Classic Rock News

Performance of the Week

Bachman Turner Overdrive - "Four Wheel Drive" - Live, 1988

Bands who made the biggest impact for the longest time in classic rock are those who managed to stand out from the crowd, to be unique, to be instantly identifiable. It could be the vocals, the lyrics, one or more standout instruments, or some mixture of those (plus some undefinable chemical reaction) that made us sit up and take notice. It took things like, say, a song that featured a guitar solo played with a drumstick, and a drum solo played with none.

The band was Bachman Turner Overdrive, and I dare you to sit still during this performance from BTO's 1988 reunion tour, of "Four Wheel Drive". (Go on. Try. It can't be done.)

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Performance of the Week originally appeared on About.com Classic Rock on Thursday, September 2nd, 2010 at 14:28:38.

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Poll Results: Digital - Analog Compromise

After John Mellencamp and Bob Dylan offered their thoughts on the the state of the music business recently, we asked for your thoughts on whether online album and concert ticket sales should be jettisoned in favor of a return to vinyl albums and box office ticket sales.

The results of our poll suggest that the answer lies in compromise. A third of you (34%) feel we should go back to "the way we were" entirely. Just 10% envision an all-digital future. The majority - 55% - believe there's some combination of the old and the new that can address the concerns on both sides of the issue.

Dylan's experiment last week with one-to-a-customer, cash-only, box-office-only ticket sales wasn't a financial success, but may well have accomplished its purpose. Dylan's "surprise" concert (announced just a week in advance) at the The Warfield in San Francisco was far from a sellout but the idea was well received by fans and the concert promoter.

Your comments (and votes) are still welcome.

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Poll Results: Digital - Analog Compromise originally appeared on About.com Classic Rock on Monday, August 30th, 2010 at 06:14:01.

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Performance of the Week

Carlos Santana and Eric Clapton - "Jingo" - Live, 2004

Pick any list you can find of the top rock guitarists of all time, and near the top you'll invariably find the names of Carlos Santana and Eric Clapton. Even with vastly different cultural and geographic roots, the two share many characteristics. Both have been actively performing since the '60s and are still touring and recording today. Each has his own distinctive style, but both have had equal impact on rock.

What would it be like if you put them both on the same stage at the same time? That happened in 2004 at Clapton's first Crossroads Guitar Festival. Fasten your seat belts, secure your tray tables, and prepare yourself for some full tilt boogie, as Clapton and Santana cut loose on "Jingo".

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Performance of the Week originally appeared on About.com Classic Rock on Thursday, August 26th, 2010 at 16:00:08.

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Review: Heart - 'Red Velvet Car'

With 12 studio albums, various solo and side projects, and considerable sales success, it seems like it would be easy for a band like Heart to just sit back and coast to retirement. That, however, is not their style. In the last couple of years, they've been touring like a hungry new band, and are about to release (on 8/31) another new studio album. Any doubt about whether the Wilson sisters can still generate the same kind of sparks they did with their debut album in 1976 disappear within the first few bars. Here's my review of Heart's Red Velvet Car.

^{Image courtesy Sony Legacy}

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Review: Heart - 'Red Velvet Car' originally appeared on About.com Classic Rock on Thursday, August 26th, 2010 at 02:42:01.

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Calling all Woodstock Alumni

Were you one of the hundreds of thousands who attended (or tried to) the Woodstock festival in August of 1969? (We know some of you were because you have shared your Woodstock experiences with us.)

It is that shared experience that is behind the effort by the Museum at Bethel Woods, located on the site of the historic festival. The Woodstock Alumni Registry will make those who attended, tried to attend, or participated in the event a part of the Woodstock historical record.

Says museum director Wade Lawrence, "We invite Woodstockers from around the globe to join the database and tell their story about their festival experience. These unique and touching narratives help preserve history for generations to come."

The museum is observing Woodstock's 41st anniversary with an exhibit of photos, artifacts and memorabilia, many of which are being publicly displayed for the first time. Collecting Woodstock: Recent Museum Acquisitions will be on display through January 2.

• Woodstock 101

^{Photo © Henry Diltz, courtesy Rhino Entertainment}

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Calling all Woodstock Alumni originally appeared on About.com Classic Rock on Wednesday, August 25th, 2010 at 07:29:50.

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Pages of Page's Pictures

There have been several books written about Jimmy Page and his storied career as guitarist for Led Zeppelin and The Yardbirds, and as a solo and session artist. Now we're going to get Page's life story as told by the artist himself.

Zoso (which was the name of the symbol used to depict Page on the cover of Led Zep's fourth album) is the name of Page's upcoming (9/28) photographic autobiography. Only 2,500 copies are being printed, each bound in leather, housed in a silk and leather case, and signed by the artist.

You want a copy? You're going to have to really want it a lot. The price (are you sitting down?) is £455 (that's $701 in yankee dollars, based on today's exchange rate.) Zoso can be pre-ordered from the publisher, Genesis Publications.

^{Book cover images courtesy Genesis Publications}

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Pages of Page's Pictures originally appeared on About.com Classic Rock on Tuesday, August 24th, 2010 at 08:38:58.

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Dylan, Mellencamp say Music Business Should Return to the Past

Music album sales have a hit a new low. During the week of August 8-14, U.S. album sales totaled 4.95-million, the smallest weekly number since Nielsen SoundScan started keeping records in 1991. The week's best selling album (Eminem's Recovery) managed sales of 133,000 but the second and third highest sellers managed just 52,000 and 41,000 respectively.

John Mellencamp and Bob Dylan, who have seen many ups and downs in the music business, both seem to think the music business should look to the past for answers.

It is the Internet that has "destroyed the music business" and is "going to destroy the movie business" according to Mellencamp (whose latest album, No Better Than This was recorded on vintage analog equipment) in remarks at a recent Grammy Museum seminar. Even though his new album is available as an MP3 download, Mellencamp decries the digital compression of music because it results in such a poor copy of the original. And, he says, that will spell the end of rock music as we know it.

Dylan, meanwhile, has set his sights on rising concert ticket prices and declining sales. His answer to the issues of credit card fees, surcharges, and scalping: sell only general admission tickets at $60 each, one to to a customer, cash only (no credit cards or checks) available only at the box office (beginning at 5:30 PM for an 8:00 PM show.) That's how it will be for Dylan's August 25 show at the Warfield in San Francisco. The music industry will be watching closely to see how it works.

Coincidentally, Mellencamp and Dylan are doing some old-fashioned touring together out west over the next few weeks.

What do you think? Should we go back to "the way we were" or continue on in the digital world? Or something in between? Discuss.

^{John Mellencamp photo by Scott Gries / Getty Images; Bob Dylan photo by Kevin Winter / Getty Images}

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Dylan, Mellencamp say Music Business Should Return to the Past originally appeared on About.com Classic Rock on Sunday, August 22nd, 2010 at 11:32:32.

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New Album News

Eric Clapton - Clapton - 9/28/10
Eric Clapton has been busy since he released Back Home in 2005, but Clapton is his first studio release since then. He collaborates with artists like Blind Faith band mate Steve Winwood, frequent Clapton Crossroads Festival participant Sheryl Crow, JJ Cale, Wynton Marsalis, and Allen Toussaint. Clapton describes the project as "an eclectic collection of songs that weren't really on the map."

Neil Young - Le Noise - 9/28/10
Neil Young apologizes for his "old school" use of the term "album" to describe Le Noise, his 35th solo studio release, which will be available on CD, vinyl, MP3, Blu-ray and as an iPhone/iPad app. Producer Daniel Lanois tells Rolling Stone, "We cut a couple of solo acoustic songs, but the rest is very electric. There's nothing else out there like it."

Blondie - Panic of Girls - 2011
The followup to The Curse of Blondie (2003) will be released in Australia in late 2010, and in the rest of the world in early 2011. The pastoral musical enclave of Woodstock was the ideal place to record Panic of Girls because it is, according to drummer Clem Burke, "the antithesis of the urbanite kind of atmosphere that exists around Blondie. We tried to make the recording process as organic as possible."

Joe Satriani - Black Swans and Wormhole Legends - 10/5/10
In spite of his Chickenfoot commitments. Joe Satriani has found time to put together his 14th studio album. The release Black Swans and Wormhole Legends heralds the beginning of a world tour which, so far, includes Europe and North America.

David Gilmour / The Orb - Metallic Spheres - 10/12/10
Pink Floyd could be pretty trippy, so David Gilmour's collaboration with electronic/ambient group, The Orb isn't too much of a stretch. Says the Orb's co-founder, Alex Paterson, "It's a collision that's been waiting to happen with Pink Floyd / David Gilmour and The Orb orbiting many of the same planets."

^{Eric Clapton & Neil Young album covers courtesy Reprise; Blondie photo by Bryan Bedder / Getty Images; Joe Satriani album cover courtesy Epic; The Orb album cover courtesy Columbia}

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New Album News originally appeared on About.com Classic Rock on Sunday, August 22nd, 2010 at 07:53:41.

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Performance of the Week

Steve Miller Band - "Fly Like an Eagle" - Live, 1973
In 1973, the weekly Don Kirshner's Rock Concert TV show was a new show with a new concept: it was a taped show, but it was live-to-tape, recordings of live performances.

At the time the TV show debuted, Steve Miller Band were already veterans, with a nine album catalog. But one of SMB's best performances on a 1973 episode of the series was one of their first performances of a song that they had not yet recorded. In fact, it would be three more years before it would appear as the title track on what would become the band's best selling album.

As you watch and listen to "Fly Like An Eagle" remember that this was recorded live, no overdubs, no do-overs.

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Performance of the Week originally appeared on About.com Classic Rock on Thursday, August 19th, 2010 at 15:12:07.

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Poll Results: No Parole for Chapman

Not unexpectedly, 94% of those voting in our poll oppose parole for Mark David Chapman, confessed killer of John Lennon 30 years ago.

Comments range from "He needs to die in prison" to "I have no trouble with Mark David Chapman being paroled. Squeaky Fromme was let loose and she tried to kill a President."

You're still welcome to cast your vote and post a comment. Chapman's sixth parole hearing is to be held in September.

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Poll Results: No Parole for Chapman originally appeared on About.com Classic Rock on Thursday, August 19th, 2010 at 14:18:54.

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