Plenty of musicians have biographies, autobiographies and biopics, but Stevie Nicks now has the rare and added distinction of having a comic book about her. TidalWave Comics has published a 22 pager on the Fleetwood Mac member's life and career. Nick's joins Tina Turner, Dolly Parton, KISS, Alice Cooper, Iron Maiden and a handful of other artists in the comic book realm.

David Bowie fans now have a date for the release of Moonage Daydream, a documentary that should be considerably better than Stardust, the movie that was made without the approval or consultation of the late singer's family. According to the release, this authorized biopic's team had "unfiltered access to Bowie's personal archives, including all master recordings, to create an artful and life-affirming film that takes the audience on a journey through Bowie's creative life". That access results in a movie that "...shows how Bowie himself worked across several disciplines, not just music and film but also dance, painting, sculpture, video and audio collage, screenwriting, acting and live theatre".

With streaming royalties generating only a fraction of the income musicians used to receive from album sales, many songwriters have opted to sell their publishing rights outright. One of the most prolific songwriters ever, Bob Dylan, was one of the first in the recent wave opting to do that. The amount Dylan received in the 2020 deal to sell some 600 songs in his catalog wasn't revealed, but is believed to be more than $300 million. That done, Dylan has hit on another idea for keeping flush; re-recording a single vinyl copy of one of his classics and putting it up for bidding. If the initial one is any indication, doing so will be well worth the time and effort. Last March, Dylan and T. Bone Burnett recorded a new version of Blowin' In The Wind. The auction for the one-of-a-kind vinyl pressing resulted in a bidding battle between two super fans that ended with the disc going for $1.8 million.

 

Rapid recovery wishes to Carlos Santana. The soon to turn 75 guitar legend collapsed in the middle of a song during last night's concert at Pine Knob Music Theatre near Detroit. He as seen waving to fans as he was being removed from the scene on a stretcher. Early indications are that dehydration and heat exhaustion caused him to pass out, but he was being evaluated to make sure no other causes were involved. As a precaution, a Pennsylvania concert has been postponed.

George Harrison was dubbed the "Quiet Beatle", but he was boisterous compared to Rolling Stones drummer Charlie Watts. Reserved as both were, each had plenty to do with making their bands as remarkable as they became. The role Charlie played in the Stones will be fleshed out in a biography written by Paul Sexton Harper and Collins will publish on October 11.

According to the publisher, the authorized biography reveals why that through "the band bust-ups, bereavements and changes in personnel, managers, guitarists and rhythm sections," Watts "remained the rock at the heart of the Rolling Stones for nearly 60 years – the thoughtful, intellectual but no less compelling counterpoint to the raucousness of his bandmates Keith Richards, Mick Jagger and Ronnie Wood. And this is his story.”

 

The highly anticipated multi-configuration sets of Pink Floyd's 1977 album Animals finally have release dates. Deluxe Gatefold, CD, LP, Blu-ray and SACD. The individual versions will be available on September 16, 2022 with the Deluxe version available from October 7, 2022. This is the first time the album will have been available on 5.1 Surround Sound.

 

The tenth studio album by Pink Floyd, originally released in January 1977. was recorded at the band's Britannia Row Studios in London throughout 1976 and early 1977, and was produced by the band themselves.

 

Animals 2018 Remix will be released on CD, LP (with gatefold artwork), Blu-ray, SACD and Deluxe Gatefold formats. The Deluxe Gatefold version includes LP, CD, audio Blu-ray, audio DVD and a 32-page book. The Blu-ray and DVD audio include the 2018 remix in Stereo, 5.1 Surround (both by James Guthrie) and the original 1977 Stereo mix. The 32-page booklet features rarely seen behind the scenes photographs of the album sleeve shoot along with live images and memorabilia. The album artwork has been reimagined for this release.

 

The album's iconic cover shows an inflatable pig (now known as Algie) floating between two chimneys of the Battersea Power Station, conceived by Roger Waters, and designed by long-time collaborator Storm Thorgerson of Hipgnosis Studios. For this new release, the artwork has been re-designed for the modern era by Storm’s Hipgnosis partner Aubrey ‘Po’ Powell. Taking new shots of the building as it appeared during the recent conversion work, Po experimented with new angles and produce some striking new takes on the classic original. Po elaborates: “With the original 1977 album cover being such an iconic piece of stand-alone art, I had the chance to update it, which was a rather daunting task, but Hipgnosis took the opportunity to re photograph the image to reflect a changing world, and by using modern digital colouring techniques I kept Pink Floyd’s rather bleak message of moral decay using the Orwellian themes of animals, the pig ‘Algie’, faithful to the message of the album.”

When news broke a couple of weeks ago that the Rolling Stones scored a sizeable amount of money for a series about the band's history and its inner workings, we expected it would be several months at the earliest before filming and production wrapped up. Not the case. EPIX, an MGM company, spilled these details about the four episode docuseries that premieres August 7 in this release.

 

"My Life as a Rolling Stone. Tied to the band’s 60th anniversary, this exhilarating series will show a global audience how The Rolling Stones created the blueprint for every budding rock band, and grew from young blues-loving hopefuls to a globally recognized cultural brand. Each episode will feature an intimate portrait of one of the band’s charismatic members (Mick Jagger, Keith Richards, Ronnie Wood, and the late Charlie Watts), exploring different dimensions of their personalities, their musical brilliance, and their cultural impact. The series aims to reveal The Rolling Stones’ creativity, their inspirations, and how they individually and collectively have overcome adversity, notoriety, and personal demons to write the soundtrack of our times".