Classic Rock 93.9

High-quality audiophile versions of The Eagles‘ classic 1970s albums are being reissued as two-LP 45-rpm vinyl box sets and on the SACD format by the Mobile Fidelity Sound Lab, Billboard reports.

According to Billboard, Rhino Entertainment is licensing the band’s first six studio efforts — 1972’s Eagles, 1973’s Desperado, 1974’s On the Border, 1975’s One of These Nights, 1976’s Hotel California and 1979’s The Long Run — to the Mobile Fidelity company, with Eagles due out on August 15 and Desperado set for a September 15 release. Release dates for the other albums will be announced later.

The vinyl box sets, which are pressed on 180-gram vinyl, are priced at $125, while the SACDs cost $29.99. Only 7,500 copies of the LP collections will be available, limited to two copies per household.

“We are incredibly honored to be doing these Eagles records,” says Mobile Fidelity Sound Lab executive Josh Bizar, adding about the vinyl collections’ high price tag, “[P]eople will pay more for a quality product.”

Eagles was released in June 1972, and features such classic tunes as “Take It Easy,” “Witchy Woman” and “Peaceful Easy Feeling.” Desperado arrived in April of 1973, and includes the memorable title track, plus “Tequila Sunrise.”

Visit MoFi.com to pre-order Eagles and Desperado and to find out more info about the reissues.

Meanwhile, The Eagles are set to launch their 2021 orchestral tour celebrating Hotel California on Sunday, August 22, at New York City’s famed Madison Square Garden. The trek is mapped out through a recently announced November 5 show in Seattle, tickets for which went on sale to the general public today.

Copyright © 2021, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.

The latest episode of Queen‘s weekly YouTube video series Queen The Greatest premiered today, profiling five successful songs that guitarist Brian May has written for the band.

The installment begins by noting that Brian “has contributed some of the band’s most anthemic and best-loved songs,” including “Who Wants to Live Forever,” “Flash,” “The Show Must Go On,” “Keep Yourself Alive,” “Now I’m Here” and “Tie Your Mother Down.”

The first song profiled is 1977’s “We Will Rock You,” followed by 1978’s “Fat Bottomed Girls,” 1980’s “Save Me,” 1985’s “Hammer to Fall” and 1989’s “I Want It All.”

Each segment includes a clip from the music videos that Queen made to accompany the tunes.

“We Will Rock You” peaked at #2 and #4, respectively, on the U.K. and U.S. singles charts, while “Fat Bottomed Girls” reached #11 and #24, respectively. “Save Me” and “Hammer to Fall” landed at #11 and #13, respectively, in the U.K., but failed to chart in the States. As for “I Want It All,” it peaked at #3 in Queen’s home country, while only reaching #50 on the Billboard Hot 100.

The Queen The Greatest series previously featured installments profiling songs written by drummer Roger Taylor and bassist John Deacon, while an episode focusing on the compositions of late frontman Freddie Mercury is yet to come.

Copyright © 2021, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.

If you haven’t checked out the Hella Mega tour yet, Green Day wants you to know what you’re missing.

Footage from the ongoing run, which also features Fall Out Boy and Weezer, is featured in the new video for “Pollyanna,” Green Day’s latest single.

“It’s the BEST feeling being out on the road [with] the Hella Mega Tour!!” Green Day says. “So great, in fact, that we made a vid for ‘Pollyanna’ [featuring] some of the best times we’ve had so far.”

You can watch the “Pollyanna” video streaming now on YouTube.

Green Day debuted “Pollyanna” in May. It follows the trio’s 2020 album, Father of All…

The Hella Mega tour, meanwhile, is set to continue Friday in Hershey, Pennsylvania. Fall Out Boy, which had missed three stops on the outing after a member of the band’s team tested positive for COVID-19, has since returned to the bill.

Copyright © 2021, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.

Earlier in the week, Elton John talked about how happy he was about the Olympics, where a number of athletes represented by his sports management company, Rocket Sports, took home the gold.  So maybe it’s not surprising that he’s now involved in a TV show that will mix Olympic sports and music.

Billboard reports that Elton is executive-producing From the Top, a series that will premiere on the Olympic Channel on Monday.  Each episode will pair a top Olympian with a different music star.  The first episode features 13-year-old skateboarder Sky Brown and British alt-rocker Yungblud.

More episodes are set to air in December.  You can watch the first one at Olympics.com.

Copyright © 2021, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.

Pearl Jam has announced a concert stream to celebrate the 25th anniversary of the band’s 1996 album, No Code.

The virtual event will showcase Eddie Vedder and company’s 2014 performance in Moline, Illinois, during which they performed No Code front-to-back. You can watch it for free premiering on the actual No Code release date — August 27 — via the concert streaming site Nugs.net.

No Code, Pearl Jam’s fourth studio album, had a much more experimental sound compared to the band’s opening trio of records, which was met with confusion by some fans and critics. It was also released amid PJ’s infamous legal battle with Ticketmaster, which affected their touring efforts.

Still, No Code was RIAA-certified Platinum and spawned the singles “Who You Are” and “Hail, Hail.”

By the way, if that August 27 release date sounds familiar, that may be because Pearl Jam’s iconic debut album Ten dropped on that same date, albeit five years earlier in 1991. While No Code is celebrating its 25th anniversary this coming August 27, Ten will be hitting the big 3-0.

Copyright © 2021, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.

In one week, Metallica is off to Podcastland.

The metal legends have announced the premiere date for The Metallica Podcast: Volume 1 — The Black Album. The eight-episode series will make its debut next Friday, August 20.

As its title suggests, the podcast will chronicle the making of Metallica’s iconic 1991 self-titled record, aka The Black Album, in honor of its 30th anniversary. Members James Hetfield, Lars Ulrich and Kirk Hammett will all appear on the show to recall their experiences, as will former bassist Jason Newsted and producer Bob Rock.

Also contributing will be “studio and touring personnel, music critics, fellow musicians, friends, and many more,” a press release promises.

The 16-times RIAA-certified Platinum Black Album officially celebrated its 30th anniversary earlier this week. The party will continue with a massive deluxe reissue, as well as the all-star The Metallica Blacklist tribute compilation, featuring 53 artists covering every song off The Black Album. Both releases arrive September 10.

Copyright © 2021, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.

Iron Maiden frontman Bruce Dickinson postponed the last two appearances of a U.K. spoken-word tour last week because a member of his household had tested positive for COVID-19, and now the singer reveals that he also has tested positive for the virus.

Dickinson tells Rolling Stone that he had gone home to self-quarantine for 10 days after the events were postponed  — as per U.K. government guidelines — and a few days later he felt like he was coming down with a cold, so he went and took a “lateral-flow” COVID-19 test that came back positive.

Dickinson, who’s fully vaccinated, explains to the magazine, “I was kind of sneezing a bit. For a couple of days, I felt a bit groggy, kind of like the flu, and that was it. And I’m 63 years old. I’ve pretty much got no doubt that had I not had the vaccine, I could be in serious trouble.”

The powerhouse vocalist has rescheduled his spoken-word appearances for October, while Iron Maiden will release a new studio album, Senjutsu, next month, although the band isn’t scheduled to tour again until June 2022.

Meanwhile, Dickinson says he doesn’t believe people should be required to get vaccinated to attend concerts, although he hopes they do for the sake of their own health. He also believes wearing masks and getting vaccinated is “a personal choice” that the government shouldn’t regulate, while adding that it’s “a responsible” and “common sense” thing to do.

Dickinson says his COVID-19 experience as a vaccinated person was he basically felt like he had a cold.

He notes, “The biggest issue is just stay indoors so you don’t go and pass it on to somebody else who might go and pass it on to somebody who actually is vulnerable.”

Copyright © 2021, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.

The Who‘s fifth studio album, Who’s Next, considered one of the group’s finest moments, was released 50 years ago this Saturday, August 14.

The follow-up to the legendary British band’s classic 1969 “rock opera” Tommy, Who’s Next was put together from songs that The Who’s main songwriter and songwriter Pete Townshend composed for a multimedia project called Lifehouse that was based around the concept of a future society where music was outlawed.

Townshend’s grand vision for Lifehouse proved impossible to pull off, and the project was abandoned, but some songs and sonic ideas, including the use of synthesizers, were salvaged for Who’s Next.

The album peaked at #4 on the Billboard 200, and was the group’s only release to reach #1 on the U.K. albums chart. It features some of The Who’s most popular and enduring songs, including “Baba O’Riley,” “Won’t Get Fooled Again,” “Behind Blue Eyes” and “Bargain.”

“Won’t Get Fooled Again” and “Behind Blue Eyes” also were released as singles, and both made it into the top 40 of the Billboard Hot 100, peaking at #15 and #34, respectively.

“Baba O’Riley,” the album’s lead track, is often incorrectly referred to as “Teenage Wasteland.” Its title was inspired by the names of Townshend’s guru, Meher Baba, and one of Pete’s musical inspirations, minimalist composer Terry Riley.

The album’s iconic cover humorously appears to show the band members having just relieved themselves on a huge concrete monolith. However, only Townshend actually urinated on the structure; rainwater was used to mimic the effect for the group’s other members.

Who’s Next is The Who’s most successful U.S. album, selling over 3 million copies. In 2020, Rolling Stone ranked it at #77 on its list of the 500 greatest albums of all time.

Here’s the Who’s Next track list:

“Baba O’Riley”
“Bargain”
“Love Ain’t for Keeping”
“My Wife”
“The Song Is Over”
“Getting in Tune”
“Going Mobile”
“Behind Blue Eyes”
“Won’t Get Fooled Again”

Copyright © 2021, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.

Earlier this week, Elton John and Dua Lipa teased their joint single, “Cold Heart,” and from a snippet, it sounded like a mashup of two Elton singles: 1990’s “Sacrifice” and the 1972 classic, “Rocket Man.”  “Cold Heart” is now out and it turns out the track, created by Australian dance duo Pnau, is actually a mashup of four Elton songs.

In addition to “Sacrifice” and “Rocket Man,” the song also includes snippets of Elton’s 1983 single “Kiss the Bride” and a 1976 track called “Where’s the Shoorah?” 

In the track, Elton sings the “Sacrifice” line, “Cold, cold heart/ hard done by you/ Some things look better baby/ Just passing through.” Then Dua follows by singing a line from “Rocket Man” — “And I think it’s gonna be a long, long time/ ’til touchdown brings me ’round again to find/ I’m not the man they think I am at home” — plus a line from “Kiss the Bride”: “And this is what I should have said/I thought it but I kept it hid.”

Elton and Dua have been friends since last year, when they performed at each other’s events. He reached out to her to work on “Cold Heart.” 

“Having the opportunity to spend time with Dua, albeit remotely has been incredible,” Elton says in a statement. “She’s given me so much energy. She’s a truly wonderful artist, and person, absolutely bursting with creativity and ideas.”

Dua adds, “Ever since we first ‘met’ online, we totally clicked. Elton is such an inspirational artist and also has the naughtiest sense of humor — a perfect combination. It has been an absolute honor and privilege to collaborate on this track with him.”

A trippy animated video for “Cold Heart,” featuring cartoon versions of Elton and Duo, is streaming now.

Copyright © 2021, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.

After releasing the five-song Zoom In EP this past March, Ringo Starr has unveiled plans to issue a new four-track EP called Change the World on September 24 on CD, cassette and digital formats.

In addition, a 10-inch vinyl version will follow on November 19.

Starr first announced details about Change the World during a livestream event Thursday at TalkShop.Live that featured an interview with the former Beatles drummer while giving fans the chance to pre-order the EP’s various versions.

Coinciding with the announcement, Ringo has released the EP’s lead track, “Let’s Change the World,” digitally. The uplifting pop-rock song was co-written by Toto‘s Joseph Williams and Steve Lukather, the latter of whom also is a longtime member of Ringo’s All Starr Band.

The second track is a reggae-flavored tune titled “Just That Way,” which Ringo co-wrote with his longtime engineer Bruce Sugar, and features veteran reggae guitarist Tony Chin.

Track three is the country-influenced “Coming Undone,” which was penned by hit-making songwriter/producer Linda Perry. Perry also plays on the tune, as does acclaimed New Orleans musician Trombone Shorty.

Closing out Change the World is Ringo’s homage to the early rock ‘n’ roll that served as such a big inspiration to him, a cover of Billy Haley & His Comets‘ classic “Rock Around the Clock.” Eagles guitarist — and Starr’s brother-in-law — Joe Walsh lends his talents to the track.

Like Zoom In, Ringo recorded Change the World at his home studio, Roccabella West.

“I’ve been saying I only want to release EPs at this point and this is the next one,” notes Ringo. “What a blessing it’s been during this year to have a studio here at home and be able to collaborate with so many great musicians.”

Copyright © 2021, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.