YOU MAY HAVE MISSED: NEIL YOUNG TRIBUTE DVD

This was released a few weeks ago, without too much hype, but you need to know about it: A Musicares Tribute To Neil Young.

Shot January 29, 2010 at the NARAS 2010 Musicares Person Of The Year event, the show featured some pretty incredible artists paying tribute to Neil.  Some of the highlights included Norah Jones' "Tell Me Why," Ben Harper's "Ohio," Wilco's "Broken Arrow," James Taylor's "Heart Of Gold" (I think he actually sang backing vocals on the original version) and John Mellencamp's "Down By The River." Also a sort of supergroup: Elton John, Leon Russell, Sheryl Crow and Neko Case doing "Helpless." I think it was the first time Elton and Leon performed together.

Also on the bill: John Fogerty, Keith Urban, Lady Antebellum, Dave Matthews, Dierks Bentley, Booker T. Jones, Josh Groban (!), Jackson Browne, Elvis Costello, Crosby Stills & Nash. I think The Red Hot Chili Peppers performed for the first time with new guitarist Josh Klinghoffer ("A Man Needs A Maid") but it's not on the DVD.   Neil was there also, he just sort of gave a thank you speech (if you've seen his speeches at the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame induction ceremonies, you know what his speeches are like), he didn't perform at all.

The event, and the DVD, raises money for NARAS' MusiCares, which "offers a safety net of critical assistance for music people in times of need," including "financial medical and personal emergencies." Learn more about MusiCares here.  

TOMORROW ON OUTQ: WE DISCUSS THE BEATLES

2009 was a great year for Beatles fans: it saw the long-overdue remastering of the band's catalog. Also, their mono recordings were available on CD for the first time. Plus, there was their edition of the popular video game Rock Band.

2010 isn't going to top that. But there are some cool releases from The Beatles and their members that we'll be talking about tomorrow morning on SIRIUS XM OutQ's Morning Jolt with Larry Flick.

First off, the reissues of the "Red" and "Blue" albums. Released in 1973, "Red," or 1962-1966, is a double album which includes their biggest hits from the first half of their career. "Blue," or 1967-1970, is a double album that covers the rest of their career. My parents had "The Blue Album," and I still have that copy.  That's one of the first albums I remember listening to. There is nothing on "Red" or "Blue" that wasn't reissued last year, but for people looking to start getting into the band, these are great places to start (there's also the single CD best of 1, but that's a bit too short for my tastes). Both collections hit stores next week.

Out now is The 4 Complete Ed Sullivan Shows Featuring The Beatles 2 DVD set which I just wrote about. Of course the highlights of these are The Beatles world-changing performances. But it is interesting to watch the rest of the shows, to see what passed for entertainment back then.  I don't mean that in a snobby way: it's just that, compared to the rest of the entertainers on Sullivan, The Beatles were totally wild and radical.  These days, The Beatles are part of the cultural language.  But watching these shows, you get a better sense for why they had the effect that they had.

This past weekend, the whole world seemed to be celebrating the life and music of John Lennon, as he would have turned 70 on Saturday. The official John Lennon page on YouTube featured video messages from Ringo Starr, Aerosmith, DMC, Jeff Bridges, David Gray and many others, plus lots of non-celebs, just fans. And of course, his catalog has just been reissued, including a box set.  But what interested me the most is the new version of 1980's Double Fantasy, which has the original album, and a "stripped down" version of the album, kind of un-re-mixed by Yoko Ono and Jack Douglas (who produced the original).

Meanwhile, Paul McCartney is reissuing what is arguably his finest post-Beatles work Wings' 1973 album Band On The Run. It comes out November 2, and will have extra discs with bonus tracks and a DVD with video footage from the era.

The Beatles have long been holdouts in the digital music marketplace: you still can't download thier music (legally) anywhere. But they are thawing a bit: they are going to reissue the non-Beatles Apple Records catalog on October 25, including music by Badfinger, James Taylor (his first album) and Billy Preston.

TOMORROW ON OUTQ: SINGER-SONGWRITERS

For those of you who are new to No Expiration, every Wednesday morning at 9 am ET I go on the SIRIUS XM channel OutQ. I am a weekly contributor to The Morning Jolt with Larry Flick. Tomorrow I'll be talking about some great singer-songwriters, including one of Larry's favorites.  

A while ago, I wrote about James Taylor's tour with Carole King. It turns out that it is one of the hottest tours of the year! In the early '70s, James and Carole shared a backing band and did gigs together.  They actually did a few shows at the Trobadour in L.A. a while back, and have just released an excellent live album from the shows. It's easy to make fun of this and call it boomer soft-rock or whatever.  But James is an incredible songwriter and in my opinion, Carole is even better. She is in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame - as a "non-performer." For her career as a songwriter for other people (along with her former songwriting partner and ex-husband, Gerry Goffin). I would argue that she should be inducted for a second time, this time as a performer. 

Speaking of Carole King, Sony Legacy has just released The Essential Carole King. It is a bit different than the many other releases in the Essential series, in that one disc is Carole performing her own songs, the other disc features other artists, including Aretha Franklin, Little Eva, The Cookies and Billy Joel, performing her songs.  Before she was a performer, she worked as a songwriter in the Brill Building (Neil Diamond worked there as well). She wrote a lot of great songs for other people: but her own album Tapestry is a stone cold classic. 

A lot of people classify Jackson Browne along with James and Carole: a singer-songwriter who came of age in the late '60s and early '70s who seemed to be the drier next movement after the hippie era. And like James and Carole, he was never part of a band to reunite with.  James and Carole had both done some stripped down and solo tours, and without a band to reunite with, they reunited with each other (and their former backing band). Jackson has also done the stripped down thing in recent years, but for this live album, he reunited with his multi-instrumentalist collaborator David Lindley.  Their live album was recorded on a tour of Spain in 2006, and features some collaborators from Spain. I'm not a huge Jackson fan.  I love his politics, but I'm not totally into his music.  He is one of Larry Flick's favorite artists though. I interviewed Jackson once, and he was very cool.  

Jakob Dylan just released his second solo album, Women & Country.  His first one was produced by Rick Rubin and was stripped down a la double R's productions of Johnny Cash and Neil Diamond. This time around he worked with T-Bone Burnett who produced his most successful album, The Wallflowers' Bringing Down The Horse. Women & Country is great. I think Jakob is always going to be underrated. First of all, there's dad. Second, that Wallflowers album was so big, he isn't likely to get another album that is that popular. But you have me, so you don't need hype!  Trust me, get this album. 

Jack Johnson has just released his latest album, To The Sea, which apparently had one of the best first week sales numbers of 2010.  Of course, that doesn't mean as much as it used to, but good for Jack. I think even he is surprised at how successful he's been.  I've interviewed him, and he seems to be such a good guy. People think he doesn't have any edge to him, but he grew up listening to Fugazi and Metallica.  It's just not his thing to make that kind of music. Anyway, I like a lot of his songs (I don't know if I'd go to a concert, but I've enjoyed seeing him open for other people and at festivals), and I really like his new song, "You and Your Heart." 

Finally, Karen Elson a new artist who took me totally by surprise. I promise to write more about her pretty soon.  I really like her self titled debut album. 

JOINT (HA HA) TOURS: JAMES TAYLOR/CAROLE KING, EAGLES/FLEETWOOD MAC

Lots of boomers may have to take a break from recession-inspired austerity. This summer there are at least two co-headlining tours that are kind of big deals, and neither are likely to be cheap.  I'm being a jerk here: anyone who loves classic pop songswriting will probably dig these tours, especially the first one.

First off, James Taylor and Carole King. Two peers and incredible songwriters. In 2007, they did a handful of shows together at The Troubadour in Los Angeles, where I guess they used to perform back in the day.  I think the shows may have been based around their era-appropriate albums, Sweet Baby James and Tapestry. Judging by the photos that I've seen (including the one at the left,) it looks like they will perform at least a few songs together. Tapestry is an incredible album. It's weird that Carole is in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame as a "Non-performer" (i.e. as a songwriter for other people, but not for her own recordings) but James is in as a performer. That seems, I don't know, sexist.


The other tour, which is only in the rumor mill at this point, is The Eagles and Fleetwood Mac. Both are quartets that were more famous as quintets.  Fleetwood Mac's loss of keyboardist singer Christine McVie (to retirement) is a bigger deal to them than The Eagles' loss of guitarist Don Felder (who was fired). I imagine that this will be a greatest hits deal for both bands, and I doubt there will be any collaboration.  There's too much jealousy and ego between the members of the individual bands, and probably between both bands.

NEIL YOUNG TRIBUTE CONCERT LINEUP ANNOUNCED

Over the summer, I mentioned that NARAS had announced that the great Neil Young would be honored as their MusicCares Person Of The Year in 2010. The concert/event will take place January 29 at the L.A. Convention center, and will probably cost a ton of money (albeit, going to a good cause, MusicCares does some good stuff).

I've read online (but not at the NARAS site) a list of performers, so I don't know if it offiical, but if it is, this is a great lineup: The Red Hot Chili Peppers, Emmylou Harris, Sheryl Crow, Norah Jones, k.d. lang, Dave Matthews, Ozomalti, James Taylor, John Mellencamp, Crosby Stills & Nash, Wilco, Jackson Browne, Josh Groban(!) and some new band called Everest. Fans rarely get to see these shows (even on TV) which is too bad, especially this year.

BRUCE, STEVIE, BONO AND OTHERS TO PLAY INAUGURAL CELEBRATION

I wonder if Washington D.C. has ever seen anything like the excitement for Barack Obama's inauguration. Certainly the concert that will take place on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial this Sunday for the We Are One celebration is kind of unprecedented: Bruce Springsteen, Bono, Stevie Wonder, Beyonce, John Legend, Mary J. Blige, Garth Brooks, Sheryl Crow, Herbie Hancock, John Mellencamp, Usher, Shakira, James Taylor and will.i.am are among the artists who will be performing at this historic event. The show will be open to the public: I think it is supposed to be freezing that day, but who cares? I wish I was going.

9/11 MUSIC PART 2: THE CONCERT FOR NEW YORK CITY

On October 20, 2001 - just over a month after 9/11 - VH1 organized The Concert For New York City. I had just started working at VH1, and I gotta say, I was really proud to work there at that moment. I wasn't involved in the concert, but I knew people who did: I watched from home with my girlfriend (now my wife). 

There were a lot of really good sets: David Bowie opened with a really interesting version of Simon & Garfunkel's "America" and then did his own classic"Heroes"; Eric Clapton played with Buddy Guy; Billy Joel played with his band, Elton John played solo and they did a duo thing also; Mick Jagger and Keith Richards performed together, John Mellencamp played and was joined by Kid Rock; James Taylor played, and Paul McCartney headlined. 

But everyone knows what the highlights of the show were: Adam Sandler's set as "Operaman," and, of course, The Who's performance. I listened to both today, actually. Sandler's set shows the healing power of laughter. It must be one of the greatest comedy performances of all time. And The Who. Wow. Since they started reuniting in 1989, they've been approximating their old greatness, and sometimes hitting it. It's not really realistic for anyone to think that they can exceed the heights they achieved when Keith Moon was alive. And yet, on this night, they did. I've seen it rated as one of their best performances ever, and was the only post-Moon performance to be included on that list. 

I remember an exec at VH1 saying that they should have had more "modern" bands, although The Goo Goo Dolls, The Backstreet Boys, Destiny's Child, Five For Fighting and Jay-Z were on the bill (Jay-Z in particular was so lame I was embarrassed for him).  This guy has great instincts and has become even more successful since then. But how wrong he was: adding Sugar Ray and matchbox twenty wouldn't have really worked. The crowd needed larger than life artists and larger than life songs to lift them up and help them mourn. They needed music by The Beatles, The Rolling Stones and The Who, not Smash Mouth.