Dave's Classic Rock Blog

It has been 40 years since Steve Miller Band's debut album was released. Since then, they've sold more than 25-million copies of 21 albums, but have yet to release a live performance video. Until now.

Live From Chicago is a two-DVD + CD set that captures the band's performances at the 2007 Rivinia Festival, and recaptures Miller's early musical education on Chicago's South Side.

If you are a fan of Steve Miller, blues rock, and/or the city of Chicago, I highly recommend this package to you.

The current members of Rush (Alex Lifeson, Neil Peart, Geddy Lee) have been together for so long it's easy to forget that it is not the original lineup.

In the beginning (1968) John Rutsey was Rush's drummer, appearing on the band's first single and album. He left the band shortly after the debut album was released in 1974, because he was diabetic and was concerned about the affect of long tours on his health. In fact, when he left Rush, he left the music business altogether.

Rutsey died in his sleep on Sunday (May 11) apparently of a heart attack that was the result of his diabetes. He was 55.

Hard rock guitarist Michael Schenker has had plenty of ups and downs over the years.

Following stormy stints with Scorpions and UFO, Schenker has had financial problems, and difficulty maintaining some sort of personnel stability in his Michael Schenker Group.

Now, with four of the band's five original members on board, reviewer Alun Williams says MSG's new album shows signs of a return to better times.

From around the world and up your street, here's the latest news of interest to me and my classic rock buds (that's you.)

Broadway Delay
An intriguing collaboration between John Mellencamp and author Stephen King has been moved to the back burner. The combination of music by Mellencamp and a novel by King was to have become a stage production, The Boys Of Darkland County. It was set to debut next spring in Atlanta, and, if all went well, move to Broadway. "Unanticipated scheduling problems" are blamed for a delay in getting the script ready on schedule. The target is now late 2009 or early 2010.

Jokes For Grads
"What's the difference between a musician and a municipal bond? A municipal bond matures and makes money." So joked Rolling Stones keyboardist Chuck Leavell as he spoke at commencement exercises at Central Michigan University. But it wasn't all yuks and chuckles, as Leavell offered some of his own experiences to convey the message that success comes from a combination of desire, determination, and integrity.

Who's So Vain?
For the past 35 years the world has wondered who was so vain that he probably thought Carly Simon's 1973 hit song was about him. It looks like we are destined to wonder indefinitely. Simon says her song was indeed about a specific person, but in an interview with Reuters, she held fast to her doctrine of secrecy. She is, however, happy to talk about her new album, This Kind Of Love.

Frank Zappa's Baltimore Bust
The art commission in Baltimore wants to display a bronze bust of the late Frank Zappa, and the eclectic artist's widow, Gail, says that's just fine with her. The model for the bust is one that has been on display for several years in Lithuania, where fans led the effort to get the Baltimore-born Zappa's likeness put on display in his hometown.

Who's On The Web
Can you believe that The Who are only just now getting around to launching a website? The "official home of The Who online" is thewho.com. Hey, welcome to the 21st century, guys!

^{John Mellencamp photo by Jamie Squire / Getty Images; Carly Simon photo by Paul Hawthorne / Getty Images}

When Bruce Springsteen's longtime friend and colleague, E Street Band organist Danny Federici died last month, it was on the day before a scheduled South Florida concert.

It was barely two weeks later that the rescheduled gig took place. But far from being a wake, the concert turned out to be a heartfelt, high energy tribute.

Reviewer Jim Smith says it was clear early on that this would be a very special Springsteen concert.

So you think the life of a rock star is pretty neat, huh? Former Eagles guitarist Don Felder might give you an argument on that point. Felder's autobiography, Heaven and Hell: My Life in the Eagles (1974-2001) gives a bare-fisted account of the usually unseen ugly side of the rock music business. There are lighter moments, too, as Felder recounts his pre-Eagles days in Gainesville, Florida, where he ran with some other unknowns like Tom Petty, Duane Allman and Stephen Stills.

In addition to writing new James Bond novels and Tom Clancy collaborations, author Raymond Benson is dabbling in the genre of classic rock mysteries. A Hard Day's Death (Compare Prices) -- billed as the first in a series of "rock 'n' roll comic thrillers" -- finds a sleuth named Spike investigating the death of fictitious rock star Peter Flame.

The author formerly known as a singer-songwriter, producer and actor, Prince is working on a book that is to be published late this year. 21 Nights will be a photographic essay documenting the multi-monikered artist's three week run of concerts at London's O2 Arena in 2007.

Cold Meat Loaf, anyone? In Search Of Paradise (Compare Prices) documents Meat's 2007 tour of Canada, a place he says he will "never return to in winter." Travel snafus, bad reviews and a sinus infection are among the adventures documented in the film, which will be released on DVD May 15.

Blue-ray, as you may know, is high definition disc format. Neil Young, as you may know, is an artist with a huge catalog. Even though Blue-ray discs hold much more than a standard DVD, it will take 10 of them just to cover Young's work from 1963-1972. And that's just the first installment. The set is due to be released in the fall.

A film documenting the history of the electric guitar features Jimmy Page of Led Zeppelin, U2's Slash and Jack White (White Stripes/Raconteurs.) It Might Get Loud features, among other things, an electric guitar jam by Page, White and Slash. Stay tuned for a release date.

Even before The Police launched their reunion tour last year, they made a point of emphasizing that this would be their last tour ever. No more, no how, no way. They have now sealed that with the announcement that the last concert ever of their last tour ever will be in August (date and venue not announced) in New York City. It will be a benefit concert for NYC's public television stations.

Apparently Victor Pinchuk is quite the Paul McCartney fan. The Ukrainian businessman is footing the bill for a free McCartney concert June 14 in Kiev. Expected crowd estimates range from 100,000 to 300,000. London's Sunday Mirror reports that McCartney will use the event to announce a 2008-2009 world tour.

Pop quiz: who had the highest grossing tour in the year 2000? If you answered Tina Turner, give yourself a gold star. Her first U.S. tour since then will begin October 1. Following 30+ North American dates, she'll tour the rest of the world, beginning with Europe.

Rock 'n' Roll Fantasy Camp is taking its act(s) on the road for the first time ever, with a seres of one- and five-day "camps" around the US. This year's camp counselors include Glenn Hughes (Deep Purple) and Elliot Easton (The Cars) among others. Tour schedule is available on the Camp website, along with your invitation to "live the dream."

Now don't get me wrong. When I say "old" I only mean that these artists have been banging around for a long time, and it's a credit to them that they're still cranking out new music.

While Roger Waters tries to put together the scattered pieces of his broken pig, another Pink Floyd alumnus is preparing to shrinkwrap a new live album. David Gilmour's Live In Gdańsk (scheduled for September release) was recorded in Poland during his 2006 summer tour.

Maybe sorta possibly there will be a new Boston album not long after the band's 2008 summer tour ends. Producer-engineer-guitarist Tom Scholz is notoriously fussy about all the technical and production details of Boston albums, and has ruffled more than one set of feathers by taking a long time to put them together. But Scholz tells Billboard.com that he "hopes" to finish recording in late summer and have the new album ready in early 2009.

Blues rocker Joe Cocker has one of those instantly recognizable voices -- raspy but powerful, imminently soulful. For his upcoming (May 13) new release Hymn For My Soul, Cocker teams up with heavyweights like Heartbreakers pianist Benmont Tench, session drummer extraordinaire Jim Keltner and Jethro Tull keyboardist Dave Palmer. Care for a sample? Listen to "Love Is For Me."

Apparently Def Leppard's Songs From The Sparkle Lounge was the right release at the right time. It debuted this week at #5 on the Billboard Top 200 album chart.

^{Gilmour cover art courtesy Columbia Records. Cocker cover art courtesy Fantasy Records}

Okay, so, Roger Waters is on stage at the Coachella festival, see? He's performing "Pigs (Three Different Ones)" from Pink Floyd's Animals album, whose cover featured a pig floating in the air over a power plant.

As Waters performs, a large (I mean LARGE, like the size of a two-story house) helium-filled pig, floats above. And floats and floats and floats. And then it's gone.

"It wasn't really supposed to happen that way," a Coachella spokeswoman explained as she offered lifetime festival passes and $10,000 cash for the pig's capture and safe return.

Well, they found the pig. In pieces, in neighboring residential lots a few miles from the festival site in the California desert. Two plastic heaps. "That's definitely our pig," claimed the show's producer (as if he was afraid it might be mistaken for someone else's giant floating pig.)

Like the song says, "Big man, pig man, ha ha, charade you are ..."

^{Photo by Kevin Winter / Getty Images}

His stage persona includes wearing a do-rag and standing on one foot while performing. But the world's best known (and very nearly only) rock flutist has a serious side, too.

Progressive rock veterans Jethro Tull are celebrating their 40th year, which is apparently more amazing to me than it is to the band's founder and front man, Ian Anderson, who says that he has always considered being a professional musician, a "job for life."

My conversation with Jethro Tull's Ian Anderson begins with the status of a new Tull album, and ends with a warning about overpopulation.

^{Photo by Sean Gallup / Getty Images}