Classic Hits

A top-secret David Bowie film project being put together by director Brett Morgen from thousands of hours of rare performance footage of the late rock legend is nearing completion, sources have confirmed to Variety.

Morgen, whose previous films include the 2012 Rolling Stones documentary Crossfire Hurricane and 2015’s Kurt Cobain: Montage of Heck, has been working on the as-yet-untitled Bowie movie for four years.

Variety reports that a source close to the production describes the flick as “neither documentary nor biography, but an immersive cinematic experience built, in part, upon thousands of hours of never before seen material.”

According to sources, in addition to directing, Morgen is involved in the writing, editing and production of the movie, which will focus on live performance footage. The filmmaker also is said to be considering releasing the film in IMAX theaters.

Bowie’s longtime producer Tony Visconti is serving as the movie’s music producer, while the Oscar-winning sound team that worked on the Queen biopic Bohemian Rhapsody is mixing and designing the film.

Morgen personally acquired the rights to use the Bowie footage, and the project is being made with the full cooperation of David’s estate.

Variety notes that the film could possibly get its premiere at the 2022 Sundance Film Festival, which is scheduled kick off January 20, less than two weeks after the fifth anniversary of Bowie’s death and what would’ve been his 75th birthday.

Last month, Bowie’s estate launched a planned yearlong celebration commemorating the 75th anniversary of his birth. David was born on January 8, 1947, and died on January 10, 2016, at age 69.

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2021 Rock & Roll Hall of Fame Induction Ceremony took place on October 30 in at Cleveland’s Rocket Mortgage FieldHouse, and a TV special featuring highlights of the event premieres this Saturday, November 20, on HBO and HBO Max.

Among this year’s honorees were The Go-Go’s, the first all-female band to play their own instruments ever to be inducted. Go-Go’s drummer Gina Schock tells ABC Audio that getting to take part in the ceremony and the associated induction events was “just magnificent.”

Schock says it was exciting enough just finding out her band was going to be nominated, but “when you get there, your mind is blown by the enormity of it all.”

As she explains, “You’re there in front of all your peers, and it’s the industry recognizing you, basically, in a way that they haven’t [before].”

Schock says that the real focus of the event for her band was playing for their fans.

The Go-Go’s performed three of their biggest hits at the ceremony — “Vacation,” “Our Lips Are Sealed” and “We Got the Beat” — and Gina recalls, “[I]t was cool, because when we played, everybody stood up, everybody was dancing and everybody was singing. And it really was just an incredible feeling.”

Actress Drew Barrymore gave the induction speech welcoming The Go-Go’s into the Rock Hall. Schock says some questioned her why Barrymore was picked to honor the band, but Gina notes, “[T]here couldn’t be a better person inducting us, ’cause Drew’s like a real fan. She’s been a fan since she’s been a kid.”

Schock says another highlight for her was getting to meet Paul McCartney, who was on hand to induct the Foo Fighters.

Among this year’s other inductees were Todd Rundgren, Tina Turner, Carole King and Jay-Z.

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To help get fans into the holiday spirit, the self-professed Queen of Christmas, aka Mariah Carey, has revealed the movies that make her feel extra festive.

Speaking to USA Today, the “Fantasy” singer revealed that she’s a fan of the stop-motion animated Rankin/Bass classics Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer, Frosty the Snowman and Santa Claus Is Comin’ to Town.

“There’s something nostalgic about it. I watch those every year with the kids,” Mariah said. And while she does love the oldies, there is one more recent holiday movie that is also near and dear to her heart. “You gotta love Elf,” she decreed.

Mariah is now furiously preparing for the holidays because, as she tells USA Today, “I go all=out every year, darling.”

The Grammy winner recently released the ballad “Fall in Love at Christmas” — a collaboration with Khalid and Kirk Franklin — and is weeks away from releasing her Apple TV+ special Mariah’s Christmas: The Magic Continues, the sequel to last year’s Mariah Carey’s Magical Christmas Special.

In addition, she’s stocked up her online store and teamed with major retailers to help release her Mariah Carey Holiday Collection, which is packed with cozy essentials that will make it easier to wait up for Ol’ Saint Nick.

As for why Mariah aims to be practically synonymous with Christmas, she explains, “I love the holidays. It’s just my thing. I just have a special connection with Christmas.”

In fact, she admits the celebration doesn’t stop after December 25, and will shamelessly blast Christmas tunes until people start begging, “Can we put (any other music) back on?”

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Congratulations to Paul McCartney, whose new book, The Lyrics: 1956 to the Present, was chosen Barnes & Noble’s 2021 Book of the Year by the franchise’s booksellers.

After Barnes & Noble booksellers from around the U.S. nominated their top books of 2021, eight titles — among them The Lyrics — were picked for consideration by a selection committee that included the company’s CEO, James Daunt. The booksellers then voted and chose The Lyrics as Book of the Year.

“The Lyrics is an extraordinary book. It is stunningly beautiful and a masterpiece of book design,” says Daunt in a statement. “Paul McCartney has fashioned, through the explorations of his songs with the poet Paul Muldoon, a fascinating insight into his life and creative genius.”

In response to the prize, McCartney writes, “I’m beyond honored to receive this recognition. My team and I are extremely proud of The Lyrics and it means so much to us that you all like it as much as we do. Thank you to all the amazing team at Barnes & Noble in helping to launch the book.”

McCartney will be taking part in a conversation with Daunt about The Lyrics that will be streamed on Barnes & Noble’s official YouTube channel tonight at 7 p.m. ET.

As previously reported, The Lyrics: 1956 to the Present profiles 154 songs that McCartney wrote throughout his career, along with featuring his commentary about each tune. The two-volume work also features handwritten lyric sheets, rare personal photos, drawings and rough drafts of songs.

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The long, strange trip of The Grateful Dead just got a little bit stranger with the news that Martin Scorsese has signed on to direct an as-yet-untitled biopic about the legendary jam band that will star Jonah Hill as the group’s late frontman, Jerry Garcia.

Sources tell Deadline that Hill is co-producing the project through his Strong Baby production company, and that surviving Grateful Dead members Bob Weir, Phil Lesh, Mickey Hart and Bill Kreutzmann, and Garcia’s daughter, Trixie Garcia, are serving as executive producers.

The film’s script is being written by Scott Alexander and Larry Karaszewski — whose credits include American Crime Story: The People vs. O.J. Simpson, the Andy Kaufman biopic Man on the Moon and The People vs. Larry Flynt — along with Rick Yorn of LBI Entertainment.

The movie won’t be the first Grateful Dead-themed project that Scorsese has worked on. He also was an executive producer on the 2017 documentary Long Strange Trip that focused on the band’s history. Scorsese and Hill also previously worked together on Martin’s 2013 film The Wolf of Wall Street.

Hill reacted to the news of the Grateful Dead biopic by posted a screenshot of the Deadline article on his Instagram page, along with praying hands and skull emojis.

 

 

 

 

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You oughta know that Jagged, a documentary about Alanis Morissette and her seminal 1995 album Jagged Little Pill, airs tonight at 8 p.m. on HBO Max.

The album reveals how a then-21-year-old Alanis took the music industry by storm with her raw, emotionally honest songs. And the film’s director, Alison Klayman, tells ABC Audio that it’ll definitely have you digging out your old Jagged Little Pill CD.

“We had a party and we listened to the entire album after watching the movie and then karaoke’d all of the singles,” Klayman says, laughing. “And I was like, ‘Does everybody want this?’ And it was like, ‘This is all we want.'”

She adds, “The film just really inspires people not only to understand and re-frame and appreciate more deeply the story of the album, but really just to [be] like, ‘Yeah, I really want to listen to this. I love these songs.’“

Klayman also feels now is the perfect time to revisit the album and its message of female empowerment because, she notes, “We’re kind of on the other side of the beginning of MeToo and Time’s Up.”

“Y’know, there’s [now] a framework for thinking about some of these things,” she adds. “Like Alanis says, ‘It’s not that people are suddenly talking about it — it’s just that the culture wasn’t listening. And now it is.'”

While Alanis participated in the making of the film, she later publicly denounced it as salacious and refused to attend the premiere. Admitting she was “definitely surprised” by Alanis’ reaction, Klayman says, “I felt like this is a film that was made so collaboratively and with such a spirit of celebration and respect.”

She adds, “My hope is that she feels the love and support and can appreciate that, you know, that is the impact of this film.”

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Today marks the 40th anniversary of the release of Joan Jett‘s most successful album, I Love Rock ‘n’ Roll, which features the pop-punk legend’s signature song, her classic cover of U.K. glam-rock group The Arrows‘ 1975 tune of the same name.

I Love Rock ‘n’ Roll was Jett’s second album following the 1979 breakup of her influential all-female group The Runaways, and the first that she released with her longtime backing band The Blackhearts.

The original Blackhearts lineup featured guitarist Eric Ambel, bassist Gary Ryan and drummer Lee Crystal although Ambel was replaced early on during the sessions by Ricky Byrd.

The title track, which was written by Arrows members Alan Merrill and Jake Hooker, became a massive hit for Jett & the Blackhearts, spending seven consecutive weeks at #1 on the Billboard Hot 100 during the spring of 1982. It’s Jett’s only song ever to top the chart, and was the third-best-selling track in the U.S. in ’82 overall.

The album also included Jett & the Blackhearts’ second-highest-charting single, a cover of Tommy James and the Shondells‘ 1969 #1 hit “Crimson and Clover” that reached #7 on the Hot 100 for Joan and company.

The album, which was split between original tunes written or co-written by Joan and cover tunes, also included memorable renditions of The Dave Clark Five‘s 1964 smash “Bits and Pieces,” doo-woop group The Halos‘ 1961 hit “Nag” and the holiday classic “Little Drummer Boy.”

The I Love Rock ‘n’ Roll album peaked at #2 on the Billboard 200 and has gone on to sell more than a million copies in the U.S.

In 2016, Jett & the Blackhearts’ version of “I Love Rock ‘n’ Roll” was inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame.

Here’s the album’s full track list:

“I Love Rock ‘n’ Roll”
“(I’m Gonna) Run Away”
“Love Is Pain”
“Nag”
“Crimson and Clover”
“Victim of Circumstance”
“Bits and Pieces”
“Be Straight”
“You’re Too Possessive”
“Little Drummer Boy”

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U2‘s Achtung Baby album celebrates its 30th anniversary today. Released on November 18, 1991, the album debuted at #1 on the Billboard 200, and has been certified eight-times platinum by the RIAA.

Achtung Baby was the follow-up to the companion album to the Irish rocker’s 1988 documentary Rattle and Hum. Moving away from the Americana sounds of Rattle and Hum, the band went back to more of an alternative-rock sound for Achtung Baby, while also adding industrial and electronic music elements. The new sound was prevalent in songs like the funk-rock-inflected “Mysterious Ways” and the hip-hop-influenced “The Fly.”

U2 began recording Achtung Baby in Germany’s Hansa Studios just a year after the fall of the Berlin Wall. Though the band hoped to be inspired by German reunification, Achtung Baby became a very dark and personal album. U2’s members fought throughout the recording sessions, though things started to really come together when they wrote “One,” which has become one of the band’s most well-known songs.

Two singles from the album reached the top 10 of the Billboard Hot 100, “Mysterious Ways” and “One,” which peaked at #9 and #10, respectively. Achtung Baby also yielded two other top-40 hits — “Even Better Than the Real Thing” and “Who’s Gonna Ride Your Wild Horses.”

U2 supported Achtung Baby with the Zoo TV tour, which used elaborate visuals and other multimedia to emphasize the theme of “sensory overload.” Throughout the trek, Bono dressed up as different characters, and the band embraced a more humorous and ironic tone.

Considered by many to be one of U2’s greatest works, Achtung Baby returned the band to critical favor, and paved the way for the group’s continued musical exploration during the 1990s.

Here’s Achtung Baby‘s full track list:

“Zoo Station”
“Even Better Than the Real Thing”
“One”
“Until the End of the World”
“Who’s Gonna Ride Your Wild Horses”
“So Cruel”
“The Fly”
“Mysterious Ways”
“Tryin’ to Throw Your Arms Around the World”
“Ultraviolet (Light My Way)”
“Acrobat”
“Love Is Blindness”

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David Bowie‘s widow, Somali-born supermodel Iman, has just released a fragrance called Love Memoir that she says is an homage to her “epic romance” with and “everlasting love” for her late husband, who died of liver cancer in 2016 at age 69.

Iman tells People that creating fragrance, which is available now exclusively via the HSN network and HSN.com, helped to ease her sorrow as she grieved for her rock-legend husband during the COVID-19 pandemic while spending time at the home they shared in upstate New York.

“There is an alchemy and magic to it,” Iman says. “I put in the woodsy vetiver that reminds me of David and the cologne he wore the night we met [Grey Vetiver by Tom Ford], and then the bergamot of Tuscany [Italy], where we were married.”

Iman tells People that she knows Bowie would have been proud of her fragrance venture, noting that he was very encouraging during the 1990s when she started her Iman Cosmetics company.

“As much as I find myself confident, I’m actually very apprehensive of starting things, especially businesses,” she notes. “If David was not in my life, I don’t know if I would have had the courage to start Iman Cosmetics — he’s fearless in that way. He gave me the courage.”

The couple were married in 1992 and had one daughter together, now-21-year-old Alexandra “Lexi” Jones.

Iman says after losing Bowie, she won’t consider getting married again, something he told her daughter when Lexi asked her how she felt about the subject.

“I still feel married,” Iman explains to People. “Someone a few years ago referred to David as my late husband and I said ‘No, he’s not my late husband. He’s my husband.'”

Eternal love.. Eternal Memories
Love Memoir by IMAN#IMANLoveMemoir #LoveMemoir #BowieForever https://t.co/ThW9CLR9eZ pic.twitter.com/HG2F2IaOx6

— Iman Abdulmajid (@The_Real_IMAN) November 16, 2021

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Robert Plant and Alison Krauss have announced a livestream performance to celebrate the release of their upcoming collaborative album, Raise the Roof.

The virtual event is set to premiere the same day Raise the Roof arrives, Friday, November 19. It will feature the debut performances of several of the album’s songs from Sound Emporium Studios in Nashville.

You can tune in to watch via both Plant and Krauss’ YouTube channels starting at 1 p.m. ET.

Raise the Roof is the Led Zeppelin singer and acclaimed country-bluegrass artist’s second joint album, following 2007’s Grammy-sweeping Raising Sand. The record is primarily a covers collection paying tribute to “legends and unsung heroes of folk, blues, country and soul music,” although it does include one original called “High and Lonesome” that Plant co-wrote with producer T Bone Burnett.

Along with the livestream, Plant and Krauss will mark Raise the Roof’s arrival with performances Friday on CBS Mornings and The Late Show with Stephen Colbert, and Saturday on CBS Saturday Morning.

You can pre-order Raise the Roof now.

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