Tag Archives: rock and roll

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Tom Verlaine, frontman for punk band Television, dead at 73

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Tom Verlaine, the frontman and guitarist for the rock band Television, died Saturday in Manhattan following a “brief illness.” He was 73 years old.

Verlaine’s death was announced by Jesse Paris Smith, the daughter of fellow musician Patti Smith.

“Dearest Tom. The love is immense and forever,” Paris Smith wrote in an Instagram post. “My heart is too intensely full to share everything now, and finding the words is too deep of a struggle.”

Patti Smith and Verlaine had dated when they were “in the emerging New York Punk scene,” according to the Guardian.

The two collaborated many times over the years, including co-authoring a book of poetry called “The Night,” released in 1978.

The punk rocker, born Thomas Miller, adopted his stage name after French symbolist poet Paul Verlaine.

Verlaine performing on stage at Hammersmith Odeon, London, on April 16, 1978.
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Verlaine, a New Jersey native, formed Television in New York City in 1973 with his high school classmate Richard Hell after their original group, The Neon Boys, disbanded that same year.

The band released its debut album Marquee Moon in 1977, where Verlaine also earned producer credit.

Television broke up in 1978 and remained on hiatus until they reunited in 1992. The group has toured on and off since 2001.

The band most recently toured in October of 2022 with 80s rock Icon Billy Idol in the United Kingdom.


Verlaine performing with Television at the Phoenix Concert Theatre during Canadian Music Week on May 6, 2019, in Toronto, Canada.
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Many icons across the music industry have paid their respect to the punk rock legend.

“This is a time when all seemed possible,” Patti Smith posted a poetic message on Instagram with a photo of two from their younger years. “Farewell Tom, aloft the Omega.”

“Tom Verlaine is one of the greatest rock musicians ever. He effected the way John and I play immeasurably. Fly on Tom,” tweeted Red Hot Chili Peppers bassist Flea.

“RIP Tom Verlaine. Along with Patti Smith’s Horses, Marquee Moon ranks as one of if not THE best New Wave album of the 70’s punk era,” the band Simply Red’s official Twitter tweeted.

“‘I’ve lost a hero…. You introduced me to a world that flipped my life upside down. I am forever grateful.’ – Michael Stipe,” the official Twitter of REM, tweeted out a quote from their lead singer in honor of Verlaine.

“He made incredible music that greatly influenced the US & UK punk rock scene in the ‘70’s RIP,” said Billy Idol.



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Feist pulls out of Arcade Fire tour, citing allegations against frontman Win Butler

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Indie rock singer Feist said Thursday she would no longer tour with Arcade Fire after the band’s frontman Win Butler was accused of sexual misconduct.

The artist, whose full name is Leslie Feist, pulled out of the “We” tour two days after it began in Ireland, she explained in a letter to fans.

Butler, 42, has denied a Pitchfork report published last week in which three women accused him of inappropriate sexual interactions and another person accused him of sexual assault.

“I can’t continue,” Feist, 46 wrote of her “incredibly difficult” choice in a lengthy letter posted on Twitter that explained her thought process.

Three women have accused the lead singer of sexual misconduct.
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“To stay on tour would symbolize I was either defending or ignoring the harm caused by Win Butler and to leave would imply I was the judge and jury,” she wrote.

“I was never here to stand for or with Arcade Fire — I was here to stand on my own two feet on a stage.” 

“The Bad In Each Other” artist said her songs ultimately made the decision for her after she played them during the tour’s first two dates.

“Hearing them through this lens was incongruous with what I’ve worked to clarify for myself through my whole career,” she wrote.

Arcade Fire performs in Dublin on Aug. 30, 2022 while frontman Win Butler faces the allegations.
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“I’ve always written songs to name my own subtle difficulties, aspire to my best self and claim responsibility when I need to. And I’m claiming responsibility now and going home.”

Feist was slated to open for her fellow Canadians during the tour’s European leg. No replacement had been named. Beck is set to pick up supporting act duties when the tour reaches the states late next month.

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Rolling Stones retire classic rock song ‘Brown Sugar’

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The Rolling Stones retired one of their most popular rock songs due to lyrics that depict the horrors of slavery.

The Stones have not played the 1971 hit “Brown Sugar” on their current tour and said the blues classic has been removed from their setlist.

“You picked up on that, huh?,” Richards, 77, responded to the LA Times when asked if Stones had cut the second most performed tune in their catalog amid a climate of heightened cultural sensitivity.

“I don’t know. I’m trying to figure out with the sisters quite where the beef is. Didn’t they understand this was a song about the horrors of slavery? But they’re trying to bury it.”

The first verse of the hit song depicts slaves being sold and beaten in Louisiana, with references to a “slaver” that whips “women just around midnight.”

The famous chorus portrays a non-consensual sex encounter between the violent master and a young female slave, while possibly also alluding to heroin use.

In the next verse, the song describes the abuse suffered by slaves on a plantation. Lead singer Mick Jagger ends the tune by singing, “How come you taste so good … just like a black girl should.”

“We’ve played ‘Brown Sugar’ every night since 1970,” Richards told the newspaper.

“So sometimes you think, ‘We’ll take that one out for now and see how it goes.’ We might put it back in.”

Mick Jagger, Ronnie Wood and Keith Richards of The Rolling Stones perform during the 2021 “No Filter” tour opener at The Dome at Americas Center on September 26, 2021 in St Louis, Missouri.
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The Stones have played the song live 1,136 times, second to only “Jumpin’ Jack Flash,” according to setlist.fm.

“At the moment I don’t want to get into conflicts with all of this s–t,” Richard said of criticism of the song. “But I’m hoping that we’ll be able to resurrect the babe in her glory somewhere along the track.”

The Stones were five shows into their “No Filter” tour Wednesday. The concerts marked the septuagenarian’s first gigs since 2019, and the first performances without drummer Charlie Watts, who died in August at the age of 80.

Jagger is clearly not singing the song in the first person, but the danceable tune has been slammed by critics in recent years, with some critics dubbing it “stunningly crude and offensive.”

Other commentators have conceded it is “gross, sexist, and stunningly offensive,” but still rocking.

“I never would write that song now,” Jagger told Rolling Stone in 1995. “I would probably censor myself. I’d think, ‘Oh God, I can’t. I’ve got to stop. I can’t just write raw like that.’

Brown Sugar by Jagger/Richards

Gold coast slave ship bound for cotton fields
Sold in the market down in New Orleans
Scarred old slaver knows he’s doing alright
Hear him whip the women just around midnight

Brown sugar, how come you taste so good? Uh huh
Brown sugar, just like a young girl should, uh huh, oh

Drums beating, cold English blood runs hot
Lady of the house wonderin’ when it’s gonna stop
House boy knows that he’s doing alright
You shoulda heard ’em just around midnight

Brown sugar, how come you taste so good now?
Brown sugar, just like a young girl should now (Yeah)

Ah, get on, brown sugar, how come you taste so good?
Ah, got me craving the, the brown sugar
Just like a black girl should, yeah

Ah, and I bet your mama was a tent show queen
And all her boyfriends were sweet sixteen
I’m no schoolboy, but I know what I like
You shoulda heard me just around midnight

Brown sugar, how come you taste so good, baby?
Ah, come down, brown sugar
Just like a young girl should, yeah
I said, yeah, yeah, yeah, woo
How come you, how come you taste so good?
Yeah, yeah, yeah, woo
Just like a, just like a black girl should
Yeah, yeah, yeah, woo

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Tales from Charlie Watts’ life as Rolling Stones drummer

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Charlie Watts was the rock of the Rolling Stones.

The Stones’ skinsman — who died “peacefully” at 80 in a London hospital Tuesday — was the foundation of the British band that was the foundation of rock and roll as we know it today.

“The heartbeat — both literally and figuratively — of that band came outward from Charlie Watts,” Alan Light, co-host of SiriusXM Volume’s “Debatable” show, told The Post.

“And I think you could see it when you would see them play live. It was when Keith [Richards, the Stones’ guitarist] would turn around, sometimes put his foot up on the drum riser, and he and Charlie would lock in. That was where the groove of that band could be found.”

That groove was the very heart of the Stones from 1963 until Watts’ death. “That’s what allowed Mick to go and do whatever he was gonna do, to become the frontman that he became,” said Light. 

Watts once joked that teaming with Jagger led to “decades of seeing Mick’s bum running around in front of me.”

The Rolling Stones in 1963. Left to right: Mick Jagger, Charlie Watts, Brian Jones (1942-1969), Bill Wyman and Keith Richards.
Popperfoto via Getty Images

The steadiness of Watts keeping the Stones in the pocket came from a jazz sensibility that always made the band swing as well as rock.

“I have a picture of Charlie with a saxophone around his neck with his orchestra, with his jazz band,” legendary rock photographer Bob Gruen told The Post, noting that Watts even played the Blue Note.

The Rolling Stones during a late ’60s rehearsal at the Wembley studios of London Weekend Television in preparation for their appearance on David Frost’s ”Frost on Saturday.”
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“He always perceived himself as a jazz drummer,” added Light. “That was always his thing: ‘Those boys can be a rock and roll band. What I’m doing here comes out of listening to big-band records and Duke Ellington records and learning about the power and the nuance of rhythm.’ ”

Watts, right, performs behind Jagger during their 2019 concert at the Rose Bowl.
Chris Pizzello/Invision/AP

It was Watts’ ability to not simply pound away that made him have the impact that he had as a drummer.

“He wasn’t a big, flashy player,” said Light. “He wasn’t the thunder of [Led Zeppelin’s] John Bonham, he wasn’t the sort of wild anarchy of [The Who’s] Keith Moon, but he kept the swing in that band in everything that he did.”

Watts’ unflashy, understated style extended beyond the music to his very manner. He reportedly kept more than 200 suits in his London apartment.

“I always thought of Charlie as a very classy guy and the perfect English gentleman,” said Gruen. 

Jagger and Watts share a laugh. Watts once joked that teaming with Jagger led to “decades of seeing Mick’s bum running around in front of me.”
BACKGRID

Gruen recalls Watts being the epitome of class in 1997 when the band was at a Chicago hotel opening a tour.

“The security man came out, and then Mick Jagger walked out, and there was another security man behind him. And a few minutes later, when everything was back to normal and there was no commotion at all, Charlie Watts strolled out with his wife, looking absolutely elegant, and strolled out the hotel to go for a walk with no hoopla,” said Gruen.

Watts rehearsing for an episode of the Friday night UK TV pop/rock show “Ready Steady Go!” in 1965.
Getty Images

Still, he did have a period of life in which he struggled with drink and drugs, including heroin, which he reportedly quit cold turkey after a two-year stint in the ’80s. “It got so bad,” he later joked, “that even Keith Richards, bless him, told me to get it together.”

And Watts was famously pushed to his limits once by Jagger. In his autobiography “Life,” Richards wrote about an incident where a drunken Jagger antagonized Watts on the phone, going “Where’s my drummer?”

According to the book, Watts, who was in a hotel room just down the hall from Jagger, then proceeded to shave, put on one of his Savile Row suits and spray on some cologne before knocking on the door of his bandmate.

Then Watts walked past Richards, grabbed Jagger, gave him a right hook and said, “Never call me your drummer again.”

Watts and his wife Shirley at the graveside of Brian Jones. former guitarist with the Rolling Stones.
© PA Wire via ZUMA Press

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Don Everly of rock duo the Everly Brothers dead at 84

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Don Everly of the rock duo the Everly Brothers died Saturday, according to a report.

A family spokesperson told the Los Angeles Times that the 84-year-old died but didn’t reveal a cause.

Phil and Don Everly photographed in London in 1965.
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“Don lived by what he felt in his heart,” read the spokesperson’s statement. “Don expressed his appreciation for the ability to live his dreams … with his soulmate and wife, Adela, and sharing the music that made him an Everly Brother.”

Phil and Don Everly were popular in the 1950s and ’60s, when they delivered hits like “All I have to Do Is Dream” and “Bye Bye Love.” The brothers recorded about three dozen hit records that made the Billboard Hot 100 chart.

The Everly Brothers perform on the NBC TV music show ‘Hullabaloo’ in February 1965.
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The country music-influenced pair, known for their signature melodies and acoustic guitar playing, were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1986, the institution’s first year. Rolling Stone Magazine once described them as the “the most important vocal duo in rock.”

In 1997, the crooning duo were given a lifetime achievement award at the Grammys.

Phil Everly died in 2014 at the age of 74.

The Everly Brothers were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1986.
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Don Everly’s brother and bandmate, Phil, died in 2014.
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