John Richards

Kate Bush was not Peter Gabriel's first choice as duet partner. Peter originally approached Dolly Parton to contribute vocals for the track, but she turned his offer down. "There's an interesting story about this song," he said. "Because there was a reference of America roots music in it when I first wrote it, it was suggested that Dolly Parton sing on it."

Crowded House lead singer Neil Finn explained in an interview with Goldmine:

"I wrote that on my brother's piano. I'm not sure if I remember what the context was, exactly, but it was just about on the one hand feeling kind of lost, and on the other hand sort of urging myself on: Don't dream it's over. That one actually fell out literally, without me thinking about it too much."

On October 21, 2017, Bob Dylan played "Learning to Fly" at First Bank Center in tribute to the recently deceased Tom Petty. Speaking to Rolling Stone in response to Petty's death, Dylan was uncharacteristically forthcoming, saying, "It's shocking, crushing news. I thought the world of Tom. He was a great performer, full of the light, a friend, and I ll never forget him."

Read up on the internet's fight with Prince and why Thom Yorke called him a loser HERE.

Then forget all about it when you watch the video.

Thom Yorke got the lyric, "True love lives on lollipops and crisps" from a newspaper article he was reading. The story was about a 10 year old boy who was left home alone for 2 days, and the boy lived on lollipops and crisps (potato chips). True love can be anything.

When doctors said Luciano Pavarotti could not sing because of a sore throat, the Queen of Soul performed "Nessun Dorma." Watch this performance HERE.

Watch James Brown performing That's Life live at Boston Gardens April 5th, 1968 HERE.

Famed folklorist and musicologist, the late Alan Lomax, attributes "Black is the Color of My True Love's Hair" to Scottish origin, sometime during the 19th century. There's a line in the original version of the song: "I go to the Clyde to mourn and weep / But satisfied I could never sleep," referring to the River Clyde in Scotland. The folk tune made its way across the Atlantic, probably in the company of Scottish immigrants, many of whom settled in North Carolina and Appalachian America. The song was first collected by English folk music archivist, Cecil Sharp, who notated and recorded it during a 1916 trip to North Carolina, which he then published in his English Folk Songs of the Southern Appalachians (1917).

Read more about the origins of this song.

Of course you can see this online. Everything is online. This performance of Dirty Blvd from Bowie's 50th birthday is HERE.

Commenting on working with the Choir! Choir! Choir!, David Byrne said in a press release,

“There is a transcendent feeling in being subsumed and surrendering to a group. This applies to sports, military drills, dancing… and group singing. One becomes a part of something larger than oneself, and something in our makeup rewards us when that happens. We cling to our individuality, but we experience true ecstasy when we give it up. So, the reward experience is part of the show.”

Watch them performing Heroes HERE.

David Byrne shed some light on his lyrical inspiration when he told Time Out: "Most of the words in 'Once in a Lifetime' come from evangelists I recorded off the radio while taking notes and picking up phrases I thought were interesting directions. Maybe I'm fascinated with the middle class because it seems so different from my life, so distant from what I do. I can't imagine living like that."

Legendary ‘80’s Icons A Flock of Seagulls announced on May 3rd that they will reunite to record a new album titled Ascension. The project will be the first time the four original members -- Mike Score, his brother Ali, Frank Maudsley and Paul Reynolds -- have recorded together since 1984’s The Story of a Young Heart. The 12-track album is comprised of unique renditions of some of their greatest hits, all featuring the Prague Philharmonic Orchestra. While no release date has been announced, the teaser trailer says Summer 2018, so hopefully Seagulls fans won’t have much longer to wait.

Audio tracks from Queen‘s performance at Live Aid will be released for the first time ever as part of the soundtrack for the upcoming film Bohemian Rhapsody. The Bohemian Rhapsody soundtrack will be released on October 19 as a CD, cassette, double-LP, and digital album. Read more at NME.

He said it was the most difficult song he had ever sung in his life, but boy did George Michael do it justice. Watch George Michael crush Queen's ‘Somebody to Love’ as a smiling David Bowie looks on HERE.

This song was recorded for their 1977 self-titled debut album, but it didn't make the cut. It was included on their second album In Color, which was released later in 1977. This version had a medium tempo with a country feel and a honky tonk piano throughout the song. By 1978, the band had dropped it from their setlist, but restored it when they toured Japan that year, since Japanese audiences loved the song. They played it on April 28 and 30 at their famous concerts that took place at the Budokan temple in Tokyo. The concerts were released as the Live At Budokan album, which captured Cheap Trick's live energy and turned their fortunes around in America, where the album was released in February 1979 and sold over 3 million copies. The extracted "I Want You To Want Me" became their first hit, charting at #7.

"We used to play the Equals' version on the tour bus, Mick was the first one to play it to me" said bassist Paul Simonon. "We recorded it at the Power Station, just the three of us, me, Mick (Jones, guitarist) and Topper (Headon, drummer). Paul put his bit on later in Wessex," noted singer Joe Strummer. There was a slight problem with recording in New York as no record store in NYC had a copy of the album, so Clash aide Kosmo Vinyl had to bring a copy of the LP over from London to help the band remember the lyrics.

The lyrics feature numerous figures such as Bobby (who is a natural born poet who is just outta sight), Golden Nose Slim (who knows where you been), Jungle Faced Jake (make no mistake) and Purple Pie Pete (whose lips are like lightning and girls melt in the heat).

This song would quickly catch on as a fan favorite and was used as the opening song for the Construction Time Again tour. The first live version of the song to appear on a commercial release came from the Some Great Reward tour in 1984 when a recording from a show in Liverpool appeared on the double A-sided "Blasphemous Rumours/Somebody" single. During the Music for the Masses Tour, the band used "Everything Counts" as the final encore and in 1989, the song would be re-released as a single in live form, to promote the live album 101. All live tracks from the release were recorded on 18 June 1988 at the Pasadena Rose Bowl during the final performance of the aforementioned Music for the Masses Tour. This version of the song is famous for the recording of the crowd continuing to sing the chorus long after the music had stopped.

Fortunately for all of us we can watch Dead Can Dance performing American Dreaming live on the interwebs! Find it HERE.

Real life Three's Company? Farrell (Blender magazine, December 2006): "Around 1984, I rented a big house on Wilton, near Hancock Park, right in the heart of everything good in Hollywood, but the whole neighborhood seemed deteriorated. I deceived the landlord into thinking I was a gay interior decorator rather than a Punk rocker, and one of my housemates was Jane, this strangely beautiful, well-to-do girl who got caught up in the drug scene and fell in love with a dealer named Sergio. Jane was an intellectual and knew how to act aristocratic, even with a needle and a spoon on the table. I'm not sure if the song mythologized the neighborhood - St. Andrew's Place is nothing special to look at - but I do think it glamorized her life in a way. That was a great time, though. When the landlord found out I wasn't a gay interior decorator, he came after me with a gun."

Built To Spill performing The Plan live at Metro Theatre in Sydney on January 3rd 2008 HERE.

The evening kicked off properly with the Seattle Symphony Orchestra performing a trio of classical compositions. The last of these was actually written by McCready, who strapped on his 1959 Gibson Les Paul to play along. After a short intermission, he and Martin strode onto the stage alongside the departed members’ all-star replacements: Guns N’ Roses bassist Duff McKagan and Soundgarden singer Chris Cornell. After taking a moment to steady themselves, McCready nodded back to symphony conductor Ludovic Morlot and launched into a 20-minute set comprising all three of Above‘s singles: “Long Gone Day” came first, then radio hit “River of Deceit” and finally “I Don’t Know Anything.” It would have been special to hear these songs performed again even without accompaniment, but the force of the orchestra drove each one to new places, adding dimension and revealing depth. This rendition of “I Don’t Know Anything,” a song that already contains a massive, pile-driver riff, especially overwhelmed the 2,500-seat Benaroya Hall. Read more and see the video at Rolling Stone.

Phosphorescent performed "Wolves" live on the Morning Show on KEXP. It was recorded at the Cutting Room Studios in NYC. See it HERE.

This fades into "You'll Never Walk Alone," which is a song from Carousel, a musical by Rodgers and Hammerstein. However, the version was recorded at a soccer match, hence the cheers and chanting at the end. Liverpool fans use this as their anthem and at the end, the multitude is chanting "Liverpool."

This Rogers & Hammerstein song was also originally written for the 1945 musical Carousel. It was sung in the original show by Christine Johnson. Frank Sinatra was the first artist to take this song into the charts (#9 on the Billboard charts in 1945). It soon became popular as many who had lost loved ones during the war took solace in the lyrics. Judy Garland recorded a well known version, and in the 1950s several American artists sang it including Conway Twitty, Gene Vincent and Johnny Preston.