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The 1968 Beatles song Ringo Starr thought was unbeatable: “You can’t top it”
Ringo Starr has named ‘Yer Blues’, from The Beatles’ 1968 self-titled record (widely known as the White Album), as a track he believed the band could never surpass. The song stands out for how it was made rather than just how it sounds: written by John Lennon in India while he was, in his own…
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The disturbing 1973 song Billy Joel concedes “didn’t age well”
Billy Joel has said his 1973 song ‘Captain Jack’ has not aged well for him, citing both its bleak subject matter and its drawn-out musical structure. The song matters because it remains a well-known early work from his breakthrough-era album *Piano Man*, yet he has increasingly avoided performing it despite audience demand. Joel described the…
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The 1976 punk album that led to The Damned: “The real deal”
The Ramones’ self-titled 1976 debut album, though not the sole catalyst for British punk, gave crucial validation to bands such as the Sex Pistols and The Damned, confirming they were part of a wider movement rather than working in isolation. This influence crystallised when the Ramones played their first London gig at Dingwalls in Camden…
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3 Americana Songs From the 2010s You Forgot Were Essential
This is a light feature article from American Songwriter highlighting three Americana tracks from the 2010s that the outlet considers underappreciated or worth remembering. It is not a hard news story but a curated, opinion-led list aimed at fans of the genre, offering brief context on each song and the band behind it. The three…
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James Ellis Ford – “The Ever After”
James Ellis Ford, the acclaimed producer behind numerous major UK albums, has shared a new track called “The Ever After” from his forthcoming second solo album. The song is notable for having been written and recorded while Ford was undergoing chemotherapy for acute myeloid leukaemia, with the artist describing the record as an attempt to…
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Zac Brown Band Stuns Boston Crowd With Biggest Giveaway in History
The Zac Brown Band gave every single fan attending its Fenway Park concert a free two-person cruise, calling it the biggest giveaway in music history. Frontman Zac Brown made the surprise announcement mid-show during the band’s Love & Fear US Tour stop in Boston on Sunday, saying he wanted to reward the entire audience rather…
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Bob Dylan Wraps Up Dramatic U.S. Tour by Adding One More Guitarist Into the Mix: Jimmie Vaughan
Bob Dylan brought his summer US tour to a close on 1 August at the Ascend Federal Credit Union Amphitheater in Nashville, ending a run marked by unusual upheaval among his backing guitarists. For the final show, Dylan invited opening act Jimmie Vaughan onto the stage for three songs, continuing what has become a season…
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Scotland v UAE ODI washed out at Forthill
Scotland’s Cricket World Cup League 2 one-day international against the United Arab Emirates was abandoned without a ball bowled due to persistent rain at Forfarshire Cricket Club in Broughty Ferry. The washout is a blow for the tri-series opener and highlights the difficulty of scheduling outdoor fixtures in Scotland, though it does not immediately harm…
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Green Day on the Real-Life Shenanigans That Inspired the Band’s Film ‘Nimrods’: ‘There’s a Lot of Our Lives in There’
Green Day have produced a new film, Nimrods, which draws heavily on the band’s own early experiences touring in vans and scraping together money on the road. The comedy, released in cinemas on 14 August, follows two young bandmates, played by Mason Thames and Kylr Coffman, as they travel across America to open for Green…
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The 2022 role Emily Blunt will never be able to let go of: “Will have its fingerprints in me forever”
Emily Blunt has said that playing Katherine Oppenheimer in Christopher Nolan’s 2022 film Oppenheimer is a role she will never fully leave behind, describing it as having “fingerprints” on her forever. The part mattered because it required her to portray the private strain and resilience of the wife of J. Robert Oppenheimer, the physicist who…