Thursday, November 30, 2017

Rolling Stones On Air available on December 1

December 1, 2017 will see the release of The Rolling Stones – On Air, a collection of radio recordings from their early years. 
The songs were originally broadcast on different BBC shows between 1963 and 1965.

Track list here:
https://www.bluesmagazine.nl/the-rolling-stones-on-air/

Tuesday, November 28, 2017

Wednesday, November 22, 2017

Donald Fagen sues Walter Becker's estate

It's about a buy-sell agreement signed by the original bandmembers when Steely Dan was incorporated in the early 1970's. It says that whenever a member of the group quits or dies, Steely Dan purchases all of that member's shares in the group.

According to the lawsuit filed in court yesterday Donald Fagen had recieved a letter from Becker's estate four days after Walter Becker's death  saying that the buy-sell agreement from 1972 no longer was valid and that Becker's widow wanted 50 percent ownership of Steely Dan.

Read more:
https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/thr-esq/steely-dan-singer-sues-bandmates-estate-1060687

http://www.rollingstone.com/music/news/steely-dans-donald-fagen-sues-walter-beckers-estate-w512406


UPDATE 28 NOVEMBER 2017:

Walter Becker's Estate Responds to Donald Fagen's Steely Dan Lawsuit
 

Tuesday, November 21, 2017

Video of rare Walter Becker song

Over on walterbecker.com there's a new clip of Walter Becker performing his unreleased song with the catchy title The Girl Next Door To The Methadone Clinic. He performed it live at a 1995 solo show and it supposedly exists as a bootleg, but we've not heard of anyone actually owning a copy.

Anyway, here it is recorded home video style and well worth a watch and a listen. Or three.

Sunday, November 19, 2017

News of the World – Queen box set with unreleased material

The most interesting part of the new Queen box set is probably the newly created ‘alternative’ version of the whole album – Raw Sessions.
It features never-before-heard alternative versions of each of the album’s 11 tracks.

"Every lead vocal is different, as are most of the lead guitar parts and a great many other instrumental details.  Here we experience We Are The Champions anew, with many unfamiliar vocal and instrumental elements, and for the first time at its full-recorded length rather than the edited 1977 album cut.  Here also is the chance to discover peak era Freddie Mercury vocals on a track that nobody outside Queen’s inner circle has heard him sing before at all – Brian May’s All Dead, All Dead.  The original album version features May himself on vocals. Roger Taylor’s Sheer Heart Attack can be heard with its original long-lost guitar intro and uncut ending.  Taylor’s other song, Fight From The Inside, is more remarkable in that we hear his demo vocal worked on in his home studio in preparation for the next sessions, ‘homework’ that all of the band members would regularly carry out."

http://www.queenonline.com/news/press-release-news-of-the-world-40th-anniversary-edition

Thursday, November 16, 2017

Update on Walter Becker's illness and death

walterbecker.com has been updated with a text from Delia Becker, wife of Walter Becker who died two and a half moths ago.
Delia writes:

As Walter Becker’s wife of many years, I wanted to share with his fans some information regarding his death that has not previously been reported. I realize this is overdue, and I hope you will understand why. For me personally, his death was a devastating blow, as I know it was for many of you. I am just beginning to emerge from its heartbreaking impact. 
           Walter died in the course of being treated for an extremely aggressive form of esophageal cancer. The cancer was detected during one of his annual medical checkups and its presence came as a grim surprise to Walter, his doctors and to me. It seemed to have come out of nowhere and had spread with terrifying speed.


Early September Walter's daughter asked for help documenting all the media coverage around Walter's passing. With the help of fans it grew and morphed into The Walter Becker Media Project collecting his "Hey 19 raps" through the years.
If you don't know what they are head on over to http://www.dandom.com/hey19 and look and listen at the clips from various Steely Dan shows through the years now online as Walter Becker Digital Archive.

It is also linked to from http://walterbecker.com/mediaproject.html. And at the bottom of that page is a short 20 second video with Walter that must've been shot not that long ago.

Saturday, November 04, 2017

Nona Hendryx releases Beefheart album (!)

 
Singer Nona Hendryx has recorded an album with Captain Beefheart covers together with Beefheart guitarist Gary Lucas.

This is quite a surprise. LaBelle veteran Nona is a terrific singer but her style seems far away from the sounds of Captain Beefheart.

Check out this link and scroll down to hear the new album.
Sounds pretty nice, we think!

http://dangerousminds.net/comments/nona_hendryx_covering_captain_beefheart_hear_the_whole_album_here_first