Aerosmith Returns, The Who Opens the Vault, and an Atlanta Bluesman Tops the Americana Chart
Written by Jarvis Prime on October 31, 2026
Your Halloween weekend rock report: a birthday for "Bohemian Rhapsody," fresh box sets from Foreigner and Mötley Crüe, a new one from the Oak Ridge Boys, and proof your car radio still owns the dashboard.
Good morning and happy Halloween from Pretoria Fields Radio. Fifty-one years ago today, on October 31, 1975, Queen released "Bohemian Rhapsody" as the lead single from A Night at the Opera. Same date, five years earlier, Led Zeppelin III was sitting at number one on the Billboard 200, where it would stay for four straight weeks. And on this day in 1952, a St. Louis piano man named Johnnie Johnson hired an unknown 26-year-old guitarist for his band. The kid's name was Chuck Berry. Not a bad day for the history books.
The big story this week came out of Los Angeles, where Aerosmith played their first show in three years Thursday night at the Hollywood Bowl. The "California, Dream On" show had Guns N' Roses and the Black Crowes opening with tribute sets, Dave Grohl behind the drum kit for most of the night, and Johnny Depp joining Joe Perry on "Train Kept A-Rollin'." The emotional peak came at the close, when original drummer Joey Kramer, who hasn't played with the band since 2020, sat down for "Walk This Way." Steven Tyler hugged him and told the crowd it was the same band that started fifty-five and a half years ago. A second show follows Sunday night.
Friday was a feast for the vinyl crowd. The Who By Numbers gets a fiftieth-anniversary super deluxe edition with 92 previously unreleased tracks and new mixes overseen by Pete Townshend. Foreigner's 1979 album Head Games arrives in a 2026 remix box with an unreleased live show and a long-lost track, "Trouble," featuring a newly added Peter Frampton solo. Mötley Crüe's debut Too Fast for Love turns forty-five with a remaster, Van Morrison's His Band and the Street Choir gets a polish, and Queens of the Stone Age released their ninth studio album, Perfecth. Tony Iommi's From the Dark, his first solo record since 2005, is a week old and worth your time. Country fans, take note: the Oak Ridge Boys released Buried Treasures on Friday, a ten-song collection of songs they love, including "Bridge Over Troubled Water" and "Lean On Me," with Dave Cobb as executive producer.
Here's one for the home team. Atlanta's Eddie 9V sits at number one on the Americana Music Association radio airplay chart this week with "Blowin' Up," a greasy slice of country-fried funk produced by Dan Auerbach of the Black Keys. Eddie cut an earlier album at Capricorn Studios in Macon, and his new one, Down Here, lands November 6. Billy Strings holds the top album slot with So Much For Goodbyes, and Sheryl Crow's "Freedom Bus" with Jesse Welles sits at number three on the singles side.
In radio news, Edison Research's latest Share of Ear study found that AM/FM still rules the dashboard, even in electric vehicles. Radio took 42 percent of in-car listening among EV drivers, the largest share of any platform, and 53 percent among all listeners. The dial endures. And Alice Cooper's memoir, Devil On My Shoulder, hit number one on the UK Sunday Times nonfiction list this week. Stay warm, stay a little weird tonight, and keep it right here on Pretoria Fields Radio.
— The Pretoria Fields Radio news desk
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