record store day
Lest you think of Dave Stewart’s Record Store Day project, Dave Does Dylan, as opportunistic, the hirsute male half of Eurythmics is quick to put the record straight.
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“I had no idea when I started doing this that the (A Complete Unknown) movie was coming out and the whole outburst of stuff about Timothée Chalamet and about (Bob) Dylan,” Stewart tells Billboard via Zoom from his studio in Nashville. “These (recordings) have been around before that, and I have had some real interesting, amazing times with (Dylan), so this wasn’t a great stretch for me.”
Dave Does Dylan — out Saturday (April 12) in limited edition and slated for wider release during the summer — features 14 solo acoustic recordings of Dylan tracks such as “Simple Twist of Fate,” “Forever Young,” “Knockin’ On Heaven’s Door,” “Visions of Johanna” and more. They’re songs Stewart recorded on his iPhone over time — during breaks in the studio, in his hotel rooms on tour or backstage at gigs. “Whenever I was waiting in-between something, I just started to put an iPhone on a little stick and sing a Bob Dylan song. I was just doing it for fun, and then I would put one up on Instagram every now and then and people would say, ‘Oh, we love this! Why don’t you make an album of this?’
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“I didn’t take any of it seriously. Then my management company said, ‘We’d love to put this out on vinyl on Record Store Day.’ I had 24 songs, so then it was, ‘OK, we have to cut it down to fit on an album unless it’s a double album,’ which we didn’t want to do. So we picked these (14), and I think you can hear that I have a deep connection to the songs and you can hear every word, even though we couldn’t really mix them because the guitar and the voice are going down the same mics.”
The set pays tribute to Dylan beyond the music, too. The cover is literally a tip of the cap, with Stewart striking a pose similar to Dylan’s on his 1969 album Nashville Skyline — hat and acoustic guitar included. The package also includes a photo of Stewart and Dylan together during the filming of the latter’s “Blood In My Eyes” video during 1993.
Dylan voiced his support of the project in a statement announcing the album: “Captain Dave is a dreamer and a fearless innovator, a visionary of high order, very delicately tractable on the surface but beneath that, he’s a slamming, thumping, battering ram, very mystical but rational and sensitive when it comes to the hot irons of art forms. An explosive musician, deft guitar player, innately recognizes the genius in other people and puts it into play without being manipulative. With him, there’s mercifully no reality to yesterday. He is incredibly gracious and soulful, can command the ship and steer the course, dragger, trawler or man of war, Captain Dave.”
Stewart’s connection to Dylan’s music is long, as well as deeply felt.
He came to it as a teenager in Sunderland, England, at a time when a broken leg sidelined him from his serious pursuit of soccer. His mother had left the family and his beloved older brother had gone to college. Salvation of sorts came from a package sent by a cousin who’d moved to Memphis; it included pairs of Levi corduroy jeans and a couple of blues albums that Stewart, laid up and “bored out of my mind,” began to play incessantly — followed by Dylan.
“I think it was (1964’s) Another Side of Bob Dylan or something around that,” Stewart recalls. “And it blew my mind. I couldn’t believe the words that were coming out of his mouth. And then I realized he obviously was influenced by the blues-type records I had. There’s certain moments in time when you know something happened to you, and that was one of them. I would smoke Thai sticks and lie on my back on the floor and put on Blonde On Blonde or something. All those songs were imprinted on my brain. The general public would probably think, like, ‘Dave Stewart, Eurythmics, singing Bob Dylan songs? Really?’ But when I was a kid, I was singing those songs in folk clubs. I knew them by heart, so on (Dave Does Dylan) I’m playing them like I was in a folk club again.”
Stewart connected with Dylan around 1985, when he was producing the self-titled debut album for former Undertones frontman Feargal Sharkey. “The phone rang and it was the receptionist in the studio, and she said, ‘Bob Dylan’s on the phone for Dave Stewart,’” he recalls. “I thought it was (Sharkey) just messing about, ’cause he knew I was a massive Bob Dylan fan. So I picked up the phone and went, ‘Feargal….’ And then (Dylan) started talking, and nobody could imitate that voice.”
Dylan proposed a meet-up and that evening he joined Stewart at nearby Thai restaurant for food and sake, then took him to a private Mexican club south of Los Angeles. “We sat there and we were talking in there for ages, and then Bob suggested, ‘Why don’t we make a (video) tomorrow?’” Stewart says with a laugh. “It was already, like, one in the morning, but I rang some people and pulled a thing together at a church right on Highland and we shot ‘Emotionally Yours.’ And then we did another one and we became friends.”
Stewart went on to film other videos for Dylan and also played on 1986’s Knocked Out Loaded. “We had jam sessions,” Stewart explains. “I have recordings of me and him around the kitchen table in my house in London, at one in the morning or something. To get to witness that happening, making up words on the spot and playing acoustic guitar and drinking tequila or whatever, those are experiences I’ll never forget — especially to have been a kid listening to (Dylan’s) record with a broken leg and my mom leaving home, there was a particularly sort of poignant feeling about it, and so I feel very privileged.
“I don’t know why or how it happened,” Stewart continues. “For some reason people find (Dylan) quite sort of reserved or whatever…but he wasn’t with me at all. At the time you think, ‘Oh, this is wild,’ but now, looking back as I’m older…you go, ‘God, yeah, I had that experience, and many other kinds of experiences with these incredible talents, and I’ll never forget them.’”
Stewart — who filmed an episode of Recorded Live at Analog that will premiere during July on PBS — says there’s a possibility of the other 10 Dylan songs he recorded turning into a second volume of Dave Sings Dylan, perhaps adding more to the pile. “It wasn’t very difficult to record, so, yeah, I may do that,” he says. “With an artist like Bob Dylan people say, ‘What’s your favorite song?’ and it’s impossible. I’ve got, like 99 favorite songs, so it wouldn’t be very hard to do more.”
As for A Complete Unknown, Stewart says that “Timothée Chalamet did a great performance along with the rest of the cast. For me, I felt that it only scratches the surface of Dylan as a songwriter — the spark that set the world on fire, and to this day, has not been equaled in his influence. Nothing since The Canterbury Tales has created such a paradigm shift in people’s idea of what songwriting can or could be.”
Record Store Day usually falls around the 20th of April each year, normally without fail. But in 2025, Easter takes over that weekend, leading organizers of RSD to move it up to Saturday the 12th, which is right around the corner. This year’s festivities are nonetheless highly anticipated, with more than 300 titles available for […]
French electronic duo Air are keeping the Moon Safari celebration going — and they’re doing it in style.
Following last year’s deluxe 25th anniversary reissue of their 1998 debut album Moon Safari, Nicolas Godin and Jean-Benoît Dunckel have announced an exclusive remix LP for Record Store Day titled Blue Moon Safari.
The release features new interpretations of the classic tracks by British producer Vegyn, known for his work with Frank Ocean, Travis Scott and James Blake. It marks the first time Air have officially released a full-length remix project of the album.
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Alongside Blue Moon Safari, fans will also be able to get their hands on a vinyl-only edition of Moon Safari: Live & Demos, a collection that promises rare and unreleased recordings from the duo’s original sessions and performances during the Moon Safari era.
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The new releases arrive amid a fresh wave of activity for the duo, who kicked off their anniversary run in 2023 with a handful of intimate live shows, performing Moon Safari in full for the first time. Now, Air are expanding their tour globally, with a newly announced run of international dates spanning South America, Europe, and the United States.
Among the stops are major festivals including Flow (Helsinki), La Prima Estate (Italy), and We Love Green (Paris), as well as prestigious venues such as the Hollywood Bowl in Los Angeles, where the group will perform with the LA Philharmonic Orchestra on Sept. 21.
Originally released in 1998, Moon Safari was a landmark record in the downtempo and electronic space, praised for its lush textures, cinematic instrumentation and dreamy atmosphere. Featuring standout tracks like “All I Need,” “Kelly Watch the Stars,” and “Sexy Boy,” the album helped define the sound of French electronic music in the late ’90s and has influenced countless artists across genres.
The upcoming Blue Moon Safari remix LP and Live & Demos vinyl arrive April 11 via Parlophone / Warner Music France, with the remix set to be a Record Store Day exclusive on April 20. Pre-orders for both editions are now available.
Blue Moon Safari drops April 11 via Parlophone/Warner Music France and is available for pre-order now.
Eurythmics co-founder Dave Stewart is taking a look at one of music’s most iconic names for his latest record, Dave Does Dylan.
Arriving as part of the global Record Store Day celebrations on April 12, Stewart’s 14-song homage to Bob Dylan sees the Rock & Roll Hall of Famer performing live, one-take covers of Dylan’s catalog – armed only with guitar and vocals. Featuring cover artwork evocative of Dylan’s Nashville Skyline, the record largely features tributes to Dylan’s songs from the ‘60s and ‘70s, though latter-period tracks also make the cut.
In a statement, Stewart explained that he had been a fan of Dylan since childhood, going so far as to perform two Dylan covers as part of his earliest gigs as a teenager in the mid ‘60s.
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“I was insistent on getting into folk clubs, but I looked about 12 years old, so they kept me out for a while,” he recalled. “Then one chap, Mick Elliot, took pity and allowed me to play at The George & Dragon which became the center of the folk music scene in my hometown, Sunderland N.E. England, in the 1960’s. It was like stepping into a sacred room where visionaries and rebels converged — actually, it was simply a room upstairs in a pub full of older folk singers, beer, whisky and cigarette smoke everywhere. I was allowed to sing two songs, so I would play Bob Dylan songs from his albums that my brother had left behind when he went to college.
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“The audience was always a bit shocked that this kid, who looked so young, was singing these lyrics — especially in that kind of folk club,” Stewart continued. “It was mostly old folk music that was being played from the local area about the coal mines and about the shipyards, which I loved too…and Dylan would have loved also. I started to sing and play these Dylan songs anywhere I could; in other folk clubs, even on the street all over the north east of England. From then on, I got every Bob Dylan album — and still do to this day — on vinyl and in every possible variation.”
“Captain Dave is a dreamer and a fearless innovator, a visionary of high order, very delicately tractable on the surface but beneath that, he’s a slamming, thumping, battering ram, very mystical but rational and sensitive when it comes to the hot irons of art forms,” Dylan himself said in a statement.
“An explosive musician, deft guitar player, innately recognizes the genius in other people and puts it into play without being manipulative. With him, there’s mercifully no reality to yesterday. He is incredibly gracious and soulful, can command the ship and steer the course, dragger, trawler or man of war, Captain Dave.”
Ahead of the release of Dave Does Dylan, Stewart is also set to tape an episode of the Recorded Live at Analog series on March 22 at Analog inside Nashville’s Hutton Hotel. The appearance will see him performing tracks from his upcoming record with the addition of strings, pedal steel guitar, and keys. The episode will air on PBS on an as-yet-unspecified date in July, with tickets available for audience members to attend the taping.
“I’ve played on stage with Bob in London, L.A. and Tokyo, and I find conversations with him — whether on the phone or when we’re together — really relaxed and easy,” Stewart added. “As you can imagine, he is full of great observations and wisdom, all wrapped up in a poetic language.
“I’m so, so grateful for getting to know him personally and to now record this album of songs after years of singing them to friends and to myself. It’s been a long road and these lyrics and melodies have kept me company through the best and the worst of times. I hope my album can do the same for Dylan fans out there—who understand the mastery and the mystery Bob has bestowed on us, and still does to this day.”
Record Store Day on April 12 will feature more than 300 titles being released, including collectible music from Elton John, Post Malone, Prince, Gracie Abrams, Queen, Taylor Swift, John & Yoko, Charlie XCX, the Killers & Bruce Springsteen, and many more.
As usual, the vast majority of the releases are vinyl LPs, many with a color or picture-disc slant; and also as usual, most releases will be in limited supply.
This will mark the 18th year of RSD, launched back in 2008 after the idea emerged at a gathering of indie record store owners and label executives. Since then, the event has single-handedly revived vinyl into a viable music format that sells over $1 billion annually in the U.S. alone. What’s more, RSD has also evolved into an international event.
Each year, stores wait in anticipation to see which titles will emerge as must-haves on the big day — the kinds of drops that bring long lines of fans waiting outside participating stores. With a limited supply for most titles, it can mean fans shuffle from store-to-store seeking their sought-after title. But while searching for those titles, it can also mean finding an unexpected treasure.
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“The whole energy in a record store is just super inspiring,” 2025’s Record Store Day Ambassador Post Malone said in a statement provided by the RSD organization in announcing the event. “I feel at home. It’s really an unexplainable feeling to hit up a shop and dig through crates, just see what grabs your eye.”
Malone will issue his Post Malone Tribute to Nirvana, a 2020 livestream performance of Nirvana covers accompanied by blink-182’s Travis Barker on drums, guitarist Nick Mack and bassist Brian Lee. Moreover, 100% of net proceeds from the release will be donated to MusiCares’ Addiction Recovery/Mental Health division.
Malone will also be participating in another RSD release, which is also expected to be a hot item as its a collaboration with 2022’s Record Store Day Ambassador, who also happens to be the biggest music artist in the world, Taylor Swift. They will release their collaboration track “Fortnight,” on a double sided 7-inch vinyl single.
While RSD brings out plenty of long-time collectors, i.e. older demographics, it was Swift who helped spread the day’s popularity to younger fans in 2023 when she caused traffic jams at stores filled with fans seeking her special release of folklore, the long pond studio sessions — a double LP that year. Last year, keeping the young flowing to record stores included releases from Olivia Rodrigo, Noah Kahan, Chappell Roan and Sabrina Carpenter.
This year’s titles for younger music fans include: Gracie Abrams: Live from Radio City Music Hall; Beabadoobee’s Live and Acoustic in London; Megan Thee Stallion’s Traumazine on double black vinyl; and two releases from Charli XCX, the first a collaboration title, Guess featuring Billie Eilish, on 7-inch vinyl; and an edited version of prior release: Number 1 Angel, on apple-colored vinyl with a new RSD exclusive cover. That title’s tracks were previously part of a double-LP release Pop 2.
Moreover, RSD continues to diversify its genres offerings as rap and hip-hop fans will be able to seek titles from Cypress Hill, Anderson .Paak, Snoop Dog and a new release from the Wu-Tang Clan in a collaboration with Mathematics as they release Black Samson, The Bastard Swordsman: Wu-Tang, The Saga Continues Collection on 180-gram LP vinyl. What’s more Wu-Tang Clan are expected to make an appearance at the RSD press event today.
Jazz releases include music from Pharaoh Sanders, Thelonious Monk, Charles Mingus, Gerry Mulligan, and the Vince Guaraldi Trio; while Harry Potter fans will be treated to five different soundtrack albums from that movie series, all on double-LP, clear vinyl.
Finally, in a move to revive another marketing tool previously used to promote RSD, this year’s event will feature a “Record Store Day Song of the Year,” with the tag being applied to the double-a-sided 12-inch single of “Be Here Now,” done by the song’s author George Harrison on one side, with Beck’s cover tribute on the other side.
Other new RSD titles expected to be popular this year include a 12-inch EP collaboration between the Killers and Bruce Springsteen; a David Bowie live-stream from 2003 will now be available as a vinyl and CD release; and a 12-inch, 180-gram yellow vinyl release of John & Yoko with the Plastic Ono Band of their live 1972 One-To-One concert.
Some of the biggest streaming services in music are banding together to fight against a major piece of Canadian arts legislation – in court and in the court of public opinion.
Spotify, Apple, Amazon and others are taking action against the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC)’s 2024 decision that major foreign-owned streamers with Canadian revenues over $25 million will have to pay 5% of those revenues into Canadian content funds – what the streamers have termed a “Streaming Tax.”
Those funds will go towards established organizations like the non-profits FACTOR Canada and Musicaction, which financially support thousands of musicians and music companies across the country, and which have seen their own resources dramatically drop due to reduced contributions from private broadcasters. It will also go to funds supporting radio and local news.
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The CRTC decision was one of the biggest Canadian music stories of last year, and legal challenges from those services, as well as the Motion Picture Association – Canada (which includes Netflix, Disney, Prime Video and the major U.S. producers and distributors of movies and TV), have pushed it into 2025. The courts have paused the payments until the appeal is heard by the Federal Court of Appeal in June of this year.
That pause has already put at least one fund under immediate duress. The Indigenous Music Office had been directed by the CRTC to launch an Indigenous Music Fund with resources from the streamers’ base contributions, but the delay impedes the IMO’s ability to start the new fund.
The conflict over the regulation is turning into a major struggle, one that illustrates the massive changes and challenges that Canadian music is facing in an increasingly digital landscape. It’s a modern wrinkle to a debate that has spanned decades in Canadian music and media.
“At the base of it, the streamers are questioning the validity of CanCon policies,” says Leela Gilday, musician and board chair of the Indigenous Music Office.
The battle isn’t only happening in court, but in online petitions, political speeches and in Instagram posts from one of Canada’s most successful musicians.
“The Canadian government’s new music streaming tax is going to cost you more to listen to the music you love,” says Bryan Adams in a video shared on Instagram.
The “Summer of ‘69” singer, also a noted critic of Canadian Content regulations, has joined a lobby group called DIMA (the Digital Media Association) in publicly arguing against the regulation. DIMA, which represents Amazon, Apple, Spotify and YouTube, launched a campaign last fall titled “Scrap the Streaming Tax.” The campaign warns consumers that the mandated payments “could lead to higher prices for Canadians and fewer content choices” as a result of increased subscription fees.
But many within the industry have welcomed the regulation, including the membership at CIMA, the Canadian Independent Music Association.
“The question for tech companies who are making money in Canada is: is it appropriate for them to contribute to the Canadian music ecosystem?” asks Andrew Cash, president of CIMA.
Head here for much more on this story.
—Rosie Long Decter
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Canadian Music Industry Leaders Lay Out the Issues That Will Define 2025
As the music industry ramps up in the post-holiday break, the agenda is being set. A number of issues have revealed themselves as the big conversations of 2025: AI, arts funding, government policies amidst uncertainty in Ottawa, support of independent promoters and venues, mental health, the divestment of DEI budgets, and many more.
Billboard Canada gathered 10 music industry authorities from music grant FACTOR, the Canadian Independent Music Association (CIMA), Music Publishers Canada and many more to talk about the biggest challenges and opportunities facing Canadian music this year.
Here are just a few highlights:
“For the Canadian-owned sector, the ability to compete in a functioning market is paramount,” says Andrew Cash, president and CEO of CIMA. “However, market concentration among the large foreign-owned multi-nationals labels and tech platforms is now at over-reach. That is why CIMA lodged an official complaint with Canada’s competition bureau after TikTok walked away from its negotiations with Merlin. And it is why independent trade associations in Europe and Australia are raising serious concerns after Universal’s recent purchase of Downtown Music.”
“One of the biggest challenges facing the industry this year will be the divestment of DEI budgets, which have been a big part of the reason we have seen such great diverse talent enter the industry over the last five years,” says Keziah Myers, executive director of ADVANCE – Canada’s Black Music Business Collective. “Managing the shift away from Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) and reminding the industry that Equity-focused processes should be where their efforts are will be a challenge.”
“The fundamental principles of copyright continue to be challenged by artificial intelligence and the platforms that exploit it,” says Jennifer Brown, CEO of SOCAN. “Canadian music creators stand to lose more than 20% of their annual revenue to generative AI platforms by 2028 if safeguards aren’t put in place to protect their copyrights.”
Read the whole roundtable conversation here.
—Kerry Doole and Richard Trapunski
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Big Wreck Named Record Store Day Canada Ambassadors for 2025
Big Wreck have been named 2025 Record Store Day Canada ambassadors. The Canadian rock band will also be releasing their 2012 album Albatross on vinyl for the first time in deluxe 2xLP limited-edition featuring live and unreleased music as a Record Store Day exclusive. The album was certified Gold and was their biggest hit since In Loving Memory Of… in 1997 and its big shiny rock radio staple “That Song.” The title track of Albatross has also gone Platinum.
“It’s a great honour for Big Wreck to be Record Store Day Ambassadors,” says Big Wreck leader Ian Thornley. “We grew up going to record stores and building our vinyl collections and it means a lot to us to continue the tradition. It’s especially exciting to be putting Albatross out into the world for the first time on vinyl. That record holds a special place.”
Big Wreck succeeds another popular Canadian rock band of the era, The Tragically Hip, who were last year’s ambassadors. This week, Post Malone was named 2025 Record Store Day Ambassador for the U.S.
Head here for a list of participating Record Store Day Canada stores.
—Richard Trapunski
Last Week: A Closer Look at Canada’s Export Power
Post Malone is the latest artist to hold the title of Record Store Day Ambassador, the annual event has announced.
Set to take place on April 12, Record Store Day returns for its 18th year in 2025, celebrating close to two decades of supporting physical media, independent artists, and brick-and-mortar record stores. Now, Malone has been announced as the artist who is being honored with the title of 2025’s Record Store Day’s Ambassador.
“What an honor, I can’t believe I was chosen to be Record Store Day’s Ambassador for 2025,” Malone said in a statement. “Record Store Day is so important and I really hope to do my part to keep it alive. We love hitting local shops when we’re on the road, seeing all the crazy artwork, the whole energy in a record store is just super inspiring. I feel at home.
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“It’s really an unexplainable feeling to hit up a shop and dig through crates, just see what grabs your eye. You can be looking for something super specific and end up finding something totally different. It’s the best. Keep supporting y’all and let’s keep records and these local shops going strong. Happy Record Store Day everybody!”
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Malone joins a list of musical luminaries to hold the title, which has been bestowed annually since 2009. Previous years have seen the likes of Jack White, Run the Jewels, Ozzy Osbourne, Brandi Carlile, Metallica, and St. Vincent assume the role. In 2024, Paramore were the U.S. Ambassadors while Kate Bush took on duties for Record Store Day’s U.K. edition.
Traditionally, the Record Store Day Ambassador also partakes in the event by issuing a limited edition release on the day, though the list of exclusive releases for 2025 has not yet been announced. However, considering the success of his F-1 Trillion album in 2024 – which marked his transition to country music and topped the Billboard 200 – it could be speculated any prospective release will be related to his latest record.
“I’m very excited about Ambassador ‘Posty’”, added Record Store Day co-founder Carrie Colliton in a statement. “Musically, he’s all over the place — just like record stores and their customers, especially some of the newest, youngest people to embrace their local brick-and-mortar spaces.”
Vinyl releases from Noah Kahan, Billie Eilish, Olivia Rodrigo, MF Doom and The Beatles were among the top-sellers from Record Store Day (RSD) Black Friday 2024 in the U.S., according to data tracking firm Luminate.
The indie record store celebration, which took place on the day after Thanksgiving (Nov. 29) is a partner holiday to the main Record Store Day blowout that traditionally happens annually in April. Both occasions spur the release of many unique and limited-edition music releases, largely vinyl pressings, that are only available at participating independent record stores. More than 150 titles were slated to be released for RSD Black Friday 2024 festivities.
Kahan has the top-selling RSD Black Friday 2024 title, with his tiger eye brown-colored vinyl of Town Hall (Stick Season Collaborations). (See the full list of the top 25-selling RSD Black Friday 2024 albums, below.) The rest of the top five is filled out by Billie Eilish’s Hit Me Hard and Soft (Isolated Vocals), Olivia Rodrigo’s GUTS (spilled) (on red and purple-colored double vinyl), MF Doom’s Operation: Doomsday 25 th Anniversary (on metallic silver with purple, and metallic silver with green-colored double-vinyl) and The SpongeBob SquarePants Movie – Music From the Movie and More… (on clear with yellow and pink splatter-colored vinyl).
The top-selling RSD Black Friday 2024 single was The Beatles’ “I Want To Hold Your Hand” / “I Saw Her Standing There” (on 7-inch vinyl). (Scroll down for the top 10-selling singles.) Other big-selling singles included titles from Pearl Jam and Stevie Nicks.
Top-Selling Record Store Day Black Friday 2024 Exclusive Albums at Independent Record Stores in the U.S.
Rank, Artist, Title1. Noah Kahan, Town Hall (Stick Season Collaborations) (tiger eye brown-colored vinyl)2. Billie Eilish, Hit Me Hard and Soft (Isolated Vocals) (vinyl)3. Olivia Rodrigo, GUTS (spilled) (red and purple-colored double vinyl)4. MF Doom, Operation: Doomsday 25th Anniversary (metallic silver with purple, and metallic silver with green-colored double-vinyl)5. Soundtrack, The SpongeBob SquarePants Movie – Music From the Movie and More… (clear with yellow and pink splatter-colored vinyl)6. U2, How to Re-Assemble an Atomic Bomb (black and red-colored vinyl)7. Kacey Musgraves, Deeper Into the Well (green-colored vinyl)8. Van Halen, Live In Dallas 1981 (red-colored double vinyl)9. Ramones, Greatest Hits (red-colored vinyl)10. Grateful Dead, Veterans Memorial Coliseum, New Haven, CT 5/5/77 (four vinyl LP set)11. The Doors, Live In Detroit (four vinyl LP set)12. The Allman Brothers Band, Manley Field House, Syracuse NY April 7, 1972 (orange, blue and splattered-colored triple vinyl)13 (TIE). Rage Against the Machine, Democratic National Convention 2000 (window pane clear-colored 180-gram vinyl)13 (TIE). Various Artists, Jazz Dispensary: The Golden Hour (golden wave swirl-colored vinyl)15. The Rolling Stones, Get Yer Ya-Ya’s Out (candy cane swirl-colored vinyl)16. Jimi Hendrix, Songs for Groovy Children: The Fillmore East Concerts (blue and violet swirl-colored vinyl)17. Jerry Garcia, Electric On the Eel: August 29th, 1987 (orange sunshine-colored vinyl)18. Modest Mouse, Baron Von Bullshit Rides Again (vinyl)19. Joni Mitchell, Hejira Demos (180-gram black vinyl)20. Helmet, Betty (baby blue-colored double vinyl)21. Teddy Swims, I’ve Tried Everything But Therapy (Part 1.5) (baby blue-colored vinyl)22 (TIE). Yes, Fragile Outtakes (vinyl)22 (TIE). The Byrds / Buffalo Springfield, Live at the Monterey International Pop Festival (opaque orchid and opaque sky blue-colored double vinyl)22 (TIE). Morphine, B-Sides and Otherwise (lemonade yellow and black marble-colored vinyl)22 (TIE). Stone Temple Pilots, Purple Rarities (purple-colored vinyl)22 (TIE). Tegan and Sara, So Jealous (milky-clear translucent-colored double vinyl)22 (TIE). Thievery Corporation, The Richest Man in Babylon (red and white-colored double vinyl)Source: Luminate, for the week ending Dec. 5, 2024
Top-Selling Record Store Day Black Friday 2024 Exclusive Singles at Independent Record Stores in U.S.Rank, Artist, Title1. The Beatles, I Want To Hold Your Hand / I Saw Her Standing There (7-inch vinyl)2. Pearl Jam, Waiting for Stevie (Live) / Wreckage (Live) (12-inch 45-RPM vinyl)3. Stevie Nicks, The Lighthouse (white-colored 7-inch vinyl)4. Bluey, Rug Island / Bluey Theme Tune (picture-disc 7-inch vinyl)5. The Beatles, All My Loving (3-inch vinyl)6. Echo & The Bunnymen, The Killing Moon (12-inch vinyl)7. Jane’s Addiction, Imminent Redemption (12-inch vinyl)8. Steve Martin, King Tut (picture-disc 12-inch vinyl)9. Sam Cooke, A Change Is Gonna Come / Shake (white iridescent-colored 7-inch vinyl)10. Jungle, Back On 74 (12-inch vinyl)Source: Luminate, for the week ending Dec. 5, 2024
11/27/2024
Fight the food coma and go on the hunt for treasures from Rage Against the Machine, Olivia Rodrigo and more!
11/27/2024
The Doors will turn 60 next year — something drummer John Densmore says the kids who formed the legendary rock group in Los Angeles could never have imagined.
“When I was a kid, 60 years old seemed like, ‘Well, you’ll be dead any minute,’” Densmore tells Billboard with a laugh. “And here we are.”
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The group’s 60th anniversary celebration is upon us, too — starting next month with some key archival releases. Arriving Nov. 22 via Rhino’s High Fidelity audiophile vinyl series is The Doors 1967-1971, a limited edition (3,000 copies) six-LP set that houses the six studio albums the band released during late frontman Jim Morrison’s lifetime. A week later, for Record Store Black Friday, Rhino will release a four-disc remastered vinyl edition of Live in Detroit, taken from a May 8, 1970, concert at the city’s famed Cobo Arena. The 25-song set is the longest concert the Doors ever performed, according to band manager Jeff Jampol of JAM Inc.
Following those, in early 2025, will be Night Divides the Day, a 344-page book from Britain’s Genesis Publications that includes new interviews with Densmore and guitarist Robby Krieger, archival material from Morrison and the late keyboardist Ray Manzarek, commentary from other colleagues, friends and admirers, a treasure trove of photos, a foreword by Nirvana bassist Krist Novoselic and an afterward by conductor and composer Gustavo Dudamel (a recent Billboard cover subject). The 2,000 numbered box sets will be signed by Krieger and Densmore and come with rare demo recordings of “Hello, I Love You” and “Moonlight Drive” on a 7-inch vinyl disc. It’s available for pre-order here.
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These are just the beginning of the Doors’ 60th festivities, according to Jampol. “Here we are 60 years later talking about them, and they’re just as relevant and the music is more relevant than ever, and the message,” Jampol, who also represents the Morrison estate, tells Billboard. “I want to preserve it because I think it’s relevant for new generations. We’re trying to do two things here. We want to do interesting things and fun things for Doors fans, who are great ’cause they’ve always been here with us and they’ll support whatever it is we’re doing, and they’re excellent passers-on of the baton. Then we also want to expose the Doors to people who are not as familiar…this group of potential new fans, which is thousands of times larger. So we’re trying to serve those two distinct fan bases.”
Jampol is confident that either constituency will be impressed by the remastered sound quality of the upcoming vinyl releases, while the book, he adds, is “a thing of beauty” that came in the wake of The Collected Works of Jim Morrison, another Genesis project that came out during 2021. “We started working on this three years ago,” Jampol says, promising that, “there’s some stuff in that book no one’s talked about, photos I’ve never seen.”
Densmore, meanwhile, was particularly flattered by Dudamel’s glowing assessment of the Doors’ creativity in his afterward.
“He talks about my rhythms and said, ‘Oh, a few hundred years down the road the Doors will be remembered like Beethoven and Mozart,’” Densmore says. “I’m like, ‘Holy sh-t! I feel a whole lot of helium rising up in my skull now.’”
Densmore himself has written a couple of books about the Doors — a memoir and another focused on his legal issues with Krieger and Manzarek after they began playing together again during the early 2000s — while Krieger has also published an autobiography. Both are clear about why interest remains so high in the Doors 52 years after its last album of original material.
“When you get right down to it, it’s the songs. We had great songs,” Krieger told Billboard a couple of years ago. “A lot of kids come up to me, like 10-year-old kids, ‘Yeah, I love the doors. You guys are amazing.’ I don’t think they even know about the Jim Morrison myths and all that as much as they love the music. And I think that’s what is gonna carry it for the next 50 years, or more.”
“I hoped we would last 10 years and pay the rent: ‘That’d be cool,’” Densmore says with a laugh. “I knew the ingredients were unique. It was a wonderful, blessed few years. And that we’re still talking about it? Come on, man!”
Other 60th anniversary plans for 2025 are still being finalized, including museum exhibitions and art installations and possibly additional archival releases. Densmore — who played with Krieger during February of 2016 in Los Angeles for a Stand Up to Cancer benefit on what would have been Manzarek’s 77th birthday — says he’d also like to see some sort of performance be part of the celebration.
“The Doors 60th at the Hollywood Bowl would be quite wonderful,” Densmore says of the venue where the group recorded and filmed a concert during July 1968 (and returned in 1972, after Morrison’s death in 1971). “Willie Nelson did his 90th birthday at the Bowl, so it’d be wonderful to have something like that — me and Robby would play a little bit here and there, and there’d hopefully be lots of wonderful artists that would show up for that. I’d love to see something like that happen.”