Recently, some musicians have been attacking the internet for, let me get this quote exact, “ruining Rock music”.

John Mellencamp, Stevie Nicks, Joni Mitchell and Neil Young have all recently attacked the internet and its impact on the music business. Just last week, John Mellencamp, while promoting his latest release, told Reuters “I think the Internet is the most dangerous thing invented since the atomic bomb. It’s destroyed the music business.”

And a few days later, Stevie Nicks told The New York Daily News that “The Internet has destroyed rock.”

But Mellencamp went on: “Rock will be all but forgotten for our children’s children: after a few generations, it’s gone. Rock ‘n’ roll — as important as we think it is, and as big as it was, and as much money as people made on it, and as proud as I am to say that I was part of it — at the end of the day, they’re gonna say: ‘Yeah, there was this band called the Beatles, and the Rolling Stones, and this guy named Bob Dylan.”

Mellencamp has gone so far as to use what some think are “primitive” recording technology for his latest album “No Better Than This”. Besides recording the album in mono, he also use old tube-amplifiers, reel-to-reel tape recorders and only one old ribbon R.C.A. microphone to sing into. You can hear him claim his new album sounds like it was recorded in 1945, by clicking on the link below.

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Is “A Day In The Life” the Greatest Beatle Song of All Time? 

It is according to a special edition of Rolling Stone magazine devoted to the greatest Beatles Songs. The issue includes one of those Top10 Lists that we like so much, and the #1 Beatles Song of All Time is “A Day In The Life”. The new special Collectors Edition also features an introduction by longtime Beatles disciple and Paul McCartney collaborator, Elvis Costello.

Costello says Lennon, McCartney, and Harrison had high standards as writers. He went on to add “they started to really grow up: simple love lyrics to adult stories like ‘Norwegian Wood,’ which spoke of the sour side of love, and on to bigger ideas than you would expect to find in catchy pop lyrics.” Here is the list of the Greatest Beatles Songs of All Time:

1. “A Day In The Life” (1967)
2. “I Want to Hold Your Hand” (1963)
3. “Strawberry Fields Forever” (1967)
4. “Yesterday” (1965)
5. “In My Life” (1965)
6. “Something” (1969)
7. “Hey Jude” (1968)
8. “Let It Be” (1970)
9. “Come Together” (1969)
10. “While My Guitar Gently Weeps” (1968)

Paul McCartney recently talked about co-writing “A Day In The Life” with John Lennon. You can hear what he had to say by clicking the link below:

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Two of England’s finest sons have new records coming out in September== Eric Clapton and Robert Plant.  Both men cast tall shadows in the world of music.  Clapton’s 19th studio album-CLAPTON will include help from Steve Winwood, Allen Toussaint, Derek Trucks, JJ Cale, and many others.    Robert  Plant’s BAND OF JOY is a title that looks back to his pre-Zeppelin band with John Bonham….                                              

It was all happening this week 41 years ago: 3 Days of Peace and Music with the Woodstock Music and Arts Festival in Bethel, New York.

What started with a smaller concert featuring local big-name musicians (such as Bob Dylan and The Band who live nearby), the promoters had a tough time getting any rock stars to sign a contract, until one of the first to agree, Creedence Clearwater Revival, signed to play for $10,000. When other acts started to agree to play at the event, the promoters got excited when they thought they might sell about 50,000 or 100,000 tickets, and make a profit after all.

Of course, by the time over a half million people showed up, the organizers had to give up and make it a free concert. Although Woodstock was neither the first nor last major festival concert, the fact that the youth of America were able to be in one place with no violence during one of the most turbulent years of the decade, gave birth to the notion of the “Woodstock Nation” and gave a voice — and a face — to the hippie ideal.

Artists who performed at the legendary festival included Joan Baez, Country Joe McDonald & the Fish, Arlo Guthrie, Richie Havens, Mountain, Janis Joplin, the Who, the Band, Canned Heat, Creedence Clearwater Revival, the Grateful Dead, Sly & the Family Stone, Jefferson Airplane, Santana, Blood, Sweat & Tears, Sha Na Na, John Sebastian, Crosby, Stills, Nash, and Young, Joe Cocker, and many, many more. The Band, by the way, turned down the chance to appear at the festival.

Pete Townshend says that the finale to the Who’s set wasn’t as organic an experience as the rest of the Woodstock Festival seemed to be. And he still regards the Who’s 1969 Woodstock performance as a watershed event in the Who’s live career. You can hear what he had to say about his appearance at the festival by clicking on the button below:

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You might want to be aware of some upcoming new album releases from some elder rock musicians. The big news is the new Eric Clapton release “Clapton” on September 28th.

This is Clapton’s first studio set since his 2006 joint collection with J.J. Cale, called “The Road to Escondido”. The album includes both newly written material, as well as cover versions of existing songs. Some of the songs will sound familiar to Clapton fans, because he has recently performed some of the new songs live in concert.

The tracklisting to new album is: “Travelin’ Alone,” “Rocking Chair,” “River Runs Deep,” “Judgment Day,” “How Deep Is The Ocean,” “My Very Good Friend The Milkman,” “Can’t Hold Out Much Longer,” “That’s No Way To Get Along,” “Everything Will Be Alright,” “Diamonds Made From Rain,” “When Somebody Thinks You’re Wonderful,” “Hard Times Blues,” “Run Back To Your Side,” and “Autumn Leaves.”

In talking to us about the new album, he said he has long ago made peace with being referred to as a “guitar god”. But he still thinks he does not deserve such praise. You can hear what Clapton had to say by clicking on the link below.

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Another new album is due next week from John Mellencamp: “No Better Than This”. This new release comes out Tuesday (August 17th) on Rounder Records, and most of the songs were written and recorded last year when he was on tour with Bob Dylan and Willie Nelson. The songs were recorded on the road in different studio locations, including the title track in an old church in Memphis, using vintage recording equipment with tube technology from the 1920’s.

It’s easy to be cynical about many things in “Pop Culture”.  Music lovers who seek substance have to shield themselves from what Bob Dylan called the “Idiot Wind”.   Fortunately, there still are musicians out there who realise it is not just about “Them”. 

R.E.M., Dave Matthews, Jack Johnson, Neil Finn, Pearl Jam, John Mellencamp, John Butler, David Gray, Neil Young, and many others quietly support worthy causes and continue to craft music that thinking people can connect with.  In the closing track from Crowded House’s new album INTRIGUER, Neil Finn calmly states “Make Waves, Find Bliss…”

The recent trend of remastering and re-releasing classic rock albums continues. The success of the recent Beatles Catalogue and the Deluxe Edition of the Rolling Stones “Exile On Main Street” has prompted Bob Dylan to begin going through his early releases. He is currently listening to master tapes so he can re-release authentic mono mixes of his first eight albums in a proposed box set.

The albums will include Bob Dylan (1962); The Freewheeling’ Bob Dylan (1963); The Times They Are A-Changin’ (1964); Another Side Of Bob Dylan (1964); Bringing It All Back Home (1965); Highway 61 Revisited (1965); Blonde On Blonde (1966), and John Wesley Harding (1968). No release date for the mono box has been announced.

In the meantime, Dylan will release the ninth installment of his critically acclaimed Bootleg Series in October, according to the Dylan magazine “Isis”. As opposed to the past few editions, Bootleg Series Nine will not feature live-in-concert tracks or studio outtakes, but Dylan’s legendary publishing demos recorded between 1962 and 1964, featuring many songs which never made their way into the official Dylan catalogue: as well as early demos of future classics, such as “Mr. Tambourine Man,” “When The Ship Comes In,” “The Times They Are A-Changin’,” “Don’t Think Twice, It’s All Right,” and “Masters Of War,” among others.

Peter Yarrow of Peter, Paul & Mary, who shared a manager with Dylan and was responsible for giving Dylan his first #1 song with his group’s version of the song “Blowing In The Wind”, says that it was incredible to witness Dylan compose some of the greatest songs of the ’60s. You can hear his comment by clicking on the icon below:

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You may have not heard this yet, but this weekend John Fogerty will be the first musician ever to be honored at the Baseball Hall of Fame for writing a song, and he will even be on hand to perform said song ”Centerfield” at the induction ceremony July 25th in Cooperstown, New York.

Fogerty’s special baseball-shaped guitar is being restored after the recent Nashville flood, and will be exhibited at the Hall of Fame. The guitar, nicknamed “Slugger,” looks like a baseball bat split down the middle, and has long been his favorite guitar when he performs the song in concert.

And never one to miss an opportunity, the album of the same name “Centerfield” is about to be re-released and remastered in a special 25th Anniversary Edition, with a couple of bonus tracks: both single B-sides were covers of the Rockin’ Sydney’s 1984 hit “My Toot Toot” and the ’50s R&B/doo-wop classic “I Confess.” You may recall that Fogerty did all the instruments and production on the album, and it was considered his “comeback” album. It hit number one at the time (1985), making it his most successful post-Creedence Clearwater Revival release.

It took him almost a decade to release it, and he claims that is because he wanted to become good enough on each instrument before recording it. You can click on the button below to hear Fogerty talk about his musicianship on the album “Centerfield”.

 John_Fogerty_On_Instrumentation_On_Centerfield

Local musicians are encouraged to submit an original song & video on the Lake’s website.  You’ll have a chance to be included on the next Lake Local CD #5.  Pass the word to your musician friends in WNY….

Despite years (read decades) of denials and bad feelings, it looks like the unthinkable happened: a Pink Floyd Reunion.

Roger Waters and David Gilmour have once again reunited onstage, performing a five-song set last Saturday (July 10th) at Kidlington in Oxfordshire, England, according to Rolling Stone. The pair teamed up for the Hoping Foundation (Hope and Optimism for Palestinians in the Next Generation) charity raising $525,000 for the Children of Gaza.

The two last performed together at Pink Floyd’s 2005 reunion set at Live 8, entertained the crowd of 200 with a rendition Phil Spector’s Teddy Bears’ classic “To Know Him Is To Love Him” — which according to a blog on Gilmour’s website was a long-time Floyd soundcheck staple; “Wish You Were Here,” “Comfortably Numb” and “Another Brick In The Wall, Part 2.”

Although Waters had battled the group for it’s name and shared a contentious relationship with David Gilmour for nearly two decades, following Pink Floyd’s 2005 Live 8 reunion, he was the group member most open for future team-ups. Waters had asked Gilmour to join him for his upcoming world tour in celebration of the 30th anniversary of Pink Floyd’s The Wall tour, (which comes through Buffalo) but Gilmour declined.

Roger Waters kicks off The Wall tour on September 15th at Toronto’s Air Canada Centre. In preparation for his appearance here in Buffalo at the HSBC Arena October 8th, Roger talked to us about the last Pink Floyd Reunion show during Live 8. You can hear what he had to say by clicking on the link below:

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