Table of contents for June 1, 2017 in Rolling Stone

The former Jam frontman, who has a new solo LP, A Kind Revolution, picked songs produced by Mayfield or released on his label Curtom. Curtis Mayfield “The Makings of You” Curtis was a prophet and a poet. With this song, he was weaving together the black-pride movement with a humanitarian message. He was an ambassador of peace. Patti Jo “Make Me Believe in You” This has a real driving beat to it, just a great dance record with very dramatic strings and minimal backing. Leroy Hutson “Cool Out” I first heard this instrumental track in the early 1990s at a club. It’s got this spacey, futuristic sound, but it’s still soulful. Baby Huey “Hard Times” Baby Huey had just one album on Curtom and then died very young. The beautiful…

It’s the day before willie Nelson’s 84th birthday, but he’s keeping his plans modest. “I’m just going to try and be here,” he says with a laugh from his tour bus, the Honeysuckle Rose, currently parked in Laughlin, Nevada, another stop on Nelson’s furious two-weeks-on, two-weeks-off touring schedule. “I’m still enjoying it,” he says. “It’s the two weeks off that gets kind of long.” This summer, Nelson will tour with the Outlaw Music Festival, which includes dates with Bob Dylan, Sheryl Crow, Jason Isbell and Nelson’s sons Lukas and Micah. Nelson is looking forward to breaking out songs from his excellent new album, God’s Problem Child. “It’ll be a great chance to run into a lot of old friends,” says Nelson, who, after thousands of gigs, has his own ways…

IN NOVEMBER 1993, ROLLING STONE HAD JUST wrapped up its first interview with a sitting U.S. president when a last-minute question from National Affairs editor William Greider caused Bill Clinton to turn red in the face and begin shouting. Clinton was near the end of a tumultuous first year in office that saw a sinking economy drag down his approval rating. Greider mentioned a phone call he’d gotten from a father of one of Clinton’s Faces of Hope, citizens Clinton had met during the campaign and invited to the inaugural. “He was very dejected,” Greider told the president. “I told him I was coming over here to see you, and he said, ‘Ask him what he’s willing to stand up for and die on.’ ” Before he knew it, Greider was…

“They’re guaranteed to raise a smile. So may I introduce to you The act you’ve known for all these years: Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band.”—The Beatles, “Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band” The Beatles Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band: Anniversary Edition Capitol HHHHH BY MIKAL GILMORE In 2006, the Beatles coaxed producer George Martin out of retirement to remix and rearrange several of their songs for Cirque du Soleil’s Las Vegas production Love. To aid him, Martin brought on his son Giles, who created a revelatory mash-up that reminded us how beautifully George Martin (who died last year at 90) had produced them all in the first place. Now, Giles is helming another historic project, an expanded 50th-anniversary edition of the Beatles’ masterpiece, Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club…

Styles Goes Solo GREAT READ ON HARRY Styles [“Harry Styles’ New Direction,” RS 1286]. Just looking at him, I see Mick Jagger all over again. He seems focused on being his own man and taking charge of his own destiny. Very wise to do this and yet be so young. I wish him all the best in his musical endeavors. David Virgin, Belmont, CA IT BROUGHT BACK SUCH “old-school Rolling Stone rock journalism” to read the one and only Cameron Crowe’s piece on Harry Styles. No rock journalist writes, captures the essence and goes behind the public image of a “rock star” like Crowe does. Rich Unger, Sarasota, FL IT’S HARD TO IMAGINE ANYone could be less relevant to rock & roll, let alone much less interesting, than Harry Styles.…

<div class="thick-border"></div> Bruno Mars July 15th-November 11thTICKETS $75-$200 “I’M DRIPPING FROM the first song till the end,” says Mars, backstage in Birmingham, England, discussing his furiously physical 24K Magic world tour. To match the throwback vibe of his latest album, Mars is forgoing high-tech production in favor of old-school showmanship. That means lots of dancing, his eight-piece band often changing arrangements on the fly, and no distractions: “I got no time to put together gimmicks and robots and all that stuff – I want to go out and sing.” U2 June 12th-August 1stTICKETS $32-$280 When U2 first toured for The Joshua Tree in 1987, the band was struggling with its new fame and how to mount a stadium show. “I, for one, didn’t enjoy it,” says bassist Adam Clayton. “This summer is almost an…

Whole Lotta Love Jimmy Page and Noel Gallagher hung out at a London exhibition celebrating the art and music of Pink Floyd. The meeting went better than a run-in at Zeppelin’s 2007 reunion, in which Robert Plant snubbed the Gallaghers. “One of them said, ‘You’re the real fucking thing,’ ” recalled Plant. “I said, ‘I’ve known that all down the line’ . . . and left quickly.” <div class="thick-border"></div> <div class="thick-border"></div> <div class="thick-border"></div> <div class="thick-border"></div> <div class="thick-border"></div> Shape of Sheeran A painting of Ed Sheeran went on display in London. “I like the way [artist Colin Davidson] contrasted the reflective moment with such energetic and expressive brushwork,” said Sheeran, whose parents used to curate art galleries. <div class="thick-border"></div> Redneck Paradise Fresh off dining with Donald Trump at the White House, Kid Rock performed with Sammy…

ON OCTOBER 24TH, 2012, SEVERAL AGENTSN OCTOBER 24TH, 2012, SEVERAL AGENTS from Pennsylvania General Energy, an oil-and-gas exploration company, met privately with local officials from the rural western Pennsylvania community of Grant Township. Fracking was booming in Pennsylvania, and PGE had been trucking tens of thousands of gallons of fracking wastewater to faraway injection wells in Ohio. Developing an injection well somewhere in Pennsylvania could save the company around $2 million a year, and Grant Township, a swath of woods and hayfields slightly larger than Manhattan and populated by a mere 741 people, seemed like an especially good spot. ¶ Most of the meeting’s attendees – which included the three Grant Township supervisors, a rep from the local state senator’s office and an official from the county’s office of planning…

Harry Styles Harry Styles Columbia HHHH Harry Styles doesn’t just want to be a rock star – he wants to be the rock star. And on his superb solo debut, the One Direction heartthrob claims his turf as a true rock & roll prince, a sunshine superman, a cosmic dancer in touch with his introspective acoustic side as well as his glam flash. He avoids the celebrity-guest debutant ball he could have thrown himself – instead, he goes for an intimately emotional Seventies soft-rock vibe. No club-hopping or bottles popping – it’s the after-hours balladry of a 23-year-old star wondering why he spends so much time in lonely hotel rooms staring at his phone. Styles digs so deep into classic California mellow gold, you might suspect his enigmatic new…

What have you learned about comedy as you’ve gotten older? I’m working on a documentary about Garry Shandling, and I’m constantly reminded of how much I learned from him [while writing on The Larry Sanders Show]. He was fascinated by the masks we wear to appear presentable. He said that people rarely tell the truth to each other, so when they do, it’s a big deal. He’d also say, “If you tell the truth, the comedy will come.” When you’re writing something, you have to start with your dramatic story, then worry about the comedy afterward. When we’re in the outlining stage, we don’t think of these movies as comedies. When have you learned from failure? Garry once gave me a book called Transforming Problems Into Happiness. It’s a Buddhist…

1. LCD Soundsystem “Call the Police” The beloved New York dance-punkers are back with their first new music since reuniting, and it’s both predictably awesome and kind of a surprise: LCD’s first protest anthem. Over majestic krautrock guitars, James Murphy sings about waking up to a world on the brink. Deep down, he’d probably rather be out partying, but now he’s got scarier stuff to keep him up all night. 2. Grizzly Bear “Three Rings” When it comes to tripping out in every direction, nobody beats the Griz. Their first song in five years is a swirling psychedelic jam about a relationship coming apart. They make that weird situation feel like a fever dream. 3. Lil Yachty “Bring It Back” The mumbly rap star slathers vocoder heartache all over a…

IN THE EARLY DAYS OF THE REAGAN administration, Steve Van Zandt started writing a doo-wop song called “The City Weeps Tonight.” The goal was total authenticity, something that “could have been by the Students or the Jive Five,” and he was getting pretty close, until he got stuck on the final verse. As Van Zandt threw himself into the improbable arc of the next 36 years of his life – leaving the E Street Band to launch an activism-fueled solo career; helping to establish a pivotal cultural boycott of South Africa with “Sun City”; then falling into a post-Eighties showbiz limbo that consisted mostly of walking his dog, only to find himself, all at once, starring on The Sopranos, touring the world again with Bruce Springsteen, and becoming the world’s leading…

CAMPAIGNING IN A WHITE cowboy hat and working 15-hour days, Rob Quist, a folk-singer-turned-populist House candidate, has caught fire with the grassroots of the Democratic Party, whose donations are transforming a shoestring campaign into a small-dollar juggernaut. You might assume the national Democratic Party would also be zeroed in: Montana presents a critical test of the party’s renewed “50-state strategy” and a crucible for reconnecting with rural voters in advance of the 2018 elections. But you’d be mistaken. It’s the third week of April, days before early voting begins, but party leaders haven’t even picked up the phone to call Quist. From across the dinette of a Winnebago that doubles as the campaign’s mobile headquarters, now careening toward Bozeman, I ask Quist to describe his relationship to the national party.…