Category Archives: Music

Danny Garcia’s next gritty, punk-infused film: “Stiv: The Life and Times of Dead Boy”

He’s a dead boy, this Stiv Bators. He was one of the early American punk pioneers, and is primarily known for his work with The Dead Boys and The Lords of the New Church. Classic songs like “Sonic Reducer” and “Ain’t It Fun” continue to inspire fans and musicians from all walks of life.

While Bators made a few films (the camp classic John Waters film, Polyester; a  cameo appearance as “Dick Slammer”, the lead singer of “The Blender Children” in the offbeat comedy, Tapeheads), he is now the subject of the upcoming Stiv: The Life and Times of Dead Boy. It will be the first film ever made about the rowdy and controversial performer, and his life will be documented through archive footage, photography, music and all-new interviews with the people who knew him.

Acclaimed director Danny Garcia will helm the project, and already has numerous punk documentaries under his belt, such as The Rise and Fall Of The ClashLooking For Johnny and Sad Vacation: The Last Days Of Sid and Nancy.

Following in the same gritty underground style that has become Garcia’s hallmark, STIV: The Life and Times of a Dead Boy has a tentative release date of May 2018.

Bators died on June 4, 1990 in Paris, France. He was 40. Drugs? Nope. He 0was struck by a taxi in Paris. Though he was taken to a hospital, he left before seeing a doctor, after waiting several hours and assuming he was not injured. Reports indicate that he died in his sleep as the result of a traumatic brain injury. Bators, a fan of rock legend Jim Morrison, had earlier requested that his ashes be spread over Morrison’s Paris grave. He girlfriend Caroline complied.

In the director’s commentary of the film Polyester, John Waters stated that Bators’ girlfriend confessed to him that she snorted a portion of Stiv’s ashes to be closer to him.

Much less addictive than coke.

 

 

ACCLAIMED JOSS STONE’s “THE SOUL SESSIONS VOLUME 1” GETs VINYL REISSUE

Her real name is Joscelyn Eve Stoker, but she’s better-known as Joss Stone. She was born in Dover, Kent, England, and grew up listening to Dusty Springfield and Aretha Franklin, emulating their gritty, soulful style on her groundbreaking 2003 debut album, The Soul Sessions, Volume 1, which proved a worldwide sensation and has just been released on vinyl by UMe.

Image resultStone appeared on several U.K. TV talent shows, but was discovered by British producers Andy Dean and Ben Wolfe, who in turn convinced S-Curve Records founder U.S. label executive Steve Greenberg to audition Stone. Greenberg enlisted veteran Miami soul singer Betty Wright to work on what became The Soul Sessions album, with local musicians such as Benny Latimore, Timmy Thomas and Little Beaver as well as contemporaries Angie Stone and The Roots.

The idea behind the album was for Stone to record more obscure soul tracks by the likes of Aretha Franklin (“All the King’s Horses”), Carla Thomas (“I’ve Fallen in Love with You”), the Isley Brothers (“For the Love of You, Pts. 1 & 2”). Willy “Sugar Billy” Garner (“Super Duper Love [Are You Diggin’ On Me] Pt 1”), Laura Lee (“Dirty Man”), Bettye Swann (“Victim of a Foolish Heart”) and the Soul Brothers Six (“Some Kind of Wonderful”) as well as offbeat choices such as Waylon Jennings (Harlan Howard’s “The Chokin’ Kind”) and even Woodstock hero John Sebastian (“I Had a Dream”). The first single was Stone’s cover of the White Stripes’ “Fell in Love with a Girl,” transposed to “Fell in Love with a Boy,” and produced by the Roots’ Questlove. That single reached the Top 20 of the U.K. Singles chart, as did the follow-up her version of Sugar Billy’s “Super Duper Love.”

The Soul Sessions, Pt. 1 entered the U.K. Albums chart at No. 89, and eventually peaked at #4 in its fifth week, with the British Phonographic Society certifying it triple platinum.  It has since sold more than a million copies in the U.K.  In the U.S., The Soul Sessions peaked in the Top 40 on the Billboard 200, and within six months, was certified gold.  The album is now nearing platinum in this country. The album was also an international hit throughout Europe, where it hit the Top 5 in Austria, Germany, the Netherlands, Norway and Portugal, Top 10 in Belgium and Italy, Top 12 in Sweden and Top 15 in Switzerland as well as No. 4 on the European Top 100 albums. It was awarded a Platinum Europe Award by IFPI for sales in excess of one million across the Continent. The Soul Sessions earned platinum in both Australia and New Zealand, and as of July 2012, had sold five million worldwide.

The critics were mostly effusive, with Rolling Stone’s Jon Caramanica enthusing, “Stone shines on this impressive covers set… she chooses songs wisely.  AllMusic’s Thom Jurek said Stone “has unique phrasing and a huge voice that accents, dips and slips never overworking a song or trying to bring attention to itself via hollow acrobatics.” The A.V. Club’s Keith Phipps said, “Sessions established Stone as a formidable interpreter.” The album was shortlisted for the Mercury Prize and was nominated for a MOBO Award for Best Album.  Stone released the sequel to the album, The Soul Sessions, Volume 2 in 2012.

Gordon Matthew Thomas Sumner is celebrated with the stinging “The Complete Studio Collection”

This is a Sting we welcome this summer. A&M/Interscope Records/Deutsche Grammophon are releasing The Complete Studio Collection on June 9, a massive set that compasses the entirety of Sting’s illustrious solo studio album catalog on 180 gram heavyweight vinyl. It’s all here, from his 1985 debut album The Dream Of The Blue Turtles through to the latest 57th & 9th. Indeed, The Complete Studio Collection is the first ever complete anthology of Sting’s unparalleled solo career.cid:image001.jpg@01D2CD64.A04250D0

Following the release of the now sold-out The Studio Collection box set via A&M/Interscope Records, The Complete Studio Collection includes all of the A&M/Interscope Records catalog plus his Deutsche Grammophon discography–Songs From The Labyrinth (2006), If On A Winter’s Night… (2009) and Symphonicities (2010)–in addition to his new album 57th & 9th; bringing together all 12 solo studio albums for the first time.

For fans who purchased the original The Studio Collection box set, a separate bundle has been specially created entitled The Studio Collection: Volume II that contains the 4 newly added albums–Songs From The Labyrinth, If On A Winter’s Night…, Symphonicities and 57th & 9th–with space within the set for all of the remaining albums to create The Complete Studio Collection.

All of the included catalog LPs are presented in meticulous reproductions of their original artwork with new vinyl masters cut at the world-renowned Abbey Road Studios to ensure the highest possible audio quality throughout.

The Complete Studio Collection highlights the incredible full range of Sting’s seminal songwriting, inimitable storytelling, and awe-inspiring arrangements through a myriad of musical styles. From the jazz-infused politically-charged The Dream Of The Blue Turtles to the deft pop song-craft of …Nothing Like The Sun, the globetrotting Brand New Day to the evocative electronica of Sacred Love, through to the exploration of complex classical forms in Songs From The Labyrinth, expanding in magnitude and concept on  If On A Winter’s Night…, and further developing into the genre-melding orchestral expanse Symphonicities, before finally culminating in the triumphant return to pop/rock on 57th & 9th; The Complete Studio Collection showcases all facets of the ever-evolving and truly inspirational artistry of Sting.

Sting will also be awarded the 2017 Polar Music Prize, which celebrates the power and importance of music and is given to individuals, groups or institutions for international recognition of excellence in the world of music. The Polar Music Prize ceremony is on June 15 in Stockholm, Sweden in the presence of the Swedish Royal Family.

For the record: Rock Beat Records issues some classic, collectible vinyl

For the record, Rock Beat Records in about to unleash a handful of lost, must-have classic vinyl. May we offer a sampling?

Arthur Lee & Love: Complete Forever Changes LiveArthur Lee & Love - Complete Forever Changes Live

One of the most famous, cherished LPs of all time, performed live, in it’s entirety!
As mercurial as Arthur Lee could be, he showed no concern in playing before 65,000+ Glastonbury concert-goers who all came to see if Arthur Lee & Love could pull off Forever Changes in a festival setting. Love’s musical director was the link between the ensemble of Swedish string and horn players and this loud, kick ass, take-no-prisoners rock-and-roll outfit. Think Mozart meets Thin Lizzy. Love came to Glastonbury with the hopes of just playing well and having a good time, but they left with so much more than that.

Phil Ochs: Live In Montreal 10/22/66Phil Ochs - Live In Montreal 10/22/66

The Montreal gig was smack dab between his final Elektra album and his first release for A&M Records in November ’67. On the former he’s still the lone troubadour, armed only with a guitar that kills fascists (to paraphrase Woody Guthrie), while on the latter he utilizes ornate orchestration and piano accompaniment ranging from classical to ragtime. In many of the renditions heard on this live set, one can hear Ochs toying with the arrangements, adjusting the tempo mid-song and applying dissonance for effect. In some instances, his ideas outrun his technical capabilities.

Doc Watson: Live From Chicago, March, 1964: Vol. 1Doc Watson - Live From Chicago, March, 1964: Vol. 1

Arthel Lane “Doc” Watson was an American guitarist, songwriter, and singer of bluegrass, folk, country, blues, and gospel music. His flat-picking skills and knowledge of traditional American music were highly regarded and often performed with his son, guitarist Merle Watson, until Merle’s death in 1985, the result of a tractor accident on the family farm. His guitar playing skills, combined with his authenticity as a mountain musician, made him a highly influential figure during the folk music revival of the mid 60’s. Watson pioneered a fast and flashy bluegrass lead guitar style including fiddle tunes and cross picking techniques which were adopted by many others.

Freddy Fender: Lovin’ Tex-Mex StyleFreddy Fender - Lovin

In 1974, record producer Huey P. Meaux approached Fender about overdubbing vocals for an instrumental track. Fender agreed, performing the song bilingual style, singing the first verse in English, then repeating the verse in Spanish, something he repeated over the course of his career. That track was the No. 1 crossover hit “Before the Next Teardrop Falls”. While notable for his genre-crossing appeal, several of Fender’s hits featured verses or choruses in Spanish. Bilingual songs rarely hit the pop charts, often perceived as novelty hits, but Fender developed a track record of bi-lingual hits, expanding the rich culture of Tex-Mex music.

Big Joe Williams: Southside BluesBig Joe Williams - Southside Blues
Big Joe Williams has been a major influence throughout his long career on most of today’s blues artists and is especially known for his unique development and playing of the nine-string guitar style, something no other artist has successfully attempted. This LP was recorded by famed blues producer Norman Dayron in Chicago and presents Big Joe in an intimate setting, performing many of the traditional and original blues for which he is most widely known.

Del Shannon: The Dublin SessionsDel Shannon - The Dublin Sessions

This is the holy grail for Del fans. Shannon was a consistent hit maker in the early 1960s, beginning with a No. 1 smash in “Runaway.” Del recorded this previously unreleased album in 1977 with his UK touring band, “Smackee”, at Ireland’s Dublin Sound Studios. Del originally mixed and re-mixed the tracks at Cherokee Studios in California but was never satisfied with the results. For decades cassette tapes of these recordings have changed hands with Shannon fans worldwide.

Mississippi John Hurt: Live At Oberlin CollegeMississippi John Hurt - Live At Oberlin College

This excellent performance at Oberlin College in 1965 came at a time when Mississippi John Hurt was coming back into the blues spotlight and being discovered by a new generation of fans. Hurt’s rich, gentle voice and flowing guitar lines are showcased as he performs a mix of hymns, traditional songs and Hurt’s folk/blues staples. While not showcasing the raw emotion of his earlier work, the blues patriarch’s warmth and intimacy shine through here, especially during his exchanges with his audience. This performance offered Hurt’s fine balance of child-like and mature, his voice mellow and his skill in the technically difficult art of finger-picking never diminished.

Mighty Joe Young: Live From The North Side Of ChicagoMighty Joe Young - Live From The North Side Of Chicago

Willie Dixon said it best: “Frankly, I feel Mighty Joe Young is one of the most talented guitar players in the country. I used Joe on many sessions because of his ability to interpret the particular feeling of a song. He has a traditional sound which is he able to mix with a very modern style and he uses this combination to emphasize a mood.”

Iggy Pop’s new film brings “Starlight” to the audience

Whenever I heard the name “Iggy Pop” I smile. Broadly. Karz-Cohl published his book (I Need More!) in 1982, followed by mine (Liza! Liza!, named on of the Best Books of the Year by The New York Times). Now I learn that Cleopatra Entertainment LLC, the movie division of famed indie record label Cleopatra Records, has acquired all domestic rights to Starlight, a feature film by French film maker Sophie Blondy that has found a home on Blu-ray and VOD.

Set in the dunes near the North Sea, a small circus company is suffering from a serious lack of audience for their shows. Spectators are rare but the magic of the circus still thrives.

Each performer rehearses and performs new numbers, but this fragile balance will quickly shatter to unveil their real nature and their most obscure feelings. The circus will then become a place of romantic lust where each will use their powers to satisfy their desires.

Angele, the diaphanous ballerina, her clown lover Elliot and the circus ringmaster, full of cruelty and disturbed by fits of schizophrenia on one side. Zohra in love with Elliot, haunted by an uncanny conscience on the other side. Secrets, jealousy, envy will progressively take hold of them and trigger some irreversible acts. The life of the circus will then take a whole new turn. What does all this have to do with Mr. Pop? Iggy appears throughout the film as an “angel” type character.

Starlight was selected and screened at Tallinn-Black Nights Film Festival (Estonia, 2013); Montreal World Film Festival (Canada, 2013); Moscow-International Film Festival (Russia, 2013); Rendez-vous with New French Cinema in Rome (2013); and Rotterdam International Film Festival (Netherlands, 2013).

Glen Campbell says goodbye with ‘Adiós’, a song that brings his career full circle

Glen Campbell is saying goodbye with Adiós, the poignant title track from country legend’s farewell album. The song brings Campbell’s career full circle by reuniting him one last time with his lifelong collaborator Jimmy Webb, who penned Campbell’s stratospheric crossover hits “Wichita Lineman,” “Galveston,” and “By The Time I Get To Phoenix.” Popularized in 1989 by Linda Ronstadt, who made it a Top Ten Adult Contemporary hit, “Adiόs” is a song that Campbell always loved but never recorded.

“Glen and I used to play that song all the time,” Webb, who wrote four of the 12 tracks on the album, says. “We played it in dressing rooms, hotels, we played it over at his house, we played it at my house. He always loved that song. I heard ‘Adiós’ this morning and my wife and I both broke down and cried all over this hotel room. It’s the first time we ever heard it. This album is just kind of a gift from the gods.  This album is just kind of a gift from the gods.”

Adiós will be released June 9 on UMe and is available now for pre-order. All digital pre-orders receive an instant download of “Adiós”  along with the recently released “Everybody’s Talkin’,” Campbell’s take on the Fred Neil-penned hit made famous by Harry Nilsson in the film “Midnight Cowboy.” Pre-order @ UMe.lnk.to/AdiosPR

Campbell’s massive 1977 hit, “Southern Nights,” which was #1 on three separate charts including the Billboard Hot 100 pop chart, is featured prominently in the summer blockbuster Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 and on the official soundtrack, Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2: Awesome Mix Vol. 2.

Adiós was recorded at Station West in Nashville following Campbell’s “Goodbye Tour” which he launched after revealing he had been diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease. As Campbell’s wife of 34 years, Kim Campbell, explains in the album’s touching liner notes, “Glen’s abilities to play, sing and remember songs began to rapidly decline after his diagnosis in 2011. A feeling of urgency grew to get him into the studio once again to capture what magic was left. It was now or never.”

She concludes, “What you’re hearing when listening to Adiós is the beautiful and loving culmination of friends and family doing their very best for the man who inspired, raised, and entertained them for decades–giving him the chance to say goodbye to his fans, and put an amazing collection of songs onto the record store shelves.”

For the Adiós recording session, the Campbell’s turned to Glen’s longtime banjo player and family friend Carl Jackson to helm the production, play guitar and help his old friend. In preparation for the recording, Jackson, who joined Campbell’s band in the early ’70s as an 18-year-old banjo player, laid down some basic tracks and vocals for Campbell to study and practice. Jackson encouraged him every step of the way and although Campbell struggled at times because of his progressing dementia, he was clearly ecstatic about being in the studio.

The 12-track collection features songs that Campbell always loved but never got a chance to record, including several of Webb’s. In addition to the bittersweet title track, “Adiós,” Campbell also sings Webb’s longing love song “Just Like Always”and country weeper “It Won’t Bring Her Back.” He revisits “Postcard From Paris” with his sons Cal and Shannon and daughter Ashley singing the line, “I wish you were here,” resulting in a powerful and heartfelt message of a family singing together one last time.

Adiós sees Campbell putting his spin on several classic songs including “Don’t Think Twice It’s All Right,” inspired by Jerry Reed’s version of Bob Dylan’s timeless tune and “Everybody’s Talkin’,” a banjo-filled take on the song that Campbell never recorded but famously performed on the “Sonny & Cher Show” in 1973 with a 19-year-old Carl Jackson. Campbell’s daughter Ashley plays banjo on the song and joins her dad on several tracks on the album. Other songwriters featured include Roger Miller with “Am I All Alone (Or Is It Only Me),” which begins with a home recording of Miller singing the tune at a guitar pull before going into Campbell’s rendition with Vince Gill on harmonies, Dickey Lee’s honky tonk heartbreaker “She Thinks I Still Care” and Jerry Reed’s Johnny Cash hit “A Thing Called Love.” Willie Nelson joins his old pal for a moving duet of Nelson’s 1968 “Funny How Time Slips Away” while Jackson tells Campbell’s life story in “Arkansas Farmboy.”

“I wrote ‘Arkansas Farmboy’ sometime in the mid- to late-‘70s on a plane bound for one of the many overseas destinations I played with Glen between 1972 and 1984,” reveals Jackson. “The song was inspired by a story that Glen told me about his grandpa teaching him ‘In The Pines’ on a five-dollar Sears & Roebuck guitar when he was only a boy. That guitar led to worldwide fame and fortune, far beyond what even some in his family could comprehend.”

Adiós was a labor of love and a way for Glen Campbell to have one more chance to do what he loves to do and leave a musical gift for fans. Campbell, who turned 81 on April 22, is in the final stages of Alzheimer’s disease. He lives in Nashville where he is surrounded by his loving family and getting the very best of care.

 

UMe releases another Supreme(s) winner. Get going a Go-Go!

Label this gem truly supreme. Make that Supremes. UMe continues to reissue the old, the forgotten, the important recordings that must be heard.cid:image003.jpg@01D2A719.7D954040

Now up:  The Supremes A’ Go-Go, the group’s first-ever No. 1 album (and first by an all-female group) featured the chart-topping “You Can’t Hurry Love” and covers of fellow Motown artists’ hits; the new version includes covers of Bob Dylan and The Rolling Stones

By the time Motown released the group’s ninth studio album, on August 25, 1966, the group had already scaled the charts with hits like “Where Did Our Love Go?,” “Baby Love,” “Come See About Me,” “Stop! In the Name of Love,” “Back in My Arms Again” and “I Hear a Symphony.”

The Supremes A’ Go-Go solidified Diana Ross, Mary Wilson and Florence Ballard’s hold on the American and global marketplace, the first of their albums to go to No. #1 on the Billboard 200, marking the first LP by an all-female group to do so, spawning two Top 10 hits in the No. 1 “You Can’t Hurry Love” and the No. 9 “Love Is Like an Itching in My Heart.”  The album also featured the trio tackling an array of hit cover material, mostly from their Motown stablemates the Four Tops, the Temptations, Martha & the Vandellas, Barrett Strong and the Isley Brothers, but also contemporary hitmakers Nancy Sinatra (Lee Hazlewood’s “These Boots are Made for Walkin’”) and the McCoys (Bert Berns and Wes Farrell’s Brill Building chestnut “Hang on Sloopy”).

UMe will now reissue the classic album in a deluxe, expanded two-CD edition, featuring the original 12 tracks, featuring both the stereo album, along with rare mono album mixes, alternative vocal versions and mixes, as well as a duet of “Shake Me Wake Me (When It’s Over)” with the Four Tops. There are also rarely heard album outtakes, such as covers of fellow ‘60s stalwarts Bob Dylan’s “Blowin’ in the Wind” and the Rolling Stones’ “(I Can’t Get No) Satsifaction.”

The Supremes A’ Go-Go remained on the Billboard chart for 60 weeks, going on to sell 3.5 million around the world, including one million in the U.S., knocking off The Beatles’ Revolver from the top spot for the honors. It also went to #15 in the U.K. album charts, with “You Can’t Hurry Love” peaking at #3 on the U.K. singles chart.

The production represented the peak of the fabled Motown team, headed by producers Brian Holland and Lamont Dozier, the Funk Brothers and even the Detroit Symphony Orchestra on hand.Image result for vintage supremes

This expanded edition will also contain two 24-page booklets. The first chronicles the album’s production and success, as well as a timeline, and both rare and never-before-seen photos. The second booklet is a recreation of the Supremes 1966 tour book.

Said All Music’s Bruce Eder about the album, referring to its winning formula of having The Supremes cover Motown’s greatest hits: “In fact, back in the days when vinyl was the only game in town, used copies of this record sold faster and better than any of their other common ’60s LPs, and for good reason.”

Glen Campbell and pals say “Adios” to his recording career

His career ends on a bittersweet note. Legendary singer and guitarist Glen Campbell’s final studio album, Adiós, will be released June 9 on UMe, capping off an extraordinary career that has spanned more than five decades and 50 million albums sold. The album will be released on CD, vinyl and digitally and is available for pre-order. Pre-order Adiós here: UMe.lnk.to/AdiosPR

Adiós was recorded at Station West in Nashville following Campbell’s “Goodbye Tour” which he launched after revealing he had been diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease. The album was announced with an exclusive statement from Kim Campbell, Glen’s wife of 34 years. In her touching notes, Kim reveals the genesis of the album, details the recording process and explains why Adiós is finally being released.Image result for glen campbell

She says: “A new Glen Campbell album coming out in 2017 might seem a bit odd since he hasn’t performed since 2012, and even more odd–if not absolutely amazing–when you consider that he has Alzheimer’s disease. Glen’s abilities to play, sing and remember songs began to rapidly decline after his diagnosis in 2011. A feeling of urgency grew to get him into the studio one last time to capture what magic was left. It was now or never. What you’re hearing when listening to Adiós is the beautiful and loving culmination of friends and family doing their very best for the man who inspired, raised and entertained them for decades–giving him the chance to say one last goodbye to his fans, and put one last amazing collection of songs onto the record store shelves.”

Image result for glen campbell wife
Kim and Glen on their wedding day, October 25, 1982

For Campbell’s final recording session, Glen and Kim turned to Glen’s longtime banjo player and family friend Carl Jackson to helm the production, play guitar and help his old friend. In preparation for the recording, Jackson, who joined Campbell’s band in the early ’70s as an 18-year-old banjo player, laid down some basic tracks and vocals for Campbell to study and practice. Jackson encouraged him every step of the way and although Campbell struggled at times because of his progressing dementia, he was clearly ecstatic about being in the studio.

The 12-track collection features songs that Campbell always loved but never got a chance to record, including several from Jimmy Webb, his longtime collaborator behind some of his biggest hits like “Wichita Lineman” “By The Time I Get To Phoenix” and “Galveston.” In addition to the bittersweet title track, “Adiós,” first popularized by Linda Ronstadt, Campbell also sings Webb’s longing love song “Just Like Always” and country weeper “It Won’t Bring Her Back.” He revisits“Postcard From Paris” with his sons Cal and Shannon and daughter Ashley singing the line, “I wish you were here,” resulting in a powerful and heartfelt message of a family singing together one last time.

Adiós sees Campbell putting his spin on several classic songs including “Don’t Think Twice It’s All Right,” inspired by Jerry Reed’s Jversion of Bob Dylan’s timeless tune and “Everybody’s Talkin’, a banjo-filled take on the song that Campbell never recorded but famously performed on the “The Sonny & Cher Show” in 1973 with a 19-year-old Carl Jackson. Campbell’s daughter Ashley plays banjo on the song and joins her dad on several tracks on the album. Other songwriters featured include Roger Miller with “Am I All Alone (Or Is It Only Me),” which begins with a home recording of Miller singing the tune at a guitar pull before going into Campbell’s rendition with Vince Gill on harmonies, Dickey Lee’s honkytonk heartbreaker “She Thinks I Still Care” and Jerry Reed’s Johnny Cash hit “A Thing Called Love.” Willie Nelson joins his old pal for a poignant duet of Nelson’s 1968 “Funny How Time Slips Away” while Jackson tells Campbell’s life story in “Arkansas Farmboy.”

“I wrote ‘Arkansas Farmboy’ sometime in the mid- to late-’70s on a plane bound for one of the many overseas destinations I played with Glen between 1972 and 1984,” reveals Jackson. “The song was inspired by a story that Glen told me about his grandpa teaching him ‘In The Pines’ on a five-dollar Sears & Roebuck guitar when he was only a boy. That guitar led to worldwide fame and fortune, far beyond what even some in his family could comprehend.”

Adiós was a labor of love and a way for Glen Campbell to have one more chance to do what he loves to do and leave a musical gift for fans. Campbell, who turns 81 on April 22, is in the final stages of Alzheimer’s disease. He lives in Nashville where he is surrounded by his loving family and getting the very best of care.

 

Another rare recording surfaces: “diana-the original CHIC mix” will tickle fans pink

This rare one is well-done. Sought after by collectors and considered the rarest of Motown’s rare grooves, Diana Ross’ diana-the original CHIC mix, has made its long-awaited debut on vinyl on Motown/UMe/UMGI with a twist: It’s a double-LP set on pink vinyl at 45 rpm for maximum fidelity. This edition of diana includes alternate-mix versions of such classics as “Upside Down” and “I’m Coming Out,” as envisioned by Chic’s Rock and Roll Hall Of Fame member Nile Rodgers and the late Bernard Edwards.

Following 1979’s collaboration with Ashford & Simpson, which produced her hit “The Boss,”  Ross sought a new sound and hired the hot Chic team of Rodgers and Edwards to compose, play on and produce her next release. But she and Motown were dissatisfied with the too-Chic-like results, a feeling supported by influential disc jockey Frankie Crocker, who warned Ross the record might fall prey to the disco backlash at the time.

Ross turned to Motown’s house engineer, Russ Terrana, the man behind her Supremes and solo hits and much more, and he proceeded to remix the entire album, using alternate vocals or placing her vocals more upfront, creating overall a smoother, “commercial” mix. cid:image001.jpg@01D2BA85.EC193F60

“Our concept was to make it more avant-garde,” Nile Rodgers later told writer Brian Chin, “and their concept was to make it a little bit more accessible.” The revised diana, her tenth studio album, was released–with a striking, now iconic cover image–on May 22, 1980. 

Rodgers and Edwards were not informed and, protesting publicly, wished to take their names off the record. But they cooled off and saw “Upside Down”–Ross’ own description to Rodgers and Edwards as to what she wanted to do to her career–emerge a #1 smash hit.

Subsequent singles included “I’m Coming Out,” which went to No. 5 in the U.S. and became a LGBTQ anthem, while “My Old Piano,” was a Top 5 hit in the U.K. The album peaked at No. 2 on the Billboard 200, selling nine million albums worldwide. Soon after Ross moved on to RCA Records in a then-record $20 million deal before returning to Motown in 1989.

Fans now get to hear for the first time on vinyl those original Chic mixes of diana, one of four albums the duo of Rodgers and Edwards produced that year, including Sister Sledge’s Love Somebody Today, Sheila and B. Devotion’s King of the World and their own studio album, Real People. Available on two pink vinyl 45 rpm discs, diana–the original CHIC mix, incorporates tracks first heard on diana: deluxe edition, originally issued July 29, 2003.

“Dig If You Will the Picture: Funk, Sex, God and Genius in the Music of Prince” is a “cornflake and ham hock” winner

Ben Greeman’s book on Prince is a hot thing. Dig If You Will the Picture: Funk, Sex, God and Genius in the Music of Prince (Henry Holt and Co., $28) is a farewell to the mercurial funk-rock star. It’s also a love letter, a critical study, a personal essay. Yet readers will undoubtedly find it as compelling for what it is not as for what it is.

Dig If You Will the Picture is not is a traditional biography or a conventional critical consideration. It is not filled with gossip and “gotcha” moments. It is not simply a survey of Prince’s greatest hits. Rather, it’s a singular attempt to investigate the whole of Prince’s work and thought, to isolate the meaningful moments in his music, to think about the ways in which he provided the soundtrack for a generation, to define what genius means in pop music.

Greenman brings his encyclopedic knowledge of Prince and his music to the man and the time in which he lived—moving from his own suburban upbringing in Miami to Prince’s history in Minneapolis, from brash early albums like Dirty Mind through breakout classics like Purple Rain to mature complex works like Art Official Age.

In these pages, Prince is considered as a musician, certainly, but also as a gender theorist, an activist, and an independent businessman. Greenman illuminates the hidden corners of Prince’s vast discography: Do you know the mid-’90s manifesto “Style”? Do you know the mid-’80s B side “Shockadelica”? Do you know the outtake “2020”?

You should.

And you will.

As George Clinton raves: “When it comes to funk and words, lyrics and language, there couldn’t be a better pairing than Ben Greenman and Prince. From my experience with both of them, this is the perfect match, like ham hocks and cornflakes.”

Dig If You Will the Picture answers countless questions about one of our most mysterious and misunderstood pop icons, including:

  • What were Prince’s thematic preoccupations?
  • How did he change pop music forever?
  • How did he make so much fantastic work?
  • Did he really do it all himself?
  • Why did he go to war with his record label?
  • What did he think about sex, God, and the difference between them?
  • What were his politics?
  • How big was his Afro when he was young?
  • And what was with that symbol, anyway?

Dig If You Will the Picture meets Prince at his own level, as a pop-culture provocateur, a brilliant manufacturer of meaning, a complex and philosophical man, brooding introvert, singular talent—and a hell of a good time.