Favorite Seventies Artists In The News

Posted by Administrator on April 21st, 2020

In a split-screen clip posted to their Instagram account on Apr. 20, Queen + Adam Lambert performed a new take on their iconic 1977 rock anthem "We Are the Champions" from the comfort of their own homes. During the second chorus, Lambert changed the "we" to "you" as a heartfelt message of love and support to fans who are homebound during coronavirus quarantine. "#Youarethechampions," Queen guitarist Brian May captioned the post. "This version is for those of you who like things to be the right way up!" Meanwhile, in an interview with Sky News on Apr. 18, May spoke out on the deaths of the UK's NHS workers on the coronavirus frontline, calling them a "national tragedy and disgrace." "I just wish we were taking better care of them. I wish they had proper PPE (personal protective equipment) and I wish they'd been better equipped. Unfortunately, the NHS was run down for many years before this happened. And this is the price we pay. The actual lives of these wonderful people who are putting themselves at risk every day," said May, who added he "can't believe we've actually lost doctors and nurses, it's a national tragedy and disgrace. Thank God we've woken up and we can give them the proper support they need. I hope they get everything [they need]." Looking ahead to the future, May added: "And I hope at the end of this, they get a decent wage apart from anything else. - Billboard/New Musical Express, 4/20/20...... Former Led Zeppelin frontman Robert Plant has made a "generous" donation towards frontline medical supplies during the coronavirus pandemic. Plant, 71, donated money to the Gofundme page of M.G. Sportswear, a small clothing manufacturer in Kidderminster, England, that makes scrubs for local hospitals. "We're all in our own vacuums within our own homes feeling relatively safe," Plant told the UK's The Shuttle paper. "I'm pleased to be able to support the work that these good people are doing for our frontline nurses, doctors, carers, in providing much-needed scrubs and masks." Kim Calder, M.G. Sportswear's organizer, said Plant's donation was much needed during the health crisis."We thought it was outrageous that these frontline workers should have to give financially as well as risking their lives every day to protect and preserve us all against coronavirus," she said. - Music-News.com, 4/21/20...... On Apr. 18, Tom Jones issued his own rallying plea to his fans, calling on them to heed government advice while also thanking Britain's National Health Service for their efforts during the current crisis. "...I would like to say thank you so much to the National Health for doing what they did for me then and what they're doing right now for everybody else and we have to do our best to stay home to help the National Health," the "She's a Lady" singer said during the One World: Together At Home charity telecast. "We should stay home and follow orders and go along with what we're being told to do. Stick with it, be together and we'll survive," Sir Tom added, after recalling the frightening experience of being isolated when he had tuberculosis as a child. "I thought that was bad then. But the National Health Service helped me then like they're helping all of us right now." Jones and Little Mix kicked off the UK version of the One World special. The Global Citizen-related concert was curated by Lady Gaga and she appeared alongside such artists as The Rolling Stones, Paul McCartney, Stevie Wonder, Elton John and Taylor Swift in both transatlantic Together At Home specials. The Rolling Stones performed an acoustic rendition of their classic "You Can't Always Get What You Want," which was introduced by frontman Mick Jagger who simply said "Here's one I hope you know." Paul McCartney performed a solo rendition of the Beatles' classic "Lady Madonna" after prefacing it with an impassioned shout out to his mother Mary, a midwife and nurse after the second world war. "My mother, Mary, was a nurse and midwife before and during World War II. I have a lot of time for healthcare workers. We love you, thank you," he explained. Sir Paul's quarantined version of the song was virtually unrecognizable as the jaunty 1968 original, stripped down to just Macca and his electric piano, and performed at a slower, more tender pace. Stevie Wonder paid tribute to the late Bill Withers with an emotional cover of Withers' 1972 hit "Lean on Me," as well as his own Songs in the Key of Life cut "Love's in Need of Love Today." The World Health Organization and Global Citizen teamed up for the massive worldwide special to support and applaud healthcare workers in the fight against COVID-19. A live album featuring all 79 performances from the eight-hour, at-home TV concert, which raised almost $128 million, has also been released. Proceeds from its streaming will go directly to support the COVID-19 Solidarity Response Fund for the World Health Organisation. - Music-News.com/Billboard, 4/21/20...... Former Journey frontman Steve Perry has shared a YouTube video of himself singing a gorgeous a capella rendition of the Beach Boys' 1963 classic "In My My Room" as he self-quarantines during the pandemic. "When I was a teenager, isolating in my room, this song gave me comfort," Perry captioned his appropriately titled cover song video. "Stay safe," he added. Perry, who reunited with his former Journey bandmates on stage at the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame induction ceremony in 2017 but he did not perform with the group, returned from a long hiatus from music in 2018 with the release of his solo album, Traces, his first new album in 25 years. - Billboard, 4/18/20...... Celebrated rock guitarist Jeff Beck and actor/musician Johnny Depp have teamed up for a cover of John Lennon's 1970 track "Isolation," a reimagining of the John Lennon/Plastic Ono Band track that marks their first official release together on all streaming and digital download services. Beck says that he and Depp "have been working on music together for a while now and we recorded this track during our time in the studio last year." "We weren't expecting to release it so soon but given all the hard days and true 'isolation' that people are going through in these challenging times, we decided now might be the right time to let you all hear it," he added. Beck and Depp's "Isolation" can be streamed on Spotify.com. Beck went on to say that "you'll be hearing more from Johnny and me in a little while but until then we hope you find some comfort and solidarity in our take on this Lennon classic." - New Musical Express, 4/17/20...... Fans of Bob Dylan who have over $4 million to invest could become the proud owner of the rock bard's original lyric manuscripts for three of his most famous songs -- "The Times They Are A-Changin'," "Subterranean Homesick Blues" and "Lay Lady Lay." Memorabilia company Moments In Time has acquired lyrics, which show Dylan's crossed out verses and words and instrumental notes. But the three handwritten lyric sheets won't come cheap: "The Times They Are A-Changin" is listed for $2.2 million (£1.8m), while "Subterranean Homesick Blues" has a $1.2 million (£961k) price tag. "Lay Lady Lay" is the cheapest of the three, priced at only $650,000 (£520k). Meanwhile, Dylan recently released two new songs, his first new, original material in eight years. "Murder Most Foul" tackled the 1963 assassination of Pres. John F. Kennedy in the form of a 17-minute ballad, while "I Contain Multitudes" referenced Walt Whitman, The Rolling Stones, Edgar Allen Poe and Frank Sinatra. - NME, 4/19/20...... Willie Nelson launched an online variety show titled "Come and Toke It" on Apr. 20 to mark the "4/20" holiday. The country musician and renowned marijuana advocate helped celebrate the unofficial weed holiday by fronting the live-streamed event, "all from the comfort of quarantine," which lasted for precisely 4 hours and 20 minutes. It saw Nelson hosting a show that aimed to "celebrate cannabis in an entertaining and educational environment" in partnership with Nelson's marijuana brand, Willie's Reserve, and Luck Reunion. A trailer for "Come and Toke It" was shared on YouTube and features Nelson, who added in a statement: "Come and toke it with me on 4/20 at 4:20. There will be music and good times. And, it's for a good cause." The live stream raised money for the Last Prisoner Project, which aims to "bring restorative justice to the cannabis industry." - New Musical Express, 4/17/20...... Genesis announced on Apr. 18 they are launching a new live stream series on YouTube. "Introducing the Genesis Film Festival, a celebration of live footage for you to enjoy at home during lockdown," the band announced on its Instagram page. "Over the coming 5 weeks, every Saturday from 12 p.m. PST / 3 p.m. EDT / 8 p.m. BST a new Genesis concert film will be made available to watch on the band's official YouTube channel for 7 days," the band added, with their Three Sides Live film from 1981 kicking off the series on Apr. 18. Upcoming streams include The Mama Tour from 1984 (4/25); Live at Wembley Stadium from 1987 (5/2); The Way We Walk from 1992 (5/9); and When In Rome from 2007 (5/16). Genesis is joining the likes of Pink Floyd in launching a new live stream series, with the Floyd announcing on Apr. 17 it will post unseen, rare and archival footage once a week on its YouTube channel, beginning the series with their 1994 "Pulse" concert in its entirety. The concert was recorded at the now-defunct Earls Court in London as part of a record-breaking 14-night residency in Oct. 1994 and first released as a concert film in 1995. The Grateful Dead also have announced similar plans with a weekly "Shakedown Stream," which will also feature the band's archivist David Lemieux and historian Gary Lambert holding a fan Q&A before each show is aired. - New Musical Express, 4/18/20...... Speaking of Pink Floyd, its former member Roger Waters said in a recent Rolling Stone interview that even though he'd held a "peace summit" with his former Floyd bandmates Nick Mason and David Gilmour, he thinks a Pink Floyd reunion would be "f---ing awful." Waters says that the summit failed and it made him even less keen on the idea of a band reunion. "I wrote out a sort of a plan because we'd come to sort of a 'I don't really want to talk about this' but my plan didn't bear fruit," Waters said. "This was just, 'Can we release the remastered vinyl version of Animals without it turning into the Third World War?' Wouldn't that be nice? I actually suggested going democratic. I said, 'Why don't we just have a vote? There's only three of us' No, no, they wouldn't have that. God knows why. Not that there is a God you know what I mean?," he added. When asked about a reunion, Waters said: "It wouldn't be nice. It would be f---ing awful. Obviously if you're a fan of those days of Pink Floyd, you would have a different point of view. But I had to live through it. That was my life. And I know in the wake of it, I've been cast as something of a villain by whoever, whatever, I can live with that. But would I trade my liberty for those chains? No f----ing way." - NME, 4/18/20...... Musician Matthew Seligman, best known for his tenure on bass for The Soft Boys, has died aged 64. As well as playing on The Soft Boys' 1980 masterpiece Underwater Moonlight, Seligman was briefly a member of 80s pop outfit The Thompson Twins, and played bass for David Bowie at Live Aid in 1985. After The Soft Boys disbanded, Seligman would go on to play with the band's frontman Robyn Hitchcock on his first two solo albums. Robyn Hitchcock announced the news via a lengthy tribute on social media. "I'm profoundly grateful to have played music with him -- you could really see his face light up like a full moon when he listened back to a take he enjoyed," Hitchcock wrote. - NME, 4/18/20...... Six-time Emmy nominated actor Brian Dennehy died on the evening of Apr. 15 of natural causes in New Haven, Conn. He was 81. The "regular-guy" actor whose bulldog build, good-guy demeanor and no-nonsense approach meshed in an array of memorable roles for film, television and the theater, including First Blood (1982), Gorky Park (1983), Silverado (1985), F/X (1986) and its sequel, Best Seller (1987), The Last of the Finest (1990) and Assault on Precinct 13 (2005). At 6 foot 3 and 250 pounds, the former college offensive lineman could also be a gentle giant, as when he portrayed the sympathetic bartender who counsels Dudley Moore in 10 (1979), the friendly alien leader Walter in Cocoon (1985) and Chris Farley's pop in Tommy Boy (1995). Mr. Dennehy won Tony Awards in 1999 and 2003 for playing Willy Loman in Arthur Miller's "Death of a Salesman," and also starred on Broadway opposite Christopher Plummer in a 2007 revival of "Inherit the Wind." Born on July 9, 1938, in Bridgeport, Conn., Mr. Dennehy scored a big break when he was cast in David Rabe's off-Broadway Vietnam War play "Streamers" and won acclaim. After guest-starring roles on shows including Kojak, Police Woman and M*A*S*H, Mr. Dennehy fittingly made his movie debut in the Burt Reynolds comedy Semi-Tough (1977), playing a football player who dangles a woman over the ledge of a terrace. More recently, Mr. Dennehy had recurring TV roles as an Irish mob boss on Public Morals, a sheriff on Hap and Leonard and a KGB agent on The Blacklist. The latter NBC series is expected to pay tribute to Mr. Dennehy in the coming weeks with a card at the end of the show. Survivors include his second wife, a costume designer he wed in 1989, five children and seven grandchildren. "Larger than life, generous to a fault, a proud and devoted father and grandfather, he will be missed by his wife Jennifer, family and many friends," his daughter, actress Elizabeth Dennehy, wrote in tribute on Twitter. - The Hollywood Reporter, 4/16/20.

Bob Dylan has purportedly barred late night TV host Stephen Colbert from performing a TV parody of his famous 1965 song "Subterranean Homesick Blues." During the Apr. 14 episode of CBS's The Late Show with Stephen Colbert, Colbert told guest Cate Blanchett, appearing remotely, that "I wanted to do a parody of the 'Subterranean Homesick Blues' in response to Bob Dylan putting out this new album, about the death of John F. Kennedy... and he will not let me do it." Colbert then asked Blanchett, who co-starred with Dylan in the 2007 movie I'm Not There, why she thought he wouldn't let him do it. "I think it's the word parody," the Oscar winner mused. "If you'd said you wanna inhabit... Words matter to Dylan!" "Damn poets and their words...!," Colbert responded. "I wanna personally mock you and your entire work!" Dylan recently scored his first-ever No. 1 song on the U.S. pop chart with "Murder Most Foul," a nearly 17-minute song about the assassination of JFK. - Music-News.com, 4/16/20...... Bruce Springsteen has announced a star-studded benefit for The New Jersey Pandemic Relief Fund with performances from himself and other famous current and former Garden State residents including Jon Bon Jovi, Halsey, SZA, Tony Bennett, Charlie Puth, Chris Rock, Danny Devito, Whoopi Goldberg, Chelsea Handler, Kelly Ripa and Jon Stewart. The virtual "JERSEY 4 JERSEY" concert, set for Apr. 22, will help raise funds for NJ residents whose lives have been impacted by the Covid-19 health crisis. Springsteen -- who still lives in New Jersey after relocating from California in the 1990s -- said in a video announcement on ABC's Good Morning America that "New Jersey has been hit especially hard by the coronavirus pandemic. And the people of New Jersey have always stepped up during difficult times... This is out effort to do everything we can for our folks here in The Garden State, and I hope you will join us." The show will be aired on ABC, via Apple Music and E Street Radio on SiriusXM on Apr. 22 from 7:00 p.m. EDT. - Music-News.com, 4/16/20...... As the ongoing coronavirus lockdown deprives music fans of live shows, one man in England has taken it upon himself to recreate late Queen frontman Freddie Mercury's legendary Live Aid performance. Standing on his roof and using a broomstick for a microphone, the unnamed man lip-synced Mercury's now-iconic "day-oh" sequence from Queen's 1985 show at Live Aid. Footage was first uploaded to a YouTube Channel under the name Felicity Griffiths, who captioned the video "This is what my husband has resorted to" during the crisis. Meanwhile, Queen guitarist Brian May said during an interview on Apr. 15 that he believes humanity will "learn some great lessons from the coronavirus pandemic." "If you want to get deep into it, I think we should be looking again at whether we should be eating animals," May said. "That's a central issue here, this pandemic seemed to come from people eating animals and it's becoming more well known that eating animals is not the greatest thing for our health." May went on to explain that he's gone completely vegan since the beginning of 2020, transitioning to a plant-based diet after years as an animal activist. "To go vegan was just a decision, and I haven't been preachy about it, but now we've seen more of the effects of how eating animals has brought us to our knees as a species," May added. "I think it's time to re-examine our world in a way that doesn't abuse other species." - New Musical Express/Billboard, 4/12/20...... In related news, a longtime vegan rock star has called for Chinese "wet markets," which got their name due to their frequently hosed-down floors, to be banned due to the current coronavirus pandemic. In an interview on Howard Stern's Sirius XM radio channel, Paul McCartney said: "I really hope that this will mean the Chinese government says, "OK guys, we have really got to get super hygienic around here. Let's face it, it is a little bit medieval eating bats." The Beatles icon went on to suggest that the unsanitary nature of the markets was responsible for more than just the coronavirus. "It seems like Sars, avian flu, all sorts of other stuff that has afflicted us -- and what's it for?" Macca said. "For these quite medieval practices. They need to clean up their act. This may lead to [change]. If this doesn't, I don't know what will." Sir Paul, who has been a vegetarian and animal rights activist for many years, added that the markets "might as well be letting off atomic bombs" in terms of the impact they were having on world safety. "I understand that part of it is going to be: people have done it for ever, this is the way we do things," he noted. "But they did slavery forever, too. You've got to change things at some point." McCartney also expressed sadness about the cancellation of the Glastonbury 2020 festival in England, which he was set to headline, due to the pandemic: "What's disappointing for me is the people who bought tickets, who were looking forward to this and thinking here's something groovy to do in the summer, and suddenly the plug is pulled, and we can't come around and play for them. It's sad for us, too...we were looking forward to that." - New Musical Express, 4/13/20...... In other Beatles-related news, a medley of the Fab Four's songs provided the soundtrack for a light show at New York's Empire State Building on Apr. 11. The display coincided with the 50th-anniversary of the band's split on Apr. 11, 1970, and is part of the famous tourist destination's continued run of special events while New York is under a stay-at-home order. The show, produced by iHeartMedia and Empire State Realty Trust (ESRT), featured songs including "Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band (Reprise)" and "A Day In The Life." The medley was broadcast on New York radio station Q104.3 and synced to the light show at the Empire State Building by lighting artist Marc Brickman. - NME, 4/11/16...... Former Genesis frontman Peter Gabriel is doing his part to entertain fans on lockdown by offering up one of his classic concerts on the "Real World" Vimeo channel. Gabriel says he was recovering from a cold when he performed at the Arena di Verona in Italy with an orchestra in 2010, but he still considers the show one of his favorites, and he asked his daughter, Anna, to film it. Gabriel has now uploaded the rarely seen "Scratch My Back" concert film, urging fans who watch to consider donating to the Italian Red Cross and Italy's Civil Protection Department. "For almost fifty years I have loved Italy, the people, the culture, the food, the history and more recently the island of Sardinia," Gabriel said in a statement. "I speak some Italian -- really badly, but enough for it to feel like our home from home. It really hit us hard as a family, to watch the daily reports of deaths and devastation that this brutal virus has brought... Although I was recovering from a cold and not quite hitting the notes as I wanted, Anna did a wonderful job with her collaborator Andrew Gaston, and a great team, in capturing a very special night." Gabriel concluded by saying he's looking forward to performing for his fans again "when this genie is back in the bottle." - Music-News.com, 4/14/20...... Meanwhile, Tom Johnston and Patrick Simmons of the Doobie Brothers have released a playlist of some of their favorite songs that are keeping them company through the coronavirus shutdown. Their list includes classic soul and blues and nods to two legends who just left us, John Prine ("When I Get to Heaven" and "Long Monday") and Bill Withers ("Lean on Me"). "When it comes to making a playlist for the 'times' we are all going through, I immediately think of sonic 'comfort food,'" Johnston says. "Music that brings out a physical and emotional reaction. We all need something to brighten our day and comfort our soul. These are just a few of the many tunes I would list to give a sampler of what I mean. Music is the one thing that everybody can relate to no matter what style you're into. Truly the international language!" The list also includes songs by Paul Simon ("Wristband"), Mountain ("Never in My Life"), Aretha Franklin ("A Change Is Gonna Come"), Stevie Wonder ("Signed, Sealed, Delivered"), Otis Redding ("Sittin on the Dock of the Bay") and the Eagles ("Life in the Fast Lane"). - Billboard, 4/13/20...... Todd Rundgren isn't just enjoying the environs at his home in Hawaii during the lockdown, he's also been busy with a couple of recording projects. Rundgren has been working on an all-star remake of "Just One Victory," the album-closing anthem from his 1973 LP A Wizard, A True Star. Slated to be offered for free use for Democratic candidates during the 2020 campaign, the video will feature the likes of Daryl Hall, Joe Walsh, Paul Shaffer and Don Was, with more joining on a daily basis. "I've been enduring the same three years that everybody else has, and just the opportunity to do something besides complain appeals," he says. "There's a lot of noise out there, so I wanted to figure out a way to participate without simply making more noise. Simply having an opinion, which of course I do, is not enough. We want to turn that opinion into something that's encouraging a lot of people to become involved," he added. Rundgren says he's planning to announce a full list of participants in May and he wants "very specifically want to defeat Republican candidates." "It used to be that you didn't have to watch (Pres. Trump) lie every day; Now it's like the daily lie or the daily pile of lies. It's mind-numbing in a way. But our real thrust is not even just him. He's the head of the snake, but it's a long snake and we need to chop that snake into little, tiny pieces." Like other musicians, Rundgren had to scrap spring tour plans and hopes to reschedule the shows for summer, but says he also likes the idea of performing separate shows for ticket buyers in different cities to create a virtual tour. "The show can come to your house instead of you having to leave your house and hang out in a crowd of people, which people may be leery about doing even after (concerts) start happening again," Rundgren says. "You can do it in a way that still makes people feel a little bit local and special." - Billboard, 4/15/20...... Sir Andrew Lloyd Webber of "Jesus Christ Superstar" fame joined the cast of NBC's Jesus Christ Superstar Live on Apr. 12 to raise money for The Actor's Fund's coronavirus relief program. Appearing on digital Broadway talk show Stars in the House, the legendary composer reflected on the unique origins of the Biblical musical. "When Tim Rice came up with the idea of writing about the last seven days of the life of Christ, nobody thought that it could remotely work as a theater show," Webber told host Seth Rudetsky. "So we had to record it as if it was kind of like a radio play with music, if you see what I mean. The whole point was that if you were listening to it at home, you had to be able to follow the story with no sets, no costumes, no anything... It never was in that form conceived for the theater." The virtual talk show also reunited cast members Jason Tam, Brandon Victor Dixon, Norm Lewis and Alice Cooper, who played Peter, Judas Iscariot, Caiaphas and King Herod, respectively, in the 2018 live concert special, which was rebroadcast on Easter by NBC. The full episode of Stars in the House can be streamed on YouTube. - Billboard, 4/13/20...... The first footage from the upcoming David Bowie biopic Stardust has been shared on YouTube. Announced in early 2019, the film will follow Bowie (played by Johnny Flynn) on his first trip to the US in 1971, the same visit that is said to have inspired the creation of Bowie's Ziggy Stardust alter-ego. In the clip, Bowie and his publicist Ron Oberman (played by Marc Maron) discuss Bowie's Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders From Mars album. "I think you're gonna be the biggest goddamn star in America," Oberman assures Bowie. "Seriously man, this is a great record." Also set to appear in Stardust is The Hunger Games' Jena Malone, who will play Bowie's first wife, Angie Bowie. It will be directed by Emmy winner Gabriel Range (Death Of A President), with Christopher Bell on scriptwriting duties. - New Musical Express, 4/16/20...... Ozzy Osbourne has announced he'll 10% of the sales from his remaining stock of tour merchandise to The Michael J. Fox Foundation, which funds research into Parkinson's disease. "Past tours exclusive merch last bits of remaining stock available until sold out!" Ozzy tweeted on Apr.15). "April is #ParkinsonsAwarenessMonth so 10% of ALL sales going directly to the @MichaelJFoxOrg for #Parkinsons Research. You can shop for the items now here (stores.ebay.com/ozzfest)." Among the items for sale are a number of Black Sabbath and Ozzy t-shirts, as well as keychains, patches, seat cushions, hoodies, tote bags and polished aluminum drum sticks. - Billboard, 4/15/20...... Willie Nelson's virtual Farm Aid concert held during the second weekend in May raised more than $500,000 to support American family farmers and ranchers affected by the coronavirus crisis. Nelson performed at and hosted the hour-long live "At Home With Farm Aid" event on Apr. 11, along with his sons, Lukas and Micah Nelson. Thanks to a partnership with AXS TV, it featured at-home performances from Farm Aid co-founders Neil Young and John Mellencamp, and board member Dave Matthews. While the show itself was free to watch, Farm Aid says the event helped it cull relief fund donations from all 50 states, and 15 countries. It will use the dollars to offer family farmers and ranchers in need with emergency grants, as well as legal, financial and mental health support resources through its 1-800-FARM-AID hotline. - Billboard, 4/15/20...... The Grateful Dead have launched a new weekly livestream series where they'll stream some of their classic gigs. "Shakedown Stream" will share full concert recordings from the band's history every Friday, and began with a 1989 gig at the Rich Stadium in Orchard Park, New York, which was released in 2005 as live album Truckin' Up To Buffalo. Before every gig in the series, the band's archivist David Lemieux and historian Gary Lambert will hold a fan Q&A. "Shakedown Stream" will continue the following week with a showing of 1977's The Grateful Dead Movie, capturing the band's five-night residency in San Francisco in 1974, featuring never-seen-before footage. - NME, 4/12/20...... In a new interview with Tim Cridland's YouTube series The Greatest Music of All Time, Don McLean revealed that he isn't a fan of a lot of today's music, and some of it "makes you want to hang yourself." "The music doesn't mean anything," the "American Pie" singer told Cridland. "The music reflects the spiritual nature of the society. We have a kind of a nihilistic society now," McLean told the host. "No one believes in anything, no one likes anything, no one has any respect for anything much. The music shows that." Asked about his thoughts on today's hits on the radio and whether he believes music as a whole has deteriorated, McLean said that it "doesn't exist as far as I can see." "Music is not on the radio," McLean continued. "There's some form of music like sound, but it's not music to me. There was a show called Name that Tune back in the 1950s, and by the fourth note, they would say, "Oh, that's "Strangers in the Night.' There's nothing on the radio you can name in 20 notes, almost." He added that he felt many of today's catchy songs involving notes and choruses "repeated over and over again" end up becoming "drummed into your head or makes you want to hang yourself." But McLean said he still had faith in such songwriters as Paul Simon and Paul McCartney, who are still writing melodies." However, he claimed today's musical groups don't know how to write a melody...at all. "They have a lot of riffs. They're very cool and the records are great but they're not melodies and the lyrics are not about anything," McLean explained. "It's very vague and vacant." The full interview can be viewed on YouTube. - New Musical Express, 4/14/20...... Lee Konitz, a celebrated jazz saxophonist and last surviving member of Miles Davis "Birth of the Cool" sessions, died on Apr. 15 due to complications with COVID-19. He was 92. Born 1927 in Chicago, Mr. Konitz studied clarinet early on, then switched to alto, an instrument he mastered like no other. During his seven-decade career, Mr. Konitz recorded for such labels as Atlantic, Prestige, Polydor and Verve. And he was one of the last active musicians to have played all three ever Birdland clubs in New York City. He was also the subject of a biography, written by Andy Hamilton and published in 2007. - Billboard, 4/16/20.