Four Tops vocalist Levi Stubbs dies at 72

By Gary Graff

DETROIT (Billboard) – Arguably the most powerful voice in Motown's storied history has been silenced. Four Tops lead singer Levi Stubbs Jr. died Friday at his home in Detroit after a long series of health problems, including cancer and a stroke, that forced him to stop performing in 2000. He was 72.

Funeral arrangements were pending for Stubbs, who is survived by Clineice, his wife of 48 years, and five children.

"He had one of the most prolific and identifiably voices in American history," the Motown Alumni Association's Billy J. Wilson told Billboard.com. "It's a deep loss, to the entire Motown family and to the world."


(Stubbs, far left)

Stubbs' death leaves Abdul "Duke" Fakir as the Tops' only living member from the original quartet, which formed in 1954 as the Four Aims and signed with Motown nine years later. Laurence Payton passed away in 1997, and Renaldo "Obie" Benson died in 2005.

Fakir continues to lead a version of the Tops that includes Payton's son Roquel, former Temptations member Theo Peoples and Motown veteran Ronnie McNeir.

Stubbs -- born Levi Stubbles in Detroit -- gave voice to enduring hits such as "Baby I Need Your Loving," "I Can't Help Myself (Sugar Pie, Honey Bunch)," "Reach Out I'll Be There" and "Brenadette." The Tops have sold more than 50 million records and racked up 45 chart hits for the Motown, ABC Dunhill, Arista and Casablanca labels, and the group was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1990.

Stubbs also provided the voice of Audrey II, the man-eating plant in the film version of the musical "Little Shop of Horrors" in 1986, and of Mother Brain in the 1989 animated TV series "Captain N: The Game Master."

Stubbs' last public appearance with the group was at the group's 50th anniversary concert July 28, 2004, at Detroit's Music Hall Center.

Reuters/Billboard

Vinyl records make comeback on local scene

I love articles about independent record stores and have found another gem for you to enjoy. I want to thank the author and publication for allowing me to reprint this material:

SOURCE: The Bakersfield Californian http://www.bakersfield.com
(Photo by Henry A. Barrios/ The Californian)



Vinyl records make comeback on local scene

By JOHN COX, Californian staff writer


For nearly 20 years World Records stocked no records. Unless you placed a special order, CDs were what you got.

Earlier this year, though, young people started asking for vinyl. Now World Records’ new home on downtown G Street boasts a record section with new releases and reissues by Amy Winehouse, Parliament, The Velvet Underground and others.


Vinyl’s back.

U.S. record sales were up 15 percent last year over the year before, fed by growing interest in independent record stores like World Records and Darkstar Records and Books, another newcomer to downtown Bakersfield.

The resurgence has many roots, ranging from purists’ ideas about sound quality to availability of turntables at major retailers to the desirability of belonging to an exclusive, anti-digital subculture.

Vinyl’s growing popularity could have side benefits for Bakersfield. Independent record stores tend to promote the local music scene more than chain stores do. And downtown’s cluster of music stores could make it more of a destination for out-of-town collectors, boosting local tourism.

What surprises many longtime record collectors is how vinyl appeals to so many young people born after much of the nation turned its back on records when CDs were introduced in the 1980s.

A THING FOR VINYL

Consider the enthusiasm of 19-year-old Brenndan Morlan. He has amassed 140 or so albums since he began collecting records three or four years ago, and now spends $100 a week on vinyl recordings of classic jazz, psychedelic rock and exotic funk.

His friends “don’t get it.”

“They’re just like, ‘How can you spend so much money on records?’” the Bakersfield sandwich shop employee said Thursday as he flipped through row after row of old vinyl at Darkstar on Truxtun Avenue.

Dan Robertson, the store’s co-owner along with his two sons, understands. His own collection numbers about half a million.

“I think (renewed interest in records) is almost a reaction against the digital,” said Robertson, a deadhead deejay who counted Buck Owens among his personal friends. He has been planning to open a record store for more than three decades.

DIGITAL DIVIDE

Distaste for digital music is common among record people. They tend to frown upon the carelessness others afford CDs, and relish the special care records require and the sense of history one gets when holding an album.

“It’s like having primary text from an author or a philosopher,” said 23-year-old Steven Koontz, the drummer for Bakersfield punk band Loser Life, which this week embarked on a European tour. Band members were planning to bring with them and sell more than 200 vinyl recordings of their music.

Then there’s the sound quality issue. Vinyl enthusiasts praise the medium’s warm sound as compared with digital recordings.

Listening to a record is “kind of like holding someone’s hand without a glove,” said Andrew Winton, a 29-year-old coffeehouse manager and regular at Going Underground, a punk music store on downtown G Street that sells and pays to have pressed many vinyl recordings that have never been transferred to CD format.

A RISING TIDE

The opening of two new record retailers so close in proximity has store owners hopeful that customers near and far will view Bakersfield as a hub for buying vinyl.

“The more the better,” said Alex Rodriguez, co-owner of downtown 19th Street’s Gigantic Vintage, which sells vintage clothing in front and records in back. “Kids aren’t just going to go to one (record store), they’re going to go to all of them.”

David Thomas, owner of Shafter’s Rockit Music, agreed. His 5,000-square-foot store, which has sold records since 1947, draws collectors from the Bay Area and the Los Angeles area. The more stores clustered in one area, he said, the more likely it is that serious collectors will come.

And when they drive in, collectors can drop big money. Jake Chavez, owner of Downtown Records on 19th Street across from Gigantic Vintage, said he once sold 200 records to a collector from Alaska driving on his way to a large show in Las Vegas.

STAYING POWER

Thomas suggested that independent stores such as those operating locally will outlast chains because of their personal touch.

“People want to go back (and) deal with neighborhood-type record stores where they can actually go in and talk about music,” he said.

This appears to be the case recently. Entertainment research company Nielsen SoundScan reported that three-quarters of all vinyl album sales in 2007 took place at independent music stores.

SIDE BENEFITS

But even aside from the business they do, record store owners say there is a benefit to having independent shops around: They help introduce young people to artists new and old.

Robertson, Darkstar’s co-owner, hopes to support the local music scene much the way Going Underground does, selling albums produced locally. He said that would mean opening up his offerings to include many different genres.

For now, though, he said he’s satisfied to be broadening the musical horizons of customers like 17-year-old Jordan Aguirre, who spent time this week checking out Robertson’s diverse collection.

Since becoming interesting in vinyl, Aguirre said he has come to a fuller understanding of the musicians who have influenced many modern recording artists.

“It’s kind of like an education,” he said.

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In the area? Here are some great vinyl shops:

BAKERSFIELD-AREA RECORD STORES

Darkstar Records and Books
1024 Truxtun Ave.
859-0241

Downtown Records
1518 19th St.
324-5235

Gigantic Vintage
1515 19th St.
859-1515

Going Underground
1822 G St.
477-8475

Midnight Music
1215 Olive Drive
399-3454

Rockit Music
429 James St.
746-0822

World Records
1824 G St.
831-3100

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Album Cover Art

Let's continue our look at Gigwise.com's 50 most controversial, weirdest, best and worst album covers as put together by their amazing staff:

Controversial


12. Regurgitate: ‘Carnivorous Erection’ This cover certainly makes my list of gross covers, this angry little man is certainly up for a fight. I looked up the band and their style is described as "Goregrind." Well that explains the cover I guess.

Line up for this recording:
Rikard Jansson: Vocals
Urban Skytt: Guitars and Bass
Jocke Pettersson: Battery
Additional Vocals: Rickard Alriksson and Mieszko

Picture LP version released by Morbid Records and has been banned in many retail outlets (although you can find it rather easily online- if you dare).

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Weird


12. Mike Terry: 'Live At The Pavilion Theatre. Glasgow' While researching this gent, I found that he/she made a bundle of appearances on various websites worst album covers. Here are some comments:

He looks like L. Ron Hubbard in drag. www.worstalbumcovers.org

I can only imagine Mike Terry sounds a lot like he looks: like Elton John crossed with Liberace and fat, Vegas Elvis. www.mentalfloss.com

This is the only cover on the list that makes me laugh every time I lay eyes on it. Mike Terry appears to be having a great time playing his piano. Oh, and he's also stuffed like a beef sausage into a suit that Liberace gave up for being 'entirely too gay.' www.communistdanceparty.blogspot.com

Y luego dicen que Iniesta esta blanquito... www.fotolog.com

I guess that sums it all up.

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Worst


12. Devastatin Dave The Turntable Slave- Zip Zap Rap was a 1986 single released by Devastatin' Dave, the Turntable Slave with some backing vocals performed by middle-to high-school-aged children. As part of the War on Drugs campaign by the Reagan Administration the single focuses on the effects of a cocaine addiction and alludes to possible alternate career paths rather than living a life of crime to pay for the drug. Furthermore the cover itself features a yellow stripe in the top-left corner reading "Hear our message: say no to drugs".

"Devastatin' Dave" Kurin currently lives as a music producer in California, and has appeared on the TV series Divorce Court.

The Gigwise staff thought so much of this single, they just had to include it in their worst album covers of all time. Apparently, they are not alone:

"Worst Album Covers Ever" Lists this single has appeared on:

RateYourMusic.com
The Guardian
Unofficial Worst Album Covers
WorstAlbumCovers.org - Fashion Victims

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Best


12. Supertramp: ‘Breakfast In America’ – Here is a direct quote from the staff at Gigwise.com (sounds to me like they have issues with the US): "The majority of the band may have hailed from UK, but this album cover said more about the vain, commercial obsessed country that America has become in contemporary times than a thousand words. The scary waitress standing in for the Statue of Liberty is a stroke of genius."

Breakfast in America is the sixth album by the band Supertramp, released in 1979. It was recorded the previous year at the Village Recorder in Los Angeles. The album featured four hit singles: "The Logical Song" (#6), "Goodbye Stranger" (#15), "Take the Long Way Home" (#10), and the title track (#16).

The album's front cover is an overlook of New York City through an airplane window. It was designed by Mike Doud and depicted Kate Murtagh as a Statue of Liberty figure holding a glass of orange juice instead of a torch and the background featured a city made from cornflake box, ashtray, cutlery (for the wharfs), eggboxes, vinegar, ketchup and mustard bottles, all spraypainted white. The twin World Trade Center towers appear as two stacks of boxes and the plate of breakfast represents Battery Park, the departure point for the Staten Island Ferry. The back cover photo, depicting the band members having breakfast while reading their respective hometown newspapers, was taken at a diner called "Bert's Mad House."

Despite the turmoil, Breakfast in America became Supertramp's biggest selling album with over 4 million copies sold in the US alone to date (11 million copies worldwide) and was #1 on Billboard's Pop Albums Chart for six weeks in the spring and summer of 1979. The album also hit #1 in Norway, Canada and Australia.

I always hated the music and have been known to turn the radio station at the first note of a Supertramp song. Sounds like I have issues as well.

Classic Rock Videos

Elvis-Heartbreak Hotel

Album Cover Art

We made it to lucky number 13 on Gigwise.com's list of the 50 most controversial, weirdest, best and worst album covers of all time as voted on by their staff:

Controversial

13. Nurse With Wound / White House: ‘150 Murderous Passions’ – A weird cut-and-paste of a whole load of distasteful ideas and images were featured on the cover of Steven Stapleton’s fifth full-length release. Here, he is joined by Whitehouse's William Bennett during Stapleton's power electronics days (this album dates from 1981), recording thoroughly brutal, mind-wrenching ugliness.

Nurse with Wound was originally a band, formed in 1978 by Stapleton, John Fothergill and Heman Pathak. The band ranges in many genres such as avant-garde, industrial, noise, dark ambient, and drone. Their early recordings, all made quickly, were heavily influenced by free improvisation and Krautrock and were generally considered industrial music, despite the objections of the group.

With a cover like this, it is a wonder they sold any copies at all, this has to be the worst cover I have seen on the Gigwise list (so far).

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Weird



13. Twiztid: 'Freek Show' This cover is tame compared to the last one, this is easily done with some make-up and imagination. "Freek Show" is the second studio album by Twiztid. Released on October 31, 2000, the album peaked at #51 on the Billboard 200. In his review of the album, Allmusic's Brad Mills wrote that "this kind of music appeals to a small sector of hip-hop listeners and will probably do well within their niche market, but the average hip-hop listener will just have to understand that this is a different kind of album." And a different kind of album cover as well.

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Worst


13. Heino – ‘Liebe Mutter…’: Another obscure musician, and another obscure album cover-maybe this artist is big in Germany, but I doubt it. Heino (born 13 December 1938 in Düsseldorf as Heinz Georg Kramm) is a German singer of popular music (Schlager) and traditional Volksmusik.

With his booming voice, bright blonde hair, and ever present sunglasses (due to exophthalmos), Heino is considered by many an icon of kitsch and in the English-speaking world the Latin American themes of many of his songs lending themselves to jokes about German emigration to South America after World War II.

Uhh, ok if you say so.

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Best


13. Pink Floyd: ‘The Dark Side Of The Moon’ Certainly one of rock & roll's most distinguished and recognizable covers of all time, Pink Floyd's Dark Side of the Moon certainly belongs here with the best. I would have even gone a bit higher.

The Dark Side of the Moon is a concept album by the British progressive rock band Pink Floyd. It was released on March 17, 1973 in the U.S. and March 24, 1973 in the UK.

The Dark Side of the Moon builds upon previous experimentation that Pink Floyd had explored in their live shows and recordings, but without the extended instrumental excursions that, according to critic David Fricke, had become characteristic of the band after founding member Syd Barrett left in 1968. Guitarist David Gilmour, Barrett's replacement, would later refer to these instrumentals as "that psychedelic noodling stuff." Gilmour and Roger Waters, the band's bassist (and principal lyricist on Dark Side), cite 1971's Meddle as a turning point toward what would be realized on The Dark Side of the Moon. The album's themes include conflict, greed, aging and mental illness (or "insanity"); the latter inspired in part by the deteriorating mental state of Barrett, who had been the band's principal composer and lyricist. The album is notable for its use of musique concrète and conceptual, philosophical lyrics, as found in much of Pink Floyd's other work.

The band's most successful release, The Dark Side of the Moon is often considered to be the group's defining work, and is still frequently ranked by music critics as one of the greatest and most influential albums of all time.

The album was originally released in a gatefold LP sleeve designed by Hipgnosis and George Hardie, of Nicholas Thirkell Associates, and bore Hardie's iconic refracting prism on the cover. Inside were two posters, one bearing pictures of the band in concert with the words PINK FLOYD broken up and scattered about, and the other being a slightly psychedelic image of the Great Pyramids of Giza taken on infrared film. Also included was a sheet of stickers of the pyramids. The album was also the first Pink Floyd album to have picture labels on the record where it depicted a blue prism with black background and the credits written either in grey lettering (European issues) or white lettering (US and Canadian issues). In a 1991 issue of Rolling Stone Magazine, the refracting prism album cover was #35 on Rolling Stone's list of the 100 greatest album covers of all time. In 2003, VH1 named the album's cover the 4th Greatest Album Cover of All Time on their 50 Greatest Album Covers of All Time special.

Motown collects chart-topping hits on boxed set

NEW YORK (Billboard) - R&B label Motown will celebrate its 50th anniversary with a mammoth boxed set, "Motown: The Complete No. 1's."
Due December 9, the 10-disc package features 191 songs, all of which have topped a chart in the United States or internationally.

Stevie Wonder, the Supremes, Marvin Gaye, Tammi Terrell, the Four Tops, Martha & the Vandellas, Mary Wells, the Temptations and Gladys Knight & the Pips are represented throughout "The Complete No. 1s."

Ten bonus tracks round up cover versions of Motown songs that reached the top of the charts, including singles from acts such as Vanessa Williams, Jodeci, Coolio featuring L.V., Blood, Sweat & Tears and David Bowie and Mick Jagger.

Reuters/Billboard

This Date In Music History- October 16

Birthdays:

Bob Weir, guitarist and vocalist with the Grateful Dead, was born in Atherton, California in 1947.

Red Hot Chili Peppers bassist Flea was born in 1962 in Melbourne, Australia, as Michael Balzary.

Born on this day in 1977, John Mayer, US singer and songwriter.

Fred Turner of Bachman-Turner Overdrive ("Let It Ride") turns 65.

Wendy Wilson of Wilson Phillips ("Hold On") was born to Beach Boy Brian Wilson and his wife, Marilyn (of the Honeys) in 1969.

History:

Jay & the Americans recorded "This Magic Moment" in 1968.

Today in 1976, the song "Disco Duck (Part 1)" by Ricky Dees & His Cast of Idiots topped the charts and stayed there for a week.

Sam Cooke released his single "You Send Me" in 1957. The No. 1, written by his brother Charles Cooke, becomes his first and biggest hit, selling 2.5 million copies.

The Elvis Presley film "Love Me Tender" premiered in 1956.

Chess Records founder Leonard Chess, 52, died of a heart attack in 1969 in Chicago.

In 1972, Creedence Clearwater Revival announced they are splitting up. They say in a statement, "We don't regard this as breaking up. We look at it as an expansion of our activities. We will devote our time to individual rather than group projects."

The New Yardbirds played their first concert in 1968. The band later changed their name to Led Zeppelin.

18 year old Richard Penniman, who was already using the stage name Little Richard, made his first recordings for RCA Camden in 1951, at the studios of Atlanta radio station WGST.

In 1954, two weeks after his appearance at Nashville's Grand Ole Opry, Elvis Presley performed on the Country music radio program, Louisiana Hayride, broadcast live on KWKH in Shreveport. After an enthusiastic reception from the audience, Presley was booked to appear every week for a year at $18 per show. His sidemen, Bill Black and Scotty Moore were paid $12 each.

In 1967, Folk singer Joan Baez was arrested, along with 123 others, for blocking the entrance to an Armed Forces Induction Center in Oakland, California.

Issac Hayes' "Theme From Shaft" was released in 1971. When Hayes sings "That John Shaft is a bad mother..." the voice you hear telling Hayes to "shut your mouth" is that of Thelma Hopkins of Tony Orlando and Dawn.

Stevie Wonder's "Song in the Key of Life" is released in 1976. It will immediately hit the Billboard Hot 200 album chart and stay there into 1978. It's Wonder's first release since his $13 million signing with Motown. The three record set goes platinum yielding the hits, "Sir Duke", "Isn't She Lovely" and "I Wish".

Be careful what you wish for: In 2001, two security guards were fired after refusing to allow Bob Dylan into his own concert. Dylan who had demanded that security on his 'Love and Theft' tour should be tighter than ever didn't have a pass when he arrived backstage.

1965- The Beatles recorded ‘Day Tripper’ at Abbey Road studio’s London in three takes, they then added vocals and other overdubs, completing the song before the end of the day.

1992- Two weeks after tearing up a picture of the pope on Saturday Night Live, Sinead O'Connor was booed at a Bob Dylan tribute concert at Madison Square Garden. She replied by reciting the words to Bob Marley's "War" before being escorted from the stage by Kris Kristofferson, who advised her, "Don't let the bastards get you down." George Harrison, Neil Young, Tom Petty, and Eric Clapton also performed, but in less controversial ways.

Music News

AC/DC DEFENDS DECISIONS ON WAL-MART, iTUNES …AC/DC frontman Brian Johnson defended the band's decision to sell its new album, Black Ice, exclusively through Wal-Mart in a new interview with Reuters, explaining, "A lot of people were saying 'Ah man, you're going to the big Wal-Mart, you're selling out.' Wal-Mart were the only big store to stock all of our albums, every single one of them, and they've never deviated. And they sold AC/DC shirts and pajamas for kids, which we thought was really cool." As for the group's equally controversial stance on keeping its music off iTunes, Johnson said, "Maybe I'm just being old fashioned, but this iTunes, God bless 'em, it's going to kill music if they're not careful. It's a monster, this thing. It just worries me."

Guitarist Angus Young told the New York Times that the band objects to iTunes' insistence that songs must be available individually and not just as part of an album. He said, "It's like an artist who does a painting. If he thinks it's a great piece of work, he protects it. It's the same thing: this is our work."

Black Ice, AC/DC's first album in eight years, comes out on October 20th. It will also be available through acdc.com, with independent record stores selling a vinyl version.

AC/DC has sold 26.4 million albums since 1991, when SoundScan first began tracking record sales, making the group second only to the Beatles.

Wal-Mart has reportedly guaranteed that it will sell 2.5 million copies of Black Ice. The band's last effort, 2000's Stiff Upper Lip, has sold 940,000.


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METALLICA DRUMMER DOESN'T UNDERSTAND AUDIO COMPLAINTS …Metallica drummer Lars Ulrich told us that he doesn't understand the controversy that has broken out in recent weeks over the audio quality of the band's new album, Death Magnetic. Some fans and publications have accused the group and producer Rick Rubin of mixing the album at such a loud volume that the music is distorted and difficult to listen to. But Ulrich said that he's more than happy with the way it turned out: "I listen to this record, and I listen to it every couple of days. And when I hear it, it puts a smile on my face and it blows me away, and I don't understand what people are talking about. Somebody told me the other day that there were 12,000 people that had signed a petition to remix the record. We've sold two and a half million copies of Death Magnetic. You do the math yourself."

Death Magnetic has sold more than a million copies in the U.S. alone since coming out on September 12th.

A number of fans said online that they prefer the versions of the CD's tracks prepared for the Guitar Hero video game, which are mixed differently.

Metallica begins a North American tour on October 21st in Glendale, Arizona in support of Death Magnetic.

=======================================


U2 BRINGS NEW ALBUM TO NEW YORK …U2 has been hard at work on its next studio album, due out in early 2009. The set was expected to be released this year, but was pushed back after U2 members caught the creative bug while in the studio. Now one of the album's producers, Daniel Lanois, tells Canoe Jam! that he's been in New York City recently producing the set. He says "I enjoy the duality of my laboratory work and studio experiments I'm doing with U2 with my own musical career."

Lanois first worked on U2's The Unforgettable Fire and has teamed with Bob Dylan, Peter Gabriel, Robbie Robertson and others.

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PETE TOWNSHEND EYEING FUTURE 'QUADROPHENIA' PROJECTS ..Pete Townshend said that he's looking forward to revisiting the Who's Quadrophenia, which celebrates its 35th anniversary this year. Townshend answered fans questions on thewho.com and said that future Quadrophenia-based projects still interest him, explaining, "I would love to see an orchestrated version of Quadrophenia. I would love to do a surround-sound version of the original recording. Roger (Daltrey) is keen to take the 1996 (extended band version of ) Quadrophenia on the road again one day and I'd like that too."

Townshend added, "I'm genuinely excited about the British theatrical production of Quadrophenia because the people involved... really understand the essential poetry of the story. In a rock piece, if you try to overcook the story, the dramatic narrative, you might break its very spine... In rock, narrative can really stop the listener from taking center stage."

He explained that older pieces need to constantly be infused with fresh ideas to continue to work: "What I do must stand to be revisited over and over again by a listener who is growing, changing, using the music like a scent. Rock musicians of all kinds are still struggling to understand how sometimes we pull it off without knowing how we did it."

Last week Roger Daltrey said that troubled British singer Amy Winehouse and Carl Barat -- the former Libertines' bandmate of the equally troubled Brit rocker Pete Doherty -- would make a great addition to a proposed West End musical of Quadrophenia.

Quadrophenia, which was released on October 19th, 1973 featured such classic Who songs as "The Real Me," "5:15," "I'm One," The Punk And The Godfather," "Sea And Sand," and "Love Reign O'er Me," among others. A film version based around the Who's album was produced by the band and released in 1979.

The Who kicks off their 10-date North American mini-tour on October 21st in Auburn Hills, Michigan at the Palace Of Auburn Hills.


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TOM PETTY & THE HEARTBREAKERS MULTI-DISC DOCUMENTARY HEADING FOR BEST BUY …Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers are reissuing a two-DVD version of their Peter Bogdonovich-directed documentary Runnin' Down A Dream: Tom Petty And The Heartbreakers. The new edition, which features the entire four-hour film -- with newly added bonus material, will be sold exclusively though Best Buy stores. Runnin' Down A Dream was originally released on DVD last year as four-disc set.

The new two-DVD edition features the new bonus performances:

"Too Much Ain't Enough," recorded live on December 31st, 1978 in Los Angeles, California at the Santa Monica Civic Auditorium.

"The Waiting" featuring Eddie Vedder, recorded live July 3, 2006 in Denver, Colorado at the Pepsi Center.

A cover of Van Morrison's "Mystic Eyes" recorded live on October 27th, 2006 at Los Angeles' Greek Theatre.

Runnin' Down A Dream features interviews and appearances by such heavyweights as Stevie Nicks, Eddie Vedder, Dave Grohl, Jackson Browne, Roger McGuinn, Dave Stewart, Jeff Lynne, Rick Rubin, Jimmy Lovine, and others.

The movie also features footage of Petty recording with his Traveling Wilburys bandmates, Bob Dylan, George Harrison, Jeff Lynne, and Roy Orbison.

Petty says the key to keeping the Heartbreakers a living, breathing unit, is having them spend more time on the road than holed up in recording studios: "I've seen people that have been around a long time, and they just fall into routine and self-parody, and that's just not where we want to wind up. We want to keep this thing fresh, and we really believe in this music -- this rock and roll music that we're playing -- and we want to keep it fresh and contemporary, you know, and avoid any sort of routine to it."

Classic Rock Videos

The King:

Aretha Franklin Releases First Christmas Album Through Borders

Aretha Franklin released her first-ever Christmas album today in an exclusive arrangement with Borders. This Christmas Aretha is available at Borders and Waldenbooks stores and at Borders.com.

The album contains eleven holiday themed tracks of which three were produced by Franklin and two more include the singer on piano. The balance of the tracks were produced by Tena Clark who has worked with Natalie Cole, Dionne Warwick, Patti LaBelle and others.

Franklin is also joined by her sons, singer Eddie and guitarist Teddy, on This Christmas and The Lord Will Make a Way. On the latter, Franklin said "It's one of those old time, good time recordings. It's so smashing, right there on the front burner. Check out that groove!"

The track list for The Christmas Aretha:


Angels We Have Heard on High
This Christmas
My Grown-Up Christmas List
The Lord Will Make A Way
Silent Night
Ave Maria
Christmas Ain't Christmas (Without The One You Love)
14 Angels
One Night With The King
Hark! The Herald Angels Sing
'Twas The Night Before Christmas

SOURCE: http://winkscollectibles.blogspot.com/

Don’t Sell Your LPs!

By Scott Westerman - Curator - Keener13.com

My first 45: Limbo Rock by Chubby Checker. My first LP: Shut Down Vol II by the Beach Boys. LPs who’s grooves I wore out with repeated play: Crosby, Stills & Nash, Blood, Sweat & Tears and Earth, Wind & Fire. The number of LPs and 45s in my library now: 672

Remember the sound of putting a needle to vinyl and waiting for the first track to vibrate out of the grooves, through the cartridge and the pre-amp, across the amplifier’s power transistors (after adding appropriate bass and pressing the ‘loudness’ button) and along the two pairs of copper wires towards those expensive speakers that were the heartbeat of that stereo system that cost almost as much as your first automobile?

In the day, exploring an album often meant discovering a deep track, about three cuts in, that would never be selected as a single, but touched something at your emotional core (Quatermass - Good Lord Knows is one of my faves). If the LP was Abbey Road or Dark Side of the Moon, it meant 45 minutes of bliss, interrupted only by the amount of time it took to flip the disk to side two. If it was The Firesign Theater’s “Don’t Crush That Dwarf, Hand Me the Pilers”, it was something you replayed until the Adventures of Porgie and Mudhead were burned, line by line, into your long term memory.

Vinyl was an experience you shared. Listening to the Bridge Over Troubled Water LP while exploring the heights of passion with a half dozen other junior high couples in the dark corners of a friend’s basement. Wondering what the heck the obscure band was that the guys at Discount Records always liked to play while you and your testosterone charged buddies were trying to sneak a peak at banned Jimi Hendrix “Electric Lady Land” album cover. Or running Funkadelic’s “I Got A Thing” over and over so your band could learn the nuances of a bass line, a wah wah peddle, and some drum licks in a hopeless attempt at imitation.

Vinyl, when mixed with the 12AX7A vacuum tubes that powered your stereo created a warmth that added an indescribable something that the best digital Pro Tools plug-in could never recreate. The LP’s cover became a work of art in itself. Sgt. Pepper’s cover launched a hundred analytical dissertations, fed the Beatle rumor mill and became fodder for trivia buffs who memorized the names and faces of every image thereon.

Vinyl, in the hands of the right disc jockey became an instrument that could create a symphony where disparate artists came together in a seamless harmonic whole to take you on an emotional roller coaster ride.

Then came one turn of the evolutionary road, where it was thought that Vinyl was as anachronistic as a pterodactyl, technically deficient and ultimately too fragile to be a permanent part of the audio archive. CDs and their successor, the MP3 were pure digital storage devices that could be identically cloned without the generational losses inherent in the magnetically arranged iron filings on strips of Mylar or the vibratory bands encircling black plastic.

For three decades we’ve believed that digital perfection was the be all and end all. But now, it seems that everything old is new again. Even as CD sales continue to decline, vinyl is in a renaissance.

The Chicago Tribune quotes Ken Shipley, co-owner of the Numero Group, a Chicago label that specializes in reissues of underground soul music. “We’re seeing the (vinyl) resurgence in all walks of life: from 50-year-old guys who want high-quality product to match their high-end stereos to 19-year-old kids who are sick of the minimalist Ikea design that has plagued dorm rooms for the last decade..Vinyl is the new books.”

Pressing plants are being brought out of mothballs and limited edition vinyl box sets are selling out, at price points that would make CD manufacturers salivate. Bill Gagnon, senior vice president of catalog marketing at EMI Music told the Trib that he expects vinyl to eventually make up about 4% of EMI’s revenue. As with everything else, it’s the younger generation that is driving the demand.

Will the LP supplant digital? Nope. The pure ease of carrying your entire record library around in a cigarette box that renders it perfectly and pristine first time, every time ensures a digital future.

But like the Keener generation, new audiences are discovering the same magic we remember from that first time we put needle to groove.

SOURCE: http://scottwesterman.com/

Album Cover Art

Let's continue our look at Gigwise.com's look at the 50 most controversial, weirdest, best and worst album covers as put together by their staff:

Controversial


14. Mortad Hell: ‘There’s A Satanic Butcher In Every One Of Us’ Who, what? Well this cover certainly would explain the music, death metal. And who doesn't love blood and a butcher on any album cover?



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Weirdest


14. Kjell Kraghe: 'Vind I Seglen' Again, the staff has pulled out some obscure artwork from some obscure artist. Wouldn't make my list, but they seem pretty smitten with it.





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Worst


14. ManOwar – ‘Anthology’: Anthology is the second "best of" album by the heavy metal band Manowar.

This 1997 compilation album of ManOwar’s greatest hits perhaps belonged to the Eighties for it’s pure cheesiness value. The boys must clearly have worked out to get that authentic Conan the Barbarian look. After doing some research about the band, all I could find was this cover making list of the 'worst' album covers of all time on a variety of web sites. We get the picture, I don't think that their music mattered.

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Best


14. The Beatles: ‘Sgt Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band’ Not in the top five? A real slip up for Gigwise, this cover is iconic.

The Grammy Award-winning album packaging was created by art director Robert Fraser, mostly in collaboration with McCartney, designed by Peter Blake, his wife Jann Haworth, and photographed by Michael Cooper. It featured a colourful collage of life-sized cardboard models of famous people on the front of the album cover and lyrics printed on the back cover, the first time this had been done on an English pop LP. The Beatles themselves, in the guise of the Sgt. Pepper band, were dressed in custom-made military-style outfits made of satin dyed in day-glo colours. The suits were designed by Manuel Cuevas.

According to Blake, the original concept was to create a scene that showed the Sgt. Pepper band performing in a park; this gradually evolved into its final form, which shows the Beatles, as the Sgt. Pepper band, surrounded by a large group of their heroes, rendered as lifesized cut-out figures. Also included were wax-work figures of the Beatles as they appeared in the early '60s, borrowed from Madame Tussauds. The wax figures appear to be looking down on the word "Beatles" spelled out in flowers as if it were a grave, and it has been speculated that this symbolises that the innocent mop-tops of yesteryear were now dead and gone. At their feet were several affectations from the Beatles' homes including small statues belonging to Lennon and Harrison, a small portable TV set and a trophy. A young delivery boy who provided the flowers for the photo session was allowed to contribute a guitar made of yellow hyacinths. Although it has long been rumoured that some of the plants in the arrangement were cannabis plants, this is untrue. Also included is a Shirley Temple doll wearing a sweater in homage to the Rolling Stones (who would return the tribute by having the Beatles hidden in the cover of their own Their Satanic Majesties Request LP later that year).

The collage depicted more than 70 famous people, including writers, musicians, film stars and (at Harrison's request) a number of Indian gurus. Starr reportedly made no contribution to the design. The final grouping included Marlene Dietrich, Carl Gustav Jung, W.C. Fields, Diana Dors, Bob Dylan, Marilyn Monroe, Karlheinz Stockhausen, Sigmund Freud, Aleister Crowley, Edgar Allan Poe, Karl Marx, Oscar Wilde, William S. Burroughs, Marlon Brando, Stan Laurel and Oliver Hardy, and controversial comedian Lenny Bruce. Also included was the image of the original Beatles bass player, the late Stuart Sutcliffe. Pete Best said in a later NPR interview that Lennon borrowed family medals from his mother Mona for the shoot, on condition he not lose them. Adolf Hitler was requested by Lennon, but ultimately he was left out.

This cover belongs in any top ten list, why it ranks so low with Gigwise is anyone's guess.

How To Make Good Analog Music Recordings

*some Tips from Moritz Illner*

Realizing that many independent artists and bands are more than just curious about the re-emerging possibility to offer something more than just a digital file. We thought it would be interesting to do an interview to get some vinyl manufacturing tips.

From our research and communications with several pressing plants, we have discovered that there is a substantial difference between services and costs across the offering table of vinyl manufacturers. But what we have worked out, is, that if given a few concerts, a supportive family, and active myspace page you can manage to sell between 200-300 records, you will be able to break-even on costs with a price per record as little as Euros 2-4 or USD 3-6.

So to learn more about the process of making vinyl records we contacted a vinyl record pressing plant in Germany and asked them a couple of questions. We found a dedicated and service minded team that taught us a lot about the process of producing vinyl records. Moritz Illner answered some of our questions about how to get one 's music out on vinyl.

Thomas: What is the history of Duophonic? Who is behind the company, and what is your position in the company?

Moritz: Duophonic was founded in 2002. We started as a reseller of CD-Pressings and did small runs on our own CD Duplicator. Me as the technical chief and David did all the controlling and project management. We both, David Jahnke and me were great Vinyl fans so we discovered a way to combine our hobby and our job. Step by step we bought more and more Studio equipment especially old vinyl- cutting rags...

Thomas: When did your start focusing on vinyl, and why?

Moritz: I was always fascinated of the miracle to conserve the stereo-sound information in a little groove. In the mid 90ties when I finished my sound engineer training, this was far more exotic then nowadays. But I always bought vinyl instead of CDs so the way a good record has to sound gets very familiar to me over the years. Then a few months after launching Duophonic we found the curious guy near our hometown how had constructed a vinyl recorder. We bought one machine and started doing small runs for Djs and Producers in the end of 2002 with our own vinyl cutting 'lathe.

Thomas: There are different ways of vinyl production, what are the main ways? And, what way of production does your company offer?

Moritz:You can cut records directly in vinyl as a one-off or small run production. This is only interesting for DJ or home use, not for sale, because its not cheap (round 40 euros at duophonic).

If you run a label or band and you want to sell your LPs or singles you have to press your records. Then you can choose two different ways of cutting your Master. DMM -cutting; there you cut the groove into a copper plate. The second is lacquer cutting, the groove is cut into a lacquer coated aluminium plate, and it 's the most popular way. The pressing process itself is nearly the same. Duophonic has a Neumann VMS 70 Lacquer cutting Lathe and we are very happy with its sound.

Thomas: Should artists use different cutting/pressing methods for different types of music (electronic, indie, rock, punk)? If so, why?

Moritz: The most records you can buy nowadays are lacquer cuts, because there are only a few DMM lathes left and the only advantage cutting into copper is the longer playing time. If you want to have loud records for example electronic 45er Maxis it 's better on lacquer, because DMM can't cut so deep. This is important because your playback stylus have to move very fast if the record is loud and therefore he needs a proper guidance. If you have a lot of stereo information in your music than you need a deep cut too. For example if you have massive panned guitars on a punk rock single.

The big advantage of Dmm cutting is the longer playing time per side. The maximum on our VMS 70 is 24- 25 min per side. With DMM you have up to 30 min. But a record with a playing time like a CD couldn't sound good anyway.

Thomas: How long would it take me to get 200 new pressed 12" records delivered to my home in Norway if I gave you an audiotape today?

Moritz: It takes around 14 working days. But I would advice to make 300 pieces because all the paperwork and the pressing get much cheaper then.

Thomas: There is little doubt about the current vinyl revival, which is occurring in the midst of an industry going through major structural changes. Have you seen development in the demand pattern for vinyl during recent years?

Moritz: Not having the big major customers, we're not affected by this "Madonna makes vinyl again" phenomenon. What we see the last years is much more diversity in genres and scenes the last years. All "electronic dance music" is decreasing because of mp3 DJ software. All other independent stuff is increasing especially 7inches (punk, garage, ect.) and Metal LPs, obscure small runs of everything between art and music..

The editions gone down, the average is around 300. But the packaging and the records itself becomes more individual and sumptuous. Things like engraving or double grooves on the record, or silkscreen printed covers are very hot at the moment. There are fewer labels but much more bands that want to sell their product on concerts and so on. They need more help getting a real professional finished product, so we as a company do a lot of consulting work depending artwork specification, sound mastering and so on. For Duophonic the change in music industry is not bad at all .

Thomas: Where do you see vinyl in 10 years? (Still going strong?)

Moritz: Hopefully! Don1t know, but as a niche product it will survive I think.

Thomas: What are your all-time top five records?

Moritz: Hard question, after typing 12, deleting 10, typing 13, deleting 3, typing 5, deleting 12. Here 's the list:

Die Goldenen Zitronen - Economy class - LP
Beck - Odelay - LP
Trio - Trio - LP
Fugazi - Self titled - EP
Tortoise - Millions Now Living Will Never Die - LP About the Author




Nylvi co-founder Thomas Stenumgaard writes about vinyl records and the future of the music industry. Nylvi is a new social marketplace for buying and selling vinyl records. For more information check out http://www.nylvi.com

Neil Young Releasing 1968 Show, Postponing Archives

Reprise Records has announced that Neil Young's "Sugar Mountain: Live at Canterbury House 1968" will be released on November 25.

The release is a compilation from two shows on November 9 and 10, 1968 at the Canterbury House in Ann Arbor, Michigan, the singer's first performances as a solo artist. Young was only 23 years old and had left the Buffalo Springfield six months earlier. The booking was not widely publicized as it was being used to determine how Young's music would go over with the audience when just performed by the singer and a lone guitar.

Along with the music, Young tells stories between the songs on everything from menial jobs he had in Toronto to the origins of some of the songs. Included are pieces from both his Buffalo Springfield days along with early solo compositions. Sound quality is said to be very good even though the performances were recorded on a small TEAC two-track recorder.

On the down side, Young has also announced that his long promised Archives, Volume 1 is being delayed until early next year. Much discussion has ensued over the distribution method for the multi-disc set with Young preferring Blu-Ray only while the record company opting for multiple-formats.

The track list for Sugar Mountain: Live at Canterbury House 1968


Emcee intro
On the Way Home
Songwriting rap
Mr. Soul
Recording rap
Expecting To Fly
The Last Trip To Tulsa
Bookstore rap
The Loner
"I used to" rap
Birds
Winterlong (excerpt) and Out of My Mind (intro)
Out of My Mind
If I Could Have Her Tonight
Classical Gas rap
Sugar Mountain (intro)
Sugar Mountain
I've Been Waiting for You
Songs rap
Nowadays Clancy Can't Even Sing
Tuning Rap & The Old Laughing Lady (intro)
The Old Laughing Lady
Broken Arrow