Bruce Springsteen is the latest artist to pay tribute to the late Beach Boys singer/songwriter Brian Wilson, who died at the age of 82.
“Brian Wilson was the most musically inventive voice in all of pop, with an otherworldly ear for harmony,” Springsteen wrote on social media. “He was also the visionary leader of America’s greatest band, The Beach Boys. If there’d been no Beach Boys, there would have been no ‘Racing In The Street,'” referring to the classic track from The Boss’ 1978 album, Darkness on the Edge of Town.
“Listen to ‘Summer’s Gone’ from The Beach Boys’ last album (That’s Why God Made The Radio) and weep,” Springsteen added. He concluded his post, “Farewell, Maestro. Nothing but love and a lovely lasting debt from all of us over here on E Street.”
Elton John’s April Record Store Day contribution was a vinyl edition of the live album Elton John – Live from the Rainbow Theatre with Ray Cooper, and now the album is getting wider release.
The album features songs recorded during a May 1977 six-show residency at London’s iconic Rainbow Theatre with percussion legend Ray Cooper.During the residency and the tour that followed, Elton played alone at the piano for the first half of the show, then was joined by Cooper for the second half.
Elton is now set to release the album digitally, on CD and on vinyl on July 25. It will feature 12 tracks, with the CD and digital versions getting a bonus track, “Goodbye.”
“I’m delighted that Live from the Rainbow Theatre with Ray Cooper will be available for my fans to enjoy,” Elton shares. “It’s an album I’m incredibly proud of, and listening back to it, I’m astounded by how great it sounds. The freedom I felt playing with just the two of us is something I will always remember.”
Elton John – Live from the Rainbow Theatre with Ray Cooper is available for preorder now. Here is the track list: “The Greatest Discovery” “Border Song” “Cage The Songbird” “Where To Now St. Peter?” “Ticking” “Better Off Dead” w/Ray Cooper “Sweet Painted Lady” “Tonight” w/Ray Cooper “Idol” w/Ray Cooper “I Feel Like A Bullet (In The Gun Of Robert Ford)” w/Ray Cooper “Roy Rogers” “Dan Dare (Pilot Of The Future)” “Goodbye” (CD and digital only)
The Black Crowes and Jimmy Page have shared a short film about the making of their collaborative live album, Live At The Greek.
As part of the continued celebration of the album’s 25th anniversary, the artists have shared The Making of Jimmy Page & The Black Crowes Live At The Greek, an 11-minute behind-the-scenes look at the making of the live album, with new interviews and never-before-seen footage.
“Ultimately we’re proud of it and we want to give it its due respect,” The Crowes’ Chris Robinson says in the film. Page notes, “It was such fun to do at the time. It’s infectious.”
Rich Robinson adds, “It takes you on a journey.”
The Crowes and Page reissued Jimmy Page & The Black Crowes: Live at the Greek back in March, featuring a new mix of the album. There were also 16 previously unreleased tracks, including “Jams,” a song Page and Rich Robinson wrote during a soundcheck, as well as behind-the-scenes photos and videos.
The 36-track album features performances of both Black Crowes and Led Zeppelin tunes, recorded in October 1999 at Los Angeles’ Greek Theatre and in August 1999 at New York’s Jones Beach Theater.
The Beach Boys mastermind Brian Wilson has died at age 82. Despite their legendary career, The Beach Boys only topped the album charts twice: in 1964 with their live album Beach Boys Concert and in 1974 with the greatest hits compilation Endless Summer. But in addition to topping the charts, that album became the gateway for a whole new generation of fans to discover the group’s music.
The Beach Boys were a successful touring act in the early 1970s, though they hadn’t had a top-10 hit since 1966. But in 1973, something happened to change that: the movie American Graffiti. The soundtrack of the George Lucas film, set in 1962, was stuffed with oldies like the Beach Boys’ “Surfin’ Safari.” It was a hit, so The Beach Boys’ former label decided to cash in.
“Capitol realized that they were sitting on gold, especially after the success the year before of the Beatles’ Red and Blue album collection,” Beach Boys archivist and creative consultant Howie Edelson tells ABC Audio. “Massive hits, massive earnings for the label – with very little effort.”
So Endless Summer – named by The Beach Boys’ Mike Love –rode a wave of nostalgia to the top of the charts.
“It’s the exact same reason why Happy Days was a hit. People were looking back to a simpler time – the Eisenhower–Kennedy era, when everything was on an upswing,” Edelson says. “Teenagers want to be happy. They want to be free. And what better music than Endless Summer?”
But there was another reason why Endless Summer was a hit: There were plenty of music fans who had not experienced The Beach Boys the first time around.
“The Beach Boys never made the jump to FM. That music had been lost to radio,” notes Edelson. “And by being invisible on the airwaves for those years, once this album came out, it was all new to a whole new generation that had been starved of it.”
Endless Summer spent 155 weeks on the Billboard album chart and sold 3 million copies. It’s now considered to be the best introduction to the music of The Beach Boys – and the brilliance of Brian Wilson.
Lenny Kravitz will help the nation celebrate July 4 in New York.
The rocker is set to perform during the 49th annual Macy’s 4th of July Fireworks, which kicks off at 8 p.m. ET on NBC and will simulcast live on Peacock.
Oscar winner Ariana DeBose will host the special, which will also feature performances by Jonas Brothers, Keke Palmer, Ava Max, and country stars Eric Church and Trisha Yearwood.
The evening will also include fireworks set against the backdrop of the Brooklyn Bridge, with a musical score produced by Ahmir “Questlove” Thompson and James Poyser, and a performance from DeBose.
Kravitz is set to launch a new set of Las Vegas residency dates at the Dolby Live on Aug. 1. A complete list of dates can be found at LennyKravitz.com.
Sting has shared a musical tribute to TheBeach Boys‘ Brian Wilson, who died at the age of 82.
The Police frontman shared a clip on Instagram of him performing the Beach Boys classic “God Only Knows” during his concert in Rostock, Germany, on Wednesday.
“So today one of my heroes died, Brian Wilson from The Beach Boys. He’s gone to heaven,” Sting says in the clip. “So I wanna sing a song that I love.” He captioned the clip, “Rest In Peace, Brian Wilson.”
Sting’s performance is one of many tributes to Wilson that continue to pour in.
Paul McCartney shared his thoughts on Instagram, writing, “Brian had that mysterious sense of musical genius that made his songs so achingly special. The notes he heard in his head and passed to us were simple and brilliant at the same time.”
“I loved him, and was privileged to be around his bright shining light for a little while. How we will continue without Brian Wilson, ‘God Only Knows,'” he added.
Bruce Springsteen has shared another preview from his upcoming box set, Tracks II: The Lost Albums.
The latest is the tune “Sunday Love,” which appears on the lost album Twilight Hours, described as “an ode to the great American pop music tradition.”
The album was written at the same time as 2019’s Western Stars, with Bruce describing the tracks on the album as “romantic, lost-in-the-city songs.”
“At one time it was either a double record [with Western Stars] or they were part of the same record,” Springsteen shares. “I love Burt Bacharach and I love those kinds of songs and those kinds of songwriters. I took a swing at it because the chordal structures and everything are much more complicated, which was fun for me to pull off. All this stuff could have come right off of those [’60s] albums.”
“Sunday Love,” which features E Street Band’s Max Weinberg, Patti Scialfa and Soozie Tyrell, is available now via digital outlets.
Tracks II: The Lost Albums is due out June 27 and is available for preorder. It features seven previously unheard Springsteen records, featuring 83 songs, all of which were originally recorded between 1983 and 2018. Of those songs, 82 have never been released before and 74 have never been heard before.
Springsteen and the E Street Band are currently on the Land of Hope and Dreams tour in Europe. The tour hits Prague on Sunday. A complete list of dates can be found at BruceSpringsteen.net.
The Beach Boys perform onstage in circa 1964 in California. (L-R) Dennis Wilson, Al Jardine, Carl Wilson, Brian Wilson, Mike Love; Photo by Michael Ochs Archives/Getty Images
The Beach Boys and Mike Love have paid tribute to their former bandmate Brian Wilson, who passed away at age 82.
A post on The Beach Boys’ social media accounts shares that the band is “heartbroken” by Wilson’s passing, calling him, “our cousin, our friend, and our partner in a great musical adventure.”
“Brian Wilson wasn’t just the heart of The Beach Boys—he was the soul of our sound. The melodies he dreamed up and the emotions he poured into every note changed the course of music forever,” they write. “His unparalleled talent and unique spirit created the soundtrack of so many lives around the globe, including our own.”
Meanwhile The Beach Boys’ Mike Love shared his own tribute, writing, “today, the world lost a genius … Brian Wilson wasn’t just the heart of The Beach Boys—he was the soul of our sound.”
“His musical gifts were unmatched. The melodies he dreamed up, the emotions he poured into every note—Brian changed the course of music forever,” he shares. “Our journey together was filled with moments of brilliance, heartbreak, laughter, complexity and most of all, LOVE. Like all families, we had our ups and downs. But through it all, we never stopped loving each other, and I never stopped being in awe of what he could do when he sat at a piano or his spontaneity in the studio.”
Love wrote that Wilson, “allowed us to show the world what vulnerability and brilliance sound like in harmony. He was fragile, he was intense, he was funny—and he was one of a kind.”
Finally he shares, “Thank you for the harmonies, the memories, and the love. Death leaves a heartache no one can heal, Love leaves a memory no one can steal. I’ll miss you forever, my beloved cousin.”
Millions of fans have loved The Doobie Brothers hits since the ’70s. and now the band’s main songwriters — Tom Johnston, Pat Simmons and Michael McDonald — are set to be honored for their work with induction into the Songwriters Hall of Fame on Thursday night at a gala in New York City.
Johnston tells ABC Audio the honor is “pretty amazing,” especially when you “think of all the people that are already there.”
“I mean, God, there’s some amazing people in there,” he says. “So to be selected to go in there, it’s something else. I never really thought about it much till it happened, but to have it happen is a whole other ballgame.”
For Simmons, being recognized as a songwriter is “a real payback for all those thousands of hours” they’ve spent writing.
“That kind of acknowledgement is, it’s humbling, to say the least,” he says.
The Doobies hit #1 with “Black Water” and “China Grove,” but McDonald says the song he wrote that really captures what the Doobies were about is “Takin’ It to the Streets.” He describes it as “the closest thing that I ever wrote for the band that maybe rose to the occasion of defining the band in that moment.”
Johnston says it’s hard to pick a song that he’s most proud of, but one of them would definitely be what he calls the “go-to song which started it all”: “Listen to the Music.”
“That was the one that kind of started this band on its upward trajectory,” he says. “And it’s still to this day, people know that song. … They sing a lot of it loud and proud at shows and stuff. It’s amazing.”
The Beach Boys‘ Mike Love and funk legend George Clinton will also be inducted during the ceremony.
Al Jardine and Brian Wilson; Credit: Mary Ann Jardine
More tributes for Brian Wilson continue to pour in. His family announced on Wednesday that the Beach Boys mastermind had died at age 82.
In a statement, Beach Boys founding member Al Jardine said, “Brian Wilson, my friend, my classmate, my football teammate, my Beach Boy bandmate and my brother in spirit, I will always feel blessed that you were in our lives for as long as you were.”
“I think the most comforting thought right now is that you are reunited with[your late brothers] Carl and Dennis [Wilson], singing those beautiful harmonies again,” he continued. “You were a humble giant who always made me laugh and we will celebrate your music forever. Brian, I’ll really miss you…still I have the warmth of the sun within me tonight.”
Brian’s daughter Carnie Wilson, who along with her sister Wendy was a member of the ’90s girl group Wilson Phillips, wrote on Instagram, “I have no words to express the sadness I feel right now. My Father @brianwilsonlive was every fiber of my body. He will be remembered by millions and millions until the world ends. I am lucky to have been his daughter and had a soul connection with him that will live on always.”
“I’ve never felt this kind of pain before, but I know he’s resting up there in heaven … or maybe playing the piano for Grandma Audree his Mom,” she continued, adding, “I love you Daddy….I miss so much you already.”
Along with Wendy, Carnie released a separate statement saying, “We are deeply saddened to say goodbye to our hero and Daddy. We know how he touched so many people with his musical gifts and we are so thankful for the support from everyone that knew him and all of his fans. May he rest in peace in music.”
Bob Dylan, a longtime admirer of Wilson’s, wrote on X, “Heard the sad news about Brian today and thought about all the years I’ve been listening to him and admiring his genius. Rest in peace dear Brian.”
