Free Republic

For about eight months in 1979, the Knack was a pop sensation. Its debut album, Get the Knack, sold 5 million copies, while “My Sharona” blared on car radios throughout the summer. The band’s brash sound and Fab Four affectations seemed to incite Knackmania overnight. Then, suddenly, it was all over. The records stopped selling, and the girls stopped screaming. The Knack’s strict no-interview and no-TV policy backfired; critics dismissed the band’s Beatlesque packaging as shallow hype and attacked singer-guitarist Doug Fieger for the sexist arrogance of his lyrics. By November 1980 the Knack had fallen apart. Although the...

Klaus Schwabs newest albumGreatest Schwabs Vol.15. https://twitter.com/AreOhEssEyeEe/status/1714050421835067773

Aja by Steely Dan is one of my favourite albums ever. Sure, it might not generally be considered the greatest of all time - but it is perfect in a way that no other album is. Steely Dan made records like no other band. Donald Fagen and Walter Becker would write the songs, and then to record them they'd bring in some of the world's greatest session players. Couple this with beautiful arrangements and outstanding recordings and the result is an album that allows us to hear incredible musicianship. The perfection on this album is intentional. It's not a gift...

.

‘Voyage’ could’ve been something more, but then again it could’ve been much worse.Everyone’s favorite Swedish band is back. Forty years after releasing their last album, the legendary group ABBA — named after Agnetha Fältskog, Benny Andersson, Björn Ulvaeus, and Anni-Frid Lyngstad — have reunited to produce their latest album “Voyage.”Why now? Are any of the ABBA members in sudden need of more fame and fortune? Was their legacy in doubt? Were the endless royalties from their hit single “Dancing Queen” and their hit musical “Mamma Mia!” not enough?On the contrary, “Voyage” was the result of Benny and Björn (the band’s...

Surprise! Beyonce and Jay Z have dropped a surprise album and single. It’s available on their Tidal service, but the single and video are here. “Ape-sh*t” is terrific. What a nice summer surprise. But why a Saturday at 6pm? Just to see who’s paying attention? It does like the Louvre Museum in Paris let them shoot the video there. If so, that would be history making. But money talks, and even the Louvre needs surprise cash.

Glen Campbell will unveil his final studio album on June 9, six years after being diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease. Called “Adiós,” the album features 12 classic songs that Campbell loved, but never had the opportunity to record. Among them are “Don’t Think Twice It’s All Right,” “Everybody’s Talkin’” and title track “Adiós,” made famous by Linda Ronstadt. The set, recorded in Nashville shortly after the music legend wrapped his 2011 “Goodbye Tour,” features guest appearances by Willie Nelson, Vince Gill and Campbell’s children, Ashley, Shannon and Cal. “Glen’s abilities to play, sing and remember songs began to rapidly decline after...

Dear God, help us. A whole slew of the doctrine-lite and emotion-overload homilies of Pope Francis have found their way into the Pope's first rock-pop album released in Italy last Friday (November 6, 2015). The ghastly thing is called "Wake Up!", which somehow seems appropriate given that it should serve as a fairly effective wake-up call for Catholics everywhere. That's right, time to wake up to the fact that the Catholic Church has suffered a coup d'etat at the highest levels and that the bride of Christ now finds herself held hostage by a cabal of modernists who intend to...

In 1982, a California band called Bonnie Hayes with the Wild Combo released an album called Good Clean Fun. Despite being a stunningly fantastic album of rock, pop, and new wave, the album was largely ignored in most of the country. It did get exposure on college radio stations, as well as on some local California stations, and two of its songs were used in the 1983 movie Valley Girl (which is, in my opinion, the best and most intelligent of all of the 80s teen movies). But the album, being released on the independent Slash Records label, never got...

Abba has announced plans to release a deluxe edition of its last studio album which will include the first time since 1994 that the Swedish pop music supergroup has released material previously unavailable to the public. Despite turning down numerous lucrative offers to reunite for a reunion tour, Abba has nevertheless decided to re-release an updated version of The Visitors, the group's final studio album originally released in 1981. According to Abba's official website, The Visitors Deluxe Edition will include a DVD of archive material as well as bonus tracks, including the previously unreleased demo medley ‘From A Twinkling Star...

I was messing around ( on someone else's thread ) and suddenly got nostalgic for my influences from the 70's and thought about my absolute favorite cover in the world, a song that I would never tire of.... Here it is... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jLPHz8KT9No

I know when I've exhausted all my efforts in finding out something I can always question fellow Freepers. I'm searching to listen to back to back tracks for Stevie Wonder's Journey Through the Secret Life of Plants for free . Is there anyone here that would know where I could find this? Unfortunately, the LP was lost :(( I 'm getting ready to mix and bake a cake and would like to listen to this as I do....... much appreciated!

SLICKA MAN ALBULM

WASHINGTON – While there may not be a lot of Texas country musicians playing cities like our Nation’s Capital (save for that Pat Green show I covered here in 2008), your roving Red Dirt Reporter happened to be in “the District” this week when he had a chance to talk to popular Maypearl, Texas native and singer-songwriter Bart Crow. Writing for The Norman Transcript, your Red Dirt Reporter wrote a piece titled "Bart Crow Band tunes 'promise of good things to come.'" I've liked this guy's work since "Wear My Ring" was released a few years ago on his debut...

FED up with pop charts full of weedy boy bands? Well, here's a trio of REAL men aiming for No1. All three are serving soldiers who have witnessed the horrors of war first-hand, from Afghanistan to the Gulf. And now Trooper Ryan Idzi, Sergeant Major Gary Chilton and Sergeant Richie Maddocks - who are known simply as The Soldiers - have signed a recording deal with Warner Records. There are high hopes for the threesome's debut album, which is out on October 26. ******* ...it is this sense of how important camaraderie is to our Armed Forces that looms large...

It's been a year and a half since the new-age bluegrass virtuosos from Nickel Creek went their separate ways, and Sara Watkins, former fiddle player and vocalist for the group, is finally releasing her solo debut. Band members Watkins, her brother Sean and Chris Thile split up in 2007 after 18 years of performing together, each going on to explore separate projects. While all three were child prodigies, mandolinist Thile always overshadowed the talented brother-sister duo with his lightning-fast fingers and rock star stage attitude. But now, with a new band, Led Zeppelin's John Paul Jones as producer and her...

Beatles try to block historic bootleg By David Harrison Last Updated: 8:43pm GMT 22/03/2008 The Beatles are trying to block the release of an album of "lost" songs recorded during Ringo Starr's first performances with the group. The Beatles built their reputation at Hamburg's Star Club. A plaque now marks where it once stood The eight unreleased songs date from 1962 when the Fab Four agreed to do a few final gigs at Hamburg's Star Club, where they had performed as a fledgling band. The songs include Paul McCartney and John Lennon singing an early B-side, Ask Me Why, McCartney...

NEW YORK - On Wynton Marsalis' upcoming CD, he criticizes political leadership in America, cultural corruption, and sex and violence in rap — and that's just on one song. "I don't speak from outside, I'm not finger-pointing," the 45-year-old jazz great told The Associated Press in a recent interview. "I'm a part of it, I'm speaking from inside of our culture," Marsalis said. "We're not taking a moralistic view. It's not, `Let me tell y'all how I'm different from you.' It's a comment on our way of life and our culture." "From the Plantation to the Penitentiary" is due out...

What's the best movie music of all time? John Williams and Star Warsor all the hits from Chicagohow about Joplin's rags from The Sting or the opening scene from 2001? I know I like the renditions of the Navy Hymn from The Perfect Storm you have to be hard hearted not to get a lump in your throat during that scene, and the rendition in The Crimson Tide. So Drama, musicals, Comedies, chick flicks, westerns, SciFi, etc. which movie has the best music? What's your vote?

CASH-STRAPPED Zimbabwe might be dogged by chronic food shortages, power blackouts, water cuts and fuel queues, but the government is putting its money where its mouth is - into its latest propaganda album. Back2Black, a CD of pro-land reform songs written by Zimbabwe’s outspoken information minister, Jonathan Moyo, is being launched today amid pomp and fanfare at the country’s once-buzzing Victoria Falls luxury resort. Guests, many of them from president Robert Mugabe’s ruling Zimbabwe African National Union - Patriotic Front (ZANU-PF) party, and approved reporters are said to be booked on flights this morning from Harare to Victoria Falls. Mr...