Posts

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Billy Joel- 52nd Street 45th anniversary

It's the 45th anniversary of Billy Joel's "52nd Street". We talked rock'n'roll, from Billy Joel seeing the Beatles perform on the Ed Sullivan Show  to British Invasion bands that followed, garage rock, and the New York City punk scene that influencedhis approach after the1978 "52nd Street" album. But we also talked at length about baseball...
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Styx- Pieces of Eight 45th- Tommy Shaw, James”JY” Young

focusing on the  1978 release of "Pieces of Eight", former Styx member and co-founder Dennis DeYoung  confesses that, in spite of his major conceptual songwriting role on the band's 1977 breakthrough three million seller "The Grand Illusion", the highly-anticipated follow-up "Pieces of Eight" was not his finest hour. Styx guitarists/ songwriters/ singers Tommy Shaw and James Young stepped up creatively to fill the void on "Pieces of Eigh"t, again selling triple platinum with the muscular "Blue Collar Man","Renegade","The Great White Hope","Queen of Spades", and "Sing for the Day".
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The Cars 45th Anniversary- Greg Hawkes, the late Ric Ocasek

The Cars' co-founder singer/songwriter the late Ric Ocasek goes under the hood with keyboard player Greg Hawkes for the 45th anniversary of their 1978 debut.
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Bob Seger & the Silver Bullet Band- Stranger in Town 45th anniversary

Bob Seger followed up his breakthroughs "Live Bullet" and "Night Moves" with May 1978's  "Stranger in Town", which has sold over 7,000,000 copies because it contains seminal songs "Hollywood Nights","Old Time Rock and Roll","Still the Same","Feel Like a Number"," 'Til It Shines", and "Brave Strangers". Bob Seger is my guest In the Studio on "Stranger in Town" 's 45th anniversary.
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Van Halen @ 45- Alex, David Lee Roth, Michael Anthony, the late great Eddie Van Halen

The interviewsof the earliest years of Eddie and Alex Van Halen’s emigration from The Netherlands to Southern California, meeting Michael Anthony and David Lee Roth, playing Pasadena backyard parties to the Sunset Strip, and recording their January 1978 debut.
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Warren Zevon- Excitable Boy

Warren Zevon, the gambler's son who wrote and sang "I'll Sleep When I'm Dead", presumably is indeed resting in peace, having ;passed away far too soon in 2003...Here is my rare interview with Warren Zevon on the 45th anniversary of "Excitable Boy".
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Jackson Browne- Running On Empty

Jackson Browne In the Studio with Redbeard for the backstory to December 1977’s "Running on Empty", his biggest seller.

Al Stewart- Year of the Cat

Al Stewart joins me In the Studio in a rare interview on the 45th anniversary of his breakout 1976 album "Year of the Cat". Stewart might seem to be name-dropping big time, except it's all true: sneaking backstage during a 1963 Beatles concert and talking with John Lennon; rooming in London next to Paul Simon; befriended by an unknown Cat Stevens; mc'ing at a London nightclub when another unknown, an American named Jimi Hendrix, decided to play his guitar with his teeth. But being witness repeatedly to rock history apparently accounted for nothing when Al Stewart's seventh album, "Year of the Cat", was unceremoniously turned down  by every major UK record label.