Rolling Stones Retiring? Don't Bet On It
Every so often, rumors get started about the imminent retirement of one of rock's oldest continuously active bands, Rolling Stones. This week, a single anonymous source (and you know how reliable they are) told London's The Sun newspaper (no comment on how reliable it is) that the Stones were cooking up a final tour for 2011.

Turns out they were apparently half right, according to band sources. Yes, they are negotiating with promoters for a big tour next year but, no, they are not planning to retire. And why should they? Look at a list of the top 10 highest grossing tours of all time. Three of them were Stones tours, including their most recent (2005-06) which generated more than $550-million in ticket sales. As long as the (cash) cow is producing that much milk, it doesn't make much sense to leave the farm.

Cars Talk
Also being hinted at is a reunion of the surviving members of The Cars (Rick Ocasek, Elliot Easton, Greg Hawkes and David Robinson) who split in 1987 and haven't performed together since. The tantalizing prospect of a reunion surfaced on the band's Facebook page when a new photo of the surviving members was posted, and nobody in the band denied the possibility. That doesn't mean they confirmed it either. Hawkes told Boston Globe "I hate to be vague, but I really can't say. It's a crazy world." Earlier this year, Ocasek told Rolling Stone that he was working on something that he called "a surprise."

Easton, Hawkes and Todd Rundgren got together as the New Cars in 2005 but that was short lived. The possibility of a reunion of all the original members ended when vocalist/bassist Benjamin Orr died of cancer in 2000.

Tour Talk: Facts and Rumors originally appeared on About.com Classic Rock on Friday, July 30th, 2010 at 08:36:51.

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Heart - "Crazy on You"
As Heart prepare to release their 13th studio album next month (Red Velvet Car on 8/31) we're reminded of their tremendous staying power and lasting influence as one of the preeminent bands of the classic rock era. Alert your hands and at least one of your feet that they will be busy clapping and tapping for the next few minutes as you watch this 1976 performance of "Crazy on You" (love me some of that acoustic finger picking intro, too!)

^{Photo by Kevin Winter / Getty Images}

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Performance of the Week originally appeared on About.com Classic Rock on Thursday, July 29th, 2010 at 17:53:25.

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Pink Floyd - "Comfortably Numb"
One way to measure the influence of a band's music is by the way it stands the test of time. By that yardstick, the music of Pink Floyd is as unique and as relevant today as it was three or four decades ago when it was created.

In July 2005, some 25 years after The Wall established its place in classic rock history, the artists who were responsible for it -- (left-to-right in the photo) guitarist/vocalist David Gilmour, composer/vocalist/bassist Roger Waters, drummer Nick Mason, keyboardist Richard "Rick" Wright -- came together one last time, at the London Live 8 benefit concert.

They closed their set that day with one of the most memorable songs from one of their most memorable albums: "Comfortably Numb" from The Wall.

Performance of the Week originally appeared on About.com Classic Rock on Friday, July 23rd, 2010 at 04:21:03.

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Dweezil Zappa's latest tribute to his late father will be an album titled What The Hell Was I Thinking. Featured players include Eddie Van Halen, Queen's Brian May, Angus and Malcolm Young (AC/DC) and Ratt's Warren De Martini. Release date for the Frank Zappa tribute hasn't been announced yet.

Resting From Rock
Steve Morse is branching into some new musical territory with Angelfire, an acoustic album he has recorded with vocalist Sarah Spencer. In the album's liner notes, the Deep Purple guitarist says, "Even though I play in a hard rock band and a heavy instrumental group [Steve Morse Band] I like to listen to much different music than I play. Sarah's voice became the meditative, soothing sound that balanced all the chaos and over the top energy of my touring life."Angelfire drops August 11.

^{Photo courtesy Bill Evans Media}

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Guitar Heavies to Pay Tribute to Frank Zappa originally appeared on About.com Classic Rock on Thursday, July 15th, 2010 at 17:35:30.

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The audience for a benefit for Palestinian children in Oxfordshire, England last weekend (7/10) knew they were going to be entertained by David Gilmour. What they didn't know was that Gilmour's onetime Pink Floyd bandmate, Roger Waters was going to drop in for a surprise four-song set. Waters said in a Facebook posting that he agreed to do it after Gilmour agreed to join him for a performance of The Wall. Waters' The Wall tour begins in March 2011 in Europe. It isn't known yet which date will feature Gilmour. The last time the two had been on stage together was at the 2005 Live 8 London concerts.

2011 Tour for The Who? Maybe.
The Who may be taking Quadrophenia on the road again next year. Roger Daltrey tells billboard.com that a revised version of the 1973 rock opera is one possibility that's being discussed, along with Townshend's current work-in-progress, Floss. There's nothing certain yet. Townshend has chronic hearing problems (tinnitus) which required the use of a special stage monitor for The Who's Super Bowl halftime performance earlier this year.

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Pink Floyd Surprise(s) originally appeared on About.com Classic Rock on Thursday, July 15th, 2010 at 16:45:21.

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This summer's Troubadour Reunion Tour marks the 40th anniversary of the first time Carole King and James Taylor performed together. In 2007, the two returned to the Troubadour club in West Hollywood, re-creating some of the magic they made there in 1970. Their duet performance of a Taylor classic is now the show closer on the duo's current tour. Watch the 2007 King-Taylor performance of "You Can Close Your Eyes" at the Troubadour.

^{Photo by Michael Loccisano/Getty Images}

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Performance of the Week: James Taylor, Carole King - "You Can Close Your Eyes" originally appeared on About.com Classic Rock on Thursday, July 15th, 2010 at 13:54:40.

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Before he became a founding member of Jefferson Airplane, guitarist Jorma Kaukonen gave guitar lessons and used his polished finger-picking style as a performer in San Francisco area blues clubs.

One day in 1964, Kaukonen and Janis Joplin got together at Kaukonen's mother's home for a jam session. The resulting "basement tape" -- complete with the sound of Kaukonen's wife typing in the background -- is a classic piece of classic rock history. Listen to Joplin and Kaukonen doing the blues standard, "Nobody Knows When You're Down and Out".

^{Janis Joplin at Woodstock photo © Henry Diltz, courtesy Rhino Entertainment}

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Performance of the Week: Janis Joplin and Jorma Kaukonen - "Nobody Knows When You're Down and Out" originally appeared on About.com Classic Rock on Thursday, July 8th, 2010 at 08:13:18.

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This is for all the Rolling Stones fans who have grown tired of hearing about Ronnie Wood's domestic abuse adventures and have been anxious for some new dirt to be dished.

Mick Jagger and Keith Richards are publicly feuding (as they have several times during the 50 years they've known one another.) This time, it's about Richards' forthcoming autobiography. Mail Online reports that Stones management have even stepped in and "suggested" to Richards that he tone down his reported accounts of Jagger's sex and drug escapades over the years (like this is something we didn't know about already?) so as not to jeopardize the band's future.

Richards, who has publicly described Jagger as a "power freak" and a "maniac" recently stayed away from the Cannes film festival screening of the band's Stones in Exile film to protest the way Jagger was promoting it. Asked about Richards' book, Jagger dryly replied, "I would have thought that you'd actually have to be able to remember your life in order to write about it."

The book is due to be released in October. No doubt we will hear more between now and then.

^{Photo by Dave Hogan / Getty Images}

I Know You Are, But What Am I? originally appeared on About.com Classic Rock on Thursday, July 8th, 2010 at 06:56:31.

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The artist formerly known as The Artist Formerly Known As Prince has proclaimed that "the Internet's completely over."

No, seriously. Prince tells London's Daily Mirror that "the Internet's like MTV. At one time MTV was hip and suddenly it became outdated." (Stay with me now. This is like a bad wreck you drive by on the way to work. You don't want to look, but you can't help it.)

It turns out that the artist's beef is purely pecuniary. Online music e-tailers, he says, "won't pay me an advance and then they get angry when they can't get it." And thus, according to Prince's pretzel logic, the Internet is over.

So, you and I and the Internet's other 1.8 billion users will just have to suck it up and soldier on. Based on his stated belief in "finding new ways to distribute my music," Prince has shut down his website, shut out YouTube and iTunes from using any of his music, and will release his new album only on CD.

Gee. CD. What a novel "new way" to distribute music. I hope The Artist will forgive me if I don't immediately sell my computers and cancel my Internet service. I think I'll just stick with the "old way" of doing things instead.

^{Photo by Peter Kramer / Getty Images}

The End of the Internet originally appeared on About.com Classic Rock on Thursday, July 8th, 2010 at 05:01:16.

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Performance of the Week: Bruce Springsteen - "Born in the U.S.A." (acoustic) originally appeared on About.com Classic Rock on Thursday, July 1st, 2010 at 10:37:09.

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