PUNMASTER MusicWire by David Gross
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July 23, 2025
Backbeat Reverie: Lennon in the Dreamlight
By David Gross, Punmaster MusicWire
There are dreams that come and go, swirling out of the mind’s back alley before we even have time to jot them down or assign meaning. Then there are dreams that stay with you, as vivid as the skyline of a city that never quite fades from memory. I had one of those recently, while staying just a few blocks from the Dakota on the Upper West Side of New York City—where the shadow of John Lennon still lingers like a chord that never quite resolves.
In the dream, Lennon was there—older, yes, but not aged. Preoccupied, perhaps. Restless, but moving with purpose through a spacious room that felt part recording studio, part sanctuary. It wasn’t nostalgia I felt. It was presence. I asked gently, as one might when approaching a lion mid-thought, if he was going to record again.
He paused, turned, and answered plainly:
“Yes. I’m coming back on August 11.”
I woke with the date etched in my head. August 11. No context, no follow-up. Just the quiet certainty of that voice, familiar yet slightly weathered. What does it mean when a rock ’n’ roll martyr returns in your subconscious with unfinished business?
In an age where AI can mimic a voice and simulate a song, where unreleased demos can be stretched into full-length ballads, and where spectral collaborations are stitched together across decades, Lennon’s dream promise doesn’t seem so far-fetched. The line between imagination and manifestation has never been blurrier.
But beyond the technical or the surreal, this was something more intimate—a nudge, perhaps, to remember that creation is never really over. That even in silence, some artists are still humming.
And so, in the spirit of that dream—this column begins. Not as an epitaph, but a conversation. Not looking back with eulogy, but forward with curiosity. What if rock ’n’ roll isn’t just about the music we’ve heard, but the music we still believe might come?
Lennon once sang, “Life is what happens to you while you’re busy making other plans.”
But sometimes, life speaks loudest when you’re not planning anything at all. Just dreaming.
A Teenage Revelation
Ozzy Osbourne—Rock’s “Prince of Darkness”
By Dee Gee, Punmaster MusicWire
Ozzy’s journey from Birmingham troublemaker to heavy-metal icon began the moment he tuned into “She Loves You” around age 15. “Nothing really happened to me in my life until The Beatles happened,” he later reflected—feeling “someone had turned the world into me,” and igniting his lifelong dream of rock stardom .
That split-second encounter didn’t just set his musical ambition—it carved Ozzy’s artistic DNA, blending melodic reverence with his signature ferocious edge.
The Beatles in His Blood
Throughout his career, Ozzy repeatedly credited The Beatles—and especially John Lennon—for guiding his musical and lyrical ambitions. He described tracks like “Imagine,” “Jealous Guy” and “Gimme Some Truth” as “timeless” proof of Lennon’s poetic genius . On the Grammy-nominated Under Cover album (2005), he honored this debt with covers of:
• “In My Life” (Live version with Slash)
• “Woman”
• “Working Class Hero”
Ozzy later revisited Lennon with a soulful rendition of “How?” in 2010, explicitly tied to Amnesty International’s efforts.
Emotional Highpoints in Song
Each Beatles and Lennon cover Ozzy performed pulsed with genuine respect—not just as a nod to his idols, but as emotional extensions of his own life story. The reflective longing of “In My Life”, the stark grit of “Working Class Hero,” and the hopeful introspection of “How?” resonated through his voice with raw sincerity.
Highlights: Ozzy Covering Lennon & The Beatles
A rare live collaboration between Ozzy and Slash, this version transforms the poignant Beatles classic into a haunting, electrified tribute.
Released as a 70th‐birthday Lennon tribute and humanitarian anthem, Ozzy’s emotional delivery underscores his admiration as both peer and fan.
The Final Fadeout—With Beatles Echoes
When Ozzy passed on July 22, just three weeks after his final Black Sabbath concert, the world mourned a man whose thunderous anthem of metal was silently shaped by The Beatles. Beneath the wild theatrics, bat-biting legends, and stark confessions lay a sentimental heart that found space in heavy riffs for melodic beauty.
His story closes as it began—with that teenage epiphany to the Beatles on the radio—a testament to the enduring, often unseen influence of pop brilliance on metal’s founding father.
Legacy of Harmony and Darkness
Ozzy embodied paradox: the swaggering rebel with a tender core. That was The Beatles’ legacy too—complicated, musical, eternal. And in Ozzy’s voice—maximum distortion drenched in lyrical homage—those dual worlds crossed in unforgettable harmony.
Final Words
Ozzy Osbourne’s love for The Beatles was no footnote. It shaped his path, softened his howl, and added layers of melodic grace to his thunder. From “She Loves You” to “In My Life”, he carried The Beatles in his veins—and in doing so, forged rock music’s most unforgettable narrative arc.
Buzzed In: Behind the Locked Doors of Sausalito’s Sonic Dream Factory
By Dee Gee, Punmaster MusicWire
On a fog-kissed Friday night in Sausalito, the ghosts of rock ‘n’ roll royalty will echo once more through Marin’s misty air—not in a studio jam, but in the warm intimacy of a bookstore. Sausalito Books by the Bay will host a homecoming of sorts on July 25 at 5:30 PM, when veteran music journalists Martin Porter and David Goggin (aka Mr. Bonzai) roll in with their newly released sonic bible, Buzz Me In: Inside the Record Plant Studios.
For those who’ve ever stared at the gatefold of Rumours or lost themselves in the spacey swells of Songs in the Key of Life, the Record Plant in Sausalito wasn’t just a building—it was an altar. Part magic factory, part playground, part padded asylum, it was where Fleetwood Mac, Sly Stone, Stevie Wonder, Prince, Bob Marley, and countless others didn’t just record albums—they summoned them from the depths of the collective unconscious.
And now, for the first time, the full story gets its due.
Drawing on the memoirs of studio co-founder Chris Stone and more than 120 interviews with the engineers, producers, roadies, secretaries, chefs, runners, and rock gods who orbited this psychedelic sanctuary, Buzz Me In is a time machine you can dog-ear. It’s a chronicle of that mystical era when the red light meant more than “recording”—it meant revelation.
The authors—Porter, a longtime music tech journalist, and Goggin, the Zelig of the audio world with a lens and a pen—aren’t just recounting sessions. They’re pulling back the velvet curtain on a sacred era when artists clocked in for 18-hour days, napped in velvet-lined fantasy bedrooms, floated in the group Jacuzzi, and chased sonic perfection while time became irrelevant. If the walls of the Sausalito Record Plant could talk, they’d moan, laugh, sing falsetto, and maybe mumble something about peyote tea and a surprise visit from Bowie.
The event promises more than just a reading. Expect a mini-reunion of Record Plant veterans, the behind-the-behind-the-scenes engineers and assistants who once wrangled tape reels and egos in equal measure. Rumors (or should we say Rumours?) suggest a few of the musicians who made history there might drop by—drawn by nostalgia, respect, or the gravitational pull of the bay on a summer night.
It also marks a kind of full-circle celebration. 2025 is the 50th anniversary of several landmark albums birthed at various Record Plant locations: Born to Run, Young Americans, One of These Nights, Toys in the Attic, Nighthawks at the Diner, and Rock 'n' Roll by John Lennon. Albums that didn’t just define careers, but etched themselves into the bloodstream of American culture.
In a world where studios are now often laptop-based and collaboration happens over Zoom, Buzz Me In is a rich reminder of the analog alchemy that once ruled the music world—and nowhere more vividly than in Sausalito’s hedonistic temple of tone.
This isn’t just a book. It’s a passport to a vanished kingdom. A ticket past the velvet rope, into the control room, through the haze, and into the very moment magic was made on tape.
So come. Listen. Remember. Maybe even levitate.
The door’s unlocked. Just buzz in.
Sausalito Books by the Bay
Friday, July 25 — 5:30 PM
Martin Porter & David Goggin in conversation + special guests
Buzz Me In: Inside the Record Plant Studios (Thames & Hudson, 2025)
Visit sausalitobooksbythebay.com for event details.
Still Rollin’: Johnnie Johnson’s Posthumous Album Keeps the Keys Turning
By Dee Gee, Punmaster MusicWire
It’s not often a new album comes along that feels both like a long-lost treasure and a soulful farewell hug. But I’m Just Johnnie, the posthumous release from piano legend and Rock & Roll Hall of Famer Johnnie Johnson, is precisely that. Scheduled for release on August 29th via Missouri Morning Records, this lovingly crafted collection arrives two decades after Johnson’s passing — and somehow feels right on time.
Known to most as the secret weapon behind Chuck Berry’s early rock ’n’ roll classics, Johnson was the unsung architect of the genre’s piano foundation. His fingerprints are all over “Roll Over Beethoven,” “Maybellene,” “School Days,” and of course “Wee Wee Hours” — a slow blues in the key of G that Clapton once called “piano heaven.” While Berry took center stage, it was Johnson who kept the wheels turning with his impeccable left hand and joyous rhythmic instincts.
I’m Just Johnnie is more than a tribute — it’s the realization of Johnson’s own creative dreams. Produced and shepherded into existence by long-time friend and collaborator Gene Ackmann, the album was started in the early 2000s and completed shortly before Johnson’s death in 2005. Remarkably, it features brand-new songs recorded with a dream team of contributors who understood and adored him: Bruce Hornsby, Bonnie Raitt, Johnny Rivers, and John Sebastian, among others.
This isn’t just a studio Frankenstein stitched together from scraps. These are full-bodied, fully lived-in tracks that capture Johnson’s warmth, humor, and undying groove. One of the delights is hearing Charles Glenn (famed as the Blues’ anthem singer) belt out “Heebie Jeebies” with all the gusto of a man raised in a church that served fried chicken. Then there’s former NFL tackle Henry Lawrence, a surprise powerhouse on “Lo Down” and “Stagger Lee” — proving that soul and swagger know no position on the field.
Backing musicians include veterans of Johnson’s own band like Kenny Rice and Gus Thornton, both of whom also played with Albert King, creating a direct line through the Mississippi-to-Memphis blues lineage. There’s also a family feel throughout the record, with players from beloved St. Louis band Mama’s Pride adding the kind of authenticity you can’t fake.
The bonus disc is a rare jewel in its own right — featuring interviews between Johnnie and legendary DJ Pat St. John, plus reflections from Bonnie Raitt, whose admiration for Johnson runs deep and genuine. These spoken-word segments paint a vivid picture of a man who stayed humble even as his hands shaped rock history.
Ackmann’s memories of fishing trips, donuts, and music sessions by the lake add a bittersweet poignancy to the project. Johnson didn’t drive, but he sure could steer a groove. And now, 20 years later, he’s still driving the beat — posthumously, but unmistakably alive in spirit.
The album’s title says it all: I’m Just Johnnie. Modest. Unpretentious. Timeless. But don’t let the humility fool you. He wasn’t just Johnnie — he was the Johnnie. The one Chuck wrote about in “Johnny B. Goode.” The one who made a piano jump, cry, and testify. And now, thanks to this labor of love, he gets to do it one more time.
Release Date: August 29, 2025
Label: Missouri Morning Records
Recommended Tracks: “Lo Down,” “I Get Weary,” “Let the Good Times Roll,” “Stagger Lee,” “Heebie Jeebies”
Bonus Disc: Interviews with Johnnie Johnson, Pat St. John, and Bonnie Raitt
Special Guests: Bruce Hornsby, Bonnie Raitt, Johnny Rivers, John Sebastian
Stay tuned — and make sure your speakers are tuned for G.
Back Where They Began: Stevie Nicks and Lindsey Buckingham Finally Reissue Their Mythic Debut
By Dee Gee, Punmaster MusicWire
In the pantheon of rock’s great will-they-won’t-they sagas, the long-awaited reissue of Buckingham Nicks may be its final, poetic footnote.
More than 50 years after its original 1973 release—and after decades of label purgatory, legal wrangling, and whispered fan hopes—Stevie Nicks and Lindsey Buckingham are finally making their debut album available again. Remastered from the original analog tapes, the cult classic will be released September 19 via Rhino Records’ high-fidelity series, with digital and CD formats available for the first time. It also lands on streaming platforms, beginning with the freshly unveiled track “Crying in the Night.”
The announcement arrived with cryptic social media breadcrumbs: Nicks posted “And if you go forward…” while Buckingham answered, “I’ll meet you there”—lyrics from the closing track, “Frozen Love.” Together, the lines echoed their complicated harmony, onstage and off.
Originally released to commercial indifference, Buckingham Nicks found a second life as the unlikely launchpad for one of rock’s most successful reinventions. It was this album that caught the ear of Mick Fleetwood, who extended an invitation to Buckingham—and, at his insistence, Nicks—to join Fleetwood Mac. What followed is the stuff of legend: Rumours, romance, resentment, and reinvention, all threaded through four decades of soaring harmonies and searing heartbreak.
The reissue keeps the iconic (and controversial) nude cover photo, a source of tension since day one. “I could not have been more terrified,” Nicks once recalled. “Lindsey was like, ‘Come on, this is art.’ I thought, ‘Who are you?’”
Though the duo has since gone their own ways—musically, legally, emotionally—the album remains a rare, unvarnished document of their pre-Mac selves. “It was a very natural thing, from the beginning,” Nicks reflects in the new liner notes. Buckingham adds that the work “stands up” even decades later, made by “two kids who were pretty young to be doing that.”
Now, with Christine McVie’s passing dimming any real hope of a full Fleetwood Mac reunion, Buckingham Nicks returns not just as a reissue, but a relic. A photograph of love before the storm. A fragile harmony, finally restored.
A blast from the past
THE PUNMASTER by David Gross
TODAY'S EASY-BAKE TRIVIA QUESTION
THESE ARTISTS ALL HAD POPULAR SONGS ABOUT A LONG LOST AMERICAN TRAVEL PASTIME RARELY USED TODAY.
BOSTON, VANITY FAIR, BRUCE SPRINGSTEEN, PEARL JAM, MARVIN GAYE.
The answer will appear in the next MusicWire...
The trivia question from the last MusicWire was:
Jim Morrison saw the title of this film on a marquee in Times Square and incorporated it into the song "When the Music's Over".
Answer: Scream of the Butterfly
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THIS DAY IN MUSIC
You Can Quote Me On That…
"Elvis may be the King of Rock and Roll, but I am the Queen.” - Little Richard
"If you tried to give rock and roll another name, you might call it 'Chuck Berry’.” - John Lennon
“The old-timers schooled me good. They brainwashed me to respect music, whether we were playing rockabilly or blues or rock and roll.” - Dr. John
“If you think you are too old to rock ‘n roll, then you are.” - Lemmy Kilmister
“The reason kids like rock ‘n roll is their parents don’t.” - Mitch Miller
“Rock ’n roll is really swing with a modern name. It began on the levees and plantations, took in folk songs, and features blues and rhythm. It’s the rhythm that gets to the kids – they’re starved of music they can dance to, after all those years of crooners.” - Alan Freed
“If I were not a physicist, I would probably be a musician. I often think in music. I live my daydreams in music. I see my life in terms of music.” - Albert Einstein
"I opened the door for a lot of people, and they just ran through and left me holding the knob." - Bo Diddley
"Hippies? Why, I'm the original." - Jerry Lee Lewis
"David Gross (Punmaster MusicWire) is the Arianna Huffington of music news!" - Barry "The Fish" Melton
"The older you get, the better you were!" - Leslie West
"It's much too late to do anything about rock & roll now ..." - Jerry Garcia
"I'm as country as a dozen eggs." - Elvin Bishop
"The music business is a cruel and shallow money trench, a long plastic hallway where thieves and pimps run free, and good men die like dogs. There's also a negative side." - Hunter S. Thompson
"Rock journalism is people who can't write interviewing people who can't talk in order to provide articles for people who can't read." - Frank Zappa
"Mike Love, not war." - Scott Mathews
"I have outlived my dick" - Willie Nelson (2008)
"Rock and roll is here to stay.” - Neil Young