Cartoons Saturday and Some Golden Oldsters
Paul Simon, Neil Young, Steve and Jorma, plus more on Bruce making "Tracks."
Greg Mitchell is the author of more than a dozen books and now writer/director of three award-winning films aired via PBS, including “Atomic Cover-up” and “Memorial Day Massacre.” Now watch trailer for acclaimed 2025 film “The Atomic Bowl” coming to PBS in July. Before all that, he was a longtime editor of the legendary Crawdaddy. You can still subscribe to this newsletter for FREE. Sustain this newsletter by ordering one of his books.
I’ll justify this as latest installment of “Dinosaurs STILL Walk the Earth.” First, Neil Young has a new album, and here is his mashup with Woody Guthrie on “Let’s Roll Again,” as he boosts electric vehicles to save the environment but advises, “If you’re a fascist/ buy a Tesla…..”
Paul Simon is touring for the first time in many years, with wife Edie Brickell, making do with weakening voice and hearing loss, at the Beacon in NYC this week but also on The Late Show on Thursday night:
Finally, up at Croton, NY, and reviving under a different name what used to be an annual June festival honoring Pete Seeger and his efforts to clean up his beloved Hudson River: Here’s Steve Earle joined by ex-Airplane and still Hot Tuna hero Jorma Kaukonen, on Steve’s oldie “Hometown Blues.”
I’ll have more on this tomorrow, as word has now emerged on why Tulsi made that wacky “Hiroshima” video last week.
US intelligence director Tulsi Gabbard now backs Trump's claim Iran could have nuclear weapon in 'weeks'
Two hours after Donald Trump again said that she was wrong to cast doubt on his claim that Iran could have a nuclear weapon “within a matter of weeks”, his director of national intelligence, Tulsi Gabbard, posted a statement on social media saying that she agrees with the president.
»>A reminder that my new film “The Atomic Bowl: Football at Ground Zero—and Nuclear Peril Today" comes to PBS starting July 12.
Massive publicity these past three days for Springsteen’s new collection of seven unreleased albums. NPR has a probably fine highlight list BUT see below for their cautionery words on….pricing.
It's worth mentioning that this set is significantly more expensive than the first Tracks, which weighed in at $49.99 for the four discs, roughly $100 in 2025 dollars. Tracks II: The Lost Albums is listed at $299.99 for the seven-CD version and $349.98 for the nine-LP set. Both configurations are accompanied by a hardcover book featuring liner notes, lyrics and photographs, which NPR was unable to view by press time. Sources say it is far more robust than the first Tracks set, which contained a lyric booklet but minimal liner notes. (There's a two-CD digest version of the project available as well, featuring two or three songs from each album.) Given the price point, it's unfortunate that there is no known plan to release the records individually; a diehard fan may be very interested in the 1983 outtakes but less invested in hearing, say, Springsteen's soundtrack from a "spiritual Western" that was never made.
And then this based on a new Rolling Stone interview:
“I have a record finished,” he says. “It’s a solo record…I would imagine it will come out in ’26 sometime.”
He was willing to expand more when ‘Tracks III’ came up. “That’s something that I’ve finished and is ready to be released,” he says. “It’s just a question of when we have time to put that out, considering that I have a variety of other things that I’m interested in releasing soon also. But you won’t be waiting 25 years for the next Tracks album. I suppose it’ll come out in the next three years or so.”
And there’s an official “inside” video about the (pricey) “Tracks II.”
From Tunes to Toons
Tjeerd Royaards:
