Classic Hits

It’s been almost 10 years since Patti Smith released her most recent studio album — 2012’s Banga — but the legendary singer/songwriter known as the “Godmother of Punk” has now revealed that she’s planning to make another one…and it may be her last.

In a new article published in U.K. newspaper The Guardian, Smith answered a variety of questions submitted by fans, including if she was planning a follow-up to Banga.

“I do have plans and I’ve written a lot of songs,” Patti said. “I’d like to do one more album and my record company, Columbia, has very generously left the door open.”

Another fan asked Smith to name her favorite album, and she chose Banga.

Patti explained, “‘Constantine’s Dream,’ the long improvised piece at the end, touched a lot of things that concern me — art, the future of mankind, climate change, the horrors done to our indigenous people, and love.”

She added, “I love the cover, which was shot on the fly by my friend Stephen Sebring. That record feels like me, like [my 1975 debut album] Horses feels like me.”

Besides her music, Smith’s an acclaimed poet and author.  Asked about her unrealized dreams, she said, “There’s nothing I love more than books. I’ve written some and I’m really happy with them but I just want to write at least one that I feel deserves to be in the canon of books to endure. I basically want to write something as good as Pinocchio and, yes, I’ve started it.”

Smith has a variety of concerts lined up for 2022, with her next shows scheduled for May 6 in Tulsa, Oklahoma, and May 7 in Austin, Texas. Check out her full itinerary at PattiSmith.net.

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Fresh from their stint on the 2022 Flower Power Cruise, The Zombies kick off their first North American tour since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic tonight in Orlando, Florida.

The famed British Invasion band’s trek, dubbed the Life Is a Merry-Go-Round Tour, features a total of 49 dates and is broken into spring and summer legs.

The springtime outing, which visits mainly East Coast venues, is scheduled through a May 1 show in Fall River, Massachusetts. The summer leg, which is dominated by concerts in Canada and the Western U.S., begins on June 21 in Belleville, Ontario, Canada, and wraps up with a three-date stand, July 28-30, in Park City, Utah.

The Zombies will be playing plenty of hits and fan favorites on the tour, along with some brand-new tunes. The band also will be selling a new CD/DVD package, Live from Studio Two, exclusively at the concerts. The release documents the group’s special 2021 performance at London’s Abbey Road Studios that premiered as a livestream event.

You can check videos of The Zombies playing “This Will Be Our Year” and “Edge of the Rainbow” at the Abbey Road show on the group’s official YouTube channel.

To check out the band’s full tour schedule and buy tickets, visit TheZombiesMusic.com.

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After being postponed from January 31, the 2022 Grammy Awards ceremony finally takes place this Sunday. Here’s a rundown of many of the veteran artists who will vie for honors:

AC/DC was nominated for three Grammys, while Paul McCartney received two nods.

The Australian hard rockers and the former Beatles legend both will compete for the Best Rock Album prize, for Power Up and McCartney III, respectively.

AC/DC also was nominated for the Best Rock Performance honor for “Shot in the Dark,” while the song’s video scored a nod in the Best Music Video category. McCartney also is in the running for Best Rock Song, for “Find My Way” from McCartney III.

Other veteran artists receiving Grammy nominations this year include ABBA, Jackson Browne, Los Lobos, Police drummer Stewart Copeland, Carole King, Steve Cropper and ex-Talking Heads frontman David Byrne.

ABBA is up for the Record of the Year for their new song “I Still Have Faith in You.” Browne and Los Lobos will vie for the Best Americana Album trophy for their respective records Downhill from Everywhere and Native Sons.

Copeland’s collaborative album with Ricky Kej, Divine Tides, is nominated for Best New Age Album. King received a Best Song Written for Visual Media nod for “Here I Am (Singing My Way Home),” which she co-wrote for the Aretha Franklin biopic Respect.

Cropper’s Fire It Up will compete for the Best Contemporary Blues Album honor.

Check out the full list of nominees at Grammy.com.

The Grammys airs live from Las Vegas at 8 p.m. ET on CBS, although many winners will be announced during the “Premiere Ceremony” event, which begins at 3:30 p.m. ET and will be streamed on the Recording Academy’s YouTube channel and on Live.Grammy.com.

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Julian Lennon has revealed the title of his forthcoming seventh studio album, Jude, which will be his first collection of new songs since 2011’s Everything Changes.

Julian, the older son of the late John Lennon, will release two advance tracks from Jude on April 8 — “Every Little Moment” and “Freedom.” The songs, which you can pre-save now, will be available on all streaming platforms.

The album’s title is a nod to the famous Beatles song “Hey Jude,” which Paul McCartney wrote to try to comfort five-year-old Julian following his parents’ separation. McCartney originally wrote the tune as “Hey Jules,” but changed the name because he preferred the way it sounded in the song.

“Many of these songs have been in the works for several years, so it almost feels like a coming-of-age album,” Julian explains of the new project. “With great respect for the overwhelming significance of the song written for me, the title Jude conveys the very real journey of my life that these tracks represent.”

Lennon co-produced Jude with his longtime guitarist Justin Clayton. The album will be released as part of Julian’s recently announced label deal with BMG.

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KISS will release a new archival live album capturing the rock legends’ performance at the 1996 Monsters of Rock Festival at the U.K.’s Donington Park as the third installment of thew band’s Off the Soundboard series of official concert bootlegs.

The new album, titled KISS — Off the Soundboard: Live at Donington 1996, is due out on June 10 and features a 17-song headlining set that KISS played at the festival on August 17, 1996.

The concert was part of the band’s Alive/Worldwide reunion tour that showcased the group’s original lineup of Paul Stanley, Gene Simmons, Ace Frehley and Peter Criss. The set was packed with KISS classics, including “King of the Night Time World,” “Calling Dr. Love,” “Shout It Out Loud,” “Strutter,” “Love Gun,” “Detroit Rock City” and “Rock and Roll All Nite.”

Off the Soundboard: Live at Donington will be available on digital formats, as a two-CD set, and as a three-LP collection pressed on standard black vinyl or limited-edition 180-gram red vinyl. You can pre-order the album now exclusively at KISS’ official online store. Special bundles also are available featuring the colored-vinyl set along with a t-shirt, trading cards, guitar picks and a button.

The first two KISS — Off the Soundboard releases featured a March 2001 concert at the Tokyo Dome in Japan, and a July 2004 show in Virginia Beach, Virginia.

Here’s the Off the Soundboard: Live at Donington CD track list:

CD 1
“Deuce”
“King of the Night Time World”
“Do You Love Me?”
“Calling Dr. Love”
“Cold Gin”
“Let Me Go, Rock ‘n’ Roll”
“Shout It Out Loud”
“Watchin’ You”
“Firehouse”
“Shock Me”

CD 2
“Strutter”
“God of Thunder”
“Love Gun”
“100,000 Years”
“Black Diamond”
“Detroit Rock City”
“Rock and Roll All Nite”

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“Strange Game,” Mick Jagger‘s theme song to the new Apple TV+ series Slow Horses, was released today as a digital single, coinciding with the premiere of the show’s first two episodes.

The track, which features a mysterious, jazzy vibe, was co-written by Jagger and composer Daniel Pemberton, who also composed the score to the show. A lyric video for the tune, which incorporates scenes from Slow Horses, has debuted at Mick’s official YouTube channel.

“I really enjoyed creating the theme track for Slow Horses with Daniel Pemberton,” Jagger says in a statement. “I’ve read a lot of the books [author Mike Heron‘s Slough House series] and was familiar with some of the more dark and unsavoury characters and knew the direction I wanted to take it…hope you enjoy it!”

As previously reported, Slow Horses stars Gary Oldman as the head of a branch of the U.K. counter-intelligence agency MI5, who oversees a group of failed agents hoping to redeem themselves.

Jagger wrote lyrics for “Strange Game,” which include specific references to the show.

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U2 frontman Bono was honored by the Fulbright Association on Thursday in Washington, D.C., with its 2021 J. William Fulbright Prize for International Understanding, acknowledging the singer’s his dedication to fighting global poverty and health crises, and supporting economic development in the world’s poorest regions.

In conjunction with the prize, Bono received an award of $50,000 to donate to the charities of his choice, which he bestowed on the ONE and (RED) organizations he co-founded.

During his acceptance speech, Bono talked about his passion for rock music, which is all about freedom and liberation, drawing parallels to the ideals of the U.S. and to Ukraine’s current fight for freedom against its Russian invaders.

Reflecting on growing in Ireland during a time of great conflict in that country, Bono noted, “We looked to America. We saw a country with its own long-running arguments, its own injustices. We knew this promised land wasn’t always keeping to that promise. We knew America wasn’t living up to all its ideals, but the fact is America had ideals.”

He continued, “We knew that because you wrote them down, you cited them, you held yourself to account on them. They shaped the struggle for civil rights and women’s rights and gay rights. I don’t know how, but I seemed to know that America wasn’t just a country. I felt it was an idea.”

In honoring Bono with the Fulbright Prize, Justice Cynthia A. Baldwin, Fulbright Association Board Chair, said, “The purpose of the Fulbright Prize is to recognize those who promote peace through greater understanding among peoples, cultures, and nations, and there’s no doubt that Bono embodies the best of leadership in times of unrelenting global crises and challenges.”

You can watch a video of the presentation at the Fulbright Association’s YouTube channel.

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Red Hot Chili Peppers‘ new album Unlimited Love is here, and so is the cinematic video for their new single “These Are the Ways.”

In the clip, singer Anthony Kiedis plays a man who’s shoplifting food to feed his pregnant wife. When a cop spots him, he runs out the door, jumps in his car and leads the cops on a chase.  After ditching the car, he escapes on foot.

The rest of the clip shows the cops chasing Kiedis through a variety of houses, motel rooms and apartments, past the residents who are engaged in everyday activities like vacuuming, having dinner, having sex and having a party.  Meanwhile, the band is shown playing the song in a motel room.

At the end, Anthony manages to slow the cops down with an overturned laundry cart, and seemingly escapes to shoplift another day. “These are the ways when you come from America,” he sings.

Unlimited Love features guitarist John Frusciante back on board and, for the first time in years, production by Rick Rubin, who was behind the board for Blood Sugar Sex Magik, One Hot Minute, Californication and many other albums.

Speaking of the Chili Peppers’ continued relevance, Kiedis tells the Los Angeles Times, “It’s nice not to feel like the world has passed you by. I love it when my son’s friends put on their playlists and we’re on there with Kid Cudi or someone.”

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Todd Rundgren‘s joint U.S. tour with Hall & Oates lead singer Daryl Hall begins tonight in Chicago.

Rundgren will open for Hall on the 14-date cross-country trek, which winds down May 22 in Austin, Texas.

Todd, who was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame this past October, says his tour with Daryl probably will be “the high point of the year” for him.

“First of all, I get…an hour-long set of my own material to do with a great band…I’ll be with Daryl’s house band,” Rundgren notes. “And [we’re] playing like the most prestigious venues. You know, we’re only doing eight shows in the first leg, but it’s Carnegie Hall [in New York] and Auditorium Theatre in Chicago and the Ryman in Nashville. You know all these classic venues.”

Todd says he also appreciates that Hall has at least one day off between each concert on the trek, which he notes is “just the easiest possible way to get through a tour.”

Meanwhile, Rundgren reveals that he’ll be joining Hall at the end of the shows for “a little encore sing-off thing.”

“[T]hat should be a lot of fun…because Daryl and I kind of challenge each other in little ways,” Todd maintains. “And it gets us both kind of at the edges of our capacities, you know, just trying to keep up with each other.”

Tickets for the tour are available at LiveNation.com.

The trek’s kickoff coincides with the release of Daryl’s first-ever solo compilation, BeforeAfter. The 30-track collection features selections from Daryl’s solo albums, as well as eight performances from his TV/web series Live from Daryl’s House, including a duet with Rundgren on Todd’s 1978 hit “Can We Still Be Friends.”

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Grateful Dead spin-off group Dead & Company has announced plans for a new U.S. summer tour that currently features 20 dates, running from a June 11 concert at Dodger Stadium in Los Angeles through a two-night stand July 15-16 at Citi Field in New York City.

The trek features several other two-show engagements — on June 13-14 in Mountain View, California; June 17-18 in Boulder, Colorado; and June 24-25 at Chicago’s Wrigley Field.

Tickets will go on sale to the general public on Friday, April 8, at 10 a.m. local time via DeadandCompany.com. Tickets will be made available through Ticketmaster’s Verified Fan program, which you can register for now through Sunday, April 3, at 12 p.m. PT. A Verified Fan pre-sale will begin on Tuesday, April 5, at 10 a.m. local time and run through Thursday, April 7, at 10 p.m. local time.

In addition, Dead & Company is offering various enhanced experience and travel packages, which go on sale April 5 at 10 a.m. local time. Visit CIDEntertainment.com for more details.

Also on the new trek, the band will continue its sustainability partnership with the nonprofit organization REVERB, and has committed to a comprehensive carbon offset program while also encouraging fans to take action to help the environment via the organization’s Music Climate Revolution campaign.

The summer trek will mark Dead & Company’s seventh tour since the band formed in 2015. The group’s lineup features Grateful Dead members Bob Weir, Bill Kreutzmann and Mickey Hart, as well as singer/guitarist John Mayer, ex-Allman Brothers Band bassist Oteil Burbridge, and RatDog keyboardist Jeff Chimenti.

In January, Dead & Company were forced to cancel their planned annual Playing in the Sand destination festival in Mexico because of spiking COVID-19 cases, including Mayer.

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