Favorite Seventies Artists In The News

Posted by Administrator on September 6th, 2014

Not since Queen recorded the soundtrack to Flash Gordon in the early Eighties has a sci-fi movie been as full of pop music as Guardians of the Galaxy. As a child in the Eighties, Peter "Star-Lord" Quill (Chris Pratt) gets a mixtape from his mom, who's dying of cancer. The cassette becomes the soundtrack to his adult life -- and the film. "The tape is really the character of Quill's mother," says director James Gunn. So Gunn picked tunes she would have liked: "David Bowie's "Moonage Daydream," the Runaways' "Cherry Bomb" and the Jackson 5's "I Want You Back," as well as ear candy by acts like the Raspberries and Blue Swede. A week after its release in late July, Guardians of the Galaxy: Awesome Mix Vol. 1 topped the Billboard Hot 200 album charts, the first-ever soundtrack without any new songs to hit Number One. Gunn's song choices weren't met warmly by everyone. "One of the Marvel folks kept saying we were crazy to put Seventies songs in the movie, that it was going to alienate kids," he says. I guess he thought Quill should have downloaded Beyoncé and Kesha off iTunes. Now I see kids singing 'Hooked on a Feeling.'" - Rolling Stone, 9/11/14.

A celebrity photographer who took the image of the back of Rod Stewart's head that adorned the rocker's 1989 greatest hits album has filed a lawsuit against Stewart for using that same image as the centerpiece of his 2014 comeback tour. According to photographer Bonnie Schiffman's suit which was filed in California federal court on Sept. 4, the image was created by her in 1981 and it featured the back of Rod Stewart's head and shoulders. Stewart's "signature bouffant hair style" made it memorable and the choice for Stewart's Storyteller album, released by Warner Bros. Records, the suit goes on to say. The photo was licensed non-exclusively back then, and now a "replicate image, an unmistakable copy" of that image is impermissible as the "centerpiece" of Stewart's new Las Vegas show without her authorization. Schiffman is seeking injunctive relief and not less than $2.5 million in compensatory and punitive damages. Stewart's reps haven't yet responded to a request for comment about the lawsuit. Meanwhile, Stewart has announced his "The Hits Tour" will be heading to Australia and New Zealand in 2015. Stewart will play arenas and wineries on his trek, which includes his first-ever show in Dunedin, a student town in NZ's South Island. According to promoters Frontier Touring, the 9-date tour will kick off March 21 in Perth, also visiting Melbourne (3/24), Macedon (3/28), Adelaide (3/29), Sydney (4/1), Hunter Valley in Hope Estate (4/5), Brisbane (4/7), and Dunedin (4/11) before wrapping in Auckland on April 13. - The Hollywood Reporter/Billboard, 9/5/14.

Kiss bassist Gene Simmons has declared rock music to be "finally dead" due to record labels failing to adequately support rock artists. In an interview published by Esquire magazine and conducted by his son Nick Simmons, Simmons was robust in his criticism of the music industry, asserting that rock artists don't receive the same support from record companies that they did in the sixties and seventies. When asked what he would say to young musicians and songwriters today, Simmons affirmed, "Don't quit your day job is a good piece of advice. When I was coming up, it was not an insurmountable mountain. Once you had a record company on your side, they would fund you, and that also meant when you toured they would give you tour support. There was an entire industry to help the next Beatles, Stones, Prince, Hendrix, to prop them up and support them every step of the way. There are still record companies, and it does apply to pop, rap, and country to an extent. But for performers who are also songwriters -- the creators -- for rock music, for soul, for the blues -- it's finally dead. Rock is finally dead." Simmons also attributed part of rock's demise to illegal file-sharing and artists struggling to make money from their work. "The masses do not recognise file-sharing and downloading as stealing because there's a copy left behind for you -- it's not that copy that's the problem, it's the other one that someone received but didn't pay for," he said. "The problem is that nobody will pay you for the 10,000 hours you put in to create what you created. I can only imagine the frustration of all that work, and having no one value it enough to pay you for it." Back in 2010, Simmons accused the music industry of being "asleep at the wheel," saying "they didn't have the balls to sue every fresh-faced, freckle-faced college kid who downloaded material. And so now we're left with hundreds of thousands of people without jobs. There's no industry." - Esquire/New Musical Express, 9/5/14.

Bob Marley and the Wailers' 30-year-old greatest hits album Legend is on course to make the top 10 of the Billboard Hot 200 albums chart for the first time for the first week of September due to a discounting of the album in the Google Play store to 99 cents. Normally, the album sells for around $8. Industry sources forecast the album to sell between 20,000 to 24,000 copies in the week ending Sept. 7 -- with the bulk of those sales coming from Google. The album, which was released in 1984, has been a steady seller for years, but has never visited the top 10. Upon its release in 1984, Legend initially reached No. 54 on the Billboard 200 chart that year, but went on to chart a lengthy run on the list and continued to sell well as the years -- and decades -- went by. The album regularly sells between 3,000 and 5,000 a week, and reached a peak of No. 18 in 2012. On the Sept. 13 chart, the album ranked at No. 100 with 3,000 in sales for the week ending Aug. 31, according to SoundScan. If Legend does make the top 10, it will mark Marley's second top 10 album, following 1976's Rastaman Vibration. It peaked at No. 8 on the July 4, 1976-dated chart. - Billboard, 9/5/14...... Bruce Springsteen is set to make his acting debut on the next season of Netflix's original series Lilyhammer. The show, which is headed into its third season, stars Springsteen's E Street Band guitarist Steven Van Zandt as a former mobster relocated to Norway by the Federal Witness Protection Program after testifying against his mafia cohorts. According to DeadlineHollywood.com, Springsteen will join the show for a guest appearance as a mortuary owner. Also, Van Zandt's Sopranos co-star Tony Sirico is said to be joining on with a recurring role as a priest. The Lilyhammer gig will marke Springsteen's true acting debut. Though he appeared in the film High Fidelity, he played himself. - Billboard, 9/5/14...... In other Springsteen-related news, Rutgers University will be offering a college course on The Boss beginning this fall. In the "Bruce Springsteen Theology Course," students will be able to explore 40 years of the singer's iconic lyrics. Other artist-specific courses available at American institutions of higher learning this fall include courses on the Beatles (UCLA), David Bowie (University of Southern Maine), and Michael Jackson (Clark Atlanta University). - Billboard, 9/2/14

George Harrison will be honored with an all-star tribute concert at the El Rey Theatre in Los Angeles on Sept. 28. Featuring performances by Brian Wilson, Norah Jones, Ann Wilson of Heart, "Weird Al" Yankovic," and key members of the bands the Flaming Lips and the Killers, the event will benefit professional musicians in need of medical care or financial assistance. Dhani Harrison, George Harrison's son, will also perform. It will be hosted by the Best Fest, which previously produced similar events in honor of Bob Dylan, Tom Petty and the Rolling Stones. - Billboard, 9/4/14...... In other Beatles-related news, Ringo Starr is speaking out over the use of the Beatles' name being used as nicknames for British jihadis in Syria involved in the recent ghastly executions of American journalists. Ringo says he is "saddened" that the fanatics -- led by a man dubbed "Jihadi John" who is suspected of beheading two American journalists -- had been labelled with the names of the Fab Four. "It's bullshit," Ringo told the London Evening Standard. "What they are doing out there is against everything the Beatles stood for." Starr added that he was powerless to prevent the names of the band or his bandmates being attached to the fanatics. "If we stood for anything we never stood for that. The four of us absolutely stood for peace and love. But we are not in control," he said. "Jihadi John" is currently being hunted by US forces after also threatening on video to behead British hostage David Haines. - The Evening Standard...... Elsewhere on the Fab Four front, a 29-minute jam session of Paul McCartney performing with actor Johnny Depp and a group of blues guitarists has been made available on McCartney's YouTube channel. It is Depp's third appearance in a Macca music video (after "My Valentine" and "Queenie Eye"). In the clip, Roy Gaines, Al Williams, Dale Atkins, Henree Harris, Motown Maurice and Lil Poochie, trade licks and sharie lead vocals with each other and the former Beatle. Depp doesn't do any singing, but McCartney takes on Carl Perkins' "Matchbox" (a song the Beatles covered) during the session. - Billboard, 9/5/14

'70s disco legend Sylvester is being remembered with a new off-Broadway musical in New York and newly-unveiled space on the Rainbow Honor Walk in San Francisco's Castro District. On Sept. 5, the curtains opened on "Mighty Real: A Fabulous Sylvester Musical, created by Anthony Wayne and Kendrell Bowman. "I think we live in an era now where it's all about being free and being yourself, and Sylvester was a trailblazer for that," says Wayne. "Before there was RuPaul, before there was Adam Lambert, there was Sylvester. And so we're really excited to bring this forward because the moral of this show is to know that you can leave up out of this theater being yourself and to know that yourself is more than enough, just like Sylvester did. The time period is now for this story to really be out there." "From the music standpoint, I think people are getting tired of the same type of music that's in our generation right now," adds Bowman. "People are not making music that really makes you feel good, that when you turn on the song it really makes you want to dance and feel good about life. So now, with all the social issues that are going on with the world, this is [bringing back] an era that made people feel good and without any problems in life." Sylvester is the only musician to be a part of the Rainbow Walk in San Francisco, a hall of fame type series of plaques honoring gay icons such as Oscar Wilde and Frida Kahlo, and his tribute has been in the making for three years. The L.A.-born Sylvester (James) moved to San Francisco in 1967, and appeared in the 1979 film The Rose. His three Billboard Top 40 hits include "Dance (Disco Heat)" (#19, 1978), "You Make Me Feel (Mighty High)" (#36, 1979) and "I (Who Have Nothing)" (#40, 1979). He died of AIDS-related complications at age 40 in 1988. - Billboard, 9/5/14.

A collection of outlaw country singer Waylon Jennings' belongings will go on public auction this fall, including a rare 1958 motorcycle originally owned by Buddy Holly and locks of Willie Nelson's braided hair. New York City-based auction house Guernsey's will hold the auction of over 2,000 items Oct. 5 at the Musical Instrument Museum in Phoenix. Jennings' widow, Jessi Colter, said she was first approached by the auction house about selling the motorcycle, a red Ariel Cyclone, which was given to Jennings as a birthday gift and he kept the prized possession in his living room. Jennings later teamed up with Johnny Cash, Kris Kristofferson and Nelson in The Highwaymen. The original contract forming the country supergroup, signed by all four members, is also up for sale. The braids were a gift from Nelson who cut them off as a sign of support for Jennings' sobriety. Jennings, who died in 2002 at age 64, started his career playing in Holly's band, and almost became a passenger in the doomed plane that killed Holly in 1959. - AP, 9/4/14...... Former The Police frontman Sting and R&B legend Al Green are among five artists receiving this year's prestigious Kennedy Center Honors, the national awards for influencing American culture through the arts. Tom Hanks, Lily Tomlin and ballerina Patricia McBride will also receive the honor during the ceremony at the White House in Washington, D.C., on Dec. 7. The show will be broadcast Dec. 30 on CBS. - AP, 9/4/14...... Seventies heartthrob David Cassidy pleaded guilty on Sept. 4 to a misdemeanor charge of driving while intoxicated in upstate New York. Cassidy, 64, made the plea in exchange for a tentative sentence of a conditional discharge that includes 50 hours of community service in Florida, his home state. Sentencing was set for Nov. 5 and depends on a pre-sentence report. If the judge approves the sentencing recommendations, Cassidy would be required instead to complete 50 hours of community service and to have an interlock ignition system installed on vehicles he owns in both New York and Florida. In March, a judge in Los Angeles sentenced the former The Partridge Family actor and singer to three months in rehab and five years of probation in a drunken-driving case stemming from a January 2014 arrest for an illegal turn. Cassidy was convicted of driving while intoxicated in Florida in 2011. His license was suspended and he served one year of probation in that case. Cassidy spends time in New York during the summer at Saratoga Race Course, 40 miles north of Schodack. - AP, 9/4/14....... British fashion designer Paul Smith is developing a range of scarves inspired by Led Zeppelin album covers. Each of the scarves will enjoy a limited edition run of 50 and will be available at PaulSmith.co.uk and Paul Smith's Covent Garden outlet in central London. In other fashion news, the 1970s are a big inspiration for next spring's collections, according to Lizzy Bowring of WGSN, the official trend sponsor for the New York Fashion week which runs from Sept. 4 to 11. "The idea is to get back into yesteryear but add a contemporary twist with a fresh modern appeal," Bowring says. Pants will take up a slight flare, and just as Diane Keaton notably catapulted menswear into the spotlight in 1977's Annie Hall, so will the fashion-forward in spring 2015. Bowring says one of the big themes will be a "fuss-free approach of androgyny": Think sleek, sophisticated jumpsuits and/or tailored jackets paired with relaxed wide-leg trousers. - Billboard/CNN, 9/1/14...... Comedienne Joan Rivers died in a New York hospital on Sept. 4, following serious complications -- including cardiac arrest -- during a medical procedure the week before. She was 81. Ms. Rivers had been on life support at Manhattan's Mount Sinai hospital, where she was taken after she stopped breathing at the Yorkville Endoscopy clinic on Aug. 28. She was undergoing an apparently minor elective procedure at the clinic when she suffered cardiac and respiratory arrest, according to the New York Fire Department. Paramedics took her by ambulance to Mount Sinai Hospital, about a mile from the clinic, where she was initially listed in critical condition. Ms. Rivers first came to prominence on the Johnny Carson-hosted The Tonight Show in 1965 and appeared on that show more than 70 times. She became a permanent substitute Tonight Show host until a feud began between her and Carson after Ms. Rivers' began her own late-night talk show on rival network Fox in 1986. She later went on to host a successful daytime show, The Joan Rivers Show from 1989 to 1993, which won her a Daytime Emmy for Outstanding Talk Show Host. Her out-spoken commentary on celebrities and politics was both praised and criticized as being truthful, yet too personal, too gossipy, and very often abrasive. Ms. Rivers authored 12 best-selling memoir and humor books, and many comedy albums, and most recently co-hosted the E! channel show Fashion Police. She also co-wrote the well-received 1973 TV movie The Girl Most Likely to..., about a plain girl made beautiful by plastic surgery and exacts deadly revenge on everyone who was cruel to her. "She was unapologetic and fiercely dedicated to entertaining all of us and has left an indelible mark on the people that worked with her and on her legions of fans," said E! and NBCUniversal studios in a statement. "She's been a much beloved member of the E! family for over 20 years and the world is less funny without her in it. Today our hearts are heavy knowing Joan will not be bounding through the doors." Ms. Rivers, the subject of a 2010 documentary about her life, titled Joan Rivers: A Piece of Work, is survived by her daughter, Melissa Rivers. - CNN, 9/4/14...... The Allman Brothers Band, who have announced that they're calling it quits after 2014, played two of their last gigs ever at their Peach Music Festival in Scranton, Penn., in August. One of the sets included all of 1972's Eat a Peach. "Revisiting that album is always heavy," Gregg Allman says of Peach, their first LP released afer the death of guitarist Duane Allman in 1971. Coming up: six farewell gigs at New York's Beacon Theatre in October. - Rolling Stone...... Longtime Chicago radio and TV personality Roy Leonard, who was well known around the Midwest for his decades of talk radio, celebrity interviews and movie reviews on Chicago's WGN radio and TV stations, died on Sept. 4 at Evanston Hospital, north of Chicago. He was 83. Mr. Leonard's three-decade run at WGN was marked by interviews with an array of entertainers, ranging from the mime Marcel Marceau to Tom Cruise. Mr. Leonard had been in the hospital for several weeks with respiratory and other health problems, according to his son Kelly Leonard. When it became clear he would soon pass away, Leonard's family gathered around him, listening to one of his favorite jazz artists, Dave Brubeck, on an iPad and waiting for a priest to give him last rites. "He always read the book before he saw the movie; he did his research, and then he let a conversation happen. He didn't try to pre-plan everything," Kelly Leonard said. - AP, 9/5/14...... David Anderle, the A&R executive who worked with Frank Zappa, the Beach Boys, Sheryl Crow and Aaron Neville during a 35-year career, died on Sept. 1 of cancer at his Los Angeles home. He was 77. In 1964, Anderle became West Coast talent director at MGM, which owned Verve Records at the time. After seeing Frank Zappa and the Mothers of Invention in 1965, Anderle pushed to get the act signed to the label, but met considerable resistance within Verve. Anderle convinced label head Tom Wilson to sign the Mothers and produce their album. As the manager of Van Dyke Parks, Anderle became ensconced in Brian Wilson's world in 1966 at the time of Pet Sounds and helped the Beach Boys create their own record label, Brothers Records, which he ran in its early days. In 1968, he moved to Elektra as West Coast operations director, where he produced David Ackles, worked with Judy Collins on her repertoire, and dealt with the label's rock acts such as the Doors and Love. He also worked as a music supervisor on the films Good Morning, Vietnam, The Breakfast Club, Pretty in Pink and Scrooged. - Billboard, 9/2/14.

Paul McCartney has signed an open letter calling on Scottish voters to choose to remain part of the United Kingdom in a vote on independence that is set to take place on Sept. 18. Sir Paul, along with such famous fellow Brits as the Rolling Stones' Mick Jagger, actress Dame Jude Dench and TV producer Simon Cowell, have signed the letter which is part of a campaign to "give a voice to everyone who doesn't have a vote in the decision to break up Britain." Only Scots currently residing in Scotland and at least 16 years of age will be eligible to vote on the referendum, however those Scots living outside the country, nor residents England, Wales and Northern Ireland, can vote. Scotland has been part of the United Kingdom for more than 300 years, and the letter says that "the decision will have a huge effect on all of us in the rest of the United Kingdom." McCartney, who owns a farm in Scotland, co-wrote the hit song "Mull of Kintyre" there in 1977 with his post-Beatles band Wings. In an interview with the UK's Evening Standard paper, former Talking Heads frontman David Byrne, who was born in Dumbarton, Scotland, said that "Scotland can get a bit more autonomy and self-control, but complete independence might be a bit much to handle." British Prime Minister David Cameron backed the appeal of the anti-separatists in a speech on Aug. 28 to business leaders in Glasgow. Meanwhile in other Beatles-related news, John Lennon's widow Yoko Ono has announced the 2014 recipients of the biennial Lennon Ono Grand for Peace: Jan Wenner, co-founder and publisher of Rolling Stone magazine; Jeremy Gilley, founder of the non-profit organization Peace One Day; former Mayor of Reykjavik Jan Gnarr, and Doreen Remen and Yvonne Force Villareal on behalf of the Art Production Fund. The award, which has been presented every two years since 2002, is traditionally awarded to people who Ono feels embody "the work that John and [she] tried to do together." The awards will be presented during a ceremony in Reykjavik, Iceland on Oct. 9 -- Lennon's birthday. In 2013, Yoko Ono was made an honorary citizen of Reykjavik for her "outstanding work in pointing the light of peace" to the city. In other Lennon-related news, the transcript of Lennon killer Mark David Chapman's eighth parole hearing on Aug. 20 has been released, and the 59-year-old Chapman admitted that he's "an idiot" for murdering Lennon on Dec. 8, 1980. "I am sorry for causing that type of pain. I am sorry for being such an idiot and choosing the wrong way for glory," Chapman told the three-member parole board. "Many, many people loved him. He was a great and talented man and they are still hurting. I get letters so that's a major factor. It's not a regular crime," said Chapman, who told the board that he would understand if they denied him release based solely on the number of people he hurt. Chapman, who is at the Wende Correctional Facility, east of Buffalo, can try again for release in two years. - CNN/New Musical Express, 8/30/14.

A new graphic novel based on Bruce Springsteen's song "Outlaw Pete" will be released on Nov. 4 and feature words by Springsteen and illustrations by Frank Caruso. "Outlaw Pete," a track on Springsteen's 2009 album Working on a Dream, was itself inspired by the 1950 children's book Brave Cowboy Bill. "Outlaw Pete is based on the celebrated song about a bank-robbing baby whose exploits become a meditation on sin, fate, and free will," according to a press release from the book's publisher, Simon & Shuster. Springsteen has said that the song is "essentially the story of a man trying to outlive and outrun his sins." Illustrator Caruso has said of the project: "When Bruce wrote 'Outlaw Pete' he didn't just write a great song, he created a great character. The first time I heard the song this book played out in my head. Like Tom Sawyer, Huck Finn, Dorothy Gale and, for me, even Popeye, Outlaw Pete cuts deep into the folklore of our country and weaves its way into the fabric of great American literary characters." Springsteen released his 18th LP, High Hopes, in Jan. 2014. It featured a mixture of out-takes, covers and reworked old songs taken from his extensive back catalog. - New Musical Express, 8/28/14.

Motown legend Smokey Robinson has scored his highest-charting album in 33 years with Smokey & Friends. The all-star collaborations album, featuring duets with such artists as Elton John, Steven Tyler and Mary J. Blige on a dozen of Robinson's own tunes, debuted at No. 12 on the Billboard Hot 200 album chart for the week ending Aug. 29 with 14,000 sold. The LP is also Robinson's highest-charting release since 1981, when Being With You climbed to No. 10 on the chart dated June 6, 1981. Robinson first appeared on a Billboard chart back on Oct. 5, 1959, as part of the R&B group The Miracles, with "Bad Girl." With The Miracles, Robinson enjoyed Hot 100 hits such as "Shop Around" (No. 2 in 1961), "I Second That Emotion" (No. 4 in 1967) and "The Tears of a Clown" (No. 1 in 1970). Meanwhile, former Kiss guitarist Ace Frehley has netted his highest-charting album ever on the Billboard Hot 200, and his first top 10, as Space Invader debuted at No. 9 with 19,000 sold, according to Nielsen SoundScan. Frehley is the first Kiss member to chart a top 10 album on the Billboard 200 as a soloist. The group's Gene Simmons previously held the high-water mark, when his eponymous set reached No. 22 in 1979. Space Invader also bowed at No. 1 on the Hard Rock Albums and the Tastemakers chart, and at No. 2 on Top Rock Albums chart. The new LP is Frehley's first since 2009's Anomaly, which debuted and peaked at No. 27. Frehley, 63, left Kiss in 1982 but rejoined the group from 1996 through 2002. After his 1978 solo set, he formed the band Frehley's Comet and released the group's self-titled debut in 1987 and Trouble Walkin' in 1989. Robinson and Frehley's successes come as weekly album sales in the US have reportedly plummeted to their lowest since Nielson SoundScan began tracking data in 1991, according to Billboard. A total of 3.97 million albums were sold in the US during the last week of August, which is the lowest weekly sum since records began in 1991. It's also the first time weekly sales have dropped below four million. An unnamed record label sales executive attributed the fall to the growth of streaming: "Sales have been going in the wrong direction all year. I guess its overdue, when you look at [the growth of streaming]."- Billboard, 8/29/14.

A federal appeals court has ruled that an Iowa woman who claims rocker Sammy Hagar fathered her baby 25 years ago may sue him for libel, invasion of privacy, and breach of contract. On Aug. 28, the 8th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals said that the woman, identified only as Jane Doe, may sue the former Van Halen frontman for allegations in his 2011 memoir. The lawsuit had been dismissed last year by a federal judge, but the appeals court says the woman has established facts a jury should decide. The woman, a former Playboy bunny, claims she had Hagar's baby, and that infant died shortly after birth in 1989. Hagar has denied he was the father, and questioned whether she even had a baby and has accused her of extortion. - AP...... ZZ Top has cancelled two weeks of dates on their current American summer tour after bassist Dusty Hill fell on the band's bus on Aug. 26 and injured his hip. The mishap occurred as ZZ Top was on its way to Clarkston, Mich. to play at the DTE Energy Music Theatre on a co-headlining stint with Jeff Beck. Tour promoter Live Nation said the 65-year-old Hill required "immediate attention" to his injury after the fall. ZZ Top had 13 more shows with Jeff Beck left to go on the tour they launched Aug. 8. Refunds are being offered for the cancelled shows. - Billboard...... Neil Young is rumoured to be preparing a new studio album entitled Storytone for release in November. Young fans posting on the site foreverneilyoung.tumblr.com note that German composer and producer Chris Walden had updated his "recent projects" to include an "upcoming Neil Young album Storytone (out Nov 4)." Young has expressed an interest in recording an orchestral-based album. "I'd like to make a record with a full-blown orchestra, live -- a mono recording with one mic," he told Billboard earlier in 2014. - NME...... Former Police frontman Sting is reportedly charging fans 200 a day to pick grapes and olives on his Italian estate in Tuscany. Tourists are able to work with laborers at the 900-acre Il Palagio estate, with a charge of 208 lira applicable to anybody wanting to get involved. Sting, who is estimated to be worth $180 million, purchased the property in 1999 and sells produce created there. - NME...... TimeLife.com just released The Midnight Special Collector's Edition on DVD, featuring almost ten hours of performances, 130 songs, plus almost five hours of bonus features including brand-new interviews....... Comedienne Joan Rivers was hospitalized on Aug. 28 after going into cardiac arrest at a New York City doctor's office during a procedure to remove a cyst in her throat and is reportedly being kept alive solely by life support machines. Rivers, 81, was taken to Mount Sinai Hospital and her daughter Melissa Rivers said in a statement on Aug. 31 that "we are keeping our fingers crossed" and thanked people for expressing their support. - AP...... In a new interview with New York magazine, former Led Zeppelin vocalist Robert Plant said that he does not like the fact that Zeppelin albums are available to stream on Spotify, because he feels the sound quality on the streaming service is "a hell of a compromise." When asked whether it bothers him that the original recordings are now being listened to in compressed audio, Plant replied: "I don't champion too many things, but I do champion the sound of music. It's a hell of a compromise. For example, with [his new solo LP] lullabye... and the Ceaseless Roar -- never mind Zeppelin -- I spent a lot of time making sure the vinyl sounds really good, so people have that option. But it is slightly heartbreaking to think that anything can be dismissed sonically and put to the sword by the confines digitalised, computerised sound reproduction. It's hell." Meanwhile in other LedZep news, a new trailer for the upcoming reissue of Led Zeppelin IV has been released that features a rare version of "Black Dog," which will be included on the expanded edition. The clip features archive performance footage, vintage press shots, vintage advertising material and detail from the album's cover. Led Zeppelin IV, along with Houses of the Holy, will be reissued in 2-disc expanded editions on Oct. 27. Earlier in 2014, expanded editions of Led Zeppelin, Led Zeppelin II and Led Zeppelin III were released. - NME...... Glenn Cornick, the original bass player in Jethro Tull before the band achieved international success in the early '70s, died of congestive heart failure at his home in Hilo, Hawaii, on Aug. 28. He was 67. Cornick performed with Jethro Tull from its inception in late 1967 until 1970, and according to his son Drew Cornick had been receiving hospice care. "(Glenn) brought bravado to Jethro Tull's early stage performance (and) made considerable contributions to the music scene," Jethro Tull frontman Ian Anderson posted on the band's website. - AP