Van Halen's fifth album, 1982's 'Diver Down,' turns 31 years old today (April 14). As a hastily-recorded collection featuring only four full-length original songs, this record should by all rights be a disaster.
Instead, it's just about the most fun thing you can play at your next summer family picnic.
The first time Van Halen changed singers -- swapping David Lee Roth for Sammy Hagar -- their debut concert with the Red Rocker on March 27, 1986, couldn’t have been more triumphant.
By 1978, Jethro Tull had been running for 10 years, and though their commercial fortunes and profile had soared with albums like 'Aqualung' and 'Thick as a Brick,' the band was still at its creative peak, as its 11th album, 'Heavy Horses,' proves.
On April 8, 1998, Rolling Stones guitarist Ron Wood was rescued by paparazzi from a yacht fire. Seems the legendary guitarist was out on a boat trip near Brazil, as another boat of paparazzi was on the chase behind to try and score some candid photos. As the otherwise mellow excursion proceeded, Wood's boat suddenly burst into flames.
How exactly did Genesis, progressive rock's defining band, manage to survive so much turmoil? The group weathered the loss of key members and a shifting musical landscape to produce '. . . And Then There Were Three . . .,' the 1978 album that introduced a leaner three-man lineup and helped them move from prog toward the poppier sound that would define their career in the '80s.
A happy family man, secure in his faith, his bank account, his golf game and his lofty status in the rock and roll pantheon, legendary shock rocker Alice Cooper is living the life these days -- especially for a guy who's been faking his own death on an almost nightly basis for decades. But 25 years ago Cooper almost ended up hanging for real when his onstage gimmick went horribly wrong.
Steve Marriott and his boys in Humble Pie were firing on all cylinders at the start of 1973, fueled by the career-high No. 6 chart placing achieved by the previous year’s aptly named ‘Smokin’’ LP, which appeared to indicate the British group’s de facto conquest of America. Now all they had to do was top it.
In a way, Talking Heads’ eighth and final album, ‘Naked,’ was a reaction to Paul Simon’s ‘Graceland,’ which introduced world music to mainstream audiences in 1986. Then again, Talking Heads got there before Simon, incorporating African rhythms into their songs way back in 1980’s landmark ‘Remain in Light.’ But after 1983’s ‘Speaking in Tongues,’ which featured similar world-music junctures, and the massive world tour that followed, the group began scaling back.
Though long-time fans likely hoped it was an April Fool's joke gone terribly wrong, original frontman David Lee Roth did in fact quit Van Halen 28 years ago today, on April 1, 1985.
As 1972 rolled around, Fleetwood Mac were trying to re-invent themselves and move the band forward. 1973's 'Penguin' album would do exactly that -- but not before traveling a long, strange road.
Paul McCartney was on a roll when he entered Abbey Road Studios in early 1977 to begin work on Wings’ sixth album. But he found it difficult to continue that winning streak with 'London Town,' which fell a little bit short despite a few good songs.
On March 28, 1973, Led Zeppelin released their fifth and arguably most wide-ranging album, 'Houses of the Holy.'
