Favorite Seventies Artists In The News

Posted by Administrator on September 16th, 2019

Singer/guitarist/songwriter/producer Ric Ocasek, the frontman of the legendary New Wave band The Cars, died on Sept. 15 after being discovered unconscious and unresponsive in his Manhattan townhouse at around 4:14 p.m. EDT by his estranged supermodel wife, Paulina Porizkova. He was 75 and the primary cause of death is not yet known. Born Richard Otcasek on Mar. 23, 1949, in Baltimore, Md., Ocasek took up guitar at age 10 and immediately began to write songs. After dropping out of Antioch College and Bowling Green State University, he began making a living as a musician. He met future Cars bassist Benjamin Orr (who died in 2000) in Cleveland, Oh., where Orr worked as a studio producer and session musician. After working in various bands in the northeast, the pair settled in Cambridge, Mass., in the late Seventies. After recruiting guitarist Elliot Easton, keyboardist Greg Hawkes, and drummer David Robinson, the quintet had intensive rehearsals in Ocasek's basement and made some demo tapes, including "Just What I Needed," which became popular with locals after it was played on Boston radio station WBCN. The band was signed by Elektra Records and released their self-named debut album in 1978, and it became a milestone in the burgeoning New Wave scene. Recorded in just two weeks and immaculately produced by Roy Thomas Baker, the album spawned three hit singles -- "Just What I Needed" (#27, 1978), "My Best Friend's Girl" (#35, 1978) and "Good Times Roll" (#41, 1979) -- and went platinum, becoming such a persistent chart presence that the release of the band's second album, Candy-O, was delayed even though it was recorded in early 1979. Driven by Ocasek's artful pop songs, The Cars were the fastest, most consistently successful of all New Wave bands, with their first and second albums selling more than six million copies worldwide. After Candy-O, Ocasek then turned his attention to producing other artists, including Suicide's Alan Vega, Romeo Void and Bebe Buell. The Cars' 1981 album, Shake It Up, went platinum on the strength of the No. 4 title track and another hit, "Since You're Gone." In 1983, Ocasek released the first of his seven solo albums, Beatitude, and around this time also did production for Bad Brains. In 1984, The Cars staged a major comeback on the charts with their Heartbeat City LP, which launched four hit singles that year: "You Might Think" (#7), "Magic" (#12), "Drive" (#3) and "Hello Again" (#20). The video for the song starred model Porizkova, whom Ocasek would wed in 1989. The Cars would chart two more Top 20 hits in the Eighties -- "Tonight She Comes" (#7, 1985) and "You Are The Girl" (#17, 1987) -- however by the time of 1987's Door To Door album, the band began to unravel due to personal conflicts and called it quits. Ocasek would have a #15 solo hit, "Emotions In Motion," in 1986, but found his biggest post-Cars success as a producer, helming Weezer's landmark self-titled debut ("the Blue Album"). The proper lineup of The Cars (after once touring with Todd Rundgren fronting the band) would reunite for 2011's well-received Move Like This album. Ocasek released a book of poetry, Negative Theatre, in 1992, and in 2017 revealed he was working on an album that would compile "the best picks of the solo albums" as well as "another 10 or 15 songs that nobody's ever heard. Some are finished, some are demos. It's stuff I've always liked but never put it on things." Several of Ocasek's contemporaries, including Peter Frampton, Billy Idol and Bryan Adams, paid tribute to the late musician on Twitter upon learning of his death. "So sad. Such a great writer, singer, player, producer. My thoughts are with his family. Rest in peace," Frampton wrote. The band Weezer posted: "The Weezer family is devastated by the loss of our friend and mentor Ric Ocasek." - Billboard, The Rolling Stone Encyclopedia of Rock, 9/16/19.

On Sept. 9 Bob Dylan announced an ambitious new string of 28 fall U.S. tour dates that will take him across the country, beginning on Oct. 11 at the UC Irvine Bren Events Center in Irvine, Calif., and keeping him on the road through a Nov. 21 gig at the Met Philadelphia. He'll be visiting such major markets as Denver (10/17), Kansas City, Mo. (10/20), St. Louis (10/22), Milwaukee (10/26), Chicago (10/30) and Baltimore (11/12), also visiting several university auditoriums in college cities. Tickets for his fall tour went on sale Sept. 13. - Billboard,...... Van Halen frontman David Lee Roth has announced he'll kick off a Las Vegas mini-residency in 2020 at the House of Blues in the Mandalay Bay Resort and Casino. He'll be performing Jan. 8, Jan. 10-11 and March 18, March 20-21, March 25 and March 27-28. "A weekend with me is interactive way beyond just music. It starts with the best food on Earth. The fellas smoke their three cigarettes for the year and we all stay up way past our bedtime!," Roth said in a statement. Roth will be joining a long list of artists with Vegas residencies that curently includes Aerosmith, Britney Spears, Bruno Mars, Mariah Carey, Janet Jackson and Jennifer Lopez. - AP, 9/9/19...... To help celebrate Motown's 60th anniversary, on Sept. 13 the Detroit-based label released a video of Marvin Gaye performing his classic 1971 track "What's Going On," interweaved with vignettes of modern-day issues, such as the Flint water crisis, racial struggles with police, mass shootings, and lack of affordable insurance. "We wanted a place that resonates with the song and the history of Motown, while also remaining relevant to the sociopolitical issues in the music video," Leaf said of filming the clip in Flint, Mich. "It was very important for us to find real people that resonated with the stories, rather than casting actors." The 2019 "What's Going On" was directed by Savanah Leaf and is the first video from Universal Music Group's "Never Made" project, a series that creates content for songs that, surprisingly, never had a music video, which until now had included Gaye's early '70s observation on society's injustices. - Billboard, 9/13/19...... In other Motown-related news, Gladys Knight says in a new interview that her favorite Motown memory is "the sense of family as we became friends in the early days." "We had so much fun... Most of us lived in the same neighborhood, so on a Saturday we'd be barefootin' in our basement," she says. "Then we'd go to Martha [Reeves]'s house [of The Vandellas] down the street and start dancing again. Tammi Terrell; Eddie Kendricks, David Ruffin and all of The Temptations lived right in back of us [laughs] We'd sing together and act crazy. It was family." Knight is currently touring the US, playing the Hollywood Bowl, Memphis and Cincinnati during the second week of September and will next visit Kansas City, Mo., San Antonio and Atlanta before wrapping in Brooklyn on Nov. 23 and Morristown, N.J. on Nov. 24. Her setlist includes salutes to her late dear friends Aretha Franklin ("A Natural Woman") and James Ingram ("One Hundred Ways"). - Billboard, 9/10/19...... Bruce Springsteen has once again signed on to be a major headliner at the upcoming 13th annual Stand Up For Heroes celebration at the Hulu Theater at Madison Square Garden. The Boss will be welcomed to the stage alongside comedians Jon Stewart, John Oliver, Ronny Chieng and Hasan Minhaj. The special event coincides with the nation's largest comedy festival (Nov. 4-10), with more than 200 comedians performing at 100 shows across New York. - Billboard, 9/9/19...... The estate of Prince and Warner Records announced on Sept. 10 that Prince's classic 1982 double-LP 1999 has been remastered for the very first time and expanded with 35 previously unreleased tracks for an upcoming 1999 Super Deluxe reissue. Released on Oct. 27, 1982, 1999 was Prince's first true crossover success, peaking at No. 7 on the the Billboard Hot 200 and featuring a raft of hit singles including "Little Red Corvette," "Delirious" and the title track. Both the CD and vinyl set will hit stores on Nov. 29. - Billboard, 9/10/19...... It's a "highway to hell": police in Montana have indulged in a creative way to move a bison blocking the road -- by blasting out AC/DC music. On Sept. 11, the Gallatin County Montana Sheriff's Office shared a picture of the road-blocking bison on their Facebook page, stating: "Being a deputy around West Yellowstone comes with unusual duties, including herding bison off the highway so no one gets hurt. When deputies respond to a bison on the road, they turn on lights and siren and encourage the animal to leave the road with an air horn. With a reluctant bison, they've been known to play AC/DC's 'Hell's Bells' over the speakers -- that usually seems to work." AC/DC recently marked the 40th anniversary of their classic 1979 album Highway to Hell on social media. - New Musical Express, 9/11/19...... On Sept. 13 Ringo Starr announced details of his 20th studio album, What's My Name, and posted a video of the album's title track on YouTube. Set for release on Oct. 25, What's My Name sees Starr working with a host of collaborators including Paul McCartney on a cover of the John Lennon-penned "Grow Old With Me" which originally appeared on his and Yoko Ono's Milk and Honey album. With Starr on vocals and McCartney on bass and backing vocals, the song was written by Lennon just a few years before his death. Ringo says the inspiration to record the song came to him when he ran into producer Jack Douglas, who produced Lennon and Ono's Double Fantasy album, among other classic recordings. "Jack asked if I ever heard 'The Bermuda Tapes', John's demos from that time, and I had never heard all this," Ringo says. "The idea that John was talking about me in that time before he died, well, I'm an emotional person. And I just loved this song. I sang it the best that I could. I do well up when I think of John this deeply. And I've done my best. We've done our best. The other good thing is that I really wanted Paul to play on it, and he said yes. Paul came over and he played bass and sings a little bit on this with me. So John's on it in a way. I'm on it and Paul's on it. It's not a publicity stunt. This is just what I wanted." - New Musical Express, 9/13/19...... In other Beatles-related news, renowned Beatleologist Mark Lewisohn recently gave the UK paper The Guardian access to a tape of a meeting held 50 years ago this September, which seemingly shows the Fab Four at loggerheads as John Lennon, Paul McCartney and George Harrison met at Apple headquarters in Savile Row. "It's a revelation," Lewisohn told the paper. "The books have always told us that they knew Abbey Road was their last album and they wanted to go out on an artistic high. But no -- they're discussing the next album. And you think that John is the one who wanted to break them up but, when you hear this, he isn't. Doesn't that rewrite pretty much everything we thought we knew?" The new revelation, including one in which McCartney criticizes Harrison's songwriting, will feature in "Hornsey Road," a new musical from Lewisohn which tracks the creation and recording of Abbey Road. - NME, 9/13/19...... Elswhere on the Fab Four front, the inspiration for the band's famous 1967 song "Strawberry Field Forever" is set to open as a tourist attraction. The song was inspired by a garden of a Salvation Army children's home in Liverpool, where John Lennon used to play growing up. Until now, fans were forced to look through red metal gates at the garden, without being able to access the location. But now Strawberry Field has announced that beginnign Sept. 14 the garden will be open to the public for the first time. According to the website, the site is now "home to an interactive visitor exhibition, community cafe, shop, calm garden spaces for spiritual reflection and -- at its heart -- a Steps to Work programme for young adults with learning disabilities and other barriers to employment." The Victorian house on the site was torn down in 1973, and replaced by a new building that was shut down in 2005. - NME, 9/11/19...... Fred Schneider of the B-52's has confirmed that his band is "scheduled to do two more songs" soon to accompany "a deluxe package of all our records" that's expected out sometime during 2020. They're releasing deluxe this, deluxe that every year," Schneider says, "so we're planning to record two more songs." Schneider adds that Keith Strickland, who's retired from touring with the B-52's, will be writing the music for the songs, with Schneider, Kate Pierson and Cindy Wilson adding lyrics. The B-52's are currently on a North American tour (with opening acts OMD and Berlin) celebrating the 40th anniversary of their first eponymous album. "We won't be doing any major tours anymore, but we'll be doing gigs and festivals and things like that," Schneider explains. The group does have a one-off show booked for Nov. 16 in Mexico City and will be part of the "80s Cruise" setting sail next March 8 from San Juan, Puerto Rico. Schneider says the B-52's "still kick ass" and "it's 40 years of friendship -- more, really -- and still going strong. We didn't know what we were doing back when we started and it just kind of snowballed. I'm ready to relax, a little, but we're not going to just stop cold." - Billboard, 9/10/19...... ABCKO Records announced on Sept. 11 that they will release a massive 50th anniversary Rolling Stones Let It Bleed box set on Nov. 1. The album has been remastered in stereo and mono on both super audio CD and vinyl, and the deluxe release will include a double A-side "Honky Tonk Women"/"You Can't Always Get What You Want" picture sleeve vinyl 7" mono single. Also included in the deluxe edition are three 12" x 12" hand-numbered replica-signed lithographs printed on embossed archival paper, and a full-color 23" x 23" poster with restored art from the original 1969 Decca Records package along with an 80-page hardcover book that includes an essay by Rolling Stone journalist David Fricke and never-before-seen photos by the band's tour photographer Ethan Russell. The label is also releasing the remastered stereo version of Let It Bleed as a stand-alone CD, vinyl LP, and digitally. - New Musical Express, 9/11/19...... Appearing on ABC's Jimmy Kimmel Live on Sept. 11, Ozzy Osbourne's wife Sharon Osbourne shared an update on her husband's health. "He's getting a lot better but it's been a very, very hard road," she told host Jimmy Kimmel. Ozzy had been forced to delay his farewell tour due to the flu (which led to pneumonia) as well as a fall that resulted in spinal surgery and two other major operations. Even so, Sharon says they're both keeping in good spirits about it. After she explained that Ozzy showed her an X-ray of his rod- and bolt-filled body, she joked, "No wonder they call him Iron Man, because I tell you -- he's got so much metal in his body, it's frightening." - Billboard, 9/12/19...... After performing a surprise 4-song set on the sixth story rooftop at the Pace Gallery's massive new Chelsea headquarters in New York City on Sept. 12, The Who announced they'll release their first album in 13 years in November. WHO (for those keeping track, this is the fifth Who studio album with 'who' in the title) will be released on Nov. 22 and according to an interview with frontman Roger Daltrey in July, "it's typical [Pete] Townshend." "He's still got the bite and that knack of creating songs with the earworm that climbs into you. How it fits in the modern market I don't know, but I don't care. I know inside me it's good stuff." WHO will include a studio version of "Ball and Chain," a classic Who rocker in the vein of Quadrophenia that references the U.S.'s controversial detention camp in Cuba: "Down in Guantanamo / we still got the ball and chain," Daltrey growls. "There's a long road to travel for justice to make its claim / so let's bring down the gavel / let the prisoner say his name." Daltrey and Townshend are joined on the album by drummer Zak Starkey and bassist Pino Palladino. The Who/Pace connection wasn't entirely random -- within the new gallery was the cover art to the band's new LP, courtesy of Sir Peter Blake, the renowned U.K. artist best known for crafting the cover imagery for the Beatles' Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band with then-wife Jann Haworth. - Billboard, 9/13/19...... Neil Young and Crazy Horse shared a new song called "Rainbow of Colors" on Sept. 13 that will appear on their upcoming album Colorado "Rainbow of Colors" is a song about the USA and the whole world," Young says. "The idea of this song is that we all belong together. Separating us into races and colors is an old idea whose time has passed." Colorado will drop on Oct. 25 via Reprise Records. - NME, 9/14/19...... Sting has topped Billboard's Dance Club Songs chart for the week ending Sept. 14 with his "If You Love Somebody Set Them Free 2019." It is one of six songs produced by Dave Aude for Sting's My Songs release, which hit stores on May 24. "When Sting asked me to produce for My Songs, I asked if I could work on 'If You Love Somebody Set Them Free,' as it's one of my all-time favorite Sting songs," Aude says. "It's the only one that I totally flipped on its head, and the result is pure dancefloor magic. I'm beyond proud." - Billboard, 9/12/19...... Blues guitar legend Joe Bonamassa will participate in the second annual "Keeping the Blues Alive at Sea Mediterranean II" cruise, which sets sail on Aug. 14 aboard the Norwegian Jade from Barcelona, Spain to Genoa, Italy and Cannes, France. The 6-day cruise will feature music across multiple stages, meet and Greets with artists from the lineup, and one-of-a-kind collaborative sets from blues legends. The specially curated schedule of events offers a variety of music-centric activities including an activity with Bonamassa. Tickets can be booked at BluesAliveAtSeaEurope.com. - Noble PR, 9/10/19...... Having decided to do a "tip of the hat" to his hometown of Detroit, Alice Cooper has recorded a new vinyl EP of Detroit songs with some of the Motor City's most famous players including Bob Seger. Cooper's Breadcrumbs EP is a six-song set of mostly covers with a highlight being a high-octane rendition of Seger's 1966 single "East Side Story," a video of which has been shared on YouTube. "When people say, 'Well, what is your music?' I say it's Detroit rock -- we just put a different slant on it," says the shock rocker, a Detroit native who moved with his family to Phoenix when he was an adolescent. "At the bottom of it, all Alice Cooper records are Detroit, Chuck Berry, hard rock and then twisting it up into what we are lyrically and performance-wise. But you take the bottom of all those songs and they're all guitar-driven rock n' roll songs, which is what I associate as the Detroit sound. I wanted to use all Detroit players and songs either about Detroit or written by (Detroit musicians)." Cooper confessed that he wasn't familiar with Seger's version of "East Side Story," a regional hit for Seger and his band, but his producer Bob Ezrin saw a video of Seger performing it and went, "We could jazz that song up a little bit and turn it into something else.' It has a great story and I love the chord structure and everything to it. We just treated it a little more hard rock." Alice says he got a chance to tell Seger about the recording when he caught him in Arizona on his current Farewell tour. "I said, 'We're gonna do one of your songs,' and he probably thought I wanted to do one of the hits," Cooper recalls. "I told him 'East Side Story,' and he goes, 'What?!' I said, 'Yeah, we're gonna do that one.' I hope he likes it. I'm glad we gave it a second life." Cooper's Breadcrumbs EP, out Sept. 13, also includes covers of the MC5's "Sister Anne," Suzi Quatro's "Your Mama Won't Like Me" and Mitch Ryder & the Detroit Wheels' "Devil With a Blue Dress On," as well as the new song "Go Man Go" and "Detroit City 2020," a remake of the track from his 2003 album The Eyes of Alice Cooper. The EP will also serve as an introduction to Cooper's next album, which will be all original but, he says, feature the Detroit flavor showcased on Breadcrumbs. "We knew we couldn't get to this new album until 2020, so (the EP) is kind of 'let's throw them some bread crumbs' and give everybody a feel of what it's going to be," explains Cooper, who's currently on tour in Europe. - Billboard, 9/9/19...... TV/movie legend Ed Asner will celebrate his upcoming 90th birthday by letting his famous friends rip into him at a celebrity roast and birthday party set for Nov. 3 at the Hollywood Roosevelt Hotel in Los Angeles. The evening will benefit the new Ed Asner Family Center, dedicated to promoting mental health and serving special needs children and their families. Cloris Leachman, Mark Hamill, Lily Tomlin and Brad Garrett will be among the celebrities roasting Asner, with Nancy Sinatra and Steve Lukather of Toto set to perform. From his work as an actor, to fighting social injustice, to his fight for union workers everywhere, to making sure the underdog gets a fair shot and finally to his dedication to helping differently abled individuals and their families be the amazing people they are, my father has been there for everyone," said Asner's son Matthew Asner, who also serves as president of The Ed Asner Family Center. - WENN/Canoe.com, 9/14/19.