David Bowie
Claudia Lennear, The Inspiration Behind ‘Brown Sugar,’ Regrets Song Leaving Rolling Stones’ Live Set
Claudia Lennear has been a witness to some peak moments in rock and soul. First as a member of the Ike & Tina Turner Revue, she’s sung backup on classic recordings and toured the world, shared stages with former Beatles and Bob Dylan, and was the inspiration behind David Bowie’s torrid 1972 epic “Lady Grinning Soul.” Just as famously, Lennear has been widely credited as the inspiration behind the Rolling Stones’ increasingly controversial classic rocker “Brown Sugar.” Founding bassist Bill Wyman confirmed her role in one of his books, and she’s always taken pride in that, calling the track “one of the greatest rock songs of all time, and not because I had anything to do with it.” Lennear was still an Ikette when she dated Stones frontman Mick Jagger in 1969, the same period the song wa...
Listen to Previously Unreleased David Bowie Songs ‘Karma Man’ and ‘Silly Boy Blue’ Alternative Mix
A pair of previously unheard tracks set to be on the upcoming lost David Bowie album were just released. “Karma Man” is coupled with “Silly Boy Blue” (Alternative Ending Mix), exclusive to the single. “‘Karma Man’ is notable for Cuong Vu’s opening and closing lines, and especially the glorious backing vocals from Holly Palmer, Emm Gryner, and Lisa Germano,” Toy co-producer Mark Plati said in a statement. “They had so much to do with the sound of Toy, and this is a prime example. When I re-listened to these tracks, the sound of fall 2000 came flooding out of the speakers, from a song I’d not heard since then. I’m not too proud to say I shed a bit of a tear, something that happened a few times while mixing it.” The track was initially recorded by Bowie in September 1967 but was not officiall...
Previously Unreleased David Bowie Album Toy to Arrive Next Year
Parlophone Records and ISO Records announced the previously unreleased David Bowie album Toy (Toy:Box) will drop the day before what would be the legend’s 75th birthday, which is January 7, 2022. The labels will also release the fifth box set, David Bowie 5. Brilliant Adventure (1992-2001), of a series chronicling his career from 1969 to the 21st century, which is out on November 26. The first single from Toy, “You’ve Got A Habit of Leaving”, is out now as a digital single. The album was recorded following Bowie’s Glastonbury set in 2000, and reinterprets songs that he originally recorded from 1964-1971. With a twist of pop, Bowie sings over pianos and “oo-wa-oo’s” with punching guitars that bring back the spirit of the late legend back into our ears today. Bowie recorded the album with St...
Avicii Joins Pop Smoke, Juice WRLD as Most Popular Deceased Musicians, Study Shows
A new study examining the popularity of deceased musicians has proven the legacy of the late Avicii is as strong as ever. The dance music icon’s smash hit “Wake Me Up” stands as the most-streamed song (based on cumulative Spotify and YouTube plays) by an artist who is no longer living, beating out music by legends like David Bowie and Whitney Houston. Since its release in 2013, the track has amassed over 2 billion views on YouTube and nearly 1.4 billion streams on Spotify. CasinoGrounds also made a list of the 10 most popular deceased musicians when it comes to overall streaming, pulling from Spotify and YouTube data to flesh out its rankings. Hip-hop artists Pop Smoke and Juice WRLD dominate the top two spots with 31,470,650 and 29,814,443 million mon...
The 40 Greatest Music Video Artists
Music videos are the perfect bastard child of art and commerce, even more than pop music itself. A promotional visual accompaniment to a popular song doesn’t need a coherent narrative (although on rare occasions, they do). It just needs to suit the song, sell the record, and possibly make the artist look cool. But since the launch of MTV 40 years ago this week, a select few recording artists have helped raise music videos to an art form — sometimes by accident, and sometimes by carefully curating the work of brilliant directors like Mark Romanek, Hype Williams, and Spike Jonze. Here are 40 artists from the last four decades that helped video kill the radio star. 40. Lil Kim [embedded content] Although earlier female MCs like Salt-N-Pepa and Queen Latifah used music videos to help launch th...
5 Albums I Can’t Live Without: Gary Kemp
Name Gary Kemp Best known for Songwriter and guitarist for Spandau Ballet; Sy Spector in The Bodyguard; Ronnie Kray in The Krays; guitarist and singer in Nick Mason’s Saucerful of Secrets. Current city London. Really want to be in A concert hall full of beautiful folk watching a show. I may or may not be on stage. I don’t bloody mind at the moment, just give me anything! Excited about My new solo album, INSOLO (July 16). My current music collection has a lot of Solo female artists in it: St. Vincent, The Anchoress, Lana del Rey, Rachel Eckroth… And a little bit of Prog. Actually, a lot of prog. Don’t judge me for Liking Yacht Rock. Preferred format Always vinyl at home. It’s the arena albums were designed to fit in: two 20-minute acts, unless it’s prog, then it can be four. And, of course,...
The 100 Greatest Rock Stars Since That Was A Thing
Three of the 100 are in this picture! The Rolling Stones, in 1964, from left to right: Bill Wyman, Mick Jagger, Keith Richards, Charlie Watts and Brian Jones. The problem with lists like this is they are invariably bullshit. So our prime objective was to make sure we didn’t do a bullshit list. I’m not saying we did a scientific one either. Because that isn’t possible — actually, it is, if you wanted some compilation of who sold the most records/concert tickets/has the most fans/got the most death threats, etc., and someone could come up with a bunch of very empirical metrics and create a “heat index” or something, and could deliver an actual scientific ranking! But we, um, didn’t do that. In fact we didn’t even, technically, do the “we...
The 50 Best Live Albums of the 1970s
The concert industry exploded in the 1970s, and the live album, a stopgap project once reserved for only the biggest artists, became a compulsory ritual and a pivotal moment for many artists. Live albums captured legendarily loud bands like The Who and The Ramones in their natural element. Once obscure regional acts like Bob Seger, KISS and Cheap Trick exploded into the mainstream with live albums. The Band, The Stooges, and Velvet Underground put their final gigs on vinyl. Jimi Hendrix, Neil Young (as his ongoing archive series shows), and Jackson Browne recorded entire sets of new songs onstage. The Grateful Dead released several official live albums (and continue to do so) that only made fans want to bootleg shows on their own more. With the 50th anniversary of a landmark live album, Th...
5 Albums I Can’t Live Without: Neil Finn
Name Neil Finn Best known for Having a full head of hair and spectacular calf muscles. Current city Auckland, NZ. Really want to be On a balcony in my pajamas on a Greek Island with freshly baked bread, olive oil, local honey and espresso or on the top of Mount Everest having not had to climb it. Excited about Dreamers Are Waiting coming out June 4. My current music collection has a lot of World music. And a little bit of Holiday (it is a genre). Don’t judge me for String Theory by The Kallafas Quartet. Preferred format Vinyl by a long shot because it’s the best. Then my 8-track Tascam 1/4” tape recorder for my demos because it’s romantic and there is no screen. CREDIT: Steve Dykes 5 Albums I Can’t Live Without 1 Hunky DoryDavid Bowie It’s an essential songwriters record. So many cho...
A Day in the Life of…Penfriend
Bristol, UK-based producer and songwriter Laura Kidd—a.k.a. Penfriend—is either a shapeshifter or one of the most multitalented people we know. Or both. In her early years as a bassist and vocalist for hire, she appeared on Top of the Pops with such artists as Tricky, A-ha, and Viv Albertine of The Slits. She even sang with David Bowie on the Ricky Gervais series Extras. After her band She Makes War disbanded in 2019, she went to her home studio to write, record and produce her just-released album Exotic Monsters, an ambitious opus making waves even before its release. Her March 2021 single, “Black Car” came out almost exactly one year after the UK went into lockdown. It’s a beautiful, emotive reflection of isolation and loss. “That this single release marks the anniversary of ...
David Bowie Covers Laurie Anderson and Lou Reed on Latest Archival Release
The fourth show in David Bowie’s ongoing, comprehensive Brilliant Live Adventures will be Look At The Moon! (Live Phoenix Festival 97). The set features previously unreleased rarities, including a cover of Laurie Anderson’s “O Superman,” which the band played at their secret show as ‘The Tao Jones Index’ at the festival the previous day. Recorded at The Phoenix Festival in Long Marston, England on July 20, 1997, it arrives Feb. 12 on double CD and triple vinyl, as limited one-run only pressings via Parlophone Records. There will also be special limited edition boxes for both vinyl and CD to house the full collection. The albums and boxes will be available only via the David Bowie official store and the Rhino store. Each release is numbered 1 to 6 respectively on the CD and L...
The 50 Best Albums of 1971
It’s become a cliché, even for post-Baby Boomers, to look back wistfully on the early ’70s as some kind of untouchable golden age for popular music. But when you survey all the era’s best albums in list form, it’s hard not to trust that instinct. I mean…holy shit. In 1971, the psychedelic era hadn’t completely wilted; prog was nearing its popularity apex; Motown was still a revolutionizing soul music; the folk-rock movement was in full flight. The possibilities were limitless. You know it’s a banner year when 50 albums don’t begin to scratch the surface — when both John Lennon and Paul McCartney release definitive LPs and neither make the top 10. Was 1971 the greatest album year ever? We’ll save that debate for another time (or maybe another list). For now, we present 50 stone-cold cl...
