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3/9/2010
Keith Richards is still drinking -- and ready to make some new Rolling Stones music. The guitarist tells Rolling Stone magazine that "the rumors of my sobriety are greatly exaggerated. And we'll leave it at that," following reports that he's cleaned up after bandmate Ron Wood's drunken travails of 2009. Richards was more keen to talk about the Stones' future, and even though he said there are "no definite plans," he added that "I wouldn't be surprised if we did some recording later this year...I don't know how the rest of them feel about roadwork at the moment. Maybe we'll search for a different way for the Stones to go back on the road. Maybe not the football stadiums anymore. Maybe something different. You can't go around there in lemon-yellow tights forever." The Stones' next release comes from the archives, however -- a May 18 remastered re-release of the 1972 classic "Exile on Main Street" in a variety of different packages, some of which include previously unreleased tracks and alternate versions of "Exile..." songs, plus a documentary film that uses footage from the infamous "C***sucker's Blues" and from the 1974 concert film "Ladies and Gentlemen...The Rolling Stones." The "Exile..." reissue ...
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3/9/2010
Elton John's lyricist Bernie Taupin has posted an update on his personal web site about the progress John and Leon Russell are making on their collaborative album, which The Insider first tipped in the fall. According to Taupin, the piano-playing duo have finished about 15 basic tracks so far and describes them as a mix of "(Rolling) Stones-like rockers, country tinged-ballads, gospel and even a (Frank) Sinatra-like weepy (song) similar to something torn from the grooves of 'In The Wee Small Hours.'...Don't expect to hear the old Elton John/Bernie Taupin sound." Taupin also writes that even though Russell underwent brain surgery in January, "his playing is masterful as ever and his contribution to the project grows more exciting with the passing of everyday." No title or release date has been set for the project, but guests will include Neil Young, Booker T. Jones, guitarist Marc Ribot and drummer Jim Keltner.
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3/5/2010
BOWIE TURNS DOWN GABRIEL SONG SWAP
Peter Gabriel has been snubbed by one of the major players in his new quid pro quo album project. Though Gabriel kicks off his new album, "Scratch My Back, with David Bowie's "Heroes," Bowie has declined to record a Gabriel song in return for the companion set "I'll Scratch Yours;" former Roxy Music member and producer Brian Eno will cover the song instead. Gabriel told the Associated Press that Bowie "is the only artist that said he clearly didn't want to play with the song swap. I don't think he's doing much music at the moment. But (producer) Brian Eno was a co-writer on the song so it gets around that problem and he's going to do a version of this song, 'Don't Break This Rhythm.' But 'Heroes' is one of those classic songs...it's one of my favorite Bowie songs and I was a Bowie fan right from the beginning." Paul Simon -- whose "Graceland" is featured on "Scratch My Back" -- has already recorded a version of Gabriel's "Biko." Gabriel's album also features songs by Randy Newman and Neil Young, among others. No release date for "I'll Scratch Yours" has been announced. Gabriel ...
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3/5/2010
Stephen Stills' past is very much his present these days. In September he released "Pieces," a collection of outtakes from his short-lived band Manassas, along with "Live at Shepherd's Bush," a CD/CVD set from his 2008 solo tour. He, Crosby and Nash are also working with producer Rick Rubin on an album of covers, and he's also been planning a more extensive box set of his own music and working on a memoir. Meanwhile, Stills promises that he's "gonna write another album," a follow-up to 2005's "Man Alive!" "I'm finally feeling some songs and some things to say," he says. "I want to work with my quartet and get it down to where there's lots of air and get pretty live performances and not all over-the-top layered parts and doubled vocals." Stills hopes to road-test some of the solo material as well before hitting the studio. Stills performs at 8 p.m. Saturday (March 6th) at the Michigan Theater, 603 E. Liberty St. Tickets are $35-$99.50. Call 734-668-8463 or visit www.michtheater.org.
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3/5/2010
Peter Wolf and Eric Burdon will lead a corps of artists stepping in for this year's mostly non-performing class of Rock and Roll Hall of fame inductees at the March 15th ceremony in New York City. With only the Stooges and Jimmy Cliff slated to play, Wolf and Burdon will join Ronnie Spector in paying tribute to the Brill Building, the Manhattan song factory that was populated by inductees Barry Mann & Cynthia Weil, Ellie Greenwich & Jeff Barry, Jesse Stone, Mort Shuman and Otis Blackwell. Graham Nash, meanwhile, will perform Hollies songs with Chris Isaak, Pat Monahan of Train and Adam Levine and Jesse Carmichael of Maroon5, while Faith Hill will sing the songs of ABBA. Jam rockers Phish, meanwhile, are slated to play Genesis material; Phish guitarist Trey Anastasio will also make the British group's induction speech. Other previously announced inductors include Steven Van Zandt for the Hollies, Billy Joe Armstrong for the Stooges, Wyclef Jean for Cliff, surviving Bee Gees Barry and Robin Gibb for induct ABBA, Carole King for the songwriters en masse and Jackson Browne for music mogul David Geffen. The ceremony will air live at 8:30 p.m. on Fuse TV.
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3/5/2010
Santana's next album is another collaborative venture, but one that will no doubt thrill the band's oldest fans. Carlos Santana tells The Insider that the group is working on a set of classic rock cover songs with guest singers. Among the tracks so far are Cream's "Sunshine of Your Love" with "Smooth" collaborator Rob Thomas, the Beatles' "While My Guitar Gently Weeps" with India.Arie and Yo-Yo Ma, Jimi Hendrix's "Little Wing" with Joe Cocker, the Rolling Stones' "Can't You Hear Me Knocking " with Stone Temple Pilots' Scott Weiland, Deep Purple's "Smoke on the Water" and Creedence Clearwater Revival's "Fortunate Son." "We're not comparing or competing with those artists -- we're complementing them," Santana says. "But when you hear this, you're gonna do 'Damn!' because it sounds so powerful, with vitality and vibrancy. Like Wayne Shorter says, it's completely new, tottally familiar." No title or release date have been set for the album. Santana -- who's also celebrating the 10th anniversary of the multi-platinum, Grammy Award-winning "Supernatural" album -- is expected to tour in North America and Europe during the late spring and summer.
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3/5/2010
EMI's Abbey Road Studios is off the sales block, but another iconic facility, Olympic Studios, isn't so lucky. The music company has peddled the British studio for $5.2 million to a private buyer. What's so special about Olympic? It was the Rolling Stones studio home from 1966-70, where the band recorded classic albums such as "Between The Buttons," "Their Satanic Majesties Request," "Beggars Banquet," "Let It Bleed" and "Sticky Fingers," as well as mixing and overdubbing the 1970 live set "Get Yer Ya-Ya's Out." Olympic was also the site of recordings by the Beatles, Led Zeppelin, the Who, Queen, the Small Faces, Blind Faith, Harry Nilsson, the Jimi Hendrix Experience, Traffic, Paul McCartney, Hawkwind, Procol Harum, Barbra Streisand, Tony Bennett, Humble Pie, Squeeze, David Bowie, Pink Floyd, Deep Purple, the Eagles, Peter Frampton, Tears For Fears, U2, and Madonna, among many others.
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3/1/2010
Things will remain black on the Sabbath front for the time being. A federal judge in Manhattan has ruled that Ozzy Osbourne can proceed with is lawsuit against guitarist Tony Iommi over ownership and use of the Black Sabbath name. Osbourne filed the suit in May, alleging that Iommi's filing of the name with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office was illegal and unilateral; the frontman is seeking 50 percent of the rights to the Sabbath trademark plus a portion of the profits Iommi has made from using it. The latter would not apply to monies earned by Heaven & Hell, the reunited version of Black Sabbath's third lineup with Iommi, bassist Geezer Butler, singer Ronnie James Dio and drummer Vinnie Appice. Iommi contends that Osbourne signed away his rights to the Sabbath name when the singer left the group in 1979, but Osbourne's attorney counters that the agreement was "repudiated" when Osbourne rejoined the band in 1997 and took over "quality control" of its operations. Osbourne contends that "morally and ethically the trademark should be owned by the four of us equally," including Butler and original drummer Bill Ward. The founding Sabbath lineup has not toured together since 2005 ...
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3/1/2010
Despite reports to the contrary, the subject of Carly Simon's 1972 hit "You're So Vain" was NOT music mogul David Geffen. Reports surfaced online over the weekend that Geffen -- who managed Jackson Browne, Laura Nyro and Crosby, Stills & Nash and started the Asylum and Geffen Records labels, as well as DreamworksSKG -- was who Simon was singing about, even though fans have long believed it was actor Warren Beatty, Mick Jagger (who sings backup on the recording), Simon's ex-husband James Taylor or Cat Stevens. Simon told Britain's Uncut magazine that the subject's identity is contained in the new acoustic version of "You're So Vain" on her latest album, "Never Been Gone:" "There's a little whisper -- and it's the answer to the puzzle." Some listeners contend that backwards masking was used for her to repeatedly sing "David" during an instrumental section of the new recording. But Simon quickly responded, saying, "What a riot! (The song has) nothing to do with David Geffen! What a funny mistake! Someone got a clue mistaken for another mistake! ...How can this guessing game stop without a lie?" Simon has told just one person who the song is about: NBC producer Dick Ebersol ...
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2/26/2010
The Rolling Stones have set a May 18th release date for the long-awaited reissue of its 1972 classic "Exile on Main Street." The set will come in three packages: a remastered version of the original 18-track album; a deluxe edition with 10 unreleased bonus tracks (which were co-produced by Detroiter Don Was); and a "super deluxe" package with all the above plus a vinyl copy of the album, a 50-page book and a 30-minute documentary, "Stones in Exile," that includes footage from the unreleased "Cocksucker Blues," the concert film "Ladies and Gentlemen...The Rolling Stones" and U.S. and British TV footage. Among the unreleased tracks are "Plundered My Soul," "Dancing In The Light," "Following The River," and "Pass The Wine, as well as alternate versions of "Soul Survivor" and "Loving Cup;" Jagger recently wrote and recorded new lyrics for "Following The River." In other Stones news, guitarist Ron Wood has put his 300-year-old home in London's Chelsea area -- where his neighbors are fellow Stones Jagger and Keith Richards -- up for sale to help defray costs from his recent divorce. He's asking more than $6 million, although he paid nearly $7.5 million when he purchased the five-bedroom property.
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