The Kinks’ lead man, Ray Davies, has reemerged from the shadows with a new duets album that revisits a lot of the old material that made his name synonymous with rock and roll. The new album, titled See My Friends, features a wide range of artists, from Metallica, to Bruce Springsteen, doing the duet treatment to his greatest hits.

Check out this video interview and performance with violinist David Garrett that Rolling Stone recently posted. He discusses his methods for transforming songs like Metallica’s “Master of Puppets” into a string rendition:
“Of course you kind of try to stay true to the core of the essence of the original but try to go as far [...]

In recent years a lot of great bands have done the orchestral thing and decided to play some shows backed by a symphony orchestra. Sometimes it’s great, sometimes it’s a bit ridiculous. But when did all this start?
The first rock concerts backed by an orchestra are recorded as happening when Deep Purple did some shows [...]

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1. Atlantic City (originally performed by Bruce Springsteen)
2. Imagine (originally performed by John Lennon)
3. Back in Black (originally performed by AC/DC)
4. Dazed and Confused (originally performed by Led Zeppelin)
5. Heart Of Gold (originally performed by Neil Young)
6. Iron Man (originally performed by Black Sabbath)
7. The Unforgiven (originally performed by Metallica)
8. Maggie May (originally performed by Rod Stewart)
9. Changes (originally performed by David [...]