Led Zeppelin released their fourth studio album, which became known as Led Zeppelin IV.
The album featured what became their signature tune, “Stairway to Heaven,” along with such future classics as “Going to California,” “The Battle of Evermore,” “When the Levee Breaks” and “Rock and Roll.”
The album went to #1 in Britain and Canada, and peaked at #2 in the U.S.
Led Zeppelin IV is often included on lists of the greatest albums of all time. In 1999 it was inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame.
In a career-spanning interview withGuitar World, Aerosmith guitarist Brad Whitford is asked whether his band or KISS is the “America’s greatest rock ‘n’ roll band.” But he says the answer isn’t as simple as you might think.
“That’s a really tough one. I think you’d have to come up with things to sort that out categorically,” he tells the publication. “But what I love about KISS is they can go on forever because of their makeup. So that’s one aspect of what they do that’s very different from what we do.”
“The last KISS show I saw was absolutely brilliant, and there are days when I’ve come off the stage with Aerosmith and just went, ‘Wow. What the hell was that? How do I recreate that?’” he continues, adding, “You never know when you’re going to have one of those supernatural shows. It’s not something you can rehearse; a lot of it comes down to the band and the audience.”
“Sometimes you end up with a magic moment you can’t predict; I think all the good bands have those moments. We have them, and so does KISS,” he concludes. “I don’t know how you choose.”
Whitford also says that he believes Aerosmith’s 2012 Music from Another Dimension! will be their final album, which he thinks is sad because “that was just a p***-poor record.” As far as his favorite Aerosmith album, that’s 1976’s Rocks.
“I think you’re right about the generational way of thinking because, to me, it’s Rocks. If I had to go to a desert island with just one of our albums, Rocks would be it. So put that on my gravestone – it’s Rocks.“
November 8, 1971 was the day that Led Zeppelin released their iconic untitled fourth album, known as Led Zeppelin IV, ZoSo, Symbols or Runes. And today — November 8, 2023 — brings us the news that the figure who appears on the cover of the album has been identified.
The image depicts a man in old-fashioned dress, with a huge bundle of sticks on his back. Now, the BBC reports that Brian Edwards of the University of West England found the original photo while he was looking through a photo album for research on a different topic.
“I instantly recognized the man with the sticks – he’s often called the stick man,” said Edwards, adding that his discovery was “quite a revelation.”
Edwards went on a hunt for information about the photo and determined that the man was likely a 19th century thatcher named Lot Long, from Wiltshire, England, and that the photograph was taken by Ernest Farmer, the BBC reports. Farmer was the first head of the school of photography at what is now the University of Westminster.
The Wiltshire Museum has acquired the photo and will put it on display next year in an exhibit called The Wiltshire Thatcher: a Photographic Journey through Victorian Wessex.
The image on the Led Zeppelin IV album cover is colorized and appears in a frame. It was reportedly spotted by Robert Plant in an antique shop near Jimmy Page‘s house.
Paul McCartney fans are getting insight into his songwriting process with podcast McCartney: A Life in Lyrics, which features interviews McCartney did with Pulitzer Prize-winning poet Paul Muldoon for McCartney’s bestselling book The Lyrics: 1956 to the Present.
Muldoon tells ABC Audio that when he and McCartney first sat down for the interviews they had no idea anyone would ever hear them, which may have made the interviews even more interesting.
He says that being so relaxed each other made for good listening, though that’s not what they set out to do. He adds, “In fact, I’m sure there were moments where we were so unbuttoned that we probably wouldn’t have thought it would ever be broadcast.”
Muldoon says one of their main goals during the interviews was to make sure McCartney didn’t tell the same stories he had shared in the past.
“The fact that he has been interviewed so often over the years makes it more difficult, actually,” he says. “We felt some kind of, I suppose, obligation to mix it up a little bit.”
And Muldoon insists that McCartney was never hesitant to discuss anything, noting, “He’s very open.”
“There’s very little of a schism or a chasm between how he presents himself and who he is,” Muldoon shares. “I think … what you see is pretty much what you get.”
A new episode ofMcCartney: A Life in Lyrics, a co-production of Pushkin and iHeartPodcasts, premieres every Wednesday, with each episode focused on a specific song. So far, there have been episodes on “Penny Lane,” “Eleanor Rigby,” “Let it Be” and more.
David Bowie is no longer with us, but his style will live on forever.
Designer John Varvatos has launched a limited-edition capsule collection inspired by the late rocker’s iconic style. Among the items are a leather trench coat, a geometric patterned shirt inspired by the backdrop of a candid shot of Bowie on the set of The Man Who Fell To Earth and a striped shirt inspired by a photo of Bowie taken while he was recording his 1973 album, Pin Ups.
There’s also a suit jacket and pants with a subtle lightning bolt design inspired by the Aladdin Sane album, a crewneck sweater inspired by the 2003 Reality album and a bomber jacket with “David Bowie” embroidered on the back in the same font used on the artist’s 1987 album, Never Let Me Down.
Slightly more affordable — but only slightly — are a series of Bowie T-shirts. Those “only” cost between $168 and $198 each. You can check out the entire David Bowie X JV collection at JohnVarvatos.com, as well as John Varvatos stores and select North American specialty stores.
The idea of Iron Maiden‘s Bruce Dickinson starring in a horror movie: totally understandable. Bruce Dickinson starring in a horror movie about an ABBA tribute band? Totally bizarre.
Deadline reports that Dickinson will star in the horror comedy Bjorn of the Dead, which follows an ABBA tribute band that enters a Battle of the Bands competition, only to find themselves fighting off the undead and attempting to save humanity in the middle of an apocalypse.
It’s not clear which role Dickinson will play in the film, though he may be playing Bjorn, the lead singer of the tribute band, Abbatoir [ABBA-twahre]. “Abbatoir” is French for “slaughterhouse.” Deadline reports there will also be cameos from various rock and metal performers.
The movie was written by Dickinson’s son Austin Dickinson, who is also co-producing. The movie’s other co-producer, Andrew Prendergast, tells Deadline, “We are thrilled to be making this blood-drenched gore fest from Austin’s super funny, terrifying, cautionary tale about the inner workings of the music industry.”
Austin adds, “Get your spandex on, preen your wigs, and sharpen your axes. Bjorn is coming.”
David Byrne‘s Broadway musical Here Lies Love, which he co-wrote with “Praise You” artist Fatboy Slim, will close November 26 after 33 previews and 150 performances.
In a statement, the producers said, “Succeeding on Broadway means not only producing excellent work with artistic merit — it also means creating the audience for it. And how much time it takes to find and grow new audiences is out of sync with the tight timeframes for audience-building and awareness.” Or, as Varietyputs it, the show suffered from “lackluster ticket sales.”
Here Lies Love is a musical about the rise and fall of Imelda Marcos, the former first lady of the Philippines. It features the first all-Filipino acting company on Broadway and broke new ground with its innovative staging. Its theater was completely redesigned to mimic a night club, with the orchestra seats removed to create a dance floor where audience members can stand among the performers.
The show will be filmed for the archives of the New York Public Library for the Performing Arts, and it may mount international productions in Japan and Australia.
Byrne’s previous Broadway musical production, American Utopia — in which he starred and performed — had two separate Broadway runs between 2019 and 2022 and spun off a Spike Lee-directed film.
Metallica continues to make history with their M72 tour.
The metal legends’ concerts at St. Louis’ The Dome at America’s Center on November 3 and 5 now hold the title for selling the most tickets to an event at the stadium.
“Over 100,000 tickets were sold to our No Repeat Weekend gigs at The Dome, setting the record for most tickets sold for any event since the venue opened in 1995!” Metallica writes in a Facebook post. “Thanks for coming out to see us, St. Louis!”
Notably, The Dome used to be home to the St. Louis Rams football team, which has since relocated to Los Angeles.
Metallica previously broke the single-show attendance record at Los Angeles’ SoFi Stadium during the M72 tour, which supports the band’s latest album, 72 Seasons.
Graham Nash and Joni Mitchell in 1969; Robert Altman/Michael Ochs Archives/Getty Images
Graham Nash and Joni Mitchell broke up more than 50 years ago, but he still remembers her birthday.
On Tuesday, November 7, Joni’s 80th birthday, Nash posted a photo of the legendary singer-songwriter as a young woman on his Instagram Story and wrote, “Happy Birthday, Joan. Wishing you a beautiful day.” Nash and Mitchell dated between 1968 and 1970, and she inspired the CSNY song “Our House.”
In other Graham Nash news, the two-time Rock & Roll Hall of Famer will receive the John Lennon Real Love award at the Theatre Within’s 43rd annual John Lennon Tribute concert, scheduled for December 2 in New York City’s Town Hall. Nash will play some of his favorite songs by The Beatles and John Lennon at the event, which will also feature Rosanne Cash, Marc Cohn, soul singer Bettye LaVette and Judy Collins.
“This is a very special award. I thank Yoko and the Theatre Within for thinking of me,” says Nash in a statement. “Over many years, I watched John and Yoko ‘fight the good fight’ for many whose voices were not being heard, a fight that Yoko continues to this day. I’m proud to be associated with the many fine artists who were previously honored with the John Lennon Real Love Award.”
Proceeds for the show will support Theatre Within’s free workshops, including the John Lennon Real Love Project songwriting program. Tickets are available now at LennonTribute.org.
Iggy Pop and Garbage‘s Shirley Manson are featured on an upcoming tribute album to Marianne Faithfull.
The compilation is titled The Faithful: A Tribute to Marianne Faithfull and will be released December 8. It includes 25 artists putting their spin on 19 of the English musician’s songs from between 1964 and 2004.
Pop performs the track “Working Class Hero” alongside Cat Power, while Manson takes on “Why D’Ya Do It” with Peaches.
Proceeds from The Faithful will support Marianne, 76, as she continues to battle with long COVID. She was hospitalized with COVID-19 at the beginning of the pandemic in 2020.
