Music

Today marks the 40th anniversary of the release of Crosby, Stills & Nash‘s Daylight Again, the famed folk-rock trio’s third studio album.

Daylight Again featured two hit singles, “Wasted on the Way” and “Southern Cross,” which peaked at #9 and #18, respectively, on the Billboard Hot 100, while the album reached #8 on the Billboard 200.

The project began as duo collaboration between Stephen Stills and Graham Nash, but David Crosby, who had been struggling with drug issues at the time, was eventually brought in to make it a full-fledged CSN album.

“David was going through…a difficult time in his life, but we made the best record that we could at the time, absolutely,” Nash tells ABC Audio. “And I think it’s a fine piece of music.”

In Crosby’s absence, various other singers were brought in to fill out the tracks, including Art Garfunkel and Eagles bassist Timothy B. Schmit.

Nash says a musician who made particularly important contributions to Daylight Again was keyboardist and backing singer Mike Finnigan, who died of cancer in 2021.

“Mike Finnigan was our organ player for many, many years, and he…was a fantastic musician,” Graham notes. “A lot of Daylight Again was done with Michael singing with me and Stephen, that we replaced with David’s voice when David came back to health.”

Meanwhile, Nash explains that “Wasted on the Way,” which was CSN’s second-highest-charting single ever, was written about his feeling that he and his band mates could’ve made much more music together than they did.

“I understand that CSN and CSNY did a lot of really fine music, and I’m very proud of it all,” he says, adding with a laugh, “but once you play me a great song, I want more.”

Here’s Daylight Again‘s full track list:

“Turn Your Back on Love”
“Wasted on the Way”
“Southern Cross”
“Into the Darkness”
“Delta”
“Since I Met You”
“Too Much Love to Hide”
“Song for Susan”
“You Are Alive”
“Might as Well Have a Good Time”
“Daylight Again/Find the Cost of Freedom”

Copyright © 2022, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.

If you’re a Pretenders fan, here’s some potentially disappointing news: Frontwoman Chrissie Hynde says she no longer plans to play concerts that focus on her band’s best-known tunes.

In a Facebook message posted Friday, Hynde revealed she had some “good news,” writing, “I’m completely dumping any sort of Greatest Hits set for now on. I never wanted to go there in the first place but was trying to keep myself alive and pay the bills. And yes, I know that’s no reason to be in a rock band. (I was just too scared to go back to waitressing.) But those greatest hits/ballads days are now behind me.”

She added, “If anyone wants to come and see me in the future it’s going to be punk rock/no hits.”

Hynde also sung the praises of and shared a video clip of a hard-rocking new song by longtime Pretenders guitarist James Walbourne‘s current project, His Lordship‘s “All Cranked Up.”

The Pretenders currently have no tour dates scheduled, although Hynde has been announced as one of the performers at the Foo Fighters-headlined star-studded tribute concert to late Foos drummer Taylor Hawkins that will take place September 3 in London.

Also, Hynde announced in a Facebook post last month that The Pretenders had finished recording a new album.

Hynde explained that the project “started out as more of a Valve Bone Woe sort of thing” — referring to her jazz-influenced 2019 solo album — “but morphed into a rock thing.” 

She added, “I guess I just can’t help it. I know I shouldn’t name drop, but in the words of Neil Young ‘she’ll be rocking till she drops.'”

Copyright © 2022, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.

If you’re a director looking to make a new Popeye movie, look no further than Flea.

In a recent tweet, the Red Hot Chili Peppers suggested he’d be a good choice to play pipe-chewing, spinach-eating Sailor Man, should the opportunity ever arise.

“If a good director decides to make a Popeye movie, I’m your man,” Flea declared.

Should Flea be able to manifest a starring role in a new Popeye film — which, judging by other franchise reboots/sequels, would probably be called Dawn of Popeye or Popeye Returns or simply The Popeye — he’d be following in the footsteps of the late Robin Williams, who played the character in the 1980 live-action movie Popeye. The Robert Altman-directed feature received poor reviews, but has developed more of a following in recent years.

In the meantime, Flea is currently on tour with the Peppers in support of their new album, Unlimited Love. The global trek will come to the U.S. in July.

You can also catch Flea in the new Disney+ miniseries Obi-Wan Kenobi.

Disney is the parent company of ABC News.

Copyright © 2022, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.

Kenny Loggins‘ new memoir, Still Alright, is out now, and in it he details his decades-long career, including his time in Loggins & Messina, his solo career, his hit movie songs, his drug use and his many famous collaborators, one of whom he identifies as his “musical soulmate.”

Loggins tells USA Today about the book, “I was very careful to tell the truth, but in a way that people wouldn’t be mad at me. I didn’t want Jimmy [Messina] going, ‘[F***] you,’ and my ex-wives, I let them both read their chapters before submitting [it].”

One of Loggins’ collaborators who gets a lot of space in the book is Michael McDonald, with whom he wrote the Doobie Brothers mega hit “What a Fool Believes” and his own solo smash “This Is It.” When asked by USA Today if he’d call McDonald his “musical soulmate,” Loggins says, “I think in some ways, yeah, I would give you that one … Every time we get together, we write something musically neither would have done alone.”

He adds, “I can’t explain it, but I think we didn’t really exploit our opportunities in the ’80s. I wish we would have written 100 songs and let 80 of them suck. When there’s chemistry there, don’t waste it.” 

Loggins adds that he and McDonald are “still great friends and appreciate the history we created.”

The singer is also having a pop culture moment: His song “Footloose” has gone viral on TikTok, and his song “Danger Zone” was the only song from the original Top Gun that was retained for the soundtrack of the hit sequel Top Gun: Maverick. Loggins says he’s “dumbfounded” by the movie’s success.

“We knew something big was going to happen, but it’s just way huger than any of us imagined,” he adds.

Copyright © 2022, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.

Brett Tuggle, a veteran keyboardist who toured with the David Lee Roth Band, Fleetwood Mac, Rick Springfield and many other artists, died on Sunday, June 19, “from complications related to cancer,” Rolling Stone reports. He was 70.

“Our sweet Brett Tuggle made it home tonight,” tweeted Springfield, with whom Tuggle toured and recorded during the mid-1980s. “God bless his beautiful spirit.”

Brett is survived by his two children — son Matt and daughter Michelle.

“He was loved by his family so much,” Matt told Rolling Stone. “His family was with him throughout the entire time of his illness. He was a lovely father. He gave me music in my life.”

Tuggle was a founding member of Roth’s first solo band after Diamond Dave split with Van Halen. He was a member of Roth’s backing group from 1986 to 1994. He co-wrote several songs with the singer, including “Just Like Paradise,” which reached #6 on the Billboard Hot 100 in 1988.

In 1992, he began playing with the Mick Fleetwood side project The Zoo, and he later served as Fleetwood Mac’s touring keyboardist from 1997 to 2017. He also played keyboards on Mac members Lindsey Buckingham‘s and Stevie Nicks‘ solo tours, as well as on Buckingham and Christine McVie‘s trek in support of the duo’s 2017 collaborative album.

In a 2020 Rolling Stone interview, Tuggle explained that he lost his gig with Fleetwood Mac after Buckingham was fired from the group in 2018, claiming that he was perceived as “Lindsey’s guy.”

Most recently, Tuggle had been touring with Buckingham during Lindsey’s 2021 solo tour, but he did not appear at any of the singer/guitarist’s 2022 concerts.

Over the years, Tuggle also played with Jimmy Page & David Coverdale, John Kay and Steppenwolf, Styx‘s Tommy Shaw and many others.

Copyright © 2022, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.