Classic Rock News

It continues to be a great year for Joni Mitchell fans. The iconic singer is teaming with Rhino Entertainment and Mobility Fidelity Sound Lab (MoFi) to release six of her iconic albums on UltraDisc One-Step 180g 45RPM 2-LP vinyl and hybrid Super Audio CD formats. 

The limited and numbered box sets will start next year with 1970’s Ladies of the Canyon and 1972’s Blue, and will be followed by 1972’s For the Roses, 1974’s Court and Spark, 1975’s The Hissing of Summer Lawns and 1976’s Hejira.

All releases will be sourced from the original analog master tapes and will come in mini-gatefold sleeves, with special foil-stamped jackets and graphics that remain faithful to the original releases.

Fans can pre-order them here.

Joni fans have had a lot to be happy about this year. Back in July, she performed her first live concert in over 20 years when she joined Brandi Carlile and friends at the Newport Folk Festival. She recently announced another planned “Joni Jam” for June 2023 in Washington, also with Brandi.

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Motörhead‘s 2015 album, Bad Magic, is getting the reissue treatment.

An expanded edition of the record, dubbed Seriously Bad Magic, will arrive February 24, 2023. It includes three bonus tracks — the previously unreleased songs “Bullet in Your Brain” and “Greedy Bastards” and a cover of David Bowie‘s “‘Heroes'” — as well as a full live recording of Lemmy and company’s 2015 performance at Japan’s Fuji Rock Festival.

You can listen to “Bullet in Your Brain” now via digital outlets and watch its accompanying video streaming now on YouTube.

Bad Magic was originally released in August 2015, four months before Lemmy died in December at age 70. Motörhead has since disbanded, making Bad Magic the “Ace of Spades” group’s final studio effort.

(Video contains uncensored profanity) 

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The Rolling Stones are dropping a new live album. The band is set to release GRRR Live!, a recording of their guest-filled December 15, 2012 concert from their 50 & Counting Tour.

The concert at Newark, New Jersey’s Prudential Center was the final of four shows in the New York area and was a pay-per-view event. It featured guest appearances by such big names as Bruce Springsteen on “Tumbling Dice,” Lady Gaga on “Gimme Shelter,” John Mayer and Gary Clark, Jr. on “Going Down,” Mick Taylor on “Midnight Rambler,” and The Black Keys on “Who Do You Love?” The DVD and Blu-Ray also include three songs from the December 13 show, including “Respectable,” with Mayer, “Around and Around” and “Gimme Shelter.”

The album will be released February 10 on a variety of formats, including a two-CD set, a three-LP set (classic black, limited red and a white indie exclusive), Digital, a DVD and two-CD combo set and a Blu-Ray and two-CD combo set. But that’s not all. Fans can also order a limited-edition Ronnie Wood set list print from the show. All formats are available for pre-order here.

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Neil Young hasn’t been on tour since before the pandemic, and while he has no immediate plans to hit the road, when he does, he hopes to do so in a more environmentally friendly way. In fact, in a new interview with The New Yorker, Young says he already has a plan for a more sustainable tour.

“I’ve been working on it with a couple of my friends for about seven or eight months. We’re trying to figure out how to do a self-sustaining, renewable tour,” he shares. “Everything that moves our vehicles around, the stage, the lights, the sound, everything that powers it is clean. Nothing dirty with us. We set it up; we do this everywhere we go.”

He adds, “This is something that’s very important to me, if I’m ever going to go out again… and I’m not sure I want to, I’m still feeling that out. But if I’m ever going to do it, I want to make sure that everything is clean.”

Young’s plan also includes the food people eat at shows. He notes, “I’ve been working on this idea of bringing the food and the drink and the merch into the realm where it’s all clean. I will make sure that the food comes from real farmers.” He insists, “It’s about sustainability and renewability in the future, loving Earth for what it is. We want to do the right thing. That’s kind of the idea.”

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Brian May is working hard on a reissue of his 1983 solo EP, Star Fleet Project. The Queen guitarist shared on Instagram that it will be his next Gold Series reissue box set, and he’s expecting it will be out summer 2023.

“It won’t be just a remaster- we’re remixing everything from highest definition transfers from the original multitracks,” he writes. “You’ll still be able to hear the old mixes, but I’m excited about what we’re cooking up now,” noting, “All the original material – every detail rescued – magnificently remixed – and much more !!!”

The EP featured the late Eddie Van Halen, who May says fans will hear “in his prime that nobody ever heard before.” 

May notes, “Wish I could unleash it all now – but such is the state of record production now it will take until meet Summer to turn it around. It WILL Be worth the wait – I promise !!!”

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In addition to their joint world tour, Mötley Crüe and Def Leppard will be sharing the stage Stateside in 2023.

The two bands have announced a pair of co-headlining shows taking place February 10 and 11 in Atlantic City, New Jersey. Tickets go on sale this Friday, December 2, at 10 a.m. local time.

For all ticket info, visit Motley.com or DefLeppard.com.

Shortly after the AC performances, the world tour will launch February 18 in Mexico City, followed by a trip to South America and Europe. The global outing follows Mötley Crüe and Def Leppard’s 2022 U.S. Stadium Tour, which also featured Poison and Joan Jett & the Blackhearts on the bill.

The Stadium Tour shows, originally scheduled for 2020 and delayed two years due to the COVID-19 pandemic, marked Mötley’s return to the live stage after voiding their infamous “cessation of touring” agreement, which they had signed to legally prevent them from touring again.

The full Crüe reunion won’t last into 2023, however, as guitarist Mick Mars announced in October that he’s retiring from touring. Rob Zombie guitarist John 5 will take his place for the upcoming shows.

In other Def Leppard news, the “Photograph” rockers are mourning the death of their trainer Eric, who toured with the band in 2018. In a tweet posted Tuesday, the group shares “sincere condolences” to Eric’s family.

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Few artists make all the right decisions when it comes to their career, but there are some who make spectacularly bad decisions, and Rolling Stone is taking a long hard look at them. The mag has just come out with a list they’ve dubbed “The 50 Worst Decisions in Music History,” created by artists like The Rolling Stones, The Beatles, Eric Clapton and more.

Coming in at number one is The Rolling Stones’ decision to hire Hells Angels for security at their 1969 free concert at Altamont Speedway, which ended with the death of concertgoer Meredith Hunter. Others making the top five include: Jerry Lee Lewis marrying his underage cousin at two, Decca Records passing on The Beatles in 1962 at three, Eric Clapton and his anti-vax conspiracy theories at four and the 1999 Woodstock festival at five.

Other bad decisions making the list include: U2 giving away their album Songs of Innocence for free on iTunes in 2015, Billy Squier’s cheesy music video for “Rock Me Tonight,” Steve Van Zandt quitting the E Street Band ahead of the Born in the U.S.A. Tour in 1984, John Lennon saying The Beatles were “more popular than Jesus” in 1966 and lots more.

Check out the complete list here.

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The B-52s will wrap their farewell tour in Georgia in January, but that doesn’t mean they are saying goodbye to performing altogether. In fact, they just announced a new set of Las Vegas dates.

The band is set for a new 10-night residency at The Venetian Resort, with dates in May, August and September. The shows kick off May 5 and run through September 3. Tickets go on sale Saturday at 10 a.m. local time.

The new dates follow a series of sold-out performances in Sin City in October.

As for those final farewell tour dates, The B-52s will play Atlanta’s Fox Theatre on January 6, 7 and 8, and Athens’ Classic Center on January 10.

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Rick Wakeman is ready to release some new music. The Yes keyboardist just announced his brand-new concept album, A Gallery of the Imagination. He says it was inspired by his first piano teacher, Mrs. Symes, who taught him a lesson he never forgot: “when you play, you are painting pictures through music.” 

Wakeman says the songs on the album are presented “as if they were pictures in a gallery,” noting, “just as there are many different styles in an art gallery, so there are many different musical styles on A Gallery of the Imagination.” 

“One of my great loves is going to museums and art galleries and seeing all the different types of art, so I thought, why not a music gallery… the Gallery of the Imagination?” he says. “People can paint their own mind pictures to the different types of music that are on the album. It is very diverse and for me, it works very well because the concept holds it all together.”

Fans can pre-order the album now, and it will be shipped before Christmas. Vinyl and deluxe editions will be out in February.

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Tommy Lee‘s home in Calabasas, California, is probably feeling a bit less sweet after it was reportedly burglarized.

According to TMZ, the house was broken into last week and was left trashed with broken glass and lamps. Along with the property damage, a bathroom mirror and cabinet handles were reportedly stolen.

The Mötley Crüe drummer was not inside the house during the break in, as he’s long been trying to sell the property.

If you watched Pam & Tommy, then you know this isn’t Lee’s first brush with thieves. The Emmy-nominated miniseries told the story of Lee and Pamela Anderson‘s infamous sex tape, which was stolen from their home in 1995.

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