Monday, December 19, 2011

Vinyl Record News & Music Notes

Still No Bids On Sex Pistols Acetate Still Up For Sale On eBay

in an earlier post i blogged about this acetate up on the blocks at eBay. i see that more than 2,200 visitors have stopped by (the auction ends in 7 days). asking price (i don't believe it will sell at this price) is $18,000 or so.


Sex Pistols Anarchy In The UK Original 1976 7“ 1 sided Abbey Road Swirl Acetate is currently up on eBay.


you can watch it at eBay

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KNEW YOU WERE WAITING: THE BEST OF ARETHA FRANKLIN 1980-1998

QUEEN OF SOUL'S 70th BIRTHDAY CELEBRATED WITH 16-SONG COLLECTION SPOTLIGHTING HER FIRST 18 YEARS AS AN ARISTA ARTIST

FROM 1980'S "UNITED TOGETHER" TO 1998'S "ROSE IS STILL A ROSE" - INCLUDING #1 HITS "JUMP TO IT," "GET IT RIGHT," AND GRAMMY AWARD®-WINNING "FREEWAY OF LOVE" (WITH CLARENCE CLEMONS)

Star-powered collaborations with Keith Richards ("Jumpin' Jack Flash"), the Eurythmics ("Sisters Are Doin' It For Themselves"), George Benson ("Love All The Hurt Away"), Whitney Houston ("It Isn't, It Wasn't, It Ain't Never Gonna Be"), George Michael (Grammy Award®-winning "I Knew You Were Waiting (For Me)") - and more!

Previously unreleased mix of "Ever Changing Times" duet with Michael McDonald, written and produced by Burt Bacharach & Carol Bayer Sager

Available everywhere through Arista/Legacy starting January 31, 2012

Release coincides with observance of Black History Month in February, and Aretha's return to Radio City Music Hall in New York for concerts on February 17 & 18th

NEW YORK, Dec. 19, 2011 /PRNewswire/ -- The 70th birthday of Queen Of Soul Aretha Franklin, winner of 15 Grammy Awards® and the first female ever to be inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall Of Fame, will be celebrated on March 25, 2012. In honor of this momentous occasion, and also in advance of Black History Month in February, KNEW YOU WERE WAITING: THE BEST OF ARETHA FRANKLIN 1980-1998 will be available at all physical and digital retail outlets starting January 31, 2012, through Arista/Legacy, a division of SONY MUSIC ENTERTAINMENT.

KNEW YOU WERE WAITING puts the spotlight on Aretha's hitmaking years as an Arista Records artist, working closely with Arista founder and president Clive Davis. Davis served as executive producer of KNEW YOU WERE WAITING, which was compiled and produced by Leo Sacks, known for his work on last year's definitive box set, Take A Look: Aretha Franklin Complete on Columbia, as well as scores of historic Soul and R&B projects for Legacy Recordings over the past two decades.

The new chronologically-sequenced, 16-song collection is the first major U.S. release to focus on the nearly two-decades string of hits that marked Aretha's tenure at Arista. These range from her label debut, 1980's #3 comeback R&B smash "United Together" (her first Top 5 hit in over three and a half years), to 1998's iconic #5 R&B entry, "A Rose Is Still A Rose," written, produced and arranged by Lauryn Hill of the Fugees.

"When Aretha Franklin signed to Arista Records in 1980," writes Ernest Hardy in his liner notes to KNEW YOU WERE WAITING, "she had nothing left to prove… She had redefined the terms and reset the boundaries of both R&B and pop. She had sung jazz, gospel and blues, and erased the lines between them. She embodied the beauty that was Blackness while providing a soundtrack to the Civil Rights movement of the 1960s. She had worked with the very best songwriters, musicians, producers, arrangers and visionaries, and proved herself to be one of the best singers, songwriters, musicians and visionaries the music industry had ever seen." Hardy is an award-winning cultural critic and essayist based in Los Angeles.

Underscoring Hardy's point, Aretha's Arista years were indeed marked by a steady flow of successful collaborations with contemporary music's "very best songwriters, musicians, producers, arrangers and visionaries." Virtually every track on KNEW YOU WERE WAITING supports this, starting with "United Together," which was written and produced by Chuck Jackson (known for his career-making hits with Natalie Cole), and features Aretha's beloved Sweet Inspirations on backing vocals (the 'original' lineup of Cissy Houston, Myrna Smith, Sylvia Shenwell and Estelle Brown). Likewise, "Love All The Hurt Away," a duet with George Benson, was written by Sam Dees, and produced by the late Arif Mardin, the legendary producer who worked on so many of Aretha's early breakthrough '60s and '70s Atlantic LPs.

Lauryn Hill, Arif Mardin and Chuck Jackson are just three of the important producers with whom Aretha worked at Arista. In addition to tracks produced by Luther Vandross (with arrangements by Marcus Miller), Narada Michael Walden, and Kenneth 'Babyface' Edmonds, KNEW YOU WERE WAITING also includes tracks produced by Keith Richards of the Rolling Stones and Dave Stewart of the Eurythmics.

In addition to the collaborations above, KNEW YOU WERE WAITING contains many more A-list collaborations that have become cornerstones in the Aretha canon:

•"Freeway Of Love" (1985), featuring the late Clarence Clemons of the E Street Band on tenor saxophone, Randy Jackson on bass, and percussion by the Santana rhythm section, was a #1 R&B hit for 5 weeks, and went on to win the Grammy Award® for Best R&B Female Vocal;

•"Sisters Are Doin' It For Themselves" (1985), a Top 20 pop hit with the Eurythmics' Annie Lennox and Dave Stewart (who produced), also features [Tom Petty] Heartbreakers band members Benmont Tench (organ), Stan Lynch (drums), and Mike Campbell (lead guitar);

•"Jumpin' Jack Flash" (1986), a Top 20 R&B and pop crossover smash duet with Keith Richards (who produced and played lead guitar, along with fellow Rolling Stones guitarist Ron Wood), was the title song from the movie Jumpin' Jack Flash starring Whoopi Goldberg;

•"I Knew You Were Waiting (For Me)" (1986), a duet with George Michael, was another mega-hit, #1 pop for a fortnight and #5 R&B, and winner of the Grammy Award® for Best R&B Vocal Duo;

•"Through The Storm" (1989), a Top 20 R&B and pop crossover hit vocal duet with Elton John, is one of two Albert Hammond/Diane Warren compositions (among many!) that were brought to Aretha by Clive Davis;

•"It Isn't, It Wasn't, It Ain't Never Gonna Be" (1989), a #5 R&B hit duet with Whitney Houston, is the other Hammond/Warren composition here, from the same album (Through The Storm); and

•"Ever Changing Times" (1991), a Top 20 R&B hit vocal duet with Michael McDonald, written and produced by the hitmaking duo of Burt Bacharach and Carol Bayer Sager, in a mix previously unreleased on CD.

KNEW YOU WERE WAITING as Hardy concludes, "makes clear that Aretha Franklin was a vibrant, soulful, stretching, creative, forceful artist at Arista Records. She kept her fingers on the pulse of the world around her while sating old fans and scoring new ones. Her music at the label was about a place that exists behind and beyond mere words... No one expresses joy the way she does. No one conveys grief or loss with anywhere near her force or heartbreaking precision. She burns right through the words she sings, taking you straight to the core. That is her unmatched genius."

SOURCE Legacy Recordings

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found this story at themusicvoid.com and thought i'd share (rant) is this really necessary? why in the world would anyone buy such a thing? can't afford a record player? i phones, pads, texting, (we really need to pass laws that prohibit people from doing this...hey idiot, you are DRIVING! watch the road!) blueberries and blackberries and a world full of "apps," i just don't get it.....

Everything Old is New Again: AIR Studios Launches New AirVinyl App

Posted by Laura Grivainis Thorne

London’s iconic AIR Studios launches its first digital app, AirVinyl, today. TMV’s Laura G Thorne talks to pioneering internet developer Paul Myers, whose company Bappz built the app.

AIR approached Bappz to help develop a digital app, brainstorming with the staff for several days. The result is AirVinyl, an iPad app that, in the words of Myers, “recreates and simulates the experience of vinyl”.

The AirVinyl interface cleverly captures this aesthetic. Each of the user’s mp3 or AAC digital music files are represented as a vinyl record on a turntable, with a turntable arm and a stylus. To play the file, one places the virtual arm on the record. The groove between each track is clearly visible, and the arm can be lifted up to listen to the next track or the preceding one. The user’s files are depicted as albums in a wooden crate, with bin cards separating each genre. These files can be ordered and searched by preference including Artist and Album.

Get the full story at themusicvoid.com

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New LP From ORANGE GOBLIN Due In Feb

Heavy-hitting British metal band ORANGE GOBLIN, will release its new studio album called 'A Eulogy For The Damned' on February 14th via Candlelight Records. The ten-track offering was recorded at The Animal Farm studio in South London, produced and engineered by Jamie Dodd and mastered two-time Grammy-nominated PINK FLOYD engineer Andy Jackson at Tube Mastering.

The effort will be released on CD and limited-edition colored vinyl in gatefold sleeve.















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album cover art of the day:

Lyriel To Release New LP In February

German folk metal band Lyriel are scheduled to release the band's fourth LP 'Leverage' on February 24, 2012 via AFM Records. The album marks the follow up to the 2009 release "Paranoid Circus." The band promises an album that is harder and more modern than previous efforts.


















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MINISTRY: 'Relapse' Cover Artwork Unveiled

"Relapse", the first MINISTRY album of original material since 2007's "The Last Sucker", will be released on March 30, 2012 via MINISTRY mainman Al Jourgensen's 13th Planet Records.

In support of the "occupy movement," MINISTRY will release the new song "99 Percenters" via iTunes on December 23 and stream the track on their Facebook site starting Christmas day.

According to Revolver magazine, "99 Percenters" is a rally cry for all of the protesters that have gathered across the country to demonstrate against corporate greed, cutthoat capitalism, and the one percent of Americans who earn millions of dollars a year, but receive substantial tax cuts on their income. Jourgensen said the chorus for the track, "1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 99 percent" was inspired by COUNTRY JOE AND THE FISH's Vietnam protest song "I Feel Like I'm Fixin' to Die Rag".

Read more at our friends at Blabbermouth






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SNOWY SHAW 'Is Alive!'

Swedish multi-instrumentalist Snowy Shaw has set "Snowy Shaw Is Alive!" as the title of his new live album, due just a few days before Christmas via iTunes. A "super-deluxe, limited-edition" double vinyl version of the record will be made available in early 2012.

"Snowy Shaw Is Alive!" was recorded at Snowy's concert on May 27, 2011 at the Brew House in Gothenburg, Sweden.

Read more at Blabbermouth













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and in music history for december 19th:

In 1955, Carl Perkins recorded the hit "Blue Suede Shoes."

In 1956, Elvis Presley made US chart history by having 10 songs on Billboard's Top 100.

In 1957, Elvis Presley had his draft notice served on him for the U.S. Army. He went on to join the 32nd Tank Battalion, Third Armor Corps based in Germany.

On this day in 1958, "The Chipmunk Song" by David Seville & the Chipmunks was the #1 song.

Bobby Darin recorded the immortal cut "Mack The Knife" in 1958.

"Mack the Knife" was introduced to the United States hit parade by Louis Armstrong in 1956, but the song is most closely associated with Bobby Darin, who recorded his version at Fulton Studios on West 40th Street, New York City, on December 19, 1958 (with Tom Dowd engineering the recording). In 1959 Darin's version reached number one on the Billboard Hot 100 and number six on the Black Singles chart, and earned him a Grammy Award for Record of the Year.

Dick Clark had advised Darin not to record the song because of the perception that, having come from an opera, it wouldn't appeal to the rock & roll audience. To this day, Clark recounts the story with good humor. Frank Sinatra, who recorded the song with Jimmy Buffett, called Darin's the "definitive" version. Darin's version hit #3 on Billboard's All Time Top 100. In 2003, the Darin version was ranked #251 on Rolling Stone's "The 500 Greatest Songs of All Time" list. On BBC Radio 4's Desert Island Discs, pop mogul Simon Cowell named "Mack the Knife" the best song ever written.



In 1960, Neil Sedaka's "Calendar Girl" was released on RCA Victor Records. The song would climb to #4 on the Hot 100 and become Sedaka's sixth record to make the US charts.

In 1960, Frank Sinatra recorded his first session with his very own record company, Reprise Records. Frank did "Ring-A-Ding-Ding" and "Let’s Fall in Love."

In 1961, after reaching #15 with "Tonight I Fell In Love" earlier in the year, a Brooklyn, New York group called The Tokens scored the top tune in the US with "The Lion Sleeps Tonight".

In 1964, "Come See About Me", the third release from The Supremes album "Where Did Our Love Go", becomes their third straight US number one single.

In 1964, the Beatles fourth album, 'Beatles For Sale,' started a seven-week run at the top of the UK album chart. It would stay in the Top 20 for an amazing 46 weeks.

In 1968, in Hollywood, Friends Of Distinction recorded "Grazing In The Grass."

In 1970, Elton John's first US hit, "Your Song" enters the Billboard Hot 100, where it will reach number eight. An excellent version of the tune had already been recorded by Three Dog Night for their "It Ain't Easy" album, but they didn't issue it as a single.

In 1970, President Nixon complimented Mike Curb of MGM Records after he dropped a number of artists for supposedly advocating drug use. Among those dropped was Connie Francis.

Ron Woods joined the Rolling Stones in 1974.

In 1975, as if disco wasn't bad enough, the US music scene reaches a new all time low when "Convoy" by C.W. McCall earns a Gold record. It would go on to top the Billboard Pop in early January. The novelty tune tells the story of interstate truck drivers and their run-ins with the law. It reached #2 in the UK.

In 1978, ABC aired the TV special "The Carpenters: A Christmas Portrait," with Richard and Karen plus guest stars Gene Kelly, Georgia Engel, and Kristy & Jimmy McNichol.

In 1979, Elvis Presley's personal physician, George Nichopoulos, was charged with 'illegally and indiscriminately' prescribing over 12,000 tablets of uppers, downers, and painkillers for the Rock and Roll star during the 20 months preceding his untimely death. Although he was acquitted this time, he was charged again in 1980 and again in 1992 and was stripped of his medical license in July 1995.

In 1985, country music singer Johnny Paycheck was arrested for shooting a man during a fight in Hillsboro, Ohio. Paycheck claimed the act was self-defense. After several years spent fighting his conviction and 7-year sentence, in 1989 he began 22 months in prison before being pardoned by Ohio Governor Richard Celeste.

In 1986, a California Superior Court Judge refuses to reinstate a lawsuit brought against Ozzy Osbourne by the parents of a teenager who committed suicide while listening to Osbourne's "Suicide Solution". The judge ruled that Ozzy is protected by The First Amendment to the United States Constitution, which gives him the right to freedom of speech.

In 1987, the Pet Shop Boys had their third UK #1 single with their version of “Always on My Mind.” The duo had performed a version of “Always on My Mind” on Love Me Tender, a TV special commemorating the 10th anniversary of Elvis Presley’s death. Their performance was so well-received that the group decided to record the song and release it as a single.

Also in 1987, two girls were crushed to death in the rush in Nashville before a Public Enemy concert.

In 1993, Michael Clarke, drummer with The Byrds, died of liver failure at age 47. He also worked with the Flying Burrito Brothers, Firefall and Jerry Jeff Walker. Before his death, Clarke had expressed a wish of alerting children to the dangers of alcoholism. Following his wishes, Clarke’s girlfriend Susan Paul started a foundation in Clarke’s name, called the Campaign for Alcohol-free Kids. He and the rest of The Byrds were inducted into the Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame in January 1991.

In 2000, English singer/songwriter Kirsty MacColl was killed while vacationing in Mexico at the age of 41. She was sccuba diving with her two sons when she was hit by a speedboat.

In 2000, 10,000 Maniacs guitarist Robert Buck died of liver failure at age 42. He is best known for “Hey Jack Kerouac,” “What’s the Matter Here” and “Candy Everybody Wants.”



Also in 2000, gospel/soul/R&B singer/guitarist Roebuck "Pops" Staples of the Staple Singers died of complications from a concussion at 84.

In 2001, VH1 premiered "Too Legit: The MC Hammer Story."

Also in 2001, Dick Clark filed a $10 million lawsuit against Recording Academy President Michael Greene. The charge was that Greene would bar artists who appear first on Clark's American Music Awards from performing on the Grammy Awards.

In 2002, R&B singer (Love Potion No. 9) Billy Mitchell, lead vocalist of the Clovers on their biggest hit, died of colon cancer at the age of 71.

In 2006, two giant eyeballs donated by Pink Floyd, raised £16,500 for the homeless charity Crisis. The 6 foot-high props, made to promote the Pulse DVD, were on the auction site eBay for a week and attracted 46 bids. Pink Floyd’s David Gilmour, a vice-president of Crisis, said extra help was needed in the winter months.

In 2008, pianist/singer/arranger Page Cavanaugh died of kidney failure at age 86.

birthdays today include (among others): Kevin Shepard (Tonic) (43), Maurice White (Earth, Wind & Fire) (70), Alvin Lee (Ten Years After) (67) and Doug Johnson (Loverboy) (54)

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