Pick To Click: Amos Lee - "Windows Are Rolled Down"

We've had our eye on Amos Lee since his self-titled debut album was released in 1995. Now the Philadelphia/Cherry Hill, NJ singer-songwriter has released his fourth long-player, Mission Bell, on Blue Note Records. The record went to number one on the charts and Lee will begin his American tour at the end of March; many of the mid-size venues are already sold out.

"Windows Are Rolled Down" is a breezy melody juxtaposed with lyrics from the point of view of a broken down soul. It is in the great tradition of John Prine and Neil Young, and TNOP thinks you will enjoy it.

Buffalo Springfield Reunite

For the first time in 38 years, Neil Young, Stephen Stills and Richie Furay performed under the banner Buffalo Springfield at the 24th Annual Bridge School Benefit Concert this past weekend in Mountain View, California. The video captured below is a little Shakey (sorry about the pun, but it seemed appropriate), but the sound quality is fine. The Springfield perform their most enduring song, "For What It's Worth." This one is a fine, bluesy take with Stills in as good of voice as we've heard in many a year and Young jamming the acoustic solo.

We'll comb through the video catalogs being posted and bring you more highlights from the Bridge Concert, which continues to be one of rock music's highlights of the calendar year.

This Date In Rock History: 13 October

On this date in 1941, Paul Frederic Simon was born in Newark, New Jersey to Hungarian immigrant parents Belle and Louis Simon. By the end of 1941, the new parents had moved with their son to Queens, New York.

Louis Simon was a college professor, bassist and bandleader, and had performed on the radio in Hungary. He passed his keen interest in music on to Paul, who by the age of 11 met classmate Art Garfunkel and appeared in a sixth grade production of Alice In Wonderland. By the time they were 13, the duo started playing school dances, working on a vocal harmony in honor of their heroes, The Everly Brothers.

Before graduating from high school, Paul and Artie cut the single "Hey Schoolgirl" under the name of Tom & Jerry. It reached #49 on the pop charts in 1957.

Over the next six years, the pair attended college (Paul at Queens College and Artie at Columbia University) and Paul tried his hand at contracted song-writing, in the shadows of the famous Brill Building in Manhattan.

By early 1964, Simon & Garfunkel landed an audition at mighty Columbia Records. Clive Davis signed them to a contract and their phenomenal six year run resulted in multiple gold records, a Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award and induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.

Paul Simon's solo career has now spanned an incredible 40 years. The cornerstone of his work remains the seminal Graceland (1986), but readers would be remiss to not include in their collection the consecutive three-album span that ranks with the best pop music has to offer: Paul Simon (1972); There Goes Rhymin' Simon (1973); and Still Crazy After All These Years (1975).

This is not to dismiss his other work, which to this day remains original and vital, ranking him with contemporaries Bob Dylan and Neil Young as artists who refuse to rest on their laurels. Simon recently completed a new album helmed by Phil Ramone, which he calls "the best work I've done in 20 years."

Additional Reading & Viewing:

* Paul Simon discography

* Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Bio and Timeline

* Appearance on "Charlie Rose" 28 June 2007

* Paul Simon on songwriting and "Surprise," All Things Considered, 8 May 2006

* Interview with Simon & Garfunkel, NPR Weekend Edition, 12 June 2004

24th Bridge School Benefit Concert Lineups Announced

One of the musical events of the year occurs each October at the Shoreline Amphitheatre in Mountain View, California: The Bridge School Benefit Concerts, hosted by Neil & Pegi Young. The 24th annual edition of the event will take place on Saturday, 23 October and Sunday, 24 October. Proceeds benefit The Bridge School, an organization that educates children with severe speech and physical impairments.

The concerts are predominantly acoustic and always feature a solo turn by Young. The lineups are eclectic and have resulted in some memorable performances (many of which can be accessed through a special deal with iTunes).

This year promises to be no different. The big announcement of the lineups yesterday included the news of a Buffalo Springfield reunion, featuring Young, Stephen Stills and Richie Furay. (No word on whether Jim Messina will appear; Bruce Palmer and Dewey Martin have passed away.) Watch below for the complete list of musicians scheduled to appear:

(Thanks to TNOP producer Al Dugen for the tip.)

New Neil Young To Be Released 28 September (WITH UPDATES!)

From Neil Young's Facebook page Friday:

“Le Noise” is complete. It is a solo record. Playbacks are happening now. Release date is September 28th. It will be available in Vinyl, CD and I tunes in the first edition, followed by Blu-Ray, and an APP for I-Phone and I-Pad a month or so later. The app will be free. It gives you an interactive album cover. Forgive my use of the word “album”. I am old school. When you buy the songs/movies from I- tunes they show up in your APP. Peace ny

The album was produced by Daniel Lanois, who recently told Rolling Stone, "We cut a couple of solo acoustic songs, but the rest is very electric. There's no band, but I got in there with my sonics. There's nothing else out there like it."

We haven't uncovered the track listing as of yet, but during his recent tour, Young has been road-testing new songs. One strong contender is the intensely autobiographical song "Hitchhiker," which has its roots going all the way back to 1992. Here's a recent performance of "Hitchhiker" at the Ryman Auditorium in Nashville (great audio):

UPDATE 23 August: TwentyFourBit has the cover art and track listing here.

UPDATE 26 August: Pop & Hiss was invited to Daniel Lanois' home for a first listen of the record. They liked it, very much.

Farm Aid 25 Announced

I’d just like to say I hope that some of the money that’s raised for the people in Africa – maybe they could just take a little bit of it – maybe one or two million, maybe - and use it, say, to pay, er, the mortgages on some of the farms . . . that the farmers here owe to the banks. --- Bob Dylan at LiveAid, 13 July 1985

Prescient? Out of line? Whatever your interpretation of Dylan's 25-year-old quote above, it was these words that gave birth to the Farm Aid organization, devoted to "helping farmers find the resources they need to access new markets, transition to more sustainable and profitable farming practices, and survive natural disasters."

Willie Nelson and Neil Young allowed their names to be affiliated with Farm Aid and have served on its Board of Directors and performed at the annual concert for a quarter century. Along with other high profile artists John Mellencamp and Dave Matthews, it was announced this morning that Farm Aid 25 will be held at Miller Park baseball stadium in Milwaukee, Wisconsin on 2 October. JSOnline reports that tickets for "Farm Aid 25: Growing Hope for America" will go on sale at 9 a.m. Aug. 14, at the Miller Park box office, by calling (414) 902-4000 or online at www.tickets.com. Ticket prices range from $39.50 to $97.50. Farm Aid will offer special advance sale tickets to Farm Aid members beginning Friday, August 6. To become a Farm Aid member, visit www.farmaid.org.

In addition to Nelson, Young, Mellencamp and Matthews, the full lineup of the concert will be announced in the coming weeks. TNOP will keep you updated.

Your Weekly Dylan Cover [#10]

"All Along The Watchtower"
Neil Young & Bruce Springsteen
Original Dylan version found on John Wesley Harding (1967)


Neil Young constitutes with Bob Dylan and Bruce Springsteen the great triad of 'moral' voices of American popular music. Their art is . . . first and foremost, a fusion of music and words that identifies with their era's zeitgeist.
---Piero Scaruffi, The History of Rock Music - The Sixties

While there is certainly room for vigorous intellectual discussion among rock music critics and fans as to the thesis above, there is no doubt that Bruce Springsteen and Neil Young are the closest disciples of Bob Dylan. Although more overtly political than their mentor, the duo have the innate ability to engage with a wide range of the listening public by weaving tales of the common man and his everyday struggles.

And so it was no accident that in the fall of 2004 in St. Paul, Minnesota, Neil Young joined Bruce Springsteen on stage to perform a unique version of "All Along The Watchtower." No accident, given the talent, experience and scars between them that the two had the chutzpah to take on the most famous Dylan cover of them all. No accident that the performance was a paint-peeling electric version in the Hendrix style that Dylan himself had adopted for 30 years. And certainly no accident that the summit of these two rock giants took place in Dylan's home state.

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"All Along The Watchtower" was one of the handful of songs that Bob Dylan reportedly penned in the aftermath of his famous (and mysterious) motorcycle accident in the summer of 1966. When the track was recorded for the John Wesley Harding album, Dylan - armed as usual with guitar and harmonica - was joined by Nashville studio vets Charlie McCoy on bass and Kenny Buttrey on drums. The LP was released at Christmas time in 1967. "Watchtower" was the second single in advance of the album being racked; Dylan recorded the song on 6 November and the 45 r.p.m. was delivered to record stores on 22 November. The single did not chart.

In October 1968, Dylan spoke with Happy Traum in an interview for Sing Out! magazine. He spoke of the nature of the tunes on John Wesley Harding, which were thought to be in sharp contrast to previous efforts. Dylan seemed to sense that the narrative change was jarring for some of his listeners: "I haven't fulfilled the balladeer's job. A balladeer can sit down and sing three songs for an hour and a half... it can all unfold to you. These melodies on John Wesley Harding lack this traditional sense of time. As with the third verse of 'The Wicked Messenger', which opens it up, and then the time schedule takes a jump and soon the song becomes wider... The same thing is true of the song 'All Along the Watchtower', which opens up in a slightly different way, in a stranger way, for we have the cycle of events working in a rather reverse order."

Of course, that was just the beginning of the notoriety of "All Along The Watchtower." The Jimi Hendrix Experience recorded the definitive version for its third album, Electric Ladyland. Dylan is on record about Hendrix's take on his song on at least two occasions. In the liner notes to Biograph, he says: "I liked Jimi Hendrix's record of this and ever since he died I've been doing it that way. . . Strange how when I sing it, I always feel it's a tribute to him in some kind of way." And in an interview with the Fort Lauderdale Sun in 1995, Dylan stated: "It overwhelmed me, really. He had such talent, he could find things inside a song and vigorously develop them. He found things that other people wouldn't think of finding in there. He probably improved upon it by the spaces he was using. I took license with the song from his version, actually, and continue to do it to this day."

Original Listening: Bob Dylan, "All Along The Watchtower"

Live Listening: Bob Dylan & The Band, "All Along The Watchtower" (Before The Flood, 1974)

Other Cover Version: U2, "All Along The Watchtower" (Rattle and Hum, 1988)

Your Weekly Dylan Cover (#7)

"Forever Young"
Liam O Maonlai with The Swell Season
Original Dylan version found on Planet Waves (1974)

Thanks to our friend Bird, we discovered this little gem, recorded for Czech Republic television back in 2008. Marketa Irglova, a native of that Eastern European nation and half of The Swell Season with Glen Hansard, are joined by Liam O Maonlai, former lead singer of Hothouse Flowers.

It is O Maonlai who shines on this take of Dylan's "Forever Young," leading the melody both on piano and by building his voice verse by verse to the point of exuberance. Hansard keeps up on guitar and subtly compliments the end of each stanza with a gentle backing vocal; it is evident that these fellow Dubliners have played together on Grafton Street or in pubs before.

Irglova and Hansard look at each other a few times as if saying, "this is really something special." It is.

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There are two versions of "Forever Young" on the 1974 release Planet Waves, bridging Sides One and Two. While the song is now a long-time Dylan standard, it did not make much of a ripple upon its release, and neither, surprisingly, did the album. This in and of itself was very curious, for the pairing with The Band - now stars in their own right - with old mentor Dylan , and a pending tour (memorialized on Before The Flood) should have been a home run. Maybe it was the malaise that was setting into the bloated rock world, only to be reinvigorated a couple years later by the punk movement. Maybe it was the odd fact that the LP label looked weird on the turntable (Dylan had defected to David Geffen's Asylum Records, after nearly fifteen years with titan Columbia Records). Or maybe it was the hodgepodge of song selection (Bill Wyman called it "a spare but twisted collection of songs").

In retrospect, "Forever Young" is the most enduring and strongest selection off Planet Waves. Its waltz melody perfectly accents the Psalm-like recitation of wishes that all parents have for their children. In one of the rare direct references to his songs, Dylan said: "I wrote it thinking about one of my boys and not trying to be too sentimental."

Original Listening: Bob Dylan, "Forever Young"

Live Listening & Viewing: Bob Dylan & The Band, "Forever Young" (The Last Waltz, 1975)

Alternate Take: Bob Dylan, "Forever Young" (Biograph, 1985)

Other Cover Versions:

Eddie Vedder, "Forever Young" (Boston, 2006)

Neil Young & The Grateful Dead, "Forever Young" (San Francisco, 1991)

In Memoriam: Four Dead In Ohio

4 May 1970
Kent State University

From the New York Times front page story by John Kifner:

Four students at Kent State University, two of them women, were shot to death this afternoon by a volley of National Guard gunfire. At least 8 other students were wounded.

The burst of gunfire came about 20 minutes after the guardsmen broke up a noon rally on the Commons, a grassy campus gathering spot, by lobbing tear gas at a crowd of about 1,000 young people.

Frederick P. Wenger, the Assistant Adjutant General, said the troops had opened fire after they were shot at by a sniper.

"They were understanding orders to take cover and return any fire," he said.

This reporter, who was with the group of students, did not see any indication of sniper fire, nor was the sound of any gunfire audible before the Guard volley. Students, conceding that rocks had been thrown, heatedly denied that there was any sniper.

==================================================
The dead:
Allison Krause, 19 (shot from 110 yards away)
William Schroeder, 19 (130 yards)
Jeffery Miller, 20 (90 yards)
Sandra Scheuer, 20 (130 yards)

It's still hard to believe I had to write this song. It's ironic that I capitalized on the death of these American students. Probably the most important lesson ever learned at an American place of learning. David Crosby cried after this take.
---Neil Young, liner notes to Decade on his song "Ohio"

Spanning The Globe . . .

. . . to bring you the constant variety of music, TNOP brings you the latest news.

We've been an occasional user of the music service Lala over the years as a convenient service to stream albums new and old. Apple bought out Lala last year for $89 million. Now, Apple will shut down Lala on 31 May. Go figure. Pop & Hiss discusses.

Veteran rock crit David Fricke makes the case for reissue of The Jimi Hendrix Experience's Axis: Bold As Love. Better than Are You Experienced? and Electric Ladyland. Um, well . . .

Rick Mason of the City Pages interviews legendary keyboardist Al Kooper about his extraordinary career. And according to Kooper, The Mighty Max Weinberg won't be joining Conan O'Brien on TBS.

Greil Marcus' new book is When That Rough God Goes Riding: Listening to Van Morrison. He talks about that and much, much more in a frank, fascinating, extended talk with PopMatters.

Yeasayer brought their tour to Metro in Chicago the other night. Greg Kot was there.

The anticipation is high for the 14 May release from The National, High Violet. Nicholas Dawidoff writes an in depth profile of the band and the painstaking process of the making of the record for the New York Times Magazine.

Colin Meloy of The Decemberists tried out a couple of new tunes at PDX Pop Now! in Portland. Stereogum has the video.

It appears Neil Young is holed up in the studio with uber-producer Daniel Lanois making a new album. At least according to David Crosby. We believe him. But if this was twenty years ago . . .

The Belfast Telegraph reports Paul Hewson met with President Obama at the White House Friday to discuss development in Africa.

Josh Ritter's busy. A new album, a novel and an extensive tour of Ireland. The Irish Times fills us in.

Patron Saint vs. Poet Laureate? TNOP has no comment. But this column by Tony Norman in the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette is well-researched and very thoughtful about the recent comments attributed to Joni Mitchell about Bob Dylan.

Nialler9 gets Jim Carroll to sit down and write about his Top 5 Irish Acts right now. We dig Villagers too. And Celtic Ray suggests you check out The Cast of Cheers and download their album Chariot for free.

The Queen of Soul abruptly cancelled her scheduled appearance for Friday night at the New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival. While that seems to be the way of the world (Aretha stood the festival up last year as well), the mighty, mighty Earth, Wind & Fire was nearby and stepped in to pinch hit. NOLA.com gives them some deserved love. And so does TNOP, as we bid you adieu from the news desk good ladies and gentlemen . . .

Headline News

The Teletype's been clattering away here at TNOP World Headquarters, so we bring you this news . . .

Iranians Ash Koshanejad and Negar Shaghaghi are the twin songwriters of Take It Easy Hospital. They star in a new documentary called No One Knows About Persian Cats, which takes the viewer on a fictionalized account of the underground music scene in and around Tehran. The Guardian profiles the duo - who have since sought asylum in the UK - and previews the film, whose director has been arrested and jailed.

Jack White's a one-man PR machine. This week, he gave a lengthy interview to the New York Post and vigorously defended detractors of Meg White. "Her femininity and extreme minimalism are too much to take for some metalheads and reverse-contrarian hipsters," White told the paper. "She can do what those with 'technical prowess' can't. She inspires people to bash on pots and pans. For that, they repay her with gossip and judgement." He continued by saying that Meg has the last laugh over her critics. "In the end she's laughing all the way to the Prada handbag store," he said. "She wins every time." Then entertainment.ie reported that The Dead Weather's second LP will be released on May 7. Oh, and he's done a record with Shawn Carter, better known in music circles as Jay-Z, according to GQ.

Neil Young has teamed with Jonathan Demme again, this time resulting in Neil Young Trunk Show: Scenes From A Concert. Randy Lewis of the Los Angeles Times and Greg Kot of the Chicago Tribune offer their separate perspectives.

Smokey Bill Robinson was the deserved keynote speaker at SXSW Festival in Austin. Then he headlined a bill with this killer line-up: Raphael Saadiq, Sharon Jones and the Dap-Kings, Black Joe Lewis and the Honeybears, and Mayer Hawthorne. Phew. If you were there, leave us a comment!

And speaking of soul, The Times of London share the curious story of UK group Mama's Gun, sensations in . . . Japan. Give 'em a listen.

Uncut talks to Big Star bassist Ken Stringfellow, who says that he's trying to put together a tribute to Alex Chilton to conclude SXSW. Looks like Chuck Prophet, M. Ward and Cheap Trick are in, with others to follow.

Dirty Projectors stopped by a radio station in Australia and pulled out a cover of Bob Dylan's "Dark Eyes," the fairly obscure closer on Empire Burlesque. It's a beautiful arrangement and performance.

Here's some cool news: one of the more revered rock films - but up till now seen by only a handful of fans - has been refurbished and will be released this Tuesday. The T.A.M.I. Show from 1964 featured Marvin Gaye, The Rolling Stones, Chuck Berry, The Supremes, The Beach Boys and Smokey Robinson - all Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inductees. But the most memorable performance is by The Godfather of Soul, The Hardest Working Man In Show Business, Mr. Please, Please, Please: James Brown. USA Today gives us an inside preview.

In coordination with the release of their new album The Big To-Do, The Drive-By Truckers are profiled in The Village Voice.

The A.V. Club presents a fine seminar on Pub Rock.

David Byrne & Fatboy Slim's project centering on former Philippines first lady Imelda Marcos, Here Lies Love, comes out 6 April. Check out the track listing, snippets of the songs and a promotional video here. Guests include Santogold, St. Vincent, Nellie McKay, Sharon Jones and Roisin Murphy.

Beck has formed his latest "Record Club" group of musicians. This time they are tackling the INXS album Kick. Their first effort will be "Guns In The Sky." Let's watch INXS' original live in
1991 at Wembley Stadium.

Covers, Covers Everywhere

TNOP has been impressed with a number of covers from noted artists flying around the internet, so we've gathered some of these efforts together for your enjoyment.

Dave Matthews & Neil Young, "Alone and Forsaken"
Out of the much hyped "Hope For Haiti" national telethon that featured dozens of musicians, this pairing and choice of song most floored us. The tune was written and recorded by Hank Williams, Sr and originally released 25 July 1951. The plaintive cry of the lyrics were transposed perfectly to the tragic situation in Port-au-Prince and beyond by Dave Matthews and Neil Young. It is our best guess that the genesis for this choice was Young, given his affinity for Hank and covers in the recent past by fellow Canadian Neko Case (0n 2001's Canadian Amp) and frequent collaborator Emmylou Harris (from the 2002 Hank tribute CD Timeless).



Annie Clark & Justin Vernon, "Harvest Moon"
And speaking of Ol' Shakey, his "Harvest Moon" was covered by the stellar pairing of Annie Clark (St. Vincent) and Justin Vernon (Bon Iver) at the Music Hall of Williamsburg on 23 January for Haiti relief.


Phoenix, "Sad Eyed Lady of the Lowlands"
A number of sites have revealed the mp3 of Phoenix's interesting choice of covers: Dylan's opus to his first wife. [The track on Blonde On Blonde exceeded 11 minutes; the French band cuts that by more than half.] Interesting to note Thomas Mars' vocal approach on this one. Listen to it via Twenty-Four Bit here.

Fiona Apple, "He's Funny That Way"
Ms. Apple has been lying low for some time, so it is good to see her in this performance with her frequent collaborator/producer Jon Brion. The selection is an old jazz standard written by Richard Whiting and Neil Moret, previously recorded by a number of artists, including Frank Sinatra, Billie Holiday and Nat "King" Cole. The venue is Los Angeles' Largo at the Coronet on behalf of the "Love and Haiti, Too" benefit concert on 23 January.

They're Planting Stories In The Press

TNOP brings you the news without the idiot wind . . .

As previously reported, Gorillaz new record, Plastic Beach, will be released 8 March. The Guradian reports on the project, including the track listing. In addition, you can listen to the first single, "Stylo," featuring Bobby Womack and Mos Def, here. The band also will headline the last night of the Coachella festival in California on 18 April.

Vinyl lives! The web site nylvi reports that Radiohead sold the most wax albums in 2009, moving 45,700 copies. Close behind were The Beatles (38,800). Filling out the top ten: Michael Jackson, Metallica, Wilco, Dylan, Animal Collective, Pearl Jam, Bon Iver and Iron and Wine.

Conan O'Brien has announced the guest list for his last NBC Tonight Show tomorrow night: Tom Hanks, Will Farrell and Ol' Shakey himself, Neil Young.

Our friends at Muzzle of Bees tip us off to the upcoming Austin City Limits show this weekend, starring the Avett Brothers and Heartless Bastards. Visit their site and take in a video sneak preview.

Free Documentaries OnLine allows you to view The U.S. v. John Lennon, the story behind the government's efforts to deport the former Beatle in the 1970s.

Rolling Stone interviews Win Butler of Arcade Fire.

Kate McGarrigle, who along with her sister Anna wrote pop songs and performed as the McGarrigle Sisters, died after a battle with cancer this past week in her native Montreal. In recent years, McGarrigle was best known as the mother of Rufus and Martha Wainwright. The singer who made the sisters' songs most famous, Linda Ronstadt, reflects on McGarrigle's contribution to pop music with The Los Angeles Times.

Hopefully, last week we turned you on to the pop classic Something/Anything? Now let Crawdaddy! introduce you to Todd Rundgren's 1973 follow up effort A Wizard, A True Star.

Get your credit card and dialing finger ready. Radiohead plays a benefit show for Haiti at the Henry Fonda Theater in Los Angeles this Sunday night. Good luck at the auction.

Mumford & Sons is the Paste Artist of the Day.

That's it from the news desk. As we go out, let's pay tribute to Kate McGarrigle and listen to her sister Anna's "Heart Like A Wheel," performed beautifully by Linda Ronstadt. Then, the McGarrigle Sisters and Ronstadt get together in Linda's Tuscon, Arizona living room in 1999 and sing Steven Foster's "Gentle Annie."

Staying Up To Watch The News With Everyone

NME reports that on December 14 Damon Gough a/k/a Badly Drawn Boy will release Is There Nothing We Can Do, his first long-player since 2006. In the meantime, revisit the video for his song "You Were Right."

The lineup of acts for the MusicCares event in Los Angeles honoring Neil Young is pretty impressive. Emmylou Harris, Dave Matthews, Jackson Browne, Wilco, Crosby, Stills & Nash and Ozomatli are among many set to perform on January 29 in a salute to Neil's art and philanthropy.

Carbon/Silicon is offering a free mp3 download of its latest album, Carbon Bubble.

According to blues blogger Reverend Keith A. Gordon, Copiah County, Mississippi is intent on raising $250,000 in order to restore the birthplace of legendary bluesman Robert Johnson. While much of his life - and death - have been shrouded in mystery, apparently no one argues that Johnson was born in Hazlehurst, Mississippi on May 8, 1911 in his stepfather's home. But we can be assured that generations to come will still be arguing about the location of "the crossroads."

Yusef Islam, formerly known as Cat Stevens, had a wide range of opinion directed at him at his O2 Arena concert in Dublin the other night. TNOP recommends a viewing of Harold and Maude to make everyone feel better.

Don Letts, John Savage and the founder of Rough Trade records takes The Guardian on an interactive and podcast tour of punk landmarks in London's Notting Hill neighborhood.

Pop & Hiss reviews last night's Ray Davies concert in L.A. Not surprisingly, he impressed the critic as well as the crowd.

Florence & The Machine's debut effort Lungs has been appearing on many early "Best of 2009" album lists. Spinner reports that on November 30 it will be reissued as a four-disc set, including not only the studio CD, but live performances, covers and remixes.

This Date In Rock History: 12 November

Well. Hello, Mr. Soul. Happy Birthday to Ol' Shakey himself, Neil Young. Long may he run.