Skynyrd was set to play Huntsville, Alabama, in the spring of 77, I had a ticket but it got cancelled. So, the show, it was rescheduled for the Street Survivors Tour And the rest, as they say, is history. Drive-By Truckers from Let There Be Rock from Southern Rock Opera ...and while I'm at it, one more from Southern Rock Opera especially since you bring up Baton Rouge: GREENVILLE TO BATON ROUGE (Hood / DBT) One more night, one more show, four down, eighty-four to go This ain't no time for moving slow Greenville to Baton Rouge I'll call you up when I get through The life I live is the life I choose Greenville to Baton Rouge The shows have sure been great this year All eight cylinders all twelve gears Call you up when I touch down at the airport in a Louisiana town. Street survivors, feeling no pain A little more rock, a little less cocaine. And don't forget about Stevie Gaines Greenville to Baton Rouge I'll call you up when I get through If it's the last thing that I do Greenville to Baton Rouge Last night, you should have seen this plane. The right engine shot a twelve foot flame. But South Carolina made us glad we came. Now we're up in the air again. Once we hit Louisiana, baby, I don't care Got a brand new airplane waiting for us there Give this piece of shit back to Aerosmith. Wake me up when we get there. The right engine gave a little flash, the pilot panicked and dumped the gas Everything is quiet, we're dropping fast. When we touch down gonna whup' his ass! Greenville to Baton Rouge Can't die now got a show to do The life I live is the life I choose Greenville to Baton Rouge. ***Tells the tale of the actual final flight. For the record, the plane was a 1947 Convair Turbo Prop that had formerly been used as an airliner for Eastern before they moved to an all jet fleet. It was leased from a company in Dallas TX. The band Kiss had formerly leased it and Aerosmith had planned on taking it, but their management was appalled at how shabbily it had been maintained and passed on it.

From Rolling Stone.com's Summer Concert Guide: Not sure where they got the ticket prices and openers from as both are news to me... R.E.M. Through June 14th Tickets $24-$40 Openers Phantom Planet, Motion City Soundtrack Photo:Getty R.E.M.'s bassist, Mike Mills, says that their first tour in three years will focus on their rocking new album, Accelerate, they'll play most of the disc every night. "As soon as they were written, we knew those songs would be fun to play live," says Mills, who is still in love with gigging 28 years after starting the band in Athens, Georgia. "We wouldn't be doing it if we weren't psyched. The work is too hard to do if you're not loving it." What have you noticed about crowds at recent R.E.M. shows? They skewed older for a while. Now they're skewing younger again, which is very exciting. This summer, will you bring back songs that have been retired? We probably will. I'm looking through the catalog for songs we've never played or haven't played in a long time. Can you name a song you'll bring back? No, because if I say something now, someone in the band will say, "No, I don't wanna play that" [laughs]. Everyone has veto power. How much do you rehearse for a tour? Well, you wanna rehearse enough to be comfortable with the songs, but not so much that you get bored of them. It's a fine line. What's on R.E.M.'s rider? Fruit, cheese, red wine and lint-free towels. You can't go out there with lint in your hair. You'll look stupid. Do you have a favorite story from touring in the Eighties? Well, we shared a trailer with Ratt at a festival in Calaveras County [California] in '84. Weird. Did you talk to Ratt? No, but we listened to them get "up" for the show. That's all I'm saying.

I didn't say I didn't support them, I just don't think the current Skynyrd is even close to the original version of the band. That said, if it wasn't for the Tribute tour I never would have seen them in any form. I have also been a fan from the beginning but history took it's course before I had a chance to see them on the Street Survivors tour.

I love Skynyrd but with all due respect the post-crash version doesn't even come close to holding a candle to the original (pre-crash) lineup of the band. The Allmans on the other hand are still just as vital as they've ever been thanks in no small part to Derek Trucks.

Review: Hank Jr., Skynyrd at less than their best without Billy Powell

The Billboard Q&A: Iron Maiden's Bruce Dickinson Iron Maiden Paul Bruce Dickinson made his live debut with Iron Maiden at the end of 1981, some two years after the band started its enduring relationship with EMI Records. He had viewed the group's early emergence from a ringside seat as lead singer with Samson, another of the bands in what the rock press dubbed "the new wave of British heavy metal." Since then, he has been not only Iron Maiden's definitive lead singer, but an author, sportsman, a solo artist for five years in the 1990s, a radio DJ and a pilot. In the middle of the most successful global tour of the band's career, he sat down with Billboard to discuss his, and Maiden's, life and times. You can read the interview here.

Ulrich Promises 'Dynamic' New Metallica Album Gary Graff, Detroit Metallica is "a couple of nips and tucks" away from completing its next album, which is still on target for a September release, according to drummer Lars Ulrich. During a conference call yesterday (May 15) promoting this year's Bonnaroo Music Festival, which Metallica will headline on June 13, Ulrich told reporters that the group hopes to wrap up work on the album in time for the Memorial Day weekend holiday. Metallica recently met with a graphic designer to begin planning the package, though there's no confirmed title for the album yet and the songs still have working names. You can read the rest of the article here.

Pearl Jam Plans To Let New Songs 'Grow Up' Mike McCready Gary Graff, Detroit Pearl Jam has gotten a start on its next album, but it's still in "its very infant stages" according to guitarist Mike McCready. "We've had one session of writing and it has yielded ... about five ideas so far," McCready told Billboard.com during a conference call with reporters about this year's Bonnaroo Music Festival, which Pearl Jam will headline on June 14. "Some of it's kind of poppy and some of it's a little hard. We want it to grow up a little bit. We have to revisit it a few times." You can read the rest of the article here.

Aquarium Drunkard Interview with Patterson Hood

I don't even consider Guns n' Rosees to be a contender for best American band. I love Aerosmith but they're not even in the same league as groups like The Band or artists like Bob Dylan. Not even fucking close...

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I'm pretty sure there's more than one. I haven't seen any Phil and Friends shows, nor have I heard any of the CDs but I have heard good things about them both. One interesting note is that after doing a few shows with Ryan Adams a few summers ago (including a couple at Red Rocks where Ryan was allowed to play Jerry Garcia's guitar Wolf, the first to do since Jerry's death), Phil added some of Ryan's songs to his setlist and continues to play them. Phil has also apparently been giving the spotlight over to newcomer Jackie Greene a bit but I have no idea if Jackie is on any of those discs.

More details on Neil's upcoming box set: Forever Young Neil Young's Long-Promised Archive Is Actually in the Works And Coming Out on Blu-ray Neil Young circa 1970 Getty Images By ETHAN SMITH Since the 1980s, Neil Young has been telling fans he is close to releasing an exhaustive, interactive archive of music, photographs, video footage and other material from his storied career. The project has achieved legendary status in the music world, not for the music it contains but because it has never surfaced, despite Mr. Young's periodic promises. The Canadian rocker has attributed the serial delays to technical shortcomings and sound-quality problems in media ranging from CD-ROMs to DVDs. You can read the remainder of the article here.

I also love their cover of Boom Boom.

I haven't really followed Big Head Todd & the Monsters all that much in recent years but I do thoroughly enjoy the two records I have by them (Sister Sweetly and Strategem). They also kicked ass the couple of times I saw them in concert back in the 90s. The first time was during one of the first H.O.R.D.E. Festival tours, the second was a free show in Wilmington, NC with the Dave Matthews Band and the Boxing Ghandis. The DMB pretty much put me to sleep but Big Head Todd and the Monsters were great, especially their covers of Zep (Tangerine) and Cash (Folsom Prison Blues). Their originals are very good too.

I have a good amount of Dead on cassette, vinyl and CD but as I probably mentioned in that other thread I went out and bought both boxes (as well as the Jerry box) a few years ago to help complete my collection. When it comes to the live stuff there's such a wealth of material to chose from it can be a bit overwhelming.

Even though I was a fan back then and Machine Head was some of the first rock n' roll I ever heard (on 8-track, no less), the only thing I own is Made In Japan on vinyl.

Since you didn't quote anyone I'm not sure who those comments are directed towards but in the event they're in reference to my comments about pitting artists against one another....I don't think it's unusual or harmful, I just think it's pointless. The most recent live recordings issued from the Grateful Dead vault are a new series called Road Trips. Prior to that there was a series called Dick's Picks but it has been discontinued in favor of Road Trips. As I'm sure you're aware, they also release other live shows from the vault that aren't connected to either of those series, the newest is a 10 CD box set called Winterland 1973: The Complete Recordings. I don't own any of those (yet) but do have some other official (as well as unofficial) live recordings. As you might have guessed, there is a wealth of material to choose from (both official and unofficial), however none of them are all that recent since the Grateful Dead ceased to exist in 1995 due to obvious reasons. One of my favorites is the all acoustic Reckoning, which recently got the expanded/remastered treatment along with all of the Dead's studio recordings, plus a handful of their live records. Here's a couple of my other favorite official live albums: So Many Roads (1965-1995I Collection of live and studio recordings from the beginning of the band up until the title track as performed at the band's last show at Chicago's Soldier Field on July 9th, 1995. Pretty good representation of latter day Dead with songs recorded at shows between October 1989 and April 1990. As I mentioned, if you're looking for more recent Dead your best bet is the Dick's Picks series and/or the wealth of "unofficial" recordings that are readily available out there. You might also want to check Amazon.com for fan reviews, the Grateful Dead's official web site for a list of all of the official recordings and this thread: The Grateful Dead, So...Where Do I Start?

Yes, it would. At least I think so. I saw them last year for the first time since Dickey left and they still have "it" (my last show [for no apparent reason] was during the Shades of Two Worlds Tour back in the early to mid 90s). Derek Trucks and Warren Haynes have breathed new life into the band. Some people already swear them off because of no Duane, no Berry or no Dickey but without Gregg I'd think they'd have to hang it up for good. ....on another note entirely I've read that Gene Simmons plans for Kiss to go on even without him and Paul Stanley once they retire from touring.

Sort of like the Marshall Tucker Band who are touring with only one original member? They played near me a year or so ago but damned if I was going to pay $30 to see 'em. Same for Blackfoot who are touring without Rickey Medlocke. Without Medlocke there is no Blackfoot. For years Molly Hatchet toured with no original members but people still paid good money to see that shit. I can only figure there's a generation raised on "classic rock" radio that simply didn't know any better, they just wanted to see the band who's song gets played every five minutes on the radio.

A couple more sites: The George Eastman House International Museum of Photography and Film and the Institute of Creative Photography collaboratively maintain and contribute to Photomuse, a research resource for the history of photography. One of the richest photography resources on the Web, Photomuse features online exhibitions, a chronology of the evolution of photography complete with visuals and historical information, as well as an image database where visitors to the site may perform simple keyword searches or use the advanced option to target specific fields. Photo Muse ------------------------------------------------ Launched in 2005, the NYPL Digital Gallery is one of the largest open-access image databases available on the Internet. Featuring more than 600,000 digital images, content covers a variety of subjects from the arts to science and technology and includes all kinds of primary materials, such as manuscripts, maps, photographs, prints, restaurant menus, sheet music covers, and much more from the special collections of the NYPL Research Libraries and the Mid-Manhattan Library Picture Collection. The Digital Gallery offers basic and advanced searches and also allows users to browse alphabetized lists of names, subjects, and libraries. As an added enhancement, users may select and store around 50 or more images for later viewing using the “selections” option. New York Public Library Digital Gallery

Yet another site with some cool old photos, here's one most everyone here ought to like: More here: 1930s-40s in Color