2000 - 2009
????? Trivia Question ?????
I've got a double question this time.....
1) What is the number 1 selling CD of this decade?
2) Who is the 2nd largest selling artist of the decade?
Hint - the artist is the same in both answers.
(answer is at bottom of page)
U2, Others Help Fans Keep Some Green
Ticket prices for concerts have been going through the roof over the years. Some prices, for regular tickets, can be $75 or $100. Of course, the primo stubs can pull in 3, 4, 500 dollars and even more. However, some artists are fighting that. There have been some in the past, but this year there are artists making some tickets available at their shows for much lower prices. There will always be higher priced tickets, but U2 is one band that has put up a fight. They have made it mandatory that at least 10,000 seats at their shows be sold for $30.
Styx, REO Speedwagon, and .38 Special are touring together this year and some of their tickets are going for $14. Every little bit helps!
There's Eddie Money
In Classic Rock Musicals
Eddie Money is the lastest classic rocker to put his music into a stage musical. Two Tickets To Paradise is based on his true life story and features many of his hits, as well as 8 new songs. It played at the Dix Hills Performing Arts Center during June. He has other commitments so it is now on hiatus, but Eddie is hoping to line up some more dates. His ultimate goal is to get it to Broadway.
The king of the classic rock musicals is We Will Rock You from Queen. It started in London 8 years ago and is still playing. It has also had productions in 14 other countries; China, Singapore, Canada, Austria, Japan, Spain, Russia, Germany, Australia, Portugal, South Africa, Italy, Swizerland, and the U.S. (Vegas).
Billy Joel had great success with Movin' Out. It did 1300 shows on Broadway and won a Toni Award for Best Orchestration. It was nominated for 10. It also had a short run in Atlantic City. The Beatles' Love is still playing in Las Vegas. It is a Cirque du Soleil production of many of their songs. Rod Stewart and Kiss also have plans for a musical of their songs. Rod hasn't given much detail on his yet, but Kiss plan another Vegas show called Carnival of Souls. They plan to record some new music for the show. There is also word that Pete Townshend is working on a new stage musical that he is talking to Broadway people about. He would like to have it on stage there in 2011. Some of the songs will probably appear on the next Who album.
Cheap Trick Goes One Better
The increase in vinyl sales has been well documented the last couple of years. And Cheap Trick has followed suit by releasing their latest album on vinyl as well as more modern methods. But they have a wilder claim to make nowadays..........they have the world's largest selling 8-track!! Their new album, The Latest, is available on their website in 8-track. But don't look for 8-track to scare the vinyl heads. Don't go to the landfill to look for your old one. I don't even know if there was a previous world's largest selling 8-track .
MORE ARTISTS TAKING REQUESTS AT SHOWS
Over the last couple of years the amount of classic rock artists that have been taking requests for their concerts has been increasing. Generally, it is somewhat difficult to do this because the band, whether it be a real band, or a solo artist with the backup musicians they take with them on the road,practices all the songs that they plan to play so they are at their best when they play them. But more and more are taking chances and playing some songs that they maybe haven't practiced as much as the others. They think that it adds a different touch to play some of those songs that everyone hasn't heard as often as the ones that have become huge hits. You also can't help believing, though, that it also makes things more interesting for them. They realize that they have to play those songs that everyone has paid to hear, but, if they play some that they haven't played 1000 times, they can feel fresher because it's been a while since they've played some of those songs. And, since we are talking about Classic Rock here, these artists all have a wealth of material that they can choose from. None of them have just released their 2nd or 3rd album. Another somewhat related group of songs that more artists are playing at shows are the ones that they are not known for - cover versions of others' songs. I have always enjoyed this because not only is it something a little different, but you get to hear what that artist has been into as a listener as opposed to a player.
Steely Dantook requests over the Internet before shows on their tour this year. They look over the list, pick a couple that they don't do all the time, then rehearse them before the show. Aerosmith was doing the same thing on their tour, before it was unfortunately cancelled because of an injury to Steven Tyler. Besides adding some freshness to their shows, this also allows for more local tastes to be represented. It's very common for one tune to be real popular in one city, but not in others. So a lot of people in one city might ask for that song and get to hear it, when other people won't because they didn't ask for it. One example of this would be Captain Jack by Billy Joel. He does that song here in Philly because it was real popular here. But he doesn't play that in a lot of cities because it wasn't a hit there. Crosby, Stills, and Nash took requests on their website for their recent tour. On his tour this year, Bruce Springsteendid some instant requests, which are the most difficult because they do the song right then and there at the show. They don't even have a chance to rehearse it. So, before the tour, he made the band rehearse many more songs than they usually do so they were as prepared as possible for different requests.
Journey Starts New Album Trend
When Journey released their album Revelation in 2008, they decided to make it special, partly as a celebration of their new singer, Arnel Pineda. It was a 3 disc package, 2 music CDs and a live DVD. One CD was a regular new set of songs, like on any album. The second CD, however, was a collection of their best-known songs re-recorded with their new singer. And the package was released at a reduced price, much closer to a single CD release than what a normal 3-disc package might have.
Since then, other artists have picked up on the idea and done the same, or similar, with their new albums.Foreigner was next with Can't Slow Down. They decided, however, to not re-record their biggest hits with their new singer, instead re-mixing them. When Kiss release their new album in October it will also be 3-discs worth, in the same format as Journey's, with the hits re-recorded. It will be their first album of new songs in 11 years and Paul Stanley took over the entire production duties.
MORE CLASSIC ROCKER FLICKS
Get ready for a slew of movies about the music we love and the people who made it. Many of them are in production now or still in the planning stages, but there have been quite a few released in recent months. You'll see a movie about the pre-Beatles life of John Lennon next year - "Nowhere Boy". It is set to have it's world debut at the London Film Festival in October. The event organizers have reserved the closing of the festival for this much anticipated flick. The film revolves mostly around a 15-year-old Lennon and his relationships with his estranged mother and the woman who raised him, his Aunt Mimi. Kristin Scott Thomas and Anne-Marie Duff will star, along with Aaron Johnson, who plays Lennon. The Doors are the subject of a biographical movie, "When You're Strange", that made its debut at Sundance in January.The Kinks are the latest to announce that they are making a film about themselves. The working title is Kinkdom Come.; It won't be ready until next year. Neil Young has released a new concert flick filmed at the Tower Theater. The Rolling Stones, of course, were in the concert film "Shine a Light" a year ago. There was also the recent film called "Stoned" about the original Stone, Brian Jones, who died in 1969. The Who were featured in the biographical movie "Amazing Journey" last year.
Other future endeavors include films about Bon Scott, the singer for AC/DC when they rose to prominence, and Janis Joplin. The Joplin flick has been delayed many times in the last few years but is now in production. Zooey Deschanel will star. The Eagles are planning a biographical movie later this year. Joan Jett has also gotten the priviledge of being the center of attention on screen. Dakota Fanning and Kristen Stewart, who plays the Philly native, will starin a flick not so much about Joan herself as much as her former band, The Runaways, her 70s all-female teen group. There are also plans for a movie about the leader of Thin Lizzy in their heyday, Phil Lynott.
Classic Rock Artists Get Into A Cover Mood
Many classic rockers have been in the frame of mind recently to record entire albums of songs that they like by other artists. It's interesting to see who they are into. George Thorogood's Dirty Dozen is all covers. It's a mix of rock, blues, and country tunes he likes to play. It has some that are newly recorded and are older Thorogood recordings that have been out of print for a while. It brings to mind the Aerosmith album Honkin' on Bobo from a few years ago that was all blues covers. John Fogerty is the newest name on this list. He didn't write any of the songs on his new album. The Blue Ridge Rangers Ride Again is all his fave country standards. It's due September 1. Eddie Money, a couple of years ago on Wanna Go Back, covered some songs from the 60's that he rocked to as a teenager. Included were songs from Mitch Ryder, the Rascals, and the Soul Survivors, as well as some Motown and James Brown tunes. Patti Smith, on Twelve, gave us an album full of her faves mostly from the 70's. Hendrix, the Stones, C,S,N,&Y, Dylan, the Doors, and the Allman Brothers were all represented. Randy Bachman and Burton Cummings, of Guess Who fame, released and album called Jukebox recently that included tunes from the 60's and 70's, but also a few from the 50's from Bo Diddley, Fats Domino, and Chuck Berry.
Last year the Jefferson Starship gave us Tree of Liberty. This has a different flavor to it in that the songs are not well known hits that they liked necessarily. This collection has a folk/protest/patriotic feel to it. One song each is from Woody Guthrie and Pete Seeger and the Weavers , who are a good representation of the whole album because many of their songs were thought of as protest songs when they released them, but, now that people understand their music much better, much of it seems more patriotic. They also do some Dylan, Lennon, Bob Marley, Sandy Denny, and Phil Ochs. Crosby, Stills, and Nash will have an album of cover versions next year that they have been working on for a while. "Songs that we always wished that we had written," as they put it.The Who have been kicking around the idea for a couple of years, but haven't made a final decision yet.
ENTIRE ALBUMS BEING PLAYED LIVE
More artists nowadays are playing entire albums of theirs at their live shows. It's been throwing in an interesting twist to the artist's concerts and has been met with much approval by those attending.Van Morrison recently released a live album on which he plays the entire Astral Weeks album.; He performed it at the Hollywood Bowl. Steely Dan will perform entire albums on their tour this year. They will alternate between Royal Scam, Aja, and Gaucho. Aerosmith have now decided to perform various entire albums on this tour. Toys In The Attick and Rocks have been the two done most often. The Kinks leader, Ray Davies, plans to do an entire Kinks album each night during his next solo tour. At their famous yearly run at New York's Beacon Theater in March, the Allman Brothers did their whole 1969 debut album and their second, Idlewild South, in the same show. Bruce Springsteen is reported to be planning to do the entire Born to Run set at his show in Chicago in September, as well as in Nashville, a show which has been moved from September to November.You might hear all of that album, or Darkness at the Edge of Town, at Giants Stadium if you go, too. He performed both entire albums at a benefit show in Jersey early this year. He did the same 2 at a show in 1978. However, he is not doing this at all of his concerts on this tour. Last summer Lou Reed performed his entire Berlin album at many shows. While in Europe, he did it at every show because it was hugely successful over there. Both Pink Floyd's David Gilmour and Roger Waters have performed Dark Side of the Moon in it's entirety during recent tours. Heart has been doing the entire Dreamboat Annie album at a lot of their concerts recently. Deep Purple has played the entire Machine Head album many times during shows in recent years. Kiss are performing their whole Alive 1 album on their current tour. Cheap Trick has decided not to perform one of their albums, but the Beatles' Sergeant Pepper's album all the way through. They've done this a few times already, but plan on repeating the performance in Vegas in September for 9 shows. They will be accopnied by a full orchestra and quite a few special guests on stage. Al Stewart performed 2 of his entire albums this year during shows of his at the Colonial Theater in Phoenixville, Year of the Cat and Time Passages. Motley Crue will play the Dr. Feelgood album in it's entirety at all their gigs this summer. They kick off their tour at the Susquehana Bank Center on July 19th. And Judas Priest are serving up British Steel when they play this year.
This has happened in the past a few times when the album, itself, dictated it, like a concept album. Probably the first time this was done was with The Who performing Tommy. They performed this album many times, including at the historic Woodstock Festival. They also did the same later with Quadropheinia. Pink Floyd performed only their album The Wall on their tour of 1980. I saw one of those shows at the Nassau Coliseum and remember thinking to myself that there was no way they would finish that whole entity and then come back and do Money or Echoes for an encore. It just didn't make sense. You only went to see them perform The Wall. It ended up being the best show I've ever seen, even without anything extra.
VINYL VOODOO
Vinyl is making more news today than it has in decades. More and more artists are joining the ranks of those that include lp's with their new albums. The list of vinyl releases is getting longer.....faster. George Thorogood's The Dirty Dozen and Bob Dylan's latest, Together Through Life, in on wax. Chickenfoot, the new supergroup led by Sammy Hagar, is paying vinyl people a real dividend with their debut release - the LP version has the bonus track! Not the CD or digital version. Bitten By the Wolf is only found on the record. Both of The Black Crowes new albums will come out on vinyl Sept. 1. Before the Frost and Until The Freeze will contain new songs. The latter is free as a thank you to their fans. The latest Genesis box set, 1970 - 1975 is out on vinyl, as have their other 2 recent box sets been. U2's new album, No Line On The Horizon, as well as many of their catalogue re-releases, have been issued on vinyl. The release of Van Morrison's new live album, Astral Weeks Live at Hollywood Bowl, has an interesting twist - the vinyl version was released a whole month before the CD. Elvis Costello did the same with his latest. Cheap Trick is really blowing the industry's mind. Their new album, The Latest, is not only on vinyl, but also on........are you sitting down?.........8-track!!. Bruce Springsteen's Working On A Dream is on wax, as was Magic. Other recent new vinyl albums include David Byrne, Pearl Jam, Guns and Roses, and Mudcrutch's live E.P., featuring Tom Petty and other Heartbreakers, the Pretenders, Queen/Paul Rodgers, Paul McCartney, AC/DC, David Bowie, Boz Scaggs, Pink Floyd's David Gilmour, and Led Zeppelin (gr. hits). Motley Crue has released their new album, Saints of Los Angeles, on vinyl, as well as their first five, both individually and in box set form.
The catalogue releases are hard to keep up with. Queen is re-releasing 5 more of their catalogue albums on vinyl September 8th, including their first one and News of the World. Nirvana's Nevermind, In Utero, and Unplugged In New York are getting the vinyl treatment this year, as will their lesser known debut Bleach album. Red Hot Chili Peppers have passed the word that their Freaky Styley, Mother's Milk, and The Uplift Mofo Party Plan will be out on L.P.s in June. Capitol Records has announced its next round of classic vinyl re-releases. John Lennon's Live Peace in Toronto leads the list. The Beach Boys Surf's Up and Sunflower are included, as well as albums from Roxy Music, Megadeth, and Merle Haggard. Metallica recently released it's And Justice For All album on vinyl. This disc joins the band's first 3 albums as sets that have been reissued in the format. Eventually, they plan to release their entire catalogue on vinyl. Queen plan to reissue their entire catalogue with grooves over the next year or so. These 2 bands join the Rolling Stones, U2, AC/DC, Traveling Wilburys, Def Leppard, the Police, Thin Lizzy, Nirvana and many others who have given us groups of catalogue albums on vinyl in recent months. Last summer, EMI Records re-released a whole slew of vinyl, including John Lennon's Imagine and Rock 'n' Roll, Wings' Band On The Run, Steve Miller's Greatest Hits '74-'78, 2 Bob Seger albums, The Band's first two albums, REM's Document, the Band of Gypsys album with Jimi Hendrix, all six Radiohead albums before last year's In Rainbows, all three previous Coldplay releases, and the Beach Boys' Pet Sounds, as well as some Roxy Music and Stray Cats LP's.
While Classic Rock is a leading genre of music to come out with grooves, make no mistake about the fact that there are lots of new artists also using the retro format. New albums from Ryan Adams, the Cure, Snow Patrol, the Presets, Cog, White Stripes, the Drones, Amy Winehouse, Bjork, the Grates, the Killers, and many others are in the big bins, too.
Also add to the list artists like James Brown, John Coltrane, Abba, Mariah Carey, and Stevie Wonder.
In this digital era, on-line sales are the new thing. But even as CD sales have been declining in recent years, vinyl sales have been increasing! In the last 2 years they have doubled! And Classic Rock is leading the way, along with Alternative artists, although there are artists from many genres joining the ranks. At some independent music stores around the country, one half of their sales are vinyl. Amazon.com now has a Vinyl Only store that brags a selection of 150,000 titles! By no means does anyone think that vinyl will ever be THE thing again. But the people who like vinyl are speaking out and there are enough of them to make a real difference. And they are not all 50 years old, either. There are many that are half that age. And many buyers will tell you that today's vinyl even sounds better than the old stuff. There have actually been advances in sound quality of vinyl. That's one of the main reasons that many younger people have learned to appreciate the medium. They, as well as many of the experts, think that the sound is "warmer" than CDs and especially digital downloads, which are many times reduced in size to better fit more songs on an I-Pod, or other unit. Many of the big record companies are now instructing one of their big wigs to spend like half their time to see how they can increase vinyl album sales. I even read an article once about some technology that was being experimented with that would give us a way to read record grooves similar to the way information is read on a CD or DVD, meaning we wouldn't need the needle. I haven't heard anything since, though. Factories that make the vinyl goods have full schedules all the way out to 6 months in advance. Yes, some of that is because there aren't as many as there used to be, but the rest is because there are many more orders than there were 10 years ago.
There are also the "extras" to consider. An LP cover you can actually pick up and look at.; CDs have them, but there's not as much info on them and they're so tiny. In addition, I always like to see who wrote the songs, and CDs don't even have that info a lot of times. What's the problem? Downloads don't have anything at all to make you feel like you're part of the process. Vinyl albums many times have posters, photos, and/or booklets that get you more into the whole feeling. And don't look now, but some artists have been recording on tape again recently, including Kiss for their new album.
MORE INACTIVE CLASSIC ROCK BANDS GEARING TO MAKE MUSIC AGAIN
2009's line-up for bands reuniting wasn't like the Zeppelin/Eagles/Van Halen/Police 2007 line-up, which is going to be awfully hard to match. But it was a very strong one. The biggest news was that the original members of Bad Co. did a semi-full-fledged tour after their one-off gig in '08. Paul Rodgers, Mick Ralphs, and Simon Kirke stopped in A.C. while they were out. Bass player Boz Burrell passed in 2006. This wasn't the first time they have regrouped. The lineup recorded 4 new tunes for an Anthology in 1999 and did a few shows to celebrate the release. Mick Ralphs will also be part of the Mott the Hoople reunion, with Ian Hunter, Overand Watts, and Dale Griffin in Oct. They will do 5 shows in London with the classic lineup and one show in Wales. The J. Geils Band did a few live shows this year with all 6 original members, including Peter Wolf and Seth Justman. Most have been in their hometown of Boston, but they've had 2 dates in Detroit and they also played in A.C.. They did a limited East Coast tour 10 years ago, including a date in Philly. They never did anything else together after that until now. Things went well and they say they are open to more. It's not a full-fledged reunion, but 3 former members of Santana, including 2 original players, are now performing old Santana tunes in concert. Greg Rolie and Michael Carabello were on the fist 3 albums and Alphonso Johnson was in the band in the 80's. The latest name to come into this picture is Supertramp. Roger Hodgson has said that he would be into it. He left the band many years ago. The other chief singer and songwriter, Rick Davies, is carrying on with the band, although they have not been very active in recent years.
The remaining original members of the Grateful Dead also made headlines by playing some shows. Not an offshoot band this time, of which their have been a few, but the real Dead. And they are officially calling themselves "The Dead." Not too long after years of a Kiss "goodbye" tour, the guys have decided to record a new album after a 10 year new music absence and are off on a "hello again" tour. Also, it was nice to see Loggins and Messina touring again. Kenny and Jim had quite a few very successful albums in the 70's. They toured in 2005 for the first time in close to 30 years and decided to do it again. They stopped at the Keswick. Jim Messina was also part of a Poco reunion. They have been an entity all along, but the original members performed together for the first time in more than 20 years in April in California. Also included were Timothy B. Schmit, a current member of the Eagles, Richie Furay, Rusty Young, and Paul Cotton. Original drummer, George Grantham, was in attendance but is recovering from a stroke and did not play. However, only Paul Cotton and Rusty Young continue to be permanent original members of the active band. The original Rascals are talking about doing some music together, too. There have been touring versions of the band over the years. Felix Cavaliere has always been there, but he hasn't played with Eddie Brigati and Gene Cornish for many years. Emerson, Lake, and Palmer had to take their names off of the table. Keith Emerson injured his hand and can't do keyboards the way we know he can. But they will talk again when he is OK. And there is now less of a chance of the original Kinks reforming. Dave Davies is still holding out. He is still recovering from a stroke a few years ago. And now Pete Quaife says that he is no longer interested. He's tired of the whole show business scene. Ray Davies has been writing some songs for the occasion, thinking positively. Faces won't be doing anything as a unit for a while. Rod Stewart just can't bend his schedule at this time. But you will see some music this year, including live material and a box set.
TOWER THEATER DOUBLES YOUR PLEASURE
If you went to see Neil Young at the Tower Theater in December of 2007, you just might be in the movies. He filmed "Neil Young Trunk Show" with director Jonathan Demme over 2 nights while here in town and the final result made its debut at the South by Southwest Festival in Austin, Texas in March. Keep your eyes open for it to make an appearance here. And a live album that Thin Lizzy recorded at the Tower also came out in March. It's from 1977 and features the classic lineup of the band. "Still Dangerous" includes 2 previously unreleased tunes.
Other people to record live albums at the Tower over the years include David Bowie, Jethro Tull, and the Grateful Dead (download).
CLAPTON AND GENESIS LOOKING FOR YOUR HELP WITH OLD VISUALS
Eric Clapton has been working on his Visual Anthology for a few years now and is still looking for old 8 and 16 mm movies, videos, or photos that you might have of him, either on or offstage from before 1980. If you have any or have any questions, email his management at EC_Anthology@Yahoo.com .
Likewise with Genesis. They are searching for photos that you might have taken of them from 1972 to 1992 for a box set of live material from that same period. Check into GenesisMusic.com for more about it.