The band’s career has spanned over 50 years, and proved themselves to be one of the most influential groups of the 20th century.
As a musician, Pete has solidified his place as a guitar God with his insane dexterity and an ear for marvelous melodies.
To honour the legend, we look at ten of his songs that truly showcase his incredible work on the six string:
10. “Pictures of Lily” (1967)
There isn’t a guitar solo to be found in “Pictures of Lily”, but the brash fun riff serves as the backbone for Keith Moon and John Entwistle to build around it.
9. “A Quick One (While He’s Away)” (1968)
Chalk full of power chords and tinny guitar plucks, Townshend is in fine form on this classic Who track.
Led Zeppelin’s “Immigrant Song” is unmistakable with its chugging guitar and Robert Plant’s wails.
It’s easy to get lost in the sonic qualities of the band’s staple song, but a deeper dive reveals there is a ton of references to Norse mythology.
“Immigrant Song” came about when Led Zeppelin was touring Iceland, Bath and Germany in 1970. While the band was in Reykjavik, Iceland on the opening tour stop in 1970, Plant was hit with the inspiration for lyrics.
He said:
“We weren’t being pompous … We did come from the land of the ice and snow. We were guests of the Icelandic Government on a cultural mission. We were invited to play a concert in Reykjavik and the day before we arrived all the civil servants went on strike and the gig was going to be cancelled. The university prepared a concert hall for us and it was phenomenal. The response from the kids was remarkable and we had a great time. ‘Immigrant Song’ was about that trip and it was the opening track on the album that was intended to be incredibly different.”
It’s no secret that rock stars push the envelope when it comes to music videos. But for some broadcasters, that envelope has been pushed too far.
From Motorhead to Madonna, videos of a violent, sexual, or even anti-corporation nature have gotten the boot by networks like BBC and MTV.
Here are the 10 most controversial music videos that have been banned in the past (and thanks to the Internet, we can relive again!)
“Dead End Street” by the Kinks
This video was the first one banned by the BBC. Back in 1966, the Kinks’ music video showed the band as pallbearers, where a corpse comes back to life and jumps out of a coffin. The network deemed it “tasteless.” If only they knew what was to come…
“Girls on Film” by Duran Duran
Duran Duran’s 1981 video contained a mud-wrestling scene that had to be edited out in order to get played on MTV. An edited version had to be aired instead, but thanks to the magic of the Internet, the original vision lives on.
The long-anticipated Beastie Boys memoir, Beastie Boys Book, has just gone on sale at www.beastieboysbook.com. Mike D originally announced that they were writing book in January, in an interview with Matt Wilkinson on Apple Music’s Beats 1 (via Pitchfork), revealing that the as-yet untitled tome will come out “in the fall of this year”.
The group’s surviving members, Mike D and Ad-Rock, have been working on the memoir since 2013, with the book originally slated to be released in 2015. Mike D addressed the delay, saying, “Like many things we embark on, there are many false starts and, honestly, directions we went in that realised were not the directions we should be going in.”
In 2013, Random House imprint publisher Spiegel & Grau announced that Mike D and Ad-Rock were “interested in challenging the form and making the book a multidimensional experience. There is a kaleidoscopic frame of reference, and it asks a reader to keep up”.
In the Beats 1 interview, Mike D shied away from the specifics in terms of the direction the book has taken, but he did emphasize the importance of showcasing the time period and setting surrounding their formation. “To tell our story, we have to give the cultural history of where we came from,” he explained. “So New York City in the 80s, you had all this incredible, exciting music, art, film. All of that sort of has to converge to be able to explain. We just had the good fortune of being around all of it, so I think that’s Number One.”
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The first trailer for the Queen biopic Bohemian Rhapsody has officially arrived.
After multiple pictures from the set and film have surfaced, audiences are finally getting their first look at Remi Malek as Freddie Mercury in action.
In the clip, we see hints of record label disbelief (“It goes on forever–six bloody minutes!”), tempers being unleashed, and a cat running along a piano.
Watch the trailer below:
The film stars Ben Hardy as Roger Taylor, Gwilym Lee as Brian May, and Joseph Mazzello as John Deacon.
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