Classic Rock 93.9

Pink Floyd guitarist David Gilmour is giving fans a taste of his most recent solo tour, which wrapped in November. The rocker just released a live recording of “The Piper’s Call,” which was the first single off his latest solo album, Luck and Strange.

“The Piper’s Call Live Around The World” is a mash-up of performances from throughout his Luck and Strange tour. It features clips from The Brighton Centre in Brighton, England, Rome’s Circus Maximus, London’s Royal Albert Hall, Los Angeles’ Intuit Dome and New York’s Madison Square Garden, edited together to form one song.

“On the Luck and Strange tour, I played with the best band I’ve ever had. Their personalities, playing abilities and enthusiasm for my new music have made for a fabulous experience for Polly and me,” Gilmour shared, referring to his wife and co-songwriter, Polly Samson. “Thank you to everyone who attended the shows in Europe and America and thank you for buying Luck and Strange. I hope you found as much enjoyment in the music as we did while performing it.”

Released in September, Luck and Strange was Gilmour’s first album of new material in nine years. The album debuted at #1 in the U.K. and at #10 in the U.S.

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U2’s Larry Mullen Jr. has issues with numbers, and it’s more than just not being good at math.

In an interview with the U.K.’s Times Radio, the U2 drummer shared that he’s recently been diagnosed with dyscalculia, a learning disability that results in difficulty learning or comprehending arithmetic, sometimes referred to as “math dyslexia.” 

“I’ve always known that there’s something not particularly right with the way that I deal with numbers. I’m numerically challenged,” he shared. “And I realized recently that I have dyscalculia, which is a subversion of dyslexia. So I can’t count [and] I can’t add.” 

His issues with numbers can cause a problem when playing music, with Mullen sharing it’s often the reason he seems to have a “pained” face while drumming with the band.

“When people watch me play sometimes, they say, ‘You look pained.’ I am pained because I’m trying to count the bars,” he explained. “I had to find ways of doing this — and counting bars is like climbing Everest.” 

This is the first time Mullen has talked about his learning disability, and he made the revelation while promoting the new documentary Left Behind, which he co-produced. He also wrote two songs for the film, “Between The Lines” featuring GAYLE and “One of Us” featuring Welsh singer Donna Lewis, which are out now.

The film tells the story of the New York City mothers who fought to open the city’s first public school for dyslexic children. The subject of the film is a personal one for Mullen; his son is dyslexic.

Left Behind is set to open Jan. 17 for a weeklong engagement at New York City’s QUAD Cinema. It will then expand to select theaters nationwide.

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On This Day, Dec. 13, 2008 …

Joe Walsh married Marjorie Bach in Los Angeles, California. Bach is the sister of actress Barbara Bach, who has been married to Ringo Starr since 1981, meaning the union made Walsh Ringo’s brother-in-law.

This was the fifth marriage for the 77-year-old Eagles guitarist. He was previously married to Margie Walsh in the ’60s, Stefany Rhodes from 1971 to 1978, Juanita Boyer from 1980 to 1988 and Denise Driscoll from 1999 to 2006.

In addition to being related, Walsh and Starr have worked together several times. Walsh was part of Starr’s All-Starr Band from 1989 to 1992, and has occasionally guested with the group between 1995 and 2019.

Walsh is currently busy performing with the Eagles at their Sphere residency in Las Vegas. Their next show is Friday.

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The rumors regarding the casting of Sam Mendes’ four Beatles films continues, with Deadline now reporting Stranger Things actor Joseph Quinn will play George Harrison.

And it sounds like he’s getting ready for the part, with Deadline citing sources in Europe who claim Quinn’s been spotted with a guitar while overseas filming his role of Human Torch in the new Fantastic Four movie. 

Quinn is no stranger to the guitar, or at least acting like he knows how to play one. His character Eddie Munson memorably played Metallica’s “Master of Puppets” in the season 4 finale of Stranger Things. 

Quinn most recently starred in Ridley Scott’s Gladiator II, and if the casting rumor is true, he will be the second star from that movie rumored to be in the Beatles films. On Tuesday, Gladiator II director Ridley Scott let it slip that Paul Mescal is attached to the project; he’s rumored to be playing Paul McCartney.

As for the rest of the band, Ringo Starr recently let it slip in an Entertainment Tonight interview that Barry Keoghan had been cast to play him. Plus, Babygirl actor Harris Dickinson has been mentioned as a possible candidate to play John Lennon. When asked about it on the red carpet for the Babygirl premiere, he played coy, telling Variety “we’ll see.”

So far there has been no official announcement about the casting of the films. 

Mendes’ Beatles project was announced back in February, with the director revealing he planned to make four separate films, one for each member of the group. Sony Pictures is the studio behind the movies, and it marks the first time Apple Corps Ltd. and The Beatles have granted a studio the rights to the life stories of the band members and their legendary catalog of music.

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Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers’ classic tune “Mary Jane’s Last Dance” is reinterpreted on Snoop Dogg‘s just-released album, Missionary, and the song is out now.

Snoop’s version, “Last Dance with Mary Jane,” also features Jelly Roll. It opens with Petty saying “keep movin’ on” and includes Petty’s chorus playing over the hook.

Ahead of the song’s release, Snoop and producer Dr. Dre shared an archival clip of a Petty interview where he can be heard saying, “The day Dre does ‘Mary Jane’s Last Dance’ he’s gonna have a big hit,” adding, “That one’s just waiting to explode … you need somebody like Dre to do it.” 

The post then cuts to a clip of Dre explaining how Petty’s contribution came to be. He shares, “So the family sent me the files, so I actually have Tom Petty’s voice and harmonica playing on the hook.” 

Released in 1993, “Mary Jane’s Last Dance” was recorded during the sessions for Petty’s album Wildflowers, but was released as part of his Greatest Hits album. It hit #14 on the Billboard Hot 100, giving Petty his first top-10 hit.

 (Video includes uncensored profanity.)

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Never Too Late, the new documentary about Elton John, premieres Dec. 13 on Disney+. Directed by his husband, David Furnish, and RJ Cutler, it features never-before-seen footage of Elton’s career and of his life today as a husband and father. It also details how he triumphed over adversity, abuse and addiction. However, he says revisiting his past via the film wasn’t always pleasant.

Asked if the documentary was difficult for him to watch at times, Elton told ABC News, “A bit, because I hadn’t seen a lot of that footage. But what it did [was], it confirmed in myself that those were great songs … I played well. We had a great band.”

Indeed, the doc points out that during one five-year period in the ’70s, Elton released 13 albums, seven of which hit #1.

“The records were amazing, and I tend to forget that because I don’t listen to the past — or my past, anyway,” Elton said. “So in that way, it made me feel good about myself and about what I did and what I composed and how I played.”

While Elton has retired from large-scale touring, he seems to be as in demand as ever. And despite the fact that he’s currently dealing the loss of his sight in one eye — which he hopes will be temporary — Elton says he feels he’s currently in a great place in his life.

“I’m so lucky. I’m the luckiest man in the world,” he gushed. “I’m so proud of the documentary. I’m so proud of what David and RJ have done. I’m proud of my sons. I’m proud of my attitude towards myself and what’s going on. I’m just very lucky and I’m very grateful.”

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Saturday, Dec. 14, marks the 40th anniversary of Foreigner’s fifth studio album, Agent Provocateur, which was a huge hit for the band.

The album was a top-five hit, landing at #4 on the Billboard 200, and earned a triple Platinum certification by the RIAA. The record is best known for its hit ballad “I Want To Know What Love Is,” which spent three weeks on top of the Billboard Hot 100 and became the band’s only #1 song.

But despite the success of “I Want to Know What Love Is,” Foreigner frontman Lou Gramm wasn’t particularly happy that it was the album’s first single, especially since the last hit from their previous album, 4, was another ballad, “Waiting for a Girl Like You.” 

“I seriously think it did some damage to our rock credibility,” he tells ABC Audio. “There were comments in editorials about how some of our rock fans felt like we were letting them down.”

As for the album itself, Gramm says “there’s some great songs on there,” noting that some of them were “completely overlooked.”

He adds, “So, you know, I think it’s a very good album.”

But apparently the album didn’t damage their rock credibility too much, as Foreigner was inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame in October. Despite his feelings about the song, Gramm performed “I Want To Know What Love Is” with Kelly Clarkson during the induction ceremony.

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Legal documents pertaining to the breakup of The Beatles sold at auction on Thursday for over $11,000, according to the U.K. publication The Standard.

The U.K. auction house Dawsons handled the sale of the more than 300 pages of documents relating to the band’s official split in 1974. The pages, from advisers and legal reps, were discovered in a cupboard sometime in the last year, although the exact location of the find was not revealed.

When the auction was announced earlier in December, Denise Kelly, from Dawsons, described the documents as “fascinating,” noting, “I just couldn’t put them down until I had read every page.”

The docs were purchased by a private buyer. It was originally estimated that they’d sell for between $6,000 and $10,000.

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The cast of the Bob Dylan film A Complete Unknown, including star Timothée Chalamet, perform all the music seen in the film, which amounts to more than 50 onscreen music performances. When it comes to guitars, they are playing Gibsons. 

Gibson’s acoustic guitar luthiers worked with the film’s production team to provide historically accurate guitars for the movie, including two custom Gibson J-50s built for the movie to match Dylan’s original guitar, a 1947 model.

“As many Gibson acoustic guitars played a timely role in American music history our supportive mission was to carefully select the Gibson acoustics that Bob Dylan chose to play during his powerful presence in the 1960s,” Robi Johns, senior product development manager at Gibson Acoustic Guitars, shares. “To achieve this with historical accuracy, we also recreated a few of Bob’s acoustic guitars for the timeframe depicted in the movie.”

Now Gibson has debuted a new line of acoustic guitars inspired by the film. A Complete Unknown: The Collection is made up of nine guitars, including a Gibson SJ-200, considered the world’s most famous acoustic guitar, and a Johnny Cash SJ-200 Vintage Cherry Sunburst.

And fans can check out some of the Gibson guitars created for the film — they’ll be on display at the Gibson Garage Nashville from Dec. 19 through January.

A Complete Unknown hits theaters Dec. 25.

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A new book about the Grateful Dead is coming out next year in time for the band’s 60th anniversary.

The Grateful Dead By Jim Marshall: Photos And Stories From The Formative Years, 1966–1977 will be released Aug. 5, featuring both color and black-and-white photos taken by rock ‘n’ roll photographer Jim Marshall, who has snapped more than 10,000 pictures of the band during his career.

The hardcover book, curated by Amelia Davis and David Gans, is made up of over 200 photos, many of which have never been printed before. 

According to the book’s description, fans will be able to “immerse themselves in the Grateful Dead’s formative years, from their humble beginnings to their rise to global stardom, the era when they developed their pioneering musical style and their legendary live performances.” 

In addition to the pictures, the book will feature stories by five experts on music, photography and The Dead, as well as quotes and commentary, plus an afterword written by Grammy winner John Mayer, who’s a member of Dead & Company.

The Grateful Dead By Jim Marshall: Photos And Stories From The Formative Years, 1966–1977 is available for preorder now.

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