Classic Rock 93.9

The Doors will celebrate their 60th anniversary next year, and they are kicking off the festivities early with some new releases.

The legendary band is launching the anniversary with a brand new logo and will follow that with a limited-edition six-LP set, The Doors 1967-1971, that features high fidelity audio vinyl of all six of the band’s original studio albums. The set, limited to 3,000 copies, will be released Nov. 22. It will come with rare photos and liner notes by Doors archivist David Dutkowski.

The Doors 1967-1971 will be available exclusively at thedoors.com and rhino.com.

The anniversary will also be celebrated with the Nov. 29 Record Store Day Black Friday release of The Doors – Live in Detroit, a four-LP set of the band’s May 8, 1970, concert at Cobo Arena in Detroit, Michigan. 

Plus, The Doors anthology book, Night Divides The Day, is coming in January and is available for preorder now, with more announcements to come. 

Jim Morrison and Ray Manzarek co-founded The Doors in July 1965, with drummer John Densmore joining in August of that year, followed by guitarist Robby Krieger.

The band released their self-titled debut in January 1967, containing future classics “Light My Fire” and “Break On Through (To The Other Side).” They went on to sell over 34 million records worldwide and were inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame in 1993.

Copyright © 2024, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.

On This Day, Oct. 8, 1988 …

The Rolling Stones guitarist Keith Richards was the musical guest on the season 14 premiere of NBC’s  Saturday Night Live, where he debuted the solo single “Take it So Hard,” as well as the song “Struggle.” Both appeared on his debut solo album, Talk is Cheap.

It was his second time performing on SNL, but his first as a solo artist. He previously performed on SNL with The Stones in 1978.

The night’s host was Tom Hanks, who was hosing for his third time. 

Released earlier that month, Talk Is Cheap featured Keith backed by the band The Expensive Winos, which featured Steve Jordan, Waddy Wachtel, Ivan Neville and Charley Drayton.

Copyright © 2024, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.

The second trailer for the Bob Dylan movie A Complete Unknown has just been released, giving fans another look at Timothée Chalamet playing the rock legend in the early days of his career. 

“You trekked all the way from Minnesota — why is that?” Ed Burns as Pete Seeger says in the beginning of the clip. Chalamet responds, “I wanted to catch a spark.”

The clip gives us another taste of Chalamet’s vocal chops, with the trailer soundtracked to his version of Dylan’s “Girl From North Country,” as well as the iconic “Like A Rolling Stone.” The first trailer had him singing “A Hard Rain’s Gonna Fall.” 

The new trailer also features footage of Dylan in New York City, and glimpses of his relationships with Joan Baez and a character named Sylvie Russo, played by Monica Barbaro and Elle Fanning, respectively. It also shows him dealing with his rise to fame, and his disillusionment with his own career. 

“200 people in that room, and each one wants me to be somebody else. They should just let me be,” Dylan says. When asked, “Let you be what?” he responds, “Whatever it is they don’t want me to be.” 

The film follows Dylan through his infamous 1965 performance at the Newport Folk Festival, where he shocks the crowd by plugging in an electric guitar — a scene we see in the trailer.

“I’m not sure they want to hear what I want to play, Johnny,” Dylan says to Johnny Cash, played by Boyd Holbrook. Cash replies, “I wanna hear it,” and later adds, “Make some noise, big D.”

A Complete Unknown, directed by James Mangold, opens in theaters Christmas Day.

Copyright © 2024, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.

KISS’ Paul Stanley is set to make two new public appearances to promote his latest art collection.

The Rock & Roll Hall of Famer will stop by two Wentworth Gallery locations in New Jersey: Nov. 15 at the Hard Rock Hotel & Casino in Atlantic City and Nov. 16 at the Short Hills Mall in Short Hills. 

The collections will feature new original paintings, hand-painted signature Paul Stanley Ibanez guitars, mixed media originals, hand-painted acrylic sculptures and more. The collection will also include three new series by Stanley: the “Black Series,” “World in Chaos” and “Joy & Rebellion.”

And some fans may get a chance to actually pick up a brush with the rocker. A limited number of private VIP “Painting with Paul” experiences are available, plus there’s an option to visit Paul’s art studio at the KISS warehouse. Those interested can contact the Wentworth Gallery for more information. 

Stanley has been creating art for decades, and actually designed and created the iconic KISS emblem. About 10 years ago he returned to painting, creating portraits and abstract work, earning tens of millions of dollars for his work. 

In other Paul Stanley news, the rocker may have recently let it slip that KISS is making a documentary about their End of the Road tour, which wrapped in New York in December. Stanley shared the info in a social media post next to a picture of his wife, writing, “WOW… My beautiful wife Erin being interviewed today for a five-part documentary on our final tour. I’m blessed.” No other info about the doc was revealed.

Copyright © 2024, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.

After performing the final Beatles song, “Now and Then,” in concert for the first time in Uruguay, Paul McCartney has made it part of the set on his Got Back tour. Now, he’s giving fans at home a peek at the performance. 

The rocker has shared a clip on social media of him performing the tune at River Plate Stadium in Buenos Aires, Argentina, with the footage showing fans in the audience in tears. There’s also clips of the music video playing behind McCartney as he sings.

McCartney kicked off the latest leg of his Got Back tour in Montevideo, Uruguay, on Oct. 1. Next up, he brings the tour to Santiago, Chile, on Oct. 11. A complete list of dates can be found at paulmccartney.com.

Copyright © 2024, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.

Gov’t Mule frontman Warren Haynes is paying tribute to musician Johnny Neel, a member of the Allman Brothers Band and the Dickey Betts Band, who passed away Oct. 6 at the age of 70. 

Neel’s death was confirmed on his official Facebook account, with the post noting he died “from a massive heart failure.”  

“Aside from being an amazing musician and singer, Johnny was one of the funniest people on the planet — a true character,” Haynes wrote on social media. “’Johnny Neel stories,’ as we refer to them in our little chunk of the music world, are legendary.”

Waynes then shared tales of him meeting Neel in Nashville, and them both joining the Allman Brothers and the Dickey Betts Band.

“Mostly what I want to focus on, however, is what a musical person Johnny was,” he shared. “There was always music in his head. It was his savior. Whenever we were writing together, he was an endless fountain of ideas, and the same on stage or in the studio.”

“We wrote a lot of music together, we played a lot of music together, and we traveled the world together, and maybe most importantly, we had a lot of fun times and created a lot of beautiful memories. Hence the stories,” he concluded his post. “Johnny’s music and his legend will live on forever. Miss you Neely.” 

Neel joined the Allman Brothers Band in 1989 ahead of their second reunion tour. He played keyboards in the group and also appeared on their 1990 album Seven Turns, co-writing four songs on the record, including the single “Good Clean Fun.”

Copyright © 2024, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.

Classics from The Beatles are being celebrated by Lucinda Williams, who’ll release the new album Lucinda Williams Sings The Beatles From Abbey Road on Dec. 6.

The album has her covering tracks the band recorded at the legendary London recording studio, with the first single released being a cover of George Harrison’s “While My Guitar Gently Weeps.”

Other covers on the album include “Let It Be,” “Don’t Let Me Down,” “Can’t Buy Me Love,” “With a Little Help from My Friends” and “The Long And Winding Road.” 

This album is the seventh volume of Williams’ Lu’s Jukebox series. Previous releases were dedicated to The Rolling Stones, Bob Dylan, Tom Petty and more.

Lucinda Williams Sings The Beatles From Abbey Road is available for preorder now. Here is the track list for the album: 
“Don’t Let Me Down”
“I’m Looking Through You”
“Can’t Buy Me Love”
“Rain”
“While My Guitar Gently Weeps”
“Let It Be”
“Yer Blues”
“I’ve Got a Feeling”
“I’m So Tired”
“Something”
“With a Little Help from My Friends”
“The Long And Winding Road”

Copyright © 2024, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.

Neil Young and Stephen Stills, who were in Buffalo Springfield and Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young together, teamed up Saturday afternoon for a performance at the Harvest Moon benefit concert, which took place at The Painted Turtle camp in Lake Hughes, California.

According to setlist.fm, the duo teamed up to play several classic tunes, including Crosby Stills & Nash’s “Helplessly Hoping,” Stills’ “Love The One You’re With,” CSNY’s “Helpless,” The Stills-Young Band track “Long May You Run,” and Buffalo Springfield’s “For What It’s Worth” and “Bluebird.”

The pair also broke out the Buffalo Springfield deep track “Hung Upside Down,” with Stills initially joking to the crowd that it was a new song. 

“The worst four words you can hear in a live performance are ‘here’s a new song,’” he told the audience, according to fan-shot footage posted to YouTube. “But this is actually a new version of an old song that took two centuries to write.”

Young also performed his tracks “Heart of Gold” and “Harvest Moon,” and they then ended the set with “Rockin’ In The Free World,” which featured a guest appearance by the show’s other headliner, John Mayer.

Proceeds from the concert will benefit both the Painted Turtle, which offers the camp experience to children with serious medical conditions, and The Bridge School, an educational institution for children with severe speech and physical disabilities.

Copyright © 2024, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.

James Taylor is set to play an upcoming benefit concert to help those in the Carolinas affected by the devastation of Hurricane Helene.

The Rock & Roll Hall of Famer, who grew up in North Carolina, will perform at Concert for Carolina, which will also feature country stars Luke Combs and Eric Church and bluegrass artist Billy Strings, with more artists to be announced. 

The concert, hosted by ESPN’s Marty Smith and Barstool Sports’ Caleb Pressley, is taking place Oct. 26 at Bank of America Stadium in Charlotte, North Carolina, with proceeds supporting Hurricane Helene relief efforts in the Carolina region.

Tickets for the show go on sale Thursday at 10 a.m. More info can be found at concertforcarolina.com.

Copyright © 2024, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.

On This Day, Oct. 7, 2016 …

The first-ever Desert Trip festival kicked off at the Empire Polo Club in Indio, California, the same location where the yearly Coachella Festival is held.

Dubbed “Oldchella” by the public, the six-day event was split over two weekends and included a lineup of superstar classic rock acts like The Rolling Stones, Paul McCartney, The Who, Bob Dylan, Neil Young and Pink Floyd‘s Roger Waters.

The Stones and Dylan headlined the first night of each weekend, with Young and McCartney playing the Saturdays, and The Who and Waters closing both weekends.

McCartney’s set during the second weekend featured two special guests: Rihanna, who joined him for their collaboration “FourFiveSeconds,” and Young, who joined McCartney for “A Day In The Life,” “Why Don’t We Do It In The Road?” and a cover of John Lennon‘s “Give Peace A Chance.”

Copyright © 2024, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.