Rarebird's Rock and Roll Nest

It's that time of year again for Pink Floyd's biggest fans. As they did at the end of 2021 and of 2022, the Floyd have released a large number -- 18, to be exact -- of full-length concert recordings to streaming services. This year's offerings consist of 18 shows recorded in 1973, the year in which their landmark album Dark Side Of The Moon was released. The first of these 18 concerts took place on March 6th of that year, just a few days after the release of the album. The last two of them took place the following November 4th, both performed at London's Rainbow Theatre. Why have they done this? Reportedly, the release of these recordings extends copyright ownership for a longer time, whereas the legal rights to the recordings would expire and fall into public domain if the owners did not make use of them before a certain date. A Sony representative explained it this way to Rolling Stone magazine in 2013: “The copyright law in Europe was recently extended from 50 ...

The 58th set of exclusive vinyl items offered to members of Third Man Records’ Vault service was mailed out to the members in December of 2023. For those who are unaware, Third Man Records is the label owned by Jack White, who is the leader of the White Stripes, the Raconteurs, and the Dead Weather, and is now a solo artist. The Vault service promises to deliver exclusive vinyl-only records (usually one full-length album and one 7” single) to its members every three months. The 58th Vault package featured a 3-LP live album by the White Stripes recorded in 2003 during the Elephant tour, as well as a 7-inch single containing two additional live performances of "Ball And Biscuit" -- one of them performed as a duet by Bob Dylan and Jack White. As bonus items, the package contained a patch, a bumper sticker, and two art prints by Rob Jones. The 3-LP set Live In Las Vegas 2003 was recorded at a September 2003 White Stripes show at the Joint in the Hard Rock Casino in Vegas, ...

Apparently, the former child actress-turned-contemporary alt-pop singer Olivia Rodrigo was able to write a song before she was quite able to spell. On Christmas Eve in 2021, Rodrigo posted a snippet of an unreleased song titled "the bels" (her spelling) on Instagram. She wrote: "in honor of Christmas Eve may I present to you my very first Christmas song “the bels” written by 5 year old me lol. happy holidays!!!!" View this post on Instagram A post shared by Olivia Rodrigo (@oliviarodrigo) The following year, on December 17, 2022, the full version of the song, running 2 minutes and 18 seconds, was shared by Rodrigo through a link sent by e-mail to members of her fan club. Here is the link to the full downloadable track, which is not commercially available on streaming services: https://digital.umusic.com/livmas-thebels Rodrigo certainly does sound like a small child singing on this track, although the hip-hop beats and bits of instr...

For Record Store Day Black Friday 2023, country singer-songwriter Margo Price issued a limited edition vinyl LP titled Strays Live at Grimey's , recorded at Grimey’s New and Pre-loved Music store in Nashville on January 23, 2023. The LP was limited to 2,000 copies, and was pressed in sangria marble colored vinyl. This six-song live set was recorded on the release date of Strays , the fourth studio album from Price. The Strays album purveyed an adult-alternative style of country music, written under the influence of psilocybin and distinguished by psychedelic sounds, with lyrics about the difficult healing of wounds from the past. In November of that same year, Price released a limited-edition companion album titled Strays II , containing outtakes from the proper album, recorded during the same sessions at producer Jonathan Wilson's studio in Topanga Canyon, California. Strays II offered a more down-to-earth ennead of alt-country tunes. That album was limited to 1,000 LP cop...

The 57th set of exclusive vinyl items offered to members of Third Man Records’ Vault service was mailed out to the members in November of 2023. For those who are unaware, Third Man Records is the label owned by Jack White, who is the leader of the White Stripes, the Raconteurs, and the Dead Weather, and is now a solo artist. The Vault service promises to deliver exclusive vinyl-only records (usually one full-length album and one 7” single) to its members every three months. The 57th Vault package featured a 3-LP set containing all three of the solo albums of Syd Barrett, the original founding lead singer and guitarist of Pink Floyd, as well as a 7-inch single containing live renditions of two of Barrett's songs by Floyd guitarist David Gilmour. The three 180-gram colored vinyl LP's were packaged in a slipcase with cover art by Greg Ruth. Syd Barrett was born as Roger Keith Barrett in Cambridge, England in 1946. Barrett co-founded Pink Floyd in 1965 with Roger Waters, Ri...

Yes, it's that time of year again. It's not quite Thanksgiving yet, but certain radio stations have already begun packing their playlists with Christmas music -- in some cases playing it round-the-clock -- and in-store broadcasting networks are also constantly playing holiday tunes to provide a real-life soundtrack for customers' Christmas shopping activities. One song you have probably been hearing is the comedy novelty song charmingly titled "Grandma Got Run Over By A Reindeer", by Elmo & Patsy. The version of the song that people have been typically hearing for the last 40 Christmases or so is the re-recorded version from 1982. Many people have understandably forgotten the original recording of the song from 1979, which was released on an independent label based in Tennessee. In this earlier version, the vocal tone was much more understated, and the steel guitar sounded a bit more somber, making the song come across like a more straight-faced black comedy. ...

For Record Store Day Black Friday in 2023, Rhino Records is issuing a previously unreleased live album from The Doors, in both CD and LP formats. Live In Bakersfield will be limited to 7,500 vinyl double-LP's, and 12,500 double-CD's. The album was recorded on August 21, 1970 at the 3,000-seat Bakersfield Civic Auditorium in California. The documented concert was one of the last ones performed on the band's 1970 Roadhouse Blues Tour, on which they promoted their album Morrison Hotel . Notably, it took place during the same month in which Jim Morrison went on trial in Miami, FL for allegedly exposing himself on stage. This Bakersfield, CA concert was recorded by road manager Vince Treanor, using a stereo tape recorder with a pair of microphones placed on different sides of the stage. Bootlegs of the concert have circulated, with sound that is usually fairly clear but sometimes flat. It will be interesting to hear how the sound quality has been enhanced for this official re...

The 56th set of exclusive vinyl items offered to members of Third Man Records’ Vault service was mailed out to the members in July of 2023. For those who are unaware, Third Man Records is the label owned by Jack White, who is the leader of the White Stripes, the Raconteurs, and the Dead Weather, and is now a solo artist. The Vault service promises to deliver exclusive vinyl-only records (usually one full-length album and one 7” single) to its members every three months. The 56th Vault package featured a 3-LP live album by the late jazz legend Miles Davis, recorded at the Fillmore East in 1970, as well as a 7-inch single containing renditions of three of Davis' works by contemporary Austrian jazz artist Muriel Grossmann. As bonus items, this package contained an embroidered patch and a bumper sticker, the latter of which reads: "Miles Davis changed the course of music five or six times. What have you done...?" The 3-LP set Fearless: March 7, 1970 - Live At The Fillm...