Rolling Stones On Air available on December 1

December 1, 2017 will see the release of The Rolling Stones – On Air, a collection of radio recordings from their early years. 
The songs were originally broadcast on different BBC shows between 1963 and 1965.

Track list here:
https://www.bluesmagazine.nl/the-rolling-stones-on-air/

Walter Becker's estate responds to lawsuit

According to Rolling Stone Walter Becker's estate has responded to Donald Fagen's Steely Dan lawsuit.

Donald Fagen's lawsuit

Water Becker's estates response

Donald Fagen sues Walter Becker's estate

It's about a buy-sell agreement signed by the original bandmembers when Steely Dan was incorporated in the early 1970's. It says that whenever a member of the group quits or dies, Steely Dan purchases all of that member's shares in the group.

According to the lawsuit filed in court yesterday Donald Fagen had recieved a letter from Becker's estate four days after Walter Becker's death  saying that the buy-sell agreement from 1972 no longer was valid and that Becker's widow wanted 50 percent ownership of Steely Dan.

Read more:
https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/thr-esq/steely-dan-singer-sues-bandmates-estate-1060687

http://www.rollingstone.com/music/news/steely-dans-donald-fagen-sues-walter-beckers-estate-w512406


UPDATE 28 NOVEMBER 2017:

Walter Becker's Estate Responds to Donald Fagen's Steely Dan Lawsuit
 

Video of rare Walter Becker song

Over on walterbecker.com there's a new clip of Walter Becker performing his unreleased song with the catchy title The Girl Next Door To The Methadone Clinic. He performed it live at a 1995 solo show and it supposedly exists as a bootleg, but we've not heard of anyone actually owning a copy.

Anyway, here it is recorded home video style and well worth a watch and a listen. Or three.

News of the World – Queen box set with unreleased material

The most interesting part of the new Queen box set is probably the newly created ‘alternative’ version of the whole album – Raw Sessions.
It features never-before-heard alternative versions of each of the album’s 11 tracks.

"Every lead vocal is different, as are most of the lead guitar parts and a great many other instrumental details.  Here we experience We Are The Champions anew, with many unfamiliar vocal and instrumental elements, and for the first time at its full-recorded length rather than the edited 1977 album cut.  Here also is the chance to discover peak era Freddie Mercury vocals on a track that nobody outside Queen’s inner circle has heard him sing before at all – Brian May’s All Dead, All Dead.  The original album version features May himself on vocals. Roger Taylor’s Sheer Heart Attack can be heard with its original long-lost guitar intro and uncut ending.  Taylor’s other song, Fight From The Inside, is more remarkable in that we hear his demo vocal worked on in his home studio in preparation for the next sessions, ‘homework’ that all of the band members would regularly carry out."

http://www.queenonline.com/news/press-release-news-of-the-world-40th-anniversary-edition

Update on Walter Becker's illness and death

walterbecker.com has been updated with a text from Delia Becker, wife of Walter Becker who died two and a half moths ago.
Delia writes:

As Walter Becker’s wife of many years, I wanted to share with his fans some information regarding his death that has not previously been reported. I realize this is overdue, and I hope you will understand why. For me personally, his death was a devastating blow, as I know it was for many of you. I am just beginning to emerge from its heartbreaking impact. 

           Walter died in the course of being treated for an extremely aggressive form of esophageal cancer. The cancer was detected during one of his annual medical checkups and its presence came as a grim surprise to Walter, his doctors and to me. It seemed to have come out of nowhere and had spread with terrifying speed.

Read the full statement here: http://walterbecker.com/#statement

Early September Walter's daughter asked for help documenting all the media coverage around Walter's passing. With the help of fans it grew and morphed into The Walter Becker Media Project collecting his "Hey 19 raps" through the years.
If you don't know what they are head on over to http://www.dandom.com/hey19 and look and listen at the clips from various Steely Dan shows through the years now online as Walter Becker Digital Archive.

It is also linked to from http://walterbecker.com/mediaproject.html. And at the bottom of that page is a short 20 second video with Walter that must've been shot not that long ago.

Nona Hendryx releases Beefheart album (!)

 

Singer Nona Hendryx has recorded an album with Captain Beefheart covers together with Beefheart guitarist Gary Lucas.

This is quite a surprise. LaBelle veteran Nona is a terrific singer but her style seems far away from the sounds of Captain Beefheart.

Check out this link and scroll down to hear the new album.
Sounds pretty nice, we think!

http://dangerousminds.net/comments/nona_hendryx_covering_captain_beefheart_hear_the_whole_album_here_first

Zappa's "Halloween 77" now on Spotify

6 complete shows from the Palladium in New York City! Frank Zappa, Terry Bozzio, Adrian Belew, Patrick O*Hearn, Ed Mann, Tommy Mars, Peter Wolf. 

Here it is: 
https://open.spotify.com/album/1NBN36RMfIu7BM9T1DCSqg

After listening through only 45 minutes of it yet, we dare to say that it is nothing but a great listening experience. The sound is great. Yes, the repertoire is mostly the same from night to night, but it is a nice repertoire and a great band, AND there are some pieces that we are really extra curious about: Conehead (the instrumental), Wild Love, Pound For A Brown, King Kong...most of them instrumentals, all of them lengthy pieces with solos and improvisation.

It is easy to understand why Frank enjoyed the Palladium dates so much. This special collection allows us to feel the strong response from the audience and how that stimulated Frank and the band. Great release!

Radio Dupree September 26: Track list for Zappa "Halloween 77"
https://radiodupree.blogspot.se/2017/09/track-list-for-zappa-halloween-77.html

Steely Dan add Book of Liars to setlist

Steely Dan is back on the road as the Steely Dan band doing the third show this evening since the passing off Walter Becker.
The first two in Tulsa and Thackerville, Oklahoma a couple of days ago had the song Book of Liars from Walter Becker's solo debut in the setlist with Donald singing. And according to reports with a photo slide show of Walter in the background.

Here's a live version from the 1995 album Alive in America with Walter on vocals.

Great Rolling Stones concert in Stockholm

Radio Dupree attended the Rolling Stones show in Friends Arena, Stockholm on October 12. 
The No Filter tour show turned out to be spectacular. With 55 000 people in the audience there was definately need for those large video screens, so that everybody could see what was going on. Light show, fireworks and all.
Opening act was the Swedish band The Hellacopters. A little bit too noisy for your's truly, but their song I'm With the Band was great.

The Stones opened their show with Sympathy For The Devil, a great opener. The first songs were a little sloppy here and there, but it soon got better. Sweet Virginia was chosen by the fans and sure was one of the highlights of the show. Other highlights were  Midnight Rambler and Street Fighting Man.

After Jumpin’ Jack Flash the band played an encore of two songs: Gimme Shelter and Satisfaction. The latter one sounded a bit lame. The guitar riff never sounds better than on the original recording.

Mick Jagger is moving around on stage as always and it's hard to realize that he is 74. Keith Richards still plays some mean guitar (of course). Charlie Watts, the cool and silent guy, handles the drumming with regular confidence. Maybe Ron Wood surprised us a little with some really cool (slide) guitar playing.
And don't forget the other seven musicians (bass player Darryl Jones being one of them).

Song list:
Sympathy for the Devil
It’s Only Rock’n’roll (but I like it)
Tumbling Dice
Just Your Fool
Ride ’em on Down
Under My Thumb
Sweet Virginia
You Can’t Always Get What You Want
Paint it Black
Honky Tonk Women
Happy
Slipping Away
Miss You
Midnight Rambler
Street Fighting Man
Start Me Up
Brown Sugar
Jumpin’ Jack Flash

Encore:
Gimme Shelter
(I Can’t Get No) Satisfaction

Sigurd Huckle
Radio Dupree

50 years ago – Zappa's first visit to Scandinavia

Tonight is the 50th anniversary of Frank Zappa and the Mothers of Invention's legendary concert in Konserthuset, Stockholm.
The September 30, 1967 show was recorded by Sveriges Radio and has been aired several times and as a result of that ended up on several bootlegs. It is also a rare recording of this early incarnation of the Mothers. The radio broadcast is 40 minutes long and starts off with several shorter pieces, mostly pop songs, and ends with a longer instrumental: King Kong, including I Can't Happen Here from the first Mothers album Freak Out! released in 1966.
The clip above from the Konserthuset concert includes Petrushka (Stravinsky), Bristol Stomp (Appell/Mann) and Big Leg Emma (Zappa).

This was the Mothers of Invention's first European tour and they first went to London and Amsterdam. The Scandinavian part of the tour started with two shows at Liseberg's amusement park in Gothenburg, Sweden on September 29. Next day they played Stockholm and then off to Copenhagen, Denmark (October 1), and Lund, Sweden (October 2).

Zappa and the Mothers quickly became quite popular in Scandinavia, at least in Sweden. During the next 15 years Zappa's European tours always included shows in the Scandinavian countries and sometimes in Finland too (actually not a Scandinavian country, although it borders to Sweden).
In Sweden Zappa got quite a lot of attention: In 1973 Swedish public service television filmed a concert in Stockholm with Zappa's new line up of the Mothers. In 1979 Zappa's song Bobby Brown was one of the most popular songs, also in Norway and Germany. Now and then one could even hear Dancin' Fool and Joe's Garage being played on Swedish Radio.

Track list for Zappa "Halloween 77"

Now we know the content for the 6 Halloween '77 shows that will be released on a USB stick. Check out links below. Amazon is also taking pre-orders now.
The release, the box, also includes a Frank Zappa Halloween mask and costume. (Pretty stupid we think.)
There is also a 3 CD version, which has the entire show from October 31, 1977 (which is also included in the memory stick edition) plus some extras.

The cover for the 3 CD set.

Information on the memory stick release at Amazon.com

Information on both releases at Zappa.com

Rolling Stone's Walter Becker article

The new issue of Rolling Stone has an article about Steely Dan founder Walter Becker who died September 3 at the age of 67:

http://www.rollingstone.com/music/features/remembering-walter-becker-steely-dans-quiet-hero-w504720

Frank Zappa live on stage - as a hologram

The Zappa Family Trust announces "The Hologram Tour", with Frank Zappa live on stage as a hologram backed up by several of his old musicians:

Zappa Family Trust working with Eyellusion on multiple groundbreaking productions that will feature former bandmates in celebration of late music legend’s art, life and legacy.

LOS ANGELES – SEPTEMBER 21, 2017 – Eyellusion, live music’s premier hologram production company, today announced that it will work closely with the Zappa Family Trust to produce hologram performances of Frank Zappa, giving fans an opportunity to experience the prolific, eclectic and critically acclaimed music legend live in concert again. Production for the Zappa shows will kick off in late 2017, with performances announced later in 2018.

“I’m thrilled that Frank Zappa will finally be going back out on tour playing his most well-known music as well as some rare and unheard material,” said Ahmet Zappa, co-Trustee of the Zappa Family Trust. “We can’t wait to bring his creative work back to the stage with the musicians he loved to play with, such as Steve Vai, Ian Underwood, Adrian Belew, Arthur Barrow, Vinnie Colaiuta, Scott Thunes, Mike Keneally, Denny Walley, Warren Cuccurullo and Napoleon Murphy Brock among others who are committed to being part of this epic endeavor. When I spoke with them, they were excited at the prospect of performing alongside Frank once again and can’t wait to give fans an unforgettable experience.”

He continued, “Also, how radical would it be to have Moon singing ‘Valley Girl’ onstage with Frank? Or to see Dweezil side by side with our father playing dueling guitar solos? That would be my greatest wish and I look forward to bringing this special celebration of Frank’s legacy to a town near you. But if that wasn’t enough Zappa coolness, we’re also planning on staging Joe’s Garage The Musical with none other than Frank Zappa himself starring as the Central Scrutinizer.”

More to read here: http://www.zappa.com/news/frank-zappa-back-road-hologram-tour

The Walter Becker Media Project 2017

Walter Becker's homepage has added a page titled The Walter Becker Media Project 2017. After asking for help to document media's coverage of Walter's passing and accumulated the volunteers to do that, the Media Project is now a continuation where fans can help.

"Because we figure we've got the ear, so to speak, of fans who have expressed interest in contributing to WB's historical record (that would be you). And maybe that's an opportunity we shouldn't let go of so quickly.

For instance, high on our wish list of  Becker archive activities has been to collect all of WB's "Hey 19 raps" into one place….and in a format that won't disappear or change standard, such as Quicktime.

(We won't bother to detail the ways in which such a compendium would be of value; you either get it or your don't).

This project becomes more urgent by the day, as Youtube material disappears behind paywalls quicker that it can be viewed. 

...

Can we (the fans) find, extract, and convert these raps so that we end up with a comprehensive library of the nightly improvisational gems of WB's beautifully twisted mind?? " 

Go to http://walterbecker.com/mediaproject.html to read the full text.  

P.S.
Talking of gathering bits and pieces of Walter Becker's work from all over the web, we at Radio Dupree would love to see the complete video included in the press kit for his debut album 11 Tracks of Whack. The video was once upon a time available on the Youest of Tubes, but disappeared years ago.