Classic Hits

The South by Southwest Music Festival is known for spotlighting emerging artists, but one of the festival’s showcase artists this year has been making records for nearly 60 years.

The Zombies are one of the more than 300 artists announced Wednesday as performers at next year’s edition of the legendary Austin, Texas, festival, which will run March 13 through March 18. The Zombies are from England, of course, but the lineup features acts from all over the world, from Australia, Italy, Turkey, Ukraine, Norway and Colombia to New Zealand, Denmark, Argentina, Nigeria and Japan.

Also included on the list is Painted Shield, the side project of Pearl Jam‘s Stone Gossard. Their debut album, featuring Pearl Jam’s Mike McCready and drummers Josh Freese and Matt Chamberlain, came out in the past few years.

The music festival is part of the larger South by Southwest Conference, which includes TV, movie and comedy  festivals, as well as panels and exhibits covering everything from technology and food to climate change, the gaming industry, marketing, transportation, the cannabis industry and more.

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It must be hard to play in a band, manage that band and file lawsuits against your fellow bandmates at the same time.

Journey‘s Neal Schon and Jonathan Cain, who were both jointly managing the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame group, have decided to step back from that role, Billboard reports.

Schon and Cain have handed the reins over to Def Leppard‘s manager, Mike Kobayashi, who confirms he was “just hired,” according to Billboard. While the band has been a cash cow on the road, raking in $40 million this year, Cain and Schon have been embroiled in a legal squabble over expenses. 

As previously reported, Schon is suing Cain for setting up a band American Express card without his knowledge, while Cain denies that and claims that Schon has been “running up enormous personal charges on the band’s credit card account.” That lawsuit is pending, but it’s not the only recent legal dispute involving the band.

As Billboard notes, in September, former lead singer Steve Perry sued to stop Schon and Cain from trademarking the names of the band’s hits. And in 2020, Schon and Cain sued bassist Ross Valory and drummer Steve Smith, accusing them of trying to get control of the band’s name. The lawsuit was settled in 2021, and Valory and Smith left the band.

Amid all these issues, it’s no wonder Journey needs someone to look after their affairs, especially since the band’s 50th anniversary Freedom tour is set to kick off February 4 in Allentown, Pennsylvania.

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While Bob Dylan‘s tours are Never Ending, catching a glimpse of the famed rocker offstage is something that rarely happens. You almost never see Dylan, for example, making a Starbucks run, leaving a restaurant or taking a smoke break. So how does he avoid getting photographed, when everyone in the world has a phone? It’s because, as his former guitarist explains, “he’s slippery.”

Billy Burnette, a guitarist, songwriter and solo artist who’s played with Fleetwood Mac and John Fogerty, was Dylan’s touring guitarist in 2003. Speaking to Rolling Stone, Burnette explains that Bob does go out, but he flies under the radar. During the tour, Burnette explains, “He went out and ran every day. I’d see him in his sweats in the hotel, but he’s slippery.”

“[T]hey lost him one day [in an airport],” Burnette adds. “They couldn’t find him anywhere. I’m in this little gift shop and I turn around, and there he is. He goes, ‘Hi Billy.’ I was like, ‘How did you get in here?’ He moves around. It’s a weird thing.”

When Rolling Stone points out that Dylan is sometimes seen wearing a hoodie with the hood up, Burnette explains, “When he wears the hood, you’re not supposed to talk to him. I didn’t know that until one day we were in line to get on a plane at the airport.”

“I tapped him on the shoulder,” he continues. “The drummer said, ‘No, no. He don’t talk to anyone when he’s got the hood on.’ I was like, ‘OK. I’m glad you told me.'”

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Peter Frampton is the latest rock legend to sell his catalog — it’s been acquired by BMG.

The deal includes the rights to Frampton’s publishing interests, as well as the money he makes from recordings, writing songs or performing as a sideman or collaborator for artists like David Bowie, George Harrison, Donovan, Ringo Starr and Steve Miller. It spans his entire musical career, from back when he was in the band The Herd in the late ’60s, to his career with Humble Pie in the ’70s, to his record-breaking solo career.

The deal includes Frampton’s signature songs, including “Show Me The Way,” “Baby, I Love Your Way,” “Do You Feel Like We Do,” “I’m In You” and “I Can’t Stand It No More.”

In a statement, Frampton says he trusts BMG will “care for my legacy and that my songs are in good hands.”

In 2019, Frampton announced that he’d been diagnosed with inclusion body myositis, a degenerative muscular disease that he expects will eventually rob him of his ability to play guitar. 

His most recent album, 2021’s Frampton Forgets The Words, is a collection of instrumental covers of some of his favorite songs, including tunes by Sly and the Family Stone, Radiohead, Marvin Gaye, Roxy Music, Stevie Wonder, Harrison and Bowie.

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As promised, the latest in a series of new animated videos for songs on the Beatles‘ album Revolver has arrived: It’s for Paul McCartney‘s song “Here, There and Everywhere.”

In the video, the Beatles are seen in the recording studio listening to the song, and then we seen them at various locations throughout their career: arriving at a premiere, disembarking from a plane, hanging out in a hotel room in New York City, appearing on a TV show and riding in the back of a limo. Eventually, they end up back at Abbey Road studios. Throughout the clip, a dancing female figure is literally “here, there and everywhere,” providing the transitions from scene to scene.

The video’s producer, Richard Barnett of Trunk Animation, says the video depicts the Beatles “on tour as they face an ever-changing backdrop of cities, hotels, roads and gigs, with only each other to rely on.” Barnett says the dancing figure represents “inspiration and creative freedom.”

The new animated clip series, which also includes videos for “Taxman” and “I’m Only Sleeping,” were created to promote the deluxe reissue of Revolver that came out in October. It features new mixes of the original 1966 record, as well as a collection of outtakes and a four-song EP that includes the non-album tracks “Paperback Writer” and “Rain.”

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January 5 will mark the 50th anniversary of the release of Bruce Springsteen‘s debut album, Greetings from Asbury Park, N.J., and to mark the occasion, a daylong symposium featuring some of the musicians who played on the record is being held at New Jersey’s Monmouth University.

The Bruce Springsteen Archives and Center for American Music at Monmouth is organizing the symposium, scheduled for Saturday, January 7. E Street Band bass player Garry Tallent, original E Street keyboardist David Sancious and original E Street drummer Vini Lopez are taking part in the event, along with Bruce’s former manager Mike Appel. 

Panel discussions, interviews, a book signing, a performance of the album’s songs by local musicians and the debut of a mini documentary on the making of the album, featuring an exclusive interview with Springsteen, round out the event. 

Ahead of the symposium, a free Zoom conversation about Greetings is taking place January 3 at 7:30 p.m. EST. David Sancious will be performing at The Count Basie Center for the Arts in Red Bank, New Jersey, on January 6.

In addition to Tallent, Lopez and Sancious, Greetings from Asbury Park, N.J. featured the late Clarence Clemons, among other non-E Street Band musicians. The album includes some of Springsteen’s most popular early songs, including “Spirit In the Night,” “Blinded By the Light” and “Growin’ Up,” as well as fan favorites “For You” and “It’s Hard to Be a Saint in the City.”

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The Beatles‘ Revolver track “Here, There and Everywhere” is getting a new video.

The animated clip is set to premiere Wednesday, December 7, at 9 a.m. ET on YouTube. You can check out a preview now via The Beatles’ Twitter.

“Follow the band on tour as they face an ever-changing backdrop of cities, hotels, roads and gigs, with only each other to rely on,” says producer Richard Barnett of Trunk Animation, which created the video. “A magical dancer appears to each of them, representing inspiration and creative freedom.”

In October, a deluxe reissue of Revolver was released, featuring various new mixes of the original 1966 record, as well as a collection of outtakes and a four-song EP that includes the non-album tracks “Paperback Writer” and “Rain.” Following the reissue’s arrival, Revolver re-entered the top five on the Billboard 200.

Several other Revolver tracks have gotten new, animated videos in conjunction with the reissue, including “Taxman” and “I’m Only Sleeping.”

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Audible has announced a new podcast called History Listen: Rock about the history of rock music.

A description for the show, which will be hosted by St. Vincent, reads, “A podcast for music addicts and casual listeners alike, History Listen: Rock, will give its audience in-depth insight into the biggest rock songs and artists they love, with all of the context and crazy connections that will allow them to listen to their favorite melodies with a new appreciation.”

Artists covered in History Listen: Rock include Jimi Hendrix, Patti Smith, The Allman Brothers Band, Sex Pistols and Bad Brains.

“It’s been so fun going back through rock history and revisiting some of my favorite artists and songs, including a bunch that don’t get the recognition they should,” says St. Vincent. “When you put it all together, you can see how history repeats and echoes through generations, how music links the past to the present, artist-to-artist. And some of these stories are absolutely wild.”

History Listen: Rock is set to premiere on January 12.

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In addition to running up the Billboard charts, Kate Bush‘s “Running Up That Hill” was a TikTok sensation.

The resurgent 1985 single was among the video platform’s 10 biggest songs of 2022 in the U.S. Its renewed popularity was driven by its placement in the fourth season of Stranger Things, which premiered in May.

Stranger Things also helped “Running Up That Hill” reach #3 on the Billboard Hot 100 — a career high for Bush — and #1 on the United Kingdom’s Official Singles Chart. The response to the song was so overwhelming that the normally press-shy Bush even gave a rare interview.

“Running Up That Hill” was previously named Spotify’s #1 “throwback song” of 2022, which is defined as a track released more than 20 years ago.

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In the early ’90s, Fleetwood Mac‘s “Don’t Stop” became synonymous with Bill Clinton, who used the song to soundtrack his 1992 presidential campaign. The response was so huge that the band reunited with guitarist Lindsey Buckingham to play “Don’t Stop” at Clinton’s inauguration in 1993. As it turns out, the person who helped put that performance together was Buckingham’s replacement.

Billy Burnette first joined Fleetwood Mac in 1987 after Buckingham’s departure that year amid heated turmoil among the band members. He continued to play with the group through the “Don’t Stop” phenomenon, during which he got a call from Clinton’s vice president, Al Gore, who he’d previously met.

“I put together that gig,” Burnette tells Rolling Stone. “I learned that Tipper Gore‘s favorite song was ‘Don’t Stop.’ It had nothing to do with the Clintons. Al asked me to call the managers and see if we’d do something at the inaugural.”

“I called everybody and got everybody together to do it,” he continues. “And then Stevie [Nicks] calls and asks if it would be OK if Lindsey played with them instead of me.”

Burnette would rejoin Fleetwood Mac after the inauguration, though his time in the band ended shortly thereafter in 1995, after which Buckingham rejoined. When Buckingham again left Fleetwood Mac in 2018 and was replaced by Neil Finn and Mike Campbell, Burnette says he “didn’t understand” why he wasn’t called.

“I got really upset with Mick [Fleetwood] about that,” Burnette says, though he adds he “got over it real quick.”

In other Fleetwood Mac news, the band’s iconic 1977 album Rumours is headed toward the top 10 on the United Kingdom’s Official Albums Chart. Sales of the record have jumped following the death of keyboardist, vocalist and songwriter Christine McVie, who passed away November 30 at age 79.

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