Dave's Classic Rock Blog

Jackson Browne is the latest artist to break bad on the John McCain campaign for appropriating one of his signature songs for a campaign ad. The spot, which was running on TV in Ohio and worldwide on the Web uses Browne's "Running On Empty" as its theme. Browne sued, the ad was pulled, but not the lawsuit. Earlier, the McCain campaign stopped playing John Mellencamp tunes during primary campaign stops after Mellencamp's publicist asked, "Why are you playing songs that have a very populist pro-labor message written by a guy who would find no argument if you characterized him as left of center?"

Lennon Art
Before there were Beatles, John Lennon attended Liverpool Art Institute (that's where he hooked up with Stu Sutcliffe, the band's original bass player) and continued to draw throughout his life. Now, more than two dozen Lennon sketches will be on public display for the first time at a Milwaukee museum. The drawings are the property of an anonymous collector who has also loaned the museum the microphone Lennon used to record "Imagine."

Black Ice on Aisle 5
AC/DC's upcoming new album now has a final title, Black Ice, and a firm release date, October 20. The first single, "Rock N' Roll Train" hits August 28, with the accompanying video following quickly. The new album will be available at Walmart and Sam's Club brick-and-mortar stores and websites, and from ACDC.com.

So, you like Top 10 lists, do you? (Statistics say you do and, as we all know, figures don't lie .... much.) What the heck. It'll add a little variety, if nothing else.

10. Jimmy Page, Olympic Picker
Look for the former Led Zeppelin guitarist in the closing ceremony at the Olympics. He'll be the one accompanying pop phenom Leona Lewis. It's no coincidence that both are Brits and that the U.K. will be hosting the 2012 summer games.

9. Super Springsteen?
Why the question mark? Consider the source. New York Post's infamous page of sleaze and gossip, Page Six, is reporting that The Boss will be the halftime entertainment at the 2009 Super Bowl. While it is likely that the gig has been booked by now, we haven't heard from any actual credible source that it will be Springsteen.

8. All That Glitters
Gary Glitter's stint in jail in Vietnam is almost over. His one-day trial on charges of molesting teenage girls resulted in a sentence that ends in a few days. The '70s glam rocker will get a free ticket (a polite way of saying he's being deported) back to London following a couple of years of cleaning bed pans in a prison clinic.

7. Lennon's Killer Not So Lucky
For the fifth time, Mark David Chapman has been denied parole, and will continue to serve 20-to-life for murdering John Lennon in 1980. Attica will continue to be Chapman's home for at least two more years, when his next parole opportunity comes up.

6. Digital Exploitation
Classic rock tunes may be pretty far down the list of popular digital downloads, but there's still some significant money involved, and the Allman Brothers Band claims they haven't gotten their fair share. The Allmans are suing UMG for $13-million in royalties they say are due them from digital downloads of their music.

5. Do the Math
On October 1, 1962, four young men named Lennon, McCartney, Harrison and Starkey (aka Starr) signed their names to a contract that promised their manager 25% of their earnings, as long as they earned at least $400 a week. Don't laugh. That was lot of money in 1962, even for The Beatles. Brian Epstein's copy of his contract with The Beatles goes on sale next month, and is expected to fetch something just this side of a half-million dollars.

4. But Then There's That Piano
The same auction that features Epstein's contract will also offer the Bechstein grand piano used on The Beatles (aka The White Album) and Hey Jude. It is expected to fetch at least $570,000 and maybe more. Who says there's no future for boy bands?

3. Welcome to Chrissie Country
What do you get when you cross punk and country? Punktry? Whatever it is, it's what you'll find on the new Pretenders album coming in October. The band led off a Los Angeles showcase this week with rockabilly-soaked "Boots of Chinese Plastic." As for the cross-pollination of genres, the ever philosophical Chrissie Hynde observes, "It's nice to think we might [f-word] it up a little bit, and that they might not know where to play our records."

2. The Police and the police
The Police (the band) honored the police (the ones in the crisp uniforms) in New York City in what they have said repeatedly was not only the last concert of their 15-month-long reunion tour, but their last ever. Of course, the more they say "never" the more you have to wonder whether they'll be like all the other bands who cried "last" at the end of more than one reunion.

1. Rock Hall, Jr.
Hey, if it works in Cleveland, surely it'll work in SoHo. That's the theory behind the "branch office" that the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Museum will be opening this fall in New York City. The hope is that showcasing native sons (and daughters) like Billy Joel, Blondie, Paul Simon and Velvet Underground will serve as a much-needed tourist magnet. We'll see.

And that, in a nutshell, is your classic rock news of note. This is the chief nut saying, as always, "Don't forget to boogie!"

Even the hardest of hardcore Deep Purple fans will be thrilled with the nine hours of live performances and interviews to be found on the four-DVD set, Deep Purple Live Around the World. Did I mention that the set includes a book, too?

It's a whole lot of bang for the buck, according to Alun Williams in his review of this massive Purple project.

Hangin' with Mr. Cooper
Spend an evening with Alice Cooper and I guarantee you will not be bored. Shocked maybe, possibly disgusted, most likely entertained, maybe thinking that a 60-year-old man should act his age. But definitely not bored.

Reviewer Lynette Sheffield shares her recent evening with Coop & Co. on their Psycho-Drama Tour.

^{Photo by Gaye Gerard / Getty Images}

I don't think that either John Lennon or Paul McCartney dreamed, when their attempts to finish recording a take of "I'll Follow the Sun" disintegrated into a fit of uncontrollable giggling, that a tape of that little slice of life would sell for more than $23,000. Heck, it was 1964. At that point, neither The Beatles nor the rest of the world had an inkling of the lengths to which Beatlemania would go. After 44 years in an attic in northern England, the tape sold at auction this week, giggles and all.

Iggy Popped
It will take a lot more than $23,000 to replace the gear stolen from Iggy and The Stooges right in the middle of their reunion tour. A truck containing all of the band's instruments and stage gear disappeared after a concert Monday (8/4) in Montreal. The truck, empty of course, was found the next day. The band has managed to continue the tour uninterrupted by cobbling together donated and rented gear.

New Queen Album Coming Soon
It's been so long since Queen made a new album, the last one had the last tracks recorded by Freddie Mercury, who died in 1991. Queen + Paul Rodgers will release The Cosmos Rocks in the U.S. on October 14. Queen's last album, 1995's Made In Heaven turned out to be their biggest seller, at more than 20-million. Queen-plus begin a European tour on September 15.

Rock's Writers
For some people, one autobiography apparently isn't enough. Aerosmith's Steven Tyler, fresh from rehab, has been offered $2-million for his memoirs by a publisher who apparently feels that a 2003 Aerosmith autobiography must have left fans wanting more.

Brian May's new book has a pretty snappy title. A Survey of Radial Velocities in the Zodiacal Dust Cloud is actually the Queen guitarist's doctoral thesis, the one that earned him an advanced degree in astrophysics. That he can manage to write a thesis in between touring and recording a new album is a testament to how serious he was about finishing the college education that he cut short three decades ago to become a rock star.

Really? We're doing wedding announcements now?

Well, this one's a little different. Ritchie Blackmore (ex-Deep Purple, Rainbow) and Candice Knight have been "a couple" since 1989. They have worked together as Blackmore's Night since 1997.

After 19 years together, they're getting married. In October. In a castle. With minstrels.

I learned all of this (and much more) when I interviewed Candice Night about the band's new album, Secret Voyage (already #1 on Billboard's New Age chart) and the convergence of personal and professional lives.

(sound of knock on door)
"Yeah, who is it?"
"It's Dave."
"No, man, Dave's not here."
"No, man, I'm Dave!"
"Dave's not here, man!"

You won't find them on any list of rock music acts, but Cheech Marin and Tommy Chong were very much a part of the rock culture of the '70s and early '80s.

As Cheech & Chong they recorded nine comedy albums for which they received four GRAMMY nominations, and one win. Their shtick -- a pair of hapless dopers who somehow manage to get through life in spite of themselves -- also got them starring roles in eight movies.

They broke up in the mid-80's over what are usually referred to as "creative differences" and several previous attempts to reunite have ended just short of fist fights before they could ever get off the ground.

But now, Marin tells AP Radio, the two have decided to bury the hatchet (or, in their case, the bong) and take one last shot at reviving their patented brand of dope humor before they get too old to pull it off.

The "Hey, What's That Smell?" tour will hit two dozen cities between September and December.

^{Photo by Frazer Harrison / Getty Images}

It's a warm summer evening. You're sitting on the river bank in a peaceful little river town as a group of musicians serenade you from a barge moored just off shore.

If you're getting a picture of Mark Twain and some sleepy banjo music, forget that! The venue is Michigan's St. Clair Riverfest, and the band on yonder barge is Night Ranger.

Alun Williams is in that crowd on the river bank, and he reports that while the town may be small, it was rocking (in more ways than one) on this particular warm summer evening. Here's his review of Night Ranger in concert.

It's natural to associate Gothic (or, more commonly, Goth) rock with the 1990s and beyond, but its roots actually go back to 1970s, when experimentation (not solely musical) was the order of the day in rock music.

Paul Rhodes explores the punk gothique phenomenon in his guide to Goth Rock 101.

Time to gas up the tour bus and get ready to rock the road!

AC/DC
With the release of a new album coming up, an AC/DC tour was all but inevitable. It's a whopper. An 18-month world tour for the hard rockers from Down Under will begin in October, coinciding with the release of their new only-at-Wal Mart album. It'll be the band's first album (and tour) since 2000's Stiff Upper Lip, and their 15th studio album since they switched on the High Voltage in 1976.

Fleetwood Mac
Reversing the usual order, Fleetwood Mac plans an early 2009 tour that will probably be followed by a new album. Why the switch of the usual format of using a tour to promote a new album? Says guitarist/vocalist Lindsey Buckingham to London's VIP News, "I think maybe there was ... a sense that we would make a better album if we went out and hung out together first on the road ... maybe even sowing some seeds musically that would get us more prepared to go in the studio rather than just going in cold." There has been some scuttlebutt about Sheryl Crow possibly being involved, but Buckingham says that idea "has lost its momentum." Buckingham, meanwhile, follows the more traditional path as he embarks on a solo tour in September to promote his new album, Gift Of Screws.

Deadheads and Violins
If he had lived, Jerry Garcia would be turning 65 on August 1. The Baltimore Symphony Orchestra isn't forgetting that fact. They'll be commemorating it with the debut performance of Dead Symphony No. 6, written by classical composer Lee Johnson, inspired by the music of Grateful Dead. The performance (complete with psychedelic light show) is expected to be a sellout. The venue, Meyerhoff Symphony Hall, can accommodate something over 2,000 Deadheads.

^{Fleetwood Mac photo by Kevin Winter / Getty Images; Jerry Garcia photo by Henry Diltz}