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Rock and Roll Hall of Famer Joe B. Mauldin, a bass player for Buddy Holly and The Crickets, has died after a battle with cancer. He was 74... Mauldin began playing bass in his early teens and was a member of The Four Teens before joining Holly's band, The Crickets, in 1957. After Holly's death about two years later, The Crickets continued to record and perform, backing the Everly Brothers on an international tour and, in 1960, releasing their first of several post-Holly albums, "In Style with the Crickets." ..Mauldin and fellow Crickets Allison, Sonny Curtis and the late Niki...

We have a TIE from Round 2 to BREAK! #3 1983 "Flashdance... What a Feeling" Irene Cara versus#5 1983 "Beat It" Michael Jackson

This is an obituary for Guitar Center, a chain of big box musical instrument stores that was captured and infected by private equity during a national trend of greed and reckless expansionism in the late-1990s and early-2000s. The company started as a Los Angeles organ store, became a successful purveyor of guitars after the Beatles arrived in the United States, evolved into a national competitor over a period of decades, and shall finish, with sad poetry, as the symbol of everything dysfunctional about American corporate finance, management, and retail in the modern age.

~Favorite Heart,Eyes or Hands Song's~ Peter Gabriel - Solsbury Hill *Video* Eric Clapton - My Father's Eyes *Video*

Morrissey has scrapped a gig in Iceland due to the venue refusing to not sell meat on the night of the show. The famously vegetarian Morrissey insists that any venue he plays goes meat-free on the night of his performance. However, as confirmed by fansite True-To-You, the Harpa Concert Hall in Rekjavik would not agree to the terms and the gig is now canceled. "I love Iceland and I have waited a long time to return, but I shall leave the Harpa Concert Hall to their cannibalistic flesh-eating bloodlust," Morrissey said in a statement. Morrissey tours the UK next month....

Multi-talented singer/composer Don Covay lost his two-decades-long battle with debilitating illness resulting from a massive stroke. According publicist Don Brown, Covay died in his sleep on Saturday morning, January 31, at the age of 78. Covay composed a litany of hit tunes, such “Mercy Mercy,” which rocketed to #1 R&B on Cashbox in 1964 and became a huge hit for the Rolling Stones in 1965. In that same year, the catchy song “See Saw” became a top-5 R&B hit for Covay on Cashbox, and his composition “Chain of Fools,” a popular R&B classic, became a hit for Aretha Franklin in...

ROUND 2 of the greatest hits of the '80s begins! Due date: Sunday, Feb 8 @6:00 pm (Eastern) Had to cut short the Round 1, as the response wasn't enough. Will try weekly rounds from now on. This Round takes the top 6 songs of each year of the '80s, and pairs them in brackets along with the best #7s as voted in Round 1.

The daughter of late singer and entertainer Whitney Houston was found unresponsive in a bathtub and taken to an Atlanta-area hospital. Bobbi Kristina Brown was discovered Saturday morning by her husband and a friend. A spokeswoman for the Roswell Police Department, Officer Lisa Holland, said Brown was given CPR until rescuers arrived. Holland said Brown was taken alive to North Fulton Hospital in Roswell. The incident remains under investigation.

NEW YORK (Reuters) - One deep-pocketed bidder will get a chance to own a piece of rock and roll history when the iconic Les Paul guitar known as "Black Beauty" goes up for auction in New York next month. The electric instrument, which is the original prototype for the Les Paul Custom guitars made the Gibson Guitar Company, will be sold by Guernsey's Auctions at the Arader Galleries on Feb. 19th. No pre-auction estimate, or reserve price, has been put on the instrument. But some music experts believe it could exceed the record auction price of $965,000 paid in 2013...

Arnold Johnson and his Orchestra play "After My Laughter Came Tears," recorded on February 28, 1928.

Rap mogul Marion “Suge” Knight was considered a person-of-interest in a fatal hit-and-run crash outside a restaurant in Compton on Thursday afternoon, according to authorities. ....“It looks like he drove backward and struck the victims and then went forward and struck them again as he left,” Corina said. “It looked like it was an intentional act and would be treated as a homicide. Witnesses at the scene put Knight in a red pickup in the same neighborhood around the same time as the crash.

FR CANTEEN MISSION STATEMENT Showing support and boosting the morale of our military and our allied military and the family members of the above.Honoring those who have served before. FReeper Canteen Just Hangin' Cafe Come on in, we're open Need a place just to hang out? This is it. We serve coffee, tea, milk shakes, brews, conversation, and music. Our AWESOME military, our AWESOME allies, and their families are welcomed and honored here. No worries in the FReeper Canteen Just Hangin' Cafe. Grab a cup and start a conversation. You never know who you might meet in the Cafe....

A virtual Buddy Holly performance will headline a new show that’s planned to debut in Holly’s birth state of Texas during 2016. Hologram USA Entertainment will present the show in partnership with Maria Elena Holly, the star’s widow and head of Buddy Holly Licensing; plans are to use this debut to kick off a show tour. Hologram USA is already working on the hologram-like performance of the rock and roll icon, as well as on a similar show around Liberace, which will debut in Las Vegas. Through the partnership with Buddy Holly Licensing, the company has access to music and...

Funk singer Sly Stone has been awarded $5 million by a Los Angeles jury in his lawsuit against a former manager and attorney he claimed diverted royalties from his music for their own benefit. The Los Angeles Superior Court announced its verdict on Tuesday, after two days of deliberations. Stone’s litigation, filed under his real name Sylvester Stewart, involved millions of dollars in royalties and stretched over almost five years. He filed suit in 2010, claiming that manager Gerald Goldstein and attorney Glenn Stone in the late 1980s induced him to sign an employment and shareholder agreement with Even Street...

OK, FREEPERS, LET'S START THIS CONTEST FOR THE GREATEST SONG OF THE '80S. The baseline for the contest is the top 7 hits of each year of the '80s, as compiled by BILLBOARD. This is not based on personal preferences, biases, prejudices, or counter-culture reactivity. The rules in general will be to vote for everything shown. No equivocating, ties, or omissions. Votes will only be counted if the "ballot" is complete. ROUND 1 We begin by using the #7 songs of each year and paring them from 10 songs to 4 (to set up brackets for the rest of the...

If you remember guys like Keith Emerson, Rick Wakeman and Rick Wright playing keyboard devices the size of refrigerators, you’ll love that Moog, the pioneering synth company, has gone back to making some of those monsters. Behold this glorious synthesizer porn.

~Favorite Seas Songs. ~ The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald *Video* Roger Whittaker: The Last Farewell *Video*

What does everyone think of a music play-off bracket-type poll for best songs of the '80s?

"Glorifying God with One Voice and One Mind." - Romans 15:6 HCSB CCM United, One Message. Many Voices. Contemporary Christian Music has impacted millions of listeners around the world for the last forty years. In the process, artists like Amy Grant, Michael W. Smith, Steven Curtis Chapman, Sandi Patty, The Imperials, Newsboys, Petra, 4Him, Point of Grace, Carman and countless others have become household names.Their albums and songs define a new era of music we now call CCM. But that era actually began with another group of artists including Love Song, Larry Norman, Andrae Crouch, Keith Green, and Evie...

Pink Floyd academic, composer, and pianist Gilad Cohen's studies of the band, along with performances of Cohen's compositions, will be featured in events held in Illinois, at the University of Chicago, and Northwestern University, in early February. Cohen [right] will be giving two lectures, titled "Large-Scale Structure in the music of Pink Floyd: 'Dogs' and 'Shine On'" and "Large-Scale Structure in the music of Pink Floyd: 'Dogs'". They will each offer insight on a variety of subjects related to these songs as well as two unique opportunities for discussion. Northwestern University's lecture will consist of an expansive analysis of 'Dogs'...