Classic Rock News

Jackson Browne is revisiting his debut album. A new version of the self-titled record will be released on CD and 180-gram vinyl on Friday, September 22, with both remastered from the original analog master tapes.

The new release will be packaged to resemble the album’s original vinyl release, which was designed to look like a burlap water bag. The cover reads, “Saturate Before Use” on top of Browne’s name, which led many people to think that was the actual title of the record. 

Released January 1972, Jackson Browne featured two hits: “Doctor My Eyes,” which peaked at #8 on the Billboard Hot 100, and “Rock Me on the Water,” which peaked at #48.

Here’s the track list for Jackson Browne:

“Jamaica Say You Will”
“A Child In These Hills”
“Song For Adam”
“Doctor My Eyes”
“Something Fine”
“From Silverlake”
“Under The Falling Sky”
“Looking Into You”
“Rock Me On The Water”
“My Opening Farewell”

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With Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band canceling their September shows so The Boss can recover from a peptic ulcer, Nils Lofgren is free to play with Neil Young again.

Young is set to headline two shows at The Roxy Theatre in Los Angeles on September 20 and 21, in celebration of the venue’s 50th anniversary. He’ll be backed by his pre-Crazy Horse band The Santa Monica Flyers, which will include Lofgren now that he’s not busy on the road with The Boss.

Young announced the news on his Neil Young Archives, noting the shows will feature Lofgren, Billy Talbot and Ralph Molina, all original members of the Santa Monica Flyers, along with Willie Nelson’s son Micah Nelson.

And it certainly sounds like Young fans are in for a treat. “We will be playing two albums live,” Young shares about the gigs. “All songs will predate the original Roxy opening 50 years ago. We are stoked!” 

The Roxy concerts are taking place almost 50 years to the day Young first performed for the venue’s opening. He opened The Roxy with a three-night stand September 20-22, 1973.

As for Springsteen and the E Street Band, they’re expected to return to the road on November 3 in Vancouver, Canada. A complete list of dates can be found at brucespringsteen.net.

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Now that Elton John has declared he’ll never tour again, he no longer needs the home that was his U.S. touring base: a 13,500-square-foot condo in a complex in Buckhead, an upscale area of Atlanta, Georgia. It’s on the market for just under $5 million, reports The Wall Street Journal.

In 1992, Elton bought a duplex in the building and then bought five more apartments in the building over the next 20 years, combining them together into one four-bedroom space. Serving as his touring base, as he could easily get to most places in the U.S. flying out of Dekalb-Peachtree Airport, it also held his massive collection of photography.

As for why a British rock star would move to Atlanta in the first place, Elton tells the Journal that at the time, he was just out of rehab and dating someone in the area. He decided he liked the area for the people and the recovery facilities. 

“The only people I knew were real people, who had normal jobs,” Elton tells the paper. “The city adopted me and I adopted it.”

He adds, “I didn’t know what the first apartment that I bought would lead to. But it was a wonderful surprise. Everything about Atlanta was a surprise.”

“After years and years of touring, it was so comforting just to come home instead of staying in a hotel,” he notes.

Elton says he’ll miss Atlanta very much, adding that he always checks the baseball scores in the morning to see how the Braves are doing.

You can see photos of the condo, including the closets holding Elton’s massive wardrobe, at WSJ.com.

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Farm Aid is going down at the Ruoff Music Center in Noblesville, Indiana, on Saturday, September 23, and fans who can’t make it will still get to enjoy the show.

For the third year in a row, the annual concert will air on the Circle Network. The broadcast, which kicks off at 7 p.m. ET, will feature live and prerecorded segments. For fans who want even more, the complete show will air live on the Circle Now app, starting with a press conference at 11:30 a.m. ET.

This year’s Farm Aid lineup includes the organization’s board members: Neil Young, in his first return to the festival since 2019, John Mellencamp, Willie Nelson, Margo Price and Dave Matthews with Tim Reynolds. Also on the bill are Bobby Weir & Wolf Bros featuring The Wolfpack, Nathaniel Rateliff & the Night Sweats, Lukas Nelson, Allison Russell, The String Cheese Incident and Particle Kid.

The very first Farm Aid concert was held in September 1985 in Champaign, Illinois, to raise funds in support of family farmers. Since its inception, the annual festival has raised more than $70 million to support programs helping the farming community.

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On This Day, September 20, 1975…

David Bowie topped the Billboard Hot 100 singles chart with “Fame,” his first #1 in the U.S.

The song written by Bowie, Carlos Alomar and John Lennon, was the second single off Bowie’s ninth studio album, Young Americans. It wound up being one of the biggest hits of the year, charting at #7 on Billboard’s year-end chart.

It would be almost eight years before Bowie landed his second, and final, #1 hit with “Let’s Dance,” which topped the chart in May, 1983.

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Bush has premiered a new song called “Nowhere to Go But Everywhere.”

The track will appear on Gavin Rossdale and company’s previously announced best-of compilation, Loaded, due out November 10. Along with the new tune, Bush has unveiled the Loaded track list, which spans the “Glycerine” group’s discography from their 1994 debut, Sixteen Stone, to their latest effort, 2022’s The Art of Survival.

Loaded also includes a cover of The Beatles classic “Come Together.”

“I’m really grateful that I get the chance to make music after all of this time,” says Rossdale. “The privilege is not lost on me. I’m still in the octagon, and I think that’s healthy because I’m good at fighting.”

Bush will launch a U.S. headlining tour in November with support from Bad Wolves and Eva Under Fire. They’re also playing a New York City benefit show on September 22 in protest of gun violence, which will stream live via the platform Veeps.

Here’s the Loaded track list:

“Everything Zen”
“Little Things”
“Comedown”
“Glycerine”
“Machinehead”
“Swallowed”
“Greedy Fly”
“Mouth (The Stingray Mix)”
“The Chemicals Between Us”
“Letting the Cables Sleep”
“The People That We Love”
“Inflatable”
“The Only Way Out”
“The Sound of Winter”
“This Is War”
“Bullet Holes”
“Flowers on a Grave”
“The Kingdom”
“More Than Machines”
“Nowhere to Go But Everywhere”
“Come Together”

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Eric Clapton helped Democratic presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. raise $2.2 million for his campaign by performing at a private fundraiser in Brentwood, California, on Tuesday, September 19, according to The Hollywood Reporter.

“I am deeply grateful to Eric Clapton for bringing his musical artistry and rebellious spirit to my gathering in Los Angeles last night,” Kennedy shared. “Eric sings from the depths of the human condition. If he sees in me the possibility of bringing unity to our country, it is only possible because artists like him invoke a buried faith in the limitless power of human beings to overcome any obstacle.”

The money raised at the event will be split between Kennedy Jr. and a PAC supporting his campaign.  

Earlier this year, Clapton tried to donate money to Kennedy’s campaign. He told The Real Music Observer he wasn’t allowed to because he’s not an American citizen.

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Jerry Garcia’s live performances will be part of a new vinyl series launching this November on Round Records. 

The archival series, Heads & Tails, will feature previously unheard Garcia performances that fit on one side of a record, something that isn’t always easy considering Garcia’s fondness for extended jams. The vinyl will also feature detailed album art.

According to the press release, Heads & Tails is “built for those magical windows when record consciousness manifested for magical 18-to-22-minute stretches of well-caught tape.” 

The series will launch November 3 with a cloudy blue vinyl release and artwork by Madalyn Stefanak. It features a side-length performance of “Save Mother Earth” with Merl Saunders, recorded January 19, 1972, in San Anselmo, California. The other side features Jerry Garcia Band jams “Don’t Let Go” and “Think,” recorded February 5, 1988, in Santa Rosa, California.  

Heads & Tails: Volume 1 is available for preorder now.

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If you ever wanted to play bass like Gene Simmons, Gibson is here to help you get closer to reaching that goal.

The guitar company just launched the new Gene Simmons EB-0 Bass, inspired by Simmons’ heavily modified 1959 EB-0, the instrument he played during KISS live shows and TV appearances in the ’70s. Like Simmons’ own bass, the Gene Simmons EB-0 features a VOS finish in Ebony, with a reshaped neck, a relocated pickup closer to the bridge and more.

Only 100 of these instruments are being sold for a little under $6,500. They can be purchased at Gibson Custom Shop dealers and online at gibson.com.

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Dee Snider’s new graphic novel is getting a boost from Rage Against the Machine guitarist Tom Morello.

Morello has written the foreword to He’s Not Gonna Take It, a comic book-style retelling of the Twisted Sister frontman’s crusade against the Parents Music Resource Center.

Snider famously spoke out against the PMRC during a 1985 Senate hearing over adding a “parental advisory” sticker to albums containing explicit material. In addition to supporting the advisory label, the PMRC compiled a list known as the “Filthy Fifteen,” which included Twisted Sister’s “We’re Not Gonna Take It” as well as songs by artists including Judas Priest, AC/DC, Black Sabbath, Prince and Madonna.

In Morello’s foreword, which Rolling Stone shared along with panels from the release, he writes, “Dee Snider’s heroic appearance before a congressional committee in 1985 to stand up against censorship was a high-water mark of musician activism.” 

“[Snider] stunned Congress and the world by speaking powerfully and eloquently about free speech while looking like the bada** heavy metal demon that he is, making everyone present question every false assumption they had about heavy metal or the people who play it and love it,” Morello continued. “His uncompromising stand in his music and on the witness stand were very inspirational to me and I was so proud of him on that day, and I still am.” 

The foreword concludes, “It’s OK to play kick-a** music and be smart and be yourself and stand up for what you believe in. Thanks Dee for proving that you can’t stop rock n roll!”

He’s Not Gonna Take It, which was co-written by Snider, will be released November 21. Frequent rock collaborators Z2 Comics will publish the novel.

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