Archive for category: Beard’s Blog

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Peter Gabriel- So 40th Anniversary

This week's classic rock interview guest: ex-Genesis lead singer Peter Gabriel had a cult following after four studio solo albums, with his most significant creation being the ground-breaking "Shock the Monkey" video. But with the May 1986 release of "So" forty years ago,(#1 UK, #2 U.S., over 5 million sold; 4 Grammy nominations including Album and Record of the Year for the #1 hit "Sledgehammer"), Peter Gabriel was vaulted into international pop stardom with all of its attendant door-opening , barrier-eliminating amenities...(more)
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Steve Miller- Fly Like an Eagle 50th

Sales of Steve Miller Band's "Fly Like an Eagle",  which includes "Rock 'n Me","Take the Money and Run","Wild Mountain Honey","Serenade","Mercury Blues", and the title song have exceeded five million copies of Rolling Stone magazine's Album of the Year 1976, plus a berth on that mag's 500 Greatest Albums All Time list.
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Aerosmith- Rocks 50th! Steven Tyler, Joe Perry, Tom Hamilton, Brad Whitford, Joey Kramer

Aerosmith "Rocks". It was a declarative statement in May 1976 with no equivocation. If "Toys in the Attic" a year earlier had been the definitive mid-Seventies  American hard rock statement, then Aerosmith "Rocks" made it musically imperative with "Back in the Saddle", "Sick as a Dog", the clever sequel to "Toys..." with "Rats in the Cellar", and another infectious Steven Tyler/Brad Whitford hit, "Last Child". Fifty years of Aerosmith "Rocks"!
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Van Halen- Fair Warning@45- Eddie & Alex Van Halen

Van Halen's April 1981 album "Fair Warning" is easily the band's most overlooked effort in the original David Lee Roth era; the most Eddie Van Halen-dominated album until the mega-hit "1984". 
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Bob Seger & the Silver Bullet Band- Like a Rock 40th Anniversary

No one Bob Seger song is more recalled by Americans of all ages than "Like a Rock", and for good reason: throughout the Nineties and into the new millennium, no song was more ubiquitous on US television than the album's title song, albeit thirty seconds at a time! Bob Seger is my guest here In the Studio on the fortieth anniversary of the #3-charting platinum album "Like a Rock".
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Bob Seger & the Silver Bullet Band- Live Bullet 50th Anniversary

"It took me twelve years to make that album Live Bullet ," Bob Seger  solemnly emphasizes to me in this classic rock interview from Bob Seger and the Silver Bullet Band in April 1976. This  may be the only six million-seller in history which failed to make the Top Thirty in sales when initially released. On it's 50th anniversary, Bob Seger is my guest.
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Rush- 2112- 50th Anniversary- Geddy Lee, Alex Lifeson

"2112"  by Rush was an amalgam of hard rock, progressive rock, science-fiction and Ayn Rand socio-economics right about the same time that The Ramones, The Dead Boys, and Ian Dury and the Blockheads were singing "Sex and Drugs and Rock'n'Roll". So things were about to get interesting in 1976. Geddy Lee and Alex Lifeson of Rush join me here In the Studio on "2112" golden anniversary.
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Led Zeppelin- Presence 50th Anniversary- Jimmy Page

The recorded performances of "Achilles' Last Stand", "Nobody's Fault but Mine", and "For Your Life" from Led Zeppelin "Presence" were so realistic as to be almost palpable, about which the sonic slam startles even now half a century later. Jimmy Page is my guest In the Studio.
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Van Halen- 5150 @40- Sammy Hagar, Alex Van Halen, Michael Anthony, the late Eddie Van Halen

For the 40th anniversary, the late Eddie Van Halen's interview In the Studio is included with Sammy Hagar, brother Alex Van Halen, & Michael Anthony for the story of "5150".
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Doobie Brothers- Takin’ It to the Streets 50th- Tom Johnston, Pat Simmons, Michael McDonald

The fact that the Doobie Brothers reinvented themselves for their March 1976 album "Takin' It to the Streets"  is quite widely known, but the reasons for the musical shift, and the manner in which they made it work so successfully, is a fascinating back-story worthy of an HBO mini-series.. On the album's 50th anniversary, Tom Johnston, Pat Simmons, & Michael McDonald are all here In the Studio to recall how it really went down.