Classic Rock News

Ex-Creedence Clearwater Revival drummer Doug “Cosmo” Clifford has just released an archival album called For All the Money in the World that he recorded in 1986 with then-Greg Kihn Band bassist/songwriter Steve Wright, who died in 2017.

Clifford tells ABC Audio that the project came about when Wright, who grew up in the same town, El Cerrito, California, looked him up and suggested they write together.

“[I]t was very easy and very productive, so we kept doing that,” Clifford recalls. “And then we decided…we’ve got material and have a formula for having more material and it’d be nice to have a band to put it out there.”

Cosmo says they enlisted various Bay Area musicians for the sessions, many of whom also played with the Greg Kihn Band around that time, including guitarists Joe Satriani, Greg Douglass and Jimmy Lyon, and keyboardist Pat Mosca.

Rounding things out was a talented singer named Keith England whom, Clifford notes, had “a great rock ‘n’ roll voice.”

For All the Money in the World is an 11-track collection that offers a mix of catchy pop and rock songs.

Clifford says he loves the title track because it features a shuffle beat, noting, “Shuffles are just…fun. You can’t help but move to a shuffle.”

Cosmo also reveals that he sent the album to Steve Miller, who singled out the driving rock tune “She Told Me So” as his favorite.

Clifford says Miller told him, “[Y]ou guys ripped the roof off the barn with [that song].'”

According to Cosmo, Clifford/Wright “had the components of…something pretty special,” but the album was shelved when Wright’s lack of interest in playing clubs brought the project “to a close.”

Thirty-five years later, the album finally has been released.

Copyright © 2021, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.

War has been celebrating its 50th anniversary this year, and as part of the festivities, a new animated video looking at the stories behind some of the funk/rock/soul group’s biggest hits has debuted at the band’s official YouTube channel.

The “Behind the Hits” clip features commentary by founding singer/keyboardist Lonnie Jordan and producer/songwriter Jerry Goldstein, who helped put the band together with its original lead singer, Eric Burdon of The Animals.

The video briefly touches on the band’s formation and also looks at such classic songs as “Slippin’ into Darkness,” “The World Is a Ghetto,” “The Cisco Kid,” “Don’t Let No One Get You Down,” “Low Riders” and “Why Can’t We Be Friends?” The clip also notes that War songs have been heard in a variety of movies and TV shows, including Cheech & Chong‘s Up in Smoke, Gone in 60 Seconds, Dazed and Confused, Lethal Weapon 4, Friday, The Simpsons, and Mayans M.C.

The “Behind the Hits” video arrives in advance of a new War compilation titled Greatest Hits 2.0 that’s scheduled to be released on October 29 as a two-CD set, a two-LP vinyl collection, digitally and via streaming services. The 24-track album is a career-spanning sequel to the band’s platinum-certified 1976 Greatest Hits retrospective. You can pre-order Greatest Hits 2.0 now.

War currently is on tour and has more than a dozen 2021 dates on its schedule. Visit War.com for more information.

Here’s the Greatest Hits 2.0 track list:

Disc 1
“Spill the Wine” — Eric Burdon & War
“Tobacco Road” — Eric Burdon & War
“All Day Music”
“Get Down”
“Slippin’ into Darkness”
“The World Is a Ghetto”
“The Cisco Kid”
“Gypsy Man”
“Me and Baby Brother”
“Why Can’t We Be Friends?”
“Don’t Let No One Get You Down”
“Heartbeat”

Disc 2
“Low Rider”
“So”
“Smile Happy”
“Summer”
“L.A. Sunshine”
“Galaxy”
“Youngblood (Livin’ in the Streets)”
“Good, Good Feelin'”
“Cinco de Mayo”
“You Got the Power”
“Outlaw”
“Peace Sign”

Copyright © 2021, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.

Sixx:A.M. has announced a new best-of compilation, titled Hits.

The 20-track album is set to arrive October 22. In addition to some of the biggest tracks from throughout the trio’s career, Hits includes three new songs, as well as various alternate recordings.

One of the new tunes is titled “The First 21,” named after Nikki Sixx‘s upcoming memoir of the same name. The book, which finds the Mötley Crüe bassist recounting the first 21 years of his life, is due out October 19.

Here’s the Hits track list:

“Life Is Beautiful”
“This Is Gonna Hurt”
“Lies of the Beautiful People”
“Pray for Me”
“Rise”
“Stars”
“Maybe It’s Time”
“Skin”
“Belly of the Beast”
“Are You with Me Now”
“Girl with Golden Eyes”
“Accidents Can Happen”
“Gotta Get It Right”
“We Will Not Go Quietly”
“The First 21”
“Talk to Me (Radio Mix)”
“Penetrate”
“Waiting All My Life”
“Skin (Rock Mix)”
“Life Is Beautiful (Piano Vocal)”

Copyright © 2021, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.

Are you ready to rumble? Well, Brian Setzer is! The Stray Cats frontman released his first new solo album in seven years, Gotta Have the Rumble, today on CD and digital formats.

The new collection features 11 original tunes written or co-written by Setzer. To coincide with the album’s arrival, Brian has debuted a third single from the project, the old-time country-flavored “Rockabilly Banjo,” along with a companion music video.

Setzer co-wrote the tune with Stephen “Dibbs” Preston, lead singer of the veteran rockabilly band The Rockats. The song, which combines country and rockabilly influences, features some impressive banjo picking by Brian, as well as the talents of lauded pedal-steel guitarist Paul Franklin.

The video, which you can watch on Setzer’s official YouTube channel, features a montage of vintage black-and-white footage of banjo players, including clips of legendary folk artist Pete Seeger.

Explaining how the song came together, Setzer notes, “Me and Dibbs were hanging around, and it was one of the few times ever that someone gives me a song that’s just the music and not the lyrics. And Dibbs said, ‘Hey, you play banjo, I love the way you play it.’ You know, banjo makes everybody smile and everybody’s after me to play more banjo.”

Setzer adds, “And Dibbs said, ‘Hey, I got a song, what do you think of this?’ and I thought ‘Wow! Let’s clean it up.’ So that’s the last track.”

“Rockabilly Banjo” follows Setzer’s two previous singles from Gotta Have the Rumble, “Checkered Flag” and “Smash Up on Highway One,” which also were released alongside companion videos.

A vinyl version of Gotta Have the Rumble is due out in the fall.

Here’s the album’s full track list:

“Checkered Flag”
“Smash Up on Highway One”
“Stack My Money”
“The Wrong Side of the Tracks”
“Drip Drop”
“The Cat with 9 Wives”
“Turn You On, Turn Me On”
“Rockabilly Riot”
“Off Your Rocker”
“One Bad Habit”
“Rockabilly Banjo”

Copyright © 2021, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.

The latest episode of Queen‘s weekly YouTube video series Queen The Greatest premiered today, and it features profile a profile of the band’s memorable hit 1981 duet with David Bowie, “Under Pressure.”

The installment tells the story of how the track came together using interview footage with Bowie; Queen members Freddie Mercury, Brian May and Roger Taylor; and producer Reinhold Mack.

The episode begins by explaining how after Queen had purchased Mountain Studios in Montreux, Switzerland, the band was working on new music there in 1981 when engineer David Richards made an impromptu phone call to Bowie.

Bowie notes in an archival interview clip, “[Richards] knew that I was in town, and phoned me up and asked me if I’d…like to go down and see what was happening. So I went down and…suddenly you’re writing something together and it was totally spontaneous. It certainly wasn’t planned.”

Taylor remembers that the band and Bowie were drunk and jamming on “all sorts of old songs,” and then David said, “Look, hang on a minute, why don’t we write one of our own?”

A separate interview clips, Taylor, May and Mack recalled how Queen bassist John Deacon came up with the catchy bass riff that really got the track going.

Roger added that it was Bowie idea to put in various clicks and claps, and the track just grew from there.

“Under Pressure” was released in October of 1981 and became Queen’s second #1 hit in the U.K., after “Bohemian Rhapsody,” while peaking at #22 in the U.S. on the Billboard Hot 100.

After Mercury’s death in 1991, Bowie famously teamed up with Eurythmics‘ Annie Lennox and Queen’s surviving members to perform “Under Pressure” at the historic 1992 tribute concert for Freddie at London’s Wembley Stadium.

Copyright © 2021, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.

Over 30 years later, the inaudible bass on Metallica‘s 1988 album …And Justice for All remains one of the most puzzling studio decisions in metal history. Understandably, Jason Newsted was among those most confused.

Newsted joined Metallica in 1986 after the death of bassist Cliff Burton. Justice was the first ‘Tallica album that he played on, and was quite angry when his parts were turned down to near-silent levels on the final mix.

“I was f***ing livid!,” Newsted tells Metal Hammer. “Are you kidding me? I was ready [to go] for throats, man!”

“No, I was out of my head, because I really thought I did well,” he adds. “And I thought I played how I was supposed to play.”

Being Newsted was joining in place of a beloved member who’d just died, some have hypothesized that Lars Ulrich and James Hetfield purposely turned down his bass out of misplaced anger towards him. However, Ulrich has said the decision was not intentional, and that Newsted getting buried in the mix was a result of turning everything else up, and not specifically turning him down.

Newsted left Metallica in 2001 under somewhat acrimonious circumstances — as detailed in the 2004 documentary Some Kind of Monster — but seems to be back on good terms with the band. Earlier this month, he starred in an unboxing video for Metallica’s upcoming Black Album 30th anniversary reissue, due out September 10.

Copyright © 2021, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.

Pearl Jam celebrates two milestone anniversaries on August 27. Not only does their massive 1991 debut Ten turn 30 today, but their 1996 effort, No Code, also turns 25.

To mark both anniversaries, Pearl Jam has released new digital mixes of both Ten and No Code. Producer and engineer Josh Evans, who produced PJ’s 2020 album Gigaton, gave the original records an audio revamp using Dolby Atmos and Sony 360 Reality Audio.

“These two albums sound amazing in the immersive format,” Evans says.

“For Ten, the goal was to create the best version of the record, bigger, wider and higher fidelity; now, it actually sounds as great coming out of your speakers as it does in your memory of hearing it the first time,” he explains. “[Twenty-five] years ahead of its time, No Code almost sounds like it was intended to be an immersive album; experimental layers, nuance and raw aggression are all amplified and expanded in a simultaneously bigger and more intimate experience.”

Ten, of course, put Pearl Jam on the map as one the most prominent bands in the rising grunge scene of the early ’90s. It spawned singles in “Even Flow,” “Jeremy” and “Alive,” and has been certified Diamond by the RIAA.

No Code, meanwhile, was a more of a polarizing record. With a more experimental sound, it didn’t reach the commercial heights of its predecessors, though it was still certified Platinum and featured singles including “Hail, Hail” and “Who You Are.”

Copyright © 2021, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.

Queen drummer Roger Taylor recently announced plans to release his first solo album in over eight years, Outsider, on October 1, and now the Rock & Roll Hall of Famer has premiered the first single from the record, “We’re All Just Trying to Get By.”

The track features guest vocals by award-winning Scottish singer/songwriter KT Tunstall, and is available now as a digital download and via streaming services.

You also can check out a music video for the tune at Taylor’s official YouTube channel. The clip features footage of Roger in a recording studio singing and playing piano and slide guitar — but not the drums — and Tunstall singing her parts separately.

Taylor wrote the dreamy pop tune during the COVID-19 lockdown while reflecting on what ties all living things together.

“I tried to highlight the great things in life,” he explains. “It’s the simplest statement, really. It’s what every life force on Earth is doing: just trying to get by and proliferate and exist. That’s all we are trying to do, from plants to animals to humans, trying to survive…Also, of course, we are in the middle of a bloody pandemic.”

Regarding Tunstall’s participation in the recording, Roger notes, “The track was all finished, and it was suggested it might be nice if we got KT involved…I love what she did, I think it really adds to the track…She’s a very talented singer and musician, and it’s lovely to have her on the track.”

Adds Tunstall, “What a pleasure to work with such a brilliant writer and musical hero.”

Outsider, which can be pre-ordered now, is available on CD, as a vinyl LP and on cassette.

Taylor will promote the album on a U.K. solo tour in October.

Here’s Outsider‘s full track list:

“Tides”
“I Know, I Know, I Know”
“More Kicks”
“Absolutely Anything”
“Gangsters Are Running This World”
“We’re All Just Trying to Get By” — featuring KT Tunstall
“Gangsters Are Running This World” (Purple Version)
“Isolation”
“The Clapping Song”
“Outsider”
“Foreign Sand” (English Mix)
“Journey’s End”

Copyright © 2021, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.

The Rolling Stones are planning to go through with their 2021 U.S. trek following the death of drummer Charlie Watts on Tuesday, according to the tour’s promoter.

“The Rolling Stones’ tour dates are moving ahead as planned,” the promoter, Concerts West, says in a statement, RollingStone.com reports.

The U.S. leg of the band’s No Filter Tour, which was rescheduled from 2020 after being postponed by the COVID-19 pandemic, is slated to get underway September 26 in St. Louis and is mapped out through a November 20 show in Austin, Texas. The trek features 12 dates, and tickets can be purchased at VividSeats.com.

Earlier this month, The Rolling Stones announced that Watts likely wouldn’t be joining them on the tour because he was recovering from an unspecified medical procedure. According to the announcement, Steve Jordan, who played drums on all of Keith Richards‘ solo albums, was picked by Charlie to “stand in” for him on the trek.

According to a statement from his spokesperson, Watts “passed away peacefully in a London hospital [on Tuesday] morning surrounded by his family.” He was 80.

Copyright © 2021, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.

Pearl Jam‘s Ten is now officially three times as old as its title.

The grunge band’s iconic debut album was released August 27, 1991 — 30 years ago today. The RIAA Diamond-certified record is now considered one of the defining records of the ’90s alternative rock scene.

Pearl Jam released Ten just one year after they were founded in 1990. After playing together in the band Mother Love Bone, which dissolved after the death of frontman Andrew Wood, guitarist Stone Gossard and bassist Jeff Ament formed a new band with fellow Seattle musician Mike McCready. They then eventually recruited lead vocalist Eddie Vedder from San Diego, and drummer Dave Krusen.

Originally named Mookie Blaylock after the NBA point guard, Pearl Jam adopted a new moniker after they signed a record deal. The album title Ten is a reference to Blaylock’s jersey number.

Despite its now legendary status, Ten wasn’t an out-of-the-gate hit. That September, though, Nirvana released “Smells Like Teen Spirit” and Nevermind, and by the end of 1991 and into 1992, the grunge sensation was officially in full swing. Ten would eventually hit number two on the Billboard 200, and Pearl Jam joined Nirvana as the faces of the suddenly popular Seattle sound.

Ten‘s success was buoyed by singles including “Even Flow,” “Alive” and the Grammy-nominated “Jeremy.” “Jeremy” was also accompanied by a shocking video, which showed a young student killing himself in front of his classmates, though the scene of the student putting the gun into his mouth was infamously censored. Despite its controversy, “Jeremy” won the 1993 MTV VMA Video of the Year.

Interestingly, Ten isn’t the only PJ album celebrating a milestone anniversary today. The band’s polarizing fourth album, No Code, was released 25 years ago on August 27, 1996.

Copyright © 2021, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.