Classic Rock 93.9

U2 is giving fans a peek inside the studio with some never-before-seen footage of a recording session for their 2004 album, How to Dismantle an Atomic Bomb.

The video, shared on Instagram, shows the band working on the track “Original of the Species” at Air Studios Lyndhurst Hall in London. In one clip they are backed by a full orchestra. 

“I have a lot of fun putting songs together, you know, for the first time,” The Edge says in the clip. “When you actually bring it into this kind of environment, where you’re really deconstructing it, pulling it apart, it’s at times kinda grueling. But unless you go through that, you’re unlikely to get an arrangement that everyone’s completely committed to.”

U2 recently celebrated the 20th anniversary of How to Dismantle An Atomic Bomb by releasing a shadow album, How to Re-Assemble An Atomic Bomb, containing 10 previously unreleased tracks from the band’s archive, with the songs all coming from the original recording sessions for the album. 

They also released a special 20th anniversary remastered edition of How To Dismantle An Atomic Bomb, as well as a package with the remaster and the shadow album together, dubbed How To Dismantle An Atomic Bomb (Re-Assemble Edition), plus various box sets on vinyl and CD.

Released in November 2004, How to Dismantle an Atomic Bomb was a #1 hit for U2, thanks to songs like “Vertigo,” “City of Blinding Lights” and “Sometimes You Can’t Make It on Your Own.” The record won eight Grammy Awards, including Album of the Year and Song of the Year for “Sometimes You Can’t Make It On Your Own.”

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Eighty-nine songs were eligible to be nominated for Best Original Song at the Academy Awards in 2025, but only 15 of them have made the short list — and one of them is by Elton John.

“Never Too Late,” written by Elton, his friend Brandi Carlile, Bernie Taupin and producer Andrew Watt, is now officially eligible for an Oscar nomination. The song plays over the end credits of the documentary Elton John: Never Too Late, which is currently streaming on Disney+. However, the film itself didn’t make the short list for Best Documentary Feature.

The Oscar nominations will be revealed Jan. 17.

If “Never Too Late” wins an Oscar, it’ll be Elton’s third. He previously won in 1995 for “Can You Feel the Love Tonight” from The Lion King and in 2000 for “I’m Gonna Love Me Again” from his biopic Rocketman. Earlier this year, Elton officially became an EGOT winner when he scored his first Emmy Award, for his Farewell from Dodger Stadium special.

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Legendary folk singer and Rock & Roll Hall of Famer Joan Baez will be celebrated with a tribute concert in February, featuring Bonnie Raitt, Rage Against the Machine‘s Tom Morello, Hozier, Lucinda Williams and more.

The event, A Night to Honor Joan Baez, will take place Feb. 8 at Masonic Auditorium in San Francisco, with Baez expected to perform. Other artists on the bill include Emmylou Harris, Rosanne Cash, Margo Price, Joe Henry and Taj Mahal, with promises of surprise guests and additional performers to be announced.

The concert is a benefit for Sweet Relief Musicians Fund, which provides services and financial assistance for career musicians and music industry professionals.

“We’re beyond thrilled to celebrate 30 years of Sweet Relief while honoring the great Joan Baez and her amazing career,” Aric Steinberg, executive director at Sweet Relief Musicians Fund, shares. “Joan has supported our charity for many years, and it’s a privilege to honor her this year alongside so many incredible artists. It will be a night to remember and I’m so grateful to Joan and all of the performers who will help ensure that our music community continues to have Sweet Relief as a resource for emergency financial assistance.” 

Tickets for the concert go on sale Friday.

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A docuseries about the history of heavy metal is in the works with Hulu, Deadline reports.

The eight-part series is set to premiere in 2025. Its working title is Into the Void, a reference to Black Sabbath‘s Master of Reality song.

“The sonic worlds created by the genre’s boldest icons are rich with untold history and unimaginable trials and tribulations,” executive producer Evan Husney writes in an Instagram post. “We’re excited to team up with Hulu to look beyond the mystique and show these legends as real people.”

The exact subjects of the series have yet to be announced, though Husney teases that “a full episode lineup of the stories we’ll be delving into will be announced closer to the show’s release next year.”

Disney is the parent company of Hulu and ABC News.

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With everyone talking about Bob Dylan and the upcoming movie A Complete Unknown, Julien’s Auctions is getting in on the interest, announcing a new auction of Dylan memorabilia in January.

Celebrating Bob Dylan: The Aronowitz Archive, T Bone Burnett & More will take place Jan. 18 at Nashville’s Music Hall of Fame and feature a whole host of collectibles, including an early draft of Dylan’s classic tune “Mr. Tambourine Man.” 

The typewritten lyrics come from the archive of the late music journalist Al Aronowitz and are expected to sell for between $400,000 and $600,000.

Other items from the Aronowitz archive include an early Dylan oil painting from 1968, a 1983 Fender Telecaster owned by Dylan and signed handwritten lyrics to “Blowin’ in the Wind.”

Also up for auction is a one-of-a-kind new recording of Dylan’s classic “The Times They Are A-Changin’,” produced by T Bone Burnett, expected to sell for between $400,000 and $600,000. 

“Hearing Bob Dylan sing ‘The Times They Are A-Changin’’ sixty years after he wrote it is a moving experience,” Burnett shares. “The times, have, in fact changed, and the listener can hear the gravity and the consequence of the sixty years of life that have passed since he first wrote and recorded the song.”

This isn’t the first time Burnett has sold a one-of-a-kind Dylan rerecording. In 2022 a similar recording of “Blowin’ In The Wind” sold at a private Christie’s auction for $1.8 million.

Items in the auction will be on display at the Music Hall of Fame from Dec. 18 through Jan. 17. Registration for the auction is open now.

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On This Day, Dec. 17, 1958 …

R.E.M. bassist and founding member Mike Mills was born in Orange County, California. He is best known for his songwriting and harmonizing backing vocals.

After becoming a huge local success in Athens, Georgia, R.E.M. recorded their first single, “Radio Free Europe,” in 1981, which became a hit. They recorded their debut EP, Chronic Town, in October 1981. It was released on I.R.S. records in August 1982, with their debut album, Murmur, dropping in 1983.

R.E.M. went on to release 15 studio albums, seeing a huge commercial success with 1991’s Out of Time, featuring the hit “Losing My Religion,” and 1992’s Automatic for the People, which featured such classics as “Man on the Moon” and “Everybody Hurts.”

R.E.M. broke up in 2011, and since then Mills has continued to make music, collaborating with other artists and as a member of the band The Baseball Project.

Mills was inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame with R.E.M. in 2007 and to the Songwriters Hall of Fame in 2024. At the Songwriters Hall of Fame induction he reunited with his R.E.M. bandmates, Michael Stipe, Peter Buck and Bill Berry, to perform “Losing My Religion,” the first performance with all four members of the band since 1995. 

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Legendary singer Paul Rodgers turns 75 on Tuesday.

Rodgers is best known for his work as the frontman of Free, which had a top-five hit with “All Right Now” in 1970, as well as the frontman of the supergroup Bad Company. 

Bad Company’s self-titled debut album, which celebrated its 50th anniversary in May, hit #1 thanks to such classic songs as “Can’t Get Enough of Your Love” and the title track. Rodgers told ABC Audio “it’s a very lovely feeling” knowing the songs on Bad Company have stood the test of time after 50 years, sharing, “When I listen back to it, I’m like, wow.”

After leaving Bad Company in 1982, Rodgers launched a successful solo career and also fronted the band The Law, featuring former Faces drummer Kenney Jones.

In 2004, Rodgers joined Queen’s Brian May and Roger Taylor for a TV performance, and soon the Queen members were asking him to join them on the road. The touring collaboration, under the name Queen + Paul Rodgers, kicked off in 2005. They even recorded an album together, The Cosmos Rocks, which was released in 2008. Rodgers left in 2009 to get back to his solo career.

In 2023, Rodgers released Midnight Rose, his first solo album in almost 25 years, and revealed to the world he had suffered a series of strokes starting in 2016 that nearly took away his ability to sing. He told ABC Audio making the album helped him with his recovery.

“Well, it feels like being born again, actually, it’s absolutely great,” Rodgers said. “I was sort of incapacitated. … And I had to take it step by step. And everything I did was like a progress, was a step in the right direction.” 

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Steve Perry wants to help you get into the holiday spirit.

The former Journey frontman has just launched his very own holiday yule log on YouTube, featuring songs from his latest holiday album, The Season 3, with video of a roaring fire, surrounded by a Christmas tree and stockings.

Perry originally released The Season in 2021, then followed it up with a deluxe edition a year later.

The latest version of the album, which came out in November, features a total of 16 holiday tunes, six of which are new, including “Call Me Irresponsible,” featuring the singer’s late father, Ray Perry, “Jingle Bell Rock” and “Let It Snow.”

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John Lennon’s two sons, Julian Lennon and Sean Ono Lennon, spent some quality time together and gave the public a little peek at their evening.

Julian shared a trio of photos from their hangout at John Lennon’s apartment at The Dakota on Instagram, including one of him giving Sean a kiss on the head and another of Sean digging into some noodles surrounded by takeout containers.

“A Goodnight kiss for my brother, after spending the evening with him, having a lil dinner & chatting the night away, at The Dakota,” Julian wrote. “Something we rarely get to do…Thankful.”

Julian, 61, is Lennon’s son with his first wife, Cynthia, who the Beatle divorced in 1968. Sean, 49, is his son with wife Yoko Ono, who he married in 1969.

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Paul McCartney is getting into the holiday spirit.

The Beatles legend is currently on the U.K. leg of his Got Back tour, and while playing in Manchester he broke out his holiday tune “Wonderful Christmastime.”

Performing in front of a holiday-themed backdrop, McCartney performed the song for the first time since 2018 at the Co-Op Live on Saturday, where, according to Rolling Stone, he was joined by children from the You Should Be Dancing Theatre Academy. He then performed the song again during his Saturday night show.

McCartney shared photos of the concert, and the holiday-themed performance, on Instagram, writing, “Simply having a Wonderful Christmastime in Manchester! We’ve been travelling around the world and here we are up north again. It’s good to be back!“ 

And McCartney has a few more opportunities to sing the song before Christmas. He is set to wrap the tour with two nights at the O2 in London, Wednesday and Thursday.

Released in 1979, “Wonderful Christmastime” was recorded during the sessions for McCartney’s solo album McCartney II. The song peaked at #26 in the U.S. and was a top-10 hit in the U.K., Germany and other countries.

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