Billboard tells me that Pearl Jam just did a taping for the VH1 show, “Storytellers,” at New York’s Avalon. Once gem Vedder revealed is how “Alive” took on new meaning after performing the song in concert.
“In the original story, a teenager is being made aware of a shocking truth that leaves him plenty confused,” he said of the tale, based on his own teenage discovery that the man he believed to be his biological father was actually not. “It was a curse — ‘I’m still alive.’”
But as fans quickly turned the title phrase into a self-empowering anthem, particularly at Pearl Jam concerts, Vedder said, “they lifted the curse. The audience changed the meaning for me.”
Expect the show to be enlightening, entertaining, and political.
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Page 6 is reporting that Tom Petty is looking into the legal ramifications of the Red Hot Chili peppers stealing his tune, “Mary Jane’s Last Dance,” and then renaming it their latest single, “Dani California.” From Page 6:
“The single ‘Dani California’ [currently No. 6 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart] is a huge hit - but there is a major problem,” one source claimed. “The song has the same chord progression, melody and tempo of Petty’s ‘Mary Jane’s Last Dance.’ The song even has a similar lyrical theme.”
“Dani California” starts off: “Gettin’ born in the state of Mississippi / Poppa was a copper and her momma was a hippie / In Alabama she was swinging hammer,” while “Mary Jane’s Last Dance” goes: “She grew up in a Indiana town / Had a good-lookin’ mama who never was around / But she grew up tall and she grew up right / With them Indiana boys on an Indiana night.”
Tom’s looking into getting his rightful share. But judge for yourself at iTunes.
Tom Petty’s “Mary Jane’s Last Dance” at 
Red Hot Chili Pepper’s “Dani California” at
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NASHVILLE, Tenn. — The Dixie Chicks appear to be more popular than the president these days. President Bush’s approval rating has plummeted, but the Chicks are on top of the pop and country charts with their first album since publicly criticizing Bush three years ago.
They did it without the support of country radio, which largely ignored the Dixie Chicks after lead singer Natalie Maines told a London audience in 2003 that the group was ashamed Bush was from their home state of Texas.
The new album, “Taking the Long Way,” took the No. 1 spot Wednesday on the country albums chart and the Billboard 200 overall chart _ which are based on sales rather than radio airplay _ with 526,000 units sold in its first week.
For the year, the Chicks’ first-week showing is behind only Rascal Flatts’ “Me and My Gang” (722,000 units), according to Wade Jessen, director of Billboard’s country charts.
Jessen said the strong sales figures may show that hardcore country fans are not as bothered by the controversy as many in the music industry thought, or simply that the group is attracting a broader audience.
“There also might be a certain amount of support that may have been thrown their way by folks who are a little more liberal and that maybe never bought a country album in their lives but want to show their support,” he said.
The new album hit stores May 23 amid a flurry of media appearances (including a Time magazine cover story) and its first-week sales are the trio’s best since “Home” sold 780,000 units in its first week of release in September 2002.
First-week sales on “Taking the Long Way” were better than Chicks’ longtime nemesis Toby Keith, whose latest album, “White Trash With Money,” sold 330,000. Tim McGraw’s “Greatest Hits Vol. 2: Reflected” sold 242,000.
The new album’s first single, “Not Ready to Make Nice,” came out in March and stalled at No. 36 on Billboard’s country songs chart. It did slightly better on the adult contemporary singles chart, peaking at No. 32.
The song was co-written by the trio and addresses the controversy head on, with Maines singing in the chorus, “I’m not ready to make nice. I’m not ready to back down. I’m still mad as hell and I don’t have time to go round and round and round.”
The latest single, a more conventional song called “Everybody Knows,” reached No. 48.
The group did not respond Wednesday to a request for an interview.
In January Maines told Entertainment Weekly magazine that she was disappointed with country music and that she’s “pretty much done” with the genre.
Jessen suspects that most country stations have already made up their minds about the Chicks’ new album and probably won’t come on board even if sales remain brisk.
For a lot of programmers, the group is still too polarizing.
“Programmers are directly or indirectly responsible for the health of the bottom line, and if anything happens that distracts from that in the way they run their business, they won’t deal with it,” Jessen said.
Ken Boesen, program director at WPOC in Baltimore, said his station played “Not Ready to Make Nice” a few times, but never added it to the playlist.
“Regardless of whether country radio plays them or not, they’re going to sell,” Boesen said. “There are too many ways for people to hear about and get new music these days.”
From The Washington Post
By JOHN GEROME
The Associated Press
Wednesday, May 31, 2006; 6:47 PM
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Like OMG! Ya’ll bitches aren’t gonna believe this. US magazine recently got Kevin Federline to ditch the corn rows, wife beaters, and baby dropping. Check out the pix!
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Kati Llewellyn reports:
It’s a bird! No, it’s a plane! IT’S A FLYING PIG! And only when pigs fly does Brian Eno reunite with Roxy Music. The much-rumored return of the legendary producer/artist/professor/anti-war activist/thinker to the band that gave him his first taste of fame was confirmed recently by Eno, in an interview with Richard Williams of the British paper the Guardian.
Roxy Music members Bryan Ferry, Andy Mackay, Phil Manzanera, and Paul Thompson got together early last year, touring the festival circuit before settling down to record the follow-up to 1982’s Avalon, which is slated for release this autumn. Eno, who last appeared on 1973’s For Your Pleasure, wrote two songs for the forthcoming album, and worked a bit of keyboard magic on other tracks. “The band hadn’t changed one bit in terms of its internal dynamics,” he told the Guardian. “Just the same chemistry. It made me wonder if people can ever change the chemistry between them. After all that time, the relationships seemed exactly the same.”
As is to be expected, Eno will not take the stage with Roxy Music. “They didn’t ask me, I think because they know I wouldn’t,” he said. “I don’t fancy it. I basically don’t like playing live and I’m also worried about people saying, ‘Oh, right, he’s going back to the old band, then.’ It was a big decision for me to do those two days in the studio with them. Not that I don’t like them. I like them all. They’re nice people. But because I thought, ‘Oh, fuck, I’m going to have to spend years talking about this, and it was only two days.’”
Eno recently appeared at England’s Bath International Music Festival in collaboration with pianist Joanna McGregor and a choir. As previously reported, he also worked with Paul Simon on Surprise, which came out earlier this month.
According to Brian Ferry’s official website, a Roxy Music remix album is in the works, and the band will play several European shows this July.
Country life:
07-05 Dublin, Ireland - Vicar Street
07-06 Cork, Ireland - The Marquee
07-08 Werchter, Belgium - Werchter Festival
07-09 Weert, Holland - Bospop Festival
07-12 Athens, Greece - Karaiskaki Stadium
07-13 Thessaloniki, Greece - Gis Amphitheatre
07-14 Ohrid, Macedonia - Ohrid Amphitheatre
07-16 Belgrade, Serbia - Belgrade Arena
07-18 Padova, Italy - Villi Contarini
07-19 Rome, Italy - Cavea
07-21 St. Polten, Austria - Lovely Days Festival
07-22 London, England - Rock the Dock
Oh, and if anyone can crack fan site EnoWeb’s The Da Roxy Code, please let us know.
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