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| Name | Waddy Wachtel |
|---|---|
| Landscape | Yes |
| Background | non_vocal_instrumentalist |
| Birth name | Robert Wachtel |
| Born | May 24, 1947New York City, US |
| Genre | Rock, folk rock, pop, jazz |
| Instrument | Guitar, multi-instrumentalist, vocals |
| Occupation | Musician, songwriter, producer, bandleader |
| Associated acts | Stevie Nicks, The Cowsills, Jackson Browne, Bernard Fowler, Blondie Chaplin, Keith Richards, Warren Zevon, James Taylor, George Thorogood, Bob Weir, J.D. Souther, Linda Ronstadt |
| Label | Arista, Elektra, CBS, WEA, Columbia, EMI, Virgin, Asylum, Warner Bros., Giant |
| Years active | 1970-present |
| Url | http://waddywachtelinfo.com |
| Notable instruments | 1958 Gibson Les Paul1956 Fender Stratocaster |
Robert "Waddy" Wachtel (born May 24, 1947 in Jackson Heights, Queens, New York City, New York) is an American multi-instrumentalist, composer and record producer, most notable for his guitar work. Wachtel's passion for music and ease of adaptation toward a variety of genres have placed him in a position as one of the most in-demand session musicians throughout his career, playing with high profile rock musicians that include Keith Richards, James Taylor, Stevie Nicks, Warren Zevon and Jackson Browne, amongst others, both in the studio, and on tour.
After performing with local bands in the New York area, Wachtel formed his own band, The Orphans, who played in Connecticut and New Hampshire. Eventually, Waddy and his then-current band settled into a regular bar band routine, playing in Newport, Rhode Island, where he studied seriously for a year, taking lessons from Sal Salvador, who he says, taught him more about improvising and soloing than he had learned anywhere else. When the Orphans disbanded, he formed another band, Twice Nicely. At the suggestion of Bud Cowsill (of The Cowsills), he brought Twice Nicely to Los Angeles in 1968 where they recorded a few demos, but after two years, Wachtel decided to work as a session player, and was then persuaded to record with The Cowsills and produce their albums. He also co-wrote the Warren Zevon song "Things to Do in Denver When You're Dead." He performed and co-produced the first two Zevon albums, considered his classics, and was a major contributor to the Warren Zevon sound. He is much quoted throughout the new book on Zevon's life, written by Crystal Zevon, entitled I'll Sleep When I'm Dead. Zevon complimented Wachtel on a radio interview with Redbeard in the Studio, when he said that introducing anyone to Wachtel was a wonderful thing to do, and that he'd met a lot of musical connections through him.
Waddy appeared on the 2010 Grammy television presentation backing Taylor Swift's live presentation. In Ms. Swift's duet with Stevie Nicks of the song Rhiannon, Waddy was featured on lead guitar.
Category:1947 births Category:Living people Category:American record producers Category:American guitarists Category:American session musicians Category:Jewish American musicians Category:People from Queens
This text is licensed under the Creative Commons CC-BY-SA License. This text was originally published on Wikipedia and was developed by the Wikipedia community.
| Name | Terry Reid |
|---|---|
| Background | solo_singer |
| Born | November 13, 1949Huntingdon, England |
| Instrument | Vocals, guitar |
| Genre | Rock |
| Occupation | Musician, songwriter |
| Years active | 1966–present |
| Label | Columbia, ABC |
| Url | Terry Reid's official website |
Reid came to the attention of hits producer Mickie Most, who became his manager. His first single with Most, "Better By Far," became a radio favourite, but the album, Bang Bang, You're Terry Reid, was not a commercial success. A 1968 tour of the United States with Cream did much to gain Reid a loyal following. His final performance of the tour at the Miami Pop Festival garnered positive reviews from the music press.
Yardbirds guitarist Jimmy Page became interested in Reid's work, and when The Yardbirds disbanded, Page wanted Reid to fill the vocalist spot for his proposed new group, the New Yardbirds, which was to become Led Zeppelin. Reid had already committed to go on the road with Cream (as an opening act on the 1968 US Tour). So he suggested to Page that he consider a young Birmingham based singer, Robert Plant, instead, having previously seen Plant's Band of Joy as a support act at one of his concerts. Reid later was offered a position as a member of Deep Purple when they decided to replace singer Rod Evans; Ian Gillan was given the position instead.
In 1969, Reid supported various British tours, notably Jethro Tull and Fleetwood Mac. Reid's second album, Terry Reid (1969), is regarded by critics as his best work. Reid toured the United States again when he opened for The Rolling Stones on their 1969 American Tour. He did not appear at the infamous Rolling Stones concert at Altamont Music Festival.
Over the next decade, Reid switched to different labels in search of a winning formula; Seed of Memory released by ABC Records in 1976 (produced by Graham Nash), and Rogue Waves released by Capitol Records in 1979. He retired his solo career in 1981 to concentrate on session work, appearing on albums by Don Henley, Jackson Browne, UFO High Stakes & Dangerous Men and Bonnie Raitt. In 1991, Reid returned with former Yes producer Trevor Horn, on the album The Driver. The album featured a cover version of the Spencer Davis Group classic written by Steve Winwood: "Gimme Some Lovin'", which had earlier appeared on the Days of Thunder soundtrack. "The Whole of the Moon", written by Mike Scott, was released as a single and received considerable airplay. Reid has since been playing occasional live gigs with a band which has included Brian Auger. In the 1990s he also toured in the US and Hong Kong with ex-Rolling Stones guitarist Mick Taylor.
In late 2005, Reid returned to the UK for his first tour in years. It is understood that the 'magic shone through'. One venue billed him as 'The Man With A Hell Of A Story To Tell'. That same year, three of his songs, "Seed of Memory", (the title track to Seed of Memory), "To Be Treated Rite", and "Brave Awakening", appeared in the movie The Devil's Rejects (2005), directed by Rob Zombie. Also, his song "Faith To Arise" was in the 2003 film Wonderland. In July/August 2007 Reid returned for another six week UK tour being backed by The Cosmic American Derelicts, a band out of northern New Jersey and Southern New York.
On 26 June 2009, Reid appeared with Comic American Derelicts guitarist Eddie to perform at ex-band mate Peter Jay's Great Yarmouth club The Residence. At this gig Terry appeared on stage with the local support band Second Hand Blues to perform a cover of the Donovan song "Season of the Witch", this song has become one of the most watched videos of Terry Reid on YouTube, Terry also performed with Peter Jay for the first time in over 15 years on a cover of The Beach Boys song "Don't Worry Baby". On 28 June 2009, Reid and his band performed on The Park stage at the Glastonbury Festival.
The American rock group Cheap Trick recorded Reid's "Speak Now" for its debut album.
The Raconteurs with Jack White recorded a version of Reid's "Rich Kid Blues" for their second album Consolers of the Lonely in 2008.
The pairing of Shine and Reid debuted at the Pigalle Club in London on 26 August 2009. A studio collaboration, Shine featuring Terry Reid, was released as an MP3 EP in November 2009.
Category:1949 births Category:Living people Category:English guitarists Category:English songwriters Category:English rock singers Category:People from Huntingdon Category:Columbia Records artists
This text is licensed under the Creative Commons CC-BY-SA License. This text was originally published on Wikipedia and was developed by the Wikipedia community.
| Name | Bernard Fowler |
|---|---|
| Landscape | no |
| Background | solo_singer |
| Born | New York, United States |
| Instruments | Vocals, percussion, guitar, bass guitar, trombone |
| Genre | Rock, rock and roll, funk, R&B;, blues, country rock, reggae, blues-rock, gospel |
| Occupation | Musician, producer, Songwriter, Actor |
| Years active | 1974 - Present |
| Label | Atlantic, Rolling Stones, Sony |
| Associated acts | Rolling Stones, Herbie Hancock, Bootsy Collins, Tackhead, Charlie Watts, Mick Jagger, Waddy Wachtel, Little Axe |
| Url | Bernard Fowler.com |
Bernard Fowler is an American musician, songwriter, producer, and actor. He has provided backing vocals with The Rolling Stones for over 20 years on recordings and tours, and has been a featured guest vocalist on the majority of solo albums released by the members of that band. He has also been a regular featured singer on other musicians' recordings and tours. He has appeared on over 30 albums.
Fowler has toured and recorded with the bands Tackhead and Bad Dog and occasionally with Nicklebag and Little Axe. He released his first solo album in 2006, and has produced some of the albums upon which he performed.
"He is also very strong and can sing for ages. He's got a lot of range and a lot of stamina vocally. You have to have that if you're going to do long nights and lots and lots of shows, all in the open air; he can easily keep up with me." -- Mick Jagger, 1998.""He is also very strong and can sing for ages. He's got a lot of range and a lot of stamina vocally. You have to have that if you're going to do long nights and lots and lots of shows, all in the open air; he can easily keep up with me." He has also appeared on albums from Herb Alpert, Little Axe, Todd Terry, and Michael Hutchence, (formerly of INXS).
In 2006, Fowler released his first solo album, Friends with Privileges, on Sony Japan. This is his first entirely solo effort, however, he has had a significant number of rock and roll and R&B; heavyweights in the music industry working with him. They include Ron Wood, Darryl Jones and Lisa Fischer of Rolling Stones fame; studio session musician and record producer Waddy Wachtel, the Red Hot Chili Peppers, Robert Plant, Dave Abbruzzese, formerly of Pearl Jam, Joe Elliot of (Def Leppard), and Ivan Neville. His newest project is called the IMF's.
}}
Category:American male singers Category:African American singers Category:African American singer-songwriters Category:American funk musicians Category:American rhythm and blues singers Category:Living people Category:1950 births Category:American session musicians Category:Atlantic Records artists Category:1980s singers Category:1990s singers Category:2000s singers Category:2010s singers
This text is licensed under the Creative Commons CC-BY-SA License. This text was originally published on Wikipedia and was developed by the Wikipedia community.
| Name | Blondie Chaplin |
|---|---|
| Background | solo_singer |
| Birth name | Terrence William Chaplin |
| Alias | Blondie Chaplin |
| Born | July 07, 1951 |
| Genre | Psychedelic Rock, Surf Rock, Rock, Baroque Pop, Psychedelic Pop |
| Occupation | Musician, Songwriter, producer |
| Years active | 1969–present |
| Label | Brother Records, Reprise Records, Capitol Records, Columbia |
| Associated acts | Beach Boys, The Flames, Rick Danko, The Rolling Stones, The Byrds, The Band |
Terence William 'Blondie' Chaplin is a musician from Durban, South Africa who first became known to international audiences through his brief stint in the early 1970s as a singer and guitarist for The Beach Boys. Chaplin was also listed as a co-producer, sang lead vocals with fellow South African musician Ricky Fataar (drummer) and composed, with Fataar, "Here She Comes" and "Hold On Dear Brother" on the twenty-third official Beach Boys album, Carl and the Passions - "So Tough", released in 1972. He is well known in recent years as a long term backing vocalist, percussionist and acoustic rhythm guitarist for the Rolling Stones on their tours.
Blondie Chaplin, along with drummer Ricky Fataar, joined the Beach Boys when original drummer Dennis Wilson suffered a hand injury which left him unable to play the drums for almost two years. For the Beach Boys, it was a period in which long-time member Bruce Johnston had departed the band, and one-time leader Brian Wilson's participation in the group was very limited. As a result, Chaplin and Fataar joined the Beach Boys as full-fledged members and not merely as backing musicians. Chaplin left the group in 1973 after a dispute with the Beach Boys' management; Fataar remained with the band until the following year.
Both Chaplin and Fataar were members of South African rock band The Flame before joining The Beach Boys. The Flame were discovered by Beach Boy Carl Wilson while performing in London. Wilson signed the band to the Beach Boys' Brother Records label and produced their self-titled album which featured soulful rock/pop songs in the vein of The Beach Boys and Badfinger. The Flame were the only band aside from The Beach Boys to record for Brother Records.
Chaplin sang lead on at least three Beach Boys songs, "Sail On, Sailor," "Leaving This Town" and "Funky Pretty" (all from the 1973 album Holland). During the late 1980s Chaplin toured with The Band, replacing some of Richard Manuel's vocals and playing guitar. Chaplin was also a featured player in former Byrds members Gene Clark and Michael Clarke's new band, titled "The 20th Anniversary Celebration of the Byrds". Chaplin then appeared on the Jennifer Warnes albums The Hunter and The Well. Since the late 1990s and the Bridges to Babylon Tour, Chaplin has been a backing vocalist and occasional guitar player for The Rolling Stones.
Chaplin has released three solo albums, most recently Between Us in 2006.
}}
Category:1951 births Category:Living people Category:South African musicians Category:The Beach Boys members
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| Name | Stevie Nicks |
|---|---|
| Background | solo_singer |
| Birth name | Stephanie Lynn Nicks |
| Born | May 26, 1948 |
| Origin | Phoenix, Arizona, United States |
| Instrument | Vocals, percussion, guitar, piano |
| Genre | Pop rock, country rock |
| Years active | 1967–present |
| Label | ModernAtlanticReprise |
| Associated acts | Fleetwood MacBuckingham NicksTom Petty and the HeartbreakersDon Henley |
| Url |
Stephanie Lynn "Stevie" Nicks (born May 26, 1948) is an American singer-songwriter, best known for her work with Fleetwood Mac and an extensive solo career, which collectively have produced over forty Top 50 hits and sold over 140 million albums. She has been noted for her ethereal visual style and symbolic lyrics.
Nicks joined Fleetwood Mac on December 31, 1974, along with her then boyfriend Lindsey Buckingham. Fleetwood Mac's second album after the incorporation of Nicks and Buckingham, 1977's Rumours, produced four U.S. Top 10 singles (including Nicks' song "Dreams", which was the band's first and only U.S. number one) and remained at #1 on the American albums chart for 31 weeks, as well as reaching the top spot in various countries around the world. To date the album has sold over 40 million copies worldwide.
Nicks began her solo career in 1981 with the 8 million selling album Bella Donna, and she has produced five more solo studio albums to date. Her seventh solo studio album, and her first in ten years, is currently in post-production with Dave Stewart of Eurythmics fame at the helm, and is due for release on May 3, 2011.
After the release of her first solo album, Rolling Stone deemed her "The Reigning Queen of Rock and Roll". Overcoming cocaine addiction, dependency on tranquilizers, and chronic fatigue syndrome, Nicks remains a popular solo performer. She has been nominated for seven Grammy Awards and, with Fleetwood Mac, won the 1977/1978 Grammy for Album of the Year for Rumours. As a member of Fleetwood Mac, she was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1998. Nicks has a contralto vocal range.
Nicks first met her future musical and romantic partner Lindsey Buckingham during her senior year at Menlo Atherton High School. She attended a Young Life Christian social event, saw Buckingham playing "California Dreamin'", and joined in with the harmony. Buckingham contacted Nicks a few years later and asked her to join him and his bandmates Javier Pacheco and Calvin Roper in a band called Fritz. Fritz became popular as a live act from 1968 until 1972, opening for popular musicians Jimi Hendrix and Janis Joplin, among others, in the San Francisco Bay Area. Both Nicks and Buckingham attended San Jose State University in Northern California, where Nicks majored in Speech Communication. They dropped out in 1968 and moved to Los Angeles together to pursue a career in music when Nicks' family moved to Chicago.
Nicks and Buckingham briefly relocated to Aspen, Colorado. While there, Buckingham landed a guitar-playing gig with the Everly Brothers, and toured with them while Nicks stayed behind. During this time, Nicks wrote "Rhiannon" after seeing the name in the novel Triad by Mary Leader, unaware at the time of the Mabinogi legend of Rhiannon. She also wrote "Landslide", inspired by the scenery of Aspen and her inner turmoil over her decision to pursue music.
In 1975, the band achieved success with the album Fleetwood Mac. That same year, Nicks worked with clothing designer Margi Kent to develop Nicks' unique onstage look, with costumes that featured flowing skirts, shawls and platform boots.
Following the success of Fleetwood Mac, increasing tension between Nicks and Buckingham began to take its toll on their creativity, and Nicks ended the relationship. Fleetwood Mac began recording their follow-up album, Rumours, in early 1976 and continued until late in the year. Also, Nicks and Buckingham sang back-up on Warren Zevon's debut album.
Among Nicks' contributions to Rumours was "Dreams", which became the band's only Billboard Hot 100 #1 hit single to date. Nicks had also written and recorded the song "Silver Springs", but it was ultimately not included on the album because of space limitations for studio albums on vinyl records, which were limited to 24 minutes per side. Instead, it was released as a B-side of the "Go Your Own Way" single, and would remain in some obscurity until it appeared on the 4-disc Fleetwood Mac retrospective 25 Years – The Chain in 1992. The song, the rights to which are owned by Nicks' mother Barbara, has always been very special to Nicks, and she was devastated when told about the omission after the decision had been made.
In November 1977, after a New Zealand concert for the Rumours tour, Nicks and Fleetwood, who was married to Jenny Boyd, secretly began an affair. The pair mutually decided to end the affair, because, according to Nicks, "we knew it would be the end of Fleetwood Mac." Soon after, in October 1978, Mick Fleetwood left his wife for Nicks' best friend Sara Recor. After the success of the Rumours album and tour in 1977–78, Fleetwood Mac began recording their third album with Buckingham and Nicks, Tusk, in the spring of 1978. That year, Nicks sang back-up on Walter Egan's "Magnet & Steel".
Fleetwood Mac's Tusk was released on October 19, 1979. During 1981, Nicks toured with Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers and New Zealand band Split Enz as a guest.
Nicks released Bella Donna on July 27, 1981 to critical and commercial acclaim. Bella Donna was the first album to feature Nicks' back-up singers, Sharon Celani and Lori Perry, who have contributed vocals to all of Nicks' solo albums since then.
The day that Bella Donna reached #1 on the Billboard 200, Nicks' best friend Robin Anderson was diagnosed with leukemia. Robin gave birth to a son, appointing Nicks as the child's godmother. Following Robin's death in 1982, Nicks married Robin's widower Kim Anderson. They divorced eight months later.
In October 1981 Nicks embarked on the White Winged Dove tour, which she had to cut short to record the Mirage album with Fleetwood Mac. After the Mirage in 1982, Nicks prepared to record her second solo album.
Following the tour for The Wild Heart, Nicks commenced work on her third solo album. Originally titled Mirror Mirror, Nicks recorded songs for the album during 1984. However, Nicks was unhappy with the title track, and opted to record a new batch of songs in 1985. Rock a Little, as it was re-titled, was released November 18, 1985 to commercial success, supported by two hit singles.
Nicks toured in 1986 with Tom Petty and Bob Dylan. The tour ended on October 10, 1986 in Sydney, Australia when Nicks was threatened by Australian authorities with expulsion from the country for not carrying a work permit.
The tour marked a turning point in Nicks' career: although she had achieved significant critical acclaim, drugs were taking a toll on her performing, affecting her vocals and changing her on-stage persona. In 1986, a plastic surgeon warned her of severe health problems if she did not stop using cocaine. At the end of the Australian tour, Nicks checked herself into the Betty Ford Center to overcome her cocaine addiction. Later that year, a doctor prescribed the tranquilizer Klonopin to help her avoid a cocaine relapse.
Creative differences and unresolved personal issues within the band led Buckingham to quit the group right before their world tour. A "physically ugly" confrontation between Nicks and Buckingham ensued when Nicks violently rejected Buckingham's decision to leave the band.
The band embarked on the Shake the Cage tour in September 1987, with Buckingham replaced by Rick Vito and Billy Burnette. The tour was suspended during Nicks' bout with chronic fatigue syndrome and developing addiction to tranquilizers, though it resumed in 1988. Tango in the Night met with commercial success and was followed in 1988 by Fleetwood Mac's Greatest Hits album in November 1988.
Also in 1988, Nicks began work on a fourth solo album with British producer Rupert Hine. The Other Side of the Mirror was released on May 11, 1989 to commercial success. Nicks became romantically involved with Hine.
Nicks toured the U.S. and Europe from August to November 1989, the only time she has toured Europe as a solo act. She has famously been quoted since as stating that she has "no memory of this tour" due to her increasing dependancy on the tranquillizer Klonopin, prescribed in ever increasing amounts by a psychiatrist between 1987 and 1994 in an attempt to keep Nicks from regressing to her former abuse of cocaine.
In 1989, Nicks set to work with Fleetwood Mac on a new album, Behind the Mask, which was released in 1990 to moderate commercial success in the U.S. In the UK, however, the album entered the chart at #1 and has been certified Platinum there. The band went on a world tour to promote the album, on the last night of which Buckingham and Nicks reunited on stage to perform "Landslide". After the tour concluded, Nicks left the group over a dispute with Mick Fleetwood, who would not allow her to release the 1977 track "Silver Springs" on her album Timespace – The Best of Stevie Nicks, because of his plans to release it on a forthcoming Fleetwood Mac box set.
Fleetwood Mac also released a four-disc box set, 25 Years – The Chain, which included "Silver Springs".
During the 1992 U.S. presidential campaign, Bill Clinton used the Fleetwood Mac hit "Don't Stop" as his campaign theme song, and Nicks joined her band mates to perform the song at Clinton's 1993 Inaugural Gala. No plans for an official reunion were made at that time. Nicks was criticized for her weight gain.
In late 1993, while Nicks held a baby shower at her house, she tripped and cut her forehead near a fireplace. Not feeling any pain from the injury, Nicks realized she needed help and endured a painful 47-day detox from Klonopin in a hospital. Her weight had also reached a peak at 175 lb (79.4 kg).
Nicks used material written mostly in previous years to record a solo album in 1992 and 1993 entitled Street Angel, which was ultimately released following her detox in May 1994. Nicks has expressed major disappointment with the album, claiming that a lot of production work took place during her second stint in rehab, meaning she had little to no say over the final product.
Released May 23, 1994, Street Angel was poorly received. Despite praise from critics and fans for her vocals on the three-month Street Angel tour, Nicks was crushed by the focus on her weight and the poor reception of the album itself. Disgusted by the criticism she received during the tour for being overweight, Nicks vowed to never set foot on a stage again unless she slimmed down.
In 1995, Nicks was reunited with Lindsey Buckingham and contributed the duet "Twisted" to the Twister movie soundtrack, while in 1996 the Sheryl Crow penned "Somebody Stand By Me" featured on the Boys on the Side soundtrack, and Nicks also remade Tom Petty's "Free Fallin'" for Fox's TV hit Party of Five.
The live CD release, The Dance, was released to commercial and critical acclaim, earning the group a Grammy nomination. Nicks was nominated for a Rock Vocal Performance Grammy for the live performance of "Silver Springs" from the album. In 1998, Nicks joined the group for its induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. This same year, she won the Outstanding Contribution at the BRIT Awards.
Nicks put work on a new solo album on hold when she was approached by Warner Music to release a solo career-spanning box set, to finish her contract with Atlantic Records in the US. After the culmination of the Fleetwood Mac reunion tour, Nicks settled down in Los Angeles and Phoenix with close friends and colleagues to devise a track list for this three-disc collection.
Nicks had begun writing actively for Trouble in Shangri-La in 1994 and 1995 as she came out of her Klonopin dependency. According to Nicks, friend and former musical partner Tom Petty was responsible for convincing her to write music again when he rebuffed her request that he write a song with her. Nicks resumed recording songs for the Trouble in Shangri-La album with Sheryl Crow, who produced and performed on several tracks. When a scheduling conflict forced Crow to drop out of the project, Nicks first approached R&B; producer Dallas Austin, but these sessions have never surfaced. Nicks finally called on John Shanks to produce the remainder of the album, with additional contributions from David Kahne, Rick Nowels, Pierre Marchand, and Jeff Trott. Artists Natalie Maines, Sarah McLachlan, and Macy Gray contributed to some of the tracks.
Released May 1, 2001, Trouble in Shangri-La restored Nicks' solo career to critical and commercial success. "Planets of the Universe" was nominated for a Grammy Award for Best Female Rock Vocal Performance, and Nicks was named VH1's "Artist of the Month" for May 2001. Nicks was named one of People magazine's 50 Most Beautiful People, was featured in a well-received Behind The Music episode, and performed an episode of the VH1 Storytellers Concert Program. Nicks made several television appearances in support of the album and performed at the 2001 Radio Music Awards.
Nicks supported the album with a successful tour, although some shows were canceled or postponed because of Nicks' bout with acute bronchitis. Shows were also canceled because of the September 11 attacks in the U.S. Stevie Nicks appears in an episode of South Park, Osama Bin Laden has farty pants,as a goat.
Say You Will was released in April 2003 and met with commercial success but mixed reviews. Nicks joined the group to support the album with a world tour lasting until September 2004.
Nicks has subsequently stated in several interviews that she was not happy with the album or the successful world tour that followed, citing production disputes with Buckingham as a core factor, as well as the absence of fellow female band member Christine McVie. A documentary of the making of the album, Destiny Rules, was released on DVD in 2004 and chronicles the sometimes turbulent relationships between band members, especially Buckingham and Nicks, during that time in the studio.
The compilation includes her hit singles, a dance remix, and one new track, a live version of Led Zeppelin's "Rock and Roll". There are two versions of this album, one with just the audio CD and another version with an included DVD featuring all of Nicks' music videos with audio commentary from Nicks, as well as rare footage from the Bella Donna recording sessions.
A tour with Chris Isaak, opening in Concord, California on May 17, 2007 supported the release.
Reprise Records initially released two radio only promos, the live version of "Landslide" with the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra and "Rock and Roll". Both tracks failed to garner much airplay making an impact on the charts. Reprise Records released "Stand Back" (issued with club mixes) on May 29, 2007. "Stand Back", which peaked at #5 on the pop singles chart in 1983, reached #2 on the "Billboard Club Chart". Nicks previously reached #1 on this chart, with "Planets Of The Universe" (from Trouble in Shangri-La) in 2001. The remix single of "Stand Back" debuted on the Billboard Hot Singles Sales Chart on September 15, 2007 at #10 peaking at #4 the following week. It also debuted on the Billboard Hot Dance Singles Sales Chart at #3 peaking at #1.
According to The Tennessean, in early 2008, Nicks was spotted "in Nashville recording an album with Joe Thomas for a CD that accompanies a DVD of Soundstage". On March 31, 2009, Stevie released the album, The Soundstage Sessions, via Reprise Records. The album debuted at #47 on the Billboard 200 Albums Chart. The first single from the album was "Crash Into Me" and was released as a digital download, along with "Landslide" (orchestra version) as a B-side, on March 17, 2009.
Along with the CD, Nicks also released a DVD on the 31st, titled Live In Chicago. Both are of her October 2007 Soundstage performance which was filmed and recorded before an intimate audience at Grainger Studio in Chicago. The DVD features special guest Vanessa Carlton for whom Nicks provided backing vocals on her 2007 album Heroes & Thieves, and rare solo performances of stand-out tracks such as the Fleetwood Mac standard "Sara" and the celebrated blues ballad "How Still My Love" from Bella Donna. For unknown reasons, the soaring encore of "Beauty and the Beast" was omitted from the DVD release, but included on the CD.
In late February 2010, David A. Stewart (musician and record producer, best known for his work with Eurythmics) revealed, using his Twitter account, that he was working with Nicks on at least four new songs, including one called "Everybody Loves You". A 38-second snippet of the song was posted on Stewart's Twitter account. He confirmed that he and Nicks were working on an album, and said that it is being done "in a very new way".
On March 16, 2010, Stewart reported on his Twitter that he and Nicks were now recording songs together. On BBC Radio 2 on May 3, 2010, he stated in an interview with DJ Simon Mayo that the new album will be recorded throughout June with a release later this year, however this proved to be premature.
On July 5, 2010, Stewart tweeted several pictures and messages about him and Nicks working in the studio. In one of the tweets, Stewart stated that he, Nicks, Waddy Wachtel, Mike Campbell (of the Heartbreakers), Mike Rowe, and Steve Ferrone were all working on the album, and that Mick Fleetwood has also contributed drums to at least one track. Waddy Wachtel has been Nicks' lead guitarist for most of her solo career, featuring prominently on all of her albums to date. Stewart also stated in that tweet that seven tracks have been completed thus far and it was their final day of these sessions in the studio together. Nicks was scheduled to play five live dates in the US in August, and then return to the studio to complete writing and recording on the album.
On July 19, 2010, Nicks posted a new letter on her official website addressing not only the fake Stevie Nicks on Twitter, but she also confirmed that she is working on a new album with Dave Stewart as her producer. She mentions that the new album is moving quickly and sounding great.
In a July 26 interview for the Santa Barbara Independent, Nicks had mentioned a new song on the album, entitled "Italian Summer", whichy she wrote in 2009 while on vacation in Italy. Later, in a July 29 interview with the Ventura County Star, Nicks gave an in-depth interview about her career, her new album, and the August "mini tour" she's embarking on. She had this to say about the new songs:
There is an Italian love song I wrote when I was in Italy last summer. There is a crazy, wild rock 'n' roll song called "The Ghosts Are Gone". There is a song about a novel called "Wide Sargasso Sea", the precursor to Jane Eyre. It was a crazy movie in the '80s that I loved. There are two tracks that Michael Campbell wrote that I wrote songs on top of, and they are just magical. There are love songs, hard rock 'n' roll songs, really contemplative songs and very Bob Dylan-y songs and there are lots of good poems.She also mentioned that the series of shows she is doing in August ("it's not really a tour," she said) will not contain any of her new music, because she doesn't want it to end up on Youtube. The Santa Barbara show will benefit a little girl she knows in Los Angeles with rhabdomyosarcoma, a rare cancer. A documentary is being shot and will be directed by Dave Stewart, which may come packaged with the new album. On the subject of the album's release date, Nicks said, "It’s basically close to being done now. I can’t really tell you, but I know we are trying to move fast because we have places to go and people to see."
The single, "Secret Love", will be available February 3.
In October 2005, she attended the Melbourne Cup Week in Australia, and one of the horse racing stakes was named after her: The Stevie Nicks Plate. She used this opportunity to launch her promotion of an Australian/New Zealand extension to her Gold Dust Tour in February and March 2006. Nicks toured in Australia and New Zealand with popular Australian performer John Farnham. She also appeared in concert with Tom Petty in June near Manassas, Virginia and at the Bonnaroo Music Festival that same month. She later appeared as a guest performer with Petty during the Sturgis Motorcycle Rally in August of the same year.
In 2006, Nicks also performed with Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers for the first leg of their tour in the summer, and later in the year returned as a guest performer for a number of songs on the tour celebrating Petty's 30th anniversary since his debut album. Tom Petty's Homecoming Concert in Gainesville, FL, which contained performances with Stevie Nicks, was filmed for PBS Soundstage as well as DVD release for March 2007. Nicks was also the featured performer for Bette Midler's benefit function, Hullaween, in October 2006. On December 8, 2006, Nicks performed at Caesars Palace on the Las Vegas Strip as a benefit for the Epicurean Charitable Foundation.
On February 4, 2007 Nicks performed her classic solo hit song "Stand Back" at the 2007 Super Bowl XLI Pre-game Show on CBS. She also made performance appearances on NBC's The Today Show and The Ellen DeGeneres Show.
Beginning in May 2007, Nicks began touring with pop/rock artist Chris Isaak. The last Stevie Nicks/Chris Isaak show was June 17, 2007 at the Tweeter Center in Boston, MA. Nicks continued the tour solo, with Vanessa Carlton opening on some dates. The tour finished at The Borgata in Atlantic City on August 24, 2007.
In spring 2008, Nicks did a few spot shows and then conducted a brief one month tour in June 2008 before preparing for a 2009 tour with Fleetwood Mac.
In 2009, Fleetwood Mac embarked on a global hits tour. The Unleashed Tour took place in arenas on multiple continents. The tour ended in December with two sell-out shows of 35,000 people at the New Plymouth TSB Bowl of Brooklands in New Zealand.
A handful of dates have recently been announced for a short 2010 tour. The official Stevie Nicks website has published details of shows which will take place in the US in August. Nicks has stated that none of the studio material recorded for the upcoming album will be performed at these shows because she does not want clips of the performances to be posted on Youtube.
Rod Stewart and Stevie Nicks have joined forces for one of the most anticipated musical events of the year, The Heart & Soul Tour. Launching March 20, 2011 in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, the tour will unite two of music’s most legendary forces for a series of arena concerts throughout North America – with performances already confirmed in New York, Toronto, Los Angeles, Philadelphia, Chicago, Detroit, Tampa, Montreal and more.
{| class="toccolours" border=1 cellpadding=2 cellspacing=0 style="width: 375px; margin: 0 0 1em 1em; border-collapse: collapse; border: 1px solid #E2E2E2;" |+ '''Touring band |- ! style="background:#e7ebee;"| (2010) |
In 2006, Nicks held a get-together to raise money for her charity work. Many of her peers made contributions. Nicks continues to develop this philanthropic endeavor.
The Dixie Chicks' cover of Nicks' 1975 song "Landslide" also earned her a BMI Songwriters Award in 2003 when it won "Song of the Year" (the award is given to the songwriter of the track, regardless of the performer). According to BMI, "Landslide" also earned Nicks the 35th Robert J. Burton Award as "Most Performed Country Song of the Year". This distinction is given to the song tallying the most feature US broadcast performances during the eligibility period. Included on the Dixie Chicks' platinum Monument album Home, "Landslide" was a Country, Adult Top 40, Hot 100 and AC Billboard charts smash. Nicks previously collected a Pop Award in 1998 for Fleetwood Mac's recording of the song, which has achieved Million-Air status with over three million airplays.
On January 31, 2010, Nicks performed with Taylor Swift at the 52nd Grammy Awards. Swift, who describes Nicks as one of her childhood heroes, introduced her to the audience by saying "It's a fairy tale and an honor to share the stage with Stevie Nicks."
Her only marriage was to Kim Anderson, the widower of her friend Robin Anderson, soon after Robin died of leukemia while Bella Donna was on the top of the charts. Stevie and Kim were soon divorced: "We didn't get married because we were in love, we got married because we were grieving and it was the only way that we could feel like we were doing anything."
On August 10, 2005 her father, Jess Nicks, died. Jess introduced his daughter during several of her concert tours and was a large influence on Nicks. Nicks remarked, after Jess's health had deteriorated, that she asked her father to "hang on" for her to finish her tour and his death came shortly after Nicks wrapped up her summer 2005 Gold Dust Tour. She was able to be with him when he died.
Nicks dated cable television pioneer Timothy O'Brien while living in Aspen, Colorado in the 1970s.
Of her lifestyle today, Nicks stated "I am a very different girl from the one who was so wrapped up in rock and roll and the drugs and everything else. I'll never take it all for granted again, ever. Because I also now really realize how quickly that it can go, and that you can be the darling one year, and be nobody the next year. So you have to learn to accept and deal with that."
Until July 2007 Nicks lived in Paradise Valley, Arizona, a suburb of Phoenix in a home she had built in 1981 and shared with brother Chris, his wife Lori and their daughter Jessica. She announced in mid-2007 that her Paradise Valley home would be put up for sale, citing her aspirations to "downsize" and focus more on her charity work, and the fact that in the last year she had only "spent about two weeks there." The house was put on the market for a reported $3.8 million and many fans (feeling it was the end of a major era in her life and career) tagged it as a "Kingdom Up For Sale", a line from the song "Gold Dust Woman". She also owns a home in Pacific Palisades, California.
According to a September 2007 article in the Daily Telegraph (UK), Nicks says she is again selling her home, her recently purchased Pacific Palisades home (purchased two years before by Nicks, right down the street from a rental home she had for years in Pacific Palisades). She has said it is a "house for adults", "And even though I'm pushing 60 I don't feel that I'm that old yet." She will be moving to a penthouse apartment on the beach and the old house is already on the market.
Beginning in 2007, reports surfaced concerning Lindsay Lohan's interest in buying the rights to Nicks' life story and developing a motion picture in which she planned to play Nicks. In March 2007, while promoting her album Crystal Visions, Nicks was asked about this rumor. Nicks told Access Hollywood, "That is completely insane and crazy. There is no movie in the works on my life. Nobody can do a movie about my life without me being involved. Because nobody knows what really happened in my life until I tell them. So, nobody can make a movie about my life. And if anybody ever went and made a movie about my life without my permission and my being involved, I would slam it so hard to the press that it would never do anything." Nicks has gone on record to the New York Times as being strongly opposed to the prospect, and was quoted in 2009 as saying "Over my dead body. She needs to stop doing drugs and get a grip. Then maybe we'll talk."
Many of Nicks' shawls and capes also have an association with her songs in her live performances, many becoming as signature in live performances as the songs themselves. These include a red/crimson shawl for "Sara", white for "Edge of Seventeen", gold for "Gold Dust Woman" and black with round gold circles for "Stand Back". One of her trademarks is twirling across the stage with shawls flying during the interlude of her classic songs, notably "Stand Back" and "Gypsy".
Nicks has said that her vocal style and performance antics evolved from female singers like Grace Slick and Janis Joplin. She admitted inspiration when she saw Joplin perform live (and opened for with her first band "Fritz") shortly before Joplin's death. Nicks owns a strand of Joplin's stage beads. She also commented that she once saw a woman in her audience dressed in dripping chiffon with a Gibson Girl hairstyle and big boots and Nicks knew she wanted something similar. She took the look and made it her own. Another important part of Nicks' image is her jewelry. Nicks typically introduces one signature piece of jewelry during each tour. Such items have included silver bracelets, crescent moon pendant, pyramid-shaped pendant, winged-heart pendant, gold crosses and, most recently, a Tiffany pendant with diamonds meaning "longevity." The crescent moon pendant is arguably the most iconic of all Nicks' jewelry – the original was bought while she was in England on tour with Fleetwood Mac during the Tusk era. Nicks then had her personal jeweler, Henri David of Philadelphia, make replicas of the moon pendant which have become treasured gifts to her friends. In recent years, celebrity pals such as Bette Midler and ice-skating star Tai Babilonia have been photographed wearing their "Stevie moons".
Nicks has even commented in interviews recently that she never would have dreamed that her trademark "Bella Donna/Witchy Woman" image would have been taken so seriously by her fans, often joking that she doesn't live her private life in her stage clothes and "Stevie garb" as many people seem to think. However, she greatly credits her career/stage image for its role in giving her a trademark that has made her unique and "timeless."
Upon being asked in a question forum on her official website about playing the tambourine, Nicks stated that she began playing the tambourine upon joining Fleetwood Mac in 1975, feeling the need to do something onstage during songs that featured Lindsey or Christine. Like her microphone, her tambourine usually features scarves and/or streamers. Nicks' trademark tambourine since the early 1980s is in the shape of a black half-moon.
Category:American contraltos Category:American dance musicians Category:American diarists Category:American female singers Category:American rock singers Category:American singer-songwriters Category:Atlantic Records artists Category:Female rock singers Category:Fleetwood Mac members Category:Grammy Award winners Category:Musicians from Arizona Category:People from Phoenix, Arizona Category:People from Paradise Valley, Arizona Category:San Jose State University alumni Category:1948 births Category:Living people Category:People with chronic fatigue syndrome
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| Name | Neil Young |
|---|---|
| Landscape | yes |
| Background | solo_singer |
| Birth name | Neil Percival Young |
| Alias | Bernard Shakey, Joe Canuck OC, OM (born November 12, 1945) is a Canadian singer-songwriter who is widely regarded as one of the most influential musicians of his generation. Young began performing as a solo artist in Canada in 1960, before moving to California in 1966, where he co-founded the band Buffalo Springfield along with Stephen Stills, and later joined Crosby, Stills & Nash as a fourth member in 1969. He then forged a successful and acclaimed solo career, releasing his first album in 1968; his career has since spanned over 40 years and 34 studio albums, with a continual and uncompromising exploration of musical styles. He has been inducted into the Hall of Fame twice: first as a solo artist in 1995, and secondly as a member of Buffalo Springfield in 1997. |
The 1982 album Trans, which incorporated vocoders, synthesizers, and electronic beats, was Young's first for new label Geffen Records (distributed at the time by Warner Bros. Records, whose parent Warner Music Group owns most of Young's solo and band catalog) and represented a distinct stylistic departure. Young later revealed that an inspiration for the album was the theme of technology and communication with his son Ben, who has severe cerebral palsy and cannot speak. An extensive tour preceded the release of the album, and was documented by the video Neil Young in Berlin, which saw release in 1986.
Young's next album, 1983's Everybody's Rockin', included several rockabilly covers and clocked in at less than twenty-five minutes in length. Young was backed by the Shocking Pinks for the supporting U.S. tour. Trans had already drawn the ire of label head David Geffen for its lack of commercial appeal, and with Everybody's Rockin' following only seven months later, Geffen Records sued Young for making music "unrepresentative" of himself. The album was also notable as the first for which Young made commercial music videos – Tim Pope directed the videos for "Wonderin'" and "Cry, Cry, Cry". Also premiered in 1983, though little seen, was the eclectic full-length comedy film Human Highway, co-directed and co-written by Young, and starring Young and members of Devo.
1984 was the first year without a Neil Young album since the start of Young's musical career with Buffalo Springfield in 1966. Young's lack of productivity was largely due to the ongoing legal battle with Geffen, although he was also frustrated that the label had rejected his 1982 country album Old Ways. It was also the year when Young's third child, his second with wife Pegi was born; his daughter Amber Jean, a child who was later diagnosed with inherited epilepsy. Young spent most of 1984 and all of 1985 touring for Old Ways with his country band, the International Harvesters. The album was finally released in an altered form midway through 1985. Young also appeared at that year's Live Aid concert in Philadelphia, collaborating with Crosby, Stills and Nash for the quartet's first performance for a paying audience in over ten years.
Young's last two albums for Geffen were more conventional in genre, although they incorporated production techniques like synthesizers and echoing drums that were previously uncommon in Young's music. Young recorded 1986's Landing on Water without Crazy Horse, but reunited with the band for the subsequent year-long tour and final Geffen album, Life, which emerged in 1987. Young's album sales dwindled steadily throughout the eighties; today Life remains his all-time-least successful studio album, with an estimated four hundred thousand sales worldwide.
Switching back to his old label Reprise Records, Young continued to tour relentlessly, assembling a new blues band called The Bluenotes in mid-1987 (a legal dispute with musician Harold Melvin forced the eventual rechristening of the band as Ten Men Working midway through the tour). The addition of a brass section provided a new jazzier sound, and the title track of 1988's This Note's For You became Young's first hit single of the decade. Accompanied by a video that parodied corporate rock, the pretensions of advertising, and Michael Jackson, the song was initially unofficially banned by MTV for mentioning the brand names of some of their sponsors. Young wrote an open letter, "What does the M in MTV stand for: music or money?" Despite this, the video was eventually named best video of the year by the network in 1989. By comparison, the major music cable network of Young's home nation, Muchmusic, ran the video immediately.
Young reunited with Crosby, Stills and Nash to record the 1988 album American Dream and play two benefit concerts late in the year, but the group did not embark upon a full tour. The album was only the second-ever studio record for the quartet.
Young's 1989 single "Rockin' in the Free World", which hit #2 on the U.S. charts, and accompanying album, Freedom, rocketed him back into the popular consciousness after a decade of sometimes-difficult genre experiments. The album's lyrics were often overtly political; "Rockin' in the Free World" deals with homelessness, terrorism, and environmental degradation, implicitly criticizing the government policies of President George H.W. Bush.
The use of heavy feedback and distortion on several Freedom tracks was reminiscent of the Rust Never Sleeps album, and foreshadowed the imminent rise of grunge. The rising stars of the genre, including Nirvana's Kurt Cobain and Pearl Jam's Eddie Vedder, frequently cited Young as a major influence, contributing to his popular revival. A tribute album called was released in 1989, featuring covers by alternative and grunge acts including Sonic Youth, Nick Cave, Soul Asylum, Dinosaur Jr, and the Pixies.
Young's 1990 album Ragged Glory, recorded with Crazy Horse in a barn on his Northern California ranch, continued this distortion-heavy aesthetic. Young toured for the album with Orange County, California country-punk band Social Distortion and alternative rock pioneers Sonic Youth as support, much to the consternation of many of his old fans. Weld, a two-disc live album documenting the tour, was released in 1991. Still enamored with the grunge scene, Young reconnected with Pearl Jam in 1995 for the live-in-the-studio album Mirror Ball and a tour of Europe with the band and producer Brendan O'Brien backing Young. 1995 also marked Young's induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, where he was inducted by Eddie Vedder.
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Young's next collaborative partner was filmmaker Jim Jarmusch, who asked Young to compose a soundtrack to his 1995 black and white western film Dead Man. Young's instrumental soundtrack was improvised while he watched the film alone in a studio. The death of longtime mentor, friend, and producer David Briggs in late 1995 prompted Young to reconnect with Crazy Horse the following year for the album and tour Broken Arrow. A Jarmusch-directed concert film and live album of the tour, Year of the Horse, emerged in 1997. From 1996–97 Young and Crazy Horse toured extensively throughout Europe and North America, including a stint as part of the H.O.R.D.E. Festival's sixth annual tour.
In 1998, Young renewed his collaboration with rock band Phish, sharing the stage at the annual Farm Aid concert and then at Young's Bridge School Benefit, where he joined headliners Phish for renditions of "Helpless" and "I Shall Be Released." Phish declined Young's later invitation to be his backing band on his 1999 North American tour.
The decade ended with the release in late 1999 of Looking Forward, another reunion with Crosby, Stills and Nash. The subsequent tour of the United States and Canada with the reformed super quartet earned $42.1 million, making it the eighth largest grossing tour of 2000.
In 2003, Young released Greendale, a concept album recorded with Crazy Horse members Billy Talbot and Ralph Molina. The songs loosely revolved around the murder of a police officer in a small town in California and its effects on the town's inhabitants. Young, under the pseudonym "Bernard Shakey", directed an accompanying film of the same name, featuring actors lip-synching to the music from the album. Young toured extensively with the Greendale material throughout 2003 and 2004, first with a solo, acoustic version in Europe, then with a full-cast stage show in North America, Japan, and Australia. Young began using biodiesel on the 2004 Greendale tour, powering his trucks and tour buses with the fuel. "Our Greendale tour is now ozone friendly,” Young said. “I plan to continue to use this government approved and regulated fuel exclusively from now on to prove that it is possible to deliver the goods anywhere in North America without using foreign oil, while being environmentally responsible.” Young spent the latter portion of 2004 giving a series of intimate acoustic concerts in various cities with his wife, who is a trained vocalist and guitar player.
In March 2005, while working on the Prairie Wind album in Nashville, Young was diagnosed with a brain aneurysm. He was treated successfully with a minimally invasive neuroradiological procedure, performed in a New York hospital on March 29. Two days afterwards, Young passed out on a New York street from bleeding from the femoral artery, which surgeons had used to access the aneurysm. The complication forced Young to cancel his scheduled appearance at the Juno Awards telecast in Winnipeg, but within months he was back on stage, appearing at the close of the Live 8 concert in Barrie, Ontario on July 2. During the performance, he debuted a new song, a soft hymn called "When God Made Me". Young's brush with death influenced Prairie Wind's themes of retrospection and mortality. The album's live premiere in Nashville was immortalized by filmmaker Jonathan Demme in the 2006 film .
Young's renewed activism manifested itself in the 2006 album Living With War, which was hastily recorded and released in less than a month. The album's overtly political songs rebuked U.S. President George W. Bush and the War in Iraq and included the provocatively titled "Let's Impeach the President". Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young reunited for the supporting "Freedom Of Speech Tour '06". CSNY Déjà Vu, a concert film of the tour directed by Young was released in 2008, along with an accompanying live album.
While Young had never been a stranger to eco-friendly lyrics, themes of environmentalist spirituality and activism became increasingly prominent in his work throughout the 1990s and 2000s, especially on Greendale and Living With War. The trend continued on 2007's Chrome Dreams II, with lyrics exploring Young's personal eco-spirituality. Also in 2007, Young accepted an invitation to participate in , contributing his version of "Walking to New Orleans".
In 2008, Young revealed his latest project, the production of a hybrid-engine 1959 Lincoln called Lincvolt. A new album loosely based on the Lincvolt project, Fork in the Road, was released on April 7, 2009. Unfortunately, the car caught fire in November, 2010, in a California warehouse, and along the way it burned an estimated $850,000 worth of Young's rock and roll memorabilia collection. Initial reports suggest the fire might have been triggered by an error in the vehicle's plug-in charging system. Young blamed the fire on human error and said he and his team were committed to rebuilding the car. "The wall charging system was not completely tested and had never been left unattended. A mistake was made. It was not the fault of the car," he said.
, England, on June 23 2009.]] A Jonathan Demme concert film from a 2007 concert at the Tower Theater in Upper Darby, Pennsylvania, called the Neil Young Trunk Show premiered on March 21, 2009, at the South by Southwest (SXSW) Film Conference and Festival in Austin, Texas. It was featured at the Cannes Film Festival on May 17, 2009 and was released in the US on March 19, 2010 to critical acclaim.
Young's most recent album appearance was on the album Potato Hole, released on April 21, 2009 by Memphis organ player Booker T. Jones, of Booker T. & the MG's fame. Young plays guitar on nine of the album's ten instrumental tracks, alongside Drive-By Truckers, who already had three guitar players, giving some songs on the album a total of five guitar tracks. Jones contributed guitars on a couple of tracks.
Young continues to tour extensively. In 2009, he headlined the Glastonbury Festival in Pilton, England, at Hard Rock Calling in London (where he was joined onstage by Paul McCartney for a rendition of "A Day in the Life") and, after years of unsuccessful booking attempts, the Isle of Wight Festival in addition to performances at the Big Day Out festival in New Zealand and Australia and the Primavera Sound Festival in Barcelona.
Young currently lives in La Honda, California on the 1500-acre (6 km²) Broken Arrow Ranch, purchased in 1970 for $350,000 and named after one of his early Buffalo Springfield songs.
Three performances from the Performance Series of the archives were released individually before The Archives Vol. 1. Live at the Fillmore East, a selection of songs from a 1970 gig with Crazy Horse, was released in 2006. Live at Massey Hall 1971, a solo acoustic set from Toronto's Massey Hall, saw release in 2007. Sugar Mountain - Live At Canterbury House 1968, an early solo performance and, chronologically, the first disc in the performance series, emerged late in 2008.
In an interview in 2008, Neil Young discussed Toast, an album originally recorded with Crazy Horse in San Francisco in 2000 but never released. The album will be part of the Special Edition Series of the Archives. No release date currently exists for Toast. Another album Young has mentioned as a possible release is Treasure, from 1985 sessions with the Harvesters.
On July 14, 2009, Young's first four solo albums were reissued as remastered HDCD discs and digital downloads as discs 1–4 of the Original Release Series of the Archives.
As one of the original founders of Farm Aid, he remains an active member of the board of directors. For one weekend each October, in Mountain View, California, he and his wife host the Bridge School Concerts, which have been drawing international talent and sell-out crowds for nearly two decades with some of the biggest names in rock having performed at the event including Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers, Bruce Springsteen, David Bowie, The Who, Red Hot Chili Peppers, Trent Reznor of Nine Inch Nails, Tom Waits, Metallica, Pearl Jam, Sonic Youth, The Smashing Pumpkins, and Sir Paul McCartney and Dave Matthews. The concerts are a benefit for the Bridge School, which develops and uses advanced technologies to aid in the instruction of children with disabilities. Young's involvement stems at least partially from the fact that both of his sons have cerebral palsy and his daughter, like Young himself, has epilepsy.
Young was nominated for an Oscar in 1994 for his song "Philadelphia" from the film Philadelphia. Bruce Springsteen won the award for his song "Streets of Philadelphia" from the same film. In his acceptance speech, Springsteen said that "the award really deserved to be shared by the other nominee's song." That same night, Tom Hanks accepted the Oscar for Best Actor and gave credit for his inspiration to the song "Philadelphia".
He was part owner of Lionel, LLC, a company that makes toy trains and model railroad accessories. In 2008 Lionel emerged from bankruptcy and his shares of the company were wiped out. At this time his status with Lionel is unknown, according to Lionel CEO Jerry Calabrese he is still a consultant for Lionel. He was instrumental in the design of the Lionel Legacy control system for model trains
Young has twice received honorary doctorates. He received an Honorary Doctorate of Music from Lakehead University in Thunder Bay, Ontario in 1992, and an Honorary Doctorate of Humane Letters from San Francisco State University in 2006. The latter honour was shared with his wife Pegi for their creation of the Bridge School. In 2006, Young was given Manitoba's highest civilian honour, when he was appointed to the Order of Manitoba. In 2009, he was then given Canada's highest civilian honour, when he was appointed to the Order of Canada.
Rolling Stone magazine in 2000, ranked Young thirty-fourth in its list of the 500 greatest artists of all time, and in 2003, included five of his albums in its list of 500 greatest albums of all time. In 2000, Young was inducted into Canada's Walk of Fame. In 2006, Paste magazine compiled a "Greatest Living Songwriters" list; Young was ranked second behind Bob Dylan. (While Young and Dylan have occasionally played together in concert, they have never collaborated on a song together, or played on each others' records). He ranked thirty-ninth on VH1's 100 Greatest Artist of Hard Rock that same year. The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame explained that while Young has "avoided sticking to one style for very long, the unifying factors throughout Young’s peripatetic musical journey have been his unmistakable voice, his raw and expressive guitar playing, and his consummate songwriting skill." Dave Matthews lists Neil Young as one of his favorite and most inspirational songwriters and covers his songs on occasion. The British Indie band The Bluetones named their number one debut album after the song "Expecting to Fly" (written by Young when still with Buffalo Springfield and have covered the song while touring. Young also inspired Oasis singer-songwriter Noel Gallagher, with Gallagher covering "My My, Hey Hey (Into the Black)" on the live album Familiar to Millions.
The Australian rock group Powderfinger named themselves after Young's song "Powderfinger" from Young's Rust Never Sleeps. The members of the Constantines have occasionally played Neil Young tribute shows under the name Horsey Craze. While in Winnipeg on November 2, 2008 during the Canadian leg of his tour, Bob Dylan visited Young's former home in River Heights, where Young spent his teenage years. Dylan was interested in seeing the room where some of Young's first songs were composed.
Jason Bond, an East Carolina University biologist, discovered a new species of trapdoor spider in 2007 and named it Myrmekiaphila neilyoungi after Young, his favorite singer (a previous similar case was the dinousaur Masiakasaurus knopfleri named after the musician Mark Knopfler of Dire Straits).
In 2001, Young was awarded the Spirit of Liberty award from the civil liberties group People for the American Way. Young was honored as the MusiCares Person of the Year on January 29, 2010, two nights prior to the 52nd Annual Grammy Awards. In addition was also nominated for two Grammy Awards; Best Solo Rock Vocal Performance ("Fork In The Road") and Best Boxed or Special Limited Edition Package ["Neil Young Archives Vol. I (1963–1972)"]. Young won the latter Grammy Award. In 2010, Young was ranked #26 in Gibson.com’s Top 50 Guitarists of All Time.
Other notable (or odd) instruments played by Young include:
Category:1945 births Category:Living people
Category:Anti-Iraq War activists Category:Anti-Vietnam War activists Category:Buffalo Springfield members Category:Canadian country guitarists Category:Canadian country rock musicians Category:Canadian country singers Category:Canadian film directors Category:Canadian folk guitarists Category:Canadian folk singers Category:Canadian male singers Category:Canadian Music Hall of Fame inductees Category:Canadian people of American descent Category:Canadian people of French descent Category:Canadian people of Irish descent Category:Canadian rock guitarists Category:Canadian rock singers Category:Canadian singer-songwriters Category:Canadian environmentalists Category:Canadian expatriate musicians in the United States Category:Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young members Category:Juno Award winners Category:Lead guitarists Category:Musicians from Manitoba Category:Writers from Manitoba Category:Members of the Order of Manitoba Category:Neil Young and Crazy Horse members Category:Musicians from Ontario Category:Writers from Ontario Category:Officers of the Order of Canada Category:People with epilepsy Category:People from Toronto Category:People from Winnipeg Category:Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inductees Category:1960s singers Category:1970s singers Category:1980s singers Category:1990s singers Category:2000s singers Category:2010s singers
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| Name | Johnny Rivers |
|---|---|
| Background | solo_singer |
| Birth name | John Henry Ramistella |
| Born | November 07, 1942 |
| Place of birth | Baton Rouge, Louisiana |
| Origin | New York City, New York, United States |
| Genre | Rock and roll |
| Occupation | Singer, songwriter, guitarist, record producer |
| Years active | 1962–present |
| Label | ImperialUnited ArtistsAtlanticRSOSoul City |
| Url | www.johnnyrivers.com |
Johnny Rivers (born John Henry Ramistella, November 7, 1942, New York) is an American rock and roll singer, songwriter, guitarist, and record producer. His styles include folk songs, blues, and revivals of old-time rock 'n' roll songs and some original material. Rivers's greatest success came in the mid and late 1960s with a string of hit songs (including "Seventh Son", "Poor Side of Town", "Summer Rain", and "Secret Agent Man"), but he has continued to record and perform to the present.
On a trip back to New York in 1958, he met Alan Freed who advised him to change his name, so Johnny Ramistella had the Baton Rouge attorney Arthur J. Cobb change his name to Johnny Rivers after the Mississippi River that flows near Baton Rouge.
In 1963, Rivers recorded the theme song for the American broadcast of a British television series, "Danger Man," which starred Patrick McGoohan. At first, Rivers balked at the idea, feeling that he did not have the talent to make a record on an international label, but he eventually relented. The American version of the show was titled "Secret Agent", and the song "Secret Agent Man" reached number 3 on the Billboard Hot 100 charts in 1966. It sold one million copies, achieving gold disc status. in July 1964. It sold over one million copies, and was awarded a gold disc. According to Elvis Presley's friend and employee Alan Fortas, Presley played his friend (Rivers) a test pressing of "Memphis" that Elvis had made but not released. Rivers was impressed and, much to Presley's chagrin, Rivers recorded and released it, even copying the arrangement (Fortas writes: "After that, Johnny was on Elvis's shit list" and was persona non grata from then on). Rivers' version far outsold the Chuck Berry original from August 1959 which stalled at #87 in the US. (Lonnie Mack's 1963 instrumental version of "Memphis" reached the US Hit Parade top five in July; the Chuck Berry original and its British rival cover version fought it out in the UK Hit parade in November 1963.
Rivers made a successful transition from nightclub entertainer to chart-busting pop singer and had created the "Go Go sound", part of a scene which included Go-Go dancers. In 1964 and 1965, Rivers continued to record mostly live, Go-Go style records including "Maybellene" (another Berry cover), after which came "Mountain of Love", "Midnight Special", "Seventh Son" (written by Willie Dixon) and "Where Have All the Flowers Gone?" (written by Pete Seeger), all of which were hits.
Rivers wanted to try something different; he switched gears in 1966, and began to record ballads characterized by his smooth, soulful voice, and background vocalists (mostly women), producing such successful hits as "Poor Side Of Town", which would be his biggest hit and his only number one record. Another hit was "Secret Agent Man", the theme from the Secret Agent television series (written by P.F. Sloan and Steve Barri). He also started his own record company, Soul City Records, where he won a Grammy Award as the producer of the 5th Dimension, which eventually recorded "Aquarius/Let the Sunshine In" and "Wedding Bell Blues", two number-one hits with Rivers's label. Johnny is also credited with giving songwriter Jimmy Webb a major break, when the 5th Dimension recorded Webb's song "Up, Up, and Away".
Chart positions are from the Billboard Hot 100:
Category:1942 births Category:Living people Category:People from New York City Category:People from Baton Rouge, Louisiana Category:American rock guitarists Category:American male singers Category:Imperial Records artists Category:Cub Records artists Category:American record producers Category:American rock songwriters Category:American musicians of Italian descent Category:Atlantic Records artists Category:Epic Records artists Category:Era Records artists Category:Musicians from Louisiana
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| Name | Joe Walsh |
|---|---|
| Born | November 20, 1947Wichita, Kansas, U.S. |
| Background | solo_singer |
| Genre | Rock, hard rock, folk rock, country rock, blues rock |
| Instrument | Guitar, keyboards, vocals, bass, drums, piano, synthesizer, organ, mandolin, mellotron, timpani, talkbox, cello |
| Years active | 1964–present |
| Label | Asylum, Epic, ABC |
| Associated acts | James Gang, Barnstorm, Eagles, Ringo Starr & His All-Starr Band |
| Url | Joe Walsh.com |
| Notable instruments | Gibson Les PaulFender TelecasterFender StratocasterRickenbacker 330Gretsch Country Club |
Joseph Fidler "Joe" Walsh (born November 20, 1947) is an American musician, songwriter, and actor. He has been a member of three commercially successful bands, the James Gang, Barnstorm, and the Eagles, and has experienced notable success as a solo artist and prolific session musician, especially with B.B. King .
Over the next two years, Walsh released a second studio album So What and a live set, You Can't Argue with a Sick Mind. These would be his last solo albums until 1978. On December 20, 1975, he joined the Eagles as Bernie Leadon's replacement. His addition steered the band toward a harder-edged sound and away from their early country-style work, and he featured prominently on their multi-million-selling album Hotel California, co-writing the Top 20 hit "Life in the Fast Lane" (with Don Henley and Glenn Frey) and "Pretty Maids All in a Row" (co-written with former Barnstorm drummer Joe Vitale).
As the Eagles struggled to record the follow-up to Hotel California, Walsh re-ignited his solo career with the well-received album But Seriously, Folks... (1978) -- which featured his hit comic depiction of rock stardom, "Life's Been Good". Joe also contributed "In the City" to The Warriors soundtrack (1979), a song penned and sung by Walsh that was later rerecorded for the Eagles The Long Run album.
Walsh toured with Ringo Starr in 1989, alternating a handful of his best-known songs with Ringo's tunes, as did all the members of the "All Starr" band. Walsh sang the US National Anthem at the beginning of game four of the 1995 World Series. In 1989, Walsh recorded a MTV Unplugged with the R&B; musician Dr. John.
While producing their Homegrown album in 1989, Walsh briefly joined New Zealand reggae band Herbs. Although he had left by the time of its 1990 release, he still appears as lead vocalist on two tracks, "Up All Night" and "It's Alright", and the album includes the first recording of his "Ordinary Average Guys" (sung by late Herbs bassist Charlie Tumahai), which subsequently became a solo hit for Walsh as "Ordinary Average Guy".
In late 1990, Walsh was part of a band called The Best, along with keyboardist Keith Emerson, bassist John Entwistle, guitarist Jeff "Skunk" Baxter and drummer Simon Phillips. The band performed several shows in Hawaii and Japan, with a live video resulting.
In 1994, Walsh reunited with the Eagles for a highly successful reunion tour and live album, Hell Freezes Over. Walsh has toured regularly with the Eagles since then and the group released their first new studio album in 28 years, Long Road Out of Eden, in 2007.
In June 2004, Walsh performed live before a huge crowd at Eric Clapton's Crossroads Guitar Festival in Dallas, Texas. He was also featured in September 2004 at The Strat Pack, a concert held in London, England to mark the 50th anniversary of the Fender Stratocaster guitar.
In 2006, Walsh reunited with Jim Fox and Dale Peters of the James Gang for a 15-date summer reunion tour. The tour lasted into the fall. Some of his most recent compositions, such as "One Day At A Time", deal with his struggles with substance abuse, particularly alcoholism. He has been in recovery since 1995.
In 2008, Walsh appeared on the Carvin 60th Anniversary Celebration DVD as a celebrity endorser. In the recorded interview, he highly praised Carvin guitars and claims that the bridge design is "just like the first Les Paul models. I can't even get Gibson to reissue it."
Walsh has been a contributor to such causes as halfway houses for displaced adult women in Wichita, Kansas.
Walsh is currently working on his first solo album since 1992 with Jeff Lynne producing.
Walsh ran for President of the United States in 1980 on top of his music career as a mock campaign. He promised to make "Life's Been Good" the new national anthem if he won, and running on a platform of "Free Gas For Everyone." Though Walsh was not old enough to actually assume the office, he wanted to raise public awareness of the election. He then ran again for vice president in 1992.
Walsh played lead guitar on the song "Green Monkey" which appeared on America's 1973 album ''Hat Trick
Walsh contributed fuzzbox guitar and scat vocals to the song "New Orleans" which appeared on Carl Palmer's portion of Emerson, Lake & Palmer's 1977 album Works Volume 1.
Walsh co-wrote and played lead guitar on the song "Split Decision" which appeared on Steve Winwood's 1986 album Back in the High Life.
He also appeared on Second City Television acting along side John Candy in a recurring sketch entitled "Gil Fisher." In that sketch, he performed a song with his band.
Walsh would reunite with former Eagles bandmates Randy Meisner and Timothy B. Schmit as background musicians on the 1987 Richard Marx hit "Don't Mean Nothing".
Walsh played a prisoner in The Blues Brothers. He is noticeable as he is the first prisoner to get on the cafeteria tables during the "Jailhouse Rock" song at the end. Joe was a close friend of John Belushi, who starred in the movie.
Walsh appeared as a mystery guest on The Howard Stern Show on August 8, 1989, along with Pat Cooper. He has appeared numerous times on Stern's show since, more recently with the James Gang to promote their summer 2006 tour.
Joe joined female rocker Lita Ford on a song called, "A Future to This Life" which was featured in the television series, .
Joe performed a James Gang selection as himself on a musical episode of The Drew Carey Show.
He was also a frequent guest and guest-host of Detroit & Chicago radio legend Steve Dahl.
Walsh played guitar alongside Laura Hall in a surprise appearance in Drew Carey's pay-per-view presentation of "Drew Carey's Improv All-Stars" in Las Vegas. He participated in one game in each show, the ending game "biography." He sometimes made guest appearances on The Drew Carey Show as Ed, a laid-back guitarist in a bar band.
Walsh appeared as a featured performer at the 1992 Seville Expo Guitar Legends with on-stage featured guitarists Nuno Bettencourt, Brian May, Joe Satriani and Steve Vai.
Walsh sang the National Anthem of Chile at a Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim baseball game in 2003.
Walsh appeared in the television series Duckman, as medical video actor in episode 315 - "They Craved Duckman's Brain". Walsh also plays a version of "Life's Been Good" in a Duckman episode. He also appeared on Mad TV in 1995 as a customer at an air guitar shop, and on the comedy game show Street Smarts. Walsh appeared in the audience on the April 10, 2008 episode of the MTV show Rock the Cradle as a surprise for his daughter Lucy.
Walsh appeared with the James Gang in the motion picture Zachariah (1971).
Walsh commenced 2007 with an appearance at Dear Mr Fantasy - A Celebration For Jim Capaldi: a charity gig being held at London's famous Roundhouse where he appeared alongside Steve Winwood, Jon Lord, Pete Townshend, Bill Wyman, Paul Weller and many others.
During 2007, Walsh has appeared at selected shows with country-rock star musician Kenny Chesney on his Flip Flop Summer Tour 2007. "I don't think there's anybody in the world who doesn't know Life's Been Good or Rocky Mountain Way if they've listened to any rock radio at all," said Kenny. Walsh also played a number of solo dates during late summer. Walsh has collaborated with Chesney on several occasions, most notably producing the song "Wild Ride".
Walsh performed the National Anthem on guitar at the Los Angeles Clippers vs. Los Angeles Lakers game on November 5, 2008 at the Staples Center in Los Angeles, California.
In 2009, Walsh made surprise guest appearances with Trans-Siberian Orchestra at the Honda Center in Anaheim, California on December 3; the St. Pete Times Forum in Tampa, Florida on December 6; and the IZOD Center at the Meadowlands, New Jersey on December 12.
Joe Walsh is a playable character in the American football video game Madden NFL 10. He is a free agent wide receiver from Kent State University. He is listed as 29 years old in the game.
Walsh is known for his guitar and keyboard skills, but also plays/has played bass guitar, harmonica, bagpipes, oboe, and clarinet. His mother was a classically trained pianist.
Walsh married Marjorie Bach (sister of Barbara Bach) in Los Angeles on December 13, 2008, making him a brother-in-law of Ringo Starr, former drummer of The Beatles.
Walsh's daughter, Lucy Walsh, is also a musician; she has worked with Ashlee Simpson, among others, and released her debut album, Lost in the Lights, in spring 2008.
Walsh's oldest daughter, Emma Kristen, died as a result of injuries suffered in an automobile accident on her way to nursery school in 1974. Her story inspired the track "Song For Emma" on his album So What released later that year. In her memory, he had a fountain and memorial plaque placed in a park in which she played, North Boulder Park in Boulder, Colorado. While touring with singer Stevie Nicks in 1984, Walsh took Nicks to the park's fountain; Nicks subsequently immortalized this story in her song "Has Anyone Ever Written Anything For You" on her 1985 album Rock A Little. Nicks stated in a 2007 interview with the UK's The Daily Telegraph that Walsh had been "the great love of her life."
In October 2004, Walsh undertook speaking engagements in New Zealand to warn against the dangers of substance abuse. Events were staged at the New Zealand Parliament in Wellington, Otatara Pa in Hawke's Bay and Hoani Waititi Marae in Auckland. He said the visit was a "thank you" to people who talked to him and took him to Otatara Pa when he toured New Zealand with reggae band Herbs while under heavy alcohol and cocaine addictions in 1989, an experience he has cited as the beginning of a long journey back to health.
At Otatara Pa in 2004 Walsh said, "This is a special place, and it is very special to me. It was here on a visit many years ago, up on the hills, that I had a moment of clarity. I don't understand it, but I reconnected with my soul, and I remembered who I used to be. I admitted I had problems and I had to do something about it. It was the beginning of my recovery from my addiction to alcohol and drugs, and when I got back to America it gave me the courage to seek help."
Walsh sold his main guitar, a 1959 Gibson Les Paul Sunburst, to Led Zeppelin guitarist Jimmy Page.
Kent State University awarded Walsh an honorary degree in music in December 2001.
Category:1947 births Category:Amateur radio people Category:American rock guitarists Category:Eagles (band) members Category:The Party Boys members Category:People self-identifying as alcoholics Category:Musicians from Kansas Category:Kent State University alumni Category:Living people Category:People from Columbus, Ohio Category:People from Montclair, New Jersey Category:People from Wichita, Kansas Category:Lead guitarists Category:Slide guitarists Category:United States presidential candidates, 1980 Category:Grammy Award winners
This text is licensed under the Creative Commons CC-BY-SA License. This text was originally published on Wikipedia and was developed by the Wikipedia community.
| Name | James Taylor |
|---|---|
| Background | solo_singer |
| Birth name | James Vernon Taylor |
| Born | March 12, 1948Boston, Massachusetts, U.S. |
| Origin | Carrboro, North Carolina |
| Instrument | VocalsGuitarHarmonica |
| Genre | Folk rockRockPopCountry |
| Occupation | Singer-songwritermusician |
| Years active | 1968–present |
| Label | Apple/Capitol/EMI RecordsWarner Bros. RecordsColumbia/SME RecordsHear Music |
| Associated acts | Carole King, Carly Simon |
| Url | JamesTaylor.com |
James Vernon Taylor (born March 12, 1948) is an American singer-songwriter and guitarist born in Boston, Massachusetts, and raised in Carrboro, North Carolina. He owns a house in the Berkshire County town of Washington, Massachusetts. A five-time Grammy Award winner, Taylor was inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame in 2000.
Taylor achieved his major breakthrough in 1970 with the #3 single "Fire and Rain" and had his first #1 hit the following year with "You've Got a Friend", a recording of Carole King's classic song. His 1976 Greatest Hits album was certified Diamond and has sold 12 million US copies. Following his 1977 album, JT, he has retained a large audience over the decades. His commercial achievements declined slightly until a big resurgence during the late 1990s and 2000s, when some of his best-selling and most-awarded albums (including Hourglass, October Road and Covers) were released.
In 1951, when James was three years old, the family moved to the countryside of Carrboro, North Carolina, when Isaac took a job as Assistant Professor of Medicine at the University of North Carolina School of Medicine. They built a house in the Morgan Creek area, which was sparsely populated. James attended public primary school in Chapel Hill. Isaac Taylor later rose to become Dean of the UNC School of Medicine from 1964 to 1971. The family spent summers on Martha's Vineyard beginning in 1953.
Taylor first learned to play the cello as a child in North Carolina, and switched to the guitar in 1960. His style on that instrument evolved from listening to hymns, carols, and Woody Guthrie, while his technique derived from his bass clef-oriented cello training and from experimenting on his sister Kate's keyboards: "My style was a finger-picking style that was meant to be like a piano, as if my thumb were my left hand, and my first, second, and third fingers were my right hand." He began attending Milton Academy, a prep boarding school in Massachusetts in Fall 1961; summering before then with his family on Martha's Vineyard, he met Danny Kortchmar, an aspiring teenage guitarist from Larchmont, New York. The two began listening to and playing blues and folk music together, and Kortchmar quickly realized that Taylor's singing had a "natural sense of phrasing, every syllable beautifully in time. I knew James had that thing." Taylor wrote his first song on guitar at age 14, and continued to learn the instrument effortlessly.
Taylor faltered during his junior year at Milton, not feeling at ease in the high-pressured college prep environment despite having good scholastic performance. He returned home to North Carolina to finish out the semester at Chapel Hill High School. There he joined a band his brother Alex had formed called The Corsayers (later The Fabulous Corsairs), playing electric guitar; in 1964 they cut a single in Raleigh that featured James's song "Cha Cha Blues" on the B-side. He would later view his nine-month stay at McLean as "a lifesaver ... like a pardon or like a reprieve," and both his brother Livingston and sister Kate would later be patients and students there as well.
Taylor associated with a motley collection of people and began using heroin, to Kortchmar's dismay, and wrote the "Paint It, Black"-influenced "Rainy Day Man" to depict his drug experience. Released on Jay Gee Records, a subsidiary of Jubilee Records, it received some radio airplay in the Northeast, Other songs had been recorded during the same session, but Jubilee declined to go forward with an album. Indeed, his drug use had developed into full-blown heroin addiction during the final Flying Machine period: "I just fell into it, since it was as easy to get high in the Village as get a drink." Finally out of money and abandoned by his manager, he made a desperate call one night to his father. Isaac Taylor flew to New York and staged a rescue, renting a car and driving all night back to North Carolina with James and his possessions.
Taylor decided to try being a solo act and a change of scenery. In late 1967, funded by a small family inheritance, he moved to London, living variously in Notting Hill, Belgravia, and Chelsea. He recorded some demos in Soho and, capitalizing on Kortchmar's connection to The King Bees (who once once opened for Peter and Gordon), brought the demos to Peter Asher, who was A&R; head for The Beatles' newly-formed label Apple Records. Asher showed the demos to Paul McCartney, who later said, "I just heard his voice and his guitar and I thought he was great ... and he came and played live, so it was just like, 'Wow, he's great." Taylor recorded the album from July to October 1968 at Trident Studios, at the same time The Beatles were recording The White Album. McCartney and an uncredited George Harrison guested on "Carolina in My Mind", whose lyric holy host of others standing around me made reference to the Beatles, while the title phrase of Taylor's "Something in the Way She Moves" provided the starting point for Harrison's classic "Something". McCartney and Asher brought in arranger Richard Hewson to add orchestrations to several of the songs and unusual "link" passages in between them; these would receive a mixed reception at best.
During the recording sessions, Taylor fell back into his drug habit, using heroin and methedrine. Meanwhile, Apple released his debut album, James Taylor, in December 1968 in the UK and February 1969 in the U.S. In early 1969, to clean up the situation, three of the Beatles brought in Allen Klein, who began purging Apple personnel. Asher did not like Klein; he resigned of his own accord and offered to manage Taylor, to which Taylor agreed. Klein wanted to hit Taylor with a $5 million lawsuit for leaving, but McCartney (a Klein antagonist) and then the other Beatles, overruled him on the grounds that artists should not be holding each other to contracts. Shortly thereafter, he broke both hands and both feet in a motorcycle accident on Martha's Vineyard and was forced to stop playing for several months. But while recovering, he continued to write songs and in October 1969, signed a new deal with Warner Bros. Records. in 2003. ("Fire and Rain" was also listed #227 on Rolling Stone's list of the Greatest Songs of All Time).
for Two-Lane Blacktop: Boswell, Oklahoma ]] During the time Sweet Baby James was released, Taylor appeared with Dennis Wilson of The Beach Boys in a Monte Hellman film, Two-Lane Blacktop. In October 1970, he performed with Joni Mitchell, Phil Ochs, and the Canadian band Chilliwack at a Vancouver benefit concert that funded Greenpeace's protests of 1971 nuclear weapons tests by the U.S. Atomic Energy Commission at Amchitka, Alaska. (This performance was released in 2009 on the album Amchitka, The 1970 Concert That Launched Greenpeace.) In January 1971, sessions for Taylor's next album, Mud Slide Slim and the Blue Horizon, began. Released in April, the album also gained massive critical acclaim and contained Taylor's biggest Pop single in the U.S., a version of the Carole King standard "You've Got a Friend" (featuring backing vocals by Joni Mitchell), which reached #1 on the Billboard Hot 100 in late July. The album itself reached #2 in the album charts, which would be Taylor's highest position ever on this list. In early 1972, Taylor received his first Grammy Award, for (Best Pop Vocal Performance, Male) for "You've Got a Friend" (King also won Song of the Year for the same song on that ceremony). The album went on to sell 2½ million copies in the United States alone.
November 1972 saw the release of Taylor's fourth album, One Man Dog. A concept album primarily recorded in his home recording studio, it featured cameos by Linda Ronstadt and consisted of eighteen short pieces of music put together. It was received with generally lukewarm reviews and, despite making the Top 10 of the Billboard Album Charts, overall sales were disappointing. The lead single "Don't Let Me Be Lonely Tonight" peaked at #18 on the Hot 100, and the follow-up, "One Man Parade", barely reached the Top 75. Almost simultaneously, Taylor married fellow singer-songwriter Carly Simon on November 3, in a small ceremony at her Murray Hill, Manhattan apartment. A post-concert party following a Taylor performance at Radio City Music Hall turned into a large-scale wedding party, and the Simon-Taylor marriage would find much public attention over the following years.
However, James Taylor's artistic fortunes spiked again in 1975 when the Gold album Gorilla reached #6 and provided one of his biggest hit singles, a cover version of Marvin Gaye's "How Sweet It Is (To Be Loved by You)", which featured wife Carly in backing vocals and reached #5 in America and #1 in Canada. On the Billboard's Adult Contemporary chart, the track also reached the top, and the follow-up single, the feel-good "Mexico" also reached the Top 5 of that list. A critically very-well received album, Gorilla showcased Taylor's electric, lighter side that was evident on Walking Man. However, it was arguably a more consistent and fresher-sounding Taylor, with classics such as "Wandering" and "Angry Blues." It also featured a song about his daughter Sally, "Sarah Maria".
Gorilla was followed in 1976 by In the Pocket, Taylor's last studio album to be released under Warner Bros. Records. The album found him with many colleagues and friends, including Art Garfunkel, David Crosby, Bonnie Raitt and Stevie Wonder (who co-wrote a song with Taylor and contributed a harmonica solo). A very melodic album, it was highlighted with the single "Shower the People", an enduring classic that hit #1 Adult Contemporary and almost hit the Top 20 of the Pop Charts. But the album was not very well-received, reaching only #16 and being highly criticized, particularly by Rolling Stone. Nevertheless 1976 was a huge boom year in the recording business — the year of inception of the "Platinum" disc — and In The Pocket was certified Gold.
With the close of Taylor's contract with Warner, in November the label released Greatest Hits, the album that comprised most of his best work between 1970 and 1976. It became with time his best-selling album, ever. It was certified eleven times Platinum in the US, earning a Diamond certification by the RIAA and eventually selling close to twenty million copies worldwide. It still stands as the best-selling folk album by any artist.
Back in the forefront of popular music, Taylor collaborated with Paul Simon and Art Garfunkel in the recording of a cover of Sam Cooke's "Wonderful World", which reached the Top 20 in the U.S. and topped the AC charts in early 1978. After briefly working on Broadway, he took a one-year break, reappearing in the summer of 1979 with the cover-studded Platinum album Flag, featuring a Top 30 version of Gerry Goffin and Carole King's "Up on the Roof". (Two selections from Flag, "Millworker" and "Brother Trucker," were featured on the PBS production of the Broadway musical based on Studs Terkel's non-fiction book , and James himself appeared in that production as a trucker; he performed "Brother Trucker" in character.) Taylor also appeared on the No Nukes concert in Madison Square Garden, where he made a memorable live performance of "Mockingbird" with his wife Carly. The concert appeared on both the No Nukes album and film.
On December 7, 1980 Taylor had an encounter with Mark David Chapman who would assassinate John Lennon. Taylor told the BBC in 2010 "The guy had sort of pinned me to the wall and was glistening with maniacal sweat and talking some freak speak about what he was going to do and his stuff with how John was interested, and he was going to get in touch with John Lennon. And it was surreal to actually have contact with the guy 24 hours before he shot John." The next night Taylor who lived in the next building from Lennon heard the assassination.
In March 1981, James Taylor released the album Dad Loves His Work, whose themes concerned his relationship with his father, the course his ancestors had taken, and the effect he and Simon had had on each other. The album was another Platinum success, reaching #10 and providing Taylor's final real hit single in a duet with J. D. Souther, "Her Town Too," which reached #5 Adult Contemporary and #11 on the Hot 100 in Billboard. The album's title was, in part, drawn from the reasons for Taylor's divorce from Carly Simon. She gave him an ultimatum: cut back on his music and touring, and spend more time with her and their children, or the marriage was through. The album's title was Taylor's answer, and Simon asked for divorce. (The emotional repercussions of the divorce likely served as at least part of the inspiration for "Her Town Too.")
On February 18, 2001 at the Emmanuel Episcopal Church, Boston, Taylor wed for the third time, marrying Caroline ("Kim") Smedvig, the director of public relations and marketing for the Boston Symphony Orchestra. They had begun dating in 1995, when they met as he appeared with John Williams and the Boston Pops Orchestra. The couple reside in the town of Washington, Massachusetts with their twin boys, Rufus and Henry, born in April 2001 to a surrogate mother via in vitro fertilization. The album appeared in two versions, a single-disc version and a "limited edition" two-disc version which contained three extra songs including a duet with Mark Knopfler, "Sailing to Philadelphia," which also appeared on Knopfler's Sailing to Philadelphia album. Also in 2002, Taylor teamed with bluegrass musician Alison Krauss in singing "The Boxer" at the Kennedy Center Honors Tribute to Paul Simon. They later recorded the Louvin Brothers duet, "How's the World Treating You?" In 2004, after he chose not to renew his record contract with Columbia/Sony, he released with distribution through Hallmark Cards.
Taylor performed "The Star-Spangled Banner" at Game 2 of the World Series in Boston on October 24, 2004. In December, he appeared as himself in an episode of The West Wing entitled "A Change Is Gonna Come". He sang Sam Cooke's classic "A Change Is Gonna Come" at an event honoring an artist played by Taylor's wife Caroline. Later on, he appeared on CMT's Crossroads alongside the Dixie Chicks. In early 2006, MusiCares honored Taylor with performances of his songs by an array of notable musicians. Before a performance by the Dixie Chicks, lead singer Natalie Maines acknowledged that he had always been one of their musical heroes, and had for them lived up to their once-imagined reputation of him. They performed his song, "Shower the People", with a surprise appearance by Arnold McCuller, who has sung backing vocals on Taylor's live tours for many years.
In the fall of 2006, Taylor released a repackaged and slightly different version of his Hallmark Christmas album, now entitled James Taylor at Christmas, and distributed by Columbia/Sony. In 2006, Taylor performed Randy Newman's song "Our Town" for the Disney animated film Cars. The song was nominated for the 2007 Academy Award for the best Original Song. On January 1, 2007, Taylor headlined the inaugural concert at the Times Union Center in Albany, New York, honoring newly sworn in Governor of New York Eliot Spitzer.
Taylor's next album, One Man Band was released on CD and DVD in November 2007 on Starbucks' Hear Music Label, where he joined with Paul McCartney and Joni Mitchell. The introspective album grew out of a three-year tour of the United States and Europe—featuring some of Taylor's most beloved songs and anecdotes about their creative origins—accompanied solely by the "one man band" of his longtime pianist/keyboardist, Larry Goldings. The mix of One Man Band won a TEC Award for best surround sound recording in 2008.
November 28–30, 2007, Taylor, accompanied by his original band and Carole King, headlined a series of six shows at The Troubadour. The appearances marked the 50th anniversary of the venue, where Taylor, King and many others, such as Tom Waits, Neil Diamond, and Elton John, began their music careers. Proceeds from the concert went to benefit the Natural Resources Defense Council, MusiCares, Alliance for the Wild Rockies, and the Los Angeles Regional Foodbank, a member of America's Second Harvest — The Nation's Food Bank Network. Parts of the performance shown on CBS Sunday Morning in the December 23, 2007, broadcast showed Taylor alluding to his early drug problems by saying, "I played here a number of times in the 70s, allegedly..." Taylor has used versions of this joke on other occasions, and it appears as part of his One Man Band DVD and tour performances.
]] In December 2007 James Taylor at Christmas was nominated for a Grammy Award. In January 2008 Taylor recorded approximately 20 songs by others for a new album with a band including Luis Conte, Michael Landau, Lou Marini, Arnold McCuller, Jimmy Johnson, David Lasley, Walt Fowler, Andrea Zonn, Kate Markowitz, Steve Gadd and Larry Goldings. The resulting live-in-studio album, named Covers, was released in September 2008. This album forays into country and soul while being the latest proof that Taylor is a more versatile singer than his best known hits might suggest. The Covers sessions stretched to include "Oh What a Beautiful Morning," from the musical Oklahoma - a song that his grandmother had caught him singing over and over at the top of his lungs when he was seven years old. Meanwhile, in summer 2008, Taylor and this band toured 34 North American cities with a tour entitled James Taylor and His Band of Legends. A additional album, called Other Covers, came out in April 2009, containing songs that were recorded during the same sessions as the original Covers but had not been put out to the full public yet.
During October 19–21, 2008, Taylor performed a series of free concerts in five North Carolina cities in support of Barack Obama's presidential bid. On Sunday, January 18, 2009, he performed at the , singing "Shower the People" with John Legend and Jennifer Nettles of Sugarland.
Taylor performed on the final The Tonight Show with Jay Leno on May 29, 2009, distinguishing himself further as the final musician to appear in Leno's original 17-year run.
On September 8, 2009 Taylor made an appearance at the twenty-fourth season premiere block party of The Oprah Winfrey Show on Chicago's Michigan Avenue.
performing "You've Got a Friend" together during their Troubadour Reunion Tour in 2010.]] On January 1, 2010, Taylor sang the American national anthem at the NHL Winter Classic at Fenway Park, while Daniel Powter sang the Canadian national anthem.
On March 7, 2010, Taylor sang The Beatles' "In My Life" in tribute to deceased artists at the 82nd Academy Awards.
In March 2010 he commenced the Troubadour Reunion Tour with Carole King and members of his original band, including Russ Kunkel, Leland Sklar, and Danny Kortchmar. They played shows in Australia, New Zealand, Japan and North America, with the final night being at the Honda Center, in Anaheim, CA. The tour was a major commercial success, and in some locations found Taylor playing arenas instead of his usual theaters or amphitheaters. Ticket sales amounted to over 700,000 and the tour grossed over 59 million dollars. It was one of the most successful tours of the year.
;U.S. Billboard Top 10 Albums
;U.S. Billboard Top 10 'Pop' Singles
Category:1970s_singers Category:1948 births Category:Living people Category:American acoustic guitarists Category:American folk guitarists Category:American folk singers Category:American male singers Category:American pop guitarists Category:American rock guitarists Category:American rock singers Category:American singer-songwriters Category:Apple Records artists Category:American people of English descent Category:Grammy Award winners Category:Musicians from Massachusetts Category:Musicians from North Carolina Category:People from Belmont, Massachusetts Category:Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inductees Category:People from Martha's Vineyard, Massachusetts Category:American people of Scottish descent Category:Songwriters Hall of Fame inductees Category:1960s singers Category:1970s singers Category:1980s singers Category:1990s singers Category:2000s singers Category:2010s singers
This text is licensed under the Creative Commons CC-BY-SA License. This text was originally published on Wikipedia and was developed by the Wikipedia community.
| Name | Brian Johnson |
|---|---|
| Background | solo_singer |
| Born | October 05, 1947Dunston, Gateshead, England |
| Instrument | Vocals |
| Occupation | Singer-songwriter |
| Genre | Hard rock, rock and roll, blues-rock, heavy metal, glam rock |
| Years active | 1972–present |
| Label | EMI, Epic, Atlantic |
| Associated acts | AC/DC, Geordie |
| Website | [www.acdcrocks.com] |
In 1972, Brian Johnson became one of the founding members of the glam rock band Geordie. After a few hit singles, including UK Top 10 "All Because Of You" (1973), the band split up in 1978 then to be reformed by Johnson in 1980. But after signing a new record deal, Johnson was asked to audition for AC/DC, whose charismatic frontman, Bon Scott, had died on February 19, 1980. A fan in Chicago sent a tape of Johnson performing with Geordie to the band's manager Peter Mensch. Mensch recommended him to the band. AC/DC lead guitarist and co-founder Angus Young later recalled, "I remember Bon playing me Little Richard, and then telling me the story of when he saw Brian singing." He says about that night, "There's this guy up there screaming at the top of his lungs and then the next thing you know he hits the deck. He's on the floor, rolling around and screaming. I thought it was great, and then to top it off—you couldn't get a better encore—they came in and wheeled the guy off!'" Later that night, Johnson would be diagnosed with appendicitis, which was the cause of his writhing around on stage. The band agreed immediately that Johnson's performing style fitted AC/DC music. Johnson's first album with AC/DC, Back in Black, became the second best selling album of all time, and the best selling album by any band.
His first and only solo single, "I Can't Forget You Now", he released also as a member of Geordie in January 1976 on the Red Bus label. In 1982, a compilation including only Geordie's 1973-1976 ten songs was issued as Brian Johnson's solo album Strange Man on the MCA label. The US 1989 CD Keep On Rocking, with re-recorded versions of the band's twelve known songs was released under the name of Brian Johnson and Geordie as well as the Australian 1991 compilation CD Rockin' With The Boys 1972-1976.
AC/DC guitarist and co-founder Angus Young later recalled, "I remember the first time I had ever heard Brian's (Johnson) name was from Bon. Bon had mentioned that he had been in England once touring with a band and he had mentioned that Brian had been in a band called Geordie and Bon had said 'Brian Johnson, he was a great rock and roll singer in the style of Little Richard.' And that was Bon's big idol, Little Richard. I think when he saw Brian at that time, to Bon it was 'Well he's a guy that knows what rock and roll is all about.' He mentioned that to us in Australia. I suppose when we decided to continue, Brian was the first name that Malcolm and myself came up with, so we said we should see if we can find him."
In March 1980 Johnson received a phone call inviting him to London to audition as the new vocalist for AC/DC. At the audition, Johnson sang the AC/DC song "Whole Lotta Rosie" and Ike & Tina Turner's "Nutbush City Limits". In early April, Johnson was announced as the new vocalist of AC/DC.
Johnson and company finished the work they had begun under the late Bon Scott, and the result was the album Back in Black, the first AC/DC album to feature Johnson, which was released in July that year. It was a worldwide success and went on to become the second best selling album of all time. Their next album, 1981's For Those About to Rock We Salute You also sold well. The raw, self-produced albums Flick of the Switch and Fly on the Wall were not as commercially successful as the previous two albums with Johnson. Who Made Who, released in 1986, was the soundtrack for the horror film Maximum Overdrive and brought back AC/DC's mainstream popularity.
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The 1988 album Blow Up Your Video was the last AC/DC album to feature lyrics from Johnson. Starting with 1990's The Razors Edge, guitarists Angus and Malcolm Young have written all of AC/DC's material. When asked by a fan during a radio interview why he stopped contributing lyrics, he laughed, "I ran out of words", and went on to explain that during recording, he didn't always enjoy the pressure of having to come up with an album's worth of lyrics and was relieved when the Young brothers filled in during The Razors Edge. The band has since continued in that tradition for every album since. In 2008, they released their tenth album with Johnson, Black Ice.
On studio albums, Johnson performs all lead vocals and some background along with Malcolm Young and Cliff Williams. The same applies live on stage, but on some songs, such as Dirty Deeds done Dirt Cheap, lead guitarist Angus Young also sings backing vocals
Brian Johnson customarily wears a cap on stage and frequently off. Originally, he wore a flat cap, once regarded as a symbol of his native Tyneside, but has occasionally worn baseball caps as well. His brother suggested that the singer wear the cap onstage to prevent sweat rolling off his thick, curly hair into his eyes while singing. "He said, 'Put it on, at least you'll be able to see what the bloody freak you're doing!' So I put it on and after three songs in the second set, I looked at him, put my thumbs up — 'This is brilliant!' He never did get that hat back."
In February 2010 during the Black Ice World Tour Johnson lashed out at a group of AC/DC fans who had written an open letter to the band asking for a change in the setlist, saying "Fuck them! What about the fans who haven't heard them? There are a few cocky fans. A lot of people now with the computers, they sit on their fat ass in their house somewhere going 'Oh they played that song last night, they should change it'. Well, bollocks to you. I don't think they realise changing a song in a set now is not the same as it used to be."
In some live performances of "Hells Bells", Johnson rings a giant bell at the beginning of the song.
Malcolm McDowell, who made his recording debut singing one of the songs for the soundtrack in Brian's studio, has agreed to play Zeus. The Cranberries singer Dolores O'Riordan and Bruce Vilanch are also set to participate.
In 2004 Johnson travelled to Greece to film an episode of the television series Goddess Odyssey in which he researched the Helen of Troy myth. It was released on DVD in July 2005 and contains music from the theatre production.
A small public performance, that featured songs written for the musical, was given in New York on June 13, 2005.
In 1997, Johnson recorded with the band Jackyl on their song "Locked and Loaded", and in 2002 wrote lyrics on the track "Kill the Sunshine" from their album Relentless.
In the video game , he voices Sergeant Starkey of British forces.
He also made a cameo appearance in the 2005 film Goal! where he appears as a Newcastle United fan in a bar in California watching a Newcastle game.
In 2006 he took part in car racing reality television series The Race, broadcast on Sky One in the UK.
In 2007 Johnson and AC/DC bassist Cliff Williams took part in the Classic Rock Cares tour to raise funds for the John Entwistle Foundation which is run by Entwistle's long time friend and drummer Steve Luongo. They performed AC/DC songs as well as songs written by Johnson for the film . These were "Blood Alley", "Chain Gang on the Road" and "Who Phoned the Law".
On 26 July 2009 Johnson appeared as the Star in a Reasonably Priced Car on the BBC television programme Top Gear. His time of 1:45.9 ties him with Simon Cowell and Kevin McCloud for the second fastest time in the Chevrolet Lacetti, just 0.1 seconds behind Jay Kay. He was introduced by Jeremy Clarkson as "a man who has sold more albums than The Beatles, and I bet almost none of [the audience] have ever heard of him".
His autobiography Rockers and Rollers was published in October 2009, and was released in the United States on 29 July.
In November he clarified his comments, saying he did not wish to retire but would if he could not perform an entire concert.
He currently resides at his home in Sarasota, Florida. He is also an avid supporter of English football team Newcastle United, and once attempted to buy the club.
Brian states in his autobiography that he has "never believed in God as such, but if there has to be one, then let it be the one who looked after me."
In September 2009, Johnson was diagnosed with Barrett's Syndrome. This caused AC/DC to cancel a few shows in their 2009 tour of Black Ice. |6,200,000 |- |}
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Category:1947 births Category:Living people Category:AC/DC members Category:English expatriates in the United States Category:English-language singers Category:English male singers Category:English heavy metal singers Category:English people of Italian descent Category:English rock singers Category:Italian British musicians Category:Music from Newcastle upon Tyne Category:People from Gateshead Category:People from Sarasota, Florida Category:Car collectors Category:Participants in British reality television series Category:1970s singers Category:1980s singers Category:1990s singers Category:2000s singers Category:2010s singers
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