AD/DC's third album, Dirty Deeds Done Dirt Cheap, got its Australian and European release on this day in 1976.  Bizarrely, the US release of it would not come for another five years.

Other Noteworthy Classic Rock events on September 20 include...

1948 Styx members Chuck and John Panozzo born.

1966 Extreme's nuno Bettencourt born.

1968 Soundgarden's Ben Shepherd born.

1969 John Lennon tells band mates he is leaving the Beatles.

1970 T-Rex headlines the first Glastonbury Festival in place of the Kinks.

1970 Jim Morrison convicted of lewd behavior but acquitted of indecent exposure. 
1971 Peter Frampton leaves Humble Pie. 
1972 Paul & Linda McCartney arrested on marijuana charges in Scotland.   

1973 Jim Croce killed in plane crash in Texas.
1973 Neil Young performs the opening show at the Roxy in LA. 

2005 John Fogerty, Jimmy Buffett, Paul Simon & Neville Brothers do Big Apple for the Big Easy benefit to aid Hurricane Katrina victims in New Orleans. 

2003 Cream veteran Jack Bruce gets a liver transplant.

2006 Rolling Stones open another leg of Bigger Bang  tour in Foxborough MA. 

2008 Farm Aid staged in Mansfield, MA with Neil Young, John Mellencamp, Dave Matthews and Tim Reynolds, Willie Nelson, the Pretenders, Steve Earle, Grace Potter and the Nocturnals, Jakob Dylan, Jerry Lee Lewis, moe and others.

2010 Leonard Skinner, high school teacher Lynyrd Skynyrd adapted name from, dies at 77. 

2016 Bassist Cliff Williams quits AC/DC after the last date of the Rock Or Bust tour in Philadelphia.   

2017 Gene Simmons and Ace Frehley reunite with KISS for four songs during St. Paul MN benefit concert for children's charity.

A heads-up and a thumbs up for this benefit to raise funds to assist the behind the scenes people in the touring business that are feeling the paindemic the pandemic is causing financially. Thanks to the ranks of great guitarists enlisting to be in the lineup of this streaming benefit Thursday, September 17!

David Coverdale has been soldiering through this pandemic with dual bilateral hernias. We're happy to pass along word that the Whitesnake front man was finally able to undergo surgery and is on the mend.

“I love the emotional nature of Letter To You,” says Springsteen. “And I love the sound of the E Street Band playing completely live in the studio, in a way we’ve never done before, and with no overdubs. We made the album in only five days, and it turned out to be one of the greatest recording experiences I’ve ever had.”

Letter to You includes nine recently written Springsteen songs, as well as new recordings of three of his legendary, but previously unreleased, compositions from the 1970s, “Janey Needs a Shooter,” “If I Was the Priest,” and “Song for Orphans.” Springsteen is joined on Letter To You by Roy Bittan, Nils Lofgren, Patti Scialfa, Garry Tallent, Stevie Van Zandt, Max Weinberg, Charlie Giordano and Jake Clemons. The album was produced by Ron Aniello with Bruce Springsteen, mixed by Bob Clearmountain and mastered by Bob Ludwig. Letter To You is Springsteen's first time performing with the E Street Band since The River 2016 tour.

Todd Rundgren's next album Space Force won't drop until 2021, but he gives us an idea of what his musical direction is in this preview track titled Espionage. Judging from early reactions, fans are on the fence about it.

Ozzy Osbourne stuck a fork in the idea he'd participate in any future Black Sabbath concerts. Speaking with Rolling Stone, Ozzy said hed had regrets over the fact Drummer Bill Ward had been prevented from participating in the group's recent farewell tour. Tony Iommi has lobbied for one final concert in the future. Asked about it, Ozzy said, "Not for me. I'm done" and added he did not have "Slightest interest" in being involved.

Ozzy has been battling Parkinsons but maintains he's working out daily with determination so he'll be able to perform with his own band once the Covid pandemic subsides and concerts become possible, telling RS, "I haven't done my last gig yet. Even if it's just to do one gig, I will do a gig. And then I will have finished my job."

MORE OZZY OSBOURNE INSIGHTS

The Rolling Stones rolled out a video for All The Rage, a previously unreleased track included on the expanded re-release of Goat's Head Soup.

All kinds of rumors about AC/DC's future have been churning around over the last several months. Joe Walsh didn't get Brian Johnson to divulge anything specific that would be music to the ears of the Thunder Down Under's fans, but Brian does sound like he plans to be back on stage in 2021.

Songs For While I'm Away, a rock doc about Thin Lizzy's Phil Lynott, will hit screens in Ireland this fall. The film tells his life story largely in his own words and also includes interview clips from several prominent musician fans of his work and lasting influence.

Graphic courtesy of joestrummer.com

Bruce Springsteen and Bob Weir are in the lineup of musicians paying tribute to Joe Strummer Friday (8/21) in a benefit for Save Our Stages, an organization dedicated to helping live music venues unable to host live concerts during the pandemic. The lineup of musicians also includes Tom Morello, Josh Homme Albert Hammond Jr., Dropkick Murphys, Lucinda Williams. Joe Ely and many more. The streaming event launches 8/21 at 3pm eastern.

Come Together done by Lzzy Hale, Linda Perry, Slash, Gilby Clark, Mike Garson. Its A Long Way To The Top (If You Wanna Rock 'N' Roll)  by Lzzy Hale, Robin.

Seven songs from the final concert Duane Allman performed with the Allman Brothers Band will be released in October on an album titled The Final Note. The concert took place in Owings Mills, Maryland just twelve days before the legendary guitarist lost his life in a motorcycle wreck in Macon, Georgia on October 29th, 1971. He was just 24.

According to JamBase, the recording was made by a young radio guy who'd brought a tape recorder to the concert to interview band members and decided to record some of the set on it. The cassette sat forgotten until recently when a friend asked him whether he still had it.

MORE ALLMAN BROTHERS BAND INSIGHTS

With the irrepressible Joe Walsh unable to be on stage, the Eagles and James Gang veteran is taking to the airwaves to host a radio show to entertain fans. Here's what's known in the radio biz as a telescoped aircheck - just the talking segments of a recent show.

R.I.P. UFO bassist Pete Way who passed away Friday (8/14) due to serious injuries he sustained in an accident a couple of months ago. A statement about the 69 year-old musician's death read in part,
"His wife, Jenny, was at his side. Pete Way was a much loved and highly regarded figure among rock fans, critics and fellow musicians alike. Best known for his work with UFO, Pete’s energetic live performances were at the heart of the band’s countless world tours."

A Japanese electric guitar Jimi Hendrix used while backing Wilson Pickett, Sam Cooke and owned into his time touring with the Isley Brothers in the early 60's sold over the weekend for nearly four times its pre-auction estimate. GWS Auctions handled the sale that saw a top bid of $180,000 and a finals sale price of $216,000.

Join Together @ Home is the name Roger Daltrey and Pete Townshend are giving the Who's six week series of streaming sessions on YouTube.  Each will include both live and previously recorded but seldom seen footage from the group. The Saturday (8/8) debut features a 1982 Who concert at Shea Stadium in New York City.  Charities the group has been instrumental in supporting for a long time will be beneficiaries of donations tied to the casts.

Roger Waters has mastered the art of recording remotely.  His most recen session feaures Vera / Bring the Boys Back Home.

Steve Holland, the sole surviving original member of Molly Hatchet, has died.  He joined the Jacksonville, Florida based band in 1974  after meeting fellow guitarist Dave Hlubek and remained with the group until 1983. No cause of death was announced, but Holland was saddled with a number of haelth problems in recent years.

The Rolling Stones ended a seven year touring hiatus with a triumphant come-back concert in Atlantic City, New Jersey in 1989 that included appearances by Eric Clapton, Izzy Stradlin and John Lee Hooker. That Steel Wheels era concert gets released for the first time on September 25th.

Robert Plant has announced an anthology culled from his post Led Zeppelin solo career.  The 30 song, double disc  collection drops on October 2nd.

Joe Bonamassa' next solo studio album Royal Tea was inspired by his British heroes Jeff Beck, John Mayall & The Bluesbreakers, Eric Clapton, Led Zeppelin and Cream. Recorded at the legendary Abbey Road Studios, the album will be released on October 23rd.
 

Royal Tea brings Bonamassa full-circle. "This whole adventure," admits Joe, "was a bucket-list thing for me." This album reconnects the 43-year-old with the guitar-slinging kid from upstate New York, who stumbled across the best of British blues music in his dad's vinyl collection – whose influences have shaped him to be the player he is today. "I would have been about twelve years old, and it was the sound I heard in my head. Like, 'OK, I'm in. That's what I want to be'."

The ten original tracks on Royal Tea were co-written by Joe and a cast of homegrown notables including former Whitesnake guitarist Bernie Marsden, ex-Cream lyricist Pete Brown and piano man Jools Holland. "Writing this record in London has done its job," reflects Bonamassa. "It really does sound inherently British. Bernie and I, we finish each other's sentences. We're cut from the same cloth." Bonamassa's long-standing producer Kevin Shirley and regular touring band flew in for the recording sessions, which included Anton Fig (drums), Michael Rhodes (bass) and Reese Wynans (keyboards).

Fleetwood Mac became a musical juggernaut with the release of the group's self-titled album in July of 1975 and Rumours in February of 1977, but the early years for the group included a number of solid albums that are overshadowed by the ones that followed. A new box set due September 4 will delve into those albums and include a number of bonus tracks and a 1974 studio concert. The studio albums with bonus tracks covered in the remastered recordings include The Play On (1969), Kiln House (1970), Future Games (1971), Bare Trees (1971), Penguin (1973), Mystery To Me (1973) and Heroes Are Hard To Find, and a live recording from the Record Plant in December, 1974.

Peter Green,the co-founding guitarist of Fleetwood Mac, passed away in his sleep in the early morning hours today. One of the most highly regarded guitarists of his time, Green started playing guitar at 10, but he played bass in his first two bands and started in his third, the Tridents, as the bassist before turning some heads when he got to play lead guitar filling in for Eric Clapton on a short string of dates in 1965 with John Mayall's Bluesbreakers. When EC left the Bluesbreakers the following year, Mayall brought Green in on a full-time basis. In 1967 Green parted ways with Mayall to form Peter Green's Fleetwood Mac featuring Jeremy Spencer and dummer Mick Fleetwood.

Among the songs Green wrote for the early era Fleetwood Mac are Black Magic Woman, Oh Well and Albatross.

He left the band after joining a commune in Germany during a 1970 European tour, but rejoined for a 1971 reunion tour that also included Spencer, who had left the band at about the same time Green had.

Following that tour, Green resumed a reclusive life for the better part of the decade and was musically engaged on only a sporadic basis through the following decades. It would be 1997 before he resumed a musical career, forming a band with Cozy Powell that released several albums over a seven year period. In 2009, he formed Peter Green and Friends.

Last year, Mick Fleetwood organized a tribute to his early band mate.

RIP, Peter Green

Grin, Crazy Horse and E Street Band veteran Nils Lofgren has set August 21 as the release date for a 16 song double live album recorded with his solo group at number of stops on a recent tour.   As for the next album reuniting Bruce with the E Street Band. Lofgren characterized material the E Street Band is working on to be on a par with the best songs the band and Springsteen have ever recorded.

Nick Mason's Saucerful Of Secrets continues to dish out versions of early Floyd classics. Astronomy Domine is the latest the drummer has posted.

Dave Mason assembled quite the lineup to accompany him on a recent reboot of his classic from Traffic's second album.

A Long Island couple that had set an old upright piano at the curb in hopes someone would cart it away were amazed to find Billy Joel banging out a ragtime tune on it. The Piano Man pronounced the instrument just needed tuning and refinishing and urged them to donate it instead of dumping it.

Joan Jett from the recently released T-Rex tribute album.

Most of the doubters that AC/DC would even survive let alone ever again thrive following the demise of Bon Scott were at least willing to admit that Brian Johnson had a damn good set of pipes when he made his debut with the band 40 years ago this month on Back In Black. The group is revisiting that great album with a series of videos on each song, starting withYou Shook Me All Night Long,?