Favorite Seventies Artists In The News

Posted by Administrator on October 28th, 2022

Jerry Lee Lewis, the outrageous rock 'n' roll pioneer whose outrageous talent, energy and ego collided on such definitive records as "Great Balls of Fire" and "Whole Lotta Shakin' Goin' On" and sustained a career otherwise upended by personal scandal, died on the morning of Oct. 28. He was 87. The last survivor of a generation of groundbreaking performers that included Elvis Presley, Chuck Berry and Little Richard, Mr. Lewis died at his Mississippi home, south of Memphis, Tenn., according to his rep. The news came two days after the publication of an erroneous and subsequently retracted report of his death by celebrity gossip site TMZ.com. Born in Ferriday, La., on Sept. 29, 1935, Mr. Lewis was the cousin of TV evangelist Jimmy Swaggart and country star Mickey Gilley. He first learned to play guitar, but found the instrument too confining and longed for an instrument that only the rich people in his town could afford -- a piano. His life changed when his father pulled up in his truck one day and presented him a dark-wood, upright piano. He took to the instrument immediately, and began sneaking off to Black juke joints and absorbing everything from gospel to boogie-woogie. Conflicted early on between secular and scared music, he quit school at 16, with plans of becoming a piano-playing preacher. Mr. Lewis briefly attended Southwestern Assemblies of God University in Waxahachie, Tex., a fundamentalist Bible college, but was expelled, reportedly, for playing the "wrong" kind of music. A roadhouse veteran by his early 20s, Mr. Lewis took off for Memphis in 1956 and showed up at the studios of Sun Records, the musical home of Elvis, Carl Perkins and Johnny Cash. Told by company founder Sam Phillips to go learn some rock 'n roll, Mr. Lewis returned and soon hurried off "Whole Lotta Shakin"' in a single take. "I knew it was a hit when I cut it," he later said. "Sam Phillips thought it was gonna be too risque, it couldn't make it. If that's risque, well, I'm sorry." That song, along with "Great Balls of Fire" -- a sexualized take on Biblical imagery that Mr. Lewis initially refused to record -- were his most enduring early songs and performance pieces. He had only a handful of other pop hits, including "High School Confidential" and "Breathless," but they were enough to ensure his place as a rock 'n' roll architect. For a brief time, in 1958, he was a contender to replace Presley as rock's prime hit maker after Elvis was drafted into the Army. But while Mr. Lewis toured in England, the press learned three damaging things: He was married to 13-year-old (possibly even 12-year-old) Myra Gale Brown, she was his cousin, and he was still married to his previous wife. His tour was canceled, he was blacklisted from the radio and his earnings dropped overnight to virtually nothing. "I never did hide anything from people," Mr. Lewis said in a 2014 interview. "I just went on with my life as usual." Over the following decades, Mr. Lewis struggled with drug and alcohol abuse, legal disputes and physical illness. Two of his many marriages ended in his wife's early death. Myra Brown herself divorced him in the early 1970s and would later allege physical and mental cruelty that nearly drove her to suicide. Mr. Lewis reinvented himself as a country performer in the 1960s, and the music industry eventually forgave him, long after he stopped having hits. He won three Grammys, and recorded with some of the industry's greatest stars. Mr. Lewis had a run of top 10 country hits between 1967-70, and hardly mellowed at all. He performed drinking songs such as "What's Made Milwaukee Famous (Has Made a Loser Out of Me)", the roving eye confessions of "She Still Comes Around" and a dry-eyed cover of a classic ballad of abandonment, "She Even Woke Me Up to Say Goodbye." He had remained popular in Europe and a 1964 album, Live at the Star Club, Hamburg, is widely regarded as one of the greatest concert records. A 1973 performance proved more troublesome: Mr. Lewis sang for the Grand Ole Opry and broke two longstanding rules -- no swearing and no non-country songs. In 2006, he released Last Man Standing, featuring Mick Jagger, Bruce Springsteen, B.B. King and George Jones. In 2010, he brought in Mick Jagger, Keith Richards, Sheryl Crow, Tim McGraw and others for the album Mean Old Man. In 1986, along with Elvis, Chuck Berry and others, he made the inaugural class of inductees for the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame and joined the Country Hall of Fame this year. He won a Grammy in 1987 as part of an interview album that was cited for Best Spoken Word recording, and he received a lifetime achievement Grammy in 2005. The following year, "Whole Lotta Shakin"' was selected for the Library of Congress' National Recording Registry. Mr. Lewis married seven times, and was rarely far from trouble or death. His fourth wife, Jaren Elizabeth Gunn Pate, drowned in a swimming pool in 1982 while suing for divorce. His fifth wife, Shawn Stephens, 23 years his junior, died of an apparent drug overdose in 1983. Within a year, he had married Kerrie McCarver, then 21. She filed for divorce in 1986, accusing him of physical abuse and infidelity. He countersued, but both petitions eventually were dropped. They finally divorced in 2005 after several years of separation. The couple had one child, Jerry Lee III. Another son by a previous marriage, Steve Allen Lewis, 3, drowned in a swimming pool in 1962, and son Jerry Lee Jr. died in a traffic collision at 19 in 1973. He also had two daughters, Phoebe and Lori Leigh, and is survived by his wife Judith. His finances were also chaotic. Mr. Lewis made millions, but he liked his money in cash and ended up owing hundreds of thousands of dollars to the Internal Revenue Service. When he began welcoming tourists in 1994 to his longtime residence near Nesbit, Miss. -- complete with a piano-shaped swimming pool -- he set up a 900 phone number fans could call for a recorded message at $2.75 a minute. "The Killer" not only outlasted his contemporaries but saw his life and music periodically reintroduced to younger fans, including the 1989 biopic Great Balls of Fire, starring Dennis Quaid, and Ethan Coen's 2022 documentary Trouble in Mind. A 2010 Broadway music, "Million Dollar Quartet," was inspired by a recording session that featured Mr. Lewis, Elvis, Perkins and Cash. Mr. Lewis was unable to attend his induction into the Country Music Hall of Fame in Nashville earlier this month due to the flu. "It is with heartfelt sadness and disappointment that I write to you today from my sick bed, rather than be able to share my thoughts in person," he said in an acceptance statement. "The Killer is Gone," Rolling Stone rock critic David Wild tweeted shortly after Mr. Lewis' death. "Say what you will about the man, it took Great Balls of Fire to Rock & Roll this world like #JerryLeeLewis did." - AP, 10/28/22.

Renowned rock photographer Lynn Goldsmith has just released Music in the '80s, a 352-page hardcover book of some of the most famous musicians from the "Decade of Greed." Goldsmith says her initial reaction when her publisher suggested she put together a book of her photography from the 1980s was "that was a terrible decade!... [I] thought that it just would be a lot of pictures of hair bands," however her attitude changed after compiling a couple images of her work from that era. "It was actually an amazing decade," she says. "There was so much new music and such a variety of music on the charts. "You had Bananarama and Barry Manilow. Bruce Springsteen and Spandau Ballet. Madonna and Prince. Herbie Hancock had a hit with 'Rockit.'" Even Goldsmith herself was writing, recording and performing as Will Powers, a sort of self-help Dry Cleaning for the era. "So then I was like, 'I love the '80s!'" she says, which resulted in her new book that's an alphabetically arranged collection -- from AC/DC to Ziggy Marley -- of her photos from the decade. But Goldsmith, whose work is among the permanent collections of the Museum of Modern Art and the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame Museum, says she has no tales to tell. "I'm so focused on the visual, you're safe telling me anything," says the photographer, who owns a Nashville gallery and is working on a Springsteen photo book. "I could never repeat it because I could never remember it." - Billboard, 10/27/22...... In a new interview with Classic Rock Online, former Rolling Stones member Bill Wyman revealed he and his former bandmates exchange Christmas gifts ever year and that he, Stones guitarist Keith Richards and Stones frontman Mick Jagger are "like distant relatives. Wyman, 86, says Stones guitarist Keith Richards sends him scented candles every holiday season and "we all send each other birthday and Christmas presents. "It's still a family thing, social not business, and it works really well. It's like distant relatives -- you've got an Auntie Elsie and an Uncle Fred who are really charming but you don't want to see them all the time," Wyman says. However Bill -- who played with the iconic band between 1962 and 1993 -- admitted it did take time for him to get back on friendly terms with Mick, 79, and Keith, 78, because they were desperate for him to keep playing with the band. "When I first left the Stones it took a few months to rebuild that relationship with them. It was quite stressful and they didn't want me to leave. So they became bitchy. Instead of being nice and saying, 'Great 30 years. Cheers mate.' Mick would say the most absurd, stupid things, with that spoilt attitude he had. He'd say things like, 'Oh well, if anybody has to play bass I'll do it. It can't be that hard.'" Wyman concluded: "Then when it came time for them to do the '94/'95 tour they had to make a final decision. Mick and Charlie [Watts] came over and spent the evening with me, trying to talk me into staying. Have I had any regrets about not going back? None whatsoever." - Music-News.com, 10/27/22...... One Day at a Time star Valerie Bertinelli has taken part in a popular new TikTok trend, seemingly in response to a story about her in Matthew Perry's new memoir, Friends, Lovers, and the Big Terrible Thing. The actress shared a video lip syncing along to Taylor Swift's Midnights track, "Anti-Hero," featuring the lyrics, "It's me, hi. I'm the problem, it's me." "Anyone misbehave in their 20s and early 30s?," Bertinelli captioned the clip. "Are you mortified? - @realwolfiesmom." In Perry's memoir, he detailed having an unrequited crush on Bertinelli while the the two co-starred in the 1990 sitcom Sydney, in which Bertinelli played a single woman trying to make it as a private detective in Los Angeles and Perry played her younger brother. "I fell madly in love with Valerie Bertinelli, who was clearly in a troubled marriage," Perry wrote. "My crush was crushing; not only was she way out of my league, but she was also married to one of the most famous rock stars on the planet, Eddie Van Halen." He continued that one night, he decided to make a move while at Bertinelli and Van Halen's house. "As the night progressed, it was clear that Eddie had enjoyed the fruits of the vine a little too hard, one more time, and eventually he just passed out, not ten feet away from us, but still," he recalled. "This was my chance! If you think I didn't actually have a chance in hell you'd be wrong, dear reader... Valerie and I had a long, elaborate makeout session." However, the next day, Bertinelli "made no mention" of what happened and was acting completely normal. "I quickly got the hint and also played the role I was supposed to, but inside I was devastated," Perry wrote, noting that he was relieved when the show was ultimately canceled, "and I didn't have to see Valerie anymore." Bertinelli was married to the late rock legend, who died in 2020 at age 65, from 1981 to 2007. The two share 31-year-old son, rock bassist Wolfgang Van Halen. - Billboard, 10/27/22...... A new "supergroup" dubbed Elegant Weapons has been formed by members of Judas Priest, Pantera, and Rainbow. The band features Judas Priest's Richie Faulkner on guitar and Scott Travis on drums, Rex Brown of Pantera on bass, and Rainbow/MSG's Ronnie Romero on vocals. Judas Priest touring guitarist Andy Sneap has also handled production duties for the group's debut album Horns For A Halo, which is due to be released in spring 2023 via Nuclear Blast. Elegant Weapons' sound is described by Faulkner as "a mix of Jimi Hendrix, Priest, Sabbath, solo Ozzy [Osbourne] and Black Label Society... heavy, catchy, and with melody. Sort of old school and modern at once if that makes any sense, and actually down-tuned a whole step." - NME, 10/26/22...... As Dolly Parton preps for her induction into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame on Nov. 5, the 76-year-old country legend says she doubts she'll ever tour again, "but... do special shows here and there, now and then." "Maybe do a long weekend of shows, or just a few shows at a festival. But I have no intention of going on a full-blown tour anymore," Parton told the concert industry publication Pollstar. Dolly's most recent tour was her 2016 "Pure & Simple Tour," which included 60 shows in the US and Canada. "I've done that my whole life, and it takes so much time and energy," says Dolly, who's released a steady stream of albums, books, movies and TV projects in recent years. "I like to stay a little closer to home with my husband [Carl Dean]. We're getting older now, and I don't want to be gone for four or five weeks at a time. Something could happen. I would not feel right about that, if I were gone and somebody needed me. Or I would feel bad if I had to leave a tour if somebody got sick at home and needed me and then I had to walk out on the fans." After hinting she'd like to record a rock album in 2021, Parton also revealed in the interview that she's currently working on that album and plans to re-record "Stairway to Heaven," the Led Zeppelin classic she recorded in a bluegrass-inspired arrangement as part of her 2002 album Halos & Horns, part of her bluegrass trilogy of albums. "But I'm going to redo that really on the money," she told Pollstar. "I did it kind of bluegrass-style when I did it; but when I do the rock album, I'm going to actually re-record it - and do it more true to the regular record. I'm trying to see if Robert Plant might sing on it. Maybe Jimmy Page might do the pick-up part on it. I'm looking forward to dragging in some of the great classic people, girls and boys, to sing on some of the songs. I'm not far enough along to discuss who and what, but I am going to do an album." - Billboard, 10/27/22...... AC/DC's Brian Johnson has responded to the rumour that original AC/DC vocalist Bon Scott wrote lyrics for the band's Back In Black LP before his death in 1980. Discussing the theories in a new Rolling Stone interview, and why he felt forced into discussing them, Johnson said: "There was one particular journalist -- a writer in Australia -- who just wouldn't let go of this thing. And of course, Malcolm and Angus [Young, AC/DC guitarists] were, like, 'What a f------ load of bull---.' It wasn't something that stuck in me craw a lot, but every now and again, a fan would come up and say, 'This guy's saying this.' And factually, it wasn't true. There wasn't an Internet then; it didn't really get further than Australia. But I thought it was awful I had to explain myself and that's why in the book, I went, once and for all, I want to put this baby to bed." Johnson took over vocal duties for Scott in 1980 until 2016, and again from 2018 to the present day. His new 373-page memoir, The Lives of Brian, hit stores on Oct. 25. Another revelation in the book is Johnson's admission that he "couldn't watch" Guns N' Roses frontman Axl Rose fill in for him in AC/DC. Johnson also recalled the time he had to step away from AC/DC due to hearing issues in 2016, with Rose stepping in for him until he was well enough to return. He went on to say he couldn't bring himself to watch Rose in the role: "I'm told that he did a great job. But I couldn't watch -- especially when you've been doing it for 35 years. It's like finding a stranger in your house, sitting in your favourite chair. But I bear no grudges. It was a tough situation." - NME, 10/26/22...... On Oct. 24 Elton John announced he's moving two of his "Farewell Yellow Brick Road" headline concerts to avoid preparations for the 2023 Eurovision Song Contest. John had been set to play at Liverpool's M&S Bank Arena on April 22 and 23, 2023, but following the news that the venue will be hosting Eurovision 2023, the shows have been shifted forwards to March 23 and 24. Original tickets remain valid. The pair of shows in Liverpool will now kick off Elton's 2023 European tour. "Given the electric reception that Elton received when he played to a sold-out Anfield Stadium earlier this year, he couldn't wish for a better place to start the final leg of his 'Farewell Yellow Brick Road' tour," the M&S venue said in a statement. After the Liverpool gigs, the Rocket Man bids London farewell with an ambitious 9-night stand at the O2 on Apr. 2, 4, 5, 8, 9, 12, 13, 16, 17 and 19. Subsequent concerts include Birmingham, Manchester, Leeds, and Aberdeen before wrapping in Glasgow on June 18. John's "farewell" tour was originally announced back in 2018 before it was pushed back to 2021 due to Covid and then rescheduled to 2023 after the musician needed an operation following a fall. Earlier in October, he added a handful of new dates to the run. - NME, 10/24/22...... John Lennon's eldest son Julian Lennon premiered the video for his new single, "Lucky Ones," on YouTube on Oct. 19. Julian says the song is about depicting a love for music that brings humans from different cultures together as they take steps to nurse our environment back to health. In 2007, Lennon founded The White Feather Foundation to address environmental and humanitarian issues. It was created with the intent to work with partners worldwide to raise funds for the betterment of all life and to honor those who have made a difference. Over the years, he has dedicated his time to working on creative projects across mediums such as music, photography, documentaries, children's books and more, while donating the majority of his profits to the foundation. Lucky Ones" is the single currently at radio on Julian Lennon's most recent full-length, Jude. The album was released after the 59-year-old musician's 11-year hiatus from releasing new music. - Billboard, 10/24/22...... Ozzy Osbourne has been confirmed as one of the headliners at the forthcoming Metaverse virtual music festival. The event, which will take place in the specially created Decentraland virtual world, is set to take place from Nov. 10-13. Over 100 artists will participating and Osbourne's Ozzfest will be staged as part of the event with an appearance from the Black Sabbath legend himself. It will be the first time Ozzfest has been held since 2018 and further acts will be announced in the coming weeks. The online event, which is in its second year, is free to attend and users will not be required to wear a VR set. More info can be found at themetaversefestival.io. - NME, 10/24/22...... Robert Louis Gordy, Sr., younger brother of Motown Records founder Berry Gordy and chief executive for many years of the company's successful music publishing division Jobete Music, died of natural causes at his home in Marina del Ray, Calif. on Oct. 21. He was 91. The youngest of eight siblings, Mr. Gordy enjoyed a little-noticed music career as a recording engineer and songwriter before taking command of Motown's Jobete division in 1965. Born July 15, 1931 in Detroit, Robert Gordy followed his elder brother into boxing, then moved into music circles such as the city's Flame Show Bar. In 1958, he co-wrote and recorded "Everyone Was There" under the name of Bob Kayli. Leased to Carlton Records, the lightweight pop song referencing recent hits such as "Peggy Sue" and "Yakety Yak" became a minor chart success. After brother Berry started Motown Records, Mr. Gordy left a post office job to join the venture, initially working for in-house engineer Mike McLean. "At that time, he was building the first eight-track machine in the east," Gordy later explained. "I put together the electronics, learned how to read the schematics, helped with the writing and so on." He went on to become the company's first stereo engineer, before working for the Quality Control department. Motown's explosive success from 1964 onwards with The Supremes and other acts made Jobete a substantial revenue source, capitalizing on the talents of writers Smokey Robinson, Holland/Dozier/Holland, Norman Whitfield and Barrett Strong, among others. Jobete opened its own professional department in 1966, securing covers and expanding the catalogue's reach. Among its most popular titles to this day: "My Girl," "Dancing In The Street," "I Heard It Through The Grapevine," "The Tears Of A Clown," "You Are The Sunshine Of My Life," "What's Going On" and "For Once In My Life." Earnings continued to grow as stars such as Stevie Wonder and Marvin Gaye evolved into self-sufficient, influential songwriters. By 1971, with Robert Gordy promoted to vice president/general manager, the division had 5,000 copyrights under its roof and 100 writers under contract. He joined the board of the National Music Publishers' Association, and actively participated in industry seminars and conferences. He retired from the post in 1985. In his 1994 memoir, To Be Loved, Berry Gordy wrote, "So Robert, I'd like to thank you for moving Jobete from a holding company for our copyrights into a highly profitable, competitive international publishing company, keeping us No. 1 for many years. And also for being my little brother." - Billboard, 10/26/22...... Elvis Presley's ex-wife Priscilla Presley has announced a five-evening series of intimate conversations, "An Evening with Priscilla Presley," in the UK in the spring of 2023. "I'm not going to hold anything back. People are going to understand Elvis even better," the 77-year-old actor and former wife of the late King of Rock & Roll says. "It's taken me a while to get to this point in my life where I'm comfortable to fully share with the audience," Presley told New Musical Express. "I'm so protective of Elvis and Graceland and our life. This will be more about Elvis the man, not the entertainer. We all know he was a great entertainer, but this is what was going on behind the scenes, and what his fears and loves were." Presley, who was married to the late singer from 1967 to 1973, first met Elvis in Germany where he was stationed with the US Army, when she was 14-years-old and he was 24. The couple wed seven years later, and welcomed daughter Lisa Marie nine months after in 1968. Presley, who never saw Elvis live until his legendary 1968 "Comeback Special," wanted to offer fans a deeper insight into who Elvis was behind closed doors. "I think it might shock people to know how much he loved America," she said. "He went to see [Pres. Richard] Nixon in the White House and he had a narcotic [police] badge which meant he could stop and arrest people who were doing drugs. I'll be telling stories for people who didn't really know who Elvis was inside that will make you realise this bigger-than-life man's concerns were deeper than people would ever think." Unseen home-footage of the couple will also be presented during the sessions, which include Glasgow (4/1), Manchester (4/2), London (4/3), Birmingham (4/5) and Newcastle (5/6). - NME, 10/24/22.