Me too.

 Let’s do something about it.

 How about a 2 part Legends of Classic Rock series called ‘Going Deep on Dire Straits’, starting the weekend of March 24^. 2012.   (additional series episodes noted on schedule below)

 And now this – The Straits, comprised of former Dire Straits members Alan Clark (keyboards) and Chris White (sax, vocals), plus the great Steve Ferrone (Tom Petty’s drummer), Terence Reis (lead vocals, guitar), Mike Feat (bass), Adam Phillips (guitar) and Jamie Squire (keyboards, vocals), will be heading out on an 18-date European tour during March 2012.

Dubbed The Sound of Dire Straits, The Straits kick off the European tour at Belfast’s Ulster Hall on 5th March, with concerts in Sweden, Denmark, Germany, Czech Republic, Austria, Switzerland, Portugal, Spain, and The Netherlands, wrapping up with two UK dates at London’s indigO2 on 29th March and Guernsey’s Sir John Loveridge Hall on 1st April.  (all the booked dates below)

The Straits will perform songs from the classic albums Dire Straits (1978), Communiqué (1979), Making Movies (1980), Love Over Gold (1982), Brothers In Arms (1985) and On Every Street (1991).  Fans can expect to hear “all the classics”.

 Belfast – Ulster Hall (March 5)

Zurich – X-Tra (March 18)

Dublin – Olympia Theatre (March 6)

Porto, Portugal – Hard Club (March 21)

Gothenburg – Brewhouse (March 9)

Lisbon – Aula Magna (March 22)

Copenhagen – Amager Bio (March 10)

Bilbao, Spain – Sala Santana 27 (March 24)

Aarhus, Denmark – Train (March 11)

Gijon, Spain – Teatro Jovellanos (March 25)

Stuttgart – LKA (March 13)

Paris, France – La Cigalen – March 27)

Prague – KC Vltavska (March 14)

Tilburg, Holland – O13 (March 28)

Vienna – Gasometer (March 16)

London, UK – Indig02 (March 29)

Munich – Muffathalle (March 17)

Beau Sejour, Guernsey – Sir John Loveridge Hall (April 1)

Now, the Legends schedule through March 2012:

Weekend  Feb 25/26  Legends 366 Legends Under the Influence of Jimi Hendrix

Weekend Mar 3/4    Legends 367 Immersion Part 3 – Pink Floyd The Wall  

Weekend  Mar 10/11   Legends 368 The Ancient Art of Weaving – Rock’s Greatest Guitar Teams (Aerosmith, Stones, Allman Brothers, Skynyrd, Thin Lizzy, etc)

Weekend March 17/18  Legends 369 Songs of Hope and Freedom (Biko, Give Peace A Chance, Imagine, Redemption Song, etc)

Weekend March 24/25  Legends 370  Going Deep with Dire Straits

Weekend March 31/Apr 1  Legends 371 Going Deep with Dire Straits Part 2

“Motel Money Murder Madness … “, the words of Jim Morrison in the title song to the the final classic album he crafted with the Doors at the break of the 1970′s.   

L.A. Woman found Jimbo and the band getting back to basics, recording the way they had early on – at a high level of spontanaiety and energy, all together, rapidly capturing the spirit of a new chapter of The Doors.  In the end, they would craft 10 songs that would signal the band’s ability to capture the attention of fans, 6 albums deep.

Love Her Madly, Riders on the Storm and the the title song to L.A. Woman, today remain among the most celebrated Doors songs on the radio.

Now, you get to hear more moments from the sessions, and some of the conversation caputured along the way …

On Sunday February 19th, hear what it was like in the studio, how in the presence of the possibility that he could be facing time behind bars, Jim Morrison performed under pressure.   Doors guitarist Robby Krieger joins me for a unique look behind the scenes as The Legends of Classic Rock celebrates 40+ Years of L.A. Woman. 

 Here’s just a bit of the conversation with Robby, as he reveals specifically where Jim, did some of his best work, under the guidance of Doors producer Bruce Botnick.

Robby Krieger talks L.A. Woman by CorusRadio  

You will hear lots more of the interview with Robby Krieger, on the radio special, complete with music from L.A. Woman, and then come back here, on Monday February 20th, where you’ll find the entire interview with Robby.

As an exclusive deal for for Legends of Classic listeners, go to  http://thedoors.rhinorecords.ca and purchase The Doors – L.A.Woman (40th Anniversary)  CANADIAN DIGITAL EXCLUSIVE  with * Two Bonus Tracks.

Enter the Coupon Code: LOCR40 on check out and receive 2 dollars off.

 The only way to get these 2 bonus digital tracks here in Canada is through the site.

That in mind, I stumbled (as 13 million or so other people appear to have done) onto this video, featuring 4 of the most creative and musically minded road trippers around.

OK Go is a band originally from Chicago, Illinois, USA, now residing in Los Angeles, who have not only won a Grammy  for “Best Short-Form Music Video” in 2007 (the song ‘Here it Goes Again’), they’ve come out with 3 albums so far, including the Jan 2010 release Of the Blue Colour of the Sky, that features the song below.

Enjoy!

Jeff.

Plus, I’ll assemble an hour featuring music and conversation with members of Pink Floyd, on your radio on the Legends series, March 4th.

Cheers,

Jeff.

This February 28^th, EMI will release ‘Immersion’ and ‘Experience’ editions of Pink Floyd ‘The Wall’, as the final installment of the ‘Why Pink Floyd?’ re- issues and extended releases.

For the record, ‘The Wall’ remains Pink Floyd’s biggest-selling release after 1973’s legendary ‘The Dark Side Of The Moon’. 

Out in November ’79, ‘The Wall’ topped the album charts in North America, France, Germany, Sweden and Australia. ‘Another Brick In The Wall, Part 2’ – Pink Floyd’s first UK single since 1968 – became a Number 1 hit, selling over a million copies within weeks of its release. Between 1980 and 1981, Pink Floyd staged 31 performances of The Wall in the North America, UK and Germany.  It was a spectacular show that included a 40-ft wall, constructed, brick by brick, across the front of the stage during the performance. 

In 2010 and 2011 Roger Waters toured a new production of The Wall to huge International acclaim.  He was joined on stage in May 2011 at London’s 02 Arena by guitarist, David Gilmour and drummer, Nick Mason.  He continues to tour in the Southern Hemisphere and North America in 2012.

‘The Wall’ ‘Immersion’ 7-disc edition includes a DVD featuring a film clip from the 1980 tour and a ‘Behind The Wall’ documentary, plus, for the first time, CDs of excerpts from Roger Waters’ original demos and work-in-progress versions of songs on the final album.

Additionally, among these previously unheard versions are David Gilmour’s original demos of ‘Comfortably Numb’ and ‘Run Like Hell’.  The Immersion set also includes The Wall Live, compiled from the 1980-1981 original tour.

Both The Wall Immersion box set and Experience edition includes a rare recording of ‘Another Brick In The Wall Part 1′.  A highlight for fans, this demo showcases the evolution of the final track. Additionally, ‘The Doctor’ explores the origins of the landmark track ‘Comfortably Numb’, giving further insight into Pink Floyd’s early demo recordings.

Following on from the ‘Immersion’ and ‘Experience’ editions of ‘The Dark Side Of The Moon’ and ‘Wish You Were Here’, these new versions of ‘The Wall’ offera unique insight into another hugely successful chapter in the Pink Floyd story.

In 1978 after finishing Pink Floyd’sAnimals stadium tour, Roger Waters devised the concept for the album ‘The Wall’. The album is a partly autobiographical story about a fictional rock star named Pink looking back at his early life and reflecting on the nature of fame and success. Waters presented his band mates David Gilmour, Richard Wright and Nick Mason with an extensive demo of songs. Pink Floyd recorded their eleventh album ‘The Wall’ throughout 1979 in France, New York and Los Angeles, assisted by co-producer, Bob Ezrin and engineer, James Guthrie.  An adjunct to the sessions was the famous addition of a group of pupils from London’s Islington Green School, who recorded their backing vocals (“We don’t need no education…”) on Another Brick In The Wall, Part 2 at Pink Floyd’s own Britannia Row Studios in London. This became the world’s introduction to the album.

Pink Floyd: The Wall Immersion Box Set, Experience edition and Collectors 180g 2LP Vinyl edition are released in North America on February 28, 2012 through EMI. The 2CD remastered Discovery edition is out now.

Enjoy your weekend!

Jeff.

I like to see you boogie
Right across the floor
I like to do it to you
Till you holla for more ….

Elton John was asked on Good Morning America today what advice he had for Madonna as she prepares for one of the biggest events in sports, to which he responded, “Lip-synch good” at your Super Bowl performance.

The game, and the lip-synching, both go down this Sunday.

Elton had previously accused Madonna of not singing live at her concerts after she won an award for Best Live Act at the GQ Awards in 2004.

Elton says none of the performances at the football event have been memorable.

“I’ve never seen a decent one,” Elton said of the half-time show. “Never ever.”

Not that he would even want to sing at the Super Bowl, he says he does feel for the artists who do step up to the plate to do it.

“You have to play live, but I don’t think you can,” he said. “In all fairness to everyone who’s done one before, you may be able to sing live, but it’s really hard to play live.”

The good news for Madonna and those watching – she will feature a sure-fire distraction -  acrobats from Cirque du Soleil, on stage with her.

Go Patriots Go.

Now, can I share a favourite Elton tune with you? 

Cheers,

Jeff.

There were a couple people on facebook, when I posted that story, who had the nerve to suggest Iommi was announcing his illness as some kind of ploy to sell concert tickets.   To them I say you’re disgusting.   As it turns out, Sabbath were apparently to have played the 2012 Coachella festival, and had to pull out.     

So you’re caught up on that.  By the way, if somehow you missed it – Iommi wrote an autobiography that came out late in 2011 that’s a must for Sabbath fans.

Now …. Sabbath drummer Bill Ward has issued a lengthy statement indicating that he will not participate in any Black Sabbath reunion, unless he is presented with “signable contract” that “reflects some dignity and respect” towards him, as an original member of the band.

This is not the first time that Ward has tussled publicly on the issue.

In 2004, Sharon Osbourne announced that Faith No More’s Mike Bordin would be filling in for Ward on the Ozzfest tour. “Last week I did receive a proposal which allowed no room for negotiation,” Ward said at the time. “It was a cul-de-sac proposal, in my opinion, where the only answer was yes or no.” The two parties eventually came to an agreement before the tour, and Ward did participate.

Ward was also rumoured to be part of the Ronnie James Dio-era Black Sabbath reunion (billed as Heaven and Hell) in 2006, but is said to have backed out for unknown reasons.

For the most recent correspondence, from Sabbath drummer and founder Bill Ward go directly to his website by clicking here.

One of which, said to be titled “Horse Back” was apparently just recorded 6 days into 2012, and Neil has unveiled a 37 minute jam, sounding like Crazy meets The Doors ‘The End’, now streaming on his website.

Now, credit to Ethan Smith in the Speakeasy blog from the Wall Street Journal, for his piece on Neil Young coming to the defense of  record companies and piracy, and his views on how to distribute music in the digital age.

Young actually table his opinions in an onstage interview at The Wall Street Journal’s D: Dive Into Media conference.

His case, not surprisingly, centered on the sound quality of today’s digital music files (Neil offered up his views on the relative low quality of digital music long before mp3’s were on the table, talking at length about the fatiguing effects of listening to CD’s versus albums.

The sound quality of CDs, he said, is little better than downloads, arguing that vinyl records offered the richest playback experience. “This is the 21st century,” he said. “We have five percent of what we had in 1978.”

 “What everybody gets is five percent of what we originally make in the studio,” said Neil, referring to the way audio signals are compressed when they’re sold by online stores like Apple Inc.’s iTunes and when they’re ripped from CD onto consumers’ hard drives.

“We can’t control the back-end of the donkey,” he said, adding  that those who sell digital music have an obligation to give the consumer the option of buying music in a high-quality audio format, suggesting that for the creation of a high-resolution audio format, which he said would require 30 minutes per song to download; music playback devices built around his proposed format would be able to store about 30 albums’ worth of music.

He went on to propose that fans stage a grassroots movement to demand such a high-quality audio format. “Occupy audio!” he proclaimed.

Then, Neil changed gears and supported the record companies by saying, “What I like about record companies is that they nurture an artist”.    On the other side of the coin, he acknowledged the same companies’ slowness to the table in response to the digital age, by saying “The fact that the record companies have made some unbelievably bad business choices, that’s because they’re music people, they’re record people. They’re living in another world from Silicon Valley. Come on!”

He then proposed a world in which consumers use piracy or free services like Spotify to sample music, then buy high-quality files of music they value enough to own, going on to say he and Steve Jobs had discussed such a possibility, but that since the Apple visionary’s death last year, “not much” had happened with the talks.

You can get to ‘Speakeasy’  blog from the Arts and Entertainment section of the Wall Street Journal, click here.

The best press that’s come since the news of the long awaited album?   Fittingly, one in the L.A. times this week, who sat down with Dave one sunny morning in the land of VH, the city in which they formed in the 1970’s – and continue to reside – Pasadena California.    The paper paid Roth a visit at his home to chat about the state of Halen.

In true DLR fashion, Dave takes the Times back through the life and times of the band who got their start, with the support of Gene Simmons, who discovered them grinding it out in the So Cal bars, and was decidedly impressed enough to help them get a demo together, which would eventually get them a record deal that officially launched their career in 1978.

It was just a matter of weeks ago, on the 5^th of January that Van Halen trekked east, to New York, to stretch their road legs again playing an intimate ‘secret’ show at the legendary Café Wha?.
The set included a song called “She’s the Woman” from the new album, which in a full circle moment,  was among the tunes demo’d and produced by Gene Simmons, that got them that original deal!

As for the rest of the record – what’s old is new again, with Van Halen having raided the tomb of yester-year, pulling out bits and pieces of words and music from the past to cobble together this new 13 song album.

For more revelations from Roth, and a great photo of he and his dog Russell, click through to the great piece in the L.A. Times, and get set for February 7^th, when we’ll get to hear the new Halen album beyond the first throw-away single ‘Tattoo”.

Only in his mid-40’s, MacNaughtan died suddenly without warning in Los Angeles on Wednesday, suffering a heart attack while in the midst of shooting his longtime friends from RUSH.

Geddy Lee, Alex Lifeson and Neil Peart of RUSH, have issued a joint statement in MacNaughtan’s honour via their Facebook page: “We’re deeply shocked and heartbroken to learn of the sudden passing of our close friend and longtime photographer, Andrew MacNaughtan. He was a sweet person and a very talented artist. Words cannot describe how much he will be missed.”  (and Neil has posted a wonderful piece, about Andrew you can read by clicking through to NeilPeart.net)

MacNaughtan was known for his particularly keen eye and creative art direction, seen in more than 70 music videos and the art for over 150 album releases.   In fact he’d been the principal photographer for RUSH since 1989, capturing images on all their tours, promotional materials and album art.   A three-time Juno winner for album design, he collected a fourth award for Music DVD of the Year for Rush in Rio.   Another must-see for RUSH fans, is the Andrew MacNaughtan directed film, The Boys in Brazil (see part 1, below).

Andrew’s clientele extended to TV productions including So You Think You Can Dance Canada and Top Chef Canada and he co-directed the stunning new opening for Fashion Television.

Just a few years ago, MacNaughtan decided to make a difference in the world.  

He’d gotten the idea for Art Gives Hope, the charity he founded in 2006,  while shooting the Live 8 concert the year before.   He’d been doing a backstage shoot and pondered his extensive archive of photos of great Canadian musicians and thought that the pictures could do some good.

That first Art Gives Hope exhibit and sale of signed-by-the-subject prints went on to raise $55,000 for World Vision.

MacNaughtan also traveled to Kenya and Tanzania, Africa with the purpose of capturing the spirit and beauty of the landscapes, wildlife and people to raise funds for the prevention, care and advocacy of children in HIV/AIDS-affected regions.  So came the captivating book ‘Grace: Africa in Photographs’.  Proceeds from the book have gone to  Art Gives Hope.

To see images from MacNaughtan’s book, click through to artgiveshope.ca