Music News & Notes

Stevie & Joe

In an upcoming People magazine feature, Stevie Nicks talked about her romance in the 80's with Joe Walsh, calling him "the great, great love of my life."

She also states that they had to part ways because of their co-dependance on cocaine.

"There was nothing more important than Joe Walsh - not my music, not my songs, not anything. We had to break up or we thought we'd die. It took me years to get over it. It's very sad by at least we survived."

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Bob Marley Places Nine Songs in Jamaica's 100 Best Song List

The University of the West Indies has announced the results of their recent survey into the 100 best songs from Jamaica over the last fifty years. The ranking was based on a survey of Jamaican notables from public and university life along with musicians and a select number of the public.

To no one's surprise, Jamaican icon Bob Marley took nine of the top 100, including #1"One Love" and #9 with the cut "Simmer Down." The entire top twenty is made up of veteran artists and two of the songs ("My Boy Lollipop" by Millie Small and "Israelites" by Desmond Dekker & the Aces) were major U.S. hits.

According to a Reuters article, the reaction to the list, announced yesterday, has been mixed. University spokesman Wayne Chen stated:

"People have said to me that they wanted more of the deejay and dancehall songs included, but like in everything else, you can't please everybody. I would have loved to see some more dub music, because I am a fan of dub, but that did not happen."

Here is the top 20:

1) One Love/People Get Ready - Bob Marley & the Wailers (726 points)
2) Oh Carolina - Folkes Brothers (540)
3) 54-46 - Maytals (516)
4) Got to Go Back Home - Bob Andy (493)
5) My Boy Lollipop - Millie Small (470)
6) Many Rivers to Cross - Jimmy Cliff (451)
7) Israelites - Desmond Dekker & the Aces (424)
8) Cherry Oh Baby - Eric Donaldson (367)
9) Simmer Down - Wailers (357)
10) Carry Go Bring Come - Justin Hands & the Dominoes (331)
11) The Harder They Come - Jimmy Cliff (316)
12) No Woman No Cry - Bob Marley & the Wailers (305)
13) Rivers of Babylon - Melodians (298)
14) Redemption Song - Bob Marley & the Wailers (289)
15) Easy Snappin' - Theophilus Beckford (281)
16) Girl I've Got a Date - Alton Ellis (261)
17) Satta Massagana - Abyssnians (253)
18) Everything I Own - Ken Boothe (249)
19) Eastern Standard Time - Don Drummond (246)
20) Wear You to the Ball - U-Roy (236)

One of my favorites- "Redemption Song" cracked the top 20, coming in at #14.

Check out my friend Daniel's Vinyl Art:



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Record Store Day Boosts Indie Stores' Sales

Ed Christman, N.Y.

It's being reported Record Store Day produced a nearly 1% gain - to 566,000 for the week versus 561,000 from the corresponding week of the prior year - in U.S. album sales for the indie store sector, according to Nielsen SoundScan. While that may seem meager, it comes off as strong considering that U.S. album sales were down 15% last week to 6.3 million from 7.5 million in the corresponding week for the prior year.

"Any sales increase nowadays is a big victory," says one distribution executive. "Record Store Day was a big success."

Beyond album sales, Record Store Day is being felt in other places in SoundScan. For instance, 80,000 vinyl albums were scanned last year, versus 40,000 in the same week of the prior year, while 46,000 singles were counted last week versus 33,000 in the same week last year.

Read the rest of the article here: billboard story