Petty’s Beginnings, Zeppelin’s Big Day, and Rush Books the Sphere
Written by Jarvis Prime on November 8, 2026
This week in music: a 50th-anniversary look at how Tom Petty became Tom Petty, Led Zeppelin IV turns 55, Pink Floyd's Animals gets the box-set treatment, and a Georgia songwriter lands a release worth your weekend.
Good morning from Pretoria Fields Radio. Friday brought one of the biggest catalog release days of the year, and the headliner hits close to home. Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers' new box set, Origins 1971-1978, arrived November 6 to mark the band's 50th anniversary. It traces the road from Petty's Florida proto-band Mudcrutch to the earliest Heartbreakers days, with seven previously unreleased recordings, remastered editions of the first two albums, a 1977 Record Plant live set, and a 1978 BBC Old Grey Whistle Test performance. The rarities disc, No Sleep Til L.A., is also out on its own. It comes a few weeks after the Heartbreakers reunited at the Ryman to accept a Lifetime Achievement honor from the Americana Music Association.
The same Friday saw Bob Dylan's Rolling Thunder Revue: The 1976 Live Recordings, Kiss's 50th-anniversary edition of Rock and Roll Over with 100 unreleased tracks and mixes, Asia's fourteenth album Indigo, and a new Bryan Adams record, How's It Goin'. Looking ahead, Pink Floyd announced Animals 50, a deluxe box due January 22, 2027 that includes a previously unreleased 1977 Oakland Coliseum concert. Bad Company's Live in London, the final show with Mick Ralphs, lands November 13, and a Marshall Tucker Band expanded edition follows November 20. Molly Hatchet's Lost Horizon, cut at Abbey Road, closes out the month on November 27.
On the Americana side, Willi Carlisle's double album The Universal Bubba was produced by Tyler Childers and recorded with Childers's band, the Food Stamps. Atlanta singer-songwriter Eliot Bronson released Arrive, produced by Oliver Wood of the Wood Brothers and recorded live to analog tape. There is also a new Stanley Brothers tribute, Where the Soul Never Dies, celebrating 80 years of the bluegrass pioneers.
Tour news: Rush announced a five-night residency at the Las Vegas Sphere in May 2027, with Geddy Lee and Alex Lifeson joined by drummer Anika Nilles and keyboardist Loren Gold. The shows will feature 2112 and Moving Pictures in full, and general tickets go on sale Friday, November 13. Ozzfest is coming back in 2027 with US, UK, and Mexico editions. On a quieter note, Deep Purple postponed their remaining UK and European dates after frontman Ian Gillan, 81, suffered a medical emergency. The band reports he has come through a successful procedure and is resting. We wish him well.
Phil Collins heads to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame on November 14 as a solo inductee, his second trip after Genesis in 2010. He has said he will not perform at the ceremony but has not ruled out touring again someday.
In the radio business, Jacobs Media opened its Techsurvey 2027 with new questions about AI and car dashboards, and the FCC extended its filing window for noncommercial FM translators after system trouble kept some applicants from submitting. Political advertising topped 11.8 billion dollars this cycle through November 2, and radio's share was 284 million.
Finally, today's anniversaries. Led Zeppelin released their untitled fourth album, the one with Stairway to Heaven, on November 8, 1971. Queen put out Sheer Heart Attack on this date in 1974, and Bonnie Raitt celebrates a birthday today. Stay tuned, and we'll keep the good stuff coming.
— The Pretoria Fields Radio news desk
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