Classic Rock 93.9

Fifty years ago Friday David Bowie released his ninth studio album, Young Americans, which was considered a departure from his glam-rock style, focusing more on funk, soul and R&B influences.

The album, which came out less than a year after 1974’s Diamond Dogs, featured backing vocals by a then-unknown singer named Luther Vandross; its first single, the title track, peaked at #28 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart.

Its second single, “Fame,” featured The Beatles‘ John Lennon on guitar and backing vocals, and became Bowie’s first Hot 100 #1. 

“Fame” was actually one of two songs on the album that featured contributions from Lennon; the other was a cover of The Beatles track “Across the Universe.”

Several months after the album’s release, Bowie appeared on the music show Soul Train, performing “Fame” and “Golden Years” from his next album, Station to Station. The appearance by Bowie marked one of the first times a white artist appeared on the R&B music show.

Young Americans turned out to be a breakthrough album for Bowie in the U.S. It debuted in the Billboard 200’s top 10 in the U.S. and remained on the chart for 51 weeks. The song “Fame” was one of four Bowie songs to be included in the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame’s list of the 500 Songs that Shaped Rock and Roll.

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Brian James, founding guitarist of the influential English punk band The Damned, has died. He was 70.

A post to his Facebook Thursday reads, “It is with great sadness that we announce the death of one of the true pioneers of music, guitarist, songwriter, and true gentleman, Brian James.”

The Damned formed in the mid-’70s with James, vocalist Dave Vanian, bassist Raymond “Captain Sensible” Burns and drummer Christopher “Rat Scabies” Millar. Their debut single “New Rose” was considered to be the first official U.K. punk single upon its release in 1976.

“The riffmeister, Brian has gone,” Burns says. “That final act that happens to us all, for most is a sad and miserable affair but while it’s truly awful our mate has been taken I prefer to celebrate the life.. and WHAT A LIFE Brian James had!”

James left the group in 1978, and toured in Iggy Pop‘s live band in 1979 alongside Sex Pistols bassist Glen Matlock.

“Sad news today about Brian James’ untimely passing,” Matlock says. “Great memories of touring the States together on Iggy’s ’79 tour where he brought the house down every night with his solo on ‘Set ’em up Joe.'”

James returned to The Damned in 1988 and played with them until 1991. He reunited with the band again in 2022. 

The current incarnation of The Damned, which features the three other founding members, plan to dedicate their performance Friday in Brazil to James.

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On This Day, March 7, 1970…

Simon & Garfunkel hit #1 with their fifth and final studio album, Bridge Over Troubled Water.

The album featured such iconic Simon & Garfunkel tunes as the title track, “The Boxer,” “The Only Living Boy in New York,” and “Cecilia.”

With Garfunkel concentrating on an acting career, Simon wrote all the songs on the album, with the exception of a cover of the Everly Brothers’ “Bye Bye Love.”

The album went on to become a massive hit and spent 10 weeks at #1. It also sold 25 million copies, and went on to win six Grammy Awards, including album of the year.

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40 years ago today — March 7, 1985 — “We Are the World” was released. The charity single was recorded Jan. 28 after the American Music Awards, with stars ranging from Bob Dylan and Stevie Wonder to Bruce Springsteen and Tina Turner. Billy Joel was one of the artists participating, and the one thing he didn’t like about the experience was “We Are the World” itself.

“I wasn’t that crazy about the song,” Billy told ABC Audio some time ago. “I think that was my main memory of that: ‘Oh, this is the song?'” 

Written by Lionel Richie and Michael Jackson, it features lyrics like “it’s true we make a brighter day/ just you and me.”  Billy says he thought it “sounded like a Pepsi commercial,” but he still took part, finding ways to break up the tedium during the extremely long night.

“If you watch the shots where they have the chorus, some of the times I’m in them and sometimes I’m not,” he laughed. “They kept doing take after take … and I realized that they didn’t need me every time.”

“So I’d kind of sneak off, I’d meet with Bruce Springsteen at the cold cut table, and we’d just stand there and have a beer and listen to everybody else sing, and then we go back!” he laughed. 

Billy also recalled the now-legendary moment when Stevie Wonder had to teach Bob Dylan how to sing like Bob Dylan.  “I wish they had kept it [in the song], ’cause it was absolutely hysterical,” he said.  It’s captured in the Netflix documentary The Greatest Night in Pop.

Lionel Richie once told ABC Audio that a pop culture moment like “We Are the World” couldn’t happen today.

“They’ll say to you, it doesn’t fit our format or it doesn’t fit our demographics, or we’ll do some market testing now to see if it fits the marketplace,” he noted. “So by the time you end up getting the music to the people, it’s over. It’s very difficult now to get the world’s attention.”

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It’s been over a decade since Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers keyboardist Benmont Tench released his debut solo album, You Should Be So Lucky, and he’s back with his sophomore release, The Melancholy Season.

Tench tells ABC Audio that while he’s had enough songs to make a new record since about 2017, “things had intervened” that kept him from doing so, including health issues, a new baby and then COVID-19. But he thinks the delay wound up working out for him.

“Though I had enough songs … I didn’t have all of these songs,” he says. “And these songs, the ones that came in later, when put with some of the earlier ones, made a coherent whole.”

Tench says the tracks on the album paint a picture of what he was going through between 2014 and 2019, which includes Petty’s death in 2017. He says of the songs, “It’s more of a picture of … what was in the air for a concentrated period of time during which there had been a lot of changes.”

As for naming the album The Melancholy Season, Tench shares, “I thought it was a good title for a record. I also thought that it summed up the mood of the record pretty well.”

The album’s cover is a painting Tench had seen at the Art Institute of Chicago, which he says he’s “always loved.”

“And when I thought, ‘I want to call this record The Melancholy Season,’ the first thing I said was, ‘Do you think there’s a way we can use this painting for the cover of the album?’” he says. “Because I think it evokes the record very well.”

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INXS is celebrating the 40th anniversary of their album Listen Like Thieves with a new deluxe edition, and now they are giving fans a preview of the bonus material that will be included in the release.

The Aussie rockers have released a performance of the track “Biting Bullets.” It’s part of a newly unearthed BBC recording, Live From The Royal Albert Hall, London, 1986, that will appear on Listen Like Thieves (40th Anniversary Deluxe Edition), along with unreleased outtakes, demos, and a brand-new remix of the album by Giles Martin and Paul Hicks.

In addition to the three-CD/LP deluxe edition, there will be a two-CD extended edition of Listen Like Thieves, which includes the new mix and the CD of B-sides, remixes and live recordings, as well as a single LP edition with just the remix.

All versions will be released May 9 and are available for preorder now.

Listen Like Thieves, released Oct. 14, 1985, was INXS’ fifth studio album and was considered to be the band’s international breakthrough. It featured their first top-five single, “What You Need,” with the album reaching #11 in the U.S.

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The Rolling Stones guitarist Keith Richards was honored Wednesday as the first recipient of the Connecticut Governor’s Award of Excellence; he was recognized for his “deep commitment to supporting the local community.”

During a ceremony held at The Westport Library, Connecticut Gov. Ned Lamont called Richards “an amazing member of our community,” adding, “We’re so proud that he’s here and I’m so proud of the opportunity to give him this award of excellence.”

Richards, a Connecticut resident since 1985, thanked the state for recognizing him with the honor, which came with a custom-made medallion and key to the state.

“I’ve been here for 40 years and it’s been a great place for me,” Richards shared. “I brought the kids up here … I said I have to get the kids out of New York City so they could get some fresh air to breathe. So, we moved up here, and ever since we’ve had a great life.”

He added, “I’m incredibly happy about everything, especially things like this, because you don’t get them every day.”

Keith also mentioned the Westport Library, noting, “This is a great building, a wonderful library, which even I didn’t know the full extent of.” He then talked about the importance of books: “It’s very important that we keep our books unburnt.”

The Connecticut Governor’s Award of Excellence is described as “a prestigious new honor celebrating Connecticut residents who epitomize the state’s core values of creativity, resourcefulness, passion, dynamism, and generosity.”

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The Doors are celebrating the 60th anniversary of the band by sharing some of their favorite Doors-related locations with fans.

The Rock & Roll Hall of Fame band has teamed with Apple Maps for a new guide to some of the historic places that shaped the band’s legacy.

The collaboration includes 20 locations, many of them in Los Angeles, like the legendary Whisky a Go-Go, as well as Tail O’ the Pup hotdog restaurant, which was previously the site of The Doors’ Workshop. There’s also Electric Entertainment, which was once Elektra Sound Studios, where The Doors recorded their music.

There are several venues outside of LA, including The Fillmore in San Francisco, the site of the former Fillmore East in New York and the Roundhouse in London, as well as the Four Season Hotel George V in Paris, where Doors frontman Jim Morrison used to stay.

Fans can find The Doors locations by going to the Apple Maps guide and searching The Doors.

This new collaboration is one of several ways the band has been celebrating their 60th anniversary. They are also dipping into their archives to share some live recordings to digital services for the very first time. The first, Live at the Matrix 1967: The Original Masters, was released in January.

They kicked off the celebration last year with the release of the six-LP box set The Doors 1967-1971. The six albums in the set were then released individually on high fidelity audiophile vinyl in January.

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Bryan Adams is giving fans another preview of his upcoming album, Roll With the Punches.

The rocker just released the new track “Make Up Your Mind,” which he says is a “song is about making the decision in a relationship to either move forwards together or finally move on.”

He adds, “If you’ve ever questioned the past, yearned for another shot, or felt the bittersweet sting of ‘what if,’ this song is for you.”

“Make Up Your Mind” is the second song Adams has released from Roll With the Punches, following the title track, which he shared in February. 

Roll With the Punches, the “Run To You” singer’s 16th studio album, is expected out later this year.

Next up, Adams is set to launch a residency at the Wynn Las Vegas on Friday, with shows running until March 14. A complete list of dates can be found at BryanAdams.com.

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Courtney Love is far from A Complete Unknown, though she sings about feeling like one in a cover of Bob Dylan‘s “Like a Rolling Stone.”

The Hole frontwoman put her spin on the Highway 61 Revisited classic during an event in London celebrating the release of actor, playwright and author Todd Almond‘s new book, Slow Train Coming, which is about the Dylan-inspired musical Girl from the North Country.

Also during the event, Love spoke about her plans to tour in support of her upcoming solo album, which she said is “probably her last one.” One thing that’s not in her plans, though, is reuniting Hole.

“Stop with the Hole thing, stop,” Love said.

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