Doors- L.A. Woman 50th Anniversary- the late Ray Manzarek

It is the fiftieth anniversary of "L.A. Woman" by The Doors, one of the greatest albums ever made by an American band, one of the first great albums to usher in the Seventies decade, the last album ever by the incomparable Jim Morrison, and a personal "desert island disc" for me that never ages; with the late Ray Manzarek In the Studio.

Rolling Stones- Brown Sugar- Los Angeles 2015

Back in 2015 when the Rolling Stones were playing tight and right,  presciently Mick Jagger knew that they had better do something special for the Rolling Stones' fiftieth anniversary of the landmark album "Sticky Fingers", albeit six years early. The Stones played every song from it at the LA Fonda Theater, including this spirited version of "Brown Sugar".

Rolling Stones- Honky Tonk Women- London 3-14-71

Eras in music no more follow the calendar than Mother Nature does. Thus fifty years ago in mid-March 1971 the last live performance of the Sixties in effect may actually gone down when the Rolling Stones ended their brief Scottish/ English tour at London's Roundhouse with this final performance of "Honky Tonk Women".
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Bob Seger- Live Bullet 45th Anniversary

"It took me twelve years to make that album Live Bullet ," Bob Seger  solemnly emphasizes to me in this classic rock interview to mark the forty-fifth anniversary of that release from Bob Seger and the Silver Bullet Band in April 1976. This  may be the only six million-seller in history which failed to make the Top Thirty in sales when initially released.

Peter Frampton- Shine On Early Best

The sub-title of this classic rock interview should probably be "Frampton Barely Survives". Everybody knows that young Englishman Peter Frampton revolutionized the recording industry in early 1976 with his live double set  "Frampton Comes Alive". But where did those now-iconic songs like "Show Me the Way", "Lines on My Face", "Baby I Love Your Way", "All I Want to Be (Is By Your Side)", and "Do You Feel Like We Do" originally come from? Peter joins me In the Studio to trace the days after he left Humble Pie, his struggles with four solid but woefully under-exposed solo studio albums, his phenomenal transformation into pop superstardom with the live album, and the tumultuous years immediately afterward trying to survive it all.

Cheap Trick- Essential pt1- Rick Nielsen, Robin Zander

On a maximum scale of five stars, the 1977 debut by Cheap Trick  receives AllMusic.com's highest rating, and the even more melodic, better sounding  sophomore effort "In Color" in the same year earns 4 1/2 stars. Then Cheap Trick's Rick Nielsen, Robin Zander, Tom Petersson, and Bun E. Carlos wrote and recorded the  masterpiece "Heaven Tonight" in May 1978, yet again scoring a critics' perfect five star rating. So in hindsight it would appear that recording the Rockford IL quartet's set while performing the strongest material from these three killer studio albums, in front of an adoring audience in one of the world's premiere venues, would be as obvious as a sumo wrestler in your shower stall.

U2- Until the End of the World- NYC Yankee Stadium 1992

U2's "Until the End of the World", it is imperative that the listener understand that the singers' (plural) perspectives change every time the stanzas do. The singer in the first stanza is Jesus Christ; the singer in the second stanza is Judas; and in the final stanza, it's you and me.
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Rush- 2112: Early Best 45th Anniversary- Geddy Lee, Alex Lifeson

"2112"  by Rush was an amalgam of hard rock, progressive rock, science-fiction and Ayn Rand socio-economics right about the same time that The Ramones, The Dead Boys, and Ian Dury and the Blockheads were singing "Sex and Drugs and Rock'n'Roll". So things were about to get interesting in 1976. Geddy Lee and Alex Lifeson of Rush join me here In the Studio

Steve Earle- Guitar Town 35th Anniversary

"Guitar Town " Steve Earle shares here In the Studio on the thiry-fifth anniversary of his #1-charting Country debut in March 1986: "I'm a straggler from what was going on in Austin and Nashville in the mid-70s. I had good teachers, Guy Clark, Townes Van Zandt, Jerry Jeff Walker, B.W. Stevenson...when I first got to Nashville on any given night, you could go to Guy's house. And he'd have everybody, from the street level where I was to Mickey Newbury and Neil Young, with the guitar going around. So it was a good place to learn. Then, basically cocaine sort of created a caste system  and killed that real fast!"
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Led Zeppelin- Presence 45th Anniversary- Jimmy Page

Thus began a five year period when a series of tragedies befell Led Zeppelin even while they continued to record timeless hard rock such as "Achilles' Last Stand","Nobody's Fault but Mine", and "For Your Life" from Presence  which amaze even now almost half a century later. Jimmy Page blesses us with his Presence  and joins me here In the Studio   on the forty-fifth anniversary of "Presence" .