Alice Cooper celebrates his 72nd birthday today (February 4th). Once Alice Cooper got the idea to write a song about the end of the school year, he had a dilemma. How do you capture the exhilaration of that moment? He obviously did it School's Out peaked at number-seven on the Billboard Hot 100. Here he explains his dilemma:
“I said, ‘How do you capture that on a record? And how do you get that ‘School’s Out’ and the nah-nah-nah nah-nah thing in there — you know, no more pencils, no more books?’ And then school’s out for summer! I mean, just the release of it is ‘the school’s out.’ That was the idea. Get the release of the school and the release of the chorus at the same time.”
A year ago today (Friday), January 31st, KISS began their End of the Road tour in Vancouver, Canada.
Tomorrow (Saturday) they start the third U.S. leg, this time in Manchester, New Hampshire at the SNHU Arena. With David Lee Roth opening, this leg runs through March 15th in Biloxi, Mississippi.
Promising to change the set list, Paul Stanley says the show features their biggest production ever.
"We really started from the ground up. The last 10 years the stages have all basically been elaborations of a certain structure. This time we threw everything away and came up with something that is really top cutting edge technology, but very much with the heart and soul -- and balls shall I say -- of what we've done before, but magnified so greatly. Again, it's ultimate KISS like you've never seen."
Following this U.S. leg, the tour heads to Central and South America, Europe and South Africa before coming back to the U.S. on August 28th in Burgettstown, Pennsylvania, just outside Pittsburgh. The tour stops in Hartford at Xfinity Theater Saturday night Sept. 5
Phil Collins celebrates his 69th birthday today (January 30th). he was asked about his song "Take Me Home" from No Jacket Required in 1985 It peaked at number-seven on the Billboard Hot 100 . he went right to the video:
“The video was good fun to make. It’s the most expensive video ever made in theory and, in fact, didn’t cost us anything, because we had a film crew along for the whole tour. And every time we’d get to a city, they’d set up and they’d play a couple of the lines into the tape and I’d just go out there in the freezing cold, or whatever, and just sing a couple of lines and then they put it together at the end of the tour and it looked like we spent millions of dollars on it. Doesn’t say much about the song, does it? But it’s one of my favorite songs that I’ve written.”
Ten years ago today (January 29th), Neil Young was honored as MusiCares Person of the Year during Grammy Week. The Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young song "Helpless" on Deja Vu was written by Neil Young and begins with the line "There is a town in North Ontario." Neil was asked if he'd written it in Canada or was just thinking about Canada when he wrote it, and whether there was anything in particular that had inspired him to write it. Here's what he had to say.
“A lot of it is about Canada. I think there was a girl named Jean Monterey. I think I was with her when I wrote it, but I’m not sure. I can’t remember. It was a long time ago. She had something to do with it -- in my own hometown, y’know. It’s pretty straightforward in the song what it is.”
It was a busy weekend for Aerosmith, who were honored as MusiCares Person of the Year on Saturday and performed to close the show, before reuniting with Run DMC to redo their joint '80s hit "Walk This Way" at the Grammy Awards ceremony.
Cheap Trick played at the event. While fans hope Aerosmith patch up their differences with drummer Joey Kramer as soon as possible, Robin Zander, Tom Petersson and Rick Nielsen of Cheap Trick go way back with the Aersomith and they couldn't help talk a little bit about the current situation, too. (That band split with their original drummer, Bun E. Carlos, back in 2013, in a situation that seems similar to the Aerosmith-Kramer spat).
Zander: “I love those guys, they’re my favorite rock band. Their producer became our producer – Jack Douglas, of course. They really were instrumental in bringing us about and we became friends. And wish they’d stop fighting.”
Petersson: “We don’t know what to say about them, so. They’re out of control.”
Nielson: “It’s like saying something nice about your older brother – ah, I’d rather not.”
Pink Floyd drummer Nick Mason celebrates his 76th birthday today (January 27th). He says "Time" has gotten more relevant with time. Released in 1974 as a double A-side single with "Us and Them" to follow up the number-13 single "Money," it fell short of making the Hot 100, peaking at number-101. It was on the album The Dark Side of the Moon in 1973 written by David Gilmour, Nick Mason, Roger Waters and Richard Wright.Nick says as he's gotten older, he's developed a deeper appreciation for the lyrics of The Dark Side of the Moon album, and that the song "Time" is an example of why.
"Relistening to it, I'm really struck by the relevance of the lyrics. What I find is that a lot of the content of the lyrics is probably almost more relevant to a 50-year-old than a 20-year-old. It's sort of curious, but you take a piece like "Time," it's about life running away from you, which is perhaps even more relevant as you get older than when you're a kid."
Aerosmith will be honored as MusiCares Person of the Year tonight in Los Angeles. Steven Tyler plays many instruments but this would be the strangest (or the best, depending) On "Rag Doll" from their 1987 album Permanent Vacation. Singer Steven Tyler tells what they called it and what it actually was.
“Flesh bongos. Flesh bongos are the buttocks of young female strippers in Vancouver. I was watching them and these girls were so sexy, I mean, they were serious. I thought to myself, ‘We need something else on this album that’ll be like a clincher, something I can carry on and tell my kids that I once did.’ So what the hell, right? I asked the two, ‘You want to be on the album? We’ll give you credit.’ I don’t know if they thought they were going to sing or whatever, but they came in and they were buns up and kneelin’ and I was wheelin’ and dealin’. [Pounds out rhythm] If you listen real hard to ‘Rag Doll’ you’ll hear the flesh bongos.”
Cheap Trick singer Robin Zander celebrates his 67th birthday today (January 23rd). They wanted to hear their songs on the radio. Specifically the song "Surrender" The band knew it belonged on an album and had to get tough with their label to make it happen. The record company said NO but they won that fight and it became the first Cheap Trick song to chart on Billboard's Hot 100 singles chart, it only reached number-62, but received lots of airplay for two consecutive summers, and has been a staple ever since Robin Zander explains that the band had to fight to get it on that album.
“We thought that after two albums radio should be playing more of our music. We were really kind of pissed off about it. And ‘Surrender’ was one of our favorite songs that we had had around since our first album that nobody at the record company thought was deserving to be on either one of our first two records. It was a joke, and finally we just kind of put our foot down and said, ‘This song is going to be on the record.’ And it was. And it was a radio hit for two summers. And it still is played to this day. It holds up after all this time.”
Steve Perry celebrates his 71st birthday today (January 22nd). The Journey song: "Lovin', Touchin', Squeezin'" was Journey's first Top 20 hit, it peaked at number-16 on the Billboard Hot 100 . It was one of the few Journey songs that singer Steve Perry wrote totally on his own. But that still isn't going to make him come clean about what inspired it.
"'Lovin', Touchin', Squeezin’ is a true story. That's the only thing I can tell ya. That is a true story and the people shall remain nameless to protect the innocent here.”
The Byrds "Eight Miles High" was actually a protest song about an ill-fated tour of England. Written by Gene Clark, Jim (Roger) McGuinn and David Crosby, It peaked at number-14 on the Billboard Hot 100. It became one of The Byrds' signature songs. Frontman Roger McGuinn explains what inspired it.
“’Eight Miles High’ was a song we wrote after coming back from an ill-fated tour to England. It was out first trip to England and we were real excited about going over there and we met The Beatles and everything, but I got the flu and we weren’t performing very well and the press was very caustic and tore us to ribbons. And we were young kids and we didn’t know how to take it and roll with it. So we got upset and we came back and wrote ‘Eight Miles High’ as kind of a protest of that tour to England. That’s what it was all about.”
