BITS & PIECES

What would an inauguration be without a new Bruce Springsteen album? Billboard.com reports a January release for the Boss' new CD, which may include some leftover material from the "Magic" sessions. Gonna be hard to top "Girls In Their Summer Clothes." But if anyone can top Bruce, it's Bruce.
AND...

If a tree falls in the forest and no one is there to hear it, does anyone really give a shit that Led Zeppelin is touring with the singer from Alter Bridge as the replacement for Robert Plant? Actually, is there anyone...ANYONE but Plant that would make you say, "Oh that's GREAT! I GOTTA see this tour." I say...nope.


BUT...
Word on the street, on the down low, on the nickel, on the Atchison, Topeka and the Santa Fe is that Ray & Dave (Davies, not the Walston Brothers) are writing new material for that long-awaited Kinks reunion. While you wait, you should check out the current Ray Davies mini-tour coming to an over-priced, uncomfortable venue near you. Word on the street, on the down low, is that it will be mostly acoustic, with a set of Kinks material that will include killer support act Locksley as Ray's backing band. If you don't know Locksley, I strongly suggest checking them out. (see bottom of post) This can only be...questionable, but I'm excited anyway.


AND...


We lost a legend (to some.) Jimmy Carl Black, longtime Frank Zappa and the Mothers drummer, vocalist and self-appointed Indian has died at the age of 70. More HERE.
PLUS...

B-A-R-A-C-K IN THE USA/B-A-R-A-C-K IN THE USA
From Mr. Mellencamp's website:

"I remember the assassination of Martin Luther King and the marches in Selma, Alabama, and seeing Rosa Parks, demonstrators getting sprayed by fire hoses and attacked by police dogs and all the other horrible things that happened at that time in our country," he continued. "Then I played at the 2004 Democratic Convention, which was my first introduction to Barack Obama, and after his keynote address I looked at my wife Elaine and said, 'Man, what a poet! He could be president of the United States!' And that's absolutely verbatim.

"But even I, who have written countless songs about race, could not believe that a man of color could be president of the United States. But today I am so proud of America. I am so happy for all Americans, that we have finally started to fulfill our obligation to the immortal words of our Declaration of Independence, that all men are created equal. We cannot expect this man to immediately change the last eight years of fear and deception, but I think we can rejoice in the fact that there is someone speaking not just for his own interests, now, but hopefully as a voice for us all."

Ain't that America, indeed! Pretty good, Johnny boy.

I LEAVE YOU WITH...

A heads-up, that tomorrow's WEEKEND MIX," is special. Come back.

LOCKSLEY TUNE

RARE ZAPPA TRIBUTE TUNE FOR JIMMY CARL