Posts

Stevie Ray Vaughan & Double Trouble- Couldn’t Stand the Weather 40th- Chris Layton, Tommy Shannon, Buddy Guy, SRV

Double Trouble's Chris Layton and Tommy Shannon are joined by blues legend Buddy Guy and my rare archival 1984 interview with the late Stevie Ray Vaughan here In the Studio for the fortieth anniversary of Stevie Ray Vaughan & Double Trouble's "Couldn't Stand the Weather".
,

Pretenders- Learning to Crawl 40th Anniversary- Chrissie Hynde

Forty years ago, after two highly-acclaimed full albums plus an EP, the Pretenders led by American singer/co-writer Chrissie Hynde, had fired their bass player because of drug abuse, only to have their guitarist/co-writer overdose and die two days later. American ex-pat Chrissie Hynde pulls no punches with the life-and-death story, times two, behind one of the Eighties' great comeback albums "Learning to Crawl" in this particularly tough yet tender classic rock interview about the January 1984 Pretenders effort.
,

YES- 90125- Jon Anderson,Trevor Rabin,Tony Kaye, the late Chris Squire & Alan White

The musical moonshot “90125” by YES resulted in more than eight million copies selling (three million just in the U.S.) from a musical entity thought to be extinct, but with the songs "It Can Happen","Hold On","Leave It","Changes", and the #1 hit "Owner of a Lonely Heart", YES could rise like a musical phoenix from the ashes of the progressive rock Seventies with the comeback album of the Eighties in "90125".

Night Ranger- Dawn Patrol/Seven Wishes – Jack Blades

Night Ranger's Jack Blades goes out on "Dawn Patrol" forty years later to report back on the first American band to break big simultaneously on radio & MTV with "Don't Tell Me You Love Me","You Can Still Rock in America", & the mid-'80s phenomenon "Sister Christian" here In the Studio.
,

Sammy Hagar- I Never Said Goodbye

After years of struggle as the undercard rock palooka who could take a punch and never go down, in 1984 Sammy Hagar answered the bell  and came out swinging, scoring a technical knockout with his mainstream hit "I Can't Drive 55" from his eighth solo album "VOA". Then in 1987 Sammy won by a knockout with his solo album "I Never Said Goodbye", at #14 his highest charting album ever, and that while being newly installed as Van Halen's lead singer. Sammy Hagar is my guest In the Studio.

Billy Idol- Don’t Stop

It's the all-important 1981 "Don't Stop"  EP by Billy Idol. In the last spasms of the London Punk Rock scene circa 1980, Generation X and their front man Billy Broad had the career arc of a bottle rocket, briefly filling English dance floors with the celebratory single "Dancing with Myself"and a cover of "Mony Mony". But Punk Rock's purpose of being a disruptive force to reset all the tumblers of popular music was practically fulfilled by then, and had no second act, so Billy Idol needed a new start. Billy Idol is my guest In the Studio.

Stevie Ray Vaughan and Double Trouble- Cold Shot- Austin 4-15-84

When Stevie Ray Vaughan and Double Trouble welcomed  Jimmie Vaughan to join them on stage April 15, 1984 at the Austin Opera House to help them perform "Cold Shot", Stevie's big brother was actually a bigger star then by virtue of anchoring the butt-rocking guitar slot in the Fabulous Thunderbirds.

Bruce Springsteen- Born in the USA- Philadelphia 12-95

After the release of the Ghost of Tom Joad album , which invokes the name of the starving Depression-era Okie in the Grapes of Wrath , Bruce Springsteen did some selected dates without the "E" Street Band . More than a decade after the Republican Party appropriated the chorus from his song "Born in the USA" for President Ronald Reagan's re-election campaign , Springsteen was still rankled by the usage out of context minus the verses . ..(more)