Classic Rock 93.9

Yes’ fourth studio album, Fragile, which featured the hit song “Roundabout,” is set to be reissued this summer. 

Fragile (Super Deluxe Edition) will be released June 28, featuring a remastered version of the original album on both CD and vinyl, along with bonus material including rarities and previously unreleased live recordings. There will also be a Blu-ray featuring a new Dolby Atmos mix from music producer Steven Wilson. 

One of those unreleased recordings, “Long Distance Runaround/The Fish (Schindleria Praematurus),” is out now on all digital outlets. 

Fragile (Super Deluxe Edition) will feature four CDs, one LP and one Blu-ray, with the music also getting released digitally and on streaming platforms. It is available for preorder now.

Fragile, released in February 1972, was the first Yes album to feature keyboardist Rick Wakeman, with a Yes lineup that also included Jon Anderson, Chris Squire, Bill Bruford and Steve Howe. The album peaked at #4 on the Billboard Album chart, with the single “Roundabout” reaching #13 on the Hot 100. It has been certified double Platinum by the RIAA.

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John Lennon’s 1973 solo album, Mind Games, is getting a brand new reissue with lots of extra goodies for fans. 

The newly expanded Mind Games – Ultimate Collection is set to drop July 12, produced by Sean Ono Lennon, who oversaw the project, and with the blessing of Yoko Ono Lennon.

According to the press release, the Ultimate Collection “puts listeners in the center of the studio and explores the album’s 1973 recording sessions at the Record Plant in New York City.” It will include six different listening experiences, featuring unreleased outtakes, stripped down mixes, instrumentals, demos, rehearsals and even what’s described as “studio chatter.” 

And fans are getting a preview of what to expect with the release of “Mind Games” (Evolution Documentary),” an audio documentary that gives listeners insight into the evolution of the album’s title track. It includes an early piano demo of song, which at the time was called “Make Love Not War,” along with studio rehearsals and various takes on the tune. There’s also never-before-seen footage of John and Yoko in their bedroom at their Ascot home in February 1970.

Mind Games – The Ultimate Collection will be released as two-CD and two-LP versions, as well as a deluxe box set with six CDs and two Blu-rays and a super deluxe edition, which is limited to only 1,100 copies and includes two limited-edition reproduction artworks by John and Yoko, nine LPs, six CDs and two Blu-rays.

Mind Games – The Ultimate Collection is available for preorder now.

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A long-awaited documentary about legendary rockers Led Zeppelin is now one step closer to being released. 

Sony Pictures Classics just acquired the rights to the film, Becoming Led Zeppelin, which first premiered as a work-in-progress at the 2021 Venice Film Festival.

Now completed, the documentary, described as a “hybrid docu-concert film,” is the first officially sanctioned film about the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame group. It features never-before-seen footage newly unearthed from the band’s archives, including home movies and family photos. There’s also previously unseen performance footage from The Filmore West in January 1969, The Atlanta Pop Festival in July 1969 and The Texas Pop Festival in August 1969.  

Directed by Bernard MacMahon, the doc also includes exclusive interviews with Led Zeppelin’s Jimmy Page, Robert Plant and John Paul Jones, as well as previously unheard interviews with their late drummer, John Bonham. 

According to the press release, the film is “a visceral musical experience that will transport audiences into the concert halls of Led Zeppelin’s earliest tours, accompanied by intimate commentary from the famously private band.”

“When I saw the early cut of the film premiered, at the Venice Film Festival, it was amazing,” Page shares. “The energy of the story, and the power of the music, is phenomenal.”

Sony Pictures Classics is planning for a theatrical release of the film, but so far there’s no word on when it will hit theaters.

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On This Day, May 15, 1975 …

In El Paso, Texas, Fleetwood Mac launched their first tour with new members Lindsey Buckingham and Stevie Nicks. 

The set list included several songs from Buckingham and Nicks’ 1973 album, as well as the future classics they contributed to the band’s 1975 self-titled album, like “Rhiannon,” “Landslide” and “Monday Morning.”

Nicks and Buckingham were in a romantic relationship that ended in 1977, although they remained with the band and wrote songs inspired by the breakup, including “Silver Springs” and “Go Your Own Way.”

Although they would both leave Fleetwood Mac at various points in their careers, all members who appeared on 1977’s Rumours reunited in March 1997 for a live concert, The Dance, which was released as an album.

Buckingham left the group once again in 2018, although reports claimed he was fired because of a disagreement over touring. He later sued the group, and the suit was settled out of court. Fleetwood Mac went on to tour without him, replacing Buckingham with The Heartbreakers’ Mike Campbell and Crowded House’s Neil Finn. 

The future of Fleetwood Mac has been uncertain since the November 2022 death of vocalist/keyboardist/songwriter Christine McVie, with Nicks saying in an interview “there’s no reason to” continue without McVie.

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Bon Jovi is getting ready to release another song from their upcoming album, Forever.

The band will drop the new single “Living Proof” on Friday, May 17. They shared a snippet of the track on social media, which includes a sound that will be familiar to fans of their hit “Livin’ On A Prayer.” 

“‘Living Proof,’ the next single off the album, we bring back the talk box, the idea based on Peter Frampton and Joe Walsh and our using it first on ‘Livin’ on a Prayer,'” Jon shares, referring to Frampton’s use of the guitar gadget on “Do You Feel Like We Do” and “Show Me The Way,” and Walsh’s on “Rocky Mountain Way.”

Jon then offers up a taste of one of the lyrics, sharing, “this family tree’s got nothing left to prove now/ me and you are the living proof.”

He adds, “[T]his is a big old rock song just the way you like it.” 

Forever, Bon Jovi’s first album in four years, will be released June 7. It is available for preorder now. 

Jon also announced that the band will be holding pizza parties to give fans a first listen to the album. He explains that when they were recording 1986’s Slippery When Wet there was a pizza place by the studio, and they would invite locals hanging out there to come listen to the songs and give their feedback.  

Jon says they are bringing the parties back, starting in Los Angeles, with information about the parties available to those who join their broadcast channel.

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The Rolling Stones have been changing up the sets on their ’24 Hackney Diamonds tour, substituting a few songs here and there, but it sounds like there’s potential to shake things up even more.

Rolling Stone magazine interviewed the creative team behind the tour, revealing the band rehearsed between 60 and 70 songs for the trek.

“The real privilege is to see them in rehearsal,” lighting designer Patrick Woodroffe, who’s worked with The Stones since 1982, tells the mag. “It’s thrilling still, even after all this time.” He notes, “They’ve always had really high standards, particularly about rehearsing, even during some of the more chaotic periods of their career. I see them in rehearsal as a small group of players just wanting to make their music.”

The tour has the band performing on a massive stage featuring 2,300 square feet of high-resolution LED screens. The idea is to create what is described as a “virtual stage” for The Stones, changing up the look throughout the show.

“The stage is embellished by all of the digital media around them, and that, by default, makes it very contemporary,” shares Ray Winkler, CEO and design director at Stufish Entertainment Architects, the company that created the stage. “It’s not about the physical presence of a stage set but the continuing, evolving, and developing imagery that you see on the screens.”

“It’s a team effort,” he says of the production. “It’s a massive endeavor to get a project like this from an idea on paper into reality. There’s a lot of unsung heroes that contribute toward the success of it.” 

The ’24 Hackney Diamonds tour hits Seattle, Washington, on May 15. A complete list of dates can be found at rollingstones.com.

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Bruce Springsteen and The E Street Band are known for their live shows, and now fans are going to get some insight into what it takes to make it happen: A new documentary, Road Diary: Bruce Springsteen and The E Street Band, is coming to Hulu and Disney+ in October.

According to a press release, the documentary, directed by Springsteen’s longtime collaborator Thom Zimny, “opens a new door to Springsteen’s creative process for fans around the world.” It features a behind-the-scenes look at The Boss’ 2023-24 tour, including band rehearsals, backstage footage and professionally shot clips from the tour.

The documentary will also feature rarely seen archival clips, plus insight from Springsteen about how he develops his shows and interviews with members of the E Street Band discussing what it’s like to work for The Boss. 

The description notes the documentary “serves as an essential and never-before-seen chapter in an autobiographical series,” which already includes Springsteen’s memoir Born To Run and his Broadway show Springsteen on Broadway, as well as the films Western Stars and Letter To You.

Springsteen and The E Street Band are currently on tour, playing Cork, Ireland, on May 16. A complete list of dates can be found at brucespringsteen.net. 

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The late Clash frontman Joe Strummer has inspired a new guitar from Fender.

The new limited-edition Joe Strummer Masterbuilt Telecaster, created by Fender Custom Shop Senior Masterbuilder Paul Waller, is a recreation of Strummer’s iconic 1966 Telecaster, which he used as frontman of both The Clash and The Mescaleros.

The recreation is so close to Strummer’s original that it appears just as worn out, and features similar scratches and tattered stickers.

To accompany the guitar, Fender is offering up a range of Joe Strummer accessories, including a faux leopard print animal fur guitar strap and a pink vinyl wrapped three-ply hardshell wood case, with soft plush leopard print lining.

More info on the guitar, which sells for $20,000, can be found at fendercustomshop.com.

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AC/DC is getting ready to kick off their Power Up tour in Gelsenkirchen, Germany, on May 17, and they are giving fans a chance to get their hands on two albums that were previously unavailable outside their native Australia.

The band just announced that the original Australian versions of 1975’s High Voltage and T.N.T. are being reissued and will be available on vinyl at the tour’s AC/DC Dive Bars, pop-ups that will open in five cities on the trek, starting May 16 in Gelsenkirchen, Germany. Other cities getting Dive Bars are Seville, Spain; Munich, Germany; London; and Paris.

Only limited quantities of each album be available, with sales limited to one each per customer.

High Voltage and T.N.T. are the first two studio albums from AC/DC, but were only released in Australia. Their first international release was also called High Voltage, but featured a different track list, with seven of the nine songs coming from T.N.T.

AC/DC’s Power Up tour is the hard rockers’ first trek since 2016, although they did return to the stage in October, headlining the Power Trip festival in Indio, California, alongside Metallica, Judas Priest and more. The tour is set to run though August 17 in Dublin, Ireland.

So far they haven’t announced any new shows in the U.S. A complete list of AC/DC dates can be found at acdc.com.

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The Black Crowes have released the official music video for “Wilted Rose,” featuring Lainey Wilson, a track from their recently released album, Happiness Bastards. 

The clip features footage of the band performing the song with Lainey at the Grand Ole Opry House in Nashville back in April for the kickoff to their Happiness Bastards tour. The video also features behind-the-scenes footage of the band, including clips of tour rehearsals. 

Released in March, Happiness Bastards is The Black Crowes’ first album of new material in 15 years.

The Black Crowes are set to kick off the U.K./European leg of their Happiness Bastards tour on May 14 in Manchester. They return to the States for some festivals in July and September, before joining Aerosmith as the special guest on their Peace Out tour, starting September 23 in Philadelphia. A complete list of tour dates can be found at theblackcrowes.com.

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