Classic Rock News

Interest in the Beatles on film is at an all-time high thanks to Peter Jackson‘s eight-hour Disney+ documentary The Beatles: Get Back. That’s why New York’s Paley Center for the Media is hosting an event called From Paperback Writer to the Rooftop Concert: Directing The Beatles.

The event, which takes place Wednesday night, is a conversation with Michael Lindsay-Hogg, who directed the original 1970 Let It Be film that Jackson expanded and reworked, as well as the music videos for “Paperback Writer,” “Rain” and “Revolution.” 

Lindsay-Hogg will be joined by The Beatles: Get Back producer Jonathan Clyde of Apple Corps, Rolling Stone‘s Rob Sheffield and Beatles academic Dr. Holly Tessler of the University of Liverpool.

The videos, as well as highlights from the Beatles’ 1969 rooftop concert — their last public performance — will be screened, and the panelists will discuss the Fab Four’s groundbreaking use of visual media to complement their music.

If you can’t make it to New York City on such short notice, the discussion will be posted on the Paley Center’s official YouTube channel for your viewing pleasure.

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The South by Southwest Music Festival is known for spotlighting emerging artists, but one of the festival’s showcase artists this year has been making records for nearly 60 years.

The Zombies are one of the more than 300 artists announced Wednesday as performers at next year’s edition of the legendary Austin, Texas, festival, which will run March 13 through March 18. The Zombies are from England, of course, but the lineup features acts from all over the world, from Australia, Italy, Turkey, Ukraine, Norway and Colombia to New Zealand, Denmark, Argentina, Nigeria and Japan.

Also included on the list is Painted Shield, the side project of Pearl Jam‘s Stone Gossard. Their debut album, featuring Pearl Jam’s Mike McCready and drummers Josh Freese and Matt Chamberlain, came out in the past few years.

The music festival is part of the larger South by Southwest Conference, which includes TV, movie and comedy  festivals, as well as panels and exhibits covering everything from technology and food to climate change, the gaming industry, marketing, transportation, the cannabis industry and more.

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It must be hard to play in a band, manage that band and file lawsuits against your fellow bandmates at the same time.

Journey‘s Neal Schon and Jonathan Cain, who were both jointly managing the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame group, have decided to step back from that role, Billboard reports.

Schon and Cain have handed the reins over to Def Leppard‘s manager, Mike Kobayashi, who confirms he was “just hired,” according to Billboard. While the band has been a cash cow on the road, raking in $40 million this year, Cain and Schon have been embroiled in a legal squabble over expenses. 

As previously reported, Schon is suing Cain for setting up a band American Express card without his knowledge, while Cain denies that and claims that Schon has been “running up enormous personal charges on the band’s credit card account.” That lawsuit is pending, but it’s not the only recent legal dispute involving the band.

As Billboard notes, in September, former lead singer Steve Perry sued to stop Schon and Cain from trademarking the names of the band’s hits. And in 2020, Schon and Cain sued bassist Ross Valory and drummer Steve Smith, accusing them of trying to get control of the band’s name. The lawsuit was settled in 2021, and Valory and Smith left the band.

Amid all these issues, it’s no wonder Journey needs someone to look after their affairs, especially since the band’s 50th anniversary Freedom tour is set to kick off February 4 in Allentown, Pennsylvania.

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The legal saga over Nirvana‘s Nevermind cover artwork reportedly has a new chapter.

According to Spin, Spencer Elden has filed an appeal after his lawsuit against the grunge rockers was dismissed in September. The suit, which was first filed in August 2021, alleges that the cover of the band’s hit 1991 album, featuring a photo of a then-4-month-old Elden swimming naked underwater while reaching for a dollar bill, constitutes child pornography.

Surviving Nirvana members Dave Grohl and Krist Novoselic were named as defendants in suit, along with late frontman Kurt Cobain and his widow, Courtney Love, as well as the Nevermind cover photographer and various record labels.

The suit was initially dismissed in January of this year, after which Elden filed an amended complaint. It was then dismissed again in September, with the judge citing the expired statute of limitations.

In Elden’s appeal, his lawyers argue that the case should not have been dismissed for statute of limitations reasons, since Elden continues to suffer from “extreme ongoing psychic or emotional injury for which he is entitled to damages and an injunction.”

“Courts have repeatedly held that distribution of child pornography infringes a victim’s dignity interests no matter the victim’s age at the time of distribution,” the appeal reads.

Nirvana’s attorneys have not yet responded to the appeal. In previous request to dismiss, they’ve called Elden’s suit “not serious” and “absurd.”

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While Bob Dylan‘s tours are Never Ending, catching a glimpse of the famed rocker offstage is something that rarely happens. You almost never see Dylan, for example, making a Starbucks run, leaving a restaurant or taking a smoke break. So how does he avoid getting photographed, when everyone in the world has a phone? It’s because, as his former guitarist explains, “he’s slippery.”

Billy Burnette, a guitarist, songwriter and solo artist who’s played with Fleetwood Mac and John Fogerty, was Dylan’s touring guitarist in 2003. Speaking to Rolling Stone, Burnette explains that Bob does go out, but he flies under the radar. During the tour, Burnette explains, “He went out and ran every day. I’d see him in his sweats in the hotel, but he’s slippery.”

“[T]hey lost him one day [in an airport],” Burnette adds. “They couldn’t find him anywhere. I’m in this little gift shop and I turn around, and there he is. He goes, ‘Hi Billy.’ I was like, ‘How did you get in here?’ He moves around. It’s a weird thing.”

When Rolling Stone points out that Dylan is sometimes seen wearing a hoodie with the hood up, Burnette explains, “When he wears the hood, you’re not supposed to talk to him. I didn’t know that until one day we were in line to get on a plane at the airport.”

“I tapped him on the shoulder,” he continues. “The drummer said, ‘No, no. He don’t talk to anyone when he’s got the hood on.’ I was like, ‘OK. I’m glad you told me.'”

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They say that music transcends language, and as the first band to perform on all seven continents, Metallica‘s worldwide success certainly backs that up. Just in case anything is still lost in translation, though, the metal legends are here to help.

Metallica has released several new lyric videos for “Lux Æterna,” the lead single off the band’s upcoming 72 Seasons album, translating the songs in different languages, including Japanese, German, Spanish and Portuguese. A new English lyric video is also out.

You can watch all the multilingual lyric videos streaming now on YouTube.

72 Seasons, the follow-up to 2016’s Hardwired…to Self-Destruct, arrives April 14. Metallica will support the record on a world tour in 2023 and 2024, featuring completely different set lists across multiple shows in each city. Openers include the reformed Pantera, Five Finger Death Punch, Greta Van Fleet, Mammoth WVH, Ice Nine Kills, Volbeat and Architects.

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As promised, the latest in a series of new animated videos for songs on the Beatles‘ album Revolver has arrived: It’s for Paul McCartney‘s song “Here, There and Everywhere.”

In the video, the Beatles are seen in the recording studio listening to the song, and then we seen them at various locations throughout their career: arriving at a premiere, disembarking from a plane, hanging out in a hotel room in New York City, appearing on a TV show and riding in the back of a limo. Eventually, they end up back at Abbey Road studios. Throughout the clip, a dancing female figure is literally “here, there and everywhere,” providing the transitions from scene to scene.

The video’s producer, Richard Barnett of Trunk Animation, says the video depicts the Beatles “on tour as they face an ever-changing backdrop of cities, hotels, roads and gigs, with only each other to rely on.” Barnett says the dancing figure represents “inspiration and creative freedom.”

The new animated clip series, which also includes videos for “Taxman” and “I’m Only Sleeping,” were created to promote the deluxe reissue of Revolver that came out in October. It features new mixes of the original 1966 record, as well as a collection of outtakes and a four-song EP that includes the non-album tracks “Paperback Writer” and “Rain.”

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Dave Grohl and Greg Kurstin played their previously reported Hanukkah Sessions concert in Los Angeles this week, and the intimate show apparently featured even more rock star power than initially announced.

According to Variety, among the guests who joined the Foo Fighters frontman and the producer onstage were Beck, Tenacious D‘s Jack Black and Yeah Yeah Yeahs frontwoman Karen O, as well as pop star Pink.

Grohl and Kurstin first launched Hanukkah Sessions in 2020 and covered eight different Jewish artists for each night of the holiday, and the series returned in 2021. The set list for the LA show, which marked the first live Hanukkah Sessions performance, continued that tradition with songs such as Rush‘s “The Spirit of Radio,” in honor of Geddy Lee‘s Jewish heritage, with vocals by Black.

Variety also reports that the concert “certainly seemed” to be recorded and theorizes that it could be released as this year’s Hanukkah Sessions. The first night of Hanukkah is Sunday, December 18.

The concert also marked one of Grohl’s few live performances following the unexpected death of Foo Fighters drummer Taylor Hawkins in March. He previously made appearances at Paul McCartney‘s Glastonbury set and Joe Walsh‘s VetsAid concert, as well as during the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame Induction Ceremony alongside Lionel Richie. Grohl and Foo Fighters also held two giant tribute concerts to Hawkins in London and Los Angeles in September.

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January 5 will mark the 50th anniversary of the release of Bruce Springsteen‘s debut album, Greetings from Asbury Park, N.J., and to mark the occasion, a daylong symposium featuring some of the musicians who played on the record is being held at New Jersey’s Monmouth University.

The Bruce Springsteen Archives and Center for American Music at Monmouth is organizing the symposium, scheduled for Saturday, January 7. E Street Band bass player Garry Tallent, original E Street keyboardist David Sancious and original E Street drummer Vini Lopez are taking part in the event, along with Bruce’s former manager Mike Appel. 

Panel discussions, interviews, a book signing, a performance of the album’s songs by local musicians and the debut of a mini documentary on the making of the album, featuring an exclusive interview with Springsteen, round out the event. 

Ahead of the symposium, a free Zoom conversation about Greetings is taking place January 3 at 7:30 p.m. EST. David Sancious will be performing at The Count Basie Center for the Arts in Red Bank, New Jersey, on January 6.

In addition to Tallent, Lopez and Sancious, Greetings from Asbury Park, N.J. featured the late Clarence Clemons, among other non-E Street Band musicians. The album includes some of Springsteen’s most popular early songs, including “Spirit In the Night,” “Blinded By the Light” and “Growin’ Up,” as well as fan favorites “For You” and “It’s Hard to Be a Saint in the City.”

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The Beatles‘ Revolver track “Here, There and Everywhere” is getting a new video.

The animated clip is set to premiere Wednesday, December 7, at 9 a.m. ET on YouTube. You can check out a preview now via The Beatles’ Twitter.

“Follow the band on tour as they face an ever-changing backdrop of cities, hotels, roads and gigs, with only each other to rely on,” says producer Richard Barnett of Trunk Animation, which created the video. “A magical dancer appears to each of them, representing inspiration and creative freedom.”

In October, a deluxe reissue of Revolver was released, featuring various new mixes of the original 1966 record, as well as a collection of outtakes and a four-song EP that includes the non-album tracks “Paperback Writer” and “Rain.” Following the reissue’s arrival, Revolver re-entered the top five on the Billboard 200.

Several other Revolver tracks have gotten new, animated videos in conjunction with the reissue, including “Taxman” and “I’m Only Sleeping.”

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