There’s a newly discovered Dr. Seuss book for sale called “What Pet Should I Get?” It’s believed the book was written between 1958 and 1962, and because it was penned so long ago, Jimmy Kimmel thought it could use a modern twist. So they enlisted the help of friend Tyler, the Creator to do just that.
Frank Zappa Signs With Universal Music For Long-Term, Global Licensing And Rights Management Agreement
The Zappa Family Trust has partnered with Universal Music Enterprises (UMe) for a long-term, global licensing agreement for Frank Zappa’s entire recorded catalog, as well as rights management participation across the rest of the visionary cultural icon’s creative canon. The partnership spans Frank Zappa’s vast music and film Vault for new product releases, trademark licensing, film and theatrical production.
“This is literally an opportunity of a lifetime for me,” says Gail Zappa. “I am universally thrilled with this partnership because the fans will have unparalleled access to Frank Zappa’s Works-the doors to the Vault are now officially WIDE open. I’m especially grateful to announce that Ahmet, my personal Music Sherpa, worked directly with Bruce Resnikoff in creating this relationship and will be taking over the daily operations of the family business.”
“Stepping into this partnership with Bruce Resnikoff and Universal means we get to expand the business and continue to maintain the integrity of Frank Zappa’s entire body of Work,” says Ahmet Zappa. “The fans of Frank Zappa will have more music and more access-when they want it and how they want it. With Universal as our partner, I look forward to bringing to life Joe’s Garage, The Musical, the release of The Roxy Movie, the release of the Disney Hall performance of 200 MOTELS under the baton of Esa-Pekka Salonen and so many more projects of this caliber. I couldn’t be more excited about the future. It has been a privilege working with Gail and I’m passionate about what this opportunity with Universal means for our family moving forward. It is an honor to be stepping into my new role.”
“Frank Zappa is one of the most important and influential artists in music history,” says Bruce Resnikoff, President/CEO, Universal Music Enterprises (UMe). “An artist and composer, his prolific body of work, includes breakthrough and unforgettable rock ‘n roll concept albums. With his legacy protected and guided by Gail Zappa and the Zappa Family Trust, we are privileged and look forward to collaborating and bringing his creative legacy in various forms to his new and longtime fans.”
The first Zappa Records/UMe release under the new agreement will be a remastered 40th Anniversary Edition of Frank Zappa and the Mothers of Invention’s One Size Fits All album, to be released August 14 on 180-gram vinyl. Originally released in 1975, it was Zappa’s final album with the Mothers of Invention line-up, featuring guest vocals by Johnny “Guitar” Watson on two tracks, “San Ber’dino” and “Andy.” Additional releases confirmed for 2015 will be announced.
In 2012, when the rights to the pioneering composer’s masters reverted back to Zappa Records and the Zappa Family Trust-headed by Zappa’s widow, Gail Zappa-the family made his entire recorded catalog available on iTunes for the first time and began remastering the albums from the original analogue masters for reissue on vinyl. Presented with proper care and attention to detail, the releases honor the iconic legacy of the composer, guitarist, bandleader, filmmaker and irrepressible wit.
John Coltrane interview from 1966 on art, artists, audiences, and bad club owners
The Jazz musician, John Coltrane, discusses his art, the meaning of music in human experience, and his particular spiritual approach. This rare interview was done in November, 1966, less than a year before his death.
Buddy Guy Worries About The Future Of Blues Music
I wonder if there aren’t as many young black musicians devoting themselves to the blues. Do you worry about the future of blues music?
I worry about the future of blues music whether you are black or white. If they don’t hear it like I did and listen to it and don’t know about it — you ever been to Louisiana where they cook all this gumbo?
I have. I love it.
I do, too. [Laughs.] So if you never tasted it, you wouldn’t love it. That’s what’s happening with the blues. Now, the young people don’t know nothing about it unless — I know satellite [radio] do play blues, but we need more than that. I tell everybody I would love to hear Muddy Waters twice a week. I’m not telling you to play him all day, all night; just play him. Let the young people know where it all started.
For the younger people who don’t know much about the blues, what’s the case that you would make to go buy a Muddy Waters album as soon as they can?
If you don’t have the blues and don’t know about the blues, just keep livin’.
What do you mean by that?
[Laughs.] At least, you’re gonna see a better time or a worser time in life. Just listen to what I’m sayin’: Just keep livin’. Even if you get in the middle of the expressway and your car quit runnin’, you got blues.
Via NPR
Buffy Sainte-Marie On Lasting 50 Years In Music
More than 50 years after your first album, you are back with a new one, Power in the Blood. Morrissey asked you to tour with him this year and you’re getting great reviews. How do you explain your longevity?
I didn’t get into the music business because somebody made me take piano lessons, you know. I got into music because I was a natural writer and had a lot of curiosity about sound. And in the 1960s there was an open window into what people call the music business. It’s really been a lot of luck. Actually, when I first got famous in the 60s, I got a little too famous and in order to escape showbusiness I moved to Hawaii. I’ve always had that attitude about my career: it’s something that I do but it’s not my whole life. I have a real life, a personal life: I’ve got a lot of chickens, I’ve got a horse, I’ve got a kitty-cat, I’ve got a lot of goats, I’ve got animals all over the place.
You were part of the Greenwich Village folk scene of the 1960s, with Bob Dylan, Joan Baez and many others. Where did you fit in to that scene?
I kind of didn’t fit in, in a way, but that was a time when misfits could have a career. I didn’t really sing folk songs like Joan Baez and Pete Seeger, and I didn’t come from a business family like Bob Dylan, or a music family like Judy Collins. But where I fitted in, I think, was that I didn’t think I’d last, so it’s not as though I was risking anything. And I think it was because of my uniqueness.
Unique in what way?
I was writing about everything. I was writing pop songs such as Until It’s Time for You to Go, which was later recorded by Elvis, Barbra Streisand, Neil Diamond and everybody. I was writing about Native American things and I had written Universal Soldier. I think it was just very surprising and that’s why I got away with it. Even in this new album – similar to all of my other albums – it’s much more diverse than almost any singer you can think of.
Via The Guardian
‘INXS The Musical’ To Open In Australia In 2017 – Broadway Next?
INXS hope to become the new sensation of the world’s theatre stages with a musical based on their hits to open in Sydney in 2017.
With their music still commanding the album charts more than 100 weeks after they restored their legacy with the INXS: Never Tear Us Apart mini-series last year, manager Chris M Murphy has set up a theatre company to mount INXS The Musical.
Murphy remains tight-lipped about his backers for the project but insists he has some of the international theatre world’s biggest “creatives” coming on board to write and produce the musical for the stage.
The band’s longtime manager set up Murphy Theatrical to orchestrate the band’s next move to exploit their extensive catalogue of hits recorded by Michael Hutchence, Andrew, Tim and Jon Farriss, Kirk Pengilly and Garry Gary Beers, after reacquiring the rights to their music a few years ago.
The phenomenal success of the mini-series, which was watched by more than two million Australians and sold internationally, gave Murphy the impetus to forge ahead with the stage musical.
INXS: Never Tear Us Apart provoked a fan frenzy for their music with the The Very Best hits compilation giving the band their first No. 1 album in Australia in 24 years and spending 102 weeks in the charts and counting.
Via News.com.au
Listen: 2 Rare Joy Division Tracks From New Vinyl ReIssue
To celebrate the 35th anniversary of “Love Will Tear Us Apart” on June 27th, Rhino are pleased to announce the re-issue of four iconic Joy Division releases on heavyweight 180-gram vinyl.
The studio albums UNKNOWN PLEASURES (1979) and CLOSER (1980) will be available on June 29th. They will be followed on July 31st by STILL (1981) and an expanded version of SUBSTANCE (1988), both available as a double-LP set.
Each design replicates the original in painstaking detail, including the gatefold covers used for Still and Substance. The music heard on the albums was remastered in 2007 when Rhino introduced expanded versions of the albums. The lone exception is Substance, which features audio remastered in 2010 for the +- singles box and for the first time on vinyl, the expanded tracklist from the original CD release, plus two additional songs: “As You Said” and the Pennine version of “Love Will Tear Us Apart,” which you can hear below.
“Fun, Fun, Fun” Parody by The Beach Boys…errr…Jimmy Fallon and Kevin Bacon
First Drafts of Rock takes a look at an early version of The Beach Boys’ “Fun, Fun, Fun.”
The Real Story Behind Rick Springfield’s “Jessie’s Girl”
“Jessie’s Girl” by Rick Springfield is a classic song and Jimmy Kimmel has always wondered what the real story behind it was. It turns out they shot video of the first time Rick and his band ever played it and it is absolutely fascinating.
https://youtu.be/CQYpg8rOzMY
By the way, that’s Ronnie Vannucci Jr. of The Killers playing drums.
Full Video: Horton Hears A Who! (CBS, 1970)
The 1966 cartoon of How The Grinch Stole Christmas was so popular that director Chuck Jones (Looney Toones), followed up with Horton Hears A Who! It aired in 1970 on CBS.
Horton is an elephant splashing in the watering hole of the Jungle of Nool on the fifteenth of May when he hears a person calling for help. The sound is coming from a small dust speck. Dr. H. Hoovey, an astronomer on the speck, believes that there’s a world beyond the speck, but the rest of the Whos don’t believe him at first. He explains to Horton that the speck is in danger if it’s floating around. “A person’s a person, no matter how small,” says Horton as he decides to save the Whos. But the other jungle citizens don’t believe him as they are unable to see them and can’t hear as well. Meanwhile, the citizens of Whoville refuse to believe the existence of Horton, but eventually they do. Jane Kangaroo, the Wickersham brothers,and the Black-Bottomed Eagle are Horton’s main and worst tormentors, but at last, the Whos make themselves heard. At the end of the special, Dr. Hoovey is relaxing in his chair, exhausted from the ordeal, when he sees a small speck of dust and hears a “Help!” on it, and says the final line: “Oh, no!”
https://youtu.be/K0xQsleqNyQ