Classic Rock News

Paul Simon will release a new audiobook titled Miracle and Wonder on November 16 that features conversations he had with bestselling author Malcolm Gladwell and Gladwell’s Broken Record podcast co-host, Bruce Headlam.

Woven throughout the biographical presentation are previously unheard live studio performances of some of Simon’s classic compositions, as well as archival music tracks.

The audiobook, which according to Variety is five hours long, was created from 30 hours’ worth of conversations recorded at Simon’s home in Connecticut and while he was on vacation in Hawaii.

Miracle and Wonder: Conversations with Paul Simon features Simon reflecting on his childhood, his collaboration with Art Garfunkel and many other aspects of his life, while also offering commentary about some of his most famous songs, including “The Boxer,” “The Sound of Silence,” and “Graceland.”

Variety reports that the 80-year-old singer-songwriter also reveals in the audiobook that he’s working on a new project that’s tentatively titled Seven Psalms, and plays snippets of some of his new music.

Miracle and Wonder also features reflections on Simon’s work by such other artists as Sting, Herbie Hancock, Renée Fleming, Roseanne Cash and Wilco‘s Jeff Tweedy.

The audiobook can be pre-ordered now at Pushkin.fm. The website also features three preview clips from the release that include Simon discussing “The Boxer” and “Bridge over Troubled Water,” as well as talking about some of the interesting instruments he’s collected and likes to incorporate into his recordings.

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Robert Plant and Alison Krauss have debuted a lyric video for their new rendition of “Can’t Let Go,” a song written by Randy Weeks that acclaimed alt-country artist Lucinda Williams previously covered for her 1998 albumm Car Wheels on a Gravel Road.

“Can’t Let Go” will appear on Plant and Krauss’ upcoming duets album, Raise the Roof, which will be released on November 19. The track was issued as an advance digital single in August. The video, which you can check out on YouTube, features kitschy vintage-style graphics and images that include a vinyl disc spinning on a turntable.

The Led Zeppelin frontman and the lauded folk/bluegrass artist also released a second advance track from Raise the Roof earlier this month, “High and Lonesome,” an original tune that Plant co-wrote with producer T Bone Burnett.

Raise the Roof is a follow-up to Plant and Krauss’ Grammy-winning 2007 duets collection, Raising Sand. Like its predecessor, the new album was produced by Burnett and is made up mostly of covers of songs by various artists.

Los Lobos guitarist David Hidalgo and Plant’s Band of Joy collaborator Buddy Miller contributed to the album, as did a few musicians who also appeared on Raising Sand, including drummer Jay Bellerose, guitarist Marc Ribot and bassist Dennis Crouch.

You can pre-order Raise the Roof now.

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Bruce Springsteen and Paul McCartney were among the stars who took part in the 2021 edition of the Robin Hood Foundation‘s annual charity gala, which was held Wednesday night at New York City’s Jacob Javits Center.

According to Rolling Stone, Springsteen was introduced by the event’s host, Saturday Night Live‘s Cecily Strong, and proceeded to deliver a short acoustic set that featured renditions of “Working on the Highway,” “Dancing in the Dark” and “Thunder Road.”

“For over 30 years, Robin Hood has been finding, fueling, creating, impactful solutions to lift families out of poverty here in New York City,” the Boss told the crowd of an estimated 3,000. “The funds raised tonight translate into real results for New Yorkers living in poverty. We appreciate your support.”

The Robin Hood Foundation has been supporting poverty-fighting programs in the New York area for over 30 years, and also helped organize the star-studded post-9/11 event The Concert for New York City, which McCartney famously headlined.

The gala took place on the 20th anniversary of the concert, and to mark the occasion, McCartney — who also helped put together the 2001 show — was honored with a special award.

Alicia Keys performed the classic Beatles ballad “Let It Be” before McCartney took the stage.

“I love New York,” he told the audience. “Many years ago, when I was a little kid in Liverpool, we saw New York in the movies. I never dreamed that I would be here getting an award like this from you fantastic people. But then years later, we did show up at JFK with my buddies, the Beatles. We went on The Ed Sullivan Show and, boy, that was something.”

The event, which raised $77.5 million, also featured a performance by the Jonas Brothers.

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Black Sabbath is launching a new apparel collaboration with DC Shoes.

The collection, which includes various footwear, t-shirts and long-sleeve shirts, is inspired by Sabbath’s 1971 metal opus Master of Reality in honor of its 50th anniversary.

Along with the clothes and shoes, DC is also releasing an exclusive Master of Reality tribute album titled Shadow of Reality, which includes contributions from Pearl Jam‘s Jeff Ament, The Melvins, and J Mascis of Dinosaur Jr.

Fittingly, the DC X Black Sabbath collaboration will be available starting on Halloween, October 31. For more info, stay tuned to DCShoes.com.

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Steve Cropper, guitarist with legendary Stax Records house bands The Mar-Keys and Booker T. & the MG’s, and later The Blues Brothers, celebrates his 80th birthday today.

Formed in 1958, The Mar-Keys were the Memphis-based Stax label’s first house band. Besides backing other artists, The Mar-Keys made their own records, and in 1961, they scored a #3 hit with the instrumental single “Last Night,” which, interestingly, featured Cropper on keyboards.

In 1962, Cropper co-founded Booker T. & the MG’s with keyboardist Booker T. Jones, drummer Al Jackson Jr. and bassist Lewie Steinberg, who was replaced in ’65 by Donald “Duck” Dunn.

Like The Mar-Keys, Booker T. & the MG’s backed Stax artists and also made their own records. The group’s debut single, the classic 1962 soul instrumental “Green Onions,” peaked at #3 on the Billboard Hot 100 and topped the R&B chart.

Cropper also wrote songs with various Stax artists, including all-time classic soul hits like Otis Redding‘s “(Sittin’ On) The Dock of the Bay,” Wilson Pickett‘s “In the Midnight Hour” and Eddie Floyd‘s “Knock on Wood.”

Starting in the 1970s, Cropper began playing on and producing records for artists outside of Stax.

Among the many other artists Steve has worked with over the years are John Lennon, Ringo Starr, Rod Stewart, Neil Young, Peter Frampton, Paul Simon, Art Garfunkel, Roy Orbison and Etta James.

Cropper also played with The Blues Brothers, the blues/R&B tribute band led by Saturday Night Live stars John Belushi and Dan Aykroyd, which released a chart-topping live album in 1978. Steve was featured in the hit 1980 comedy film focusing on the group as well.

Cropper was welcomed into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame as a member of Booker T. & the MG’s in 1992, and was inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame in 2005.

Steve’s most recent solo album, Fire It Up, was released in April of this year.

Last month, Cropper’s 80th birthday was celebrated with a special concert at Nashville’s Ryman Auditorium that featured performances by ZZ Top‘s Billy Gibbons, James Burton, Jeff “Skunk” Baxter, Eddie Floyd, R.E.M.‘s Mike Mills and more.

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Last week, Judas Priest released an expansive 42-disc box set called 50 Heavy Metal Years, which features all of the band’s official studio and live albums, plus 13 discs of unreleased material and some cool memorabilia.

The huge collection, which celebrates the band’s 50th anniversary, was supposed to arrive during Judas Priest’s 50 Heavy Metal Years tour, but unfortunately the trek was postponed after guitarist Richie Faulkner suffered an aortic aneurysm at a September 26 show in Kentucky.

The good news is that Faulkner is now recovering from the health scare…and that the box set is available for fans to enjoy in all its glory.

Priest frontman Rob Halford tells ABC Audio that the collection is “a treasure trove.”

“[I]t really is heavy metal. It weighs about 50 pounds,” he notes. “But then, when you look at all of the CDs, and then you look at the list of the songs, it’s just remarkable. The team of people that worked with us to put this together did an outstanding job. It’s superb.”

He adds, “It’s a really beautifully crafted, curated piece of work. It’s got like almost like a metal museum-esque type of attitude to it, when you look at it and you listen to it.”

The unreleased material in the set includes eight newly restored, full-length concerts, and two discs of demos and various live tracks recorded over the years.

Halford says one of his favorite highlights is a 1975 live version of the rarity “Mother Sun,” a song that Judas Priest never recorded in the studio.

“It’s a real treat, ’cause it’s an extraordinary piece of work musically,” Halford notes.

You can order 50 Heavy Metal Years now at JudasPriestStore.com. Reflections, a collection of highlights from the box set, also is available.

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Go-Go’s drummer Gina Schock‘s recently announced photo book Made in Hollywood: All Access with the Go-Go’s will be released on Tuesday, October 26, and coinciding with its publication, the veteran rocker will launch a promotional tour that will include in-person and virtual events.

Schock will be joined at some of the events by celebrities, including all of her band mates. The Go-Go’s will be inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame on October 30, four days after the book arrives.

The first event, on October 26, is hosted by Greenlight Books in Brooklyn, New York, and will feature a virtual conversation between Gina and The B-52s‘ Kate Pierson.

Next up is an in-person event in Cleveland at the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame October 29, a day before the Induction Ceremony. All five Go-Go’s will take part in an interview outside at the Rock Hall’s Union Home Mortgage Plaza, and Gina will sign copies of the book following the Q&A.

Other in-person book events will take place on November 5 in Laguna Beach, California; November 6 in Los Angeles; November 13 in San Francisco; November 16 in New York City; and November 18 in Ridgewood, New Jersey.  Additional virtual events are scheduled for November 8 and November 17, and will be hosted, respectively, by the Book Soup store in West Hollywood, California, and LiveSigning.com.

Go-Go’s bassist Kathy Valentine also will be taking part in the November 6 event, while the band’s singer, Belinda Carlisle, will join Schock on November 8.

As previously reported, in Made in Hollywood, Schock takes fans on a photographic journey through her band’s history, using a treasure trove of personal pics and many other images.

Check out more details about the book tour at HachetteBookGroup.com.

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Metallica and Miley Cyrus are taking their collaboration from the studio to the page.

Drummer Lars Ulrich and the “Wrecking Ball” star have interviewed each other for a piece in Interview magazine. In the conversation, Cyrus shares what originally inspired her to cover Metallica’s “Nothing Else Matters,” which she performed at the 2019 Glastonbury Festival ahead of recording it for this year’s Metallica Blacklist tribute album.

“When I think about the sentiment behind ‘Nothing Else Matters,’ it aligns completely with my morals and my values,” Cyrus explains. “When I listened to ‘Nothing Else Matters,’ and I knew that I was confirmed for Glastonbury — I actually have chills talking about this — it was the only song that I could imagine playing.”

Cyrus’ experience of recording “Nothing Else Matters” for the Blacklist album, though, felt like the “polar opposite” of playing it at Glastonbury.

“I recorded it at home, in the middle of a f***ing global pandemic, because I couldn’t leave my house,” she says of the track, which also includes contributions from Elton John, Metallica bassist Robert Trujillo, Red Hot Chili Peppers drummer Chad Smith and lauded classical cellist Yo-Yo Ma. “It was no less poignant than playing it at Glastonbury — if anything, it was more powerful. The lyrics truly f***ing resonated.”

Elsewhere in the interview, Cyrus speaks on her sound becoming more rock-driven. In addition to covering songs including Temple of the Dog‘s “Say Hello 2 Heaven” and The Cranberries‘ “Zombie,” her new album Paper Hearts features Stevie Nicks, Billy Idol and Joan Jett. Her live band also includes Jane’s Addiction bassist Chris Chaney.

“I love having these authentic, real rock dudes in my band,” Cyrus says.

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It’s nice to know that after more than 50 years in the music business, there are still some things that Elton John hasn’t done…until now.

The 74-year-old legend’s latest achievement is topping Billboard‘s Hot Dance/Electronic Songs chart with “Cold Heart (Pnau Remix),” his collaboration with U.K. pop star Dua Lipa.

As previously reported, “Cold Heart” is a mashup of four previously released Elton songs from the ’70s and ’80s: “Rocket Man” from 1972, “Sacrifice” from 1989, “Kiss the Bride” from 1983 and “Where’s the Shoorah?” from his 1976 album, Blue Moves.

“Cold Heart” has also been #1 on the Dance/Electronic Digital Song Sales chart for nine weeks, and has ascended to #25 on the Hot 100, which is the highest Elton has been on that chart since March of 1998. 

“Cold Heart” has already become Elton’s first #1 hit in the U.K. in 16 years.

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