Jethro Tull tour dates cancelled or postponed

Several Jethro Tull concerts this spring have been cancelled or postponed due to the corona virus threat.
Several shows in the UK have been cancelled. The three concerts in Sweden have been postponed to May 2021.

http://jethrotull.com/tour-dates/

17 minutes Dylan in Covid-19 times...

In the midst of the coronavirus arists are playing live on YouTube and such platforms while keeping their distance.

Bob Dylan decided to share a 17 minute long brand new song that will keep people so declined busy dechipering his lyrics once again.

Enjoy!

 

New Walter Becker demo with a coronavirus twist

Titled Boob Baby and recorded during the sessions that ended up being his 2008 album Circus Money.

Steely Dan's Two Against Nature is 20 years old today!

Celebratory cover version by Jim "Hoops" McKay

February 29 2000 was the day that Steely Dan released the first album of new songs since Gaucho back in 1980.

I bought the new one and after work I sat down in my sofa with headphones on and listened to the whole album once, twice. three times...

It was amazing to finally be able to listen to the record that had been rumoured for a long time and  then announced for real. Twenty years after Gaucho.

I was a happy man that day. And will l give Two Against Nature a spin today on its 20 anniversary.

It ended up being a comeback as well as the band's next to last album. 2003 saw the release of Everything Must Go. And that was it. While the short time of three years between Two Against Nature and Everything Must Go had me hoping for more Steely Dan albums they never appeared.

The band concentrated on touring and Donald Fagen and Walter Becker recorded solo albums.

I was reminded of the day and date by a post in the Dandom.com Facebook group. So on I go ... listening to Gaslighting Abbie and the rest:

1.	"Gaslighting Abbie"
2.	"What a Shame About Me"
3.	"Two Against Nature"
4.	"Janie Runaway"
5.	"Almost Gothic"
6.	"Jack of Speed"
7.	"Cousin Dupree"
8.	"Negative Girl"
9.	"West of Hollywood"

- Neb S.

Happy Birthday Walter!

Walter Becker of Steely Dan would've been 70 today. But he passed away in September 2017.

So on his birthday let us highlight the wonderful world of

walterbeckermedia.com

started in 2018 to offer "hi-fidelity rarities, demos, and unreleased tracks from Becker's archives, plus downloads, discussion boards, history, context, and pics" to fans old and new.

As of today you can listen to, download for free and discuss - also for free - 27 tracks.

Here's just a couple of them:

Nobody thought there existed any recording of the live show Walter Becker did April 7, 1995 at Slim's in San Francisco. The one and only solo show he did with songs from his album 11 Tracks of Whack. But a recording has been found and here's one song posted:



And this one has been doing the rounds for years as a very, very nth generation cassette copy among the hardcore fans. Returning in a sparkling, shiny way. The story behinf it well worth a read after you've had a listen:



Happy Birtday, Walter!

The story of the iconic Black Sabbath cover revealed

For the first time photographer Keith Macmillan tells the story of how he designed the iconic cover of Black Sabbath's debut album (released in 1970).

Macmillan tells Rolling Stone about some alternate setups with the model Louisa Livingstone. “Any kind of sexuality took away from the foreboding mood. But she was a terrific model. She had amazing courage and understanding of what I was trying to do.”

Rolling Stone has the story: 

https://www.rollingstone.com/music/music-features/black-sabbath-cover-art-keef-keith-macmillan-interview-951578/?fbclid=IwAR0jBgkJo-fIFN22MspKEYycKBKJPZrOLvkPVrduoxJEqyS2kaAAEEqkn7Y

Zappa movie will be premiered at SXSW festival

Alex Winter's film "Zappa" will be premiered at the SXSW (South by Southwest) festival in Austin, Texas in March 2020.

The film is made possible through a kickstarter campaign and the material has been selected while digitalizing the Frank Zappa archives, but it has also been sent by fans to Alex Winter.

Alex Winter writes:
"Here's the very first look at our special festival poster for Zappa. It will ONLY be used for festival screenings prior the public release of the film. 

Photo by the great Bill Gubbins."

Steely Dan on summer tour with Steve Winwood

"Earth After Hours". That's the title of the 22 date long summer tour Steely Dan and Steve Winwood are going on in June and July this year.

The first date is June 2 in Portland, Oregon with the tour ending in Bethel, New York on July 11.

Tickets go on sale this month. January 20 is the presale date for the fans a little more worthy than the rest of us. We can fight over the remainders starting January 25. And, yes, it is USA and Canada only this time around.

More information and links here and here!

Zappa's Hot Rats Sessions on Spotify now

The music on the 6 CD set is now available for streaming on Spotify.

https://open.spotify.com/album/5HtSs1Y0MsCTPHpXBvVS2t?si=o9tUcFuKTrCs3HwWnQN0DQ

The classic Frank Zappa album has been released as a 6 CD set with lots of outtakes and previously unreleased stuff from the original recording sessions.

https://radiodupree.blogspot.com/2019/10/coming-soon-zappas-hot-rats-sessions.html

Rarities from the upcoming Hot Rats 6 CD set

Two tracks from the upcoming Frank Zappa Hot Rats Sessions 6 CD set are now available on Spotify.
The set will be released any day now (December 20) but here we can enjoy two familiar tunes but in a different form than we are used to.

https://open.spotify.com/album/58WGMvTSHZZ2esJrZuHc98?si=9z8EcIVtS4idWHQd_PK-7g

• Dame Margaret's Son To Be A Bride
  (1969 quick mix)
  This piece is actually the basic tracks for the song Lemme Take You To The Beach (Studio Tan 1978). The strange song title seems to refer to actress Margaret Rutherford's adopted son Gordon Langley Hall. He had sex reassignment surgery in 1968 and married a man in the US. 

• It Must Be A Camel (1969 mix outtake)

https://radiodupree.blogspot.com/2019/10/coming-soon-zappas-hot-rats-sessions.html

Adrian Belew and Jerry Harrison on tour with Talking Heads music

40th anniversary. Adrian Belew and Jerry Harrison will take the 1980 Talking Heads album Remain in Light on the road. Jerry Harrison played guitar in the group and ex Bowie guitarist Adrian Belew plays on two Talking Heads albums, one of them the excellent Remain in Light.

Read the full story here:
https://www.loudersound.com/news/adrian-belew-teams-up-with-jerry-harrison-to-tour-remain-in-light

Science: The Beatles 'Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da' is the perfect pop song

The Beatles song ‘Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da’ has been declared the most perfect pop song.

Scientists at the Max Planck Institute came to that conclusion after analysing 80,000 different chord progressions from 700 songs.

The Radio Dupree staff was flabbergasted to read this, since we do not really rate that particular songs as top notch Beatles material.

NME has the whole story: https://www.nme.com/news/music/the-beatles-ob-la-di-ob-la-da-is-the-perfect-pop-song-according-to-science-2566089

Listen to Zappa's Halloween 73 here

Fans report that the new Zappa release has started to reach the mailboxes this week, just in time for Halloween.
You can also listen to the entire set on Spotify:
https://open.spotify.com/album/06yMFGU576WBYxc4Cdm1uq?si=6rVyBgHiRGW31zhVJTCaTw

One track is also on YouTube (Dupree's Paradise):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nFZQSG6hrPc

Halloween 73 is a four CD set with two shows (including one disc of rehearsals) from 1973, featuring the Roxy band with George Duke, Ruth Underwood and others.

https://radiodupree.blogspot.com/2019/09/coming-soon-zappa-live-in-chicago-1973.html

Donald Fagen on AXS TV today

If you live where AXS TV is available you can catch Paul Shaffer Plus One this evening (8/7c US time) featuring Steely Dan's Donald Fagen. Expect this to happen during the 30 minute show:

Donald Fagen is joining Paul Shaffer to talk about his relationship with Becker, his songwriting process, and even share a few secrets behind their hit, “Reelin’ in the Years”. 

Here's a short teaser:

Coming soon: Zappa's Hot Rats sessions box set

50TH ANNIVERSARY. The classic Frank Zappa album will be released as a 6 CD set with lots of previously unreleased stuff from the original recording sessions.

For years fans have been asking if there are any unreleased recordings from the 1969 Hot Rats sessions. And now we got the answer. 

The box set includes material like mono singles, rare mixes, longer versions of original Hot Rats tracks and promotional audio ads for the LP. 

It includes tracks as the instrumental jam piece Bognor Regis, which has never been officially released but has circulated on the internet for several years.

A track from the box set is already published on YouTube, a different mix of It Must Be A Camel:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=4&v=1HP5i4dxZP4

zappa.com: https://store.zappa.com/the-hot-rats-sessions-box-set-preorder.html#product.info.description

Release date: December 20.