Classic Rock 93.9

Special releases by The Doors, U2 and more were among the bestsellers on Record Store Day Black Friday this year. 

The Doors’ Live From Bakersfield, August 21, 1970, which captures a 1970 concert around the time of Jim Morrison‘s indecent exposure trial, landed at #4 on the list of bestsellers, followed by U2’s remastered Under a Blood Red Sky at #6.

Two Grateful Dead related albums also sold well. The March 2, 1969, Dead concert at San Francisco’s Fillmore West, which was released as a five-LP package, landed at #8, while Pure Jerry: Marin Auditorium, San Rafael, CA – February 28, 1986, a recording of a performance by Jerry Garcia and John Kahn, landed at #12.

Also making the top 25 is Joni Mitchell’s Court and Spark Demos, at #15, and The Beach Boys’ Christmas Album, at #16.

Meanwhile, artists seeing the best sales on Record Store Black Friday include The Doors, who had the second-best overall sales, Grateful Dead at #6 and U2 at #8.

Overall, it seemed to be a great Black Friday at independent record stores this year, with weekend year-over-year increases up as much as 40%.

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Music fans will be able to say their final goodbyes to the late Pogues frontman Shane MacGowan later this week.

RTE reports that a funeral for MacGowan will be held Friday, December 8, in Tipperary, Ireland, with the mass at St. Mary’s of the Rosary Church in Nenagh, which will be open to the public.  

There had been plans for a procession from Dublin, but that is reportedly no longer happening.

MacGowan passed away November 30 at the age of 65. His wife, Victoria Mary Clarke, told The New York Times that he died from pneumonia, although he had also been battling viral encephalitis at the time of his death.

“He wasn’t ready to give up,” Clarke told RTE. “He wasn’t ready to stop fighting – but his body did it for him.”

Meanwhile, U2 paid tribute to MacGowan during the Friday, December 1, show of their Las Vegas residency, U2: UV Achtung Baby Live at Sphere.

Fan-shot footage posted to YouTube shows the Irish rockers performing the Pogues classic “A Rainy Night in Soho” for the Vegas crowd. 

The band had previously paid tribute to MacGowan on social media, writing, “Shane MacGowan’s songs were perfect so he or we his fans didn’t have to be.”

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On This Day, December 4, 1988…

Roy Orbison performed what would be his final concert at the Front Row Theater in Highland Heights, Ohio, a suburb of Cleveland.

The concert featured performances of such Orbison classics as “Crying,” “In Dreams,” “Only the Lonely,” “Oh, Pretty Woman” and more. 

After the show, Orbison returned home to Hendersonville, Tennessee, where he died from a heart attack on December 6. He was 52.

Orbison’s many accolades include being a member of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, Songwriters Hall of Fame, Nashville Songwriters Hall of Fame and Musicians Hall of Fame. He won five Grammy Awards and was honored with a Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award.

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Red Hot Chili Peppers are keeping the love going into 2024.

The “Under the Bridge” outfit has announced another U.S. leg of their Unlimited Love tour, running from May 28 in Ridgefield, Washington, to July 30 in St. Louis. Kid Cudi and Ice Cube are among the openers on select dates.

Tickets go on sale Friday, December 8, at 10 a.m. local time, with various presales throughout the week. For the full list of dates and all ticket info, visit RedHotChiliPeppers.com.

The Unlimited Love tour supports RHCP’s two 2022 albums, Unlimited Love and Return of the Dream Canteen, which marked their first records with guitarist John Frusciante since 2006’s Stadium Arcadium.

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December 5 marks 50 years of Paul McCartney & Wings’ classic album Band on the Run, and McCartney is celebrating the occasion with a new 50th anniversary expanded edition of the album.

In addition to the release of a half-speed remastered single LP vinyl, the milestone celebration will be marked with a special two-LP vinyl set compromising the half-speed remastered original album and an additional LP, Underdubbed Mixes Edition, featuring the album’s nine songs without any orchestral overdubs.

The set also comes with two Linda McCartney Polaroid posters and a two-CD version of the release, featuring the original album and Underdubbed.

“This is Band on the Run in a way you’ve never heard before,” McCartney shares. “When you are making a song and putting on additional parts, like an extra guitar, that’s an overdub. Well, this version of the album is the opposite, underdubbed.”

Underdubbed will also be released digitally, while Band on the Run will get its first digital release in Dolby Atmos, newly mixed by Giles Martin and Steve Orchard.

Band on the Run was the third album released by Paul McCartney & Wings and McCartney’s fifth post-Beatles release. It featured such classic songs as the title track, “Jet” and “Bluebird.” The album went to #1 in the U.S. and the U.K., and has been certified triple Platinum by the RIAA.

Band on the Run 50th Anniversary Edition is available for preorder now.

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The Kinks are in the midst of a two-year celebration of their 60th anniversary, which includes two box sets: The Journey — Part 1, which came out in March, and the recently released The Journey — Part 2.

The sets feature Kinks hits, as well as deep cuts and more, and The Kinks’ Dave Davies tells ABC Audio he’s “quite pleased with the way it turned out.”

“I think there’s a lot of really important music on it,” he says. “It gives a chance for people who aren’t that familiar with the non-hits” to discover the tunes. He notes,  “They all work nicely on a compilation like this.”

Dave says he was happy to see the song “Lincoln County” make it on Part 2, along with “God’s Children,” written by his brother Ray Davies. “I’ve always loved it, the lyric, and the melody, the whole concept,” he shares.

The sets also feature live tracks and B-sides; Dave suggests there’s even more unreleased music to be heard, even if the songs aren’t perfect.

“I don’t know if they’ll ever see the light of day but over the years I’ve become less critical,” he says. “Songs have foibles and weird s*** and I think it’s all important aspects of recording. We’ve been doing it for so long it’s kinda nice to hear the nuances.”

As for whether fans will be hearing new music from The Kinks anytime soon, Dave seems hopeful it’ll happen.

“I don’t know but me and Ray played on tracks that’ve been sitting around, that we didn’t quite finish and are too good to just shelve,” he says, “so it’s very possible.”

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KISS said goodbye to the road Saturday, December 2, at Madison Square Garden in New York City, but they’re not going away for good and have already revealed what’s next for the group. 

After playing the final song, “Rock and Roll All Nite,” the band introduced the crowd, and the public watching at home via pay-per-view, to their KISS avatars, with holograms of Demon, the Starchild, Catman, and Spaceman performing “God Gave Rock ‘N’ Roll to You II.”

“The end of the road is the beginning of another road,” Paul Stanley told the crowd, according to Rolling Stone. “We’re not going anywhere. You’ll see us in all different things all the time. We’ll see you in your dreams.”

According to Fast Company, the KISS avatars come courtesy of San Francisco-based Industrial Light & Magic, with the band sharing some behind-the-scenes video of the making their holograms, captioning the clip, “A NEW ERA BEGINS.” 

“The future is so exciting,” Gene Simmons says in the clip, with Stanley adding, “We can live on eternally.”

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Bruce Springsteen has paid tribute to the late Pogues frontman Shane MacGowan, who passed away November 30 at the age of 65.

“Over here on E Street, we are heartbroken over the death of Shane MacGowan,” reads Springsteen’s Instagram post. “Shane was one of my all-time favorite writers. The passion and deep intensity of his music and lyrics is unmatched by all but the very best in the rock and roll canon.”

Springsteen then recalled visiting Shane and his wife, Victoria, when he was playing shows in Dublin last May. 

“He was very ill, but still beautifully present in his heart and spirit,” Springsteen writes. “His music is timeless and eternal. I don’t know about the rest of us, but they’ll be singing Shane’s songs 100 years from now.”

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The Beatles are back at #1: The band’s new single, “Now and Then,” tops the Billboard Adult Alternative Airplay chart for the very first time.

The Adult Alternative Airplay chart launched in 1996, and The Beatles have landed on it one other time — when 1996’s “Free as a Bird” peaked at #11. They now hold the record for the longest time between their first appearance on the AAA chart and their first #1.

In other Beatles news … Sir Patrick Stewart recounted a sweet story of meeting Paul McCartney during an appearance on Live with Kelly & Mark.

He was in Bristol working in an acting company with McCartney’s then-girlfriend Jane Asher and during lunch one day they were playing a game where they shared what they’d buy if they had 1 million pounds; Stewart chose an Aston Martin. Two weeks later, McCartney showed up at Stewart’s dressing room. 

“The door opened and there was Paul McCartney and he said, ‘Jane tells me that you like Aston Martins. Here, drive this,’” Stewart recalled, noting he was in his underwear at the time. “He threw me a bunch of keys.” Stewart said they went out on a joyride in the middle of the night and drove about 18 miles together to Bath, England.

“All I could think was if I crash this car it’s the only thing I’ll be remembered for,” Stewart said. “This is the man who killed Paul McCartney.”

Stewart also recalled bumping into McCartney, who was with Ringo Starr, in a restaurant years later. McCartney introduced Stewart to Ringo, noting they were all “Sirs.”

Stewart said McCartney put his arms around both him and Ringo, declaring, “We are Knights of the Round Table.”

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These days, thanks to technology like holograms, bands don’t necessarily have to disappear when they decide to stop touring or making music. But that’s not something The Who’s Pete Townshend is interested in.

Townshend and Roger Daltrey are the only two surviving members of the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame band and they still tour together. When they eventually decide to put an end to touring, Townshend says fans shouldn’t expect to see a Who avatar show like Voyage, the show made famous by ABBA.

“Apparently Mick [Jagger] has said, ‘Yeah, The Rolling Stones will definitely do an ABBA,’” he tells the Financial Times, referring to recent comments Jagger made to WSJ magazine. Townshend then made a face and ruled it out for The Who, noting, “Oh f***, no, no, no.”

While The Who don’t currently have dates on the books, they did play several shows in the U.K. last summer. Their last gig was August 28 in Sandringham, England.

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