TOMORROW? NEVER KNOWS
Sometimes dirty deeds reveal something good. It took another chapter of the Apple Corps vs Apple Computer courtroom saga for Neil Aspinall, a head of the former Apple, THE BEATLES-founded one, to officially announce that the Fabs’ catalogue is being remastered. Here’s the exact words of the Liverpoodlians’ old friend:
“We’re remastering the whole BEATLES catalog, just to make it sound brighter and better and getting proper booklets to go with each of the packages. I think it would be wrong to offer downloads of the old masters when I am making new masters. It would be better to wait and try to do them both simultaneously so that you then get the publicity of the new masters and the downloading, rather than just doing it ad hoc”.
Don’t hold your breath, then, but at the same time don’t shell out your hard-earned money on the old versions of the classic albums of which remastered at the moment are the American variants and the tracks that made it onto the “1” and “The Yellow Submarine Songtrack” – but those on the latter have been remixed as well. As the Fabs would sing, you ought to know that they’ll be good as good as they can be.
HOUSE OF THE HOLY
One album per year might be a normal recording rate for the ’70s, the decade when Glenn Hughes shoot to fame – and blew it all away. So now the Funkmeister is back at it, and makes a record after record with some nice session work in-between. One of those was a souled-up version of THE MOODY BLUES’ perennial “Nights In White Satin” done with the RED HOT CHILI PEPPERS guys and appearing in the “Stealth” movie. Now it appears once again, this time in the album context, the album in question being “Music For The Divine”, a new one which is due out on June 9th. There’s again a trio in the core of it – of Hughes, Chad Smith, at whose home the recording has been done, on drums and JJ Marsh, who’s back with Glenn, on guitar. Where extra strings were needed the help came from John Frusciante and Mark Killian arranged the strings and added keyboards. And that’s what’s said to be the record’s track listing:
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1. The Valiant Denial 2. Steppin’ On 3. Monkey Man 4. This House 5. You Got Soul 6. Frail 7. Black Light 8. Nights In White Satin 9. Too High 10. This Is How I Feel 11. The Divine |
STRANGER THAN THE TRUTH
While the second part of “The Rutles” is still to find its way to every home, there’s a new humorous spin unwinds. It concerns a band called PLATINUM WEIRD said to be formed by the future EURHYTHMICS Dave Stewart back in 1974 and failing big time with just one LP under their collective belt. Among those who sing praise to the ensemble are Ringo Starr, Mick Jagger, Bob Geldof and Dhani Harrison.
All this might be a laughing matter conceived by Stewart and the singer called Kara DioGuardi, with the group’s album to be released soon – there’s a one track download at their site – if not for “This Guitar (Can’t Keep From Crying)” written and recorded by George Harrison on the 1975’s “Extra Texture” yet to be included on “The Platinum Weird” in a new version, that The Quiet One presumably re-cut around the same time as “My Sweet Lord” which made it onto “All Things Must Pass” 2001’s re-issue. It can be heard on the PLATINUM WEIRD’s web-hubs. Poignantly fantastic!
ALL OR NOTHING
QUEEN did that, ABBA did that, and now there’s a new autobiographic musical in the works, based on THE SMALL FACES‘ colorful story. Titled “All Too Beautiful”, it’s being written by the band’s drummer Kenny Jones and actress Carol Harrison to be staged in the summer. Dedicated to the memory of the fallen little soldiers Ronnie Lane and Steve Marriott, the musical doesn’t involve the master hand of the other surviving Face, Ian McLagan, which is strange. Long agos and worlds apart, eh?
CAN YOU HEAR IT?
Who’s more skilful in writing concept pieces than THE WHO? Having been in preparation for the summer concert dates and September’s release of the long awaited new album, Pete Townshend and Roger Daltrey recorded an 11-minute mini opera, akin to “The Quick One” suite. It’s called “The Glass Household” and based on the band’s mastemind Pete’s online novella, “The Boy Who Heard Music”. The duo plan to put it out in June, possibly in limited quantity, for the hardcore fans. According to Townshend, the piece was to be “a series of songs that would provide the backbone for some kind of large theatrical music event”, but then a new record shaped itself leaving no place for a musical. As for the players. there are usual suspects such as Rabbit Bundrick on keyboards, bassist Pino Palladino and guitarist Simon Townshend as well as Peter Huntington on drums and unsung ’60s hero Billy Nicholls who provides the backing vocals.
OMENS AND PREDICTIONS
JUDAS PRIEST have never been too bright in the lyrics department, but what can be as original for a band of this vintage as getting to write their first concept album ever? What’s as original as to base the piece on, of all things. the life of Michel Nostradamus? The answer is, to bring it onto the theater stage. And that’s exactly what the British mighty plan to do! The strong as steel seem to be losing their marbles!
HARK! THE ANGEL SINGS
The RENAISSANCE visual documents seem to be thin on the ground – although they exist and wait to be released – so the closest thing to get to will be a DVD from Annie Haslam, the band’s golden-fleece-voiced singer. To be more precise, “Live in Philadelphia 1997” comes out as both DVD and CD that capture a studio concert of Annie and the band that included keyboard player Rave Tesar who Haslam co-written some wonderful songs with. Among those are “Sleepless Mother” and “Goodbye Trees”, a bonus track on the CD, both having their debut here. No words on DVD extras at the moment; as for the audio disc, it runs like this:
| 1. Carpet Of The Sun 2. Pool Of Tears 3. Summon The Angels 4. Captive Heart 5. After The Oceans Are Gone 6. Seashell Eyes 7. Sleepless Mother 8. Goodbye Trees (bonus) 9. What He Seeks 10. The Young Prince And Princess |
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THE WIZARD’S DREAMS
Impossible it may seem yet not too many of the songwriters are eloquent when it comes to plain talking. Ken Hensley is. Back in URIAH HEEP days his lyrics quite often matched his melodies and, as proved by “The Last Dance”, the title track of Hensley’s last album and this scribe’s personal impressions of talking to Ken, the gift is still there. Therefore, “When Too Many Dreams Come True”, his autobiography must be a good read. The book of more than 150 pages with many rare and previously unpublished photos is out now.
THE SIREN’S CALL
One of the most revered metal singers in the world, Bruce Dickinson‘s solo is not as rich as his output with IRON MAIDEN. but there’s enough great material for the artist to compile an “Anthology”. To be released on June 19th, it’s not a collection of the tracks that the fans already have with some rare tracks, it’s a triple DVD of concert footage and promotional videos from the album that the Siren put out under his own name. Among the rarities are the 15-minute featurette from SAMSON, Bruce’s first band, and the cover of LINDISFARNE’s “Fog On The Tyne”. Surely not the box to miss out on.
Disc 1 |
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Dive Dive LiveLos Angeles, August 14th, 1990 |
Skunkworks LiveSpain, May 31st & June 1st, 1996 |
Disc 2 – Scream For Me BrazilSao Paulo, 1999 |
Disc 3 – The Videos1. Tattooed Millionaire |
BLINDED EYES AND STOLEN DREAMS
That’s been a talk of the town for quite a while that, in order to give a nice boost to a forthcoming BLACK SABBATH box set titled “Black Sabbath: The Dio Years”which will include the “Heaven And Hell”, “Mob Rules”, “Live Evil” and “Dehumanizer” albums with possibly some previously released rarities, Ronnie James Dio visited the British shores and wrote a couple of tracks with Tony Iommi. Whether it’s true and whether the songs, if they were written, have been recorded, remains unconfirmed by both Dio and SABBATH camps.
TAKE A PEBBLE
For some time it looked like Greg Lake‘s solo profile is low, but now there’s a second DVD’s out in one year’s span. The new one, “Greg Lake – Live”, captures Big L on-stage during his 2005’s UK tour and has some hot bonus features such as “Welcome Backstage” with rehearsal footage and interviews that also are in the center of “The Band”documentary, and “St. Bride’s – featuring Ian Anderson, David Arch & Florian Opahle” wherein Greg performs his 1975’s classic “I Believe In Father Christmas” in the company of one legendary flautist and the London’s St. Bride’s Church’s choir.
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1. In The Court Of Crimson King 2. Paper Blood 3. From The Beginning 4. Touch And Go 5. Take A Pebble 6. I Believe In Father Christmas 7. Farewell To Arms 8. Fanfare For The Common Man 9. Love You Too Much 10. Footprints In The Snow 11. Lucky Man 12. 21st Century Schizoid Man 13. Pictures At An Exhibition 14. Karn Evil 9 (1st Impression – Part 2) |
