Rick Derringer turns 73 today. His big hit: "Rock 'n Roll Hoochie Koo" was written for somebody else. Written with the idea of giving a blues rocker Johnny Winter a shot at a pop hit, it didn't become a hit until its writer recorded it on his own. (Hit version on Derringer's All American Boy, original Johnny Winter recording on Johnny Winter And.) Peaked at number-23 on the Billboard Hot 100, Derringer's biggest hit as a songwriter and as a solo artist.
In 1970, he and his band The McCoys combined forces with blues rocker Johnny Winter. It was going to be Johnny Winter and The McCoys, but that band had a bubblegum reputation they wanted to shake and felt it better to leave The McCoys' name out of it entirely. Derringer explains the idea behind writing "Rock 'n Roll Hoochie Koo."
“The first thing I wanted to do was bring more of a rock ‘n roll way of thinking to Johnny, but Johnny didn’t want to change and become in any way bubblegum. So I wanted to write a song specifically for Johnny that he would be able to speak the lyrics in his vernacular and feel comfortable about saying the words he was saying, but I also wanted to bring a little more of a pop kind of sensibility to the whole thing. So I wrote ‘Rock ‘n Roll Hoochie Koo’ trying to follow those guidelines and it came out like it is.”
50 years ago today Phil Collins joined Genesis replacing John Mayhew on drums. It took him 10 years to contribute any songs. "Misunderstanding" was the first they recorded. Marriage woes motivated Phil Collins to write it. It was on the album "Duke" and made it to number-14 on the Billboard Hot 100. Here is Genesis keyboardist Tony Banks on how the song “Misunderstanding” marked the emergence of Phil Collins as a songwriter:
“’Misunderstanding’ was the first song we recorded that Phil wrote. Phil didn’t used to write all that much of Genesis’ material in the early days, up to and including Duke, really. He just didn’t rate himself as a writer that much, I don’t think, and he’d never really tried it before. But after his problems with his marriage in that year, he started to write songs. And he played us a load of the songs he’d written and we picked out of them two songs. One of them was ‘Misunderstanding.’”
James Hetfield turns 57 today. When Metallica first came out they could do no wrong with their fans but then came "Fade to Black"on 1984's "Ride the Lightening". It was a ballad and even though it had one of the best guitar solos ever fans were mad. They even accused the band of selling out. James Hetfield says that was a first for the band:
“‘Fade to Black’ was the first time we got some guff from fans. ‘Ooh, you sold out. You did a ballad.’ Wow. Okay. ‘What’s sell out mean to you, my friend?’ You know. And you have to sit and explain to everyone that ‘sell out’ means you’ve done something you don’t want to do, or you’ve compromised for someone else. And everything we write is for us.”
Courtney Love took to Twitter to deny that she knew the late Jeffrey Epstein, despite her name coming up on a list of contacts in his address book.
The news that Love's name was found in Epstein's book initially came out in 2012, but the story was rekindled with the recent airing of the docu-series Jeffrey Epstein: Filthy Rich on Netflix. Love tweeted,
"Hey. About my name in Epstein’s address book, it’s creepy as [eff] that I’m in that thing I agree. I didn’t know him, never met him, didn’t know who he was. Apparently he collected celebrity phone numbers. The end. Hope he burns in Avīci hell."
Avici hell is a Buddhist term for "the lowest level of the 'hell' realm, with the most suffering, into which the dead who have committed grave misdeeds may be reborn," according to Wikipedia.
In a 2006 TV interview, Love told about a "surreal" visit she received from Britain's Prince Andrew, who has since been accused of being an Epstein client. She claimed he had come to a home she was staying at in Wales "looking for chicks." A photo of the two also appears in her 2006 memoir, Dirty Blonde: The Diaries of Courtney Love
Carl Palmer has once again proved why he was the drummer in Emerson, Lake & Palmer and not the singer and guitarist.
As a tribute to the late Keith Emerson and Greg Lake, he posted a video of him playing acoustic guitar while singing their first single, "Lucky Man," off their 1970 self-titled debut album.
While some of his fans were complimentary of the performance, others weren't so enthusiastic.
In May, Palmer posted a video of himself attempting to play the guitar and sing Bob Dylan’s “Blowin’ in the Wind” as a birthday present to his better half, Katie. He says she is a Dylan fan and “likes this song in particular.”
One could only hope she did.
Palmer will honor the 50th anniversary of ELP next year on a tour that will have him and his band, Carl Palmer's ELP Legacy, performing with Emerson and Lake on film
Paul McCartney's expanded reissue of his 1997 album, Flaming Pie -- set for release this coming Friday -- contains previously unreleased demos, outtakes, and rehearsal tapes. But Rolling Stone got hold of a version of one rarity that will not be included.
The sessions for Flaming Pie were not the first time that McCartney and Miller worked together. That came in 1969 when Miller, working in Olympic Studios at the same time as The Beatles, had Paul play drums, guitar and bass on his song, "My Dark Hour." Paul was credited as Paul Ramon.
Talking exclusively to us in 1997 at the time of Flaming Pie's release, Miller told us working with Paul is like "being around Mozart."
Steve Miller on Paul McCartney.
"Paul is so talented. He plays drums, he plays bass, he plays guitar and he was in The Beatles, a great band. And, he writes classical music and he's just an amazingly creative person to be around. Absolutely pleasant, very polite, really fun to work with and we have nothing but a good time every time we get together."
If you're thinking that the debut album from Wolfgang Van Halen, the son of Eddie Van Halen, is going to be the second coming of Van Halen, think again.
Wolfie says, "I'm not trying to be my father, I'm trying to be me."
Playing all the instruments on the album, he also goes onto say, "I cannot stress this enough. It’s just me. This isn’t me baiting you, and then all of the sudden Dave [Lee Roth] is singing a song, or Al [Van Halen] is drumming on one song, or Pop is doing a solo. It wouldn’t be a solo album then. It’s not a Van Halen album. It’s a Wolfgang Van Halen album."
As for what we can expect, he says, "Rock. It may venture into some Pop-y places, and may venture into some Metal-y places, but it’s centered in Rock. I view it as a Rock record."
While the album is not done yet, nor has a release date, it's already been endorsed by Sammy Hagar, who posted a note to Wolfgang. He writes, "The only way you will ever be happy and satisfied is doing your own thing the way you hear it in your head and feel it in your heart! You inherited genetically enough talent for 10 lifetimes. Use it the way you want. P.S. I've heard a couple snippets and they are bad ass!!! Hope I run into you someplace once we all get out of prison ha ha. Stay safe. Love to your mom & dad."
And Wolfgang responded with, "Thanks so much for the kind words, Sam! Can't wait for you to hear it. Much love to you and yours."
And, in Van Hagar-era news, Scandal singer Patty Smyth, who Eddie Van Halen had interest in replacing David Lee Roth before going with Sammy Hagar, says she declined the offer because, "They were heavy drinkers. I don't drink. I never saw myself living in L.A. I was, like, 'I'm from New York. We don't move to L.A.'
"It's all semantics because if [Eddie] had said to me, 'Let's make a record,' then I would have said yes to that. But joining the band — to me then, 'Oh god, they fight all the time, him and his brother, and I don't want to get into a volatile situation.' And I was probably heavily hormoned out because I was eight months pregnant, so there was a state of mind that I was in of how I need to take care of myself. But I regretted turning him down. For a long time, I regretted it. When you start to have regrets, I was, like, 'Oh, man. I would've made so much money.'"
While we wait to see if Van Halen will ever work again, it's never too late as Patty will release her first album in 28 years, It's About Time, on October 9th.
Mick Jagger on the status of The Rolling Stones new studio album.
"We recorded some at the same time we recorded 'Living in a Ghost Town' -- recorded a bunch of tracks. So actually I've been finishing off the vocals and some other instruments on them and do some mixes on them. So, I'm working on it. And we've got together and do a couple more sessions I think. We're not really gonna get together right now, you know. But, what we've already done sounds pretty good to me, you know."
The Rolling Stones have provided a preview of "Scarlet," the unreleased song that's part of the September 4th deluxe reissue of their 13th studio album in America, Goats Head Soup.
Keith Richards cut the song with Jimmy Page, Stones piano player Ian Stewart, Blind Faith bassist Ric Grech, and Joe Cocker and Fairport Convention drummer Bruce Rowland in October 1974 at Island Studios in London.
In 1975, Page told Rolling Stone magazine, "It was great, really good. We stayed up all night and went down to Island Studios where Keith put some reggae guitars over one section. I just put some solos on it, but it was eight in the morning of the next day before I did that. He took the tapes to Switzerland and someone found out about them. Keith told people that it was a track from my album."
While Keith was joking about a Page solo album, it was named after Page's daughter, Scarlet, who was born in 1971.
In addition to "Scarlet," the multi-format deluxe reissue of Goats Head Soup also includes two other previously unreleased tracks -- "Criss Cross" and "All the Rage."
Page is no stranger to working with the Stones, having laid down guitar on their demo of "Heart of Stone," as well as the solo on "One Hit (To the Body)."
And, the aforementioned Ian Stewart played piano on Led Zeppelin's "Rock and Roll" "Boogie With Stu," a tribute of sorts to the keyboardist.
Former Skid Row singer Sebastian Bach definitely has too much time on his hands as he continues to go after Fozzy frontman Chris Jericho.
It all started when Bach said Jericho lip syncs in concert.
Jericho naturally disputed that claim saying, "I've never mimed anything ever! I will sing in your face anytime, anyplace dude. I've been a fan & a defender of u since day one... But don't u ever question my rock abilities!"
Bach couldn't keep his mouth shut and told the wrestler that, "Wrestling is not rock and roll. I will show you rock and roll."
Then, on Saturday during his Saturday Night Special YouTube show, Jericho sang the chorus to Skid Row's "Youth Gone Wild."
Bach followed up by badgering Jericho with nasty text messages, but Jericho didn't respond. Bach then posted a photo of his text messages, but has since taken it down.
