DYLAN & KNOPFLER: Not Yet
Bob Dylan and Mark Knopfler started their North American tour on Friday in Winnipeg, Canada followed by Regina (prn: Ruh-gi-nuh) on Saturday, but so far they haven't played together. This was the case last fall when they toured Europe as it took a few shows before Knopfler would sit in with Dylan for a few songs each night. Up next is Saskatoon on Monday. The U.S. dates start on Sunday in Seattle. Dylan and Knopfler have been friends since the late '70s when Knopfler played on Dylan's Slow Train Coming album and then produced his 1983 release, Infidels.
Both artists have just released new albums -- Tempest for Dylan and Privateering for Knopfler, which has yet to be released in the U.S. Dylan only played one new song over the two nights, "Scarlet Town," while Knopfler played quite a few, but only one from Dire Straits -- "So Far Away."
PETE TOWNSHEND: This Is Who His Life Is
One of the music industry's most anticipated autobiographies, Pete Townshend's Who I Am, hits store shelves Monday. More than a decade in the making, Townshend says he is nervous that some of what he wrote will upset those closest to him.
"I feel sick. It's very strange. If you've run a marathon, you expect to feel [elated], but I feel depleted and concerned. I don't want somebody to be hurt through what I've written but, on the other hand, I want it to be true."
He adds that some of those who he is hardest on are no longer alive, including drummer Keith Moon.
Townshend will promote the book with a question-and-answer session Monday night at the New York Public Library in Manhattan.
ROLLING STONES: From the Vaults
In September 1965, The Rolling Stones did four shows in Ireland with a film crew in tow. The resulting footage became Charlie Is My Darling, a documentary that has rarely been seen and has never been widely circulated. Friday, this revealing piece of history was shown in New York, followed by a Q-and-A with the band's first manager and producer, Andrew Loog Oldham.
What's remarkable about the hour-long Charlie Is My Darling -- shot just as "Satisfaction" matched its American success by topping the British charts -- is how lively and playful the young band was, and how wild their audiences were. One of the concerts, which lean heavily on the blues and R&B covers which launched the band's career, ends abruptly as they're chased from the stage by overzealous fans.
Offstage, they joke and kid with each other, work on original songs, mimic The Beatles and Elvis Presley, and comment thoughtfully on their rising fame. Brian Jones, who founded the band and was split between his loyalty to the blues, his ambition to grow as a musician and his doubts about the future, is already falling by the wayside, as Keith Richards and Mick Jagger are clearly holding the band's creative reins.
In his remarks, Oldham explained that the film's purpose -- in the wake of A Hard Day's Night and other such rock and roll features -- was to see how the band would fare on film, and to warm them to the idea of making a movie. He remarked that, as had happened with The Beatles, the surprising discovery was that it was the drummer who most charmed the camera -- hence the title.
Charlie Is My Darling will be released on DVD and Blu-Ray on November 6th.
PURPLE & LIZZY: The Boys Were Not on the Same Page
Deep Purple drummer Ian Paice says his attempt to form a trio in 1972 with Purple guitarist Ritchie Blackmore and and Thin Lizzy singer and bassist Phil Lynott failed because Lynott wasn’t a good enough bass player.
Paice says, "It was meant to be a free-flowing kind of thing... He had the voice, but learning to play bass well takes time. And for a thing like that to work, all three players need to be at a certain level. Phil just wasn’t there yet."
Calling themselves Baby Face, they did have a brief rehearsal before calling it quits. Lynott took the band's name for the title of a song on Thin Lizzy's 1972 album Shades of a Blue Orphanage.
BEACH BOYS: Mike Tells His Side of the Story
Mike Love says he "wants to set the record straight" about the seemingly acrimonious end of The Beach Boys' reunion tour.
Love tells Los Angeles Times he "did not fire Brian Wilson from The Beach Boys... I do not have such authority. And even if I did, I would never fire Brian Wilson from The Beach Boys. I love Brian Wilson... He’s my cousin by birth and my brother in music."
Love again said the reunion tour was contracted to have a limited run -- originally 50 dates, then extended to 75. But Mike says shows with the bigger 15-piece lineup they've been touring with are not economically feasible for smaller cities -- which he feels remain important to sustain their fan base.
"The plan was always to go back to our respective lives post the 50th anniversary run. Brian is writing a new album. Al [Jardine] often tours with his band -- they are terrific. And my job hasn’t changed in 50 years. I’m the lead singer of The Beach Boys and an ambassador of this amazing music that touched a generation."
Love also explains that Brother Records, founded by the original members of the band, long ago granted him the license to tour as The Beach Boys. He insists he has "responsibility to uphold, honor and further our legacy."
IN OTHER NEWS
Glenn Frey says the script for a musical based on the Eagles’ Hotel California album is done and he expects it to make it to the stage in 2014.
Joe Walsh will be on ESPN’s Sunday NFL Countdown this weekend. His song “Funk Number-50” is the show’s soundtrack, and he’ll perform it and chat with host Chris Berman. Sunday NFL Countdown airs at 10 a.m. ET.
Ray Davies was joined by former Jam frontman Paul Weller Thursday night at London’s Royal Albert Hall, singing The Kinks’ “Waterloo Sunset.”
