it was home to us.”

McCartney said after he sent the song to Starr, the drummer sent him back a version in which he’d sung a few lines in the chorus. “I thought, maybe he doesn’t like it. I rang him and he said he thought I only wanted him to sing one or two lines, and I said I’d love to hear him sing the whole thing,” McCartney recalled.

“So we took my first line, Ringo’s second line, and then we had a duet. We’d never done that before.”

McCartney said Hynde and Spiteri were recruited because, “I had the idea it would be nice to hear girls.”

McCartney’s new album, The Boys of Dungeon Lane, will be released May 29. It’s his first solo album since 2020’s McCartney III.

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Graham Nash has extended his 2026 tour into the fall.

The two-time Rock & Roll Hall of Famer has announced a set of September and October shows that include an appearance at the Harvest Jazz & Blues Festival in Fredericton, New Brunswick, Canada, on Sept. 19,  and two nights at the Bethel Woods Center for the Arts in Bethel, New York, on Sept. 27 and 28.

The fall dates kick off Sept. 12 in Northampton, Massachusetts, and wrap Oct. 9 in Shippensburg, Pennsylvania.

Nash wrapped the first leg of his 2026 tour on Saturday in Ponte Vedra Beach, Florida. He is set to kick off a summer leg of the tour on July 7 in Steamboat Springs, Colorado. The summer leg includes some co-headlining shows with Lucinda Williams, as well as a special guest appearance at The Avett Brothers’ show July 12 at Red Rocks Amphitheatre in Morrison, Colorado.

A full list of dates and ticket information for the new shows can be found at GrahamNash.com.

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After weeks of teasing fans, The Rolling Stones have finally spilled the beans about their new music.

The band has revealed that their next album, Foreign Tongues, will be released July 10. They also dropped the album’s first single, “In the Stars,” which is available now via digital outlets. 

While “In the Stars” is the first single, it’s actually not the first taste fans have gotten of the album. The opening track, “Rough and Twisted,” was released in April as a white label vinyl under the name The Cockroaches. It has now been released digitally.

Like their last album, 2023’s Grammy Award-winning Hackney Diamonds, Mick Jagger, Keith Richards and Ronnie Wood worked with producer Andrew Watt on the 14-track Foreign Tongues. It was recorded in under a month at London’s Metropolis Studios and is described as a “dynamic and forward-looking record that captures the band’s unmistakable sound while pushing into new sonic and lyrical territory, further cementing their unparalleled legacy.”

Foreign Tongues features an appearance by the band’s late drummer, Charlie Watts, taken from one of his final recording sessions before his death in 2021. It also features guest appearances by such A-list artists as Paul McCartney, Steve Winwood, The Cure’s Robert Smith and Red Hot Chili Peppers drummer Chad Smith.

Foreign Tongues will be released in a variety of formats and is available for preorder now.

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The Who has dropped another performance from their upcoming album, Live at Eden Project. It’s a recording of their July 2023 concert at Cornwall’s Eden Project, the home of a sustainable network of biomes in the English countryside.

The latest is a live performance of “You Better You Bet,” the hit single from The Who’s 1981 album Face Dances, which is now available on YouTube.

The Who’s Eden Project concert was part of their The Who Hits Back! tour, which saw Roger Daltrey and Pete Townshend backed by the Heart of England Philharmonic Orchestra. It featured performances of “Pinball Wizard,” which the band previously released, as well as “Who Are You,” “My Generation,” “Won’t Get Fooled Again,” “Baba O’Riley” and more.

Live at Eden Project will be released May 29. It is available for preorder now.

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Two-time Rock & Roll Hall of Famer Stevie Nicks was one of the special musical guests at Monday night’s Met Gala in New York, where she shared the stage with pop star Sabrina Carpenter.

According to Vogue, Stevie and Sabrina, one of the co-chairs of the Gala, opened up the performance with a collaboration on Stevie’s iconic Fleetwood Mac song “Landslide,” before Stevie performed the Fleetwood Mac hit “Gypsy” and her solo classic “Edge of Seventeen,” on her own. Stevie then closed the night with another Fleetwood Mac classic — “Don’t Stop” — joined by Sabrina and a 12-person choir.

The “Don’t Stop” performance comes a little over a week after she performed the tune at New Orleans Jazz Fest, which was her first performance of the track in 15 years.  The song is normally sung by Lindsey Buckingham and Christine McVie.

Stevie’s appearance at the high-profile New York event marked her Met Gala debut. On the red carpet, she wore a custom midnight blue and black Zara gown designed by John Galliano, as per People. The gown featured an enormously wide skirt, topped with a velvet and silk taffeta jacket. She crowned the look with one of her signature top hats.

Vogue reports that for her performance, Stevie wore a vintage Morgane LeFay dress and Margi Kent jacket.

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Rolling Stone is highlighting iconic guitar solos in its latest staff-curated list.

The mag has just released its picks for the 100 greatest guitar solos of all time, with tunes by such artists as Jimi Hendrix, Pink Floyd, the Eagles and more making the cut. The mag says criteria for songs making the list are that the solo “makes the song; can be sung or hummed; doesn’t repeat the main melody.”

Prince’s iconic tune “Purple Rain” tops the list, with Hendrix’s “Machine Gun” landing at #2. The mag writes that the Hendrix solo is “Hendrix at his most Hendrix,” noting it’s “the most ambitious, raw, soulful, go-for-broke expression of his musical genius.”

Coming in at #3 are the dueling guitar solos of the Eagles’ “Hotel California,” followed by David Gilmour’s solo in Pink Floyd’s “Comfortably Numb” at #4 and Eddie Van Halen’s solo on Van Halen’s “Eruption” at #5.

Rounding out the top 10 are Chuck Berry’s “Johnny B. Goode” at #6, Led Zeppelin’s “Stairway to Heaven” at #7, Steely Dan’s “Kid Charlemagne” at #8, Funkadelic’s “Maggot Brain” at #9 and The Beatles’ “While My Guitar Gently Weeps” at #10.

And while Rolling Stone may think these are the greatest guitar solos, they aren’t necessarily what your average guitar fan likes to play.

According to the mag, Guitar Center recently conducted a poll to find the most-played guitar riffs at its stores, with Metallica’s “Master of Puppets” landing at #1.

Guns N’ Roses’ “Sweet Child O’ Mine” comes in just behind Metallica at #2, with The White Stripes’ “Seven Nation Army,” Nirvana’s “Smells Like Teen Spirit” and John Mayer’s “Slow Dancing in a Burning Room” rounding out the top five.

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