Classic Rock News

Jethro Tull will belatedly mark the 50th anniversary of their third studio album, 1970’s Benefit, by releasing an expanded, four-CD/two-DVD version of the record on November 5.

The Benefit (The 50th Anniversary Enhanced Edition) collection’s CDs feature stereo mixes of the original album and associated tracks done in 2013 by acclaimed studio whiz Steven Wilson; mono and stereo mixes of various single A-sides and B-sides, radio spots and more; a previously unreleased Wilson remix of a 1970 Jethro Tull performance at Massachusetts’ Tanglewood venue; and a newly remastered mono recording of a previously unreleased 1970 Tull show at Chicago’s Aragon Ballroom.

The DVDs feature high-res versions of Wilson’s 2013 remix of Benefit and associated tracks, a video of the 1970 Tanglewood concert, and more.

The reissue also comes packaged with a 100-page book, featuring a new essay about Benefit; commentary about each of the album’s tracks from frontman Ian Anderson and former Tull members Martin Barre, Glenn Cornick and Clive Bunker; and interviews with Benefit studio engineer Robin Black, executive producer Terry Ellis, and others.

Released in April 1970, Benefit peaked at #11 on the Billboard 200 and #3 on the U.K. album chart. The record included one hit U.K. single, “Witch’s Promise,” which reached #4 on the chart. The album’s best-known song in the U.S. likely is “Teacher,” which went on to become a classic rock radio staple.

Benefit has gone on to be RIAA-certified Gold in the U.S. for sales of over 500,000 copies.

You can pre-order the deluxe reissue and check out the full track list at BurningShed.com.

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Move over Diamond plaques and Grammy trophies, because Metallica‘s The Black Album has now earned the most prestigious honor there is: a Funko Pop! recreation.

The toy company has announced a Black Album-themed set in its ever-popular line of adorable, big-headed vinyl figures. The collection includes period-appropriate plastic versions of James Hetfield, Lars Ulrich, Kirk Hammett and former bassist Jason Newsted, along with a Funko replica of the record and its cover artwork.

You can pre-order the package now exclusively via Walmart.com.

The Black Album celebrated its 30th anniversary in August. Earlier this month, Metallica released a deluxe reissue of the record, as well as The Metallica Blacklist, a 53-track tribute compilation featuring covers of each one of the original album’s songs.

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It was never a single, but Billy Joel‘s “Scenes from an Italian Restaurant,” from his 1977 album The Stranger, is one of his most beloved tracks.  Billy’s lyrics paint such a vivid picture  — a bottle of red, a bottle of white and those sweet romantic teenage nights with Brenda and Eddie — that it’s no wonder it’s finally inspired a music video after all these years.

The animated clip will premiere on Billy’s official YouTube channel at 10 a.m. ET on Thursday.  There will also be a live chat with the video’s creative director, Steve Cohen.  Another creative director, Ryan McAllister, explains the impetus behind the video in a preview posted on Billy’s socials.

“There’s a whole catalog of music that existed before music video,” says McAllister. “That led to a discussion of, ‘Wouldn’t it be cool to make a music video for one of these classic hits that never had [one]?'”

He continues, “It’s been about a year since we started working on this. And we’re super-stoked to see it out in the world. This project was sorta like the beginning of the path back from the darkness that started with the pandemic, so it has a really special place for all of us.”

October will mark the 50th anniversary of the release of Billy’s debut album, Cold Spring Harbor, and his five-decade career is being celebrated with Billy Joel – The Vinyl Collection, Vol.1, a nine-LP set coming out on November 5.

 

 

 

 

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Get ready to travel “Through the Mists of Time” with AC/DC.

The rock legends are set to premiere the video for the song — a cut off their 2020 comeback album, Power Up — this Thursday, September 30, at 10 a.m. ET.

Judging by a preview clip, the “Through the Mists of Time” video will be living up to its title with references to AC/DC’s history. For example, the beginning features a shot of the cannon from the cover of 1981’s For Those About to Rock We Salute You album.

“Through the Mists of Time” will be the fifth Power Up track to get a video, following lead single “Shot in the Dark,” “Demon Fire,” “Realize” and “Witch’s Spell.”

Power Up, which was released last November, is the first AC/DC album in six years. It reunites the surviving members of the band’s classic Back in Black lineup and pays tribute to founding guitarist Malcolm Young, who died in 2017.

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Plans have been unveiled for two new archival David Bowie box sets that will be released in the coming months.

One is the fifth installment in the series of expansive collections focusing on different periods in the late rock icon’s career, Brilliant Adventure (1992–2001), which is due out on November 26. The other is an expanded version of Bowie’s legendary unreleased 2001 album TOY, titled TOY (TOY:BOX), which will be issued on January 7, 2022.

Brilliant Adventure will be available as an 11-CD set, a 15-LP vinyl package and digitally. The box set includes remastered editions of five Bowie studio albums — 1993’s Black Tie White Noise, 1993’s The Buddha of Suburbia soundtrack, 1995’s 1.Outside, 1997’s Earthing and 1999’s ‘hours…’.  It also includes the previously unreleased live album BBC Radio Theatre, London, June 27, 2000; the Re:Call 5 compilation, featuring alternative versions, B-sides, soundtrack recordings and more; and the aforementioned TOY.

TOY features updated versions of select early Bowie songs recorded mostly live in the studio with members of his touring band at the time. David had hoped to release the album quickly but when his plan was delayed, he put the project aside and moved on to his next record, Heathen.

TOY (TOY:BOX) will be available as a three-CD set and a six-disc 10-inch vinyl collection. The package will include the originally planned album, alternative mixes of the TOY tracks and tunes intended as B-sides, and stripped-down, mostly acoustic mixes of the songs.

One TOY track, an updated rendition of the 1965 Bowie song “You’ve Got a Habit of Leaving,” has been released as an advance digital single.

You can pre-order Brilliant Adventure (1992–2001) and TOY (TOY:BOX) now. Visit DavidBowie.com for more information.

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Elton John owns homes around the world, but when it came to his latest real-estate purchase, he didn’t have to look too far.

The real-estate website Dirt reports that Elton’s bought the home that’s right next door to his house in Beverly Hills for $8.5 million.  According to Dirt, records show that the 5,300-square-foot, five-bedroom, single-story home, built in the ’60s, has been owned by a non-famous family for decades; they’ve faced foreclosure several times. 

Buying the house allows Elton, his husband David Furnish and their two sons to expand from their current half acre to nearly a full acre of space in one of Beverly Hills’ most prestigious neighborhoods. Their current home, purchased nearly 10 years ago for $7.3 million, is 4,300 square feet.

Elton and David also own a huge estate in the U.K., and also have homes in the South of France and Venice, Italy, plus what Dirt calls a “mansion-sized condo” in Atlanta.

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Elton John‘s definitely having a moment: First, his Dua Lipa duet “Cold Heart” has become his biggest hit in years, both in the U.S. and in his native U.K.  Now, he’s scored a chart feat he hasn’t pulled off for 23 years.

Billboard notes that “One of Me,” Elton’s collaboration with rapper Lil Nas X, has debuted at number 88 on this week’s Billboard Hot 100.  It’s Elton’s 69th Hot 100 entry and his second one this year, after “Cold Heart,” which is currently at #74. The last time Elton had two songs charting simultaneously was in 1998.

Posting a collage of his chart achievements, Elton wrote, “What!? Two tracks in the Billboard 100, #2 in the UK Charts, UK’s most downloaded single for three weeks now and 40 million monthly listeners on @spotify.”

“Thank you everyone!!” he added. “After all, you certainly know how to warm up my ‘Cold Heart.'”

That last sentence was also a reference to Elton’s latest release, “After All,” a duet with Charlie Puth.  Elton and Charlie performed the song together in Paris this past weekend as part of the Global Citizen Live event.  It was Elton’s final performance before he heads in for surgery to repair his hip — an injury that forced him to postpone his concerts this fall.

 

 

 

 

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John Mellencamp‘s first-ever collaboration with Bruce Springsteen, an introspective, acoustic-driven duet titled “Wasted Days,” has been released as a digital single, while a companion music video has premiered on Mellencamp’s YouTube channel.

The song is the first single from Mellencamp’s upcoming, as-yet-untitled studio album, which is due out in 2022.

“Wasted Days,” which was written by John, features lyrics reflecting on mortality and making the most of our time on the planet. Springsteen contributes an electric guitar solo to the tune.

The video, which was shot in New Jersey this month by frequent Springsteen collaborator Thom Zimny, includes scenes of Mellencamp and The Boss playing acoustic guitars while sitting at a kitchen table and standing in front of a detached garage with an American flag draped from it.

Mellencamp first revealed that he’d worked on new music with Springsteen in May while taking part in music mogul Clive Davis‘ star-studded virtual benefit for the Grammy Museum.  John told Billboard at the time, “Bruce is singing on the new record and is playing guitar.”

Springsteen, meanwhile, shared further information about the collaboration during a satellite radio interview in June. As reported by Billboard, Bruce said, “I worked on three songs on John’s album and I spent some time in Indiana with him.”

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A previously unreleased John Lennon song, recorded during a 1970 interview, may finally see the light of day.

The 33-minute cassette tape includes the as-yet-unheard song, “Radio Peace,” as well as interviews with Lennon and his wife, Yoko Ono, recorded at the New Experimental College at Skyum Bjerge, Denmark. That tape sold Tuesday for the equivalent of $58,125, according to the Bruun Rasmussen auction house. The tape was only expected to fetch up to the equivalent of $47,128.

The interview, recorded on January 5, included about half-a-dozen journalists and four 16-year-old students who arrived after an official press conference looking to speak with the Beatles member, according to the auction house.

At the time of the interview, The Beatles had recorded their last album, Abbey Road and, though not yet officially announced, had already gone their separate ways.

Lennon discusses, among other things, the reason for being in Skyum Bjerge, how his and Yoko’s art and music championed world peace, and how everybody could contribute to the cause. There’s also “talk about the length of his hair, and their micro-macro diet, how it was to perform with The Beatles and the importance of crashing the Beatle image.”

At one point, a student asks whether Lennon would play the guitar, and he plays “Radio Peace,” followed by “a slightly different version” of “Give Peace a Chance,” according to the auction house. The BBC reports that “Radio Peace” was written as the theme song for a radio station that never opened.

Lennon and Ono had been in Denmark “for private reasons” since December 1969. Anthony Cox, Ono’s ex-husband, had moved to rural north Jutland in Denmark, bringing their five-year-old daughter, Kyoko, with him. Kyoko was present for the recording.

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Former Yes keyboardist Rick Wakeman kicks off a new U.S. solo trek, hilariously dubbed the “Even Grumpier Old Rock Star Tour,” on October 13 in Natick, Massachusetts.

The outing, which was postponed multiple times because of the COVID-19 pandemic, is a follow-up to Wakeman’s 2019 “Grumpy Old Rock Star Tour.”

Wakeman tells ABC Audio that the tour got its updated moniker because of his frustration over the postponements.

“[E]very time it got moved, I got grumpier,” the 72-year-old Rock & Roll Hall of Famer notes. “So it made more sense to be the ‘Even Grumpier Rock Star’ show.”

He adds, jokingly, “I think if [there had been]…any more cancellations or postponements, it would have been the ‘Unbelievably, Really Stupidly Long, Even Grumpier Rock Star’ show.”

Regarding his new concerts, Rick says, “[I]t’s basically me with a grand piano, a couple of keyboards this time as well, which will enable me to do some slightly different pieces, plus anecdotes. Got a load of new ones.”

Wakeman reveals that he plans to play select Yes tunes; pieces from solo projects like his 1973 album The Six Wives of Henry VIII; and versions of classic songs by David Bowie and Cat Stevens on which Rick played.

Wakeman tells ABC Audio that almost every show will be different because, although he often prepares a set list for each gig, he rarely sticks to it.

Meanwhile, Rick says he’s thrilled to be returning to the road.

“[I]t’s just gonna be great to be playing in front of people again,” he declares. “I can’t tell you how much I have missed talking to people on stage, and meeting with people after the shows and before the shows.”

Wakeman’s U.S. tour runs through a November 19 concert in Clearwater, Florida.

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